Showing posts with label Washington DC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Washington DC. Show all posts

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Multiple Monitors with the 5DMkII

One of the big issues with DSLRs is monitoring and the 5DMkII is especially awkward. Not only do you have to deal with HDMI, which can be a pain to split, you also have to deal with the signal dropping to 480p when you hit record. We bought the AJA HA5 thinking that we’d be able to send HD-SDI to our Panasonic HD-LCD monitors only to find that the device can’t handle 480p and, after talking to AJA at NAB, it doesn’t sound like this is an issue that can be resolved via a firmware update. That leaves the unit from BlackMagic as the only option.

Until yesterday. Ladies and gentlemen, the HDFury2:

The HDFury2 takes the HDMI ouput from the Canon 5DMkII and converts it, while keeping all the high def goodness, to a component HD signal. That can then be split out, using T-Adapters available at Radioshack, and the signal can then be sent to 2 monitors, one for the DP and one for the client/director. The HDFury2 comes with a power supply but I diodn’t have any issues at all not powering the unit — instead, it took power over the HDMI connection. That might drain your batteries, though, so make sure you have spares or a charging station.

The HDFury2 works with both the 5DMkII and the 7D so it should work with the 1DMkIV although I don’t have access to one to test that out. Another nice feature of the HDFury2 is the ability to monitor audio, either analog or digital optical — there’s a multi-port on the bottom of the unit that allows for either a 3.5mm jack to be plugged in or a Toslink cable. Finally, the unit can be switched between RGB or YUV, so you’ve got all the options you could ever want.

Is this is solution to monitoring? Probably not. One thing I learned at NAB is that there are a TON of manufacturers working on DSLR solutions to there will probably be something bigger, better and more ready for the field in the future. But for $200? I haven’t seen anything else like it.

You can buy the HDFury2 from Curt Palme. The version we bought was the GREEN kit, although we actually don’t need the 5 BNC cable that comes with it as the regular RGB cable it comes with is all we’re using. You’ll then need some T-Adapters and RCA:BNC adapters. All in, you should be dropping about $220 for the ability to monitor the video from your Canon DSLR to two professional monitors.

Chris Cardno

Production Manager

Friday, April 9, 2010

Behind the Scenes: 5D MkII shoot

On Wednesday, April 7, Bruce and Chris headed out on a shoot for a client to capture footage of three statues in Washington, DC. The client had requested the Canon 5DMkII as the camera for the project and we shot in 24p, taking advantage of the recent firmware update from Canon. We took a decent number of lenses with us and a new toy, picked up the client at Union Station in DC and then headed out to start the day.

The problem most people are aware of with the 5D is it’s inability to deliver an HD signal via it’s HDMI output when recording begins. As such, we chose to simply take the standard def output from the camera and fed that into a Panasonic BT-LH900 HD monitor — the Hoodman was an absolute must have with the sun beating down on us! The monitor also allowed our client to see what we were shooting and offer input so that they got exactly what they wanted.

We were also playing with a new toy — the 3′ Shot Shifter from Bright Devices. It’s a slider dolly that utilizes your tripod as the base and then your fluid head screws into the bowl adapter on top. Regular light stands are then used as support under the ends, allowing for a smooth move all the way through. Quite bluntly, this was THE tool for the job. It allowed us to get moves on the statues we were shooting without the time and hassle of setting up dolly and track and also gave us a much smaller footprint which, in downtown DC, is absolutely key. And although we were using it with a DSLR, the Shot Shifter is rated for larger cameras so can be used with a Varicam, CineAlta, or any 2/3″ system. Brilliant. There’s also a 22″ version for interviews, allowing the operator to perform subtle moves with the interview subject, and the mondo 5′ version.

Here’s the complete list of the gear that we used on the shoot:

  • Canon 5DMkII DSLR – we love this camera.
  • Canon L-series 50mm 1.2 – beautiful, beautiful lens.
  • Canon L-series 16-35mm 2.8 – a fantastic wide lens.
  • Nikon 85mm 1.4 – one of our cine-modified primes from RP Lenses.
  • Nikon 135mm 2.0 – again, cine-modified from RP Lenses.
  • Nikon 70-200mm 2.8 – we borrowed this lens for the shoot and we’re still dreaming about it, just gorgeous.
  • Zacuto Z-Finder, follow focus, DSLR plate, Z-American arm and lens gears – there isn’t anyone making better quality accessories out there at this time and the Z-Finder is essential. Again: ESSENTIAL.
  • Chrosziel 5×5 mattebox with the Zacuto flexible donut – shooting in the sun with a fast lens and camera made it imperative for ND filters in front of the glass, along with the requisite Polarizer.
  • LightCraft Fader ND – screws right on the front of the 50mm lens and allows for very easy adjustments to the amount of ND filtration you need.

