[Danny Grizzle]

Thanks to the link to the Adam Wilt piece — he is always worth a read. That said, I only scanned the article for now, not seeing anything authoritative far as resolution tests, which is what these filters get dinged for in a lot of comments, especially when used with telephoto lenses.

Light Craft Workshop is partly to blame for my loss of confidence because they have introduced a new high end series, which would seem to indicate their own products, which I am currently using, needed a fix.

My concern with the Mosaic Engineering filter is the same. One of their marketing videos, or one by the Glenn Przyborski, who was an early adopter, there is a CG super over some of the footage indicating 700 lines of resolution. Well, that doesn’t sound so great unless he is referring to line pairs or whatever — not 1080p.

Totally anecdotal report, but I’ve got 4 Light Craft Workshop Fader ND Mk II filters, and I am reasonably pleased with my footage. I understand the dangers present at the extreme limits of density, and I try to avoid them. I really wish there were hard stops because it is very difficult to quickly reset these filters to minimum density for purposes of focus or changing shots or camera positions. So many times, the camera setup makes getting an eye on the filter to align the minimum marks almost impossible.

My Mosiac Engineering filter has just been delivered. I have not yet inserted it into the camera, much less done any testing.

I am considering purchase of a Tiffen Variable ND for testing purposes. Even though I am not unhappy with the Light Craft Workshop filters, it would be reassuring to know I am getting the most quality possible out of my 5D Mk II.

BTW – I have purchased thousands of dollars with of expensive European filters, and my experience with neutral density is that Tiffen is more neutral, and a certain big European brand costing over twice as much has a pronounced color cast. Not that the principle of operation in variable ND is the same, but fact remains I have never been disappointed in a Tiffen filter, so that bit of brand loyalty has made them my candidate to challenge Light Craft Workshop since I can’t justify buying one of everything to do a comprehensive test.

[Danny Grizzle]

I’m going to be shooting tons of interviews this year.

I don’t think lens choice is too critical, though I will note that the 50mm on a crop sensor is more like an 85mm on a full frame camera. Lens choice may be dictated by location. Tight interiors, you may need a shorter lens. Also style, whether you are going for a talking head or what. It would be best if there were at least 2 cameras. That’s my plan.

Here is a really neat video about a terrific, though technically involved interview technique:

https://vimeo.com/34642325

Den Lennie’s F-Stop Academy just published a paid course on shooting interviews. He claims this information is derived from his work with the BBC, which should be a very high standard:

https://www.fstopacademy.com/products-2/learn-how-to-shoot-great-looking-interviews-programme/

I haven’t done the interview course, but I am considering it.

I’m going to be using iPad based teleprompters on some occasions. Here’s the one I bought:

https://www.bodelin.com/proprompter/

How’s that for topic drift? Now back to the immediate discussion, lighting. I’ve always worked with hot lights, but I recently decided to break with the Lowels, mainly because I needed some daylight sources as an option. But the daylight sources are cool and turn out to be terrific for interviews.

My first foray into daylight lighting was a Photoflex Constellation with daylight Flourescent bulbs.

See it at the Photoflex website.

This is a fair fixture, but it quickly gets very involved rigging light boxes, stands, and shot bags. Fine on major productions when you have high ceilings and need a large coverage area. Although Photoflex provides excellent shipping cases for the flourescent bulbs, they bulbs themselves are fragile and expensive.

My new go-to interview light is a cheap LED fixture by ePhoto purchased off Amazon for $350. Specifically, I got the 600 LED fixture with Sony V Mount. This is because I have an old Sony broadcast camera and lots of V-mount batteries already, and they are still in good shape.

