I finally decided to upgrade my one year old MacBook Pro. I replaced SuperDrive for anothe disk. I ordered OptiBay from USA. For 200€ (99$ unit, 70$ shipping, 60€ customs) they send you an adapter for the disk that you put inside the Mac in place of SuperDrive which you can put in a external USB enclosure.

Package contained disk adapter, screwdriver, USB cables, USB enclosure and CD with manual

Replacing the unit wasn’t difficult. You follow instructions and where the failed you follow your common sense. I had some problems with puting the SuperDrive in an external enclosure, as there are no instructions for that, but not much.

Replacing the optical unit is not so difficult

I just have to install all applications again

I want a clean install so I have to install all the applications again. In the future I will replace the disk for a faster SSD, but their prices need to come down a bit.

Slovenski prevod vpisa najdete na tem naslovu.

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Last Thursday (May 27th) I finally started to get equipment for my big DSLR test. First I got D3s in D300s bodies with AF-S NIKKOR 24mm f/1.4G ED, AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.4G, AF NIKKOR 85mm f/1.4D IF and AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED lenses from Nikon Slovenia.

First batch of cameras (bottom right is Canon 550D with 50mm f/1.4, that I got from Foto Format) - iPhone (edited with Pro HDR, CrossProcess)

I knew that there will be to little time during the weekend so I went location scouting in the afternoon. I still had an idea about a poppy filed so I followed directions from my friend Nataša to the nearby field. There were a lot of poppies but the surroundings were horrid. Small village on one end and billboards on the other. This was clashing with my idea of a lost lonely girl in the nature.

Poppy field I (©2010 Peter Prevec)

Poppy field II (©2010 Peter Prevec)

I gave up the poppy filed idea and went to Slovenian Istra. An the highwat to Koper and over the hill to Dragonja. It was raining for the whole time and I wasn’t hoping for nicer weather. First photos were made under umbrella.

Istrian wines (©2010 Peter Prevec)

I mainly used Nikon D3s body with the new 24mm f/1.4 lens, which quickly became my favourite lens and only thing that is stopping me from buying it is high price (€2.000). It is everything it promises: sharp, fast, sensitive and wide.

Even old Megane looks like a hot rod with the new 24mm f/1.4. (©2010 Peter Prevec)

There was lots of interesting locations on the way, but they were to far apart and we would use too much time between them so I decided to go to small deserted village called Abitanti near Croatia border. On the way the sun came from under the clouds so I stopped a few times to take pictures.

Sun between clouds and earth. - iPhone (edited with Pro HDR, CrossProcess)

Self portrait - iPhone (edited with Pro HDR, CrossProcess)

I stopped by the road, step out, take picture and drive on. The light was phenomenal. (©2010 Peter Prevec)

Sunset after the rain. (©2010 Peter Prevec)

It was after 9 PM when I arrived to the Abitanti village so I quickly set up the cameras to do some time lapse photography. You may think I was too late and the darkness to thick, but the light sensitive Nikons were performing great in night photography with the fast lenses I had.

Nikon D300, AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED, ISO 400, f/2.8, exposure 8s, time 21:52 (©2010 Peter Prevec)

Nikon D3s, AF-S NIKKOR 24mm f/1.4G ED, ISO 800, f/1.4, exposure 2s, time 21:55 (©2010 Peter Prevec)

Nikon D3s, AF-S NIKKOR 24mm f/1.4G ED, ISO 400, f/1.4, exposure 1.6s, time 23:17 (©2010 Peter Prevec)

I hope I will finally write more about the shoot itself in the following days and even post some video clips.

Slovenski prevod vpisa najdete na tem naslovu.

I finally managed to get four Canon and two Nikon DSLR bodies for this weekend so I can compare their video capabilities as I mentioned here and I build a special video head adapter for this occasion that can carry six bodies at the same time.

