the transition from dslr to fs700

[Geesbert]

I am a pro photographer dipping into filming lately. I used a few dslrs (5dmk3, gh2, nex5n) for that and quite enjoyed it, so I got a fs700, I really like what I am getting out of it, but I am struggeling with a few issues.

setting ISO:

Taking photos my most important setting is the f-stop. I know my main lenses' f-stop behaviour by heart, know every DOF of every f-stop, know how it vignettes, how the OOF highlights look and so on.
filming with my dslrs i stick to the half shutter rule, set the f-stop I want for the image I want and then either set the ISO accordingly or use a ND-Fader, which I try to avoid though. so setting the ISOs in third stops is rather crucial.

with the FS700 I am stuck to the three presets or the Auto setting which I can't adjust without moving deeply into the menu for the ae shift. What is the point in that?
the built in NDs are great, but quite coarse for exposure adjustment. Why is sony not giving us ISOs in third stops directly by pressing the ISO button and using the adjustment wheel?

AF:

Although I am using mainly manual focus glass, I am baffeld that the camera doesn't offer any selectable focus points. What is it focussing on? why is it now showing what point is selected? with the nex5n a fantastic feature is the touch control, touch what you want to have in focus and the camera follows. why is it burried in a menue with the fs700? I assigned a side buton to that function, but I am loosing another function for it.

White Balance:

why are there no White balance presets other than the two provided (indoor/outdoor)? End even those are hard to understand. I have set it to manual and dialling in the kelvin, but it's tedious. A camera which doesn't shoot RAW should have the WB setting clos to hands.




the FS700 is the first camera in many years which made me read the manual, and I had many (too many?), but some thing just make me wonder.


Any advice appreciated

Stefan

 

[Chad Nikolaus]

Yeah, i have Spot Focus assigned to a button as well. Good idea, i think i dropped Histogram for it, but i have the Histogram up at all times anyway and don't really turn it off.

Setting the ISO is my biggest complaint about the FS700. Like you said, why not just allow it to work the same way shutter does. Let us use the scroll wheel for ISO.

That would probably work for White Balance too, scrolling with the wheel. But more presets would have been good. Not as big of a complaint for me as the darn ISO!

Hopefully Sony has heard enough about this and would include it in some future firmware.

 

[olof]

I think that the way the 700 and most video cameras work is traditional.

Going back in time to the 90's every Pro camera had no AF, 3 gain settings and auto Iris was never really used except to get you in the ball park, zebras is what you used for exposure. On video cams white balance was always set from a white card, you could set 2, A and B, and there was also 1 preset ( I always keep it at 3200), there was also an auto white balance trace, nobody I know ever used that.

I have shot film for stills since the late 60's and DSLRS since the 90's. As well as all the different pro video formats since the 70's. I remember when auto focus first really started working in still cameras about 1990 I seem to recall, and since then it has really just gotten a lot better. Video just never developed auto focus in the Pro ENG rigs. Yes there are exceptions. I shoot stills primarily in AP mode, but I never do that on my video cams for obvious reasons. Now a lot of times you do use ND's on still cameras to get a desired aperture and desired time exposure as well like silky water.

The two have always been two separate worlds with completely different work routines. But lately they are merging, I think this is great. So to answer your questions it is really just tradition. And all the old timers are used to the way we used to work and see it as natural.

I am not defending Sony or other manufacturer just making an observation. And I think there are a lot of ways of working that can be transferred from the still word to the moving world. And it will happen, change just takes time.

I still maintain auto focus just does not work most of the time in video, all you need is a bird to fly through a scene and your focus is blown. Instant auto focus that then stays put once you let go of the button does work well and I do use this on video cams that offer it.

I use a lot of L glass on my 700 and auto focus does not work at all, but personally this is not a problem for me, I am just so used to manually focusing.

Just a few observations. Change is good, but often slow.

 

[Geesbert]

So how do you fine tune your exposure? By adjusting the shutter speed? Say goodbye to 180 degree shutter? Or just ignore that some lenses have a distinct sweet spot f stop?

 

[olof]

So how do you fine tune your exposure? By adjusting the shutter speed? Say goodbye to 180 degree shutter? Or just ignore that some lenses have a distinct sweet spot f stop?

With traditional ENG video (2/3" chip) cams the ENG lenses always performed best around f4, so I tend to use them from f2.8-5.6 and combining the built in ND's you can usually end up in that range. OK that is the old days. These were pretty pricey lenses 10K+ in general but had a 18-20x zoom range, like 5-100mm. And often have a doubler built in as well, so they are 40x zoom lenses. To get SDOF on those cams we moved away from the subject and zoomed in. I am just saying this is how ENG is/was done.

Now motion film production is different and there prime lenses and matteboxes are used with whatever combination of ND, grad filters or specialty filters it takes to get the image you want (including shutter angle and f-stop), Sunset filters are very popular. This is time consuming and takes a lot of kit. Different film stocks also make a huge difference.

OK so now we are at this interesting time when everything is sort of merging. We are using some still lenses and new full 35mm or (yes others like MFT etc. as well) C-size imagers to shoot whatever you want to call it (digital motion film) and these cameras are compromises at this point at least in the price range of the 700.

So what do I do. Well it depends on the job. Most of the time I do not shoot with a mattebox and a case full of filters though I do have them and this is a fun way to shoot. I usually use a combination of built in ND, distance to talent (or whatever), lighting/reflectors and focal length to achieve the desired DOF and framing. This is pretty fast and works well for me. I spend most of my effort on lighting and use a lot of reflectors outdoors. I do use graduated filters quite a bit and Polarizers as well. And even on my Canon L's I tend to end up shooting f4 or f5.6 most of the time. That is not to say I never use a f1.4 setting but it is rare.

I always try to avoid using gain, but sometimes you have to. The 700 PP I use most has a ISO of 640 that is pretty fast, and with lighting/reflectors you usually can get the f-stop you need w/o gain.

Now shooting landscapes you can't control lighting other than with patience, so there a mattebox with a bunch of filters may be the best bet. Just a few thought over coffee on a rainy Sunday morning.

Oh yeah one more thing. I do have a variable fader ND, I don't use it much on the 700, I did use it a bit on my 5DmkII, and it worked OK most of the time. But sometimes I got weird artifacts in the sky, like a faint checkerboard skewed.