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Rokinon Cine Lenses-Second Look

Still loving the Rokinon Cine lenses.  I have three now: the 24mm, 35mm for a few months and the 85mm just came in last week.  All the lenses are at a T1.5 max exposure. 

The 85mm is a little smaller than the 24 and the 35.  It still has both an iris gear and a focus gear.  Very handy for jib work.  Since this one just came in, I haven’t had a chance to test it in the field yet – but plan to in January.

The build quality is just as amazing.  The markings are nice and bold (although still only on the driver’s side).  The gears seem to work nicely with my FF.  And… the 85mm has a deep filter thread.  I ordered from B&H so I also ordered a Tiffen UV filter to go with.  The pair shipped as one and I knew that I would have the lens protected as soon as it arrived.

I’m hoping the rumors about a 50mm Cine lens are true.  I would like to round out my basic prime set now and then start adding T&S lenses and other more specialized glass later in 2013.

I’ll keep you posted as I put this one through it’s paces on the F3 and the 5D2…
Until next time, good shooting.

TDTrey.com

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My F3 Christmas Wish List

OK.  So we didn’t all blow up today – YAY!!!  Now it’s time to start thinking about questions for the big man in red ( and I don’t mean Jim Jannard =)

Here’s my wish list for my Sony F3 from Sony in 2013:
  • Could we get an upgrade for 4:2:2 internal recording with 50 m/bits throughput?
  • Is there enough processing power to give us RAW out of the F3?
  • If the sensor is 4K can it be De-Bayer’d down to 2K to an external recorder?
  • Can we us the new faster SxS cards with an upgrade to the firmware?
  • If not free, could this be done for a purchased upgrade under $2000?
So,  obviously what I’m aiming for here is a 2K RAW F3 upgrade for under $2000 to extend the life of our cameras as we start to save up for the F5 and F55.  I think we’ll need another year or two for 4K to be requested by clients and this gives us a path to stick with and the ability to use our current configurations a little longer.

Seems like there is ‘a storm a brewin’ for the 4K market but we won’t know anything until it passes.  If these cameras can be upgraded for a few bucks now and stay relevant until the new crop (no pun intended ) of sensors is released – could be a good thing.
Just thinking out loud… Santa Sony are you listening???
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone.  I look forward to hearing from you in 2013 =)
Until next time, good shooting.

TDTrey.com

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Rokinon Cine Lenses-First Look

Just got the sneak release of the Rokinon 35mm T1.5 Cine lens from B & H — Wow.  Very impressed with it out of the box.
I’m going to be using it on my F3 so the build quality needs to be OK and lets face it… It has to look a little impressive besides being sharp.  I did a lot of research on the Bower, Samyang, Rokinon brands (they are all the same manufacturer) and thanks to information found on KenRockwell.com site and a few other sites these lenses seem really sharp in comparison to their Nikkor counterparts.  I thought I would give them a try and report back.  They aren’t supposed to be out until September but a few got released early and I was able to get one.  I’m waiting for the 24mm, 50mm and 85mm.
Build quality is very nice at first blush.  Not all plasticy.  The witness marks are on the left side only.  Barrel rotation is about 180 degrees and smooth.  Aperture rotation is smooth as well.  Image looks nice and sharp on the first tests.  Bokeh is creamy.  It is a full frame or FX lens so compared to my 5D2 where it’s a 35mm it’s more like a 50mm field of view on the F3.

All in all a nice lens so far.  More to follow…

Until next time, good shooting.

TDTrey.com

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Which Camera?? Decided… Sony F3

Well after a little over a year of searching and waiting and wanting I made a what I think is a fine decision for my next camera.  For those of you who have been following my “which camera” posts you’ve scene me ponder everything from the Scarletus… I mean, Scarlet.  And the 5Dmk3, Nikon D800, FS100, FS700 and more.  But after working with the Sony F3 for others I decided to get one of my own.  Great Camera!!!
I went to CineGear this year to look at everything that was coming out and projected to be out soon.  Lots of cool stuff – (technical term).  Spent quite a while at the Canon booth and the Sony Booth.  Big competition there.  With all the research about new cameras and features I was feeling very lost and then about 2 weeks ago sat down and took a hard look at what I do and how this new crop of cameras could affect that – here’s what I found:

