This past weekend my Canon HFS100 and Azden SGM 2x shotgun microphone was stolen.

I was setting up to do recording for a video I’m working on with AlMaghrib and it was my mistake to not notify some of the people there to keep an eye on it while I go into the seminar room to make a note of which people I’d be doing recordings of. 20 minutes later I come back and find my equipment missing.

As it was a major bummer to find my equipment stolen, I figured it’s a great opportunity to upgrade.

The following setup is what I’m considering :

The breakdown of which is:

• $1,600 – Canon 7D body
• $350 – Canon 50mm EF f 1.4 lens
• $600 – Tokina 11mm-16mm f 2.8 wide angle lens
• $318 – 1 meter Glidetrack
• $125 – Manfrotto Tripod head
• $150 – UV and Neutral Density Filters
• $100 – Hoodman Loupe
• $140 – Battery and 32 GB memory card

Total cost: $3383.00

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I’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions on the setup:

[ UPDATE: 12.26.2009 - 3:41 AM ]

Turns out that there are several types of 3D development over the years.

The type that most people are familiar with is “3D Stereoscopic” which is basically capturing with two sources and then having it projects in two different colors (red & blue -or- red & green) and the goofy glasses would cancel out the non-overlapped colors to give the artificial depth.

3D Stereoscopic can be duplicated in a low-budget project, it just takes proper planning – mounting of the camera with the right measures – and understanding of how to sync two different video files and audio files together in the same time line so editing is fully synced.

The end product will be like your classic 3D videos.

In today’s day and age of digital film making – instead of the diffusion of red and blue colors, its the diffusion of light known as “orthogonal polarizing”

During production you have a camera that has 2 lenses mounted in the front where it records the video data in two separate streams, much like how stereo audio is recorded in two separate streams.

The final cut is then projected via dual lens projector where each projector lens has “orthogonal polarizing filters” mounted on the front of it so than when you wear the 3D glasses – which also have orthogonal polarizing filters on them cancel out the non-overlapping image ads an artificial depth to the video.

More on this here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarized_3D_glasses

Question:
How does one jimmy rig two separate projectors with “orthogonal polarizing filters” to play back two separate video streams at the same exact time?

Is there a software out there that could output two video streams using a video card with two video outputs to a projector and the program sends two distinct streams onto a screen so viewers can watch the feature in 3D?

I’d love to hear your responses!

[ UPDATE END ]

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With the release of Avatar Ive been wondering, what does it take to produce a 3D film on a short budget and what knowledge is needed?

I found some links that might be a valuable resource: 3D Stereoscopic Production & Delivery

A couple more links that may prove to be educational:

• Shooting Avatar
• Panasonic new 3D HD video Camera
• 3D Film (wiki)

The day I wrote the post on the Canon HFS100, I had the highest amount of readers in one day ever. However, the following days lead to a HUGE drop off. As you can see in the pic below this isn't normal.

The web traffic hasn’t been affected. Only the RSS readers. Anyone know what would cause such a drop after a over six months of consistent rising?

For the record:
This is not a technical review of the features of the camera. There are plenty of those out there. This post is simply an overview of specific benefits this camera may or may not carry based on your level of familiarity with film-making.

If you are looking for a technical review then see the CamorderInfo.com review of the Canon HFS100.

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LET’S START WITH THE BOTTOM LINE

If you’re new to the game and have never purchased a camera before then this camera is NOT for you. I recommend this camera ONLY IF you are looking to upgrade your current system. A camera system usually consists of:

• Camera
• Filters – polarized, UV, etc
• Lens – wide angle, zoom, etc
• XLR Shotgun Microphone
• XLR audio adapter
• Wireless Mic Receiver
• Tripod
• Movement assists – Steadicam, Dolly, tracks, etc
• Lights
• Computer to edit
• Hard Drive – for storing footage

If you’re thinking about putting down $800+ for this camera and you’re missing some of those elements then my recommendation is to not purchase this camera. Rather purchase the Canon HG10 or HF100, both of which you can probably get for under $400.00 USD used from Amazon or eBay.

Spend the money you save on completing your camera system.

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MY REASONS FOR PURCHASING THE CANON VIXIA HFS 100

After spending over two weeks filming Ilm Summit 2009 with my Canon FS100, one thing I came to realize is that editing would be so much faster if I didn’t have to spend so much time cleaning up the images.

My old camera is really no good at filming in low light and you end up with a lot of “visual noise”.

The computer has to spend a lot of time in post-processing to reduce the “visual noise”. The resulting image tends to become very “soft” in nature which doesn’t really scream quality.

I had been experimenting with different HD cameras but none satisfied my desire to be able to shoot well in low light.

One camera I did like was the Canon HG10. I shot Hollywoodland – Browntourage Episode 2 with that camera and was quite satisfied, except in extreme low-light conditions.

