Better video camera handling. Those guys with the big shoulder mounted cameras had it right.

For decades I worked as a still photographer at events right next to my friends from a staging and production company. Many times I'd watch their video guys shooting "happy face" videos at big conventions and corporate road shows, or I'd watch them videotape a CEO on stage, switching live from their high-mag, tripod mounted cameras to various handheld cameras presenting closer views of the stage action. A director in the tech booth would switch on the fly between the various feeds and integrate the content, along with charts and graphs, onto giant screens on their side of the main stage. In this way the audience members (in a crowd of 1200 to 1500) would have a great view of the stage action. In fact, the view, because of the 12 by 30 foot screens, was good anywhere in the house.

As technology advanced I wondered why this company, which was quick to buy into the latest projection and sound equipment, still favored the larger, shoulder mounted ENG video cameras over the latest, small and hand holdable video cameras that weighed just a few pounds. I'd read the specs and pondered the footage from both styles of cameras and found them to be almost identical. And the company could have purchased four or five of the new Sony or Panasonic hand held video cameras for the price of each bigger, more traditional, shoulder mount cameras.

Well, to make a long story shorter, it's one thing to stick a camera on a tripod and just point it at a subject but it's an entirely different undertaking to hold a video camera steady enough over a three or four minute interview when it's just sitting in your shaky hands. Even with the best of image stabilization at your command. Just because your new Sony, Canon, Nikon or Panasonic has "state-of-the-art" image stabilization doesn't mean you become a solid pillar of stability while holding a camera in your two hands. But there are times when a little sway or movement is fine; actually desirable. But there is a difference between subtle and pleasing motion and the kind of footage you get from hand holding a camera in front of your face with no physical support.

What the video pros at the production company knew, even years and years ago, was that a good shoulder mounted camera makes optimal use of your body construction to provide a much more stable base for a video camera and allows for longer clip lengths with much less erratic motion than a strictly handheld camera.

I learn mostly through shattered hubris. I try to figure stuff out on my own and change when a good idea turns into disaster on the ground. Then I do some research and try again. I've successfully handheld short video clips (and by short I mean 10-20 seconds, max) with highly stabilized cameras like the Olympus EM-5ii and the Sony RX10iii but have been far less successful hand holding longer lenses on modestly stabilized "video" cameras such as the Sony A7Rii or a Nikon D810 with stabilized lenses. There's something about the two hand (death) grip and the desire to look through the EVF that, when combined, conspires against long term, overall stability.

Several years ago, in a spasm of experimentation, I bought a cheap shoulder mount and found it to be surprisingly good. It was branded as an Ikan and basically held the camera via a big clamp that cinched on one's upper back and on the front of one's rib cage. Once I learned to breath without moving the camera I was able to get much better footage than I ever had by just holding the camera in my hands (in any pose or configuration).

I used the cheap shoulder mount a lot with the GH5 and, along with that camera's image stabilization, have been very happy with the controlled content I was able to film. It was somewhat less stable (but not jittery) than a tripod or a good monopod set up but so much better than any naked grip I tried.

My friend, the full time, professional videographer/director, kidded me about how cheap I am when it comes to buying good tools for the trade. He looked at my plastic rig and laughed. I countered that I paid only $39 for the device and had used it on many jobs. He laughed and suggested that it would fall apart some day, and at the least appropriate moment. I scoffed but he was right...

Last week I used the Ikan shoulder mount to handhold a GH5S + Olympus 12-100mm f4.0 Pro lens while I followed a CEO around the headquarters of his company. I was doing a completely documentary approach and nothing at all was scripted or set up. He would walk down the hallway, run into an engineer or person from finance and they'd have conversation. I moved in and around the conversation getting good angles along with jitter free close ups and moving shots. It all worked so well.  I could pan left and right smoothly by moving from the waist. I could pan up and down easily as well. When I edited the footage together for a minute and thirty second program I was quite happy with how everything cut together. There is a big difference between slow and mostly controlled "camera drift" and the bouncy, sometimes erratic motion I got by hand holding.

