Archive for September, 2008

"Mindblowing Full HD" was how Gizmodo yesterday described the newly announced Canon 5D Mark II’s video capabilities. Vincent Laforet, who calls the 5D "the best camera ever", was one of the first to take the new camera for a spin and the results are undeniably striking. The stills you see above are from video he shot using the $2700 body and $25,000 in lenses (a list of the lenses he used are at the Gizmodo post). The video, while still not official available, has leaked onto YouTube giving us at least a glimpse of the quality we can expect from the final (view video below).

Gizmodo had this to say about Laforet’s experience creating the video:

"That and a $2700 DSLR body. A testament to its ease of use is that Laforet is a photographer; he has no professional film experience and had never used the 5D Mark II before, yet was able to storyboard, cast, shoot and edit the clip in just two days, with less than 12 hours notice. In particular he noted that dumping the MPEG-4 video takes way less time than it would with an actual HD camera. The only issue that would stop a person from shooting a TV pilot solely with this camera is sound matching, he says. If that’s covered, you’re gold."

I think that’s the most compelling aspect of the 5D: it’s accessibility. Such a powerful tool which yields such amazing results will empower scores of artists looking to break into motion work. I realize that at $2700 the 5D  sits at a price threshold a little beyond the grasp of a lot of us, but high-end video of this caliber has never come this cheap and when you take into account the fact that the 5D also more than covers your DSLR needs the whole package starts to look like a sound investment for photographer and videographer alike.

I don’t know about you guys, but the argument for 5D supremacy is becoming more and more convincing as Canon slowly reveals what it’s capable of. I am still holding out for a head-to-head versus the D700 which, although lacking in video capability, is apparently a low light performer. Whatever the case may be, such a versatile tool as the 5D would make a welcome addition to any graphic designer’s kit. 

How about you guys, have you started saving up?

Found this gem by Halftone Def Studios on Gigposters. I’m pretty much over the whole "skulls craze of ’06/07", I think there was a law in L.A. for a while that stated all shirts produced within city limits had to include a skull on it. Jakub and I went to the Pool clothing show in Vegas and my actual skull exploded due to the amount of skulls on everything. Skulls.

Doesn’t matter, this poster is still badass. I guess that’s the paradox of ubiquitous design trends: Do it right and you’re a genius; do it wrong and you’re a lowly imitator. Or just use ITC Avant Garde; you can’t go wrong with that one.

Now that the skull-rush of ought seven is over, can anyone guess what the next big trend in design is going to be? I vote for rainbows and deer antlers. Oh woops, that already happened.

These videos were all taken with the amazing Casio Exilim EX-F1 camera which features a variable high speed shooting mode for some serious slow-mo action at up to 1200 FPS. While the name Casio doesn’t exactly bring to mind quality output, you can’t argue with that kind of power for under $1000. Being able to get footage like this would open doors to a whole world of possibilities for aspiring film makers.

There are some more user generated video examples here and here. Casio has some official video examples at their page for the EX-F1, but some of the links are broken. This reminds me of the Canon HV20, a dedicated HD video camera which also has a high speed shooting mode but outputs much higher quality video.

Thanks Kirk for the heads up on this one.

I was on the train to Coney Island this weekend and next to me is the actor that plays PC in the Apple commercials. I really didn’t pay much attention to or bother him since he was probably just enjoying his weekend with his daughter but half way through the ride i noticed that he pulled out his phone, and there it was an Apple iPhone being held by the PC guy. I couldn’t pass up the chance take a quick photo.

As many of you noted, PC is actually John Hodgman of The Daily Show fame who is also an author.

I posted a while back about the Porsche-designed Etón P’9120 clock radio but today we’ve got the 9120’s more utilitarian little brother, the P’9110. This hand-cranked emergency radio sports the usual fare: flashlight, siren, etc. but that’s where the similarities between this and that plastic Coleman you got at Target end. Once again Porsche has succeeded with a classic, functional design; clad in cast aluminum, the 9’9110 sports clean lines and color scheme to match. I am loving the tuning gear design, and the tuning wheel/chart design is wonderful.

Once again though, I could do without the cheap looking and poorly placed Etón logo. The top image is from the Porsche Design site who have wisely left out the logo in their press shots, so much cleaner. They have a shot of the 9120 sans-Etón logo up there as well which makes me wonder if you can buy these direct from Porsche instead of going through Etón and getting stuck with the extra branding? At $200 it’s more than a stretch for functionality that can easily be had for under $50, but can you really put a price on maintaining your design standards even during a disaster scenario?

I usually stick to the rule of only posting images that are at least 450px wide, but this was such an amazing cover I thought I’d break that rule. I searched all over for it but couldn’t find a full size, perhaps someone has a scan? Dave from Grain Edit had the 71/72 edition, it was amazing. I’ve never seen this one in person though.