When IlmFest 2009 came up I decided to purchase the camera. I figured I’ll have the weekend to really test it out. I took a walk out to NYC to purchase a much needed wide angle lens for the camera which ran me about $300.00 USD.

After the weekend I realized that this camera is great, but it’s not worth the $1,100.00 USD retail sticker price, so took it back to the store and returned it. The guy was nice enough to not charge me a restocking fee.

About a week later I found the same camera on eBay for about $830.00 USD and purchased it for keeps.

THE WINNING FACTOR

The lens it the best part of the camera. The lens is the same lens used on the old Canon GL2 DV cameras.

The images look brilliant and it’s ability to absorb light after sunset is great with the assist of a portable light.

The latest Browntourage episode – Hollywood Again – was shot with this camera.

THE KILLER

Canon doesn’t consider XLR audio adapters when they design their camera.

With the BeachTek attached to the HFS100, you can’t open the flash disc slot to eject the SDHC memory card.

It’s a pain considering I’m usually shooting with the Steadicam Merlin. To change the card I have to off load the camera from the Merlin and screw off the BeachTek to eject the memory.

What I end up doing usually is using my Laptop to transfer the video data via USB to a portable HDD. It’s a temporary solution, but it doesn’t give that quick satisfaction of having more recording space available.

The upside to this is you’ll be limited to shoot only 60 mins of video on a 16 GB SDHC card. On a day’s worth of shooting, be sure to make each shot count.

What I might end up doing is cutting up the BeachTek device to allow for the camera to open up the memory slot or get a 32 GB SDHC card instead.

Below is the new stats view for a video I uploaded Conversations in Heaven & Hell – last week on YouTube:

All of this information was available before, but you’d have to check the insights button and click in several different areas to get all this info. I love how its all laid out in front of you in one easy click.

Thanks YouTube!

I’m sure a lot of us have heard of twitter, but most don’t have a clue what it is and what’s so great about it.

Twitter is the key that allows you to work you online social network in an automated fashion so that you can continuously build relationships and engage your people while not being chained to a desk or a computer.

Blogging, bookmarking, video, text, photo, and networking in a social sphere are all what we’re exposed to so much these days, yet many of us are resisting adopting and embracing these technologies.

I joined twitter back in April 2009 (see sidebar for my latest tweets). I knew of its existance since early 2008 but never joined because I was still getting my head around all these new social media technologies and figuring out what ways to use utilize them for marketing as well as general communication.

After having used twitter for about three months, I can confidently say it is a total Godsend! In all truth I wish I joined up sooner.

WHAT IS TWITTER?

• It’s a (micro)blog – “micro” because it’s got 140 character limitation.

• It’s public SMS – you can SMS people directly to their twitter accounts which ideally should be hooked up to their cell phones and they can respond to you. You can also follow the conversations of other who peak your interest and others can follow your conversations as well.

• It’s a networking tool - It allows you to follow and connect with new people you want to know more about through people you already know and it allows others the opportunity to connect with you. People you probably would never have connected with through normal circumstances.

• Most of all it’s a mobile synchronization tool for social media. - It allows the sharing of photo, video and text not only in the twitter crowd, but you can set it up to distribute to places like YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace – exponentially reaching out to a large network of people simultaneously just by simply pressing the “send” button on your cell phone!

I DON’T HAVE TIME TO LEARN THIS!

I’m a major advocate for social media and here’s why:

It’s a gold mine to meeting new people. Not just for the purposes of business but to enrich your social life as well.

Social media is a TOOL and specifically it’s a MAGNIFIER. Like money and power it will magnify what’s already inside of you. Truth is that social media is here to stay and you will be assimilated. Resistance is futile

I WANT TO PROTECT MY PRIVACY

I understand that there is a concern of having a balance of privacy and publicity. I also feel that people aren’t exercising comon sense when it comes to the issue of privacy and publicity online and this is where proper education and awareness needs to be brought into the fold.

I’m in the process of developing some material via MessageMastery.com which I’ll be putting out as a gift for all of you laying out the basics to get you going on using these amazing social media tools.

Using social media is just like real life – Its all about extending one’s influence through the building of relationships.

Fact of life: generally people don’t care about you, me or anyone. They care about themselves, and more importantly – what others think of THEM.

In order for us as entrepreneurs, organizational leaders, entertainers, or even as individuals to get people to do stuff, we need to touch a heart before we can ask for a hand. This is where leadership skills and compassion comes into play.

Everyone wants something. They’re trying to get somewhere. When we help someone get to where they want to go – a relationship forms.

When the heart is touched multiple times, those individuals make your their leader/celebrity/etc – obviously we as Muslims don’t attempt to touch the hearts of people to become their leader or celebrity – we do it for the sake of Allah-swt alone, but the natural process is that this is what happens.

