nigelbb

On 8/20/2019 at 4:05 AM, hoodlum said:

No 4k 24p based on these specs

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ELQFqaBQW4HwZC1hUOe7UpePtUDSVkBM/view

 

It does have 25p though. Do you think that anyone can tell the difference between 24p & 25p? Is the motion cadence & whatnot that is so distinctive & necessary for the cinema look that a 4% difference can be seen?

On 8/20/2019 at 12:18 AM, HockeyFan12 said:

That's a fair answer, and as regards these cameras, I basically agree. This forum caters to a relatively small group of consumers who want to shoot cinematic video without paying many thousands of dollars. That market is big enough that the GH5S and other cameras are marketed specifically (or at least primarily) toward it, but this camera isn't. It doesn't need to shoot 24p. It would be really nice if it did, but it doesn't have to.

On the other hand, every Netflix series I can think of (not that they're particularly well shot) is shot at 24p for consumption on 60hz displays. Do you think the DPs here are objectively wrong to do that? Do you think they're stylistically wrong? 

Would anyone notice if they shot at 25p?

21 hours ago, luminescence said:

I received the lens from Amazon UK - in the latest box marked H-FSA14-140, with the manual inside marked the same. But the lens inside is not the right one! It has the previous 2013 version code stamped on it and the lens hood: H-FS 14-140 - as per the photo attached. So I guess I will have to send it back.

I spent alot of time trying to find photos of both versions on Amazon, Panasonic and B&H - and unfortunately there seems no way to distinguish them apart, they look identical with the writing on the outside and around the rim of the lens. There is no Version II that I can see stamped on the lens or photo of where the code is stamped.

So I am still not sure if I have the right lens or it has been somehow swapped in the Amazon warehouse. It was bought second hand as a return from a previous customer. It is in immaculate condition but appears to be the previous version.

2 minutes ago, nigelbb said:

 

I would guess that the previous customer ordered the newest version then put their old lens in the new box & returned it to Amazon for a refund

I have had incredibly good results with these cheap Boya brand wireless Tx/Rx https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00RGF6AJ2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

They use some clever frequency hopping technology so there is no interference.. The sound is maybe a little less full than I used to get with my Sennheiser G3 EW-112P gear but I've put that down to the superior Sennheiser lav mic.

Before you shell out hundreds of £/$/€ on traditional wireless brands like Sennheiser or Sony it's worth a punt on a set of these at £60.

On 7/25/2019 at 7:18 PM, chrisE said:

The only thing you can do is complain and whine. Is that what a "wanna be" needs to hopefully grow up one day? Disappointing. Following your blog for quite some time now, but it get's worse post by post. Could you please stick with productive things instead of bashing companies (especially Sony) for new gear, you don't understand?

+1

Andrew you are simply not the target market for the Sony RX100M7 so why complain so much?

I've owned an RX100M6 for a year & it's a great little stills camera with some decent video features. It's biggest single selling point is that it's the size of a packet of cigarettes with an amazing 24-200mm FF equivalent lens & it fits in your pocket. I now use it for 80% of my photos because it's just so easy to carry with me.

The RX100M7 is a nice incremental upgrade but not enough to make we want to trade in my M6.. The AF on the M6 is already amazing & TBH with the DoF of a 1" sensor the eye AF is pretty redundant as the face AF works so well already. The external mic input is what everyone bitched about as missing from the M6 but I barely use it for video beyond the equivalent of a few snapshots..

It is literally a unique camera that no other manufacturer can touch so is priced accordingly. If you don't want what it offers then clearly it's not worth you buying it but for me it's been the best value camera that I have ever owned in terms of the numbers of photos that I have taken with it.

20 hours ago, Ingerson said:

Anyone have some clips to share of the improved AF?

Sorry I'm busy with regular work stuff at the moment & not had much time to shoot any video. TBH I jumped in & bought the camera as I saw one at a good price & I was expecting prices of used cameras would rise once others spotted how good the firmware update is. It's a lovely camera & feels just right in your hands.

The cable arrived & I've updated the firmware.

The C-AF is freakishly good. At least the equal of any proper camcorder that I have used over the years.

Initially I was horrified at the severe crop mode in both HD & 4K video but then realised that this is only when you have sensor shift & digital IS engaged & when you switch to sensor shift only there is no crop.

