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Lighting Designer is a live theater job title. Chief Lighting Technician is the gaffer on a film set. A cinematographer is neither. The cinematographer / DP / DoP are all the same thing. A production can have more than one if there is a second unit DP and/or an alternating DP on episodic television, visual effects cinematographer, etc.

Thanks for the tip Eric. And that sounds like a steal you got there! Pocket 4K could do the trick as well, but I'd prefer shooting CDNG over braw. Have you compared the two? P4K crop mode vs BMMCC?

Shit. Yeah I meant lighting designer. Yes lighting tech is a common title for film and TV. Chief lighting tech—“gaffer”, etc.

I don't have much live event experience, but here in the case of film & tv it is common to call sparks "lighting technicians" in end credits if the end credits are in English. Gaffers are called gaffers or in the case the end credits are in Finnish the gaffer can be called "Valaisija" which roughly translates to "Chief Lighting Designer" ... though "Gaffer" is almost exclusively used even in Finnish credits nowadays. The gaffers here contribute a little more to the lighting design than in the States depending on the set and dp+gaffer relationship so the gaffer position is not exactly the same here than it would be in the US, here it is pretty common for the DP concentrating on the storytelling more and giving the gaffer broader guidelines how the scene should look like and the gaffer can then decide by him/herself what exact units to use to create the requested mood for the scene (so they contribute a lot on the lighting design part as well and not just running the technical side of things)

Cinegearpro in the UK makes a pretty good remote, I recently got one for mine. You could also look at the pocket 4K in S16 crop. Used prices for both are getting similar and better features on the 4K. I recently got my used BMMCC with a cage and Wooden Camera PL adapter for $400 Canadian, but I feel like I just lucked out.

I see. When I think of lighting tech, I think of the guy who runs lighting for large rock shows, or theatre or something.

Silly me, they probably used the 45 degree limit line because of the ARRI 35 II and III, which had their mirror sideways, tilted at 45 degrees.

The files in question were MP4 8k, not Canon RAW. And I understand that the timeline would have to be rendered each time edits are made. Proxies may be an option. But despite the impressive files, I plan to stick with 4k, in order to interface with the output from my C300 Mk III. But I was disappointed to find that my uber costly, maxed out Mac Pro Tower could not handle the 8k files, and I have no intention of working from an M1 laptop, which, BTW, I do own. But I appreciate your response. Regards, Ron

An LD is a common position. Often in live events or tv. the LD's I've worked with were very talented people. I do believe Lighting Technician is a common title in Europe.

Lighting designer, eh? That’s a new one.

Hi Sean Do you still have the AMIRA attila@filmgears.co.uk

For an upcoming shoot, there’s are some shots that would be ideal if I could record exactly what’s on the screen on my HVX200. Is there any way to set this up on board so it captures the overlays & the video as one shot? Or does it need to be hooked up to a computer with a capture card? Thanks!

No difference. The worst is when they're looking for a "lighting designer". Because the DP they hired knows nothing about lighting. Which essentially makes them more of a camera operator. Not a DP.

Bump - this is still for sale for anyone interested. Available for anyone to look at in person in London. Recently serviced by Arri (with certificate).

Dom, do you know if this is an official document from ARRI? I'm asking, bc the mirror on ARRI (and Aaton) cameras is tilted at 47.5 degrees, so the reflected beam off the mirror is angled at 5 degrees off the vertical axis, to make space for the ground glass housing, for it to not protrude into the film gate. I redrew quickly these dimensions to show the differences: As a rough envelope it's probably good enough though

Eric if you had to buy a tent for 16/35, what tent would you buy? You can use the tent as a changing bag too, right?

Yea, the R5C Raw files will not playback in real time on a non-Apple Silicon system, no matter how much power you have. It's just not possible sadly. The Raw decode is not hardware accelerated properly. Maybe they'll fix it someday, but for the time being, the Apple Silicon systems are the only ones that play it back flawlessly. Rendering the timeline does not solve the problem sadly. You won't be able to edit, having to render it every time you throw a clip in the timeline, it's a horrible way to work.

Yea, I agree I don't believe there is a difference between DP, DOP and Cinematographer.

Exactly what I needed, thanks Dom

There is no standardised technical term for this that I'm aware of, I call it "rear protrusion" or "behind the mount protrusion". Flange depth or focal flange distance is a different thing, referring to the distance from lens mount flange to sensor or film plane. This differs for each mount standard, PL for instance is 52.00mm, EF is 44.0mm etc. As David mentioned earlier, every lens is different in terms of how far they protrude past the mount flange, but wider lenses typically protrude more than longer ones. The rear protrusion limit of older PL or Arri B or S mount lenses was dictated by the mirror shutter position. For this reason the safe protrusion space is more or less cone shaped. The following diagram is the safe protrusion area for the Alexa Studio, a digital camera with a spinning mirror/shutter, but it can serve as a guide for 35mm film movie cameras also. Note that 16mm lenses may protrude a little further than this, so never mount 16mm lenses to a 35mm film camera (or Alexa Studio) before very carefully checking that they clear the mirror at infinity. With digital cameras there is more room, but there are still baffles, sensor cover glasses and occasionally internal filter systems that limit the rear protrusion. The nominal 31.5mm depth illustrated above tends to be a limit most lens manufactures stick to as a maximum rear protrusion standard, which is also safe for digital cameras. Whether lenses or adapters fit can also depend on the diameter however, and different cameras will have different limits. Certain PL adapters for older Arri mounts for instance will foul on the inner baffles of PL mount Alexa cameras because they protrude more than about 20mm near the edge, even though they worked on PL mount film cameras.

Thanks for the insight. Do you know what the rear lens element max protrusion limit is in millimeters from the PL seat face to the spinning mirror of super35 film cameras? I'm struggling to find this information online.

Flange focal distance is the distance between the PL seat face to the image plane. I'm referring to the distance from the PL seat face to the last point of contact on the lens itself (for most pl lenses). I'm already aware the PL flange focal distance is 52mm

Hi, is the camera still available? Thank you. Sorry just realized the post is from 2009

Right on. I’ve always understood the DP/DoP/cinematographer to be the person in charge of the look…reporting to the director. The person that oversees, and is in charge of, camera, lighting, and grip depts. regardless of the project’s scope. Again, it’s semantics I suppose. One thing is certain. There’s no real difference between the two. As far as the scope of practice and position goes. I just want to make sure I’m not making a list of myself when I say, in simple terms, “yo. It’s the same position!”

Feels like they'd figure that out quickly enough. 😃 For me the classifications are mainly the same. However I think of DP / DoP as a roll that covers short projects, concentrating on visuals and how to accomplish the needs of the project. Possibly that's Commercials, industrials, short form docs. For me, Cinematographer leans more to a more formal narrative story telling through the directing of the photography. Tons of overlap. That's just an internal classification I have. I don't correct clients or think much about it. Others might have different thoughts.