Month: August 2012

Sony a99 Rumor

michaelmerto

 

For those that haven’t checked out sonyalpharumors.com, it’s a must if your into all things Sony. This guy works hard scrounging rumors from resources all over the globe and puts them together into intelligent product rumors.

I’ve been checking his website daily for a99 updates and here’s what the rumor is:

  • 24.3 Mpx Full frame CMOS Exmor sensor
  • SLT technology
  • New Bionz imaging engine
  • 14 bit RAW recording
  • 10 fps
  • ISO 100 up to 25.600
  • 50 ISO extended (with lower dynamic range)
  • 102 AF point AF (11 cross).
  • AF range
  • MF assist
  • Dual Phase detection system (with AF phase pixels on sensor)
  • 30 sec and 1/8000 maximum shutter speed
  • Time Lag 0.05 sec.
  • Shutter life guarantee of 200,000 cycles
  • 2.360k OLED electornic viewfinder
  • 3″921k LCD with same tilting system of the A77
  • Full HD video recording at 1920×1080/60p AVCHD format
  • HDMI output
  • Built-in stereo mic
  • Built-in flash with guide number of 12
  • Auto HDR capability
  • New multi-segment low pass filter
  • Photodiode expansion technology
  • Light concentration technology
  • Selective noise reduction
  • Ultrasonic anti dust system
  • In body image stabilization
  • Two memory slots: SD and SD+MS cards
  • USB: 2.0
  • Announced on September 12, 2012
  • Available in stores in late October 2012
  • New accessories to be released with the a99: battery grip, flash, remote control, microphone etc.
  • Very light, weather sealed magnesium alloy body.With 730 g this is the lightest FF body on market!

The specs add up to the most innovative and feature rich full frame camera and with the right price may be able to compete with the high end Nikon/Canon DSLRs if it’s any good in lowlight.

 

Mountain Lion Update

michaelmerto

10.8.1 is live and fixes a few annoying bugs. Personally, I’ve noticed battery life diminished and audio was spotty when connecting to a Thunderbolt display upon upgrading to Mountain Lion. 10.8.1 aims to fix this.

Other key improvements:

• Resolve an issue that may cause Migration Assistant to unexpectedly quit
• Improve compatibility when connecting to a Microsoft Exchange server in Mail
• Resolve an issue that could prevent iMessages from being sent
• Address an issue that could cause the system to become unresponsive when using Pinyin input
• Resolve an issue when connecting to SMB servers with long names
• Address a issue that may prevent Safari from launching when using a Proxy Automatic Configuration (PAC) file
• Improve 802.1X authentication with Active Directory credentials.

 

Congratulations Chris, Jenna, and Jayden!

michaelmerto

 

You came to the first day of work just a kid and now look, you’re a kid with a baby. I really appreciate all your help at work and am confident in your abilities as new father. And never forget to remember to teach him:

“Mercy is for the weak. Here, in the streets, in competition: A man confronts you, he is the enemy. An enemy deserves no mercy.” – John Kreese

Why Tony Scott?

michaelmerto

As to the whys that may be explained in the letter left in his home, I can’t help but feel abnormally saddened by Tony’s suicide. Being a hollywood figure with any level of prominence is a dream that many wish to attain, so why? I may never understand nor do I need to. However, I must try to reason why it’s affecting me.

Directors are often overlooked when friends gather round. If the discussion goes beyond acting or plot, they are usually brought up in a snotty way “David Mamet is so much better than Nolan.” Only the great ones are known (Spielberg, Nolan, Scorsese…) or the very bad ones (Michael Bay). The average are hardly talked about at the casual level. Tony Scott was far from average reaching consistent box office success since Top Gun and recently with Unstoppable. Hey if Denzel insisted on working with Tony then Tony must be pretty good.

Ridley got most of the critical attention with the epic worlds he created in Gladiator, Alien and Blade Runner. Tony stayed here on Earth, present day, for the most part with a frenetic and kinetic style of editing that is copied too often with too little credit. I admire Tony’s conistency, I never doubted that I’d like an upcoming movie of his. I couldn’t say the same for his brother as a few were complete messes. The theatrical version of Kingdom of Heaven was so bad I couldn’t help but feel trepidation for Prometheus.

