New wedding with the ea50

[Noa Put]

Below the highlights of my last wedding, this time with mostly nex ea50 footage, only steadicam shots are with a dslr and there are a few sony cx730 shots in there. I used a 24 and 85mm lens from samyang and the stocklens, I used the JR45CINE2 profile with just some minor modification in post (bumped the saturation a bit) and maybe interesting to know, all shots with the ea50 are handheld.

I"m pretty satisfied with this one as it was a solo shoot, I had 4 camera's rolling during the ceremony, 3 small sony handicams and my ea50 to get some guest reactions, there was also live singing but this has not been included in this highlights because I have no license for the songs.
Sound came from a tascam dr40 and a zoom h1.
I liked this approach to just shoot handheld with the ea50, the footage slows down easily which is great for slomo's in the highlights , so far still very happy with the camera :) If you have any questions just let me know.

Tinne & Jurgen on Vimeo

[Jerome Cloninger]

Very nice! I may have to try out that PP. Check and see if Edius has a plugin called "Convolution Kernel". I've been playing with that for sharpness instead of the "sharpen" plugin for Vegas. So far pretty good and looks better! I have to re-export my last highlight because I just found that I had BOTH convolution kernel and sharpness on it....

What was the name of the song you used?

[James Manford]

Lovely video. Really like the way you whip zoom (is that what it's called?)

How do you manage to keep it in focus?

[Noa Put]

Convolution kernel is not in Edius, you just have a sharpening filter but it works pretty well, I have noticed that I can add much more sharpening when it's intended to be placed online, for dvd and blu-ray I need to tone done the sharpening because you see it looks somewhat enhanced and not very natural anymore if you push it too much. The music you can find here: Stock Music Licensing for Video, Photography & Film - The Music Bed

There are 2 "whipzooms", one with my ea50 and the second one (with those policemen trowing their caps) and that was done with a sony cx730 handicam. The very first sequence in the film the focus was on auto, there was plenty of light and I wasn't doing any closeups so could trust the camera to handle it better then I could. The stocklens handles nicely if you do manual zooms, not saying slow creeping zooms are possible but there you could use the servo zoom but all other types of zooms are fun to do manually. :) Manual focussing with the stocklens is another story, it's far from accurate, first you turn teh focus ring a bit and the focus shifts over a bigger distance and for the last part to finetune you need to turn the ring a lot more, then I like the manual samyang lenses a lot more to focus, the feedback you get from the lensring is very accurate but I guess that's because it's mechanical vs electronic..

[Justin Turner]

Nice work, colours look very natural too!

[Chris Harding]

Hey Noa

Nice work and very natural!

I see you have the same problem there as we do with photogs!! They never dress decently at all ...just a t-shirt and cargo pants and usually just sneakers ..at a wedding too!! I wonder why ???

Everyone looked so smart and neat except the photog!!

Yeah the EA-50 is a really nice handheld camera ..I shoot almost all my footage handheld expect for cam A on the tripod during ceremony and speeches otherwise it's on my shoulder!! You are far less restricted that way!

I have my last two this weekend then a break of about 7 weeks when the wild and wet (and cold) weather arrives ...we normally get going again in August but I do have a late July one this year.

Chris

[James Manford]

Originally Posted by Chris Harding

Hey Noa

Nice work and very natural!

I see you have the same problem there as we do with photogs!! They never dress decently at all ...just a t-shirt and cargo pants and usually just sneakers ..at a wedding too!! I wonder why ???

Everyone looked so smart and neat except the photog!!

Yeah the EA-50 is a really nice handheld camera ..I shoot almost all my footage handheld expect for cam A on the tripod during ceremony and speeches otherwise it's on my shoulder!! You are far less restricted that way!

I have my last two this weekend then a break of about 7 weeks when the wild and wet (and cold) weather arrives ...we normally get going again in August but I do have a late July one this year.

Chris

Chris I don't think there is anything wrong in the way the photogs dressing other than the colour of his attire. I dress in black cargo pants and a short sleeved black shirt.

Fact is, i'm staff. Not a guest. And I blend in really well. But the main thing is, my clothes are functional for me to carry out my job i.e. carry batteries & other gear etc without running back to my bag (which I usually leave in the car).

[Chris Harding]

Hi James

Sorry I disagree there and I'm actually surprised as wedding staff in the UK normally over dress. My mate Philip in Manchester actually wears a morning suit to weddings when he shoots video.

Our photogs will wear a scruffy coloured shirts, dirty jeans and dirty sneakers and get away with it which to me is disrespectful to the bride. I have dress pants and a long sleeved dress shirt with the company name on it and people appreciate it.

Sure I'm much more comfortable in shorts/t-shirt and sneakers BUT it's a wedding not a casual outing so I dress smartly enough to blend it unlike most of our photogs here. It's a formal occasion and really you should dress appropriately and short sleeve shirts don't cut it BUT that's my opinion only ....I wonder what others wear to weddings ....smart or scruffy???

