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The idea of the OWLE Bubo is to get better video from your iPhone. You place the iPhone into the provided silicone case; pop it into the Bubo and go. You now have wide-angle optics on your iPhone as well as a more stable grip.  Can also (reporte

• http://filmtools.wordpress.com/2010/04/02/owle-bubo-iphone-housing-includes-camera-mount-lens-and-mic/

The wide-angle is especially desirable since the inbuilt camera lens is too zoomed-in for most filming purposes.

Need better wireless audio kit.  Production Video provide good advice.  Also, to help gain familiarity, here’s a good-looking article on the Sennheiser MKE105S-EW: http://filmtools.wordpress.com/2010/03/22/sennheisers-new-ew-series-microphones/

Some good links:

• Doom9 forum attended by Deshaker’s author (Gunnar Thalin): http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=49597
  • Highly recommended, give it a trawl-through (allow an hour or so!).
  • Many specifics and clear explanations beyond the user manual.

Tips from Deshaker’s author, Gunnar Thalin [http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1418923]:

• Q:
  • Any recommendations specifically for vehicle, motorcycle in my case, mounted videos?
  • Are there particular settings that would work better for high speed movement? 

• A:
  • I know a lot of people seem to be using Deshaker for those kind of videos, but it’s not really designed to handle videos where the camera “moves around”, at least not where it moves very fast. Deshaker can only handle panning, rotation and zoom. That said, I’ve seen some very good deshaked videos of that kind.
  • As always, make sure you’re using a high enough shutter speed, if possible. There shouldn’t be any motion blur in each frame.
  • Also, you would probably get *a lot* better results if the camera didn’t have a rolling shutter. But I believe most helmet mounted cameras today have a rolling shutter. Deshaker can remove rolling shutter effects but only if the shaking isn’t extreme.
  • I would also recommend trying to stabilize only on the most distant parts in the frames, since the “moving inwards”-effect is less there. You can do that by ignoring the other areas.
  • And turn off zoom smoothing by settings zoom smoothness to 0. You will also need to change the edge compensation type if you do that. Start with “None”, maybe.
  • Finally, you should probably increase the value for “discard motion of blocks that move > X pixels in wrong direction”. That’s to allow the blocks to move “freely” a little, since Deshaker can’t handle the “moving inwards”-effect.
  • But maybe you should ask someone who’s actually stabilized these kind of videos. I haven’t.

Which is best?   Depends on the camera, scene and shot dynamics I guess.  The same point is queried at the following thread:

• http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/sony-xdcam-ex-cinealta/238593-steady-shot-smoothcam-both-what-2.html#post1551809

Some general advice from a computer-post-savvy author: definitely use the camera’s SteadyShot:

• http://www.gcvcc.com/March%202008%20%20Camera%20Techniques%20No2.pdf

Limitations of post

• Stabilization necessitates motion estimation and image reconstruction, which are extremely CPU-heavy, hence really slow to execute.
• Most stabilization apps (in post) can’t currently cope with motion-blurred edges or parallax effects (though both should be possible in principle, by deconvolution and 3D modelling both informed from multiple frames).
• For rolling-shutter-ed footage (e.g. CMOS sensors as in Sony Exmor as in Sony XDCAM-EX e.g. EX1 & EX3), there exist options to reduce the effect (don’t expect perfection, but may suffice):
  • Sony’s ClipBrowser 2.6 can remove this http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/sony-xdcam-ex-cinealta/467511-clipbrowser-takes-out-rolling-shutter.html.
  • Gunnar Thalin’s Deshaker plugin for VirtualDub can compensate for this.

My experiences:

• Stabilizing Tools:
  • Gunnar Thalin’s Deshaker works really well.  And it is multi-threaded, really speeds up the process.  The author says it is more intended for handheld pans etc. than fast-shaking shots from vehicles etc. (but has nevertheless seen good results in such situations).
    • The author says [http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1418923] to try “to stabilize only on the most distant parts in the frames, since the moving inwards-effect is less there”.  And “you should probably increase the value for [discard motion of blocks that move > X pixels in wrong direction]. That’s to allow the blocks to move “freely” a little, since Deshaker can’t handle the “moving inwards”-effect.
    • Possibly equally applicable to other smooth/stabilize/deshake tools ?
  • Boris’s Optical/Motion Stabilizer (in Boris Red 4.3.3 on XP) is only single-threaded and I find it slower, clunkier and less intuitive than Deshaker.  Has a Smooth mode, which is like the others here, as well as a Stabilize mode (try to keep frame static, no good for motion then).  The other tools can be configured to do the same thing.
  • Mercalli in Sony Vegas has no mode for 720p50 but otherwise is pretty good and very intuitive and configurable.
  • FCP’s SmoothCam Effect worked best for a challenging clip for wobbly-hand-held camera tracking close past an object (a Formula-1 car) hence huge degree of moving-inwards effect.  The default settings worked straight away.  The result quality was way above that of the other tools.  On the other hand sometimes it’s not the best (sorry, forgot the exact situation).
• Cameras & Shots:
  • Historically, using a TRV33 DV HandyCam indoors (hence low-light hence long shutter time):
    • Way back in the past, using a (now ancient) TRV33 DV handy-cam (which has huge sensor margin i.e. spare pixels), when I shot big zooms to lecture audience individuals (e.g. question-time) I had the camera’s steady-shot (digital, not mirror) enabled  and used Gunnar Thalin’s Deshaker (VirtualDub plugin) also.  The result was astoundingly steady.
    • The same arrangement worked OK with hand or shoulder mounted cam for walk-throughs past nearby objects (e.g. walls, people, furniture).
    • An attempt to do the same thing without steady-shot enabled on the camera resulted in seriously motion-blurred edges.
  • Now, using a Sony EX3:
    • With camera Steady-Shot set to Medium, hand-held pans and motion past nearby objects seem to acquire a positional instability, as if the camera feedback mechanism needs greater damping. Maybe the camera’s internal mirror “suspension” has to be tighter (than the TRV33 digital equivalent) because it lacks the generous pixels margin of the TRV33?  or maybe something to do with the mirror’s inertia?  Or (real-time-constrained) processing-power?
      • Experimentation is needed with the camera’s other SteadyShot modes (High, Low).
      • In the absence of more generous sensor pixel margins, I wish it could be loosened-up e.g. to allow black borders (to crop in post) so as to permit smoother rides overall.

