Technorati Tags: Awards, BJP, british journal of photography, DSLR, DSLR competitions

I don’t really do ‘tests’ as such because I’m not a tester first of all, and don’t have the rigour to perform the kind of analysis and comparisons you need to have any kind of authority or credibility. I also don’t think tests can really replicate the demands of production work, the time pressures, client pressures, shooting challenges you face when on a real job, you have way too much time and control. So, for me, the testing I do is always ‘live’. If I go and shoot with the Merlin in the park for an hour I’ll learn a little bit for sure, but if a client says ‘can you do this?’ and I’m forced to make it work somehow, then I’ll learn way more. And so, to the Glidecam 2000 vs the Merlin, two products many people consider when getting into the DSLR thang. Finally I’ve had a chance to work with both of them in the field and can actually write a proper and in-depth comparison of the pair. It’s a bit long, granted but you need to know what you’re getting into with these bastardos.

Even with a tache, somehow it works

Looks like a joke doesn't it?

Way back when I was a total moron with DSLRs (let’s call that yesterday, shall we?) and was looking at ways to get a bit more wow factor out of the gear I started digging around any info and videos I could find about handheld stabilisers. Please ignore the hype you read on their websites because you ain’t going to be able to get the same results as a $50,000 rig, it’s just not possible. I’ve always been a bit of a cynic when it comes to that stuff, especially when I’ve seen Z1s with matteboxes and follow focus units, or the fig rig (don’t get me started on that). There were, however, some encouraging results I found from people flying both the Glidecam 2000 and the Steadicam Merlin with DSLRs. Those really are the two viable options at the budget end of the spectrum and I know many many people struggle to make a choice between the two when they’re buying because there just aren’t enough straight comparisons from people who’ve used them in the field. Well, I’m writing this on the way back from Sheffield where I’ve been shooting building sites, shopping centres and other fun things using the Glidecam 2000. There were the usual corridor fly-bys, but also some more challenging shots involving complex moves, tracking, hitting marks and finishing on a frame, all of which are tough to achieve even with their big brothers. So, I now feel qualified to make an informed comparison of the two units and hopefully help those of you who are undecided to make a better choice.

The first thing is, are handheld stabilisers a waste of time? It’d be easy to dismiss them out of hand as probably not worth the bother but I’d urge you not to. They take time to master and you lose the ability to adjust focus and exposure as you shoot but they will add a real wow factor to productions as well as giving you options in storytelling for drama, or music videos that you cannot achieve any other way. For the money, there are few bits of kit that can make such a difference to the work you put out.

Traditional Steadicam units work by using an arm and weights to counteract movement using a vest to help support the massively increased weight of the camera when it’s levered away from the body. Handheld stabilisers dispense with the mechanical arm, using your own puny human arm instead. The weights on the rig counter-balance the weight of the camera with a slight bias towards the bottom to give you enough inertia to guide the unit. It’s pretty basic stuff but surprisingly effective. You do spend a lot of time working on the balance, adjusting the settings, nudging the rig to the optimal settings so the way you accomplish that has a massive bearing on the user experience. The other major factor in user experience is simply the ‘flight control’, how easily it lets you achieve your shots and how comfortable it is to do so.

So here are the headlines, and you’ll quickly discover these for yourselves if you dig around forums on the web. The Glidecam 2000 is cheap, half the price of the Merlin, it’s designed using very similar principles to big Steadicam rigs using a post, a weight, sled and a rotating cuff. The Merlin carries the Steadicam name, it folds away very neatly, it’s much easier to adjust and set up than the Glidecam and the weight of the camera sits directly over your wrist rotating around a gimble with a tail dropping down in an arc away from the camera. The Merlin looks like a total joke when you see it for the first time, the Glidecam looks pretty cool actually. Does that matter, not really, but it’s true!

Canon 7D with Steadicam Merlin (Tokina 11-16) (not tests) from Robin Schmidt on Vimeo.

