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For the past month or so I’ve been a happy owner of the Lensbaby Composer, a shift-tilt lens that is very affordable. I took advantage of their kind offer where they’d send out a free wide-angle adapter with macro lens – they even shipped it for free to Norway. Great packaging, easy to use lens, and fantastic customer service.

I love the macro lens – it lets you get very close to your subjects. But you have to be very careful, as the depth of field is very, very shallow. Here is a little experiment I shot with the Lensbaby:

If there is one thing I would like to see improved on this nifty little lens, it would be the ability to set the f-stop. Right now you have to slide in pre-cut masks to set your aperture.

Found a great paper by Canon on lens theory, which also explains the common terminology used in lens construction. The paper also includes an extensive collection of graphs showing the optical resolution of all Canon lenses, both wide open and at F8.

Great resource if you have a Canon stills camera, or a Red One with the very soon forthcoming Birger mount (video link).

I am just watching a presentation about the Red camera, and here are some observations:

1. The sensor is Super35mm size.
2. The camera body is bigger than it looked like on the photographs. Definitely more than a PD170.
3. Camera is natively progressive. Interlacing can be achieved in post.
4. The digital shutter is programmable. Range up to 360 degrees.
5. ISO rating is between 320 and 500.
6. Camera takes standard V-mount batteries. 90-120 minutes operating time per battery (Red Brick).
7. PL mount, takes any professional lens with a PL mount. Red also makes their own lenses, very aggressively priced. When using S16 lenses, you are limited to 2k resolution.
8. The camera takes 52 seconds to boot. I would imagine this to come down on future firmware upgrades.
9. Camera design is modular. Not only externally, but also within. Which means that when Red comes up with a better sensor, you don’t have to buy a new camera, you just swap out the chip.
10. Join the queue. If you order a camera today, you will get it in about 9 month’s time.
11. Not all feature are yet activated. No sound yet. Wait for a future firmware update. Will have 4 channels.
12. 100 fps @ 2k resolution. Mouth-watering!
13. 2gb per 1 minute of 4k resolution. Which is only 10 times that of DV. Again: impressive.
14. Soon you can edit (in 1k resolution) your 4k material on FCP. In reality this means you can edit straight from the Red media on your laptop.
15. The ProRes codec is so good, no reason ever to use 8- or 10-bit uncompressed.
16. Upcoming feature: Histogram in the viewfinder. This will be great for location shooting.
17. Shooting with the Red camera is closer to shooting film than to shooting HD/video. You don’t expose for a pretty picture, but to get as much detail out of the picture as possible – to keep the option open in post production. This is comparable to shooting in RAW mode on a digital SLR camera.
18. Camera has also a ‘False Colo(u)r mode’, which shows you clipping that would occur at the current T-stop setting.
19. The software to transfer the video data to your editing system is – at this point – Intel Mac only. But soon they will have a more elegant version out, which will run both on Mac and PC.
20. Scratch, a high-end programme for Color Correction is directly supporting RedCode Raw. Color Grading in real time, with 1k or 2k preview.
21. The Mill (Oscar winning post production company) compared side-by-side 35mm and Red 4K, and were blown away.
22. Red is a disruptive technology. Many people do not want this camera to work.
23. Red reminds one of the early Apple. People working there seem to actually have fun creating something new.
24. At least 5 major feature films are currently shooting with Red cameras.
25. The Red camera in hand-held mode weighs about 18 pounds (9 kilos).
26. The EVF is not yet ready.
27. The Red Camera is a passion product.
28. Why is the camera so cheap? They aim for quality and volume.

Over the years I have tried a couple of different hosts. Last year I briefly gave one.com a try, but found their services too restrictive and moved the one web site I had with them (they only allow one) to my favourite host. So I was surprised when I received an invoice for my upcoming renewal for my hosting plan at one.com. I sent a friendly e-mail explaining that I have stopped using their services a long time ago, and that I had moved the domain name as well. One.com replied that I had to pay anyway, even though my account was now closed – because you have to terminate your account 45 friggin’ days before the renewal date. That’s like half a digital year. Obviously that clause is there for the sole purpose of extracting money from disgruntled customers.

Well, it served its purpose. I paid the bill, and I am now an (annoyed, bad-tempered, beefing, bellyaching, cranky, critical, disappointed, discontent, discontented, displeased, dissatisfied, griping, grouchy, grousing, grumpy, irritable, irritated, kicking, kvetching, malcontent, malcontented, peeved, peevish, petulant, put out, sulky, sullen, testy, uncontent, ungratified, vexed) ex-customer. Now effectively I had to pay 24 months for a service I used maybe two of.

One.com is neither the cheapest, the fastest, the friendliest, the most open, most flexible hosting provider out there. I for one (sorry for the cheap pun) recommend Media Temple.

For Norwegian google users: Ikke bruk one.com; one.com suger.

Gems from the Web:

• Checking the back focus – A brief explanation alongside a printable siemens star for easy back focus calibration.
• ISO 12233 Test Chart – Resolution test chart for HD
• Video Resolution Test Patterns – Nice collection of downloadable test patterns for video cameras
• bartek:bargiel : iGTD – Freeware organizer for the Mac
• MacUser: Want to download YouTube videos? Kiss them – Simple way of downloading YouTube videos that are worth keeping
• MacUser: 10.4.9 brings new phone sync compatability – …but my p990i – the so-called top-of-the-line phone from Sony Ericsson – still does not sync.