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Review of Noktor F0.95 Hyperprime 50mm lens for Micro Four Thirds
I was contacted by Noktor if I was interested in reviewing this lens for the micro 4/3 system. Naturally I jumped at the chance. Although being away from home I don’t have all my gear. My GH1 is at home but I have my GF1 with me. Not ideal as not as good at video at all, but still usable.
Ever since the lens arrived it has lived on my GF1 and the GF1 has lived in my man bag! It’s such a fun lens to shoot with.
Of course being 50mm on a micro four thirds give it an equivalent field of view of what you would get with a 100mm on a 5dmkII, so it’s not a very wide lens. Much more of a portrait lens which is not a bad thing at all.
First off for a lens this fast….it’s cheap. It is retailing for $750. For a lens this fast you would normally have to pay a lot more.
Wide open obviously it isn’t super sharp, it’s what I would call soft focus dreamy, stop down to F1.4 and it’s surprisingly sharp.
It has a minimal focus distance of 0.6m, a filter size of 62mm and 8 aperture blades. I noticed that when stopped down a little the “Circle of confusion” was hexagonal in shape but wide open was circular. Apart from from the edges which where more half moon. I actually was actually quite partial to this look…Check out these stills I took with camera below. Some are wide open, some are stopped down…
Sara
[caption id="attachment_8003" align="aligncenter" width="670" caption="Emrys Roberts"][/caption]Shooting video with it on the GF1 was a challenge. With no manual controls in video mode I set the camera to shutter priority and 1/50th of a second which is optimum shutter speed for 25p. I set the ISO to lowest possible, set the iris it the F stop I wanted and using the Fader ND 72mm (with a 62mm step up ring) I got exposure and hit the exposure lock button so nothing could change. It’s a sort of way around the auto issues on the GF1. I also used a Zacuto Z-Finder, essential for me to get even close to focus with this lens!
The Fader ND is essential if you want to shoot video on this camera or even stills and shoot wide open during daylight. It’s my HD-DSLR number one accessory.
The image was definitely sharper closed down but wide open I was very please with the image. I did a few tests shots under and on Santa Monica Pier. I really want to try and use this lens on the GH1 as soon as I can to see what it really is capable of in video mode.
It’s got lovely smooth iris and smooth focus, no vignetting and it’s not too heavy it has the right balance of weight for me and build quality is excellent.
All in all a very nice lens for the price, lovely to be able to shoot is really low light. I would love to see them make one for the Canons now! You can order one here, or at least be put in line for one!
For comparison below is a shot taken on the Leica F .95 50mm.
Thanks to Sara Collaton for the BTS photos.
The Pier: Test shots done with Noktor F0.95 50mm with Panasonic GF1 from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.
Shot on and under Santa Monica Pier in California using a Noktor F0.95 50mm lens with a Panasonic GF1 shooting AVCHD lite in 25p.
Music is by Bernard Herrmann from “Vertigo”
Digital Rapids Redefines Adaptive Bit Rate Streaming Performance and Quality with StreamZHD Live ABR
SXSW HD-DSLR presentation and FCPUG and DVINFO meet ups in Austin.
GREAT stuff happening in Austin, Texas this weekend and Monday. I am in town to speak about HD-DSLRs at the Film Festival. Details for that presentation are here.
There are also two fantastic meet-ups this weekend at Austin during the SXSW film festival. The first one is the DVINO.NET meet up at 8pm at Clive bar, a new bar that looks very cool. Details on that including where exactly it is are found here. It’s free entry. First drink is on DVinfo and there will be some goodies to give away.
The next night after staying in bed all day nursing the mother of all hangovers I will be at the FCPUG super meet up at Maggie Mae’s from 6pm. Free entry to all SXSW badge holders or just $5 to non badge holders. Free food and one free drink, there will also be loads of cocktails available at the bar at my insistence and as usual with FCPUG 2 free raffle tickets and an incredible array of prizes as usual. I promise not to win any this time like I did in London!! There will be an open screen theatre where you can get your work shown too! Details for this event are here!
The LA HD-DSLR meet up. Lots of pics taken with Noktor F0.95 lens and AMAZING pro HD-DSLR RIG!
Just got back from it and had such a blast. Loads of people turned up, well over a hundred and I loved that nobody really cared about us being there. That’s Venice Beach for you….
