Video Review: JAG35 electronic FF – impressive with trade-offs

The JAG35 electronic follow focus is a motorized focussing system that is controlled via a thumbunit.

After I had seen it at NAB this year and tested some similar products I wanted to take a closer look at this device which lies at one tenth the price of some of its competition while still delivering a working solution (with some trade-offs).

Buy it here: LINK

To get the exact package as seen in the video you will need the following items:
J2D or J3D motor*
LP-E6 battery plate
M1 thumb controller
12v powercable
3.5mm headphone jack cable
you might also need a D|gear or zip gear on your lens

In the video I’m using

and this

What I didn’t mention in the video:
A good idea to prevent your motor from going past a hard stop on your lens is to set it up so the controllers starting point equals the inifity point (or close focus point if you’re working closer to this one) on your lens. The motor is very accurate and this way you’ll have at least one point the motor will not overshoot.

Note:
The noise test clip at 6:15 has not been edited for noice cancellation or such.

*About the motors:
The J2D is Digital, has metal internal gears, higher torque, faster speed, and it rotates the lens barrel 150° a good match for iris or zoom on Cinema Lenses. It also has the added feature of being able to be used on either side of the lens by swiveling the motor head. The J3D Is also Digital and designed for longer throw lenses like Zeiss CP2 and other PL cinema lenses. It rotates the lens barrel approximately 330°.

Thank to the guys at DigiRental Vienna for their friendly service and support:
kameraverleih.at/

Sony HX9V – almost the ultimate run and gun cam

We’ve reported about the exciting Sony HX9V before and after several weeks of testing we have put together this video review for you.

Albeit not offering manual controls this tiny camera delivers stunning images in full HD 1080p50.

In this review we discuss all the video aspects of the camera and give you our personal opinion on the device as well as offer shooting tips and best camera settings for video.

Here’s a nice sample of footage from this amazing camera (by Jeen de Vos Producties):

And here’s a grab from the hdmi out of the camera with an Atomos Ninja recorder:

Find original HQ screengrabs of this recording here.

There are some more samples here
and a usergroup with more HX9V videos on vimeo here.

Europe

Amazon.de (free shipping):
Sony HX9V 288,00€

Goodbye NAB 2011 – The Easyrig that helped me cover NAB

This is the last of about 30 video clips I made during the 4 days of NAB 2011. I hope you enjoyed the coverage that became a last minute one man crew job for me.

Breakfast was at 6pm and the whole thing was a big lesson. We’ll come back, better prepared and ready to give you the finest possible coverage next year.

The image on the left shows me with my favourite piece of equipment during the whole show. Johan, the inventor of the Easyrig saw me as I walked around on the floor all day and lend the Turtle X to me with a smile. I could use this tool for the remaining 3 days and I must say it became my very best friend.

Not only did it relieve my back like 10 to 1, it also made it possible to hold the mic with one hand while holding the rest of the rig, zooming and focusing with the other hand. I worked about 80% of the interviews like that, as it eventually became my prefered method to use my free hand as a boom so to say.

This is the Easyrig homepage: www.easyrig.com
If you’re interested you can buy the Easyrig Turtle-X for 4kg here.

If you’re intruiged by the idea of the Easyrig you should watch the clip by Brad White at the end of this post (click “more“)

The last shot of this video shows about half of the hall where all the DSLR and video equipment was presented. As you can see it’s a huge floor and there are several more halls that were packed with 90,000 people.

The crane shot was made with the fully remote controllable Barber Boom. It was pretty cool to handle this “boom” (isn’t it a crane?), the problem was I didn’t have a video cable for dslr with me, so I couldn’t see the video feed. Usually you have a monitor and a joystick to control your camera and the remote head at the back of the boom/crane.
[UPDATE]: Michelle Barber confirmed that it was initially called “boom”:

(…) a long Arm with a remote control Camera head on the End of it is a Remote Control Camera Boom. I know this because I invented it (in 1973) and won an Emmy Award for it!

I saw this thing on B&H, but if you want to get it you will have to make sure you get all the accessories as well, the head, dolly, weights…
In total the 22 inch (5,5 meters) version is a little under $10,000 and in Europe it’s only available through a company in Belgium and another in Switzerland.

This is the Barber Tech website: www.barbertvp.com

On the first day at NAB I spent about half my time looking for a company that would lend me some headphones as I had left mine on the plane (not a good idea).

The one company that had a spare pair of headphones and also lend them to me was Audio Technica.
I had the Audio Technica ATH-M50 and as the 141 5 Star user reviews out of 141 user reviews on the B&H Site suggest, this is a great pair of headphones at $160 dollars. In Europe they’re 170€ Get them here.

They were very comfortable to wear and the sound was very good to me, being an old audiophile myself.

The Audio Technica website is: www.audio-technica.com

Goodbye NAB 2011 from cinema5D
Sebastian Wöber

Another video of the Easyrig after the jump:

More…

NAB 2011 – The Foundry: STORM

Remember the Rolling Shutter plugin by British Software company The Foundry? I guess the name speaks for itself.

Well apparently they have something new for DSLR people in the works. Their new stand alone application STORM has been a very useful on set tool for RED shooters since March. By mid 2011 this software will support all Canon HDSLR cameras and give us some handy features like timecode, organisation, tagging, basic grading, even editing and then edl (universal editing format to save stuff) to Final Cut etc…

Very good on set workflow. Will they have Rolling Shutter implemented? I don’t know, but that would be cool.

You can check out the 15 day free Trial on their website. The application costs $375

More…