This LED fixture turns out to be a great source, inexpensive, relatively rugged, very lightweight, and quick to rig. In particular, it is nearly instant to rig for an ad hoc interview if you battery power. I did a test with my Sony Lithium Ion batteries, which are not the larger models, and the panel will go 2 or 3 hours on battery power. This opens up a lot of possibilities for interviews in places where reflectors were previously the only option.

ePhoto 600 LED V-mount Light

I went ahead and got the case and the stand. None of this stuff is top tier pro quality equal to my Lowels, but it is professionally servicable, and I have a lot more confidence in it than some stuff I have seen. In other words, it is not junk. BTW – Amazon is currently sold out of this fixture, and anybody who orders after reading this is in line after me because I have already placed an order for a second light.

I also bought an LED ring light from Amazon, which is fairly simple to battery power also. Not so certain this will be a regular part of my interview kit. If nothing else, I can rig it as a kicker.

Just yesterday, I received 8 daylight florescent bulbs from Alzo, purchased from Amazon. I haven’t tried them yet. The intention is to relamp practical fixtures, since a lot of my interviews are done in architectural interiors where the location is a very important component of the interview. I just grabbed the link for the Alzo website. Didn’t realize until just now that this company has a photographic focus. I am not familiar with any of their products – my purchase at Amazon was simply based on daylight balanced bulbs with an Edison base.

https://www.alzovideo.com/

Back to lenses: There are a lot of good options for interviews. I’ve got a lot of lenses. Wish I could buy a set of Zeiss CP.2s, but that is not going to happen. In fact, the Zeiss ZE/ZF still versions are not going to happen. Even though they duplicate focal lengths I already own in Canon glass, I have recently been purchasing Samyang / Rokinon lenses because I simply did not have any super speeds, and because they are really nice lenses for video work. Currently I have the 85mm f/1.4 ($300) and the 35mm f/1.4 ($500). The 24mm f/1.4 is just now becoming available, and I will probably purchase it as well, though the price is definitely creeping up ($800) to the point this is not an impulse purchase.

https://www.rokinon.com/

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[Danny Grizzle]

I’ve got the 70-200 f/2.8 IS, original not the newer series II. I use it primarily on a 5D Mk II, but I also have a 60D and I’ve been meaning to test it with 1:1 pixel mode for maximum telephoto.

One thing: Image stabilization is great, but far from silent. Do not expect to get usable audio from any camera mounted mic while the IS is engaged.

[Danny Grizzle]

Short of giving you my logon at B&H Photo, this is as specific as I am going to get:

Sennheiser Evolution G3 100 Series – Wireless Microphone Combo (B / 626 – 668MHz)

List price today: $799.95

Actual selling price today at B&H: $784.95*

Actual selling price Monday of this week at B&H: $679.96

The $50 off mail in Sennheiser rebate can be seen at this link.

It is bad form bordering on dishonesty to induce sales by covering up a big price increase with a fake discount. It can also be illegal. This despite any verbiage on the rebate coupon about “participating retailers.” If the retailer increases price to compensate for an advertised discount, that is fraud.

I happened to have two units of this item in my shopping cart and entered in a separate budget spreadsheet, or else I would not have caught the slight of hand price increase.

To be clean of the accusation I am making at Sennheiser, their company should not combine discounts and price increases in a concurrent time frame. And no retailer should be a party to raising prices simultaneous to participating in a manufacturer discount or rebate program.

* I would be greatly interested if anyone putting this specific wireless mic in a B&H shopping cart today got a different price, because that would indicate further dirty tricks in using a sophisticated eCommerce system to profile buyers and manipulate pricing based on an assessment of what a particular buyer might pay.

[Danny Grizzle]

I bought a Cinemover as a result of this post. Accumulating quite a collection of sliders at this point.

The Cinemover strikes me as more like a Kessler Shuttle Pod than a slider. But some aspects of the Cinemover, I like better. Price can’t be beat, and using a piece of dimensional lumber for track is a lot less expensive than paying $100 per linear foot of Shuttle Pod track (allowing for rails and legs on 12′ run).

Some aspects of Cinemover using a board for track are even better than the Shuttle Pod, because a board can be cantilevered over water or heights without supporting one end.

