Panasonic announced yesterday the FZ38, an 18x super-zoom camera (called FZ35 in US). Not really the brightest idea for a digicam purchase. However, this camera has other features that can prove very useful to people who need 24p with manual controls for cheap ($400).

See, this camera is the first consumer non-DSLR digicam that offers manual controls in video mode! It has both shutter speed and aperture controls! At this point, I can only assume that when in this manual video mode, the exposure will stop jumping left and right as it does currently with other Panasonic digicams.

Then, there’s the frame rate thing. According to DPReview, the camera can do 25p and 30p (depending which model used, European or US), at 17 mbps AVCHD-Lite. However, it saves the videos in a really bad way, and makes editors *think* that it has recorded in 50p and 60p, while in fact it just has duplicated the frames. On Sony Vegas you have to specifically tell it to use either 25 fps or 30 fps (depending if you used the European or the US model) in order to avoid the duplicated frames. Sample 25p/50p .mts file here (bottom of the page).

So in a scenario where you shot in 25p (with 1/50th shutter speed), you edit as such, and at the end you re-time the video to become 24p (if desired). This will produce a very filmic motion look, as close as it gets with a digicam. Yes, there are other cheap digicams that do 24p right out of the box, but they don’t offer manual shutter speed control, which is an important ingredient in the quest to get the filmic motion look.

Additionally, color/saturation/contrast/brightness controls are offered in video mode, as well as manual white balance. In conclusion:

Pros:
- Shutter speed manual control
- Aperture manual control
- 25p can easily be converted to 24p
- Color adjustments
- Manual white balance
- Manual focusing in addition to auto focusing
- By using a CCD sensor won’t produce wobbly videos

Cons:
- Small sensor (1/2.33″)
- Its doubling of frame rate is stupid and unnecessary
- Not a fast lens (meaning, less background blur than the HV20)
- To get the 25p recording you need to buy the European (FZ38) version.
- We are still not sure if exposure will continue jumping even when in manual control mode (there was no word about ISO/gain control you see)
- Its 17 mbps bitrate is much lower than Canon’s 24 mbps digicams in 720p

Geeks.com, sent over one of their popular computer parts products, video cards, the nVidia GeForce 8800GT (512 MB DDR3, PCIe, PureVideo2 HD support, GL 2.0, DirectX10, HDCP). This is a test on video playback performance with Vista-default drivers (Vista 64bit, SP2), and nVidia accelerated drivers (latest stable, v190).

I tested a Canon 5D Mark-II file, since it’s a heavy format: MOV h.264 High Profile, 40 mbps, no audio. File was loaded full screen in a 1:1 screen (1920×1080) at 32bit color, using various decoders and media players. Then, the frame rate and CPU usage was measured. I used a video file with a lot of movement to visually figure out if VLC was playing the file in real time or not (from the players I tried, it was the only one that didn’t have a way to show fps performance). The rest of the players had a way to get actual concrete numbers. Results below:

The CoreAVC Pro CUDA-accelerated version had of course the best result with just 3% CPU utilization (the Vista default drivers had no CUDA support). When CUDA was turned off, there was still a small speed up with the newer, non-Vista, drivers. The rest of the decoders also had it easier either with better frame rate, or with less CPU utilization. If they didn’t do better in terms of frame rate was mostly because of multi-threaded issues, as these decoders are written in legacy styled code (JBQ and I still joke sometimes how even today’s programmers can’t get multi-threading). The only decoder from the ones I tested that was actually multi-threaded was CoreAVC’s. These guys rock.

Please note that I used a speed up option for VLC to get real time decoding with it. By default, VLC doesn’t do real time on the 5D files, not even in this Quad Core 2.4 Ghz DELL PC I used for the test.

The moral of the story is:
- Use graphics cards that have a fast memory bus. Since 2D acceleration tapped by generic non-Purevideo decoders is mostly bandwidth-bounded, get cards that don’t cut costs by using slow memory or buses.
- Don’t leave your PC with the default XP/Vista/Win7 drivers. Upgrade to the latest stable version from your manufacturer’s web site.
- When possible, use CoreAVC Pro as your default decoder on media players/editors (Vegas won’t support it unfortunately, since it doesn’t support DirectShow decoders — but Premiere might).
- Prefer nVidia over ATi. nVidia’s PureVideo architecture is better supported by decoders, be it CoreAVC or Adobe’s CS4.
- Don’t ever opt for an Intel integrated card, unless you are really short on money.

