January is over. How is the plan going?

I probably should start by saying ancient Romans started their year from March and I am so conservative I will do the same. I don’t follow this year starts from January nonsense.

January basically went preparing for what I planned to do this year. I got new guitar and few plugins I have considered for ages but which have never been on sale and probably never will. I could have waited with effects. Probably with guitar too but it was never in store and I wasn’t sure if it will be available in future. Guitar is Fender’s Ed O’Brian signature Stratocaster. I like Radiohead but that wasn’t the reason to get the guitar. It is only guitar with sustainer you can get from Finland. I would have modified one of my Stratocasters with sustainer if I could have found someone to do it. Sustainer gives something I can’t get from other guitars. So it still fits to plan. I will make post or video about it later.

I should have bought ValhallaDSP’s Shimmer long time ago. I used it in last video. It brought missing piece to my music. I have wanted that sounding reverb but alternatives didn’t give it. It can be heard everywhere which is one reason why I waited this long to get it.

I got Pinhole Pro X yesterday. About two months after it was promised. It is as fun as I thought it would be. Only problem is it shows how dirty your sensor is. I might have it permanently on my old camera. IBIS would be nice with long exposure times it requires but cleaning the sensor every time before you put it on camera is not tempting. This lens will also get video or post later. Picture above was taken with the lens. Using the lens was so fun I will get more lenses with artistic look later.

February isn’t starting any better. One reverb and two sample libraries are on introduction sales with prices I will never get in future. One of the libraries in new entry to series I already have almost every entry and other is next generation version of library I already have with new features old one doesn’t have. And reverb is from company whose plugins I use quite often. Just can’t skip these with these sales prices.

Without buying part plan has gone quite well. Videos I have released have been more experimental. Next one will be too. I hope I can start buying part on March. Everything else goes according the plan.

My thoughts of Sony A7III

I haven't had my hands on camera yet. Video above is best review I have seen yet. Max usually does best reviews when cameras are released. Philip Bloom's reviews take much more time.

I didn't have any plans to go full frame but this camera has almost everything I want for reasonable price. 50/60fps 4K video is only thing missing but 1080P slow motion looks really good. Low light is really good. IBIS looks usable. I am looking for camera with usable IBIS. I don't think A6500 has good enough IBIS. That is why I still have A6300 and not A6500.

At the moment this is not on my shopping list. I will wait for A6700/A7000 for little bit longer. Both names have been in rumors. That camera will probably be close to what A7III is in APS-C format. I have almost every lens I need in APS-C format. Getting similar set for full frame would cost at least 4000 euros. Even with that my APS-C set would be better for gimbal and probably few other uses too. I could use them with A7III on crop mode but I would lose some picture quality. Not much but some.

If A6700/A7000 isn't announced this summer or earlier I might have to consider A7III. It is really good camera not only for the price. It is really good camera. If I didn't need to buy another set of lenses I would be really tempted to buy it.

Merihaka and Hakaniemi from frozen sea

I went back to frozen sea yesterday. It was really cold and windy. Today should be even colder. After tomorrow it should get bit warmer. Not to normal temperatures of this time of the year but warmer. I don't remember walking on ice after I moved to Helsinki before Saturday. When I moved here I didn't live close to see. When I moved closer to sea there haven't been real winters.

Here are some photos I took yesterday evening.

Happy New Year

I didn't felt like going out to shoot last night. But after almost four hours of walking and shooting I got some good footage. I got really good footage of fireworks. I am tempted to color grade it and releasing it without cutting. I might do that if I don't manage to do proper video for this week. I usually do music on Sundays but I haven't even started to edit footage yet and it might require some heavy color grading. I won't be able to start making music today. Editing should be done by today.

Video will probably be three to four minutes with one and half minute of fireworks. I wasn't sure what I was doing but guessing worked. I had my second widest lens on camera. It was 12 mm. Widest would have been 10 mm. Not big difference there. I just guessed where to point the camera and got almost everything without having fireworks on small part of the frame. I didn't need to adjust anything during fireworks. I just let camera do its work and enjoyed the fireworks.

I tried new way to stabilize camera with strap. It worked nice when I tested it. I still need to learn it better. It doesn't give as stable image as gimbal but it is faster and draws less attention. It could be close to gimbal if you are good at it. It looked really good In video where I learned it from. Idea is to make strap one point of contact and stabilize camera against strap. It might look bit silly but it works better than I expected.

Not buying new gear got good start. I bought plugin from sales during weekend and learned to use older ones. I might still need more analog sounding delay but I should have reverbs and delays covered now. Just don't ask how many of them I bought during weekend. Good thing is I learned to use them better when tested what I had and compared to demos. I should manage with what I have at least until next sale.

Monday is training day but I still feel last night's almost four hours shooting trip. I probably force myself to gym to keep the schedule. Right now I don't feel like it.

New Year's Resolutions 2017

It is time for new year's resolutions. Rather than resolutions I set themes and goals for next year. When I get good ones I start immediately rather that wait for year to end. Next year's goals are to get finances in better shape and learn to use gear rather than hoarding it. I started some of that already and some I will start some time in January.

Stopping hoarding gear will have to wait until January. I want to get one delay and reverb before I put music purchases on hold until couple sample libraries are on sale again. I try to stay away from new synths for whole year. Only upgrades. If something really interesting and cheap comes during next year I will reconsider this. This shouldn't be too hard since I upgraded to Arturia's V Collection 6, bought couple synths I have tempted to buy for a while and U-He is giving update to Zebra 2 soon and Zebra 3 is on its way. Zebra 3 counts as upgrade. Ableton Live 10 also count as upgrade.

This should also help getting my finances in better shape along with similar plans on camera side and purchasing new music. Right now on camera side there is one lens on shopping list. Other items there haven't been announced yet. I am pretty sure GoPro Fusion won't be my first 360 camera and I am not sure if I really have use for drone. Motorized slider would be nice but it can wait until I have my finances in better shape.

Learning part started with one year pass to MasterClass. The one with Hans Zimmer, Ron Howard and Martin Scorsese. I will get similar pass to other online courses later next year. I haven't decided which one yet. I will get it later because I don't want all annual subscription fees to hit same time.

If this works I can start planning bigger eurorack this time next year. This will make harder to make most popular videos on my channel. Videos with new synths get most views. I just have to get better at other things to compensate this.

My Christmas Tradition

Shooting Christmas lights at Christmas eve night is becoming my new Christmas tradition. I did that last year and this year. I spend about three hours at center of Helsinki. I had to get back bit earlier because I forgot to take spare batteries. I started to get bit cold but battery running out was the reason I left early. I had another camera with me but I didn't want to shoot video with it. I wanted to shoot the whole video with same camera.

Here are couple shot I couldn't shoot to this week's video due battery running out.