cineshooter

I have the cannon HD 21X lens (HJ21x7.5B) and out of all the video zoom lenses i have come across i am the happiest with this particular lens, the front element is large (I think 127mm) and it will make a video camera very front heavy, but the breathing is much better than other video lenes I've had. Another thing I will do is when I need to rack my focus I'll try and use the macro this way I have no breathing, of coarse it can't always work. From my own experiences I've never been happy with Fujinon lenses, Ive always felt them to be a little flat or mushy, but hey maybe I never got my hands on really good Fuji glass. Good luck and I'd love to hear other opinions. JD www.cineshooter.com

check out my reel at www.cineshooter.com if you like it contact me and we can talk about your project JD

Double is the way I have always done it. As for the light meter issue, I'm not following, if you have a meter set the meters ASA/ISO for the film stock you are using, then set you speed 24FPS, 30FPS 75FPS (if you are using a meter w/o cine reading you need to do the math 30FPS = 1/60th of a second (because you camera's shutter will be closed for half the time)whatever speed you are shooting, any wild motor camera will have slight variables, they are not figured in for metering, and then take your reading happy shooting JD www.cineshooter.com

when you start messing around with different lenses you can really have some fun (yeah, I know my wife has already said it, but to me its fun) just remeber the 35mm lens placed on a 16mm camera will give the angle of view of a 16mm lens with double the 35mm's focal length (35mm lens focal legth 50mm will act like a 16mm lens with the focal length of 100mm) God luck JD www.cineshooter.com

If I understand what you're asking, the lenses focal length equivelance, when using a 35mm lens on a 16mm camera is that you double the focal length ie; a 50mm lens for a 35mm camera would give you the angle of view as a 16mm lens with the focal legth of a 100mm. Was that the question? as for counting (calculating) the shutter speed of the K-3: The K-3(s) that I used in the past where non sync. (wild) spring wound motors, there should be a little dial on the side of the camera that sets your film speed........the spring wound K-3 is a non sync camera, so the speed calculations will vary while shooting, and if I recall the camera, are estimates, the camera does not have a variable shutter, but I do believe some people have modified the K-3 for a sync motor......hope I answered your questions.... JD www.cineshooter.com

If you are looking to avoid the lenes breathing then you will definetly want to avoid the ang. as for the zeis (I've used the T2 and it had a macro) to avoid the breathing problem, tryusing the lenes macro focus to do your racking or focus pulling it doesn't always work but when it does it helps out tremendously. As for your SLR lenses are you sure they will work, I'd recommend a test before you commit to that, sometimes they will mount but the focus plane is not the same as your SLR and that's no good.... Good luck, JD www.cinehooter.com

The K-3 has some nice pros than make the cons much more palatable.....I was always able to use some old Mamiya 35mm SLR lens on mine and the results were nice array of lens for a real in expensive price, it's a small cam, that I was able to mount almost anywhere, and could control the starting of the spring motor using a long slr plunger cable, so we could mount the camera on a motorcycle handlebar or a car dash, the fact that i could use a few of my old slr lens (before my slr decided that it needed a new home and 'grew legs' one day) allowed me to use all of my filters on the camera as well.....if it wasn't for the stinking film jamming problem, I would have thought this a perfect little pocket camera....(well maybe not perfect, be real handy) JD www.cineshooter.com

If budget is your primary concern, find out if your 16mm cam can be modifyied to S16 down the road, of course you will then need all new lenses, when you decide to buy a camera, you may want to do a couple of things first; find out the cameras capabilities (FPS, tap, S16, lens option, sync.) next you may want to have your head examined, I now own 3 and I know I'm nuts..... Good luck, JD www.cineshooter.com

We used to kick up the gain then iris down taking the 'video bite' out of those old tube cameras....the Ikegami 79 had the best picture, then the Hitachi SK-97, and the sony's were actually the worst (on my list back in those days).....good luck finding a place to rent one you might try calling Sean Moran at Hitachi Densi of America 1-516-682-4431, he may be able to get his hands on a still operational SK-97, this is NOT a camcorder and you will need a seperate deck (the Sony BVW-35 was tops in it's class, I still own two if you're looking)....as for the comet tailing effect, when you point those tubes at a direct light source you burn the tubes (very bad) and the result can be a burn spot permanently left on the tube visible on any image from that point on...... Good Luck, JD www.cineshooter.com

check out this stuff http://www.uic.edu/sph/glakes/harts/HARTS_...ary/filmall.txt http://www.stuntmen.com/internal.html Don't mess around with people's lives.... JD www.cineshooter.com

Do you mean full daylight spools or just the empty spools......full spools yes Kodak, Fuji, Ilford, as well as many film resalers will sell them as for the empty spools, I actually never looked to buy any... JD www.cineshooter.com

pan and tilt drags seem to be sticky not so smooth the locks seem to go bad not enough drag settings heavy for the weight the head can handle not the easiest to balance I just never liked them.... whether they be studio peds or field tripods JD www.cineshooter.com

strictly a personal opinion (not looking to get sued) I hate Vinten.....never used one that I thought was worth a half a pack of Lucky's..... I like ..... O'Connor, Satchler, Cartoni....never been burned JD www.cineshooter.com

well, I had (still have somewhere) a K-3 and it came with a pretty descent lens (manual zoom something like 8-70mm, I'm guessing it's been a long time) the camera had a jamming issue and didn't always have a steady gate, got to the point where I could tell how it was running via the feel and sound, you can't do sync sound unless you modify the camera (which would have cost me more than the price of the camera), when i was in school we used super 8 rigs I never had much of a problem with those.....you can learn the basics of 'filmaking' with any motion camera including video, cut, composition, camera aqngles etc etc....as for learning about things like film stocks how they react, the gamma, lens perspective, well you could learn that with a 35mmSLR, (which you probably already have) a mentor would also be a good way to go ....you are young you could hook up with an AC, on a volunteer basis, and that would be an education in life and in film....you seem to be in a area full of industry professionals..... Good luck, JD www.cineshooter.com

