First documentary shot on GH2 on television

The first documentary shot on a GH2 is broadcast tonight in the Netherlands, on Nederland 2 at eleven pm. The excellent documentary slot Het Uur van de Wolf co-produced the film.
(I believe there are 2 scoops:  the first documentary shot on a GH2 in the Netherlands and the first filmer with the name Wolf making a film for Het Uur van de Wolf (The Hour of the Wolf).)

The film is actually not entirely shot on the Panasonic GH2 because shooting with a consumer camera proved extremely impractical in many instances, especially when doing camera, sound ánd interviews. About one third of the film was shot on the Sony EX1 and 3. 

Het Ritme van Elly de Waard is a film about Holland's first serious pop journalist back in the 70's and 80's who later became a poet and stock broker. Today, at 72, she lives with her wife and their Jack Russel in a beautiful home in the woods on the coast of Noord-Holland. Outspoken and uncomprimising, Elly de Waard has encountered much resistance to her persona and work, but she has stayed true to her beliefs and work, whatever the cost.

I made this film with my 74-year old mother, Deborah Campert, and I wish there had been a Making of... it would have been engaging viewing material..!

A dvd of the film is part of the book Vogelwater, for which my niece Frederique Masselink-van Rijn made the photographs.

Update: a compressed version of the film can be seen online.

This is the drill for my 15,- Pentax 6mm 1.2

THE DREMEL: IF THIS DOESN'T WORK, NOTHING WILL...

I cannot get my Pentax 6mm 1.2 c-mount lens to focus on my Panasonic GH2. I am stuck with a fixed focus lens while others have been able to shoot good stuff with this wide-angle, fast lens I bought for €15,-
I am going to give this lens one last shot and bought a Dremel (mini-drill) that will help me modify my lens even further. I have instructions from people that have been succesful at getting infinity focus with comparable lenses... Either I'm going to shoot some lowlight, wide angle stuff pretty soon or I'll be stuck with a handfull of scrapmetal...

PRECISE INSTRUCTIONS FOR MODIFICATION

Panasonic GH2 hacked!

It was a matter of time and the time is now: the GH2 has been hacked. Programmer Vitaliy Kiselev has just got to work on the new firmware. Obviously it's still in Beta but he has managed to get these functions -at least partly- working:

• the 30 minute clip length limit being removed (for PAL versions)

• a PAL / NTSC menu function

• new audio bitrates

• AGC selection

• 720/25p, 1080/25p, and 1080/60p (the latter two currently freeze the camera)

If you want to be a Beta tester or want to help out with the development with a donation, here is the place to do so.

Exciting times- this is going to turn a great camera into a killercam! Power to the People! (didn't I use that slogan for a post a few days ago..?)

11 looks compared

I was so impressed with the look of this footage I shot a few days ago that I thought it a good idea to compare the different 'looks' or 'presets' available in the Panasonic GH2. (also because I accidentally changed a setting and forgot which one I used!)
I shot this in full HD with the Lumix 20mm 1.7 and fader ND wide open. It's all straight out of the camera but I did lower the brightness by two nudges in FCP on the Nostalgic and Nature shots because they seemed too bright.

The settings for 'my film' are:

Contrast 0
Sharpness -1
Saturation 0
NR 0

(spectacular, eh? ;-)


11 looks compared from Filmersblog on Vimeo.

Summerday: a short film

Took my son out to the 'skate-pleintje' (skate square) in the neighborhood. A bunch of kids, boys around the age of my son, were hanging out and skating. Nice kids, having a good time. I just wanted to take a few shots of the action & some skating but it became more than that.
When I came home and looked at the shots it felt -excusez le mot- 'filmic'. (There is something about this lens, the pancake Lumix 20mm 1.7. I talked about it in a post a few days ago: how can something be sharp and soft at the same time? Well, this lens demonstrates it.) Maybe it was the light on this day and the way I was able to control it with the Fader ND filter that made this footage stand out. The colors and warmth. The photogenic boys. The sound and movement. The special combination of it all somehow makes it more than just a few shots of some kids skating.
A short visual on comraderie, playing from dawn to sunset, about careless summerdays. This could be anywhere and about any boy in the world. (watch it fullscreen)

Summerday: a short film from Filmersblog on Vimeo.

