Canon 5D/7D in Mumbai with accessories

I got this post comment from Accord Equips who rent out cameras in Mumbai.
It was for a post I made in March 2010...

Available with Accord Equips, Mumbai, India - Canon 5d & 7d with all filming accessories like follow focus, matte box, view finder, shoulder mount etc with choice of Canon and Carl Zeiss filming lenses.
Visit www.accordequips.com. Call Jeki 9594070007 / Bhupen – 9594066077 / 26740066 / 64553300

The phone numbers are in Mumbai. If you are outside Mumbai you should dial the +91 prefix.

Buying a new iMac

Here is a simple method of choosing which iMac you should get if you're looking for an iMac and can't choose between the models available now. This information is probably good for any time between now, Aug. 2010 and about the 1st quarter of 2011, or until Apple issues new models, whichever is sooner.

Mac choices.

There are 2 sizes.
21.5 in. And 27 in.
21.5 has a screen resolution of 1920x1080 (full HD)
27 has a resolution of 2560x1440

21.5 has two variants.
One with 256 Mb video RAM, one with 512 Mb
One with 500 Gb Hard disk, one with 1 Tb

The 27 has a 1 Tb hard disk, and 1 Gb video RAM

The 27 has a 2.8 GHz i5 processor.

All 4 have the same number of ports.
1 Firewire 800, 4 USB, 1 SDXC card slot.
All 4 come with the Apple keyboard and mouse.
For sound buffs, all 4 have optical digital in and out.
It's in the form of a mini jack so you can get a mini to Toslink Adapter and a toslink cable and you can connect to a range of high-end audio interfaces and home theatre sets.

Buying advice...

If budget is a constraint, get the lower 21.5 variant.
If you do consider the higher 21.5 variant, then consider the 27.
It costs a little more but has better graphics, a larger screen, and a much faster i5 quad core processor.

I keep referring to 'All 4', but the web site shows only 3. That's because there is a higher i7 quad core (8 virtual cores). This is strictly 'money is no object'. And is not readily available but has to be BTO - built to order.

Incidentally, if you can afford the i7 iMac, then you should consider the MacPro desktop Mac. It's just slightly more than the i7 iMac.

And so on...

My posts on Canon 5D, Canon 7D and other HD-DSLRs and workflows

Links to previous posts on my blog on Canon 5D and Canon 7D

http://neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com/2010/07/canon-5d-or-7d-directly-in-fcp.html
http://neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com/2010/06/canon-5d-mkii-directly-to-fcp.html
http://neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com/2010/03/canon-5d-mkii-does-24fps.html
http://neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com/2010/07/zacuto-great-camera-shootout-2010-film.html
http://neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com/2010/02/canon-to-adopt-mpeg-2-for-forthcoming.html
http://neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com/2009/12/backup-for-tapeless-media.html
http://neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com/2009/11/video-dslrs-how-good-are-they-really.html
http://neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com/2009/10/new-canon-1d-mkiv.html
http://neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com/2009/10/canon-7d-hd-movie-mode-post-production.html

I'll posts actual links in a bit. Till then you can copy and paste these to your browser.

Cry for Ladakh

Many years ago, we went to Ladakh. We spent nearly 3 weeks shooting for a TV series 'Bharat Ke Chhap'. It is a beautiful part of India and will always be. 

Much later I was again associated with Ladakh during the production of Farhan Akhtar's 'Lakshya'.

But now, this magnificent landscape is seeing the effects of nature's fury. It has already killed many and will make thousands homeless. And as the weather heads for a winter, the misery of those living there can only be imagined.

One of my friends from 'Bharat ke Chhap', Reena Mohan, one of the editors of this series, sent this appeal. Please do all you can to help.

Dear friends,

Disasters give no forewarning and the aftermath is a lingering nightmare.... while we are surrounded by floods and chaos all around, the misery of the people of Leh is what we are looking at right now as one of the immediate emergencies.

Anshu Gupta, the force behind GOONJ, went to Leh as soon as he could and is still there doing what he can and reviewing the long-term assistance needed.

We need to rally around and contribute whatever we can to add a few valuable drops though there is an ocean of unending needs.

WHAT GOONJ NEEDS

1. Dry rations: rice, grains, sugar, biscuits, milk powder
2. Woollen blankets - of good durable quality.. these`need to sustain in the harsh weather
3. Woollen clothes in decent usable condition, again need to sustain for some months at least.
4. Cooking utensils, buckets
5. Torches and batteries
6. School material
7. Basic medicines
8. Monetary donations. This would help with the costs of transporting and rehabilitation. Donations may be made by cheque or demand draft favouring GOONJ, with your name and full address and phone number and PAN number given at the back.

