the editman.com

I really try to stay out of 5DmkII video shooting but sometimes a client have less money and can't afford a proper video camera like my AF101. This was one of these jobs and also the first one I got to use my new jib the multi-jib from Hague.

Everytime I use equipment for the first time there's something that doesn't work like I imagine it to work but this jib is sweet to use. The problems had more to do with my 5DmkII than with the actual jib. I used my Zacuto EVF to monitor and HDMI is something I really hate. It works fine on my AF101 because it have a full size HDMI connector but the flimsy mini HDMI is a joke. I had numerous occasions when the signal dropped out. When you use a jib you move the camera alot and that in combination with mini HDMI is not good at all.

I used the multi-jib in the standard length and had to put 10kg worth of weight on the back of the jib to have it in balance. When I moved the Zacuto EVF around, using a small and very versatile clamp, the weight shifted so I had to hang a 10m BNC cable over the weights to fine tune the balance. One thing I hate about a jib is to haul all the weights to and from a location. It's worth the effort when you have the jib up and running but man it's a back breaker to carry it around.

The multi-jib rests on a Manfrotto 528 tripod and Manfrotto 114 dolly. A great combination and I manage to roll the jib around even in tight spaces.

I had some issues with the jib I had before, the Hague K10, getting bouncy images if moving to fast but this jib is rock solid. It takes a bit longer to assemble but the more you do it the faster it becomes. I think I removed the jib part from the tripod four times during the day when moving the jib from floor to floor and it was fast to handle.

In most of the shots I used the pan bar on my Sachtler FSB8 head to move the camera and on a couple of shots I stood on the back. If you want the footage can look like steadycam footage and you can move the camera to locations that would be near to impossible on a steadycam. It certainly adds production value!

A jib is something you use more if you own it. A good investment in the long run indeed.

I ended last week by shooting this Drostdy Hof (wine) commercial in a wine cellar in Stockholm. A small team and I have to say it was one of the most compact commercial shoots I've attended.

The director I work with has a soft spot for the Canon 5DmkII and even though I think you'll achieve about the same with the AF101 (with the right lens) I used my 5DmkII. Lately it has been acting as B cam or used only for stills.

Lighting was really simple. One 300W Fresnel as the key light with gel to candle light warm and an other to the right to provide fill and give wine bottles in the foreground a nice soft light. In the background a third Fresnel casting light to a wine shelf.

I even took audio from a boom mounted Audio Technica AT897 straight into the 5D.

My 5DmkII had the simplest rig one can have. Camera on a tripod, a Zacuto EVF mounted on the hot shoe. A HDMI converter to send a view to the director and client. I used a Canon 24-70L lens at about 55mm and a Canon 100L for closer/macro shots. The reason for using F2.8 lenses and not my Zeiss F1.4 primes is you don't want that shallow DOF. It's hard to pull focus as it is with the 480p output at F2.8 and I think even for a low light shoot like this one F2.8 is fast enough.

Had I used my AF101 I would have used a Voigtländer 25mm at F1.4 with the same DOF.

I like the look you get when working with low APL shots on the 5D so I was way underexposed to make it look real. I will lift it in post to the desired level and I'm looking forward seeing directors cut next week.



Here's one of the final versions. Graded in Magic Bullet Looks.

Some of the bags that came along for the ride when I this week did beauty shots of a BMW ActiveHybrid 7.



Part of this job is to do interviews inside the BMW so first I tested how to rig my AF101. Used my new Camtree suction cups and a Leica 45/2.8. With the Camtree holding the camera there's some flex. This together with OIS within the Leica 45 lens gives the footage the impression of being shot in a studio but in a cool way. I like it when light and the background changes.



I used my Canon 5DmkII to get some nice shots outside of the car. There's lots of joints to be tighten and check.



I found out the Camtree worked great providing grip for the 5D and it felt secure on numerous locations. Thanks to it being so reconfigurable I had plenty of options on where it could be mounted.



I came back to my Panasonic AF101 to some shots of the BMW while driving. Had my Manfrotto 504/546 tripod fasten to the car and used the excellent Tokina 11-16 for these angles.



Last I used my Hauge crane to take some arriving/departure shots and used Tokina 11-16 for these as well. I'm going through the footage now and it's where nice images indeed!

It makes my work so easy when having options how to mount or move a camera with gear I own. The trick is always to have something good enough but without increasing cost to much.

So it seams the stars are converging and much of the things that have been stuck in the pipeline will get here this fall. Many interesting things, both new and well known. On top of the list is of course Birger Engineerings micro 4/3 adapter to put Canon EF lensos on bodys like GH1, GH2 or AF100/101.



But before this adapter hits the marker in November we have another adapter from Red Rock Micro. Not as versatile since it only controls aperture and need a 9V external battery. But that's atleast two choices for micro 4/3 users!




