Kowa 8-z - random pic

"Looks like a movie"

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bryaniceman/4594959751/in/pool-actuallylookslikeamovie

What is an achromat/diopter - and why use one?

http://jag35.com/new/blog/all-about-achromats/

interesting discussion on usage too:
http://www.cinema5d.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=7022&start=290&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

Isco 54 1.333 - random pic

Kowa 8z - random pic

Cool videos shot on a Canon Rebel t2i

Ben sent me this :)
http://www.unstage.com/2010/04/20-cool-videos-shot-with-the-canon-rebel-t2i/

Pretty wallpaper

Pretty wallpaper link from Kiji:
http://wallbase.net/search/music

Icelandic Volcano Photos

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/04/more_from_eyjafjallajokull.html

Hi-resolution liquid/solid/fractally artwork

Hi-resolution liquid/solid/fractally artwork
http://art.depotvisuals.de/

I don't know if it's art but I like it :)

MAX/MSP creative programming

Musical bendy shoes:
http://createdigitalmusic.com/2010/04/16/bendable-musical-shoes-for-nike-and-how-they-were-made/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+createdigitalmusic+(createdigitalmusic.com)

Music from a dude's face!:
http://createdigitalmusic.com/2008/10/27/daito-manabe-makes-music-with-parts-of-his-face/

C++ openFrameworks

Cool looking libraries to aide in programming creative apps.
http://www.openframeworks.cc/about
And a nice example here:
http://graffitianalysis.com/iphone/

Rod-system for supporting cameras with large/heavy lenses

$90 - basic set up
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/310716-REG/Cavision_RS_816_RS_816_8mm_Light_Weight.html

$170 - a bit more versatile/stable
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/486498-REG/Cavision_RS_15IIM_250mm__RS_15IIM_250_Rod_Support_System.html

Mari - WETA texture mapping app, now developed by The Foundry

High-bandwidth
http://media.fxguide.com/fxguidetv/fxguidetv-ep078.mov

Low-bandwidth
http://media.fxguide.com/fxguidetv/fxguidetv-ep078.m4v

Slick Canon 7D footage

http://camerarentalz.com/best-canon-7d-footage/

Some pretty cool stuff.

FD Lens resource

FD Lenses, at least the Canon ones that I have, are cheap and potentially of beautiful vintage quality.  I usually use this website as a cross reference to check the specifications.

This, ebay, youtube and vimeo are a great way to research a lens I think :)

http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/canon/fdresources/fdlenses/index.htm

Canon 55mm f1.2 FD -> EF Conversion

Getting an FD lens to work on an EF camera:
http://www.ganymeta.org/~darren/photo_f1.2_conversion.php

Walters Camera Repair Shop - Downtown Los Angeles

www.walterscamerarepairs.com/

Walter seemed like a very experienced, knowledgeable, honest and friendly guy.  Haven't used him yet as he talked me out of a repair, but would certainly consider working with him.

New Sensor Technology

Very impressive leap in sensor technology.  Bye-bye noisy low light footage?  Here's hoping.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8580372.stm

Success beyond expectation!

Well isn't this a turn up for the books.  After many months of trying I have finally won an Iscorama 54.  Or rather more specifically, an Isco-Optic 16:9 Video Attachment with a 54mm rear optical port.  Not only that, the person I bought it from turns out to be a true gentleman, kindly giving much valuable advice.

Essentially, this would appear to be the perfect adaptor, in my view.  It has a 1.33x horiz squeeze (on account of it being intended to turn 4:3 to 16:9.  Of course this means that it turns a 16:9 native camera like the Lumix into a 2.35:1 device.  Perfect!  I didn't even know these existed.  It is optically wonderful.

You set the taking lens (FD Primes in my case) to infinite focus (or sometimes just under) and then focusing to your heart's content using the Isco's focus ring, which is smooth and controllable.  The adaptor even has a locking system to allow you to orientate the anamorphot so that it's correctly vertical.   That's really really useful.  No more messing around with tape on the ring threads to change the bite point, or using a star filter with the glass smashed out to give you rotational freedom.

Honestly, I couldn't be happier.  It's a heavy so and so, but sturdy and the camera/lens assembly deals with it well, though will probably get a rails/rod support system at some point.

But anyway, I'm a very happy bunny.  I just wish I had two cos I'm permanently paranoid about dropping it!  If you find one of these, get it.  No thought required.

Connected - post apocalyptic short film

A thoroughly inspiring and thought provoking film.  Great visuals and story.  In my humble opinion losing more of the far cityscape to dof blur a little more would have helped believability a little, plus perhaps an over-cranked camera look to slow things down and add some weight would have been nice on a few shots too.
http://www.ov43.com/

Gorgeous fluid based animation

Superb fluid dynamics work with Real Flow.  It's come a long way since I used it first in 2001!

http://www.realflow.com/n_cs_aparadise.htm
and then there is..
http://www.fubiz.net/2010/03/05/nokta-animation/
and not to forget this..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev9XpmS6Ugs

trade. - A Splintersilk Film (our first short film)

 

"It can be great when you try to find your­self. It's a dif­fer­ent mat­ter when your­self comes look­ing for you. "

So here it is, our first short film.  Filmed on a couple of early mornings in my appartment building.  It came about as a result of a few things, including some visual iconography that I find disturbing but intriguing.  We tried to keep them subtle here - see if you can spot them.

