Final Religion shoot with EX1 and Extreme

This was the last fiming day of the five part Channel 5 series. Today we were with a lovely Catholic family in Lincolnshire, the Gillicks. They were so friendly, like all the families we have met on this series and despite never having done TV before were natural and warm on camera and not nervous at all.

I shot most of it using my EX1 and Letus Extreme combo, with NO LIGHTS, just available from dull winter outside light and indoor tungsten light bulbs. I had to use 3db of gain most of the time, but the place was so small there was no way I could put lights up. It looks great, just been ingesting it all.

I had to do some filming on the f350 as I had to go into another room and it was really dark, to get the Letus off the EX1 would have taken so long, so just got the F350 out. 6db of gain, a bit noisy but it looks fine.

The final stuff I did I shot with the EX1 clean as it was a lot of “run and gun” stuff and I am not comfortable with the ex1 and 35mm adaptor handheld just yet, too cumbersome. I need some sort of shoulder bracket.

I will post stills tomorrow for you to see and of course all five finished pieces on my website.

14 comments

  1. Phil, what sort of crew do you find necessary with the EX? The consensus among the HVX200 owner/operators seems to be that a full time dedicated P2 data wrangler is essential. I am starting a world traveling TV series in February and I am interested to use the EX, however I do not think the producers wish to budget an additional position for this. Any thoughts on this based on your experiences?

  2. Hi Phil, Your work is great and this has been a very helpful site/forum for prospective letus and ex buyers, thanks you! Can I ask if you have noticed any trouble with the vibration of the letus, I have heard it can be harsh enough to affect focus. Also, Have you been using a mattebox with the letus (If so what kind)?

    Thanks again,
    Rick

  3. Hi Brian, My crew is almost always just me.

    I have 3 16gb cards and 2 8gb cards. Which equates to four hours of footage without offloading. Should be enough for most people. With the HVX, you only get 8 minutes per 8gb and 16 minutes per 16gb card so yes, it’s very fiddly and you need someone else. With the EX1 you don’t.

    I have a DVmultirig I think. I bought it for my z1. It’s pretty good but I want something I can use more quickly. One that doesn’t require a belt and pole and that lets me take it on and off the tripod constantly.

    Rick: Not had any vibration problems with the Letus at all!

  4. Hey Philip. What you might be interested in checking out is the Spider Brace 2 (http://www.spiderbrace.com/). I recently bought the mini version and am quite pleased with it. It would require a LANC controller though, as both hands are used to stabilise the camera.

    In the footage you posted of the prodestant family, how much colour grading do you do? I noticed at some points there was a very soft focus on the edge of frame, I’m assuming you did this in post?

    Cheers,
    Jacob.

  5. Your video on the Catholic family was beautiful and filled with emotion, and the reality of what faith encounters. I loved it, and I thank you for it.
    Peace and Blessings,

    Danny Hidalgo

  6. You may want to check out some of the products made by Zacuto. They even have some setups for the letus extreme. I haven’t used their stuff, but have heard very good things.

  7. Hi Philip I’ve seen your beautiful images due to a post on CML by Mako kowai.. Very beautiful images with the sony and letus setup.
    I own a Redrock setup myself and had to modify the rod support system to make it stronger. I found a German company called PE DENZ that make bridge plates and rods for film cameras and bought a set of 440mm long carbon 15mm rods and they are very strong.
    As the EX1 is a 1/2″ cmos camera and all these adaptors were initially made for 1/3″ cameras i supposed that they would vignette on the EX-1 b ut your images make me want to test the camera with my RR setup.
    Have a great christmas.
    cheers
    Pedro emauz
    Lisboa PT

  8. Philp,
    I bought Letus ex after I saw your Picadilly stuff.HVX 200 and Zeiss zfs(all the primes)
    Bought it from Zacuto with their balanced handheld package.It works well but Heavy though.
    My son is lugging it all over in India and complaining a little bit now,
    I reall like your work.
    bye,
    Babu

  9. Well Philip. All I can do is just repeat what has already been said. Well done indeed! Your work and sevice to the industry is enormous. Keep up all the creative work.
    I have a set of 6 x7 Pentax Takumar still camera lenses that are pretty ‘slow’ -( mainly t4 except for the 105mm and 150mm which are t2.8).- I have had them adapted to PL mount and have used them extensively on film cameras,… film being my background. My question is; how would they work on the Letus & Ex1 ? I have a 35, 55, 75, 105, and 150mm…I realise they would be a touch heavy and on the long side, focal length-wise. To get any ‘wide-angle’ look, could I then go to a film-style 16mm Optex 4mm or one of the other 5.5mm wide angles?
    What set of lenses are you using on your set-up and what did you shoot the wider-angle footage of Piccadilly roundabout on you “3days” beauty????
    Keep up the gr8 work.
    Cheers, tai

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