Finally Nikon steps into the mirrorless game. Can we expect the same thing happening as when Nikon got the D90 on the market? It was the first DSLR with video and soon after the still excellent Canon 5DmkII took over and crushed Nikons attempt. The Nikon 1 system seams no better than micro 4/3 so I don't see the point. When you're dealing with an exchangeable lens system small is relative to a normal DSLR and it's lenses but non of these mirrorless cameras are small and pocketable if you take the lens in account. I do think it's great to have a small camera with exchangeable lenses that's smaller than let's say a 7D but I believe every attempt to make it to fit in a pocket is futile so make them as good as possible instead.

Canon have something coming on 3 November and if this is a mirrorless system, a new large sensor video camera or something for the movie industry we'll know more of then. Interesting RED announces their Scarlet at the same date. Maybe a Canon 5DmkIII? I do hope for a XF305 like camera with a large sensor and EF mount.

Then the affordable Atomos Samurai is due in October and it seams they have squeezed at least some of the asked for features. Can be a good recorder and monitor to use on any camera with HD SDI output. I'll be getting one for sure as soon as I can. Atomos also have converters so that you can use the Samurai for both HDMI and HD SDI sources.

I also have an eye out for that affordable Sachtler ACE system. Could be a decent choice for a smaller camera setup.

Another piece of add-on lurking could be the new motor for the slidekamera. I'm waiting for an English manual before going any further.

Everytime Eric Gadd performs it's a joy to be in the audience. He's one of the greatest talents in Sweden and his showcase is wide and deep. This evening he was relaxed and only had a guitar by his side. I enjoyed it very much and still had time to take a few snapshots with my 5DmkII and the excellent Canon 70-200/2.8 IS II lens.







I had goosebumps when he even did a cover song by Prince - I wanna be your lover. Eric, you're the greatest!

Half a year ago I got a small 150W fresnel light. This was just after I got my first LED light panel so it wasn't that interesting at the time. A month ago I got another fresnel, this time a 300W with softbox. The quality of light one gets with these small lights is unbeatable for the price. Okay, the lamp only lasts about 200 hours but they are small and so easy to work with.

I use my Canon 5DmkII mainly to take stills these days and let my AF101 do video. I've been looking for some time now for a wind machine to take stills and found this one in a local store in Stockholm. Three speeds and I like that vintage look all in metal.



I rigged a black muslin backdrop and used the 300W fresnel as key and the little 150W as hair light and took some stills. I guess rigging was only ten minutes and it's one portable kit. I'll get another fresnel because I like what I see!


Canon 5DmkII with Zeiss 85/1.4 lens.

This week I had a four day shoot in Båstad/Sweden during Swedish Tennis Open. I had both the AF101 and 5DmkII camera with respective lenses and crane, slider and such to get the shots I wanted. Me and the director John (to the left) hoped for sunny days but sadly it was cloudy and rained one whole day. Despite this we got some very nice footage especially during the sunset tennis match. I wanted to do a recap of how my tools worked during this week.


A framegrab from the 5DmkII and Canon 70-200/2.8 IS II lens.

I bought Zacutos EVF to get a decent monitor for my 5DmkII and it's just a great tool on DSLR cameras and something like Panasonics AF101. The only problem I had was the included LP-E6 style battery. It didn't charge in the charger so I had to use a spare LP-E6 battery instead. Back home I found out the pins does not fit to well with the charger and that was the cause. I had to put pressure sideways to get it to charge and I really dislike the fact this battery can't be charged or used with a 5D/7D. I will not use it since I got a decoded LP-E6 style battery from ebay that works with the charger for the 5D.

In total I brought 13 lenses but only used 8. Voigtländer 25 and 50 , Tokina 11-16 and Lumix 14-140 on the AF101. On my 5DmkII I used 50, 85, 100 and 70-200 lenses. The ultra wide Tokina works great on the AF when mounted to the crane and that 50mm Voigtländer is my favourite for interviews. Instead of using a pure macro lens Voigtländer 25 works almost like a macro. My kit lens for the GH1 - Lumix 14-140 might not be the most exciting lens but given it's 10x zoom lens it's so versatile. I shot alot of tennis action with this lens in 50p and it looks great. had to crank ISO up to 800 on some shots but that's not a problem on the AF camera.


A framegrab from the AF101 and Voigtländer 50mm lens.

