Author Archives: Egor Fiodarau

2 December 2019
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Why are we still stuck with bulky and expensive TV cameras in the 21st century?

Reading Time: 5 minutes

You might be wondering, why is your camera portable and affordable, while TV cameras were, are, and will be huge and expensive. Right now, you will find out…

You take pictures and videos with your phone every day. Amateurs and professionals do photoshoots with compact cameras and everything looks stunning. Progress never stops. As a civilization, we went from a bulky tripod-only camera to compact and fast cameras are can deliver beautiful pictures and videos at the demand of your thumb. Yet, it seems like while other cameras have gotten smaller and more affordable, TV cameras are remaining the way they were before, and it is a fact, that they will proceed to be that way. In this article, we will discuss how and for what purpose the manufacturers and professionals think that TV cameras will remain their matured look in the future.

In its core, a camera body itself is relatively compact and cheap. It is not that hard to get your hands on a good TV camera. It is hard to get it to operate the way it is supposed to work. It means, that the camera itself needs additional accessories to reveal its full potential. Starting from a tripod to a lens, those are the vital parts in the camera’s work.

Lens

You can find different TV lenses on the market ranging from $100.000 all the way to $250.000. It can get up to seventy times as expensive as a camera itself. Moreover, it is very heavy. Why are they so expensive and heavy?

Let’s start by discussing the camera’s placement. Usually, the TV cameras are placed quite far from an object that is needed to be filmed. Therefore, a lens needs to provide a sharp image while not losing the object in focus. All the TV cameras need to have a parfocal lens. It means that the camera will keep its focus on the object at all times. They have to have a pretty big focal range too. Nowadays, TV camera lenses can have up to x300 optical zoom. Moreover, the lens needs to support extremely fast zoom-ins and zoom-outs. Adding to that, it is occasional to have perfect filming conditions. For example, it is really hard to film at night and indoors with little-to-none sunlight. Thus, the lens has to have a big aperture to be able to capture every single detail in low lighting. On top of that, image stabilization is a must. Without image stabilization, it would be impossible to see a coherent active picture. The motorization of the lens is also important as it is used for remote control with high precision.

It is good to compare, as an example, the focal ranges on DSLR lenses and TV lenses. While the DSLR lens of 70-200mm or 100-400mm can do x2,9 to x4, some TV lenses can do x107. It is a huge difference. TV lenses can provide an operator with lots of flexibility when it comes to getting a good shot.

Meanwhile, you can argue that DSLR lenses have those features too, I just have to switch them. That is the point – filming on-spot and on-air does not give you much time to react accordingly and keep changing lenses. The DSLR lenses might possess the same features as TV lenses, but none of them have all the features listed above at the same time. It is crucial to understand that TV scenery is different from the one DSLR lenses are made for. Therefore, a complex of features that are available right-here-right-now is a must. On top of that, it is hard to manufacture such TV lenses. In order for a producer to include all the features that TV professionals need, it needs to acquire many hard-to-manufacture parts.

 

Tripod

On average, a tripod for a TV camera can range from $5.000 to $30.000. Tripod is a tool used by the camera operators to stabilize the camera in one place. As well, its purpose is to make sure there is no vibration and it must absorb movement with its stabilization. When the camera is zoomed-in every small unwanted movement can have an impact on video. Professionals say that even heartbeat can impact an image if the tripod used does not provide enough stabilization. It has to be sturdy in order to support big weights of up to 80 kilograms. Itself, the tripod can be really heavy too – ranging from 25 to 55 kilograms.

It is also good to mention that a tripod must have a comfortable grip and additional hands for better manual use. If the tripod has additional mechanized remotes, it is a big advantage over those who have none. Remotes can be usually bought separately.

 

Monitor and Fiber

The TV camera monitors are used to grant a camera operator an instant image of what the camera sees. It has to have an anti-glare screen protector and really accurate color representation. If the monitor fails to provide accurate colors, an entire filming session can be straight-up ruined and will have to go through digital processing that might be able to fix it. The TV camera monitors can go all the way from $500 to $2100.

Fiber is an add-on that lets a TV camera operator adjust the colors, aperture, ISO, shutter speed, and other settings on-the-go. It is extremely useful and a professional cameraman can not do the work without it. It has to provide quick access to every setting of the camera and lens. Normally, you can get your hands on it for $2.000 to $4.000.

 

While we already established that you have to have several expensive accessories for your TV camera to have it working properly, there are still several accessories that are less bulky and expensive, yet, it is good to point out that such accessories as a camera adaptor, a camera bag, and a spare Ford F150 to carry all of it would be good to have. In my opinion, I think the professionals know what they need most, and I doubt that the TV camera game will change anytime soon. It is good to mention that there are physical limitations to have such cameras in a smaller form factor. Moreover, I would not recommend you to get such a camera if you would like to film your Minecraft lets-plays. Get the OBS instead!

