Monthly Archives: March 2017

Fujinon MK 18-55: the Tesla of documentary filmmaking?

Fujinon HK 18-55

Fujinon HK 18-55

The Fujinon MK 18-55 is the first legit cinema lens that this documentary shooter has a prayer of owning. But $3,700 is still a lot of money. Is it worth it? To find out, I was among the very first people to rent one.

MK 18-55 vs Canon EFS 17-55

Fujinon MK 18-55 vs Canon EFS 17-55 with Metabones adapter.

First off, it’s much more compact and lightweight than the photos I’ve seen imply. By way of comparison, my go-to lens on the Sony FS5 has until now been the EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM Lens with T Smart Adapter Mark IV. Check out the photo on the right: this extraordinary lens from Fujinon is about the same weight, and only slightly longer.

The Fujinon MK 18-55 is also sharper than my Canon 17-55. But not dramatically sharper – I had to blow the image up 200 percent to perceive the difference. See below.

What about barrel distortion? The difference is slight, but the Canon EFS 17-55, which has plenty of barrel distortion on the wide end, fares better than the Fujinon MK 18-55. I do wish that the MK didn’t bend vertical lines (i.e., walls) the way it does shooting on the 18mm end.  And there’s really no way to correct that in post, like you can automatically do when shooting with the Canon on a C100 with lens profile correction enabled, for example.

Warmer and sharper

Compared to Canon EFS 17-55, this lens is warmer, sharper, and a little wider. See for yourself:

Fujinon MK 18-55 at 18mm

Fujinon MK 18-55 at 18mm (Sony FS5, Cinegama 1)

Canon EFS 17-55 at 17mm

Canon EFS 17-55 at 17mm (Sony FS5, Cinegama 1)

In the frame above, the Fujinon 18-55 reveals itself to be significantly warmer glass than the Canon.

To see the difference in sharpness, you need to zoom in to 200 percent:

Fujinon 18-55 @200 percent

Fujinon 18-55 @200 percent (uncorrected)

Canon EFS 17-55mm

Canon EFS 17-55mm @200 percent (uncorrected)

Smooth operator

This lens makes me want to pull focus all day. I was really impressed by how easy it is to get extremely precise pulls. The heft of the rotating elements, all three of which are geared, is just right for hitting repeatable, consistent marks. It would be a joy to use this lens with a wireless focus puller.

As a rule, I don’t use zooming as shooting technique. But after rocking this lens, I’m beginning to wonder: why not? With the Fujinon MK 18-55, it’s hard not to feel like I’ve just added a new word to your vocabulary.  “Parfocal.” Mmmmmm. Sexy.

While it is still quicker to digitally punch in to check focus, with this lens it’s possible to crash zoom in, grab focus, and back out to your shot. Where that’s truly useful for a documentary shooter is when you’re rolling on something, and want to cut in-camera. Instead of having to refocus every time you zoom in or out, now you just keep rolling and watch your keeper count go up, up, up.

Look Ma, No Breathing!

This is the first lens I’ve ever used that doesn’t show any noticeable breathing. Know what I’m talking about? Narrative-style focus pulls, coming soon to a documentary screen near you. To see how lovely this is, here’s a short clip comparing the Fujinon MK 18-55 to the heavy breathing Canon EFS 17-55:

BUT: There’s NO IS

As you probably noticed in that clip above, you have to be really careful when pulling focus not to jar the camera. With no IS, any shaking or vibration translates directly into your shot. Small amounts of this can be removed in post, but for many situations, such as shooting handheld, there’s no substitute for IS. For example, I was working on a doc a couple weeks ago where I found myself shooting on a bridge, with lots of car vibration. For those situations, this will not be your lens. Let me repeat that. If you want to handhold this lens, forget about it. If you’re going from shooting an IS lens to this, you are going to notice your footage has one hell of a case of the jitters.

But for precision situations where you’re going on sicks, or any other controlled motion situation, you will most definitely want this to be your lens.

Mind the gap

You have to pay attention to the focus gears when pairing this lens with a focus puller. The Fujinon MK 18-55 appears on first glance to have a very wide gear width in which to seat the focus puller, but actually, it isn’t that wide – the geared area slopes down toward the front, causing your gears to not mesh correctly if mounted too far forward. Be sure to place your gears behind the red line:

focus gear inset

Correctly mounted focus puller, above. It’s easy to mistakenly mount focus puller too far forward.

Best lens support: Shape

This lens is long enough that you really should use a lens support. It’s not absolutely essential, but for vibration-free focus pulls, I found I needed it.

Shape lens support

Shape lens support pairs perfectly with MK 18-55

I tested the lens with two supports, Zacuto 1/4 20″ Lens Support and Shape Lens Support. The winner, hands down, for documentary shooting was the Shape support. Not only is it far more affordable than the Zacuto, but it also allows faster lens changes.

The Shape lens support simply cradles the lens perfectly. The Zacuto requires screwing in a locking support rod, and that will slow down your lens changes. Speaking of that, this lens will really come into its own when it’s sister, the MK 50-135, is released this summer. That will give you a range that will cover most documentary situations with just two lenses. So you’ll be able to spend more time shooting and less time swapping glass.

