Archive for August, 2009

After just receiving the the optics upgrade for my Sgblade and installing it, I’ve noticed a couple of things.

The Good
I haven’t really tested it that much yet but the upgraded optics are supposed to greatly reduce chromatic aberation and improve edge to edge sharpness. Especially with cameras like the sony EX1/3 and panasonic hvx200. I did notice a bit of CA with my XHA1 on extremely contrasty shots with the old optics. It didn’t really bother me but the edge to edge was quite off putting, hence the purchase. I’ll have to do some test shots to see if these two areas are greatly improved.

The Bad
As with everything in life, there are always major tradeoffs. With the new optics I’ve noticed I no longer have the ability to zoom my camera all the way into the groundglass whilst maintaining sharp focus. This is especially useful for quick composition changes. With the new optics, I can only zoom in to about 83 before it goes out of focus. Massively disappointing for me. I zoomed all the way into the GG alot with the old optics and found it to be incredibly useful. Sure the more you zoom in the larger the grain appears but for footage meant to goto DVD or the web, the images came out fine.
This is especially bothersome for me, so much so in fact that I’ll probably go back to the old optics for run and gun type situations such as weddings and other live events.

In short it may have been another purchase decision I wish I hadn’t gone ahead with. Sure if I had an Ex1 and the CA problems were major then it would have been a good decision but with a XHA1, the problems weren’t that bad to begin with.

Here’s a review of the Fader ND. Its a variable ND filter that you can put on your photo/video lenses so you can control the amount of light that passes through.

In short, it’s awesome. Instead of carrying around a bunch of nd filters, you just carry one. I bought it to use on my m42 lenses for my Sgblade. Instead of relying on my camera’s (Xh-a1) 2 ND filters, iris, shutter speed settings to get a good exposure, I can just wack the Fader ND on the front of the lens and dial in the perfect exposure. It provides between 2 to 8 stops of filtering which is plenty. It has markings on the front spinning element thingy to tell you where you are at but its a bit off and the best way to use this thing is to just watch your monitor while you dial your exposure in.

A couple of negatives I’ve noticed with the Fader is that when you are at maximum ND stopping power and you point the lens at the sun, there appears to be a dark cross like artifact that appears. The other thing is it screws up my lens flares quite badly and makes them look quite artificial. Apart from those two things which I’d hardly ever encounter, it gets 2 thumbs up. The alternative is a Singh variable ND filter which is over 3 times the price. Sure its probably better made but image quality wise, I’m very happy with the Fader and can’t see how much better the Singh could possibly be.

I’ve heard that putting a ND filter on the front of the lens instead of relying on your camera’s nd filters provides a better image. If it’s true, then thats another bonus to using it and from some testing I’ve done, I think I can see the difference. Another bonus is that you can make your own lightning effects in camera. Check it out..

I bought my Fader ND off of