By Jonah Kessel

2012: The Year of the Dragon from Jonah Kessel on Vimeo.

The plan was simple: to one-up ourselves.

One year earlier friends and filmmakers Paul Morris, Kit Gillet and myself decided to make a short video documenting some of the fireworks in Beijing as China celebrated the Lunar New Year.

In fact, I even wrote about the experience on this blog here. Exactly one year later — we decided to do it again. However, this time — we wanted to go bigger. Much bigger.

This is a really interesting experiment: to come back to a video you made exactly one year later and reevaluate its strengths and weaknesses, and then try again. I believe this experience is a good check on your progress as a filmmaker and makes you step back and evaluate everything you do from shooting, to workflow to the art of story telling itself.

2011: The Year of the Rabbit from Jonah Kessel on Vimeo.

After we screened last year’s video we all agreed — it was kind of a stereotypical DSLR video with no real narrative. Pretty pictures, not enough of a story. There are a lot of these on the web.

This year, we wanted to tell the story of Chun Jie (Chinese New Year). However, we wanted to do it in such a way that would require very little dialogue. We wanted images to tell the story, but still have some voices in the piece — with the goal of keeping our own voices out of it. We wanted it to be cinematic but at the same time — real and unrehearsed. And while last year, we had no imposing deadlines, this year we would need to turn the video over in 36 hours to the New York Times. Now the experiment became — how to tell a story better than we had last year, shoot, process, translate and edit the footage — and transmit on China’s dodgy internet connections in less than 36 hours.

As we planned for the story and began to factor in the chaotic nature of China — we decided to bring in some more friends. Shooters Jim Fields and Keith Bedford would join our team, allowing us to be in multiple locations at once showing a wider variety of images from the celebration. We crafted a schedule, shot list and found an old man who via an interview we would setup as the story teller of Chun Jie, allowing us to dip out from narration.

To help to visually enforce the man as a story-teller and not just some old guy off the street, we put a pretty strong grade on his shots. We added about 15 points of sepia, added a vignette, desaturated, added contrast and sharpened a small bit. The hope was to visually represent the traditions that go along with this holiday for Chinese people by making him a bit more historic looking.

We encountered some of the same difficulties we did last year. The rolling shutter issue being a big and relatively unsolvable issue. While DSLRs are great for many things — for fireworks they are not. We did some tests and while we know we couldn’t stop it from happening, we did find ways to mitigate the effect. We found if fireworks were exploding at a fast enough pace to cause the rolling shutter, it would show up significantly less if the angle of the camera was in a relative perpendicular axes to the exploding object. Pulling further away from the object also helped a lot. However, in general, if you are using a DSLR and information is being recorded across the sensor in a horizontal motion as they do, and your subject happens to be exploding at an extremely high speed — you are simply using the wrong camera.

Nonetheless, we avoided it as much as possible and wrestled with the other innate problems of shooting fireworks such as exposing for something that (a) hasn’t happened yet and (b) you don’t know what will happen when it does explode. Dealing with quickly dying batteries in -15 C weather and trying to be setup in time to capture someone setting off a firework without telling them what to do is also an enormous challenge.

After 13 hours of shooting we all reported back to begin the editing process. We would have 23 hours left before deadline but there was much work ahead. Because of China’s slow web and long transmitting times for files the conversion files to Prores, translating, grading and creating the script would have be done with at least 2 hours to spare. This meant no sleeping, a lot of junk food, fast food and when things became painful, some beer. Days later, I made visual representation of this relatively comical 36 process to get this short film out.

ROLLING SHUTTER: 36 Hours in the Making of The Year of the Dragon from Jonah Kessel on Vimeo.

When we hit our deadline everyone was sleeping except me. Minutes before I was about to pass out, the video posted — and it posted front and center on the Times’ home page.

It was an amazing bit of timing and in one moment — the pain of the past day in half was gone and for just a brief moment, the world got a glimpse of an ancient Chinese tradition.

Happy New Year — 新年快乐

Jonah M. Kessel is a Beijing based freelance visual journalist working with the New York Times. Visit his web site here or follow him on Twitter here.

