F3: Why I Bought an F3

Sorry I couldn't see the links to the videos on your blog, perhaps I'm going blind with all the time I'm spending on-line.

Video 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JK8qXKulk6s

Video 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9lJcy_EFXc

Osslund, you should try the ET Riser, I just bought a second one, http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/141135133999?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

I was amazed at the big block of metal that protects the whole bottom of the camera, and actually re-enforces the body. And I finally found an ET VCT kit, which is quite difficult to find. When my friend saw my F3 with all the ET gear on, he shot his load and said something like, ''who needs RED!'' I told him that ET are now owned by RED :D

Perhaps I'm going back in time by buying all this old gear when I should be saving for 4K, not, but I'm watching Open Water as I write this, I actually want to shoot a project in SD.
 
JackCarter said:
Excellent, I'll order a second kit in January then. Out of interest, how much did you pay for the installation? I did mine myself, it was very easy, ET did some videos showing you how to do it. Still better to have it done by professionals though.
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$260 for installation at Abelcine. Took less than a day from drop-off to pick-up.
 
Sorry but clients care and they pay for the whole package, which includes professional footage but also looking professional and presenting an impression of technical expertise which I also relate to "tidyness". If I hire a B-shooter, they reflect myself so then I am caring as well. If something looks homemade (that posted pic looks better than the one on the site), it gives the impression that the DP isn't bringing what they assumed they were paying for.

Be all passive and "it's all about the product", or the art or whatever if you want to, but don't assume you are giving the best impression and be sure that I would send you packing. :beer:
 
I agree sort of.

one must rember that solo shooting s35 is a new activity.

i hold no respect at all for anyone who alleges they are experienced at shooting solo s35. No one is.

the truth is the gear just does not exist for this art ..so has to be made .. I promise if I make something it is better than Romford or zacuto by a large margin.. Should I get it polished and anodised - probably
 
Not to pick on you or the post, but lone 35mm shooting isn't new at all. In the cinematography world, there were and are tons of guys who did things like B-roll and landscape work on movies and pre-internet commercials with Arri 2C cameras and the like. You load up a 400ft. roll, put a few more rolls in your backpack and you were just about as mobile as today's digital guys. One battery lasted the whole day and you had an optical viewfinder. (In some cases, they might have been more compact!)

Yes, they were not doing sound too but, you get the idea.
 
Of course. Back in the day 1997? I did some stills work for a trekking company Kili and Cotapaxi and Mt Kenya. A no batts Fm2 and a bag of velvia - I have often wondered how I would do those jobs in the age of electric cameras. I still use some of the same glass!

Im talking doing commercial eng/corporate/live (event) style work with sound and laser fast lens changes. Some of the jobs I do are so fast I have seriously considered if I should be using a traditional 2/3 cam which would be neater or of course an f5 would be neater too - but both are In a different price class to my used f3 and recorder.. Id pick either any day over my franken rig if the client was renting
 
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Maybe it was an error buying the Hyperdeck Shuttle, which with the (now chopped) mount plate is heavy.

The Shuttle offers some hdmi stuff that could be useful to me (I have a DP1x directors monitor) and I can use the HS with my EX1 and an HDMI monitor in the future.

Basically the Shuttle and DP6 will go to my EX1 when the time is right.

To some extent Im reaping the 'non' rewards of HDMI monitors bought in my DSLR shooting days. (I have DP6, and 2 DP1x)

Does the blade do 60p/FS700raw? if not I'll wait and get an Ody7q in time which does that stuff, will work with the F3, and would do nice things if I ever need to rent a FS700 for HFR
 
The Samurai Blade do 1080p30 but no more and only prores/dnxhd. I think that hyperdeck is a great recorder and converter and so cheap that it's a no brainer.
 
What codec do you need besides DnX and ProRes? My Gemini is for sale if you want Dpx files - 26Gb/min.
My F3 with a Blade and Noga arm now has just one cable - I've been able to replace my Alphatron with the Blade and whole the rig is now reasonably useable.

I found the Hyperdeck poorly designed, difficult to incorporate - like strapping a paperback book on the camera - and it worked erratically. The mini bncs are the worst connectors ever put near a camera, and the operation of the box challenging. Not to mention no monitor, and no TC display. The card is inserted in the top where it is vulnerable to dust, rain, etc. A collection of bad ideas badly implemented. Apologies to all BMD lovers but this was one product that didn't work.
 
