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Epic + Canon Mount = Delicious

Jonathan Stevenson

Jonathan Stevenson

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I've had my Canon mount for a while now and I am just in love with it. Canon glass on an Epic is a great combination, especially for my type of work, which is generally ENG/Docu style shooting. Just thought I'd share some new footage...

Here’s a shoot I did for a few wedding vendors in town. The project was intended to be a hybrid stills/motion shoot, creating an editorial style video that has a short film feel.

5kFF Epic at 96fps
Ti Canon Mount w/ 24-70L 2.8 and 70-200L II

Vimeo compression kind of ruins some of the shots, but you get the idea. The 70-200 II is so amazing, I love that thing. The 24-70 isn't quite as sharp, but it gets the job done.

I'd love any thoughts and critiques. Thanks guys!


http://vimeo.com/33832020
 
Very nice feel, a lot of very pleasant movement, framing and use of overcranking.

How are you finding the flares? I found the canon mount and lenses exacerbate the issue - some are pretty, but quite often in this kind of work windows, highlights or light sources out of frame wash out contrast as well as flaring. I find myself currently having to frame around flare / contrast washout a lot. What's your opinion, given that you're shooting in a similar style and with the same glass as I am..?
 
Maicol_Borghetti said:
this to me is like a classic 5D video. may be the lens? the image is just too digital...
sorry
Click to expand...

I'm sure it would be more informative if you were specific in your criticism. What about it looks "too digital", and how is that equivalent to "a classic 5D video"?

Jonathan,

You captured some great details and created a mood that is ideal for the subject. I'm certain that is exactly what your vendors are looking for. Did you do this on spec, or was this shot for a specific campaign? Where/how will it be viewed by the end user?
 
sure. (sorry my english)
too digital image: low contrast too much detail too sharp no good filmography camera moving all around like a stupid bird and tilted too.
there's no a real subjet to shot at, the people are all cutted head but the most importand to me thingh is that the image I see have no difference from a 5D video..
guys the first time we saw a red video we are all amazed.. this video to me look the same contrast the same color from a video from 5D...
and this is becouse you use the canon lens for sure... 60k $ to achieve this result is not good for me... invest in a good cinema lens make the difference.
I remember you that this is just my opinion. don't be angry.
Maic
 
OK, This is something we can work with. Thanks for the effort. I'm going to challenge a few of your assertions for the sake of discussion. I'll try not to be too aggressive, but I do disagree almost entirely. Sorry.

Maicol_Borghetti said:
sure. (sorry my english)
too digital image: low contrast too much detail too sharp no good filmography camera moving all around like a stupid bird and tilted too.
there's no a real subjet to shot at, the people are all cutted head but the most importand to me thingh is that the image I see have no difference from a 5D video..
Click to expand...

While I personally have no problem with dutch angles and roving cameras I can accept and respect your opinion regarding his choices in that regard, though I don't see those things as defining factors in an image that is "too digital". Fewer hand held shots would have given the cinematography a more professional look, but a look that is more evocative of a typical wedding video may have been a better choice for the piece. Both arguments have their merit, I suppose.

Low contrast is not a typical characteristic of any of the 5D footage I have ever seen. In fact the opposite is one of my biggest criticisms of DSLR footage; it is almost uncontrollable with regards to contrast and there is oft too much of it... And I love contrast. The more I think about it, I might even generalize and say that a majority of the digital films I have seen have been high contrast. As a result I would definitely consider "high contrast" to be a fair observation of digital images, even though contrast is not inherently digital.

I think low-con was a mood choice here used to good effect. If it was an accident, I'd call it a happy one. Just to be a smart ass, I'd say that a wedding dress in the snow is inherently low contrast. ;-) Seriously though, how much higher in contrast can you get than a black tux and white dress in the snow? He had to work to make this low contrast. I'm inclined to believe it was no accident. This footage is well exposed and some of that was obviously challenging. (Or at least it would have been on a 5d.) Good job Jonathan.

There are two shots early on of women entering and exiting that do have an odd crop. I have to admit that they bothered me but otherwise I find his compositions pleasing and effective. The people in this video are not the subjects of the video after all... If I understand it correctly.

guys the first time we saw a red video we are all amazed.. this video to me look the same contrast the same color from a video from 5D...
and this is becouse you use the canon lens for sure... 60k $ to achieve this result is not good for me... invest in a good cinema lens make the difference.
I remember you that this is just my opinion. don't be angry.
Maic
Click to expand...

Fair enough. Thanks again. Considering each of your points has been constructive for me, and hopefully for the others too.
 
Last edited:
Maicol, I'm not sure what you're saying re: contrast and sharpness? It's pretty much a given that the canon L zooms are less sharp than cine primes, so I don't see how the canon lenses can be to blame for an overly sharp image...

As to contrast, the Epic does naturally produce flat raw images, so it's pretty much a grading choice, unless flare or bright areas are washing out contrast - take this as an example: http://www.kippertie.com/tests/highcontrast/highcon_epic.jpg

I wouldn't blame a canon lens for the low contrast across the subject in this. Is that the kind of thing you mean?
 