The shoot was a success, the client left happy and we sent them a hard drive with all the raw footage via FedEx the next day, after we brought it back to Visual Edge and made a back up copy.

The emergence of DSLR film-making has really been a stunning development in this industry and we’re thrilled to be a part of it. For more information feel free to give us a call at 301/530-8210 or email us at info@visualedge.tv

Friday, January 8, 2010

Justice Department video

Embedded below (original page here) is a video that Bruce shot for the Department of Justice:



The interviews were shot with the Panasonic HPX2000, Letus Ultimate with B4 Relay lens and our Nikon primes. Much of the b-roll was shot using our Fujinon 13x4.5. We shot AVC-Intra 100 in 1080/30, transferred to a Lacie Rugged drive on location and handed the footage off to the client. They actually cut a few spots out of the two days of shooting:







Hope you enjoyed the pieces -- if you're interested in renting any of the gear mentioned please do click on over to www.visualedge.tv.
Chris Cardno
Production Manager
Visual Edge Productions

Friday, August 7, 2009

HPX2000 and the Letus DoF System

Panasonic HPX2000 with the Letus Ultimate and 2/3" B4 Comact Relay Lens from Chris Cardno on Vimeo.

Here's a link for those of you with mobile devices to watch the above footage.

This is a short film to show the image difference between when using a depth of field system with a 2/3" HD camera. The footage above was shot with a Panasonic HPX2000 P2 camcorder in DVCProHD record mode and shooting at 720/24p. We used the Letus Ultimate and B4 compact relay lens with our Nikon prime lenses and we're comparing that to a Fujinon 16x6.3 HD ENG lens.

No scene files were loaded into the HPX2000 and no color correction has been done. This is the raw footage from the camera transferred to Final Cut Pro, edited and output to a H.264 Quicktime file which was then uploaded and encoded on Vimeo -- to see the file in HD please click on the link in the video window.

For more information please go to www.visualedge.tv.

Friday, May 29, 2009

Hands up if this has happened to you...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2a8TRSgzZY

Busy day yesterday

For those of you who are following us on Twitter (if not, why not? Follow us here) you would have seen the image below posted yesterday:
Bruce was working at the National Spelling Bee for the past four days, shooting coverage of the kids going out and doing activities and also was with Erin Andrews during the prime time broadcast last night.

While Bruce was learning how to spell 'omphaloskepsis' (which is the contemplation of one's navel as part of a mystical exercise, don't you know...) Gonzo was over at NIH with a pair of HDX900s finishing up a multi-day shoot.
The lad in the flat cap behind our favorite Peruvian is Don Aros, local DC gaffer and curry aficionado. We had the HDX900 tricked out with the Letus Ultimate and B4 relay lens, our Nikon prime lenses modified by RP Lenses, and a lots of fun Zacuto toys.
The shoot went well, although I was disappointed to learn that I would have to be on camera for some of the shoot. Worse, the client wanted some footage of someone getting a shot. I'd post pictures or footage but I'd hidden the Flip camera by that point to make sure my astounding acting abilities never see the light of day. Having said that, when confronted with a needle the look of pure panic and green tint on my face rivals the best work DeNiro, Pacino and Brando have ever done. COMBINED.
Chris Cardno
Visual Edge Productions

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

RED...

I feel that the Jaws theme music should be playing with a title like that. Still, on with the update!

Last week we worked on a project with producer Dave Ogden of Metamedia Inc. The shoot was distinguished by it being our first time working with the RED One camera.

The RED package is owned by Nate Clapp of Nomad Productions in DC and Nate came out for the shoot as well. For those of you not keeping up with all these fun cameras and formats, the RED is a camera that gives you 35mm depth of field and records at 4K resolution. What does this mean? It makes purdy pictures real good.
The package is not what you'd call inconsequential -- Nate had to take the unit apart to make it comfortable for the hanfheld work that Dave was looking to do and even stripped down the weight is still north of 30lbs. As Bruce said after the shoot was done: "It's like...a yacht. There's always another piece to get, something else to add on."