It’s worth noting that the Fujinon MK 18-55 does not have a 1/4 20″ support mount hole. It’s mount screw is smaller:

mount point

The Fujinon MK 18-55 does not have a 1/4 20″ mounting point, so if you want to attach a support you’ll have to use the adapters that ship with the lens (but not with the rental).

Lensrentals.com did not include the adapter in their package, so be sure to specify that you want the adapter if you plan on supporting this lens with a screw-in support.

Mattebox Mate

Using still lenses with a matte box is a pain in the ass because every lens diameter is different. But the MK 18-55 is designed to mate seamlessly with a matte box in seconds.

How easy is it to swap the lens in and out with a matte box? I tried it out with my Genus Production Matte Box, and I was delighted to discover that the GPMB default lens fitting pairs perfectly with the Fujinon HK 18-88. The box simply sides over the front element of the lens, and screws tight to mate. Like so:

Genus Production Mattebox

Genus Production Mattebox pairs perfectly with Fujinon MK 18-55.

85mm-clamp-on-fit

The Genus Production Mattebox’s default 85mm clamp is perfect to mount it securely to the lens.

I found the best way to use the Production Matte Box was to remove the rail block mount altogether, and simply clamp the matte box to the lens. It’s overall lighter that way, and the Fujinon MK 18-55 lens is designed to accommodate the weight of a matte box without damaging the lens in any way. Contrast that will many still lenses, like my Zeiss CZ 50mm f/1.7, which fell apart under the weight of my Genus Matte Box Lite, forcing me to use them only with rail-mounted boxes.

How to adjust the backfocus

The focus can change depending on the temperature and humidity with this precision lens, so it’s important to set back focus on the Fujinon MK 18-55 correctly before a big shoot. Here’s how it’s done.

First, grab a tape measure and focus chart, if you have one. Otherwise just focus on something with fine detail.

  1. Set up on sticks, and measure 10 feet to your subject.
  2. Set iris wide open at 2.9.
  3. Zoom to 55mm. Focus.
  4. Zoom to 18mm. Release backfocus screw, and rotate it (not the focus barrel) until you get sharpest image.
  5. Repeat 3-4 until your lens is perfectly focused at both 55 and 18mm.
  6. Lock the backfocus screw.

Another neat trick this lens does is maintain the same light level throughout the entire zoom range. When I zoom from wide to tight on my Canon EFS 17-55, it gets noticeably darker on the long end. But not the Fujinon – it’s precisely the same brightness at both ends of the zoom.

“Demanding.” That’s a word I’d use to describe this lens. It’s not forgiving like IS glass. But once you go there…

“Tesla.” That’s another word that wasn’t in my vocabulary until a few years ago. I don’t own one (yet). But I imagine owning this lens could make me feel a lot like someone who does.

Travel lighting: 2-person interviews with Kino Flo Celebs

I just returned from a week on the road, shooting 2-person, 2-camera interviews for a documentary film that we hope will shine a light on an unsolved murder. Although I can’t talk about the content yet, I can talk about our lighting package. I chose Kino Flo Celebs, and I have some insights to share about these industry workhorses.

Kino Flo Celeb 401 kit

Kino Flo Celeb 401 kit

Kino Flo 201 Celeb kit

Kino Flo Celeb 201 kit

For this documentary production, we needed to light both the interviewer and the interviewee. So the job required something a little bigger than my usual kit. The shoot location was in a major US city that I would be flying to. And with extra baggage fees, it became clear that it would be more cost effective to rent locally than it would be to travel with my own lights.

Kino Flo Celebs rental package

Rent it or pack it?

On American Airlines, your first piece of checked luggage is $25. The second is $35. Each additional bag jumps to $125 each. I already needed two checked bags for my camera and tripod. Therefore, to bring my own lighting kit would have required two additional checked bags, totaling $600 round trip. With fees like that, it makes more sense to rent locally – and skip the hassle of traveling with all those cases.

Here’s what I specified in our package, which came to $942 for a 5-day rental:

  • 2 Kino Flo 201 Celebs
  • 1 Kino Flo 401 Celeb
  • 4 c-stands (2 for 201s, 1 for my Dedo DLED 7 which I packed, and 1 for sound guy)
  • 1 combo stand (for 401, which requires a Junior receiver)
  • 1 25′ stinger (with power strip for distribution)
  • 4 15lb sand bags (for c-stands)
  • 1 25lb sand bag (for combo stand)
  • 6 A-clamps
  • 2 furniture pads (for blocking light if needed)

To drive all this around, we rented a Yukon SUV.  It was big enough to fit our 4-person filmmaking team and the entire lighting package and camera gear in the back.  Note that we also hired local sound recordists, who drove their own vehicles. We also had a local PA for a couple of shoot days, but we traveled light enough to not require a PA.

What I packed:

Why Celebs rock

When you’re both the gaffer and the DP, you really don’t have the time or the mental bandwidth to fuck with the lighting for very long. You have to put your camera hat on pretty quickly. I chose the Celebs because they offer controlled, soft light right out of the case. A light that requires setting cutters or flags or diffusing isn’t going to cut it. I need a light that I can set and forget.

