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  1. PPNS

    Share our work

    some stills from a new short i dp’d. Still ungraded, some still need to be cropped a bit.
    13 points
  2. kye

    Take the red pill...

    I recently asked for book recommendations to learn about human vision and was given a link to a free PDF. It is incredible. I'm only a quarter of the way through, but I'm absolutely blown away. The human vision system looks like it was designed by committee and then re-imagined by Dali and Picasso, while on drugs. It is a wonder we can see anything at all! Did you know that the rods and cones (which detect light) are BEHIND a bunch of nerves and nerve cells and blood vessels, so the light has to go through a bunch of crap before you even sense it? The book is actually a mix of how the human vision system works and also what we have done with the tech to try and align to it, so it's a nice blend of biology and tech. It's also very readable and tries to be as non-technical as possible. This is a rare find compared to other books that are hugely tech heavy. Take the red pill with me... download it here: https://www.filmlight.ltd.uk/support/documents/colourbook/colourbook.php (download it by clicking on the box next to the file size).
    11 points
  3. Forum member @essbe mentioned this in another thread, but I think it deserves it's own topic. Magic Lantern developer theBilalFakhouri is showing compelling evidence that he has figured out how to implement full real-time preview in most raw recording modes across the EOS-M, 100D, 650D, and 700D. Live HDMI output is supported across all recording modes too. Many have found that these are the last two major usability hurdles for these cameras. He is trying to crowdfund £2,214 (about $2750 USD) for the 300 hours he's spent figuring this out before he releases it, and says that he will begin work on full real-time preview on the 5D iii after this campaign gets funded. As of this morning, he's about 2/3 of the way to his goal, but donations have slowed down significantly over the last 24 hours. If you'd like to pitch in, instructions on how to contribute are in the link above. I haven't used either of my ML-enabled cameras in about three years, but this feels like it could be the final chapter in ML history. I would love to see it succeed and keep some of these cameras out of landfill as well as to provide the next generation of broke filmmakers with a truly affordable 16mm/S16 raw camera.
    11 points
  4. I have been spending too much money on equipment in recent years, and WAY too much time researching it. I really don't need anything else in terms of kit. What I do need is to replace my wardrobe and make some repairs to my home and my vehicle. Also, I'd like to spend more time producing passion projects. So, I'm making a commitment that I will not buy any new gear between November 30th, 2023 and November 29th, 2024 (got to give myself the option to take advantage of Black Friday deals). If I need a specialty piece of gear, I will rent it. The exceptions are expendables and direct replacements, should anything I'm using break down. I've never done this before and I'm posting this to help keep myself accountable.
    10 points
  5. So... I was diagnosed with kidney cancer on September 5. I had my right kidney removed on October 13 and am now cancer free (and if my scans show nothing in April I'll be considered cured!). During that entire period though, I didn't do any jobs and just focused on recovering, but had decided to dip my toe back into the water and had a small job planned for a friend this week. As I was just going through my equipment in preparation of getting back into the swing of things my pup Teri knocked over my main S5 and IT BROKE. Now, it doesn't impact my job because I have two extras of the same cameras, but obviously it left me needing to get a new camera. Sooo... I bought the Lumix S5IIX instead of getting another used S5. I swore I'd never buy a camera brand new again, but the used price isn't that much less, and I was able to get a decent deal on it with a lens. With all I've been through (having my kidney removed was, without a doubt, the most painful thing I've ever experienced, just FYI) I figured I'd treat myself. This is a long way to ask a couple questions while I wait for it to arrive tomorrow: 1. how easy is it to match the original S5 straight out of camera or with a little tweaking using the standard or natural color profile? I will use log, but for certain jobs it's just easier to skip that part. 2. why is there no third party battery grip? has anyone heard why? 3. I have a couple third party batteries. Wasabi and Newmowa brands. Has anyone encouraged any problems with third party batteries? I have like six OEM batteries but I've heard the S5II and S5IIX's battery life isn't as good as the S5. 4. what are the best settings? I've seen tons of YouTubers but I'd prefer to hear it from people that do more than film themselves in their spare bedroom/garage and actually are out there getting the most out of their camera. 5. This one is most important: I just want you all to know I love you all. My ordeal has given me a greater appreciation for life, the interactions I have with other human beings, and just everything, really. Thank you @Andrew Reid and everyone else that makes this place special.
    10 points
  6. FHDcrew

