Fortress Of Freedom Board

[Maurice Ali]

So the long story short is that the long awaited iPhone fix for masks worked for me while out and about. It will work for you if you have an iPhone 12 or iPhone 13.





The two editors seem to be set up and running but the old Avid editor seems to be handling the 4K at 30fps playback better in the editor than the other. This is probably because Avid transcodes it to their editing codec so the import is slower but using it going forward is easier. So while Davinvi Resolve is faster to start working you have a more awkward time using it in the actual editor. However, these are earlier days yet.



So I decided to check out the old camcorders and maybe the old HDV Canon and see if it could still be of use. However I still needed tapes for that of device so the stores no longer stock them and I used this local platform called Kajiji to see is anyone was selling them. On women had two old but unused DVCAM tapes and so we met and got them for 20 bucks but they were for a full sized broadcast camcorders, but that was my mistake so I just paid for them. Now this girl sold it but at the hand-off it was her and this suspicious guy/boyfriend that I met. Anyway that was a fail.



So I saw another ad for mini DV tapes and fixed on a price. The first transaction was just a few blocks away but this one was a half hours drive up north. I get there to this high-end home and this pimply faced kid appears and we make the transaction. So I have more tapes and the iPhone and a camcorder - progress! All the is stuff happened for free or for little money. The urge is to shell out a few thousand for a decent camera but the phone is so good you can’t justify it. In fact you only neeed the camcorder for proper zoom so at least I have that. But I have no project to do - so I have no need for any equipment.



The whole up-swing of all this is that things seem to be happening again. Even that fiasco with the tapes was interesting and a dry run for stuff going forward.



In other news:




SCT Tuner!



I finally took the Mustang out on the road for a drive. It’s a completely different experience from the Buick. It’s karma that the diehard V8 and solid rear axle guy ends up with a V6 Mustang and independent suspension with aluminum panels. The Gods must be chucking at that one.



Anyway the warranty on the car ends in a few months and I can do as I please with the thing. I have a device (SCT Tuner) that attaches to the car’s computer and I have alternative tunes to get more performance. You want the older tuners like mine as the States have made the companies cripple features due to environmental concerns and have cracked down on tuning specialists tuning cars that run without catalytic converters or bypass environmental engine checks on diesel engines. First thing is to remove the speed governor so I can go the full 157mph top speed if I want. Probably will never go that fast but I can if I want. The new tires I put on are rated for 150mph so it is possible without killing yourself. So that is the first thing.






I like the way the car drives so maybe I will just keep it mostly as is. I got it the last year they were produced. Ford wanted to sell the new turbo 4 version as foreign taxaction made the six too expensive to sell alongside the V8. So they made the V6 unattractive compared to the four cylinder that was tweaked to death. They gave the horsepower rating on 87 octane at 300 instead of on 93 like for the V8 and the turbo 4. They didn’t offer any options like performance suspension or upgraded tires, so for 0-60, quarter mile and track tests journalists had to do it with the narrow all season tires while the other cars had sticky steamrollers - just laughable! The car is faster than the four in all metrics on proper premium gas and better tires. The top speed is 8 miles per hour faster and I never saw a four break 150mph. With race gas and a tune we get nearly 350 horsepower from the thing with no changes at all to the car and we close the gap on the V8 in top speed as the aerodynamics of the Mustang always seems to limit it to 164.



So the Fates stuck me with this car instead of a Corvette as I make the advocacy plays. The new V8 engines on the Mustang are failure prone crap anyway and nobody keeps those cars for long (like engine replacement after 10,000 miles) while I’m coming up on 5 years!



Anyway, that’s your update.




Goodnight…..





https://youtu.be/EtnJhGupgnA

[Maurice Ali]

The big news of the day is that I am now registered for the 60th Session of the Commission for Social Development. That starts Monday and I have freed up two weeks to participate at this year’s event.