By Dan Chung

I’ve been using Mike Tapa’s adapters for 35mm lenses for several years now. I first came across them when trying to mount Nikon long lenses onto my Sony EX3 – a long time before the advent of HDSLRs. Since then his company MTF Services has expanded its range of products to include lens adapters for many popular large sensor cameras such as the Panasonic AF100, Sony F3 and FS100. I took the opportunity of meeting Mike and visiting his London workshop over Christmas.

His latest two adapters are a B4 broadcast lens to EOS / Sony F3 / FS100 adapter and an electronic EOS to Sony F3 / FS100 / Micro 4/3 lens adapter which offers full aperture control and image stabilising with appropriately equipped lenses.

The B4 lens adapter has been the dream of many DSLR and large sensor camcorder users who might occasionally want the flexibility of a long all-in-one zoom and ENG style lens operation – without the expense or bulk of a proper 2/3 ENG camera. Developed by Mike with cameraman Alistair Chapman (of XDCAM user fame) it physically adapts a 2/3 inch broadcast lens to a Canon EOS mount. At the same time it optically expands the image so that it is large enough to cover a Super35mm sensor size. To do this requires the user to engage the 2x range extender built into many broadcast lenses, which is then combined with extra magnification from the MTF adapter.

This does result in approximately 2.5 stops of light loss, but given the high sensitivity of new cameras this is less of a problem. The depth of field characteristics will remain the same as if you were using the lens on a regular 2/3 inch camcorder – don’t expect super shallow depth of field when using it. The adapter does not power the electric functions of an ENG lens so there is no servo zoom or VTR trigger sadly. If you do want to enable the zoom servo motor there is a possible solution to power it using an adapter cable from Ebay.

Please note that it does not cover the full frame sensor of the Canon 5D mkII or 1D X, but does work with the 7D, 60D, 600D/T3i, 550D/T2i (and should work with the C300 too). The adapter can also be used in combination with a EOS to Sony F3 or Sony NEX adapter to allow the B4 lenses to be used on these cameras. Price is not yet confirmed but should be in the £800 – £900 + tax range.

As you can see from the video above I’ve been testing the B4 adapter on a Sony F3 and also a Canon 60D and so far the results are pretty good, even though I only have access to older standard definition 2/3 lenses at the moment. My old Fujinon A15x8 broadcast lens does show some chromatic aberration and softness at the edges of the image but this is to be expected on a lens that can be bought for less than £500 these days. I would expect much better performance from a newer HD lens. Hopefully I’ll get to try one of those with the adapter soon. The only competing adapter I have seen so far is the HDx35 B4/PL Optical Adapter from Abelcine and costs $5800 US. I have not been able to compare the two.

The MTF EOS electronic lens adapter is the first to actually be available to order for the Sony F3 and NEX. It also works with Micro 4/3 cameras like the Panasonic AF100 where it joins the already available Redrockmicro livelens adapter in offering aperture control, but adds the benefit of image stabilisation. American company Birger Engineering have also been working on a similar adapter for some time now and have even shown it working at the NAB show, but it is still not available to buy.

The MTF adapter consists of two parts – a control box and an interchangeable lens mount in either Sony F3, Sony NEX or Micro 4/3 fit. If you change or add cameras you can simply add another mount part and use the same controller box.

The control box is metal and powered by 4 AA batteries. It has an illuminated LCD that shows aperture value, focal length and whether stabilisation is on or off. Aperture can be adjusted in 1/8th stop increments using the control dial.

I’ve been testing a pre-production unit and found the aperture control to be quite reliable. A word of warning though – don’t spin the aperture dial too fast or the lens will have trouble keeping up, although the lens will eventually correct itself.

Mike tells me that pretty much all EF lenses work, apart from those few that use fly-by-wire manual focussing. The main lens of this type that doesn’t currently work is the 85mm f1.2L USM lens. Mike says he’s trying to fix this.

In use the adapter does pretty much what it is supposed to and I’m rather happy with it. The only downside is that the control box is a bit on the large side and adds bulk to the camera. The production version of the box has 1/4 20 mounting holes to allow positioning of the adapter on a rig or camera. That said I would rather have a smaller control box without AA batteries inside, running instead from a power tap cable. Maybe we’ll get this in a future version?

The image stabilisation seems to work well on a Sony F3, although I need to do more testing.

The control box is priced at £645 + tax and the matching lens adapters are £350 + tax each. More details soon on the MTF website.

By Cubie King

Following our two previous DSLR pieces my co-collaborator Carlos Martinell and I decided that we wanted to do something more ambitious.

