Another busy week has come and gone. I can’t beleive it is Friday already when it seem’s like it was just Sunday Night yesterday and Neva and I just got back from the North Shore.
Well here is the quick run down. I went back up to the north shore for the fall colors and to shoot a ton of stock footage. More about that at the end of the post.
Today was pretty cool because I was helping Neva out this afternoon with some charity work. It was something that she signed up for that one of the carpet cleaners the Twin Cities setup last year. It is pretty cool gig because they donate their time and equipment to help out DARTS for a clean-a-thon for DARTS. “DARTS provides transportation and supportive services to older adults and their families in Dakota County, Minn., and beyond.” http://www.darts1.org/index.htm
And what does this have to do with Carpet Cleaning? A bunch of the local carpet cleaning business owners get together to help out with a Clean-A-Thon to help raise money by cleaning area rugs and smaller rugs for $1 a square foot. The normal rate is about $2.50 but they discount it and all the money goes to DARTS. I thought at first, that’s crazy but when I saw what they were doing and how many people were bringing in area rugs, car and truck floor mats and throw rugs, I was freaking amazed. It turns out this crazy idea works because there were a ton of people bringing in their stuff this afternoon.
This whole thing was put together by the gang and Ultimate Carpet so if your in the cities, give them a call or stop on by Darts in West St. Paul before the Clean-A-Thon ends later today.
Below are some photos from the Clean-A-Thon.
They are working through the night and into tomorrow. This is a non stop 36 hour Clean A Thon that last year set the world record for the longest non stop carpet cleaning with a time of just over 36 hours.
Ok, about the trip back up to the North Shore. I made the trip back to the North Shore to catch the Fall Color’s before they were gone for the season. It was a fun trip but it was all work with me heading out Tuesday to get everything ready after being gone for the last three days. On top of it all I had to do more voice over work for the production company asa soon as I got back last night so from Tuesday through Today (Friday) I think I got about 10 hours of sleep but it was worth it.
Now I have a ton of images and video to sort through but the video this time is something special. This time I had the P2 camera with me to test out. OH MY GOD, the image quality of the Panasonic HVX 200a is freaking insane. The local Panasonic dealer let me test drive it this week and when I compare the P2 image quality to the EX1 or even the XD CAM from Sony I just have to laugh now because the true HD of this camera is just perfect.
Just how good does it look? The image quality on my 22″ HD Monitor on the NLE system looks like you could just step into the image. It’s like looking out the window and seeing the world outside as it really should look in video. It is better then film!
Ok, but here is the downside. for 1920×1080 full resolution, were talking ONE GIG PER MINUTE for the video or 100 Meg Per Second. Yes it is a lot but it is the best of the best of the best, SIR!
So 16 minutes of video in full HD Quality will fill up a 16 gig card. To give you an idea of the size and image quality vs HDV, if your using HDV, 16 gig is an hour of video vs. 16 minutes of video.
Editing computer has got to be powerful to handle the needs of true HD. No POS computer will do the trick for editing the video from this camera. You need a computer with one of the fastest and powerful processors you can get your hands on.
Price, it’s not cheap but if I was to shoot something insane like a tornado or hurricane with this camera, the image quality would no longer be an issue with some customers saying it’s not a high enough bit rate. So the price would be at a premium for customers looking for True HD Quality.
Here is the spec data on the camera from Panasonic.
Now, am I going to buy one tomorrow? No, because the HVX200a now has a replacement coming out which is the new Panasonic 170 and I want to test drive that camera before I buy the HVX200a. The difference is that their is NO TAPE DECK, yes, the HVX200a still has a tape deck in it for users to record to Mini DV tape in SD quality but the new 170 does not which will make it a lot lighter and only for use as a NLE setup.
Ok now for some more images and the two videos that I shot for The Weather Channel.
Okay, this last image is not a fall color’s image but I thought it was cool and was a quick stop and shoot the image before it was too late setup. This is the new moon over Duluth.
Here is the video from this trip.
Part 2
Here is the from this weekend.
Okay, it’s late and I need to get some sleep since I have to be up early in the morning and take care of a ton of stuff.