Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Log in
  • 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 :)

ND, IR and Polarizer filter help for Scarlet

has anyone tested the schneiders in a real world setting... ie harsh daylight with varying black materials. This is really where the heavy ND counts. I've never used more than a 2 stop ND under tungston lighting in my life... and I may have only had to do that once. Interiors are rarely that bright.
 
Heya Ryan. I'll be doing some tests this month under those exact conditions. If you check out the Scarlet tests I've been doing you can see how the Formatt 1.8 HMND is working in daylight.
 
im using the Formatt 1.8 with the Rosco and for the most part have unbelievably good results. Every once in a while though we get an anomoly that we just can't reproduce. Would love to see how the Schneiders stack up in the real world. Not saying Ryan Walters test arnt useful or interesting to look at, but they really dont give you the conditions you would be shoot with ND that heavy in. Look forward to your tests Phil, when and where are you doing them... would be interested to tag along and bring extra bits of kit to make it all work out. How you feeling about your scarlet, im blown away by mine. Shot alot of RED, MX, and Epic and I gotta say owning this little gal makes me like her the best.
 
Are you using the "regular" Formatt 1.8 or the Hot Mirror/ND combo filter? Once I'm back from Austin I'll be testing some of the Schneider Platinum IRNDs from Panavision. Doing the test there or very likely taking the camera out into the wild.

So far I'm very impressed with the Scarlet. So I'm feeling good about the purchase/investment. I definitely find times where I desire an Epic though. Especially on wide angle coverage and overcranking. I'll have to wait a few months before that itch gets scratched.
 
Just the regular with the rosco tru color riding in front of it
 
when do you think you may do the test phil I have a free place to crash in LA and may be willing to fly out just to test a few things out.
 
Phil Holland said:
So far I'm very impressed with the Scarlet. So I'm feeling good about the purchase/investment. I definitely find times where I desire an Epic though. Especially on wide angle coverage and overcranking. I'll have to wait a few months before that itch gets scratched.
Click to expand...

It sure is tempting to want to turn your brand new Scarlet into a "B" camera lol!
 
Ryan Hamblin said:
when do you think you may do the test phil I have a free place to crash in LA and may be willing to fly out just to test a few things out.
Click to expand...

I'm hoping to get a quick and dirty test in tomorrow at PV. I'll get the call around 10am. It's currently 3am. Man. I should be in bed.
My time is a little crunched at the moment. Leaving for Austin Saturday morning and a gazillion million things to do before hand.


Jarek Zabczynski said:
It sure is tempting to want to turn your brand new Scarlet into a "B" camera lol!
Click to expand...

Well Scarlet will get it's chance to be A cam in April. But, I've made a decision to shoot 4k+ from here on out. That *hopefully* includes my overcranked material, which would mean an Epic is in my future. That's months away though and a whole lot needs to happen first.

Either way I'm very happy to be done with 1080p for my work. I don't mind delivering that format, but I'd prefer to shoot higher resolution if possible. I say this as I glare at the 5 1080p cameras sitting on my shelf.
 
Has anyone tried the Singh-Ray or Heliopan Variable ND filter (or similar from other companies). They get really good reviews from both video and photo guys and cover from 2 to 8 stops in a single filter. I hear the Heliopan is probably the sharper of the two. They suffer from slight vignetting on extremely wide angle lenses, but with the crop factor of 1.6 at 4K, it might get wide enough for most applications, including the 11-16mm Tokina. They are not cheap at $330 to $390. If anyone can post a high res still at 4 or 5K, that would be great!
 
I haven't tested the Heliopan, but I have tested the Singh-Ray and a couple other brands. I have to see which ones are in my kit. I really don't use then nor recommend them as they noticeably soften your image past 50mm. That effect gets multiplied with longer telephoto lenses and even worse the closer you get towards infinity.
 