We thought it would be fascinating and fun to explore the vibrant NYC analogue film community – with our two Canon 7D cameras – and to do it creatively.  This was not a conceit, in fact quite the opposite; we hoped to show that people are indeed still working with film and doing quite well for themselves.

The rest hopefully speaks for itself.

As we move further into the digital world we hope the fundamentals of the medium are remembered and respected.

Cubie King is an Editor/Producer at CNN (New York Bureau).

By Sam Morgan Moore

I have been living the ‘DSLR’ dream since the D90 hit the streets in 2009. What is that dream? It’s got to be different for everyone…

Mine is about being able to make nice little films, bringing my photographic eye and a certain fleetness of foot that anyone who has worked taking stills for the papers knows well.

Press photographers are great at making instant decisions – especially those who come from an era when wiring a picture was a long and complex process. Probably that decisiveness is what we can bring to the ‘movie making game’, which seems to me a little overblown on occasion.

I have really enjoyed filming on my 5DmkII. For me, a sweet little combination has been using it with Canon 24-105mm f4L and 50mm f1.4 lenses, a Rode videomic, LCDVF loupe and my little HalfInchRails RnG rig (disclosure: I make these). It’s great for making fun little films where I am the director and there is no pressure. But as I picked up a few paid gigs, the goal posts started to move. I needed sound, run times, long battery life and a repeatable control of focus. The days of  ’fun with a 50mm’ were over.

I built a Canon 7D rig up to create a production machine gaining big batteries, a really nice sound recorder and a decent monitor to view my images. But the DSLR-based production monster never really worked, mainly due to a couple of simple little things: HDMI cables wobbling loose and having to use sync sound.

To me these things just seemed too risky to do in a ‘paid for’ environment, when I am suggesting people pay me rather than the regular crew with a Sony EX1 they have been using for years. Those of us with a background in press expect to get it right on the first go  – there may not be a second and that creates a slight obsession with battery life and other such details, such as the camera rolling when you press the record button(s). Failure is not an option to the press photographer or the small businessman cutting into a new market sector. So really my 7D production machine was – in my eyes – a failure: just too fiddly and not reliable enough.

So, roll on the Sony FS100. It has some killer apps:

- If you pull the HDMI lead out it keeps rolling.
- It has onboard monitorable sound that is synced to the image.
- No crazy moire on brick walls – yes, I shoot for architects !
- Solid mount points on the body to work against follow focus tensions

Those things make it a production tool that I can lay my reputation on. Of course, unlike my EX1 it has the DSLR/S35 large chip look too and can take my still photo lenses.

I picked it over the Panasonic AF100 because I thought I would use but not actually enjoy the camera thanks to the slightly smaller chip and apparent weakness in low light. The AF100 also has the unnecessary baggage of a top handle and internal EVF. Of course, it does have onboard neutral density (ND) filters and that is the major omission of the Sony.

My solution for the FS100 is to buy a heap of cheap ND filters from SRB-Griturn for about £20 and step up filter rings to suit all my differing lenses. Using step up rings, 90% of my lenses now have an effective front element size of 77 or 62mm. I feel it is better to invest in a few cheap NDs than one expensive Vari-ND filter. Say I am swapping between my 35mm f2 and my 85mm f2 (manual Nikkor lenses). I have ND for both of them so a swap is simple. I’m not doing the matte box thing because it seems to open too many issues for fast lens changes – and anyway flare can be cool. One lens I don’t have worked out yet is my ultrawide 14mm Nikkor – I have no ND solution yet thanks to it’s bulbous front element.

I also have the Sony 18-200mm NEX kit lens. I seriously recommend buying this thing. The auto focus is pretty cool and so is the image stabilisation, not to mention the zoom range and the price: about the same as a regular 18mm prime lens for the camera. The lowlight performance of the camera makes up for the F6.3, the base ISO of the FS100 is said to be 800ASA.  It’s a great ‘grab a shot’ lens, but the less-than-responsive fly by wire focus and aperture adjustment, make it inappropriate for my finer cinematography moments – those are when I pull out one of my little Nikkor primes.

Sony FS100 50p and Motorbikes from Sam Morgan Moore on Vimeo.

