The Ronnie Day Project on mtvU - Episode 2: Written At A Rest Stop

The Ronnie Day Project - Episode 2: "Written At A Rest Stop"

Production Blog by Joshua Caldwell
We shot all of these videos on HD using the Panasonic HVX-200 camera and the Red Rock Micro Lens Adapter. For those of you who aren�t familiar with the Red Rock Micro, it allows the use of cine/photo lenses with a video camera. One of the telling points of the �video look� is an extremely wide depth of field where everything is in focus. This is a result of the size of the image chip in the camera and the lens attached to it. In recent years, a lot of attention has been placed on achieving a �film look� out of a video camera. Advances in 24p technology (that is, shooting 24 frames per second) has helped, however, even using the best HD cameras result in an unwanted wide depth of field.

Enter the Red Rock Micro. I�m sure you�re asking, �Why do you need an adapter? Can�t you just stick a lens on the camera?� There�s a lot of technical information here; in a nutshell, no, you can�t. A 35mm still/cine lens is designed to project an image onto a 35mm frame. The image chips in video cameras are much smaller than that, usually 1/3 inch or 2/3 inch. If you were to just attach a 35mm lens there would be severe magnification of the image resulting in a loss of picture quality and resolution.

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