Drones for video.

In the last few years there has been some big changes when it comes to the accessibility and cost of using drones for video. This new and exciting area and aerial videography is making it more accessible to people helping them get amazing aerial shots while not spending a fortune. Small affordable drones are becoming cheaper by the day and what some people are doing with them are truly amazing. In this post we will look at some of the most common drones for video, the technology and how you can utilizing them for your own video productions. Gone are the day where renting a helicopter was the only option for
 getting amazing aerial video.


There are many different drones out there that you can purchase anywhere from a few hundred dollars and to thousands dollars. They vary in size from very small to very large and everything in between. Typically the larger the drone the more it can lift and the less wind will be an issue. However there are some very small drones that do a decent job when paired with a GoPro camera.
Parrot, has small drone that is relatively cheap. It is powerful enough to lift a GoPro Camera. However there are some limitations. The drone can fly up to 6 meters or 20 feet. The average range is about 50 meters or 160 feet. It uses wifi and can be controlled using an iPhone or iPad via the Drone 2.0 App from Parrot.
it can reach a top Speed of 18 km an hour or 11 miles an hour. Has an operational time of roughly 12 minutes with a charging time of 1hr 30mins. It has a lift capability of 250grams. However if you exceed this weight it may become unstable. The new GoPro Hero 3 with battery weighs 74grams. Even adding this much weight o the A.R Drone may cause problems with stability with wind however you can still get some nice shots out of it. As some of the below videos will demonstrate. It will be necessary to do some sort of stabilization in post to smooth out the image however it may be well worth it in the end to get some amazing shots you wouldn't normally get.

The below videos demonstrate what is possible withe AR. Drone and the GoPro when used properly. Some cropping may be necessary to get rid of the rotters.



                GoPro + AR.Drone from Laurent Heideyer on Vimeo.


Here are some more videos using the GoPro with the AR. Drone. You can see how some stabilization filters will be needed in post to deal with the rolling shutter issues.


                        Cap Flight from Bernhard Queisser on Vimeo.





Parrot's AR. Drone is of course very small and inexpensive but is a sign of things to come. For under $300 dollars Canadian you can buy a drone that is capable of lifting a GoPro. I am sure as newer versions come down the line this drone will get even better.

For those who want better quality video, longer range and better stability it will be necessary to look at getting a more professional drone that is capable of carrying a heavier payload and offers better stabilization. There are a number of these drones on the market and some can be purchased for less than a thousand dollars. However many will set you back between $1000-$10000 dollars US. Depending on load capacity, gyro system and stabilization options. Quadcopters and Octocopters offer the best solution for working with larger cameras.

Quadrocopter.com a company based in the US overs some great drones for everything from Gopros to RedScarlets

Small quadrocopters like their DJI Phantom, is capable of lifting a GoPro and can be purchased for $679 US. Here is a video to demonstrate the quality.




Here is the link if you are interested in learning more about the DJI Phantom or interested in picking one up : DJI Phantom All in One Ready to Fly


For those requiring a little bit more horsepower Quadrocopter.com has some more powerful drones capable of lifting DSLRs, Sony FS100s and more. The OktoKopter 2, capable of lifting a DSLR and costs $6,377.00 US. Here is a video to demonstrate the quality.


Mikrokopter Oktokopter2 flight with Canon T2i from GravityShots.com on Vimeo.

You can purchase the Oktokopter and find out more information here: Oktokopter 2 Ready to Fly

In the professional category Quadrocopter.com offers something really exciting. The CineStar 8, a professional drone with a much higher load capacity of 200 grams or 4.41 lbs. This drone can utitlize GPS way point flying to up to 500 meters and offers a flight time of 25 minutes. Check out the video of it action.


Sony CX760 zoom control on Cinestar 8 with 360 stabilization from Quadrocopter on Vimeo.

You can learn more and pick one up here: Cinestar Ready to Fly

Here is a video from their site with a GoPro mounted to the bottom of one of their other drones the Hexakopter:



Here is another video showing one of the Cinestar 8 drones lifting a 5D Mark 3. The results are really amazing you can see how these are quickly replacing helicopters for arial shots for productions do to the cost savings and the accessibility.



This is a video taken using the Cinestar 8 with a FS100. Yet again, great results.




For those of you who are interested in another drone company checkout Turbo Ace they have a variety of drones that can lift GoPros and DSLRs
They specialize in Quadcopters for GoPros and Octocopters for DSLRs. They have a varity of different copters to choose from.

Check out some videos of their drones in action.
















All of these videos above demonstrate the potential for use a variety of video applications. Imagine using these for weddings, corporates, real-estate videos and narrative films. It really is the endless the applications for these drones. I will be updating this post in the future with more exciting drone information as I find it.

Streaming for the Blackmagic Design ATEM Television Studio and the H.264 Pro Recorder.

