Nathan Milford

10 Year Old 'Genius' Director. Time to play catch-up.

The one with the video zoom might have been Craig Braiden... I know he sports one. Also one of our technicians here sometimes moonlights as a loader at the games. There are lots of independant shooters, many with XTRprods. They primarily use it for high speed stuff. I know as soon as they have a truly portable high-speed HD camera, they'll drop film... but the cine speedcam isn't quite viable for thier shooting style and methods. I believe the NFL is the largest consumer of film in the US... but I might be mistaken. Imagine 3 or 4 shooters, every game, multiple games, each 2 hours of actual filmable plays, at the same time over an entire season... lots of damn raw stock. I'm sure Kodak will smart a bit when the NFL drops film...

There is no adjustable shutter at all for the 7LTR, not even an after market upgrade. There is no shutter adjustment for different frame rates (ie 24/25), it's just a solid ceramic disc with a silver 180 degree mirror. With no shutter, you will have a constant smear, with nothing other than general color or exposure changes being discernable. As Mitch pointed out, you can have the shutter/claw timing adjusted to that the film moves a bit before the shutter covers it up causing a bit of streaking on the image... Adjusting the shutter/claw timing would also require the shutter to be rebalanced after it was screwed back down and also resetting the screen focus accordingly. All of which would have to be repeated once you had a technician reset the shutter. It could also get expensive because, to my knowedge, there is no guide or test that shows that if the timing is off by X you get a smear effect of Y... so you'd probably have to have it adjusted a few time before you found the 'right' amount of smear. That is, unless, you settle with whatever you get after the first adjustment. We typically charge 4 hours at $125/hr to correct a timing error, so it would probably cost the same to induce one. It's alot to go through for something that you can probably do in After Effects if your finishing on tape.

They probably mean the HDX400 which uses DVCPROHD tape stock to capture 1080i. It's cheaper than the Varicam, mostly because it only does interlace. It's marketed more for sports and broadcast.

Although they may do fine work and have great facilities and capablities, PRO8 and Bonolabs are not really mainstream labs. Try The Lab at Postworks: http://www.pwny.com/contact_theLab.htm Here are the uncorrected, DVCAM transfers from my thesis: http://nathanmilford.com/als/dailies/color/index.html The interiors are all 5212 pushed a stop, the exteriors are a mix of 5218 and 5205. We're hoping to retransfer to HDCAM and color correct with Scot Starbuck in March.

I just had 13000' of 35mm processed at The Lab @ Postworks (formeraly of Moving Images) without a flaw. I'm going back in two months to retransfer the selects to HDCAM. Super nice guys, excellent service and they genuinely care about even a student's project. They actually go out of thier way to court students. They'll treat you the same as they do a pro. I should know, it was my thesis project. I've sent stuff to DuArt, Technicolor NYC and even Lablink without any problems. I've seen all the footage from classmates and friends at NYU, Columbia etc... who haven't had any issue. As a camera technician, people have sent in thier cameras to check for various issues just to make sure it's not a mechanical problem rather than a lab issue... most of the time it's a bad batch of stock or that they were foolish enough to invest thousands of dollars on a film shot on short ends before it is a lab issue. - Nathan

Are you donating any proceeds to the forum or purchasing adspace in exchange for selling your wares?

You mean lens gears? Most film lenses use .8m/32p (metric/imperial). Video lenses differ between manufacturers. - nathan

Seeing as the Z1 is just under $5000 and the 100B is just above $3500, I think your decision has been made. But don't forget you also need a tripod and other expensive accessories.... $3500 is not enough to really get you started.

Also, with an optical system, you can see what is just out of frame allowing you to anticipate when an actor or object might enter frame.

Checkout The Big Kahuna with Danny Devito and Kevin Spacey. It takes place almost completely in a small hotel suite. - Nathan

Actually, before I was a camera tech I worked in IT. I was renting my Arri out to a friend for a small shoot in Brooklyn. I happen to be the Gaffer on that shoot. The camera died at 2 AM in the middle of a park in a less than savory neighborhood. I figured I'd pop it open... afterall I'd probably have to send it into a shop eitherway. It was a simple repair but it gave me the confidence to apply for my current position. Originally, Rich Abel wanted me for HD work because of my IT background, but in my initial interviews I couldn't stop talking his ear off about Aatons so he gave in and they trained me to repair those. I think the second interview sold me when I started talking about obscure camera movements in the first two decards of motion pictures... I spent today doing the most extensive modifcation to a camera I've done yet... on a member of this forum's camera no less. Milled out a 22mm hole in the front housing (which is impossble to lay flat, damn french engineers)... talk about nerve-wracking...

