At the end of 2009,  I predicted two things:

First that Apple was going to release an iPad/iSlate.

My second prediction is that 2010 would be the year of the HDDSLRs – one in which finding their full potential with the help of other partners would lead to incredible developments.

2010 will indeed be seen as the coming of age of HDDSLRs.

Today Zeiss showed the very first “Compact Prime 2” Cine Lenses that will mount on HDDSLRs.   In fact these are quite versatile in that they come ready to accept both and EL (Canon mount) and PL (Cinema standard) that can be switched on the field w a Tor-X screwdrivers. (Although Zeiss recommends you have them do this.)

I’ve had  chance to get my hands on this series and I immediately fell for them  –  I have also been promised a chance to test them out soon -I’ll be sure to share the test with you on this blog within the next few weeks.

The optical quality is excellent.   More empirical test coming on that soon.   But the main reason pros and advanced filmmakers will flock to this series relate to the ergonomics and practicaliy of using this lens on a just about any production.   You will find that the optics have been re organized in this lens – but that  it will perform very similarly to your ZE set. The main difference is that only the very best optics are chosen for this series vs the ZE lenses.    The second key point is that the aperture blades comprise of 14 blades vs the ZE series with 9 – therefore you can expect a much more beautiful focus falloff..

At this point they are releasing a set of 8 Compact Primes at NAB 2010 and making them available for sale in May.  A set of 6 will retail for less than $20,000.   You can of course buy lenses independently at a higher price.  Zeiss will be making the announcement as to which specific series of lenses they are releasing.

So what’s the big deal?  Well for once this is the first series of PL lenses that Zeiss has produced in history that covers the full 24mX36mm sensor – EVER…

All others covered he Super35mm format…   This is therefore a good long term investment it seems.   This should also put an immediate halt to people removing their mirrors and drilling into their mirror boxes to use these lenses.

Lastly – this is the first lens that I’ve received – that I CANNOT WAIT TO USE!

Why?  My 1st AC/Focus Pullers will love me.   When the lens it says it’s focused a .38 meters – guess what – it is!

Set your marks – and if you and your actor hit their makes – you’re tack sharp.

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I just wanted to point you to an excellent post by friend/colleague Stu Maschwitz on his ProLost blog.

Stu knows filmmaking.   Stu knows directing (he collaborated with me on Nocturne and graded the short as well.)   Stu knows special FX.  Stu rules – and he’s a wiz not only at producing films- but also on the post process.  Stu was the senior visual effects supervisor on The Spirit and others for example… and I check his Prolost blog daily.

Stu has also worked on Red Giant’s software’s Magic Bullet Colorista (which is a pretty rockin’ grading suite – especially if you don’t already own Final Cut Studios’ grading software Color)  amongst other things as well and I think his latest blog post is not to be missed by anyone who is interested in grading.  (For still photographers – “grading” is the word video/film folks use to refer to what we call “color correction” or “toning.”

Enjoy the read.   And check out Stu’s book as well.

And since I’m plugging Stu to death – I might as well mention that he’s also one of the judges on the Canon & Vimeo film contest “Beyond The Still.” We’re looking to announce the top 5 finalists within the next 48 hours for the first chapter of the competition… stay tuned for more on that here soon.

Lastly – if you’re looking into getting into grading your video – I’ll point you to one of the best resources to learning Apple FCP’s Color software – here at Ripple Training.  Best $100 you’ll spend in terms of making your video look exponentially better in my opinion…

Also – Bron has a blog that I just became aware of that is worth checking out – I’m a huge fan of their Para Soft lights.

Finally a very interesting post on Stockland Martel’s Blog on an ASMP survey that finds that by 2012 “90% of Internet Content will be motion video.” hmmm… Not sure it’s going to be that high… BUT – it’s definitely going that way for sure.

For those looking for a more elegant workflow to use your Canon HDDSLR footage with Final Cut Pro – Canon and Apple have announced a new plug-in for Final Cut Pro – named:  EOS E1.  The plugin is set to appear on Apple’s website – although the link doesn’t yet appear to be live…

The plugin is designed to import video from the following Canon’s DSLRs: The EOS-7D, the 5D MK II, and the 1D MK IV.

The  plug-in will support FCP’s Log and Transfer dialogue, which lets people select and mark in and out points on their video before copying it off-camera.   At the same time, people can add custom metadata such as Roll, Scene, Take information during the ingest process, and begin editing work before all clips have been transferred. The plug-in will be a free download for owners of Final Cut Pro 6 or later.  Users may note that this plugin has many of the same features that I mentioned earlier here in a previous post.

I have not been able to confirm as to whether or not this plugin will be supporting timecode – timecode based on the camera’s internal clock that is to say – not “real” timecode of course.   You should note that you can sync multiple cameras to a computer via USB…