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indiSYSTEM indiGO-JIB – Steve Calvarese

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Why Do We Suffer
Written and Performed by Steve Calvarese

Rig: indiSYSTEM indiGO-JIB prototype
Lens: Navitar 6mm f/1.4 c-mount lens
Camera: Panasonic GH2 Extended Tele Conversion (ETC) Mode

This Winter I have been training a group of teens and young adults in both technical theater and filmmaking at the Asian Arts Initiative in Philadelphia. What makes the process unique is that I invite local artists in the community to perform in our classes. The tech team designs lights, works the camera and shoots a short live video for each participating artist. At the end of the day, the trainees get a real world tech experience and each artist gets a filmed version of their live performance.

For this session, I was fortunate to have Philly based Spoken Word artist Steve Calvarese perform a new monologue he was working on called “Why Do We Suffer”. In this piece Steve brings home some insight on the plight of the homeless. I wanted the camera to represent the POV of someone who is scared to look in the eye of a homeless person. For this shoot, I wanted to test out the new indiSYSTEM indiGO-JIB which is a portable light weight jib arm perfect to use for a small DSLR camera.

I wanted to see if we could use the indiGO-JIB in more of a steadicam fashion which would allow me the ability to have quick lateral camera movement as well as varied low to high fluid camera angles perfect for what we needed to make Steve’s piece work.

I wanted to also pair the indiGO-JIB arm with the Panasonic GH2 and the Navitar 6mm f/1.4 c-mount lens in Extended Tele Conversion (ETC) Mode. The Navitar 6mm c-mount lens in ETC mode fills the frame with no vignetting and is a flat field lens so you have edge to edge sharpness from lanscape to macro. It is one of the smallest lenses I’ve used on the GH2 and one of the widest and sharpest. I’ll be posting a follow up post on both the indiSYSTEM indiGO-JIB and Navitar 6mm c-mount lens very soon. In the mean time, you can at least see a little bit of the jib arm and lens in action here.

Artists Notes:

“When writing “Why Do We Suffer”, I wanted to address the sociological phenomenon “invisible minority”. What the mass media projects as “experimental reality” leaves the viewer to question if these people exist. A lot of times, the answer is no. We ignore these people on our daily encounters. They are kept hidden because they are perceived as deviants in society. As a result, we become complacent with this being the new norm. I also wanted to gear away toward minority being strictly a race issue. In doing so, I break the story into three different parts: homelessness, being Muslim, and someone living in jail.

In the video, I embody a homeless person who is telling his/her story of how he/she is perceived as a bum. Because of this label, certain stereotypes are evoked. One of the more common ones is a person having a mental disorder, such as schizophrenia. Since this stigma is implanted into our minds, we keep our distances. I think partly because we are fearful of not knowing what might happen if we approach him/her. We then marginalize these people by blaming it on culture. As an artist and an individual who encounters homeless people almost everyday, I wanted to unmask this preexisting stereotype and others alike by telling a story about a person who is just like us. Regardless if the person is homeless, he/she has a story that needs to be told. I am hoping that our views will shift and that we see homelessness not as a disease, rather a lifestyle resulting from poverty.”– Steve Calvarese

Why Do We Suffer

Written and Performed by Steve Calvarese

Part I

Can someone give me a sign please?
if they could mind read
and if the blind can see
then possibly, they’ll see
my Sharpie
isn’t dark enough to write
the words
What’s the meaning of life, uh?
trying to be heard
but they’re not bold enough to free me, from the hurt
my net worth,
a piece of cardboard
telling my thoughts from the core
of my stomach
I can barely stomach
these infinite minutes
counting like seconds
to breathe
out of poverty
just another target, trying to pass go but this isn’t monopoly
everyday of the week
I suffer from this weak
economy
please, before I finish
I want you to listen
for a small fraction of a second
a victim, from the world promises
falls in fractions, of my image
isn’t what the world sees
my hands, bleed
from praying,
saying the cause is public housing
minimum wage
traps us in chains
displacement, misplaces our names
from our face, facing
race and racist comments
for being homeless
like the cause for property value going down
I just close my eyes lids
I’m invisible, as it is
to begin with, the physical
we are out of it
another swallow of oxytocin, some klonopin
to ease their pain, but we are the ones who are sufferin’
it’s all a hustle isn’t it
musclin’ until life drags us in
under the system, wonderin’
if they’ll ever wake out of it
© 2010

