Finally my Sony Action Cam arrived. I purchased the WiFi version so I can monitor the pictures on my iPhone or iPad when setting it up or maybe when using it as an impromptu pole-cam on the end of a microphone boom pole. I have not had a chance to do take an in depth look at the images yet, the weather here is pants, grey and misty and anything I shoot at the moment looks soft. Anyway, after charging up the camera using the supplied USB cable (there’s no charger, you have to use a laptop or get a USB power adapter) I decided to try to connect it to my iPhone.

First problem: The manual is…. err…..  well….  how can I say this politely…  it’s carp. It’s a huge sheet of paper with an almost incomprehensible flow chart of the menu options and a few brief paragraphs of text. Finally I found the bit that I needed however, the WiFi connection instructions. These comprehensive (not) instructions tell you to turn the WiFi on and connect to your device using the login details on a tiny sticker attached to the giant piece of paper.

OK, so I have a login and password, but what software do I use? Eventually I found a link to the software on one corner of the manual that tells you to use something called “Play Memories Home”. At first, assuming this was an app I did a search on the Apple store and found a Sony app called Play Memories and installed this on my phone. However this is some sort of media sharing app for your photos and has no way to connect to the camera. Next I followed the link to www.sony.net/pm which took me to a page where I could download a PC application, but still no iPhone app. By now I was getting somewhat frustrated, this should be really simple!

Anyway after some digging around I finally found the right app, it’s called Playmemories Mobile. Click here to go to the apple store. Even after you have installed the app things are not entirely obvious. You need to run the app on the phone, then turn on the camera. Press the Prev or Next buttons to fire up the camera and go to the setup menu, press next till you get to setup and then press the record button to select. then using prev/next go to RMOTE press record to select, and then set ON using prev/next. This turns on the WiFi. Now on the phone with the app running you will see a cryptic error message saying “Search the shooting device from the network settings of the terminal and set it”. This is telling you to go to the phones WiFi settings and search for a network with the same name as the SSID on the tiny sticker on the instruction sheet (I peeled my sticker off and stuck it on the side of the camera). Select the WiFi network and enter the supplied password. The phone should now connect to the camera, you won’t see the normal WiFi indication at the top of the phones screen. Go back to the Playmemory mobile app and you should now be able to see the live feed from the Action Cam.

What a palava! Now that I can get connected I’m pleased to say that the lag between the camera and iPhone is only minimal, about 1/3rd of a second and the image quality on the phone is plenty good enough for framing and camera setup, so I happy at last. But come on Sony, you really need to do a better job of the manual. There’s more information on EC and FCC directives on interference and battery disposal than there is on how to actually use the camera.

Movember is almost upon us. Whether you choose to grow a moustache in support of prostate and testicular cancer research or not, all that really counts is raising awareness of this these terrible cancers that affects 1 in 6 men. Many, many very generous manufacturers are support Philip’s Movember fund raising campaign with some great (and I do mean great) prizes. So go… now…   and take a look at Philip’s Movember page. Grow a tache, make a film or simply make a donation. http://philipbloom.net/2012/10/18/movember2012/

Wow! I recently sent out the first ever site wide email to registered users of the forum. It’s an ad for some workshops I’m running. I put a lot of free time and effort into the blog and website. I know the vast majority of you appreciate the site and I get great feedback from most. But the response I’ve had from some people because I sent them one email is frankly astounding. One of the conditions of membership of the forum is agreement to receive very occasional emails. But some people think it’s out of order that I should send them an email. Come on people, the only reason anyone would sign up to the forum is to take advantage of the things on it, ask a question, download a picture profile etc. Yet some people think its unreasonable that in return for offering this free resource I should send out the occasional email. Well that’s fine by me. If you are not prepared to accept a few emails in return for access to a wealth of free help and advice them I’m more than happy to delete your account and bar you from the website.

The New F is more than just rumour. It actually exists and Sony will not only be sending out a press release on the 30th of October but also holding events where “it” will be guest of honour. I wish I could tell you more, but I can’t. All I can say that there’s some very cool stuff coming. If you are in the UK then there will be a launch event in London where #TheNewF will be on hand to pose for photographs and some hands on opportunities. I’ve already ordered my New F, go take a look and you’ll see why I placed an order. Sadly I can’t attend myself, I’ll be out of the country at the time. If you want to go and see what all the fuss is about you need to register to reserve a place as space is limited:

https://events.pro.sony.eu/event.php/United-Kingdom-30Oct-1000-THE-FUTURE-IS-IN-YOUR-HANDS-Roadshow-in-London

I have not tried this but have been sent some information from one of my Sony contacts (this is not endorsed by Sony). It appears to be a very similar adapter to the metabones adapter but with the addition of the ability to use the one push auto focus button on the camera to set the focus. You don’t get continuous auto focus and I have no idea if the adapter is any good, but at only $250 it’s got to be worth a try. You can find them on ebay but I have no other information at this time other than the video below.

Lots of mystery surrounding this. At first glance it may sound like a new “F” camera, maybe an F3 update or replacement. It could also be a companion camera to the F65 perhaps. But then you also have to consider that Sony have promised to reveal details of the 4k recorder and firmware for the FS700 some time soon, so maybe it’s the FS4K (made up name) recorder? Who knows? Well, I know some things that I can’t discuss, if it is one of the things I know about then it is extremely exciting as it will surprise you. Sony have some very impressive things in development that they believe are so significant that they have been extremely secretive about them. Even within Sony only a select handful know all the details. I don’t know the full story, but what I have heard is very exciting indeed and earlier than expected. Roll on the 30th of October when all will be revealed!