Mailbox: rare Wollensak lens

 

The latest victim of my C-mount frenzy has arrived and it's a beauty: a rare Wollensak 1 inch 1.5 Cine-Velostigmat. It's in great shape, considering its age. This lens must be at last 50 years old, looking at the materials and the history of the company. The Wollensak firm branched off Bausch & Lomb in 1899 and started producing lenses a few years later. It's heydays were in the 50's and it went bankrupt in 1972. I am all for recycling and reusing and find it great that new use is being found for all these great products from the past. If it wasn't for the M43 camera's, these lenses would have rusted away and ground to dirt in dumpsites. A few would have been preserved by collectors or found their way to musea. But now they're back and in demand, taking pictures again of a world quite different from what they saw 50 to 100 years ago.

Photos by the filmlens

Took the Taylor & Hobson (actually: Taylor, Taylor & Hobson) out for a spin yesterday and came back with a lot of under and overexposed pictures. Like all these XS (that is: extra small) buggers it's a tough lens to handle and taking stills with the GH2 is still a bit of trial and error. I don't know if I somehow changed a setting but the LCD screen is pumping from dark to light (in 'M' mode) and I don't know what's causing it.
Anyway, some of the photos have that really sweet swirley bokeh. Love it or hate it...

Footage of the Cosmicar-for-Bolex 25mm 1.4

Here's a little something I shot in the park with my recently acquired Cosmicar-for-Bolex lens. Excuse the shakes, it's all handheld. The second shot of the bike is with the 1:1 crop. Really like this lens: sharp, nice bokeh and colors. Obvious vignetting when stopping down. Really looking forward to shooting downtown with this lens (including a tripod). But when?! Anyone out there want to pay me for 2 weeks of carefree test-shooting?

Panasonic GH2 + Cosmicar 25mm f1.4 from Filmersblog on Vimeo.

Same lens, different camera: Panasonic GH2 & Canon 550D compared

I did a practical comparison between the Canon 550D and the Panasonic DMC-GH2. I took along five prime lenses and a tripod and set up both cameras with comparable settings, composition. Alternated camera's with the same lens. Everything was shot in 720p because for all practical purposes that's what I use most. Canon was set to ISO 100 and the Panasonic to 160. Mounted with the Carl Zeiss 25mm and 20mm f4 I upped both to ISO 200. Both were wide open, white balance was set to 6000K. Shutter at 50. Canon sat higher on the tripod because of a batterygrip, therefore a somewhat different perspective which is not solely due to difference in 'cropfactor'.(Canon 1.6 vs Panasonic 2.1)


Canon 550D/T2i & Panasonic DMC-GH2 comparison from Filmersblog on Vimeo.

Coming up: Panasonic DMC-GH2 & Canon 550D compared

I shot some footage with the Canon 550D and the Panasonic GH2 using several different lenses from my recently purchased prime lens collection. Tomorrow I will post my findings in the form of a short video on the blog. For starter's here's a frame from both camera's.

FRAME GRAB FROM CANON 550D

FRAME GRAB FROM PANASONIC DMC-GH2

Mailbox: is there a lens in this envelope?

I bought a 25mm f1.2 CCTV lens for 35 euro's and when I had to sign for an envelope, the last thing I thought was in there was a lens! This thing is so small and yet so light sensitive- how do they do that? It came with an adapter plus an adapter-for-the-adapter?! I tried mounting it with the two adapters but it wouldn't focus. When I just used the big adapter ring, it worked. The focus ring has no stop for infinity so you can just turn it around infinitely(!). On the aperture ring it just says 'open' and 'close' and there is a hard stop on both ends.
Vignetting is obvious when you open the lens up and disappears in crop mode on the GH2. I think for such a toy lens it produces nice images. Here's a few test shots I made. I'll try to post some night shots as well.



25mm 1.2 CCTV lens from Filmersblog on Vimeo.

