24-105 with 5D2

The Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM was introduced in 2005 and is offered as a kit lens and many wonder if they should get that lens or the EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM or now the EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM. I struggled with this decision back when I bought my 5D mark II and I am sure there are many new camera buyers wondering the same thing.

Sometimes all the reviews make it more complicated, and the passion of the 24-70 2.8 users can be overwhelming. After two years using this lens (and I have a boatload of other lenses to chose from) I think there will be many who could profit from my experience. For the most part I will be speaking of the 24-105 in relation to the 24-70.

The 24-105 is faster. Only on paper is the 24-105 one stop slower than the 24-70. Don’t let that get into your head. 1 stop can be a lot, but the image stabilization of the 24-105 really does make a difference and adds 3 stops of shutter speed. This is real. So in reality the 24-105 is faster.

Image stabilization is a big deal. I shoot lots of video, and the IS makes all the difference. So far I have 3 Canon IS lenses, this lens, the 70-200 and the Macro 100. I wish all my lenses had it. For video it is magical. For stills it adds up to 3 stops. Did I say I wish all my lenses had image stabilization?

It’s a zoom. Yes, I know the 24-70 is also, but the 24-70 is a vary narrow range. The 24-105 is the only Canon EF L Series lens that gives you wide, medium, and telephoto, and it stays at f/4 throughout the entire range. For video you can’t have the f-stop change from one end of the zoom to the other. This lens is great on the 5D, but even better on the C300 for this very reason.

It’s plenty sharp. The only lens in my bag that is noticeably sharper is the EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM. What is the payback for a HDSLR filmmaker for the 70-200′s sharpness? Moiré. I have had the 70-200 ruin lots of video because it was too sharp. In fact, for video, I am thinking that the L series lens series may be spending way too much money for sharpness that just comes back to bite you with moiré.

Looking back on it, I am amazed I made the right decision for a first lens. Will I ever buy the 24-70 in the future? I have one already, and on the barrel it says 24 35 70 105. So if you are in the market and trying to decide, my recommendation is not to let the 24-70 fanboy hype make you look past the obvious advantages of this workhorse lens. Seven years have gone by since the introduction of this lens and it still has not been bettered by any of the EF L lineup.

In November Philip Bloom gave me some quality time with the Red Epic, the $50,000 version of the Red lineup. That is the camera Peter Jackson is using to shoot the Hobbit. In my commentary on the Red last November I pointed out the problems a 4k workflow presents for projects destined for 2k distribution. Incidentally the 2K film coming out of the Epic is poor, so you always have to shoot and process 4k footage. After seeing Shane Hurlbut’s Act of Valor shot on the 5D Mark II in HD, I am in no hurry to move to 4k. The HD footage was amazing on the big screen. If you haven’t seen Act of Valor you should. They used real Navy Seals and their wives as actors, and used live fire in the making of the film.

Then the C300 was announced. I had some excellent C300 hands-on time last weekend courtesy of Randy Noland. The image coming off the camera is in a class by itself. Very, very pleasing. The latitude is fantastic. Now I won’t make any further judgments or comments here, except to say it is too expensive for most regular guys. The Canon 1DC and C500 announced at the NAB show last month aren’t really much of a help. The problem is that the camera technology is moving so fast that it accelerates the depreciation schedule to the point of making depreciation meaningless. What you buy today will be outmoded tomorrow. $15k for a camera seems to be a waste unless you can make LOTS of money with it real quick. As a replacement for the Arri Alexa the C300 makes financial sense, but not as a replacement for a 5DM2.

I want you to see my favorite films shot on the C300. Canon paid some great filmmakers to make films on the C300 that were shown at the November 3rd launch. This was a great strategy. These films do more to create interest in their camera more than any talking head or spec sheet. Two of these films remain my favorites.

The first is Vincent LaForet’s Mobius. I met Vincent in Austin just a few days after the C300 was announced. It was great learning about the production of the film, then working with him in a workshop just a few days later. My other favorite film was Sam Nicholson’s XXIT. To this day I keep looking for new films on the C300, but these two released at the introduction still remain my favorites. This is the future of filmmaking.