 

Thank you very much for reading!

 

 

Sources:

  1. https://zebrazone.tv/
  2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkTaMyatsTo&t=499s
  3. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/browse/Professional-Video/ci/3755/N/4294545851
  4. https://www.oldradio.com/archives/hardware/TV/RCA-TV.htm
  5. https://books.google.pl/books?id=JMTnTBmt7F0C&pg=PA88&lpg=PA88&dq=image+orthicon+camera&source=web&ots=T5_zhQmgw-&sig=_SjQ3PsSZbm3gwgaQn8XRelCanY&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=image%20orthicon%20camera&f=false
  6. https://www.proav.co.uk/live-production/studio-cameras-camera-heads/studio-cameras
  7. https://www.canon.co.uk/pro/broadcast/
  8. https://epfilms.tv/top-10-professional-hd-video-cameras/
  9. https://www.tvcameramuseum.org/
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22 November 2019
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Tesla announces its Cybertruck

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Today, Tesla announced that they will be releasing their electrically-powered truck that is called Cybertruck. They claim that while being fully electric, it provides more features than other trucks on the market. Let’s dive into this and discuss the Cybertrucks capabilities!

Tesla claims that Cybertruck has better utility than a truck with more performance than a sports car. Well, it is true, and we will compare it later.

It is claimed to be built for passengers’ safety. It is durable and secure. Its body is made of Ultra-Hard 30X Cold-Rolled stainless steel and reinforced with Tesla’s armor glass. While being sturdy, the body still possesses the best aerodynamic properties out of any truck available on the market as of now. Its body material provides great protection against dents, scratches, long-term corrosion, and any potential damage. Interestingly enough, it is quite rare nowadays to have a car made of stainless steel. Mostly, manufacturers use stainless steel for chassis and aluminum for a car’s body. Therefore, you can expect ultimately safest driving possible with Cybertruck. The glass, while not dimming the light that passes through it, is made of polymer-layered composite that can absorb impact force. True, it would probably not save you from a bullet, but it will at least try to.

As mentionned, Tesla wants its creation to be both versatile and full of utility. They claim that Cybertruck can withhold up to a ton and a half kilograms of payload capacity. It has lockable storage and 2,8 cubic meters of exterior space. Cybertruck’s towing ability is over 6,3 tons. It also helps that it has an adaptive air suspension that would help you to tackle the roads and hills. Cybertruck is a six-seater with additional storage under the second seat row. Tesla learned a lot from its Tesla Model 3 launch and they are featuring their brand new 17 inches horizontally-oriented touchscreen, as they think that it is a better fit for the truck. Moreover, Cybertruck’s roof and trunk hood can be utilized in many ways starting from a tent and ending with anything that you can come up with. It is super flexible and multifunctional.

While possessing a big amount of cool features, Tesla still wants us to understand how quick Cyberstuck is on the road. There are three specs versions when it comes to motors: Single motor rear-wheel drive, dual-motor all-wheel drive, and tri-motor all-wheel drive. The single motor version would get you to 100 km/h in just 6,6 seconds, the dual-motor version would get you there in 4,7 seconds, and last but not least, the tri-motor version will get you there in just under 3 seconds! It is fast! Comparing it to Bugatti Veyron that gets to 100 kilometers in 2,6 seconds, like, come on, it is a TRUCK, not a super sportscar! There is no truck that can go that fast. What it truly means for people who would like to get Cybertrcuk for utility and work, that it has a huge torque that will help you get out of sticky situations.

It is important to acknowledge the bizarre design of the truck. It is true that Tesla went for a futuristic look with this one, and only time will tell if it is well-received. Now, people are making jokes about the design and ridiculing it on Twitter. However, Tesla does have a supportive argument that explains why would they go for such a design. Tesla officials say, that, in general, trucks are not that pretty nor stylish, and, because they are not, they lack good aerodynamic properties. Therefore, this style is achieving what normal gas-fueled trucks can’t achieve – speed, torque, and, well, style!

Let’s dive into the tech specs:

Specs Single RWD Dual AWD Triple AWD
Range 400 km 480 km 800 km
Storage 2,8 sq. m 2,8 sq. m 2,8 sq. m
Vault Length 2 m 2 m 2 m
Towing Cap 3,4 tons 4,5 tons 6,3 tons
Clearance 40 cm 40 cm 40 cm
Apprch. Angle 35 degrees 35 degrees 35 degrees
Dep. Angle 28 degrees 28 degrees 28 degrees
Starting Price ($) 39,900 49,900 69,900 (nice)

Ultimately, Tesla Cybertruck looks like a promising entry to the truck market and according to the 22nd of November, 2019, Tesla has reported that it has already received above 60,000 pre-orders in the U.S. alone. Thank you for reading, and I will see you in an upcoming blog post!

