Just like buses ... the D800 and 5D Mark III arrive

Last year was pretty much a year of waiting in the DSLR field.  Even those cameras which showed their faces didn't start to ship till this year or we are still waiting.  Part of this was understandable given the problems in Japan and Thailand.  Into this vacuum we saw the dedicated video camera make its comeback peaking with the arrival of the C300 and Scarlet at the end of the year.  People were starting to say the video DSLR revolution is over.  This is a view which I half agree with.  It doesn't feel like a revolution anymore, DSLR is now largely mainstream and ubiquitous.  For filmmakers there are now many choices of large chip cameras which are easier to work with and easier to fit into a professional workflow.  

However, there are still a huge amount of footage being shot of DSLR all the way from the guerrilla filmmaker right up to major motion pictures.  That video function is not going away and will continue to improve. 2012 has seen the arrival of two “next generation” DSLRs from Canon and Nikon.  For Canon, it is the 5D Mark III - the replacement for the camera that has defined this whole sector for nearly three years.  For Nikon it is the D800 which brings most of the new technology recently launched on the D4 into direct competition with the 5D.

Canon 5D Mark III

With three years to wait, the blogosphere has had a long time to imagine what the 5D Mark III would be.  This probably meant that the Mark III was doomed to disappoint and I must admit I haven’t had a burning desire to upgrade.  At least part of that is due to the fact that I can’t afford it, but that doesn’t usually stop the “desire” part.  The increased price (£2999 at launch compared to £2299 for the Mark II) brings it into competition with the low-end big chip camcorders but I need a convergence device and those don’t qualify. 

I have only had the chance to play briefly with the camera so this is no review, but we can look at the spec sheet.  At the time of its launch, the video feature was the most original feature of the 5D Mark II along with its 21MP sensor.  Apart from that a lot of the tech got carried over from the 5D.  For the photographer, it was far from leading edge in the areas of AF and metering.  This didn't stop it being hugely popular with photographers as well as carving out the video niche.  The 7D which followed later did not suffer these issues.  It was more weatherproof, faster and had much better AF and metering.  In some ways the 5D Mark III is more like a 7Ds - a full frame 7D. 

Canon have improved the camera comprehensively in most areas both photographically and for the video section.  We have be starved of full res samples at the launch but all the signs are good.  I fully expect that the quality of the imagery will reduce the 5D bugbears of aliasing, moire and rolling shutter and it will be an order of magnitude better in low light.  Sound recording and monitoring have been improved but the big wish list items of clean 1080p out and faster frame rates at 1080p are not there.  There is also a lack of crop modes (like in the consumer 600D) which seems a missed opportunity to me.  Maybe Canon thinks giving you cheap, fast telephotos in camera is counterproductive for its bottom line?  All of these improvements are welcome but nothing which renders my Mark II obsolete which is why Canon will continue to sell it.

Nikon, who have had many false starts on DSLR video since they kicked the whole thing off with the D90, have put an amazing amount of new tech into the D800 to fight back.  They have managed to do this for a noticeably smaller chunk of change than Canon at £2399. 

Nikon D800

The are many remarkable things about the D800 but the most remarkable is that it so un-Nikon-like in philosophy.  Nikon had been the least enthusiastic DSLR manufacturer in the megapixel wars and now they have gone nuclear with a 36MP sensor.  The aging D700 it replaces couldn't wield half that at 15MP and it dwarfs the 5D Mark III’s 22MP.  This sensor dominates this camera for better or for worse.  For video, it sets alarm bells ringing.  That’s 34Mp to throw away to get to HD size, how will it cope in low light?  Again, we still don't have any uncompressed samples to answer those questions.  From what I have seen in the Nikon demonstration this is my own prediction.  I think the D800 will be on a par with the 5D Mark II for low-light and picture artifacts with on-board recording but will be well behind the Mark III.  I think the ability to record off-camera will narrow the gap some but not entirely close it. 

The D800 does have a lot of features which show Nikon have listened and which I think are valuable both in Photo and Video modes.  Nikon shows no fear of crop modes and this effectively gives you two cameras in one.  I can see this camera being a hit with time-lapsers and for making plates with that massive resolution.  For the photographer I think Nikon will be able to match the D700 for low light and be better at most other things apart from speed.  If you want to shoot darker and faster I expect you are going to have to save for a D4.

If you don't have the cash to hand or are not convinced by the feature set then its probably best to wait.  We still have the Canon Cinema EOS DSLR to show its colours and that is likely to have some very different tech in it.

