F3 Royal Wedding

[Dennis Dillon]

I have been using the F3 for an upcoming CBS Special on the Royal Wedding airing this Friday eve 8pm ET.
While not exactly hard news, on this production we utilized the Sony PMW-F3 for 90% of the interviews as A camera with a PDW-800 and an EX 3 as mid and wide frames. Matching them up was no problem with A DSC chart and Leader 5330. The F3 sensitivity has been the hit with all involved. We have been keying with 400 Kinos and HMI's which could have been 200 Kino/HMI if we used 3 F3's. Most of the time letting back grounds fall as they are.
This afternoon I was asked to set it up as a time lapse camera in front of The Abbey, see photo. I have a Zeiss Ultra 16mm PL mounted. The techs on site are using 4 Sony 1500 cameras. At night, for The Evening News with Katie Couric, they have had to push the gain up 9 db. After they saw the F3 at 0, they wished they had 4 more F3's for the set.
Yes I do consult for Sony as An ICE member, but I can say with out reservations, I love this camera.
Photo below was shot with a Canon 5D (A great still camera), utilizing the watermarked Photomatix HDR trial software.

[Peter Corbett]

Nice work Dennis. Which I was there.

[Dennis Dillon]

No disrespect to those who are suffering, but it is a lot easier than covering an earth quake and or tsunami.
BTW the F3 and EX were recorded to a Nano at 50 422 (Match the PDW-800), and moved to optical for edit and archive.

[Chuck Fishbein]

You're my hero! Go Dennis!

[Nigel Akam]

Nice Dennis

[Sam Painter]

Hey Dennis,

Nice to see you (all be it a short time) in Vegas.
What lenses are you using on the F3 and are you doing any HH outside?
If so how do you have the camera configured?
Rails, FF, camera plate, VF?

Have a Pint for me!

Thanks

Sam

Sam Painter

P I C T O R
Productions, Inc.
sam@pictorprod.com

[Dennis Dillon]

Sam,
Our Vegas time was too short.
For the time lapse I have an Zeiss Ultra 16mm. There are no data contacts between that Lens and camera, so the camera immediately sent a warning that there was a gap, and asked me to check the type of setting A or C and correct it or turn it off, which I did. No problems. Strange I do not get this when using MTF adapter. After testing this morning I'll take a closer look.
I PU the Sony primes(35,50,85) with the camera and as stated above I have the MTF adapter for a set of Zeiss ZF's (21mm,28mm,50mm,85mm,100mm). I love the ZF's and planning to sell the ZF's and up it to Zeiss CP2's. I have yet to cine mod the ZF's, and Matthew Dulcos is waiting for me to send them in next week for the mod. Any body interested in the ZFs should off line me at xdhd@mac.com.
As to HH, I have a DVRIG Support systems for DSLR/ DV/ HDV/ Camcoders from my EX/DSLR camera that works really well. I have the AB battery/Wireless mounted on the end of the shoulder bracket with a 12v Hirose/D tap breakout box from an old Peter Engh rig. The DVRIG also doubles up with the rail adapter(Support systems for DSLR/ DV/ HDV/ Camcoders) for my 800 HH. Its nice to be able to let my hands down from the handles and the camera stays put on the spring pole support.
Rails are Zacuto/Plate. FF/Matt Redrock, VF waiting on more choices. We had Zacuto on the NAB rig at first then the Cineroid. Both seemed OK, but I want to see more options before I purchase. Truthfully I do not believe this camera is suited for HH in a run and gun. I'd rather use my 800, but for scripted or blocked work it should be fine. If I had unlimited funds the Chrosziel or Arri setup would suite me best.

A pint or two will be had.
Hope to see and work with you soon.

[Alister Chapman]

I've seen the same connector type warning with ziess ultras. I think the metal of the mount shorts out the contact pins.

Dennis, when are you going home would be good to hook up if your about later in the weekend.

[Chris Medico]

I had the same error when testing some Ziess Super Speed primes on the F3. What I noticed is if I mounted the lens with the camera powered up I would get the error but mount the lens then power the camera I wouldn't.

I suspect Alister is correct that mounting the lens is bridging some odd combination of contacts on the lens mount.

[Steve Kalle]

Dennis,

I am so jealous that you get this sort of work. My hat is off to ya!

On a side note: with the nanoFlash, isn't it possible to record normally to the SxS while recording timelapse in the nano? If so, is the nano's recording the same as if the camera were sending out timelapse?

[Alister Chapman]

Yes you can record time-lapse with the nanoflas while the F3 shoots at normal speed. I prefer however to do it the the other way around recording time-lapse in camera and normal speed on the NanoFlash as the implementation of time-lapse in the camera is a little more elegant. In either case the camera is always outputting normal speed full frame video via the SDi.

[Steve Strickle]

Anyone know if you can get the KiPro to do timelapse. I've not figured it out.
Thanks.