I needed a laugh today. I'll pass it on. Now get back to work !

Here is a shot from the Rokinon Cine 8mm I got a week ago. Tasty lens I'm just starting to get to know. More once I get back from a location shoot this week.

This is bad... really bad. I mean how stupid were the judge(s) in this case to ignore all the prior art that was ( surely ) presented ? Vote with your money and tell Vitec group you will no buy any products from any of its companies until they back off.  PatenFreeLED.com  had better info than news week. Litepanels has made pretty crappy products for the price so I guess the only way they can try to make money given real competition in the marketplace is to license their bad patent. It may take years to invalidate their patent as it should be for simply being based on prior art.

Quote : " Of the fourteen (14) companies named in the complaint, all of the major manufacturers have taken the professional route and chosen to license its intellectual property to continue manufacturing LED lighting products for sale in the United States. The overwhelming adoption of licensing will ensure that the marketplace for LED lighting products remains as diverse, robust and competitive as ever. In fact, the licensing agreements now allow these companies to build on top of Litepanels’ technology to create even more innovative products going forward."

You can tell them what you think on their facebook page here. Wonder why they don't have any contact info on their website... don't most companies publish this so customers or perspective ones can contact them ? wonder why....

If that isn't a bunch of crap I don't know what is. I'm grabbing a couple more LED lites today while I still can.

I'm working on location this week using several LED lights actually. None are made by litepanels thankfully. 

Just got a couple new toys in here last week. All for an up coming shoot where I think they will work really well for some of the B roll I need to shoot on this job. So I'll be doing a review on them soon once I've had enough hands on time and gotten some good samples together. I did do a review of the 14mm stills version of the lens a while ago and so far my quick test confirm its the same lens optically with the cine style gears added on.

I also got a few minor fixes and updates done on the site too like adding some missing reviews to the sidebar. The problem is once you do enough of them you start to loose track  ! Ok back to work for me right now.

In light of the mass shooting in CT today and the mass slashing in China, no official post today that I had been planning. I have been working on several projects including a redesign of this site I was ready to let folks have a peak at today. Instead I'm going to let that sit and probably roll it out over the weekend. If you see this site acting weird, its because of the update. I know some small changes have rippled onto the live site... however its really not that important. Instead let us consider our own good fortunes as many other people on 2 sides of the planet grieve for the horrors done today.

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I keep turning up these really great lenses some how. Found again locally here, I turned up a classic Pentax Asahii Takumar 50 1.4 made sometime in 1966 based on lens markings. If you feed it some backlight it makes simply gorgeous lens flares as above. Yet it still has lots of sharpness and a cool diffused glow wide open. Its a great people shooting lens when you need that look which modern glass just isn't going to give you. Ok, you can get a (black) Pro Mist or Soft FX filteror any number of other diffusers onto your lens but its not the same look. If you want that classic vintage 60's look its as simple and easy as just USING a lens made in that period.

The shot below is the same location, one day later,  taken aimed slightly more to the left from the same spot.  Again plenty of sharpness from this old lens even fairly wide open. We are of course talking about the original 5K still images. In 1920X1080 video they of course  look great.  On the top image I did only some very minor adjustments in the raw settings to pull in the clouds in the sky. The rest of the image is how it came from the camera

. 

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One thing you may notice about a lot of Takumar lenses is the gold color of the front elements. That color does in fact effect the image. You can certainly balance it out with a custom WB setting, but for some types  of shooting consider it a fulltime 81A or B warming filter. Its nowhere near an 85 in terms of effect. If you look thru the optical viewfinder and then look up you can also see the warming effect. My guess is that at some point when most folks were shooting B&W this was somewhat like a yellow contrast boosting filter, but a bit more subtle. Probably for color they figured at least for prints you could easily enough print it out with filtration or just enjoy the warmer tones. What I did find is that shooting with the 60D in RAW, sometimes I did very much get that warm tone as above. Other times the camera picked up on the warmness and white balanced a bit cooler to compensate. I actually have back to back shots with minor lighting changes of the same thing where I can see the camera rebalance the RAW images. When looking through everything later, I can say I almost always preferred the warmer shots which had more character. So the color rendition of these lenses is not a bad thing unless you are trying to do the opposite of what this lens wants to give you ... in which case just change lenses ! 

