Cinoflex Rig for Canon C500 PL
One of the latest 4K motion picture cameras that has been added to the Bertone Visuals Rental Department is the Canon C500 PL.
We did not limit to offer to our clients just a camera body, indeed we put together a complete camera package that is a real working solution to shoot movies because it has all the features that a first AC and a Camera Operator need on set.
The C500 shape out of the box recall a medium format photography camera body and although it has an internal battery that is not designed to distribute power to accessories and neither to last long. Also its viewfinder is placed in a central position (like other Japanese camcorder Sony FS-100 and Sony FS-700) which might not be the best ergonomics choice if the operator needs to shoot also hand-held style. In order to solve this basic configuration problem we added to our camera rig one of the best Electronic Viewfinder the Alphatron 3G EVF, which uses a HDsdi cable rather than a HDMI cable. The only downside of this EVF is that is extremely delicate when it comes to direct exposure of the screen to sunlight (it burns out!), so it is important that the camera operator remembers to cover eye piece when he does not use it.
The EVF is not the only monitoring-out that a production crew needs to operate a motion picture camera. Therefore, we also included in the C500 PL rig a SmallHD AC7 monitor with its light sun-hood. The 7" SmallHD AC7 monitor is used by the 1st AC to pull focus and it can be adjusted for a comfortable angle of view because is mounted on a UltraLight Arm.
At this point we have a power need for the EVF and for the SmallHD AC7, but probably many other accessories will also need to be safely powered from a common power distribution source. For our camera package we thought about popular accessories such as a Cinetape (radio based meter), a Remote Follow Focus Preston G4 FI+Z and last but not least a Codex S Onboard Recorder for the 4K Canon Raw.
The Codex S Onboard Recorder is usually essential for a Canon C500 PL package because without it, the recording would not be in 4K resolution, but just 2K compressed on CF cards. The 512GB Codex S capturedrives are designed to capture uncompressed 4K Canon Raw up to 60fps, whereas for higher HFR (High Frame Rate) values ( from 61fps to 120fps) the recorded raw file switches to half of its vertical resolution.
Roughly counted, all those accessories come to #5 devices and a camera body to be powered.
The Bertone Visuals solution to solve all of the power distribution issues and others is actually the red coloured Cinoflex rig.
Indeed, the Cinoflex rig not only provides a lot of useful “holes" to the Key Grip and to screw-in mechanically many accessories, but mainly it has an Anton Bauer Gold Mount that allows to use one or two Anton Bauer batteries (with an additional fin shaped plate) and plenty of power and HDsdi video connectors to neatly connect all of the aforementioned accessories.
Basically, the whole concept reminds me of how Panavision accessorized its film cameras in the past or more recently the CineAlta Sony F55.
Finally, our C500/Cinoflex rig has a Vocas mount/bracket on the back which provides a physical support to the Onboard Codex S recorder, a set of adjustable Shape WLB handles in the front of the rig and a Letus MCS leather pillow underneath the main plate to allow to comfortably shoot hand-held style.
Hence, when you use the Bertone Visuals C500 PL rig, you have a really complete 4K Motion Picture Camera that can be used, at the same time, either in Studio configuration or in “hand-held" mode without the need to use any tool (wrenches/screwdrivers) to switch between the two options.
The kind of approach that we used for the C500 is not different from the philosophy that we previously used to “transform" the prosumer camcorder Sony FS-700 into a movie-making-machine (you can see a couple of pictures of that rig in previous posts on this blog).
Hope all of this could help to make Producers understand that camera accessories are as important as the quality of the camera to get the job done.
I think that another conclusion that can be drawn on this subject matter is that certain camera rental prices published on the web are not really meaning too much since the camera body by itself is not all you need to shoot!
Cinematographer Shane Hurlbut ASC, designed his own C500 Powered Studio Raiser / Rig for Need For Speed, which is the first Studio movie shot with Canon C500 PL/EF. His exact rig might not be on the market yet, but it is much more compact than the Cinoflex that I explained above, but it is exclusively available for rent at Revolution Cinema Rentals in San Fernando, CA.
In my opinion both of these rigs have their pro and cons. Actually, they both work well overall, so in the end it comes really to the personal taste of the DP and his first AC to decide which one of the two rigs is better for their production.
Bertone Visuals was involved in the camera tests during the pre-production of the movie Need For Speed (Dreamworks) and provided to Director Scott Waugh and his DP Shane Hurlbut ASC , the Dardo DIT Cart for Data Management, technicians, a DIT, Leica Summilux-C Lenses, Cooke S4i Primes, Arri Alexa Plus 120fps, Codex M, and finally the Sony Cinealta F65 with mechanical rotary shutter.
It was an incredible experience, very challenging because there were 9 different cameras and most of them were dual recording, which means raw and compressed footage from most of the camera bodies at the same time and often recording in HFR mode. The biggest reward was to hear always the same comment from Local 600 professionals on set: “we never saw anything like the Dardo before."
The Bertone Visuals Dardo cart was delivering three different shuttle drives to Production at the end of each day of the test with an average of 250GB of data ingestion every 15 minutes for 10-12 hours a day. Also it was delivering a raw back-up on LTO-5 media supports the following day.
In the first quarter of 2013 the Dardo DIT Cart was the most demanded DIT cart in Hollywood. However, we had only one Dardo cart and we couldn’t be in more than one production at the time so clearly we yield the right of way to Need For Speed. More tk...
Happy week end to everyone!
