A complaint often expressed by Sony EX1/EX3 owners is the infrared or far red contamination frequently seen on dark fabrics. Sony’s EXMOR sensors are designed to see a huge amount of color, or what Sony calls “broad spectrum colors.” This is a great thing, because these Sony cameras can capture more color than ever in a digital image. The negative effect of this, however, is that they’re also able to see some red colors that our eyes cannot see. This shows up particularly in dark fabrics, where the red contamination turns greens into muddy brown and some blacks will turn magenta…not a good thing. Up until now there was not much you could do about it, but thankfully Tiffen came up with a solution. They have created the T1 IR filter, which is designed to reduce this contamination but still maintain the wide range of colors. I’ve done some tests to compare an EX1 camera with and without the filter, and the difference is quite obvious. In short if you are an EX1 or EX3 owner, the T1 IR Filter is a must have. Keep reading to see comparisons and how the new EX1R and PMW-350 perform.

…continue reading Tiffen T1 Far Red Filter & the Sony EX Cameras

I’ve always been a big fan of Tiffen optical filters, and many of our clients have a large selection of them in their kits. They offer a wide variety of effects, many of which have become very essential. It came as a surprise to me that they have taken their wide variety of filters and made a full digital effects library as well. This was particularly interesting to me because I’m accustomed to certain optical filters and gels and I can now apply them digitally. I’m not suggesting anyone give up an optical filter set, but there are so many options in this software that I wouldn’t normally try on camera. Also, they have some very cool effects that go far beyond the filter world. Tiffen makes a stand-alone version of the software as well as plugins for many applications including Final Cut Pro, After Effects, Photoshop, and many more. I’ve been playing with the FCP plugin and have had good results.

…continue reading Tiffen DFX Plug-In for Final Cut Pro