second that question, how do you approach these people?

We (the two directors and I), just hung out in the market place (Deptford Flea Market, SE14, London) for a few hours with the camera. We told people we were shooting an experimental film concerned primarily with expressions, and then asked them to imagine they were looking in the mirror; posing for a cheesy photograph; or telling off a kid. The rest was all in the moment and the arresting power of the whole rig (replete with portable 'HD' DVD player as viewscreen!).

Quite an exhilirating/inspiring experience...

Cheers Deptford!

jason

Heya,

This was shot using the shutter priority mode, and if I recall correctly was almost entirely at 1/50th, although I may have gone down to 1/100th or 1/200th towards the end of the shoot as more sky crept into the compositions.

I'm not really sure where the sweet spot of the canon integral lens is, but I think that the light levels woulda put the camera at somewhere around F8.0, I'll have a look at the tapes and get back to you.

Cheers,

jason

I wondered the same thing myself... It almost looked like the wind was blowing directly into his eyes or he was in extreme pain.

If you look REALLY closely at the very top of the frame between 0:20 and 0:35 you can see what appears to be the very bottom of a circle popping into frame.

I was thinking the same on the shakiness--gives it a really "raw" feel.

If this was shot with IS turned ON, I wonder how it will look without. Was this all handheld? It makes me wonder if the M2 adds any shake to the footage.

Yah, the footage is all handheld.

However, it was my first shoot with this setup, and I was primarily holding the stem of a Manfrotto tripod (with legs removed). Hence the whole weight of the camera was pushing down from above.

Since then, I've really come to appreciate the handle mounted above the camera body, so that the weight 'hangs' underneath. That way the camera wants to stay still, and the swing motion acts similarly to a steadicam.

The IS actually increases shake with a 35mm, because the optics are inverted before they reach the Canon lens. (Live and learn I guess..!)

jason

Thank you very much...

;-)

jason

Yah, you gotta love the 50mm opened all the way up to 1.4 - Finding/holding focus is a task though!

Cheers

jason

Well, yes and no.

The XL2 is quite old now (released in 2004), the hv20 was released last year, so technology has moved on a fair bit. The xl2 is a standard def. camera, so it loses resolution compared to the hv20.

It's a case of apples and pears really, because the xl2 has a few advantages. It's a much larger, steadier camera, with a much greater degree of manual control/customisation. Also it allows the direct connection of XLR mics, which makes it much simpler to get high quality sound.

Not sure about color - I was real lucky on this shoot to have beautiful light.

cheers,

jason

I used Canon HV20 with M2 standard setup (no flip). The key to the clarity is having a high quality lens. I used a Nikon 50mm 1:1.4 (wide aperture), which in addition to the small depth of field (DoF) brings a real crispness to the image. Elsewhere you can see shots with the same setup with zoom and wideangled lenses, and they're rarely as crisp.

Oh, and also I used a Sony portable 'HD' (800x600) DVD player with composite inputs as a viewscreen, which flips the image for handheld/street shooting. It also brings the rig up to about 5kg, which gets heavy really quickly!

Hope this helps. Message me back with any specific questions.

jason

Here's a link to the other lens tests I mentioned, also has more narrative documentary pieces shot entirely with a HV20 on the M2 (on my other profile)...

vimeo.com/2163653

Thank you for your replies! Could you tell me what achromat are you using with your M2?

As in the title of the video, it's a 72mm HD achromat made by Redrock. unfortunately requiring three step up rings to attach to the HV20. (43-57, 57-62, 62-72 - from memory). This is annoying as it reduces the efficiency of the achro a little. The HD 72mm achro is noticeably sharper than the SD 43mm, as you would expect.

Music is Phillip Glass. Not sure of the track name.

Sorry,

jason