[Phil Balsdon]

Daisy chain the camera through the other FW port on the G Raid?

Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/

[Phil Balsdon]

Almost all PAL DVD players will play NTSC. If the DVD is not for commercial use an NTSC version may be acceptable to your client. Check to see if this is okay.

If not use a standards converter before exporting to DVD. Nattress has one https://www.nattress.com/Products/standardsconversion/standardsconversion.htm

Going to a professional standards conversion facility will give the best results but its expensive.

Set up your DVD project as PAL and proceed as normal. You won’t be able to check the burn in an external player unless you have a PAL player though.

Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/

[Phil Balsdon]

I’m having the same problem with FCP 6.0.6. on my MacBook Pro.

It works fine on my MacPro and FCP7, even when transferring the same files from the same drive that won’t work on the MacBook Pro with FCP6.

I’ve tried pretty much everything except upgrading the FCP 6.0.6 to FCP 7.

Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/

[Phil Balsdon]

If the SLR’s are so good that even George is switching, I wonder why NBC, CNN, Sky and 20 of the top networks wont touch them ? If the SLR’s are so good that even George is switching, I wonder why NBC, CNN, Sky and 20 of the top networks wont touch them ?

Perhaps some one told them;

Slr are ok for home movies of the kids in the garder, but arrive with one of those a news eng shoot and you will be sent home quicker than a pizza at a weight watchers convension.

Great thing about the worldwide web, everyone is free to say what they think.

Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/

[Phil Balsdon]

Lets get back to the original post. Charlie wants a shallow depth of field and is struggling to achieve the effect as extremely as he wants. He specified a Fujinon lens, I simply pointed out the problem is not the lens. There’s a limit to how shallow the depth field is achievable with the 1/3in format.

Three things impact on depth of field:

1. F stop, the larger the better for shallow depth of field. ie 1.8, 2, 2.8 are preferable to f16 or f11.

2. The focal length of the lens. The longer your focal length the shallower your apparent depth of field.

3. The size of the image plane. This goes hand in hand with focal length because on smaller image planes the apparent magnification is greater for the same focal length.

Getting your camera as far away from your subject as possible and zooming in, opening your f stop as wide as possible, adding some ND or a Polarizer is the only option. This is okay if you’re outside and have space but if you’re in a smaller room you are restricted. The other consequence is the perspective of the field of view. Moving away and zooming in will greatly magnify the background in relation to your foreground subject. If you want to see a complete panorama in the background and have it soft in focus you’re really struggling.

The range 35mm adaptors that appeared on the market following the introduction of the smaller HD cameras almost all work on the principle of introducing an intermediate larger 35mm format focus screen on to which an image using a 35mm camera lens is focused. This intermediate image is then re-shot using the cameras lens or a special intermediate lens. This system works well and is really popular for drama and commercial shooting, it is however a little cumbersome and requires skill and care. The better versions of these adaptors are also more expensive than purchasing a good HD SLR with a good lens or two.

Everything comes at a price and the sacrifices made to achieve HD images in smaller cheaper cameras was a smaller CCD, normally 1/3 inch. The forfeit is they’re less sensitive so in low light can be a struggle to get a good exposure and they don’t offer the same low depth of field images as their 2/3in or larger film format cameras.

I’ve been shooting with a JVC HD111e for almost five years and I love it, so do my clients. It speeds up shoots enormously and delivers a very high quality image. However more recently I’ve been shooting more and more with a 7D because producers want the filmic low depth of field “look” that’s easily achievable with this camera. The down sides are audio quality, but dual system recording overcomes this. Shot duration is restricted to 12mins, but this just requires a momentary button off then on again, during a question is good and the audio recorder is still rolling, so this moment can be covered with a reversal or a cutaway. For some events this is an unacceptable restriction, such as concerts or sporting events when you don’t want your vision to crash at a critical moment.

Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/

[Phil Balsdon]

Sounds wrong to me. The 5D should need way less light than smaller sensor on the HFS10.

Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/

[Phil Balsdon]

Re Audio:
I already owned a ZoomH4. The newer H4n seems to be everyones favourite. It’s light good quality sound etc. If I want it on camera I attach to the flash bracket with a Manfrotto ball mount. Always roll the sound before the camera (this is standard film shooting procedure). I use the DSLR slate app in my phone as back to any problems that I might have using PluralEyes in Final Cut Pro in post (not that I’ve had any).
Audio can be fed from the Line Out of the H4 with a cable and pad to the 7D audio in. If the sound recordist has the Zoom I use a Sennheiser radio mike to link the sound wirelessly with the receiver mounted on the camera or you can use a mike on the camera to record a guide track. (I already owned all this kit prior to buying the 7D).

Re lenses / depth of field:
I worked a lot of feature films and commercials as a steadicam operator, B camera op and second unit DoP. Mostly we shot at around f4. I figured that as the 7D is around the same size format it was fine. I’m not a fan of eyes in focus, nose and ears in soft focus. If I was cynical I’d accuse some people of claiming that if you don’t have a 5D your not good enough purely based on this depth of field argument. Until the 5D, super 35mm film format size was about as good as you could get until IMAX, 70mm etc. I actually think the audio, low light sensitivity and minimal better image quality of the 5D are more important factors.

The difference between your Sony and the 7D will be significant, I’ve really only tested it against my JVC HD111 (1/3 inch CCDs) and there’s no comparison. The 7D also seems have this better subtle tonal range thing about it when compared to other video formats.

Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/

[Phil Balsdon]

Advice in short from my 5D & 7D owner friend was “If you want the camera mainly for video buy the 7D, if you mainly want stills buy the 5D, but there’s something a little extra about the pics from the 5D”.

My decision was based on – I’ll start with the 7D to see how it goes, I’ll buy the appropriate lenses as the jobs require and if it really takes off I’ll buy a 5D too.

Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/

[Phil Balsdon]

Bronica to EOS adaptor
https://www.fotodiox.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=21_29_32

My Mamiya 55mm looks amazing at 2.8, I’ll putting some video online soon.

Re the 70-200 looks the one you pointed to is the older version, compare the specs, the new one is “improved” and shorter min focus distance. I turned down a discounted by Au$400 (20%) 16-35 the other day because it was the series 1 and Canon claim better specs, sharpness on the Mk2 version.

Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/

[Phil Balsdon]

Hi Jared,
I know what you mean about pricing, I went through all the decision processes myself recently.

What I ended up with, using advice from a cinematographer colleague who has a 5D and a 7D was this:

I already own a Canon 20D and Canon lenses from 10 to 500mm of various types, but not the L series lenses.
The 7D does some things better for video than the 5D (720p 50/60 is one that is really useful for slo mo)
The sensor on the 7D is about the same size as Super 35mm film, so pretty good for shallow depth of field anyway.
At a saving of around $1000 this enabled me to buy some other accessories. Viewfinder attachment and rails and base plate from Genus was my choice (I’m not a fan of elaborate gadgets, I prefer to keep it simple. This enabled me to use my old Arri Matte box and film filters.
I already had a Zoom H4 so the audio issues with the 7D weren’t a problem.

Finally I have a fair few Mamiya 645 lenses and Pentax SMC lenses from years ago, so I ordered adaptors from Fotodiox which work well in manual mode, not an issue for me, I never use auto settings for video. The 500mm Mamiya is especially good and the Mamiya adaptor was only about $80 the Pentax was only around $30. So if you have other quality lenses sitting around this is an economical way to get started.

There are a number of variations on the Canon 70-200 which hugely change the pricing, the IS (image stabilizer) function model being an expensive one to opt for, would you normally hand hold this? Or would you normally use the tripod?.

I must say though that after almost 40 years shooting on all types of video and film production, docos, features, ENG etc etc I am more inspired to go out and do things with this kit than I have been in years.

Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/