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dahlfors

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Everything posted by dahlfors

  1.   Btw, I just found out that you can set the wheel center button to zoom in while in live view for better control over focus. It zooms in right where you have moved the focusing square. Very handy for focusing!
  2.   Just saw that one as well. The footage is earlier footage from D800. But launching such a site now more than one year after the D800 release seems very promising :)
  3. Seems like he's removed the part about it being shot on Nikon D3200 from the description on Vimeo. Pretty impressive how well the footage ended up if it really was shot on the entry-level Nikon D3200.
  4. Probably performance similar to the current BMC according to information from BM. No test videos yet, so we'll just have to wait for that.
  5.   Interesting to see someone else who is using Iscorama on D800. I've also noticed that nailing the focus is difficult on the D800 display. I'm myself considering getting a SmallHD AC7 monitor. It's an HD resolution monitor at 7", you can enter custom aspect ratios, and there are quite a few options that aid in focusing & getting proper exposure. 
  6.   All the Canon DSLR sensors seem to top out at 11.7 ev steps dynamic range (for stills!) measured by dxomark. My old Nikon D200 which was made in 2005 had 11.5 ev steps, while my new D800 has 14.4 EV steps for stills - which is pretty impressive, and pretty much matches what the best negatives/films do. Even the new low end Nikons have around 13 EV stops of dynamic range.   If you have access to try out similar cameras, I suggest that you pop in a memory card and shoot with these on a sunny/high contrast day and compare the skies, highlights, shadows.   12 steps is alright, but you can get burnt out skies more easily. 13-14 steps will help a lot in maintaining detail without resorting to ND grads or other tricks.
  7. For generic info on anamorphics, I'd really recommend Andrew's guide: http://www.eoshd.com/anamorphic-guide   That's about as good of a starting point for learning more about anamorphics as there is.   This thread is about Isco projection lenses - none of these will be able to do rack focusing. You need an AG-LA7200, a real "Iscorama" (not ISCO branded projection lenses), or some even more expensive anamorphics to be able to do that.   You can do rack focusing with filters like the Vid-Atlantic Cinemorph filters - and those will give you the oval bokeh similar to anamorphic.
  8. Variable ND filters can be really handy, although they tend to remove a little bit of the sharpness of a video.   Here's a nice review of a few of the common ones: http://www.learningdslrvideo.com/variable-nd-filter-shootout/     I've personally used the Lightcraft Fader ND Mark II which I was pretty satisfied with - until I managed to have it cracked when it fell straight down on asphalt... I'm considering getting a second one of those :)   I also use the Cokin P-series filter system with square-shaped plexiglass ND filters which are also very useful - but not fully as portable (no loss of sharpness with these).   For proper exposure, I lock shutter speed at 1/50 for 24 fps video, set the aperture according to the style I want, and then try to keep ISO as low as possible. If it is very bright and ISO100 is not enough, that's when I use the ND's to get the proper exposure.
  9. I have one of these red Isco Ultrastars, and that's a lens I'll never sell :)   A major plus is its sharpness. I think this is among the sharpest decently priced anamorphics you can get. These would behave beautifully with a 4k sensor.   I've seen the gold and red Ultrastars go for far cheaper prices on ebay, around 300-400 usd or so (that's without clamps or anything). Vid-atlantic tell theirs are tested and comes with clamp, so I guess that's worth something.   In my opinion the Ultrastars are very underestimated. For a sharp & nice 1.75 - 2x (I'm a bit unsure about the exact scaling ratio in fact, haven't done the circle test) image they are very good. The only major downsides to me is 1) dual-focus and 2) aligning lens quickly to different lenses. For me flares aren't that important, but if I'd be looking for flares, I'd look for some other single-coated anamorphic (yes - with strong lights, you can get flares out of it, but it's quite flare-resistant).   My setup is a bad one: I got a clamp that I attach to the anamorphic, that I then screw onto the lens. So every time I want to align it on a different taking lens, I need to fiddle with the screws on the clamp. Apparently Andy Lee (http://www.eoshd.com/comments/user/19952-andy-lee/) on this forum has a nifty rig solution for that.   I've used mine with 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor on APS-C crop. On a DSLR fullframe sensor a 75mm lens would be the widest you can use. On the D800 I've used my 85mm AI-S Nikkor f/2, which happens to be my favourite taking lens both for this Ultrastar as my real Iscorama.   I dug up my first test shots with this lens for you and uploaded a gallery with them (the spots visible on some of the shots are some spots before I cleaned the sensor):   [sharedmedia=gallery:images:274] [sharedmedia=gallery:images:270] [sharedmedia=gallery:images:273] [sharedmedia=gallery:images:269] [sharedmedia=gallery:images:275]   Those are stills taken with my D200 + 105mm f/2.5 AI-S Nikkor on quite a high ISO for that old sensor from 2005, also with quite the jpeg compression. Still, should give you a bit of an idea about the lens. As a bonus, I noticed a car wheel in one of the shots, so should be possible to roughly figure out the approximate squeezing ratio.
