the editman.com

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.

Having used DSLR's for more than two years to shoot both personal movies and pro work it's now time to say thank you and goodbye to my Canon 7D. I have come to love this camera since it makes such nice images and despite a few hiccups along the way it has worked extremely well.

I don't think this is a bad camera. Far from it. I think it's the best DSLR to use when you shoot video. It's a great stills camera and even after one and a half year it feels like a solid and well constructed camera. Thank you Canon for making these cameras!

Reason I'm selling this camera is because in the past four weeks I've been digging into my new Panasonic AF101. Since I didn't know to which level it would compare to either a 7D or 5D it took some time for me to get inside the AF101. If you look at these cameras and compare how a DSLR is like when doing pro work the list on things the AF101 does better is very long. Really the only advantage a 7D has is the slightly larger sensor. Had I never used my 7D as a tool I would have kept it but I have and I'm tired of rigging it.

Looking at footage and comparing 7D to AF101 I realized they are very similar. About the same amount of shallow DOF and the only thing that stands out is how they treat colours. Canon being slightly warmer and Panasonic a bit cooler. in the end I liked how Panasonic were more true in this regard.

I see these cameras as a tool so when something better comes (that I can afford) I will switch and now is the time for that switch. I will miss the 7D. Thank you and goodbye my friend!

This Monday I had a shoot for an iPhone add-on in our studio. Using my Canon 7D and a bunch of different lenses it was an easy going day. Sometimes everything just runs along fine and everybody is laughing through the day. This was one of these days.

I'm starting to use my cage rig as simple as I can each time. It is very flexible and when you strip it down that's one clean rig. You can clearly see how it's assembled using blocks, rods and clamps from Berkey System. I found the handles on ebay really cheap and Brian Berkey made sleeves so that they fitted 15mm rods perfectly.

This was also the first time I used a HDMI to composite converter to get a signal for two more displays than the Marshall I had mounted on the back of my rig. I don't know what I would do without the Marshall. I just makes it so easy to nail exposure and get sharp and clean images.






One of the cheaper lenses I have is a Zeiss 50/1.4ZE. But this is a great lens and sharpness can be razor sharp when you use it at it's best distance. Having the Zipgears mounted is great but I find myself using a follow focus unit more seldom over time. Keep these DSLR cameras as simple as can be and they are less a pain to work with.




Even this shoot involved animals. We had a goldfish in a bowl and this odd looking Rex cat. Who said something about you should never work with children or animals!

I worked as first AC and took care of post production for these short sponsorship/commercial spots. Another job using my trusted Canon 7D and Zeiss 50ZE lens. My kit feels great these last shoots. Everything just works and I begin to reap the benefit of working out all the kinks with DSLR cameras. Just in time for the AF101 release... ironic isn't it?

We hired a conference flat in Stockholm's Old Town and shot in three different rooms. The idea for these spots was that when you drink this softdrink Christmas appears.

I know it's a bit corny sitting at the barber and drinking a soft drink but it does become funny. Albeit dumb-funny. Type in julmust as password to see the videos.



Now this one makes more sense. In a restaurant you'd expect someone to drink something, but not ending up with a big plate and wooden spoon in your hand.





I think the last one is all about the bulldog.

As I did the post production I had to match takes before the transformation was done and after. Did the edit in Avid Composer and all the effects editing in After Effects. We wanted to have a jump cut for the things in frame that did change so alot of masking and matching to get it to work. Original files was shot in 1080p and I scaled it to 720p in the online process. Really I don't see 1080p as a delivery format for these DSLR cameras.

The set.




The rig.




The Director




The DP.




The Actor.

All in all a fun day shooting commercial for Nygårda Julmust (it's a Swedish soda pop that is more popular than Coca-Cola during Christmas). I had an easy going day being AC and my Canon DSLR rig makes each shoot more problem free than the last one due to the small improvements I do after. We used my 7D and Zeiss 50ZE for this job. A great combination to achieve a cinematic feel.

