Then I also bought the Shoot35 Follow focus, revision 1, which was cheap and cheap. I mean, you have a good feeling when pulling focus but… it’s cheap. Again, they made a revision two which is far better and can compete with all the biggest brand. It’s a little more expensive though.

The last thing I needed was a Matte-box. I had to rent one on every time I had a serious work, with sometime some supprises. For example, a rental company gave us the mattebox but without the swing arm… And most of the time when you rent cheap you don’t have a swing arm, you have to take the MB off every time you change the lense, which can happen a lot depending on your DP

Shoot35 announced they Matte box some time ago. The first batch was gone in a minut, and the second also. But this time I was informed and ambushed to be able to order in the second ! And I got one !!

Here is my review with some pictures

Unboxing

So today I received the box. Inside is the classic Shoot35 package with red foam. The MB is delivered with a hard case (made of plasic, it’s not a safety case but is fine for most of us. Maybe they should add an option for a Pellicase…).

Inside you find the MB itself with the flaps. There is another box containing the insert, the « clip-on » (or adaptor) ring  and a set of hallen keys.
The hard case is not the same model as I had before but feels strong. Don’t let it go under a car or in a river though… Also, you can’t lock it. This can be a real problem if you’re taking a fly…

Description

The MB feels solid. The metal parts are strong anodised alluminium, black for most of the parts and red for handles. The swing-away arm is a bit rigid for the moment but I’m sure it will be good after some time.

As you can see on the next picture, the front have 4 white screws in the corners. These are used to « plug » the Matte Insert used to limit the light getting inside the MB. It’s magnetic and stick to the screws.

The CINEbox also offer two filter tray. They can hole 4×4 filters. You can order them red or black. I’ve ordered black as I thought the light bounding on it may give a red tint on the image/flares. Now I have the MB in hands, I don’t think it can be a problem. But this is just a question of design and how you will be a star with your mattebox. I don’t care and the red handles are already fine for me

The filters holders can both rotate independantly. This behaviour is controled by the red handler. As it’s brand new it feels hard to move, specialy if you’re moving them one at a time. You have a clic at every 90°, plus some other in the middle.The white handler is used to lock to filter tray in position. There is a center « click » so you can precisely adjust it.

The Rubber Bellows (Donut) is fine. It is firmly attached to the MB itself using screw. I’m more used to MB where you can take it off quickly, which can be usefull sometime. As this is aimed for « small » optics, the 80mm hole should be enough. In the inside, a ring with small balls is here to « clip-on » a smaller ring adapter. I ordered a 77mm ring to use on my PMW EX1 and the 24-70 f2.8 Nikon lense.

The CINEbox can be used on the EX1 if you open the LCD under the microphone. I tried the MB on it as a clip-on. I wasn’t able to remove the arm, so it was really too heavy for the rubber bellows to handle.

Update : Actualy, the CINEbox manual present a soft-mount (the rubber bellows) and a Hard-Mount, which is made of hard plastic. This is used to « clip on » the lense. You can’t order it right now though. Also, you have to unscrew the rubber bellows, which is not possible quickly on a set. You will have to chose. Also, removing the arm is dony by removing the three bolts connecting the shade to the arm.

The Swing-Away Arm feels really solid. Actualy, much more than some competitors like RedRock.

The left handle allow to adjust the MB independently from the arm. At the closest position, the MB can cross before the arm. This can be handy sometimes. On the other way, if you are short with the 15mm rods, you can push it almost 5cm forward. This is also useful when you have lenses with different length. You can adjust without having to move the arm.
Also, I had a problem with a MB one day, where you HAD to put the arm at the end of the rods. Then the MB was also beeing block by the rods…No way to push it closer…
It’s No problem with the CINEbox. The moving parts are above the arm, so above the rods.

The right handle is here to tighten the swing movement. I would have prefer a quicker push/pull button like on the RedRock, but this handle is really accessible so it should be fine.

You can also adjust the parallelism of the mattebox them the arm is pushed.
One last picture of the arm opened :

I put the CINEbox on my SG-blade rod support. The camera was not there, but I tried with a 50mm f1.2 Nikon lense.

It’s working nicely.

From the front view, you can see the lense is kind of « low » in the hole. It is not centered.This is not a big issue but still.
The SG-Blade is already at it’s top position and I won’t be able to rise it more. As the CINEbox does not have a height adjustment, I’m screwed !!!
I don’t know how they managed this high. I’ll have to check with the competitors mattebox to see if it’s standard. If it is then it’s the SG-blade that is not standard ! I’ll have to figure that out. Again, if it was possible to remove the rubber bellows, I could fit any lense without problem.

Update : As pointed out Wayne, a member of Shoot35 Team, I did not read the manual coming with the CINEbox. This is why  I passed on the height position adjustment. This can be done by loosening the three bolts connecting the shade and the arm. Here is the picture. Sorry Wayne, I was too busy (hurry)….

You also see the flaps handles here. Nothing special to say. They are working perfectly.

