Every now and then, it is good to look back to see what has been on the minds of our readers… so here’s a look at the Top 10 posts from first 6 months of 2011

Top 10 List

1. Incredible “3D” motion from Canon Rebel T2i/550D stills
2. UPDATED: WINNER! Indie movie shot on Canon HDSLR “LIKE CRAZY” sold to Paramount for $4 million
3. TECHNICOLOR CineStyle now available for download! UPDATE 5 with more samples
4. Fantastic New Magic Lantern Canon EOS 5D Mark II Firmware Version Announced
5. A Sunday Short – “The Mountain” – a very nice 5D2 timelapse
6. Rumor: Canon EOS 5D Mark III sooner than the usual 3 years?
7. Awesome ways an iPad/iPhone can be your DSLR / HDSLR remote control
8. A quick basic introduction to HDSLR cameras and filmmaking
9. You must see “Flawless” – an incredible DSLR engagement film
10. Controversial Canon HDSLR news video of the Japan tsunami from Dan Chung

So, what was your favorite? Comment below!

(cover photo credit: snap from my vacation)

For all you bloggers out there, you probably have heard me talk about it before, but we use Pretty Link Pro and tho we had a similar blog post like this before, the videos that we had done were lost and we needed to update things anyway… so here’s an updated post on why we like Pretty Link Pro for WordPress

Ok, so I started out with 6 reasons…

1. Link usage stats
2. URL Shortening – with branding!
3. Keyword replacement (simplifies building links in your posts)
4. Bookmarklet link creation (makes creating links simple)
5. Replaces several other wordpress plugins
6. Pretty Bar – more branding for your site

When I first started looking at PLP, I thought, there’s no way I’m paying for that. But then, at the time, there was a free version and after using it for a few days, I realized the power of the tool – so I bought it. At the time, the only version available was the $97 version – but now, you can get it for one site for only $37 (and yes, we’re affiliates).

Heck, if you use common phrases on your blog (like I do – for example: Canon EOS 5D Mark II), the automated keyword replacement feature alone can pay for that $37 in just a couple of days if you think about how much of your time that you spend on copying and pasting common links!

And don’t forget to check out our other post on the prettyBar and why we like it – but a small group of readers will hate it.

PLP also has a major feature called Conversion Testing – where you can have different target pages for one link – so you can do “split testing” if you are so inclined (often used for marketing sites)… but I haven’t found much of a need for that so I don’t talk about it in the video.

And I’m not the only one who loves this plugin:

• Pretty Link Pro is My Favorite WordPress Plugin
• Pretty Link Pro WordPress Plugin
• Pretty Link Pro Review

So, hopefully that helps you understand a bit about Pretty Link Pro – and if you have any questions, don’t be shy about asking below!

Disclaimer – one of the cool points of Pretty Link Pro is that you are automatically registered as an affiliate and I do get a bonus if you decide to purchase it via planet5D.

(cover photo credit: snap from the pretty link pro site)

Many of you know that we love the Pretty Link Pro plugin for WordPress and use it on the planet5D blog – but every now and then we get a complaint about the “pretty bar” that we place on some of our external (non planet5D) links – we thought we’d put together a demonstration of what it does for us, and what it could do for you if you’re a blogger.

For bloggers and those who read planet5D blog but dislike the “pretty bar” iframe that we attach to some of our external links, here’s an explanation of why we use them and why we like them – even tho some people dislike them.

In this video, we demonstrate one particular link that we posted in 2009 that other people have shared over 50,000 times – giving planet5D a chance to be seen by over 50k potential new readers. And that is just ONE link! Granted it is our best example of this kind of brand sharing, but it makes the point quite well.

name another tool that can do that!

I know that some of you still won’t like the pretty bar, but maybe you’ll tolerate it just a little bit more once you see how powerful it can be to help spread the branding of planet5D or your own blog. Not to mention that the price is down to $37 – it used to be $97.

Of course, we’d love to hear your comments – even if you still just absolutely hate it! Sound off in the comments below!

For more information on Pretty Link Pro, please visit: http://blog.planet5d.com/plp2

(cover photo credit: snap from the pretty link pro site)

A few weeks ago, Mark Wallace (@jmarkwallace) from AdoramaTV contacted me about possibly doing an interview for their series that they’re doing on HDSLR cameras and photographers – how could I turn them down? You can watch below – but also give their Adorama Learning Center a visit to find out more about what they’re doing to educate the consumers.

