03Feb USB Follow Focus just showed up.
So i’ve got some good news and some bad news. Lets start with the good news first. The Okii usb Fallow focus just showed up today, comes in a nice little tin, feels very well made, and Okii had it shipped to me in 4 days (very nice).
Now for the bad news. If you didn’t order one when I first made the post last week then you might not be getting one for a few months. I received an e-mail this morning from Okii explaining that they have sold out of their current inventory. Orders came in so fast that their stock numbers were depleted in under 48 hours. Orders that came in after the sell out will start to be filled at the end of the month. It sounds as though they might not be able to fill all of the current preorders in this next delivery date. So if you want one of these little guys any time soon you might want to get your preorder in now.
I plan to have pictures, video, and a review up on the Okii USB fallow focus by the end of the weekend. So keep an eye out for a full review. Once you get your order in, here is what you can expect to see in your mail box.
For some reason a USB cable is not included, but at least they included a few button options and little bag with tools. More on this soon.
03Feb Attaching your monitor battery to your rig.
I will start out by taking a moment to credit my girl friend who actually gave me this idea. Thanks Dani!
I was looking for a cheap and easy way to mount batteries, remotes, and other random stuff to my camera rig. When Dani walk over and says “Velcro”. She then explained to me that there was such a thing as industrial strength Velcro and that her work used it to keep people from pulling large bins off shelves and on to themselves.
After testing a out a few peaces with 2 & 5 pound weights I decided the sticking power was more then enough to hold small batteries and wireless microphone receivers to camera rigs, tripods, and anything else you could think of.
For $2 to $10 you can get a pack of industrial strength Velcro. One Side has adhesive, but I worn you, don’t go over board, the first item I attached it to a low price Audio Technica PRO88W wireless mic
The battery I’m shacking around in this video only has a 3/4 inch strip of black Velcro on it. As you can see with very little force the battery attaches quit firmly. The only reason the patch on the monitor is so large is because I sometimes like to place my battery higher or lower depending on monitor placement. I also find that the fuzzy side seems to work better for uneven surfaces.
You might be able to find this at your local hardwire store, but if you can’t, it’s also available online:
If you have trouble finding space on your rig, a simple peace of metal with a few holes drilled in it can give you plenty of surface area:
31Jan Konova Camera Slider
I was searching ebay a few weeks back for a few lighting supplies when I came across the Konova Slider. After looking over the pictures and reading more about it, I pulled the trigger. At a price tag of $285 this is one of the best deals I’ve seen on the market. The only thing that comes close is the DryLin® W1080-C Linear Motion System with clamp for Camera Sliders
But even that unit doesn’t have legs, leaner bearings, or any of the mounting options. For a price difference of about $100 between the home made version and this one. I think the Konova slider has a lot of value added. If your handy with tools and good at building stuff you might be able to turn that slider project into something as good. But for the hours of work it would take, I don’t know if saving $100 is worth it. That choice is up to you.
If your interested in taking a closer look at the Konova slider you can swing over to their website or (for some reason its cheaper on ebay).
I spent most of my day messing around with this slider and the only thing I have to complain about is that the friction adjustment really seems like it is either on or off. You can’t really feather it like you can on some of the higher end sliders. But remember this thing has a price tag of $285. It would be hard to cram much more value into this thing and still turn a profit.
I think the Konova Slider is a great deal at its current price. Lets hope that demand doesn’t send it up to the $500 range.
One other Slider I’d like to mention while I’m on the subject is the ULTRASLIDER SR5. It’s 5 foot long and clocks in at a price tag of $249 (plus shipping). Many people have asked me in the past if a 2 foot or 3 foot slider will be enough. I normally answer that with another question, “how big is your car?”. I drive a sub compact hatch back so if an item gets much longer then 3 feet there might not be room for it in my car. Would I like to have 5 feet? Heck yea! Can I live with out it? Sure.
2 or 3 feet is enough motion to give your shot a moving camera effect and depending on your lens a more or less dramatic feel. 5 feet gives you the ability to fallow your subject across the room or pull off some classic Hitchcock slide and focus. I haven’t used the Ultraslider SR5 so I don’t know much about its build, the type of bearings, or how smooth it slides, but the price is just low enough that it might be worth taking a chance on. If you pick one up shoot me an e-mail and let me know how it turns out. I would love to find out more information on its build quality.
