Questions about our camera!

[mastiboulance]

Okay this is our camera. I call it the Bloom Machine. I'm wondering whether the rods will support all the front weight without bending in the long run if this goes on a tripod. Also we use a Manfroto 503 head. It seems to be a bit light for this sort of monster. Comments?

 

[Taylor Rudd]

Steel rods? It should.

And yes, you definitely have reason to be concerned with that tripod. I find it hard to do smooth moves with that head and heavy rigs.

 

[thekreative]

yah thats a very heavy rig for a 503. Go for a 516 or a 510 secondhand if you stay manfrotto but there is way better heads if you spend more and they pay you back with performance. You've spent a lot of money to not get great pans and tilts.

 

[mastiboulance]

We started shooting our Feature yesterday with our "Bloom Machine" (Look at the gear on the picture). As Bloom said in his review, this is an entirely new way of filming. For one, this machine needs "a lot" more light than a "bare bone" EX1. I think you need a few 800 watt lights to shoot interiors, period. This said, once you have the right lights, you can shoot with a 2.8 zoom without problems. Forget shooting any tracking shots without rails. This thing requires a tripod. The depth of field is really narrow. This is not for weddings or anything informal. This is the real thing and a focus puller is necessary for any traking shot at to make sure the Letus is running when the record button is pressed.

I would like to mention that the follow focus rigs from Redrock are a great toy and will really impress clients. However it is clearly unecessary. It is faster and more practical to pull focus on the lens directly. I could have saved the 600 euros on a focus gear. The same is true for the Mattbox. It is really great to look at but in the end it just requires adjustments everytime the lens changes or the zoom is adjusted. You wind up just taking it off.

My recommendation so far is (1) not to use any MattBox and Focus gear accessories with the Letus and Rod setup as they just make things more difficult. (2) To always call out "Letus running" before shooting a scene to make sure the thing is on (3) to get at least 3 800 watt lights for interiors.

So far the footage looks very good but I'm always paranoid about grain, vignetting and resolution loss. We'll see.

Thank you. May the force be with you.