QuickHitRecord

This is clearly a subjective question. To me, pleasing grain structure is well-defined, tight/small noise with no fixed patterns and as little green and magenta as possible. But please share your observations, even if your criteria for pleasing grain/noise is different. For me, I'm really liking what I'm seeing from the Red One MX. Unsurprisingly, none of my other recent or current cameras (C70, C200, EOS-R, 5Diii with ML Raw, G85, or EM10iii) comes close. It meets all of my criteria for pleasing noise/grain. But I'm also curious if there's anything smaller that does well in this area.

Wow, Kye. I have no idea how you're achieving the second two. If we're basing this on weight, then those numbers are going to be tough to beat! One of the guidelines I'm setting for myself is that I can't buy anything new just for this challenge. I have at least a dozen cameras cameras already and don't need any more. But nothing I have is that tiny. I can't wait to see how you're doing it.

Good thread, Kye! Did you continue to experiment with disassembly? Someone posted over on MFLensess: With that in mind, I bought an inexpensive but highly-rated hygrometer. The maximum humidity over the last 24 hours or so is 47%. I'll keep an eye on it but perhaps a dry cabinet is not necessary here. Last night, I did a partial assembly of my Kern Switar 10mm 1.6, which was my favorite lens to become infected. Following a YouTube teardown, I carefully removed all of the elements, putting everything into an ice tray to help me with sequencing. When I got to the element with the "fungus", I was surprised to see that it looked like a very long piece of fuzz. It was probably an inch long in total. The end of us it was sticking straight up at me, as if the element had been holding it down. To remove it, I used a pair of tweezers and just pulled straight up. It came up in one piece! There were also two other similar pieces, though they were shorter. I'm not even sure that this was fungus after all. Maybe just some nasty dust? In any case, it needed to come out because even if it wasn't fungus, it could have become a food source for some. After the removal, I blasted the assembly with my UVC light for 5 minutes and then reassembled. Everything went so well that I decided to try to do the same with an old Kino Precision lens. There was no video for this one but I decided to see if I could figure it out. Bad idea. The rear element group came tumbling out all at once, and I have no idea of the original orientation of the elements. Also, I got all the way down to the aperture blades, and then when I tried to reassemble it and add the layer back in over top of the blades, it messed them up. I could never get them to sit properly again. This is maybe the third lens this has happened with and I felt bad about it. But then again, we're talking about an infested lens with a stuck focus that I bought for $20. It's not like it had a long life ahead of it.

I've been doing some more research. It turns out that UVC light cannot typically penetrate the glass of a lens, so the 254nm UV source like the light I ordered will kill surface microorganisms but won't be able to get inside of the lens. I've read that the ideal UV wavelength range you want is in the 300nm - 330nm range, which I think may put it in the UVB range (I could be getting this wrong). The filter company B+W owned by Schneider put out a product called the UV-Pro a couple years ago, which is allegedly a 300nm source. But it never went on sale on B&H or most of the other major retailers, and there's no info about it on the Schneider website. Maybe it was a flawed concept that was quietly killed, or Schneider was too concerned about the liability of people blinding themselves or trying to cure themselves of Covid that they decided to discontinue it. Either way, it looks like it can still be purchased on eBay or DigitalRev. Here is a test that doesn't tell you much about the tool's ability to penetrate lens elements: What I'd really like to see is a lens with fungus opened, swabbed, UV treated, and then opened again for a second swab. That really would tell us everything we need to know.

Yikes. Sorry to hear it. This site was one of the first that pushed me to look beyond Canon EF and EF-S lenses. I'm certainly glad I did, pitfalls and all. I think that's exactly what it is! I really messes with your head when you're looking for an infestation. This is absolutely right. Every lens is already infected. You just have to keep them dry enough so as not to let the fungus run rampant.

