This was a run and gun test using the Black Magic Cinema Camera. This was the first time shooting outdoors without the help of an EVF or other devices. There were many shots in there that can be considered ruined, however the amazing flexibility of the Raw saved these shots. This was most apparent when I was in harsh sunlight where the LCD is practically useless.
Ultimately I created this short to test the dynamic range of the camera. Without a doubt, it is an amazing performer.
For a couple of weeks I’ve been working on upgrading the camera jib that I built a few years ago. The overall steel design will not be dramatically changed. But there will be some improvements in the cable management, digital servos, and inline remote controller. Most of which I do hope to talk about in the future. This portion of the project focused on the cable management. Having the aluminum tubes running through the jib head’s frame will allow several small cables to pass through (BNC, mini-hdmi, RCA, and even power cables. Ideally managing unwanted resistance to the movement of the servo motors.
Here is the original setup with the HVX200.
The tubes are 3/4″ OD aluminum with their 3/4″ ID collars to mount them.
This project required 2 special bearings: the roller bearing which rolls outside of the tube…
..and thrust bearing supporting the weight of the camera.
This has been an ongoing project for 3-4 months with several revisions and mistakes. But as of now, the result is a semi-complete working prototype. The project was first started when I needed focus control on a DSLR camera for a film festival contest. When on the jib (a camera crane) the camera focus ring was impossible to access. Any focus points had to be preset prior to the shot. This wasn’t a problem with the original camera on the jib, the HVX200, due to its tightly integrated inline remote system. Everything was already motor driven directly on the camera.
The project started with a Hitec Remote Control and a special servo motor that can turn 3.5 times. I will spare you all the technical details, since the pictures may work more effectively.
Let me know if you have any thoughts & questions!
For a while now I’ve been avoiding Apple branded mice due to their quirky nature. Like the awkward and utterly useless hockey puck mouse, first introduced with the original iMac. Following with the uni-body Mighty Mouse with a pseudo right click and horrid motion tracking. But there was one feature from the Mighty mouse that was very hard to beat, the scroll ball. Much like a Blackberry’s scroll ball, its 360 degree motion enabled it to move freely in all directions. OSX (MAC) was designed to specifically work with this feature, making it an integral part of the OS. No other mice could really beat the functionally of the 360 degree scrolling within OSX. Now that I use Macs for work, I officially have to use Macs more than PCs. Being said, I would modify the experience to best fit my taste in hardware.  Starting with non-Apple: mice, monitors, speakers, harddrives and even the keyboard. But like I said before, the Mighty mouse is designed for OSX.
So I present to you the love child of a Logitech G3 Laser and the Mighty mouse. It uses the body and the laser of the G3 along with the scroll ball of the Mighty mouse. Making the ideal 6 button mouse! Well at least ideal for OSX,
Before I go any further, I want to thank Dave Astolfo for his article which my project is heavily based on. After reviewing the scroll ball’s wiring schematic I was able to see that I can surely pull off this project. I am sorry for not making a detailed work-log, due to limited time. The wiring is rather simple, it basically requires 6 lines to fully utilize the scroll ball. 5 Volt, Ground, Hall sensors 1-4 (up, down, left, right). Â The 5V and Gnd were supplied from the G3 mouse but the problem was bringing in 4 extra lines. Naturally I looked for the most flexible 4 wire cable, which happened to be one of those self-retracting USB dongles.
Next step was to replace the stock scroll wheel from the Logitech G3 mouse with the scroll ball. It required much trial and error to get the prefect positioning. Much of the mouse’s inner body was trimmed to make room for the scroll ball and its mount.
The hardest part was to connect both mice into a 4-port USB hub, and fit both the PCB of the hub and the Mighty mouse into a tiny project box. The secret was to trim a bit of the PCB from the Mighty mouse. The final touch was to have the other 2 USB ports become functional as well.
And here it is, a fusion of the Logitech G3 Laser mouse and the Apple Mighty mouse! Only the best part of the Apple Mighty Mouse remains, the scroll ball. Don’t you love the idea of modifying? Lend me your thoughts please.
Chip manifacturing giant Intel finally settled after the much heated debate with accusations of being anti-competitive with AMD. As noted from a previous blog post, I expressed my thoughts about this accusation on Intel due to my long affiliation with AMD. So now AMD is recieving $1.25 billion dollars for the settlement along with shared technology from Intel.
So the question now is, how does this affect us consumers? Now that Intel is one step less of a monopoly, there is room for innovation driven by competition. Prices will be cut, and both manufactures will make larger leaps to faster and more efficient computers!
