Porta-Jib Explorer

I have been following the Porta-Jib product lines for a few years now and am constantly impressed with each new creative tool they come up with. Most of my work revolves around talking head and product shoots. And usually are steeped in a long shot list with a short time frame. Creativity is generally the first casualty of the shooting day. With the Explorer system, I’m finding I can “buy back” some creativity / inspiration without much cost to the day.

I recently used the Explorer on a car review for Kelly Blue Book and was extremely pleased. The director said “Sure. Bring it along. But I don’t want to be slowed down or have to sacrifice shots while you are fiddling with adjustments.” I’m happy to report we finished 15 minutes early and had at least 5 extra shots in the can. He loved it!!! We never came off the system. We did both JIB shots and then worked the heck out of the TROLLEY / SLIDER config.

I’ve used the system with everything from a SONY Z7 to a SONY F3. (And that includes my 5Dmk2 and EX3). The Explorer system seems right at home in any environment. I see this system as a fantastically versatile opportunity to recapture some of the excitement and creativity we all enjoyed when we were first starting out.

Thanks Mark and Scott. Great Job!!!

Check out my video review - Trey's Gear Review: Porta-Jib Explorer

Until next time, good shooting =)

TDTrey.com

Which Camera - more thoughts... F3??

When I attend the sneak peak of the F3 here on the west coast in November I thought it was a terrific camera - but more than what most of us regular working cameramen would be able to use day to day (at the then 16,000 price tag). I had been using a LETUS adapter on my EX3 for about 2 years and was still having trouble talking many of my regular producers into using it ( daily cost not withstanding). They either didn't see the benefits or felt it would impact the shooting schedule to severely. Then enter the 5D... Everybody wanted "Shallow DoF" !!!!

Now the stage is set... Canon follows with the 7D, Panasonic releases the AF-100, RED is up with the Scarlet and the Epic-S, Canon is rumored to show a new interchangeable lens HD video camera.... That all being said I started looking at all these contenders and re-evaluated the F3 - and here's the skinny:

The every day camera in these new days of DoF minded clients with fast, card based work flows that can have multiple finishing strategies will need to have the ability to convert from a super shallow film style camera to a grab and go ENG rig in less than 5 minutes and still fit into my truck with only a few cases =) I went back and looked at all the cameras again and it came down to the Sony F3 or maybe what Canon comes out with. But Canon's offering would need to be significant as the entrenched Sony Picture Profiles are so available now and requested that it's important to have a "Matchable" camera. Also, with many people now finishing HD you can no longer do the "shoot wide and scale in post" trick so I am often setting 2 matched cameras and getting my wide and tight at the same time (when eye line is not going to be an issue). So all that being said, for right now, it looks like the F3 is the best all around bet - especially if you have an EX1 or EX3. They can be matched pretty well using the EX as the wide and the F3 getting the glory tight shots. Both will use the same Picture Profile just fine.

Now to the specifics =) The camera is real pretty. Almost no noise (unless you try really hard) Operates just like an EX. Work flow is just like an EX. My EX cards and batteries fit. My rods and FF and mattebox fit. I'm using a Hawk-Woods power distro for my for my bricks to work with it - real nice ad on. We haven't got the $3300 upgrade yet but are considering it. Birger Engineering will have an adapter ready in the summer (rumor has it) with full control for my EOS lenses and wireless FF features ta boot =) We are looking at the Atomos Samurai SSD/Monitor system for the near future and the Convergent Design Gemini or Cinedeck if needed later to provide our 4:4:4 10bit solution.

Operation: A little on the heavy side... not too bad, just pipey. Good on battery life. Fairly smart layout - 10 assignable buttons. 1/4-20's everywhere ( 3 on the handle, 4 on the body and probably some I haven't found yet) The prime lenses work very nicely. I am waiting to use my EOS "L" series zooms =) I will probably look into the Zeiss ZF.2 lens kit with an MTF Nikon to E-mount adapter for my camera. The one I reviewed is using the Sony primes and a RED 18-50mm zoom. Depends on your needs...

And finally... I have used it on some corporate work: interviews ( I'm hoping to post some frame grabs when I get cleared to do so) b-roll and static shots. My take away is this... Great camera for interviews, staged shots, controllable b-roll situations, product and EFX shots. Right now, with the current non-servo zoom lens selection, it's not going to be that great for "Run & Gun", candids or pop zoom fashion type work or ballroom cams. I will keep my EX3 for that for now and see what Sony is planning for their servo lenses in 2012. The F3 is the only camera ready to zoom with the rocker in place and a plan for it.