Met so many great people as well as some old friends like 24 DP Rodney Charters, the Jag boys, David Aldirch, Brian R and loads more.
There were so many rigs there and different HD-DSLRs. Loved the people who made their own rigs. One guy made his own Steadicam Merlin, there was a 7D 3d rig, Jag35’s new shoulder mount and their truly excellent DSLR cage and one really amazing rig…
This really was quite amazing. It’s made by ViewFactor but isn’t actually for sale yet. It works as a breakout box for using proper power and video connectors for all your pro accessories. This is something to keep an eye out on, his wireless follow focus was also amazing! Here is a pic of it and there are loads more if you scroll down…
Here are some videos made by the people who came…
The Great HD-DSLR Meet up (Canon 7D) from Emrys Roberts on Vimeo.
Camera: Canon 7D
Lenses: Canon EF 20mm f1.8, Canon EF 50mm f1.8
Editing and CC: Premiere Pro CS3
The Great Meet Up from laherrera5 on Vimeo.
Many of the photos were taken with the GF1 and the excellent Noktor F0.95 lens, you will know those one as they are the ones with crazy shallow dof!!
Mr. Rodney Charters!
3d rig!
www.cameracaddie.com
[caption id="attachment_8026" align="aligncenter" width="670" caption="This lovely man was accidentally sent two of those so he gave it back to me!"][/caption]So i gave it to budding cinematographer Cole
[caption id="attachment_8024" align="aligncenter" width="670" caption="Everyone is into these HD-DSLRs!!!"][/caption]
The excellent new Jag35 cage
Mitch from Planet 5d
[caption id="attachment_8003" align="aligncenter" width="670" caption="Emrys Roberts"][/caption]Sara
New short film: A day at the races
We shot this short film with the hotrodcameras.com modified 7D PL mount that you can read all about here.
It was shown for the first time at the LA HD-DSLR masterclass I took yesterday in Hollywood that was a great success. Two 4 hour classes one after the other. A lot of fun, killed my voice though!
Jeremy Thomas from Raw Works cut the short and colour graded it and did a great job on it. The crew was minimal about 4 of us in total.
It was shot using 3 lenses. Two Cooke S4s… 25mm and 100m and a PL modified Tokina 11-16mm for the big wide.
The filming was about 2 and a half hours very early morning at Hollywood Park then another couple of hours at Santa Anita race track. Sound was recorded separately using the Zoom H4n and a Rode shotgun boom. I also used a 6×6 Mattebox and some ND filters. .9 .6 and .2.
Music by Loscil
Song: Charlie
Album: Plume
Do check out the previous blog here for loads more info and behind the scenes photos!
Sachtler Helps Shiels Capture Exciting Animal Footage
Schneider Introduces w Series IRND Filters for High Definition Cameras
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Shooting 7D PL with Cooke Lenses for Saturday’s LA Masterclass
Today I spent a day at the Races. Starting at the ungodly hour of 430am we filmed with trainer Mike Mitchell at the Hollywood stables. It was funny, I have family in the racing business in England and generally the people working in the stables are generally young blonde students (huge sweeping generalising there!) here they seemed to be Latin American guys with MASSIVE filmic moustaches. Much more fun for me to film, as people know I tend to like to film interesting looking people than the obvious pretty ones!
The idea for this shoot was to do some test footage using Illya Friedman’s new PL CAMERA. Which is simply a very nicely modified 7D. Read the linked blog for more info on it.
We had a great crew. Jarred from Cinema 5D who provided the fantastic Cooke lenses as well as a RED zoom and a Century Optics zoom as well as the Matte Box and filters. Chuck with his litepanels (which we didn’t need in the end), RAWworks owner Neil who is organising the event, Creative Director Jeremy and sound man Bobby…very very odd Bobby!
I mostly shot using the 25mm and 100mm Cooke S4 T2 primes. What a GORGEOUS image these lenses give you. Yes it was a lot more fiddly and time consuming using these lenses with a mattebox for NDs than my normal “run and gun” set up but it was worth it. The images below speak for themselves!
Jeremy is going to do an edit together of the material and we will premiere it my HD-DSLR masterclass on Saturday on the Warner Bros lot in Hollywood. I saw the venue today and it’s fantastic. There are still some places left so please come. You don’t need to own a camera to come, just have an interest in these camera. We will be projecting lots of cool stuff on a great big screen Your chance to see how well these cameras hold up.
