Andrew - EOSHD

One of my favourite independent directors has started testing the GH4 against his RED. http://danieljohnpeters.com/2014/05/14/gh4-2/

 

Nice shots in there and like the concise writing style. I liked it enough to get that generic EF speed booster for my GH4. The results look pretty good judging from Vimeo. £70 can't go wrong! Or can i!? Time to find out.

Happy to have two threads actually...

 

One for problems.

 

And one for design aspects.

 

Slow-mo softness at 96fps and 2.2x crop in 4K is an aspect of the design.

 

A problem for me would be a bug or usability quirk.

 

Let's continue on the thread but be clear on what we mean...

Complete an utter madness. The 4K mode does not come at 'too many other costs'. If you're shooting 1080p internally you're completely wasting the talents of the camera. I am shooting 4K on the GH4 for 1080p delivery. You can reframe in post, which is endlessly creative, no matter what you're shooting. The image quality for 1080p looks WAY better downscaled in post from 4K to 1080p than pixel binned on the sensor in 1080p mode.

Pietz I pointed all this out months ago in my articles, I resent being called a fanboy. Change of tone required I think!

The A7S should do 10bit HDMI and 8bit 4K internal. I hope Sony reconsider and put at least the AX100 processor in there for internal 4K recording to XAVC-S. After all it is a more expensive camera than the AX100!

 

8bit external and 8bit internal... not much logic in that is there?

Don't feed the troll corpse. He's been already been hacked into pieces and fed to a pig :)

 

That'll teach 'em.

I disagree with the 'this wins over that' mentality though too... All important equally.

The sensor readout is much faster on the GH4, by 50%. But 400% more data coming off the sensor, that isn't enough to compensate. Audio issue is a non-issue as far as I'm concerned. Who shoots video with audio in stills mode? That's what the movie mode is for!

 

AF is of no interest to me either.

 

The soft video in VFR mode, well treat it as a creative bonus tool... You could pay $15k for a camera today, and not even get 60p! (C300)

Happily on here I do the banning. Goodbye!!

obviously you're just interested in the toyz....not what you can do with them. Editing image continuity is one of the most basic tools that filmmakers use to grab the attention of the viewer. When I saw those perturbations, I thought I was watching a doc, not a narrative short. You can do that in documentary ...but you can't do it in narrative. And regardless...no especially because it was a one person project, they should have been more careful....so no Andrew, I wasn't "transported" simply because the filmmaker was telling a confusing tale based on the information the viewer was receiving. Overly critical...of course. That 's what film criticism is all about.

 

Oh dear. Well the whole style is supposed to be a mix of documentary and fiction, which makes it so believable. If you're going to criticise on something small, it at least helps to get it into perspective by mentioning what you DID like, if indeed you did like anything at all, you miserable person.

A Drop in the Ocean. His wrists are wrapped with yellow tape. An effective graphic design which draws the eye's attention. Then they're not wrapped. Then they're wrapped. Bad continuity, esp. since the yellow tape is meant to draw your visual attention. Look at 1:25. These kinds of errors should have been caught in the process of repeated viewing.

 

Oh, A Drop In The Ocean was great. Was way too involved in the mood, characters, story, to notice stuff like that. You weren't?

Didn't notice the continuity errors. Neat idea, but the execution is a bit clinical. Everything seems staged in the way it is placed on the set. Who places their slippers like that by the bed and everything so perfectly!? The camera work is a bit wooden too. Despite that I connected with the theme and the audio is well done. It's a good effort.

You kind of nailed it. Mind you if we took half the time we spend messing around testing cameras, reading reviews and forums, etc., and spent that out in the world meeting actors, attending workshops, watching live theatre, etc., it might help solve that problem. :)

 

How about you best do both, because filmmaking is never about a single thing. It is everything that's important right?

The BMPCC will never work on the GH4. The shutter shield and shutter itself is in the way. The best I can do is to screw back the BMPCC Speed Booster glass in the housing so that it doesn't get so close to the sensor, but that means no infinity... best I could do was around 2m.

 

My advice is get the BMCC version or wait for a possible GH4 version.

Thom's always been a bit slow on the uptake with video, because he's a stills guy. He's clearly never shot with the GH4. Had he done so he'd have seen straight away that the time remaining counter with a 64GB card ticks down from around the 1hr25min mark in Cinema 4K mode!

 

It's the lightest weight 4K codec on earth unless you count XAVC-S, and I don't because it sucks.

 

XAVC-S is Sony's marketing way of saying 'here's H.264 again but at 60Mbit instead of 24Mbit' which is WAY too low for the AX100's 4K.

 

On the Blackmagic Torture Camera, I was getting about 6GB per minute, on the GH4 it is 600MB per minute.

 

10MB per second vs 100MB per second, one is practical, one isn't.

Did you grade first frame or a middle one? First frame can be blocky with some codecs. I saw this on D5200 and GX7, various others.

 

Better check that.

 

I won't be shooting in any of the 1080p modes in-camera on the GH4 because you can easily do 1080p in post with the 4K and get a much better image that way.

It's worth pointing out that the sensor in an Alexa, Epic, F55, APS-C DSLR or a GH4 with a focal reducer is closer to the size of 35mm movie film that carried the golden age of cinema for almost a century than a 5d3.

 

Good point. Can we drop the 'small sensor' accusations at the GH4 yet?
 

However I still love full frame for certain things. I am trying to match it with the GH4 in 4K and 1.4x crop with BMCC variant Speed Booster. I can get close to a 50mm F1.2L on full frame but still not there. Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 is closest at the 35mm end wide open! Nikon 55mm F1.2 has the most similar look to bokeh and shallow DOF but the framing is tighter, FOV not the same as a 50mm on full frame.

