Robert Gardner

Hi David,

thanks for your thoughts. I was thinking the same. Was just a bit puzzeled when I heard that from a camera assistant I work with quite a lot. He was also puzzeled.

We figured it was lazyness.

Cheers,

Rob

Hi Steven,

good to hear from you.

I am aware of these things, just was confused why he would just go from 4K to 2K to crop his field of view rather than changing the lense let's say from a 50mm to a 85mm?

Was he just being lazy? Prob he was outputting on 1080p, just thought it was odd. Never seen anyone doing that.

Anyhow, was just being curios if other people do that as common practice?

Greets from Doha,

Rob

Hi,

I heard something odd today. I was told by a camera assistant that he was working with a DP last week who instead of changing lenses just changed from 4K to 2 K on the Epic to crop his shot so he could get the right composition.

Is that OK just to jump around like that instead of changing the lense to your desired composition.

I was a bit confused when I heard that.

Any thoughts or experience with that?

Many Thanks,

Rob

Thanks guys for the info!

Rob

Hi all,

I have a question about getting the right exposure when shooting with the Epic.

Let's say I am shooting at 800 ISO and my lightmeter reading gives me T. 5.6.

I set my lense accordingly also using false color and zebra do tune my exposre slightly.

It all looks great when I am in the RLF/RC2 view mode. Once I switch to RAW view mode everything looks underexposed.

Is that because RAW brings everything down to 320 ISO?

Should I expose for the RAW? When I expose for the RAW and play it back, everything seem way overexposed!

Not sure what I should be exposing for. New to the Red, so any tips are highly appreciated.

Many Thanks,

Rob

Hi There,

I was wondering if anyone has any good reading material or links to what the specific difference between 4K, Quad HD and 4K2K is.

Or any enlightenment on Quad HD or 4K2K would be great.

Many Thanks,

Rob

Many Thanks guys for the tips. Will have a go with setting the camera to 1-2 seconds exposure and keep it at short burst intervals like 2 sec.

Will also have a go with the method Chris was talking about. The only thing here is I might need endless ;-) layers to create the effect. Sounds like an interesting approach though.

Again, many thanks.

Rob

If I'm reading this right you want streaks of light but not speed up motion ?

 

If so shoot normally with the largest shutter angle you can get then in post offset many layers of the same footage over each other mixing them so that each layer contributes an equal amount to the resultant frame. The trick is that each layer is offset with respect to the layer below by one frame. You then have to switch on and off each frame um, sheesh - how do I describe this - er, 'accordingly'.

 

Kind like so:

 

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

123456789

12345...

 

Notice how the red section is always 3 long but moves by 1 frame only ? that's what we're after

 

This way you accumulate motion blur but maintain natural speed.

 

Your main variables are:

- The amount of layers, which visually equates to the amount of blur relative to the speed of the motion that caused the movement in the first place.

- The temporal offsets, which visually equates to something you're best left to play with to see.

- The acquisition shutter angle, ideally you want 360deg for this trick

 

Some cameras have even longer than 360deg shutter angles which is actually exactly what you are asking for ('arbitrarily longer than 360deg shutter angles' to be succinct) - not sure about the red however.

 

As Phil has led me to investigate into previously 'optical flow' is the kind of carry on that would help here, and there are likely filters, in house comps and plug ins for various composting programs that will do what you're asking already. But if you're keen the brute force technique outlined above can be quite self-fufilling.

Hi there,

I was wondering if there is a good way to achieve motion blur with the sort of streaking lights you get at night with a long time exposure. Is there a way how to achieve this sort of effect other than using time lapse?

I will be shooting digital (prob red one). Is there a way i could do it with the camera, or would it be advisable to send out a second unit with a DSLR to get the time lapse sequence?

I am looking to capture a busy intersection with all them car lights leaving them long trails and streaks of light. Everyone has seen it a thousand times, but I never had to film it myself. Any advise is very much appreciated.

