Weekend challenge by Philip Bloom: Last night’s remains
July 19, 2010 - 11:52 am - posted in 550D/T2i, film, hddslrHey guys,
first off I really want to apologize for not having written anything in a long time. I’ve been crammed with work lately, editing 3 projects at the same time plus writing my exams.
Now, last weekend I finally got to take a break from all that and took the freedom to do … well, nothing at all. So relaxing!
Of course fellas like Philip Bloom have to ruin weekends like that by starting something like this weekend challenge ;-)
The objective was to create a 90 sec short film of a single object. I have to say, this really got me off the couch. I found it utterly exciting to make a film showing only one object for 90 seconds, without being boring.
This is my submission:
Music is by the awesome xun, go check him out!
You can find some making of photos after the break.
That’s a wrap: about the ‘Glassworks’ shooting
May 25, 2010 - 9:39 pm - posted in 550D/T2i, film, hddslrSo, last weekend I finally started my first big film project acting as DP and director. We were on a very tight schedule, determined to shoot six demanding scenes in only two shooting days. Things got pretty hectic, but we had a lot of fun and in the end we managed to get everything done just in time.
Before getting into details about the shooting, the equipment we used and the problems we ran into let me first tell you a bit about ‘Glassworks’. A few months ago my dear friend Phil who is a talented musician currently working under the pseudonym xun finished his first ambient album ‘Frameworks’ (you can stream it on his bandcamp profile). I love his music and since I already created the album artwork I was eager to use some of the tracks on upcoming shorts I wanted to shoot. Talking to Phil about this we came up with the idea to both make a promotional video for the title track ‘Glassworks’ and at the same time tell one of the stories I wanted to tell in a short film. One thing led to another, in the end I wrote a script for it and both Phil and I agreed that Glassworks and my ideas on how to adapt it on screen were a perfect fit. Glassworks in motion was born!
Reviewing the LCDVF on the 550D/T2i
May 4, 2010 - 10:16 pm - posted in 550D/T2i, film, gear reviews, hddslrIt’s been some time since my last blog entry and I sincerely apologize for that! My LCDVF has finally arrived today so I really wanted to share my first impressions with you guys. Since I already wrote an article about the LCDVF a few weeks ago, I didn’t really want to write a whole review – also since there already are a lot of reviews on the VF out there.
So I decided to put together a quick video to tell you what I think about the LCDVF and give you an idea of what it looks like on my 550D. If you have any questions regarding the VF, please leave them in the comments and I will be very delighted to answer them as good as I can.
Check out the video on Vimeo:
UPDATED 2: 550D/T2i knock-off battery test with surprises (1400mAh)
April 10, 2010 - 8:46 pm - posted in 550D/T2i, film, gear reviews, hddslr
Update May 04, 2010:
Watch out when buying batteries from the ebay seller mentioned in the text (“trade-shop”); it seems he sends out different kinds of batteries (with less power than the ones i got) – check out Lucas Pfaffs blog entry on this matter (it’s in german). Thanks for the warning, Lucas!
Update May 06, 2010:
I have received word from quite a few people now the ebay seller (“trade-shop”) now ships batteries with significantly less power than the ones I got. Be careful when buying the batteries on ebay, try to get a statement from the seller first and feel free to link to this blog entry!
_
Since the first knock-off batteries for the 550D/T2i appeared on Amazon and eBay a few weeks ago, I was eager to get my hands on some of them. The original Canon battery LP-E8 is still listed at something like 60$ and I believe it was even more before the first knock-offs were introduced. For me this is far too much money to be spend on a battery; even though they obviously are an essential piece of equipment for the DSLR filmmaker (especially when it comes to longer shoots).
Anyhow, since I was planning to get enough batteries to last for a whole shooting day (and still keep an eye on the money spent), I wanted to be sure the ones I got would be as long lasting as possible. After checking back with Nino Leitner’s experiences with some of the clones I decided to get some myself. Now the ones Nino tested lasted for about 47min compared to a total of 147min with the original Canon battery.
I decided to give a battery from eBay (Germany) a shot – it claimed to have 1400mAH, which is quite a bit more than the original battery has (1120mAh). I bought it for about 10€ (which is something like 13$) and didn’t expect too much. But hey, not much of a risk at 10 bucks, right. Well, prepare for some surprises.
UPDATED: canon 550d/t2i finally here! stay tuned for more!
April 7, 2010 - 2:41 pm - posted in film, hddslr, photographyUpdate April 09, 2010:
You can now find a sample video on my vimeo profile.
Hey folks,
I finally got my new camera – the Canon 550D/t2i. I’m already in love with it and will be uploading sample videos to my vimeo profile soon. The full HD footage looks stunning with my canon 50/1.8 lens. stay tuned for more, i’ll be putting together quite some gear in the near future for hddslr filmmaking while staying on a budget. maybe i’ll be of help for some of you guys who also want to get into hddslr business.
i’m currently waiting on the LCDVF to be sold in Germany again – it seems to be out of stock anywhere else as well, but i was told new stocks should arrive some time this week. i’ll keep you posted on this as well for i know it is a low priced alternative to the zacuto z-finder and is supposed to be working quite okay. check back here for more info, reviews and footage on that later!
hope you have a wonderful week!
xo