The Kino Flo Celeb is perfect for these situations. Not only are Celebs soft without additional diffusion, they also include a honeycomb grid that focuses the soft light and aims it just where you want it. It’s hard to overstate how well this honeycomb works. One of the best things about the Celeb is its ability to minimize light spill.

To set up a Celeb,  you just pull it out of its case, yolk-mount it on a c-stand (in the case of the 201s) or on a junior stand (in the case of the 401). The 401 really does need the Junior stand – it weighs 26 pounds. That’s a lot of light.

Celebs are built like a tank. They are designed to withstand the wear and tear of day-in, day-out production. A set of convenient metal handles allows you to easily lift the lights in and out of their road cases. The only cord you have to hook up is the power cord – the ballast is built into the back of the unit. And as color-selectable LED sources, the lights can be dialed from 2700K – 6500K. You can also dim them to about 2 percent, invaluable when you want just a hint of fill.

The lighting setups

The basic setup for our 2-person, 2-camera interviews was to place the 401 as fill for both subjects on the camera side. Then we placed the 201s on the opposite side to key each person individually. We could then adjust the fill level down to get the dark, brooding vibe the director wanted, while still holding enough detail to reveal expressions.

kino-flo-celebs-basic-setup

Basic 2-person, 2-camera interview lighting setup

The above setup worked great in conference rooms without windows. But we also often shot in rooms that had a daylight window on one or more sides. In those cases, sometimes I would use the window as fill, and the 401 as key for both subjects, with a 201 to wrap the light a little further around onto the fill side of their face if needed.

Daylight window lighting setup

Daylight window lighting setup

Sometimes we filmed a 2-shot with one of the cameras, placing the 401 as fill by raising it above the 2-shot camera. This setup required placing both 201s on c-stand arms and raising them until their stands are out of the shot:

2-shot interview lighting setup

2-shot interview lighting setup (note both 201 lights are raised on arms to avoid seeing their stands in background of 2-shot camera)

In one case, we had to light three people: two interview subjects sitting next to each other,  with the interviewer opposite them:

3-person lighting setup

3-person interview lighting setup (note 401 is raised and on c-stand arm to keep it out of both camera shots, which requires counterweighting the arm. Dicey!)

Sketchy to boom

We had to shoot the above 3-person setup at night. So I chose to use the 401 as key for the 2 subjects so they could be lit evenly. However, to keep the stands out of frame, I had to boom the light out over the camera and aim it down on the subjects at a 45. I was able to make this work by clamping the yolk in a c-stand grip head, and placing a 25’lb bag on the other end of the arm as a counterweight. But this was a pretty shaky setup, and I probably should have used a 201 for each of the subjects and the 401 for the interviewer. This is where having something like a LiteGear LiteMat2L (which weighs just 3 pounds) would have been really nice.

Nitpicks

The Celebs are not bright enough to match open window light in the background of a shot. You’d need HMIs for that. But they are bright enough to match windows that are controlled with shears, curtains or blinds. And on overcast days when you have foliage in the background of a window (which reduces the light level a couple of stops) the Celebs can match it. If the sun comes out, though, you’re cooked.

I also wish the locking power cord, which is only about 8′ long, was at least twice that length, the way Arri lights are. Because manufacturers really should include a usable length of cord with their units.

Kino Flo Celebs are clearly built to withstand the rigors of daily use in production. However, I feel they are actually overbuilt. Why couldn’t these lights be both lighter weight and durable? Competitors like Aladdin and LiteGear are making lights that are almost the same size but weigh a tiny fraction of these beasts. So I look forward to reviewing some of the lighter Celeb alternatives soon.

Lesson’s learned

  • Pack a small light stand. Many rental houses don’t have them, and standard C-stands don’t let you place small backlights like the Dedo DLED7 as low as you may want to.
  • A Baby Pin is a much better way to mount 201 Celebs to a C-stand. This allows you to mount them on the grip-head end of the stand’s gobo arm, and angle the light more precisely.
  • For really soft light, or room ambience, bounce the 401 into a wall or ceiling (or foam core, but we didn’t have any of that with us).
  • 1 stinger with power strip wasn’t always enough. I should have asked for 2 25′ stingers in my G&L package.

Bottom Line

With the Kino Flo Celebs and a small crew, I was able to handle a wide variety of documentary lighting challenges. The honeycomb grids allowed me to effortlessly control light spill by simply angling the light, rather than placing flags or cutters (which require more stands).  Due to it’s design, you’ll never see a single LED. Celebs produce a light that is soft enough to require no further diffusion, and they pack up very quickly. That allowed us to schedule more shoots in a day. Because of this all-in-one design, I noticed that it took more time to break down our c-stands than it did to break down and pack up our lights.

It’s no wonder NAB awarded Kino Flo Celebs “best new light” in 2014.

As for that unsolved murder? It’s a long-standing mystery, one that our team believes deserves a new hearing in the court of public opinion. So stay tuned.