For a zoom lens to be Parfocal, that is to stay in focus as you zoom in or out, the distance between the sensor and the rear element of the lens has to be set very accurately. If it is not then the focus will shift as you zoom in or out. This is why on most pro video cameras or lenses there is a back focus or Flange Back adjustment that alters this distance over a very small range, often only around +/- 0.5mm.
With lenses that are electronically controlled, like the one on the PMW-200/EX1 it is more complex. The lens itself is not ParFocal, the lenses natural focus changes as you zoom. This makes the design of the lens simpler and thus cheaper as well as compact and light weight. But because of this the camera/lens must use a Look up table of focal length to desired focus distance to dynamically alter the focus as you zoom to make the non-parfocal lens ( called vari-focal) behave like a parfocal one. This table needs to be calibrated from time to time, especially if the lens has been bumped or knocked (even when not in use) and in the case of the PMW-200, EX1 and EX3 (plus other similar cameras) this is what the Auto FB adjust routine does.
If you find that when zooming in and out your focus is not tracking accurately you may need to run the Auto FB routine to calibrate your lens. Sometimes rough handling of the camera, for example in transit, can throw out the lenses calibration.
Hot of the show floor from CabSat is a great new upgrade for the Alphatron 035W viewfinder. The firmware for the viewfinder has been updated to include a waveform monitor and vectorscope. The size of these can be adjusted so you can have a small inset waveform in the bottom left of the screen or a much larger waveform across the bottom of the screen. This is a great upgrade (especially for anyone think of using it with an F5/F55) and best of all it can be applied to any Alphatron EVF. I believe this is available free of charge to anyone that has an Alphatron EVF which is even better.
There are also some hardware changes which includes a new optic in the monocular that combined with a new filter and protection layer on the LCD screen means that sun damage is now extremely unlikely even if you don’t close the shutter. Lots of good news coming from Alphatron!
In response to Reds attempt to sue Sony over claimed patent infringements Sony have made the following statement:
On February 12, 2013, Red Digital Cinema (“Red”) sued Sony Corporation of America and Sony Electronics Inc. and alleged that the Sony PMW-F5, PMW-F55, and F65 digital cinema cameras infringe two Red patents. The F65 has been commercially available for over a year and the F5 and F55 were announced in October, 2012.
Sony has now had an opportunity to study Red’s complaint and the asserted patents, and categorically denies Red’s allegations. Sony intends to defend itself vigorously in the Red lawsuit. Sony looks forward to prevailing in court, thus vindicating the Sony engineers who developed Sony’s quality digital cinema cameras.
Taken from http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/show-highend/
Sensor technology right now has not really changed for quite a few years. The materials in sensor pixels and photo-sites to convert photons of light into electrons are pretty efficient. Most manufacturers are using the same materials and are using similar tricks such as micro lenses to maximise the sensors performance. As a result low light performance largely comes down to the laws of physics and the size of the pixels on the sensor rather than who makes it. If you have cameras with the same numbers of pixels per sensor chip, but different sized sensors, the larger sensors will almost always be more sensitive and this is not something that’s likely to change in the near future. It hasn’t actually changed for quite a few years now.
Both on the sensor and after the sensor the camera manufacturers use various noise reduction methods to minimise and reduce noise. Noise reduction almost always has a negative affect on the image quality. Picture smear, posterisation, a smoothed plastic like look can all be symptoms of excessive noise reduction. There are probably more differences between the way different manufacturers implement noise reduction than there are differences between sensors.
The less noise there is from the sensor the less aggressive you need to be with the noise reduction and this is where you really start to see differences in camera performance. At low gain levels there may be little difference between a 1/3″ and 1/2″ camera as the NR circuits cope fairly well in both cases. But when you start boosting the sensitivity by adding gain the NR on the small sensor camera has to work much harder than on the larger sensor camera. This results in either more undesirable image artefacts or allowing more noise to be visible on the smaller sensor camera. So when faced with challenging low light situations, bigger will almost always be better when it comes to sensors. In addition dynamic range is linked to noise as picture noise limits how far the camera can see into the shadows, so generally speaking a bigger sensor will have better dynamic range. Overall camera real camera sensitivity has not changed greatly in recent years. Cameras made with one size of sensor made today are not really any more sensitive than similar ones made 5 years ago. Of course the current trend for large sensor cameras has meant that many more cameras now have bigger sensors with bigger pixels and these are more sensitive than smaller sensors, but like for like, there has been little change.
