Join Russian Arm responsible for your favorite car chase scenes
If you like movies with car chases as much as I do, then you should know the invisible star of them is the Russian Arm.
The Russian Arm looks like a tank with a gun with two swivels. It is a gyroscopically-stablized camera crane that is responsible for action shots in car chase scenes like Transformers, The Fast and The Furious, and others. The crane of the Russian Arm is designed to keep steady while its SUV mount is moving at high speeds, even if the pavement is uneven. It can even go off-road.
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Pico Dolly good for small spinning shots
Remember early last decade when every movie was doing shots that imitated the bullet time effect of The Matrix? It seemed like every time I watched a movie there would be this pointless stillshot followed by a circular pan around it.
Yes, it was done to death, but this Pico Dolly could reproduce that fad, but for YouTube users. The Pico Dolly is made from aluminum, weighs about three pounds, and designed to hold a camera with three screw mounts with the option of a 11-inch friction arm. As you can see, it has wheels for those moving shots, and the user can mount their DSLR or even their iPhone on it.
You can see in the video after the jump how its rollerblade wheels can create some pretty cool action shots. With the wheels on an angle, it can do those aforementioned bullet-time shots, on a smaller scale. Looks like your Neo and Trinity action figures are going to get some airtime and playtime.
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Thanks to CineSkates, Gorillapod looks even stranger with wheels
We have reported on the Joby Gorillapod before, on many occasions. It is a flexible tripod that attaches to a camera, making it look like a War of the Worlds Martian. If you ever wanted to put some wheels on your Gorillapod, you can do it now with Cineskates.
If you are wondering why you should want to put your flexible tripod on wheels, then you need to think like a film director. Just think of how cool your DSLR video will be when you do arcing shots, sliding shots, rolling shots, and any other shot that is in dynamic motion.
Continue reading » Thanks to CineSkates, Gorillapod looks even stranger with wheels
Vivitar 690HD Digital Video Recorder
Vivitar calls its 690HD camera a DVR. This is an abbreviation for Digital Video Recorder, but it has nothing to do with what your TiVo does.
The Vivitar 609HD is a handheld camera that looks like it should be held horizontally, but it is best used vertically as the user can see the 2-inch preview screen.
I got a chance to try it out, and the video is good for 1280 x 720 HD, 640 x 480 VGA, or 320 x 240 QVGA. The frame-rate is good for 25fps, 30fps, and 30fps, respectively. The camera is also capable of still shots, but I don’t have any word on the number of Megapixels.
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Motion capture technology improved by Carnegie Mellon and Disney
I recently saw some footage of how Disney made their film Mars Need Moms. It showed Seth Green in a skintight suit with dots all over his face and small balls in certain places on his body.
Too bad Mars Needs Moms was such a flop, but Disney is working with Carnegie Mellon to create a new system of motion capture. It works by placing cameras all around the actors, which enables them to give a virtual performance from anywhere.
Normally, actors have to be in rooms with greenscreens, so the backgrounds can be put in later. This new method takes about 24 cameras to create this effect, and it is a great timesaver. For example, if you want a scene where someone does some physical motion, this new mo-cap system can get all the data, and the director can tweak it later.
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Blind Camera takes other people’s photos
This is the “Blind Camera”. I realize that this sounds like an oxymoron, until you realize what it does.
This camera doesn’t allow you to take a picture, but it will show you other people’s pictures. How it works is this: you push a button, and the Blind Camera shows you other pictures take at your location.
I don’t know how it can pluck all photos from the Internet and produce a few taken at the user’s exact spot, but I would imagine that a GPS is involved in some way. It doesn’t have any lens, sensor, or optics.
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Sony HDR-PJ50 is both a camcorder and projector
When I saw this pic of the Sony HDR-PJ50, I was not surprised. After all, it isn’t the first time I have seen a projector on a camera. Nikon did this with the Coolpix S1000pj, and 3M did this with Shoot and Share camera as well.
The projector of the HDR-PJ50 is able to project an image of 60-inches on any flat surface, but you are probably going to have to be in a very dark room.
Then there is the usual feature of a 1920 x 1080 HD video and an unusual feature of a built-in 220GB hard drive. As you might have guessed, it is good for memory sticks or SD cards. It also has a built-in 220GB hard drive, so you can catch a lot of video.
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DXG offers low-budget 3D stills
What you are seeing here is a new type of 3D viewer from DXG, creator of a lot of terrific HD camcorders.
This 3D viewer can only take still shots, and I got to try it out. You get the 3D that you may or may not have been looking for, but you really have to jump through a lot of hoops for it.
What happens is that you take pictures with the dual-lens camera. The viewscreen on the back of the camera is only 1.44 inches, and you can see the images in realtime. You can then print them out and put them in the included paper 3D viewer for a “Viewmaster” effect.
Continue reading » DXG offers low-budget 3D stills
