Settings for HPX500 with P+S Pro35

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FBAS

Well-known member
I'll be using a HPX500 with a P+S Pro35 next weekend for a short, and I will only have one day to accomodate myself with the Pro35 (rental is expensive, so...)

I have been shooting a lot of eng with the HPX500 lately, so I know the camera pretty well, although I don't have much experience with its film-like gamma settings.

Is there anything I must absolutely not set in the menu when using the Pro35 adapter? What settings should be used? As neutral as possible? Or just the same as with a normal lens?
I know the only way to know 100% is to test everything beforehand - but I won't have much time to test. Like I said, I'd like to know if there are major differences between a normal lens and the adapter when it comes to the scene file settings.
 
If there's a way to do a white shading file, that could be worthwhile. You may want to consider raising detail up a bit due to the ground glass softening the image. Film like gammas are useful, blacks could come down a bit due to ground glass. All this depends upon the taking lenses being used--how sharp, how contrasty.
 
Thank you! Sounds like there won't be extreme differences to using a normal lens, now that's a relief.

I looked up white shading in the HPX500 manual. It says "shoot a solid white sheet of paper". Is it really safe to use normal office paper? Would the shading do more harm than good if the paper contained optical brighteners?

And then the manual says to check the zebras on the paper. What zebras? 70%, 80%, 90%? I guess not 100%...
Or will the zebra level be set automatically by the camera during the white shading process?

We will be using Zeiss HS 1.3 lenses. I read they are quite good and they're inexpensive to rent (we only pay for the PRO35 rental and the lenses, all the other equipment we can use for free :Drogar-Happy(DBG): )
 
Some more potential problems came up...

Is it absolutely crucial to have a Full HD monitor as a viewfinder?
We do have the bigger 16:9 VF on the HPX500 - will that be okay at least for the handheld parts?
We also have a Marshall Studio Monitor (I think 7") with 1024x768 resolution via HD component input. Will that be better than the internal VF? Or just as bad?

...and then, the rental house told us that rigging the Pro35 will be quite a hassle. We'd have to use acetone to losen some fixed screws in the camera and we'd rather not do it ourselves unless we were sure about what we were doing... wtf? At least this is what the director told me (he had been talking to the rental guy on the phone today).
Is it really that hard to rig the Pro35 on a HPX500?
 
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White shading-the white paper is not a problem if not too reflective. It must be lit evenly, you should have a vectorscope with gain set to max to see the center point. Does the 500 do an auto white shading correction? If so, you don't have to have scopes and high end monitoring. When doing the shading correction, you should use the taking lens and Pro 35 you will be using with the iris on both set where you most likely will end up shooting. I would put video level at around 90-95% using standard HD gamma, turning off knee compression.

When using a 35mm Cine adapter, good monitoring is very important. I recommend both an 8" mounted on the camera and at least a 17" for client viewing. Focus is very precise with such shallow depth of field.(By the way, just because you can set the taking lens at 1.3, doesn't mean you have to!) Back focus needs to be checked, a focus chart should be on set. Watch the monitors closely for focus and ground glass grain and flicker. You will find the HPX500 viewfinder to be next to useless for critical focus.

You will need a light weight support adapter with rods for the foot of the camera. Taking off the stock foot is not a big deal, just don't strip the screws. Chrosziel, Zacuto and Letus make these adapters. The Letus LWS is the most affordable at $425, from what I've found.

Additional accessories that could be helpful would be a follow focus and matte box, preferably a swing-away. Any high-end video rental house should be able to take care of the white shading and rigging, optimization.
 
Thanks again! The whiteshading should be no problem then. As far as I understand the manual, the HPX500 does an automatic white shading. If not, then I also have access to a vectorscope. I know how to do a manual white balance with a studio camera and a vectorscope, so I think I'd be able to handle that as well.

I'm familiar with the dop of 35mm film through my APS-C DSLR... I just hope my Marshall monitor will be detailed enough with its 1024x768 resolution...
For the handheld parts the viewfinder has to do, I hope with 25mm and F2.0 or so I'll be able to manage it.
There won't be any real focussing challenges - no people will be running towards me or away from me, the handheld will only be used to make the camera less static for some shots.

We will also have a 24" HP computer monitor for the director connected via SDI-HDMI converter. The aspect ratio of this one is a little off (16:10) because it's a computer monitor, but well...

We are going to get a Chrosziel matte box, Chrosziel follow focus, and an Arri light support rig with handlebars along with the Pro35.
I will even have an assistant with quite some eng camera and short film experience who could debut as a focus puller if needed...

I'm glad you say it's no big deal to remove the stock foot from the HPX500, what I was told sounded really dangerous. Maybe it was just because the rental guy was worried because he was talking to someone with apparently two left thumbs (I guess I should've called the rental house myself).

Unfortunately there's no camera rental in our area. We have to order from either Munich or Berlin which is both hours away from here - but the camera is located here and only available from Saturday till Monday morning, so we have to rig it ourselves. We can be glad we get the camera, a full lighting equipment and sound equipment for free - it's really more than low budget for almost no budget. I just hope we can make something of it, the director wants to apply to film school with this, so we all give our best to make it happen (good film schools here really demand a great deal of their applicants...)
 
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I got the equipment today, and taking the baseplate off of the HPX500 was super easy, as well as rigging everything else.

The bad surprise was the lenses with the follow focus... the lenses are fine regarding picture quality, they are labelled "Arriflex 35 - Zeiss HS" - that does sound really good, does it? The follow focus is a Chrosziel device, sent along with the lenses (so it should fit).

However... the lenses are a little older, and apparently some years ago the focussing of lenses was a lot harder than today...
The lenses need quite some physical force to focus - the focussing wheel does run smoothly, don't get me wrong, but it needs a lot of physical force.
Now add the follow focus - about the same age as the lenses and not the smoothest one that you can imagine.
Together, this need so much force to operate that it's almost impossible even on a locked tripod to not shake the camera while focussing. Forget about a focus puller in handheld, he'd almost rip the camera off your shoulder when trying to focus quickly.

Note to self: Next time take a day off and pick up the lenses yourself so you can check them out before you pay for them... :(

In addition to that, the rental house where we got the adapter forgot to add the handlebars for the rig while the director now thinks we really need to do an extended handheld shot with changing distances to a dancing actress. :crybaby:
 
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