SPOILER ALERT! Please see the movie first as there are some photos that can spoil the viewing and reveal the end.

No more. My first short movie after a long time and as I can tell the first short movie that was shot on Sony’s new camera NEX-FS700. Everything fell together perfectly. I wanted to test the new car mount rig, my friend Polona got the car over the weekend and Sony wanted me to test its new camera. Why not combine all this things in one story. No slow motions, just a couple of friends, nice car and some romance. I did try the car rig before to check good mounting points on the car, I went to check the locations for our shoot, so when the day arrived we were prepared.

I mainly used the new lens from SLR Magic HiperPrime CINE T0.95 for the romantic scenes as it is perfect for this kind of stuff. Soft backgrounds, creamy bokeh. The lens was also very kind to the skin. I really enjoyed working with it. I put an old lens gear from shoot35 on the lens as the lens has quite small radius and using zip gears from Half Inch Rails wouldn’t be enough for Genus Follow Focus to make contact with the lens. I also used Fader ND on the lens for finer control of the exposure in relation with the build in NDs. SmallHD DP4 EVF helped me with the critical focus on razor thin depth of filed as everything was shot at T0.95. The camera was rigged on Half Inch Rails S2 Run ‘n’ Gun rig and placed on the new Manfrotto 504HD head which performed perfectly.

Tjaša Kokalj was in charge for the make up and I was really pleased with her work. She is very helpful in front of the lens and also behind the camera so I was really glad she joined our caravan.

The first location turned out not to be perfect for our shoot. The wind started blowing really hard and after two hours we need to find a new location if we wanted to shoot anything. This set us back for a few hours and I was a bit afraid that we couldn’t shoot the whole thing in time. Luckily we quickly found the new location an shooting continued. Of course I couldn’t use any footage from the previous location.

The car was waiting for its time to come so that it could show its acting abilities.

As we were short on time I didn’t complicated the shots with dolly moves and so I operated mainly from the tripod. Polona and Anže who are not real actors turned out to be the perfect choice as they acted better as I would expected. They are not a couple and they had to act quite a difficult intimate scene. But who would complain lying on the blanket in the beautiful scenery, cuddling and caressing each other. (: Even the fight scenes didn’t present any problems for them. Men obviously have a natural gift for strangling women and women have it in their blood how to hit a man with a stone. (:

I had to coach the actors on some action shots as I had a vision how would everything look at the end. They didn’t need any instruction with romantic scenes.

We had overcast weather which was not perfect for scenery shots but was perfect for medium and close up shots as the light was diffused. We did fill the shadows a bit on some shots with Photoflex LitePanels.

We continued to our next scene as soon as we finished the first. This was the last scene in the movie when we found out that she actually killed him and now needs a place to bury him. It would be easier if he would be chopped to pieces as he barely fit into the trunk but we managed somehow.

The day was nearing the end and we needed to shoot all our car shots with her. I quickly rigged the camera to the car and we started shooting. Here I used the kit lens as it has a optical stabilizer and it is versatile enough for the quick style shooting I did here as we needed to end before the sunset. I would need another suction cup for better stabilization as the camera did wobble a little and there are more mounting points on the handle of the camera. Maybe next time, now that I know.

Some configurations are sturdier than others and you really need to test them all and try different angles to achieve the best results. High school physics did help a bit here.

For the last shots I needed to shot the car from the ground. Here I used a Glidetrack SD slider as the camera is small and light enough. We were lucky we had walkie talkies as we needed to communicate when and how I needed the car to drive by me.

At the end we finished on time and I think we did a good job. So a big thanks to Polona Kostjukovskij, Anže Likozar, Tjaša Kokalj and Dino Schreilechner. No slow motions were harmed during the production of this movie.

Actors!

Photos: © 2012 Dino Schreilechner and Tjaša Kokalj.

We have also shoot some behind the scenes footage that will be edited as soon as I can.

Until then you can also watch the other two movies that I shot with the FS700: Racing with planes and Fizzy drinks.

UPDATE: I forgot to tell you more about the postproduction of the shots.

I edited and color graded the footage in Final Cut Pro X. The footage graded perfectly as I was using Frank’s picture profile (Black level +2, Gamma Cine2, Black gamma – range middle, level -2, Knee – point 105%, slope 0, Color mode – type Cinema, level 8, Color level +2, Color phase -2, Color depth – R 0, G 0, B 0, C 0, M 0, Y 0, WB shift – all 0, Detail  - level 0). There was some little amount of stabilization dialed in, but not much as I don’t like the appearance of wobble in the shots. Music was composed in the GarageBand on the iPad. I am really starting to like this combo for creating short songs for my videos. I recorded the voice of my lovely girlfriend on Tascam DR-100 with Røde NTG-2 microphone. Audio was also mastered in Final Cut Pro X if you can call it being mastered there as there is a big gap to be filled there in the software.

If you want to see how this idea about a girl and her car come to be you can check the photo shoot I did with Polona a few months ago with the same car.

I had a few ARRIsun HMI lights in my trunk from previous shoot that were paid until morning. I didn’t want them go to waste. It was 1 a.m. of the last day with the Sony NEX-FS700 as I only had the camera until morning. So I said to myself why not try to shoot some more slow motions. This time, the all known super slow motion shots of pouring drinks. I quickly set up one ARRIsun 18, an 18kW 1.8kW flicker free HMI, in my dining room with some black background, put Sony’s 50mm f/1.8 OSS lens on the camera to test it too and start shooting. Everything was shot at 200fps and you can see some flicker on some of the water drops shots. Don’t ask me why. Later I kind of said to myself that it would be easier to shoot everything with somewhat closed aperture, not fully open at f/1.8, as it would still leave me enough depth of field and I had enough light, but what was done was done. I kind of fell in love in the HMIs and now I’m already looking where to get some cheap ones.

Røde NTG-2, Tascam DR-100 and my beautiful girlfriend, who kept the baby silent, helped me record the foley.

As it was late and I had a really tough weekend behind me I had quickly finished, but I think I got enough footage for another movie. Some will say it is still too long again, but I kept it below 2 minutes this time. (: Enjoy!

All photos were taken with an iPhone.

Here it is. In all it’s super slow motion glory. This movie got recorded a few hours after I got a pre production Sony NEX-FS700 camera. UPS should bring the camera until 12 o’clock so I thought I had some time to familiarize myself with the camera as I was scheduled to meet with the rider at 3p.m. But the camera was late. I had only one hour to go through some settings to prepare for the shoot. I checked the slow motion settings. Decided that shots over 200 fps (I shot in 50Hz mode) had visible artifacts and as I wanted full 1080p signal decided that I would not used upscaled resolution frame rates at all. I also checked picture profiles. I had a special one dialed in the camera from Frank Glencairn and that is the one I used.

