aapo lettinen

the current state of the system looks like this. I will improve the design a lot but the basic idea is the same, having a external box with speed selectors and xlr power , a basic display and so on

I will need to change the 15EPSS crystal design a little which will take couple of months. Will post images in November latest

multiple small smoke machines and foggers is often a better choice than one big unit. You need to spread them around to get multiple layers of fog to get it look nice. Sometimes you just need the big machine if it is for example windy... but I would go with the smallest units which can produce continuous smoke / fog and then get one bigger one just in case you may need it for one shot

it is pretty common here that the crew contact info is a compeletely separate one page / two page document and the call sheet may only list the crew names and the cast names of the day but nothing more. Often the sheet has the crew contact info on the second page / backside of the sheet or at least the HOD phone numbers. Well, you MUST give out at least some contact info to the crew anyway. it is a living hell to try to work on a set where you can't contact the Location Manager for example

and yes, if you are working on the set you should get at least some kind of call sheet either via email or on paper. If they have unnecessary information printed on the sheet which they don't want you to see, then they should change the sheet. It is meant to be the work schedule of the day and it is pretty challenging to do one's job if you don't know anything about what should be done and when. It is also very necessary document if the days go overtime and you need to fight for your overtime compensations because the call sheet shows what hours were agreed on and when the day was supposed to start and end

normally the cast contact info is only given to the persons absolutely needing it: producer, director, makeup/hair/wardrobe, runners transporting the actors, the production manager, line producer, and production coordinator. Only in very small productions they may print that info on the general call sheet because they don't want random persons calling the actors and director in unpleasant times unless absolutely necessary (or their friends calling the actors years after the shoot). I have only seen actors contact info on very small indie productions call sheets and the director may be listed on the low and mid range productions but higher than about 2mil budget they may easily leave the director out too depending on the production

Hi you all! I have a LTR7 which needs full CLA soon so that it can be used for filming (has been unused for about 10 years). Which technicians you would recommend in EU for this type of service? I don't want to ship it overseas because the customs hassle and higher shipping damage risks.

with the local prices here the Avenger gripheads are the best price/quality ratio so I am using those. The Matthews ones are also good if rented but they are more difficult and expensive to purchase than Avengers.

from other sources I have understood that the crystal controller is not ready yet but it may be that they got it working. No possibility to know without getting one of those cameras and measuring with a oscilloscope how the motor reacts in actual running conditions. Additionally, sometimes people are confusing simple speeds regulating controllers with actual phase locking crystal sync systems. The easiest way of regulating speed with a microcontroller is to count how many pulses one gets from the encoder per second and then calculate the speed from that number and compare the reading to the target speed one wants to reach. This way one gets a little better timing accuracy than one encoder pulse lasts in seconds. In comparison, a real crystal sync controller uses phase comparison of the encoder pulses to get much much better accuracy than an individual encoder pulse lasts. In my earliest prototypes the accuracy was maybe about 1/100th of the duration of one encoder pulse so it was already massively more accurate than a simple pulse counting system is... my newer designs are much better of course. The disadvantage of the real crystal sync systems is that developing a working algorithm is very hard work and takes a long time, at least from 3 months to half a year (when a simple pulse counting algorithm can be written from scratch and tested in an hour )

a funny thing I forgot to mention: the 150w had so poor casting quality on the aluminium parts that they had ACCIDENTALLY BLOCKED ALL THE VENTILATION HOLES when manufacturing the light! I needed machining tools to open up these ventilation holes to prevent the light from melting down when it is used. So the Chinese lights don't work out of the box, period.

Just a follow up on the 1000w + 650w + 300w kit I purchased in 2014 and about the new 150w fresnel I just purchased recently. The 1000w still works and the 300w is pretty OK though the spot adjustment knob is tight and needs some force to turn. Bad lube on the axle is the most probable reason. The 650w has the spot adjustment completely frozen and it cannot be used correctly anymore or repaired completely. The lubrication which was not good in the first place has dried off and fuzed the axle completely so the light cannot be repaired and I will most likely throw it away. One of the three stands still works correctly and the other one has loose spigot but otherwise it is pretty OK. The third stand has so many problems on the spigot and the locks that it cannot be repaired and I have to throw it away. So I still have two of the three lamps somewhat working after 6 years and one working stand plus one almost working one. And this was after repairing all the lights before first use. Mind you that the 1000w did not work at all out of the box because a wire was loose inside and the other ones had loose connections which needed to be repaired for safety reasons. All in all, I don't think these Chinese lights are suitable as a long term investment for cinematography projects. They are cheap and need to be repaired and only work correctly after that for couple of years before developing further problems. My lights have earned their price back multiple times so I am perfectly happy to retire the non working ones. But just for you to know that these lights don't last forever like the real Arris. And the 150w one? Just as bad quality control like with the other lights back then. Wires a bit loose here and there and I needed to add spacers to the screw to be able to close the light completely after installing the bulb. One of the original Chinese bulbs was broken right out of box but the other one worked correctly. Like with the other lights, I expect this thing last for only three or four years before retiring it. And it needed repairs too before use.

The main issue would be that most people don't have the mechanical expertise or machining tools to make the conversion by themselves. I have understood that the russian k3 mod is with a wild motor and not crystal sync? I would expect it to be crystal for that price but maybe they have issues designing one?

as for the swappable tungsten/discharge bulbs on the Arri 250. It is neat to have this option but I can't imagine many situations where swapping the bulbs would really be practical compared to just having separate tungsten fresnels available and keeping the 250s always with the discharge bulbs installed. One does not normally change bulbs in the middle of the shooting day because there is no time for it (waiting for the light to cool and so on) and one loses all the benefits of the changing option if it cannot be easily done between shots or scenes. Additionally tungsten lights are cheap so I would just get comparable tungsten fresnels separately and keep the 250 lights always equipped with the same bulbs. Having the discharge capable lights and using them with tungsten bulbs would just feel wasting

personally I think the under 400w range is pretty well covered with LEDs nowadays. If you are handy and know enough about electronics to do it safely you can even build a cob led light by yourself, I am just building a 100w one and will make a much larger system after that. The 100w system cost something like 60 euros for the parts including the 31v 150w mains power supply and the bowens mount. will make a housing and controller system for it next :) the small hmi's are OK if you can get the light for cheap and it has a working bulb. they are heavier than leds but they have the advantage that the bulb can be changed when it ages. When your expensive cob LED light ages and develops colour shifts you can't do much than to curse it and buy a new one. ( on a recent feature shoot we had couple of Aputure 300D mk1's which were less than two years old and already had huge green cast. they were so green that I did not want to use them unless I absolutely had to when running out of lights... I used them maybe 3 times during the whole shoot. they were just too ugly and sad to use. So if your expensive Led light goes green and does not have g/m correcting or cannot be gelled, then it was complete waste of money because even if you COULD use it, you just don't want to and it stays in storage most of the time.) The advantage of building your own light is that you can actually replace the led chip to new one by yourself if the old has colour shifts. That is pretty huge because you can't do that by yourself for factory made leds and it would be very expensive to get the chip replaced by the manufacturer even if it would be possible.

Due to eBay's updated payment management policy, this item will not be available via eBay anymore. Contact me directly via PM if you are interested in this product. I have a sine wave version coming out in August as well.