Still, the shoot was a success and the experience was worthwhile. Is it a camera for all projects? No, it's a lot of image and a workflow for those with the correct resources. However, it does give you the best image possible in a digital world before you get into the motion picture Sony and Panasonic cameras. Here's an example of how the image stands up:

Friday, May 8, 2009

Shooting with The Colbert Report

We do get some really fun jobs here every so often...

:-)

We'll post a location report early next week and let everyone know when the piece is going to air.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Learning something new every day

I don't think it's a newsflash to anyone that works in production that there's always something new to learn. Formats keep changing, there are dozens of cameras to keep straight and the menus...good grief, the menus.

But quite apart from the technical aspects of this industry there are always other things that one can learn. Having been out on location for the past couple of days (yes, I was set free from the office) I now know the following:

Big buildings are not as close as they appear.
Case in point: the distance between the Capitol and Union Station in DC. Looks like it should be a quick walk. Here's a map. Should be a piece of cake. 15 minutes of slogging to get to the New Jersey entrance of the Capitol turns that notion on it's head. And brings us to our next lesson of the day...

Always take a handcart to lug gear around.
So I was showing up this morning with a Panasonic HDX900 with a 16x6.3 HD lens on it and then a bag of assorted audio, video and power cables. Being an office wonk it never even crossed my mind that carrying that amount of gear a short distance (wrong...see above) might get really uncomfortable. When you're mentally working out the weight as you're walking, pretending that the shoulder strap isn't cutting your blood supply off to your arm and taking a real long look at crosswalks to catch your breath, er, make sure the road is clear you know that wheels are an essential item. Which segues nicely into...

Don't ever assume someone else will have the bits and pieces you'll need.
I'm never showing up anywhere ever again without the following pieces of kit:
  • 25' Stinger
  • Triple tap
  • Ground lifter
  • Set of screwdrivers
  • Gaffer tape
  • (2) XLRs
  • (2) BNCs
  • BNC coupler, splitter and BNC:RCA adapter
  • Wheels
By the way, "anywhere ever again" includes ball games, house parties and baptisms. You just never know when you'll need to run power and make sure the cable's safe for pedestrian traffic.

Finally...

The hours suck in this business.
I had a 7am call time this morning. It's around 20 miles from my house to Union Station, so that's roughly 40 minutes of driving. I figured I needed to be wheels up at 6am, so that meant a 5:20am wake-up to make myself presentable. When you take into account that I'm more comfortable seeing 5:20 in the morning from the other side...well, let's just say that Starbucks was my friend a few times during the course of the day today. And I was off-set and done by 11am! Gonzo and the crew with him on the shoot for a WebMD on Monday had a 7am call in Baltimore and they didn't leave location until gone 10pm. And then he got up Tuesday and pulled another 11 hour day.

All in all, I think it would be good for anyone who wants to go into production to go out and have a couple of days like I've had this week. You'll realize that the problems you don't run into on location are because the crew has done it's homework, prepped accordingly and anticipated issues. You'll have a little more sympathy for the guys getting into the building five minutes late after having to haul carts of gear from the loading dock, through security and then go and park their vehicles. And you'll know not to wonder why they aren't jumping up and down with excitement at your project -- it's nothing personal, it's because the pre-dawn call time you gave them is their third that week.

Chris Cardno
Production Manager
Visual Edge Productions

Friday, April 24, 2009

Footage from the HPX2000 using the Letus depth of field system


Letus depth of field system with the HPX2000 from Chris Cardno on Vimeo.

Here's a quick glimpse of footage captured using the Letus depth of field system on the Panasonic HPX2000.  We've got the 2000 is 720/24p and we're encoding to DVCProHD on the P2 card.  The Letus B4 relay lens is attached to the Letus Ultimate and we've got our modified 85mm Nikon prime on the front.  The rigging and follow focus (seen in the stills in our last post) are from Zacuto, who gave us a very nice shout out on Twitter today -- thanks, guys!

The Coke Zero can is 3' from the film plane, the Dust Off is 5' away and the Christmas lights are 6'+ from the film plane.

This is going to be a LOT of fun!

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Letus relay lens is here

Above you can see the new Letus relay lens working with the Panasonic HPX2000.
Above you'll see a closer shot.
And another close up from a different angle.

Isn't it exciting? :-)

We've got our modified Nikon 50mm lens on the front of the Ultimate and, of course, the good folks at Zacuto make the best custom gear on the planet so we have that in play as well.