Concept Cinema EOS DLSR

Expect to see much if not all the new video features trickle down into the rest of the rand in the next 12-18 months.  It think the upgrade for the Rebel/00D range is due soon and we will see from that how widely Canon is prepared to share its features.  With the Digic IV generation cameras they were pretty generous, so this will be a very interesting announcement.

Bear in mind that most of what I have said is still based on very incomplete information.  Its going to be a while before the blogosphere gets its hands on production models and can come to independent conclusions on the image quality and usability of these new cameras.  I am eager to see how it all pans out!

Some more in depth looks at the cameras can be found:

http://www.paulgwilliams.tv/blog/2012/03/my-thoughts-on-the-new-canon-5d-mark-iii/

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/nikon-d800/nikon-d800A.HTM

http://www.eoshd.com/content/7311/canon-5d-mark-iii-vs-nikon-d800-for-video

Initial take on Final Cut Pro X

Its been a crazy time since the launch of FCPX last week - a regular supernova in the twitterverse.  I hit go on the App Store the moment it popped up in the UK.  I was there for the debut at NAB, I remember the buzz by the end of that fateful Supermeet.  The very first impression was not a functional one but a financial one.  The days of cut $ and replace £ seemed to have ended with the App Store.  So the price that got the Supermeet crowd on their feet was still present for a UK audience.  As expected the price wasn't quite like for like with FCP7 due to the unbundling, but the ancillary apps were less than I expected both in terms of number and cost.

Unfortunately, the excitement of the launch soon turned to howls of protests.  Have the iMovie Pro protagonists been vindicated?  Have the Pro community been left out in the cold?  I haven’t deep dived into the software myself.  I did enough playing to decide that I needed to pull back and have a good look at this new paradigm and decide how best to engage in it or whether to engage at all!

I have read a lot of the comments and listened to the arguments for and against and I think I am finally in a position to have a draft opinion.  Not a final one, because that is going to need me to have a lot more direct use of using the software myself.

Is it Pro?

“No, it isn’t” is the most obvious answer but you have to be very careful how you define “Pro”.  FCPX is a Non Linear Editing tool and so the profession or craft you would associate that with is Editors - be that for films or television.  As a collaborative tool it is severely limited.  A situation compounded by Apple both failing to provide a transitional route and killing off FCP7 with almost indecent haste.  Although I don’t fit in this user category myself, I understand their frustration.

However, within the admittedly high walls that limit its functionality, the software is certainly capable of producing professional results.  The ground-up rebuild does mean that the software is capable of professional output in a shorter space of time with less recourse to additional programs or plugins than its predecessor.  With so few plug-ins available thats just as well but that was always going to be the case when 64bit arrived.  I’ll concede that some of that new functionality maybe a bit too “black box” for the purist but there are some exciting things both in FCPX and in Motion 5.

Is it the NLE for the rest of us?

Well, Apple will tell you that is iMovie still.  FCPX is still a step up from there but an easier step than FCP7 used to be.  For someone like myself who is an enthusiast who aspires to professional results then its a very good fit functionally and financially.  I can also see it suiting creative professionals who are not dedicated editors.  

The demand for video content is growing almost exponentially but much of this growth lies outside the realms of traditional post houses.  I think this is the market Apple is gunning for and, if it exceeds, could be very lucrative.  Would Apple forsake the high-end customers for this market.  I think they would...I think they have.  I think they will gamble that the high-end will move or someone else will fill the gap even if they don’t.  I do expect to see FCPX change quite quickly though.  Its the App Store way of doing things.

Choosing a different path

Why bother learning a new paradigm, isn’t it easier just to jump ship and go to Premiere?  I have been using Premiere more over the last year than FCP7.  There have been a couple of reasons for this.  The first is I have been shooting nearly everything on DSLR and Premiere handles DSLR footage much better than FCP7.  I have a Mac Pro with 8 cores, 12GB RAM and a Quadro 4000 and FCP7 runs pretty much the same as it does on the older iMac it replaced.  Only in Premiere did my Mac Pro really fly.  I have been trying to learn After Effects and the integration via Dynamic Link is really cool.  If you are a big user of Photoshop and After Effects then its sort a no brainer.  The major downside is cost.  Most people will buy the Production Premium pack and that is a big chunk of change.  The full version is an order of magnitude more expensive and even the upgrade from 5.0 to 5.5 is dearer.  Even the month-by-month subscription cost is close to the outright cost of FCPX.