I planned to get Canon EOS 1D Mark IV, 5D Mark II, 7D, 550D and Nikon D3s, D300s. I need also 50mm f/1.4 for every camera to test them all with the same lenses but I am still one short for Canon, so if you know someone that can lend me one please let me know, or else I will use f/1.8 for one body.

My friend Maja will be my model for the test and we went to do some preliminary photography tests searching for poppy fields in Slovenia. I heard there are poppy fileds at Mengeš fields, but the poppies were scarce. We finally find them hiding in a wheat field and we did the first shooting.

Lovely Maja in the poppy field (©2010 Peter Prevec)

I used Nikon SB-800 through umbrella for the lighting (©2010 Peter Prevec)

We stopped searching for the poppy fields (but if you know for one in or near Slovenia let me know) and went to Dolenjska region and did some shots in the wheat fields.

Hiding in wheat (©2010 Peter Prevec)

Caressing the soft wheat (©2010 Peter Prevec)

Another lighting setup (©2010 Peter Prevec)

I”ll go and search for more locations this afternoon to prepare myself and than when the weekend comes… action.

Slovenski prevod vpisa najdete na tem naslovu.

The wait is over. In the early hours of this day Canon released firmware update 2.0.3 for Canon EOS 5D Mark II, which enables recording at 25 fps, as it was until now the only Canon camera that didn’t have this option. Included in this update is also a function for manually adjusting the sound recording level, a histogram display for shooting movies in manual exposure and changes the audio sampling frequency from 44.1 KHz to 48 KHz.

Shooting with less than 30 fps was the most wanted function since they introduced the camera and the wanting became even stronger as the introduced other models of camera bodies (1D Mark IV, 7D, 550D) that had this function. The loudest proponent for 24p and 25p was definitely Stu Maschwitz on its blog ProLost. There was a lot of blog posts this morning about the upgrade and there is an explosion of cats and dogs test videos on Vimeo recorded with the new firmware. Philip Blooms blog has some more serious movies as he had the firmware in his hands for quite some weeks.

What does this upgrade changes for me? Nothing directly or better, nothing at the moment. It is true that I am preparing for the large test of different DSLR cameras. I planned to record with Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 7D, Canon 1D Mark IV, Canon D550, Nikon D3s, Nikon D300s, Nikon D90 and Panasonic G1 at the same time and have made a special rig that has the option of holding five camera bodies at the same time.

First package

I got the idea watching studio photography tutorials – I think it was Joe McNally, where I saw a rig that enables you to have laptop next to the camera on a tripod so that you can do tethered shooting and see the images at the same moment on the laptop.

Tethered camera and laptop setup

The base for the system is Manfrotto 131DDB Horizontal 4 Head Accessory Arm and Manfrotto 183 Aluminium Table Attachment. The arm has two screws at the ends which I also used in combination with Manfrotto 553 Angle Bracket for Lever Center Column and so I got the option for attaching four heads (if you remove the laptop table of course). I hoped that I could then attach Manfrotto Quick Change Rect. Plate Adaptor directly on the 3/8” screws but it couldn’t be done.

Quick Change Rect. Plates

So I bought some Manfrotto 494 Ball Head with Friction Control which attached to the Arm together with quick change plates. I gained place for another body with Manfrotto Super Clamp MN035, Manfrotto 208 3/8-inch Mounting Plate For Super Clamp and another quick plate.

There is room for five bodies

Now I have a rig that can hold five camera bodies, but there are eight cameras that I want to test. I probably won’t be able to get them at the same time. Canon 1D and 5D I intend to borrow from Samo Vidic, but he is very busy at the moment so I will probably get his cameras not before middle of april, my father has a 7D, I will borrow Nikon D3s and D300s from Nikon Slovenia, D90 from my friend Matjaž, Panasonic G1 from Jure, who doesn’t know anything about it at the moment and 550D from camera store Foto Format. I would like to test all of them with 50mm f/1.4 lens which represents anther problem, as I need four Canon ones, three Nikon and one micro four thirds one.