Souces:

  • https://tech.onliner.by/2019/11/22/cybertruck
  • https://www.tesla.com/cybertruck/design?redirect=no#battery
  • https://www.tesla.com/en_gb/cybertruck
  • https://edition.cnn.com/2019/11/22/cars/tesla-cybertruck-electric-pickup-truck/index.html
  • https://e.autokult.pl/35702,tesla-cybertruck-czyli-najdziwniejszy-pickup-swiata
  • https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-tesla-cybertruck-roasted-twitter-2019-11?IR=T
16 November 2019
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Instagram is starting to hide Likes globally

Reading Time: 2 minutes

 

Instagram is one of the most popular Social Media websites where you can share different photos and videos. Now, owned by Facebook, Instagram mainly follows Facebook’s rules and regulations regarding content.

 

Recently,  Instagram has been on a spree of improving privacy features, battling “like-bots” and fake accounts. In many studies, it has been discussed how social media and Likes specifically affect our mood and general well-being. Instagram, in pursue to combat that, recently has implemented a test version of their application where you would not be able to see a total number of likes/views on photos/videos that were posted to the Feed, unless they are your own. As of now, this privacy feature is limited to some regions and not every user has access to it. Yet, they are planning to release a global update in the upcoming days.

 

Instagram has gathered feedback from Brazil, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and Japan. So far, the results have been positive. As they state themselves, it is a fundamental change to Instagram environment. That is why they are taking it relatively slow to learn their global community as, they would think, that no everyone would be on good terms with the new feature.

 

Moreover, Instagram claims to understand that the View and Like counts can be extremely important for many people, including creators and artists. There have been several concerns regarding the feature and overall a global feedback has not been as nice as they claim it to be. Yet, Instagram seems to be really adamant about the feature and, personally, I really doubt that they would drop this idea. Truly speaking, this isn’t for the users’ benefit as it forces people to pay to use more of Instagram’s advertisement system. Yep, the things have not been too transparent here.

 

Another concern is that while Instagram tries to tackle users buying Likes, it does not tackle the problem of bot/fake accounts at all as prior to the feature, users who would buy followers on Instagram would not have the accompanied amount of likes. Therefore, creators who would use such services would not get sponsorships or deals from businesses and organizations. Now, when the Views and Likes count is gone and someone looks up an account with many followers, no one would know if those are paid for or genuine.

 

That’s it for today folks!

And do not forget to follow Kozminski Instagram account xD

 

Sources:

  • https://twitter.com/instagram/status/1195009164470181888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1195009164470181888&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftech.onliner.by%2F2019%2F11%2F15%2Finstagram-35
  • https://tech.onliner.by/2019/11/15/instagram-35
  • https://about.instagram.com/
  • https://instagram-press.com/
6 November 2019
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AI and Big Data to process your photos

Reading Time: 3 minutes

i Am gLitchinG

Greetings, my fellow readers and authors,

Today, I would like to touch upon another interesting topic that I deem to be SUPER interesting. Basically, there are different ways to process your pictures: Adobe Photoshop CC, CorelDraw, Gimp, and so on. Most of them use algorithms that are preloaded into the matrixes of the program. Yep, matrixes are why most graphic editors work. Anyhow, there is always a limitation to manual drawing techniques and people over the years have created many extensions and applications that can be enormously helpful when it comes to editing pictures. People wanted to find something new, something avant-garde. To be honest, that’s why most art styles created in the first place: a passion and desire for novelty and innovation.

 

And not much changed about it nowadays. In modern times, when technology is speeding forward, artists can’t ignore the progress and try to apply cutting edge technology to their artwork. Eventually, that is how Glitche was created. With a passion for glitch art, Vladimir Shreyder at  Glitche Ltd., a Russian lad who is now working in China, created the application for Apple iPhone back in 2016. Since then, the developer added plenty of new features that will come in handy for both professional and casual use. But recently it was announced that the developer is working on a new plugin or new application that now will fully support Big Data and Artificial Intelligence while processing your images. According to the company’s back-end developer Dmitry Yakovlev, the application already had the bits of machine learning and it still utilizes big data sets to create more refined images. Yet, as the new iPhone 11 came out with its promising potential with its U1 machine learning chip, the company claims that the presence of this chip on your iPhone’s motherboard is a huge factor when it comes to processing the image. As stated, the app would communicate with the host server to receive a finely refined image. Yes, it would work offline as well, but the quality would suffer. Therefore, the developers stress their accent on the fact that the U1 chip is the future of mobile image processing as well as giving a gradually deeper understanding for the developers who yet don’t know how powerful the AI and machine learning can be.

