New lens! Canon 50mm f1.4 USM

When my nifty-fifty broke it exposed just how poor our 18-135mm lens is.

And, after stupidly watching the Canon 24-70mm f2.8 go extinct at 2/3 of the original price due to the release of the new one we had to make a compromise move because the new 24-70mm is way expensive.

Amazing bokeh and very sharp at f1.4

I looove looove this lens and it’s not fair to call it a compromise. It’s way better than the 50mm f1.8 and seeing as I almost always rent it out on gigs, having one fulltime has just opened up a lot of opportunities… my brain is ticking…

Here’s a side by-side comparison of the 50mm f1.4 and the 50mm f1.8.

‘The Cost’ 2nd pre-prod session wrapped up.

Thanks to this awesome team we’ve just had a successful pre-prod for my next short film – The Cost.

Tomorrow we’re doing a script  run-through with the actors. Amped up!

Testing Magic Lantern on my 7D

The few extra features Magic Lantern Alpha brings to the 7D transform this DSLR into a hybrid cinema video camera.

Some of my favourite features of this camera ‘hack’ are:

• Having a live Histogram and waveform
• Ability to select aspect ratio guides (cinematic wide anamorphic aspect ratio seen above)
• Focus peaking and zoom focus check, and of course
• Live audio meters

I’m working on a video to show some of these features and and why hacking your DSLR with ML is worth it…coming soon.

Make-shift studio

Since we're hosting a friend for 3 weeks I don't have the spare room as my studio.

So I brought the studio to the lounge. The setup & set-down effort is a bit much though.

Broken lens

Bad start to a shoot: I dropped my 7D and broke my nifty 50.

Camera got a dent but praise the Lord it still functions!

Covering a friend's wedding today

Taking photos @ Thabo's wedding & pushing the 5D mkIII to its boundaries (3200 ISO and beyond).

Errol Schwartz on 8ta adverts

It was very refreshing to  log on to Youtube today and be met with an advert featuring my friend Errol Schwartz.

Nice one Errol!

Sometimes it doesn't go according to plan

On Sunday we were scheduled to shoot a video with the HP Baxter media team and just as we finish setting up and are going through the script, security came to tell us we had 45min before we had to leave due to a show that was going to take place in the theatre...

The pain of setting this up for an hope them taking it down before using it.

Jason’s Jack Black party videos

Jason is turning 30 na dhe asked me to help him film some adverts for his Jack Black themed party since he kinda looks like Jack Black. Have a look at these hilarious vids:

It should probably be called the Nacho Libre party…

Magic Lantern on 7D

Footage of a working port of ML v2.3 runnig on a Canon 7D!

Noone thought it would be possible to hack a Canon with two  processors  like the 7D but finally it looks  like they have.

Magic Lantern pretty much transforms a DSLR by adding cinema camera features like zebras, focus peaking, vectorscope, manual audio controls, visible audio levels and piles more. If they succeed this could be the next best thing in the indie movie making world for a while!

Though I’m hyper excited I’m gonna wait until enough people have tested  the final version before I hack mine.