Be sure and get the large rings if you order them separately most Lens kits come with the right size that matches the lens.

Remove the adhesive backing on the ring and attach it to the camera like I did here. Center it around the lens area. It fits right around the lens extrusion.

One extra trick, I took one of the extra rings and cut off about a lower one 1/3 of it and placed it on the bottom of the ring.  There is a slight angle on the camera body surface and that extra little piece at the bottom really helps to level it out.

Check out the video with and with out the wide angle adapter.  You should also be able to find a telephoto adapter as well.  But I think wide is best.  This will come in handy when you are the only camera person and the talent. It just gives you that extra little headroom or leadroom that you might need with out the normal cramped feeling you get when you’re shooting at arm length.

This is shot from the Zi8, half way through I add a 0.45 Wide Lens adapter. It’s magnetic so it just snaps right on.

This was shot at arms length, see how much more room you have if you want to do an intro or any kind of stand up for a video you’re working on and none of your goofy friends will help you out.

I’m sure I’ll have a few more tricks for modding out your Zi8 soon. Please Kodak make it so I can edit right on my Zi8 or how about an Audio only mode since I have a mic input, or just ask me what features I’d like to see in your Zi10.

Take a look at the demo below and if you have 2 bucks to spare please download it.  I designed the UI (user interface) for you none nerds out there.  I’ll write more about that in a later post, I just wanted to make a quick post because I’m proud of the game and the people I work with to create it.  It’s great to work at Incredible Technologies because we’re always looking for new ways to make games and media.

Anyway have fun playing the game and let me know what you think. You can find out more about what we do here and here.

This is where you can learn more or download iQuarters

1. Working with RAW. I was shocked to learn that Photoshop couldn’t open my RAW files from the Canon 7D. I was even more shocked that Canon hadn’t made a plug in for the world standard of photo editing. Luckily I work with some very diligent people that found the solution right away. Adobe has a solution called DNG (Digital Negative) it takes the RAW file that the Canon makes and converts it into something Adobe can open and modify the Raw Camera data. One plus is it saves out an PSD just in case you want to do more painterly type work with the image.

You can download the stand alone application here, DNG (Digital Negative)

It’s a nice little app and the conversions won’t take long.  You can put a shortcut on your desktop so you can just drop files on it.  Special thanks goes to Dianna Sloyer an artist and photographer I work with. Thanks for helping me find this solution before I even had a chance to look into it!

2. Dealing with all that data.  I was talking with one of my production pals at Big Teeth Productions, Gregg Jaffe, and they recently purchased the Canon T2i. As we were talking card sizes, he suggested that he was sticking with the 4 and 8 gig cards for easy back up.  What a great idea!  When you’re dumping you images to your hard drive now you’ll have perfect size to fit on a regular DVD or Duel Layer DVD.

I think the other advantage to sticking with the smaller cards are cost and content.  Obviously smaller cards are less expensive.  Also keep in mind filling up bigger cards you’ll be putting a lot more content on there.  If the unforeseen happens and you loose the data on the card, you’ve lost a lot less than 32 or 64 gigs worth.  So that could be a big plus if you have to go back and cover your tracks.

If you have more tips for your DSLR share them here please I’m just jumping back onto the bandwagon and I’ll take all the advice I can get.

Had a cold on my last sketch day. But today the gang and I got out to do some drawing at lunch. These are some of the people having lunch today at Jason’s Deli. After that I drew some spaceships.

When you have a bunch of people around it’s good to take advantage of all the different gesturing going on.

Stephen Knapp in the photo. Photo taken by Tony Gasbarro

I think all filmmakers, content creators and bloggers should have one in their bag of tricks. Well filmmakers should have 2. Why should a filmmaker have two? I’m sure there’s many times you have extra hands on set helping you out. This is a perfect time to hand them a camera and have them get behind the scenes footage or do a quick interview.

It could be used in your extras, blog or promotional material. The image quality will come closer to the look of the film you are shooting. Plus it won’t look like a completely different format which tend to make extras look like a after thought. IMHO

If you’re a hyperlocal news person or blogger this camera and future cameras like this will be the future ENG/EFP cameras

What makes this camera a great ENG/EFP camera?

