By Jordan Drake
When we started the TCSTV YouTube channel 8 years ago, I had no idea that one of the major perks of the job would become working alongside artists I hugely respect. Despite having made only three episodes so far, our Wooden Niccolls series has become my
By Jordan Drake
Creating Wooden Niccolls episodes has quickly become my favourite type of project for TCSTV. In these episodes, Chris and I find famous movie scenes and attempt to recreate it with a new camera with the help of the filmmaking community.
By Jordan Drake
It’s always a treat when Chris and I each get a copy of a new camera when we shoot an episode, so not only can Chris take photos and video, but I can film the entire episode on the camera in question. That was the case when we went to Sedona for our A7R III field test. You can find out Chris’ thoughts on the A7R III in the embedded video, but I wanted to give my impressions using the camera the way I do every week, shooting our show.
By Jordan Drake
Mirrorless cameras have made huge strides in recent years, becoming incredibly popular with hobbyists and advanced amateurs, but 2017 will be remembered as the year mirrorless cameras really started targeting pros. Olympus’ E-M1 MK II, Sony’s A9 and now Panasonic’s G9 are all designed for the professional market.
By Jordan Drake
By Jordan Drake
It’s always exciting when we get an opportunity to get an early look at cameras for TCSTV, but especially so when the cameras in question are exciting additions to Fuji’s outstanding X-Series. I recently commented on a TCSTV Live episode that I hoped Fuji would start bringing some of the technology from their excellent X-T2 and X-Pro 2 into some of their more compact models, and that’s exactly what we see with the release of the X-T20 and X100F. While the cameras we received were still unfinished, I had a great time shooting with both of them, and fully expect Fuji to have a couple more winners on their hands.
By Jordan Drake
Living in Calgary, there is only one thing I can count on every year, and that is a number of bitterly cold, uncomfortable shooting days. While I can bundle up my feet, body and head, it’s more difficult with gloves. Cameras require a good amount of precision to operate properly, especially if you use a smaller model, like a mirrorless camera or point and shoot. I’ve gone through a huge variety of styles and brands of gloves, but I’ve never found any that worked well for actually keeping my hands warm and allowing me to operate all of my camera’s controls until I tried The Heat Company’s Heat 3 Smart Gloves.These gloves were originally designed for the Austrian Special Forces, but The Heat Company saw a hugely underserved market in photographers and videographers so they started recommending the gloves for our particular niche. It goes without saying that the gloves are very warm and well-made given their original audience, but there are many types of warm gloves out there. So what makes the Smart Gloves so special?
By Jordan Drake
The Ricoh Theta was the first 360-degree camera I ever dabbled with, and I distinctly remember both having a great time manipulating the still photos and being hugely disappointed with the poor video quality. Since that time, I’ve seen endless announcements of new 360 cameras, but haven’t gotten my hands on one until I received the new Nikon KeyMission 360. Not only does this camera boast hugely improved specs over the Ricoh Theta S, but it comes in a shorter, waterproof, ruggedized housing!
By Jordan Drake
Tyler Forest-Hauser has always been a creative person, jumping between composing music, filmmaking and video editing in his early 20s. While I never saw him with a still camera during that period, I could see how important strong composition was to him in the early short films he directed. He had a photographer’s eye, but a photo camera was never on his radar.
By Jordan Drake
Even if you haven’t been staying on top of the latest tech for shooting video, it’s been hard to miss all the excitement over electronic gimbals like the DJI Ronin and Freefly MoVi. These revolutionary electronic stabilizers work like the image stabilizers in your camera or lens, but they’re large enough to stabilize for much larger movements like walking with the camera or controlling vibrations from a vehicle.
