Studio Guest: Dick Kaneshiro!
Halfland is a good long distance from Dick's place but he squeezed in a day to come all the way out to help me, in between freelance pro gigs. And I have to admit here and now, He was RIGHT! The Lunchbox Sync is a fabulous solution with the Panasonic FZ50 which has no live feed frame grabbing features.
After we measured the tracking distance and timed the pacing, he tried a few passes for speed to get the best incremental measurements. Using the Lunchbox that day, I really got the hang of its controls and saw how well it worked. The best thing about it is that once the camera is connected, you've got all the frame grabber functionality needed, right through the camera's position.
Unfortunately, as soon as I started actually using it for the shoot a few days later, my camera's port failed and I had to scramble for other means of previewing. What Eliya and I came up with doesn't come from the camera and so doesn't show precise angles while shooting, regrettably. But I still would feel worlds better returning the Lunchbox, the monitor, and the CRT cart back to Dick ASAP. He's been so gracious about it, but I am so rough on stuff, I will feel much less stress to get it back to his pad safe and sound.
Thank you, dear friend.
Oh! And note too the incredible smooth mover Dick designed for all us garage animators! Fabulous!
ReplyDeleteyeah, great work!
ReplyDeleteGee
Always wanted a sync, never got one. Had the original 256-frame number, though. That one, I unintentionally beat out a stop-mo studio head for by accidentally bidding $5,000 instead of $500. Final bid was $250, felt kind of guilty. About two years later, the PC-based framegrabbers came out, and the LB256 sold. But it was CoOoOol to have the real deal after a decade of wanting one. Very neat experience. The maker of the LB's was gracious with answering questions about the Sync, which was an optional upgrade. I think there's a digital version too, now. Those stand-alone grabbers can't be beat if you want to break free from the chains of a computer.
ReplyDeleteYeah! The sync and a monitor and wheeled cart. A sweet set up for sure! Worked like a charm. I have too little floor space around a too large room-sized set to really make the best use of such great gear, unfortunately.
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