Do not give any perishable items please.

Please try and do collections in your neighbourhoods and send your donations directly to the Goonj office at J-93 Sarita Vihar, New Delhi.

Visit www.goonj.org for further information and details for collection centres in other cities.

Please inform others... Thank you

Reena Mohan

Panasonic consumer 3D camcorder

Its here! A consumer 3D camcorder.

It shoots with two lenses. To a single video stream using the 'side-by-side' method. Any 3D TV set - like the Samsung 3D LED TV or Panasonic Viera 3DTV available in India now can play this video stream as 3D which you can view through glasses.

Also, if you have a Blu-ray player that can play AVCHD memory cards, you can just pop in the card and see 3D. Its still not a substitute for professionally shot 3D movies, but for simple holiday shoots it should be great.

Cost not announced yet. Details on Panasonic's web site.

FCP media management done right

If you have a Canon 5D/7D project and are grappling with an offline-online workflow. Or you've been through the reconnect hell in FCP. Or you need a better consolidate workflow. Especially for projects that originate with digital files like HDSLR files or some other such. 

Then check out this article over at 2-pop.

http://www.2-pop.com/article/95564

It uses FCP Reconnect from Video Toolshed. It costs US$ 59. I haven't used it yet, but I've seen situations where it would be invaluable especially the situation mentioned in the article at 2-pop. Check out the video at the Video Toolshed site.

Also check out other offerings from Video Toolshed. Many are free and really useful. Also write to the maker Bouke. A very helpful guy.

And please please. Buy it. Its only Rs 2800 or so. After buying it, when it works for you, do please write to Bouke and tell him about it. And copy me with details on how you did it. I could even pay you for it. Really!

Canon 5D or 7D directly in FCP

There is now cosiderable interest among film-makers to use Canon 5D MkII or 7D or 1 D Mk IV to shoot for theatrical or TV release. The pros and cons of shooting with HD-DSLRs are all over the 'net, as are workflow discussions. And I get a call or mail many times a week on this.

My preferred workflow for Canon 5D/7D files is to

• Buy as many cards as you think you need - so don't erase and reuse cards.
• Make two hard disk copies of all shoot files, keep them at different locations.
• Consider writing to DVDs or get a blu-ray writer and write to Blu-ray disks.
• Stripe original Canon .mov files with time code before editing.
• Convert Canon H.264 movies with striped TC to Apple ProRes HQ before editing(ProRes 4444 does not give any additional benefit)
• Use a safe RAID drive to store files during editing.

For striping TC (time code) on Canon files I use a free utility called QtChange. With QtChange, if the correct settings are not used, it is extremely easy to permanently corrupt a Canon .mov. Result, reshoot. Use with studied caution, please. Also, do not try QtChange on Canon .mov files which are on a Win NT drive.

I've donated towards the development of QtChange and if you use it, I urge you to do so too. Bouke who writes the software, is a knowledgeable and helpful guy.

A faster and easier way to handle Canon 7D files is to the use the new Canon EOS Movie plugin E1 for FCP. This works for FCP 6.0.3 to FCP 7. Please read all instructions carefully and then use. Pay particular attention to the 'create disk image' step, and give logical and non-repetitive reel names. And please do not omit adding reel names, preferably one per card.

This plug-in converts Canon H.264 .mov files to Apple ProRes or Apple ProRes HQ upon import, and uses the time of day to stripe the files with time code. It also requires that the original folder structure of the memory card is preserved. But then if you've read the instructions you'll follow that part.

Link to the plug-in here...
http://www.usa.canon.com/dlc/controller?act=GetArticleAct&articleID=3249

This plug-in is free and you need to address all support queries directly to Canon.

If you use this Canon EOS E1 plugin, you don't need to use Compressor as this plug-in handles all conversion. If you don't want time-of day time code but would like to add custom time code, you have to use Qtchange.

A recent article at dvinfo.net 

http://www.dv.com/article/96564

listed a set of software and plug-ins if one was planning on using a DSLR to shoot - short or long feature.