Believe me I know Mikall’s frustration. He has a Mac Pro for crying out loud, and it ought to run FCPX a whole lot better. I shortened his letter considerably but the details included questions about graphics cards, RAM, SSD, project layouts, etc. It can seem complicated, but here are some priorities I suggest, followed by some important reference documents:

• 1. You need a OpenCL-enabled graphic card with minimum 1 GB RAM. If you haven’t read How to Speed Up Final Cut Pro with a New Graphics Card  I suggest you do so. If you want to learn more about OpenCL click here. Before I upgraded from my NVIDA GeForce GT 120 my computer with only 512 MB RAM, FCP7 barely ran, and from what I understand FCPX wouldn’t run at all. If you have a Mac Pro you need to do this step before you do anything else that requires money.
• 2. Get more RAM. 8 GB is sufficient, but RAM is cheap so buy it, but only after you have upgraded your memory card. Don’t buy RAM from Apple, it is too expensive. Get it from Crucial. They have an application you download to your computer, then run, and it will find the right RAM for your computer.
• 3. Use Event Manager X and get projects and events that you are not using off line. It only costs $4.99.
• 4. If you are using a Mac Pro get an extra drive and put your Events and Projects there, not on your boot drive. If you can afford it get 2 or three and make a RAID. I have written about how to set it up here, and using it with multicam here. MacBook Pro users may be in a different situation. Putting your events on a slow USB drive may not be that good of an idea. I have run FCPX fine on a couple different MacBook Pros with no problem. BTW SSD’s are too expensive, and you need a LOT of disk space.

Those are the 4 biggies in my book that will get you started. I know it will cost you some money. Who wants to spend more money? Luckily, I have a solution for you, if you own Final Cut Pro Studio 3. Sell your copy of FCPS on eBay and you’ll have plenty of money to upgrade your graphics card and RAM. There still is a high demand for the old Final Cut Pro from folks who refuse or can’t upgrade, so take advantage of current demand and sell yours now if you have it. I saw mine on sitting pretty on my shelf a week or so ago and sold it on eBay for $750 in less than an hour.

In addition you should check read these links and get your head around how this software works:

• Apple Support’s Final Cut Pro X: Troubleshooting basics
• Silverado Systems Preparing for Final Cut Pro X

Now if you are a Mac user and you start up the 40D Shutter Count you will see a disclaimer that it does not work with 5D. Well, actually it does work but does not have all the features it does on other cameras. The software will give you a reliable count, but if you fire your Canon while it is hooked up the count will not increase. So you may be thinking that the number is not reliable. All you need to do is power cycle your 5D and restart the program and you will get the new count.

On Windows you have to do the same thing. The shot above shows a side by side comparison for the Windows and Mac software screen shots. You may be saying that the software should work better than this, but heck, it is free and who cares anyway if you have to power cycle your 5D. BTW did you donate? Once you download and use the software you can donate to AstroJargon like I did here. Buy the guy lunch, it’s the least you can do. I guarantee he spent a lot of time on this software.

Now that you know your shutter count you may be asking, “What is a high shutter count for Canon 5D Mark II?” The Canon factory rates the shutter life to 150,000 actuations, although 250K is a very realistic expectancy, and in some cases way beyond. The factory rep I spoke with suggested that you just keep using the camera until it doesn’t work and get all the clicks out of it you can. He did recommend having a backup if you are using it for paid work.

Time lapse shooters like myself need to weigh the cost of burning through thousands of shutter clicks. Canon tells me that the cost for a shutter replacement is approximately $400. My Monument Valley video utilized over 20,000 time lapse clicks, a large portion of my overall count. So the cost for that video was $40 assuming the shutter needs replaced at 200K.

You can read about my technique for using Adobe Lightroom to produce time lapses in the Monument Valley video here. Now as to a solution to the extreme shutter usage due to time lapse I will save for a future blog post. Now I have to get back to work…

My first meeting with CincyFCPUG I asked guys about video problems etc. and no one mentioned that my graphics card could be the problem. They suggested a RAID, trashing preferences, etc., but nothing about graphics card.

I became suspicious because I figured a top end Mac Pro should run FCP with no problems, so I called the Apple pro support and talked to a FCP expert. He told me about the problem with my card and suggested the switch to the 1 Gig ATI Radeon. He also said that $1900 card they were offering at the time wouldn’t be that much better than the $450 card. (He also at the time said the Apple wasn’t abandoning FCP but would be coming out with X but he didn’t have the time frame.)

