[Jeff Walters]

Well I took your advise and bought the XA. Seems like a great lens – I really haven’t tried it out in the real world yet. Paul at Macie called it “sweet”… He needed to do some slight adjustments for CA and lens shading, but nothing out of the ordinary.

I don’t know where the extra bottom end came from. All I can think is that something was not right with my out-of-box setup. I was disappointed that it wouldn’t go as low as my SDX, but that is no longer an issue.

New toy: I wanted a higher-rez monitor than my Pana TC-7 that has focus assist, so I got a Marshall 651ST-HDMI. Only 6.5 inches, and even smaller 16×9, but the highest resolution and stunning picture – 1024×768 at $1600, and only 1.3lbs. Wanted HDMI so I could also use on my 7D. Trick was to power the AJA HD-SDI to HDMI converter box and mount. Velcro’d a power plate from Nebtek w/Pana DV battery to the back of Anton Bauer receiver box that stretches around the back of cam battery, and it works great – cam balance is fine. But a BIG rig! Clear the decks, I’m coming through!

[Jeff Walters]

I’m still in shock that one of these cameras will soon be arriving at my home. I blame it all on Dan! After
hearing that I love the IQ and form factor of the SDX900 that Jan Crittenden steered me towards back in 2003, he made it clear that I should go for the 2700, rather than a smaller camera.

Last night I visited the Panasonic site, and the price literally knocked me out of my chair. Deal done… and on top of that my 7D arrived today. Information overload!!! Learning how to make the 7D look correct plus P2 workflow from scratch will be keeping me occupied.

So thanks Jan for great results over the past six years, and Dan for what lay ahead.

[Jeff Walters]

Rotoscoping subject in FG, then applying flash filter is what I figured. To be honest, I’ve never rotoscoped – what program would be the quickest or most intuitive solution? Is there a dedicated roto-only program?