Another quick post to spread the joy! Most of you don't know it but I'm about to graduate from a film school this summer. Of course to do this I need a movie. I've written a script titled: "Edipo's Dream", but it still needs a lot of polishing, it has however already caught an eye of a famous Polish Actor - Witold Dębicki!
There is still a lot work and I would have to wrap whole shooting around Witold's free time but I'm really excited about it anyway!
For those of you who live out of Poland: Witold is a cult polish actor and working with him would be a real honour. If you want to know more about him check Witold Debicki's profile at IMDB.
Needless to say I'm gonna shoot the flick with 7D! I will share more (but not all of it) about Edipo's Dream soon. I think it would also be a great occasion to share a few thought's about working on scripts.
In fact I shoot some cool videos lately and I will post them as soon as my new editing stations will arrive and I would be find some time to configure it, which should be some time in a middle of a next week.
Just a quick post today. I took my 7D on a clubbing tour this weekend. I was a bit scared as my backpack with all the equipment in it cost me a small fortune. More then my car is worth - that's for sure! But I just could not resit and I knew that I have to be able to take it anywhere without fear. Otherwise what is the point of having it? Next year I intend to make a documentary with it in Sierra Leone, but that's a whole other story that I will write about some time later.
So if you want to know how it records in really low light - check this movie. How bright it was? Think: a pub.
Quite nice isn't it? It was shot with my all favorite lens right now - 17-55mm IS USM 2.8.
But still a pub is not that dark, right? How will it do in a totally dark place - like an underground club dance floor?
Let's see! Same lens. Wide open.
Not bad, right? Of course let's not judge my skills:) Oh! I forgot to mention that I was using Z-finder and Rapid Fire all that time, but a deeper review of this stuff I will post some time later, when my new editing PC will arrive. Right now I have no patience to even render this clips properly. My iMac is pretty old so I does not have enough power to do this.
I'm really happy to announce that my Zacuto package is here! It was a really pleasant surprise, as I was not expecting it until tomorrow and there was a chance that it will be delivered on Monday and that would really suck.
My first impression after opening a package was: Oh my... this stuff does not look like it is worth a 1000$, but hey at least they gave me a freebie - a baseball cup with Zacuto logo.
I ordered everything at German Zacuto partner - BPM GmbH. I must say that their client service was superb! Thank you Edith! And really thanks for this hat! A great surprise!
So - what I bought?
First of all a famous Z-finder V2, advertised as an absolute necessity for DSLR video shooting. It looks like this:
Basically it is a magnifying glass that you attach to your camera's built in lcd to make manual focusing easier. I've checked it quickly and it seems to be a really interesting solution. How good? We will see this weekend, because right now the mounting frame for it is being attached.
How do you attach? Well - you just have to place it carefully around LCD an the apply some pressure. It takes 24 hours fot glue to become solid, so I can' t use my camera. Bummer. I can't take a photo so I will use one from Philip Bloom's site.
If you read this Philip: please don't get mad! I just need to show my possible readers how does it look.
If you read this and you don't know who Philip Bloom is please visit his website. It is a great place that every DSLR movie maker should now. It is a holy ground full of great knowledge! Visit it often! Maybe thanks to this Philip will not sue me for using his picture.
The second thing I bought are Z-bands - a small accessory for Z-finder that lets you make sure Z-finder will stay in place.
Will this be useful? I don't know! We will see.
Last but not least I bought a Rapid Fire - a rig that should help a lot with 7D's stabilization. This is the piece of equipment that especially does not look like it should cost so much. It is 550$ and it looks like just two metal pipes with a handle!
Well we will see whether it was worth that kind of money. I will let you know. Even if not... well at least I have a 1000$ worth Z-hat! :)
But seriously all this stuff looks cool and users reviews are great so I think I will have a really nice weekend testing it!
So, as promised I will write about a first thing I checked once my 7D was here. Is DOF shallow enough?
I really wanted it to be! So lets check it out.
SETTING
I decided to use dices to mark distance. Our object - a silver key - is our reference point.
First white dice in one centimeter behind the key. Second - with two dots is 2 cm behind the key and obviously 1 cm behind firts dice with one dot. The distance between the key and each white dice is marked by amount of dots.
Two red dices are 15 cm behind the key - one dot and five dots - simple right?
A book I'm reading now is 50 cm behind the key.
NON METRIC?
If you don't use metric system, then please know that 1cm = +- 0.4 inch, so 15 cm (red dices) are more or less half a feet away from the key, and the book is nearly 20 inches away.
QUESTION?
Can you guess what I read?
TEST 1
Let's use Canon EF-S 17-55mm 2.8 IS USM lens. I believe it is the best EF-S lens Canon made so far. I really like it and it is my favorite lens since I bought it yesterday. It costs around 1000$. That is 3300PLN if you live in Poland.
Important shopping tip: Never ever shop in your local store or any kind of media market. They tell you that they are cheap. Well... they lie! Especially big media markets. Go online and use some price comparison engine - you can really save a lot of money this way.
Ok - lets see a movie! Aperture wide open at 2.8. Focal length is 55mm. Watch in Full HD or at least 720 and make it full screen.
