Tim J Durham

This is shortly going to be my main camera but the big problem with it at the moment is that there are only two lenses available for 1/2" CCD HD cameras. Fuji will be releasing 3 more shortly. Remember, if you are planning to mount a lens meant for 2/3" CCD cams, you have to account for the fact that the 1/2" CCDs only see ~63% of what the lens is seeing so what you gain in telephoto, you lose in wide-angle.

All sold except Vinten Pro-Touch 5 Tripod with Canon quick release plate- $500 OBO + shipping!

Hi, Give these people a call. They would know who rents in your area. They also do rentals but are in SoCal, N. Hollywood. The ringlite kit costs a little over $2K to purchase, I believe. Rental? Don't know but less than $600 a day for sure. http://litepanels.com/

It's not bad. I also mounted a Varizoom LAN controller on the bend of the right side handle so I can zoom and hit the roll button while my hand is holding the grips. The shoulder pad is not much but you are splitting the weight between THREE points of contact as opposed to two so it helps.

This sounds like the problem I was having with Safari and it was being caused by Java. If you disable it the problem stops but then you can't run Javascript. Here's how I solved it: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301380 Good luck.

Brad, Have you tried using one of the remotes to set the timecode on all three of the cams simultaneously? http://www.dvinfo.net/canonxl2/articles/article11.php Should work the same way with the XL-H1.

Have you tried a Spiderbrace? $70.00. It looks ridiculous but I just bought one to shoot handheld with a Z1 and it actually helps. I attached a varizoom LAN controller to the right side handle and if you position it right, it works pretty well. You've got zoom and a roll button off the camera body, sort of like an ENG pistol grip. It weighs nothing and it's MUCH better weight-distribution-wise.

"Shakespeare in Love" won best picture that year and it was 1998. Spielberg won best director. THAT is something that has always bugged me. Why isn't the director of the best film automatically the best director winner? "American Beauty" won in 1999. And I agree with the "Raging Bull" comments. As time passes, that film is now on most critics list of best films ever made while "Ordinary People" is absent, although I thought it was a very good film. "Citizen Kane" is the most prominent example, I suppose, of the great film being snubbed by the academy.

I second the chiropractor. People think they're suspect because they don't get "cured" in one visit. Thing is, you keep injuring your back the same way again and again. Particularly shooting handheld. Massages are always good. After a trip to Foam-Mart and hours spent trying to customize a pad for my shoulder, I decided that I wasn't going to do any better than a folded up towel. Another thing that helps is swaying as opposed to trying to act like you've got the cam on a tripod. I spose you need to work that out beforehand with the producer, though. I did.

Yes, there was a housing development there. Then after the airport consumed it, they found a rare species of butterfly. Now I think it's a wildlife refuge. Right next door is the Scattergood water treatment plant, then the Exxon refinery.

A filmer?

Post some frame grabs of film scenes you are trying to emulate. That makes it easy to suggest how it was done and what was used.

You can rent a kit to light this room for about $100 a day. Less than that if you don't want to do anything fancy.

Hi Dominik, When I got my 'big break', I was making $7.50 an hour so don't let these guys talk you out of an opportunity. Just try to make yourself indispensible and once that happens, start sending your resumé around. Then you'll find out what they can afford to pay you.

Thanks Mitch. That did the trick. Yes, You'd think... but you'd (and I'd) be wrong: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=34322

I got a tip from Michael Nash (I think- it was a while ago) to use a polarizer when shooting black people. You can basically dial in the amount of reflectance from their skin by rotating the filter. It works great. As for the "African American" thing, when I was at CNN, there was a discussion between the flavor-of-the-month news reader and a reporter doing a live shot from South Africa in which he referred to the "Blacks" and she got this stern look on her face and stopped him mid-sentence to suggest he not call them "blacks" but rather he meant to say "African Americans". He just let it go.

