Brian Iannone
Well-known member
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2011
- Messages
- 1,501
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 36
Some great BTS shots. 
Welcome to our community
Be a part of something great, join today!
Red Scarlet X #316 "Skully"
- Thread starter Phil Holland
- Start date
- Thread starter
- Moderator
- #262
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2007
- Messages
- 13,390
- Reaction score
- 793
- Points
- 113
- Location
- Los Angeles
- Website
- www.phfx.com
Thanks Brian, and good to meet you last night!
I appologize for the two week break there between useful posts. Been a bit busy prepping for "Illusion", a VFX heavy short film I've been tapped to DP this weekend and next week. I also had a couple meetings involving television shows that are actually interested in shooting/delivering at 4k. Fascinating stuff and I hope I'll be able to shoot one of those. I'll know more on that front near the end of March.
I do find it really interesting that nearly every shoot I've been on since getting the Red Scarlet X has been a VFX shoot of some sort. Here's "Skully" up on the Kessler Cineslider in front of a green screen:
Manfrotto 509HD/536 Impressions:
After much thinking, seeking advice, and testing many different fluid head/tripod combos I finally decided to pick up a Manfrotto 509HD. I also picked up the 536 carbon fiber legs after seeking the advice from other RedUsers and Tom Lowe's recommendation for them.
I gotta say after owning (and still have them) the 501, 503, and 701 heads I had low expectations. However, I gave the 509HD a fair shot and tested a whole lot of fluid heads against it. Some 10 times more expensive than the 509HD. The way I outfit my Scarlet I'm rarely pushing past 25lbs (even with PL glass) and usually I'm around 15-20lbs. I took a trip over to Filmtools here in Burbank and while I was getting some other goodies I grabbed a 20lb sandbag from up front and plopped it on their 509HD in the back to see how it felt. Later I actually brought my Scarlet into the store and gave it a true test drive. The 509HD is actually a real fluid head and is built real tough. I've been using it for around 72 hours now and so far I've been happy. Balances easily and has really nice fluidity. It's not like their previous heads at all. It's really a move in the right direction. In fact I don't know if there's a better value out there for the money.
I intend on getting the Miller Sprinter II or the OConner 30L legs at some point as I feel that I need a heavier duty two stage tripod than the two I currently own, but the 536 carbon fiber legs have been an exceptionally pleasant surprise and a good decision. Tom was totally right on this one. Having 7 feet of height in such a light weight and sturdy package is rad. At first I was hesitant to use this style of tripod on set due to the lack of a mid level spreader and concerns about vibration absorbtion, but Manfrotto has redesigned the leg positioning locks near the top of the tripod and I can confirm that this thing really absorbs vibration nicely. I love these sticks and they will likely be my main sticks for everything until I get a better two stage for on set use.
The combination of the 509HD and 536 CF legs has been a real joy and honestly a total surprise. I love how I can easily pick up the head/tripod combo from the "bridge". It's light enough for me to hike with and carry around, but it is still a very sturdy combo. I also like that I have the ability to use the same baseplate in those other smaller heads when I toss them onto the slider or jib. Manfrotto redemption for sure.
Here's a shot of me under the 536 legs. I'm 5'6":
Redrock Micro Follow Focus|blue Impressions:
Another problem I needed to solve was replacing my old and loathed Redrock Micro Follow Focus V2. I busted the mark pin, bent the gear shaft, and pretty much was never in love with the V2. After a thread of discussion here on Reduser I went out and started testing follow focus units. For me it came down to the new OConner OFocus DM and the Redrock Micro Follow Focus|blue. I tested the OFocus over at AbelCine and pretty much fell in love with it's silky smooth and solid movements. However, the Redrock FF|blue wasn't too far behind in performance and is significantly less expensive. I had to think about this one for a bit and sat on the decision for a couple weeks. I picked up the blue about 3 days ago as well and have been very happy with it so far. I did adjust the backlash to "tighten" it up to my desired feel. It must be said that after having a pretty much horrible opinion of the V2 and losing much faith in the Redrock camp due to it falling apart that the blue is about 300% better in every possible way. They really turned things around with the new design. I was very skeptical, but considering it's build quality and price to performance ratio I would say it's a solid buy. I will eventually pick up the studio side wheel. Redrock Micro redemption as well.
