mercer

I don't want to completely drown out the shade, I just want to brighten his face a touch. I'll be tracking him from 5 to 10' away. I have a couple small LED panels, I'll give them a go first, but I'm really looking for something similar to what... @Michael Coffee posted... A mini fresnel.

Depending on the framing of your shot, you could always tie a thin rope between you and you actor/subject... Attach it to your belt and his... Hit your focus before you start moving and as long as you keep the rope taut as you track him, you will stay in focus.

The RMC Tokina 17mm hits infinity at about 15 feet. If he wants to nail his focus with a steadicam and a manual lens, I would use 20mm lens or less. He should hit infinity at 20' or less with a lot of ultra wide lenses. Or at least the ones, I've owned. Sorry, read it quickly, I thought he was using a manual lens for some reason... Hot summer brain I guess.

Not really, there is a big difference between having hybrid capabilities and being completely marketed as a hybrid camera... Which is what you said. It's a camcorder that takes stills... But really what is the difference anyway? You obviously are not enamored by anything that says Canon on it, so don't buy anything with that badge. I don't care if you like Canon products, why do you care so much that other people do? I mean, this is getting really ridiculous now. You only post on the forum to ridicule Canon. Do you work for Sony, or Nikon, or another company... Or are you just so bored that you have nothing better to do?

Wide angle lens set to infinity. As wide as you can get.

Great idea... Will definitely do this when I can.

Most Hollywood movies end up looping their dialogue. Of course they're going to try and get good sound on location, but the real reason they hire all of those people is probably due to union contracts.

Audio is recorded on set, then usually post dubbed later on. At this level though, clean on set audio is probably your best bet.

I was thinking about a bounce board but for the majority of these shots, I will be the only crew. I was thinking something like the Gekko K7, but even that is a hair too big.

I am shooting a short in the middle of the woods with some tracking shots in and out of pockets of sun and curtains of shade. I'm looking for a tiny... I mean as small as possible... Smaller than the cheap LED panels, to eliminate the under eye shadows, add some eye sparkle and just add a little more even exposure to my actor's face as I follow him in and out of the shade. Any suggestions?

Good question... It's listed on BH as an instant savings. The price isn't even listed in the Canon USA site. I just bought an XC10 with the "instant savings." According to Canon, it's up on the 31st, but when I received my sales slip from BH it states the instant savings is good until 9/31/16. I have a feeling this is a final price cut to get rid of inventory. Photokina should be an interesting show for Canon.

Panny, I have very little time to test the camera as I am about to start a short film with it. One more day of testing before I start and it's really just a dress rehearsal, sound test situation. But don't worry, my short takes place entirely in the woods, so they'll be plenty of "greens"... God help us all...

Don't underestimate the Rode VideoMic Pro. It's small and discrete and that +20db switch is amazing. Set the in camera audio low, flick the +20db switch on the Rode, set it to narrow field and get close to your actors. Get one or two takes with the actors performing their dialogue with the camera 3 feet or less from their face and you should get some usable dialogue. If you capture it slightly low, it should be clean and you can raise it in post. Or as others have said, grab a couple H1s or the new Little Darling recorders from JuicedLink and lav up your actors. Even an inexpensive Azden lav will sound pretty damn good under those circumstances.

Cinematic is sometimes a subjective thing. The 1dX ii has a beautiful image and that video with the hot girl riding on the back of a motorcycle was very instrumental in bringing me back to Canon... Their colors are just undeniable... In their most basic out of camera looks and when graded. If I were a richer man, I would love to own the 1dX mkii.

Thanks, I'll definitely check those out. I didn't even know Canon made LUTS... Makes sense though. I did try some of the Impulz Log LUTS and they worked beautifully. In some of my wide shots, where the sky was very prevalent in the shot, I noticed they introduced a little macro blocking, though. I actually start off with the simple 3 Strip LUT that comes with Color Finale. I found it helps to balance the image and it introduces just enough saturation to start the grade.

I think I just like a softer image because I have only added sharpening to one of my clips thus far. Do you use the Sharpen effect in FCPX? That's what I had used, just at its default... I think it's 2.5.

Each frame is compressed individually with mjpeg, that with c-log could add a smooth heft to the image, but I'm just guessing because I noticed the same thing. I also noticed a weight to the 1dXii image but not that smooth cinematic quality the 1dC has. But don't get me wrong I have liked most things I've seen shot with the 1dXii as well.

I just finished watching that video... Beautiful footage. The 4K on this camera is nuts. Did you add any sharpening in post? I have to get some more C-Fast cards... What brand are you using? Thanks again for the tips. I'll have to check out that LUT. Did you say you got it here? I don't like the one that comes with Color Finale... Of course I am trying to get better at color correction/grading without any LUTS.

Hey Tom, really great info here. The 70 zebras saved me the other day, but I have a question regarding shooting in TV with C-Log. If the camera is setting the ISO and aperture for me, does it know the proper exposure for the best C-Log results? You mention using the Tiffen Fader ND, but when you darken the image with the Fader ND, doesn't the camera adjust the aperture accordingly, or does the +/- ae adjustment automatically lock the exposure, so then you're free to adjust the ND appropriately?

Dave, this is effin beautiful!!! Was this 4K or 1080p? C-Log?

Do you think it's the full frame aesthetic mixed with c-log? With the right lens, those creamy OOF areas add a totally different texture to the C-Log.

@bunk it's pretty interesting seeing other people's workflow, there's usually something I take from it. I use the FCPX Color Board for exposure and saturation and the Color Finale plug in for color balance, LUT (if I use one, I am trying to get better without using any LUTS) and any master S-Curve, or RGB curve tweak. I have been watching a few tutorials... hopefully they'll start sinking in... probably not because I have a horrible attention span. Btw, if you care, I did check the original footage and there was no macro blocking. Also none in the converted ProRes files. But when I added too many layers in the grade I notice some showing up in that blue sky, especially when I used an Impulz LUT... of course I liked my Impulz LUT grade the best...

That depends, if they release a 1dC mk ii or a 5dC, either or both with C-Log, then it's highly unlikely C-Log will be added to the 1dX ii via a firmware update. Of course, a 1dC mk ii will probably run upwards of 10 grand and will have 60p in C-Log. So, the original will still be viable to the professional hybrid shooter that wants a 4K video upgrade with the stills form factor.

Okay, gotcha. Yeah it was a pretty good. That lead actress is in a show called Married on FX. If you want to feel really good about your first short, you can always take a look at my first attempt...

No they didn't... "multi media tool" is mentioned once in the initial press release whereas "camcorder" shows up 19 times. Never once in the press release is the word "hybrid" used. http://www.dvinfo.net/news/canon-usa-introduces-xc10-4k-camcorder.html Reviewers were comparing it to hybrids because of the form factor and built in lens. Canon marketed it as a professional camcorder. After using it for a few days, I feel it deserves the moniker, professional cine-camcorder. Or prosumer cine camcorder if you prefer.