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2:49 PM, Monday, March 27th, 2023:   20 years ago updating The Journey while traveling was so easy I could do it with a laptop. Oh how it may be another 10 years before that's even in the realm of possibility for 8k60 VR180. IF ONLY MY CAMERA DIDN'T NEED TO USE RAW FILES!!! DAHHHH. You know, that's what's gonna happen. Canon will release a camera in like a year or two that can do 8k60 with a codec applied, I'll just buy that and sell the R5C and suddenly everything will be simple. That's honestly the only thing making this so difficult. It's why I need a BEAST of a computer just to prepare the files for editing. You don't need that when there's a codec... of course that's also why no cameras can write a codec to the memory card fast enough. Ugh.   ANYWAY... more on that, here's the video...     Dude, that first roof shot made my jaw drop when I saw it in the headset. Is it just me? I sometimes wonder if it's just me... my family is so used to it now, they just think it's "cool". I on the other hand think it's awe-inspiring. I can't tell where the mainstream is quite yet. It's also because I had to do all of this BLIND for a week. God that's so terrifying. So here's the routine...   I have a 1TB card... it's good for about 51 minutes of video at 8k60 in a raw format. I took over 2 1/2 hours of footage during the week. So when I filled up the card, I would transfer the files through a cheap laptop and onto a normal 4tb extrenal drive (roughly 3 hours to do this), delete the card and start over. Had about a half of a terabyte left on that drive by the end, but it did the job. Multiple memory cards are just out of the question (though I will have to buy a 2tb card for "Fastest Delorean VR" whenever they release one), because it's presently 16x more expensive than normal harddrives. Fuhuck.   But the real kicker? I can't even view these raw files FLAT on any PC. It's a .CRM format and jesus even if there was a player that could play them? I cannot fathom a laptop that could handle it. My beast at home can barely do it... I have to convert EVERYTHING before even viewing it. Oh and that process? Used to be a 60 to 1 ratio on my 2080ti. That is no slouch of a Video card... can run half-life alyx, beautifully... is blistering... dog shit for this. So do the math... 2 1/2 hours of footage? That would've taken 12 days... and 12 hours to convert.   SIMPLY TO CONVERT THE RAW FILES TO AN EDITABLE FORMAT. What the BALLS. And I actually suffered through that shit for a couple of the first VRlogs last year. Then I finally just did 4k60 and upconverted until I got the new rig. On that new rig? 8 to 1. 2 1/2 hours simply took 20 hours to convert. Had one crash, so it took closer to 24... but holy shit... that's a gotDAMN dream.   But then comes the moment. As I said in the video, it's like shooting on film and then getting it developed... you just watch and HOPE. And ho-lee, shit. I did it. Couple screw-ups, sure, but more than enough useable footage. In fact, easily 5 separate entries, and could've made it 10. But the editor in me thinks that's cheap. It's 5 legit separate stories for sure.   The hardest part of these edits are also the most exciting: the raw edit when you first run through the footage. It's wonderful because you see the magic... but, because you have to watch in the headset and cut out the wonky parts when your gimbal is acting up or you're adjusting focus mid-shoot it's a motion-sickness nightmare. Well I take that back, totally easy if you're going through like 10-15 minutes. 2 1/2 hours? Oh fuck me. I also picked up a cold so it was a double-whammy. And there's no really good way to avoid that because this is "Run & Gun"... oh I should probably explain why that's so crazy to attempt here...   Watching any tutorials about how to shoot VR180 content (hell even videos from CANON themselves) they make it quite clear: ZERO movement, or a tripod with an arm for an extremely slow push in or out. It requires a crew, it requires set-up... often a monitor so you can actually freaking SEE the numbers on the camera to fix exposure, FOCUS... no one is pulling off professional footage with a gimbal running around the streets of NY. Like, no one. I've seen some walk-throughs and they're almost all puke-worthy because either the camera is too light and it bounces everywhere or it's shot at a low framerate (because what sort of madman would attempt my workflow?!?!). So to even throw this on a plane and attempt it is just foolish. But I think I did it. I found a mix of using an auto-iris while manually adjusting the ISO on the fly (a combo of 3200/800/160) and trying to read the tiniest green box for focus while also trying to keep that gimbal from freaking out (it has ruined so many shots, man... so annoying)... oh and trying to keep your kids from running into the fucking street. Holy fuckballs. Editing this is my vacation. Sheeeeeit.   But honestly, after shooting SO MUCH? I kind of got it. Like, I can confidently do this professionally, with good turnaround times and after NY? It's clear I can do any situation. I'd like to find a better solution for the wired external battery, but everything else is pretty set.   Alright - just wanted to write all this shit down so I can look back in a few years and feel sorry for this dude. LOL.   Central Park up next!   Adam