Here's a shot of the blue under the Canon 85mm f/1.2L showing the hard stops and the extremely useful feature of being able to position the focus pin marker.
SALT II Lens Tests 2012:
Evin Grant put together a big showdown of still lenses to see if they could stand up to the rigors of motion picture use. It was an honor to be a part of the testing and working with Evin, Matt Duclos, Matt Uhry, Luis Flores, and the rest of the team over at Duclos. I had a great time all day, which is rare for optical tests.
For those interested in shooting with still lenses on Epic/Scarlet (or any body for that matter) check out the SALT II thread here:
SALT II Lens Tests 2012 on Reduser
Importance of Light Protection:
It came up in this thread: Mattebox Advantages
But I wanted to share some compressed thoughts from that thread about the importance of light protection with these example images. Matte boxes are a necessary tool to me and at a minimum you should likely have at least one french flag on hand to protect yourself from light hitting your capture lens. Take a look at these two images of the OConner O-Box WM in action:
In that example you can see the side and top flag is protecting the front element from the light source as it's casting a shadow across the matte box (top image). The image below shows just exactly where and what that light is doing. It's "dangerously" close to camera and without a matte box or flag of some sort it would introduce flare and glare to the image and thus reducing the contrast and color.
Obviously in certain situations flare may be desired as a storytelling tool, stylistic choice, or just to add a bit of interest to a shot in general. I absolutely adore flare and the strange effects on different lenses and apertures. However, in some extreme situations it could potentially completely obliterate the shot:
Red Studios Hollywood:
I attended the Reducation Soire last night and that was real fun. Good to put faces to names and see some nice 4k material projected up on the stage. I really like the move of making Reducation X an almost "compressed film school" program. Congrats to Ted and Brian for pushing that forward. Great idea!
I've also been to the Red Store at RSH back to back days picking up random cables. Kelly is going to get sick of me at some point! I can't explain the warm feeling I get after doing anything over at Red. Everybody has been exceptionally nice and very helpful. Having RSH with supplies readily available is really an added benefit to anybody in production out in Los Angeles. In this particular instance picking up proprietary supplies for a shoot at the end of the week is just amazing. I can't express my gratitude enough for that. On a total side note I instruct on Sunday's at the Gnomon School of VFX and that's just a few blocks up the street from Red. Certainly a happy/random/kismet thing.
Shooting starts on "Illusion" at the end of the week. Then I'm going to see if I can produce a short for the Red 4k NAB event. Then a music video in early April. Busy, busy, busy.
I appologize for the two week break there between useful posts. Been a bit busy prepping for "Illusion", a VFX heavy short film I've been tapped to DP this weekend and next week. I also had a couple meetings involving television shows that are actually interested in shooting/delivering at 4k. Fascinating stuff and I hope I'll be able to shoot one of those. I'll know more on that front near the end of March.
I do find it really interesting that nearly every shoot I've been on since getting the Red Scarlet X has been a VFX shoot of some sort. Here's "Skully" up on the Kessler Cineslider in front of a green screen:
Manfrotto 509HD/536 Impressions:
After much thinking, seeking advice, and testing many different fluid head/tripod combos I finally decided to pick up a Manfrotto 509HD. I also picked up the 536 carbon fiber legs after seeking the advice from other RedUsers and Tom Lowe's recommendation for them.
I gotta say after owning (and still have them) the 501, 503, and 701 heads I had low expectations. However, I gave the 509HD a fair shot and tested a whole lot of fluid heads against it. Some 10 times more expensive than the 509HD. The way I outfit my Scarlet I'm rarely pushing past 25lbs (even with PL glass) and usually I'm around 15-20lbs. I took a trip over to Filmtools here in Burbank and while I was getting some other goodies I grabbed a 20lb sandbag from up front and plopped it on their 509HD in the back to see how it felt. Later I actually brought my Scarlet into the store and gave it a true test drive. The 509HD is actually a real fluid head and is built real tough. I've been using it for around 72 hours now and so far I've been happy. Balances easily and has really nice fluidity. It's not like their previous heads at all. It's really a move in the right direction. In fact I don't know if there's a better value out there for the money.