This wasn’t meant to be a debate or a comparison. Just a reminder that Tony was a great director and I will be missing his work.

2010 Unstoppable

2009 The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3

2007 Numb3rs (TV series)

– Trust Metric (2007)

2006 Deja Vu

2005 Domino

2004 Agent Orange (short)

2004 Man on Fire

2002 Beat the Devil (short)

2001 Spy Game

1997-1999 The Hunger (TV series)

– Sanctuary (1999)

– The Swords (1997)

1999 Ladies & Gentlemen: The Best of George Michael (video documentary) (video “One More Try”)

1998 Enemy of the State

1996 The Fan

1995 Crimson Tide

1993 True Romance

1991 The Last Boy Scout

1990 Days of Thunder

1990 Revenge

1987 Beverly Hills Cop II

1986 Top Gun

1983 The Hunger

1976 Nouvelles de Henry James (TV series)

– L’auteur de Beltraffio (1976)

1971 Loving Memory (as Anthony Scott)

1969 One of the Missing (short)

Sony Camera Hack Project is Official!!!

michaelmerto

For all Alpha and Nex users here is the link. The project is led by Someone 1.00 who managed to hack the a55. It is also backed by the infamous and legendary Vitaly Kiselev who hacked the GH1, GH2 and Gxx series of Panasonic cameras. This is exciting as Vitaly once said that Sony’s firmware was infinitely more difficult to hack than the Panasonic’s. But here we are!

Sony Alpha a55 has been hacked?!?!

michaelmerto

Here’s the link to the forum on EOSHD.

Fingers crossed it makes its way over to the a77. Just as the hack on the GH2, any modifications to the firmware that allows bitrate and/or audio controls will make for a much better movie making camera. The alpha line records at a maximum 28mbps in AVCHD 2.0 codec which delivers fairly decent video but lacks detail and resolution. The hack may not help that, but 28mbps AVCHD can break up in post. Generally the higher the bitrate the better. The hacked GH2 can deliver up to 176mbps all intra frames. They both use the same stock codec, which means the first (i) frame is the most detailed followed by b and p frames that is composed by the processor’s guess of where movement in the video will occur. This can create macro-blocking and odd artifacts in the video. As such, a hack producing a codec with all first i frames and a high bitrate is popular.

I’ve talked about how annoying Sony’s insistence on only auto gain control for audio is. The hack might open things up in that department, like it did for the Canon line of DSLR’s with the Magic Lantern hack.

There are also rumors of the new full-frame a99 Sony SLT and an update that will be released around that time for the a77.

With the NEX and RX100 topping the sales charts it’s exciting times for the Sony community!

GH2 Hack on a Mac

michaelmerto

The hack was pretty simple but gathering all the required parts and instructions took some laborious searching. The accompanying video hopefully helps speed the process for you, lends confidence you won’t brick it and remind me when I forget, I will forget. This is the main link you’ll need.

I’ve found that any bitrate below 100 mbps writes to cheap transcend class 10 cards fairly problem free. I’ve yet to receive a speed card error unless I go over that. As far as the quality, I can’t tell the difference between the stock firmware and the hacked one, with any settings even up to 176 mbps, unless I’m grading the footage. I was surprised when I pushed the shadows down on one shot to seehow much detail held up. Doing the same everything on the a77 crumpled the screen to black. For the most part, I can live with the footage from the a77. However, a hacked GH2 gives me 12,800 iso, audio controls, bitrate that can stand up to harsh treatment in post, noise that looks like natural film grain and a higher resolution video, even unhacked.

The Fotodiox adapter that allows me to attach all my Sony/Minolta lenses is pretty sturdy. It’s all metal with a dial to control aperture. There are no markings so you’re going to have to guess but it works well with the GH2 in A or M mode. I purchased the adapter here.