Leaderboard

Mine came in this morning. Serial number #05. I have been couped up in the office all day working on an edit, but even in some quick shots of my coworkers, I am blown away by what I am seeing. This lens is quite unlike anything else I have ever used. I am not going to say too much right now, but there is so much possibility here...   I hope to post some footage this weekend.

The Flare Factory 58 is modified lens by fellow British filmmaker Richard Gale, and a regular member of the EOSHD forum. A few weeks go Rich sent me one of the first of the lenses, a Flare Factory 58 (serial 004). Humorously branded Dog Schidt Optiks, Rich is modifying Helios 44-M 58mm F2.0 lenses making versions with a unique character which can be customised on order. They are hand assembled and modified in England.

I think the c300 is the best for handheld documentary stuff. 

Rent each and test em out. http://www.borrowlenses.com/AdvancedSearch.do?searchString=glidecam

I use the Glidecam HD4000 with my GH2 (the top had additional counterweights). The HD2000 is probably better suited for this particular camera, but there's a good possibility that my next camera will be larger than the GH2. The arm brace helps a lot. Even with the arm brace, I can only fly the thing for two or three minutes at a time before my arm is ready to fall off.   All that being said, if I had back and/or neck problems I would go for the lightest setup possible.

Saw The Croods in RealD 3D, AMC ETX in Burbank: Sony 4K and Dolby Atmos 3D sound. The screen was as big as the last IMAX screen I viewed (huge). We sat towards the back on the upper balcony- image was tack sharp. 3D visuals were perfect and 3D audio was very cool. When this quality is available in the home, folks will buy it. Current 3D and HD TVs cannot provide this kind of experience (major issues with 3D at home are low resolution or ghosting). Conversely, saw the Life of Pi in 3D at the Dome Arclight in Hollywood with shutterglasses- clunky, heavy, uncomfortable 3D glasses, ghosting, not a good 3D experience. The movie was great however I can see why folks don't like 3D if that's all they have seen (low quality 3D systems).   I have worked with 3D for a long time- my company created some fo the first 3D games for PCs (including kicking off hardware accelerated 3D by porting Quake to 3D in 1998 for H3D). Have seen 3D come and go; it's not going anywhere this time around: it will slowly get better in the home. No pundit or hater proclamations will make it go away. RealD 3D rocks- check it out before writing off 3D. 4K will be a small market for a while but makes sense for large screens.   Clearly, 3D is not a proven failure: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lzrmx6HhtyQ   If you don't get it, see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuOvqeABHvQ   If you don't get that, you're not doing enough acid*       *ascorbic acid. What did you think I meant?

canon ssc and early fd are mighty fine japan refined existing tens technology the russians mainly copied. the russians in the 1950s just used industrial espionage..like china today. japan said let us take these recipes some 70-90 years old and make them better or at least not make them worse. after ww2 japan took on the world and until corruption and western blackmail kicked in they where doing very well. japan has many technologies that will never see the light of day because of big oil and big nuke that is why they are being destroyed now.

The Glidecam HD series is a tried-and-true steadicam system. I run it with my 5D all the time. Deadly steady shots.

@JohnBarlow - The only barrel distortion I have seen so far is when using a 35mm taking lens, even then it is not too much of an issue.I will do some more scientific tests soon...when I can escape the house for an hour or two.   In the mean time here is a 'Slightly' more interesting test this time using a furry friend.   I'm still curious as to the close focus and wide open performance of this KOWA...as close and sharp seems to always be hard to achieve with anamorphic without strong diopters. This test was using the good old TOKINA +0.4 without any post sharpening to the image. I'm pretty impressed that the results, I look forward to shooting some better example footage soon. Minimum focus Shot wide open at F2 on Helios 44 taking lens, distance approx 2 feet, focus on eyes. @ 2mins:22secs, the sharpest pull of the eye highlights can be seen.   https://vimeo.com/62690537

  Thanks for the lovely write up Andrew.  We're looking forward to seeing you ragging the gradations with10bit colour on your bmcc, in moving picture.  The sunset shot is rather fetching.  makes me want a large glass of OJ!     @ Wombi.   I understand your point.  There is such a thing as 'too much' and 'cliche'  But 99% of what you see in this style has been worked in post to give the look - especially in video/movies/commercials.  Even a layman can sense a digital post production workflow overlayed over something shot on super contrasty zeisses.  It's very hard to successfully mimmic analogue and physical lens flares and characteristics.  It gets even more exciting when you start to pull the footage around and start adding contrast back to the image shot on a flat/milky lens.  Raw will be the key to getting the most from these lenses, and hopefully soon we will all have access to raw movie capture.           

A lot of commercials are shot with the Alexa, or in 24p, and neither of those are dead. There's been a lot of shit paintings in the colour red but it didn't kill the colour. And so on...

Got a response back!   "Small amount of movement is normal.  When the lens is very very smooth, there is the most movement that you are talking about.  When there is no movement, the lens would be so hard to turn that you need a very strong tripod mount to ensure no camera movement while focusing.  Something in between, not too loose and not too tight, is what we try to achieve.   If you wish, we can exchange another lens for you, but we cannot guarantee that the exchange lens would be looser or the same or tighter than the lens you have now.  Usually, if image does not jump up and down while changing direction of focus, we consider that normal."   My image doesn't jump up and down. So I'm not sending it back.   -Ben