The more hearts we touch – the greater our influence becomes – This is social media.

The tools that are out the like – YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, WordPress, etc – are all there to do just that.

WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO?

I want you to give some of these tools a try. Specifically twitter.

Go ahead to twitter.com and create an account, start following me and we can start sharing ideas with each other right away

The other day someone showed me a YouTube channel saw a design layout that was different (and much better looking) than the typical YouTube channels. After some inquiry turns out that they hadn’t done anything special to get the design as they had set it.

After about three mins of fiddling around in the YouTube settings, I saw this:

When you see an “Upgrade” button, you cannot not click it. The result:

I love the clean design layout.

If you’re seeking help on getting your Facebook account back…

The only help I can offer is that you follow the process I followed.

Simply send them an email and await a response. It’s happened to me and my wife and both of us have been able to get our accounts back. It took about two weeks for both of us from the time when the account was disabled.

The thing is to be patient and set yourself a deadline. If you don’t get your account back by that specific date, then make a new account. Tools are here today and gone tomorrow. Social capital and relationships are here to stay.

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UPDATE

Hi Belal,

Your account was disabled because you took repeated actions that could be construed as spam.  For instance, it is a violation of Facebook’s Terms of Use to repeatedly send the same message or to make the same post.  Facebook prides itself in protecting users from spam, and we take this standard very seriously.

However, after reviewing your situation, we have reactivated your account, and you should now be able to log in.  Please refrain from sending the same message or repeating the same post, as further violations of our Terms will result in your account being permanently disabled.

Please also be aware that when a warning message appears on your home page, it will generally be displayed for 24 hours.  It can be displayed for longer, however, if you continue to perform these actions.  We appreciate your cooperation going forward.

Thanks for your understanding,

Rachel
User Operations
Facebook

Jazakallahu Khairun for everyone who helped

– — –

This post has two purposes:

1. Request for your help in getting my account back
2. Tell you the story about what happened

Firstly, send Facebook an email interceding on my behalf — appeals+dw5w8wy@facebook.com — asking them to reinstate my account profile.

Secondly, I’m going to tell you the story of what happened.

This past week I’ve been getting several emails from Facebook friends asking me what happened to my profile. The sad news is that my Facebook account got disabled on Eid day!

I guess I got a little excited and was sending out Eid holiday greetings to my groups and friends last Monday. I was prompted with a warning message for sending too many messages too quickly. I made the mistake of thinking, “let me send just one more…” — After which I got logged out of Facebook telling me the message pictured above.

I did some research and asking around for the proper course of action and was directed to send an email to the following email addresses:

• disabled@facebook.com
• appeals@facebook.com

First email I sent them was the following:

Hi,

My account  was disabled. I was sending out Muslim holiday greetings to my friends and groups and it gave me a warning. I used the same message for the different groups I administer to save myself time. Is there any way that my account can be open again?

After a couple days – not having gotten a response I tried again, and they responded with the following:

Hi,

The Facebook Team has received your inquiry. We should get back to you soon. In the meantime, we encourage you to review our Terms of Use (http://www.facebook.com/terms.php) for more information.

Thanks for contacting Facebook,

The Facebook Team

After another few days of no results, I wrote them a poem:

Is there any hope of me getting my account back
or shall I be patient a lil while longer?
We can all use some slack,
which makes us no less stranger

Some of us can cross the line in the excitement
but no one was put in danger
Looking forward to my account’s reinstatement
preferably sooner than later

You guys do us people a great service
It would be sad not to continue to be a part of it
It would be of great happiness
If you let me back into it

I hope my poem hasn’t annoyed you
I just hope to appeal to the better part
I would love to be back into facebook’s white and blue
Getting my account back would be a start

Looking forward to your reply.

- — -

It’s been about three days since I wrote them a poem and have yet to hear anything from them. Those of you who have active Facebook accounts — if you can send an email to appeals+dw5w8wy@facebook.com interceeding on my behalf to get my account reinstated — I would really appreciate it!

I found a couple online articles that talk about how and why your account can get disabled:

• 13 Reasons Your Facebook Account Will Be Disabled
• Facebook Disabled My Account by Scobleizer

Read them and be aware!

Update: 11.25.2008

The following articles expand more on the whole YouTube 720p update.

• How To: Watch YouTube Movies in Full 720p HD Glory
• Comparison of Normal Youtube vs Youtube High Quality

— – —

YouTube recently added 720p HD footage support (It’s about time). See this video below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

no watch it in 720p by adding &fmt=22 after the YouTube web URL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b1fpn7-c_U&fmt=22

maximize the footage and see the HD splendor!

Frankenstein was the last thing on my mind when I purchased the Canon FS100 a few months ago, but along the way this cute little camera has turned into a monster that is meant to be treated with caution. In this post I discuss certain challenges I faced with this camera and the solutions I found to those challenges.