Just a reminder that I’m running a morning and afternoon PMW-200 workshop at D+P in Dublin tomorrow. The morning session starts at 10am and the afternoon at 2pm. More details are here: http://camerakit.ie/masterclass.asp

DONT PANIC! I have not gone mad, I have no intention of replacing my lovely Vinten tripods and nor do I wish to use this ridiculously cheap Chinese tripod to replace the pro tripods I normally use. But I have the need for a tripod that is smaller and lighter than the ones I currently use, a tripod that is in effect “disposable” in so much as I can take it on an overseas shoot and leave it behind if I need to. For example when I go to Norway for the Northern Lights shoots we travel by snow scooter and anything I can do to reduce the weight and bulk of the kit the better, so this tripod may end up spending the winter in Norway while I travel back and forwards between December and March. I picked it up in Hong Kong, it cost me about £100 GBP. You can get them on ebay and all over the place.

For 100 quid this is actually rather impressive. It’s rated for a payload up to 7kg, but in my opinion it’s only really suitable for about 2.5kg, but that makes it suitable for a “naked” FS100, FS700 or EX1/PMW-200. It’s almost entirely made from aluminium, there is very little plastic. It appears reasonably well made and is surprisingly sturdy. The legs are 3 stage alloy legs that extend to about 1.6m, there are two versions of the legs, mine are the short version. There is a fixed mid level spreader that cannot be removed or adjusted, but it works quite well. The ends of the legs just have a simple rubber cap on the end, no spikes or twin spikes so fitting a floor spreader might be difficult. A simple twist lock lever locks each stage of the legs. When I purchased my tripod one of these twist locks did not tighten enough to securely lock the legs, but this was cured in about 15 seconds by removing a little plastic cover from the lever, removing a screw and rotating the leaver 1/5th of a turn on it’s spigot and replacing the screw. At the top of the legs there is a 60mm bowl. This is a non-standard size, so most other tripod heads won’t work with these legs.

The tripod head as a 60mm ball and is solidly constructed, it even has a fixed rate counterbalance spring. There is a drag adjustment for tilt, but not for pan.  The tilt and pan action is smooth and fluid and the drag levels reasonable for smaller cameras. In addition you can lock both the pan and tilt axis. The camera is attached to the tripod head via a sliding quick release plate, it’s even supplied with both 1/4″ and 3/8″ screws! The pan bar is telescopic and extends but the extension part is a little loose on the fixed part and this can introduce a bit of slop and small jerks to you otherwise smooth camera moves.

Frankly I’m amazed by this tripod. If your in the market for something very cheap, maybe for a small “B” camera or as a backup you really should consider this one. For the money, it appears to be one hell of a tripod. It isn’t in the same class as a Vinten, Miller, Sachtler etc and I have no idea how long it will last, but it’s a lot better than any other £100 tripod that I’ve seen previously.

I’m running a FS700 workshop in Helsinki on Wednesday the 10th of October. Starting at 10am we will be taking an in depth look at the FS700, how to fine tune it and how to shoot super slow mo with it. The event will be held at Suomilammi Oy, Sirrikuja 4F, 00940 Helsinki.

I have been looking at some other picture profiles claiming to offer a log style curve or the maximum dynamic range from the camera. One in particular caught my eye as the creator advocates the use of a very high black level setting. Normally the black level setting does nothing more than set the zero reference point (called the pedestal) for the black level, it does not  normally affect dynamic range. So I decided to investigate the claim that a high black level on a FS700 improves shadow performance, at the same time coming up with my own settings for maximum dynamic range.

To establish whether the black level setting made any difference to the dynamic range I performed a very simple test using a greyscale chart and a waveform monitor. I exposed the grey scale so that one of the mid scale grey bars was just fractionally below the zero, black level on the waveform monitor. Now, IF the black level is changing the dynamic range, then raising the black level should allow me to bring that now just invisible grey scale bar back up above the black level so that I can see it on the waveform monitor as a discreet bar. Well, it didn’t. The overall black level comes up as expected, but the grey bar does not make an appearance, it stays firmly below the black level. This proves that the black level control is actually working as expected, i.e. just changing the zero point. Now you can decrease the dynamic range by using a high negative value as this will push dark parts of the scene into clipping, but raising the level does nothing more than raising the black pedestal level. Raising the pedestal level may make the image look flatter on a monitor because it will look greyer due to blacks that no longer look black on the monitor, but the dynamic range is not in fact being increased and your wasting recording data.

The next thing to look at is the Black Gamma setting. Now as this is a gain setting (as opposed to just a level setting) I did expect to see some changes in dynamic range. What’s interesting with this setting is that it operates over 3 ranges, low, mid and high. High range operates over the greatest range, but has the least effect on deep shadows. Low Range has the greatest effect on deep shadows and by using Low Range and the maximum +7 level setting I was able to gain almost a half stop increase in low end dynamic range. +7 with the High range setting made almost no difference to the darkest parts of the image. From previous testing and experimentation I know that cinegamma 4 offers the greatest dynamic range, so by combining Cinegamma 4 with black gamma, low range at +7, I believe you are getting the absolute maximum dynamic range from the camera. You should note that set like this the camera records to 109%.

I have created a complete flat look, maximum dynamic range picture profile for the FS700 and you can find the settings by clicking here.