Camera Technology

I’m not sure if anyone’s interested in learning about the technology behind Dead Men Hiking, but if so this post is for you! (Warning! This post may seem somewhat technical if you’re not familiar with shooting video on a DSLR)

I used a Pentax K-x dslr to shoot Dead Men Hiking. Lens-wise, I primarily used a Pentax 18-55mm lens for wide shots and a Yashica f:2 50mm prime lens for closer-up shots because of its super-shallow depth of field.

The advantages of the Pentax K-x for filmmaking were:

• 720p video at 24 frames per second (24fps is the standard framerate for movies–giving the movie a film, not television, look)
• APS-C sized sensor, which is close to the size of super-35mm film. What’s so special about that, you may ask?  Well, what this boils down to is that the Pentax K-x mimics the look of real film quite nicely in terms of dynamic range.
• Another advantage of the K-x is that it has in-camera optical image stabilization, which means that no matter what lens I’m using or whether I’m shooting stills or video, I always have stabilization. This is a big plus for me!

The disadvantages of the K-x are practically the same as those of any DSLR:

• serious rolling shutter/jello-cam problems because of the way CMOS sensors scan images
• moiré problems
• no audio inputs
• camera must be focused manually more often than not

-Jack-