Finally... my XHA1 and Redrock M2 rig...
 

Anyone here of any huge problems using GG adapters and HDV? I heard there are some grain issues... anyone got any fixes?

Have a look at some of the pix.
Anyhoo... enjoy... will get some footage up tommorow..

Matt

The worst part is, I got it about 4 hours ago, and I havent even shot anything with it yet... jsut couldn't resist.

Matt, i say u head over tomorrow, we'll shoot some footage, see how well it handles on my merlin, I am actually curious to see how also the footagae looks on my 24 inch dell, & for fun, we'll throw the footage on my projector too!

Hey man... I am busy today, but how about Sunday... maybe this morn I am busy at 2pm today. gimmie a call. My number is on my MSN name,

Wow- what an impressive rig.
Post some vids when you're ready.

I just need to go grab some BNC cables and a BNC to RCA adapter... then I'll shoot some stuff and get it up.

I am absolutley amazed by the lowlight capabilities of this camera. I got exposure with a single 60watt bulb i my room last night, through the M2 and a 1.8 lens without gain... truly impressive, although anything above 6db of gain is approaching unacceptable and the Noise Reduction REALLLLY ghosts...

OKay, first testing note... the motor mount must be all the way at the bottom or else its visibile in the M2... the XHA1 can BARELY zoom in and keep focus... its pretty much the zoom hits the right angle of view, it snaps into focus, and a mm further and you lose everything, so its critical to be zoomed in jsut enogh
will come up with a number soon

It should be right around Z 50... please confirm this when you can. Thanks a bunch! Great pics!

Really? Mine is at 70...


What gives?

I have it hardmounted with the 72mm achromat... I might need to remove some spacing via UV filters... hmmm...

EDIT: I removed a UV filter and got it down to 63... trying to get one more off, but it's stuck pretty tight!

Oh no, if you're saying it's 70, then that's what it is. I don't have an M2. And I didn't realize you could focus that close at 70. Sure appreciate the quick response with the Z number,

Okay, so, It seems at 68 I can get the Ground Glass in Focus, but I am still getting vignietting cause I can't zoom in quite far enough and retain focus...

Any ideas?

EDIT: Sorry chris, didn't read your post...

It seems around 70 is the magic number. However, I am getting some vignietting and I want to get the zoom to about 75 while still being able to focus... would a spacer tube acieve this? I am a little rusty on my Optics Knowledge...

Matt

P.S. Henry Cho, if you read this post, please respond... I think me and you are the A1/M2 pioneers...

Very interested in using the Redrock with my A1 but am very interested in the grain, especially against a light background when panning the camera. I've used two different versions of the LETUS on my XL-2 and really like the adaptor, but am curious if the Redrock is better for HD.

A full uncompressed file posted would probably be hugely popular and much appreciated for those of us still waiting on making a decision. I know beggars can't be choosers, but a few clips inside and outside close ups and wide exterior with camera move would be MUCH appreciated. Thanks for your efforts!

Cant post anything yet to due to hardware needing upgrade (processor!) webspace down and being incredibly busy, but here are some purely subjective things I have noticed using the A1, M2 combo

(Watched on colour-corrected 42" Sony Bravia with SXRD via component cables)


-Colour saturation is diminshed by maybe 5-10% via the adapter. This can be compensated for by boosting the colour gain in camera.

-Resolution seems degraded by about 5% (estimate) but this is also using Canon's 24F which apparently degrades res by nearly %30 (correct me if these #'s are wrong please!). However, Subjectivly, I think the 24F looks just as good as the 60i resolution wise, and for motion characteristic and strobing, it is identical to the DVX 100 and XL2... looks great!

-Grain: In a well lit situation, I didnt notice any extra grain, with gain settings on 0. The glass spins fast enough so that the HD doesn't pick it up. I heard some Vibrating adapters have issues with it, but the M2 seems to work jsut fine.

-Low light: The camera itself is a beauty in low light. Colours don't get muddy, and it exposes well. With the adapter, the lowlight drops by about 2 stops (using a 50mm 1.8 lens), so you need to compensate by adding more light (in a cinematic environment) or boosting the gain. I find that using 6db of gain is a good tradeoff between exposure and grain, or opening up the shutter to 1/24 of a second.

An interesting note, is due to the optics of this lens, I cannot quite zoom in far enoguh to remove 100% of the vignietting while still keeping focus. I don't know if a spacer tube is the answer, maybe someone can tell me. Also, the amount of zoom (69% according to the camera) gives the internal iris an f stop of 2.4, therefore, you lose even more light. I wouldn';t really use any lenses slower than 1.8, and for my next film, I am using only 1.4's

I am happy with the combo so far, but want to eliminate the vignietting (image circle isn't quite big enough) and play with the custom presets to help reduce nosie in the gain settings...

More to come soon, promise

Matt,

I can't find your number, i emailed you mine, gimme a call. My car is having prblems so I am pretty much immobile tomorow so head OVER! We'll shoot, experiement a little with the cam and we can transfer to m2t on my machine, and upload some footage for those on this forum

Cant wait to check out the rig again, altho it does look somewhat strange considering it's no longer the XL2!

Okay, your place sounds good... maybe tommorow afternoon. I'll call you at around 12:30

Do you have the achromat for the M2 Matthew?