This week iTunes is featuring 2 great records, one from Michna who is currently based in Brooklyn NY, Adrian Michna (aka DJ Egg Foo Young) has become a staple in the NYC club scene, known for his chameleon like abilities. Outside of the club, he has been able to pursue a few hobbies such as building furniture, bicycles, photography, skeeball, and gloss lustre collages. While working on his solo album, he also found time to remix the mysterious Jandek (the only artist ever to do so) and produce on Brazilian group Bonde Do Role’s debut LP for Domino/Mad Decent.
Milosh just released a follow up LP last week, its getting alot of love everywhere, its a great step forward from his previous work, the production has added tons of depth and his voice just works so well with everything he does.
When i DJ out this Michna track i usually play this My Morning Jacket song after, it reminds me of Radiohead or Midlake i think its the rim hits and the way the song swells and fills up then releases.
As for this Marumari track, i wanna share more old melodic IDM that has a lot of crossover potential, IDM can be such a focused genre of music that takes forward thinking steps on composition, i just don’t want it to ever die off and Marumari was a classic example of of focus track, the song revolves around a repetitive hook that keeps morphing and all this detail gets unveiled thru out the song.

Michna – Do What You Want To Do

Milosh – Another Day

My Morning Jacket – It Beats For You

Marumari – Way In The Middle Of The Air

Update: Added some new images above via DPReview who have a very detailed write up of the new 5D on their site.

21-megapixel, full-frame, Digic 4, full HD video, 6400 ISO….Game over. The ridiculously anticipated Canon 5D MKII is now official and if this wasn’t worth the wait, I don’t know what is. Canon has hit each and every feature and performance threshold I was looking for in a new DSLR and then some. Expect it on store shelves by end of November with a sticker price of $2700 for the body or $3500 with the 24-105mm kit lens. Yes, that’s steep, but take a look at these features:

•14-bit conversion
•3.9FPS unlimited burst rate with JPEG using UDMA CF card, or 14 RAW (standard CF card is 78 JPEG, 13 RAW
•Four-channel readout that’s 2.2x faster than the 5D
•Lens peripheral illumination correction, like 50D, but better supposedly
•15-point auto-focus
•Creative auto mode, also like 50D
•Auto-lighting optimizer
•Three levels of noise reduction that kicks in above ISO800
•RAW, sRAW1 (10MP), sRAW2 (5MP)
•Three-inch, 920,000 dot-screen
•New and improved battery (incompatible with old one) that delivers 850 shots or 1.5 hours of video
•150,000 cycle shutter
•Magnesium alloy body
•NO built-in flash BTW

Jumping from my $2000 D80 kit to this price threshold will be a bit of a stretch, but if this new 5D lives up to it’s performance claims, it will be well worth it. I know nothing can truly be future-proof, but com’on, 21MP? That’s more than enough to make this my workhorse camera for the foreseeable technological future. I love it when a new piece of kit comes out that is so far superior to it’s rivals that it makes the decision easy for you; the 5D seems like one of those things. After my long deliberation over which DSLR to upgrade to it’s nice to see a logical conclusion. I had toyed with the idea of moving to the D90 for the HD video alone, but it’s other specs were so similar to my D80 that it just didn’t seem worth the upgrade.

In my book, the 5D MKII beats Nikon’s recently announced D700 for two reasons: HD video (which is inexplicably absent from the D700) and price (it’s $300 less than it’s Nikon counterpart). I don’t own any pricey Nikon glass, both my lenses are decidedly sub-par, but even if I did, I’d have to believe I’d still give this thing more than a passing glance. How about all you other Nikon users? Would any of you who are invested in Nikon lenses still consider moving to Canon for a camera like this?  Let us know

Via Gizmodo

I have been meaning to do more posts with good examples of contemporary poster art and after seeing Well Medicated’s 50 Amazing Gig Posters Sure To Inspire article I thought now would be a great time to start. Concert posters were always my biggest inspiration for getting into art and design. I like to think of my work as sort of straddling the disciplines of pure graphic design and the more illustrative styles featured in the Well Medicated post so I’m always excited to see new work from these types of artists. It always amazes me how they do so much with so little and how they stay true to the classic modernist typographic ideals. It’s very rarely that we as designers get to be truly idealistic with our design so it’s a breath of fresh air to see work like this, unmolested by the hands of middle-men and marketing departments.

On a side note, seeing a large collection of stylistically similar prints like this always reminds me of the rather strange disconnect I’ve noticed between the world of gig poster artists and graphic designers. A good example would be FlatStock at SXSW; that whole scene always seemed to me to be quite insularly while a lot of the design festivals I end up presenting at seem to fall short in their representation of the poster art world. Perhaps I’m missing something, but you’d think there would be more overlap between the two worlds given how much the output has in common.

I just got home from Terrabyte after a nice drive today; LA > Sacto > SF, needless to say I am exhausted so I’ll keep it short. Terrabyte was amazing as usual; thanks to everyone who came out and made it a success and thanks to the Arboretum and Kyle and Ryan from Subtractive for making it all happen. I also want to apologize for the delay getting started, as some of you noted, we had some technical difficulties starting out, but things smoothed out once things got rolling. I was pretty busy most of the time so didn’t get many good photos this time around, some of the few I got are below. Bijan has also posted some photos from the show here.

Steve workin’ it at the booth.
 
ISO50 Booth


Dusty Brown!

Zac Brown! (Guitars, Dusty Brown)

Somewhere in the middle of the central California valley.

I found some early videos from the show on YouTube, below is a shot of some of the visuals. I didn’t realize this girl (video below) had been dancing in the visuals until after the show was over, pretty cool to see this now. There is also a video of the new single being played; the audio is really bad and you can’t see much, but it’s a small taste at least: link. There are a couple more from the same person up here as well.