Canon EOS 5D MKII

Via blog.vincentlaforet

I’ve had a chance to get a hold of the 5D MKII on several occasions - seven to be specific (2 of those nights were spent shooting the first film, Reverie.)   I’ve felt compelled to try to create something with it each time I’ve had the camera in my hands.    And I will admit this camera has brought me back the closest to the feeling I had at the age of 15 when I had my first camera and a few rolls of Tri-X to burn through.   Simply put - it’s so much fun and pure.

You’ll see some footage shot with Tilt-shift lenses from the air - my first time with video - as well as one of the last shots of the series that was shot with a full motion picture Steadicam rig.   All of the footage was shot with several different prototypes of theCanon EOS 5D MKII that I was allowed to borrow at different intervals - cut in Final Cut Studio, and graded in Color.  I’m still in the middle of post-productions with almost every one of these shoots - busier shooting than editing to be honest.  But I thought I’d share some of this footage as most of your are likely to receive your production 5DMKIIs sometime this week (those that put their names down first of course.)

vincentlaforet Hi-Def video

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Terrafugia’s Transition driving airplane

Via popsci.com

The team at Terrafugia is about to fulfill the fantasy of every driverpilot: a consumer vehicle that can take to the highways and the skies. All they have to do is finish the first one.

The Transition is not a flying car. The vehicle, set to go on sale next year, will cruise smoothly on the road and through the sky. It will have four wheels, Formula One–style suspension, and a pair of 10-foot-wide wings that fold up when it switches from air to asphalt. And when the engineers at Terrafugia in Woburn, Massachusetts, let me sit inside their just-finished proof-of-concept vehicle and grab the steering wheel, it’s easy to imagine piloting this thing up and out of traffic, into the open skies.

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Via computerworld.com

It may sound like something out of a James Bond movie, but the U.S. military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is putting out the call for researchers to come up with a design for a submersible aircraft.

Yup, you read it right. DARPA, a research branch of the U.S. Department of Defense, is looking for someone to prove that a vehicle can be built that will fly, as well as maneuver underwater.

The call for research went out earlier this month, and initial proposals are due by 4 p.m. EST on Dec. 1.

The FanWing experimental aircraft opens up a new area of aerodynamics

Via fanwing

Designs to establish a means of integral lift and thrust using a horizontal-axis wing rotor are recorded back as far as the late 19th century. Some of the experiments started to take off but did not sustain flight. The FanWing new blown-wing solution offers both basic proof of concept and a steady trajectory of improved and controlled flight performance.

The aircraft has a cross-flow fan along the span of each wing. The fan pulls the air in at the front and then expels  it over the wing’s trailing edge. In transferring the work of the engine to the rotor, which spans the whole wing, the FanWing accelerates a large volume of air and achieves unusually high lift-efficiency.

The FanWing showed proof of concept in the form of actual flights before theoretical validation, academic research or explanation. The FanWing is an invention by trial and error and though certainly employing a methodology with good precedent in the history of innovation it is in no way within the normal paradigm of academic and conventional aircraft development. There is nevertheless a steady accumulation of tests and supporting documentation.

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AutoSkyBot

Via createthefuturecontest

I have created the ultimate flying machine ever build by human hands. I call it the AutoSkyBot it’s a VTOHLJATT- Vertical Takeoff Hover Landing Jet Arial Terrestrial Transport. Consumer uses are Air Taxi Cab, Air Ambulance, Multi-role Fire Department fire suppression vehicle, SKY crane, Skyscraper construction Platform, Skyscraper rescue vehicle, Skyscraper external fire suppression system, Selective Logging, Shipping Container Automated Delivery Vehicle. Power line maintenance. Handicapped, elderly, special needs vehicle.

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The 2008 E3 Media & Business Summit

Via gamespot

Just over two weeks ago, the 2008 E3 Media & Business Summit closed its doors. But while reaction to the 4,000-person event has been decidedly mixed, attendees could agree that many fine games were on display–either behind closed doors or on the scaled-down show floor.

Today, the cream of the games press honored the top of the crop by doling out the 10th annual Game Critics Awards: Best of E3 2008 honors. This year, the Best of Show prize went to Fallout 3, Bethesda Softworks’ upcoming update of the classic postapocalyptic role-playing game series. Due out this fall, Fallout 3 also won Best RPG at the event, beating such opponents Lionhead’s Fable 2 and BioWare’s Dragon Age: Origins.

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ICON Aircraft’s new A5 light recreational airplane

Via businessweek.com

ICON Aircraft, a privately held startup based in Los Angeles, hopes to turn aviation into a powersport, like Jet Ski and motorcycle riding. On June 12, it unveiled the A5, a $139,000 plane intended for recreational flying that will be available in 2010. The A5 is aimed squarely at the Light Sport Aircraft category devised by the Federal Aviation Administration four years ago. The new class makes it easier for individuals to take to the air. The A5 is one of the first aircraft designed specifically for this market, which ICON expects could be worth as much as $2 billion annually.

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Via businessweek

Students at Art Center College of Design created their visions for the “Next Lunar Rovers” in a transportation design project sponsored by NASA. The design brief, which tasked students with designing the optimal lunar rover for the next moon mission, called for the designs to support the unique functional challenges of such a vehicle while inspiring everyone that sees it to want to go for a drive on the moon. The designs were also meant to serve as an icon to jumpstart interest of the public in lunar expeditions. Here are the student’s proposals for such a vehicle.

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Design and build process

Via limitlessboredom

As a final machine design project here at SUNY Canton my roommate and I have decided to begin the construction of a jet engine. The Engine will be based on a turbo like many other DIY Jet engines, but ours will be special in that it is a direct through air design similar to commercial engines. It will most likely run off propane and as for what we’ll actually do with it, we have yet to come up with a good/safe idea.

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CAR Concept

Via likecool.com

BMW revealed the GINA Light Visionary Model sports car concept features with fabric body panels that bends into different shapes! Built on the discontinued BMW Z8 platform - complete with its 5.0-liter V8 - the GINA Light Visionary shares design. BMW’s design chief, Chris Bangle, hopes the car is a showcase of what could be possible in 10 years’ time, when drivers could choose a shape for their vehicle at the touch of a button.

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