Since I am a huge fan of Kessler gear and already own a bunch of stuff including an Oracle controller and some motors, I’m going to order a Shuttle Pod motor adapter kit and see if I can’t rig it to the Cinemover. I was planning to buy a Shuttle Pod anyway next spring, so why not?

Thanks for the tip!

BTW – I bought a Cinemover LE, “Limited Edition.” It is a prototype design with upgraded bearings, machined knurled knobs replacing wingnuts, and extension rods to allow spanning much wider tracks. The major cosmetic difference is white wheels and rail parts. The LE is limited to 20 units only, first come first served. It bumps the cost up only about $10.

Got a notice late Wednesday night before Thanksgiving the product had shipped via US Post Office. I should have it in hand early next week.

[Danny Grizzle]

I’m not a lawyer, but I have spent 30+ years in advertising, including major retail clients.

On a few rare occasions, I have received letters from legal authorities warning of specific instances where ads I placed on behalf of my clients were challenged based on specific issues.

In general, it is illegal to increase a selling price in order to misrepresent a discount.

For instance, a retail store may not retag all $20 blue jeans to $25 and at the same time run an ad stating “$5 Off”.

This is exactly what appears to be happening with Sennheiser wireless microphones. First, they advertise a $50 mail in rebate, but they raise the retail price $100.

==========

There are a lot of games played at retail. Some are old school, others are new technology.

Old school methods — think brick and mortar like Sears, Kmart, Lowes, Home Depot, and Walmart — can do stunts like price guarantees – “We will meet or beat any price on this model” knowing that they have contractually bound consumer product manufacturers into creating custom model numbers and SKUs. It is not hard to claim “meet or beat” when you know for certain you have a unique item.

Going forward, I am highly suspect of current trends in profiling and electronic tracking. You see this at grocery stores with shopper rewards cards that must be swiped before the store will honor advertised pricing.

eCommerce has customer profiling built-in, as do membership wholesalers like Sam’s Club. I’m an Amazon Prime customer, and most everything I buy these days comes from Amazon. It is too easy because they sell everything on earth, it only takes a minute, and merchandise is delivered. When I switched from a broadcast camera to DSLR, I was amazed to find a Gitzo service kit at Amazon to respring my fluid head for the lighter load.

Even if you wipe browser cookies and avoid logging onto an account, I’m not sure that larger eCommerce vendors like Amazon cannot individually identify customers based on IP address localization, thanks to static broadband internet connections.

Profiling might not work to consumer advantage. Amazon already recognizes the patterns in my purchasing behavior well enough to send highly targeted offers. That’s fine. My concern is highly targeted pricing, because unlike a brick and mortar store, it is easy for Amazon to price merchandise on the fly in a customer-specific way. Amazon has a a proven power to recognize buyer behavior. Besides my preference to buy specific pro audio and video products, I’m sure they also calculate I am not likely to shop around much. It is all too easy and all too tempting for them to selectively price gouge.

I’m not saying they do this. But I have heard that Amazon.com pricing varies according to affiliate program. For instance, you may have seen buttons on some websites, “Please support this website by using these links to buy from Amazon.” Amazon has an affinity program whereby they promise to give a small commission for such referrals. Fine, so long as Amazon does not tack on an upcharge to pay the commission. The only real world instance of customers being charged extra for commission are situations where gratuities are expected and demanded, like restaurants. If I go on, I’ll start to sound like an “occupier” but it would be too easy for Amazon to promise affiliates a 2% commission, and wind up adding a 5% or 10% upcharge in pricing to cover “administrative” costs.

As always, buyer beware.

[Danny Grizzle]

For that budget, forget DSLR and buy a Sony DSC-HX9V for $300. That will leave you plenty of funds to buy memory chips, extra batteries, and accessories like a Barska grip, a Jobi Gorillapod Video Tripod, a Pico Dolly, and even a Rode Mic Boom Pole w/$12 Giottos ball head. Or, you may prefer to step up your audio with a Tascam DR-40.