One very cool thing is Illya had a wide zoom that I used on one of the frame grabs of the horses walking in circles…this is a Tokina 11-16mm modified into a PL mount lens and now cost $3500. Same optics though…show you how good that lens is!
Below are some screen grabs of the shoot and some BTS pictures taken with my GF1 and the new Noktor.
Bobby!
Illya
Jarred
Jeremy and Bobby
HaiVision Releases FURNACE 5.5 With HotMarks™ Real-Time Metadata Technology for Intelligent Video
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New FOR-A MFR-5000 Series ROUTING SWITCHER
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New iPixPanel Turns Apple iPad into Control Panel for Broadcast Pix Systems
Music 2 Hues announces new Flagship Series CD Release.
Robert Rodriguez shooting music video on 2 Canon 7ds
Big thanks to my friend Danny Dale whom I met in Austin last year who was out with his GH1 and family at Zilker Park in Austin at the weekend when he camera upon a film crew. It was an open set with just a warning if you walk past this sign then you give permission to be filmed.
He saw the camera and immediately his eyes lit up. A super pimped up Canon 7D with none other than Robert Rodriguez. They were using 7D. Both pimped up with Zacuto gear. One just the Z-Finder and one with a mo-fo pimped up crazy ass Sniper Rig.
Also great to see them using my favourite camera mic, the Rode Video mic (available on my amazon store) and what looks like the 70-200mm F2.8 and 24-70mm F2.8.
This is uber geek cool! Not TMZ territory. Don’t worry I won’t be doing a blog on Lindsay Lohan seen partying till 5am with Paris Hilton (unless they are filming each other on pimped up 24p 5DmkIIs or pre-production Scarlets!!) ;)
This is from Danny….
I walked into the area where they were filming and immediately was drawn to the HDSLR rig they were using. I pulled up my cam and starting shooting some pictures of it (I was about 15 feet away and realized it was a Canon 7D – wireless follow focus, Panasonic monitor with hood, and Zacuto grips/rails) when a guy politely walked over to me and said “we are trying to keep a closed set” – there was no security, just 2 camera operators, a tethered production cart, makeup, 2 HPX 170s filming BTS, and a few grips. I said I was only interested in the rig, not the music artist being filmed (which I then realized was local favorite Bob Schneider). The guy was cool and let me take a few more and I walked away. When I told my wife that one of her favorite musicians was filming a video, she ran up to the fence and started to watch and then said “hey, is that Robert Rodriguez?”… it was. At first I felt stupid for not realizing that it was him but the rig was huge and blocking most of his head. They were shooting with 2 7Ds - the second only had a Zacuto Z-finder, and Robert took turns shooting on both.
Here is some info from DP of this shoot Jimmy Lindsay. Thanks for sending this to me Jimmy!
Jimmy Lindsey here. The man in the brown hat with the Z finder. I was Robert’s DoP on the ‘Bob Schneider’ music video (as well as his last feature ‘Machete’) and those are my 7D rigs at work. After seeing all the questions, I thought I might shed a little light on the subject. The rig Robert is using was set up to allow him to see an HDSDI image on a 7″ Panasonic onboard monitor while his AC (the insanely talented Sebastian Vega) pulls focus with a Preston FIZ from a 17″ Panasonic monitor. Very necessary as you know when shooting on a 200mm at a 2.8. The signal was split from HDMI to 2 HDSDIs using the Aja Black Magic powered by a Nebtek adapter and Sony M batteries. Both the Preston and the onboard were powered with a D tap cable and a Sony onboard battery. We also got some beautiful shots with my 50mm 1.4 and a lensbaby composer with single glass and plastic optics.
Thanks so much or all of your DSLR insight and your amazing footage.
I am a big fan of your work!
This is great to see such a great filmmaker like Robert shooting on these cameras and more proof that more and more professionals are really taking these cameras and using them for all sorts of prouctions.
Check out the photos below, they are awesome!
Robert Rodriguez taking a break!
Canon confirms details of 5DmkII firmware. Mid march release.
Canon adds 24 and 25fps HD Movie recording to the EOS 5D Mark II with Firmware 2.0.3
London, 2nd March 2010 – Canon today pre-announces the release of a firmware update for the multiple award-winning EOS 5D Mark II. Originally announced in late 2009, the update adds 24* and 25 frames per second (fps) recording to the camera’s EOS MOVIE video function, and will be available as a free download from the middle of March.
