NEWS & OPINION BLOG

LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., August 31, 2010 – Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging, today announces the new Canon XF105 and XF100 Professional Camcorders for mobile HD video capture in a compact form factor. Canon’s smallest professional camcorders, the new XF105 and XF100 utilize the same Canon XF Codec featured in the Canon XF305 and XF300, introduced earlier this year. The Canon XF Codec is an MPEG-2 4:2:2 50Mbps codec used for exceptional high-definition image quality, full non-linear editing (NLE) systems compatibility and efficient, robust workflow. These camcorders include in-camera features enabling the easy set-up and capture of high-definition 3-D video when two XF105 or XF100 camcorders are paired, as well as Canon’s built-in infrared low-light feature enabling the capture of HD video in complete darkness. Both models record to Compact Flash (CF) cards and feature hot-swappable card slots for maximum performance. Differentiating the two models are industry-standard HD-SDI output and genlock in/SMPTE time code (in/out) terminals available on the Canon XF105. The XF105 and XF100 camcorders are ideal for Electronic News Gathering, documentary and independent filmmaking and event videography.

Official Press Release

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SUNPAK PRO 523 TRIPOD 9-1-2010

UNMANNED SURVEILLANCE UPDATE - 8-23-2010 by Johnston Blakley

So far I have tried several units and there has been no Halleluiah moment.
I'm only looking for tiny micro size (baby finger size) units and deck of card size units.
I don't want motion/sound activation and I do want 20 to 30 fps of smooth video.
I have found a very nice lay-down-configuration finger size unit that will provide 38 minutes of video with time and date.  It is in the form of a lighter and therefore is very well disguised.  This is perfect for a "leave and retrieve" situation where I need to film someone in a small store. 

The other unit that I am testing today is much like a deck of cards in size only narrower.  With the Energizer 8X lithium AAA batteries it has been giving my about 7 hours of recording time.  This is no where near enough time.  My options are to convert the interior AAA battery holder to take AA batteries or use an external 12v battery pack.
This unit is the best so far for unmanned..... save for the lack of battery time.  The 32 gig SD card should easily handle over 20 hours of video and the great thing is that it saves the video in segments and does a quick save prior to the power expiring.  I wish that Energizer had a 16X Lithium battery.

I have found a unit that can use a 64 gig SD card and if the previously mentioned unit does not work out, I will be testing this model.  I'll know in a few days.

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ALERT - 8-22-2010

Was shopping at CompUSA last night and noticed that they have Kingston 4 & 8 gig SD cards (Class 4) on sale cheaper than what I have found on-line.

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COOL GADGET

I noticed that shorter PIs have difficulty reaching their elbows to their knees when stabilizing a camcorder. Check this out at http://armpod.com/ Sometimes I like to crack my tinted window an inch (at night or when filming through a store window) in order to get better video quality. This involves getting the camcorder up higher than my support (knees) can reach. The Arm Pod may be a great tool for relieving shoulder fatigue when raising the camera up high as it is length adjustable and maybe faster than a monopod if you pre-set the length for this maneuver and you can still maintain all of the fast micro adjustments that a hand and wrist provide. Actually the arm cup comes off exposing camera threads and essentially converts it into a monopod. Great for you nighttime-working PIs doing those domestic cases.

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Unmanned Surveillance 8-8-2010 by Johnston Blakley

So now it's the peak of summer and you are sweating it out in your car waiting for the Subject to drive out of the small cul-de-sac where she lives.  You are not able to setup on the tiny everyone-knows-everybody-else-cul-de-sac and upon a drive-by you catch a glimpse of her retrieving mail in a nightgown....at 2pm.  No way to stop and get the film and you are now on day three without any documentation of the Subject.  The heat is driving you mad.  Your mind races from plan A through Z. "Maybe if I had a helicopter/cam, a wireless transmitter camera, rented a bucket truck to look over the houses or rented a room from a neighbor"........................READ MORE

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Window Socks For Surveillance July 29, 2010

More discreet on a darker vehicle.