Mark Wallace – How’d they do that?

Mark and his crew use an interesting technique to get the interviews. They record their side of the interview live while talking to me on the phone and I recorded my side of the interview with my Canon EOS 5D Mark II. Then, after the session was over, I shipped them the video and they spliced it together (saving the good parts of course and throwing away all my goofs).

And, it points out how I need to get a Lav mic too for better audio!

(cover photo credit: snap from the video)

Note: We’ve changed the time to 8pm CET – sorry for the earlier mistake!

A treat for Europeans, we’re going to have special guest Nino Leitner for our planet5D Live Interview on Thursday January 27th 6pm 8pm CET – that’s Central European Time – which is GMT +1. Nino Leitner is a film director, DP and producer born in Innsbruck/Austria who studied film and video production in Salzburg and the United Kingdom. He specializes mainly in documentaries, commercials and image films. Nino has been active on twitter (@ninoleitner) as well posting his knowledge about HDSLRs

And don’t forget to Subscribe to the planet5D International Event Calendar – subscribing will give you event reminders! webcal format or view online (and you can subscribe via iCal)
Note: the title of the calendar is “planet5D interviews” – but it was created before I had the event calendar – it includes all HDSLR events!

planet5D live with /me Nino Leitner Live Interview on planet5D Thursday January 27th 8pm CET Leitner

please join us for this live interview where you get to ask the questions!

For those of you needing a little help converting to or from GMT for your time zone, use this GMT conversion site to help

nino leitner

Who is Nino Leitner?

View one of Nino’s videos we highlighted on planet5D cinema

One of his major works is the feature-length documentary “Every Step You Take” (A/E/UK 2007) that exposed the weird inner workings of the massive video surveillance / CCTV schemes covering every corner of the UK. It gained quite some media attention, was featured at film festivals around the globe and won several awards. Nino currently has a new feature documentary in early development.

In February 2009, Nino got the rare chance to test the then-upcoming Canon EOS 550D (or Rebel T2i, as it is called in the US) extensively before any other filmmakers around the world could get it into their hands. He shot the test short “FEBRUARY”, which has been watched almost 250,000 times so far, converting uncountable doubters to 550D owners. He started his blog at the same time, propelling it to the top of the league immediately. Since then, he has focused on gear reviews for DSLR filmmakers, which made the blog to one of the most trusted sources for DSLR filmmakers.

Nino Leitner making a movie

(cover photo credit: snap from Nino)

This is a big deal to me, maybe not such a big deal overall, but we’ve been working with planet5D friend Marcelo Daniel Savio (blog translated to english) to put together a new introduction graphic for the planet5D podcasts (yes, I know the old graphic was horrible).

This was the demo that Marcelo put together (it says ‘wiki’ in the video still image, but that’s not in the final version)

Planet 5D from mdsavio on Vimeo.

Who is Marcelo Daniel Savio

Well, as you can see from Marcelo Daniel Savio’s blog (in Spanish), that he’s posting about HDSLR and video stuff for his readers in Spain. He’s got some tutorials and news items helping those who are Spanish speakers learn more about HDSLRs and shooting movies. He is a visual effects compositor and a motion graphic designer. And as you can see from the new podcast intro, he’s darn good at motion graphics.

So if you need some motion graphic work done, have a chat with Marcelo Daniel Savio!

Marcelo – thank you so much for your work on the new graphics!

Now, isn’t that much better than the lousy static image we had before? I know it is!

(Photo credit: snap from the video)

Also in the spirit of Christmas, we saw this video last night – sent in by Ron Dawson – that might just make the hankies come out. It reminds us that we love our toys, but we also love our families and how much we are really are just one big family. And sometimes members of our family need some support – so why not do something similar to this? Here at planet5D, we’ve been giving to local charities for years – in fact, doing things like this family did and we help individuals as much as possible… so please, reach out to someone in need this holiday season!

For The Man Who Hated Christmas… from Giving101 on Vimeo.

There are some stories that hit you so profoundly they inspire you to move mountains and start movements. This is one such story. About a Christmas tradition started by one New England family that has spread worldwide and lead to the creation of giving101.org.