Beyond lenses I have a Small HD DP6 monitor – I prefer this to an EVF because evaluation of focus is finer and I want to be able to see my image when the camera is placed on the ground or suchlike. I also like the SmallHD sunshade.

I have a Hawk-Woods breakout box and V-Lok batteries to power the monitor and the camera via a dummy battery adaptor. I also have a Sanken CS2 mic on a Rycote mount and a Sony lavalier system. The whole package is mounted on a rig I have created with bits from my HalfInchRails parts bin and a few little extras. I’m reconfiguring the rig every day – building it like an ENG camera. I am also looking into lighter batteries. There is no point in having 10 hours of battery life on a camera package you can only carry for five hours.

So I now have a full, client-pleasing production machine that I trust and also my 5D rig for fun days out for shooting with no client pressure or using as a B-cam for the shots where (lack of) size matters.

I have shot two pressured commercial jobs so far – I’m afraid they are not yet in the public domain – and am happy.

A review of the FS100 in short:
- Lowlight – great
- Moire – none
- Sharpness – reasonable
- Roll off to white – NOT as good as a Canon
- Menus – annoying
- Buttons – all in the wrong place
- Side handle – in the bin
- Sony’s Chimney pot LCD loupe – in the bin
- Sound – a bit tinny compared to my lovely Sound Devices 702 audio recorder – but then so is everything

In spite of some of those drawbacks, I don’t feel I will be buying another camera for a while. I’m not actually a gear fiend: I just want the light to go on when the time to roll comes. I now have that -  and the cine look when I want it. You can check out my image comparisons between the FS100 and 7D here.

About Sam Morgan Moore:
Sam Morgan Moore is a video and stills shooter based in the UK. He is also the creator of www.halfinchrails.com camera support systems

By Matt Allard

Villa 9 from Matthew Allard on Vimeo.

I spent a week in Bali on a break recently and decided to make a short little film. I didn’t plan to do this beforehand and had only taken equipment to take photographs, so this is a good example of what you can do with the absolute basics. 

I had a Canon 7D, Tokina 11-16mm f2.8, Canon 50mm f1.2 and a Canon 100mm f2.8 macro (non IS). The only other things I had were a mini light stand and a gorilla pod. I didn’t have a Z-finder, monitor, slider, audio, ND faders or anything else with me.

Does shooting without those things make a huge difference? Well, yes and no. The essence of good filming is to do the basics well and to work within the limitations of your camera and kit. By understanding the limitations of your camera you can still go out and shoot something nice without the plethora of accessories. Your camera, lenses and especially you are the three most important elements of any shoot –  the foundation stones, if you will. Everything else is just the plaster and paint that help make it look prettier.

What did I miss the most? I would say ND faders. They do make your job a lot easier. Having to stop down the camera a lot to avoid running too fast a shutter speed was the biggest obstacle I faced.

Not everything needs to be super-shallow depth of field. If you don’t have ND faders, adapt to shoot without them. Stop your lens down but use distance and separation between objects to achieve a similar result. A great lens for doing this is a macro lens. Even stopped down, by its very nature, a macro lens is designed for close focus. You can use it to great effect to create shallow depth of field, without it having to be at f2.8.

If you don’t have room for a big tripod, then improvise. A small light stand, a Gorillapod or anywhere you can place the camera where it is supported and steady will do. A table, a chair or even a rolled up shirt or towel will help you get the job done. If that is not available then rest the camera against the side of a wall or any other object that will prevent shake. A lot of hand-held DSLR material looks truly awful. As a famous cameraman once told me: “Don’t shoot anything hand-held that you can shoot off a tripod.”

There are certain times when hand held is the only way to shoot something, but don’t be lazy and go hand-held for wrong reasons. Even without a tripod you can find things to make your shots steady.

Don’t be fooled into thinking you need every accessory under the sun to shoot something good. Yes, they can help and add extra elements to your shoot, but they aren’t essential.

Master the basics first such as composition and framing, and understand how your camera works before you take the leap into sliders, hand-held rigs and other accessories.

You don’t need to spend a fortune on equipment to get good results. Sometimes less is more.