For the most part handling the NEX-FS700 is the same as the FS100. I got quite used to that camera – if it had some quirks I didn’t notice them. You feel more secure with the new camera than the slightly plasticky FS100 – less afraid that something might happen to it as it is built more ruggedly. The new handle is well built and a great addition – now you can actually hold the camera properly with the handle and do some low angle shots. The camera also looks much better sealed so I wasn’t too afraid something would go wrong in all the dust that was floating around. All in all I like the ruggedness of the camera and it survived all my intensive stress tests over the weekend.

It was shot completely in 200fps, except a few shots (that is why it’s a bit long, but I wanted to show the footage so you’ll probably excuse me). Controlling the Super Slow Motion mode is a breeze. You have a button on the body which selects between regular frame rate, S&Q (slow and quick) from 1 to 50fps (or 60fps depends on the settings) - in same increments as FS100 (updated) and Super Slow Motion. I only shot at full 1080P resolution so I didn’t test beyond 240fps. Reduced resolution didn’t interest me. You can record 8 seconds at 240fps and 9.5 second at 200fps (at 50Hz setting) and you end up with 1 minute and 15 seconds of super slow motion footage. You can set the trigger to be at the start, middle or at the end of action. I choose end trigger as you can wait for action to happen. You don’t need to expect it. When triggered the camera starts to write from the buffer to the SD card and plays fact the footage at slow motion. This takes around 30 seconds (I never timed it so I don’t know exactly) during which time you cannot record more footage. You can check what you filmed though. I normally don’t like watching the footage in the middle of shoots as it wastes time, but it was nice to show the talent to see what they are doing and looking yourself in 8x slow motion is very interesting. You can of course also cancel the save operation if you feel that better action will happen and start again. If you cancel the operation the file ends where you pressed cancel and it doesn’t delete the whole file. The camera doesn’t record the sound in slow motion modes so I additionally recorded some footage at normal speeds.

I shot it with Nikon lenses. 80-200mm was supported with Zacuto lens support. I used shoot35 follow focus and SmallHD DP4 to help myself with focusing. The camera was rigged on Half Inch Rails S2 Run ‘n’ Gun rig on Manfrotto 540HD head.

Movie was edited and lightly color graded in Final Cut Studio X. I imported the footage and converted it to ProRes for easier workflow as my Mac is becoming a bit slow. Music was performed on GarageBand for iPad.

A big thanks to Klemen Jerala, Tjaša Kokalj, Dino Schreilechner and Blaž Novak for all the help.

Some of the shots were used in the official Sony NEX-FS700 film.

Photos: ©2012 Dino Schreilechner

I have a few more movies to show you so come back at a later time to see more. You can even subscribe to this blog via email on the right.

First is about a girl and her car. This shot was recorded on SLR Magic HyperPrime CINE 50mm T0.95 lens. The creamy bokeh perfect for this scene as the sequence is about her memories. I helped myself with nailing the focus by using Genus follow focus and SmallHD DP4 with its great new peaking function.

Two shots from the car were made using a car rig a described in previous post. For this I used Sony’s kit lens 18-200 as it has a stabilizer. It is very important how you place the suction cups on the car as a small change in placement can make or break the shot. The first shot also has a small CFL light (powered by converter) on the co-drivers seat to lighten the shadows a bit.

For the front car shots I lie down in the trunk of another car with camera on a Hi Hat with Manfrotto 504HD head and some dense foam. I also used the kit lens. There were some problems with the car head lights as they are LED lights and they are prone to flickering.

Some obligatory slider shots. An old Glidetrack with Manfrotto ball head and Manfrotto 577 Quick Release plate.

This shot was made from a hill with an old Sigma 70-300mm F4-5.6 APO DG Macro lens. It was the only 300mm lens I had at my disposal and it turned out o.k. for this shot.

The second movie will be about a motocross rider. Filmed with Nikon 80-200mm and 17-55mm lens. Everything was recorded in super slow motion at 200fps (50Hz). It will be hard to make a short movie out of the footage as every clip is a minute long. (:

The last few clips were made in my kitchen under ArriSun 18 HMI light. I had the light from another shoot in my trunk, paid for them till the morning and I thought: “Why leave them useless in my car?” Let’s use them. Black cloth for the background and some fizzy drinks. I shoot it on Sony’s 50mm f/1.8 OSS lens. Great little lens. I like more and more every day.

This are all frame grabs from the video on Vimeo and can as such present some compression artifacts.

UPDATE: Frank Glencairn was using the pre-production FS700 before me so he left me a special picture profile in the settings. He said it is something between G-Log and K-tone. I quickly tested all the profiles that were pre set on the camera and found this one the most pleasing for me. I didn’t have time to test some of my settings. So here it is. First custom picture profile from Frank Glencairn.

Black level +2
Gamma Cine2
Black gamma – range middle, level -2
Knee – point 105%, slope 0
Color mode – type Cinema, level 8
Color level +2
Color phase -2
Color depth – R 0, G 0, B 0, C 0, M 0, Y 0
WB shift – all 0
Detail  - level 0

You can see the shots again in motion here.

FS700 launch film contains footage from Gavin Elder, James Tonkin, Den Lennie, James Miller, Frank Glencairn and myself.

Description of my footage used in this clip will follow later in the day.

And of course two more photos from the shoot.

Photos: ©2012 Dino Schreilechner

P.s.: Sony kindly asked us to wait with the release of our own extended movies  till after Easter, so coming Tuesday I will post a first movie.

I shot two short movies and a few interesting clips during the short period of time I had the camera and will have them up on my blog later this week, because I have to wait for the official Sony video (which I am also a part of) to come out first.

The new camera is FS100′s bigger brother. Its design and feel is similar, with some major improvements. Most noticeable are build in ND filters which add to the size of the body but help with the ease of use. No more fumbling with the screw on variable NDs. The camera is also more solidly build and has a rugged handle. It has a HD-SDI for proper monitoring and off board recording. The most important feature of the camera is its ability to shoot at high speeds at up to 240 fps in 1080p resolution. This camera is a true world camera as it is 50Hz/60Hz switchable. Maximum speed when shooting at 50Hz is 200 fps, and 240fps at 60Hz. When triggered the camera records around 10 seconds of footage at desired format (24fps, 25fps,…). The camera can also do higher speeds at reduced resolution, so I didn’t bother to check this option. 10 seconds of footage at 200fps translates to stunning 75 second of world coming to a still.

Of course I wanted to shoot slow motions as much as I could so I decided to record fast moving motocross rider on the first day. The off road terrain near Ljubljana’s airport was tough. There was no rain for quite some time and the track was hard and dry. The air was filled with dust and as soon as I saw that it was settling on the camera I got a bit scared. I didn’t want to ruin the camera in the first few hours. But the camera performed flawlessly and the hard environment didn’t prevent me from capturing great images. I used Nikon lenses and they turned out splendid.

The next shoot started nicely for the camera. Peaceful rural scenery on Kras. Pine trees, sun and breeze in the air. I had a couple of friends helping me with the acting and we shoot a romantic drama with a twist. I used SLR Magic HyperPrime CINE T0.95 for the romantic parts of the movie. The lens turned out to be a perfect fit for the camera. Images were stunning. I also used Half Inch Rails rig for attaching accessories like SmallHD DP4 monitor and Genus follow focus. This combination really helped me nailing the focus.

