Hari keluarga PRORADD 2010

 Video was shot using Sony HVR Z5U

As for youtube the video was rendered using WMV template thus significant decrease in the quality.

The original footage was meant for Blu Ray production NTSC DV widescreen 16:9 (1080 progressive scan).

For DVD the video was rendered to comply with NTSC DV (720 X 480, 29.970 fps)

HD handycam Vs SD Cam

HD is the future and it is here to stay. There are many reasons for using HD camcorders instead of SD camcorders, but the basics are the frame rates, low light capabilities, the higher sound quality, better larger picture, and lastly, the price for a good HD camcorder nowadays.

The frame rates are a big deal in the area of fast motion sports and action movies. These are what many prosumers would use a good camera for, usually something like recording their sons/teams sports games for review in the future (Especially football teams), short indie movies and documentaries (lots of times involving animals that run vary fast for Discovery Channel type videos), or even extra cameras to get better takes on action movies. The frame rate of a HD 30p camera is faster than 24p, meaning more footage will be taken, making the action look a lot more smooth and making something like slow motion look a lot more fluid and realistic.
Also, most HD camcorders have better low light capabilities. Most HD camcorders have what is called 3CCD's (I won't get too far into the technical aspect), and these cause the camera to generate more footage using less light. This way, you don't get the poppy, noisy (slang term for the random white lights you see in the dark), and wrongly colored video that you would receive from an SD camera.
The heightened sound quality also makes recording on an HD camera more sufficient. Most prosumer cameras with XLR in's that are SD will record 12-bit 44.1 KHZ, that is slightly below CD quality sound. Therefore, most studios would by external recorders and have to edit in the sound in the post production. If you record in HD, however, you get 16-bit 44.1 KHZ MPEG-II sound, which is cd-quality. Therefore, unless you are a super-high end broadcast station and you feel some random need for more sound quality (a bit of sound quality that the average ear cannot tell a difference whether it's there or not), you are set for recording your sound direct to tape and sounding professional.
The main thing that people notice about HD cameras is the better picture quality, but what actually attributes to that? The amount of pixels a normal SD prosumer camera like the Canon XL-2 has is .5 megapixels, compared to the HD cameras that have on the low end 2 megapixels. That's 4 times the amount of image data! Also, the picture that is captured is much bigger, therefore when you are to watch it on a screen, it is usually shrunken to fit the screen unlike in SD where it is stretched

Blu-ray vs. DVD

 

Blu-ray vs. DVD

Blu-ray is fairly similar to DVD. The players look the same, the discs look the same, and even the disc menus are similar. So why pay more?

Blu-ray brings three major improvements over DVD: better image quality, better sound quality, and more special features. All three are made possible by the larger storage capacity of Blu-ray, which is capable of storing 50GB of information on a single Blu-ray Disc, compared with DVDs, which can hold about 8GB.
What's better about Blu-ray? Image quality: Superior resolution is a big part of what makes Blu-ray look great. In layman's terms, this means you'll see a more detailed image: more clearly defined strands of hair, wrinkles in clothing, etc. The technical difference is that Blu-ray's maximum resolution is 1,920x1,080 progressive scan, while DVD is limited to 720x480 (480p). Beyond resolution, Blu-ray also uses better video-compression methods, resulting in more contrast and richer colors. If you like the way HD from your cable or satellite provider looks, Blu-ray looks even better. It's the highest-quality video format available today, and in some ways it surpasses the picture quality of your local movie theater, especially when shown on a good-performing HDTV or projector.
Audio quality: Audio quality is also improved. New high-resolution soundtrack formats, such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, are essentially identical to the studio master, so you'll be hearing things exactly as the director and audio engineers intended.
Special features: Blu-ray also has additional special features over DVD. The most basic innovation is the pop-up menu, which allows you to access the menu functions while the movie continues playing. Other innovations include picture-in-picture video commentary and the ability to download new content right from your Blu-ray player, although your player needs to have the right Blu-ray profile to access these features. In our opinion, the special features on Blu-ray have mostly been underwhelming and aren't a good reason to upgrade.
What's worse about Blu-ray? Cost: Blu-ray's main drawback is cost. Prices for players are still generally over RM700 and movies cost about RM150. While the one-time cost of a player isn't that bad, the cost of building up a new Blu-ray library really adds up. At least it's possible to pick and choose which movies you "buy Blu," since every Blu-ray player can also play standard DVDs.
Available titles: Another downside is that the number of titles on Blu-ray is still much smaller than DVD.
Load times: When Blu-ray first came out, load times were unbearable; it could take more than 3 minutes to load a movie. Since then, players have gotten much faster, but they still don't compare with the speed of loading a DVD. While simple Blu-ray movies can load in about 20 seconds on a good Blu-ray player, movies with complex menus still take close to a minute and a half to get to the actual movie, regardless of the player.

