Month: September 2018

Back for our third year filming at Redondo Beach performing arts center for Nuestras Raices’ incredible Baile Folklorico. Feel the energy of this short, vibrant two minute clip as dresses flair to the beat of well-practiced zapateado, the best in Mexican dance! Filmed with three Sony Cine Alta cameras, this clip shows just how compatible the EX 1R, PXW  X200 and the PXW Z280 can be. The backstage camera was mounted on a short crane for some dramatic elevated views of the dancers. Enjoy!

I’m frequently asked to record video testimonials for business owners, like the ones seen below recorded for Simon Lusky, a business broker. Simon had just concluded a successful transaction between buyer and seller. The clients were happy with Simon’s work on their behalf, and gladly consented to these three short testimonials.

The filming came together very quickly with only one day’s notice. I’m fine with that and enjoy the challenge of  ‘running and gunning’…on the road right after the call comes in. On the drive to the business location Simon and I worked out the questions that I would ask during the interviews. I scouted the best location for the shoot immediately upon arriving. The interviews had to be completed as quickly as possible; everyone was a bit ‘edgy’, not so much with being on camera, but rather with the pending move. Everything was in transition and disarray with the pending move of the business and change of ownership. I cleaned up the set a bit and was off and running.

I set a couple of large LED lights and guided each speaker through the interviews encouraging short sound bites so I would be able to change frame after each sentence or two. That would allow for easier cuts in the editing. I filmed with my new Sony PXW Z280 in 4K video. Within two hours of filming I delivered the finished video seen below to Simon who was so pleased with the results, he’s likely to become the next testimonial for my own company, 24KT! Enjoy!

4K video from my Sony PXW Z280 makes gorgeous 4k Stills! Enjoy some scenes at home in my tranquility garden. You gotta love the soft backgrounds! Contrast was enhanced in Post.

Low light video test of Sony’s PXW Z280. Original 4K clips seen here were rendered to 1080P. Light sources are candles and a small LED light stragetically placed. Color and contrast have been enhanced in post. Gain was kept to a minimum, -3DB most shots to reduce noise. Very happy with the performance of this camera! Brilliantly clear, vibrant images.

Just starting to get comfortable with the menus and buttons of my new Z280, practicing a bit every day so that I can change settings “by feel” in a darker theater or reception venue, places where I film frequently. It was a short learning curve for me having come from the EX1 to the EX1R to the PXW X200, and now to the Z280. The overall menu layout and the user buttons on the left side of the camera felt very familiar to me.

The features of the camera that I enjoy most, and the primary reasons why I purchased this camera are the AUTO ELECTRONIC ND filter, the f1.9 LOW LIGHT CAPABILITY, DIGITAL EXTENDER and FACIAL RECOGNITION AUTO FOCUS.

AUTO ELECTRONIC ND FILTER: It’s pretty amazing to be able to manually vary the ND filter density while holding constant an f1.9 wide-open aperature, or having the camera automatically vary it for me. Be aware that for the auto electronic ND Filter to work, you must set the ND filter switch to one of the 3 available positions. This function will not work in the “clear” position.

By setting the ND filter switch to position 1, 2, or 3, flipping the ND variable/preset switch to variable and setting the ND menu setting to manual, rotating the ND filter wheel changes the density of the ND filter in a range of 1/4 to 1/128 without changing the f-stop. As expected, depth of field can be manually increased or decreased by varying the density of the ND filter, particularly with a wide open aperature. (f1.9)

By selecting the “auto” ND menu setting the Z280 adjusts the ND filter density automatically, depending on the amount of light entering the lens. Your manually set f-stop still remains constant.

Moving the camera, for example, from a darker image on my patio to the bright sky, the camera will adjust the ND filter appropriately from 1/4 to 1/128 automatically. If the sky is still too bright at 1/128, you can further alter the exposure by rotating the iris ring until the image looks good to you.

Because I use the electronic ND frequently, changing back and forth from manual to auto, I found it convenient to assign this function to a user preset button.

FACIAL RECOGNITION: I took my Z280 out for its debut performance to film a show at a local theater, anxious to try out the facial recognition focus feature. I have a user preset button assigned to change the settings of this feature quickly. Available settings are AF off, face priority AF and face only AF. According to the user manual the face priority AF, when it finds a face, focuses on that face. When the face is no longer detectable, auto focus mode is engaged. If there are multiple faces detected the Z280 will select another face automatically if its first target is no longer detected. The process is seamless and very accurate. I filmed the entire show using this feature and it worked flawlessly. Not a single scene was out of focus.

In “face only AF” the accuracy of focusing is equally fast and accurate, but when the face is no longer detected, focus is lost; it doesn’t automatically switch to auto focus, exactly as explained in the manual.