As you know, we submitted a written statement to the UN about our concept of a new Global Social Contract at the United Nations with the end result being “Third House” at the UN devoted to all individuals on earth voting on global issues that affect us all. One-person-one-vote for everyone on earth through their smartphones. The voting results would be used as a marker of global sentiment about issues globally that affect us all, and guide international policy at the UN amongst member nations.




https://undocs.org/Home/Mobile?FinalSymbol=E%2FCN.5%2F2022%2FNGO%2F37&Language=E&DeviceType=Mobile



This is truly new and it won’t exactly be welcomed. As I pine about minor mistakes in my statement, realize that hardly anyone will look at the statement or claim they looked at the statement, but it is important to me that the idea be disseminated as it has been, and disseminated by an ordinary individual working an ordinary job living an ordinary life as almost all 7.7 billion people on earth do.







I’m no politician, and I’m no professor - I’m just a member of the general public that somehow made it though the gates of the place that is the international vortex of power and influence globally and as an ordinary person I’m asking to have a voice for all in global decision making and I have the practical model to make it a reality.



You here who read this are witnessing something special, it doesn’t mean that it will work, but special in that an ordinary person occupying the lowest rungs of society is advocating and presenting a new Global Social Contract on the world’s stage. I would not change a thing including the mistakes and such in that written statement. It is what it is, coming from the hand of an ordinary person typing it in his bedroom on the ground - a common person of the world - now a global citizen. I am my own person and a slick perfect statement would raise suspicion some nation or other entity was behind this, but no, the statement came from little old me and sent from an old used computer with outdated software.


Reality is not perfect but raw and real. And everything I do at the United Nations ring true to what I am all about. I am nobody’s puppet, I work on my own as a lone wolf. If the idea gets positive reaction others will come in but the dissemination has to be pure and remain pure and that is why I have shunned many others so far. Until the concept becomes a normal talking point I will be the only one to bear the result of failure. However if it does not fail the concept is for everyone as it was always meant to be. This upcoming session is just another step fulfilling this strategy and play.



Anyway it starts up again next Monday.





Goodnight…..





https://youtu.be/gIOHSAfJ4_s

[Maurice Ali]

The weather is affecting what I do as another snow storm supposedly is coming.



Im listening to music and I don’t discriminate. I listen to it all which is a good thing for the label. We are post-experiment but still in the pandemic. As the boss all I can do is set parameters for the music and I have no parameters!



I can go from Russian Hardbass or Japanese Math Rock to Death Core and even ClownCore (but you have to be a fan of this genre). I’m quite surprised at how boring most people are in their musical tastes - and I’m a guy who never listened to music. I really started out with the label because we needed it for the experiment. Now I’m ensconced in it all sneering at the absolutely boring, dry, predictable and famished wasteland of musical selection most have when right now - you can have it all! Do you really need to be told what to listen to?



I guess so…..




Goodnight…..






https://youtu.be/RXGwVJCdV6A


https://youtu.be/6Gha9xrM10w


https://youtu.be/dmFgAMTEg0E

[Maurice Ali]

Shovelling snow at my dad’s and the shovelling snow at my house, rinse and repeat tomorrow…..



I’ll register for some zoom meetings at the United Nations for the next two weeks. I don’t apply immediately as these meetings are very important for some and some of these meeting have numerical limits, so I hang back a bit for those that really need to be there and then I apply and if I get in I get in, and if not then the people who need to be there get to be there.



I need to get to Saturday but the weather has other ideas. I will also move just a little bit and start posting photos on some of my Instagram accounts. I’ve changed two of my accounts to the positive mandate and global social contract names with a link to each website and here they are:



a_global_social_contract

positive_mandate_for_humanity



My personal account is actually here, so those accounts now promote the two most important advocacy messages for me personally. I posted a photo of Leonard Nimoy and his actual son both with Vulcan ears on one. The other photo is a regular land-line phone headset attached to a cellphone for use like an old fashioned phone - yes these actually exist! We shall see how that goes with more activity…..




