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Sony ENG / EFP Shoulder Mounts
Sony PDW-F800, PDW-700, PDW-850, PXW-X500 (XDCAM HD) and PMW-400, PMW-320 (XDCAM EX).

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Old March 7th, 2010, 05:49 PM   #31
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Yes David the lens is an ALAC lens. From what I have seen so far I have not noticed the CA. Tomorrow I look over the footage from the flight. But my first views have shown excellent results with sharpness and CA.
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Old March 7th, 2010, 07:05 PM   #32
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Cheers Paul. Wishing you the very best with your recorded footage.
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Old March 8th, 2010, 08:41 AM   #33
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Thanks David,

Starting to look now and there are some great clips.

Still amazed that with a B+W 0.6ND and the camera on ND4 that a couple of clips blew out. Not bad just 3 of 130 clips but still the 350 is so sensitive that I need to buy a 1.2ND plus use the 4ND's in the camera in the future. The EX1 with its 0.6 ND and the 2ND in the camera would not have blown out. Shows how much more sensitive the 350 is to me right there.
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Old March 8th, 2010, 09:59 AM   #34
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Hey Paul,
If a camera is too sensitive in a pinch I have been known to throw the extender in if the lens has one and if the shot can handle it. Also makes me wonder if Sony should change the ND ratios in the camera.
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Old March 8th, 2010, 10:51 AM   #35
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Hi Daniel,

Thought of that but when we are flying I can not use the 2x. I did zoom to 70% a couple of times when the producer pushed me and we were at 70 feet off the hill. But 2x would not let us go wide enough and work in the helicopter. Agree a good options when on the ground and tripod.

Did some searching this morning and disappointed B+W only has ND MRC slim screw on filters in 0.3 and 0.6. What would people recommend for a 0.9 or 1.2 range? I will not use Tiffen. Can not use a Matte Box in the helicopter too much windage.

Will post a couple of frame grabs from the shoot later today.
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Old March 8th, 2010, 12:37 PM   #36
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Is the histogram turned on? Or the brightness indicator? 100% Zebras? Unless the highlights are truly saturated at 100-108% IRE, it's not usually clipped whites but rolled off gamma that causes the detail within the highlights to fade out. The adjustable knee setting should help.

One operational detail of Hypergamma could be that it never makes you aware of highlight levels that are fast approaching the 108% mark because it's rolling off the gamma (and thus the highlight detail) before it ever gets to that point. The second issue is that the dynamic range of hypergamma is less, 460% vs 600%.
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Old March 8th, 2010, 12:53 PM   #37
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Good points Tom,

Also I had HG 2 at 100% on as requested by the producer.

Yes I always run with histogram on and Zebra at 92%. The histogram while shooting and in post shows blow out shots.

The shots were looking down on snow with sun right above and zoomed in about 40% on my 17x. Skiers were about 1-2% of the frame the rest snow. We were 80-150 above them. I have looked at those few clips and they are lost. Not too big a problem since we were smart and did more then one take of everything. We were all aware they were blow out at the time of shooting. The monitor going through my video out "Y" was up front and it went white.

Would be great if they could be saved but my efforts have failed.
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Old March 8th, 2010, 09:02 PM   #38
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Paul,

I know this might be asking you a little early, but in your short experience to date with the new ZA lens, does it make a reasonable difference to the pictures compared with the stock kit lens?

The ZA is quite a premium to the stock lens, even with the ZA's operational advantages.

What are your thoughts please?

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Old March 9th, 2010, 08:14 AM   #39
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David I would say it has been worth every penny I spent on the ZA 17x7.6BERM-M58H. You must buy –M58H to have ALAC!

Some of my early thoughts:
The lens is sharper then the stock lens and has less CA then the stock lens, even though the stock lens is pretty good with CA.

Zoom is a lot smoother at all speeds. And there are fingertip controls for zoom speed.
I still used my EX1 Libec ZC-9EX zoom control.
All I had to do is buy a Fujinon 8-12 pin wire adapter.
You have zoom limit control, which I use in the helicopter. This is also fingertip control.

The manual focus control is great and very smooth. The cable is stiff but has enough bend for my tripod and gyro mount.
A very big point focus either with hand on the lens or on the control is easier to nail then the stock lens. Not sure why but it is.

The 2x extender is great with a lot of my shooting, except from the machine.

And it fits the Fujinon Optical Stabilizer.

Those are my positive thoughts with the first 6 days of use. There are a lot more controls the lens has that I have not used but will next week on a studio shoot. Macro on the back focus ring is a very nice option. Other options are in the switch panel up front on the handle that I will experiment once I have time.

Negative points at this time? NO

If you have specific question let me know happy to help.
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Old March 9th, 2010, 11:28 AM   #40
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Paul, talking of the chromatic aberration correction thing, have you tried it with and without it turned on?
I tried the HA18 on the Varicam with CAC on and off and could see hardly any difference. It seemed to me, as others as said before, that on very cheap lenses the CAC makes a big difference, but better lenses tend to do it properly (ie optically) and so the electronic correction makes little difference.
Just be worth looking into this in case people are tempted to spend more than they need on a CAC lens if it'll not be much help.
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Old March 9th, 2010, 12:28 PM   #41
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Steve, I would agree with that assessment of ALAC. I have a Fujinon 22x7.6 on my F800 and I don't see any CA with or without it on. Even looking very closely at a monitor (while shooting something that would usually suffer from CA) and switching ALAC on/off, I can rarely see it doing anything because there's no CA either way. Of course I leave it turned on anyway because I have it, but I don' t feel like that particular function of the camea is doing me any good.

It's a Catch-22 situation. If your lens is good enough and new enough to have ALAC, then it probably doesn't need ALAC in the first place. Just my opinion, from what I have observed with a couple of lenses, so don't take it as gospel.
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Old March 9th, 2010, 01:26 PM   #42
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Steve I agree with Doug it is very hard to see a difference with my lens having ALAC on or off.
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Old March 9th, 2010, 02:45 PM   #43
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Thanks again Paul and to Steve & Doug for your comments, even if your posts were not directly answering my question.

Best wishes
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Old March 9th, 2010, 04:46 PM   #44
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Is the ALAC switch on the lens?

I don't see a place to enable it anywhere in the PMW350 camera menu. The kit lens must not have ALAC, there is no switch for it.
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Old March 10th, 2010, 05:36 AM   #45
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Tom,

From my understanding, the kit lens does have ALAC and it is a software/in camera 'silent' setup. I stand to be corrected. Hence my previous post asking about the ZA lens and ALAC or as Fujinon term it, CAC (Chromatic Aberration Correction).

The ZA lens with CAC has M58H as the last letters/digits.

Again, I understand it to have certain 'inbuilt' parameters that the camera/lens both understand. I guess it might be set up using test chart or selecting lens type in camera.

Paul, could you please chime in and enlighten me/us as I am most interested in how it works with the kit & ZA lens. But if you have the camera as well Tom and cannot find any setting, maybe I am off target.

Tom, page 42 of the manual may hold the answer.

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