I bought a cheap Vitrox speed booster to enable me to use my Nikon lenses but having tried then I don't think that this is going to be useful as the camera is hideously unbalanced when you put a heavyweight FF lens plus speed booster on the front of the camera. I'll just live with the 25mm F/1.7 which gives me 50mm FF equivalent view & can always use the lossless 2x digital teleconverter when shooting video to give a 100mm view.

12 hours ago, Video Hummus said:

I think you will enjoy it immensely with the new firmware. 

From some brief testing it's really nice with the old firmware. I can't believe how effective the 5-axis IBIS is now. I thought what they created with the original OM-D E-M5 was good but this is astonishing. The EVF is lovely too. The 4K video is very good & it has the lovely Olympus colour.

My new (used) camera arrived yesterday. First impressions are that it's very well made & fits beautifully in my hands. I'm just looking to download & install the new firmware`& it looks like they have even updated the user manual with details of features included with the new firmware http://download.aws.olympus.eu/consumer/manuals/cameras/E-M1_Mark_II_MANUAL_FW30_EN.pdf

Update: Can't do the FW update as I need a USB-C cable so ordered one from Amazon for delivery tomorrow.

I have aways liked the look of the Olympus OM-D E-M1 II & with this new firmware update it looks a very interesting proposition so I have just ordered a used model with Panasonic 25mm F/1.7 lens from Wex here in the UK. Trading in my Sony RX10M4 has covered almost the entire cost.

The RX10M4 has been pretty much redundant since I bought the RX100M6 as except for the amazing 600mm FF equivalent zoom there is nothing to choose between the two cameras in terms of image quality & as the RX100M6 fits in my pocket I use it 80-90% of the time for stills. When I want to "do photography" I have my Nikon D810 & a bunch of lenses so I'll be looking at getting a Speedbooster for the E-M1 to take advantage of my Nikkor lenses.

I gave up pro video about five years ago but latterly I shot wedding with a pair of OM-D E-M5s & loved them for their fantastic 5-axis IBIS & the light weight & compactness. The HD video was a bit mushy but the colours were lovely. The E-M1 is a bit larger but still should have many of the same characteristics but now with sharp 4K video.

I see that there is a v3.1 firmware released on 9th July presumably fixing bugs introduced by v3.0 https://www.olympus-europa.com/site/en/c/cameras_support/downloads/e_m1_mark_ii_downloads.html

On 5/5/2019 at 1:46 AM, Eric Calabros said:

Its not just calibration. Many people watch these tv series on their phones and tablets. If they are OLED, their max brightness is very low (how many of total mobile viewers have Samsung flagships?), and if they are LCD, glowing blacks make the whole thing horribly flat at max brightness. And then we have compression issues. In dragon fighting scene, it was like watching a 9gag clip in its gif days! 

WTF is the point of watching GoT or any cinematic show or movie on a phone or tablet?

On 5/3/2019 at 6:47 AM, dalstorp said:

I watched it on a calibrated 55" OLED TV in a dark room and it was still to dark in some scenes! Heard that the made it dark to keep the vfx budget from going crazy.

We watched in the dark on a 60" LG plasma. It was pretty dark, but it was meant to be like that. I also assumed that they made it dark to cut down on the cost of VFX rather like the original version of Doom was always very dark so not too many pixels needed to shifted around.

The pace of the storytelling held up well & didn't drag over more than 80 minutes. There was especially brilliant 5.1 audio too.

On 4/7/2019 at 10:23 PM, Kisaha said:

To be honest I know nothing about U.S! Only from Michael Moore documentaries

I have lived and worked in 4 E.U countries and more or less it was a similar system.

Things are much more regulated here and we have the strictest laws and regulations (environment, food and drinks, internet, monopolies e.t.c) but for the benefit of the citizens and our societies. In my opinion, E.U and the rest that are very close in essence (Switzerland, Norway, Iceland) are the most democratic and forward thinking in the world (add Australia, NZ and Canads to those). 

Anyway, I was just trying to make a point, and I believe I brought a different approach to the subject matter which is true for many blue collar video and photo professionals around the world.

In the UK we are still in the EU (just!) but the VAT threshold is £85K of turnover before you need charge VAT. You don't pay any income tax below £11850 then it's 20% until £46351when it rises to 40% while social security charges are around an extra 9% between £12000 & £50000. You don't need to register in any way to work as a photographer or sell shoes. No wonder so many other EU nationals want to live & work here?

15 hours ago, IronFilm said:

What are you doing now?

I returned to a former career after a long break. I work hard & am paid well (much more than I ever made from photography & video) & happily really enjoy my job but I don't get to travel or spend as much time at home & only have the one workplace. I now do little video but get a lot of enjoyment from my photography.