I was somehow invited into the Google Voice beta, and I am loving it. It works, it’s cheap, and under some circumstances it can make telephony cheaper for some people, e.g. college kids.

Having a single number to be called in and never miss a call since it rings on all of your available phone numbers, having spam detection, free SMS, free Voicemail (accessible via the web, either with speech-to-text or via direct audio), and even free call-in on VoIP, well, all these features are really cool. Especially since a few years ago I left VoIP behind. I have now paired my Gizmo5 SIP number to Google Voice, and it works wonderfully well. I have a free call-in from around the world, without paying a dime. And if I want to call out, I pay nothing for calls in the continental US, and only $0.02 per minute for France/Greece. This is dirt cheap, cheaper than any VoIP operator, let alone actual carriers!

In the past, one had to use IPKall if he/she wanted to use a free call-in number with VoIP SIP, but this didn’t always work well, as they delete your account if you don’t use it after a few weeks. With Google Voice, there’s no such fear.

I believe the following plan could work for many poor people or college kids. Here’s how:
1. Get an unlocked cheap Nokia S60 smartphone with VoIP SIP WiFi support. You can get one for $200.
2. Get a free Gizmo5 VoIP SIP account/number.
3. When you eventually get your Google Voice invite, “pair” it with your VoIP SIP number (follow the instructions on Google’s page, you must not include the +1 prefix in order for this to work).
4. [Optional] Get a $25-per-3-months “pay-as-you-go” SIM card from either T-Mobile or AT&T, so you can call out too if you need to. Alternatively, you can buy call-out credit from Gizmo5, which is much cheaper ($0.04 per min), but that would mean that you can only call-out when connected to WiFi.
4. Give everyone your Google Voice number. Your VoIP # will now start ringing (and your cell # too, if it’s also paired).
5. When you are visiting others who have a landline, e.g. your old folks who might not have WiFi in their home, you can temporarily pair their phone number with your Google Voice too, so you won’t have to use your cellphone at all (Google can also ring your incoming calls on both phones).

The only thing I would like to see from Google Voice is an actual VoIP SIP protocol that they host themselves. This way, I would be able to call-out with their dirt cheap rates without having to go through Gizmo5’s (somewhat crazy sometimes) servers and higher rates. If this ever happens, I would like Google to make absolutely sure their SIP servers work with the Nokia VoIP phones. And why not, write a good Android SIP client too (not third party, but part of Android, so it’s well integrated).

Another feature I would like to see is the ability to say to the system “if I receive a call between 11 PM to 11 AM, put it straight on voicemail” (update: the option exists in the advanced menu of each paired phone). I might then put up my Google Voice number on my blog, and ask people call me directly with their video editing questions. I get about 10 emails daily about video tech support, and honestly, I rather talk than write…

Geeks.com, the place for cheap mp3 players, sent over the SanDisk Sansa View 16 GB for a review, along an 8 GB microSDHC card for it. In the box, we also received its USB cable (proprietary connector is used) and some standard earphones.

It took about 2 hours to fully charge the player the first time. The UI loads within 10 seconds and greets you with a scrolling interface. The icons are: Music, Photos, Videos, and More (Radio, voice recording, device settings). When a song is playing, a new icon appears called “Now Playing” (it doesn’t show up otherwise). The UI is controlled by an iPod-like wheel that is actually rotatable rather than touch-sensitive. There’s also a “Home” button, a power on/off/HOLD slider on the side of the device, next to the microphone. The 3.5mm headphone jack is placed on the bottom of the player, next to the proprietary USB connector. The 2.4″ LCD screen is very readable and supports many colors, however the font used in it is pretty ugly.

The device sports 16 GB of internal flash, but it also has a microSD card slot. We tested the slot with an 8 GB card that Geeks supplied for the test.

The music menu has all the normal options one would expect, e.g. playlists, artists, songs, podcasts, audiobooks, genres, and a few more, like “recently added”, “my top rated”, and [voice/FM] “recordings”. When you click on a song, it will start playing, with the band name, album title, song title on the top, followed by the album art, and the progress bar. Clicking the bottom part of the wheel, it will bring a new menu up, that includes options like “Add to Library”, Rate music, repeat, shuffle, EQ, Go List and even “Delete song”. The device supports MP3 and WMA, but the latest firmware adds AAC support too (.m4a). Audio quality was very good.

