Confessions of a VDSLR Shopaholic

stoney

After today's earthquake... I've been thinking...

I'm gonna order Rokinon 35mm 1.4 tonight. Don't stop me!!!

Tommyboy

Go for it I love mine! and am thinking I should order a 6ft -8ft jib for the same reason.

stoney

I've selected 4 most frequently used lenses. 20mm, Lumix G 14-45, 50.4 Ai-s, 55mm 2.8 Vivitar. All the other vintage lenses going to ebay.

There are many great m43 lenses. 7-14, 14-140, 12, 24, 45... but I'm waiting for Lumix X 12-35mm to replace the 14-45. Go all in for X.

Vitaliy_Kiselev

@stonebat

Do you have photo of all the lenses going to ebay?

brianluce

You should list them here! I buy lenses all the time!

stoney

Sell sell sell!!!

brianluce

Hmmm gotta a crush on that 25mm pentax and 28mm Vivitar. How much you want for each of those babes?

stoney

Cash cash cash!!!

Vitaliy_Kiselev

@stonebat

How about making topic in Marketplace?

stoney

I got a professional looking matte box. Then what? 4x4 filters? Replace all vintage SLR lenses with video friendly lenses? Spend more?

Yeap vintage SLR lenses are not optimized for video. Horrible to use with a matte box. I got an idea. I will use a matte box without 4x4 filters. Use a matte box and a screw-in Fader ND filter. e.g. Nikkor 50mm Ai-s & 52mm Fader ND & a matte box work. That sounds crazy but I must do that for some clients who want to see a big matte box. Give'em peace of mind. Make'em happy. For my personal candid work, use a collapsible rubber hood. Problem solved. I'm returning a defective copy of Samyang 35mm lens for full refund.

Gawd I'm feeling great. Save more money for the upcoming 12-35mm Lumix G X lens.

Rethinking about vintage lenses. Normally I use them at 2.0 or higher. Why not use the fast m43 zooms instead? Usually prime lenses are smaller and perform better than zooms at same aperture. Also they must be matte box and FF friendly. But vintage lens + adapter are bulky and heavy. Great news. Samyang just released 7.5mm m43 prime and plans to release more m43 lenses next year. Compact m43 primes with modern design, MF, and inner focus. Imagine Samyang 50mm 1.4 about the size of m.zuiko 45mm 1.8. No more cheap Chinese adapter. Hopefully not heavy breathing. See Nokton 25mm 0.95. Great m43 prime although not fixed length barrel.

As I'm getting more native m43 lenses, I will sell more vintage lenses. Eventually no more vintage lens. Totally locking into m43 format. That's great. I wouldn't be able to switch to another system. No more spending. Then my working set will be complete. Long live to m43!!!

LPowell

@stonebat
"I will use a matte box without 4x4 filters. Use a matte box and a screw-in Fader ND filter... That sounds crazy but I must do that for some clients who want to see a big matte box... For my personal candid work, use a collapsible rubber hood."

That's what I do for the most part, and for my purposes, screw-on ND filters are more reliable than matte box filters. When using wide-angle lenses with studio lighting, however, I've had flare problems that only the extended flags of a matte box can handle. I found a cheap velcro-attached fold-flat flag at Cinetactics:

http://www.cinetactics.com/-strse-2/Matteblox-DV-Oversize-Flag/Detail.bok

However, I skipped Cinetactics' screw-on Matteblox HD System, and taped my own velcro stickers to a dirt-cheap 15mm rail-mounted matte box:

http://www.thecinecity.com/eshop/product.php?productid=59&cat=26&page=1

http://www.thecinecity.com/eshop/product.php?productid=246&cat=248&page=1

stoney

@LPowell You got a nice working set. I don't need best gears. I just need a working set. I'd use Fader ND filter instead of cheap 4x4 filter... for now... until there is a better alternative.

I like Cinematics logo. The matte box looks quite nice.

stoney

@LPowell First time I saw your rig... wtf... why having the ext mics in front of the handles? After I got a matte box, it became obvious that the big flags block some sound. It made sense why you did that. After all, you are a sound engineer.

I disassembled my cage rig and assembled a shoulder rig by using the same blocks from BerkeySystem.