Gamma-shift issue:

•  http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/8/1028870
  • “QuickTime movie, created with Avid on a PC, using the DNxHD codec. When I open it in QuickTime Player on a PC, the colours are fine, but when I import it into Final Cut on a Mac, the colours are a lot brighter- gamma shift”.
  • “I have ProRes and DNxHD clips of the same thing on the timeline. When I switch from a frame in one clip to the same frame in the other clip, there is a very visible difference between the two. The DNxHD version is brighter and ‘milky’.  I’ve tried exporting DNxHD from Final Cut and it has the same problem as the DNxHD sourced from the Avid.”
  • “It’s the codec. DNxHD reports RGB values to FCP not Y’CbCr. Therefore FCP applies its internal RGB interpretation which causes the gamma shift you see.”
  • “Any non native codecs to final cut pro should be transcoded first through compressor; best way to check if the gamma has shifted is take an image with tonal ranges which vary over a gradient e.g. sky; look at the scopes in avid for the dnx file; look at the scopes in final cut pro for the dnx file; no guess work”
• x

On a MacBook Pro(17 inch, “5,2″), a FW800 connected drive worked fine from MacOS but not from BootCamp-Windows7.   From others’ advice, tried replacing the MS IEEE 1394 (FireWire, FW) driver.  Was initially skeptical, as I had not heard of that before, but others had recommended it and (according UniBrain’s own website), the drivers earned the “1394 Trade Association Compliance Logo”.  But it only made things worse for me.  Details of my experience:

• Apparently (from web-search) there is an option to install a “legacy driver”.  Have not tried it, and won’t now, but maybe later.
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4JfbDW6AtI
• Allegedly better option: UniBrain’s driver.
  • First install-attempt failed.
  • Wondered if AntiVirus (Parallels / Kapersky 2009) caused a problem, so temporarily disabled it.
  • Second install-attempt (no AntiVirus) worked!
    • Installer said it had finished OK.  Reboot requested and accepted.
    • Device Manager listed the “1394 Bus host controllers” as “UniBrain driver”.
  • FW800 disk read and write tests revealed worse if anything results than for the default MS driver:
    • Disk now not recognized unless connected during machine boot.
    • Write-test fails immediatly (as for MS driver) but now freezes the whole machine, requiring power-off (was aable to use system shutdown when using MS driver).

Windows 7’s System Restore utility (GUI): The .exe file and how to run it from commandline/script:

• http://www.ditii.com/2010/02/14/system-restore-point-using-two-clicks-in-windows-7/

On Windows I installed Safari (web browser).  The installer also offered Bonjour for Windows.  That is a service discovery app from Apple.  Like Safari it comes bundled with Mac OS and now it seems, is also availabe for Windows.  So is it useful or nuisanceful?  Unsure, I decided to play safe and not install it.  Here’s a deeper article on what it does/doesn’t do:

• http://clibra.wordpress.com/2007/07/18/bonjour-for-windowsyes-no/
  • (Paraphrasing):
    • Not a nuisance but not as useful as one might have hoped, since not all apps know how to make use of it.
  • Instructions on how to remove it: http://arai.wordpress.com/2008/02/11/completly-uninstall-and-remove-bonjour-service-and-files-mdnsresponderexe-and-mdnsnspdll/
    • If you do not want Bonjour to be in your computer and want to uninstall it, sometimes you can’t find any uninstaller for it! Even if you go to Control Panel’s Add or Remove Program, you can’t find the uninstaller there …
    • (I won’t repeat the instructions here - a little knowledge is a dangerous thing - read the full article)

Article about migrating an existing Boot Camp windows system to Parallels.  I’m guessing the method could equally be applied to manually migrating any windows installation (e.g. from another machine), as an alternative to the mainstream method.

• http://forum.parallels.com/thread3261.html

Some background knowledge available here (from around 2007?):

• http://www.askdavetaylor.com/use_winxp_boot_camp_partition_in_parallels.html