GoatheSeajets

If you needed to start shooting quality macro footage for a short film, which would you choose...
 
1. Hoya or Marumi macro lens filter ($50)
2. Extension tube from amazon ($10)
3. Tamron SP 2.5 macro lens ($200) (or something of this quality.. budget is $200 max.)
 
I know the tamron would be the best choice out those but is it worth trying or using the macro filters or extension tubes? If so, can you recommend a good brand and/or method?
 
Thanks for the help.

Y'all know what Darias Khondji and Dean Cundey, Kovaks, Carpenter, Storaro, Toland, Conrad Hall, Harris Savides and pretty much anyone you can think of and dozens you can't, guys who shoot great looking stuff on purpose, not by accident, not because they got lucky but by design and through their own effort and expertise, either for the selfish benefit of the image itself or in service to the story, you know what they did so that they could do that stuff when it count, when they were getting paid to do what they did, when dozens if not hundreds of people were depending on them, waiting on them, when possibly millions of dollars were on the line or potentially rendered forfeit, you know what they were doing so that they could do what they did?
 
They were shooting tests.
 
Every camera.  Every lens.  Thoroughly.  They didn't waste other people's times learning what they could and couldn't do under a variety of common or unique circumstances on-the-clock.  They're smart enough to realize the occasional "happy accident" of a flare or focus pull or color combination or Golden Triangle configuration that just happend to occur at just the right time such that a most amazingly emotional chord is struck when the image is viewed by most humans is great but discovering that that last take, the one where the set/car/character/town is destroyed by fire, the giant monster is blown up, the command shuttle breaks apart the rented helicopter is finally, perfectly aligned with the setting sun to create a perfect silhouette through rippling heat refraction in some exotic locale on their last day of access or visa or the last raw nerve of some local potentate or executive producer isn't wasted because they didn't know WTF they were doing and just hoping for the best.  
 
They weren't satisfied knowing the stuff they were using was expensive, or from a well known pedigree, or supposedly crafted by Santa Claus's most talented, clever elves, or promised in some way to never fuck up, under any circumstance, with any other combination of previous, contemporary or future widgets made by Satan Claus or the Easter Bunny or Baby Jesus.  They had to know.  So they could do it.  On purpose.  On demand.  Repeatedly. 
 
They shot tests.
 
What they likely didn't do, for all sorts of reasons, is share these tests with the world, in a public venue, so that others at, below or above their stature and experience could comment on, learn from, share, ridicule or improve upon.  (this last bit was my maybe cryptic way of saying we should be lucky we're in a community where ideas and techniques are shared openly and not hoarded.  I'm not saying "stop posting tests" and non-narrative videos)
 
edit: TLDR version -- y'all stop marginalizing folks posting test videos because that's how you familiarize yourself with your gear enough to be useful to yourself and anyone else.  It's what the  name brand pros do so snarky comments about yet-another-boring-test-video are really just ignorant.

We are producing slow motion video portraits for a large public artwork and need a recommendation on cameras.  We are shooting closeup faces in a portrait setting and then slowing them down anywhere from 2x to 6x.  I am finding that having 60 frames/sec is massively helpful when using Twixtor/AFX motion blending. 
 
Our current tests were produced using a d800 at 720p60 but I am finding that the video quality is weirdly low, and it looks like an encoding issue.  We also need to deploy this as a photobooth rig and the d800 is a) expensive and B) has shallower DOF than I would like due to FX.
 
Can anyone recommend a camera that does good 60fps at 720p or higher resolution?  We would ideally like to use HDMI and encode to disk but other workflows are considerable too.
 
Thanks

hi guys
 
i need an expert eye on that...
 
what do you think about this lense? i mean could you see problems? those photos are not telling me much..
thanks for any help
 

Is the iOS version also shutting down the live-video of the Hero3 Black while the camera is recording like the Android version?

Hi all,

please join us to improve GoPro 3 with our GoPro 3 exposure lock petition. Thank you.
 