indiSYSTEM SNAP! Gear Collar

Yes! It’s true people. I couldn’t believe it until I tried it out myself. We have a pretty remarkable solution for pulling focus on a good number of cine c-mount lenses and so far the results have been very solid with the new indiSYSTEM SNAP! Collar. Not for your dog, for your smaller lenses! It’s a beautiful thing.

For many c-mount lens users using the m4/3 system can be rewarding but a little challenging. The issues of the smaller image circle for m4/3 use and vignetting make it not ideal by many but there’s a lot to be said about the character of these lenses. I think they are still worthy of being used especially for still photography but also for movie making. One of the hurdles of using these lenses to make movies with a camera like the GH1 is that it is so difficult to pull focus because the lenses are small making it impossible for subtle focus changes. When you have a smaller c-mount lens on this camera any slight movement focusing your lens will show up on screen and effect your image in a very big way.

That’s why currently the main folks who use c-mount lenses with the m4/3 system are still photography folks because they can live with the focusing annoyances while still getting some pretty amazing images out of these little lenses. But most of these c-mount lenses were made to shoot moving images and I’m happy to say we may be breathing a bit of movie life into these old film lenses once again.

Tim Ovel from indiSYSTEM has come up with a pretty darn good solution for those who want to pull focus with a gear and a follow focus using cine c-mount lenses with his new SNAP! Gear Collar. The piece fits on the lens like a collar and is slipped on and secured to a 70mm SNAP! gear. It’s that simple. Once SNAP! gear snaps together, It’s not going anywhere. The magnets are super strong. I tested this several times by rotating the gear back and forth by hand pretty strongly and the gear stays on nice and strong.

Part of this solution came out of some tests that I was doing with the SNAP! gear. Over all, I’ve been pretty impressed with the SNAP! gears and I was brainstorming with Tim on how the SNAP! gear can be modified to accept smaller lenses. Ideally, it would be great to get some smaller SNAP! gear sizes from the 35mm to 50mm range but it would be fairly expensive so Tim came up with a few alternative solutions. In our first test, Tim sent me some very sturdy foam and I tried to cut out and create an insert between the 70mm gear and the lenses but it did not work. The foam did not have any center support and the lens would basically slip out from the gear whenever I pulled focus. Then Tim had a great idea of creating smaller diameter slips or collars that would essential fit snugly between a SNAP! 70mm gear and the lens being used. He created a few samples in the shop and sent a few out to me. I tried it and was really blown away. It securely slipped into the 70mm SNAP! and like a dog collar securely fit around the lens with a very snug secure fit. We had ourselves a winner!

The pictures in this post demonstrate the use of the collar with Kodak Cine Ektar lenses. Theses are older 16mm lenses that were made by Kodak and used on their Cine-Kodak Special II between 1948 and 1961. From talking to folks like Steve Serota and others who grew up with these lenses, the Cine Ektars were some of the best c-mount lenses made in the U.S. for 16mm film cameras. These lenses have more recently been growing in popularity with the m4/3 system because they are one of the best lenses to focus with for still camera use. Also, on the Ektar 25mm 1.4 and even smaller Ektar II 25mm 1.4 the focus ring is on the very front of the lens which is ideal for using the SNAP! collar.

Here’s some brief tips using the SNAP! Collar with the 70mm SNAP! Gear

1) Make sure you chose a collar that allows no more than 7mm of space between the collar and the lens you intend to use. To fill the gap between the lens and the collar Tim provides you with 5mm and 1mm “squish” which is like a spongy tape with sticky adhesive on one side. The squish fits on the inside collar to hold your lens in place. In my tests, a space between 7mm and smaller gives the best secure feel for your lens. You can place two strips of 5mm squish on top of each other but from my tests it’s much better if you don’t.