Hope you all can boil this down and extract some good info that applies to your independent needs. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

TDTrey.com

IR filters for the Sony EX cameras

Defining the problem
If you have used the Sony EX1 or EX3 in a setting with black or gray fabrics you may have seen a magenta shift in the picture. One little catch with the new Exmore sensors is they have a big sensitivity toward the Infra Red (IR) spectrum. We did a bit of testing here and found a good workaround with some screw-on IR filters.

As you can see in the pictures the uncorrected shirts have pretty a good magenta shift. The set is lit with one Diva 400 at 3200k. We found in interview settings under either 3200k or 5600k the shift still happens. We talked to a few filter manufacturers and narrowed it down to Tiffen and Schneider. Both had nice offerings for IR filters. Tiffen has their series call Hot Mirrors and Schneider suggests the 77E IR cut (486). We found that the 77E (486) worked the best on both our EX1's and then the EX3's. So far we have not noticed a need for the IR filters on our Sony F3. Yay =) Originally the 486 was sold as the best filter for the RED and the Hot Mirrors were the best for the EX cameras but as we tested the opposite was true and that's why we went with the 77E (486) for our cameras.

Care and Handeling
At first we were putting the filters on when we saw the problem and then removing them after the shoot as they are almost $300 each... After a while we realized the potential to damage the filter when adding or removing it was greater than just replacing our UV filters with the IR filters permanently.

Playing well with others
The filters seem to work well in conjunction with other filters and 4x4s in line. We have had no problems using the IR filters and screwing our Polarizers on in front of the IR.

Best of luck with your filters and lens kits.

Until next time, good shooting.

TDTrey.com

Which camera ? Which camera ?? WHICH CAMERA!!! ???

OK, so as NAB 2011 draws near... This seems to be the year that everything is going to change -- Or at least in the worlds of broadcast and cinematography...

There are so many things I hope to get out of NAB this year. Will Canon come out with their new HD FF35 camera? What's up with the 5Dmk3? Will RED deliver the Scarlet and the EPIC-S? Will Sony have all the specs out for the FS100 and some units to play with? Where is Birger Engineering in their development on a EF to E-mount adapter for Canon lenses on the Sony PMW-F3? Ninja or Samurai? NanoFlash or AJA Ki Pro Mini?... House payment or GEAR!!!! (wait. I think I've gone too far =)

So here's what's been going through my head for the last several weeks:

What's the best camera for the work I do and can it last me for the next 5 years? (5 years??) What it needs to have:

• 10bit HD-SDI and/or HDMI 4:2:2 uncompressed output - Clean
  
• Card based recording system that is or can be adapted to SDHC form factor cards
• APS-C or larger sensor - S35 or FF35
  
• XLR audio and proper controls with LINE and MIC input level choices
• Timecode IN (and out)
• Good headphone monitoring
  
• Oh yeah... interchangeable lenses =)

Things that would be nice:

• ENG / EFP Servo ZOOM lens
  
• ND stages
• Picture profiles and the ability to store them and load to other cameras
• Edit ready format to drop right into my NLE and grading
  
• Composite video output for fast attaching to Steadicams and the like
• SSD storage options

Of course this list could go on for days. But lets look at the top contenders for under $20K

• Sony PMW-F3
• RED EPIC-S
• Canon projected FF35 HD camera???
• Sony NEX-FS100
• Panasonic AF-100

...And yes I did rate them according to their estimated MSRP =) All of the cameras should be able to be configured sub 20K but you can accessorize them to your heart's content.

I have widdled it down like this for me:

• I have an EX3, a LETUS extreme, a 5Dmk2 with nice lens kit and accessories.
  
• I use a 17" JVC HD-SDI monitor for my clients on-set.
  
• I use a Marshall 7" HD-SDI monitor on the camera for me.
  
• Shallow DoF is starting to become more prevalent with my clients and their projects.
• Most are editing on Final Cut Pro (FCP) but are not willing to spend a lot of time converting or syncing.
• Apple is going to SDHC slots and cards

UPDATE: Apple is releasing FCP-X WOO HOOOO!!! To use this year's catch phrase "Game Changer"!!! If all works as it should the new ingest (or lack of need to) path for FCP will help with a lot of these concerns. DSLRs up to the RED will supposedly work - straight in - Yeah!!!