The flaps are a little smaller than what I’m used to. I will surely have to design somthing to increase the length of the top flag and use some scratch to tighten it.
The sides flap are also too small. The screw where the moving part  is tighten should be at the same height as the handle of the top flap. Again, nothing really bad, but still…

Conclusion

It’s a good product. It feels solid and is made with good materials. While I’m still waiting to be able to use it on a movie, i’m confident. It is better than some other brands I worked with but still have few small problems. Also, note that this mattebox is designed for the DSLR market. As I’m more in the « movie » (understand old legacy camcorders world) market, I’m used to more versatile hardware.

My opinion is you can seriously go for it. I’ll have a try with a 14mm lense soon to ensure the side of the MB is not in the field (which was confirmed by Shoot35) but I see no reason why.
I hope they will release a V2 soon, with, for example, carbon instead of (heavy) plastic and instant-lock swing-away.

Pros :

• cheap
• solid
• two rotating filter tray
• swing arm
• can adjust height
• clip-on mode if you remove some bolts and buy the hard-mount kit

Cons :

• can’t take rubber bellows off easily
• heavy ? (will have to compare)
• hard to find for the moment (but I don’t care I now have one )

At this time the market was trusted by big companies. Hopefully they do good hardware. On the other side, it’s pricy.
Few years ago I involved myself in creating my own LCD field monitor. While I had a good LCD panel, the electronic board, the G2DI from Winmate, was bad for handling HD-SDI signal. Also, the firmware was closed with no possibility to add anything fancy without either paying Winmate to do it or pay the developper kit…

I had the chance to work in the french movie industry and worked with the more expensive monitors, like the Panasonic BT-LH900, the best screen to date, and some of the ASTRO multi-purpose monitor for digital intermediate (which was my position at this time).

Then came an outsider : a company claiming it can do better and cheaper -> SmallHD

I made a long technical comparison of every monitor that could fit my needs. I’ll try to sum this up here. This roundup is not the one I made back in time but one up to date, now the DP6 is here. Some monitor or brands may be forgoten but they seriously can’t compete. Please comment if I’m wrong.

While writing this, I just noted Ikan already have a comparison chart, with the DP1, not the DP6. Of course, if you put the DP6 in it, you’ll see it have everything the Ikan have, plus better resolution.

The conclusion here is that the Ikan is cheaper with almost the same features. Actualy, back in april, the Ikan wasn’t released yet. Moreover it’s a big company, and as many others, they tend to release a new product and switch to the next one, meaning no improvement will be done. That’s another point for SmallHD. It’s a brand new (young) company with motivated people and few products : they have to be the best and will make it. Moreover the DP6 have the best resolution of all monitors.
I finaly decided to pre-order the SmallHD DP6, the new 5.6″ monitor (6″ external size) in April. The plan was to receive it late june to use it on the next short movie we done in july.

SmallHD came through some troubles with parts of the monitor and had to delay the release to late august. Most of the time, when this kind of thing happen, companies just refund and that’s it. NOT SmallHD.

They offered either to get refund OR get the monitor later PLUS a discount coupon on the store. I think the amount was dependent on the delays, early pre-orderer like me had almost 10% of the total price. GREAT.
UPDATE : SmallHD also paid interrests to people asking for a refund !!!

I finaly received the monitor in Quebec, Canada, where I was travelling. I had to trash the box there, so no picture of it. It’s a small box with the monitor well packed and secured in foam… good work.

But… oups… they forgot the battery !!!
Two emails and a week later the battery arrived at home, in France. Thanks !

Actualy I wasn’t able to use the DP6 until I get back to France. At this time the SATIS, the french biggest show for broadcast, cinema, lighting… was starting. I went there with the DP6. I had some tests with many camera like the Canon 5D, 1D or D60 or with Sony and Panasonic camcorders. I was about to test it on the ARRI Alexa but there was seriously too many people there…

Back at home I emailed SmallHD with all the improvements I think they can do on the SP6, like the « false color » feature existing on the Marshall monitors. I had a really quick answer from them (thanks Reed) and entered the Beta Testing group.

I’m now running the 1.2.1 BETA version of the firmware which includes the False Color feature.

Here are some pictures of the DP6 connected to the Sony PMW-EX1 using the HD-SDI cable.

The latest firmware version adds also a startup splash screen

Even if the pictures are not that good, let’s review the DP6 functions :

• Default

There you can see the picture out of the EX1, configured with informations like battery, TC, sound. You also have the DP6 format selection, in green, on the top right of the image (SDI, 1080p).

• Focus Help

When you activate the Focus Assist mode, using the right switch, the image changes to a « night view » where only the in focus points (edges) are in white. It’s almost the same as the EX1 feature where you have red (or any color configured) edges on the picture. Having the black backgorund for out of focus helps a little bit more. I’ll come back later with any comment on using this feature on stage.

• False Colors

False Color is the new way to display your exposure on the screen. You can see all range of colors depending on the exposure if your scene. Black is for dark areas, then blue, orange, green, then white.
As this is a Beta version, I don’t have the real mapping between colors and real intensity, but I’m sure SmallHD will release it soon. Whatever, avoid yellow or white. This function is default on the middle switch of the DP6, which can now be used as a quick access switch.

