THE SICA BLOG: October 2016

Zacuto VCT PRO- A Universal Base Plate

23:15:00

Baseplate or quick release plate is a very important accessory that allows to place a camera and lens to the tripod head.

In general, the quick release system is based on a two piece mechanism.

The first piece, generally referred as a ‘plate’ is attached to a camera or a lens (or any other device). It comes in a standard dovetail and can vary in length .

The second piece is the mounting base, generally referred as a ‘clamp’, where the plate gets attached and secured. The clamp can be fully opened, allowing the plate to be dropped in and secured or can be partially opened to allow the plate to be slid into the position.

The new VCT Pro baseplate is compatible with all cameras including , DSLRs, Mirrorless cameras to Cinema cameras like Canon EOS C-series, Sony FS5 and FS7, AJA CION, BlackMagic, RED cameras, Arri Alexa, Amira and more. Designed to work with virtually any camera, it enables to go from hand held / shoulder shooting to tripod shooting without changing mounting plates.

The VCT Pro has a built-in, curved shoulder pad and an Arri M6 rosette for accessories and grips. It comes with quick-release, extendable 6.5” rods at the front and lightweight spaced quick-release rod ports at the back.

The red sliding top plate offers easy adjustability for lens changes, removing camera and balancing the rig correctly on the shoulder. This sliding plate combined with a double screw track offers 10” of camera balance sliding range.

The soft gel pad is still in place, it just has been moved a little bit to one side in order to achieve perfect balance of the whole rig.

The real improvement is the now detachable top plate which can be slid back and forth for about 12″.

The idea is to get one of these top plates for every camera using on a given shoot. With these attachments, it enables to do in a lightning speed when it comes to switching camera from tripod to shoulder operation.

The lightweight, adjustable rod mount is set far back in the plate, offering plenty of accessory-capable area under the camera lens. This allows to position camera further back on the plate, keeping the balance point of the rig directly over the shoulder.

The shoulder pad portion of the VCT Universal is set as far forward on the plate as possible, also to maximize the accessory capable rod area and aid with balance.

The VCT pro Universal Baseplate is excellently designed for balance and comfort for every camera and it is easy to adjust, without having to dig into the unit with a screwdriver.

It weighs only 960 grams and priced approximately at $650.

Video Link : https://vimeo.com/182102619

CJ Rajkumar

Author/Cinematographer.

SICA: ARRI WORKSHOP INDIA 2016-17

01:35:00

Arri is one of the most renowed and oldest motion picture camera manufacturing company that spread its wings to produce lenses, lights and other accessories.

After digital platform became the standard for recording and projecting images in film making, Arri quickly came up with digital cinema cameras D-20 & D-21.

Arri’s major success arrived with the introduction of Arri Alexa series cameras.

Arri’s workshop in association with Sica is an eye opener to understand about Arri Alexa camera’s workflow, lens and other important accessories.

Arri Team - Mr. Hans, Mr. Hendrik, Mr. Jorg.

In the presence of Sica President Mr. P.C.Sreeram

Venue: Prasad Lab Theatre, Chennai.

Date: 16.10.2016

Cinema Lens:

Before getting into Arri Cinema lenses and its features, Mr. Hans cleared the air by informing that the Cinema lenses especially ARRI lens optics system can support more than 10k resolution (in the wake of today’s aggressive marketing for increasing camera resolution and its lens compatibility).

Important quality features of lens to look for:

Chromatic aberration
Distortion
Lens breathing
Line pairs per Millimetre.

Advantages of oval Bokeh, distinctive flares and the ability to render out-of-focus areas of Arri Anamorphic lenses were explained.

Arri Alexa SXT 6:5 sensor mode (Beneficial for shooting with anamorphic lens)

When stretched, a 2x anamorphic lens used with standard 35mm film yields a 2.39:1 aspect ratio, commonly referred to as Cinemascope.

Since anamorphic lenses squeeze the 2.39:1 image by a factor of 2, the resulting area used on the sensor has a 1.195:1 aspect ratio that equates to 6:5 sensor modes that is included with all ALEXA SXT cameras. The ALEXA sensor is unique in that it has the same height as a 35 mm film frame, and so anamorphic lenses exhibit the same field of view as on 35 mm film.

ARRI Master Hand grips:

Most useful hand grips manufactured by Arri for using cinema cameras for Single man crew filming ENG (electronic news gathering) or documentary style functioning, where it enables to control exposure, focus and zoom operation single handedly.

It has left and right wheels, assigned buttons for aperture and focus, Left and right rockers for smooth zooming.

There is a red color joystick to move up/down to control camera related functions.

There is a touch screen display at the top of the master grip where you can glide through the pages for settings and recording button.

While moving the wheel we can witness T or f-stop of the lens we desire at the top of the left master grip.

ARRI Trinity (Steady cam with Gimbal)

Trinity is the most advanced camera stabilizer unit developed by ARRI which is a steady cam combined with a gimbal which uses both mechanical and electronic stabilization.

