As a special request, I used my 9.Solutions clamps, rods, and gags to build a frame for holding the 18" LED Ring Light over @satostudio's DJI Ronin-M Gimbal. Combined with a wide angle Rokinon 14mm lens on a Sony A7sII, this adds that cliche' music video look. Will post samples when we have the final music video done.
Tag Archives: satostudio
Two Person Oversized Gimbal Handles for Fly over Shots
Special request to do a one take shot starting outdoors, fly through doorway, over racks, and then through a glass window. In order to achieve this we made a special handle and attached a gimbal. A wireless video feed was sent back to an OSEE LCM156 Monitor for someone to remotely control the Pan and Tilt of the gimbal as we walked through. The final footage will have speed ramps and a morph cut to make this one shot seamless.
XEEN Expands with new 14mm and 35mm Cine Primes
Currently the Rokinon XEEN Cinema Prime Lenses are available in 24mm, 50mm, and 85mm. Just recently they have announced a new 14mm and 35mm expanding this set of most affordable Cinema Prime lenses on the market. We were able to get some hands on time at the WPPI show in Las Vegas.
Rokinon XEEN Cinema Prime Lenses
DJI Ronin with 18″ LED Ring Light
Mounted this LED Ring Light
CAME-TV Tripod Dolly and Magnetic Track Rail System
Sliders are great, but track systems will offer you more travel. Gimbals are great systems to move the camera long distances, but is not ideal when your movement has to be repeated. Using a track dolly system will let you take advantage of long lenses and shallow depth of field without having to worry about your subject falling out of frame or out of focus. It's a more controllable and predictable tool that offers high production value that any operator can use without much practice or experience. Every shooter should have access to a good tripod track dolly system.
Recently we were able to try on CAME-TV's new Tripod Track Dolly system that allows you to perform curved tracking shots or straight linear tracking shots. The system is unique as it uses strong Magnets to combine the rails together making it fast and easy to setup - no tools.
Anytime you join tracks, you have to worry about the seams not aligning and causing a bump in tracking. But the Magnetic rails matched up perfectly, and the tripod dolly with 3 swiveling casters and a total of 12 smooth bearing wheels gave us extremely smooth footage.
The kit comes packed neat in a carrying case and is extremely lightweight. The base kit comes with a set of curved rails and straight rails. You can combine all of the the tracks in the kit and even purchase additional tracks to make up more variety. This system can work on slightly textured surfaces, but works best on level ground.
The CAME-TV Tripod Dolly and Magnetic Track System is made with quality, and definitely affordable compared to other similar systems. The fact that it comes with both curved and linear rails allows you to get creative right out of the base package. For more information, check out the product page at https://CAME-TV.com (here).
Sony FS7 180 FPS Slow Motion + SLOG-2 Video Test
We just got back from NAB2105 and one of the hottest cameras on the floor was the Sony PXW-FS7 a.k.a FS7. It seemed every single booth had it on display along side of their products to showcase their gear at it's best. This is certainly a camera that is making huge waves throughout the industry.
Prior to NAB, I borrowed a Sony FS7 from SatoStudios and teamed up with Keiko & Roland from GearAddix to test drive the amazing 180fps feature shooting entirely in SLOG-2. The video samples finally made it back from editing, and we're quite pleased with the results. Enjoy this short piece.
The Sony PXW-FS7 rocks a Super 35 Sized CMOS Sensor with Sony E-Mount. Offers up UHD (4K) Up to 60 FPS, HD Up to 180 FPS. The FS7 can record to high quality XAVC-I Up to 600 Mb/s and holds Dual XQD Memory Card
Sony FS7 Extension Unit 12 Bit RAW
Sure it's an investment up front but consider that a Sony A7s
Sony PWX-FS7 4K XDCAM Super 35 Camera System
Panasonic LX100 Time Lapse American Force Rims BTS Vegas Desert
While the guys from SatoStudios setup a shot to catch the sunrise behind some of these trucks sporting American Force rims, I decided to throw the new Panasonic LX100 on the ground and ran the internal Time Lapse setting. Once you end your timelapse, it can automatically create a video file for you. Here's a sample from the camera.
I'm still lovin' everything about this camera, features, and quality. Definitely one to have in the bag for the traveler who wants the best photo and video camera in a compact system.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX100 - via Adorama
Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX100 - via B&HPhoto
Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX100 - via Amazon
SatoStudio CAME 7000 3 Axis Gimbal BTS Footage
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.
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
Follow @SatoStudios via Instagram
SatoStudio Destination Wedding BTS
I enjoy watching Behind the Scenes type videos, I feel like i'm learning something new each time from different people. SatoStudio has this BTS video of a recent Mexico Destination wedding, and you get an idea of the type of equipment they would require for these highly mobile shoots. In this video I see lots of Monopods, Glidecam 2000 Stabilizers, and Canon 580 EX II Speedlites
for mobile portrait shoots. Radio Poppers are used for stable transmission of signal from camera to speedlites. I'm really impressed with how smooth that Cinevate Pegasus slider is. The reason you'd go with the Pegasus over the Cinevate Atlas is by design. Sand can easily cause problems with the Atlas slider bearings, but the Pegasus is a much more forgiving roller design for those conditions. I think what really ties this all together for a great shoot is the willingness of the bridal party. Great work SatoStudio, looks like a fun crew, I gotta run with you guys sometime...