• Menus

The menus of the DP6 are arranged around the screen.
Top left are the image parameters, like color mode, contrast, brightness. Then the Advanced menu gives more screen control. Then Input menu gives the input selection : SDI, HDMI, YPrPb or Composite. Composite is using the green component input.
Last right menu is System to change backlight, USB power or reset to factory.
On the lower of the screen is the Misc menu with the menu opacity, the language (only english for now) and the version display.
Then the Picture In Picture (PIP) menu. It seems you can’t have SDI and HDMI at the same time for the moment. Will have to check that again but, eh, I never used the PIP feature of any of my screens
Latest menu is in the lower right and is the Preset menu. With the latest firmware you display it by turning the wheel from outside the menu. There you can select one of the 10 presets, PLAYBACK or DSLR REC menu. Both last are used with Canon 5D/7D as the display mode of these DSLR are not 16:9 compliant.

My DP6 is equipped with the battery and the screen protection. The DP6 have a neoprene protection sleeve. It also have a neoprene sunshield you can plug on the four corners of the display in few seconds.
See pictures under.

Depuis, les brevets du Steadicam est plus ou moins tombé dans le domaine public, meme si le nom reste lui une marque déposée.
Du coup, plusieures société se sont lancées dans la fabrication de stabilisateurs, plus ou moins cher et plus ou moins réussis. C’est le cas d’une entreprise Française, L’Aigle, qui a reussi sa propre révolution dans ce domaine : remplacer les ressorts et autres pistons par des elastics !!!

L’Aigle Paris est donc une « petite » entreprise Francaise qui à sue remettre à jour les differents types de stabilisateurs existants pour offrire du materiel de qualité pro au prix… mini. La ou un stabilisateur de « grande » marque (comprendre de chez Steadicam) peut couter plus de 20.000, la gamme de prix de l’Aigle reste inferieur à 10.000€.

Mais alors, quelles sont les différences pour générer un tel écart ?

Je vous propose donc de vous présenter ici le « nouveau » modele Aigle HDV que j’ai reçu il y a maintenant quelques semaines.

Dans cette premiere partie, ce sera simplement une revue du contenu et le reglage de la camera. Je pense qu’un 2eme article rentrera plus profondement dans les reglages et un 3eme dans l’utilisation.

Je tiens à noter que je n’ai suivie aucune formation spécifique si ce n’est celle offerte par l’Aigle lors de l’achat, d’une durée de 2 heures et qui comprends les explications sur les reglages, l’utilisation et une initiation aux principes et à l’utilisation d’un stabilisateur.

Composants

Encore une fois, je ne vais pas re-expliquer comment fonctionne le steadycam. Il y a pour cela d’enormes ressources en ligne. Pour faire simple, le but est d’isoler la camera des mouvements parasites de l’opérateur.
Pour parvenir a cela, les stabilisateurs se decomposent en 3 parties disctinctes.

le SLED

C’est la « tige » qui supporte la camera d’un coté et les contre-poids de l’autre. Au milieu de la tige se trouve une poignée d’accroche qui permet de fixer le bras et de controler les mouvements du Sled. C’est cette partie qu’il faut equilibrer en premier pour s’assurer que la camera reste bien horizontale et statique.
Le haut du sled est une plaque qui peut etre réglé de maniere précise en avant/arriere et gauche/droite. Il contient aussi les prises permettant de brancher le moniteur à la camera et d’apporter le courant necessaire à la camera et ses équipements.

Le bas contient deux emplacements pour des batteries (modele spécifique aigle ou support V-Mount/IDX au choix) qui sont reglables avant/arriere. Un support d’ecran aussi reglable permet d’installer un moniteur. Le standard est un 7″ mais qui n’est pas HD. L’Aigle va prochainement proposer un moniteur HD (720p) avec entrées HD-SDI.

La tige est réglable en plusieurs parties. La poignée peut elle aussi etre réglée en hauteur. A l’interieur se trouve un cordon escargot (etirable) qui permet de suivre la longueur que l’on donne a la tige et transmettre la vidéo et l’alimentation quel que soit le réglage éfféctué. A noter qu’en standard ce sont des proses coax RVB mais le cable a l’interieur est de la multipaire non blindé. Je n’ai pas encore testé de faire passer du signal HD-SDI dessus.

Contrairement à la photo, le haut de mon sled n’est pas bleu et ne contient qu’une petite tige en carbone au lieu de deux. Je ne sais pas à quoi elles servent pour le moment

le BRAS

Le bras fait le liens entre le Sled et le Harnais. Il est construit en 3 parties dont 2 sont équipées d’élastics. En fonction du nombre d’élastics le bras aura plus ou moins de force de soutiens. C’est un réglage a effectuer une fois le Sled parfaitement balancé. Un simple ajout d’élastic permet de faire varier cette force. Un outil est fournis mais les « pro » savent les ajouter/enlever a la main. Attention quand meme aux pincements de doits dans les parties mobiles

le HARNAIS

Le harnais permet de relier le bras à l’opérateur. Il y a un grand débat dans les forums : le bras doit il se fixer sur le devant ou sur l’arriere du harnais ?
Steadicam a pris le parti de le fixer devant (fixation ventrale). L’Aigle a choisi l’option dorsale, prétéxtant un moindre effort sur le dos. N’ayant pas de point de comparaison, je laisse le débat aux experts.