This unit can accept camera weight up to 30kg combining a Steady cam like vest configuration with a gimbal that offers pan and tilt controls, along with locked horizons and self-balancing features, the Trinity offers seamless low-to-high transitions.

Even a 45 degree camera rotation can be done either side. The advantage of Trinity is, it allows following movement from toe to head where other steady cam units allows only fixed angle position.

This unit allows using any high end cinema cameras like ARRI Alexa SXT with any type of lens except for few heavy Zoom lenses.

Wireless Compact Unit WCU-4

Arri's WCU-4 is a three axis of lens controller with a lens data display in a compact form. Easy-to-read lens and camera information is available on the large 3” display along with data from optional ultrasonic distance measurement devices.

The transflective display technology ensures perfect readability in all ambient lighting conditions.

The super-smooth focus knob contains an integrated light source that shines through the optionally pre-marked focus ring in low light conditions. Thus providing clearly readable focus marks at all times.

This unit is more helpful to change aperture, lens focal length or focus in critical filming position like aerial or any action sequences.

It also displays at the right side ‘depth of field indicator’ according to the iris set. It operates and communicates data’s with the radio inside the camera.

To use this WCU-4 unit, motors has to be set for focus, Aperture and to zoom (if needed) connected to camera body via cable from motors.

There is also in need of radio connectivity antenna AMC- 1 to operate and receive radio signals from WCU-4 and camera.

Like AMC-1 there is also UMC-4, 3 axis motor controllers to be paired with wcu-4. The UMC-4 incorporates the LDS Lens Data Archive and generates frame-accurate lens data with any lens.

Lens data is used for lens mapping to pre-marked focus rings and depth-of-field display on the WCU-4 hand unit.

It also enables focus tracking, setting the focus motor to continuously follow a subject by using an ultrasonic distance measurer for VFX tasks in post.

ARRI AMIRA

Arri Amira camera was introduced and clearly stated that this camera is not only meant for documentary filming. It is a multipurpose camera which has high quality Arri Alexa sensor. The only major difference is that this camera doesn’t record raw images.

During the workshop, ARRI camera’s post production work flow was explained and Arri Alexa’s flexibility of different recording options displayed.

On a concluding note, visuals from Indian cinematographers using Arri Alexa was screened and appreciated.

CJ Rajkumar

Author / Cinematographer.

New Equipments

Hasselblad H6D 100c – Medium Format Cinematography

01:30:00

Digital medium format is special that it renders images in a totally different way.

Digital medium format cameras offer resolutions far above current full-frame sensor. They also offer incredible image quality in terms of color, dynamic range and tonality.

The stunning aspect is, it reinvents the classic 70mm images.

Currently Red weapon 8k and ARRI Alexa 65 has opened new doors into medium format cinematography where Arri Alexa offers only rental options.

Introducing mirrorless medium format, Hasselblad's H6D-100c primarly meant for medium format still photography which also shoots 4K UHD videos takes the outstanding quality of a larger 100 mega pixel sensor and manages to create a compact yet uncompromising camera that will deliver almost unparalleled image quality.

This 100 megapixel count of the H6D-100c is obviously larger, so are the physical dimensions of its sensor. It measures 53.4 × 40.0 mm, meaning it offers an almost full field of view from medium format full frame lenses.

The H6D-100c also offers 15 stops of dynamic range and has an ISO range of 64 to 12,800 being able to shoot at up to 4K UHD at 30 fps in Hasselblad’s proprietary RAW format which can be converted to Cinema DNG in Phocus.

Phocus is Hasselblad’s own image processing software has been enhanced with additional tools to allow more precise application of post production.

HD footage can also be captured in H.264 format which is compatible with all popular editing packages. Coupled with the HDMI and audio facilities, the capture of high quality video output is simplicity itself.

The Hasselblad H6D-100c features a rear 3-inch touch-screen with a 920k dot resolution.

For lensing option ALPA of Switzerland collaberates with Hasselblad H6D to fix a lens plate to use wide range of medium format lenses available.

Technical Specifications

100MP 53.4 x 40.0mm CMOS Sensor
UHD 4K and Full HD RAW Video at 30 fps
Cinema DNG with Phocus software
16-Bit Color, 15-Stop Dynamic Range
ISO 64-12800, Shooting Up to 1.5 fps
3.0" 920k-Dot Touchscreen LCD Monitor
Dual CFast and SD Memory Card Slots
Built-In Wi-Fi, USB 3.0 Type-C
Lenses: Hasselblad H system lens line.

The commanding imaging aesthetic recently Emmanuel Lubezki achieved with the Alexa 65 in the movie ‘The Revenant’ and Robert Richardson’s work with Ultra Panavision 70 in ‘The Hateful Eight’opened the gateway for 70mm format in this Digital era. The new Hasselblad H6D-100c built is like DSLR cameras and most light weighted one will open new doors on medium format digital cinematography to create ultra shallow depth of field.

The cost of the camera is approximately US $ 32,995.

CJ Rajkumar

Author/Cinematographer