Robert Lane
August 12th, 2007, 07:15 PM
As promised, footage from the HPX500 using the P+S Technik Pro-35 and Skater combo.
All dolly and pan moves were done using the Skater (with exception to vertical jib moves of course). This was an extremely low-budget shoot, something I normally don't do but it was a favor to a friend and an opportunity to get some facetime with the Pro-35 on the HPX500, so I didn't have an AC to do follow-focus and didn't even have a good external monitor (more on the that below).
I did have a Canon CAC lens on-hand if I felt I needed it but the Nikon glass I used actually looked much better, not just from a DOF perspective but even color transmission and sharpness from edge to edge, not surprising considering the times we've used it before on the SDX900 and Varicam.
The lenses were MF Nikkors: 20mm f/2.8, 50mm f/1.2, 85mm f/1.4.
All footage is RAW and has not been CC'd yet; the QT is H.264 from Compressor 3 (I need to tweak these settings more because I'm not 100% happy with the output - I just used the built-in preset).
There are a couple clips where the GG in the Pro-35 was purposely turned off to allow the grain to add a mood to the image.
About the monitor used: As I mentioned this was bargain-basement low-budget shoot so I couldn't use the LH900 that I'm used to and instead had an Astro 6" inch on loan, which I was not happy with at all. I could never get a good color response from it and the displayed image was too poor to even use for focus. So guess what - all this manual follow-focusing I had to do alone (no AC to pull focus) was done ONLY with the built-in flip-out LCD and the FOCUS ASSIST function. Pay close attention to the last clip in the sequence, the ball stays sharp almost 100% of the time. My point being, once you get used to how things look in the LCD an external isn't always required. In fact, the flip-out did a much better job of giving me exposure info than the Astro did!
I had originally planned to get a lot more demo footage shot to show you guys but doing the P2HD road-shows severely cut into my shoot time. I can tell you however, that without the Pro-35 and Skater combo I'm going to feel naked on my next shoot without them both.
(UPDATE) The file I was trying to upload is too big; I'll have to get with Chris and see where he want's me to post it.
All dolly and pan moves were done using the Skater (with exception to vertical jib moves of course). This was an extremely low-budget shoot, something I normally don't do but it was a favor to a friend and an opportunity to get some facetime with the Pro-35 on the HPX500, so I didn't have an AC to do follow-focus and didn't even have a good external monitor (more on the that below).
I did have a Canon CAC lens on-hand if I felt I needed it but the Nikon glass I used actually looked much better, not just from a DOF perspective but even color transmission and sharpness from edge to edge, not surprising considering the times we've used it before on the SDX900 and Varicam.
The lenses were MF Nikkors: 20mm f/2.8, 50mm f/1.2, 85mm f/1.4.
All footage is RAW and has not been CC'd yet; the QT is H.264 from Compressor 3 (I need to tweak these settings more because I'm not 100% happy with the output - I just used the built-in preset).
There are a couple clips where the GG in the Pro-35 was purposely turned off to allow the grain to add a mood to the image.
About the monitor used: As I mentioned this was bargain-basement low-budget shoot so I couldn't use the LH900 that I'm used to and instead had an Astro 6" inch on loan, which I was not happy with at all. I could never get a good color response from it and the displayed image was too poor to even use for focus. So guess what - all this manual follow-focusing I had to do alone (no AC to pull focus) was done ONLY with the built-in flip-out LCD and the FOCUS ASSIST function. Pay close attention to the last clip in the sequence, the ball stays sharp almost 100% of the time. My point being, once you get used to how things look in the LCD an external isn't always required. In fact, the flip-out did a much better job of giving me exposure info than the Astro did!
I had originally planned to get a lot more demo footage shot to show you guys but doing the P2HD road-shows severely cut into my shoot time. I can tell you however, that without the Pro-35 and Skater combo I'm going to feel naked on my next shoot without them both.
(UPDATE) The file I was trying to upload is too big; I'll have to get with Chris and see where he want's me to post it.