35 euros: 25 mm f 1.2 lens on the way

I was looking for experiences from others in regards to mounting my 6mm f1.2 lens to my Panasonic GH2 when I came across another CCTV lens, a 25mm f1.2 including adapter and shipping, for only 35 euros. Pictures that were taken with the lens looked really nice and the seller told me I could mount this directly to my GH2. No drilling, shaving or machining! So I ordered it, out of curiosity. Will post footage as soon as I have it! Here's some still images made with this lens:

Mailbox: budget timer remote for GH2

I don't know why it was relatively hard to find a cheap intervalometer for my GH2. I was searching the forums but noticed people were spending $45 and up for a device that shouldn't cost more than 25,- (which is exactly what I paid for my remote for the Canon 550D) And they seemed to be really happy with that deal..! Was Panasonic stuff more expensive or was it just the GH2 stuff that was more expensive? Because apparently the remote that works on the GH1 doesn't work on the GH2, so I was made to understand.

My first night with the GH2

Just me, my dog and the GH2 with Panasonic pancake 20mm 1.7 during our daily (nightly) walk around the block. All of this is literally within 100 meters of my home.
It just shows to prove (or proves to show??) that the beautiful stuff is all around. But the touchscreen focus makes this possible. I would not have even attempted a lot of shots without it (or the swivel lcd for that matter)- too much hassle, can't judge focus from unusual angles.

All handheld (smoothcam filter), no grading... dancing with light!

My first night with the GH2 from Filmersblog on Vimeo.

Mailbox: a 6mm 1.2 for 14,99!

I read about the possibilities of adjusting a Pentax 6mm f1.2 to fit the Panasonic GH2 and use it in crop mode. That's a wide, fast lens and that usually means big bucks. In this case the writer mentioned a 9,99 pricepoint and that's a deal even the most deprived of filmers can afford.
There were more great deals to be found for this lens, the author said, but, as these things go, word spreads fast and many of the really cheap 6mm's were gone in the blink of an eye. But with a little bit of searching on national eBay-sites, I found a German seller who was selling a whole batch of them. It wasn't 9,99 but at 23,- incl shipping still a decent deal. These lenses are B-stock which means they could have imperfections.

Mailbox: power from Germany

Just for the name you should get this one: the Voltcraft Steckernetzgerät. (The German language sometimes sounds like good pastry or juicy sausages) It's less than half the price (26,-) of the overpriced Panasonic ac adapter and I can hereby confirm that it works perfectly in combination with the DC Coupler.

Conrad Electronics went totally nuts with the foam and box (it's an adapter, not a Swarovski egg) but at least they take their packaging seriously.

Mailbox: an adapter for my prime lenses!

Now I'm finally able to mount my set of prime lenses both on my Canon 550 and the Panasonic GH2! Received my M42 to micro 4/3 adapter and it mounted to my camera and to the 5,- Raynox 25mm without a problem. Awkward that I paid 5 times as much for the adapter than I did for the lens...

Sharp lens, watch the cut

Finally able to play with my GH2, Canon 50mm 1.4 since I received my FD to micro 4/3 adapter yesterday. This a very sharp lens and so is the subject matter. Shot at 720P, no grading, no injuries.

Sharp lens, watch the cut from Filmersblog.nl on Vimeo.

Mailbox: an adapter for my Canon FD 50mm!

From somewhere between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, a Russian Israeli by the name of Alexander Shkolnikov sent me a brown envelope containing a black metal ring. Today it dropped on my doormat in Amsterdam, I opened it, photographed it and connected it to my GH2. A small chain of events which, because I chose to write about it, will not go unnoticed. (And that was my contemplation for the day.)

True 24P out of the Panasonic GH2

24P out of the GH2 is wrapped in a 50i container, if I have read well. Now I'm not the most technical of persons. As long as it works I don't have to know how or why. But luckily for me and and many others like me, there are users and consumers very much involved in the inner workings of the soft and hardware that make up our cameras.
They know that these camera's can do better and they set out to prove it. Now someone has been able to figure out a way to record true 24P through HDMI onto an external recorder. It's a big deal, not necessarily because you get a much cleaner image but because it opens the door to many more possibilities on the GH2: the camera is not the impenetrable vault everyone thought it was. Here's the thread discussing this new development: http://tinyurl.com/6azfoya