    Share our work

    Let’s share our work guys! I’ll start. Here is an interview I shot and lit the other day, featuring a congresswoman from Indians! One camera was a Nikon z6 recording into an Atomos ninja v. With a Tamron 45mm 1.8. The other was actually the ancient, cheap Canon 7D fitted with a Canon 85mm 1.2 shot at f/2.5!
    9 points
  7. Hey friends, now with the latest built from Bilal and Dannes achievements before let´s get some Raw magic started. Thanks to our friend @ZEEK the latter are well reported, the former has been posted about here by our friend @QuickHitRecord The challenge would be up to us to make up. So what are your suggestions, what kinda challenge could that be? I think there are plenty Magic Lantern lovers and Canon owners. I got a EOS M for 75EU about a year ago and a 5D2 for 150. Still, I have not filmed anything with it yet. I feel pumped to try out my EOS M though with the latest built from Bilal, since even Danne seemed to like it. Some 50D cats here? Put some dirty fungus M42 Meyer Goerlitz on your cam and give us that Keny Ty look but not in filthy 420 8bit but in gorgeous RAW glory! 5D3 queens and kings? Mercer, you go! Some keywords for our magic fun tour: experimental, 3min narrative, video essay with photographic beauty, cinema verité exitement, locked shots parade..camer So all camera cats with the love for the some Raw image magic, let´s get our and your jazz on with magic lantern! 🙂
    9 points
  8. Did you try adding “Cinematic vs iPhone vs ARRI vs Full Frame smash that like button buy my LUT that I created with ChatGPT should you still buy this vintage one year old camera in 2023” to your search term ? A lot of stuff gets lost because people are trying to create titles that incorporate the phrases du jour that they hope will get them up the search rankings. “Avoid these five scams when using the GH6 for stealth van life with otters” etc From what I’ve seen, the “GH6 vs xyz” is the richest seam to mine as at least you get comparative stuff against known entities like the P4K etc.
    9 points
  9. Didn't think this would work at first. Turns out it does, and then some! The 9.5K sensor in this thing has enough left over for 4.8K in 2x crop mode The Ultra HD is oversampled from this 4.8K and we have our nice looking Cinema DNG internal to SD card. Something the Micro Four Thirds cameras can't do. So it is basically a Digital Bolex at this point. Frame grab: The form factor is also perfect for these lenses being so small. It feels balanced as a Super 16mm handheld candid camera. It has one over on the Sony a1 for c-mount as well... The 2x crop is sticky, between Cine and Stills, and is remembered every time you turn it on. Whereas the Sony clear image zoom keeps getting reset when you power down or switch modes. So yeah, I think my Digital Bolex D16 itch has finally been scratched!! It's also perfect for bunny pics
    8 points
  10. I used to work out of my little Mazda Bongo camper a lot back in the day. Same logic regarding the savings and convenience particularly when I had to cover games late at night or be at pressers first thing in the morning. Great to use it as a mobile office as well to file from too. The biggest cost savings were covering long multi day events away such as football tournaments and particularly like here when shooting the Tour de France. Using the camper saved me a lot and meant I could ram it full of boxes gear as well as utilise it as a mounting point for remote cameras ! Its got me quite nostalgic for covering the Tour again to be honest, although these days it would be far more lucrative shooting it as a vanlife vlog than it would as an editorial photographer.
    8 points
  11. The final line up for the 2024 season. From left to right… S1H with battery grip, 70-200 f4 (not shown, Rode WG2) permanently on tripod shooting static full length ceremony & speeches, manual focus, 4k 25p. Z6ii + adapted Tamron 70-180 f2.8 (not shown battery grip arriving tomorrow) with option Tamron 20-40 f2.8, stills only but can do video in an emergency. Sling on shoulder. S5ii + cage + Sigma 28-70 f2.8 + Rode Micro as my all day run & gun, gimbal ready, 4k 50p unit (so 42-105mm equivalent). Right hip. Zf + 40mm f2 candid stills but can also do video in an emergency. Left hip. Single backpack with all lighting, all other audio, all spare batts, cards, power bank, chargers, gimbal etc, but actually lives in my cart along with the 2 big light stands, 40m extension reel and 500W portable power bank.
    7 points
  12. 2024 is upon us and I have decided to look back before looking forward. How did everyone else's year turn out? Work 2023 has been the busiest year I have ever had, I have shot an even wider variety of events than before as well as small projects such as photoshoots, social media content for clients, etc. This year even logging into this site was a luxury I rarely had. Next year looks like it will be the same as I continue to build a repeat client base across a wider spectrum of project types. Gear Each year my goal is to buy nothing and of course it did not work out that way for me. My biggest purchase this year was to build a new editing workstation. I was having real problems editing the H.265 10bit 422 footage that the R7 and R5 produce and time is money as they say; with so many jobs my workstation became the limiting factor. I ended up building a custom workstation with a Core i9 CPU, 24 cores, 128GB of memory, NVME drives, and RTX 4080 GPU. Most importantly I made sure that the CPU I selected supported QuickSync which can hardware accelerate H.265 10bit 422 footage. This setup with Davinci Resolve finally fixed my Fusion and footage lags once and for all. I also now have access to AV1 with the new CPU which produces almost lossless footage quality. I thought it was going to be a great new codec to use; until I found out Vimeo does not support it even though they say they do (my first AV1 upload to Vimeo stuttered horribly and was unwatchable), and on YouTube the user has to specifically enable it in their profile to enable AV1 playback. I will still probably always upload to my personal YT channel using AV1 but for clients I will need to stick with H.265 or H.264. As many of you already know, my setup is now 100% Canon; R7 (Photo/Video), R5 (Photos), C70(Video) and I use them in that order from a frequency standpoint. The R7 has exceeded my expectations in every way (battery life, Image Quality, reliability, photos, video, rigging options). The R5 is a bit of a disappointment, 95% photos, sometimes a B cam for the R7, or a C cam for the R7 and C70. I probably would be better off with two R7's and the C70 but it is too late now. C70 The C70 is great when locked down on a tripod and especially for long form with XLR audio as an A cam. I am far from a pixel peeper, but for me when looking at the footage after a shoot, its always a bit of a disappointment. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it always seems flatter and duller than the R7 or R5 even though they are all set to CLOG3. I personally think it is a combination of the Canon speedbooster and the Canon EF 24-105 F4 lens that lives on it as well as the fact that I have little or no control over the lighting for most of the events that I shoot. The 24-105mm is underwhelming in all areas, but I just can't seem to find a better lens for the C70; something like the Tamron 35-150mm F2-2.8 I think would be a better lens for the C70 but that's not an option in EF mount. I think the 24-105mm combined with the speedbooster does something to the contrast and saturation that is hard to recover in post. Also, the slightest bit of direct light and the image washes out very quickly due to the speedbooster; and when I say direct light I don't mean direct sunlight, I'm talking even shooting concerts and music videos the image washes out terribly from DJ or music video lights. Needless to say, my setup is not doing the C70 any favors, but as a OMB my setup times are already long as it is. I am thinking about switching to a native RF lens for the C70 but that would be an expensive endeavor. The Canon RF 24-105mm F2.8 is $3K....insanity, it would