There is a great software from MX Light  that allows you stream video using Black Magic's ATEM Television Studio and the H.264 Pro Recorder. This software currently only supports use with a PC platform but can be run on MAC using Parallels. As of now it is only for you with the ATEM Television Studio and the H.264 Pro Recorder from Blackmagic.

The ATEM is a great switcher and comes with some powerful software but using Black Magic's Media express software you can only record and not stream. MX Light allows you to do both.

It is currenlty compatible and has presents for: Ustream, LiveStream, Justin.TV, Dailymotion and Wowza.

 Here is a list of the features for the software: MX Light Features

Canon EF mount lenses Compatiblility issues with BMCC

So it appears that the latest firmware update hasn't solved as many issues for aperture control with Canon EF Mount lenses as people would have liked. There was a lot of hope with the firmware 2.1 update that people would have access to aperture control over all their lenses but that doesn't seem to be the case... at least not yet. With more firmware updates I predict this issue to become less and less as more lenses will start to work. Some of the issues being reported are aperture readouts changing but the actual aperture on the lens isn't moving. Below is a list and detailed discussion on what lenses are working and which ones aren't. However you do actually get an aperture read out now so you can see what F Stop you are on which is a much needed feature.

http://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4651&start=50

A list of compatible drives for the Blackmagic Cinema Camera.

Here is a list of compatible SSD drives for the Blackmagic Cinema Camera that BlackmagicDesign recently certified for use with the camera. I am sure that this will be of use to many of you planning to use this camera and were wondering storage options you would have.

Here is the Link: Compatible SSD drives for BMCC

Video Streaming Solutions

Streaming live video online is something that is becoming more and more common. Channels and software like Livestream, Ustream, Youtube, Google's hangouts and Skype makes it possible from us to share video with people across the world. From conferences to broadcasting live on YouTube more and more people are connecting live online. We have had this ability for a few years now but as bandwidth increases and video technology gets better it becomes more easier to produce great video for live streaming on the web.

The most basic way to do this is of course with a webcam but for those of us who want to produce a higher quality video it is necessary to look at a better camera and therefore an interface for getting that live feed into our computer and out to the masses.

Now if your are just plain recording into a computer there are lots of options for that from capture cards to video breakout boxes, however if you want to stream live video on the fly out to the web then rest of this post is for you.

Up until recently this has been a bit of a struggle to find a relatively cheap way to stream live video affordability into a computer and out to the web. In this post we will look at some affordable streaming


Blackmagic Design's H.264 Pro Recorder:


What makes this little box so great is it does on the fly H.264 encoding from either HDMI,
HD-SDI/SDI, Component BNC, Composite BNC and 1/4 jack balanced audio inputs to
 USB 2.0.Now this is great because it gives you any input you could possibly ever want to a port that every
PC or Mac already has, USB 2.0. This is a perfect solution for anyone who wants to stream live video and not worry if they will have all the right connections required to make it happen.

 H.264 encoding is the key to makes this unit so great. H.264 is a standard video compression and is one of the most common formats used for compression, recording and distribution of HD Video. H.264 was originally introduced in 2003 and since has been widely adopted by Internet websites such as YouTube, Vimeo and the iTunes Store. Abobe and Microsoft have adopted it in recent years. It is also becoming more in common in HD and satelitte broadcast as well.

There are lots of software that will do H.264 encoding for you but the Pro Recorder is different because it does all the H.264 encoding in the box allowing you to stream the signal through a single USB.2.0 mini port into your computer.

Some key features include:

-Real time H.264 encoding.
-Can capture from professional decks in SD and HD H.264 files.
-Can record (not stream) to iPad, iPod, iPhone, Apple TV and YouTube file formats automatically.
-Real time scaling and cropping
-RS-422 Deck control
-Batch capture for H.264 files.


Compatibility for streaming live:

LiveStream currently supports the H.264 Pro Recorder: LiveStream H.264 Pro Recorder

MX Light is a great third party program for PC that will allow you to do live streaming from the H.264 Recorder and the Blackmagic ATEM Television Studio: MX Light Streaming software.
It is compatible with LiveStream, Ustream and Justin TV.

Broadcasting is changing as we know it.

