Primitive But Effective

Notes on Gopro Hero HD with a Parrot AR Drone

2012-01-01T07:52:00.007-05:00

The difficulty with mounting an Hero HD on the AR Drone has to do with keeping the center of gravity. I tried mounting on the the nose, but it was so front heavy it tended to crash after a 'Too Much Angle Emergency'. I read some modification threads with counter weights but was warned of pendulum problems. Mounting it on top of the battery's velcro kept the center of gravity but made the rotors visible. The trick was to raise the camera high enough. After some experimentation I've found that the Hero HD bottom needs has to be abour 14.5cm from the Drone body in 720p mode. At 14cm you could still see the tips of the rotors a bit.

I've managed to crash the Drone a few times and it survived along with the Hero HD. That was until the first live shoot, my brilliant mounting system was lost its velcro and leaned right. This caused the Drone to drift right in a hover. It hit a wall and caused an auto cutoff. The Camera and Drone fell eight feet. The Camera lost the part of the long sequence after the battery flew out. I would have lost more if I hadn't copied the raw unindexed footage first before attempting the SOS recovery. Needless to say it still works. As for the Drone, it broke one of the gears which needs replacement, it won't fly for a while.

Above mount tended to pendulum.

This mount achieved level flight. The tricky part was keeping it balanced and attached to the body. Also no protection to the rotors.

Lessons Learned:
Outdoor mode and Outdoor Hull makes the drone finicky even without the wind. Don't use it.
Watch the balance of the mount.
Prepare some spare parts so your shoot doesn't get interrupted.

Spare parts you may need after a crash.

1. Spare Gear
2. Spare Rotor
3. Spare Cross Piece

Equipment used

Lenovo W520 for Sony Vegas Pro 10 and Adobe After Effects CS5 - Part 6

2011-05-25T10:52:00.010-04:00

Laptop vs Desktop
After getting my plug-ins, codecs, fonts and little nick-nacks synchronized I was ready to do some test renders. To compare my desktop and new laptop I used a recent project that I edited using Sony Vegas Pro 10 and Adobe After Effect CS5. The results surprised me.

	Desktop	Laptop
Manufacturer	Hewlett-Packard	Lenovo
Model	HPE-380t	W520
CPU	Core i7 930 Cores: 4 Clock: 2.8 Ghz Max Turbo: 3.06 Ghz Cache: 8 MB	Core i7-2720QM Cores: 4 Clock: 2.2 Ghz Max Turbo: 3.3 Ghz Cache: 6 MB
RAM	24GB DDR3-1066 CL 7-7-7-20 Triple Channel	16GB DDR3-1333 CL 9-9-9-24 Dual Channel
Graphics Adapter	Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 CUDA Cores: 192 Graphics Clock: 576 Mhz Shader Speed: 1242 Mhz Memory: 1792 MB GDDR3 Memory Interface: 448-bit	Nvidia Quadro 2000M CUDA Cores: 192 Graphics Clock: 550Mhz Shader Speed: 1100 Mhz Memory: 2048 MB DDR3 Memory Interface: 128-bit
Chipset	Intel X58 + ICH10R	Intel QM67
Primary Drive	WD 3.5" 7200rpm WDC WD1001FAES-60Z2A0 1000.2 GB	Intel 310 SSD SSDMAEMC080G2 80.0 GB
Secondary Drive	Seagate Barracuda 3.5" 7200rpm ST31000340AS 1002.2 GB	Seagate Momentus 2.5" 7200rpm ST9500420AS 500.1GB

The Desktop which was purchased around August 2010 as a custom configured system is the baseline for this comparison. Its WEI is 5.9 overall with 7.5 processor, 7.5 RAM, 7.1 Graphics, 7.1 Gaming Graphics and 5.9 Primary Hard Disk. The Laptop was purchased in May 2011. It's WEI when Optimus is 4.8 overall with 7.5 Processor, 7.5 RAM, 4.8 Graphics, 4.8 Gaming Graphics and 7.7 Primary Hard Disk. The WEI increases to an overall 6.9 when Discrete Graphics is switched in the BIOS. The test was done in Optimus mode because I hadn't read the threads in NBR about stability yet.

The HPE-380t was upgraded recently with an NEC USB 3.0 PCI x1 card. It shows up as a Renesas USB Host Controller which is also what appears on the W520's system information.

	Drive	Interface
Operating System	Primary Drive	SATA 3.0
Target Disk	Secondary Drive	SATA 3.0
Project Files	Seagate Barracuda LP 3.5" 5900RPM ST32000542AS 2000.3 GB	e-SATA on Thermaltake BlacX Duet (single-drive on HDD1)
Additional Media	Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Ultra Portable 5400rpm ST1500LM003-9YH148 1500.3 GB	GoFlex on USB 3.0

The Operating System contains Windows 7 Professional and applications. In the case of the W520 some executables were also stored in the Target Disk but those were not invoked for this test. The Target Disk is where I render the final output.
Project Media drive has most of the video clips, images and voice overs used for render. Additional Media contains Action Essentials 720p, Sony Motion Picture SFX and Stock20 music which I use across projects.

The same external drives were attached to e-SATA and USB 3.0 respectively. These external drives are the slower "Green" or portable versions which may limit the I/O speed somewhat. But this isn't an artificial test, I actually do store my media and work this way. It's not as optimized as a full-on RAID configuration but it is what it is. Also note that the BlacX only had one drive installed. I learned that the QM67 did not support port-multiplier so only one disk can be seen in the Disk 1 slot.

Sony Vegas Pro 10d Comparison 64-bit
I took a finished project, GoMilsim Evolution 9, and re-rendered it. The video was 08:21 long with some pre-rendered elements using a mix of 1080p and 720 clips in various formats. NeoScene was installed on the Desktop while NeoPlayer was on the Laptop. The Cineform license required disabling and reactivating when moving between computers but I didn't feel like doing it. Sorry.

Tracks
2 Overlay Tracks with Text and Video
1 Main Video Track with JPEG, WMV, AVI-Cineform 720p 24fps, and MOV-Canon 7D 1080 24fps clips of mixed resolution/frame rate
3 Audio tracks

Operations
Resize from 1080p to 720p
Bit Rate Conversion
Pan/Zoom
Color Corrector
Transitions
Audio Envelopes

Render output used codec Sony AVC/MVC with 1280x720 resolution at rate 4,000,000 Mbps. This codec had options for CPU only and CUDA when available.

	Desktop	Laptop
Sony AVC-CPU only	22 Minutes 55 Seconds	21 Minutes 31 Seconds
Sony AVC-GPU if available	25 Minutes 11 Seconds	23 Minutes 55 Seconds

Oh my! The results were not expected. Not only did GPU acceleration take longer to render, this year's Laptop outperformed the Desktop. Just because GPU is used doesn't really mean it will be faster. What it does allow is for the CPU to do other work while render is in progress. Effects and transitions may not benefit from GPU acceleration depending on how they are programmed. Observing the CPU utilization, it seems to me that resize from 1080p to 720p and text overlay is all done in CPU. Transcode from Cineform to Sony AVC was level at about 33% with GPU. Windows was showing 4GB RAM used during render in both cases. That's quite a revelation to me as this Vegas is a 64-bit application. The original project was created using Sony Vegas Pro 10c 32-bit. I wonder if that has anything to do with it?

After Effects CS5 Comparison
The VFX in the closing scene of Evolution 9 was originally done with Adobe CS4 32-bit. It was re-rendered using Adobe CS5 64-bit.
The project was 00:00:14,53 long. Rendered output was to 1280x720 Lossless 60fps

Layers
Composition with 23 Layers with 8 MOV files (7 from Action Essentials, 1 Canon 7D 720p 60fps, 1 JPEG
4 Motion Tracks for Compositing

	Desktop	Laptop
AVI-Lossless	5 Minutes 33 Seconds	4 Minutes 33 Seconds

It takes quite a while to render 14 seconds of VFX. The original render on a Q6600 with 3GB of RAM took 14 Minutes 6 seconds. The 64-bit renders consumed about 13GB! Both the 380t and W520 do much better than that but I didn't expect the Laptop to do better by a full minute. I know it's a mobile workstation but I was expecting it to be slightly slower than the Desktop. If you view it negatively, you could say my Desktop sucked. Hey! That Desktop served me well. Viewed positively, I'd say the Lenovo W520 is winning!

Lenovo W520 and a Replacement Blu-Ray Drive

2011-05-23T20:43:00.006-04:00

Getting a Blu-ray Writer

A Blu-ray drive is not a current option for the Lenovo W520. This deficiency can be alleviated by purchasing a slim drive after market. The Panasonic UJ-240 OEM SATA model is the cheapest one available at the moment. This is the bare drive capable of up to 6x BD-RE write and 8x DVD+/-RW DL. It's available from Amazon and Ebay. To swap this with your DVD all you need is a screw driver and paper clip. Two rail guides and a bezel need to be transferred from the original. After that its plug and play.

The original Lenovo drive is a Matshita UJ8A0A which is manufactured by Panasonic so we can be confident of this replacement. Windows 7 automatically detects the new drive and finds the right drivers for it. Once you have replaced the bezels and installed it the only other reminder it's a blu-ray is the dark blue tray.

Lenovo W520 for Sony Vegas Pro 10 and Adobe After Effects CS5 - Part 5

2011-05-19T20:35:00.010-04:00

Patch Thinkpad and Windows 7
Now that you have cleared out good amount of space, let's use it! Run "Lenovo - Updates and Drivers" and Windows Update first chance you get. The Thinkpad update was done in about 10 minutes. The Microsoft update on the other hand took at least half an hour with four reboot cycles.


Start 
-> Control Panel 
-> System and Security
-> Lenovo - Updates and Drivers


Start 
-> Run: Windows Update

Install CCCP, Lagarith, Quicktime, Avid and other codecs
It's a good idea to install your codecs before the NLEs. The Adobe installer will complain if you don't have Quicktime installed prior to starting.

CCCP
http://www.cccp-project.net/
Lagarith
http://lags.leetcode.net/codec.html
Avid Quicktime
http://avid.custkb.com/avid/app/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=392959
Cineform NeoPlayer
http://estore.cineform.com/neoplayer.aspx

Install Sony Vegas Pro 10 and Adobe Production Premium onto mSATA
I installed Sony Vegas Pro 10d direct into the SSD which occupied about 409MB. I skipped installing DVD Creator. For Adobe Production Premium CS5 I picked and chose which tools to install in C versus D. A full installation was estimating 16GB of the 45GB free. Yes, that sounds plenty but I wasn't sure yet what patch downloads and temp files would do. So I stored After Effects, Photoshop and Premier unto C:\Program Files\Adobe for 4.6GB. Then repeated the install process for the other tools into D:\Program Files\Adobe for 5.53GB. Even if you target D it will install some Common Files into C.

Create a Microsoft Backup of new configuration
Lenovo Rescue and Recovery program appears to only backup the C partition. Since I need to backup both C and D I opted to use Windows Backup for now.


Start 
-> Run: Backup and Restore
-> Create a system repair disc

Feed it a DVD for boot. The data can go to a USB drive.


Start
-> Run: Bakup and Restore
-> Create a system image

Receive and test DP++ to HDMI cable

I'm going to be using this laptop for video work so I need HDMI. There is no separate HDMI port on this model because it has Display Port++ which can pass-through an HDMI signal via an adapter. I bought the StarTech DP2HDMIMM10. It was no drama at all. I hooked it up to my 720p Sony TV and it just worked. Both video and audio were automatically displayed on the TV. Using the Fn-F7 I extended my screen. The audio mixer setup the TV as default. When I unplugged the cable the settings returned to normal.

Find a cold beverage, drink it.
Now it is time to take a celebratory drink. If said drink happens to spill on the keyboard its supposed to survive!

The 4.8 looks low because I have Optimus turned on. Switching to discrete graphics brings the average up to 6.9.

On to Part 6
On to Swapping in a Blu-Ray Drive

Lenovo W520 for Sony Vegas Pro 10 and Adobe After Effects CS5 - Part 4

2011-05-19T00:32:00.020-04:00

Optimize mSATA + HDD Setup
There are a lot of articles and forum posts about optimizing SSD setup. Here the ones I read to decide what to do:

Quick guide Install Tweak Windows 7 After Installation mSATA
How to setup SSD boot drive secondary
Windows 7 Ultimate Tweaks & Utilities
How to Optimize your windows profile and media storage ssd
Move Users local profile from C: to another drive
Move the users directory in windows 7

It gets quite involved so here is an outline of this subsection:

(a) Define but do not login to the real administrator user
(b) Create folders for D:\Program Files* in D: (HDD)
(c) Copy C:\Users to D:\Users
(d) Edit registry to move Users from C: to D:
(e) Reboot
(f) Login to the real administrator user
(g) Move C:\SWTOOLS to D:\SWTOOLS
(h) Switch Memory Paging to HDD to free space
(i) Deactivate Hibernation to free space
(j) Deactivate Indexing for C: to free space

I'm still researching the controversial ones such as superfetch, prefetch and moving the system TEMP directory.

Define but do not login to the real administrator user
Boot up in safe mode by tapping F8 after power on until you get a selection screen. Select, you guessed it, Safe Mode. Then login as your temporary 'pro' user:


Start -> Control Panel 
-> User Accounts and Family Safety 
-> Add or Remove User Accounts 
-> Create a new account
-> Enter username 
-> x Administrator 
-> Create Account
-> Create a password (your new user selected) 
-> Enter password twice 
-> Enter hint 
-> Create password

Do not login to this user yet. There's still some work to be done.

Create folders for D:\Program Files* in D: (HDD)
Go to the HDD in Explorer and create two new folders:


D:\Program Files
D:\Program Files (x86)

This will be the target for future installs that don't need to be on SSD. In other guides they also create D:\Users here. But I did it a different way.

Copy C:\Users to D:\Users
There is an alternate way to do this without a registry hack which involves booting off a Windows 7 Recovery disk and hard linking C:\Users to D:\Users. Outside of Windows 7 you might also accomplish it using a Linux liveCD. The point was you can only do the junction trick if you don't boot off the drive you're modifying. Because of this I stuck to the procedure used in the overclock.net article.


Start 
-> Run 
-> Command 
-> right-click Run as administrator


C:
cd \
robocopy C:\Users D:\Users /copyall /e /xj /xd C:\Users\pro

It should copy Default and Public at minimum. If Nvidia Optimus updates are wanted the UpdatusUser should be copied as well. "All Users" is a symlink to C:\ProgramData and is skipped by default. "Default Users" is a shortcut with no target and is likewise skipped. User "pro" we explicitly skip in the copy.

Edit registry to move Users from C: to D:
This is where it gets exciting and tedious. First make sure to backup the current registry in case something goes awry.


Start 
-> Run 
-> regedit 
-> File 
-> Export 
-> Give it a filename like "D:\preSSDDregistry.reg" 
->  Export Range: x All 
-> Save

Then navigate to the following path:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\WINDOWS NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

right-click Modify the Names "Default", "Profiles Directory" and "Public". Change %SystemDrive% to D:. Leave "ProgramData" alone.

Make another full backup of your registry at this point. Go back to the top of the tree to "Computer". Now every instance of C:\Users has to be change to D:\Users and C:\Users\pro to D:\Users\youruser. You could do this by hand by tapping F3 then editing manually. There are a lot of entries! I have a shortcut but it's not for everyone. It's downright dangerous. The only other alternative is to find an external program to do this. I didn't have one I could trust so I did it myself.

My downright dangerous method


Start 
-> Run 
-> regedit 
-> File 
-> Export 
-> Give it a filename like "D:\beforeDangerous.reg" 
->  Export Range: x All 
-> Save

Copy D:\beforeDangerous.reg to D:\downrightDangerous.reg. Open this file with notepad. Search and replace C:\\Users\pro with C:\\Users\youruser. Then C:\\Users to D:\\Users. If you don't understand the significance of double-backslash, its the escape character. Notepad may not respond for a few seconds as it does the mass replace.

Save your notepad file. Then right-click Merge D:\downrightDangerous.reg to apply the changes. It will give a few errors about keys that are open. This is okay. Just click through them.

Then go back to regedit and from Computer do a manual search for C:\Users. There should only be one (ProfileImagePath for the UpdatusUser) you can change. And another entry that can't be changed because it is a Name rather than Data (FP_AX_MSI_INSTALLER). When you get "Finished searching through the registry". You got them all.

Reboot
I used a normal boot this time.

Login to the real administrator user
Login to the new administrator user. Check D:\Users and make sure the user directory is there. Check your environment variables to see that user TEMP and TMP point to the HDD as well.

At this point its safe to Delete the pro user.


Start 
-> Control Panel 
-> User Accounts and Family Safety 
-> Add or remove user accounts
-> Select pro 
-> Delete the account 
-> Delete Files 
-> Delete Account

You should find that C:\Users no longer has pro. I rename C:\Users to C:\DeleteMe to be sure it's no longer used. If it was the system would have complained about an open file. I reboot again to be sure and login with my new real administrator. Since I'm positive the new user is working I go ahead and delete C:\DeleteMe. D:\Users is now the new location for User Profiles!

Move C:\SWTOOLS to D:\SWTOOLS
SWTOOLS may or may not have value. I don't want to take the chance of deleting it yet but it's hogging about 2GB of SSD. So I robocopy it across to D and hardlink it with a Junction like you would a Unix directory.


Start 
-> Run 
-> cmd
C:
cd\
robocopy C:\SWTOOLS D:\SWTOOLS /move /E

Check SWTOOLS in explorer to confirm it has moved from C to D. Then go back to your command line and execute this


C:
cd\
mklink /J C:\SWTOOLS D:\SWTOOLS

Switch Memory Paging to HDD to free space
The system defaults to Automatic management of page file where C: is system managed. With 12GB installed it could use that much SSD. I'd rather use the space for programs so I'm moving paging to the HDD.