As you could see - a total range of sharpness is about 1cm (0.4") forward and backward. That gives us a 2 cm (0.8") wide DOF. Not bad, ha? Once we got to the red dices - nothing in the front was recognizable!
Also I have to say that manual focus ring is very comfortable on this lens - it's big and well placed - close to the camera's body. Really nice.
By the way - you could not recognize the title of the book, right?
TEST 2
But I can't spend a 1000$ on a lens! Sure - I would never spend that amount of money when I was starting my photography adventure. So let's try some cheaper glass. Let's say: EF 50mm 1.8
It cost 10 times less then the previous one - 100$ or 330PLN. Not very expensive.
Let's see a movie, but before we will let me say this: Buying photo equipment is like buying drugs. The longer you do it, the more yo need. One day you will buy 1000$ lenses! For sure. It is only a matter of time. Ok, you've been warned.
Apperture wide open at 1.8. Focal length 50mm.
As you could see with aperture at 1.8 DOF is even narrower. I would say it is 0.5 cm (0.2") forward and backward. That is 1 cm (0.4") total DOF! Neat.
Of course you must have noticed that a whole video was much more shaky. That's because this lens is much lighter. Light is bad. Memorize it. You want your equipment to be heavy! Why? More stable shooting and of course heavy gear is much cooler when you hand it to your friend:)
The problem with this lens is also this that it has a focus ring far upfront, like most lenses do. Bummer. But for this price? It's ok and with half a decent tripod you should have it stabilized enough to follow focus nicely.
And of course you have not recognized what am I reading!
TEST 3
Ok. But what if you don't want to buy an additional lens? What if you want to go with a 7D KIT lens? Well I don't own it but I have an old EOS 500N KIT lens. It is 28-80mm 3.5-5.6.
With focal length 50mm it has an apperture open to 4.5. It should be somehow similar in terms of DOF to this new 7D KITs. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Here we go.
Ok. Now we now know why KIT lenses are called that ugly. I don't know what KIT originally stands for but kit is a polish word for something rubbish or an obvious lie - like bullshit. I think you will agree with me that DOF with KIT lens is... well. Not so good.
It is obviously at least 2 cm (0.8") each way. 4 cm (1.6") total. And by the time we got to red dices you could have read the author's name on the cover. Then I showed it to you fully as the fun was over either way.
Yes - it was Hunter Thompson's Rum Diary! Good book I must say. I intend to finish it by the end of a week. Maybe I will drop a line about it.
CONCLUSION
So? Is DOF od 7D nice? Yes it is, especially if you pick a right lens. And with all this money you can save buying 7D instead of 5D you can get this fine 17-55 2.8 IS USM lens from TEST 1. That's what I did.
But well honestly - even with some straight awful KIT DOF is still not so bad. Remember that when you make a movie a few cm each way is not that much. You can always tell your actor to take a step or two away from the background. In my opinion a 5D DOF is not something you would miss.
7D is a winner!
Next test coming soon. What will it be about? I was told that my Rapid Fire and Z-finder are going to be delivered to me by the weekend. :)
Sooooo.... probably no one is reading but still: Hello World!
OK, I'm starting a new blog today. It's a first time I ever created one, so please be gentle with me, ok? What is 7Directing going to be about? Where the idea came from?
Recently I got my hands on some money (god bless European Union grants) and wanted to buy a video camera that would let me make some indie movies and commercial work as well. Soon I discovered that the best quality gear I can get with this money is one of Canon's DSLR still cameras.
And then it has began! I spend 4 weeks of intense research wondering whether to buy a 7D or 5D. Booth choices had various pros and cons. About a lot of them you van read at Philip Bloom's blog, whom I would like to thank for answering a lot of my questions on his QA page. I've visited hundreds of website pursuing other answers. I found a lot of information. Often misleading and contradicting. New questions seemed to appear with every step I took into this world
Should I go with 5D extreme DOF? Should I choose 7D with it's 25 and 50p modes? What's up with this crop factor? What kind of equipment should you get with it? Which lenses? Yeah - ok L-series lenses, but what if I don't have like a bazillion dollars? Is overheating an issue? Can you shoot scenes from handheld? Will these be watchable? Low light performance? Do you need an external mic? Is Zacuto equipment worth the price you have to pay for it? Can't some people answer simple questions without a ton of mumbo-jumbo technical jargon? Why there is no simple DSLR video tutorial written in English anywhere? What about picture styles?
In the end I bought a 7D, that have just landed in my hands! Oh, yeah! But there are still questions - whether it will be a really satisfying choice? We will see!
A bit later today I will write and post first video about 7D's DOF. This was one of my biggest concerns. Is it shallow enough? Keep reading!
Cheers!
PJM
P.S. You can also count on some scriptwriting and directing tips in the future. I'm no expert - I will graduate from film school in June 2010 (hopefully) or October 2010 (a more realistic deadline) - but even though I think can provide some good advices for beginners.
P.P.S. I think my English is pretty good, especially combined with a spell-checker :) , but I'm no expert by any means, so please let me know if my writing is hideously non-grammatical or something like that!