The Photo menu has some nice slideshow options, while the video menu allows you to resume a video you had started watching earlier. It supports WMV and h.264 videos up to the QVGA resolution. The FM radio option allows you to set presets and even record radio stations, while the voice recording is also pretty straight forward too.

It all sounds good in first glance, and someone could go as far as to say that this might be the next best mp3 player after the iPod, if it wasn’t for the inconsistent UI. There are multiple ways to go “back” to a previous menu, that make the whole usability pretty confusing. On that, we should add that the device failed to read all of our AAC’s album art, and about 40% of our mp3 album art (all jpeg files embedded in the tags, ID3Tag v2.3). The Nokia cellphones also only read about 50% of my mp3’s album art, but if at least there was consistency in the failing of the two devices, I would have talked about a bug on my tagging, but both devices fail on different songs, so it seems that they are just buggy (iTunes and Mp3Tag can read all of them for example).

Also, the player is advertised as having gapless playback, but while the feature seems to have been worked on, it was certainly not as gapless as the iPod is. There was still a small sound heard when hoping between tracks.

The biggest problem however was the database corruption that I experienced twice within the last 3 weeks. The device would fail to recognize that it had GBs of songs in it, even when the “system info” utility correctly reported how much of the flash space was used. In order to fix the problem, you need to either delete or add a song via a PC, so you can force a re-generation of the DB (that takes up a few minutes when the device is full). Problem is, if you are high up in the mountains camping, and you don’t have a laptop with you, here goes your music for the time being.

The USB usability is a bit weird too (the UI for it doesn’t make it clear which mode is set on). More over, when I try to “eject” the device from Explorer, the device reproducibly crashes my Explorer (other devices don’t do that).

On the up side, the player can deliver over 25 hours of continuous playback, which is a feat. Overall, this is a good player if you just want to listen to some music and radio without having high expectations of a consistent interface and usability. It’s definitely better than most cheap mp3 players out there, but nowhere near the mighty iPod (or even the Zune).

When I learned that the new Canon SX200 IS digicam has not only exposure compensation in video mode, manual focus in steps, but also the very important exposure & focus locking, along manual white balance/color/sharpness/contrast/saturation/skinTone/R/G/B, it was a sure sale for me. So we went with my JBQ today at Costco and bought one for $330 (he got a toy too, he bought a 120GB iPod Classic to fit his 50 GBs of music).

The camera records in 1280×720 resolution, at 30.00 fps, at 24 mbps bitrate, with the h.264 (baseline level 4.1) codec & mono uncompressed audio, in the MOV container. Now, think that the best AVCHD camcorder out there, also records at a maximum of 24 mbps, but at the much more demanding 1920×1080 resolution. This means that 720p at 24 mbps is actually a very solid, very generous bitrate.

I set up a scene on my balcony and tested SX200 IS’ video capabilities against my Panasonic FX150, Kodak V1253, and my trusty Canon HV20. Please note that while I shot everything in auto, I turned down to the minimum the color/sharpness/contrast/saturation/SkinTone of the SX200 IS, because that’s the look I like the best (and it’s more color-grading friendly). Please take a good note: the DEFAULT video look of the camera is MUCH more punchy and sharp in every way, which it might be what some consumers want, but definitely not what a serious videographer wants (the damn thing doesn’t color grade otherwise).

The Panasonic has a larger sensor, it records 24 fps in MJPEG at 25 mbps. Unfortunately, this bitrate doesn’t seem to be enough for the less-optimized MJPEG codec, as the picture shows below. The very famous Panasonic LX3 produces the same looking video as the FX150 btw, the two digicams are more alike than different in their video behavior. The Panasonics have exposure compensation, but not locking, creating a very jumpy exposure effect, which kills the seriousness of the footage captured. On the upside, its MJPEG format is very smoothly editable under Sony Vegas, unlike the much slower format of the SX200 IS.

The Kodak V1253, records in 720/30p at 12 mbps MPEG4-SP (simple profile, the same kind of the mpeg4 format as… cellphones record as). The Kodak cameras are plagued with color problems mostly, and the fact that they have absolutely no controls (not even exposure compensation). Under Vegas, its format is near-uneditable, and makes the editor very crash-prone (it realistically requires proxy editing). What Kodak has for it instead, is cheaper prices, starting at $120 (I guess, you get what you pay for).

The Canon HV20, is an HDV camera, shooting 1440×1080i mpeg2 at 25 mbps. In order to properly compare it with these mostly-30p 720p cameras, I had to shoot in the shade with an ND4 filter, at 1/30th shutter speed. I always have Cinemode ON btw, in order to emulate the filmic look (which is why the screenshot is not very sharp and might surprise some of you). I used 720/60i project properties on Vegas (in other words, I trusted Vegas to do a proper resize of the footage), and I used “blend fields” as the de-interlacing algorithm as it provided the best-looking image compared to not de-interlacing at all, or using interpolation (I tried all three options, and analyzed their best(“full”) captured screenshots before I decided which one to include above). Compared to the SX200 IS, it has of course many more options and controls since it’s a real camcorder, but most importantly, it has a better lens that provides twice as much background blur.

As you can see, the HV20 (as expected, even with the less sharp Cinemode mode) and the SX200 IS kill the competition out of the water. Yes, I know of the newer Panasonics that use AVCHD-lite instead of MJPEG, but they still don’t have as much control or bitrate as this Canon camera! Sure, the SX200 IS doesn’t have shutter speed control and a 24p mode, but compared to ANY other consumer 720p digicam below $500, it has the MOST controls and the BEST image!

If they add shutter speed control and 24p option in a future model (even without IRIS/ISO control), that team at Canon should get a medal.

Verdict: get one yourself! Don’t bother with its competition (unless you prefer to buy an actual camcorder, or a DSLR).

Update: Read the comments below, there’s some more info.

I was just looking at some videos shot with the 5D, and many of them are official music videos. And it makes so much sense, the 5D is the best cost-effective camera for this specific job. It seems that many professional filmmakers who shoot music videos by trade, have flocked behind the 5D. At $3,500 (with two medium quality lenses) is a bargain.

With its 30p, you can shoot the video with 25% sped up audio, and then slow-down the video in post to 24p to match the original audio (confused? read here). Then, there’s the unparalleled quality of the videos straight out of the 5D (higher bitrate than any HDV/AVCHD prosumer camera), its color and image control that can emulate film looks, shallow DoF, and now, full manual control. The fact that its audio abilities are less than ideal is irrelevant towards shooting a music video, since the audio is added later.

At this point makes absolutely no sense to buy any prosumer camera ($2,000 to $10,000) and put a 35mm adapter in them to shoot music videos. Because, either the bitrate of these cameras can’t surpass the 5D’s (e.g. EX1, XH-A1), or the resolution is actually lower and adding a 35m adapter kills quality even more — even if the bitrate is higher (e.g. HVX200).

It only makes sense to get these cameras instead if you actually need true 24p recording (which is coming to the 5D too, and it’s not necessary for 25% slow-downed music videos anyway), if you need 60p/60i for better slow-motion, or if you need better audio options.

In other words: if you are in the business of shooting music videos, get a 5D and use it as your main camera. And if you happen to need better slow-motion abilities, get a consumer Canon HF-S100 that shoots in good quality 60i (when interpolating to 540p it creates a 60p file that produces smoother slow-mo).

Of course, for music bands that don’t have that kind of money, they can try my guide for shooting their music video for less than $430.

UPDATE: Heh, what do you know? This article was published today at NYTimes!

It was WWDC day today, and new products were announced. Here’s my take:

Mac OS X: Indifferent. This was like, the 100th rewrite of Finder. It remains to be seen if Quicktime will be any faster with the new hardware acceleration. The $29 upgrade price was good though.

iPhone: I wanted a true 16:9 OLED screen at 4″ and 640×360 resolution. That would fit almost on the same size iPhone as the current ones (because of the 16:9 instead of 16:10). I also wanted a VGA video-call camera. Maybe next year.

Macbook Pros: I might opt for the new 13″. It was very interesting seeing Apple bringing back Firewire, as there was a huge bitching about the lack of Firewire by HDV prosumer and fw audio users for the last year’s model. The backlit keyboard is a very good addition too. However, compared to the other candidate for my next laptop, the MSI U200, it’s heavier, has a lower res, and it costs double the money. I haven’t decided yet for which of the two laptops I will be going for. I prefer a Macbook, but does it worth the extra $800? I am not so sure.