I just sold my 16SB to help finance my film. I already miss it! I just finished overhauling it and modifying it.... What a great little camera... - nathan

Looks like a solid package. AbelCine don't have any technicians named David... but it might have been me, sometimes people confuse 'Nathan' as 'David' over the phone. I think I might remember shooting a reg test for a client in march... I'm not near my records at the moment...

I imagine they are similar to Shell Tona Oil for the heavy oil and Anderol 401D for the light oil. I had a tube of Arri grease around here somewhere... it's probably gone.

Well, there are different generations of Aatons with different capabilites, features and quirks... but they all have a similar form factor and load the same. You can get an Aaton LTR7 (from 1975) in S16 with some mags, lenses and accessories for under $10,000, but a brand new (i.e. from 2005), factory fresh XTRprod with Mags, Canon 7-63, and accessories can be under $100,000 for a fully loaded package... The body is like $50,000 on its own. Mind you, I'm not in sales and these aren't quotes... just very wild ball park figures. The same pretty much goes for the ARRI cameras... an early SR (converted to S16) package can go for $10,000 and a brand new SR3 will go up to as much as you want to put into the package... The A-Minima is very interesting camera. Loading is unconventional but easy to master after a few trys. It can go up to 50 fps, but also has a built in intervalometer. I think the camera is more for B-camera and specialist uses, but some DP's use it as thier A-camera. For most uses the 200' loads aren't a hinderance... but the camera wasn't made to compete with other cameras that carry 400' loads. If you need 400', 800' or 1000' loads use another camera... The A-Minima is just another tool in the box for getting the shot. - nathan

The Arri SR and Aaton cameras are pretty much comperable in many regards, if you compare SR's and Aatons from similar generations. A well maintained camera of either make and model will be quiet (SR3 and XTRprod both publish that they're 20db), have fantastic registration and work reliably. They both have co-axial magazines that are both relativly easy to load (Aaton's are typically thought to be the easiest). Both the XTRprod and SR3 go up to 75fps. You can find comperable accessories for both cameras and for all intents and purposes they both take the same film and the same lenses... What it really comes down to is operator preference. Some people just like Arri's and others just like Aatons (I'm one of those *grin*). The way it balances or feels in your hands, the way the handgrip feels or the type of start switch it has, or method of checking the footage or adjusting the shutter angle... Different strokes for different folks... You can get into really gritty details like gears vs drive belts, registration pins vs polished movement etc... but they both get ths job done. All cameras have thier quirks and personality, even individual cameras to some extent, let alone a whole make and model. Your best bet is to go to a rental house and play with one. - nathan

Howdy, A healthy 54LTR will pull 500 milliamps to 1 amp depending on it's nature and wear, although anything above 750 milliamps really gets my attention. This is sans the current draw of a video tap and with out any mags loaded... just the body running by itself. It sounds consistant with the fuse suggestion. The Amphanol 9 connector (atari controller-like connector above the XLR4) is probably supplying power to your video tap, and it is not part of the fuse system (something to be rectified by the XTRprod), so if the camera is not respoinding but the tap is... it sounds like a fuse. You just need a simple 5 amp microfuse. Give me a call on Monday morning (eastern time) and I can send you one. Otherwise you can get them from Allied Electronics or some other components vendor. The real concern is this: what caused the fuse to go anyway? What caused the current draw to spike high enough to force the fuse to blow? Could the camera really need a lube that bad? Is it approaching seizure? Or is it an electronic problem? Sometimes fuses blow for mysterious, non-repetable and non-volitile reasons, but you should still send it in somewhere to get it checked out. If your in the US, send it in to me in NY or Jordan at our LA office... otherwise Aaton has a list on their website of authorized facilities around the world.

FYI, pixel compesating in your school's Varicam's is straightforward and easy. In the engineering menu you can point crosshairs at the damn things, pick which chip thier on and then 'delete' the pixel.

Steve, The video was discussed on the forum here.

There is also Jon Fauer's ARRIFLEX35 book. I called Arri, NY looking for a 35BL service manual and they actually sent me Jon's book instead of an older Arri publication... beautiful resource.

They're hard to come by. I've seen 'em sold for 50 bucks. Good Luck.

I use Visio.. It's pretty straightforward.

Japan uses NTSC-J. It's plain jane NTSC but with the black level/setup set to 0 ire rather than our 7.5 ire. Wikipedia link for NTSC - nate

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