I found a second passion. All my life I am dedicated to photography. First analog and since 2008 I switched to digital imaging. In the early 80th I tried Super 8 filming but I was not happy with the quality of the result. After one year trying around I decided to quit filming.
In 2000 when my daughters have been born I bought a Panasonic Camcorder to record their first steps on tape. Nice but still the quality has been lower amateur quality, just good enough for a Sunday afternoon with the grand parents. Later on I made some simple videos with GSM and Smart Phone at the same standard.
In 2019 I found my home back in a Fujifilm X-PRO2. I produced pictures straight out of the camera with the stunning Fujifilm Emulations and a very high standard. I was looking forward to many global business travels to shoot exotic street photographies. And than happened Covid. From one day to an other our live changed. Lock Down in private and business live. Instead of international traveling to see customers into the eyes and negotiate projects did we learn to communicate and generate business via Skype, Teams, Zoom and other communication tools.
Due to the fact that I saved a lot of time not being able to travel international based on cooperate policy for Corona prevention and that we launched at Mitsubishi Electric a brand new Collaborative Robot named MELFA ASSISTA, I decided to try to produce a series of promotional videos by my self. I invested some money into a budget friendly studio lightning with three soft boxes and backgrounds.
My first Video of the MELFA ASSISTA I produces with my Fujifilm X-PRO2 and the Zeiss Touit 32mm f1.8. Very fast I found out that AF is useless in filming due to focus hunting and loosing track on a fast moving robot. Also the automatic exposure compensation is tempting to change the setting and creates uneven exposures but the worst has been the automatic white balance. I like to film close enough to have the extra movie effect of being close to the action. The moving robot, illuminated with the three soft boxes from the top and from the sides, has been reflecting the light and even ended in changing the white balance.
My learning overall has been: Use all manual setting to producing professional videos, aperture, exposure time, ISO, focus and white balance.
After while I switched over to the Firefly series of 7Artisans to produce ma robot videos for Mitsubishi Electric. Those lenses provided highest IQ paired with a wide opening f0.95 which allows smooth bokeh and wonderful DOF effects during filming.
Two month ago I told my friends at 7Artisans that I plan to produce a series of videos of a new product called LTS. LTS stands for Linear Transport System a solution of autonomous driving passive monorail smart carriages to provide goods from and to discrete production stations supporting the “Batch of One” Concept. If you want to learn more about this technology please do not hesitate and contact me at any time.
Telling about these plans for the video production to 7Artisans made them to offer me to purchase the not yet released 7Artisans Vision Series 25mm – 35mm and 50mm T1.05 lenses. This new series of cine lenses are based on the improved optics of the already fabulous Firefly Series of 7Artisans. Even wide open at T1.05 the image is sharp with a small DOF. As soon the lens is at T2 and higher is is sharp like the folded blade of a samurai sword. CA (Chromatic Aberrations) are wide open low and from T2 and above fully gone. What makes them so much unique and to some of the best lenses I ever had in my hands, and believe me in my 40+ years being photographer I used a lot of lenses from many different premium brands, is the mechanics. So smooth and precise I never have seen the movement of focus and aperature ring on a lens. The bearing are made for generations. The finish of the full metal housing is premium. The polished metal lens mount is fitting soft but very robust. The lot of improvements to the Firefly series are reflected for example in the minimal focus breath. No other 7Artisans lens has got such a low focus breathing.
Important is low focus breathing when you decide to use a follow focus system during filming. The new 7Artisans Vision Series lenses are inviting to use such a system. Before investing hundreds of € in such gear I decided to try first a budget amateur version of a Rig. After a short reading of some reviews I decided for a complete shoulder Rig from Neewer. This included a cage, camera mounting plate, hand grips, shoulder pad with counter weight, variable cine lens hood and a manual follow focus being compatible with the standardized focus and aperture tooth wheels of the cine lenses.
What shall I say, even with this budget Rig setup of Neewer, it is possible and a lot of fun to produce professional videos. Please have a close look to the added two videos I produced about the LTS with the 7Artisans Vision lenses on my Fujifilm X-PRO3, the Neewer Rig, and soft boxes. For cutting the video I am using Final Cut Pro on my M1 MacBook Pro.
To close the loop to my first statement of this article, I am no longer “just” a photographer but my passion for producing industrial videos has been started. As you for sure have seen in my other articles on this blog, also for stills the new 7Artisans Vision lenses are stunning. A bit heavy but if you shoot at low light out of hand the weight support to hold even at low shutter speeds. Over all these lenses are a must for all professional photographers that also produce from time to time videos for their customers.