Getting up and running on the Merlin was something I nearly gave up on. I raged at it for three weeks, cursing its name and playing with every weight combination under the sun because I just could not get it to work. Finally I stumbled on a cookbook setting which just worked brilliantly (four mid weights on the bottom, two in the middle, z adjustment -8 and off you go). By using that setting I suddenly understood exactly what was going on and why every adjustment worked the way it did. Once you get your head around the physics at work (and believe me, it’s not obvious) then suddenly it’s a lot easier. It’s all about drop time. You start with that, making rough adjustments to everything else to enable you to judge it properly, then tweak all the other settings to taste. My own starting settings are posted below this so you can spare yourself the torment I went through. While it may be a bastard to get setup perfectly, actually adjusting settings is really really easy. The trim rollers at the back and side of the sled are very easy to adjust, and the spar arc adjustments can be made very quickly and easily, and these are the ones that give you control over the drop time. You can also slide the doveplate forward and back on the stage of the Merlin, which has handy marks to give you a repeatable setting once you’ve got it dialled in. The Merlin’s tail is jointed so it can fold up into a very compact little unit. This is both good and bad. Practically it’s great but in terms of balancing it’s a nightmare. The hinge has a lot of give in it up and down and any time you want to balance you have to make sure you’ve pulled the tail down as far as it will go to give yourself any certainty. It can be easily knocked and every time that happens you have to retrim the balance. That’s very annoying. The Merlin’s actually designed for cameras with a locating pin hole on the base where you screw your tripod plate in but DSLRs don’t have that hole. What this means is that, even though you tighten the screw that attaches the doveplate to the camera as tight as it can go the camera often rotates around that screw and, yes, you have to rebalance. All in all though it’s very quick to get the Merlin out of the box and up and running on a shoot, less than ten minutes most times. As I already mentioned the Merlin is twitchy, but once it’s balanced properly you suddenly start to feel the whole unit become incredibly rigid, almost as if it’s set in plasticine and it’s incredibly easy to manage. There’s a very small sweet spot but once you’re in it you really know.

Merlin balance controls

That hinge is a bit annoying

The glidecam foot, no calibration marks

Getting up and running on the Glidecam was a lot lot easier I have to say. It’s almost certainly down to the fact that the design is a lot more stable than the Merlin which can be a twitchy so and so but DSLRs just seem to sit on the Glidecam a lot better. The unit is also quite a bit heavier, rated to work with heavier cameras and in this line of work, weight equals inertia equals control, so that makes a difference. The camera attaches to the sled plate using the same single screw system as the Merlin, but you can’t adjust it backwards and forwards on the stage, so once it’s on it’s on. That’s actually fine with me. Now’s where it starts to get annoying. Putting weights on the bottom is slow and annoying, but I recommend two weights front and back, that seemed to work well for me. In order to get the drop time right you need to adjust the length of the post with an annoying thumb screw that allows you to extend the foot. This is crap, plain and simple. The foot rotates and there are no calibration marks so you’re literally flying blind when you adjust it and you need to align the foot with the sled above otherwise the unit will list to one side. Adjusting the sled itself is done with screws and again you have to learn which way to turn to achieve the result you want. Nowhere near as easy as the rollers on the Merlin which are a delight. However, you really don’t need to be anywhere near as precise as you do with the Merlin which means that you can actually get there pretty quickly as long as you don’t demand perfection. Once you are balanced you have no sense of that gloopy plasticine feel of the Merlin with the Glidecam, it’s just a heavy lump and you can do what you want with it. They’re both good systems (though I actually prefer the Glidecam in that regard).

Glidecam sled

Now, operating the two units. The Merlin is treachorous and flighty and will bite your hand off if you don’t treat it right. It takes a long time to master and the subtle dance between your feet and the light touch of your fingertips on the guiding hand is something you really have to work at. However, like driving a race car, once you get the knack of it you’ll be surprised how precise you can be, and how complex your moves can be. The Glidecam is a lot easier to get along with, somehow the design just seems to make a lot more sense, and be a lot more intuitive. There’s something reassuring about the way the cuff rotates around the post and the post itself is just a nice thing to operate with. Doing walk and talks, operating on shots where you’re dealing with straight lines, like corridors I find the Glidecam to be much easier to use, but anything where it involves rotating round an object or person, tracking sideways (surprisingly one of the toughest moves to accomplish with a handheld stabiliser), the Merlin has the edge for me. I suspect this is because the Merlin sits directly over your hand, whereas the handle on the Glidecam is an inch away from the post to allow the cuff to rotate and that’s great for forward and back but seems to unsettle it going sideways.