Le harnais doit se « poser » sur les hanches. Le serrage doit etre ferme et comprimer legerement les abdos. Les sangles ne sont pas la pour supporter le poids mais simplement retenir le harnais. A noter sur l’Aigle étudie une solution permettant de coller l’arriere du harnais au dos, avec un systeme de coussin gonflant, un peu à la maniere des anciennes baskets « PUMP ». Il n’ont pour le moment pas trouvé le moyen d’industrialiser cette solution que j’ai pu tester chez eux et qui apporte un confort non négligeable.

Differences

Sans rentrer dans le jeu du « j’ai la plus grosse » ni meme de reelement comparer les modeles existants (ils évoluent sans cesse… sauf chez Steadicam ou ils prennent leur temps… mais bon, comme le dit FatBoy slim : I’m number one so why try harder ?) je vous propose de simplement noter les differences entre le modele HDV et la concurence :

Mise en service de l’Aigle HDV

L’Aigle HDV est livré dans un gros sac de « voyage » en nylon, avec une poignée rétractable et des roulettes.
Le gros, non, l’enorme sac est pourvu d’une poignée rétractable, de roulettes et d’une moquette interieur qui permet aussi un compatimentage. Cela permet de ranger le sled, le pieds et l’ecran sans qu’ils ne frottent les uns aux autres. J’ai quand meme gardé du papier bulle pour l’ecran, que je range directement, dans le demonter du support.

Vous pouvez noter les boites en carton de batteries et de l’ecran qui vont partir a la cave rapidement…

Installation du pieds

Rien de spécial. On ecarte les 3 pieds le plus possible pour avoir un max de stabilité. On releve la tige du haut. Je la met au 2eme trou, soit a peu près a 30 cm.

La premiere fois il faut fixer le plateau en haut de la tige du pieds. Rien de bien compliqué. Il faut cependant s’assurer de TOUJOURS alligner le plot du plateau (celui qui sert a accrocher le sled pour l’équilibrage) avec un des pieds. Les deux autres pieds sont donc du coté de l’attache repos.

Comme on peut le voir, sur l’arriere du plateau, un systeme d’accroche pivotant bleu permet de securiser le sled lorsque qu’il est « au repos ».  Ce systeme n’est pas pratique,et j’ai rapidement perdu un des caoutchouc sur lesquels se posent le sled au repos. Comme nous allons le voir, le sled a aussi tendance à se mettre en travers et n’appui pas sur tous les caoutchoucs… rien de grave, mais quand meme…

Montage du sled

Le sled arrive en une partie, pré-monté. Seul la plaque du haut, pour fixer la camera, est a part. Il est composé de 3 tubes de bonne section, en carbone. Un systeme de serrage, peu pratique et douloureux pour les mains, permet de rallonger le sled ou de deplacer la poignée. Cela permet de regler le « temps de bascule », c’est a dire le temps que met le sled pour passer d’une position horizontale a sa position statique, verticale. En gros, cela permet de modifier le centre de gravité de l’ensemble sans ajouter de poids.

Le probleme c’est que parfois, la mini-poignée de serrage se retrouve « dans les mains »… Et la, c’est beaucoup moins pratique :

La plaque, sur le haut, permet de fixer la camera sur le sled. Elle est donc amovible. Elle est fournie avec 2 vis standard. Attention, ces vis ont une forme particuliere ET ont une fente fine. Impossible de les utiliser avec un « tom-pouce » standard. Il faut un tournevis plus fin.

Sur l’arriere de la plaque, une « vis sans fin » permetra de l’attacher au reste du sled, de securiser la plaque et de permettre le reglage « micrometrique ». J’utiliser une tige de metal pour trouver le points d’équilibre de la camera/de la plaque. Cela me permet de savoir, grossierement, quel est le reglage a faire une fois la plate attaché au sled.

Vu de dessus, le haut du sled sans la plaque laisse apparaitre le « cablage » qui relie le haut et le bas du sled. On remarque clairement les prises composantes RVB qui passent dans un fil torsadé. Je n’ai pas encore pu tester mais dans ces conditions je doute que le signal HD-SDI de la Sony EX1 puisse passer. Il faudra certainement que je change ce cablage la. De plus, le cable sort en prise RCA, qui sont convertis en BNC : bonjour les changements d’impedence. Pour le moment j’utilise le cable composante -> RCA de la EX1. Il m’a donc aussi fallu trouver 3 convertisseurs RCA femelle -> BNC male.

La plaque de pose donc sur le sled. Un systeme de fente permet de laisser passer la vis de reglage laterale (gauche/broite).

Une fois la plaque posée sur le sled, il faut IMPERATIVEMENT la pousser vers l’avant et donner quelques tours de la vis de profondeur qui se trouve a l’arriere. Ce n’est qu’une fois que la vis est « prise » que la plaque est sécurisée et ne risque plus de tomber.

Les vis de serrage latterales ont un système qui permettent de sécuriser les réglages. Ce n’est pas franchement pratique et j’ai toujours peur (à tors certainement) de modifier le réglage en les utilisant… Pour le moment je ne m’en suis pas servi. Mais je suis encore en phase de découverte…

Avant de reposer la camera sur le sled, il faut fixer l’écran. Il vient avec un support qui fait pare-soleil et deux tiges en carbone pour les fixer au sled tout en étant facilement réglable.
Comme les tiges sont en carbone il ne faut pas trop serrer les vis de fixation sous peine d’exploser la fibre. Des que l’on sent que ca force, un 10eme de tours pour sécuriser et tout est bon.