2) Place a 1mm strip of squish on the inside of the 70mm gear where the collar slips into the SNAP! gear if you find the collar more snug. When you snap the gear together the collar should feel a tiny bit larger and when you squish the gear together you’ll see the magnets engage and the squish will compress and tighten the collar and your lens.

3) This is all based on trail and error depending on your lens and the collar size. Always start placing the squish on the inside collar first and place the collar over the lens and see if it fits your lens properly then slip the collar into the 70mm gear. If it’s loose then put some 1mm squish on the inside of the 70mm gear. If it’s too tight you can trim the squish down with a fine pair of scissors.

4) When you have the SNAP! gear and collar on your c-mount lens before you place it on your camera make sure that you do the twist test. Turn the gear firmly back and forth to make sure the gear is aligned properly and is nice and snug and secure. You should do it fairly firm and fast holding the lens in your hand and rotating the gear. If it is secure then that gear will not move. It should not slip or move from your lens. If you do see a problem that then you need a little extra squish.

The ideal lenses to use are lenses that have a focus ring on the front of the lens because the SNAP! gear must clear the GH1 body but there are some lenses that will still work where the focal ring rests on the middle of the lens. So far the Kodak Cine Ektars are a great fit but some other lenses work very well too including the Computar 25mm f/1.3 and Yvar 75mm f/2.5 lens. One zoom lens that works perfectly that I was not expecting to work was the Angenieux Zoom Type L2 and Type L3 1:2.2/17-68. I wasn’t expecting this lens to work because the lens rotates far forward but the extra width of the SNAP! gear give enough room togo from MFT to infinity. Iit was made for this lens and works beautifully.

I’ll be posting footage and a demo soon. My computer was out of commission this weekend so I am a bit delayed but for now enjoy these pics. Trust me it works.

These are definitely exciting times to see these old lenses being used in this way. I think the indiSYSTEM SNAP! gear and collar can be exciting for filmmakers who want to use c-mounts and other small lenses and I think for still photographers may also think about using the SNAP! gear and collar by itself because it is far easier to focus with the larger wheel than off the lens. There’s a little more torque and you have much more control over focusing just using the gear as without a follow focus. It really works well and helps make focusing smooth and easy with these c-mount lenses for the very first time.

Nothing is Right – Wayne Hsu

It is always an honor to work with Wayne Hsu. He is an amazing artist and is not only a gifted singer songwriter but also has an excellent ear as a studio engineer. The three of us won a trailer contest for the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival with Wayne scoring the music for our little 60 second animated film.

Last March, I gave a call to Wayne Hsu late one evening and said, “Hey, do you want to shoot a Music Video tonight?” Hey said, “Yeah, sure. You want to do it now?”

It was already 10pm at night and I said, “No, I’m thinking at about 1am in Chinatown in front of the arch.” It was a very chilly night but he enthusiastically agreed since it was just around the corner from where he lived. I was itching to do a few tests with some c-mount lenses a newer industrial lens, a Computar 25mm f/1.3 and an older Kodak Cine Ektar 25mm f/1.4. I wanted to compare these lenses and see how well they work with just street lights and the light of the traffic driving by at night.

The concept was simple. I had Wayne sit on top of my Subaru Forester and we parked far enough so that he would be elevated above the traffic and we could see the Chinatown Arch in the distance. One of the challenges is that in order to shoot him I needed a rig that I could hold steadily on the back bumber of the car. A tripod would not do since the bumber was about six inches wide. To make this work I used the indiSYSTEM indiRAILSpro MP which is part monopod, part camera rig, and part follow focus. It fit very nicely with me standing on the back bumper of the car.

Rather than do a MV where we were syncing to the studio recording of the song I wanted to keep the real elements alive on the streets of Chinatown and just show the beauty and simplicity of his playing. I wanted Wayne Hsu to play live acoustic. Wayne is so good playing live. And in the “LIVE” I wanted to keep the environment a part of the piece so whatever happens in the moment happens. If we have a truck barreling down the road or loud late night pedestrian traffic so be it.