probably greatly improve the C70's IQ but do nothing for its reach. R5 The 30min recording limit pretty much kills it for anything long form which eliminates it as ever being an A cam even if overheating weren't a concern (which it still is to me). I do shoot b roll clips in a pinch with it or go with the C70 and R7 locked down and shoot the R5 handheld but its rare that I need all 3. The EVF has so much latency that I still miss my 5D4 for photography action shots. Other than the EVF lag, it is great for photography. R7 I've said enough praises about it, but I do find myself thinking a lot about FF equivalency these days when picking up the R7 (more on that in a moment). To my eyes; the IQ out of the R7 and R5 are identical until the R5's second native ISO kicks in, but if the ISO needs to be that high I am in trouble anyway. These days I use an F7 panel light and pretty much never have to go above ISO800 with the R7 combined with the Sigma 18-35 F1.8 EF-S lens. Stability I shoot almost exclusively handheld now. Many projects I don't even bring the gimbal and the few times that I do, I hate everything about it and either don't use it or only use it for one or two shots (long form speedramps mostly). The R7's IS is great, and I no longer try to emulate fancy YT camera movements, I let the action do the moving and just slightly follow it with the camera work. For very short walks (backwards or forwards) I am stable enough combined with IS and sometimes DR warp stabilization that I can pull it off, but needing to walk really isn't as common as you would think for the projects that I shoot. vND Meike Adapter My favorite accessory of all time for the R7 and pretty much any camera I have ever owned has become the vND Meike adapter. No more fiddling with lens ND filters, it is nothing short of amazing. It does add a slight green cast to the footage but it is an even cast, no dreaded X pattern or variable cast. In post I just add 20 to the magenta slider in Davinci Resolve and its fixed. Sometimes the green is complimentary, and IMO gives it a higher end look so depending on the situation I will leave it. My only complaint with the filter is it does not go to zero stops of ND so if you are running back and forth from inside to outside for an event you have to accommodate the 2 stops when you are indoors by raising the ISO. It is also very easy to bump the little wheel and there are no numbers or steps on it to set it precisely to where it was before. FF Equivalency Over the course of this past year I have spent more time than I would like thinking about FF equivalency but not in the way most people do. I personally think the FF "look" is a myth, I have no clue when looking at a shot if it was a FF sensor or not. When I personally think about FF equivalency it is from a lighting perspective. Before arriving at a new venue for a project I always worry that there won't be enough light available and all of my F2.8 FF lenses are no longer F2.8 on the R7 and the Sigma 18-35 F1.8 usually isn't long enough for back of the room type of long form content (dance recitals, corporate events, holiday shows, etc.) so I usually use the RF 70-200mm F2.8 on the R7 for B cam work. The R7 also does not have a second native ISO so it gets noisy pretty quickly after 1600ISO. Those situations and the fact that 60FPS is line skipped (in both the R7 and the R5) sometimes makes me wonder if the R6 II would be as good of a fit for me as the R7. So far the R7 has delivered on every project and my concerns about lighting were overblown, but I feel like its the one thing that adds stress to my day when arriving at a new venue for a new project where I have no control over the lighting. 2024 Demo Reel I also created a new Demo Reel for 2024. This was shot across many years, projects, and camera eco systems. No matter how busy you are, you still need to keep those new customers coming in so I decided to start off the year with a demo reel. Below are all of the cameras that I think I used for the footage in this video. I also uploaded this video using AV1 to YT. Cameras - Canon R7, R5, C70, S5, GH5, C200, R6, GoPro 8 Drones: DJI P4, Mavic Pro, Autel EVO II
    7 points
  13. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/make-believers/mystery-romance-short-the-orange-of-daydreams From the director of MAKE-BELIEVERS: Any helpful hand is welcome, thanks for watching! :- )
    7 points
  14. It went OK… I ended up doing 21 jobs instead of the previous years 33, but the 2022 year workload was insane and a necessity after 2 terrible Covid ‘work’ years (ha, 6 jobs in 2 years). 2024 I have revised it down slightly even further to 15-20 and I already have 4 jobs locked in for 2025. Volume-wise, I have no concerns. Client-wise, as in the type, ditto. I have always been quite picky because otherwise… Kit-wise, struggled again all year long. As a solo, multi-day, hybrid destination wedding shooter, I have some very specific needs. It’s been an evolving process over many years based on the available tech each year combined with my ever-evolving approach and needs. By the close of my 2023 season, I finally cracked it regarding kit with the final conclusion that a 2, 3 or 4 body kit could work equally as well, but glass was the key. L Mount does not give me it so it has been a case of either ditch it totally, or split my photo and video needs into 2 different systems. For 2024, I decided to do just that and then we will see how that goes. My ‘perfect’ set up is with Canon, based around a pair of R3’s, IMO, the ultimate current hybrid body, but I can’t afford so… L Mount for video and Nikon/adapted Tamron for stills: Static video = S1H + battery grip + 70-200mm f4 Roaming video = S5ii + Sigma 28-70mm f2.8 Candid photo = Nikon Zf + 40mm f2 All other photo = Nikon ‘X’ + Tamron 20-40mm f2.8 plus Tamron 70-180mm f2.8 The ‘X’ being either; Z8, Z9, new Z6iii if it is available in time, or even another Zf. Other than that final piece of kit, I’m sorted and happy with all my set up, cameras, lenses, lights, audio etc and I’m well set up also with my motorhome/RV as a home away from home and mobile office. Bring it on ‘24!
    7 points
  15. Sorry to hear about your medical issues and great to hear you are on the road to recovery. I echo your thoughts about this place. My last few weeks have been spent at my Mother’s bedside as she drifted away to her passing. In times like that of huge change and trauma we look for constants to keep us connected to “normal” life. In that respect, checking into here every now and again to find everyone having the same circular arguments was oddly comforting. And I honestly mean that with love.
    7 points
  16. As you can see here with this Sony rep and his Zeiss CZ.2 lens, shaving those precious millimetres off the camera has revolutionised the way he shoots. And that is before you even get to the main raison d'être of a 1.4kg weight saving vs VENICE 2. That 1.4kg is crucial and a game changer when you have 35kg of tripod head, rails, cages, matte box, monitors, EVF and lens attached. He must really feel the difference in his back all day long. Here is one of our most adventurous and creative shooters, Nino. As you can see the size of the BURRITO is once again a total game changer here as it allows the lovely new Cooke to move back a few cm making it necessary to break your wrist to reach it. The added advantage here is that your hand forms a lens hood, reducing that nasty flare from the single coating! And as we can see, the ENG style rig high up on the body definitely isn't unbalanced with a high centre of gravity from all the shit mounted on the top handle! Finally we have the more minimal rig here. The 2.8kg BURRITO clearly needs the 68 rods under it and a tripod head the size of a bus. Otherwise the whole thing would collapse, giving an unprofessional aura to the shoot. I think that is an absolute brick of a battery on the back which is all part of the absolute game changing form factor as a cinema camera. Have you EVER seen a rig like this before!? REVOLUTIONARY!!! Yours for only $25,000! *Or just get a Sony a1 with same sensor from cash converters
    7 points
  17. BTM_Pix