Jonathan Stevenson said:
I'd love any thoughts and critiques. Thanks guys!
Click to expand...


I'm never one to say anything negative about someones work... and I wont... but I have to say this... , Try not to edit to the music... Here is a tip.. Edit to nothing, no music at all, get it working without music at all... Edit so it flows, hold shots that need holding, cut shots short that need cutting and throw all your shit in the bin...

You will be pleasantly suprised when you through a couple of beautiful tracks under it... :)))

Glad to see someone that ordered a Canon mount actually using it!!! I'm still waiting for our lot...
By looking at your picture quality, it looks like the mount and glass is the way to go.

Happy shooting Jonathan and thanks for sharing. :)
 
Carl Dieker said:
looks great. are you shooting with an FF or just pulling focus by hand?
Click to expand...

Haven't had the change to get rods and a FF yet, so everything was by hand. There's actually one or two soft shots in there that I'm not happy about, but they're quick enough that I left them in.
 
Mark Toia said:
I'm never one to say anything negative about someones work... and I wont... but I have to say this... , Try not to edit to the music... Here is a tip.. Edit to nothing, no music at all, get it working without music at all... Edit so it flows, hold shots that need holding, cut shots short that need cutting and throw all your shit in the bin...

You will be pleasantly suprised when you through a couple of beautiful tracks under it... :)))

Glad to see someone that ordered a Canon mount actually using it!!! I'm still waiting for our lot...
By looking at your picture quality, it looks like the mount and glass is the way to go.

Happy shooting Jonathan and thanks for sharing. :)
Click to expand...

Mark, that's a great piece of advice, thank you. I come from a sports background, so a lot of my videos are more or less required to be edited to a beat. I'll have to try breaking that habit! I totally understand what you mean. Let the visuals set the pace, not the music. Especially the track I used, which doesn't have very heavy downbeats to accent each edit...
 
Maicol_Borghetti said:
sure. (sorry my english)
too digital image: low contrast too much detail too sharp no good filmography camera moving all around like a stupid bird and tilted too.
there's no a real subjet to shot at, the people are all cutted head but the most importand to me thingh is that the image I see have no difference from a 5D video..
guys the first time we saw a red video we are all amazed.. this video to me look the same contrast the same color from a video from 5D...
and this is becouse you use the canon lens for sure... 60k $ to achieve this result is not good for me... invest in a good cinema lens make the difference.
I remember you that this is just my opinion. don't be angry.
Maic
Click to expand...

I appreciate your opinion Maic. Not really sure how to respond though. It was a stills/motion hybrid shoot. Generally, photo shoots are inherently low contrast. I have a feeling that some of the "5d digital look" is because of the vimeo compression. It definitely adds plenty of mud and artifacts to certain shots and isn't helping me. I'd happily send you a 1080 file that you can view.
 
Scott Crawley said:
There are two shots early on of women entering and exiting that do have an odd crop. I have to admit that they bothered me but otherwise I find his compositions pleasing and effective. The people in this video are not the subjects of the video after all... If I understand it correctly.
Click to expand...

Haha, thanks for defending me Scott!

I'm curious which shots are bothering you with their framing? I know that theres a shot of a woman entering the venue, but she wasn't the subject, the tuxedo she's carrying was the focus, so her head was cut off at the top. Is that one of the shots you were talking about?
 
Stefan Antonescu said:
+ 1

Jon, are you using the Auto Focus ? If so, what's your experience with it ?

Nice work, BTW. :-)
Click to expand...

Thanks Stefan. I have not used auto-focus at all in practice. From the testing I've done, it's somewhat useless right now. Maybe it's something that'll improve, but I've tried all the different focus modes and found that the lens can only find a sharp focus (on the subject that I want) about 30% of the time. I could be doing something wrong though.... (that's likely the issue hahah)
 
John Marchant said:
Very nice feel, a lot of very pleasant movement, framing and use of overcranking.

How are you finding the flares? I found the canon mount and lenses exacerbate the issue - some are pretty, but quite often in this kind of work windows, highlights or light sources out of frame wash out contrast as well as flaring. I find myself currently having to frame around flare / contrast washout a lot. What's your opinion, given that you're shooting in a similar style and with the same glass as I am..?
Click to expand...

Haha, as you can see in the video, I used a few flares to my advantage. But yes, the "Epic Flare-gate" thing is definitely real. Especially inside the venue where the dress was hanging, there were windows on all sides. It was super difficult for me to get angles without flares. I don't know that the canon lenses make it worse or not, since I've not shot much with many other lenses on this camera yet, but yeah, it was annoying as hell.
 
Scott Crawley said:
Jonathan,

You captured some great details and created a mood that is ideal for the subject. I'm certain that is exactly what your vendors are looking for. Did you do this on spec, or was this shot for a specific campaign? Where/how will it be viewed by the end user?
Click to expand...

Thanks again, Scott. The video was done on spec and will be only viewed on the web. They actually didn't ask for an Epic or anything special, but I brought it because I haven't had much of a chance to get it shooting lately, so they definitely got more than they wanted which is nice haha.
 
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