About Matthew Allard, Aljazeera Senior Field Cameraman, Kuala Lumpur:
Matt has been a Camera/Editor in TV news for more 20 years, previously working for both Channel 9 and Channel 10 in Australia. Twice Network Ten Australia’s cameraman of the year as well as being a Walkley Finalist for outstanding camerawork in 2006 (for coverage of the Cronulla Race Riots) and a Logie Finalist for outstanding news coverage 2006 (Bali 9). He is a multiple ACS (Australian Cinematographers Society) award winner. His Sword Maker story that was shot on a 7D won the prestigious Neil Davis International News Golden Tripod at the 2011 ACS Awards. He has covered news events in more than 35 countries, from major sporting events to terrorist bombings. Based out of the Kuala Lumpur broadcast centre in Malaysia he is an avid user and follower of new technology, shooting stories on HD broadcast cameras, the Sony F3 as well as new Canon DSLRs.

By Matt Allard

Lenses should be the most important part of your kit. Camera bodies come and go, but good glass can be used for a lifetime. Testament to this is that 20- to 30-year-old lenses can still look fantastic on your camera. Over time they have been refined – auto focus and stabilization may have been added – but the basic design remains the same.

You should always try to buy the best lens you can afford. You are better off spending more money on your lens than getting an expensive camera body and a cheap kit lens. In most cases you get what you pay for, but there are always exceptions. If you only have enough money for a Canon 5DmkII body and a cheap lens, you are better off getting for example a Canon 60D and spending more money on a better piece of glass. You can keep quality lenses forever but your camera body can become outdated in a matter of years. Another very important thing to remember is try to buy a lens you can use on multiple cameras as this will save you a fortune down the track.

The first thing you need to consider is whether you are going to use the lenses for stills as well or just video. For photo and video you are going to want a lens that has autofocus. Manual focus for photography can be a major hassle, depending on what you’re shooting. Go and try to shoot some fast-moving action with a manual focus only lens and you will be tearing your hair out. You just can’t focus as fast as a good auto focus system. 

But for video, manual focus is crucial. You can’t be in the middle of shooting something and have your lens whirling around trying to grab focus during a shot. Lenses by Canon/Nikon/Tamron/Sigma etc that have both manual and auto focus are your best option if you plan to shoot stills and video. A lot of modern day lenses also offer image stablizers (often referred to as IS or VR) which can make a big difference to your photos or video.

If you want lenses just for video then you need to consider other things. For example, if you buy a Canon EF lens for, say, your 7D you have no ability to change exposure smoothly during a shot as the aperture is controlled by a clicked dial on the rear of the camera. The other problem is that Canon EF lenses don’t work fully on anything other than a Canon body. There are adaptors from Birger and other companies that are coming out that will allow you to use EF glass with full aperture control for cameras like the Panasonic AF100, Sony FS100 and the Sony F3,  but they will not be cheap. So for video your choices are a bit harder. You ideally want a lens that allows you to manually control the aperture and has manual focus. Even manual aperture lenses do have hard aperture stops but you can get them declicked to offer smooth iris control.

The second thing you have to decide is whether to get a prime lens or a zoom lens. There is no right or wrong choice here: it comes down to the individual operator and what he or she needs the lens for. Zooms can save you a lot of time as you don’t have to keep changing lenses, you don’t have to move around as much and you don’t need to buy as many lenses. When looking at a zoom lens you want to make sure you get something that has a constant aperture eg f2.8. If you have a zoom lens with variable aperture, the aperture will change when you change the focal length – this is a major pain for video. Additionally some zoom lenses (known as varifocal) do not maintain the focus throughout the zoom range meaning that you have to refocus every time you zoom – another major pain. In the ideal world your zoom lens would be fixed aperture and maintain focus (parfocal).

Combinations
A good example combination for a Canon APS-C sized sensor camera like the 7D or 60D would be a Tokina 11-16mm f2.8, a Canon 17-55mm f2.8 and a Canon 70-200mm f2.8L (or f4). This would give you 3 lenses that would cover a large range at fast aperture. Add a 1.4 or 2x teleconvertor and you would extend this range even further. If you were using a Canon 5DmkII you would just get a Canon 16-35mm f2.8 instead of the Tokina and a Canon 24-70mm or Canon 24-105mm instead of the 17-55mm. These are just examples as there are other brands out there that you could use. 

Your other option, if you’re just using your lenses for video, is to get older Contax/Zeiss or Nikon manual focus only lenses (either zooms or primes). You can now also get old manual focus Canon FD primes adapted to fit EOS cameras or other cameras like the NEX. Optically a lot of these lenses are older designs but many are still very good and it would save you a lot of money.