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In the portrait above of my wonderful partner Sharon the warm tones and flare made a cold winter day look far warmer in 1960 something that it looks like ! I did do a couple little changes to the image, mainly in taking down the saturation of the blue scarf a bit, pulling the highlights down in the RAW image and thats about it. I could certainly of used the image straight from the camera with equally nice results.

One more image. This one is actually stitched together from 3 verticals because I couldn't get enough space to shoot it horizontally. This puts the "original" at about 9K res. 

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Handling

This is a lens made when a lens WAS a lens. Its all metal no fooling around with plastic. Its got some heft to it to be sure. It has smooth focusing all these years later as proof of its quality construction. Is there a down side ? yes the stupid backwards focus direction. This completely throws me as I've learned to know which way to turn a lens based on how it looks to get focus. Its not quite the end of the word since the look of this lens is so nice, but it is a big downside you'll just have to deal with for all its goodness. 

Overall this is a very nice lens with some very interesting characteristics that you will either love or hate. I probably depends far more on the image you want to create, the style, period, texture. The more vintage glass I get, at least primes anyway, I find they have tons more resolution than the film stocks of their day ever had. They still made nice sharp images on modern sensors never dreamed about 40 something years ago.

So someday I'm going to get all these 50mm lenses together for a shoot out. In particular I'd like to pair in a new 50mm or two and repeat the vintage lens shoot out with matched lenses. Meanwhile I keep my eyes open for other glass like this whenever it happens to turn up. Thoughts folks ?

Care to tell me what lens I have in front of the sensor ? Hint : its new to me, its a cult classic ! 

As much as I had thought I'd had a lens with interesting flares in the Meyer Optik 50 this one beats it, and its a FAR more well know name. Can't wait to try some daylight shots and video with it. 

I actually picked up a small pile of M42 mount vintage glass this weekend... this one and one other are the stand outs. The other being a very wide angle full frame lens with another name I've liked, Vivitar... made in this case by Kiron ! The other two are equally interesting and I can't wait to try them out - all 400mm of it !

Hawk probably isn't a name most people think of when it comes to lenses, especially outside of the EU. However they have been around for 20 years making all sorts of quaility cine lenses. Now they have pretty much gone and out done every one with a set of Anamorphic T1 ( as in F1.0 ) super speed primes. Its an impressive set of  glass : 17.5, 21, 25, 32, 40, 50, 65, 90, 120 mm all at an amazing T1.0 speed. They offer very nice optical performance down to about T1.4 and then get a little more wild looking at T1.0 because of the super thin DoF. Price ? well none and I think you know if you have to ask... they aren't for you. Rental item for sure. Of course my wondering.. why not also a set of non-anamorphic super speed glass because that would be a real crowd pleaser. Who knows... probably with all the other lens makers they wouldn't of stood out enough to going anamorphic put them into a spot in the market that isn't occupied. Looks like a winner for those wanting to shoot in the format. 

Sony doesn't get it, but we all knew that, right ? Ok, we thought with the F5 and F55 they got it, until higher MSRP's leaked out today. No, back to the bad old days with reckless abandon that we are still stupid enough to pay 5-10X what a camera is worth. So just to compound this are a new series of ads for their NEX line... basically pissing on dslr users. I guess whoever got these ads approved didn't even know that Sony makes dslr's too... Not funny, offensive. Go and offend your potential customers...

For several flavors of Sony media, XDcam and NXcam you've been stuck to use those formats with 10.8 Mountain Lion. Finally Sony has an update HERE. 

Whats included ? Quote from the Sony Site 

XDCAM Browser’ has been renamed ‘Content Browser’ as it will consolidate XDCAM, NXCAM and the forthcoming RAW formats on the new F5/F55. It looks just like XDCAM Browser and more or less works the same way. It also has Mountain Lion support. It’s not on the XDCAM download site yet but it is on the SCS site. Please log on to link for XDCAM Browser with ML support.