Start 
-> Computer 
-> right-click Properties 
-> Advanced System Settings
Advanced 
-> Performance 
-> Settings... 
Advanced 
-> Change
Uncheck "Automatically manage paging file size for all drives"
Select C: [Windows7_OS] System managed
x No paging file 
-> Set 
-> OK


Select D: [DATA] None
x System managed size
or
x Custom size
-> OK

I prefer a fixed file size rather than having it grow unpredictably. So I enter the recommended size as specified by Windows. Really though, if you paged a significant amount of your RAM you'd have a thrashing problem.

Deactivate Hibernation to free space
Here is another space eater. Hiberfil.sys is a snapshot of your RAM that the system can restore from Hibernation. I've not used Hibernation feature in years. Even on desktops I use the sleep option which is faster and more reliable (uses more power though).


Start 
-> Run 
-> Command 
-> right-click Run as administrator
powercfg -h off

Deactivate Indexing for C: to free space
Indexing is supposed to make it easier to search file contents for keywords like a search engine. Sounds nice in concept but I haven't warmed up to it in practice. I still prefer the Windows XP style of searching. On most of my PCs I use Agent Ransack instead.


Start 
-> Computer 
-> C: 
-> right-click Properties 
-> Uncheck "Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties"
x Apply changes to drive C:\, subfolders and files 
-> OK

This takes a few minutes.

Update: Change Path of Memory Dump
If you get a BSOD you will find a complete memory dump the size of your RAM in C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP. I found where it was set here. With still about 40GB free on the 80GB SSD I'm not too worried yet. But when space starts to get cramped I'd like to move this to the HDD.


Start
-> Control Panel
-> System and Security
-> System
-> Advanced system settings
-> Advanced
-> Startup and Recovery: Settings
-> Change %SystemRoot%\MEMORY.DMP to D:\MEMORY.DMP
-> OK

Delete C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP then reboot.

Other SSD optimizations
The factory restore should have turned the System Restore off on the SSD drive. the Disk Defragmenter service is defaulted to manual. It shouldn't be run on the C drive. Some prefer to have this service disabled entirely.

On to Part 5

Lenovo W520 for Sony Vegas Pro 10 and Adobe After Effects CS5 - Part 3

2011-05-18T17:37:00.015-04:00

Install mSATA and SODIMM RAM; Uninstall HDD
All I needed was a set of small Philips screwdrivers. I bought a set from Walmart years ago when I had to take out my T40's hard drive. Lenovo has some excellent documentation on how to take apart each model of Thinkpad.

Hardware Maintenance Manual
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-76854.html

Keyboard removal movie - ThinkPad T510, W510, W520
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-74883.html

Keyboard removal and installation
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-74449.html

The mSATA and two RAM slots are underneath the keyboard. Before that you have to get to the panel under the laptop containing the two other RAM slots and the screws holding the keyboard. This W520 is a quad-core model so four slots were available. The dual core version apparently only has two. The slot meant for WWAN doubles as an mSATA slot, which explains the wires. I think the mSATA is more useful than built-in wireless broadband.

Make sure your keyboard has seated properly or it will flex as you type.

Re-run Lenovo PC Doctor on Aftermarket Configuration
Pop-in the CD, make sure your CPU and RAM are good. This part takes about 20 minutes.

Re-run Memtest86+ on Stock Configuration
Give it a more thorough RAM check. This check takes a little over an hour.

Factory Restore onto mSATA
At this point the hard drive has been removed so the factory install will target the mSATA. It's also best to have tested this new configuration with PC Doctor and memtest86+. I wasted an entire day trying to diagnose what was wrong with Factory Recovery and USB Boot. If these variables are eliminated the restore process goes much smoother.

It's quite easy. Just load the Boot Media CD/DVD to start the process. Accept the prompts then pick where your Data Media will be coming from. Most likely it will be more DVDs. Over the course of an hour you'll be popping DVDs into the machine. Before I finished diagnosing the RAM problem I did try the DVD boot + USB Data Media process and it was much faster. I got stuck after a signature problem so when my root problem was resolved I went the DVD route. It was the safest for me because I created that set when the machine was still in stock configuration. All the other copies since were during the bad configuration. The HDD boot manager got corrupted, I wouldn't trust the USB/DVDs it wrote since.

Once the factory restore is done you can eject the last DVD. The W520 should boot from the mSATA. Go through the Windows 7 first time boot process. When it asks to define a user specify a temporary administrator name. You'll be discarding it later. I named mine "pro" like this guide I was following. You can follow all the prompts until it either asks for a reboot or gives you the Desktop.

Before you shutdown you should do a quick SSD alignment check.


Start 
-> Run 
-> msinfo32 
-> components 
-> storage 
-> disks 
-> Partition Starting Offset

Boot - 1.17GB
1,048,576 bytes / 4096 bytes = 256 (no decimals, aligned)
OS - 57.93GB
1,258,291,200 bytes / 4096 bytes = 307200 (no decimals, aligned)
Recovery - 15.62GB
63,249,055,744 bytes / 4096 bytes = 15441664 (no decimals, aligned)

The factory disks were pretty good about handling the SSD.

Re-install HDD
Put the Hard Drive back in its bay and close everything up. Boot up again, it should have defaulted to the mSATA. Login then find your way into Disk Management.


Start 
-> Control Panel 
-> System and Security 
-> Administrative Tools
Computer Management 
-> Disk Management

My HDD was Disk 0 while the SSD was Disk 1. It's easy to tell despite both having the same partition names because one is smaller than the other. I deleted the SYSTEM_DRV and Windows7_OS from the HDD by right-click Delete Volume. Then I reallocated the space as DATA. This is where I will be moving my users and some programs. The Q: and F: drives should both be good copies. In my case I had some doubts because the HDD was 15.63GB while the SDD was 15.62GB. This is probably due to SSD alignment optimization. But just to be sure I downloaded Clonezilla to copy the SSD partition over to the HDD partition.

If you decide to do the same make certain to download the testing release. Don't ask me why, but the stable release would just hang at reading the Bitmap. That step shouldn't take more than a few seconds. Go figure!

Clonezilla
http://clonezilla.org/downloads.php

Clonezilla can boot off the CD. Pick local disk/partition option. Select the 16.8GB partition on the Intel drive as the source. Then select the 16.8GB partition on the Seagate (or Hitachi) drive as the target. It will ask you to confirm three times before starting to run. It's over in less than 10 minutes.

After the clone, or not if you're adventurous, you can delete the Q: partition from the SSD. Then change F: drive letter to Q: by right-click "Change Drive Letter and Paths...". The blue ThinkVantage button should work right away.

Extend the Windows7_OS partition into the unallocated space by right-click Extend Volume. Follow the defaults to allocate all the space previously occupied by the recovery volume.

With all the partition work done, the next step is to optimize for SSD operation.

On to Part 4

Lenovo W520 for Sony Vegas Pro 10 and Adobe After Effects CS5 - Part 2

2011-05-18T15:13:00.016-04:00

Preparing the W520 with Intel 310 mSATA 80GB
I was a bit anxious to put everything together that I skipped some steps that I shouldn't have. This caused me problems later when I found that I had a bad SODIMM. It corrupted my Boot Manager and wouldn't let me recover from DVD. If I had to do it all over again I'd have stuck to the sequence I'm listing below.

My recommended sequence of tasks
1. Receive the W520 and check the Package Contents
2. Boot for first time and create Factory Disks
3. Download, burn and run Lenovo PC Doctor on Stock Configuration
4. Download, burn and run Memtest86+ on Stock Configuration
5. Receive aftermarket Intel m310 mSATA and DDR3-1333Mhz 204-pin SODIMM RAM
6. Install mSATA and SODIMM RAM; Uninstall HDD
7. Re-run Lenovo PC Doctor on Aftermarket Configuration
8. Re-run Memtest86+ on Stock Configuration
9. Factory Restore onto mSATA
10. Re-install HDD
11. Optimize mSATA + HDD Setup
12. Patch Thinkpad and Windows 7
13. Install CCCP, Lagarith, Quicktime, Avid and other codecs
14. Install Sony Vegas Pro 10 and Adobe Production Premium onto mSATA
15. Create a Microsoft Backup of new configuration
16. Receive and test DP++ to HDMI cable
17. Find a cold beverage, drink it.

It took me about two days to go through all these steps. Half that time I was running around town picking up various packages and reading online instructions. Here I've compiled all the steps I took to prepare my mobile NLE.

Receive the W520 and check the Package Contents
Mine came in a cardboard box. The W520 sat in the middle with a smaller cardboard box tucked underneath it. That smaller box contained the power cord, quick reference guide and warranty guide. On the right side was the 180w power brick and the 55++ battery. Something heavy was shaking inside which happened to be the power supply. Being an old hand with Thinkpads I slapped the battery in, plugged it to an outlet then booted it for the first time.

Boot for first time and create Factory Recovery Disks
First Boot up took a few minutes with the Seagate 500GB 7200rpm drive. I registered my user then went through the usual option screens. I played around with the fingerprint reader but shouldn't really have bothered as I'd be going through it all over again. The important part was to get it to create a Factory Recovery Disk.

Start -> Lenovo ThinkVantage Tools -> Factory Repair Disk.

-> x Boot Media, x Data Media -> OK
-> Follow the prompts to use either DVD or USB

Four DVDs or one 16GB USB stick is necessary to create a good copy. This took about an hour to do each time. It's possible to reset the process should one method fail. To do this you simply reset the Q:\FactoryRecovery\service_done.ini from DONE=1 to DONE=0. That's the power of the internet for you! I ended up using the DVDs since the USB stick wouldn't let me boot.

Update: I was trying to boot off the blue USB 3.0 ports on the left side. Learned later that the always on/yellow USB port in the back is the one meant for boot devices. Confirmed it when my Ubuntu 11 USB stick worked on the yellow slot. Otherwise in the blue slots on the left it would complain that it can't find a writable filesystem

Download, burn and run Lenovo PC Doctor on Stock Configuration
Don't get too antsy like me! Stick to the stock configuration to establish a baseline where you know everything works. At this point the laptop boots, hard drive works, DVD burner works and the wireless/wire connects to the internet.

Lenovo Diagnostics
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-70578.html

There are two executables in the link. I chose mediacreator_5521.02.exe to create my bootable disk. You could use either CD or DVD. Boot into it and run each of the quick tests at least once. On my non-stock configuration it flagged a memory fault in the 16GB onboard. The trouble was finding the offending DIMM.

Download, burn and run Memtest86+ on Stock Configuration
If I wasn't so thick headed I'd have stuck to the Stock Configuration. If I did I wouldn't have spent an entire day worrying about things such as heat, PCH, BIOS settings, slot placement, clonezilla and a bunch of other complicated things. Shame on me, I work in the IT industry. Doctors make the worst patients. Go figure.

Memtest86+
http://www.memtest.org/

Download the latest ISO in the zip file. Decompress then burn it unto a CD. Take out the PC Doctor disk and replace it with this one. It will boot straight into the test.

Anyway, Memtest86+ is a good way to burn in a PC. Within 5 minutes of running it gave me memory faults. I had to go through some SODIMM roulette to figure out which module was actually bad. If this doesn't happen to you be grateful. If unlike me, you had the fancy RAID option then screw y... I mean ... use an external DVD or boot from a USB stick.

Receive aftermarket Intel 310 mSATA and DDR3-1333Mhz 204-pin SODIMM RAM
There are other manufacturers like Renice and MyDigitalSSD for mSATA. Some of them come in higher capacities than 80GB. Intel's 310 Soda Creek comes in 80GB and 40GB. 40GB would be too small. 64GB, from the alternate brands, may just make it but there wouldn't be much breathing room to go three years I expect this laptop to survive.

As for RAM, I had ordered Crucial 4GB SODIMMs but wouldn't recommend them now. In notebookreview.com forums there have been four of us reporting sending back defective DIMMs. Newegg just sent me a notice receiving my RMA. Hopefully the next one I get will be good. Some other users have Kingston and Patriot RAM fully populated. The Kingston 1866Mhz version has some issues associated with sleep. My suggestion is do some searches and find out which brands have good deals then keep your fingers crossed.

Update: Seems a BIOS update 1.25 is out to fix sleep issues with fully populated W520s.
Update2: Got my replacement Crucial DIMM back from NewEgg which appears to be working just fine.

On to Part 3

Lenovo W520 for Sony Vegas Pro 10 and Adobe After Effects CS5 - Part 1

2011-05-16T20:42:00.007-04:00

I'm on a plane twice a week taking me away from home most of the year. And home is where the desktop I use for editing resides. I can't lug my desktop with me where I go and I can't stay home otherwise I'd be out of a job. So for years I've been on a look out for a laptop that can handle current generation editing and effects software. It's the only way I can pursue my hobby in the field on my off time.

Enter the Lenovo Thinkpad W520 mobile workstation. With a name like that it builds confidence and doubt at the same time. I've had Thinkpads in my hands for work before but I've never previously considered them for personal use. Why? They're sturdy, reliable, unsexy, expensive for the features and ubiquitous in a business setting like a Ford Taurus in a rental car lot. My preconceptions had the names Sager/Clevo, MSI, Alienware and XPS firmly embedded. In fact I had considered all those brands before pulling the trigger on this laptop. But after reading various reviews I was firmly convinced this was the way to go.

My Situation
My home editing rig is a custom ordered HP Elite 380t with a Core I7-930. I bought it through Costco with 12GB of RAM installed. This configuration was meant to run Sony Vegas Pro 10 and Adobe Production Premium CS5 with a variety of footage coming from Canon DSLRs, GoPro HD and Vixia HDV cameras. Adobe After Effects is the most resource intensive application I use. The tracking and rotoscoping features were simply important for the videos I produce. And boy does this application eat RAM. At 12GB it was painfully slow to run through the rotoscope. After two months I upgraded the unit to its maximum 24GB. And to use more than 16GB of RAM I needed to upgrade Windows 7 x64 from Home Premium to Professional. Wow, now I'm a professional? Anyhow I was happy editing footage with this rig. Unfortunately it's not portable. My software licenses allow use of a second non-concurrent copy but I'm not happy installing/uninstalling it on borrowed hardware. I even tried sending an older Q6600 machine ahead of myself just to use Sony Vegas but it wasn't a complete solution. It's quite rare at the moment, maybe not so in a few years, to find a friend or relative equipped with more than 2GB of RAM and a quad core. So I still had to wait a few weeks until I got home to even begin the VFX. And remember, this is my hobby not my job. I have to snatch time here and there to work on it. More often than not the stars don't align. This makes me sad. But the good news, I received some cash which I would happily apply to this hobby. Hey, this could only have a positive effect on my overall well being thus enhancing the net value I can deliver to the customers.

The Choice
The Dell XPS 15 was my original choice. The Sandy Bridge i7 at 2.0Ghz would have been not to far below the i7 930 on my desktop. Off and on, a matte 1080p display would be available. The size was just right for my backpack and its airport weight was acceptable. The problem was it could only take 8GB of RAM on 4GB sticks. 8GB SODIMM aren't generally available yet. I could wait for that "perfect time" in the future but I've got an event coming in a few months. And there's the preparation time for any new rig.

When I started to look more at specifications I gravitated towards the MSI GT680R and Sager NP8150. Unfortunately, the MSI had a glossy screen and was thicker than would fit in my backpack. It was possible to get a custom matte screen from Xoticpc but it didn't solve the rest of it. I visited Fry's twice just to see if I could warm up to it. The Sager NP8150 looked like a nice balance for what I needed. My only misgiving was I couldn't find a store where I could see and touch a model. The specifications could only tell me so much. And the stated weight! It's a desktop replacement for sure. With my dual laptop traveling scheme I'd have to sacrifice my running shoes to carry it with me. I don't know about you, but a good pair of shoes is important too.

Of course would also be looking at the price. The Dell had the size and price wasn't too bad but not the specs. The MSI had the specs and the price was pushing it but not the size. The Sager was an unknown for size and the price definitely broke the bank. I was about ready to give up. Then I saw a post in DVInfo about a Sony Vegas user with a Lenovo W520. Business-class laptop!? I hadn't made the mental transition towards HP Elitebooks, Dell Precisions and Lenovo Ws. My image of them has always been big, heavy and too expensive for the features. What I hadn't considered were discounts!

There is a wonderful thread in notebookreviews.com on the W520. There are even tips on how to maximize your discounts. If you own IBM stock you were eligible for SPP. If you worked or had a friend at IBM and/or Lenovo you could get in with EPP. I had the fortune of working for a supplier to IBM so was eligible for the partner discount. It wasn't as extreme as the other discounts I saw on the thread but it was close enough. So one faithful sleepless night in a state far far away I opened the partner link to Lenovo and ordered the 4270-CTO.

