Okay, let’s talk about follow focusing. This is a follow focus; it attaches to your camera typically by 15mm rods. It has an arm that comes out that affixes to your lens. So, when you turn the knob, you can adjust the focus. Nice and smooth. It works best for Cine lenses because Cine lenses have a longer barrel rotation and they have gears, so the two interface very well.

If you don’t have a Cine lens and you just have still lenses, there are options. One is a friction mount, or you can attach a variety of types of gears on the lens to allow for a gear interface. But, when operating a follow focus, you have a couple cool accessories: a crank, which pops into a universal opening in the focus knob. Allows for fast focus pulls! You have a whip, similar to a crank, in that you can get faster focus pulls, but if you’re not close to the camera, it a really great tool. Don’t use it all the time, but it is helpful in particular instances. So that’s follow focus! They’re super nice and, though you don’t always need them, they’re a good tool to have on hand.

The post Follow Focus appeared first on Spirit Juice Studios.

What’s the difference between a mirrorless camera and a DSLR? Here are four main differences between them. First off, viewfinder. In a DSLR, it’s an optical viewfinder, which is basically a small little window on the back of the camera. Mirrorless have an EVF, an electronic viewfinder, a mini-screen that lets you preview exactly what’s being shot. Super helpful.

Next up, lenses. Mirrorless cameras have a new lens mount. You could still adapt all previous lenses using an adapter. However, the new lenses built for mirrorless cameras are better optically and their autofocus is quieter.

Number three, autofocus. Autofocus in a mirrorless camera is just better. It’s faster and more accurate. Number four, sound. DSLRs are loud. You know when you took a shot. Mirrorless are quieter and could be set to be completely silent. In summary, you could still get great images out of both. A DSLR will give you better battery life so if you’re looking to save a little money and you don’t need all the latest features, a DSLR is a great camera to own. If you wanna be on the most current platform and have the best autofocus, then a mirrorless camera is the way to go.

The post Mirrorless and DSLR Cameras appeared first on Spirit Juice Studios.

Okay, so they just announced a brand new camera. And after watching like three or four different YouTubers talk about why it’s the best camera ever, I’ve convinced myself that I need to get it. I just have to. What camera is it? Well, I don’t know. This just happens to me like every three weeks. There’s a new camera that gets announced and I’m like, “Ooh, that’s pretty good.” And then I see a bunch of people talking about it and they’re saying why these two features are the best thing ever that haven’t existed before. And I’m like, “Oh yeah, no, I definitely need that now.” I don’t need it. I just have camera FOMO.

Challenge yourself to not feel like you gotta get caught up in the hype every time there’s a new camera announcement. Because there is always a new camera announcement and it’s like, “Oh I need that.” No, you don’t need that. You want it. I want it. But together, let’s not buy the latest and greatest, use what we have and we’re gonna focus our energy on what’s in front of the camera. Not about what’s within the camera.

The post Camera FOMO appeared first on Spirit Juice Studios.

I’m going to show you the best portrait lens that you probably never heard of: the Zeiss Otus 100mm. The Otus series for Zeiss is noteworthy because it’s one of only four lenses under the Otus umbrella. They have a 28mm, a 55mm, a 85mm, and the 100mm. After a single conversation with Zeiss, Otus relayed they wanted to make the best lenses possible, not concerned with a set, and to make them really slow.

So here, we have the 100mm for EF Mount (also available for Nikon), which lists for around $4,500. Not cheap, by any means. The barrel rotation is 315 degrees, and manual focus only. On paper, these factors make the lens easy to pass over, but when you use it and see the results, you’ll be pleasantly surprised!

The post Best Secret Portrait Lens appeared first on Spirit Juice Studios.

I want to talk about the six camera movements that you need to know in filmmaking.

First off, a dolly. A dolly shot is when the camera is physically moving towards a subject or away from the subject, not a zoom, but really moving forward and backwards. This is often achieved on a dolly or a slider. Second camera term is a boom shot. This is when the camera is physically moving up and down. This is often achieved on a jib or a crane. Number three, a truck shot. This is when the camera is actually moving left to right. This is often achieved on a slider or dolly. The fourth camera movement is often the most misused term, pan. True pan is when the camera is typically on a tripod and it’s moving left or right. Next up we have a tilt, also achieved most commonly on a tripod, but the camera is either looking down or looking up. And the sixth camera movement that you need to know is a roll. It’s when the camera physically turns and spins. There’s variety of ways you can achieve this. Most successfully it’s done with a gimbal.

Now all these shots can become way more dynamic when you mix two together.

The post Six Camera Movements appeared first on Spirit Juice Studios.