At the end of the week I'd scheduled some shooting time for a personal documentary I am working on for Austin's theatrical troupe/theater: Esther's Follies. I went to the Friday evening performances of their shows. The cast works on a small stage and does wide-ranging political satire, some magic acts that are Vegas quality and some song and dance. It's irreverent, funny and topical. And the small, dark spaces backstage can really test your video handling skills...

The old, Ikan shoulder mount. It finally bit the dust. 

Betrayed. 

I was doing well with a Panasonic GH5S blazing away at ISO 3200, sitting on the aforementioned Ikan shoulder rig but at one point I stopped to adjust the camera position and overtightened the bolt that held the camera to the rig. The plastic construction snapped and the camera began a slow motion plunge to the floor (along with my Olympus 12-100mm lens). Only my cat-like ninja skills prevented total disaster. I lunged with both hands outstretched and managed to grab the camera+lens before it hit the floor, tossing my 62 year old body onto the floor in the process. But, as I am resilient, no damage was done and I brushed myself off, tried to shed my embarrassment and go on with the job. Handheld.

Yes, plastic stuff might not be optimal for continuous and long days of actual work. Lesson learned. The hard way. The gods plucked the strings of my hubris and then kicked the chair of fate out from under my feet. What a wretched metaphorical morass.....

Later, nursing my bent ego with a glass of cheap red wine, I sat in front of my computer and looked at the footage I'd shot over the course of four hours on a Friday night and I could see, defined, the before and after marker detailing the demise of my steadying tool. Not a horrible difference but enough of a difference so that I noticed it and was chagrined.

Now, none of this sent me in search of an ENG camera. I'm not buying into putting 20 pounds on my shoulders every time I'm heading out to shoot video. I value my ability to swim a nice butterfly too much to take the risk. But I knew I wanted to be able to get the GH5S and a good lens onto a shoulder rig that was both reliable and highly adjustable. So I set out to build one from the parts I found online.

Here's what I ended up with:

This is my custom rig made of parts from SmallRig, NiceyRig, and a few nuts and bolts. The shoulder pad is adjustable and has metal cheeseplates, front and rear, on which to hang batteries or something to act as a balancing counterweight; if I find it necessary. The camera is also able to be adjusted closer or further from my face. Even the handgrip assembly allows for backward or forward adjustments. 

For me, the important ingredient was the actual padded shoulder mount. I love that it works with the 15mm rails. The whole rig is rock solid when everything is tightened up. I can add a platform to the camera mount, just above the top of the camera, to hold a microphone and, in theory, a monitor, but I think that works against the whole idea of being able to effectively hand hold the rig. Too much weight in the front would require more weight in the back to balance and at some point it all becomes unwieldy. 

With another documentary-style corporate shoot coming up on Weds. we'll be sure to put this to the test. I'll also be practicing with it today and tomorrow. If you have a rig that I've missed, is fantastic and is under $300 be sure to let me know about it. I'm in the trial and error phase of shoulder mounts right now and leaving now rocks unturned. Who knows what lurks beneath?

(For SEO...): Will work with CANON, NIKON, OLYMPUS, PANASONIC, SONY and other cameras. Ha. Ha.

Summertime in Austin. Hot and lazy. It's all good.

Here we are in the middle of August and everything is going according to history and precedent. The jobs have fallen off to zero, the temperatures have gone through the roof and everyone left in Austin is burrowing down somewhere cool like the frog that lives under the faucet drip in the garden outside my front door.

This image of Noellia was taken at a popular spot in the middle of Austin. It's the stream that comes from the Barton Springs spillway and flows on to Lady Bird Lake, which runs through the center of downtown Austin.  The water is from an underground spring and is a constant 69 or 70 degrees.  People come with dogs, picnic baskets, little kids and whatever else to spend hours frolicking in the stream and staying cool.

We headed to the Springs because Noellia wanted some new images for her portfolio and she wanted "outside."  Okay by me.

This was taken with the Sony Nex 7 and either the kit lens or the 50mm 1.8.  I just don't remember which. Too hot to remember.  I knew I needed a little bit of fill flash but I'd never cracked the flash menu on the camera before and I've only used the Sony HVL-58 AM flash on a few occasions and then on complete automatic with a Sony a77.  What the hell.  I gave it a try.

