dslr video

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If you are considering building a rig and you work mostly with Manfrotto (or Benro) Fluid heads, you may want to start with a base that incorporates compatibility with these quick release plates. In this product overview HDSLRNOW offers a look at a Manfrotto Dovetail compatible dual 15mm baseplate, optional dovetail, and cage system.

For more of these product overviews make sure to follow HDSLRNOW via Twitter, and for more information about these products head on over to the website (click here).

SmallRig-Quick-dovetail-manfrotto-577-standard SmallRig-DSLR-Baseplate-quick-release SmallRig-DSLR-Cage-w-baseplate-1298
find-price-button 15mm Baseplate Manfrotto Dovetail Compatible

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Today Sony has officially announced pricing on the new a7S mirrorless camera. The 'S' they say stands for 'sensitivity'. The reduced resolution 12.2MP CMOS sensor allows this camera to shoot in very low lighting conditions. The camera uses a full sensor readout instead of pixel-binning to prevent aliasing, moiré, and color artifacts.

There's no question Sony has put a nice camera together with the new a7S and i'll be the first to say the image is probably far better than the GH4, but in order to take advantage of 4K Video, you'll need to acquire an external 4K HDMI recorder.

Atomos Shogun Sony a7S 4k hdmi recorder GH4 vs A7s
find-price-button Atomos Shogun 4K HDMI Recorder

The most affordable option is the Atomos Shogun which tacks on another $2K (not including SSD) to the already $2500 dollar a7S price tag. Not to mention the Shogun may not be available until September of 2014.

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find-price-button Sony Alpha a7S 4K Mirrorless Digital Camera

I'm curious to hear what you guys think? If you had to choose between the $1700 dollar GH4 capable of recording 4K direct to inexpensive SDXC cards, or the $2500 Sony a7S that will always require an extra $2000 monitor/recorder attached to capture 4K video? Is Full Frame and the ability to shoot in near darkness enough?

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My recent video with a fisheye lens has brought up the question about how to block incoming light on a bright day. On a typical lens you would screw an ND Filter to the front. Due to the design of many fisheye and wide angle lenses, they are unable to accept threaded filters.

rokinon Fisheye Lens

On a bright day, you end up stopping down your aperture as much as possible, and sometimes that's still not enough. Simply holding a glass ND filter over the front of your lens can help, but you'll be prone to internal reflections bouncing off the fisheye back to your filter.

So if you run into this problem, here's a simple and yet very effective way to add an ND filter to your fisheye or super wide angle lens using inexpensive gels.

If you want to maintain sharpness, get a decent filter. The Rosco gels are great quality, inexpensive, and as you can see there's not too much loss in sharpness in my tests. Keep in mind i'm using a flat Cine profile on the GH4 with no sharpening added in post. You can punch this image up even more if you think you have the need.

For such a small piece I suggest grabbing the Cinegel Creative Kit (found here) which includes a bunch of different ND filters and creative colored gels.

Rosco Cinegel Creative Kit ND Filters
find-price-button Rosco Cinegel Swatch Creative Kit

If you need a larger piece, those too can be purchased in larger individual sheets (found here)

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find-price-button Rosco Cinegel ND Filter Sheets


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Last weekend, SatoStudios let me tag along out to a small car meet. They wanted to test out the CAME 7000 3 Axis gimbal Stabilizer I had built a few months ago. As a first time operator of this gimbal, here's a bit of the BTS footage Mike was able to pull off with his 5D Mark III + Canon 16-35mm.

Throughout the day the gimbal had it's share of issues, but when it was time to work it performed very well. If you notice from the video, it was fairly windy that day and the unit was not prone to swaying. Talking to Mike after the show, he's definitely sold on what gimbals can offer, but there are many quirks you have to be comfortable with.

DIY 3 Axis Gimbal CAME 7000 Calibrate Alexmos CAME 7000 3 Axis Gimbal Instruction Setup Program Software Cheesycam
find-price-button CAME 7000 3 Axis Gimbal Stabilizer

If you're working with one camera + lens combo, you're good. If you have to do lens changes throughout the day, it takes time to rebalance. It's also not something you can just disassemble and throw in a backpack. When you're not actively shooting with it, you have to be mindful about carrying it around. It's also helpful to have an extra pair of hands (assistant) or a place to dock the Gimbal, as you physically can't hold the stabilizer while performing maintenance.

I'm definitely going to install an ON/OFF switch, as having to disconnect the battery throughout the day quickly became annoying. I'm also going to find the slimmest QR adapter available as changing camera batteries took time as we had to remount and rebalance.

So as a quick summary, gimbals are great and anyone who uses it for the first time will immediately be impressed. I will continue to use gimbals, and hopefully upgrade to more expensive gimbal systems as they become available. It's a different tool that can do what other tools can't, but you should not consider this a replacement for every other stabilizer, jib, or dolly system on the market. If you're thinking about building one, here's my first impressions article: http://cheesycam.com/came-7000-3-axis-gimbal-first-impression-and-demo-video/

There's more footage from the gimbal that is yet to be released from the show, but you can also follow via instagram @satostudios

satoinstagramsatostudios instagram
instagram logoFollow @SatoStudios via Instagram

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MFT cameras don't share the same wide field of view as a full frame DSLR. In addition the 4K Video setting on the Panasonic DMC-GH4 is further cropped in when compared to it's own 1080p setting.

