Cinevate pimps the XF305

Dennis Wood

Dennis Wood

DVXuser Sponsor
Well, it didn't take too long (about 2 days to be exact) but we've kitted up what we think is the perfect Canon XF300 and XF305 rig for shoulder mounting and serious film-making. Canon was nice enough to send us this one to test out our .5 pitch focus gear and we couldn't help falling in love with the camera. Monday we'll be shooting an overview of the rig, including some green screen pushes on our Atlas 200 LTS. Here's a few teaser pics. Note that the LCD viewer was deployed on the right (oops) while the rig is setup in the shots for left side LCD use. In the postion you see the camera, the operator's eye is almost exactly over the viewfinder...it needs to be flipped up out of the way to use the LCD. The rig adjusts in every axis, and the counter-balance can be filled with sand, metal bits, rocks (ha), etc. to precisely counter the front load.

[video=vimeo;15596394]http://www.vimeo.com/15596394[/video]

The kit is basically our Proteus Quick release carbon rails system at 30cm for the Canon XF300 and XF305: http://www.vimeo.com/14461508
Canon XF300 and XF305 Modified Titan Swing Away Mattebox: http://www.cinevate.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=142
Durus Follow Focus with .5 pitch gear for Canon XF300 and XF305: http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/freshdv/story/freshdv_reviews_cinevate_durus_follow_focus/
Canon XF300 and XF 305 Proteus Shoulder rig with counterbalance kit: http://www.vimeo.com/14702449


XF300a.jpg


XF300b.jpg







XF300d.jpg


XF300c.jpg
 
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As promised, a few screen grabs from the upcoming Cinevate XF300 and XF305 rig video. We can put up some raw footage from the green screen shoot if requested. The first pic was taken with the Brevis35 (non-flip) 35mm lens adapter affixed to the XF305. Optics for adapter use (and therefore 35mm DOF are nearly perfect when used with the Brevis!) The taking lens was an 85mm Zeiss....we loved the look.

Chris, our editor posing for a 35mm adapter test shoot.
canon_xf300_brevis_35mm_adapter.jpg


Sarah posing for a green screen effects shot with the bare (no 35mm adapter attached) Canon XF305.
xf300_Cinevate_rig_green_screen.jpg


Yours truly playing with the XF305 on our Atlas 200 LTS Slider system. The shot demonstrates the use of our Durus Follow Focus and Titan Swingaway Mattebox when used with our .5 pitch gear and the XF305 camera.
xf300_cinevate_rig_slider.jpg
 
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I swear to all that is holy.......that your FF is one of the best looking pieces of gear I've seen to date.

ETA, and I want to put 2-3 beers in that counterweight.
 
Thanks Matt! The follow focus is dear to my heart as it was designed and manufactured 100% here in Canada by myself, Tyler our 3d design guy, and Mike the machine shop owner. It's been a royal pain in the gluts to get right, but what we're shipping right now is pretty amazing in terms of quality....only took 2 years..

Beers sounds perfect. We need two 0-rings, a tap, and refrigeration to complete this beer scenario properly. ETA is typically 2-3 days on everything.
 
I shouldn't put it in writing officially, but I guarantee you that the machine shop will have a beer dispensing counter-balance by week's end. I can guess where beer dispenser #1 will go.... Those of you who've seen our machine shop guys in action will know that this post is no joke...they will build it. Friday at 5pm, they will be using it.
 
We could install an IR "port" but the second a filter was installed, the IR window would be blocked by the filter itself and/or the filter frame. I'll admit that when were shooting adapter footage and then studio footage, we did not use the autofocus at all. That said, if you did want to get an autofocus lock, you could swing the mattebox away (also takes the filters etc. out of the optical path) get your lock and then swing back in. This would be only way to use filtration and autofocus together.

One thing that I really like about the XF305 is the manual focus controls combined with a great LCD that allows peaking and focus magnification while shooting. In other words, we would never use autofocus :-)
 
sweet sexy molexy my pants just got tighter

that is an awesome looking rig, it absolutely commands attention. that Cinevate stuff just looks out of this world, great job. any chance you guys are going to lower prices by say 90% in the near future? no? oh well, a boy can dream, can't he :)
 
Pricing is oh, such a challenge. On one hand we produce very high quality gear and work our pants off to provide great service. On the other, I'd like that rig to be possible for under $1000. Just looking at the follow focus, the challenge becomes evident. We offer a life time warranty on the product which means we had to design and manufacture the internal parts ourselves (including computer machined steel helical cut bevel gears, a real PITA to get right). It must be built by hand, use extremely tight tolerances and chassis made from computer milled billet aluminum. Then, we needed to manufacture our own drive gears (3 of them now) as well as lens gears to match. That project required 4 injection molds...and cost-wise, this is the equivalent of buying a small house in Thunder Bay.

And that's just the follow focus!

What I've discovered is that there is no answer to this dilemma. What you'll see from Cinevate as we go forward is a professionally built line (which is what we do now) but also a much lower cost consumer_ish line that offers all of the other good stuff, but using FRP materials etc. to keep cost down. As we integrate into several distribution channels, this strategy will make more sense. Stay tuned for a truly cool line of gear which extends our concepts of "lego for film-makers" to an entirely new level. Regardless, our target market for the XF305 rig you see here is the professional looking for the absolute best gear and service at what we know is an extremely aggressive pricing model.
 
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I would rather you continue to produce professional quality products at prices I can't afford rather than inexpensive and unreliable products that don't hold up in a professional work environment, break, piss me off and cause streams of nasty emails and phone calls (theoretical situation). It's hard to beat quality made anything, and it seems you guys are doing a great job - looking forward to the day I get to work with some Cinevate gear :)

Cheers,
Adam
 
As promised :-) The end of the clip has a very cool green screen FX type shot that we shot incorporating a 4 ft push on our Atlas 200 rig. Sarah, (you'd talk to her if you called Cinevate on Fridays) "stars" in the shot :-)

 
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