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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Contax Zeiss Survival Guide

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Very, very nice, Kemalettin

Kind of a Pushing Daisies feel, lol. Magic in real world.
 
Just a quick A/B from a scene in the series I am currently DP / Directing. Nothing crazy here, but I LOVE when people post pictures, so I am throwing these in to keep that going!

A is Contax 85mm 1.4 at f/4 on a GH4, B is Contax 80-200 f/4 at f/4 on a C100. VERY little post to even them up, just a bit of contrast in B and a bit more saturation in A

A


B
 
nice colour consistency, although I think there's too much contrast in the B-shot. Overall the GH4 shot looks more 'Red' to me and the Canon looks overly excited. It's easy to see that they are shot with two separate cameras.
Thanks for the feedback Paul!
 
I shoot this musicvideo a couple of weeks back.
All of the macro shoot are done on my AEG 60mm macro. Really love this lens, use it on almost every project I do now not only for macro work. Works excellent for portrait and "packshoots" as well. The rest is shoot on Compact Primes
 
Great work everyone!

@Jeffrey - love how the series is looking! (and that you are using an 80-200, haha)
@Kemalettin - love the sun dripped approach! Awesome!
@André - gorgeous use of the 60 Macro. One of our faves as well.
 
Hey guys, here's a Heidi Klum spot shot on Contax + Epic + Scarlet. For Runway S13!!

Hope you enjoy!!


HEIDI: Shot on Epic + Scarlet, on Contax 50 1.4, 135 f2, 80-200, + one shot on Sigma 18-35!
TIM: Shot on two Scarlets, on Contax 35 1.4 and 50 1.4
BTS SHOTS OF HEIDI: Shot with Nikkor 200 f2

Used Classic Soft 1/4 on Tim, 1/2 on Heidi.

There are some stills shots from the print campaign mixed into edit, which we didn't shoot.

The mobility of the REDS and the compact, tiny size of the Contax glass was a major advantage on these run and gun setups.
 
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Lovely stuff Nick. Great grade too. I really need to start exploring more saturated wow looks.

Liked the promo Andre. Nice idea.

Two more quick leica questions -1) Are the Canadian made 'Leitz' variants just as good? 2) When people on here are talking about the 35-70 are they referring to the f3.5 one as being worth grabbing?

Thanks
 
- Nick -

That spot is fun! Great looking, of course, and the editor / designers deserve some fun credit there. lol

It's very interesting seeing the wide abilities of this glass! So fun.

My 18mm arrived today, lol! Samy's Camera had a great deal on ebay. Lens came pretty dirty, but it took a few seconds to clean and looks good so far. (shots tomorrow)
 
- Nick -

That spot is fun! Great looking, of course, and the editor / designers deserve some fun credit there. lol

It's very interesting seeing the wide abilities of this glass! So fun.

My 18mm arrived today, lol! Samy's Camera had a great deal on ebay. Lens came pretty dirty, but it took a few seconds to clean and looks good so far. (shots tomorrow)

Hey Jeffrey, congrats on 18mm!! Can't wait to see what you do with it!!
 
Hey guys, here's another recent project. My clients at History asked me to help them w/ a sizzle piece for UNESCO, to encourage partners to maintain their incredibly generous support.

Almost immediately, my clients had a great idea - what if instead of doing a traditional clip spot, we do a small shoot and recreate a FUTURE where the world's monuments NO LONGER EXIST...except in photos...through the POV of a photo archivist 50 years in the future.

So, with a very limited budget, I decided to bring a skeleton crew, and see if we could pull this off. Teaming up with my favorite Art Director and Gaffer, and our coordinator Andrew, I anxiously took on role of DP (normally I don't) and we shot what I think is a pretty convincing open to this piece. Clients were REALLY HAPPY!

Shot on Contax 21 2.8 (A-Cam, POV of Archivist), and 60 2.8 Macro (B-Cam to side). With 1/4 Classic Soft.

Cut in-house at History over a week, with my favorite editor.

Footage graded by Jake Blacstone. Enjoy.

 
How fun, Nick! I love little concept pieces like that. Where limitation becomes opportunity. i try to remind myself to be ready to take those opportunities.

Here are some stills from my new 18mm, from my desk. (next on the wish list is the 60mm Macro... you bastards :-) )









 
Hey guys, here's another recent project. My clients at History asked me to help them w/ a sizzle piece for UNESCO, to encourage partners to maintain their incredibly generous support.