The results were very beautiful. This year the Chinatown Arch dawned new lights .So from the distance as Wayne played, the Arch was brilliantly lit as a a backdrop to his playing. Both c-mount lenses really gave this piece character. The Cine Ektar 25mm was a touch sharper and had this unusual crescent shaped lens flare from the street lamp right above. The Computar 25mm lens being the faster lens was able to do very well in street lighting soft and low contrast working very well on the evening city streets. One stupid mistake I made was that I taped the lav to Wayne’s shirt and you could hear the rustle of the shirt brushing up against the mic. It’s less noticeable as the song progresses but it is very pronounced at the beginning of the song. Next time proper, lav clip or vampire clip is a must. Other than that issue, we are really happy by the way the footage turned out.

Please visit Wayne Hsu’s site. His new album will be coming out very soon:

waynehsu.com

Filming Details:

Panasonic GH1

Computar 25mm f/1.3 lens

indiSYSTEM SNAP! Gear

indiRAILSpro MP

Kodak Cine Ektar 25mm f/1.4

Sound Devices 552 Mixer/Recorder

Director: Gary San Angel

Assistant Director: Serena Perrone

Camera Operator: Rocky Kev

Wherever There Is Water Parade – Fleisher Art Memorial

Artist in Residence George Ferrandi led a beautiful community based art making project and parade involving stories, sculpture, paper mache, and LED lights at the Fleisher Art Memorial in South Philadelphia. Inspired by Catholic Saint processions, “Wherever There Is Water” was a unique community parade led by Huberta one of the main characters of the story and surrounded with her are a sea of paper mache LED lanterns and animals. I got to to the event as the parade was returning back to Fleisher but I was still able to capture part of the celebratory atmosphere and community spirit of the event.

I’m still doing some more testing with c-mount lenses on the GH1 using indiSYSTEM’s SNAP! Gear and Collar this time with a Computar 25mm f/1.3 lens. This is a fairly fast lens and a very small lens. Because this was a night time shoot I thought this lens would be good to bring out of the bag. I also wanted to add something interesting to the mix on this shoot by adding a Raynox HD-5050PRO-LE .5x wide angle converter to the Computar 25mm lens which would make the focal length of the Computar 25mm lens a 12.5mm lens with the addition of the .5x Raynox converter. Now in order to know what focal length that would be equivalent to on a Full Frame camera we would multiply 12.5mm by 2x and we would have an equivalent field of view of a 25mm lens.

A few folks have been exploring wide angle converters simply because one of the challenges with this format is finding a good fast wide angle lens. I looked around and saw the Raynox wide angle converter which interested me because of its low image distortion as well as being very small and light weight. And with the rear thread size of the Raynox being only 37mm, I could easily attach it to the front of many of my c-mount lenses including my fast Computar 25mm f/1.3 lens. Using a 40.5mm to 37mm step down ring, I was able to attach the HD-5050PRO-LE to the front of my Computar 25mm lens with the combined weight of the lens and adapter being less than my Canon FD 50mm lens.

The Computar 25mm f/1.3 is an industrial lens that is rather fast and is one of the few c-mount 25mm lenses that I’ve tested that almost fills the image sensor of the GH1. Many m4/3 still photography users have picked up this lens and have had really good results but I wanted to use it in a film context and see how well it does in an evening shoot and I thought the “Wherever There is Water” Parade would be perfect to test and see how all these combination works together.

I was really astonished by how well the Raynox wide angle converter worked with the Computar 25mm c-mount lens. There was really minimal distortion and light lose and compared to other wide angle adapters that I have tried before including a Century wide angle adapter, the 5050PRO-LE can really trick your eye to think that you are shooting without a converter. Upon close inspection, I can see the light fall off and softer focus around the edges but it is much less pronounced than what I’ve used with other wide angle adapters and this is really quite exciting to see. I’d like to shoot with this same setup in the day just to see how well the Raynox adapter works with the Computar lens. One down side is that the wide angle lens does flare a lot and you can see that in the test footage where the street lamp light shines into the lens. It’s a cool effect but it is something to be aware about.