Had some of these at one time and they are great.  Can not use them now as I have wind/rain guards on my windows.  Obviously, when in a neighborhood, you would slip them over a window on the side of the car that faces away from public view.  A busier area is where you can use them more often.  Waiting hours for someone to leave their workplace and not having to run your engine to air-condition is where these come in handy.  They are also great if you ever have to sleep in your vehicle when it is buggy outside.
They allow for airflow through your car while keeping the vehicle dark inside.  The two mesh layers are about an inch and a half away from each other which is the key for blocking light.  They are hard to see on a black car.

Check them out at http://www.windowsox.co.uk/.  Not sure if they have an American distributor.

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July 19, 2010 by Johnston Blakley

Did a side-by-side comparison of the Sony Webbie and the Sony Bloggie today.
The Bloggie is definitely better in low light situations although it is noisy in low light. 
The Webbie, while in 720p, has a wider angle and the Bloggie has more reach.
The rotating camera in the Bloggie has a stiff holding position while in the half way position which I hate as it makes small adjustments very difficult.  This issue may improve with wear but I think that I will somehow file down the part that causes this.
The Bloggie seams to have better color and slightly better resolution.
The Bloggie takes the cheaper SD cards as well as the Sony cards while the Webbie takes only the Sony cards.
I was not impressed with the Bloggie’s stabilizer but it’s better than nothing.  The Webbie has no stabilizer. 
The dark purple Bloggie actually looks charcoal black which is perfect.
The Bloggie is skinnier than the Webbie but slightly longer.  I’ll take skinny.

Bottom line.  The Bloggie is a better covert indoor camera as long as you can workout or fix the stiffness in the rotating lens.

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Anton Bauer Solar Panel & Tandem 150 for remote locations.

Anton Bauer has a flexible Solar Panel system (59 x 43) that can charge batteries and when combined with their Tandem 150 charger/power supply will automatically switch the simultaneous charging option on and off for camera systems with lower loads (and intense enough sunlight). Camera systems with less than 75 watts will allow the battery to be charged at the same time that the camera system is powered (ready for night time power).  The solar panel or should I say blanket, is very convenient as you can string it between two or more stationary objects on a rooftop, treetop (I would use bungee cords to allow for tree movement to avoid damaging the blanket) or pegged down anywhere.  You will still have to figure out the needed connectors for your particular camera/DVR/etc. system.
You can click on the B&H logo to the right and check out the pricing.  This is a very expensive system, more that most PIs would ever want to spend on a remote location system, but it may give you some ideas and start you on the path of looking for a cheaper alternative or building your own system.  Obviously the case that would warrant buying or building this sort of power system would have to come with a large budget.
The DVR (recording device) that I would use with this sort of system would have resumable recording.  This means that when the DVR loses power it saves the current video file, shuts down and then when power returns, it resumes recording.  I’ve used a few DVRs with this feature.

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Great Covert Indoor Filming Workshop.
I must post some video when we used a baby stroller to obtain some footage of a store clerk with an “outdoor” camera – not the Webbie.

COVERT INDOOR FIELD TRAINING - This Saturday, July 10th.......by Johnston Blakley

Hey Folks,

This Saturday I have 4 spots available for field training on covert indoor surveillance training.  Only four students because any more than that and the word “covert” goes out the window…..not to mention that I can only fit four passengers in my vehicle.

You will:

Film in various indoor environments.
Film into various indoor environments.
Practice one-person and two-person surveillance.
Practice the approach (follow) to indoor environments.
Process the indoor video and have it “client ready”.
Put together a video montage of your film on a CD (I’ll provide) or thumbdrive (you provide) for your portfolio.

This will be a long day starting at 9am and ending at 3-4pm and you will go from novice to proficient, as this will be intensive training.