Give it time but one day you could look as cool as this guy

That issue leads me to the big kicker when looking at these two bits of kit. I’ve shot forty five minutes to an hour with a Merlin non-stop, shooting shots as long as ten minutes no problem and been perfectly happy. These last couple of days I’ve struggled to string together takes of more than three minutes with the Glidecam because it feels like my wrist is about to break. The handle is only an inch and a half away from the post but it significantly increases the relative force of weight acting on your body and your wrist is doing so much work to control the unit that it starts to shake, very badly. That doesn’t transmit to the camera thankfully but it’s damn hard work. I think with some practice and some more time on it I could probably do six seven minute sequences on it but the thing is really uncomfortable. And that’s a shame. I love my Merlin and the reason I paid all that extra money for it was because of that handle being where it is on the Glidecam. But I’ve enjoyed using the Glidecam and it’s a great bit of a kit, especially given the price point. Incidentally you can buy an arm and vest for both of these stabilisers that would significantly improve your level of control, but who’s going to shell out for those, honestly?

So, which one do you buy? Both have pros, both have cons, but I would have to say the Merlin is the better unit. Double the price but still worth that extra money. If you can’t afford the Merlin, the Glidecam is no joke and you’ll get great results, just expect your wrist and forearm to take a proper beating.

PRICES: Glidecam 2000 £317, Steadicam Merlin £605.13

Technorati Tags: 550d, 5D, 7D, Canon, glidecam, glidecam 2000, handheld, merlin, smooth, stabiliser, stable, steadicam, T2i

I’ve talked a little bit about this before, but DSLRs are not only enabling small-timers like me to achieve great results, they’re also allowing big players like the director of House, to shoot more flexibly, and of course, more cost efficiently. What’s really extraordinary to me is when I see pictures like this one, posted on Philip Bloom’s site, just this very day.

Photo courtesy of Philip Bloom, DP Gale Tatersall and Greg Yaitanes

Hands up if you know what the gear they’re using is? 5D mkii, Marshall LCD70XP (?), Redrock rails, and mount… holy top-rated TV show Batman, that’s the same gear that I use, no, not just that I use, that I own. Talk about levelling the playing field. Caveat: the crew are the best in their field, the DP is incredible, the talent around the camera is second to none. Still, makes you think doesn’t it?

What an extraordinary time this is, when I can go out any day of the week and shoot with exactly the same camera equipment as House… damn.

So, every time I do this I seem to get a hammering, but it really was necessary this time. I’ve had a number of complaints that the old white text on black background was too difficult to read and it was annoying. I’ve also been developing a bunch of stuff behind the scenes with a view to making the blog much much bigger, and getting much more creative with it. Plenty more on that in the coming weeks but the plan is to start shooting exclusive content for the blog, not just instructional but a whole bunch of other stuff too, allowing emerging filmmakers (not just young ones, but anyone) the opportunity to produce work with the team here, learn on the job, and share what they learn with other filmmakers through the blog. I firmly believe that the only way we’re going to improve our film industry in this country is to create a risk-free environment for directors to make mistakes. Make em fast, make em cheap, but make lots of em and I think we’ll start to see some really strong work emerge as directors start to find their own voices through being able to take risks when it simply doesn’t matter. With DSLRs we’re suddenly able to make that kind of approach reality, and I’m going to be actively developing this blog into a platform for you lot to do just that. How else will we learn? One thing I’ve really learned doing this blog is just how much people value having advice. I suffer from a number of major frustrations with the way the film industry works in the UK but armed with a 5D, an internet connection and a keyboard to type with I believe there might be a way simply to rewrite the model, to navigate completely around the normal barriers and antiquated systems that currently make such a mess of the whole industry. As a filmmaker you want to making stuff, not negotiating, stalling, developing, being delayed, looking for funding. My idea is to take a look back to the sixties, at the way Roger Corman was able to hothouse young talent like Robert Towne, Martin Scorsese, Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro, Dennis Hopper, Ron Howard, Peter Bogdanovich,  Francis Ford Coppolla and of course James Cameron. The ‘Corman Film School’ as it was called gave so many people their breaks it’s kind of shocking. I recently read his book ‘How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime’, definitely worth a read, the guy’s a complete legend. Back in the 60s the film landscape was very different of course, but as I look for the opportunities in my own career it really feels like we could do with a new version of that system, one which takes into account the extraordinary possibilities of the networked, and portable society.

Corman’s genius lay not in filmmaking so much as in an innate understanding of his audience and what would sell. He shot cheap, shot fast, shot frequently and made tons of money. Opportunities for filmmakers are so few and far between they tend to become protracted, nightmarish, painful labours of love. I think that’s just idiotic. With long-form drama in particular, you really need to have done it to know how to do it. Chicken and egg, classic. Shooting my recent drama project Ladies and Gentlemen, I was confronted with just how little I actually knew. During the eleven shoot days and the preproduction that went into them I learned more than I could possibly have imagined. Yet the cost of the project was about a fifth of the money I’m trying to raise for my next short film. You see where I’m coming from? So, like Corman, what we need to do is understand our audience, understand what it will watch, and now, in this day and age, go and create that audience. No longer confined to geographical locations we can upload to youtube and have our footage ready to view at 1080p. Hell it’s even been done at 4K!!!!! What an opportunity.

