16Mar DFN Mail bag Episode 1 – DSLR FILM NOOB
Question:
I saw your video using the nexus 7 as a monitor while filming. Canon you do the same thing with the ipad?
I get this question on a daily bases so I thought i’d start the new show out with it. Let me know what you guys think of the new show format, I know it’s a bit wackier and cut like a Vlog but I had a good time filming it and it’s a little different than the normal stuff I post. Be sure to leave questions in the comment section or hit me up on twitter and i’ll add those to the list for future instalments.
15Mar Crossover 27QW 2560×1440 27 inch IPS monitor $314 on Amazon
I’ve been using a Catleap 2560×1440 monitor for almost a year now and it’s a great monitor with a lot of resolution for the price. With a little bit of color calibration it makes a great editing panel and it has better refresh rates (60hrz) than most of the lower price 4k monitors on the market. It looks like the Catleap is finally leaping on to Amazon (couldn’t resist the pun) under the brand name Crossover. I just spotted one this morning under the Label Crossover 27QW for $314 with free shipping. That’s about $80 less than what you’ll find them for on monoprice and Ebay, plus you have Amazons return police to back things up. It looks like they’re still shipped from South Korea, but they’re advertising 4 to 5 days shipping.
Not sure how long the price will stay at $314, so if you want one you might want to move fast. I already have the Catleap so I probably won’t make the upgrade, still $314 is a pretty darn good price for a 2560×1440 27 inch IPS panel….
15Mar Nikon D800 Refurbished $2099
While i’m not a Nikon shooter, the D800 is pretty close to a 5d mark III in the Canon world (give and take a few specs). Raw video features offered by Magic Lantern have kept 5d mark III prices higher than they otherwise would be, while the D800 has slowly drifted down to a much more affordable price. For the next 6 hours you can pick up a refurbished Nikon D800 for just $2099 with free shipping on ebay. Though there are differences between the 5dmkIII and D800, both cameras are very nice for video and photography work. Plus $2099 for a top of the line DSLR body is a pretty darn good price any way you look at it.
14Mar DSLR FILM NOOB Mailing list?
I’ve received a surprising number of requests for an e-mail subscription option that covers info on the site and the youtube channels (channel 1, channel 2). I thought e-mail lists were kind of out dated, but maybe they are back in style and i’m just behind the times. If you think this might be a valuable way to keep up to date on the site, leave a comment below and let me know. If I get enough requests maybe I’ll add an e-mail subscription button up in the corner.
If I do decide to add an e-mail list, I’ll refrain from putting any kind of annoying pop up on the site. Just a small box up in the corner is all you’ll see. Nothing is more obnoxious than a “sign up for this” window in your face every time you visit a site.
14Mar Canon 6d body on sale for $1499
There’s another Canon 6d body sale on ebay. This time you can pick the Canon 6d up for $1499 with free shipping. The deal ends in 19 hours so if you want one you might want to move fast
. As with all of these ebay sales, they are most likely selling a Canon 24-105mm f4/6d combo kit that’s had the lens removed from the kit. I bought my current 6d from one of these sales and had no problems, but some have reported that deliveries require a signature to receive the package. So make sure you keep an eye on the tracking and have someone at your place when your camera arrives, or you might have to deal with a bunch of redelivery attempts.
14Mar DSLR battery management on film projects
Rob was asking about battery management and storage yesterday. I realized it’s something I’ve never really spent much time talking about. While battery management isn’t a very sexy topic of conversation it’s pretty important to the filmmaking process. After all you can’t really film anything if you don’t have power.
On most of the projects I work on, I usually have a random person assigned to me with the task of “helping out” or “keeping an eye on things”. While these individuals are generally very nice and good at getting you to locations, grabbing food, and corralling people, they aren’t usually very technically savvy when it comes to camera equipment. For that reason I keep each type of battery I use in a colored bag with a label written in magic marker indicating the type of battery. Each battery has either the battery plate or a rubber band placed on it to indicate that it has been charged.
When I’m in the middle of filming, I don’t want to stop and run back to my camera bags two rooms away to grab a few batteries to reload. Making the batteries easy to identify and find makes it very easy to send someone else back to the equipment bag to grab the batteries I need. I keep the batteries and a couple of charges in each bag making things pretty easy to figure out.
