Working With The MCS System

I have had an opportunity to work with the Master Cinema Series system for several months now in real production environments, and I have to say that I have been pleasantly surprised by the system. It really does take an un-ergonomic camera like the 7D or 5D and make it more friendly to use in production life. What I really appreciate about the system is that it is camera agnostic - to date, I have used the MCS with the Epic, C300, FS100, 5D, 7D, AF100, and GH2. It is from these experiences that I offer the following tips to help get even more out of the system ...

How To Hack The GH2 On A Mac

The GH2 is the little camera that could- time and time again I continue to be impressed with the image quality that comes out of this little $900 camera. But to realize its full potential, it has to be hacked. And thanks to Personal View there is a community of people who offer some very impressive hacks, the most impressive of which is the Driftwood hack. (At least in my opinion anyway.) So all you need to do to turn your camera from something fun into something that could be used seriously is to install the hack. Great - no problem if you are on a PC. However, it is not so easy for those of us in an all Mac environment. After spending way to much time online searching on how to hack the GH2 using a Mac, I decided to throw up this little tutorial to explain how to do it step by step, hopefully making it easier for you, then it was for me when I first did it.

Camera 101: Introduction to the camera.

[HIGHLY RECOMMEND WATCHING IN FULL SCREEN]

Welcome to your camera system! In the 100 series of videos you will be taken through the basics of using your camera. In episode 101, Ryan introduces the basic components that makeup any camera system and explains their use and offers insight into their importance. He explores the importance of the camera body, lens selection, the follow focus, matte box, monitors, tripods, and light meters.

More after the jump.