Brian from Berkeysystem got me another handle for my light shoulder rig and I configured it to work with the Zacuto EVF and 5D camera. Even with something like the Zeiss 85mm lens looks steady. If the Voigtlände 50 is my favourite on the AF the Zeiss 85 is my favourite on the 5D for interviews. I didn't use my 5D to do any interviews this time and frankly the AF handles audio much better. I have two lenses with IS - 100 macro and 70-200. These got a fair amount of use. Neither I or the director felt the need for wide images except for the Tokina 11-16 on the crane. If you are worried about crop factor on the AF101 camera stop worrying! The Tokina 11-16 is the only ticket you need for wide images and they are pretty much undistorted. Set the lens at about 0,7m on the focus scale in you have a sharp image from near to far.


AF101 and Tokina 11-16 on the Hague crane.

Speaking of the Hague K10 crane it is a nice crane but due to how many floors flexed when people walked on them it became tricky to get shots without crane wobble. That's one of the negative sides of having a crane with a single bar. It does wobble alot if the ground isn't solid or something like the wind makes it wobble. It's also heavy to move. I guess we'll use about 7-8 shoots from the crane.

My slider had the same problem with flexing floors. Or it was a floor problem really. Nothing wrong with the slider. But I have to put a better support together for the slider. It is a heavy and smooth slider which I like but you can't have a center mounted tripod as the only support because it will start to go down when you get near the edge. To have two tripods, one on each end, works but I'm not to fond of that either... I guess I'll figure something out. This time I had two Manfrotto light stands and it worked okay. Not as steady as I would like.

To pick up audio I only used my Sennheiser EW100 G3 system with a wind shield. This is so easy to use and I hardly ever get any wind noise or pick up noise from clothing. Great and affordable audio! I had a handheld AT8010 and an AT875R mic tucked in my bag just in case but had no use of them this time. I even had a Sennheiser EW400 if I would have needed a microphone for my 5DmkII.

Did I miss something? Well I did miss to have a small camera to document the shoot. I left my GH1 at home this time and even if I'd had it with me I doubt I would have used it. I must get a small pocket camera next time.

I bought a Canon 5DmkII to shoot video. I already had two Canon 7D and a GH1 but wanted that full frame vista look on videos. I knew it was a good still camera but just saw that as a bonus. Now when I'm more comfortable to shoot video with my AF101 I'm back to using my 5DmkII for what it's made to do. Take still images.

It's really liberating to go out and just shoot stills. Life around you has so many situations to capture or just to play with the camera to get to know it a bit more. I hardly flipped the mirror on this camera to shoot anything personal this year. First because I wanted to get to know the AF101 camera but also because the AF is a much better tool for video.



Taking stills let's you enjoy what is happening around you and get great images. Something that can be less so when you have to compose and follow action in video shooting. The 5DmkII with a good selection of Canon L lenses is a joy to use. It's a bit old in the tooth and lacking in some features compared to more modern cameras like the 7D but image quality is still beautiful.



But this week I'm going to work and will bring my 5DmkII to shoot certain things. Probably I'll use the 16-35 and 70-200 to get something different from what the AF101 will do. So it's packing one bag with AF101 and lenses and another one with 5DmkII and lenses. I will also bring the Hague K10 crane, slider and some screens to use sunlight as fill and key. Maybe there's still some mileage on that 5DmkII for video work after all...

My dear friend Brian at www.berkeysystem.com has since last year helped me solve many things when it comes to putting a rig together. One of the best things about his Berkey system parts is you can reassemble them into something new. They never go out of style or use. Come up with a new idea and you can put it together. This is so great and during this last year I've collected a small toolbox with parts from Berkey. This time I wanted to built a new compact and uncomplicated rig for shoulder use on either my Canon 5DmkII or my Panasonic AF101.

I wanted to mount the camera with most of the weight resting on the shoulder rather than having the camera in front of me. That would just have made it front heavy and I'd have to use an additional weight on the back. Not what I wanted to do, adding more weight.



Because the way I wanted the camera to rest I couldn't use the built in EVF or the LCD screen. I've just got a Zacuto EVF flip and already have a Z-finder and when I got the EVF I had a shoulder rig in mind. These two makes it possible to put something together that's workable and to monitor what you're shooting. I also wanted to make one rig that can be used for tripod mount, with rods and the whole setup of mattebox and follow focus, or use it as a shoulder rig.



I still have to fine tune it and add a better HDMI cable solution to avoid cable clutter but as it is right now it does meet my design ideas. It's small, uncomplicated, compact and can be configured pretty much any way one could possible want. Thanks to the excellent Berkey system parts.



A small articulation arm holds the EVF and it's screwed into a Berkey rod block. When not used or when transporting, you remove the camera and EVF and fold the handlebar so it becomes flat. Everything is adjustable. I even tried to put my Manfrotto 521PFI focus controller on one of the rods and with something like the Olympus 14-35 lens or any other micro 4/3 lens you can pull focus and adjust iris on the fly without moving you hand. With manual lenses, like the Voigtländer 75/1.8 mounted in these images, you have to adjust it directly by hand but even that proved to be comfortable.

