Mark Sasahara

Actually, I like JVC's PL Mount adapter for their 1/3" cameras. No moving parts, no power needed. Again, the problem of getting it onto the HVX, hence my thoughts of a lensectomy, among other things. I'm not sure I like Movietube's angled camera concept, though that does help the problem of lens adapters making small cameras ridiculously long. I'd like to be able to use a "regular" video lens, like the Fuji 3.5x13, rather than cine lenses for most jobs. I don't have the $$$ to buy/rent a set of primes, or zooms and a lot of the stuff I shoot doesn't have the budget for them, nor do they require them. But, having an HVX that rides on my shoulder, has a viewfinder, interchangeable lenses, 14.4V power for the camera and accessories, would make a stable and comfortable camera set up. I like my handheld shots to be on the shoulder. Still and all, with all the pieces: camera, lens, viewfinder, fabricated shoulder rig, would run about $15K-$17K, plus who knows how much for the mod. I might be crazy enough to try and hack the mod myself, but it's also a question of the tools and staying within tolerances, not to mention dust abatement. Not sure I have $5199 + to toss around for the mod, but I'm still intrigued.

Yeah, I have been thinking about this too. I had two shoots last week, both of which required handheld. Holding the HVX is like holding a brick, especially with a mic and Litepanel mounted. That sucker gets heavy. Forget trying to shoot anything with the lens at the tele end. Super shaky earthquake cam. Or maybe I'm a weakling, not sure. Is it possible to rig either a Panasonic viewfinder, or my Canon FU-1000 ( from my XL2)? I could see some type of shoulder mount with double handgrip and an Anton/Bauer gold mount on the back. Rig a Foxi and Zoe to the handgrips. It would be nice to be able to go hands free. Then, maybe figure out how to chop the lens off and mount a Fuji 1/3" 3.5mm wide angle zoom... ...or should I just get the JVC?

Minolta USED TO make great light meters. Sadly, they no longer are making them. Love my color meter III. Minolta, or Konica/Minolta left the photo biz earlier this year. But, have no fear. Kenko appears to be selling them. Here is a link to Adorama, where I got the info: Oddly, Minolta still sells their industrial light meters, but no photographic meters. Whatever. Pop photo dot com's April article.

If the 4x25' roll is wide enough, you can use 3M ATG tape, aka snot tape, and apply the tape to the window frame. Outside is best, if not, then you could put tape on the edges to make it look like the window frame. Just be sure that the tape on the edges is completely opaque. Light passing through the tape may not look right. I've put a layer of 1" paper tape down and then 1"white artists tape over that to make it look like the window frame. ATG tape is just adhesive, there's no paper, or polyester liner to support it. ATG is often used on gel frames and windows. It's kind of a pain to use at first though.

A nice, soft angora sweater and black pumps-three inch heels are about right. Guess I'm from the Ed Wood school of film making. Be sure that your sweater has pockets for your lightmeter and walkie.

I've not really used the XL1 much. I think the round mode dial on the left side of the body has to be in VTR mode. Playback controls are on top of the handle. Was the cable good? Sorry, I don't have much else.

I think your best bet is, as Jim suggested, have a larger light that will be your main light and then have the onboard light be a fill light. Also, you may have to go with available light and then use the on board as the main. Diffuse the light with a small softbox, or just clip some 216, or Opal to the front. You won't really need more than about 50W. Be sure you've got enough batteries and keep the charger nearby. Are you usng NP1's or Gold Mount? An Anton Bauer, Frezzi, PAG, or even a Bescor light should be plenty. If you can get the light a little higher and off center a bit, that can help. I don't think you want to be dragging an inverter around. Is there any way that you can switch to some smaler and lighter cams like a Sony VX 2100? Certainly would make life easier and the low light is probably better that the WV-250. I've never used the WV-250, so I don't know what it's like. Are you going to be operating multiple cams on pedestals? You won't really be "in" the event, you'll be more "outside" observing.

David has (of course) hit it on the head with his last sentence: "It was all part of an artistic concept though about these people living in shadows and secrets." There's what's right and then there's what's right for what you're doing. The darkness was a brilliant artistic choice.

Google for the monitor and you should be able to find it. There are a couple of retailer/used sellers in the US that have links to manuals on their site. I think it's The Broadcast Store. Google and ye shall find.

You may want to paint the ceiling black and keep it that way. Above a certain height, that will probably never change and will help keep reflections down. And as other folks said, the studio will get painted every color over time.

