Category Archives: Uncategorized

Refreshing an old Mac Pro.

October 6, 2011 alisterchapman 9 Comments

First of all – rest in peace Steve Jobs. A great visionary.

I’ve had my Intel Mac Pro since Apple first switched to Intel. So it’s a version 1.1 Mac Pro, or at least it was. Originally it had 2Gb of ram and 2 dual core CPU’s running at 2.33Ghz, so 4 cores in total. Over the years I’ve upgraded the Ram and last year I swapped out the CPU’s and now have 8 cores running at 2.4Ghz. It would be pretty straight forward to take it up to 8 cores at 3Ghz, but the faster Xeon processor chips are very expensive.

The biggest issue though has always been the Graphics cards. The problem being that the first and second gen Mac Pro’s have a 32 Bit EFI (the software that allows it to boot). The later Mac Pro’s have a 64 Bit EFI. Only a Graphics card that supports 32 Bit EFI will work in a 1.1 or 2.1 MacPro and the choices are very, very limited and non of the newer Mac Nvidia cards can be used so no CUDA or Mercury Engine with Adobe Premier unless you get the extremely expensive Mac Nvidia Quadro cards.

However for many years people have been putting together PC’s that will run OSX very well by booting up using the PC’s Bios and then loading a software version of the EFI on top, so that OSX thinks it’s installed on a real Mac. So if you can run a 64 Bit software EFI on a PC, what about using it on a Mac? After some research I discovered that this was possible and now my 1.1 Mac boots up and loads a software version of the 64 Bit EFI and will now allow me to use any Mac Graphics card. As it is still a real Mac underneath, all my software updates and everything else works completely as normal.

However it doesn’t stop there. As the software EFI is one written to run on any Intel based computer it has the ability to work with PC graphics cards. This means that the machine will work perfectly well with the PC version of any of the Mac Graphics cards. I’m currently using a PC Nvidia GTX285 which was half the price of the Mac version, yet I still get full CUDA/Mercury Engine acceleration under Premier. Next I’m going to try a PC ATI 6870 to see how that works with Avid and FCP.

So I’ve extended the life of my Mac Pro for another year or so. I do have a new IMac coming tomorrow with a 4 core i7 processor. It will be interesting to see how they compare. On paper the IMac should be about 20%-30% faster than my 5 year old MacPro.

The iMac upgrades are soooo much cheaper than the MacPro. For example 4x 1Gb Ram sticks for a MacPro cost around £100. I got 4x 4Gb of Ram for the iMac for the same price. An i7 4 core 3Ghz CPU costs around £300 while a comparable 4 core xeon costs at least double that. Plus of course the iMac itself is half the price. While it might not be all signing, all dancing and have 12 cores, it will be an improvement over my current machine which has served me very well so far. Perhaps when work picks up again, another MacPro will be on the cards.

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Short Site Outage – Too Many Readers!

October 4, 2011 alisterchapman 1 Comment

A few of you may have experienced a brief site outage today. My apologies for this. My web host turned off the domain without any notice due to my consumption of “excessive resources”! The main reason being the number of pages this site was having to churn out, on average in excess of 5,000 pages a day to just under 2,000 visitors. Anyway I now have some extra web caching in place which should significantly reduce the server load.

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Cineroid HDSDI EVF Review.

September 26, 2011 alisterchapman Leave a comment

I needed an external viewfinder for my F3 rig. I could have got either a Zacuto or Cineroid HDMI viewfinder, but I felt that HDSDI would be more useful. As the HDSDI Zacuto is not available just yet, I picked up one of the new metal bodied Cineroid HDSDI EVF’s (EVF-4MSS).

The viewfinder has the same 800 x 480 pixel 3.2″ screen as the HDMI version but in a robust metal body. There are threaded 1/4″ mounting holes on the top and bottom of the viewfinder. It is supplied with a generic battery compatible with Sony’s L series batteries and a tiny little charger.

cineroid-evf3 — Rear of the Cineroid EVF-4MSS

So what’s it like. Well for a start it’s very solidly made. The body and the slide on part of the eyepiece is made from metal (some kind of hard anodised aluminium I think). The diopter adjuster is made out of plastic. On the rear of the body mine was fitted with an adapter for a Sony L series battery which has a short flying lead going to a high quality lemo connector for power. The battery adapter can be removed by unscrewing two small screws if you intend to power the finder from an external supply. The supply can be anywhere from 6 to 17 volts. There is also a pair of BNC’s for the loop through HDSDI in and out connections.

cineroid-evf4 — Cineroid EVF with eyepiece flipped up and menus activated.

