....has begun, making a lot of filmakers out there very happy/giddy filmakers. All I've got to say is go RED team go! Despite the delays the EPIC project is an incredible feat and I wish more electronics manufacturers were out there pushing limits like you. Hopefully Epic-S and Scarlet (ESPECIALLY Scarlet) won't be too far behind now that the Epic-X production lines are going. Until then I'll be figuring out ways I can get my hands on $35k for an Epic-X......yeah....right..... Epic-X production thread here at Reduser.net
Gadgets
B+W ND 3.0 MRC Filter
I finally got to take a little vacation and decided to do some shooting along the way. Along with my truckload of gear I brought along a new toy: the B+W ND 3.0 MRC filter. I picked up one from B&H last week. It is a neutral density filter, but just not any neutral density filter. It decreases the light coming through the lens of the camera by a whopping 10 stops (even more if stacked with other filters like polarizers). Why on earth would you want to reduce light transmission 10 stops you might ask?? From what I understand, this filter was made for astronomical sun studies, welding applications, anything that would involve photographing insanely bright things. Along the way, photographers discovered this filter had another use. It allows you do long exposure shots in broad daylight! Imagine the kinds of things you can do with 30 second exposures in broad daylight! Unfortunately this specialty filter does not come without any caveats. There are two issues with such a dense filter. First, seeing through the lens is damn near impossible with the filter attached. Second, autofocus is also rather difficult. You also have to use a tripod for the kind of work I'm interested in. What you end up having to do is composing your scene and focusing with the filter detached, putting on the filter, and then hitting the shutter. Your camera may also have difficulty metering so there's going to be some trial and error getting the correct exposure. It's definitely not a filter for the lazy but I've had a lot of fun with it so far. Here are some examples from flickr that people have shot and below you can see some I took today. I'm hoping to get more shots with the filter while I'm down on the coast (it's great for moving water) so stay tuned! Pics taken with Nikon D300, Nikkor 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 DX, 77mm Hoya UV, 77mm B+W ND 3.0 MRC at ISO 100, F/8, 30 seconds (at around 5 pm). Post processing done with Adobe Lightroom 2.x, Photoshop CS5, Nik Dfine and Silver Efex Pro. [gallery]
Peter Jackson, I Hate You
Well I don't REALLY hate Peter Jackson, more like extremely jealous of. Although I still am a little confused as to how he went from making such films as 1990's Meet the Feebles (probably the raunchiest puppet movie ever) and 1992's Dead Alive (cheeky zombie movie with lots of corn syrup dyed red) to making the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and producing District 9 (awesome take on species relations between humans and aliens, set in the racial hotbed that is South Africa...shot in part with the RED ONE), the man clearly knows how to direct movies and make big productions happen. Right now my latest gadget obsession is the RED Epic (http://www.red.com/products/epic). It's a 5K digital cinema camera with over 13.5 stops of dynamic range (I believe I read around 19 stops with the RED HDRx feature) that also takes still and can use Nikon and Canon lenses in addition to the pro-cinema PL-mount lenses out there. In short...I want one. Jim Jannard of RED recently announced that the Epic is finally production ready after several years of development. RED is currently taking orders for pre-production Epics, with production on the Epic slated for Q1 2011...I think. Of course RED delivery times are always subject to change. Anyway, it was just announced that Jackson's latest production, The Hobbit, will be "filmed" in 3D with the RED Epic.....at least 30 of them! All jealousy for Mr. Jackson's ability to play around with 30 Epics aside, I can't wait to see the results. I doubt I'm the only one, Tolkein fanatics worldwide are probably drooling over the thought of a non-animated cinematic adaptation of the famous book. Jackson's The Hobbit: Part 1 is slated for 2012, so we'll all have to wait til then to lay our eyes on the feature. Cheers!