For a brief moment I thought I had it figured out... Nope. I'm leaning towards the Sony offerings but ... I don't know. If the economy picks up a little more and the projects start coming in on a regular basis again, I think I am heavily considering the Sony F3. The S-Log feature and the familiarity is just a really good thing. WIth my EX3 as a second unit I can get away with a lot on 2 camera stacked shots that will be finishing in HD. And I have a few colleagues that have or are considering the F3 so there would be a pool of F3's to dip into if needed.

The other factor that is starting to creep into the equation is the deliverables. Great tools like the Cinedeck, Convergent Design's Gemini 4:4:4, AJA KI Pro and KI Pro Mini and the offerings from Atomos - Ninja and Samurai. These all allow us to extent the life of our current cameras and bring new tricks to our future projects.

Check back soon. I will have a whole new spin on this - I'm sure =)

Until next time, good shooting,

TDTrey.com

F3 Day(s)-Day 2

OK. So we decided to do some more testing with the F3 before we started shooting for realliezzz. We had a bit of a camera party / geek fest at my house and grouped my EX3, 5Dmk2, my buddy's 7D's and the F3. It was quite a mess =) We also added the Steadicam into the mix to see which cameras would fit and stay balanced.

First off we wanted to compare the F3 and the 7D since they are almost the same in sensor size. The FoV was very close. A 35mm lens on the 7D was just about the same as the F3 with the Sony 35mm prime attached. The F3 of course was more sensitive over all but the 7D held up pretty well in overall image. Of course you can't really do apples to apples as you have all the monitoring options you would ever want on the F3 and are kind of limited to putting together an HDMI array with splitters and Black Magic Designs converter boxes for the 7D.

Comparing the F3 to my EX3, the functionality was really almost the same. The F3 felt a lot like running my EX3 (with out a zoom rocker...). The menus and adjustments all worked similarly. The audio was the same work flow. And there are a ton of shortcut buttons on the F3...

I have a Hawk-Woods V-mount power plate I use with my 5D rig and found I can make that work with the F3 just fine. It allows me use a V-mount brick to power all sorts of goodies on the rig (it has 5 D-Tap outs). So, one D-Tap to 4-pin cable and I'm all set. I have an IDX adapter for my EX3 and use the same V-mount bricks on it. I like the B4B bricks, they have a nice long life and are pretty ruggedly built. I adapted my JVC - 17" HD monitor to use the same bricks as well. Basically everything that needs battery power in my rigs now run off the V-mount batts.

With the Steadicam, all of the cameras worked. I had to strip the F3 down quite a bit - no matte box, no follow focus - but it work =) This Steadicam is set for 5 to 20 lbs. We came in at about 16 lbs all rigged. The EX3 and the Canons worked very nicely on the Steadicam. I almost had to ad a little weight to the lighter configurations to balance out...

Well that's about it for now. I'll have more to report after a couple of real shooting days with the F3. I'm looking forward to a potential project we have coming up where there will be a mix of EX3's and F3's on location - I want to see how well they play together on the same set.

TDTrey.com

Sony PMW-F3 and Corporate Video or: how I took the primes and learned to love the zoom

At least our first outing with the F3 didn't bomb... The following is a quick recap of our experiences with the F3 during a typical corporate interview project.

Quite a bit different from the gorgeous sunrise / sunset, stage footage that seems to be popping up all over the web showing off the fantastic capabilities of the new F3; a straight ahead corporate shoot has a unique set of challenges and potential pitfalls. Granted you are not hiking into the back areas of Yellow Stone or running a 30 person set with all the trimmings - but you are usually tied to certain time constraints and have some limited space and lighting control. All that being said I think we can read into this post with the right mind set =)

The F3 operates a lot like it's EX brethren. Most of the same menu functions and settings apply. For instance, the audio knobs are in a different place and I had to remind myself to stop looking the the "Internal / External" mic switch. It's back to old-school plug in the mics you want to use. We were running with one wireless for the day and decided to send the feed to both channels 1 & 2 and keep channel 2 at -6dB as a safety. Same as an EX1 or 3 to set up. I put the Sennheiser EW100 at 0dB AF output and ran the transmitter at -20dB sensitivity. At the end of the day I wish I would have run the transmitter at -30dB - our last interview had a booming voice at times and I got a little close on channel 1 to the red...