Text of the petition:
We, the GoPro3 users, would like to ask you if you could enhance the GoPro camera with exposure lock functionality. GoPro is a wonderful camera, however, inability to lock exposure can cause side effects that can be noticed in the following video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFMCWAqY_Io. We would also appreciate full manual control over ISO and exposure, but we all hope that you could add at least the exposure lock function. Thank you very much.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/gopro-3-exposure-lock/
 

I am sure many have had their heads turned by the Metabones Speed Booster. Some of the many have wondered if this concept could be adapted to scopes. 
 
Out of respect for the two forums, rather than paste a link I have reproduced my info below.
 
 
It doesn't mean anything but it might mean everything  :P
 
 
 
============================================
 
JohnBar wrote: Hello Brian 

I completed an inquiry form at your website in connection with an anamorphic interest. 

1 Did you get it? (I can resend if you did'nt) 
2 Am I likely to get a response? 

best 

John


I've been swamped by email lately, and yours may have been lost in the shuffle. Sorry. 

Anamorphic is something we are thinking about, but I can't say anything beyond that right now.
_________________
Brian Caldwell

thanks for the test Andrew.  A true comparison between real full frame and aps-c was what we all needed.  I am amazed at how much the images look alike.  If anything I thought the branches on the trees in the first shot were sharper on the nex7!  and nex7 was iso1600 vs iso 3200 for 5d!  WOW!  
 
Assuming the shot of the olympus camera was at f2.8 on the 5d and f2.0 on the nex7, if you set the lens to f4 on the nex 7 it will be effectively as bright as the 5d set to f2.8.
 
so at the same brightness, with the cameras set at the same iso, shutter, but with the nex's lens set to f4 and the 5d's lens set to f2.8(assuming the lens had a manual aperture ring), the depth of field will be less shallow on the nex7?  

Just curious about people's views on this.
What will the trends be?
 
Do you think sneaky people will now go around cherry picking fast second hand lenses on eBay to resell for lots more money when using a Speed Booster becomes a norm?
 
Or will there not be much affect just cheaper old lenses like  f2 and f2.8 becoming more popular?
Maybe selling for a little bit more.
 
Will new Canon lenses start selling very well to the MFT market and we all get on like happy bunnies?!
Will people say  "I love my GH3 with my Canon glass they were made for each other!!!"
"My Canon glass is so much better than when it was on my Canon!"
 
And what will the affect be on the beloved Voigtlander 25mm and the 17.5mm? Will they get the cold shoulder?
Will the prices tumble.
 
Will SLRMagic be checking out all the books on advanced optics from the local library. Only kidding ;)
 
Predictions please.

Hey, folks,
 
does anyone of you know whether there are (online) shops within the EU that distribute Mosaic Engineering's anti-aliasing filter? M.E. themselves charge 40 USD extra for delivery from the US to Germany excluding(!) customs dues. I feel like there should be a way to avoid these high charges and still get the product. Anyone with some advise?
 
Greetings,
Matthias

http://vimeo.com/57292607

The Speed Booster will be available from Metabones later at a date TBC

Are you sitting down? Sensor size is history.

An optical reducer is something I have long thought was possible on a DSLR and wondered why nobody had made one. If your sensor is smaller than full frame, shrink the image that the lens throws to fit over it. That is the principal behind the Metabones Speed Booster which essentially gives you the full frame look and a brighter image all at once on your Sony E-mount camera.

Crop factors are a thing of the past. This is revolutionary...
 

i still use one, cos the chicks dig it :P 
 
its one of those old analog sekonic ones from when i was shooting film,....
 
i still use it because i like to have a base reading off of which i can fiddle with, and when i find what i want to expose for, i dont have to faff about with the trial and error to get what i want, even though it doesnt cost anything on digital.
 
i find i work faster if i meter, then decide if i want to go up or down, then set and shoot, as opposed to shoot, nah a bit more , shoot, nah a bit more , shoot , ah ok.
 
i:m probably wrong and it's actually more time consuming, but i like not having to rely on the camera,..
 
this is probably me being old fashioned, but i once read someone say that photography is everything that happens before the shutter opens, and i'm inclined to agree.