Finally a behind the scenes feature using my GH13 (hacked GH1):

This was my first time using a Canon 7D for a green screen shoot. I did try it with a Nikon D90 two years ago but I never had the opportunity to try either Canon DSLR cameras. I will get my hands on the material after the pre-edit is done but during the shoot I picked a couple of clips to see how the keying would perform. For these kind of post work I always use after effects and the excellent keylight plugin.

Having a deeper DOF I opted to use my Zeiss 50 for wide framing and my Canon 70-200/4 IS for the closer shots. We had one reverse shot were I used the excellent Canon 100L IS. I can tell that both Canons are very sharp and if I used the Zeiss 50 a bit closer it would have been almost as sharp. It does fall off when getting close to hyper focal but still very good. Camera was set at F5.0 and ISO320 for clean images. White balance at K5300 and shutter at 1/50.

Besides being DP for this production I got some spare time to shoot a short BTS video.



I had two days to do post production for this using after effects. I put together this before/after video showing what things I've done in after effects. The only thing added to the before footage is masking.

I took a dive in my picture archive and found a split screen example of using my first video capable DSLR - the Nikon D90. As I remember chroma keying worked great even with the low bitrate and line skipping of the D90. As always good lighting is essential to get a decent key. I find floors to be the most tricky part. First because you have to deal with some shadows and second because you want to preserve depth.

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.

Burana - commercial from editman on Vimeo.

We had this animation and wanted to put some real shots in the commercial. I used my Canon 7D rigged in our studio shooting at a white background. Two Kinoflow lights. One pointed straight down positioned over the glass about a meter away. The second one to the far right filling in the background to a smooth and even lit background.

It worked very well to create a foundation for the glass and animated pack shot using a Zeiss 50/1.4 lens.

For the extreme close-up I used the excellent Canon 100L macro lens. Both clips recorded in 720p50 and conformed to 25p for a smooth slowmotion of the bubbles.

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.

This is a commercial for a house holder magazine in Sweden.
We used my Canon 7D, 16-35L, 35L and Zeiss 50/1.4 lenses. I had Lee 4x4 ND-filters between 1.2 and 0.6 in the mattebox. Edited in Avid MC and grading in AE.

We had a very nice day in the sun just outside of central Stockholm - Lidingö. This commercial is for a magazine that writes about things for house owners.
I brought my equipment and used mostly the Zeiss 50/1.4 on one of my 7D's. BTS video using my second 7D and 16-35L/50/1.4.

Production using one of my Canon 7D, Canon 16-35L and 85/1.8 lenses. Shot in Sweden a cold day on a cliff facing the sea.

During the two first days shooting Actimel commercials, with Swedish skistar Charlotte Kalla and Danish Karin Mortensen, we used a Canon 7D from Syndicate and their lenses with BNC mount. They take these cameras and rebuilt the mount to have cine lenses on. I brought my 7D and lenses as a backup set if the camera would fail.

The last days we spent in Denmark and in the northern part of Sweden. Both my 7D's were main cameras and we used my lenses this time.

I had more time the first two days to shoot a BTS video and these are some clips put together. Used only a Z-finder as support.

These are some clips put together from a Friggs commercial shoot just out of Grisslehamn in Sweden.

The idea was to have a nude girl, just as she was created, standing on a small cliff looking out the sea. All in black and white and trying to make it as tasteful as possible.

I was 1st AC and DP was Johan Palm. I put one of my Canon 7D on a smaller than usual rig with a Marshall LCD monior on the back. We had a splitter to get another view for the client/producer.

To make this BTS video I used my second 7D. I have to say if compared to the GH1 the Canon is much richer and feels less video. Didn't have to much time shooting the BTS and really there was not to much variation but anyway a short feature from this day.

Lenses used for the commercial: Canon 16-35L and 85/1.8. ND was a Fader-ND and we had a graduated filter inside the mattebox to even it out a bit.

