Marcel Zyskind

Hi I've just purchased one recently and all I can say is if you have a chance seeing it before buying it, do it. I overpaid for mine which I bought from the states, ebay, and it was a bit poop, to be honest. The lens mount is in an abysmal condition, the screw threads are ruined. When the camera is running the image in the viewfinder is jumping or juttering, which I supppose is the mirror being bent. The colomation on the lenses are way off. The gate has been randomly filed... I'm just not happy with the state of the camera for the price paid. $2500. I was expecting a much healtier camera. And that was for camera, lenses and mags only. No batts, cases or mattebox. I'm dissapointed. But as a camera I think it is beautiful, and very compact. I'm hoping to pick one up in better condition when time (money) allows it. Good luck and all the best. Marcel P.s Matt, have you had any modifications done to your 2M? The motor has a strange power plug. I wonder if you could modify it to xlr power, which is more rugged.

To me it sounds like you're as stubborn as your director. All the best and good luck. Marcel

Hi I've used the Aaton 35-3, Arricam LT and the 435 ES all in 3 perf on features with no problems what so ever regarding the movement or steadiness of the film. I quite enjoy shooting 3 perf I must say. All the best Marcel

When you find out what it is let us know, because it sounds interesting. Thank you Marcel

Hi Bruce You mentioned that you do 2/3 perf upgrade to any 35mm camera. Does that include the Konvas 2M? What would the cost be? Thanks in advance. Marcel

Hi Manu I didn't mean the things with your eyes in a bad way. It's just that I don't recall any closer frames of the camera where you are able to see the settings. Most of the shots with me and the camera are from afar. I'm sure your eyes are good enough for whatever they need to be good enough at! The handles actually gave me a lot freedom. That's why I used them for 10 weeks. They made the camera a bit heavier together with the lockit and audio receiver on top of the camera. Which was both good and bad, good because being heavier it stabilised it a bit more on the back of pickup trucks, bad because I was carrying it in my arms away from my body. After 10 weeks, my arms were a bit sore, and my back. Regarding Jamal. He is living in a Pakistani foster family in London. After we made the film, he went home with Enayatollah, but with the money he earned and a visa he still had he then made a trip to Paris and took the eurostar to London and seeked asylum. He was granted to stay until the day before his 18th birthday... It will be interesting to see what happens when turns 18. Will he be sent back to Pakistan, where he has lived most of his life or will he be sent back to Afghanistan, which is his nationality, but he has never really lived there... All the best Marcel

Hi Manu Sorry about the late reply. I am very happy you like the film. I think the trailer must have been transferred from a print. The film itself in Pal dvd has been transferred from Digi Beta, and the Ntsc version from the IP. You must have good eyes if you can see the settings on the pd150 in a behind the scenes film, but not good enough. I never used the auto iris or auto focus. What was good though was the push auto button, where you can leave the focus setting in manual and use the push auto button to refocus. If you need to. I was able to control, with my fingers, the controls even if my hand was on the handle I had for the camera. With regards to the iris, I would set it for the different shots and only change if nessesary. I would never leave it on auto. I only used 4x4 nd on the camera. Sometimes up to 1.5, sometimes also combined with the in camera nds. Sometimes not. Later in grading we did ad a few grad filters. And in some scenes, particular the first part in Pakistan, we did ad a bit of warmth. In terms of the print I think the transfer to print has slightly desatureted the overall look a little bit. Not in negative way I think. I was very happy with the print. An anamorphic 2.35 35mm blowup from a pd150 is not something I would do any day. But with this "road movie" it actually suited it very well. I did not filter any windows. I didn't carry a car battery, I was the camera crew, so only I carried absolute nessesary things. I had enough cameras to carry already. 3 pd150s and 2 pc9s. We only used one pd150 at the time, apart from 1 or 2 scenes, where Michael also operated one. (The slaughtering of the cow.) If I knew how to attach pictures to this post I could show you the handles, they are very simple. Hope this answers some of your questions. All the best Marcel

Check out the Polish Film School.

Hi Does anyone know if and where you can find these 0.7 lenses. I'm interested in using such lenses. Thanks Marcel

Hi Daniel Thank you for your nice words about In This World. I was the cameraman on the film. We used the pd150 camera with a 16:9 anamorphic lens. We also used the pc9 (for the mountain night scene). The handles were custom made for me, they were very helpful. On top of the camera there was a lockit timecode box going onto one track and on the other track we had our sound recordist transmitting his mix to us aswell. This was to help the editor. All the best Marcel

Why do want to use Panavision? Arri and Aaton make great handheld cameras. Can you really see the difference between Zeiss, Primos and Cookes on compressed Internet format? Honestly really? All the best Marcel