Hey Phil,
I have read thet ahe Heliopan is considerably sharper, but that is really good feedback about the Singh-ray... why spend $300+ on anything that softens the image. We do a lot of still work here too and I am hoping one of our pro shops locally might have a Heliopan I can demo... if so I will follow back up with a post if available.

I read a post from Phillip Bloom that the Heliopan was "tack sharp," (quite a bit sharper than the Singh-ray), but it did not discuss what that really meant.... whether it was 1080P from a 5D or stills at 5K+, I just don't know. So, Singh-ray is definitely out for me, if anyone has any experience with the Heliopan at 4K+ resolution (either stills or video), please chime in :-) Thanks!!!!

Phil Holland said:
I haven't tested the Heliopan, but I have tested the Singh-Ray and a couple other brands. I have to see which ones are in my kit. I really don't use then nor recommend them as they noticeably soften your image past 50mm. That effect gets multiplied with longer telephoto lenses and even worse the closer you get towards infinity.
Click to expand...
 

Posted about these on first page. Phil said he would do some tests when he got the chance. But short answer is, bit of green colour shift the higher you get but not too hard to correct out in post. Personally prefer the greenish tinge than the reddish brown some others seem to exhibit.
 
How much nd is 0,9 and 1.5? How does it work? I read some where that every 0.3 is a stop is that correct?
 
steven moreno said:
What about the tiffen IRND's? Anybody have experience with them?
Click to expand...

I bought a 5 stop tiffen from Abel, who is amazing, but still no Scarlet to test. I will do some tests with them once it arrives, I hope they were a good deal. I'm sure Tiffen got it right, though I am sure Schneider did too, just didn't go that extensive on the spending =].

Joel, yes that is correct. Each 0.3 value is a stop, thus if you read 4 and want to shoot at a 2.8, you will put an ND 0.3 infront. As you go up it just doubles, so 0.6 is 2 stops, 1.2 is 4 stops and so on. The reason for IRND is that digital sensors read the infrared, and blacks become off hue, magenta, brownish if it is severe (to put it in simple terms). The more ND you stack infront, the more IR you will see in your image. As the digital sensors become more sensitive to light and the need for higher ND becomes the norm, having and IRND set is invaluable so you can put on thos high values and stop down a lot, while maintaining you high ISO if that is your preference.
 
Lliam Worthington said:

Posted about these on first page. Phil said he would do some tests when he got the chance. But short answer is, bit of green colour shift the higher you get but not too hard to correct out in post. Personally prefer the greenish tinge than the reddish brown some others seem to exhibit.
Click to expand...

Sorry about the delay on this front. I've been mega busy. I'll attempt to do this by next week if possible. Hopefully getting a larger matte box as well. I'm working on it! It's honestly the only test I really haven't been able to do yet.
 
You are correct, every 0.3 equals 1 stop, so a 0.9 is three stops and a 1.5 is 5 stops. I just saw a review of a Schneider Optics Variable ND with 1 1/2 to 11 stops that looked pretty promising. It is $450, but not bad if it performs well. Probably about the same as buying and stacking the appropriate filters to get to 11 stops. Schneider makes really good stuff and I plan on talking to them about its feasibility at 4K resolutions. The demo is pretty impressive and it would certainly be nice to "dial in" the appropriate ND! It seemed to be sharp at 1080, but 4K is a different animal. Color shift seemed good as well, with only a slight warming at the lower range. Shooting RAW, a slight color shift should not be much of an issue.

Joel Arvidsson said:
How much nd is 0,9 and 1.5? How does it work? I read some where that every 0.3 is a stop is that correct?
Click to expand...
 
Phil Holland said:
I'm going to need to much more elaborate tests.
Click to expand...

Thanks Phil for your tests, any news about the Platinum IRNDs vs Formatt HMND?
I really like that the Platinum IRNDs have not the front mirror surface...
I also thought: if the Platinums have a strong green cast, maybe they are stackable with plain NDs which have a magenta cast?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top