I intend on getting the Miller Sprinter II or the OConner 30L legs at some point as I feel that I need a heavier duty two stage tripod than the two I currently own, but the 536 carbon fiber legs have been an exceptionally pleasant surprise and a good decision. Tom was totally right on this one. Having 7 feet of height in such a light weight and sturdy package is rad. At first I was hesitant to use this style of tripod on set due to the lack of a mid level spreader and concerns about vibration absorbtion, but Manfrotto has redesigned the leg positioning locks near the top of the tripod and I can confirm that this thing really absorbs vibration nicely. I love these sticks and they will likely be my main sticks for everything until I get a better two stage for on set use.
The combination of the 509HD and 536 CF legs has been a real joy and honestly a total surprise. I love how I can easily pick up the head/tripod combo from the "bridge". It's light enough for me to hike with and carry around, but it is still a very sturdy combo. I also like that I have the ability to use the same baseplate in those other smaller heads when I toss them onto the slider or jib. Manfrotto redemption for sure.
Here's a shot of me under the 536 legs. I'm 5'6":
Redrock Micro Follow Focus|blue Impressions:
Another problem I needed to solve was replacing my old and loathed Redrock Micro Follow Focus V2. I busted the mark pin, bent the gear shaft, and pretty much was never in love with the V2. After a thread of discussion here on Reduser I went out and started testing follow focus units. For me it came down to the new OConner OFocus DM and the Redrock Micro Follow Focus|blue. I tested the OFocus over at AbelCine and pretty much fell in love with it's silky smooth and solid movements. However, the Redrock FF|blue wasn't too far behind in performance and is significantly less expensive. I had to think about this one for a bit and sat on the decision for a couple weeks. I picked up the blue about 3 days ago as well and have been very happy with it so far. I did adjust the backlash to "tighten" it up to my desired feel. It must be said that after having a pretty much horrible opinion of the V2 and losing much faith in the Redrock camp due to it falling apart that the blue is about 300% better in every possible way. They really turned things around with the new design. I was very skeptical, but considering it's build quality and price to performance ratio I would say it's a solid buy. I will eventually pick up the studio side wheel. Redrock Micro redemption as well.
Here's a shot of the blue under the Canon 85mm f/1.2L showing the hard stops and the extremely useful feature of being able to position the focus pin marker.
SALT II Lens Tests 2012:
Evin Grant put together a big showdown of still lenses to see if they could stand up to the rigors of motion picture use. It was an honor to be a part of the testing and working with Evin, Matt Duclos, Matt Uhry, Luis Flores, and the rest of the team over at Duclos. I had a great time all day, which is rare for optical tests.
For those interested in shooting with still lenses on Epic/Scarlet (or any body for that matter) check out the SALT II thread here:
SALT II Lens Tests 2012 on Reduser
Importance of Light Protection:
It came up in this thread: Mattebox Advantages
But I wanted to share some compressed thoughts from that thread about the importance of light protection with these example images. Matte boxes are a necessary tool to me and at a minimum you should likely have at least one french flag on hand to protect yourself from light hitting your capture lens. Take a look at these two images of the OConner O-Box WM in action:
In that example you can see the side and top flag is protecting the front element from the light source as it's casting a shadow across the matte box (top image). The image below shows just exactly where and what that light is doing. It's "dangerously" close to camera and without a matte box or flag of some sort it would introduce flare and glare to the image and thus reducing the contrast and color.
Obviously in certain situations flare may be desired as a storytelling tool, stylistic choice, or just to add a bit of interest to a shot in general. I absolutely adore flare and the strange effects on different lenses and apertures. However, in some extreme situations it could potentially completely obliterate the shot:
Red Studios Hollywood:
I attended the Reducation Soire last night and that was real fun. Good to put faces to names and see some nice 4k material projected up on the stage. I really like the move of making Reducation X an almost "compressed film school" program. Congrats to Ted and Brian for pushing that forward. Great idea!
I've also been to the Red Store at RSH back to back days picking up random cables. Kelly is going to get sick of me at some point! I can't explain the warm feeling I get after doing anything over at Red. Everybody has been exceptionally nice and very helpful. Having RSH with supplies readily available is really an added benefit to anybody in production out in Los Angeles. In this particular instance picking up proprietary supplies for a shoot at the end of the week is just amazing. I can't express my gratitude enough for that. On a total side note I instruct on Sunday's at the Gnomon School of VFX and that's just a few blocks up the street from Red. Certainly a happy/random/kismet thing.
