Simple resolution test of the Sony F3.

This is a shot of a standard lens resolution chart.  It measures the resolution of lenses in lines per millimeter on the film plane.

This is from the XDcam on board Codec. ISO800, with a Cooke iPanchro 50mm @ T5.6, 180 degree shutter. Cine like 1 Gamma.

The formula of Lens millimeters x 60 = Focal plane distance was used.   Which came out to 9'10" and 1/4 inch from the chart to the sensor.

As you can see, the camera will alias at hyper fine detail.  However, we are talking line pairs that start reaching the resolving power of the 1080p format.  This camera is sharp.  It resolves cleanly 31 lines per millimeter on the sensor itself. This is good for an HD camera.  This chart is used to test lens sharpness, but since we know the lens will out resolve the sensor, its nice to see where the sensor hits its peak, and what happened when we go beyond.  This isn't measuring numerically what the camera resolves, but what happens to the fine detail its pointed at.

It will however alias blue, as you can see.  None of this is disappointing as its happening at a difficult to encounter frequency.  Perhaps only in the widest deep focus shots of city scape will you encounter straight lines that have such a tight frequency.

I DID NOT EMBED THE VIDEO FOR A REASON!!!!
Download the source file on the Vimeo page.  Its uncompressed QT 1080p straight from the timeline, about 1.5 seconds worth that you can loop to see whats really going on on your home NLE. The link to the Video file.

Click Here: http://vimeo.com/20314787

I shot the test chat with some flags to create shadows, so you can see what the shadows look like on the XD cam.

More detialed tests coming.

Sony F3 - Preliminary Tests

My DIT/Colorist friend Tom Wong, and DP's Khalid Mohtaseb, Jon Bregel and I took the time to run the F3 through some simple preliminary tests.  This test was more or less for Tom to see the noise floor and clipping points of the Sony F3.

This is verbatim his thoughts.  Once he supplies me with some visuals i will post them up.

"initial findings with the f3, not entirely scientific but gets the point across.

the camera is primed for these iso's

280

400

800

1100

1600

3200

initial tests we had time for and attempts.

used my mac pro with decklink card to do uncompressed quicktime capture at 422 10 bit for the best quality the camera can output right now. 

f3 with panchro 75mm

subject was in front of a window, we shot 2 shots at each iso, one where we severely underexpose the subject by almost 8 stops to see how much detail stayed in. another by 4 stops where detail would definitely be there but we can assess what functional working iso's would be chosen as the work horse iso's. IE, how much we can crank the iso's before we deem it unusable. 

under exposing by 8 stops at all iso's had clipped the blacks and there was no detail to dig up. but the findings with noise were consistent with the 4 stops under exposed. 

280 iso

the truly clean iso. you can dig deep in the shadows, and can pull it up really hard and find little to no noise. on a normal working color grade, I probably wouldn't bring up any noise at all doing several contrast expansions across the board. and i typically pull up and crush down blacks on various areas of the shot a minimum of 2-3 times on shots to really fine tune the image. 

of course there will be noise when you jam up the gain in post, but that just makes it unusable all together because it's milked out and ugly. i would recommend this iso setting for interior lighting if you have the lights for it, studio work, green screen, vfx in general. basically when you have to or want it to be the best image possible. a lot of cameras hide their noise in the blacks even at low iso's and fool the user thinking it's a clean signal, but in this case that doesn't happen.

400 iso

the "work horse" iso I would like to call it for interior and exterior work. This is probably the true sweet spot of the camera, I need to assess the dynamic range more, but I'll need a step chart for that. but i find that though there is just a hair thin line of noise, it is unnoticeable to the naked eye, and you'd truly have to pixel peep and push the image in post hard to bring up the noise. in a typical grading session, this would be the iso that can give production a easier day, and post production plenty of room to work with to manipulate and fine tune the image. 

800 iso

this is where the noise starts to creep in, and again it's is highly tolerable at this ISO, i wouldn't say it's clean at this iso. but it looks very good. i wouldn't push the blacks up as hard as I would as 400 in his iso, but it is a workable iso for exterior lower lit situations where you need to gain the exposure. interior too when push comes to shove. but even if the image in post had to be pushed a little hard and the image got noised up a bit, a light denoise plugin like neat video will clean the whole thing up perfectly. 

1100 iso

i would deem this the emergency iso. noise is here, it's not awful, it's not a lot. but it's there, you see the speckles, and it's lightly layered in there. you don't have to look hard for it, but it's one of those things you can live with easily. this is if you are really in a jam, and production isn't doing something right... 

1600 iso

again it's not awful, but you see solid noise in this case. a simple crushing of blacks, maybe neat video will get rid of almost all of it. I personally wouldn't shoot on this iso, but i can see a lot of people finding it absolutely usable according to your tolerance to noise. as a colorist and DIT, i wouldn't recommend it just because it doesn't meet my personal tolerance. 