The gemini doesnt have FS700 functionality?

--

As for my hyperdeck, part of my 'messy rig' is mounting it flat and making protectors for the rear and the bncs!

S
 
Barons said:
What codec do you need besides DnX and ProRes? My Gemini is for sale if you want Dpx files - 26Gb/min.
My F3 with a Blade and Noga arm now has just one cable - I've been able to replace my Alphatron with the Blade and whole the rig is now reasonably useable.

I found the Hyperdeck poorly designed, difficult to incorporate - like strapping a paperback book on the camera - and it worked erratically. The mini bncs are the worst connectors ever put near a camera, and the operation of the box challenging. Not to mention no monitor, and no TC display. The card is inserted in the top where it is vulnerable to dust, rain, etc. A collection of bad ideas badly implemented. Apologies to all BMD lovers but this was one product that didn't work.
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That's exactly how I have mine set up to!
 
Yeah the hyperdeck is a POS because like he said, its like strapping a book to a camera rig and its huge but with no monitor.

Who cares because now with the Odyssey, they are all useless bricks in comparison and for less money than a good monitor was alone last year. I was wondering about that... will SmallHD go out of business now? Who would buy one? And the smaller TVlogic's have no use now either.
 
Shoots56 said:
Who cares because now with the Odyssey, they are all useless bricks in comparison and for less money than a good monitor was alone last year. I was wondering about that... will SmallHD go out of business now? Who would buy one? And the smaller TVlogic's have no use now either.
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Maybe they aren't useful with my F3, but I use the TVLogic 5.6 on my F5 for studio shoots. Small lightweight monitors are still useful when you don't need a Samurai, PIX, Odyssey, etc.
 
Hi Jack,

I think the economics of the HDx35 make sense for those who either are well invested in ENG lenses, particularly the HD ones or have a plan to incorporate ENG cameras into their stable. Remember the adapter is PL mount on the camera side so you can move it on to future cameras with PL mounts. Whereas the Sony lens will only be good on Sony cameras that continue to use the FZ mount.

The Sony lens has a few things going for it that may not be immediately apparent. It has steadyshot stabilization, you can mount motors on it for FF, zoom and iris for steadicam or jib work, the usable range for interview shots does not ramp that much, it delivers a really nice image despite the early criticism that was given here and elsewhere and of course it passes on the lens data to the camera and metadata capture and it is a good lens if you are doing outdoor, run & gun kind of shooting. Unfortunately, at 10 grand USD and with a fairly high depreciation it does not make a good investment for an owner/operator unless you can assure yourself you can get good rental fees on it.

The Philip Bloom comment was a low blow. ;)
 
I have already seen programs on TV (Ross Noble's freewheeling) where they are using F5s with those adapters.

Also, regarding the F3 build by Sam. I am currently working on a project and for various reasons we are using their own F3 vs my F35. While the F3 is a fair bit lighter than my F35 plus cinedeck, the amount of ludicrous crap that goes on the F3 is not even funny. It has bits poking out everywhere and worst of all we have no EVF, so handheld is interesting to say the least. It is not a bad camera, but like many of that generation it requires serious help to get it working properly. Meanwhile, my F35 is actually relatively simple (despite the weight penalty) and I would rather deal with it any day of the week. Just my opinion, of course, and there are definitely scenarios when I would take the F3 over the F35.
 
I think the Hyperdeck is a no-brainer. It's so inexpensive that you can look upon it as a HDMI-SDI converter. I never fiddle with mine. Just input power and a SSD and that's it. If you use it to playback files and trying to do more than just recording it's lacking but to get Prores out of the F3 I think it's great. Never had a problem with mine. My route is to use the normal SDI to a monitor and A SDI to the recorder and when I need playback I do that from the internal SxS cards.

The F3 have a pretty bad form as is but it can be turned into something elegant and easy to use. Since I got the ET plates on my F3 it's very uncomplicated to use and next week I'll make it even more slimmed down. It's a pretty bad form as is but it can be turned into something elegant and easy to use.
 
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