Sold my doc shot on GH2

Exciting news for the author of this blog: the documentary I'm shooting and co-directing (the other director is my mother) on poet/pop-journalist/feminist Elly de Waard is commissioned by Dutch Public Broadcasting for their renowned documentary series Uur van de Wolf. (The Hour of the Wolf) I'm sure this is the first time a filmmaker named 'Wolf' is making something for Het Uur van de Wolf. Feels like coming home ;-)
Mother and son Wolf have joined film-forces before in 2008, when they collaborated on a portrait of Dutch artist Willem van Malsen. That film was selected for the Netherlands Film Festival and was aired by public broadcaster AVRO.
The documentary on poet de Waard will be shot on a Panasonic GH2 with antique Canon FD lenses. The film is planned to be aired in December of this year, along with the publication of a new book of poetry by de Waard that includes photographs by photographer Frederique Masselink van Rijn (who happens to be my niece. yes, it's all in the family...).
Good times for the filmer behind Filmersblog but less time for the blog... I'm going to try to post more than I've done the past few months and keep you up to date on several exciting new projects and the gear that I use and plan to use. (would love to get my hands on some of that Black Magic...)

Riding the snow (and eating it)

This was the first time I skied in decades and the very first time my son Tommie went snowboarding. (and our first 'father and son vacation'!) The GoPro was a little disappointing this time: hard to get steady shots from my helmet. (I pasted one of the sticky holders on the side of my rented helmet) I think there is some chest-mount that will yield better results. Had a great time skiing and snowboarding with some great people! (There were many more shots I wanted to try but that would have been at the expense of precious skiing time...)

Mailbox: Canon FD 20mm 2.8

CANON FD 20MM F2.8

I really needed a wide angle lens to cover the wide end of my Canon FD lens collection.An obvious choice was the Canon FD 20mm 2.8 because it is generally considered a very good lens and it's fairly fast. But I had my mind set on the Tokina RMC 17mm f3.5.  (more on that one soon!)
Little did I know that I was going to run into my former brother in law who -as it turned out after many years- is really big on prime lenses and has been building an impressive collection over the last 3 to 4 years. I visited him in his home and was delighted to see that the whole house seemed to 'breathe lenses'. The computerscreen showed the familar eBay-page with a big lens on it, there were lenses standing in every corner and cupboard and the livingroom table was turned into a little showcase of special interest lenses. It goes beyond the scope of this entry to delve into the various exquisite pieces of glass he showed me, but you can imagine there were some real rare beauties to be admired.

LIKE MOST LENSES FROM THE CANON FD SERIES: A VERY SOLID LENS

 The talk turned to Canon FD lenses and my brother in law disappeared into a closet and returned with 2 copies of the Canon FD 20mm 2.8. One of them looked like new and the other used, but very good. He had bought the 'like new' one for a very good price and said I could have the other for a good price. How could I resist? So... welcome to the family, Canon FD 20mm f2.8.
First thing I noticed with a big, wideangle piece of glass like this: you need a lens hood to resist flare and low contrast images. I can't wait to go into town to do some testing with this lens and compare it to my other prime 20mm: the Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 20mm f4!

FD 20MM INCLUDING THE FD TO MICRO 43 ADAPTER FOR USE ON GH2

Mailbox: $4 of Chinese stuff

It's nothing mindboggling (to understate it...) but very nice to finally have: an ultra-minijack (2.5mm) to (3.5mm) female jack cable so I can use a decent microphone on my Panasonic GH2. 99 cents shipped- and it even works! ;-)

2.5mm to 3.5mm audio cable for GH2

And for $2,99 I received 2 rear lens caps for micro 4/3 lenses. I didn't need the body caps (Unfortunately I only have one body ;-) and asked the eBay-seller I could get 2 rear caps instead of 1 rear and one body cap. No problem- and now they just sent me 2 sets and charged for one... Now I can leave all my lens adapters on my c-mount lenses (like my Pentax 6mm 1.2) and store them safely. 