I wanted a new AppleTV too, one that can decode 1080p and allows for third party codec plugins.

Canon announced today it will release a firmware update for the EOS 5D Mark II allowing users to manually control exposure when shooting video. The firmware update will include the following manual controls when shooting video:

* Full aperture selection
* ISO speed: Auto, 100 – 6400 and H1
* Shutter speed: 1/30th – 1/4000th second

This, in addition to its exposure compensation, exposure locking abilities, and gamma/color/picture settings that can be modified via templates generated with Canon’s PC/Mac accompanied 5D application.

This new firmware makes the 5D MII the best video camera out there for DV Rebels, and by far the best DSLR video camera out there. Of course, there are a slew of video-specific hardware features missing (e.g. XLRs), but in terms of actual visual quality obtained with its 38 mbps h.264 files, and with its new basic control options, it beats anything in that price range. Especially if you have some good lenses for it.

The only other feature that matters for us DV Rebels and that’s _really_ missing is frame rate support. 24p (=23.976) is still not there, and its 30p is 30.00 fps instead of 29.97. Additionally, 720p at 60p would have been nice too (for slow-motion usage). If Canon fix these two small problems (easy to implement), it has a real winner in its hands. There was a rumor a few weeks ago where someone said that Canon doesn’t want to implement 24p in its 5D in order to not cannibalize its prosumer cameras, but truth is, people are asking for it — a lot. They will have to comply.

In our home, we are 60% ready to buy the new 5D. Before today’s announcement, we were 10% ready. So we are close. But still not there. Add some frame rates that make sense, and then we will buy it with closed eyes. Promise.

Some people are whining online that their smartphone doesn’t last for more than 1-2 days without recharging, while their 5 year old phone could last over 5-6 days before need any recharging. This is a fallacy. The new phones have better battery life than the older ones.

Consider this: Phones like a Blackberry, iPhone, Android, Symbian, etc. come with many media and internet-heavy applications. It’s now customary to check for email, to check Twitter, to check the internet-updated Weather app, to check stocks, sync between the phone and various online accounts many times a day, to check some RSS or web pages, to use Y! or Google maps. And on the side, play some music, quickly visit youtube, and maybe even watch a small TV episode while waiting on the bus.

All these things are features that you couldn’t do 5 years ago. At least not in a way that would be pleasurable. 5 years ago, you would check your voicemail, your SMS messages, and just do voice. And that was about it. No wonder you could do over 5 days in battery life.

What changed is HOW we use these phones. We now use these phones as mini-laptops. And yet, we expect them to have the same battery life as they had when they were dumb bricks. I am sorry to say that battery technology doesn’t move as fast as software tech does!

And then there’s the other thing. On platforms that allow background apps, the third party application designers only care about their little app and not the whole device. As long as they can invoke a network ping or connection when you are not looking to sync something, they are happy. Very seldom these app developers think what would happen if there are 5 (or 10) background apps installed and doing their own thing whenever they damn want. The user will see a big drop in battery life, and will place the fault at the phone manufacturer instead.

In conclusion, be objective when you are damning a manufacturer of bad battery life. Maybe there’s something you can do to better the experience (short of inventing a new kind of battery altogether).

When I look to buy a cheap digicam/digirecorder (NOT a camcorder) these are the video features I first look at, in this specific order:

1. Does it have exposure compensation?
2. Does it have exposure locking?
3. Does it have shutter speed control?
4. Does it have color/gamma settings? (low saturation/contrast/sharpness)?
5. Does it have manual white balance?
6. Does it have focus locking?

The first two are the most important video features one should be looking for. Without them, you can ruin your shots no matter how careful you are. For example, the Flip/Kodak digicam/digirecorders don’t have any of these features. The Panasonic ones only have #1 and #5. The new Canon ones have #1, #2, #4, #5, #6 making them a better buy overall (missing only shutter speed). Of course, a choice between 24, 25 and 30 fps would have been nice too.

Notice that I don’t list gain or aperture control. If I was looking for a still picture camera, aperture control would have been much higher up in the list, but for video, shutter speed is more important — at least for the kind of videos I am shooting. Needless to say that for all of my HV20 videos, none was shot in aperture mode. They were all shot either in shutter speed mode, or Cinemode.

Update: JBQ wrote a similar blog post too, about still cameras.