Journal

Zoology 2 Released

2012-06-18T17:53:01Z

Zoology 2's would-be FAQ.

What the hell is this stuff?
It's Scott Thomas Chavez, Kenny Pardo, and Steev Dinkins improvising in a rehearsal studio (except for a few rehearsed pieces).

What were you guys thinking?
We were trying not to.

Is that Scott or Steev on vocals?
It's both of us at different times and/or the same time.

So you guys call this music?
I guess so. It's more like cinéma vérité and documentary approach, so you could call it raw realism recording, as opposed to conventional commercial recording.

So are these songs or something?
It's all one big edited heap of happy accidents.

So you guys just wanked off in the studio?
Actually we worked pretty hard for a year and half to be able to do stuff like this.

Why are there so many fuck ups?
Because we didn't exactly know what we were doing and were caught wallowing in it.

And you expect people to pay for this?
No, it's available as a free download from bandcamp or right here.

Also available for free - Volume 1.

Zoology 1-3 Released

2012-06-13T20:42:52Z

Finally after 4 months of editing, mastering, and experimenting with the final song order, Zoology 1-3 is getting released. Over 130 tracks, 3.5 hours, fresh from the middle of industrial silicon valley Bay Area suburbania.

This was a long time dream that many musicians don't quite understand. See, early on in playing with bands, my favorite moments weren't perfecting songs, they were the stupid things that happened in between rehearsing songs. What happened when the guard was down was far more honest, real, weird, and full of character. We're in love with weird sounds and Zoology is full of just that - unconventional ravings of 3 monkeys.

The technical stuff was insane:

http://holyzoo.com/photos/1969-2005/2001-2002_Holy_Zoo_Band/large-88.html http://holyzoo.com/photos/1969-2005/2001-2002_Holy_Zoo_Band/large-85.html

The quality of sound that came out of all this tweakery stands up after all these years. We all had in-ear monitoring of mic'd drums, guitar, bass, vocals, and audio samples. The final recordings here are essentially my monitor mix from night to night which I constantly tweaked with for 9 months.

Here's the blurb from CDBaby and BandCamp so far:

Zoology Volume 1 of 3. Frustrated by rehearsing songs, Holy Zoo invent an unpredictable universe of freeform fuckery, miraculous disasters, happy accidents, psycho rhythms, ridiculous improvs, and violent wipe outs, rattled off from out of nowhere. Set up in a dingy rehearsal space for 9 months, live - no overdubs. Recorded from April-December 2002. Volume 1 starts the journey in unknowing genesis, technical difficulties, angst, and comedy. Be sure to check out Volumes 2 and 3.

Be warned, this stuff is brutal, offensive, and uncensored.

Volume 1 Direct Download - Uncensored Version

Here's Volume 1 Artwork by Scott Chavez.

Holy Zoo Faire

2011-11-30T01:19:04Z

After more than 12 years, Holy Zoo Faire is finally finished, including copyright and digital distribution setup. Only thing now is waiting on CreateSpace to give thumbs up on ordering a proof for the physical CD.

Here's the album on BandCamp

Update: The physical CD is up now on CreateSpace.

Digital purchase is also available on Amazon, iTunes, and CDBaby.

Full image artwork...

Disable Canon EOS Utility Image Auto Import

2009-11-06T16:20:49Z

Well, the Canon Utility software install resulted in this helper app to launch and offer to import images - the MemoryCardUtility app.

Well, I don't want it to launch when I mount a CF card. I found this on a forum on how to disable it. It's NOT OBVIOUS!

Open the Apple Application, "Image Capture" in you Applications folder.

Canon selects their helper app deceptively called "CameraWindow". I say there are too many apps from Canon. Jeez. No wonder iPhoto, Lightroom, and Aperture were so revolutionary.

So select "No application" from the pulldown menu and you're done!

GH1 Halloween Video

2009-11-06T00:49:48Z

Halloween 2009 from Steev Dinkins on Vimeo.

EOS Utility for Live Video Recording Monitoring with the 7D

2009-11-06T00:33:03Z

A few months ago, I tried using EOS Utility for live viewing while recording video on the 5D and it sucked - couldn't record and the software would crash.

However, this is seeming to work REALLY well with the 7D.

Video looks fluid on the computer screen. Record button on the software works. Record button on the camera works as well. Camera and software are happy regardless of which one starts/stops the video.

I'm not sure if this is full res or not, but it looks WAY better than HDMI out to the Marshall. I didn't find a way to easily get 1:1 mapping or a 100% size, so just visually resized the screen to eliminate most jaggy edges and it looked decent. I realize this isn't a portable solution, but I can see a use in a controlled environment. After each take you can easily download and review the .mov file, without having to take out the CF card, etc.

Aputure Gigtube Live View LCD Articulating Viewfinder Review with EOS 7D

2009-11-05T00:35:52Z

I received the Aputure Gigtube Live view LCD Viewfinder. It's an articulating LCD that you can mount to the 7D or 5D hotshoe, and feed the video out to it. Here are a bunch of photos of it in use with the 7D.

In a word - it works. I think it's pretty rockin for taking photos. As for shooting video, the resolution is low, so you have your range of options on how to focus - wing it and hope, use magnification before recording, then shoot fixed focus, or try to have people hit marks dead on and use a follow focus with marks. But if I was getting that serious with follow focus and marks, I'd bring out the Marshall. Here's a list of observations:

- Hot Shoe mountable - very cool. Very lightweight and compact.

