Rokinon Cine Lenses-First Look

Just got the sneak release of the Rokinon 35mm T1.5 Cine lens from B & H -- Wow.  Very impressed with it out of the box.

 

I'm going to be using it on my F3 so the build quality needs to be OK and lets face it... It has to look a little impressive besides being sharp.  I did a lot of research on the Bower, Samyang, Rokinon brands (they are all the same manufacturer) and thanks to information found on KenRockwell.com site and a few other sites these lenses seem really sharp in comparison to their Nikkor counterparts.  I thought I would give them a try and report back.  They aren't supposed to be out until September but a few got released early and I was able to get one.  I'm waiting for the 24mm, 50mm and 85mm.

Build quality is very nice at first blush.  Not all plasticy.  The witness marks are on the left side only.  Barrel rotation is about 180 degrees and smooth.  Aperture rotation is smooth as well.  Image looks nice and sharp on the first tests.  Bokeh is creamy.  It is a full frame or FX lens so compared to my 5D2 where it's a 35mm it's more like a 50mm field of view on the F3.

All in all a nice lens so far.  More to follow...

Until next time, good shooting.

TDTrey.com

Which Camera?? Decided... Sony F3

Well after a little over a year of searching and waiting and wanting I made a what I think is a fine decision for my next camera.  For those of you who have been following my "which camera" posts you've scene me ponder everything from the Scarletus... I mean, Scarlet.  And the 5Dmk3, Nikon D800, FS100, FS700 and more.  But after working with the Sony F3 for others I decided to get one of my own.  Great Camera!!!

I went to CineGear this year to look at everything that was coming out and projected to be out soon.  Lots of cool stuff - (technical term).  Spent quite a while at the Canon booth and the Sony Booth.  Big competition there.  With all the research about new cameras and features I was feeling very lost and then about 2 weeks ago sat down and took a hard look at what I do and how this new crop of cameras could affect that - here's what I found:

Most used this year: 5Dmk2

Most flexible: Sony EX3

Best combo of the two: Sony F3

I'm not being asked to go 4K just yet. If need be I can rent an EPIC from VR and go crazy with resolution.  Super Slowmo is great but likely to get overused in my circles and burn out quickly and again -- EPIC if needed.  Super Shallow DoF nice but not the end all be all.  The F3 seems to fit the bill right down the middle.

The best part I like is I'm already an EX3 owner so all my achechepies plug right in. I'm planning to do the S-Log upgrade soon so I'll keep you posted on the progress.  Also I'm getting a set of the Rokinon T1.5 cine lenses as the come out.  See my review of the 35mm T1.5.  I'll be getting the 24mm, 35mm, 50mm and 85mm.  I can rent a Zeiss ZF.2 kit when needed but I wanted to start with the Rokinons to give them a try.  I got the Tokina 11-16 in Nikon F -- no cine mod yet; a Nikkor 28-70 ƒ2.8 and a Nikkor 80-200 ƒ2.8.  It will be a balanced kit when I"m done.

Well dinner is ready.  More to come...

Until next time, good shooting

TDTrey.com

DaVinci Resolve 9 Flippin' Fastastic

Black Magic Design released the Beta version of their new DaVinci Resolve 9 Lite week before last.  You can download it for the Mac here.  

It's a great new look and feel to this wonderful application. I love the new layout.  Still has all the tools you need -- they are just in a better placement now.  And, you don't have to be as much of a rock scientist to figure out how to "make it go"  =)

I decided to jump in with both feet.  My friends are on the home stretch of their first feature and asked if I would be willing to have a go at the grading.  I said...Suuuure, why not.  It's a fun vampire flick with all sorts of twists and turns.  It was shot on the Panasonic HVX 200.  INT's, EXT's and mixed lighting - a real good test.  Check it out here.

 

The new layout only took a little while to get familiar with and helped to really speed things up.  Things I liked best right out of the gate:

• Improved Layout
• Better Scene Detection feature
• Smarter HSL keying
• Easier access to Primaries and Wheels
• Smart gallery access
• Fantastic Motion Tracking!!!!!!
• Super easy to use and link
• Delivery TAB for outputting
• Premiere Pro 6 support

This is all from me using the Beta 3 version for only about a week.  As I dig into the app I'll update this post.  Feel free to add comments to help all the readers =)

I got this project as a full length ProRes movie and used the scene detection feature to split it up and conform it.  Took just a little tweaking and it worked great.  A lot of the content is set in a dark or flat location so I had to pickup a few of the cuts as they were hard to discern for the detection threshold I had set - No biggy.

The vignette and power window features are very nice.  Made it easy to correct windows, clothing, walls... everything!!!

The delivery TAB is now super easy to use.  You can make your own custom  output settings and then save them for future use or just take advantage of one of the many presets.  A new feature I like is the fact that you can set multiple outputs and then place them in the render que and walk away.  Each output can have it's own settings and destination.

Well, that's it for now.  I'll add more as I go.  Just wanted to give props to BMD for delivering such a great update to an already awesome tool.

Until next time, good... grading

TDTrey.com