By Matt Allard

Big news from Sony USA this week. You can now purchase the S-log upgrade for your F3 for a mere $899 US. This is no doubt a direct response to the launch of the Canon C300. The S-Log upgrade was $3800 and came on a SxS card. The $899 price lasts until March with one small catch – the offer is only available currently to those purchasers in the US and if you already own the F3 the camera must be sent to Sony’s US service centre to have it installed. You can of course just buy a new F3 in America with the option already loaded for an additional $899. For those of US users who already paid $3800 for the upgrade you can get a $2500 discount on the Sony 18-252mm zoom lens or the SR1 recorder as a kind on consolation prize. It is unclear how this quite works when Sony USA is already offering mail in rebates already when buying the zoom or recorder.

Also this new offer only applies to people purchasing in the US so it screws me . A lot of overseas customers like me who paid full price for S-Log will be very angry with Sony and will get zero rebate!

This is however great news for people wanting to invest in a new F3 because it really makes it an interesting comparison with price and performance against the C300. While I still believe these cameras are quite different and both offer their good and bad points it shows Sony is worried about possible sales drops of the F3 with the C300 now available.

S-log For Dummies from Matthew Allard on Vimeo.

The C300 is retailing for $16K US while the F3 with S-Log is now $14,859. Sony also have incentives on new purchases of a FS100, offering Sony Vegas Pro and a free SDHC card. This will coincide with a firmware update in March 2012 that will make the FS100 a true world camera by enabling both PAL and NTSC frame rates (currently it is either a PAL or NTSC only model).

Speaking of firmware, there is a new version 1.31 for the F3 which has enabled a few new things and some updates. This from Sony:

3D-Link:
3D shooting with 3D-Link and a power zoom lens is enabled (optional CBK-3DL01 3D-Link Option, 3D-Link cable, and SCL- Z18X140 power zoom lens are required):
• Linking function of the lens position (zoom, iris, and focus) on the main unit and sub unit, either constant linking or temporary linking enabled
• Iris offset adjustable when the lenses on both units are linked to move in sync
• Status indication of the lens condition (zoom, iris, etc.) on the main unit and that on the sub unit may not be the same even after the lens positions on both units has been synchronized.
• If Iris Position Sync, Focus Position Sync, or Zoom Position Sync under 3D-Link of the OTHERS menu is set to On for constant linking, pressing the assignable button to which the corresponding linking function is assigned does not activate temporary linking. Set the constant linking function to Off for activating the temporary linking. The linking function of this unit does not guarantee synchronizing in the same phase.

S-Log:
S-Log422 shooting is enabled (optional CBK-RGB01 RGB&S-LOG Output Option is required):
• 1.5G YPbPr422 & S-Log and 3G YPbPr422 & S-Log options available under Dual-Link & Gamma Select of the VIDEO SET menu

Synchro Rec (synchronized recording):
Synchronized recording via Dual-Link output enabled for normal recording (a recording device supporting Synchro Rec and Dual- Link output signals is required):
• Synchro Rec option under SDI Rec Control available. If Synchro Rec is started when the i.Link output or the Picture Cache Recording is active, or during playback (including Rec Review and thumbnail display), recording synchronization may not be achieved or distorted video recording may occur.

Wide-angle manual zoom lens:
(An optional SCL-P11X15 wide-angle zoom lens is required.) Status indication to observe the lens condition is enabled.

MF Assist setting:
The default setting for MF Assist of the CAMERA SET menu has been changed to Off

Also available to order from today is the new Sony PL mount 11-16mm T3 short zoom. I was lucky enough to get one a few weeks ago to try out.

Below is my video lens review of the new Sony 11-16mm T3 PL zoom and Sony 18-252mm F3 mount zoom lenses.

Sony 11-16mm T3 PL and 18-252mm Sony F3 Lens Review from Matthew Allard on Vimeo.

This was all done in 3 hours on an afternoon in Tokyo. I was lucky enough to get Sony Japan (through System 5) to lend me these lenses to test. I do not have any commercial arrangement with Sony or System 5 and nor did I receive any of these products for free. If I want them I have to buy them like everyone else.

I’m not normally in front of the camera so please excuse the rambling and mistakes that are made.

More of a review than a test there are no charts, just me using the lenses for a few hours to get a general feel for them and to help me evaluate what I liked and didn’t like about them.