Goodnight…..






https://youtu.be/C_XkTKoDI18

[Maurice Ali]

Another morning shovelling snow.



Years and years ago this one professor was writing about the psychological impact of climate change on people - now I know what he means! For the past two to three weeks all I have been doing is shoveling snow. Right now I shoveled my dad’s driveway after another “snow event” and just finished my driveway. That’s my morning - just shoveling snow.



All I’m saying is that as climate change brings extreames in weather, it really does have an effect on you. Just read the previous posts and you will see why. Family members shut in and bored because they can’t go anywhere due to the weather, and just dealing with the climate wears you down emotionally and the the snow - physically! So it looks like the man was right all these decades ago and while I chuckled then - I ain’t chucking now!




Food for thought…..



In other news I have two weeks off and will relax and participate in the 60th Session of the Commission for Social Development. Hopefully a respite from the snow also!




Goodnight…..





https://youtu.be/XP3RkDEGiXY

[Maurice Ali]

Ok, it’s the start of a two week vacation - if I can even call it a vacation - and I am relaxing listening to Namika a brown German girl from Frankfurt who has a usual German stage name but also a more secret Arabic name. It’s just weird watching her do a music video in Morocco and singing about it in German.




Me and my Oma!



I was raised as a baby by a expat-Germans who fled the country just before the Allies took over. The bizarre part is that as they took over, those who fled actually fled to the very countries that were taking over in the last days of WW2. How bizarre is that? My brother in law who was West German came from a town the Canadians flattened when they rolled over the place in the last days of WW2.




Me and my Oma!



Anyway, they treated me as one of their own, literally my case. Changed my diapers and bottle fed me. Sang German nursery school rhymes I later learned as well as potty trained me and learned how to walk. The first words out of my mouth were German and my first language was German. Those were good times filled with love and I even shared a bed with a cute German girl in those days! All of that flies in the face of what you would expect, yet it is what it is.



So I jive to the musical stylings of this singer, for example. Nothing is ever what it seems. Anyway, those formative years probably were vital to me as it hardened my psych in ways that prevented me from truly feeling inferior as most in my social situation would end up as at the time. (Like hardening a kernel in an electronic device) My Oma must of known what I was in store for as a cute character like me in the future, and she mothered me right. It is what it is and I guess I really had an unusual childhood that paid dividends later in life…..



Dividends later in life?









Well the UN stuff starts next week. Frankly I’m surprised that they haven’t kicked me out of the United Nations, though I’m careful not to grossly violate their protocols. My ideas are way out there but backed by empirical evidence and easily made if there is the will to do it. Sony and Namika play it safe not showing any obviously German love interests in her videos. The fact we do not play it safe is a way to attract new upcoming talent that may feel restricted in the major labels. Considering her audience, I would have been much more daring.



I’ve been pestering my gang as to how comfortable they are globetrotting for some small upstart label and so far things are looking up. Things are looking up for those not yet in my gang but soon will be - they just don’t know it yet…..



But successful record labels are now truly international. Gone is the old business model where local acts stay local with local radio play and local concerts. The musical landscape has changed. The old business models have become irrelevant, the only way forwards seems to be international. I flip-flop as to what to do with the label, but there is possibility and opportunity as we are one of the last independent corporate labels left in Canada. Right now we have done it all and the only difference between us and Sony is scale…..




Goodnight…..





https://youtu.be/3ryohiCVq3M


https://youtu.be/HTl_EBJeD4s

[Maurice Ali]

The vacation begins.



I started Saturday by running errands like groceries and the debugging the iPhone running iOS 15.4 Beta software. Primary (eSim) and secondary (Sim) would get confused making calls from web-links impossible and paste to dial screen did not work - works now. The not authorized to play purchased music now works. Battery health since the software installed dropped from 96-92% in little over a week, but don’t fret as this is only a guesstimate and the real battery would not decay this fast. Right now the phone works properly so I may keep it for awhile. The big score was FaceID with a mask and glasses on. Sorting all that out was a score because this phone is an extension of my life like everyone else’s.



