Tagged with review - Personal View Talks

LanParte URSA Shoulder Rig

andyharris — Thu, 25 May 2017 12:10:21 +0000

Here's a review that I made of the LanParte Shoulder Rig:

I compared it to the stock item that the USRA Mini comes with. On balance (pun intended!) LanParte have done a good job - I certainly enjoyed the mobility it gives.

Wolfcrow Review GH5

alcomposer — Tue, 23 May 2017 01:33:54 +0000

Quote of 2017: "...by the end of this [review] if you still cannot make up your mind on whether you should buy this camera or not, then maybe the best thing to do is not buy the camera at all, and maybe not buy any camera."

Strange thing is that I find that online everyone seems to 'buy first' - 'return later'. In Australia I don't think we have such amazing return policies.

I remember when I purchased a product from B&H (In the physical B&H shop) the sales assistant told me to use the product- and return it if I didn't like it for 'any reason'.

Hollywoodland: The Climactic Sequence

chauncy — Sun, 04 Dec 2016 03:27:55 +0000

I take a look at the unique ending sequence of the film "Hollywoodland"

My Gear Reviews

madmarkfilms — Sun, 05 Jun 2016 16:59:22 +0000

I'm new here, but I've done a couple videos in the last 15 years! I'm doing mostly short films and since a year, gear video reviews.

If you're interested, you can have a look at my work on gear video reviews here: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxnu1WwoCPfdwE2lQvNCNSJ3WvuW6fArX

Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/album/3828347

You can browse my profiles, I've also uploaded some short films that I made in the last years. Most of them (up to 2012) were made for a contest hosted on the now dead, hv20.com forum. I've done two short films for a contest on a facebook page, the first I shot never made it on time, but I finished it a couple months later. The last, a short film I won the first place, gave me a Kovacam Stabilizer as a prize. Not bad! I purchased the vest and arms to complete the kit, and eventually made my first video review!

Thanks for your time!

Need advice for a crowdfunding pitch video

Adam_Mercier — Sat, 23 Jan 2016 13:09:22 +0000

Hello all, I would need some advice on a crowdfunding video, could you help me improve our video?

The color timing is not done, and the voiceover is placeholder, but is the general structure working for you? Do you feel like we should give more technical details about the product on the video? Thanks for your time

Adam

Big LED panels - experiences?

RRRR — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 17:18:17 +0000

I´ve been trying to find some info on BIG led panels (panels which can replace f.i. 4-bank kinoflo´s) but it seems very scarce. Have you tried any, found any good products?

AKG C111 LP head worn microphone tested against Rode Pin Mic

andyharris — Sun, 20 Sep 2015 16:35:03 +0000

Here's a quick review of the AKG C111 LP microphone. It only really come with a specification sheet and a single diagram that may suggest how it should be fitted. In the absence of anything else on line I've put this together:

I video presentations for Reading Geek, who have recently moved to a very noisy venue, hence the test.

What's your top favorite zombie films?

Gardner — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 12:29:44 +0000

Mini movie first on gh4 in 4k

driftwood — Thu, 01 May 2014 06:28:20 +0000

Details to follow. Currently in Falmouth.

Philomena' the movie, DP'd by Robbie Ryan= Beautifully shot!

maranfilms — Sun, 30 Mar 2014 11:11:42 +0000

Went yesterday to watch this film, I loved the cinematography. I only wish more movies were shot this way. There was no CGI, or ridiculous un-motivated shots to stimulate the dumbed down unappreciative masses. Nope, just good old cinema at it's best, where shot composition, natural lighting, and film stock are used as a tool to tell the story and create a feel unmatched by silly computer generated effects, even though the majority of the film was shot on the Arri Alexa. However, when the s16 made it's appearance, it worked wonderfully well to convey time change and a feeling of saddened loneliness. The acting was also fantastically convincing, there's no silicone injected duck lip plastic people with bleached white Chiclet teeth and a side of Botox, really, It didn't need the Hollywood glamour and all the façade that goes with. The acting, cinematography and script was more than adequate to tell this story. My only critique was the scoring, don't get me wrong, it's not that it was bad, I just feel it didn't convey as much emotion as it could have, of course it's subjective and being that I'm life long musician, I tend to be somewhat critical. Others may disagree. In closing, If you want to kill a couple hrs. and gorge yourself with some cinematic eye candy, it's well worth the price of admission and a box of popcorn.

Interesting review of the Leica M9

ahbleza — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 15:35:37 +0000

We all know that Leica has an awesome name as a primary camera for image quality, but in this review, some aspects of the shooting workflow were not considered ideal.

http://www.marco.org/2012/12/28/leica-m9

Criticisms include lack of autofocus and poor ISO performance, although it's great for street and landscape shots. The lens of course is superb.

Glide Gear Stabilizer Review

matt_gh2 — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 02:25:49 +0000

Just got the Glide Gear Stabilizer and thought I would do a quick review. It's modeled off the Steadicam Merlin design. The build quality is very good. Bottom line - it works, and for $73 on amazon, it's pretty cheap. I did some test shots walking up and down stairs, as well as around the house, moving forward at times, panning at times...and it's smooth. It definitely removes all the microshakes you might get when trying to walk. I watched their 3 minute YouTube video which gives instructions on balancing, and spent 5-10 minutes working on balancing my GH2 with lens, lens adapter, and small rubber hood, and it was fairly easy to achieve nice balance. By the 3rd test shot, I had gotten the hang of it. A bit heavy after awhile, but nothing too bad, and I suppose that's normal for stabilizers that require you to operate it with one hand. At $73 it's a good deal, and with a reasonable amount of practice, I believe you could achieve some very smooth moving shots.

Review of the Roland BK-7m arranger module

markussen — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 08:26:26 +0000

for those of you using midi, and midi controlled modules for creating/playing music/soundtracks

Just today noon MEST my review of the Roland BK-7m arranger module was published on the

http://www.roland-arranger.com

Have fun reading... and even more letting your musicality and creativity free!!

Kurt Markussen

The GH2 on the big screen

OSGondar — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:57:07 +0000

Dearest Friends

In the past i have been far more active here than in the last few months. Partly because ive been busy with filming rather than patch development. Besides @driftwood the genius that he is leaves me no work to do in patching for a long time now.. hehe Thank you btw. In Any case with that said i want to show you the trailer for my new film hitting a few festivals soon shot mostly on my GH2 and an assistant on his cannon. We had a red carpet premiere here in NYC and are now doing the festival circuit. Due to the timing of the release we will be missing some of the major festivals but will enter those next year. Generally i love to do narrative work but in this case i did a documentary which was a bit of a challenge due to the size of driftwood patches... but the quality is worth it!

My request is if you could please help me out so that i can go on to do more work by pressing the like button on my page. I always promote @Vitaliy_Kiselev and the GH2 on any set or project i am involved with. i wold REALLY appreciate some support from the community if you will be so kind. You can also find my GH2 guide on there if you haven't seen it yet, it was popular before the faq went up around here but it still gets plenty of comments.

One of the things that excites me the most about this release is that thanks to @driftwood and @Vitaliy_Kiselev i can continue to prove that the GH2 INDEED has enough quality for the movie theaters! That it is more than just something you compare to other cameras on vimeo!! I've had poeple dispute this claim that it does not belong on the big screen in my forums and to them is say keep complaining... its not exactly a scarlet FINE but the rest of us are putting the gh2 EVEN with those short comings on the big screen ANYWAY, its the best camera to me and especially thanks to @driftwood and @Vitaliy_Kiselev who i cant possibly thank enough for their work. In that way i would say they helped with my work and in my opinion NOT indirectly.. with even my career for making the camera everything it is today.. It most definitely boosts my creativity or just work ethic to LOVE my camera, i can never seem to put it down, every single day i shoot something. The last time i loved a camera this much was the DVX100, remember those days?? hehe... aah.. Another Panasonic classic.

I humbly request everyone click like on my page here : http://www.facebook.com/OSGFilms
or like it from my site here http://osgfilms.com/whilewewatch/ (its on the left column)

You can view the imdb page for the film here : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2118550/combined

And last but not least a great review for the film by the huffington post here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-fagin/whilewewatch-a-review-of-_b_1201107.html

Thank you so much if you help me with the likes to promote the work or my page a littte bit, it could really help me move on to my next project. Its always a pleasure to be a part of this community and working toward the GH2 being # 1, May we see many more projects hit the big screen filmed with it!

TrusMT T2 Follow Focus Review

Hunter_H_Richards — Fri, 20 May 2011 13:36:38 +0000

Its been 4 weeks now since I got this thing but ill start from the beginning to make it more interesting:

I was looking for used follow focuses on ebay for dslr use- to my surprise I saw an Arri Mff-1 look-a-like followfocus for sale brand new $399 by "trusmt". $399 sounded way too cheap but after looking at pictures from their website, it felt low enough risk give it a try, keeping a realistic view that if it was only 1/4 as good as the arri I would be happy with it for dslr use (going on $399 vs $1600 for the arri).

It showed up 2 days later in a pretty little box with precision cut foam for holding the goods (wish I still had this to take a photo of the box but I threw it out when we moved a few weeks ago, I was impressed though)

Contents were:

1x Trusmt t2 follow focus http://trusmt.com/proview.asp?id=44

4x Gear rings (4 different sizes)

1x bag of tools and extra screws

1x trusmt catalogue

First reactions:

Visual build test:
I picked it up and looked around the unit for signs of poor manufacturing, I was amazed how well it was made, very solid and couldnt see with my eye anything showing poor work. Colors and anodizing looked nice too.

Gear rings looked good- reminded me of red rock micro (i dont really care much for these but they work and were included "free")

Follow focus feel test:
To make it fair, I have used every mechanical Arri follow focus from ff1 to ff4, including the mff1, the lwff, ect- most chrosziels, as well as most "affordable" ones like redrock/cavision/cinevate- I got spoiled on the arri's and chrosziels for sure.