I missed a few things in my video as I ran out of time. A few of the key things I forget to mention were that the 18-252mm zoom can be controlled via the F3 remote control. This is quite a cool feature and would be very handy on a jib, slider or dolly. The zoom itself is quite smooth and not jumpy but I didn’t check to see in the menus anywhere whether there was a way of increasing or decreasing the zoom speed. The auto-focus function was very slow and pretty much unusable. Another small concern is that the servo motor on the lens is quite loud, although in saying that I couldn’t hear it on the recorded audio. It would also be interesting to see if the remote connection on the back of the camera could be used with an external zoom controller as this would make the ease of use of the lens so much better. I didn’t notice any breathing (if there was it was very minimal) and I found it seemed to hold the focus through out the zoom range.

Would I buy either of these lenses? Thats a good question. The 18-252mm has a lot of strengths and some weaknesses. What it does offer is something that no other product has done before. A zoom rocker controlled Super 35mm lens with a big range. Yes it’s not fast aperture, but if your using it outside or in controlled lighting situations it’s pretty good. You can still get reasonable shallow depth of field despite it not being a fast lens. It’s not perfect, far from it, but it does offer a lot of convenience and a pretty nice image up until about 220mm.

The 11-16mm is quite nice. It’s fast for the range at T3 and is very sharp. It also handles flare and highlights very well. It is very expensive and probably too expensive in my belief. If this lens was $3-4k I would buy it on the spot, but $7K ! that’s a lot of money for any lens.

If you have any questions about either lens feel free to comment and I will be happy to answer. I’m sure I’ve missed out lots that people want to know!

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

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 Matt Allard

I was pretty much sold on the Sony F3 before it had even been launched at NAB.  After seeing a film called “Compulsion” by Jason Wingrove on Vimeo it was a done deal in my mind to go and purchase.  Jason had shot this piece down at one of Sydney’s sea pools at North Narrabeen, a spot I know very well. So when I was recently back in Sydney, Australia on holidays I decided to make a short film thanks to Jason’s inspiration. My parents live up on the Northern beaches and every morning they go swimming in these sea pools which are basically outdoor swimming pools built into the natural surroundings. The pools are very unique to Sydney and are not found anywhere else in Australia.  They were originally built in the 1930′s because of the fear of shark attacks.

Saltwater from Matthew Allard on Vimeo.

The people who go down and swim every morning usually go regardless of the weather.  I was originally just going to shoot pictures but decided instead to make it more documentary style.  I didn’t have any proper microphones with me so I improvised and just set the camera up very close to the people I interviewed and used the camera’s top mic. This worked out fine as I didn’t intend on using anything other than the audio from the interview clips over overlay over my images.

It’s easy to just go and shoot some pretty pictures and put them to music, but I wanted to give the piece some soul.  And so I gathered voices from real people, doing real things.  I interviewed about six people and only recorded their voice as I felt they were a lot more comfortable chatting to me knowing they weren’t being filmed.   Their answers were from the heart; raw and honest.  By making interviews more like a conversation you tend to get better answers.

Australia’s eastern coastline also provides some amazing sunrises.  I got up over several days at 5am to go shoot the sea pools and surfers.  Sunrises where you are trying to not only show the sun, but also the surroundings, test the highest limits of a camera’s dynamic range.  I wasn’t using an external recorder so I didn’t want to record Sony’s straight S-log tone curve to the SxS memory cards.  This tone curve is designed to give the maximum possible latitude in an image when post processed but requires some effort. What I did after doing a bit of experimenting was to record in the S-log mode but with a REC709 (800%) LUT applied.  I found this gave me most of the benefits of S-log but still made the image easily gradable in post.  The key when using S-log is to protect your highlights. If you do it’s amazing how much detail you can recover.  If you blow your highlights out you can never get them back.

Getting up early is worth it for anything you are shooting. There is something so special about that time just before sunrise and just after. The first morning I got up it was very cloudy and overcast and I was worried I wasn’t going to get a sunrise. When I arrived at the beach I was pleasantly surprised. Dark clouds, big surf and just enough of a gap on the horizon to see the sun come up.  The F3′s ability (especially using S-log) to handle super high ‘contrasty’ scenes still amazes me.  The camera could hold in the highlights of a strong rising sun while still showing the subtlety in the clouds and the detail in the shadows of the rock pools.  I primarily used the Nikon 80-200mm f2.8 and a Zeiss 21mm f2.8 lenses for this shoot.  There was some footage shot at 720/50p in camera to achieve the slow motion shots.  I didn’t want it all to be slow motion as it was important for me to showcase how the water and light moved in real-time. It was also important to have a lot of natural sound and not to just put it to music.