New

FTP Connection to XDCAM Station (XDS v2.0)
Remote control improvement on XDCAM Station (XDS v2.0)
Archive Clip / ClipList to ODS-D55U through Content Manager application
ClipList export to AAF file* *Advanced Pack (optional) is required

This single app also replaces all these separate apps

XDCAM Browser
Content Management Utility
XDCAM Transfer (for Apple FCP)
XDCAM EX Clip Browser
PDZ-1 (XDCAM Proxy Browsing Software)
PDZ-VX10 (XDCAM Viewer)

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I'm working on a real review but for now, here are some quick images I took with the lens. Some are stills at 3200 / 6400 ISO, others are from 1080 video at 640 and 1600.

An interesting suprise today : The C100. A somewhat stripped down version of the C300. The body is a bit smaller, most of the C300 features are there. They even left the internal ND filters in, but here comes the but - they changed the internal codec to AVCHD 24mbit. Whats not known is if the HDMI out is clean and you can record to an external box in ProRes. While this is a good move by Canon to have a lower priced body, its still over priced. No RAW, EF mount only ( no PL ). However it does have LOG which is good, and is supposed to have improved highlight handling. Bottom line is I'm sure its makes very nice pix, but if you look at the FS100 and FS700 both for less, even with EF adapters this is a bit short for the price. I think they should of priced this at about $5K to be competitive. Canon can of course always do so somewhere along the line, but they are protecting the C300, at least for now. You'll remember that Sony with the F3 had LOG recording as a $2K initial option, then they dropped the price, then they included it on all new cameras for free as I had predicted to keep the camera more competitive. Interesting times !

A few months back I did a review on this lens. In that review I had noted it had something shaking around. While a few flights, many thousands of miles of driving later it seems looser. I contacted Rokinon and they said send it in for repair, thats not normal. If this is the case I'd wish some one had would have said something. Let me ask you then, "Does your 35 1.4 have something shaking inside ?" I"m sending it out tomorrow and we'll see how long it takes for them to turn it around. 

Good tools help, but it won't make you great. To prove that Dan Chung shot the London Olympics with an iPhone plus a few helper lenses for wide angle and long lens close ups. Here is a look at his work over several days and plenty of great quality shots.

YES ! This is a first of its kind lens shoot out pairing 2 new lenses against 3 vintage lenses. Lens charts, real world shots, different apertures, different lighting. This is a really comprehensive set of tests that just get right into it in making side by side comparisons of all this glass. 

In this shoot out I've got :

Rokinon 35 1.4

Tamron 17-50 2.8

VS

Vivitar 28 1.9

Vivitar 24 2

Kiron 28 2

Another shot I took during my shoot this week in Pearl Harbor. One of the vets looking out from the church on Naval base there. 

Being gone for a long exciting intense week, I"ve been slow with posts, but I have a few tasty things in the works. I spent a lot of the week shooting with a Rokion 14mm 2.8 on my 60D, along with a AF100 using a Nikkor 14-24 2.8 and even a HPX500.

Let me get thru the weekend and get some stuff done and I'll be back to the usual posts.

Below is Jeff from Ch2 Green Bay getting all Samurai with my boom pole !

A huge number of bug fixes went into this release. Read about everything here on Adobe's blog. Update via the built in updater. One note : no 3rd party video output support yet. I guess building the Transmit API and code into SG is a big project.

Shipping now is the new cine style Rokinon 8mm F3.8. The iris is decliked, both focus and iris have gearing on them and the markings are sidways for more traditional operation.

180 Deg view with APS-C sensors means you had better watch your feet aren't in the shot ! Very much the GoPro look finally for large sensor cameras. Yes they have had a "normal" version. I find this pretty exciting because it hopefully it hints at Rokinon doing this across the other lenses in the line.

Rokinon 8mm Ultra Wide Angle f/3.5 Fisheye Lens for Canon EF Mount

Rokinon 8mm Ultra Wide Angle f/3.5 Fisheye Lens for Nikon w/Focus Confirm Chip

sponsor links do provide this site with a small commission... so we always appreciate it if you use them :) !