We had the honor to adapt this story to film for the very first time. You can read the original story here.

• Original story by Nancy W. Gavin for Woman’s Day magazine in 1982
• Adapted for the screen, directed and edited by Ron Dawson
• Shot on a Canon T2i
• Lenses: Canon 50mm f1.8, 28-70 f2.8L
• Audio: Zoom H4N with Sennheiser ME-66 Shotgun on boom pole
• Slider: DP Slider
• High key set: Studio Space Atlanta

Interesting back story:

• All auditioning done online. I emailed sides to actors then had them video tape themselves and email me links to view.
• In the scene where the actress breaks down, we actually had to stop filming because she got so emotional. But we obviously got enough for the film.

If you want to know more about the making of this wonderful movie, visit Ron’s blog for more behind the scenes photos and more details

And do something for someone in need!

(Photo credit: snap from Ron’s BTS blog post)

Canon EOS 5D Mark II (reviews) is two years old! My how time flies! Believe it or not, today is the second anniversary of the announcement of the Canon EOS 5D Mark II! It was on this day the rumors were finally true and we knew what the 5D Mark II included. What we didn’t really know/understand on that first day was how really significant the video features would be to the future. The Nikon D90 had been released earlier, but it didn’t cause the stir the Canon 5D Mark II would in the next few months. Maybe that all had something to do with “Reverie”?

Let’s turn on the ‘way back machine’ for just a minute… From the wiki…
“LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., September 17, 2008 – Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging, today introduced the EOS 5D Mark II Digital SLR camera, the long-awaited successor to Canon’s highly popular EOS 5D, introduced in 2005. Building upon the qualities that made the EOS 5D camera so successful, Canon has coupled the creative power of a full-frame CMOS sensor in a relatively compact and affordable camera body, together with groundbreaking HD video capture that opens the door to a much wider range of imaging possibilities for photographers. Along with the ability to capture full HD video clips at 1920 x 1080 resolution, Canon’s EOS 5D Mark II Digital SLR camera features a 21.1-megapixel full frame 24 x 36mm CMOS sensor, DIGIC 4 imaging processor and significantly lower noise, with an expanded sensitivity range from ISO 50 to ISO 25,600.

“The anticipation surrounding the launch of this camera model has exceeded our greatest expectations, and we believe our loyal customers will be awed by the level of innovation and features built into the new EOS 5D Mark II Digital SLR. Once they have the chance to experience the camera, we believe they will agree that it was worth the wait,” stated Yuichi Ishizuka, senior vice president and general manager, Consumer Imaging Group, Canon U.S.A.”

Boy, isn’t that an understatement? “The anticipation surrounding the launch of this camera model has exceeded our greatest expectations” – the sales have exceeded their expectations as well LOL.

A few days later, Vincent Laforet released “Reverie” which stunned the world and had over 2 million views in the first couple of days (please see the interview we did with Vincent if you haven’t yet seen it!)

The Canon EOS 5D Mark II has also heralded an unheard of event in the Canon world, firmware updates that included feature enhancements! Hopefully in the future we won’t need those because Canon’s gotten the message… right?

I started planet5D with the wiki – figuring that one central place for all Canon EOS 5D Mark II information would be best. That was on November 15th. Then, I started posting news on special pages in the wiki. If you really want to go into the way back machine, take a gander at some of the first posts we did in the wiki where we were posting news!

As we did with last year’s birthday party, I would like to thank all of you – the readers of planet5D – for making planet5D the best Canon EOS 5D Mark II blog on the planet! The success of planet5D has “exceeded our greatest expectations” and we thank you!

Subscribe via email

Want to keep up with the HDSLR world but don’t always remember to come to planet5D every day? Get the planet5D news sent directly to your email in box! Simply register with feedburner below and you’ll get your fix once a day (it consolidates all the news into only one email per day)

(Photo credit: a stock photo that planetMitch sells on istockPhoto)

Vincent Laforet sent us a note letting us know about a brand new section on his blog all about gear and it is pretty cool. He and his team have spent a lot of time working on this new feature and it is impressive. They’ve broken it down into several categories and it lists much of the gear he uses on a regular basis.