Thanks for the replies, and for the good resources from @Kye. There is a lot of information online about lens fungus and some of it is conflicting. I'll share some of what I've learned too. But first, an update. After cleaning my lenses and looking at them again with a cooler head, I see only four that definitely, beyond a doubt fungus. And I see about five that fit into, "is it dust, or strands of fungus"? I need to keep a close eye on them. The rest, I believe, are just the result of some gnarly-looking dust particles. A few observations: 1) A long strand isn't necessarily fungus. It could be dust. I removed plenty of these with my blower. 2) When staring through a backlit lens, specular highlights (i.e. specs and dust) can expand into very convincing little spiderwebs if they are beyond your focal plane. It is quite a remarkable illusion. I think the trick is to move the lens toward (or away from) you until the dot is in focus. Then, a lot of the time, you'll see it's just a tiny dot, without any offshoots. 3) To build on #2, if you can't see actual fungus from back or front with a flashlight, then I think you can safely assume that the lens is free of fungus. 4) Though they are the industry standard, Kimwipes can actually leave individual fibers behind on the lens that can look an awful lot like the beginnings of fungus. Make liberal use of a blower after wiping with them. In some cases, I wiped the lens again while looking through it just to see if the mass I was staring at was inside the lens or not (oftentimes it isn't). 5) UVC lights can kill mold and fungus (and your retinas if you're not careful). Examples here and here. It is much stronger than UV (A) and UVB light. UVC lights also seem to be completely unregulated and as a result of the pandemic, there seem to be quite a few fakes out there. Here is one that I ordered that seems to be legit. I plan to start treating all of my lenses regularly. 6) I will be getting a dry cabinet. As pointed out in the Zeiss article that @Kye shared earlier in the thread, spores are everywhere and there are three factors that contribute to lens fungus: dust, heat, and humidity. The first is extremely difficult to control and the second might be quite expensive. So the best answer is to control the humidity. And a thought. Maybe shooting without UV filters would be more beneficial to the health of the lens, since they wouldn't block fungus-killing UV rays.

I was looking at one of my beloved Kern Switars yesterday evening and noticed a little string of fungus in it. I haven't been using them as much since my professional work has robbed me of any time for passion projects as of late. The pandemic hasn't helped either. Anyway, I looked at a few more lenses and saw more more fungus. I ripped my whole lens drawer apart, and found that I have confirmed or suspected fungus on FOURTEEN of my lenses. I need to go back, wipe the front and rear elements down with some pancro, and look at them again when I am not in such a panicked state. But yeah, it's bad. Duclos-modded Nikkor AIS lenses, Tokina AT-X 28-70 2.8, Lumix 12-60mm, and even my backup Canon EF-S zooms (including the 70-200 f4 IS). This is pretty much my perfect nightmare scenario; something I have been extremely careful to avoid since I started building my collection 14 years ago. The silver lining is that it hasn't reached my Sigma Art Primes or Canon L Zooms that I use for work (I keep them in my camera case). I am SO glad that I never got around to building a set of Leica Rs or OKS in Oct-19 mount. And after this experience, I don't think I ever will. How did this happen? I have a theory. I bought maybe my third copy of the Helios-44 from Ukrainian seller in 2020. I inspected it closely for fungus as I always do and didn't see any traces. Then the pandemic began, and I really didn't touch my lenses for about a year (nothing to shoot). When I finally did pick up the Helios again, I noticed that it had a contamination. I isolated it and sold it for next to nothing to someone who wanted to try to clean it. That's the only time I'd seen fungus grow in a lens while in my possession, so my theory is that a previous owner had cleaned it, and then the fungus came back and infected my other lenses. But that's all speculation. The other thing is that we don't have an exhaust fan in the bathroom here. In the winter, we wake up most mornings to find the windows largely fogged over. There's a lot of moisture in the air here, especially when we can't leave the windows open. So, what's next? I'm trying to figure that part out. From what I can tell, the fungus hasn't advanced very far on any of these lenses, so I doubt they will affect the image quality if I can kill it before it grows. I've spent the day learning about ozone-free UVC lights so that I can start zapping all of my lenses regularly. I'm also leaning towards investing in a dry cabinet (anyone else use one of these?). But if I do that, I'll need to figure out the size needed, whether I also need to store my camera bodies in it (the Red One will be fun) and where it's going to go in my little office. I may also try to disassemble and clean some of the lenses myself, though previous attempts have yielded very mixed results, including discarding of lenses that I could never figure out how to re-assemble properly. Part of me just wants to dump them into a big pile and douse them with gasoline. What can I say? It's been a pretty dark 24 hours for me. But, I keep reminding myself that it is just stuff and I lived a pretty normal life without ever picking it up for a year or longer. Anyway, if you have any suggestions, ideas, or past experiences you'd like to share, let's hear them!

I'd be down. Interchangeable lens cameras only?

I had one once. It's not like an SLR Magic Rangefinder. As in, you can't focus your lens with it. But you can change how close you can be to focus on a subject. I didn't have much use for mine and eventually dropped it off at Goodwill.

It seems to be working. I can't tell the different when looking into the LCD which makes me wonder if the phone is controlling the camera, but I wouldn't expect to be able to easily see a 1 notch difference in saturation or sharpness or contrast in this little screen. 14641 permutations in the Natural PP at two seconds each would take over 8 hours to record! I had hoped to shoot some footage of my wife reading a book to see if I could get a lock on better skintones, but that would be asking a lot. So I need to be more selective than that. Still, a fascinating tool.