What’s the difference between the cinema lens and a stills lens? A cinema lens often has 300 degree rotation for a very smooth focus throw. There’s marks on there for repeatable focus, and there’s gears, which allows you to stick motors or follow focus, making operating the lens a whole lot easier. You have a de-clicked aperture, which allows you to change light to dark without seeing any jumps in exposure as you would in a stills lens. Oftentimes there are better optics in your cinema lens. And, my favorite thing about the cinema zooms is that they’re parfocal. What does parfocal mean? It means once you grab focus of your subject, you can change the focal length and the subject still stays in focus. Without autofocus!

A stills lens is often lighter, smaller, and usually cheaper to the comparable cinema lens. If you get a good one, it’s going to be weather-sealed, which means it could stay out in the elements and you don’t have to worry about it getting ruined. And, my favorite feature is autofocus.

Which one’s right for you? Well, the right tool for the right job. If you’re looking for the best optics in a robust housing, probably a cinema lens. If you’re looking for something small, lightweight, and autofocus, probably stills lens.

The post Cinema Lens or Stills Lens? appeared first on Spirit Juice Studios.

In our second post on ND filters, we discuss the different types of filters that are available, along with their respective pros and cons.

There are four types of ND filters. You have a variable ND, which is threaded on to the front of your lens. If you adjust it, the amount of light increases or decreases. Very good for making small adjustments; however, when you want to take it off, you have to unscrew it completely. The next kind is a solid ND. Whenever you want to change it, you have to pull this filter out and stick a new one in. To put it on your camera, you typically need a matte box, but the quality that comes out of these are very, very good. Next up is a lena-mounted ND filter. This goes between your lens and your camera, and oftentimes a variable ND that you can adjust. When you wanna take it off completely, you literally have to dismount your lens, take off the lens mount, and reapply. My favorite kind of ND is ND built into the camera. It allows you to go from no NDs to all your NDs with the click of a button.

The post Four Types of ND Filters appeared first on Spirit Juice Studios.

As we find ourselves in the midst of a global pandemic, with social distancing front and foremost, we at Spirit Juice began a series of live streams, and hope you are able to learn some of the ins and outs we learned along the way.

“We have four cameras: one, two, three, four. Our big wide is on slider, we have our medium, and then we have our side angle, and then we have our tight. We have our system running through the wall, but it works the same if you just run the cables. These are the four cameras coming out, so these are running into our mixer. So, just really quick, I know it seems like a lot of buttons, and to be perfectly honest, there’s a lot of buttons on here that we don’t use. So, each video mixer, as any mixer, you just need to switch stuff, so don’t think you need to buy something of this scale, but that you shouldn’t if you really like it. You can buy smaller mixers, as long as you can switch cameras, that’s the biggest thing. And from here, it’s running into our web presenter. That feed goes to some sort of box that converts it to go to a computer, and then you need a piece of software that can send it out to the web. So, if you can break it down and think of it piece by piece, hopefully it doesn’t feel overwhelming. It can feel very overwhelming the first time you start live streaming, but the more you do it, and you understand the software, and the hardware, and everything, the easier it can get. So, try not to feel overwhelmed and let that stop you. Just keep pushing through it, and you will get better, and better, the more you do it.”

The post How to Live Stream with Multiple Cameras appeared first on Spirit Juice Studios.

Do you need to live stream an event, but don’t have expensive gear to do so? Fear not – by using your very own phone, you can become a live streaming pro!

“You need three things: two are required, and a third is optional. First, you need the phone, obviously. It doesn’t matter what kinda brand it is, as long as it’s a smartphone that can download apps and has a halfway decent camera. Second thing is you need some sort of tripod. So could be anything from all-in-one-stop shop, where it’s like a stand with a phone holder, or you can get something that mounts to any tripod. Most people have an old tripod they could use. That’s more than fine, if not, you can buy a cheap one for about $20 on Amazon. So all in all, it should cost you very little. And then the third thing, which is optional but very helpful, would be some sort of audio. It could be anything from a wired lavalier microphone, to a little shotgun that would go, and there’s even a Bluetooth wireless lav that will work fantastic, but it’s about $150. But ideally, some additional audio, because the audio from your phone, the microphone, it’s okay, it’s just not the best, especially the farther away you get.

Okay, so now you have that, next thing you want to do is figure out placement. There’s two things you want to consider with placement: one is obviously the best view, but also lighting. Open your camera, and frame up your shot. This is where you get to be a cinematographer. Go to your video mode and, if you have a phone that has different lenses, start with the widest angle, because you want to be able to get everything in the shot, so that you really won’t be moving it. So once you kinda find the angle you want, then grab your tripod. What you want to do as well, is on your iPhone you have an app called Measure. Go ahead and open that up, and make sure that the phone is level.”

The post How to Live Stream Mass From Your Phone appeared first on Spirit Juice Studios.