Samsung Series 5 Beta Channel Update: 1193.105.0

Beta Channel for the Samsung Series 5 has been updated to version
1193.105.0. The Chrome browser version is 16.0.912.63.

Acer AC700 Beta Channel Update: 1193.105.0

Beta Channel for the Acer AC700 has been updated to version 1193.105.0. The
Chrome browser version is 16.0.912.63.

Quick Media Converter Settings

Hi everyone. I don't know if any of you are still out there, it's been so long since I"ve posted.

I know our beloved SC-MX20 has pretty much become obsolete. But those of you, like me, that can't afford an upgrade, we still use it all the time.

I've only recently upgraded to Windows 7. Vista, with all it's updates, became so bloated and slow that doing any video editing on it became impossible. I've also shunned my beloved Dell for an HP. So far I'm very happy with Windows 7's snappy-ness and the HP's speed and responsiveness.

Rather that fight with my program, The Fix, which I am glad so many of you are happy with, I've decided to go with something that I know works. Many of you have tried Quick Media Converter, so I thought you might like to see the settings I plugged in to get the same results as The Fix.

Note that this is in expert mode. I did not put anything in the audio options, but if you need it, you can resync the audio just like in The Fix and that screen is pretty self explanatory so I"m not going to post it.

The bitrate is 7904kbps, copied from the properties of the original mp4 file right out of the camera. Same with frame rate. I set the aspect ratio to 16:9 and I also set the width and height to get the proper ratio that the camera does not set in widescreen mode. W 720, H 405. If you want to get the 1080p size you can put in W 1080, H 608.

In the command line, put in -deinterlace if you want those blocky lines removed.

And that's it. On my HP it's super fast. Hope this works for you.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, SC-MX20 users! Hope your camera helps you preserve your awesome memories.

No more posts.

Honestly, I'm tapped out of ideas for this blog. I've built The Fix and put it out there. I've tried to give some helpful hints, but honestly, I'm not a photographer. I'm just a dad with a camera. I point, shoot, burn to dvd and put it up on youtube. Other than that, I don't really know what else to say. So if you have something you want to talk about, let me know. Otherwise, I'm just going to let this blog be the home page for The Fix.

Laters.

fireworks

Just wanted to make a quicky post about filming fireworks.

The Samsung SC-MX20 is not really built to film fireworks. I tried last night using the cnite setting on 1/15, but that sets the exposure way too high.

If you try to manually set the exposure, you might have better luck, but the shutter speed is still going to be too high. Once you set the cnite, you can't change any other settings. Bummer.

Try it. Experiment. Let me know what you get. I hope to paste mine in sometime today.

Depth of Field Effect, can it be done?

You've seen the use of depth of field all over the place. It's kind of an artsy way of presenting something on film. More accurately, it mimics the way your eyes work when you focus on something. What you are focused on is clear, while everything else kind of blurs. This is especially noticeable if you look at something close, like the steering wheel of your car, then something far away, like a truck a half mile ahead. You get the idea.

Here's a definition and an example.

http://en.mimi.hu/photography/depth-of-field.html






Now the question is, can you get that effect with the Samsung SC-MX20? Since this is just a standard definition point and shoot camera, how much can you get away with?

Below is a sample I shot at the park. I played with the manual focus to see what could be done.



The problem with the manual focus is that is isn't really manual. It moves at the pace the camera lets it. But you can see, you can kind of, sort of get the depth of field effect if you play with it enough.

All I did was go into the menu, scroll over to the Focus option (kind of looks like this: [ ]) then chose manual. Now you can use the left and right controls to change the focus. If you push the center button, it lock in your focus and you have to go back into the menu to unlock the controls again. Then just set up your shot and push record. Use the controls to change the center of focus while you shoot.

It's not movie camera quality, but it is kind of a nice effect. There are limits with the Samsung SC-MX20, but with some experimentation and imagination, you might be able to get around them.