I’ve received a number of inquiries as to how I’m managing the manual focusing challenges when shooting HD with the 5D Mark II. I’ve used a Marshall LCD with some success but it’s far from perfect, bulky, and quite pricey. My favorite and best solution is one that is shockingly simple and it works equally well in both bright and low-light conditions. It’s my newest gadget, the iDC LCD Viewfinder. I’ve used this delightful little gadget to capture much of the footage in this video montage.

Hit the Continue Reading link to find out more and to see some more photos...

Yep, this video posting is a bit of a mixed bag; I had a couple of things I wanted to share and once I started yakking they both subjects kinda blended together...

The big news is that we have a newly designed baseplate for the U-Boat Commander! 

Several interesting options have become available since the initial design was produced and it has taken a bit of time to integrate them into our U-Boat's modular design.  When I designed the original U-Boat, the Beachtek XLR adapter was still a "work in progress" and I hadn't figured out a good LCD magnifier quite yet.  Things have certainly changed!

First of all, this new U-Boat Commander baseplate has Beachtek alignment-pin holes so you can easily mount  the Beachtek XLR adapter beneath the baseplate.  I like this better than mounting the camera onto the Beachtek and then stuffing the combination into the interior of the U-Boat.; this way seems much more solid and doesn't stress the plastic architecture of the Beachtek.

Best of all, the new U-Boat Commander baseplate now accepts our solid-mount LCD Viewfinder! No Velcro here; our LCD Viewfinder bolts solidly to the new baseplate so you can enjoy the benefits of a light-tight eye-level view of your camera's LCD.  If you already own the iDC LCD Viewfinder you can remove that item's small square baseplate and attach the remaining "L" bracket and loupe to the new U-BC baseplate.  Easy Peasy!. 

This new generation baseplate can be purchased with or without the LCD Viewfinder installed.  If you haven't yet purchased your own U-Boat Commander, you'll be able to specify this option at the time of purchase. 

Moving on to the rest of the "mixed bag'...

I've been having good luck with the new Beachtek DXA5D XLR adapter.  If you feel that single-system sound is well-suited for your particular film-making technique, you owe it to yourself to take a closer look at this nicely designed passive audio accessory.  Watch the video for a closer look.

Well, by now most of my readers know that I 'm quite smitten with the new color-correct LED lighting instruments that are arriving on the scene.  Most have been built around  a generation of LED lamps that were not too powerful. This meant that an individual fixture would most likely sport a huge number of LED lamps just to get an adequate level of illumination.

That's changing.  I just tested these new fixtures from LEDz that use new and much more powerful LED lamps. These are dimmable ( with minimal shift in color temperature )and really quite bright.  The biggest of the lot, the LEDz Brute 16 uses just 16 lamps to create output similar to a 200 watt HMI which is, in turn, similar in effective output to a 1000 watt incandescent..  Watch the video to learn more.

Click the Continue Reading link to see our image gallery...

Well, it's taken a bit longer than I anticipated to get this posting online but here we are at last.

I had hoped to be posting all of these video blog entries via SmugMug but we're getting no love from that sector. We've tried everything under the sun to get SmugMug to work reliably but it just isn't happening. Too bad. Maybe someone over there will read this and step up to help us in a meaningful way...

Anyway, here are all three segments of our exploration of shutter-speed options for the 5D Mark II in bright lighting conditions. I managed to finish these before taking some time off to recover from an automobile accident that has slowed me down a bit.  More to come after I'm feeling my oats again....

Special thanks to the Arizona Junior Rodeo Association for their wonderful cooperation!

All videos Updated as of 6/8/09 

If you are having problems viewing the videos, please check that you have an up-to-date version of Adobe Flash Player installed. You can find more info at Adobe's website: http://www.adobe.com

Corel has released a new version for my favorite natural media painting and drawing program!  And it rocks! Continue through to view the painting steps I used to create this photo painting and see a listing of my favorite new and enhanced features offered in the PAINTER 11 version.