A couple weeks ago, Cinema5D posted an extensive review series of gear for DSLR video rigs. They tested various kits and accessories from eleven manufacturers in total. I was excited at first when I heard about this large review, but my excitement quickly abated when I dug into their opinions and findings. Much of what was stated in the Cinema5D review is in direct contradiction to my own experiences with the same gear. And a number of the statements made in the review aren’t just a difference of opinion, they are factually incorrect.

I cannot address every rig tested in this review, I’ll only speak about the systems that I’ve personally used. But knowing the errors and omissions in their review for the gear I have used, well, that calls into question the information they present on gear I haven’t personally used. Another concern: in the week following the review, information surfaced that indicated that when the reviewers first contacted manufacturers, a condition of submitting gear for review was that the reviewer got to keep the gear that won. Seriously? That’s akin to demanding a ransom if you want your gear reviewed. This was never stated publicly by the reviewers, until a company not participating in the review (Zacuto) outed the information.

Somewhere in the shakeout following the review, previous Cinema5D supporter Cinevate was banned as a sponsor. It’s unclear to me why that came to be. Some commenters have complained that the fact the stated winner of the review (Vocas) was a Cinema5D sponsor indicates bias. I don’t think that’s a fair point to make, it’s impossible to prove there was any bias as a result of a sponsorship (and Cinevate was a sponsor too, until they were banned) so it’s really a non-sequitur as far as I’m concerned.

At FreshDV, we know full well how hard it is to present a well-researched, thoroughly-tested review. In particular, it’s VERY hard to do a proper side-by-side comparison review where a single unit or brand is declared the overall winner. It’s almost impossible to address every concern for every unique configuration…and declaring an overall winner is rarely a useful exercise for filmmakers, as needs and uses vary so widely. It is not my belief that this Cinema5D review was biased or determined by any ulterior motive. It is my observation that they simply bit off more than they could effectively chew. The scope of this review series is ambitious, and I believe that they simply did not have enough time and production experience to properly evaluate and test each system. As such, it’s my opinion that their findings, and their final star ratings in particular, are inconclusive. Regardless of any bias allegations from the community, there are a few factually incorrect issues in the review that I’d like to address below…

Shortly after the review was posted, Redrock Micro requested that their portion of the review be removed, citing specific concerns with incorrect configurations used and faulty setup of their products. Redrock’s Brian Valente wrote a detailed list of his concerns, two of the most obvious which I will quote below:

- Not the Rigs we sent:
We never submitted anything the “tripod” category. In fact, we weren’t even made aware there was such a category until after the review was published. Apparently to fill the gap, the reviewers configured their own version of a Redrock tripod rig based on parts (some of which we didn’t even provide), and then were critical of what they created. What they ended up with does not represent Redrock, and based on the pictures they showed, I wouldn’t use or recommend what they developed either. Of the two rigs we did provide, the first was modified from the configuration we sent (see below), and the second one (theEvent) wasn’t even included in the review.

- Changed rig configurations provided:
One of the concerns stated the review on the eyeSpy rig was that it didn’t sit flat when put down, due to a single handgrip configuration. The rig we sent for review included two handgrips and the handlebar (which you can see in their picture on the “first contact” page) which allows it to be balanced when set down, but for unknown reasons this was later removed for the evaluation portion. In addition, no mention was made that the Redrock eyeSpy rig is the only one that can be directly attached to a tripod using the integrated baseplate in the shoulderpad - a feature we specifically designed to allow easy setting down of the rig and fast change between shouldermount and tripod. This misrepresents our product and its capabilities.

The faulty analysis wasn’t limited to Redrock. The product reviewers slammed Cinevate gear, calling it “a lot of cheap looking plastic parts, and unfortunately, poorly manufactured gear.” There are many ways to criticize and opine on all kinds of gear, and one is certainly entitled to one’s opinions. But calling Cinevate gear in general “cheap plastic” and “poorly manufactured” simply doesn’t jive with reality. Cinevate nearly always uses CNC aluminum and stainless steel components in their gear…it’s the opposite of poor manufacturing, and certainly not cheap to produce.