Rig is attached to the Manfrotto 525 sticks with 501HDV head

While I was writing this post I found out that I can add another body to the rig with some spare Manfrotto parts. Now I have place for six bodies. I also checked with F90x and D200, so there is enough space between heads for the bodies.

Why did I continue this post about firmware update with the rig. I wanted to record everything in 25 fps, so I waited for Canon to release the firmware. I have no excuse any more. I only need to organise to have all equipment together for a weekend. I probably have some time until then and I can focus on the story of the test movie so it won’t be another pet video or video about local scenery.

Slovenski prevod vpisa najdete na tej strani.

Finally I got the new iPhone 3GS. New for me that is, because the model it self is 7 months old. Anyway. New toy for me. The old one died of heavy use. I had a hard time buying it it because I had to got to Trieste to get it. And because the stores are not open on Mondays in Trieste. And because I found out about it on Tuesday. You still can’t get iPhone in Slovenia. But let us leave the shopping for a moment (If you see me on the street stop me and I will tell you all about it) and lets focus on the new functions of the iPhone 3GS.

iPhone 3GS, finally in my hands

First one is the new camera with higher resolution, autofocus, automatic exposure adjustment and video mode. Higher resolution (1536×2048 or 3 mega pixels or 2K) enables print sizes up to 6.82” x 5.12”. Autofocus can now focus to distances as close as few inches. No more out of focus business cards or other post it notes in Evernote or JotNot application. I can also scan bar codes now and do other kind of close-up photography. Video mode in combination with ReelDirector app allows simple video editing on the iPhone and that is another function besides photo editing that I don’t need computer for doing it any more. But the real gem is automatic exposure adjustment. I can set the exposure with touching the screen in photo mode. With application Pro HDR I can then make two photos, one adjusted for the bright parts and one for the dark parts. The app the combines then and make one photo with high dynamic range.

High dynamic range image 1 (I used Pro HDR and Cross Process for editing this photo)

High dynamic range image 2 (I used Pro HDR and Cross Process for editing this photo)

High dynamic range image 3 (I used Pro HDR and Cross Process for editing this photo)

The second function is speed. S stands for speed. Not just the speed of the phone with faster processor that can make launching and using the apps faster, but also data connection speed (my previous phone was original iPhone with EDGE connection) which is faster with 3G connection.

The third function is GPS which allows the use of many apps which use location data. Since I got the phone a few weeks back I bought in car navigation application Navigon Europe with maps of the whole Europe. I also bought dash board holder and car charger for the car. I also started to use app RunKeeper to track my fitness activities as  are running, cycling, skiing and more.

Nosilec za iPhone za v avto

The last function which expands the functionality of the phone is its legality. I bought unlocked phone and I can upgrade it as soon as Apple puts out software upgrades. I can also use Push services, which allow me to receive messages from different application even when I don’t have them open on the phone. For instance I can be connected to various chat services like GTalk, Skype, Facebook, AIM and more with IM+  app and when somebody sends me a message the phone alerts me to that so that I  can open the application to reply to the message.

Push on iPhone 3GS

It was not easy yo pay 719€ (976$) for the new iPhone 3GS 32 GB but after a few week of usage I can say that I am not sorry. With this purchase I added to my collection of gadgets the most useful one.

Slovenski prevod vpisa najdete na tej strani.

Update: I change all mentions of iPhone 3G S to iPhone 3GS as Apple did four days after the launch. More about it in this article.

This is my third video in Streets at Night series. I got Canon EOS-1D Mark IV and lenses EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM, EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM and EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM from photographer Samo Vidic. I shoot the clips the same as before (Streets at Night I – Canon EOS-5D Mark II, Streets at Night II – Nikon D3s). I edited in h.264 sequence as is the native codec of the camera. I converted the files to ProRes with export to Color. I wanted to make orange snow white. Color orange came from the street lights even though I set the white balance to 2500 K. When I color corrected the shots to make the snow white I probably made the noise more visible as this is the noisiest of the movies. Nikon has also the advantage of better looking digital noise.