    The Way We Were

    Prompted by a tweet from @Andrew Reid about BBC drama production in the 70s/80s, I remembered this gem of a YouTube channel where the production staff of the era discuss and reproduce their work. The videos are a combination of bitesize and longer form and covers every stage of the production process such as these. It is a fascinating collection of pieces and much can be learned and applied to shooting and editing today. Not least of which how lucky we are to have what we have at our disposal. Full collection here https://www.youtube.com/@AdapttvhistoryOrgUk/videos
    7 points
  18. I've learned a lot about film-making over the years, most of it came through discovery and experimentation, but the best film-making advice I ever got was this... See how much contrast and saturation you can add to your images This probably sounds ridiculous to you, and I can understand why it would, but hear me out. Not only is it deceptively simple, but it's hugely powerful, and will push you to develop lots of really important skills. The advice came from a professional colourist on some colour grading forums after I'd asked about colour grading, and as I make happy holiday travel videos it seemed to be a logical but completely obvious piece of advice, but it stuck with me over the years. The reason I say "over the years" is that the statement is deceptively simple and took me on a journey over many many years. When I first tried it I failed miserably. It's harder than it looks... a lot harder. The first thing it taught me was that I didn't know WTF I was doing with colour grading, and especially, colour management. Here's a fun experiment - take a clip you've shot that looks awful and make it B&W. It will get better. Depending on how badly it was shot, potentially a lot better. It took me years to work out colour management and how to deal with the cameras I have that aren't supported by any colour management profiles and where I had to do things myself. I'm still on a learning curve with this, but I finally feel like I'm able to add as much contrast and saturation as I like without the images making me want to kill myself. I recently learned how the colour profiles work within colour management pipelines and was surprised at how rudimentary they are - I'm now working on building my own. The second thing it taught me was that all cameras are shit when you don't absolutely nail their sweet-spot, and sometimes that sweet-spot isn't large enough to go outside under virtually any conditions, and that sometimes that sweet spot doesn't actually exist in the real-world. Here's another fun and scarily familiar experiment - take a shot from any camera and make it B&W. It makes it way better doesn't it? Actually, sometimes it's astonishing. Here's a shot from one of the worst cameras I have ever used: We're really only now just starting to get sub-$1000 cameras where you don't have to be super-gentle in pushing the image around without risking it turning to poop. (Well, with a few notable exceptions anyway... *cough* OG BMPCC *cough*). Did you know that cinematographers do latitude tests of cinema cameras when they're released so they know how to expose it to get the best results? These are cameras with the most amount of latitude available, frequently giving half-a-dozen stops of highlights and shadows, and they do tests to work out if they should bump up or push down the exposure by half a stop or more, because it matters. Increasing the contrast and saturation shows all the problems with the compression artefacts, bit-depth, ISO noise, NR and sharpening, etc etc. Really cranking these up is ruthless on all but the best cameras that money can buy. Sure, these things are obvious and not newsworthy, but now the fun begins.... The third thing it taught me was to actually see images - not just looking at them but really seeing them. I could look at an image from a movie or TV show and see that it looked good (or great), and I could definitely see that my images were a long way from either of those things, but I couldn't see why. The act of adding contrast and saturation, to the point of breaking my images, forced me to pay attention to what was wrong and why it looked wrong. Then I'd look at professional images and look at what they had. Every so often you realise your images have THAT awful thing and the pro ones don't, and even less often you realise what they have instead. I still feel like I'm at the beginning of my journey, but one thing I've noticed is that I'm seeing more in the images I look at. I used to see only a few "orange and teal" looks (IIRC they were "blue-ish" "cyan-ish" and "green-ish" shadows) and now I see dozens or hundreds of variations. I'm starting to contemplate why a film might have different hues from shot-to-shot, and I know enough to know that they could have matched them if they wanted to, so there's a deeper reason. I'm noticing things in real-life too. I am regularly surprised now by noticing what hues are present in the part of a sunset where the sky fades from magenta-orange to yellow and through an assortment of aqua-greens before getting to the blue shades. The fourth thing it taught me was what high-end images actually look like. This is something that I have spoken about before on these forums. People make a video and talk about what is cinematic and my impression is completely and utter bewilderment - the images look NOTHING like the images that are actually shown in cinemas. I wonder how people can watch the same stuff I'm watching and yet be so utterly blind. The fifth thing it taught me was how to actually shoot. Considering that all cameras have a very narrow sweet spot, you can't just wave the damned thing around and expect to fix it in post, you need to know what the subject of the shot is. You need to know where to put them in the frame, where to put them in the dynamic range of the camera, how to move the camera, etc. If you decide that you're going to film a violinist in a low-bitrate 8-bit codec with a flat log profile, and then expose for the sky behind them even though they're standing in shadow, and expect to be able to adjust for the fact they're lit by a 2-storey building with a bright-yellow facade, well... you're going to have a bad time. Hypothetically, of course. Cough cough. The sixth thing it taught me is what knobs and buttons to push to get the results I want. Good luck getting a good looking image if you don't know specifically why some images look good and others don't. Even then, this still takes a long time to gradually build up a working knowledge of what the various techniques look like across a variety of situations. I'm at the beginning of this journey. On the colourist forums every year or so, someone will make a post that describes some combination of tools being used in some colour space that you've never heard of, and the seasoned pros with decades of experience all chime in with thank-you comments and various other reflections on how they would never have thought of doing that. I spent 3 days analysing a one-sentence post once. These are the sorts of things that professional colourists have worked out and are often part of their secret-sauce. Examples. I recently got organised, and I now have a project that contains a bunch of sample images of my own from various cameras, a bunch of sample images from various TV and movies that I've grabbed over the years, and all the template grades I have developed. I have a set of nodes for each camera to convert them nicely to Davinci Wide Gamma, then a set of default nodes that I use to grade each image, and then a set of nodes that are applied to the whole project and convert to rec709. Here's my first attempt at grading those images using the above grades I've developed. (This contains NO LUTs either) The creative brief for the grade was to push the contrast and saturation to give a "punchy" look, but without it looking over-the-top. They're not graded to match, but they are graded to be context-specific, for example the images from Japan are cooler because it was very cold and the images from India were colourful but the pollution gave the sun a yellow/brown-tint, etc. Would I push real projects this far? Probably not, but the point is that I can push things this far (which is pretty far) without the images breaking or starting to look worse-for-wear. This means that I can choose how heavy a look to apply - rather than being limited through lack of ability to get the look I want. For reference, here are a couple of samples of the sample images I've collected for comparison. Hollywood / Blockbuster style images: More natural but still high-end images: Perhaps the thing that strikes me most is (surprise surprise) the amount of contrast and saturation - it's nothing like the beige haze that passes for "cinematic" on YT these days. So, is that the limits of pushing things? No! Travel images and perhaps some of the most colourful - appropriate considering the emotions and excitement of adventures in exotic and far-off lands: I can just imagine the creative brief for the images on the second half of the bottom row... "Africa is a colourful place - make the images as colourful as the location!". In closing, I will leave you with this. I searched YT for "cinematic film" and took a few screen grabs. Some of these are from the most lush and colourful places on earth, but..... Behold the beige dullness. I can just imagine the creative brief for this one too: "make me wonder if you even converted it from log...."
    7 points
  19. Drum roll please.... I've finally got around to creating and releasing a LUT that gives accurate colour on the S5II and S5IIx. Big thanks to @Andrew Reid for allowing me to post about this. It's available here: https://lumasweet.com/shop/p/lumasweetlifelikes5ii I'll get around to doing a write up on it at some stage. In the meantime, here's a YT video (don't laugh!) that I made about it. This might also be of interest to anyone who's interested in camera colour science in general, even if you don't have this camera.
    7 points
  20. After my close friend decided to upgrade to the Lumix S5 II X he gave me an incredible deal on his Lumix S5 that I couldn't pass up. As a result I just finished packing up my trusty GH5, 12-35mm mk II, 35-100mm mk I, 25mm, and 14mm to ship off to MPB. For the first time in nearly a decade I will no longer have any M43 cameras or lenses. I think my time in the system has finally come to an (unplanned) end. 😞 I'm feeling some kind of way about it right now, honestly. I still believe in the promise of M43, I just don't know that Panasonic will ever realize it or if the market will ever be there to make it viable. It's a damn shame, honestly. I'll be happy with my full frame cameras, and having three of the same bodies will make things a bit easier for me, but I still can't help but wish there was a professional level compact M43 camera that could fit my needs and fit in with my two S5 bodies. I just don't see it happening. I had planned to always have at least one M43 camera in my kit. Eventually I was going to upgrade to the GH6 in a couple years, once they were even more affordable on the used market, but I couldn't pass on another S5 with kit lens for $750, so plans changed. It just didn't make sense to keep the GH5 and follow through with my original plans anymore, as these three S5 bodies will get me through until I can snag some S5 II bodies in a couple years when people upgrade to the latest camera. The GH5 was a total game changer for me and my work. I'm sad to see it go, because in many ways it did things that I never thought a camera would be able to do. It really cannot be overstated how much the IBIS changed things for people like me. I no longer had to set up a cumbersome shoulder rig, I could simply hold it and get steady shots even as I rushed around a wrestling ring and dodged people flying all over the place! Life goes on though, I guess.
    7 points
  21. For track and field, if you shoot laterally by either tracking eg. gimbal moving in parallel or from a fix point by panning the sense of speed will be very different depending of frame rate and shutter speed. 24fps 1/50 will look like they go much quicker than 60fps 1/120 or look even slower at 60fps 1/500. Even when taking photo only panning laterally you would always want to have some slow shutter speed so 60fps 1/120 will yield good pictures. Now if they run towards you and your camera is not really moving eg. tripod or handheld, it will not matter that much if is 24fps 1/50 or 60fps 1/500 in term of sense of speed. But for photo grabbing 1/250 or above would be required. So instead of sticking with the 180 rule I change the shutter speed based on the position and movements and again if the prio is photo or video or both. Some examples of my video grabs: Slow shutter 180 rule The below one works as the camera is moving (tracking bike) at the same speed as the athlete, if the camera would be fixed it would be impossible to get a picture out High shutter speed 1/500 and above For me 4k would be too low as I crop quite a bit and also take vertical photos out of horizontal video. If you would do it a lot to take pictures out a 6k or above would be better in my opinion.
    7 points
  22. kye