  10. Some shots were wonderful. In other shots I felt we see what RAW can do to you - you want to play a lot with saturation, levels, contrast etc. Some shots were just oversaturated  or too much contrast, while others were just great.   Since you're asking for good BMCC footage, this is the best I've seen: https://vimeo.com/49272792   I recommend you to download it at 1080p and watch that version. Stunning shots.
  11.   Holy crap - is that really shot with a D3200? Really great image. Great storytelling, cinematography and color grading too.   Honestly I like that short much more than the Nikon D800 horror short film Broken Night - in every way.
  12. Andrew, could you make some kind of mini-review/review on the Lanparte Mattebox and perhaps the other Lanparte accessories? I'd also be interested in how usable the Lanparte Mattebox is with Iscorama and other anamorphics. I'm interested in Lanparte, since it seems like they have really good quality for a decent price. They're not the cheapest, but they seem to be in the range where you pay a bit more to gain really good quality.
  13. Very tight budget. Sony Nex-5n is good for its price and can be had for far below $350. If it's possible to find a GH2 for that price I second Andy - get it.
  14. Impossible.   Onboard motherboard controllers are not true hardware raid, they are part software raid. This makes it work in windows - but makes the raid unusable in OS X.   You're in for some research if you want to find a way to use a pci dedicated hardware raid controller setup that works in both Hackintosh OS X & Windows...   Both OS X & Windows support software disk mirroring (raid-1). Neither of the systems would be able to read the other systems raid mirror, though...   If you want them both to be able to access a raid-1, I'd recommend getting a NAS or USB3/Firewire storage unit.
  15.   Alright. Had I been in your shoes, I would have gone for the GH3: - good codecs - good resolution - 1080p60/1080p50 modes for slow motion - m4/3 lens mount which makes you able to fit a lot of lenses. - if you need really shallow depth of field, there's always lenses like the Voigtländer 25mm f/0.95. Personally I have a full frame Nikon D800 - and for video I feel that it can be a pain in the ass that the narrow depth of field gets *too* narrow quite often, especially in low-light. For video, I'd rather have a smaller sensor that would give me more depth of field than I have now. You'd find the same issue with a used 5DMk2.   Same things except the 1080p slow motion modes applies for a GH2 with the custom firmware.
  16. I just found this: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/12/seiki-50-inch-4k-1300/   Seiki 50" Class 2160p 120Hz LED HDTV 3840 x 2160, 16:9, 120Hz, 5000:1 Native, 6.5ms, 3x HDMI, VGA (SE50UY04)   - A 4k / Ultra HD capable monitor for $1300 USD!   Reduser forum discussion: http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?98027-1299-Seiki-UHDTV-50-quot-SE50UY04-Bought-it-today   - One reduser poster says this as well: "I bet that nobody noticed this: it is a 10 bit Color monitor too.. (correct me if I am wrong).."   Personal-view about it: http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/6658/1299-uhdtv-seiki-50-se50uy04-/p1   It's going to be interesting to see if someone makes a proper review on this one! Guess affordable 4k is coming sooner than I had expected :)
  17.   Interesting video. The first video I've seen of the BM Pocket Camera where someone actually does some testing for rolling shutter. In that quick test the rolling shutter surely looked minimal in that camera!