Broadcast is changing as we know it. Gone are the days where only big broadcasters in television held the means to reach mass markets across the globe. Now anyone can put a video on YouTube and reach people around the world almost instantly. For people who make their living in the television/media/broadcasting industry this is ever an increasing market with endless possibilities. Anyone in the Freelance or Video Production industry can now bypass the traditional broadcasters and reach potentially millions of viewers around the world. This is a big revolution. In my day to day interaction with production companies I am hearing an ever common theme. Many of them are ditching their previous broadcasting routes and focusing more and more on web distribution. With more video podcasts, webisodes and YouTube channels becoming an increasing way to access information and entertainment  people are getting onboard and there is money to be made as well. Take for example YouTube. The top one thousand channels on YouTube generated almost 90 million social interactions on the site. These interactions spread over onto other sites like Twitter and Facebook. Some of the 1,000 highest preforming channels make some good cash as well, with a average monthly payout for the top channels of $23,000 dollars. However this not the case for all channels and only the very top preforming channels reach these numbers, it does however show what is out there in terms of revenue and viewer potential. Some of the top YouTube channels reaches tens of thousands of people every week with millions of subscribers. Look at the success of channels like Ray William Johnson, Shane Dawson, Epic Meal Time and FPSRussia and it becomes clear that reaching millions of viewers all around the world is now a real possibility. Most of these top channels have been around since day one, are regularly updated and also employ many other people to help with their productions but they all started out has humble channels with a great idea. OpenSlate a company which measures the value of video content for advertisers found that YouTube has over a million channels that run paid ads on them reported YouTube writes cheques annually for more than one million people every month. These numbers are staggering and show you just the potential of this new frontier in Broadcasting. Traditional broadcasting routes are becoming outdated. This is opening the flood gates to millions of creative people who up until a few years ago didn't have a medium to get their ideas and content across. No need for pitches, chasing grants or getting broadcasters to sign off on your content when you can potentially reach millions of people through hosts like YouTube, Ustream and Livestream. At the end of the day what it all comes down to is content. Content is still king. If your idea isn't great or you have nothing to say than no matter how much production value you poor into something, viewers just aren't going to watch. However once the idea is in place it is now easier more than ever to get your video scene by people. It's also getting a lot cheaper as well. Putting a video online can be as easy as buying a webcam or as complex as building the a proper studio and everything in between. Many of the top YouTube channels started out as simple webcams and raised their production value as their viewership grew. For a few thousand dollars it is more than possible to build a home video podcasting studio. Something I will explore further in this blog in the coming posts.

The Speed Booster by Metabones and why it may change the way you shoot video forever.

Recently Metabones announced something that got a lot of attention. It got a lot of attention for good reason, because it seemed to be too good to be true. The "Speed Booster" adpater by Metabones made some big claims. Claims such as being able to make your lenses faster, wider and shaper... yes even sharper. At first there was a lot of skeptism. A lot of people saying "What's the catch?" As more and more test started coming to light there seemed to be less of a catch. The Speed Booster is now looking like it is something that any shooter who wants to expand their F-stop or Focal Length range on their lens kit should have.

So what exactly is the "Speed Booster"?

The Speed Booster is an adapter that allows you to take your standard Full Frame lenses and attach them to smaller APS-C and Micro Four Third mirror-less sensor cameras. However there is a lot more to this than just being an adaptor. This adapter will do a couple of big things for your lenses. The first is that it will reduce your image magnification allowing you to get a 1.09x on any focal length. Almost a full frame field of view on a APS-C sensor. For example a 50mm would now become a 35mm and a 35mm now a 24mm. So on smaller sensor cameras such as the GH2 sensor with a 2x multiplication and the BMCC with a 2.4x multiplication this adaptor will be extremely useful. Also for anyone who wants to increase their focal length of all their lenses this is a must have. So that prime 50mm Canon lens you have currently just also became a 35mm. You can start to see why people are so excited about this adapter. But wait... there's more...

The other big claim is that it will also increases low light performance by about almost a full stop. turning for example an F2.8 into a F2.0. This is great for cameras who's low light sensitivity is minimal or for a slower lens you want to use in lower light. Suddenly shooting with that F2.8 just got a little better when encountering those shots where you wish you could squeeze out a little more light. No more sacrificing image quality by increase ISO or Gain. No more changing shutter speeds and sacrificing motion characteristics to grab a little bit more light out of your lenses. This adapter will help expand your low light capability and future proof some of your lenses for what camera's come out down the road. Also suddenly not having a APS-C or full frame camera doesn't seem like such a big deal.

Now on to the sharpness claim. There is good and bad with this. There can be increase softening in the corners of some lenses with the Speed Booster which is to be expected because we can't have it all. However overall sharpness remains well maintained. The pros far out weight cons when it comes to increased low-light performance and greater field of view on your lenses.

Currently the Speed Booster is available for Canon EF lens to Sony E mount. However Metabone s as confirmed that there will be a MFT mount version coming in March. This should excite many BMCC users and GH2/GH3/AF100 users as well. That large crop factor on the Blackmagic Cinema Camera is something that will benefit more than anything else from the the Speed Booster from Metabones.

Here is a video from Andrew Reid showing just what this adapter can do.


Metabones Speed Booster - FS100 vs 5D Mark III from Andrew Reid on Vimeo.


This link below will help to explain in more detail how the Speed Booster works:

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1181879