A cool Sony RX1 “Video” from NYC by Ofer Rozenman

October 19, 2013 Just for fun, Sony 80

A cool Sony RX1 “Video” from NYC by Ofer Rozenman

Saturday fun! Check out the video below by Ofer Rozenman. He used the 35mm camera that I feel has the best IQ of ANY digital 35mm camera to date, in all situations, the Sony RX1. BUT it is not really a “Video”! It is stop motion without a tripod using over 6000 images. Pretty cool!

Here is what Ofer has to say:

“During September ’13 me and my girlfriend visited (again) our favorite city in the world – NYC. Instead of taking one still of every place we’ve been at, we took 50, in order to make a stop motion video out of it. We’ve ended up with over 140GB and 6K images.”

Related Articles

80 Comments

  1. Dear Ofer ,I found your work great , far from boring productions I’ve seen through the net, more fun , more artistic. I would also like to make a short film in stop motion drawing inspiration from your work. but I am a beginner and I don’t know How to proced ! First, Howard mana seconds between two frames? Do we keep always the same interval or to change when it is a landscape? did you learn with a specific website ? Thank you for your answer. Best regards from Switzerland, Xavier

    • It’s still the coolest video I have seen in ages and I think about it quite a bit. Since I live in NYC I want to do something similar but piecing together a video from thousands of photos is daunting. I wonder if you could use a video camera instead and then slow down the frame rate in post production and get the same results? At least it would be faster and easier.

  4. Ofer, I have been thinking about your stunning video alot. I was thinking whether or not there was an easier way to do this. I am a beginner to this and I would like to try it out myself. Wouldn’t it be easier for a beginner to make something like what you did using a GoPro and then slowing down the video using iMovie? Is the image quality out of a GoPro as good as the RX1? I don’t think so. Any advice would be so grateful. Thanks Ofer.

    • Thanks, I think GOPRO is more like an IPHONE 5 camera than a mirrorless camera (if not for sport) but you can always try and see for yourself : )

  6. Absolutely wonderful to watch. Inspiration, vision and perspiration in perpetual motion. The artist not the camera here…Patrick

  13. I live in NY and it was great to see someone enjoying it so much. So many sights I see every day and don’t appreciate. Thanks for opening my eyes!

  17. I like your concept and the final result shows a lot effort, thought and PP was made into an interesting video.

  21. Very nice!!! I like your colour processing, did you use special presets? And did you use manual or auto focus?

    • Thanks, after years of manual focus with the Nex 5N I’m now completely AF oriented, so it’s all AF :(. color processing: I played with the colors by my own but I’m sure there are presets that does the same…

  23. CONGRATS Ofer!!! So many details…I liked the effect you did with collors, like crossing the window glass in the airport in the end. Very nice, did by purpose right?

    • Thanks!
      It was half purposed, I wanted it to feel like that when I shot it, but I forgot about it and just when I saw it again while editing, I thought “hey, it looks like the camera is going through the window, like in all the nowdays movies, I can make it look even more through the window in post…” so I color corrected it more.

    • Sometimes I wonder if videos such as this and the X100 commercial have superceded photography as an art form. Yes, the debate of photography vs. film will never be settled but sometimes (for example) when I see yet another still photo, no matter how beautiful, of a flower or of someone just looking into the camera, I just don’t see photography being reinvented. Perhaps I am just a cynic but I feel that there is something missing from most all photography. Sorry to be a downer about photography but it’s videos such as this that is like a shot in the arm, awaking me from my doldrums.

  26. Agree with one of the previuos posts before. The best project posted here. Very nice, creative and full of effort. You changed my perspective about what time lapse shoul be.

  28. excellent, thanks for the memories I was there last month (September) with my wife, a bloody long way away from Tasmania, but we love the place.

  29. Great fun project that captures the imagination. The implementation and result are amazing.I showed my wife and she said don’t get any ideas unless you take me to NY.

  30. Really good. Ofer, from the above you can see there is a lot of interest, would you consider a mini tutorial on how you did this – especially the post production? Loved this clip – thanks for posting it!

    • Thanks, I would be happy to answer any questions.
      Basic workflow: I shot a lot of stills for every “shot”, than downscaled them to 16:9, 1280×720 in Lightroom. imported them to Premiere Pro, edited them in 24fps timline with every image taking 2 frames. Color corrected them in Lightroom, handled the shadows and highlights easily thanks to the amazing dynamic range of the RX1s RAW files. exported the images with Lightroom, replaced them in Premiere Pro, and exported the movie in Premiere Pro. Again, happy to answer any Q 🙂

      • I have an ignorant question here: Wouldn’t it have been easier to use the video mode on the camera rather than having to shoot 6,000 photos? Did you use burst mode when you shot and did you just take one photo after the next?

        • If I had a really expensive camera that can shoot video of 6000x4000px, 14bit RAW, than you’re probably right. but for now I have only my RX1 :). Its video is not that great, and also its AF is a bit slow in video mode, so HQ stop-motion was my best choice at the moment. I did a bit of bursting and a bit of one shot after the other, depands on the intervals I wanted between shots.

    • I was a real amateur and took them RAW full resolution 3:2 instead of RAW full resolution 16:9, so changed the aspect ratio in post…

    • Thanks, editing took a day or two, color correction took another two, rendering was fast because I downscaled the images with Lightroom.

  38. Totally awesome!! Full of fun and great observations! Loved EVERYTHING! The concert part…dramatic! I need to try video some time sooooooon! You’ve inspired me Ofer!! My best to you both! Thanks Steve, well chosen! 🙂

  40. Loved it. Wings and 360’s were stand outs. So cool. Love my RX1, but wow you really rocked it with this wonderful video. So so creative.

  41. Very cool! What software did you use to stitch them all together into a video? Did you have to resize your shots or do anything particular to prep them for the stop motion? Any insight on your process would be much appreciated. Thanks!

    • Thanks, I downscaled and changed the aspect ration to 16:9 with Lightroom, than edited with Premiere Pro, than color corrected with lightroom, and exported the updated images with Premiere Pro.

  44. Wow… really truly amazing! Perhaps the most inspiring project I’ve seen posted to Steve’s site. (BTW – Definitely merits watching in full-screen HD!)

  48. Very, very cool. Very cool. Thanks for sharing, ten thumbs up!

    ….. and I admit it, I was thinking “I could have EASY done that sort of thing with my Nikon1″… until the concert. Man, that rx1 can see in the dark!

    Well done.

    Jan

  51. Impressive stuff mate I really enjoyed it. Great to see something different aswell, very creative.

  52. Like, like, like!!! That couple is Creative, wow.
    Great idea, then consistently implemented perfectly.
    But how????

    • I thought of it like a video shoot, but instead of shooting video I just shot a lot, really a lot, stills : )

  54. Steve, thank you so much for posting this video! To be honest, I was expecting much but, boy, was I so very wrong. This video is beyond cool. This video is soulful and sad and hopeful and beautiful. I felt my heart beating through my chest and tears filling eyes. Stunning.

    • I had only 2 so not that much 😉
      But my 2 SD cards of 16GB each went pretty fast, every day and a half or so…

    • People forget video is stop motion picture. Technically there is no need to use quotation marks for “video”.

  59. SOOOOPER well done!!!

    I enjoyed it immensely.

    Thanks for sharing…it must have taken a LOT of effort!!

    BTW: What was the song used?

    All the best,
    M.

Comments are closed.