XDCAM EX1 on the road blog

[Steve Shovlar]

The Mattebox keeps direct sunlight of the lens. Say you are shooting with the sun low in the sky. It could be below the hood that comes with the EX1 and cause sunspots on the lens.

Or, if you have too much light, using the barn doors helps keep the light levels lower coming into the lens.

Then you have the advantage of using 4x4 filters for a very wide variety of uses.

From polarizers through the grads. Yes a lot of the filter stuff can be done in post, but grads can make a sky sing.

Plus of course it looks super impressive and will definately make you look the real professional in front of your employer.

 

[Tomas Riuka]

yes, but paying 700$... jeez... that is soo expensive for nothing... i understand 100$, but 500... i think that's too much

 

[Matt Gottshalk]

yes, but paying 700$... jeez... that is soo expensive for nothing... i understand 100$, but 500... i think that's too much

There are other options out there.

Plus, chicks dig matte boxes.

 

[Tomas Riuka]

other options? like what?

 

[Steve Shovlar]

I use a mattebox all the time. The Vocas 350 is a super bt of kit. Not cheap but when you have it in your hands you can see why.

There are cheaper alternatives like the Formatt, but it clips onto the lens without rods and might cause extra stress on those camera threads.

 

[philip bloom]

yes, but paying 700$... jeez... that is soo expensive for nothing... i understand 100$, but 500... i think that's too much

it really isn't nothing! Matte boxes and filters are incredibly important and essential in today's filmmaking

 

[Jon Nelson]

Phillip

Can you tell us which matte box (and support) you are using with the basic EX (ie: which one you use without the adapter)

Too bad we have the LCD/mic overhang to work around!

Thanks!

 

[Steve Shovlar]

Can't answer for Phil but my matteox is the brilliant Vocas 350, and it fits only if you put the filters in from the bottom, because of the EX1's overhanging mic. However, it might be quite easy to get the disk which butts up to the EX1 lens extended to completely alleviate this problem. A machine shop could do this easily.

It works perectly with a lens adapter.

http://www.libraprobroadcast.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=vocas-mb350

 

[wartez]

has anyone ever tried using a screw on nd, polarizer or other filter that threads right on to the 35mm lens as opposed to in a mattebox? sometimes it is easier to run and gun without a mattebox, so i wondering if anyone had tried these photo filters instead?

 

[philip bloom]

Quick question for you guys. I am on the Sony stand at this Broadcast forum thing and all my work will be playing on the screen there BUT on Thursday I have this debate panel that I am part of. I have been asked to show one of my shorts...now which one do I show. I am leaning towards the South Bank, any thoughts?

 

[socbret]

I would definitely say that South Bank is my favorite of the EX footage, I say go with that.

 

[booth]

Quick question for you guys. I am on the Sony stand at this Broadcast forum thing and all my work will be playing on the screen there BUT on Thursday I have this debate panel that I am part of. I have been asked to show one of my shorts...now which one do I show. I am leaning towards the South Bank, any thoughts?

I really liked Piccadilly in Furs and My Autumns Done Come. Probably MADC because it has a slight narrative flow. Though there's some really nice exteriors in PIF.

Kew Gardens was also very nice too, especially as it also goes from day to night so it gives some idea of what it looks like in available light.

Were these shorts shot entirely in available light?

 

[philip bloom]

thanks guys. all done with available light

 

[philip bloom]

my site is down currently as it is being revamped. My upload connection is a bit slow, but hopefully be back up in about 4 hours.

 

[cckid]

hi Philip....I think south banks would be the way to go...the richest of them all....and the lighting....just beautiful...you caught some amazing stuff that day...that will sell a bunch of those ex1 cameras...I know i was sold when I saw it...now trying to sell my hvx200pal in order to change for the ex1....I held one yesterday and thought it was smaller and lighter than I thought it would be....

 

[LuckyStudio 13]

Phil,
I would pay some good money when you explain to the old school ENG people, why your EX1 is so much longer than the ordinary EX1 and why are there still SLR lenses attached to that black tube liked apparatus.

 

[philip bloom]

i was explaining it quite a lot to some people yesterday...the concept did baffle many!

 

[spa_edwards]

i was explaining it quite a lot to some people yesterday...the concept did baffle many!

Hello Mr Bloom,

I came down to the live broadcast today to stalk you, which i did!

lol,

I was going to introduce myself today and find get the nitty gritty about the ex1 but you were deep in conversation with some geezers and didnt want to intrude. I had to shoot off for a seminar.

The live broadcast was excellent and i managed to get my hands on the ex1 and get a feel of the camera, plus four seminars during the day which one was about the EX1 by another cameraman called nigel -something-, who also was on your unbiased level in his talk. Smaller than i thought it would be and it is also better than my already high expections were. I cant wait to get this cam.

im glad i went, cheers for letting me know that it was through this blog

 

[Steve Shovlar]

I also went to Video Forum today and had a great day out. Arrived at 9 and didn't leave till way after closing. Could easily have spent a few more hours walking around the stands and viewing the excellent seminars. This event has really taken off and is a big date on the calendar.

Met up with Phil and had a bit of a chat. He was working on the packed to the rafters Sony stand and chatting to a lot of people interested in the camera.

The EX1 was th show stopper, no doubt about it. There were three REDs at the show, but compared to the EX1 they had little of the way of people around them.

Looks like the EX1 is going to take over from where the ZU1 left off, and dominate the field.


Another point. A stall there is selling Formatt 4x4 filters at a tenner each!!! I got 7 for £40! The are normally over £100 each! Some nice grads inc ND 0.6, some tabaccos and corals. Thought I got a good deal, and told Mr Bloom, who somehow wrangled 7 for £30! The b&st*rd!

Oh, and I said hello to Keith Chegwin.

 

[philip bloom]

Actually Steve is not mentioning he bough a lovely .6 pink grad and a nice half purple. Be great for those wedding vids! Personally I wouldn't go over a .4 pink, but hey personal preference!

Good to meet you Steve and all the other guys from this and dvinfo forum.

Been hard work standing up all day talking to everyone about it, also because I am wearing a Sony exhibitors badge I had to explain to everyone that I don't actually work for Sony, just been hired by them for these three days as a broadcast EX1 cameraman. Been enjoyable, i think most people have been impressed by what they saw with it. They have a circle of about 12 cameras pointing at a bloke doing wood sculpting (!) all the way from the a1 to the f23.

Yesterday a guy from a big FX house in Soho was looking at the cameras, mainly at the pricier ones, then someone mentioned the ex1 to him so he was sent to me. He looked at it, saw the specs. Said thats pretty impressive. looked at the picture and said nice but as usual you can see noise in the dark parts of the image. I said really? I then looked closely and yes it was noisy as hell, so I looked on the camera and someone had stuck on full auto so it had AGC on. I turned it off and he was blown away by the clean image. When I told him it was 4:2:2 out of the HDSDI i think he was sold!