I put the flash on a short, off camera cord, put it in ttl-auto, dialed it down a couple of stops and shot.  I had the camera set to manual exposure, 1/250th of second and in the territory of f 5.6.  I chimped a couple of times to fine tune the flash ratio and then we moved on.

My big mistake of the day was not tossing the cameras to one side and throwing everyone into the water.  That would have been even more fun.

What I would like to see in Sony's new flagship camera...

I always liked the idea of the Sony a77 SLT camera. I became a convert to the cult of the electronic viewfinder when the Olympus EP2 hit the market along with the very good VF-2 electronic viewfinder accessory. When I first tested an a77 I was infatuated with their built in version of the EVF.  It's quite good.  I also like the Sony a77 menu, the button placement and the feel of the body.

It took a bit of time to get used to using the EVF all the time. Especially for action. But as I've used the camera I've gotten comfortable with it.  I'd say it takes a month of daily use before the camera system becomes as transparent as the traditional style of camera that we've become used to over years and years of use.

Some things could use improvement. I wish the EVF didn't get noisy in low light, like when I use the camera to make portraits and I'm using weak, 100 watt modeling lights in my big strobes.  And I wish the finder had absolutely zero time lag from frame to frame. I wish the files were less noisy at 3200 ISO.  But to my mind none of these things are "deal stoppers."  Not for a minute.  Because what the camera does well it does very well.

Above is a reduced size file from the a77 and its 16-50mm lens. I shot it at 100 ISO yesterday afternoon while I was looking around for a path to a railroad track bridge.  The sky looked cool and it was a quick shot.  Just a scribble in my visual notebook.  But I've looked at the shot two or three times today while sitting at my computer doing post processing and I've decided I like it.  A lot.

The a77 does most things very well.  The exposure straight out of camera (using autoexposure and matrix metering) is much more accurate much more of the time than my Canon 5Dmk2 ever was. Maybe it's the fact that I can correct it as I see the image come up for pre-chimping in the finder.  After a few months of using the camera those corrections have become subconscious.  They are now part of the flow.

I use the camera in manual and in aperture priority.  I know which wheels make which magic.

And now that I've come to understand the camera the files are getting better and better. I like shooting at ISO 50-200 because the files are very detailed and have a delicious dynamic range.  As good as any camera I've used and much better than most.  In fact, the performance at lower ISO's and the great EVF are the two things that have kept me from running out and buying an OMD EM-5 even though the gear maniac part of my brain is begging me to raid the cookie jar and just do it.

Lately I've been thinking just the opposite thoughts.  I've been wondering whether my admiration for the micro four thirds cameras was the result of my  brain being wired to take advantage of EVFs in a way that is different and more inspiring than working with regular OVF (optical view finders).  After working with my EP3 and some good lenses today, alongside my a77's I've almost convinced myself to slim down my m4:3 collection in order to get ready for the Sony flagship camera that's rumored to be announced right before PhotoKina in September.  For all the insanely literal readers: please note that I said, "ALMOST."

The reason is that the better EVF in the Sony makes making the images feel more direct.

So, here we are in late July and I'm thinking about what Sony might do.  Judging by my inside sources I'm pretty certain that Sony is on the cusp of introducing their next generation full frame camera.  When I spoke with a U.S. Sony employee in a position to know, earlier this Summer, he would only say that they were in final development and couldn't decide between a 36 megapixel sensor and a vastly improved (over the a900 and a850) 24 megapixel sensor.  He wouldn't or couldn't divulge anything else.

If Sony is listening here's what I want:

I want this camera to be a full frame camera.  I think we're going to get that. I don't have anything against the smaller format cameras but I do think there are optical differences that I like. Most people want a full frame camera to better use wide angle lenses but I don't think that's an issue here as there are very few good wide angle lenses in Sony's line up at the moment.  I want full frame to do portraits with the pretty little 85mm 2.8 lens which I've named "the wasp."  It's small and light but it packs a sting it's so sharp.  And I'm interested to see just how good the performance of the 70-200 might be on a new and improved body.