More of this home-front work in the two weeks ahead. Finally a real vacation of sorts. Me going to New York as usual would seem like a vacation, but you were always waiting to give a speech or presentation and that took away from total relaxation. This is more relaxation and when you go back to normal like the winter is almost over!



To the music I’m looking at new ways to build a following and one of the best examples is Salvatore Ganacci. This Swedish/Bosnian DJ made his first splash in Europe with the music video “Horse” and kept making music videos and shorts to keep interest up. He looks at the world differently and people love it that way. Of course I also look at the world differently but few seem to care - not being Swedish and not having a leading man face does have its disadvantages…..




Goodnight…..






https://youtu.be/NkRkuI0ZgX0


https://youtu.be/NaFjLZvRNFU


https://youtu.be/9ZTkHYJ3r-Y


https://youtu.be/VFbGOW5zbnY


https://youtu.be/cxDBCvPnv40

[Maurice Ali]

So it has started…..




Daniela Bas finishing her speech!



The 60th Session of the Commission for Social Development has begun. This year the opening was held in the UN’s General Assembly Hall. It was a spartan affair due to the pandemic but it reminded me of how far l have gone. I know that particular famous place as I spent two full days there right behind the State of Palestine. I even knew some of the people giving speeches there like Daniela Bas (United Nations Director of the Division for Inclusive Social Development / Department of Economic and Social Affaires) who I have met personally and whom I have the utmost respect for as a person and her abilities to make the world a better place. All this very familiar to me and yet a million miles away it seems these past two years.




The General Assembly Hall at the UN!




It’s funny, I had fantasies of this “Man of the World” business as a kid doing exactly what I am doing now - fantasy turned into flesh. Even so, the play for the UN was much more modest at the start of the experiment. But I just kept leapfrogging over the previous goals, resetting new goals to the point where we are now - with the Positive Mandate and a new Global Social Contract formally disseminated there! Didn’t see that coming at the beginning.


The pandemic sort of scuttled some things and really not impacted others. The Positive Mandate came off without a hitch in 2019 but disseminating the worldwide vote formally took two years, but the new Global Social Contract got formally disseminated within a year of publication of the book by the same name. And given the pandemic it was disseminated the only way possible.


So things are still in motion and fluid. As much as the pace bothers me, it really is going as fast as it can. For you people in your 20s remember how fast the years of your life will get as you get older and slow down. Seriously, for those in their late twenties realize I started the experiment just fourteen more years into your current future - and everything went my way - and I’m still actively driving the thing and look at how old I am now. Your life will pass you by quicker than you think. Believe it or not, you will look back on those years later and realize how short a time it really was from where you are now to where I am now. I’m not as old as you would think. And because of that the early life choices you will make - may be life choices you can’t take back. And your life will be played out without a chance to start over. You may think you have all the time in the world - but - I’m here to tell you it ain’t as much time as you think.



Just remember, everything went my way for 20 years and I am still struggling with time and having enough of it to do what I have to do! Time has dominion over all…..




Goodnight…..






https://youtu.be/5IsSpAOD6K8

[Maurice Ali]

Tuesday is downloading and updating all the computers.







Monday, after the UN stuff was buying a new strap for my Apple Watch. If I like it I’ll keep it as is but if I get tired of it I steal a screw from it and fix the stainless steel leather strap I love! Also while at the mall I spotted a new five dollar bin full of new DVDs at Walmart - so I picked though it and got eight movies. DVDs may be on the way out but that score made my day!





l will also throw out a lot of old clothing as all it does is make looking for the good stuff more difficult. Yes, this is turning into a real vacation.





