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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 :)

Red Scarlet X #316 "Skully"

Thanks for the updates Phil. Some of the most helpful stuff on RU and your detailed posts are very generous. I think most of my future product purchases are from your recommendations.

Keep a cool head and here's to the future! :hurray:
 
Thomas Pierrepont said:
Keep a cool head and here's to the future! :hurray:
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Cheers Thomas. I had a bit of wine with a friend yesterday and she said "it sounds like you've been waiting for this moment for a while".

I told her "I've been working for this moment for a long time".

Got this next half of "the plan" done. Next half and next stage require a ton of more effort. I'm cool with that :)
 
I should add, I'm looking at 17-25 inch SDI director's monitors. That's another one I'm investigating.

Flanders, Panasonic, Sony OLED, TV Logic, Marshall. Tons of research. Don't know exactly which way I'm going.

Really would like the ability to have two signals go into one monitor for a variety of reasons. 3D maybe. Although, I really am not marketing myself as a full service 3D guy.
 
Paul Ellington said:
GO Phil... What's the new beast going to be called... ? Skully-D
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Well, that would ruin the surprise. I chose the name for my Epic Dragon at NAB 2012. I name things after certain things that are important to me. Skully was birthed from my logo, and that was a fairly easy decision.

The Dragon's name will come from something I created when I was 5. It's something I have sitting right here and to this day keeps me company :)
 
Phil Holland said:
Well, that would ruin the surprise. I chose the name for my Epic Dragon at NAB 2012. I name things after certain things that are important to me. Skully was birthed from my logo, and that was a fairly easy decision.

The Dragon's name will come from something I created when I was 5. It's something I have sitting right here and to this day keeps me company :)
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... "Monkey" ... :)
 
Congrats Phil. You're one of the most dedicated, dependable and compassionate (for us fellow redusers) people I have had the privilege of meeting. You constantly give back to the community, and expect nothing in return. The fact that you're willing to share your business adventure just goes to show that you are always helping people, someway, somehow.

In terms of gear, it seems like all of your ducks are in a row, and you're a research fanatic, like myself, and I'm sure what gear you choose is the gear for you. :-)
 
Thank you Chris. Reduser has certainly become a good home for my adventures. Hopefully folks can learn from the things I do wrong and right. Hopefully more of the right stuff :)

New tools start coming in next week and for a while after that.

Really, really can't wait. Besides expanding my ability for my clients I've been moderately delaying a few personal projects to also execute because I needed to gear up a bit more to pull them off the way I wanted.

It's been an interesting 14 year journey in the industry for me. Been working, practicing, and preparing as much as possible. Now the real work starts.
 
Phil Holland said:
Thank you Chris. Reduser has certainly become a good home for my adventures. Hopefully folks can learn from the things I do wrong and right. Hopefully more of the right stuff :)

New tools start coming in next week and for a while after that.

Really, really can't wait. Besides expanding my ability for my clients I've been moderately delaying a few personal projects to also execute because I needed to gear up a bit more to pull them off the way I wanted.

It's been an interesting 14 year journey in the industry for me. Been working, practicing, and preparing as much as possible. Now the real work starts.
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You mean the real fun starts. hehe :-)
 
A Journey to Red Epic Dragon - Lenses

A Journey to Red Epic Dragon - Lenses

Chris McKechnie said:
You mean the real fun starts. hehe :-)
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Certainly!


So I'm well into the busy work of gearing up for Dragon. Some equipment I have figured out, some I'm still testing. However, after NAB and seeing the "Dragon Begins Now" banners at the Red booth that concept really kicked me in the pants and has made me accelerate my plans.

I've made the decision to upgrade to Red Epic Dragon. That's the camera I want. It's perhaps the camera I've wanted for some time. With that in mind I'm gearing up and expanding my toolbox a bit. I mentioned a bit back in this thread "the plan", however, now that I'm getting gear in I thought it would be fun to discuss my thought process (madness) on gearing up.


A Journey to Red Epic Dragon - Lenses

Big day. I did a great deal of light tests in Burbank and in Hollywood. More on that later. However, the bigger news is that I've made a decision on cinema glass. Finally.

Today I picked up a set of Schneider Cine-Xenar III Primes.

_MG_9102.jpg


This is my first true investment into cinema glass and I took my sweet time making this decision. However, after the SALT III High Speed Lens Tests and initially being so fascinated by these lenses I started testing out competing lens sets pretty quickly. Heck, the Cine-Xenars weren't even the lenses we were testing.

Most of you know I'm a bit of lens nut, so basically what I looked at was:

- Arri/Zeiss Ultra Primes
- Leica Summicron-C Primes (not yet available)
- Cooke S4/i Primes
- Cooke miniS4/i Primes
- Sony CineAlta SCL Primes (just tested these)
- Used Red Pro Primes
- Schneider Cine-Xenar III Primes

I have a full set of still glass modified for motion picture use, however the EF mount and still design generally aren't ideal mechanically. Image shift and inconsistent breathing bother me. Also good cinema primes outperform still lenses most of the time. The optics simply aren't designed for big screen use, although I've shot a good amount of material that's ended up on the big screen with those lenses. I end up renting or using PL glass pretty often. It's what my clients truly demand. Also, with the feelings I have for my own work I knew deep down in side years ago that at some point I wanted some proper cinema primes.

