If You Like Your Christmas A Little To The Dark Side...

Coolest Photo Teaser Of The Year

While DV Dude normally doesn't get taken in by snazzy marketing videos, he does have to give credit to Nikon for this pretty cool teaser trailer for their upcoming mirrorless cameras.

Enjoy!

Happy Canada Day

In Memoriam: Anthony Bourdain

This morning, with great shock and sadness, we learned of Anthony Bourdain's death by suicide at the age of 61.

His CNN TV show "Parts Unknown" offered something special you'd never expect from a travel/cooking show - a profound exploration of regions and cultures, that made you part of his adventure and taught you something new with every episode. Bourdain managed one of the hardest tricks in filmmaking - he was entertaining and informative at the same time. And I use the word filmmaking intentionally, because his show was filmmaking. Bourdain assembled a terrific and talented crew. It featured top notch production values, with excellent cinematography, a flair for camera angles and compositions, editing that was magical, and a powerful use of music. The topping on the cake was the voice-over narration, written by Bourdain himself, which was often moving, insightful and poetic.

In every sense of the word, Anthony Bourdain was a true artist. Those of us who enjoyed his travels and took the journey with him to "Parts Unknown" are poorer for his loss.

DV Shop Sees RED

DV Shop is proud to announce that we are now a RED authorized dealer. Orders are in place, and inventory is in-bound.

RED revolutionized digital cinema with their RED ONE back in 2007, and in fact the owner of the DV Shop owned Serial #758 of the original RED ONE camera.

Since then, RED has continuously pushed the envelope, and improved their products.

One could argue that without RED, the acceleration of digital cinema would have been much slower. RED was to digital cinema in the 2000s what Apple was to computers in the 1980s - a paradigm shift that everyone else followed.

The above video is about director Mark Toia, and why he uses RED. It's worth the 5 minutes of your time, not only for the beautiful images, but on why of all the choices that are out there today, he uses RED. Enjoy!

It's Our 17th BIrthday

DV Shop turns 17 today! Thanks for 17 years of.... - - #seventeen #torontovideo #junctionto #anniversary #carrotcake #cinevate #cakeonaslider #toronto #the6ix #shoplocal

A post shared by DV Shop (@dvshopca) on May 7, 2018 at 11:15am PDT

Straight Tech with Yuri and Jakub

Our friends Yuri and Jakub have started a new review channel to highlight some of the equipment they use to make their YouTube Car Review show The Straight Pipes.

ikan products are available at DV Shop!

NAB 2018: Back to the Neon Boneyard

Ten years ago, DV Dude ventured north of downtown Las Vegas to the Neon Boneyard and took some pretty cool photos of old, discarded neon signs. Since that time, the Neon Boneyard has grown in popularity, became the Neon Museum, added a Visitor's Center, and the obligatory Gift Shop.

Things are a little more organized and curated now, but that takes away some of the charm of the rawness of the old set-up, which felt much more of a "boneyard." Now things are so clean and so organized. And you get get Neon Museum shot glasses, t-shirts, and mugs in the Gift Shop. It seems there is a Museum Handbook/Formula that every museum around the world follows.

But the one cool thing they added is electricity - so now some of the signs work, and at sunset you can get some pretty interesting visuals.

So if you are ever in Las Vegas, and like old neon signs, DV Dude definitely recommends a trip to the Neon Museum. 

NAB 2018: Up, Up and Away!

DV Dude has been meaning to take the helicopter ride that goes up and down the Las Vegas Strip for quite some time, and this year I decided to scratch that off the old bucket list. Booked a flight on Mavericks and  away we went. The pilot played AC/DC's Thunderstruck as we took off.  Then Ride of the Valkyries.

They take you up the strip, get really close to the Stratosphere, go over old downtown, turn around (pictured above), and head back along the strip and back to the airport. In all, about 12 minutes.