The Ikonoskop is a great little camera. Just got myself one.... Great design for a good price. www.ikonoskop.com All the best Marcel

Hi Bill. They are not more than two years old. Tiffen ND's. It has happened with different set of filters. This puzzels me... Thanks anyway Marcel

Hi Heavy ND on DV cameras make black go reddish-purple? Anyone else experienced this? It's happened to me on the XL1 once and more recently on the DVX100. I did have have 1.8 ND in front of the lens... I was shooting on glaciers in Norway. I don't seem to have experienced this with the PD150, all though I have used the same filtration on that camera... Thanks. Marcel

Jason. Please tell me what America does nice for the world everyday. Please tell me what America does nice for America everyday. Why not spend your "superpower" monoply money on development, education, healthcare instead of destruction. I do not see production of weapons as a positive development. I do not see spending 87+ billions of dollars on war, as doing something nice for the world everyday. America has freedom. Freedom to pollute. Pollute the earth and our mind. Why is it that, because you live the way you live your life in America, it means that the whole world should live like you do. Is it because you are rich? Are you rich? I do not consider having 3 cars, 2 computers, 4 tv's bla bla bla as wealth. I see it as brainwash. I'm not just talking about America, I'm talking about the western world, the whole freakin world. The way we live our life. Why can't we live more simple. I'm not any better myself. Why can't we slow down. We still only have 24 hours a day. But we spend more time on mindless, no good poop that makes us more dumb instead of spending more time with our family, our kids, our elderly... Is freedom measured on a who has more things has more freedom basis? I'm doing my best to live a good life everyday, I consider myself very priviliged to have what I have, a good job - with possibilities to chose interesting projects. I have a warm bed and water in the taps. Food on the table. I try to understand why people act and react why they do. Do you? Or do you just think that because you live in a "wealthy" country you are the one who is right? I try to understand why 87+ billion dollars could not have been spent on peace, schools, hospitals... Killing innocent poor people, does not actually make peace, it creates more hatred. I think I've learned so much from history. Unless you kill everyone who thinks differently from you. Please don't disrespect people who have a different opinion from yourself. Try to understand. All the best Marcel P.S Not everybody wants to eat steak.

Hi Thought I may reply to my own questions. After some tests I can now say. A matte wall and a front projected white screen has no noticable difference, unless the paint is still wet on the wall. A grey back projected screen is more prone to show imperfections than the front projected one, all though creases still show on the white screen. You have to be careful and make sure it absolutely stretched. I tested fuji 64D and 250D and the 64D was less grainy and more contrasty. The projector was a Digital Projection 4000DSX, very good, very powerful. I saw the tests projected and it looks fantastic. Nice texture, saturation and nice contrast. No problem with focus... Thanks for my help. All the best M

Hi John. I know the 5218 very well, thank you. I shot a film early last year, Code 46, when the stock was just released. It is a fabulous stock. But we have to use fuji stock on this film... So, anyone out there with experience in pushing fuji 35mm stock, please give a shout. Thanks again. Marcel

Good evening to you all. I have a feature coming up and I'm interested in pushing our stock. I've done this a lot with Kodak stock, but since we are oblieged to use Fuji stock, I will be treading new ground here. Does anyone have experience pushing the fuji stock? Mainly the faster stocks 400 & 500. I will have opportunity to test, but I would like to hear your opinions as well. Thank you so much. Marcel

Hi I've just recently shot a film with the dvx100 with an anamorphic adapter and I'm very pleased with the result. We are tranferring to 35mm, one way or another. I find that the panasonic anamorphic very easily gets dust inside the lens and it's bit of pain to keep it clean. So beware, but apart from that I like the lens. It gives you some nice flares and softens the "clean" dv image a bit. It was easier to keep dust out the smaller century anamorphic for the pd150. We shot interlaced because we were using the pd150 at some times as well and I wanted it all to match. We made a test blowup on 35mm with some of our interlaced dvx100 footage and it looked great. All the best. Marcel

Hi Why ad a stills lens after it has been filed out for super16. Will the original lens not cover? Marcel

Hi We have a film we shot on DV, now we want to shoot it of a screen, wall, monitor or even a completely different surface on to 35mm. We will be testing, but I just wanted to hear if any of you guys had any recommendations as to specific monitors or projectors or surfaces. Oh, what stock? I guees the new vision2 200t or 500t would be good for that. I guess it depends on the brightness of the monitor/projector... Thanks for a great forum. Marcel

Hi I just want to recommend the film The Battle of Algiers, which has just recently been released on DVD. Fantastic film, great b&w cinematography. I love it when you feel close to the action. It feels like the camera is never further away than an arms reach from the actors. (All though, it of course is, at times...) Highly recommended. Thanks Marcel