An open letter to Virgina Governor Terry McAuliffe

Dear Mr. McAuliffe;

You cannot be an unintelligent or uneducated man to have reached the position you now hold. I do wonder, though, if you are a logical man.

I am a law-abiding resident of the Commonwealth of Virginia. I believe in my family, my country and my rights as outlined in the Constitution of the United States of America. I also posses a permit to carry a concealed weapon, as I believe in the Boy Scout motto: "Be Prepared." I hope I never have to use my weapon in self defense. Should I be forced, however, to defend my life or the life of a loved one, I hope I will not hesitate.

I hope you realize that I am not the problem. That law-abiding citizens are not the problem. That tools in the hands of the law-abiding are not the problem. That criminals ARE the problem.

Criminals, by definition, do not obey laws, do not abide signs, and do not care about those who do obey laws and abide signs.

I hope you and rational enough to realize that removing the ability or legal authority of the people to defend themselves against crime does NOTHING to prevent such crime.

Any effort you take to deprive the law-abiding of their rights to self defense only creates more opportunities for criminals to exercise their unlawfulness, and for law-abiding citizens of the state of Virgina to die needlessly.

Please, please realize that the criminals are the problem - not the law-abiding - and do everything in your power to bring criminals to justice without affecting the Constitution-granted liberties of the law-abiding.

Sincerely,
Robert X. Xxxxxxx

Metabones Speed Booster Auto Focus - Finally!!

Prelim report on Metabones Speed Booster update with autofocus for Canon lenses (on GH4):

EF-L 24-105 - works beautifully. I think this is my new happy place!
EF-L 20-35 - check.
EF 50 f/1.4 USM - check.
EF 40 f/2.8 pancake - check (and a great, compact combination!)
EF 85 f/1.8USM - check.
Unfortunately, my 35mm f/2 (not USM) doesn't respond, and the 75-300 IS USM makes the camera freeze.

Bottom line: Hooray!!!! The AF is quick and accurate.

In all functional cases, autofocus engages when I first bring the viewfinder up to my eye. This is probably a setting I need to disable somewhere in the prodigious menu system of the GH4.

Note: This is all with the (now discontinued) standard 0.71x Speed Booster. There are two other versions now available: the ULTRA (still 0.71 - not sure what the extra is there) and the XL at 0.64. I'm thinking seriously about picking up the XL. If you're really bored, ask me about the math of lens equivalents...

Filmmaking Resources

There are SO MANY great resources available these days to learn about filmmaking and all the related arts. I keep a list of bookmarks that I frequent to stay abreast of ideas, technologies and information related to this artistic pursuit. Below, for your hopeful elucidation, is a sampling of my reference list. Please comment and share what other good resources you frequent!

Newsy web sites:
studiodaily.com
nofilmschool.com
blog.planet5d.com
cinema5d.com
eoshd.com
creativeplanetnetwork.com

Filmmakers’ web sites/blogs:
philipbloom.net
vincentlaforet.com
hurlbutvisuals.com

Gear-heavy blogs:
dslrvideoshooter.com
suggestionofmotion.com

Technique-focused blogs:
prolost.com
videocopilot.net
www.stillmotion.ca or stillmotionblog.com

Magazines - print/subscription:
Videomaker (videomaker.com)
HD Video Pro (hdvideopro.com)
Moviemaker (moviemaker.com)
Filmmaker Magazine (filmmakermagazine.com)
Mix Magazine (mixonline.com)

Magazines - free/electronic:
digitalvideomagazine.com
videoedge.net
microfilmmaker.com
prosoundnetwork.com

On YouTube:
Freddie W. (youtube.com/user/freddiew)
Corridor Digital (youtube.com/user/CorridorDigital)
Film Riot (youtube.com/user/filmriot)

Commercial companies with cool products:
Rampant Media (rampantdesigntools.com)
Red Giant (redgiant.com)
Black Magic Design (blackmagicdesign.com)
Wooden Camera (woodencamera.com)
Redrock Micro (redrockmicro.com)
Zacuto (zacuto.com)
Rode (rode.com)
Rokinon (rokinon.com)
Metabones (metabones.com)

