FS7: First shoot with FS7. Some questions...

Andrius Simutis

Andrius Simutis

Veteran
I'm not really out in the field shooting that much these days but just got pulled into a job I couldn't refuse. Cue Deniro in Godfather III "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!" I'm flying in to do this shoot arriving the same time as the subjects and the director, and they will be handing me an FS7 at the airport and then it's go time! ...well maybe a few minutes to set up the camera, but basically no time to shoot, offload footage, check shots and adjust. So...

1. How long should a battery last on an FS7 under real world use? All day like a Canon, or minutes like a BM? How many would you carry for a full day?

2. I hear the display LUTs don't work on slomo. True?

3. What is the general consensus for profiles? SLOG?

4. Is that built in handgrip/shoulder mount good enough to do a longish standing interview ENG style?

5. Any other gotchas I should be looking out for?

And yes, of course this isn't an ideal way to do this, and yes I should just say so to the director, and yes this is the very downfall of society as we know it, but hey...I'm doing this as a favor for someone I can't say no to, and I can't get the camera before the shoot. Some things happened at the last minute and this is the best we can all do under the circumstances.
Any help and suggestions much appreciated. Now, time to download the manual and study up!
 
There are a lot of really good videos online. I won't link them, since there's such a large selection.

You'll want Cine-EI mode, Gamut.Slog3.cine colorspace. That's going to make life easy for you. Yes, I believe MLUT disables (processing power needed elsewhere I assume), but honestly I always leave that off anyway. Although I do have a SmallHD monitor that allows me to preview, so it might not be fair to say that last part.

As for the shoulder mount thing, I haven't really used it. But I don't feel like I want to say yes to that from my slight playing around. Doable, certainly, but I wouldn't be comfortable doing it for too long. Really depends on your experience and what you're used to. Normally I shoot on tiny cameras, on tripods more often than on my shoulder, so I probably shouldn't even try answering that one.
 
Hi Andrius. I remember you from the C100/300 forum.

I moved from a C100/Ninja Blade combo to the FS7 in December 2014 - I'm assuming you may be doing a similar move when you use the FS7.

It felt like a huge paradigm shift - going from baked in profiles to Cine EI/SLog. All the old rules went out of the window.

The Cine EI/SLog workflow should be looked at as an entire shoot/post workflow - everyone in the process needs to be completely on board. I shoot only for my own films, but if I was shooting material to hand over a client, I'd want to be utterly sure they understand the ramifications of working with Log material - with the added spice of Cine EI, that gives them lots of flexibility to play with levels in post. What you don't want is an editor or producer, used to the other paradigm, saying your material is unusable, because it's greywash and under/over exposed.

So, a custom profile (ie a baked in look, with adjustable ISO, White Balance and colour profiles etc) would be my suggested approach, if you and they are not completely EI/Log savvy - again, I'm assuming you haven't shot an EI/Log workflow. Apologies if I'm wrong.

Also, the FS7 (I think) is initially a difficult and bewildering beast, after using a C100/300. I'd recommend having a day with one to get used to it's quirks and buried menus. The FS7 really is 2 cameras in one - and I had to let go of a lot of previously held doctrine to feel totally comfortable with how it works.

You're probably a lot cleverer than me, but if I put myself in your shoes and imagined the scenario you're describing - turn up from the airport and shoot an FS7, with no prior experience - I'd say, with the benefit of hindsight, it conjures up all of the worst client cock-ups I've ever experienced in the past 30 years, all rolled up into one gigantic nightmare cluster-fu*k.

I recommend Doug's course on Vimeo as a starting point.

Ben.
 
1. How long should a battery last on an FS7 under real world use? All day like a Canon, or minutes like a BM? How many would you carry for a full day?

3-4 BPU 60

2. I hear the display LUTs don't work on slomo. True?

Yes IMO use and external monitor or get used to monitoring flat.

3. What is the general consensus for profiles? SLOG?

Up to about 2500 ISO yes.
Above that you should check out SLog and Noise reduction or a custom mode.


4. Is that built in handgrip/shoulder mount good enough to do a longish standing interview ENG style?

Not really IMO

5. Any other gotchas I should be looking out for?

You need to learn how to be confident in exposure of Slog - it is easy to go a bit under
Your client needs to be confident in untangling Slog.


 
Thanks guys for the answers. Much appreciated.
I'm going to do a little more research, but I'll probably check in again with more questions!
 
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