AJA has drivers at last released for CS6 ! Available HERE.  The last major video I/O card vendor has them out. All things considered, having working drivers for you card within a few weeks of CS6's release is VERY welcome. A big thank you to all third party video card makers for getting your drivers updated and out for CS6.

More pre NAB news. Fujinon has a 19-90 T 2.9 ZOOM lens in PL mount. Its got a conventional handgrip with zoom control. It covers the full APS-C / S35 image area. How many folks have been wanting some glass like this ? Lots. To bad that all those people who want and need this lens still will be. MSRP is $38,000 !... um right. Anyone involved with ENG / Doc style shooting isn't going to be using this lens unless its a rental... and even then it will be a pricey rental. Knock of zero off the price and then we have a conversation. Painfully over priced. Where as the dslr revolution brought increbile images for low cost, clearly there has been tries at going back to the very expensive model of gear over the last 6 months. I think I know how people are voting....

I must admit, I've handled a few ENG video camera lenses off the camera and always thought how cool it would be to have a small camera that fit on the back which was next to nothing. While folks have played around with this idea before, especially with M 4/3's cameras, no one I've seen has gotten it all together like this. The lens it mounted to the body with an adapter and the zoom is powered up and working !

You can find a B4 to M 4/3's adapters  on eBay, but getting everything else working is another story. Anthony Burokas got it working. Check out his full article here.

I generally don't do this but this deal is really too good to pass up. This just dropped again today by $40 - Get a 5D new body only for $1999 ! available thru my link here. You can't get this deal via normal B&H site search. LINK HERE or click on the image. If you are interested in getting a 5D this is a great deal and if you click on the links here, I will make a tiny small commission which goes to help keep this site running. 

And what would be better then some vintage glass ?

Coming up is a vintage lens shoot out where I'll be comparing several vintage 24 and 28mm lenses. If anyone has a new or vintage lens they want to lens me for the test, let me know.

I was shooting some small product shots today. Objects were palm sized to little finger sized.  I can't show you the actual shots, but I can share how I got them.

My wide shots started with a Olympus OM 50 1.4. It focuses to about 1 ft from the lens front which is great. However I needed to fill the frame a little better.

I did what you are NOT supposed to do, used a 1.4X converter to get to about 70mm.  Ya Ya Ya the photo pixel peepers will tell you that you should not be using an extender for anything shorter then about 100mm but I'm over it. The Kenko Teleplus PRO 300 DGX 1.4x AF Teleconverter is a great optical performer and so is the OM 50 1.4 which I was shooting at 2.0-4.  I could of grabbed the Tamron 70-200 2.8 which focuses pretty close and added the extension tube, but I was shooting at F2.0 - 2.8 most of the time which would of been out of range for the 70-200.  

This setup was perfect for some shots, but I needed closer still. What to do ? extension tube time ! My pretty close shots used the extension tube between the 60D body and 1.4x Kenko extender. 

For even closer shots, I used the  31mm extension tube.

Now dig what I'm using as a light block for the matte box which has a .9 ND 81EF in it - A cokin mounting ring ! One of the lens rings on the matte box is the exact same size as the cokin P filter holder's outer diameter. I went to eBay and for around $20 or $25 bought a complete set of mount rings from 49mm to 82mm. I can leave one ring in the matte box and use the cokin holders on my lenses. They are cheap enough you can have one per lens, or pick up a set like I did.

I updated the Matrox MAX encoder review video with some screen shots of the encodes. I also have a couple more video reviews shot and I'm working them. 

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Panasonic announced yet another new camera. Call this Son of HVX-200 finally done right.

MSRP is $5995. Not bad.

1/3" Chips, ok for palmcorder format after all this is a video camera.

SDI out, HDMI out, very nice !

records AVChd 10bit 4:2:2, great !

20bit video DSP. amazing to have in a camera of this size and price. should make for super clean images

1080p30, 1080i60, 720p60 are the max FPS rates AND 50/25hz frames rates are in there too so its a universal camera. Thank you!

