ColsenKeane Promotional Video

Finished the video.  Thanks to Scott for giving me the opportunity to produce this piece.  For that I am quite grateful.



Shot on my GH2(Vader and Gandalf).

Lenses:
Rokkor 58mm 1.4
Rokkor 35mm 2.8
Vivitar Series 1 Macro 28-90 2.8/3.5
Pentax 25mm 1.4
SLR Magic 35mm 1.7
Lumix 14mm 2.5

Music
Steve Gunn - "The Lurker"
Live at Cafe OTO (Tusk Weekend)

Edited in FCPX

Industar 61-L/D 53mm f2.8

I grabbed this lens because it is Russian, extremely inexpensive, and a M39 mount, which is pretty much flush with the GH2.

• Pros
• Price - This lens goes for about $16 before shipping, since it's from Russia the shipping charges are usually around $20.
• M39 mount adapts nicely to the MFT mount
• Size and weight - small and light
• Build quality - it's pretty solid
• Renders colors nicely
• Cons
• Focal distance - closest focus distance is 1 meter.  You can forget intimacy with subjects
• Sharpness - it really lacks here.  Very soft even stopped down, which makes it somewhat difficult to focus.
• Prone to lens flare.  You'll need a lens hood.  Though stopping down to 5.6 cuts down most of it.
• May just be my lens, but the focus ring slips a bit.
• The bokeh is interesting and circular, but it doesn't throw much out of focus.

Yeah, overall it's not worth it.  Unless it's the first 50ishmm you are investing in and just getting started then go for it.  Otherwise this is at best use a street lens.  I may keep it for that purpose.  It does look pretty, it's foreign and it does fit my GH2 nicely.  I'll hold on to it for a while longer still but wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Note the awful lens flare

Problem solved when stopped down

Had the focus distance been close this picture would have had potential

Wide open lacks a much needed blurred bokeh.  Things are still too busy. 

]

MD Rokkor-X 45mm f2

Photoshoot with Lauren Rosenau

 Sunday I was given the honor of having my picture taken by Lauren Rosenau.  These photos will be used on my future website that will be launched in the next couple months.  I'm still not sure what will happen to this blog when that occurs.  Perhaps I can integrate it into the site or begin a new blog on the site and toss this one in the virtual landfill.

"What the devil is this contraption??"

"Ugh, I can't even look at you"

Promotional Video in the Works

I've been working on a promotional video recently.  Lauren Rosenau's brother in law, Scott Hofert, founder and owner of Colsen Keane Leather, contacted me recently about creating a video to promote his leathersmith business.  Scott is a very talented craftsman who makes beautiful leather bags.  Most of his products are designed to hold ipads and macbooks, but he's been branching out recenlty and making satchels and day trip bags.  I was able to shadow him in his workshop behind his house.  He puts a lot of care into his work and is very fond of what he does.

You can check out his website here: http://www.colsenkeane.com/

For the video I recorded it using Gandalf and Vader.  The interview was shot with Vader at 44mbps.  The footage in the shop were recorded with Vader and Gandalf (mainly G) both at 50mbps, GOP 6, 24p.  I have finally decided on my go-to lenses for projects, ha took several months but I finally did it!


Glass

• Rokkor 58mm 1.4
• Rokkor 35mm 2.8
• Pentax 25mm 1.4
• Vivitar Series 1 28-90mm 2.8/3.5
• Panasonic 14mm 2.5
• SLR Magic 35mm 1.7 (used for portrait shot shown above)

I used the vimeo music store to get a freesource song.  I love the vimeo music store.  It's extremely convenient and a really useful tool.  Plus the royalty free music is high quality.

FCPX v 10.02 Update Available

Just checked the appstore and the newest update for FCPX has been released.  So I'm downloading it now and blogging while I wait.  This newest update fixes a problem with titles reverting to default text upon restart, resolves an issue with video playback from certain 3rd party mobile devices, and addresses a stability issue caused when chaning the begining of a compound clip.

Gandalf is here!!

Well this is a late post.  It really came on Wednesday, but still, needed to share.  My new GH2 (which will now be my a camera) has arrived from Thailand.  It's the Japanese model so hacking it was essential in order to unlock the languages.  I went ahead and set the 24p and 60i bitrates at 50mbps and all secondary movie framerates at 35mbps.  Lowered the GOP to 9 and 6 for filmmodes.  Think I'm shooting at GOP 6, 50mbps at 24p.  I chose not to try 176mbps because... well that's just too much information.  I really doubt my computer will handle it.  It can barely handle running FCPX as it is.  Technology is moving so fast, it's only a 2008 iMac and has nearly seen its last days.

Back to the camera.  I'm a total geek/nerd so I've named my new camera Gandalf.  Because it's silver, but looks more gray than silver.  My first camera has now been named Vader due to it surviving molten coffee and coming out a little scarred.