But of course I couldn’t help my self to stress test the camera even more. I attached it to the car using a car rig made out of various Manfrotto and Avenger parts. This time the model was beautiful Range Rover Evoque, driven by my friend Polona. For this I used a kit lens 18-200 as it is light and it has an optical stabilizer. The shots turned out great even though the streets can be really bumpy in these parts of the world. 

All in all I’m really satisfied with the camera and I’m glad Sony decided to let me play with it.

You can find more information on the official page:

http://www.sony.co.uk/biz/product/nxcamcorders/nex-fs700e/overview

All photos ©2012 Dino Schreilechner.

Mobile setup

Lens performed beautifully. Fast aperture allowed me to record the footage with no gain at available street light. Focus was smooth, easy and using a follow focus really helped with nailing the focus even though it was hard at f/0.92. We were a crew of two, Tjaša and myself, very mobile and low profile. We did it fast and easy. More info about the lens in my previous post. You can preorder the lens here if you are as excited about the lens as I am.

Look deep into my eyes. You are sleepy.

I think this situation is where this lens really excels. Sharp object with creamy backgrounds and beautifully rounded highlights. It really makes you shoot all the time at night.

Edited and graded in Final Cut Pro X, music was done in GarageBand on iPad.

Enough words. Let the video speaks for itself.

Light just pours through this lens.

I’ve been using it now on all NEX systems that I could get my hands on (NEX-5N, NEX-7, FS100) with the help of Metabones Leica M mount to Sony E-mount adapter. I tested this adapter few weeks back with a few Leica lenses shooting swans on the river Drava.Leica lenses preformed perfectly on the adapter and I thought that there would be no problems with the HyperPrime lens. But this is one heavy lens. 968g compared to 500g of the heaviest on the test, APO-Summicron-M 90 mm f/2 ASPH. Enough to make adapter behave less sturdy than on lighter lenses. There is some wiggle room at the locking pin and the leaf springs that hold the lens in place are not so stiff as I would like to. Of course I’m just exaggerating so that you can picture the flaws yourself. Real world use of the adapter for the lens is good enough and not bothersome at all. But I wonder if this would also be the case on other adapters, Leica cameras or SpaceCam Leica M mount for Red Epic and Scarlet. I can guess that original mounts are better than adapters because adapter, at least the one that I have, is probably a bit thinner than it should be so that it definitely works with every lens at infinity but that can cause the lens focus beyond infinity which brings a new set of problems.

Heavy weight champion

But enough about adapters and let us continue with the lens. It has a built in sun hood and a screw on metal lens cap. Unscrewing the cap every time you want to use it can be bothersome, especially if you are also using an ND or any other filter on the lens cause it can happen that you don’t only unscrew the cap but the filter too.The lens can present some purple fringing wide open (I don’t know how else would you shoot with this fast lens than wide open) but it depends on the camera and capture mode (photo or video).
I have tested it on Sony NEX-5N, NEX-7 and on NEX-FS100. At first I got a little scared when I saw the fringing on the 5N but then I found out that it is only pronounced on the back LCD when previewing. It is not so noticeable when you look at the photos or videos on a computer. NEX-7 and FS100 also have less fringing. I also heard from other testers that there can be even more fringing with the Leica Noctilux-M 50 mm f/0.95 ASPH. but I haven’t tested it yet. Maybe later this month.
And now to the last rant before I start to praise this lens. There is one word in the lens name that bothers me. CINE. I don’t think this name quite fits this lens. I would expect a few things for the lens to be named that. Gears on the focus and aperture ring, focus radius larger than 90° and some kind of option for lens support. O.k. You can solve that last one, but the first two are a must.On the positive side, aperture is declicked and both focus and aperture rings have firm rotation and the stay where you left them.
As I said before this is one fast lens and its bokeh is very creamy thanks to 12 aperture blades. Object in focus really stands out and you get this 3D effect that is often mentioned with Leica lenses. You may think that I wrote about many more flaws than praises. But in the end I really like the lens and it has become my go to lens. I just don’t take it of the camera. My little NEX-5N looks like a lens cap on it but it stays on all the time.You can see from the photos below the beauty of its image rendering. They were all taken with the 5N. Only exposure, saturation and white balance were adjusted where needed but no sharpening, vignetting or cropping. Click for better resolution.

Stary night

First think I wanted to do is shoot stars. It is perfect for this. If you wanted you could even do it handheld. It would be better to have a wider lens for this kind of work, as I did some of my best night time lapse work with Nikon 24mm f/1.4, but having aperture wider for more than one stop sure helps a lot too.

Grass in wind

Sometimes it is just too difficult to know what you have in focus and to nail it like this grass in wind. Depth of field is really narrow. At a distance 70 cm (27,6 in) the depth of filed is 0.73 cm (0.29 in) at aperture f/1.

Sign

Sign in sign

Shooting at day requires a ND filter. If you would like to use the built in hood than you need to have a set of 62 mm filters. I bought an ND4 which is enough for photography. When shooting video I will use Fader ND with step up rings.

Red room

Thoughtful Dino

Of course this lens is perfect for low light portraits. The focal length, wide aperture. Faces just stand out from the background. Bokeh is creamy, out of focus highlights are rounded with faded edges.

Robot Stars

Magnification factor of this lens is only 1:14 as it only focuses to 70 cm, but this is normal for fast lenses. You can still get some nice still life photos if you get the focus tack sharp as it is very difficult as mentioned above. You can also see some purple fringing in the foreground highlights.

Loving couple

CINE lens is also great on set locations. This is a shot from recent commercial. I was a director of photography and this was just a quick shot behind the camera. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to use the lens for the shoot as the rental Sony F3 didnt have an M mount but I sure would like to have a lens like this on the set.

More to come. I also did a short clip Where is my bike? with Tjaša Kokalj, the prettiest European on Miss Universe 2007, so the sooner I finish writing here the faster I will upload the clip. Two frame grabs below with color grade applied (click for full resolution).

Shiny lips

Gazing look

Yesterday was another great astronomy night. Crescent Moon paired with Venus and Jupiter on evening sky. They were very close together. This time I was doing time-lapse with two cameras. Old and trusty Nikon D200 and new Sony NEX-5N. I was using Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 AF-D, Nikon 50mm f/1.4 D and Nikon 35mm f-1.8 G lenses. Nikon has interval timer shooting build in and I used Gentled IR trigger for NEX-5N. It’s a great little device responsible for me being one of most creative NEX-FS100 owners across Europe as stated by Sony. Everything was shot in RAW color corrected in Aperture and then exported cropped to 1920 x 1080. The images were then converted to movies in Quick Time 7.

Edit and sound was done in Final Cut Pro X.

