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Illya Friedman

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Posts posted by Illya Friedman

  1. Anamatis, I have a few rare FD lenses that were converted to Arri Standard, which is adaptable to PL.  There's no such thing as an FD lens to PL mount adapter as the flange focal depth of PL is considerably longer.

    FDs are great lenses optically, but mechanically they are poor for any form of motion shooting.  Should you decide you want to convert, the conversion costs more than just buying native PL lenses these days, and the mechanical quality of the native PL lenses is far better then any conversion that can be done on FD.  

    If you want recommendation on entry level PL lenses we can certainly have a conversation about that, all modern lenses are going to have a different look from the FDs, although I have been working on a custom "Vintage Look" coating for the Xeen lenses, it's nearly there and adds about $1500 to the price.

    I.


    Illya Friedman
    President
    Hot Rod Cameras
    www.hotrodcameras.com
    (323)230-3589 

  2. In case anyone does not want to install V-Log-L into their GH4, there is one company that will do it for you for free.  You just need to deliver or ship you camera to Hot Rod Cameras.  

    Here's the pre-order page for V-Log-L:

    http://hotrodcameras.com/panasonic-lumix-gh4-v-log-l-function-firmware-upgrade-kit.html

    Also, since we were involved in the development of the GH4, Hot Rod Cameras will also be receiving the first shipment of upgrades.

    I.

  3. Of course you can save even more if you purchase V-Log with your GH4 at Hot Rod Cameras.  If you send Hot Rod Cameras a message on their facebook page they will sell you a GH4 with for $1397 + $49 for the V-Log-L, and they will even install it for you for free.  

    It's supposed to go live on the site tomorrow.

     

     

  4. Hi Andrew,

     

    Nice summary of critical responses.  I believe the best film critic working today is Joe Morgenstern, his take on the Hobbit is as follows...

     

    "This movie, projected at 48 frames per second, does not flicker; there's a smoothness, almost a creaminess, to the movement. At the same time, though, it feels less like a movie and more like the most elaborate video you've ever seen, a result that's more unsettling than likable. I wish I'd also seen it, for comparison's sake, in 3-D without the high frame rate, because the 3-D is effective. But there wasn't enough time to go back and see it again, and, to be honest, no burning desire to spend another two hours and 49 minutes in Middle-earth."

     

    IMO, the most eloquent summary; in only 4 sentences.

     

    I.

     

    Illya Friedman

    President

    Hot Rod Cameras

    www.hotrodcameras.com

  5. [quote author=Jaime Valles link=topic=738.msg5507#msg5507 date=1337456059]
    Thanks so much for the detailed insight, Illya!.....  If I may ask, what was the tell-tale artifact you saw that made you recognize the GH2 footage?
    [/quote]

    No problem at all Jaime.  Happy to share.  However, I'd rather wait to point out exactly where and what the artifact is until after the Zacuto shoot out is released, so as not influence anyone yet to view it- or give away the GH2 when someone is watching the test for the first time.

    The biggest piece of fun in the test is guessing which is which.  Knowing even one of the cameras in advance takes that away.  It's much better to not know what any of the cameras are when they are shown unnamed.  I really hope that Zacuto changes the order again when they release it on the web, so no one from the screenings gives anything away.

    A disclaimer, I am a very critical viewer.  The artifact is clearly visible but not egregious.  It's just the give away.  If you don't catch it on your own, I think you'll agree that the artifact it is entirely within the 'character' of the GH2 when it's pointed out.

    All the best,


    Illya Friedman
    President
    Hot Rod Cameras
    Hollywood, California
    www.hotrodcameras.com
    323-230-3589
  6. Thanks for the kind words eosjames!  Mountain View eh? That would have been 3-years ago now for the NorCal chapter of the digital cinema society. 

    I was there showing how cool the GH1 was back in the day.  I had at least a dozen people told me after that screening that the GH1 blew the doors off the (30p) 5D footage that was shown.


    B3Guy, the Tuner-S kit is absolutely available in L.A. area rental houses.  Not sure where you were interning or who you called, but should you (or anyone) ever have a question about such a thing, call Hot Rod Cameras directly, we'll tell you which companies have it, in Los Angeles and world wide.  We try to track all the companies we know to be renting our equipment. 

    About a year ago it came to my attention that there is a fly-by-night rental house that advertises prominently on Craigslist (and claims a huge list of equipment- turns out they don't actually own 90% of what they list!!), this company does not own any Hot Rod Cameras products, however when customers request a "Tuner kits", rather than subrent a genuine Hot Rod Cameras product from a reputable rental house, they try to pass of a crappy red-anodized Chinese knock-off product as ours, or they make some lame excuse that the crappy one (with a laundry list of problems) is somehow "better" than HRC when the client shows up.  It's very sad.  Since learning of this I do my best to direct people away from the lying liars at that house with the unscrupulous business practices  ???  Yes, same Chinese product that the manufacturer claims is "made in USA" and then lied to their customers (and was subsequently banned for it on another forum when it came to light).

