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tupp

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  1. A friend sent this to me (saying it's from a Convergent Design source not Canon, so not 100% legit)

    http://i.imgur.com/R1lFpxA.jpg

    Very interesting!  Great find!

     

    Makes sense, nothing records 8K now

    Well, back in July of 2013, NHK was compressing streams from their 8K Hi-Vision Camera in real time down to 85 Mbps, 8K , HEVC/H.265, so they probably used a single recorder for their 8K demos.

     

    I would imagine that there are other "one-off" methods of recording 8K in existence, but we don't know about them yet.

  2. "We don't talk about 4K at all. The difference would be so small compared to the investment. We focus on bitrate and color depth. Because that's going to look much sharper and clearer."

    While I am solidly in the greater DR and bit depth camp (I'd rather shoot with an Alexa or a Sony F35 than a Red Epic or Canon's 8K), it is important to play the "devil's advocate" at this juncture in the thread and remind all that color depth actually consists of part bit depth and part resolution.  So, the higher the resolution, the greater the color depth.

     

    In fact, you could have a system with a bit depth of "1" and, with enough resolution (and ignoring banding in capture), have the same degree of color depth as a 12-bit, 444 system.

     

    The formula for color depth in digital, RGB imaging systems is:

    Color Depth = (Bit Depth x Resolution)3
  3. Convergence includes form factor, sarcasm is acceptable too ; )

    Hybrid concept will rule at any try of a more conservative scope anyway.

    Certainly, the scope of the convergence of form factor and hybrid concepts will synergistically target future-proof users and compellingly empower technically sound bandwidth to optimize superior functionalized systems and streamline value-added catalysts for heightened verticals.

  4. it was crapware that was intended to help the stability of the computer for novices.. 

    How do you come to that conclusion?  Did Lenovo say that?  Keep in mind, there has been more than one instance.

     

     

    Thats why these were a problem with only the non-thinkpad series. Definetly not malware.

    I never stated that it was a problem specifically with "Thinkpads."  Again, there has been more than one instance, so I wouldn't put it past them to try to sneak it into some Thinkpads.  Most of the reports are calling it malware -- it's in the BIOS, it reincarnates itself after you think it's deleted and it phones home.  You can call it whatever you like.

     

     

    Also Lenovo learned and stoped puting it in new computers.

    Is that why Lenovo issued this statement back in February when they got caught, and why they were yet again caught hiding spyware in the BIOS again just last month?  Furthermore, is that why they seem to be doing it once again in their smartphones?

     

    Even the Department Of Homeland Security is posting warnings on Lenovo machines.

     

    Emanuel is right, fear is a bitch. Here's a hint to you - misinformation does not help. 

    Well, I've done my part in making people aware of the risk.  Not sure where you think that I misinformed nor why you would try to dismiss the threat.

     

  5. Well, you may think it is a "simple" answer - but the fact remains, if free (or what you think is free) software was as good or better as commercial software, the market shares would be very different, wouldn't they..

    Nope... unfortunately, the world doesn't work that "simply."

     

    Sometimes the best things succeed, but a lot of the time they don't (especially in this current age of mediocrity).  That's why Oracle is so prevalent in spite of mass dissatisfaction with its products... that's why lobbyists influence laws and government projects (in the USA)... that's why we have to listen to Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber and Kanye West, instead of artists as talented as the Beatles or Burt Bacharach.

     

     

    Please share examples of free software that has more users than their commercial counter-parts. The only one I can think of that has a chance is Google Chrome, which was developed by Google and is used to drive people to their search engine among other things.

    Nevertheless, Chrome is free and it has more users than its proprietary counterparts.  Since you mentioned a web browser, how about Firefox?  Off the top of my head, there's also Android, Thunderbird, Wordpress, Audacity, VLC, Handbrake and Blender, etc.  Of course, there is a bunch of open source software that dominates network and web installations, such as Apache, MySQL, SSL, Drupal  and PHP, etc., not to mention most of the prominent programming languages.

     

     

    Having used both Linux (several distributions, and also recently) and Windows extensively, my clear favorite is Windows, sorry..

    No need to apologize.  Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

  6. If Ardour was as good as or better than Protools they'd drop Protools immediately and start saving money.

    One would think so, but they probably have never heard of it, and, again, FUD (such as this very point that I'm countering).

     

     

    If Libre Office was better than MS Office, the same thing- anyone in business would save money and stop paying MS. That hasn't happened.

    Actually, it has happened.  There are countless examples of businesses who have dropped MS Office for Open/Libre Office and have saved a bundle, without suffering any productivity.  Heck, there are entire governments who have switched to open source soaftware.

     

    Once more, we are dealing with FUD and user conditioning.  People resist change, even if the alternative is better.  The FUD makes it much worse.