Crescent Moon

Moon and Jupiter

SkySafari + (iPad app)

Leica M9 w/ Leica Summilux-M 35 mm f/1.4 ASPH.

I wanted to see if the lens adapter is sturdy enough. I bought some cheap adapters of Amazon for Canon and Nikon and their quality varies. Some lenses can be somewhat loosely mounted. I said that I need to go one step better and test some higher range adapter and Metabones brand presented it self to be an interesting option. I ordered one of eBay and got it quickly.

Shipment from Hong Kong

As expected adapter preformed flawlessly. I guess the form and design of Leica M mount has something to do with it to. It is still bayonet type as Nikon and Canon are and it’s no breech lock type as PL mount is but it still looks sturdier than other bayonet types to me. And Leica lenses fit perfectly on it. Flange distance of Leica lenses is only about 10 mm longer than on NEX lenses so that means that adapter is only that much wide. In comparison Nikon mount is almost 30 mm deep so using it on small cameras as Sony NEX-5N can be bulky. Small Leica M adapter and lenses are perfect match for NEX-5N.

Freezing Dino

Sad Hugo

Both photos were made with Sony NEX-5N and Leica Summilux-M 35 mm f/1.4 ASPH. lens. Maybe the evening light was just perfect but they both look great to me. Dog has tack sharp whiskers and out of focus parts are creamy. Out of focus highlights behind Dino are in perfect circle. Of course I also wanted to see how the lenses perform when recording moving pictures. I put them on Sony NEX-FS100 and point the camera at some swans and other local birds swimming in the cold river Drava.
Weather was perfect. Low sun coming from behind the subject. Quite difficult to focus in glaring sun reflecting from the water. But thanks to SmallHD DP4 new focus assist function shots were most of the time in focus. I shot everything handheld. I helped myself using Half Inch Rails RnG S2 rig, from Sam Morgan Moore.

Run and Gun Half Inch Rails S2 rig w/ SmallHD DP4 monitor

Even the 90 mm lens is small.

From the top the camera looks really big.

It was difficult to focus with the lenses being so small, so using them on bigger camera can be challenging. I didn’t have any ND filters that small so I had to stop the lens down a bit. I did notice one quirk of the camera thought as mentioned before by my college Frank Glencairn, Green ghost effects.

Frame grabs from the footage - green ghosting on the woman

When there was strong light shining into the camera there were lots of green ghosting seen in the footage. Frank was using different lenses with Heliopan ND filter and it seems that the filter is amplifying the ghosting, but I was using the lenses without the ND filters. So it has got to be some weird coating on the filters in front of the sensor (IR or OLPF). At first I thought I was seeing some burn in in the SmallHD DP4 monitor as the light was quite bright, but then I remembered Frank mentioning it on Twitter the other day. I have to ask some friends at Sony if they know about the issue and what could be the cause for it.
I used Frank’s G-log B picture profile for better dynamic range so the footage is coping quite good with extreme contrast. I was using the new 1.1 version of the profile.

Me being careful not to fall into water (©2012 Boštjan Lah)

Shooting the birds (©2012 Boštjan Lah)

Focus assist on DP4 made things easier (©2012 Boštjan Lah)

I shot everything in 50 fps slow motion. I recorded some sound with the enclosed microphone so that I could use some location sounds. Having the setup so small I could record the people feeding and photographing the birds and they didn’t mind or they didn’t want to get away from the camera as they just took me for another tourist shooting the scenery.

The video was edited in Final Cut Pro X. I color graded it using Magic Bullet Mojo. Additional sounds were produced on iPad using an app Animoog.

New major update

I like that they are continue with the development of the app. I don’t have any multicam project in the works to test it’s new abilities. What was most interesting for me is ability to convert Final Cut Pro 7 projects to Final Cut Pro X with new application 7toX for Final Cut Pro. I won’t go into strangeness that a third party developer made this possible and lack of interest from Apple to implement this ability on their own. I guess they have other priorities.
I immediately downloaded the app from the AppStore. It promises translation of the project in three easy steps. It wasn’t so easy for me. That is because I thought that the app would behave differently. I had some projects at work (reportage from the Gorenjka chocolate factory) where we only have Final Cut Pro 7. I wanted to move the XML file and use a footage that I captured myself at home with Final Cut Pro X and hoping it would reconnect the files automatically. But the problem arrived at the moment of the translation. If the media file was not present at the same location as in older project it translated the clip to Generator file and as that impossible to reconnect. Help pages said that you need to have all the files online throughoutthe process. I thought that you only need them where you export the XML file, but you actually need them where you translate the XML file to FCPXML file. As soon as I found out what could be the problem (I tried lots of different exports of XML file, capturing the files locally, renaming them, renaming the path in the XML file and other stuff) I waited for the next day, moved the footage with Media Manager to an external disk drive and as I tried the same thing today everything worked the same as promised. Three easy steps.

Old timeline

New timeline

Project is now in the Final Cut Pro X timeline. It needs some polishing with the organisation of the files on the timeline as their was some audio files that were not linked to the video and there was some messy stuff going on. But everything was quickly solved with Revealing the clip in the Event Browser and than replacing it with the same one plus the audio. Of course I need to colour grade the footage again. But that is all.

Search...

… and replace

I would just like to add that I use a Frank Glencairn’s G-log picture profile for a Sony FS100 as you can see from the lower two frame grabs. The first is without the picture profile and you can see that there is a lot of blown highlights coming from the outside but there is hardly any information in the mixing machine where the chocolate is mixed. After I set the camera to the G-log there is much less blown highlights but there is still the same amount of detail in the blacks. I would consider this shoot saved by the G-log. Thanks, Frank. I will try to write more about the Picture Profile with some tests at some later time, but don’t hold me to it.

No picture profile

Frank Glencairn's G-log picture profile

Here is the video (Final Cut Pro 7 version):

Update: I am late to this, but after I closed the Final Cut Pro X I could never again opened it without crashing the app. It is all due to some error in the imported project, because when I take it from the Final Cut Projects folder the app runs smoothly as before. Only if the project is there the app crashes as soon as I open it. I hope that Apple or Assisted Editing fix the bug as soon as possible. But I guess the project is lost for me and I would have to make all the changes again.

This combination of a beautiful girl and a car proved to be a deadly combination later on as we shot a short movie No more for Sony’s presentation of its new camera NEX-FS700 with them in the leading role.

They would come to Slovenia to shoot an interview and then record some b-roll of me sharing a tip/trick or some insights into using the FS100. Of course I was flabbergasted (I never thought I would ever use this word). They wanted to come to Slovenia to shoot an interview with me and put it on BluRay together with Phillip Bloom, Sam Morgan Moore (I have his Half Inch Rails S2 Run ‘n’ Gun rig) and Den Lennie (from F-Stop Academy). I didn’t know the rest of them, but have later found out that I once saw a great movie from James Miller about adjusting a 8mm projector to digitalize an analog film (The Projector – 8 mm direct to 5D MkII) and that I was using Frank Glencairn’s picture profiles for FS100.

