NATURAL HISTORY CINEMATOGRAPHY

[Christian Munoz D]

Mike, the Canon EF 200-400 mm f/4L IS 1.4x looks very promising. Definitely a must have lens for Natural History, sports and adventure productions.
Canon stopped the release they had at the end of 2011 for this lens. Last week I sent a request to Canon in order to test a prototype. Haven't heard anything yet.

Every filmmaker have different style and objectives on their production needs. In my case I love to use large zooms, but often I use primes. 600 or 800mm will give you a beautiful DOF and the possibility of rack focus in a more stylistic and artistic way. Zooms like my motorized Century-Canon 150-600 are perfect for action shots, where you can be wide open following the subject and cut to a more intimate shot, adding production value to the whole sequence.

 

[Mike Van Laanen]

Thanks Christian.

 

[Christian Munoz D]

Mike, today I got a word that the Canon EF 200-400 mm f/4L IS 1.4x maybe relised in March-April.

 

[Alberto Saiz]

Beautiful shots and hard previous work of research etc... Really like your work, truly inspiring! Thanks a lot for sharing and hope to see more and more posts like this...
Un fuerte abrazo desde España

 

[Christian Munoz D]

Thanks Alberto! Inspiration comes from Spain too. Felix Rodriguez de la Fuente fue y sigue siendo una gran inspiracion.

 

[Sam Taylor]

Thank you very much Christian for starting this thread and sharing your experience, it is much appreciated! I guess one of the harder things with working with the current EF long canon prime lenses is not being able to zoom when you see something interesting happening, and so not being able to get onto the action in time, due to the long focal length. E.g. a Lynx suddenly appears out of the forest, but because you are at a fixed 600mm focal length with the canon prime and your camera is at 2k ready for the fast action. The problem is that the lynx is only out there for 25seconds, and you have such a tight field of view with 600 and 2k crop that you can't get on to it in time, before it dives back into the forest. Or maybe you do get onto it, but the depth of field is so narrow that you buzz focus as it runs away. I guess that is why you are using the FD zoom, so that you can acquire the animal at a wide view and then zoom in as necessary to recompose and to get a tighter view of the action. I suppose these are reasons that many film makers have stuck with the 2/3 inch sensors on the varicams and the long zoom lenses. However I am fully committed to using the red sensor in my newly bought scarlet, along with my existing canon 500 f4, 400 DO f4, 300 f4 and 70-200 f2.8. I won't have a budget for the upcoming 200-400. So any advice that you might have on technique and ways of doing things is greatfully appreciated!

 

[Sam Taylor]

I have also been trying to get my head around how to monitor the image.

I have never used a bomb EVF, being more familiar with the Red LCDs, but have been thinking of going ahead and getting one anyway. However a range of comments here and elsewhere has made me question whether the 7 inch LCD with a hoodman hood might be a better option.

People have talked about the bomb image being too low contrast at the moment, which is hard for focussing, especially on distant objects. Also the image being too small for discerning clear focus at a distance for small objects in the frame, such as flying birds, due to the glass being lower magnification than for example the zacuto evf's loupe magnification factor. Ie probably perfect for close ups on people but harder for wildlife.

Also that you need to push your eye tight against the eyepiece glass to get a sharp view across the entire field of view.

So then the other idea is to use the original Red EVF. As I will be doing a lot of filming in the Arctic, the difficulty becomes the weight when walking long distances and the power consumption when relying on revolts, sometimes away from a good recharging power source. Also factors such as problems in the image coming about through the extreme cold, which is less of an issue for the bomb EVF.

So this is why I have started to think about the 7" LCD.

What is your opinion on this Christian! With many thanks indeed for your help!!

