OK so there I was waiting and waiting and waiting for my new RED Scarlet to arrive, and waiting...I had new projects on the horizon that were now banging on my back door. Uh I can wait after all the Scarlet will work with my massive collection of Canon L glass, Telephotos, Wide Zooms, Primes, I can wait ! #@!$%&!!*$...$30,000.00 in gear ordered and still no sign of it,no date given and almost 3 months of waiting.
Well I no longer had the luxury or option to continue the RED waiting game so off I went to my favorite camera store, SAMY's and asked if they could possibly get me the new CANON C300? Yeah I called my amigos at Canon too and voila 2 days later it was in my hands for $16,000.00 ! This article does not go into detail on all the many fantastic features and the quality level of this camera. I assure you the C300 is an incredible new breed of camera and CANON deserves the kudos it has received. Yeah ok I know so I focused on the dark side but what I did find that was , well, annoying...and you want to know, right??So some real world testing was in order. Hey my bretheren Vincent LaForet, Jeff Cronenworth, and Philip Bloom we're off making movies for Canon so what could possibly go wrong. Well what indeed...the tests I ran looked great until I discovered loss of focus or OOF issues with all CANON L Glass zooms such as the 16-35, 24-70 and 70-200. I was shooting a scene and as I slowly push in on the actors face we see the focus changing from sharp to SOFT! What the BLEEP#@#$!
OOF issue
There are 2 types of lenses VARIFOCAL and PARFOCAL. Canon glass is varifocal, requires refocusing when changing focal length. This is more obvious in video vs still photography where your always re focusing while zooming into the next photo!
Canon's response, well I'm still waiting but I'll guess they will state while L Glass is indeed the finest photographic glass on the planet that still does not make it CINE GLASS. Which is why they now make CINE LENSES...excerpt from WIKIpedia:
Whereas lenses used in cinematography and video applications are required to maintain focus while the focal length is changed, there is no such requirement for still photography, or if a zoom lens is used as a projection lens. Since it is harder to construct a lens that does not change focus with the same image quality as one that does, the latter applications often have lenses that require refocusing once the focal length has changed (and thus strictly speaking are varifocal lenses, not zoom lenses). As most modern still cameras are autofocus, this is not a problem.
Designers of zoom lenses with large zoom ratios often trade one or more aberrations for higher image sharpness. For example, a greater degree of barrel and pincushion distortion is tolerated in lenses that span the focal length range from wide angle to telephoto with a focal ratio of 10x or more than would be acceptable in a fixed focal length lens or a zoom lens with a lower ratio. Although modern design methods have been continually reducing this problem, barrel distortion of greater than one percent is common in these large-ratio lenses. Another price paid is that at the extreme telephoto setting of the lens the effective focal length changes significantly while the lens is focused on closer objects. The apparent focal length can more than halve while the lens is focused from infinity to medium close-up. To a lesser degree, this effect is also seen in fixed focal length lenses that move internal lens elements, rather than the entire lens, to effect changes in magnification.
Varifocal lens
Many so-called "zoom" lenses, particularly in the case of fixed lens cameras, are actually varifocal lenses, which gives lens designers more flexibility in optical design trade-offs (focal length range, maximum aperture, size, weight, cost) than true parfocal zoom, and which is practical because of autofocus, and because the camera processor can move the lens to compensate for the change in the position of the focal plane while changing magnification ("zooming"), making operation essentially the same as a true parfocal zoom.[3]Inexpensive cures:
1. Use a CANON 17-55mm F2.8 IS
2.Use primes and Dolly the shot. I know ouch! ok so back to choice #1 ! :>)
S-Glass lens. Maybe someone at CANON can explain why this less expensive glass works better than L Glass on the C300.
Expensive cures: CINE LENSES like the ZEISS LWZ2, RED CINE ZOOM 17-50 T2.9Do your 2-3% push in in Post, the image holds up...
More later, on some breathing issues and yep a spec of aliasing/moire still exists but no where near the DSLR levels! Remember NO CAMERA IS THE HOLY GRAIL! They are tools in our hands as artists and sculptors ! The more we know about them the more we know what situations they work best in and to avoid the ones that get us in trouble!