Canon EOS-5D Mark II has the least noise so far, but I also didn’t do much color correction then. I wanted to see the settings I used then because Canon writes on the card besides the video file small thumbnail which is actually a .jpeg file with EXIF info. But unfortunately there is no info about ISO setting or white balance, but at least I found out about which lenses and apertures I used. It would be nice to have the same information with Nikon video mode.

Unprocessed frames from the clips look like this (click on the image if you want to see it at full resolution).

Canon EOS-5D Mark II, ISO and exposure automatic, 50mm lens, which is strange as I only had EF85mm f/1.8 USM, EF16-35mm f/2.8L USM and EF15mm f/2.8 Fisheye

Nikon D3s, 24-70mm f/2.8, shutter 1/50s, WB 2500 K

Canon-EOS-1D-Mark-IV, 24-70mm f/2.8 at 46mm, f/2.8, ISO 6400, shutter 1/50s, WB 2500 K.

Definitely DSLRs need a few functions from the real video cameras (like peaking for easier focusing and histogram for preciser exposure) so they would fell more user friendly.

Streets at Night series is getting bigger. I hope to get other cameras from Canon and Nikon soon to expand the test. Maybe even try Panasonic GH1.

Streets at Night III – Canon EOS-1D Mark IV

Streets at Night II – Nikon D3s

Streets at Night I – Canon EOS-5D Mark II

You can read more about first two videos here:

Streets at Night I – Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Streets at Night II – Nikon D3s

Slovenski prevod vpisa najdete na tej strani.

Last thursday (Jan 7th) I got a loaner Nikon D3s with 14-24mm f/2.8 and 24-70mm f/2.8 lenses from Nikon Slovenia. I wanted to check if it fits into our workflow at work (Baza Media 2.1) using Sony EX1 cameras for recording Red Bull events, so I took it with me to Beograd at Red Bull Street Style. But before the real test I wanted to repeat the story from a year ago when I got a loaner Canon EOS 5D mark II.

Nikon D3s, 14-24mm f/2.8, 24-70 f/2.8, 80-200mm f/2.8

As I came home in the evening I took the camera and a tripod and went out on the streets to do some filming in the available street light. I decided that I will do exactly the same movie as I did a year ago. She same shots, edit, music… And so I went out armed with six images representing the frames. At the end I was caught by the snow, so I had to end quickly even though the camera is weather proof.

Nikon D3s is a full frame camera in a large body with incorporated vertical grip, which bothered me a bit as I am not used to the size of it. Menus are the same as with other Nikon bodies. Manual exposure is, even though there are lots of wrong info on the internets, easily set. You just set the camera to M – manual (M, A, S, P), press the Lv (Live View) button, press the Ok button to show the actual image and you are there. You set the aperture with front wheel, shutter with back wheel, and ISO combining ISO button and back wheel. Easy as riding a bicycle. I comparison to 5D when I got it a year ago. A big battery holds its charge forever (especially if you have two) and the video file sizes were reasonable. 500MB for 3 minute clip which means that I could record around 48 minutes on 8GB CF card (and you can put two inside) in 5 minutes segments as that is the maximum length of the clip which wasn’t problematic for me.

First problems appeared at editing. The camera records video in avi format in Motion JPEG codec. I imported the footage in Final Cut Pro and wanted to set the timeline automatically (as is the option since 6.0 on) but avi didn’t trigger the automatic setup. Then I wanted to use the method I used editing Canon footage. Rough edit, send footage to Color for color correction and then after recompress to ProRes a fine edit. But that didn’t work either. Color does not support avi files!

What now? Obviously I needed to convert the footage before Final Cut Pro import. And so I used freeapplication MPEG Streamclip to convert everything in mov files which my Mac (MacBook Pro 2.93 GHz) did in real time. When everything was in ProRes (LT) the editing was quick because I already had a previous edit. I tracked the title to height limit markers in Shake.