M43 lens caps for C-mount lenses

Fun with the 15,- Pentax 6mm 1.2

Took my GH2 with Pentax 6mm lens to the voetbal/football/soccer tournament at my son's club. 10 year old boys (plus the occasional girl) playing some incredible voetbal. But with this lens it was much more fun shooting the emotion around the game than shooting the action itself... Some of these kids are so concentrated on the game you can literally stick a camera in their face and they won't notice...
Here's my very short impression of the day.

Sony's $600,- NEX-5N vs Panasonic's $1000,- GH2

I've played around a little with the Sony NEX-5N in an electronics store during my trip to the USAand really liked the quality of this little gem. Shallow depth of field and interchangeable lenses, comparable to what you can get with a DSLR in a package that slips into your vest pocket!

EOSHD has done a comparison with the GH2. I thought the NEX-5N looked nice in the store... but seeing this... we can conclude that the GH2 is capable of much, much better video. Which is not to say that I wouldn't mind a Sony NEX-5N for Christmas...

Sony NEX 5N versus Panasonic GH2 - EOSHD Review from Andrew Reid on Vimeo.

GH2 airport timelapse

I love the activity in this timelapse, shot at Philadelphia airport on my Panasonic GH2. The window we were looking out at was the perfect frame. My Slik tripod was checked in so I placed the camera on the radiator on the wall. A very nice timelapse except for two frames that went nearly black and I have no idea why...
Since I don't have Quicktime 7 Pro installed on my Macbook Pro, I had to find an alternative to make quick 'n easy timelapses. Well, in no time I found Time Lapse Assembler, a completely free, very simple program that makes timelapsing a breeze! I love it. Who needs Quicktime 7..?

GH2 Airport Timelapse from Filmersblog on Vimeo.

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..?)

Mailbox: Russian Helios 44-2

I just couldn't resist when a Russian made Helios 44-2 came along, a 58mm f2 lens, and I bought it for 20,-
I took it outside to play for a few hours and shot this footage of raindrops in the park. I called it 'dewdrops' because it sounds better ;-)
Unfortunately I couldn't fit my Fader ND filter on the lens to be able to shoot wide open. Most of it is actually almost closed at f16. From what I've seen and read, you get some really funky bokeh with the Helios- which isn't too apparent here. Shots came out nice though and the lens is pretty sharp.

Shot with the Panasonic GH2 and Helios 44-2

Dewdrops from Filmersblog on Vimeo.

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.

Canon's Cinestyle vs Panasonic's Cinema

Sorry about the late post- Google's server was down all day...

Canon 600D Technicolor CineStyle versus GH2 Cinema Mode from Andrew Reid on Vimeo.

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.

abused Pentax 6mm 1.2

SHAVED REAR TURNS GOLD!

I found someone who was willing and able to grind down the rear barrel of my Pentax 6mm 1.2 so that I could focus. Somehow the lens didn't sink low enough into the adapter to be able to focus. After some chiseling and machining about 2 mm is shaved off. And yes, it focuses! But not, to my great disappointment, into infinity...
So I paid someone 20,- to abuse my lens and it is effectively useless. Where did I go wrong? Others have done the same thing and have been more succesful. I'm sure I can fix it. I won't give up. This story is not over yet...
I wanted to try it out anyway and took my GH2 to the Sushi restaurant and was able to steal a few shots of the food before my wife got annoyed with my monomanic behaviour, ordered me to put the camera away and be social...




Modified (abused) Pentax 6mm 1.2 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.

Mailbox: filmlens super comat f1.9 Taylor Hobson

I received another interesting lens today, from Salem, Oregon, USA: a filmlens, 1 inch f1.9 super comat by Taylor, Taylor & Hobson. It's mechanically in great shape, aperture and focus rings run very smoothly, lens looks fine. It's obviously old and has some cosmetic dents and scratches but that only adds to its character. Just wondering: is it possible to get a ND-filter on this one? I'm going to start taking pictures and report back soon!

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: