28mm wide angle video

So I finally fronted up the cash for a tripod on the weekend, after weeks of indecision. I ended up going for the Manfrotto 701HDV head with 755XB legs. I’ll post a full review here soon, with lots of pretty pictures, but for now I’ll just say that it is a thing of Italian beauty. Rock solid still shots, perfect pans.  I can tell this baby is going to do a lot of miles over the next few years.

Also obtained in the last week was a new wide angle lens for the twoneil adapter, which is actually the point of this post.  Having used the twoneil with a 50mm lens for the last 6 months, overall I find the ‘closeness’ of the 50mm a little restrictive. In general I don’t like getting too close to things, or rather, I like keeping my distance. With the 50mm lens I could never get far enough away to improve the scope of my shots. Great for close ups and depth of field, but I was itching to practice my shot composition a little more.

Hence I purchase a 28mm 2.8 AIS Nikkor wide angle lens, second hand off ebay. Why AIS? Well mostly because from what I have gathered from various opinion leaders across the web, AIS lens’ are generally better constructed than some of the newer plastic ones. It ended up cheaper purchasing a second hand AIS lens than sourcing a brand new one – AIS lenses also tend to be quite hard to come across, though regularly pop up on ebay.

Anyway, with new tripod slung over my shoulder I headed out on Sunday morning to take some shots, the below video is the result.

Overall I’m really pleased with the new scope the wide angle has opened up, and so far the increase (decrease?) in aperture (1.8 to 2.8) hasn’t had any noticeable effect. I will say that this is also the first video to use the twoneil plus attachment (ie achromat) which seems to have done a really good job of crisping up the edges of the picture and pretty much eliminating vignetting. Compared to the crisp video below, my previous videos look very muddy.

I’m also using HDV50i mode with shutter priority set to 125.  Switching between this and 25fps + cinemode I witnessed a noticeable drop in colour and vibrancy and hence I thought I would give it a go on the new setting. I like the result. It’s much crisper, and personally I can’t see much difference in “movie” like texture. That could of course be because I don’t have many closeups of people. Give it a go and see if you like the results.

Hope you enjoy. Review of tripod coming soon.

P.S. Oh and yes, I finally figured out how to embed vimeo videos into wordpress.

Best final cut pro settings for Vimeo

Every person who gets into videography as a hobby is going to eventually ask themselves: what video settings do I use?

Some people will be using Sony Vegas, others iMovie, I just happen to be using Final Cut Pro which has about 30+ input and output options available for importing your masterpiece from tape and exporting it for others to see.  Since this has been an ongoing question for me, I thought I’d provide a bit of clarity and a link to one of my favourite how-to videos.

Best FCP settings for importing video from the Canon Hv30

Import or “Capture” settings largely depend on the resolution and framerate of the video camera you shot the footage with. As I use the Canon Hv30 (PAL), I import using the Final Cut Pro setting “HDV” and start a sequence using “HDV – 1080i50″. This seems to be pretty standard for most high definition cameras and works well for me.

Best FCP export settings for Vimeo

Ok so this one took me a LOT longer to find. I was going out of my mind for a while. First off, realise that when I say export, I really mean “compress”.  The “Export – Quicktime Movie” in FCP will not produce a video capable of being uploaded to Vimeo. Don’t make the mistake as many times as I did. For Vimeo you’ll actually need to choose “Using Quicktime Conversion” or “Using Compressor”. Compressor is a companion product for FCP, Quicktime is well…Quicktime.

Now that you’re in the right area, you should have a look at Vimeo’s general guidelines as they are essential for the next part of your export journey. Whatever program you are using, you should see the settings mentioned by Vimeo hidden in the tabs somewhere. If you end up using Quicktime Conversion, the guidelines are pretty much all you’ll need to work it out, so I won’t go into it. Unfortunately, results from Quicktime Conversion tend to vary in quality, hence why Apple invented Compressor.

Compressor is definitely more complex, as it’s designed for professionals. I, quite obviously, am not a professional, hence why I love it when people make videos on how to do this stuff. The video below contains all the instructions necessary to make the most of Compressor for uploading videos to Vimeo. Happy exporting!

Compressor Settings for Vimeo

New back beach video

I found a few spare shots from a recent trip to New Zealand that I hadn’t found a proper home for. I cut it together in about half an hour last night and the result is a pretty good approximation for what it felt like to walking along that prehistoric beach dragging my feet through the jet black sand. The beach’s name I have no idea, but New Plymouth locals call it the “back beach”.

Some of the shots are a little too long, but the colours are so vivid that I found it difficult to bring myself shorten them. I think the video is a great example of how brilliant the low light capability of the HV30 is. The footage is captured using a DOF adapter (which actually makes it a little harder sometimes to shoot in low light) so I’m absolutely thrilled that even with that light loss, the HV30 was able to step up to the mark. There are no complaints from me with regard to the HV30’s ability to capture magnificent low light scenes.

I’ve also performed zero colour correction and the master footage looks about 10 times better – I have yet to master compressor settings in FCP. This is straight off the camera, into FCP for some editing and straight out into Vimeo. I hope you like it.

Happy shooting.

Anniversary DOF adapter video

I’ve been a bit quiet since getting back from overseas, mostly because I’ve been cooking up a new DOF adapter video for my wonderful partner Monique. Last night, after much swearing, I finally manged to finish it. You can see the results by clicking the video below.

It’s shot with and without the twoneil DOF adapter and features images from my D70. It’s not perfect, as I had a deadline to hit (our anniversary was today) and I had some last minute “issues” with Final Cut Pro exporting, namely when I used teh “Export using Quick Time Conversion” in FCP, the resulting video is awfully washed out – losing most of the intense colour grading achieved naturally using the twoneil adapter. I tried a few different encodes on separate settings, but no effect.

I’ve looked up the exporting issue briefly on the net, but strangely it’s never affected any of my other videos when I’ve used the same settings. If anybody has any enlightening ideas, I would love to hear them. Also bizarrely, when I play the .avi using VLC the colour is much much better. So I’m beginning to wonder if it’s a Quicktime player thing or a FCP thing?

Anyhoo, hope you like the new video. I will be back with more posts soon.

Manfrotto 560B monopod review

I have returned from the land of the long white cloud and am now ready to review the Manfrotto 560B monopod.

Unfortunately, after four weeks abroad I have little else to add to my initial impressions of the monopod I gave a month ago: the 560B is wonderful.

A quick recap: before my requisite work siesta I was looking for a way to increase the stability of shooting with the Twoneil adapter without the need to pack a bulky tripod. The Manfrotto 560B seemed a nice tradeoff; it snaps down to about 60cm, provides panning support and stability, weighs just under 1.5kgs and doesn’t take up too much room in my suitcase. In fact, strange as it may sound, throughout my time abroad I never really felt burdened by the 560B; hefted in your hand it can just feel like a weighty stick, and for some reason that feels natural to a neanderthal like me.

Over the course of my trip I took the 560B out pretty much everyday, hefting it most times over my shoulder like you would carry a club. The lever snap locking system feels incredibly secure, so much so that I rarely took the camera off while tramping through the wilderness (urban or otherwise). After a while I forgot altogether (whilst stumbling over rocks and skreet) that the camera was perched so delicately 6 feet off the ground behind my back.

Most of the time I would take the monopod down a few notches for a little bit more peace of mind, but it was always a very quick “stand and start shooting” process. Though I would stop short of saying that you could use it for a walking stick – you invest a lot in the smooth operation of those little feet.

Panning is an art, and I have yet to master it.  The video below is the first part of my holiday and much of it was taken in the Tongariro National Park where the wind is reliably strong, hence some of the footage is a little shaky.  This I don’t believe is the fault of the monopod as much as my own general shakiness.

Following the advice from someone on Vimeo, I turned off the stability control on my Hv30. If left on, it can supposedly screw with panning – making the picture jump around unecessarily. Unfortunately it also means you take a small hit to the smoothness of all your shots (in my opinion). If you remember, the first video I did with the monopod was without DOF adapter (the main culprit of camera shake), so really this was the first time I’d really used the monopod at all for it’s true purpose: to smooth out shots with the adapter.

A worthy comparison is between the video above and the video I first shot with the twoneil some months ago (handheld).  The improvement is easily noticeable – though not as much as if the adapter wasn’t on at all.  I would not have dared trying some of the pans and camera movements performed in the above video without the monopod.

Overall I am very impressed with the Manfrotto 560B – whilst the shots still exhibit some shake, many of these were taken on the fly in awkward situations and resting upon unstable terrain with the wind blowing quite heavily. Yes the dream of perfectly stable shots still haunts me, but I also realise I would quite likely have never taken the time to take many of the shots I did were it not for the ease of setup the 560B provides. Always in search of the perfect picture, my partner and I travel with a significant amount of camera equipment (both video, digital still and film cameras) and right at this moment, lugging an additional tripod around with me on holiday would just add to the feeling that we are a travelling paparazi sideshow.

In the past few months I have been exposed to more and more professionally produced movies and user videos that employ a more relaxed approach to image stability. I am finding that this approach is more akin to the visions I have in my head and plays to the strengths and weaknesses of my own equipment setup.

Thanks to it’s three little fit and central column pivot system and with enough time, practice and imagination, I believe the Manfrotto 560B monopod will produce some truly unique looking shots to rival those of a conventional tripod. I have barely scratched the surface.

Manfrotto 560B Monopod Video

Ok so it took me a week, but finally I managed to cut together a Manfrotto 560B monopod video comparison using my HV30 with/without the monopod. I think the results speak for themselves:

Manfrotto 560B Monopod Video

When I took these shots I had only just purchased the Manfrotto 560B, so I was by no means practiced with it’s use.  It was actually the first time I had put a camera on the top and gave it a whirl.

The stability and control you get from the 560B is very impressive. Sure you can still see a little shake in the corners of the screen, but compared to me attempting a handheld pan, using the monopod gives the stability of a tripod without the complications of three legs.

In the video I have preceded each segment with a label of whether I was using handheld or monopod, and I have tried to take (approximately) the same style of shot for ease of comparison.  One of the end shots is of a water bird (I think a Kingfisher) paddling around the shallows on its own. I left that in as I think it’s a very cute shot, but also demonstrates how the monpod assists in smoothly tracking moving subjects.  I was standing in the one spot when I took that particular shot, using the pan and lean of the 560B to help keep the bird in shot.

As an aside, last night I managed to fix my broken twoneil adapter and tried a few shots out with the monopod. As many will remember, my biggest challenge with the DIY DOF adapter was getting a decent shot that wasn’t ridiculously shaky.

I can say with confidence that anyone wanting to improve the stability of their shots while using a DIY DOF adapter without the need for a heavy tripod, should purchase the 560B immediately.

I will post up some new footage when I get back from holiday.  Hope you enjoy!  And of course, let me know whether it helps.

New 35mm DOF adapter video

New 35mm dof adapter video. I just finished another test video for the twoneil 35mm dof adapter and this one I got some things right and other things not so right.

I discovered you can overcome camera shake with a tripod, and then further discovered that light tripods do not perform very well in heavy wind (duh!). Once again it’s a collection of various scenes from around Perth, mostly shot by the water this time.  I’ve started to get used to the upside down element, but have yet to find a viable solution to camera shake (that doesn’t cost me an arm and a leg).

This video was shot and edited before my recent purchase of the Manfrotto 560B monopod. I will have footage of that baby later this week.  For now though, my DOF adapter is in need of repair, so I can’t try out the effect of the monopod on video shot with the adapter.

Hope you like it.

New DOF 35mm Adapter Video

First Twoneil Video

It was more than a month ago that I placed an order for my twoneil 35mm adapter.  At that stage I didn’t even have a HV30.  Now I have both, and I have been waiting till the two of them came together in perfect union before I posted the results.

HV30 with Twoneil Adapter and 90mm Macro Lens

But first, why did I buy the twoneil?

The spend thrift in me so wanted to shell out for the well regarded Letus Mini, but at US$1099 (and factoring in the small hairline crack in my bank account) it was never going to happen. Shopping from Australia meant that in the past few weeks the price of the Letus has almost doubled. In the end I figured why go to the moon when all you want to do is see the earth from space? I went halfway, shelled out about AU$300 for the Twoneil to test the 35mm waters.  Let me assure you, the water feels good. Damn good.

Prior to the adapter arriving I bought my HV30 and had practiced with it on the way to and from work. The first thing that struck me in those early days is how optimistic my film making ambitions were prior to purchasing the camera.  Other than some brief time with a video camera in uni, I haven’t touched one in more than 10 years.  I’ve always been pretty skilled with a still camera, and I guess I assumed that those skills would naturally transform over to the moving image.

Wrong.

There may indeed be natural Steven Spielberg’s out there who pick up their first video camera and start laying down gold instantly, but I’m not one of them.

Aside from the very basics of shot composition, shooting great video is nothing like taking a great photo. For one, subjects in a video shot move, and continue to move into and out of your shot. While that might seem obvious, when you attempt for the first time to capture movement artistically, you’re met with a number of factors you’ve never had to worry about before, including shifting light, movement of the frame, moving focus, shifting exposure levels, not to mention all the intricacies and opportunities that the editing process reveals.

Aside from some post-production time, a single photo stands on its own almost immediately after you capture it. The moving image does not. Most of the time you need to string together 20 or more shots to product even the briefest of vignettes. Taking the shot is only 25% of the work required to produce a finished product.

What I’m getting at is that in the past few weeks I have come to the realisation that capturing the moving image artistically requires a whole new set of skills to be learnt and practiced. I have been taking still photos since I was 11, hence I’ve had a long time to evolve my skills. Sure some of my video skills will build upon the fundamentals of taking a good photo, but it was slightly soul destroying to realise a few weeks ago that the moving images I had been capturing in my head were much harder to capture in real life.  My first hour of video (captured over 3 weeks) was pretty much useless when I came to edit it.

But I didn’t give up. By the end of my second tape things were starting to look half salveagable, and then my twoneil 35mm adapter arrived.

This thing is a wonderful contraption and, as I hope you can see from my first scrambled test shots, really lifts the opportunities for artistic home movie endeavours. The movie below was shot hastily on a combination of 50mm and 90mm Macro lenses. Let me know what you think.

Other more recent videos using the Twoneil 35mm adapter:

• Sunny Road
• Little Red Riding Hood
• M is for Monique

It’s been a while…

Apologies for the absence, and the random template changes over the last couple of weeks. I have been working like a crack addict at my new job and haven’t had a chance to entertain my inner spend thrift of late.  But all that is past now as tonight I re-engaged my HV30 chip of desire and forked out AU$300 for a Twoneil DOF Adapter for the HV30 I don’t actually have.

Yes that’s right, I just purchased a DOF adapter for a camera I don’t even own.  Am I crazy? Not entirely. The DOF Adapter will take almost 60 days to reach the land down under, hence I now have just 60 days until I simply must buy a HV30.  Do you see the beauty in that logic?  I have finally made a decision, if somewhat indirectly, to purchase my long talked about, forever researched, HV30.

To kick off my 60 day countdown in my next post I will look at my decision to buy the twoneil adapter as opposed to some of the other more luxurious models going round at the moment.

Until then, check out this awesome Twoneil DOF Adapter channel on Vimeo – I doubt your wallet will survive the tempation…

Best tripod for HV30/20

It never ends. You decide on a great camcorder, then get lured into a great DOF adapter. You find the adapter, you need a lens. You find a lens, you need a tripod.