Shooting starts on "Illusion" at the end of the week. Then I'm going to see if I can produce a short for the Red 4k NAB event. Then a music video in early April. Busy, busy, busy.
Darius Lyles
Well-known member
Awesome pics showing firsthand why a Mattebox is an essential tool.
Doug Beatty
Well-known member
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2011
- Messages
- 875
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 0
- Location
- Los Angeles
- Website
- www.digitalladder.com
Glad you gave the 509HD a chance. Whenever I mention Red and Manfrotto in the same sentence, people imagine the weight of an R1 on a 501 head and this couldn't be further from the truth.
Two features people don't comment a lot about that I love are the illuminated bubble balance and the ability to have the head tell you when you have centered up the load. It's silky smooth and the 536B are sturdy and tall as hell!
Two features people don't comment a lot about that I love are the illuminated bubble balance and the ability to have the head tell you when you have centered up the load. It's silky smooth and the 536B are sturdy and tall as hell!
BrandonChristensen
Well-known member
That tripod set up looks hilarious!
This thread keeps on giving, thanks Phil.
This thread keeps on giving, thanks Phil.
- Thread starter
- Moderator
- #266
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2007
- Messages
- 13,390
- Reaction score
- 793
- Points
- 113
- Location
- Los Angeles
- Website
- www.phfx.com
I agree Doug. The 509HD is a different beast. It's not as solid on the movement return as say a an OConner 1030, but it's pretty much great in all other areas for cameras of this size. I'm not using the centering as much as I thought I would as that only really takes a few seconds to balance, but I agree it's a nice feature. My old 503 had the illuminated bubble level and that's something I think every head should have.
I'll be putting these legs to the test on Saturday for sure. We got some crazy terrain to deal with!
I'll be putting these legs to the test on Saturday for sure. We got some crazy terrain to deal with!
BrandonChristensen
Well-known member
Are you intentionally writing 709HD?
Aren't you talking about the 509HD?
Aren't you talking about the 509HD?
- Thread starter
- Moderator
- #268
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2007
- Messages
- 13,390
- Reaction score
- 793
- Points
- 113
- Location
- Los Angeles
- Website
- www.phfx.com
Talking about the 509HD. I have dyslexia that occasionally bites me when I write. Fixed the post.
BrandonChristensen
Well-known member
No problem, I went to Google to see what I'd been missing...found some blu ray player and then spent about 2 hours trying to fashion it into a tripod head.
It actually worked quite well.
It actually worked quite well.
Adam Michael Carr
Well-known member
I like the 509 as well Phil. We have been using the 504 for the past year for TV stuff and I haven't been stoked on it. I was nervous making the jump to the 509, but the price was right. I havnt been disappointed.
Patrick Grossien
Well-known member
Hehe, I'm glad to hear that you like your new head and sticks. (Sounds awkward ... hehe)
cheers!
Patrick Grossien
Well-known member
Patrick Grossien
Well-known member
BTW what setup do you use for your 15mm rods?
cheers!
cheers!
Lliam Worthington
Well-known member
heheh... That's a coooool shot. )
)- Thread starter
- Moderator
- #275
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2007
- Messages
- 13,390
- Reaction score
- 793
- Points
- 113
- Location
- Los Angeles
- Website
- www.phfx.com
I'm using a baseplate and LWS 15mm rod support my machinist made for me. It's extremely similar to the Viewfactor plate, but a little different. Whenever the top is done, you'll see just how different
Mike Garrick
Well-known member
Hey Phil, another great post.
Interesting point about Manfrotto a known name in stills circles but a name largely ignored in our circles. However their QR system works a treat & is actually, in some ways, more flexible & far less costly then many dovetails & QR systems . I had dismissed this tripod head "as just another manfrotto" maybe should reconsider. Thanks for the heads up.
Interesting point about Manfrotto a known name in stills circles but a name largely ignored in our circles. However their QR system works a treat & is actually, in some ways, more flexible & far less costly then many dovetails & QR systems . I had dismissed this tripod head "as just another manfrotto" maybe should reconsider. Thanks for the heads up.