Most used this year: 5Dmk2
Most flexible: Sony EX3
Best combo of the two: Sony F3

I’m not being asked to go 4K just yet. If need be I can rent an EPIC from VR and go crazy with resolution.  Super Slowmo is great but likely to get overused in my circles and burn out quickly and again — EPIC if needed.  Super Shallow DoF nice but not the end all be all.  The F3 seems to fit the bill right down the middle.
The best part I like is I’m already an EX3 owner so all my achechepies plug right in. I’m planning to do the S-Log upgrade soon so I’ll keep you posted on the progress.  Also I’m getting a set of the Rokinon T1.5 cine lenses as the come out.  See my review of the 35mm T1.5.  I’ll be getting the 24mm, 35mm, 50mm and 85mm.  I can rent a Zeiss ZF.2 kit when needed but I wanted to start with the Rokinons to give them a try.  I got the Tokina 11-16 in Nikon F — no cine mod yet; a Nikkor 28-70 ƒ2.8 and a Nikkor 80-200 ƒ2.8.  It will be a balanced kit when I”m done.

Well dinner is ready.  More to come…

Until next time, good shooting

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Which Camera(s) cont’d – Sony FS700

Well, looks like Sony has gone and done it again…. The FS700 is the new camera to beat. I thought I would wait until the dust settled to put my two cents in. I’ve got nothing to report that hasn’t already been written — Other than WOW!!! wait… I read that somewhere too…

This seems like what the C300 should have been, what the Scarlet X might have been and what we were hoping the 5Dmk3 would have been. And it’s a Sony =)

I was very intrigued with the FS100 but not completely sold. And have been looking for a way to use my Canon EF glass to make the package a done deal. I found the Metabones adapter for the lensing and the battery support for running all my monitoring but was not just there yet… Then I was hipped to the FS700 last Monday and everything changed.

Looks like the new camera route might be to get the FS 700 ASAP. Shoot the 5Dmk2 for as long as I can. Rent the Mark III when needed. Adapte the 5D cage to the 700 for maximum use. If I still get requests for the 5D a lot upgrade later and replace the mark II….

Exciting times my friends… exciting times indeed!!!!

Good FS700 resources:

Andy and AbleCine – Video Overview

Den Lennie

Frank Glencairn

Well that’s it for now. Until next time, good shooting.

TDTrey.com

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Sony PMW-F3 and Non PL Lenses

OK. So we have the 3 SONY primes 35, 50 and 85mm T3’ish — very nice. Also we have the RED 18-50 T3 PL zoom – handy. When they were offering the pair, 18-50 and 50-150 from Optimo, it was a great range and deal… But now it’s a different pricing structure… So we have steered ourselves down the NIKON road for a little while =)

Ken Rockwell.com and eBay are your friends. We went through Ken’s sight and double checked our lenses for reviews, tips and tricks and finally general pricing considerations. We decided on covering a range from 28mm to 200mm with a 28-70 ƒ2.8 ED and a 80-200 ƒ2.8 ED. Really rugged, well built and clean.

The 80-200 came in a week ago and we were able to take it to Duclos Lenses in Conoga Park last week. REALLY nice guys Paul and Matthew. Boy do they know their stuff. As it turned out they were doing a run of Cinemods on 80-200 Nikkor lenses that week and just added our parts to the run. We dropped off the lens in the morning and went to lunch and it was done by the time we got back an hour later. Awesome!!!

To add to our collection we also got the 28-70 this week. We’ll test it out on a commercial shoot this coming week. We’ll have it modded probably later this week or next. The mod is great – they remove the “click-stops” in the aperture ring and add a focus gear. If you like they will upgrade to front flange to 80mm for consistency.

The look seems very nice from these lenses. Bokeh is pretty smooth. Don’t see that much vignetting in the way we use the lenses. All in all I think a good decision.

While we were at Duclos we checked out their 11-16 lens – very cool. Again – rugged!! Worked really well with the F3. Gives you a great wide look. They are so popular for the RED and EPIC and F3 that there is a fair sized waiting list – well worth the wait and the money.

