CineSkates Camera Sliders - Roller Skates for Your GorillaPod

Here's the video to a very interesting project by Justin Jensen, a mechanical engineer from Austin, TX. Definitely the best idea I saw since a long time ago - roller skates for a GorillaPod. What I like most is the fact that you don't need to buy an extra slider and carry around tons of equipment with you. This product is super simple, small and as it works with 3 wheels instead of 4 you can roll over bent surfaces, too!


Definitely something you should support. So please visit this site for more information.

Cheers,
jonni

Technicolor CineStyle™ Picture Style (profile) for Canon DSLRs - free download

To download the Technicolor CineStyle profile for your Canon DSLR check the link below. If you don't know what this is good for check the other link which will redirect you to Philip Bloom's website with some comparison screen shots and more information. Basically this profile increases the dynamic range of your camera which will give you much more possibilities in post production. A must have if you're filming with your DLSR.

download link

link to Mr. Bloom's post

Here's a litte demo video that I found on vimeo which demonstrates how the new picture style increases the dynamic range of your DSLR. I think it works pretty well, but check it by yourself.

Another Canon 550D No Budget Low Light Music Video (Bruno Mars' Grenade - Live Acoustic Cover Version)

Here's another video that I shot on the Canon 550D. It was a spontaneous shoot at midnight so I had no tripod, steadycam or rig with me. It was all shot handheld so there's a lot of camera shake in the clip. I did only have one Z96 LED video light to light the scene. Faces are overexposed everything else underexposed, but it was a just for fun shoot, so who cares. The camera was set to 1080 24p, ISO 3200, WB=5200K, flat custom picture style based on the neutral setting. It was all shot with the cheap 50mm lens. There were also some scenes that I shot with the kit lens, but I'm not sure if they ended up in the final clip. Audio was recorded on the Zoom H1 audiorecorder which was places in front of the band. It had a windjammer on it but the level was set to high so sound quality isn't as good as it should be. I edited this video over night and did some color correction with the famous Magic Bullet plugin.

I hope you enjoy the clip. Don't expect too much cinematography, just enjoy the music. If you have any questions concerning the shoot feel free to post a comment.

Cheers,
jonni

Lia74 feat. Kiddo - Be Friends (official music video, shot on a Canon 550D / T2i)

This is my first little music video. Entirely shot on a single Canon 550D. It was very cold when I shot the clip, but the camera performed very well. I used some aftermarked batteries and had no energy problems at all. The lenses I used to shoot this: Canon 18-55mm 3.5-5.6, Canon 50mm 1.8, Beroflex 28mm 2.8. To light up the faces I used my Z96 led light and a silver reflector in some shots. But since I didn't have assistants all the time (Thanks for your help, Marko), I couldn't use the reflector in all shots. So in some shots I had to light the faces up in post. My Capa viewfinder was foggy all the time, but it did it's job. I also used my DIY steadycam in some shots, but since there are so many cuts, you can't see that very well.

Feel free to ask anything you want and please comment and share this.

And please visit amazon and iTunes to support the artists.

By the way, here's a flickr photostream with some screenshots.

Merry Christmas to all of you,
jonni

Magic Lantern firmware for the Canon T2i / 550D and 60D

If you're shooting video with your Canon 550D or 60D you should definitely check out the Magic Lantern firmware. It will give you much more possibilities to adjust the settings on your camera.

I installed it today and it really blew me away! It is great!

What i liked most:
- turning off the AGC
- on screen audio meters
- live view zebras !
- on screen cropmarks
- built in intervalometer for shooting timelapses !
- custom (native) ISO steps !!!
- custom shutter speeds !!!
- kelvin white balance !!!
- DOF "meters"
- higher bitrates !!!

These are all the features that I missed on this camera (but there are many more). So if you're interested in "tuning" your 550D or 60D check http://magiclantern.wikia.com - and please consider a donation if you like it.

Here's a nice video by Matt Dennie that demonstrates what the new firmware looks like:




My rating 5/5.

Cheers,
jonni

jonni's DIY steadycam - assembly video

Here's the assembly video for my DIY steadycam. Check this post for more infos.



Cheers,
jonni

jonni's DIY steadycam

If you don't know what a steadycam / steadicam is good for, I'll try to explain it in a few words. When shooting video one of the most important factors is the stabilization of your camera. If you don't do it right, your footage will look shaky - and this is what we really want to avoid (in most cases).

You'll find yourself in situations when it's absolutely not possible to use a tripod. Even if some lenses do have build in image stabilization, they can't compensate the shaking that you'll get while walking or running around with your camera. So when you are filming while walking around and it's not possible to use a slider or track dolly you'll need another kind of mechanical stabilazation.

There are different steadycam models on the market. I think that most of them are really good, the only problem is their price. So if you have some time and the right tools you can try to build your own model.

This is my DIY steadycam:

My main goal was to built a steadycam for DSLRs that is as small as possible, fully adjustible, lightweight but still very strong. As you can see in the image above it is adjustible just like all the other models. But there are some more facts that I would like to point out. I used a high quality universal joint which is very agile and therefore the movement is compensated very effective. The handle is very soft and big which makes it possible to carry this thing around a while. The steadycam is made out of aluminum and therefore it's very lightweight. The weights are made out of brass. It is possible to loosen and tighten all the screws without any additional tools. This makes it possible to make quick adjustments when changing lenses or adding other equipment. It can carry my 550D wit a LED video light or other DSLRs with medium sized lenses easily. The first test runs went pretty well - I will upload a video as soon as the sun comes out.

The parts have just been painted black and are still drying - I think this thing will have a really professional look.

Hope you like it. Feel free to ask anything you want if you have some questions.

Cheers,
jonni

Canon 550D on the Delkin Fat Gecko mount

As a big fan of cool camera angles I had to try mounting the 550D to my car and shoot some clips while driving around.



There are many products on the market which make it possible to mount your camera to a car, bike, door or whatever. But after comparing all these products on the web I had to get the Delkin Fat Gecko. It is a really solid, small, cheap and reliable product. I got mine for 70 Euros which is about $90.

Here's a video of the Delkin Fat Gecko. I thinks it shows pretty well how strong this mount is (you don't have to understand the words, don't worry):



The build quality is almost perfect. I didn't expect to get a product with this quality when I ordered the Fat Gecko. It's pretty heavy but the adjustment screws keep everything in place all the time.

I tested it with my 550D, the 18-55 kit lens and a lens hood. The suction cups do their job very well. In the beginning I was sceptical and afraid that the mount could get loose, but after a few minutes I knew that there's really no reason to be afraid when using the Fat Gecko. You only have to make sure that your mounting surface is smooth and clean.

The only thing I have to test is if it works better with IS turned on or off. The clip above was shot with IS on all the time. But I tested it with IS off, too. Have to compare the shots.


My rating - go and get it. 5/5.

arigato gozaimasu,
jonni

Full Version of "The Bridge" by Marlon Torres

I just came along the very inspiring full version of "The Bridge" by Marlon Torres - and i HAD to share it! This was entirely shot on Canon 7D and 5DMKII DSLR cameras!

Check this link for more information.

Enjoy!

Favorite DSLR video sites

Just added some great DSLR related sites to my feed reader (after I deleted a lot of other sites) and wanted to share my favorite ones with you.

the site that let me fall in love with DSLR videos:

vimeo.com

the guy that made me buy a Canon:

philipbloom.net

the site that shows the greatest equipment:

cheesycam.com

other great sites:

learningdslrvideo.com

nofilmschool.com

chasejarvis.com

hurlbutvisuals.com/blog

ninofilm.net/blog

tomguilmette.com/wp

canon5dtips.com

digital-photography-school.com

dslrhd.com

visualrebel.com

eos550d.com

cinema5d.com

planet5d.com

hdslrshooter.com

dslrnewsshooter.com

dslrvideoshooter.com

prolost.com

canonfilmmakers.com

mydslrshow.com

nextwavedv.com

my little site:

jonnionhd.com

Hope you'll take a look at these sites. Let me know if I missed a good one.

Cheers,
jonni

How to achieve shallow depth of field when shooting video with your DSLR in bright sunlight

Shooting video in bright sunlight makes it almost impossible to achieve a cinematic look with a shallow depth of field. If you don't put a ND filter in front of your wide open lens when shooting video at a slow shutter speed the image will get to bright (overexposed). To avoid this you can choose higher f-stop values which will brighten down the image but also destroy your shallow depth of field as you can see in the stills below.