Thoughts on the SLR Magic 25mm T0.95 Hyperprime Lens

Received my SLR Magic 25mm T0.95 HyperPrime lens today. First impressions:

• It's heavy! It's tiny!
• The geared aperture/iris and focus rings have a nice resistance to them.
• Very solid all-metal feel.
• It has a small sliding lens hood that won't stay in place without tape.
• Comes with a threaded metal lens cap; very nice, but overkill. I'll be storing it in favor of a quick plastic cap.
• Focus throw is about 180 degrees.
• At T0.98, focus is limited to a few millimeters of depth.
• Compared it briefly to a 50mm on my full-frame 6D; the 6D is still wider, despite the math that the two should be close to equivalent.

After some time to play with the lens, here are some more thoughts:

1. Like most (budget) lenses, it's soft wide open. It takes on a 'dreamy' soft look, though, with focus limited to a few millimeters. At T2, it's very nice and sharp, still with a beautiful, even, soft bokeh.
2. The small sliding lens hood is in fact threaded (and not, insofar as I've found yet, removable). The lens itself takes a 49mm filter; the hood a (much more common) 55mm. If you install a 49-77mm step up ring to the lens itself, e.g. to add common filters, the hood will contact the step-up ring when trying to focus to infinity (and thus prevent reaching that focus); the solution is to use a 55-77mm step up ring attached to the hood rather than the lens itself. This seems like a small detail, but has ramifications in certain applications. For cine lenses, it's nice to have the front-most lens attachment not move as focus changes. Attaching step up rings and/or filters to the lens hood enables this.
3. A point worth highlighting: This is a COMPLETELY MANUAL lens, with no electronic communication to the camera. This means no lens metadata (i.e. focal length, aperture setting, etc.) will be recorded with your photos or videos. This is generally not a problem for video work, but might matter to a stills photographer.
4. The aperture ring is VERY close to the camera body, as in about 1cm away. There's only about 2cm separation between the aperture and focus rings. Should you want to operate both these rings via follow-focus type controls, be prepared to get creative! The focus ring is so close to the body that I can't fit a follow focus on the traditional left side when using my GH4 and the Wooden Camera cage.
5. That said, the built-in metal gears mesh perfectly with every follow focus system I've yet tried. Both focus and aperture rings have very little backlash/hysteresis.

Some photos:

T0.95 Soft!

T2.0 Nice and sharp, with good bokeh

T0.95 useless for wide shots

Much better when stopped down.

Can you be big enough?

Let me give you an example:
Every week, at my workplace (a publicly traded company), someone writes a Bible verse on a public white board in the main hallway. This is allowed and accepted, despite laws separating the workplace and religion.

If I were to express the offense I feel** at seeing this, I would be ridiculed and ostracized. If I wrote on that same white board--not obfuscating the Bible verse--a verse from some text I happened to believe in, it would likely be erased, or if not, quite a row would result.

This is because Christianity is the 'popular' choice here (where I live and work), and people are too ignorant to accept that different points of view and beliefs exist. "Not Christian" is equivalent to "Evil" in their small minds.

The point is: It's hard to express a non-popular opinion. At our American core, we all say we support free speech, but it's very hard to accept (or support or defend) the speech of those with whom we disagree, especially when it rubs us to an emotional rawness. Most are not intelligent or cognizant enough to understand, let alone embrace and realize, the distinction, or the importance that the distinction exist in the first place.

So what's the message? If you find yourself offended, angry, in a sense of outrage, etc., can you be big enough to view the situation objectively and be true to the principles?



**This is for discussion only. I actually take no offense at others expressing their religious viewpoints; I DO take offense at those attempting to force their viewpoints on me, or those who would demean my expression of my religious viewpoints.

New (to me) sporty car: 2009 Mazda MX-5 Miata

Picked up a very gently used, cherry 2009 Miata the other week. Bone stock, and a perfect platform for modification and upgrades.

