Lens Talk

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The Alicia Keys Un-Thinkable (I'm Ready) music video was shot on Canon DSLR's. If i'm not mistaken by the screens, it's on Canon 5D Mark II. There's a cool little behind the scenes video posted over here.

After reviewing the BTS, i'm seeing they are using some very big video lights to balance the lighting in the different scenes. What's most important though is that regardless of time of day the Video monitor always displayed the camera set to 1/50th shutter speed and aperture 2.8. Someone mentioned the rules of shooting DSLR video, the shutter speed should be about twice your frame rate. Which means they are opting to using the 24p setting on the Canon DSLR.

It's a great look, I agree and 2.8-5.6 has always been my favorite for video. Coming down to a shutter speed of 1/50th in broad daylight WITH continuous video lights though? That means they are using some heavy ND filters to stop everything down. Take a tip from the pros, and if you're looking to be able to shoot at this range, you'll need something like the Fader ND filter. The Fader ND is a variable neutral density filter that will cut down the amount of light going into the camera allowing you to shoot at 2.8 apertures with slower shutter speeds. Just make sure you grab the right filter size for the lens you're using.

If you want to save yourself some bucks, buy the largest ND filter for your gear and then you can always grab some step down filter rings to fit them on your smaller lenses by clicking here.

Check out the videos and some of the screen grabs.

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Now that you're all excited about the title of this post, I have to break the bad news and say unfortunately it's not me giving this prize away. I'm just letting you all know about the Olympus Pen Challenge going on right now. Olympus is going to give you an Olympus E-PL1 camera + $5,000 dollars to fund your next video project.

It's easy to enter, you don't even need an Olympus camera to submit for the challenge. Basically you send them a short video telling them what you would use the new camera + money for, and they'll choose a few winners. Anyone want to team up with Cheesycam for a project, holla back! I'm thinking music video utilizing all the features in the new E-PL1. More details following the link.

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This video is great for several reasons. First, it's coming from someone who's fairly new to shooting video on DSLR's. Secondly, it's coming from a 550D / T2i and the footage is amazing. Third, it's using all Nikon lenses with a Canon adapter, which goes to show, even with other lenses you can capture great footage. Great job on shooting this video Larry!

Little League Team: Canyon Creek Royals
Location: Alamo, CA
Music Credit: " A New Game"
Featuring: Julian Reyes

Shot with a Canon T2i w/ Nikon 85mm, 180mm & 16mm Fisheye.

If you're looking to adapt some Nikon lenses over to some Canon Bodies, you can find an adapter here.
canon-nikon-adapter-ring
find-price-button Cinevate Canon EOS to Nikon Adapter Ring

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The 85mm F/1.2 is a beast and rated as one of the best Portrait lenses that Canon has to offer. It's also a very expensive lens that's not super versatile. You can't shoot macro, in fact the minimum focal distance is a few miles away (i'm joking). So unless Portraits are all you ever do in life, most people won't invest into that type of gear.

I've been following a company called Borrow Lenses for quite some time but never had the nerve to test out the service. Basically you place an order on line and they ship you the gear. Don't let the name fool you. It's not all Lenses. They've got RedRock Micro shoulder rigs, follow focus systems, full camera bodies, light meters, tripods, filters, Memory Cards, Lighting. Brands include Canon, Sony, Nikon, and more. The above video was shot by someone in New York! These guys get around in renting professional equipment for both Photography and Video.

I've had the chance to work with many professionals in the field lately and they all seem to be doing business with Borrow Lenses with absolutely no problems. Located in San Mateo you can even drop by their office for pickup and drop off. They even have a YELP review page. So the next time i'm thinking of dropping 2K on a lens, maybe i'll think about just renting it for about $34 dollars for a weekend. Click here to check out Borrow Lenses.

Click image to visit Borrow Lenses
borrowlenses.com rent lens mail order internet

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Not too happy with the Fluid Head that comes attached with this $99.00 dollar slider from IndiSystems, but the rail and carrier work pretty well. It looks thicker than other Camera Slider rails out there, but it's actually hollow and very lightweight. This 2 foot version of a silder is easier for my type of workflow compared to the 4 ft. slider I show in this video. This $99 dollar video camera slider mounts well directly to the Tripod or to a Quick release plate.

