You can now apply certain presets to video in Lightroom 4.

It’s no big secret that video is now something even still photographers need to pay attention to. If you do photography for a living – or want to do photography for a living – then at some point, the specter of video is going to raise its head and you’ll have to deal with it, or risk falling behind your competition.

Since photographers are dabbling in video, it’s no surprise that a software application formerly dedicated to still photographers is itself now dabbling in video. The latest version of Adobe Lightroom, released this month, now offers DSLR video shooters the ability to do some video edits and effects without having to leave the program.

Among other things, you can do basic cuts and trims, apply color and exposure settings, and sync those settings between clips.

The folks over at Adobe – specifically, Adobe’s Senior Digital Imaging Evangelist, Julieanne Kost – have a great video showing you some of the things you can do to your video with Lightroom 4. Take a look – I think you’ll be surprised at how much you can do.

As an aside to our Aperture fans – yes, Aperture has had many of these features (and I’ve happily used them for a while) for some time now. It’s just nice to see Lightroom catching up.

Shane Hurlbut

The very first episode of BLCast, the official podcast of BorrowLenses.com, is now live!

We’re excited to bring you something really special for our inaugural episode. A couple of weeks ago, I was fortunate to speak with Shane Hurlbut, director of photography for such films as Drumline, Terminator Salvation, and, most recently, the military action thriller, Act of Valor.

Welcome to Cool Stuff, a weekly feature where we post our favorite links from the past week, including our favorite articles and how-tos, videos, images and more.

• 

  The "Blue Marble" shot of the earth, from NASA

  When one of the world’s best shooters dips his toes into video, you sit up and take notice. Joe McNally takes the Nikon D4′s video capabilities out for a spin.

• Issue 5 of the Kelby Media Group’s lighting-specific magazine, Light It! is out now. Some great stuff in there from Frank Doorhof, Tom Bol, and others.
• From the “You don’t need a $10,000 camera” department, comes another awesome slo-mo video, shot on a T2i, via fstoppers.com.
  
  Slow It Down from Sacha Powell on Vimeo.
• Bryan O’Neil Hughes, Senior Photoshop Project Manager, shows off some new features in Camera RAW 7, as well as a very brief tweak to Photoshop CS6 too, via Scott Kelby.
• Bird photographers, beware. That hummingbird you’re taking pictures of might just be taking pictures of you, too.
• This is one honking large image. NASA has released an updated version of that famous “Blue Marble” photo of the earth. Here’s the link to the full-sized one in all its 8000-pixel glory: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/6760135001/sizes/o/in/photostream/.
• This is every wedding photographer’s dream come true: a calm, reasoned approach to explaining why prices for wedding shooters can be as high as they are, in response to a very irate bride-to-be.
• I’ll admit it – I’m a bit envious. I wish I’d thought of this, but Pixiq has a great list of 25 awesome time-lapse videos.
• Nikon afficionados, rejoice once more. The D700 has officially been declared end-of-life. PetaPixel is reporting a potential Feb 7 launch date for the D800.
• And speaking of new cameras, we end this list with a comparison of video from the Nikon D4 vs the Canon 1Dx. Since neither camera is really out there yet, this is still subject to change, but here it is, via Colby Brown.

That’s it for this week’s Cool Stuff. If you have something you think should be included, let us know! Email us at [email protected]

The new Nikon D4

Nikon just announced the D4, and it looks like a doozy, not just an updated version of the D3s. Loads of new features – expanded ISO, clean HDMI out, MUCH better HD video options (1080p at 30, 24 and 25fps). Most importantly, it’ll be the first full-frame sensor camera with full HD capability since the Canon 5D MarkII (the 1Dx isn’t due out till March 2012).

A couple of other points of interest.

• The D4 has an RGB metering sensor, first introduced with the Nikon D7000. The difference here is that besides being an updated version of the D7000′s sensor, the D4′s metering sensor has 91,000 pixels to the D7000′s 2016.
• Framerate has be upped to 11fps in Continuous High, from 9fps in the D3s.
• ISO is expandable to 204800.
• The 91k pixel RGB sensor also features face recognition.
• You can now record 1080p video in three formats: Full-frame, DX crop and an even smaller crop that uses just 1920×1080 pixels on the sensor.