The softwares are...
Magic Bullet Grinder $49 - but you could manage to do this with Compressor or the Canon EOS plugin, or other free utilities.
Foundry Rolling Shutter plug-in $ 500 - but you can avoid rolling shutter at the shoot stage.
Canon EOS Gamma Curves - UKP 29 - but you can arrive at a similar look with some trial and error
F_DeNoise with Nuke - US$ 6000+US$ 4400 - and an experienced Nuke artist is needed.
F_DeNoise for FCP - US$ 500 - if you definitely are shooting very high ISO.
DV Fixer part of Boris Continuum Complete 7 FxPlug - US$ 995 - may get away with aliasing with careful shooting.

So, feel free to get whichever you think you absolutely have to have.

My instructions on getting enough cards, backing up your media, and using a RAID for editing still remain, and I urge you to consider storage seriously. Unless you have the option of re-shooting some or all of your footage due to data loss.

Due to the sheer volume or requests I get for digital acquisition, I am now accepting donations for support so as to be able to better ration my time. So, if you plan on shooting on Canon 5D or 7D and would like workflow advice or support during your project, click on the 'Donate' button alongside (to the right of this column below my picture), and you can reach me.

Zacuto Great Camera Shootout 2010 - Film vs HD-DSLR

If you've been to the CAS presentation in Mumbai last weekend, and are wondering how HD-DSLRs would fare in tests like these, please check out the Zacuto tests. This was Film - Kodak and Fuji - stocks exposing the same scenes as six top DSLRs that shoot HD video 5D MKII, 7D, 1D, 550D/T2i Rebel, Nikon D3s, Panasonic GH1.
 

Results of the tests, the Zacuto Great Camera Shootout 2010 - Film vs HD-DSLR are as below...

Zacuto Great Camera Shootout 2010: It's all About Latitude

Zacuto Great Camera Shootout 2010 Webisode 2: How Sensitive Can You Get?

The Great Camera Shootout 2010 Web 3: The Revolution Begins...

If you are a member, you can download these.
 

For those who don't yet know about the HD-DSLR phenomenon, its about still cameras that shoot video at HD resolution. Some love it, some gloss over the defects, most just get on with the job of taking great pictures.

Collectively, an estimated 200,000+ still cameras that can do HD video may have been sold so far.

CAS Day 2

Day 2 at the CAS show was one of seeing the same shots over and over again and watching for differences between one camera system and another. It mainly was focused around film vs. each of the other digital cameras.

If you don't know what CAS is, or haven't about CAS in Mumbai, head over to my earlier post on CAS. For a report on CAS day 1, head over here.

My broad conclusions from these tests may or may not match those of a cinematographer, because I ain't one. I saw each camera's output from the point of view of, can this tell a story. Whether it (anything digital) looks as good as film is something I stopped looking for a while ago. Nothing looks like film. But some digital stuff looks rather good.

So, some random observations...

There was a handout distributed at the start. It listed in a table the basic characteristics of all 8 cameras that were tested. Some of the stuff there could be contested. For instance, F23 and F35 are shown as uncompressed. Neither can record uncompressed to tape.

The Arri D-21 is shown as edit ready. But if you shoot ArriRAW then all that stuff needs to be converted to Quicktime before you can edit it. Just like with Red. But if you shoot D-21 to tape, then it is edit ready, but then, its not uncompressed.

These tests were shot in Jan 2009. And post completed in April 2009. Some changes have happened in digital cameras since then. Red one has been superseded by the Red M-X, and the Epic is near completion. Arri introduced the Alexa. And, of course, there are HD DSLRs.

On the test methodology and workflow...

Manufacturers were asked to do the conversion of their digital material to 10bit log DPX. And all work was done in this medium. In a real world situation if one is shooting digital, one may wish to work in the camera's own format. Or another linear format. 10bit log DPX is the preferred medium for film scans, not necessarily suited to digital.

Also, in these tests, the film shots were graded first. Then the 10bit log DPX converts from all digital cameras were graded to match the film as closely as possible. Only simple colour correction was used and no windows, or no sharpening or noise removal was performed. So in that sense it was a clean test.

One thing someone from the ASC mentioned was "Editorial was ignored". I guess that meant that the shots were simply plonked on a timeline with no relation with one another. In a real world situation, one always builds a scene as a series of shots. And maybe in this respect, digital is much more uniform than film. Meaning shot to shot variations are far less in digital than in negative film. meaning. Film absolutely has to be graded in some manner. The editorial factor has to be be part of the testing, As has sound.

Another observation I had was flicker was common across all formats. I mention this because I've lost count of the number of hours I've been debating this with commercial film-makers when the camera pans across a bright surface and it strobes and flickers. They blame the telecine, the colourist, the DigiBeta VTR, the FCP, even the editor. The CAS showed that ALL cameras flicker during pans.

