andy lee

Nikon's  are great lenses the ais  range of primes cut with the zooms exactly Nikon have great glass parity

With a metabones speedbooster is is as good as any PL mount cinema lens , it has less focus breathing than the Carl Zeiss 28-80 f2.8 PL mount zoom that costs about £15,000 ....

The sigma 28-70mm f2.8 is very very soft fully wide open at 2.8 ....it is unusable for me so I sold mine ......at sharpens up a bit by f5.6 .....not stellar though .......

just buy a Helios 58mm f2 off ebay for £20 they are already de clicked with a smooth aperture and its a great lens to use on the canon, same with the 37mm Mir 2.8

the Tamron is lighter lens so if thats important to you got for the Tamron its also alot cheaper too

im not using the Nikon on a FF camera Im using it with a Metabones XL on Pansonic

there are lenses from Nikon in my opinion they are the best as they have apperture rings and amazing glass

Nikon is a better lens very sharp with Aspheric elements ED glass internal focus - on ebay they go for about £300 second hand

the Sigma 24-70 will give you a great usable range , 24mm for your wides , 40mm for your mids and 70mm for your close ups ,you can shoot 90% of a movie with that set up ! or put my favourite Nikon 28-70 f2.8 on it

its just maybe a charactistic of that particular sensor in your camera , another identical camera may look slightly different at such very high iso

1 minute ago, JazzBox said:

Thank you very much!!! I definitely have to find it!

outside I use Tiffen Nds on the front so I can keep if fully wide open - its a great small lens with the Zeiss look - it has an aspheric element so is razor sharp

the Zeiss 28-70mm C/Y zoom is very sharp f3.5 and stops down to 4.5 as you zoom to 70mm , so not constant aperture BUT it is small and light so great outdoors when I dont want to use the Nikon 28-70mm which is big and heavy ,

stick it on a Metabones XL and Bingo this lens pops big time

you are at a very very high ISO and pushing the camera to it limits , I never shoot over 800 iso and light the scene for that ,

9 hours ago, IronFilm said:

Why did you go with the Nikon 20-35mm f/2.8 over some other zoom such as Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8, Canon 16-35mm f/2.8 (I assume not this one because you're sticking with Nikon F mount, I do the same too), or Nikon 17-35mm f/2.8, or Tokina 16-28mm f/2.8,  etc?

WOW, are you shooting with 4 cameras simultaneously?? :-o

 

As you mentioned you're doing a lot of night shooting, what made you not go instead with the "conventional logic" of using an A7s mk2 for the night shoots?

Also you mentioned comparing the G7 files against RED and Alexa files, was a RED or Arri Alexa camera ever an option for your budget? Or were you just comparing for the sake of seeing how the G7 measures up? Did you consider a Sony F5 (or FS7)? As that is the camera I'd leap for if budget allowed and a lot of low light shooting is required (as I own a Sony F3 and am pleased indeed with how it performs in low light).
 

Im using the Nikon Glass as it is all very consistant and cuts together very nicely , and I do like the look it creates , it doesn't crush the blacks like Canon lenses do , there is alot of detail in the grays too , I use the 20-35mm with a Metabones XL Speedbooster as it has the equivilant of super 35mm gate /field of view . I very rarely shoot beyond 20mm , as Im not a fan of wide lenses much , I know lot of people on here want the widest fastest lens they can get but for me its just not cinematic at all - looks like video due to such a big depth of field . I shoot on long lenses most of the time as thats my style and I prefer the look and separation you get . most of the time I shoot with strict lens decipline on set 28mm for the wides , 40mm for the mids and 70mm for close ups and 100mm for the head shots , thats it ! so I'm never really in the 20mm range much , 20mm is there on the Nikon if I need it and I always carry a 14mm and 17mm incase for extreme wides - but they dont get used much by me!

On my last film the Producer was constanly saying - 'Don't use wide lenses they look unprofessional !!'  meaning no mega deep focus !!

on the Sony Vs Panny theme , if I was filming in moonlight in a field I migh use the Sony , but the Panny is an amazing camera , I use lighting , I play in the shadows alot , thats the look I prefer ,I dont over light and the Panny works great in low light very very clean in the blacks no fizz and noise , I never go over 800 iso , 200- 800 iso is my range and I light for that - it works.

The G7 really does hold it own against the RED and The Alexa , its a great clean camera - and you can stream 4k to an ATOMOS NINJA ASSASSIN and record 4K ProRes at 744 mb/s - amazing !!

yes the video stream is clean of icons etc and its better than the compressed internal 4k @ 100mb/s , this 4k Pro Res is 744mb/s

M Carter

Im using the same Nikon  28-70mm on a similar rig but I have a lens support that also has the lens cable tied to it so you get no movement when using the follow focus

thjis locks the lens front right down onto the lens support on the 15mm rods and no movement  see pic below

I have just been sent a ProRes file recorded in 4K UHD off a Panasonic G7 via the HDMI out onto a Atomos Ninja Assassin , on checking the file in Quick Time movie inspector it says APPLE PRORES 422 (HQ) 3840 X 2160 25fps 744.97 mb/s

So it does it the G7 streams 4K UHD out its HDMI out !!! - amazing this is now a serious film making tool when paired with a Metabones Speedbooster XL and Nikon 2.8 Zooms lenses

31 minutes ago, mercer said:

It looks great!!! I love shadow detail as well, just never thought of dialing saturation all the way down. Why are you leaving sharpening and nr at 0? Obviously, you have tested this and have had good results... Otherwise you wouldn't do, but it goes against a lot of information out there... Am definitely going to try this. Thanks again... Once again you have proved to be one of the most helpful members on the site!!!