Let's face it, anyway you look upon Canons 5DmkII it's a great camera and Canon makes great L class lenses. I know and have a few golden ones like the 100/2.8 L and 70-200/2.8 IS II L. My AF101 now eagerly awaits one of the best things this year - the Birger Engineering adapter for micro 4/3 mounts and Canon EF lenses. My original idea back in late 2010 was to have one set of lenses - all Canon and use them on both my DSLR and the AF101. It seams it will soon become reality!

There are a couple of key advantages to have this adapter and use it with the 5DmkII/AF101 combination. First I can bring one set of lenses that works on the two cameras. This makes it possible to take high quality stills and video when on set and use any camera for a particular shot without bringing more lenses. Then it opens up the possibility to use electronic focus controllers like the Manfrotto 521PFI I already have, or upcoming controllers from Birger.

What's even more interesting is Canons L series lenses are so common and it seams more adapters are coming for Sonys E-mount to use on their F3/FS100. I really love my Zeiss and Voigtländer lenses but this adapter might make me swing back into Canon lens land again! I would like to stuff my soon to arrive Lowepro X300 with a complete and versatile still/video kit.

I've heard late May and that's now so let's hope for at least a summer release!


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I admit this is a far fetched commercial but I like the visual dark feeling. Anyways we had my 5DmkII rig and I assisted the DP in the making.

We shot these two commercials at Filmhuset in Stockholm in one our their studios. I worked as first AC and we used my 5DmkII rig and the Sony D50 to capture audio. No sound guy so I also rigged a shotgun microphone on a boom stand. The director did the edit and I graded in Premiere pro.

I have used my DSLR cameras extensively to shoot commercials these last years and in a way I felt like a pioneer. It was actually fun to figure out how to assembly a decent rig and how to monitor and set it up. Doing the mirror flipping it has been so easy getting that loved shallow depth of field and great colours. If Canon hadn't put video in their 5DmkII camera where we are today might only been a dream.

Since getting the AF101 I hardly flipped the mirror on my 5DmkII. I'm using it as what it's meant to be -  a still camera. It's not until you get to see what something like the AF101 does to the image you find a DSLR image lacking. Everything from wide shots to close ups, fine detail and patterns. The AF101 is far superior and this is only the beginning. Sonys dynamic duo F3/FS100 seams to be really excellent cameras and having the F3 in S-log and 4:4:4 just makes one want it. You can shoot very flat with the AF101 also but the F3 is in another league. It's aimed as a 35mm movie camera replacement on a budget and the AF101 is an excellent large sensor video camera. Where the FS100 is we'll see once it hits the market and people starts to shoot but a super35mm sensor is hard to beat.

It's even hard to keep up these days because so many things happen in parallel. Finally cameras starts to get affordable. Things like monitoring in EVFs are finally on the market and darn good. High Def video recorders comes in many flavours. I hear Birger Engineering are ready to get their Canon EF to micro 4/3 adapter on the market in May. Canon being the worlds largest DSLR maker and have so many great lenses that finally can be used with all functions on the AF101. I for one love if I could use all my EF lenses on micro 4/3 with an electronic follow focus. Man that gotta be sweet and much less complicated to use. No more mechanical FF to mess your rig up. I could take full advantage in having one lens set for both the AF101 and my 5DmkII!

On the horizon lurks the Sony F3. If Birger makes an adapter for the mount on the F3 I don't have to buy expensive PL lenses. No doubt PL lenses are made for cinema shooting but just looking at the optical performance and weighting in the prize I could think of no better way than using EF lenses. Man the future is so bright I have to wear sunglasses!

Another thing that's great, when having a video camera, is you don't have to get all of the things you need on a DSLR. All by itself the AF101 is a one box solution. Just peeking inside my numerous boxes of things reveals what hassles I've gone through to get DSLR to work like I want them to.

So the story goes. In 2008 we got large sensor video in an affordable package and in 2011 we take the next step towards excellent large sensor video cameras and they are still within reach!

 

When you use a Canon 5DmkII in a production environment you need to make it work with monitors. Often you have to put on monitor for the DP, one for the director and one for the client. The best possible connection out of the 5DmkII is HDMI but to run HDMI for long runs wont work. There's also only one HDMI output on the camera so how do you solve this?

Some use HDMI to HD SDI converters and daisy chain monitors. This can work but often, because the 5DmkII changes to low resolution when recording, it doesn't work or work with problems. I've picket another path. I use the HDMI output and run it through a 2-way HDMI splitter and one output from the splitter to my Marshall monitor and the other one to a HDMI to composite converter. Then having as long cable as I need to daisy chained monitors. This works better than one would think despite the low resolution and composite video. Still the DP have a clean HDMI signal to the onboard monitor.