Chris

[James Manford]

Originally Posted by Chris Harding

Hi James

Sorry I disagree there and I'm actually surprised as wedding staff in the UK normally over dress. My mate Philip in Manchester actually wears a morning suit to weddings when he shoots video.

Our photogs will wear a scruffy coloured shirts, dirty jeans and dirty sneakers and get away with it which to me is disrespectful to the bride. I have dress pants and a long sleeved dress shirt with the company name on it and people appreciate it.

Sure I'm much more comfortable in shorts/t-shirt and sneakers BUT it's a wedding not a casual outing so I dress smartly enough to blend it unlike most of our photogs here. It's a formal occasion and really you should dress appropriately and short sleeve shirts don't cut it BUT that's my opinion only ....I wonder what others wear to weddings ....smart or scruffy???

Chris

Fair enough. My father actually commented on my dress code and said why don't I wear a suit ...

I told him with me flying about the venue, bending over backwords to work the slider, running to the tripod etc it's not feasable as a one man camera operator as I tend to work up a sweat all the time.

I don't shoot docu style. My work flow is more creative so I move around much more then normal I guess and I don't want to be wearing a flash suit. Nice clean trousers, shoes with a short sleeved shirt does the job for me and tbh it's as comfortable as wearing a t-shirt and shorts.

[Steven Digges]

Chris beat me to the punch. I was going to comment on the photogs attire too. Sorry James, but functionality is a poor excuse for a lack of professionalism. I have done everything in a suit I can do in shorts. Not by choice but because it is the right thing to do. Knowing that camera operators here love to be casual I define the dress code for before every shoot if they are new to me. My dress code is job specific, casual when I can be but never under dressed. Conform or get lost, I don't hire anyone twice that can not represent themselves professionally. I feel that strongly about it and so do my corporate clients. You are what you look like, at least the things within your control. It is not a judgement thing, it is a business thing. I have a friend that is a great hand on any job. But I can not use him on a lot of my gigs and he knows it. Looking "cool" with all of his tattoos and artsy style of clothes is that important to him. That is OK, It is his choice. It works for him but not for me. And often, working in a high level executive environment is the best paying jobs. I like to work. I am to old to worry about being cool ;)

Steve

[Noa Put]

I was going to comment on the photogs attire too.

But the real question is, did the JR45CINE2 profile make his attire look good and wasn't the color too flat?

[Steven Digges]

That is funny Noa. And you are correct in bringing me back to topic. I meant to comment on the video but I tripped over my damn soap box on the way. I don't feel old but I sure sound like a grumpy curmudgeon sometimes.

So....I have to tell you I cheat. I don't put the time or effort into the profiles you do so I steal yours because you are kind enough to share your knowledge and test results with us. So I copy yours and I'll be damed if it does not work every time. Thank you!

I have a question. I understand the comments above about sharpening differently for web or Blue Ray. But I think maybe you and Jerome, if I am not mistaken have made comments about backing OFF sharpness or detail in camera. I think Jerome even did this for his NASCAR shoot? What would the purpose of that be? I am sure I am missing something. The only reason I know of for soft focus is the old beauty shot effect that you would do in post. Why do you back off detail in camera?

Steve

[Noa Put]

Turning the sharpening all the way down in camera and turning the sharpness back up again in post is supposed to decrease moire and aliasing, I have not tested it but I increased the sharpness a bit to -4 instead of -7 because I found the image to be very soft at those setting, if I have more time I"d like to perform a more scientific test to see what is right about that claim.

[Jerome Cloninger]

Originally Posted by Steven Digges

But I think maybe you and Jerome, if I am not mistaken have made comments about backing OFF sharpness or detail in camera. I think Jerome even did this for his NASCAR shoot? What would the purpose of that be? I am sure I am missing something. The only reason I know of for soft focus is the old beauty shot effect that you would do in post. Why do you back off detail in camera?

Steve

Hey Steve,
I've experimented a bit with the detail settings. NOT scientific, but I'm noticing some things with it. It's not necessarily "sharpening" as one perceives, it is literally detail settings. Some of the changes are so minuscule and hard to notice but combined with the other details settings, they all play a role in perceived sharpening. In playing around with these settings, I actually got a softer image with using some of the manual settings with an overall level -4 be SOFTER than -7 and no manual adjustments to the other stuff. Not by much, but yes softer in some of the image detials. I WISH there was some really good descriptive info out there on all these settings instead of a few people scratching the surface.

Now, I can't say much yet, but there's something that may be coming our way to deal with aliasing and moire and allow us to dial in more details when filming...... keep fingers crossed!

[Don Bloom]

Originally Posted by Steven Digges

I don't feel old but I sure sound like a grumpy curmudgeon sometimes.
Steve

HEY HEY, That's MY job! I even have a T shirt that says I'm exactly that! :-)