Developed following feedback from photographers and cinematographers, Firmware 2.0.3 further enhances the EOS 5D Mark II’s excellent video performance. The addition of new frame rates expands the camera’s video potential, providing filmmakers with the ability to shoot 1080p Full HD footage at 24fps (actual 23.976fps) – the optimum frame rate for cinematic video. 25fps support at both 1920×1080 and 640×480 resolutions will allow users to film at the frame rate required for the PAL broadcast standard, while the new firmware will also change the 30fps option to the NTSC video standard of 29.97fps.
A new histogram display for shooting movies in manual exposure, shutter-priority (Tv) and aperture-priority (Av) have been added, and exposure modes will also be available in movie mode. Improved audio functionality will allow users to set sound record levels manually using a sound-level meter displayed on the LCD screen. The audio sampling frequency has also been increased from 44.1KHz to 48KHz, providing the optimum audio signal typically required for professional or broadcast material.
With its full frame CMOS sensor and compatibility with Canon’s wide range of premium lenses, the EOS 5D Mark II is already recognised for its outstanding HD video performance. Launched in September 2008, the camera immediately created a wide range of new possibilities for photographers and videographers, and the addition of new frame rates and manual audio levels extends those possibilities even further – allowing movie makers to shoot stunning movies to suit practically any creative purpose.
Extreme sports photographer Richard Walch was one of the first to be given the chance to use the newly updated EOS 5D Mark II to shoot the snowboarding movie “I Love My Friends”. Commenting on the EOS 5D Mark II’s video performance, Richard said: “The addition of the new frame rates opens up a whole new range of possibilities. If you’re a cinematographer, independent film maker or just enthusiastic about making your own movies, get out there and give it a try”.
The download will be available from here
LA HD-DSLR masterclass on the 6th March with RAWworks
I am doing a Canon HD-DSLR masterclass in LA on the 6th March, well in fact two. One in the morning and one in the afternoon. It’s being arranged by Neil Smith of RAWworks.
I will be doing a number of workshops across the USA and Europe (and hopefully further afield) throughout the year. I will try and make these all as hands on as possible. I will be putting more info on the content of this LA masterclass on this page over the next few days. You can book now by clicking here. Any suggestions are welcome on the blog post about this year’s classes.
There will also of course be an informal meet up like last time sometime during my time in LA. Looking at the Kodak Theatre on Sunday the 7th of March. Should be a good turnout for that one!!! (please do not turn up to this as it’s a joke!)
Philip Bloom Master Class Promo from RAWworks on Vimeo.
Don’t forget to get your entry made for the Can-Do Film Festival being arranged by RAWworks. This is a different competition to the “Beyond the Still” and is cross genre. I am a judge for both. Do enter both if you can, the prizes for both are excellent!
First thoughts on Rebel T2i/ 550D
I love cameras, anyone who knows me knows I have more cameras than one person could ever have a use for!
There is no need for me to buy the new 550D/ T2i. I have a 7D and two 5DmkIIs after all, I even have a 500d! So why would i buy one? I simply wanted to see just how capable it was as a video camera. I don’t care too much about it’s still camera abilities, apart from for timelapse, but it’s identical video frame rates to the 7D and that price tag meant could become a very popular camera in the mass market. I wanted to get one so I could review it, test it, be able to answer people’s questions about it which I am bound to get and of course shoot on it. After all I love shooting more than anything and this is a small, light, cheap camera. Just how good can it be?
The Eos Video line up thanks to Dan Chung
I bought mine from B&H as soon as I saw it was available and in stock. Next day delivery and she arrived. I had to buy it with the stock lens as that’s all they had. Not a good lens. I recommend body only for sure! Just because the camera is cheap it doesn’t mean you should buy cheap glass for it! Anyone want that lens?!
First Impressions: Wow it’s light! Really light. The 7D and 5DmkII weigh a bit, this doesn’t. Straight off I notice some things missing that I love about my pro cameras, the T2i is part of the consumer division whereas the 7D etc are part of the pro division. So what does this mean to you and I?
