Leaderboard

Poll for Clarkson's Dismissal 59% right decision, 29% wrong decision, 12% don't know. I've been keeping an eye on the elections lately but it's really interesting looking at the overall demographic of voters for topics like the Clarkson debate. Like the usual difference in ideologies etc.

According to the last reviewer on the BHphotoVideo page Inogeni 4K to USB3 converter works with A7S. But USB3 output for 4K is only 4:2:0 8Bit while Sony A7S HDMI 4K feed is 4:2:2 8Bit, so there is some loss of color information. Specs on BHphotovideo page are not full, you can find the details here. http://www.dexteralabs.com/inogeni/ Hadrware requirements are Core i5 with 4Gb RAM. Pair it with MS Surface 1 or 2 and you get cheaper (under 1K) recorder than shogun but slightly bigger, heavier and of course without the nice screen and many recording options. Not sure if it is worth it. Blackmagic has much cheaper (200$) PCI card for 4K capture if you are willing to use desktop computer. For me it's not viable option but here it is: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/intensitypro4k

RED Weapon, Alexa, F65 etc are not at the top of the food chain. It's the person behind the camera and whatever is in front of it. At the least, that's how I like to think of it.

Part of ​ARRI's secret sauce is their camera ergonomics and menu system: very easy to use and widely praised. Compare the Red menu system: great for technophiles, but with so much complexity, it's not easy to use. I've seen very experienced Red operators hunt around for menu settings. These seconds and minutes add up during production while everyone waits- time is money and it also gets on the cast & crews nerves waiting for something that really shouldn't require waiting. Capturing a scene without highlight or shadow clipping with maximum flexibility in post is the most efficient workflow: ARRI is currently the best. ARRI's ProRes files easily compete with Red's raw files and are much faster & easier to work with in post. ARRI now provides 50Mbps 422 MPEG2 for broadcast work! Smaller files are faster to work with and cheaper in the long run. Sony's XAVC (H.264 422 10-bit) available from the FS7 and up is very efficient and useful. H.264 with 444 12-bit would be another useful option. H.265 provides twice the efficiency of H.264 and can also support 444 and 10+ bits. Even without using a GPU, current H.265 decoders easily run much faster than real-time on current computers. The trend is clear, even at the high end, compressed codecs are replacing raw (which is Red's case is lightly wavelet compressed Bayer data). In terms of image quality vs. resolution, for Skyfall's 4K they could have shot Red 5K and scaled down, instead they shot on Alexa and scaled up from ~3K. ARRI has years of experience with film cameras and digital film scanners: their cameras produce the most film-like images possible. That said, the F65 is less film like and more... something else- addictive color for the eyes, perhaps different in the way Technicolor 3 strip was compared to Kodak film: The F65 is of course different from Technicolor 3 strip; the point is the color rendering makes you stare at the beauty of it. ARRI, Canon, Red, Sony, Panasonic (even the NX1!) can produce this kind of color, however Oblivion & Lucy (even After Earth's F65 shots) look different than other cameras (perhaps not better if wanting a film look, but the color is amazingly addictive).

Just a precision: in Europe all cameras have a limit of 30min :/ And I went through hardware issues with both my gh3 and gh4, but not with my NX1 yet - I think it's a matter of luck also, and early adopter being treated as "beta testers"... (for both companies) - Also to be fair, the customer support in Paris is very good concerning panasonic's camera. Haven't tested the samsung service yet. Also my NX1 fell on the concrete when I was shooting in a rainy day in NY and nothing happened to it. It continued filming in the snow, in the rain, in the sun. I can speak highly of the NX1 reliability. - Don't wanna sound like a NX1 fanboy, I still can't sell my GH4 - I'm really attached to how small and easy to use it is.

Yes, calling each other racist, scum, and stupid really is daft as fuck and doesn't help. The pitfalls of speaking politics and different ideologies in the wrong place... And QMedia, I care. Just last week the popular opinion of a million Top Gear fans wanting petition for Clarkson to stay on. That's pretty good fandom, mind you. Most Conservatives were on the fence, until the report came out, where they then changed their tune to agree with the Left with the inevitable BBC sacking. It's funny how popular opinions can change given information and context. While we can all now agree (as Andrew now with mphillips and damp posted above) that Jeremy Clarkson is at fault... and we can agree that assault is terrible... I can also see the thinking that the BBC really should have had better talent management and avoided this. Well, from a preventative measure at least, still not sure they could have done anything different after the incident. This guy has been on thin ice for over a year, and what they did was extend this season of Top Gear by 4 episodes? Interesting... Oh and I'm also questioning the BBC's reporting on the NHS and Elections too so yez, thanks, think for ourselves indeed.