1 4270CT CONFIGURED SYSTEM
0A68541 SBB ICI7-2720QM
45M3090 VBB GENUWIN7PROFES.64
0A68625 SBB GW7P64 E
75Y0162 SBB M W7 XP MD- E
0A68535 SBB 15.6FHD (1900 X 1080) LED
0A68894 SBB NVQ2000M GR
45M4572 VBB 4GBPC3-10600DDR3 1333SODMM
45M4839 SBB KEYBOARDUS ENGLISH
0A68526 VBB FINGERPRINT READER
0A68558 SBB 720P HD CAM INT MICR
0A69620 SBB I RAID-NOT EN
0A68553 SBB 500GB HDD7200RPM
0A68547 SBB DVD RC8XMXDLLRULTEHATA
0A68529 VBB ECS+4IN1CR
45M4816 SBB 9CELLLI-ION BATTERY
0A68904 SBB CPNAMLC+ 170W AC AD
0A68261 SBB BLUETOOTH 3.0
75Y1724 SBB THINKPADB/G/N
44C7950 SBB INT WRLSSWDAREANTWRK UPGR
0A68564 SBB LANG PCK US E
0A68537 SBB FINGRPRNT READER
41C9338 3YR ONSITE + 3YR TPP

I didn't know if I wanted RAID but I knew I'd need to read/write Blu-Ray disks later. Blu-Ray was not an available option but could be purchased aftermarket. If I need extra storage capacity I always traveled with external hard drives. The USB 3.0 and e-SATA ports had me covered. For going all internal I could swap out the burner with an 12.7mm ultrabay caddy. The one complaint I have with the W520, which I learned too late, is that RAID isn't available in the BIOS unless ordered from the factory. But it has a 95% Color Gamut which is supposedly NTSC. That sort of makes up for that disappointment. There was a colorimeter option but I skipped it to get an external one I could use across PCs. And there was the little mSATA option. This would let me have an SSD boot drive and HDD for storage. The W520 is about the size of the T520 which one of my coworkers had. I could see it everyday and compare it to the T410 I already use. This would work!

On to Part 2

Voiceover Tips

2011-04-03T17:52:00.000-04:00

Microphone Placement
Don't point the microphone directly into the mouth but keep it as close as possible. Use your hand to feel in front of the mouth how far you can feel the air from your mouth goes. Just at the periphery of this, usually either left or right of your mouth, is the best place to position the microphone.

Background Noise Removal
I use Audacity because its free and lets me use someone else's computer to edit. It has a noise removal filter that works great for removing background hum.

Editing Format
WAV is the way to go when integrating with Sony Vegas. It saves on the hiccup and loss from using MP3s. The projects themselves I keep in AUP for when I need to go back and redo a portion of the voice over.

Tips for the CMR Blackbird

2010-06-22T09:04:00.002-04:00

It took about a week to learn how to fly the CMR Blackbird. With this post I'll try to list down what I've learned in the hopes it can be replicated by other people.

Learning to Balance
It's like riding a bicycle. Explanations can only go so far. It has to be experienced. But I think I have tips that will get there faster.

Level set your expectations, you are looking for reduced motion. It might not be perfectly still like a dolly but stable enough not to cause nausea.
Find your camera's center of gravity by feel. Put your finger on the bottom and find the place where it least topples. It's like finding the balance point of a plate with a cupcake on one side. You can use a pencil under a camera plate to help you find it.
Side to side balance is priority when centering as it will have the most tendency to be visible in footage.
The Blackbird's bubble level isn't very accurate. My Canon 7D has an electronic level that gives great feedback since its at the very center of gravity. But that's the only camera I have that has it. The rest need an external level. A substitute would be a spirit level designed for the cold/hot shoe. It's closer to the center of gravity for the camera and should therefore be more accurate than one ones mounted on the corner of a stage.
The bubble levels are a guide, you need to develop a feel for balance. When I balance I make it front heavy, then back heavy until I find the mid point. I have to be patient until I can be instinctive on how close I am to the most stable point. I do the same for the roll (left-right) component. Be sure to have the T-Bar extended all the way so the rig will be sensitive. While it's sensitive it's easier to see if the balance is off since it will teeter. You may never seen it completely still. This is fine as YOU can compensate for it with your left hand when you fly. You can also use smooth touch to cheat.
Drop time of 2 seconds is a good start. I set my T-bar to 22 to achieve this. Why 2 and not 1.5? It's easier to count whole increments that half. Use a stopwatch or a watch with a seconds hand to time it. Counting "One Mississippi" may not roll off the same way for everyone.
Trust the Blackbird to do its job. The rig may seem to teeter constantly, but that does not necessarily show up in the footage. I've learned that when I see the Blackbird teeter constantly, it's actually compensating against ME! When I review the footage later it shows shows smooth action.

Stable flight

Wind is the enemy. Find a way to block a breeze when you can. If you need to see how easily it can be influenced by wind, set the rig in front of an air conditioner or electric fan. Outdoor wind may be stronger.
Use two hands. The left hand should lightly touch the gimbal. This is the toughest part of learn as you have to discover by yourself just how much pressure is appropriate. For me I only apply pressure when I want to turn it. Most of the time I'm just holding it while trying not to get in its way. See how hard it is to describe?
Use the same shoes when flying. I have a pair of waterproof Merrel shoes that I take with me everywhere. The cushion isn't as soft as my Nike cross-trainers but it's the shoe I'm most likely to have on when I'm actually shooting. You need to get a feel for how the ground affects your step while flying. Your legs, especially when bent, will absorb a lot of shock that would otherwise transfer through your arm into the rig. If you keep the same shoes it will be easier to guess if the ground is too hard and you need to step a bit more lightly.

Securing Parts

There are three parts that constantly loosen on my Blackbird that need to be secured.

Tighten the gimbal to the stage. When I do pan motion or hold the Blackbird between takes I tend to hold it by the neck of the gimbal that attaches to the stage. This tends to unscrew it thus changing the height of the balance point.
The lower fastening screw on the T-bar tends to loosen especially after the bar hits something. Make sure it's tight after picking it back up to use.
The rubber shoe on the resting stand comes off. Secure it with a tie down.

Sample Flights for Reference
I wouldn't call these examples of a perfectly balanced rig but the footage is usable.

Indoors, walking, shot in 24fps

Outdoors, running and walking, shot in 60fps, slowed down to 24fps

Editing Canon 7D with Blender 3D

2010-06-15T20:23:00.011-04:00

So I went on a trip without my editing rig. No way was I lugging a quad-core desktop on my trip. Instead I'll do rough cuts on the field with whatever machine I can borrow. Unfortunately I had my Vegas and Cineform license information was locked away on a powered-off hard drive half the world away. Windows Movie Maker wasn't going to cut it. In comes Blender 2.49 and Super(C) to tide me over. My purpose was to do rough cuts to see if I had enough footage.

The Super(C) is free software that will let you downgrade the high-bit rate H264 video from the 7D to AVI format with a codec of your choosing. I selected and IPod-like format: MP4 with 6Mbit in AVI format at 480x272.

Tutorial on how to use Blender as an NLE
http://screencasters.heathenx.org/_misc/bve/bve_01.html

Switch to Sequence Editor
-> (upper bar) SR:4-Sequence (default is SR:2 - Model)
Set Clip settings
-> Format (lower right) -> change to whatever size you want to edit (there are presets like HD and FULL on the right) -> FPS: (change to 24, 25, 50 or 60)

Load a video
-> (middle-timeline window) -> use scroll wheel to unzoom the timeline (timeline is in frames) Shift-A -> Movie+Audio (HD -- stands for Hard Drive not High Definition) -> Search for your clip on the hard drive -> Drag the icon to the frame marker you want -> Audio track is above Video, may not synch if FPS is wrong

Undo a grab or any operation
Esc(ape)

Grab video (to move clip around)
Shift/Right-Click (to select track),G -> drag the clip around -> the left side is the leading frame count

Cut a clip
Use arrow keys or left-mouse button to scrub the green vertical bar to scrub to the point you want to cut -> Shift/Right-Click (to select video track) -> Point to right-facing arrow at beginning to track (or left-facing if cutting from end of clip) -> G -> Drag left or right to the green vertical bar you previously set -> Left-click to set

Cross-Fade Transition
Right-Click (to select track) first video that is the start of transition -> Hold down Shift -> Right-Click (to select track) of second video -> Shift-A -> Gamma Cross -> drag the gamma cross transition to a track number above the two clips

Change Last Frame
The third window down defaults to 256 (frames), change this to the number indicated on the last clip on your timeline so you can display the entire movie

Save Project
File -> Save -> Navigate to directory you want -> rename untitled.blend to any name you want -> Save As

Output to Movie
Change Q (Quality) from 90 to 100, Change format from JPEG to FFMPeg (or whatever format you want) -> Video -> Choose the Codec (MPEG-2 by default, H264 is available) -> Audio -> Downsample Mix -> Output: Change the output directory from /tmp to wherever -> Do Sequence -> ANIM -> Wait for the Animation to finish

Take note how I use the word Animate. There is a Render button in Blender. It serves a different purpose from our normal NLE nomenclature. In Sony Vegas we say Render. In Blender it is ANIM(ate).

Behaviors of SLR Lenses on Canon APS-C

2010-04-29T19:30:00.053-04:00

Field of View
Comparison of the field of view you get at various focal lengths and lenses. It's easier to visualize with pictures. The camera is a Canon Rebel T2i (aka 550D) which has an APS-C sensor (1.6 crop factor). Camera is tripod mounted while lenses are changed. Sorry, I forgot to take "normal" range photos with the zoom. I'll do a second set of tests for that. These still images are at 4:3 Aspect Ratio. Video mode will crop the top and bottom to form a 16:9 image.

11mm (17.6mm effective)
Tokina 11-16 AT-X Pro 2.8 (Zoom)

16mm (25.6mm effective)
Tokina 11-16 AT-X Pro 2.8 (Zoom)

18mm (28.8mm effective)
Sigma 18-50 EX DC Macro 2.8 (Zoom)

50mm (80mm effective)
Sigma 18-50 EX DC Macro 2.8 (Zoom)

50mm (80mm effective)
Nikkor SC 50mm 1.4 (Prime), adapted from F-mount to EF
Note how the view is narrower than the Sigma above. Infinity focus is slightly before the infinity marker on the lens.

70mm (112mm effective)
Canon EF 70-200 F2.8/L IS (Zoom)

85mm (136mm effective)
Canon EF 85mm 1.8 (Prime)

200mm (320mm effective)
Canon EF 70-200 F2.8/L IS (Zoom)

Focus Breathing
A slight change of FOV may be observed when changing focus. All the SLR lenses from the previous test exhibit this to some degree.

Focused to Foreground
Note the trees on either side of the picture. Focus to foreground which is about 9 feet away shows less of trees on either side. Lens is a Canon EF 70-200 F2.8/L IS at 70mm.

Focused to Background
Focus to background shows more of the trees on either side. Lens is a Canon EF 70-200 F2.8/L IS at 70mm.

Lenses Tested
Tokina 11-16MM F/2.8 ATX 116 Lens for Canon EOS AF Digital - Tokina ATX116PRODXC
Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 EX DC SLD ELD Aspherical Macro Lens for Canon Digital SLR Cameras
Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM Medium Telephoto Lens for Canon SLR Cameras
Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM Telephoto Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

Canon 7D vs T2i Video Mode Controls

2010-04-29T18:09:00.003-04:00

The controls behave differently between stills and video mode. This is for video mode.

Switch to Video Mode
T2i
Turn mode dial to movie icon. Message appears if adapted lens is attached. Mirror locks up, LCD or external monitor turns on. Push Live View button on camera's back to record. Red circle appears in upper right when recording.

7D
Push throw switch left to movie icon on camera's back. Message appears if adapted lens is attached. Mirror locks up, LCD or external monitor turns on. Press Start/Stop button to record. Red circle appears in upper right when recording.

Changing Video Shutter Speed
T2i
Turn wheel near shutter button right to increase shutter speed. Recommended shutter speed is 50 (1/50) for 24fps, 60 (1/60) for 30fps, and 120 (1/120) for 60fps. This is to conform to 180-degree shutter rule.

7D
Turn wheel near shutter button right to increase shutter speed. Recommended shutter speed is 50 (1/50) for 24fps, 60 (1/60) for 30fps, and 120 (1/120) for 60fps. This is to conform to 180-degree shutter rule.

Changing Aperture of EF Lenses
T2i
Hold down AV button near LCD. Turn wheel near shutter button right to increase F-stop (darker). Turn left to decrease F-stop (brighter).

7D
Turn body dial right to increase F-stop. Turn body dial clockwise to increase F-stop (darker). Turn counter-clockwise to decrease F-stop (brighter)

Changing ISO (boost brightness)
T2i
Press ISO button once near shutter button. Turn wheel near shutter right to move from Auto ISO, 100, 200 ... 6400 (default, extended ISO turned off). LCD displays ISO value in lower right corner. Selection wraps around.

100-400 ISO typical for daylight. 1600 indoors starts to show image noise. Default Max setting is 3200 for Auto ISO.

7D
Press ISO button once near shutter button. M-Fn wheel near shutter right to move from Auto ISO, 100, 125, 160, 200, 250 ... 6400 (default, extended ISO turned off). LCD displays ISO values. Selection wraps around.

100-400 ISO typical for daylight. 1600 indoors starts to show image noise. Max gain in Auto ISO feature is not available on 7D. Maximum Auto ISO is 6400 when high mode is not enabled.

GoPro HD Hero nuts

2010-04-10T15:56:00.004-04:00

The HD Helmet Hero doesn't have a nut to go with every mount. My Google searches misled me at first. 10-32 is NOT the correct size. It's Metric 5mm. At Home Depot you can find it in the red trays marked Hex Nut 4-12mm size. You want the one marked HEX NUT 5mm-8 which contains 2 pieces. It was $0.41 + tax at the time of this post.

Fake slow motion

2010-03-26T09:10:00.013-04:00

What Remains

This video won Vimeo's Weekend Project in late January 2010. The project was to make "fake slow motion" where it's the actor moving slowly while the shot is rolling at normal speed. To pull off the illusion required some thought and planning.

Seven Factors for success:
1) A tripod
2) Slow but fluid motion of the actor
3) No extraneous background movement
4) Accent special effects
5) Appropriate sound
6) Cuts every three seconds
7) Appropriate story

Tripod
A stable shot is important. The tripod is the easiest tool to work with in this case. The video was shot at 24 fps. Camera motion is more apparent at lower frame rates. I made sure the wind wouldn't shake the camera. Also be careful to avoid placement near foot traffic. Where possible I turned on the IS feature on my lens.

Slow but Fluid Motion
You need to select comfortable positions and motions. Shots standing still while turning were the easiest to do. Just don't blink. Literally, don't blink! That ruins the illusion. The hardest part of this video was slowing down the opening of the box. It tended to spring on its own. You'll also have to factor where the camera will be for the shot. In this case it was between the arms which did not help.

No Extraneous Background Movement
Indoor scenes are easiest because you can control the environment. For outdoors you have to watch what's behind you. In this video there were people taking dogs out for a stroll. The wind also picked up on occasion. I had to wait for the environment to be right before shooting. Multiple takes are important.

The 7D helped thanks to the shallow depth of field. I opened up the aperture to its widest and framed the shot to limit the distractions. For this video I used a Sigma 18-50 EX Macro F2.8 for the indoor scenes. I used manual focus mode to fix the area in focus. Outdoors was shot mostly with a Canon 70-200 F2.8. I had to mind the minimum distance to get the shots I wanted.

Accent Special Effects
The special effects were made with effects of Sony Vegas 8. Here are the important ones.

Tie in the Wind
I drew a red trapezoid with a dithered fill using MS Paint. Then I deleted the background in Paint.NET. The image was saved as a PNG file with alpha channel. This was imported into its own track in Sony Vegas. I turned on track motion and applied a warp effect to the image. I animated the wave and tweaked it until I got a smooth flutter motion. The track motion was important to keep one end of the tie fixed on the neck. Take note that the real tie was tucked behind the collar under the suit for this shot. To sell the illusion the shirt front has to be bare.

I came to the idea of the fluttering tie while I was thinking of things that would look cool in slow motion. You know how superheroes are shown with capes flying in the wind. Why not a tie? With the animated tie the faked slow motion is complete.

The Bird
Same idea as above but implemented differently. I had one still photo of a pigeon from a while back. I manually edited components of the still into two three key frames of the bird. Then I put it into the timeline with some overlaps. Sony Vegas interpolated the frames with overlaps which gave me extra effects. I animated the track to give it some movement.

Rain
I wasn't too happy with the fake rain. Controlling its motion was hard and it didn't quite work. If I knew Blender I would have animated some particles. Since I didn't I settled with this technique I learned from Youtube.

Appropriate Sound
I cut out the original sound entirely. The ambient noise would not have synced to what the video portrayed.

Cuts every Three Seconds
This is just my style. To keep the story moving without being too hurried I used three seconds between cuts.

Appropriate Story
Slow motion, real or fake, is easier to believe for two kinds of story plots: heroism and tragedy. That's just my opinion. Okay, so maybe it's also good for comedic effect. But that would be good for maybe one shot.

Where to get stock music

2010-01-21T20:59:00.005-05:00

I bought Cinescore until Sony pulled the product. Since its library is so limited I started looking elsewhere. So far the only other good source I've found is Stock20. Thank you guys at DVInfo for the tip. The license agreement is quite generous in terms of use. I got mine half off thanks to a fund drive they were running. The special offer arrived by email after signing up for notification.

DIY Stabilizer Gimbal

2009-11-15T23:06:00.005-05:00

The gimbal is based on the WSCATLER Design #4. It has a Traxxas 5151 as its base and two skateboard bearings. Instead of a flashlight I am using Sch 40 PVC fittings. The base is attached to a Manfrotto 357 for demonstration.

Traxxas 5151X

2009-11-13T20:50:00.003-05:00

The shaft end is M5-.8 according to the metric guide at Home Depot.

And skateboard bearing barely fits in a 3/4" PVC pipe. It needs shaving to fit but it will.

A Maglite Mini head is the exact diameter of the skateboard bearing on the outside. Forturnately there is no way to shave the inner cavity to make it fit. Use PVC or find another flashlight to use. The brinkmans are too large and the electronics are not easy to get out.

