QuickHitRecord

[quote name='Mirrorkisser' timestamp='1344068937' post='14948']And how many of you use a leveling base? I went ok without sofar. Its just some more fiddling with the legs until everything is level. What are the other benefits?[/quote] I tried using my tripod without a leveling base at first. But using a tripod is already so limiting and I just could not afford to give up another axis of control. The Acratech suits me very well. I bought mine from B&H. Surely, they must be able to ship to Germany!

Final thought: [url="http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/744013-REG/Benro_A2190T_A2190T_Travel_Flat_5_Section.html"]http://www.bhphotovi..._5_Section.html[/url] + 701

True, and it will take even longer to hack it, if that is even possible. But in my opinion, in-camera stabilization would be worth the wait!

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/used/591107/Manfrotto_547B_547B_Professional_Tripod_Legs.html These sticks were packaged with my 701 when I bought it. They don't collapse down as small as what I have now but they are sturdy and lightweight. I have been very happy with them and continue to use them with my 501 head.

It's more than $300, but I assembled my travel tripod with Benro Travel Flat sticks + Acratech leveling base + Manfrotto 701 fluid head and I love it. Collapses down to fit perfectly on the side of my camera pack, but is also sturdy enough to mount my 2' travel pocket dolly with camera (leveling base on top of the dolly, not below or it tilts). Not too heavy either.

An e-mail that I sent last night: ___________________________ [size=3][i]Dear SmallHD,[/i][/size] [size=3][i]I am a big fan of your products. You seem like a company that thrives on innovation, so here is a measure of functionality that I'd like to suggest that no other monitor company offers (as far as I know): When you put out the upcoming firmware update with improved anamorphic functionality, please consider adding an option that "crops" a 3.55:1 image to 2.66:1 (perhaps similar to the 'pixel to pixel' mode). Many of the anamorphic lenses on the market today have a 2x stretch factor, which is simply too wide for most applications. By offering the crop mode that I am suggesting, a shooter would still be shooting in 2x, but able to view 1.5x easily and in more detail, and then he could crop when importing and never even have to deal with the unwanted pixels! This would be a godsend for anamorphic shooters. I know that your company could make this happen, and I truly hope that you do! Regards, Nick[/i][/size] And their response: __________________ [size=3][i]I will pass that along to the firmware team for you, it does sound like a cool feature. [/i][/size] [size=3][i]Thanks[/i][/size] [size=3][i]Dave[/i][/size]

[quote name='Cinenaut' timestamp='1343927064' post='14861'] [font=Calibri][size=3][color=#000000]Hello,[/color][/size][/font] [font=Calibri][size=3][color=#000000]This is my first post to this site. There is a wealth of information here, and hats off to those that contribute. I have been a camera operator and DP since the early 80’s. I have worked on many films, TV shows, and commercials. I am quite impressed with the Lumix GH2, and am in the process of retro-fitting it to my 35mm lenses and accessories. I wanted to share with you an eyepiece leveler rig that I built in my home shop. With longer lenes, I find it essential when operating a camera from a tripod or a dolly. I have more pictures on my website [url="http://www.randytowers.com"]http://www.randytowers.com[/url][/color][/size][/font][img]http://www.eoshd.com/comments/uploads/inline/20565/501ab27e7d61f_GH2_Leveler_WOText.jpg[/img] [font=Calibri][size=3][color=#000000]Good luck shooting[/color][/size][/font] [/quote] Welcome, Randy. I loved the reel. It's great to have people of your caliber and experience sharing your ideas on these boards.

Tony, I'd love to see some tests of your new lens. It sounds really promising. I'm sure that you've seen A. Safari's video on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/43590845 And you're right, there's not much going on in the Vimeo anamorphic group. This seems to be the best place to talk about anamorphic lenses right now.

[quote name='tony wilson' timestamp='1343964200' post='14894'] IDC Photo friction-based System Zero very nice design : ) [/quote] It is nice! It's very sturdy and actually gives you a very smooth pull if you line it up correctly. I owned one for years. But I foolishly sold it when I switched over to GH2 from Canon. Now I have the Edelkrone Focus One Pro. Another great design, but I have barely used it because I have only been shooting anamorphic lately (and it's not playing nice with my Iscomorphot).

