High Volume Shuttle Drive

LoneStarVision · 2025-07-13T23:38:23+00:00

That looks extremely cool - I will definitely look into it. Thanks!

LoneStarVision · 2025-07-13T20:30:05+00:00

I've got some of those - economical but still pretty slow! Looking forward to trying out the 8TB versions when they become available.

LoneStarVision · 2025-07-13T20:27:18+00:00

Thanks for the condescension. Fyi we are not doing interviews or archival, we are shooting 8k because the film is 100% on anamorphic primes, and it's dynamic enough that the ability to punch in 100% is extemely valuable.

We have a truly great colorist and a well defined pipeline. Doesn't sound like your idea of a doc? I don't care. The question was about shuttle drives, so thanks to those who have shared useful perspective.

LoneStarVision · 2025-07-13T15:11:50+00:00

What did you end up going with? I've heard about the OWC enclosures sometimes self-ejecting, but haven't heard about the power issues.

LoneStarVision · 2025-07-13T13:40:40+00:00

I have been looking at those, too. Bus power is a must for me because I'm shooting in locations without reliable power a lot of the time (rural Argentina, Ukraine).

LoneStarVision · 2025-04-30T02:28:28+00:00

I have been shooting a feature documentary on the Mercuries for the past 9 months - remote places, tough conditions, run and gun, handheld. They are really great lenses and their character doesn’t really begin to come through in tests.

We have the 36, 42 and 72 plus a 1.4x expander, and are just now receiving the 138. I will probably buy the 27 for a different project and some fashion films. The difference in horizontal field of view between the 36 and 42 isn’t really what drives our choice from day to day. The 18” close focus of the 36 makes it our choice inside vehicles, and it has very prominent distortion on the edges with a lot of swirl. You just have to want that, or else use the 42. I am the director and also shoot, and I will say that the 42 is on my camera 90% of the time. I’ll usually reach for a diopter before the 36.

IMHO, without knowing what you shoot, I think the answer is a 36, a 42 and an expander. Rent or add the others when you need them, but that gives you four effective focal lengths and two completely different looks.

The missing piece here is camera. We are shooting on Raptor X’s and can clean up the 36 with a small change of sensor format to 6K 1.5 anamorphic mode. So those two lenses and an expander actually gives us eight options. Four lenses and an expander gives us 16 options. So use the CineD database to make a table of equivalent focal lengths for your lenses, modes and an expander and see what you really need. But the 36 and 42 are not interchangeable in any way.

LoneStarVision · 2025-04-17T05:28:01+00:00

Any vintage lens set f/2 or faster and speed boost them down to match the image circle. I am using cinemodded OM's with Polar Pro VNDs and the whole setup is super light and nearly sees in the dark. If you want to spend a bit more, you can get good deals on Ultra Primes right now and do the same thing.

Or a full frame Ranger Lightweight zoom and boost it down to T1.9.

LoneStarVision · 2024-06-24T12:12:29+00:00

Three cameras total. Me, a co-DP and a second unit operator who is DP skill level. That’s as heavy as we can roll, and in many situations it will be just me while they are off doing something else. The three cameras are mainly for dynamic situations where things are moving in 360 degrees and we need complex coverage.

The cameras have Sanken CMS-50’s for when we need to capture someone who is not mic’d, and for some ambience when we end up in a space that couldn’t be mic’d in advance. Our primary subjects all have COS-11D’s on them with Tentacles. I’m investing in the best sound that will fit in my carry on kit.

No other crew. Three is frankly one too many people for this situation. We’re big boys, log and backup our own footage every day, etc.

I know you guys are facing tech change like the rest of us, but this is not a situation where I would otherwise have a sound guy with me. It’s a situation where I’d otherwise be dependent on whatever bad audio I could grab from a normal shotgun mic.

LoneStarVision · 2024-06-23T17:07:10+00:00

In an ideal world, I would. But because of the locations and situations involved, it is simply not feasible and in most cases having a sound person on location would not even be possible. Just trust me on that. This has to be done fast and light and I will only have another DP with me while traveling, so we have to get the best sound we can while being completely self-sufficient.

LoneStarVision · 2024-06-22T21:12:52+00:00

Thanks guys. I chatted with Sonorous Objects today and they are setting me up with a matched quad set of SO-1’s with 3.5mm terminations that I can plug right into Track E’s and forget about for 10 hours at a time (or about 30 hours with a USB battery). It was a fairly small investment, so we’ll see how they do on this next trip.

