For starters, I’m initially biased. We have an Epic in-house and a Scarlet on the way. Keep that in mind…
The Canon C300. At first hated on by many in the online world, then the camera found a resurgence of positive press with blog/filmmaker superstars posting their positive impressions. Being in Denver means that the “new” camera demos here will always months later. In any case, I finally got to touch and hold the C300.
Ergonomics
a) Weight – The camera is surprisingly light. A nice handheld feel to it, much MUCH better for video than any DSLR setup. I was able to do some fairly smooth “jib” moves just by properly holding the camera, and warp stabilizer would easily take you the rest of the way.
b) LCD – The LCD rotates 270 degrees, up down, mirrors, it’s removable, it’s awesome all around. Bravo Canon.
c) 3D – For 3D setups, the handle, LCD, and side handle all come off. The camera gets quite small. (like the Epic!)
d) Buttons – Canon has done a pretty good job with buttons. AFter some familiarity, I’m sure it would be cake. The Alexa still is the king of simplicity.
e) Back LCD Much like the 5D and other DSLRs, the C300 has a LCD on the back that lights up. Nice to do quick status checks, see audio levels, etc.
f) Hot swapable Compact Flash Cards. Saves you cash on media, that’s a plus.
g) The XLRs that mount near the LCD screen on the top are… well, I would imagine you’d have to do some cable management. Not my favorite position for XLR.
h) The rotating arm on the side comes off. I thought it would be like my Sony EX1R… a nice quick release button and do a quick-action snap! Not so! You have to loosen the ring next to the handle, then the handle practically comes off, then you have to tighten again. Not exactly easy when you’re holding the handle to begin with. This could have been better designed.
i) Size. Size is a plus.
C300 next to 5Dmk2
Image
a) ND comes in 2, 4, or 6 stops and is controlled by pushing a + or – button. It’s electronic (EDIT: Electronically controlled, it’s still an Optical filter, thanks Gregory) which I guess is nice because apparently it won’t get stuck like a mechanical ND, though I haven’t had that issue on any of my cameras…
The compression of my cell phone took out some noise from a picture of the 3" screen. not a great representation
b) ISO – People are ranting and raving about the amazing 20,000 ISO on the camera. I don’t see it. I cranked the camera to 20,000 (using 6 stops of ND indoors lol) and it was crazy noise. Sure, it’s relatively amazing, but I wouldn’t shoot anything at 20,000. Maybe some filmmakers think the noise “looks like film”. To me, it looked like noise. However, that said, it did look VERY clean around ISO 4000/5000. That’s impressive. The camera is rated natively at 640 in regular mode and 850 in Canon’s log mode, so there’s lots of room to play there. We can replace our 2k’s with cell phones and shoot with the moon instead of the sun.
c) Speaking of log mode, Canon has an interesting “cinema lock” setting that locks you into 24p and canon’s log mode. I recently read on a blog that Sony’s S-log still retains more information, and for a $3000+ upgrade, it darn better! But there was a big noticeable difference when switching from “standard” to the “log” mode on Canon, and my suspicion is that the 50mbps 4:2:2 codec inside helps with highlight control.
50mm f1.2 and c300
d) DoF – There were several C300s at the demo, and one of them had the Canon 50mm F1.2. Needless to say, RIDICULOUS depth of field. It’s like shooting with a macro lens…except your subject is 8 feet away! Luckily, Canon has included several focus modes. Peaking, we’re all familiar. Magnification, we’re all familiar, and they also included a new mode that uses contrast in three squares that show a vectorscope at the bottom of the screen to determine focus. When the vectorscope is at it’s highest point, the image has the most contrast within the red square on the screen and you know you’ve found critical focus. Very cool. Apparently this is also on the XF305, but I haven’t shot with that camera so I wouldn’t know!
e) Manual mode only! One thing that’s too bad about the EF versions of these C300′s is they are ONLY manual mode. No auto anything (except xlr audio). No auto focus, no support for the IS, it’s almost like a dumb mount, updated: IS and lens metadata are supported along with control of the aperture on EF lenses.
f) 8 Bit out SDI. No need to beat a dead horse, but seriously!??! Really Canon?!? maybe it doesn’t matter. Or maybe it’s of critical importance to sales.