The only thing that have bothered me has been the complexity of having two boxes and having to power them both. Up until now I've used power adapters and when moving the camera it's a bit messy and I have to have power from a wall outlet to make it work.

About a year ago when I got my Marshall I put a 3.5mm DC plug on the bottom of the battery mount to enable the battery to not only power the monitor but something like a splitter. At the time I couldn't get it to work with the splitter I used but, this week I got a one box solution. A HDMI converter with a HDMI pass through and I can power it from the battery on the back of the monitor! Now I don't need the power adapters and just have to change one battery to make it work. So much easier and less complicated.



At the same time I got an angled mini HDMI to HDMI cable to make the connection a bit safer. Still I really dislike HDMI it has no place on pro equipment!

This was the second time we did a sponsorship/commercial for Briska cider. Last year we used my Canon 7D and this year it was my 5D mkII. I also had the chance to use my AF101 as a second unit camera and to capture a BTS video I had my GH13 on set also.

Usually when I frame for head shots I use my Zeiss 85/1.4 lens. It's a great lens and focal length. Not the best near limit at about 85cm but for interviews or like the framing I used in the Guldbrev commercial it's about perfect on the 5D mkII. Very pleasing shallow DOF, sharp but also with a soft focus fall off. So when I get the AF101 and would like the same type of effect I have two options.

Field of view with a 85mm lens on the 5D mkII is just like putting a 50mm lens on a micro 4/3 camera. What you loose is that very shallow DOF but you can have the camera at almost the exact position and still have the same framing. Take a look at these frame grabs.

First off is the Canon 5D mkII with the Zeiss 85mm at F1.4. Very nice bokeh and out of focus background.



This one is with a Zeiss 50mm at F1.4 and with the GH1/micro 4/3 sensor. Still shallow DOF but nothing like that buttery bokeh of the 85mm on the 5D. These two shots differ in levels so disregard that but you can clearly see they both have the same angle of view and about the same framing. Just a tad closer. The camera was at the same position on both these two shots. One advantage of using a 50mm lens is you can get closer and get even more shallow DOF as it's near limit is 45cm.



This third shot is with the 85mm Zeiss still at F1.4 on the GH1/micro 4/3 but with the camera backed half a meter and the object moved towards the wall about 75cm. Still about the same framing and angle of view but with much more pleasing bokeh. If I have the space this is the lens I would use when framing for heads. If I can get as close as I can and have more than 2 meters behind the subject I bet it will look great.

I can see three lenses being utilised together with the AF101. First an Olympus 14-35/F2. This one covers the wide end and is very fast. Then a Zeiss 50/F1.4 is great for interviews and so is the Zeiss 85/F1.4 when you really need that super pleasing bokeh. Another thing with that Zeiss 50mm is you can get close. It's not a macro lens but Zeiss has a 50/F2 lens to get even closer. I tend to stay in the 35-85mm area on both my 7D and 5D, I guess that's why 35/50/85 is a standard lens-set. I already have a Zeiss 35/F2 which is great so when I get the Olympus I do a comparison.

Shallow DOF is all about how close you are to the subject and how far it's from the subject to the background. Even my Canon 16-35/F2.8 can have a very pleasing bokeh when you get really close at 35mm. But there's something about staying in the medium tele range that just feels right. One advantage with using a more sensible sensor size like the micro 4/3 standard is you do have some room for in focus subjects. A 5D sensor at full aperture is just to shallow in many instances.

Yesterday we shot a low budget commercial. In fact this was one of the smallest teams I've been working with to do a commercial. The producer sat the décor, catering, runner etc and I had to do without a gaffer, AC or sound engineer. I felt like a one man band.

Besides using one red head I also used my LED600 panels to lit the scene. The red head did background lighting and LED key and fill. I think that LED are very versatile and can lock great as long as you avoid their green spike. Put soft filter on and it's very pleasing.





This was a dinner scene with one establish shoot, head shoots and close up. My new Manfrotto 504 head together with the 546b sticks worked really good. I like that the QR plate is longer and in fact that makes it much more rigid when mounted. My slider was mounted on two smaller light stands so that I didn't have to unscrew my tripod when going for the head shots.

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Instead of renting (low budget remember) I took my Manfrotto background stand and used that as support for one LED600 panels pointing right down acting like a lamp over the table. The stand is borderline to hold one of these panels but it worked. You're suppose to only have a muslin background hanging.



This time I used my Canon 5D mkII and Zeiss 50/Zeiss 85 lenses. Above is my rig and it's a Marshall monitor mounted on top. I also have a HDMI splitter and one HDMI to composite video converter so that I can set up a client monitor in low resolution. I used one ND 0.3 to be able to go to F1.4-F2.0 and the LED panels were sat really low. They are so bright when you don't have to compete with the sun.

