Inazuma

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I would not even swap an XT2 for an NX1. I had both and felt the XT2 video was better in colour, DR and noise performance. Also that vertically folding-out screen was great for stills. The only reason I would still love to have an NX1 to this day is that 16-50mm f2-2.8 ❤️

Some time ago I accidentally bought this bad boy...

It's a Cine-NIKKOR-C 13mm F1.9 Nipon Kogaku Japan D-Mount cine lens.  It's pictured above sitting on the hot-shoe of my GH5 for scale.
Ironically, with all the lenses I've bought thus far, it's the only Cine lens I own, and it's the only lens I own that I haven't ever used - I have no idea what its images look like.  I've hatched several plans to mount it and see what it's like but I've never actually carried any of them through.  
This thread is to kind-of publicly shame myself into actually doing something about this, but I thought it might be of interest to others as well, as I kind of see D-mount lenses as maybe being the most under-utilised vintage lens mount system, especially considering they were all cine lenses.  Of course, I'm under no illusions that these will be the best lenses ever, but they must have been pretty good - even 8mm film was still film, after all.
Anyone else interested in D-Mount lenses?  anyone shoot with them?

Haha... I just bought a Leica.. I must be mad

Its a thing of beauty

Haha... I just bought a Leica.. I must be mad

Those little Panasonics are great. I had the GX7 for years and later on had the G80/85 which is also really quite small and light. I found them to have particularly good images in woodland type areas. Nice shots, well done!

Hey Guys,

Since starting in this forum I progressed from the GX80 to buying a Pocket 4k which I use for all documentary shoots and trying to built a showreel. 
Meanwhile, the non rigged out GX80 is way easier to take on trips and fun shoots and I still think it is one of the most underrated cameras in terms of price/performance.

For the last trip to Loen in Norway (where a rock falling into the lake caused a 70m wave extinguishing to villages in early 1900), I took the gx80. Normally I shoot CINE D with all settings around -2, but this time I decided to shoot a dialed down natural, and furthermore I heard on youtube that AVCHD supposedly holds up way better to grading. So I tested it and used the internal noise reduction and grain from davinci. 

What do you think? I am quite pleased with what I can get out of the 24mbit files, even with several nodes, vignettes etc. The opinion is well established that the Full HD on the gx80 seemed to look softer than on the g85 or g7. Even the slow-mo to me looks way better than what I am used to from the 24mbit 60p in mp4. 
Way easier to edit than 4k as well and easy on the storage. 

At 250 Dollars or Euros used, often including a lens, I think this camera is still a steal, especially for people in the mft ecosystem who need a second/third camera. In my backpocket I had a tascam dr05 to record audio and a short interview with a habitant of one of those villages. 

 

This is not the YouTube Video Digest
Can we cut down on threads where there are 3 or 4 youtube clips in every post?
How about making or OWN content rather than reposts?

Ive wanted the 35 1.4 ais forever. I love the way it renders out of focus areas.

 

First I'd like to say that I appreciate that the Lenses sticky thread is now it's own Sub-Forum. It really allows members to post more specific topics and it allows readers to ignore topics that may not be useful for them.
With that said, @noone had a great idea creating a topic with one of his favorite lenses... so I figured I'd follow suit with one of my favorite lenses...
Nikkor 35mm 1.4 ai-s
As I started writing this brief, real world review, I realized that this lens represents a larger story of me as a filmmaker as it chronicles the highs and lows of my life since I started shooting my film...
So what started as a brief review morphed into a much longer story. If you don't have the time or inclination, stop now.
For those that are still interested... here we go...
I love fast, wide angle lenses. They offer shallow depth of field while allowing you to get close to your subject. And a fast 35mm straddles a wide angle FOV and a normal FOV making it almost the perfect full frame, focal length for my style of filmmaking.
This is my second copy of this lens and truth be told... I've almost sold this lens a half a dozen times over the past year.
My first copy I bought when I started shooting my film. I had a simple game plan... the Canon 24-70mm f/4 IS lens for daylight and the Nikkor for lowlight.
Here are a couple frames from the first shots I took with the lens for my film.


For some reason I decided to go a different route for my lowlight shots and bought a Canon 35mm f/2 IS lens. In most ways, the Canon is a better lens, but it lacks the charm of the Nikkor even if it did match my zoom a little better.
At the time, my film was moving along at a steady pace, so I decided to keep the Nikkor for a different, upcoming film...
Well...
Life had a different plan, like it often does, and some unforeseen medical issues in my family slowed production to a near grinding halt. With those medical issues came some unforeseen financial issues and I was forced to sell a bunch of lenses. For a brief time I thought I'd be forced to sell my camera as well, but I luckily made it work.
Before I sold the Nikkor, I decided to take it out for a final spin. Here are a couple frames from that last day with the lens...