     

    Again, I ask you, please give specific examples of how Microsoft office is better than Libre Office.

     

    If GIMP was in the same league as Photoshop, all the professionals would save the now monthly fees and stop paying Adobe. That hasn't happened.

    In the first place, GIMP isn't the only open source image editor.   Secondly, yes, that too has happened.

     

    Again, I ask you, what features, specifically, in Photoshop are superior to its open source counterparts?

     

    Also, FUD and user conditioning.

     

    Open source hasn't taken over solely due to FUD? Can you share a double-blind study showing that is a statistically significant hypothesis?

     No, but it has a lot to do with folks' resistance.

     

    Can you share a double-blind study to the contrary (that is not sponsored by Microsoft).

     

     

    When I work in Ubuntu, the UI looks like something designed by non-professionals. It works, but it's clunky and was clearly designed by folks with little or no cognitive science background.

    Not sure what a science background has to do with GUI design, except maybe it helps when field testing.

     

    Everyone is entitled to their opinion, which is all you are putting forward.  In my opinion, Windows is clunky, unprofessional, quirky and full of crapware/bloatware.

     

    I would also like to point out that whatever the desktop environment you were using on Ubuntu, it is only one of zillions that are available on Linux/Unix systems.  Any design elements specific to Ubuntu probably went through Canonical -- the corporation that started and maintains the Ubuntu distro.  Canonical is owned by billionaire Mark Shuttleworth.

     

    If you want a UI that is not clunky, I suggest you go with one of the many tiling open source window managers.  Power users with  tiling window managers invariably run circles around Windows, Mac and Linux desktop users.

     

     

     

    As a developer I use them all, and call the best the best based on design and functionality, no agenda or religious attachment;

    No doubt.

     

     

    When debating the merits of open source and free software vs. commercial software, the topic of content piracy comes up frequently.

    No, it doesn't.

     

    Many folks who are ardent supporters of free software don't believe in paying for any content either, and happily pirate everything.

    What?!!

     

    Wow!  Perhaps one of us has an agenda, after all.

     

     

    Especially as a software developer and content creator, I believe it's important to pay for software as well as content.

    That's fine.  That explains a lot about the notions you put forth.

     

    Nevertheless, there are plenty software developers and content creators who use open source software and free content.

     

     

    Do you believe it's important to pay for content or should that be free too?.

    I don't think that it is "important" to pay for content.  There are a lot of ways that content sustain itself and make a profit.  Again, we are getting philosophical and departing from the topic of this thread, which is open source software for production.

     

    How do you propose independent software developers and content creators make moneey to pay for food and shelter? The little guys putting out quality software and content without any bloat?

     I propose that they make money exactly as they currently doing it.  What's the problem?

     

     

    The simple answer was if open source software was better than commercial software, everyone would immediately stop buying commercial software and there would only be open source software.

    That is certainly the simple answer.

  7. In the case of open source software, written by people in their spare time or contributed to by professionals using the software in commerce, there isn't currently any open source software which matches or exceeds purely commercial software for productivity and/or business applications.

    Saying it doesn't make it so.  Sorry, but I gotta call BS.  There is plenty of open source software which exceeds proprietary software in commerce -- open source is usually more concise, efficient and more innovative.

     

    Furthermore, there are countless of professionals working full time on tons of open source software.

     

    Let's consider one of the most proprietary software providers in "commerce" -- Oracle.   Ask users of Oracle software if they would rather use open source alternatives, and see what kind of response you get.

     

    Productivity?  Please name features (exactly) of proprietary business software that are superior to those in open source.

     

     

    If GIMP works for you that's cool, but it's not nearly as powerful as Photoshop.

    You mean powerful features in Photoshop, such as Content Aware Fill, 32-bit editing and raw capability?  All of those fundamental features were available in GIMP years before they appeared in Photoshop... YEARS BEFORE.

     

    For NLEs, Premiere is the fastest and most powerful right now, with FCPX being the best bang for the buck. Avid is still very valuable in some markets. Resolve is pretty cool, but still a long way from being able to replace Premiere or FCPX (unless one is doing fairly simple edits and audio).

    I concede that the proprietary outfits got a head start in NLEs, but open source will catch up fairly soon.

     

    Furthermore, Linux proprietary NLEs, compositors (and other production software) have dominated in the past -- Piranha, Maya and Ant (the first RED/4K optimized NLE) come to mind.

     

    Also, I wouldn't classify Resolve as an NLE.

     

     

    Audacity is a long ways from Audition and Protools.

    Please.  Audacity is not as robust as Protools, but free and open sourced Ardour certainly is.

     

     

    There's still nothing that can compete with the Microsoft Office Suite.