When showing the tests, there were some observations expressed on the voice-over. I thought them to be leading, and it highlighted some defects that a cursory observation would have overlooked. After all no one watches one single shot over and over again, unless they are editors.

Archival in the digital age

It was narrated how, during the CAS shoot, one entire shot shot on the Viper camera erased because of a wrong interpretation of an alert message. This was used to highlight how in the digital age, its very easy to lose work. Whereas with film, it can't be erased.

I agree. Digital data is far more 'fragile' than film, when it comes to clumsiness and callousness. But out here, producers often skimp on hard drive costs, so they buy the cheapest one they can find. So archiving of digital data while production is on-going is a neglected area.

But, here in India its just as easy to lose film. We have lost negatives of films shot in 2003 to bad storage. We have this serious problem of heat and dust. And spotty electric supply. So, outside of Mumbai, even if you store your film in an air-conditioned chamber, where will you get 24x7 electricity? 

On the other hand, huge amounts of data are securely stored for extended periods in India. The Indian Railway reservation system is the world's largest database. The Census and UUID program, the largest database of human beings. Our IT boys store data for the world. Hollywood may not have the answers to data storage, but the Indian computer industry might know. We probably should ask.

On a side note, for most of the trash we produce on television and even in movies, do you really want to store that? Will people really watch any of it? Wouldn't you wish you could erase all that film and reuse it for something better?

Just go over the list of flops of this year and you'll see what I mean.

But yes, our classics, they need better storage, and digital is probably not it.

Conclusion

The overall feeling I got was that the differences between film and digital cameras of Jan 2009 was marginal. Cinematographers will debate on the finer points, but the truth was out there on the screen for all to see.

And, the reality of this test between film, Red, Viper, Genesis, F23, F35, D-21, 3700 for us in India could be summarised as film vs Red. We simply don't have any of the other cameras in large enough numbers (like exceeding 1-3 all India) to matter for film making.

On day 1 we saw film vs Arri Alexa. And day two was film vs Red. Then there are HDDSLRs which were not tested. So, in India, we need to make our choices between these. Film, Red, Alexa, HDDSLRs. For TV you can add EX1/EX3 or F950 type of cameras as well.

In the end, Kodak showed a film highlighting their new Vision 3 stock. it looked impressive. But the film also highlighted the role of cohesively edited material, a story and good sound to the overall film experience.

For the future, I wish the Cinematographers Combine, and some camera rental company, and a well equipped post house in Mumbai do a film vs digital test based on cameras we have here. And make it a fuller exercise with a story, direction, acting, sound, and editing. That's really real world.

I'm available. 

Mumbai CAS Day 1

The Cinematographer's combine CAS event got off this morning at a packed Imax theatre at Wadala. For a change the participants got there before time and the hall was packed with time to spare. I take this as a sign that digital is ready to be received. Or, that there was very little traffic in Mumbai this morning.

The first session was on the new Arri Alexa digital movie camera. I wrote about this camera on this blog a few weeks age and you can find it by looking through the links in the margin to the right. Or here.

The day began with a talk by Henning Radlein of Arri. I've been hearing Henning for over 5 years now. At various trade shows and demos, even a guided tour around Arri that he kindly gave me some years ago. And he delivers, with the manner of one of my professors of Classical Mechanics at Physics post-grad University class. Simple, concise and technically perfect.

There were some features that Henning spoke about that are not there in their brochure or web site. There was also a hands on demo of the Alexa, played out live on the big screen with a live camera. A rather good way of showing a device to a large audience.

Later we saw tests that Arri shot on an Alexa. These were shown as Digital, from the (presumably) Christie 2k projector. At 2k, or maybe 1080p24, I forgot to ask.

To my untrained eyes, the tests looked awesome. And I didn't find anyone who said anything derogatory about them, and most seemed suitably impressed. Until we saw the Indian tests later in the day.

The Indian tests were shot by two leading Cinematographers - Sudeep Chaterjee and Amit Roy. They had both shot some typical film scenes with props, actors and the like. And they both shot to film and Alexa and showed both one after another, as a film print.

I'm no cinematographer so a lot of the figures about shutter angle and aperture were just numbers to me. So I just saw it as one picture compared to another. From the general murmurings around the house, it seemed there were many who were doing the same.

One set of tests had a freeze frame in every shot with animated supers showing what seemed to be some kind of exposure level. I found that a trifle disturbing. I wonder, even among those who understood what those numbers meant, how many could retain that info. I think a set of stills on the Cinematographers Combine website would have been a better idea.

