Danny Grizzle
Forum Replies Created
-
BTW – one limitation is low light. Auto focus is good while recording. There are a lot of pro reviews of the HX9V on Vimeo.
-
I know this is not what you were looking for, but I just bought a Sony HX9V for $319, and I think it is the best money I have ever spent. I splurged an extra $12 and added a “hand tripod” — aka a pistol grip because the camera is so tiny. $6 additional for an extra Zacuto glue on frame, and now my Zacuto finder fits perfect. The video off this thing is too good to be true. With an excellent lens and image stabilizer, most people would have no need for a Steadicam type rig. And yes, the HX9V works great on a mic boom pole. I adapted mine to a Rode boom pole using a $12 Giotos ball head. The smallest ballnhead made, and plenty sturdy enough. Finally, I added a Manfrotto Magic Arm w/camera mount, used to hold my SmallHD monitor, which works great cabled via HDMI while operating the HX9V on the mic pole. Fantastic rig – highly recommended in both handheld and pole mount configurations.
-
Playing with bokeh. Not a fair evaluation of iris symmetry, because in this photo made in a commercial showroom, the overhead quartz track lighting was at random angles. Direct visual check of iris looking through lens, everything looked good at large f/stops, the main region of interest. At smaller apertures, individual blades of diaphragm have a slight variance from perfect closing uniformity.
-
Samples from the Rokinon 85mm f/1.4 @ f/2.0:
The plane of focus is somewhere near the tip of his left index finger. The near side of wedding ring looks sharper than the far side!
-
They come in Nikon, Canon, Sony/Minolta, Pentax, maybe others. These are fixed mounts, not adapters. I believe the focus direction is correct for each brand. And I think there is a Nikon variant, at extra cost, which includes a chip for EXIF and aperture data.
I found Rokinon at Amazon.com, and Bower at B&H.
-
re: “If I were to go for the t3i, I’d feel stupid not throwing an extra hundred in for the 60D.”
Amen to that. I bought a T3i without researching, then scrapped that plan and bought a 60D. There is no comparison for all the reasons others in this thread have noted, plus I will add the interface on the Rebel series will simply torture you for video use. The settings you need to use constantly are buried in an interface designed for amateurs who don’t know what f-stop and shutter speed are, much less ISO and white balance.
The 60D is a sweet little camera.
BTW – I bought my 60D at Sam’s Club (aka Walmart). It came with an 18-135mm image stabilized kit lens for $1,100. I love this little lens, but it is slow (f/4 – f/5.6) and thus better suited to stills than video. Definitely worth owning, considering it is only $100 or so above the body only price, and it retails everywhere for about $400 — and in my estimation, worth it.
-
No, I am saying lenses that hold focus while focal length is changed. In other words, something you can zoom during a take, and focus holds, even at large aperture w/shallow depth of field.
-
If you consider Canon, go for the 60D instead of the T2i or T3i. I bought a T3i, but had major regrets. So much so, I bought a 60D afterwards. A lot of people will tell you the 60D is as good or better than the 7D, a camera that costs at least twice as much. They have the same sensor, and the 60D is a newer design with some real nice features like a flip out screen. The T2i and T3i, on the other hand, are from the entry-level Rebel series, and all controls and screen menus are amateur oriented, hiding things you need constantly when shooting video. For instance, the T3i will absolutely torture you to manually set white balance, and it completely lacks intermediate ISO settings that are extremely useful.
Sam’s Club (yeah, Walmart) is selling the 60D for $1,100 with an EFS 18-135mm image stabilized lens. This little lens is about as good as it gets with kit lenses, though it is slow. And considering the lens alone sells for $410 at Amazon.com, you could say the 60D body only costs $700(!).
BTW – the EFS 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS UD is such a nice lens, and such a perfect match for the 60D, it is one of the few kit lenses that would be worth purchasing separately.