I attended the Swedish Bartenders Guild yearly competition. A very exciting day since my cousin was one of the competitors in the advanced classic group.
He won the whole thing! Brought both my Canon 7D camera and 135L and 100L lenses to cover this event.

His drink Chili-Vanilli and his cool and professional performance took him to the final where he crushed the other competitors.
One thing that become apparent was how much alike we are in certain facial expressions and features.

We were many family members cheering and celebrating his victory this day. So great to be apart of this experience.
They also had "flaring" were they juggle while making a drink to the beat of some tunes.



I tasted his winning drink and it was a very good mixture that in the end gave him a first place. He's now off to Singapore for the world championship later this year and I wish him all the best of luck!

With an ash cloud lurking from Island we had a shoot in the outskirts of Stockholm.
On a low cliff our model stood naked facing the sea free as nature made her. Always tricky when working with nudity and making it tasteful.

I think we succeeded well this time. A black and white commercial.

Here Johan and Chamoun frames the shot. We used one of my Canon 7D and a 16-35L lens. It's not often we use this lens but this time it came in handy. The small cliffs didn't offer much flexibility to place a tripod. I made the rig a bit lighter for this job. But having cables going back and forth between camera, splitter, converter and monitor makes it a snakes nest. I have to figure out a better way to get it slimmer.



Our model had a rough day. About 5 degrees Celsius and a slight breeze made her really cold and between shoots she was pretty wrapped up in clothing to keep warm. I froze a bit even I was fully dressed and she stood there naked! Impressive.

This video is actually made up of stills taken with my Canon 7D. A short sponsorship 10s spot for the Finnish Koskenkorva vodka.

We had the camera on a jib arm and shot against a black drop in our studio. Lighting we had two kino 4x4 bouncing of one of the studio walls and a small Dedo light bouncing of a reflector to fill in the label.

I was looking for a remote and timer remote and did a search on ebay and got this one.
Really a no-name timer "JJC" is the closest thing to a brand name I can find on the back of the remote.

It has programmable time-lapse from 1s and up to 100 hours and you can have it set to unlimited frames.
You can also use the big button to remotely trigger the 7D for stills. It does not control video in any way.

This timer is small and weights next to nothing but feels solid to hold. I'll try some time-lapse later on when the opportunity occurs.

It didn't take me long before I had my first short film made with my new camera slider.
It's a very simple thing but can accomplish some really cool images.

Now I can't say to much about how it performs but at first it was rather stiff.
When going back and forth for a while it seams to loosen up a bit.
It's sturdy yet light and It can be a fun and creative "dolly" to use.

Update april 2010:
I had my slider for a couple of months before selling it. It worked somewhat okay but the whole dryline thing is not my thing.
The dryline plastic bearings do get stuck and if the camera is not balanced it will get stuck.
I always had to put pressure on the sliding plate to get smooth slides.

Here's "Shoes" made with the camera slider and my Canon 7D:

I made something different this time. A football viral spot to be showed on the web. We had a bunch of players and a football field.
I'm not involved in doing post on this. Lately I have been out of the loop when it comes to post.
It's been a while since I shot and edited something of my own material so I'm getting a bit hungry to dig into editing again.

The day was suppose to be cloudy but we ended up with almost a clear sky. My top flag came in handy since we shot towards the sun, the more the day went by.
I haven't got my Canon mount or batteries for the Marshall monitor so we had a rental monitor. I also have a Hoodman 7" hood on order for the Marshall.
But as the jobs just keeps popping in I can't get all the stuff to every shoot. Delivery times... just like the Easom cages I used for this that took me a month to finally get.



It's interesting when you work with different directors and how they handle a shoot.
This viral we are using plates to animate ball movement and it's always tricky getting a feel for how it eventually will look.
I guess when you are on a tight schedule it can become stressful getting all the shots you want. Especially when using plate technique where the camera has to stay in one place during the whole day. I also had the sun going in and out of clouds and we had to wait for each take to have an un-clouded sun.