Now that I think of it, what about the IDC Photo friction-based System Zero? It won't work for the problem that I am having, but maybe it will work for an Iscorama so it might be worth a look.

You're actually doing it! I remember Alan (or perhaps it was you) posting about this project on Vimeo a long time ago. Forget Iscorama, this is way cooler. Hypergonar is my favorite image of all anamorphics, but it's hard to use. What do I have to do get on the list?

I don't have anything to add, except that I'll be following this post as well. My new Iscomorphot wants nothing to do with my Edelkrone Follow Focus, even after I put a ziptie-style gear on it. The follow focus actually pushes the anamorphic lens out of alignment! So close to production-ready, and yet so far...

[quote name='tony wilson' timestamp='1343947755' post='14878']or you could hunt for a tiny thing [/quote] Tony, what is the silver assembly on the left (and why are you cutting off 15mm)? Also, what is that next to the Moller?

These are great. It does seem like a very practical lens. Thanks for sharing.

I have heard some good things about (and seen good things from) the 8mm Bolex. It would be really interesting if you and your friend could do a side-by-side comparison. I just acquired an Iscomorphot and that is something that I am hoping to do with that and my Baby Hypergonar as well.

[quote name='Rudolf' timestamp='1343935581' post='14869']QuickHitRecord, your footage with the Konica looked very nice (as I mentioned above) and therefore I am not really sad if the 35mm will not work. I am looking forward for the Konica now! Maybe there are some instrestring alternatives for the Hypergonar... I would like to go as wide as possible for a simple reason: I would like to use a rather small setup without a tripod or any other stabilization and I think it becomes easier to get a less shaky image with wider lenses. Or maybe I should not drink so much coffee? However I am often tired of carrying around kilos of bags with camera, tripod, half a dozen lenses et cetera (I often carry nearly all my equipment around because I might need a slider and a matte box and the 500mm tele-lens... :wacko: )[/quote] It was also my hope that a shorter focal length would help me control camera shake, but I just brought my Baby Hypergonar along with me to a week of hiking in the Tetons (Wyoming) and even at 40mm, and after reviewing my handheld footage, I highly recommend a tripod. Somehow the rolling shutter becomes much more pronounced with the Baby on the front. I know that it's probably not what you want to hear! The good news is that it looks enough like a standard camera lens that you won't attract much attention with it. [quote name='Rudolf' timestamp='1343935581' post='14869']Off topic: today afternoon I met a very nice guy from Tuscon at the playground. Wether was very nice and I decided to go out with my little son. So the man from Tuscon did. And it happened we began to talk and he told me is a professor and doing stuff with astronomy (sometimes he is working with Hubble for example). And as I was writing here just hours ago I smiled and asked him about Professor Chretien: Of course he knew about him. But he has not heard that he developed the anamorphotoscop B) [/quote] My first and cheapest anamorphic lens was the enormous Hypergonar HiFi-2 (I like to think of it as the Baby Hypergonar's Grandfather) by Henri Chretien, and it is also an incredible lens. The man was a genius!

Rudolf, I am so glad that some of this was useful to you. It has certainly been a learning experience for me. I have the Thorium Canon 35mm and I think that it vignettes slightly. But the 40mm however does not vignette.

Also, Andrew's book is very helpful. I find the GH3 settings menus to be overly complicated and a bit scatter-brained but Andrew's PDF helps to walk you through it.

The GH3 is supposed to be announced next month. If it were me I'd wait or you might end up kicking yourself.

[quote name='kirk' timestamp='1343831722' post='14782']I'm no expert, and still building my lens collection, but have had great pleasure using my heavy Olympus Zuiko 11-22/ 2.8-3.5, Konica AR 40/1.8 and AR 135/2.5 . I'm hoping to find a Konica AR 85/1.8[/quote] I love the Konica 40mm too. I didn't even know that they made an 85mm, but I gather from what you say that they aren't easy to find. If you are able to get by with three lenses, then I envy you!