Last edited:
Patrick Grossien
Well-known member
I'm using a baseplate and LWS 15mm rod support my machinist made for me. It's extremely similar to the Viewfactor plate, but a little different. Whenever the top is done, you'll see just how different
Hehe. Thanks. I guess I'll just have to stay with VF or RED then... Or get my own machinist
I guess you hang out too much at RED. You got that teasing attitude well figured out
Steve Murray
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2007
- Messages
- 499
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 0
- Location
- Asheville, NC
- Website
- www.stevemurray.com
Phil be sure to check out the Cartoni H604 CF 2-stage legs as they are MUCH, MUCH sturdier than the Miller or the O'Connor 25L (have owned both). Perhaps the 30L can compare (have not tried those) but the others seem like toy legs compared to the Cartoni's. They are rock solid and about the same $$. Check them out.
- Thread starter
- Moderator
- #279
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2007
- Messages
- 13,390
- Reaction score
- 793
- Points
- 113
- Location
- Los Angeles
- Website
- www.phfx.com
Mike Garrick - Totally agree. I have 4 Manfrotto still tripods with heads and love them, but prior to the 509HD there really wasn't too much to write home about on the fluid head front.
Patrick Grossien - I have to admit I enjoy going over to Red Studios Hollywood a lot, maybe they are rubbing off on me. It's incredibly useful to have their studio, store, and event locations in Hollywood. Tremendously good idea to take over Ren-Mar Studios when they did. I was at the first "Red Day" event just after that happened and it's very impressive to see how far the lot has come.
Steve Murray - Thanks Steve, I'll take a look at those legs. I have a few more things on my "list of toys" prior to hitting those legs, but I'll do my best to try as many as I can before purchasing.
Illusion BTS
I just wrapped on a VFX short called "Illusion". I served as Director of Photography. There are still two pickup days left on the schedule, but that's way down the line. Fun shoot. Outdoors, within a "cave" set, and a blue screen with some aerial harness work. A little bit of motion control even.
We had a lot of Redmags on hand, which allowed us to shoot fairly freely, but we had a DIT on set and I even brought my "mini DITy" in case rough color or review needed to happen.
Here's mini DITy setup at the top of the hill a bit away from production space. Redstation, 2x USB3.0 Hard Drives, and a V-Mount charger. Also on the cart, misc grip gear and cables. Flag for the sunlight, and bag for gravity.
On of the interesting challenges we faced on this project was the outdoor work. We were on a hill with a fairly steep incline for much of the first day of shooting. The ground was also extremely soft. Every camera setup required caution and leveling. Things got a bit more tricky when the slider moves came into play.
Importance of Backing your Material Up
Just some words of caution. I had what I what I would describe as a catastrophic computer failure earlier this week. Something freaked out on the power supply and toasted some RAM, a video card, and my main hard drive. This is my primary edit and color workstation and I was in the middle of working on a project. This was my first major system failure in 13 years of working professionally. I was well prepared for this due to a very keen habit of backing up my data regularly and at this point I'm back up and running again without any loss of data. The only thing lost here was time. Word to the wise, back up frequently.
Still Lens Kit
I've been getting a lot of private messages regarding the still lenses I'm using for motion work. Here's my current kit of what is on me most of the time.
Case 1: Prime Kit
Sigma 14mm f/2.8, Canon 20mm f/2.8, Canon 24mm f/1.4L, Canon 35mm f/1.4L, Canon 50mm f/1.2L, Leica Elmarit-R 60mm f/2.8 Canon 85mm f/1.2L, Canon 100mm f/2.8, Canon 135mm f/2L, Canon 200mm f/2.8L
Case 2: Zoom Kit w/ a couple more primes
Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8, Canon 24-70mm f/2.8, Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS, Sigma 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye, Olympus 18mm f/3.5, Voigtlander Ultron 40mm f/2 SL-II, Leica 90mm Summicron-R
Case 3/4: Long Lens Kit
Sigma 300mm f/2.8, Century Precision Optics 600mm f/4.5, 1.4X Teleconverter, a 2X Teleconverter.
The black Storm case in this shot is "Case 1". Handy and rugged, also it's the perfect size to mount all of those lenses vertically:
A few of my Leica Rs stay at home as well as the Canon 100mm f/2 as I tend to use the 85mm f/1.2L or punch in to the 135mm f/2. My older Canon FL glass and a few of my Nikon lenses also get to take a lot of time off at the moment.
The odd monkey in the tree is the Canon 20mm f/2.8. I seem to have a very, very good copy of this lens. Most users I know absolutely hate it. I wish it was an f/2 or f/1.4, but I can live with this for now. I wish the same for my Olympus 18mm f/3.5 for that matter.