The Director Rodrigue sure had some thinking to do in order to get all plates in place.
It'll be interesting to see the final edit/fx!

Today we made product shots on a newly designed Koskenkorva bottle. It is tricky to get a nice smooth reflection in the glass but I think we did very well bounced two of our Kino 4x4 onto one of our studio walls. The other sides we covered with black cloth and only used a Dedo bouncing of a reflector to give a smooth fill light.

This was my first time with a jib arm and we made some top shots and went through steps down to a level camera. There's so much to learn and every job gives me something new.

One of my Canon 7D mounted on the jib arm poiting straight down. Marshall monitor on top and it was great to use this small 7" monitor together with the 7D.
I had to run composite since the clients monitor can't handle anything better. Composite video out from the 7D is not great, it's quite bad really. HDMI looks very good on the Marshall and it's easy to judge exposure and even focus.



Above picture shows how I put together the rig this time. Monitor mounted and the end of the rear rods. It worked nicely for this kind of shoot.

We had the last shoot in Östersund (northern part of Sweden) for the Actimel commercials with Swedish skistar Charlotte Kalla.

I have to write a short note and learn from this experience. When the cab picked me up I put my bags in the baggage compartment and took a seat at the taxis back seat.
To my surprise, on the floor, a Canon 5D (mark I or II I didnt' notice) with a 16-35L lens (I think) just sat there. When you shoot with 7D's and L lenses yourself this was really odd.
I picket it up looked at it for a short time and asked the driver if it was his camera. It wasn't, someone had forgot it. I left it to the cab driver because I couldn't leave it to anyone else.
He said he was going to check with central after a while... or if someone would call and report it missing.

I didn't think much of it until the day after when the cab firm (Taxistockholm) called and said the driver said I took it with me! A pure lie! I even talked to the owner later the same day and of course he has two contradicting storys now. I wish I had taking care of the camera and left it when I changed cab where I had witnesses. I feel bad for the guy who forgot it and I'm angry at that bastard of a cabdriver. Lesson learned=never trust anyone you don't know! Never trust cab drivers either.

Well anyway this Tuesday we spent the morning outdoors, on the ice. Cold but very beautiful.
The Canon 7D performs very well in almost any weather. A slight drop in battery time but everything just works.

I worked as 1st AC and Marek as DP. To really get a useful image I guess the aperture was around F9-F11 and my Fader ND was at times almost closed all the way.
Anyone working with these DSLRs know you're not suppose to have deeper DOF. But this production we actually went the other way. I think we never went lower than F5.6.



I had a mixture of stuff. Some rentals and then stuff from different vendors.
On demo/review I have a rig from cpmfilmtools and I used some parts for this job.



The picture above shows how I assembled the rig for this job.
Monitor on top is from Swit. A really bad monitor which I can't recommend to anyone.
Low resolution, low brightness, heavy, battery eating. I have nothing good to say about it.
My mounting options were limited and the small magic arm could barely hold it in place.



I found a ton of stuff to improve until next time. Most parts on the lower section is from Gini and they have some flaws.
The screws have a tendency to come loose sometimes and once one just fell off. The bottom plate came loose once also.

We had a Manfrotto 501 head and Sachtler tripod. The head was all rubbish really. It might have been to small for this kind a rig.
I've used a 503 many times and it's way better and really useful. 501 head was a rental and I'll wont rent it again.



The real star was of course Charlotte Kalla and she really performed like a pro.
She made everything focused and with a smile not to far away.



All in all a fun, interesting and learnful experience these days. I'm heading back to my office tomorrow and then I have some new hardware stuff digging into!

This week started 05:00 Monday morning.



First of was to pick up camera equipment for a commercial shoot set in Taxinge just south of Stockholm.
I had the duty of 2st AC and to monitor one of Syndicates 7D.
These cameras are modified to accept BNC lenses and we had two cases of old glass to put to use.
Syndicate have a non standard spacing and dimension on the rails and the picture illustrates this pretty well.

