Why change the mount on the camera when you can change the mount on the lens? Zeiss will soon ship a version of their Compact Primes in Canon EF mount for EOS cameras such as the Canon 5D Mark II. The Zeiss Compact Primes are designed to cover the full 24mm x 36mm image area of the stills format, and these new lenses will come with the facility to swap out the mount to PL (and who knows, maybe something else in the future?). This makes the Compact Primes the “Everything Lens Set” for use on all popular cameras. These lenses are inexpensive and lightweight, yet built to professional cine standards with integrated gearing and large scales. Stills format lenses often have weak mechanics, nearly-useless focus scales, servo drives with “infinity spin” focus dials, image shift and breathing in the focus, and axial-expansion that hampers use of accessories such as matteboxes & follow focuses. All of these issues are removed with the new Zeiss Compact Prime Series II lenses. Above is a photo of a prototype at the Zeiss factory and the lenses will debut at NAB in April (come visit our booth #C8740).

Not all shoots take place on comfy sound stages. Currently in production, Thunder Perfect Mind takes place almost entirely on an ice-breaker ship off the coast of Antarctica. The movie is shooting on a pair of RED One cameras, as well as the Aaton Penelope 35mm camera, shooting in 2-perf. Much of the shooting is on the open decks of the ship, so the ASL Gear T-Bag is being used to protect the cameras from the salt water spray. At least one shot calls for the camera to start at the waterline pointing at the tip of an iceberg, and then dunk under to see the massive blue ice below.

The gear was rented out of Abel NY, and I built the package for the production to checkout. Putting the Penelope into the T-Bag worked beautifully. Here are some observations from that setup.

For the RED One camera, there’s a special enclosure that allows the use of the RED 5.6” LCD panel as a viewfinder. When the Penelope is in the T-Bag, the production will switch to the ASL Underwater 4” HD/SD SDI montior. We used a small AJA converter box to transform the Penelope’s composite video signal into a 4×3 SD-SDI feed. Everything is powered off of the camera’s batteries.

While the movie is mostly shooting on prime lenses, I took the opportunity to try out an Angenieux Optimo 15-40 on the Penelope inside the T-Bag (see picture below). There’s so much space inside the splash housing that the little zoom almost disappears! In fact, with a little wiggling we can even get the Angenieux Optimo 17-80 to fit.

Lately we’ve been getting a bunch of questions on 4.5″ polarizing filters. There are several variations which can get quite confusing for those that are not familiar with them.

So here’s a rundown on the essential parameters:

4.5 inch is in fact the same as 114mm. Different manufacturers use metric or imperial. Likewise, some manufacturers refer to 138mm as 5.5 inch. These are both round filters.

…continue reading 4.5″ Polarizing Filter Variations Explained

Being the gear-head tech nerd that I am, I never thought it possible for me to overload on crepundia electronica (aka tech toys), until I found myself wandering through the 100+ booths at CES devoted to iPhone accessories. It hit me that CES really differs from “pro” technology shows such as NAB or IBC in its focus on marketing: trends, positioning, and hype. That’s not to say that this is a bad thing – a lot of what was shown at CES will soon come to market in a big way, and will directly influence how many of us conduct business or spend our leisure time.

Many have reported that this CES was all about 3D. I would say it was more about profitable 3D. Manufacturers have been showing 3D tech at trade shows for years, but, for the most part, the technology hasn’t changed very much. So, why is 2010 poised to become the “Year of 3D”? Because now there is a way for manufacturers to make money off of it. And this should be a good thing for all of us.

…continue reading Why 3D Will Finally Stick Around

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

As HDSLR cameras are used in more professional applications, we find our clients looking for ways to make them fit within a more traditional on-set workflow. One of the first issues we tackled was monitoring. These prosumer cameras have HDMI outputs, but our clients need HD-SDI feeds. Our solution is portable and battery powered. Check out the video to see what we came up with, and click the link to view the HDMI to HD-SDI Kit for HDSLR on our site.

In the vast shadow of the release of James Cameron’s Avatar, the Blu-ray Disc Association released the finalized 3D specifications. 3D media has bounced in and out of pop culture since the 1950s when it was introduced as a way for motion pictures to compete with television. Now the home entertainment industry has embraced 3D technology with a method for delivering the media.

Blu-ray 3D will be 1080p and backward compatible, meaning that the disks will be playable and viewable as 2D on existing equipment and current disks will play on any new equipment. The new compression codec is known as MPC, a variant of the current AVC. Importantly, the new standard will work with “any compatible 3D display,” which sounds vague, but appears to mean that there won’t be any format wars between different monitoring technologies. There are active and passive displays with high and low refresh rates, and side-by-side and line-interweaved technologies. Get ready for a whole new set of specs as different flat screen monitors debut for the home and the professional industry. 3D will work this time because the display technology will drive it directly to the audience. Even the Sony PlayStation 3 is included in the new Blu-ray 3D spec. Soon 3D will be yet another creative tool available to the creative cinematographer – instead of asking for a focus pull or a small dolly creep, perhaps that next dramatic moment will be best punctuated with a “depth pull.”

…continue reading Blu-ray 3D Standard Announced

Over Thanksgiving weekend, there was a discussion on the Cinematographer’s Mailing List (CML, cinematography.net) about new camera technologies and future trends in our industry. Neil Smith of Hollywood DI asked me to give Abel’s perspective on what’s to come. Since writing my response, numerous people have commented on it and suggested we re-post it for others to see. It is presented here for you to read and draw your own conclusions.

From Neil Smith, Hollywood DI:

Mitch, I’d be interested to hear your views on how you see the industry changing over the next 12 months … you guys have been in the game a lot longer than most of us and have never ceased to adapt and change and continue to deliver great products and services.

My response:

What we see as the big change in the industry is how the market now leads the manufacturers. Unlike what so many sometimes think, the manufacturers have always tried to listen to their customers to develop products with which everyone will be happy. Focus groups and meetings with large clients worked well in the past, but the business of Image Capture has expanded at an exponential rate. And there are also forums such as this that communicate in minutes what once took months. There are different markets and different ways to serve them. And these markets are letting the manufacturers know this, and the manufacturers are responding. And sometimes a manufacturer just might know something and drop a product that makes everyone stop and take notice.

…continue reading So, What Lies Ahead?