Le bas du sled contient aussi deux compartiments pour batteries et des bulles de niveau. Il faudra les utiliser pour balancer le sled.

Pour cela, la procédure est simple. Vous apprendrez que la difference en la théorie et la pratique est cependant ENORME. Vous allez certainement passer des heures a régler votre sled les premieres fois.
Et oui, etre steadycamer, ca se gagne a force de temps, de patience, d’entrainement et d’organisation. Effectivement, en connaissant votre materiel, vous trouverez plus facilement comment trouver le bon réglage.

Sur le bas du sled, les vis laterales hautes servent a securiser le serrage de l’avance de l’écran. Celles d’en bas servent respecivement aux deux compartiments de batteries. Pour le moment je n’ai fixé qu’une batterie, a l’arriere, pour avoir plus de latitude de réglage. La 2eme batterie viendra alimenter le 2eme ecran de control et le remote follow focus (article a venir prochainement, j’espere)

Le bras

Le bras est simple. Il est composé de deux sections identiques possedant un systeme de force par elastics en caoutchouc. En fonction du poids de la camera (et du sled), on ajoute ou enleve des elastics. Un bon nombre sont fournis et ils sont garantie « incassables ». Aucun risque de s’en faire peter un a la gueule, donc

Le systeme de mise en place des elastique comporte 2 piges que l’on met en place une fois le bras a l’horizontal. Pas facile… Avec de l’experience il est possible de les mettre/enlever rapidement sans outils. Pour débuter, une longue tirette en metal bleu permet d’aider. Je rajouterais une video prochainement.

Le harnais

Le harnais est constitué d’une plaque de metal qui sert de support. Sur le bas se fixe le bras. J’ai ajoué des rondelles (fournies) pour incliner legerement le bras vers le haut. Cela fait partie des réglages à faire, avec l’exprience.

Le bras est une partie de metal coudée qui revient vers le coté droit. Il est possible de le monter dans l’autre sens pour les gauchers. Au bout se trouve un axe reglable en inclinaison.

Deux plaques en metal sont aussi attachées sur la plaque dorsale et supportent le systeme de serrage. Le tout est recouvert de mousse couverte de nylon alveolé, pour laisser circuler l’air. Ne vous y trompez pas, vous aurez quand meme chaud

Un systeme de « pompe » pour gonfler la partie dorsale est a l’etude mais encore commercialisé. J’ai essayé ce systeme dans le Showroom de l’Aigle et il semble plutot efficace. A voir avec l’experience…

Il faut faire particulierement attention lorsque l’on met le bras en place et s’assurer que la pige est bien rentré dans la fente, sinon le bras n’est pas sécurisé et peut partir a tout moment.
Sur le bras on note une grosse molette de réglage qui permet de modifier l’angle de sortie de la tige de support du bras. Effectivement, pour que le sled soit « statique » une fois sur le bras, il faut qu’aucune force ne s’exerece sur lui. L’inclinaison de la base du bras permet donc de rattraper l’inclinaison naturelle du corps au repos, qui change pour chaque individus.

Le systeme d’attache (de serrage du harnais) se fait par deux languettes clipsables. Le systeme (en plastique) a une petite poignée qui permet de serrer en force de maniere simple. Un bouton sur le dessus permet de relacher la languette pour enlever le harnais.

Fin du premier article

Voila pour la présentation (rapide) de l’Aigle HDV. Mon prochain article comportera des video faites rapidement, dans mon parking, avec mon ami Jean-Marc.
En attendant, quelques photos avec le kit 35mm SGBlade de shoot35

I was so « jealous » that I spent some time on ebay and bought these two, plus a 35-70mm f2.8 macro (macro is only working at 35mm, but i’m sure it will help where the 105mm is too much).
I just received the 80-200 yesterday, so I had some tests.
Of course, my tests are not as good as those from Ken Rockwell.

First, the lense. It’s a brand new one, coming from Hong-Kong. I received it in 3 days with Chronopost, well packed in a Chronobox box. Inside was the lense box with bubbles to protect it. Lense was 660€, 15€ shipping and 40€ taxes.

The lense is massive, heavy, feels really solid.
Starting from the top you’ll find the focus indicator and a « limit » switch. This can be used to constrain the focus ring from infini to 3m or from 2.5m to « macro » mode, which is around 1.5 meters.
Then comes the focus ring. When focusing, the top element moves. Infinite is max inward, macro is max outward. As noted by Ken Rockwell, the external filter thread is made of plastic but the case is made of metal. There is a rubber band at the end so the plastic won’t be hurt if you accidentaly hit something.

On the bottom part is the zoom ring. Moving it will move most of the elements in the center of the lense. This needs to have some strength, but whatever, who love zooms in a video ?
Then comes (not pictured) the support ring. you can rotate it to accomodate. I will have to find a support element for the rig. This lense is heavy and I don’t want it to break the shoe of the SG BLade.
Finaly comes the aperture ring, going from 2.8 to 22, which is not totaly closed. You also have a « lock », if you really want to be sure not to change the apertue without noticing it. Seriously, the aperture ring is not like it will move by itself. It’s well crancked.