Sony PMW-F5 with Alphatron EVF and TV Logic monitor.
I have a few shoots and projects coming up that require a very portable setup with little to no time to use a light meter etc (tornado chasing next month – anyone want to join me??). Currently the metering and measurement options on the PMW-F5 and F55 are limited to zebras and the zebras don’t go down below 50%. I’m going to be shooting 4K raw, so the camera will be in S-Log2. I can use a LUT to display a S-Log to 709 image in the viewfinder, but this makes it hard to appreciate the full range of what the camera is capturing. When shooting a dark storm against a bright sky the dynamic range of the scene can be massive, so I like to see the native image rather than via a LUT to help judge over exposure a bit more accurately. When I’ve done this before, as an exposure tool, I’ve taped a grey card to the car so if I need a quick exposure reference I can point the camera at the card and in the case of the PMW-F3 use the centre spot meter to get a quick exposure guide. The issue is that for S-Log2 middle grey should be approx 34%, so zebras that only go to 50% are not much use. I can use white as an alternative, which should fall around 68% but it’s not ideal. Anyway, I was exploring various options when I remembered that my Alphatron EVF had zebras that could easily go down to 34%. So I decided to check out the Alphatron on my F5 as an alternative to my Sony L350. Both LCD panels have similar resolution, so it was interesting to compare them anyway.
The two EVF’s on my F5 for evaluation.
The Sony L350 EVF is a very nice viewfinder, but it’s not cheap, running at around £2K/$3K (although that does include the mount). It has very good contrast and resolution that is high enough that you can’t see the pixels (just) when you look through the monocular. It’s also very versatile as the monocular flips up, both towards the rear and side.
The Alphatron EVF-035W-3G is also a very nice viewfinder, but at half the price of the Sony is considerably cheaper. It only opens up to the rear, but it does incorporate a very handy shutter in the loupe that when closed will prevent sun damage to the LCD screen. Interestingly both viewfinders specify the same 960×540 half HD resolution and contrast ratios of 1000:1. One side note: If you want a rubber eye cup with a set of rubber blades that open as you put your eye against the eyepiece to prevent the sun from damaging your expensive viewfinder, BandPro sell them for about $160 each.
The screen of the Alphatron EVF with peaking on.
Back to the viewfinders….. So how different are they? Well to be honest not very different. My Alphatron is an old pre-production one, so may be very slightly different to a production unit. Looking into the viewfinder loupe the image in the Aphatron is considerably larger than the Sony, you can just see the pixels in the Alphatron, but not in the Sony. This is simply due to the greater magnification from the optics in the Alphatron. The screen sizes and resolutions are the same. I think the Sony optics are a little better with less aberrations and distortion, but the viewed image is much smaller. When focussing I found both to provide similar performance, I could focus equally well with both viewfinders, if anything the Alphatron has a slight edge due to the larger image, but it’s a close call.
The screen of the Sony L350 EVF, peaking on.
You can zoom in pixel to pixel on both viewfinders, both viewfinders have peaking, possibly marginally better on the Sony, but again really not a great deal of difference. Interestingly the Sony peaking system works on vertical edges while the Alphatron appears to favour horizontal.
Contrast, brightness, colour and smear wise both EVF’s are again very similar, maybe the Sony is just a little better on contrast. I think I might need to calibrate my the colours on my Alphatron slightly, this is easy enough in the menus. I do suspect that they are both using the same LCD panel. Powering and feeding the Alphatron is simple enough, I used a D-Tap to TV-Logic power adapter cable for this test and then took an SDI feed from the Sub SDI bus. But you could also use one of the Aux power outputs on the V-Mount adapter or R5 to power the Alphatron only when the camera is on.
TV-Logic 056W 5.6″ monitor. Love this little monitor with its built in waveform display.
