Just a quick note to tell anyone interested in getting one of my Genus Hurricane 3D rigs, I am now selling them for £5,366.00 plus VAT. This includes a flight case. For more details please click here.
All posts by alisterchapman
2x PMW-F3’s on my Genus Hurricane Rig.
Well I’m a happy chappy. Took delivery of my second PMW-F3 today so that I can shoot my 3D projects using a pair of F3’s rather than my EX1/EX3. Now I have a working lens converter that allows me to use standard 2/3″ broadcast lenses on the F3 the F3 is fast becoming my default camera for almost everything. So the I took the decision to trade in my EX3 against a second F3. For lenses on the 3D rig I’m going to use DSLR lenses. Today I checked out my Nikon 50mm f1.8’s and these were just fine but my Tokina 28mm f2.8’s are un-useable as the lens optical axis shifts as you focus causing alignment errors, so I need to find some alternative wide angle lenses. I’d really like two sets of Zeiss PL mount Compact Primes, but that’s way beyond my budget. I might try and stretch to a couple of sets of Zeiss ZF.2’s, but I think that for the moment it’s going to have to be a case of building up pairs of lenses as I can afford them.
DCP Creation Software
Do you ever need to create a DCP (Digital Cinema Package)? Very often the only way to get a DCP put together has been to get a specialist company to do it for you. DCP creation software has been available for some time but it is normally expensive. There are various methods described on the internet that use different bits of software to do different aspects of DCP creation, but these are tricky to get right. This package however looks much more straight forward to use: DCP Builder. The best bit is that it is completely free.
Replay XD1080 mini-cam.
I like the Go-Pro, I also like the Sony MC1P, different tools for different jobs. The Sony MC1P has a built in screen on the end of an umbilical cable, so you can position the camera where you want it while viewing the pictures on the monitor. The Go-Pro can have a postage stamp size display clipped on to it’s back for framing, but this is next to useless when the camera is mounted in a tight spot where you can view it’s rear end.
Enter the Replay XD1080. This new POV camera (shipping at the end of the month) is small and compact, but the best bit IMHO is that it has an integrated HDMI output. This make plugging in a monitor, or recording to an external device like a NanoFlash nice and easy and makes this unit sound particularly versatile. In addition it will take an external microphone making it well suited to use in race or rally cars.
Looks like this will be a strong contender in the POV camera market. Only a few years ago minicams were few and far between and very expensive. Now we have lots of choice at great prices.
BBC Transmitting 3D on Sky!
Just caught a series of 3D test transmissions from the BBC on the BBC HD channel on Sky. A series of test charts followed by some 3D music sessions. I was not aware that the BBC was gearing up for 3D transmissions, but clearly they are.
Playing with lenses: 2/3″ Broadcast lens on PMW-F3.
OK folks. I wanted to see just how well a 2/3″ broadcast lens would work on an F3, but don’t have $5.5k to fork out on one of the Abel adapters. So with a bit of head scratching, a few, lowish cost lens purchases and a few hours in the workshop I cobbled together my own adapter. At first I tried a 2x magnifier but this didn’t quite give me full sensor coverage and was soft out in the corners. With a little more work I took the magnification up to 2.5x and I have clean corners. I’m really pleased with the performance, although one lens element needs changing for a higher quality element to combat some softness when the iris is fully open.
My old Canon J16x8 f1.8 becomes a 24 to 320mm f4(ish) par-focal lens which is actually quite handy. Next step is to make up a power cable for the lens so I can use the zoom servo.
I’m considering trying to find a manufacturer that can make these up for me properly, the converter should cost a lot less than $5.5k
Playing with Lenses: Pentacon 4, 300mm F4, 19 blade iris.
UPDATED: SEE UPDATE AT END!