We had Charlotte Kalla and Karin Mortensen as talent for the Swedish and Danish market. One each day.

Two long days spent in Taxinge I had another shoot in our studio and to assist the DP as 1st AC.
This commercial was for Europcar and we used one of my Canon 7D and lenses. Mostly the 85mm and 135mm ones.

Then on thursday I had to gather equipment and finish some projects before heading off to Denmark.
The rental stuff got to me a bit late and even though I received a LCD monitor it had no HDMI input.
Really needed that HDMI monitor!

It's a bit tricky to travel light and still be able to get everything right. Luckily on the way to the hotel I found a solution - to use the EOS Utility and a laptop as monitor.
It worked out okay but I don't like it when things goes wrong with equipment. For real lightweight traveling this is a very smart solution but a bigger HDMI monitor is way better if possible.
A Marshall 70XP HDMI monitor and Canon battery pack is on the way but for this job I'll just have to do without and use a 8" LCD monitor from Swit instead next week.

This time we used both my 7D's and lenses. I even had a Canon 70-200L IS rental lens.
A good thing using the EOS utility is you can use the LCD-display at the same time as having an external monitoring with a laptop.
Specially with a Z-finder on the back of the display. In this situation this was a real life saver since we got the client and director a view.

This week has also giving me the opportunity to testdrive a new cage system from cpmfilmtools. It's not perfect for the 7D with the sample cages I got,
because the 7D is so wide on the right side. But other than that it's a really nice setup and I had a lot of questions and curious people asking about the camera and setup.
Even got a comment it looks like a RED camera. I don't now if that's good or bad...

It takes more effort to change lenses than shooting with still video zoom lenses on a dedicated video camera but there are advantages also.
Small camera and big sensor. You can run the camera a whole day with just two batteries and since video options are limited I tend to work fast.

I have one more day of shooting as 1s AC next week in Östersund and then I'm heading back to my office for some online work.

With all the hoopla about the new firmware for the Canon 5D MKII it might seam crazy to get another 7D body.
But I finally made the decision to sell my GH1 and I needed another b-camera and backup body.



Did I made the right choice instead of getting a 5D MKII? I don't know but would I have gone for two different cameras I still wouldn't have a backup when shooting film.
FOV is different between 7D and 5D MKII, so for now it feels good. Let's hope the 5D MKII's firmware stuff find it's way into the 7D.

Briska - Commercial/sponrship spot from editman on Vimeo.

We spent two days shooting this 20 second commercial for a new beverage "Briska" at "Berns Salonger" in Stockholm/Sweden.

I worked as 1st AC and we used my camera equipment and lenses. Canon 7D, Canon 35/1.4, 50/1.2 and 85/1.8.

The director did the editing by himself and I only had a slight grading afterwards. A couple of shoots have a CG bottle but most of it is in camera action.

Check out the behind the scenes feature to get a glimpse of how it was made.

I had a small 3.5" monitor on order and today it arrived. This is a cheap monitor and I wasn't expecting that much.
Running composite from the 7D is not the highest resolution one can get from the 7D but worth a try.


Display and 7D

With a small bracket attached from below the camera plate and a small ball head I have a swivel external display for the 7D.
The display has internal rechargeable batteries and I guess I'll know how long they'll run after my first film shoot.
I will get some sun hood in the 4" size and it will fit with velcro going round the monitors housing.

More to come once I get to use it...

Updated 21 Feb:

I've used this monitor for many jobs as of now and have more to tell.

First of it's an inexpensive monitor from an ebay store.
The resolution is only 480x360 but being such a small display it actually works pretty well.
Colors are not exact but it's not way of. Red/pink tends to be a bit yellowish sometimes but green and blue are ok.
Exposure is very easy to nail and with the 10x focus assist on the 7D or GH1 makes focusing spot on.