I quickly arranged for a day off at work. I told them what I need it for, but they thought I was joking.

I booked a hotel for Den and James with a beautiful view over Ljubljana so that they could also shoot some time lapses from the room.

And so it came the day they arrived from Germany where they were interviewing Frank Glencairn. We went to dinner and on a quick tour around my home town Ljubljana as we discussed the next day shoot.

I was so nervous the next morning as I never was before. They came to my apartment with heaps of equipment. Two FS100s with lenses (they did the interview with Canon 24mm f1.4 and SLR Magic HyperPrime 50mm T0.95), a slider, tripods, a set of Dedo lights, steadycam and more. My living room quickly changed to a full blown studio. When Den started to interview me my stage fright quickly disappeared and I think that the interview turned out quite o.k.

Then we needed to film a tips and trick section. As my speciality on the BluRay were to be car rigs we went to some beautiful location near Ljubljana to record me rigging the camera to a car. This took place in the vicinity of a lake Rakitna. There they used the steadycam for some of the shots. I really wasn’t nervous at this point. I was in my element and was enjoying it. At the time I hadn’t got a proper car rig as I have now, so many mounting points on the camera really helped with stabilization of the camera. The shots turned out great. I would just like to add that using a optical stabilizer on the lens sure helps a lot (also keeping the weight of the whole rig with a camera down) but sometimes you can see strange moves of the image when the road is not straight and there are a lot of turns. Stabilization tries to correct the beginning of the turn but than realises that this is not possible and than ends the stabilization so you can see some strange sideways movement.

My part was finished and all they need to shot is some B-roll footage of the city where I live. They liked the scenery so much that they used most of it for the trailer. I was their guide through the city and James let me use his SLR Magic 35mm f/1.7 and HyperPrime 50mm T0.95 lens (which I also used to shoot the photos below). I fell in love in both lenses and have since bought both of them. Meeting and hanging out with the guys was great. Especially being part of what they do on the internet. Den also shot a part for his F-Stop academy lectures in my living room.
As it turned out Sony was very pleased with my part as they offered me to test their new camera NEX-FS700 a few months later and they send a pre production model to me in Slovenia to shot some footage for the promotion of the camera. You can see the finished trailer at the end of this post.

Photos: © 2011 Peter Prevec, Dino Schreilechner

The first thing I bought was Manfrotto 561BHDV monopod. With it I could have a smallest stable news gathering kit possible. If serious sound wasn’t needed that is the smallest stable kit to carry around with me all the time. Monopod isn’t the smallest one but it has a decent head (701HDV). I also always use Fader ND on the lens so that I can leave the aperture wide open and to keep the shutter in the 180º rule (1/50s for 25fps and 1/100s for high speed 50fps).

Smallest stable video recording kit here with Nikon lens and Fader ND.

Next thing I bought was a audio recorder Tascam DR-100 to use it as a dual-system audio because NEX-5N has no audio inputs so you need something more serious to capture good quality sound. When using with FS100 this recorder is unnecessary, because the camera already has XLR inputs, but it would also be very handy combined with an accessory described later down the post.

Tascam DR-100

Next thing was the rig itself. After many decision making evenings I decided to choose a Half Inch Rails rig from British below cameraman Sam Morgan Moore. I bought a Rig RnG S2 15mm that can be adjusted to my needs. It offers great flexibility and with addition of other parts creates countless possibilities that suits every mans needs.

Here is the Sony NEX-5N camera with Nikon glass, SGPro follow focus, and Half Inch Rails Run 'n' Gun S2 rig in my favorite small setup.

Here is the rig in shoulder mount setup waiting for monitor and camera. You can also see double-system audio w/ Røde NTG-2 microphone.

Next I needed a HDMI monitor. I want it to be the right size. Small enough to carry it around on difficult locations and big enough so that I can focus easily with it. SmallHD DP4 EVF fell into this category. Small enough to be used as a EVF and big enough to be used as a monitor. Perfect for handheld or shoulder mounted and of course useful even in studio situations. I can’t set enough great stuff about them. Their support is fast and helpful. They really want to satisfy their costumers and they respond to our needs.

Boxes full of SmallHD.

Here is me using the Sony FS100 w/ SmallHD DP4 on difficult location in the canyon of river Soča filming for Red Bull.

Fully rigged FS100 w/ HIR S2 rig and SmallHD DP4 EVF filming a broadcast commercial for Telemach.

Half inch rails Shoulder Pads. They make for a cofortable shoulder mount while being super compact and low profile.

Another photo of a fully rigged FS100 ready to be picked up for some shoulder action. The boy is my intern, learning to be the best filmmaker ever. (:

The same setup minus the tripod, shoulder mounted. Nice looking girl in the car is the boys mum checking on how I treat my interns.

Last thing I bought was something I always wanted to have since I saw a Wim Wenders movie Lisbon Story about a sound engineer Phillip Winter trying to help his director friend recording sound for his silent movie about Lisbon. The movie also has great soundtrack by Madredeus.

Big package from CVP.

My girl was very happy with the contents of the box as was I.

My very own Røde boom pole, Røde Blimp windshield and a Dead Wombat. It's a great companion with the Tascam DR-100 for recording location sound.

Beautiful Leica M9

There was also rumours of Nikon’s new mirrorless camera, but when the time progressed there was more and more evidence that it will have smaller sensor size and inferior video capabilities.

In august Sony presented it’s small mirrorless camera Sony NEX-5N. I knew the NEX system from before as I was using a FS100 video camera for a few months (Sony NEX-FS100 first impressions, FS100 best accessory, FS100 after three months of use).

Twins. Like Schwarzenegger and DeVito.

I specially liked the option for using various amounts of different lenses with help of adapters and 1080p 50fps slow motion. After hearing lots of positive reviews on twitter and some blogs (especially eoshd.com) I decided that I will buy one. I ordered it on Amazon (DE, UK) with 16mm f/2.8 lens and a spare battery. I wanted to have at least one AF lens that I could also use for photographing my one year old. Size of the package is also perfect for that as you can have it on you all the time.

So I preordered the camera and waited and in less than a week they send it to me.

Sony NEX-5N w/ 16mm f/2.8 lens

New camera

You can see some candid shots I did on a first photo walk with the camera the day I go it.

Catch the pigeon

Silly guy

Colored gangsters

Hurry! Move!

I hope we'll have enough tomatoes

Leek logs

Rising slider™ shot

Cokin gradient filters for the Top Gear look

Midget cam

First project was a car show Makine, presenting the new Volkswagen Jetta 1.2 TSI. Also used Canon 5D MkII.

Camera was also used for screen capturing Skype call with Moscow correspondent Andrej Stopar.

Doing some low light tests with Nikon glass.

As soon as I got the Nikon lens adapter I did some tests which I still have to put together and present is some future post.

Spying on my neighbors house which happen to be a residence of Macedonian embassy.