I won this lens on ebay for the grand total of £44.00. Now for that kind of money you don’t normally expect to get a great deal, but this time I got quite a lot. I certainly got a lot of weight and bulk, this is a big lens. It was designed to work with a Pentacon or Kiev medium format camera with a 6″x6″ frame size. The front element is about 3″ (80mm) in diameter, it’s over a foot long and weighs about 5lbs (2.5kg). One of the things that attracted me to it is the iris which has 19 blades giving a very round aperture, so the bokeh is very pleasant looking. The rear of the lens has a Pentacon to M42 mount onto which I screw a M42 to Nikon adapter ring. Due to it’s length and weight it is vital that the lens is supported. The lens comes with a 3/8″ mounting ring with a 3/8″ to 1/4″ insert.
For the moment I’m using the bracket from a Genus DSLR shoulder rig to support the lens until my new Genus lens support bracket arrives.
So… what are the pictures like? Well at F4 it’s a little soft, but stop it down to f5.6 and it sharpens up nicely. I also tried it with a 1.5x and 2x extender as these will soon show up any lens issues. With both the lens performed respectfully well with the iris at f5.6. Stop down to f8 and the lens really performs very well. Of course with the very small s35 sensor compared to the 6″x6″ that the lens was designed for you are only using the center part of the frame, which always tends to be the sharpest part. While it may not perform as well as the latest state of the art long focal length Canon’s or Nikons, this lens does do a pretty good job and if you only occasionally need a long lens, for the money it’s hard to beat.
UPDATE: To get this lens to work on the F3 I was using a M42 to Nikon adapter. This has a corrective lens in it to enable infinity focus. After playing with this adapter on some other M42 lenses I found it’s performance to be less than satisfactory at large apertures. So I tried the Pentacon 4 again, but this time with a M42 to Canon adapter and one of Steve Shovlar’s new Adaptimax Canon to F3 adapters. The performance improvement was quite noticeable and now I can use the Pentacon fully open at f4 with great results. This really is a rather nice lens.
Wimbledon 3D Cinema Commercial Shot using F3’s and Phantom HD Gold’s.
I recently helped shoot a 3D cinema commercial for the Wimbledon Tennis Finals which will be shown in Cinemas and on TV in 3D. There were two 3D rigs used, an Element Technica rig with a pair of Phantom HD Gold’s, shooting at 1000 fps as well as one of my Genus Hurricane Rigs equipped with a pair of Sony PMW-F3’s with zeiss ultra primes recording onto a Nano3D as well as to the video village. The F3’s were used at both 1080P 25fps and 720P 50fps. We had a wide variety of Chapman grip (no relation) equipment including ride on dolly’s and sliders. The commercial was shot at a tennis club in Kent, dressed up with fake scoreboards, green backdrops and umpires in original wimbledon uniforms to make it look like Wimbledon over two days.
The weather was fantastic and the shoot went very well. The Zeiss Ultra primes worked very well on the 3D rig with each lens pair being very well matched and needing only minimal re-alignment each time we changed focal length. The F3’s were set up with no added detail correction and using cinegamma 1, S-Log not being available at the time of the shoot. My main role was as second unit camera operator/stereographer to shoot some of the main tennis player 3D shots at 25 and 50 fps as well as 3D blue screen effects shots including flying dirt and grass as well as various spinning tennis ball shots. For the 1000 fps shots with the Phantom HD Gold’s we used pairs of 18Kw lamps to light the players, and this on a bright sunny day!! In order to keep a similar look for the F3 shots we took full advantage of the cameras built in ND filters to keep the foregrounds bright with the background dark.
For some of the blue screen tennis ball shots we used some older Arri PL mount macro lenses. Below you’ll find a 2D version of the commercial. If I come across a 3D version I’ll post it here.
Cinegear and Samy’s 3D workshop.
