C100: Best image stabilization on a wide lens?

BrandonT

BrandonT

Well-known member
Hey folks. I have a set of walking tour videos to shoot this month for a group of medical facilities. To be specific, this will be walking through the facility without an on camera host. They didn't go for the budget with a gimbal, and I know from posts on here that handholding a glidecam w/o a vest for several mins at a time is a bad idea. So I'll be doing it handheld.

After doing a test between my C100 Mark II with the Canon 17 - 55m F2.8 IS lens vs. my Panasonic AC130A (22x zoom 1/3" sensor ENG type camera)-- the C100 is the clear winner.

Is there a better choice of lens, in terms of image stabilization, than the Canon 17 - 55mm F2.8? I figured that the Canon 18 - 135mm STM lens would have superior IS.

Just now in researching it, I see that there's a brand new 18 - 135mm version that won't be out until April. And it has an optional attachment that gives you smooth zoom control. AWESOME!!! Doesn't come out until April.

http://www.photoreview.com.au/news/...-f-3.5-5.6-is-usm-lens-and-power-zoom-adapter

I'll probably buy that one instead of the STM. But I'd still like to know if it would be better for this job, which starts this upcoming week.

Thanks!!
 
Are you sure those focal lengths are wide enough for your needs?

I used a C100/Ninja Blade for the first week of a doc I'm making. I had a similar dilemma for a sequence, following someone 15 miles on a daily walk - my Tokina 11-16 would have suffered too many micro jitters without some kind of stabilistaion.

I went for the Canon 10-18 STM, with IS and AF and I thought it worked really well - sharper than the Tokina and the AF is quick and suited the C100 AF upgrade.

You can see it in action here, in the first few mins:

https://vimeo.com/156115487

Ben.
 
bengiles said:
Are you sure those focal lengths are wide enough for your needs?

I used a C100/Ninja Blade for the first week of a doc I'm making. I had a similar dilemma for a sequence, following someone 15 miles on a daily walk - my Tokina 11-16 would have suffered too many micro jitters without some kind of stabilistaion.

I went for the Canon 10-18 STM, with IS and AF and I thought it worked really well - sharper than the Tokina and the AF is quick and suited the C100 AF upgrade.

You can see it in action here, in the first few mins:

https://vimeo.com/156115487

Ben.
Click to expand...

Ben that was a very nice piece! Thank you for sharing.
 
I really don't think Canon makes any lens that is great for walking. The 17-55 f/2.8 isn't good at all of movement. It locks on and tries to stay locked on. The 18-135 STM has "dynamic" IS that is meant for video and movement, but it is still very hard to walk with the lens. The 10-18 STM doesn't technically have the "dynamic" IS, but it's better than the 17-55 f/2.8 by a long shot and the wider angle keeps things from bouncing around the screen. None of these lenses control for rotational movement, which becomes quite apparent when you try walking. A shoulder mount might make up the difference if you can't use a gimbal. But, I can attest to the fact that the 18-135 STM or 10-18 STM will serve you much better than the 17-55 f/2.8 based on experience.

BTW, I had a similar shoot this past week and I ended up deciding to use a DJI Osmo. The image quality suffered slightly, but the shoot was so much easier and the footage was perfectly smooth.
 
Ben-- that was a beautiful piece. I really, really loved it.

Ben & cpreston-- You both have convinced me on the 10 - 18. I'm going to pick it up from Best Buy in time for the shoot.

cpreston-- I did consider the DJI Osmo. I definitely see that it would work so much better, and wanted to give it a try. But I just didn't like the footage quality and couldn't get behind it based on that. If I was going to do some actual real estate tours on a regular basis, at a smaller budget, it would be a no brainer. But for this, I don't think that the image quality holds up well enough for what the client is expecting. That said, if you don't mind, I'd love to see how yours looks when you're done. I still have three more shoot dates after tomorrow, that will span all of March. So there's time to change my mind.

How is distortion on the 10 - 18? Should I go with about 12mm to get past it?

As far as using a real glidecam setup with vest, that would be half my budget. And rental won't work because it's four shoot dates spread out over the month. The client couldn't do the budget including it/ or a gimbal. So I'm working with what I've got.


Followup question-- any recommendations on framerate and shutter for the walking tour style? In my tests, 24p at 1/60 was too stuttered. I'm thinking 60p at 1/60 might be better.
 
Re distortion, for me it depends on the subject matter. If there are obvious straight lines in the clip and they're not moving it can be an issue when barrel distortion shows up. If you're following a subject it will probably be OK (depending on your tolerance) but for shots where your talent might be stopped and talking (or whatever) you'll probably be better off if there's no door frame or something similar prominent in the composition.
 
Whichever framerate, I normally go with 1/60 to make sure there's no flicker from house lights. I haven't used the deflicker (or whatever it's called) feature-- anyone used it before?

I'm thinking I might go with 30p at 1/60. And then I can slow down to 80% at 24p in post if I want.

Re distortion, I'm not following a subject or talent for this. There will be a couple of spots where people will be in frame. But for the most part, it'll be walking through the facility. I'll see what works out.
 
BrandonT said:
I haven't used the deflicker (or whatever it's called) feature-- anyone used it before?
Click to expand...
Sometimes when I'm getting flicker I'll turn that on and it never seems to help at all, so it's back to searching for a shutter speed that lowers or eliminates the flicker.
 
I have the 18-135 IS STM, the 10-18 IS STM and the DJI Osmo. Some random observations...

1. I shoot a lot of stuff with LA Metro. I did a scene last year, running after an actor late for a bus pulling away. It was before I had the 10-18 IS STM so I used the 18-135 IS STM at 18mm. Shot looked great, it was not super smooth but I was surprised at how usable is was. A lot of the camera movment is driven by the scene and how the audience would expect the camera to move.

2. I bought the 10-18 IS STM specifically for a car scene, for shooting a wide shot of a talent driving from the passenger seat is a pretty small car. The lens worked fine although it is a slow lens. Barrel distortion is there but not terrible. Like with any wide lens, you will want to keep your talent at screen center whenever possible, if they are out on the edges of frame, the lens distortion is not very flattering.

3. I used the DJI Osmo for a scene with two actors recently, director wanted me to follow one talent up to a conversation with the other talent, then circl earound them as they spoke, in bright daylight and for web video, it was great, made capturing the scene really simple. I agree with the Osmo for interiors, the quality isn't there , but for brightly lit exteriors, the Osmo is pretty decent. Better than a Go Pro quality, and yes, that camera movement instantly smooths out. Also, audio from the Osmo is unusable, even for b-roll ambient, it seems to record everything at way too low of a level. 4k looks worse than 1080 on the Osmo, 23.98 1080 is totally usable for exteriors or an occasional tracking shot if there is enough light.
 
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