The Sony Xperia Z5 Compact and 4K recording

When you work or live by the lake you see it change as the wind, temperature and light change. Sometimes it’s beautiful and pleasant as it was before, as you walk and keep warm. Now that I sat down to write this post the clouds have gone in and you can feel the cold.

I like the complexity of the image above. You see the diving boards, you see the winter trees, you see the flag and the people walking. You also see how the strong wind is blowing water over three or four times its own height. If it was blowing the other way it would drench the boats. That’s why they would turn it off.

When the wind is like this you can see two to three windsurfers taking advantage of the wind. I didn’t notice whether anyone was swimming today. The usual running groups and individuals were out.

We’ll see what route I follow tomorrow.

from Christian Mülhauser on Vimeo.

Gear used:

Sony a7S @ ISO 40’000-51’200 Slog2
Canon 5D Mark III with Magic Lantern for timelapse only

Lenses: Canon 24mm f2.8, Canon 16-35mm f2.8, Tokina 24-70mm f2.8, Canon 70-200mm f4

UAV: DJI S900 with DJI A2 Flight Controller
UAV Gimbal: FTBO G10 (no post stabilization)

Handheld Gimbal:DYS HHG5D (no post stabilization)

Gimbal Controller: 2 Basecam SimpleBGC 32bit V2.44b9

This video is interesting because of it’s demonstration of how well the Sony A7S copes with low light conditions. This was filmed with moonlight rather than daylight. We see the details in the snow tracks and we see the snow.

We need to see some more night riding but in a city or in the countryside where existing light is sparse. I look at the detail of the snow which is crisp but I also notice the lack of detail in the clothes worn by the riders. I would like to see this camera tested in a cave where the only light source is a helmet light.

It expands the shooting day. It means that when night comes you take an opportunity to get more footage. Imagine using this technology in the arctic circle where the sun does not rise for more than a few minutes a day or when night lasts for a few days or weeks at a time. It means  that you can film arctic wildlife during an extended period of time.

We tested usable dynamic range of the given cameras. With 12 stops the usable dynamic range of the A7S comes surprisingly close to the Arri Amira (13.1 stops) with its legendary Alexa sensor (see our full review here).

It would be interesting to see the camera tested in high contrast conditions, for example in valleys or gorges where part of the scene is in the shade and part of it is in the sun. Towns are also an interesting place to see how good the camera is at dealing with high dynamic ranges.

The free flow of information has been greatly facilitated by the development of modern tools such as the smartphone, more common laptops and data plans. As a result of all these tools the control of public opinion has become more of a challenge.

It’s easy to block sites, but the problem is you need to be more aware of the communications systems than the users themselves. In particular I’m thinking of Iran, and another revolution before it. People are now saying that twitter is a great revolutionary tool to get information from one person to another quickly.

Of course this might be true but there’s a more interesting trend in progress today. This trend is how modern telecommunications tools such as the mobile phone and laptop are affecting social change. In particular think of the printing press and the role it has spread, the role of coded radio messages as well.

Today it’s up to the World Wide Web and it’s backbone the Internet to provide a cheap, easy to hide telecommunications platform by which to keep the people informed about what is happening. Remember Thomas from the Unbearable Lightness of Being. He wrote that article and never agreed to a retraction.

Now you don’t need mainstream media or even a physical copy of what you’re trying to distribute. Radiowaves carry these messages almost simultaneously to thousands, even millions of people at once. As a result controlling public opinion is a major challenge. Every website that has a mobile interface has potential as a revolutionary tool. Today it’s twitter, because the site is not blocked by totalitarian states yet, but if that site is blocked then you’ve got other sites that could be used. Plurk, Jaiku and Orkut are examples of websites that have a mobile interface.

The simpler the mobile website interface the more accessible the information becomes. Herein lies the real revolution. It’s platform agnostic. It’s that ability to create, share and distribute information on the move that is most interesting because it has built in redundancy. Within minutes of one service being blocked a clone can be put up. How do you want to stop the free flow of information in such circumstances? By being flavour of the month twitter, just like facebook, google and youtube may be blocked. The platform style however will remain and this is the most interesting aspect of the new era in electronic conversation.