SGBlade w/XH-A1 footage

[Marcel D. Van Someren]

First, let me say that the Blade performed flawlessly. Not sure I can say the same about the cameraman (me)

It has been raining in So. California since last Friday. Today was forecast as the first clear, but cold day this week. The forecast for the rest of the week and this weekend is for rain, rain, and more rain. Sooooooo.....

I rushed out to a local park during my lunch hour and shot some footage. Because I was so rushed, I only used one lens, Nikkor 50mm f1.4, and did not have an external monitor. Anyone ever trying to focus an adapter on the A1's LCD or viewfinder knows that it is a challenge to say the least.

Since I just built the SGBlade set up last night, there wasn't any real testing. I came to find out today that I need to collimate my lens. I would hit infinity before the lens did and then go back out of focus. So some of my infinity shots in this video is soft because I went past the mark. Actually, I missed a couple of marks during rack-focusing too.

All of these wonderful things could have been avoided had I not been so rushed (and if that little girl in the park would have stopped asking me what movie I was shooting for. )

One last thing, as I was playing the footage in my NLE, I noticed that my lens had some dirt on it, so you may notice that.

I edited this clip in about 20min so I could post it ASAP. these are just random shots, nothing special. I know there have been a few of you asking for Blade/A1 footage.

Specs:

Rotorazor 1

24f 1/48 No color correction - Preset Panlook2

Camera lens f4, Nikkor lens f4 and one scene at f5.6 just to see what would happen.

And here it is: SGBlade First Test w/Canon XH-A1 & Rotorazor 1 By Marcel Van Someren On ExposureRoom


I'll do a better test shoot when weather permits.

[Henry Olonga]

Nice one Marcel.Hope you get a lot of enjoyment using the blade.It is a nice piece of kit.

[Marcel D. Van Someren]

Here's some new XH-A1 / SGBlade footage using ROTOrazor 2. The first minute and 15 seconds are shot at f8, the rest at f4.

I really, really, like the look of RR2!

Nikkor 50mm f1.4 @ f8 & f4. Vision7 preset, no color grading.

SGBlade Test / XH-A1 w / ROTOrazor 2 By Marcel Van Someren On ExposureRoom

Here's a couple of screen grabs. f8 and f4. you can tell the difference by the DOF.

[Hubert Duijzer]

That looks great Marcel. Even at F8 there was a nice subtle DOF. It looks great to me. I heard a lot about not stopping down that far because you get to see the spinning glas. Or isn't that the case with the SGBlade?

I want everybody to stop posting footage of that adapter, my wallet hurts already :)

[Marcel D. Van Someren]

Originally Posted by Hubert Duijzer

That looks great Marcel. Even at F8 there was a nice subtle DOF. It looks great to me. I heard a lot about not stopping down that far because you get to see the spinning glas. Or isn't that the case with the SGBlade?

I want everybody to stop posting footage of that adapter, my wallet hurts already :)

Yes, even the shoot35 website says that with the RR2, f4 is the limit. I'm sure under some conditions, that's true. I am really pleased with the performance of the Blade and the image you can produce with it. I think that I'll only pull out RR1 if I absolutely have to because of low light conditions, need high shutterspeeds, or I need to stop down to like f11 or something. Otherwise, I'm sticking with RR2.

Sorry about your wallet being in pain. Folks in the US now have to pay more than they did a month or two ago to purchase the Blade because the the declining value of the dollar. :(

[David W. Jones]

I'm not real crazy about the grain pattern.

[Phil Bloom]

which grain pattern? I can't see any...and if you did from the blade it would be in a circular pattern

[David W. Jones]

Originally Posted by Phil Bloom

which grain pattern? I can't see any...and if you did from the blade it would be in a circular pattern

Phil, the foreground areas in focus look fine,
It's the background areas where I see The GG image.
It's not the Bokeh of the out of focus image that draws my attention, it's the grain detail from the spinner. It's not just the blade, I see this from many DOF adapters.
The big tell tell giveaway is where there is a large area of sky in the background.

[Bob Hart]

A very sharp finely detailed grain pattern may also be "normal" sensor noise which is otherwise concealed in the detailed clutter of a deep depth-of-field image. An open area of uniform soft focus will make sensor noise more apparent.

You would normally only become aware of this noise when gaining up in low light.

[Ted Ramasola]

Originally Posted by David W. Jones

Phil, the foreground areas in focus look fine,
It's the background areas where I see The GG image.
It's not the Bokeh of the out of focus image that draws my attention, it's the grain detail from the spinner. It's not just the blade, I see this from many DOF adapters.
The big tell tell giveaway is where there is a large area of sky in the background.

David,

I know what you mean. Marcel and I both made our own adapters and this is a problem especially with low grade GGs. and especially with mine. BUT, I found out that this can be made to come out if you step down your opening. AND with certain wide lenses.

This pattern have have come to be fondly called the swirlys, and there is a way around this, in 50mm f1.2 or f1.4 lenses for instance, its not apparent event with sky shots at f1.2 - f2.8
AND and at shutter speed of 24 or 48.

I found this swirlys obvious with my 20mm sigma f2.8 at top sides.

But then this is based on my DIY gg.
In fairness to the frames posted above, it is not there at both frames or its not apparent.

And what makes it noteworthy is the fact that its not apparent at those apertures of f8 and f4. I believe some shooters, me included, are faced with decisions in the field where one decided to try and "get away with it", even though its there, we tend to push it beyond its limitations and use the shot even with minimal presence of swirlys.

My paid work show this and its still acceptable.
Its a matter of learning to decide when it is and is not acceptable as an aesthetic decision.

I look forward to the day big chips trickle down to us poor ol users so we can achieve this sans adapters.


Ted

[Marcel D. Van Someren]

Originally Posted by David W. Jones

Phil, the foreground areas in focus look fine,
It's the background areas where I see The GG image.
It's not the Bokeh of the out of focus image that draws my attention, it's the grain detail from the spinner. It's not just the blade, I see this from many DOF adapters.
The big tell tell giveaway is where there is a large area of sky in the background.

David, I think what you're seeing in the first few scenes is a combination of sensor noise (this is the A1 after all), compression and the 4X4 polarizing filter which, for some reason, sometimes causes the upper part of the sky to look dark, almost muddy. I'm sure I'm doing something wrong.

As Bob stated, grain would appear as a moving semi circular patter. There is none of that in any of the images that I can see.

From 3:00 to 3:42 in the video there are very large portions of open sky. I can't see one bit of grain.

[Ted Ramasola]

Marcel,

This means your d.i.y.adapter will be r.i.p.? LOL, This is a good test to push the blade. Whats the lens and aperture Marcel? Of those last 3 frames you just posted.


Ted

[Marcel D. Van Someren]

Originally Posted by Ted Ramasola

Marcel,

This means your d.i.y.adapter will be r.i.p.? LOL, This is a good test to push the blade. Whats the lens and aperture Marcel? Of those last 3 frames you just posted.


Ted

I think the DIY will just become a reserve adapter. I don't regret building one, the knowledge gained is invaluable. Plus it was fun and functional.

The blade is more compact, better build quality than my DIY and has a flip module. I like the interchangable GG concept as well. Stopping down with ROTOrazor 1 is not an issue, but the bokeh isn't as nice. The ROTOrazor 2, which I used for this video, will be my main GG for most projects.

I actually had it at f11 at one point when I was setting up and didn't see any grain in the view finder. I thought I had hit the record button, but I didn't.

The entire video was shot with a Nikkor 50mm f1.4. Those last shots were at f4. Even the sunset scene was at f4. I just added ND filters. Only the first 1min & 15 sec was at f8.