3200 iso

yes, there is noise, and we are back to, it's not awful. if this was a 5d at 3200 iso, there would be banding, tons of colored noise polluting the image, absolutely unusable. even straight out of camera 3200 iso on the f3 could easily pass broadcast standards in noise levels. I personally find this iso to be unusable, for most people's standards, but the image doesn't fall apart, it's not completely polluted. it's one of those, you want to avoid shooting at this, there's probably no reason ever you should be shooting at 3200 unless you are in a dimly lit club or whatever, but still if you have to use it it's not a unusable shot. denoise, clean up work in the grade, you can get something decent out of it. 

other findings

we also did a sxs record while doing the computer uncompressed capture. the comparison wielded obvious and expected results

the 10 bit 422 had much better color and skin tone rendition. gradation in color, and fidelity in the color with hair, skin, the whole nine yards was obviously better. the xdcam 35 mbps looks very good, but the compression adds noise to the image the color mushes together more (4:2:0) and you lose detail too in the finer details. fine hair, skin, etc. 

the sxs looks very good and will be aesthetically pleasing for a lot of people, but in the end with the capabilities of what this camera can do, i treat it only as the codec for editorial, and wouldn't use it for the online when it comes to putting on the big screen or tv. that's just my subjective opinion, lot of people might find it more than acceptable. 

in conclusion, some more obvious than others. 

consider your absolute work horse iso's 

280, 400, 800. 

the higher iso's is tolerable according to each person that uses it, but honestly in the biggest of emergencies it's not a disaster if you have to use them. but if you are shooting a feature film, you should be able to light at a 280, and 400 most of to all of the time, and 800 when it's a rushed night/day. and have little to no issues in post. 

xdcam codec is very good, we've all see now good it looks on ex1, it actually resolves more than i thought it would, but not enough to my standards for truly top grade work. 8 bit, long gop, mpeg compressed 4:2:0 is still just that. an off board recorder is completely recommended if you want the best the camera can give right now. which is a lot. and I can't wait for s log 444 to come out already. "

I personally felt the F3 was acceptable up to ISO1600.  Tom is far less forgiving than i am.  Then again he is a DIT and Colorist.  He lives by the scopes.  I go by what looks good on the monitor.  

To give some reference, he feels the F3 @ ISO 1600 looks as clean as the Alexa @ ISO1600, which in his opinion, is too noisy.  To the rest of us, it looks amazing.  There will be images from the test posted in the next couple days.  our model did not give us permission to post what we shot today.  we will re shoot the test tomorrow with someone who is willing to be on the Interwebs.

Official excitement! - I got my new Sony F3

I am beyond ecstatic.  I took delivery of my Sony F3 today.  Somehow i managed to be lucky enough to get a hold of the camera, and take it home seemingly weeks before some distributors even receive them to sell!   I cant spill the beans as to who sold me the camera, but i am grateful and happy to be able to share some of its finer points.

This camera is the back bone of my new company, officially going live on March 1st, Tstop Cinema LLC.

Any how back to the fun......Getting the camera home, and like building any new camera the game of getting all the pieces to fit is sort of a mix between a jigsaw puzzle and Lego's.  Luckily i have a brand spanking new Zacuto baseplate and a whole slew of new parts to make it all work.....( who doesn't love brand new gear!)  I owned a lot of Zacuto gear from the 35mm Adapter days, and i'll be damned if they didn't come in handy.  If you're one of 3 people in the film world that doesn't know about Zacuto support gear, its essentially a camera support system that offers you a ton of flexibility in assembling your camera package.

Adjusting, amending, adding, subtracting, balancing and counter balancing, i managed to get all my new accessories mounted, clear of all the essential parts powered up and fully functional.  As the camera booted up for a couple seconds, the Monitor came alive.  The images this camera produces are almost alien.  Beautiful, organic and clean.  Its weird, its something i've never seen before.  There are no artifacts!  If the image is static, it looks like a still photo.  Heres the kicker, it somehow manages to look completely grain less, yet organic, natural and realistic, without looking like plastic.  Sony cameras in the past have to my eye looked like plastic.  That is to say dry, with unnatural color and tones.  The complete opposite is true of the F3. I have not been so moved by a digital video image like this since the first time i saw Alexa footage.  The F3 has a clearly visible wide dynamic range that you can feel as you operate it.  Parts of the image that normally burn out with ENG style cameras, HDSLR's and pro-sumer HD cameras are miraculously retained.  the F3 image looks like a RED-MX, but with a soul.  That soul is the big surprise here.  The DVX100, long revered for the "Mojo" of its image sadly is obsolete.... However that intangible "Mojo" is alive and well here.  This is exciting as its so essential in narrative film making for a camera to have some emotional impact on the image it captures. I imagine the Cooke iPanchro lenses i bought are helping somewhat in this department.  The Cooke "look" as its called, is surely bringing out what is great about the sensor in this camera.