I'm not happy with the photos I got, as it was very bouncy due to high winds, and you are crammed in a helicopter that is very hard to take good pictures in. And I just stopped trying to take photos because I just wanted to look at spectacle that was beneath me. Shooting tip - increase your shutter speed to 1/1000 due to helicopter shake/bounce.

As a fellow passenger remarked once we got back on the ground, "That was beautiful." And it was. Photos can't really capture it. Highly recommended.

NAB 2018: Day One Notes

DV Dude is once again attending the annual NAB Show, along with over 100,000 others. The weather is a beautiful 30 degrees and sunny, just  slightly warmer than Toronto.

Every year the crazy engineers at NHK show off their 8K products, and  this year they brought a prototype 8K camera that can shoot 240 frames  per second! It is meant for instant replay. Sensor size is 1.25" and has  33 megapixels. The 2020 Olympics in Japan will be shot in 8K, so you've  been warned.

Last year Sony wowed people in their booth with a wall of Crystal LED  panels. This year, they tweaked the Crystal LEDs, and made the wall even  larger. Impressive. Each panel is 16" x 18", and they are tiled together  to create a giant video wall.

Radiant Images in Los Angeles does these giant rigs using Sony RX0  action cams, and this one was a "handheld" rig attached to a Ready Rig  like device. The camera rig weighs about 35 lbs. It is meant for "bullet  time" shooting or "virtual dolly" digital camera moves. They were set up  in the Sony booth.

In Memoriam: Steven Bochco

If you are a fan of Peak TV, then you owe a big debt of gratitude to Steven Bochco, who passed away Sunday from leukemia at the age of 74.

Bochco, along with Michael Kozoll, created the ground-breaking NBC cop show "Hill Street Blues." Hill Street was unlike anything else on TV at the time, especially cop shows. With complicated multi-episode story arcs that often did not have a happy ending; a large talented ensemble cast, with flawed characters who don't always do the right thing; handheld edgy cinematography with moody lighting and a documentary feel; and a tone that combined comedy with dark emotional drama. It premiered in January 1981 to universal critical acclaim, and sadly very low ratings. NBC surprisingly stuck with the show, and even though the ratings were never very good, and it ran for 7 seasons.

To an impressionable Grade 11 high school student living in small town Ontario, it blew my mind.

As a historical piece, you can trace modern television back to this show. So if you enjoy Breaking Bad, True Detective, Boardwalk Empire, or any of the other numerous high quality TV series that now dominate the airwaves, it all started with Hill Street Blues. The lineage goes right back to January 1981.

I read an interview with Bochco a long time ago, and in it he gave a great piece of advice. When the writer asked him the secret to his artistic success, he simply said - I want to write what I want to see, what I would want to watch. That was it.

So raise your glass to toast the life of the father of modern television - Steven Bochco.

DV DUDE'S GREAT OTTAWA ADVENTURE, PART II

More photos from DV Dude's summer trip to Ottawa to celebrate Canada's  150. The above is one brief moment from the amazing light show that was  held on Parliament Hill every night.

The Centennial Flame on Parliament Hill.

 
The Peace Tower.

Artsy shot of the front gate of Parliament.

Close-up of a gargoyle that guards the Peace Tower.

A quiet corner inside the Parliament Building.
 

DV DUDE'S GREAT OTTAWA ADVENTURE, PART I

To celebrate Canada's 150th last summer, DV Dude ventured off to the  nation's capital, Ottawa, with his trusty Nikon in tow. Here are some of the pictures he took.

Above, the lovely Library of Parliament at sunset.

The Supreme Court of Canada.

The stunning Art Deco interior lobby of the Supreme Court.

Parliament's Centre Block at sunrise.

A lonely tree at the Diefenbunker.

The steeples of the Notre Dame church downtown.

Sean's View: The Top 10 Ways to Make Better Active Living Videos HD

 Our friends from lifesports.ca  http://lifesports.ca came by to shoot a video about making videos!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Happy New Year! Best wishes to everyone for a successful and healthy 2018.

Felt this image was appropriate for a cold, January day. DV Dude took this at the Salton Sea a few winters ago.