I had to drill out the old fluid head mount (plastic) and make room for a 1/4 x 20 flat headed screw. I wanted to keep it at 1/4 x 20 so I still have the option of mounting a camera directly to the carrier plate. In order to mount the Bogen 701HDV Fluid head, 1/4 to 3/8 adapter like this one. I don't do a whole bunch of sliding, but now maybe I will since this is a lighter and smaller version compared to the other Igus Rail. This is the mini slider from https://indisystem.com/products/indislider_mini

You can also get the same slider for a bit more here:

Did I mention I got my new 100mm Macro IS USM lens in also?? It's awesome...Here's a few samples below I took outside in the parking lot.
100mm Macro IS USM Canon Lens

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So i'm getting calls from all the non-techies in the family asking me about 3D televisions. I guess Samsung made their big announcement to be the first LCD with the guts to display real time 3D Video (with the glasses of course), and now everyone wants the latest gadgets. Well DIY 3D photographers or videographers is nothing new. There's plenty of tutorials on setting up two cameras side by side a few inches apart to get that 'stereoscopic' view. Even YouTube is hosting tons of 3D Videos online made from DIY'ers.


If you're a one camera kinda person, you can probably get away with some of the special Stereoscopic lenses designed for DSLR's. They've been around for a while and normally it was used for photographs, but times are changing and DSLR's can now shoot video. Should be a fun thing to look into as a project. You can grab a DSLR 3D Lens cap for Canon, Nikon, Pentax, and Minolta here.

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Print your own Lens Hoods DIY Hood

Here's a fun post following up on my recent post on Lens Hoods. It's not going to protect you from that concrete post, but it will sure cut the glare out.

We aren't all professionals and sometimes we need a DIY lens hood. Here's a link to a website that lets you download PDF files with a template to Hood the most popular lenses out there for Canon, Nikon, and more. Some of you might already know about the website, but for the newbies check it out. https://www.lenshoods.co.uk

Leave them comments people. If you have a tip to share, a DIY related video you've created or anything else you think will fit this blog, let me know. I'll run a post for ya!

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cokin color adapter

Cokin Filter on Lens

For Photography you get much more dynamic range to edit the image into different exposures and even tweak some colors. With video, you have only so much dynamic range before the video footage starts to lose important quality. So with video, it's best to get the correct color and exposure right from the start.

Cokin Filter Adapter

Cokin Filters are very flexible for the photographer or videographer on a budget. You get the right filter adapter, and you'll be able to mount the filter holder on all of your lenses. This saves you big bucks from buying a seperate expensive filter for every filter size you might own. Of course these are based on resin (plastic) materials, so they maintaining sharpness won't be like what can be achieved from the $400 dollar glass filters. I'm not a fan of color changing filters, but I do own several Cokin ND Gradual Filters to help balance the bright sun with a darker beach during a sunset. These ND filters are also 'stackable' so that you can multiply how dark you want your exposure.

Click here and grab some Cokin filter adapters, filter holders, and filters from eBay for as cheap as .99 cents / filter. Awesome budget filters.

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Matt S. gives us an awesome breakdown of the Canon 50mm F/1.8 vs. the Canon 50mm F/1.4.

For anyone that's ever purchased their very first Digital SLR and has asked me what lens they should buy, i've always sworn by the Canon 50mm. Depending on how cheap that person is determined whether or not they started out with the 1.8 or the 1.4 version. (I started with the 1.8 version - i'm cheap).

The Canon 50mm F/1.8 lens Found Here for less than $99.00 dollars, is the cheapest prime you can get into that gets you shooting some very professional looking images. It also feels like the cheapest.

The Canon 50mm F/1.4 is about 3 times the price at $349.00 Found Here, and adds some worthy features like a bigger smoother focus ring, more quality build, and an aperture of 1.4. Check out the video above to get more information, and If you're not an owner of either Canon 50mm's, well you're just hurting yourself....Get one!

There is also a F/1.2 L version, but we'll save that review for another day. Check out the Price on the F/1.2 version