21 minutes ago, JurijTurnsek said:

Speaking without any statistics to go on, videography is more accessible than ever and more and more people try to make a living doing it and that is why there has been a more vocal outcry about the diminishing prices of jobs. If a reasonably good videographer was hard to get, prices could be higher.

This +++++

I started in video before the DSLR revolution & it then required a considerable investment in equipment before you could offer your services. While undoubtedly the market for video has grown the pool of people doing video has grown exponentially because the entry cost is now so low. I stopped doing pro video five years ago as I wasn't earning as much as needed & found the low balling competition & general expectations of customers so demoralising.

On 3/4/2019 at 9:08 PM, mercer said:

That’s true, something is better than nothing but you can get 5-axis with those lenses on a Sony. So if the a7s iii has the goods, then why even mess around with a Nikon camera for my Nikon lenses...?

Well because a camera isn't defined by whether it has 3-axis or 5-axis IBIS. Some cameras don't have any IBIS at all. A camera is the sum of its parts & e.g. the superior ergonomics or IQ of the Nikon might outweigh other considerations

3 hours ago, ade towell said:

I think Canon will sell loads of these but not to people who care at all about video quality - it is definitely aimed at photographers and frustratingly for us with Canon fit lenses, almost all of their dslr and mirrorless cameras are too. There still isn't a decent spec (on the video side) cheapish Canon hybrid. We are probably a small niche market they don't really care about which is annoying but best to just accept it and move on to a company that does cater for what we want. There are plenty of other companies that have reliable and relevant products with good support. (and have decent AF and colour etc)

Canon sell loads of cameras. We have just been out to visit Anglsea Abbey near Cambridge here in the UK. They have a spectacular show of snowdrops & with this afternoon being about the sunniest day of the year so far there were a horde of people out. I saw  about 30+ people with a camera all taking stills. Canon outnumbered Nikon by 10 to1. There was one guy with a point & shoot (couldn't see the brand looked a few years old) & another guy with an Olympus OM-D E-M1. That was it. Plenty of people using their phones for stills. I was the only one using a Sony RX100M6.

55 minutes ago, Michi said:

What makes you think so? I'd have thought "normal" shooters would mainly use 30p...?

I'd have thought "normal" shooters would mainly use 25p which is near as dammit to 24p anyway.

If the only lens the OP has is a 70-200mm then they may be able to get some beautiful images but will have to stand a long way back.

14 hours ago, Django said:

 

For someone mainly taking photos, the 5D2 (or even 5D1) at sub-$500 is imo one of the best deals as it gives you access to full frame, great color science, decent AF as well as FF FHD & FF Raw video as a bonus.

That said, if it didn't click with you then yeah perhaps move on. it's a big old clunky camera by today's standards. maybe try mirrorless. you can adapt Canon glass to most mounts out there..

I too would endorse the 5DII for all the reasons that you state.

There is no 5DI & the 5D did not have video.

BTW the guy who said that he didn't like the 5DII was not the OP.

On 1/18/2019 at 3:39 PM, thebrothersthre3 said:

Yeah cameras have good lifespans and at that point you know it's not a lemon. I mean a new item with 1 year warranty is safer but of course if it breaks outside the warranty you are screwed as well.

Here in the UK Wex are a leading photographic retailer who do very good used deals all with 1year warranty. They currently have a C100 Mk II for £2K C100 Mk I for £1200 & even a C500 for just under £5K https://www.wexphotovideo.com/canon-eos-c100-mark-ii-high-definition-camcorder-used-1687969/

12 minutes ago, tweak said:

I thought the same, but then I realised there's actually a ton of people who are aspiring vloggers and/or buy a camera with the hope that one day they will "vlog" with it. It also has a lot of overlap with your average family shooter, they want similar things IMO.

I guess that having a camera as a step up from a phone that the average family shooter expects to be able to take video selfies.

11 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

This cut-price unimaginative attempt to corner the Vlogger market is a load of shit.

I find it difficult to believe that the Vlogger market actually exists. Are there really a significant number of people who want to buy a camera just to post on YouTube compared to all the other people would buy a camera to take pictures of the kids or whatever?

47 minutes ago, chadandreo said:

we typically work on 5-7 different projects in stages at a time. 

Just put each project on a separate SSD.

I don't understand why SSDs aren't practical if your projects are 6-800GB each will easily fit on a 1TB SSD. A 1TB SSD costs about the same as a 6TB HDD.