Timecode I/O ! well its about freaking time ! probably the number one most requested feature on these small cameras. 

P2  cards ??? Alternate Model AG-160 does use SD cards. It looks like Panasonic aimed this model towards users of varicams and 300 series cameras using P2. This is the B or C cam for quick B roll shooting or just getting an extra shot while the big camera is the main shot.  The AG160 model uses SD cards and appears to be otherwise identical including mention of timecode support. The AG-160 has a MSRP of $4795 which is a bit nicer and more inline. Even if you have a P2 camera, do you want to buy another couple P2 cards ? probably not. 

I think the AG160 will be the hit camera while this camera will probably do pretty well out there as a B cam to the larger 300 series cameras of you have lots of extra P2 cards.

Canon released a firmware update for the 60D. Its available here.

Changes:

Firmware Version 1.1.0 incorporates the following fixes and improvements.
1. Fixes a phenomenon where the wireless built-in flash settings are reset to defaults when the battery is removed from the camera.
2. Fixes an intermittent phenomenon where image-rotation information is not recognized correctly when shooting with the camera in the vertical position depending on the timing of the shutter release.

Firmware Version 1.1.0 is for cameras with firmware up to Version 1.0.9. If the camera's firmware is already Version 1.1.0, it is not necessary to update the firmware.
 

Really want to use you nikons ( or adapted lenses ) on your iPhone ? sure you do. You can't wait ! and for only $250 its done !

Photojojo now sells in their online store

Now that things have calmed down a little with work I'm back to be working on some new video reviews. i'm trying to get my hands on a FS100 and we'll see how that goes.  I'll also take a look at some Tamron glass as an alternative to EOS glass.

So far for me, FCP went out to the curb about a year ago because of its various failings and limitations. One of them was color correction. Now it looks like maybe apple gets it. Dig these - secodaries that look a lot like what you had to buy colorista II to get. Don't get me wrong, Colorista II and Looks from Red Giant rules for in NLE CC work. However, both are slow - as in while their OGL rendering can get you chunky playback at 1/2 res and maybe 1/2 frame rate, I'm guessing FCP X's CC will be full res and full frame rate. Apple has had to get their butts kickec with Prem Pro's CUDA hardware acceleration, so I'm sure they have been working on it the same way. FCP has had hardware acceleration using the GPU for several generations, but maybe apple will take it to a new level.

To see more, the shots can be found on Flickr

What does this  mean ? Apple is feeding the PR mania machine and that we'll see a release in the next week or so, on or before June 21.

Canon announced that they are adding ThunderBolt interface to their cameras. This will be the new firewire to be sure. Added to a dslr, it probably won't make a difference because the speed limitation is the storage media itself, not the interface. Its also dismal that apple's FW ports are sub spec on the last couple generations of product. If you have ever used a FW cable over 12 or 15ft, that just doesn't work on intel machines. The old G4 laptops and G5 towers easily worked with 35 ft or longer cables. Thunderbolt should lead to super long fiber optic cables some day, but we'll see how long the copper cables will work.

100 year old ultra vintage lens on 60D from Steve Oakley on Vimeo.

Vivitar 35-105mm F3.5 Lens Test2 + 60D 720p60 from Steve Oakley on Vimeo.

Review of a Classic Lens, the Vivitar 400mm f5.6 With Video

Vivitar ( Tokina ) 400mm f5.6 Lens Test from Steve Oakley on Vimeo.

Shooting

I just did a real shoot with this lens

Vivitar35-105 3.5 This bargain lens looks impressive. Its got a big front element, solid metal construction, constant iris, and the perfect range for a lot of the work I do. Is it a little slow at 3.5 ? maybe, but thats really only a 1/2 stop from 2.8. I'm generally working with a light level of about F4 @ 200 for sit down interviews so this easily fits into the comfort range for me. Lets go further, this lens has an internal zoom ! Thats right, the length of the lens does not change when...

Read More "Is the 1976 Vintage Vivitar 35-105 3.5 a Mini Primo ? UPDATED"