Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Vivitar 35-105 3.5 Lens Test, FINALLY !

35-105 Lens Test Finally Done !

Ok, I know, it took forever to get done. Gotta pay the bills sometimes ! so here is a lens test of the vivitar 35-105 3.5. its really a great lens. What I also found was that this Lee Resin ( Plastic ) ND .9 I have needs to be replaced with a glass filter. It softens the image for sure. While this does help reduce moire problems, it also softens the image a bit more then I like. Well I'm off to 3 days of shooting, including a music video this weekend ! enjoy.

Vivitar 35-105 3.5 LENS TEST from Steve Oakley on Vimeo

Posted by Steve Oakley at 9:40:35 PM in dSLR Movies & Clips (140) | Comments (2)

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

P+S Technic Bought by Sensor Maker

 

In the weirder news category, P+S Technic was bought by another company. One might of figured Arri, or even RED might of bought them. The actual company is Augusta Technologie AG.
 
A much more interesting concern - how does this play out for Silicon Imaging who's SI-2K cameras had their bodies redesigned by P+S T ? This should be interesting to see. Really I have no idea why SI got in with P+S the way they did. It took their camera from being priced right ( under $10k ) to being way over priced, especially when you could have a RED for the same money. Time will tell.
 

Posted by Steve Oakley at 12:36:31 AM in dSLR Movies & Clips (140) | Comments (0)

Monday, September 20, 2010

Stillwater to Minneapolis Lens & Filter Shoot

A few weeks ago I got to spend some time in Stillwater MN on a shoot. I also spent a nite in Minneapolis. This was a chance to try out some vintage glass and filters again along with some modern glass. Many of the shots where taken with a Tiffen Black Softnet 3B filter. Placed in front of my Vivitar 28 1.9, it made for some interesting effects. With my tamron 70-200 2.8, I got some really great organic starbursts around car lights completely with some funky CA.
Right in the middle of this video is a shot illuminated by the full moon. Thats right, F1.9, ISO 1600, and there was an image there ! its truly amazing what these cameras can do. If I get the chance, I'll put up a version with the lens / filter info on each shot. 

Posted by Steve Oakley at 1:34:22 AM in dSLR Movies & Clips (140) | Comments (0)

First Shoot on The Vivitar 35-105 2.5

I just did a real shoot with this lens

About 1/3 of what was shot was done on this lens. It was great. Its the prefect interview shooting lens because its got some fast long end, yet its still a zoom, and ridiculously affordable. 
 
Along with this lens, I also put the Vivitar 28 1.9 to work on a few shots, and the Tamron 17-50 2.8 came in handy on some shots where I needed a wider view. 
 
I had the camera on a slider for a bunch of shots. I marked start, end and middle focus points and the lens ran fine making nice in focus images. This is now my stays on the camera lens for basic shooting !

Posted by Steve Oakley at 1:18:20 AM in Lenses (47) | Comments (0)

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Is the 1976 Vintage Vivitar 35-105 3.5 a Mini Primo ? UPDATED

Vivitar35-105 3.5 This bargain lens looks impressive. Its got a big front element, solid metal construction, constant iris, and the perfect range for a lot of the work I do. Is it a little slow at 3.5 ? maybe, but thats really only a 1/2 stop from 2.8. I'm generally working with a light level of about F4 @ 200 for sit down interviews so this easily fits into the comfort range for me. Lets go further, this lens has an internal zoom ! Thats right, the length of the lens does not change when...

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Posted by Steve Oakley at 1:34:35 AM in Lenses (47) | Comments (3)

Thursday, September 09, 2010

The BBC, dslr's and Preimere Pro

The Production Landscape Is Changing.

 
Over the last week or so there have been a series of what seemed, unrelated announcements, each interesting on their own. One of them was that the BBC was giving some level of approval for using dslr shot material. Adobe released Premiere Pro 5.0.2 a few days ago. Today, Adobe announced that the BBC was putting 2,000 seats of Premiere Pro in, its now their official NLE. Press Release
 
What does this mean ? well besides the fact that Adobe got a very nice sale done here, its a very high visibility announcement. I think it goes to say, if you make a great product, people will buy it and use it. Given the BBC will let dslr shot material into productions now, and Premiere Pro natively edits h.264 based formats, its a pretty simply decision. I also think this deal gives Prem Pro much more serious street cred with producers too because if its good enough for the ultra picky BBC, its got to be good enough for me. Time will tell how this plays out.

