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Ok, so the cheap slider I posted sold out in less than a day. Many jumped on the deal (including myself), and many waited to see if it was even worth the price. It's probably the cheapest roller bearing slider i've seen, but here's a few more teaser images to see if we've made the right decision. Personally, I think it was a killer deal. Will it be available again? Who knows....

adjustable-friction
Is this adjustable Friction?

diagonal-slide
sliding-slider-sideways
optional-light-stand-mount
Optional Light Stand Mount

vertical-sliding
The 'Feet' can be combined to do Vertical Slides, or just use a Tripod to mount for Vertical Sliding

They do list it on their company website, but they're completely out of stock and not for the same price. As soon as I find it's been listed back on eBay, you'll find it right here. I sugggest you subscribe to my RSS and get notified as soon as I post something, or just keep checking back. Don't worry peeps, i'm on the ball, but these new pictures look good and show a bit more quality in the build than what the auction was showing. I think it was all worth it...

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SF_meetup

Very last minute planning or lack of for a scheduled mini-DSLR Meetup in San Francisco this Friday. Rod Guajardo of www.foursandyfeet.com is in town working on a Music Video shoot and decided to connect with a few people in the Bay Area while he's in town. Along with Michelle of MoshBrown.com, they've mapped out the meeting spot to be the Irish Bank located at 10 Mark Lane #415.788.7152

Using the word mini-DSLR meetup, it should just be a casual meet and greet, food and drink, with no real techincal road map on actual shooting. But hey, If everyone is up for some shooting afterwards, San Francisco is one of the hottest photo spots in the world - Should be interesting. If you want to know more they are also available via Twitter, and I suggest you follow them both.
Michelle can be followed @moshbrown
Rod can be followed @Rod_Guajardo

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sescom-line2mic

Hey, here's an idea. Run the Microphone into your portable audio recorder, and then run the headphone out port into your camera mic input. If it sounds good in the headphones, it should sound good running into the camera. Well before you tackle that idea, just know that headphone outputs aren't all the same and run pretty hot. Some portable audio recorders have a dedicated 'Line Out' so you'll be safe, but not the Zoom H4n or Zoom H1. You can easily damage the mic input on your camera if you're not careful.

So above is the cable from Sescom. This isn't something new, and most of you might have already run into this product. This particular one I have is for the Zoom H4n, but i'm showing it with the Zoom H1 (didn't have H4n with me). It's a Sescom Line2Mic attenuator cable that drops the headphone out from the Zoom by -25db making it safe to use directly into your camera's Mic input. There's different cables with different levels of attenuation provided for different recorders. Don't think this will save your AGC enabled cameras, that's not what it's there for. This cable is for the Canon 60D and 5D Mark II that control manual audio. (Or try it on the T2i with Magic Lantern).

So why do it this way? Well for starters, the amps on the Zoom recorders will help you adjust levels and sensitivity. If you're using the H4n, it gives you a way to connect XLR type microphones. Is the audio just as good as what's recorded? Not really, but you'll be surprised on how well it does sound. I'm not going to run through a bunch of tests today, a bit swamped, but if you're curious you can find lots of tests already at Vimeo.com. Or for those of you who have your video links, throw them in the comments.


line-2-mic-attenuated-sescom
find-price-button Sescom LN2MIC-ZMH4-MON 3.5mm Line to Mic 25dB Attenuation Cable for Zoom H4N with Headphone Monitoring Jack

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filmmakers-intensive

After a successful first year, The FilmMaker's Intensive is on year two. It would be interesting to see how DSLR's will be considered into the workflow. Program directors are Jem Schofield & Larry Silverberg Jem is the man behind the popular TheC47.com, and Larry is the guy behind TrueActingInstitute.com.

From the Website:
The Filmmaker's Intensive is a two week intense (and we mean intense), program that takes you out of your day to day environment and focuses you directly on the art & science of narrative filmmaking. The program was designed specifically to allow each person that attends to learn true fictional filmmaking from pre-production to post. If you're looking for a serious intensive program, more information can be found here: https://www.thefilmmakersintensive.com/

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Not a very precise motion controlled unit as the high end versions, but nonetheless a very effective one. Here's another Rotisserie Motor based motion controlled Timelapse slider from Vimeo member Derek Mellot. The video shows some fine examples of it's use as well as some of it's build rolling over an aluminum ladder. The motor used spins at 4rpm, but if you're clever, you can find ways to gear that down. I think the other smaller battery powered version with 2rpm posted earlier would suffice. This one by Derek is a large DIY rig, something you shouldn't plan to be traveling with on a plane, but if you've got the time, the space, and lack a budget, it's a great little DIY project. [Thanks Derek]


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Testing out the Canon 60D w/ Tokina 11-16mm with cheap Timelapse Timer Remote. I'm still very happy with this cheap Timer Remote. I thought that it would have battery problems since there's no On/Off switch. You have to flip the watch type button battery around when it's not in use. There's been several days I didn't flip it around, and i'm still on the same battery. I stayed at Caesars Palace and this was the view from the outside staircase and took 1,275 photos with 3 second intervals. Really short clips of this will end up in a video project. Camera just set to AV F/9. Everything else was pretty much automatic.

I wanted to travel with a minimum amount of gear to Las Vegas so I played the dating game with my cameras, to make the best decision. Camera #1 what would you do for wide angle and zoom shooting? After a few questions, I ended up taking the Canon 60D over everything (yes even the 5D Mark II). Why? Well most of my footage would be in CES which was very well lit. In fact all of Vegas is pretty 'well lit'. So I decided to take my Tamron 18-270mm with VC. This lens gives me both wide and super zooms and has Vibration Control (same as IS) all in one lens. For super duper wides, I brought out the Tokina 11-16mm. Both lenses won't work on the Canon 5D Mark II, so he's out of the picture. Since my audio gear was going to be minimal, the Manual audio controls of the Canon 60D beat out both the 7D and T2i as options.

We chased a TV hostess for a network show around while she demoed some of the items at CES. She was on a wireless microphone, but I needed to get as much of the same audio for later syncing. With a simple Rode VideoMic and 60D Manual Audio controls, I was able to pinpoint the sound I needed from our television hostess. Using a wide lens and staying close to the TV hostess was also a technique to focus on the sound I wanted and leave out as much ambient noise as possible. For those who still have questions, the Canon 60D has been a top performer and very versatile. I'm also finding myself really using the swivel LCD, and can't wait till Canon implements this into the 5D Mark III (if that ever happens.....)

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camera-slider

I hate to say 'I told ya so', but....'I told ya so'. The little slider with big features that I just posted about last night is currently off the grid. Here's the original article if you've missed it: http://cheesycam.com/sliding-back-into-market-camera-slider/.

From what I could tell, there was more than 35 sliders sold at that pretty awesome price in less than a day. Hopefully it's just that the original inventory is wiped out. (Not uncommon for popular items posted through this blog) We'll just have to wait and see when this thing resurfaces and hopefully the prices will still be affordable....

I'm hoping shipping doesn't take the slow boat so I can take it for a test drive and show you guys what it's made of. If anyone gets one before me, we're all dying to see some results.