Category Archives: private

‘House’ season filmed with Canon 5D Mark II

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via dpreview.com

We like very much the TV show “House”. I have seen a quite old news from May 2010, telling us that the whole season was filmed with a Canon 5D MarkII. Wow, interesting….

A Canon 5D Mark II has become the first video-capable DSLR to film a whole episode of a US primetime series. Greg Yaitanes, director of FOX broadcasting company’s medical drama series ‘House’, used the camera, a selection of Canon’s prime lenses and, the 24-70mm and 70-200mm lenses to shoot its season finale. Speaking via Twitter, he said that this was to achieve a shallow depth of field and a ‘richer look’. He also said he ‘feels it’s the future’.

You can find also a Twitter-interview of Greg Yaitanes, the director of the show.

What is the difference in how it looks on a TV screen compared to a regular camera?

Greg Yaitanes: richer. shallow focus pulls the actors faces to forground [sic]

How many frames per second and why a Canon 5D Mark II?

GY: 24p and wanted it for ease of use in tight spaces.

Ok, seriously. Can you tell us something about the lenses you used?

GY: all the canon primes and the 24-70 and the 70-200 zoom

Did you have to change any of your working practices to fit in with differences between the 5D and a typical setup?

GY: some. focus was hard with these lenses but more “cine-style” lenses are being made as we speak.

Were you using CF cards for storage or some sort of mass storage mod? seems like you would need a lot of cards :)

GY: some 18gb or something like that card. gave us 22 min of footage.

How was the quality as compared 2 the traditional camera used in shooting?

GY: i loved it and feel it’s the future. cameras that can give you these looks

How did you manage to stabilize the camera in tight spaces? Any special kind of brackets?

GY: no. mostly gave it a hand held feel. or on a small tripod

I was very focused (!) on the “normal” usage of my 5D MarkII in the last months (enough to do technically ;), but this was definitely a good reminder that I can also do some videos.

French Provence – Hyères (02)

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I have forgotten to continue to publish my portfolio about our trip to Hyères, south-east of France in the Provence region, trip we have done mid of April 2010… So after the first pictures in … June about Saint Tropez, some views of the Porquerolles Island we have visited by bicycles.

Porquerolles Island

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SmugMug…

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…is really cool ;-) Some interesting new features (SEO & sitemaps, statistics, etc.) were released in the last months, as usual. Still bringing quite a lot of traffic for me.

I’ve reached again the half million views on my pictures during the first half of this year (in June), with some days with more than 7’000 views… From January to August, exactly 622’310 views on pictures and videos on visuals.didierbeck.com. About 80% of the traffic is going on Saint Barth pictures (what for a surprise !).

Not bad for an amateur as I in this area ;-)

Holiday is cool, as my new Canon S90!

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Quick “hello” from Combrit Saint Marine in Brittany.

We are finished with our “stroll week”. Each day about 6-8 hours on foot, a looonnngggg time we haven’t done that ;-) Fantastic landscape, varying a lot each day, as the weather!

That’s a real break, different from St Barth, but still a cool break. Today, first time with a kind of real Internet connection ;-)

As I didn’t want to transport my 3+ kg Canon EOS 5D MarkII with its lens during the 6+ hours walk per day, I have bought a Canon S90, just before going on holiday. As a Canon-fan, I had mainly the choice between a G11 or a S90, both with almost the same technical and optical characteristics, excepted that the G11 is still quite big. Some pictures below (RAW + DxO post-prod, but with a small netbook ;-). More on the Canon S90 later. But generally speaking I’m super happy with it!

Now, back to the “big one”!

Two weeks off :-)

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So some days off with the family from now on, that’s good! No cell phone, no emails, but for sure my iPad, Canon cameras and lens, and my netbook for the pictures ;-)

Quite a big program, this time in France, and more precisely in Brittany. All in all 2’400km with the car and some km on foot.

Different stops planed:

  1. Lamotte Beuvron, in the French Centre region, the capital of the Tarte Tatin, at the … Villa Tatin.

  2. Lannion, in the north-western France, Brittany.

  3. From there, we will have a 6-days stroll through the Côte de Granit Rose, till Port-Blanc:

  4. We will stay 4 days at Combrit Saint Marine, further on in Brittany (between Quimper and Concarneau) at the Ferme Saint Vennec.

  5. Then we will be at the Château de Chanteloire during 2 days, which is located in Chouzy-sur-Cisse in the middle of the Châteaux of the Loire Valley region.

So quite a long journey with the car, but hopefully we should see and visit some interesting places!

Some news from Hublot

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If you are reading this blog, you already know that I like very much the Hublot brand and watches. Hublot has just published its last newsletter, which contains some interesting information:

  • Hublot was strongly exposed in all media during the last Football Word Cup in South Africa as the official and first Official TimeKeeper of the FIFA (presence on the boards of the 4th referee). On top, Maradona sported a Big Bang on each wrist, which is quite strange (ridiculous?), but for sure visible! See below.

  • Hublot’s business is going very well. June was their best month ever, the last 9 months were the best ever. So it seems that they will close their best year ever ;-)
  • All these good news are also impacting the traffic on their corporate website (which is, by the way, very good). The 100’000 unique visitors per day level was reached in June, month which has generated about 1,5 million visits!
  • Also a cool generosity event organized with Usain Bolt at the new Hublot manufacture.

USAIN BOLT AT THE MANUFACTURE

The fastest man in the world ever received yet another honour on the 6th July in Nyon – for generosity. He took to the start line alongside 10 children – who were given a slight head start! A rapt public marvelled at his spectacular pace, though he allowed the children to beat him as Hublot had promised to donate 10,000 US dollars to the Usain Bolt Foundation for every child that crossed the finish line ahead of the "Lightning Bolt". It was a proud and highly motional moment for the young competitors, after which Usain devoted his time to the design of the watch that will bear his name in 2011.

I really like the way Hublot (and his CEO, Jean-Claude Biver) is marketing its products.
Super smart :-)

New lens, Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L USM

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I’ve just acquired a new Canon L-series lens for my full-frame EOS 5D MarkII, the famous EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L USM. First impression: very sharp, fast autofocus, controlled vignetting (as usual some issues at the ends, specially around 28mm), solid, heavy (950g…), interesting focal length range – will take it with me for the coming holidays in August.

Post-production with DxO Optics Pro 6 Elite, which has a specific module for the combination Canon EOS 5D MarkII + the Canon EF 24-70mm L.

First pictures taken with it:

Some reviews found:

Canon website about this lens.

Montreux 2010…

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…was as usual a great time and breathing for Manu (old mate and Boomerang Owner & CEO) and myself. The Phil Collins concert was not soooo great. The band was cool (specially the bass player), Phil Collins very … uhm … not cool (was he sick?). I’m not a Motown specialist, but some choices for the covers were quite “odd/bizarre”, to be honest. Kind of The Love Boat series…

Nice view on the lake and mountains from our hotel

Direct view on the auditorium

Before the concert started

A video of “Papa was a rolling stone”