Joining the ranks.....

[Ryan Creason]

Brian,

You are using the heliopan with the FS-100? Do you find that 6.6 stops is enough? I was looking at some like the Tiffen ND that is 2-8 stops and still was unsure if it'd be enough. What are your thoughts? Thanks!

Also, is the heliopan polarized?

[Brian Bang Jensen]

The Heliopan is a polarized ND filter.

In most situation 6.6 stop ND is enough.

If you are using the kit lens you will not need any more as it is f3.5 at the wide end.

I am using Zeiss 1.4 Nikon primes and in most situations I can stay below f2.8. In rare situations I had to stop down to f4. This being in pal land with a shutter speed of 50. If I set the shutter to 100 I can always stay at f2.8 or below.

With my 35mm lens at f4 I can still obtain a decent DOF.
At f1.4 the DOF is weary shallow and with the 85mm at f1.4 the DOF is only an inch or two, so stopping down to 2.8 is actually needed in most situations, unless you prefer a picture where only the eyebrows are in focus .
All this of course depends on the distance to the talent.

[Ryan Creason]

Does the Heliopan have threads on the front for attaching anything else?

Also off topic, do you find that with the FS-100's display, you can easily see what is in/out of focus? It's near impossible often times with my XH-A1.

[Gabe Strong]

I'll jump in here for a second. First, I have emailed a couple of these
questions to Charlie at Hedlerusa.com, which is where I was able to find
the Heliopan filter. He told me that there was a third party company
that was 'thinking' about making a sunshade which would slip over the end
of the filter, but that was all the info he had. I understand that the
filter does NOT have threads on the front of it to attach anything else.
However, I have heard so many good things about it, how it introduces
no color cast, and is pin sharp, that I decided it was a must have
for the FS-100. It wouldn't seem to be too hard to make a sunshade that
would fit on a 77mm filter, but maybe I am wrong. I am guessing
that third parties are going to step up here as they see opportunity
to make some money.

As regards the FS-100, the LCD screen on it is VERY good (I think the resolution is
1920x480). You can usually tell what is in focus, and if you aren't sure, you just
hit the 'expanded focus' button which zooms in 2x to give you even more detail to tell
if you are focused or not. It's the best LCD screen I've seen, probably the same one
from the EX-1/3 line.

[Ryan Creason]

So if I bought the fs-100 with the kit lens for $5600, the Heliopan ND filter for $400, 32 GB SDHC card @ 30mb/s for $90, and an extra Sony NP F970 L series @ 6600 mAh battery for $50, then I'd be looking at $6,140 to start up with this camera.

Anything else I'm forgetting?

[Dan Asseff]

Ryan,
Were do you find a new sony 970 for $50.00

Dan

[Ryan Creason]

Sony NP F970 Camcorder battery - Li-Ion 6600 mAh - $46.95

It's the L series (You can see on the package) and 6600 mAh. As far as I can tell, it's a legit deal. I could be wrong however.

[Gabe Strong]

Originally Posted by Ryan Creason

So if I bought the fs-100 with the kit lens for $5600, the Heliopan ND filter for $400, 32 GB SDHC card @ 30mb/s for $90, and an extra Sony NP F970 L series @ 6600 mAh battery for $50, then I'd be looking at $6,140 to start up with this camera.

Anything else I'm forgetting?

Well, you're pretty much right. I myself didn't get a 32 gig card because
I already had two 16's and an 8 for my HD Hero Cam. I had always bought
Class 10 cards just in case I got a 'big' camera that would need the
speed. Now I'm glad I did. I also had several of the big sony batteries
already that I use on my PD-150 (yes, my PD 150 still is getting work
for me). I'd maybe add in the cost of a step up ring, which are pretty
cheap. I bought a 67 to 77 step up ring so I can use the 77mm Heliopan
instead of the 67mm one. The kit lens is 67mm, but if you want
to get other glass later, it might be better to get the bigger filter now,
then it will work with the bigger lens's as well (I see a 70-300 F2.8
that has 77mm threads that I may want, as well as a 24-75 F2.8). Otherwise,
you will be stuck buying another ND filter for the larger lens. Still,
although 6 grand is NOT cheap, if you think about what cameras had a
super 35 chip before the F3 and FS100 came along? I'm guessing we
are talking 150-250 grand here, so really it's pretty amazing!

[Ryan Creason]

Are all step up rings made equal? Any advantages of one over another (assuming they are all 77 to 67).

[Gabe Strong]

I think the cheaper step up rings can have a tendency to 'bind' or stick
on the threads, or get crossthreaded. I went with Tiffin as they have a
good reputation and it wasn't 'that' much more. I think I bought the
step up ring for $20 or $30.

[Monty Wentzel]

I've shot with big cams and now I've been shooting with a 7d. The audio recording being the biggest problem, but I get around it without much trouble.

The video quality is fine. It's so small I love that. Plenty of lenses, even cheap ones do great.

Low light is great.

I was so close to purchasing a fs-100 but started to cool-off about buy it.

3-pin xlr's mic inputs must be great.

Not having nd filters doesn't bother me. I was going to use manual Rokinon prime lenes that have manual focus and iris rings on the lens. A variable nd screw-on works fine. Already bought one just to try it out with my 7d and the lens is great.

I don't run & gun so manual everything appeals to me.

I would love a pep talk from someone if I'm missing something by not buying the fs-100.

Even if audio and video are improved witha fs-100 it's so good with the 7d do I really need to upgrade?

monty

[Dave Sperling]

Monty,
Just wander around the forums and you'll probably hear many of the ways the FS100 is an improvement over the traditional DSLRs.
My biggest ones are things like long record time, full res output for live monitoring, easily being able to use the camera viewfinder and an external client monitor simultaneously, a camera that doesn't overheat and force you to shut down until it cools down, ability to easily adapt cine lenses when needed, time code, 1080/60p, no interline problems, minimal jellocam effects when compared to a DSLR, less noise at increased gain, the ability to record to a NanoFlash, etc.
If none of these things have ever bothered you, then I'm thinking you haven't shot much video with a DSLR.
The more video I shot sith DSLR's, the more I knew I wanted to be shooting with a real HD video camera instead...