    iPhone * Dehancer

    Lots of them are, but as you brought it up, here are my impressions on the above: It's still far too sharp to be convincing - I noticed this in the first few seconds of the video - TBH my first impression was "is this the before or after footage?".. of course, once you see the before footage then it's obvious, but it didn't immediately look like film either The motion is still choppy with very short shutter speeds - this would require an VND which isn't so easy to attach to your phone I think that people have some sort of hangup about resolution these days and as such don't blur things enough. For example, here are three closeups from the above video. The original footage from the iPhone: Their processed version: A couple of examples from Catch Me If You Can, which was their reference film: As you can see, their processed version is far better, but they didn't go far enough. I've developed my own power grade to "de-awesome" the footage from my iPhone 12 Mini and detailed that process here, but here's a few example frames: I'm not trying to emulate film, I'm just trying to make it match my GX85. Here are a couple of GX85 shots SOOC/ungraded for comparison: I haven't got the footage handy for the above shots, but here are a few before/afters on the iPhone from my latest project from South Korea. iPhone SOOC: iPhone Graded: iPhone SOOC: iPhone Graded: iPhone SOOC: iPhone Graded: I'm happy with the results - they're somewhere in between the native iPhone look (which I've named "MAXIMUM AWESOME BRO BANGER FOR THE 'GRAM") and a vintage cinema look. My goal was to make the camera neutral and disappear so that you don't think about it - neither great nor terrible. Going back to Dehancer / Filmbox / Filmconvert / etc.. these are great plugins actually and I would recommend them to people if they want the look. I didn't go with them because I wanted to build the skills myself, so essentially I'm doing it the hard way lol. The only thing I'd really recommend is for people to actually look at real film in detail, rather than just playing with the knobs until it looks kind of what they think that film might have looked like the last time they looked which wasn't recently... I keep banging on about it because it's obvious people have forgotten what it really looks like, or never knew in the first place. And while they're actually looking at real examples of film, they should look at real examples of digital from Hollywood too - even those are far less sharp than people think. The "cinematic" videos on YT are all so much sharper than anything being screened in cinemas that it's practically a joke, except the YT people aren't in on it.
    7 points
  23. ....and in todays episode of "the camera YT echo-chamber doesn't know shit about the real world", here's a real-world and very high-end studio shooting VFX background plates with a gazillion BGH1 units, or arrays of GH5S paired with 12-35mm f2.8 zooms. Their website indicates they've worked on Joker, Stranger Things, Mission Impossible, and dozens of other high-end productions. The thumbnail appears to show 17 BGH1 units: One shot from the Stranger Things rig detailed on their website shows "our standard nine camera array" is 9 x GH5S units - 5 at the back (with two facing sideways) and 3 on the front: To all those who suggest that the size/weight advantage from MFT is gone, their page says "The rig was still able to fly as luggage and efficiently attach to a rental car, all while being street legal." How much does a 24-70mm F2.8 weigh again? If you can't remember then the short answer is more than double the MFT equivalent. In the video he talks about how each BGH1 + lens is about 1lb, and keeping the weight down allows them to rig the car up in such a way that keeps them from needing increased permitting and things like escort cars (which for 360 cameras appear in the shot). So, the GH5S (2018) and BGH1 (2020 - 3 years old), which aren't FF, don't shoot RAW, don't have IBIS, and have been completely forgotten by the entire camera YT echo-chamber, are being actively used on some of the biggest and most VFX heavy films being made in Hollywood. They also just casually mention in the video (11:35 if you don't believe me) they've been involved in over 2000 productions, and that "these cameras are able to match perfectly with all your A-cameras".
    7 points
  24. The issue was with light streaking when a bright area is adjacent to a dark area. I was able to reproduce it on my cam but never saw it in real world footage. I'm not sure if some cameras are affected more than others, but people were having conniptions about it on FB and YT. I think it's such a pity that phase AF did not make into the GH6 as it would have reinforced the iconic GH line's standing. Ha ha! No! Not for the GH6 or any other camera these days. People just make videos about cameras, it seems 😂 Joking aside, there was Olan Collardy's launch video for the GH6. I mainly use mine for work and holiday stuff, but I did shoot this with an Isco 36 and gave it a bit of filmic colour treatment, grain etc.
    7 points
  25. This thread inspired me to break out the 5D3 and play with Magic Lantern Raw video again. Took it with me to a shoot instead of the R5 and I forgot how great the old optical viewfinder is for photos. Anyway, I shot some a lot of footage in 1920x1080 and in 3072x1308 and upscaled it to UHD in resolve. I've missed this look.
    7 points
  26. I'm still using my 5D Mark iii with ML Raw as my main camera for hobby narrative filmmaking. I recently bought a Sigma FP which I like okay enough. I also have a BMMCC all rigged out but I never use it. I think I'll sell it soon so I can hold onto the FP for a bit longer. I'm still unsure about the FP. I like it, but it doesn't feel like an extension of my arm like my 5D does. Here's a frame from the FP with the Nikkor 35mm 1.4 ai-s lens that I took recently while working on a short film... Otherwise, I have a few film cameras I enjoy walking around with when I'm out and about.
    7 points
  27. PPNS