So lets look at why. The problem with every small consumer camcorder is image stabilisation. You can only give so much stability when you’re holding something that weighs less than a dictionary in your hand. If you then stick a great big DOF adapter on the end, the potential for vibration only increases.

So that’s where a tripod comes in.

There are two main types: a tripod made for a still camera; and a tripod made for a moving or video camera.

A still camera tripod is designed in such a way so as to keep a camera in a stationary fixed position whilst taking a photo. It usually provides horizontal and vertical movement and is able to flip the camera on its side for portrait shots. The core aspect once again is stability for a single stationary shot.

A tripod designed for a video camera needs a different kind of stability. Video camera tripods need to pan and tilt, but they need to do so as smoothly as possible to avoid disruption to the image. Hence why good video camera tripods tend to come with “fluid heads”.

How to buy a tripod for the HV30
Let’s start with some basics. When you buy a tripod, what you actually get is a combination of legs and a head, either of which you can buy separately.

The Legs: The heavier the legs, generally the more stable your tripod will be. There is a range of carbon fiber models available that reduce weight whilst retaining strength – but once again, more weight means less movement. The decision is thus around weight. If you’ve just gone and bought a very light, very portable camcorder, it may seem like a rough deal to lug around a heavy tripod. But if you want rock solid steady pictures, then you’re not going to get past this option.

The Head: You want to make sure you’re getting a tripod head designed for video, not for stills. That means look for a fluid head that talks about pans and tilts. The more you pay, (generally) the more smooth the pan. Most video cameras will lock into any head, so you shouldn’t have any problem with screws and the like.

Putting it together: There is two different weight ratings you’ll find on a tripod + head setup: weight and load. Don’t get them confused. “Weight” is what you’ll be carrying around on your back (ie the weight of the tripod + head). “Load” is how much weight the tripod can comfortably carry. The HV30 weighs less than a kilo, but if you start adding a lens, lens adapter and rails to the package, you’re looking at a total weight of over 2kg for your camera. Slap on a larger lens and you can quickly over balance a tripod with a near 2kg load rating.

Best tripod + head to buy for the HV3
I’m being a little cheeky using that heading, as the best one to buy will be the one that works for you. But as this blog is of the “why did I…” kind, I’m sticking with it. The two front runners for tripods for the HV30 was the very cheap and very well recommended Velbon 7000 (tripod + head) and the Manfrotto 745BK Tripod with a Manfrotto 701RC2 head or alternatively the Manfrotto 055MFV Tripod with the same head.

The Velbon comes well reviewed as is damn cheap. It weighs a total of 3.4kg and can take a load of just under 4.5kg. You can pick it up for around US$80-110 – which makes it a steal.

The Manfrotto is Italian made so makes me go gooey all over. It’s also ridiculously expensive, which appeals to my inner spend thrift.  Every review I’ve read of the 701RC2 head says it’s smooth as a babies bottom. The tripod choice is up to you. The two models I have pulled out are two different weights: 055MFV + head weighs about 2.8kgs and takes a load of about 4kgs; the 745BK tripod + head weighs around 4kg and takes a load of 3.2kg.

The 055MFV + 701RC2 has a price tag of approx US$629 and the 745BK + 701RC2 retails for around US$500.  The Manfrotto range includes carbon fiber models (055MFV) for those who want a little bit less weight on their shoulders.

Conclusion
It’s important to remember that your tripod legs are about you and your shooting habits. If you don’t think you’ll take a tripod out much, then stick with something light (and cheap if you can get it).  If you’re hard core, go with the heavier option. As said, the Manfrotto comes well regarded for long term frequent use. The Velbon is a little heavier and a little clunkier (based on opinions I’ve read) but it’s so darned cheap it would be good even as an initial investment to see whether your usage justifies the extra spend.

Which one will I choose?  I’m tending towards the Manfrotto, mostly because I want something halfway between light and heavy. But I know that the tripod will also be the last thing I buy, so it may end up being the Velbon simply due to the price tag.  Happy hunting!