So apparently there are attachments made that you can place on your Canon or Sony HD camcorder to allow for use of SLR camera lenses. That means, yes, you can get shallow depths of field… aka, your subject in focus, background out of focus. Ever notice how on consumer camcorders and regular point and shoot cameras, everything is always in focus? That’s what makes it look amateurish (one reason). These DOF converters cost anywhere between $275 and $2000. Not to mention the costs of the additional lenses, but man… this makes me rethink wanting to purchase that Red Scarlet…! Well… just a little!
Big Budget: Letus
Little Budge: Jag35
Can you believe this was shot with the same camera I own?
So my Manfrotto ModoSteady 3-in-1 thing arrived today. It’s supposed to do three things.
1) Motion Stabilizer
2) Shoulder Stabilizer
3) Desk Tripod
While the shoulder stabilizer is cool, and the desk tripod can mount the camera in a car dashboard or something, the motion stabilizer is what I wanted. I wanted to get that steadicam look…
Anyway, it’s pretty tough to use, and even with the stabilizer I’m going to have to practice the camera moves. But, if you can figure it out, i think it really smooths out the motion a lot. I’m sharing this comparison shot. I tried to do both camera moves the same way, but I think I walked faster without the stabilizer. Hopefully you can tell which is which. It was my first try with the device, hopefully I’ll get better in time… my wallet hopes so too.
Other things you may notice: My camera has problems auto-focusing after looking at blank walls. 
The white balance is wack. My house is messy. Etc, etc, etc.
Next time it’s a nice day I may take it for a run and see how it holds up. Meanwhile, here’s the vid:
So, the Dr. Horrible DVD came out recently and I’m sad to say our 13 of Spades application was not featured on it. =( However, we were among the top 20 “dishonorable mentions” as seen by the photo above. The top name on that list was dishonorable mention #1, with our name on the bottom. It scrolls up like credits. You should take a look. We watched all 10 featured application videos. The one that won was quite clever, although most of the rest I wasn’t too excited over. Needless to say, next time an opportunity like this rolls around, we should spend more than one night on it! For good measure, here’s our video, followed by the one that won.