    Share our work

    im unemployed, check out my reel! https://vimeo.com/797642822
    7 points
  28. At the risk of going off topic, I also remember when on video forums people would post videos that they had made! It's the same everywhere else. On FB groups people post pics of their setup rather than something that they shot with it. By the way I think it's worth pointing out that the original post of this topic was something along the lines of "does 14bit give noticeably better colour?". It's a perfectly valid question or talking point for discussion about one aspect of image quality, and has nothing whatsoever to do with lighting, story, frosted glass or frosted flakes or whatever somebody had for their breakfast... So to veer off into those topics is to miss the point of this thread. Now, here's a video! This is the last project I shot on the 5D3. Hope you like slow cinema!
    7 points
  29. In the race to 8K, 12K, and beyond, how much resolution do we really need to tell a story? I brought my trusty FZ47 on a little New Year's trip to Arizona, and I think that 640x480 might just be enough: Technical: I scaled up to 1920x1440 (no "smart" or AI rescaling). I did not add any sharpening or softening to the image, and I resisted the urge to clean up the digital artifacts and just embraced them instead. I did however do a little color work. I was actually shocked by how good this footage looks, probably because it's progressive and not interlaced. I think I'd put this footage up against the DVX100, XL1/2, or comparable camera. And as we've seen in the 8-bit grading tests that @kye shared with us, it's kind of shocking how much you can push the image around in post (especially if you are either okay with some macro-blocking, or willing to soften/hide it). I think that's part of what makes this camera so much fun. Is there a unique aesthetic afforded by this low resolution? I'm not sure. I've degraded 1080P footage to have a similar level of detail in the past. The compression artifacts are definitely smaller and easier to hide. But in full motion, I feel like they add a nice texture.
    6 points
  30. 8-bit rec709 profiles are much more flexible in post than you might think. I'm not saying they're as good as an Alexa or whatever, but they're a million miles better than people give them credit for. Here's a latitude and WB torture test of the GX85, in the standard profile (8-bit rec709) customised to have reduced contrast but normal saturation. For each of the below, the left image is the properly exposed reference image, the middle one is the graded image, and the one on the right is the image SOOC. Exposure latitude test - +3 stops: Exposure latitude test - +2 stops: Exposure latitude test - +1 stops: Exposure latitude test - -1 stops: Exposure latitude test - -2 stops: Exposure latitude test - -3 stops: Exposure latitude test - -4 stops: Exposure latitude test - warm: Exposure latitude test - cool: Exposure latitude test - magenta: Exposure latitude test - green (as far as it would go!): Notes on the testing method: GX85 shot in manual mode on cloudy day Exposure varied by changing lens aperture WB varied by changing colour temp and tint Tools used in Resolve were mostly Lift/Gamma/Gain, saturation, and some had a bit of Shadows/Mids/Highlights Notes on the results: If it's clipped then it's clipped, there's no getting around that If you've shot a whole sequence in the wrong WB then shoot a test chart replicating the error, spend some time on the correction, then apply to all the shots... a bit of work but worth it to rescue a days shooting If you've shot on auto-exposure / auto-WB and want to correct the small errors then this is easily possible - it won't have gotten it nearly as wrong as what I have shown above Most cameras shooting in rec709 will do funky stuff to colours depending on their luma value as part of the look of the profile, so when you over/under expose and then pull things back the hues and saturation levels will have shifted around in odd ways compared to a normal exposure, but if it's a real shoot then you most likely won't have many dominant hues in the image and you only have to correct the ones that are in the frame and distracting, so the above is far more work than normal shooting would be The days of needing RAW or even LOG to change exposure or WB in post are gone, and although the rec709 profiles often have lower DR than log profiles, they're much better than you think. If anyone wants me to post full-sized versions with titles so you can flick back and forth then just let me know. Happy shooting!
    6 points
  31. There were a lot of ups and downs. I launched my own pro-wrestling company in May. It has been very successful so far. I've continued my freelance video work and it has gone well. I'm pretty content where I'm at gear wise. I'll probably upgrade my B and C cams to S5IIs but overall I'm quite happy with the L-mount and feel pretty good about its future. I was diagnosed with kidney cancer. Had my right kidney removed. No more cancer. If my scans look good in April I'll be officially considered cured. Flooding ravaged my community twice. It is still recovering. So 2023 brought some real big highs and some real low lows. If it weren't for the election I'd almost be looking forward to 2024! Happy New Year to all of you!
    6 points
  32. Hello to all EOShd members. I haven't been here much this year, but I consider this forum to be my second home. This year has been hard personally (divorce with young children) but we must continue in life with good spirits. So like every year (and it's been 6 now) I link you to my police Christmas greeting: In the tech side it is Sony FX6 in UHD mode at 100fps (S&Q) and S-log, Hi Base Iso. Rokinon lenses. I hope you like it and I send you a hug. Adiós Amigos!!
    6 points
  33. I'm not into conspiracy theories anymore really (for which I blame the chemtrails and 5G masts activating the molecular mind control devices implanted in my brain by Bill Gates through the COVID vaccine) but if I were then I'd consider whether there was any external influence to this. The Hong Kong of today is very much not the same carefree Hong Kong that is depicted in those videos so, whilst to its viewers these videos act as a time capsule of more innocent times of photography gear "reviews", there will be others viewing it as a time capsule of a far more liberal time that they would rather suppress. Of course, the videos are also a body of work for one of the presenters who fled Hong Kong for political reasons as he discusses here. The broader issue highlighted by these videos being removed from YouTube, in common with content on other streaming services, is that if you value a piece of work then get a physical copy of it. With that, I'm off to download and burn a DVD compilation of Max Yuryev's weightlifting style auto focus tests.
    6 points
  34. BTM_Pix

