Odds & Ends

Quite a bit has been happening lately, so I thought I'd throw a post up with several unrelated but interesting developments...

- One week after our lat meeting discussing the Canon 5D MarkII, Canon (possibly) one-ups themselves with the 7D. It's not a full frame sensor, but it's still huge compared to a 1/3" or 1/2" sensor video camera. They knocked it out of the park with other features though, including 29.97, 25, or 23.976 fps at 1080p. You can even go to 60fps at 720p. Autofocus is still missing, and the LCD is fixed in place on the back of the camera, but this really fills in huge gaps that the 5D Mark II has. Oh yeah, and it's $1100 cheaper than the 5D Mark II! Some more reading (and viewing) material for you if you're interested

* DP Review Hands on Preview

* Stu Maschwitz on the 7D

* Video sample from Canon Japan

- Our friends at Noise Industries have just released FxFactory 2.0.9. Included with the bug fixes is two new plug-ins and a free trial for a stereoscopic plugin.

- A member of the San Francisco FCPUG has created an iPhone app with keyboard shortcuts for Final Cut Pro called FCP Shortcutz.

- Even if you can't make it to Amsterdam for the Final Cut Pro User Group Network Supermeet in conjunction with IBC, you can download the magazine as a pdf file for free. It's packed with 171 pages of great info. Get it here!

- For those of you that dabble in 3d animation, or would like to, one of the easiest products on the market to learn, Cinema 4D, was just updated to release 11.5. It is being used increasingly for broadcast animations and graphics, and Maxon has taken note by creating a Broadcast Edition. The new version of C4D r11.5 includes support for moving your cameras, lights, and paths from C4D to Motion for easier compositing.

- Postapalooza 2009 is a post production conference with sessions on Final Cut Studio, After Effects, shooting, and a lot more. They will be in Florence, Indiana October 19th & 20th. If you register before September 27th, the cost is only $249.

That's all for now. Keep your eyes here as we'll have an announcement regarding the September meeting soon.