As a recent example, Cinevate’s Durus follow focus is one of the strongest, toughest follow focus systems I’ve ever used. It oughta be…it’s largely constructed of CNC aluminum! There are certainly flaws in any system, but low quality and cheaply built it is not. I encourage you to watch my review of the Durus follow focus and compare that to the Cinema5D review findings.

They also took a few shots at Cinevate’s carbon-fiber rods, calling them “poorly-crafted” and suggesting they would wear out sooner than competing rod designs. This is a direct contradiction to my own findings with Cinevate’s carbon rods. I know this, as I purchased a set of Cinevate carbon rods in 2007, their original hollow carbon design. After noting a few issues with inconsistent widths along the length of the rods, I spoke with Cinevate about the issue. They went back to the drawing board and completely replaced their stock of hollow carbon with solid carbon fiber rods. I’ve been using a set of solid-carbon Cinevate rods on a regular basis since then (over 2 yrs). They’ve never even so much as shown any wear, and their design, specifications, and manufacture is of excellent quality.

There are a number of other errors and mistakes in regards to Cinevate gear in that review, so much so that Cinevate’s Dennis Wood took time to respectfully but firmly address them in a video here. I encourage you to watch the Cinevate response video and compare to the opinions stated in the Cinema5D review.

Another product that was (in my opinion) unfairly maligned in this review was a mattebox from Genus. The reviewers called the quality and workmanship of the mattebox into question, complaining about noisy rattles, loose screws, and a french flag that would not adjust properly. Ironically enough, when this review went live, it just so happened that I was I putting the finishing touches on my own Genus mattebox review. And my findings are completely at odds with nearly every complaint they had. Notice a pattern here? I found the Genus system to be a delight to use, well-crafted, and basically everything the Cinema5D reviewers did not. It’s mindboggling how differently we see the same product. Contrary to their findings, I found the quality vs price proposition for the Genus mattebox to be perfectly balanced. I encourage you to watch my review of the Genus mattebox here, you can see me working with it, shaking things (it’s rather quiet, thanks), and decide for yourself.

I have a few other more opinion-related issues with the review in general. For instance, they lauded the ARRI MFF-1 follow focus with a lot more praise than I believe is warranted. It’s a good system, sure. But I personally find it more at home driving an HD camcorder like the EX1 than a full cine lens kit. In particular, ARRI’s arm design has (in my opinion) too many points of adjustment and can slip away from the lens. It’s not as solid as other systems I’ve used. It also requires both hands to adjust the arm, as it tends to flop around. Ironically, that’s something the Cinema5D reviewers dinged the Cinevate handheld rig grip design for, but they don’t seem to mind it on this follow focus. It’s a good example of the clear lack of consistency throughout the entire review. To me, that means this is less useful as a head-to-head, feature-to-feature comparison review, and really more of a large lump of personal opinions from a few self-professed filmmakers. Here is the Cinema5D reviewer’s curt response to criticism of his opinions and findings.

In short, and at best, it’s my opinion that the overall conclusions of this review series are inconclusive and lacking. Speaking for myself, I’ve taken the review as a whole with a larger-than-normal portion of salt. I encourage you to do the same. Opinions are fine, but reviews should be based on a consistent “yardstick” or standard measure. As users and consumers, we should demand a higher standard of gear reviews.