Same thing for me. I'm curious to see if there is a sweet spot for my new G80. The colors I've been getting so far leave a lot to be desired. I got this warning when installing on my Android phone: This app was built for an older version of Android and doesn't include the latest privacy protections. But it seems to have been properly installed anyway. I am hopeful that I can get it up and running. How are you liking the FZ2500? I've looked at it a few times on account of the long zoom range and built-in NDs.

I just learned about this and it's nothing short of brilliant. Did anyone ever post their results?

Thanks! Getting going is always the hard part. And shooting something is always better than shooting nothing. Upgrade obsession is a hollow pursuit. I get sucked in too, though lately I find myself bored by videos that are trying to sell some expensive thing that is going to possibly make an incremental improvement to my kit. I hope you make it down to your art and garden center. I think you'll be happy that you went.

Yes, this was all heel-to-toe ninja walking on uneven ground at 17mm. The focal reducer will add a little weight and widen the shot the next time I go out. My camera also came with a Lumix 12-60mm Power OIS lens that I was planning on selling to bring the total camera cost down to around $325 (if I hadn't found this deal, I would have gone for a GX85). I might have to give Dual IS a try before I do. A top handle kind of breaks the rules in terms of a minimal setup (the whole point of this camera for me), but now I'm curious. I've been mostly a Canon shooter so IBIS is a new tool to me.

A few clips with the G85, trying to answer the question, "can I walk with it?". So, several longer walking shots: I was expecting a resounding "No", but the answer is "sort of". If I had a top handle and had used a wider lens or my focal reducer (or a Power OIS lens), I might have gotten away with it. Not wild about the color straight out of camera, but we can't have everything. This is a pretty fun camera to use. I owned an Olympus EM10iii for a while and I much prefer this. From time to time, I film protests. I think this camera would be a good fit for that.

I have a Red One MX and it produces a beautiful image, perhaps my favorite image from any digital sensor. But it's size, weight, and power consumption have relegated it to my camera cabinet for anything but narrative work.

Funny to see your post about this. I just picked up a G85 (same sensor as the GX85) for the very same reason. I shoot on Canon Cinema and occasionally RED for work but wanted something small and with a high stealth factor that had a good implementation of IBIS for tripod-free shooting. In this case, image quality was secondary. I haven't been shooting casually or for fun much lately and I am hoping that this camera will help bring me back to it. I've paired mine with a Viltrox speedbooster and the inexpensive Sigma 17-50 f2.8. The camera seems to be detecting the focal lengths from this third-party lens and adjusting the IBIS perfectly. I have no plans to accessorize beyond this setup because that would be self-defeating! I hope you share some of your work here.

I've been enjoying my Canon Elan II. It feels almost exactly like my 5Diii and I can use the same lenses too. It definitely produces a look that I enjoy. Been experimenting with different film stocks too: https://distanceelevation.com/blog/2021/7/5/northcascadesgoatmountainheliotrope The next step will be to do some of my own scans.

Thought I'd share that I have now successfully swapped out the fans in both of my FS300s, following the excellent video that @scotchtape posted. The first took me about an hour to do and the second, about half of that. The adapter cable from Amazon mentioned earlier in this thread works well. This modification makes a huge difference in the sound level coming from these lights.

Good stuff. I wish every instructional video was like this. I already have all of the replacement parts. Hopefully I'll get around to doing it this weekend.

My two new FS300s came in yesterday. The build quality is quite good and the output will be plenty for most of my OMB work. If more light is needed, I'll rent or recommend budgeting for my regular gaffer and his 600Ds. It's nice not to have a separate control box/ballast and it means that using the lights with smaller stands is possible. Since the replacement Noctua fans are not here yet, I went to Lowe's and Home Depot to see if I could find a sensible carrying container for these. I tried every ruggedized bin and tool box they had. The best fit I was able to find was the Craftsman 23" tool box at Lowe's (see attached). A little foam cutout on the bottom and I think that these will work nicely. There should be plenty of room for an extension cord too.

@scotchtape Thanks. I ordered that adapter. If it turns out not to work, I'll share that here and post any other findings.

@scotchtape I decided to order two of these lights, largely based on your notes about replacing the fans. Thank you for sharing your discoveries. Is this the correct CRJ cable?

Appreciate the update. The fan is clearly the major weak point of this design. For a few dollars more, Nanlite could have easily and significantly improved this and had a real contender straight out of the box. On the other hand, the fact that it's easy enough to swap the fans out is actually an advantage over the Forza line. How does the FS300 output stack up to the 300D?

Thanks for sharing your notes and glad you found a fan significantly that reduces the noise. When doing the swap, was there any soldering involved?