I would like for Sony to ignore the people who are opinionated about finders and basically say that we'll pry their fingers off the OVF cameras only after they've expired. I'm certain that if 95% of these people tried an EVF for a week they would never want to go back.  The information on the screen and the real time feedback loop is just too rich to ignore.  The camera should have a fixed mirror like the other SLT cameras. I want the EVF and you will too.  Maybe in this iteration we'll see an even faster refresh rate and higher screen resolution.  In a pinch I'll happily settle for the same EVF that's in the a77 over a traditional (no matter how awesome) optical viewfinder.

I can't stress this next point strongly enough. I want Sony to use the same NPH-500 battery they've used in the a900, a850, a77 and a65 cameras. A customer is much happier if they only have to stock one battery type and one charger type.  I have six.  I don't want to change again just for the pleasure of adding financial ingots to their coffers.  Some people feel they need more juice?  They should get a grip.  Sony should make one and put a big battery in it and sell it for a decent price to all those people who think they need to fire off 5000 shots in a row without taking a breath or changing the power source.

I read on a forum that some people are already angry with Sony over the rumor that the camera will have two SD slots and won't make use of either compact flash cards or XQD cards.  To this I say, "Bravo."  I personally like SD cards.  They are fast enough, very resilient and amazingly cheap these days.  I'll gladly exchange a faster write speed for ten times the storage....  Put me down as "Yes" for two SD cards as long as their use can be programmed.  I'd love to have the ability to do raw on one card and Jpegs on the other.  Or to do redundant back-up.  Or to put stills on one card and video on the other.  Finally, I'd like setting that allows me to put two cards in the slots and then start shooting to the first card and when it fills up to automatically switch to the second card without having to stop.

Hey Sony, if you are having problems deciding on a sensor here's what I think:  24 megapixels is just fine as long as they are "kick ass" megapixels.  Throttle back on pixel envy and give us a really clean imaging sensor at 24 that gives us richly detailed images with  high dynamic range at low ISOs while also giving us a really nice, really clean file all the way up to at least 6400.  I'm sure you guys can make a nice 36 meg sensor but I'm going to bet that a ultra-sweet 24 meg sensor makes more sense and gives you more generous engineering parameters within which to succeed.  As the pixels get smaller the detail seems to get crunchier.  I want detail that's more natural.

You guys are really, really good at making pro video cameras.  Can we please have three additions to the video basket of goodies in the new FF camera?  You have to ask?  Really?  Okay, here you go:  First, you need to let us have manual control of the microphone sound levels. We might ask for it and never use it but that's not your concern.  I really want to see the little graphical bars shoot over to one side of the meter when my actor coughs, burps or screams.  But seriously, I want to make sure my audio is recorded at the right levels.  We can rehearse and set it but we can't set it if you don't put it on the menu.  While you are at it would you please enable manual level controls on the a77 via firmware? I'm sure the capability is sleeping somewhere in the camera's guts...

Next I really want you to put in a headphone jack. I want to put on a pair of enclosed headphones and hear what I'm getting when I record audio with my video.  Better yet, I can run the headphones to the sound guy and he can listen for problems.  But if I don't get a headphone jack I'm right back to using an outboard mixer and that adds $400+ to the system purchase price and a major pain in the butt when it comes to the video production experience.

Finally, in the video arena, it would be really cool if you could output uncompressed or raw video via HDMI or a Thunderbolt connection.  Then we can buy a couple of these cameras and head out the door to make the movie from my novel before the book even comes out. This camera should make film makers cry tears of joy...

Save yourselves a bit of money.  You can make the camera out of polycarbonate over a metal frame. I don't need macho metal everywhere and neither does anyone else. As long as you can weather seal the beast lab tests will probably prove that metal transfers more shock to the inner guts than "plastic" and that plastic wears even better than metal.  Want to make Nikon and Canon pros cry? Consider making the outer shell out of carbon fiber.  Really.  It's the one material that men will choose over just about anything but titanium.  And most of them wouldn't know the difference in performance if it was writ large in 20 point type.  It would give you guys something to beat on in the advertising.

Steal a page from Nikon's book when it comes to lens compatibility.  Let us use our groovy/cool DT lenses on the body in a crop mode. I like that 16-50 a lot and I'd like to be able to use it across sensor sizes.  I promise I'll buy a real wide angle to put on the big camera but I'd like the system to be all terrain in a pinch.