 

[Christian Munoz D]

Thank you very much Christian for starting this thread and sharing your experience, it is much appreciated! I guess one of the harder things with working with the current EF long canon prime lenses is not being able to zoom when you see something interesting happening, and so not being able to get onto the action in time, due to the long focal length. E.g. a Lynx suddenly appears out of the forest, but because you are at a fixed 600mm focal length with the canon prime and your camera is at 2k ready for the fast action. The problem is that the lynx is only out there for 25seconds, and you have such a tight field of view with 600 and 2k crop that you can't get on to it in time, before it dives back into the forest. Or maybe you do get onto it, but the depth of field is so narrow that you buzz focus as it runs away. I guess that is why you are using the FD zoom, so that you can acquire the animal at a wide view and then zoom in as necessary to recompose and to get a tighter view of the action. I suppose these are reasons that many film makers have stuck with the 2/3 inch sensors on the varicams and the long zoom lenses. However I am fully committed to using the red sensor in my newly bought scarlet, along with my existing canon 500 f4, 400 DO f4, 300 f4 and 70-200 f2.8. I won't have a budget for the upcoming 200-400. So any advice that you might have on technique and ways of doing things is greatfully appreciated!

You are very welcome Sam.
The only advice I can give you is practice, long lenses are not hard to use as you may think. The main reason I use the telephoto zoom is because the added value of having two field of view of the same action. Focusing and framing is not an issue with long lenses after some time using them.
Now with Epic I don’t shoot 2K anymore unless is a specific shot at 240 - 300fps I rather keep the maximum resolution for future proof. I hate rebuilding my image bank every time we have a new camera on the market.

I have also been trying to get my head around how to monitor the image.

I have never used a bomb EVF, being more familiar with the Red LCDs, but have been thinking of going ahead and getting one anyway. However a range of comments here and elsewhere has made me question whether the 7 inch LCD with a hoodman hood might be a better option.

People have talked about the bomb image being too low contrast at the moment, which is hard for focussing, especially on distant objects. Also the image being too small for discerning clear focus at a distance for small objects in the frame, such as flying birds, due to the glass being lower magnification than for example the zacuto evf's loupe magnification factor. Ie probably perfect for close ups on people but harder for wildlife.

Also that you need to push your eye tight against the eyepiece glass to get a sharp view across the entire field of view.

So then the other idea is to use the original Red EVF. As I will be doing a lot of filming in the Arctic, the difficulty becomes the weight when walking long distances and the power consumption when relying on revolts, sometimes away from a good recharging power source. Also factors such as problems in the image coming about through the extreme cold, which is less of an issue for the bomb EVF.

So this is why I have started to think about the 7" LCD.

What is your opinion on this Christian! With many thanks indeed for your help!!

You are right about the Bomb EVF, it's full of problems at the moment, some issues can be resolved within the firmware others not at all, I rather to use the Red EVF or my favorite the 5,6” LCD. The 5” touch screen is problematic when you are in a bright location, the reflection on the screen looks like a mirror and definitely the Red EVF won’t work for you in cold weather.
I do not have experience with the 7”, so I can’t comment on that.

 

[Pete Barden]

Thank you Pete.
Not sure what your target is or what your project is about, but I always recommend for wildlife cinematography a super telephoto or a large zoom like the Canon 150-600 f5.6 or the new Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM Telephoto Lens(Expensive) .Thinking in a tight budget you can get the 150-600 with the original FD canon mount for a couple of thousand dollars and you can use it on the Scarlet canon mount with a 100 dollar EF adapter. Off course you will have all manual on the lens, but worth the pain. Normally I do not use extenders on my shoots, but good idea to have one on hand in case of need.
The Canon 550D is good enough for Time Lapse photography if your deliverable is for broadcast TV, but if you want to have your footage future-proof I will recommend the Canon 5D or similar. The 5D will give you more choices for third party accessories too.
For a cheap jib the Glidecam Camcrane 200 will be a good option, small, light weight and portable.
For filters the new Schneider Platinum IRND Screw-in are the best option. Super telephotos use rear-holder filters, they make your life a lot easy in the field. A no-no to matte boxes for wildlife filmmaking unless you have no issues with weight, space and portability.