Price
The street price is still unknown. To me, this is where the camera will fall short. It has a great image, it’s fun to hold, great design etc etc, but I’m not ready to pay any more than $8000 for it. I still think an F3 shooting out 10bit 4:4:4 is the champ for price, even though the ergonomics of the F3 body are janky. It’s 8-bit out only which is FINE for most stuff… but I still feel a bit cheated somehow. And the fact that you have to choose between EF OR PL mount… I have both! Hate to plug the Epic here… but being able to switch mounts is a HUGE plus.
James Drake is a Colorado DP living in Denver, Colorado and shooting beyond. He’s shot for broadcast television, short and feature films, commercials, and more.
2011 Reel
James owns a Red Epic package, a Sony EX1R, Canon DSLRs, and various other cameras and is familiar with many more.
To see a list of what James has been working on recently, click here.
2011 has been a busy year, tons of productions still in the works! It has been a pleasure working on all of them.
Everything in the reel above I shot and I produced, edited and directed most of them.
There are exceptions on the larger crew shoots, especially the narrative pieces where my only role was DP.
Some really really great stuff that doesn’t really fit into the “conventional” reel. I’ll make a second reel at the end of 2011 to showcase a different perspective on my work.
Thoughts, tips, advice, otherwise? Leave it in the comments below!
Music: Gold Panda, “Snow & Taxis”
Published by Wichita Songs Ltd / Domino Music Publishing Co.Ltd.
P&C 2010 Notown / Ghostly International
iamgoldpanda.com
Well it looks like we may have another DSLR coming that may be able to fill that role. Canon will likely announce a 5Dmk3 soon, but in the meantime, they announced the 1D X.
According to Canon Rumors, it looks like the camera has dual DIGIC V processors and Canon even mentions “Advanced video capabilities”.
Camera will arrive in March….
Here. We. Go.
More details to come as they become available (the real details)!
Inspired by the other large shootout of high end expensive cameras, my buddy Kyle Bush and I decided it was time to do some real world head-to-head with cameras from the streets.
We grabbed cameras we had access to and took them out. We attempted to be as scientific as possible, but there are quirks. Lots of quirks. For example:
The GoPro has no manual exposure. Or Focus. Or White Balance. Or a monitoring screen (sans lcd bacpac) It just…shoots. So…. it has almost nothing in common with the other cameras other than it shoots in 1080 (and at 30fps at that!) In all honesty, we just wanted to throw it in the test
The EX1R does not have a removable lens
The sensors are all different sizes
Picture Profiles were wildly varied (and also N/A…GoPro…)
The “science” of this test is a long shot. So we chucked it. We kept the exposure, frame rates, composition, and focus as similar as possible and threw out the rest. This is the real world, we wanted to see the real results in real time. For real.
We wanted to test:
Resolution
Color/Skintone
Dynamic Range
Noise
Aliasing
Some tech details on the cameras:
Canon 5D Mark ii
Codec: h.264 44Mbit/s
Resolution: 1920×1080 24
Lenses: Canon 17-40mmL, 28-135mmL
Picture Profile: Neutral, 0 Sharpness, 0 Contrast, -2 Saturation, 0 Color Tone
White Balance: 5200k
Canon 7D
Codec: h.264 44Mbit/s
Resolution: 1920×1080 24
Lenses: Canon 17-40mmL, 28-135mmL
Picture Profile: Neutral, 0 Sharpness, 0 Contrast, -2 Saturation, 0 Color Tone
White Balance: 5200k
Canon T2i
Codec: h.264 44Mbit/s
Resolution: 1920×1080 24
Lenses: Canon 17-40mmL, 28-135mmL
Picture Profile: Neutral, 0 Sharpness, 0 Contrast, -2 Saturation, 0 Color Tone
Times like these make it awfully difficult to sleep at night…
James Drake Films is proud to offer the Red Epic-M camera system. This camera is an unbeatable tool to craft and create your vision at the highest quality.
Simply put, the Epic captures 14 megapixel frames in raw format. Much like shooting your [favorite brand] DSLR, but in video form. And in high speed. The Epic can shoot 96 FPS at full 5K quality or a staggering 300 FPS at 2K quality.
It’s small and can be configured to lightweight setups, has 13.5 stops of latitude in regular shooting (up to 18 in HDR), and has the incredible REDCODE compression technology that makes shooting RAW video feasible. The Epic is the most advanced camera system in the world (in my opinion).
Better yet, Red Digital Cinema is famous for improving the functionality of their cameras over time. With their previous camera, the Red One, it took a while to mature but the camera now, with many free upgrades, is a workhorse around the globe on commercial, narrative, and documentary gigs. I’m excited to see what new developments come to the Epic over the next few months!
