How hard would it be...?

D

Danny1280

Well-known member
I'm considering renting an F3 for a day-long shoot in a school that will involve interviews and some action/b-roll shots of teachers and kids. I thought I'd rent a follow focus and mounted HD monitor. Mostly on a tripod/interview stuff. Never used an F3. I could rent a day ahead and practice settings, etc. Have used an ex1 several times, but otherwise, I've been on Panasonic.

Then there's the whole lens decision.

I would really like to explore the F3 look on this shoot, but don't want to set myself up for too much learning curve too fast and regret it later.

Advice?

Thanks
 
Most legit rental houses are very nice and allow you to come in and test the camera on their floor. You should be able to get acquainted with the F3 that way, and they might even be willing to show you a thing or two or answer questions.

I would never recommend anybody renting any camera they have not had any experience with and to take it to a shoot. That's not good at all.
 
If you're familiar with the EX, you'll feel right at home. If you are planning to shoot with primes and have not before, you may want to play with them and the follow-focus though. It's a different animal than the EX zoom. However, none of it's voodoo if you're an experienced shooter. ;-)

Have fun with it (and it's supercharged, hydrogen-powered, huge-buckets sensor!)
 
Another option is to hire a 1st AC that has experience with the camera and its settings and such. It may not replace having experience with the camera, but definitely makes things easier.
 
Thanks for the advice all. I thought perhaps I'd take it out a day ahead and spend a whole day doing practice and tests.
I have a little experience with primes using a 35mm adaptor as well as doing a shoot with a 5d.

Dumb question: Can I use my Nikon Primes with the F3? I've got some nice old manual glass (85mm 1.8, 50mm 1.4). What about Canon glass? The rental place has some nice Canon lenses.
 
Danny1280 said:
Thanks for the advice all. I thought perhaps I'd take it out a day ahead and spend a whole day doing practice and tests.
I have a little experience with primes using a 35mm adaptor as well as doing a shoot with a 5d.

Dumb question: Can I use my Nikon Primes with the F3? I've got some nice old manual glass (85mm 1.8, 50mm 1.4). What about Canon glass? The rental place has some nice Canon lenses.
Click to expand...

You can use your Nikon glass quite well with an adapter, such as the MTF, the Adaptimax or the ProLock as examples. Check your rental house to see if they can rent one to you. They are a bit pricey to buy if you're just going to rent the camera ($300-$950).

Or rent a PL lens set since the camera comes with a PL adapter.

Canon adapters will get there, but aren't as well supported yet. You can scroll down the threads and get some ideas on that. Canon EOS (not FD) lenses and Nikon G lenses are a bit more of a pain because of the lack of an iris ring.
 
I am coming from a HVX170 and 5D background, no problem using the F3 and it's interface , I also use an ADAPTIMAX with AIs lenses , a good thing though is to download the manual !
cheers
Pier
 
A test shoot is part of a cinematographer's due diligence. Would you paint your walls a shade of purple without bringing home a test swatch?
You'll likely be better off sticking to Nikon glass as to save yourself the aggravation of rube-goldsberg aperture changes.
 
Or just rent PL lenses and be brought in to the world of understanding why they are more expensive... The pure joy of shooting on PL glass...

That said, if you can use a EX3/1 you can use an F3.
set it to Cine3 gamma, turn off the HD detail and HD aperture, set your saturation to +3, and your black to -3. You will be out putting a full on 110-0 IRE signal. If you need Broadcast legal out of the box, Cine2 gamma will keep you between 0-99 IRE.

Got to the Rental house and test the cam, as David mentioned, but see if they will allow you to shoot somewhere that isnt the testing bay. Bring a laptop with some editing software, and give "grain less" video a whirl. You can under expose the F3 signal by a full stop with no noise penalty, thereby protecting the highlights. Hell you can shoot at +12dB gain to XDcam with little penalty in image quality. Its intoxicating.
 
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