Hal Smith

If you're still on earlier than MC4 Avid editing systems Avid is making an offer that's hard to turn down. Any MC4 upgrade copy bought after April 12th will be eligible for a free upgrade to MC5 when it comes out in June. The Xpress Pro and pre-MC3.5 software only price is $395 and the 3.5 and later price is $295. MC5 will import RED and Canon HDSLR files natively, no need to transcode first. I can't wait, the transcode step for my 7D's files is tedious. Thanks to the Avid MC sales staff at NAB for lining this all out for me!

Which is why this old engineer will stick with XP Pro until Microsoft sends out their black helicopters and forces me to upgrade to 7 or whatever.

Search ebay for what electrical companies call a "dry transformer". Either winding of a dry transformer can be the primary while the other is the secondary. There are some differences in primary and secondary design but not enough to be an issue at the sizes of transformers likely to be used around movie lights. For reference: http://www.mgmtransformer.com/faq.html

I should think so, the Abel booth at NAB was showing the CP.2's. I think I saw Mitch demonstrating them to someone. Then there was the Angenieux 15-40mm Optimo hanging off a 7D with a PL adapter in Angenieux's booth. $45K lens on an $1.6K body. Yes, the picture was glorious.

There is a wireless follow focus in development that talks directly to the autofocus motor in the Canon lenses (no external gearing and/or motor required). They're apparently having some development issues but I think they'll overcome them. If they do successfully bring it to market it will radically change what a tricked-out Canon HDSLR looks like.

If you want to swing the bulbs around like the stage play, either get the bulbs that are used in mechanic's drop cord lights (they're called "Rough Service" bulbs) or the bulbs used in traffic signals and on towers 116 watt clear bulbs. Both have hardened, heavy duty glass.

Tim, Thank you for posting the pix. I've got the Arri adapter. Bought it for cheap money off eBay from someone who didn't even know what it was for, they just knew it had something to do with cameras. Fortunately they posted a pretty good picture and I could tell it was an Arri mount Cooke & bayonet to PL adapter.

The advice I got years ago from my CPA was pretty much that; stay under the radar as a sole proprietor filing a Schedule "C" with my Federal and State income taxes. I do pay the additional FICA taxes but I otherwise don't pay any business and/or occupational taxes. Since the primary purpose of my business is service(s), not sales, I don't even need sales tax registration. The 7.5% extra FICA tax is very little to pay for the freedom from paperwork and hassle.

PV adapters are on the way for EOS mounts. I'm not certain if that's supposed to be public knowledge just yet but they currently are in manufacture and soon it will be possible to rent Panavision anamorphics to hang off of 7D's. I don't know if you'll have to buy the adapter yourself or only rent it from Panavision.

Why and how the "House" finale was shot on a 5D http://soundcloud.com/philipbloom/intervie...finale-of-house

Tim, Would you please post a picture of your Les Bosher Arri Std (Cooke) to PL adapter? I've got a PL adapter I bought off eBay that works with the Cookes and I'm curious who made it. It's got two rectangular release buttons on the periphery of the adapter's barrel. It also takes bayonet lenses.

Which is why I bought the EF-S 17-55mm F2.8 IS USM with close to "L" series optical quality for my 7D. It's not cheap but a 7D plus that lens costs about what a bare 5D body alone costs. I just had a ball with it shooting stills and video on a helicopter tour to the Grand Canyon from Las Vegas. I brought my EF-S 55-250mm F4-5.6 IS along but it was pretty much useless in a helicopter, even one of Maverick's smooth riding Eurocopters.

And if they've got cameras like RED's, it wouldn't hurt to have one experienced DIT or similar film industry geek. In the past I worked with film school grads who could tell you all about Goddard's films but wrestled with the concept of lighting to a stop.

George has some Color Meter II parts. Mine was badly screwed up. George replaced the filters, calibrated it, and when I got it back it was good as new.

In the early sound days in Hollywood they used real horse blankets to muffle the cameras. I think that's why they started calling them "Barneys" from the Barney Google comic strip. I own a 1930 "Cinematographic Annual" (the first name of the modern ASC "American Cinematographer's Manual). It's got a photo of five Fox Studio cameramen standing behind horse blanket covered cameras.

AVID will have Media Composer 5 out on June 10th (unofficial NAB announcement). It ingests Canon HDSLR files natively, no transcoding required. It's supposed to make working with the Canons much easier.

It looked great here at NAB on a 58" (or so) screen. Shane's giving a "Live Education" presentation at the Canon booth on his work. He's drawing HUGE crowds, at least a hundred people with standing room only. There's also a Canon HD theatre with a 10 minute review of clips from various Cinematographer's work with the Canon HDSLR's.

Now take that youtube tiny screen video and blow it up on 50' screen, it won't look just a little bit shaky. The amount of shake HAS to be matched to the delivery format.

Got a chance to play with a live 3Ality rig in Bexel's booth today. Learned you absolutely don't want to change interocular within a shot but convergence can be pulled creatively. There will come a day when the audience is so used to 3D that it will be possible to pull convergence to change their attention point much like pulling selective focus is used currently. Great thing about pulling convergence is that it works very nicely with deep focus.

From the Free Online English dictionary: We define intuitive as NIntuitive \In*tu'i*tive\, a. [Cf. F. intuitif.]1. Seeing clearly; as, an intuitive view; intuitive. When I, a live human being, watch something I don't see a shaky image, I see a steady image even if I'm bouncing along through a field on a dirt bike. I possess a visual processing computer system that transcends any piece of photographic hardware existing by a huge margin. Look at all the work being done on facial recognition with only some success. You and I have possessed that ability since we were infants and as adults can differentiate between thousands and thousands of faces. There is absolutely nothing "intuitive" about shakycam, it's a fad that's being overused by individuals without a scrap of real creativity. It works in very small doses where it can express chaos but when it's the entire visual presentation it's just visual noise. And like most other noise, I tune it out...or turn it off. And then there's editing where everything is blenderized into sequences consisting of snippets of four frames or less...DATA would have trouble following those stories.

Any possibility of cutting a temporary hole large enough in that wall to shoot a big HMI from a more suitable distance? Labor can be quite cheap in India, particularly traditional manual labor like masons.

And I walked out of "The Hurt Locker" for that very reason. You saw it on a TV screen (how big?), I was in the middle rows of a stadium style theater where the screen takes up most of your visual field. I am willing to bet Ms. Bigelow was watching the action on a small monitor telling the camera operators to "Make it look exciting". All shakycam did for her movie was to take a very interesting visual story and turn it into a badly shot roller coaster ride. There's a reason why it was an Academy Award winner that didn't win much audience. Don't get me going on why her Oscar very likely was about political correctness, not film-making. I've seen a lot of WWII combat footage where the camera is as steady as a rock even though the cameraman was under live fire. Have you seen any of the Kodachrome George Stevens shot on D-Day and afterwards in Europe? It ain't shakycam even when handheld.

http://www.tiffen.com/userimages/Tiffen_Bf...roch_07_std.pdf

Keep in mind that a 50mm lens on an APS-C sized sensor camera like the 7D/550D is equivalent to a 80mm lens on a 35mm full frame camera. Or in other words it's a mild telephoto on the APS-C cameras, not a standard lens like it is on a 35mm film camera. A standard lens on a 7D would be more like 32mm

The price you list for the basic 7D package looks high. I suggest pricing out what you want on B&H Photovideo and Adorama's websites. They both had $100 off deals on bare 7D bodies recently. PS: The EF-S 17-55mm F2.8 IS USM lens is very highly rated with close to "L" series quality, they run around $1K. To research lenses browse http://photozone.de/