    I hear this a lot, but I have yet to find anything that can be done in Microsoft Office that is not possible in Libre Office.

     

     

    If there's a single open source / free package that matches or exceeds the best commercial software, it would be interesting to hear about it, as it would put the paid software out of business.

    I just named a few, and there are plenty more (Firefox, Chrome, Android, Linux Distros, BSD projects, etc).

     

     

    Designing and writing quality software is hard. Open source software is very useful, however the code quality and especially the product design can't match paid professionals.

    Again, just saying that doesn't make it so.  I have given examples in which open source code is superior and more advance than proprietary.

     

    There are countless examples in which people are frustrated with proprietary bloatware. and all of the crap that goes with it.  We who use open source software don't suffer any of those problems.

     

    Of course, we are not even touching on security, in which open source software has a huge advantage.

     

     

    If this was possible, all commercial software would become obsolete.

    If that were only true.  Unfortunately, that's not the way it works.  For one thing, you are neglecting FUD.

     

     

    This could happen with a worldwide change in 'accounting for work exchanged for energy (money)', however software developers still need to eat and can't do so working for free software.

    Again, there are thousands of paid developers who work full time on open source software, plus there are the really ones who code out of enthusiasm for the product.

     

     

    Google makes its money from ads, so a side effect is being able to work on software which it can give away for "free" except it's not really free. Everyone pays for it ultimately through products and services they must pay for, which uses advertising and those costs are factored into the purchase price. Resolve isn't free either- it's advertising for Blackmagic's software and hardware (the full versions cost $$$).

    As earth shattering as these revelations are, they have no bearing on the quality of software.

     

     

    If one invests time and money (energy) into a film, with the intention of recovering their costs and them some (to pay for food, shelter, etc., and fund future movies), it makes sense that they would seek to sell the work vs. giving it away.

    Sometimes one invests time and money (energy) in to a film, without the intention of recovering their costs.

     

    I do it all the time, because I think that a project is worthwhile or I think that I might get some good footage from the deal.

     

     

     Many people feel it's OK to steal music, movies, and software too. Because it's easy to do so and the chances of being caught are negligible. How would such people feel if armed men came to their homes and started taking their food, material possessions, and kicked them out of their homes? In some parts of the world this happens and there's no stable order to protect the citizens, so the people deal with it the best they can (ultimately risking their lives to fight the 'pirates'). It's not honorable to steal, since possessions and money are only held via accounting, there's no difference between stealing physical objects or digital objects, as people put energy into the system to create them, and it makes no difference if there is no cost to 'copy' vs. haul something away in a truck.

    What is your point here and how does it apply to open source software?

     

    Are you seriously implying that users and developers of open source software are stealing?

     

     

    If everyone adopted a pay for nothing attitude then no one would be left to do any work to create anything interesting (such as movies, music, software) or necessary (like food, water, shelter).

    Well, for one thing, those who currently develop open source software would continue creating interesting things.  There are plenty of interesting movies and musical projects which are done on spec.

     

    In regards to food, water and shelter, that is another matter which is probably better discussed some philosophy site.  We are talking about open source and Linux production software here.

     

     

    Free is an illusion. Just like money. Nothing is free and money isn't real.

    Open source software is free.

     

     

  8. As a desktop replacement, it's still very rough and has an amateur / unpolished look and feel compared to Windows and OSX. Desktop business apps are also far behind Windows and OSX.

    Not really.

     

    I first used Linux when it initially came out (mostly Redhat)- it was pretty cool being able to use a Unix-like OS on a PC. After a while interest wore off as it wasn't that useful except for mostly back end tasks or Unix-only apps. Cygwin brought Unix elements to the PC, and OSX is a Unix flavor (Mach/Darwin).

    Yes.  This is the typical FUD scenario -- early adopter of Red Hat, then got disinterested.  I've never used Red Hat.

     

     

    As a developer, I think it's important for people to pay for software, even on-going 'rental' fees as long as there are frequent updates. We need to pay for rent/mortgage/food/insurance/utilities/gas etc. too.

    That's fine.  I would rather have open source and free software.

     

     

    While it's possible to 'get by' with free software, the best software is paid software.

    Disagree wholeheartedly.  With open source and free software, I can do almost anything that can be done with proprietary software.  Furthermore, open source software often can do more than proprietary software, as a lot of the innovation occurs in open-source code.

     

    I would rather use software from a coder who is enthusiastic than from one who is merely drawing a paycheck.

  9. Wow!  Great to see more from the Forbes 70 after nothing for almost two years!  The 40mm footage says it all.  The shot of the girl and the two dogs under the tree made with the 180mm and the teleconverter is great, too.