There’s much hand-wringing going on right now as actors, producers, journalists bemoan the loss of the UK Film Council. I really don’t care. I hated that organisation, and I hated the way it did business. No doubt it helped a ton of major productions, but the role it simply couldn’t manage the role of developing the next generation, not with its selection processes and a committee whose opinions seemed to be underwhelming knowledgeable (me being tactful… I hope). Tim Bevan, Chairman of the UK Film Council says this: “Our immediate priority now is to press the Government to confirm that the funding levels and core functions that are needed to underpin British film are locked-in, especially at a time when filmmakers and film companies need more support than ever as they make the challenging transition into the digital age.” I read this and I can’t help feeling that the industry is just a horrible dinosaur, a duplicate of the music industry, completely paralysed by its fear of digital, and completely unable to see that, far from being challenging, we have just crossed the threshold into possibly the most exciting and empowering period of filmmaking history. They want everything to stay the same. It simply can’t. Throw away the old business model, and start thinking about how we can embrace crowd-sourcing, responsible, self-sufficient filmmaking, shot on cost-efficient, low-carbon equipment that puts the power back in the hands of the filmmaker.

Writing a blog, shooting on DSLRs has opened my eyes to the extraordinary possibilities ahead of us. I can’t believe I didn’t see them before, but stay tuned, because we’re developing something massive.

Full writeup of the dailies from week 7 of Ladies and Gentlemen are now up on PhotocineNews. We’re wrapped now, barring a few pickup shots and it’s only just starting to dawn on me what a privilege it’s been to have an opportunity to shoot eleven days of drama. It might have been on the edge, underfunded, and borderline mayhem at times but I’ve learned the most insane amount from doing it. There really is no substitute for time on the ground when learning to direct and, more than anything else, I know this is what I should be doing with my time, full time. Just a question of putting myself in the mix. Oh, and the small matter of the edit, which will throw up all manner of problems, I’m sure. They always do.

Writeup here:

And here are those dailies once more….

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN – WEEK 7 DAILIES from Robin Schmidt on Vimeo.

Stephen Parker, axe man!

Over the last few months I’ve found myself drifting towards the fancy end of the DSLR market, shooting with full Steadicam, wireless transmitters, wireless follow focus, mid-range to pricey support rigs, L series primes and the 5D. My big recommendation to young filmmakers now is to get their hands on a 550D as soon as humanly possible, if you’re starting your career running, drop the fact you own one into conversation with your producers and you’ll be surprised how quickly you’ll find yourself considered and prized and valuable asset. Above and beyond that it’s just a great camera to start with and the sheer value for money beggars belief. Here you have a camera that can shoot excellent stills and astonishing video for a nudge over £600. Absolutely astounding. However, there’s not much chance of me jumping on it soon and shooting on it as I’m too heavily invested in the higher end of the range, like some horrid snob. I do think it’s possibly the most important camera of the lot, even more so now than the 5D as it has truly democratised the ability to shoot high quality video. Whether the 60D will kick all that into touch when it arrives only time will tell. So, I’m very chuffed to announce the introduction of a new blog contributor, Stephen Parker who will be sharing his experiences of life at the ultra low budget end of DSLR filmmaking. Stephen is a musician in the rock band The Mars Patrol and works for the company I set up back in the day, Chrome Productions. He’s exactly the kind of young, bright, filmmaker who are now embracing cameras like the 550D to get their careers started and seemed the perfect choice to start contributing to the blog. I’ll let him introduce himself more personally later on, but I think this is an important stage in an ongoing process to try and create a new support structure for independent filmmakers in this country, now that the UK Film Council has been given its marching orders. More on that at a later date, but I hope you’ll continue to comment on Stephen’s adventures as he shares them with you.

You can see Stephen’s band featured in a little Canon XF305 test I did a few months back as well.

MARS PATROL – BROLL XF305 and 7D from Robin Schmidt on Vimeo.