    Panasonic G9 mk2

    You can get the Sigma 40mm f1.4 ART in L mount but in terms of it being a pancake… well it is if you like your pancakes in this sort of quantity.
    6 points
  35. I cannot say much but give you two dear forum friends a hug in spirit and from my heart. This forum has been a comforting place for me as well. A puny little camera, nobody took serious back then for video, but you image lovers did, was my rock to hold onto in the roughest of my times, a black small GX85, my dearest trusty video mate. I filmed butterflies with it and my parents garden. I will never make fun of anyone filming flowers, except when they do it with a Leica.:)
    6 points
  36. I got my iPhone 15 Pro Max (upgrade from 13 Pro Max) and some early observations: Quality is good when in shooting good conditions but breaks quite quickly if you miss exposure, in low light, etc. Log files can be graded easily and have no over-sharpening, can take some post processing but way less than R5c RAW files, the difference imo is night and day as it should be. The same for details compared to R5c is just worlds apart. BMD does not allow you to use 2x lens, zooming 2x with the 24mm lens the quality is quite bad (very blotchy, full hd at max). I did not test yet with the apple camera and the 2x “cropped” lens to see if is better. No Log + Cinematic in either Apple Camera or BMD H265+Log is a good compromise size vs. Quality and you can record all fps internally. 120mm lens I find it a bit better quality than the 77mm of the 13, and a more useful focal range for what I normally cover. I have BMD set to save to Files, then I connect a USB-C CFexpress or SSD and move the files in Files, is the quickest and easier method for PC users. Much better that the previous phone that was a nightmare to get the footage out from a PC. Action button is useful as you can set to start or even start recording in the BMD. Still need to get use to the BMD UI, with no hw button/wheels changing things rapidly is a bit of a pain for me. Overall, with Log and the 120mm is big update and I will use it even more than my previous phone, especially as B or C cam. Using it as a main camera is a big stretch and I think I will be mostly disappointed. Frame grab 4k Log 120mm.
    6 points
  37. MrSMW

    Panasonic G9 mk2

    It is. Around a decade or so back, I was what is known as skinny fat, ie, very little muscle tone but a surplus of fat around my middle. I never exercised, had developed asthma, smoked and drank (but not heavily) and it was a gradual erosion/accumulation more than anything. I decided to do something about it around the time of my 40th birthday. I’m 53 in a few weeks and never been in better condition and actually have a fitness competition (Hyrox) that I have traveled to Ireland for from France, in a couple of hours. Why mention this? Fatigue, or reduction of from being in shape. And not just the physical, but the mental which is unseen but contributes. But I still have trouble getting to sleep after an intense 15+ hour day because despite downing tools, I’m still buzzing. The next day though…and I can never lie in and catch up no matter how late I went to bed or how tired I am, by lunchtime, wiped out and can easily grab another 1-2 hours early afternoon, but it’s not until the day after the day after I feel recovered, so never take back to back jobs anymore. No way I could be working the way I have been for the last few years one to two decades ago and I guess another factor why when other photographers or videographers ask me how I do what I do, part of that answer is level of fitness. But as with all these things, it is only a part of a greater whole. 2.8kg unsupported in and out of your hands all day though is a bit nuts which is why it has to go!
    6 points
  38. BTM_Pix

    Panasonic G9 mk2

    I’ll preface this by saying that that is some spec and it will likely be a very decent camera. However…. A smaller sensor inside a smaller body with smaller lenses at a smaller price was the whole raison d’etre of the Micro Four Thirds system. The clue was right there in the name. Panasonic seems to have looked what BMW has done since it acquired the Mini and thought “yeah, that’s the path for us too”. In a world where their own full frame S5ii exists, let alone the compact APS-C feature laden cameras from all the other manufacturers, I don’t get where they are coming from with their latter day MFT releases and, in my opinion, they have completely lost their way with the system, particularly in terms of attracting new adopters. Even for the old guard, you’d have to be pretty attached to that native lens collection to go in again. Panasonic seem to have a borderline kinky reluctance to refresh the two cameras that would actually cause a resurgence in the ideology of the system as well as sales. Namely, the GX80 and the LX100. Putting a mic jack on them and giving them 10 bit 4:2:2 internal and VLOG would be a piece of piss for Panasonic and they could sell them all day long at their equivalent launch prices. They might have to push the boat out and put IBIS in the LX but I don’t even think that is a deal breaker. I’m at loss to where they are getting their market research from that’s telling them there is. Bigger demand for small sensor cameras in large sensor bodies at large sensor prices.
    6 points
  39. Another great bit of advice I got in my early days was to go study paintings. Particularly Vermeer's and Caravaggio's. As an idiot that didn't understand what made a nice image work and a bad one fail, just analyzing and deconstructing the craft of painting helped a ton. Absolutely brand-dead simple ideas like having your subject brighter than the background (contrast) confounded me as a newbie, but once I started seeing the techniques like that in practice I couldn't unsee it, and I got better. Which is why I'm pretty camera agnostic these days. There's so many fundamental techniques that need to be in place and exercised to create awesome images. Grabbing the most expensive camera/lens doesn't accomplish that for you, it only assists.
    6 points
  40. BTM_Pix

    DJI Pocket 3?

