Ask David Mullen ANYTHING

[David Mullen ASC]

The most common figure I see thrown around is 15-stops.

[Truls Skare]

I always thought B&W negative film had a few more stops of latitude than color negative film. Maybe it is not a case anymore with the most current color negative filmstocks?

Another advantage with doing desaturation in post is that you can adjust the individual RGB values for instance if you wanted more contrast/deeper tones in the skies etc. This gives more control than using red/orange filters on the lens.

[Martin Stevens]

The most common figure I see thrown around is 15-stops.

Thank you.

[Adrian T.]

The RED Pro Primes show a certain amount of nisen bokeh (the double lined bokeh you can see for example around some twigs in the second picture of this post).

Paul Leeming stated that Ultra Primes show the same effect in this post.

Do you know if this a standard side effect of cine lenses? Do Master Primes, Cooke and Panavision lenses have the same problem?

Is there a standard procedure to avoid nisen bokeh or at least diminish it?

Thanks for this wonderful thread, David!

[Jamie Havill]

The RED Pro Primes show a certain amount of nisen bokeh (the double lined bokeh you can see for example around some twigs in the second picture of this post).

Paul Leeming stated that Ultra Primes show the same effect in this post.

Do you know if this a standard side effect of cine lenses? Do Master Primes, Cooke and Panavision lenses have the same problem?

Is there a standard procedure to avoid nisen bokeh or at least diminish it?

Thanks for this wonderful thread, David!

Adrian,

I just wrapped on a short using Master Primes and we experienced this 'nisen bokeh'.

[chuck colburn]

The most common figure I see thrown around is 15-stops.

Wow film latitude has improved alot over the years. Wasn't that long ago ten stops was a stretch and it took carefull lighting to get three out of video.

[David Mullen ASC]

I'm specifically referring to Vision-3 Kodak negative, which has another stop of overexposure DR over previous generations.

[David Mullen ASC]

Do you know if this a standard side effect of cine lenses? Do Master Primes, Cooke and Panavision lenses have the same problem?

Is there a standard procedure to avoid nisen bokeh or at least diminish it?

I hadn't even heard of "nisen" bokeh until you pointed it out. I don't see it as a particular problem -- remember, we're talking about moving images, and movement is another element that draws the eye, so I'm not sure how many people are going to think much about the nisen bokeh in out of focus f.g. tree branches.

The compression of the photos being posted for the internet could be exaggerating the effect.

[Yaque Silva-Doyle]

David,
I am in Nepal and will be hanging out of a helicopter tomorrow trying to get some decent arial footage with a canon 7D. I wanted to bring my Red cam but it ended up just being to heavy to trek around the himalayas with.

I guess I just wanted some pointers on how I should mount/hand hold the camera what lens and frame rate I should use.
we have 18mm Ziess and a 24-70mm L series glass. A couple of bungie cords and some pillows so needless to say it will be a super gorilla style shoot.

I have thirty minuits in this helicopter with a window open to get these pick up shots for my film Light In The Himalayas so I got to make it count. to get an idea of the look of the film up to this point check out www.lightinthehimalayas.com . Everything up to this point has been shot on the HVX 200 using natural light with as much golden hour as possible.

Thanks so much for your thoughts, wish me luck tomorrow.

yaque

[Jamie Havill]

I hadn't even heard of "nisen" bokeh until you pointed it out. I don't see it as a particular problem -- remember, we're talking about moving images, and movement is another element that draws the eye, so I'm not sure how many people are going to think much about the nisen bokeh in out of focus f.g. tree branches.

The compression of the photos being posted for the internet could be exaggerating the effect.

It only ever seems to appear when we're shooting foliage... very odd.