Jay Shaffer Video

If you are a Canon 5Dmk2 fanboy you may want to shut your eyes. The lowly Panasonic GH1 just got supercharged with a firmware hack that makes a great HDSLR video camera even better. Here is my list of things that make the GH1 a better video camera than the 5D. First let’s take a look at the 800-pound gorilla in the room, The Canon has a full frame 35mm sensor, therefore, there is no crop factor when using 35mm lenses. Canon’s full size sensor is 4 times the size of the 4/3rds sensor in the GH1, which also means that the Canon must compress 4 time the data for the same bandwidth, all thing being equal (which they are not.) Supposedly the 5D is writing data at 35Mbs, compared to the (stock) 17Mbs of the GH1, which means that it’s still throwing away half again as much data as the GH1 (4 time the sensor and only twice as much data as the GH1).

But the GH1 has a secret, with the Ptools firmware hack from Tester13, the GH1 can shoot true 1080P 24fps with no pulldown at 50Mbs. And since both cameras use h.264 compression, with the software hack, the GH1 is compressing the data from its sensor far less.

But there’s more, the GH1 hack also enables the 1080P mode using MJPEG compression at 100Mbs for short shots. While this setting is kind of like using nitrous and it’s really pushing the limits of the camera, it is a real boon if you want to get the highest quality video possible. The advantage that motion JPEG has over h.264 is that it only uses spatial compression instead of the temporal and spatial compression of h.264. This means prettier pictures. His holiness, Phillip Bloom posted a great blog post on what the firmware hack brings to the GH1 which you can read on his blog.
I’ll admit that image quality is close enough between these two cameras that the 5D might win if that were the only issue. But the GH1 is a far more usable camera than the 5D, First off, for shooting video you can’t beat the fold out LCD screen on the GH1. It’s just better than the Live View screen on the 5D, period, even with a Z-finder. Second, the GH1 has continuous auto focus when using the kit lens. With 5D in live mode, you are stuck with whatever focus you had when you started recording. Thirdly, even un-hacked the GH1 can shoot 30fps 1/2 speed slow motion. You just shoot at 60fps 720p and play back the footage at 30fps, no frame blending or doubling, just plain good old fashioned over-cranking.
Okay, Let’s talk about glass. The 5D still uses an optical viewfinder, which means it has a pentaprism and a mirror, which it must flip up to take video, which, of course, makes the optical viewfinder unusable. This arrangement also means that the Canon has a deep flange distance. the flange is the measurement from the back of the lens to the surface of the sensor. Traditional film and video lenses have a short flange distance and don’t work well with 35mm SLR bodies. The GH1 has no optical viewfinder and therefore has a very short flange distance, which means it can use practically any 35mm SLR, video or film lens that someone is willing to make a adapter for. There is even a PL mount adapter that cost as much as the GH1, so that you can use cine lenses that cost 100 times as much the GH1. I use all my old Canon FD SLR lens as well as some Minolta, Olympus, and16mm film lenses and even cheap CCTV lens with my GH1.
Finally, let’s take a look at the form factor. The 5D is big and relatively heavy DSLR. Great if you’re trying to impress other photographers or the bridesmaids at a wedding shoot, not so good if you’re actually trying to shoot steady handheld video. The GH1 is lighter, smaller, more balanced and just plain easier to handle.
I won’t argue that the Canon 5DMK2 is a great still camera, and better than the GH1. But when it comes to real world video shooting and video quality, 5D, you’ve been served!

Due to the weight and high center of gravity of the 5Dmk2 and the 7D, these cameras do not work well with the Jaybilizer 3000. I did offer a 5D modified version, but I am not happy with the design, as it is too heavy to use for extended shooting. I have discontinued the 5D modified version. I have a working prototype design which is lighter and easier to balance the Canon DSLRS.
I will have a new Jaybilizer HDSLR model available as soon as I get some parts from the machine shop and stickers from the printer. I also have to make a how to balance video and set up the e-commerce site.
Thanks for your patience and I am very excited about the new model.

Panasonic GH1 Jaybilizer3000 torture test from Jay Shaffer on Vimeo.

Testing the GH1 on my DIY Merlin-type camera stabilizer (the Jaybilizer3000 jaybilizer.com )
This is kinda a worse case scenario, I was testing for rolling shutter with rapid side to side movement and to see how 24fps looked when moving quickly on a stabilizer also I wanted to see how smooth the camera was on the stabilizer. Obviously for real production footage I would have slowed down my motion to smooth out the 24p.

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.

Beat Back The Attack from Jay Shaffer on Vimeo.

This is a 60 sec. PSA for the college I teach at. It promotes the use of hand sanitizer to prevent flu infection.
It was shot in one class period using an Canon HV30 camcorder. I also used a Jag35 DOF adapter for several shots and shot all but two shots using the Jaybilizer3000 camera stabilizer.
Post was in FCP I only used the three-way color corrector and vignetted shots to match the DOF footage.

Credits:
A film by Jay Shaffer
Asst. director: Gavin Townsend
Uninfected Student: Tim Brazzell
Infected Students:
Matthew Cooper
Daniel Davenport
Susan Glarion
Brett Hughes
Roldan Melcon
Andrew Parkins
Nicholas Ramirez

These are the first test shots using the HZ10W. Shooting in the 720P mode at 30FPS. This is somewhat of a contrast torture test, shooting from shade to extreme sunlight, and the Camera did pretty much as expected the highlights are blown out and this camera seems to be exceptionally noisy in the shadows. That said, I still like the image better than the Lumix TZ5, the JPEG artifacting and the CCD Flaring was unacceptable on the TZ5 and is why I traded to the HZ10. Another reason is the wider angle lens on the HZ10.
I’ll get some better video posted as soon as I get more familiar with the camera.

Samsung HZ10W WB500 Test from Jay Shaffer on Vimeo.

This is my first test movie using the Jag35e DOF adapter on a HV30 with a Canon FD 50mm F1.8 at F1.8. It was Shot in 24FPS 1080 in Cine exposure mode. I had a real tough time with the vignetting and the HV30 would not focus the DOF adapter other than very slightly zoomed in. also it was difficult to pull sharp focus in the inverted viewfinder. The footage was digitized using FCP’s HDV to Prorez import setting, and then converted to 24P in Compressor. The clip[s were then pan and scanned to 150% to mitigate the vignetting and graded in Final Cut. It was output to Quicktime at 24 Fps using the H264 codec at 1440X1080 at 1394 Kbs.

Bokeh Flowers from Jay Shaffer on Vimeo.

I just posted this week’s Sticker Giant TV, OrbSwarm, Collared Greens and South Park Stickers: