Renting the F3 for a couple days. Any gotchas for a newbie

Erik Naso

Erik Naso

Veteran
I’m shooting a news image promo next week all at night. I have four on cams with talent plus night scenics of San Diego. Any tips or gotchas I should be aware of? I primarily shot with the AF-100 and PL lenses so I will be using the same glass. Duclos 11-16, Red 17-50 and a Zeiss CP.2 85.
I pick up the camera a couple of days before so I will have time to test it out. Unfortunately the camera doesn’t have s-log. Boo.
 
Are you shooting with an external 10bit recorder or are you recording natively with the SXS cards? Will you be shooting the night scenes with daylight lighting or tungsten, the F3 looks good shooting daylight. The picture profile settings on the F3 are great, I bounce between Cine Gamma 1 and 4 depending on lighting conditions because I edit most of my footage, however if you are only shooting you should discuss your settings with the editor. Andy and Abel Cine has a fantastic explanation on how to use the various Cine Gamma settings here http://blog.abelcine.com/2011/03/31/abelcine-tests-the-sony-f3-dynamic-range/
I very seldom white balance any more with the F3, instead I use the settings inside the Picture Profile menu to set my W/B, if you are editing your footage you can bring the final color balance in to what you like in the edit. If the editor is unfamiliar with any of the above mentioned be safe and shoot REC709 and white balance.
The viewfinder on the F3 is useless for critical focus and the side monitor on the camera isn’t much better, if you can get a proper external monitor do it, or use peaking while wearing bifocals to achieve critical focus on the F3.
The camera menu is straight forward, like the EX3 but I would go through it several times using the manual to make sure you have all the proper settings set. There are really no “GOTCHAS” using the F3 solo but if you are recording to an external recorder you will need to have the rental house help you set it up to make sure you are good-to-go. The Zeiss 85mm is a fantastic lens for shooting talking heads, and a night time scene with San Diego behind the talent will most likely look great!
 
Thanks Stephen. Great info here.

I will be using two LED panels for the talent shots and some bounce depending how it looks. I can change the temp with filters that slide into the LED panels if needed.

I’ll be be editing and grading the spot myself.

Good to know about viewfinder and LCD monitor. Same issue with most cameras these days. I have a DP4 EVF as well as a DP6 on the way. Looking forward to the DP6. I like the EVF but miss the larger monitor when shooting. Those darn forty something eyes.

No external recorder will be used unless its highly recommended to do so. Thanks for the AbelCine link. Good stuff! and thank you for your input
 
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Your not going to miss wrestling around with a heavy 7 or 9 inch monitor with a brick on the back. Your going to love the DP6. Their batteries are great too, small and easy on the wallet. I hear you on the 40's eye crap! sux.
Feel free to gain up on the F-3, it's so noiseless. Just a tip, move your record assign button to number 5 near bottom left, rear of camera. It may default to left front bottom. And if it's there you will end up missing and hit white balance and mess up your white. Leave detail off, as well. Cine 1 will help with highlights, Cine 3 helps the blacks, Cine 2 keep levels legal.
 
First night out with the F3 was fantastic! I shot everything at 23.97 with the shutter set at 180 degrees to lower the motion blur. That works very well. Also set the gain at 12db. I cant believe how clean it is. One heck of a camera for night shooting. I used a cool light LED with gold mount battery and it just looks great. The 85mm Zeiss never came off the F3. Wide open the bokeh off car head lights looked very nice. I set the camera up with the Abel Cine range settings. Highlights held up well. This will be fun to grade. Lots of info in the blacks.

Thanks for the input on the camera folks. DVXusers are the best!
I’m shooting again tonight mostly handheld walking, so wont be able to use the 85mm. It looks like the Duclos 11-16 will get most of the use.

Again thanks. My poor AF-100 gave me sad eyes last night when I came home and was playing back the clips on my HD monitor. Maybe she should be worried. :)
 
That might be the one "gotcha", being fooled into thinking you can get clean blacks at +12db, IMHO.
I'm sure it's not anything a little "Neat-Image" can't clean up : )
 
bill i think your camera is messed up, or you have absolute zero noise tolerance because most of the time i cant tell if the cmaera is set to 18dB gain.... it all looks the same just brighter.... unless i have a magical one....
what are you monitoring on?




as for the OP, here a BIG gotcha.... on the top handle, the strongest mounting screw for a noga arm is the one closes to the lens mount, NOT the one set in metal near the view finder believe it or not... my top handle split in half cause i was using the wrong "heavy load" mounting port. ( from the mouth of SONY i got this info)
 
Hit me off list Timur, I'd really like to explore this further (genuine request, no sarcasm- [I'm not pushing my F3 above +6db when in 8 bit mode]).
I start seeing most digital cameras break up in mid grey.

I monitor my footage on a 24" DELL using an NVidia graphics card, and dissect a lot of images @ rarevision.
There's no perfect camera, and yes, I would say I have a low tolerance for noise creep.
 
You young guys are spoiled.;)
You can go to 12db no problem on this camera. 18..meh There is noise, but it's so fine and minimal compared to what we had before. Try turning a Varicam past 3 and see what you get.
For a $14,000 camera that has such low noise in the gain, as this one....I think you pixel peeping too much.
Don't worry in 5 years will be watching 4k at 48 fps and it will be so sharp and noiseless that people will be adding grain and blur because it's too clean....
 
I agree. It's so clean even at the camera setting of ISO 1200 I had to degrade it and soften it to make it more filmic.

Scene 12 G eyes.jpg
 
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Douglas,

Why don't you upload an ungraded TIFF so the forum can evaluate what you're looking at?
 
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I shot my promo spot entirely with 12db at night all outside and I cant believe how clean it is. Some parts of the image was actually brighter than my eye could see. The shoot was all at night with two LED panels. Looks great.
 
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