Color correction in Color was simpler, because ProRes is more suitable to manipulate than Canon’s h.264. The footage had more grain but I partly blame resolution for that. Canon records in 1080p and as I downressed  the clip to 720p for online viewing the grain was a little less noticable. Nikon only records in 720p.

There are still benefits shooting DSLR. Lower depth of field, the quality of the lenses, high light sensitivity, small size of the gadget, but I think that these are still just photo cameras with video mode and there need to be a lot of progression to make recording more useable.

Streets at Night II – Nikon D3s

Streets at Night I – Canon EOS 5D mark II

P.s.: If you want to know more about the camera or movie please comment below.

P.p.s.: If you notice something strange in the movie let me know.

P.p.p.s.: I will write about combining the cameras with the Red Bull event in a later episode.

Slovenski prevod vpisa najdete tukaj.

One week after the whole world Slovenia finally got its first shipment on Apple’s new Magic Mouse. Kind employees at E.P.L. have renounced theirs so I got one with the first batch.

Magic Mouse came in big brown box… What?!? No Apple design? No, no. Don’t be afraid. This was just a transport box inside which was the real packaging for the shelves.

Big brown transport box

When I opened the brown box I saw inside wrapped in foam… little translucent box for fake teeth, as Miloš at E.P.L said. Box itself wasn’t that much bigger then the mouse.

Fake teeth box (Designed by Apple)

Perfect packaging. Small, aesthetic, easy to open (if you don’t have motor disabilities). Batteries were already installed. I quickly snapped a few shots with my iPhone.

RTFM

Sexy curves

Round and flat at the same time

I can’t decide yet if I like the design or not. There are some angles that don’t convince me. They probably have to make a compromise between beautiful roundness and flat surface needed for the multi-touch. The thing is if you didn’t already noticed, the mouse has no buttons. Not even a scroller. The whole top surface is sensitive to touch which replaces left click, right click and scroll commands. You can find more on this on Apple site.

Replacing the scroll ball is ingenious, because the ball quickly got dirty and stopped working. Sliding through pages and photos is easy and you get used to it quickly. The only thing that bothers me and I noticed that after I ordered and payed for the mouse is lack of third button. So if you use apps that need the third button as does Apple Shake, I recommend against it. But I also bought it for my museum collection of which I will write more next time, when I’ll also have more information about usability of the mouse.

P.s.: Installation of the mouse is not the most user friendly installation I went through. First you have to pair the mouse to the computer and only then do a System Update which enables the multi-touch functions. All this will be gone as soon as Apple puts out the new system update Mac OS X 10.6.2.

Slovenski prevod vpisa najdete na tej povezavi.

Yesterday afternoon (Sept 4th) not much before 4pm I finally received a call from my distributer that my version of the new Final Cut Studio has arrived. Because the clock already chimed the end of work, we decided that I pick my copy at his home. After I got the DVDs I immediately departed for Linz to attend Ars Electronica. I wanted to get there as soon as I could so that I could catch some of friday night events. Unfortunately there was heavy traffic on the road and so it happened that we stopped on the highway on a red traffic light in front of Tauern and Katschberg tunnels. That is why I decided that I take the mandatory product photos in the middle of a traffic jam. Luckily I had lots of equipment with me as I want to record a lot of video material at the festival.

Before I found out that I am standing in front of a red light (©2009 Peter Prevec)

Taking pictures while driving... if you believe! (©2009 Peter Prevec)

There was no end! (©2009 Peter Prevec)

I finally got it! DVD with a new version of Mac OS X. 10.6 Snow Leopard. And that before America woke up. he, he

Now I only need to backup disk. Two actually. One Carbon Copy Cloner mirror disk and one Time Machine backup. How can anything go wrong?

Backing up on two drives!

See you on the other side!