You're probably wondering where the footage is showing the gear in action -- we're working on it, I think we'll have some tomorrow. In the meantime, here's a shot of a monitor!
Moving images coming soon...

Thursday, April 16, 2009

All the "marvelous nonsense"

Dealing with video cameras today reminds me of watching Ghostbusters with my Gran. As Dan Ackroyd's Ray Stantz instructs Ernie Hudson's Winston Zeddmore on the correct way to clean a trap after a catching a ghost my Gran laughingly said, "That is some marvelous nonsense they're talking in this film."

23.98, 24p, 30p, 60i, 720o, 1080i, DVCPro, HDCAM, Red, HDV, down-converting, 4x3, 16x9, P2, XDCAM, 4:2:2, long GOP, intra-frame...

Marvelous nonsense for most people. And it's only going to get worse as formats adapt and we move into newer technologies. For those in the field it's becoming increasingly difficult to get to the root of what a client wants. For those who rent cameras it's a series of phone calls and last minute double checks that the camera that is going out will shoot the format, frame rate and frequency that the client needs.

Here's a popular scenario. A producer calls and says they have an upcoming shoot. They want to shoot with a 900. First question: which 900? SDX900, HDX900, F-900? It should be simple to narrow it down to high definition or standard definition, but that leaves you having to explain the differences between Sony's F-900 and Panasonic's HDX900. Which, in turn, leads to a discussion of the post capabilities: can your edit facility deal with HDCAM or DVCProHD? Once that's done the frame rate will come up. And that's yet another round of discussions.

I knew a professor in college who, at the beginning of an exam, would write four letters on the chalkboard: RTFQ. Read The Fricking Question. Or words to that effect. In production today, with a constantly shifting set of acquisition formats and broadcast standards, the letters need to be updated: ATFQ. Ask The Fricking Questions. Yeah, it gets old but dragging out a phone conversation before the shoot is a heck of a lot better than a phone call after the shoot from a producer or editor freaking out that they can't play back or ingest what you shot for them.

As tapeless begins to get a foothold in the industry (and that's a whole other topic...) the questions are going to become more labyrinthine. Which codec are we shooting in, can your post house deal with a Mac formatted hard drive, are you BRINGING a hard drive, all of these issues are going to rear their head and all of them need to be addressed before the shoot begins.

So, what to make of all of this? In my opinion it is now imperative that the entire production process become a fluid whole as opposed to a simple breakdown between pre-production, production and post-production. The DP for a project needs to be aware of the post-production capabilities, the editor needs to understand the creative reason for a particular format or frame rate, and the production company needs to make sure that everyone is on the same page. This then makes life a lot easier when the project needs to pick up gear in other markets or when a different operator has to sub in for the lead DP -- everyone is educated, informed and able to clearly state what the production needs are. That's how to cut through all the tech speak and "marvelous nonsense."

At least until the next format arrives.

Monday, April 6, 2009

Review: Panasonic AG-HPG20 'P2 Portable'

We've had the new P2 Portable in-house for just over a week now and, while we're still running some tests to see exactly what it can do, it appears that it's going to be a very useful addition to the Visual Edge inventory.
For the camera owner, the P2 Portable offers the ability to make your production a P2 based experience, and improve the quality of the captured image, while using the camera you already own. Connecting via HD/SD-SDI the HPG20 can be mounted to the back of a 2/3" camera or can sit independently. The P2 Portable will then take your 1080 or 720 signal and can encode it to AVC-Intra 100, AVC-Intra 50 or DVCProHD. If you're outputting an SD-SDI signal from your camera (NTSC or PAL) you can choose to encode to DVCPro50, DVCPro25 or DV.

The 3.5" LCD monitor gives you or your producer a live view of what's being shot and also enable clip viewing for playback. An external HD or SD monitor can be connected via the built in HD/SD-SDI or composite video outputs and the P2 Portable has both a built in speaker and RCA audio outputs. Waveform and Vectorscope are included and can be used with both the incoming signal and the recorded ones.At the end of the shoot the HPG20 can directly connect to a hard drive and transfer your footage with verification. A large improvement over the previous model is the P2 Portable's ability to play back the files DIRECTLY from the hard drive and display them on either the onboard monitor or an external HD monitor. In addition, it's easy to name each card, or even shot, that you transfer to the drive which makes for a more streamlined post-production process. Finally, the HPG20 gives you the ability to edit and load metadata and text notes, enabling the post-house to identify the camera, shooter, location, etc.