Imagine walking into a job interview with your resume and CD disc, the interviewer pops the CD/DVD/Thumbdrive (have all three) into his/her computer and “WOW, how did you get film inside of that place and that place and that place?  How do you zoom into the Subject and pan left and right as the Subject walks?…We’ve just…just….just always have done wide-angle shooting……and this is Hi Def!!!….How did you get time and date onto the video????
And your answer - “How soon do you need me?”.

Show the PI agency that you are better than their existing investigators.  Don’t just give them a bunch of verbal pizzazz and the old "I have no experience but I am willing to learn". Make their existing investigators look like chump change.

The cost is $125 and payment through Paypal (paypal or credit card) will secure your place.

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Magnetic Tele-Converter - 7-3-10 by Johnston Blakley

Have you ever wanted to film with your cell phone or Sony Bloggie but the distance to you Subject was too great?

Camera & Equipment Bags - 7-1-10 by Johnston Blakley

Big bag, small compact bag, bag that doesn’t look like a camera bag, rain resistant bag, flat luggage style bag, upright bag, purse-style bag are all considerations when choosing a bag for your cameras and equipment.  Do you not only conduct surveillance but also take photos of accident scenes or accident vehicles with a larger DSLR camera as this may steer you into a larger bag?  Do you travel and conduct investigations in other states or countries and want one carry-on bag for your equipment, clothing and laptop?

I have always preferred luggage style bags such as the Lowepro Omni Sport which also turns into a fanny-bag and comes with a waterproof Pelican Case.  It’s a bit of a tight squeeze for most of my equipment and unfortunately looks like a gun bag as most fanny bags do................................READ MORE

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SD Cards For Your Camera 6-22-2010 by Johnston Blakley ("Camera Bags" will come next week)

There is a difference in SD card price for those of you who have a Standard Def camera and those who own a Hi Def camera.  The reason - standard def cameras can record on cheap Class 2 SD cards and Hi Def cameras require a Class 4 card or greater.  When I was pricing cards today I noticed a significant drop in the price of Class 4 and 6 cards.  It seems that every few months they get a little bit cheaper.

I searched for 4 gig Class 4 cards as they are rated HiDef video.
Now, the only way to really see the time that you can get on a card is by sticking it in your camera and setting the camera to the Mbps (quality) that you want to record.  By doing this, the camcorder will display the minutes remaining.

Here are the three settings that you should test by taking some film and playing it back on a large screen monitor or TV.  The reason for playing it back on a larger monitor is that everything looks great on the camcorder's LCD screen but tends to fall apart when recorded at lower settings on a large monitor.

9-12 Mbps - smaller file size - depending on the camcorder it may not look good with fast motion - maybe soft looking at night (but at night you can always switch to 17 Mbps)
The quality will look better on a tripod vs. handholding as with any compressed video.

17 Mbps - larger file size - good surveillance quality night or day/fast or slow movement.

24Mbps - The slight quality improvement, from 17 Mbps, can not be discerned by the average person and is not worth the much larger file size.  It will gobble up your memory fast and cost you more in SD cards.

In  other words, try out all of the quality settings on your camcorders in various levels of light and movements and choose your setting. These two brands are the best bang for the buck and I would not hesitate to use them for videography purposes on my Canon 5d II.  (All memory cards can have failure.)

Transcend 4GB Class 6 SDHC Card This card is cheaper than most Class 4 cards and has an error-correcting feature that most cards do not.

Kingston 4GB SDHC Class 4 - This is even cheaper than the Transcend.

Notice how I am not stating the price as these cards keep getting cheaper every time I turn-around.  B&H seems to have combined shipping when purchased in bulk. Amazon sometimes offer free shipping for orders over $25. Be carefull that you do not buy in bulk and have to pay individual shipping on each card!!! You may want to purchase 1 card for testing purposes before you buy in bulk. Be cautious of E-bay counterfeits.

Hold’em Down – 6-21-2010 – by Johnston Blakley

Sometimes when I am following a Subject, the inside of my car starts to look like a battle zone with objects flying through the air and crashing into the dash or onto the floor.  The one thing that I do not want flying through the air is my camera bag, reason being - $$$$$$$$$$$$$. 

