iMovie 11, Aperture and HDSLRs

The new iMovie is a real step forward and brings the welcome return of some iMovie HD features. (I've been surprised to find how many schools are still using the old version.) It has much better audio editing (similar to iMovie HD, allowing you to adjust levels within a clip) and the option to view clips in a timeline mode. It has a lot of other tweaks including the ability to choose whether adding transitions shortens your movie (as it's always done in previous versions) or preserves the timing as in Final Cut. There are also some dummy 'animatic' clips, which are animated examples of shots such as closeups and long shots - you can use these to plan your movie, then replace them with the actual clips. The program also has an elaborate 'trailer' mode - trailers with professional titles and music, with clips you can replace with your own footage. The only real drawback is that it only works with recent versions of Snow Leopard.

Aperture 3 is also an improvement on its predecessor, making it easier to manage multiple libraries and introducing support for HDSLR video footage, which is useful as I've just had a Canon 60D on loan. I'm impressed with the quality of the full HD video it produces. The viewfinder is nice and bright and the articulating screen is very useful. I filmed some dancers recently and was sliding the camera along the floor and using a monopod for ultra-high-angle shots - when I've edited it and tidied it up I'll put it online here. It's not as solid as my Nikon D300, and the handling for still photography is a bit slower, but it's around 200g lighter (and only 200g heavier than my old Olympus OM series film cameras which were famous for being small and light).

I'm planning to switch to Canon (rather than buying a Nikon HDSLR) largely because their body and lens mount design allows you to fit other manufacturers' lenses, using adaptors you can buy cheaply on eBay. This gives you access to really good-quality and very affordable fast manual focus lenses (autofocus is largely irrelevant for film). These include 70s and 80s Nikon lenses, and the Olympus OM Zuiko lenses which are tiny and great - my 50mm f/1.8, which you can pick up for around £35, has beautiful out-of-focus bokeh effects, and on the 60D it's the equivalent of an 80mm portrait lens but focuses a lot closer than my 85mm Zuiko. A 24mm Zuiko works well too, giving a moderate wideangle effect of 38mm.