I'm going to be taking you through my I guess Run and Gun filmmaking setup so that's
going to include my video rig and I'm gonna go through my lens kit and the filters that I use
firstly let's get into the main component of the rig which is the fujifilm XH2S I found
this camera to be a nice Middle Ground between an actual cinema camera and a hybrid camera setup but
I'm just really loving the look that is coming out of this camera I've read that a lot of people find
the image to be too sharp and it's really easy to soften images up in my last video the using
the Fujifilm as a cinema camera I pretty much didn't touch the softness or sharpness I left
it straight out of camera just so you can get an idea of what the footage looks like
now getting into the actual rig build I think I should say this I have the fujifilmax H2S but you
don't need to use this camera with this rig build you can just replace it with whatever camera you
have as long as you use a camera cage with your camera you'll be able to pretty much copy this
exact same build but yeah it's a small rib cage and it does add a good amount of weight to help
stabilize the footage and on top of the cage I have a nano rail so that I can mount my top handle
this is the same top handle that I pretty much use across all of my camera bodies I wouldn't say it's
the most ergonomic but it definitely gets the job done then attach the handle I have a small rake
monitor mount so I can attach my monitor cleanly without it being too tall as for my monitor this
has definitely been one of the best investments that I've made it's the Blackmagic 5 inch view
assist and not only is it a monitor it's also an external recorder and you can actually record
b-raw externally on the Fujifilm xh2s with this view assist however I haven't had good results
doing so I tried it when the camera first came out and they released the firmware update for
for the Fujifilm camera and the view assist but for some reason the footage just doesn't look
as good as it does out of recording internally I'm pretty sure I'm doing something wrong or I
need to download another update but so far I'm happy with just recording internally but back to
the actual monitor it does SDI in and out and HDMI in and out which is good when you're working with
mirrorless cameras like this you're probably going to be using HDMI but with Cinema cameras you're
gonna probably be using SDI so this Mario has been covered throughout pretty much every range
of cameras that I'm most likely going to be using now moving on to the bottom of the rig I do have
a small rig base plate and 15 millimeter rods and these are the rods that have the ability to screw
into which I'll get to in a second but I believe these are the four inch but I also have eight inch
and 12 inch it just depends on the lens that I'm using and attaches to the rod I have a small rig
follow Focus to help me pull focus when I'm solo shooting getting along to Optics I'll go through
the lenses later but I do use pretty much all the time with this camera a metabones speed booster
this is not an absolute necessity when it comes to this camera I do it because I find the type
of shooting that I like is shooting wide so to take full advantage of my lenses I use a
Speed Booster it is pretty pricey but there is a viltrox version which is way cheaper I haven't
used it but I'm assuming you get pretty close to the same image quality now getting onto how
I power everything the monitor the camera and potentially any other accessories that I have
I use a micro v-mount battery but what I want to get into is these two accessories that allow
me to pretty much freely move this battery without having to disassemble the whole rig
so the first one is this 15 millimeter Rod battery hinge and this is why you got to make sure that
you choose the 50 millimeter rods with the screw on because you basically screw on this battery
hinge into those rods and then after that all you need to do is get yourself a mini v-mount plate to
attach to the battery hinge then you can attach your v-mount and then freely move the v-mount
and this is useful for those situations where you need to have access to your monitor and normally
when I'm shooting I have this closed because everything I need when I'm shooting is on my
monitor and also on this xh2s little display at the top that pretty much lists your settings
for you another thing about the x62s is you can buy an additional cooling fan which I do have I
luckily haven't found myself in a situation where I need it but I do take it with me on every shoot
just for reassurance okay I think the last thing I need to touch on is cables so I power the actual
camera through USB out of the v-mount into USBC on the camera then I power the monitor through
DTaP and then lastly just the HDMI to the camera but this is pretty much my running gun setup that
I'm pretty happy with I also do want to mention that I released some f-log 2 conversion Luts for
the xh2s and any new camera that uses f-log 2 and I basically just went through and corrected some
of the issues that I found when using fujifilms flow 2 conversion such as this weird magenta ship
and also smoothing out the Highlight roll-off and skin tones and also included a tiny bit of a film
Matrix look enough to make the footage pop ever so slightly but not enough to actually be a full-on
film emulation so you can use it either as your base of a grade on top of another film emulation
or just use it as a Rec 709 conversion when you're going for a clean look now I've included two lets
an actual just straight Rec 709 conversion and another airlock seat conversion and the area log
C conversion Lut is useful if you're using other programs or other power grades that use a log c
as an input and this is especially useful right now because there isn't a color space transform
in DaVinci Resolve for f log 2. that's up in my store if you're struggling with using f-log 2.
