Jan Doggen

S-Video outputs are Y/C, right? You know, I hadn't even thought about using the s-video output... Might there be problems with the levels and/or impedance of an s-video output? I guess I should just get a second-hand viewfinder and try to hook it up. Jan

Hi, I am looking for a way to connect an ENG viewfinder to the video-out of a vx2000/pd150 or dvx100 camcorder. (I know there is an adapterbox for the canon xl1 but i am not interested in that.) I wonder if anyone can get me clued up about this. If I find the pinout of a viewfinder-connector, will getting 12v into it (i know most viewfinders need 12v) and connecting the video-out to the right pins actually work? Or is some kind of signal conversion needed? thanks for any info on this... JD

the question is: how long will those DVD's last? i've had cd-r's and dvd's losing information even after just a few months. others are still okay after 10 years (cd's) but i'm not taking that risk. a study of a consumer organisation in the netherlands (i think) revealed that something like 30% of cd-r media failed after just 2 years storage in a dark and dry environment even though cd-r media are supposed to be safe for at least 25 years or something. the is no reason why dvd+-r's should do any better. plus 8.5 GB doesn't hold many minutes of DVCPRO HD footage. it's okay for SD DV but even then if you are trying to backup concert footage you'll have to start cutting the files up. DLT's sound like a very safe option. Make 2 copies and keep them in different places. JD

hmmm why don't i ever see them? ;) i must be using a wrong search or something...

I've been waiting for one to pop up for aaaaages... Some sites are selling them but usually at $4000-$5000 which is too much I think. JD

yes it does, but keep this in mind: 1) one of the reasons why you would use a mini35 is to have shallow DOF so you might not want to stop the lens down too much. 2) I think there's a limit too which you can stop down lenses with the mini35 because above that the image gets worse or something... I wouldn't go above 5.6. the difference between f1.8 and f2 is quite small so you could get away with lighting for 1.8 and fixing the f2 footage in post, or you could just stop the f1.8's down to f2 and light for f2. if however you're working with f1.8's, f2.8's and f4's then you would have to light for f4 and stop the f1.8's down which brings us back to more DOF and so on... if the same focal length exists in a f2.8 and a f1.8 then the f1.8 is probably the pro version ;) I don't know.... I think generally more recent lenses have more blades and those blades are curved a little to give more round out-of-focus highlights. The sigma's I have -which are very recent designs- have 9 curved blades and my old nikon 85 f1.8 has 6 which are very straight... by the way, I hear there is a nice older 135mm f1.8 by sigma but it's hard to find. oh, could you tell me where you can get your lenses geared? JD

The thing with the f-number is that the lower it is the less light you need (and the shallower you can get your depth of field) so usually the better lenses (and more expensive ones) are those kind of lenses. In 35mm still photography f1.8 is about as low as they go (excepted for the occasional 1.0, 1.2 or 1.4 for a few selected lenses) over a wide range of primes. It's always easiest to get a set of f1.8 lenses so that you can switch lenses within the same lighting setup... if for example you've lit a scene for f2.0 and you've got a f2.8 lens then you have to adapt your lighting just for that one lense, if you see what I mean. Not all nikon mount lenses are the same quality or the same performance. There are lenses aimed at consumers and pro's; both have a different price-tag and usually you get what you pay for. A 'pro' lens will usually be better mechanically, will open wider, use better glass and thus be better all around. You can get lenses from other manufacturers with the nikon mount but I would advise you to stay away from cheap lenses. Those 3 sigma's I was talking about are good glass too, but I would say: always try to test a lens before buying it. You can get nikon lenses geared for use with FF (I haven't done it yet but it will probably set you back about $100-$200 per lens, i hear) Cine lens manufacturers usually design a whole set of primes at the same time, using the same optical formulas, the same type of glass and the same type of coatings for the whole range so the way they render the image is the same. Still lenses are usually designed one at a time, possibly even by different teams within the company. Theoretically if you're shooting DV or HDV which both don't have a huge exposure and color latitude, it's best to white balance the camera each time you switch lenses, even within a same scene or lighting setup. If you were using a matching set of cine lenses, you could bet on it that there would be no difference in color between lenses. Besides color non-matching still lenses will also render flares and bokeh (out of focus image) differently... and when you're not shooting wide-open you will notice that some still lenses have 5 iris-blades, others 6 or 7 or 8 which will result in differently shaped out of focus highlights: wide open you will always have a nice circle but with 5 blades you'll get a pentagon shape, with 6 a hexagon, and so on... so if in the edit you jump for one to the other it might look really weird. Though it's maybe only image-nerds who will notice it. I bought some older nikon manual focus lenses from the used department of www.bhphotovideo.com. I have already bought a lot of photo equipment from them and they are trustworthy. Their physical shop in NY is huge and carries an incredible amount of stock. Newer lenses like for example the sigmas I would buy new so you have the warranty. I hope this helps... JD

