Dettifoss & F864 from Jernej Burkeljca on Vimeo.

I took it on a recent trip to Iceland and it sort of represents a condensed impression of Iceland in general… waterfalls and gravel roads through the desert (obviously there’s much more to it). Featured here are Detifoss and the drive there on F864 (Hólsfjallavegur). Wikipedia says it’s the largest waterfall in terms of volume in Europe. And it is impressive. Although once you make your way around from Reykjavik you’re wondering if seeing yet another waterfall is worth any extra effort. We took that chance. It was a miserable rainy, freezing and windy day but I’m not sorry.

Shot on Canon HF200 on a tripod that was shaking like a leaf in the wind and treated with proDAD Mercalli (highly recommended piece of software) to stabilise the in-car shots a little bit (it’s a very light camera and I wanted some weight to its movements).

Dawn on an Island from Jernej Burkeljca on Vimeo.

The result of relying on the camera having amazing brains is more noise than I would have liked. Image quality strongly reminds me of compact cameras set on ISO 400 and above. And essentially this camera is just that… a small camera with some pro features. In photo world it would find its equivalent in the Canon G series. Fine, indeed quite nice, in a lot of situations but quite horrible when you push it towards what it hasn’t been designed to do. Bottom line is that at high gain the image is ugly. It’s not that there’s a huge amount of noise, it’s just ugly in the same way it’s ugly on nearly all small sensor cameras and mobile phones. So now I know to avoid flipping the gain switch if I don’t have to.

The other problem I have with nearly all video cameras is the depth of field. The infinity of it. I’ve gotten so used to shallow DOF that it really annoys me when I use anything other than an SLR and a fast lens. Obviously this is only relevant if the project you’re doing requires shallow DOF, in most cases cameras such as GY-HM100 end up doing one man band documentaries shot handheld where focusing is something you just don’t bother with, indeed don’t want to bother with. And for that kind of work I believe this camera is near perfect. It does a good job on full auto, it’s small and featherweight. So light that I kept checking if there’s anything at all in the bag where Canon 20D with 70-200/2.8 attached usually resides. The little JVC also comes with 2 XLR ports for more serious audio work and offers a decent post workflow. Manual controls on such a small camera are of course a slight issue for clumsy people with big fingers but they’re not such a problem so as to become unusable.

There is an issue with post though and I’ve written more about it when I first encountered it. I’ve yet to find a long term solution to the audio being mangled up in Premiere but the simple fact of the matter is that transwrapping the files is fast and easy and everything works great from there on. Premiere CS4 handles it beautifully and the result is above.

The question is… would I buy it for myself? No. But I’d love to use it whenever there’s a need for such a camera. Handheld, mobile, efficient style of filming. But for me personally I’m much more inclined towards a one for all solution. Since my 20D still works as it should I’m not contemplating a switch but when that day comes I’d like a 7D please. That would suit my own taste in photo and video much more and I would avoid carrying more stuff than I’d like. I tend to leave the 70-200 behind often enough as it is.

Teaser 001 from mike ambs on Vimeo.

Teaser 002 from mike ambs on Vimeo.

Teaser 003 from mike ambs on Vimeo.

Teaser 004 from mike ambs on Vimeo.

Teaser 005 from mike ambs on Vimeo.

Teaser 006 from mike ambs on Vimeo.

Fifty People, One Question: New York from Crush & Lovely on Vimeo.

Galapagos from Darek Sepiolo on Vimeo.

Here’s the schedule

Photos up till now:

Brutal polka

Klemen Mauhler stand-up comedy performance

Jani Kovačič and Slovenia united

There is and will of course be more in the gallery as the month and the festival go on.

I found some interesting options that might be of use to someone but to be honest from the start – although many of these are actually quite capable I’ve found a number of missing features that would be a deal braker for my personal use. But if you’re just starting out or are on a serious budget or there are some specific circumstances (that’s why I’ve been researching this in the first place) then these should do just fine.

Just one more thing… some of these might not be free but cost considerably less than the industry standard.

sound editing:

• Audacity
• GoldWave

3D graphics:

• Blender

Photo editing:

• GIMP
• GIMPShop (GIMP offspring that looks like Photoshop)
• CinePaint (GIMP offspring for the film industry with some specific features)
• Picture Window Pro ($90)
• Photoshop Elements 6 ($100)

Vector graphics:

• Inkscape

Non linear video editing:

• Jahshaka (free, latest release oct 06)
• ZS4 (free, latest release feb 07)
• Cinerella (free but only available on Linux)
• Adobe Premiere Elements 4 ($99)
• Pinnacle Studio Plus ($99)
• Pinnacle Studio Ultimate ($130)
• Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum ($120)
• Avid Xpress Pro Academic ($295)
• ULEAD Media Studio Pro ($400)

Desktop Publishing:

• Scribus
• QuarkXpress ($195)

As I said… I’m not switching completely but these might be very attractive to some.

I’ll also point out APhotoEditor. An anonimous insider with some interesting things to say on the business of photography. A slightly more philosophic and academic twist to photography comes from Conscientious. One could say the familiar words of Mike Johnston et al of The Online Photographer fall somewhere between these two so you’re nicely covered from all angles. That is if your interest in photography extends beyond gear talk and pixel peeping.

That’s it for now. No, you don’t get to find out how many feeds I subscribe to ;)

Superbly shot, excellent locations and some very fine music. And since youtube hardly does this video justice – here’s the original trailer.

I’ve watched it a few times already and every single time I get the urge to pack up and go to Iceland. And just so you know… Iceland is just as amazing underwater. Silfra…a crack in the earth’s crust where european and american tectonic plates meet and visibility is quite literally limitless… probably the most spectatular dive site on the planet.

NDR Silfra report on YouTube:

you can also freedive there…

I must warn you though…it is cold… ;)

Murat & Jose promoting their upcoming album (didn’t record any of it, sorry…) @ Trnfest 07, RDYO summer bashment weekend.

JAMirko during Fankanammanka DJ set with Ubu