So if you want to shoot videos with a shallow depth of field at slower shutter speeds (which you definitely should do) you have to use ND filters or a ND fader when the lighting is to bright. If you don't want to change filters all the time get a ND fader - it works really great for shooting videos and adjusting it is also really easy and fast. Here are two videos to show the difference when shooting video with a ND fader and without one in bright sunlight.

H&Y Fader ND - a short review

I got a comment that the "H&Y Fader ND" is an imitation from the "Light Craft Workshop fader". To be honest, I have no clue which one is the original, but I think it's the "Singh Ray Vari ND" because this is the most expensive. I read Phillip Boom's post on these faders (this is the post) and decided to get the cheap one. I paid $79,19 (=64,42€, ebay seller "anne14389", shipping took 2 weeks to Germany) for my 72mm sized filter. I think this prize is unbeatable. But as I said before, I don't know if this is a genuine filter. 
 
Here's a sample video of the H&Y Fader ND on my Canon 550D with a EF 50mm 1.8 II lens. The setting was 1080, 24p, 1/50s, f/1.8, ISO100 and I twisted the fader from it's minimum to the 8th stroke (the maximum is on the 10th). It was really really bright when I shot the video. I had to choose f/20.0 to get the same image without the fader. By the way, the colors are flat because of my camera setting.



The thread on the outer side (e.g. for a lens hood) is 77mm. Build quality is really good (metal and glass) and the box it comes with is also really nice. Only negative thing so far: it doesn't come with a lens cap so you have to get one seperately. I ordered one for 5,98€ on ebay. I also ordered a 3 way rubber lens hood for 4,45€ to avoid lens flares and to protect the fader.

I will use this fader with my EF-S 18-55mm kit lens and with my EF 50mm prime lens. The kit lens has a 58mm filter thread, the 50mm prime has a 52mm thread. So I ordered 2 stepping rings (each one less than $2 on ebay) which make it possible to thread the Fader ND to these lenses. I decided to buy a bigger fader because I want to use it with lenses I will get in the future, too.

What are these faders used for? They make it possible to darken the image like normal ND filters. The only difference is that you can adjust the density of the filter (range from ND2 up to ND400 with this fader). This makes it possible to shoot videos with a wide open lens in bright sunlight without changing the shutter speed. Another nice thing that you can do with these faders is to take a long exposure picture in bright sunlight without getting it overexposed. This is a nice technique to shoot a sight on a crowded place if you don't have the chance to shoot it without people in front of it - the people will be blurred and you can see the whole sight. Another thing that many people do with this type of filter is to shoot water with longer exposures to make it look smooth. 

What can I say about the optical quality? I think it's great. Colors are nice and I can't see any distortion or vignetting at all. Only when I twist the fader over it's maximum - but this is not what it is supposed to do. I will use this filter for shooting videos primarily, but it also works nice for taking photos. 

If you want a really cheap Fader, get this one. Maybe the more expensive faders will give you even better quality, but the price-performance ratio of the H&Y fader is excellent for people on a very tight budget. My rating: 5/5.


Cheers,
jonni

Shooting videos with your DSLR - pt. I - basics & lenses

1st things 1st. Before you decide which lens to buy, you have to understand what the lens descriptions mean and what influence they have on your video. In this post, I'll try to explain the basics - for more information check wikipeda.org

The focal length of a lens tells you how much of the scene can be captured from a specific position. It's much easier to explain this with some still images, so here you go.

This is the same scene shot with different focal lengths from the same position. As you can see, the image gets wider with a smaller focal length. Extreme wide angle lenses are called fisheye lenses. It's possible to shoot extreme perspectives with this type of lenses, but they will also give you a lot of distortion (as seen in skateboard videos), which you have to be aware of. So you'll definitely need a wide angle lens (18mm or less) for shooting big objects (e.g. buildings) from a position that is close to the object. Lenses with focal lengths around 50-85mm are great for shooting portraits of people because you don't have to be too close to the person. Lenses with focal lengths above 85mm are called tele lenses and are used to capture things that are far away from the shooting location. If you own a camera with and APS sensor like the Canon 550D be aware of it's crop factor (1.6). A 50mm EF lens on a 550D or 7D will give you an image like a 80mm lens on a 5DMKII (EF-S lenses are designed for cameras with APS sensors, so you don't have to calculate with the crop factor)! Lenses like the Canon EF-S 18-55 are so called zoom lenses because they offer a range from 18 up to 55 (which is 29-88mm equivalent on a crop sensor). These are nice lenses if you like to shoot videos without carrying a lot of stuff with you or if you don't like to change lenses all the time, BUT prime lenses (lenses with a fixed focal length) are much better when it comes to image quality. Also keep this in mind: zooming during your video will look crappy, so don't buy too much zoom lenses if you want to shoot videos with your DSLR.