The indiSYSTEM SNAP! Gear and Collar worked quite nicely allowing me to pull focus much better than with my Ektar II 25mm lens that I had tested previously. There’s a shorter distance that you have to go from close focus to infinity and that gives you greater control. I am continually blown away by the ability to pull focus with small c-mounts lenses. There’s a freedom in a way that I find so much fun. Just a few years ago, I was shooting with my back breaking my HVX or EX1 rig with 35mm adapter. And this is night and day to be able to scale down your setup and achieve similar results.

Overall, this was a fun unexpected test to see some real nice results with this combination of fast prime c-mount lens, wide angle adapter, and follow focus system in an all in one run and gun setup.

Many thanks to George Ferrandi, Fleisher Art Memorial and the Philly community for sharing their beautiful creations. Hope this captures just a small taste of this wonderful community celebration.

Featuring music by PINK MARTINI – Ou Est Ma Tete? from their new album Splendor in the Grass. (My favorite band!)

For more information on the “Wherever There is Water” Parade please visit:

fleisher.org/exhibitions/water.php

If you liked the music please buy Pink Martini’s new album:

pinkmartini.com/

This was shot with the Panasonic GH1 1080/24P and a Computar 25mm f/1.3 c-mount lens with Raynox HD 5050PRO-LE Wide Angle Adapter.

The indiSYSTEM SNAP! Gear and Collar was also used to test pulling focus with this smaller c-mount lens.

Fujinon-TV Zoom C-Mount Lens

FUJINON-TV ZOOM LENS - H6x12.5R 1:1.2/12.5-75

Like many GH1 users one of the challenges and the joys is experimenting and finding reasonably priced c-mount lenses. To get full coverage of the m4/3 sensor, you generally need to use a 25mm c-mount lens or higher otherwise you get a “peep hole” effect as well as vignetting because the image circle of the lenses that are smaller than 25mm will not fill the whole sensor. Despite these drawbacks people are still finding these lenses a lot of fun to shoot with. Many people have done a number of tests with c-mount prime lenses with both not so great and wonderful results. But not a lot of folks have explored c-mount zoom territory and it seems that more and more are finding ways to use c-mount zooms in a filmmaking capacity.

I have posted a few preliminary tests with an Angenieux and Schneider zoom here on this blog and despite the image circle not filling the sensor I still love the look of these lenses. Some folks have figured out a way around the issues with image circle size by converting the mount of the c-mount lens with a Nikon teleconverter but you lose the fast aperture as well as your wides. Converting the lens is one solution but you need to have some skill to be able to do that. So for those who are willing to live with the current limitations of c-mount zooms on a m/43 sensor I wanted to add some more initial findings of another zoom lens: The FUJINON-TV ZOOM LENS H6x12.5R 1:1.2/12.5-75 The advantage of this zoom lens is that it’s fast at f/1.2 and you can use your GH1 in low light situations. And for close range work, these lenses are quite sharp especially in the higher focal ranges and are reasonably priced so it’s worth a little experimenting especially if you can find a good deal on one. Many users who bought this lens found out they couldn’t use them because the lens mount cannot properly fit the c-mount to m 4/3 adapter.

After some brainstorming and experimentation, I figured out a very cheap and pretty solid solution to getting this lens to mount on my Hawk Peng c-mount to m4/3 adapter using the magic of Scotch Blue Painters Tape. I love this tape because it’s removable and thin and can be used almost anywhere. It’s like a poor man’s gaffers tape. Here’s what I’ve done in order to mount this lens:

1) Remove the threaded black cap on the back of the lens that holds the c-mount plate in place.

The c-mount plate is silver looking and removable.

2) Once you remove the plate, you’ll cut to size a 1 inch long tiny piece of blue painters tape and place it along the flat edge of the plate.

3) Place the c-mount plate back on the lens making sure it’s flat and snug.

4) Screw the c-mount to m4/3 adapter to the lens first making sure that it is not loose and sits evenly on the mount.

5) When you mount the lens, you can slowly twist the lens so that the scales are pointed up and where you want it to be.

