Sebastian Wiegärtner, BVK
In Reviews

Kessler Crane Pocket Dolly 2.0! The perfect slider?

I have already used portable dollies for different projects, most of the time I had moderate success with them. Either the full rigged camera was too heavy and I had problems to get a fluid movement. But even with quite lightweight equipment I often had to repeat the movement for several times to get the perfect shot. My first portable dolly was a Glidetrack HD. I decided to buy the 3 feet version and it was a big mistake. I thought it’s essential to have this length to get a wonderful shot, but I soon realized that one or two feet length would be enough for my needs. Furthermore you have to use two tripods to keep the slider stable and if you are an one man show on a few shoots it’s really annoying to get the Glidetrack and your whole equipment from one place to another place. So I was looking for a better solution to be more flexible. A few months later Philip Bloom showed me a protoype of the Kessler Crane Pocket Dolly 2.0 Traveller at Lucasfilm set for RED TAILS. My first thought: Super smooth, two feet length is enough, great quality! Smooth. Smoother. Kessler…

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Sebastian Wiegärtner, BVK
In News

Denz announced PL Support for Panasonic AG AF100

I have used products made by Denz a very long time now and I’m always impressed by their perfect quality. For the most of you the brand Denz is unknown, but my friends from Munich are a well known and loved company in the film industry. They won the technical Oscar for their Video Assist in 1996. Since the HDSLR revolution the guys from munich also offer many good products for DSLR video cameras, including there great Mini Follow Focus, which I don’t want to miss anymore! I will publish a review about their Follow Focus the next couple weeks. Denz has modified the Canon DSLR’s with a PL-Mount and has a huge success with these modifications. A new year begins and there are also new cameras on the market. Now there is also a Denz PL54-mount with integrated support system available for the Panasonic AG AF 101 / 100. I tested the camera recently, but didn’t have luck with the weather, so I will get it again to achieve better results with it. The Denz support system includes a mount for 15 mm support rods as well as Hirth-toothed rosettes according to the ARRI/Denz-standard for adjusting handles and accessories….

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Sebastian Wiegärtner, BVK
In News

Marshall 7″ LCD V-LCD70XP-HDMIPT w/ HDMI Loop!

Marshall announced a new 7″ LCD with HDMI Loop-Through. Vincent Laforet has already tested the new Marshall LCD (V-LCD70XP-HDMIPT) and I think it’s a good solution if you need a First AC to pull focus. You don’t need an HDMI switch anymore. The new monitor costs round about $ 1,199 and is available now! The other big function is the »DSLR Ratio Adjustment« feature, which will resize the image while recording. This is a great new feature and I will test it as soon as I get the new Marshall. Below you can see a short demonstration about this feature. Thanks to Vincent for doing this Hands-on video! You can read a short test about this new monitor on his blog! Facts: • High resolution 800 x 480 LCD panel • DSLR Ratio Adjustment • HDMI Auto Color Space and Ratio detect • Manual Gamma Adjustment • Adjustable Backlight • Image Flip • 1/4″-20 mounts on all sides • Robust Power switch and rugged front panel • Variety of Markers, including user-adjustable • HDMI Loop-Through* • False Color On/Off • Peaking Filter On/Off • RGB Check Field / Field Detect • 15:9, 16:9, 4:3, Pixel-to-Pixel modes • 4 user-configurable function…

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Sebastian Wiegärtner, BVK
In News

Official: Canon announced T3i / 600D DSLR

Canon announced the new T3i / 600D today. Now it’s possible to zoom 10x into the picture without loss of resolution in video mode. That’s a great feature! Sadly that’s the only new video function compared to the Canon T2i / 550D. It has also a flipable display at the back of the camera. Here is the link to the full press release. Canon EOS 600D features: 18-megapixel CMOS sensor Scene Intelligent Auto mode Full-HD EOS Movie On-screen Feature Guide 3.7fps continuous shooting Wide-area 9-point AF 1,040k-dot vari-angle 7.7cm (3.0”) screen Basic+ and Creative Filters Built-in wireless flash control