And now, set on the rig :
      

And now, result of the first test, featuring Mouchette !!!
(Last pictures are made with the Nikon 50mm f1.2 AI-S)

Last words : it’s heavy, but it’s awsom, clear and sharp. it’s quite hard to follow the focus with this kind of zoom, but I’m sure I’ll get used to that. Footages have just been put on a timeline, quickly graded in one shot with a dispertion + contrast preset.

• Vimeo (see on their site, the embeded version can’t do HD)

Mouchette from sebastien THOMAS on Vimeo.

• Youtube (lesser quality, even in HD… what are they doing ?)

As you can see, it is composed of XML files. We’ll go through the VLC.xml file and try to learn about it. Then you’ll be able to download it, or change or build your own in a XML editor.
When you’re done changing it, just quit the EUcontrol software and start it over.

Structure of the file :

Let’s go through the two main parts.

AppSetWide

First part define the application, the preset creation informations and a possible target host. Remember that the controler is networked, and could control any host on the network. I’ll have to try this with laptop soon…
Then you have the CustomWheelCommands.
If you read my second article about the MC Transport, you remember that you have to « activate » the wheel jog and the shutter with a soft key. In fact, the soft key only call a pre-defines command.
Here, we can learn that :
- NormalKeys section is used for… normal keys.
- ShiftKeys section is used for… keys when you press the shift key of the MC Transport (the lower right button)
- WheelSoftKey8 is the jog when turned right
- WheelSoftKey9 is the jog when turned left
- OneShot means no repeat of the command
- LWIN=ON is used to activate the command key of the mac keyboard. You also have LALT=ON (ALT or Option on Mac), LCTL=ON (Control), LSHFT=ON (Shift key)
- the keystroke is defines between the field

You can define multiple CustomWheelFunction, just change the NAME and the UID. About the UID, I actually don’t know how it is calculated. Maybe it just have to be unique in the XML file, or worse, in ALL XML files…

You use the exact same settings for the shuttle :

WheelSoftKey17 is the position 0. 18 to 24 is for the + (right) section. 16 to 10 for the – (minus) side. 25 and above is for the transitions. I haven’t tried it yet.

ControlBindings

ControlBindings are made of Sections.
I can actually see 14 Sections. I think some of then are used by the MC Transport, while others are used by MC Control or other Euphonix hardware.
Inside a Section is a Bank. For the moment, every Section seems to only have one Bank, with ID=0.
In Section=2, Bank is empty :

I really don’t want to mess things up. Let’s go to what is defined for standard control : Section 10

This is working exactly the same way as the section before. This section is defined for the so called « soft keys »

- SoftKey1 is the first on the left
- Command is linked to the UID of the CustomWheelFunction defined before

Here you define how the SoftKey2 behave.
- RepeatEntry= »True » is to activate the auto-repeat of the keystroke
- DELAY= »500″ is the time to wait between the first time and the second
- FREQ= »100″ is the repetition delay 10 times per second, so 100ms. Section The interface you can only choose from 30 to 2 times per second. Maybe changing it in the XML file will allow to set it to 1 times per second ?

Section ID=11 is made for the Numpad. Nothing to change here for now…
Section ID=12 is for the Transport Keys, the 7 keys around the shuttle.
Let’s take some examples :

Here, again, you have an auto-repeat. The delay have been set to « as fast as possible ». FREQ=16 means, theoricaly, every 16ms. Set to FREQ=1000 for once per second.
COLOR=ff00b70b set the color of the button. This is a dark green. I don’t really understand how the MC Transport handle color. Also I don’t understant how they code the color on 4 hexa blocs… If you use this, the switch will be light green. Else, it will be light yellow.
Everything else is already known.

Now you should have everything you need to build your own config file. Enjoy and share your own presets. You can get my VLC preset on the download page, or use the direct link here.

First thing to do is register your controler. Go the the Euphonix support’s website.

This is where you’ll find the software download, the email support link and the docs.

When everything is working, as explained in previous post, you should have the green « € » in the top right of the menu, and the controler should display the name of the software you are actualy using (safari ? firefox ?)

I had some controler « freeze » at some point. Then, the controler keeps displaying the same application name, whichever application is in focus. For the moment, the only solution I found is to power-off the controler, go in the EuControl settings (the only way to get acces to the menu) and quit.
Then, restart the EuControl application, wait until the menu icon stop rolling, then power-on the controler.
As I said, I emailed the support about that without any real answer. I openned a new case today… we’ll see…

If you are using a supported application the controler comes pre-configured. This is not the case for most basic applications like Safari, Firefox, iTunes or even the finder.
While the MC Transport is not made for that specificaly, configuring these applications will help us understand how the controler work.

Basic notions :

you have two ways to do that : clic on the green icon in the menu and go to the settings -> « soft keys » tab or, simply, clic on the « eye » key on the controler, at the lower left of the keypad.