now let's get into the lenses that I use and I do actually have two different sets of lenses I
don't plan on having both of them for long though I'm gonna be just keeping one set
so let's first get into the first set that I build which are these Carlos ice jaina or
yena lenses so my set includes uh 20 2.8 35 2.4 51.4 81.8 and 135 F 3.5 now if you're interested
in building a similar set it can get a little bit confusing because these were made in two
different mounts they were made in PB mount and m42 mount I do have the PB which might be newer
versions compared to the m42 if I recall correctly it does get really confusing especially since they
have Zeiss in the name but I don't think they're technically Zeiss but one thing that I do know a
lot about is just the characteristics of these lenses these are all sharp lenses they're not
clinically sharp like my other lenses that I'll get into they are still somewhat soft but you
know you still will resolve the full detail that you need but what I think makes these sets of
lenses really special is their 3D pop and for me it just comes down to the way they render space
so just the way that they separate your subject from the background is unlike other lenses that
I've used or unlike you know modern lenses that you're using and the bokeh is also pretty unique
especially with this 35 you get this really nice swirl on your corners but yeah just a background
separation is pretty crazy even if you're at a 5.6 you get so much separation with these lenses
my favorite of the set is definitely the 35 which is also I think the cheapest out
of all of these and the easiest to find I'd say the weak link of this set is definitely the 20
mil and I think you know it comes down to just it being a wide angle vintage lens it's just really
soft wide open but I have seen other people have really solid copies of this lens so I also think
there might be an issue with it or there might be some fungus so I'm gonna get it cleaned and
hopefully that'll solve the issue but I think you do have to be really lucky to get an amazing copy
of this lens now as you can tell these aren't just straight vintage lenses they have been
modded so they have been one EF converted the aperture has been declicked I've added a focus
gear and I've also added a front ring and front cap I got the focus gear the front ring and the
front cap from SIM mod which offer really great products when it comes to modding still lenses
I do have the PB mount version of these lenses and for some reason I haven't been able to find
a great EF conversion so I do have them all converted but the the mount is just very flimsy
and when it's mounted onto the camera it kind of leans over a bit not enough to actually I think
make a difference in the actual footage but it's just a weak point in this cinematic conversion so
hopefully someone will make a better pb2 EF Mount that I can replace these with I'm going to touch
on these lenses a little bit more but first let me actually introduce you to the other set that
I have and then I'll compare them with each other now these sets of lenses are referred to as the
Zeiss Classics I believe they were released in the early 2000s so they're a lot more I guess
modern compared to the genders that I'd say were produced in maybe the 80s or 70s these
are also the zf2 versions which basically means they have the aperture ring and were originally
Nikon f-mount now why do I have this set when I have these and the first reason was because I was
looking for more wide angle options so the first lens that I picked up which was actually actually
from the same person was this 50mm 2.8 and my plan was just to pick this one up and just try and
match it as best as I could with this older set but the person that I was buying this lens from
was selling the rest of these lenses with four of them being all cinemated by two close lenses
and the person was selling these for a ridiculous price I still can't believe I got these lenses for
that price it was pretty much a steal so I decided to pick them up if I like them I keep them and so
these or vice versa enough I were to characterize these lenses one they're sharp they're clinically
sharp which can be a good thing in some situations I mean I honestly think it all just comes down to
preference another thing that these lenses have a lot of is chromatic aberration which some people
don't like very much but when it comes to I mean I think just chromatic aberration in general
it helps with the 3D rendering of the image when there's that slight chromatic aberration on your
subject I think it just helps separate it but in some really really high contrast situations
especially this 35 F2 the chromatic vibration can be a lot and I wouldn't say it ruins your
image but if you don't like chromatic aberration I wouldn't look at these sets of lenses the bokeh
is also closer to that of a vintage lens compared to a modern lens I'd say in terms of bokeh both of
these sets have a lot to offer in terms of that but I do enjoy those of the jennas a little bit
more but long term I see myself taking on more narrative projects I'm lucky enough to be in a
situation where I can kind of just pick and choose the types of projects that I want to be a part of
and for narrative I don't think these ice Classics are necessarily of the best or the
most ideal so I'm gonna be getting rid of these pretty soon if any of you all are interested in
um to set uh hit me up they have all been you have converted two of these have been done so by myself
and then the rest were done by too close and I've also added these front rings and
center caps so yeah feel free to let me know if you're interested
last thing we're to cover are the ND filters that I use and for the longest time I use these Nissi
hard stop ND filters the only time I didn't use these were when I owned the Blackmagic Pockets
Escape Pro and had internal NDS and after selling that camera and moving on to all the other cameras
that I experimented with it was really hard not having internal ND filters but that was until
I picked up the Nissi variable true color vnd this is basically a variable ND that has little
to no color shift and little to no cross x pattern that normally you get when shooting on wide angle
lenses and after owning this I really haven't missed using internal NDS all that much it's
still not as convenient but it basically allows me the flexibility of variable ND on any camera that
I own but now Nissi actually sells What's called the Swift system so that includes this variable in
D which is one of five stops that includes a five stop ND filter then also a 1 4 black mist filter
but now what makes these filters unique is that you can actually just stack them together once
you scroll on the vnd it's easy to just stack each filter on top of one another and it seriously just
saves so much time if you need either diffusion or to cut down on some more light with the five
stop ND filter so essentially your one to five stop turns into a five to nine stop and
you really won't need any more ND than that now I've personally gotten used to adding diffusion
in post and Venture resolve but for those that don't have time for that or don't want to do the
post processing you have a filter that will Bloom the highlights and soften up skin tones and will
work easily with the rest of the vnd system Nissi did send this system over to me but even if they
didn't I'd still be using this ND system it's just the most convenient and it just makes sense when
you don't have internal NDS you can also use these filters independently with an included
adapter ring in case you end up not needing the ND filters but want to use your black mist well as my
filmmaking setup I'm sure it's going to change in the coming months but for now this is basically a
setup that is keeping me inspired so thank you all for watching and I'll see you in my next
videos which I'm really excited for you all to see what I've been working on so I'll see you then