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Sebastian Wiegärtner, BVK
In Personal Blog

My big 15,000 twitter follower competition

In a few days I will reach my 15,000th Follower on Twitter. I will celebrate this great moment with many prizes. Thanks to all these great companies, which donated all that amazing gear for my competition! I have decided to create a contest on my Weblog, Facebook and Twitter. WEBLOG CONTEST: Only make a comment on this blog-entry and write some words, why you want to win this gear! ikan F3 – Friction Follow Focus ikan donated a great follow focus! Thank you ikan! I’ll post more prizes tomorrow! TWITTER CONTEST: It’s easy to win our special prize! You only have to publish this tweet on Twitter: Big Follower Contest by @wiegaertner. Win prizes from @letusdirect @KesslerCrane @ikancorp @redrockmicro @glidetrack http://bit.ly/hoyWxW Every tweet will be entered into a random draw in two weeks. Twitter Prize: Glidetrack SD Shooter FACEBOOK CONTEST: You can win prizes from Kessler Crane, Redrock Micro and Letus Direct on my Facebook Page. How to win: 1. Like my Facebook Page: 2. More instructions right here on my Facebook Page. Here are the prizes! Thanks to all companies for donating all that great gear! Duration of the contest: 14 days!

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Sebastian Wiegärtner, BVK
In Reviews

The Panasonic AG AF 100 / 101 camera quick test

I had the chance to test the new Panasonic AG AF 100 / 101 camcorder for three days. It was a pre production model, which was 95% finished. Sadly I only had the camera for three days and these three days were rainy days. The other issue was the glass. I only had the Zeiss 85 mm CP.2, which are 170 mm on a Panasonic AG AF 100 / 101 and the Panasonic kit lens (14-140 mm F4.0 – 5.6). I will get the Panny in a few weeks again (I’ll have more lenses) and will shoot some better footage with it. All I can say: It’s a great camcorder. Improved rolling shutter, less moirè, professional inputs (XLR) and outputs (HD-SDI). All you need for shooting with a small team! Here are my first impressions: ISO: I was very impressed using the camera in quite dark situations without any light source. I made some test shots outside in a forest and it was stunning to see what’s possible with this camcorder. ISO 2.000 is useable, all above is too grainy! Rolling Shutter: I shot some car scenes in my quick and dirty test film. It’s a big improvement compared to…

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Sebastian Wiegärtner, BVK
In Personal Blog

Trailer of a tv-documentary, which was shot with HDSLR’s

This is the trailer of the upcoming documentary “Kloster Irdning”, which will be broadcasted in HD this Thursday at 6.45 pm on Servus TV! It was shot entirely with HDSLR’s (Canon 7D, Canon 5D Mark II). In a small monastery in Styra, Austria, three Capuchin monks teach the ancient prayer of the heart… Director/DP Frank Suffert, with the team, Matt Sweetwood, Christopher Lenke and my person as operator and DP, shot this entire film using Digital SLR cameras. You can find more behind the scenes stuff right here on my blog! Kloster Irdning – das Herzensgebet premieres January 6, 2011 at 18:45 on ServusTV (servustv.com).

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Sebastian Wiegärtner, BVK
In News

Video of a working Red Scarlet Fixed Lens Camera!

The last days I asked on twitter if there are any news about the upcoming Red Scarlet and Red Epic-S. Today Tonaci Tran published the first video of a working Red Scarlet with a fixed lens! Can’t imagine that the camera will come out, I thought they have lost the competition against the DSLR’s. I’m more interested in the Red Epic-S with the possibility to change lenses! In conclusion we have to wait for more info, especially for the Red Epic-S. The most interesting point will be the pricing! I hope the price of the Red Epic-S won’t be above $8,000, more than this price wouldn’t be attractive for the most of the HDSLR shooters.

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