Two weak areas is: one, the corner mounted tripod screwhole. It would be much better to have it centred.
Two, the in and out jacks are 3.5" and 2.5" of not the greatest quality. I always loopthrough the signal going from the 7D to the monitor and then out from the monitor to an external display.
Sometimes you have to fiddle just for a few seconds to get a clean loopthrough. I would say the quality is ok and good enough for a client to watch during shoots.

Colours are always tricky since most monitors have their gamma curves but as long as you know in what span you are safe within, then it's not a problem.
There are so many good grading tools today and as long as you are in the neighbourhood your fine.

The batteries last for about 3 hours before charging and charging is pretty fast. You can run the monitor on the supplied power adapter and at the same time charge the batteries.
It will get hot when you charge and use it simultaneous but seams to be working fine despite the heat.

I've made a modification to the 7Ds videocable so that instead of a video cinch connector it's a 3.5" connector going straight in the monitor.
It's not so pretty to go with these cables because they are not rugged, but when everything is mounted I usually tape them so that they are out of the way.

We had one shoot the other week where I even runned this monitor attached beside the camera and two external monitors daisy chained with good picture on both monitors.

Videosignal is of the lowest possible quality - composite, but it makes it so easy to connect any monitor. I use older CRT monitors we have at work and so far so good.
HDMI would be great but at the same time more expensive and I would have to have both a HDMI monitor and some typ of HDMI splitter/divider to make everything work.

Here's a link to for more ifo about this monitor.

These are the final billboards for Just Glow.

We made them to differ using a warm color in line with Cougar Town TV-series and the other to a cooler nordic look.
I assisted the DP and did the editing/grading. I think the 7D worked very well for a project like this.


This is the billboard for Cougar Town (warm):

This is the billboard that has the cooler nordic look:

This Monday we had another shoot using my Canon 7D. It was for a shampoo (Glow) sponsorship it's to be aired on Swedish channel 5.

We built a shower-set in the studio and spent whole day trying not to get everything to deteriorate due to the water.
Lessen learned - water is tricky.

We had two models to make two different spots, one blond and the other brown.
They experienced standing in half warm water most of the day but both had a good spirit and did a very good job.
All clips came out beautiful, thanks to the girls, photographer, electrician and the rest of the team. All in all an excellent team.

My 7D worked without flaws and didn't heat up although we had live view on most of the time.
I does feel a bit awkward having such a small camera and getting these kind a images. Price to performance is excellent.



Lenses used to capture it all was; Canon 100/2.8 IS L, Canon 135/2.0 L, Canon 50/1.2 L and Canon 35/1.4 L.
BTS video and actual spot will appear later.

I had a Sigma 150/2.8 which was really great on the Nikon D90. I used it as a tele lens and sometimes as a macro.
Everytime I have used my Camera equipment to shoot commercials a macro lens would came in handy.
I had two choices; Canon EF100/2.8 Macro and the more expensive Canon Ef 100/2.8 L Macro. I went for the "L" lens.

Here it is mounted on my filmrig. I had a chance to test drive it tonight and it's a very nice lens. Fast when you don't go from macro to infinity.
Tack sharp and very nice bokeh. It's a "L" lens but compared with my other "L" lenses it's not as solid.
It's a bit short for a tele lens but I guess it will work great to do interviews or portraits.


a
This lens has IS and if it will improve anything for video only further testing can tell. But it seams to work for stills to shoot handheld with a slow shutter.
I wish there where fast zoom lenses like 2.0 to use to shoot video. Maybe Canon will come with "video lenses" once the HDSLR thing grows.

Me and my girlfriend went to Färna mansion in Sweden to celebrate the new year.
I captured some fireworks with my 7D and the 50/1.2 lens.
The location of Färna is beautiful and it was a peaceful stay relaxing in their spa.
During the five minute fireworks I manage to get some interesting images when I had a pair of naked threes in the foreground.
This is one example.

 

This is the final commercial only difference from the one that will broadcast is my own color setting.

