Filming air-to-air with EX1

[John Parker]

Hello all. This is my first post. I have read a lot about the EX1's rolling shutter causing problems with quick moving objects, so, I was a little concerned about taking it on a recent air-to-air shoot with me. However, I must say I am pleasantly surprised by the end product. For those who are interested in seeing some of the footage, please go to: www.principalphoto.com/mxs I would really like to know what others think, and if anybody is noticing a rolling shutter.

[Craig Seeman]

Fast moving objects don't necessarily cause rolling shutter. It's more like how fast the sensor is being scanned relative to how fast the objects move across it.

For example: track (pan to follow) a running athlete (moving plane?) and it the subject would be fine. If the background is whipping across the sensor it might bend.

In other words, had you been panning to follow that plane, the white/red pillars and buildings in the background might have started to bend.

[John Parker]

Ahhh. That makes perfect sense. One would think it would be more noticeable in the propeller than. Maybe it's on such an angle where it's not overly noticeable.

[Paul Kellett]

Stunning footage.
Can you tell me what picture profile you used ?

Thanks,Paul.

[John Parker]

Hi Paul, Thank you very much! I used PP1 for this shoot, and I am really pleased with the exposure latitude. I have played around with the setting quite a bit, and made some adjustments to Steve Thomas' settings. All the air-to-air sequences are straight out of the camera with no grading or altering.

[Michael Jensen]

Your footage is great!

Just yesterday I had my first experience shooting some air to air of my fathers Lancair Legacy. I am guessing you are familiar with that aircraft being from Bend Oregon.

My biggest problem was finding a good way to support the camera inside the aircraft. The bumpy air combined with the camera being a little akward didnt make for the best footage. We are going to try and get some more footage soon using a jump plane with the door off as the camera plane.

I am curious, what aircraft type were you shooting from? Were you shooting through glass?

Again, awesome footage!

[Paul Kellett]

What is PP1 nowadays ?
I've lost track of all the PP's.
I'm using Bills PP at the moment.

Thanks,Paul.

[John Parker]

Hi Michael,

Thanks! I agree, it's not easy finding a suitable aircraft to do this with. I was shooting out of a Piper Seneca with the doors removed. I built a small contraption to help stabilize the camera. Honestly though, the best thing I have used is a tripod with all sorts of vibration dampening. It really helps to shoot in the real early morning or late afternoon over a land mass with an equal temperature gradient like a large lake. This way the air will be much much smoother. Ah yes! The Legacy is a beautiful airplane with such sexy lines!!!

[John Parker]

Hi Paul,

I hear ya! It's easy to get lost in spending so much time tweaking around with all the variations.

[Robert Young]

Sony commissioned Jody Eldred to shoot an air show to demo the EX1. The finished production is a mixture of XDCam HD and EX1 and is absolutely stunning. I saw his presentation at Sundance 2008. For one sequence the EX1 was strapped into the cockpit for aerobatic manuvers that went to 10g- apparently not possible with a tape camera. Sony has had bits and pieces of the production up on their EX1 web page from time to time. It's worth looking for.
As an aside, Jody used bungee cords from the airframe to the camera to support the camera weight and dampen the movement/vibration while hanging out the airplane door to shoot air to air.

[James Huenergardt]

Hey John,

Looks like you were shooing in my neighborhood. That looked like Lake Tahoe and Reno if I'm not mistaken.

My 'day' job is flying out of Bishop for an air ambulance company, if you want to call air ambulance a day job. Some of the flying is in the middle of the night.

I'm wanting to do some air-to-air of our two planes. We have access to a Cessna 206 where we can remove the door.

Nice work!

[Magnus Eklof]

Originally Posted by Robert Young

As an aside, Jody used bungee cords from the airframe to the camera to support the camera weight and dampen the movement/vibration while hanging out the airplane door to shoot air to air.

Hi! This is how I usually do my stills shooting from helicopter, Hasselblad on Manfrotto´s FigRig, 4 bungy-cords, 1 to each corner of doorway, this works very well. I have not tried this with moving images yet, I guess it works equally well, cheap too!

A very nice piece of film Mr Parker!!

[Alister Chapman]

Very often bungees will add to the vibration as they tend to oscillate and vibrate in sympathy with the aircraft. There are various things you can do to satbilise a camera. One is to add mass. The heavier the object the less it will want to move and shake about. Another is to bolt on a gyro such as a Kenyon Gyro (which adds both mass and gyroscopic stability. Another thing that helps is to use some kind of grip system like a fig rig as this moves your hands apart and makes it easier to stabilise the camera.

[Dominik Seibold]

Nice, but I would recommend a 180°-shutter for crisper motion.

[Scott Karlins]

Originally Posted by John Parker

Hi Paul, Thank you very much! I used PP1 for this shoot, and I am really pleased with the exposure latitude. I have played around with the setting quite a bit, and made some adjustments to Steve Thomas' settings. All the air-to-air sequences are straight out of the camera with no grading or altering.

PP1, if you made no changes, is the camera default. All the PP's are the same out-of-the-box.

So, if you made no changes, your PP1 was the camera stock setting. If you have firmware v. 1.0.5, the stock camera profile is not bad. I assume you used Magic Bullet Looks for color grading?

Scott K.