 

I am still torn on what to use for an upcoming music video shoot. This has a set built in a basement of a tattoo studio and very little room to position the camera and we have a lot we want to obscure with focus tricks. The 5D Mark III in this situation would probably be the better bet.

When I go to Taiwan and do more documentary style shooting punched in on people and subjects from a distance, then that is where the GH4 is going to shine over full frame.

I'll try this weekend but I don't see a whole lot of point considering how much better the 4K image is and how you effectively get 10bit from it anyway when down sampled to 1080p in post! Not forgetting smaller file sizes than ProRes too!

It doesn't fit on the GM1. Not tested on G6 yet! It does fit GX7 (just), GH3 and GH4, but still yet to test infinity! Beware for now.

A Drop In The Ocean:

Behind The Move:



Kendy Ty shoots with a Canon 550D / T2i and Sigma 30mm F1.4. The results are staggering considering the 'low-fi' performance of the gear. If ever there was a spur to get out and shoot something, this is it...

Read the full article here

Julian is right on about the grade. The Bangkok film has some fine film grain added and quite a bit of work to bring the highlights down from super white and the blacks up, it's a nice look and again hides the shortcomings of the camera and the 'digital look' very well.

 

Don't forget the audio...

 

His sound work is amazing. It really adds texture and impact to the shots.

I think the limits of Kendy's gear has allowed him to really focus and hone his style. There's a definite consistency to all his work in terms of style.

 

It's only one style though, remember that there's a broad range of looks that would need different gear. A wide angle shot of a city would be moire hell on a 550D.

 

The Sigma 30mm F1.4 is interesting. I picked a battered old one up today for 189 euros. It is actually quite sharp but not too 'perfect'. Goes well with my Iscorama 54 as it is quite stocky but wide, like the Iscorama 54, and the focus ring has quite a short throw. On the Nikon D7100 it looks great. On the BMCC speed booster on my GX7 in 1.28x crop (full sensor, for stills and 1080p) it gives a nice fall off from the centre in terms of vignette while never quite going completely dark in the corners. Nice little character. I can see myself using it. My favourite look of the moment though is still 5D raw + 50mm F1.2L. Unbeatable :)

By the way here's a few frames from Kendy's next film, doesn't look quite so 550D does it? :)

 

Stills from my upcoming shortfilm shot in Bangkok ! https://t.co/neDSqLHcwU

— Kendy Ty (@KendyTy)

April 30, 2014

 

He is very talented, I have followed him on Twitter, let's see what he comes up with next....

There's definitely a place for low-fi image quality.

 

Kendy's video shows why hiding stuff is just as important as what you show. The 550D / T2i was a perfect choice for what he wanted to do. I have used that Sigma 30mm F1.4 and it also has character. Nice lens. Not too perfect, not too clinical.

 

Says Kendy...

 

The whole film was done over 3 days, post production included. I used my small Canon 550D, everything is natural, no additional lights. I think it is much more atmospheric. I don’t like it when you can see everything clearly on screen because it looks fake. I like the idea of showing just the shapes or the shadows of the characters like in a comic book. I wanted something organic so I added some clean 35mm grains to my footage, because I like the visual render of the old cameras such as the Bolex. For the strange flares effects, I use a broken glass in front of my lens and shot with only one hand. It’s easy with a small camera like the 550d, but could be a pain with an Alexa because of the weight. Because I make everything with After Effects (including the edit) I work very fast. I don’t waste my time by switching between several softwares or video tools.”

 

Talented guy and without doubt the 99k plays on Behind The Move are there because of his sensitive use of the camera aesthetics, the sensitive handling of music and content, and the content itself including that amazing girl, fantastic dancer, great story. It all matters. ALL of it.

 

In the case of Behind The Move the low-fi visuals suited the content but what about when they don't? What if you want to film a rich sunset in memory colour and see every blade of grass in a field? The 550D works best with the shallow DOF and medium close-ups seen in Behind The Move because it hides a lot of the flaws, like a lack of detail, moire and aliasing, compression, muted colour, etc. There will be a LOT of content that these issues don't suit and it helps to know about it before getting all inspired over someone else's content and picking a camera that might be completely ill-suited to your own.

 

Also shooting style has a lot to do with it. Here the 550D is on a relatively slow-shutter speed and all handheld, with some great framing going on. Kendy's camera work here is like a high wire act. If you don't always get the framing emotionally connected with the mood and the subject matter, the slight of hand will be revealed the magic vanishes. If your shooting style is locked down, on a tripod, the 550D is the last thing you'd want to use, believe me. If your shooting style is more dynamic and flowing, then you'd probably be better off investing in drones and rigs rather than cameras anyway. Everyone is different.

 

I want epic scenery, anamorphic, striking visuals, super rich colours and rich details. Sometimes I may want handheld camera-work, even black & white, a grungy low contrast low resolution feel. Why not start off with as high a quality image as you can get your hands on and rough it up? The glass in front of the lens in some shots in Kendy's movie is an example of that. Making stuff look less clean, less 'real', more magical and otherworldly.

 

The technology needs to keep improving and the shooter needs to stay on top of it.

 

I am already imagining ways where Kendy's video could have been improved in terms of lenses and cameras!

 

It doesn't need to be improved though because the muted, low-fi look is perfect for his subject matter... the isolation, loneliness and overwork of the dancer, being stretched this way and that in a big city away from home.

 

If the film was longer and we followed her back home and there was a loving embrace with her mum or something... maybe you'd not want the same look for that scene.

Yes the lenses one is definitely an option I've considered before. Poll here:

 

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