Rokinon Fisheye 1080p

One benefit to shooting 4K video is the extra resolution that will allow you to recompose, level a shot, or even zoom in to frame when outputting to 1080p. Seeing how my Rokinon 7.5mm Fisheye lens became less 'fisheye-like' with the 4K crop, I was also curious about using the extra resolution to correct the remaining distortion and finally outputting to 1080p. Nothing new as many users have 'de-fished' the Ultra Wide look from early GoPro cameras. I attempted to DeFish a BlackMagic Pocket Cinema Camera Clip with my fisheye lens that ended up looking great, but 1080p can only be stretched so far.

Here's a video showing different crop factors between 1080p using the Panasonic 12-35mm F/2.8 (@12mm) and the Rokinon 7.5mm MFT Fisheye Lens.

My tests with the GH4 4K Video show that the image is far from perfect, but far better when attempting to defish from a 1080p file. There's an obvious loss of sharpness towards the edges if you're really nit picky, but in many cases where you have to work in very tight situations with a GH4, taking advantage of the extra resolution in 4K is a good option. (BTW no sharpening has been done in post in this video)

Rokinon Fisheye MFT Micro four thirds fish eye lens cheesycam GH4 defish lens
find-price-button Rokinon 7.5mm Fisheye Lens for MFT Cameras

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find-price-button Panasonic 12-35mm F/2.8 Lens

Panasonic GH4 order stock inventory
find-price-button Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH4 MFT 4K Camera

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I've been fortunate enough to operate many stabilizers over the years, and it's amazing how they continue to improve while at the same time become more affordable. Here's a look at yet another new product - the CAME H4 ultra portable Hand Held Video Stabilizer.

As a bonus, i've taken the time to walk you through the steps on how to balance most hand held stabilizers. During the (lengthy) balancing process in this video, you will learn the importance of many key features that will benefit you when shopping for any stabilizer.

Although you may find cheaper stabilizers on the market, many of them will lack a quick release plate with multiple mounting options, fine tuning knobs, an adjustable Gimbal handle, telescoping post, and folding counterweights. Without these features it would be extremely cumbersome to dial in perfect balance.

Cheesycam CAME H4 Hand Held Stabilizer Top StageCheesycam CAME H4 Hand Held Stabilizer

If you're looking for great example footage from this unit, hang tight i'm still working on this. For now at least I have a short demo in the video above. I can assure you that this CAME H4 Hand Held Stabilizer is as good or better than any portable stabilizer i've used in the past. The CAME H4 build is a combination of Carbon Fiber and Aluminum with a very high quality anodized finish.

For DSLR Cameras relative to the size of a Canon 5D Mark II/MarkIII, the baseplate fits nicely with access to the battery door. The stabilizer folds down to a minimum height of just 12" inches and comes with a padded travel case. For more information, visit the product page at https://CAME-TV.Com

Cheesycam CAME H4 Hand Held Stabilizer Compare
find-price-button CAME H4 Ultra Portable Hand Held Video Stabilizer

You can also find this product available via Amazon (found here) and for International eBay (found here).

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Yesterday Canon has announced two new wide angle lenses and both with image stabilization. Only in the last few years have we seen Canon offering Image Stabilization in wide angle lenses. I've always had my eye on the Canon 16-35mm F/2.8L which is an amazing lens that retails for $1700 dollars.

The new Canon 16-35mm F/4L introduced yesterday may not be as fast, but does offer image stabilization. Whether you think you need Image Stabilization on a wide lens is subjective, but it is $500 dollars less as still rated as an L series lens. [Found Here]

Canon 16-35 IS USM Lens F4
find-price-button Canon 16-35mm F/4L IS USM Lens

The new Canon 10-18mm IS STM Lens is designed for EF-S mounts (APS-C) cameras such as the Rebel series or new Canon 70D. This can also be used on BlackMagic Cinema Cameras with EF mounts and at under $300 dollars a great option versus the popular Tokina 11-16mm (which does not have IS). The STM (stepper motor) means is should work well for auto focusing, especially targeted for use in video mode where you need full time auto focus. [Found Here]

Canon EF-S 10-18 F4 STM Lens
find-price-button Canon EF-S 10-18mm IS STM Lens

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Warning: The following video may cause motion sickness! I shot this video when I was at the Monterey Bay Aquarium with GH4 mounted to a baby stroller. It's one idea on how to use the variable framerate feature on the Panasonic GH4, but of course i'm sure you guys can do it better.

It's a fun feature to have built right into the camera since it requires no post processing. The moment you hit stop you end up with a single video file ready for playback.

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One of the problems with choosing a Stabilizer Vest is finding one that can work with lightweight systems. I tried my Steadicam Vest, and the CAME 7000 Gimbal (no counterweights) is too light to compress the springs on the ISO Arm. Total fail - back to the drawing board...

CAME Gimbal Steadicam Vest

If you're wondering how I have the Steadicam Arm connected to the Gimbal, the hollow handle is placed over my DIY Adapter originally for my Glidecam. Here's a closer look at how I made the adapter: http://cheesycam.com/steadicam-merlin-vest-to-glidecam-hd4000-diy-adapter/