All the locations presented me with different lighting conditions; from stormy clouds to harsh morning sun, every spot presented a unique challenge.  Knowing how your camera works and what it can and cannot do are key.  If you use your camera’s strengths and hide its weaknesses, it is easier to achieve good results.

I used surfing footage shot in a GoPro action cam by a good friend of mine, Steve Clements. He used to be a professional surfer and now his son Koby is also joining him down in the water.  The GoPro vision was shot at 60p and then converted in Cinema tools to 25p.

Hopefully this piece showcases the natural beauty of Sydney’s northern beaches, as well as give you an insight into how the surroundings make the people who live there feel.  The key to any film you shoot is if people watch it and feel something from it.  Good characters make a story or a film.  Without them it lacks a soul. Being a good story teller is sometimes letting other people tell the story for you.

I shot all this footage at Avalon, Collaroy, North Narrabeen and Long Reef beaches in Sydney.  This wasn’t a paid assignment – it was just me and my camera, going out and doing what I love.

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

Like me you probably hadn’t heard of Sony S-log or even had the faintest idea about what it is or what it does.

S-log was originally only available on super high end Cine cameras like the Sony F35. Now that it’s available for the Sony F3 I thought I’d do some research and try and explain it in as simple language as possible. Now before I do I’m not some super tekkie guy or an engineer so i’m not even going to try and explain why it does what it does from a technical perspective. I’m just going to explain what it does to an image in the real world. I have researched by reading various articles and I’ve tried to not make this article too technical. I am also happy to be corrected on anything I have gotten wrong.

S-log For Dummies from Matthew Allard on Vimeo.

The short video I have made is just some test shots to try and show you what S-log does and looks like. It’s not a scientific test, it’s just me using the camera. It hasn’t been recorded on an external recorder – its all been recorded straight onto the internal SxS cards. All comparison shots were done using the exact same lenses and settings unless otherwise noted.  I’ve shot comparisons between S-log/non S-log, graded S-log/ungraded S-log and graded non S-log/graded S-log. There are also comparisons between a Canon 7D using the Technicolor Cinestyle profile and the F3 with and without S-log.

In a nutshell, S-log is supposed to offer you exceptional tonal reproduction in both the high-lights and low-lights. In other words it can help expose the brightest part of your scene while still keeping the detail in the shadows. We have all shot something when, to expose for the brightest part of a scene, we have had to stop the camera down. This usually means losing all the detail in the shadows. S-log helps you to keep some of that information you would normally lose.

The human eye can see around a 14 stop range of light but it works in the reverse way of a camera sensor. We see only small changes in dark conditions but very big changes in bright ones. With a cameras sensor it sees big changes in dark conditions but only small changes in bright ones. What this means is our eyes see most things that are dark as being dark, but when it comes to things that are bright like say the sky, we can make out very gradual changes in brightness. Thats why a camera struggles when you try and shoot a bright sky while trying to expose the foreground correctly – it can’t easily recognize the gradual steps in bright scenes like your eye can.

Straight from a camera’s sensor an image appears very dark if it doesn’t have a gamma curve added to it. Almost all HD video cameras process video with a gamma curve so when it is viewed on your TV it  looks correct . This viewing method is referred to as REC709. What REC709 can’t do though is display the entire range of what your cameras sensor can capture. The F3 has a 16 bit sensor but without S-log you can’t capture all that information into a 10 bit signal. Here’s where S-log earns its money. It bends the range of the sensor to fit all the information into the allowable 10 bit space. It loses some information in this process but it now allows the camera to mimick the changes in brightness that are visable to our eyes. So remember earlier when I talked about why a camera struggles with replicating bright scenes? Well this is what S-log is helping correct.

