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Just an update on this issue: "Under the terms of the decree, the Manhattan photo, video, audio, and digital imaging retailer has agreed to pay $3,220,000 in back wages and other monetary relief to more than 1,300 affected class members. B&H also agreed to hire a workplace consultant to help correct its employment practices and workplace conduct at its Brooklyn Navy Yard warehouse, as well as its future warehouse in Florence, New Jersey. The company also agreed to provide its managers with annual training on equal opportunity principles and prevention of workplace harassment." https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/ofccp/ofccp20170814 And here is a commentary from a former B&H employee: http://www.thephoblographer.com/2017/08/16/bh-photo-pay-3-2-million-discrimination-lawsuit/

I know that we like to go for low cost solutions but in this case, because easy reliable chroma key is going to be so vital to what you are doing, I'm going to recommend you have a look at the Reflec system. It has been around for years (it was originally a BBC development) and has also been ridiculously overpriced for years but at the end of the day it does produce good, easy, reliable keying without you having to do anything elaborate lighting or setup wise, which is vital if you are working on your own or with a small team. You can set this up in a few minutes and if you had to then go somewhere else and set it up again and get exactly the same results. Basically, it is a piece of reflective material which fires the light from an LED ring that you mount around the lens straight back to the camera which gives you a pretty perfect key without having to worry about lighting the background and the bi-LED versions of the ring mean you can switch from green to blue background instantly. It is not absolutely perfect but it is a very easy solution to work with and it means the time and expense of lighting the backdrop can be better spent lighting you. There are a bunch of different versions of it to suit cameras from palmcorders up to broadcast ones and a lot of different sizes of the background material (including a pop-up round version like a reflector) but something like the Deskshoot Lite kit would be fine with a Panasonic GH camera. If you hunt around on eBay you can find kits for around £800 and even less. There are also a few knock off versions kicking around as the fabric itself is based on (for which you could read possibly identical) to one made by 3M for safety clothing. As I say, its not cheap but as what you are doing is solely based on chroma key then it might actually be worth putting money into this rather than say going big on a lens as for your application, my view at least, would be that your audience would spot the deficiencies in the keying long before the lens.

So today I received the Nikon mount Vivitar 28mm f2. I'm using it on my Metabones Speed Booster on the Panasonic G80. Bought it for £80. So far I'm really surprised by the quality. I expected loads of softness and flaring but I'm getting neither. I'm almost disappointed! Nice character to the bokeh though. Sorry just a boring plant shot from my back garden. Haven't had a chance to test it anywhere else yet. Tomorrow I'm going to a bbq so will be able to test it out better then. Two unforeseen downsides to the lens are its long focus throw (about 270 degrees) and the front element rotates with the focus. It is otherwise very well made and really quite small!

Filmed in Austria at the Dachstein region. Samsung NX1 + Voigtländer Ultron 40mm + Bolex 16/32/1.5x + HCDNA.

Huge thread over on FredMiranda with a highly detailed FAQ developed over time by the users, and detailed info on performance with various lenses. All from a stills perspective of course. I had one and used on an A7RII (sold a while ago) with a variety of glass (you can get adapters to convert to M mount, e.g. C/Y>M, OM>M, F>M, FD>M, etc.). AF is highly variable based on lens and aperture selected. There were also some long term reliability issues. It makes a great helicoid adapter to bring the generally long minimum focus distance (MFD) of rangefinder glass in to more useful range.

Ive started using an X-T20 for work today. Took some stills for webb publishing. But starting next week I hope to shoot quite a bit of video as well. It will be 100% run-n-gun with a travel tripod (mostly as a braise for handheld). I can report back how I like the experience. My thoughts going in is that I prefer the X-Pro2 for both video and stills over the X-T2 and X-T20. And I don't like the size of the X-T20. But I love the sensor and Im since long ago familiar with its output so I can shoot with full confidence and no need to chimp.

http://www.newsshooter.com/2017/06/03/sony-to-launch-a-full-frame-36x24mm-sensor-cinealta-camera-next-year/ Could give the Alexa 65 some competition, especially if it has F65-level color and sensor sampling, and would be even more amazing if it's the first cinema-level camera to include DPAF-level AF.

This has been known for a while now. They are developing it with input from cinematographers and post houses. It's going to take advantage of Sony X-OCN compressed raw format in order to bring file sizes under control. One of the Achilles' heels of the F65 was the fact that the file sizes were massive. And with 8K, it's even more important to provide efficient compression.When data rates go into the terabytes/hr range, data management becomes feasible for only the really big productions. Word on the street is that it will be compatible with Sony's R7 raw recorder, which indicates that the camera will share the F5/F55 form factor and that's a big step forward. Those are well-sized and shaped cameras. The F65 was an ungainly beast.

Can't comment on this particular gimbal, but I have resorted to exclusively using my Olympus 12mm on my pistol grip gimbal for the same reasons stated above. Since I shoot on a Gh5 and usually output 1080p, I can always zoom in or crop in the timeline if necessary. No recalibration required and the setup is a lot less tiring for your arm than using a heavy lens.

And I'm just back back from San Vigilio di Marebbe...great places for pictures and videos.

True but I've always felt shallow depth hides a lot of the inherent flaws in consumer video, plus it conceals the limitations of no budget, run and gun, guerilla filmmaking. The Voigts clean up pretty nicely by 1.4, so if the Veydra lenses are good wide open, that's still + a stop with the Voigtlanders. Either way, the Veydra is the better choice for Jon's needs.

exactly, i was never hostil to luca.