Some of the super zooms on the market will allow you to cover a huge range. For example I used the Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-f6.3 on a Sony F3 during the Japan tsunami/earthquake. It gave me a super range without me having to change lenses. I did this as a compromise for time over quality. Is it a good lens? Not really. It looked ok on the F3 although this lens is supposed to be used with the inbuilt stabilization on, so when using it on the F3, every time there was wind or lots of movement the whole picture turned to jello. I have also heard that this lens looks terrible on say a 7D. 

My advice would be to stay away from this sort of lens for video work. I think these super zooms are much more suited to travel photography rather than video. For me, when I do use zoom lenses, I never tend to use them as zoom lenses anyway. When I use the Canon 70-200mm I’m normally either at 70mm or 200mm. I rarely use anything in between. So you need to ask yourself whether you will be using the zoom as a zoom or just using the two extremes of the range.

Personally, I much prefer using prime lenses over zooms. Zooms can make you very lazy. You stay in the one spot and just zoom. Using primes makes you think more about your shot and forces you to move your feet. If your feet aren’t glued to the floor you will discover new angles that maybe you would never have seen if you were using a zoom. Primes also have the added benefit of being much faster lenses. The look of, say, a f2.8 zoom lens and a f1.2 prime is completely different. Don’t get me wrong; there are some fantastic zoom lenses out there, but they just don’t have the same look as a good prime lens. Fast zoom lenses are good but fast primes are great. 

Also, most lenses are optically not at their best when their apertures are wide open and tend to perform better when they are stopped down. This may be vital with stills, but I don’t think it’s as important when shooting video. Your stills lenses are designed, in the case of a full frame, to cover a huge sensor at high resolution; when you’re shooting video the image is getting reduced to a much lower 1920×1080 pixels. At this frame size the lens isn’t really getting pushed very hard. Personally I am comfortable with the quality of the results when shooting most of my lenses wide open.

People using DSLRs for video these days have in my opinion an over-fascination with shallow depth of field. You don’t need it on every shot you do. Of course, if you want super shallow depth of field then you need fast primes. Primes also, of course, offer the benefit of being in most cases very fast and therefore very good in low light conditions. I can tell the quality difference between a really good prime lens and a stills zoom quite easily. One of my favorite lenses is the Canon 50mm f1.2. It is way more expensive than the Canon 50mm f1.4 and you could buy about 20 Canon 50mm f1.8 lenses for the same money – but in my opinion it is worth every cent. For me 50mm is the lens I use the most. If you are planning on buying a really good quality lens, buy it in the focal length you use the most.

Build quality is very important to me. In most cases, the more expensive the lens, the better the build quality. The Canon L series for example are built pretty toughly. A prime example the Canon 50mm f1.2L as opposed to the Canon 50mm f1.8. Yes the Canon 50mm f1.8 only costs around $80 but if you drop it from just a few feet it will probably never work again. Good build quality also means there is less chance of moisture or dust getting into your lens.

Depending on the type of work you’re doing, build quality may not be a major factor for you; for example, if you’re very careful with your equipment and don’t travel much. If you’re constantly in challenging environments and travelling a lot then you need something built to withstand the conditions. Next time you’re shopping for a lens, pick it up and feel the weight, see what it is made out of and ask yourself: “If I drop this, will it be ok?”   Of course, even if you have something as solid as a Canon 50mm f1.2L, if you drop it straight down onto the front element it may not survive. One common alternative option are the Zeiss ZF and Zeiss ZE series – built like tanks with solid metal and not plastic.

Then there’s flexibility: can I use my lenses on multiple cameras and across multiple manufacturers? If you want the greatest flexibility you want to buy lenses that you can use on lots of different cameras. The problem up to this point (although people are working on it) is that if you owned say a Canon 5D and you wanted to buy a Sony FS100, but all you owned were Canon EF lenses, you couldn’t use them. If you have invested thousands of dollars in lenses you want to be able to use them on whatever the next camera is that you decide to buy. 

