New Capture System!!!

Previously I wrote about the tools I used to capture Zombie Pirate Tales. The video lunchbox was a really antiquated setup, but worked just fine. However my Olympus camera isn't working quite right. In fact it has been fixed twice. Once for a burnt CCD and once for my cat breaking the LCD screen when the cord was plugged into my computer. My son scared him and in his flurry of fear he ran through the cord and the camera smashed on the large microphone I use to do our live shows each week.

As I mentioned in the post before this, the client I spoke with was very eager to get started on a particular job and just couldn't come up with the funds. Wanting to prepare for the job I took a gamble and bought the new system because I really wanted the project to shine. If there's money given to me, I never want it to go to waste. And if I used the old Olympus, I wouldn't feel right accepting money when other studios have much nicer equipment.

So, I bought this new system. It consists of a Mac Mini with a 500 gig hard drive. A 20+ inch monitor, wireless keyboard, wireless mouse and a copy of Dragonframe 3 software. A bad financial move? Temporarily yes, however it's a good move when it comes to Zombies....as well as future clients wanting animation created.

The camera is a Canon EOS 60D and has a 50mm lens and a telephoto that is used from off Ebay. The telephoto isn't the greatest and has some pitting in the lenses inside. Still the quality is darn good compared to the Olympus even with the flaws.

What will I do now? Well, the Olympus camera isn't working properly (some images randomly are over exposed) and so this new system will be more stable. But the consistent image won't be there when shots are spliced into the old footage. I won't go into technicalities but needless to say the look of the shots will be noticeable unless I can edit them in a way that you don't see it.