The eyepiece on the EVF flips up like most pro viewfinders, this allows you to see the screen directly, as an alternative you can slide the entire eyepiece assembly off completely, which turns the EVF into a tiny monitor. I have a slight issue with the slide off function as there is some light leakage along the top edge of the screen as a result. On a bright sunny day this is distracting as you can see it inside the finder. It’s easily solved with a small strip of electrical tape over the tiny gap, but you shouldn’t really need to do this. All Cineroid need to do is add a small lip to the top of the slide off assembly to fix this.

On powering up and using the finder for the first time I was pleasantly pleased. The screen is bright and clear and there is only the smallest amount of lag. When I showed the EVF to some of the visitors to the Sony booth at IBC there were many comments that this version has less lag than the HDMI version. My guess is that the HDMI processing in the camera plus the HDMI processing in the EVF adds up to a fair bit of a delay. This would appear to be much reduced with the HDSDI version.

f3-viewfinder-bracket — Cineroid EVF on PMW-F3

Some people have complained that they can see the pixel structure of the screen in both the Cineroid and Zacuto EVF’s. I could just about make out the pixels, the screen appearing to have a slight texture, but in operation this has not caused me any issues. This EVF is a vast improvement over the EVF fitted to the back of the F3. Using either the Cineroid’s Peaking or 1:1 pixel mapping I can focus very accurately. Higher resolution would be nicer, but it is adequate as is. You have to consider that even the Sony HDVF20A that costs £3,000 only has around 600 lines of resolution. As well as peaking there are a number of other useful tools including the usual zebras. Some of the more unusual functions include a coloured clipping indicator and various false colour modes. I have to say that I have not been through all the different modes and functions yet. I’ve just been using it with peaking and zebras. You can have a full range of safe area overlays and there is the ability to work with anamorphic camera outputs, flip or mirror the picture. The peaking is adjustable and can be either white or red, I prefer red. A couple of different colours would be nice for when your shooting scenes that already have a lot of red in them. When you have it enabled (single button press) the up and down arrow buttons on the side of the EVF will adjust the peaking sensitivity up and down, so no need to go into the menu system.

Overall I am pleased with my Cineroid viewfinder. It does the job that I purchased it for and the price was quite reasonable (£799 + VAT). It’s compact and well constructed and looks like it will survive the inevitable knocks and bumps of everyday use.

PS. I was reminded by respected DoP Jody Eldred that the LCD panel in these (and many other) viewfinders is easily damaged if the sun starts shining into the eyepiece. The eyepiece acts as a magnifier and will focus the sun onto the LCD and burn it. The large size of the loupe on the Cineroid means that it doesn’t even need to be pointed directly at the sun for this to happen. So, when not in use, point the eyepiece down towards the ground, if your mount won’t allow you to do that easily, flip open the eyepiece. This is good practice with all monocular viewfinders. I’ve seen many scorched LCD’s and melted plastic interiors over the years.

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Ultimate F3 ENG rig?

September 26, 2011 alisterchapman 32 Comments

So, here’s what I am working on. This is a “work in progress” but I’m liking where it’s going. My aim is to create a truly useable kit for the F3 that will turn it into an ENG type camera. Now I’m not suggesting that the F3 is a good camera for news or that type of fast moving thing. But for documentaries it has a big place and the easier I can make it to use, the better. The rig is made up form all kinds of bits and pieces.

1: This is an old Canon J16x8x2 SD broadcast lens, which becomes a 20 to 320mm f4 zoom lens. It works OK, fine when wide but a little soft in the corners at the long end.

2: New metal body HDSDi Cineroid EVF attached with a custom bracket (5)

3: Genus GMB-P ENG camcorder adapter with 15mm bar support. This has the quick release wedge needed to work with the VCT-14 tripod plate.

