Tim J Durham

I was reading an article on Gamma where it states that:

 

Gamma has a major effect on image brightness, contrast, hue, and color saturation.

 

Image Brightness and Contrast are percievable but how does it affect Hue And Color Saturation?

 

Kindly let me know.

 

Thanks.

Could you post a link to the article? Now I'm curious.

http://www.usa.canon.com/templatedata/pres..._hd_zoomxl.html

 

I wonder what they mean by "manual" iris ring, this being a servo lens and all....

I suspect it's like the iris ring on an ENG lens as opposed to the little knob on the camera body.

Hi Tim,

I ran across your post reply from a couple of years ago when doing a search for fisheyes and the Pro35 adaptor. The rental house says that the Nikkor 8mm vignettes with the Pro35 adaptor and 2/3" target. Have you used the 8mm, Pro35 adaptor, and 2/3" pickup? I've used 35 primes as wide as 12mm with Pro35 shooting HD quite often, but never a fisheye.

 

Tony Stewart

NJ DP

The Nikon 8mm vignettes no matter what you're shooting (edit) 2/3" chips or larger (edit). I think the widest full-frame Nikon lens is the 18mm. Anything wider and you start to lose the corners. I'd do what John said if you can find someone with Digiprimes to rent but they're not cheap and that particular Digiprime is bound to be a rarity. I've never seen one though I've never gone looking.

I hate it when I spend half an hour on a post in response to a thread that was dredged up from a year ago.

Jusk for kicks, would someone please post the proper procedure for connecting an XL1 to a PC via the fire-wire. It might come in handy in a pinch or if I stand to lose quality by using an inferior camera as a deck. Again, I feel kinda stoopid...

You can use an Elura that has firewire. As for attaching the cam to the computer, turn both off. Connect firewire. Turn on computer. Turn on camera. Launch NLE. It's not just Canons, I know it happens with Sony Z1's and the little HVR-10 and 25 decks.

First, what makes an ordinary camera different from a superb one is mainly the quality of the lenses it uses. That's what make superb cameras so expensive. For some inspiration on making your own camera, you can check out Jim Jinnard, founder of Oakley, who is currently developing a 4K resolution cinema camera called The Red One. Perhaps he's the right person to give you some advice. www.red.com Only someone with expertise in optics like Jim & lots of money to develop such a camera will succeed.

Those lenses are purpose-built by Red? I would've guessed they were re-housed.

After I shot for a while with my XL1, I decided to capture . I connected the firewire and turned on the player, nothing happened. I unhooked the cable, turned it back to camera, still nothing. I'm obviously a beginner with this thing, but has anyone esle had a similar problem. I've tried a different battery, the ac adapter, nothing works. It won't even power up to eject the cassette. Am I overlooking something?

Was the computer turned on when you attached the firewire? If so, you've fried the main fuse and now you need to send it in to Canon to get it replaced.

What are everyone's thoughts on the Illusionist? I saw it last night and thought it was an amazing looking film. I really enjoyed the lighting. If there were any comments I had it was a few focus/depth of field things I saw, but they were few and far between.

 

Of course I'm pretty new to this, so I could be trying too hard to look with a critical eye when I really don't know what the hell I'm talking about.

With a name like that you must be some kind of genious.

Oh, I export it to a quicktime file, burn on DVD. Ship it to him.

So you're saying the Quicktime file looks good on your computer? Do you have an NTSC preview monitor? How are you doing the compression for DVD? With Compressor? DVD Stu Pro?

Detail the steps you take from the shoot to the dvd output EXACTLY and people may be able to tell you where you went wrong, otherwise it's just guessing.

My only problem is with this myth that the camera cost $17.5, that's only for a body....

Outside of Circuit City, that's the way camera systems are sold. The price of a Varicam is $68K (or whatever they sell for now). That's for the body. EVERYTHING is ala carte with high-end systems.

sorry, what exactly do you mean by 'workflow'?

How did you get it from your camera to your boss?

I make videos for this company. The lighting looks great through the viewfinder and when I export it as a file. When the company gets it they say it looks overwhelmingly dark. I see the work that I did when its put on their site, and yes it looks incredibly dark. What do I do? Thanks in advance.

You'll need to describe your workflow in more detail.

Couple questions:

 

I've got the SDX-900 w/ the most basic Fujinon news lens. I've imagined a little scene from the little film I'm shooting should be done w/ a #1 BPM filter. I'm told this is now a greenscreen scene. Will the heavy diffusion hinder the compositing?

 

What possible advantage could my employer have in transferring our DVC-Pro 50 footage to Digi-Beta and then digitizing to Final Cut? (Besides back-up) Why not just rent the pro50 deck? Wouldn't the price of 10 digi-beta tapes equal the rental on the deck for a day?

 

Thanks

 

J...

Could he have meant he wanted to record the SDI output of the camera w/ a Digibeta deck? That would raise it from 8-bit (on cam recording) to 10-bit 4:2:2 which would be better for greenscreen.

As far as the BPM filter, it would make the greenscreen edge bloom onto your subject so I'd do that effect in post.

Hell even well shot HD is better than S8 (yeah I said it... :P ).

You really went out on a limb with this bold statement.

I just don't believe in government subsidies for film productions because I don't think it serves public interest. I think that, although as some as said, a small percentage of the government budget, I just can't justify allocating money to film producer's whereas other far more important entities are being rationed. Going to the cinema and seeing films produced in one's native language should be kept second to, let's say, medical research which would improve the human condition far better than a movie.

