📺 YouTube Optimization

Optimize your YouTube channel with TubeBuddy (we swear by it)

🔗 Affiliate Link Tracking

Using affiliate links is key to making an income from online video reviews. We use Genius Links, which allow options like choice pages and automatic redirection to the viewers local Amazon store. Learn more and sign up here.

🎥 More Gear

Gear from previous shows is always listed on my kit.co page

🚨 My VPN

I've switched to NordVPN and it's better! Get 72% off 2-year plans with this link: https://go.nordvpn.net/SH89g

📸 Three Complete Camera Kits

• GH5 Starter Kit
• GH5 + GH5S Filmmaker's Kit
• G9 Photographer's Kit

📷 Got a GH5?

Check out my complete GH5 Training course

Good evening ma'am
Good evening, Bobby.
Good party?
No. It was terrible.
Sorry to hear that. Where to?
Take me home, Bobby.
Yes ma'am, right away.
Bobby?
Yes ma'am?
Take me to the office instead.
Are you sure about that?
Yeah. It's time to fix this.

This is a different type of product video; instead of simply showing off a piece of hardware and demoing its features, I've shot these three scenes so that I could break them down, focusing on the gear and technique used to make them. Each scene you just saw uses different cameras, configurations and techniques. The breakdowns will have special emphasis on the Accsoon CineView HE wireless HDMI system, and the Accsoon F-C01 wireless focus controller, because after all, they're the sponsors of this video – but don't worry, you're going to see EVERYTHING that went into these shots. After the scene breakdowns, I’ll cover my four favorite features of the Accsoon hardware that didn't necessarily fit into the shot breakdowns, and show off this epic rig that I built for the LUMIX S1H but ended up not using when making this video – except, actually, for this scene right here. Anyway, be sure to stick around to see all of that, and to let me know in the comments what you think of this approach to a product overview. Let's start with the chess scene.

This scene was shot on a full-frame LUMIX S1H with adapted vintage Super Takumar lenses. The Accsoon F-C01 follow focus motor was attached to a SmallRig cage, and notice that you do need a cage to attach to; this rod connector doesn't attach to the camera directly. 

The F-C01 focus controller can operate wirelessly or wired; when wired, a single USB cable runs between the controller and the motor, and the motor gets it's power from the controller's battery.

Or, it can be powered externally, at a variety of voltages over USB-C or D-Tap.

With the appropriate add-on cable, you can trigger start/stop recording from the controller for almost any camera.

It features a high torque motor, so can control larger lenses or even this stiff, vintage Takumar lens. The scene was lit with a single overhead light. The S1H was on a motorized slider, capturing to Blackmagic RAW. The shot opens with the player leaning back, out of focus and in the shadow. She leans into frame and into focus, and the camera then starts to slide back to reveal the chess board, and so the focus plane shifts from her face to her chess pieces. She then moves her piece to the front of the board, knocking over her opponent. During this move, the lens is focus racked from A to B using the Accsoon F-C01 and its A/B focus marks feature, which makes it easy to ensure that focus always hits its mark perfectly. This is followed by a second shot; repeating the chess-move from a different angle. The lens is changed to the 85mm Takumar, and an extension tube is added to allow for super close focusing.

In the car scene, you undoubtedly noticed that the focus was racking back and forth between the driver and the passenger. Focus wasn't being controlled from anywhere inside the car; it was actually being run from a chase car. We used the same F-C01 focus controller as in the previous scene in wireless mode, in conjunction with the extremely reliable Accsoon wireless HDMI system, the CineView HE. This scene was shot anamorphic, with the SIRUI 24mm. The camera was a LUMIX BGH1, and bolted to its SmallRig cage was the Accsoon F-C01 to focus the SIRUI lens. The camera was suction mounted to the windshied, and HDMI from the camera went into the Video Assist again to capture RAW, which brings us to the CineView HE transmitter. Every element in the HDMI chain can add latency, so it's best to put the CineView HE transmitter first, before the recorder. But since I'm recording RAW, I needed to put it after the Video Assist – but that would add latency, and I was in a chase car watching and listening to the scene through the wireless HDMI, reacting to the actors running their lines – so any unnecessary latency would be bad. But, because the BGH1 has both HDMI and SDI out, this is the perfect camera because I can run raw over HDMI to the recorder, and separately run SDI into the transmitter. And Accsoon even makes a version of the CineView called the SE, which has both HDMI and SDI inputs. Unfortunately I don't have that model so instead I added a Blackmagic SDI to HDMI converter between the SDI output and the Cineview HE. And this worked great!

