Kevin Zanit

Do a search, I, and many others have written several items on extreme high-speed camera work. In the newest issue of Student Filmmaker magazine I have an article I wrote on the topic. But do a search here, its be talked about a lot. My companies website, http://www.studiobattlerattle.com has a lot of examples of 500fps and 1000fps work. Kevin Zanit

Here its a $2 a day rental from Wooden Nickel, you will see them for no more than $8 a day each.

I have worked with several of the high-speed digital cameras, and in my experience the Phantom is the best one so far. I am not aware of any camera that can do 1920 at 4000 fps let alone any HD resolution (in other words you are looking at an SD size image at these frame rates). For these types of frame rates, digital is usually your best option. It is most cost effective, and the quality tends to be better. Like I said before, are you positive you actually need 4000fps? What is the action you are shooting?

The Phantom can not do 4000fps at 2k. I am not aware of any digital system that can shoot 4000fps at HD resolutions, let alone even a 35mm film camera that can shoot 4000. 4000 is really fast, are you positive you need to go that high speed? What is the action you are photographing? You can see some 1000fps stuff from the Phantom that I shot at my companies website http://www.studiobattlerattle.com (we specialize in shooting/ consulting for extreme high speed shoots). Kevin Zanit

I still stand by the film cans, they are free and super solid. They can hold most sizes but the largest. I have been doing it for years and years and have never had it fail me.

My main 1st works for Kaminski a lot, from what I hear, he can be a bit crazy (not crazy in a annoying mean way, but crazy in a 'I can't believe he just said that' way, and then everyone laughing), however he reserves this mostly for commercial work. I've heard it pronounced both ways, though if you ask him he will say its "Janus, like anus with a J in front of it'.

I was in Las Vegas when it happened, I live like 3 miles from PV WH, my friend (Elhanan who posts here) called me and told me about it. When I got home everything was fine, would never have known it even happened. That wasn't the case in 1994 . . .

2000' film cans do the trick for the smaller lanterns.

All the bigger stuff I have been on has labeled color like this: Full gets a "F" in permanent marker Half gets a "H" Quarter gets a "Q" That said, most people working at a certain level are experienced enough to judge it by eye. Color is a bit harder, but diffusion such as Hampshire frost, opal, 250, 216, 1/2 grid, 1/4 grid, full grid are all pretty easy to tell.

You can get them from many camera houses, at least the major ones in LA (like Claremont). I know Vince Pace of Pace Technologies has several modified versions of the 950 available. Tethering can be inconvenient, but not as big of a problem as many make it out to be. It is very rare that someone is shooting HD or film without at least a production monitor. In most cases its the SDI out as well as the camera control cable and various sound cables. The fiber back is sort of more convenient.

It was a close up shot of the shift knob in the car at 1000fps (a water drop onto it).

Sounds good, good luck with the move.

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Thanks, I think the blue stuff is my favorite as well. I knew what you meant Chris, I was just being a smart ass ;). I will def. let you know if I need someone, especially if I am working out your way

Do I watch you intently or do you watch me :lol: Me watching someone intently is always a bit creepy, and has really been the root cause of much of my legal trouble ;) Really good point with the distilled water, I completely forgot to add that all the water was distilled water, especially in the water tank stuff. It was a big challenge keeping the tank clean, without bubbles forming on the sides of the glass in the tank. Kevin Zanit

Thanks all. We recorded RAW, just using the SDI out for monitor (24" LCD). A viewfinder, thats a nice idea ;) We just used an on board, but with the amount of light scattering around on a high speed shoot, a viewfinder is a good thing. Kevin Zanit

I'll add some advice that David Mullen has posted here several times in the past, and that I agree with: Know your first week of shooting inside out, upside down, backwards and forwards. Do your homework during the prep time so that you don't fall behind in your first week, which is usually always a bit of a disaster. Kevin Zanit

F900 if I remember correctly, so 2/3".

Thanks Brad & Chris. The music was all Elhanan (as was the editing). Shots that were supposed to be water were just water, nothing special. Shooting liquids at 1000fps tends to make the liquid appear to have more viscosity. Its all about lighting to make it seem "crystal" clear. Kevin Zanit

Hello all, Every few months a question with regard to working at very high frame rates (500 to 1000fps) comes up. Elhanan Matos (who posts on here some) and myself started a company a while ago that specializes in high speed photography. We just put up a rough version of our reel on our site. Every shot was either 500 or 1000 fps with a 90 to 360 degree shutter depending on the shot. All the shots were done on the Phantom HD (from Dalsa) with Coke S4 lenses (for the most part). It can be seen at: http://www.studiobattlerattle.com. It is currently in the flash video format, so excuse the quality (though it is decent for the file size), a Quicktime and WMV version will be up shortly. If there are questions or comments, shoot away. Kevin Zanit

The differences in color space do come into play when it is time for color correction. I don't pay a ton if attention to every last spec for every camera system, but I do know that having the most information possible with the gentlest compression is a good thing. It is more than marketing mumbo jumbo, and often does have a lot to do with the "real world", for say when it is time for color correction. I do know that with these cheaper HD cameras (not necessarily this camera in particular, I have not worked with it, so I can't judge it) that we are getting a lot of "HD" content that can not hold a candle to what a 900 or other high-end camera can deliver. I think it is important to understand the technical, and to be aware of it, but not to let it replace actual testing before talking about it.

I've done the tungsten stock outside with tungsten key. Looks nice, I stole the idea from Kaminski (I think from the Terminal). A reference still I took a while ago:

I am not positive, but people inundated forums like this and others with this same question when the DVX100 came out. It was the optical stabilization rattling around. I have not followed this camera much, but I would not be surprised if it is the same thing (which was perfectly normal, all the cameras made that noise). Kevin Zanit