Michael K Bergstrom

So, finally had a couple opportunities to go shooting with this little thingy. I have a couple more thoughts to add to my first post. The video quality on this still camera continues to impress me. I went out to the Iditarod Race, a park, and the Roller Derby last night and shot both stills and video. Switching between video mode and stills mode was very fast, and the record time start up was impressive, there's several times where I started rolling mid collision during the derby and I caught it. Autofocus sucks in video mood, constantly hunts, not that I would ever shoot video on auto, but it was a worthwhile test. Stills wise is found focus pretty good and quite fast. Manual focusing is so easy on the thing I don't see why you wouldn't just do that though. You are able to take a picture while shooting video but found that function completely useless so far. Perhaps there's a use for it on set, but just running around, couldn't find one yet. I'll be posting the roller derby video this week. I shot the whole thing hand held at 800 iso (could've used more light with the stock lens, didn't want to push too much though), and was quite please with how the IS held up, as long as I didn't whip pan, or snap zoom, the rolling shutter was hardly present. Very interesting footage. I know Zak was going to maybe try and mesh up the Ex1 Letus footage with this footage and see if the blend. I would really like a different lens though, and definitely a battery grip. I shot a 32gig Class 4 card all night and never had a buffer issue with video, I had a couple moments for stills (which by the way, rapid fire is really a no show on this). That's all for now.

Zak or I haven't put the EX1 footage next to each other, but right off the bat, the EX1 codec seem superior (as you can imagine), horizontal lines tend to dance a little with the Canon. You're right David, the 18-55mm zoom is a pain, we were playing around today with a nikon 28mm, and a 400mm prime which were just lovely. Easy to focus, very sharp and a whole lot faster. We are in the middle of shooting a no budget feature while we're in the slow season up here. We have a big fight scene we're shooting, and we'll be shooting the Canon's right next to the EX1 with a letus, should be a nice comparison, if it works out well we'll be looking at maybe shooting some walk through bar scenes with the canon as well. As for shooting a whole project...it does seem risky.

So I picked up one of the new Rebel T2i/550D's last friday, then I got sick over the weekend so couldn't go out an play with it... It's a very small and light camera, it feels like the cost you pay for it. Very large LCD on the back, which in video mode is very nice. It's not very user friendly, not a whole lot of external controls, most of the work is done with menus. The thing is made of polycarbonate so you lose the nice solid feeling to it, the kit lens is nice (but quite loud), and I don't think it's worth the 100 dollars they charge for it, I'll be getting a nikon adapter and shoot with primes. I recommend not buying the kit if you have your own glass. I've shot a bit with it, and I must say, I think they are slowly getting rid of the rolling shutter. Unlike the 7D, and 5D, it can autofocus while shooting, which should appeal to the general consumer shooting their kid's soccer game, but I found the autofocus very loud and it would show up in the audio track. They have several picture presets for video including two that flatten the image, but they also have three user defined presets, so I went ahead and dialed in my own. I'll try to post some footage on vimeo in the next day or two. Overall, it makes a nice "crash camera", or B-Camera to a 7D, but if you can, just spring for the 7D.

Unless you're shooting a lot of really fast action, I wouldn't get it. I haven't had an issue with people accepting 4:2:0 footage, and the only difference I can tell with these cameras with the nano flash recorder is cleaner, crisper fast action. If you are shooting interviews and b-roll it's useless in my opinion.

A fast work around I've use before was to buy leg weights, and take the lead out of them. They are cylinders that are quite heavy and are useful to zip tie to lots of stuff to add a little extra weight. I've used them on a glidecam, steadicam, and a jib before.

Ice Road Truckers is still up here, phone rang yesterday for some crew. Just got another call today for the soundstage, someone wants to shoot a feature up here in a couple months from LA. I've gotten more calls related to narrative TV, and Features in the last two months than I have in years. Very exciting. There is no 35mm dailies processing up here, but as Collier said, you can get it down to Alpha Cine really quick. My favorite so far has been the TV show that takes place in Maine, and their looking at shooting in Alaska. Hopefully we'll have a few good years up here.

"The Art of War" - Sun Tzu and "Acting for the Camera" by Tony Barr. Those are my must reads for directors.

Chimera makes lanterns, their pancakes are nice too, here's a link http://www.chimeralighting.com/lanterns.asp. Kind of the same light spread as a paper lantern.

