Brevis35 Production Tests on XL1, XL2, DVX, HVX, VX2100
 

I'm firing up a thread to include links on various tests with the production version/diffuser of the Brevis35. Tonight, some GS400, and XL1s footage. Tomorrow XL2, later this week, DVX, HVX and VX2100. A very busy week!

By week's end we should have achromat specs nailed down to keep the big lens cams happy...and custom coated achromats manufactured in 2-3 weeks after.

So pick em apart, and let me know what you think. The local film school is turning out to be a great partner in this...

GS400 clip from production Brevis (9MB)

XL1s on production Brevis (11MB)

Quick shot of the Brevis SN#1 on the XL1s

Can you guess what the floated red dot is? I only had an hour, and it was snowing/raining, so the XL1s stuff is done indoors. The cam was set to manual, manual focus on the 16X lens, and aperture set at around F4.0. Everything else was set to defaults. Forgive the blown out window footage. The XL1 footage is deinterlaced by WME9. It would have been nice to play some more, but family time took precedence today. I have to say, compared to the GS400, I find the cam a bit noisy. I had one of my testing (cheap) macros affixed.

Lens is Minolta F1.4 50mm.

Tomorrow night, XL2 stuff.

We're lined up for HVX, DVX, XL2 and VX2100 tests tonight. Any requests?

Dennis,

Yes looks like you have a good opportunity tonight, take a res chart with you.

The XL footage is very nice indeed.

Actually Wayne, I found that XL1s footage a bit noisy...but I'm picky. I don't know the cam at all, and I suspect an experienced shooter could tweak the camera a bit. We have 3 hours, and four cameras...so I'll do my best with the charts. I just found out that the HVX (they have four) does not have P2 cards...so it's DV from them unless I can figure out a direct firewire dump for HD.

Can anyone suggest a quick way to get HD off an HVX without P2 cards? My PC is not set for HD editing at all...so a solution over firewire would be great.

If you have access to a Mac with FCP, you can do it. PC solutions for capture/editing are iffy on a PC at this point.

Thanks Guy. It looks like 24P 16:9 DV from the HVX then ...

Here are a few pics from today:

http://www.cinevate.com/pages/testing/camtests.htm

Great news on the HVX200. It's a direct attachment via an 82 to 58 step down. No vignetting, no macro.

More footy later....

Grabs from all four cams ... http://www.cinevate.com/pages/testing/grabs/

Note the HVX ones are not HD...the cam did not come with P2 cards.

Dennis,
Which grabs are from which cam?

I figured that question would come...I need to edit the combination of 4:3 24P, 4:3 interlaced, and 24P 16:9 into clips and I'll pull the grabs, and post the clips. I should note the test purpose was to establish macro strength, not to test the cameras at their best.

Basically the ones with the noticeable CA came from the XL2. The 16X manual lense had noticeable CA before we strapped the macro, Brevis and 50mm on. I was pretty surprised to see it. The XL2 (trike, branches, toy snake) also had very sharp images in 16:9 progressive...even with the strongest of the macros.

The HVX grabs were the wine glasses on the table, sticky shapes on window, and rack through the same window. The cam was in 16:9 24P..I think. The adapter was not properly attached to the HVX as my 82-72 step down rings are in transit. I'll be shooting more from the HVX on Saturday, with a proper setup. The Brevis on the HVX is a direct attach...no optics/spacers were needed.

DVX are the doorknob (that's a yellow slide, not CA in the background) and the cupboard handles.

VX2100 are the candle holders hanging outside.

Dennis,
Thats interesting that the HVX200 could focus without an achromat/macro. Did you require a large distance between the HVX flange and the GG?

No optics, no spacers.

Just weighed the Brevis production unit: 270 grams (9.2 ounces). My 50mm F1.4 is 250 grams for comparison.

Hd100
 

Dennis,

Are you going to test this with the HD100?

Mike

Mike, not personally, but one of the units is going to an HD100 user. Based on CAD/frame tests, it will work just fine, but will require an achromat. So far the only issue with the different cams has been macro strength, but I'm pretty sure I have a good handle on this now. The HVX lens at 82mm shows zero vignetting and that's without an achromat.

We'll have our custom, coated achromats done (72mm) in a few weeks.

Some grabs from today's work..GS400, 50mm F1.4.

http://www.cinevate.com/pages/testing/grabs/1.jpg
http://www.cinevate.com/pages/testing/grabs/2.jpg
http://www.cinevate.com/pages/testing/grabs/3.jpg

Great pics, but more importantly, where did you get the curved track for the dolly!?!?!

The dolly is my creation, the curved track is just 20 feet of 1" PVC pipe. It's curved using a nylon tie strap hooked to each end...and then tightened to the correct arc. I got some stunning footage, but my GS400 does something really wierd with bright red subjects (in this case the model's red sweater). Like the old XL1 discussion, some red objects end up with vertical red banding all over them. It's depressing. Svideo from the cam to my 51" HDTV looks perfect, but the DV shows vertical red banding all over the red parts.