It's difficult to pull focus with that lower resolution output but I got it okay in the end. Tried peeking on the Marshall but it does not feel to precise. I guess my rig is as far as a DSLR video setup will go. At least for me. Getting tired of it's lousy form factor so it'll be very refreshing to put a AF101 to use and use my Canons more for what they are made to do.

Despite this being low-budget I got a very nice result. I had some goals and they were to set the light for underexposure and tone down sharpness as much as I could. I wanted a softer look overall without hard highlights or in-focus objects.

Here is the final commercial.

During the IF Stockholm Open tennis tournament we did interviews for Swedish Television and at the same time documented BMW and their sponsorship.

I used my Canon 5D and Canon 100L/16-35L lenses inside the car and the shots inside the arena my 7D and for one shot my GH13 with kit lens.

This was actually my first time using the LED600 light panels to do an interview and they felt very nice to set up and use. Love the dimming and easy swapping of filters. I have two panels and a third on it's way.



These panels give enough to be used as key or fill light or even rim light. I have three Manfrotto 1004BAC stands and these are great. A bit of overkill for these light weight panels. My Canon 5D mkII, Sennheiser G2/JL454 was used to shoot this interview. I must say that slider I have is great. Only time it goes wrong is from user error and really since I got the new cross block from Brian Berkey the cage rig is more solid. This is the one part that flexes and can introduce a less than perfect slide. I didn't have my 7D with me so these images were shot using the little Panasonic FT1.

I have to say this was an interesting week indeed. We spent around 50 hours inside a BMW 730d and did interviews with tennis players and business people that attended Stockholm Open. Using my Canon 5D mkII to capture and having a very small studio inside the car we got excellent images.

The BMW 730d is a luxurious car but it's nice to be back at the office. A car seat can only be that comfortable. Philip, the producer drove the car and helped rigging microphones and lights.




Two suction cups were used to attach the camera. One for the 1/4 mount and the other one to support the lens. When we framed for backseat shoots I used a Canon 100L and sat it at around F4 for most of the shots. For framing when we had interviews at drivers seat I used Canon 16-35L at F2.8 and 30-35mm. It worked really well to swap between these two lenses without moving the camera. I only moved the supporting suction cup.

 


It's pretty tight inside the car and to do without a monitor and to be able to extract clips from the camera I had a laptop and used EOS utility to record and adjust the camera. it's such a versatile program and works like a charm.



Audio with DSLR cameras is always tricky. But to make a simple rig I opted to use in-camera audio and had my JL454 minimixer and a dual wireless system from Lectrasonic. The battery inside the JL454 lasted almost the whole week but the batteries in the Lectrasonic runned out faster than fast. Usually I'm using the Sennheiser Evolution system so it was a new experience using the power hungry Lectrasonic. Audio quality was very good and it's nice to have a  dual receiver reducing cables and boxes.



Our backseat studio was fairly simple. Two small Lightpanels and the wireless microphones. We moved one of the Lightpanels when we did interviews in the front seat and it worked out great. When the car moves and light hits the car, face and the background changes it becomes a much more interesting image than a plain interview.

All player clips was aired at Swedish National Televison and we also have a bunch of material to be used by BMW and the event agency. An interesting week!

Each job has it's unique method of capturing the action. This time we worked on doing a presentation using timelapse. Concept was fairly simple, an artist drawing in real time and I took one picture a second using an intervalometer.

My Canon 5D mkII and a Zeiss 50/1.4 was used to do 10.000 stills during five hours. We had a short break between each drawing and eight drawings were made.



It's a bit nervous when doing these and you're on a tight schedule. Luckily we didn't have to redo any of the drawings thanks to the excellent drawing. My job was pretty much to set up the rig and activate the intervalometer. Lighting using two kino flow panels and black screening around to avoid any reflections. Shutter was set at 1/50 and I opted for the 11MP mode on the 5D mkII.



The technique was to have a complete drawing under the sheet that we draw thus having a blueprint under which he could follow. To get away with it I had to overexpose a bit and that took away almost all of the shine through from the layer beneath.
 


We'll get the final presentation from the AE guys the following week and it'll be very interesting to see the final result.

Today I shot a commercial for Abba in Sweden due to be aired near Christmas. This time I only went for using my Canon 5D mkII.

I also had the opportunity to use my cage. It's really a versatile rig and I'll complete it in October. My slidekamera worked great and I appreciate how smooth it is. Never a hiccup when sliding. Forget about dryline sliders this is the thing for smooth and silent slides!