Neoscene and Vegas Pro 8 editing notes

2009-10-31T08:46:00.004-04:00

Finally bought Neoscene after two years of using free solutions. The MOV files from the 7D are just too much for editing on my Q6600. Renders to WMV and MP4 frequently crashed. With Neoscene its a bit better, not perfect though. When rendering a long clip or rendering JPGs remember to 'Selectively Pre-render'. It will use the Cineform codec on the HDV format (1440x1080) for a 1920x1080 project by default. To remedy this create a custom format with 1920x1080. I removed interleave. Render the final to the AVI Cineform same format. Trying to render directly to WMV or MP4 may still crash Vegas due to memory. Therefore use the final rendered AVI to transcode to the WMV/MP4 format of your choice. This one will succeed. The multigeneration format will hold up given that Cineform is supposed to be visually lossless. Make sure to close all other programs before starting to give Vegas the most memory possible.

Rails - a Canon 7D Subway Short

2009-10-23T18:31:00.005-04:00

Rails

Shot with Nikon 28mm prime and Canon EF-S 18-55mm zoom.

EOS 7D body arrived

2009-10-02T20:25:00.010-04:00

I have my Canon EOS 7D (damn you Nikon!) body but no lenses. I ordered the 18-55mm IS USM kit lens from a different vendor to use as reference but it hasn't arrived. While the battery is charging I tried out my Nikon 28mm MF AI with a Kawa Nikon to EOS body adapter. It gave me a scare when the second time I tried it, the lens came lose. I felt cold as I thought about how to remove the adapter from the brand new body. So I discover how to mount a Nikon lens correctly by practicing with an N6000 film body. Hence my previous post. Good thing I had a body cap too while I figured it out. I put the lens back on to the Canon and unlocked the entire assembly. I take it out and put it back on to be sure I knew how to do it properly.

One thing I notice immediately, my viewfinder image is fuzzy even with infinity focus set. And the focus screen image is darker with a mottled look. I don't remember it looking this way on the 5d and T1i on the shop floor. Is this normal on a 7D? I'll have to ask the guys at DVInfo. I'm a noob again.

In about 2.5-4 hours the battery will be charged. Live View will give some clarity (pun intended).

Update: There viewfinder looked blurry and dark due to the LCD overlay. Once a battery is inserted into the body it clears up.

Using Nikon to EOS lens adapter

2009-10-02T20:15:00.007-04:00

Ok, you put your adapter on until you are certain it locks to the lens body. To insert a nikon lens on an f-mount it is with the 'top' at the 3 o-clock position. Then twist counterclockwise to the 12 o-clock when the lock clicks.

To insert the whole assembly to the EOS body, you find the red mark on the adapter, align to the red mark at the 12 o-clock on the body. Twist clockwise until it locks.

To unlock the assembly, push the locking button on the body, twist counter clockwise.

To remove the adapter from the lens, find the tab where the locking pin should be. You should be looking at the rear of the lens. Pull the tab toward you so the locking pin is disengaged. Then twist clockwise if you're facing the rear of the lens.

Using AVI files from Casio Exilim FC100 in Sony Vegas Pro 8

2009-09-27T18:13:00.004-04:00

The first clue was my thumbnails were green with a band of static on it. I've always used the MPC included in CCCP which didn't have problems playing back the video clips. Portable VLC has its own decoders so it never has a problem. Windows Media player didn't work despite having a copy of Morgan installed. What I had to do was enable MJPEG in FDDShow for VfW. Vegas and Windows Media Player needed a VfW drive.

Start -> Programs -> Combined Community Code Pack -> Filters -> FFDShow VFW Codec Configuration

Decoder -> Codecs -> MJPEG -> libavcodec (from disabled) -> Apply
Decoder -> Codecs -> Other MJPEG -> libavcodec (from disabled) -> Apply

Reboot your PC.

Realtek, Audacity, and Windows Vista

2009-02-23T11:26:00.005-05:00

For the past few years I've been capturing my audio via HDV. Strange huh? I thought that my cheap microphones were the ones the sucked. I had an Audiotechica ATR-25, ATR-35 and Azden SMX-10. But they worked fine when monitoring the audio levels on my HV20/30's display. The microphone in on my editing computer always came in barely audible for voiceovers. That was until I discovered the culprit: Audio Enhancements.

Do yourself a favor and turn off the extra effects on your Microphone.

Start -> Control Panel -> Sound -> Recording -> Microphone -> Properties -> Enhancements -> Disable all sound effects

If you're using Audacity you're better off applying the adjustments yourself. The default setting has DC Offset Cancellation which mutes the microphone if it determines it is "too loud." It wasn't doing a very good job. Noise Suppression and Acoustic Echo Cancellation were kind of dodgy. Like when you over apply noise cancellation in Audacity it starts to sound like a tin can.

With everything off, life is better.

YSM35B Finalize the Adapter

2008-11-29T17:58:00.010-05:00

This is the tenth in the series of instructions on how to build the YSM35B Vibrating 35mm DOF Adapter. In the last part we attached the motor to the adapter. Now we finalize the vibrating adapter.

Finalize the Adapter

Tools you will need for this portion:

Glue gun
Metal ruler

Remove ring #3 and adjust the focus screen distance. Do the same adjustment for infinity focus as you did earlier in the series. Once you have the distance right, glue the top focus screen mount to the stilts. Tap the glue gun to the edge of the stilts and let it drip down to the mount. Pull the glue gun away carefully to not drop any on the focus screen. Do all three stilts. Then glue the motor as well. Allow to cool. Then close everything up!

The above video has an extra section explaining one battery versus two.

Premiliminary Demo

Above is a demo using the 1 battery setup. You can see some oscillation in the image. Unlike the YSM35A this model is running too slow. I've changed back to the original 2 battery design.

That's it!
I hope you had fun during this build. Watch for future updates. Now go out there and make movies. Good luck!

YSM35B Attaching Motor to Adapter

2008-11-29T17:13:00.009-05:00

This is the ninth in the series of instructions on how to build the YSM35B Vibrating 35mm DOF Adapter. In the last part we reviewed the differences between the YSM35A and YSM35B. Now we attach the motor and power connector to the adapter itself.

Attaching Motor to Adapter

Parts and Tools needs for this portion:

Phono plug (RS 274-0852)
Soldering iron/gun
Silver bearing Solder (RS 64-025)
Drill
Eye protection

Wear safety glasses when operating the drill. Disassemble the static adapter from Ring #3 out. Leave Ring #2 attached to the F-mount. The motor mount area should be bottom. Note the alignment of the focus screen mount so the motor will become a fourth leg.

Take ring #2 on the adapter and mark out where you need to put the phono plug. It should be on the bottom and between the front and rear threads. Examine the ring inside and out before you drill.

Make a pilot hole with a 1/8" drill bit to start. This will take a few minutes of drilling. Rest your drill every so often. Then check to make sure your distances are alright. You shouldn't eat into the rear thread where ring #3 attaches or the front thread where the Nikon F-mount attaches.

Enlarge the hole with a 1/4" drill bit. This will be much quicker. Clean your work area of the aluminum dust.

Heat up your solder gun now. Meanwhile find your other phono plug. Remove the washer and middle/center conductor. Leave the spacer. Slot that onto the hole you made into ring #2. Attach the conductor to the threads on the phono plug from inside ring #2. Follow with the washer to fasten both together. The connector tab for the conductor should be facing inward.

Tin the back/center pole and the middle/outer conductor. Solder the red wire from the vibrating motor to the back/center pole. The blue wire goes to the middle/outer conductor. This should result in center of phono plug being positive and outer being negative. This matches the control box.

You can now re-assemble the vibrating mount, ring #2 and nikon F-mount together. To get the vibrating mount in you may have to insert it at a slant. Screw it all together via the found mount rather than rotating ring #2.

Re-align the right side stilt(leg) to the F-mount locking pin. Then remove the adhesive backing from the motor and press it on to the top focus screen mount.

During this endeavor the focus screen mount was probably displaced. Adjust the distance of the focus screen. Later we will glue the stilts so the distance is permanent. For now, just get it in the approximate distance. You might have to bend or loop the solid core wire so it doesn't bend the other legs. The adapter now has four legs.

Clean the focus screen. Hopefully you didn't touch it at all during this process. Attach the control box and test.

What's Next?
We finalize the vibrating adapter. We need to readjust for correct infinity focus. Once we are confident, we glue it to be permanent.

YSM35B Difference in Design to YSM35A

2008-11-29T15:55:00.006-05:00

This is the eight in the series of instructions on how to build the YSM35B Vibrating 35mm DOF Adapter. In the last part made the control box. Now we re-examine the difference between this version and the original.

Click on the picture to see the Flickr Notes

The original YSM35A used a Rheostat and Power switch. I couldn't find a Rheostat this time around so I subsituted with a Mini Volume Control. Rheostats and Volume Controls are found in the Potentiometer area of hobby electronics (e.g. Radioshack).

The difference is Rheostats are made for higher voltages and doesn't turn off. That is why the power switch (SPDT Mini-Toggle) is needed. A volume control switch is a potentiometer with a built-in SPDT switch. We will be using a tiny motor so it should be fine to put 1.2 to 3 volts through it without burning it out. The dial won't have the precision of a rheostat but it will do.

Another difference with the A model is the use of only one battery. This reduction from 2.4 - 3v (NIMH/Alkaline) to 1.2 to 1.5 volts (NIMH/Alkaline) is an experiment. With the soldering skill you develop it won't be too hard to change battery holders later.

What's Next?
We attach the motor and install a power plug on the adapter itself.

YSM35B Assemble the Control Box

2008-11-29T12:35:00.027-05:00

This is the seventh in the series of instructions on how to build the YSM35B Vibrating 35mm DOF Adapter. In the last part we extended the wiring for the pancake motor. We now assemble a control box.

Test Wiring

This part is temporary to see if the switches and wires are good. It also has a short note on filling the connector holes with solder. If you're feeling confident you can skip this part.

Control Box Assembly

The parts and tools you will need for this portion:

Phono Plugs (RS 274-0852)
Rheostat + Power Switch or Mini Volume Control (RS 271-0215)
Project Enclosure (RS 270-1801)
AA Battery Holder (1x - RS 270-401A or 2x RS 270-382A + Snap Connector)
AA Batteries
Soldering Iron/Gun
Silver Bearing Solder (RS 64-025)
Drill with 1/8" and 1/4" bits
RCA cable
Eye Protection

Take the Mini Volume Control switch and look at the connector poles. There should be a marking 1,2,3 or just 3 on it. Solder the red wire of your battery holder to the outer pole #3. Take a splice of wire (red) and solder that to the back pole of the phono plug.

Remember to wear safety glasses when operating the drill. Little burrs tend to fly!

Take both and do a test fit in the project box. Mark the locations and start drilling. Both of the parts I used fit through a 1/4" hole. Drill a holes, using a smaller pilot first, at low speed then gradually speed up. Once you punch the holes in, pull the drill bit out partially and run it in reverse to clean it out. You can usually remove any burrs by hand. Once clean you can do another test fit. Rheostats and Volume Switches have a tab on one side to keep it from rotating. Tap another smaller hole for it with a 1/8" bit. If there are obstructions you can use a sanding bit or cutter to clean them out.

Take your phono plug and solder a red wire to the pole on the back. This pole connect to the middle part of the phono connector. We will use this for the positive wire. Remove the washer, middle conductor and spacer from the phono plug. We are probably discarding the spacer. Slip the phono plug with its positive wire into the project box. Then slip the middle/outer conductor and washer on. The middle/outer conductor will be used for negative and transmits power though the outer metal of the phono plug. Tighten the washer.

Tin the black wire on the battery holder as well as the middle/outer conductor. Solder the black wire together to the middle conductor.

Now attach the volume control switch to the project box. Put the spacer on the front and tighten with the washer. With the connector poles pointing up make sure the red wire on pole #3 is out of the way. Tin the middle pole #2. Tin the red wire from the phono plug as well. Then hold the solder iron to the middle pole to keep it liquid. Poke the end of the phono's red wire through the pole. Remove the soldering iron.

Inspect your connections to verify that red and black aren't wires aren't directly touching. This would cause a short.

At this point you now have a working control box. You can plug a battery in and turn on the Volume Control switch to maximum (clockwise). Take the vibrating motor and touch the 'blue/black' wire to the outer metal part of the phono plug. Then touch the red wire to the middle metal part of the same plug. The motor should vibrate.

What's Next?
Review the final control box and differences in design to the original.

YSM35B Extending the Pancake Motor Wires

2008-11-23T12:32:00.014-05:00

This is the sixth in the series of instructions on how to build the YSM35B Vibrating 35mm DOF Adapter. In the last part we adjusted the distance of the ground glass to achieve sharp infinity focus. A test of the static mode showed the grain and dust that could stick to the ground glass. We now begin to assemble the electronics.

Extending the Pancake Motor Wiring

The parts and tools you will need for this portion are:

Scrap CAT5E cable or some solid core wire
Vibrating Motor (Coin/Pancake-style)
Soldering Iron/Gun
Solder Wire
Battery
Glue gun with glue sticks

I have no training in electronics. But I asked some people who did and picked up how to use a soldering gun. If this is your first time you might want to practice on some scrap wire first.

Stripping the insulation
We want to extend the wiring of the pancake motor so I picked some solid core from a splice of CAT5E cable. You can use telephone wire but this tends to be thin. Solid core is rigid and easier to strip without destroying it.

My technique is to use a nail clipper. Apply light pressure to pinch the insulation then twist the wire around. It doesn't have to go all the way through. Pull on the insulation and it is now stripped. Do not worry too much if you take out too much. Just make sure you have enough to contact with the wires on the pancake. Do this to the other end of the wire as well. Prepare two.

How to Solder
The basic soldering iron is a device that will produce heat. It should be enough to melt the solder wire. At the right temperature the wire changes from a solid to a liquid. Once that heat is removed it cools quickly and turns back into a solid.

To prepare the soldering iron make sure the tip is clean. I like to use sandpaper to scrape off excess carbon from previous uses. Plug in to the wall socket and allow to heat for a few minutes. Be careful not to touch anything but the handle. Once heated it is easiest to touch the solder to the tip and allow it to bead. Rest the solder gun on something solid and non-flammable.

Two wires will stick easily if they are tinned. Tinning is applying a coat of solder on a wire. This way just touching the two wires together with the iron on one side would join them.

You will need both hands to the final join. With the iron rest at an angle, touch both wires together onto the heated tip. When you see the solder bead or melt pull both wires away. The solder should quickly cool. When hot the solder looks silver. Cold its a dull grey.

If you take too long you might melt some insulation. And you might notice heat along the wires. This is okay for the most part.

Insulating the Solder
Its possible to short the motor if the two exposed solder joins come into contact. To prevent this we could use various types of insulation from electrical tape, to heat shrink tubing and hot glue. In the YSM35A I found that electrical tape tends to lose adhesion over time. Heat shrink is hard to shrink significantly enough. So this time around I tried hot glue. It is non conductive and malleable.

So I apply a coating of hot glue around the two solder joins. Then I glue both together. The two joins are separated by the layer of glue.

Testing your wiring
Now its time to see if it works. Take a AA battery and touch the "red" wire to positive and "blue/black" wire to negative. The vibrating motor will work in either way but this is the convention.

What's next?
Next we'll create a control box with a battery holder, speed control, and power switch.

YSM35B Adjusting Infinity Focus

2008-11-16T22:08:00.012-05:00

This is the fifth in the series of instructions on how to build the YSM35B Vibrating 35mm DOF Adapter. In the last part we assembled the mount without the electronics. At its present state it is a static adapter. We will adjust the ground glass distance to have correct infinity focus.

Adjust Ground Glass Distance

Watch the video. Pardon the bad audio, it was windy that day.

You will need the following parts to test your current assembly:

35mm lens
+10 Diopeter Macro (Achromatic is best)
Step-up rings
Circular Filter sans glass
Rubber Band

First attach your choice of 35mm prime lens unto the F-mount. Set to infinity and set to the widest setting (lower number). Aim the assembly at some far away trees. Remove the #3 and #1 rings Push the top base closer or further away until the focus screen (ground glass) gives you the sharpest image you can perceive. It should be somewhere between 45mm-46.5mm. In my case it was a tad more than 45mm. Check that the top mount is as horizontal as possible.

Screw back the #3 and #1 rings. Now attach your Macro, Circular Filter ring and Step up rings. Attach to the camcorder. Turn on the camcorder and look through the viewfinder. You should see the image on the ground glass. Rotate the assembly until the screen looks horizontal. You can "lock" the CPL with a rubber band. The friction keeps it from moving when you make manual adjustments to the lens later.

Use the camcorder zoom to cover the entire recorded image. Note the LCD doesn't show the overscan area. Turning off Image Stabilization is probably a good idea as well. Point at some far away objects and let autofocus zero in on the focus screen. Lock manual focus.

You now have the adapter adjusted. It can be used as a static adapter and you could stop right here. In lower light cases or stopped down you will notice static grain on your images. The rest of the series will go toward eliminating that.

Demonstration of Static Grain and Dust

Download the video directly from the Vimeo page. Watch it full screen.

Why did we do this?
Setting infinity focus will be important later when we make the focus screen vibrate. You will notice some lens dust and grain in the static test above (download and view full screen). A vibrating adapter will remove that.

What's next?
We start on the electronics that will vibrate the focus screen.

YSM35B Building the Vibrating Mount Part 3

2008-11-15T18:31:00.012-05:00

This is the fourth in the series of instructions on how to build the YSM35B Vibrating 35mm DOF Adapter. In the last part we started to cut the base parts of the mount. Here we finish building the static part of the mount.

Finish the Mount as Static

Watch the video because its easier to explain that way.

