Do It Yourself Hand Focus Crank

This is a slick little idea I picked up off the internet on the "Hack a Day" website to make life a little easier when shooting video with dslr cameras -- a Do It Yourself Hand Focus Crank.

Exploiting the slim Depth of Field that dslr's offer with their large sensors, a common technique is to change focus while shooting to draw attention to the subject. Ideally, a full-out system with follow focus, whips, rails, camera cage, etc. etc. are used to adeptly dial in focus with no camera shake. This is nigh impossible when trying to adjust focus by twisting the focus ring directly by hand -- no matter how securely the dslr is anchored to its sturdy tripod -- camera shake inevitably occurs. This camera shake is magnified when using telephoto and macro lenses and this really detracts from the quality of the video itself.

Do It Yourself Hand Focus Crank from David Rilstone on Vimeo.

Follow focus systems are expensive; no getting away from that. Likewise, I priced some commercially-made focus cranks and found that they, too, can run into some heavy cash, especially if you're looking at doing several lenses. This setup I've described on this clip looks a little Rube Goldberg-ish, but it DOES work amazingly well. I'm prepared to forgive a lot aesthetically if something actually helps me get the job done effectively....and CHEAPLY. A hose clamp, small carriage bolt and locking nuts cost less than $5 total -- THAT is cost effective in anyone's books!

This little clip was shot with a Canon 5D Mark 2, a Canon 24-70mm f2.8 L lens, Marshall 7" HDMI monitor (invaluable when self-video'ing), set on a very sturdy Manfrotto 504HD video head and 536 carbon-fibre tripod. Reference audio was done with a Rode Videomic plugged directly into the 5D, with secondary/final sound recorded on a Samson Zoom H4N audio recorder. Final editing was done in Adobe's wonderful CS5 version of Premiere Pro.

Whew! Thanks for watching. Please be sure to visit the website I've noted above -- lots of helpful tips there and I'm glad I stumbled upon it. Any thoughts or suggestions PLEASE add in the Comment section below

Born to be Wild Embroidery

Today I helped my wife produce a video for her fledgling machine embroidery business: Karil Custom Designs (Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/KarilCustomDesigns and her blog at: http://karilcustomdesigns.posterous.com/ ). Here's a short demo vid of her new Babylock BMP9 machine in action:

Born to be Wild Embroidery from David Rilstone on Vimeo.

For this video I used two cameras: a Canon 5D Mark 2 handheld with a 24-70mm f/2.8 L lens -- a Zacuto Z-Finder was extremely helpful here. The second was a Canon 7D on a tripod using a 135mm f/2.0 L lens for the stable closeup shots of the embroidery itself. Sound was recorded with a Samson Zoom H4N audiorecorder. Final processing was done with Adobe Premiere Pro CS5

Not All ND Filters Are Created Equal

Recently I was using my Canon 7D fitted with a Canon 100-400mm telephoto to film a Northern Cardinal songbird. I was perplexed why the image on the liveview screen was so soft in focus, no matter how much I manually adjusted the focus at magnified liveview settings. Realizing that I was using a newly-acquired vario ND filter for the first time to adjust exposure, I removed this filter from the lens and instantly regained the sharp focus I had originally expected.

I had not experienced this soft focus situation with an earlier acquired, but much more expensive, Singh-Ray vario ND filter when using my telephoto zoom lens. I then put together this quick trial comparing the cheaper, EBay-sourced "Nature" -brand ND filter against the pricey ($400+) Singh-Ray counterpart. You'll find my conclusions on this video:

Not All ND Filters Created Equal from David Rilstone on Vimeo.

The making of this video:

1. Cameras used: Canon 5D Mark 2, 7D

2. Lenses used: Canon 17-40mm L f4, Canon, 24-70mm L f4, Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6

3. Audio used: Rode Videomic (one each on 5D2 & 7D), Samson Zoom H4N, voiceovers done directly on PC Realtek soundcard

4. Moving shots of filters: Glidetrack Sharpshooter

5. Post processing: Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 (trial version -- disks on order!)

For my personal presentation appearances on this video, I used a two-camera setup. The 5D2 was fitted with the 24-70mm set at 64mm, the 7D had the 17-40 set at 40mm; this gave a similar perspective (full frame vs APS-C) with the cameras both approx 8 feet away from me at roughly 30 degrees to my left and right respectively. I used Philip Bloom's recommendation of a custom Picture Style of full negative sharpness & contrast, and about two notches negative saturation. This rather flat picture style gives the best dynamic range and lends itself to better post processing later. In actuality, I did no further processing in this regard as I liked the video appearance straight from the camera, as it turned out.