I bought the ATI Radeon HD 5870, and it made all the difference with 7, and I also now with X. For FCPX you need an OpenCL compatible graphics card from this list endorsed by Apple.  Here is the card I bought:

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC743ZM/A?fnode=MTY1NDA5OQ

One caveat I am running 2 monitors, Dell 30″ and Apple 30″ which both have Dual-Link DVI connectors. The 5870 has 1 DVI connector and 2 mini connectors, so I had to buy this:

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB571Z/A?fnode=MTY1NDA5OQ (that is what the Apple tech support guy said)

Now that might not be necessary if your 2nd monitor is smaller than 30″, you might get away with this

http://store.apple.com/us/product/M9321G/B?fnode=MTY1NDA5OQ

Larry Jordan’s recent newsletter mentions these issues, and it is worth a read. You should also check out the official Apple FCPX Troubleshooting Basics. Some cards are flat out incompatible with FCPX because they are not OpenCL compatible. In addition to better graphics Macs spool off other operations to the ATI Radeon cards and the net result is a faster computer.

Broadcast veteran Phil Boyer was experiencing the same kind of problems with his Mac Pro and Final Cut Pro X, so he decided to upgrade. He produced a before and after video that illustrates some of the difference. While not a scientific test it does illustrate the difference. I think Phil’s experience in this report from him is even more indicative:

FINAL CUT itself as a program opens 2 1/2 times faster.  Changing PROJECTS below the STORYLINE took 5″ on the video pre-new card, and now takes 2 seconds. Repositioning pictures in MOTION was a snap with the one I had to do today.

All I can say about it was that Final Cut Pro was unusable before I got the ATI Radeon 5870.

Don told me about a club he was playing at in Cincinnati that has a good light show and environment suitable for filming. Jag’s Steak & Seafood in West Chester has great food and when Don is there, great music. With the short notice I had I called my friends to see if I could get some help, but everyone was booked. I didn’t want to pass on the opportunity as you can see by this video it is a blast. So I packed up my gear and decided to see if I could get some footage that I could use.

Adjusting Audio in Final Cut Pro X

When I got up there the band set up in a hurry and the sound man had a few issues with feedback which he finally straightened out. I took feed out of his board then used three effects in FCPX to enhance the dry sound, Limiter, Compressor, and PlatinumVerb (in that order). By clicking on the little slider icons FCPX brings up the control panels. I like doing all of this in FCPX and not having to make the sacred “round trip” pilgrimage to SoundTrack Pro. Believe me, a few adjustments in FCPX can work miracles in audio.

My primary camera was the 5D. I knew I would have to move around to be able to tell the story, and without additional cameramen I would either have to cancel the engagement or find alternatives. So for 2nd and 3rd cameras I used my iPhone 4 and a Flip camera on tripods. The Flip (now defunct as a commercial enterprise) is not that great in low light, nor is my iPhone 4 (time to upgrade!). Plus they both only shoot in 720p. However, the quality of the shots from those two cameras beats by a long margin what I still see some commercial videographers using. I have seen commercial firms still shooting live events with standard def equipment.

When I put the 5D footage into Final Cut Pro X multicam with the Flip and iPhone footage, FCPX automatically resizes the 5D footage to match. As I said in a previous post, you MUST make use of the ANGLE meta data field to be able to properly synchronize clips in FCPX multicam. As I said before, think of the camera ANGLE meta field as a TRACK in old school parlance. Be careful how you spell too, I had FCPX separate ANGLES because of capitalization issues, I found FCPX to be case sensitive.

Make a backup of your multicam clip

A couple of additional caveats when doing multicam in FCPX. I like creating keywords that group your clips by camera ANGLE, that way you can find them easily. Also I make a smart keyword collection that automatically adds all multicam clips upon creation. If you don’t, when you make the multicam clip it sometimes can be hard to find it in the event browser.

I found in this case that the auto sync based on audio got the clips close, but I needed to do some tweaking using the comma and period keys to get individual shots lined up in the Angle Viewer. Remember, any changes you make in color balance, audio, transform, scaling, etc. in any clip within the multicam clip automatically flows through to any project using that multicam clip. So once you have the basic sync edited you may want to use the File–>Duplicate Clip (⌘-D) command on your multicam clip to save it as a backup.

Taking advantage of this opportunity to film these great musicians, even with limited resources, created something of value. The use of iPhone and Flip footage illustrate that it is the STORY that is most important, NOT the equipment you use.

This video documents a great night and tells the story so much better than words or audio recordings. I always learn from every project, and I try to make the next one better than the last. Now when I go back with a crew to film this great band I will be that much better prepared.

Kessler Crane Pocket Jib, K-pod, 5D, Ikan Monitor, photo by Jim Fausz

My first experience with multicam was last summer when I did a music video in Utah. The procedure I used to produce that video is antiquated compared to the new multicam editing tools in FCPX 10.0.3. A couple of weeks ago I shot the Kentucky Symphony Valentine Gala at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center and used the new multicam to produce a video of the event.

