Sanka

For anything related to filmmaking equipment, eoshd is the place I am visiting, I also like News Shooter and for photography, cameralabs is doing a great job as reviewers. Tony & Chelsea are sitting nowhere since I had seen them, in one of their video, holding the camera body only, instead of the huge lens (600 mm f/5.6) attached to it. Absolutely NO professional relying on their equipment to make a living would do such a destructive move. I am working with a GH5, which is a fantastic camera, and I am using it with manual lenses (speed booster + Nikon AIS or Voigtlander) for fictional work and music video, but I feel very frustrated while shooting personal life event (running kid) or journalistic work (such as yellow vest protest in Paris with tear gas in my eyes), as the autofocus is just so bad, losing target so easily and pumping like hell. Even my Nikon D5500 I carried once did a better job in video AF! A bit slow to grab something but much more stable staying on it. On an ENG camera (HVX200 in the past, JVC LS300 now), I do not rely on AF efficiency that much as the ergonomic make it easy to switch from AF to MF to get the best out of both system, but in a crowd of protesters and journalists potentially targeted by flashball, I prefer to use the GH5 to be more discreet and faster to move. I do think, that having a good autofocus system is lacking on all Panasonic cameras I used (GH1 to 5 + GM5 + G85) to get a complete and very efficient package for video work from fiction to journalism. If there is no serious improvement in AF on the S1, I am not going to invest my money on it. GH5 and JVC LS300 (an amazing camera with its FX look with a speedbooster) will still do the job for me.

I just wonder how much heat thoses new sensors are going to produce with such a busy life inside tight bodies.

@Mokara Your comment is according the book, an illusion. Fact is that election campaign success depends on money and media propaganda for the mass. Who is having both? Lobbies. And they get enough power to force leader decision (once elected with promise they never fulfill) or to position their own pawn on the political's chessboard (more efficient). Macron election in France is the perfect example. At the end, we are having no choice except voting for "plague" or "cholera" once every 5 years. There is nothing democratic in the system, it is plutocratic: A minority get the money and they get full power against the majority of people. And European institutions are even further ahead in this system, untouchable for the people.

Thanks a lot for that information I had seen nowhere else. Sorry, I do not want to be too political, but this new project of law is just a sample of Europe way of dealing with its population: unadapted, against our will and destructive (for freedom and creation). Brexit is a great opportunity to leave the Titanic before hitting the iceberg. How lucky you are to not depends on the Euro ! Switzerland is doing well with Europe being an outsider. Why not UK? This Europe was wrongly designed for us. It is a bureaucratic monster that benefits to lobbies and costs a lot while forcing every country to adopt new laws (we had never been consulted for) which are not adapted to our need/life style/tradition/cultural difference. My country totally lost its power of decision in politics and economy, we randomly elect a useless president every 5 years who is just obeying Europe, creating new taxes while destroying our country (industry, social balance, education, health care...) to please a European institution nobody had elected, but working hard for lobbies.

Sure, with a series of fast prime lenses, it is possible to achieve that "Full Frame" look on M43 sensor, but the big advantage of FX is that you can get almost everything in 1 single zoom lens such as a 24-70 mm f/2.8, which offer a nice combination of traditional field of views: 24mm, 28mm, 35mm, 50mm. On M43 you will need to own and change several prime lenses to get that package, such as : 12 mm f/1.4 + 14 mm f/1.4 + 17.5 mm f/1.4 + 25 mm f/1.4. If for video, I prefer the overall package offered by Panasonic (GH series), for photography I prefer to use my Nikon D750 with a 24-70 mm f/2.8.

