Sun Mask for Zucuto Z FinderPro

Bought a new Z Finder Pro to go along with my Canon 60D.  I’m sure everyone is familiar with the Zacuto loop-type viewfinder and how the magnifier can burn the LCD in just a couple of seconds.

Zacuto has come up with a simple solution that could help this problem called the Sun Mask .   It’s a little 16x9 matt that fits in the eyepiece that blocks at least 50% of the light hitting the magnifier yet leaves your view of the LCD unhindered.  Zacuto charges $3 bucks for a little piece of paper that costs .30 cents but think of what it could save in burns.

And everything that’s old is new again.  When the Zacuto viewfinder first came out you basically glued a little frame to your camera and the viewfinder snapped onto it.  Then, Zaucto came out with the Gorilla plate, a more elegant but heavier solution.  

The Gorilla plate really doesn’t work with the 60D’s flip out VF so you can still buy the old plastic frame for $6 bucks and can use the viewfinder in any position.  The downside is you can never "close" the LCD screen but when do you close the LCD on a 5D/7D?  And I still use the Gorilla plate when I'm shooting normally to take the stress off the little plastic LCD hinge.

http://store.zacuto.com/Z-Finder-Sun-Mask.html

My Canon 60D

I'm now the proud owner of a Canon 60D.  After shooting extensively with both the 5D and the 7D I decided I wanted the deeper depth of field that comes with the smaller “Super 35” sensor. 

Although I love the look of the ”Full Frame” (full still camera frame) sensor of the 5D, the shallow depth of field can be both beautiful and challenging. The smaller sensor give you a fighting chance to ride focus when you’re working wide open but still give that large sensor shallow depth of field look.

The real disadvantage of the APS-C size is the 1.6 crop factor that makes every lens longer.  For example, a 24mm lens becomes a 39mm.  It’s hard to find a sharp, fast, reasonably priced wide angle zoom then I found the Tokina 11-16 which I’ll cover in a later blog.

The 7D, 60D, T3i and T2i have the same exact sensor and processers and record the same signal, so why the 60D?

To start, I wanted a flip out LCD.  I’ve put my head in the dirt too many times to frame a low angle shot with the 5D/7D fixed LCD and I wanted the ability to see the VF from any position just like any other video camera I've ever owned.

While the T3i also has a flip out LCD and is cheaper than the 60D, it doesn’t have the full set on controls of the 5D/7D/60D, most notably the big Quick Control Dial.  And the big multi-function Multi-Controller star button is easier to access than on the 5D/7D.

Finally, on the 60D the dial locks and has a special position just for video so you don’t have to constantly hit the “Live View” button.   You turn the camera on and it’s ready to shoot video.

As with most things, there’s a down side:  You can’t take stills in movie mode unless you’re rolling video.  Stop recording and you have to move the dial to a still photo setting.  Luckily, I’m usually either shooting stills or video or trying to grab both at the same time.

http://usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/products/cameras/slr_cameras/eos_60d

Making of "In Your Arms" Music Video

Talk about tenacity, 1357 hours to shoot 2460 frames using 288,000... and no green screen.  Here's the making of video which is much more interesting to me than the actual video.

Or you can watch the music video first...

Canon C300

I went to the Canon C300 event at Paramount which took up stages 1 & 2 plus the theatre.  First, let me say I rate everything by how good the parking and the food was and both were very good.  Now, about the camera.

The Canon C300 has the best picture of all the mid and low end ($20,000 and less) cameras I've seen and can easily compete with the Epic.  The only nicer picture I've seen is the Alexa.  It's the queen of latitude.

The C300 is without a doubt the cleanest looking camera I've seen at high ASA's.  While you might push other cameras to 1600 ASA, the Canon looks clean at 3200.  In fact, it looks pretty clean at 12,000.  Even 20,000 ASA only looks like 9db of gain.

The C300 only weighs 3.5 pounds, is built to use all the Canon EF glass and has everything a shooter would want in a camera including built in ND filters and full size XLR's.  It's the perfect camera, right?

Well, to start, how many times do you need to shoot at 12,000 ASA?  And look close, the XLR's aren't built into the camera, they're actually in the separate LCD screen.

I'm a real button pusher and I think I went through every single button and menu.  I got to meet one of the designers who asked me for feedback and as an operator my major complaint to him was you couldn't turn off all the info from the screen and leave the frame lines, it was all or nothing.

But these are all just nit picking.  What really surprised me was the 8-bit mpeg2 recording format... with no other outboard option. I really thought Canon was going to come out with some sort of Canon Raw, especially at the $20,000 price point.  And it's limited to regular shooting speeds, no high frame rates for slo mo.

The C300 doesn't compete against the Sony FS-100 (pictured above) like I thought it would.  The FS-100 is also 8 bit (and who cares because all monitors are 8 bit) but has the option or recording uncompressed 4:2:2 outboard.

At $20,000 it's competing against the Sony F3 and the Scarlet.  The Scarlet is recording 4K, both good and bad because I don't know any client who's posting in more than 1920x1080. The F3 can record 10 bit 4:4:4 outboard, but again, who's posting 4:4:4?  Maybe the 8-bit mpg2 format is what producer's need but I can get just about the same thing from a $5000 FS-100.

Finally, a quick word about the new Canon Cine glass.  These are primes that compete with the best lenses and are just about as expensive.  Each prime costs $6700 bucks so you can get a Zeiss CP2 for less than $4000 and for just a thousand more than the Canon you can have a Cooke.  Enough said.

So, do I like the C300.  Yes,it would be my first choice if it was $5000-8000 bucks but at $20,000 they may have missed the market.

http://cinemaeos.usa.canon.com/products.php?type=Camera&model=C300