Editor’s note: This article was written as a response to what we believe to be an inconclusive, poorly presented review series by Cinema5D that presents information that may not be factually accurate. As FreshDV has been sponsored in the past by a few of the brands noted in this article, I think it’s important to reiterate that this article was not created as a defense for any particular sponsor or relationship. Any prior sponsor relationships had nothing to do with the impetus to write this article. Rather, my first concern is that faulty information was being presented to filmmakers. Secondly, I have a concern that reviews like this one will cast a bad light on reviewers in general. For FreshDV to be able to present gear reviews and information, we depend on manufacturers being willing to provide their gear for testing. They assume that their gear will get a fair and complete evaluation and that the facts be presented. I worry that when flawed reviews like this one are presented, it casts a bad light on reviewers in general, and I want to distance FreshDV from that. Our reputation for fairness and reasoned review analysis is very important to us. Finally, I cannot address every point I disagree with in this extensive review. So in the above article I simply refer to specific gear and products that we’ve actually used and tested first-hand in real production environments, and stick with addressing things that I know to be incorrect in the Cinema5D review.

 Genus Matte Box Review [9:52m]: Download

About two years ago, FreshDV started an in-depth matte box video review series as an extension of a review we wrote for DV Magazine. We’re updating that series today with a review of the Genus Mattebox, an affordable, lightweight design that’s at home with compact HD camcorders and DSLR rigs.

The Genus review has been posted at PVC here, and also added to our full mattebox review series here.

Kendal got a look at Fuze Movie recently, which is the successor to the software formerly known as SyncVue Pro. Check out his writeup here.

 Cinevate Durus Follow Focus Review: Download

Way back in the fall of 2007, FreshDV kicked off a follow focus review series. Our aim was to take a look at the popular units for 35mm adapter and film camera rigs, and to establish a baseline standard for performance testing.

Since then, we’ve added to the series with several new and updated units. To date, we’ve tested and reviewed ten follow focus systems and also created a short instructional video series on the role of a First Assistant Cameraman & Focus Puller.

Today’s new addition to that review list is the Cinevate Durus follow focus, an interesting single-arm design that features one of the most solid gearboxes we’ve tested to date. You can see how the Durus performs in our monster video review playlist here.

Engadget has posted a review of the $1700 Canon 7D, it’s a solid writeup that hits all the high points and issues. But their summary at the end is what really caught my eye…

“If we’re running around shooting a mile-a-minute, we’re still going to reach for our trusty HD camcorder. But if we have a moment to breathe in between takes, you can bet the 7D will be the go-to camera. It’s easy to get caught up in the beautiful images from this camera, but like with all recording, it’s merely a tool to help tell a story.”

Well stated.

Like the Nikon D90, the forthecoming $1800 Nikon D300S DSLR has a 24-fps 720p HD video mode and it appears that some sample videos have already hit the web. Stu posted a couple here. The images appear to be largely jello-free and generally pretty sweet. Like the D90, this camera has a crop sensor, not full-frame. I’m not selling my Canon 5D MKII after this announcement, but it is nice to have another DSLR option to work with, particularly if tests show vast CMOS rolling shutter improvements and if the camera ships with manual controls (signs hint towards at least SOME manual controls). You can pre-order the D300S at Amazon, or keep an eye on B&H’s stock in September.

Editor’s note: This equipment review is cross-published from our affiliate, Microfilmmaker Magazine. FreshDV has previously covered Kessler’s products in our Cine Gear 2009 video coverage. For more example footage, check out dvd.kesslercrane.com

Kessler Crane KC-8 Complete – Ultra (no AXIS System)
Review by: Jeremy White, Microfilmmaker Magazine
$1599.95 as equipped
Final Score: 9.0 (of 10)

A while back, a friend of mine made an incredible music video that absolutely made my jaw drop. His shots had something that my shots desperately lacked – motion. His use of a crane added a whole new layer to his film.

Immediately, I began searching for a crane for my productions. I needed something cheap, durable and most importantly smooth. I searched around online for a few days until I finally found a company I was sold on – Kessler Crane.