The tests were shown as a film print. On a film projector that was weaving and vibrating. So that was a bit jarring. So it was decided to see them as a digital print or DCP. One astute person in the audience asked for the Arri tests to be also shown right after the Indian tests.

For me that was an interesting watch. Seeing tests shot here, vs those shot by Arri both on a clean bright digital projector. What a vast difference in the sheer quality of images. Amazing. I don't mean to slam anyone here, but I think for quite a few persons in the audience the truth was before their eyes.

There was also a Q & A with some of those associated with the tests. Unfortunately, out of the two cinematographers who shot the local tests, only one could attend and answer tests on the shooting. And, as far as post was concerned, the colorist was absent too. And Ken, who filled in, did a reasonable job of providing info.

I found the workflow for the Alexa tests locally done to be... well, 'interesting'. At Reliance MediaWorks.

They scanned the film at 4k. On a Spirit 4k. Graded at 4k on a Baselight. and recorded back to film at 4k too.

The Alexa shot to SxS cards as ProRes 4444 as well as HDCamSR as 444HQ. In the logC colour space. But Reliance chose to capture the tape. This was captured to Clipster and exported out as uprezzed 4k DPX, for grading in Baselight.

So, the film images were presumably 4096x1744 pixels during scanning, grading and recording.

The Alexa images were shot at 1920x1080, cropped to 1920x817, Scaled up to 4096x1744, graded at that size, and recorded to film.

So, if my presumption is correct, we were shown native 4096x1744 film vs 1920x817 size digital images side by side but on film. All those who debate on 4k vs 2k for film DI need to take careful note of this in relation to what they saw on the screen this evening.

To be sure, I asked Henning whether the camera provided to CC for tests was capable of shooting ProRes. He said Yes. So, the decision to use the tape instead was taken by Reliance. Maybe because they don't have a Mac at Reliance with the latest FCS 3 which is needed to open ProRes 4444. Or maybe they feel tape is better.

I also checked with Henning if the Arri tests that we saw earlier were shot to HDCamSR or ProRes. He told me which were HDCamSR and which ProRes. He also explained me their workflow, which was radically simpler and arguably more edit friendly that the one Reliance adopted.

For me, the highlight of today was how different our shoot looked compared to the one done by Arri. Exactly why, is something I'll ponder about.

Later, there was a presentation from Sony on the SRW 9000 camcorder. Actually, calling that somehow puts it in the same league as an EX3. but not really. This is a digital movie camera with an HDCam SR recorder built in. The SRW 9000 is based the F23. And there will be a SRW 9000PL based on the F35.

The SRW9000 will have a memory card recording option in some months. This is a flash memory card that will be 1 Tb and record uncompressed. This memory card option will also work with the F23 and the F35. There is also a 4k upgrade path for the camera section. Which makes sense as this special 1 Tb cartridge will be capable of 5 Gbps.

Sony and Arri are adopting similar approaches, that of recording to a know medium and format. Easy to store, edit and manipulate. Both are good cameras and I wish there was a Alexa vs SRW 9000 comparison instead of film.

For us in India, unless post houses use the Direct to Edit Apple ProRes function of the Alexa, both will become HDCam SR cameras. So rentals will be similar. It will boil down to which camera cinematographers prefer.

Eventually the 1 Tb SR2.0 card will be introduced. And some may demand the raw recording capability of the Arri Alexa or uncompressed for the SRW 9000 over ProRes or HDCam SR. But both these approaches take up huge amounts of disk space so they might be non-starters in our context.
 

The rushes of an average Hindi movie, uncompressed (SR 2.0) or ArriRAW will take up 12-15 Terabytes disk space. I know exactly how hard it is to get someone to invest Rs 35,000 that it costs to get one secure hard disk to store just one ad film's a Red rushes, so asking for Rs 12-15 lakhs ofr a hard disk array for rushes... forget about it.

There was a very basic test of some shots with the SRW 9000 shot a couple of days ago. These were shot as S-log. The camera played the tests directly with and with a 'linearizing' LUT applied. I felt the test was playing at double speed. Meaning, they were shot 1080p25 or 1080p24 and the camera system was set up for 1080p50 or 1080p60.

If it was, then that shows how careful we need to get with these HD formats. 

By the way, where does Red figure in all this? It does. And I plan on doing a compare, very soon.

I've written on the Arri Alexa, SRW-9000, and SR 2.0. Check it out. And please, if anyone is using this info for any commercial gain, consider the donate or subscribe button.