An ext mic sits between the handles. A preamp/mixer is a balance weight, too. Double support from a chest pad and a shoulder pad. It's well balanced. I like.

stoney

I used to joke about my dslr shopaholic symptom to my wife, "I will make sh!t load of money from taking video."

But average Joe can't keep buying. If I wanna continue to buy the latest and greatest gears, I gotta start generating revenue. My first goal is to earn $3000 to make up for all spending so far. Otherwise I will quit buying more... and even sell some gears such as a rig.

A few things I noticed.

First, a professional rig setup is important. I wouldn't wanna hire a pro photographer who shows up with his beloved GF1 and a pancake lens. I got pro looking gears... thanks to Cinematics matte box.

Second, a packaging is important. Great image quality is cool, but customers want professional packaging. Theme, storyline, text art, editing, etc. Where can I get more information about this?

Third, there is a major difference between pros and amateurs. Pros can get tax break on all gears they buy. That's a whopping 35~45% tax break on all business expenses. That's instant benefit of going pro with one's business license. But this is good only if there is revenue in the first place. No revenue? Then only post-tax money to buy gears.

brianluce

@stonebat
Are you planning to shoot weddings? if so, even if you work alone, 2-3 cameras are a must. You only need one pimped IMO. I film and record a lot of classical musicians and for them, as you say, having a nice deliverable seems to be 95% of the sale -- or as was my last big shoot, 95% of the fail because the singer complained that she looked "Old" on the DVD cover (it was her farewell concert) and from there she decided she looked "Old" in all the close ups and wanted the whole thing recut.

When I was in broadcast, the DVD seemed less important, I was always concerned about getting all the contact info printed in case the distros want to buy the show.

For my DVD's, is use an Epson Artisan 50 with outboard tanks so no worries about getting gouged by Staples on cartridges. It's a $99 printer and the CIS system is about $60. Some guys like to outsource their printing out. Use the glossy blank DVD's, not the matte. Tayo Yuden are excellent. DVD's I think are essential, a link to Youtube or Facebook doesn't create much value. A tangible thing you can hold in your hand and have for years is better.

I use the soft clear cases. Of course, avoid the hard plastic jewell cases that crack all the time. If burning blu ray, use the blue tinted soft case. Adds value. If transcoding to SD DVD, be sure you have a good software to do that. Virtual dub is a good freebie. A good cheapy is TMPGen. Don't use your NLE is you want the best results.

stoney

Yes event & interview shootings... with or without an assistant.

I got GH1 and GH2 together at $1000. I like deep discount :)

DVD cover... I didn't think about that. Soft clear case sounds good. Thanks for the tips, @brianluce.

brianluce

I've done a lot of interviews, if possible, even if you have to hire a homeless person, slap a set of headphone on a warm body and tell them "Listen"!

Audio is life.

Vitaliy_Kiselev

even if you have to hire a homeless person, slap a set of headphone on a warm body and tell them "Listen"

May be it is time to start "forum quotes" topic?

stoney

LoL. Hey that would create more jobs for homeless people. Who knows I might be homeless one day.

stoney

2 Faders ND filters + Cinematics matte box. It would have been nicer if the front barrel length is fixed. But it works ok.

rains

It's so hard to not buy more stuff I now have stuff I don't need and will have to sell it really has become ridiculous. I know what i need and am almost there, I just need to stop after that. I've only ever shot with super 8 super 16 PD150 PD170 and P2 rigs, the GH1 is my first dive into DSLR territory I believe it is the way forward for me, apart from actual film 16 and 35.

stoney

Finally I have a working set of gears and am selling rest of "trial" gears. My set is far from being the best gears, but I can work with it.

From this point I will buy new gadget just before I NEED it. Learn it quickly and use it immediately to maximize potential gain. I might run into supply scarcity issue... but I'm done with just-in-case purchasing.

oscillian

Just-in-time vs just-in-case. Nice to see the old axiom in use again :)

stoney

Exactly. Just-in-time vs just-in-case ;)

Noobs are more likely to go through just-in-case buying. Once having experienced, just-in-time should work most of the time.

stoney

What a busy day. Sold 5 items. 5 more items to sell. 2 items for full refund. Then my bank account will be happier.

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