DIY: Video Clamp

This is one useful piece of equipment.  Really simple and cheap.  Has multiple uses.  I grew to rely on it for almost every shoot.  I have no idea what to call it, so I just call it video clamp.  Put together in one short session from parts found in my grip box.
You take eBay C-clamp ($9), remove the spigot and attach in its place a metal shelf bracket ($6) and add to its tip a small ball head ($6). Done.
I use it to mount audio or video recorder to the light stand.  The substantial length of the bracket ensures that the camcorder's flip out screen can be manipulated freely.  I also like the clamp's rubberized surfaces being gentle on my equipment.  Nice!

New Project Idea: A Day in the Life - Campbell

Inspiration: A Day in the Life: San Francisco 
Minus aerial shots.
Plus a female figure (camera following her, her face never seen) unifying all the experiences.
Sometimes others (a kid, her girlfriend) joining her.
About 3min total clip length.
Iconic locations, may not be in this order:

• water tower and the swingset
• Library and surroundings
• Ainsley house
• Farmer's market - live music
• Basketball field and the Los Gatos Creek trail

Retail:

• Whole foods
• Pruneyard - dining, live music
• Sports Basement

 Dining

• Orchard Valley
• Sonoma Chicken &

Businesses:

• eBay
• Barracuda
• On-Site

Shooting Video with GH3 - Impressions

BorrowLenses.com delivered!
GH3 and 35-100 2.8 lens fit and finish are nice.  I'd say similar to my D600.  Feels good in the hand.  Light.  Lens focuses fast and quietly.  Bad news is the flip out display is wobly.

Almost immediately I bumped into GH3 stopping recording unexpectedly.  Scared me! Actually it's just that about 10 seconds into the recording display changes.  Weird.  They say this is to avoid burn-in on the OLED display.  To pop display back all you need to do is to either press display button or to wave your hand in front of the eye piece.  Hmm...

Planning a GH3 Test

Delivering value to my customers is my highest priority.  And shallow depth of field screams value.  At least I think so.  Even for event video.  So now I consider replacing (at least one of) my camcorders with a larger sensor camera.  The D600 and lenses I own proved to be a poor choice for shooting event video.  On the other hand I love the way my Canon VIXIA HF G10 does face recognition and auto-focus.  I am comfortable with its image quality provided I keep AGC below 10dB.  Offcourse given the size of its sensor it is not surprising the depth of field is big.  Anyway.  A separate audio recorder takes care of audio so I have no pressing need to have a camera with XLR inputs.  Here is what I am looking for in a video camera....

Mike Monteiro - "Fuck you. Pay me!"

First 5 min are awesome.
The rest is just simple fun.
Just "Stop being bottom!"

DIY Floor Light

The moment I read a twit about Phlite I knew I had my holidays DIY project cut out for me!
So I started with a $10 eBay umbrella adapter I already had and went to IKEA to pick the rest components.  Click the image on the left for more step-by-step pictures.
I settled for a Rodd table lamp base (a cheaper and shorter version would be better but I never realized it existed!) and an Ollsta shade (you decide which size - I picked a larger one.)  I liked how the wire is routed in the Rodd base - it goes out to the side and the switch is at the very top.  Thus removing the base and replacing it (somehow) with an umbrella adapter should not interfere with wiring.  BTW this shade can be installed with wider opening down OR up.  I though it was a nice touch.
So the first step is to remove the cold shoe from the umbrella adapter.  This exposed a nice hole.  I then went back to Rodd lamp base.  The base itself has a tube adapter which I removed. Now I had to figure out how to attach this lamp tube adapter to the umbrella adapter.  An M6 bolt which I already had looked like something which can do the trick.  A visit to a big box store brought me Irwin Metric Tap and Die Set.  I tapped an M6 thread in the umbrella adapter.  I cut of half of the lamp tube adapter and I drilled a hole and tapped the same M6 thread there. Then I cut off an M6 bolt head and screwed it both into the umbrella and lamp tube adapters.
And that was it!

Monitor Calibration

I bet you've heard this before: "Thou Shalt Calibrate Your Monitor".  So how often did you act on this?  Aha!
I was always confused not only by the complexity of the procedure but also by the fact that it can be done on so many layers - you can adjust your monitor knobs, your graphics card driver has calibration controls, e.g. gamma, Windows (and I suspect others) offers some procedures, and, finally, there are dedicated hardware/software packages designed to do just that.
So today I am doing all of the above!