I was actually doing some comparison tests between Nikon and Canon glass and also between 5D and FS100 resolution. This will also be mentioned in details in some future post.

Slow motion recording of underwater hockey.

Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G is a perfect interview lens for low light shallow depth of field situations.

You can get the Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G lens for very cheap on Amazon and is perfect for interviews and other low light situations.

Special equipment cart with our own valet.

This time we used Canon adapter.

Canon lens adapter is somewhat stupid cause it doesn’t have an option to change aperture but for this price it is perfect. And the lens being wide open was never any serious problem. [wink] And if you need to bring the light levels down you just use a Fader ND filter.

Erazem Lorbek acting his lines.

Žile acting as selector placing a call to two Slovenian team players in a Telemach ad.

Erazem Lorbek, photographer Samo Vidic, Goran Dragić and photo assistant

Edo Murić in the middle of beautiful nature

Wide angle of the location for Spar commercials

Goran Jagodnik thinking about his lines

Uroš Slokar against the crew

Commercials for Spar were recorded in a quickly manner with reflectors only in Kranjska Gora. Kit lens was used on FS100.

Sony NEX-FS100 best accessories, Nikon and Canon lens adapters.

These two came from the Amazon store for 40€ each (around $60).

Nikon G AF-S lens to Sony E-Mount NEX-3 NEX-5 Adapter Ring

Canon EOS EF Lens to Sony E mount NEX-5 NEX-3 Adapter Ring

As you can see they are not the same on the Amazon page as I got them by mail and they are not the expensive sort ones but they get the job done. Nikon one is slightly better as you can manually set the aperture. Canon lenses have electronic iris control and tab is why adapters which can also control the aperture cost a fraction more.

Using Sony NEX-FS100 with Nikon glass. Here you can see it with big Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 AF-D ED lens with Fader ND filter.

Slightly more colorful version with Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM glass.

Next time I will write about the comparison I made between Nikon and Canon glass and between Sony NEX-FS100 and Canon EOS 5D MarkII cameras using the same Canon glass.

Clouds prevented the sun to burn everything and let me breathe easier.

Seagulls were playing over the ferry as we traveled to the island Šolta. They were so close that I didn't have to use telephoto lens but just plain 50 mm one.

Sand lizards (Lacerta agilis) mating. They didn't mind me watching.

Cardinal (Argynnis pandora)

The Cardinal was very trustworthy.

I have never seen Carpobrotus (commonly known as Pigface or Ice plants) bloom. It is a ground-creeping plant, with succulent leaves which are mainly dried by the time I used to see them in the summer.

This time they were blooming and I seriously played with the idea to take some of them home with me.

This one kind of look like a little devil.

More Sand lizards (Lacerta agilis). Color green means it is the mating season.

Poppy (Papaver) is another plant I never saw on the islands before.

Aloe vera blooming

Even trees like this Pine tree were different.

Some of the plants were unknown to me but they were beautiful all the same.

The bees were doing their job pollinating the plants before they stop blooming.

I have seen Stick insects (Phasmatodea) in captivity but never before in the wild.

Even the lemons were not the same. This one is called Buddha's hand, Citrus medica.

Date palms (Phoenix dactylifera) were full of dates which were unfortunately not edible.

When I said full of dates I meant full of dates.

(Mytilus galloprovincialis) Mediterranean mussel

Opuntia and its pollinating friend

Its a big black bee with blue wings, latin name unknown.

Beautiful but toxic Nerium oleander

(Sicyonia carinata) Mediterranean rock shrimp almost bite my finger off.

Even ordinarily snails came out while raining.

So beautiful it doesn't need a name.

Lavender (Lavandula) attracted many bumble bees.

Large wasp with four yellow dots and orange head. It could be Scoliid wasp but who am I to tell them apart.

They said it was not poisonous. I felt better believed them.

Caring for the young ones.

Another Opuntia this time in the sunset light.

One of many terrific sunsets.

Orange, how I want you orange.

Last night presented another terrific sight. Summer thunder storm. This phenomenon is actually more frequent later in the summer.

It is true that the water wasn’t warm enough for prolonged swimming in the sea but going to the seaside before the season definitely has its advantages.

I am sorry for all the mistakes that I made naming flora and fauna. If you know the correct names please let me know so that I can correct my errors.

Strange form factor and several mounting points.

Its form factor is strange. I guess it wants to be small and easy to work with, but I don’t know if it succeeds in doing that. It is definitely configurable. Handlebar, microphone, handgrip and viewfinder can all be removed. So it definitely is small. But as such totally uncomfortable to work with. We got the camera with the kit lens (Sony 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 Zoom Lens) which is crap in my opinion and we will soon have to switch to prime Canon EF lenses or micro four thirds with accompanying lens adapter (I later found out that Micro four thirds lenses aren’t the most suitable for the camera). The camera is very back heavy with this kit lens and because the handlebar is positioned to much to the front. You can reverse the handle, but then it is difficult to operate with LCD monitor which is located on the top so the camera is useless in shoulder mount situation without external monitor.

It handled being mounted to a side of the car pretty good for the first time.

Another thing that I miss are the ND filters, but I guess none of the cameras with interchangeable lenses have them so that means getting a matte box, several NDs or Fader ND and other filters is a must. I also wasn’t satisfied with the position with the XLR inputs (one on the side and one in the back), because you have to unplugged it every time you put the camera in the bag. Decision to go with the HDMI instead of BNC plug for external video was unwise and will probably be annoying in the future.

Two magic arms were enough for quite steady shot.

But enough with the negative stuff. The camera has a few pluses too. It has a lot of mounting points. 1/4″ and 3/8″ threads on the top and bottom so it is perfect for mounting on the car. One magic arm on the top and one below and that is it. It would be wise to have another to have three fixed points but maybe another time. It also record 50p slow motion in full 1080p resolution and even has smooth slow recording option to record 25% slow motion (as in 100 fps) for a three seconds burst.

That is it for now. More information about the camera in a few days after I will get to know her better. You can see more images from todays shoot below.

Various angles

One more car mount shot

Looking back at this post it is interesting how anoyed I was with the camera regarding that I am now spokesperson for Sony for that camera.

My post will take advantage to present you with the location data that my iPhone 3GS and recently bought iPad 2 collected from Jun 24th 2010 (of course my iPad 2 only collected data from Apr 13th 2011) in connection to my traveling around making various movies.

This is the movie playing back my movement first zoomed out over whole Europe and in the second part over my country Slovenia.