Hello from Culver City, LA. I spent most of this week up in Hollywood showing of the Genus Hurricane 3D rig on the Manfrotto booth at Cinegear. It’s the first time I have ever gotten sun burnt at a trade show! Most of the show is outside on a back lot at Paramount Studios and the weather was just beautiful. The booth was swamped most of the time, sadly not because I was selling lots of 3D rigs but because we were giving away free ice cream! As usual there was good interest in the rig and it was good to meet some of the people already out there shooting stuff with it. I took a little bit of time out to go and mooch around the show… I’ve never seen so many sliders in one place, almost every booth appeared to have one! I also got a sneak peak at the new Cineroid EVF with HDSDi inputs. Looks promising and it’s made of metal rather than plastic so has a very robust feel.
Genus were also showing their new Elite matte box which can take 5.65 x 5.65 filters as well as 4 x 4 and 5 x 5. It comes with a nice folding top flag as well as side flags. If you need a matte box for bigger lenses and bigger filters you should definitely take a look. The build quality is very good. Another nifty Genus product is the new lens support bracket for 15mm rods. This can support long or heavy lenses and has a 1/4″ screw to bolt to the lens or a pair of rollers that will support a big lens allowing the focus ring to rotate even if the lens does not have a proper attachment point. Clever stuff! Hopefully I will be able to get one to review properly (and the matte box).
Today I was at Samy’s Camera in Culver City running the first day of a 2 day 3D workshop. It was really busy with some well know DoP’s in attendance including Geoff Boyle, I think we had about 50 students in total. It was a fun day (apart from an LG 3D TV that refused to play ball), with some very intelligent questions being asked by the group. Tomorrow we have the second more advanced part of the course with a slightly smaller group. As soon as the class finishes I’m dashing off to the airport to fly to London to meet a courier with my F3 camera kit and then on to Berlin to shoot the Duran Duran gig at the Tempodrom on Wednesday.
What do you think of the new look to the website? I was getting bored with the old look. This is a little more interesting. Any issues or problems do let me know. Coming soon I will have a review of the Vinten 100 tripod head (big thumbs up) and a SxS to SD adapter card from Sonnet, plus hopefully the full Duran Duran story.
Details of free and paid firmware updates for PMW-F3
From the Sony Cinealta Web Site
With respect to the PMW-F3 firmware updates which should be available any day now:
The following features are free of charge:
- Dual Link HD-SDI output
- 4:2:2 10bit 1080 23.98/ 25/ 29.97PsF*
- *1080 59.94i and 50i are already available with V1.00.
- SxS software key installation for CBK-RGB01 and CBK-3DL01.
- Planning metadata functionality same as PMW-350 V1.30 except Wi-Fi.
- Simultaneous HD-SDI and HDMI output (menu setting)
- Ability to use the S & Q dial for menu setting (same as jog dial on the rear panel).
- Display the signal format of the Dual Link output on the STATUS window.
- In Thumbnail mode, vertical navigation of the cursor is now possible
- TC output follows the internal Timecode Generator (TCG).
- One-click adjustment of Peaking, Brightness and Contrast of the LCD/EVF.
The following features are activated with the CBK-RGB01 optional cost-based software key:
- RGB4:4:4 10bit, 1080 23.98/ 25/ 29.97PsF output on the Dual Link HD-SDI or 3G-SDI.
- S-LOG Gamma output on the Dual Link or 3G-SDI.
- Switching HD-SDI Dual Link and 3G-SDI.
- 3G-SDI is only available on the Link-A connector and Link-B is OFF.
- LUTs (including x4 preset and x5 user-defined) for on-set video monitoring.
- LUT On/Off is applied to both HD-SDI output and SxS recording at the same time.
- LUT name information will be recorded to SxS as NRT metadata of the Clips and it can be seen by the XDCAM browser.
- User-defined LUTs can be created by CVP file editor for free.
- Wi-Fi function for Planning metadata (same as V1.30 for PMW-350).
I was not expecting to see Planning metadata on the F3, that’s certainly a nice surprise. No mention of how to get 1920/50p or 60P out of the camera. I had thought the F3 was supposed to support that. Nice to see 4 preset LUT’s along with 5 user LUT’s for S-Log along with the software to roll your own LUT.