Ford Escape Review

OK, I’ll admit this isn’t necessarily in the theme of this blog but it such was an integral part of my trip that it seemed worth recording.  Perhaps if you are planning a similar trip you might find it useful.

I had pre-checkout my Alamo rental on-line.  This was the first time I had done this and it is rather disconcerting process.  Basically, you wave your home printed agreement at the man and he points at a row of cars.  You peruse the row and drive off with your favorite.  Its sort of GTA without the skill element.  The “Ford Escape or Similar” contained just the one Escape and numerous Or Similars from Kia and Jeep.  The Ford seemed the best sized, was well equipped and was the best presented.  The reason for that presentation became evident when I turned it on.  It had done just 4 miles.  I was about to increase that by 50,000%

I don’t really know which version I had for sure as there wasn’t any literature in the car but I am guessing it was the 3.0l Limited model based on the spec and badging.  This is quite high up in the Escape pecking order for a rental car and meant a very nice spec and decent performance.

Interior

It’s hard to judge size in the US because there is just a different sense of scale to UK motors but the Escape seems about Freelander size.  The driving position is pretty good with the usual SUV benefits of good visibily forwards.  The privacy glass on the rear half was almost opaque but this was offset with good mirrors with anti-blindspot inserts.  At first the seats worried me a little.  The were quite flat and hard and my arse was going to be spending a lot of time in them.  However, with a little tweeking of the lumber support, they proved to be good companions on a long run.

There were plenty of cubby holes and pockets for all the rubbish that gathers around you on a long road trip.  As this was me, we were on complete gadget overload with iPhone playing GPS stuck on the window.  A 3D GoPro was stuck on windscreen on the other side while a power monkey USB charged spare batteries for it in the cigarette lighter.  A Solar powered Power Monkey soaked up some rays on the dashboard.  Generally the quality of the materials felt durable but a step behind the european premium marks.

Ergonomics were not a strong suit.  I could afford to block the clock with my solar array because I couldn’t figure out how to change it with no manual.  I viewed the “Powered by Microsoft Sync” sticker on the entertainment system with the suspicion that you would expect from an Apple fanboy.  Sure enough, for a while my iOS devices just sulked only accepting only USB power from their tech nemesis.  After some experimentation I persuaded it work as long as it could chose the songs.  I settled for that as I had been stuck on an 80s channel on Sirius for 2 days and did not want to go back there.  

The hifi sounded excellent when MS Sync and I agreed on the choice and the volume went up.  Maybe years of iDrive or perhaps just age means I could remember or locate all the plethora of buttons reliably.  It did look impressive at night though when al those buttons lit up and this is to someone who had Las Vegas outside the car!

The boot swallowed my two large cases and a big camera bag like they were custom made without obstructing the (insurance essential) parcel cover which was great.  The load floor was pretty high but thats a typical SUV failing but it was a good shape with minimal wheelarch intrusion

On the Road

The roads in the South West test the extremes more than you might expect.  Sure, there are plenty of the stereotypical dead straight two-lane blacktop where you need snooze control.  There is also plenty of mountainous, twisty and distinctly slopey stuff too.  On the US “Loniest Road in America” 50 you get both taking it in turns for 2 days.  The Escape felt distinctly sporty for an SUV - there was little roll and the dampening was well controlled.  This was at the expense of a ride which was pretty hard over rough surfaces.  It was a trade-off I was comfortable with given the size of the drops at the side of the road but then I drive a Beemer on run-flats.  The steering was light, direct and accurate and I am used to the slightly disconnected feel of electric assistance.  When you are winding down the super-twisty roads in Yosemite, trying not to imagine what a Ford Escape looks like bouncing a few thousand feet to the bottom by the most direct route, I only had a couple of criticisms.  The first was the brakes which liked a hefty shove and the second was the gearbox.  You only had the option of drive or low.  Low was pretty much meant for crawling through bogs and was not much use on tarmac.  In Drive, going downhill, high gearing meant zero engine braking.  So you would have to resort to those heavy brakes on the nanostraights between the corners if you didnt want unsettling weight transfer or to trust entirely on Mr Goodyear to keep you from a spectacular end.