This is why I recommend cheap black seat covers.  I know…. you’re thinking that black seat covers are to darken the interior of your car, prevent reflection on the inside of your windows that you would have to film through, show no contrast between the passenger seat and you in the drive'rs seat with your dark colored shirt and to absorb chicken grease from your lunch.  This is true, but I say, the cheapest of cheap seat covers will also allow you to Velcro your camera bag and other things to the seat cover.  Take a piece of male Velcro to a store that has an automotive department and start sticking the Velcro to the various black seat covers.  After finding the right cheap seat cover, stick or stitch the male Velcro to the bottom of your camera bag (just a small patch will do) towards the part of the bag that will be nearest the upright part of the passenger seat (braking will lift up the part of the bag that is the closest to the rear of the car).  This is the same for those of you, like me, who like to put your bag on the floor behind the passenger seat. The carpet will stick to the Velcro on the bottom of the camcorder bag and prevent the bag from tipping or sliding under the seat.

I am working on an extensive camcorder bag review today and should have it on the site by tonight or tomorrow.  Part of the review will include SD card storage, which is essential if you are entering into tapeless surveillance video.

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SONY WEBBIE/BLOGGIE IN THE GYM - 6-16-10 - by Johnston Blakley

The Sony Webbie has been replaced by the Sony Bloggie. I am not overly fond of the Bloggie color options but the dark eggplant (violet) color seems to be the best option. Investigators prefer the versatility and HD quality of these cameras to the "cellphone" look-a-like standard def camcorders that can be bought in the spy stores. I get way more covert indoor footage than I have with any other setup and the best thing is.....No Wires & No Bags & Yes it has time and date. Low light capabilities are average but it does have a low light mode. I love it!!! Did I mention that the best feature of this camera is the rotating lens, so no more propping up the front or back of the camera when shooting on a table. I always carry an extra battery or two and I use the faster Mark II cards. B&H sells the Bloggie, cards and extra batteries.

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The Battle of the Surveillance Camcorders - 6-14-10 By Johnston Blakley

The Panasonic HDC-TM55K is the HiDef version that takes both SD cards and has 8 gigs of built-in SS memory. On sale until 7-3-2010

The Canon VIXIA HF M30 is a good multi-purpose HD camcorder for investigators with great audio controls but was beat out by the above two Panasonics for the job of surveillance.

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It was a great turnout for our first Surveillance Workshop!  A big thanks to all who participated.  This gives me some ideas such as smaller in-the-field only workshops and a surveillance video/report workflow workshop where everyone brings their own computer to set it up for tapeless video workflow, internet based client delivery and conquering the frustrating “Where is the time and date?” issue.

Johnston Blakley

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SURVEILLANCE WORKSHOPwith JOHNSTON BLAKLEY – HANDS ON not a lecture

Hey folks.  We are having an hands-on surveillance workshop on Saturday June 12th, 2010 from 10am – 4pm.  The location is in North Palm Beach, Florida (537 US Highway 1 # 8).  The cost is $150.

Johnston Blakley has 16 years of experience in the Private Investigation industry, specializing in surveillance.. He has worked on thousands of surveillance cases and has trained hundreds of investigators.

You will:

• learn how to take a case from a client or employer
• learn the various types of surveillance and how to vary your techniques for each
• alleged injury surveillance
• corporate surveillance
• domestic surveillance
• work comp surveillance
• and more
• learn how to conduct a thorough pre-surveillance
• develop your surveillance skills
• the setup
• the follow
• filming in various environments
• information gathering
• manned and unmanned
• develop your client/employer communication skills
• learn surveillance report writing
• learn how to testify to your work
• learn how to process  the various formats of video (MiniDV, AVCHD, HDV, etc)
• learn basic videography skills (this is very neglected in our industry)
• learn how to succeed in the industry

We will be utilizing various camcorders including the Sony Webbie / Bloggie (newer), and a new ultra tiny/low light camera/DVR.

