IamOakley

Interesting. I had no idea about the sensor height equivalence. Thanks for the breakdown. I just shot anamorphic on the FX3 and FX30 for the first time. (And wrote about it here.) I used FF anamorphics because it's what I have, but now am keen to try some Super35 out with this in mind. It opens up a lot of options!

I recently used two Sirui T2.9 1.6x Full-Frame anamorphic lenses for my with the FX3 and FX30. I wasn't sure what to expect from the budget anamorphics, but I was pleasantly surprised!I don’t care about oval bokeh. In fact, I’m not sure I even like the blue streak flares. The main thing I love about anamorphic is the wider field of view. If you’ve shot anamorphic, then you know that the lenses work by squeezing more horizontal information onto the sensor. The result is that beautiful wideness that harkens to every classic widescreen film ever made. Shooting anamorphic on the FX3 has been at the top of my mind for awhile, and I'm happy I finally got a chance to do it. I shared overall tips in the video, but here are specific tips on how to shoot anamorphic with the FX3 and FX30: 1) Get a monitor to preview the desqueezed imageThere’s no desqueeze option in the FX3 or FX30, so you have two options: compose your shot in that wacky anamorphic squish mode, or use a monitor. With almost any monitor on the market, it’s as easy as pushing a button to desqueeze and change the viewing aspect ratio. I used the Atomos Ninja V+, which also comes with the big added benefit of being able to record externally in ProresRaw and at 4.2K. On the Ninja V+, the 1.5 desqueeze option is the closest for the Sirui lenses. (The Sirui adds 1.6x horizontally.) It is OK if it’s not exact; it doesn’t burn in the desqueeze. 2) Do a little math and decide the final aspect ratio you will use (because it affects your framing)Anamorphic lenses tend to come in 2x, 1.6x, 1.5x, and 1.33x. Since the FX3 and FX30 both shoot in 16 x 9, whatever the number of your anamorphic lens will increase the horizontal view by that number. My Sirui lens is 1.6x, so that means my image will be (1.6 x 16) x 9. That’s 25.6 x 9. Simplifying that ratio, you get 2.8444 x 1. Or as it’s more commonly written, 2.8:1. Some people, not me, find it too wide (especially for Youtube). Others may need to deliver their project in a more conventional aspect ratio. If you want to deliver in something closer to 2.39:1, your main option is to crop the final image. In that case, you’ll definitely need to use your monitor to add guides for where the image will be cropped, and then compose accordingly. Otherwise, you may find that you didn’t compose your image with the crop in mind, and may have crucial stuff in the corners of the frame that you didn’t realize make cropping a sad affair. I needed to put my anamorphic footage into a regular 16 x 9 timeline to go with our behind-the-scenes footage, all meant for Youtube. I decided to leave the aspect ratio of the anamorphic footage as is in 2.8:1, just smaller, into that frame. I love the wideness, even that small. 3) Use diopters / macro adapters for close focusAnamorphics are notorious for not being able close focus. With the Sirui lenses, I believe the focus distance is around 3 feet. If that’s a problem for a shot you have in mind, there’s an easy fix. Get diopters! I used this one. We used a 1x diopter on our snowball shot and it worked fine. I used the 10x on footage that also came out cool (but I didn’t use in the final field test) and it has that awesome macro closeness. 4) Find all the light you canAnamorphics are also known for not being all that fast. T2.9 is actually pretty decent, but in any kind of low-light situation, you’re going to need to think of ways to bring in light to the scene instead of relying on aperture. When you start to lose light, consider switching to the more sensitive base ISO (12,800 on the FX3, 2500 on the FX30). 5) Desqueeze in Post manuallyI edit in Premiere Pro. While you can modify>interpret footage and choose to de-squeeze anamorphic, the only options are to conform the image to 2x anamorphic of 1.33x anamorphic. The Sirui shoots 1.6x anamorphic. No worries, you just change the scale manually, and not only is it for the best if you change timelines and aspect ratios at any point, it’s super simple. In scale, leave the vertical alone at 100, and change the horizontal to, in the case of a 1.6x anamorphic lens, 160%. Voila! If you are using Resolve or FCP, it’s a similar process, and Sirui has a handy breakdown here. Those are my tips. If you have more anamorphic knowledge to add, please share! Heaven forbid anyone's used Hawk or Cooke anamorphics and can share how cool they look...

Hey, thanks for sharing! I really like your opening shot. What stabilization (gimbal?) did you use for it, and did you use auto focus? Hope you share the next one with both the A1 and FX3 together.

