SL video tutorial suggestions

[MRJohn]

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Does anybody know if somebody came up with an "how to use an SL for video" tutorial yet? I am a novice in this regard. Or is there a class or workshop? Some questions of interest, and people probably will say it depends what you want to do:

 

- how to avoid motion blur with SL lenses vs M or R lenses when walking around with it (handheld vs gimbal vs shoulderpod), which AF mode to use with SL lenses.

- how to fix a small external monitor and which one

- which external microphone to use (if one)

 

I guess the challenge (apart from the lens choice available and implications) is not too different from a DSLR or other mirrorless for video, so maybe there is a great, simple generic tutorial available that people know about.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

[mumu]

All your wishes are fullfilled in Wetzlar by the Leica Academy.

A trip from Basel to Wetzlar is worth this workshop for the SL quite well.

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The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[MRJohn]

Thanks, mumu, unfortunately I have a conflict for the next one in October, but perhaps in 2018.

[Irakly Shanidze]

Does anybody know if somebody came up with an "how to use an SL for video" tutorial yet? I am a novice in this regard. Or is there a class or workshop? Some questions of interest, and people probably will say it depends what you want to do:

 

- how to avoid motion blur with SL lenses vs M or R lenses when walking around with it (handheld vs gimbal vs shoulderpod), which AF mode to use with SL lenses.

- how to fix a small external monitor and which one

- which external microphone to use (if one)

 

I guess the challenge (apart from the lens choice available and implications) is not too different from a DSLR or other mirrorless for video, so maybe there is a great, simple generic tutorial available that people know about.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

 

I am working on it. In the meantime, keep asking questions here!

 

1. In order to avoid visible motion blur, you need to set the shutter speed to the half (at least as close to it as you can) of your frame rate. I.e., if you shoot 24fps, use 1/50, 1/120 for 60fps, 1/240 for 120fps. If you use the shutter speed faster than what the frame rate dictates, the motion in your footage will look jagged, if slower, it will be visibly blurred.

 

2. Use manual focus, period. Get a rig with a follow focus. There is no such thing as reliable AF on a full-frame, or Super35 sensor.

 

3. If you were able to afford the SL, you should be able to cough up $700-$1000 for an external HDMI monitor-recorder, something like BlackMagic Video Assist 4K, or the like. It will not only show peak focusing, but will enable 10-bit 4:2:2 uncompressed capture in Apple ProRes HQ, which looks much nicer than internal 8-bit compressed H.264. You will need a short 4K-capable HDMI 2.0 cable, otherwise you will have dropped frames even with the fastest SDXC UHS-II cards. 

 

4. If you get a recorder, you won't need the Leica mic adaptor, as most recorders have either double XLR, or 3.5mm mic in ports. Choices are plenty. For real convenience you need two units. For interviews you will need  lavaliere microphones: one for the interviewee, another one for the anchor. If you want to use a directional on-camera mic, you can configure the recorder to feed one channel from the external mic and the other via HDMI from the camera built-in mikes. You will realize how convenient it is when it comes to syncing the sound.

[Irakly Shanidze]

Also, another thing to keep in mind, if you want to shoot in 4K, Leica TL lenses may be a better choice than native SL zooms. 4K is captured in Super35 format, which is essentially the same thing as APS-C. For 1080P you might want to use full-frame lenses, though.

 

This is what you get with the SL/BlackMagic VA-4K setup and a 18-56 T zoom. Obviously, it looks five and half billion times better in 4K than on YouTube )

 

Edited September 8, 2017 by Irakly Shanidze

[MRJohn]

I am working on it. In the meantime, keep asking questions here!

 

 

2. Use manual focus, period. Get a rig with a follow focus. There is no such thing as reliable AF on a full-frame, or Super35 sensor.

 

 

Great you are working on a tutorial, looking forward to it, thanks for the suggestions you already made. - What kind of (shoulder) rig and follow-focus would you recommend?

[Irakly Shanidze]

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Great you are working on a tutorial, looking forward to it, thanks for the suggestions you already made. - What kind of (shoulder) rig and follow-focus would you recommend?

 

 

I use Fotga 3000 M3 follow focus with hard stops and seamless conversion gears. No shoulder rig. For what I do, a dolly is a much better option. For small product work there is also a 60cm slider.

[MRJohn]

I use Fotga 3000 M3 follow focus with hard stops and seamless conversion gears. No shoulder rig. For what I do, a dolly is a much better option. For small product work there is also a 60cm slider.

 

can you perhaps send a photo how the whole setup looks when everything is mounted (dolly, follow focus, SL with lens, monitor etc.)?

[scott kirkpatrick]

I took a quick look at the O.P.'s website, wondering what sort of video he was looking to do.  The elements I noticed were "25 years of Leica use," "street" and "Jazz."  Irakly's work with a ballet company seems directly relevant to shooting music as it is performed, although he might want to consider two-camera setups -- one full ensemble, one for the soloist.  This works for theatre productions as well, and the sound track ties the two shots together for editing.  For outside work, using the TL lenses can help keep things down to a less conspicuous scale than working with a full rig and stabilization gear.

 

Sound is important.  For microphones, spend some time with Curtis Judd's blog.  (Google will locate it, then you need to use his search tools to get back to some of his overviews.)  If you don't need 10bit for street work, then the latest Sound Devices preamps, which record to an SD card from XLR inputs, could be valuable, and he explains them. There is also Kirk Tuck, at the Visual Science Lab.  He has transitioned from a still shooter of events and corporate portraits into a 50% video guy, currently doing infomercial-ish interview work at a very high straight quality level for a manufacturer of prosthetics and theatre work for an Austin company.  He's good on subjects like managing a shoot, editing interviews, and food videos in his favorite restaurants.