Prime lenses do often have better aperture (f-stop) values than zoom lenses which makes them much better when it comes to shooting video under low light conditions. Larger (wider) apertures mean the the lenses have bigger openings for the light to fall into them, which makes them faster because they don't need as much time as lenses with smaller apertures to capture the same shot. Fast lenses do have smaller f-stop numbers like f/1.2 f/1.4 or f/1.8 (the aperture gets smaller (more narrow) and the lens gets slower with increasing f-numbers). Here's a video to demonstrate the effect of the aperture to the image under low light conditions.



As you can see in the video above, a fast lens is much more capable for shooting video than a slower lens. But you have to be aware of the fact that your image will get a very shallow depth of field (only a thin area of your shot is in focus/sharp) with a fast lens that is wide open (big aperture). Check the following pictures to see the effect of the f-stop values to the depth of field of a still image.

Smaller f-stops will result in a very shallow depth of field. This means that the background and foreground of your shot will look very blurred. A lot of people like this effect and in fact shots with a shallow depth of field look very cinematic. If you don't want your video to have a shallow depth of fiel when shooting in low light, you'll have to choose a higher f-number and turn up the ISO. As you can see in the video below, the aperture stays the same and the image gets brighter (but also much noisier) with higher ISO values.



But there's one important thing you have to concider when shooting videos with a fast lens in bright sunlight: because the lens is so fast you will have to set a very quick exposure time for your videos if you don't want them to get overexposed (to bright). But short exposure times will result in a clipped video which is terrible (exposure time should be twice the frame rate to result in a smooth video - I set it to 1/50s in most cases). To avoid this problem you can close you lens (narrow aperture) which will result in a deep depth of field (everything in focus) or attach a ND filter to brighten down the image and make longer exposure times possible. I reccomend the last option because it makes it possible to shoot with a wide open lens in bright sunlight without changing the exposure time of your video. I will show you the effect of ND filters on videos in a seperate post with my new Fader ND.

Do you need image stabilization (IS) in a lens? For handheld shots without a steadycam or rig - yes. If you shoot from a tripod - no. This depends on what you're shooting and how much you want to spend. An IS lens is definitely better (you can turn IS off when you don't need it) but also much more expensive. If you're on a very tight budget and you don't need IS you can keep your eyes open for old M42 lenses and adapt them to your DSLR. I will post a video with a M42 vs. Canon EF comparison soon. What you definitely don't need for shooting videos is a lens with ultra fast focusing (e.g. USM) because you will have to focus manually (autofocus and video? No.)!


So this is what I recommend to put on your shopping list if you want to shoot videos with your DSLR:
- fast prime lenses (f/1.8 or faster!) and some ND filters or a ND fader.
- next thing should be a wide angle lens or a zoom which starts at a short focal length (18mm or shorter).
- what you need when filming animals or other objects that are far away: a tele lens.
- the most important thing: go for primes if you have the money to buy more lenses because they are faster and sharper than zoom lenses.

If you're shooting skateboarding / bmx / ... videos and don't want to spend too much:
- go for a fisheye lens or a zoom lens which starts at a short focal length.
- if this is to expensive screw a cheap fisheye lens to your kit lens (will give you some distortion but who cares).

If you want to have only one lens for shooting video and photos with:
- I feel sorry, but that won't be possible. I would buy a zoom lens like the Sigma 18-200 and a cheap
- fast prime lens like the Canon EF 50mm 1.8 for low light videos.


What do you think? Which cheap lenses are the best for shooting videos with? If you have any tips write a comment below.

Cheers,
jonni

The DSLR Cinematography Guide

If you're new to DSLR cinematography, check out this article. It's very helpful and teaches you all the basics for shooting videos with an DSLR as well as a lot of stuff you would have never thought of could be relevant.

If you like it consider a donation - you'll get rewarded with a printable pdf version. My rating: 5/5.

Cheers,
jonni