M2 - Nikon - Just got it, had to test...

Spin,

Yeah it eats up light and the focal length is zoomed when you push out on the barrel. For static shots on wildlife or other subjects it produces great images. So maybe I will pass on the Canon mounts for now.

JK
 
I did a side by side comparison test of the M2 hard mounted and soft mounted. Even though the hard mount is great, what I found by having the M2 closer with the hard mount was that the edges started to lose their sharpness a bit. It's very slight but it was enough to bother me. I guess the zoom to focus ratio in that position isn't optimal. I've moved the M2 back to it's original position using the original lens hood but I have the unit supported underneath the back of the box. This elimiates a lot of the rocking motion you get on the box when you're focusing without a follow focus. Because we're dealing with a hair of a turn on the focus of the camera, any slight movement is like moving it a mile. Being anal about the focus is the key to getting good results out of these adapters. There's nothing worse than shooting a whole project and finding out later half of it was shot soft because we weren't critical in our setup.
 
Spinflight said:
I've moved the M2 back to it's original position using the original lens hood but I have the unit supported underneath the back of the box. This elimiates a lot of the rocking motion you get on the box when you're focusing without a follow focus. Because we're dealing with a hair of a turn on the focus of the camera, any slight movement is like moving it a mile.
Click to expand...

What do you mean "underneath" are you just using the cameras shade and pressing the M2 snug against it to add additional support?

thanks,

chris
 
By adding a little support in the back I'm able to "preload" the box ever so slightly so that the teetering moment is reduced. I may permanently mount it to the box somehow so the box is completely supported in the front and the back which could get rid of the teeter totter altogether.

2046.jpg


2047.jpg


2048.jpg
 
JUST A NOTE: I'VE UPDATED THE VIDEO WITH NEW CLIPS, if anyone cares to see the new shots... I'm really liking my M2 and can't wait to use it on the upcoming scenes and music video. As always focus challanging, but I think I'm starting to get better with the HVX monitor... still need a marshall to see the image upright.

Here's the new movie clip:

http://www.pulsecinema.com/M2DOF/DOG2.mov

chris
 
setup

setup

Spin,

Now I will be able to refer back to this thread when I get my unit. Nice picks and the hand held shot was nice following your dog C-MAC. Cool. Thats what makes this site such a great source for new guys like me to the HVX200. I eat up all the info I can when it comes to this camera. I love it and the endless possibilities that you can create from it.

JK
 
C-Mac said:
You should be able to do better on ebay... I bought faster lenses than the ones from you link... I bought them on ebay for under $2k, Nikon 85mm f1.4, Nikon 50mm 1.4, Nikon 35mm 1.4, Nikon 20mm 2.8.... A fast 105mm should not be a back breaker. I'm actually thiking about getting a zoom 80-200mm for the long shots. I bought my Nikon 35mm 1.4 used from B&H... All of my lenses are Ai-S not that that matters, Ai lenses would be fine also. These lenses from your link are geared for a follow focus and that is nice. I just ordered the redrock follow focus, hopefully their gears will work well...



chris
Click to expand...

Hey all - FYI we are now shipping an improved version of the microFollowFocus that eliminates the play in the gearing. We also have an inexpensive user-installable upgrade available for existing microFF owners.

Details here: http://redrockmicro.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=19568#19568

Thanks to everyone for feedback and suggestions on improvements.

Cheers

Brian
 
Jim Kinsey said:
Spin,

Nice picks and the hand held shot was nice following your dog C-MAC. Cool. Thats what makes this site such a great source for new guys like me to the HVX200. I eat up all the info I can when it comes to this camera. I love it and the endless possibilities that you can create from it.

JK
Click to expand...


Hey Jim,

Thanks, I used to shoot a lot more in just natural light situations, but in the last 2 years I've really just been editing feature films, so this year I've comitted to learning more about lighting DPing.

The HVX is a great tool with or without the M2, but I'm loving the M2 in my first couple days.

I wrote a couple journal entries, nothing fancy at all you may find them a bit helpful, here's the links. They show images from the HVX without adapter.

I'll right a journal entry about the M2, my Nikon, and the Follow Focus, after my next 2 shoots.

Journal Entries - HVX - P2 :

http://www.pulsecinema.com/P2_WEB/P2Jour.html

and

http://www.pulsecinema.com/CMV_ARTICLE/CHESH_J.html

regards,

chris
 
bvalente said:
Hey all - FYI we are now shipping an improved version of the microFollowFocus that eliminates the play in the gearing. We also have an inexpensive user-installable upgrade available for existing microFF owners.

Details here: http://redrockmicro.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=19568#19568

Thanks to everyone for feedback and suggestions on improvements.

Cheers

Brian
Click to expand...

Yup,

I ordered mine on thursday the 18th. I'm hoping to hear that it ships early this coming week.

Hopefully the gears work well with my set of nikons... 85mm 1.4 Ai-S, 50mm 1.4 Ai-s, 35mm 1.4 Ai-s, and 20mm 2.8 Ai-s

regards,

chris
 
Articles

Articles

C-mac,

Nice journal entires! I really enjoyed those articles. Man redundancy is key. I have 2 firewire 800 Graid mini's that I use to offload my P2 cards to but they are not on any raid. Can I raid those running just off the bus. I am headed to Argentina to produce a fly fishing show in 10 days... Most of the aquisition will be DV but I will be offloading as much HD as I can to those two drives i.e timelapse, wildlife, scenics etc... Should i raid those two drives and hope for the best or risk it and have 2 times the storage?

