Jeremy Wilker
Forum Replies Created
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DOH! of course. I probably shouldn’t ask questions when sleep deprived. That solution will work just fine for this, thanks a bunch for illuminating me!
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I did track it and it is greatly improved, but we (for various reasons) have to take a hand held clip and make it look like a tripod clip. the tracking is good, but it still drifts a bit around the screen. maybe I’m doing it wrong but it seems a second tracker would lock it down just right!
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Thanks, I didn’t find that when I searched the manual. Hmm… well, need another solution then!
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FWIW, MacBook Pro 15″ 2007 2.4 Ghz Core 2 Duo with 4 gigs of RAM and Final Cut Studio 3 is no problem for XDCAM EX, 720 AND 1080p. I get very smooth playback in my timeline and I’m usually using 7200 rpm drives over Firewire 800.
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I recently finished shooting an indie feature film with the EX3 and Letus Elite this past summer (now in editing) and I can tell you that you COULD get by without a mattebox if you had to and you COULD get by without a follow focus if you had to, but you CANNOT get by without the rails. Don’t even think about it.
DO think about getting the Elite so you can more easily adjust back focus or perhaps consider the RedRock or the Shoot35 adapters as well.
Also, be aware that that the Letus adapters produce vibrating noise! You will pick it up if your mics are too close to the camera (or your loose floorboards are resonating via your tripod legs — it actually happened in one location for us).
And do NOT rely on the EX1/EX3 handle to support the entire camera with adapter and rails attached. It is a heavy rig and I’ve heard horror stories about the handle cracking.
You can use various 35mm lenses, but if you don’t have the Ultimate or a spinning adapter you will need fast glass. Look for f1.2, f1.4, etc, up to f4. Anything over f4 on the Letus and you might be seeing grain no matter what you do. Spend the money on decent lenses!
Spend the money on decent lighting and sound. Spend the money on decent food for all the meals and snacks and coffee and energy drinks your crew will need. Spend the money on dual (or triple) hard drives for backups. You probably DO want the follow focus so have money for that. And if this is a real project (versus it being a hobby project) go out and get yourself a copy of Jon Reiss’ new book “Think Outside the Box Office” before you even shoot anything so you know what you are getting into with getting your film seen/bought/distributed.
(And seriously, spend the money on the food and drinks – it goes a LONG way). -
several months to update a memory card driver for compatibility?! right. and yet somehow the iPhone hackers can re-hack a new iPhone within 24 hours of it coming out… It seems painfully clear that intent and resources are really the issue. ok, so who knows some good coders we can put to the task? 😉
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I did film at 24 fps 1080p (sure, the Super8 stuff is grainy as heck, but it looks cool for the intended purpose). I had to switch over to a different projector after a bulb burned out and the timing/rolling effect was NOT the same. Close, but slightly noticeably different. I just had to play around with the ECS timing to find the best results. Maybe somebody more knowledgeable can step in here, but I would guess the frame rates are too close, not divisible to one another or something?
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I was doing something similar for some Super8 footage recently and what I found worked best for removing flicker/rolling artifacts was to dial the shutter up with the ECS settings rather than angle or speed. For 18 frame per second Super8, I found 3x was about right (ECS at 53.98 looked VERY smooth and clean). You might give this a try.
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Yes, you can zoom through. I’ve done it a few times in testing and it seemed to be just fine going from 77 to 99. Just keep a sharp eye on that focus, but I think you’ll find it is possible in many situations. Focus isn’t too bad, you can nail it in short order using the standard Sony viewfinder. I find that too much peaking “shows” me some of the ground glass in the Letus, but in viewing the footage in FCP or on a projector it looks just fine.
I’d love to do a side-by-side knock-down test of the Letus and the SG Blade and the new Red Rock. I feel like the SG Blade might actually be a heck of a value (can anybody else confirm or deny?) but knowing the fiddly bits of the Letus isn’t too hard the results are nice! -
The backfocus or lens collimation is necessary to make sure you’ve got the lens focusing the image exactly onto the ground glass. On the Extreme you would have to manually dismantle and adjust the rig to change it. Keep in mind that there are THREE focuses (foci?) that you have to work with on the Letus: the backfocus, the 35mm lens focus (the main one), and the EX3 focus. The backfocus locks in place and the EX3 focus can be taped down.
I did get the EX optimization kit and the Letus Rods v2, which I am really liking so far. Also keep in mind that this rig gets real heavy with the rods and the Letus on front. You won’t go handheld for too long! So in the doc world you might want to use just the EX3 for run/gun situations.
The bundle gets you all the pieces and parts: Elite, EX opti kit, rods v2, lens mount, plus a nice hard case (pelican?) with foam insert, which is very well done (although I’d have preferred a Storm case myself). The case includes five compartments for 35mm lenses, too. Nice.