The conventional way to combat the bright skies would be with a ND grad filter in front of the lens, but I found when using Sony F3 these filters dont tend to look as good as on say my Sony PMW-350 XDCAM. With the F3 you can see a noticeable graininess where my filters are graduated and I imagine that unless you are using the highest possible quality filters you will still be able to see the change in quality. S-log benefits you greatly by allowing you to do without filters in some cases because it handles the highlights so much better.

S-log does have to be color corrected in post though. A non color corrected S-log image looks washed out, lacks color and contrast. You don’t have to record S-log to a 4.4.4 external recorder like a Convergent Designs Gemini or even to a 4.2.2 recorder like a AJA KiPro Mini. It can be recorded straight to SxS cards but this not the best way to use it as S-log benefits in the color correction process from recording to a much higher bitrate codec and broader color space. When shooting S-log you can only choose either 5600k or 3200k and you can only shoot in progressive and not interlaced (I couldn’t find an explanation as to why).

Are there any negatives to S-log? From my experiences so far you don’t need to use it for everything and it’s not a quick fix miracle that will magically make all your material look wonderful. It does add increased noise to the image so you have to be careful when using it.

The positives? It is fantastic when you have to shoot scenes that has a high level of contrast. I have been able to shoot a lot of high contrast scenes I would never even attempt without S-log. It is also quite remarkable in low light. Turning on S-log is like turning on extra lights in a room. It also provides an amazing reproduction of detail that you normally never see. At 18db with the S-log enabled the F3 can literally see in the dark. My eyes can’t see what this camera can with a fast lens.

My over all impression of S-log is “wow!” It is however a $3800US upgrade and is not for everyone. I do however thoroughly recommend it as it really does take your F3 and put it on steroids.

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.

You can follow him on Twitter @mattaljazeera

By Dan Chung and Sarah Li

Tilta are relatively new entrants into the DSLR and camcorder accessory market. The Shenzhen-based company is quite small and the brand has recently become known in budget filmmaker circles by selling an inexpensive follow focus. They have rapidly created a much larger line of products that caters for more professional gear like the Sony F3.

I was particularly impressed by their universal handgrips which are fully adjustable and fit on both 15mm and 19mm rods. I’d like to test how they stand up to real world use.

Also interesting was their bracket and power solution for AJA’s popular KiPro Mini external Prores recorder. It mounts directly to 19mm rods and allows a V-lock battery to power both recorder and camera – but unlike other solutions I’ve seen it has a cooling system to stop the recorder overheating.

Tilta products can’t be easily found in Western stores yet and most parts need to be ordered online.

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 Matt Allard

Two new firmware updates have become available for the Sony PMW-F3. The first is the free version 1.1 – available to download here. It enables the following features on the camera:

1. Simultaneous live HD-SDI and HDMI output – This is great for anyone wanting to use an external viewfinder like the new Zacuto Z-EVF. It works in all video formats as well as in 23.98 when 2:3 pull down (59.94i) is enabled in the menus.

2. Live Dual Link Output in 444 & 422 is enabled. This means the A & B HD-SDI connectors are now both activated, so you can use them when working in Dual Link (with the RGB upgrade) or in regular 422. This means you have two additional clean outputs all the time – for connecting an external recorder. When shooting in 23.98 these outputs will give you 23.98 PsF even if you have pull-down enabled on the other HD-SDI output. (Note: When Dual Link output is enabled, the HDMI output is turned off.)

3. You can now use the S&Q wheel on the side of the camera to move around the menus. This is a good when the scroll wheel at the back of the camera camera is hard to reach. I found the scroll wheel at the back a little awkward at times so this is welcome update.

4. They have also enabled a slight color adjustment for the different ND filters. By adjusting these values, you can compensate for any color shift introduced by the ND filters.

The second firmware update is for the S-log upgrade. This is not a cheap and costs around $3500 US but what you have to remember is it places the F3 in an entirely new category. The firmware upgrade option key product code from Sony is CBK-RGB01. It enables S-Log gamma mode, Dual Link 444RGB video output, 3G-SDI output, four pre-loaded LUTs (look up tables) and five custom user LUTs.

What does this all mean? This firmware allows the F3 to output full RGB video in S-Log – opening up the true potential of this camera. S-Log raises the dynamic range of the camera to 800%, and effectively increases the base ISO at 0db from ISO800 to ISO 1600. Dual-Link SDI or 3G-SDI (dual-link on one cable) gives you full RGB444, and the LUTs allow you to monitor video normally while shooting in S-Log. The five custom LUT options mean that users can create their own looks .

