Today’s Video by Joe Farace
Because of the Holiday, Film Friday is on a Monday this week.
In a previous Film Friday video I talked about the growing popularity of medium format film cameras and asked a question that went unanswered—Is the Hasselblad XPan a Medium Format Camera? Today’s video answers that question first thing and then goes on to offer some inexpensive cameras for shooting panoramic images. And it’s in color too!
Some of the products mentioned in the video:
- Amateur Photographer article abut Panoramic cameras
- Holga 120 Panoramic Camera
- Lomography HydroChrome Sutton’s Panoramic Belair Camera (liquid lens)
- Holga Wide 120WPC Pinhole camera
Some notes about the video: I am often asked how I shoot these videos, so here’s how:
As I’ve mentioned here before, I’m a one man band. Unlike the Cars & Coffee videos made with Cliff Lawson, I am responsible for everything on these Film Friday videos from set-up, to shooting and finally editing and posting on my YouTube channel. The camera I’ve been using for these videos is the Canon EOS M6 Mark II with EF-M 15-45mm f/3.5-6.3 IS STM kit lens set at 45mm (72mm equivalent) instead of the wide-angle focal lengths used by so many photo vloggers. Based on my most recent experiences with this particular camera this might be changing. I like the idea of shooting with an APS-C sized sensor but as you will see, focus can be a challenge for the Canon EOS M6 Mark II. Part II of this series of two videos about Panoramic Cameras was also shot with this camera but next time, I’m going to use a Panasonic Lumix G9 to, you know, see what happens.
I’m not a video expert and today’s footage was shot in the camera’s default video mode; I just push the red button. The microphone is an inexpensive ($39) and corded Deity V.Lav Lavalier Lapel Microphone that has a 15-foot long cord. Like my previous Film Friday videos, most of the lighting was provided by daylight coming through two large windows in the living room but this time I added a NEO 2 LED Camera Light for supplemental lighting. Because of stray light from a large window in the front of the house I used a Westcott Scrim Jim as a gobo (“goes between optics”) to block this light from creating flare on the camera lens. The footage is edited with a seven year-old copy of iMovie and then uploaded to YouTube.
Why was it shot in color: when some previous Film Friday videos were in black and white? I shot it in color because this video had my Christmas tree in the background. The intro footage was from my last video about Medium Format cameras and was converted to monochrome using iMovie’s black and white filter. If this color video gets more likes, views and picks up a few new YouTube subscribers, I may shoot all future videos in color; if not, it’s back to black and white.
What’s Next?: The next video will be Part II and will look at some specific and somewhat expensive panoramic cameras. After that I don’t know but am open to suggestions. Click CONTACT and tell me what you would like to see or if you have questions about film photography, it can be a Q&A video, instead of a blog post.
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