There's No Such Thing as a Silly Question

In the past 9 1/2 years we've been asked some interesting and unusual questions. You can read some of our all-time favourites in the "DVS Questions Hall of Fame" here

The Curse of the White Shirt

I like white shirts. I look good in white shirts. But I don't wear white
shirts because I always get stains on them within seconds of putting them
on.

But I'm getting older, and one would like to think better at basic motor
control. Surely at this point in my existence I can go all day without
spilling liquid on myself. So I bought a new white shirt and promptly put it
in my closet and delayed wearing it for months.

But today, I thought, today I will wear my new nice white shirt. Damn the
torpedoes, carpe diem, all that stuff.

Sure enough, within 5 minutes of leaving the house, I had a coffee stain on
my nice new white shirt. Go to the store, open up, and walk out the front
door to go back home and what happens? A pigeon decides to evacuate his
bowels all over my hair, my jacket and of course the front of my white
shirt.

I am never going to wear another white shirt as long as I live. I hate white
shirts. Damn them to Hades!

The Ballad of Chuck and Buck

Chuck n Buck

Our famous Euro spokes-mannequins. From France.

(It's a long story.)

(P.S. Have your picture taken with Chuck n Buck when you visit the store and we'll post it here.)

Coolest Trailer of the Year

Somehow, I managed to never see the original Tron movie. I have never played
the video game. But after seeing this trailer, I GOTTA SEE this movie.

Looks freaking cool. I'm not a CGI worshipper, and I think we're doing way
too much CGI, but here it really works.

If you haven't seen it yet, view the trailer here -
http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/disney/tronlegacy/

Even if the script sucks, it will be nice eye candy.

Notes From The Video Dept: Buying a New Camera "It's The Best of Times & The Worst of Times"

"Which camera should I buy?" has never been a harder question to answer as new shooting trends and HD formats seem to be emerging fast and furiously. No one wants to be an early adopter of a camera or format that could be a pricey boat anchor by next year. Mention Laserdisc, Red Ray, DVD camcorders or the price of those original P2 cards and you'll hear feral growls all around.

Summer 2010, we saw the hottest trend and biggest growth market was DSLR video while traditional video cameras gathered dust on the shelf. Price and image quality were two key factors. The Season Finale of House sealed the deal and provided the validation DSLR video shooters had been clamoring for. Professional, broadcast quality video could be shot on a DSLR. Period. The only question that remained was how would the traditional video camera designers respond to the challenge to their market share?

While these video wars play out on the R&D battlefield of Sony, Canon and Panasonic, the rest of us are left to muddle along or watch and wait. But back to the here and now and the choices currently on offer.

Shooting video on a DSLR is often described as "Wild West Fun" but it's not for everyone. One interesting way we've heard it described is to think of DSLR shooting versus a regular camcorder like the difference between driving with a stick shift versus automatic. If you've never learned how to drive a standard and you're suddenly thrown into a sports car and told to drive stick, the results could be mixed. The footage looks awesome, if you know how to get it. Most people adapt fairly quickly with practice and perseverance but others just want to get back to driving auto so they can enjoy the ride without struggle and distractions.

The view from here is that DSLR filmmaking is not going to disappear any time soon. If it's something you want to try and it suits your workflow, it's a great option. If you'd rather stick with a more traditional camera but you want the DSLR look, options are emerging that look promising. Another trend on the video horizon is 3D with Panasonic announcing a consumer 3D camcorder to debut in October. So it appears future-proofing is a thing of the past. What the future holds nobody knows.

Whatever your camera of choice, the main thing is to just get back on the road and enjoy the ride.

Guest Post: Notes From The Video Department "Send Help, We're Lonely"

Things have been pretty grim down here in the Video Department since the current trend of shooting HD video on DSLRs like the Canon 5D MK II hit. Curse you Philip Bloom! A ray of light has slowly emerged in the form of a sexy little handicam-slash-DSLR, the new Sony NEX-VG10 which arrived last week. Also highly anticipated is Panasonic's AG-AF100 which is slated to be coming in December and the buzz started building at NAB 2010 and continued to IBC 2010.

Panasonic AG-AF100 / AF101 from UrbanFox.TV on Vimeo.

A New Face

After over 9 years of being a Mom and Pop operation, The DV Shop has finally
added a new staff member and we'd like to welcome Sean Miki to Team DV Shop. Next time you stop by be sure and say hello.

Sean has a good background in Apple and photography, as well as being a fan
of Monty Python, so he should fit right in.

Besides helping with the overflow, Sean should help us get caught up on the millions of things we've been meaning to do here.

What the #$!% is this $&!%???

I have somehow managed to not to watch a single episode of the cultural
phenom known as Jersey Shore. But wanting to keep up with popular culture,
I set up the PVR to tape the season premiere to see what all the fuss is
about.

Well, I lasted about 15 minutes before hitting the erase button.

What the #$%@!!

Why are millions of people engrossed with this ... (desperately trying to
come up with the perfect adjective) ...pitiful excuse of a television show?

Why is The Situation worth millions? Why does Snookie exist? Why are the
lives of these uncharismatic losers worth the attention of a television
crew, let alone a network?

The mind reels.