The XL2 we tested showed none of this. Panasonic did something weird with the GS400 compression algorithms.

Dennis,

Remember you are using a $1500.00 camera (a good one at that), but it will never be a film camera or a $15,000+. You've done a great job with what you have sir, be proud of that.

Thanks Leo, I hear you on the cam issue. It's become painfully obvious that an upgrade is required. I will be spending some "quiet time" with an HVX this Saturday on the Brevis.

Here the clip which folks seem to like, despite the banding:

http://www.savefile.com/files.php?fid=5675492

I used a 50mm F1.4, but stopped down to the F3-F4 range for a bit deeper focus field.

That has to be the sweetest dolly move i have seen!

That is a sweet dolly shot. Great camera, alas they have stopped doing the gs400. Bastards.

Jeeps, thanks guys. I was just goofing around. Just a tip to anyone attempting this shot. When you bend 20ft of PVC pipe into a big arc on a cool day, it has, uh, a bit of whip. Failure to gaff tape the tie down strap hooks to the end of the PVC has some interested consequences :-)

Please don't ask how I know this....no one was hurt.

Is there HVX footage?

I have about 60 seconds of DV from it. I didn't have an 82-72 step down ring...and the 82mm HVX glass is very vulnerable. I will be shooting again with it on Saturday, equipped with the proper rings. Sadly, no P2 cards, so we can't even stream HD to a Mac. I will be getting 16:9 24P DV from it.

There are a few 2.3MP equivalent stills taken through the adapter at www.cinevate.com

Hmmm, i'm interested but I need to see that 1080i footage...you don't know anyone with avid? I thought fcp could capture HVX footage native...but don't quote me as I obviously don't own it.

I believe the issue is that you must have a P2 card in place in order to stream from it. The film school is waiting to purchase them as there have been significant price drops on the cards. Otherwise we'd be fine.

Go to this thread Dennis, you can stream 720/24/30/60p just not the native.

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...ighlight=apple

Awesome link...we just might make this happen....

Beautiful! And trust me Dennis i'm not asking out of idle curiosity.

Well, I've got the HVX, and a powerbook with FCP 3.0.1 which as far as I can tell, doesn't support the hvx. We had streaming working fine on the Mac desktop, so I'll have to go back to the studio and try some streams on that machine. Talk about a day of crash courses on Mac, FCP, and the HVX. My head hurts.

What a beautiful cam! The focus assist (only in HD ) and controls on the camera are a joy to use. I figured out enough to get manual control, and mess with shooting modes, but otherwise, I'd assume the cam is at default settings.

Here is some quick footage from the HVX using plain old SD, 30P. I ended up using a weak macro to get proper framing in 16:9 mode. Our first test was definitely done in 4:3, and in that mode, no macro is required.

http://www.savefile.com/files/8265889

Here are some cropped/zoomed shots that pretty much illustrate why you need to eliminate the video camera, and 35mm lens from the equation when troubleshooting adapter issues. My staple lens (50mm F1.4) has a lot of barrel distortion :-(

Yeah I think it has to be the latest FCP.

HVX clip
 

Ok, after swearing in about 5 languages, here is some 720P streamed from the HVX with the Brevis and a 50mm attached. Compressor kept crashing on the MAC, so after figuring out how to actually shut down a misbehaving app on a MAC (the owner has students do his editing...so no help there), and trying a bunch of exports I ended up with a less than ideal 3.4 mbit/sec H264 quicktime encode that didn't crash FCP. IDVD wouldn't work so I had I stumble through just burning a DVD. As a PC user, I was rather frustrated..

It's 1280x720, and the bitrate I realize is rather low. I dropped the camera off at a college film shoot set, and mentioned that I had streamed HD from the CAM via firewire. Apparently they thought you needed a P2 card too. Jaws dropped, and there was some quiet swearing there too.

Keep in mind that I was in a basement studio, tethered by firewire.

http://www.savefile.com/files/8390647

I'll revisit this with a laptop using FCP5 after I get the current run of adapters out.

The first Brevis shipment departs...
 

I'm thinking about renaming the Brevis..."takes a freakin long time to put together35". Needless to say, the first 10 depart tomorrow morning...Happy Easter folks.

http://www.cinevate.com/images/units.jpg

those cases look really professional dennis.. whered you find those??

They're Pelicans. I use them for all my own stuff too. Not cheap, but I know nothing will be damaged in shipping, and the adapters will have a good home once they get there.

still no test footage with an xl2? I cant find anything and I like this adapter

Giuseppe, we haven't shot with the XL2 for over a year :-) I may have some footage kicking around still from it, but the adapter has changed so much since, it wouldn't be representative to post again. We just introduced a new achromat and imaging element (CF1L) which are designed specifically for larger cams like the HVX, HD100, XL series etc.