Would love to hear about your editing workflow with the 8K from the A1! (If you find it different from a similar 4K workflow...)

$17 well spent.

Excited to see how it turned out when you get around it! I dream of catching the Northern Lights sometime!

Thanks for sharing this, Danny! I have moved "The Territory" to the top of my queue. I've heard the phrase "participatory" documentary for this method of allowing the subjects to participate in the filmmaking, and I think that's a brilliant approach to decolonize documentary as you put it! Going to read the Filmmaker article now.

Looks beautiful, very chiaroscuro! I love campfires, and campfire footage. Thanks for the lighting breakdown.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the new low-contrast base LUT from Sony. Josh Pines has got to be the the most wonderfully eccentric colorist in the world -- so it's worth a read just to watch a few clips of Tanya Lyon's with him! Basically, Picture Shop’s Chief Color Scientist, Josh Pines, Manager of Imaging Science Chris Kutcka, and Senior Colorist Jason Fabbro got together to create new kind of "base" LUT. The base LUT functions as a definitive, indestructable starting point by beginning with a built-in S-curve. I'm looking to shoot something in January and keen to experiment with the low-con base LUT. But it will be my first chance to use it, and I was wondering if any of you talented cinematographers on here have had a chance to try it out already? If you have, and you can offer any advice or feedback, especially on your workflow, I'm all ears!

So do you prefer a big monitor over an EVF for wildlife? Was just noticing Doug Jensen using the Zacuto Gratical Eye viewfinder, and I have always been partial to EVFs so was thinking about maybe upgrading to that. Would love to know what you think!

I too have grown affinity for using primes for documentary. I remember Omar Mullick, the director/DP of "These Birds Walk" (a phenomenal documentary following a runaway kid in Pakistan) on how he mostly used a 50mm prime lens to shoot the entire film. I was like, you can do that? I agree that, while it depends on the production, something interesting happens when you are limited to composing without zoom!

I'm in the same boat as Alister...still only seem to get the built-ins avatar options!

Dig the philosophy on shooting not "shooting the animals. Beautiful stuff!

I love looking at the infrared stuff out there and have been wanting to remove the infrared filter on an older dslr camera of mine for years, but still haven't had the guts to go through with it. (I even bought an IR conversion kit.) Have you done one of those chop jobs?

It's not the arctic, but we just got about 6 inches of snow here in Northern Arizona last night! Thank you for the tips and the old Scandinavian trick. I've had a pair from Keen for years that have never let me down. Frostbite is no joke!

Really appreciate this! I have actually been thinking about whether or not to consider the a1 as part of a test shoot for a project that will require 8K deliverables. This is super useful. And good luck to the ex-Tesla engineer!

I am really interested in using the Sirui s35 Anamorphics on the FX30, so if you happened to do a test shoot or have any thoughts on how they pair, I for one would be super keen to know!

Illuminating breakdown. Thank you! I added an FX30 to my kit and have been treating it like the FX3 in low light, without fully understanding why it was performing differently. I'm going to take a different approach that keeps the FX30 with the low noise at ISO 2500 more in mind.

Do you know if there is a way to do this on the FX3? Would love to be able to toggle between like that.

Very cool. Added this to my Netflix cue.

Interesting take, and a lot of truth in the lengths we go to add film-like character to our footage! I always see DZOFilm and wonder about how they perform for the $. Thanks for sharing this perspective, maybe I'll try one out.

Love it, thank you for this! I was just talking to DP David Wells about how he did a car shot on a spec commercial for Rent the Runway. It's a really cool shot (with the Tokina Vista Prime 35mm on FX9) with two lead actresses dancing out the top of a car. I asked him how he did it, and he said suction cups. He and his key grip + gaffer built a speed rail and put a cheese plate and mounted it to the hood of the car. It looked great, super smooth. (Although he did say that they cracked the windshield of the car...luckily it was the Directors!)

His work includes episodes on The Boys, The Patient, Suits, The Americans to name a few. I'm going to be chatting with Stoloff this week to talk about his process on Season 3 of . (His episodes are Herogasm, The Last Time to Look on This World of Lies, The Only Man in the Sky, Payback...and he shot on Sony VENICE.) But also about his career and his cinematography philosophies in general! Have a shot or scene from this season of The Boys you are wondering about? Or want to know any specific tips and tricks from a cinematographer with this kind of unique visual eye? Let me know, and I'll ask him.

Gotcha, thanks for the input!

Also, I do find it strange that Blair Witch Project has become such an obligatory addition to the horror film canon, when it's sort of the "anti-cinematography" horror film by nature. I've never felt compelled to watch it a second time!