Finally got around to editing some footage I took at Greazefest 09 in Brisbane Australia. Hope you enjoy!
http://www.vimeo.com/6656178
http://www.vimeo.com/6656178
My latest video shot on the EX3
- Thread starter Rhys Day
- Start date
Bassman2003
Veteran
Thanks for sharing.
The images look nice and I did not think it was shaky cam.
But I will give some CC about a couple of things from a viewer's standpoint.
The cuts were so frequent and without a main character so to speak that it starts to look random.
Also the out of focus start to in focus gets tough to watch after the third cut.
Hope this is a help and does not offend!
The images look nice and I did not think it was shaky cam.
But I will give some CC about a couple of things from a viewer's standpoint.
The cuts were so frequent and without a main character so to speak that it starts to look random.
Also the out of focus start to in focus gets tough to watch after the third cut.
Hope this is a help and does not offend!
Graham King
Well-known member
I like it a lot
I found it really front heavy and was getting more and more tired as the day went on. Also I was zoomed in which kind of didn't help... wanted the hand held look instead of the tripod this time round though.
yeah it was fairly random, want to try and do something with a story next time.
and I agree the out of focus was getting pretty annoying at times. Tried to cut out as much as possible but lots of my focused shots were so short... will remember to try and hold focus for longer next time.
Thanks for the feedback!
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From memory I was using one of the internal ND filters (setting one) which is a .9 ...Having it on setting two was too dark (1.8), but setting one wasn't quite dark enough, as I was shooting somewhere around f4, any more open and I started overexposing. Would have been nice to have a softer external ND as well. Most shots were zoomed in all the way.
Used Marvels film picture profile. Let me know if you want me to post it up.
Used Marvels film picture profile. Let me know if you want me to post it up.
Last edited:
DadinWestchester
Well-known member
Try using a monopod when zoomed in all the way and 'handheld', it will give it a bit steadier look and take the weight off.
Man, I thought that was Southern Cal....
Man, I thought that was Southern Cal....
Bassman2003
Veteran
It is a shame Sony went with the semi-shoulder style.
This really looks like upper product line protection design to me.
A JVC style body would be the best of both worlds, but they have to protect the overpriced 330 & 350 models.
This really looks like upper product line protection design to me.
A JVC style body would be the best of both worlds, but they have to protect the overpriced 330 & 350 models.
Marvels’ EX1 and EX3 profile settings for Filmic Look
February 18, 2009
People have asked me to publish my EX1/EX3 profile settings i use for achieving a filmic look.
UPDATED APRIL 13th – ALL NEW PROFILE AFTER MANY MANY TEST SHOTS AND MEASUREMENTS. SEE THE JULY 6 UPDATE RE. BLACK LEVEL BELOW TOO.
I have spent many many hours adjusting and experimenting with these settings on both a pure technical ánd perceptual level. Using test charts, waveform monitor and a HD reference monitor, and my eyes…
The following settings are meant to mimic the film look.
Camera settings suggestions (only mentioning settings that differ from the default):
CAMERA SET MENU:
* Gain Setup: use -3/0/6 as defaults, preferably shooting with 0 where possible, -3 gives just 90IRE
* Shutter: Angle : 180 (this is the angle of a filmcamera’s shutter – given 25fps that comes to an exposure of 1/50th)
* Filcker Reduce: off
* TLCS: AGC limit: 12, AGC point: F/2.8, A.Sht point: F/5.6 (this all is limiting the iris aperture versus the automatic gain control, so we don’t get lower dan a F/5.6) – i personally use manual iris.
LCD/FV SET MENU:
* Marker: Aspect Select: 14:9
* Zebra: Zebra-1 level: 70 (our over-exposure early-warning-system for the caucasian skin), show both
OTHERS MENU:
* i.Link I/O: Enable
* Video Format: HQ 1080/24p or 1080/25p (NTSC or PAL)
Now… let’s get to the serious business. Nicely un-documented by Sony: the Picture Profile
MARVELS FILM PICTURE PROFILE:
* Matrix: On, High-Sat, Level 0, Phase -5, R-G 75, R-B 0, G-R -18, G-B -23, B-R -27, B-G 13. This gives a beautifully balanced color matrix.
* White: on, Offset A +2, Offset B +2, Offset ATW +2. This will give you a beatiful warm picture, by elevating the reds a little bit * Detail: On, Level 0, Frequency +65, Crispening 0, Black limiter +75, White limiter +75. This gives a very nice definition without the artificial sharpening artifiacts. Ideal for DOF adapter shooting.