The HPG20 offers other features, although they appear to be of limited use in the field. The HD/SD-SDI output is a welcome addition for monitoring but the down/up/cross-conversion functions are only accessible through that port -- as such, it is not possible to to shoot in 720p and then output 1080i to your client's hard drive without the use of a "black box." The included Firewire 400 port does not allow transfer of AVC-Intra encoded footage and cannot be used for data transfer to a hard drive. You can, however, stream directly for recording through Firewire which, in essence, makes the HPG20 a more stable and versatile version of the Firestore.
The biggest problem with the HPG20 is the time it takes to transfer directly to a hard drive: it's abysmally slow. Switching verification off results in a nearly 60% improvement in transfer time although it is still slower then using the Duel Adapter with a Mac Book Pro and a hard drive attached through Firewire 800. Using the HPG20, with verification on, to transfer a 16GB card via USB 2.0 to a LaCie 250GB Rugged drive took 30 minutes and 47 seconds. That's nearly twice as long as the total recorded time on the card and you can bet I'm glad I didn't test this with a 32GB card. Without verification the transfer time was 12 minutes and 38 seconds. Using a Duel Adapter, Shotput P2, a Mac Book Pro and the LaCie on Firewire 800? 8 minutes and 10 seconds.

Overall, the P2 Portable is going to be excellent for tape-based Panasonic camera owners who want to extend the life of their camera and expand the services they can offer their clients. The awful data transfer time is a real problem that needs to be addressed by Panasonic going forward, but just having the ability to transfer footage in the field and play back that footage without needing a laptop is a very welcome feature.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

A busy Thursday

Bruce is out shooting at the Veteran's Administration, Gonzo's shooting at the Bolger Center in Bethesda for the IRS, Carolyn is making steady progress through all the paperwork and invoicing and Chris is digitizing the HD footage Gonzo shot over the weekend and making DVD clones.

Working on a job that came through the lovely ladies at Maslow Media, Bruce is shooting with the Panasonic SDX900 at the VA and, as always, is being ably assisted by Michael Coleman.
Well, he would be ably assisting if he weren't taking photos with the iPhone and sending them here to Visual Edge HQ...

Gonzo has the Sony DXC-D50 with him and is shooting DVCAM on a job that came through the equally lovely ladies at Crews Control. I'd post some photos, but he and audio tech Rob Shire got there at 6:30am this morning and have somewhere in the region of 15 interviews to complete today. As you might imagine, they don't have a lot of time for blogging right now.

We'll be posting some footage in the next couple of days showing off the new prime lenses we have in-house. Using them with the Letus Ultimate we'll have some footage from both the Sony EX3 and the Panasonic HVX200. Stay tuned...

Monday, March 23, 2009

Live Blog! Kinda...

So, Bruce is out shooting right now with the Panasonic Varicam for ESPN. The job came through Jill Woo at EyeMagic (who is enjoying the sights, sounds and, more than likely, the wine in Florence...) and Bruce is shooting b-roll for the upcoming NCAA hockey finals.
They are currently at the Air and Space Museum, as you might be able to tell from the pictures above and below. The other fellow in the shot is ESPN producer Jim Reed. We'll be updating throughout the shoot with photos, courtesy of our roving photographer, Michael Coleman. It's really quite amazing what he can do with an iPhone...

Well, they've moved on to the Capitol now. The green screen is to matte in elements when they throw to commercial breaks or sponsorships. Bruce has the portable jib working in the shot below.
We do have to thank the National Park Service and the DC Film Office for their help with permitting for this shoot. So...thanks!

The crew's at dinner right now but then they're heading to the White House. Can you feel the excitement?

It's Bruce Liffiton at the White House!
As you can see, they're still shooting -- it's currently 8:52pm EST. I'm not sure what's worse: the fact that I think this is cool or the fact that I have nothing better to do right now. Either way, I think it probably speaks to a sad and empty life.
Due to the Secret Service's very understandable refusal to allow generators on Pennsylvania Avenue, and our reluctance to wander down that particular street with a bulky belt on, Bruce is using the 1x1 Litepanel to light the green screen. The unit is powered by an Anton Bauer Dionic battery on the back -- it's really quite a fantastic piece of kit.
And that's a wrap, ladies and gentlemen.
10:36pm and the crew is done for the night. Thanks for staying with us, BIG thanks to Michael Coleman for the shots from location and I hope y'all enjoyed the updates. Come back soon and check out www.visualedge.tv for all the gear mentioned here tonight.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

UPDATED: New gear and meeting the new resident of 1600 Pennsylvania

First of all, Happy St. Patrick's Day to one and all. Visual Edge had a couple of interesting things happen today -- we received our new set of 35mm prime lenses and Bruce got to meet President Barack Obama. Any objections if we start with the meeting of the 44th President of the USA?