The model I chose to review is the KC-8 Complete Ultra (no AXIS System). I chose this package for a number of reasons. First, at eight feet this crane seemed the perfect size for my needs. I wanted something small enough so that I could shoot indoors, but tall enough to get above a person’s head. Second, it included a heavy-duty tripod (something most cranes under $2,000 do not include). Third, it included the Hercules 2.0 head. This is a very sturdy tripod head capable of carrying up to 150 pounds. Finally, it included the vertical brake so that you could secure the crane when not in use.

Ease of Use
The crane was extremely easy to assemble. Kessler has even put together an instructional DVD to clearly explain assembly and user operation. I made sure to attach the included caster wheels to the base of the tripod. This made the whole system considerably easier to move.

With the crane fully assembled, I realized I needed some weights to counter-balance the crane. Kessler does sell weights (to save the user in shipping costs), but these can be purchased at most sporting-goods stores. After ransacking my uncle’s house I found some old exercise weights and I knew that I was in business. It took me a couple guesses to calculate the exact amount of weight to use.

Kessler does sell the Hercules 2.0 head, but the KC-8 Package only includes one Hercules 2.0. A second Hercules 2.0 head would be needed for mounting the camera as the first should be used for mounting the crane. They also do sell a motorized “AXIS System” which gives the user a full range of movement, but the AXIS System will set you back another $1,000.) In lieu of using one of these options, I mounted my Bogen/Manfrotto 503 fluid head to the end of the crane. This gave me some extra mobility in configuring my shots that was much appreciated later. Without the fluid head attached, the camera was limited to pointing only in the direction in which it was mounted. With the fluid head, my camera angles were limitless.

Finally, with everything fully assembled, I set out to work. The crane performed flawlessly. Everything worked just as it was supposed to. I took the crane apart and reassembled it to see how long it would take me from start to finish. Elapsed time: five minutes. This crane is so simple to assemble and use!

Depth of Options
The thing I loved about this crane was that (with the addition of my Bogen/Manfrotto 503 fluid head) it could turn in literally any direction. I actually found I liked using the crane better than my regular tripod. It was extremely useful for low shots, which was something I never considered. It is tough to set a tripod so that the camera is one foot off the ground, but with the Kessler Crane this was extremely easy.

The caster wheels were a huge help. With them attached, I was able to move this rather heavy crane with ease. I actually filmed on a smooth surface and was able to use the crane as a dolly for a few shots.

Performance
I was extremely pleased with the overall performance of the crane. I was able to get fantastic high/low angles and sweeping motion shots that would never have been possible before. I was also pleased with the stability of the shots. They weren’t 100% smooth, but they were very close. I found that by running the footage through Final Cut’s “Steadicam Filter,” I was able to achieve the level of perfection I desired. I honestly believe that with just a little bit more practice I could have gotten the shots completely smooth without any post magic.

Another fantastic quality was the stability of the tripod. This thing is a ROCK! I had no problems putting my $3,500 camera on the end of this and walking away. This tripod can hold up anything.

In addition, I never felt like my camera was “too heavy” for the crane itself. I could have had a camera weighing 30+ pounds and I still believe it would have performed just as well.

I did find that the pin to lock the tripod head into place was somewhat difficult to remove. It took some playing around with to get it in/out of place, but this may just be due to the newness of the crane. Overtime, it probably would be easier to get in/out. Also, the vertical brake seemed to fit into place somewhat awkwardly. It worked fine, but it just looked like it bowed out rather strange. I still would recommend having it, but over time it may become slightly warped. Kessler sells a Lighting Stand Clamp Mount that most users would probably find easy to use.

Value
When I first started looking for cranes I was hoping to find something under $1000. While I did find cranes that were priced under $1,000, I would not have felt comfortable putting my camera on them. Just looking at the pictures of these other cranes, I could tell they didn’t even compete with Kessler’s quality. This crane was made with a nice lightweight aluminum alloy that will last for years.

Final Comments
If you want to take your films to the next level, a crane is a MUST. If you want a solid, easy-to-use crane at a great value, definitely look at the Kessler KC-8 Complete.