The ASC guide has the calculations for many lenses in it as well as the formula (if I'm not mistaken) there is also an ASC giude for video now. Mr mullen might know more about this than I do....My (old and pretty well beaten up) ASC guide contains Depth of field charts as well as field of view charts, and other very usefull information for a mathematical moron such as myself. JD www.cineshooter.com

I'll take a crack at this if you still need someone JD www.cineshooter.com

why don't you just buy one? is there a special need you have or would you just like to build the rig? jd www.cineshooter.com

I'm not certain I'm following perfectly. How big is the projected picture cutting through the fog (any projector will cut the beam (that I think) you are talking about, if the picture needs to be projected very large (let's say life size) then a xeon beam projector would do the job. But if you are trying to turn a still (freeze frame) of one scene to a framed picture to start you next scenes transition then how about photographing the scene form the camera final position for a still (if you are not shooting 35mm) with a 35mm SLR or a medium format using a lens with the same angle of view developing the picture and hanging it on the wall, or taking a digital still with a pro type digital camera and printing it out to hang on the wall.....with all you actors in place you can use a kiss to white or black as the transition in case there are any minor variations and then start you next scenes dolly move from that photo .....sorry I'm just not sure I was following the question, but I would love to try and help JD www.cineshooter.com

If I may suggest checking out the lens in question....run it through th gauntlet...if you are happy and the tests come back clean then shoot away!! H*ll I'd stick a coke bottle on the front of a camera if the tests proved it looked great....as for TV lens with c-mounts this may have been from a copy stand camera or an older TV camera, the biggest disadvantages on using TV lenses on film (i've only done this with 16mm) is that TV lenses usually breath like asthmatics running a marathon...I hate that feature... and the distance from the lenses back element to the focal plane may be off, camera and lens shops can often customize the TV lenses or the cameras for use on the film camera, this may not be cost effective.....test it out in all it's focal distances and f-stops... if you like the lens, enjoy...... JD www.cineshooter.com

Hi: I've owned both of those cameras (I still own the Eclair) and the Eclair was hands down the better rig in my opinion....as stated earlier....the camera has better speed options, is quieter, allowed me more lens choices (due to the turret) and with the addition of a sound barney I can shoot very close to an audio source w/o hearing the camera noise. Both cameras will be work horses....the Arri, due to 'mouse ears' mags. was also a bit tougher to squeeze into a few tight situations...also if you should contemplate adding a video tap to either camera, my guy had told me (back in '98) that if we tapped the BL we would loose the ability to put my eye into the eyepiece, (I don't understand why but I'm not a camera techie) and I refused to loose that......no matter how good a tap he would have inserted....so I sold the BL and picked up an Eclair....very happy, this year I am going to convert the Eclair to S16 ..... JD www.cineshooter.com

Ah - sorry wrong phrasing - I think (strictly a personal opinion) that many people (who are footing the bill for a project) want to shoot progressive so they can: a) tell people they've shot progressive (they think they are cutting edge) B) think they will say a bunch of money c) can edit the piece themselves, or for a lot cheaper than a project shot on film d) are curious to check out the new medium that will 'kill' film As for a guy such as yourself the camera choice as well as the medium will mean alot, some are better than others, stars wars shot that thing a couple of years ago on the sony cinealta using a progressive 24p technology, and then there are the small hand sized 24p cameras, so that will make a big differnce too.....anyway thanks for answering my question and best of luck with your project.... Peace, JD www.cineshooter.com why is there a little yellow head in my posting? did i accidently do something?

Just curious, Why are you so desperate (I think is the way you phrased it) to see 24P footage, just to see it or are you considering working in that medium? JD www.cineshooter.com

I have asked Panasonic about the firewire thing the answer is no, the camera does not have a firewire option....the deck i have (panasonic DVCPro 50 sd 930) also does not have fire wire...we input the footage via SDI in/outs to our Avid (Media composer) we cannot use the 24P feature my Avid cannot accept it so what we have done to fool the avid is to shoot then import the footage at 30P (16:9) it looks really friggin' good, if you want to see something shot this way look at www.cineshooter.com and go to the stock footage page then look at the sunset example (only one available right now) that was shot on the SDX-900 at DVCPro50 30P 16:9, (The shot has been spead up for the web site) I have a Canon HD21X7.5 zoom lens and the entire package has made me very happy.... Peace, JD www.cineshooter.com

I gather that you want a local cinematographer, to keep your costes low, an I correct? If not then you should solict reels from DP reps, DP's and even talk to your local ad agencies, as well as the resource guides in FL. (use the last two options for locals) But I warn you and all people in your situation NEVER choose your DP based on rates alone.....your vision must be their vision, you cannot envisiona scene in a closet sized dungeon like office and your DP envisions the office in a Penthouse over looking Madison ave. Best of luck with your project hope my little blurb was helpful. Peace, JD www.cineshooter.com

try this: http://panasonic.com/business/provideo/sd_scene_select.asp take a look at many of the scenerios that Panasonic (I think) has come up with also there is a book out there about the sdx-900 that goes through the myriad (sorry if I've mispelled) of menu setting this camera has, I would recommend playing with these 'pre-set' or 'pretested' settings them tweaking to your liking....but remeber to set the camera to it's preset factory settings before and after you doe your tweaking and save the ones you like .......happy shooting JD www.cineshooter.com