You may want a faster lens for shallow depth of field. You can add a 50mm f/1.8 prime for $100. This is equivalent to a short telephoto, 85mm or so, when used on a crop frame camera like the 60D. 50mm is a good focal length for interviews and shallow DOF on crop sensor cameras like the 60D. However, if you are concerned about bokeh, you need to spend $400 for the 50mm f/1.4 because it uses an 8 blade iris instead of the 5 blades present in the f/1.8. This means out of focus light blooms will be rendered as circles instead of little pentagons. The little 50 f/1.8 is built cheap from plastic, but it delivers respectable optical quality. The 50mm f/1.4 is much better build quality.
That’s a start. You will need some sort of tripod, and Manfrotto is the entry point. And you will need a decent mic like the Rode Video Mic Pro, and preferably a separate audio recorder – there are dozens on the market starting around $100. I personally favor Tascam after a lot of bad luck with Zoom products. The Rode micro boom pole is an excellent match for the Video Mic Pro, but be sure to get Rode’s mic cable extension. You can build a sweet little audio package for not much money — don’t neglect audio.
These things are the bare minimum. Depending on your plans, you will need other stuff. The 60D display is not adequate for use outdoors, for instance. Hoodman makes a relatively inexpensive viewfinder, around $100.
Good luck!
-
This is a very cool idea, and very impressive video. I didn’t quite lock onto what you were saying about HDMI compatibility with the SmallHD monitor, but you seem to be saying that either the camera does not output to HDMI during video recording at some format and resolution settings, or else the DP6 does not accept the camera’s output for all settings. I’d be interested to know more about your rigging – how are you attaching the camera monitor to the boom pole?
-
I’ve decided to purchase a Vinten Vision blue. It looks to be a beautiful, precision tripod, in contrast to my pile of Manfrotto gear.
Here’s the thing: anybody who has operated camera more than a day or two knows about the problem of backlash with video heads — once you release pressure on the pan bar, the shot rebounds slightly. It ruins shots, and makes super human demands on the operator’s muscles. Some operators have neat tricks using rubber bands to isolate the pan bar from their body, and also the elasticity of the rubber band adds a natural ramp up and ramp down action on moves. These work best on straight pans, much less so on tilts.
What sold me on the Vision blue is the tilt mechanism has a feature known as “Perfect Balance”. Basically, this allows the operator to precision calibrate the counterbalance spring so that tilts do not backlash. This is a precision adjustment, depending on weight and center of gravity of the load.
FYI – researching this over the past few days, I found that Libec (Japanese) RS-series tripods also have a perfect balance feature. My preference is the Vinten for typical HDSLR rigs, but the Libec RS-450 may be a better choice for heavier HDSLR rigs which include follow focus, monitors, big lenses, and matte boxes.
For instance: My Canon 5D Mk II w/ Canon 70-200mm, iDC System One follow focus, a SmallHD DP6, and Redrock Micro Matte Box is too heavy for the Vinten Vision blue. Currently, I have it on a Gitzo G1380 Fluide head, something originally purchased for a shoulder mount broadcast camera.
Both the Vinten Vision blue and the Libec RS-450M are about $1,200, not the $3,000 – $5,000 something in this grade cost only a year or two ago. I think the Vision blue is very reasonably priced.
One video on the Vinten website hit a chord with me — the futility of using stiff drag settings to compensate for incorrect balance on the fluid head. Another huge problem with HDSLRs is interchangeable lenses. It is frustrating to me that I have to tear the Gitzo head apart and change springs inside every time I want to change lenses, if there is a substantial weight discrepency. This is not acceptable, with the practical limitation that, during production, I am locked into using a single lens.
Many people believe the tripod is the most important piece of gear after the camera and lens. I’ve shot with a lot of tripods, and suffered through a lot. I’m really looking forward to the Vision blue because it brings some very high end performance down to a very attractive price point that is perfect for quality HDSLR work. If the Perfect Balance system delivers as advertised, it may persuade me to upgrade the tripods for all the cameras in my package. Cheap tripods have been a weak link in my system.