JK
 
Jim Kinsey said:
C-mac,

Nice journal entires! I really enjoyed those articles. Man redundancy is key. I have 2 firewire 800 Graid mini's that I use to offload my P2 cards to but they are not on any raid. Can I raid those running just off the bus. I am headed to Argentina to produce a fly fishing show in 10 days... Most of the aquisition will be DV but I will be offloading as much HD as I can to those two drives i.e timelapse, wildlife, scenics etc... Should i raid those two drives and hope for the best or risk it and have 2 times the storage?

JK
Click to expand...

Thanks, nothing fancy, just some thoughts on my experiences. I've never raided to seprate firewire drives. I don't see why it would not work, but it might be unstable, so you might want to pre-test it. I always double back up... it's too big a risk for the price of hard drives. You can always capture on one and back up immediately on the other... I've had to do that before. I just know that I've had way to many hard drives, of every brand, go bad, to only have one copy... I generally like to buy cases that I can swap drives out... saves money.

chris
 
"M2 Screen runout test "

For anyone having clearity issues with your M2, here's a simple test you can you can do. Shoot something at 60 frames per second at a 180degree shutter (1/48 of a second). Watch the footage played back at normal speed and look to see if you can see the screen going in and out of the footage. Shooting reflective surfaces usually is best for this test. If you see screen anomolies in the picture you have a screen that's not spining perfectly flat on the motor. I had this issue. I took the box apart and spun the screen by hand. What I found was really surprising to me. The screen was wobbling quite a bit on it's axis. So this meant no matter what the focus setting was, it was always going to be off once the disc started to spin.

Here's how you get the wobble out. Take the box apart and very carefully loosen the nut taking great care not to touch the screen. Just hold the screen by the edges. The rest is a lot of trial and error. Two things now affect how flat the screen spins. 1. The position of the lock washer 3. The tightness of the nut.

You have to have a lot of patience while you do this because it can take some time. It took me an hour to finally get it perfect. Just rotating the screen a bit on the shaft could make a difference. What I found to be the most key ingredient was how much to tighten the nut as well as lock washer placement. Remember the lock washer splines will put pressure on different parts of the screen in different amounts because of tolorence issues. The screen itself has different flex properties from one part to the next due to the grain structure of the material. Sometimes just a hair turn on the washer from it's original position can mean the difference of a true flat spin and one that wobbles. Same goes for the nut. You can tighten the nut a fraction of a millimeter and see a huge difference. After 40 minutes of playing around with this I got it to where the wobble was hardly detectable. At this point, I almost packed it back up but then the anal side of me said I could get it better. Sure enough after tweaking on it some more, I got it to spin exactly true. There was not a visual wobble to to be seen.

Shot some 60 fps test and the issue is gone.

If you're not mechanically inclined I don't recommend you do this, but if you want the clearest, cleanest possible image you can get from your M2, checking this one thing will make a world of difference.
 
Last edited:
Spinflight said:
"M2 Screen runout test "

Here's how you get the wobble out. Take the box apart and very carefully loosen the nut taking great care not to touch the screen. Just hold the screen by the edges. The rest is a lot of trial and error. Two things now affect how flat the screen spins. 1. The position of the lock washer 3. The tightness of the nut.
Click to expand...

Spinflight,

Thanks for the info, I'm gonna check mine out tomorrow and see if I have this issue.

chris
 
C-Mac,

Check it and let me know what you see. The footage I'm shooting now makes everything I shot before look like garbage. I've always wanted the picture to have that snap and I could never get until now. The true flat spin of the disc has made all the difference in the world.

If you look at some of the footage on the RedRock site you'll see what I'm talking about. Some of it is really clean and sharp and some of it just plain blurry and soft. This all has to do with first and foremost the alignment of the spining screen. It doesn't matter how good your lenses are. If that screen isn't spining true, that PL lens is going to look like you shot your project through ten layers of diffusion.
 
Spinflight said:
C-Mac,

Check it and let me know what you see. The footage I'm shooting now makes everything I shot before look like garbage. I've always wanted the picture to have that snap and I could never get until now. The true flat spin of the disc has made all the difference in the world.

If you look at some of the footage on the RedRock site you'll see what I'm talking about. Some of it is really clean and sharp and some of it just plain blurry and soft. This all has to do with first and foremost the alignment of the spining screen. It doesn't matter how good your lenses are. If that screen isn't spining true, that PL lens is going to look like you shot your project through ten layers of diffusion.
Click to expand...

If I have a wobble, it's ever so slight... I'd be very curious to see yours to see how smooth you've gotten it as compared to mine... Are you using a T-wrench to adjust the bolt on the motor?


chris
 
I just used a simple wrench. Mine was so extreme, I had to make an adjustment. It wobbled like a bent bike tire. If yours is ever so slight you might not want to take the time to mess with it if you're not getting the screen anomolies when shooting 60fps. Like i said earlier, now my screen has no detectable wobble whatsoever. It's as perfect as It's going to get. Now I can shoot with confidence knowing that once I set my focus, it's going to be right when I turn it on.

I shouldv'e taken some video of it before I messed with it so you could see how bad it was. Now I'm giddy with the adaptor because I'm getting crisp results I could never get before.
 
Last edited:
Spinflight said:
I just used a simple wrench. Mine was so extreme, I had to make an adjustment. It wobbled like a bent bike tire. If yours is ever so slight you might not want to take the time to mess with it if you're not getting the screen anomolies when shooting 60fps. Like i said earlier, now my screen has no detectable wobble whatsoever. It's as perfect as It's going to get. Now I can shoot with confidence knowing that once I set my focus, it's going to be right on when I turn it on.

I shouldv'e taken some video of it before I messed with so you could see how bad it was. Now I'm giddy with the adaptor because I'm getting crip results I could never get before.
Click to expand...


Do you have a short clip of what this looked like? Could you post?

chris
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top