Many Thanks,

Rob

Hi there,

I was wondering if there is a good way to achieve motion blur with the sort of streaking lights you get at night with a long time exposure. Is there a way how to achieve this sort of effect other than using time lapse?

I will be shooting digital (prob red one). Is there a way i could do it with the camera, or would it be advisable to send out a second unit with a DSLR to get the time lapse sequence?

I am looking to capture a busy intersection with all them car lights leaving them long trails and streaks of light. Everyone has seen it a thousand times, but I never had to film it myself. Any advise is very much appreciated.

Many Thanks,

Rob

Hi all,

I am looking into buying a set of Zeiss Compact Prime lenses. I was just wondering if anyone has shot with the Compacts having the PL mount and the compacts with the EF mount.

Is there any different between the lenses in terms of focus pulling, or are they exactly the same lenses just with a different mount?

Many Thanks,

Rob

Hi there,

I was just wondering if anyone had a chance to test the new Sola12. Am thinking of getting one for ENG and on location training videos for huge construction sites.

I am looking at the light in terms of flexibility and value for money. Also lots of times I have limited access to power or am not allowed to run a generator.

I never worked with Litepanels before and am a bit skeptical about them. Any advice or experience is highly appreciated.

Cheers,

Rob

Hi all,

was wondering if someone has done a direct comparison test between the Sony 900R Cinealta and the Sony PDWF 800 XDCAM?

Or if anyone has any info about where I could find some more insight would be great.

Many Thanks,

Rob

Perhap a bigger problem is connectivity. What do you use for an internet connection?

 

Yes, that is our other issue we are dealing with at the moment. We will have 2 different locations, for one we might have to send it via satellite, for the other we might be able to use wireless network. I am very new to all this, so it might take me a while to find the best solution!

 

 

 

-- J.S.

Hi All,

I am trying to get a live webcam into some remote area where I won't be having access to any power source other than the sun. I was curious if anyone has any experience with that. How can I build a system that would give me remote live streaming powered by a solar panel. It would also need to withstand temperatures up to 50 Celsius and high humidity!

Any thoughts on this are highly appreciated.

Many thanks,

Rob

hi all,

i just had a quick question.

i am struggeling between the z7 and the s270. has anyone shot on both?

i am thinking of purchasing one of them but am totally convinced of either of them.

my heart lies with the z7.

i am just looking for any feedback from either.

would be great to hear what you guys think about both cameras.

\

thanks,

rob

Thank you guys for your advice,

reallly helped a lot. I am looking forward to the shoot now.

Cheers,

Rob

Hi there,

I've never worked with the Phantom before and am about to very soon.

We are shooting a music video and are thinking of using a Phantom and a Red.

There are a few questions I have about working with the Phantom. It would be great if anyone could answer some. Here we go....

-Only reason for using the Red is for the 25FPS stuff, I've heard that the Phantom is a great cam also for slow frame rates. Does anyone think that would make the Red unnecessary? Should I just stick with the Phantom?

-Lighting for the Phantom! I was thinking of HMI's only. I am shooting in England so we have 50Hz.

Will there be any problems with flicker if I shoot over 100fps? What is the min. size of lights to avoid flicker? Shall I mainly go 4K's and up?

-Shutter angle on Phantom? Will the shutter angle also affect the flicker? Lets say I shoot 100 fps and up, shall I keep 180 degrees shutter or go higher?

Is there some kind of general rule, the higher the fps the higher the shutter angle (360 degrees)?

-When shooting regular 25 fps and I lower the shutter angle to about 60 degrees will I get the same sharp image and 'needle point' image as I would get with a 35mm camera?

I hope someone can answer a few of my questions. Thank you so much in advance.

Rob

I shot the Chevelle "Well Enough Alone" video over a year ago with the Phantom. This was before the mags were available. It is a great camera for 24 and 1000 fps @ 1080. We were fortunate to master the final video in HD.