Since you're doing 2D type animation stuff, I'd recommend shooting long focal lengths. This will "sit" better in the eventual composition. I made a green screen project a few years back wherein we tried the short lens look. Didn't like it at all and threw out all those shots. Edge distortion was awkward. And, FWIW, we shot vertical too. Also, an art direction thing to consider: Your subject is darker than the background. As a rule of thumb, to make the image easier to look at, reverse that. Not that you need to always do this, just a consideration. Working in the virtual realm like you're doing gives you complete control over your "lighting." Make sure you exploit it.

"perspective" is only function of distance. You probably getting the same perspective as a 55 on a 35FF camera.

There is a flickr pool but usual rules apply with those pools in terms of separating the wheat from the chaff. https://www.flickr.com/groups/451809@N25/pool/

andrew, great article, really interesting, and i love the infrared stuff~! one of these days im gonna get a camera to IR convert. have you shot infrared before? im sure you have, youve clearly got the idea

Big DP Merrill fan here.

Ah, EISA, didn't that go something like...

Well, since the EVA1 isn't getting the 400mbps at release, I fear the GH5 may not get it for awhile. But we'll see. I am really looking forward to that update. The footage should look insanely good.

Did you even read what he asked? To the op: yes, for your application perfectly fine. Just composite it into the 16:9 frame where you have your CGI or whatever you green screen for.

Shot entirely with the Samsung NX1 at 60P with DIS ON at 150Mbit using the Nikkor 35mm f2 manual lens. The DIS works pretty good to OK with manual lenses, unless you do weird movements!

believe me i know. I've been doing exactly that for years. i understand the advantages and disadvantages. full frame is fun and I enjoy shooting in it, but in this case, I *want* a super35 (1.5x) sensor digital cinema camera to shoot films with. I want that because that's the standard I'm used to for motion pictures. besides, I don't like using a focal reducer with my vintage lenses because they exacerbate blooming, CA, and soft corners for apertures wider than f/2.8, which negates the advantage of the metabones' extra stop, or more. fortunately, I won't need that extra stop with a native 2500 ISO (providing it's just as clean as 800 which we have yet to see from the EVA1). and last, I have the 5D3/MLRAW option for when I want the full frame look (which I'm also a fan of for the right project). side note: I used to own a good bit of MFT lenses when I was an AF100 and then GH4 owner. always found them a little too small to operate with my big bear paws. the contax zeiss I'm using now look f***ing amazing and suit me better. I appreciate what your saying. just offering a different pov. yes, two actually. and the latest is finally getting a release date for late this year or early next. in talks now with the distributor.

So a lot of people strangely seem to argue in defense of Panasonic! :-/

Yes that is obvious, but it really isn't a reason why Panasonic had to go EF with the EVA1

Video cameras never need the long flange distance, as they don't ever use a mirror. Exactly! Buy Nikon over Canon lenses.

Yeah, this is the camera that just keeps on giving.

Flawed indeed: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/21/nyregion/minority-sheet-metal-workers-in-new-york-start-getting-back-pay-after-decades-of-bias.html The allegations cited in your first paragraph are untrue. We have said so unequivocally since these as-yet unproven allegations were first made public. There were and are no separate bathrooms for whites and non-whites. No one was fired for collective bargaining. All the bathrooms are as clean and sanitary as those in my own home. Regarding the second paragraph IMO referring to me as "A talking figurehead" speaks volumes. And, yes I am here in part to protect the company's reputation. The company's reputation deserves protection and the company, like any accused i this country is innocent until proven guilty, isn't it?

I really think the glaring omission from your argument is capitalism vs. socialism. To me, it seems you are teetering the line? And I'm sorry, but in another recent post you proclaim the criminal justice system is broken in this country, but you refuse to admit your part in the malfunction. In the US, a person, or party, is innocent until proven guilty, but in the court of public opinion, you tend to find people guilty for your innate desire to fight for the "little man," which is just as damaging as authority figures abusing their power and to be honest... Very condescending to the little man. Words matter and there is enough traffic on this site to influence people's opinions and you haphazardly, prematurely cast dispersions and guilt without any inside knowledge of the facts. You use hearsay and articles from biased 3rd parties and media outlets that have as much of an agenda as the direct parties involved. If the workers are happy with their unionization, then I am happy for the workers. If B&H can continue to serve their customers with low prices and superior customer service, then I am happy for both B&H and their customers. The End

I dont trust the NYTimes either. Or any major media outlet in America for that matter. I think most crew members would be pretty happy with $600 a day. I would be.

In another thread, you admit and encourage documentarians to use storytelling in their work, but in this instance you take articles written by The New York Times and Al-Jazeera at face value. You have bought into this notion that big business and law enforcement are the "bad guys" and the common man are the "good guys," that's cute and all, but the world is a little more complicated than that. And if it wasn't for the photographers that make 50k a day, there wouldn't be $600 a day jobs for his/her crew... Which is an AMAZING days pay by the way.

If I had to wager, I'd put my money on that. But even our service economy has businesses with tens of thousands of employees; look at Wal Mart's history of fighting unions, yet they seem to be a prime case where a union could be meaningful. Will it happen? Who knows. But we're talking unionizing pretty crappy, low-pay jobs, not middle-class-creating industries. My kids get it - work hard, avoid debt, live simply and portably. They know how tough it will be to have a good career. Well, my oldest is a paramedic and she may end up with a free education to become an RN… one of the last middle class career paths it seems. My son the animator? He's getting used to a suitcase and a laptop!

We also live in an age where brand new billion dollar industries are created in months, not decades. Where information has never been more accessible, plentiful, or instantly available. Where people like me with absolutely no formal film, marketing, or business education can start a production company that is responsible for the well-being of not only myself but others. There will be no return to the glory days of 1950s-era manufacturing and middle class single income union jobs. They're gone, that culture exists only in memories, and they're never coming back.