1. HD Video, already off to a great start with full 1920×1080 HD resolution.
2. The mic input. With this adapter you can plug in any kind of microphone. Like a reporter type mic, shotgun(that’s the one I use), even a Lavalier mic (you could even plug that in to a wireless system). Don’t forget any extension cords you might need depending on what kind of mic you pick up.
3. Replaceable battery. If you do a lot of shooting you’ll want extra batteries. Get at least one extra but 2 are always a better bet. Here’s a charger for when the camera is in use. Want REALLY long life? Check one of my earlier blog posts.
4. SD Cards. Need more recording time pop in another card, up to 16 gigs!
5. Still images. Check out these, at 5 megapixel they are great for any broadcast situation

Macro setting

This one was aided with a wide angle lens, more on that in a later post.

Here’s a tip need to do a V.O.? Set the camera to a lower video resolution and use your external mic to do your V.O. That way you get a make shift audio recorder since you don’t need the video track it will just make it more manageable.

Kodak the only bit of advice I have is make the door easier to use to get the card out and you can drop the USB port. I’d never dangle that thing from my computer unless I was desperate.  Oh and maybe make an audio mode.

Depending on your shooting needs your battery choice will vary. Also if you click on the image it will take you to flickr where you can view the hotboxes I put around the items in the image.

This is this setup:

1. Zi8
2. Griffen Dual USB Car Charger
3. Bescor 12 Battery with Cigarette lighter plug

One of the great things about the Zi8 is its new charger.  Plugs into a wall outlet but the cord goes from USB to a regular power connector.  You take that and the USB Car Charger and now you can hook it up to a 12 volt battery belt of your choosing.  How many of you have one of these 12 volt batteries just laying around?

Time to charge it up again!

Now you can shoot all day, well depending on your battery I bet you could shoot for days.  Now you’ll need to go buy more SD Cards.  The best thing, the 12 volt battery supplies enough power to keep your Zi8 fully charged for when your battery belt finally does run out of juice.

Here’s a simple solution for low budget filmmakers or audio podcasters. This is a combo of my video double sound kit and my podcasting kit.

In the image:

1. Zoom H2
2. 20 foot 1/8 inch headphone cable
3. Gitzo 3 section Fishpole mic boom
4. Mounting screw for the mic boom

Click on the image and go to the flickr page to see a more detailed description of the parts.

You’ll need the head phones for sure but that’s a given when recording audio. The nice thing about this mic boom is it has 2 standard mounting options included in the end where you normally mount the mic holder for the shotgun mic.

Just flip the mounting screw around and it should mount into any standard recording device you have that has that 3/8 screw mount on the bottom like the H2.

Here is the H2 mounted on the end of the Fishpole. As you can see you’ll need the head phone extension cable and headphones. But now you can extend the pole and get the H2 in over a crowd or close to the ground for some Foley work.

TIPS:

1. Don’t forget the head phones
2. Always make sure you press RECORD! ( With the Recorder so far away it will be easy to forget. It’s not like you’re wasting tape anymore.)

Try to get shots from low angles and high, close ups and wide shots.  That way you can bring a lot of images together in Photoshop.

Even if you can’t paint out the elements that give away the scale of the snow banks, you can use it as a lighting study or as a foundation of your painting.

Once elements are removed that give away the scale of these snow banks, it might be pretty hard to tell these are just piles of snow in a parking lot somewhere.

Don’t you think this could be some alien world or some place near Outpost #31?

I’ve created a set of images on my Flickr page called “matte painting raw” just in case you live somewhere where you don’t get snow.  I also have clouds in there too.  You just never know when you might need to do some sky replacements.  Feel free to use mine.  If you do, please send me link so I can check it out!

If you’re like me and still don’t own a blu-ray burner you are still archiving on lots of DVD disks. At least I have a Duel Layer…

Maybe this is obvious but when doing a lot of backups in a series and you’re not sure how many disks it might take up.

Just write “1 of” ( 1 of 5 ), leave the second number blank the when you are done you’ll know how many disks you have and you can fill it then.

If you have any other tips share them with me.