Biking in Belgium- no filmpost!

Just finished 120 km in the Belgian Ardennes and driving back to
Amsterdam, wasted and satisfied with my performance. Two things on my
mind: bath and beer!

great deal on a DSLR-bag

Late last year I bought a LowePro Slingshot 102AW for a decent price. I had (and still have) a LowePro backpack for DSLR and laptop and love the quality of their products. The Slingshot seemed ideal for running (biking) around with a DSLR, extra lens and tripod.
But the design never really worked for me. I used it a few times but it never became a love affair, to say the least... I want to be able to quickly have access to my camera: open a velcro flap and that's it. I wound up using an old Sony mini-camcorder bag and the LowePro disappeared in a closet. But the camcorder bag does not hold an extra lens and LCD viewfinder. So I decided to look for a new bag; a shoulderbag that can hold 2 extra lenses and a viewfinder, plus an extra compartment for cards and batteries.

Now I've always liked Crumpler bags. I like their look, the padded, waterproof nylon and thick shoulderpad. And one eBay seller had the right Crumpler bag for the right price: the Messenger Boy 8000 for 45,- incl shipping. That's less than half of what they charge in a store here in Amsterdam. UPS delivered it blazing fast; the very moment a lady stopped by to buy my LowePro Slingshot. The nice thing about the Crumpler is that it is much more versatile than the Slingshot: it holds a DSLR but also my Sony EX1-R videocamera. And take the dividers out and you have a regular messenger bag. I think I love this bag...

Dirtcheap steadycam: first impression

If you can offer a metal camera stabilizer including shipping for 50,- you deserve the label 'dirtcheap'. The Turkish company Lensse does exactly that. Today I received my 'steadycam' and I was very curious to see what I would get. Shipping: not in a box but in a bubble envelope. And inside the bubble envelope were two additional bubble envelopes: a big one holding the stabilizer and a small one holding the weights. There is a single piece of printed paper with very basic instructions how to set the unit up.
FEEL & FINISH
The stabilizer itself feels far from dirtcheap. It's a simple yet solid design with a nice, comfortable handgrip, an all-metal gimbal and nice little details like anti-slip strips where the camera sits on the stabilizer, a comfortable plastic knob professionally lined with metal threading for attaching (and removing) the weights and a black finish all over. The only part that slipped through quality control is where there is some 'play' between the plastic cap and the screw that holds the weight. But that doesn't affect functionality and is purely cosmetic.
BALANCING
I tried balancing my Canon 550D/T2i with batterygrip and Helios 58mm on it but that didn't work out. Without the batterygrip I'm sure it would have worked. Then I mounted my Panasonic GH2 with Lumix 20mm and that felt right. I was able to balance it fairly quickly.

We read the friggin' manual! (update)

A while ago I wrote about my struggles with a brand new Sennheiser wireless G3 set that would not work. Three experienced videographers and a professional sound engineer could not get a signal out of that particular set. It was a frustrating and humbling experience. My friend spent an entire evening knitpicking the manual, came to me in sheer desperation the morning he was supposed to shoot with it for the first time and finally took my G2 set because I wasn't succesfull, either.
He sent the set back to the store and received a new one a week later. He hooked the set up to his camera, turned it on and... no signal... Not again! But a second later he discovered he had hooked up the transmitter to the camera instead of the receiver... Switched them around and by god, a signal! So yes, very once in a while you have memorized the manual and things still don't work... you just happened to have that one-in-a-thousand-lemon...

new and improved!

 

I discovered a new way of viewing the blog which, for us visually oriented readers, is a lot quicker and more interesting way to browse through all the entries in the blog! In the right top corner you can actually select a few different ways of viewing the blog archive in a pictoral overview. (now I just have to find a way to permanently display my blog that way... anyone?) Did I produce all of that content..?

Shooting football

A very nice day to shoot a football tournament. No rain! Hamburgers!
Relaxed people! And even time to catch a nap in the grass. Lovely.

Mailbox: Manfrotto 438

MANFROTTO 438: BUILT TO LAST

A few days ago I wrote about my frustrations about not being able to find a practical solution for leveling a portable tripod without a bowl. I have a decent tripod head, the Fancier FT-717, but it's not a bowl head. I also have a cheap Velbon tripod I can only level by extending/retracting legs: tedious and impractical. My Manfrotto 525P kit is too heavy/big for portable use. Reader Neil McDiarmid suggested the Manfrotto 438 ball camera leveller which turns my Fancier tripod head into a bowl-type tripod head. It is certainly not cheap, but very well-built and very practical.
Aside from using it on a tripod, the 438/head combo also comes in very handy in combination with a slider like the Konova. Leveling made easy and lightweight- without a bowl!