I spent the summer Gaffing for the TV show, Don't Sweat It, on HGTV. We went to people's houses and did renovations. I used bare Kino tubes and harnesses, taped to the ceiling. The light was flat and poopy, but that's what they wanted. I could have hung teasers, but there was just no time. I used a lot of the 2 inch Permacel black photo tape. It's a paper tape, so it won't rip the paint off the ceiling, but it clings very well. If you are paranoid, you can use a small staple gun to help hold them down, but this requires filling and painting after. Don't staple down over paper tape, it's hard to remove without peeling the paint off. I found out the hard way. You can hang duvetyne, or use Blackwrap to create teasers. Also be sure that you use enough tape. It's not good if poop starts falling down on people's heads, esp during a take. When you tape a Kino tube down, run a piece of tape across the tube and then another piece of tape on each side. This makes an "H" and holds everything down. Do that on each end. If you are paranoid, you can do another in the middle. Same proceedure for the harnesses and head cables. White Artist's tape can cover over head cables and it tends to look like wall trim, or something when you run it next to a doorframe, or window frame. Just be sure that your tape job is neat. If you do use wall spreaders, but can't screw them into the wall, you can sometimes use wooden vertical beams to support the span at each end. This requires painting them, or staining them to blend in with the decor. When using wall spreaders, it's best if you can screw, or nail them into the wall and prevent them from "popping out" and falling down. Get permission first and be sure that you can fill and paint the holes so that they are invisible, after the shoot.

Dedolights are going to be a bit expensive, but I really love them. The light is fantastic and they are 12V, or 24V depending on the bulb. So you can power it from your 12VAnton Bauer, or 24V camera battery. They need a ballast to run on house power. I use them as hair lights and background lights as well as key lights. You might look for some used Inkies and/or Midgets on ebay. The Arri 150's are really great, they're small and are quite nice and can take an FEV 200W globe. The Lowels are pretty good, they're inexpensive and robust. A lot of people poo-poo Lowel, but if you are on the road, a visit to the local hardware store will fix pretty much what ever is wrong. They deliver a decent bang for the low bucks. I always have leather gloves as part of my kit. If you are using lights, you'll need to protect your hands. For a larger light, I really like the Desisti Magis. It can be lamped with a 300W, 500W, or 650W globe. The Magis is small and puts out as much light as any 650 on the market. They pop up on ebay every now and then. For some reason the B&H website has a pic of it without it's mounting yoke.

Chris, I've been using the Joker Bug 800 on a TV show for the last couple of months and it's been quite good. I haven't had the chance to use it in bug mode yet, but I used it last night to light up the side of a house. I had the wide lens on it and shot it through a 4x4 frame with 250 on it. It lit up a good 20'x20' area area. The Arri 1.2 is brighter, but the 800 comes pretty close and is half the size. I'm going to do a comparison at some point before the end of the show and see how close/far they are in output. I know a lot of travelling news folks like the Joker Bug 200 and the 400. I'm curious about the Kobold Bron series, they are water resistant and can be out in the rain without any cover. According to user reports/pix, they've been used by news shooters covering hurricanes, with no problems at all. With the K5600 Slimverter, you can use your A/B bricks to power the 200. There is a Slimverter for the 400 that runs off of battery belts. It has two, two pin screw in connectors, for DC operation. The only thing I don't like is that the lenses make the beam into a long skinny rectangle. I'll probably get some brushed silk to spread it out a bit.

The Dedo 150 (DLH4) is great, but you may want to go with the Dedo 650, or the 400 HMI. I haven't tried the two bigger lights and I just recently bought a Dedo kit and I really love it. The beam is very clean and focused, but yes, it is a hard light. You would likely have to put it very near the talent. There is the Dedo Cool, which is designed to be used when shooting microscopic images or other things where the light is very close to the subject. Heat shield is also handy. Check out Dedolight's website for photometrics, etc. Download the catalog PDF

Heh, thanks Tim. Yep it were an ugly one. Luckily it only cost me shipping and Canon were very nice and quick. It helped that they were in NJ and I was in NYC. Unfortunately, there is no way to change the Master Fuse yourself and there is no way to check it. I don't recommend opening up the camera, bad craziness. ALWAYS POWER DOWN the camera BEFORE you: -Remove the lens. -Unplug the viewfinder- especially the B&W FU-1000. Otherwise it will F you. It F'ed me. -Plug or unplug the Firewire connection. -Don't know about the MA-300, don't have one. You really wouldn't need one since the XL2 already has XLR inputs. Everything else is okay, video and audio ins/outs. I usualy I turn off the camera before I plug, or unplug the LANC controller, just because I'm paranoid. Don't know if it's a problem, probably not. Otherwise it's been a great camera and it's still going strong.