  18. You didn't say if you needed a camera for video only or for stills AND video.   If you can hold out a while, the Black Magic Pocket Camera will be the most awesome camera for its price when it comes to video quality, nothing in that price level will be anywhere near it. Supposedly, it should be released July/August if Black Magic can make it this time around.   If you really need slow motion, 1080p60/1080p50 modes on the Panasonic GH3 will be the only affordable camera to have that.   Personally I'd say no to the Canon 700D. Old sensor, nothing new there. GH2 will have great resolution for the video. D5200 almost as much resolution.   Personal recommendation for someone on a budget would be: lenses and other equipment around the camera doesn't get outdated as quickly, lenses - almost never. So if you're on a low budget, get GH2 or Nikon D5200 + a few nice lenses. If you can wait 4-6 months - wait for the Blackmagic Pocket Camera.   For stills: 5Dmk2 will be the only full 35mm sensor for that look. D5200 has a recently updated modern high resolution, high dynamic range and good high ISO performance, that in a lot of situations will help a lot with stills. Yet, out of everyone of those cameras you will get great stills if you learn how to handle them. The Blackmagic is a pure video camera and won't have any specific features for taking stills.
  19. Yes, Nikon DX / Canon EF-S lenses should be doable with a speedbooster.   The APS-C sensors are 3:2 ratio though, which is narrower than a 16:9 cinema sensor. That makes the corners go a bit further out to the sides - so you can get a slight bit more of vignetting on some lenses with a DX/EF lens through speedbooster. Will vary from lens to lens. Nikon DX sensors are slightly larger than the Canon EF-S sensors, so there's a chance you might get a little bit more vignetting with the EF-S lenses.   I thought the upcoming m4/3 speed booster would scale the FF image down to cover the m4/3 sensor - however I find no such specs when searching, only the announcement: "... lens adapter for for mounting SLR lenses on APS-C and Micro Four Thirds mirrorless cameras that reduces the focal length by a factor of 0.71x and increases the maximum aperture by 1 stop."   This forum sure is great for picking up new info :)
  20. Update on the contradicting interview from NAB:   Black Magic representant tells that the pocket camera will have compressed DNG, so now it's confirmed both from homepage and NAB representants:   https://vimeo.com/63690222   (also confirmed that the 4k camera reads out the full s35 sensor for 1080p, not just a crop mode)
  21. Very logical points all of them - I think you're right.   I think the Pocket Camera is a product that is extremely difficult to estimate demand on. For photographers, dp's etc it is a sweet compact portable quality camera in a price level that isn't that expensive. It's a nice tool to bring with you when you're out and about, in case you want to film something. If you go on a vacation, you might not bring your big equipment - but this one is small enough to take with you wherever you go, equipped with 1-2 MFT lenses.   And if you consider web video and advertisement production - there is a lot of companies producing videos with dslr's, that very likely would be better off with a nice rig around the pocket camera.   And then we have the DSLR video enthusiasts, low budget filmmakers, film/media/photo students, which are quite a few.   I hope they can supply enough for the demand of this little killer camera :)
  22.       Yes. It is confusing. John Brawley says on his blog:   "Currently the prototype camera I have records only in ProRes 422 @ 10 bit, just like the BMCC. The plan is to add a NEW compressed RAW implementation of DNG. The spec allows for this be lossless (not lossy) and at 1.5:1 – 1.2-:1."   Source url: http://johnbrawley.wordpress.com/2013/04/09/the-pocket-rocket-blackmagic-downsizes-the-bmcc-and-does-a-4k-upsize-of-the-orginal   So, I think the likely scenario is that current models and the ones shown at NAB can only do ProRes. If BM can make it in time, they will probably add compressed DNG RAW to the BMPCC until launch, otherwise it will come later on in a firmware upgrade - unless they stumble upon some issues. Personally, I consider this as a ProRes camera until further information about compressed DNG RAW on the Pocket Camera comes from BM or any third party that has tested DNG RAW on a prototype.   Considering the product page for the Pocket Cinema Camera though, I'd be shocked if they put up texts claiming RAW support unless they've had successful RAW recording to SD cards during internal testing already...
  23. I can't help but smile when I see that tiiiny camera coupled with the big ARRI zoom + mattebox on that massive tripod... :)
  24. More info about the new cameras from John Brawley: http://johnbrawley.wordpress.com/2013/04/09/the-pocket-rocket-blackmagic-downsizes-the-bmcc-and-does-a-4k-upsize-of-the-orginal
  25. More info about the new cameras from John Brawley: http://johnbrawley.wordpress.com/2013/04/09/the-pocket-rocket-blackmagic-downsizes-the-bmcc-and-does-a-4k-upsize-of-the-orginal
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