6) Be aware, that the lens is snug but not permanent. It should really not go anywhere unless you twist it off.

7) Replace the tape when you feel it starts to jiggle out of place.

JUST REMEMBER…

When using this and most c-mount zooms you are still going to get a smaller image circle and a little bit of vignetting depending on your focal length but the lens will sit snugly in the mount. You can also adjust focus, aperture, and focal distance through out the zoom range with very nice results.

You can use the 2x digital zoom on the GH1 in order to get a full frame picture for both still and video but be aware there will be a resolution loss that will be equivalent to SD resolution. For those who are producing web content or DVD content then this may not be so bad of a loss.

One thing that I did notice with the FUJINON-TV ZOOM LENS is that when you are in digital zoom mode it is a little shy from infinity focus when using your widest focal range. With out digital zoom engaged you are able to focus to infinity.

Angenieux Zoom Type L2 and Type L3 lens

As promised here are some initial impressions of the Angenieux Zoom Type L2 and Type L3 1:2.2/17-68 C-Mount lenses.

The Angenieux zoom Type L2 and Type L3 lenses are very hard to find these days but well worth having as part of your GH1 arsenal if you can grab one. Many of these older c-mount cine lenses were used on Bolex and Bell and Howard 16mm cameras. I was fortunate enough to pick up a Type L2 and Type L3 Angenieux zoom and despite the fact that the image circle of the lens is smaller than the sensor and you do get the “peep hole effect” and a bit of vignetting, there are still some great things going for these older lenses. As far as I can tell from the recent tests both the Type L2 and Type L3 Angenieux zoom lenses had the same image circle size, bokeh and sharpness.

(+)

At wide open F/2.2, the lens is tack sharp, much faster than the 14-140 stock lens at F/4
The small size. This little zoom lens fits inside my pants pocket! Much lighter than the 14-140 stock lens and makes the GH1 feel like a toy with the extremely light weight feel of the Angenieux
The beautiful Angenieux bokeh, creamy and lovely especially at higher focal lengths to display that shallow DOF.
With the GH1′s 2x Digital Zoom, you move beyond the vignetting and get a nice usable picture.

(-)

As was brought to my attention from the Indy Pros at DVXUser Barry Green and Illya Friedman, there are image degradation issues with the digital zoom engaged even at 2x. Illya Friedman who runs Hot Rod Cameras informed me that “Extended Optical Zoom is just windowing the sensor, effectively lowering the number of pixels used to create the image by about 75%.”
Obviously, no autofocus and image stabilization capabilities so you can’t really use this lens on a steadicam or for tracking shots.
With the GH1′s 2x Digital Zoom engaged in movie mode, camera shake increases with magnification so you must use a tripod or DV stabilizer for decent results.
With the GH1′s 2x Digital Zoom engaged in movie mode, the focal lengths double from 17-68 to 34-136.
This particular cine lens need a Series 7 step ring to use ND filters.

(>)

If Panasonic could give us .5x, 1x, and 1.5x as an option for the Digital Zoom in movie mode and Extended Digital Zoom in picture mode I think it would help with the flexibility to use these c-mount lenses with much greater control. The Angenieux Zoom Type L2 & Type L3 with out the use of the digital zoom feature at 17mm is a little shy of filling the sensor. With the ability to use a 1x instead of a 2x optical zoom we’d have the ability to have a wider frame with perhaps less camera magnification jitters and image degradation.
So far, I can only use creative motion picture mode on the GH1 because it is the only mode that I can engage the digital zoom feature. Again, most c-mount zooms and primes under 25mm will have a small image circle and vignetting so in order to use these lenses you need to engage the digital zoom in movie mode. It would be nice if Panasonic allowed us to use the optical zoom in picture mode for still camera use currently I could not engage the extended digital zoom in any of the picture mode settings.
Maybe someone out there could make a c-mount teleconverter or reducer that has a large enough image circle to fit the sensor so that we would not need to engage the Gh1′s optical zoom. That would be the ideal.

