Cheap shots: How to shoot pro-quality video on a budget
How to do pro-quality video post-production at home

Anyway, BETA 2 has been released, and due to the fact i am actually writing this from my Hospital bed, i wont be playing with it for a few days (check out my Twitter feed if your actually interested). from the AdobeLabs website, here are the new features:

• Improved performance throughout the application for faster importing and loading of images
• Native tethered shooting support for select Nikon and Canon DSLR cameras
• Luminance noise reduction has been added to the previous color noise reduction improvements available in the first public beta for outstanding overall high ISO quality
• Support for importing and managing video files from DSLR cameras for better overall photographic workflow control
• Improvements to the import experience in the first beta to reflect public feedback
• Improved watermarking functionality from the first beta to reflect public feedback

Lightroom 3 beta 2 builds on the enhancements introduced in the first Lightroom 3 beta release:

• Brand new performance architecture, building for the future of growing image libraries
• State-of-the-art noise reduction to help you perfect your high ISO shots
• Watermarking tool that helps you customize and protect your images with ease
• Portable sharable slideshows with audio—designed to give you more flexibility and impact on how you choose to share your images, you can now save and export your slideshows as videos and include audio
• Flexible customizable print package creation so your print package layouts are all your own
• Film grain simulation tool for enhancing your images to look as gritty as you want
• New import handling designed to make importing streamlined and easy
• More flexible online publishing options so you can post your images online to certain online photo sharing sites directly from inside Lightroom 3 beta (may require third-party plug-ins)*

Things i am interested in is the Performance (nothing can be fast enough!), import improvments and the Teathered Shooting… this is a very handy feature. So, if your interested, go check it out. but be warned… BETA = not production. i am a trained profesional and one day i will regret running BETA in production…

I have seen videos of this GigaPan thing online before, and the results that it creates, and i have always wanted one… For those of you who dont know what a GigaPan is, its a holder for your camera which moves around and automatically takes photos… you tell it the top most left point and the bottom most right point, and it figures out how many photos to take and takes them magically… the problem has been that they where originally for small Point and shoot camera, and DSLRs would not fit in… but not any more!

GigaPanner.com are reporting that the GigaPan EPIC Pro will be available in April. this will take a full DSLR, and looking at the photo above, has built in remote shooting support (the first one of these i seen for the Point and shoot devices had a “finger” that pressed the shoot button… the price is $895… which sounds a bit steep, but if you take massive giga-pixel photos, then it would be worth it! [Via Engadget]

Canon has released a new software update for the 5D Mark II. this brings the frimware to 2.0.3 and includes the following features:

1. Adds or changes the following movie frame rates.

NTSC:
* 1920×1080 : 30 fps (changed – actual 29.97 fps)
* 1920×1080 : 24 fps (added – actual 23.976 fps)
* 640×480 : 30 fps (changed – actual 29.97 fps)
PAL:
* 1920×1080 : 25 fps (added – actual 25.0 fps)
* 1920×1080 : 24 fps (added – actual 23.976 fps)
* 640×480 : 25 fps (added – actual 25.0 fps)

2. Adds a function for manually adjusting the sound recording level (64 levels).
3. Adds a histogram display (brightness or RGB) for shooting movies in manual exposure.
4. Adds shutter-priority AE mode (Tv) and aperture-priority AE (Av) mode to the exposure modes for shooting movies.
5. Changes the audio sampling frequency from 44.1 KHz to 48 KHz.
6. Fixes a phenomenon where communication between the camera and the attached lens is sometimes interrupted after manual sensor cleaning. (This phenomenon only affects units with Firmware Version 1.2.4.)

You can download the firmware update from Canon here.

I have also gotten a few new photography related books in the last few days. The first is The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers (Voices That Matter) and the second is The Adobe Photoshop CS4 Book for Digital Photographers (Voices That Matter). I am hoping to review these and post some info about them soon. (those links are UK links, but if your interested, the US links are as follows:
The Adobe Photoshop CS4 Book for Digital Photographers
The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers

just to start though, looking at the Lightroom book, its very handy. was messing with Lightroom last night using the book for reference and i have found a lot of extra stuff i did not know… very cool stuff…

The photos are currently hosted on my SmugMug site. Leave a comment on the photos if you have any.

Right, so it has been a while since i posted… Since then, the Canon 7D has been announced (kind of like a 5D MK II without the full frame: 18.1Mp, 1080P video, 8FPS shooting) and the 1D MK IV (one up from the 1D MK III: 16MP, 1080P Video, etc…).  Well, this morning, Canon announced the Wireless addon, named the WFT (Wireless File Transfer) for these cameras, and the 5D MK II… There are 3 available: WFT-E2 II A Wireless File Transmitter for the 1D MK IV, WFT-E4 II A Wireless File Transmitter for the 5D MK II and WFT-E5A Wireless File Transmitter for the 7D.

Some interesting features include the new Camera Linking Function, allowing one camera to control 10 Slave cameras, and the New Media Server Function, which seems to only be on the E5A (7D), that allows you to wireless-ly share your photos to DLNA compatible devices.

The E4 II A and E5A will sell at $699 and are available now. no price yet for the WFT-E2 II A, but will be available in the First Quarter 2010.

So, i have been looking at this ColorSpace UDMA backup device, and i am thinking… I shoot on CF Cards. i carry 24Gb of them with me most of the time. I also sometimes carry my Laptop (MacBook Pro). But i like the look of this because of the ability to not only backup your CF Cards, but to back the internal drive itself up to somewhere else (other external USB Drive). This sounds very handy for long trips, large events, etc.

But, there is a question: Is it any good? Anyone play with one of these? Recommendations? Especially around using with Lightroom?