Petr Marusek
January 7th, 2006, 12:51 AM
Resolution of the Canon H1 camera is superb, so I wrote this primarely with H1 in mind. For good artistic image quality we need a 35 mm adapter, good relay and 35 mm lenses, the Wafian HDD recorder, etc. This setup is naturally applicable to the other low cost HD cameras too.
Problems:
The Wafian recorder is expensive, so is the P+S 35 adapter and cine lenses.
Solutions:
1. 35 mm adapter. How about using the Redrock Micro 35? What is the quality? What is the website address? Are there any other low cost adapters that are of good quality? How do they compare when it comes to light loss, resolution, vibrations, reliability, warranty, etc.? What kind of relay lens would you use? How good is it?
2. 35 mm lenses. Cine-style 35 mm lenses are expensive. SLR lenses have short focusing movement and SLR zooms may breathe too much, but are inexpensive. Is there a follow focus unit that allows accurate follow focus with this type of lenses? Does not Dan D? from the Alternative Imaging methods make some sort of low cost FF unit? How good is it? How much does it cost? How does it work with 35 mm SLR lenses? Are auto or manual focus lenses more suitable? Why?
3. Wafian HDD recorder is too expensive, so is building your own computer equivalent, because you need Prospect HD for HDSDI support, which with AJA card costs something like $5K. I think that it would be less expensive to record uncompressed to RAID drive and then have the same computer compress the footage with Aspect HD, which handles 1440x1080 resolution and is 8 bit, same as the HDSDI output of H1, which is 10 bit, but two bits are set to zero. Aspect HD is about $500 I think. The same computer could be used for production and postproduction, if budget is tight. What components would such computer need? How much would they cost? The computer would need a monitor, but the same monitor would also serve as the production monitor. How would you power such a setup in the field? Could it work off of batteries? What HDSDI converter would be used with other cameras than the Canon, which has the converter built in? How about using a computer with uncompressed component input. Would Aspect HD compress this on the fly?
SLOW MOTION:
This setup would work with other cameras too, not just H1, and would be great for slow motion for instance with the JVC HD-100 camera, which has 720-60p uncompressed output that can be converted to HDSDI. HVX-200 also has 720p, up to 60p component output, I think, and the Cineform codec is of higher bit rate and quality than DVCPRO HD. Canon XL-H1 can be shot at 1080-60i and converted to 1080-60p for slow motion.
QUALITY, ECONOMICS, EFFICIENCY:
This will be the budget indie filmmaker's equivalent of a pro setup that would cost couple hundred thousand dollars. The pro setup would be more efficient, would need less light, etc. The problem is that I don't have hundreds of thousands of dollars for a $100K camera, another $100K for a set of lenses, etc. Would you rent the pro setup or would you rather have your own low cost version that I'm describing here and which would cost about as much as renting the pro version for one film production?
PRIME LENSES:
There are no prime lenses for the Canon, except 35 mm lenses can be used with an adapter. This is great for telephoto. Can some low cost high definition industrial lenses get converted somewhere for use with H1 and HD-100?
Problems:
The Wafian recorder is expensive, so is the P+S 35 adapter and cine lenses.
Solutions:
1. 35 mm adapter. How about using the Redrock Micro 35? What is the quality? What is the website address? Are there any other low cost adapters that are of good quality? How do they compare when it comes to light loss, resolution, vibrations, reliability, warranty, etc.? What kind of relay lens would you use? How good is it?
2. 35 mm lenses. Cine-style 35 mm lenses are expensive. SLR lenses have short focusing movement and SLR zooms may breathe too much, but are inexpensive. Is there a follow focus unit that allows accurate follow focus with this type of lenses? Does not Dan D? from the Alternative Imaging methods make some sort of low cost FF unit? How good is it? How much does it cost? How does it work with 35 mm SLR lenses? Are auto or manual focus lenses more suitable? Why?
3. Wafian HDD recorder is too expensive, so is building your own computer equivalent, because you need Prospect HD for HDSDI support, which with AJA card costs something like $5K. I think that it would be less expensive to record uncompressed to RAID drive and then have the same computer compress the footage with Aspect HD, which handles 1440x1080 resolution and is 8 bit, same as the HDSDI output of H1, which is 10 bit, but two bits are set to zero. Aspect HD is about $500 I think. The same computer could be used for production and postproduction, if budget is tight. What components would such computer need? How much would they cost? The computer would need a monitor, but the same monitor would also serve as the production monitor. How would you power such a setup in the field? Could it work off of batteries? What HDSDI converter would be used with other cameras than the Canon, which has the converter built in? How about using a computer with uncompressed component input. Would Aspect HD compress this on the fly?
SLOW MOTION:
This setup would work with other cameras too, not just H1, and would be great for slow motion for instance with the JVC HD-100 camera, which has 720-60p uncompressed output that can be converted to HDSDI. HVX-200 also has 720p, up to 60p component output, I think, and the Cineform codec is of higher bit rate and quality than DVCPRO HD. Canon XL-H1 can be shot at 1080-60i and converted to 1080-60p for slow motion.
QUALITY, ECONOMICS, EFFICIENCY:
This will be the budget indie filmmaker's equivalent of a pro setup that would cost couple hundred thousand dollars. The pro setup would be more efficient, would need less light, etc. The problem is that I don't have hundreds of thousands of dollars for a $100K camera, another $100K for a set of lenses, etc. Would you rent the pro setup or would you rather have your own low cost version that I'm describing here and which would cost about as much as renting the pro version for one film production?
PRIME LENSES:
There are no prime lenses for the Canon, except 35 mm lenses can be used with an adapter. This is great for telephoto. Can some low cost high definition industrial lenses get converted somewhere for use with H1 and HD-100?