Redrock field cinema bundle V2

Over the last 8 months I’ve been developing the shoulder rig I use, buying new parts and generally trying to improve the ergonomics so that it really sits nicely on the body and allows you to shoot comfortably. Originally I had the Redrock Eyespy Deluxe, which I struggled with as the weight kept pulling hard towards the left, a result of the camera having no foldout screen and being therefore needing to be mounted away from the line of the shoulder. A few additions later and I was much happier. A second handle, the handlebar clamp and a monitor fixed on for framing all improved it. Finally we added the microbalance kit which dropped the weights vertically off the back of the rig which makes such a big difference. Now you have what feels like a fourth point of contact, braced against your shoulder, allowing you to shoot looking down very comfortably and making the unit more compact. The rig I’ve come up with actually looks very like the one Redrock are now shipping as the Field Cinema Bundle so I guess we’ve all been thinking along the same lines. They’ve got a top handle which I shall be adding shorty but this really is a very good, very comfortable rig now. I would actually put the follow focus on the right as I find it works better supporting the weight of the rig with the left hand but that’s just me. It takes time to get the right setup for you, but I’m kind of pleased that the folks over there seem to think the same way I do about how to get the gear to work for you.

The Ladies and Gentlemen Redrock Rig

Redrock eyespy deluxe

The old redrock field bundle

I’m a sucker for eighties parody videos. Never has a decade brought us such inifinitely laughable culture and it’s still rich pickings. Charles Son is a young guy who made one of the earliest 7D with sound videos with his behind the scenes epk for Mat Kearney. A lot of people, myself included, learned a huge amount from Charles after that vid so it’s with a great deal of amusement that I present this latest work of his. It’s an idiotic music video but it’s great and it looks as good as you’d expect from the 7D. Nice work Charles and thanks again for your help in the early days.

Grum – Through The Night from The General Assembly on Vimeo.

So this is the very last of the Ladies and Gentlemen dailies cuts. We’ve wrapped production now and the full write-up will be available on Photocinenews very soon. I think this is the best one yet, and shows once again how much you can get done in a very short space of time if you’re flexible. This was tough but I think we’ve got away with it. Plenty of lessons learned from the shoot to share with you once the dust has settled so I’ll be sure and write everything up when I get it all straight in my head. Enjoy.

PS: We don’t bother shooting 720 50i on the 7D to do slow mo anymore. And yet, this is riddled with slow mo.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN – WEEK 7 DAILIES from Robin Schmidt on Vimeo.

Thanks Canon

So, today I say goodbye to the 5D and the L series primes and two very privileged months come to a close. I’ve hired cameras before and you always get that little tinge of sadness when you have to give them back but me and the 5D, well we’ve become very good friends. Ladies and Gentlemen has been brilliantly instructive, not just in terms of learning how to get my head round long-form drama, but pushing DSLR technology to the very limits of what it’s capable of and seeing how it copes. It’s not really news now, but it copes, and copes much better than I was expecting. Working with L lenses has been a revelation too. You do wonder sometimes whether lenses are worth the money, and it always represents a huge investment to buy them, but you really do get what you pay for. Our work on this project has been compromised by our lack of budget almost at every turn and yet, and yet, when I view the rushes, when I compile my dailies edits, you see none of that. I’ve written before about how inexperienced filmmakers are using DSLRs to create work that looks expensive but which falls down on story. If you’re an experienced director and really can tell a story then this camera backs you up, it supports your vision and it pays you back. I’m looking forward to post-production on this project, which is such a rarity for me, because I know it’s got a shot. How big of a shot depends on how good a job I do on the edit, but I’m not sitting there wondering whether we’ll be dismissed for not looking glossy enough. The work looks the business, we’ve got good performances, we’ve got a shot, and that’s just astonishing, given the budget. When people watch the dailies cuts I put together it inspires them, they come back the next week determined to do good work because they know the project really looks good. So much of that is down to the camera and the lenses and it has really helped me get over the mishaps we’ve had and still feel positive about the film. 8 months ago that wouldn’t have been the case. How quickly things change. Could you shoot a feature film on a DSLR, damn right you could. Would it be any good, well that’s up to the director, but it would look gorgeous.

One more thing, I have to thank Canon for the tremendous support they’ve shown me throughout this process. Big company they may be but, in the many conversations I’ve had with the folks there, the one thing that comes through loud and clear is that they’re genuinely passionate about supporting developing filmmakers. The 5D is a dramatically empowering camera for people like myself. Accident it might have been, but be in no doubt that they’re very very excited about the future of this technology and how it might contribute to the future health of our film industry. How can that not be exciting?