The CineView HE is an ultra low latency, sub-60ms wireless transmitter with impressive range of over 1200ft or 350m line of site, and most impressively, a proprietary dual-band transmission technology where it simultaneously uses 2.4 and 5Ghz signals, reconstructing dropped bits from the alternate signal, which works flawlessly even viewing between moving vehicles. I never saw a skipped frame or any stutter at all while shooting this scene. 

I mic'd up the actors with wireless mics feeding into the TASCAM recorder… and the BGH1 and TASCAM X8 were sycned with timecode using the ATOMOS timecode system.

I was in the chase car holding this rig; an ATOMOS monitor in a SmallRig cage with a side handle, the CineView HE receiver mounted to the top, and the F-C01 focus controller on the side.

I had a perfect view and perfect focus control from the chase car. The F-C01 has a 350 foot or 100 meter range, so controlling it from another vehicle was no problem. The CineView HE transmits video and audio, so I was able to hear the dialog from the actors through the on-board mic on the BGH1.

Finally, the most challenging shot of all – the camera on a gimbal. This really pushed the near- realtime limits of focus control and wireless HDMI. I mounted the LUMIX GH6 in another SmallRig cage on a DJI Ronin RS2, and used the MEIKE 16mm cine lens. We captured internally at a mix of 4K 24 and 120fps for that super slow-motion effect. Using the same included mini rod mount that I used in the other scenes, I added the F- C01 follow focus to the camera, and then put the CineView HE HDMI transmitter and a battery to power the focus motor in Sean's pocket to take that weight off of the gimbal. I was about 100 or 150 ft away controlling focus while Sean moved the gimbal around the dancer. The biggest challenge here wasn't latency, but anticipation. By communicating with Sean, we were able to get mostly in sync, so I could start moving focus in the right direction as he moved around the dancer. I relied heavily on focus peaking to verify locked focus, and while it obviously wasn't perfect, it worked out great and we got some cool shots.

There are of course a ton of really cool other details about these Accsoon products as well. Here are four of my favorites.

Each CineView transmitter can broadcast to four devices at once, such as two CineView receivers, the Accsoon app on an iPad, and even the iOS app running on an Apple Silicon Mac. In fact, if all you need is the transmitter, you can buy it on its own as well. Pairing a transmitter and receiver is largely automatic; just set the group dial on each device to the same number, and they will choose a clean channel. When setting up multiple unique pairs, just ensure the pairs have different groups. And if you want to swap one receiver between different transmitters, just change the group number on the receiver, and it'll automatically find the other transmitter. The receiver supports UVC-out, which means you can plug it into a computer and it'll instantly be seen as a webcam! You can easily incorporate a wireless camera into YouTube live, a zoom call, or any service that uses a webcam. Setting A/B focus points on the F- C01 is really easy; just dial focus to one position, press the AB button, then find position two… and press it again. And unlike other focus controllers that force you to rotate the controller the full rotation even if you're only spinning the lens a tiny bit, the Accsoon keeps the amount of rotation consistent, so you can actually do fast racks over short distances.

And here's that full-on S1H rig I mentioned at the beginning. It's big and heavy and could probably use a shoulder mount at this point, but you can see all parts to it. It's all based on another SmallRig cage, with the Accsoon follow focus controller mounted on the side. The whole rig is on rails using an adjustable height baseplate so it fits in the SmallRig matte box, which has a VND filter in it. On this side you'll see a side grip, the Accsoon HDMI transmitter, an XLR 1 audio interface, the Blackmagic Video Assist for capturing RAW, which is writing to a T5 drive in a Kondor Blue mount, as well as lots of Kondor Blue cables, and an ATOMOS timecode generator. All of this is being powered by this big Moman V-Mount battery.

Next, if you want to learn more about syncing audio with timecode, click here, and if you want to learn about shooting Open Gate, then go here.