The Hat Guy Films

So after all this frustration I took to that old friend of everyone's, Google, to see how much it would cost for a repair.... Which I wasn't looking forward to after just shelling out a lot of money for a new computer... (more on that another time)

The first thing I found though was this page, explaining how Canon have a self-repair function for this sort of thing! So I followed the steps and guess what? IT WORKED!! Bye-bye stuck pixel!! (Touch wood)

They come in different sizes between 50mm and 85mm so should cover most lenses. Quick note if anyone decides they want one, the sizes they offer are not relative to the filter size usually found on the front of your lens. You’ll have to measure the diameter of your focusing (or zoom) ring with a calliper, either that or with a tape measure, some maths and a bit of Pi (not the yummy kind unfortunately).

So now, after all that build up comes the actual product. It comes in a plastic pack, with a ring, a short lever, a long lever and a bit of paper with a product description on it.

There’s no instructions, but to be honest it is pretty straight forward. You place the ring around the area of your lens you want to use it on, and squeeze the jaws into each other until the teeth lock in place and it stays nice and snug on your lens. If you’re going to be using your camera with any sort of stabilisation (tripods, rigs etc.) you’ll want to make sure that the range of movement of the ring doesn’t get restricted.

You then choose which lever you want to use, personally I decided to test out the long lever first as it seemed the most practical to use. 

There are two places you can fit the lever, there’s one hole where you can fit it facing forward or back and to be honest I see no point or use for that, it’s more in the way than anything. Or you can have it pointing directly out, which is kind of the point. It’s a little tricky to fit as the rubbery material doesn’t offer much grip and the hole is quite small and tight, but once it’s in place it’s nice and solid.

I tried just pulling focus on some random objects in my room and switching between different focus points and it was sooooooooo much easier than using the lens directly. As you have the lever to hold you are able to fine tune the focus a lot quicker and easier. Also the idea of “up is far and down is near” is a lot simpler to remember than trying to think which way that lense's ring needs to be turned. I found that when I was just using my camera quickly to try it out handheld, that I could control the lever with my pinky and still have the rest of my hand supporting the lens and controlling the zoom. If I had my camera on a set of sticks it would be just as easy to use my index finger to do the same thing so really how you use this thing is totally up to you and the size of your hands. (Also it’s quite fun to turn on the autofocus and watch the lever wave around as the lens adjusts)

Probably if you stuck some tape to the ring and found a mark on your lens body you could probably mark out focus points, but I think it’s easier to just remember which direction the lever is pointing as the ring is a little bit narrow.

Ones other thing is that you could fit the ring to your zoom and use it like that. But I think that’s a bit pointless unless you’re doing a lot of complicated zooms in one shot.

After I tested out the long lever I the thought it’d obviously be best to test the little one too. I doubt I’ll use it again the though, it was more trouble than anything. It was even my more awkward to fit than the previous one and the small size just didn’t seem worth the hassle. I think the only time I’d ever use this is if something like a matt box was in the way, but then again I’d probably have some sort of follow focus set up by then.

The worst thing was that when I went to remove the small lever, after realising I wouldn’t need it, was the fact that the instead of unscrewing from the ring as designed, the thread stayed in the ring and came out of the lever section instead. Because of the size of this threaded rod, it was now extremely difficult to remove it without damaging the threads. Thankfully it was removed eventually and I’m unlikely to use it again. I’ll stick with the bigger lever!!

I have always loved films and TV shows ever since I was little. I originally wanted to be an actor but after what I call my “Quarter-Life Crisis” I decided that being behind the lens was the best thing for me. Since I only made this transition recently I’m still finding my feet in this crazy world of film and so haven’t got all that many films under my belt.

I do however have plenty of ideas that are bubbling away in far too many pots, and hopefully before too long some of them will become reality.

I usually shoot my films with a DSLR (the Canon 550D to be precise) but I have used other cameras in the past and probably will again in the future. I enjoy shooting DSLR as it means I can be much more creative than when using a point and shoot camcorder but without having to spend large amounts of cash on expensive cinema grade cameras and kit.

I obviously have made some films already, and I’ll probably post links at some point or other, but they were all collaborative works and no original ideas of mine. I’m hoping though that when I (finally!) get my new computer I can start working on some original works and keep you updated with all of them.