HDSLR Production Package Rental in NYC

HDSLR Production Package Rental in NYC

I have a multi cam SLR shoot coming up and I'm having a very hard time finding a one stop shop for an entire HDSLR shooting package here in the city. My usual go to guys have this but don't have that. There are so many cool new ways of moving these tiny cameras and none of my main rental houses have them. 

A lot of this stuff is made by Kessler - Pocket Dolly, Cine Slider, Pocket Jib, etc.

The DP Slider looks pretty cool too.

As of now, it looks like I'm going be putting this equipment package together from 4 different rental houses. It's not even that complicated - 2x Mark II's, Zacuto Support w/ Z-Finders and Follow Focus, lightweight fluid head sticks, a handful of lenses (I need another 24-105 IS and none of the cine houses carry that lens), field HDMI to SDI kit, a small slider option, and a light weight dolly with curved track like the Indie Dolly. There is not one single rental house in NYC that has every item on my list. That means 4 separate COI's. Huge pain in the ass. You'd think someone would have saw this niche and dove in head first. Doesn't seem like it.

Anyone? 

Maybe there's an owner/operator out there who has all this stuff?

I've been thinking about creating a site that would basically be a listing of all NYC owner / operators with their inventories and rates but it would just be way too much time and maintenance. Between work, this site, and other endeavors, I've already got enough to do. It would be a fantastic resources though. If anyone knows of an existing owner/op listing site out there, please let me know. Or if someone wants to collaborate on it and absorb some of the cost and time, I'd be interested in talking.

How about a 144,000,000 GB Compact Flash Card?

How about a 144,000,000 GB Compact Flash Card?

Given the results of last week's experiment - you definitely don't want to hear me prattle on about art and crap like that. I write about things that inspire me creatively and my readership drops 70% ha ;) That's quite alright so here's something extra boring and technical for you - 

The Compact Flash Association has announced the CF5.0 Specification that allows for a theoretical increase to a maximum capacity of 144 petrabytes on a single compact flash card. 1 PB = 1000 terabytes. So this theoretical compact flash card could hold 144,000,000 GB of data. A single card could hold the Library of Congress' entire quantity of data 48 fold. Obviously this is just theory and I highly doubt we'll see a single petrabyte available in a CF card before a 1 PB desktop drive shows up. Interesting nonetheless. I'm about ready to max out my 2 TB G-Tech drive so I wish they'd hurry up with this new tech so the TB prices will come down. All I really need is 4TB and another 4 to back up. Unless you're a post house or are cutting your own feature, in my opinion most users don't need much more than that. For now ;)

I found this nugget of theoretical madness at DP Review: http://www.dpreview.com/news/1002/10022203cf5specification.asp

The power of RAW

The power of RAW

Here is an unprocessed Raw Canon file that's at least 5 stops underexposed. 

Here is the same file, processed in Light Room 2. 

Yeah there's a lot of noise but look at the above frame. It's black. Yet amazingly there's enough information for the software to put together a halfway decent image. Frankly, I'm a little surprised. I understand very well how raw sensor data works but the technology still never ceases to amaze me. Raster video is great and has it's uses but I think the future of digital imaging is no doubt RAW.