The engine was a bit of star feature.  I have driven a fair few rental cars in the US over the years including some sportier options and few have ever felt like they had the power their specs suggested.  Often this was the fault of sleepy autoboxes but, still, few engines have shined.  The Ford V6 in a Mustang Cab of a couple of years back felt and sounded purposefully rumbly at low revs.  Actually try and prod it out of Florida cruise mode though and the noise became louder and much more stressed without generating a great deal more pace.  The gearing on the Escape was still stellar but having 6 of them made a difference especially as the engine loved revs and the gearbox seemed to understand that.  It was perhaps a tad behind a BMW straight 6 on refinement but the equal of anyone else’s V6 I have tried.  A world away from the big but breathless big sixes I have tried in the US before.  I am hoping its bigger brother in the 2011 ‘Stang I have booked for my next trip is equally capable.  From a standing start to highway speed the Escape was very impressive.  Before you judge me as a boy racer, if you are coming out of a photo opportunity turnout and there is a UPS triple trailer bearing down on you its not a good idea to hang around.

At speed the Escape felt stable resisting crosswinds well for something that is essentially square.  There was a fair bit of wind-noise especially until I discovered Alamo had missed some tape strips which should have come off.  At the speed my limit aware GPS would start nagging me, the composure was starting to go but this was mainly down to tyre balance.  It is ever so on rentals, I think they unbalance them deliberately to limit over-enthusiasm.

Overall my Escape was an excellent and capable companion over nearly 2500 miles in just 10 days displaying no new car foibles.  It could do the mile eating job necessary in a US car effortlessly enough but showed decent poise and a surprising sporty nature when the occasion arose.  I am happy that I ignored the Or Similars.

Olympus XZ-1

I have been looking for a high quality compact camera for a while.  The only modern one I own is a Lumix FT1 which is designed as a tough camera.  It's actually not bad sharing a lot of features with the TZ7 which was it's contemporary.  However, it does not have much in the way of manual controls for when things get complicated.  One of the things I wanted the camera to be able to do was be discreet enough to take into concerts.  Many venues ban Pro cameras and looking at the gear in the sin bin it included anything with interchangeable lens or a long looking lens.  This pretty much rules out DSLRs, EVILs and bridge cameras.  I also ruled out the far too serious looking Canon Gs and the Nikon P7000.  This basically left 2 prime candidates the Canon S95 and the Lumix LX5.  These are two very nice cameras with a lot of admirers.  I read the reviews and I wasted a few hours of retailers  time.  The S95 has the edge on portability and zoom range, the Lumix on ultimate quality and lens speed.   I failed to make a decision.

Then along comes the XZ1, borrowing a lot of Pen tech, it's a re-entry into this Market segment by Olympus.  Now despite spending my formative years wielding SLRs from arch rival Pentax, my first real photographic experiences were with my Dads Olympus 35RC rangefinder.  This little gem was capable of some really nice results fed with Kodachrome.  Olympus had continued to serve up decent compact cameras to my family over the years.  I myself had shunned them in the digital era because I needed to support another memory card format like I needed a hole in the head.  So there was still some residual goodwill which made this new compact a contender.  What really attracted me though was the lens -  a Zuiko branded piece of glass boasting a f1.8 aperture.  More importantly it was still an f2.5 even at maximum zoom of it's 28-112mm equivalent range.  By comparison the S95 is a 28-105mm f2-4.9 and the LX5 is a 24-90mm f2-3.3.  It seemed to me that the extra reach and speed of the Olympus would make it ideal for concerts.  I have taken a few test shots which I have posted up here

Generally speaking I have been pleased with it and it's a nice camera to use with its bright, hi-res OLED screen.  There are a couple of issues which I have taken a bit of a gamble on.  The first is the RAW format which just isn’t that well supported yet.  My number 1 wish would be for Aperture to gain support as this is my tool of choice although I do own DXO too for more tricky conversions.  No news on either of these adding support.  I don’t like the Olympus tool so at the moment I am using a beta version of Adobe Camera Raw.  The second issue is video where both the frame rate and codec yield results below its rivals.  MJPEG 720p30 is well supported, which helps on the road but I am already set-up to ingest H264 from DSLRs so I would prefer the better efficiency and higher quality of the Canon Quicktime or Lumix AVCHD.  Low light sensitivity may not be quite on a par but at anything more than full wide that pales into insignificance because of that big Zuiko.  There is no way around it, thats a killer feature which I just can’t resist.

If it really impresses it I might treat it to the EVF (which it shares with the PENs) which is fine thing, if eye-wateringly expensive.  It does make it a damn side more discreet than holding it mid-air whilst illuminating your face for 10 minutes.  "Me, Mr Steward, videoing?  What makes you think that?"