To show off the HD video shooting abilities of their Pentax K-7 digital SLR cameras, Pentax commissioned two production companies to knock out a couple of entertaining short films.
Shot entirely at night in Denver, Colorado, the all-action Uncle Jack movie was created by film-maker Jamin Winans and Futuristic Films and features a mad clown, a crazed woman, magic pills, gunshots and lots of driving (sounds a bit like a night out in Brixton to us).
The quality is excellent throughout, although with a vast arsenal of lenses at their disposal and some highly professional film shooting and editing techniques on show, we wonder if regular consumers may be a tad disappointed when they try and create their own movie on a rather more humble selection of lenses.
The lens used to shoot Uncle Jack were the smc PENTAX DA Star 16-50mm F2.8 ED AL (IF) SDM, the smc PENTAX DA 10-17mm F3.5-4.5 ED (IF) Fish-Eye and the smc PENTAX DA Star 60-250mm F4 ED (IF) SDM.
The second movie, The River, was made by All Terrain Studios, and “shares a typical day in the life of a snow bum who lives for his daily terrain park fix”.
Naturally, there’s lots of dramatic scenes of snowy Rocky Mountain landscapes, stunning blue skies and snowboarders catching wicked air (or whatever it is they do), and once again the skill of the film-makers shine through, using techniques that would be well beyond the capabilities of the average Pentax K-7 user.
At least the lens roll-call was a little more restrained, with the movie being being ‘primarily filmed’ (whatever that means) with the smc PENTAX DA 15mm F4 ED AL LIMITED, the smc PENTAX DA Star 55mm F1.4 SDM and the smc PENTAX DA Star 300mm F4 ED(IF) SDM lenses.
They’re great. But what’s the point?
Although we enjoy the technology-fix of seeing this new breed of video-recording dSLRs being pushed to the limit, we’re not entirely sure what the point of these movies is.
If you’re seriously interested in film making, you’d be far better off buying a dedicated movie camera, because to match the work seen here you’d have to spend an absolute fortune in extra lenses and still end up with a bulkier and more cumbersome outfit.
Anyway, see the movies for yourself here: http://www.youtube.com/pentaxian1 and if you’re suitably impressed, bag yourself an excellent Pentax K7 DSLR body
Pentax K-7 specs
Dimensions – 131 x 97 x 73 mm
Weight – 670 g
Optical sensor – CMOS
Resolution – 14.6 megapixels
Light sensitivity
ISO 100 to ISO 3200; ISO 6400
Focusing
11-point TTL phase-match AF with 9 cross-type sensors (SAFOX VIII)
Shutter speed – 30 to 1/8000 second
Creative controls – Yes
Other features: 77 segment metering
Viewfinder type – Pentaprism
Type of flash – Pop-up
Video out – Yes
Storage – Secure Digital, Secure Digital HC
Remote control – Yes
Hotshoe – Yes
Image Capture
Still image format – JPEG, RAW
Max. image resolution – 4672 x 3104
Digital video capture – No
Digital video format – AVI
Max video resolution – 1280 x 720 @ 30 fps
Audio capture – Yes
Face recognition – Yes
;))) perfect movie – but that bad pixel which is shining especially on the end is not so good for promo 🙂
This article was obviously written by someone who doesn’t no squat about film making and/or cameras. With an adapter you can use legacy lens from any brand of camera, and many of us do with a plethora of good deals available on ebay. As for a bulkier outfit you must be delusional, you can take this into a grocery store with a fast prime or zoom and shoot a scene with available light with no one the wiser to what your doing. Maybe you should check out cinema5d.com or vimeo and educate yourself before you write such drivel.
Have you seen the size and the cost of the PENTAX DA Star 60-250mm F4 lens used in the video, Greg?
Compact and cheap it is not, and that’s just *one* of the many expensive lenses they used.
Uncle Jack is amazing. The other one though, meh. Why even bother with a storyline?
Have you seen the number of cheap lenses used to make various high end music videos and commercials and features? M42/Nikon/Canon FD with f1.2? The article is misleading in not differentiating what they used as what has to be used or the plethora of options that are available on these cameras. M42 to Pentax adapter 7 bucks…Super Takumar SMC 50mm f1.4 less than a $100=image priceless.
What kind of person spends $$$$ on a high end Pentax and then sticks on crappy lenses from ebay?
If I wanted to make video, I’d get a high quality HD camera, and use the Pentax for stills.
Dude, people are already shooting high profile ads, feature films, music vids for at least a year with these cams! Where were you? You wonder why they produced these shorts? these cams are way cheaper then 10k red cams, and they are customisable and small. Damn, i wonder why pros would pick these up.. mhhh.
though you want to say something interesting about the pentax, for example you could ‘notice’ that it not a full HD frame (720) and THAT is a reason why pro won’t be around it.
What kind of person considers a 1280×720 30p, cropped sensor camera to be high end? And crappy lenses from ebay? Did you help write this article?
Greg is right on the money here. This article is misleading and really sets an “off” tone for DLSR film-making.
Matt
I liked it but I think you guys have a dead pixel on the left third of the screen above center ;(
I don’t think Greg understands who the camera is aimed at. It won’t be filmmakers buying it, and at $1,400 for just the body, I’d certainly call it high end; especially when you add in all the lens used in the videos.
I bet if you asked the film makers which they would prefer to shoot on – the K-7 or a proper video camera, they’d all say, WITHOUT HESITATION, the video camera.
The video feature is a nice touch, but it’s not the camera’s main function and I’d wager barely any serious film maker will be opting to use a K-7 when they could get the same results with a lighter, cheap camera.
lots of insight above about gear, etc, which is important. but more important than gear i think is the story … and Uncle Jack has a GREAT one. kept my attention throughout, and my first reaction wasn’t the camera they used. start with a great story, then go from there. well done.
Yes the camera has drawbacks. The lack of true manual video control is probably the biggest. But the fact remains that a video camera for the same price will not have interchangeable lenses and the sensor will be less than a quarter of the size. Matt mentioned a cropped sensor but thats in relation to a canon 5D, Red camera or high end digital video camera like the arri D21. All of which are much more expensive. So No, its not for “pros”, but for film students and those of us working on a tight budget, a cheap camera with a large sensor and interchangeable lenses is awesome.