OK, a little more about this title (aside from the obvious Dr. Strangelove homage). We had our full set of Sony primes: 35mm, 50mm and 85mm with us but I wanted to run with the RED 18-50 all day. I felt the zoom would keep us moving fast and on schedule. The crop factor on the F3 is almost identical to the 7D (see my F3 Days-Day 2 post) so the 18-50 was more like a 28-80mm focal length. We decided to buy the RED as it does talk to the F3 through the cook contacts and is fairly reasonable in price -- all things considered -- for a PL zoom. It looks quite nice. Outdoors we use it at a ƒ2.8/4 split with both NDs kicked in. When we moved inside we ran WFO at ƒ2.8 and adjusted our key to match. Interestingly a little soft... I had to use the "Expand Focus" a lot to nail the eyes. I had the peaking set and was getting good readings but when you looked at the feed on my JVC 17" HD monitor it "just looked soft". In retrospect I think WFO is not the best choice for this (or any) lens... I should have run a little closer to 4 and played my 1/3 - 2/3 ratio a little more to shallow the DoF. We got a nice look though =)

Another thing we noticed, from a mechanical stand point, is our matte box from our EX3's is just a bit small for the shade on the RED 18-50 to fit through... saw a little vignetting. We made the decision to just push through the vignetting at 20mm - it was real close - no biggy. I'm talking to the manufacturer about a backmount flange replacement to solve this. Just the kind of things you find as you are going through... The matte box opening is 100mm and the shade is 114... Oops - my bad.

I set up the camera with the RedRock rails and support base. The sliding plate makes balancing a breeze. I have these plates and receivers on all my cameras and tripods. Sachtler plate $85 - Manfrotto 357 plate system $49, additional plates $27 -- Duh =) This system works great with our matte box and RedRock v2 follow focus. We put an ARRI focus ring on the EX3's. It's nice all the PL lenses have the proper .8 focus rings/gears built in.

The HUD in the monitor is very informative just like the EX1 and 3. I use the dual zebras and peaking a lot. The histogram is handy depending on wardrobe. Audio levels metering is so nice after spending time this year working with my 5D+Zoom - I can see the levels through the picture and never have to look away at the Zoom. As I said, the RED lens talks to the camera so the aperture, zoom and focus distance displays all work - Cool.

Coming into the home stretch... Using the F3 with the 17" HD client monitor was great - both for composition and focus watch dogs... The hardest thing about transitioning from the EX1's and 3's and other ENG cameras to the shallow DoF rigs is the tendency to still just "wing it". You can do that with an ENG rig in running and gunning mode but with a 5D or F3 or any of the shallow DoF cameras it's a challenge. I often have to "retrain" the producers I am working with to not just say "grab the camera and lets go... Oh by the way, I need this shot to be really shallow and sexy" - while we run along side a person moving through a back-lit office setting... It's back to basics: good blocking + good rehearsal = good focus.

Well, thanks for checking out another TD Blog. Looking forward to the next time,

TDTrey.com

Sony PMW-F3 Day(s)

Well, it arrived... No, not mine... But still very cool =)

One of the companies I work with received their new F3 last Friday so we made a day of it. John Denlinger, Blackstone Media Group, Irvine, CA got one of the first F3's being shipped. We did some menu tests and lens tests - he got the Sony Primes with the F3. - We also did some ambient lighting test - Wow. The camera worked very well. We added the Marvelsfilm picture profile settings to one of the open profiles. (we used the EX3 settings as they were very close to the F3 profile layout and there isn't a dedicated F3 version yet) With the Marvel profile you loose about a 1.5 stops -but it's very worth it for the latitude you gain - at least until the new firmware update comes out.

Then this week we were lucky enough to catch up with Brad Hagen and Alan Thornton at Video Resources in Orange County to try out their set of RED Primes and Zooms. Good news -- the lenses and camera talk!!! We used the Type C lens protocol in the F3 and got full iris info and then on the zooms the focal lengths were translated into the familiar Sony 00 to 99 Zoom measurement.

The look of the image bokeh and fall off is about equal to that of a Canon 7d. The image clarity is outstanding. For the most part, I think this camera, when the ENG style zoom lenses arrive will have a very strong foothold in the professional and corporate markets. The use of PL zooms makes setting your shots as fast as working with an EX3 or other ENG / EFP camera. The benefits of the F3 over the EX3 in sensitivity, lensing and ultimately output formats is definitely clear. Now we just have to wait for Birger Engineering to catch up to the F3 for using Canon EF lenses =)

Until next time,

TDTrey.com