There you have it – The Alphatron 035W EVF is a legitimate option for use with the PMW-F5 and F55. The ability to use the Zebras to measure S-Log2 middle grey is a nice bonus, in addition you have other exposure tools such as false colour, oh if only I had these with the Sony EVF! I’m going to have to think long and hard about this. If I had thought about it sooner I could have saved myself £2K by not getting the Sony EVF and using the Alphatron that I already owned. Where possible I will use my TV-Logic 056W monitor (see my review of this great monitor here) with it’s built in waveform display for accurate exposure assessment, but sometimes it’s not practical to have a 5.6″ monitor hanging off the side of the camera and in this situation the extra exposure tools of the Alphatron will be very handy. One last thing, if you are thinking of going down the Alphatron EVF route, do remember you will need a bracket of some kind. The F5/F55’s handle has plenty of 3/8″ and 1/4″ threads, plus there are a few on the top of the camera body, so lots of options. I have the Element Technica Micron top plate and handle and I used a bracket from this. ET do make a dedicated mount for the Alphatron finder that is very nice.
This one keeps coming around again and again and it’s not well understood by many.
When the standards for SDI and connecting devices via SDI were originally set down everyone was using interlace. The only real exception was people producing movies and films in 24p. In the 1990’s there became a need to transfer film scans to digital tape and to connect monitors to film scanners. The led to the adoption of a method of splitting a progressive frame into two halves by splitting out the odd and the even numbered lines and then passing these two halves of the progressive frame within a conventional interlaced signal.
In effect the odd numbered lines from the progressive frame were sent in what would be the upper field of an interlace stream and then the even numbered lines in what would be the lower field. So in effect the progressive frame gets split into two fields, a just like an interlaced video stream, but as the original source is progressive there is no time difference (temporal difference) between when the odd and even are were captured, so despite the split, what is passed down the SDI cable is still a progressive frame. This is PsF (Progressive Segmented Frame).
This system has the added benefit that even if the monitor at the end of the SDI chain is interlace only, it will still display the progressive material more or less correctly.
But here’s the catch. Because the progressive frame, split into odd and even lines and then stuffed into an interlace signal looks so much like an interlace signal, many devices attached to the PsF source cannot distinguish PsF from real interlace. So, more often than not the recorder/monitor/edit system will report that what it is receiving is interlace, even if it is progressive PsF. In most cases this doesn’t cause any problems as what’s contained within the stream does not have any temporal difference between the odd and even lines. The only time it can cause problems is when you apply slow motion effects, scaling effects or standards conversion processes to the footage as fields/lines from adjacent frames may get interleaved in the wrong order. Cases of this kind of thing are however quite rare and unusual.
Some external recorders offer you the option to force them to mark any files recorded as PsF instead of interlace. If you are sure that what you are sending to the recorder is progressive, then this is a good idea. However you do need to be careful because what will screw you up is marking real interlace footage as PsF by mistake. If you do this the interlaced frames will be treated as progressive. If there is any motion in the frame then the two true interlace fields will contain objects in different positions, they will have temporal differences. Combine those two temporally different fields together into a progressive frame and you will see an artefact that looks like a comb has been run through the frame horizontally, it’s not pretty and it can be hard to fix.
So, if you are shooting progressive and your external recorder or other device say’s it’s seeing interlace from your HDSDI, don’t panic. This is quite normal and you can continue to record with it.
If you are importing footage that is indicated as being interlace, but you know it’s progressive PsF into most edit packages you can normally select the clips and “interpret footage” or similar to change the clip header files to progressive instead of interlace and again all will be fine.
UPDATE: Since first writing this the use of a true 24/25/30p progressive output has become far more common. PsF still remains a perfectly valid ITU/SMPTE standard for Progressive, but not every monitor supports it. Early implementations of 24/25/30p over SDI were often created using non standard methods and as a result there are many cameras, monitors and recorders that support a 24/25/30p input or output, but may not be compatible with devices from other manufacturers. The situation is improving now, but issues remain due to the multitude of different standards and non standard devices. If you are having compatibility issues sometimes going up to 50p/60p will resolve it as the standards for 50/60p are much better defined. Or perhaps you may need to use a device such as a Decimator between the output and input to convert or standardise the signal.
