craig forster

Hi, I am hoping to pick the brains of anyone who has experience in the field of microscopic cinematography. I have a pilot coming up which requires a lot of close up photography, macro work and possibly microscopic work ( imagine a flake of skin or drop of saliva being examined in a forensics lab ) The project will be shot in HD, most probably on a Sony PDW-700 camera which has a B4 mount. My first instinct for close up / close focus work would be to use a 100mm Macro Master Prime, but these dont come with b4 mount. I could use a pro35 to make this feasible. My other options would be to use zeiss digi-primes (b4 mount) along with arri/zeiss master diopters. Does anybody have any ideas I havent thought of here? If I were to use the diopters on a digi-zoom, would I be able to zoom through the diopters without a focus shift? As for the microscopic cinematography, a lot of work on the project will be CGI, but some material will need to be live-action. Searching on here has drawn a blank, although google found a site with adapters for domestic HD camcorders that attach to the eyepiece of a microscope. Would be great to hear from anyone who has come across this before, as its a first for me!.. Thanks in advance. Craig

try rubbing some mayonaise into the affected area, leave it for an hour or so, then scrape off. apparently the oil content helps soak through adhesive. If it is totally burnt in, you may have some trouble with this method. A houshold cleaner like 'astonish' may do it. its designed for ovens, although be careful, its slightly abrasive and could scratch the finish.

look into an Aaton LTR that has been converted to Super 16.. could be an option..

The link seems to be broken. It claims the video was removed by the user..?

If you go ahead with manufacturing these, when do you think they would be available? Would there be any modification to MP cameras for this to work? also will they work on a Canon Eos 20D?

If you cant get the finished video on stage6. The vid can be found on these links aswell :- http://www.gkandtherenegades.com/ http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=...188072672468060 and here is the behind the scenes footage if anyone is interested!!!! http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zXZrqwRRXhI

Our motivation to use the pressure plate was based on the results we saw on the andec website. They look to make a considerable difference to the shot steadiness. So we bought one a few days before the shoot. I have no idea about the cameras CLA jobs, the cameras came from reputable sellers off ebay bought about 2 years ago. This was the first time I have shot with them. Its probably unfair of me to critisise the pressure plate on this forum, when I havent had the simple service the camera would need to be running at its full potential. I'm sure this is probably the link you are establishing? The exposure for the s715 was 24fps at 500iso and then 1/2 stop open to compensate for the prism. I didnt shoot with the S715, so I had another shooter with me, but thats how I explained the set up of his meter. Why do you ask? Is it because of the shutter angle of the S715? This did concern me during prep, because I couldnt find enough information about how much to compensate, for the XL (xtra light). I decided to go the way I did because even if we had a little over exposure, it wont be enough to worry about, (its a pop promo, anything goes!!) and I'd rather over expose to get a good negative, than under expose. Also, the 2 x s8 cameras along with the Z1, were getting bonus material really, we didnt know if we would get anytyhing out of the s8, as the cameras were not tested prior to shooting! risky I'm sure you'll agree, but we are pleased with the results! From my readings on this forum, I discovered that the internal 85 filters on these camera will not engage with the Vision2 stocks, as they dont have the notches in the cartridges. It is possible to cut notches into the cartridges to allow the 85 to engage. I looked into this and it seems a bit too fiddly for my liking, so left my faithin the colourist at Todd-Ao!! The s8 was processed and telecine'd at Todd-Ao in London, It took just over a week to come back as they were really busy. It was telecined on an URSA, and transfered to Digibeta. In the meantime I have digitised and started roughly cutting through the rushes. We got a DV xfer of the s8 done so I could bring straight into FCP. It took about 3 days to get a good cut, then another couple of days to fine tune, and colour correct in FCP. Job done!..

The Dv camera was a DSR-450, with a Fujinon Genius lens A14x8 video lens. We also had a sony Z1 roaming around getting bonus shots. The main S8 camera was a Nizo Professional using a pressure plate, I was somewhat dissapointed with the pressure plate, as the footage still has quite a bit of jitter to it. but I was mainly using it to run at 54fps. The second S8 camera was a Bauer 715XL, running at 24fps, this had no pressure plate, but some of the footage seemed alot steadier than the Nizo. I didnt use an 85 for the exterior scenes, as I didnt have one at that time (got one now!) but was pleased with the results from the lab, after they had tweaked the colours. It needed further tweaking in NLE to match the DV footage. I shot 1 roll of 200T and 1 roll of 500T on the exteriors. Using the 500 when we were filming later in the day, and under the canopy of trees. Inside the club was all 500T on both S8 cameras, generally getting between f2.8 and 4 on the lightmeter, depending on where we were. All of the slow motion was shot at 2.2 having compensated for the loss of light from the prism. I allowed 1/2 a stop for both cameras from the meter reading. This was a bit of guessing game with the Bauer, as I didnt know what kind of adjustment to make for the light loss.

It was simply a quicktime movie created through final cut pro, just downsized to 360x202 pixels

The footage was shot with 2 different cameras, a Nizo proffesional using a pressure plateand a Bauer 715XL. The amount of footage from the super 8 making it into the final cut was very limited. We were mainly using S8 to run at 54fps, to get something out of smashing bottles on peoples heads! The shooting style differs from the other cameras we were using on the video, we were only looking to steal moments here and there, which it why it looks a bit zoomy and wobbly! The final video can be found at the following link. You may have to download a driver to play divx, but it only takes a minute, and is worth it to see the full resolution of the video. http://stage6.divx.com/user/gkandtherenega...;-The-Renegades

Here is a link to some super 8mm rushes I shot for a Music Promo recently, using mainly Vision2 500T and 1 roll of 200T. The final Promo is a mixture of DV and Super 8mm. I had very limited lighting kit, and the location we filmed in was very dimly lit bar/restaurant. It took 2 days to shoot. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OAP4Ym7LZhY