Lord of the Rings and Lego fans of the world, get ready to sink $200 in the new 2359-piece, 28-inch tall Lego Tower of Orthanc set, which includes six floors: dungeon, entrance hall, Saruman’s throne room, alchemy room, library and the secret attic to which you can access using a secret stair. It’s now available for everyone at the Lego shop.
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Canon has just revealed its long-awaited 70D DSLR, the successor to the 60D. The 70D fits above the Rebel line in terms of price and specs in Canon’s interchangeable lens camera catalogue, and this new version focuses on improving one of the 60D’s most considerable strengths: movie making.
Canon has introduced new Dual Pixel CMOS autofocus, which has a sensor with double the pixel count to help improve focus tracing. The result is a fast, smooth autofocus function that especially helps when shooting video using the live view, vari-angle display on the back of the camera. It also helps with still AF to some degree, which is likewise boosted by a new AF system with 19 cross-type points (just like the much-respected, if aging Canon 7D), but the real benefit here is for aspiring filmmakers.
In a hands-on test of a pre-production unit, Engadget found that the new AF system works as impressively as advertised. Especially paired with Canon’s STM line of lenses, which are designed for smoother autofocus while shooting digital video, the combo should be amazing for videographers; in other words, Canon is looking to arm a whole new generation of Kickstarter filmmakers with the 70D, and has apparently done a very good job.
It also has some improvements in terms of expanded ISO capabilities, touch input via the 3-inch, high-resolution vari-angle display, boosted 7 FPS high-speed shooting modes, and built-in Wi-Fi, which offers live view shooting from smartphone apps, as well as camera-to-device transfers of photos and videos.
The new Dual Pixel CMOS AF works with 103 EF model lenses, including a lot of legacy glass, so it should fit nicely into an existing Canon kit. And the price tag isn’t crazy: $1,199 for body only, or $1,349 bundled with the 18-55mm IS STM kit lens, along with an EF-S 18-135 IS STM kit option for $1,549. All of the above should ship come September, according to Canon, so look to fall as a time when all those intro videos that preface Kickstarter projects start to get a noticeable production quality upgrade.
Ever since NASA’s Cassini-Huygens spacecraft entered Saturn’s orbit in 2004, filmmaker Stephen van Vuuren has been enthralled with its progress. So much so that he’s spent years collecting over a million insanely high-res photos from Cassini’s mission and quilted them together into a 45-minute film called In Saturn’s Rings. Without relying on CGI or fancy visual effects, van Vuuren has patched together a seamless visual journey through our solar system, culminating in a breathtaking view of Saturn’s rings and moons. Distributed by BIG & Digital, the movie is expected to make its way to IMAX theaters sometime in 2014, though there’s no word yet on a specific release date. The first official trailer dropped today, and you can watch it — in 4K if you’ve got the right screen — after the break.
Source: In Saturn’s Rings
If you only watch one behind-the-scenes video from Pacific Rim, watch this one. We got an exclusive video featuring an INSANELY detailed look at Guillermo del Toro’s new batch of monsters featuring charts, concept art and brand new monster footage from the movie!
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If you didn’t see Cabin In The Woods that was stupid of you. It’s really great
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T-600 is neither your average puppet nor your average backpack, but this quick little clip from Stan Winston Schools shows that he’s pretty impressive for both. Who said puppets had to be cute? [Stan Winston School]
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Carlos Valero is the brilliant mind behind this functional, life-size and creepy-as-hell Lego Alien Facehugger. This MOC 1:1 scale model uses only 500 bricks, and is so beautifully-accurate it would make Giger blush.
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Movies exist in their own world, with their own rules, with the characters having their own relationships. And though we may know every one of those characters, they might not all be connected together. These visualizations show how characters connect with each other in a beautiful constellation. You can almost gauge a movie by how its characters connect.
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Viewers of the most current iteration of the professional wrestling organization known as the WWE have been wondering, it would seem, why The Rock (aka Dwayne Johnson) wasn’t slated to meet any contenders at their next big Pay-Per-View engagement. As it turns out – and so it has been tipped – The Rock may instead
The Google Street View Trekker backpack is at it again, and this time it visited the abandoned Hashima Island, or more well-known as “Dead Island” or “Dead City” from the most recent James Bond film Skyfall. In the movie, the island serves as the cyberterrorists headquarters, but it’s actually a real place and now we
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