Before beeing able to use the jog or shuttle you have to enable it. Most of the time the activation key is the first soft key for the jog and the second for the shuttle. When switching into an application, every key should be off (no light). clic again to activate

You can change the color of the transport keys (the one arount the shuttle). The 2 first and 2 last keys can be yellow or red. The 3 keys in the middle can be yellow or green. For the moment, I haven’t found a way to light a key or change its color depending on the action. I openned a case to the support to have more informations. For example, keeping the key green while pressed, or changing the color at every clic… Another request, which may be linked, is having two actions for the same key. This way, you can have a yellow key. When first clic, send the « play » shortcut of the application and turn to red. When pressed again, send the « stop » or « pause » keystroke and turn back to yellow… I hope the support will give a clue on how to do that, or add support in the next software release

The pdf manual will lead you through the configuration process, which is really easy for the basic stuffs. Let’s write down a walkthrough…
All this is done in the configuration software, not the controler.

- select the button to assign
- give a name in the « soft key label » box AND press enter to validate
- change the font or color if needed
- clic on « command… » or double-clic on the button
- clic on the « add » menu and select what to do. Most of the time it will be « key », and if you want to make the button an activation button for the jog or shuttle, use « wheel »
- enter a keystroke or a list of them. Doing this enable you to do scripts
- you can add more option, again, to script the button

If you’re programming the button to activate the wheel, select wheel and a custom function.
If you’re programming the wheel, you have to :
- clic on the « + » sign and give a name to the « command »
- as you do when programming a key, add a keystroke or another function. This will be used when turning the wheel right (clockwise) by default
- clic on the « turn jog right » menu and change to « turn jog left »
- add the keystroke used when turn anti-clockwise

If you’re programming the shuttle, this is a little bit different. You can add action for each of the 15s step of the wheel (-7 -> 0 -> +7) and for each transition (0 ->1, 1->2 …) and the other way around (2->1, 1->0…)

These are the basics. I’ll try to give examples in the next post

[EDIT]
Now that I have my disk array working, I had another try.
Once again, the MC Transport stayed locked on the « Mail » application. This is not the first time, and for the moment, the only answer from the support was « disable firewall in your mac » and « start the audio mixer of FCP ». These answers were done after 10 days, or more. Seriously, Euphonix, what are you doing here ?

If this happen to you, follow these steps :
- power off the MC Transport
- go in the green « € » icon -> « EU Control Settings »
- go to the menu and quit
- poweron the MC Transport and wait until the « Euphonix » logo appear
- start the EU Control application. The menu icon should turn to green.

For the moment, while the hardware is perfectly built, I can’t say the software is working fine… If you haven’t bought yet, WAIT !
Euphonix team, if you read this, I’m willing to spend some time debugging for you. Just provide me a beta software, or one with extra debug. But please, stop giving stupid answers.

For the moment I havn’t seen any manual firmware upgrade tool to have every drives in the same version. Actualy, this is even better : if you can, always choose drives with different firmware and series for RAID arrays : you will not have all your drives failing in case of a bug related to the production.

Now, let’s see the perfs…
I will not give every results here. Moreover, RAID initialization will probably take one or two days… So I will not wait for the array to be built before using it. I’m sure this will have an impact on the perfs.

Let’s start with the Host : This is a MacPro 2009 with dual CPU Nehalem 2.66GHz and 12Gb of RAM :

RAID card configuration :
The RAID card is a HighPoint 4322 with dual SAS external output. It has 512Mo of cache and an intel processor for the RAID : this not a « software » RAID card !
Main settings, device settings….

Nothing really special here.

What will be tested

When enabled, the data are not directly written to the disk. Instead they are kept in the 512Mo card cache. The good point is that it gives, as you will soon see, a really good write throughoutput. The bad side is, in case of power failure, data are lost… One solution is to get a APC which will handle in case of power failure. You can use a smaller APC to power the disk rack only but you will have to buy the battery pack for the RAID card. I think the battery pack is really (too much) expensive : Highpoint, stop making money on options !!!
The other option is Write Through.

The card can handle RAID 0 (stripe), 1 (mirror), 5, 6, JBOD (Just a Bunch O Disk : no RAID) and any kind of mix, with spare disks. We’ll test RAID 1 and RAID 5.

The card can handle 8 drives. If I have time, I’ll try to bench with 4 drives and 8 drives.

By default the block size is 64k. It can grow up to 1Gb. This is the the RAID card will use to write data. Some people are saying 128k should be fine with big drives and big files… We’ll test that

Test 1 : RAID 5, 8 drives, Write Back, 64k block size

This is a full default when creating an array.
Aja System Test :

BlackMagic Disk Speed Test :

HD Drive Speed Test :

First thing : every speed test software have it’s own way to report. What I can say is that the write speed is MUCH faster than the read speed. This is certainly due to the write cache. I’m sure this value will drop when the write-through option is selected.
Whatever, the RAID array can sustain around 7 streams of 1080p DVCpro. I’m shooting with a Sony EX1, around 35Mbps VBR : I’ll be good

Test 2 : RAID 5, 8 drives, Write Back, 128k block size

Here we see a little improvement. Video files are usualy big, and a bigger block size seem to be helpful.

