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DoF converter Lens Choices
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John,
Another DP friend of mine had suggested this on another project a while back. Does it give you greater control of DoF as well??
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
[Chris Blair] “…although I’ve never been a fan of the original Magic Bullet stuff.”
Yeah, me either… I completely agree. I was never a fan of MB or frankly any of the film simulation software or plugins. More of an anti-fan, actually. Painfully slow and less-than-great results. In the pre-24p days we always did our own (which we called FauxFilm®) by using a bunch of little tricks that much more closely emulated the filmstocks I liked and did a much more pleasant 3:2 pulldown than any of commercially available voodoo.
However… I was fairly impressed by what this latest batch of Magic Bullet stuff will do. I’d still never use it to add a pulldown, but some of the things this suite will do (including the DoF simulation) look pretty cool. I’ll keep you posted.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Chris,
One must resort to the more traditional methods of controlling depth of field with lenses designed for 2/3″ imager cameras when used on 2/3″ cameras (like the SDX900); namely shooting with iris wide open, staging action fairly close to the camera and having as much depth as possible behind the subject. While it may take a little care and consideration it is not impossible to create shots with nice “fuzzy” backgrounds that draw your attention to the foreground subject.
Using the highest quality lenses, like those I’ve recommended, additionally have the effect of making the foreground subject as sharp as possible and enhancing the contrast between a sharp foreground and a soft background.
JS
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Todd,
We’ve booked a P+S Technik adaptor with a set of Zeiss superspeed primes, clip-on sunshade and follow-focus for our shoot. Got it from a rental place in Cincy and we’re going to drive up to get a tutorial on the install and use prior to shoot.
I got 4 quotes and all were within $300 of each other, so at least rental places agree on the pricing for it..and they all do 3 day weeks….so it’s not really that bad price wise.
I’m very excited about using it. I’m assuming you have to shoot 16:9 with the SDX-900 due to the lenses? Is that correct? The SDX-900’s chips are 16:9 native and stuff looks better using that anyway.
Thanks
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
Great, Chris… I think you will be happy with that setup.
As for 4:3 vs. 16:9… I dunno. I’ve never used the SDX-900. You are free to shoot whatever it will, and whatever your project requires. I freely swap between 4:3 SD and 16:9 HD depending on the project needs, and I use very similar primes. That’s got nothing to do with the lenses or adapter, and everything to do with the camera. The lenses and adapter will readily do either.
One word of warning: be careful with that setup or you will definitely get hooked once you see the images… and unfortunately that converter is not cheap (about $26,000) and those lenses probably a heckuva lot more than that. That’s exactly how I got sucked in… ha. Never looked back though, it’s great.
Happy shooting, tell us how it goes.. and post some frames if you get a chance.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Oh I’ve wanted one since it came out (2002 was it?). I’ve actually seen some used Pro35s for around $10,000.
We’re probably going to have to get an HD camera next year and I’ll probably go for a 1/3″ with the Pro35mini. You can get entire packages at Zacuto for around $31,000.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
Yeah, pretty much…
The Mini35 actually came out first, P+S Technik debuted it in early 2001. I belive the Pro35 came out later that year, or maybe early next.
A Pro35 for $10K???… never seen a deal like that, but if you do… snap it up. That might be one of the older models that doesn’t have infinitely variable speeds and a few other improvements.
Interestingly the Mini35 (the one I use, for 1/3″ cameras) comes in about about $11,000… while the Pro35 (for 2/3″) is $26,000. BUT… the one they have specficially for the Sony EX3 is $20,000, yet it’s still a Pro35 with just a different relay lens specifically for the EX3. I think that probably shows there’s a lot of fat (i.e., profit) in the Pro35… they do sell it for a lot more to the big-camera shooters pretty much because they can (like so much of the high-end equipment in our biz).
Still, at Rolls Royce prices I have always found everything from P+S Technik to be worth every penny (although I know that I will never be able to justify their $30K snorkle lens relay… although one can dream).
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Hi Todd,
Did you have a chance to test the Magic Bullet product? Which suite is it?Thanks!
Mark D’Agostino
http://www.synergeticproductions.com -
Hi Mark…
Yes, just a little…
I believe it’s Magic Bullet Suite 2.0… It contains five plug-ins… Colorista, Looks, Steady, Frames, and some kind of HD upscaler whose name escapes me at the moment.
I haven’t had call to use any of its “fake DoF” effects yet. I really don’t have much need for that since I almost always shoot with a Mini35 and get shallow DoFs when I want them anyway… but some of the other stuff (particularly “Looks”) is pretty darn good. It’s hard to describe in a short post what all it does, but bascially it allows you to manipulate an image the way you would in both the shooting and post stages… but putting different “filters” in the camera’s “virtual matte box,” or by changing the virtual film stock, film processing effects (such as bleach bypass), and post production stuff like fairly robust color grading.
Red Giant has a good tutorial on their website that shows a bunch of the features.
On the upside, I’d say that it looks really great. I’m using it in Adobe CS3. In Premiere it works great in STANDARD def. Not so much in high-def (which I think may be an issue with my Matrox AXIO machine). In After Effects it works fine. I will say that it is a little bit sluggish on the rendering side. I use a smokin’ fast machine, but the rendering is still a little slow for my taste. I’m spoiled though, usually I don’t have to render anything so maybe it seems slower than it is.
It is definitely worth downloading their demo version for a test drive.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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