This camera looks REALLY good out of the box (with a touch of minor color correction for contrast). Red has developed “redcolor2″ and “redgamma2″ as a color/gamma combination that looks fantastic. Unlike the DSLR cameras (which I still love for other reasons), the Epic has UNREAL detail in the shadows and rolls off the highlights brilliantly. I can’t say enough about the image quality. A very famous Hollywood DP just recently said the Epic captured “the best images he’s ever shot”.
Just a few years ago, it would take a large crew and a ton of gear to achieve quality at this level. We can now go out and shoot the BEST of the best with a camera system that fits on the back of a sedan.
Let’s go shoot something brilliant. In the meantime, here’s a slow motion dog video (there’s a tradition of shooting your family with these Red cameras…):
The Red Epic camera is available for rent at 5kinsight.com
Save Our Youth is a mentorship organization based out of Denver Colorado. They do amazing work.
This has been one of my favorite projects… EVER. Working with Jorge (the star) has been a real treat. He was brave and shared his story so that others may be interested in helping kids in similar situations.
From their website, saveouryouth.org
Save Our Youth transforms the lives of at-risk youth through mentor relationships providing the skills for success in educational, emotional, and spiritual development.
Shot over 2 months, I forced myself to occaisionally break away from the busy daily schedules and find inspiration in the incredible morphing shapes above.
Variation of wind speed, color, types of clouds, altitude, weather, and time of day make shooting clouds, a seemingly flat subject, fascinating. On the tech side, choosing the proper speed, anticipating cloud movement, and finding the perfect vantage point complicate what seems to be a simple shoot.
The video doesn’t quite do justice to the amazing Colorado skies.
Shot on the Sony EX1R
Music: Death Cab for Cutie, Brothers on a Hotel Bed
When Lion roared to the top of the App Store on Wednesday July 20, my skepticism instantly skyrocketed… I had to think about why… Why would a video professional be weary of Apple… what was it again? Wasn’t there something about….Oh right, FCPX.
I’ve adopted deep doubts about Apple’s future with creative video pros. I’ve started considering switching to PC (ugh!), where I know the other big A will continue to support and enhance their production software.
FCPX missed the mark and Apple has made it clear where they will stand. But will Lion force the paid creative crowd to relive the FCPX launch again?!!? Will Walter Murch start editing feature films on the iPad??!?!?!?
It’s no secret by now that Lion is Mac’s intentional design to merge iOS features into a desktop software. As a creative professional, that makes me uneasy…
Assumptions aside, Lion looks ok. Features here and there making it “easier”. Or something. Not worth $30 out of my pocket.
EXCEPT
One feature that makes Lion worth a potential upgrade is the integration of Xsan. Back in the day (a whole 2 days ago), Xsan was a $1000 on top of OS X. Now… it’s integrated.
The downside is you’ll need to invest in a lot of other network components if you don’t already have them.
-Storage
-Fiber/Gigabit Switches
-Servers (I believe you need 2, if not 3)
-Cables
Ok, so $1000 is pretty small in comparison…unless you start adding up the licenses. Previously you needed 1 Xsan license per computer. 20 computers was $20k! Also, there are reports and hardware that suggest you may be able to hook up computers via thunderbolt connections… I’m sure that’s Apple’s direction, and it would give you a multi-terabyte network with simultaneous user read/write. And it’s fast. REALLY fast. Edit 2k/4k over the network speeds!
While you will have to make a fairly sizable investment in a network, it’s becoming cheaper and cheaper. Suddenly a pipeline of 20 graphic artists working on an independent film seems more reasonable… Soon we’ll see these type of systems setup in people’s garages!
Maybe Apple does care somewhere deep down for video pros! Or maybe the large networks are intended to allow families to download HD movies. All of them.
Regardless, integrated Xsan. One viable reason to upgrade.
Speaking for the filmmakers I know, we get tangled into the high-speed information dump all too easily. There are so many aspects to production that it’s easy for it to consume your life fairly quickly (and each category deep enough to immerse yourself in). Every once in a while, I force myself to tear away and discover. I went to the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market last weekend on one such venture to find a an explosion of color from around the globe to see what art meant through their eyes… just a few samples below (click on pictures for bigger versions).
These images, while not much of a document for the Folk Art Market, represent things that caught my eye while there.