On set we also used a bunch of LED panels. Both Litepanels and Rosco. Great small lights to use whenever you need a kick. Two of my favourite lenses - Zeiss 50/1.4 and Canon 100L were used. My Marshall monitor is also such a great piece of equipment to really get a feeling on how the final result will look. Even thou I was on neutral setting with sharpness and contrast all the way down I had plenty of sharpness. Stayed between F5 and F6.3 in most shots so I had focus not go away to quickly. Canon 100L is a very shallow DOF lens and at F2.8 it's just to shallow most of the time.

I'll post the final commercial once it's done.

I shot this case feature in Stockholm a couple of weeks ago. Used both Canon 5D mkII and 7D. Audio with Sony PCM-D50 and I also used my slider. Microphone an Audio Technica Pro70 lav through a Juicedlink DT454.

This was the first job were I used my new cage rig. Very easy to do nice slides and pan at the same time. I didn't do the edit just a touch of cc. To be put on website showing Swedish postal service in use at a customer. I'll do one or two more case features in the next month.

This illustrates how I use the slider to do jib-like moves with the cameras. You can't go straight up or down because the tripod heads can't be put in that angle but the final move feels just like up and down.

About two years ago when the D90 was released I started building a DLSR rig for shooting video. It has been a rocky road trying out different cameras and rail systems. Finally something rise on the horizon. I have many parts from Proaim, Gini, Zacuto, Manfrotto, Easom, Berkey system and Shoot35. Now I don't believe one manufacture could have it all but I've found Shoot35 to be making excellent parts that's right on the money.

This picture illustrates almost how my final DSLR rig will look like. It has all the features I need and still is pretty small. I've seen many rigs that are just to complex and adds to much bulk and weight but this one is feasible.

Parts are from Easom, Berkey, Proaim, Manfrotto and Shoot35 on this rig but I plan on exchanging my Proaim mattebox to the Shoot35 one when it's released. Proaim is a budget brand and most parts are of poor or lesser quality. They will work to get you going but in the end you will upgrade. On the left side is a cage bracket from Easom and I decided to make my rig a one caged one. Just because it's easier to move parts around having only one bracket. When you hold this rig it feels so solid and adds just enough weight making it very stable to shoot, even handheld!

I'm working on a small add-on part to make this rig shoulder mountable. It's a padded shoulder piece that fits on the rear rods and a handle on the front rods.

To have this working on all my lenses which ranges from my smallest Zeiss 50 to my biggest 70-200L the front part of the rods are swapable to longer ones.The ones showed are the shorter lenght rods and they work for every lens except the 70-200L. I can slide the Manfrotto QR plate a good 60mm and this is the fastest way to adjust lenses to the follow focus unit. But adding longer rods gives me enough room for bigger lenses.

It's like a puzzle to put together a good rig. When you adjust for one feature you run in trouble with the next one so to figure out this rather uncomplicated rig took some time. Time well spent because I now know what work and what doesn't. I still like shooting with just the camera handheld or my favourite - on a monopod with or without a Z-finder. Lesser parts makes it easier to use.

I don't believe in over-pimping a DLSR rig and this seams to be spot on to me!

During a vacation trip to the southern part of Sweden - Skåne I took my 5D mkII, Canon 70-200/4 IS, Zeiss 35/2.0 and camera slider with me.

I captured some of the beautiful sights I saw and made this short piece showing this part of Sweden and some of my camera work using these lenses and the slider. The slider I have is the pro version from www.slidekamera.com.

A went a bit different this time with settings on the 5D mkII. I used higher shutter speeds to preserve as much detail as possible, avoiding motion blur. In my bag I even had a Fader ND but I'm leaving these to others. They take away to much sharpness even on shorter focal lengths It's better to have fixed ND but also more cumbersome or do what I did - raise the shutter.

I used Avid MC but didn't do any grading this time. All exposures is pretty much spot on and these days I seldom miss exposure because I know DSLRs very well after using D90, GH1, 7D and now 5D mkII.

The 5D mkII is such a great camera for both stills and video and I love the mix when having Zeiss lenses on. They are superior even to Canon L lenses I think.

Sadly I had a mishap with the Zeiss 35/2.0. It was in the backseat of the car and when I had to break hard it got a bump on the focus ring. It got stuck but when I came home I manage to make it work again albeit with an ugly bump on the ring...

Last week I got another microphone. I already have an AT897 and a PRO70 from Audio Technica and I like the quality compared to the price. They are all decent and are useful in various situations. Since my Canon 5D mkII has manual control of audio I wanted to try a small on camera microphone and the PRO24 CM seamed to fill the void.

