Sticking with adapters and staying away from DSLR's

N

noam

Well-known member
After careful consideration, I have finally decided to shoot my first feature on my HMC150 with an adapter, rather than on a 5D. I'm more familiar and comfortable with the camera, and believe in performs better as a video camera than the 5D.

With that said, I've posted this question before.. but I would appreciate if people could recommend adapters to use with the 150. I've used several different adapters up until this point - but haven't used any of them extensively enough to really decide which is the best for me.

Any thoughts?

Also, if anyones curious.. here is a recent cinematography reel mainly shot on the HMC150:

http://www.vimeo.com/17100655
 
noam said:
After careful consideration, I have finally decided to shoot my first feature on my HMC150 with an adapter, rather than on a 5D. I'm more familiar and comfortable with the camera, and believe in performs better as a video camera than the 5D.

With that said, I've posted this question before.. but I would appreciate if people could recommend adapters to use with the 150. I've used several different adapters up until this point - but haven't used any of them extensively enough to really decide which is the best for me.
Click to expand...


You've arrived at possibly the least fashionable conclusion here at DVXuser -- at the moment a vast majority of whom are fans of a camera that has not yet been released -- the AF-100. The remainder of whom think the 5Dm2 is God's gift to humanity.

Despite all their wisdom -- I'll say you've reached a relatively intelligent decision. If I were in the market today -- I'd seriously check out that all new Redrock Micro adapter ("M3") that, according to specs, is on par with the Letus Ultimate -- and it seems to be less than a third of the Letus Ultimate price. I can personally vouch for the Letus Ultimate -- that does everything they advertise. I also like using full frame 35mm lenses -- with no crop factor.

What you need to know is that lenses are the most important investment. At its best -- an adapter transfers the image from the lens to your camera. Meaning, the perfect adapter is only as good as the lens you stick on it. A crappy lens on the perfect adapter will flawlessly transfer a crappy lens image. I can't tell you how many times I've encountered characters who stuck some ill suited lens (or any super zoom something) on an adapter and then complained about light loss and loss of detail -- blaming the adapter. You'll want to spend time learning about and researching lens options -- it's complex. The easy answers are Zeiss primes -- but the truth is that the Zeiss Nikon mounts are the most overrated lenses I've encountered. Classic manual Nikons (especially primes) are as good as any Zeiss. Also, you want full frame lenses (not APS-C lenses) and lenses with a manual aperture control (no modern Canon lens, for example).
 
Amen for that! Looks great! Same thing here, I'm sticking to my HMC and my adapter, it does the job when used correctly! What scene file are you shooting with, really love the look you have on your shots!
 
Very good reel!!! Nice quick cuts kept me into it! Pretty grades, too! Good luck on the feature!
 
Nice reel man, I love the way you cut the snowy footage into it, really a nice contrast of shots. Now I see why you dig the adapter look, you use a lot of diffusion, and nicely I MIGHT ADD.

I feel the same way, I kept my xh and Handy35, I still like the the look over the dslr's, It has that nice soft grainy filmic look. Maybe it's the GG that I like so much. Also, I found using a dof adapter really helps to learn good lighting tech. I do have a t2i, and I like it, but mostly for low light, and being file based. But thats about it.

Check out the Handy35, sgpro, or the new redrock. I wouldn't even consider bothering with anything that doesn't have a spinning GROUND GLASS. The vibrators just have to many limitations. One being the problematic grain when stopping down your lens. Good luck with your feature, cant wait to check it out man.
 
Thank you all for the advice and feedback. I greatly appreciate it and will take all of these points into consideration.

I'm now even more certain that when all is said and done the look that I am trying to achieve will work best by using an adapter with the HMC150. As we all know, no one camera is ideal for all scenarios but I think in this case the HMC + Adapter should be a great fit... DSLR's look great, but aren't my preference - especially on a narrative project like this.


AGmedia, as you mentioned it is really all about the glass going in front of the adapter, and thankfully I have access to a number of great Nikon lenses to use with it.

maranfilms, you definitely are right that I often love using a diffused look. More often than not, I need to achieve this in post when shooting without an adapter. It will be nice to get some softer footage out right off the camera though.

Admir, I am shooting with many different scene files.. Mostly just cine-v or cine-d lately.. But I have recently loaded some custom scene files on the camera. To be honest I never paid much attention to the scene files.. I usually just flip through them until something looks right and do the rest in post! I am trying to spend less and less time on set worrying about a lot of the technical aspects of the camera (besides the basics of course) and focus more and more on lighting, setting up the shot, and of course directing the actors. In the past I found it easy to get lost in the scene files, playing around with settings and later on realizing other aspects of the production were lacking.

Thanks again for the feedback. I will keep you all posted as to which adapter I go with!
 
I still can get better pictures from my HVX200 and LEX combination (besides lowlight performance) than any DSLR.
The adapter gives you a certain something that a DSLR can´t give. I can´t nail it down but there is something and it is not the diffusion of the GG.
I wish I would have an spinning adapter though.

Frank
 
I've recently purchased a GH2 and decided to shoot the film with it instead.. A big change from my original thoughts on the subject. The image quality of the GH2 really just speaks for itself.

I'm still familiarizing myself with the camera, and just did my first test shoot today.. It's very rough and I played around with the colors and other effects in post to see how the codec would hold up. If anyone's interested take a look!:

http://vimeo.com/18178314
 
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