So no link to the phone? (don't need to compare, have shot plenty on my bmpcc, bmcc and my favorite, the bmpc. But I don't see how any of them are relevant to this discussion.)

​Its a higher reduction than the regular one. o.58 instead of 0.71. But as can be seen here on the table half way down the page, http://www.metabones.com/products/details/MB_SPEF-BMPCC-BM1 It warns that it may cause physical damage if mounted to a normal micro four thirds camera. The bmc speed booster on the otther hand (at 0.64) aparently wont damage but has a smaller image circle. So full frame will vignette, but 4k crop will probably not.

Phillip Bloom shows examples in his review of the gh4 and if I remember correctly compares to the regular one.

I'm also very interested in what smart phone j.f.r. is talking about! Haha! From my experience the NX1 is incredible! and Mattias Love your footage! BTW.

“Simplicity is divine” says Kim Olson. “People often make things more complicated than they need to be. And that’s especially true with photography”. The photo below is from Philip Johnston’s blog “HD warrior”. It was taken at “Production Gear BVE 2015”. I think the camera man is smiling because he is happy because after 2 hours of rigging and adjusting he finally got his stabilizer up and running. The question is: Why does a small camera as the BM Cinema need a huge stabilizer as such? I think this rig doesn't inspire creativity, it absorbs all creativity for the technique only. The photo below was taken from 4Kshooters.net . You can’t see the camera, it’s a Sony A7s. It's rigged to a bizarre degree of complexity. Downgrading is not an option here as serious filmmaking is required. Why not UPGRADE for more advanced technology ? e.g. take the Arri Amira. Well-designed ergonomics simplifies complexity. It leaves more freedom for creating artistic results. Downgrading gear technology for the sake of creativity is not per se divine. The right technology UPGRADE may also inspire creativity.

the only flaw in your test is the camera. the s16mm sensor is very forgiving to lenses. assuming you ever wanted to shoot on a bigger sensor the differences will be more obvious - particularly at the edges. the tokina was originally designed for use with a tokina at-x 70-200 f2.8 zoom, on full frame. to bring minimum focus distance down from around 1m to around 0.6m if i recall. if the achromatic qualities were not worth having, tokina wouldnt have bothered and would have sold a singlet. so we know that for f2.8 70mm on full frame, achromatic diopters are required for clean performance. since full frame tends to use around an 85mm lens for anamorphic attachments the achro is almost 100% required for undegraded performance to the edges of the 44mm image circle. so, if you plan on upgrading to a bigger sensor, you'll be thankful to have kept the achro IMO

​You've got balls to do this!

Its really sad that one of the greatest TV shows will never be the same. Jeremy Clarkson was the backbone of the show but he also bears the responsibility for its (probable) demise. He seems to have a problem with understanding that actions have consequences - you see it in pretty much every episode and it really makes for great TV. He behaves as if he is invincible and entertains the hell out of us in the process. Unfortunately this behaviour leaks out into the "real" world and he's got himself into trouble many many times. You can argue that he should be given a break but its not an isolated incident. He's really f**ked up a lot and got away with it with a slap on the wrist. The BBC has defended him where it may not have defended others and they have already given him the "star" treatment several times over. He's one of the biggest starts of the corporation and given his serial bad behaviour, which has put the show at risk on a few occasions before, I'm positive that his superiors would have done everything they could have to protect the show. He's put the BBC in a terrible position with his latest actions and he alone is responsible for this. I spent 4 years working at the BBC and its a very "by the book" organization. Its pretty clear right from the beginning whats acceptable and whats not. Tens of thousands of other employees seem to get the rules. He's worked there for decades, understands the organization and the responsibilities it has to license fee payers and he still screws up like this after many warnings. How many warnings and slaps on the wrist should he be allowed exactly? I understand the argument that its a bigger picture; that one of the most popular TV shows on the planet is at risk and that sometimes you need to be flexible with your rules to benefit the greater good. This is fine on short-term productions (like film) or with independent companies that only answer to shareholders, but the BBC cannot afford to be that flexible - its a publicly owned company with a charter, answerable to the people and absolutely cannot be seen to be supporting criminal behaviour. As I said, Clarkson knew this. He knew he was on thin ice and he knew that another f**k up probably signal the end of his employment. He might have been under a lot of stress and fuelled by booze but he still made a conscious decision to do what he did. I'd bet you anything he woke up the next morning and thought to himself "oh dear......." Its just a sad sad situation. Like many stars, he's the master of his own downfall. His unpredictable and risk-taking character which has helped to take Top Gear to the heights of success is also the cause of its demise. Maybe he can take a break on Clarkson island:

