jgharding

It's just so much bloody money! I love the 550D with Magic Lantern, cheap enough to own and chuck about, great for promo projects that only really have 720p delivery. I love the RX100 as a B-cam: sharp as anything, 50/60p, the same AVCHD rate as this and so well stabilised you can do away with tripod and just screw a handle into it. But the C100 will hire for about 100 quid a day I think, so though I'm sure I'll hire them occasionally (my favorite hire guy pre-ordered one today) I won't buy it myself. The BMD looks great as a buy though because my vanity projects are likely to be films, so I'll want quality rather than turnaround speed. It's nice to see things hotting up so much.

I watched this a while ago, the wonderfully titled [b] [size=5][background=transparent]Has Apple Really Ever Invented Anything?[/background][/size][/b] It's very informative! [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFeC25BM9E0"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFeC25BM9E0[/url]

Here's the C100 at 4162 pounds ex VAT on ProKit. so about 5000 with VAT for consumers and non-VAT registered persons. [url="http://www.prokit.co.uk/index.php?view=product&product=Canon-EOS-C100-Camcorder"]http://www.prokit.co.uk/index.php?view=product&product=Canon-EOS-C100-Camcorder[/url] After using the FS700 for three solid days I can safely say I'd ONLY use it for the slow motion capabilities, which is what I hired it for and what I'd hire it for again. It's ergonomically, and in terms of menu design, a bit of a pig. The shape makes no bloody sense at all.

Also, the highlight roll-off is smoother than before with ML 2.3. It's subtle but noticeable when you're pushing it. I'm always preaching about ML2.3, it's absolutely essential. It turns the 550D into a monstrous tool, I'm always making 7D owners cry.

After using CBR 2.8 in ML2.3 on 550D recently, it makes a huge difference to high ISO footage, so if we can get lower GOP lengths and higher bitrates still I'll be happy. The noise is much easier to separate form the image at these rates as it isn't quite so baked in, so you end up with even better low light capability. My CBR 2.8 shots at ISO3200 were running around 98mbps using ML2.3. It looks great when you noise reduce! There's no contest compared to standard bitrate, you keep a lot more detail as the noise isn't blended into your picture so much. The main issue is still the sensor binning and scaling inside the camera, but these ML guys are amazing. I've been using this camera two years or so and every time I think of dumping it they make a breakthrough of some kind. I never went to GH2 in the end despite the bitrate, because of all the little niggles like the band at high ISO, some of the ligfht halos, the sensor crop, lack of cinema profiles (not ultra flat which can look awful, but just reasonably flat) and some stability issues some people were having with the hack, so I've just ended up sticking with 550D, but I have to say that because of ML I'm still happy! Those guys are great, I'm happy to donate! We should definitely support our hackers, they give us so much.

That's kind of the pitch that's been bought, hence the tests ;) I'll be sure to post the final vid up here when it's done!

It's still the greatest quote in film production.

[quote name='TC' timestamp='1345643423' post='16202'] Yes, it is crazy. The 24Mbs AVCHD codec was first seen in 2006 when a 1Gb card would cost a hundred dollars and the card write speed wouldn't allow anything more. It is an anachronism which is totally out of sync with today's technology. [/quote] Precisely! You can get a 128GB SanDisk solid-state drive for 69 pounds now. Only BMD seems to have had the sense. Then again, Sony would only ever do this by introducing proprietary drives I reckon.

Great stuff, lovely Leica feel to that lens!

Here's 3 quick fun shots made on FS700 at 400FPS. I've hired this for a couple of music promos so I just made some quick shots to try it out. ;) It's a great camera, but the screen potion is pretty retarded, and the ND filter wheel feels incredibly cheap. [url="https://vimeo.com/48076374"]https://vimeo.com/48076374[/url]

That's pretty ingenious! :) I'm impressed. I'd probably set myself on fire trying to make this. If you want to increase the directionality of the mic have a look at creating an "interference tube", which is what makes a shotgun mic a shotgun mic, at the moment this is a cardioid mic in shock mount and windshield, but it wouldn't be hard for you to make a DIY interference tube and perhaps use a hypercardioid capsule. Then if you redo the running shot, you'd hear less of the footsteps, for example, and be able to isolate actors form a greater distance. Then after that you can go into business ;)

Here's a promo shot for about 50 quid of expenses and four days work. All the gear is my own. Particularly impressed by RX100 and the new Magic Lantern 2.3, which on 2.8x bitrate mode lets you get much better high ISO footage. Some of the flame lit shots were at ISO3200, the 100mbps average bit rate (over twice standard) keeps the noise quite distinct from geniune details, allowing it to be removed more easily, and resulting in very clean and detailed high ISO footage after sharpening. Bonus! [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKbroy8sA7I"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKbroy8sA7I[/url]

I feel sensor size is an issue. Even if it's twice the BMDs price I'm sure Kineraw S35 is gonna help you capture the deep, movie feel more easily than the heavy crop of the BMD, with equivalent lighting etc. BMD has a lot less physical space gathering light than S35... I have the RX100 and it's a bit dead but it's useful. Try out a medium format stills camera with no AA filter and you're looking at creepily 3D pictures (if you light it well of course), a huge area gathering light. IT definitely makes a difference. Roll on medium format video! ;)

You can try out Alexa here: [url="http://www.arri.de/camera/digital_cameras/tools/alexa_camera_simulator.html"]http://www.arri.de/camera/digital_cameras/tools/alexa_camera_simulator.html[/url]

I love the look of this one. I do prefer the footage I've seen from this to what I've seen from BMD too, plus the form factor with lots of buttons looks solid. I hope they keep the OS as simple as Alexa too, that'd be wonderful. Alexa is so robust and easy to use. It's easier than an EOS.