The CBK-RGB01 option key, which you can now order from dealers like Abelcine, opens up several functions as well. When you purchase the key you are actually buying an SxS card with a special encoded key on it. This will allow you to enable RGB & S-Log on one camera. Once the functions are active you can remove the SxS card from the camera for safety or continue to use it as a standard SxS card. It is possible to move the RGB / S-LOG functions from one camera to another by uninstalling the key from one and re-installing it on another. They are using some serious encryption on the card to prevent multiple installations.

About Matthew Allard, Aljazeera Senior Field Cameraman, Kuala Lumpur:
Matt has been a Camera/Editor in TV news for 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 has covered news events in more than 30 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 as well as new Canon DSLRs.

By Matthew Allard

Karakuri from Matthew Allard on Vimeo.

I shot this short film for Aljazeera’s Frames four days before the devastating earthquake and tsunami struck Japan.

This is one of the first things I shot on my Sony F3. It had arrived for me in Tokyo on the first of February but I was unable to pick it up till the 28th. I managed to get the second production model ever made. I have been waiting for this camera since it was first announced back at NAB 2010 and it was definitely worth the wait.

I was in Osaka to shoot a short on the Karakuri (Japanese automata). Modern day robots can be traced back to these devices, which are 200-300 years old and were created by skilled craftsmen of the Edo period. By the use of weights and pulleys these ancient robots are able to perform amazing tasks without the use of electronics or power.

Hideki Higashino is one of the few who is keeping these incredible creations alive. His father recently had a stroke and is passing on his legacy to Hideki.

I wanted to show the intricate detail, small size and precision of these robots.

This shoot was the perfect place to really push the F3. Its ability to capture such a high dynamic range was especially crucial for a few of the shots. Shooting into the workshop from outside while trying not to over-expose the street and under-expose the workshop would test any camera. The F3 handled this amazingly well. Shooting onto the SxS cards at 4.2.0 35Mb/s showed just how good this camera is out of the box. With the ability to shoot S-log via a paid firmware update just around the corner, this camera will have even more amazing capabilities. Using S-log will increase the camera’s base sensitivity to 1600ISO. Truly spectacular for a camera at this price.

For this shoot I used the three Sony PL primes (35,50 and 85mm) as well as the Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 and the Zeiss ZF 100mm Macro Planar f2.0, the latter two via a Nikon MTF to F3 adaptor. Everything was shot using available light except for the tumbling Karakuri and when Hideki was using the sandpaper. I don’t like over lighting things and try to keep things as natural as possible. A lot of the story was shot using the Zeiss macro. I cannot rave about this lens enough. It is super sharp and when mounted on the F3 provides incredible amounts of detail.

As I’ve previously used the Canon 7D, 5DmkII, 1DmkIV and 60D, people are bound to ask me what the main differences are compared to a camera like the F3. For me the biggest difference is ease of use. Having all the controls at your fingertips, built in ND, proper audio and a convenient recording format make all the difference. As far as image quality goes, in my opinion, the F3 has a more organic look than DSLR. Saying that, I still love the image that a 5DmkII or a 7D produces. The DSLR has a unique look but it is let down by massive compression. I notice with the F3 that the level of detail is incredible. On this shoot I could see tiny grains of metal, the lines on people’s fingers and the intricate patterns on the robots’ clothing.

Do I prefer the F3 over say a 5DmkII? Yes I do, but of course that should be the case as it’s a much more expensive camera. I can’t recommend it enough. It is a video camera by design and not a stills camera. The new breed of DSLRs will not just die off; they still do an amazing job and they are very hard to beat in terms of bang for your buck. Even with all the toys and expensive cameras out there, don’t lose sight of the fact that the most important aspect of shooting anything is the story and the characters within that story. You can make anything great if it’s a good story regardless of whether you have an Arri Alexa or a Canon 550D. Equipment can help but ultimately it comes down to you.

About Matthew Allard, Aljazeera Senior Field Cameraman, Kuala Lumpur:
Matt has been a Camera/Editor in TV news for 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 has covered news events in more than 30 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 as well as new Canon DSLRs.