Equipment used in this video:
Canon 7d and t2i
Canon 35mm f1.4
Sigma 24mm F1.8
Zoom H1
Konova Slider
Manfrotto 501 & 503 heads
Sennheiser G2 wireless mic
30Jan Dirt Cheep Monitor project!
Update: Want to see a video of this build with updated parts list and the word cheap spelled correctly? Here it is.
I don’t normally put together how to guides, but this one seems very handy and well worth a little bit of work. If you can’t afford to pay $200 for a Lilliput HDMI monitor, then how does $28 sound? Here is what a $28 dollar field monitor will get you.
It’s not a very large monitor but for this price what do you really expect? You’ll want to pick up a few items to build this. First you’ll want to . You’ll also want to pick up a little
. When I ordered both of these a few weeks ago I paid $23 for the monitor and $5.97 for the cold shoe adapter. It looks like there are a few different models to choose from so you might end up spend a few dollars less/more on this project.
Once all your parts show up here is what you’ll need to do:
First remove the 4 screws circled in red.
Then Remove the base from the kick stand. It is only held in by a dab of glue and little bit of pressure.
Then remove 2 small screws on the inside of the black plate and pop out the small kick stand shaft.
Remove the nut from this little Cold shoe adapter.
Then use a Dremel tool to remove about a half inch of plastic from the point were the kick stand mount was located.
Take the nut you removed from the cold shoe adapter and glue it to the inside of the Dremel area. Be sure you don’t get any glue in the threads or you might have trouble using it. Also make sure that the nut lays flat with the plastic around it. The glue isn’t mandatory, but it does provide a stronger attachment point. You might also consider some other kind of bonding agent.
Once the glue has set thread your male end into the back of the monitor as shown.
Then place some packing tape over the exposed metal parts to protect the circuit board and components from shorting out. Once you’ve done that, simply fit the cover back on the monitor and reattach the 4 mounting screws.
For battery power I used 1 of the I have for my Lilliput monitor. But these batteries are the same physical size as the monitor itself. I ran a quick test and it looks like you could power this little guy from a 9 volt battery if you really wanted to (but I don’t know how long it would last). Or if you feel like turning this into a $40 project you can pick up an
. I left the monitor on my 6800 mAh battery over night and came down to check on it the next day. The monitor was still running after 12 hours. So 1800 mAh battery should work just fine for a day worth of filming.
The monitor is Standard Definition, but that shouldn’t really be a problem since the Canon t2i, 60d, and 5d mark II only output Standard Definition when in record mode. If you need to check focus with this little guy, just use the 5x and 10x screen zoom for that.
In the end I wanted a small monitor for my t2i and I think this will work out great.
For more great DIY projects check out our friends over at thefrugalfilmmaker.com.
Update: Did you want to add headphones and volume control to your Dirt cheap monitor project? Here is the solution.
29Jan USB Follow Focus Controller Released
The release for this very interesting product was announced yesterday, and me being the sucker that I am ordered one immediately. With the discount code available over at the 5D mark II team’s blog, you can pick this up for a grand total of $350 (plus shipping).
That is a little bit more then I was planing to spend, but hey it’s my birthday, so happy birthday to me. Anyhow this little guy could cut your camera rig size in half and give you remote control operation when you need to put your camera in hard to reach places.
Another nice thing would be to mount this on the handle of your shoulder rig. That way you can start and stop recording with out having to do the truffle shuffle. After reading through the manual last night I think there is going to be a learning curve to this device. So it might take me a little time to get the hang of it.
They also mention several times that this doesn’t work well with all lens configurations, so there is a 30 day return policy for you to make sure that it plays nice with your gear. I couldn’t find any information on its operational results when paired with the prime lenses I own, so I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.
In the meantime I will keep you all posted on my progress. Once this USB fallow focus shows up expect a full detailed review.
28Jan What class of memory card should i use with my t2i/60d?
I often get questions about memory cards. Well i’ve already covered Compact flash cards for the 7d/5d mark II so lets take a look at SDHC cards.
The canon t2i data rate is ruffly 45Mbits per second which is about 5.89Mbytes per second. Since class 4 cards are only designed to handle 4Mbytes a second they are probably not a good choice for filming with your t2i/60d. Class 6 cards can handle 6Mbytes per second which is just enough to handle the video footage coming from your t2i/60d.
However the price for Class 10 cards has dropped dramatically over the last 6 months to the point that there isn’t a good reason to risk using Class 6 cards. Class 10 cards can handle 10Mbytes a second which gives you plenty of head room for video recording.