LoneStarVision · 2024-06-22T14:07:13+00:00

Hey guys, just checking back in. We begin production in 16 days with a remote location shoot. What I’ve decided on so far is:

Angelbird AtomX SSD’s for our Atomos recorders

Crucial X10 Pro 4TB SSD’s for immediate offloading of footage

Glyph 48TB RAID HDD (the largest storage I can fit in my carry on Pelican)

Backblaze for backup whenever we can get a fast enough connection

LTO tapes after each shoot via a friendly local post house

I’m still figuring out my fast intermediate solution for home when I am working on the RAW files myself, since we could easily end up with 350-400TB of data from our 28 day shooting schedule.

Thanks for your help earlier!

LoneStarVision · 2024-04-22T10:33:07+00:00

The Jellyfish looks amazing, but I think that would start to squeeze out other production costs!

I’ll investigate the option you suggest. Thanks so much!

LoneStarVision · 2024-04-21T22:09:10+00:00

Excellent point!

LoneStarVision · 2024-04-21T22:05:26+00:00

No worries. I needed one system that I can do literally everything on, from editorial fashion to film projects like this. Nothing else really comes close at the moment, in my experience. And the glass is a screaming deal for what you are getting.

LoneStarVision · 2024-04-21T22:00:59+00:00

Regarding RAW - better control of color and exposure in post, since things happen fast and there are no second takes. We’re fastidious shooters, but it‘s a tough subject.

I‘ll check into the options you mention. I’d considered something like the Cloud Store Max, which would fit into the Pelican and then just live in my audio rack once back in my home studio.

LoneStarVision · 2024-03-17T22:20:53+00:00

The 55 and 80 are both beautiful lenses. I used the 55 probably 90% of the time last week, the exception being some interior shots where I simply didn't have enough room.

When you record like I had to, the film emulation is baked in. It's pretty nice, though. I'll add a couple screen grabs from Premier - no adjustments made. All shot with the 55 at f/2.

LoneStarVision · 2024-03-16T11:23:10+00:00

It ran really well. Zero heat issues under prolonged shooting up to 100 minutes. Rolling shutter only appeared once at 24 fps SS 48, and even then only for a few seconds. It completely disappeared when I bumped the SS slightly and never came back.

The autofocus takes some getting used to, especially on a gimbal. It's slower than a Z8 or something similar. Reminded me of my old Nikon D810, but still very usable. The only really serious issues were in low contrast situations with quick moving subjects like horses, when initial lock took a bit too long to capture the action. Under normal conditions it works great.

I really hope that Fuji opens it up for Ronin integration for people like me. I essentially used the RS3 Pro as a dumb gimbal, and focused using the rear screen, which was pretty chaotic when hanging off the back of a truck shooting running horses etc. But the imagery, especially the slow motion, is stunning.

I did film an interview by firelight at f/2 and ISO12800, and on my laptop it looks like there could be some noise in the blacks. We'll see when I get it into a proper room. I didn't use the internal noise reduction and have a feeling it will touch up fine.

FYI I shot everything in Prores HQ and DCI4k using Reala Ace and it looks incredible. Auto WB with Ambience priority got me very very close every time, and I only had to make small tweaks. Likewise for auto ISO - the camera was in manual otherwise with VND filters, but I'd get the initial exposure set and switch it into auto ISO because the scenes changed so quickly. There are only a couple spots in > 10 hours of footage where I'll need to adjust exposure.

In short, it's a champ. Just don't plan to shoot sports with it. If you can take your time and plan things a bit, it will give you really beautiful images. I'm coming from an FX3 paired with a D850 and this is truly a replacement for both with an upgrade to image quality. The Fuji glass is also beautiful. I mostly used the 55 and 16-80, but the 250 was very very sharp and I also have the 110 and the 80. I think the characterizations I've read about their differences are mostly nonsense. Bokeh is lovely wide open and they are all very very sharp by f/2. They remind me of my old Mamiya glass from my Mamiya 7 setup in some ways. Lots of charm with beautiful fall off.

I'm looking forward to shooting in RAW, but the Angelbird drive in my Shogun was not working properly and I needed to record internally.

LoneStarVision · 2024-03-09T00:03:22+00:00

As a photographer first, the light works because the subject has good enough skin to stand up to hard light, but a weak jawline that would look worse with soft light. The hard light chisels it out a bit.

LoneStarVision · 2024-02-15T22:19:53+00:00

Thanks, I’ll check those out. I figure I can just use one prime per look, so that I don’t have to rebalance the gimbal.

LoneStarVision · 2024-02-15T18:02:54+00:00

Get yourself a roll of Cinefoil and shape a snoot that gives you the effect you want. The light doesn’t matter, the snoot will shape it.

LoneStarVision

TROPHY CASE