We start by drilling holes on the two plastic base holders where previously marked. If you don't have a rotary tool and a press you can use a regular drill. Just set it to its lowest setting. Failing that you can find something sharp and round like a precision screw driver to poke a hole. Use a drill bit that has a sharp end so it doesn't catch on the plastic and try to spin it. Something slightly smaller than a 1/8" bit is good for these syringe plungers.

It wasn't shown in the video but between drilling the holes and mounting the plungers I cut out the opening on the bottom base. Use a metal straight edge and a sharp knife. It will take multiple cuts to break through. Work on top of cardboard or a stack on newspapers to avoid scratching your table or floor.

Now that the holes are done its time to put the base on stilts. Take your syringe plungers and cut off the push tabs with a knife. Fit the rubber plunger through the bottom base (plastic card). You might have to slip it in a slant then rotate it to get it all the way in. Repeat to get all three stilts on. Then slip the top base (pringles lid) on top. Don't worry if stilts appear slightly skewed. It will still work.

Mount the assembled mount on top of the F-mount then screw on ring #2. Measure about 50-60mm from the front of the F-mount and the end of the plungers. Cut off with scissors or cutter from pliers. The mount won't look as wonky after this.

Get ready to glue on the Ee-A focus screen. Before doing that, make sure to clean your fingers with isopropyl alcohol. Also identify which side is matte. You can hold it against the light and tilt it slightly to compare. One side will be more reflective. The Ee-A has a big tab. If this tab is upper left or lower right you have the matte side up. I like to have the tab located lower right. It doesn't matter which way you have it.

Adjust the base so its about 45mm from the flange (front edge) of the F-mount. When the focus screen is set it will be near the right distance for infinity. It won't be perfect yet but it will be close enough for now.

Rest the focus screen matte side up on the top base. Carefully align the edges and hope it doesn't fall off. If you cut off too much material for the window you might have to hold it while you glue the edges. Time to plug in the hot glue gun.

The glue gun needs about 3-5 minutes to heat up. When you glue, pull away from the focus screen. This ensures the left over glue threads don't land on the screen. The glue gun leaves strands of glue as you pull away, use your fingers to cut them.

Let it cool for about 5 minutes. Now it is safe to handle. You can screw the #3 and #1 macro tube rings on. See how much clearance the top mount has to the wall. It's okay if they touch on some points. It just makes it noisy. You can cut at the touch points to increase clearance.

At this point you have a static 35mm adapter!

Why did we do this?
The rubber on the plungers allows the top base to vibrate freely while limiting the vibration transmitted to the adapter body. Yes, the top base making contact with the inner wall of the macro tube will introduce some vibration. Shaving the contact points will reduce that. Syringe plungers were used because these are relatively easy to get. Any strong yet flexible material can be used as long as you can attach it to the Nikon F-mount.

What's next?
Setting the focal plane to correct distance prior to making it a vibrating unit.

YSM35B Building the Vibrating Mount Part 2

2008-11-15T11:35:00.014-05:00

This is the third in the series of instructions on how to build the YSM35B Vibrating 35mm DOF Adapter. In the last part we went through the theory of the vibrating mount. In this part we build it.

Cut Top and Bottom Base

The upper base of the mount is made from a thin sheet of plastic. It should be as light as possible so the stilts don't droop too much. In this case we use the lid from a Pringles can.

Use a fine point marker to draw the inner ring from the #2 ring. You want this to be narrower than the inner diameter of the tube. This will allow it to move without hitting the wall of the tube. It can be rough and still work. Use a pair of scissors to cut it out. Try dropping it within the tube. If it falls through then it is good enough.

The bottom part will fit between the F-mount ring and the 2nd ring. Trace the inner diameter of the #2 tube for this. Getting it exactly is best. The #2 ring has a gap between the inner wall and the thread wall that attaches to the next ring. This is where this mount will be held fast. Again use the marker to draw the circle. Since its a card there the top and bottom may be cut off. That's fine. Cut with your scissors.

With both bases cut, stack them on top of each other to get the relative center. We need to mark the window for the Canon Ee-A focus screen. Use some isopropyl alcohol to clean your fingers before handling. You want the matte side up. You can tell by comparing both sides against the light. Another clue is the big tab on the focus screen is on the right when matte side up. You can mark the edges with a fine point sharpie or with the box cutter.

Set aside the focus screen and bottom base. Take a box cutter/knife and straight edge. Apply firm pressure on the top base and make a box window. It works best to apply lots of downward pressure to make the cut. The window should be very slightly smaller than the focus screen to make mounting easier later.

Once the window is cut, put it over the bottom base and trace the inner window onto the bottom base. Also mark out where the three stilts should be. Leave about 2mm from the sides of the window. Then about four for the top. The bottom won't have a stilt but have a motor instead. This is just a fit test. Don't glue anything together yet!

Use masking tape to fix the two pieces together. Please don't use cellophane tape or electrical tape as a substitute. The adhesives on those tend to leave a residue.

What's next?
We'll start drilling and gluing to make our initial static mount.

YSM35B Building the Vibrating Mount Part 1

2008-11-12T16:24:00.010-05:00

This is the second in the series of instructions on how to build the YSM35B Vibrating 35mm DOF Adapter. You should have modified your Asian Macro Tube to have a 58mm thread by now.

Building the Vibrating Mount
This is the core of the adapter so there will be more detail. The main parts and tools needed:

Canon Ee-A focus screen
3pcs syringe plungers (type used for insulin)
Hot glue gun with sticks
Mechanical Pencil
Plastic card
Scissors
Box cutter or any sharp blade
Metric Ruler
2 solid core wires
Vibrating motor
Drill
Soldering Iron

The Theory
Before we begin lets get some background out of the way. A 35mm adapter needs a condenser and ground glass. In our case the Canon Ee-A focus screen is both in a small package. This tiny piece of plastic has a matte side and a more transparent side. The matte side is what we will use as the ground glass. This side faces to the back of the adapter. The other side is a fresnel pattern that faces to the front. It serves as a condenser, not a great one but better than nothing, to capture the light from the 35mm lens to brighten it up on the ground glass.

Normally, the ground glass needs to be held 46.5mm away from the F-mount on the adapter. But the fresnel piece changes the optics a bit so it should be closer by a few millimeters. We'll adjust this by eye later. If you have access to a collimator then good for you. If you could build one then I applaud you!

Assuming the distance of the focus screen is right, the 35mm lens set on infinity should have a sharp picture for far away objects. This would mean the focus marks on the lens would be fairly accurate as well.

With the above parts this is a static adapter. For daylight this is usually fine with fast lenses. The more you stop down on the lens the grain on the focus screen becomes more visible. There are ways to blur this out in software or you could eliminate this with hardware. To remove the grain you could oscillate or rotate the ground glass. In our case we will use a small vibrating motor to oscillate it.

What's next?
We'll start cutting our initial static mount in the next post.

YSM35B Asian Macro Tube to 58mm Thread

2008-11-12T15:47:00.016-05:00

This is the first in the series of instructions on how to build the YSM35B Vibrating 35mm DOF Adapter based on the parts lists of the YSM35(A). The build will be nearly the same except I'll be using a 58mm Opteka HD^2 Macro plus a smaller power pack.

At the end of this series you will know how you could build one yourself. Or know enough about how one is built to diagnose problems with your existing adapter.

Putting a 58mm Thread on the Nikon Macro Tube
For this part we'll recap how to modify an "Asian Macro Tube" with Nikon F Mount to have a standard 58mm filter ring. You will need the following items:

Asian Macro Tube with Nikon F-mount
58mm UV Filter
Two Part Epoxy (e.g. JB Weld)
2 Flat Head precision screw drivers (or a drawing compass)
Paperclip
Plastic Card
Isopropyl Alcohol

Use a non-slip pad to remove the glass from the UV filter. We only want the ring to convert the 57mm tube to 58mm. Use the two screwdrivers or compass (the drawing tool not the magnetic direction finder) to twist the inner ring counterclockwise. Applying downward pressure helps. This will unfasten the ring. Once you have it out remove this retaining ring and the glass.

Take the Asian Macro and find the "1" ring. Set the rest side. You can discard the ring with the bayonet mount. Clean both the filter thread and the "1" ring with isopropyl alcohol. Set aside.

Mix the two part epoxy on a piece of carton or paper with a paper clip. JB Weld is good. There is a white and black tube. The black one is harder to get the contents out. You will get a grey goop. Apply the goop to the rear thread of the "1" ring. Make sure to have some all around. Then stack the 58mm filter on top of this. The epoxy may get squeezed out on the sides and the inside between the threads.

Press and hold for a few seconds. While the goop is still soft use the plastic card to scrape the excess from the outside. Inspect the front inner thread of the "1" ring and the rear outer thread of the 58mm filter. Clean out any goop on it. Allow this to cure for 24 hours. It will cure faster in warm weather.

Why did we do this?
The Asian Macro tube is the body for the adapter. The ones off Ebay were 1mm too small. We need a standard 58mm thread to attach a macro, circular filter, and 43mm to 58mm step up ring later.

What is next?
The next post will be about how to build the vibrating mount.

YSM35 Usage Guide and Test Footage

2008-10-15T21:24:00.005-04:00

Guide to using and setting the YSM35 Vibrating Adapter. Just for reference.

I discuss how to adjust manual focus with the HV20 and other general usage notes for a 35mm adapter. This video was made for my brother who is now the user of my first successful vibrating adapter.

Note that the Bower 58mm Singlet has been replaced with a 52mm Opteka HD^2 +10 Macro.

Handheld Test Video

Vibrating 35mm DOF adapter completed

2008-05-11T16:23:00.014-04:00

After almost a year I get back to completing my vibrating adapter. This time I switched the ground glass from the Nikon F3 Type D to a Canon Ee-A focus screen. I made a holder out of three syringe plungers, a key card, and the lid from a can of pringles chips. I kid you not, it's that ghetto. But it works. The pancake motor and motor controls are reused from the previous attempt. The assembly seems to work well.

Parts Currently Used
1 Canon Ee-A focus screen (Canon USA Part#YN2-3558-000)
1 "Asian" Macro Extension Tube with Nikon Mount (ebay)
2 58mm Filters (ebay)
1 58mm Bower +10 Singlet Macro (ebay)
1 Lid from a Pringles can (corner store-any flavor!)
1 Key card (in my pocket-any flat plastic will do)
3 Syringe plungers (generous individual)
1 43-55 Step-Up ring (ebay)
1 55-58 Step-Up ring (ebay)
1 2xAA Battery Holder (Radioshack)
2 AA Batteries (supermarket)
1 40-ohm Rheostat (radioshack)
1 2-way flip switch (radioshack)
1 splice of wire (old CAT5 works)
1 RG-45 connector (from an old telephone)
1 RG-45 socket (from a DSL suppressor)
4 machine screws (Home Depot)
12 machine nuts (Home Depot)
1 plank of plywood (Michael's craft store)

Tools Used
1 two-part epoxy (for asian tube to 58mm)
1 Dremel (for cutting the holder)
1 Carbide tip (for cutting the holder)
1 Drill with various small drillbits
1 Boxcutter
1 Scissors
1 Soldering Iron
1 spool of Solder wire
1 nail clipper
1 magnifying lens
2 rulers
1 mechanical pencil
1 hot-glue gun
1 roll of electrical tape
1 packet of heat shrink tubing

I'll have to explain the build and post sample footage in a later post. It's going to be a long story. And be careful when trying to source those syringe plungers. Apparently some states won't let you buy them without a prescription. I tried getting it over the counter once and I was given odd looks. I forget that insulin syringes might also be used for other drug applications thus these could be regulated where you live. There are alternatives such as nylon screws or carbon fiber wires.

Making a Bottle Cap Stabilizer

2008-04-27T15:12:00.003-04:00

Bottle caps for stabilizers? Yeah, it might look silly but it could be convenient. Pick a common threaded bottle cap. Poke a screw through it. Put some washers and a nut in to expose just a small bit of thread. Fill the bottle with fluid or sand and you've got yourself a pendulum to stabilize your lightweight camera. It also makes for a very low on the ground tripod.

Bottle Cap Stabilizer

Top View of Bottle Cap Mount

Bottom View of Bottle Cap Mount

Parts:
1 Bottle Cap
1 3/4" long 1/4"-20 Screw (usually where you find locks and door knobs)
1 1/4"-20 Nut (usually where you find locks and door knobs)
2 1/2L Flat Faucet Washer (usually near plumbing with sinks and faucets)

Tools:
Drill
1/4" Drill Bit
1/8" Drill Bit
Screwdriver

Find a bottle cap you want to use. Mark the center. Use the smaller 1/8" drill bit to make a pilot hole. I use a big cardboard box so I don't worry about making holes on my workbench. Then expand the hole with the 1/4" drill bit. Clean out the center.

Take the 3/4" 1/4-20 screw then thread the nut through to the base. Take one of the 1/2L washers (O.D. 25/32") and thread the screw into it. The inner diameter of the washer is smaller than the screw. So you may have to set it down a table and screw down with the screw driver. Then it's a matter of hold the washer as you screw it flush against the nut. Take the screw-nut-washer piece and thread that though the bottom of the bottle cap. Once completely through, thread it into the second washer. Both washers should hold the cap tight. This way you can thread the entire thing. You might want to use a third washer or some other spacer depending on how shallow the mount screw is on your camera.

Fill the bottle with some sort or fluid or sand. Anything that will give it weight and keeps the bottle pointing to the ground would do. Then you've got a cheap stabilizer. If the bottle cap is common enough (like from bottled water or soda) you don't have to bring the body with you. Just buy your drink wherever you are and thread your camera in. You might get some looks but who cares if it makes your camera more stable.

Protecting the Canon WD-H43 Wide Angle Lens

2008-02-10T09:40:00.004-05:00

DIY WD-H43 Filter Adapter with UV Filter and White Balance Cap

The WD-H43 has no filter ring and uses a strange cap size. As it is there is little to protect the nice high definition lens from stray projectiles, sea spray, leaves, and twigs. I like to shoot outdoors romping merrily through grass, twigs and branches while grown men with toy guns lob tiny plastic pellets at upwards of 280fps. Needless to say I was worried for my lens.

So I asked around but found no easy answers to solutions. Someone did point me to a CAVision lens clamp to adapt 75mm lens, the WD-H43 is 74.5mm which is close enough, to 77mm which I ordered from my favorite camera store. That was late September 2007. It's been on backorder since then and delivery won't happen until middle of 2008 if all goes well. Naturally I was frustrated in not being able use the lens with the great abandon I prefer. I tried a few ideas to hold a filter including using rubber plumbing parts. Finally I've come up with an interim solution that works.

A failed experiment

I use a spare lens cap for the WD-H43 and then cut out a hole for the lens. I glued a 77mm filter ring on to it then mounted my choice of 77mm filter. In this case I chose a low profile 77mm UV multicoated filter like those used in DSLRs. I did some experiments on how deep a stack I could use without the rings showing in the footage and the most it might do ('m guessing) is two. It would be three if I kept the glass on the glued on ring but I didn't. ~~I shot test video which will be posted at a later date.~~ Update: The LCD doesn't show the overscan area so it appears that more than 1 ring on the stack would be visible in the footage. Not one wanting to crop good video out, I put the filter glass back on.

For now here's some pictures to give you an idea of what it looks like.

DIY WD-H43 Filter Adapter with UV Filter without the White Balance Cap

DIY WD-H43 Filter Adapter with UV Filter only

DIY WD-H43 Filter Adapter with UV Filter and White Balance Cap

Making the Most of the Omnitech 11.3 Digital Frame

2007-12-07T20:31:00.000-05:00

I was at Staples for the BF 2007 sale and picked up the bigger digital frame for my mom. The Omnitech 11.3 appears to be a rebrand of the same unit sold by Smartparts for its SP1100. Getting pictures to work was fairly straightfoward. Plug in a card or load something into its internal media and away it goes. The slideshow is default at 5 seconds. One thing to watch out for, the slideshow menu doesn't give you any setup options. You have to be at the photo/video/music menu then press Menu on the rear of the display or Setup on the remote to get to all the options. But even with the Optimal scaling option activated it doesn't scale portrait pictures as nicely as I'd like. But if you resize your images it works well as long as a scaler isn't involved. The LCD likes 16:9 resolution and its 800x400 screen is decent enough.

The tough part was getting video working correctly. I have a Canon S410 and its AVI files play okay on the unit. The 4:3 video was stretched to the 16:9 screen and the audio played fine. But getting my own HDV/DV/WMV/MP4 to playback wasn't straight forward. For one, the unit needs the video to be in an AVI container. And MPEG-4 codecs are not recognized. It seems the software was optimized for the kind of video recorded by digital cameras. So after editing via Sony Vegas I had to pass the video through SUPER(c). 640x360 video with M-JPEG and PCM in an AVI container worked.

There's a music function but it doesn't appear to playback MP3 files. It will take WMA audio files (ironically it doesn't play WMV). I had to install Windows Media Encoder and VCM to convert the music. I'm not sure how Mac users would be able to get around this. And I like how slideshow will play the WMA concurrently but wish that it would playback my AVI files as part of the shuffle. Oh well, can't have everything.

