the editman.com

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.


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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.

I have a Juicedlink CX231 minimixer which is great to use attached to my Sony PCM-D50. One drawback with the Canon 7D and Panasonic GH1 is their AGC for audio.
It sounds crappy with lots of hiss and noise. Juicedlink made the DN101 to address several issues. One, defeat AGC, two add headphones monitoring and three to have a visual meter.

The way they solved this (rather than releasing a new mixer with this function built in) is the DN101 which bolts outside of the mixer and uses the same battery.
You simply take out the battery drawer, remove the spring.
Cut away some plastic from the drawer and attached the battery connector which then goes into the battery tray.
Problem is it doesn't fit! Bad design from the start and it doesn't work as advertised in the instruction video.

(A user on dvxuser.com got an email from Robert at Juicedlink and he said that the tray should be forced into position.
But I think this is a bad excuse for a bad design)


I am beginning to regret this purchase... But as usual I don't just sit and cry. I opened the lid on the CX231 and figured out a better solution.

A small hole was drilled with my Dremel to the right of the battery compartment.
I cut the wire from the DN101's battery connector so I got two wires going through the hole and soldered these inside the mixer directly on the other side of the battery compartment.
I used a bit of tape to get the cable away from the tripod screw inside and put everything together.

 


Now I don't believe this will affect anything inside the CX231.
Only difference is that the DN101 has a better connecting and that the wires inside goes a few millimetres to the side of the battery tray.




After this modification the battery tray now can be closed firmly in position and as you can see the DN101 is powered up as it should!

Now when I had a decent function I found another thing that is extremely irritating. If you try to put a GH1 on top of this it doesn't work.
The DN101 extrudes above the mixer and either the lens can't be fitted or the swivel display can't be opened.
I think this product was rushed and Juicedlink should introduce a mixer with this functionality built in. Not this tacky add-on!

How does it work then? If the camera (Canon 7D) isn't powered and you enable the AGC disable function all that noíse goes into the headphones.
Even if the camera is on but not recording you get noise.
Only when you start recording the noise goes away and you only hear the left channel without noise.
Again bad design. If the 7D is somehow looping audio from right left and back to the DN101 there should be a feedback filter inside the DN101.
It seams this is not the case. The headphone amplifier is also noisy in it self so it's hard to judge if the recorded audio is of pristine quality.
Compared when I monitor using the Sony D50 I have a very clean monitoring via headphones. Bad design all around.

If I use a GH1 it does work without noise when the camera is off or don't record, but when unplugging/plugging I get a short burst of noise in my ears.
Also, why is the supplied cable so long? The connector for the CX231 output and the DN101 input is next to each other.
And when you connect the output cable it is hard to pull out the battery tray to swap battery... think again JL.



But if you don't mind all these shortcomings the recorded left channel is free from AGC and no noise from the right channel is apparent.
How useful is the headphone output? I can't be sure to get a noise free recording and really the only thing I'm sure of is that audio is inside the DN101.
The meter on the side seams to be just bling since it tells me nothing more than there's some sort of signal inside the DN101.

So to conclude. One of three issues was solved. But to be sure I still have to use my Sony PCM-D50 for dual sound recording...

I like my Kata DR-465 backpack and was looking for something to hold my audio equipment.
There are the portabrace bags and they are really good but I wanted to have a bag that could double as a smaller camera bag and I found a Kata DC-445 shoulder bag.

From left to right I have a 6m XLR cable (in the far left side pocket), next is a 10m XLR cable,
top center is a charger for 1.5V and 9V batteries and on top a pair of Sony headphones.
Bottom center I have an Audio Technica AT-8415 and a hot shoe mount also from Audio Technica,
a small Gorilla pod and above the bottom compartments is an Audio Technica AT-897 shot gun mic.
Top right is an Audio Technica PRO-70 lavalier with power module, a Sony PCM-D50.
Bottom right is a Sennheiser EW112-G2 wireless lavalier set. (You can see the antennas).
In the right side pocket I have a couple of cables and windscreens for the different mics.
The lid has pockets for batteries and some adapter cables.

Included is a weather coat so it will survive some rain. Another good thing it's a light bag so even thou it's stuffed inside the weight is under control.

I really had to find a solution since my main camera bag, a Lowepro Computrekker, is to heavy and I can't fit all lenses.
Looking at a macro lens and I have to make room for one so this Kata bag was a welcome addition!

I took this picture this fall with my GH1 and Lumix 20/1.7. This lens is excellent both when filming and for stills.
The lens was at F4 and is really super sharp without CA or other nasty artefacts. Used lightroom to develop from the RAW-file.

This Tuesday I filmed Europcar offices around Stockholm and for the first time used my Flycam 5000.
It was a learning experience and tricky to get really steady floating clips.
You have to balance the Flycam very careful and even then it's heavy and you get tired fast.
I'll try to get hold of a vest soon and do some more practising in the meantime.

The final film will have my material (Canon 7D) and stills, commercials etc. from Europcar.
I'm slowly moving into working as a DP alongside editing and it's really fun!
My kit has expanded alot during the fall and I now feel pretty comfortable using the 7D and GH1 in various projects.

Sweden is drenched in snow for the moment and it's a joy to be outside despite shortage of daylight.
I brought my GH1, Lumix 20/1.7 a Fader ND and a Velbon tripod out in the cold.



The sun is very low even mid day here this time a year and you have not many hours doing something before it's to late.
It was not many locations that had any useful light but there where a lot of ice build ups on the rock side to capture.

Edited a short winter film out of the clips I manage to gadder using 1080p25 on the GH1. Shutter at 1/50s and aperture at 2.0.
Used the Fader ND to adjust exposure and left ISO at 100 for lowest possible sensor noise.

I found out the focus ring was very stiff, due to the cold weather, which made it a bit hard to tweak properly.
Didn't feel like carrying a heavy load and the Velbon is super light, a bit weak but lightweight especially with a GH1-20/1.7 combo.

Today I got a ring on my door and there was a brown box delivered from www.dvcity.com.
I ripped it open and assembled the content - a Flycam 5000.

It was easy to put together and quality wise it feels okay. First I put my GH1 and 20/1.7 lens on the Flycam and balanced it easily.
The weights are all the same and it would have been better to have two different weights to really fine tune it.
(I purchased large washers to even out the large weights and I now can tune it better. A $4 investment)




I got a quick release plate in the box and it's the same as the one I have on my rails.
The GH1 is lightweight but the whole rig does become heavy to hold with one arm more than a few minutes.
A vest could really come in handy and I'll might go for one after I get to know how to use the Flycam 5000 by itself.




When putting the kit lens (14-140) on the Flycam I had to put more weights at the bottom.
I'm writing down different weights for different combinations of cameras and lenses so I can switch faster.




I actually managed to get some decent test shots running around in my flat.
As long as you shoot at eye level it feels comfortable to hold and handle.

I found that having 7D and the 16-35/2.8 lens at it widest made some really exciting images so this is the combo to go for.
So cool going through doors and it feels so tight when you watch it. I didn't believe I could do this steady work in such a short time.
I'm a bit drained on things to shoot right now but I have a bunch of projects kicking off soon and I'll put the flycam to good use!

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.