Movietube Demo Hand's On

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steadicamsteel

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Hi People,

I've managed to get a Movietube booked for a demo day, I'm getting it for this coming weekend so will have some footage available next week sometime. I'll post a full critique of the unit. Any particular shot test requests?

I'll be shooting indoor (lowlight and lit) and some exterior stuff also.

Watch this space as they say.

Regards

Rich
 
Well, Where do I start?

Firstly the shipping company didn't ship the unit out for a before midday on Friday so I tracked out down to the edinburgh depot and collected it myself on the Saturday morning.

Got it home, stripped down the dvx including all screw filters and mounted the camcorder to the Movietube following the step by step destruction manual, which is downloable from there website for anyone who's interested and is very easy to follow.

Pull out my Arri PL mount prime lenses to start some funky tests. This is where it starts to go wrong. The locator/guide pin head on the inside of the PL Mount on the movietube is in the wrong place. It's sitting at the 12 o'clock position where as it should be sitting at the 10 o'clock or 2 o'clock position. It doesn't make it impossible for the lenses to mount it just means the lens is now twisted (so to speak) when attached to the movietube (I'll post some images tomorrow).

This has a knock on effect on any further testing as I get serious vingetting in the corners when following the movietube instructions (instead of zooming the DVX lens to the recommended Z84 position I now have to zoom over Z90+). This now of course negates the true focal distance of the film lens for S35mm (field of view). If the lens fitted correctly then the vingetting would go away, I have no doubt about that.

So first impressions: This thing is bomb proof, very well built and engineered (what else would you expect from a german manufacturer) apart from them getting the PL Mount wrong, I'm assuming there's been a third party supplier involved in the PL Mount side of things, hence the problem.

Changing lens mounts say from PL to Nikon is very easy indeed. Just a twist of a collar and the whole lens mount comes off.

No internal moving parts to go wrong, which is always a bonus.

The engineering on the movements for lineup on the XY axis for the camcorder are second to none my only gripe is for certain camcorders you may have to insert spacers between the base of the camcorder and docking plate. to achieve the correct Horizontal positioning not exactly best solution considering how far they've engineered evrything else (very low tech).

I shall comment on the ground glass tomorrow although again I feel I won't be able to provide a true test because of the lens mount issues. I'll try and post some stills of the set-up and hopefully some footage but that won't happen until December as I'm booked out on shoots from Monday.

Some stills of the set-up itself:







 
Well, that's interesting news. Hopefully they'll fix that in the near future.
The fact that the true focal distance of the film lens is off is a pretty major flaw.
That's like buying a Prius and finding out it gets 5 miles to the gallon.

The whole point is to get 35mm field of view.

I'm curious to hear about the ergonomics. From the pics I've seen of this thing, it seems very oddly shaped. Let us know how it feels to work with.

But, obviously, the thing I'm most interested in hearing about is the quality of the wax imager.
Do you see any grain? How much light are you losing? And can you do some test shots at each fstop to see how it's affected?

Thanks for posting your experiences.
Have you used many of the other adapters out there? I'm curious what your frame of reference is...what are you comparing it to?
 
"The fact that the true focal distance of the film lens is off is a pretty major flaw."

This is only because the PL mount is set incorrectly as I have to zoom into more like a S16mm Field of view to get rid of the vingenting.

Ergonomics - Hard to judge as I'm using Arri Variable primes and at 6 or 7 kilos a lens your arms get tired very quickly althought the bull bars do help a hell of a lot. I guess if you've got regular primes mounted then this thing will balance out really well as the grips are well positioned. The downside to the ergonomics is not having a top bar/handle. It's very tempting to lift the whole thing up by the DVX Handle.......DO NOT DO THIS WITH, EVEN WITH A SMALL LENS MOUNTED. Interestingly the upgrade version (the ST) has this feature and also a shoulder pad so sounds like the manufacturers are listening.

Early initial tests are showing 2 full stops of light loss.

Again initial tests are revealing no grain whatsoever however I was fully open on both lenses as it was getting dark by the time I started using the unit, so very difficult to observe any grain in that kind of light.

I'll record tests tomorrow (as requested) but I doubt I'll be able to upload any files until December, sorry.

I've used the P&S Technique Mini 35mm on several occasions and was suitably impressed with it. The jury's still out as I haven't done any real conclusive testing with the Movietube but what I've seen so far is pretty impressive and at less cost than the P&S unit this COULD be a real contender.

Finally, If anyone could email or provide a link to a resolution chart I'll print it one off and shoot it.
 
No one likes a smart ass Mr Hudson. Patience my friend.

Not too hot with this Forum technology but for some reason I can't add attachments so how do I go about posting images.
 
Can I ask John, do you have a problem with me being a member of this forum?
 
Whoa tiger

You're a little sensitive arent you? Take it back step there or we will have problems with you.

The first reply was normal sarcasm. The second reply was a joke and surely not warranting your language and defensive posture.

You need to chill.
 
Holy crap you aint kidding

Edit - Scratch that reply.

Steadicamsteele

Relax. Yes; I am always a sarcastic bastard. Judging from your defensive posture you seem bit edgy or touchy. You can relax. I'm mellow as yellow.

However; Your language and replies need to calm down. There isnt anything I said that warranted that nonsense so I'll allow you this moment to reflect

We can leave it at that. Looking forward to grabs and footage nevertheless....
 
Welcome to my neighbourhood.:grin:
mrrogers-gun-renamed.jpg
 
You'll allow me a moment to reflect......that's very gentlemanly of you, your grace. Thank you.

But back to the point in question, In my POSTING RULES BOX at the bottom of the page it allows me to POST NEW THREADS, POST REPLIES AND ALLOWS EDITING THE AFORMENTIONED but for some reason it's telling me I MAY NOT POST ATTACHMENTS. Is it a MAC thing or is there some other worldly deed I have to do, like gracing the palms of all the moderators with some hard cash?
 
You must upload the photos to a server yourself (which is why Issac suggested image shack).
Then, when you post make sure you are using the "advanced mode" not 'quick reply'

At the top of the 'advanced mode' dialog there is an icon that looks like a mountain, that is the Image icon. It will open a dialog box asking you for the URL of the image.
 
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