the editman.com

I have dedicated this blog to camera and photo stuff but rules have to be broken and this is one exception. I have a bunch of old analogue video tapes that are gathering dust and deterioration by the minute. How to go about and save them I thought? I had a small capture device but it didn't work on Win7 64-bit and all those capture devices rely on the computer to work properly.

After searching I finally found a rather old device - Pinnacle Video Transfer. It's a small portable USB device that you supply with power, a video signal and some sort of USB device. That's right, some sort of USB device! Not a computer! You simple plug in an USB disc or USB memory stick and it records straight to the USB without any computer, software or drivers. Sounds simple? It is just that simple.

This device is not without it's faults. The recorded resolution is 720x576 pixels so I don't have any complains with regards to resolution. Old tapes are PAL at best so it's just fine. But the bitrate in the highest setting is only 1.5mb/s. This is just to low to avoid any kind of artefacts. The record compression is H264 and a very efficient one but 1.5 mb/s is just to low. How strange and wacky it sounds there is a bit of a fix for this. Just put a file called "best.txt" in the video root folder and the bitrate jumps up to 2.5mb/s and maybe even a bit further! How wacky is that?

Doing this easy "fix" the recorded video looks much better. Not perfect but okay to salvage those forgotten tapes. The device itself is very easy to use and it even stops recording if the signal is lost for more than 10 seconds. The only thing that's bad is that if the signal interrupts the recorded image after that point can be all screwed up and look just like a paint bucket painted video file. If it happens the quickest fix is to check at which point it happens and start over again a little later than that point to get a clean recorded file.

Since this one is so simple, there's no way to monitor what's recorded. You have to use some sort of display connected to the playback device if you want to check what's going into the box and eventually the output file. On one end of the unit there's a USB "B" connector. It's for future use the manual states. I doubt we'll see anything new here but you can power it via USB connected to a computer so that's at least one use if you misplace the net adapter.

I'm a bit puzzled on how I totally missed this device. It's an old design dated back to 2007 but I haven't found a similar device made since!

I had a long email dialog with Brian at Berkey System regarding clamps and making a hand held rig. We discussed and he showed me what could be put together. I think it's amazing that, from a cross the globe, we found something that works for me and might do for others. Brian is one of the most helpful people I been in contact with regarding sales and development.

Today at my local post office I received the rig. It took some time to put it together and find what would fit my body and my shooting style but it's pretty close now.

I have a shoulder rig but they tend to get to bulky and heavy so I wanted something light weight and uncomplicated. A support for your chest/shoulder, a handle in front and some rods in between to make it adjustable. Put my shoot35/Manfrotto 577 assembly on top since this was what I had in my bag at the moment.

This rig is all custom made by Brian for me but most of the parts, if not all, are his stock items so I guess you could expand this in any direction you like. I did some testing using my longest lens - a Canon 135L and it was very steady considering the lenght and my 7D's crop factor at 1.6. The camera is still a bit heavy but pro camera and pro glass is never going to be light weight. But the rig itself is only about 700g. It's all aluminium except neoprene on the shoulder piece and foam on the handle.

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.

Today I got a Juicedlink DT454 minimixer/AGC-disabler. I tried to get hold of a sample from Robert at Juicedlink but with no luck so I got it from another vendor.

The solution JL offered before the DT454 was the add-on DN101. You can find my article about what I thought of that one. It had some drawbacks and I addressed Robert at JL with these and I guess other users have done the same and hence he released a one-in-a-box mixer.

A thing Robert dismissed at first but finally did incorporate in the DT454 was a tone AGC defeat along with the noise method. Both of these inserts a high level signal into the right channel to trick the AGC to have their gain at the lowest. This makes for very nice sound from the left channel. Clean and without the AGC ugliness. A thing that JL didn't do was to fix the feedback from right to left channel that, with Canon cameras, makes the headphones noisy before you hit record the first time. The problem lies in the Canon cameras which somehow short circuit right-left audio input. But I think JL could have fixed this by cutting the signal from the right channel to the headphones when AGC is enabled.

One thing I commented on was how to provide for playback monitoring. Using the CX231/DN101 it was cumbersome to monitor. Now the DT454 does have two XLR inputs just like the CX231, but they have added another stereo input via a 3.5" plug that is meant to be for playback purposes. Since you have dual knobs, one for each channel, it's easy turn down the AGC (right) channel and just hear the clean channel when monitoring. How well it works I'll know during next shoot.

DT454 also has dual VU-LED meters. One for each channel. Despite only four LEDs it's helpful determine how high or low you really are. You can even have two different settings for cameras that have AGC and cameras that don't. Underneath the unit is a field of small DIP switches and I think the CX231 had a better solution to have the most used controls on the back and front of the unit instead of under where you have a tripod mounted...

Another new feature is a level knob for the headphones. The headphone amplifiers are still noisy as they are on the DN101 but at least you can turn them down. The last thing that I dislike is actually the form factor! The DT454 is wide when mounted under i.e the Canon 7D. It look kinda odd because of the shape of the camera and the DT454 somehow just goes into another direction instead fo following the lines of the camera. But then again it doesn't intrude where the battery lid is so I'll let this pass.

Doing a quick test with my AT897 shotgun mic I got clean sound and it felt good to handle.

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.

I've tried some ways to mount a quick release on rods and this is the most compact and easy assembly I've found so far.

