Sony Movie Studio 13 – Might be time to look elsewhere …

I have a really complex video I am rendering right now … and have been for 9 hours and 23 minutes …

Wow … the movie is slightly under 90 minutes long, so 10 hours of rendering means that rendering times are 6.7x real time, which is frankly abysmal. Note that I have a fairly fast 8 core machine (AMD 8150) and a pair of GTX570 CUDA cards, so this machine is set up for rendering. I did that intentionally. Yet it renders like a VW Beetle at the Indy 500.

I have staunchly supported Sony Movie Studio for years because it is so incredibly powerful … but I have come to realize that it sucks time while editing and while rendering. In fact, there are many articles out there that compare rendering times with consumer NLEs (non-linear editors) and Movie Studio always comes in last … and by some distance.

And it does not help that Sony are spinning off some of their non-core businesses, thus throwing the future of Vegas and Movie Studio into doubt, at least in my mind.

So … the hunt begins. Adobe? Cyberlink? We shall see …

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UPDATE

After an intense week of learning Premiere CC and PowerDirector, I think Sony Movie Studio still represents the best value in video editing that exists. While PowerDirector has incredible multicam support and Premiere Pro has incredible built in tools, Movie Studio has a much nicer clip editing interface in my opinion. So if your needs are at the hobby level, then Sony Movie Studio Platinum Suite should be on your radar. The deal of the century in my opinion .

But … for professionals, Adobe CC looks to be the best choice by a mile … (with a nod to FCP for Apple users.)

Weak Words – Gotta Stop That

I have a problem. I really like words like really and very, which are members of the “5 weak words to avoid” list documented here:

http://blog.pickcrew.com/5-weak-words-to-avoid/

Really is #1 on the list because it is a vague intensifier. Really vague

Very is #5 on the list because it adds nothing and is unnecessary. Very unnecessary

So let’s all agree to stop using such weasel words as filler. Instead, let’s agree to write confidently and allow our opinions (and frankly our unheralded brilliance) to stand alone – without weakening them.

I wrote this piece because my son (graduated English Literature with distinction) lambasted me over using very the other day. And then today I watched a video and heard this pair of sentences that caused a cringe.

In order for companies to really serve consumers really well, here's what they're going to have to do. They're going to have to really really understand the customer.

Note that removal of the weak intensifiers exposes the message as meaningless and potentially insulting, since companies have presumably worked at understanding their customers before today.

It is time to banish these words from your writing and your speaking!

An Open Letter to Those Who Spout Anti-Vaccination Rhetoric

Warning: I am angry about this issue. If you are delicate and easily offended by language then maybe you will want to give the rest of this a pass ….

To the selfish and the stupid anti-vaccination culture – please do some reading outside the context of your hive-mind. The information is out there and all you have to do is look. I am providing some of it down below, so keep reading.

The herd immunity that beat measles in the first place is systematically being destroyed by these legions of the selfish and the stupid, and you all had better believe that those of cogent mind will not stand for this forever. Get it together now, before we start to lose good people because of the uninformed decisions of people like yourselves.

Case in point: Do you know why Polio is gone, and will not be coming back? Well, here is the answer – people like my parents did their civic duty and had the overwhelming majority of children in North America vaccinated against Poliomyelitis.

(thanks go to to my sister Terry for forwarding this to me from my mother’s effects)

So start doing your goddamned civic duty and get your kids and yourselves immunized!

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Addendum: Some light reading about why the human brain is wired to link two events that happened to occur around the same time or one after another. This is for those of you who believe everything spouting from the mouths of celebrities.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/your-brain-is-primed-to-reach-false-conclusions/

Note that thinking people get over their misconceptions when the overwhelming scientific evidence says that they are full of shit. And the legions of selfish and stupid proponents of anti-vaccination rhetoric need to get down to some actual thinking, because they are completely full of shit.

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Addendum 2:

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Addendum 3: A little education for those who so desperately need it …

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Addendum 4: History of anti-vaccination movements …

http://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/articles/history-anti-vaccination-movements

Note in there that there have been no links found in major national studies. It always seems to start with a celebrity abusing their notoriety or a group of insipid thinkers creating a wasteful shit-storm of protest with mob-think being about the only common thread (and to be clear – mob-thinking is not thinking.) This led at one point to successive waves of whooping cough outbreaks in the United Kingdom. That’s a lot of unnecessary misery …

My New Nikon D90 – OMG! What happened to my Panasonic Mirrorless Cameras?