On March 11th at 14:46 local time, a huge magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck Japan.  It was the biggest to strike Japan in its history and the fifth largest quake recorded worldwide since 1900.  The death toll is now nearly 15,000 and 12,000 people are still missing. Japan is built to withstand earthquakes, but what ultimately caused the devastation and took so many lives was the massive tsunami that followed.

I was alerted about the initial earthquake by a close friend in Tokyo and quickly turned on the TV.  Initially, the earthquake did not seem to have caused too much damage, but as I continued to watch, live pictures began to show a giant tsunami hitting and engulfing the northeast coast.  The vision was incredible and I was at a loss for words.  It reminded me of watching the World Trade Centre coming down, disbelieving.  It was one of those terrible moments in history that everybody remembers.

I was deployed to Japan that evening to cover the disaster along with another cameraman, two correspondents and a producer, joined later by two other crews from Doha and Bangkok.  Just getting to Japan was an effort.  A lot of flights had been cancelled and getting hold of one last minute proved even more difficult.  We eventually managed to get the last five seats on a Japan Airlines flight to Tokyo and flew through the night to arrive early next morning.  As soon as we landed, we found out how badly transport and communication had been affected by the quake.  We were forced to wait in the airport until our local producers and drivers managed to make their way to meet us.  There was a massive traffic jam as the highways had been shut down, public transport had come to a halt, and there were shortages of available taxis and other vehicles.  Local mobile phone networks had jammed up and that put us out of reach.  Our driver had to fly in from Osaka to avoid the traffic, and just getting from Tokyo to Narita airport took the producers eight hours!  

While waiting for them, we made use of our time doing live-crosses from the airport using rented local phones and 3G internet dongles.  For the next several hours, these dongles enabled us to keep updating the world on the developing situations up north. Although we wanted to get to the affected areas as quickly as possible, we also knew it was necessary to be well prepared and have the correct people and vehicles in place.  We knew that the story would go on for a long time – patience was key.

When the teams finally came together, we loaded up with food and water so we would be self sufficient and then split into two teams to head up north.  We drove for hours through the cold night.  It was pitch dark as there was no electricity in the affected areas and we were shaken awake whenever the van drove over the gaps and cracks gaping on the roads.

On this assignment, I took four cameras with me to give me the greatest flexibility in covering the story: my normal XDCAM PMW-350, my new Sony PMW-F3, my Canon 7D and a small Canon handycam.  On the first day, I left the PMW-350 with our deputy news editor Jeremy Custance, who used to be a cameraman. He was able to shoot live crosses using a Bgan while the local producer Aya Asakura and I went to collect elements for a story.  I took the Sony PMW-F3 with a cheap Tamron 18-270mm lens attached via an MTF adaptor.  This enabled me to have the greatest flexibility for focal lengths without having to change lenses.  In situations like this it does not matter what camera you are using – what matters is how you use it.  I used the F3 and the 350 throughout the coverage.  The F3 became very useful in extreme low light situations and for doing live crosses. As it uses barely any power it was crucial in situations where re-charging batteries was difficult and no mains power was available.  Using its i-link (firewire) connector I could use the camera through Quicklink to do live crosses.  This camera produces beautiful images and quality is amazing even with a cheap Tamron zoom lens.

The first disaster-struck zone we reached was Natori, a city just south of Sendai.  It was the second morning after the quake and local fire fighters and Japan’s Self Defense Force were to enter the area to start rescue operation for the first time.  Everything looked fairly intact and normal to us until we drove a kilometre off the main road towards the ocean.  As far as the eyes could see, there was devastation.  We were still three or four kilometres from the sea and already, there were boats washed up on roads and destroyed houses and cars submerged everywhere.  The closer you got to the coast, the worse it got – the tsunami had flattened the city, leaving no trace of what once used to be.

We made our way through the muddy ground, that still smelled raw and fresh from the damage.  We saw fish from the ocean still gasping in a puddle.  But soon, our shoot would be interrupted by repeated aftershocks and tsunami warnings that forced the rescue workers and us to run to higher ground.  This became a common exercise throughout the coverage as the ground was still unstable.

Walking around through thick rubble, we found people still shell-shocked, sitting amongst their destroyed houses.  Their stories were heartbreaking and the looks on their faces were those of complete shock.  When we spoke to them, it was the look in their eyes and trembling hands that told us of the horrific disaster they experienced.  I have covered and seen a lot of bad things over the past twenty years of doing news, but this was by far the worst destruction I had ever seen.  I have never been a cameraman who likes getting up close to people who are obviously experiencing some of the worst moments of their life.  You can still portray the situation without shoving a camera right in somebody’s face.  