Register before June 1st for $25 off……just $125.
Limited registration.

FAST AND STEADY - 4-27-2010 - by Johnston Blakley

Dark or Poor Quality Video - 4-20-2010  by Johnston Blakley

Every surveillance investigator has experienced this horrific scenario. 
You take your camera into a dark bar.  The image looks marginal on your LCD screen but you go ahead and film anyway as your Subject is throwing back shot after shot and you suspect that he will be driving home in about an hour.  This is the evidence that you need and this is exactly what transpired.  You are a genius.  You call the client and he is ecstatic.  The next day, when you are reviewing the film on the TV monitor, your heart sinks.  The Subject is barely visible in the darkness and in fact no reasonable person could identify him.  You throw the footage onto your computer, monkey around with the brightness, gamma and contrast to no avail.  Help is on the way with a program called Topaz.  Topaz has a plug-in program for Adobe After Effects, Premiere and Final Cut that enhances the detail in dark shots.  Often, when you lighten a dark shot you replace darkness with video noise that provides no advantage in clarity.  Another Topaz product will upscale (size) and enhance standard definition video to near HD quality.  It can also enhance that crappy looking cell phone or video-pen type footage up to standard definition; not something that can be done with sharpening alone.  I have the Magic Bullet version of this product. It enhances the resolution pixel by pixel and it is great.  Remember to always provide your client with the un-altered version of the footage along with the enhanced version.  Make sure that you label the edited version as "enhanced".

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INSURANCE FRAUD CONVICTIONS – March 25, 2010

The Coalition Against Insurance Fraud has a very interesting website.  They list cases where people have done some outlandish things to try and collect insurance money.

Go to http://www.insurancefraud.org/convictions.lasso

If Cars Could Talk - March 5, 2010 - by Johnston Blakley

If only your Subject's car could talk this job would be a lot easier.
Wait!!! Yes it can and here is how vehicles reveal plenty of information about your Subject:

Bumper stickers - your Subject arrives at a deposition but you do not know where he lives and he is likely to provide his mothers address in the depo.  Do not risk waiting for the follow to find out where he lives because you may loose him.

• "My stupid kid is on the honor roll at _________ school".  This may narrow down the school district your Subject lives in.  Maybe you can find out what bus the kid is on through the school or get info on the kid through a social site.
• Member of the _________ society.  Find out when they meet.  This is another backup incase you lose him in traffic.

Items in the car.

• Mail facing upward in the car.  Look for an address.
• Parking pass.  May state the name of his community.
• Employee ID card.  Get on him at work - avoid the follow of a suspicious Subject to his workplace.
• Bicycle magazine.  May give you an idea of his activities.  Look for the mailing address.
• Kleenexes all over the floor.  May be the reason why you have not gotten surveillance footage of him.  Better wait a week or two before resuming the case.
• Gold's Gym pass.  Find out what gym and time of day that he works out.
• Receipts.
• Utility bill.
• Mapquest map showing the route from his house to the deposition.  I was blessed by this on a case once.
• Religious icons/literature/church name.  Maybe conduct surveillance on Sunday morning or on the worship day for that religion.

Every piece of information is valuable no matter how "cut and dry" or difficult you think the case is.

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Cargo Pockets - March 3, 2010 - by Johnston Blakley

Not enough room in your pant's pockets for all of your on-foot surveillance stuff?
I buy all of my shorts and most of my pants with one thing in mind.  Do they have cargo pockets on both sides?

Without these large pockets, my camcorders would have to be carried or jammed into the regular pockets along with extra batteries, tapes, PI credentials, etc.  With large cargo pockets even my larger outdoor camcorder can be tucked away out of sight.  Sometimes you do need a camera with a lot of zoom for indoor surveillance footage.

Watch this footage taken on the Investigative Training space colony that we are developing.

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