Raiders of the Lost Card – recover “lost” still images.

I think we’ve all “lost” an image at one point in time. If you haven’t had it happen to you, then you’re not lucky, it’s just hasn’t happened to you yet.

Your still camera has issues, or there’s a bad import session between your computer and your still camera and suddenly, your images are gone. Or one of your kids, or someone playing a joke on you deletes an image you wanted to keep on your camera.

Well, there’s an easy solution…
(how seldom do we really get to hear that!)

Canon VIXIA HV30 vs venerable HV20? Review is in!

CancorderInfo has reviewed the HV30- the newest HDV camcorder from Canon that makes a few improvements on the HV20 that has garnered plenty of praise and quite an industry of people making it work as a “pro” camera by working around its consumer camcorder limitations.

Personally, I didn’t see much in the HV30 to warrant jumping at it, but after reading CamcorderInfo’s normally exhaustive hands-on testing, I’m prepared to rethink myself on the HV30.

DTV deadline? The end is not so near, maybe.

I previously noted that the end of analogue broadcast TV is fast approaching.

Apparently the FCC has changed its rules. Cnet is relating a Reuters article that:

The Federal Communications Commission has approved new rules giving broadcasters more flexibility in making the switch to digital television from traditional analog signals.

The rules would, among other things, allow some broadcast stations to make a “phased transition” to digital broadcasting.

After moving the deadline back several years from it’s original deadline, now the deadline isn’t so much of a deadline at all…

Engadget agreed with TechThoughts about MacBook Air.

As much as Apple thinks their Air is better than everyone else’s, it was nice to see tech / gadget blog Engadget agree with what we already said:

But therein lies the rub. The Air simply doesn’t have the power to be many users’ primary machine, while also lacking many of the features considered necessity by business travelers.

It’s neither the best portable machine, or a decent primary machine. It’s not right for either- and it costs about $900 more than the MacBook. Shame on you Apple.

NAB hates production crews! Kill all non TV wireless!

I don’t know what the National Association of Broadcasters is thinking with its latest campaign- urging anyone who visits its web site to contact the FCC and urge it to “tell them not to allow unlicensed personal and portable devices to operate in the television spectrum.” You know, wireless microphones, wireless video feeds, wireless intercoms, wireless IFB, wireless of all sorts! This is because “American consumers deserve and expect to have interference free digital television.”

Uh… how do we create television and films without wireless video and audio?
Does the NAB want to render every wireless mic from 54 – 800 Mhz illegal?

Apparently so!

Hydra = HDR images made simple.

For some real dynamic photography, I’ve often appreciated Ansel Adams photographs in Yosemite National Park in the USA. His images seem to offer more detail than what I could just point and click. Part of this has to do with Adams’ printing techniques which often entailed dodging and burning the image to give more detail in the dark areas without washing out the light areas.

Today, this is call “high dynamic range” or HDR photography and a new software tool called Hydra will make this much simpler to achieve for mere mortals- or those of us who want the same results just by taking three bracketed photos, even while handheld…

HDV Grows Up: Sony’s HVR-S270 and HVR-Z7

Sony recently unveiled its latest HDV camcorders to the world. This wasn’t just any ordinary product announcement; with the release of these new models, HDV arrived as a true professional video acquisition technology.

Just as MiniDV was a format that evolved into DVCAM and DVCPRO, and eventually DV itself became acceptable for broadcast, and even feature film production, HDV started as a “consumer” version of HD. But it has evolved dramatically in Sony’s latest models.

MacBook Air. Lacking in a few key “areas.”

I was really hoping for big iPod Touch… a Mac Touch?
But Air is better for Axiotron’s ModBook, as expensive as it is. It’s a true pressure sensitive touch screen, but it lacks multi-touch.

As for the Air? It’s a bit rarefied.
My distance from San Francisco may have kept me out of Jobs’ “reality distortion field” so that I could hear his “amazing” and “unbelievable” but I wasn’t taken in.

There are several few key points where the MacBook Air misses…

Panny take Plasma to 150″ . . . Doing!

I had opportunity to see Panasonic’s “world’s largest” 103″ plasma screen at the GV Expo… and now I feel like I’d been had. You can’t really claim the 103″ is the “world’s largest” if you, yourself have already tested and are boxing up a 150″ plasma to be shown at CES.

Engadget has a small gallery of photos of the incredibly impressive screen. It could well do with some better anti-glare glass on the front of it…

SanDisk fails basic math. Intros “Video” SDHC cards.

In a move that makes absolutely no sense to me, Sandisk has introduced new “video” versions of their SDHC cards. Presumably, these cards are for video camcorders that record AVCHD onto any sort of similarly shaped flash media. (SmartMedia, your ship has already sailed)

But when one camcorder can record four different data rates, and different manufacturers camcorders use different data rates, there is no brand of math on this planet that ensures an 8GB card is 120 minutes of video, ever.

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