438 and FANCIER HEAD COMBO

A new job

I started a new career as a hart surgeon! Here I am after a
succesful open heart operation.
(ok, I lied. I'm just filming surgery... 3 operations. Got up at 5.45
and won't be ready before 5 om. Then I'll be picked up for the next
job at 6pm. (my wife needs money...)

The Great Adapter Shootout

You have two C mount to Micro 4/3 adapters. One costs 17,67 euro, the other 7,50. Is the expensive model twice as good? Is is superior build quality? Better fit? Filmersblog took these babies to the limit and came with some suprising results...

First off, the adapters were weighed and measured for thickness. Next, they were scrutinized by a panel of experts consisting of my wife and I to see if different designs and metals were used and if they had any imperfections. And finally, they were mounted to a GH2 with a Pentax 6mm and Wollensak Cine-Velostigmat.

Outcome:

• Weight and thickness: no difference
• Design: no difference
• Imperfections: no difference
• Materials used: no difference
• Functionality: no difference

Et voila our shocking conclusion of the Great Adapter Shootout, Edition One. For a simple C mount to M43, the model that costs 133% more is not even a fraction better than the budget model. However there seems to be another contender who uses different materials and at a whopping 42 euro's must be in a league of his own. Will this infamous Kipon adapter finally allow me to focus on infinity using my Pentax 6mm f1.2? Follow Filmersblog and find out in our next edition of the Great Adapter Shootout!


                                                   Find the differences

THE 17,67 MODEL

THE 7,50 MODEL

A boxer who doesn't like to fight

A new trailer for a doc I've been working on for 2 years with co-director Mark Limburg, a classical from rags to riches story about a man who's taken many beatings but refuses to go down.

As a boy growing up in a small village in Nigeria, Innocent Anyanwu realized that the cycle of poverty and illiteracy had to be broken. He took the fate of his village on his shoulders and started on an a journey that forced him to overcome many challenges. Three continents later he is faced by the greatest challenge of them all: to become a world boxing champion and earn enough money to realize his dream.

Shot on two EX1's (one was upgraded to an EX1R). Now in postproduction. (looking for funding & partners)

I am Innocent - 4 minute trailer from Filmersblog on Vimeo.

Tripods: why you need 2

Well, actually, YOU don't need two. It's just that I need two. I am riding around town on my bicycle a lot lately, carrying a small (DSLR) camerabag and a tripod and it's not working out. I tried shooting with a light, plasticky Velbon tripod but you really can't shoot video with these. It's a pain trying to level without a proper bowl; extending and retracting legs. Then I took out my Manfrotto with 503 fluid head but that's too bloody heavy when you're setting up and breaking down 25 times a day...
So I have been looking into a nice, multi-purpose tripod: I want to be able to use it for my second camera when shooting events but it has to be portable as well. I want something much lighter than my Manfrotto 525P kit yet it has to go as high as 6 feet. I want a bowl in a portable package.
Well, forget it... It doesn't exist. Either you go high and heavy or short and light. And in the latter case, you can forget the bowl. I'm open to suggestions. Anyone know something close to the Best of Both Worlds?

GH2 better than GH1? It better be...

I don't have the slightest doubt it is, but here's someone who has too much time on his hands and decided to go nitty gritty on the comparison. (I'm actually thankful someone does this: it keeps manufacturers sharp. Let us consumers decide which camera is better!) This guy takes a look at stills as well as video functions: autofocus, form factor, video quality, rolling shutter and more. This is actually a very nice blog about micro4/3rds photography so there's much more interesting stuff to read.

Bike mount

 As you may have noticed, I am an avid bicyclist. I am the proud owner of a 30-speed racing bike. I am not a very technical rider but compensate this with lots of enthusiasm. This morning I biked 60 or so kilometer with a mate and I have explored areas in and around Amsterdam I would have never seen without a bike.
In a few weeks I will ride 100 kilometers in a tour called the Steven Rooks Classic. Steven Rooks was a famous cyclist and this tour will take us to the south of the Netherlands, with lots of slopes. For someone who never rides anything but flat roads, this is going to be one tough cookie to swallow. And when the going gets rough- I want to take out my camera and record it!
I bought this little device to mount my Panasonic TZ7 on my bike. Turns out it doesn't fit my fat tubular steering wheel. So I guess I have to resort to more primitive gear. It doesn't look as good but it does the job. It keeps the camera upright and aimed forward. I hope I can accomplish the same in 2 weeks...