I got a fury wind shield and a smaller foam shield but the fury one is way better so I'll stick with that one. It's a powered microphone but the 5D mkII does have plug in power and it works to power the PRO24. The only downside to this microphone is the rather low sensitivity. If you use this one with a noise free pre amp everything is fine but the 5D mkII has a noisy pre amp when you turn it up. Around 15% it's very good but turned up towards 75% there is a constant hiss. Not a fault in the microphone but a bit disappointing never the less.

The fury wind shield is excellent! I shot some tests and it's very resistant to wind. No ugly pick up from the housing of the microphone thanks to the fury shield. I would not hesitate to use it even if there is a heavy breeze.



PRO24 has a power switch but since you can use it with plug in power there is no need to fiddle with it. Just leave it on at all times. This is a stereo microphone and I like the sound quality. It sounds natural and picks up a broad area both in front and at the back which makes it easy to hear both the person behind the camera and the one in front.

I will try it with my Juciedlink DT454 and it's low noise amplifiers and later on with another Audio Technica which might work as a great on camera microphone for a DSLR camera!



As you can see it's a small microphone that suits a DSLR nicely.

I got this one meter camera slider a couple of months ago but haven't really used it until I shot a wedding two weeks ago. This slider is made in Poland and feels really solid. I didn't have a good head mounted so the head itself wobbled around a bit and made the shots jerky before I put my hand on top of the head. But with a decent head nothing wobbles on the slider.

Didn't have much time but I put together these short clips to show how it performs. Used my Canon 5D2 camera and 135L lens.

Swedens crown princess Viktoria and to be prince Daniel had their wedding day on June 19 2010 but I spent a long day with another couple doing both stills and shooting video. For this job I used both my Canon 7D cameras and the Canon 5D mkII. It's so exiting being part of a wedding couples big day.

Besides the usual wedding photos I started last year to cover during their preparations. This was a pilot test just to get a sense for what can be done and in which direction I want a wedding film to go. Stillmotion of Canada is a big inspiration since these guys are the best in my opinion.

I've spent two weekends in a row away from home. Last weekend I was in Rome-Italy and this weekend in the Stockholm archipelago in Sweden. I highly recommend this vast area with thousands of small islands. While I sat on the cliff side and did timelapse with my Canon 5D mkII and 16-35L lens I capture this beautiful scenery. Nature is an extraordinary thing to behold.

This combination of camera and lens gives such a wide angle and you start to be able to capture what you actually see. A hard thing to match how an eye perceive the world. Since I got the 5D mkII both my 7D's has stayed in the bag. Now, I do like the longer lenses more on the 7D but the 16-35L seams to be a very good match for the 5D mkII.

What about Rome then? There are so many breathtaking places in Rome that even trying to do any justice to any of them is just futile. One of my favourite buildings is the Pantheon and despite my wide 16mm and the 5D mkII it was hard to capture the size of the Pantheon dome. It's the biggest in Europe at least and some 43m across. The hole is 8 meters wide!



I think the 7D is an excellent camera but the full frame chip in the 5D mkII gives the images you capture a whole new dimension.

I'm one of those guys who just have to try it by myself before deciding. So ever since the 5D mk II came out I wanted to try it out. At the time I had the first video capable DSLR - Nikon D90. I loved that camera and hated it because it had all things going for it and Nikon didn't realize how big DSLR shooting would turn out to be. Just look at House TV-series that shot an episode completely with 5D mk II cameras and it really looks great. Not to forget a great story and strong performance that makes it hard to follow anything else but the story.

I got the Panasonics GH1 when it came and finally I had a camera that could be used in pro work but also lacking in features. I really liked the GH1 it was and still is a great little camera. Then came Canon with the 7D and put almost everything inside except the big sensor. Now, the one and only reason to ever shoot video with a DSLR is to have a big sensor, so the bigger they are the better right? Well there are no bigger sensors than what's inside the 5D mk II and now it rests on my table.

I already have two 7D bodys and now it's even a Canon trio. One thing that strikes me is how well built the 7D is compared with the 5D mk II. Both cameras are solid ones but somehow the 7D feels more dens. The timespan in between the models also shows as the 7D is more custom friendlier with more buttons and better placement of these. I don't like the power switch position on the 5D. At first I didn't like the 7D's power switch either going from Nikons placement at the same place as the trigger. It took me some time figuring out that I had to turn the power switch all the way before getting to adjust aperture on the 5D mk II.

Okay, I believe 7D to be the better camera but it can't beat the 5D mk II's sensor. It's twice the size and boy is my 16-35L wide at 16mm! Even the 35L feels really wide. The 5D mk II even feels lean pitched against the dens 7D.

I guess these cameras can fill in when the other isn't optimal because they both have their pros and cons. As of now only the 5D mk II has manual audio recording so you can guess which camera I'll use when doing audio. If I'll keep both 7D body's or sell one to have a 5D/7D duo only time will tell.