Jump to content

Alexis Hanawalt

Basic Member
  • Posts

    18
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Alexis Hanawalt

  1. It's a gelatin filter holder, if you only have the ring a small bit it missing.

     

    I'm pretty sure it's the whole thing - it has a little bit of plastic that slips into the slot, with a slit in it that could hold a gelatin filter. (slits and slots... very technical.)

     

    Seems like there's a risk that if the filter fell out, you'd have difficulty retrieving it - and seems like the risk of getting dust or moisture into the lens via the slot is good reason to leave the plastic ring alone... nevertheless, are there specially made filters that go into this slot - or is it just a cut your own kind of thing?

     

    -AH

  2. I just bought a used Cooke 20-100 on eBay, formerly owned by Otto Nemenz - came in the case with rods, etc. Looks to be in great condition. This is my first owned lens. Does anyone have any recommendations for where I can take it for a "general checkup?" (Collimation, etc.) - in the LA area?

     

    Also, there's a little rubber ring covering a slot near the back end of the lens - no idea what this is...

  3. I'm shooting a low budget spec spot in HDV and I need to composite an artificial background outside the windows of an office location.

     

    I don't really have lights to spare besides the practical office lighting. I intend to tape up cardboard painted chroma key green to the windows and just keep the actors a good distance away - but I'm curious if it might be good to leave about 1 inch all the way around each window with light still coming through to maintain the illusion of real daylight spilling in. I'm concerned that this might allow for a lot of spill. I'm using Keylight with After Effects, so I know I'll have a lot of control, but I just want to be sure I do this in the best possible way.

     

    Any suggestions?

  4. I have no definitive information but I've been through several DVCPROHD jobs. From the qoute you gave, I think what Goodman is refering to is the compression done by the camera capture which is pretty severe. After that, anything done via firewire will be lossless

     

    That may be... But this paragraph was really dedicated to the principle of digitizing via firewire. I mean, I know that firewire is inherently jumbling up 1's and 0's to a pretty great extent so what ends up at one end is more a reassembled 100% re-creation of what was at the other end than an identical duplicate... but for all intents and purposes, there should be no loss... right?

  5. I'm going to be digitizing some 24P Varicam footage via firewire into G5's running FCP 5 for a narrative feature which will probably be blown up to 35mm film.

     

    Every single source I have says that DVCPRO HD footage captured via firewire suffers no generation loss whatsoever - except for Goodman's Guide, which has a brief paragraph stating that the image is compressed and sustains a loss in the high end. The guide then states that sending a cuts-only edit back through firewire to the deck results in a tape copy with 100% of the data of the original tape masters. I don't understand this, and I can't find any information that corroborates this.

     

    I called Panasonic and the tech was stumped. He'd never heard that there was any loss. I've emailed the author of the guide for elaboration, but haven't heard back yet.

     

    Does anyone here have any DEFINITIVE information regarding this issue? It could be of critical importance when we do the blow up.

     

    -Alex H.

  6. I have a similar question -

     

    I'm working for a company that's about to shoot a horror feature on either the new JVC camera in 24p HDV or on the SDX900. The current lack of support for editing 24p HDV is a major holdup as far as that goes, but I'm also curious about how DVCPRO50 footage looks when upconverted to HD? Anyone have any opinions?

     

    I would usually argue strongly for the SDX... but if this goes theatrical (it probably will) I'm not sure if HDV wouldn't be better due to the higher resolution.

     

    -Alex H.

    Stella

    In the back of this month's American Cinematographer:

     

    The show is shot on DVCPRO-50 with a Pro-35 adapter!

  7. Hmm. Lot's of good information....

     

    It looks like right now I'm choosing between Digi-Beta and DVCPRO - DVW-700WS vs. AJ-SDX900. I'm having trouble believing that the compression on DVCPRO is comparable to Digi-Beta. I'm working with DVCAM on someone's project, which doesn't look all that much better than DV - and I was under the impression DVCAM and DVPRO were different brandings for the same thing. They shot on a 1/3" chip though, and the SDX is 2/3"...

  8. I'm directing a couple local commercial spots budgeted for about $15,000 each. I'm looking for a sharp hi-res image with nice cinematic depth of field - and I'm presently considering shooting on Digi-Beta. Does anyone have any recommendations as to whether this is my best solution...? All the new HDV cameras are tempting... but with post compositing work in store for these spots, I'm concerned about compression.

    Stella

    So much television material is shot on Mini-DV - why would they take issue with downconverted HDV? It would only be better. Reno 911, Judge Judy, Wild Boyz, and even some of the segments for The Daily Show originate on Mini-DV.

    Stella

    I watched the season premier of Comedy Central's "Stella" and I couldn't place what they shot it on. It looks a LOT better than most shows of the sort. I was expecting another cheapo DV look, but it's got really sharp edges and a filmic depth of field. Does anyone know or have a guess as to what they were shooting on? I want to guess HDV, but I've never seen HDV broadcast as SD looking so good.

×
×
  • Create New...