Todd Terry
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COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
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It’s really not scary stuff, the only thing you have to be concerned at all about is making sure the polarity (+ and -) are absolutely correct.
But if you didn’t have the special homemade cable, I would not use an AB battery to power the camera, and another AB barry on the Steadicam sled. I think that would be way too top heavy to get the rig in dynamic balance… and the combination of two AB bricks plus the camera plus the rig might be too much for the Flyer’s arm (I don’t know what the maximum rating is). For now I’d just use an AB battery on the sled, and one of the tiny little Canon batteries to power the camera to keep down the weight.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Okkkk… shoot, I figured I didn’t explain that well. I wish I was in the studio today, I’d just take a picture of it and think that’d make things clear easily… but I’ll try again.
First, I’ll explain our “everyday” (non-Steadicam) setup.
For everyday use, we do NOT use the little Canon batteries. We have an Anton Bauer goldmount adapter on the back of our XLH1 so we can use AB bricks to power the camera. They just last so much longer. The special XLH1 goldmount adapter has the circuitry built into it which reduces the 12-14v voltage down to the 7.2v that the camera needs.
You can find that adapter here at B&H….
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/488776-REG/Anton_Bauer_QRXLH_QR_XLH_Gold_Mount_for.htmlOk, second scenario… Steadicam use…
When we use the XLH1 on the Steadicam, we do NOT put any batteries on the camera itself. We put an Anton Bauer brick on the Steadicam sled, the goldmount is built in to do that on the rear of the SK2’s sled. That powers the Steadicam greenscreen montior of course, but it ALSO sends juice (12-14v) up the post and out a little two-pin Lemo connector that is on the rear of the Steadicam stage. Steadicams will come with a little cable that is a Lemo connector on one end and a four-pin XLR connector on the other, for use in powering a camera. Unfortunately, that’s for Betacam use, etc, so the four-pin 12-14v doesn’t do us any good. Soooo… we took one of those cables, cut the XLR connector off the end of it and connected it to a dead and gutted brick battery. So now we have a cable that will fit the Lemo connector on the Steadicam stage, and will snap onto the goldmount on the rear of the XLH1, which reduces the voltage down to 7.2v.
Looking back over that, 1) that still may not be clear. And 2) that’s assuming the little Flyer has a goldmount so it will take A/B bricks, AND has the Lemo connector power output at the top. I’m assuming it does, but I don’t know that. I’ve never used a Flyer. But that’s the way all the bigger rigs are built, so I will assume they built the lightweight ones the same way (I would hope so).
If that’s not clear, lemme know and I’ll take a third stab at an explaination.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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The best easy/fast/cheap way to do video slow-mo, is (assuming your “master” project is shot in 24p) is to shoot your specific shots for slow-moing at 60i, and with a faster shutter than usual (say, 180th of a second, or so).
If you shoot it like that, you can slow-mo it down to 40% and it will still look good and intercut with 24p footage very well.
To do GOOD slow motion of existing footage where you did not plan ahead and shoot it with the proper frame rate and shutter speed, then you need special software which interpolates the missing frames. Twixtor is one such program, although there are others.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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We normally use the the AntonBauer goldmount adapter on our XLH1, which contains the circuitry to cut the 12-14v down to 7.5v… so we can use the ABs for daily use, rather than the little Canon batteries (one full-size brick will power the XLH1, well, darn near forever… we always carry at least three bricks but I’ve never exhausted even ONE, even on a loooong shoot and even while simultaniously powering a P+S Technik converter).
For Steadicam use (we use the Steadicam SK2), we power from an A/B brick on the Steadicam sled. Then we built a special cable which goes from the Lemo power connector up on the Steadicam stage to a dummy brick which snaps onto the camera’s goldmount adapter.
I probably didn’t explain that very well, but hopefully you get the picture.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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[John Ford] “Just wondering if anyone has got real time down convert working?”
