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Rick Wise
July 2, 2011 at 5:32 pm in reply to: FCPX Screams of pain

John, great analogy. The mystery remains: why oh why did FCP become ubiquitous and Vegas lives to this day in the margins?

I am guessing the answer lies with marketing, good on the part of Apple and lousy on the part of Sony. It’s similar to the triumph of VHS over beta. Betas was way better but lost the market to VHS.

It would be wonderful for we who use Vegas if Sony capitalized on the FCP mess, as Adobe is doing. (Adobe is offering 50% off Premium for both FCP and Avid Media Composer users.) But expecting Sony to seize this marketing advantage must be akin to waiting for pigs to fly. There are also platform issues (FCP entirely on Macs, though on my MacBook Pro I run Vegas in Bootcamp, no problemo.)

Rick Wise
director of photography
San Francisco Bay Area
part-time instructor lighting/camera
Academy of Art University/Film and Video (grad school)
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
Rick Wise
June 27, 2011 at 11:33 pm in reply to: Least expensive Mac for FCP X

Well, if your math is correct, editors are doomed to poverty. I suspect things won’t actually shake out this way. There will be the $15/hour jobs, but so what? In camera work, we have a similar situation, where lots of gigs pay next to nothing. They are all entry-level work, and great opportunities for the upcoming filmmaker. As one of the old timers who cut his teeth on actual film and loved it, I no longer can draw $3,500 to $4,000 a day to shoot commercials, and even high-end corporate has dropped. But not to the levels you describe. I suspect editors too will find spaces in between the old highs and the new lows.

Rick Wise
director of photography
San Francisco Bay Area
part-time instructor lighting/camera
Academy of Art University/Film and Video (grad school)
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
Rick Wise
June 27, 2011 at 8:59 pm in reply to: Least expensive Mac for FCP X

Thanks again, John. I will check refurbs. I don’t work for the gov., but I do work part time for a University and so qualify for educational discount — but they are very small. For the entry level iMac you save all of $50.

Rick Wise
director of photography
San Francisco Bay Area
part-time instructor lighting/camera
Academy of Art University/Film and Video (grad school)
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
Rick Wise
June 27, 2011 at 7:01 pm in reply to: Least expensive Mac for FCP X

Well, I finally found online Apple Chat (I’m a PC guy and totally unfamiliar with the Mac World.) It turns out that an entry-level iMac will work just fine with FCP X. Of course, the larger screen and faster processor would be so much better….

So for roughly the old cost of FCP, $1,500, you can now buy an iMac and the editing software.

Rick Wise
director of photography
San Francisco Bay Area
part-time instructor lighting/camera
Academy of Art University/Film and Video (grad school)
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
Rick Wise
June 27, 2011 at 6:39 pm in reply to: Least expensive Mac for FCP X

Thank you for answering my question!

Rick Wise
director of photography
San Francisco Bay Area
part-time instructor lighting/camera
Academy of Art University/Film and Video (grad school)
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
Rick Wise
June 27, 2011 at 6:38 pm in reply to: Least expensive Mac for FCP X

Thank you, John, for answering my question!

Rick Wise
director of photography
San Francisco Bay Area
part-time instructor lighting/camera
Academy of Art University/Film and Video (grad school)
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
Rick Wise
June 27, 2011 at 2:39 am in reply to: Least expensive Mac for FCP X

Perhaps someone could reply to my original question: what is the least expensive Mac I would need to buy to run FCP X?

Thanks!

Rick Wise
director of photography
San Francisco Bay Area
part-time instructor lighting/camera
Academy of Art University/Film and Video (grad school)
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
Rick Wise
June 24, 2011 at 6:35 pm in reply to: 7D vs 5D?

There are two issues to keep in mind in choosing between the 5D and the 7D: field of view, and depth of field.

Field of view: go to the excellent lens comparison page by Abel Cine Tech, https://abelcine.com/fov/. You can see that the 7D has a field of view close to that of a 35mm motion picture camera framed 16:9. (I suggest you set the lens choice to 25mm for a clear comparison.) The 5D has a substantially wider field of view at the same 25mm lens that the 35mm film camera or the 7D.

To match the field of view of a 35mm film camera shooting with a focal length of 25mm, on the 5D you would need a 36.2mm focal length lens.

Which leads us to the second issue: depth of field. If you are matching field of view, then on the 5D you will need to shoot with a longer lens than on the 7D. And the longer the lens, given the same distance from the subject and same f/stop, the more shallow the depth of field.

If you are shooting in tight spaces, then you may find you like the larger field of view of the 5D.

The depth of field of a 25mm lens is identical regardless of format. If you put a 25mm lens on an 8mm camera or on a 65mm camera, the depth of field at a given distance and at a give f/stop is identical. The field of view, however, is vastly different.

From your description of how you would be shooting, it sounds like the 5D will work better for you than the 7D. (Assuming the cost difference is no obstacle….)

Rick Wise
director of photography
San Francisco Bay Area
part-time instructor lighting/camera
Academy of Art University/Film and Video (grad school)
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
Rick Wise
June 20, 2011 at 5:39 pm in reply to: Film Binoculars to preview focal lengths

Here’s a different view from an cranky old cinematographer: the cinematographer should be the one picking the focal length, not the director. Of course, there are experienced directors who like to make the choice (Ridley Scott among others) and if you are working with one who wants to make the choice, your own choice is either to pass on the job or go along. Going along with Ridley Scott would probably be a great choice to make….

I have never liked any external viewfinder. My own viewfinder is my brain. Over the years I have trained myself to know the fields of view and characteristics of various focal lengths and when shooting with primes can call for the right lens almost every time. (I was wrong once on a 6-day, 35mm shoot.) It’s great fun to do, even if no one (except possibly your AC) realizes what you are doing.

Nothing beats looking through the taking lens on the camera to learn their characteristics.

Rick Wise
director of photography
San Francisco Bay Area
part-time instructor lighting/camera
Academy of Art University/Film and Video (grad school)
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
Rick Wise
June 18, 2011 at 5:07 pm in reply to: Best ASA settings

Your 5D can bet set to very high ASA values, and as a result you can shoot in very dim light. The trade off will be more noise and less saturation of colors.

Every video camera with variable ASA has a built-in “best” ASA. But one can usually push that number up or down a bit, sometimes quite a bit, before the images is hurt.

To figure out your “best” ASA for your 5D, and also the range to which you can push things, shoot tests. Simple as that. Do the work yourself instead of relying on the word of others. You will win twice over that way.

Rick Wise
director of photography
San Francisco Bay Area
part-time instructor lighting/camera
Academy of Art University/Film and Video (grad school)
https://www.RickWiseDP.com

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