Wii U

I'm looking forward the release of the Wii U on the 18th; the system really seems to be a return to Nintendo's roots with a broader selection of games for players of all ages. Assassin's Creed III, Call of Duty: Black Ops II and Batman: Arkham City: Armored Edition are some of the darker games that Nintendo has added to the Wii U's repertoire.

I've been very impressed by the Wii U GamePad, as it seems to have a lot of potential. The pad has a touchscreen, camera, accelerometer, gyroscope, sensor, and a built in microphone, which I hope will add many new ways to enjoy classic Nintendo franchises. A mini-map and inventory display on the GamePad would certainly be a fantastic addition to a new Zelda!

For those looking for a controller with less "bells and whistles," the Wii U also has a second controller: the Pro Controller. Some critics have noticed that the controller looks remarkably similar to the Xbox 360's controller, but I feel that older fans will find the Pro Controller to be refreshing and a welcome addition to the Wii U's arsenal of periphery devices.

While the Wii U certainly has many new additions, I believe the most exciting aspect of the console is that it is High Definition. I believe that games with rich and diverse landscapes and backgrounds like Pikmin will really benefit from this; it's no surprise that Pikmin 3 will be in the system's launch window!

I hope everyone has a wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving break. Nintendo has certainly given its fans something to be thankful for!

Locked in a Vegas Hotel Room with a Phantom Flex

The summer before last I had the opportunity to attend a few lectures at an equipment rental and sales facility near my home in Boston, MA. The company, called Rule Camera, hosts lectures every summer called, "pub night" where they serve pizza and beverages and invite a guest speaker to discuss some aspect of the entertainment or media industries, offer advice, and take questions. My favorite lecture, and by far the most memorable, was one given by a sports television camera operator and DP named Tom Guilmette.

Tom talked a lot about his job, which admittedly, is really cool. He works at Fenway Park in Boston, as a  camera operator. It's his job to film all the fly balls over left field. Now, I might be a little biased- I'm from Boston and I'm a Red Sox fan, but it seemed like his job would be really awesome. And a lot harder then you might think. He has to track the ball across the sky (which is really tiny from a distance and moving so fast) while maintaining his focus, all while precariously perched on the scaffolding of Fenway Park. DAMN.

In addition to making us marvel at his cool job, Tom talked a lot about social media and its impact on the film industry. While Tom works as a DP, he also rents equipment out to people and uses social media to help out people with questions about how things work. 

SO. That's a lot of stuff right? That's not even the part I wanted to talk about. Since Tom is a DP and has been in the industry for a while, he often gets to test out awesome and expensive equipment- such as the Phantom Flex camera. I don't know how many of you are familiar with extremely high definition cameras, but this one pretty much takes the cake. Shooting at 2,564 fps, it can capture images at ridiculously crazy speeds. This video, shot on his first day experimenting with the camera, was made in Vegas at a television conference. He decided to test out the capabilities of the camera, and the results are both amazing and hilarious. Be sure to check it out, and if you like it, his website has a lot more really cool videos shot with a Phantom Flex...

If you ever have camera questions, you can tweet them to @tomguilmette 

he really knows his stuff and he'll always respond if he can/if he can help!

Mega-Misconceptions. Why Megapixels mean nothing.

So, I was just in a discussion with my roommate about what makes a high quality camera (He's a PC, and I'm a Mac, so we always get into tech debates). He was extolling the latest offering from Sony, which touts over 16 megapixels. Thinking he was talking about a video camera, I called foul. Though he was discussing a still camera with video capabilities, it sparked a discussion about the difference between resolution for video and still photography.

My roommate is a Photoshop junkie, and a bit of a HD fanatic. When I told him that DVD's resolution wasn't even half a megapixel, his jaw just about hit the floor. But it's true! Take a look at some common resolutions broken down below:

• DVD - 720 x 480 = 345600 = .35 megapixels
• 720p - 1280 x 720 = 921600 = .92 megapixels
• 1080p - 1920 x 1080 = 2073600 = 2.07 megapixels

So right now, the gold standard of HD video is basically the same quality than my very first cellphone's camera, almost 6 years ago. What gives?

Well, for one, still photos use resolution in a very different way than video does. Traditionally, high quality printed images use 300 pixels per inch. The standard for media seen on any type of screen is actually only 72 pixels per inch. This originally stems from technical limitations (It's really hard to make screens with 300 pixels per inch, let alone process the signal to it), but it is part of the viewer's expectation, and seems totally normal to us now. If you were to print out a web image though, you could easily see the pixelation, which seems like a rather low quality picture on paper.

The the thing is, you never print videos onto paper, so video image quality never has to be seen in the harsh light of print. Even tech-lover director James Cameron isn't in a race for more pixels. He said, “4K (ultimate HD) is a concept born in fear. I would vastly prefer to see 2K/48 frames per second.” So there you have it! If 2 megapixel images are enough for James Cameron, then they are good enough for me!