One moment still remains sharply in my mind.  I saw from a distance two men who were waist deep in the water trying to get inside an upturned car. I filmed them from about 60 metres away.  I did not want to get too close to them as I knew what they were looking for required privacy.  While I was filming, they came face to face with their worst fears. Inside the car they found the bodies of their mother, a niece and a nephew. It was a heart-wrenching moment.

Over the next month I would continue to see things that made me shake my head in disbelief. Every day when you thought you could not possibly see anything worse, you would. I sometimes find disaster reports are put together in a fast paced way with no time for the viewer to take in and absorb the situation. I usually work with senior Asian correspondent Steve Chao, who has a unique ability to tell a story rather than just report on it. We always work very closely together so the best pictures and best words are combined.

As if to compound their already difficult situation, the fragile cities and villages received another aftershock of magnitude 7.1 on April 7th. I had got used to experiencing constant aftershocks but this one shook the building we were in very violently. You always see pictures on TV when a quake happens. Security cams show things falling off shelves and buildings moving but it is impossible to show how it feels to be in one. It felt like being in a snow globe that somebody was shaking. The walls and floor were physically moving and if you tried to stand up you just got thrown back down. Many told us that this quake cut the lifelines once again and almost broke their spirits when they were trying to muster courage to rebuild and move forward.

In terms of our coverage, we had to keep our own lifeline and one major challenge was keeping the car fuelled when many petrol stations were either destroyed or running low.  Our super producer Aya Asakura managed to secure our van’s emergency vehicles pass, which enabled us to use restricted freeways and to get fuel from selected outlets.  Without these two things we would have been grounded and unable to move around to cover the story. Basic things like this can make or break your coverage.  What people do not realize when they are sitting at home watching stories from other countries is how much work is done by your local producer (commonly called a fixer in the TV world).  It is not the correspondent who is finding the people you are talking to or getting you to the locations you need to go.  The local producer is responsible for arranging your transport, translating, finding accommodation, finding people to talk to, setting up all the elements you need to shoot, finding out the background information and just about everything else. Without a great fixer your job becomes very difficult.  In disasters like this they perform amazing tasks and keep your coverage going.

During the coverage, we moved to multiple locations, doing live crosses and producing stories around the clock.  At times we were forced to move away from the east coast due to the growing nuclear radiation fears created by the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant owned by TEPCO. While the government was ordering people within 20-30km to evacuate, international experts were saying that the evacuation zone should cover wider areas. We were getting our directives from head office and were ordered to move at least 120km away.  This meant long drives in and out each day to get to the affected areas and cover the developing story, but the safety of staff was the priority.  It is so important to take extra safety steps, especially when it comes to radiation as you cannot smell, feel, or see it.

I spent 34 days covering the disaster and am currently back in Japan again continuing to report on the story. Despite the many long days without sleep and working in difficult conditions you never complain. You are constantly reminded of how lucky you are as the people you are meeting and seeing everyday have in most cases lost loved ones and everything they own.  Although the scale of devastation still remains immense and has deeply scarred the cities and the people, there are daily changes.  It continues to amaze me how solemnly determined and resilient the Japanese people are. They deal with loss and adversity with such poise and dignity.  Most other countries would have been overwhelmed by a disaster of this magnitude, but just hours afterwards, the rescue crews and ordinary people were already hard at work.  The image remains vividly in my mind.

About Matthew Allard, Aljazeera Senior Field Cameraman, Kuala Lumpur:
Matt has been a Camera/Editor in TV news for 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 has covered news events in more than 30 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 as well as new Canon DSLRs.

Since the launch of the Sony F3 users have been waiting to see what the zoom lenses that utilize the camera’s built in zoom rocker will look like. Yesterday at NAB they showed a prototype Super35 zoom under glass.

The lens specs are limited but the 18-252mm lens is f3.8 at the wide end and is designed specially for the F3. Price is to be determined and availability is said to be winter 2011.

Sony also had a LCD loupe designed to fit the F3 on show. It looks very similar to the ones on the EX3 and NEX FS-100.