Brevis 35 Production Tests: XL1s, XL2, DVX, HVX, VX2100

No worries. Keep in mind that there is no golden fleece so far in adapters...you're pretty much getting what you're paying for.

On the less expensive side, Mike Dawson and Jim Lafferty are doing static adapters in the $200 area. For moving GG, the Letus is the only cheaper alternative, although some will argue that the bare M2 is. Good luck in your search.
 
How is it going, Dennis? How was the XL2 shot yesterday? Should we expect some delicious footage today :D ?
 
Well, after carefully reviewing the footage I'm faced with this decision:

1. Post the footage and deal with 100 posts on why the XL2 footage is full of chromatic aberrations.

2. Wait until I have decent achromats to do the test with.

My cam tests were more to make sure there were no internal vignetting issues, and to determine macro strength. That goal achieved, posting the compromised footage (compliments of a $25 macro set) seems counterproductive. There are naysayers that will jump on that footage and suggest it is the adapter at fault, despite what's already been posted. In fairness to the procees, three hours on four cams that I've never worked with before is not a realistic test. The HVX footage we shot Monday shows a .9 PAR, suggesting we were not shooting in 16:9. It does look great for the 4:3 cropped footage that I think it is. Lesson learned.

What I will post is more GS400 stuff on the production adapter, as well as the results of the HVX shoot coming on Saturday. With the GS400, I know it's set up correctly, and with the HVX, the owner will be there on Saturday. When I have the proper achromats in hand, I will redo the shoots with the SD cams.

Barry (Green), interested in a 3 hour flight for breakfast on Saturday?
 
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I absolutely agree with you on the footage matter, Den. Good to hear you're going to start testing some achromats, since most of the bigger cameras will need one. Man, if I lived near by I would take my FX1 right over for some tests.
 
Well, my wife loves Europe, and Barcelona was very memorable in my travels too...

Other than the macro business, what I did get from Mikey (camera guy) was some great ideas for shots. It's great to watch an artist in action. He walked around the house/grounds and saw shots that I simply would never have considered.

I tip my hat to you in the community that exercise this art form.
 
Dennis, you'll make your own decision, of course, but I would recommend that you don't post anything else until you are happy with it and it truly represents your adapter as you want it to look as a production unit.

There is a lot of understandable impatience from those salivating for this kind of footage but, unless your next meal depends on the immediate sale of your product, why not do it right and perfect it.

The problem when you post less than stellar footage is you are going to get a whole bunch of comments about things you already know you have to improve upon. You also run the risk of underselling your adapter's capability.

Anyway, that's just my opinion. I just know your product has a lot of potential and it doesn't seem to me like the footage is ready for primetime just yet.

Good luck with it. You are doing great work.
 
Thanks for your input gentlemen. It's a beautiful day for some shooting, so I'm goiing to take out my GS400 for a spin this afternoon. The production version is for all intensive purposes, done. An obscene amount of $$ have been sunk into getting the machine shop jigged up for producing them, and I'm 100% confident with its performance. With no achromat required for that cam, what we'll get is the best the GS400 can do...which in good light, 16:9, is pretty good.


The adapter as we've seen, is just part of the equation when it comes to getting good footage. On Saturday we'll be focussing some serious time on the HVX to demonstrate the adapter's HD capabilities.
 
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David, I just finished a quick test with four cameras, including the DVX. Thats what the previous posts are about. The footage looks very good, but is shot using a very inexpensive single element macro set...which is not something you would use in production, nor is it representative of the adapter. The testing was only to determine achromat specifications, which are in the production phase. For sharpness, quality etc, the GS400 clips are the reference. In good light, and in 16:9 mode, other than the usual oversharpening inherent in these cams, the GS400 footage is very very good quality for interlaced 1.2 PAR. I noticed immediatly that the HVX in SD mode exhibits far less noise than the GS400, and I will be working with that cam and its owner on Saturday, to collect representative footage.

I will be sharing the DVX footage with the beta group, who are well briefed on the macro vs. achromat issue.

Search the forum here for "achromat vs macro" and you'll see what I mean...
 
Dennis,

I think it's a wise move to hold off on posting the footage. I'm still lurking in the shadows for the right adapter and yours looks to be a serious contender. I'm happy to wait and see footage that'll match the production model's components.

Good luck and post soon.

-rook
 
You know I had an amazing couple of circle dollies around "that old guy" but he was wearing a red sweater, and the GS400 nicely DV artifacted red vertical banding all over the sweater. Drives me crazy. The footage was otherwise akin to a large P&S skater. I had the ABS track bent in a perfect arc around him. The dolly tracks beautifully. It's too bad because otherwise, it's beautiful footage.

I've got to redo this with a cam that doesn't freak out on red. The footage looks perfect on my 51" HDTV directly from the cam, but as soon as I grab the DV from the GS400, it's got vertical red banding. I know there's an article or two on the XL1 in this regard. The XL2 footage, despite the CA, had zero banding on one of our subjects, a red trike....my GS400 just makes a mess of it. Aack!
 
Yep, and the jib too. Unfortunately, there's only 24 hours a day, and I try to be asleep for at least four of them :-)

Here's the red banding crap I was talking about (look at his sweater):

http://www.savefile.com/files.php?fid=5675492

If anyone has a solution for this, big discount! I've seen it too many times with the GS400 to hope for a cure, but I'm always listening. XL2 owners can rejoice as we saw 0 banding with that cam when tested.
 
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Hey Dennis I hope you already haven't answered this question a million times, but have you tried this with a sony fx1 yet? I wish I was closer to tb..i'd bring one up.
 
dennis,

Banding in red areas is common to 4:1:1 and 4:2:0 color spaces. Although I must say, your footage actually looks quite amazing! Great composition.

There are ways to upsample the 4:1:1, such as using the nattress film effects suite, it has a deartifacter that works well on that stuff. Also, in Shake, you can blur the Cr and Cb channels, there are a few macros out there, etc, that can take the bite out of that banding. Unfortunately, it is an issue native to DV.

If that is not what you are talking about, then it might be something native to a 1-chip camera, or that camera in particular. Again, I think deartifacting filters would be your best bed, to "blur" just the red a little bit. Not a perfect solution, but good never the less.

of course, the best solution is to shoot with an HVX :)


Angrius: when I get my adaptor, hopefully soon, and a lens, I will test the Z1U with cheap asian macros, then hopefully an acromat later on. My guess is that everything will be great, but there will be some chromatic abberation with the cheap macros. We "may" need a spacer, however, after doing some research on the M2, whose screen is also 50mm away, but smaller, I have learned that they DO NOT need a spacer tube, even though it is recommended. So I am hoping we don't need a spacer with the FX/Z1.
 
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