When taking off Journalizing, we remove one layer on the OS side. This should give some improvements in throughoutput, but it has a price : if the host crash (or the array go offline) while working, we may lose some data. Concidering that 1) I don’t have any battery on the RAID card and 2) I don’t have an APC on the array, the lease we can do is have a journalized FS.
So, this test is only for benchmark resons :

BlackMagic does not show any improvement or loss.
Conclusion : Disabling journalization does not give a real improvement in throughoutput and make the data even more insecure. I’ll stick with a Jounalized FS.
Another conclusion is that using a 1Gb file for testing is not enough. Switch to 4Gb to have a more realistic test, where buffer size can be filled and used for a longer time.

Test 3 : RAID 5, 8 drives, Write Through, 128k block size

We know write through will give less throughoutput on writing. Let’s see how much.
Another thing to enlight : sometimes the Disk Utility seems to have problem creating a 12Tb FS, or mounting it. You have to wait for a timeout and start it over… I actualy have no clue on the why…

Conclusion : reading is REALLY efficient here. On the other hand, writing is now SLOW. I really don’t understand the results. Does « Write Back » means using the cache for writing and « Write Through » using the cache for reading ? Why not both ? I’ll have to ask Highpoint on that. Another solution is that the read cache would be less effitient than with no cache ?
HD Drive speed test, which is only doing a write test, shows us the same result for writing :

Aja test gives no improvement in reading. This test is seriously puzzling me… LEt me know if you have any clue on why the Black Magic test is giving so many reads/sec.
This is co-related with the « iostat » command I’m running alog with the tests :
During the Black Magic test :

Read :

With 128k block size :

Using 64k block size does not change the results.
What we can see here is that the throughoutput is quite stable. Again, results in raw data are almost the same as with the benchmark tools.

Conclusion of static tests

This gives really good results, far more than I need, whatever the mode used. I will have to perform the tests again with a half-full and 80% full array, just to validate the throughoutput is still stable. Of course, it will be less than with an empty array.
Next test will be with FinalCut, and how it can handle big HD files from the EX1 (XDcam-EX 420 1080p @25fps VBR) and Proress 422HQ files.

For the moment :
1) buy a battery for the RAID card (between 100€ and 200€) and enable Write Back
2) use RAID5 for data security
3) user 128k Block Size on disk

The last comment will be about price :
- RAID card : under 600€
- RAID enclosure : 800€ (have to check, I really don’t remember)
- Drives : 157€x8 = 1256€

Total : 2656€ for an array usable for HD (and 4:4:4). Remember this is a 12Tb array with really good perfs.

Let’s first take a look at the packaging.


This box was is a brown box, which was in a bigger box with bubble plastic for protection. Thank you Thomann for such a precautions. That’s surely why Thomann can offer a 3 years support instead of the classical one legal year in Europe. Seriously, if you’re in the EU, order there !

The content : the MC Transport, a network cable, 2 risers and the power supply. I didn’t notice it at the first sight as it is hidden inside the foam. Maybe the MC Transport can work with PoE (power over ethernet), but I’ll have to check the brochure for that.

Remove all the gaffer and stuffs so every part of the MC Transport can move.

See the small foot under the body. you can set it the way you want. If needed, use the risers.

The 7 transport control keys are soft and responsive. The rubbed semi transparent top is a real pleasure. This is also the case for the six soft keys.
The shuttle ring is also rubbed and is soft, but make some noise when turned left/right.
The jog wheel is really weighted and smooth, that should make it really sharp.
The keypad is also rubbed. You’ll get a real good feeling. The only funny part is that it’s really smaller than I thought.

This is it at my work, with the new Apple keyboard, in front of a 24″ imac.

Next step is to install the driver and software. This is all bundeled in a .dmg file. To get it you need to register your product on the registration support page. You’ll find there 2 versions of the driver… I recommend the latest one, 2.0.3. Note that you do not need to restart your computer for the software to work… some other driver developpers should be inspired !!!
Once installed, you’ll get a new preference pane and an application:

The preference pane allow you to automaticaly start the application on reboot.

Power-on the MC Transport

The software is a green round icone with a kind of € inside. You’ll notice it in the dock and in the menu, as a grey icone.
The only option is to go to the settings.
Plug in your MC Transport and, assuming you are using DHCP, you should see it in the first pane :

Just select the MC Transport and click add :

When the MC Transport and the computer are paired, the icon change to green in the menu.
I’ll try to make another post on the usage in FCP soon… As for now, I already encountered two problems :
- In FCP, jog and shuttle are not working. I had to make some change to have it working.
- When « paired » with FCP (FCP is displayed on the MC Transport screen), there is no way to move to another application. Ex: switch to the finder and move the jog -> it’s still the cursor from the FCP timeline which is moving

After emailing the support, I had an answer after two days. The support asked me to « always have the audio mixer opened in Final Cut Pro ». This is quite strange, and opening it changed nothing to the problems I had… I have emailed the support 3 more times since then, without any answer yet (almost 10 days…)

Stay tuned….

This gives you a lot more than the Shuttle Pro2. It work on ethernet and the driver enable it to be used with almost any software !
Around 400€… availlable around right now…

Should I or not ?

Then, pics of the two 35mm :

There, not much difference. The f1.4 is just a little bigger, but you still have a better feeling with it.

Now, the test on the EX1 + SGBlade and RotoRazor 1 (1080@25p) :