If you can, get the FU-1000 black & white viewfinder. It's totally worth it, because your video will be in focus. I can't use the color EVF. DV Info's XL2 Watchdog has a list of must have accessories and I think it's one of them. Also go to their XL2 Forum. Lot's of good info on the whole site, click around. Eric covered most everything. I really like the manual 16x lens. I like the mechanical focus and zoom rings, not to mention that there are markings for the distance and focal lengths. I like the BNC out to monitor, I really like the picture and colors. It's native 16x9, so it's got better rez than the DVX. Con: When using external mics, you will need a couple of Audio Technica AT 8202 line attenuators to prevent incoming sound from clipping. I usually set them to -10db or -20 db. Canon stupidly does not have a mic/line switch for the audio. If you have Sennheiser lavs, set them to -30db Sensitivity. You won't need the 8202's since the lav is lowering the signal. Both cameras are excellent, I've shot a lot with the DVX100A. In 2004, when the time came to buy, I spent a lot of time looking over the different forums about which camera, the DVX, or the XL2? I picked the XL2.

If you can wait a bit, you might find people unloading their DVX100's, XL2's and other cameras. The new HDV cameras are pretty much all here now. Or save up your money and get an HDV camera. Time to do your due dilligence and research.

A few winters ago, I was bored, so I made a dolly. I designed it myself and it's a tank. I even made outriggers for it. Version 2.0 will have removable wheels so I can put street wheels on it. I made my dolly out of Unistrut for the frame, two layers of birch plywood for the deck and Kee Klamp fittings for the push bar. I was very lucky and got the skate wheels and trucks for $80 on eBay. I recently bought new bearings and softer Kryptonic wheels from a friend who makes the lovely and talented Brooklyn Dollies. You can also use aluminum Hollaender speedrail, or Kee Klamp fittings. I used the Unistrut because I can place the bolts and trucks wherever they need to go. The whole thing is pretty heavy, but it's very smooth. I've modified the trucks so that I can use my dolly on my Matthews 10 foot radius dolly track. Having the ability to move the bolts around facilitated this. Use thick wall 6061 T6 aluminum tubing.

They're a good outfit. I sold them some of my gear and I've rented from them. No one I know, who have used them, have had any problems. Steve Gal and his father, George Gal, are the main people there along with Jeff, I forget if Jeff is also a Gal, or not. George is the owner and Repair Technician. He used to work for CSC, so he knows Arris.

This is kind of an old post, but I'm bored, so I'll post. As others have said, news of Standard Definition and MiniDV's death is premature. It's going to be a while before they go away. Over time, more people will be start asking for HD instead of MiniDV, but HDV is still in it's infancy. We're at the first generation, JVC's camera of a few years ago was the first, but we're just getting to the point where it's a little more practical to use. Delivery and widespread adoption of the technlogy is a ways off. I think a lot of people will want "HD" not realizng that for their SD systems, it won't make much difference. I'm still shooting a lot of gigs on SD formats, so if you're worried about your investment, I think it will pay for itself. (off camera) "Nyaaaaaugh" That's right Chewie. Well said.

But it would look soooo dreeeamy... I'm sure you could get a deal, maybe $3000. Man, you'd need a serious blimp for that. Hmmm, the Sinar blimp would probably cost $10,000 USD :~). The hard part would be taping all those sheets of film together. Maybe staples. :ph34r: I think that Kodak Aerial film comes in seven inch widths and is in a big-ass cannister that loads into U2 planes and various modified recce aircraft. I had a girlfriend who worked in the Air Force and had to upload and download them. Very big and heavy. A two person job. Yes, my girlfriend wore combat boots. :lol:

Belated Birthday greetings-Happy Birthday Tim!

A friend of mine was at a camera check out and a guy in the bay next to him had a Nikon still lens in a slanted mount, so he got slant focus. By removing the lens and rotating it, he could slant side to side and up and down. He made it himslef and apparently it works pretty well. Not quite the same as a bellows unit, but pretty nifty. Hmmm, now if I can modify the motor drive for my 4x5...

The Mini35 looks really nice on a 1/3" chip camera. Or, as good as anything can on a 1/3" chip cam. You get 35mm cine DOF and the great 35mm glass. I gaffed a shoot where we used it on an XL1 and it looked very nice. I think we used Zeiss Super Speeds. I'm looking for an excuse to shoot with one. There are a few little idiosyncracies, like the power and f-stop control, but the rental people can help. Get the model 400, which is the latest one with the oscillating ground glass. The 300 has a spinning gg, which is okay, but you can't really stop down much past around f/4.5 or f/5.6.

You are also paying for the manufacture of the highest quality glass. Schott glass is not for windows, it's manufactured under the strictest quality control to create "water white" glass that has no inherent color to it. That way your Zeiss and Schneider lenses will look fantastic. Ever look at window glass? It's green. I think it's about 10CC-15CC green, if memory serves. I don't know where Canon and Fuji get their glass, or if they manufacture their own, but the quality control is quite high as well. (producer) I mean you just get a camera and and some actors and shoot the darned thing! I mean Geeze, how hard can it be?