Nothing happened to them. I still have the G6, GM1, GX1 and GF3 along with the E-PM2 from Olympus. I do plan on paring down the list once again, but that was always the plan. The Nikon came about as the result of two separate forces – nostalgia and necessity.

The nostalgia is simple … I still have a wonderful Sigma 105 2.8 1:1 Macro lens that shoots stunning portraits as well. And I miss using it in AF mode, so I have been thinking about grabbing a cheap body like the D70s or D80 for a low price and then just having fun with that combo.

The necessity comes from the studio work I have been trying out. I use a pair of speedlights so far with a softbox and numerous umbrellas and have found that the lack of modeling lights can make it excruciatingly difficult to lock focus.

And then I saw an ad on Kijiji for a D90 and 18-105VR for 200 bucks. Whaaaaaaaaat? That’s more than 300 below the going rate for that pair used. So what’s the catch? Well, the ad said that the left button on the 4way controller did not work. That can be gotten around for most of your shooting so I went and looked at it. It was so nice that I bought it on the spot. Note that it also came with an extra battery and the Nikon grip. So wow … what a deal.

And the camera works pretty great. I have the settings where I want them and I can do most of what I want. I did find out that the bottom button also does not work and the middle button requires a hard press, so at some point I will send it in for a cleanup and repair. Still well worth it.

Here is is sitting beside the G6, which runs circles around the Nikon with video and manual focus of adapted lenses. But the two are very close in image quality. The GM1, which shot the photos in this article, is actually above the Nikon in raw image quality, but of course gets stomped in a heartbeat when there is action around.

So why such an old body? The simple answer is that I shot many bodies up to the D700 and D7000 and don’t really want to spend a ton of money right now on this. These were new to me and the D90 is a legitimate classic. Plus, I mostly want this for studio work with the smaller kit there for travel.

But … who knows?

Fuji Releases new Macro and Compact Lenses and a Teleconverter – Includes X Mount lens Road Map

Yes, I am a day late and a dollar short on this announcement. Fuji sent it to me in plenty of time but I got a bit lazy … my apologies.

This note was included:

FUJIFILM North America Corporation will announce a new FUJIFILM XF Lens Road Map Update on February 10, 2015.

The new lenses that have been added to the FUJIFILM X-Mount Lens Road Map are:

• NEW XF120mmF2.8 R Macro 1:1 Macro, telephoto lens

• NEW XF35mmF2 R compact and lightweight standard focal length lens

• NEW 1.4x Teleconverter for XF50-140mmF2.8 R LM OIS WR, XF120mmF2.8 R Macro, XF100-400mm

•      The "Super Telephoto Zoom" lens that was announced on the previous roadmap update will have a focal range equivalent to 150-600mm (35mm format equivalent).

Interesting choices. Nice to have a long macro lens as this improves both working distance and the quality of backgrounds (they blow out more easily to creamy smoothness.) The 35 f/2 sounds all right as a 52mm standard lens. These have never excited me, but one presumes that this one will be cheap since f/2 is usually purposed that way.

A teleconverter is also always nice for those who want to occasionally go birding. On the 100-400 it should really help those trying to shoot the wee Chickadees and such.

Click to open the road map on a separate tab … and you might have to click again to expand it to full size (which is really big.)

Ottawa is Coldest Capital on the Planet this Weekend

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/canadas-capital-appears-to-have-been-coldest-on-the-planet-over-the-weekend

Wow … extreme cold warning … feels like –28C right now at 1pm. That sucks …

I have been wondering this winter why my hands get so cold … the old single layer neoprene gloves no doubt have something to do with it, but in fact we’re going through an extremely cold winter.

Here’s what that looks like right now …

Nikon d90 + 18-105VR @38mm  200ISO  f/4.5  1/4000s

Notice anything different? Yes, I again own a Nikon … the D90 and the 18-105VR are Nikons that I have never owned before. I have thought about it for a long time and when this one came up on Kijiji with the Nikon battery grip and all for 200 bucks, I jumped at it. There is a flaw with the 4way controller in that left and bottom do not work and OK is spotty, but I am working around that with no problems so far. I plan to send it in at some point for a tune up. I got it for the studio work (AF in the dark is so much better than mirrorless) but in fact I’m loving the quick response and OVF again … oh oh …

It’s not all that deep, but it is enough to deal with and the cold is just painful.