4: My B4 to F3 adapter. Watch this space, in production very soon.

5: Custom made (by me) PMW-F3 ‘H” plate. This attaches to the two 1/4″ threads on the top of the camera body and gives you lots of 1/4″ threads along the entire length of both sides of the top of the F3. To this attaches a custom fully adjustable viewfinder mounting system.

6: Custom made shoulder mount. On production units this would be a little shorter, it’s a bit tall on the prototype. It features an adjustable soft shoulder pad and mounts for the cheese plate and VCT-14 adapter.

7: Genus cheese plate.

8: IDX V-Lock adapter plate. But you could also use an Anton Bauer plate.

9: DSM V-Lock battery (98Wh). Will run the rig for over 4 hours.

10: VCT-14 quick release plate.

The balance point for the rig is just slightly forward of the centre of the shoulder pad, so it’s really nice to handhold. A slightly bigger battery or a Convergent Design Gemini on the back would give near perfect balance.

So, what do you think, would you by this lot (excluding lens and EVF) as a kit? I’m looking to do a small run of kits, no idea of the price yet. More pictures below, click on the thumbnail for a high-res image.

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Vinten Vision 100 Long Term Review.

September 25, 2011 alisterchapman 2 Comments

I’m a long time Vinten user. My first true, pro tripod was a Vinten 5 with alloy legs that I purchased in 1989 (I think). 22 years on I still have that tripod and it is still perfectly useable. Since then I’ve been the very happy owner of a fabulous set of Vinten FibreTec legs (still have them, still love them) and a new model Vinten Vision 5AS. All of these have been excellent, reliable and virtually indestructible. I’ve taken them up into the Arctic where it’s been -36c. I’ve taken them to the Arizona desert, into Hurricanes, Sand Storms and all kinds of extreme weather. I’ve even used them stood waist deep in the sea (not really recommended). Anyway, I’m waffling… When I needed a bigger tripod to support my Hurricane 3D rig I obtained a Vinten Vision 100.

The Vision 100 is not a new model, but it has a reputation for being able to take a quite remarkable payload for it’s size. You see the Vision 100 head is not much bigger or heavier than my Vinten 5, yet it can take double the payload (20kg). This means that I can still pack it in to my luggage when I’m travelling without getting crippled by high excess baggage charges.

One of the features that has made it particularly useful for 3D is the digital counterbalance readout that tells you exactly where you are within the heads very generous and continuously adjustable counter balance range. When swapping between the 3D rig and a conventional camera I can simply dial in the numbers that I know give me optimum balance and off I go. One minute I can have a 3D rig with a pair of F3 etc, weighing over 15kg, then after a few turns of the counterbalance knob I can mount just a single F3 weighing only 3kg and the tripod works beautifully well with either payload. The continuously adjustable drag adjustments for pan and tilt are easy to set and if you want you can get a lot of drag. I find this very useful when shooting air shows with long lenses as I like to have quite a bit of drag to work against to keep things smooth. The smoothness of this head is lovely with no sudden slips or tight spots, it’s a pleasure to use.

Alister in AZ — In the Arizona desert shooting thunderstorms

The legs I have been using with the Vision 100 head are the Vinten 3 stage carbon fibre Pozi-Loc legs. Even though these are nice and light, they are remarkably stiff. I also have one of Vinten’s clever Spread Loc mid level spreaders. I first got one of these with my FibreTec legs and I’ve never looked back. You can lock the spreader at almost any spread position with a quick turn of the single locking knob. If you need to get the legs down low there is a little button on each arm of the spreader that allows the arm to extend to up to twice it’s original length. The end result is the ability to get very low, even when using standard legs.

Tripods are pretty boring things really. Not as glamourous as a camera, but an essential piece of kit anyway. Get the right tripod and it will last you many, many years, almost certainly out lasting those glamourous cameras. All the Vintens I have owned have been superb. The Vinten 100 is a solid, well made piece of kit that I don’t even really think about when I’m using it. And that is after all what you want, gear that just gets on with its job.

