EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED—Tim Dashwood's In
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REVIEW TIM DASHWOOD EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED EXPERIMENTS WITH THE JVC HZ-CA13U PL-MOUNT CINE LENS ADAPTER We have witnessed a revolution in digital cinematography over the past few years. Features once reserved for $100,000+ professional digital cameras have found their way into camcorders priced under JVC HZ-CA13U JVC $10,000. Most of the tools required for the long-sought-after “film look” (24p, HD recording, cine gamma and knee REVIEW: control) are now finally in the hands of the low-budget filmmaker. Unfor- tunately, as the overall size and price tag of digital camcorders shrinks, so does the physical CCD size. A typical HDV cam- corder might contain three 1/3-inch CCDs with an imaging area roughly just 6mm diagonal. The side effect of a small- Adjusting the backfocus er chip size with available lenses is an almost uncontrollably deep depth of field option for controlling DoF seems to be a more light or faster lenses will always be (DoF.) This “feature” of very small CCD cine lens adapter. required for interior scenes. Secondly, the camcorders excludes them from being From the home-built versions that sell grain is usually visible in the ground serious contenders for feature film or for a few hundred dollars to the very pro- glass/focus screen; therefore, most dramatic television work. fessionally engineered P+S Technik adapters employ a rotating or oscillating With the lenses and apertures that Mini35, these adapters all utilize system to scatter the grain pattern, are available, the best the exact same concept. An image requiring battery power and sometimes is projected by a cine lens or SLR creating audible noise. u STATS photo lens onto a focusing screen or Finally, the majority of the cine lens ground glass equivalent in size to 35mm adapters on the market require the use of FEATURES: or 16mm. The projected image is then “re- the camcorder’s lens in macro mode to The JVC HZ-CA13U optional photographed” with a relay lens connect- relay the image to the CCDs. Some sys- PL-mount lens adapter for the 1/3-inch bayonet mount ed to the 1/3-inch CCD camera. tems, like the Mini35, have their own pro- of the company's ProHD line These adapters are increasing in pop- prietary relay lens. Either way, this usually of HDV camcorders will be available at NAB this month. ularity with budget-minded filmmakers means very long lens assemblies. The adapter enables the use and music video cinematographers. of 16mm film prime lenses There are a few things to consider PURE OPTICAL SOLUTION The ground with a PL mount and retains the angle of view and depth when using a typical cine lens adapter. glass/focusing screen seems to be the com- of field characteristics of First of all, the ground glass/focus screens mon weak link in these systems. So what 16mm film. Loss of transmit- utilized in most systems have a light loss would happen if it were taken out of the tance is less than half a stop. averaging at least two stops. This means optical path? MSRP: $4,395 WEB SITE: http://pro.jvc.com 44 VIDEOGRAPHY / April 2007 WWW.VIDEOGRAPHY.COM The engineers at JVC have answered transmittance is less than half a stop.) This cameras have a built-in “image flip” option that question with the development and is a huge advantage over the ground glass- that allows upright image orientation release of the HZ-CA13U PL-mount cine based competition for shooting in low recording required by most lens adapters. lens adapter, which is designed to attach light. There is no added grain to worry As soon as I had the camera and adapter in directly to the 1/3-inch bayonet mount about and no extra power required. my hands, I contacted Clairmont Camera on the JVC ProHD line of HDV cam- I first crossed paths with this lens and arranged a test of their lenses with their corders. It is not dissimilar in design to adapter at NAB ’06. At that time, the Samuelson depth of field charts. With the the Angenieux/Zeiss CLA 35 HD cine lens product was still in development. I hon- help of my friend and fellow cinematogra- REVIEW: adapter. This new cine lens adapter has no estly must say that I didn’t have very high pher Brad Smith, I spent two days testing ground glass/focusing screen. Cine lenses expectations at that time, mostly because every prime lens I could get my hands on. attached to the industry-standard