On the technical side, the F3 is an amazing performer.  Let me tell you a brief anecdote.  Earlier, after a rushed camera check out, before getting the whole system safely home, I built the camera and hooked it up to my 46" Panasonic plasma in Studio REF mode.  Switching the camera on, the screen came alive, and on it was a lush gorgeous image.  My jaw dropped, and i thought to myself, WOW i cannot believe how clean, and rich this image is... BUT, it looks amazing now, lets see it with the ISO blasted up to the limits.  Wanting to see the breaking point, i reached for the side of the camera and pushed the "gain" ( ISO) switch to "H" or High, but to my dismay it was stuck.  Truthfully, it wasn't stuck, the camera was ALREADY in "H" at ISO 3200 no less....  Its performance is astonishing.  Just for some reference, 3200 ISO looks like my 5DmkII around 640 ISO.  Based on what i saw in a room with ambient light at ISO 3200, i could probably shoot my next project @ ISO 3200, not tell anyone, and no one on set, or in post would be the wiser as to what ISO i set the camera to.  Its that good.  I cant wait to test this out further.  This weekend will be great!

As i gather more data i will surely continue to add to this post, check back often!

-T
Follow me on twitter for updates  <- Click
www.timurcivan.com

Chance of a lifetime. Photography in Iraq.

This past twelve days have been a spectacular adventure.  I was hired by my longtime friend and DP Khalid Mohtaseb, to join him on the photography journey of a lifetime.  We went to Karbala, Iraq to shoot beauty footage of the Ashura religious pilgrimage to the shrine of Imam Hussein.  A mass pilgrimage of over nineteen million people to the small southern Iraqi city of Karbala. Normally, Karbala has two and half million people.  Its the equivalent of the entire population of New York City, and half the residents of the tristate area simultaneously converging on a small town in the midwest.  Many of the pilgrims walk to the holy city, some on bare feet, starting as long as two weeks prior to the great celebration and walking over 500 miles, in some cases, there were reports of pilgrims coming from as far as India and Pakistan, again, on foot.  The people of Karbala, some of the most giving and good natured people i've ever had the pleasure of meeting, respond to this influx by essentially doubling capacity of their city on the streets itself.  They build makeshift tent structures, outdoor kitchens, and temporary facilities that cover all the bases of human life.  Food, water, shelter and medical assistance, all free of charge.  This isn't a government funded project, the citizens themselves pouring out what little resources they have to assist, and comfort the pilgrims.  The showing of compassion and kindness is overwhelming.  This is made all the more significant by the fact that this country had been war torn, and until recently under a dictatorship.  Politics aside, its safe to say the people of this region have never had an easy ride.

My specific task was to document in photos my own perspective.  I was asked to take pictures of what i found interesting, what caught my eye, and what i found beautiful.  The city, the locations, and the shrines, while all amazing some how seemed insignificant as compared to the people that made this celebration unique.

Here is what i saw.

The road:

Pilgrims walking to Karbala from Najaf.

The Road from Karbala to Najaf.

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The night in Karbala: This is the feeling of the place.  There was no electricity at this moment, and what power there was, came from generators and fires.

The market place.

 The early morning street cook.  Getting ready to start handing out tea to the pilgrims.

 The roadside tables, being prepped for a full day of cooking, and charity.

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The Day:
Karbala Comes alive, in full support of those seeking religious fulfillment.  The make shift living spaces empty out, the constant cooking begins.  The smell of food, millions of plates of food fills the dust and smoke in the air.  The overwhelming smell of woodsmoke wafts over your senses, your eyes burn, your nostrils constrict, and you can taste the fire.  You cant quite tell from the images below, but the men with steaming cauldrons, are literally everywhere.  They are evenly spaced, about 20 feet from each other, up and down every street, and boulevard in the city. There must have been 5,000 make shift kitchens cooking at the same time.

 The most common mode of transportation in a crowded city.

 Tripe stew.  Despite its looks is quite delicious.

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The Pilgrims.

The devoted traveled all this way, and despite exhaustion, weary feet, and several bombing attacks on the road to get there, they were high in spirit, and more than willing to pose for a shot.

 The man pictured above, followed me around or about three hours, helping me with my bags, and bringing me a never ending stream of delicious tea.

 This gentleman above posed for over 30 pictures,  patiently until I was happy with this one..

The Crowd waiting to get into the Shrine.

 Emotionally over come by the moment.  Reaching the Shrine of Imam Hussein, and mourning his death.

 The young man above struggled for over 5 minutes to climb that silver gate, and kiss the door post of the shrine.  I was fortunate eough to have caught it.