I saw this tripod: http://www.adorama.com/SIBSRT2005.html: holds 26 pounds
 
And this one:http://www.adorama.com/SIBSRN2004.html: holds 33 pounds
 
...and was curious if anyone had experience with them and thought they were any good?
 
They both seem to hold a good amount of weight and fold down fairly small and seem like the best of both worlds.
 
I'm trying to find a tripod that could hold a fluid head, possibly the Accratech leveler Andrew likes, and even a slider on top, and yet somehow be portable enough to put in a backpack.
 
 
Update: I ended up getting the Sirui N 2004. It can fold down to 18" for storage. One of the legs can actually become a monopod.. It weighs about 3.5lbs...and yet can hold 33 pounds. 6 year warranty.  It was $184 on Adorama. Not cheap for just legs, but to me it sounds like everything you would want for a travelling tripod.

http://www.olympus-global.com/en/news/2013a/nr130121mfourthirdse.jsp
 
This would suggest an active m43 mount is coming soon.

Now I have my Panasonic GH3, I'm looking for the ultimate versatile microphone. (and found out I had to take a university degree in sound recording - getting though all the information available on the web  :P )
 
Good I nearly got through all the info about sound recording. So now I know there are different kinds of microphones with different pick up patterns for different situations and don't really know what to pick. Because as it happens I will be on the road and have to go as light weight as possible. So I need one mic for in- and outdoor, ambient and interview sounds. The Pana has a 3,5 mm plug. Also it would be handy if the battery would be AAA or AA. 
 
- Any suggestions?
- Or any experience with the Senheiser MKE 400?
- Is it very stupid to use a digital Recorder only, like such as the Tascam DL 100 or the zoom H4N  or even the zoom H1? I can lug those in directly and place them above the camera or lay them at my sound source and sinc later on. I'm still searching the exact pick patterns of these digital reorders but the zoom has adjustable mics of 90 degrees.
 
Thanxs for helping starting up!

Out of curiosity, did they use your PL-to-M4/3 adapter and camera or did they test the LOMO+taking lens with their own equipment?

11.5 stops is epic fail for this device. i personally vote for same camera but with 16 mm sized sensor with wider dynamic range which can be used with tons of inexpensive lenses. and also allow to reduce the camera cost as so as small sensors are pretty inexpencive. 

Speed Booster at 35mm F1.0 on the Sony NEX 7

With the Metabones Speed Booster APS-C and Super 35mm sized sensors have taken a barrelling charge up to the door of full frame.

Does it blow the doors off?

In a sea of insipid and faceless cameras for the corporate workplace, here is something different. Like the Blackmagic Cinema Camera it is designed for filmmakers who want image quality as close to Super 35mm film as possible but can't afford $15,000+

This is rumoured to be around the $4000 mark and has a Super 35mm sensor, Cinema DNG raw recording and a very compact body with no fan.

So I shot my first footage on my first interchangable camera - the Pana 3.
I'm happy with the first impression but also unhappy with some effects and have to find out what caused that. All my material was handheld for future shots I will also use a tripod.
 
First GH3 tests shots | Winter Marocco
 
- On some of the shots  - asphalt or landscapes with lines I see a smur going on. Is this the aliasing and moire?
   Is this due to handhold or due to the settings? My settings All-I 24p, no color grading, contrast 0, sharpness 0,
   saturation 0, noise reduction 0 
- What are the ideal settings for the GH3 and why? 
- And how do I bring back the contrast, sharpness, saturation and noise reduction in post? 
  Do I add sharpness and contrast by editing exposure, lowering the middle and higher the highlights? 
  And saturation by turning up the saturation in general, the higlights, midtones or shadows?
  What about the noise - do you wanna have that back? 
 
Thanxs so much for helping this newcomer!
 
 
https://vimeo.com/57284392

3D was oppressive, attention seeking and now 3D is dead. Quietly dropped by all consumer electronics firm if the 2013 CES is anything to go by.

Or is it?

I hope they make a micro 4/3 version very soon !!
it will sell like hot cakes!