This little inexpensive package can produce “wow” HD video, and even overcrank for slomo, something the DSLRs cannot do (at least not the Canon models I use). Plus the Barska grip will allow you to do highly credible handheld that rivals or surpasses a Steadicam. Even guys who already own a DSLR should put this at the top of their list as an extra tool in their kit.

I’ve got mine tricked out with a Zacuto Z-finder that cost more than the camera! Certainly not essential, but nice in sunlight. In my case, all it cost was $11 for an extra mounting frame because I already had the Z-finder. The glue on Z-finder frames fit the HX9V perfectly.

Don’t take my word for it. Search Vimeo and YouTube for information on this terrific little camera.

I’m so crazy about this camera, I’m planning to purchase a SmallHD DP4 monitor ($550) just to use the HX9V more effectively on a pole mount. It simply makes great shots that are otherwise impossible, and it is also very easy to simulate jib or crane work. I don’t know of any greater bang for the buck.

[Danny Grizzle]

Watch out for dirty deals.

There are a lot of very attractive bundles built around the Sony NEX-5.

Only the NEX-5 is no good for video. In fact, it is discontinued. The NEX-5n replacement is not being discounted, but it is essential for video.

Sennheiser announced a $50 rebate on an Evolution Wireless system I was about to buy from B&H Photo. I go back to my shopping cart, and the price has been increased almost exactly $100. So the “hot deal” requiring a mail in rebate is no discount at all, but rather a major price increase over what the item cost just 3 days ago. BTW – I think this is Sennheiser, not B&H because the price on Amazon increased also.

In general, a lot of the stuff at retail on black Friday is close outs and discontinued.

Watch your email. I am seeing more activity this year on industry gear and vendors.

One I am interested in is 10% off everything all day “Cyber Monday” at SmallHD.

[Danny Grizzle]

Canon EOS auto focus lenses can’t be used on anything except Canon, as a practical matter.

The 10 Canon FD lenses I plan to use on the Sony NEX-7 are my old breach mount manual focus lenses. They were all purchased in the 1970’s. Even though they are old, they are in perfect condition. I’ve spent decades with them, and I’m more sentimentally attached to them than any of my newer gear – although my set of EOS Tilt-Shift lenses come close. Something about auto focus I deeply distrust.

There is a fine line between speed / convenience and laziness / working sloppy. It is too easy, even for pros, to shoot some stuff in Program mode. Some of the stuff I shot in 1973, when I was a teenager with my first good camera (Canon TL-QL with a 50mm f/1.8 and a 135mm f/2.5) are better than what I was shooting 20 years later. I’ve been scanning my early chromes made at family reunions, for instance, and because I was deliberately working that 135mm wide open, they look great. Later on, I set the camera to Program mode when shooting “snapshots” of family — and looking back, I regret not working harder on the pictures that matter the most to me.

[Danny Grizzle]

BTW – I have a couple of GoPro cameras, and they are really a specialty item, far removed from anything you could use for principle photography.

Which brings up the limitations of the HX9V again. Don’t expect this to be a pro camera because it is not. It is a consumer point and shoot that you can trick into doing professional work. Lack of manual control is annoying, but doubly annoying is that exposure compensation resets to 0 every time the camera powers down, which is frequent due to aggressive automatic battery management. And the camera does tend to overexpose video, so I generally try to keep the EV compensation set to -2/3 stop. You have to keep on top of this while shooting, or you will get messed up footage that will cause problems in post and not intercut well.

The HX9V lens is worlds better than GoPro. But considering handheld is best done at wide angles, I am careful about composition, especially on tight shots, to keep heads away from the edge of the frame when at the widest focal length. Nobody appreciates having their head stretched out double width by a wide angle lens.

The HX9V’s amateur focus and menus and all the gratuitous onscreen Japanese interface clutter like scene modes is annoying, but certainly not a deal killer. This little camera will deliver great video footage.