    Call us directly if you ever need a rental referral again.

    Illya Friedman
    President
    Hot Rod Cameras
    Hollywood, California
    www.hotrodcameras.com
    323-230-3589
  7. I was at the Hollywood screening.  To say that it evoked a strong reaction in some is to put it mildly.  That being said, during the "blind" portion of the test, several people brave enough to give their "best of" picks, named the still unnamed GH2 as one of their favorites. 

    When the cameras were revealed I noticed at least two people who named the GH2 flip-flopped and slammed it as inferior to the others, which was ridiculous, the GH2 did do very, very, well in the test.

    I think that the ranking given by the Australian author got it right when he named the order of F65, Alexa and then GH2---for that test.  But the ranking doesn't tell you everything, in this test it was not about just the camera, but how everything contributed to the final image- including time.

    No one involved in the test is claiming that the GH2 is a "better" camera than the more expensive cameras that placed lower- only that the GH2 shot looked better over some of the other cameras- and that has a lot to do with the PEOPLE and CHOICES made during the re-light and grade- not just the technology.

    Now the screen for Hollywood was not that big, I sat in the front row about 1x screen height away, and I managed to pick out 7 of 9 cameras correctly.  There were many people (particularly critical people) sitting in the far back area of the theater.  For a point of reference in this theater sitting in the back row would be akin to watching a movie at the Cinerama Dome not from a theater seat or even the lobby, but from all the way across Sunset Blvd.  You can't make good judgement calls particularly from such a distance, particularly about resolution.

    I do have a critical eye, so I'm not totally surprised that I was able to pick the cameras with such accuracy.  However, I think it's interesting to note that the two camera I picked incorrectly was the Red Epic and the Sony FS100 (I switched the two).

    Perhaps the last thing that's worth mentioning is that Canon requested that the Canon cameras use a Canon zoom, while all the other cameras (save the iPhone) used a beautiful Fujinon Premeir Zoom- including the GH2 courtesy of a Hot Rod PL adapter that I loaned Zacuto for the test.

    Even though the GH2 did look extremely good, it was not without fault.  The only reason I could pick it out from the other cameras was a particular telltale GH2 artifact that is in the shot.  Anyone sitting back much further than I was sitting probably wouldn't even be able to see the artifact.

    From the 7D to the F65 there was probably about a 15% range of  of the qualitative difference in the subjective images appearance- that means in the test the F65 probably looked about 15% better than the 7D.  Now the F65 is about 100,000x a better motion picture camera than the 7D, but that was about the apparent difference in the test.  All the other cameras fell somewhere between the 7D and the F65 with the exception of the iPhone, which clearly looked inferior to the others.  Of course it was given an impressed grade, that did a good job in masking the iPhone's lack of resolution, poor frame rate and dynamic range, but it could not completely hide all of the iPhone faults.

    Even though the test angered some people (for both respectable, and not so respectable rasons/beliefs) I think the test is simply wonderful.  If anyone had done a competent test like this before, they would know that this results were not any big surprised.  I thought it was well known that it is 100% possible to make most formats look like each other if care is taken at the time of shooting (and the short is short enough).  However, for folks who haven't done this sort of thing before, (more people than I thought) the Zacuto test proves to be a real eye opener.

    I cant wait for it to hit the web.  I expect the difference to be far more subtle watching on the we- but still that the F65, Alexa and GH2 will still look like the "best" of the test.

    Illya Friedman
    President
    Hot Rod Cameras
    Hollywood, CA
    www.hotrodcameras.com
  8. [img]http://www.eoshd.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/zeiss-anamorphic.jpg[/img]

    [url=http://"http://www.fdtimes.com/pdfs/45FDTimes-LoRez150.pdf"]From Film and Digital Times magazine December issue[/url]

    [quote]Christian Bannert took great pleasure in asking me to guess the third surprise coming from Carl Zeiss. An 1800 mm T1.3 lens perhaps?…I had no clue. "We’re back in the Anamorphic Lens business,” he said.[/quote]

    Modern Zeiss anamorphic lenses will be available for purchase or rental and if they are priced in line with the rest of the CP series, they should be widely available, unlike the current anamorphic offerings on the market.

    Could these new Zeiss lenses cause renewed demand among lower-end consumers shooters for anamorphic images (a la wedding videographers) Who knows? We'll have to wait and see.

    Anamorphic lenses need some telltale flare, hopefully these lenses will flare similarly to Panavision C series or Hawk V-lite lenses, which have arguably the most beautiful flares of any anamorphic lenses available.  Flares are subjective, but hopefully they won't overdo it like some of the old Lomo or Cineovision anamorphics.
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