Convert 60i to 60p Revisited

2007-11-28T17:24:00.000-05:00

A few questions were posted to me via YouTube on how to do 60i to 60p conversion. In a previous post I showed how to use Vegas velocity envelopes to do time remap effects. But I only mentioned the conversion process in passing with thread links on how to do it. For convenience here are two methods that have worked for me:

Standard Vegas
1) Create a Custom Project with 60p frame rate
File -> Properties -> Video -> Field order: None (progressive scan) -> Frame rate: 59.940 (Double NTSC) -> Save -> Ok
2) Load your HDV clip
3) Enable Smart Resample (this is default)
Right-click on clip -> Properties -> Smart Resample -> Ok
4) Encode video to a 60p progressive format
File -> Render As -> Pick a codec capable of progressive -> Custom -> Frame rate: 59.940 -> Apply -> Give the file a name -> Save

Mike Crash Smart Deinterlace Plugin
1) Create a Custom Project with 60p frame rate
File -> Properties -> Video -> Field order: None (progressive scan) -> Frame rate: 59.940 (Double NTSC) -> Save -> Ok
2) Load your HDV clip
3) Disable Smart Resample
Right-click on clip -> Properties -> No Resample -> Ok
4) Apply Smart Deinterlace to the video track
Video FX -> Smart Deinterlace (you must have loaded the plug-in previously) -> Drag effect to the track (not to the clip) -> Ok (use defaults)
5) Encode video to a 60p progressive format
File -> Render As -> Pick a codec capable of progressive -> Custom -> Frame rate: 59.940 -> Apply -> Give the file a name -> Save

Gotcha
The critical part is to encode in a progressive codec. HDV is interlaced. When using the Main Concept codec go to the Video tab and select Output Type MPEG-2. WMV and MP4 are always progressive.

References:
Glenn Chan's notes on Mike Crash's filter
http://dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=52097

Simple Cutout Animation with CreaToon

2007-11-04T15:38:00.000-05:00

If you're looking for a simple 2D animation package look no further! CreaToon is great for simple cutout animation like talking heads. Before I found this I was going to use Blender 3D and learn all the rigging. It saved me some time coming up with a funny effect I wanted.

CreaToon can take most image formats such as JPEG, Targa, and PNG. I like PNG as it allows for Alpha Channels to make the background transparent. This means I could edit a graphic using Paint.NET then animate it. Attaching the body parts of an animation is easy to follow through the online tutorial. Within half a day I had a minute long voiceover and animation sequence working together for my cutout characters.

With the sequence done I was able to put it in front a green background and export to AVI. Imported into Sony Vegas I applied a Chroma Key reapplied the audio and was all set. CreaToon was also capable of exporting image sequences but this method seemed easier for my style of editing.

References:
http://www.creatoon.com/index.php

Slowmo and Speed Up Effect 300-style

2007-09-09T13:31:00.001-04:00

Here's my attempt at the 300 style special effect. It works quite well for the HV20 with its high resolution picture and choice of manual settings. Good light is important to allow TV-500 or TV-250 mode. This eliminates motion blur. Shoot from a stable platform to reduce obvious rolling shutter. Then capture your 60i.

Convert your 60i to 60p using your choice of deinterlacer. Smart Deinterlace based on VirtualDub's works quite well. As for the codec, choose one that supports 60p such as Lagarith/Uncompressed AVI, WMV or H.264. Then feed the clip to an NLE that can do velocity envelope/time remapping. Speed up/ramp up the broad movements while at wide. When you find the terminus of an action, back off a bit then slow down to at least half normal speed (I like to go down to 0% in a V or U for Vegas velocity envelopes). Keep that for a few seconds then return to normal. To accentuate the slow mo portion, use digital zoom to the area of action.

Sony Vegas example:

http://img127.imageshack.us/img127/9803/300stylevegassettingsls7.jpg

References:
http://dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=64785&page=2&highlight=ghost
http://dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=93587

Sleep is Close Behind

2007-07-27T09:12:00.002-04:00

Shot in PF24 mode with Shutter Priority (TV) 6. Camera was inside the car propped against a seat on a monopod and a backpack. Driving was done well within the speed limit trying to avoid large bumps. Captured footage to Sony Vegas as M2T then increased speed to 12x by setting clip speed to maximum (4x) and adding maximum velocity envelope (3x).

Bleach Bypass on HDV

2007-07-15T11:49:00.000-04:00

I've been trying out various Bleach Bypass techniques on 60i and 24p footage. It appears source matters a lot. HDV is 4:2:0 while DV is 4:1:1 for NTSC. It appears that DV with its compressed colors is easier to bleach using color curves, saturation, and color overlay. HDV, at least the color rich kind made by the HV20, needs to be desaturated to as low as 20% on the bottom layer. Sometimes it even helps to give a color tinge to the entire clip too. More experimentation to be done!

References:
http://www.finalcolor.com/bleach.htm
http://www.creativecow.net/articles/onneweer_barend/colorgrading_1/index.html
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=14222&highlight=kings
http://www.sundancemediagroup.com/articles/glennchan/levels_in_sony_vegas_part_two.htm

Melancholy of a Travelling Man

2007-05-21T20:53:00.002-04:00

Low resolution 320x200 version further compressed by Youtube Sorenson codec.

Shot in PF24 mode mostly in TV 48 with custom effect. Shallow DOF in the opening scene was achieved using 28mm Nikon f/2.0 at full wide. The wild flower scene used the standard lens taking advantage of the shallow DOF inherent in the 1/2.7" sensor. Custom effect was Color Depth 0, Sharpness -1, Contrast -1, Brightness -1. The only shot with color correction was the city lights view from the air. Gamma was adjusted to hide the low light grain.

Things to consider for 24 frames per second

2007-05-14T21:02:00.001-04:00

I've almost always shot progressive. It builds discipline. The higher frame rate of 60i has it uses but most of the time I still shoot as if I'm on 30p/24p. Here is a video to help illustrate some of the differences in style when using lower frame rates. 35mm users trying to emulate film style probably learn this as they go along.

Sorry, video unavailable due to Stage6 shutting down.

Original video is 720x400 which can be run fullscreen.
Apologies if DivX player doesn't agree with you.

The two basic rules are:
1) Avoid sudden movements
2) Try to shoot from a fixed position

All these shots were taken with a monopod. In the beginning of the above video I do a relatively slow pan. As you will notice, the fast moving objects like cars and people show a bit of the 24p stutter. Higher frame rates are better for higher movement. If you need to move fast or capture really fast objects look at 60i. Besides the subjects you have to consider your own movement. Panning takes patience and thinking ahead. You have to learn how fast you can twist the video head and appear smooth. And don't try to stop the head too quickly unless its an effect you mean to use. It can be jarring.

In the middle part I walk with the monopod to the middle of the center island. The shock of walking, especially with my flat footed step, can send the camcorder bobbing and yawing all over the place. The stuttering effect of 24p accents this. Unless you're trying to duplicate the beachhead scene from Saving Private Ryan you may not want to move around with 24p unless you have a well balanced base. I've driven in cars with 24p and gotten good video. But walking is always tricky.

In the later middle portion I show 24p sped up. Its a bit of a cheat. I would have used a sky scene but didn't have one. Sped up footage of nature scenes look nice when all the frames are progressive.

In the last portion I zoom in a bit. You have to realize that zooming means that any unintentional movement of the camera results in big movement of the image. So practice the steadiness of your hand. Try to keep a comfortable position so your nervous body movements don't transmit from the monopod/tripod to your camera.

From one amateur to another, have fun working in 24p.

Making true 24p sources out of HV20 m2t

2007-05-11T18:24:00.000-04:00

24p inside 60i with pulldown

This happens on TV a lot so you may not even notice this with your HDV.

24p with pulldown removed

You would pretty much have to be using a computer or some progressive display to notice the difference.

Introduction
Hi there! You're probably reading this because you want to convert your Canon HV20 (or whatever with 24F/P in 60i) footage to true progressive format prior to editing. Whew. Let me begin by saying not everyone needs to do this. If you're adding lots of special effects and resizing your output to a smaller HD (eg. 1280x720) it may matter because of "combing". Or simply because you like to see your frames individually as clear as possible. Maybe you are a film enthusiast and your final output needs to be its progressive best. Doing Inverse Telecine/Pulldown Removal (we'll call it IVTC now) will not compensate for bad video. It just removes the blur/ghost produced by that one interlaced frame every few seconds. Most people will not even notice. I barely notice it.

This IVTC process won't save you hard drive space because you need to generate large files with a lossless codec if you really want to preserve the bit-by-bit look. If you compress with WMV9 or XViD you're doing lossy editing which may lose more detail if you add in text effects or overlays. It's up to you. Maybe your audience won't notice. Call it an artistic device!

Anyway, you can still work with your raw m2t or dvr-ms to produce fantastic looking output. DVR-MS used by Windows Movie Maker is stored with WMV9 compression. That format does not allow interlace therefore it is automatically deinterlaced for you! If you just need something simple to share with friends and relatives you can recompress to WMV. Even Mac users should have a codec to read those! As for Linux, they can figure it out.

This process is technically involved. The open source software hasn't been glued together enough to be easy to use. Get one thing wrong and it may not work at all. If you have no patience for this, stick with Microsoft's Movie Maker or stay with interlace. If you need to do this for a living then go spend the extra cash to buy Cineform's software. They cost a pretty penny but they simplify this process and do some extra high end stuff.

Have I knocked some sense into you? No? Oh well, then read on.

The Farnsworth plus Sillyman Process
Forgive me Farnsworth, whoever you really are, for I am about to immortalize your name with your own process. His original process is posted here. He listed down the tools you needed. They are all free, from extracting the m2t to performing IVTC and then rendering to an intermediate edit format. The only non-free part is where you actually start using an NLE. Unless you're using VirtualDub/Windows Movie Maker you probably had to buy an HDV capable editor.

Here's an overview of the workflow with the improvements I've made:

1) Extract m2t using HDVSplit (NLEs like Vegas can do this too)
2) Run DGIndex and fixavs.pl via go.bat to identify the progressive and interlaced frames and save it to a d2v file. Generate an MPA file for audio to go with it. Create an Avisynth (AVS) file with instructions to use the d2v and mpa with the correct audio delay.
3) Load the AVS file into VirtualDubMod and select your compression format. Then Save As to an AVI file.
4) Load your new AVI file to your choice of NLE for editing. Then render to your desired format.
5) Delete or archive the source files that you no longer need.

Getting Step 1-3 To Work
We'll only cover Steps 1 to 3 in this process. 4 to 5 is all yours.

A) Download the Software
ActivePERL 5.8
HDVSplit 0.77 Beta
VirtualDubMod 1.5.10.2 All inclusive
Avisynth 2.57
DGIndex 1.49 RC2
TIVTC v1.01 plugin ~search TIVTC
MPASource plugin ~search MPASource
MSU Lossless Codec
Lagarith 1.312 Codec
Huffyuv 2.2.0 Codec
Farnsworth plus Sillyman 24p scripts

B) Install HDVSplit 0.77 Beta (you don't have to if your NLE already makes m2t with scene splitting)
C) Create a directory called 24p (anywhere you'd like)
D) Decompress VirtualDubMod 1.5.102 into that 24p directory.
E) Decompress dgmpgdec149rc2.zip into that 24p directory; RENAME IT to dgindex
F) Go to the dgindex directory and look for DGDecode.dll; COPY THAT to c:\Program Files\Avisynth 2.5\plugins
G) Open TIVTCv101.zip and COPY the TIVTC.dll to c:\Program Files\Avisynth 2.5\plugins
H) Open mpasource_25_dll_20040109.zip and COPY mpasource.dll to c:\Program Files\Avisynth 2.5\plugins
I) Right-click msu-ls-codec.exe and Run as Administrator (For Vista -- XP you can run as normal) and follow the prompts to install
J) Decompress Lagarith_1312.zip and RIGHT-CLICK INSTALL lagrith.inf; you can delete the decompressed files aftewards
K) Decompress Huffyuv 2.2.0 and RIGHT-CLICK INSTALL huffyuv.inf; you can delete the decompressed files afterwards
L) COPY the go.bat, template.avs, and fixavsdelay.pl into the 24p directory
M) Double click on the activeperlxxx.msi file to install and follow the default options

Your 24p directory should look something like this:

D:\Capture\24p>dir
 Volume in drive D is DATA

 Directory of D:\Capture\24p

05/12/2007  08:48 AM    DIR          .
05/12/2007  08:48 AM    DIR          ..
05/11/2007  07:01 PM    DIR          dgindex
05/12/2007  07:03 AM             1,526 fixavsdelay.pl
05/11/2007  10:55 PM               173 go.bat
05/12/2007  08:48 AM             5,576 README-YouSillyMan.txt
05/11/2007  10:57 PM               117 template.avs
05/09/2007  09:35 AM    DIR          VirtualDubMod_1_5_10_2_All_inclusive

Your plugins directory should look something like this:

C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins>dir
 Volume in drive C is OS

 Directory of C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins

05/11/2007  07:07 PM    DIR          .
05/11/2007  07:07 PM    DIR          ..
07/05/2005  08:04 AM             7,129 colors_rgb.avsi
05/07/2007  10:53 PM           192,512 DGDecode.dll
12/24/2006  05:12 AM            24,576 DirectShowSource.dll
01/09/2004  08:55 PM           135,168 mpasource.dll
12/24/2006  05:12 AM           112,640 TCPDeliver.dll
02/19/2007  05:52 PM           456,192 TIVTC.dll

How To Use The Script

A) Run HDVSplit to extract all your m2t scenes (in this example we'll assume D:\Capture)
B) Start -> cmd , this will launch a command shell
C) Go to your 24p directory where go.bat is found (in this example we'll assume D:\Capture\24p)
D) in the command shell type "go D:\capture" -- USE ABSOLUTE PATHS; DGindex will launch once per m2t file

Sample filenames generated:

05/08/2007  06:11 PM        35,451,392 CaptureTemp_0023.m2t
05/12/2007  09:01 AM           492,626 CaptureTemp_0023.m2t_ MPA PID 814 DELAY -236ms.mpa
05/12/2007  09:01 AM               208 CaptureTemp_0023.m2t_.avs
05/12/2007  09:01 AM             1,800 CaptureTemp_0023.m2t_.d2v
05/12/2007  09:01 AM               214 CaptureTemp_0023.m2t_fixedaudio.avs

E) There will be two sets on avs file for each m2t. You want the one that says xxxx_fixedaudio.avs
F) Run VirtualDubMod and drag the xxxx_fixedaudio.avs into the open window
G) Video -> Compression (pick a lossless one like LSU or whatever you like)
F) File -> Save As (you can use fast recompress since or full processing, doesn't matter), give it a file name
G) open that file in your NLE and begin editing
H) When you're all done you can delete the files as you see fit

The procedure is still rough but its a good start. Here is some sample output.

UPDATE1
Some have had trouble following the instructions for various reasons. I've put together the pieces that don't explicitly disallow bundling. Hopefully this link is still valid when you find this.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/d71x3y

The contents have an installme.bat. Run that to create a c:\capture directory. Inside the 24p directory specified in E-H and J are done. You still have to do the rest manually but it will help get you started if you run into errors.

You may want to read the thread that spawned the above "patch" at http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=91500&page=2

UPDATE2
Steve Szudzik consolidated the above process and the improvements in update1. You can find his exe and procedure at http://www.szudzik.net/vegas/scripts/HV20Pulldown.html. Therefore the procedure outlined above is mostly for reference now. If you have problems with Steve's method look to the components that made it work.

fixavsdelay.pl+go.bat, this is replaced by Steve's HV20Pulldown.exe


#!c:\perl\bin\perl.exe
# You can install ActivePERL 5.8 to parse this for you
# This file is fixavsdelay.pl Version 1
# Parse AVS files in directory with proper delay
# by Mike Dulay -- http://yousillyman.blogspot.com
# This code is released under GPL to align with the spirit of the code this works with.  It's free and open source, okay?  Just use it and abuse it.  But any mistakes from here on are you own! :-)

# My template.AVS:
#vid=MPEG2Source("__vid__")
#aud=MPASource("__aud__").delayaudio()
#audiodub(vid,aud)
#TFM(d2v="__vid__")
#tdecimate()

# My go.bat
#COPY template.avs %1
#FOR %%f IN (%1\*.m2t) DO dgindex\dgindex.exe -if=[%%f] -FO=0 -OF=[%%f_] -AT=[%1\template.avs] -EXIT
#FOR %%f IN (%1\*.m2t) DO perl fixavsdelay.pl %%f


sub mstos {
    my $ms = $_[0];
    #preserve the "-" sign if present
    my $sign = "";
    $sign = '-' if ($ms=~/^\-/);
    $ms =~ s/^\-//;
    my $secs = sprintf("%.3f", ($ms/1000));
    return $sign.$secs;
}

my $filename = $ARGV[0];
open(AVSFILE,"<$filename\_\.avs");
open(OUTFILE,">$filename\_fixedaudio\.avs");

foreach my $line () {
  if ($line =~ /DELAY /) {
      my $subline = $';  # part of string after word DELAY
      $subline =~ /ms\.mpa/; # part of string between delay and ms.mpa
      my $delaystring = $`;
      my $seconds=mstos($delaystring);
      $line =~ s/delayaudio\(\)/delayaudio\($seconds\)/;
      print OUTFILE $line;
 } else {
 print OUTFILE $line;
 }
}
close(AVSFILE);
close(OUTFILE);

__END__


rem COPY template.avs %1
FOR %%f IN (%1\*.m2t) DO dgindex\dgindex.exe -if=[%%f] -FO=0 -OF=[%%f_] -AT=[template.avs] -EXIT
FOR %%f IN (%1\*.m2t) DO perl fixavsdelay.pl "%%f"

template.avs, this was my version


vid=MPEG2Source("__vid__")
aud=MPASource("__aud__").delayaudio()
audiodub(vid,aud)
TFM(d2v="__vid__")
tdecimate()

farnsworth.avs, this was Farnsworth's original which Steve also uses as a base


v=MPEG2Source("__vid__")
a=MPASource("__aud__")
audiodub(v,a)
TFM(d2v="__vid__")
tdecimate()
DelayAudio(-0.222)

UPDATE3:
Here's a reference to the HV20 forum where Farnsworth first posted his method.
http://www.hv20.com/showthread.php?t=218&page=13

Eugenia Loli-Queru also posted improvements to Steve's documentation (it's great how the improvements keep rolling).
http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2007/07/13/canon-hv20-24p-pulldown/

HV20 Non-LANC controller

2007-05-09T18:46:00.000-04:00

Now that I've built a figrig its great for moving around. But starting or stopping the recording means having to let go with one hand. Unfortunately, there is no LANC available for the HV20. Not to be deterred I built one based on an earlier idea.