Mitch, Try as I have, I can't seem to get into the paint menus on the Z1U. I have no owners manual so any chance you could explain how to open these menus or does it involve joining the Freemasons? Thanks.

I am also a first-class operation: http://www.cinematography.com/forum2004/in...showtopic=12600

Hi, Thought I'd give you guys the first shot at my very lightly used Canon XL-2 gear which I bought as b-cam for a documentary and has seen very light duty since: Canon XL-2 body (16:9, 24p, 30p, 60i) w/945 battery/charger/AC power adapter Anton Bauer Gold Mount w/d-tap (for monitor) A/B Hytron 50 battery A/B Titan Twin dual position charger Canon 16x manual lens Canon 3x wide angle lens Century Precision Optics 0.6x wide angle adapter (non zoom-thru) MA-300 XLR adapter Porta-Brace CTC-2 camera case Vinten Vision 5 tripod and 75mm head (Euro version of the Vision 6- kinda cheapo) Canon TA-100 quick release tripod adapter and dovetail plate Panasonic TC-7WMS1 on-camera 16:9/4:3 switchable LCD monitor with fitted Pelican case and adapter cable No boxes so pick-up most likely in Silver Spring, Maryland or somewhere nearby. Pieced out from B&H would amount to $8639.00 but all this can be yours for $5500.00 E-mail me @ timjbd (at) yahoo (dot) com Thanks for looking, Tim

Nesselsenez, Not exactly sure what your question is but there is often a feature called "clear scan" on video cams that is basically a fine detail setting for the shutter. If you are in a 50 hertz country shooting 50i, the clear scan will work around 1/50th/s shutter speed in incrememnts of .01. If you are in 60 hertz countries (60i), it works around 1/60th of a second. I have never had to use it when shooting in 24p so I'm not sure how/if it would work.

I believe the DVX-100A is 25Mbs but I've only shot with it once. I don't know what budget you've been given, but if the cost is all a pass-through, I'd go with the SDX900 as well. If they are giving you a set amount, use your own gear and keep the rental money for yourself. It's not hard to top the quality of most local cable car dealer ads even with a DVX. Atleast the ones out here in DC. And yes, if you set up both cameras as well as can be, the SDX has greater dynamic range than the DVX.

I went to an Oscar party in Hollywood and for about the first half hour, everyone was in chairs around the big screen TV watching. Then people started to peel away and would look over as they announced winners. The same guy has been producing that show for years now and even John Stewart could not rescue this guys rundown. Try as he might've. So I watched some and looked over for the rest. Mostly pretty tedious with some downright embarrassing moments, as usual. As for the quality of the films, I thought this year was a good one in being a very good year for political thrillers and politically motivated films in general, such as "The Constant Gardener" which I'm sure was overlooked because of the inane title (although Rachel Weisz won) also "Syriana", "Good Night and Good Luck" which was a much needed critique pointed at our sheepish national press establishment, "Munich" and "Enron- The Smartest Guys in the Room" which did not win but should have as best documentary. So I felt the quality of the films was pretty high this year. No "Lawrence of Arabia" or "Battle of Algiers" but some good films. I don't know what you consider a great film so it's hard to comment on whether I'd agree that quality is deteriorating generally.

Yeah, 5.5mm is fairly wide with 2/3" chips. On 1/2" chips? Not too wide. If Sony suggests one of those crappy adapters as an HD solution for wide angle... Does anyone know if either of the P&S adapters will work with 1/2 chip cameras?

Hi Craig, Have you gotten a look through any of the available 1/2" HD lenses? I can't imagine Fuji or Canon investing a lot of effort into these lenses and I will be shooting with this camera a lot in the near future. Are either of the lenses you know about wide angle? The only lens I know about is a 19x9 that is made by/for Sony. That will be conspicuously NOT wide... This is what most people are going to be dealing with for the near term: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller...arch&Q=&ci=1885 A large selection of semi-pro SD lenses to get anything resembling wide angle.

Are you any relation to David Sheehy?