Hmmm…i’m guessing you are capturing/downconverting via Machina?
I must say that realtime downconverting is one of the few things that I AM happy to say has always worked pretty well with our Aja machine (wish I could say the same for the rest of it). But we were always downconverting via HD-SDI to NTSC though, not PAL as you are.
There’s a relatively brand-new set of Xena drivers… Have you installed those? (uninstall the old ones first).
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Ummmm… well, firstly, I wouldn’t use a camcorder, I would use a digital still camera to capture stills and import them as a sequence. With cameras that have pure manual modes (which should be all but the cheapest ones) you’ll be able to control everything. Get higher res pictures than a camcorder too, allowing for cropping and zooming of your still sequence, if you wish.
Still cameras are often used to capture image sequences for later cine use… from time-lapse photography to SFX “bullet time” rigs to feature films (“Corpse Bride,” etc.).
I couldn’t recommend a camera though, not really sure what is out there these days. I would ask in the Digital Photography COW forum.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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In a hurry here, but will answer just a few of your questions quickly. Have had an HV20 only a couple of weeks, have yet to really play with it a lot…
[Mattdawgpro] “how the image compares to a 3CCD camera”
In short, CMOS rocks. Has really won me over. I would say the image is very comparable to the CCDs that are in our primary camera, the XLH1.
[Mattdawgpro] “should look better color wise”
Yeah it should… but I can’t tell that it does. Does a great job.
[Mattdawgpro] “how well does the manual focus work”
Fair. Not great, not good, but servicable. ‘Bout like you would expect from any camcorder that doesn’t have a lens focus ring. The little focus wheel is very small and takes a little getting used to.
As I have said before here, this is NOT a professional camera… it is very definitely a “home movies palmcorder” type deal, that just happens to put out an incredible picture. I’d never use it as a primary camera, but as a “B” or “C” camera or as a crashcam, it can’t be beat… especially considering its throwaway $1000 pricetag.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Agreed… and learn as much as possible by doing and watching. I learned more about REAL cinematography on the first day I ever spent on a real movie set than I did in four years of film school.
Commercial directors/cinematographers are good ones to latch onto and try to beg/pester/intern as much as you can, since they have to work very fast, do lots of different kinds of setups, and work on different types of projects that come and go very quickly (as opposed to a feature film where they might be shooting the same type of stuff for weeks on end). Lots of GREAT DoPs (cinematographers as well as still photographers) have strong commercial backgrounds.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Yes, as Rick said as long as your lens doesn’t have a rear element that sticks out too far.
We have used zooms with both the Mini35 and Pro35 from P+S Technik.
I will say though that I started to answer your “Can I use a zoom..” question with my smartass “Yeah, but why would you?” answer. I’m sure you have a reason, I have done it on occasion myself.
I’m not TOTALLY one of those “zooms are pure evil” old-schoolers… but if you are new to using the Pro35 I think you will find that while a good zoom will give you great looking footage, images using good primes will be absolutely stunning.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Thanks, I’ll give that a try, hopefully it will work.
I did indeed find that mentioned in the release notes, but I didn’t notice it buried there before (and neither did the company who built my machine, we’ve be trading emails about it all day).
I apologize for my harsh tone earlier… it was out of frustration, I’m usually a peach… ask anyone.
It’s just that I’ve been tearing my hair out for weeks with this machine (not just the stills, but a looooong list of issues). The problems start with the fact that this POWERFUL system which should be SMOKIN’ fast is slow as molasses compared to our much weaker Canopus suites… plus a bunch of specific operational bugs. My frustration goes back to the company who built the system, where the salesman (who incidentally is no longer there) touted Aja as the greatest thing since sliced bread. Then the guy there I was dealing with today said “You really should have probably bought an AXIO.” Grrrrr.
I guess I long for the good ol’ days when everything just worked….easily, and well. Actually, what I long for are the days when Canopus and Adobe were getting along.
Sorry for the previous venting,
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com