Bokeh Vs Sharpness

  

The word "bokeh" comes from the Japanese word "boke" (pronounced bo-keh) which literally means fuzziness or dizziness.

 Bokeh describes the rendition of out-of-focus points of light.

Bokeh is different from sharpness. Sharpness is what happens at the point of best focus. Bokeh is what happens away from the point of best focus.

 Bokeh describes the appearance, or "feel," of out-of-focus areas. Bokeh is not how far something is out-of-focus, bokeh is the character of whatever blur is there.

Unfortunately good bokeh doesn't happen automatically in lens design. Perfect lenses render out-of-focus points of light as circles with sharp edges. Ideal bokeh would render each of these points as blurs, not hard-edged circles. 

 There is no measurement for bokeh, like everything else in art, you gauge bokeh by looking at the image. So you have it. Bokeh shot makes the footage or pictures more artistic in nature thus increasing the value and aesthetic elements of the subjects. 

 That's why professional wedding cinematographer or photographer would not use normal consumer camera / handycam in shooting. High end devices are their preferred choice, as well as for me. I use Broadcast quality pro handycam Sony HVR Z5E as the main arsenal. Why? Because I do not shortchange my customer. There are many vidoegrapher out there who try to make a living by using recording devices which eventually do not correspond well with the customers' needs. The footage do not distinguish between background and foreground as everything looks flat. Then reality sets in.

UV filter

     The "traditional" visible spectrum runs from red to violet. Red light has the longest wavelength and violet the shortest. Light which has a longer wavelength than red is called infrared, and light which has a shorter wavelength than violet is called ultra violet or UV. The wavelength of light is measure in units of nanometers (abbreviated as nm), and 1nm is a billionth of a meter (that's a US billion or 1000 million, not a UK billion which is a million million!). Light shorter in wavelength than about 400nm is called ultra violet, light longer in wavelength than 700nm is called infrared.

     So now we know what UV light is, why would be want to block it? Well the answer lies in the way that color film works. There are basically three color sensitive layers, one sensitive to red light, one to green light and one to blue light. The blue layer not only responds to blue light, but also to UV light, so if there is a lot of UV around the blue sensitive layer gets extra exposure and the final image takes on a blue color. Since film isn't normally sensitive to infrared, you don't need an infrared blocking filter. Interestingly though, digital sensors are infrared sensitive and most digital cameras have an infrared blocking filter built in.
Now there isn't usually a huge amount of UV around at sea level. There is some (that's what gives you a suntan or a sunburn) but most of it is scattered by the atmosphere. However as you gain altitude, for example by going up a mountain, the amount of UV increases. Under these conditions a UV filter can prevent a blue cast in photographs.
     Since UV filters look clear and neutral to the naked eye, some people also use them as a protective filter which they leave on their lens at all times. Some people think this is a good idea, other question the wisdom placing a RM160 filter in front of a RM1000 lens and potentially affecting image quality. Both schools of thought have some valid points. It's your choice.
So if you buy a UV filter, you'd expect it to block UV right? Well, sometimes you'd be wrong as the results of this test show. I've looked at the range between 350nm and 400nm for UV blocking since the glass used in almost all lenses will itself block any light with a wavelength shorter than 350nm, so you don't need help from a filter there.