If I say “Grab 2 batteries out of the green bag labeled LP-E8.”, they have no problems finding the bag and bring back the correct batteries I need. I change out the batteries and hand them the two spent batteries and ask them to put those batteries on the chargers located in the same bag.
The canvas bags have the added bonus of keeping your batteries isolated from the rest of your kit which reduces the risk of batteries shorting out. While I’ve never had a battery explode, I have had a few superheat after coming in contact with a pin or paper clip in my backpack. This has resulted in some molten plastic holes in a few things over the years.
The bags also make it easier to locate batteries. If you have a handful of batteries floating around in your camera bag, you might have a hard time locating them when you need them. The larger colored canvas bags make them much easier to spot.
How many times have you lost a battery and charger because you left it on a wall somewhere? That can mean $30 to $60 down the drain. Keeping all of those items together gives you an easy way to check inventory before you leave a shoot. I’ve explained this method to a few people and they’ve taken it a bit further by adding a flash card with battery and charger counts to each bag. At the end of a shoot they double check their inventory with what’s on the card. If it doesn’t match up, the search is on.
If you guys have any ideas, suggestions, or improvements upon this plan, let me know. This is the method I’ve developed over years of shooting but I’m always willing to try something else if there’s a better way.
13Mar Blackmagic Pocket camera $895
If you are looking into a Blackmagic Pocket Camera, they’re normally around $995. However right now Ebay is offering them up on one of their one day sales which means you can pick the Blackmagic Pocket Camera up for $895 with free shipping. The extra $100 savings will give you a little bit of pocket change so you can afford the ultra fast SDXC cards you’ll need for recording. Plus ebay’s offering up 6 months same as cash, so you can spread the hit to the wallet out over a few months while you have the camera in your hands filming.
13Mar Wasabi LP-E6 battery and charger combo
I’ve tried out a number of different generic decoded batteries on the market and the majority of those batteries worked fine in the Canon 7d and 5d mark II. Unfortunately this hasn’t been the case with the Canon 6d and 5d mark III. Canon has crippled their new cameras with all kinds of battery detection, so much so that they sometimes have trouble recognizing the batteries that came with the camera. This doesn’t make the batteries useless but it does give you an annoying warning every time you use the batteries and it sometimes cause problems if you have an HDMI monitor attached.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that the latest version of Wasabi’s LP-E6 decoded batteries work without issue on the 5d mark III. While the Wasabi LP-E6 batteries are a little more expensive then some of the other generic batteries on the market (about $14 a peace), they are far less expensive than the $60 Canon charges for official batteries.
16 Wasabi LP-E6 batteries which would also include 8 battery chargers. While most people don’t need 16 LP-E6 Batteries laying around, it’s not uncommon to have at least 8 batteries if you are shooting with multiple cameras or have a field monitor that uses LP-E6 batteries.
When I started looking into generic batteries, Wasabi was just another brand. However, after using them for a number of years and having good luck with their performance, I generally lean towards Wasabi for my generica battery needs. They might be $4 or $5 more expensive then other generic battery providers but it seems like they’re worth the price.
12Mar Canon EOS-M in-depth film kit overview video
As promised here is the in-depth EOS-M film kit overview with a close look at pretty much everything in my kit. I’m working on a full review of the EOS-M and hope to have it up before I get flooded by NAB content.
Although I have a number of Canon FD lenses, Crini mentioned the Olympus OM primes as an even more affordable alternitive. Most of the good Olympus OM primes are under $50 a piece
and the OM to EOS-M adapter is only $14. For those prices I might have to pick a few up and test them out. They could also be an option for the Panasonic GH4k I have on pre-order, though i’m not sure how well these older lenses would resolve a 4k image.
You can check out my full EOS-M kit list in this earlier post. Over all i’m still pretty happy with the EOS-M for the price.
11Mar Shark Slider S1 on sale
I’ve been taking the Shark Slider S1 out on a number of shoots and it’s been very impressive to use. Very smooth motion, easy to control, and much nicer than the Konova sliders I’ve used in the past. Hopefully I’ll get a full review up on the Shark Slider S1 by the end of the month. Regardless, the going amazon price for the 1350mm version (above) is $705 with free shipping, if you want to save some money this very impressive slider is currently on sale on ebay for $645 with free shipping. $65 in savings is enough to afford some extra accessories. I know the Shark Slider is pricy but it’s also a very nice step up compared to any other slider I’ve used under $1000, I’d say it’s the best value in its class.