Bruce was booked through Eyemagic to work on an ESPN shoot at the White House. Shooting with Ken Woo, Bruce took along our Panasonic Varicam and they proceeded to shoot a piece with President Obama as he filled out his bracket for the 2009 NCAA men's basketball tournament. Yes, the madness has reached the White House. Please, no obvious jokes...
The segment is due to air March 18 at noon on SportsCenter on ESPN and we'll either embed or throw a link to the piece once it goes live on ESPN.com. By the way, Bruce says the President was very nice, shook everybody's hand and there is a photo with him and the crew -- if they send it to us we'll put it up.

The other good news today was receiving our 35mm prime lens set. The four lenses (24mm, 35mm, 50mm and 85mm) are modified 35mm still lenses with 32 pitch gears added, an 80mm front pressed on for use with matteboxes and the click-stops removed. They can be used with any DoF adapter, such as the Letus Ultimate we already own, and will also work when we get the B4 relay lens in-house. Peter at RP Lenses - www.rplens.com - put the package together for us and we're looking forward to putting them through their paces over the next couple of days. We'll post a review and some images in the near future.

UPDATE: As promised, here's the shoot with President Obama as he picks his bracket for the NCAA tourney...

Saturday, March 14, 2009

What's 32 degrees, damp and dark?


The scene outside the Treasury Department last night, that's what. While most sensible people were catching up on their DVR shows or knocking back a few in their favorite bar, we were out shooting host segments, wraps and bumps for a Fox News documentary.

We were joined by an excellent crew and two very nice people from Fox, producer Rachel Feldman and host Bret Baier. Despite the cold, the light rain that lasted until 8pm, every plane ever made taking off from National Airport, a horse and carriage with jingling bells (seriously, who's taking a carriage ride in DC in March?!) and a fair few people who thought it was funny to yell "Woo-hoo!" as we were rolling...we got the job done.We shot with our Panasonic HDX900 and the camera was mounted on a Jimmy Jib provided by Cocklin Film & Video. Light and grip was provided by Annapolis Mobile Power, Potomac Light and Grip and the Washington Source and the teleprompter system came from Telescript DC. As for the crew, we had Don Aros, Kenny Harris and Patrick McAllister in lighting; Steve and Anne Cocklin with the jib; Ethan Spencer running the 'prompter; Michael Coleman providing audio and iPhone trivia; Chris Cardno as on-site Production Manager and foot traffic wrangler; and Bruce Liffiton as Director of Photography.

The show airs tonight (March 14, 2009) at 6pm on Fox News Channel so if you have a chance to check it out please do so. Now, if you'll excuse us, we're going to go and warm up.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

It's our first time. Be gentle.

Welcome to the Visual Edge Productions blog. Actually, this is going to be more of a news site, giving us the chance to post photos, videos and stories about the shoots we've been involved in and the gear that we have in-house. If you'd like to see what we have, please head to our main site at www.visualedge.tv and you can check out the gear, download manuals and build the camera package you need for your upcoming project.

In a nod to the conventions of most blogs there will be some funny/lame YouTube videos posted at some point but we promise to keep them few and far between. Unless it's chimps in suits. That's always funny.

So, what are we up to at the moment? We're prepping for a shoot for Fox News that will take place outside the US Department of the Treasury, so if you happen to be wandering near the White House tomorrow feel free to stop by and say hi. We're also working with the good folks at WebMD this weekend for one of their webcasts and then next week...well, it's not confirmed yet but it should be one of the cooler projects we've worked on in quite some time.

There are some new additions to the Visual Edge inventory. We now own the Letus Ultimate depth of field adapter, which allows the use of 35mm lenses on boTh the Panasonic HVX200 and the Sony EX3. We also just bought a 64GB P2 card for the HVX200 and HPX2000, giving extended record times and reducing the need for frequent data transfers in the field. Call or email us for further information.

That's it for now but we're planning on updating this pretty regularly so check back when you can and we'll see what cool stuff we can find for you.