New nex-ea50 film: blossom

[Noa Put]

Not very happy... Got myself a Konova k2 for my nex ea50, I know, it's not the most expensive slider so maybe I"m expecting too much. The sled does run very smooth but makes a "tapping" sound when it's loaded with the ea50 and when you slide it fast. I each time secured the slider in such a way that my tripod, or when put on the ground, that is was securely set so it would not distribute any shake into the image. I moved the sled very carefully with just one finger and I have not been able to get one shake free move. There where always some minor vibrations, even with wide angle lenses, you might not notice that much in the video but thats because I slowed down all shots by 50% and selected the good ones only, almost least 50% of my shots didn't make it in the edit.

I was given below link, so might look into that to see if I can fix the problem, have to say that's not what I expect from a new slider, even when it's the cheapest model.

Konova K2 Fixed on Vimeo

At first I was quite annoyed and didn't want to edit it at all but since I spend half a day shooting I thought, why not trow the "best" stuff in so at least I have something to remember that day by. :)

Anyways, the video was shot in an area that is known for it's "blossoms" this time of year, this is about the last week that I was able to get there as the prognoses was the blossoms could be gone as of next week.

I did a route by car which wasn't a good idea as I lost lot's of time driving around and I was not able to get to the more beautiful places which can only be reached on foot. But unfortunately my gear was too heavy to drag along. If it wasn't for the poorly performing konova I would have had at least a minute of extra material but it is what it is.

I used a superflat preset AB_RANGE2 and added a bit of chroma and contrast in edius, I wanted to check how the preset would look in daylight when color corrected.

I mainly used a 24 and 85mm prime from samyang (rokinon), what do you think, does the preset looks like something that might be usable outside? There are a few stocklens shots in there, they do stick out a bit, the primes look a bit more "cinematic" to me.

konova k2 test with a sony nex ea50 on Vimeo

[James Manford]

Thought that looked awesome. Noticed a couple of slight vibrations in the slide, but nothing serious at all.

It was put together well and went with the music.

In regards to the super flat pre-set, can you give a link to how I can replace one of mine in my EA50.

[Jerome Cloninger]

I think it looks beautiful!

Regarding the Konova. I recently got the K2 as well and mine is really smooth. That wedding I did a couple weeks ago, when I was in the hair salon for a bit, then went to use the slider again, I noticed a few bumps that wasn't there before earlier in the morning. Ended up being some stray hairs that got caught in the rails!!! Cleaned the rails off and good as new again. No bumps. No noise either. I'd play with adjusting it more and make damn sure those rails are super clean (maybe even the rollers too...)

[Erik Wittbusch]

Very nice Noa!

These movements are mostly in the macro or at least close-up area. This is most demading for sliders and such. If it would be that easy, why should people want dollies and rails?

I used the slider a few times and I think you get what you pay for. It's a very basic slider for small cameras.
I try to use lenses with IS as they don't have these micro jitters. Of course you loose that shallow depth of field.

By the way I think the music is way to dramatic. I always wait for something huge to happen.

The profile seems to be very nice as I can judge via vimeo. It handles those highlights very well and seems to be very well balanced after color correction. I used the JR45cine2 so far and did a little tweaking with saturation, highlights and shadows in post and like it a lot. I never thought to get such a nice and cinematic picture from this camera. I like it a lot more than the picture from the EOS60D which I used very often before. But I will use the Canon 17-55/2,8 on the EA50 too. It's one of the best run'n gun zooms on a budget. Together with the 2x digital zoom it will be sufficient for most situations and the IS will come in handy, too. After this summer, I'll try to buy 1 or 2 of the samyang cines (maybe 35 + 85 or just 50 if it's out by then).

Thanks for your input/output! Your information really helped me decide for the EA50!

[Noa Put]

The music was something I got from here:

Music : Adventure Soundtrack - YouTube

He offers it for free if you don't use it commercially, most of these songs are quite dramatic but I couldn't find anymore suitable songs so this will have to do :)

I tried to disassemble the konova but one screw refused to come out so I put it back together again, even my cheap homemade slider does better. Just the fact that they seem to have a instruction how to take the thing apart shows that it's a common problem, what a waist of money...

[Noa Put]

So, just send a mail to Konova, see what they have to say about it, as it is now they can have it back. I tried to follow that above instruction again and now was able to remove a very small screw that at first didn't want to come out but that inner washer I need to turn to move the bearing further outwards is locked in tight in my case, even with all the force I had I was not able to get any kind of movement from it.

I also think it's not up to the customer to take a brandnew slider apart, it should work when it arrives.

[Steven Digges]

Noa,

I was just checking out their site. Impressive site, but they obviously sell the cheapest stuff they can find. We all like to save money, but there are some areas I won’t even think about touching the cheap stuff because the “pay less, pay twice” thing will get you almost every time. Two of those areas for us are lenses and anything that requires fine machine work. You can’t manufacture quality glass by cutting corners and you can’t achieve tight tolerances with stamped out junk.

You have a blackbird, as I do now, my decision was partially influenced by you. But I never even consider the cheap junk for that kind of tool. I’m surprised you thought you could improve on your home made rig for $200.00. Ball bearings, tight tolerances, and surfaces that must touch in motion, thrown off by a human hair, that is a big clue. I don’t think you are going to fix it with a screw driver.

Even for my own video services there comes a time when I realize I am trying to negotiate a project with a potential new client and it is not going to work. It is not going to work because that person is after the lowest price possible and that is their top priority. I am not the guy they should be talking to in that case. I will give new clients a break the first time but I have limits. Once I reach exasperation I have a standard line that usually ends the negotiation, but sometimes gets their attention. “Quality costs money, how good do you want this video to be?”

Use the screw driver to build yourself a new slider or open up your wallet, for the second time.

Steve

[Noa Put]

you are right Steven, but I have seen users being very satisfied with the slider. I"m also sure if I could move one bearing closer to the rail it would be much better but the problem is I can't as it's locked tight. I got a response from Konova and they want me to take a photo to show them.

[Steven Digges]

Good luck, I hope they help you. I have learned the hard way, more than once.

Many years ago as a still photog I bought some cheap light stands from a discount place, Amvona. Light stands, all they are is a pole and all they have to do is hold up a light head....right......the plastic locking knobs crumbled in my hands the first time I tried to use them. That was the first "buy cheap, pay twice" for me.

Steve

[Eric Barker]

Do you happen to have After Effects CS6?

I gotta say, the new Warp Stabilizer is CRIMINALLY good. Not only does it do superb stabilization, but it actually figures out what foreground and background elements are and is able to stabilize them independently. Older post stabilization processes will give you stable foregrounds, but shake up your distance elements. It's kind of magical, and I'm not going to begin to understand how exactly it works, but it really does. It has very few controls, most of the time, you just slap it on and let it do it's thing (which takes a few minutes, but once it's in place, you can tweak without re-processing).

Maybe this isn't what you want to hear, it's obviously best to get smooth shots to begin with. But in situations where you can't lug around heavy-duty trollies and have limited equipment, you can make things work in cases they usually couldn't.

[Noa Put]

No ae cs6 here, I can understand that this is a really useful tool to get out any unwanted shake as last resort but I like to get it right from the start, thx for suggesting anyway but I doubt adobe will ever see another cent from me :)