a film production blog
Canon has announced two new cameras in their Cinema EOS line, which started with the rather great C300. Here’s my review & test short.
Sony has released the official launch video of the Sony NEX-FS700, featuring loads of the amazing super-slow motion footage we all have been waiting for. Unless you have been living under a rock for the last week, you might have heard that it shoots up to 240fps in 1080p (in 8 second bursts maximum).
Sony has just announced their new cinema camera, the Sony NEX-FS700, which is about to fill the gap between the FS100 and the F3 in Sony’s cinema camera line-up in Super 35mm cameras. It has a 11.6 million pixels sensor.
![“Professional Production” magazine publishes a 4-page report on the C300 test shoot of “13:59″ [German report]](http://ninofilm.net/blog/wp-content/et_temp/01_Titel_04_2012_Titel1-28359_296x185.jpg)
I’m very excited that the German-language pro video magazine “Professional Production” has posted a 4-page report about our C300 test shoot in early December.
Catch the 4-page PDF by clicking right here.
To say that the Canon EOS 5D Mark III is a long anticipated release is a crass understatement. The 5D Mark II was the camera that started the DSLR craziness that spurred the explosion in quantity and sometimes cinematic quality we now take for granted from productions with even the smallest budgets. It changed the market entirely.
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You’ve seen my last post about the BTS shoot by Rodney Charters when he was testing the C300 alongside Lan Bui and Drew Gardner in London. Well, here’s even more of that in interview form, and Rodney is very candid about his thoughts on the Canon C300 – you can see he’s fallen in love, and hearing a major DP talk about it like this makes me looking forward to mine even more.
Rodney Charters says the Canon C300 is the "camera of the decade"
I witnessed the live stream yesterday and thought this was worth sharing:
If you ever wanted to hear what a well-established Hollywood DP thinks about the upcoming C300, look no further: Rodney Charters, director of photography best known for his incredible work on the TV series “24″ (here’s his IMDB profile), had a go with the C300 together with Lan Bui and Drew Gardner, both highly talented filmmakers in their own rights.
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Disclaimer: This is not a scientific test. We have had the chance to test the two cameras at the same location but different dates and with different lenses and decided to compare them to get a rough feel for each cameras low light sensitivity.
This was originally posted as a guest post on Cinema5D – click here to go to the original article.
Check out our C300 test short “13:59″ right here:
EDIT: This is the new grade, which is much more subtle and shows more of the camera’s strengths. Thanks to Micha Schmidt for this!
Here’s the new great BTS from Peter Hainzl. Thanks so much!
… and here’s another NEW behind-the-scenes video from Patrick Zadrobilek, thanks again!
Big thanks to our actors Karim Ismael Rahoma and Mirjam Birkl, and the entire crew. It was a fun shoot but a lot of stress! Great to make something like this in virtually no time, great job everyone. The music was composed within less than a day by the extremely talented Cedric Conti, who already contributed the music to Philip Bloom’s INSIPIENS (or “Nino”), which we shot after our Masterclass in Majorca this past June (click here). Thanks so much Cedric! Check out his work here.
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Every now and then, a disruptive company comes along that just does what everybody was hoping for – simply because it could be done – and thereby disrupts an entire industry.
To confuse matters after today’s Cinema EOS / Canon C300 (1080p camera) revelation further, Canon just announced it’s developing a yet-to-be-named DSLR capable of acquiring 4K images. Not many details yet.
It’s full frame like the 1D X or 5Dmk2, but uses an APS-H like area of the sensor, just like a 1Dmk4.
More details here on Engadget.
According to Canon’s technical director Chuck Westfall (read The Verge interview here), the camera will be available within 12 months. In the interview, he talks about the superiority of the new Canon C300, which I covered in here as well.
Canon announced their long-anticipated new EOS C300 Super 35mm video camera. Finally Canon is directly aiming at professional video production with a need for cinematic images.
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In case you started building up a collection of great Canon lenses after you purchased your video capable DSLR, and later decided that it’s probably time for one of the new large sensor camcorders (F3, FS100, AF101 …), you probably found yourself in a similar position as I.
Well, fast Canon EF lenses definitely are great, but their biggest drawback is that they control the aperture electronically, not mechanically on the lens (as most Nikon lenses do). That means you need to use a camera to control the iris. Not any camera. A Canon of course. EF is a proprietary standard, and Canon has not released the specifics as to how this communication between the lenses and the camera work.
The Canon EF Mount
The Falcon Follow Focus from Hangrip is an inexpensive follow focus system available for €199 plus shipping.
Please watch the review video below, produced together in conjunction with Cinema5D. This carries on what we started as “Gearama” and carries it to a whole new level, bringing in additional experts for reviews regularly. So stay tuned for new episodes!
Thanks to my colleagues Bobo, Johnnie Behiri and of course Sebastian Woeber – we are partners in these reviews and aim to bring an evenly balanced look to any gear we look at. Much more to come!
And here we go, the 2nd episode of our gear review show GEARAMA is online!
This time we talk about the Cinevate Simplis Dual (or Pro, how it’s called with the Cyclops viewfinder included) DSLR rig. In case you missed the first episode, check it out here - we talked about the Cinevate Cyclops DSLR viewfinder.
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Months ago, it was still winter, I went out shooting with my buddies Gunther Machu and Peter Hainzl to test and compare the GH2 to the GH1.
Check out what we came up with … thanks to Peter for shooting most of the BTS stuff and to Gunther for editing such a nice piece out of it:
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Check out the first episode of GEARAMA & tell us what you think!
Beware that this was really a test and we will move on to more scripted reviews in the future.