Next week I am going again on a trip to ex Yugoslavia shooting for Red Bull. From Monday (July 6) to Wednesday (July 8) I will be in Mostar (BiH) and from Thursday (July 9) to Sunday (July 12) in Dubrovnik (CRO). Our equipement at Baza Media 2.1 incorporates two Sony PMW-EX1 and Canon EOS 5D Mark II, which means that I won’t be needing my HV20 w/ SGPro adapter. But I decided that I reduce my configuration so it would fit to instead of big Pelican brief into small photographic backpack so I can take it with me anyway and shoot something for the blog if I found some free time.

HV20 w/ SGPro minimal configuration (click on the photo and look at the flickr notes for more info))

Minimal configuration includes:

• Canon HV20 camera with SGPro r3 adapter and flip modul (shoot35)

• Rods Support System r1 and FOLLOW focus (shoot35)

• 50mm f/1.4D AF NIKKOR lens

• Røde NTG-2 microphone

• BeachTek DXA-2s Dual XLR adapter

• redrockmicro microMount

• Cokin Z-Pro series filter kits and Net Filter 1, 2 White (Ref. 142, Ref. 144)

• The Pod Pro series sandbag

• Tamrac Expedition 5 backpack

After nearly five years I was again in the Apple Store on Regent Street in London.

Apple Store Grand Opening

I was there for the first time at the grand opening 20th November 2004. The first Apple store in Europe. I arrived at Oxford Circus in London on Friday evening around 10pm and got in line as number 178. We immediately became friends with the boys from the surrounding, and later trusted one another to the extent that we looked after each others equipment when someone had to use a toilet. The night was cold and long. Sidewalk was freezing. In the morning the last hours passed slowly. Shortly before 10am employees of the nearby Starbucks served us with coffee that Apple kindly ordered for us. Than Apple staff started to came cheering and encouraging us when they walked past us towards the entrance. At 10am they opened the doors, let us inside, where they cheered us some more. Again, we got in a queue, because the first few hundred were eligible to a Lucky Bag, a black bag whose contents were unknown. It cost £ 250, but its contents were in excess of 500 pounds.

First night in London, on the street with complete strangers

Visiting Apple Store was phenomenal. Staff was very nice and capable.

After two hours in the store we got out full of positive vibrations. I was walking around London with heavy black bag all day long, setting alarms in various London stores. Everybody felt my Apple enthusiasm so there were no problems. In HMV they wanted to see what is in the bag. At first I felt awkward, cause I had no invoice for the contents only for Lucky Bag. After demagnetizing the bluetooth dongle I went on. Next day at the airport I had to put everything in the trays so they could watch it under x rays.

The whole Apple experience stayed in my mind and I gladly tell others about it whenever I can.

Five years passes. Pound is weak and there is only 15% VAT in the UK. Technology is cheaper on the island. My girlfriend and I decided to visit our friend in London for May Day holidays and during our stay there I would buy myself a brand new MacBook Pro in the Apple Store. I didn’t want basic model cause I wanted faster processor and bigger disk. So I contacted Euro Apple to find out where can I reserve build to order Mac so I can just pick it up at the Apple Store. No answer. So I asked a friend to go there and ask them. I was not satisfied with the answer. You can only get the basic models in the Apple Retail Store. For everything else you must order it through online Apple Store. But I needed the invoice with my company data on and you can’t order online with billing address in Slovenia. So I forget about doing business with Apple. A friend told me about this store that also delivers computers to Slovenia so I contacted them and in half an hour they told me that the MacBook Pro I wanted is waiting for me at their store.

And so the sunday came. The sun was shining, clouds were flying over the sky. It was a perfect day for getting a new MacBook Pro. When I came to the Micro Anvika store there was already a box with my name behind the counter. I gave them a note with my company data on, envelope full of money and I was on my way. With a smile on my face. I decided that I would still buy accessories in the Apple Store. So we walked to the Regent Street. User experience we got ther was not as friendly as five years ago. People there didn’t even know what they were selling so I had to find everything myself. They even had problems with my company data for the invoice. Packaging the stuff in the bag was also a challenge for then. They did it in second try. We went out as quick as we could not satisfied with the service.  I went behind the corner to visit my spot, when I slept through my first night in London not knowing the Apple experience would change that much in five years.