     

    @Inazuma & @TheRenaissanceMan:  As I understand it, the Forbes 70 is essentially a fancy, medium-format DOF adapter, employing a BMPCC to capture the images.  Apparently, significant ND was used in these shots, possibly without an IR blocking filter.

     

    @richg101:  No problem with it being HD (decent DR and pro color specs are more important to me).  On the other hand, 4K Super-16 sensors are already here, in a few machine vision cameras and in both the Blackmagic Studio camera and Micro Cinema camera (both UHD and slightly wider than Super-16).

     

    Given the resources/funding to modify the optics behind the focal plane, what would be the disadvantages of using a APS-C/Super-35mm sensor?

     

    Also, have you considered configuring the unit so that the lens mounts nearer to the bottom of the front?

     

    By the way, in your narrated video, you mention the differences between the Alexa and Forbes 70 frame sizes.  Keep in mind that the Alexa 65 has a humongous sensor -- 54.12mm x 25.58.  However, if you could crank these things out, the Forbes 70 would no doubt get more use than the Alexa 65.

     

     To me, this is the most exciting thread since NAB!  The Dog Schidt lenses are great, but please don't let the Forbes 70 languish.

  10. Price is one thing.  But I think some people are attracted to the idea of not being chained by the corporate monopolies of Apple or Microsoft.  The idea of never ending rent for  adobe products grinds with me as well.  But as you say, It seems as if we don't have all the same options available with linux, which is why most of us stick with Windows or Os X.  Though I am very interested to hear about any potential alternatives.

    ​A lot of the innovation in software happens in open source projects in which there is a lot of input and freedom to experiment.  On the other hand, some popular proprietary apps have enthusiastic users contributing novel plug-ins.

     

    I don't think that there is much lacking in open-source imaging/production software, and there are also proprietary options for Linux/BSD.

  11. Obviously, there is something crazy going on in the processing of the first posted image of the thread.

     

    However, what I was getting at is that the "highlights" are blue in that first posted image probably because the light coming through the window is blue/colder than the inside light.  Note that even the lower diffuse values (middle tones - not highlights) from the top window sill are also blue.

  12. There are many ''algorithms'' for downsampling, and the best ones (cubic & Lanczos) are used in your NLE when you put 4K footage on a 1080p timelime or when you render 4K timeline to 1080p. Don't worry there isn't a better way. 

    ​If you reduce resolution without increasing bit depth, you are just throwing away color depth information.

     

    Do you think that Technicolor, FotoKem  and DeLuxe are using NLEs to down-convert studio features, or do you think that they try to retain as much color depth info as possible?

  13. Halogens would be nice, but the studio we're using doesn't have that great ventilation so it heats up quickly.

    It's probably not a good idea to allow the lack of climate control in your studio to determine the quality of light in all of your work.

     

    If you anticipate that you will be shooting most of your jobs in your studio, it might be wise to consider getting an air conditioner before you get too far along.

  14. ​The theory that one can get 10-bit HD from 8-bit 4K has been disproven. The bit depth increase is paltry--something like 8.67 bits instead of 8. 
    If you want more robust footage to grade, hook up an external recorder. Otherwise, just downscale the 4K normally and revel in the detail. 

    ​That was discussed here.  As I recall, the "8.67" figure came from a scenario in which the original Bayer image was chroma subsampled.  Using the same math that yielded the "effective 8.67 bit depth" would give an "effective bit depth" of less than "8" to the original subsampled image.

     

    For simplification, it is best to consider RGB scenarios with no chroma subsampling.  Going from UHD to HD crams 4 pixels into one.  Thus, in an efficient summed conversion, a 4X increase the bit depth is possible, yielding a bit depth of 10.  Such conversions have been done and are being done.

     

    Again, with these conversions, we are merely swapping resolution for bit depth -- we are not increasing color depth.  The color depth of an image cannot be increased without adding something artificial.

     

    Nevertheless, such bit depth increases also work with chroma subsampled images.  It's just that converting a subsampled image with less "effective bit depth" will yield a reduced "effective bit depth" in the final  image.

  15. The whole 4K to HD 10bit theory was incorrect so you will gain nothing by tracking down the specialty apps that were made for this.

    ​No.  The "4k to HD" theory is correct.  One certainly can sacrifice resolution for a gain in bit depth.

     

    However, such a conversion cannot increase the color depth -- one can never increase the color depth of an image without introducing something artificial.

  16. The Acratech really does look like a great solution for the hybrid video/stills shooter who also likes to travel light and small.    I might pull the trigger on that and do a proper review.  I'm sure there are others out there looking for similar setups. 

    ​Manfrotto also has a hybrid head.  Unfortunately, it doesn't use Arca Swiss plates.

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