Originally I thought about doing a how-to video for you, but there are already plenty out there. I recommend first the introductions offered by Larry Jordan and Ripple Training. In addition to their course offerings (Ripple’s is most comprehensive) here are some free intros:

• Larry Jordan FCPX 10.0.3 Part 2 at LAFCPUG
• MacBreak Studio Multicam Editing: Sync
• MacBreak Studio Multicam Editing: Edit
• MacBreak Studio Multicam Editing: Trim

Phil Boyer on the FS100, photo by Jim Fausz

However, there are a couple of tricks to getting this right that you should know about. To illustrate I will use this job I did for the KSO. We set up 5 cameras for the event with 2 operators. Broadcast veteran Phil Boyer was on Camera A, the FS100. We had a Panasonic TM-900 on sticks off camera right, and we had 2 GoPros right in the middle of the orchestra. One was the new Hero2 and the other the older model. You can tell by the footage that the new Hero 2 is much better in low light.

I ran my 5DM2 on the Kessler Crane Pocket Jib balanced on the very substantial K-pod. There really isn’t anything “Pocket” about this massive piece of equipment, except you can carry it in it’s very nice carrying case. The K-pod has its own case, and will handle 500 pounds of equipment. Show me another tripod that compact, that well built, and one which will handle a 500 lb. capacity and I’ll eat my hat.

Now I hear on Twitter lots of talk about the new cameras and so forth, but in my opinion you need stabilization before you need expensive cameras. As you can see in the photo above I found that operating the jib with the tripod handle, keeping my eye on the Ikan external monitor is the only way for a one man operation to keep the video framed correctly at all times.

GoPro Hero2

Here is what you do to make sure everything syncs right with FCPX multicam:

• Don’t worry about different cameras & formats, FCPX can handle it all
• Get decent audio on every camera
• Get a good sound track for an audio bed (we used sound off the sound board)
• Once imported, name every shot ANGLE in FCPX. (Camera A, 5D, GoPro, whatever)
• I found camera ANGLE names are case sensitive
• You will need a fast drive, preferably RAID, the more cameras you use

The Panasonic and FS100 each ran for the entire half of the event (we had an intermission). But the GoPros stopped and started once on one half, and I had a lot of clips for the 5D. I stopped and started the 5D on every tune. I was wondering how to get it all synced up. Turns out it is easy in FCPX. The angle is a meta tag which you might think of as a track. I took all the 5D clips and set the ANGLE to “5D”. I called the FS100 ANGLE “FS100″, audio track “Audio Only”, etc. Then when I made the multicam clip I ended up with 6 ANGLES (think tracks), one for each camera and one audio. All the 5D clips were separated by gaps and were synced perfectly.

I used the audio for synchronization and it worked without any markers or jumping through hoops. Each half of the concert ran 55 minutes. For just one half of the concert I had 5 hours of audio/visual data and 1 hour of audio only. It took FCPX less than 2 minutes on my Mac Pro to sync up 6 hours of footage into a multicam clip. Of course you may have many more camera angles if you choose, up to 64. Does this still sound like FCPX is targeting the home video iMovie crowd?

I won’t go into all the editing techniques, you can learn it yourself with the resources I gave you, but I will share with you one tune out of the concert. Thanks to Phil Boyer for his excellent camera work that made this video possible and to Jim Fausz of Photographic Imaging Consultants for the BTS.

So I have prepared this video so that if it happens to you, you will know how to recover. It can be stressful. You can’t get your project done and you start worrying about losing the project entirely. What you need to do to fix it is move your active project and/or event out of the folders of your current projects and get them off line. You then can restart FCPX successfully. Afterwards you can move your project/event back and you will be back to work.

To make things easier I use and recommend the $4.99 Event Manager X. If you don’t have it you really need to get it. What are you waiting for? Get here from IntelligentAssistance.com. This video tutorial shows you how to use it to recover from a freezing crash with Final Cut Pro X.

One note regarding the video: you can actually use Event Manager to move your events and projects without stopping FCPX. In the video I quit FCPX before restarting with Event Manager. I did that for training purposes. If FCPX freezes then you have to force quit and Event Manager can’t do its magic unless FCPX quits. Once everything is working right you can rely on Event Manager to quit FCPX, move events and projects, and restart FCPX.

BTW I got FCPX to actually crash for the video, so it was a live recording of an actual event. In a future post I’ll let you know just how I got it to crash so you can avoid it yourself.