Jeremy White has literally traveled the world making short films. Most recently, Jeremy traveled to China and Peru to shoot promotional videos for non-profit organizations. His film “Leaves” won the 2005 Highbridge Film Festival.

This equipment review is cross-published from our affiliate, Microfilmmaker Magazine. FreshDV has previously covered Kessler’s products in our Cine Gear 2009 video coverage. For more example footage, check out dvd.kesslercrane.com

While at NAB ‘09, the FreshDV crew scored a great interview with Jan Crittenden on the Panasonic HPX-300, a sub-$10K shouldermount camera with serious production chops. Well the folks over at B&H reviewed this beast in one of their newsletters a while back, and I’m just now getting around to posting the link. So here it is, a look at the HPX300. B&H actually carries the P2 camera for $7,999.95 USD (if you click their “email me a better price” link).

Shooter Philip Bloom has posted his comparison of the Zacuto Z-Finder V2 and the Hoodman Hoodloupe 3.0. Both are reviewed in the context of using on the 5D MK2 DSLR for video acquisition.

Phil seems pretty happy with the Z-Finder, particularly this forthcoming V2 model that mounts without using velcro. This little adapter magnifies the 5D LCD as well as providing an additional point of contact, whereas the Hoodloupe offers no magification, just a diopter. Interestingly, Hoodman touts “minimal magnification” as a feature that minimizes image pixelation…in the context of still photography, I’d agree with them. Bloom notes that the Z-Finder’s $395 price tag is a bit hard to swallow. In comparison, the Hoodloupe is less than a 1/4 of that price at $80. Great stuff, a good introduction to both these loupe options for DSLR shooters.

Over at Creative Cow, Jim Harvey has written a LONG and very detailed report on the Redrock DSLR Cinema kit, a full-featured rig for the 5D MKII that offers a shoulder support with handgrips, follow focus, mattebox, and support cage. FreshDV first got a look at this rig at NAB, you can watch our video segment on these rigs below.

In his review, Jim really digs into the system and it’s disparate parts, and even has a whole segment devoted to using it in the field. There’s a couple of neat pics of Rodney Charters, A.S.C. with a Redrock rig on his shoulder. If you are looking for more info on these shouldermount rigs, this review is a good start. Check it out, and check out our video below as well.

Noise Industries is a major manufacturer of FX plugins for both compositing and non-linear editing software. They are perhaps best know for their FX Factory software, a plugin management software that gives the user a central application for adding and controling FX plugins. FX Factory is available as a free download, and additional plugin packages for FX Factory may be purchased separately. These plugins range from title generators such as MoType which I reviewed earlier this year, to pattern generators, photo montage tools and many more. Recently they announced their new Volumetrix 2.0 and HUD plugins. Here is a quick look at what these new products offer.

This plugin offers the psuedo-volumetric lighting look, ever prevalent in film trailers. There are both straight filters which can be applied to text or footage, and transitions. All parameters are fully keyframeable and even though the presets are a little cheese-ball with a little tweaking you can create some great looks. Personally I love volumetric lighting so this is a great plugin for me. Volumetrix 2 is pretty configurable, in fact you can do light rays, glows, glints and distorts. One element missing for me was the ability to map gradients to light as opposed to simple colors. This Plugin is also well suited for building light wipe transitions and such. This was a fun one to play with and really felt at home in my After Effects tool kit. Existing volumetrix users can upgrade to 2.0 for free. For new users the license is $49.

Red shooter Richard Darge has posted 150MB of footage from an informal test of the new Red Digital Cinema Pro Prime lenses for the RED and PL-mount cameras. A lot of folks have shown interest in this sub-$20K set of 5 lenses, and it’s good to see footage of them in action.