* Gamma: Cine-1 for rich-contrast situations, Cine-3 for low-contrast situations. Make cine-1 your standard and avoid cine-4 (too noisy in the shadows). Use Joe’s Levels plugin for FCP to enhance contrast in post.
* Black: -3 or -4 (use the Adobe OnLocation waveform monitor or another soft- or hardware level monitor, then cap the lens, set camera to Gain-0 and you’ll see that only -3 produces the correct black level – lower will crush the blacks. It’s better to control the blacklevel per-scene in post. -4 will give you zero pedestal; giving you a tiny bit more headroom. June 6 2009 update: i nowadays set black level to 0 (zero) and adjust the black level in post with FCP using Joe’s levels plugin. This further helps reducing noise in dark parts of the image!
* Black gamma: -2. Will help to reduce noise in the blacks.
Shooting tips:
* The EX1 and EX3 cameras show softening and color-fringing effects due to diffraction-effects in the iris, with lens apertures smaller than F5.6! So, please do not use F stops smaller than 5.6 by using the ND filter when shooting with bright light.
* If shooting with tungsten lighting, try using blue filters on the lights (don’t apply a 80-a/b filter to the lens – it will cost you 2 F-stops). This will result in lower amplification in the blue channel at time of white-balancing – that will significantly reduce the noise in shadows (blacks) .
* Switch off the image stabilizer
* Try to shoot on manual focus if you can; pull the focus-ring of the lens back towards you to click it into full manual focus mode.
* If you don’t own a Depth Of Field adapter, try to use a longer lens all the time, e.g. zoom in as much as possible and stand back… Shallower depth of field (characterstic of film and cinema lenses) can be achieved by using an aperture of max. F/4 (don’t go lower) and a minimal of 50mm. lens length. It’s just a suggestion, just play around with minimal aperture without Gain (even use ND filter to open the lens if it’s over F/4) and zooming in.
* You might want to consider buying a Depth Of Field adapter. I advise the Redrock Micro M2 Encore for best performance – the winner of all our lab-tests.
* Buy a nice matte box (Cokin has an affordable one, RedrockMicro a very good one) and some nice filters (e.g. grading filters are cool, giving dramatic look and/or detail to skies)
* Install a skyfilter (UV filter) on your lenses, for protection and for filtering that extra bit of UV that will get through the lens in very bright sun-lit conditions.
* Move the camera like a film camera! Avoid jerky or fast pans. Brusque movements will lead to flickering images – the 24 or 25 fps rolling shutter (simulation) will react just like a film camera would, if you jerk the camera from left to right: show flicker. Use smooth slow pans.
* One last tip for wannabe-film-cameramen: don’t zoom – film cameras usually don’t have zoomlenses! Move the camera, not the zoom. Make yourself a dolly, or even tracks – use a skateboard, whatever, but try to keep your hands off that zoom handle…
The EX-1 and EX-3 are great cameras, but – alas- they are not film cameras. Instead of the current 8-bit image processing, 10 bits would have made more sense in capturing a film look, e.g. the famous 10-stop dynamic range. Nevertheless, you have a great camera with unparalelled image quality for a below-10K-dollars camera. Adding a DOF adapter like the RedrockMicro M2 Encore improves the filmic quality by enableing the use of 35mm lenses (e.g. standard Nikon lenses) and thus achieving a shallower depth of field.
Cheers!
Martin Beek
Mail me at m.beek@marvelsfilm.com
February 18, 2009
People have asked me to publish my EX1/EX3 profile settings i use for achieving a filmic look.
UPDATED APRIL 13th – ALL NEW PROFILE AFTER MANY MANY TEST SHOTS AND MEASUREMENTS. SEE THE JULY 6 UPDATE RE. BLACK LEVEL BELOW TOO.
I have spent many many hours adjusting and experimenting with these settings on both a pure technical ánd perceptual level. Using test charts, waveform monitor and a HD reference monitor, and my eyes…
The following settings are meant to mimic the film look.
Camera settings suggestions (only mentioning settings that differ from the default):
CAMERA SET MENU:
* Gain Setup: use -3/0/6 as defaults, preferably shooting with 0 where possible, -3 gives just 90IRE
* Shutter: Angle : 180 (this is the angle of a filmcamera’s shutter – given 25fps that comes to an exposure of 1/50th)
* Filcker Reduce: off
* TLCS: AGC limit: 12, AGC point: F/2.8, A.Sht point: F/5.6 (this all is limiting the iris aperture versus the automatic gain control, so we don’t get lower dan a F/5.6) – i personally use manual iris.