- I purchased the unit for the Rebel cameras, not the 5D/7D, so the cable breakout is wrong for shutter release. They do make one for the 5D/7D, but I don't know if I care at this point. I bought it for the LCD. The cable is 4 conductor, breaking out to a split to a 2.5mm 3 conductor (stereo) plug and a 2 conductor (mono) 3.5mm plug. The Mono plug is the mono feed which I adapted to the video RCA out of the breakout cable out of the 7D like frankenstein. If you hate cable mess, you'll hate this. If you can make a 7D A/V to that 3.5mm plug, you'd have a pretty damn clean setup.

- If you lose video connection with the Gigtube, you have to toggle the view(play) button on the 7D to get it back. - Auto sleep (called LIGHTOFF in the menu) is on by default. It gives you the option to set it to sleep in 20 seconds, 60 seconds, 90 seconds, or off.

- There are settings for Brightness, Contrast that are pretty weak looking in practice. You can also flip the image vertically.

- Batteries are internal and can't be swapped out, but you can use the USB connector with some juice from a USB battery pack. It comes with an AC-USB charger. They claim 3 hour continuous use on a charge. I say no way jose. But I have yet to test it. It shows you a battery life bar, and in the menu it tells you a percentage of life left. I think it may be set to hard intervals like 99%, 75%, 40% and You're Hosed.

- The LCD flips around in all directions you'd expect. Changing direction from left to right is very positionable and stays put. Changing height position is clunky and wants to plop into it's 3 positions (closed, middle, open). So that's bound to annoy from time to time. I see it being pretty impressive for certain kinds of shots on the run, but again, it would be far cooler to have an A/V-3.5mm cable. I may just hack one.

7D vs 5D vs GH1 vs Vixia vs HVX200 Quick Shootout

2009-10-28T05:53:46Z

The 7D arrived, and hence created the necessity to pit these guys against each other, or amongst each other actually. I haven't retired any of them yet. I wanted to test focal lengths compared to field of view, range of zoom, depth of field, moire and aliasing, and resolution. I did not do any motion, codec, or low light testing. I did intentionally try to include a range of lighting from proper exposure to blown out to underexposed to black. I didn't get too picky about some things, for instance, white balance - I just let the cameras do their thing, except for the HVX. Most of the footage is not color corrected or treated, except for the moire test, and my tests on blow out recovery in post. From 1/3", 1/2", 4/3", APS-C, to FullFrame, I wanted to include 2/3" sensor size, but didn't have access to one. After all the hoopla over large sensors, it was interesting to be reminded of the 1/3" on the HVX definitely capable of some shallow depth. After seeing how crazy FullFrame DOF gets, I have a new appreciation for smaller sensors. I can see 2/3", 4/3"&APS-C, being a sweet combo for most things I do. Then if I really need the extreme shallowness, the 5D is there. I admit, all of this testing and seeing deficiencies makes me want Red Scarlet sooner than later, but I'm still blown away by all of these cameras in some way or another. My biggest gripe? There's not one camera yet that does it all. If I could throw the 4/3" sensor from the GH1 into the HVX with aliasing controlled, include the LCD from either the 7D/5D, and record to DVCPROHD on Compact Flash cards, I'd be pretty stoked! Here are the tests:

HVX200, HFS100, GH1, 7D, 5DMkII - Latitude Tests from Steev Dinkins on Vimeo.

7D, 5DMkII, HVX200, HFS100, GH1 - Zoom Range from Steev Dinkins on Vimeo.

7D, 5DMkII, HVX200, HFS100, GH1 - Aperture Sweep from Steev Dinkins on Vimeo.

7D, 5DMkII, HVX200, HFS100, GH1 - Moire Test from Steev Dinkins on Vimeo.

7D, 5DMkII, GH1 Lens Tests from Steev Dinkins on Vimeo.

Ant Killer

2009-10-25T19:59:59Z

I hate ants. Found a few in the bathroom, and my experience tells me to go look outside and you're going to find a trail. Well I found a massive one. This had developed in about a weeks worth of time after rain. I got em good, but also had a chance to shoot some more test footage with the GH1.

Ant Killer from Steev Steele on Vimeo.

The initial intention was to try out the Nikon Micro Nikkor 105mm Macro - it can focus about 6 inches from the front of the lens. It's essentially a 200mm telephoto on the GH1, but with that close of a focus. Most of it was shot with that. I opened up the aperture to around f8 and f11 to increase depth of field. The issue I found was light leakage with the 4/3rds-Nikon adapter I'm using. So I gaff taped the leak, and all was good. However, it makes further aperture adjustment a challenge. Gotta take the tape off and put it back on. I'm not sure if this is the case with all lenses. More testing on that later. Once I saw a story developing, I used a Sigma 20mm f1.8 for the establishing hand shot, and the Ortho container product shots. I had to go high shutter speed for all of these to get somewhat the aperture I wanted. I was too lazy to hunt down ND filters. Singh-Ray Vari-ND is on order now. I got tired of primes, and didn't need macro or shallow DOF for the rest of the squirt shots, so I used the GH1 kit lens 14-140.

Every single shot I used the articulating display adjusted in some way to my benefit. I wouldn't have bothered with my 5D on this kind of frivolity shoot. But it does point out something important to me about the value of that display. I love this camera more and more. But the 5D is still my serious cam. Tests with the 7D come this week - it arrives tomorrow.

Compressor 3.5.1 Aliasing Fix

2009-10-25T19:04:55Z

Last week I was going crazy with an issue of jaggy lines when compressing 1080p source video to 640x360 H.264 for iPod/iPhone distribution. Here's an example:

The issue was not happening on 1280x720 source. Here's an example of that output:

So conveniently (for me), there was a pro apps update released last Thursday - the day after I was discovering this issue. So with Compressor 3.5.1, it's fixed. Here's 1920x1080 down to 640x360 with the update:

I know some people are still complaining, but I'm done with the issue.