Stephen Williams

Which mitchell is it, because the Mitchell BNC cameras only went to #365. We currently have about 40 of them and I have been trying to find the history of them myself but it ain't easy. Movietech in London have #365 which is in mint condition.

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Hi,

With 40 BNC's I guess you are in Bristol! Contact Joe Dunton with a list of serial no's and he will give you the information from the Mitchell Camera Co records.

Stephen

Dare I get into this thread?  Or stay in retirement?

 

R.

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Richard,

Please do!

Many thanks

Stephen

To give you a background, I'm just starting off in cinematography and will be shooting mostly amateur stuff for some while. I know a good light meter is a great investment, but I realistically can't afford the 'cine' version. I really can't even afford an l-558 at the retail price.

 

Thanks in advance

John Hall

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Hi,

I think the 558 is a good meter. I have been using one for 5 years and highly recomend it. Use lithiom batteries they lasts for months!

Stephen Williams DP

www.stephenw.com

DVCPRO 50 codec uses 8-Bit compression but with an installed SDI Board in the SDX 900 it is possible to output SDI 10-Bit uncompressed. As far as we understood the Goodman Guide SDI 10 Bit has more color information.

 

Is the difference visual noticeable? Has someone tried it? We are going for a filmout.

 

If I want to use the SDI Option for output can I use a "SDI to FireWire" converter to capture SDI 10 Bit uncompressed with something like the "AJA IO LD Box"? Is it possible to make a SDI to FireWire connection to an Apple G4 Powerbook?

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Hi,

For a filmout, keying or colour correction 10 bit is better.

Stephen

As strange as it may seem the Seconic spot meters are all completely off. I own one.  I love it.  But the spot meter from the factory is completely wrong.  I called them up and complained.  They gave me some sort of run around about how spot exposure is subjective.  Huh?  So what I did is I took the incident reading in front of a gray card.  Then I read the gray card with my Seconic spot and adjusted it to match the incident. There is a plus minus adjustment built into the meter.  Then I checked it against my old trusted Minolta. 

 

In short you must calibrate your Sekonic meter on you own.  DON?T USE THE FACTORY SETTING IT IS A STOP OFF!

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Hi,

For some reason meters are calibrated for 12% reflectance and as a grey scale is 18% there will be a half stop difference!

Stephen Williams DP

www.stephenw.com

Hi,

 

I have something semi-planned which would require shooting in the desert.

 

Assuming I was to hop on a plane and end up in somewhere like LA or Vegas, just out of interest, what's the permits situation regarding just driving out of the city and picking a spot?

 

Phil

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Phil,

Last year I shot in the Sierra Neveda, Spain.

No Permissions needed even driving with a Arri 435 strapped to the side of the car!

Stephen Williams DoP

Zurich

www.stephenw.com

Yes, there are some fine bellows attched lens systems which you can use just like a view camera. (you can't swing and tilt the film plane of course) Now, if we only had a 4x5 or 8x10 inch negative. :)

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Hi,

Fries engineering made a Mitchell upgrade (AF35R) with bellows focus, used on some older motion control rigs, very good for macro.

www.frieseng.com

Stephen Williams DP

www.stephenw.com

Is it possible to capture onto an external hard drive at the telecine house?

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Hi,

If you use a datacine you could get quicktime or DPX files to hard drive. I have done this from a Spirit, but it is more expensive than direct to tape.

Stephen Williams DP

www.stephenw.com

Im working on a current project to be Telecined and Mastered to HD. It is for Editing and Broadcast in Spain.  Do they use PAL or what kind of PAL format???

\Thank you so much

Oscar

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Hi,

Spain uses Pal-B/G

Stephen Williams DP

www.stephenw.com

I used to whine about the film processing cost too, until a friend of mine bought a lab/post production facility.

He said they actually LOSE money on the processing. They use it as a loss-leader to get telecine & FX work.

Depressing...

 

MP

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Hi,

I wish the labs in Switzerland would loose money on processing. Its a very small market, you phone to say when you want your film prcessed and its done while you wait! In about 1 hour with cleaning!

Stephen

45 degrees for most of the extreme strobiness you see during the battle scenes.

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David,

Do you know if the camera was shooting at 24fps for the battle scenes?

Stephen Williams DP

www.stephenw.com

The physics of what everyone is saying is dead on correct.

 

But . .  .

 

As I said before (in correcting my previous statement), to keep it simple, the imager's size will indirectly effect your DOF.  Having a certain imager size will "force" you into a certain focal length.

 

You are all correct in stating that imager size does not directly effect your DOF (and I accept that), but in practical use, it will (indirectly) ultimately have an impact on your focal length choice, thus it factors greatly into DOF.

Kevin Zanit

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Kevin,

I don't understand what you are saying?

I think you accept that a 25mm at 5 feet, a 50mm at 10 feet, a 100mm at 20 feet & a 200mm at 40 feet all have the same DOF at the same F stop & the same size image.

Stephen

This subject has been dealt with in great detail in the past.  Do a search.

 

Simply, DOF is a function of physics:  Focal length, aperture, and imager size (be it 2/3", 1/3", 35mm, 16mm, etc.).

 

The bigger the aperture opening (lower F-stop) the less DOF (shallower)

The bigger the imager size, the less DOF

The longer the focal length, the less DOF

 

All three of these items are what account for DOF.