Today I spent in a hotel room in central Stockholm shooting a commercial for a theater show.
We used my Canon 7D and equipment and I assisted the DP. I'm learning alot working close with a more experienced DP.
Actually we started taking some second unit clips yesterday which I shot. Very cold during this shoot.
To handle the tripod and camera in cold weather was not fun just because I took the wrong gloves!



Above a picture of the Swedish singer/actress Pernilla Wahlgren and a body double for another actor.
They spent the whole shoot in bed.
I'm not editing this one except for the final online and I'll post the finished film around christmas.

Cheak out the behind the scenes feature above!
I used my GH1 and 20/1.7 lens to do the behind the scenes and some shots with a Canon 35/1.4.

Alone on the race track from editman on Vimeo.

I shot this one in the beginning of October in the middle of Sweden. At first I hoped on getting this one ready after a week but due to the clients tight schedule it's on hold. This is my cut without clients graphics.

It was a fun day but really bad weather. It didn't rain but cloudy and cold. Got my feet wet when running around the race track! Interesting to be close to a roaring race car passing by just a meter away.

All my cameras came to use. I had the Canon 7D on a tripod and handheld. The GH1 was mounted inside the Porsche and finally I had a suction cup mounted outside of the car to get some interesting cut away with a Panasonic FT1.

I think all cameras worked well together in this edit.
Everything edited in Avid and graded in AE.
Audio all from the 7D and GH1 internal mic.

This concept has been floating around at different forums and I had to try one for myself. The cost is about $5 so dirt cheap it is.
A hose clamp, and a cabinet knob does it! 10 minutes to make it all.

I do find such a solution easier and less heavy when shooting handheld or even on a tripod pulling focus as assistent DP.
To make fast focus pulling should not be a problem and the knob feels smooth and solid (made of stainless steel).
The picture shows a "Canon EF 35/1.4 L" attached to the 7D.




Here's a close up of how I attached the cabinet knob to the ring. A screw going through the ring and a nut on the other side.
The knob has a threaded hole so you just have to screw it on. Any knob fill do so buy what ever fits your needs.
Focus marks is easy if you put some white tape nex to the ring on the lens and make marks for different focus points.
Just like a traditional follow focus. Be careful to not over tightened it. You don't need much pressure to make it stick.

Last week I got two new things. First a Zacuto Z-finder which you can see in the picture below mounted onto the back of my 7D.
It makes the camera much easier and more comfortable to use. It's enlarging the LCD image so you don't get a supersharp view.
I would rate some sort of viewfinder for the 7D as a must. Tried a Hoodman and although it does work the Z-finder is better overall.

I bet many people will start turning their heads because it makes the camera look a bit odd.
It's almost like there's two lenses in each end of the camera.

Mounted on the hot shoe is a Sennheiser EW112 G2 receiver. Just so you can run around and record and at the same time pick up a mic mounted elsewhere.
I've found a way to shoot using a Manfrotto 681 monopod and a tilt head from Manfrotto. Very steady and easy to use.
A tripod is better for prolonged sessions but when acting fast to what happens I found a monopod to be great.
You can move around and the monopod doesn't get in the way. And it's great to take stills with!

This winter will see some projects starting off and equipment wise almost everything is set.
I do have a small lighting kit in customs waiting but after that I'm on hold.


7D 35/1.4 Z-finder and Sennheiser G2 receiver.

Regrettably I'm selling my loved Nikkor lenses and gathering Canon L lenses.
Expensive yes but these lenses are meant to last.
Since I sold my D90 and got the 7D I was not sure about Nikon or Canon cameras.
Couldn't really decide which brand I could get comfortable with.

Nikon cameras are really good and I'm used to how they operate and how they focus.
Something I have spent some time getting used to with the Canon 7D.

I'm starting to get the hang of it and now it's time for a Canon only lens setup.
I've decided to go with only L lenses except the Canon EF 85/1.8.
The 85/1.2 is just to expensive and not worth it.