Initially I was leaning towards grabbing a few lengths of Ultra Primes or Cookes because out here in Los Angeles those lenses go to work often. Also, I'm fond and familiar with the look of those lenses.

The Zeiss CP.2 and Canon CN-E primes aren't what I'm looking for my needs. However, I see a day where I might purchase a set of those. Or more specifically a few lengths of those. Depends on some future high speed glass releases.

Red Pro Primes really became attractive to me. Their speed, quality, and value for the price of used sets is extremely tempting right now. One of those lenses is coming to my kit for sure.

I'm extremely fond of Leica's Summilux-C high speed primes and the Summicron-C primes are on their way. I know those are going to be quality lenses.

Looking at the Sony lenses were interesting. I've had two quick looks at these now. Extremely competitively priced and a huge improvement over their previous efforts in the PL realm.

So with varying price points, value, and similar speeds across all these lenses how did I end up on Schneider?

It came down to character, look, and mechanics. Pure image quality, resolving power, and solid contrast are all present within the Cine-Xenars. Mechanically and optically they really don't breath much at all. Also the out of focus bokeh is rather lovely with the crazy amount of iris blades they stuffed into these lenses. The lenses themselves provide a unique look that's not like the Zeiss or Cooke primes. To me it's closer to a Leica-esque feel, and slightly different from that even. So they are unique and offer something I really can't get elsewhere.

Additionally the focal lengths that I desired where there. This set is currently 18, 25, 35, 50, 75, and 95mm. There's a wide on the way maybe late summer and likely a longer lens promptly after that making this an 8 lens set eventually. Particularly though during my lest test shoot with these lenses the 18mm sort of blew me away. Also, I've been pining after a 75mm prime for some time. Those two lengths I've missed so bad. Additionally, from my initial tests the color matching on these are looking pretty impressive. This is a new set and I need to really test them further and that's what I'll be doing over the next week.


So here's where I'm at right now in terms of glass I have or want:

- Cinema PL Primes - Schneider Cine-Xenar III Primes - Done.
- Super Speed Cinema PL Primes - Looking into S35 Illuminas, perhaps waiting to see what Zunow can do with their Imperial line.
- Compact PL Primes - Schneider Xenon FF-Primes - Not released yet and must test again.
- Long PL Glass - Red Pro Prime 300mm - probably ordering this week and also investigating a doubler.
- PL Zooms - Investigating the Fujinon Cabrio 19.5-90mm or grabbing the Zeiss 28-80mm Compact Zoom (and 70-200 perhaps)
- Super Compact Primes - All of my Canon EF glass and couple odd Leicas, Voigtlanders, and Olympus lenses in there.

My goal is after some time to have several sets that cover Red Epic Dragon nicely at 6K. I know for my future projects a lot of my shoots are going to land on 6K HD, 6K WS, 5.5K, and 5K as well.

I've knocked off a major life goal and professional need with these Cine-Xenar III primes. I'm excited.

Now that these are sitting here next to me and I've had a moment to think about things I find that it only makes "some sort of crazy sense" that I ended up with Schneiders. Considering I own antique Century Precision and Iscorama lenses and have been using them for some time.

Psssh. I should have known.

Time to get some new sticks, head, and follow focus for these guys.
 
Phil - have you heard any info on the Zunow anamorphics? They were 'sort of' mentioned in an interview from NAB (I think it was a Dan Chung interview when they were alluded to - fleetingly).

And congrats on the Cine-Xenars :)
 
Andy White said:
Phil - have you heard any info on the Zunow anamorphics? They were 'sort of' mentioned in an interview from NAB (I think it was a Dan Chung interview when they were alluded to - fleetingly).

And congrats on the Cine-Xenars :)
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Thanks Andy. I would say "optimistically" considering the design questions I was asked that the Zunow anamorphics are over 1.5 years away from market. There's going to be at least one other new anamorphic player entering the field next year too. Don't want to say much on that front.

interesting note on the Cine-Xenar IIIs from testing. One of the "pros" on these lenses is their close focus capabilities. However, you can actually focus significantly closer than published. I'll have to take measurements. On the 18mm I think I'm about a finger's width from the lens, which is closer than the 11" published. Nice if you are trying to do a surreal rack from blur to in focus at close distances.
 
Matt Gottshalk said:
Good choice on the Schneiders.
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Thanks Matt. So far in the hour I had outside with this set I'm really, really impressed and happy.

Seriously though. I should have somebody rolling BTS while I'm doing all these tests. It's crazy. They turned the lights off for me at AbelCine when I was looking at certain lighting fixtures and testing color purity. Bizarre day.
 
Phil>

Please consider making another thread specifically regarding your Epic Dragon journey; some of us are considering a similar path.

Love the Cine-Xenar IIIs choice; I think a lot of folks would be interested on the decision-making process of such a purchase from you, but the current thread title might lead them not to click it (it was a pleasant surprise for me when I stumbled into it).

Although I'm not there, meaning I still shoot with still glass primes, I would love to someday consider investing in cinema primes.

Congrats!
 
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Hey Phil,

Congratulations on your new investment, they look like super-sweet lenses. I can't wait to see what you do with them and I'm sure Skully's gonna feel pretty 'Epic' with them until Dragon rolls around.
 
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