Kevin Zanit

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Keven,

In David Samuelson book "A Hands-On Manual for Cinematographers", he states. "Depth of field remains the same, regardless of lens focal length, so long as the image size (and f-stop) is the same. There is no point in changing to a shorter focal length lens and moving closer, because if the image size remains the same so will the depth of field." (Focal Press, London, second edition, 1998, p.218)

Stephen Williams DP

Zurich

www.stephenw.com

Who can tell me about the Phillip's quadra telecine? I'm going to transfer (supervised) the most recent footage I shot, and the Shadow will probably not be available. Is the Quadra an acceptable substitute? I understand it's a tube machine, but is it better than an Ursa Diamond? I've got super-16 negative, w/ good density, and I'm going to transfer to Beta-sp. Eventually, the footage will end up in my reel, which I've always put together on Avids. (Though I hear Final Cut is now uncompressed.)

 

Related issue, some regular 16mm I shot was "best-lighted" on a Spirit to digi-beta, and I find the image veering toward a very "video originated" look. Is this the result of taking the round film pixel and turning it into a digital square? (This is kind of why I'm avoiding digi-beta on the next transfer.)

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Hi,

The Quarda is a CCD telecine. Its IMHO not as good as an Ursa Diamond with a new tube and a good colorist.

The Spirit is one of the best telecine's there is, the Shadow is nearly as good. I often use a Shadow over a Spirit because of a better colorist.

I think you were unlucky with your best light transfer to Digibeta. It sounds like a trainee was at the controls and had turned up the sharpness. I always ask to turn off noise reduction and sharpening at the start of the session. I can then see what is on the film, and add any if necessary.

Stephen Williams DP

Zurich

www.stephenw.com

I was interested in getting a MOS 35mm camera, but I wanted to be able to shoot stars timelapse at night.  I currently can do this with my bolex because I can keep the shutter open but is there a 35mm camera for around $5k that can do this?

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Many people shoot timelapse with Mitchell's or a Cameraflex

I'm trying to find out the build date of a rack-over Mitchell #740.

I vaguely remember that a camera-buff had collected a list of these numbers.

I tried googling and found out more than I need to know about WW2 Mitchell bombers serial

numbers!

Any help in pointing me in the right direction would be appreciated.

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Hi,

If you call Joe Dunton in the USA he has the original records and can tell you the delivery date and original owner.

www.joedunton.com

I would guess about 1947 as they were making about 50 a year and 576 was November 1943.

Good luck

Stephen Williams DP Zurich

www.stephenw.com

Stephen, what brand of 500 speed film do you use in your XL2?  ;)

 

Jay

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Jay,

Both Stanley K. and I used a modified Mitchell and Kodak Film.

Stanley's Camera was modified by Cinema Products and mine by Fries Engineering.

I am shooting a movie that is almost entirely  lit by candles and I am playing around with various settings ,and lenses,and am trying eos lenses as well to find the most suitable ones,,,I know that when the movie Barry Lyndon was shot,,,it was one of the first to shoot with 35mm lens to facilitate candlelight,,,,has anyone had any experience shooting in an available light (or candle only) setting?I'd love to hear your feedback.

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Hi,

I have shot tests using just candles. I Used Zeiss Superspeed's with 500 asa film. I used normal candles without problems. Its not difficult and great fun.

Its a small Jpeg I will try to find a bigger file

Stephen Williams DP

Zurich

www.stephenw.com

Buy a roll of Kodak film of the ASA you are shooting. It comes with a small piece of paper with exposure guidelines.  A bright Sun, a half covered sun etc.  That is the cheapest light meter I know of.

 

Bob

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Hi,

If your shooting outside its very accurate too!

Stephen

Hi,

 

> Do you mean that you would turn down a job if it's shooting on film?

 

I would not be offered such a job, but if I were, I'd have to turn it down for many reasons beyond the eyepiece concern!

 

Phil

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Phil,

If one of your regular clients wants to shoot film and you don't please give me a call!

Cheers,

Stephen Williams

www.stephenw.com

Hi,

 

>  I just have to load a mag an shoot!

 

Then take it to the lab, then take it to the telecine place, hand over gigantic quantities of money and end up with the same VT you'd have got straight out of the camera.

 

> Almost as easy as having your own video camera.

 

Not really, eh?

 

Phil

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Phil,

I have a car, so going to the lab is easy.

1/2 hour telecine or 1 light pass graded to a grey chart won't break the bank!

The video tape from TK will have a far better picture than straight from any video camera.

The Pitch I made 3 weeks ago was on 35mm. Suprise Suprise it looked better than every other pitch and I got the commercial! Big joke is the client wants to shoot on video as the budget is tight!

Cheers,

Stephen

www.stephenw.com

Yes, you have to press pretty hard. But you could also open it permanently, although then you have to be really careful about keeping your eye on the cup while rolling.

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Hi,

Many DP's operate with glasses. If your head is flagging the eyepiece there should be no problems.

Cheers,

Stephen

Not, exactly.. the one advantage to digital editing is that it's both cheap and easy. I mean, if your shooting low res DV, you can edit it on a fairly descent home computer. And theres always ways of getting hold of software for free, even if it's just to use and not keep.

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Daniel,

Computers may be cheap, but time is money.

Stephen

Hi,

 

> an old ARRI 2C can still bring in a surprising amount of work

 

Equipment does not buy you work. I could buy an Arricam tomorrow and it would sit in the case in the cupboard. Buying an Arri 2C might bring you work, but that's a lot more to do with your circumstances than the 2C.

 

 

Phil

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Phil,

It won't buy you work. I have clients who call me to get cut away shots on 35mm very cheaply, without delay. I just have to load a mag an shoot! Almost as easy as having your own video camera.

Stephen Williams DP

www.stephenw.com

Hi,

 

Certainly it's about having much more ability than I'll ever have,

 

Phil

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Phil,

I am sure you have plenty of ability. IMHO you need time to 'Crack Film', then more doors will open for you.

Cheers

Stephen