Aquatic Birds of Florida
Before I say anything, I want to make it perfectly clear that I am not a videographer. I captured these clips while I was in Florida during the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival, late January 2017. All these were captured during my photo walks/drives in Black Point Wildlife Drive in Merritt Island. The primary purpose was to tryout the "In Body Image Stabilization" aka IBIS of the Panasonic Lumix G85 camera body. The camera was used with the Leica 100 - 400 mm lens at its full extension that is an equivalent of 800 mm (most of the time). All footage was captured hand-held and in many instances during high winds and rain. It is important to note, that all the footage was captured before Panasonic released two major firmware updates, one of the camera and the other for the lens. What this means is that the Dual IS function was not in effect when these videos were captured. I was very impressed with the performance of this camera and lens combination and will be doing a comparison to see the impact of the new firmware when I am at the next conference in St. Augustine in April.To see the video in 4K please CLICK HERE to be directed to YouTube [video type="youtube" id="i1exFCyhtGU" width="600"]Default Message[/video]
Zeiss Batis 2.8/18 Lens for Sony E-Mount Announced
The ZEISS Batis 2.8/18 expands the Batis range of lenses with a super wide-angle lens. For the Sony α system with E-mount the new lens, which features a diagonal angular field of 99 degrees, is currently the shortest full-frame fixed focal length with autofocus. The new ZEISS Batis 2.8/18 with innovative OLED display to show focus distance and depth of field is also impressive thanks to its high image quality across the entire image field. The lens will be available from May 2016.
Photo Plus Expo 2014 and Lumix Lounge
Spent three fantastic days in NY City at the Photo Plus Expo. Saw some great stuff that I will be blogging about soon. The mirror-less world continues to pick up steam and there is a lot happening with this lighter better world of photography. Trending - HYBRID - animated stills and more.Was honored to be invited and to be interviewed in the Panasonic Lumix Lounge by none other than Frederick Van Johnson. Click here for the interview.Panasonic had an awesome booth with lost of gear for visitors to test out, demos, 4K TVs and the fantastic new LX100 - I want one. Use the link to check it out.
Eldborg - A Time-lapse
This is a video of a time-lapse sequence captured on March 28, 2014 in Iceland. [video type="youtube" id="i5vXFrlGW08" width="600"]Default Message[/video]
2014 - 1st Quarter One-Day Workshops
Here is the schedule for the first Quarter of 2014. Please use this REGISTRATION link for details about each workshop and to register.REMEMBER ALL ONE-DAY WORKSHOPS INCLUDE A PIZZA LUNCHJanuary 11 - Product Photography and Lighting TechniquesJanuary 12 – Food Photography and Lighting TechniquesJanuary 18 – Lighting for PortraitureJanuary 19 – Timelapse Photography, post processing and video assemblyJanuary 25 - Macro CloseupJanuary 26 – The Digital Darkroom – a course that covers capture to process and enhancement to output to print and web media. A one day program for digital image making workflowFebruary 1 – Flower Photography, Textures, Blending and moreFebruary 2 – Lightroom 5February 8 – HDR – done right using Photoshop, Photomatics, NiK HDR Efex 2, EnfuseFebruary 9 - Macro CloseupFebruary 22 – Timelapse Photography, post processing and video assemblyFebruary 23 - Photography Basics 1 day Class March 1 – Flash PhotographyMarch 2 – Lightroom 5If you have any questions or would like more information please call 617-759-0010 or email sv @ shivverma.com (please remove the spaces)
A Special Discount for LRTimelapse 3
LRTimelapse 3 is one of the best time-lapse assembly software products available and works seamlessly with Photoshop Lightroom 5.For the remainder of 2013 and January 1, 2014 you can license or upgrade to any version of LRTimelapse for a 15% discount. This applies to upgrades and cross-grades too.A brief explanation of the options:
- If you still don't have any License, you can choose LRTimelapse 3 private and LRTimelapse 3 Pro. You can read about the differences here.
- If you have a LRT2 private license, you can get a discounted upgrade to LRT3 private or a discounted crossgrade to LRT3 Pro. For the latter, you will then save the cost of the update to version 3.
- If you have a license for LRT2 Pro (commercial), you will require the update to LRT3 Pro.
- If you already have upgraded to LRT3 private, you can crossgrade to Pro, if you need the advanced features.
Click Here and use the discount coupon code: XMAS2013LRT
Rode Video Mic Pro - Compact Shotgun Microphone
I got a Rode Video Mic Pro - Compact Shotgun Microphone for Christmas as a gift and put it through its paces. First impressions after two days of use - it is an exceptional, well built, mono video microphone that has a fantastic super cardioid condenser. Rode microphones are designed and made in Australia. The Video Mic Pro is easy to mount on any DSLR hot-shoe and with its built in 3/8 inch socket can be mounted on booms and stands with ease.
