Monthly Archives: January 2011

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sescom-line2mic

Hey, here's an idea. Run the Microphone into your portable audio recorder, and then run the headphone out port into your camera mic input. If it sounds good in the headphones, it should sound good running into the camera. Well before you tackle that idea, just know that headphone outputs aren't all the same and run pretty hot. Some portable audio recorders have a dedicated 'Line Out' so you'll be safe, but not the Zoom H4n or Zoom H1. You can easily damage the mic input on your camera if you're not careful.

So above is the cable from Sescom. This isn't something new, and most of you might have already run into this product. This particular one I have is for the Zoom H4n, but i'm showing it with the Zoom H1 (didn't have H4n with me). It's a Sescom Line2Mic attenuator cable that drops the headphone out from the Zoom by -25db making it safe to use directly into your camera's Mic input. There's different cables with different levels of attenuation provided for different recorders. Don't think this will save your AGC enabled cameras, that's not what it's there for. This cable is for the Canon 60D and 5D Mark II that control manual audio. (Or try it on the T2i with Magic Lantern).

So why do it this way? Well for starters, the amps on the Zoom recorders will help you adjust levels and sensitivity. If you're using the H4n, it gives you a way to connect XLR type microphones. Is the audio just as good as what's recorded? Not really, but you'll be surprised on how well it does sound. I'm not going to run through a bunch of tests today, a bit swamped, but if you're curious you can find lots of tests already at Vimeo.com. Or for those of you who have your video links, throw them in the comments.


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find-price-button Sescom LN2MIC-ZMH4-MON 3.5mm Line to Mic 25dB Attenuation Cable for Zoom H4N with Headphone Monitoring Jack

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filmmakers-intensive

After a successful first year, The FilmMaker's Intensive is on year two. It would be interesting to see how DSLR's will be considered into the workflow. Program directors are Jem Schofield & Larry Silverberg Jem is the man behind the popular TheC47.com, and Larry is the guy behind TrueActingInstitute.com.

From the Website:
The Filmmaker's Intensive is a two week intense (and we mean intense), program that takes you out of your day to day environment and focuses you directly on the art & science of narrative filmmaking. The program was designed specifically to allow each person that attends to learn true fictional filmmaking from pre-production to post. If you're looking for a serious intensive program, more information can be found here: https://www.thefilmmakersintensive.com/

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Not a very precise motion controlled unit as the high end versions, but nonetheless a very effective one. Here's another Rotisserie Motor based motion controlled Timelapse slider from Vimeo member Derek Mellot. The video shows some fine examples of it's use as well as some of it's build rolling over an aluminum ladder. The motor used spins at 4rpm, but if you're clever, you can find ways to gear that down. I think the other smaller battery powered version with 2rpm posted earlier would suffice. This one by Derek is a large DIY rig, something you shouldn't plan to be traveling with on a plane, but if you've got the time, the space, and lack a budget, it's a great little DIY project. [Thanks Derek]


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Testing out the Canon 60D w/ Tokina 11-16mm with cheap Timelapse Timer Remote. I'm still very happy with this cheap Timer Remote. I thought that it would have battery problems since there's no On/Off switch. You have to flip the watch type button battery around when it's not in use. There's been several days I didn't flip it around, and i'm still on the same battery. I stayed at Caesars Palace and this was the view from the outside staircase and took 1,275 photos with 3 second intervals. Really short clips of this will end up in a video project. Camera just set to AV F/9. Everything else was pretty much automatic.

I wanted to travel with a minimum amount of gear to Las Vegas so I played the dating game with my cameras, to make the best decision. Camera #1 what would you do for wide angle and zoom shooting? After a few questions, I ended up taking the Canon 60D over everything (yes even the 5D Mark II). Why? Well most of my footage would be in CES which was very well lit. In fact all of Vegas is pretty 'well lit'. So I decided to take my Tamron 18-270mm with VC. This lens gives me both wide and super zooms and has Vibration Control (same as IS) all in one lens. For super duper wides, I brought out the Tokina 11-16mm. Both lenses won't work on the Canon 5D Mark II, so he's out of the picture. Since my audio gear was going to be minimal, the Manual audio controls of the Canon 60D beat out both the 7D and T2i as options.

We chased a TV hostess for a network show around while she demoed some of the items at CES. She was on a wireless microphone, but I needed to get as much of the same audio for later syncing. With a simple Rode VideoMic and 60D Manual Audio controls, I was able to pinpoint the sound I needed from our television hostess. Using a wide lens and staying close to the TV hostess was also a technique to focus on the sound I wanted and leave out as much ambient noise as possible. For those who still have questions, the Canon 60D has been a top performer and very versatile. I'm also finding myself really using the swivel LCD, and can't wait till Canon implements this into the 5D Mark III (if that ever happens.....)

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camera-slider

I hate to say 'I told ya so', but....'I told ya so'. The little slider with big features that I just posted about last night is currently off the grid. Here's the original article if you've missed it: http://cheesycam.com/sliding-back-into-market-camera-slider/.

From what I could tell, there was more than 35 sliders sold at that pretty awesome price in less than a day. Hopefully it's just that the original inventory is wiped out. (Not uncommon for popular items posted through this blog) We'll just have to wait and see when this thing resurfaces and hopefully the prices will still be affordable....

I'm hoping shipping doesn't take the slow boat so I can take it for a test drive and show you guys what it's made of. If anyone gets one before me, we're all dying to see some results.