You can clearly see I'm a prime shooter, but I'll add the Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L to my zoom kit soonish as I'm impressed by the optics on the newest version. If I can avoid zooms I do prefer primes for a million different reasons. If time or portability is a concern, zooms are what I have to go with.
Another oddity. You may also ask why I have the Tokina 11-16mm and the Sigma 14mm f/2.8. Many have pointed out that the focus throw on the Tokina is extremely short. However, the Sigma 14mm f/2.8 is a much longer throw and much nicer to pull with. Also optically speaking it is a better lens. Less geometric distortion, closer focus, more pleasing out of focus blur, and certainly a bit sharper wide open; which you can see here:
Redvolts
I'm finding that I'm using my Redvolts more and more. A few months ago when I first recieved the Scarlet X I didn't really use them that much at all. However, I'm finding them to be very useful where light weight and compact setups are desired. For instance this dirty vertical slide move was much easier without the V-Mount Brick:
Red XLR Cables
Prior to shooting "Illusion" I zipped on over to the Red Store at Red Studios Hollywood and picked up the new XLR Microphone Cables so we could feed some scratch audio. I did this the day before shooting and ended up gaff taping them to some rods mounted off my 3" inch rods below my top handle, which you can see in the image below. We had a great audio guy with a Sound Devices 744T who worked hard and very well. Never minded being attached to him. However, our HDSDI was certainly in the way a bunch. I need a breakout box or wireless solution pronto.
And at the moment I'm doing a bit of last minute pre-production on my 4k Portrait project at the moment. Shooting tomorrow through early next week. Got my music license coming through this week, and have about 5 days to edit, grade, and export. Should be a fun race to the finish. I'll do my best to document everything. I'm going to attempt a couple of fun things and hopefully show what the Scarlet can do in a variety of situations.
Patrick Grossien - I have to admit I enjoy going over to Red Studios Hollywood a lot, maybe they are rubbing off on me. It's incredibly useful to have their studio, store, and event locations in Hollywood. Tremendously good idea to take over Ren-Mar Studios when they did. I was at the first "Red Day" event just after that happened and it's very impressive to see how far the lot has come.
Steve Murray - Thanks Steve, I'll take a look at those legs. I have a few more things on my "list of toys" prior to hitting those legs, but I'll do my best to try as many as I can before purchasing.
Illusion BTS
I just wrapped on a VFX short called "Illusion". I served as Director of Photography. There are still two pickup days left on the schedule, but that's way down the line. Fun shoot. Outdoors, within a "cave" set, and a blue screen with some aerial harness work. A little bit of motion control even.
We had a lot of Redmags on hand, which allowed us to shoot fairly freely, but we had a DIT on set and I even brought my "mini DITy" in case rough color or review needed to happen.
Here's mini DITy setup at the top of the hill a bit away from production space. Redstation, 2x USB3.0 Hard Drives, and a V-Mount charger. Also on the cart, misc grip gear and cables. Flag for the sunlight, and bag for gravity.
On of the interesting challenges we faced on this project was the outdoor work. We were on a hill with a fairly steep incline for much of the first day of shooting. The ground was also extremely soft. Every camera setup required caution and leveling. Things got a bit more tricky when the slider moves came into play.
Importance of Backing your Material Up
Just some words of caution. I had what I what I would describe as a catastrophic computer failure earlier this week. Something freaked out on the power supply and toasted some RAM, a video card, and my main hard drive. This is my primary edit and color workstation and I was in the middle of working on a project. This was my first major system failure in 13 years of working professionally. I was well prepared for this due to a very keen habit of backing up my data regularly and at this point I'm back up and running again without any loss of data. The only thing lost here was time. Word to the wise, back up frequently.
Still Lens Kit
I've been getting a lot of private messages regarding the still lenses I'm using for motion work. Here's my current kit of what is on me most of the time.
