Comments on: We Have A Winner To Our “Where’s the 5D” Contest

By: Shane

Shane — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 05:34:45 +0000

Anders, no we have not had any rolling shutter issues other than when we shoot guns at camera, the muzzle flash coming out of M4 rifles, when we were up close we went to a 1/30 sec shutter to help the black band that we were getting when we were at 1/50 sec. I have not heard any rumors of that, I have asked Canon to build it, but have not heard back. You can go into the inner workings of your firmware and create you own raw file. I tried it. It is not bad, but I still like the neutral setting because I can light off of my HP monitor.

By: anders

anders — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:18:09 +0000

I see…that makes sense with the ND. What ISO were you shooting at? I use the lexar 45mb/s 300X Extreme IV UDMA cards that you mention, and a transend with same specs. I recall it wasn’t a rolling shutter isuse, but it had a little bit too much stutter. Have you had any rolling shutter issues?
Have you heard any rumors about a raw module? Do you think it’s possible with the 5D?
Thank you for explaining how you handled the natural light.

By: Shane

Shane — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:11:40 +0000

Anders, thank you for noticing that I am addressing each person and taking the time. You guys ROCK out there. Keep it coming

By: Shane

Shane — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:10:00 +0000

Anders,When you ND the windows the beautiful natural light is compromised. I like to take what is there and then finesse it to work for the story and the scene. The interior would have gotten incredibly contrasty when you restrict all the natural light coming in the windows. No lights were used outside, that was all natural light , shooting right place, right time. Your problem with the panning shots, what cards are you recording onto? They have to be Extreme IV UDMA 45mb/s. Anything less than that and you are going to get rolling shutter issues. The camera processes at 45mb/s, when you use a card that is less than that it has to guess what the next frame is. This is why you get propellor blades that bend, or panning shots that chatter.

By: anders

anders — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:22:44 +0000

Thanks for the insight and advice. Stills blows my mind that a cinematographer on your level takes the time to write and answer questions like this. It’s awesome….

I used mpeg streamclip and it worked fine. It had a hard time dealing with paning shoots, but the H.264 files suffered from that already..so what can you expect!
Could you have ND’ed the windows as well, or would that have been to difficult?
Did you use large light sources to balance out the exterior? Tungsten / HMI?

By: Shane

Shane — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:52:07 +0000

Anders, Thank you very much, no I have never used Sigma lenses. The Navy Seal project was shot 30p and then put through the Twixtor 30-24 pull up conversion. There logarithm is the best. It was all natural light on exteriors of the Yacht take down sequence. I used lights in the interior to bring up the interior so that I could hold the beautiful ocean outside. I would buy the Zeiss ZE primes, they are the sharpest and are cheaper than the Canon glass. They are all adapted with a Canon mount and talk to the camera. They resolve the best for HD video. I will definitely give you a shout when I am heading to your neck of the woods.

By: anders

anders — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 11:26:44 +0000

Hi Shane

Very educational stuff you have in your blog and on your site in general. It really shows superabundance.
Have you ever tried using sigma lenses on your 5D’s? Personally I have only used sigma because they were really cheap compared to canon glass. I only have zooms though covering 12 to 200mm. My next investment will definitely be primes.
Did you do any frame rate conversion on your navy seals project, or did you just use the 30p frames? Seems like its 30p.
How was your lighting setup on this project? Was it all natural lighting and bouncing that?
If you ever come to denmark for a project, dont hesitate emailing me if you need an ekstra operator.

Thank you very much

Anders

By: Shane

Shane — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 06:02:34 +0000

Shawn, The Zeiss lenses I talk about are the new ZE and ZF SLR lenses that Zeiss just came out with. They have more of a cine focus throw then a still focus throw, which is very difficult for a focus puller. On the Panavision mount, they are totally removable. They are just adjusted per your body, but can come off and you can use whatever lens you want. It is just like the fotodiox mounts that I use for my Zeiss ZF lenses. The camera is not altered in anyway.

By: Shawn Larkin

Shawn Larkin — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:46:04 +0000

Shane,

Thanks for answering my question about the mounts. Very helpful. A quick follow up:

Since you write about Zeiss as well on this blog–which traditionally use PL for Arri–how did you test these on the 5D?

Like were they the Panavision/Zeiss hybrid lenses that Panavsion rents for its cameras OR were they the Zeiss SLR lenses with EF mounts?

And for the Panavision mounts that you use, are these totally removable AND do they not have to modify your 5D permanently ? Like do they only have to modify the Pani-mount so when you take off the mount, the camera body is pretty much the same as before putting on the lens mount?

Again, thanks in advance.

Shawn

By: Shane

Shane — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:51:42 +0000

Franklin, thank you so much. I appreciate your words so much and it makes me try harder in educating everyone with what I have learned. I love giving back, holding stuff close to the chest gets you nowhere. I respect all of you and will continue to push forward the paradigm shift.