Dino Giammattei

Check one two three Is this thing on? Please don't delete me.. It stings like the dickens. dinog

First, I want to say what a wonderful discovery this website is. I wish there had been an internet thirty year ago when I began this crazy ride. Second, the people I work for recently asked me to pick the next set of ENG/EFP cameras. Having used a BVW600 for several years for interviews and B roll, I was less than impressed with the DSR370's that were purchased without my input. Now that I have whined and complained for two years, I hope the comments on this thread hold true. Having only a few hours to make the decision, I chose the 450ws without really understanding what we will be getting. Please tell me it will look a whole lot better than a 370. I know they have full sized CCD's and that should make all the difference I would think. DinoG

I believe that the difference between a 5k camera and a 50k camera is not only the amount of noise, but how the manufacturer deals with it. In pro-sumer gear, where most of the peaking, contrast, and clipper controls are automatic, there is only so much you can do. In higher end cameras there are more ways to tweak the picture to manage noise. After years using an Arriflex 16mm, the change to video meant suffering through using the venerable but flawed RCA TK76, followed by early NEC, and Sony CCD products. I had almost given up hope of ever making beautiful pictures again. It was then that I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to work with a BTS,LDK91. It was by no means an overly quiet camera. Most of the Sony, Panasonic, and JVC products had better S/N specs. If I'm not mistaken, it was the only camera on the market at the time that didn't use Sony FIT CCD's. The people at Phillips, using IT chips of their own design, had somehow managed to make the noise appear softer while still getting eight hundred lines of resolution. The resulting picture had wonderful mid-tone detail that was flattering to flesh tones, and had virtually none any of the artificial peaking that I saw in the Sony cameras. It didn't have that sterile video look, rather, the pictures had a beautiful patina that you enjoyed looking at. (The program Night Court was shot with the older LDK90). Most of my recent work has been with a BVW600, which is a great looking camera that also deals well with noise. Sadly, management decided to go cheaply into digital, and now I'm struggling to get my look with DvCam. It's hard being a dinosaur? dinog

I believe that the difference between a 5k camera and a 50k camera is not only the amount of noise, but how the manufacturer deals with it. In pro-sumer gear, where most of the peaking, contrast, and clipper controls are automatic, there is only so much you can do. In higher end cameras there are more ways to tweak the picture to manage noise. After years using an Arriflex 16mm, the change to video meant suffering through using the venerable but flawed RCA TK76, followed by early NEC, and Sony CCD products. I had almost given up hope of ever making beautiful pictures again. It was then that I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to work with a BTS,LDK91. It was by no means an overly quiet camera. Most of the Sony, Panasonic, and JVC products had better S/N specs. If I'm not mistaken, it was the only camera on the market at the time that didn't use Sony FIT CCD's. The people at Phillips, using IT chips of their own design, had somehow managed to make the noise appear softer while still getting eight hundred lines of resolution. The resulting picture had wonderful mid-tone detail that was flattering to flesh tones, and had virtually none any of the artificial peaking that I saw in the Sony cameras. It didn't have that sterile video look, rather, the pictures had a beautiful patina that you enjoyed looking at. (The program Night Court was shot with the older LDK90). Most of my recent work has been with a BVW600, which is a great looking camera that also deals well with noise. Sadly, management decided to go cheaply into digital, and now I'm struggling to get my look with DvCam. It's hard being a dinosaur? dinog

Kinda like looking at an arc welder...

This is a long thread and I may have missed something, but earlier Mr Mullen mentioned Chinese lanterns. I love working with these. Give me a SB & honeycomb, and a single CL and I'll make beautiful 2 light pix any time. Our young friend might want to check these things out.. DinoG

Didn't want to sound so angry, but I'm facing another re-invention phase in my career. I've given up a lot to keep my hands on the equipment. I truly love this work, but it seems that there are fewer and fewer opportunities to use the film making techniques I have spent years trying to master. Much of my dilemma is my own making I must admit, we all have to make decisions and I have made good ones and bad ones and safe ones, like anyone else. I still have hope of finding people who can appreciate my quirky old school way of doing things. d Don't hate me because I use a light meter

As someone who has been making my living with cameras, lights, and microphones for over thirty years, I can say honestly that even though the industry keeps growing, it's getting harder, not easier to work exclusively in any one medium or genre. I'm sure it has everything to do with the fact that supply has outpaced demand. Be willing to do anything, anywhere, because your competition certainly will. I have had to re-invent myself many times over the last three decades, and not always in ways I have wanted. Video replaced the trusty Arriflex and Nagra, and quick & dirty became the preferred production practice. The industrial market, once a great place to hone your production chops, is now almost all available fluorescent lighting, fix it in post, boring same old $#!+. Your darn right I'm bitter. I spent a lot of time trying to improve as an artisan, tearing up my body hauling gear, putting up with "talented producers" who saw everything they did as brilliant, to go down without a complaint. The one other thing to be afraid of, is getting too comfortable in what your doing for a living. I didn't take advantage of several opportunities simply because I had grown comfortable with the steady pay check. Before you know it, a decade will have passed, with you no closer to your goals. DinoG

Seems like a pretty capable little box at first glance. I didn't see a chart of recording times for the different size media. The gig + cards ain't cheap. It could be more expensive than analogue tape depending on sample and bit settings. I really like the balanced inputs. If theres a way to genlock and send time code out of it, I might have to look into one of these things. M-Audio sound cards have always worked flawlessly for me. If the marriage to AVID hasn't changed anything, I would imagine this will be a solid little tool. DinoG

Katey bar the door. If the Chinese manufacturers get a foothold, look for the American industry to feel some pain. If these guys can make a $199 condenser microphone. How hard can a light fixture be. China has the ability to flood the U.S.market with usable tools at pennies on the dollar. Every small facility and a whole bunch of freelancers would have no choice but to purchase. Look at companies like Behringer. Everybody badmouths them, but they still sell a lot of stuff. d

I've done quite a few medical procedures, and all the still shots are done with a surgical ring-light. These things have the curious effect of not having a hot spot. Because the center is dark, you can hide the circular reflection in the whites of the eyes Maybe I'm crazy, but would it be possible to rig an enormous ring-light or reflector? Hide the draped off camera in the dark center, or light it to intentionally show. dean

For a bigger light source, build, rent, or buy a butterfly frame. Use 216 or a bedsheet, what ever you got. The bigger the better. Then aim one or more vehicle headlights at the frame. Gel, flag, gobo to taste. Experiment by altering distance between lightsource and frame, and frame to subject. Great front fill for natural sunset background. . ....Remember to start the engines now and then to recharge the batteries. Use spaghetti mop to simulate flames for close-ups... dino

Back in the seventies, as a Navy mopic photographer, we would always get into good natured trash talking with the still photographers. They would say that the mopic guys would shoot a hundred feet then look for a bar. It was funny, and not completely untrue,but after a while it got old and I would counter by saying that a still photographer only has to be a photographer for a hundredth of a second at a time. Boy, did that piss them off. Of course catching the perfect hundredth is the trick in stills.. An old chief used to say that mopic guys took better stills, because we didn't have the luxury of cropping our shots later. We would tend to frame our shots to fill the screen rather than leave a safety area for the darkroom guys.