On top is a Manfrotto 577 quick release. It's a versatile QR because I have the same plate on my 701HDV head and the same as on a 503 I often use. Below is the shoot35 rod Tripod connector/clamp with two washers mounted below the camera/QR plate. This is to have the camera at the right height to fit with EASOM cages. Under the rod clamp is another plate (just like the one on top) to mount on a tripod. Usually I mount another 577 plate under so I can slide on/off the whole rig on a tripod head. Since shoot35 don't have this to order I got a Tripod connector/clamp from the them and got another plate so I could configure it the way I wanted. This assembly takes up as little rod space as possible giving me more room to slide the follow focus unit for every lens.

Before I found out this solution I had Gini clamps but I think shoot35 stuff is of better quality. Gini rods on the other hand are great and I use them all the time.

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.

I picked up a Zeiss Distagon T 35/2 ZE lens today to add more Zeiss glass for commercial work. I have a Canon 35L and during the next month I'll compare these. Both lenses have about the same focus travel but the Zeiss lenses are superior because they are smoother and have hard stops. Quality is as always to a very high standard. A solid piece indeed.

I find it interesting that the front element is very curved but so is the 35L. You just don't think about it since there's a piece of flat glass in front. To pull manual focus is a joy, especially in the 0.3m to 1.0m range where you really can fine tune the focus. After comparing it to the 35L I believe the 35 ZE to be sharper so I'm going to use the 35 ZE instead. Loosing a bit of speed but the 50/1.4 can cover this when I have the need.

I'm rigging one of my Canon 7Ds for some interviews tomorrow and since I got a JAG35 cage this week I wanted to try it out. To be honest I don't know if I'll need the JAG35 cage but it might come in handy when doing these jobs were you don't want to use a rail system and still put some stuff onto the camera.

On top is a Sennheiser EW112 G2 receiver and on the bottom a Juicedlink CX231 and DN101 for AGC defeat. The tricky part is to monitor what actually goes into the camera. I've found out that if you use the headphone output and it's distorted, the recording is also distorted. So I'm probably safe to adjust volume this way. My experience of recording with this setup is that you get clean audio. But I would still like to have a headphone output on the camera. I could get a 5D mk II and use the Trammel modified firmware to get by without the DN101 and be able to monitor.



A great thing about the JAG35 cage is that it's light weight. Like I said, I'm not sure how to utilise it best but I guess it will work fine for tomorrows shoot.

So after the Zeiss 85 I got I felt the need to invest in another Zeiss lens. This time one of the cheaper Zeisses - a Planar T50/1.4 ZE. In size it reminds me of the Nikon 50/1.4D and I would guess this lens is just as sharp and nice as the Nikon. But it has the built quality which is excellent and above the Nikon 50/1.4D. And then I think the Nikon is already pretty solid.

Just as the 85/1.4 it comes in a white box and includes a high quality metal lens hood. Filter diameter is 58mm, just like the Canon EF 50/1.4 lens but the Canon don't even compare when it comes the shear quality. Picture quality between the Nikon 50/1.4D, Canon 50/1.4, Canon 50/1.2L and the Zeiss is pretty much comparable. But the Zeiss is all metal and the focus ring is supersmooth.

The barrel turns about 270 degrees and compare that to the Nikon and Canons who turns less than 180 degrees. After using that 85/1.4 ZE from Zeiss to shoot stills for a day it felt a bit time consuming to manually pull focus. But as it turned out I got more gorgeous keepers with manual focus than I usually get with AF and the Canon lenses. It was also more fun to "work" when shooting and I became more creative selecting and pulling focus on my own.

Let's call this another equipment week. I have a pearl band of stuff coming this week and at the beginning of next. But today I'm not gonna write about new stuff. Instead it's another modification, this time on the Marshall battery's plate.

The little power jack on the bottom of the battery plate was what I did tonight. It took some digging in my electronics box but I found a jack and managed to drill a hole just enough for it to fit. What does it do? It provides a power outlet for, in my case, the 2-way HDMI splitter. This way I don't have to power it with another battery pack. Actually I already got a high power PSU for the HDMI splitter but I want my rig clean and simple. It works just like expected. I can now power both monitor and splitter with the Canon BP-970 type of batteries I have.

I didn't want to drill any hole in the monitor itself so I was a bit constricted where to mount the power jack. It's not in the way and if you don't plug anything in you'll never think about it. I'll monitor if the splitter drains to much juice but I doubt it since it's such a small circuit.

I got this really short HDMI cable to go between the camera and HDMI 2-way splitter. 1ft is really short, the shortest I could find and it should make for a clutter free setup when rigged. You can get it at www.cyberguys.com and yes they do have longer cables if that's on your agenda!

Today I received another cage type of brackets from a cinema5d user. These are suppose to come from thecinecity.com but I can't seam to find them there...

I made this assembly to try them out and they are very similar in size to the EASOM cage brackets. Just a tiny bit wider and taller. But with a bit of flexing I can fit these different types of brackets together. What differ the most is fit and finish. EASOM cages do have a much better precision quality. Rods slide in and out better mainly. Also the knobs doesn't tighten as good as the ones on EASOM. I must use a ball driver to get it to stick.

But when mounted properly they provide a solid cage that protects the camera very well. It's flexible in that they have an upper bracket and a lower one. It even works well to only have one lower bracket and it still feels solid.



You can clearly see it has more space inside the cage than EASOM cages. But I know Cory Easom is working on larger cages also.