[quote name='marcuswolschon' timestamp='1343823654' post='14776']I don't consider the Voightländer a good all-round. The Panleica 25mm does that job much better with the Voightländer stepping in for extreme low-light. I find the Voightländer to be too way soft compared to the Leica.[/quote] I have never used the Panasonic Leica 25mm. Is it stabilized? The Voigtlander is a touch soft but I can rely on it. My GH2 in particular struggles with low-light. I don't trust it not to band anywhere above 640 ISO. It's good to have a lens in my kit that can produce usable video in all but the worst lighting conditions. The 12-35mm Lumix may end up becoming that all-round lens for me. I had the 17-55mm EF-S with the 7D and it was so useful that I rarely took it off the camera. But it does seem like it might be a bit clinical and I am trying to stay away from that. [quote name='marcuswolschon' timestamp='1343823654' post='14776']55mm sound a bit long for product photography unless the products are quite small. For hand-sized to arm-sized objects I use the 25mm with about a step distance. Why the longer one? Distortion? [/quote] I bought it for another purpose but found that it is great for shooting close up shots of products. Very little distortion, and I can get the camera to within [i]inches[/i] of the subject. For eBay product shots, I can show people a lot of detail. [quote name='marcuswolschon' timestamp='1343823654' post='14776']An f1.8 sounds a bit expensive for non-improvised interviews with ample light.[/quote] It's a non-AI. I was able to pick it up for about $100. It is a bit heavy though. I am considering switching to the slightly more expensive Nikkor AI-S 85mm f2, which is much smaller and lighter (and sharper from what I hear).

[color=#222222][font=Helvetica Neue', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif][size=4][background=rgb(255, 255, 255)]Somewhere between ditching my Canon 7D and now (shooting primarily video with my GH2), I have bitten off more than I can chew. I have acquired more than twenty lenses, many of which I rarely or never use. With this much glass, I do not feel like I know and love my kit like I used to, so I have decided to pare things down to include only the lenses that I am most excited about. Some considerations:[/background][/size][/font][/color][list] [*]I prefer the character of older lenses. [*]I shoot a lot of anamorphic footage these days, so I don't want any lenses that have barrels that rotate when focusing or that have large-diameter front elements. 55mm is about as big of filter size as I want to deal with. Also, it may be a petty consideration but having a standard 52mm filter size across as many lenses as possible is appealing to me from a convenience standpoint. [*]Though I'd like to have a go-to, image-stabilized lens in my kit (I'm looking at you, 12-35mm Lumix X), I want to wait until the GH3 specs are announced -- it's a stretch, but in-body stabilization could void the need for this. [*]I am trying to think about the future. I want lenses that I can take to another camera system should the situation arise. [/list] Here is what I am thinking about keeping:[list=1] [*]12mm SLR Magic f1.6 -- Mostly for steadicam work. [*]25mm Voigtlander Nokton f0.95 -- Good all-round low-light lens. [*]40mm Konica AR f1.8 -- Sharp, compact, and works well with my anamorphic lenses. [*]55mm Nikkor Micro AI-S f2.8 -- Mostly used for product photography. [*]58mm Helios 44 f2 -- Interesting bokeh, is a perfect fit for one of my anamorphics. [*]85mm Nikkor Non-AI-S f1.8 -- Fast, and a great focal length for interviews. [*]100mm-300mm Lumix f4-5.6 -- For wildlife shooting. [/list] I think that this represents a good range with little redundancy. But there are some shooters with a lot more experience than I have on these boards and I'd be curious to hear what you think, or what you have in your lens bag.

Nice shot. Can't wait to see some video. That's where the anamorphic properties will really shine.

I just saw this and thought that Andrew had scored [i]another[/i] killer deal on a second Iscorama. Even though I am not on the market for one, for about ten seconds I was just slightly bitter.

Watch eBay! Someone listed a brand new one last night and it was snapped up within a couple of hours...