Here’s a snippet from his blog post announcing this new gear section.

“the gear that has become available since the 5D MKII was launched has virtually exploded and created and entirely new market. I’ve used most of it – and today I’m publishing a list of what I have come to rely on for all of my HDDSLR productions: This is a list of gear that I USE on a regular basis – along with some more “specialized” items that I use once or twice a year but always yield incredibly unique results.

It’s a pretty extensive list and will continue to grow with time. Right now we’re already put up over 100 items so far – it’s taken 3 of us more than a month to put this together for you. My goal is to make this one of the the most comprehensive gear lists on any personal blog out there. I also want to make sure that I do more than just publish a list gear. I’m going to do my best to explain how and why I use each piece of gear, and to give visual examples whenever possible.”

“Here is a video that I put together recently that shows how I’ve come to include many of these pieces of gear in an actual production – this is something that I will be looking to as often as I can. I think it’s the best way for me to discuss the uses of each piece of kit:”

2010 HDDSLR Gear Video from Vincent Laforet on Vimeo.

Here is a video that walks you through the different types of configurations for the Canon HDDSLR cameras that I use on production these days. It includes a thorough description of the newer pieces of equipment that I have put into play in the past few months. Should you want to find out more about each piece of equipment – please check out: http://blog.vincentlaforet.com/MYGEAR/
I plan on doing these types of videos every few months as new equipment becomes available and as include it into my HDDSLR productions.

Vincent’s gear section is something you should keep your eye on!

Something else you should check out is our planet5D Review site – where regular users of HDSLR gear can post their reviews of products they use.

(Photo credit: snap from Vincent’s video)

Now that the Canon EOS 60D has been announced, everyone will want to know where it fits in the Canon HDSLR lineup as well as what this new camera brings to the party. The 60D replaces the 50D in the Canon line, but fits between the Canon Rebel T2i/550D (reviews) and the Canon EOS 7D (reviews) in the HDSLR lineup.

There are some really nice new features, but this is still evolution as opposed to revolution (remember the original Canon EOS 5D Mark II advertising?). While the 60D brings in goodness, it also doesn’t knock our socks off – tho we realize this is the low end of the HDSLR spectrum (it has that pop-up flash so you know it can’t be “pro” right ). The articulating screen is great for many situations, but I imagine that those of you using something like the z-finder will find little need for it – and it may even just get in the way.

The DPReview 60D story says “Construction aside, the body is noticeably smaller than the EOS 50D, and has the same plastic-over-metal construction as the EOS 550D (Rebel T2i).”

It looks like this will be very popular as it has more features than the T2i and the 7D, but costs less than the 7D (tho the construction and feel of the larger 7D will still make it desirable). It isn’t replacing either one so Canon feels like they’ve all still got some legs in them. And we’ll see if the articulating screen migrates up into the Pro lines.

New feature list:

• Articulating screen with 1,040,000 pixels
• New rear control dial (tho the DPReview 60D story  doesn’t like it)
• In camera RAW control (stills not video) – outputs JPEGs for sharing without impacting RAW image
• In camera video edit (cropping beginning / end of video)
• New photo filters – can create new image from filters leaving original intact
• Live view screen can show cropping lines (1:1, 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratios in addition to the standard 3:2 ratio)
• locking mode dial (prevent inadvertent changes to selection)
• image resizing function – create new image of smaller size for easy sharing
• movie mode also includes manual controls for exposure
• manual audio levels in 64 steps like the Canon EOS 5D Mark II
• electronic Wind Filter for movies
• Movie Crop mode, which allows users to achieve 7x magnification when shooting SD video

Other articles

You know, 99% of the other sites you visit only show you their own articles… here at planet5D we like to help you find the news — like on our planet5D HDSLR news page – so here are some of the better stories from around the web on Canon EOS 60D coverage.

• DPreview 60D
• EOSHD.com – Canon 60D Review
• Rob Galbraith Canon announces EOS 60D with vari-angle rear LCD

Videos!

DPreview has video samples – full size

Canon HDSLR Comparison

So, here’s the comparison table – you’ll see it closely matches the Canon Rebel T2i/550D (reviews) in the table – but the table doesn’t include many of the enhanced features of the 60D.

(Photo credit: snap from the Canon PR)