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Using the Zacuto EVF on the new Sony NEX FS-100
As most of you might already have heard, Zacuto has released a new electronic viewfinder (EVF) for use with your DSLR cameras or any other cameras with an HDMI connector.
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Before I go into detail about sliders and the KesslerCrane CineSlider that I have reviewed in particular, check out his little test short that I shot a while back in Vienna’s famous “Wurschtlprater”, a luna park, months before it’s opening to the public again. The people in charge of the rides (there is no general admission fee, you have to pay individually for access to the operators’ rides) were testing their rides on this unusually sunny winter day.
read moreThe guys behind DitoGear have surprised me with another new slider that was just released to the market, the PortaSlider. Well, before you dismiss it as just another one, get this: It’s possible to put several of them together to create a really long track, check out the video above. I haven’t used it yet, but it sounds like something compelling for sure.
read moreA few weeks back I was put in touch with Matjaž Hrovat (aka “Met”), a chap from Slovenia, through a mutual contact on Facebook (Mike Chenoweth). Met said he was impressed with my filmmaking work and reviews on the blog, and asked me if I was interested into looking at a new and very versatile dolly system that he was working on.
Met on his CamDolly v2, tube tracks configuration
I said sure, and shortly after, he sent me a series of (still unofficial) videos where he demonstrated his “CamDolly v2” in prototype stadium. I can say safely that I was completely blown away by the possibilities I saw when I watched the videos the first time.
read moreAfter lots of rumors that have been going on for months, Sony has today announced its entry-level S35mm-frame-sized camcorder, called the NEX-FS100.
Sony NEX-FS100
It has a pretty awesome form factor if you ask me, and reminds me a lot of a RED Epic with its LCD on top. It’s much more compact than Panasonic’s AG-AF100 / AF101, which is designed like Panasonic’s traditional DVX100/HVX200/etc. form factors that we’ve gotten used to over the years. The NEX-FS100 really seems to incorporate one of DSLR’s biggest advantages: a small footprint, which allows you to go places other cameras have no access to. And I think it is also still possible to shoot inconspicuously, which is impossible with the AF100, but pretty essential if you are doing documentaries or other stuff in certain places where you are not supposed to shoot.
read moreMy good friend Arne Nostitz-Rieneck (check out his site here) has been working hard on his application for one of Germany’s most successful and popular film academies (they only pick around 5 people out of several hundreds of applications – yes, it is practically impossible to get in).
Canon 7D on the DitoGear OmniSlider during the match-move motion control shot
About one year after the introduction of the Canon Rebel T2i / 550D, Canon just announced its successor, the Canon EOS Rebel T3i (North American name) / 600D (European / rest of the world name) / Kiss X5 (Asian name).
The most obvious change is the introduction of the articulating display, likely to be the same one featured on the Canon EOS 60D (check out my thoughts on that camera right here).
Jump to my other DSLR viewfinder reviews:
- Epic DSLR Viewfinder Review & comparison (5 viewfinder solutions)!
- Letus Hawk VF – comparison to the Z-Finder
So here it is finally, my long overdue review of the Varavon Pro Finder.
First of all, watch my video review, it covers a lot … below you find further information!
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I have recently received the DitoGear DriveCam slider [edit: it's now called OmniSlider, but it's basically the same with a few improvements - I'll get the software upgrade, but it will make no difference for this blog post, that's why I renamed it!], which can be used in all sorts of ways. Two of its main uses are of course making super-smooth realtime camera movements using the joystick, or doing moving timelapse shots, which have become very popular in the last year mainly after everyone watched in awe how Tom Lowe from Timescapes is cranking out one masterful timelapse film after another.
(If you want to get a DriveCam slider or another product from DitoGear.com, use discount code “TheNino5″ to receive 5% off any order, an exclusive offer to my readers!)
Today I quizzed my 8.000 Twitter followers what they guessed was inside a giant package I received from UPS today … some got it right, and here it is:
The DitoGear DriveCam Slider for timelapses (1m version)!
Check out this look at the upcoming Zacuto Z-Finder EVF, that competes with Redrock Micro’s microEVF that will also be released shortly!
I will definitely have a long, hard look at this thing, it looks amazing and I will probably order one! It’s also great that you can use your existing Z-Finder with it … that’s definitely a good sign for all those who already invested in this viewfinder, which is still one of the best on the market.
Sign up for the reservation list like I did if you’re interested as Zacuto gear has been known to sell out VERY fast in the past … it will be available in February and sell for $775, but check out all the details from the Zacuto press release below the video.
With today’s introduction of the Nikon D7000, Nikon finally shows that it seems to be serious about HDSLR filmmaking after all. It will be Nikon’s first DSLR offering full manual control in video mode and 1080p recording at the same time, both of which are essential to be able to use this tool professionally.
Nikon D7000 with battery grip
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Jump to other DSLR viewfinder reviews:
- Epic DSLR Viewfinder Review & comparison (5 viewfinder solutions)!
- DigiFinder.pro Review
- Varavon Pro Finder DSLR Viewfinder Review
Like many others, I’ve been waiting for this shipment for quite a while, so I was very happy when it finally arrived at my doorstep: the Letus Hawk VF.
You might have read my EPIC DSLR VIEWFINDER blog post or the separate review of the DigiFinder Pro. I think these posts already make up the most comprehensive guide on DSLR viewfinders on the web, and any addition only adds to it. My aim is to review all DSLR viewfinders on the market as a viewfinder is the single most important piece of equipment for DSLR cinematographers.
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My name is Nino Leitner, aac and I am a filmmaker, DP and producer based in Vienna, Austria. I focus mainly on commercial & corporate work as well as documentaries.