I like that jerky look! You should get in touch and ask em for the original vid and see if you can Twixtor it...

Here's a good artciel, though with the advances these days it's hard to know what's up to date... [url="https://www.dalsa.com/corp/markets/CCD_vs_CMOS.aspx"]https://www.dalsa.com/corp/markets/CCD_vs_CMOS.aspx[/url]

Just to clarify, the issues with CCDs as far as I've found are vertical smear and poorer battery life. Perhaps someone has made some advances though...

Rolling shutter isn't an issue when it comes the pans and the like i find, the stretching just feels natural in some way, accentuated.... what I [i]hate [/i]about rolling shutter is the fact that it can stop things looking like the frame by frame capture of film. That slight gelatinous wobble between frames gives away that you shot on CMOS, no matter how much post you do. Even Warp Stabiliser or Mercalli don't always kill the worst of it. It's such a drag :( and you gotta have a good rig and a lot of practice with said rig to get rid of it on shoot. So tech wise you can eliminate it by either using global shutter CMOS, CCD or a mechanical shutter (like F65) and all of these have drawbacks. The global makes a lot more heat so you get the quality tradeoffs you've mentioned here, and CCDs can fall foul to a number of quirks of their own. Or you can make your normal CMOS sensor really small then it's not so much of an issue (like the HX9V). Boo to rolling shutter :(

The only two annoyances here for me would be the missing ND filters, which can't be justified, and the 28mbps cap, which is so insanely low compared to the power of the technology in there. You move a lot, this is gonna break into little blocks, especially at 50/60p. Just like the HX9V and RX100 do in fact! It's so simple to fit NDs in, even in a smaller camera. Look at the new PMW 200, that has your classic Sony camcorder NDs. I can't believe you have to go all the way up to an FS700 before you get some little NDs in a Super 35 cam... it's clearly a case of up-selling, which always bugs me.

This release is absolutely amazing! The only thing I really miss from one of the independent firmware builds is the ability to swap video mode with A-DEP on the dial, that was great because manual and video, the only modes I ever actually use, were right next to one another. Apart from that, it's the greatest and most stable camera hack ever created! :D I'll be boring all my friends about it for at least a month. Make sure to switch off audio recording if you want ultra-high bit-rates. With a quick card and audio off, I can get CBR2.8 to run even in motion shots at ISO3200 without stopping. The average on one shot was about 98mbps!

Lovely! You have an exceptional eye for lighting! It's slick yet soulful

[quote name='Axel' timestamp='1345295517' post='15973'] Yet, at the same time, our creativity would not grow. Picasso painted when he was destitute, John Huston directed when his lungs already collapsed, Beethoven composed when he was deaf and had painfully swollen intestines. Not that I compare myself to any of them, I just say an Alexa doesn't shoot my film. [/quote] Tis true! They always say that talent shines through, and hopefully it always will! These are all just tools with which to make some art, conduits for expression, they should really be secondary once they're mastered or at least grasped. They are great fun to learn and discuss, but shouldn't rule our lives or the way we express ourselves. They always say: shoot, right now! With whatever you have. You'll learn than more not shooting but wishing you had something else to shoot with.

I just don't buy this whole "blame the distribution compression" excuse. Firstly, that's how media is bloody consumed, in a sense unless you're going to a cinema screen, it's all that matters. If the concatenation errors were so severe that footage looked awful online these cameras would be practically useless, it's a bad excuse. I've watched plenty of stuff shot on RED and Alexa in sub YouTube-quality compression and it doesn't display these issues. It's the 1Dx capture process, plain and simple. Sensor downsampling and processing are to blame. It's most likely they've tweaked about with the on board processing to create this 'unique' look for the 1Dx, but it doesn't look too great to me.Certainly not for the heaps of cash they want for it.

[color=#222222][font=Helvetica Neue', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif][size=4][background=rgb(255, 255, 255)][quote] :D To the owner of a Scarlett, who just invested 20.000 + in his set up, this sounds condescending. He surely doesn't want his camera to be forgiving (which implies that his incompetence to light and expose correctly needed forgiveness), he wants it to shine. And that's where I see the connection between parts 1 + 2 and part 3. The greatest portion of the budget went to the [i]time on set[/i]. I think this is credible. And if you [i]have[/i] hired the best DP and the most forgiving camera (= big budget), the shoot is effective not by sparing one or two thousand dollars, but by getting results that shine. That look brilliant on a big screen. Photographers who believe they can light and expose sloppily because they get absolution in post have lost the point. [/background][/size][/font][/color][/quote] Sorry if this came across condescending, it wasn't meant to be! Though I appreciate people get very sensitive and/or protective when they invest money! It's just a fact as far as I can see, and Zacuto prove it here. Take a scene lit in the same way and point a cheap still cam and a cinema cam at it and your resulting footage will be more forgiving from the cineama cam! Bags of DR, lovely sensor processing and AD conversion, hardly any compression, it's always gonna be the case. You can go all over the place with the footage, while the grade on a Canon will swiftly start to look like a bag of spanners if you take it too far. You gotta bake it in to some degree, and that is what I mean by less forgiving. It's harder to change your mind! Either way, it stands that a rubbish lighting setup and a set of dodgy actors shot on Alexa will be less interesting to an audience than an amazingly lit scene and the next Paddy Considine shot on a compact! It's just nice to know that if you've got the skills, you [i]can [/i]make a good movie on a cheap cam! Great times! If I won the Euromillions, I'd still buy an Alexa though ;) it's easier to use than a breadknife and looks the nuts.