Promo shot with Zeiss Compact Primes CP.2 and ZF

Erik Naso

Erik Naso

Veteran

I Rented a set of Zeiss Compact Primes for the second shoot with the military reporter. The first shoot with the anchor shooting stills was with a set of Zeiss ZF lenses. Both the CP.2 and ZF are the same lenses but the CP.2 has those wonderful cine housings. What a nice lens, the focus and iris are so smooth and the weight is just right for the AF-100. I don't recommend using the CP.2 because if you do you wont want to use anything else. These babies ruined me!
I did use the lens support but probably didn't need to since they are so light.

ZF set 24, 50, 85
Canon 70-200 F4
Lumix 14mm on slider

CP.2 set 28mm, 50, 85
Hot Rod PL tuner kit
 
Looks fantastic. I played with some of those lenses at NAB and I still feel jaded after just a few minutes of using them. They are sweet lenses.

Just curious, what was the light transition you used between shots? I really liked it.
 
Hi Eric,

Nice shots indeed, but…I am curios if there is a difference between the image quality of the Zeiss lenses and the Olympus Zuiko 14-35mm F 2.0. Because the Olympus lens gets worldwide unanimous outstanding tets results, even wide open…The expensive Olympus becomes a lot cheaper than instead of 3 Zeiss prime lenses..

Greetings from Holland!

Menno Mennes filmmaker

info@hollandheritage.tv
www.hollandheritage.tv
 
little bobby said:
Looks fantastic. I played with some of those lenses at NAB and I still feel jaded after just a few minutes of using them. They are sweet lenses.

Just curious, what was the light transition you used between shots? I really liked it.
Click to expand...
Thanks!

The light transitions are from FXFactory. I like these plugins a lot. You get the most for your money than any other package that I could find.
 
Menno Mennes said:
Hi Eric,

Nice shots indeed, but…I am curios if there is a difference between the image quality of the Zeiss lenses and the Olympus Zuiko 14-35mm F 2.0. Because the Olympus lens gets worldwide unanimous outstanding tets results, even wide open…The expensive Olympus becomes a lot cheaper than instead of 3 Zeiss prime lenses..

Greetings from Holland!

Menno Mennes filmmaker

info@hollandheritage.tv
www.hollandheritage.tv
Click to expand...

I dont have any experience with the Olympus Zuiko 14-35mm F 2.0. However I'm sure it works well. Cine lenses are in a category of there own. Rent one and try them out. Then you will see. They work perfect for motion capture as they are designed to do so. Still lens are sharp and have wonderful IQ that can work with motion but when you want to rack focus or ride your iris while rolling then you have problems. Not saying still lens are bad. Thats all I have now but boy do I want some cine glass in the bunch.

Greetings from Sunny San Diego!
 
Last edited:
Very tidy piece of work Eric.

Great you have also had the true cine lens experience as well. Now you know why I always call using still lenses on movie cameras ...:compromises".
:happy:
 
Great work, Erik. What an exclamation point for using the right glass.
Agree with you for using silk and reflector boards - there's no better way.

Regards,
Scott
 
Thanks Scott and Matt!

The 70-200 played a small role. I tried it just for the heck of it but really it wasn't necessary for this shoot being so close to the subject. The only shot was the silhouette at :07. I do like that lens. Its sharp as a tack wide open at f4 and thats the way I keep it set.
The Zeiss ZF 85mm is a great lens and I used it a bunch with the first promo. The military reporter was mostly the 50 and 28mm CP.2. It was so darn sunny that day at Mira Mar I was having a heck of time controlling the light even with the bounce board and silk. I needed two bounce boards. We moved pretty fast on both those shoots, especially at Mira Mar. The military can be a little impatient and they really didn't want us as close as they let us get to the flight line, so I didn't want to wear out our welcome. They wanted use behind a fence and I talked them into letting us go in. That made a world of difference.
With the military reporter promo I had to grade the shots pretty hard in FCP with Colorist II to get it evened out and make her pop. The codec held up pretty well. People like to bash the AVCHD codec but I'm pretty impressed with it.
 
Last edited:
I added another spot to the comp. This one is for a new weather anchor. This was a challenge to shoot. When you watch it you'll think, its just a interview with some B-roll.
We wanted to shoot at golden hour from Coronado. It's a great location with the bay and downtown in the background. I had a bunch of editing to do before the shoot and didn't leave as early as I wanted. Talent was having a few issues as well. We left the station around 1:30 to get to Coronado. That usually only takes fifteen minutes from downtown, but not today. A jumper was on the Coronado bridge so it was shut down. I had to drive south to Imperial Beach and take the Silver Strand to Coronado.
Its now 2:15pm and we're getting off the freeway with unusually bad traffic for that time of day. Palm Ave. was backed up. Then the sound of sirens are coming from behind. A fire truck is going the wrong way down Palm Ave.! Then an ambulance follows. Seriously? Its now 2:30. One hour has past. I'm so screwed! We finally get to the Silver Strand to head north and see a rollover accident. Ugh. After we get passed it it was all clear.
We arrived on location an hour and a half late. Talent was ten minutes behind us. We had to get setup fast. My assistant and I found a spot. He put up a silk and support while I set up the camera and framed up the shot. I felt like we where doing a breaking news live shot not a promo shoot. The wind was pretty strong and I was worried about talents hair flying in her face and also a little thing called audio. I put a mini dead cat on the lav mic. That thing has saved me so many times. Its a must have in every audio kit. We did all the interviews right up to the sun going down behind buildings and shading the ares. I got so lucky its not even funny. So yes its just an interview and some b-roll.

I used the AF-100 and a Zeiss CP.2 50mm with a three stop ND in a RedRock mattebox to open up the iris. The scenics are from a 5D MKII.

Promo is at 1:00
Dagmar open.jpgDagmar tight.jpg
 
Last edited:
Great stuff, Erik!!!
I really liked the anchor/photographer, and the golden hour weather gal is just gorgeous (spot, that is, though she's cute, too...)
Looks like you nailed golden hour even with that crazy drive (jumpers... always throwing a wrench in the works...).

Did you use preset WB to bring out the gold? And what lav?

And what did you do in Colorista to make the military reporter pop?
 
Last edited:
groveChuck said:
Did you use preset WB to bring out the gold? And what lav?

And what did you do in Colorista to make the military reporter pop?
Click to expand...

Nothing special for white balance just my good ole grey card. Adjusted the curve a little in post. That tends to saturate the image. Really didn't mess with the balance. I liked the look. Sometimes less is more.

The wireless lav was in her cleavage. I don't like seeing microphones. Let the jokes fly!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top