“Lenses are more than solid. Smooth as butter focus/iris rings. Very sharp. They produce nice flares too! I shot the sun a lot as you will see from the video… My favorite lens was the 35mm. Everything POPS & is quite 3D looking with that lens. Least favorite was the 50 & 85mm to my eye. I favored the contrast in the 25 & 35mm more. Don’t know if that’s something that can be improved upon in this state or if it was a change in haze/lighting conditions. I need to do more testing with that..”

“I brought my Canon K-35 24mm PL Superspeed with me to contrast/compare. The K-35s are almost identical in look to the Zeiss Superspeeds, Canon’s being just a few hairs sharper fully open.”

Hit that link to download the QT mov of the test and check out the ensuing discussion. Personally, my impressions are that Red has benefitted from their Oakley optics roots, and created a solid set of lenses at an incredibly affordable price-point.

Yanobox Motype Review
by Kendal Miller
www.yanobox.com
$99 USD

Yanobox Motype software is designed to be a motion titling application that piggybacks on the FX Factory framework within Final Cut Pro, Motion, After Effects, or Final Cut Express. The first step in the process is to download and install the FX Factory framework on your system. After the installation of FX Factory is complete, you may then install Motype through FX Factory.

Motype offers twenty-six different presets to get you started on the right foot. With several quick clicks you can access Motype through your host application and select a preset and voila! Your custom text is fit into the preset and instantly animated. Beyond the custom presets Motype offers several parameters for further customizing your motion graphics; 3D Camera movement, Motion Mixer, Per Letter Particles, Cyclorama, and Random Characters as well as a full range of color, font, and timing parameters ensure you can tweak to your hearts content. All parameters are keyframeable allowing even further animation. After Effects gurus with experience will probably find the parameters to be somewhat limiting. However in the event you need just a quick and dirty title Motype will get you there quickly. My personal opinion is that Motype offers several nice graphics packages although a few of them feel rather basic and could be easily replicated in After Effects, or Motion. There are a number of presets that with some minor tweaking can look very good. It terms of usability the process for customization is very easy.

I do have a few minor complaints about the software in general. My first titles in FCP rendered out all the text as white blocks when exported through compressor. I re-exported as a QuickTime file from FCP and they all rendered correctly. This problem only occurred one time and subsequent efforts to render through compressor worked flawlessly so I’ll chalk the initial error  up to the software gremlins. Secondly the user interface only has a single field for text input which can make it rather difficult to properly layout multi-line text elements. This is a pretty big limitation in my opinion and near impossible to work around, for multi-line text.

While Motype offers a pretty strong suite of tools, it appears to be aimed mostly at those with weaker motion graphics backgrounds. At a price tag of $99, power users will probably prefer to spend that money on other plugins more suited towards their skillset. However, those looking to quickly and easily create motion titles that can be customized with very little effort will find the money well spent. You can find more information and download a trial version of Motype at www.yanobox.com.

When testing hard drives for Read/Write performance, most folks use utilities from AJA or Blackmagic. There’s a new tool available called HD Speed Test that takes a slightly different approach to the matter. The developer has written fairly extensively about what his app does differently, and why it matters to editors…he explains that his app accesses hard drives in a manner more akin to how video editing software accesses drives, supposedly leading to test results that are more accurate for video applications.

To be clear, I don’t believe he is suggesting that the AJA and Blackmagic utilities are not inaccurate or false…they are simply measuring drive performance in a completely different method, a way that the HD Speed Test author suggests is not as applicable to editors as his software. To see a beta version of HD Speed Test in practical use, head on over to LFiHD and read Shane’s comparison test between the Caldigit VR and a G-RAID3. You can snag your own beta copy here. As a side note from a paranoid editor, I wouldn’t suggest running the in-development app on drives with data that isn’t completely backed up.

(Via Studio Daily)

While checking out VideoGuys new website design, I ran across this little blog post on the Datavideo CKL-100, a painless chromakey solution. In this particular case, the user in question was testing the CKL-100 with a Canon 5D MKII. Check it out.