So, I’ve just spent 3 days demoing the F5 and F55 and the BVE show in london. It’s actually been a great learning experience for me as even though I have been lucky enough to have shot with the cameras several times already, at BVE I was asked to show all kinds of different modes and setups. Many of which I have not used myself. In doing so I came across a few anomalies in the way the menus work, a few what Sony might call “features”. Anyway I thought I would start to list them here in case anyone else gets stuck, or perhaps more importantly as a reminder to myself of how how to get around the features. As I come across more I’ll add them here. The cameras are shipping with firmware that is in development. There are some bug fix firmware releases coming very soon (maybe even the next few days) and we can expect many small updates over the coming months as more feedback makes it’s way back to Sony. Over all everything works, but there are a few peculiar things that might trip you up. These notes are to the best of my knowledge correct at the time of writing, but may become out of date as new firmware is released.
Remember that if your shooting 4K 4096 x 2160 the aspect ratio is 17:9, so you might want to add a 16:9 framing marker from the viewfinder marker menu.
Understand the difference between the “System”, “Base Setting” modes. Make sure you read and understand page 32 of the manual. There are two key modes, Cine EI Mode and Custom mode. Cine EI mode locks the camera into Exposure Index, S-Log2 mode. You need to be in this mode if you want to shoot raw on the R5, in fact you can only select this mode if you have an R5 attached. You cannot change the ISO in this mode. When your in this mode your gain is indexed, that is, the camera always records at the base ISO (1250 on the F55 and 2000 on the F5). I assume that in later firmware you will be able to index the ISO, ie change the ISO of the LUT’s and metadata to fine tune your dynamic range.. The colour Gamut is S-Gamut. Only the colour temperature can be changed
In Custom Mode there are colour gamut two sub modes. The two modes are Normal and S-Gamut. S-Gamut offers a wider colour gamut than the normal colour gammut.In either mode the colour temperature and gain can be adjusted as can the gain/ISO. However in S-Gamut you can only choose between the 3 preset white balance settings of 3200, 4300 and 5500. If you want to dial in your own white balance or set a manual white balance (done in the camera menu) you have to be in “Normal” mode. A common reason for not being able to change the gamma curve (gamma options greyed out) is having the camera set to S-Gamut as this locks the camera to S-Log2.
In order to record raw with the R5 set “Shooting Mode” in “Base Setting” to “Cine EI,” and “Main Operation” in “Base Setting” to “RAW” of the System menu.
To output 4K using HDMI you must have the camera set to 4K 4096 x 2160. Then you have to go to the video output menu, output page and first turn off the 4K SDI output. Once you turn off the 4K SDI output you will then see the option to turn on the 4K HDMI output. You won’t see the 4K HDMI option until you have turned off the 4K SDI.
MLUT’s are only available when in Cine EI mode. In Custom mode, even if you select S-Log as your gamma curve, you won’t get any MLUT’s. You have to be in EI mode and have MLUT’s activated for the viewfinder or one of other outputs to get the MLUT options. You only get the MLUT options in the menu when the camera is set to Cine EI.
Exposure Dissparity between XAVC S-Log2 material and raw. I need to try to get to the bottom of this one. Some of my raw material ends up looking hugely overexposed compared to the S-Log2. Anyone else seeing this? It all looks fine in the viewfinder when I’m shooting, but the raw looks over exposed while the S-Log2 is OK. So far it’s always graded back to sensible levels.
So here it is, my own F5 and R5 all ready to go with from front to rear: Genus Elite matte box, Samyang 35mm T1.5 lens (watch this space I have some exciting lens news coming soon). Genus Superior Follow Focus, MTF FZ to Canon adapter, Element Technica Micron bridge plate system and Micron top plate and handle. The viewfinder is the Sony L350 3.5″ LCD finder. Docked on the back is the R5 raw recorder and it’s all powered by a LiTH 150SI compact 150Wh battery. Still waiting on the AXS media 🙁 so no raw shooting just yet, the media should arrive later in the week.
LiTH 150SI compact 150Wh battery with built in charger, powering my F5.
I’m running a workshop at Advanced Media in Dubai this weekend (2/3 March 2013) as an introduction to the new Sony F5 and F55 cameras. The two day workshop will introduce the cameras, provide advice on the use of 4K and raw, look at various workflow options and provide plenty of hands on time with the cameras. Full details here.
I’ve used many different camera support systems over the years utilising both 19mm rods and 15mm rods. The newer, lighter cameras, especially the most recent Super35mm cameras really don’t need 19mm rods for most applications, so for these I’ve been using 15mm rods. I have a large container full of different camera brackets and support plates. Some are better than others. Most work OK and do what they are supposed to do, but even though they are all built around the 15mm diameter, 60mm spacing rod standard there is no real continuity of design or interchangeability amongst the camera support plates. You buy the bits for one camera and that’s the only camera it fits.