I had two Rode Videomics hooked into the cameras, but used this sound only to sync later with the exterior, separate Zoom H4N audiorecorder using its built in stereo microphones.

The panning shots of the two filters were taken inside my living room in front of my picture window which had excellent even lighting. The Glidetrack made for the smooth right-to-left motion, despite Bruiser, our cat, trying to literally stick his nose into the proceedings.

Premiere Pro CS5 (Trial Version) worked extremely well on my PC - an i7 920 platform with 12 Gigs RAM and a Nvidia GTX 285 video card. The new Mercury engine now makes it possible to edit the native 5D2 and 7D H.264 video files natively -- no prior transcoding necessary. This saves huge amounts of disk space, not to mention time. Scrubbing through the timeline was very smooth, plus no having to sip a cup of coffee every time you render after laying in a video effect or two -- it's that fast!

Brought over a few techniques from CS4 (split screen, multiple camera sync'ing, etc.), plus learned a few new ones on this clip -- magnifying effect, dropping an imported vid file onto the "New Item" icon to create a fresh sequence/timeline with the exact required presets.

All in all, this was a fun video to produce. If any information in this clip was useful re ND vario filters.....then great!! :)

Recently I received a query from a photographer friend-and-colleague about what audio recording system/method I use in producing my short nature video clips. Apparently he has a client who is planning to put together a training video on selling real estate. With some minor editing, here is my reply back:


I've done a lot of experimenting with audio while shooting video with my 5Dmk2, with a lot of background research and a fair expenditure on hardware and software. Additionally, I had done a great deal of research, principally at these forums:

1. Cinema 5D: http://www.cinema5d.com/index.php
2. DVInfo: http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/canon-eos-5d-mk-ii-hd/
3. Digital Photography Review: http://www.dpreview.com/

The onboard sound of the 5Dmk2 isn't the greatest for several reasons:

1. only records in mono
2. Automatic Gain Control (= a fair amount of hiss in a quiet environment)
3. picks up camera-handling sounds, Image Stabilizing sounds, zoom & focus sounds.

The quick-and-easy fix is:

(Please note that brand names and links are provided for convenience only; I do not work for nor receive commission from anyone.)

1. Rode Videomic shotgun mike. Easily attaches to camera hotshoe and plugs into the 3.5mm input jack of the camera. Only mono sound, but quite a bit better than the onboard sound, plus it tends not to pick up the handling sounds. For additional money Rode makes a stereo mic which is constructed a bit more robustly, also attaches to the camera hotshoe, and gives a better ambient sound (according to actual tests which have been posted to Vimeo).

2. Software: the customer should download Sony's Movie Studio 9.0b Platinum Edition (http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/moviestudiope). He can download the free trial (which I did) which gives him a week or two to try it out. It costs in the neighbourhood of $84.95 US. It's very intuitive, has a lot of professional features, and you can even burn a DVD disk (which are cheap) in Blu-ray format which is stunning in 1080p on a large LCD TV.


What I've done:

First, I still use the above for quick-and-easy production. I like Sony Vegas as a software program, plus with the Rode Videomic hooked into the Canon 5Dmk2 there is no sound synching to do afterwards -- a major plus in terms of speed and efficiency.

That said, I am now wading my way through Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 with all the software suites. This is pro-level stuff with a steep learning curve and price tag to match -- not a good idea if results are needed quickly. I still fall back on Sony Vegas when I need to put together a video quickly with good results.

Sound: I now tend to record sound separately on a Samson Zoom H4N audiorecorder which I ordered online from Steve's Music Store on Queen Street in Toronto:

http://www.stevesmusic.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=4722

At $439 CDN this is a highly-portable professional stereo audio recorder that is the best in the business in this price range. It has built in stereo microphones with a very clean pre-amp signal. This little jewel records onto standard SD memory cards and is very highly regarded in pro video circles. Later in post-processing, I synch the H4N recording to the coarser one I got simulaneously with the 5Dmk2's onboard mic, then mute the onboard sound so only the H4N's vastly superior sound quality is heard. All of my more recent nature videos are using the H4N this way. Warning: synching is a pain, although I'm getting better at it as I go. Apple's Final Cut Pro has a plug-in that you can buy called "Plural Eyes" that does this synching automatically, but nothing for Premiere Pro yet. I'll be first in line to get it when it does come out!!

Hope this helps and good luck!