Plus if you plan to use the Magic lantern hack you might end up wanting to record at even higher bit rates then canon intended. So for a price difference of about $3 it’s worth it to spend a little extra and pick up a class 10 card.
Sandisk (as always) has the highest price Class 10 Cards on the market. You don’t need to waste your money on the brand. I would try one of the other brands like Transcend, ADATA, or PNY. All of which offer class 10 cards that work great for video in your t2i.
As I’m typing this it looks like Transcend is the lowest price right now.
The crazy new sandisk SDXC cards are very fast and well over $100 a card so unless you use your money for toilet paper I would wash those cards from your mind.
Equipment used in this video:
Canon 7d
Canon 35mm f1.8
Zoom h1
sennheiser g2 wireless mic
CPM film tools Rig
Lilliput hdmi monitor
27Jan Using a super clamp to mount your Zoom H4n on your boom pole
Super Clamps are handy little devices. You don’t have to use them with a manfrotto magic arm for them to come in handy. One Great use for them is mounting your zoom h4n. Using the stud that comes with your super clamp you can mount a threaded cold show adapter:
or threading it into the super clamp stud:
Either way will provide you with a great way to mount your zoom h4n to your boom pole. I prefer the cold shoe because you can use it with one of these.
The zoom h4n is light enough that you wont be over taxed by the extra weight, and with the multiple mounting options on a super clamp you could always mount a wireless transmitter/receiver to send audio out or bring it in from other sources.
When i have to operate the boom mic from a long distance from the camera I often attach a wireless transmitter to send my audio back to the camera. That way my 7d has a good solid sync track for dualeyes to work with.
You can pick up the generic super clamp for around $16 to $20.
They also work great for mounting lights and other random gear.
Equipment used in this video:
Canon t2i
canon 35mm f1.4
Zoom h4n
Cowboy super clamp and manfrotto super clamp
Sennheiser g2 wireless transmitter
26Jan CPM Film tools DSLR Shoulder shooter kit.
I’ve worked with a number of DSLR rigs, but the one I’ve found that fits me the best is the CPM DSLR Shoulder Shooter Rig. The layout and design are quit a change of pace when compared to many of the other options on the market.
The rails and brackets are very light weight with plenty of great mounting options. I’ve since made a few changes to the configuration in this video. Mainly switching back to the configuration I complained about in this review(what can I say, it grew on me). Every month CPM seems to release new configurations and I am very interested in there New DSLR Cage “Cubed 3.0“.
I really like the idea of having a bracket system that completely surrounds the camera. Not only does this protect your camera, but it also gives you a lot more options for handling and mounting. Lets face it, with DSLR cameras in there current state you need at least a small mixer and a mic. Not to mention adding a field monitor to the mix.
There are a lot of options on the market right now. So when you are out shopping for a rig to mount your camera, swing by the CPM FILM TOOLS website and see what they’ve got.
25Jan Camera settings for filming on your Canon DSLR
I often get questions from people asking why their footage looks grainy, or why the motion in their video appears “jumpy” and “jagged.” Many of these problems can be corrected by using the proper settings on your camera while filming.
Grain in your video footage is often caused by the use of high ISO settings on your camera. Even though these HDSLR cameras can preform well in low light they still have their weaknesses. The canon 7d, t2i and 60d all share the same sensor and there for preform similarly in low light settings. I do not recommend shooting above ISO 1600. At ISO 1600 grain starts to show up noticeable but could still be removed using programs like Neat Video, and Magic Bullet Denoiser software programs (note: that both of these soften your footage slightly). At ISO 1000 and under video grain begins to fall off and becomes much less noticeable. So if you can try to keep your camera between ISO 100 and 1600 you should be problem free.
Motion flicker can be caused by your exposure time. 1/30th, 1/60th, and 1/125th seem to work fine, but if you go beyond that, motion in your video will begin to seem choppy. If you have to much light in your scene and need to correct for it, the best option is to use a variable ND filter
One other Item to keep in mind is that your camera should be in Full manual mode when filming. This should be the large M on canon cameras. If you use any of the auto settings the camera may try to change any number of these settings in an attempt to correctly expose your footage. This can lead to dimming of video footage, choppy motion and any of the above problems listed.
Equipment used in this video
Canon 7d & t2i
Canon 50mm f1.2
Canon 53mm f1.4
Sennheiser g2 wireless mic
Zoom h4n & Zoom h1
