Tom Lowe
08-20-2008, 11:24 AM
I had the privilege of shooting some Kawasaki Jet Ski stuff at Lake Havasu, AZ last week with Director/Cameraman/Reduser forum member (and my new personal hero) Larry Gebhardt (http://www.reduser.net/forum/member.php?u=1191). I thought I would post some behind-the-scenes stills, if anyone is interested. We were going to shoot on Red #400 and Red #2228, but because of heat (110 degrees), time constraints and some last-minute budget issues, we shot mainly with Larry's new EX3 and two rented EX1s. The footage turned out beautiful - better than we had hoped. (They usually shoot this Kawasaki stuff on film.)
http://i35.tinypic.com/2usimn7.jpg
The "wing boat," owned by a guy named Rob out of San Clemente. Mackie working the jib.
http://i35.tinypic.com/14v5xu0.jpg
AC Bret Harding in his hotel room.
http://i37.tinypic.com/110k48w.jpg
Larry shooting from Helo with the EX3 and a KS6 mini gyro on a custom shoulder mount. The footage came out as smooth as glass.
http://i38.tinypic.com/2djykxg.jpg
A framegrab of Anthony & Lark on a long-lens EX3 shot.
(Sorry about the jet skis being blurred ... the are next year's models.)
That last framegrab is straight out of the camera, no CCing. On both the EX3 and EX1s, we used factory default settings with the only tweak being -20 on the detail. IMO, the EX3 blows the EX1 out of the water. Not only are the ergonomics on the EX3 much better, but the EX1 has the worst viewfinder known to man. I couldn't pull focus with it - or even see what I was shooting. EX3's "hybrid" viewfinder is fantastic, IMO. The EX3 also has the advantage of interchangeable lenses and being able to shoot to a new harddrive recorder. We shot on 8GB and 16GB SxS cards, and the data was very simple to handle with a mini PC laptop, PC tower back the hotel, and lots of external drives.
When we screened footage for the ad agency honchos on a 24" LCD, they were so impressed that they basically said "Let's go all digital from now on - no more film"! Hopefully I will be able to post some actual footage later.
If we shoot Red One or Epic next year, I bet the still photographers will be getting nervous, because the ad agency folks could probably just pull Red stills to use ... hahaha!
http://i35.tinypic.com/2usimn7.jpg
The "wing boat," owned by a guy named Rob out of San Clemente. Mackie working the jib.
http://i35.tinypic.com/14v5xu0.jpg
AC Bret Harding in his hotel room.
http://i37.tinypic.com/110k48w.jpg
Larry shooting from Helo with the EX3 and a KS6 mini gyro on a custom shoulder mount. The footage came out as smooth as glass.
http://i38.tinypic.com/2djykxg.jpg
A framegrab of Anthony & Lark on a long-lens EX3 shot.
(Sorry about the jet skis being blurred ... the are next year's models.)
That last framegrab is straight out of the camera, no CCing. On both the EX3 and EX1s, we used factory default settings with the only tweak being -20 on the detail. IMO, the EX3 blows the EX1 out of the water. Not only are the ergonomics on the EX3 much better, but the EX1 has the worst viewfinder known to man. I couldn't pull focus with it - or even see what I was shooting. EX3's "hybrid" viewfinder is fantastic, IMO. The EX3 also has the advantage of interchangeable lenses and being able to shoot to a new harddrive recorder. We shot on 8GB and 16GB SxS cards, and the data was very simple to handle with a mini PC laptop, PC tower back the hotel, and lots of external drives.
When we screened footage for the ad agency honchos on a 24" LCD, they were so impressed that they basically said "Let's go all digital from now on - no more film"! Hopefully I will be able to post some actual footage later.
If we shoot Red One or Epic next year, I bet the still photographers will be getting nervous, because the ad agency folks could probably just pull Red stills to use ... hahaha!