Paul V Doherty
November 20th, 2006, 04:59 PM
Having found it very difficult to obtain photographs of 35mm adaptors and rod systems, I decided to post some photos of my own rig.
Canon XL2 (PAL, early "film grain" model!) with:
LetusXL Enhanced
Cavision 15mm Rods & 16:9 Mattebox with French Flag.
I have the side flaps but omitted them for these photographs.
Cavision lens support (used to support front end of LetusXL)
Manfrotto 190DB Tripod
Manfrotto 128RC Fluid Head
Lenses:
Sigma 20mm f1.8 (shown in photographs)
Nikon 85mm f1.4
Nikon 50mm f1.4
Nikon 28mm f2.8
Tokina 28-80mm f2.8
Sigma 12-24mm
Sigma 16mm f2.8 Fisheye
The actual frame size of the LetusXL is smaller than DX/APS dimensions, therefore you *can* use DX lenses on the Letus, however you must force the apeture open by stuffing a bit of paper into the apeture lever on the lens.
The LetusXL magnification is in the order of 1.7-1.9
The LetusXL Enhanced shoots perfectly in 16:9 mode with no vignetting or cropping. In fact shooting 4:3 (why would anyone thesedays anyway?) substantially crops the image thus reducing the percieved depth of field, defeating the puropose of a DOF adaptor in the first place.
The adaptor requires a *lot* of light. It loses several stops IMHO, as much as 4 stops depending on the SLR lens used.
Shooting stage shows and concerts with 100k+ of available light requires 6 to 12dB of gain on the camera with everything wide open and shutter 1/50 (PAL). Outdoors on a sunny day you can easily shoot at -3dB shutter 1/50 and probably still need to stop the LetusXL's own iris ring down significantly (always a good thing for sharper images).
The images are very filmic, rivalled only by the P&S Technik system IMHO.
Of course it always boils down to the skill and eye of the cinematographer anyway.
I shoot 16:9 and crop to 2.35:1 in post. It all adds to the cinematic effect.
My favourite XL2 settings:
For maximum latitude and flexibility in post:
Gamma: Cine
Colour Matrix: Normal (very important - the Canon "cine colour" is rubbish)
Knee: Low
Black: Stretch
Colour Gain: Zero or "middle" setting
RGB Levels: All at zero or "middle"
Noise Reduction: Low
Coring: Zero or "middle"
Sharpness: Zero or "middle"
Vertical Detail: Normal (this negates the slight resolution loss of the adaptor)
Setup Level: Zero or "middle"
Master Pedestal: Zero or "middle"
Shutter 1/50 (PAL. The camera's default 1/25 is a serious oversight by Canon. Film is normally 1/48.... your camera ought to mimic this.)
For a modern high contrast look (eg. typical rock video look)
Gamma: Cine
Colour Matrix: Normal (very important - the Canon "cine colour" is rubbish)
Knee: High
Black: Press (also known as "crush" on other cameras)
Colour Gain: Somewhere between "middle" and maximum - really saturate those colours! Conversely turn the colour all the way off for a nice in-camera high contrast B&W look.
RGB Levels: All at zero or "middle" setting
Noise Reduction: Low
Coring: Zero or "middle"
Sharpness: Zero or "middle"
Vertical Detail: Normal (this negates the slight resolution loss of the adaptor)
Setup Level: All the way down. Make those blacks as black as possible!
Master Pedestal: All the way down!
Shutter 1/50 (PAL. The camera's default 1/25 is a serious oversight by Canon. Film is normally 1/48.... your camera ought to mimic this.)
Some may say "never shoot B&W in-camera - save it for post!" however, I sometimes find that by shooting in-camera B&W I am forced to percieve the image in a different way and my shooting style changes to suit the true final image. You can't get that sense for the B&W style if you're shooting in colour.
Of course I'm only referring to shooting in the field with no external monitor, just the camera's colour LCD screen. If you have a field monitor, simply turn the colour off!
My all time favourite colour management technique:
White Balance using non-white sources....
eg. For an aged earthy/golden brown look, white balance against a blue card.
This creates an image heavy in reds and greens, in a much more natural way than by post colour correction.
Alternatively, white balance against coloured light sources...
eg. if you white balance against tungsten and then shoot under flourescent lighting your image will have a cool Matrix-esque green colour cast.
All you are really doing is *removing* the white balance reference colour from the final image. You could do it in post, but you've only got 8 bit DV to play around with. Better to do it in camera with 10-14 bit latitude.
The white balance method requires you to commit to your colour scheme before you shoot, so be certain you really want your images to have a fixed colour cast and make sure everyone including your client is happy before a single frame is shot. It is very difficult to colour correct an extreme colour cast in post using 8 bit video.