Now, be real heros and price this thing at $2499 US.  Launch it the minute Photokina closes and start stocking them up now so that everyone on the short lists can get shooting in the first month after the announcement.

I know you guys think you can market like gangbusters but I have one last suggestion for you.  Take couple hundred of these cameras and put them in the hands of pros who are already shooting your a77 products.  An honest blog review with real world samples trumps everything you can put in an ad.  Really.  If you get people to use the camera and you have a place to share their experiences you'll quickly have a raging success or....you'll discover what you did totally wrong and stop the bleeding before it wreaks havoc on the rest of your product line.

Jet black.  Carbon fiber covered with sexy black rubber grippy stuff.  The envy of every cinematic  DP. Low Light champion (within reason).  If you want to make a dent in the market share barrel it's time to come out swinging with your "A" game.

And since we're talking marketing it's good to remember that having the right lenses for the job is a big part of the cache of a system.  You've got some big blanks that need filling and it's time to stop depending on Tamron and Sigma to pull the weight for you.  Here's what you need to announce along with the camera:

A 15mm Zeiss wide angle lens.  Make it perfect.  Now you own 15mm.  Next up you've got to have at least one tilt/shift lens.  Don't get crazy and go too wide until you have the 24mm focal length covered.  That's the sweet spot for discriminating architectural photographers.  Once you've got that one nailed it's time to also think about a 35mm tilt/shift.  It's a great focal length for a lot of stuff that requires perspective control.

How about giving us an updated 20mm prime?  If you want to turn heads let's make it an f2.0 and let's make it right.  We could also use a nice 200mm f2 for those interior sporty moments.

And if you want to make Olympus OMD users cry make the lens hoods really, really wonderful and put them in the boxes for free.

I made Ian at Precision Camera create an "a99" waiting list and put me on the top.  I'll buy one.  It's a whole new camera universe.  Carbon fiber.  That would be cool...

Sunday edit:  It's' coming quicker than we all thought.  According to actual people in the know the camera will be called the a99.  It will be announced next week. I missed the guess on sensors, it will be a 36 megapixel camera and it will most definitely be a fixed mirror SLT design.  Get this: 12 FPS in raw.  Sadly, no carbon fiber...  ISO 100-4,000 (rational thinking prevails..)

The price will either be $2799 US or 2999 US.  Just thought you'd want the update.

Hello Sony !!!! Where the heck are your wide angle lenses for the a77 and a57 APS-C cameras ?????

Image taken with the Sigma 10-20mm 4-5.6 EX DC

I mostly shoot portraits so when I switched camera systems to the Sony a77 and then added the a57 I made sure all my portrait focal lengths were covered.  I bought the 16-50mm 2.8 zoom lens and I think it's marvellous; sharp and snappy at all focal lengths.  I also bought the 70-200mm 2.8 G lens and it's capable of making great images as well.  Then I went in and backfilled with some inexpensive but surprisingly good single focal length lenses such as the 30mm DT macro, the 35mm 1.8 DT, the 50mm 1.8 DT, the 50mm 1.4 and the 85mm 2.8.  All of them have proven to be good lenses for the system.  All are capable of professional results.  But there's a blind spot in the Sony APS-C lineup. The only lens wider than the 16-50mm (FF equivalent = 24mm to 75mm) is the 11-18mm.  The focal length range is right what I'm looking for but the lens is obviously a re-badged Tamron 11-18mm zoom lens and I've been down that road before.  I owned the Canon version and it was barely usable, at best. 

I didn't think much of it until a client asked me to shoot a new architectural project he'd just finished.  It's a grocery store for a well known, national chain.  We need to photograph multiple shots of the exterior and, a few weeks from now, multiple shots of the interior.  In the Canon shooting days I could rent a 24mm shift lens and do most of my work with that.  I'd round out the mix with the old 20mm lens.  But the Sony catalog doesn't include any tilt/shift lenses and since it's not a big part of my business I am loathe to buy them.  Especially when I can do most of my corrections in PhotoShop.  But I do need a clean, sharp lens to start with.  That, and a good ladder...