Lots more stuff too, including a headphone jack for monitoring audio, a levels indicator and more. That 1Dx needs to hit the market sooner rather than later, because Nikon has upped the ante with this extremely capable HDDSLR, finally challenging Canon in the video realm.

Check out the press release for more details. Here are the specs.

UPDATES: Here’s a roundup of D4-related pieces from around the web.

• Nikon’s James Banfield goes through the video functions of the D4 on DSLR News Shooter.
• Just in time for the D4, Sony announced a range of XQD cards for the D4.
• ISO1200 has a lead on a low light video test of the D4.
• ISO1200 also compiled a bunch of the image samples of the D4 on their site – and it’s much easier to flip through these here than on Nikon’s site.
• Here’s a bunch of D4-related videos, thanks to PetaPixel.
• This video is in the roundup by PetaPixel, but it’s neat enough that we’re embedding it here.
• Popular Photography has their take on the D4 too.
• Finally, DPReview has their hands-on overview of the D4 up on their site as well.

Editor’s note: Post updated to clarify sentence about the D4 being the first full-frame camera capable of full HD video since 5D Mark II. The 1Dx was announced, but won’t be released until after the D4.

Here’s something to remind you that you don’t need thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment to do something truly captivating. David HJ. Lindberg’s video of running through mud puddles (below) was shot with a Canon T21 and a 50mm f/1.8 lens.

The Beauty of Mud (4000 fps) from David HJ. Lindberg on Vimeo.

We really have gotten to the point where ingenuity, perseverance and creativity don’t need to be accompanied by tons of money. The photo gear that David used (T2i and 50mm f/1.8) can be rented for about $60 for three days from BorrowLenses. We also have the T2i for sale for just $450, if you want to buy it. Bottom-line: You’re not really limited by gear anymore – just grab your camera and lens and get out there!

Sony F3L body

Well, it’s here! We’ve been waiting for Sony’s newest CineAlta series product to come in for some time now and we’re pleased to have it in our inventory. The F3L sits somewhere between the RED and the EX3 in the lineup of pro video bodies we offer, and it’s a perfect addition to our growing list of video products. Take a look at the specs on it:

• Super 35mm Exmor CMOS sensor
• PL mount
• 35mm Cine lens compatibility
• Dual SxS card memory slots
• 1920 x 1080 HD, Native 23.98p
• Variable frame rates
• Slow –mo (over-crank)/High-speed (under-crank) dial on body of camera
• Internal ND filters
• 5600K CC (electric color compensation) filter
• Focus-assistance functions
• HD/SD-SDI BNC outputs, Dual XLR inputs
• 10-bit 4:2:2 HD-SDI Output
• Genlock, Timecode
• Optional S-Log/LUT workflow
• Output to an external recorder in 10-bit 4:2:2 or 10-bit RGB (with upgrade option)

The F3L is targeted at professional, higher-end filmmakers and cinematographers. It matches up with the series of PL mount lenses we carry (more to come soon). If you have any questions about it, please call us at (650) 508-3370 and ask to speak with a video specialist.

A Zeiss CP.2 lens on an Olympus E-P2

Every Thursday, we will post a photography-related tip here. These tips are typically inspired by questions we get from our customers. Sometimes we might feature a technique tip, and sometimes a gear recommendation. If there’s something specific you’d like to see in this section, let us know. Email us at [email protected]

Today we’re going to talk about a video camera called the Panasonic AG AF100. The AF100 is from a family of products that adhere to the Micro Four-Thirds standard. So far, Olympus and Panasonic are the two manufacturers making cameras for this standard, but a number of other manufacturers have also signed on to produce add-ons for it. Sigma, Carl Zeiss, Lensbaby and Voigtlander, all venerable manufacturers, have signed on to make lenses for it. (more…)