Michael Althaus

some of the better fake muzzle flashes I have seen. How did you do them?

I put it up on ebay --> http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...s=tab%3DSelling

You can find pictures of the actual unit here.

I am selling my old used Arrilfex Lightweight Follow Focus. It is used, has scratches and marks but works still well. I will post pictures tomorrow (need some daylight). Asking $1200 (plus paypal fee) or best offer. If you want to inspect the FF, we can meet in the Santa Monica Area (3rd ST). Regards, Michael PS: I uploaded a picture so you can see what model it is. This is not the picture of the actual FF. Pictures of the actual FF will follow tomorrow...

thanx for all your replays...

Let my try it again with the image:

Hey, I bought an Arri mini Follow Focus (same model as you can see here --> http://www.duallcamera.com/catalog/shots/F...ow%20focus.jpg). I was wondering how much play in the gears this type of follow focus usually has. If I block the focus ring of my lens, I can move the focus nob about 2-3mm (measured on the marking disk). Is this normal? If not, is there a quick fix or do I have to get the gears replaced?

Thank you guys for all your replays. Just came home and I am tired but it was a fun shoot :-)

I am going to do the slate the first time here in America (just moved). I just wanted to make sure you do it here the same way as we do it in Europe. Is there anything important I should know about. The way I used to do it. Writing on the slate: Scene Number and letter for camera setup, take, and roll. (what do you do when you run out of letters (more than 26 camera setups in one scene?) Calling out loud Roll # Scene #, "letter" and take. Clap the slate. (doing a tail slate if not possible doing the slate in the beginning) Anything else important especially when shooting on film? (Used to do it only on a couple video productions but never on a production who shoots on film (except for my own 16mm shoots). Thanx, Michael

thanx for the replies. Just found out that I read the article some time ago, I have to re-read it....

I saw the film yesterday and also noticed the oval shaped bokeh. Searching the web to find out about the oval bokeh I found this thread :-) Can anybody explain the reason for the "strange" shape? I am pretty sure it has something to do with the anamorphic lens but I do not understand the underlying reason for this effect...

Disagree. 1080 is the way to go. The image is really a little bit sharper and has less compression than the 720p image. Just go out and test it for yourself, it is a fact and arguing about technical specs etc. doesn't change anything about it...

I was reading a book today that stated that a telephoto lens has a focal lengths of >85mm and a wide angle <28mm. It confused me a little bit. Can you really make a definition like that. I mean, if I use a 28mm lens on a super8 camera or 1/3 video camera, this lens becomes a long lens. This means I could say a 28mm lens is a long lens when shooting on super8, right? So if a certain lens (??mm) is a long-focal-lenghth lens depends on what format is shot... is that correct or not? Regards, Michael

I just moved to america and noticed some flickering with my Pal camera. What would be a save shutter angle to set when shooting 25p. When I do the math it should be 150 degrees, right? anything else nearer to 180?

Hello, I am looking for information about building a cluster with Xserves or Mac Pros. I have a client which needs to convert hdv and uncompressed SD video into mpeg-4 (h.264) clips very fast. I thought building a cluster might be a good idea. Does anybody have any experience with it? Is it even a good idea or are there other (better) options. Thank you, Michael

I just returned from my vacation where I had plenty of time to play with my new seconic 558 cine :) Thank you all for your help.

Thanx, you saved my vacation. I found this link before but I wasn't aware of the html button. PS: I'm still interested in the pdf version (better to print)

Hello, I can't find the gerald hirschfeld article about metering techniques anymore. Would be nice if somebody could e-mail it to me or point me to a link (althaus (at) cordvision.com). Thank you, Michael

Doesn't make sense to me. Sure, the object has got the same amount of light on it regardless if you are 1" from it or a thousand miles away but what you see on the film is the reflected light (the "beams" it reflects) which decreases by the square. So it should make a difference if the reflected lights travels a long distance or just a short one. Am I wrong?

I have something that I don't understand about using a lightmeter.: Let's make an example. I have a huge (18%) grey wall. I use an incident lightmeter and measure the light falling onto the wall and set the aperture accordingly. It doesn't matter how far away from the wall I place the camera (as long as the wall is all over the frame), the setting for the aperture will always be the same, right? The intensity of reflected light decreases with the distance so how should I get a normal exposed negative if I move the camera away from the wall and don't compensate for the loss in light intensity. I mean, measuring the light falling on the subject doesn't take into account how far away the camera is. I hope you can understand what I'm talking about. Sorry for my bad English. It's quite difficult to explain. thanx

So I rate the film at ASA 40 if I shoot outdors with a builtin lightmeter (that messures through the lens) and if I use a handheld lightmeter, I rate it ASA 25 to compensate for the filter. That was the way a thought it was but I did it wrong. That means I overexposed everything by 2/3 stop. Should be still usable, right? The latitue of K40 is around 6-8 stops, right? Thank you for your help...

I used my Arriflex 16S/B with built in lightmeter for the first time. I don't have a handheld lightmeter yet. I used Kodakrome K40 and got a little confused when I set the lightmeter. I shot outdors so I had to use a 85B filter since K40 is tungsten balanced film. I set the lightmeter to ASA 25 but I'm not sure if it's right. The lightmeter mesures through the filter so why do I have to compensate 2/3 stop for the filter? Isn't there a difference if you use a handheld lightmeter or if you use the built in lightmeter?

Thanx you all for your suggestions. The DV-6SB can handle up to 20 lbs, right? Are aluminium legs a lot more stable?

I would like to buy a sachtler tripod for my Arriflex 16SB with Zoom lens and matte box. I probably would also use it with a HVX200 with matte box and redrok adapter. I was thinking about the DV-6SB or the DV-8SB. Which one would you prefer and why. I heard the DV-8SB isn't that good. Any opinions. Would you buy Aluminum legs or Fiber legs.

I'm interested too :)