To take it on the track, a roll bar is needed, so that will happen shortly. In the meantime, a few aesthetic & creature comfort things:

1. Stubby antenna from CravenSpeed. $20, and already looks better. Easy peasy!

2. Aluminum pedals from GoMiata. They arrived with minimal hardware (as in three bolts, three nuts and a hex wrench) and sans instructions, despite the listing on their web site, "Complete 4 Piece Set with all hardware and detailed instructions included." I've emailed them and we'll see what they say.

3. Adding a hidden garage door opener. I bought a spare OEM switch cover, and an electrical engineer friend has mapped out the circuit so the opener will get the right voltage and only work when the car is powered on.

4. AeroCatch locking hood latches. Might install these this weekend, if I have the time. Requires cutting the OEM hood, which is scary at first, but not a big deal if planned very carefully.

Complete 4 Piece Set with all hardware and detailed instruction included - See more at: http://www.gomiata.com/20srpalpe.html#sthash.rHTcGbxi.dpuf

Complete 4 Piece Set with all hardware and detailed instruction included - See more at: http://www.gomiata.com/20srpalpe.html#sthash.rHTcGbxi.dpuf

Complete 4 Piece Set with all hardware and detailed instruction included - See more at: http://www.gomiata.com/20srpalpe.html#sthash.rHTcGbxi.dpuf

Complete 4 Piece Set with all hardware and detailed instruction included. - See more at: http://www.gomiata.com/20srpalpe.html#sthash.rHTcGbxi.dpuf

Canon FD Lens Testing with the Panasonic GH4

The DMC-GH4 is one fun little camera. And it is little! It's smaller than even the Canon T3i I bought several years ago.

I've been experimenting with Canon FD glass for a few years, as it's cheap (by comparison), and designed to work with film 35mm cameras (anyone remember the Canon AE-1?).

There seem to be three quality levels out there; the most common (on eBay and other places) are the inexpensive range. You can find 28mm, 35mm, 50mm and 85mm lenses typically around $15 or so. These are not the fastest lenses, with max apertures in the f/3.5 range.

Next step up are the more expensive FD lenses, but not yet in the L-series. These will be $100-$300, and offer a great value for the money, with max apertures in the f/1.4 to f/2 range.

The top step are the Canon L-series. These are more rare and a lot more expensive, and I've found very few of them available in the US. Lots in Japan, though.

I've bought into the mid-level, and my favorite three are 50mm f/1.4, 35mm f/2 and 28mm f/2.

I found these on eBay for $40, $199 and $185, respectively. Combined with the $399 Metabones Speed Booster, this is one handy little filmmaking kit!

The Speed Booster Effect
First example is the dramatic effect of the Speed Booster. I set up this shot with it:

GH4, Canon FD 50mm f/16 with Speed Booster

 Then removed the Speed Booster, keeping all other lens and camera settings identical:

GH4, Canon FD 50mm f/16 with non-Speed Booster adapter

The 0.71 'crop factor' and the one-stop light gain of the Speed Booster are obvious, don't you think?

FD Lens Sharpness
Next step was to look at lens sharpness. Again, these lenses were designed for a full 35mm film frame, so they should resolve 4K and cover the GH4's Micro Four-Thirds sensor with no problem at all. And they do. As with most lenses (certainly in this price range), they are somewhat soft at  extremes of the aperture range. See for yourself. Focus in each case was on the corner just above and to the right of the main entrance door, and a variable ND filter was used to keep a balanced exposure.

FD 28mm f/2

FD 28mm f/4

FD 28mm f/8

FD 28mm f/16

FD 28mm f/22

 Overall, this lens looks good, especially for the price! No vignetting, plenty of sharpness across the entire image, good color. I did notice a slight color shift in the sky introduced by the variable ND, but it's not significant on this lens (on the 50mm it was downright nasty).

Now, consider the focal point at each aperture setting. For these I zoomed in on each of the images above.

f/2. Unacceptably soft.

f/4. Usable.

f/8. Still looks good. Greater depth of field.

f/16. Starts to soften again.

f/22. Not as bad as wide open, but soft.

Results
Worth the price? Definitely! Okay for 4K? Definitely.

Let me know what questions you have, or other specific tests you'd like to see.

Happy Shooting!
- Rob.