Thanks very much indeed for the reply Christian! Apologies for the long reply. I forgot to subscribe to replies to the thread and have just found your reply. That's really good advice, thanks. My Scarlet is due into the country in the next week so hopefully I'll get a chance to test it very soon with what I've got, but that sounds like good advice on the 150-600. The 100-400L is slightly flawed for video. The need for an extender means I could miss action/forced to change lenses often. Also it's push/pull so a lens support for the front of the lens will be problematic. Also, I was thinking of trying out a follow focus. Again, useless with a push/pull. I wonder how well something like the Sigma 50-500 f4.5-5.6 would hold up. I'm sure the optics won't be anywhere as good as the 150-600 so perhaps I'll go that root. All of my stuff will be 2k delivery.

Thanks again,

Pete

 

[Dave Blackham]

Your footage is great Christian! Really beautiful. I'm about to make the leap from television wildlife editor to wildlife cameraman next month on a self financed project. As my budget is tight I'm having to compromise on some of the kit, but I'd be more than happy to share my experiences here. I would love to have got the Epic, but I had to stretch my budget to afford the Scarlet! This is my current setup:
- Scarlet with titanium Canon mount
- Canon 100-400L (push and pull so no good for zooms! I might have to change, but will test once the Scarlet arrives)
- Canon 2x extender mark 3
- Canon 24-70 2.8 L
- Tokina 11-16 2.8
- Canon MPE65 Macro
- Sachtler Video 18 2
- Canon 550D for timelapse (might upgrade if not good enough)
- Dynamic Perception MX2 dolly
- A cheap jib (not sure which yet)
- Possibly a GH2 with something like Nauticam u/w housing, using the high bitrate hack on GH2.
- Need to build some sort of polecam for boats.

Out of interest what do people find works best for ND filters for wildlife? I've been debating whether to go for a variable ND filter like the Heliocam and use the Canon lens hoods or go the full hog with a matte box and 4x4s. I've read a lot on these forums about the Variable NDs being problematic, particularly when you go telephoto. But then on the flip side I'm wondering if a mattebox would be problematic for long lens work and size of setup for portability.

Cheers

Pete

Pete,

You are welcome to check out our kit when ever you like, may be of some help deciding what to buy.

Best,

Dave

 

[Pete Barden]

Pete,

You are welcome to check out our kit when ever you like, may be of some help deciding what to buy.

Best,

Dave

Thanks Dave. That's really kind of you. Adam gave me your mobile number a while back. I'm hoping to get up to Scotland in the next two weeks, Scarlet arrival depending! It's been allocated for shipping 1-2 weeks as of last week so fingers crossed. I'm a free agent now and am about any time from Tuesday. Is there any time in the next week or two that would work for you?

Many thanks,

Pete

 

[Christian Munoz D]

Thanks very much indeed for the reply Christian! Apologies for the long reply. I forgot to subscribe to replies to the thread and have just found your reply. That's really good advice, thanks. My Scarlet is due into the country in the next week so hopefully I'll get a chance to test it very soon with what I've got, but that sounds like good advice on the 150-600. The 100-400L is slightly flawed for video. The need for an extender means I could miss action/forced to change lenses often. Also it's push/pull so a lens support for the front of the lens will be problematic. Also, I was thinking of trying out a follow focus. Again, useless with a push/pull. I wonder how well something like the Sigma 50-500 f4.5-5.6 would hold up. I'm sure the optics won't be anywhere as good as the 150-600 so perhaps I'll go that root. All of my stuff will be 2k delivery.

Thanks again,

Pete

Not a problem Pete!

I have no experience with the Sigma 50-500, I believe will be good idea to do a little test....

Pete,

You are welcome to check out our kit when ever you like, may be of some help deciding what to buy.

Best,

Dave

There you go Pete!! Glad this thread is helping fellow wildlife filmmakers...Thanks Dave for your generous offer to Pete.

 

[paul engstrom]

I have used a Sigma 120-300 and been extremely impressed -- others tested this lens out too and were similarly surprised by how sharp and smooth it is...

So I would say try out that 50-500 Pete, it might be just the ticket!

 

[Sam Taylor]

Would you say that the contrast was different from a telephoto canon lens? On some of the shorter focal length sigmas that I have tried, the contrast was a bit too strong for what I needed, so it would be interesting to know if this is also the case for this lens, and the other Sigma long focal lengths?