Parts
1 Canon WL-D85 Wireless Controller
1 Toslink optical cable
1 Pack of Sticky Back Velcro
1 Roll of Electrical Tape
1 Plastic fork/spoon/knife (flat handle)
1 Flat plastic/credit card
4 rubber bands
1 strip of aluminum foil

Tools
1 Pair of Scissors

Start by testing the principle. The HV20 sensor is that smoke colored plastic on the lower right side (left if you're looking directly at it) of the lens. Get a fiber optic cable like a Toslink (aka SPDIF optical) cable and line up the HV20's controller with one side of the pickup. Point the other end of the cable at the sensor. You can control the camcorder from behind! The trick is getting the controller and cable to line up. Same thing with the sensor and the other end.

The Controller Mount
I start by cutting up an old plastic card into 2/3 and 1/3 pieces lengthwise. The 1/3 piece is used as a spine and extends out the top by an inch to be a fastener for the cable. Wrap the pieces together with electrical tape.

Do a dry fit of the cable and the controller to see how best to line them up. This will determine where to place the sticky velcro. Attach two pieces of the loopy velcro pad to the back of the controller. Put two corresponding pieces on the mount. Dry fit the cable again. Based on where the body of the optical head lies, cut out two tabs on either end of the mount with your scissors. This will be where the rubber bands hold on to the cable.

Dry fit with the cable and some rubberbands. The objective is to keep the LED on the controller aligned with the cable head. Knowing its position, remove the rubber band and tape a hook-pad of velcro to the mount. Then wrap the loopy pad to the body of the cable head. Both ends should now line up nicely but the mount tends to flex up and down. You can get a handle from plastic spoon or fork for an extra spine to the mount. This will prevent the mount from flexing the head and LED into misalignment.

Now you have a working controller. Test it by pointing the other end to the camcorder's sensor. We're halfway there.

Mounting the Controller
We'll need to be more creative here depending on what's holding the HV20. A monopod/tripod will have to be setup a bit differently from my figrig type. Use your imagination.

There are a few simple rules to follow. Do not bend the cable sharply or the glass may break. It is flexible and sturdy but not if it gets snapped. Rubber bands make good fasteners. Twisties will do too. Plastic tie-downs will work but be careful when you need to cut them off.

Reflecting the Beam
Keeping the covers to the optical cable helps diffuse the beam. Otherwise it is so narrow you have to be aimed almost perfectly for the sensor to make it work. With the covers on, the sensor will pickup the signal up to 30-degrees off angle when stuck point-blank. Or on angle from about three inches away to the front. Having the cable face the camera may be inconvenient like with my figrig. So I routed mine from beside the camcorder.

I routed the cable through the handstrap which hangs it at about a 45 degree angle to the sensor. On the optical head I attach some shiny aluminum foil. Crumpled a bit to form a concave mirror it will scatter the beam toward the sensor. This seems to work quite well even if the head moves.

References:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=16934

The PVC figrig semi-complete

2007-05-02T12:18:00.000-04:00

Its noticeably more stable than using one hand or one hand while moving a monopod. But some shock is still transferred by the casual step. If you pay attention to the nose it does move when you go up/down steps or move quickly.

As soon as I can jury rig a laser pointer I'll try various weights to balance it some more.

Mixing 60i and PF24 sources on a 35mm IVTC project

2007-05-02T00:44:00.000-04:00

Since the HV20 had this wonderful PF24 mode I've been going made looking for the best way to generate 3:2 pulldown to make progressive source files. Then I realize that my other camera is a 60i only device. So was there a point to converting to 23.976 fps before editing?

If there is, I haven't discovered it yet. The time spent doing pulldown could have been done editing. With mixed sources there will be a deinterlace and frame rate conversion to be done anyway. By mixing it together the final output won't have such a jarring difference between cameras. Is this right? I don't know.

Building a PVC Figrig for Camcorder Stabilization

2007-04-29T22:54:00.002-04:00

I've been looking for a compact way to stabilize my walking and 35mm footage. The monopod is great for static shots but sways too much at the head while walking. A DIY steadicam is a bit too heavy to be taking around casually. My search led me to a DIY figrig by shygantic which in turn led me to the more compact version by webstr.

My parts list was a bit different from the original. I'm short a coupler. Only after building it did I realize that his had a 90 degree elbow and a 45 degree elbow whereas mine used two 90 degree elbows.

My Part list
2 x 1/2" SCH40 90-degree PVC Conduit Elbow (Electrical)
1 x 1/2" SCH40 90-degree PVC elbow with threaded side outlet (Plumbing)
6 x 1/2" SCH40 45-degree PVC elbow Slip-type (Plumbing)
8 x 1" of 1/2" SCH40 PVC (Plumbing -- usually sold in 10")
1 x 1/2" SCH40 Threaded Plug (Plumbing)
1 x 1-1/2" Wing screw (-20 Machine screw)
1 x 3/4" SCH40 (-20 Machine screw)
1 Bogen/Manfrotto 3299 Quick Release Adapter

Tools and Consumables
1 roll of electrical tape
1 roll of teflon tape
1 drill with 1/4" bit
1 mitre box
1 hacksaw
1 can of PVC cement and primer
1 Mask
1 Pair of Gloves

The hardest part to find was the 1/2" 90 degree elbow with side outlet. I had to search three Home Depot and two Lowes stores to find it. And it was by chance since it was mixed in with the 3/4"x3/4"x1/2" kind. If you're stuck with that, you can probably use reducing bushings to bring it down to 1/2". Or you could scale bigger so all the parts are common.

You cut the pipe to make 1" connectors then dry fit the rig to your liking. I used a marker to draw lines indicating alignment. Once happy with that I started gluing (actually solvent welding -- primer first, glue next) from the center of the design out. This helps keeping the entire thing balanced. If you've not worked with PVC cement before, make sure to do it in an open spot with a mask on. Use gloves. You apply the purple primer on one both connecting sides to melt the PVC. Then the glue is applied on top of both. Fit the parts together and hold for a few seconds. Clean up the excess goop with cardboard or plastic. Make sure the alignment is correct while its still soft. The cement dries quickly so glue half the connector to each fitting in sections. The rig will smell for days and isn't fully dried until 24 hours later.

The last piece to go in was the top handle bar and the threaded plug. The 1/4" drill bit was used to make a hole in the plug and handle bar for screw mounts. The 3/4" screw went to the threaded plug for the QR adapter. Teflon was used around the plug thread to help put it in. It doesn't go all the way in! Halfway is good enough as long as it is secure. The 1-1/2" wing screw went to the handle bar for the microphone base.

What about the electrical tape? PVC gets brittle under long term exposure to sunlight. So I wrapped it in electrical tape for that NOT PLUMBING look.

References:
Shygantic figrig http://www.flickr.com/photos/shygantic/129121710/
Webstr figrig http://www.flickr.com/photos/wbstr/357975178/

How to adjust your 35mm Footage

2007-04-20T20:38:00.000-04:00

Most of my footage comes out washed out or too dark. Blame it on my amateur manual skills. But it turns out all is not lost. To get the missing detail out of the footage there are tools.

NLEs and programs such as Virtual Dub and Avisynth allow you do to color curves and color correction. Eyeball and S-curve, adjust the gamma, and the contrast then you're on your way. Of course these values change once you recompress to a different format (e.g. when you upload to Youtube).

Sites with Tips:
http://www.wideopenwest.com/%7ewvg/tutorial-1.htm

Static Adapter Version 2

2007-04-17T20:12:00.000-04:00

I broke my vibrating motor while disassembling it from the 52mm tube. I had constructed a ground glass holder by cutting up a plastic key card and slipping it into an empty 52mm filter ring. Mounted backwards it mated with a 52mm-to-52mm macro coupler. Unfortunately it didn't work because there wasn't enough play to vibrate the ground glass. Incidentally, the test tape was somehow lost as I changed tapes. And later I had an accident that broke one of the small gauge wires on the motor. I get knocked down, but i get up again.

So I took the 52mm filter plus mount I made for the failed vibrating experiment and moved it to the 57mm. Incidentally a 52mm filter fits snug in that macro tube so it was easy to position and get to the right distance. Add a +10 singlet macro and some step down and I was in business. This was also the perfect chance to try my brand spanking new camcorder.

Say hello to the Canon HV20. It's a small HDV camcorder with a progressive CMOS sensor. The little wonder reminds me of my Canon Elura which was one of few early MiniDV with a progressive CCD. Against all advise, I hooked up my Static Adapter to both the ZR200 and HV20. Their resolution and light gathering abilities are different. I just wanted to see how bad the grain could be with this unit. One other thing changed on the V2, I have a +10 singlet close-up macro (not an achromat). The shot was done indoors on a cloudy day.

Lens: 50mm Nikon Series E f/1.8
DOF Adaptor: YouSillyMan35 v2 Static, Nikon F3 Type D
Camera: Canon HV20, 1/2.7" Single CMOS progressive
Original Mode: HDV24PF, TV-48
Recompression: WMV9 1920x1080 30fps progressive, 6Mbps
File Size: 71.24MB
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=9G3EUNE5

Lens: 50mm Nikon Series E f/1.8
DOF Adaptor: YouSillyMan35 v2 Static, Nikon F3 Type D
Camera: Canon ZR600, 1/6" Single CCD interlaced
Original Mode: DV interlaced, automatic
Recompression: WMV9 720x480 29.97fps interlaced, 4Mbps
File Size: 45.84MB
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=3N8MNZ2B

How not to do a Vibrating Ground Glass

2007-04-14T09:09:00.000-04:00

The static is fine for web videos but leaves much to be desired for full DV. At low light like indoors shooting the grain shows up around the edges. So I try to convert the simple static to a full vibrating ground glass. Unfortunately I am not successful yet.

Notice something wrong? The adapter was a full centimeter short! One of the spacers is too short. This wreaked havoc with the infinity focus.

I started with the 52mm tube and cutout a plastic card. I carefully cut a rectangle the size of the Nikon Type D for mounting the ground glass. I tried it alone inside of the tube as a static but it wasn't stable. So I try using a 52mm filter in reverse and that held the ground glass well. Trial fitting the motor I found that there wasn't much room to mount it vertically as it should. So just for kicks I try it horizontal. It doesn't work.

Not one to give up, I sacrifice some of the focus screen's visible area by mounting the motor vertically against the fastening tab on the Nikon Type D. The vibrations are more quiet but I can't see the grain moving. There isn't enough play in the rectangular cutout nor the plastic card to allow the grains to move.

I ask the kind folks at DVInfo Alternative Imaging what kind of stupidity I've delved into and I'm told that my arrangement wouldn't work. The horizontal was moving in the wrong direction. It was also loud because it was turning the card into a diaphragm. Meanwhile my vertical was too tight on the tube to allow the movement necessary to blur the grain. Just for kicks I'm taking the vertical setup to the seaport for some test shots.

Converting a 57mm Macro Tube to a 58mm

2007-04-14T08:51:00.000-04:00

To convert my macro tube I elected to use spacer 1. To prepare the pieces the spacer was cleaned with soapy water then dried. Same for the filter ring after the glass and retainer were removed. Once dried I started mixing the two part epoxy. I used JB Weld for its strength and 15 minute setting time. Anything from 15 to 30 minutes is good. The faster epoxies tend to become brittle especially with exposure to sun. And never use cyanoacrylate glue such as Super Glue/Mighty Bond/Krazy Glue. The fumes from this glue is the same used by forensic investigators to lift fingerprints from evidence. Keep those away from optics.

The finished product ready to accept 58mm

The epoxy will be a soft goop but shouldn't run. Make sure its as close to a 1:1 ratio. Now apply the epoxy with a disposable blade or a credit card to the male thread of the spacer. Apply a small amount to the inner thread of the filter. Be careful not to get any on the inner thread of the spacer and the rear thread of the filter. Use a stable surface to put the two together. Press and turn to even it out.

Epoxy will probably be spilling out the inside and the side. Use a blade or credit card to scrape the excess out. If any get on a thread, use a wet towelette or your fingers to wipe (make sure you wash your hands before eating!). On a stable flat surface, hold the assembly to the light to make sure they are lined up. Cleaning may protrude part of the filter outside of the spacer's ring. Just push slightly in whatever direction to adjust.

Set the assembly aside in a warm undisturbed place overnight. After the setting time has elapsed it's ready.

Other ways of aligning the Groundglass

2007-04-06T01:32:00.000-04:00

When using a paper strip make sure it's stiff enough to stand

Use a toothpick or a strip of paper marked with 46.5mm to adjust the distance of the ground glass.

The Right Way to Remove Glass from a Filter

2007-04-05T16:35:00.001-04:00

I was ready to go destroy the glass on this sacrificial 58mm filter. Then looking at it I wondered how they go it in there in the first place. It certainly wasn't using glue.

There is a retaining ring that holds the glass to the filter. On either side is a tab. The tabs are where you apply pressure and turn the ring counter clockwise. This unscrews the retainer. To remove it I used the art foam-screw driver technique. Placing the filter on the foam prevents skidding. I then use one of my little fingers to press the ring down on the foam to lock it in place. With a set of flat head precision screw drivers I rotate the ring counter-clockwise. This unlocks the ring and allows me to use one screw driver from then on.

If you don't want to do those contortions, find yourself a pair of circlip pliers that can go to the proper diameter. McMaster-Carr calls them retaining clip pliers. There is also a spanner version which are locking. They have two teeth like a protractor that will hold the tabs as you spin it. Speaking of which, a drawing compass may be easier to find.

Limitations of The Static Adapter

2007-04-04T17:38:00.000-04:00

Besides the grain, the other thing you will notice immediately with a static adapter is how much cleaning you have to do. Even very small pieces of lint or dust can ruin your image if it lands on either the ground glass or condenser. I made the mistake of using the pad end of a lenspen to clean the ground glass and now there is this little black spec embedded in one of the very small pits. Use air, brush, and microfiber cloth to clean your groundglass.

The dust speck is on the lower left quadrant when rotated 180 degrees. Two more fibers of lint next to it which got muddled by YouTube's compression.

The static adapter is small and light. But the attached lens isn't. I'm using a Non-AI 50mm Nikkon S-C which is about as heavy as the entire camcorder. It must be conceded that the ZR200 is a featherweight as camcorders go, but that totally makes balance different. Learning to frame and hold the image takes a bit of practice. And did I mention that the camcorder's image stabilization won't help you because the SLR lens is doing the work? Live and learn. But it's fun. While taking this video a passerby asked me "Is that a camera or video? How much does it cost?" My answer, "I just put it together myself."

Making a support system

2007-04-04T16:21:00.000-04:00

The whole assembly is front heavy. The new center of gravity makes handling the camcorder awkward especially for such a small unit. It also puts a lot of stress on the camcorder's lens thread. There are support systems that can be purchased commercially but I want to give it a shot myself.

Parts:

1) Plywood
2) 1/4-20 machine screws
3) Glue

Tools:

1) Mechanical pencil
2) Metric ruler
3) Screw drivers
4) Dremel minisaw / Handsaw
5) Boxcutter

I start out with the leftover plywood from the spinner project. Plywood is easier to work with than plastic unless you are able to make your own molds or have access to a CNC machine. Cardboard is another possibility but that isn't as sturdy.

First I measure the distance from camcorder base to bottom of the 58mm tube assembly. Then get an additional measure up to the middle. Then I draw two rectangles of the dimensions I want on the plywood. Now for the decision.

I want to make this unit a vibrating gg later on so I need room to mount switches and batteries. So I decided on a two piece holder braced with screws, hence the two rectangles. Within a box defining the bottom of the assembly to the middle I trace the outer diameter of the tube.

I cut the two pieces out with a saw. Its a rough cut which needs to be sanded even (I prefer to use dremel to get it close then handsand for accuracy). For the half-circle cut out, I use a cutting blade and dremel cutting tool to make a rough cut. Then I sand it down with the rotary sander by hand until it's even. Before you go off to do this, make sure you are away from your optics and either have a mask or open air. Lots of sand dust is produced from power sanding! It helps to have some sort of vise to hold the wood or drill screws into the two pieces to sand them together.

Not All Macro Tubes are Created Equal

2007-03-30T19:07:00.000-04:00

To SLR users a macro tube is just what it is, probably. Unfortunately that doesn't help me. I bought two different tubes in Ebay hoping one of them would have a standard 58mm thread. Sadly one of them had an odd 52mm male thread while the other used a 57mm female thread! Not being one to give up I scoured the internet for ways to use these tubes. And the way was the reverse macro coupler. Sure it made the project more expensive with each new part but it salvaged an otherwise difficult situation.

Solution for 52mm
This macro tube was manufactured in India and is sold by a US supplier from Ebay. At $10 plus shipping it was interesting to try. Upon receipt it was confirmed to have a 52mm thread diameter. The threads between spacers is female on the back and male on the front. If you think about a UV filter, you would screw it in with the filter's back thread.

This makes the inner diameter 52mm facing the wrong way. Fortunately 52mm is a standard size. To mate this with the camcorder I bought a 52mm-52mm reverse macro ring. This ring is male 52mm on both sides. SLRs use this to hook up a lens in reverse format to use as a magnifier. From the macro ring, any XXmm to 52mm step up or YYmm to 52mm step down ring can mate with the camcorder lens.