I blogged about this camera in the past in the following posts. I recommend you follow me in my journey with this camera.

• Cannon FS100 Review and Process
• I Didn’t Buy That Canon Camera!

After using this camera for a few months below are a list of pros and cons that I personally found. Depending on your use bases this list of “pros” and “cons” may or maynot apply to you. After the

What do I mean by “Modifiable to my will?” It means that I was able to modify the camera in ways that helped me get around the challenges have solutions to the cons I mentioned above.

Bad Image Detail In Still Mode

Understand that this is NOT a still image camera. Its a VIDEO camera, thus its strengths will be in its respective area. If you want to be able to take quality still images on cheap while still grow in your skill I would recommend purchasing one of Canon’s Powershot Digic II or Digic II cameras that have the ablity to get CHDK on them.

CHDK is an upgrade that gives a consumer Canon Powershot camera professional abilities. Couple of my friends, Usman and Basil applied this upgrade to their cameras and the results were awesome. I’ve blogged about that in the past here:

Amazing Timelaspe Using a Canon Powershot and More

If you want more info on the whole CHDK upgrade for Digic II and Digic III cameras, see CHDK Wiki

No Threading For Lens Attachment

Krazy Glue is my best friend! I purchased a step down ring where on one side is 37MM threading for the 37MM threaded lens that I have. Depending on the size of rings that you have you will need to get the appropriate step down ring and “Krazy Glue” it onto your FS100.

I purchased a step down ring from eBay for about $14.

Bad Low Light Sensitivity And No Hot Shoe For Attachments

This camera is a single CMOS chip camera, thus its light absorbing capabilities are limited. The on camera LED light isn’t all that helpful in practical situtaion. On top of that there is no hotshoe to attached an external light to the camera. I figured I’ll bring in my friend Krazy Glue and glue on a separate hot shoe.

I purchased a “Sima SL-20LX Ultra Bright Video Light” from Amazon for about $35. It came with a metal bracket and the light. I also purchased two hot shoes for about $11 each. The plan was to glue the hot shoe to the top of the camera. Since the top of the camera was a bit curved I needed something to straighten out the curvature.

The metal bracket that came with the light had some rubber on which I cut off with a knife and krazy glued that on to the top of the camera after which I krazy glued the hot shoe onto the rubber.

No Audio Levels Control, No Place To Place A Mic And Too Light For The Merlin

I still had the issue of the camera being too light for the Merlin and the audio levels control. I decided to purchase level’s control device called the BeachTek DXA-2S. It screws on to the bottom of the camera where the tripod would go.

The great thing about the DXA-2S is that it allows for a tripod slate or even the Merlin slate to be added on. It plugs into the Microphone input on the FS100 and then you simply control the levels using the knobs on the back.

The BeachTek DXA-2S comes for about $180 on Amazon.

Now that I can plug a mic into the camera with control over the audio levels, where to I place the microphone? This is where the metal bracket and the second hot shot comes in handy. I took the hot shoe and krazy glued the top part to the metal bracket that came with the light and then I Krazy Glued the metal bracket to the DXA-2S.

Only issue with this is that Krazy Glue isn’t strong enough to hold the metal bracket due to the strong leverage the extended part has on the Krazy Glued part. If you wrap tape around it and the DXA-2S then it will hold just fine.

In the end your rig will look like the first pictures in the post. A true Frankenstien of a camera. If any of you are wondering what sort of microphone that is, its the “Azden Sgm-2x Xlr 2 Barrel Shotgun Mic” — It comes for about $250 on Amazon and it’s a great microphone.

With the attachedk BeachTek DXA-2S, Azden Mic, and barrels of Krazy Glue, there is enough weight on the camera to be properly balanced on the Merlin.

If you don’t want to go the metal bracket glued on to the DXA-2S route, then another option is to simply purchase a pistol grip. It can easily give you more flexibility with your sound coverage and it looks down right cool! — Almost like a police baton or a real gun!

The pistol grip comes for about $7 on Amazon.

This setup can give you quite the freedom that you may need when recording on the go. Another option that can come in handy is that lets say the subject you are recording on camera isn’t comfortable with the bright lights in their face, you can use the pistol grip for the portable light.

These are my final thoughts about the Canon FS100. I believe this is a great camera even if you don’t want to go through what I did to get excellent capture of image and sound.

Understand that the camera isn’t the most imporant aspect of a recording setup. You need lights, microphones, lens, and be able to move the camera as well. Its not always about having the “best” camera.

For me and what I’m doing, this is the “best” camera for ME. It may or maynot be the “best” camera for you. Its up to you to decide.

To help you in that matter, I made a post over at MessageMastery.com on the question: What Camera Should I Get?

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