Posted by Steve Oakley at 8:29:25 PM in In Production (40) | Comments (0)

Wednesday, September 08, 2010

GoPro Firmware Try Out

Reviews at the speed of the net ! So I got the new firmware loaded up. It was simple enough IF you follow the directions to the letter. I missed something the first time around but got it the second time. 1080 out of the camera looks great ! Super sharp. There is some moire and aliasing, but nothing a little diffusion filter wouldn't kill. Maybe even the case lens will just take a little edge off of it. I was running the camera bare. Either way, skin tones look great, camera looks way...

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Posted by Steve Oakley at 1:42:22 PM in Gear Reviews (88) | Comments (0)

GoPro Firmware Update is Finally Released

Go get it ! Things added and fixed include : 25fps / Pal frame rate. No 24, but if you aren't doing sync sound, simply interpeting the 25FFPS mov at 24FPS and live with the 4% slow down works for me ! Live Feed Output YES ! finally you can see video while the camera is just on, as well as recording. Feed video to a wireless transmitter, or just plug a LCD monitor in to see what you are really getting. Live Feed with On Screen Display Shows battery, time recorded, recording status. Perfect...

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Posted by Steve Oakley at 12:14:27 PM in Gear Reviews (88) | Comments (0)

Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Right Place Right Time

Sometimes you just have to be there.

I got his shot across the street from my office. A real double rainbow. Its a series of iphone pix stitched together since this was a really wide shot. Thats right, I've got a 5K image off an iphone :) When it starting raining while the sun was out, I went out the front of the building expecting to see something, but this was a surprise to be sure.
 
double rainbow wausau wi © steve oakley 2010
copyright © steve oakley 2010

Posted by Steve Oakley at 9:39:48 PM in In Production (40) | Comments (0)

Friday, September 03, 2010

After Effects 10.0.1 Update Is Out

Hot after Premiere Pro's update yesterday, Adobe has released AE 10.0.1 ! The new release adds the following : ____________________________________ There were several fixes and improvements for RED (R3D) import and workflow. The Apply Color LUT effect can now use .3dl files with floating point values or 3DMESH/Mesh keywords, or those saved from an ASSIMILATE SCRATCH system (i.e., that have SCRATCH in the comments at the top of the file). QuickTime (.mov) Files from JVC solid-state cameras...

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Posted by Steve Oakley at 9:33:13 PM in Gear Reviews (88) | Comments (0)

Thursday, September 02, 2010

Panasonic Releases Pics of Their APS-C Sized Camera

Panasonic released these pics today of their up and coming camera first shown at NAB. Probably a move to steal a little bit of Canon's big PR this week. Either way its a look that they are on their way to a shipping product. The body is small compared to most video cameras in the pro realm, but its bigger then a dslr, has XLR's, a movable LCD of unknown quality. I'm betting a sharper picture then dslr's, and no aliasing/ moire problems. We'll see when they get here. Now the...

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Posted by Steve Oakley at 9:33:13 PM in Gear Reviews (88) | Comments (0)

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Adobe Releases Premiere Pro CS 5.0.2 Update, Announces AE Update Coming Soon

You want it ! This also includes an update for Adobe Media Encoder (AME ). There was also the hint that an AE update was soon to be out as well. Updated & Improved Several improvements to RED (R3D) import and workflow. See the last section of this post for details. QuickTime (.mov) files from JVC solid-state cameras can be imported. Added sequence presets: Canon XF MPEG2 720p30 and Canon XF MPEG2 720p25. Premiere Pro CS5 (5.0.2) can export MXF files containing MPEG-2 essence items that...

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Posted by Steve Oakley at 10:54:47 PM in Gear Reviews (88) | Comments (0)

Canon Just Keeps Turning Out Amazing Stuff

Canon Goes All Ultra Resolution On Us ! Canon is has announced the largest CMOS image sensor made at 205X205mm - thats 8X8 inches ! Thats view camera size ! Its Ultra light sensitive due to its size. Price ? you can't afford it, trust me if the 1D comes in at $5k or so as I recall. A 35mm sized sensor is literally a postage stamp on a near full sheet of paper in comparison. Click HereNo Specs on actual pixel count, but I'm sure there much bigger then typical pixels on a chip. Who cares,...

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Posted by Steve Oakley at 9:14:45 PM in Gear Reviews (88) | Comments (1)