 

Best of luck with video.

 

scott

[MRJohn]

I took a quick look at the O.P.'s website, wondering what sort of video he was looking to do.  The elements I noticed were "25 years of Leica use," "street" and "Jazz."  Irakly's work with a ballet company seems directly relevant to shooting music as it is performed, although he might want to consider two-camera setups -- one full ensemble, one for the soloist.  This works for theatre productions as well, and the sound track ties the two shots together for editing.  For outside work, using the TL lenses can help keep things down to a less conspicuous scale than working with a full rig and stabilization gear.

 

Sound is important.  For microphones, spend some time with Curtis Judd's blog.  (Google will locate it, then you need to use his search tools to get back to some of his overviews.)  If you don't need 10bit for street work, then the latest Sound Devices preamps, which record to an SD card from XLR inputs, could be valuable, and he explains them. There is also Kirk Tuck, at the Visual Science Lab.  He has transitioned from a still shooter of events and corporate portraits into a 50% video guy, currently doing infomercial-ish interview work at a very high straight quality level for a manufacturer of prosthetics and theatre work for an Austin company.  He's good on subjects like managing a shoot, editing interviews, and food videos in his favorite restaurants.

 

Best of luck with video.

 

scott

 

Thanks, Scott, I never had a strong interest in video but now I have a project idea in mind where I would like to try it out with the optical equipment I have. That's all. Best, Mark

[Irakly Shanidze]

Yes indeed, a multi cam setup is something to look forward to. However, if you are just starting out, it can be a bit overwhelming, especially if your cameras are not identical. You inevitably will face a problem of color matching and different noise levels/patterns, which in all likelihood will not be trivial. That is, unless of course you start with learning DaVinci Resolve first

 

This is not an attempt to scare you. Rather, it is a warning of a very probable scenario when shooting in less-then-favorable lighting conditions (think jazz).

[Irakly Shanidze]

 

Sound is important.  For microphones, spend some time with Curtis Judd's blog.  (Google will locate it, then you need to use his search tools to get back to some of his overviews.)  If you don't need 10bit for street work, then the latest Sound Devices preamps, which record to an SD card from XLR inputs, could be valuable, and he explains them. There is also Kirk Tuck, at the Visual Science Lab.  He has transitioned from a still shooter of events and corporate portraits into a 50% video guy, currently doing infomercial-ish interview work at a very high straight quality level for a manufacturer of prosthetics and theatre work for an Austin company.  He's good on subjects like managing a shoot, editing interviews, and food videos in his favorite restaurants.

 

Best of luck with video.

 

scott

When using an external monitor-recorder, there is no need for another sound device. BM Video Assist 4K (and most of other similar devices) have dual XLR inputs in addition to an ability to record the sound from the camera via HDMI. If you do not need stereo (for interviews and things like that it can be easily faked by duplicating a mono channel), you can configure which track gets clean sound via an XLR mic, and which gets the HDMI feed. It can be super useful for multicam syncing and sometimes superimposing the tracks creates a more realistic sound than just the clean track.

[scott kirkpatrick]

I agree, but sound in camera is always suspect (hard to monitor), and I don't use an external recorder for the video.  The least expensive solution is something like the Tascam recorder.  Good preamp to the camera (to raise its noise floor) or to an eternal SD card comes next.  Many of the older recorders apparently used proprietary recording media (non-standard SSDs, etc.), but that seems to be going away.  

[Irakly Shanidze]

or a Shure USB mic + iOS app: another great modern solution

[hirohhhh]

All your wishes are fullfilled in Wetzlar by the Leica Academy.

A trip from Basel to Wetzlar is worth this workshop for the SL quite well.

 

 

I was wandering if there are workshops in Europe on English language? All these countries I see on their website are non-english speaking.

[Irakly Shanidze]

I was wandering if there are workshops in Europe on English language? All these countries I see on their website are non-english speaking.

 

just shoot me an emal either in english, or in russian

[Irakly Shanidze]

Speaking of 4K... The other day I played with TL2 at Photoville. Certainly, not a professional rig by any means, but more than enough for the third (and sometimes maybe second) camera on a set. No color correction or sharpening applied. Did some stabilization in Resolve since had to haphazardly shoot handheld. Looks a bit jagged because it is retimed to 50% speed with optical flow. Original footage is 4K at 30fps.

 

This is not off-topic, because SL shoots 4K in Super35 format, which is incidentally almost the same as APS-C. All Leica T lenses work beautifully on SL for 4K footage without sacrificing frame size. 1.4/35 and 2.8/60 are absolutely marvelous lenses. 18-56 feels a bit basic, but 11-23 and 55-135 are superb.

 

Edited September 19, 2017 by Irakly Shanidze

[Waterden]

To OP

 

This may help a little

 

[scott kirkpatrick]

The Dowling clip only discusses video for less than a minute starting around 11:00, but it is a useful review of overall operations.

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica L-Mount

[Irakly Shanidze]

 

 

Since the intended use was YouTube, this video was shot in 1080p with 24-90 at 10-bit Apple ProResHQ to BlackMagic Video Assist 4K. Even though most  of the time the rig was mounted on a Gitzo 301 20lb tripod and internal video stabilizer was on, the video still needed to be stabilized in post, because of  vibrations coming from the floor. Luckily, DaVinci Resolve Studio 14 has a very effective stabilizer, which is much easier to use than in a previous version.

Edited September 25, 2017 by Irakly Shanidze