SMGLee Tactical Carbine

A dude with a DSLR and a Killer eye for shot composition:

I became familiar with SMGLee when I came across his photo coverage of the SHOT show in 2009.   In my opinion, SMGLee continues to be one of the few guys that can actually take a picture there worth looking at.  

You can check out his coverage of the 2012 SHOT show on m4carbine.net to see what I mean.

Good to see he’s into video now too, his skills obviously translate quite well. I’m not sure if the above video was actually shot with a DSLR, but it might be. That slow motion looks almost too good though, which makes me think something else was used.

Thoughts?


Comments

17 responses to “SMGLee Tactical Carbine”

  1. This is good footage indeed, but I am so sick and tired of deadmau5. Just sayin’. Kinda silly thing to reply to on a blog…

    1. ^ this

      1. I’m not a fan of the music either.

  2. Definitely a DSLR-shot video. Most SLR’s can shoot up to 60fps and be slowed down even further then via interpolation in software. Looks great though!

    1. Definitely a DSLR-shot video.

      The information on the Youtube video says, and I quote, “Shooting with some friend with high dollar video equipment and this is what came out…”

      That leaves me inclined to think that it was shot with video equipment, not a digital still camera that’s also capable of shooting video.

      This video is the same one as here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALG2x0D_v0c&feature=youtu.be, which I came across on the Tactical SMGLee Facebook page after Google searching. It indicates that it was actually shot by Don Thiel, a professional camera operator and cinematographer. I’m still sticking with the idea that this was shot with high-end professional video cameras.

      I wouldn’t say it definitely was, because I would look like a total ass if someone offered some evidence that suggested otherwise. ;)

      1. Oh yeah, and here’s Don Thiel’s IMDB page: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2162893/

        And his website, which is apparently not quite up and running yet:http://donthiel.com/

    2. Are you talking about the pixelmotion function in After Effects?

    3. Just sayin Avatar

      That is definitely not software interpolation. Software interpolation causes fuzzy edges and “halos” on high-contrast edges, such as light skin tones against a darker background. Looking at the shots where you can clearly see the bolt carrier of the submachine gun that one person is firing, every frame is crystal clear, and fine details such as the wisps of chamber smoke and moving shadows inside of the ejected casings are still visible. You would not see detail at this level when using your standard slo-mo plugin in After Effects or similar editing setup.

      Also, it is blindingly obvious that these slow motion sequences were filmed at a much higher framerate than 60fps, more likely 200 fps or more, so it was probably filmed with a Phantom Flex high-speed cine camera, or one of its equivalents.

  3. I like it. Bunches.

  4. The video is sick but the pics i could find in the link you gave seem very average to me… mostly just snap shots with harsh direct flash … like what you would get from point and shoot camera. Maybe i missed the good photographs. From what i’ve seen though people like stickman and Bravo3 are LIGHTYEARS ahead of this guy.

    but like i said the video is KILLER

    1. To be fair, you’re comparing guys who set up studio shots for firearms with SMGLee taking snapshots with the limited time he has at a tradeshow?

      I like his work, and I really need to move to a warm climate where I can shoot year round and not pay through the nose for range fees.

      1. I agree that’s it’s apples in oranges but they look like disposable camera shots that were flash bombed. Check Vuurwapens shot show photos for contrast http://vuurwapenblog.com/2012/01/25/rambling-random-shot-show-2012-thoughts-photographs/

        1. …it’s apples in oranges…

          You can’t put apples inside of oranges. That’s crazy talk.

        2. I just looked at the link you provided. Those are some good shots, but I’ve seen some pretty good ones from SMGLee in the past as well. It seems though, that he posts a lot of pictures and could probably be more selective if he wanted and post only those that were the best. Then page you linked to only had a handful of photos; who knows what some of his other random shots look like. They are good photos, but I don’t know that I’d say they’re leaps in bounds better (he he, see what I did there?).

  5. Awesome vid.

  6. Great vid… I’m cleaning the drool off my keyboard over the M3.

    1. Ditto on the MP-40…