Still lenses are good enough for HD; after all they are being used on 16mpix dslr's... the only problems you might (will) encounter are: -still lenses aren't really matched up colorwise and lookwise -focussing is harder than with cinelenses as the mechanism often isn't quite as well made as on cinelenses and the distance markings aren't as precise, but it works nevertheless. focussing is also harder because still lenses are often designed to cover the focussing range within a 90-120 degree rotation (because that's easier when shooting photos) whereas the same range is spread over a rotation of up to 330 degrees on cine lenses... -breathing: the 'zooming' effect when you focus is often more noticeable with still lenses as they are not optimised to reduce this. if you have to choose between nikon and canon fd lenses, i would go for nikons as canon fd's aren't being made anymore and nikon has kept the same mount up untill now so new lenses will also work. I wish canon eos lenses would work on mini35/movietube adapters but they don't have manual diaph-rings. when buying nikon lenses, make sure you don't buy those new lenses specially made for their d-slr's as they project a smaller image than standard 35mm-photography and only just about the size of 35mm cine size, so you might get vignetting but more importantly: they don't have manual diaph rings either and you can only set the iris electronically with a dslr body. if you go for nikon still lenses, I can recommend the 20, 24 and 28 mm sigma wide-angles which open at f1.8 and deliver a nice image (they are hard to focus, though). overall the nikon option is a cheap way to get started and when needed you can always rent cine lenses and decide to buy when you've found out which lenses you like most. there are a lot of good second hand f1.8 manual focus nikons out there. you can get 20, 24, 28,35,50,85,100 and 135 mm lenses in f1.8 or f2 relatively cheap (check sigma for the 20, 24 and 28). hope this helps; i'm no expert but this is what i've found out so far. JD

I think it's about the same... haven't done side by side tests. the official word is it loses 1 1/3 stop.

you might want to contact the people that have them: http://www.joedunton.com/ it does say "available for selected projects" so I guess they will not rent them out to anyone for any project. JD

thanks, i tried lots of different google seraches but this one seems to deliver. i guess i should just try to find a second hand one on ebay and mess around with it.

Hi, Does anybody know how you could feed the video-out of a camcorder to a ENG viewfinder? I am aware that an external 12V power source would be needed. Do adapters exist? (except for the Canon one for the XL1) Thanks for any info.... JD

I can't speak for Christopher but from my experience with the Movietube I think it's added in post...

Christopher, Those are nice clips; I prefer the "Im Glasshaus" to the other one but I was wondering what your experiences are with the FX1. Have you had any problems with compression artifacts? Also, which did you prefer, the P+S or the Movietube? grts JD

The best thing is to e-mail them; they are most helpful people. A first batch of Movietubes became available early june and it's a really nice product. I know some german rental houses have them for rent and as far as I know, there should be some outside of germany as well. JD

wow... those are good prices... I need to be on ebay more often! I guess I'll wait for a decently priced cooke to come around. Any tips for more lightweight 'cheap' but good zooms? JD

If I were to buy a secondhand zoom for a Mini35/Movietube setup, would an Angenieux 20-120 T2.9 for about $2K be a good idea or should I rather spend more cash on it and go for a cooke 20-100 for about $4-$5K? JD

Wasn't it hard to focus? I own a sigma 28/1.8 for my canon dslr and sometimes i find the focussing mechanism a little 'unsteady' if you see what I mean. Something different... I thought there was quite some Chromatic Aberration-like color distortion on high-contrast edges in that video... maybe a problem a with your close-up lens (I assume you use a close-up lens to film the GG). JD

What do you mean by degraining? Do you mean getting rid of the groundglass-grain? By the way, is that a Sigma lens on your adapter in the camera-setup photo? grts JD

my point was that your reply was quite a useless answer to my question, i.e. suggesting a EF-adapter for a camera I don't have when I am asking about lenses for the mini35. phil calling me insane was actually a more helpful reply. but yeah i shouldn't have reacted that way. i should not have reacted at all. so, i'm a d1ck in your book, well i can handle that.

Oh really? I didn't know that. Really. You saved me right there. Duh!

Actually I'm thinking of buying the 'Movietube';I have gotten a DVD with some 'virgin' footage and it looks pretty sharp. Plus it has some other advantages... I have also found workarounds for getting more DOF with my vx2000 by increasing distances between the in-focus and OOF objects but it just isn't always possible and practical. I'm so used to having total DOF control with a pro SLR that I often find it so frustrating to have all that DOF in video. The reason why I would like to stick with DV for a lot of smaller projects is that the editing is so fast and easy... I'm from the school of "film too much footage and make it in editing" which is not very compatible with film costwise... Though I fully aggree that film is film and video-with-and-adapter is not film. Each has its place.

Uhm... because I don't own a XL1s/2... Why would you assume that? Plus as you should know, that doesn't change the DOF which is what the mini35-type adapters are all about. As for the Canon EF vs. Nikkor statement: both systems have equally good lenses these days but at least Canon has good Dslr's to mount them on. Get your facts straight.

I was considering using still lenses but I'm reading about how they're not really suitable... but I reckon it's the best way to go for my personal projects. But you know what sucks? I'm all kitted out with canon EF lenses and of course those have no iris-control on the lens itself. So I'll have to get some nikon lenses. And yes, it's great that the $ is so low right now, but since both the P+S technik mini35 and the Movietube adapters are made in (or rather designed in and marketed from) Germany, that doesn't affect the price. For lenses etcetera, B&H is the place where I shop these days. And yes, Phil was right in a way about being insane... but as I said before, I have no grasp of the 35mm cine lens market. jd

The problem with rental is that IF I decide to get that adapter, it's because I want to be able to shoot when and where I want to and obviously if I have to rent lenses all the time then that won't happen. I did hear some good things about that 20-100 cooke zoom but I guess I would have to test a T3.something lens on the adapter first to see how much light is left and how workable it is. That adapter also works with photography lenses so I could just use good nikon glass for my own projects and rent when it matters... but obviously there are some trade-offs with photography lenses on a motion camera. What (if any) are the downsides of using ARRI S lenses with a PL mount adapter? JD