More to follow as we put the lenses through some real world testing…

Until next time, good shooting

TDTrey.com

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Sony PMW-F3 and Corporate Video or: how I took the primes and learned to love the zoom

At least our first outing with the F3 didn’t bomb… The following is a quick recap of our experiences with the F3 during a typical corporate interview project.

Quite a bit different from the gorgeous sunrise / sunset, stage footage that seems to be popping up all over the web showing off the fantastic capabilities of the new F3; a straight ahead corporate shoot has a unique set of challenges and potential pitfalls. Granted you are not hiking into the back areas of Yellow Stone or running a 30 person set with all the trimmings – but you are usually tied to certain time constraints and have some limited space and lighting control. All that being said I think we can read into this post with the right mind set =)

The F3 operates a lot like it’s EX brethren. Most of the same menu functions and settings apply. For instance, the audio knobs are in a different place and I had to remind myself to stop looking the the “Internal / External” mic switch. It’s back to old-school plug in the mics you want to use. We were running with one wireless for the day and decided to send the feed to both channels 1 & 2 and keep channel 2 at -6dB as a safety. Same as an EX1 or 3 to set up. I put the Sennheiser EW100 at 0dB AF output and ran the transmitter at -20dB sensitivity. At the end of the day I wish I would have run the transmitter at -30dB – our last interview had a booming voice at times and I got a little close on channel 1 to the red…

OK, a little more about this title (aside from the obvious Dr. Strangelove homage). We had our full set of Sony primes: 35mm, 50mm and 85mm with us but I wanted to run with the RED 18-50 all day. I felt the zoom would keep us moving fast and on schedule. The crop factor on the F3 is almost identical to the 7D (see my F3 Days-Day 2 post) so the 18-50 was more like a 28-80mm focal length. We decided to buy the RED as it does talk to the F3 through the cook contacts and is fairly reasonable in price — all things considered — for a PL zoom. It looks quite nice. Outdoors we use it at a ƒ2.8/4 split with both NDs kicked in. When we moved inside we ran WFO at ƒ2.8 and adjusted our key to match. Interestingly a little soft… I had to use the “Expand Focus” a lot to nail the eyes. I had the peaking set and was getting good readings but when you looked at the feed on my JVC 17″ HD monitor it “just looked soft”. In retrospect I think WFO is not the best choice for this (or any) lens… I should have run a little closer to 4 and played my 1/3 – 2/3 ratio a little more to shallow the DoF. We got a nice look though =)

Another thing we noticed, from a mechanical stand point, is our matte box from our EX3’s is just a bit small for the shade on the RED 18-50 to fit through… saw a little vignetting. We made the decision to just push through the vignetting at 20mm – it was real close – no biggy. I’m talking to the manufacturer about a backmount flange replacement to solve this. Just the kind of things you find as you are going through… The matte box opening is 100mm and the shade is 114… Oops – my bad.

I set up the camera with the RedRock rails and support base. The sliding plate makes balancing a breeze. I have these plates and receivers on all my cameras and tripods. Sachtler plate $85 – Manfrotto 357 plate system $49, additional plates $27 — Duh =) This system works great with our matte box and RedRock v2 follow focus. We put an ARRI focus ring on the EX3’s. It’s nice all the PL lenses have the proper .8 focus rings/gears built in.

The HUD in the monitor is very informative just like the EX1 and 3. I use the dual zebras and peaking a lot. The histogram is handy depending on wardrobe. Audio levels metering is so nice after spending time this year working with my 5D+Zoom – I can see the levels through the picture and never have to look away at the Zoom. As I said, the RED lens talks to the camera so the aperture, zoom and focus distance displays all work – Cool.

Coming into the home stretch… Using the F3 with the 17″ HD client monitor was great – both for composition and focus watch dogs… The hardest thing about transitioning from the EX1’s and 3’s and other ENG cameras to the shallow DoF rigs is the tendency to still just “wing it”. You can do that with an ENG rig in running and gunning mode but with a 5D or F3 or any of the shallow DoF cameras it’s a challenge. I often have to “retrain” the producers I am working with to not just say “grab the camera and lets go… Oh by the way, I need this shot to be really shallow and sexy” – while we run along side a person moving through a back-lit office setting… It’s back to basics: good blocking + good rehearsal = good focus.

Well, thanks for checking out another TD Blog. Looking forward to the next time,

TDTrey.com