I have used a Sigma 120-300 and been extremely impressed -- others tested this lens out too and were similarly surprised by how sharp and smooth it is...

So I would say try out that 50-500 Pete, it might be just the ticket!

 

[Sam Taylor]

Thank you very much indeed Christian for your help, you were very helpful, and I appreciate it! Sorry for my delayed reply, I kept remembering to thank you, but when I remembered I was not on the internet!

You are very welcome Sam.
The only advice I can give you is practice, long lenses are not hard to use as you may think. The main reason I use the telephoto zoom is because the added value of having two field of view of the same action. Focusing and framing is not an issue with long lenses after some time using them.
Now with Epic I don’t shoot 2K anymore unless is a specific shot at 240 - 300fps I rather keep the maximum resolution for future proof. I hate rebuilding my image bank every time we have a new camera on the market.



You are right about the Bomb EVF, it's full of problems at the moment, some issues can be resolved within the firmware others not at all, I rather to use the Red EVF or my favorite the 5,6” LCD. The 5” touch screen is problematic when you are in a bright location, the reflection on the screen looks like a mirror and definitely the Red EVF won’t work for you in cold weather.
I do not have experience with the 7”, so I can’t comment on that.

 

[Kyle Wullschleger]

Just wanted to share a quick piece I shot a couple days ago in Nebraska of the Sandhill Crane migration. The birds have just started to really move through in large numbers and I spent the night in a blind on the Platte river to get these shots the following morning. For now it's very much just a montage thrown together for the Nature Center to play in their lobby ona loop. I will be spending more time later in March shooting more content to pull together a mini doc about the birds migration through this area of Nebraska. I will be sure to share the finished piece here. For now, enjoy the montage!

 

[Joe Pontecorvo]

Hi Pete, I am currently using the 50-500 f4.5-5.6 Sigma on a film about snow monkeys. For flexibility it is a great lens, not as sharp of course as the Canon 70-200, but it does hold up. I am mostly shooting 4K. I will post some frame grabs a bit later so you can get a sense of how it looks. I also found the same problems as Christian about Bomb EVF, I use the 5" LCD with Hoodman, and because I am often shooting in snow I add a fabric lens wrap over the hood and stick my head in it when it's really bright out. It works pretty well actually- protecting the LCD from falling snow and blocking a lot of stray light.

 

[Pete Barden]

Hi Pete, I am currently using the 50-500 f4.5-5.6 Sigma on a film about snow monkeys. For flexibility it is a great lens, not as sharp of course as the Canon 70-200, but it does hold up. I am mostly shooting 4K. I will post some frame grabs a bit later so you can get a sense of how it looks. I also found the same problems as Christian about Bomb EVF, I use the 5" LCD with Hoodman, and because I am often shooting in snow I add a fabric lens wrap over the hood and stick my head in it when it's really bright out. It works pretty well actually- protecting the LCD from falling snow and blocking a lot of stray light.

Paul and Sam, thanks for the advice on the Sigma 50-500. I nearly went for it instead of my 100-400 last year. Perhaps I should have got it instead. Sam, some frame grabs would be very much appreciated. It seems a tricky business of weighing up best optics versus focal length range versus size of lens. Did you guys get a lens support (for the front of the lens) engineered for the 50-500 or manage to find something out there? I was starting to design a lens support for the 100-400 that could incorporate follow focus and allow for push/pull and addition of extender.

Also, I just tried out a whole load of follow focuses and really liked the Redrock Micro Blue. Most of the rest I tried had quite a lot of play in them. I figured for long lens work it might be a nice addition.

Cheers

Pete

 

[Pete Barden]

Nice Crane shots Kyle. Shooting at 120fps really makes a difference over 60fps with Varicam. Those are the kind of shots that make me wish my budget could stretch to an Epic.

 

[Kyle Wullschleger]

Pete, if you are talking about wildlife work specifically, shoot me a PM - I would consider collaborating on some outdoor work.