 

Joshua

 

http://joshuareis.com/quicktime/Quicktimes_Chevelle.html

 

720P version

 

http://joshuareis.com/quicktime/hd/CHEVELL...H264_HD_9mb.mov

Hi, I am just planing to shoot a music video. We are thinking of using the Phantom for the slow mo stuff and the Red for regular speeds. So far I've heard from many people that the Phantom is a great all round camera also when shooting 25fps. So my question would be if I should cancel the RED and just stick with the Phantom for the whole video?

Any thoughts on that are greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Rob

I?ve been using Kino Flos with half of the bulbs tungsten and half daylight. Seemed to work pretty well.

Thanks for all the advice. I'ce decided to have a HMI base and use Tugsten for warm effects.

Also thought about mixing my Kino's. See how it all works out.

Cheers,

Rob

Sure, you can do your stage lighting all in tungsten on the RED; I'd stick to a 320 ASA rating if you can because the noise problems escalate faster in tungsten mode as you underexpose.

 

Lighting with HMI's in daylight mode would just give you a cleaner look, but certainly the tungsten-lit scenes would be intercuttable.

 

Another option is to use a pale blue filter on the camera in the tungsten-lit scene, if you have enough exposure, for a halfway compromise between 3200K and 5500K.

 

These are some RED frames of scenes shot in tungsten (ignore the heavy JPEG compression):

 

 

 

Hi David,

Thanks for the quick reply. Was thinking of using filters or correcting the lights themselves. As you said not sure if there is enough of a budget to compensate for the light loss and get bigger or more lights. It's all more or less low budget.

Would you say to use a pale blue filter is better than shooting clean and wait till post?

I personaly like to do as much as I can during the actual filming ( my background is more film vs. digi. )

But ja, you recon there isn't a big problem mixing tungsten with daylight in general.

Cheers

Hi there,

Will be lighning the first time for a Red soon. We have loads of exterior location shoots where I will just be using Daylight and might kick in some 6K or 12K if needed. 2 days will be shot in studio. Most people I've talked with so far recommended sticking with Daylight for the studio as well. Would it creat a problem if I would use Tungsten Lights insted of HMI's? Apperently the Red reads Daylight better than Tungsten. My question would be, is Tungsten Light a big NO for Red's or does it depend on what I want to do? And what about mixing Daylight with Tungsten Lights?

Any advice is highly appreciated,

Cheers, Rob

Thanks for the advice guys,

I know it won't come cheap. We just have to wait and see how much more the producer can squeez out for post.

Thanks again,

Rob

Hi there,

I will start shooting a S16mm short in a couple of weeks. The director wants to go to 35mm print afterwards.

I've never done that befor so I wasn't 100% sure about the 'right' way of doing it. Also there is some Animation invoved as well.

We were thinking of getting a 2K telecine on Digi Beta or HD, doing the edit and the animation and credits on the DI and give it back to a post house for final grading and an Arri Scan and 35mm print We don't want to go through the hassel of neg cutting.

Does that sound about right? We are working on a limeted budget so we thought that might be the best route.

Alos when shooting S16mm for a final 35mm print, are there certain things I should be aware of? It will be Standard 35mm print for European market.

Any thoughts and tips would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Rob

Hi Robert,

 

please don't cross post to multiple forums!

 

As for the Canon I'd say that the finder isn't all that great and the camera is very front heavy with the stock lens. The stock lens is quite crappy too IMO. All that said and my personal preference I'd go with the Sony. But I haven't had a chance to check it out so far.

 

Cheers, Dave

Sorry for the cross posting and thanks for the advice.

Rob

hi there,

i am planing on buying a new camera and have a hard time deciding between the canon xl-h1 and the new sony-z7.

i am planing on using the camera mainly for wildlife filming, so i was thinking of the canon befor the new sony z-7 came out. now that sony also offers interchangable lenses i am stuck.

i personally prefer sony over canon, but i am not sure if the sony is quite as good as the canon + it just came out and might still have some baby problems which have to be solved?

anyone out there who could give me any piece of advise???

it would be highly appriciated.

cheers,

rob