    Bitrate is 100mbps fixed which is near as dammit the upper limit of the variable bitrate that my iPhone 12 uses (a typical comparator for what people would use a Pocket for) and I don't find it lacking for the purpose. More important for me is that the Osmo Pockets have Cinelike D which is a good compromise and very easy to grade. I had to do a little project at the weekend using the LX10/15 (with my Cinelike D hack activated) and the Pocket and they matched easily both in terms of colour and acceptably enough in image quality. On the Pocket 2, it is derived from a 4.6K sensor which is giving about 1.2x lossless zoom when shooting in 4K and roughly 2x and 1.6x in 1080p and 2.7K respectively. In the edit, I punched in to around 2x on a 4K file from my weekend project and was comfortable with the result so I wouldn't be bothered going up to say 1.5x as a safety and then adding the rest in the edit. A big advantage of the Pocket is adding the control stick which will give you full pan/tilt/zoom controls right from the handle. That usability trumps a small loss of image quality for the purposes I use it for. The 24mm in that spec is coming from it being a drone camera though. The actual lens on a Pocket 2 is 20mm f1.8. On of the beauties of this camera though are the magnetic clip on wide angle adapters (which gives you 15mm) and of course the anamorphic versions too. As well as also simultaneously being able to us magnetic ND filters too. If DJI do bring a new version 3 out with an optical zoom and/or with 10 bit capture then that would be great but I have to say that even as it stands now the Pocket 2 is a very compelling camera for travel and, for me, it is a vastly superior proposition to my iPhone for that role. Its not only because of the creative possibilities it has with having an integrated gimbal so you are not only stabilised but can do tracking etc or the anamorphic and NDs or the ability to have real hardware controls with the control stick. Its that you can take it out of your pocket, hold the power button on and be ready to shoot 2 seconds later rather than titting about unlocking the phone, opening an app and making sure you are in the correct mode. Another bonus is that if do have a need for remote shooting or self shooting with tracking then you can operate it from your phone which you can't do with your phone as you are already using it to film with 😉
    6 points
  41. 7 weddings in and impressed with the S5ii. Getting used to the flip out screen but would still rather have the multi angle tilt from the S1H. Prefer the files coming out of the S5ii over the S1H. Those from the S1H are just a little too soft for my taste in comparison, probably due to the OLPF. However, possibly due to the OLPF, I prefer the photo files from the S1H. The exact opposite of what is supposed to be… Moiré, only seen one single mild instance in one single clip and not a single time in a still photo. AF has been great but not perfect. No AF is and I still prefer to use AF to acquire initial focus and then flip to manual. Unless tracking where I have to rely on it. Conclusion to date: For me, S1H is the ‘better’ stills camera and the S5ii is the ‘better’ video unit. I don’t miss my S1R’s at all. I thought I might, but do not. 24mp is more than enough for my needs. What is still ‘missing’ for my needs? I have come to the conclusion that as much as I’d like to go to a 2 camera set up, unless I can rely heavily on pulling stills from video…and for that I’d need 6k 50/60p 422 10 bit as a minimum, the 3 camera approach works best. On that basis, I would like 3 things in the future: 1. 3x identical bodies rather than 2 + 1 2. 6k 50/60p 422 10 bit internal (min) 3. A smaller and lighter lens to replace the Lumix 70-200mm f4, even if it topped out at 150mm. I will continue to use it until either Lumix or more likely Sigma does, but it’s the one lens I ‘need’. All things considered, the S5ii has to be the best overall camera I have ever owned and the only thing I’d change it for at this point in time is an X model purely for the aesthetics.
    6 points
  42. I guess if I look at it from the perspective of BM then perhaps it makes slightly more sense. BM has made cameras with S16 and MFT sensors and they used the MFT mount, and they made cameras with S35 sensors and used the EF mount. Assuming they then wanted to make a FF camera, what mount would they choose? EF mount They have used it before, and their users already have lenses that use it, but the crop factor would change between the S35 and FF sensors, and the EF mount has pretty much been abandoned by Canon, so maybe BM want something that's still in active support RF mount Canon have been quite restrictive with third-party use of the mount, so maybe Canon is blocking BM from licensing it, or maybe it's prohibitively expensive, or maybe the flange distance is too little for things like internal NDs PL mount Seems like a logical choice with lots of existing lenses and support from other manufacturers, but maybe it's a step too far for their existing customer base, or maybe they want AF support (does PL support AF?) Nikon mounts Not a lot of cine lenses for Nikon I wouldn't have thought, focus direction is the other way to EF lenses, which might be troublesome to their existing customers Fujifilm X-mount No AF lenses available that cover FF and only 5 third-party lenses that do (on B&H) MFT mount Wouldn't cover FF sensor Sony A logical choice, but like Canon RF, Sony might not want to help BM compete with their cine-cameras so might be charging a lot for the license or might be refusing outright From this perspective I think L-mount makes more sense, and sort-of aligns with their previous use of MFT and EF mounts, which were both "semi-open" systems with lots of existing glass from original and third-parties.
    6 points
  43. Ty Harper

    Canon EOS R5C

    I can confirm that with a fully charged single oem LP-E6NH battery I got a little over 80 minutes at 4K 422 10bit 24p XF-AVC (Clog3). Before the update I was getting a little over 60 mins fully charged. Also getting double that with the grip. Words can't express how f*ckin' happy I am right now thanks to this one practical update - and I haven't even started to play around with the other stuff!
    6 points
  44. There isn't one reason for the decline in websites like DPR and IR, but clearly the ad money has shifted to TikTok and YouTube social media influencers, and away from written articles so that is a big reason. The jazz media company that bought the magazine company that Dave sold IR to back in 2019, saw no worthwhile profit in IR's books. Not only are these sites predominantly about written articles, they are about a subject that is fast turning into a niche. Smartphone cameras are mainstream as we all know, and that means proper cameras are now about as mainstream as cassette tapes. I think AI will accelerate this retreat even further. The other general trend is that both DPR and IR were not ideal from a content point of view, it was often like reading advertising copy, as is the case with so much in the camera world in 2023. There is a lack of drama, a lack of true insight, it has all become a bit dry. The camera companies should be really worried about these two canaries in a coal mine and they won't be the last to die. It points to the fact that the camera industry should probably do something to stop the rot and support the remaining sites. Sadly they won't.
    6 points
  45. MrSMW

    A6700?

    This forum needs a section called 'Ask Kye'. Again, I'm just messing and do enjoy your posts 😘
    6 points
  46. Early days and as with the S5 that preceded it, like it but don’t love it. To be fair, it’s not it’s fault but more my use case for it which is long static stuff and a tiny amount of gimbal. Edited one shoot so far with it and no idea what the critics are saying about it…but as above, fairly limited and controlled use so far. Shot another job but not edited it yet and then a third later this week. Really, the S1H is my workhorse for the greater part of my video work and that is a case of ‘love’ over simply ‘like’. Has a certain mojo to both using it and the output. In other news, my pair of S1R’s came back today and just in the nick of time as I leave tomorrow for my next job. I’ve tried selling one of them once previously but came to the conclusion last week, without going Sony or Nikon (both with native or adapted Tamron lenses), I just cannot get from my current need for 4 working cameras, to 3. Not without chucking 10k into the mix on top of all my trade in kit…and I cannot justify the cost right now. Or this year. Not complaining though… In my ideal world, I would flip to a 3 camera system without hesitation but also unless any future camera has internal ND, using any system for hybrid work is a pain in the arse! I know because I have been wrestling with it for about 12 years and still have not found the ‘perfect’ solution. Does it exist? Nope. Could it exist? Yep. Easily, if we mashed up a few of best bits of several manufacturers… Will it exist? Probably soon. I think we are one step away and it will become reality if internal ND’s can become a common thing. In the meantime, I will ‘soldier’ on with my pair of S1R’s for stills (and emergency video use), S1H for primary/creative filmmaking and S5ii for the more static stuff, gimbal and anything requiring good AF.
    6 points
  47. Attila Bakos

    Fuji X-H2S

    I'm fed up with Atomos, I wasted a huge amount of time doing tests for them for the stuttering issue in ProRes RAW. They didn't even try to replicate it. I reported the problem at the 8th of February, since then I provided tons of test material. And where are we now? They still think it's my unit, or my SSD or my HDMI cable even when I told them I tested with multiple units, multiple cables and SSDs. Unbelievable. In the meantime some other guy asked BlackMagic about the same issue (so apparently this is related the the X-H2s), and they sent it to their engineering team right away, they reproduced it and notified Fujifilm about it. HUGE difference between the two supports. Seriously, even Fuji is better than Atomos, because they don't reply at all, so you won't waste your time with them 🙂
    6 points
  48. I dusted off my EOS-M today and loaded the new ML. It's feeling a lot more user-friendly than before. 2.8K with accurate monitor display? Heck yes. This is potentially an acceptable level of 'frustrating' and I might actually shoot something with it.
    6 points
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