52mm is pretty narrow for focusing screen. The Nikon F3 Type D focus screen barely fits inside the tube. With some art foam I was able to get the screen to fit snug. This pretty much makes the tube suitable for a static design. Note that the tube isn't smooth. The outer diameter of the tube is still 58mm and the inner approximately 55mm. But on either end of each spacer is a 52mm inner thread. Think of a built in step down! Putting a vibrating motor or a holder will be a challenge due to small tolerances.

Source: Ebay - camera_accessories (keywords: nikon tube)
* Spacer 1 6mm
* Spacer 2 12mm
* Spacer 3 24mm
* Outer diameter 58mm
* Inner diameter 52-55mm (ridges)
* Thread diameter 52mm

Solution for 57mm
Perhaps the chinese manufacturer has a 1mm variance. I was really hoping the tube had a standard 58mm thread. But no it had to be 1mm short. Externally the tube is still 58mm. But the connecting threads (male receiving, female connecting) are too short to allow hooking up any sort of reverse ring, filter, or step ring. 57mm isn't a standard filter size. There were filters of this size in the history of single reflex cameras (ancient history in tech terms) such as the Bay 7.5L (maybe sometimes B57) but these don't end in a standard size thread nor are they easy to find. Short of machining one the next best thing is to adapt the thread using a sacrificial 58mm filter or step-up ring.

I go with the filter. Though I have various XXmm to 58mm step up (you can't use a step down because there's not enough contact space) I don't want to get stuck should I need to put a macro in later. So off to Ebay I went to seek the cheapest one with a metal ring. Then off the the hardware store to buy some strong epoxy. I'm still waiting for the filters to arrive, but I plan on removing the glass (minimize internal reflections) before gluing it on.

Source: Ebay - goshotcamera (keywords: nikon macro tube)
* Spacer 1: 9mm
* Spacer 2: 16mm
* Spacer 3: 30mm
* Outer Diameter: 58mm
* Inner Diameter: 54mm
* Thread Diameter: 57mm

So where can you find a tube with a standard 58mm thread? The ones sold from Hong Kong and China are probably a hit or miss deal. I even called Fotodiox and asked a sales representative (they were very accomodating!) to try their tubes if they had 58mm thread and they were just a hair short as well.

Outdoor Test with the Static

2007-03-24T18:36:00.000-04:00

The static showed its grain when used outdoor with iris at full open.

When the static is complete it needs to have all the openings sealed from light and dust. A brace also needs to be made as the camcorder's threads probably can't carry the weight of the lens assembly.

Making and Testing the Static

2007-03-23T20:28:00.000-04:00

This was a really simple build with better results than the spinner that is still half finished. I can't take that much credit for it. I think the condenser on the Nikon Type D has a lot to do with it.

Parts

Nikon Lens
Nikon Macro extension tube
Nikon F3 Type D Focus Screen
Reverse Macro coupler for tube (for later)
Step-up adapter for camcorder (for later)
Art Foam

Tools

Ruler
Boxcutter
Lenspen

I took the macro tube and stacked it with 1, 2, 3. In ring number 3 I put a ring of art foam to cover the space. Then another layer of art foam was wrapped around the focus screen so pushing it in braced the screen into the tube. With this macro tube stacked this way, the edge of the ring threads comes to about 46.5mm! Simple as that. Hook up your choice of Nikon lenses and setup the camcorder. Zoom in and press record.

Cheated a bit. I ordered the wrong macro tube so the thread was female rather than male. And its ring was 52mm female threaded rather than 58mm male threaded. So I'll need a macro reverse coupler and a step-up ring to hookup to the camcorder

The video was extracted from DV and then rotated 180 degrees. It was recompressed with ffdshow to fit in youtube size. The static grain isn't as obvious because of the downscaling (720x480 16:9 to 360x240 4:3). The washed out colors has more to do with the shooting environment and the single CCD camera. It was shot indoors during a rainy day.

Testing the Spinner

2007-03-23T19:59:00.000-04:00

The trick to getting the ZR200 to focus is to have something bright in front of the lens. The grain on the Maxell CD is a good point for the camcorder to focus. Then set it to manual mode. Zoom in to frame the good part of the image.

The grain on the spinner is very visible when static. It is still visible while spinning slowly. In this test, the disk was spun by hand. The 35mm lens was a Nikkon Series E 50mm f/1.8 prime. The pulsating of the image is my fault. I had not mounts so the camcorder was held an inch from the ground glass by hand.

Macro might not be needed afterall

2007-03-22T19:12:00.000-04:00

I am being silly again. Testing the ZR200 with various zoom settings and manual focus proved that the 28mm lens on the camcorder is able to focus on objects very closely. The trick was to have something with good contrast in front of the ground glass while adjusting the zoom and focus.

No Achromat Just Yet

2007-03-22T13:19:00.000-04:00

The seller for my binoculars ran out of stock. Might as well, I just learned that there is some color casting from those front lenses. Sourgrapes? Probably. On a brighter note, I have some parts coming in for the second prototype which will be a static/vibrating gg based around a Nikon F3 Type D focus screen.

This focus screen is thicker than the Canon Ee-A that other builders use because it has a built in condenser. The condenser is a plano-convex (PCX) lens that magnifies the amount of light that goes to the focus screen. That's a lot of big words! Not that I know a lot about optics, I'm still learning what it all means. I should explain it some more on this blog as each concept is understood by me. But the PCX simply means that the image that gets on the focus screen is brighter. More light to the focus screen makes it easier for the camcorder to record an image.

The Type D focus screen is, incidentally, a favorite for astrophotography. And it is supposedly has such a fine grain that it could be used static. The static design is based roughly on the aldu35. This was a parallel development for the spinning agus35. The aldu35 was later improved by having the gg vibrate to blur the grain.

All this talk is making me anxious. I sure hope that +10 Macro comes in soon so I can have prototype 1 working.

Searching for Macros

2007-03-20T07:57:00.000-04:00

And so begins the search for a magnifier. The terms Macro, Close-up, and Diopeter get thrown around. The filters that screw on to the lens is usually called a close-up lens. Sometimes a Macro. Diopeter (literally means power of magnification) is rarely seen. But if you get the chance you want an achromatic close-up. The folks at DVInfo.net talk about custom built 72mm achromats for HD work. Others talk about really expensive +7 Century Optics achromatic close up but they're not entirely happy with it. I've heard of Hoya +10 (AC) close ups which some people consider okay for SD work but its not cheap either.

What's all this lingo and how does it matter? First of all lets think of what a macro does. It's a magnifier so the camcorder's lens can focus on a object closer that it normally can. The power has to be high enough so we can get the magnifier closer to the ground glass which is our subject. So we want a +7 or +10 power (or diopeter) magnifier. You can stack magnifiers like a +3 and +4 but this causes recordable light to be lost. We want to keep as much light as possible so I decided on a +10.

Speaking of light, that's what the coatings are for. The better the coating the more light is allowed through the filter. That's why some lenses are cheap and some are very expensive. The expensive ones supposedly let 99% of light to go through. Less expensive multi-coated ones let 97% and so on.

When you magnify an image you multiply flaws. This includes an effect called distortion and chromatic abberation. If you take a regular handheld magnifier you'll notice that the image is sharp in the center and gets stretched out as you get to the edges (distortion). The colors also gets a bit off like a badly tuned TV (ghosting). Now if you have a big enough magnifier you may be able to compensate for distortion by focusing on the center sweet spot. For the ghosting, most recommend to get an achromatic diopeter. This is a two lens magnifier that cancels out this effect. Since those are expensive and we want to experience build it yourself, we're going to have to make compromises.

Just to be able to test, I ordered a +10 Closeup made by Bower. Bower is supposedly at par with Hoya standard coating filters. Since I'm using an SD camera it should be good enough. But for later I really want to try an achromat. So I go buy cheap binoculars.

Say what? Yes, binoculars. The front lenses taken out and facing each other can be used to build an achromat. All you need is a holder and some glue. It'll make a nice challenge. At the end of the day all this experimentation maybe just a bit shy of buying 1 tested commercial product. But that's 1 versus many. And the comparison is great for learning.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achromat
http://www.angelfire.com/ca/erker/closeups.html
http://www.jetsetmodels.info/tutorials.htm

You need a Macro!

2007-03-19T11:04:00.000-04:00

Sharp focus was fairly easy to eyeball on the spinning gg and the Nikon F3 Type D focus screen. Just move it closer or further until you get a sharp image with the lens set to infinity. The tricky part was getting the camcorder to focus on the ground glass. What the human eye can see sharply does not translate to what a single CCD camera can see. It's a very small target (maybe half an inch high and an inch wide of good image) even for the small 28mm lens on the Canon ZR200. Using the Canon S410's video mode wasn't any good since there is not way to engage macro and photo at once. I don't know too many camcorders with a macro mode so I probably will need a set of macro lenses.

But this doesn't stop me from conducting experiments. The spinning disk really is good for a nicer image. And the distance from lens to ground glass matte side was about 40mm. That's 6.5mm shorter than advertised for the Nikon F mounts. Maybe I'm doing something wrong? Fortunately its all adjustable. (Update: I was being silly measuring from the back of the lens to the ground glass. 46.5mm is measured from the F mount to the matte side of the ground glass. So my flange focal length to focal plane is really 46.5mm give or take!)

The spinner is half-built. I have to look for Macro lenses to help the camcorder out. At first I thought to just go out and buy 28mm close-up (I don't mind chromatic aberation at this point). But then I thought that a macro lens like any other magnifier will look warped unless I get a bigger lens. I don't know if that's right but it probably won't hurt. At least I hope not.

Progress and Frustration

2007-03-17T23:29:00.000-04:00

I have a half working prototype now. Since its night and indoors the furthest my infinity focus can go is the door. I don't know if this is it or something else, but instead of the 46.5mm distance I was expecting for F-mount I had to use 40mm distance between back of lens to frosted side of ground glass.

There was trouble focusing on the ground glass while zoomed in. The human eye can resolve the detail but the Canon ZR200 and S410 would just record points of light. Maybe I need a macro or an achromatic diopeter. But that will have to wait. I can't even prop the device up right now for lack of ballast and screws.

At wide-angle, you can focus on a subject as close as 1 cm (0.39in.).
- Canon ZR200 manual

I was hoping that I wouldn't need a macro (I also hear the term relay lens -- could this be the generic term) because my lens was less than 43mm.

After carefully drilling the center and pilot holes I set the circle cutter to 2cm. Control was difficult at best when cutting three stacked boards. The result was a poorly controlled cut that was too wide to put the mounting screws. I had enough board left over to make a patch panel but that messess up the even alignment of my screws. DIY is full of challenges.

The Right Tools

2007-03-17T15:00:00.000-04:00

You can't do the job right without the tools.

* Precision Philips #00 screwdriver
* Cutting Tools: Handsaw, Rotary Tool/Drill, Box cutter
* Sandpaper
* Metric Ruler with metal edge
* Eye Protection

I had to buy the philips #00 screwdriver to remove the screws from the camera body. Fortunately the local Ace Hardware sold it in singles since I already had toolkits with other sizes. For cutting plastic and plywood, choose your poison. I have a Dremel XPR 400 with a circle cutter to make my circle cuts. It's also possible to do the job with a box cutter if you don't mind taking a while to cut through plywood. I would have used particle board but I couldn't find any. At one point I considered using carton but I was worried my screws wouldn't hold on that material. It would still work with glue but I want to prototype first. The sandpaper is good for removing burrs on wood and plastic. As for the Metric ruler, its just easier to deal with millimeters than fractions of an inch for precision work. The eye protection is standard but shouldn't be ignored!

Lenses and Mounts

2007-03-16T12:59:00.000-04:00

I chose to go Nikon by recommendation. The F-Mount has been around a long time. Lenses are fairly easy to find.

Lenses
Most people start with a prime lens (as opposed to telephoto/zoom and wide lenses). A lens from f/2.0 to f/1.4 (lower is better) is considered fast . The 50mm f/1.8 prime lens is most common and should be available from Ebay and various camera stores used. If you're lucky you can buy a complete vintage film SLR camera with a good prime lens for cheap (<$50). There are f/1.2 and f/1.0 lenses but these are very old discontinued lenses that fall in the category of legend and luxury. When buying a lens its important to make sure there are no scratches or fuziness. If the lens needs cleaning or ever had fungus then its no good. As for the funny acronyms such as NAI, AI, AIS, etc. If it says F-mount somewhere and says manual it's good for our purposes. If the age indicated is 1977 or later you should be confident. The variations refer to how the mechanism control focus. We won't be using any of those functions. Unless you are a wiz at disassembling SLRs there's little chance of every using autofocus mechanism on these cameras. So go cheap and simple.

Mounts
We have to mount the camera lens to our aparatus somehow. There are many options for getting hold of an F-mount.

Cannibalize the F-mount from a Camera Body
Cannibalize the F-mount from an Adapter (like a C-mount to F-mount adapter)
Use a rear Nikon lens cap

The last option is the cheapest. I don't know how well it will stay fixed since it will have to be glued. You also need to cut out the bottom to make a hole. An original Nikon LF-1 will set you back $9 to $12 plus taxes/shipping. You can get really cheap third party ones from Ebay for $5 shipped if you know where to look. Or you may be able to beg one off your camera friends.

Personally I like to use screws more than glue. Glue is tricky to adjust because I work slow. So I bought an old circa 1979 Canon EM. It had a 50mm f/1.8 Series E lens and the four screw F-mount. I may have to supplement the screws with glue later on but that only makes the job easier. Since my first prototype will be a spinner I don't need the fancy tube style adapter.

References to Lenses and Mounts
http://www.nikonlinks.com/unklbil/bodylens.htm
http://www.photoethnography.com/ClassicCameras/Lens-F.html
http://rick_oleson.tripod.com/index-153.html
http://www.nikonlinks.com/unklbil/nomenclature.htm

Update
Another alternative for F-Mount:
Nikon part number 2717, K3 Female Nikon Bayonet F-Mount - for Custom Applications

The Wily Frosted Maxell CD-R ground glass

2007-03-15T19:36:00.000-04:00

Supposedly there are nicely frosted fake CDs in the 25pk Maxell CD-R cakeboxes. Maybe maybe they were more abundant in 2004. But it's now 2007 and I had a hard time finding one.

I used to have those frosted plastic disks that protected CDs/DVDs in a cake box. Just last year I threw out my empty spindles with those non-crystal blanks. Little did I know that I might want them a year later. In desperation I tried to sand my own ground glass from some crystal DVD-R blanks. Not having any 1500 grit wet dry sandpaper handy, I used a sheet of metal sandpaper that was lying around from repairing some car rust. This was Norton brand from the Home Depot with no grit rating on it. It was marked "fine" which I guess is about 100-200grit. Apparently, "fine" wasn't fine enough as I tested my poor groundglass. The light loss was horrendous.

So I scoured several stores to find the elusive ground glass (gg). Walmart had 25pk Maxell CD-R but these were the 'printable' type. Looking through the top I couldn't tell if there was a frosted there. This was not to be mistaken for the CD-R Pro with its gold surface and no frosted cd. There were several cakeboxes by Memorex, Sony, TDK, and Imation but none of them had it. Once I got fooled by the milky translucent look of the Memorex 15 pack so learn from my mistake. The best bet is to look for silver top CD/DVD. The clear cakebox is an even milky color but the frosted blank will make it look rough and spotted. It will look like it has dust particles around it but its somewhat evenly spaced and distributed.

Best Buy, Circuit City, CVS, RiteAid, Radio Shack, Target and the local supermarket saw me inspecting every brand they had. Even among Maxell brands you must beware. I think the trick is to find a place with old stocks of CD-Rs. So I went to a lonely FYE near a huge Barnes and Noble. In a corner mixed in with white and blue-green 50pk Maxell CD-Rs was one cakebox of its older stock. Instead of the 56x, I grabbed the 40x all green 50pk Maxell CD-R box. The cover was a bit dusty so I had to really examine the top against the light. Seeing the small white dots and bumps told me it had a frosted CD.

Back home there was a cheap Durabrand CD player. Little did it know its life as a portable entertainment device was coming to a close.

The beginning of the Depth of Field experiment

2007-03-15T10:38:00.000-04:00

To record our field games I bought a cheap Mini-DV camera. We were going to make a nice group video to commemorate the year and I thought it would be nice to do film-look with shallow DOF. So I read up on how to do it, and bought a bunch of Neutral Density filters to control the f/stops. But we never got time to try it since we were busy running around the game field. It didn't help that the camcorders pulled double duty as helmet cam recorders.

Anyway I never got to try the filter technique but still went ahead with the video. Some lucky angles and amateur composition took out most of the distracting elements in the image. Queue in a good story and dramatic soundtrack to top it all off. The video was done but not as nice as we want it.

Now we're embarking on a new endeavor. We're setting up video reviews of game gear so I'm back at the DOF question. My brother has been using DSLRs and is pretty good at it. He pointed out 35mm DOF adapters from M2. From there I backtraced it to the Agus35 documented in dvinfo.net. Yippee! Another topic for my evil experiments! Soon I shall flood the world with exceedingly bad and cheesy videos!

References:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/forumdisplay.php?f=70
http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/dof/index5.htm
http://members.chello.nl/a.schultzevspierenburg/wax/wax2.htm
http://www.jetsetmodels.info/news.htm

What's This?

2007-03-15T10:33:00.000-04:00

This blog is my notebook for all sorts of little projects. I'm in a a do-it-yourself phase. Last year I built helmet cameras (can't stop with one) and pneumatic cannons (more than 1 as well). For this part of 2007 I'm looking into 35mm Depth of Field. I'm going to hook it up to every imager I have and see if a film look will work nicely for my videos.