Five years later (©2009 Irena Toroš)

From September 26 it is possible to translate between 35 languages including Slovenian at Google Language Tools. Our turn on localization of big companies services has finally come.

But this is not the only news (if I can say it is news regarding the date) that surprised me yesterday (Nov 28). For quite some time I am pissed that Slovenia is not supported enough on Google Maps. Especially on the iPhone. You can see streets on the map, but if you try to search for the same street, you don’t get any results. Driving directions also didn’t work. And then they updated the firmware to 2.2 One of the enhancements to maps was display address of dropped Pins. So I said to try it out.

I Drop a Pin. It works. Idrijska ulica. So I try also driving directions. I insert both addresses and press Route… it works again. I can’t believe it. Even walking directions which are as you would imagine different that driving ones work. I don’t know whose blame it is for directions to work. Update for the iPhone or has Google finally started processing Slovenia. 

Drop Pin

Service is not perfect yet and has some problems with house numbers. Than means that if it can not find the number of the house, it selects the middle of the street for its location. And that can mean a difference of a few kilometers with a long street as Zaloška is. But I won’t complain over progress, though somewhat slow. 

Driving or walking directions

P.s.: Until now I haven’t written anything about iPhone apps, because I think that all those three that read this blog on Safari on iPhone know the news about it. But if there are more of you, please let me know and write it down below in the commentaries and I will add more posts intended for users of Apple phone.

On Monday (Nov 17) I finally got my Glidetrack from England Scotland. Lightweight camera track/dolly system. I ordered it the week before and soon after complications with shipping a 2,5kg package to Eastern Europe were over, it was on its way. They had stated shipping costs to USA and Europe as £26, but soon after my order was placed, they told me, that they got a message from postal service that shipping to Slovenia will cost them £120. After short search for other options they found new service for £48, that is £22 more than I already paid for, and that they want to meet me half way. So only £11 extra. I am very grateful to the team at Glidetrack.

Glidetrack w/ videohead Manfrotto 503

I wandered a litte, how to test the system. I can’t shoot anything at home ’cause I have all my equipment at work. And so it came. We had to do a piece on Damjan Kozole, film director, for Dnevnik. We had decided to put some more effort in recording the piece, ’cause he is from the world of film.

So I said, lets make it different then other clips that we do for Dnevnik. I don’t want to have equipment all over the set. I placed 2kW outside through the window difused by a LitePanel, and I put a 500W spot as a back light on a Manfrotto Sky Hook and attached it to the book shelf.

Spletka with Simona Rakuša: Janez Potočnik. This is what it looks like on ordinary set for Dnevnik. Samo is sitting at the back.

Lights from the outside. It looks like a real film set.

I put SGPro adapter with Nikon 50mm f/1.4D AF Nikkor on Sony PMW-EX1 and put everything on Glidetrack which was supported on two tripods (Manfrotto 525 and 055PRO).

The camera has high center of gravity so I had to be careful when moving the rig. I had some small shakes in the footage that is why I put SmoothCam filter on the whole clip in Final Cut Pro.

Below is a very short clip from the interview (just one glide from one side to another). You can see the whole clip on Dnevnik home page when it will be finished.

Professional filming set. Journalist Maja and director Damjan Kozole.

This time I have choose Vimeo for video hosting to test their services. I still haven’t found a way to embed video from my own server. All it does, when I try to add video is to give me a link and then opens a video in another window. And I would like to have the video in my post. So if anybody knows the solution to my problem, let me know.

Glidetrack test – Damjan Kozole from Peter Prevec on Vimeo.

Slovenski prevod vpisa najdete na tej povezavi.