I shot all the exteriors with the 16-50mm lens.  The profiles in DXO and in PhotoShop CS6 both work very well. The image files come out with a high degree of sharpness and no discernable geometric distortion.  If I shoot from a ten foot high vantage point I don't need to do a lot of "keystone" correction either. When I'm shooting the exteriors and need a wider view than that offered by the 24mm equivalent focal length of the 16-50mm I can always move back to get in more.  But when I head inside it's another story.  I want to be able to go as wide as a standard 20mm or even an 18mm to do justice to the interior space.  

I've been reading up on various alternatives to the Sony 11-18 and I was optimistic about a lens made by Sigma.  It's a 10-20mm f4-5.6.  I headed over to Precision Camera to see if they had one in stock and not only did they have the lens but the Sony rep was there for a promotional event so I gave him and earful too.  He readily agreed that the current lens wasn't an earth-shaking game changer but suggested that Sony is hard at work making their own lens and that all indications are it will be good.  Nice to know but it won't be available for a while  and certainly not by next week when I need it.  I conferred with my personal sales associate, Ian, and ended up walking out the door with the Sigma 10-20mm.  Ian told me I could bring it back within 30 days for a refund, if not thoroughly satisfied (another reason I shop there....).

I had three hours before I was expected home for dinner so I put the lens on the front of the a77 I had in the car and started walking through downtown.  (I did stop at the big, Whole Foods headquarters to have magic almond bar and a good cup of coffee before I got down to lens testing business.  A man has to have priorities).

The handling and build quality of the Sigma is as good as anything out there, short of a Leica or Zeiss lens.  The lens yields sharp images when I focus in the right places and the color and contrast is good.  The only troubling characteristic is the distortion on the extreme edges and the extreme corners.  I'm going to use the Adobe lens profiler to try and make a corrected profile for the distortions.  Unless I can find a profile that someone else has already made.  I think there may also be a profile of the combination of the Sony camera and the Sigma lens in the latest DXO software.  If I can correct the corner and edge distortion I'll be pretty darn happy. The lens is already a much better performer than the Sony 11-18 I borrowed several weeks ago to test.

But this brings up the question:  If Sony is really interested in competing with Nikon and Canon, and now even Olympus, why haven't they filled this important gap with something decent?  Even if they had a really good lens that was just 12-20mm with a slow aperture but really good performance they'd be way ahead of the game.  I was told that Sony owns a big stake in Tamron and Tamron recently rolled out a 10-24mm that supposed to be much better than the 11-18 as well.  At the very least they should re-badge that lens...

I'd love to shoot nothing but portraits but I live in work in a second tier market and it pays off to be able to offer good clients a wider menu of services.  From the walking tests I've done today I'm confident I can pull off what I need to do with the Sigma lens.  But I shouldn't have to.  There are enough great solutions out there that Sony should have this covered.  My dream lens for wide angle would be a prime 12mm f4 that's designed and made by Zeiss.  It doesn't even need to autofocus as long as it has an accurate focus scale on it.  With a super sharp, 12mm lens stopped down to f8 and hanging in front of a 24 megapixel sensor it would be a zone focusing dream.  Add in effect focus peaking and you're absolutely there.

 This image is a 10mm image that was originally tilted back to include the building in the background and then quickly corrected in post.

This image was taken at 20mm.  And left uncorrected and without processing.

I'd read in one of the poorer reviews about the Sigma 10-20mm that flare was an issue.  There's a vicious glare on  the building, smack in the middle of the frame, but I think the lens does a great job handling it.  10mm.

While there is some linear distortion, at the widest setting I think it's pretty well controlled and at most focal lengths is pretty easy to correct.

Snappy and sharp at f5.6 if what I'm seeing.

 10mm corrected in Lightroom 4.2.

By the end of my walk I had pretty much talked myself into keeping the lens.  What I was really looking for is good performance at 14mm.  That's the equivalent of 21mm in full frame and that corresponds to the Zeiss 21 ZE lens I used on the Canon.  When I shot at 14mm I was very happy with sharpness and contrast.  If I can make the distortion corrections I'll be happy.  And at about 1/4th the price of the Zeiss lens.  More tests, under duress, tomorrow.

Don't settle for whatever the manufacturer wants to throw at you.....

Kirk's Amazon Author's Page.