I have a wide variety of lenses from Nikon, Canon, Tokina, Sony and Zeiss and my favorite lenses are my Zeiss ones. There is just something about the look of them. They are also extremely flexible. In a Nikon mount they offer manual focus (albeit in the opposite direction to Canon) and manual aperture control. Using inexpensive lens adaptors I can use these lenses on Nikon DSLR, a Canon DSLR, my Sony F3 and even my Sony NEX-5. Although I love my Canon L series glass I can’t currently use it on anything else (with the exception of the Sony NEX-5 without aperture control).

What matters is the lens that is right for you: think about what you normally shoot and how you shoot it. Factor in price, speed, f-stop, build quality and flexibility and determine what your requirements are. There is no substitute for really good glass; it can ultimately determine the quality of your finished product. Remember too that you are the artist – your camera and lens are just the palette and brush.

There are way too many lenses to cover in this post so if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask here below and I’ll be happy to help you out.

About Matthew Allard, Aljazeera Senior Field Cameraman, Kuala Lumpur:
Matt has been a Camera/Editor in TV news for more 20 years, previously working for both Channel 9 and Channel 10 in Australia. Twice Network Ten Australia’s cameraman of the year as well as being a Walkley Finalist for outstanding camerawork in 2006 (for coverage of the Cronulla Race Riots) and a Logie Finalist for outstanding news coverage 2006 (Bali 9). He is a multiple ACS (Australian Cinematographers Society) award winner. His Sword Maker story that was shot on a 7D won the prestigious Neil Davis International News Golden Tripod at the 2011 ACS Awards. He has covered news events in more than 35 countries, from major sporting events to terrorist bombings. Based out of the Kuala Lumpur broadcast centre in Malaysia he is an avid user and follower of new technology, shooting stories on HD broadcast cameras, the Sony F3 as well as new Canon DSLRs.

By Dan Chung

Many thanks to all those who came to my ‘HDDSLR in the real world’ training workshop at Jacobs Pro lounge in London last week. One unexpected pleasure was to have some top Associated Press and Bloomberg news photographers along as participants.

Also a big thank you to Nick Millen of Canon UK for coming along to support the event and bringing his expertise as well as the latest lovely L lenses with him on the day. We had a good discussion on a range of topics as well as gear available to try from Manfrotto, Jag35, Zacuto, Redrockmicro, Genus, Pinknoise Systems and IDCphoto.

Apologies to those we could not accommodate this time; we felt it was much better to keep the class small and more personal. As it was oversubscribed, Jacobs and myself are organising another session on July 1st. Again it will be open to all, but those of you who were on the waiting list last time and didn’t get a place will have the first option to attend this one. As before we are keeping numbers below ten.

This is what news photographer Jason Alden had to say about the workshop – “I had an excellent day on Dan’s course, it really helped answer all the questions that I would otherwise have to learn through making mistakes. The course was ideally pitched for the working Editorial Photographer who just needs technical direction to get them on their way. Well worth the time and money; I’m certain it will prove a good investment.”

The workshop will be £150 for the day ( 10am-5.30pm ) and will take place on Friday, July 1st at the Jacobs Pro lounge, 74 New Oxford Street, London WC1A 1EU.
 
To book a place please contact Henrietta or Donal on 0207 436 6996.

I’m back in London this month for a workshop at the Jacobs Pro lounge, helping photographers and videographers improve the way they shoot real world events. There are only eight places available as we want to be sure everyone gets some hands on tuition – so please book quickly if you want to come.

I’ll cover both the technical side and the journalistic one. I’ll go over the basic kit I use day to day including the use of ND filters, audio adapters, support rigs, led lights, sliders, LCD magnifiers and EVFs (I’ll have the new Zacuto EVF with me for people to try). I’ll also discuss my approach to shooting, illustrated by examples of my work, with plenty of tips learned from experience on assignment. There will be sections on slow mo and time-lapse too.
 
Participants should bring their own equipment if possible but there will be a limited amount of demo kit on show too.

 
The workshop will be £150 for the day ( 10am-5.30pm ) and will take place on Wednesday 8th June in the Jacobs Pro lounge, 74 New Oxford Street, London WC1A 1EU.
 
To book a place please contact Henrietta or Donal on 0207 436 6996.

 

By Johnnie Behiri

Bionic reconstruction from Johnnie Behiri on Vimeo.

After two years, the VDSLR has become my main working tool. True, I do have access to many other video cameras, but what convinces me is the fact I have to THINK every time before pressing the REC button. I feel it has made me a better shooter and storyteller. Sure, I was thinking before when using a conventional ENG camera, but I’m talking about the extra care when shooting with VDSLRs.

