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(Page 2 of 2 pages for this article < 1 2) Filed under: Cameras •Production •Tips • Tiffen Goes Into Production on T1 Far Red FilterIf you own an EX1, EX3 or F35 then this is the filter you’ve been waiting for
Here’s my homemade far red/infrared fabric chart:
Read this article to learn how I developed it. (This test chart was shot with a Sony EX3 at Videofax.) As you can see, the left two columns of fabrics reflect a lot of far red, while the third column doesn’t. The Macbeth chart is present to show whether there are any obvious color shifts when using the T1 filter. Here’s the same chart with the T1 filter added:
No more far red. How big a deal is far red on the EX1 and EX3 cameras? The answer is “really big”: I shot this test chart under tungsten light, period. No special camera settings, no neutral density filters. This is just the way it is. The F35 shows a lot less far red contamination but it’s still there—and the T1 filter cleans it up nicely. My market has no F35’s currently available for testing, but as the original T1 worked fine on the F35 and this filter appears to be a perfect color match (I compared it to the original T1 that I still have in my possession) I have no qualms recommending it for the Sony F35 and the Panavision Genesis. The black patch at the top of column two looks like it might still have some red in it, so I zoomed into the image in Final Cut Pro 7 and took a look. The top image is without the T1 filter, and the bottom image is with the T1 filter:
It looks like quite a difference, but eyes can be fooled. Let’s look at the corresponding vectorscope images, with some magnification applied:
The top vectorscope shows a definite skew towards red without the T1 filter. The bottom vectorscope shows that the T1 filter has restored black to perfect black. The T1 filter is green, which requires white balancing when the filter is first attached, and there appears to be no issue with it skewing colors unfavorably. The left column shows a DSC chart shot with no filtration, and the right column shows a DSC chart shot through the T1 filter:
If you can see a difference then I’ll be forced to ask how strong a microscope you’re using. It’s a near perfect 99.99% match. When I first wrote about the filter I referred to it as “T1” as that’s what it was labeled. I found out later that stood for “Test 1,” but the name stuck. Pre-order it from your local Tiffen dealer. Production will begin October 1st, and it may take four weeks before all sizes are available. Standard sizes will include 72mm, 77mm, 82mm, 138mm, 4x4, 4x5.6 and 6.6x6x6. Other sizes will be available as a special order.
Tiffen let me keep the prototypes I’ve tested, and I’ve lent them out to friends to use on their EX1 and EX3 shoots. They’ve become quite desperate on the few occasions when I can’t get them a filter in time. I suspect Tiffen will be selling quite a lot of these. If you own or use Sony F35, EX1 or EX3 cameras, this filter is not an option: it’s a requirement. Art Adams is a DP who is well red. His web site is at http://www.artadams.net.
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NAB 2012: Assorted SnapshotsA few cool things I saw at the show that didn’t fit into any other articles.
NAB is too big a show in too short a time to see more than a fraction of it. I’ve covered a few things in some depth (as have other PVC folks), but there’s plenty more that slips by without proper coverage. Here, I have a few photos… |
Sony quietly announces the NX30 camcorder, a little sister to the NX70With an 1/2.88" sensor and 26mm wide angle (35mm eqv), the NX30 should ship in June for well under US$2500.
Although during the past year I’ve written quite a bit about the Sony NX70 (officially, the HXR-NX70) here in ProVideo Coalition magazine, I haven’t… |
NAB 2012: Cameras & LensesA brief sampling of interesting photographic tools at NAB.
I’ve already covered the basics of what Sony and Panasonic announced, as well as looking at Canon’s… |
NAB Sunday: Panasonic and Sony Press ConferencesWhat the two big camera companies taked about officially.
When big companies hold press conferences, they’re a mix of marketing / sales encomiums from happy customers, and some actual useful information about technologies and products. I’ll mostly focus on the tech stuff that Panasonic and Sony… |
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