Build quality is good on the T2i but not in the same league as the Pro cameras. First off weatherproofing. I wouldn’t want to get the T2i wet like my 7d does all the time, even the 5DmkII with lesser weatherproofing is still very very good at it. Have left both cameras out in the cold rain all night, have had them frost over and they work just fine afterwards. I wouldn’t do this with the T2i. Like a Mogwai, don’t get her wet. Also it’s very plasticky, as expected. I have dropped my pro cameras once or twice…oops. They survived fine. T2i…keep secure. Treat her gently!
Due to the smaller size we are missing some things I really miss on pro cameras. The dial on the back of the camera, the LCD panel telling me my metering, fstop etc on top. You get this info on the screen by half pressing the shutter button but I like having the LCD screen and miss it. The dial especially is a pain. I now have no individual iris and shutter controls. I have to effectively press a “shift button” to get aperture to change.
Image wise from my very limited tests the video looks as close to identical as I can tell with 30 minutes of filming. There may be a stronger difference and I am sure many people will do loads of side by side tests of this camera. I will over the next few weeks shoot more and more stuff with it and share my experiences. Last night I did some simple low light tests. Same shot at ISO 800 and 1600 on both cameras lit with candlelight. That brings me to another couple of things I am missing on the T2i. Manual white balance. You cannot dial in the colour temperature like you can on the 7D etc. Also ISO are limited to 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200 and the unusable higher ones. In tests recently I found the quieter ISO on the 5DmkII to be 160, 320, 640 etc…I haven’t done any tests like this on the T2i, but hopefully will get a chance soon.
The skater dolly I used in the tests was the Omni tracker slim line pro. It’s great and cheap. I also have the new Humble Monkey Camera truck. Both of which I will review fully soon. The Humble monkey costs more but is lighter…as I said review coming soon!
Frame rates are what we want 24p, 25p, 30p, 720p 50p, 60p. There is no manual control on audio unfortunately. Same crappy AGC we have on the 7D that looks like will be fixed on the new 5DmkII firmware.
Timelapse is of course easily done on this, just get the right controller (7D one does not work on this camera). Below is the one to get.
There were a number of people saying should I sell my 7D and buy a T2i and use the extra money to buy glass. I would say no. Simply because the 7D is a robust beast that will take a lot you throw at it. It’s a pro camera with pro build. Yes, the video is bloody close to each other and I can barely tell them apart but it comes down to more than just video quality. It’s the whole package.
So what do I think about the T2i then? I think it’s superb. For $800 (Sorry people in England, I know pricing sucks there) you are getting a video tool that really is incredible. A great B camera for 7D and 5dmkII owners and I really do recommend having two bodies on pro shoots. It’s also a great A camera for people wanted to get into HD-DSLR filming, students, keen enthusiasts or people with an addiction to buying cameras like me! From what I have seen the video is excellent, the screen is slightly bigger and higher resolution that the 7D one but a Z-Finder still fits. Time will tell how well these two cameras will compare. For now just be happy that we live in incredibly exciting times and don’t whinge that it has more video modes than the 5DmkII or you just bought a 7D and this has come out etc…Canon have brought out a camera that blitzes the competition in the consumer market for HD video and beats all the other brands out there in the pro market with video too. This is a game changer for many. It’s just this damn game changes very often and it’s hard to keep up!
Do check out Nino’s review linked up top and also look at JJ Kim’s excellent comparison video below.
7D vs. T2i Comparison Video from Orange Wedding Films on Vimeo.
(For better viewing experience:
PLEASE PRESS PLAY AND PAUSE RIGHT WAY.
Wait for the grey bar to fill up, then press play)
Blog post with details at http://orangevp.blogspot.com/
Please watch in Full Screen if you can.
Follow me at www.twitter.com/jjkim123go for updates!
Details of Canon 5DmkII firmware released?
As reported by Canonrumors.com and from a presentation in Poland we are getting 24p, 25p and 30p but no 720p mode at all. Personally am not surprised at lack of 720p. The 5dmkii chip heats up a lot when shooting video, more than the 1dmkiv and 7d chips and asking it to do twice as many frames a second may have caused spontaneous combustion!!
We are getting live histogram for exposure, manual audio with 64 level increments and change to 48khz for sound. All good stuff. Strange we are getting details released so oddly…we also had earlier reports that Canon had the timeframe as mid March on their site but that vanished quickly.
Well I guess we will find out what is and isn’t true soon. I am assuming there is not a second slide showing Zebras, headphone, 720p etc…!!