Side events start at the UN and these I leave to those with less funds to get their ideas out there. Apart from travel and accommodations you pay for the conference room and video and all sorts of things there. It’s actually a few thousand to do it properly, so for those without this kind of cash - this year’s side event is for you…..





Reality is creeping in. Even if successful in setting up the third house - it could take twenty years - I will be a senile old man by then. I did what I needed to do and more. Plus I’m still pushing further than I ever expected. This year they are talking ways to eliminate global poverty. Anywhere outside of the UN such a discussion does not matter, means nothing, but at the United Nations it does matter and can be done! When they talk about eliminating world poverty, they do it with a straight face as it could happen there. That is what is so cool about these plays. My worldwide vote idea was disseminated at the UN with a straight face on my part and it was received with a straight face, not in a positive way but I was taken seriously! This is not so much a snub for me as a realization I can provoke change, even if the chance is small it is still a possibility and available to only to a select few. Unlike anyone I have met in my life, The Fates have given me this!



The Positive Mandate was the big reveal and my contribution to the library of knowledge. As a philosopher this is what we all want, and even though I’m out of academia I am sure my contemporaries would call me a philosopher now given my body of work. Of course I want more so you just keep pushing the agenda forward. I have no idea what awaits me but I’m sure many philosophers at a university teaching courses about other philosophers wouldn’t mind changing places with me right now. Since the ideas are out there they may actually be better qualified to take it forward - or maybe they would just compromise it all away - always that possibility. Nobody knows the future…..




Goodnight…..





https://youtu.be/L6yt7_NFAuM

[Maurice Ali]

Well I started Wednesday with an 8:30 zoom meeting about poverty. The cool thing was seeing people there talk about ordinary people on the ground have a say in international policy making as well as the people on top - a revised social contract where each individual must think of the others. Hum, where have we heard this before? Anyways these things are disseminated like a virus and the worldwide vote and Positive Mandate were disseminated in February 2017, or five years ago at the United Nations. You can find it in all its original glory at the UN here:






https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1r/k1r09ten8r



Note that I was almost talking to the cameras alone as few wanted to be seen with me in person at that time. Anyway it was live streamed. Now however people are musing about it - the worldwide vote letting everyone on earth have a say in global issues. You will also see at the end of the side-event that I slipped in the Positive Mandate. I did that as at the time President Trump was restricting brown people from entering the States so I figured I should get it all out there just in case.





Maurice Ali of IAIJ hosting our side event!



Anyway that was five years ago - see how that works you young people and how long it takes for things to happen! Anyway the 60th session of the Commission for Social Development continues. And ideas spread like viruses taking hold and taking their time sometimes…..




Our worldwide voting demonstration table at the event!



In other news: I updated all my computers on Tuesday and none of them qualify for Windows 11 and for me that is a good thing! Wednesday sees the last of our source videos go into our editors and those tapes just sit now till they degrade. The new clips will probably be recorded on 4K 30fps and stored that way but processed by each editor as it sees fit. I’ll take out the family and go through the motions. Getting my house in order!




Goodnight…..

[Maurice Ali]

A memorable day!



So the big present for my vacation is to hear the talking points and sentiments I espoused five years ago slowing becoming talking points at the United Nations. First was me literally all by myself making the case for a worldwide vote at the UN and slyly getting the Positive Mandate in there at the end. I even made this Formal Demand on behalf of everyone on earth for the right to participate there as individuals - and when was the last time you ever heard something like that at the UN - almost crazy stuff going on there! I think we had 8-10 people there in Conference Room 8 and that included the AV guy - and thanks for those brave enough to at least be there. Technically NGOs aren’t even supposed to get lavish rooms like what I got and I basically got it all to myself to make my demand for all of humanity to publicly participate there - a rather unusual situation - but I now would not change a thing! Anyway, it was live streamed so you got annonimity if you wanted it! But that was five years ago and you knew the plan was to disseminate at the highest levels and have it become common taking points as the idea spreads like a virus. It spreads like a virus written word to word and mouth to mouth. In the end nobody knows the origin but I have a strong case that it was probably me.