A young shiite, joyful with her father and awestruck by the event.
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The Shrine:

The shrine marks the locations where the grandson of Prophet Mohammed was killed, and his followers were buried.  This is one of the most sacred locations in Shia Islam next to Mecca.

 The inside of the largest Shrine.  Its capacity at the peak of the celebration must have been 10,000 people.

 The great shrine in the early morning, not quite as crowded.

 The Ceiling dome of the Great shrine.

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I shot all of these images on my 5DmkII, with six lenses for the most part.  The Canon 24-105 F4L, The Canon 50mm F1.4 USM, Canon 85mm F1.8 USM, Helios 44-2 F2.0, The 1908 Wollensak CineVelostigmat F5 and the Canon L F2.8 70-200 Zoom.

We also used a Kessler CineSlider with motion control for some timelapse/dolley work, and the 12' Kessler Crane for all the motion work.  When the time comes, i'm sure Khalid will post his motion work over on his blog.

 Khalid And I getting Jib Shots in the Main shrine.

Khalid Monitoring a timelapse....

This was the trip of a life time.  I am Honored to have been a part of it.  Thank you to all involved, Khalid Mohtaseb, the ever critical Susan Modaress, Rami Faris, and Ahmed Mohtaseb.

-Timur

Review: Shoot35 LTD's CINEbox R1 Matte Box.

Based on my exuberance for Shoot35's CINEfocus Follow Focus unit, Wayne has sent me his next brain child to test out.  The CINEbox R1, a professional matte box for the masses.  I base that argument on its price alone, approximately $644.00 based on the conversion rate from 399 GBP.  I have to admit, a trend i notice with Shoot35's gear going all the way back to the original SG35 35mm adapter Wayne was selling back in 2006 is that you see its price and have a certain expectation of performance and quality based on that price.  Consistently, time and time again i have been left dumbstruck every time i receive one of his new products.  They simple have the fit, finish, polish, and thoughtful design of a far more expensive unit. I swear the man has elves on his side....

The first thing that strikes you about this company is the attractive, high quality presentation of the equipment.  See below.  Yes, it comes perfectly fitted in "shoot35 RED" foam.  You open the shipping box and get;  "hey... thats nice....." feeling before you even open the box. Classy. Naturally it comes in the foam fitted flight case that Wayne has always provided with his gear.  Hes just spoiling us now....

 The CINEbox is a perfect match for the plethora of lenses the average professional HDSLR or AF100 shooter would come across.  Zeiss ZF's, Canon Lseries, Nikons, etc...  The appropriate lens step up rings for the bellows are available on his website.  The bellows of the CINEbox is a standard 80mm.  Meaning Zeiss Superspeed PL lenses should fit the bellows without the need for a step ring.  This is a common lens rental for bigger productions in most parts of the world.  Convenient.

In terms of basic function, its a hybrid of swing away and clip on style.  There are not many matte boxes that can claim that much flexibility.  The swing away mechanism is pretty tough, and holds stable when locked down.  I can see it eventually loosening a little, but its built with a tensioner in the hinge to remove slack.  Very cool.  The speed benefits of a swing away matte box are great and usually reserved for more expensive units. It really makes changing lenses a breeze.  I think the Redrock is the only other low cost swing away. I didn't get the clip on function accessory, but based on the manual, you simply unscrew the swing away arm, and replace the bellows with a hard mount, clip on mechanism.  It doesn't seem like something to do switching back and forth during the day.  IT seems better suited to choosing the style of matte box you like and parking it in that configuration for the day.  The bellows is held in place by several tiny screws, hence its "field strip" ability is limited.  No one wants to drop a tiny screw in the grass on a location shoot.  That said, its really 2 matte boxes in one.  A swing away, and a clip on, for $644.  Cant beat that.

The CINEbox has two independent rotating filter stages, in the 4x4 configuration.  The fact that it only uses 4x4 filters can be a bit limiting as you get into very wide angle lenses on a large sensor camera like a 5D.  Its certainly not a deal breaker, but it can be annoying if you plan on stacking lots of filtration with a very wide lens.

One of the main jobs of a matte box is to shield the lens from errant light striking the lens.  The CINEbox has as an available option top and side flags for the affordable price of 79GBP, or $127.00 for all three.  Usually these are expensive accessories.  As you can see they are all easily removable with no tools, and have a nice feel.  

To recap, for $644.00 you get, a great matte box thats robust, good looking, fully functional as a swing away OR can be converted to a clip on with very reasonably priced accessories, with 2 fully rotating stages, a flight case and most important of all, quality. Its well built and as i continue testing i will be sure to update this post with my findings about its long term reliability.  I expect it to continue to surprise me for a long time to come.

warmest,

-Timur