 

Please, find some of the examples attached. I can’t wait to get my hands on the new program, because I love this style and really wish there would be more options to create such stuff on-the-go.

 

Thanks a lot for reading! <3 UwU

 

Sources:

  1. http://www.virose.pt/vector/x_06/moradi.html
  2. http://www.josephinebosma.com/web/node/39
  3. http://jonas.do/assets/essays/glitch-art-jonasdowney.pdf
  4. https://sensortower.com/ios/us/glitche-ltd/app/glitche/634467171/overview
  5. http://glitche.com/
  6. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/glitch%C3%A9/id634467171
  7. https://www.producthunt.com/alternatives/glitche

 

28 October 2019
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$50 Trillion To Stop Global Warming and how you can prevent it today

Reading Time: 3 minutes
by Egor Fiodarau

We live in turbulent times; the rushes, the tempo, the rhythm; the grand pivot of the 21st century. While chasing our dreams and goals, we set up new aims for us to hit. In this head-spinning sprint to the profits, we often forget the most important factor: our habitat. The Earth. It raised humanity, mankind. It is the only mother of ours. She nurtured us and gave us all the means to become a civilization in the first place. Unfortunately, as she gets sicker and sicker, she stays quiet, while the storms of nature wipe her children from existence. As the Earth dies, the mother will bring her children with her. She will not judge us for killing her. She just would get slightly disappointed that whole this time we were killing ourselves.

Global warming is a rampant problem in this century. It is depressingly bad and here is why. Global warming occurs as more and more carbon dioxide, pollutants, and other gases enter the Earth’s atmosphere. They absorb sunlight and radiation emitted from the Sun instead of letting the atmosphere disperse it. Therefore, as it absorbs more and more “power,” it traps the heat which causes the planet to get hotter. It is known as a greenhouse effect. Do not underestimate it. Throughout history, there has been a balance between CO2 production and its absorption. Unfortunately, as mankind progresses and utilizes its time of being here on this planet to maximize pleasures and profit it created an uneven playing ground for this balance.

The battle is going strong and we as humanity are trying to do our best to eliminate global warming. Do we, though? According to several sources including Forbes and Bloomberg, such companies as Panasonic Corp., Rohm Co., Bloom Energy Corp., Neste Corp., and 29 more, might very well make huge profits from the upcoming apocalypse. While activists and NGOs fight for the cause, there are a bunch of players on the board who think that it is not that bad. Yet, it is terrifically bad. A simple tragedy of the commons is leading us to doomsday. Moreover, you can’t accuse someone of doing something, if he/she does nothing, right?

Let’s elaborate on the cost that is in the header of this article. Maybe, you are a big business boy whose only interest is in numbers and you do not really care about the gist of it. Therefore, let’s dive in and see a breakdown presented by Morgan Stanley:

  • Renewable power generation will require $14 trillion by 2050, including investments in energy storage.
  • With passenger cars currently pumping out about 7 % of greenhouse gas emissions, some $11 trillion will be needed to build factories, expand power capacity and develop the batteries and infrastructure needed to switch to electric vehicles.
  • Almost $2.5 trillion would be needed for technologies that capture carbon and store it.
  • About $5.4 trillion is needed for electrolyzers to make the gas, which can help provide clean fuel for power generation, industrial processes, vehicles, and heating. Besides, $14 trillion would be required to increase renewable energy capacity to power plants, transportation, and storage.
  • Almost $2.7 trillion should go into biofuels like ethanol, which are currently mixed with petroleum products but will spread eventually to areas such as aviation.

And it seems like it is only the tip of the iceberg. Sadly, unlike actual icebergs, this one won’t melt that easily. It is discussed by the experts that it can get exponentially worse with every upcoming year. Therefore, organizations like NRDC and UNEP are trying their hardest to prevent tragedy. Yet, it will not be enough, especially with corporations doing the Devil’s work. I wish there would be a way to help fight global warming right now…

Truly speaking, there is one! As of now, there is a campaign running by Mr. Beast‘s #TeamTrees in association with Arbor Day Foundation and U.S. Forest Service. Its goal is to raise global warming awareness and to actually stand up and do something about us killing the planet. According to the study published by #TeamTrees, there indeed are natural climate solutions as long as we take action. Therefore, they are gathering a whopping $20 million to plant 20 million trees by 2022.

 

All in all, climate change is terrifying, abysmal, alarming, grim, and… unstoppable? We will not make our mother Earth cry. We will save it. We will save ourselves.

If you enjoyed this article and willing to do your part in saving the planet, you can donate here.

 

Fair Use conditions apply. All sources are hyperlinked. The material and information presented in this article are for general information purposes only. You should not rely upon the material or information in the article for making any business, legal or any other decisions. 

 

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