     In a nutshell, the only reason of me installing a UV filter is to avoid the proprietary lens from getting scratched or damaged in between recording process. Better safe than sorry.

Silver CatFish temptation

"Ok Sir, just deposit the down payment to confirm booking, I'll check tomorrow." The conversation ended abruptly after exchanging salam. I checked the online bank account and the deal had been welded well. So, my next project will be covering another happy moments for a special couple who had decided to end their solo era. The father of the would be bride has shouldered the responsibilty to find a suitable wedding cameraman for the special day. Much to the relief of the bridegroom to be. Now I just have to book a ticket flight online to Kuantan (budget airline of course) and plan a rendezvous with my contact there. Silver fish cooked with tempoyak (fermented durian paste) is the most special delicacy there and I am one of the biggest fans as it reminds me of my mother cooking everytime I balik kampung.

looking out for an elusive monster

Foraging through the internet is one big deal when the outcome does not really bear fruit or fruits. It was (is) a very frustrating personal experience and the qwertyuiop seemed to be too elusive for my fingers to tap. I had tried many times looking out for an adapter that possibly could ease the non linear editing work of mine without having to transfer the Avi files to a third party storage device. In the world of technology, the word obselete should be observed with care as you might be trapped in a labyrinth following  the claim made by the device producer which does not go in tandem with the advancement of tech world. Sony claims that the device is popular and the most prefered choice but nowadays laptops of different brands seem to discard the firewire technology due to the popularity gained by USB 2.0/3.0.

Rendering the frame

Rendering is the final process in which the raw footage is either turned to Ntsc Dv/Widescreen/SD or Pal/Ws/ SD so the video will be compatibly suited with varied TV codec acceptance signal. Unless you play the raw footage (AVI) through windows media player or Mac, then there is no need to convert the footage. The negative side is the format race of Av giants might render the old format useless as time progresses. To overcome it,you have to keep up with the trends by updating the video codecs. It is like saving current p/point document to windows 97. Open it again may result in lost of certain features (97 format). This happens as technology is progressing although the trend does show redundancy. Obsolete program compatibility offer is just a courtesy move by the software giants in order not to lose fan base.

to carbonize or not...

Recently I went to a car accesory shop and witnessed the transformation of a Civic FD to Mugen RR. The carbon fibre bonet cost 2K while the body kit is around the region of 4K without the paint job. Well it is not about applying the transformation to my car as I am pretty much interested in the carbon fibre look alike sticker which has the texture (tactile) and 'cool' sensation from my point of view. I have this plan in my mind which is to carbonize my Sony HVRZ5 body with the dummy sticker. It will surely look great but I have to make sure the cosmetic change is not going to affect the Handycam capability dispensing heat. Boxy compartment of the handycam will faciliate the process as I just have to stick. encapsulate and forget but what about the cursive parts, it will require different skill and tool and perhaps the bodykit installer might give me some insight or help,maybe? or I might end up being outcast by the society for the reason of trying to be different from others.

Family Day 2010 & Lactic acid

Two days ago I was hired by a company in Shah Alam to capture priceless moment of their staff organizing Family Day in Teluk Batik. It was a good experience as I was able to spread my wings and try new stuff at hands. Shooting videos for corporate functions require great length of patience and abundance of PR skills. The dinner event lasted until 12am (approximately) and I had to avoid myself from becoming succumbed to the biological clock. I was lucky that my bedroom was ten minutes drive away from the resort. Thinking about the comfy bed made the 2.3 kg handycam felt three times heavier. Next time I have to bring in the tripod. Muscle aches are common as nice shots require steady hands. Lactic acid build-up does take its toll
and it will last for about a week before the swollen muscles recuperate.