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Almost forgot……. FS100 Firmware Update.

September 23, 2011 alisterchapman 2 Comments

One important bit of news from IBC. There will be a FREE firmware update for the FS100 to allow 30P etc on a 25P model and vice versa. So after the update, as far as I know, it will do 24P (23.98) 25P, 30P, 50i, 60i, 50P, 60P. Impressive! Now what I don’t know is whether the end user will be able to apply the update, or whether you’ll have to get it done by a dealer or Sony, in which case there may be a charge. I was not given a timeframe, but I would imagine it will be before the end f the year.

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Arizona Lightning 3D footage.

September 22, 2011 alisterchapman Leave a comment

Here’s a quick video of some of the 3D lightning footage I shot in Arizona last month. It was shot using one of my Genus Hurricane rigs in side by side mode and a pair of PMW-F3’s. The clip can viewed in 3D or 2D and the 3D mode selected by clicking through to Youtube. The night time and evening shots have been rotoscoped to enhance the 3D effect.

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Help! I can’t get my footage into the edit suite.

September 22, 2011 alisterchapman Leave a comment

OK, OK, it’s not me having the problem. This is something that cropped up on another forum. It’s a common tale these days. A cameraman that is trying to deliver a file based format to an edit suite that does not have software that recognises the native camera files.

Yes it frustrating and annoying. Trying to un-wrap or transcode can be time consuming. You might even have to, heaven forbid, buy some extra software.

So whose fault is this. Is it because the camera manufacturers are bring out new cameras on a yearly basis or is it something else? Should we blame the software writers, or maybe the computer manufacturers?

We all got spoilt by the use of DVCAM and DVCPRO which are variations of the consumer DV products, so the mass market consumer codecs and connections work for us pro’s too and these are built in to most NLE’s.

Since the advent of file based formats we expect to be able to instantly import footage with no extra hardware and free software, but with ever changing computer operating systems, continuously “upgraded” edit software and the desire for faster, bigger, better leading to new cameras arriving every year it’s hard for Sony, Panasonic etc to keep up. They will almost always be a step or two behind as they have to wait for the NLE software to be finished before they can write the free software to link the cameras to the editor.

But hang on a minute. Is this really the fault of the equipment makers or software writer? Or is it simply that we are expecting too much from a computer based edit suite?

The key thing missing from so many so called edit suites these day is SDi or HDSDi. Worst case scenario: Go back to basics. Output the video from the camera (or a deck) via SDI into the edit suite and record it on the suite. A HDSDi/Component/Composite cards cost very little and will allow the editor to ingest just about anything without any codec worries. Back in the day…. when tape was king…. It was expected that the edit suite would be more than just a computer, it would also have tape decks etc to allow you to get material in and out. I guess these day we just expect everything to work without investing in hardware.
One thing I’m guilty of, is always trying to have the latest software and latest cameras. In many respects that’s asking for trouble. No one forces me to buy the very latest, particularly software. It’s often better to stay at least one or two releases behind. let someone else sort out the bugs. Bugs that will inevitably only come to light in real world workflows when 1000’s of people are pushing the software to it’s limits day in day out.

So… Get an HDSDi card, stay on a stable release of your chosen NLE and make sure you have the hardware you need to play back your footage over HDSDi and you should be fine.

Before you shoot me down in flames… I do wish, want, desire that all cameras, all formats, all codecs will work without extra hardware in every NLE on every operating system at every resolution/frame rate etc with one simple push of the “import” button. But you have to be realistic with so many possible combinations, sometimes you have to bite the bullet and take a step back in time.

cameras, Uncategorized

Travel Show shot with F3 wins outstanding Cinematography Emmy!

September 16, 2011 alisterchapman 1 Comment

The Travel Channel show Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations – Haiti has won an Emmy for outstanding Cinematography. The award is shared by Zach Zamboni, Director of Photography and Todd Liebler,Director of Photography. According to my sources the show was shot using a Sony PMW-F3, so congratulations to them. If anyone finds a clip I’d love to see it. The F3 has to be one of my all time favourite cameras, I really enjoy shooting with it as it puts the creativity lost on small sensor cameras back into the hands of the operator.