Nice video, I'm pretty impressed by the image these cameras are turning out, just worked on a couple music videos myself with the 7D and 5D. How was the slow motion captured? Was that all in camera, or post, or did you record to an external device?

I've been using a Prompter People teleprompter for years now, and love it, very easy to set up, and packs light and small for travel. Built some duvetene sides for it for light blockage, but the software is easy to understand, and the mirror is bright and easy to read.

Let's shoot! I'm hitching to play with the investment! HAHA. Very excited to see this thing take off. Long live film!

It's possible, but mainly through contests. Expect to lose money. The shorts I have made money on were shot low budget with high production value. It's more common to use the shorts as either an exercise to try out new techniques or equipment, or to try to use it as a spring board into financing a bigger project such as a television pilot or feature through the venue of a film festival.

Living in Alaska, I have plenty of cold weather experience. Your biggest issue will be battery life, the cold saps the power right away. Wear a vest with the batteries next to your body. I have shot full size tape and mini DV tape cameras to -25/-30 F with no problem. If I'm shooting for more than 5 hours at colder than -20 though, I have the hand warmers, put them in a rain cover for the camera though, they are ineffective if the heat can escape. The only issue besides batteries is that once plastic gets cold, it gets brittle, so move a little slower. But at 0C you shouldn't have an issue. You could put a polar bag on the camera, but that's a little over kill in my mind for the temp you're shooting at. I usually put the polar bag on below -30. Once you start shooting solid state though, you only really have to worry about batteries. I've shot the EX1 and HPX500 at -60F with the only issue slowing down the LCD viewfinder. One more word of caution. When you are shooting outside and the camera gets cold, don't bring it inside right away, it'll fog up and you'll be in a world of hurt. Warm it up gradually. Have fun and welcome to cold weather shooting.

I played around with this camera and recorder on Tuesday. Not a bad little unit but some major sticking points for me were the small sensor size, causing it to have terrible low light. Also, there was no time lapse function to be found. The Panasonic engineer that I was with seemed slightly embarrassed about the fact there wasn't. The codec is marvelous, and hooking the recorder up to the Sony EX1 turns out some interesting results. They would have sold one of these units if not for the lack of time lapse. I would also like an external focus ring instead of an internal manual focus.

On all the casting calls I've been part of, the release they sign for the audition comes with basic information, such as, they will be contacted by a specific date if they have the role, or for a call back. If they don't hear from production by that date, they don't have a role.

$400 w/free shipping. Still open for offers. Good solid lens.

Open for offers.

$450 shipped. Pictures available.

Hello: If the steadycam is a vest mounted one, I would go with S270, the other camera is far too light. We have both at the studio, and the 270 is our default shooter. If you're doing a lot of hiking or remote stuff for the documentary or need to keep a low profile, the Z1 is of course your better bet. I think the lens on the 270 also is a little better (but I haven't done any tests on that). The 270 has a lot more external options to change on a fly including audio. Just my two cents.

I have a CP-mount 6mm Prime Angenieux Lens, T2. Asking $500. Pictures available. Good clean glass, no scratches. Use it on the CP-16r with wonderful results.

They are copyrighted/trademarked images and names. I would take the safe route and get permission, or use just enough of the characters that you know who they are but can't see the whole image. When I produce, I am very picky about brands and logos showing up. I try to use local companies fro product placement if I need something. Otherwise I stripe or hide everything, or partially obscure it. If your short film will be seen in an kind of large scale, and/or you hope to win/earn money from it, I would strongly suggest getting written permission. I have not found it very hard at all a lot of times to get permission for a short film for different things. I've even called Target cold and gotten positive responses, along with beer and liquor companies. Good luck!

So, going through a lot of the old HMI's in the back room, and found out I'm a Lightmaker AC ballast short for one of the 575w Mini LTM's we have. Am I able to safely run the unit off a Leonetti 575w Sunray magnetic ballast? Or do I risk damaging the LTM? Don't want to go try and spark it if it's going to damage anything. Thanks!

I've had a Nikon D50 since 2005, and love it. The thing's built like a tank, which for where I'm generally working is good. I've dropped it mulitple times, left it outside for a month at -30 with no loss in battery, dropped it in snowbanks, taken it into volcanic ash, glacier silt, and pouring rain, coast to coast, and it's still clicking away, taking beautiful pics. My father had a canon EOS, and after one drop, it was toast. Nikon man here.

I have a bone dry CP-16r that I need to lubricate, anyone have any lying around? Thanks.