Blog | Sewanee Annual Fund

Lucas — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 02:39:43 +0000

Today I shot footage for the Sewanee Annual Fund. This will be one of three videos and in this one I interviewed the infamous Dr. Haskell. We had a nice interview and then I grabbed some footage of the campus as the sun was setting.

I used the Rode VideoMic hooked up to the Zoom H4n for the audio – there will be some noise reduction to do as the HVAC system was on full humm during the interview. I also got a chance to use the Glidetrack. One thing I got burned on was the 12 minute limitation of the Canon 7D during the interview, I missed about a minute of Dr. Haskell talking. BUT, with doing the audio separate, I still captured the audio of it, even though the 7D video burned out after 12 minutes, another bonus to using separate audio with DSLRs!

Haskell and owl skeleton

I was a bit disappointed by the Glidetrack however, it already has some spots where it is getting hung up, namely the middle. I’m worried that because it’s anchor point is in the middle that the ends of the Glidetrack are already getting warped from the weight of the camera and so there’s a little warping going on in the middle of the track where it can’t smoothly run over. It seemed to do better when it was off the tripod, and thus having the opposite effect where the middle is now where the track will bow as the supports are now on the ends of the track with it sitting on the ground.

Photo from Glidetrack's website, I have the longer version of this

I’ve read one person putting some oil on the track and I’ve heard another forum post say to not do that, but I might just have to test that out because I was having a hard time getting smooth tracks, it was basically impossible, but more testing needs to be done. The one disadvantage of having the Miller DS-10 tripod is all the adapters I have to have that make it a bit heavier on the Glidetrack, thus contributing to the warping factor on the track. I may need to pick up the HD version that’s for heavier camera’s . . .

We interviewed in the new (year old) Spencer Hall. It looks like a great place to have class and study – plenty of room and natural lighting.

Spencer Hall

I will be interviewing Dr. Potter and Dr. Reishman next month so if any Sewanee grads or students want certain question’s asked, let me know. I asked Dr. Haskell about his beard today.

I was happy with the images I got out of the 7D today, everything you see here are screen grabs from the video footage, except that picture of All Saints which is part of a timelapse. Stay tuned for the video, it should be up and viewable by the end of the month! And the other’s will follow in the next few months – Yea Sewanee’s Right!

The 'hero' shot of Haskell

Darwin's Garden - has a path that warps around it in proportion to the geological periods

Sewanee Seal

Morgan's Steep Sunset

All Saint's Chapel at sunset, this is part of a timelapse

Review | Zacuto Z-Finder

Lucas — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:18:27 +0000

I recently got a few new items of gear and will slowly begin to post reviews of them. One I was excited about was the Zacuto Z-Finder that I picked up at B & H Photo for about $380. There are some cheaper alternatives like the Hoodman ($80), but the only option to keep that on the camera are some bands that look difficult to take on and off, plus the construction of the Z-Finder seemed more substantial and had a mount that glues to the LCD screen so you can clip the z-finder on and off easily.
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I feel like I have a Transformers toy when I put this thing on my camera

I bought this DSLR viewfinder for several reasons:

added stabilization while shooting video
aid in focusing
eliminate outdoor glare issue on LCD screen

It also just looks cool, I mean why do anything if you’re not going to look cool anyways, right? The Z-Finder basically accomplished those three reasons why I bought it, but there are some caveats. I always think of caviar when I say that.

I swear my hands aren't as small as they look - really!

STABILIZATION | It does help with stabilization, but not as much as I would have liked. This isn’t really a deficiency with the product, but with my lack of experience and realistic expectations with gear. That’s partly why I bought it, “let’s see what this thing can do.” Standing still and moving the camera around my face is fine, but walking with it takes a little practice, and is only slightly more stable than walking without it attached, I think. The Zacuto shoulder mount setups would really help that, but are really expensive so I may just make a home-made one at some point.

FOCUSING | Of those three bullet points, this is the one it helps with the least I think because I still have to use the little zoom button and digitally zoom in on the image 5x or 10x to focus, just like I was doing before anyways. But it does make it a bit nicer to do.

GLARE | Booya! It nails this obviously, I have no issues with glare now and don’t have to guess and hope I’m doing everything right when I’m outside, just slap this baby on and you’re good to go. You kind of feel like a referee in the NFL on a review play, it’s your own private theatre in this thing.

After saying all that, I’m not really sure what advantage the Z-Finder has over the less expensive Hoodman besides the Z-Finder having that sweet little mount on the camera that lets you clip it on and off easily. I’ve read the Z-Finder is a bit brighter too?

Down the rabbit hole

OVERALL IMPRESSION | When I first got it, I was like “wow that thing is freaking huge!” it barely fits in my hand, but then what was I expecting? I was also surprised that it’s basically hollow, I didn’t really research how these things are constructed before I bought it, so I guess I was expecting something a tad more complicated.

Anyways, overall I really like it. The eye-cup is great, very soft rubber, I can even keep my glasses on my face and use it. I was surprised that they don’t have a protective cap on the eye cup end though, I’m worried the magnifying lens will get scratched up in my camera bag. I think the lanyard is pretty crucial since I take the Z-Finder on and off so much. You can’t see all the corners of the LCD screen though, so be prepared to move your face around the eye cup to see the corners, like the guy from Porky’s in the shower scene. It’s only the very last bit of the corner, it’s not a deal breaker at all.

If you have $380 laying around, have issues with stable hand held shots with a DSLR and can’t see your screen during they day, get this.

Philip Bloom has also done a nice review here.

All photos were taken with my iPhone.

How many licks does it take to get to the center of the Z-Finder, less than I thought.

Here’s Zacuto’s promo piece on it:

Lucas Ridley » DSLR

Blog | Sewanee Annual Fund

Review | Zacuto Z-Finder