I toyed with using a song called Choke by Hybrid as the audio, but despite loving the tune it really didn't work.  It was too upbeat defeated some of the narrative.  I ended up doing the sound design from scratch using the same tools I use for music.  Ended up being great fun, except one particular sound component kept scaring the crap out of me and found I had to work on it during the day hahah!  I know..  Very sad, but woefully true.

The first shot in the whole thing was conceived as a result of a good friend sending me youtube links in our hunt to validate lenses and cameras (in this case the Panasonic Lumix GH1 and Canon FD 135mm/f2.5 lens) as used to (I think) beautiful effect here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykYA7TUd8hk (go to 0:56)
In fact I used the same combination in the corresponding part of trade.

Anyway, enough blabber.  Hope you enjoy :)

Noktor - f/0.95 aperture

Beautifully fast low light response, hideous bokeh at $750..

Solution a) spend $11,000 and get a Leika f/0.95 instead
Solution b) wait for a better camera with higher iso but as flexible and alias free as the GH1
Solution c) use this lens when it's appropriate and don't when it's not.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/theleggett/sets/72157623527995554/
vs
http://www.stevehuffphoto.com/2010/03/03/more-noktor-0-95-and-e-p2-samples/

by
http://www.noktor.com

Nuit Blanche - excellent work by Spy Films

A piece by Spy Films with fantastically derived slow-motion clips threading a charming narrative.

Nuit Blanche from Spy Films on Vimeo.

And the making of here

Nuit Blanche- Making of from Spy Films on Vimeo.

Anamorpic adapters... and hacking them?

At 4am this morning after waiting months and setting alarms to be awake in time I found myself lamenting yet another losing bid on an Iscorama 54 Anamorphic Adapter on ebay moments earlier.

My dear partner in crime put up with my grumpy morose phone call at this insane hour, reminding me of my own adapters* which would get me by for a while, and that the one I was looking for would probably come around again eventually.  Incredibly kind and understanding of her! :)

After she had placated my grumblings I settled off to the few hours of sleep I had available before another day at the studio, and I contemplated my current set of adapters:

Panasonic AG-LA7200 (1.33x horizontal width)
Kowa 16-H/8-Z (2x horizontal width)
Sankor 16-C (2x horizontal width)

My favourite of these in terms of visuals is the LA7200.  It has, in my opinion, a very late 70s-80s  cinematic 'lens-flares' - nice blue anamorphic streaks.  And of course being 1.33x actually takes a 16:9 camera to 2.35:1 (and no more, thus not wasting horizontal resolution in the cropping down process).  The thing I loathe about it is it's lack of onboard focusing.  Hence with longer lenses you have to stop down heavily.  This is a shame as a 'focus capable' adapter allows you to potentially have the aperture open fully and still get a nice clean and sharp focus point.

At 6.30am I got up and dismantled the LA7200.  It's actually immensely basic.  Two glass elements held in place with injection-molded plastic and bolted together with thin screws.

I experimented by placing the LA7200 with just the rear element on the GH1 + Canon FD 135mm wide open @f2.5.  I held the LA7200 front element in my hands and moved it forward and back eventually finding a far clearer though not perfect focus point.  Only briefly though.  Any lateral movement or twist in the camera z-axis threw it off hideously.  It could be that the front glass was slightly off axis to begin with, but it does make be wonder if there is a way to make this adapter a focusing one.  Seems like the shorter the distance between the front and rear element the more appropriate it is for long lenses like the 135mm - which is odd as the reverse is true of the focus-capable adapters.  I can only assume it's to do with arrangement orientation of lenses.  Does anyone have any information to back that up, and maybe help develop a focusing have for this adapter?

Time will tell I guess.  Right, back to work now... and back to searching for another Isco-54.

GH1 Canon FD 50mm f1.4 Kowa 16-H / 8Z - test 2

Ok about as silly as the last Kowa video I made, however at least now I've learned how to open the aperture all the way to f1.4 and not have those streaky anamorphic vertical tears on the 'in focus' area. Thought I'd share as I'm pretty happy :)


GH1 Canon FD 50mm f1.4 Kowa 16-H / 8Z - test 2 from Splintersilk on Vimeo.

Galileo - animated film by Ghislain Avrillon

This work of Ghislain Avrillon and crew is gorgeous. I really love it.
http://vimeo.com/8076404

Quicktime gamma fix

Quicktime gamma correction. Might come in handy one day when you want to send something you've been working on ;)
http://www.videocopilot.net/blog/2008/06/fix-quicktime-gamma-shift/

Bokeh effects - petzval lenses

Interesting bokeh effects. Great for pulling the foreground off the background whilst keeping things interesting and engaging. Thanks Benjamin for this link.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shima11/4358980031/in/set-72157613161961540/


Looks like the Petzval lens used for these great images is pretty intriguing in itself.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petzval_lens