dirtcheap steadycam

Some sort of steadicam-device is part of many filmers' toolbox but somehow rarely used. (And then there's a few that completely overdo it and use the 'fly-cam' all the time.) I guess that's because we are always under pressure to get the shots and the steady-shot is -usually- not essential for the edit. And most of us have never really mastered the technique.
I once bought a Steadicam Merlin and used it maybe 5 times in my paid productions. That's almost 200 bucks per shot! And they never lasted longer than 4-5 seconds because that would be the point where the rig started to bop and sway... I never really got the hang of it and I'm sure that's because I didn't practice enough. I finally sold it because I couldn't balance my EX1 on it. Two months or so later I bought my DSLR and they would have worked together perfectly... It figures.
A week or so ago I saw some nice results that someone achieved with a 100,- Hague steadicam device much like the Merlin design, but in a budget version. He wrote he was able to stabilize it fairly quickly. I paid 9 times that much for my Merlin and the results looked the same. So I became interested and noticed these stabilizers are sold under different names. The (Turkish?) company Lensse seems to be the source manufacturer and sells them even cheaper. I decided that if I could win an eBay auction for around 50 euro's I would buy one. And I did! So if I only use it 5 times for my productions, that would amount to 10,- a shot. I can live with that.

Is it a bike- or a steadicam?

If you like bikes and DSLR-gear, you must love this piece of homemade ingenuity. A steadicam made completely out of bike parts. (except for one part, I believe) I love it not only because it shows you how to recycle your old bicycle into a piece of gear, but for the sheer fact that someone came up with this idea. It's the summum of recycling!

New FCP-plugin for Canon DSLR-shooters

There is a new EOS plugin for 5D Mark II, 7D and 60D owners. Where does that leave us 550D and 600D users? Why not a plugin for all DSLR EOS cameras? Or do we 550D/T2i owners have to change scripts in the plugin folder again as we did for the first EOS plugin? The ways of Canon are mysterious sometimes. (and often frustrating- ever tried to find something on their websites?)
Here is an explanation why this plugin should be a great improvement over the first one.

video copyright

A while ago a company embedded a clip of mine on their professional website. It is a timelapse of a tree being pruned. This company used my video to demonstrate the type of work they do: tree pruning in Hawaii. Amsterdam is hardly Hawaii and I guess that's why they exchanged my video with something more tropical a few days ago...
But it makes me wonder: the fact that one allows embedding, does that give people the right to embed it wherever they want, for whatever purpose? Common sense would say no. I guess the line is drawn when someone uses your video to promote their own paid services.
I didn't mind that this company used my video. But I would have appreciated it if they asked.

Hang man

A man playing the Hang in the Vondelpark, Amsterdam. I was struck by the pure, bewitching sound of this instrument, which, as it turned out, was developed by Swiss musicians in 2000. I thought it sounded like it was centuries old and came from the far east.
This is the opposite of a snappy edit and I even left in the soft-focus, out-of-focus shots. As a matter of fact, you don't have to watch it, you can just listen. (although I particularly love the shadowsun-shot starting at 3:25') At first I wanted to cut it to around 3 minutes (web-length) but decided against it and used almost all of the 15 minutes I shot. Most of what we show eachother is video&form, this time I opted for audio&content. (Maybe not the most popular choice: I guess that's what they call a 'director's cut'...)

Hang man from Filmersblog on Vimeo.

A rising star

FREDERIQUE AT ART AMSTERDAM

May I introduce -with certain pride- a rising star in the art scene: Frederique Masselink van Rijn, photographer. She lives most of the year on a mountain in Spain, about an hour's inland from Barcelona. Her house is a former factory and together with her husband they ' cultivate'  many acres of land, keep pigs, chicken and goats. He build and rebuilds and works on his dreamhouse. And Frederique photographs. She has a great, romantic eye and a love for the ruins, for the transient nature of matter. She shows us houses, for instance, in varying states of demise, the beauty of it, the inevitabilty, the peace.
She photographs interiors that are timeless, still lives like paintings.
And now her work is part of Art Amsterdam and I was just there. Her work is acquired by large collectors and organizations and she is at the beginning of a great career. She also happens to be my sister's daughter, my niece: Frederique.

 

El Pairet (2010)

 

Untitled (2010)

Hostal de la Muga II (2009)

Cheap lens adapters

It should be fairly simple: you have a prime lens and you need an adapter to attach it to your digital camera. I don't need autofocus, electronic aperture control. Just a simple piece of metal to connect an old lens to a new camera. Well, nothing is simple...
I bought a few of these cheap adapters and never thought that they weren't 100% functional. Either they fit or they don't, I thought, rather simplistically. It turns out there's more to it than just that. The bad ones do not support infinity focus. I guess I have those.
I thought my Pentax 6mm wouldn't focus on infinity because the rear barrel needed more modification. I shaved it off so far I almost ruined the thing. But now I suspect it's probably the cheap lens adapter.... I ordered one double the price and see if that solves my problem! I'll keep you posted.