LCD/FV SET MENU:
* Marker: Aspect Select: 14:9
* Zebra: Zebra-1 level: 70 (our over-exposure early-warning-system for the caucasian skin), show both
OTHERS MENU:
* i.Link I/O: Enable
* Video Format: HQ 1080/24p or 1080/25p (NTSC or PAL)
Now… let’s get to the serious business. Nicely un-documented by Sony: the Picture Profile
MARVELS FILM PICTURE PROFILE:
* Matrix: On, High-Sat, Level 0, Phase -5, R-G 75, R-B 0, G-R -18, G-B -23, B-R -27, B-G 13. This gives a beautifully balanced color matrix.
* White: on, Offset A +2, Offset B +2, Offset ATW +2. This will give you a beatiful warm picture, by elevating the reds a little bit * Detail: On, Level 0, Frequency +65, Crispening 0, Black limiter +75, White limiter +75. This gives a very nice definition without the artificial sharpening artifiacts. Ideal for DOF adapter shooting.
* Gamma: Cine-1 for rich-contrast situations, Cine-3 for low-contrast situations. Make cine-1 your standard and avoid cine-4 (too noisy in the shadows). Use Joe’s Levels plugin for FCP to enhance contrast in post.
* Black: -3 or -4 (use the Adobe OnLocation waveform monitor or another soft- or hardware level monitor, then cap the lens, set camera to Gain-0 and you’ll see that only -3 produces the correct black level – lower will crush the blacks. It’s better to control the blacklevel per-scene in post. -4 will give you zero pedestal; giving you a tiny bit more headroom. June 6 2009 update: i nowadays set black level to 0 (zero) and adjust the black level in post with FCP using Joe’s levels plugin. This further helps reducing noise in dark parts of the image!
* Black gamma: -2. Will help to reduce noise in the blacks.
Shooting tips:
* The EX1 and EX3 cameras show softening and color-fringing effects due to diffraction-effects in the iris, with lens apertures smaller than F5.6! So, please do not use F stops smaller than 5.6 by using the ND filter when shooting with bright light.
* If shooting with tungsten lighting, try using blue filters on the lights (don’t apply a 80-a/b filter to the lens – it will cost you 2 F-stops). This will result in lower amplification in the blue channel at time of white-balancing – that will significantly reduce the noise in shadows (blacks) .
* Switch off the image stabilizer
* Try to shoot on manual focus if you can; pull the focus-ring of the lens back towards you to click it into full manual focus mode.
* If you don’t own a Depth Of Field adapter, try to use a longer lens all the time, e.g. zoom in as much as possible and stand back… Shallower depth of field (characterstic of film and cinema lenses) can be achieved by using an aperture of max. F/4 (don’t go lower) and a minimal of 50mm. lens length. It’s just a suggestion, just play around with minimal aperture without Gain (even use ND filter to open the lens if it’s over F/4) and zooming in.
* You might want to consider buying a Depth Of Field adapter. I advise the Redrock Micro M2 Encore for best performance – the winner of all our lab-tests.
* Buy a nice matte box (Cokin has an affordable one, RedrockMicro a very good one) and some nice filters (e.g. grading filters are cool, giving dramatic look and/or detail to skies)
* Install a skyfilter (UV filter) on your lenses, for protection and for filtering that extra bit of UV that will get through the lens in very bright sun-lit conditions.
* Move the camera like a film camera! Avoid jerky or fast pans. Brusque movements will lead to flickering images – the 24 or 25 fps rolling shutter (simulation) will react just like a film camera would, if you jerk the camera from left to right: show flicker. Use smooth slow pans.
* One last tip for wannabe-film-cameramen: don’t zoom – film cameras usually don’t have zoomlenses! Move the camera, not the zoom. Make yourself a dolly, or even tracks – use a skateboard, whatever, but try to keep your hands off that zoom handle…
The EX-1 and EX-3 are great cameras, but – alas- they are not film cameras. Instead of the current 8-bit image processing, 10 bits would have made more sense in capturing a film look, e.g. the famous 10-stop dynamic range. Nevertheless, you have a great camera with unparalelled image quality for a below-10K-dollars camera. Adding a DOF adapter like the RedrockMicro M2 Encore improves the filmic quality by enableing the use of 35mm lenses (e.g. standard Nikon lenses) and thus achieving a shallower depth of field.
Cheers!
Martin Beek
Mail me at m.beek@marvelsfilm.com