BTW, Are you using any in camera curve? Also, 0-255 or 16-255?

0-255

29 minutes ago, PannySVHS said:

Are you kidding me!:) Give us some moving pictures of that footage, some little teaser, Andy! This looks awesome! How did you meter/measure the light within the limited dynamic range of the G7? Is this all your Bourne lens magic?

 

I dont ever use a meter anymore , I stopped using a  meter when I stopped shooting film , I light by eye , you just know when it looks right . There are some Arri HMI's out side lighting that scene and some Arri Fresnels inside kicking through the door way , if you set the camera up right it handles what you throw at it the Panny is a very good camera , for me its strengths are shooting at night , I know I can light superb results with it , no issues .

yes thats Nikon Bourne Lens / Metabones magic

we did alot of testing at Media City with Cine D and Natural (contrast -5 and saturation -5) and hands down the best look to work with and grade was Natural (contrast -5 and saturation -5) and this was in a hi end Davinci Grading suite that does feature films every week for Sony Pictures etc .

Cine D takes a whole bunch of correction just to get it usable - THEN you apply your look ontop and the whole thing is so tweeked up its a mess .

So I'm shooting the whole movie on Natural (contrast -5 and saturation -5) Im thinking like I used to do 20 years ago shooting film stock ,

Natural (contrast -5 and saturation -5) is my film stock thats the look ...and I'm shooting the whole movie like that .

and yes the XL is essential in my opinion as it makes the whole package a usable filmaking tool , dont forget it SHARPENS your lenses too !!

We did some test with an Angenieux 28-76mm 2.6 Optimo on a RED EPIC and a Nikon 28-70mm 2.8 with Metabones XL on a Panasonic G7 and there is nothing in it !

if anything the Panny Metabones combo was sharper and cleaner in the blacks no noise at all compated to the RED /Angenieux combo!!

That test convinced us the Metabones makes your Nikon Zooms into SERIOUS cinema quality Glass - faster, sharper and wider! nuff said its no brainer .

your XL speedbooster is an amazing essential piece of kit as it makes the 4k Panasonic cameras into very serious film making tools when paired with Nikon 2.8 Zooms ,

As I mentioned Im DOP on a British Feature film Pandora , we will be shooting this film with PANASONIC G7 4K cameras and Metabones XL Speedboosters.

We have done extensive tesing of the G7 camera in 4k 24p mode with Metabones XL Speedbooster at Media City in Salford UK with my post production house - We Create - (Rod Edney and Paul Whiting) and we have found the G7 / Metabones XL Speedbooster combination to be better in low light and less noise in the blacks than the RED 4K files we compared it against and found it also almost indistinguishable from Arri Alexa files we compared it against.

The guys at Media City where very impressed with the Metabones XL Speedbooster.  All in all we are committed to making the whole movie with Metabones XL Speedboosters on all 4 camera Rigs.

Brian I have just PM's you some info - thanks Andy

Brian , Im using your Metabones XL speedbooster in a similar situation with a Nikon 28-70mm f2.8 (The Bourne Lens) to give me a f2 zoom . I'm DOP on a British Feature film Pandora and we are using this combination as it produces stunning images with your Metabones XL . I'm going to send you a PM about the Movie and Metabones . we are committed to shooting the whole movie with Metabones as it makes all the zooms f2 !! we are using the Nikon 80-200mm f2.8 and the 20-35mm f2.8 all with the XL for the exact reasons you have pointed out in you post , size weight £££ and image quality - which is amazing !!

Andrew the Panasonic website says :

** For [4K] video output, use an HDMI cable that has the HDMI logo on it, and that is described as"4K compatible".

https://www.panasonic.com/uk/consumer/cameras-camcorders/lumix-g-compact-system-cameras/dmc-g7.specs.html

can you try it and see if it works

looks like the FZ1000 streams 4k HDMI so maybe the G7 does too ?

screw the silver rear thread thing into the cmount adaptor , then carefully araldite all round the edge of the silver rear thread element and then attach the lens onto it

make sure your markings at at the top of the lens when its mounted or you will be reading aperture setting on the side if you dont line it up correct

Ive been told it does stream out 4K , can you give it a go please !

if it does it makes this a very potent film making combination !

Im a member of the Facebook G7 group and some of the guys on their are using this combo to record 4k prores

https://www.facebook.com/groups/PanasonicG7/