Specifications as provided by Rode
| Frequency Range | 40Hz - 20kHz |
| Output Impedance | 200Ω |
| Maximum SPL | 134dB SPL (@ 1kHz, 1% THD into 1KΩ load) |
| Maximum Output Level | 6.9dBu (@ 1kHz, 1% THD into 1KΩ load) |
| Sensitivity | -38.0dB re 1 Volt/Pascal (12.60mV @ 94 dB SPL) +/- 2 dB @ 1kHz |
| Signal to Noise Ratio | 74dB |
| Equivalent Noise Level (A-weighted) | 20dB-A |
| Weight | 85.00gm |
| Dimensions | 95.00mmH x 43.00mmW x 150.00mmD |
I was a bit surprised with the short length of the cable that connects the mic to the 3.5 mm socket in camera. However, it is long enough for all DSLR’s when the mic is mounted on the hot shoe. Extension cables are a quick fix when you want the microphone connected to an external recorder or when mounted on a boom pole. The mono output is paralleled to both left and right channels. The unit is powered by a 9V battery housed in the microphone frame. I found the battery door to be a bit clumsy in its construction and the ease of opening and closing the compartment door is not easy. The battery life is stated at 70 hours, which is more than sufficient for any field work.
The unit is mounted within a cradle with four shock/vibration control elastic bands. A second set of these bands is included in the packaging. There is sufficient clearance between the cradle and the mic so the likelihood of any bumps and interference during normal use.
The rear of the microphone has two three-position slider switches. The upper switch positions are power Off, Mic On (flat response) and Mic On HPF (High Pass Filter set at 80Hz). The second switch is a three-position attenuation control. -10dB, 0 and +20dB. Above these switches is a LED that flashes red on power on and then turns to green. When the battery is low the LED will turn to a solid red.The high Pass Filter is excellent at filtering room noise, environmental hum, and other low frequency ambient noise. Wind and pops are well handled by the foam encasing on the super cardioid. The microphone’s attenuation control functions exceptional well. In loud environments, street scenes with a lot of traffic noise the -10db and 0 db settings are ideal. However in low sound level situations the +20db has the right amount of boost with absolutely no deterioration of sound quality. The directional pattern is excellent and the mic eliminates side and read sounds very well.
The +20db setting was not required when the microphone was connected to and external recorder. Using 0db set on the mic and attenuating the signal on the recorder yielded the best results.The microphone is well packaged comes with a quick start guide However the manual must be downloaded from the website. The warranty is 1 year that will be extended to a 10 year warranty once you register. You must register your product on the Rode web site at www/rodemic.com.In conclusion, this is an excellent light-weight professional shotgun mice that I have no hesitation recommending for any DSLR videographer.You can get this mic at The Camera Company - click here and at Hunts Photo - click here
Frederick Van Johnson of TWIP interviews me
So honored to have been interviewed by Frederick Van Johnson on Episode 339 of TWiP. If you have not subscribed to TWiP you must - it is one of the best Podcasts for photographers bar none.Click Here for a link to the podcastTWiP is available from iTunes as well as http://www.thisweekinphoto.com[video type="youtube" id="TEJ1XpaMbI0" width="400"]Default Message[/video]
African Skies 2 - A Timelapse Video
Gunther Wegner the developer of LRTimelapse software has just released African Skies 2. This excellent time-lapse video showcases the beauty of the African landscapes and animals in film and time lapse sequences, that have never been seen before.The production took more than half a year - and has been compiled from 4 terabytes of raw-data. All editing (time lapse and even video) was done, using the new LRTimelapse 3.2 and Lightroom 5.2. !The video sequence can be seen on Vimeo but is available at a nominal cost as a HD video and a 4K video. The sale proceeds will be used to fund and support the African wildlife and environmental protection organizations. This funding was done from proceeds from the video too and I commend Gunther for his efforts. we decided to sell the film as download in much higher quality in Full HD and even 4K. With the revenue we again want to support local animal and environmental protection organizations.Click here to be directed to the LRTimelapse Web and then use the African Skies Tab to purchase it if you would like to support the cause.Please share this post with your family and friends. Gunther has created an excellent video and I hope this can be viewed by all. Please click on HD and open it in full screen view.[video type="vimeo" id="78610518" width="400" height="200"] Click here to be directed to the LRTimelapse Web and then use the African Skies Tab to view the video and purchase it if you would like to support the cause.