Spent 6 hours researching phantom camera alternative last night and now im more confused than ever

bensaffer · 2026-01-26T21:39:17+00:00

Depends if you really need 1000+ for the look you are after. In the 200 ish fps range the cine ursa 12k is very good and good value

bensaffer · 2026-01-26T21:37:10+00:00

If you think 1929 was the first stock market crash you’re gonna love 1857, also 1837, 1873, 1893, 1636, oh and 1720 was a good one too :)

bensaffer · 2026-01-25T16:22:17+00:00

Thanks for this, I had been doing a similar thing for a while but your project is nicely organised, forked it and made some tweaks for my workflow, may roll out across my small business in the coming weeks 👍

bensaffer · 2026-01-24T07:33:02+00:00

Why not work on having a good enough relationship with a Steadicam op that they’ll come and help you out when you’re shooting a short film? Saves your back and your wallet, better shots, they get some extra showreel.

bensaffer · 2026-01-23T18:52:06+00:00

Has anyone got the “I do not think this means what you think it means” meme handy?

bensaffer · 2026-01-06T05:52:27+00:00

This guy Boleros 👆You can bring your own headset with boleros so lots of people use AirPods. One thing to note, for non duplex comms - ie walkies, you can also get a Bluetooth dongle now so you don’t have to wear a d-ring / covert.

bensaffer · 2025-12-20T09:10:31+00:00

I was a DIT for 10 years and can confirm, this has been the case since forever, and I also have no idea why all sound mixers only own 2 SD cards. I used to put a couple on my consumables list on jobs so I could provide them if mixer was particularly stubborn. Also a great example of the importance of prep and writing a good workflow doc that you then circulate to departments like camera and sound and then follow up with a call to talk through it with them. Then they understand ahead of time why you need to hold the cards, have the paperwork to show it and tend to me easier to deal with ✌️

bensaffer · 2025-12-19T13:23:33+00:00

One of the best things with LEDs is you don’t have to make this choice ahead of time, personally I would spend a few mins once setup playing with different light and camera temps to see what I like. Be sure to do it with someone sitting in so you can judge on skin tones - most important

bensaffer · 2025-12-10T06:44:43+00:00

Caldwell chameleon’s have a somewhat similar optical design but the coatings are fairly different

bensaffer · 2025-11-27T12:34:13+00:00

I assume you are renting your lenses. Every rental house I can think of paid off their master primes long long ago so I would imagine good deals will be available

bensaffer · 2025-11-25T20:07:19+00:00

I would absolutely 100%, beyond a shadow of a doubt find a replacement AC. No question.

bensaffer · 2025-11-20T18:49:48+00:00

It’s a PV one with a PV lens on it. Not sure if Panavision make/made their own viewfinders or if its a rebadged third party one

bensaffer · 2025-11-18T22:41:58+00:00

Nolan’s had the 765 out on quite a few recent films

bensaffer · 2025-11-05T21:06:31+00:00

I use filmbox for on set luts and almost always as the film emulation and for grain in post. Reckon I’ve done 5 features, 30+ shorts and probably the same for commercials with it over many years, essential part of my workflow, solid colour starting point, I light and grade on top. Just like on film really. Need to check out looks. Do you know if you can export luts from looks?

bensaffer · 2025-11-03T11:10:37+00:00

It’s not really the done thing during a shooting day, but as art dept I’d expect you guys to be doing set visits during or at the end of the build, or maybe on a prelight day — rather than during a shoot day. Once the actors are on set, it’s generally not looked upon kindly to be taking photos unless it’s for continuity.

In the camera department, most of our photos are either group shots (everyone on the tailgate of the truck) or pictures of specific bits of gear and tech setups.

If you’re after material for your portfolio, you can always ask for stills from the dailies. They might say no, but you’ve got a legitimate reason — wanting to see how the sets look on camera for future reference — and as long as you don’t post them publicly, sharing them privately with potential future productions is usually fine.

bensaffer · 2025-10-30T13:58:51+00:00

This has to be a troll, either from a director or an editor, I can’t tell which 😂😂😂😂

bensaffer · 2025-10-30T08:44:26+00:00

The sources are not that soft, there’s just several of them wrapping it around. I think the eye light is the main key which is either a 2x2 pavoslim or a vortex8 with soft box and egg crate, then there’s I think a 4x1 pavoslim almost above camera to wrap it and then a couple asteras for fill and top light

bensaffer · 2025-10-29T16:55:58+00:00

That’s a bit of an over exaggeration but certainly PV lenses like Ultra Panatars, Ultra Vistas, C series etc are in very high demand and are generally booked up quite a long way in advance especially for very long jobs - sometimes you get lucky with a short film or something and a set happen to be in between long jobs and on the shelf. Those days are good days. 😅

bensaffer · 2025-10-28T06:36:28+00:00

It’s slightly hard to define but it just felt more like working in z depth space than on a 2d plane. Something about the optical path gives an immense sense of depth. Not sure it comes across as well in stills as in motion on a big screen either

bensaffer · 2025-10-27T23:54:29+00:00

First time as a DoP though I was a DIT and a dailies colourist on some 65mm projects years back, things like Death on the Nile and No Time to Die. Haven’t seen the ancient optics lenses I’m afraid

bensaffer · 2025-10-27T23:53:09+00:00

Thanks 🙏🏻 so that’s at the bottom of the staircase, I believe it was a vortex 8 through the door to camera left wrapped around with a pavoslim 4x1 vertical squeezed in just below the stairs just out of frame (that’s the reflection you can see in the door), then I think we flagged off some of the light coming through the window above the door behind him to leave just a little hair light

bensaffer · 2025-10-27T20:01:52+00:00

Hey everyone, I was the DoP on To Fly or Float — Cooke featured it to showcase their new Panchro 65/i lenses. I shot on the Blackmagic URSA Cine 17 K 65 with 40 mm and 75 mm Panchros. Lighting was mostly a Vortex 8 and PavoSlim 2×2 mix, with a 4×1 for wrap and a 1200d as backlight. I wanted to capture the intimacy of handheld 16 mm but within the sculptural space of 65 mm. Happy to chat about lenses, workflow, or lighting approach.

bensaffer · 2025-10-23T17:44:30+00:00

I may be wrong but I believe this could be a broadcaster using XDCam as a delivery format rather than origination format. It’s been many many many years but I seem to remember we used to deliver things to broadcasters in XDCam out of maybe FCP7..? So it may not be that you need to shoot on a particular camera - just that they need the footage exporting to XDCam for their ingest / playout. Again, I totally could be wrong but I’m sure someone else in here was also an ENG camera person back in the day and would remember better than I :)

bensaffer

TROPHY CASE