This is a quick non-scientific comparison video of several lenses. I compared the kit Lumix 14-140 lens to the following:
Canon FD 28mm F2.8
Minolta 35-70mm F2.5
c-mount 35mm F1.8 CCTV
c-mount 25mm F1.2 CCTV
Canon c- mount 11-70mm TV
the c-mount lenses used the SLR Magic adapter.
The subject is a wine glass, lit with 5600K daylight LED light source and the room was lit with 2800K CFL lights. The camera was white balanced for day light.
The GH1 is using the Ptools firmware hack and was shooting 24FPS no pulldown 1080P at 40Mbs with a 1/50th sec. shutter.
Edited as ProRes 422 in FCP. Output to h.264 @400Kbs
A time lapse test with the Panasonic GH1 with kit lens shooting 1/1000sec shutter in shutter priority. F stop varied between 8 and 4.1. Some shutter “wow”. I’m thinking I should have shot f4.5 in manual. any advice is welcome. Next time , I want to compare using apeture priority. as long as the shutter speed doesn’t exceed the the interval time I should be okay.
Location: Golden Colorado
I shot my first Red-Cyan 3-D anaglyph video for the video open for the 2010 Student Video Expo for Front Range Community College. I shot using two Canon HV-30s mounted as close as was possible (lens centers were about four inches apart.) and obviously shot it against a green screen, just to make it more difficult. Post Production in FCP6, I probably could have got better results using After Effects.
I made a lot of mistakes and learned a lot. One problem that I encountered is since you can’t gen-lock these cameras they were about a half a frame from being in perfect sync. Also due to the crap HDV 4.0.0 color space and temporal compression, quick motion breaks up the video, especially in the red channel.
Lunched with a couple old friends and we are looking into doing some software video tutorials as a business, Then ran down to Blue Flame Power coating to pick up a bunch of Jaybilizer parts that I had powder coated. Yeah baby! powder coating sure beats paint.
Finally got my Canon 11-70mm f 1.8 c-mount tv zoom lens and mounted it to my Panasonic GH1 with a c-mount adapter and I was immediately disappointed to find that it only covered half of the sensor. After a little Google search, I found that the work around is to use the 2X digital zoom to get a full frame image. This actually kinda sucks because you are trading off resolution by the camera interpolating pixels, and you are doubling the crop factor, so that my 11mm now has a 22mm field of view. So in reality if I can shoot at f4 I’m ahead to use the kit 14-140mm lens for wide angle shots. The only upside is that the tv lens will be good for some shots where I want narrow DOF and soft vignetted edges. Note to self, check Google before buying on ebay.
I’ve run into a problem with the Canon 5D Mk2 and the Jaybilizer camera stabilizer.
I had two customers that are using the 5D and had sent me good reports, However, I have found that they had to add significant ( 1.5 lbs) counterweights over the washers that are shipped with the Jaybilizer.
I was able to do some hands on testing today and need to share the results.
First is that I discovered that we need to under sling the counterweights to lower the center of gravity and to provide mechanical advantage for the weights. Otherwise the weight of the camera and stabilizer becomes unmanageable.
Please look carefully at the attached photographs and notice that I had to reverse the bottom 3 1/2″ screw so that is pointed downwards. I then added 4 large (2 1/2″ Dia. (62mm)) washers in addition to the ten of the 1 1/2″ ( 37mm) washers for a total weight of 14 Oz. or 400 grams.
I then mounted the “kickstand” beneath the counterweights and affixed it using the wing nut.
For side to side counterweight, I loosened the gimbal handle screw and moved the aluminum rod as far to the left as possible and added 9 – 1 1/2″ washers to the plastic knob screw.
Note that you will have to purchase the 4 or 5 large 2 1/2″ washers in addition to the 25- 1 1/2″ washers that ship with the Jaybilizer.
This is a temporary work around to allow you to shoot with the 5D. I’m working on engineering a more elegant solution and will ship current 5D/Jaybilizer owners the upgrade your Jaybilizer at no charge as soon as it is available.
In the meantime I am not recommending using the Jaybizer 3000 with the Canon 5Dmk2.
If you’re reading this article you probably are aware that shooting HD video with DSLRs is all the rage among digital filmmakers. There are far more reasons to shoot this way than not, but one of the problems with DSLRs are their sound recording capabilities. THe Canon 5D Mk2, the Canon 7D and the Panasonic GH1 have external microphone inputs but unfortunately these use auto gain control and have no manual control over input levels. Also these cameras don’t have headphone monitoring. Read more…
Here is a quick picture of my current HV-30 with a Jag35 35mm lens adapter. I’m prototyping a lens support and wireless/shotgun microphone support that I’m calling the JayBar3000.
I finally shot and edited this video that goes over some of the shooting techniques for the Jaybilizer 3000 , my homemade “Steadicam Merlin-type” camera stabilizer. The techniques include orbiting shots, tracking shots, low angle tracking shots, flying Shots and crane shots. I shot most of the video with a Canon HV30 on the Jaybilizer 3000 with some additional hand-held footage shot by Rob Martin with a Sony EX1.
Credits: Credits: Thanks to Rob Martin for the excellent EX1 handheld shots
Special Thanks to StickerGiant for the cool Jaybilizer 3000 stickers stickergiant.com/
Special thanks to Jeru at Jag35 for the Jag35 DOF Adapter jag35.com/
Find out More about the Jaybilizer 3000 jayshaffervideo.com/products/
I demonstrate a DIY mirror LCD shade for the Canon HV30 to “flip” the image so that it appears upright when using a Jag35 DOF adapter. It should be noted that the mage is only corrected as far as being upright, the image is still “flipped” left to right. This can make panning difficult, but for static shots I find it an acceptable solution.
If you’re reading this article you probably are aware that shooting HD video with DSLRs is all the rage among digital filmmakers. There are far more reasons to shoot this way than not, but one of the problems with DSLRs are their sound recording capabilities. THe Canon 5D Mk2, the Canon 7D and the Panasonic GH1 have external microphone inputs but unfortunately these use auto gain control and have no manual control over input levels. Also these cameras don’t have headphone monitoring. 
