Month: July 2020

How to calculate battery charging time

On 21 July 2020

I have written many articles on different products, and batteries are a topic that comes back often.

There are questions that are often the subject of myths and legends, and charging is a hotly debated topic.

A battery is an object capable of accumulating a difference in potential through the chemistry. When charging a battery you work on these elements, so charging must be done correctly to avoid fires, flames, explosions, etc. etc.

Extremely fast charging should be avoided, because it is "said to ruin" batteries when much more heat is generated which alters the chemical elements.
The charging phase is the moment in which the potential difference is restored with the delivery of an x value of Ampere.
The higher the amperage and the faster the battery is recharged (within a certain limit otherwise it will be damaged), this process generates a more or less contained overheating and / or an alteration of the chemical components which must be avoided.
Calculating the recharge time of a battery is very empirical and imprecise, both because most chargers do not deliver a constant current, but as the battery is close to the maximum charge they progressively reduce the current supplied, and because the cells according to of their life, wear and structure can accumulate the current in a non-regular way.

The theory is:
max battery charge (ampere) / battery charger charge (ampere)
= charging hours

Example: 6600mA battery / charger from 600 mA = 11 hours approximately
So if we talk about large batteries we can understand why a battery takes so long to be charged.

Therefore depending on the battery charger, there will be different times and recharges, also many chargers recharge at different times depending on the number of batteries that are connected.

I use a Patona charger, which according to the applied power and the number of batteries applied, the charging times are different.

Different charging values are available depending on the USB charger connected :
In 9v 2A
out 1500mA for one batt / 1000mA for two batts

In 5v2.4A
out 1000mA for one batt / 700mA for two batts

so we have charging times of approx
4.4 h / 6.6 h - 6.6 h / 9.4 h

Obviously we are talking about a theoretical calculation, assuming that you have a completely discharged battery, constant charging, recent and "young" cells.

The discussion is not born to have precise data, but rather to have a practical work reference.

If we use a battery to power a spotlight for 2-3 hours and it takes ten to recharge this battery, in order to work continuously we will need more battery kits for each headlight..

12k ? more tech innovation behind

By carlomacchiavello

On 18 July 2020

In Techinque

On July 16, 2020 Grant Petty, CEO and founder of Bmd presents a new camera that will revolutionize many paradigms, from here to the next few years.

Faced with a market saturated with products that is looking to 8k, the result of three years of development was presented: the Ursa Mini Pro 12k.

Immediately the fights between fanboys and haters of various factions started, from those who complain about the price (a price of a products that was presented by Petty as a product designed for the Hi-end market) to the fact that 12k doesn't needs, etc etc.

In all this fuss the real revolutions have been lost, developments that start from high-end, but which for sure will open new developments even to the cheapest rooms.

Blackmagic sensor

The camera has the first custom Blackmagic Design sensor with a structure without bayer matrix, therefore each pixel has three photoreceptors, each for a Green, Blue and Red plus White light.

This factor means that it is capable of:

1. Sensor without matrix of Bayer = Bye bye Red Patent on the compressed raw
2. Capture scaling WITHOUT crop, so the 12k sensor is able to generate a lower resolution braw file without pixel binning, but with the quality and aliasing of the original sensor.
  So the camera also records 4k and many other combinations of resolution.
3. Resolution from 12k 60fps up to 220 fps in 4k raw (those looking for them had to go to Phantom, now they have an alternative).
4. On such a high resolution even the highest ISO shots will be usable because the most obvious defects will disappear in downscaling.

Braw 2.0 and color science 5

1. Newer Color Science 5 which improves the images which is backwards compatibility with the previous cameras with the Braw.
  It is possible to apply this Color Science 5 to other cameras, to shooting already made (beta of Resolve and the new Braw 2.0 already available).
2. Braw 2.0 provides split recording on multiple media to overcome the recording limits of current media.
3. Braw 2.0 adds new compression flavors such as 18: 1, Q1 and Q3, to optimize even more space and quality
4. Braw 2.0 is so optimized that it allows the 12k stream even on very modest machines, and today the Braw is also available for non-Blackmagic Design machines such as C300 mkII, Eva1, Sigma FP.
5. In the new Color science 5 the cameras have an equal log curve for each ISO, this means that it will be easier to create look LUTs that work more easily through different shots.
  
  Obviously this machine was born for the cinema and not for the independent, also because it is sold with PL attachment (cinema optics connection) and only on request is the attachment for EF.
  
  I would be curious to find and check in the specifications of the EF lenses which has the appropriate resolution for this resolution.
  The cost of the camera is not a problem considering that the ecosystem of lenses to rent will cost when the camera body.
  
  What I want to focus on is the iceberg behind the announcement where the developed technologies will bring blackmagic Design far ahead in the next few years.

Covid19 – 6 – All Webcam

By carlomacchiavello

On 10 July 2020

In Techinque

Even if many people think that it is all over, they pretend not to hear the numbers that, although lowered, are still higher, especially in many countries.
Even if they have transformed the masks into fashion, using them badly, or not using them, we will have to live together with virus for more long time and "virtual presence" is an increasingly important factor in all communication jobs.
The webcams in general are "rubbish" even by spending a lots of money, with a thousand problems, low-level lenses, etc.

I have already done an article on how to transform your Iphone or your Android into a web cam, but today we raise the quality needle.

In the last two months the various camera manufacturers have released "miraculous" firmware that allow everyone to use them as a webcam, with obvious improvements in quality, performance and above all control over all the working parameters.

Canon released this software for EOS-1D X Mark II, EOS-1D X Mark III, EOS 5D Mark IV, EOS 5DS, EOS 5DS R, EOS 6D Mark II, EOS 7D Mark II, EOS 77D, EOS 80D, EOS 90D, EOS Rebel SL2, EOS Rebel SL3, EOS Rebel T6, EOS Rebel T6i, EOS Rebel T7, EOS Rebel T7i, EOS Rebel T100, EOS M6 Mark II, EOS M50, EOS M200, EOS R, EOS RP, G5X Mark II, G7X Mark III, SX70 HS

Nikon released this tutorial on their web in order to use the cameras as a webcam

FujiFilm has released software per le X-H1, X-Pro2, X-Pro3, X-T2, X-T3, X-T4, GFX100, GFX 50S, GFX 50R

GoproHero 8 has released software

Sony has not yet released such a thing, but with additional software it is possible, I put here a link to a tutorial

For Windows and Mac it is possible to use these cameras as a Webcam, the great innovations of computer science come from necessity ... maybe ..

Or maybe I remember that my first Webcam was a fuji, in the early 2000s.

A FujiFilm bridge almost 20 years ago already allowed to use it as a webcam ... vabbeh come on

I'm the only one who remembers it in 2020 😛