Ben Scott

The Sumo is awful. Picture terrible and the touchscreen on mine died inside a week meaning I could not adjust anything.

Pretty sure CML have tests along these lines and the Reduser SALT tests have both cine and stills lenses in them.

Yes that's what I'm doing for now. Still a real silly design choice.

Update on the Tilta kit - The baseplate fits the Tilta Standard baseplate, not an Arri Dovetail, which is absolutely absurd.

Yes it came with both of those plus some short rods. Didn't measure the top rods but it all looked kosher.

Tilta gear arrived today. Very well made and a great fit. I prefer my handles further from the baseplate so removed the baseplate-mounted ARRI rosettes but no obvious quirks or gotchas and loads of mounting points.

I've just got some old FD glass nothing autofocus although I might try a Sigma or two.

I've ordered the Tilta plates and they are due in the next week or so. Didn't get the Tilta V mount even though it looks nice because I'd rather use my rails mounted v-mount plate and be able to slide it back and forth for balance on the shoulder. Will report back.

There's a world of difference between framing a 6k for a post-stabilisation and delivering a 4k final and extracting multiple shots from a single frame like people do in corporate land.

I tend to use cling film with holes for vents, then a clear filter in the mattebox

I don't think that shot is going to give many cinematographers sleepless nights.

Expose for the key. Identify the uncontrollables in the frame and compensate for them with lighting/flagging.

Absolutely. I guess that's what I am trying to explore the limits of - the point at which art/experience/eye takes over from physics and photometry and the immutable laws of the universe. ? And then finding a way to communicate that to a team.

Thanks for that confirmation that people interpreting that meter (or waveform/etc etc) information is kind of what makes the magic. I've been going by waveforms for over a decade to nail the key and then rough in everything else by eye but wanted to introduce a more scientific and repeatable methodology, especially when having to communicate to any other members of a crew. Was using the skintone as an example to simplify everything but really I'm talking about setting exposure from the key - whatever that is hitting - and working back from that. But absolutely yes once it is set it's set and small variances between characters are something for post to sort, if it needs sorting.

Hi all, I'm not a new filmmaker but am changing the way I work and figured this might be the best section for this question to be posted. I’m trying to move away from ‘close enough’ to absolutely nailing things in-camera as much as possible. Wanted to ask a question about light meter use. So let’s use this hypothetical - say you are using a camera rated at 800iso. 25fps 180deg shutter speed. Let’s say shooting Sony S-log3. You want to shoot a subject at F2.8 and have a key to fill ratio of 2:1 and a key to background ratio of 4:1 · Key is metered for f2.8 · Fill is metered for f2 · Background is metered for f1.4 Now I have a set of meter readings for what ‘correct’ exposure for 18% middle grey is for each part of my scene with those ratios in place. But my subject I want to light to is a human face. Middle grey in Slog3 is 41% - although most people I know would overexpose that as a matter course to offset Sony’s optimistic camera ratings. From this point is it just practice and coming up with my own formula to translate those readings to relate to my subject’s skin - for example deciding 0.5 over (or under) middle grey is a good average Caucasian skintone - or is there a more universally accepted standard way of interpreting the meter readings and then applying them, or are you all quite happy using 18% middle grey as being an accurate enough facsimile of the average reflectance of a Caucasian human face which you will then tweak on a per person basis? I understand the other variables like the need to protect either shadows or highlights in the scene and so shifting exposure or ISO to offset that, but nailing this formula feels like this is where the magic is. Any guidelines or advice gratefully received.