Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Shutterstock list of acceptable video codecs

For while I got almost all my videos uploaded there rejected for wrong format. Canon EOS 5Dmk2 uses Quicktime format with h264 codec for video and uncompressed audio. The software I got, Magix Movie Edit 15, could really save it in this format. Every time I tried to rim something I could not convert it back to original format so I started looking for video transcoder. First find was MediaCoder . It does the job, saves movie with h264 video codec and given audio codec. It worked for many sites but failed on Shutterstock and AlwaysHD. Actually the second one suggested that I should use Photo-JPG or Motion-JPG codecs. MediaCoder does not support these formats but I found another great utility, MPEG Streamclip. It's really Quicktime format powerhouse. It can convert anything to Quicktime. I tried it and 3 movies previously rejected by Shutterstock got accepted. In meanwhile I got email exchange with Shutterstock customer support. Eventually they send me list of codecs they accept:


The format for acceptable codecs has changed to the following effective
October 31, 2008. Please adhere to these formats going forward.

Acceptable codecs:

0x00000000 0x10000001 0x10000002
cvid
dvsd DVSd dvc dvcp
MJPG AVRn ADVJ jpeg mjpa mjpb
DX50 DIVX MP42 FMP4 MP43 avc1 MPG4 M4S2 mp4v
rle
XVID

If you attempt to upload a format such as AVI (which was once acceptable
before) you will not be able to do so any longer.

My first EL sold on 123RF

Berry Creek Falls

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Satechi TRC-A

I was thinking about buying something better than Canon RS-80N3. Canon's TC80N3 is the only choice I was able to find and it is insanely expensive. Recently I found out that there is alternative available for 1/3 of the price. After reading review on Amazon I decided to give it a try.

TRC-A

When I unpacked unit it looked quite solid. Screen is quite big in comparison to TC80N3. First glitch was a connector, it did not click as easily as Canon's. Frankly I was not sure if it's save to push it hard. I did not want to damage pins on camera connector. It never seem to be pushed down entirely but apparently it does not matter. It works anyway. After this initial problem I was trying how it would work for time lapse video shooting. There is no big manual required. Reading instructions on single piece of paper once is enough to operate it. It does the job. I was not able to check all functions but I like what I have seen so far. I am not throwing away my old remote yet cause I want to check new one in more extreme weather conditions.

Friday, June 12, 2009

What optical slave for Vivitar 285HV?

I just got Vivitar 285HV. Nice flash, seems to be much higher quality than cheap Bower flash I returned same day it was deliwered.
Now I want to trigger it remotely. I got two optical slaves:

  1.  Wein Peanut PN. I tried with PC cable supplied with flash and directly and it does not seem like it works. It can fire flash randomly but most of the time is dead. I guess it has something todo with connector which does feel very tight when inderted directly into flash port.
    Wein Peanut PN

  2. Seagull SYK-4. It's actually hot shoe adapter with optical slave. It works much better than first one, at least when in direct line of sight.It triggers when flash is in hot shoe and connected thru PC cable. I did not make many tests to tell if it's 100% reliable.
    Seagull SYK-4

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Photo of the Day

Maya

10 images a day

Finally I decide to streamline my upload workflow. I have been using sitecopy for months but I was always manually picking files for upload before running it. I decided that it takes too much time. Script modifications allow me to run in from task scheduler at 1AM.

1. Pick 10 random files from my ready images (no repetitions from series should happen)
2. Upload with sitecopy to all the sites in the list
3. Move uploaded images to backup location (I am thinking about putting backup on Amazon S3)

In the morning it does not take long to submit 10 images on every site.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Canon EOS 5D Mark II Firmware v1.1.0 is Now Available

Canon EOS 5Dmk2
Firmware Version 1.1.0 incorporates the following improvements and fixes.

1. Includes a function to enable the manual exposure setting when shooting movies.
2. For details on how to use this function, please download the PDF files from the bottom of this page. Disables the function of the depth-of-field preview button when images are played back or when the menu screen is displayed on the LCD panel.
3. Fixes a phenomenon where the peripheral illumination of images cannot be properly corrected, even if the images were captured with the lens peripheral illumination correction function set to Enable.
4. Digital Photo Professional software version 3.6.1 or later (for Windows and Macintosh) can be used to automatically correct the peripheral illumination of RAW and JPEG images that were captured in the Peripheral illumination correction setting with cameras that have Firmware Version 1.0.7 or earlier. Fixes the algorithms of the Auto Lighting Optimizer function when Custom Function C.Fn II-3 Highlight tone priority is enabled.
5. Fixes incorrect indications on the Arabic, Romanian, Spanish, and Ukrainian menu screens.
6. Changes the battery information displayed on the camera when using the optional Battery Grip BG-E6.

Firmware Version 1.1.0 is for cameras with firmware up to version 1.0.7. If the camera's firmware is already version 1.1.0, it is not necessary to update the firmware.

Download: Firmware Update Version 1.1.0

May 2009 earnings breakdown

Basically all my top 5 under performed this month. Some are barely above 50% of last month some are even 30%. On the other hand Fotolia and IStock did better than usual but both are still below 5% of my earnings. Other slow earners like SV or CS did well too. I guess it's easy to double when you are so low :-)


May May/Apr
SS 50.86% 61.89%
DT 14.66% 32.29%
SXP 13.08% 53.99%
123RF 9.19% 24.46%
FT 4.64% 153.85%
IS 3.78% 159.80%
SV 1.63% 175.00%
CS 1.55% 200.00%
BS 0.39% 25.00%
CSP 0.23% 1.52%
Total 46.64%


may2009microstock.png