@Kisaha Thanks for your comment. Music was composed by a great guitarist who is from that area in France. Bretagne is a big part of Celtic world, full of history and legend. Bretagne is, for example, the land of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Concerning your question I used the JVC at a max of ISO1600 and got no problem with noise, as I am always setting lights for my indoor shot and I also get a great range of lenses with a wide aperture when needed. @Anaconda_ I am using this ND filter trick as well, but still, I have to use this terrible knob to get the right exposure on Lumix lens. I prefer not to count on the exposure correction too much during post-processing as this often deteriorate the image. The one push auto exposure was a feature I was used to on all the ENG camera I worked with for documentary (from Sony PD150 & Digibeta, Panasonic HVX200 & HPX 500, AF103...) and I am missing it here as soon as Log profile is selected. It can be very useful while moving (or panning) from shadow to light progressively while shooting. ND filter turn does not allow this. On the LS300, I tend to use the aperture ring on Voigtlander or non-native lens with adapter (Nikon AIS).

Here is a project I mainly shot on JVC-LS300 camera in LOG mode. The only limitation with Log mode is losing the possibility to quickly adjust the exposure by pointing the camera at something average and pressing the "auto" button once to get a starting point close to the exact exposure. Sometimes that limitation slows down a bit the process while switching from indoor to outdoor shots using Lumix lens as the aperture knob on the camera is not precise and not easy to handle. B cameras were Panasonic G85, GH3, and GH4

I think you might be interested to discover those 2 videos One is the trailer, one is the complete making of IF you like car chase, stunt and exciting stuff, you should have a look It is a remake of Fast and Furious made in China by the usual stunt team of Fast and furious 4 month shooting near Shanghai and I directed, edited and partly shot this Making of. Enjoy; Streets of Fury Trailer http://vimeo.com/98703764 Streets of Fury Making Of http://vimeo.com/97801113

Hi Andrew, Very nice video and great topic, as usual. I think you offer the most mature and open minded approach in DSLR filmmaking web forum. Highly appreciated! After years of work with the HVX200 + Letus Ultimate + Nikon lenses (a heavy combination to get a “cinematic†look (see here

You are very welcome Andrew I am a long time reader of your forum and I appreciate the effort and enthusiam, you are putting in it, but I never had the time to get into it and post. As you needed some information about Nikon, I found it was the right time to give it a start. For everyone new to Nikon, some of the f2.8 manual prime lenses are affordable, you get it cheap in 24, 28, 35 and 135mm range. You also get a 16mm (fish eyes, very limitative use) a great 20mm and an amazing 180mm. Both are quit expensive. AIS are manual lenses, AFD are autofocus lenses with aperture ring (autofocus will not work on D5200), AFG are autofocus lenses without aperture rings (but autofocus works on D5200). According my experiences best prime lenses I had used (for filming) are: AFD 20mm f2.8, AIS 28 f2, AFD 35mmf2, AIS 50mm f1.2, AFD 50mm f1.8 (cheap and great), AFD 85mm f1.8 (cheap and great), AIS 85mm f1.4 (smooth bokeh), AFD, 180mm f2.8 (amazing lens, sharp and contrasty from 2.8), AFD 300mm f4 (sharp from f4.5), AFD 300mm f2.8 (very expensive). If you go and check my videos (see previous post) ,in the presentation of the video, I often list the lenses I am using in my project. The AFD 17-35mm f2.8 is a great zoom which deliver result as good as primes without much distortion at 17mm. Quit expensive. The AFG 70-210 f2.8 is another great lens. If you need to get wide on a DX camera (such as the D5200), go for the Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 which is a very good lens if you succeed to pick up a good one (QC not as good as Nikon). Color rendition is cooler than Nikon lens. Whatever their type or age, all Nikon lenses deliver exactly the same colors, which is important for continuity and not wasting time in post. Compare to Lumix lens, Nikon lenses are more neutral, less digital. Lumix delivers strong green and blue, almost flashy colors with sharp edges. Nikon are more natural (flat) with a little tendency to purple, which is not bad for skin tone. This comparison is done on GH1 or GH2 that I am using with a smooth setting at -2 for everything. Nikon AIS 35mm f1.4, 50mmf1.2 or 85mmf1.4 delivers very soft image wide open with lots of coma. Need to get close one stop or even a little bit to get much usable results. Hope all of this is useful to people going into Nikon direction. I went to the lumix way as I couldnt switch to Canon (at the start of 5D), due to the huge set of Nikon lenses I get. And I had to be patient before Nikon finally deliver something usable in video. Lumix got its magic on me (may be I should write a story about what make it unique to me), and even I get the choice between D800 and GH2 to shoot, I still prefer to use the lumix with Nikon lenses. I am using Lumix lens for documentaries, even a lumix or AF100 will never replace a "real" video camera. All lumix lenses have a huge problem: visible aperture steps in semi-auto... Another story.