Location Data

Mousover for iPad view. Trip over Germany was done with iPhone and iPad together at the same time. See the difference of location data capture. End location near Köln is practically the same but the way there is very different.

iPhone - Slovenia region (click for larger view)

A day in Bad Kleinkirchheim – top left dots over the Austrian border

Coop story – bottom left dots near the seaside

My home town Ljubljana (click for larger view)

Trip to Bosnia and Hercegovina - Red Bull Cliff Diving Activation Neretva

Red Bull Cliff Diving Activation Neretva

Tirana, Albania - Red Bull Bo 105 helicopter show

Flight with Alouette III helicopter

Indjija, Serbia - Metal Cinkara ad

Metal Cinkara ad with Serbian basketball team

Trip to Croatian coastline - Cedric Dumont meets the inventor of parachute

Cedric Dumont meets the inventor of parachute

Link  to some pages that have more written about the topic if you are interested:

iPhone Tracker
Apple Q&A on Location Data
iPhoneGeotag – interesting use of the data for setting the location of your photos in Aperture and iPhoto library
A roundup of today’s “Locationgate” news
How the iPhone knows where you are
Why the phony LocationGate scandal targets fear of Apple’s iOS more than Android
Interview: Apple CEO Steve Jobs on How the iPhone Does and Doesn’t Use Location Information
Apple says it’s building ‘crowd-sourced traffic’ service for iPhone users
Location tracking probe expands despite 2001 FCC law requiring all phones track users
Blast from the past: Steve Jobs talks location privacy issues
iPhone 101: Location data and GPS

You can see parallel videos of source material, finished effects done in Apple Shake application (I am still quicker in Shake because I am using it longer and I didn’t have time to try to do all the effects in Nuke), color correction applied to the clip and the final version with all the supers and logos added.

Telemach couch internet ad – VFX breakdown from Peter Prevec on Vimeo.

If you really want to see at the innards of the Shake file you can click on the next image and see the whole node tree of one shot done in Shake. This is the shot with the couch elongating in it. I also did all the keying, background white room with vignette and shadows under couch in the composition.

Shortening the couch - vfx breakdown (click for full size)

You can also watch all three videos in the Couch campaign below.

It really was special permit.

Reiner Wilke explaining rigid rotary sisyem of Eurocopter BO 105.

Isida in front of Eurocopter BO 105.

This was our transport. Sud-Aviation 319B Alouette III.

Alouette III was kindly lend to us by Albanian Ministry of Health and piloted by Albert Xhafaj, Chief of the Medical Transport unit. Helicopter was manufactured by Aérospatiale of France. It is recognised for its mountain rescue capabilities and adaptability.

Powered by a 649 kW (870 hp) Turboméca Astazou XIV turboshaft engine, derated to 447 kW (660 hp) - source Wikipedia.

Knowing that I would be the one shooting from the helicopter I mage a special vibration dampening rig from Manfrotto Hi Hat and a loosely inflated football. It also helped that I had a image stabilized Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS lens.

Headphones on, Canon EOS 7D w/ Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS lens and Fader ND filter on Manfrotto Hi Hat improvised vibration reduction rig

Here you can see the beauty of my vibration rig (©2011 Samo Vidic with an iPhone).

I was almost hanging like that from the helicopter (©2011 Samo Vidic with an iPhone).

Reiner approaching the city (Canon EOS 7D frame grab).

Our helicopter above the BO 105. I am seating behind on the bench with open doors (photo taken from video stream recorded by Martin Smerdel on Sony EX1).

Passing the crowds celebrating the Summer day few meters below us (Canon EOS 7D frame grab).

Flying over Top Channel building (Canon EOS 7D frame grab).

Approaching the University (Canon EOS 7D frame grab).

Flying over our five star hotel Rogner (Canon EOS 7D frame grab).

Upside down (Canon EOS 7D frame grab).

The whole flight only lasted 30 minutes. The time sure flies when you are having fun (no pun intended). The experience was indescribable. It will be hard to top it. It certainly is my favorite spot for recording until now. But not only that. People were fantastic, kind, helpful. I made some photos from the ground when we were returning from the airport to the hotel, but I will put them in another post. I will also do a post for the clip when it will be on albanian Red Bull site.

For now I just need to tell another story. When Samo and me were escorted from the airport premises, our taxi driver in the follow me vehicle asked us if we can stay with him for five minutes longer because he has to do some work before he takes us to the exit. He kindly asked me, if I can take some pictures of him during his work, because they don’t have any time to take them during work hours. Here are a couple of him posing in front of the plane.

Jari, I hope you are not mad, because I posted the photos of you on the blog.

The photos were already send to you by email.

Enough for now!

The day for us started at the airport. I almost reached the baggage weight limit carrying two tripods, Canon 7D, follow focus and hand held shoulder rig.

20kg is allowed without additional payment.

My ticket was upgraded to business at the arrival. They said that economy class is full. I later found out that they had to transport some people in police custody and they probably didn’t want to give them business, so a few of us were upgraded.

Upgraded to business.

Boarding for Tirana

Police escort

Take off

Reas meal in business class. We even got metal cutlery.

Border between business and economy.

Snow and sea

Clowds over Albania

Tirana Airport

On the way to the hotel.

In front of the hotel.

First we went to hotel. And then to see locations.

Domen and Martin found long lost twin brothers in Tirana.

Location scouting

Cotton candy

Waiting for the pilots to arrive at the location (Martin, Samo, Domen, Isida, Ledia, Erjol).

The Flying Bulls insignia

Carnival

What is the time?

Pilots arrived (Endri, Erjol, Siegfried "Blackie" Schwarz, Ledia, Reiner Wilke, Isida, Samo, Martin, Domen).

Second location (Mother Teresa square) in front of Academy

Police motorcycle

Really fast food

After checking the locations we went to dinner. They really like to take us to eat sea food every time. Albanian hospitality is the best.

This is the guy from previous picture.

Delicious

Evening meeting. New member on the right - Albert Xhafaj, Chief of the Medical Transport unit with Helicopter.

Later we found out that we got another helicopter to shoot from and we met with the albanian pilot to coordinate the workflow. Me and Samo will be flying with him. It’s good that we expected to have two helicopters and I brought with me improvised rig for dampening the vibrations of the helicopter.

My room.

Canon EOS 7D, Manfroto Hi-Hat, and half empty football

My attempt to make a helicopter rig to dampen the vibrations. Manfrotto Hi-Hat on a half empty football. I really hope that the footage won’t look like jelly too much.

More at some later point in time.

The ads were quit simple. Three different versions (television, internet, telephone) in each a person or two were surprised buy elongating couch (one seater changing to a two seater) representing more services for the buck from the service provider.

Domen (director) talking to the talent, instructing him on then next move.

Mine is bigger than yours. Martin behind the Canon EOS 5D MarkII.

Canon EOS 5D MarkII was out second camera but we decided that we wouldn’t use it later on, cause it was proving to be more difficult to key its h.264 footage than Sony’s ProRes 422 (HQ).

Camera... rolling... and action.

We were sharing the studio with a set for a famous folk music show Na zdravje.

Girls Nena and Edina were the next talents. It was nice for a change handling some real camera (albeit old) with serious tripod.

Domen and Samo (photographer) were giving girls directions. Or were they just seeking their attention.

My only not not on tripod shot on an apple box with a sandbag (©2011 Žiga Zupančič).

Video village

All lights were aimed at the girls.

Next time I want green Kinoflos for the green screen.

Posing for the camera.