A well known figure at the UN critiques the presentation and the issues!



Anyway I’m owning it as I have empirical proof. In 2017 I was a pariah for bringing this idea out into the open, But I knew that and being the antisocial type I am - I was purpose made for this type of dissemination. Plus people there making things difficult for me and glancing sideways at me and smirking as they knew the group had it in for me - always that! Then those people jumping up and down and gesticulating wildly at the fracas I caused. This was after my successful formal oral statement and side event about the Positive Mandate in 2019, so they were not about to let me make a similar compelling speech about the Worldwide Vote and how easy that would be at the United Nations. We did get the Worldwide Vote written statement to the United Nations in 2021 though and now the new Global Social Contract and possible Third House at the UN in 2022. Having status at the UN is nice, but I can’t make it stop us disseminating important concepts and ideas that are good for all of humanity, just so that I keep my nice blue UN grounds pass…..




So progress even though I’ve become an old man in the end. My radar was up for these subtle nuances in discussion but the change in tone is obvious than when I first came to the UN. Was the time and cost worth it in the end as many worried about that: HELL YES!!!!!




The watch with my favourite strap attached!




In other news: I’m watching one movie after another. Too many to list but there was John Wick, and last night was Colour From Outer Space with Nicholas Cage and then The Meg. The Apple Watch now has its stainless steel and leather strap fixed by cannibalizing the strap I bought a couple of days ago - this is good news! More good news is the the second Beta for the iPhone fixes the problem I had with iTunes and the phone is now fully functioning. A good day…..




Goodnight…..





https://youtu.be/JaaT_HRb4GU

[Maurice Ali]

A quickie…..



Doing taxes and contemplating the future. Contemplating the future when young is fun - not so fun when you get older.



More later..

[Maurice Ali]

Ok I been quiet but have come to a decision regarding all of our operations.



We will continue all operations as planned. I did a zero based review while I had a lot of time to myself. The music continues but the video productions were waking the plank. I’ve decided to keep going with video productions. This means buying a working camcorder right now! I think I’m going with the Canon XA50. It has the one inch sensor for low light settings - been there and done that - I know what I need! The competing Sony fell off the list and then the Panasonic. This shopping took several days and included true movie cameras. But to do anything they cost used from 3 grand stripped to 12 thousand just to capture any video. Three grand was my limit for a camcorder that just sat on a tripod at the office. We will use it for music videos along with cellphones like my iPhone 12 ProMax. Also for club shoots and reviewing new acts and current act performances.


The old days of shooting for broadcast don’t exist anymore. Even things like our movie that premiered at a real stand alone theatre and then streaming on Prime - those days are no more. Prime is set to replace Netflix sooner than later as the premiere streaming platform and Prime no longer really has indie on there anymore - in other words you can’t get on without a distributor and curation. We were lucky to have a traditional distribution all the way to end up on YouTube - but again, those days are gone.



I was so close to giving up on video, but what was I doing all this past week? Watching movies and how they were made. If fact just before punching out this I was watching third camera outtakes of filming Deepwater Horizon as I ate breakfast. So in the war of “heart vs. wallet” the heart won out and with the new camcorder the video and movie productions at FOF, FOF Entertainment, and even FOF Films remain intact. The store opens at 11:00am and if they have stock I will buy. I don’t know why I’m so excited! This is the wrong move financially - but the heart wins this time as financially I’m ok now.




Goodnight…..





https://youtu.be/M4lTRyg--CU

[Maurice Ali]

I bought the Canon XA50 camcorder!







