I started as a 35mm still photographer in high school with the idea of eventually moving to 35mm motion film. So I collected a large number of good, prime Nikon lenses over the years.

I didn't want to waste those lenses, so I bought an HVX200a with a redrock M2 lens system. I shot the homepage video and Calvin and Hobbes mostly on that. I also used my HPX170 for the jib shots.

I also own a jib - extends to 14 feet and it has the automatic head and all that fun stuff. A couple Lowell light kits, a skate dolly, had a 519 fluid head & tripod, had an NTG-3 shotgun mic, boom pole, a Nagra... those are the main toys.

I seriously love the HVX200. It's really versatile, you can pull off cool shots, and there is a HUGE database of online support for it. Since it's the standard you can find a thread that will answer virtually any question. Great starter camera.

Sure, if someone ends up writing them all out. I don't have time to listen to the episode at the moment, myself.

I have a little Sony NEX-5N, which I love, and a few cheap/vintage lenses. My brother has the fun toys, which I have access to (score!). He's in the process of building his inventory, and this is what he's got so far:

• Sony FS700

• Sony 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3

• Zeiss 50mm f/1.4

• Tokina 16-32mm f/2.8

• Metabones EF-NEX adapter (planning on getting the Metabones Speedbooster in the near future)

• Rhino Slider Pro (rhinocameragear.com, He just ordered it so it'll be in this week.)

• We've got a Davis & Sanford tripod with an FM18 fluid head (He'll soon be getting a ball head tripod to go with the slider).

To top it off he's borrowing a light kit from a friend until he needs it back (which probably won't be anytime soon), and I'm not sure what his planned microphone setup is. I do know that 240fps on the FS700 is really fun to play with. 

Last edited by Sam F (2013-03-04 22:29:32)

I'm also interested to hear about that. VFX are the only reasons I've had to use image sequences as well. Is there a benefit to using them in the editing process?

Aside from FX shots which often involve frames, I use image sequences as my final output format - at least for projects that I think will have any shelf life at all.    A directory of individual frames plus a soundtrack audio file makes the project more future-proof.   You don't have to worry about your master file becoming outdated because of the codec you used, etc.   

Whatever format I need my project to be in, I just load the original frames and output as needed.    I've lost count of how many times I've exported the Pink Five series to keep up with new codecs and formats, but all the versions have been generated from the same set of original master frames.

I doubt JPEG is much used in this situation. TGA would be the standard. Right?

Typically I'll use tga's for most stuff, although I find myself use png more lately, but I haven't been doing a lot of vfx stuff lately.

All audio I use in projects goes in as aiff.

What ever you use, never ever use mp3.

.mp3 in AE for example gives this clicking track when rendered.

Sweet, thanks.

Yeah I learned the hard way that mp3 had import issues in FCP7 a while back. Steered clear of them ever since (or at least made sure to convert them first).

Last edited by Sam F (2013-03-05 20:50:59)

what about exporting the image sequence in the DPX file format?  Is that format uncompressed?

I usually export to .TIFF cos it's what Stu Maschwitz put in his book way back when 

I think we need a 5-hour DIF discussion on file types.