PL I didn’t understand how the concept Cooke S4s, Zeiss Ultra Primes and “Super HZ-CA13U JVC mount focus an aerial image on a “virtual could possibly work. Skip ahead to Speeds,” even Clairmont anamorphics— focal plane” at the standard 52mm flange Sundance 2007, where JVC had the pro- we tested them all. distance, maintaining the angle of view totype finished and on display at HD and CoC/DoF characteristics of 16mm House. I informally tested the prototype FIELD OF VIEW/ANGLE OF VIEW We film. Eleven optical elements in the on Main Street in Park City. The only PL found that the HZ-CA13U has an adapter then reduce the size of the aerial lens focal length available was 16mm, but equivalent angle of view of standard image to that of the 1/3-inch CCD. the quick results impressed me so much 16mm. The fact that JVC chose a 16mm The lack of a ground glass/focus screen that I volunteered to do a full array of frame size aerial image will come as a means that almost all of the light captured tests on the device. surprise to most because the trend by the cine lens is transmitted to the JVC also loaned me a GY-HD250 for tends to be 35mm for all of the other CCDs. (I’m told that the actual loss in the test. The GY-HD200 and GY-HD250 cine lens adapters. I was disappointed REVIEW JVC HZ-CA13U JVC REVIEW: 85mm Zeiss Ultra Prime mounted on the JVC HZ-CA13U and HD250 when I first read the spec; however, I CHROMATIC ABERRATION AND series did require a slightly different now realize that this is a calculated WHITE SHADING CA (chromatic aber- white shading adjustment, but they were move on JVC’s part. There is an abun- ration) is a big problem with 1/3-inch 3- consistent. The Cooke S4 lenses consis- dance of standard PL 16mm lenses CCD HD cameras. Absolute precision is tently had the “truest” color cast. available around the world. From film required in the optics to avoid CA. JVC schools to rental houses, it won’t be ProHD owners who use the “stock” 16x DEPTH OF FIELD CHARACTERISTICS hard to find a half-decent set of 16mm- lens know all too well about the We spent the most time testing depth of format primes somewhere in your part green/magenta fringing common with field of every focal length and aperture. of the world. Of course, any PL prime “entry-level” lenses. Depth of field is a subjective concept of or accessory (35mm or 16mm format) I expected to see some CA fringing, and what portions of an image are consid- will work with the adapter. I was surprised at how little actually ered to be acceptably “sharp.” My pri- showed up considering these lenses were mary goal was to determine if I could SHARPNESS AND VIGNETTING I test- never designed for use on a 3-CCD system. still use the data in the DoF charts in the ed sharpness on every available focal The Cooke S4 lenses fared the best, with American Cinematographer Manual with length from 9.5mm to 85mm, in both the Zeiss Ultra Primes coming in a close the HZ-CA13U. 16mm and 35mm format lenses. All of second. The Zeiss Super Speeds (35mm We tested angle of view, the primes in the 12mm to 85mm range and 16mm format) and Zeiss t/2.1 lenses transmittance, sharpness, showed exceptional edge-to-edge sharp- all performed almost as well. The wider S T chromatic aberration and ness, at least as good as the Fujinon lenses presented more CA near the edges, S depth of field characteris- 13x3.5 video zoom I used as the bench- but all of the longer focal lengths (16mm- E tics of primes on the mark. The 9.5mm Zeiss showed a slight 85mm) performed quite well. T adapter and compared the loss of sharpness in the corners, but noth- White shading (green/magenta cast at E results to a standard ing out of the ordinary. There was hardly top/bottom of image) is now very easy to H T 1/3-inch video zoom lens any visible vignetting on any of the lenses calibrate with the custom white balance and a Super 16 ARRI SR3. we tested. menu in the HD200 or HD250. Each lens 46 VIDEOGRAPHY / April 2007 WWW.VIDEOGRAPHY.COM REVIEW The Samuelson DoF charts rendered angle of view, longer focal lengths can be mounted to the HZ-CA13U. enough data for me to determine that the used, which results in a shorter depth of I used my custom-built 3D rig to CoC (0.0015mm) and DoF characteris- field at the same horizontal angle of view. shoot some side-by-side tests. As demon- tics of the aerial image seem to be equiv- Since most HD cameras capture a 1.78:1 strated in the photo, the length of the alent to 16mm format.