David Braman
Forum Replies Created
-
If the house lights are flos, you could find out what type they use, and stick those in a kino and key the talent that way (they can probably give them to you from the supply they keep in stock). You could even put the kino on some cardboard, tie some rope around the stand and have a grip pull it to keep up with your skater(s) if they aren’t going too fast or far (oh the joys of a frictionless environment) When shooting closeups, you could put your talent under a 6×6 (or 12×12 if you have one) That would knock out the ugly top light and let you key work some magic.
-
the Divas and Flowlights use tubes that have four connecting pins on one end (I suppose that’s part of being dimable,) as opposed to the standard fluorescent tube which has 2 connecting pins on each side.
Check out the difference on KinoFlo site.
https://www.kinoflo.com/Kino%20Flo%20lamps/True%20Match/True%20Match.htm
-
Yes, the 4′ x 4 tube unit gives a very broad, soft light. It looks like the Coollights also use the same “4 pin at one end” tubes (forgive my non-technical nomenclature) that the Divas and FloLights use; and won’t give you that field adaptability.
-
I’ve used the FloLights. Not a fan. First I like the 4′ units. Nice and soft. Also you can’t retube them with the available tubes at the location your shooting in (a real help sometimes). Which brings me to the cost issue, you mention the Divas; these can’t be retubed with existing units either since they’re dimable. But the old school units can be retubed and cost pleasantly less. Granted you can’t dim them, but between switching of tubes and throwing up a single or double and you get a lot of adjustability.
-
If you’re shooting film…you’re stuck. BUT if you’re shooting video you could get a 1/3″ chip HD camera (like the Panasonic 300) and slap you fast lens on that. Those small chip cameras have depth of field that you can not put out. There’s a whole industry built around trying to shallow those puppies out.
-
Thought it might. What about Super 16?
-
I’ve used that lens in pretty low light conditions (doctors were viewing projected radiology images…so the room was minimally illuminated by overhead tungsten can lights). I had to bump the gain quite a bit, but the camera is amazingly clean at high gain…even in the deep shadows. If the context of what your shooting is documentary in nature, you should be more than good.
-
In my experience, all the DSLRs have some limitations. Most of these have work arounds that require extra equipment and/or modifications. The biggest revolve around the view screen. It’s fine for compositional purposes, but for accurate focusing, you’re going to need at least an eye piece extender/magnifier. Audio is also a problem. You can plug an external mic into most of them, but you have no control…it’s all auto gain. There is a hack for the T21 that will allow you to defeat the auto gain (even display meters). But otherwise, if audio is important, you’re into running double system sound (PluralEyes is a nice application that will make easy work of syncing up in the edit)
I’ve come to the conclusion that the whole DSLR thing is nice, but it’s no magic bullet. If you’re really serious about your production, you’re going to have to spend more money (not to mention time in location setup). But the T2i does take nice video. You do have the 12 minute recording limit, which might be a problem for you.
-
Yea, that’s kind of what I’ve been doing. A real pain…especially when you factor in not being able to adjust aperture in live view either. Definitely not a “Run ‘n Gun” camera.
-
I’ve worked with both the Canon T2i and the Nikon 7000 and I’ll put my chips down on Canon…easily. Besides no 1080 30p (I don’t buy the 24p cool-aid) you can’t change the aperture on the Nikon in movie mode (you have to switch over to the eye piece). Plus the view screen is almost a full stop darker than what is actually recorded. I’m not sure what Nikon’s thinking is on not allowing you to adjust aperture in Live/Movie mode, but it really makes life in the field a very cumbersome outing.