I spun the trusmt followfocus wheel to see how the gear box felt, It was very well dampened and actually felt good (possibly too well of dampening, but ill get to this later)

"Wow, I cant believe this was $399" I thought

Two handed "play" test:
(no not what your thinking pervert)

I grabbed the handwheel with one hand and with my other hand, i held the drive gear to see how much play there was. it seemed like too much play- then I realzied I needed to tighten the drive gear screw and after that it was only maybe 2mm of play? Didnt take an accurate reading but what ever it was it was very close to the more budget friend followfocuses like redrock for example and much better than the origional redrock follow focus if you ever tried that one. Not to bad for such a cheap follow focus!

Mounting it on the camera:

I placed a gear on my lens and put the followfocus on the rails. It was pretty tight putting it on- maybe the rod spacing distance on the trusmt was slightly too narrow- I tried it on another rail system and it did the same- tiny bit of work to clamp it on to the rails (I was using chrosziel matte aluminum rods, maybe it works better with steel)

It felt pretty good, but I noticed it took a lot of effort to drive the lens with the follow focus- this was probably because the gear box had too much dampaning grease in it as I was using it on a very smooth focusing lens. But it wasnt terrible- Would actually feel perfect on an AF lens as they seem to have near zero dampening or feel to them in the focus ring.

Hard Stops:

This just got in the way for me so I removed the blue disk along with them using the included tools, they just kinda flopped around or if I locked them, wouldnt allow full lens rotation- you may like them on

Alternate opinion:
My friend who mostly produces but shoots some too came and checked out the rig- and after feeling the follow focus said he thought it felt amazing "So much better than my (XXXXXXX more expensive) follow focus I have" (im not going to name names)

4 Weeks later, pros and cons:

Pros:

Looks nice

Really great build for the price, I dont think you can get anything better here at this level

Versatile mounting from the articulating arm

Good "feel" to value ratio (no arri or chrosziel, but for follow focuses under $900- this thing competes well at its price point)

Comes with extra tools/parts

beveled magnetic marking disk

Drive gear can be moved front to back with one screw

Did I mention this is a nice working follow focus for $399!?!

Cons:

Gear Box is too well dampened (not good for cine lenses, but again I dont think its aimed here- its aimed at people using AF lenses)

Hardstops are OK but better to take them off unless you have an extremely short throw AF lens (just remove 2 screws on the handwheel, then 4 screws to remove the blue disk- put the hand wheel back on)

Some play (About 2 mm isnt bad, but I would prefer zero play- but then again who wouldnt!)

A bit heavy

Some torque in the Arm part if you have it up too high, could be beefed up here a bit

Conclusion:

Let me get real- This thing is no Arri MFF-1, its 1/4 of the price- what did you expect? With that said, I do think its more than 1/2 as good the the Arri, which is saying something. Is it going to be my follow focus on my f3? On a red? maybe not, I probably will have to go to Arri for that.

Will trusmt provide good customer support? I dont know

Is every unit made well? I cant tell you

But for $399, I feel I have a great value of a follow focus unit- perfect for any dslr and ideal for any dslr with AF lenses: I.e. The gh2.

If you have a dslr and your looking for something nice looking, well built, that will actually work as a follow focus and you only have $399 and you appreciate taking a bit of risk- I can honestly say this is the best cheapest follow focus ive tried and would recommend it. Hopefully Trusmt will continue to improve on the design and make it even better in the future.

(Disclaimer: I dont know trusmt people so I cant vouch for them, nor have I received any compensation- Im just basing this review and recomendation off of this one follow focus model I bought from them on ebay, do your own dilagence and get other opinions too!)

Some camera porn attached (again, not ideal for an f3, just showing you!):

Review of Canon XA10 XF100 XF105

Vitaliy_Kiselev — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 06:00:22 +0000

Made by Philip Bloom

From: http://philipbloom.net/2011/07/09/video-review-of-the-canon-xa-10-xf100-and-xf105/

Thom Hogan's GH2 mini review

stefanos — Mon, 09 May 2011 17:05:36 +0000

"Panasonic GH-2. So much different, so much the same. I'm still trying to get my head around the GH2. While we've got a new sensor, touch control, and a host of other "changes," what I'm getting out of it in images and video looks a lot like a GH1. (Of course, I hacked my GH1 to get better video out of it.) Given the low clearance prices of the GH-1 these days, I'm very tempted to say "just buy the GH-1." In short, the GH-2 doesn't feel like a "2" to me. More like a " 1.1" or "1.2." But that's okay, because Panasonic's distribution and sales in the US is so screwed up you're not going to find one on your dealer's shelves anyway. And if you do, something else you want with it will be missing (hey Panasonic, where's my AC adapter?). As much as I like the GH-1/GH-2, especially for video, I can't recommend it to anyone here in the US. Maybe it's different overseas somewhere, but here Panasonic has moved from shooting themselves in the foot to something of a gut shot. Skip."

I think he's got some valid points and it's a bit more from a photographic standpoint, but I disagree about the GH2 video mode looking a lot like GH1. There are significant improvements in GH2 video in quality as well as features(ETC, hdmi etc) making it a very good (but not amazing step-up). But.... we all know about a little something that will make it an amazing step-up....:)