That's my 2 cents worth!
Happy Shooting,
Pauly
Canon XL2 (PAL, early "film grain" model!) with:
LetusXL Enhanced
Cavision 15mm Rods & 16:9 Mattebox with French Flag.
I have the side flaps but omitted them for these photographs.
Cavision lens support (used to support front end of LetusXL)
Manfrotto 190DB Tripod
Manfrotto 128RC Fluid Head
Lenses:
Sigma 20mm f1.8 (shown in photographs)
Nikon 85mm f1.4
Nikon 50mm f1.4
Nikon 28mm f2.8
Tokina 28-80mm f2.8
Sigma 12-24mm
Sigma 16mm f2.8 Fisheye
The actual frame size of the LetusXL is smaller than DX/APS dimensions, therefore you *can* use DX lenses on the Letus, however you must force the apeture open by stuffing a bit of paper into the apeture lever on the lens.
The LetusXL magnification is in the order of 1.7-1.9
The LetusXL Enhanced shoots perfectly in 16:9 mode with no vignetting or cropping. In fact shooting 4:3 (why would anyone thesedays anyway?) substantially crops the image thus reducing the percieved depth of field, defeating the puropose of a DOF adaptor in the first place.
The adaptor requires a *lot* of light. It loses several stops IMHO, as much as 4 stops depending on the SLR lens used.
Shooting stage shows and concerts with 100k+ of available light requires 6 to 12dB of gain on the camera with everything wide open and shutter 1/50 (PAL). Outdoors on a sunny day you can easily shoot at -3dB shutter 1/50 and probably still need to stop the LetusXL's own iris ring down significantly (always a good thing for sharper images).
The images are very filmic, rivalled only by the P&S Technik system IMHO.
Of course it always boils down to the skill and eye of the cinematographer anyway.
I shoot 16:9 and crop to 2.35:1 in post. It all adds to the cinematic effect.
My favourite XL2 settings:
For maximum latitude and flexibility in post:
Gamma: Cine
Colour Matrix: Normal (very important - the Canon "cine colour" is rubbish)
Knee: Low
Black: Stretch
Colour Gain: Zero or "middle" setting
RGB Levels: All at zero or "middle"
Noise Reduction: Low
Coring: Zero or "middle"
Sharpness: Zero or "middle"
Vertical Detail: Normal (this negates the slight resolution loss of the adaptor)
Setup Level: Zero or "middle"
Master Pedestal: Zero or "middle"
Shutter 1/50 (PAL. The camera's default 1/25 is a serious oversight by Canon. Film is normally 1/48.... your camera ought to mimic this.)
For a modern high contrast look (eg. typical rock video look)
Gamma: Cine
Colour Matrix: Normal (very important - the Canon "cine colour" is rubbish)
Knee: High
Black: Press (also known as "crush" on other cameras)
Colour Gain: Somewhere between "middle" and maximum - really saturate those colours! Conversely turn the colour all the way off for a nice in-camera high contrast B&W look.
RGB Levels: All at zero or "middle" setting
Noise Reduction: Low
Coring: Zero or "middle"
Sharpness: Zero or "middle"
Vertical Detail: Normal (this negates the slight resolution loss of the adaptor)
Setup Level: All the way down. Make those blacks as black as possible!
Master Pedestal: All the way down!
Shutter 1/50 (PAL. The camera's default 1/25 is a serious oversight by Canon. Film is normally 1/48.... your camera ought to mimic this.)
Some may say "never shoot B&W in-camera - save it for post!" however, I sometimes find that by shooting in-camera B&W I am forced to percieve the image in a different way and my shooting style changes to suit the true final image. You can't get that sense for the B&W style if you're shooting in colour.
Of course I'm only referring to shooting in the field with no external monitor, just the camera's colour LCD screen. If you have a field monitor, simply turn the colour off!
My all time favourite colour management technique:
White Balance using non-white sources....
eg. For an aged earthy/golden brown look, white balance against a blue card.
This creates an image heavy in reds and greens, in a much more natural way than by post colour correction.
Alternatively, white balance against coloured light sources...
eg. if you white balance against tungsten and then shoot under flourescent lighting your image will have a cool Matrix-esque green colour cast.
All you are really doing is *removing* the white balance reference colour from the final image. You could do it in post, but you've only got 8 bit DV to play around with. Better to do it in camera with 10-14 bit latitude.
The white balance method requires you to commit to your colour scheme before you shoot, so be certain you really want your images to have a fixed colour cast and make sure everyone including your client is happy before a single frame is shot. It is very difficult to colour correct an extreme colour cast in post using 8 bit video.
That's my 2 cents worth!
Happy Shooting,
Pauly