Stephen Williams

Hi, It's a 35mm frame size so the lens will be the same as on a 35 film camer<. Stephen

Hi, Bob is correct. It may be possible, but its not a good idear. By running the camera above 36 frames for any length of time, the camera will become more noisy at sync speed for the rest of its life!. Stephen

Landon, On Dante's Peek there were high speed FX shots that used up to 12 cameras. If a shot can't be repeated then 2 cameras from each angle should be used! When lighting multiple large sets then 40 HMi's may be needed! Stephen

Hi, It was done without problem for over 80 years before PC's hit the scene. Stephen

Hi, A sync camera is designed to be as quiet as possible. Some max out at as low as 32 FPS a few can make 40-50 FPS. Thats why Mitchell, Arri, Panavision & Photosonics have all made MOS cameras that go High Speed! Stephen

I can believe that. I don't have binocular vision. Its very useful looking through the camera and being able to see what the gaffer is doing! One learns to judge distance by slight focus changes in the eye! Stephen

Hi, Very interesting. Do you soften the edges and loose hair detail to improve the key? IMHO the color of the background in the composite is quite important. I would not wan't to use a green screen if the final composite is against a blue sky. Stephen Williams DP www.stephenw.com

Hi David, Of course you are RIGHT practically speaking. My answers' for Laurent were theoretical, which I think he wanted. Simple lens theory assumes a lens without thickness and without distortion. DOF and angle of view are calculated from the enterance pupil of the lens. In cinematography to make life easy we measure from the film plane, and lens DOF charts are corrected for this. This is the reason why a phisically long zoom lens may have a different DOF to a prime lens measured to the film plane. The image size is not the same as the entrance pupils must first be lined up. Then the DOF in F Stops will be the same. (in theory but always test if in doubt!) Stephen Williams DOP www.stephenw.com

Hi David, Of course you are RIGHT practically speaking. My answers' for Laurent were theoretical, which I think he wanted. Simple lens theory assumes a lens without thickness and without distortion. DOF and angle of view is are calculated from the enterance pupil of the lens. In cinematography to make life easy we measure from the film plane, and lens DOF charts are corrected for this. This is the reason why a phisically long zoom lens may have a different DOF to a prime lens measured to the film plane. The image size is not the same as the entrance pupils must first be lined up. Then the DOF in F Stops will be the same. (in theory but always test if in doubt!) Stephen Williams DOP www.stephenw.com

Phil, Helpful answer, but I have noticed more 'detail black edges' on green v blue. When I have tested both green + Blue , I don't see a big diference in the composite. Thanks in advance Stephen Williams DP www.stephenw.com Stephen

Hi, Sure if you change the circle of confusion then 16mm can have more DOF than 35mm. A TV has lower resoloution than a Cinema Screen as well! If you are shooting film for television you can assume more DOF than if projecting. Thats why I said `16mm with VERY sharp lenses projected on a Big screen will indeed have the same DOF to a shoot on 35mm.' The lenses have to resolve more than twice as much as for 35mm to retain the same resoloution. This is the reason that the Digi Primes are so expensive! If you think of 16mm as a cut out from the 35mm frame and 8mm as a cut out from the 16mm frame all that happens is the grain gets bigger. The DOF is the same if the lens is sharp. When I look through my Film camera I can see the DOF on the ground glass. I know for SD television that more will be in focus than on the ground glass. For Cinema I know there is slightly less than on the ground glass on MY camera. I can be sure of this becuse I make tests. In telecine switching from SD to HD you can see this magic in action! Stephen Williams DP Zurich www.stephenw.com

Hi, 30 FPS 1080i (60 fields) . In DV 16x9 or 4x3 only the pixels change shape, the no of pixels recorded to tape remain the same. Stephen

Hi, IMHO it's better to achieve color effects in camera. It will be much easier to polish the look in post than to start from scratch. Stephen

Hi, Expensive motion picture film lenses usually are the same Tstop end to end. I was using a Sony HDV Z1 and the wide end was f1.6 and zoomed in f2.8. Stephen Williams DP www.stephenw.com

Hi, It's best not to run a sync camera much above sync speed as over time the camera noise will increase. Stephen Williams DP www.stephenw.com

Ian, What lenses are you using with the Konvas? If it's Zeiss SuperSpeeds there will be no differene at all. Stephen Williams DP Zurich www.stephenw.com

Hi, Why is that? Stephen

Hi, I am shooting some basic tests comparing Cooke 20-60, Cooke 20-100,and 50mm Series II and 25mm Series III. I will telecine on Wednesday so I will let you know. By eye the Cooke 20-60 looks slightly sharper than 20-100. The S II+III have a more creamy look! I was interested in the 20-60 as its quite small and not that heavy. Often I have to shoot without an assistant as budgets are very low in Zurich. Cheers, Stephen Williams DP www.stephenw.com

Hi, I would wait for a Cooke. There is a seller who has been trying to sell Old Arg + Cooke Lenses for some time. I bought a Cooke 20-60 from him last week. His prices have been falling as there were no takers at 3K+. Try emailing him max@paradisefx.com . He seems honest and will offer a refund if not happy. Stephen

Hi, Old video camera's had very big tubes over 1 inch, and low sensitivity. 20+ year ago a BBC series 'To the Manor Born'. The inside shots are video with narrow DOF (and green lag in the highligts!). The outside shots are very grainy 16mm with more apparant DOF. The inside shots look very good, the telecines at the BBC in the late 1970's were not good! The Video DOF issue only arrived with small tube/chip ENG style cameras. Stephen

Hi Laurent, The Americam Cinematographers manuel assumes a single DOF table for All formats! To prove it you could extract a 16mm frame from a 35mm frame. In practice 16mm with VERY sharp lenses projected on a Big screen will indeed have the same DOF to a shoot on 35mm. However on television and with softer lenses there will be more apparant DOF. IMHO its more down to resoloution. With a video camera and the detail turned off everything will look soft (Unless you have Zeiss Digiprimes). With detail sharpening the image, there is an illusion that everything is sharp. Stephen Williams DP www.stephenw.com

Hi , I Have bought an Arg 20-120 T2.9 on E bay for £150 from Aardman Annimation, and also a Beautiful Cooke 20-100 for $2000 . The Cooke is a much nicer lens very sharp wide open, but this may not be an issue with the Mini 35. They are both quite heavy. Don't pay to much! Stephen Williams DP Zurich www.stephenw.com

Hi, The speed rating of the Z1 is strange. I was shooting in 60i NTSC (dv cam), the camera seemed to be rated about 100 asa. I was having trouble with my normal lighting package as the lens is only f2.8 zoomed in! (1.6 at the wide end). After the shoot I changed the camera to 50i, the camera rebooted and now had a speed rating of 320 asa! I changed backwards and forwards and to 1080i but the camera was 1.5 stops more sensitive! IMHO there is a software issue. Stephen Williams dop Zurich www.stephenw.com

David, Thats right 30 years but only 2 series III lenses were ever made the 18mm + 25mm. In the original housings the lens turns in the mount to focus. If you rent a full set it's both series II + III. Geoff Boyles's set were rebuilt by Van Diemen. Jeff Barklage's (recently stolen set) were rebuilt by Centuary and Panavision has rebuilt many sets. Stephen Williams DoP Zurich www.stephenw.com

Cooke speed pancro (S1) from 1921 Cooke speed pancrd (S2) Mid 1940's Cooke speed pancro (S3) Mid 1950's but only 18mm & 25mm exist Stephen