A quick roundup of some of the latest video tools -- last one before the new year.
Cinevate's Holiday Sale
There are still a couple of days left in Cinevate's 12 days of Festivus holiday sale, which includes savings of up to $1,250 on 12 brand new DSLR and video bundles (ends December 31st).
G-Log Picture Profiles for the Sony FS100
The Sony FS100 is, by most accounts, a superior camera to the only other $5k post-DSLR large sensor camcorder, the Panasonic AF100. In my own experience, out of the box the FS100's image looks like what you'd expect: it has that Sony video look. Filmmaker Frank Glencairn created his own picture profiles, dubbed G-Log, to give the camera a flatter more "S-log-like" picture profile. Get the GlenColor picture profile or the newer version 1.2. Speaking of the FS100, B&H currently has $200/$300 rebates on the camera.
Sorenson Squeeze 8 and Squeeze Lite
Sorenson Media released the latest version of their all-in-one video compression suite, Squeeze 8, along with a Lite version (comparison here).
New Squeeze Lite
Available for the first time, Sorenson Squeeze 8 Lite enables the rapidly expanding market of web developers, videographers and other content creators who are focused primarily on online publishing to cost-effectively encode and transcode in the most popular video formats, including Flash FLV, Flash SWF, MPEG-4, QuickTime, Windows Media, WMA, WebM and others. This streamlined version of the software enables single file encoding to the highest standards with the ability to still use popular settings and filters available in Sorenson Squeeze.
Pricing and Availability
Sorenson Squeeze 8 is available immediately. The suggested retail price for Sorenson Squeeze 8 is $599 ($200 less than the suggested retail price for the earlier full version) and Squeeze 8 Lite is $199. The Squeeze 8 “classic” edition also includes a complimentary account for the Sorenson 360 online video platform, complete with Review & Approval functionality. For additional information about purchasing Sorenson Squeeze 8, visit: www.sorensonmedia.com/squeeze-pricing.
ikan “Where’s the Missing Piece?” Short Film Contest winners and iPad teleprompter
I not only failed to do my assigned judging for ikan's contest, but I also missed the release of the ikan “Where’s the Missing Piece?” Short Film Contest winners. Despite my best efforts at time management, there was simply too much going on during the judging window. My bad. Here's one of the winning videos (contestants were to integrate ikan products into the video):
ikan also has an iPad-based teleprompter kit:
Switronix V-Mount Battery Plates for Sony F3, RED EPIC/SCARLET
I have Switronix's new V-Mount battery plate for my RED SCARLET, and I'll share my thoughts on that in an upcoming post (short review: it works). They've also released a version for the Sony F3; the press release is below.
(December 22, 2011) - Long Island, NY - Switronix is proud to oficially announce a trio of new V-mount plates for the Sony F3 (GP-S-2PTX), RED Epic and RED Scarlet cameras (GP-S-EPIC10,GP-S-EPIC20). The pair of epic plates are the only currently available plates capable of transmitting battery percentage data from RED brick batteries or Switronix XP-L95RED and XP-L190REDbatteries to Epic and Scarlet cameras. Furthermore, all three plates include 2 p-taps, which allow users to power accessories such as a light or monitor. For more information on Switronix's entire line of V-style accessories, please visit: https://www.switronix.com/products/products?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.browse&category_id=42
Wooden Camera's Quickback
Speaking of RED and Switronix, Wooden Camera recently released their $199 Quick Back battery/accessory adapter for the EPIC and SCARLET. I have a number of Wooden accessories on the way and will let you know what I think, but they're very positively reviewed (both in terms of price and quality) elsewhere online.
I also have a Viewfactor APU battery plate, and will be sure to include that in a future post.
DISCLOSURE: ikan, Cinevate, and Sorenson are NFS sponsors.