Over all, the GH1 has literally breathed new life into these older cine lenses. In the beginning, it was the G1 users capturing amazing pictures with these c-mount lenses but now that the GH1 has hit the scene, many are using these cine lenses for what they were intended for and that is film. As stated in other forums and blogs, the digital zoom and extended optical zoom features do degrade resolution on the GH1 but with the right elements in place, these lenses are great fun and you can get some really nice images. For some the image degradation and resolution loss will not be acceptable for others this may be a chance to bring retro cine flair to your new GH1 and you may find these images will work for your needs.

So despite the resolution drawbacks, the Angenieux Type L2 and Type L3 are great for the on the go casual shooter who wants that “Angenieux look” with out having to carry a huge lens and who can sacrifice some resolution loss. You’ll still need to step back to get that wider shot but for those who want that shallow DOF there’s still some nice bokeh and sharpness in this lens that will be a great addition for narrative work and even talking heads documentary shots. For those wanting to find a good deal on these older lenses, you might want to go to local camera shops first, explore the ones that still carry 16mm camera gear before going on ebay. Just within the last six months these lenses have all jumped up in price so be prepared to pay at least $400 for this lens if not more.

Thanks again to Barry Green and Illya Friedman for providing me with updated information concerning the Digital Zoom features on the GH1.

Angenieux C-mount Zoom Lens – Neoscene

One of the challenges with working with AVCHD is removing pulldown. If you do any kind of ENG work or are on a tight deadline using the GH1 is definitely not for you. You have to do a few things before starting to edit– pull down removal. So if you have a little time on your hands you can use Compressor, VoltaicHD, or Cineform Neoscene to get true 24P. My previous post used Compressor which looked pretty good but there was still some remnant frame jitters and the 1080P looked a little lighter than the original footage that I shot with. So I decided to try out Cineform Neoscene and these were my initial impressions.

(+)

Faster to do pull down than compressor but not by much.
Gives you the option for realtime editing with the Cineform (MOV) codec
No left over frames and weird frame jitters
Very good at fixing Chroma issues on the GH1
Overall great contrast and sharpness and does a really nice job of retaining the original clip

(-)

Program is still a little buggy, it occasional crashed on me when I tried to close the program
There are no instructions, you have to search the net to figure out specific details or call or e-mail Cineform support

Overall, in terms of using c-mount zoom lenses on the GH1 my assessment is they are very usable and depending on your needs you can get some great results. Be aware there is some resolution and image degradation with the digital zoom engaged. Do not do the 4x digital zoom that looks horrible. 2x digital zoom is passable footage by some and for others it may still be quite impressive. For pulldown removal Cineform Neoscene seems to be the best at doing this process and is worth the additional cost. You can go to Videoguys and pick up Neoscene for $99.95 and if you are new to purchasing stuff at videoguys you get a $10 discount just for signing up so that saves you a little bit. Looking at both the compressor and neoscene footage, I would recommend to follow these guidelines when shooting with a c-mount zoom lens:

Shooting with the “Peep Hole” effect and cropping and scaling your footage in post will keep the sharpness and color rendition of the original footage on your wide shots. If you scale for that close-up of course you’ll see image degradation but for a little scaling to fill the sensor frame seems to hold up pretty well.
When using Digital 2x on the GH1, transcoding AVCHD footage with compressor seems to affect image color and sharpness, just a little bit though. The image is a little darker, colors are a little crushed, and you do see a little softness. When transcoding with Neoscene, I do not see a change in color from the original footage. Overall, the 2x digital zoom footage is still very usable despite image resolution loss. Be aware that you’ll probably be having to do some work in post to match footage.
In 2x Digital Zoom- there is no image stabilization when using manual lenses. You’ll have a lot of camera shake as you saw in my own footage. Use a tripod for those tight shots whenever possible.
I would definitely use the Angenieux Type L2/L3 c-mount zoom for still photography. It’s a lot of fun because of the small size you can get some fun results with out worrying about camera shake.

Here is the Neoscene Angenieux Type L2/L3 1:2.2/17-68 C-mount Zoom Lens footage 1080/24P (I could not use the 720/30P footage in Neoscene).

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