Next time more stories from the post production, special effects difficulties, fast turn around and maybe even finished spot. All depends on the client.

Yesterday was another energy day. Red Bull Pležuh 4cross Pohorje (Maribor, Slovenia). Pležuh is a 200 year old traditional snow transportation device from Selnica, north east part of Slovenia. It is simply one ski with a seat and a couple of handlebars. And yesterday it was used for the first time for a modern 4 cross downhill race.

Technical specs for racing pležuh

The race track had nine turns and one kicker. Warm weather made the snow difficult for skiing.

Start line

There was lots of overturns and crashes. No injuries though.

Finish line

Battle of pležuhs

Last jump

The race  is finished, news cut was send to the stations, now all we have to do is edit a five minute clip and do some color corrections. It is one o’clock after midnight and I’m signing out.

I will post the link to the video later this week when it will be online on Red Bull’s site.

Update: Movie down below.

We are getting some slider shots near the goal for the clip (Domen Smerdel in yellow and photographer Samo Vidic)

I was the designated crane operator.

We used home made crane from the guys at pejmodejmo.com and I was the crane operator. I had some hard times recording with it cause I had no external monitor and had to see the action on the monitor on the camera which was difficult to see in both highest and lowest position of the crane because of its angle. The other obstacle was blinding sun which prevented me to see the monitor at all.

But that was not all. We also didn’t have remote triggering for the camera so I had to lower the camera every time, go to the front, press record, go back, set the framing, record the shot, lowered the camera and press stop. Every time. This was no workflow for action shots during game. Nonetheless I got some great shots of scoring goals in slow motion so I didn’t feel so useless.

Crane was also used for some jib shots.

Goal

And again. I really had some luck with deciding behind which goal to stand.

Pucks were flying all over and you had to be careful.

You can see the whole clip streaming from Red Bull’s official site below.

Rig for simultaneously recording with six DSLR cameras.

This is the rig I had made from various Manfrotto parts. You can read more about the rig here. But I think you can see the rig more clearly on this photo. (:

Beautiful Maja posing with seven, err, six bodies.

You can probably see that as I was turning (rotating) the rig, the cameras moved with different speeds. The ones closer to the center of the rig moved slower and ones on the edge moved faster, but the angular velocity was the same for all bodies. I am no physicist so I can’t tell you if that was influencing the strength of rolling shutter jello effect. If it has it is important to notice that Nikon 3Ds and Canon EOS 550D were moving the fastest, than Nikon D300s with Canon EOS 7D and cameras closest to the center, Canon EOS 1D Mark IV and Canon EOS 5D Mark II, had the best conditions i.e. the least movement.

My friend Maja was kind enough to be the model for the shoot as it was part of many tests and also a possibility to make a short movie out of them. You can see more photos of lovely Maja in my previous post.

Setting us all different cameras was quite a pain (©2010 Dino Schreilechner).

Setting up all cameras to shot the same thing was no easy task as I had to set exposure, framing, focus on all of them. Even just pressing record was difficult. At least on Canon cameras, because they don’t have any similarities between them. Record button is placed differently on almost every Canon camera. Even the button for Live View is not the same on different models. Some have dedicated button, some doesn’t. Nikon is so much user friendlier in that regard as it has dedicated Lv button in the same place on both models. And the start/stop button is the set button on the dial on both of them. But more on ergonomics in some later post.

This are the results that I got.

Rollig shutter results (click on image for higher resolution)

I measured the angle of an edge of the building. Than I measured that angle again when the cameras were moving and got the difference angle. That gave me rolling shutter intensity.

Results chart with introduction dates

So Nikon D3s has the least rolling shutter even though it had the worst position (if there are differences between edge and center position as stated above) together with Canon EOS 550D who is not much behind the 5D and 1D who had the best position. I would say that if they were on top of one another they would have the same distortion or the 550D would be even better. I think this is due to age of the model, 550D being the youngest. Canon EOS 7D was surprisingly the worst even though it had the best position and the body being relatively new model.

You can see rolling shutter in effect in the next video. First are all the cameras placed sequentially and in the last shot you can see them in sync as a 6-up display.

Rolling shutter – DSLRs comparison from Peter Prevec on Vimeo.

You decide which you like best. I personally think that they are all horrendous and not useful for fast panning shots.

I would like to thank everybody who supplied me with the needed equipment: Nikon Slovenija (Nikon 3Ds, Nikon D300s, AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.4G), Samo Vidic (Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon EOS 1D Mark IV), Foto Format (Canon EOS 550D, Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM), Luka Stanovnik (two Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lenses) and my father Milenko Prevec (Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM).
I would also like to thank Maja Mesojedec for being such a patient model and Dino Schreilechner for helping me with the test and taking some behind the scene photos.

If you liked the story, please consider helping me maintain this blog by purchasing your gear through my product links. It will cost you nothing but will allow me to continue writing. Thank you!

I took of from Ljubljana towards the region Štajerska before 7AM. Weather forecast was good for that part of Slovenia. I was a bit worried about the morning fog but was bound to lift if needed.

7:05 on Ljubljana's highway

I planned the course of the eclipse using SkySafari, iPhone app. With it I’ve seen the path of the moon crossing the sun.

SkySafari for iPhone

I was near the town of Vransko half past seven as I noticed that the nearby mountain tops were lit by the first rays of the sun. I stopped on the nearest hill over the town. The scenery was beautiful.

Panorama of town Vransko from my vantage point.

I quickly started to shoot phases of the eclipse.

Previewof the solar eclipse on Nikon D200 display.

I decided to do a time-lapse only during greatest eclipse as I didn’t have remote head on the tripod to follow the sun path. I used Nikon D200 and an analogue F90x with Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 AF-D ED and Sigma 70-300mm F4-5.6 APO DG Macro lenses. I had a special foil on Sigma for watching eclipses that I got before the last full eclipse in Europe August 11th 1999. Nikkor had a polarizing filter on and a Light Craft Workshop™ Fader ND filter. Combined there was enough absence of light for watching.

Special foil for watching eclipses on Cokin filter on Sigma 70-300mm F4-5.6 APO DG Macro lens and analogue Nikon F90x

Nikon D200, Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 AF-D ED, polarizing filter with Fader ND

The eclipse was not seen with the naked eye.

The scenery and the light during the eclipse was perfect so I took some different photos.

Hand glove didn't helped watching the eclipse.

The lack of sun rays was not visible even during greatest eclipse. Maybe you could see the moon crossing the sun it if you squint with your eyes and imagined the eclipse.

The ground was frozen and after a good hour of standing I was freezing.

After the peak of the eclipse I went home to process the images.

Processing the images using Apple Aperture.

Photos were merged into one where you can see the whole course of the eclipse.

Course of the partial solar eclipse 2011

I pieced the photos into a movie and added a music score. I am very pleased with the creative beginning of the new year.

Solar Eclipse 2011 from Peter Prevec on Vimeo.

Slovenski prevod vpisa najdete na tej strani.