Thanks for this quick test Andrew. Concerning lenses: I am using Nikon camera since 25 years and I am currently shooting on a D800 with many other brand than Nikon lens: - Contax Zeiss (usually YC = Yashica Contax mount) modified to F mount are working perfectly with no vignette and they focus up to infinity. The whole Focus range is perfectly accurate. Contax are expensive glass, but Yashica are very cheap. - M42 lens such as Pentacon 50mm f1.8, 135mm f2.8 and 200f4. No vignette, and all goes to infinity, except the 50mm. There is 2 types of adapter, with or without corrective lens (for focus accuracy purpose). The second type is not good at all (soften the image too much). - Not all M42 lens works. For example, Pentax M42 lenses are not doing well on Nikon. - I am using also both Pentax 645, Pentax 67 and hasselblad lens which were all designed for Medium format camera (bigger size than FX). All those lenses are delivering an organic look, you can not achieve with modern Nikon glasses. I am living and working in China, so it is easy for me to get bunch of adapter at cheap price. I had a Canon 5D Mark3 for 4 months but I exchanged it agaisnt a D800 (even the 5D is much better build and deliver better pictures straight out of the camera) for one reason. There is no assistance to manually focus in the viewfinder when you shoot pictures. You always have to use liveview and zoom in it, With Nikon D800, you get a green dot in middle of 2 triangle in the bottom left of the viewfinder. When this dot is on, you are in focus. This works with all lenses I mentioned here. No need electronic connection or whatever. This is a great feature. Concerning Color rendition: I am using both DSLR and ENG camera for my work and I never liked Sony feel on video (EX1, F900), I always prefered Panasonic (HVX200, HPX500, HPX250). Nikon is using Sony's Cmos on the D800 and the color are not "Nikon like" anymore. I had D100, D200, D700 before and they all matched with great pleasing result out of the box. D800 needs lost of post-processing to get something close to what I usually wnat to achieve. D5200 is using another brand than Sony, and that might help to not get it wrong. On another topic, I also always prefered GH1 colors than GH2's. Difficult to explain, but GH1 looks more natural and organic to me. And I feel, that GH3 is not going to the right direction on that matter. Concerning choice GH3 vs D5200. I am shooting for my pleasure and for my job with a GH1 and then GH2 since last 4 years. I never had to buy and set a magnifier on the screen to use the camera efficiently. I am just using the electronic viewfinder with all its information in it. This preserve the interest of M43: being light, compact, instantaneous to use. D5200 only get an optical viewfinder and therefore you will need a rig and all the stuff around to be efficient with it, especially outdoor. Some people love rigs and do spend huge amount of money in it. I am trying to avoid it as much as possible.When i work with rented 5D for client who absolutely want it, I need all this stuff, one more reason for me to stick to the GH2 as soon as I have the freedom of choice. Check what I had done with a GH2 (mix up with AF100) here for a paid job. I just build up a simple shoulder mount to get the viewfinder close to my eyes to be able to be free handed for focusing (without follow focus) while being stable. Check this out: I used bunch of different lenses from Nikon AIS 1.2 or 1.4, voigtlander, Lumix, Hasselblad and Pentacon. CrossPolo TVC Making OF https://vimeo.com/43865929 You can also check this out: La Deuche from Hell (english sub) https://vimeo.com/57730500 FingerUp https://vimeo.com/43454069 Sweet and Sour https://vimeo.com/56455617 Sorry for this long post, but hope this will be useful to others.