Civillian Studios

November 14, 2009

Tascam Dr-100 and 5d2

A few months ago, I purchased the beachtek 5d unit. While it worked wonders for the first two months, the unit completely conked out while on a commercial shoot in Miami. This is totally unacceptable and after talking to fellow filmmakers, they had similiar experiences. I decided to go for a dual system sound option.

After testing both the Tascam DR-100 and the Zoom h4n (the go to model for 5d mark II), I decided to go for the Tascam. Here’s why. The first difference were the on-board mikes. TASCAM is a pro-level brand and the sound quality was shockingly much better than the H4n.

Secondly, the TASCAM has both a headphone out with dial controls and a line out, which means that you can send a signal to your camera while simultaneously monitoring the Tascam. Because of the headphone dial you can use it like a built in attenuator and if you set the headphone dial to roughly 3, the signal is clean into the camera eliminating the need to sync sound later in post. This is a huge advantage over the H4n which only has one output.

Furthermore, the unit has separate volume controls for the XLR inputs another short coming from the H4N.

The build quality is excellent with most of the controls you need to use easily accessible with switches. The body is all metal. The pre-amps on the XLR inputs are excellent. It has two batteries a rechargeable lithium battery as well as AA batteries. Like the H4n, you can easily mount the unit on your camera with a hot shoe adapter. My tests allowed for about 7 hours recording time with the two batteries.

I bought the unit for $329 at Dale audio but i did notice that the price has gone up since my last purchase. You can still buy the unit for about $310 on Amazon.

CONCLUSION: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. The TASCAM out preforms the H4N in every category except for one and that is the option of 4 channel recording from the H4N. But since I was so disappointed in the on-board h4n mikes, I concluded i would probably never use it. It is the ideal system for external sound for the 5d.

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October 29, 2009

Zacuto Z-FINDER KILLER!!! at half the price!

I custom made this viewfinder after using the hoodman loupe on my 5d Mark II. I found that it was very uncomfortable and hard to keep in focus. Then I tried the z-finder from zacuto at abelcine. it does have a great feeling and the optics are great. problem is it is out of stock all over town, not to mention price point. what was great about it was the eyecup and the 3x magnification. since i’m a do it yourself type of person, i decided to go out and try to make one on my own. i went to calumet and found this amazing 3x loupe. to my surprise it was exactly the same image as the zacuto. actually i thought that optics were better! and at $160 more than half the price. since i had already placed velcro around my LCD from the hoodman all i had to do was place the fuzzy side around the edges of this unit. it fit perfectly. the glass is german engineered rodenstock. but the design of this loupe was even more interesting.

as you can see when you pull off the top half what’s left on the camera becomes a sunshade! it clicks on tightly when its on and easily comes off when you dont need it. brilliant. so all i did was go and buy i used eyecup from an old JVC camera ($15) that fit perfectly on the unit. total cost $175. the square unit is too big for the camera so i might actually create a connection piece for it that will retrofit the part that connects to the camera.

highly recommended if you want to great option from the zacuto!

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October 29, 2009

Hot Rod CSH with 5d MK2

I just purchased a new rig from Abelcine called the HOT ROD CSH. It is fantastic. As you can see from the post below, I had previously used the cavision rig,but that was just so awkward. also it’s so massive and bulky didn’t lend itself well to run and gun.

this rig is fantastic and allows you to focus while being handheld. that’s almost the most important thing with these cameras. extremely portable. here’s the part i didn’t learn until the cavison. build quality is very important. this unit is priced at 695 but it is machined well and was custom fit for DSLRs so the ergonomics are right. You can also turn the handles upside down and gives you a more eng style. ofcourse there are other rigs at this price. i had seriously considered the redrock THE EVENT but i found out that the dslr plate doesn’t allow you to change the battery without removing it. i also looks at the gorilla kits from zacuto, found those things really awkward and unbalanced with a heavy lens and as everyone knows overpriced. this unit fits nicely on the tripod using my same quick release. this system will allow you to later attach a chest pod or a shoulder mount or follow focus, matte box if you want.

here’s a video i used with this rig