The other side of the Micron Bridge plate and FS700 riser.
I’ve seen and used elements of the Element Technica Micron system before at various trade shows and events and I’ve always know it to be well made and well thought out. So when asked if I would like to try some of the components out on my own cameras I said yes. The Micron system is based around the same 15mm rods, 60mm apart standard of just about every other 15mm bracket or clamp on the market. The big difference though is that this really is a very well thought out integrated modular system. Parts from the bracket for one camera will normally work via a simple adapter, riser or shim plate on another. The same shoulder pad fits all the mounts and cleverly snaps on and off magnetically in most cases.
The micron bridge plate.
The key part is the Micron Bridge Plate. This is an adapter based on the Arri Bridge plate system but scaled down to a size more appropriate for todays lightweight cameras. The bridge plate attaches to the camera via an adapter plate or shim plate that ensures that the 15mm rods are at the correct height relative to the lens. This means that even when swapping from camera to camera your matte box or other 15mm rail accessories will all be at the same, correct height. It also means that if you have several different cameras (as I do) that you can use the same bridge plate on any of them. All you need is the correct shim or adapter plate for each camera.
The Micron bridge plate on the Micron dovetail.
When mounting on a tripod the bridge plate is slid on to a Micron dovetail rail, again this is a scaled down version of the original Arri dovetail. Using the dovetail allows you to quickly and easily balance the camera even if the centre of gravity of the system is a long way from the cameras centre. It also means that if you have several cameras fitted with the micron system swapping between them is simply a case of sliding them on and off the dovetail. When swapping lenses if you need to re-balance the camera you simply slide it along the dovetail. A small lever on the bridge plate turns about a quarter of a turn to lock everything very securely in place while a small spring loaded stopper prevents the camera from accidentally sliding off the dovetail.
Micron bridge plate and adapter on my F3
The quality of the machining and the finish of the materials are excellent, this system exudes quality. The fit between parts is extremely precise and this means that there is very little flex or wobble. As a result even though the rods are only 15mm they are incredibly ridged and secure. This means that they will work well supporting all but the very heaviest of lenses. The rods supplied with the mounts are some kind of turned, very hard chrome alloy, incredibly stiff, but still remarkably light weight.
Micron FS700 top cheese plate and Manhandle.
As well as the base plate parts the Micron system also includes a range of camera top plates, handles, lens supports, viewfinder brackets and adapters. The same handle fits all of the micron range and the view finder brackets etc. attach to the same handle. The handle, called the “Manhandle” is covered in mounting threads as well as one fore-aft and one side to side mounting for a 15mm rod. If you have a Sony F5/F55 then you can add a mounting spud that accepts the Sony viewfinder mount on the ManHandle.
If you have a Sony F3 you can even get a replacement side panel that removes the hand grip and zoom rocker and replaces it with an incredibly tough and sturdy side panel covered in mounting holes for accessories.
My F3 wearing the full 3Ality Technica body armour.
The F3 top plate allows you to remove the original F3 handle and rear viewfinder, replacing them with a sturdy cheese plate style top. Like this the F3 no longer feels like a cheap camera, it transforms it into a robust film making tool. Oh, if only Sony had done this with the F3 in the first place. Now I can mount my external recorder on the side of the camera securely and rigidly. If you choose you can use just the top plate and keep the standard Sony side plate with hand grip.
3Ality Technica Micron system on PMW-F5
Even Sony’s new PMW-F5 and PMW-F55 cameras are already supported. There is a custom shim plate for the F5/F55 that puts the bridge plate at exactly the right hight and then adds mounting points for the shoulder pad. For the top of the camera there is a top plate that adds even more mounting points than already supplied by Sony as well as giving you the option to use either the standard Sony handle or a Micron Manhandle. A “spud” adapter then accepts the Sony viewfinder bracket.
PMW-F and F55 top plate and Manhandle
I am very impressed by this system. The main reason is because it is a system, it’s not just a random collection of mounting plates and brackets but a decent modular system. The ease of balance with the dovetail, the amazing rigidity along with the beautiful quality makes the Micron system stand out from the crowd.
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