Category Archives: REVIEWS

BMPCC aka BLACKMAGIC POCKET CINEMA CAMERA, a Super 16mm contender -pt2

 

All right, here we go with the geek stuff. One word of caution before you go along and read this.
There is a lot of grief around the web on this camera, but you have to remember this is a Cinema Camera and not in the way Canon is marketing their own… bar the C500, which is the one and only that deserves the title.

BMPC aka Blackmagic Pocket Cinema, a Super 16mm contender -pt1

blackmagic pocket cinema camera

 

Could I miss to review the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera. I could not, as this sub $1000 technical achievement is something you have to talk about. There are tons of reviews on the net, but the point of view of each own of us brings some valuable discussion over the table. The BMPCC hasn’t yet been superseded by Blackmagic Design, so a mature evaluation can still be written up.

BEST NOTEBOOK OR LAPTOP FOR VIDEO EDITING

 

dell xps 15

I guess that some of you guys might be in my same shoes, looking like crazy to find the right mobile solution for editing. I can just hear some of you go “hey you, Mac does it”. I know that for sure, but I am a PC guy for many reasons and I want to stay in that land.

I found a solution that works beautifully, so read on to find out more.

Nikon D5200, D7100 and Panasonic GH3

panasonic GH3

 

I am hired as a Director here at Pattaya Chanel, www.pattayachannel.com, a TV station in that country often called “Amazing Thailand“. One of first things I had to do once on duty was to take care of the equipment. The quality of the footage was not top notch, and they wanted me to take it to the next level. What a great chance to give a go to what I have learned so far, and put it into practice.

C-mount lenses on Micro Four Thirds

One of the great things about the micro four thirds format is that you can simply mount anything on these. It’s just a matter of finding the right adapter, among the variety of available offers. In this particular case, the C-mount to M43 one pictured above is indeed well made, but there are cheaper ones starting from just a few bucks.. Fotodiox comes to mind.
C-mount lenses are still in use,  no longer as 8mm or 16mm cinema lenses as they used to be but as security devices lenses, namely closed circuit television lenses. Normally they are pretty fast lenses as they need to work 24h and they come under the commercial term of TV lenses (from the CCTV acronym).
This is why some may be interested in the vintage C-mounts on a cropped sensor. Fast glass is expensive and C-mounts are not.

The last ISCORAMA anamorphic

ISCO BlUE STAR

 

I damn well know this is not an Iscorama 36, 42 or 54.

Iscorama Anamorphics are very well know among  anamorphic lovers for a variety of reasons.Above all they are tack sharp. Secondly with anamorphic adapters you have to  focus both the taking lens and the adapter, which it comes as no less than a pain in the neck – it requires time and patience and it might not always lead to the best results as the lenses are not working “in sync”.
The true beauty of the very pricy Iscoramas (getting sold for $3000 on Ebay and appearing in the listing once in a blue moon) is that you focus to infinity on the taking lens and then rack focus with the adapter .. like you would do with regular aspherical lens. Tour life will be a lot easier as a shooter. Next step from the Iscoramas are the Vantage Hawks ($30,000) or the Panavisions.. which you might only rent unless you’re rolling in money.

A buying guide to LOMO LENSES

LOMO logo

 

I decided to write this post because I own a set of LOMOS and because the information about these wonderful lenses is scattered all over the web and not easy to find.
Russian glass is really too big of a topic to put in a single post but the crux of the matter is that you can buy a set of 4 standard LOMOS lenses for USD 1500. Special LOMOS would be at around 4 fold.

What if a country had the resources like the USSR did, so they could have access to the best chemicals available and of the highest grade to forge cinema lenses. It’s not quite what a privately owned company could possibly do.

OCT19 adapter for LOMO lenses

LOMO lenses are the answer of Russia to Cooke lenses.

As you surely know USA and URSS fought for years for the ultimate supremacy. Cinema was a field of excellence for the USA and indeed the Russian were trying to catch up.
Cooke lenses were widely in use in US movies, URSS had Konvas and Kinor films cameras and the best lenses available were the LOMOS.

With all this DSLR craze and especially with the introduction of mirror less cameras a hunt for vintage lenses started. Prices have raised a lot in the last years but you can still find some pretty good deals.
On mirror less cameras you can mount pretty much anything and that I think it is a strong point to go vintage for video work (on a budget). Indeed the 5dmkII dynamic range is superior, the full frame aesthetics are evident but looking for vsome legacy glass is one direction of DPing the art of film-making.

IKAN VH7e 7″ LCD field monitor

7" monitor review

 

I purchased this LCD monitor as a replacement to the previous LCD I had, the Lilliput 667 GL.

I did some shooting with the 667 GL, it was cheap and for the money I paid it was pretty much worth. Resolution was OK, not too sharp but not too crap so I though I could focus with enough precision -and this is indeed a function of an external field monitor.

On the GH2 you have the opportunity to use a focus assist function, it allows you to zoom in a certain chosen area of the frame. It actually activates the EX mode function, giving you a 2x magnification of the area you’ve selected. Selection is dead simple, just tap on the swivel LCD and the area comes right up, you can then move around the frame and choose  the focus area at your discretion.