First F3 footage

[Andrew Stone]

Doug thanks for posting up your video. Interesting combination of lenses.

At this point, would you mind commenting on the lenses you used. First time I have seen the combo of the Sony OEM PLs along with a Zeiss and the Schneider. I've been curious how the Sony's stacked up against the Zeiss, With you being up close & personal with them for a bit, I'd like to hear your thoughts.

Lastly, I presume you were shooting without an external monitor. How was pulling focus?

[Doug Jensen]

Andrew,

it's too early for me to come to any firm conclusions about which lenses I prefer. If you ask me, they all look very good and I can't tell the difference between them in most situations. It really comes down to ergonomics and other non-optical considerations. I'm leaning towards some favorites, but I'll save that for another post once I know I won't have to change my mind and eat my words.

Yes, I was shooting without any external monitor or viewfinder and focusing was not very hard most of the time. Like everyone else, I'm not satisfied at all with the camera's viewfinder, and the LCD is too hard to see outdoors, but I've gotten used to them pretty fast. Just as I did with my EX1. I may add an accessory viewfinder later after I see what's available at NAB, but I certainly don' think the camera is crippled without one. I'd gladly pay a couple thousand bucks for an adapter that would allow me to put the C35W viewfinder from my F800 on the F3. Damn, that'd be a nice setup. Besides adding a mattebox and rods (have not arrived yet) I prefer to keep the camera clean and simple. I am not interested in building a Frankenstein camera or a Rube Goldberg contraption that other people seem to accept. My motto is to keep it simple.

[Chuck Fishbein]

Today is the first time I used my F3 on a paid project. I had really done very little testing beyond basic record and playback and even though it was a fairly simple talking head, I actually brought along my EX1 in case I ran into any snags.

I was shooting in a baseball stadium and my client requested that I include some of the exterior in the background. I had neither an HMI or enough tungsten power to match the outdoor exposure. I had brought along a roll of .9 ND, but it was not enough to cover all the windows with two layers, so I let the brighter windows work as an edge light. The front light was an Omni 600 in a Chimera box with a half blue and a small white card for fill. I used a 1/2 blue rather than a full to get a little more stop out of the light.

My lens was a Nikon 24-70 2.8 at around f4.0 and it worked great with the MTF, although making exposures repeatable was difficult using a G style lens. This image is was shot without any profile setting. I shot using a Nanoflash as well as to the SXS. This result is from the Nano.

At one point during the interview, the sun began reflecting off something in the stadium, boosting the edge light above 100 ire, based on the waveform in my PVM-740, but in the blow up, the image held pretty nicely. Detail is incredible.

I've only included a screen grab as the video is not ready for release
I'll be using this camera in all types of situations and a lot of it won't be dreamy imagery. I've got to make it pay for itself.
All in all I was very impressed (and relieved) with the camera's first performance.

[Dean Harrington]

That pic looks very good.

[Aaron Newsome]

The first thing I did was try to find the moire on the jacket, but I didn't see any.

[Chuck Fishbein]

There was no moire, Great sharpness and detail without added noise.
This was shot at +6db..

[Chuck Fishbein]

These are screen shots from my first outdoor test with the F3. MTF adaptor, Tamron 300mm 2.8 +6db.
My location was New Jersey, about a mile from the NYC side of the river. It was 6:30 pm so it was already pretty dark. Certainly beyond the realm of my EX3. There was some noise when I pushed the camera beyond +6, but it was more like film grain than mosquito noise.

No secret it was difficult to focus outdoors, but the peaking was very accurate.

[Timur Civan]

Originally Posted by Doug Jensen

This video was shot over the course of a weekend in Key West, Florida to test the capabilites of the F3. Most of the time during shooting it was just me on foot walking the streets with the camera, a tripod, and a selection of four prime lenses in a backpack.

Lenses used:
Zeiss CP.2 18mm PL
Sony 35mm PL
Sony 50mm PL
Schneider Cine-Xenar 95mm PL

No mattebox, filters, lights, external recorders, or other accessories were used during the shooting. Most footage was shot with the HQ 1920 24P mode and recorded to SxS cards. All slow-mo footage was shot as 1280 24P @ 60 fps. Most of the nighttime shots were done at +12db. Daytime shots are at 0db.

No color grading or post-production filters have been applied. The video is straight out of the camera. Everything was shot using two Picture Profiles I'm still fine-tuning called VORTEX-A and VORTEX-L. The final settings will by talked about in Vortex Media's upcoming "Mastering the Sony PMW-F3" training DVD.


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That shot of the birds with the sunset.... Schneider yea? Thoese are nice lenses if you dont mind the funky ergonomics... Optics are nice.

[David Chia]

Originally Posted by Chuck Fishbein

My lens was a Nikon 24-70 2.8 at around f4.0 and it worked great with the MTF, although making exposures repeatable was difficult using a G style lens. This image is was shot without any profile setting. I shot using a Nanoflash as well as to the SXS. This result is from the Nano.

it looks good, no moire on the jacket and the nikon holds up well.

[Andrew Stone]

Chuck's twilight shots to me show the utility of this camera more than the majority of the test shots shown so far.

The F3 will greatly reduce our anxiety when thrust into low lighting situations.

Thanks Chuck!

[Doug Jensen]

Originally Posted by Timur Civan

That shot of the birds with the sunset.... Schneider yea? Thoese are nice lenses if you dont mind the funky ergonomics... Optics are nice.

I love the Cine-Xenars. But I can't tell you how many times I've reached for the focus, and changed the iris instead. It's happening less and less, but it's especially hard to remember when I'm mixing Zeiss and Sony lenses on the same shoot.
Like anything, there's just a bit of a learning curve as you adapt to knew gear.

[Chuck Fishbein]

I have to agree with the learning curve. Even though I am well aware that I am using manual lenses, I have to admit that I have pressed the zoom button on the F3 more than once.

[Doug Jensen]

I must say that I've have adjusted to working with primes much faster and easier than I had anticipated. I don't mind changing lenses, and I don't particularly feel limited not being able to zoom. I didn't expect such an easy transition.

Tomorrow I'm shooting a test interview with 12 prime lenses (4 CP, 5 Xenar, 3 Sony) and I am very eager to see how they perform. I've got four Nikons too, but I don't think I'll have time to use them.

[Andrew Stone]

That should be an interesting experience going through those lenses Doug. Unfortunate you won't have time to put on at least one Nikon. It would be interesting to see how the Nikon color space rakes up to the Zeiss. It appears the higher end Nikons have similar coatings (at least from a color perspective) to the Zeiss.

Doug do you have a 21mm Compact Prime in the kit you'll be using tomorrow?

[Timur Civan]

Originally Posted by Doug Jensen

I love the Cine-Xenars. But I can't tell you how many times I've reached for the focus, and changed the iris instead. It's happening less and less, but it's especially hard to remember when I'm mixing Zeiss and Sony lenses on the same shoot.
Like anything, there's just a bit of a learning curve as you adapt to knew gear.

I'm talking more about issue with matte boxes and follow focuses, cause the damn things walk so much. Optically great, but just a pain to work with....