It's too bad you're not American, then, becuase you have a Champion(s) in the current bunch running this country. They don't care to see the 'more important' entities be rationed either. Why, the defense budget of the United States is just barely more than the defense budgets of all the rest of the countries in the world combined. Can you imagine if some bunch of narcissist fairies engaged in "The Arts" were to start syphoning off some of that? Where would we be then?

Hell, Sweden subsidized Ingmar Bergman and look what that got them. They also heavily subsidize the health of their citizens but their defense budget is candy-assed. Here in America we like to see that people with real money can get the best medical attention money can buy. Subsidy- schmubsidy.

jacobi, the problem is that you are a smartarse, arrogant and your judgement on movies is most of the time inappropriate. theres nothing wrong when you criticise a film, its the annoying, unpolite and cocky way you do it that pisses people off. and yeah, when the hell are we gonna see your movies? who the hell are you?

Actually, what I find tedious around here is the utter lack of criticism when it comes to even the most obviously commercial Hollywood product. I'm not saying that's what "The Departed" is, I haven't seen it yet, but the slavishness with which people (mostly the wannabees) bray on about this DP or that director gets nauseating.

Criticism is an integral part of the learning process, particularly in this field. Scorsese and Michael Ballhaus have both done great things but that doesn't mean everything they do is great. Both of them are well aware that there are people out there who know the difference.

contax cameras have horrendous electronics from what i understand.they are not as reliable as they should be and you can lose the electronics totally and its not rare.on the other hand the lenses are zeiss...

Hmm,

I never heard that. I used mine nearly every day for about three years without a hiccup. Somebody must've gotten one that went into the drink. How many people/sources have you heard this from?

the greatest feature of the Leica M3 that later models don't have is the 100% view meaning the size of an object in the viewfinder is the same as that seen by the naked eye such that shooting with both eyes open ( a must for photographers who want to see what's going on outside the frame ) is simpler to adjust to. later models give only 75% view. also the summicron series in any focal length ( summicron is the name for leica M lenses with f2.0 widest f-stop ) are the sharpest.

I had an M-6 and the 75% viewfinder was horrendous for me. I tried for about 6 months to get used to it but couldn't. I sold it and the three lenses and bought a Contax G-2 system. It was night and day.

I know people swear by Leicas and the lenses are sharp, but check out the Contax system. It's auto-focus if you want it to be and I took some fabulous pictures with it. Unless you're just looking for the zeitgeist factor of an old Leica, which I fully understand.

Could this be that he dubbed them at DV Cam speed? Does that make any sense? Would a DV-Cam ready deck solve this?

 

Any thoughts out there?

 

F

Yes, it could be. Ask him which deck he recorded on.

I'm sure this is a stupid question, but what is RED? It has it's own forum here (which I don't really visit,) so I imagine it is of some significance. Production company? Anyone...?

www.red.com

Never work with someone you don't trust.

 

The premise of your whole filmmaking experience is wrong already.

 

As a DOP you should have full confidence on you director, and he you.

 

Otherwise just quit. Join another group.

Man, I wish I had that kind of freedom. To just walk away when things don't go EXACTLY as I'd like. 'course in real life, once the word got out that I just up and quit the first time I didn't get my way, getting that next job might be more difficult. And so on.

thanks Tim I've got the same problem and Im trying to figure it out!

Tim I did what you said, and in my A/V settings everything was set as 8-bit uncompressed except for the capture setting (which i would assume doesnt matter since Ive already captured everything elsewhere). And as for my system settings, my playback control is set as 2:3:2:3 could that be the culprit?

Since your capture is not set to 8-bit uncompressed, it's possible you did NOT capture the material that way. In the browser, scroll over to the right and check the capture settings and see how your clips were captured. Did you capture with a Kona card? How did you take in the material uncompressed? You can't do it over firewire.

As for the pulldown (2:3:2:3), I'm on shakier ground but I believe you need to remove the pulldown before you start adding clips to the (23.976fps) timeline. Hopefully someone with more experience editing 24p will chime in.

There are a lot more editors on thhe 2-POP forums and also you can try the LAFCPUG forums.

Ok so I'm taking a course in film, and we have to shoot a project before Christmas.

 

We have a 5 minute running length limit. A director, DP (me), sound recordist and editor.

 

The only difficulty I'm having right now is the storyline. Can you guys think of a good, simple to shoot, 5 minute story line?

 

So far the plan is to make a story about a man who meets someone to buy some drugs, takes them and OD's, but then the whole film reverses back in time and the man walks straight past the dark alleyway as opposed to walking down it and buying the drugs and lives instead. (Crap basically.)

 

I want to give the entire movie a bleach bypass look. Show the gritty side of the streets that we will be shooting. (Orpington)

 

Any suggestions would be great. I'm really meant to leave most of this up to the director but to be perfectly honest, I don't trust him, so I'm basically taking the whole movie into my own hands.

 

Cheers.

I think you should shoot this story:

http://tinyurl.com/p5utu

So I now have the standard FCP 8-bit uncompressed codec, but whenever I drag my files to the timeline I still need to render...whats goin on???

Go to audio/video settings in the FCP menu, copy down ALL your settings. Then go to the sequence menu and check to see if they are the same as those in the A/V. It sounds like you have a mismatch somewhere.

If you have a mismatch, start a new sequence with the correct settings and delete the old one.

I see. Thanks for that info. Back in a day I had a Nagra III and loved it. I am planning to get the Sound Device 302 or Mixpre to use with the XL2. So the question was just the recording media. I also wanted to see what others are doing for sound with this camera.

I think it's worth the extra money to get the 302. It's more flexible and has a much greater resale market if you need to unload it. It is becoming the standard mixer for television news (in those cases where there is still a sound man) and field production.