I started the L series with a Canon 16-35/2.8 L. I've missed a true wide angle on the D90 since I only had a 24/2.8.
If you wanna go wide and have a large aperture you're very limited. Next was a tele lens and after reviewing the excellent
www.photozone.de it was clear nothing short of the Canon 135/2.0 L would do. Got this one from ebay a bit cheaper than
in Swedish stores.

And today I got a Canon 50/1.2 L. What a lens this is. Fast and built to last. As you can see on the picture above I put it on the GH1
and it works really well even on the GH1. For comparison I took some pictures with this one and the Canon 50/1.4 and the Nikkor 50/1.4D.
Wide open they all had about the same sharpness and image quality. But the 50/1.2 is faster of course. I like it!

Today I was at the race track shooting a Swedish actor in his racing Porsche.
The weather was really bad. Cloudy and rain hanging in the air all day.
Daylight is also pretty spars this time a year and I really don't know how this will turn out.

What's exiting with this project is I used all my cameras. The GH1 was mounted in two locations inside the Porsche.
My FT1 I mounted with a suction cup to the side of the Porsche and finally every other exterior was with the 7D!

How this will turn out I don't know due to the bad or non existing light conditions this day. But it was fun and interesting to do this.
Video coming later this week.

Interior of the Porsche.

Here's the making of Axe/Pokerstars commercial. I used my Panasonic GH1 and some Nikon lenses.

The behind the scene feature says it all.
Anyway it was a fun project and althou I didn't actually shoot this one I did all post production
(and assisted the DP). I love this camera!

I just came home from another day in our studio. Today the HVX200 have the chance to rest and my 7D came to use.
Editing later this week and I'll post the final result and maybe some behind the scenes feature.



Still from the 7D

I had to do something this week so I captured some action and faces in our studio this Friday.
7D 16-35/2.8 1/50 ISO320 1080p25 hand-held:

To complement my GH1 I got the Canon EOS 7D. My very first impression was - This is a big camera! Compared with GH it's huge and it weight double as much.


It didn't take long for me to adjust the Mattebox to the 7D.

Since I sold the D90 I really missed a decent still camera. The GH1 is fine but with poor lens choice and 2x crop it's hard to really get that isolated object feeling when taking stills.
Now this camera is a machine gun when you trigger the high speed shutter. Khachonk Khachonk Khachonk... 8 times per second. The shutter sounds very different from the D90 or any other Nikon I've tried. It's not as refined to my ears. But it's superfast!

Going from Nikon to Canon I can't find the right buttons at first and so far I have to say Nikon makes better cameras if you look at how they are constructed and how buttons and controls are made. I do have some great Nikon primes 24/2.8 - 35/2.0 - 50/1.4 - 85/1.8, they sure will stay and be great to shot moving pictures on the 7D. I also got a tiny adapter from ebay so any Nikon lens can fit an EOS Camera and at the same time I got an adapter to hook up Canon lenses to the GH1. Just to get the most out of every lens.

Since I already have the Nikons I decided to only get two Canon lenses.The first one an EF 16-35/2.8 L USM and the second one an EF 50/1.4 USM. The zoom lens is a high quality lens and feels solid on the 7D or GH1 but the 50/1.4 is a bit flimsy more so than the Nikon 50/1.4D but still great to take snaps indoors. I also have a Sandisk Extreme IV 8GB card and a spare battery.

The mattebox works just as great with the 7D as it does with the GH1. When shooting with the 16-35 lens you have a field of view equivalent to 25,6 mm - pretty wide - and if you adjust the mattebox it doesn't intrude on the lens scope. But it's borderline and I would consider exchanging the mattebox plate to the 4:3 one which has more headroom above and below. Using a wider lens is not recommended but you could always remove the mattebox for those shots.

Right now I have a cluttered desktop - lenses, adapters and stuff so I have some sorting to do before making some sort of feature with the 7D!