Case 1: Prime Kit
Sigma 14mm f/2.8, Canon 20mm f/2.8, Canon 24mm f/1.4L, Canon 35mm f/1.4L, Canon 50mm f/1.2L, Leica Elmarit-R 60mm f/2.8 Canon 85mm f/1.2L, Canon 100mm f/2.8, Canon 135mm f/2L, Canon 200mm f/2.8L
Case 2: Zoom Kit w/ a couple more primes
Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8, Canon 24-70mm f/2.8, Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS, Sigma 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye, Olympus 18mm f/3.5, Voigtlander Ultron 40mm f/2 SL-II, Leica 90mm Summicron-R
Case 3/4: Long Lens Kit
Sigma 300mm f/2.8, Century Precision Optics 600mm f/4.5, 1.4X Teleconverter, a 2X Teleconverter.
The black Storm case in this shot is "Case 1". Handy and rugged, also it's the perfect size to mount all of those lenses vertically:
A few of my Leica Rs stay at home as well as the Canon 100mm f/2 as I tend to use the 85mm f/1.2L or punch in to the 135mm f/2. My older Canon FL glass and a few of my Nikon lenses also get to take a lot of time off at the moment.
The odd monkey in the tree is the Canon 20mm f/2.8. I seem to have a very, very good copy of this lens. Most users I know absolutely hate it. I wish it was an f/2 or f/1.4, but I can live with this for now. I wish the same for my Olympus 18mm f/3.5 for that matter.
You can clearly see I'm a prime shooter, but I'll add the Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L to my zoom kit soonish as I'm impressed by the optics on the newest version. If I can avoid zooms I do prefer primes for a million different reasons. If time or portability is a concern, zooms are what I have to go with.
Another oddity. You may also ask why I have the Tokina 11-16mm and the Sigma 14mm f/2.8. Many have pointed out that the focus throw on the Tokina is extremely short. However, the Sigma 14mm f/2.8 is a much longer throw and much nicer to pull with. Also optically speaking it is a better lens. Less geometric distortion, closer focus, more pleasing out of focus blur, and certainly a bit sharper wide open; which you can see here:
Redvolts
I'm finding that I'm using my Redvolts more and more. A few months ago when I first recieved the Scarlet X I didn't really use them that much at all. However, I'm finding them to be very useful where light weight and compact setups are desired. For instance this dirty vertical slide move was much easier without the V-Mount Brick:
Red XLR Cables
Prior to shooting "Illusion" I zipped on over to the Red Store at Red Studios Hollywood and picked up the new XLR Microphone Cables so we could feed some scratch audio. I did this the day before shooting and ended up gaff taping them to some rods mounted off my 3" inch rods below my top handle, which you can see in the image below. We had a great audio guy with a Sound Devices 744T who worked hard and very well. Never minded being attached to him. However, our HDSDI was certainly in the way a bunch. I need a breakout box or wireless solution pronto.
And at the moment I'm doing a bit of last minute pre-production on my 4k Portrait project at the moment. Shooting tomorrow through early next week. Got my music license coming through this week, and have about 5 days to edit, grade, and export. Should be a fun race to the finish. I'll do my best to document everything. I'm going to attempt a couple of fun things and hopefully show what the Scarlet can do in a variety of situations.
Doug Beatty
Well-known member
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2011
- Messages
- 875
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 0
- Location
- Los Angeles
- Website
- www.digitalladder.com
Nice cart! I feel you on the system meltdown. I had it happen to me last year and it's no fun. On the plus side, you get to build yourself a better machine.
I would highly recommend the Antec Easy SATA for your next tower. I did some testing and found that I can download a full 64GB Redmag directly to a 7200RPM HDD at essentially the same speed as downloading the mag to my desktop (SSD).
I back up everything to a USB 3 drive, plug in a freshly formatted MacOS Journaled drive (FAT32 caps file size at 4GB), and work off the Easy SATA drive as my scratch disk. Once the project is complete, I throw away all the unused clips and only backup files that are used in the edit to my tower's internal RAID. It's a nice way to work fast, save space, and I can playback clips at 1/4 debayer.
I would highly recommend the Antec Easy SATA for your next tower. I did some testing and found that I can download a full 64GB Redmag directly to a 7200RPM HDD at essentially the same speed as downloading the mag to my desktop (SSD).
I back up everything to a USB 3 drive, plug in a freshly formatted MacOS Journaled drive (FAT32 caps file size at 4GB), and work off the Easy SATA drive as my scratch disk. Once the project is complete, I throw away all the unused clips and only backup files that are used in the edit to my tower's internal RAID. It's a nice way to work fast, save space, and I can playback clips at 1/4 debayer.