Sorry for the delay but the time was spent making sure the thing worked. Right now everything is in limited supply and hard to get. I wanted to get the smaller and cheaper Canon XA40, but every one of them was sold or sold out and on order. Vistek did have the XA50 but more expensive. This camcorder did have the one inch after sensor which should aid in low light, plus it had dual axis auto focus which is way better and so on. It was the lowest cost camcorder that gets you to Canon’s prosumer devices. The XA55 and the older XF400/405 have the same body and sensors and specs but add SDI out and WIFI/FTP connectivity, but image acquisition is the same. The XF camcorders can do 4K 60fps, but since the guts for all including mine are the same - this just seems to be an artificial limitation for me and maybe enabled in a future firmware update. So it’s a thousand more in price but way better in performance. When I got it it was 50 bucks over my three grand limit with taxes but that’s good enough - best “bang for the buck” - I could muster.







So I bought it, thankful they actually had a new unit in stock. I was almost tempted to get a full sized Sony for another thousand or two grand over the original camcorder I was after, but a quick web search showed it lousy in low light. Same for Panasonic. I have to to speculate the reason why Canon is better in low light is that they cater to the wedding and events crowd that need low light performance and the others and specifically Panasonic, cater to the amateur filmmaker. In any event all the other consumers whined about low light performance. I need low light performance as I do a lot of shooting in bars and night clubs and exteriors in the club district in the middle of the night. The “vampire population” as they like to call themselves. In fact the Canon XA50 was the only camcorder in my range that got any praise for low light capabilities. That sold it for me as any other shortcomings are just conversation, low light performance is hyper critical!




So I’m not taking the camcorder back for a refund! Outside the store I assembled it to make sure everything was there. You see, there are big time anti-vaccination protests going on here downtown and I am not returning that day for any reason. However I put it together and so I took off, and not a moment too soon as the freeway into downtown was now a parking lot, but going out was truly the open road. The battery was completely drained but a charging showed most things working that I knew how to work. I had a bitch of a time finding a shotgun microphone stubby enough for this machine and so stole the old Sony SD camcorder’s mic and put it on the Canon. This thing had been sitting for 15 years and the styrofoam diffuser was literally disintegrating and shedding on the camcorder. But at least that now functions. I decided this camcorder was a keeper and started looking around for a UV filter to put on as protection.


Again even screw on filters are in short supply and I got the last one in town my size! It barely fits inside Canons lens hood but it all fits now and works.



That’s where it stands as of now. I’ll fiddle around with it for the next week when I get bored of doing taxes. For now though, video production is very much alive again at FOF - funny how a small purchase like that can tilt a decision to keep going - but there you are! So in 4K: both my iPhones and a Samsung can shoot that, and a Nikon DSLR and the old Canon XH-A1 can shoot in HD. That’s enough for us now and we are back into it all…..


I actually had a decent supper with some red wine watching more production extras on DVD. Decisions made and new toys to play with. Not a bad weekend halfway through the vacation.



Back to taxes though!




Goodnight…..





https://youtu.be/JRljuKxr6KI

[Maurice Ali]

Almost finished testing everything out in the camera but so far so good.



I thought that the battery was a dud but just needed recharging. I Thought the carry handle was DOA but I just had to shove it in as far as it would go. I used the stubby short mic from the Sony, but 18 years old had the wind diffuser flaking off on the camera and lens. So I got lucky and found a short stubby Sennheiser that fits perfectly! I also got a B+W lens protector that I screwed on tight and will stay on there probably for the life of the camcorder.



First test of the video on my large monitor looks good. For once I don’t really have buyer’s remorse as I got the cheapest camcorder that uses the same sensor up to their highest 10,000 dollar camcorders for us ordinary humans to purchase. This is fun for me on vacation as strange as it would seem to others and this one’s a keeper…..





Lest anyone think I’m just camcorders - my Nikon DSLR setup!



As I pay this one off I will now keep an eye out for a used but not abused cinema camera. Just the body first and then add the rest bit by bit unless I get lucky. We probably have a few more projects at FOF - and see how a decision and purchase can change things! And not for much money either…..



Goodnight…..





https://youtu.be/hahBgDUESjE