O7Q+ records A7S 4K.

FLOATING ZONE FOCUS EXPLAINED Nikon calls this Close Range Correction and Canon calls it Floating Element, so for the sake of accuracy Rectilux calls it Floating Zone Focus. Back in the day, when lenses were focused by moving the whole cell forward and back from the film plane, it was noticed that when close focused, the image quality suffered. For example, it is usually found that say a vintage 135mm lens would typically be limited to 1.5m close focus for this reason. Nikon found that by shuffling the distance between lens elements, using a mechanical cam system that they could tighten up the dispersion of the imaging rays to give much improved close focusing capability. Rectilux does the same thing but manually as detailed below. As you know Rectilux 3FF-W will focus from 0.6m to infinity when the anamorphic and taking lenses are simultaneously set to infinity. Call this configuration ‘INF-INF’ Now say you are on set and the shot list says you don’t need to focus on anything beyond 5m. Just set your anamorphic and taking lenses simultaneously to 5m. Call this configuration ‘5-5’. Thus 5m is the new infinity and means that you can shoot from 5m down to much closer than 0.6m (I will leave you to do the calculation) and the close shots will be much crisper than the configuration ‘INF-INF’. Of course the whole stroke is available to you, so much precise focus is easily obtained. Now say you have a romantic candlelit dinner scene. You want lots of bokeh and also want to use it to blot out background distractions. Storyboard calls for reverse head shots and you tell your AC to configure Rectilux to ‘2-2’, meaning set the anamorphic and taking lenses simultaneously to 2m, so now 2m is the new infinity and gives you very close focus capability, so that when the guy proposes and puts the engagement ring on his GFs finger you are there to scoop it up, filling the frame with this shot. I suspect now you will come to realise the additional advantage of the quick change system, enabling you or your AC, to quickly remove the scope and set it to the desired ‘X-X’ configuration and put it back ready to shoot.

​I've heard it doesn't have the same dynamic range as what they used to make.

Just thought to report on new firmware availlable (hadn't come across it yet around here, I just happened to stumble upon it myself as I regularly visit their page (incl. at the end of this post). What's new in Blackmagic Camera Setup 2.1? Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera New Blackmagic Camera Setup software Adds support for more frame guide options Adds Japanese and Chinese language menu support Holding down MENU will bypass Dashboard and go straight into settings Peaking state is remembered after power cycleBlackmagic Cinema Camera New Blackmagic Camera Setup software Adds lossless compressed RAW support Adds support for more frame guide options Holding down MENU will bypass the Dashboard Peaking state is remembered after power cycle~ https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support/family/professional-cameras [UPD 10 APR 2015] ACTUAL VERSION 2.3* https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support/readme/ad22dd8b8478486da80392d8b230d7c4 [UPD 01 JUN 2015] ACTUAL VERSION 2.4* https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support/readme/9e1fa7d6a85c4925a782c304089f9381 [UPD 08 JUL 2015] ACTUAL VERSION 2.5* https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support/readme/566fc3dfd31444bdb77d53d1277ec963 [UPD 18 AUG 2015] ACTUAL VERSION 2.6* https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support/readme/ecea966625724017b4739915b8603133 [UPD 11 SEP 2015] ACTUAL VERSION 2.7* https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support/readme/63affb6a84b64ffd84ae9b220abd5830 [UPD 07 OCT 2015] ACTUAL VERSION 2.8* https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support/readme/cac66e2bd33d4ac4af767c2bb3aecaa6 * UPD doesn't affect BMPCC

also inspiring... "Hands of Bresson" depicts the way robert bresson films peoples hands...pure poetry in motion.