? using series 400 over 300

[Dennis Hingsberg]

I'm wondering if any users of the newer series 400 who have also worked with the series 300 can comment on what production advantages to expect from using a 400 over a 300.

Okay the obvious is that it oscillates instead of rotates, so therefore it is known to be quieter.. but what else? Has anyone ever had to shoot at or above f5.6 with either 300 or 400? I know there are grain issues with series 300 approaching this f-stop but one can easily overcome this by controlling the relay lens iris or of course ND filters.

Hope to hear some stories here. Cheers!

[Dennis Hingsberg]

C'mon folks, surely someone here can comment on the major differences they've experienced between the two units.

Any difference in ground glass quality?

What about the ability of shooting f11 or f16 on the lens... is it possible without getting ground glass in your image?

[Eric MacIver]

Even on the 400 series, I try to suggest staying open wider than a f5.6 just to be safe... If you want to stop down further, you want to for one of two reasons: 1) to decrease light or, 2) to increase depth of field.

If it's reason #2, you can take the camera off the adapter and shoot with a 1/3" lens for a great deal of DOF. With a slight amount of tweaking in post, viewers won't notice a difference. However, that's usually not reason, so if it's #1 (to decrease light), just use the iris on the relay and/or built-in ND's on your camera and/or ND's in a matte box mounted in front of your taking lens.

All that being said, I haven't tried the 300 series, but I can tell you that no one has ever asked to rent one, and I've had some customers that have talked about shooting on them and having had "strange" problems that were very noticable during lens flares.

Of course, with the 400 series, if a little ground glass shows up, at least it looks like film grain, which can be pleasant or at very least not too disruptive. However on the 300 series, I've heard you get "streaking" as the grains from the ground glass make a perfect circle over and over.

Hope that helps.