Almost immediately, my clients had a great idea - what if instead of doing a traditional clip spot, we do a small shoot and recreate a FUTURE where the world's monuments NO LONGER EXIST...except in photos...through the POV of a photo archivist 50 years in the future.

So, with a very limited budget, I decided to bring a skeleton crew, and see if we could pull this off. Teaming up with my favorite Art Director and Gaffer, and our coordinator Andrew, I anxiously took on role of DP (normally I don't) and we shot what I think is a pretty convincing open to this piece. Clients were REALLY HAPPY!

Shot on Contax 21 2.8 (A-Cam, POV of Archivist), and 60 2.8 Macro (B-Cam to side). With 1/4 Classic Soft.

Cut in-house at History over a week, with my favorite editor.

Footage graded by Jake Blacstone. Enjoy.


Nice Nick. Liked the POV look...were you just handheld, monopod? The more hats you can wear successfully gets you more work.
 
How fun, Nick! I love little concept pieces like that. Where limitation becomes opportunity. i try to remind myself to be ready to take those opportunities.

Here are some stills from my new 18mm, from my desk. (next on the wish list is the 60mm Macro... you bastards :-) )










The 18mm has saved me in so many situations! Plus, with practically no barrel distortion, it's an amazing piece of glass.

Oh and nice shots. hehe
 
I posted this in the shot on red forum, but I figured it served a place here as well, since it's all shot on Contax.

I had another opportunity to be a part of another Make-A-Wish wish granting ceremony.

9-year old Gabriel had a wish to be a park ranger. When Yosemite got word of his dream, they stepped up to the plate, in a VERY big way. Watch it first, then look at the shoot details below.

Password: GABRIELYOSEMITE

Vimeo Link: https://vimeo.com/99676584

Shoot Details:
My AC and I went up to Yosemite 1 day before Gabriel's wish to get establishing B-roll and to try and capture the magnificence that is Yosemite. That same day we also shot an interview with the Mom and Gabriel. The wish day was a long one, starting early in the morning and ending early evening. Gabriel was a trooper.

I had a second camera operator (Will Rodgers - is an amazing second camera op, thanks Will) and sound guy on the wish day, to help with alternate angles since it was run-n-gun the entire day. Plus, I HATE doing audio! My sound guy had a new bluetooth wireless receiver thing that he wanted to try out on the MoVI since it weighs like nothing. It worked, like 10% of the time, so since I had NO other audio reference on my Epic, I had to manually sync everything in post! AHHHHH!!!

Unfortunately there was a news crew from CBS who got priority access, got to ride in the vehicles with Gabriel, was always on scene first, etc. So we had to stay farther back and get what we could in terms of coverage.

I was operating on the MoVI the entire day and stuck with a focal length of 50mm Zeiss Contax 2.8, since there wasn't really any time to do any lens swapping. Will operated with the 80-200 f4 Contax. He had RPP's, but I wanted the look to be consistent, plus, the Contax are amazing!!! I had him on a monopod the entire day so the longer shots would be more stable, as opposed to hand-holding or shoulder-mounting.

We all rode in my truck, so as soon as we would role up on a scene, Will would bail out of the car as quickly as he could to get some establishing shots/sometimes they had already started the next mini event. I would immediately follow with the MoVI. My AC was pulling focus, while I was operating in Majestic Mode. Used my Cinemizers for framing, and Jason, my AC had a SmallHD AC7.

I had Will shoot at around f5.6, while I shot between 2.8-4.
We over cranked here and there for effect.
Shot 5K WS at 8:1 compression.
Edited and graded in FCPX.

Let me know what you guys think. We can't officially release this video until CBS has their special on Make-A-Wish which will air in August.
 
@ Chris: Were these AE? I really enjoy those flares!

@ Jeffrey: How does distortion feel when panning? I'm sitting on the fence for an 18mm …

@ Nick: Really like that small project for a big cause! And Jake is such a good colorist, I worked with him on summer seminars where I taught RED and he taught DaVinci.
 
Thank you, Jeffrey! I suppose that was the first youtube clip published for me personally ;-)

I'm afraid I need to hunt one down – it looks quite natural even in motion. I've seen so much strange distortion on older extreme wides in motion (even in high-level productions) recently, but the Zeiss C/Y 18mm seems to handle it very well.
 
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