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Finding a decent 3:2 LCD View Finder still seems to be on everyone's list. I've been getting a few emails from Glenn today and he seems to have tracked one down from Meike. Now Meike was the one who released the LCDVF clone model a while back which everyone was pretty much satisfied with. They rubbed some people the wrong the way with it's exact replica design, so they've changed the look since then. Here's the new look and here's one made specifically to fit the LCD of the T2i if anyone else is looking.

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find-price-button LCD View Finder for Canon T2i 3:2 Aspect LCD

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FL-Ring-Light-Diva-Lite (5 of 15)

Curiosity is probably my biggest downfall, and I end up buying and testing tons of random products. Some make it on the blog, some aren't even worth mentioning. I'm busy getting back into the swing of things after CES set me back, but here's another interesting product I decided to test out and happy to say it's made it this far. These are the Ring Lights that Serge was sharing through the comments of this blog. I did a little diggin' and it seemed to be a solid product with good reviews, so I decided to give it a shot. Now as far as Ring Lights go, there is a cliche way of using them to get that unique catch light reflection in a subjects eyes. I'm all set with that from my DIY Ring Light project, so it's really not what I intended to use them for.

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(Above) Popular Z96 LED Video Light

Since ring lights provide a very broad soft light source, I was curious to see what the quality of diffusion and light power output these guys had. Mainly to see if these can be used for interviews and on location use. Just to give everyone a baseline, i've compared it with the very popular Z96 LED light that everyone loves. As you all know, the Z96 itself provides a broad and fairly even light output.

LED type lighting can be very powerful at close range and very directional. As you can see from the images below, the Z96 is very directional and has high output in the center, but was not nearly as diffused as the Ring Light. (This is not a comparison between the two, this is merely showing you the difference in light output.) By the way this is shot at 1/60th F/3.5 and only ISO 200. I underexposed the image to show the diffusion properties.

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With my camera at the same distance and with the same settings, here's how much diffusion two Ring Lights can provide for your video or photography. (below)
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Build quality is very nice and the entire unit is extremely lightweight. The big square at the bottom is where the ballast lives (CFL's need this), and it also comes with a set of fuses.
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The included bracket is designed to hold a camera in the center of the ring, and is adjustable. The bracket is lightweight aluminum with a tapped hole at the bottom. The bracket is ok, but the tapped hole pretty much sucks and is completely useless. I'll have to make my own mount if I choose to use this bracket and one of the simple ideas is to just drill and tap in a new steel insert.

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(Above) Using Power Friction Arms on Light Stand

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The bulbs are labeled at 5400k and throws very soft even lighting. As you can see from the next set of images (below) I shot this product using two ring lights and the camera set to 1/125th @ F/6.3. Yeah that camera setting would normally block out quite a bit of light, but these lights handled very well with near shadowless lighting.

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As you can see, they diffuse light much better than LED video lights. They are also cheaper than LED panels and extremely lightweight, but definitely much more fragile. As nice as portable LED video lights go, there's also been many complaints of close up lighting situations. LED lighting is harder to diffuse if you're working with close range subjects, so these types of ring lights would better serve in those situations.

Unfortunately CFL type lighting such as these aren't normally dimmable. You get on / off and no in between. A small sheet of diffusion paper would be no problem cutting the output though since these types of lights generate almost no heat. No heat is another advantage to be used in very close range to any subject and still provide a very soft even diffused light source without bulky softboxes or any type of light modifiers. Yes they can be used with real people and would be great for interviews.


Ring Light Example 1/60th F/3.5 ISO 400

I saw no noticeable flicker using these lights in video or in photos. I even tested this with my shutter speed up to 1/4000ths. There are smaller versions of this type of light that are a bit cheaper, but I have to say the 300w ones I got would be of more use to videographers. If you do decide to try the smaller versions, there are some bundles that come with battery packs. I ended up choosing the 300w versions, which have no bundles with a battery pack. For myself though, these 300w lights worked fine with my personal portable $99 dollar battery.

So what's my take on these? I like them alot. They would be very easy to travel with and since they are very lightweight, the light stands needed to hold them need only be lightweight too. I'll definitely be using these for situations that require close lighting. A great use would be for close up product video demos on this blog and clean shadowless product photography.

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find-price-button 150w, 300w, 500w CFL Ring Light for Video and Photography

My version is listed at 40w. The largest version of this ring light can be found here at a claimed 65w:
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find-price-button Stellar Diva Ring Light 65w Fluorescent Video Lighting

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Here's one of my favorite DIY videos that was actually shot over 2 years ago by Vimeo member Edwin Bont. I've been wanting to tackle this project myself, but am always getting sidetracked. It might be on my list of things this weekend if i'm not too backlogged from CES. It's a video that hasn't had much attention, but a very original DIY in what is called the 'Sphere Arm'. This rig uses a set of L brackets cleverly assembled to keep the lens at a fixed distance while allowing it to be rotated in several axises. This not only gives you the illusion of rotating horizontally, but also vertically.

The build quality on the one shown in the video isn't very heavy duty and video doesn't seem to be of high quality, but i'm sure with a bit more DIY out there this thing can really bring in the 'next camera movement'. Might even be an interesting movement with small cameras such as the GoPro and light weight GH2. Wedding videographers, I can totally see this as a macro video movement around some wedding rings. Yeah, I think this idea has been asleep too long and needs to be hashed out with something more refined. Besides myself, (if I can get to it) who else is up for the challenge?