So what is there to think about?  Light, lenses, aperture, depth of field, movement, audio recording, audio levels, are all equally important to achieve the best possible result when working with a “far then optimal” big sensor photo camera that shoots high definition video.

When Neil Bowdler, the BBC science correspondent, came up with the idea of doing a “bionic reconstruction” story, the obvious working tool for me was a VDSLR. Neil was excited and open-minded about exploring that possibility.

The story is about an Austrian resident who has chosen to have his dysfunctional hand cut off so that it can be replaced with a bionic limb. His Vienna-based surgeon believes elective amputation and what he calls “bionic reconstruction” can give some patients with traumatic injuries the best hope of regaining bodily function.

My goal this time was not to achieve the super shallow depth of field “film look” that some regard as optimal. I felt in this case there was no point of having a completely blurred background when Neil is talking about a situation happening behind him….

We did some nicely lit interviews but unfortunately did not use them in the short version of the story for BBC World news. Those were used later in the longer version done in London for BBC Newsnight which you can see here.

Equipment used:
Camera: Canon 7D
Lenses: Canon 17-55 f2.8, Canon 70-200 f4.0, Tokina 11-16mm f2.8
Audio: Tascam DR-100 recorder, Sennheiser G2 EW100 wireless mic system, Sanken Lav mic, Cos11D
Rig: Vocas
Electronic VF: Cineroid
Tripod: Sachtler DV8 SB
Light: Litepanel 1×1, Viso PH 5502 (Kino style flo light)
Editing: Adobe Premiere CS2 with Cineform Neo4k
Color correction: Cineform “FirstLight”

Johnnie is working in Vienna, Austria.
Johnnie also films documentaries, commercials, music videos, and marketing videos when not working for the BBC.

So this is my last post from NAB 2011 – only 2 days late. I had a great time seeing old friends, meeting new ones and of course checking out all the new toys. I’d like to thank the dslrnewsshooter crew members Seppe Van Grieken and Johnnie Behiri for their tireless work during the show. Their contribution really made our coverage much better this year.

As a parting shot here are a few more bits of gear that we would have featured in detail if only we had the time:

Canon Explorer of Light Bruce Dorn was at NAB showing his unique iDC system Zero rigs. These are an update of his earlier designs and use a friction based follow focus on a custom bracket to keep the rig ultra compact. The rig for the Canon 60D looked especially nice. Bruce says there is a version for the Panasonic GH2 in the works.

Zacuto was showing off their prototype Scorpion rig. It has an interesting integrated shoulder support/carry handle and is articulated in a way to make balance easy. With the Zacuto Z-EVF fitted it was nice to use.

Manfrotto had a whole range of new gear. Most important to many news shooters will be their new video heads. The 509HD is a model up from the popular 504HD and features the same bridging technology (whatever that means). There is also a new lower end model called the 502HD which is essentially a replacement for the ever popular 501 head.

Manfrotto also showed Dado – an innovative spherical universal junction that connects to threaded accessories or rods. Looks like a piece of 1970’s art but it very cool. They also have a new snake arm which is a more flexible alternative to the magic arm.

There were a lot of Ipad based teleprompter systems at NAB this year. This one is probably the cheapest and I’m thinking of getting one for myself. It’s only $299 from LCD4video.

GoPro were at NAB again this year showing their just launched 3D system for the diminutive action cams. As I was walking past their booth I spotted none other than legendary Steadicam inventor Garrett Brown trying it out on a Merlin stabilizer.

Another 3D solution came from Mio 3D. Instead of using two cameras their rig has 3, allowing them to shoot with two interocular distances at the same time. Make sense? if not don’t ask me – check out their website.

Fastec were a company getting a lot of press coverage for their new hand holdable TS3 high speed camera. Capable of 720 frames per second in HD. Wow! Now if only it were the same price as my DSLR.

Rig company Denz had an interesting solution for mounting an EVF to cameras like the Panasonic AF100. I’m going to need to work out some arrangement for my own EVFs so this is definitely an option.

The Radcam has got to be one of the coolest DSLR gadgets I saw at NAB. I’d love to see shots from one of these.

And to finish our NAB 2011 coverage is this DSLR helmet cam. Recognise the celebrity anyone?