By this time, I was also forced to sell my Canon zoom and my Canon 35mm f/2. Over the next 6 months I raided my closet to test any and every lens I had that could work for my film. Luckily, during that time, I found a Canon 28mm 1.8 listed on eBay "For Parts" for peanuts. Needless to say, I won the auction and found another one of my favorite lenses born from need.
For the next 6-8 months, the Canon 28mm 1.8 lens became the only lens I used to shoot my film and at the time, I couldn't be happier with the results. But I still missed my Canon zoom and my Nikkor 35mm 1.4.
Last year, I came into a little extra money and immediately sought another copy of the Nikkor and after a few weeks, I found one.
With the extra money in my account, I took the opportunity to test a bunch of lenses I couldn't otherwise afford but always wanted to try. I tested some beautiful lenses but being a hobbyist, I needed to contain my obsession and build a couple logical lens sets.
I used the end of my sporadic shooting days to test a lens. My method was simple, use my main actor as a model in the same locations I was shooting my film.
Here are a few frames from those tests...




After hours of deliberation and footage, I finally realized that I don't change lenses that often and I grew to like the idea of a single POV, from a single lens, as if the lens' FOV represents an invisible narrator's eye. I used my feet to zoom and put together a simple rig consisting of a closed monopod with a tilt head and a tape measure pouch clipped onto my belt. The bottom of the monopod fits snuggly inside the tape measure pouch giving me a stable image with a handheld-like flexibility.
During these tests, I realized that I had way too many lenses and could easily shoot a short film a month, for well over a year, and never reuse the same lens...
What was I thinking?! I am just a hobbyist with no delusions that I will make the next great indie film. 
This was getting out of hand.
So I set up a final round of testing and narrowed down my keepers to a grand total of 5 lenses with the only "set" consisting of my Canon FD 50mm 1.2 L and my Canon 28mm 1.8.
At the time, I even contemplated selling the Nikkor 35mm 1.4 one more time to keep with my minimalistic utilitarian approach.
 But after some careful thought, and some good advice from some other EOSHD members, I decided to keep it. Although I was still unsure if I needed the lens, after a recent go at some of the footage with my mediocre color skills and my crappy monitor, I came up with these frames from one of my test shots...


Although, I realize that none of these shots are particularly spectacular, but each one represents something I like about cinematography and tells a story about my life over the past 3 years.
Sometimes the gear we buy is more than just tools for the stories we tell... they become part of the story... part of the journey. Maybe I am being too sentimental but when I look at these perfectly imperfect images taken with a perfectly imperfect lens, I remember the moments that brought me from then to now and what I learned during that process...
This lens taught me that my equipment is better than I am. I learned that I don't have to shoot everything wide open and that I probably shouldn't if I ever want to pull focus on an actor walking. I learned that some lenses have a vintage look when wide open, but when stopped down can look crisp and modern. But most importantly, I learned that I need very little to make a movie and gear is the least important.
If you're interested in a more technical review, I recommend Ken Rockwell's review of the lens. He gets into the nitty gritty of the characteristics of the lens. I feel he's a little too hard on the lens but everything he writes is dead on accurate...
https://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/35f14ais.htm
For me, I can sum it up in one paragraph...
The Nikkor 35mm 1.4 ai-s lens has a warmer tone and when shot wide open, the images are dreamy, a little soft with a ton of coma on the edges. Stop it down to f/2 and it cleans up a little. By f/2.8 it's like you're using a different lens and that lens is as sharp as a knife. It's like having two lenses in one with both being sharp enough with a bunch of character.
So there you have it... thanks for reading. 

You guys are gonna kill me for this but I actually loved the IBIS in my a7 iii. The reason is that it didn't have that locked-down look from better stabilisers. It still looked handheld but without the microjitters from my shaky hands. Cameras with better IBIS also had a lot of drag when you panned or worse, warpy corners. 

You guys are gonna kill me for this but I actually loved the IBIS in my a7 iii. The reason is that it didn't have that locked-down look from better stabilisers. It still looked handheld but without the microjitters from my shaky hands. Cameras with better IBIS also had a lot of drag when you panned or worse, warpy corners. 

Stuck at home like many, so I made my daughter the actor and my wife the grip and script supervisor  What have you all been up to during these strange times?
 

Wow I never thought I'd learn something non camera related on this forum, especially as I go to Reddit everyday. I had no idea about this research lab and the other stuff. I just assumed someone fucked a wild animal and caught their flu. Based on the research you've done it sounds like the most obvious answer is that it leaked from the lab. My question is - knowing the potential dangers, why wouldn't this lab concurrently work on a vaccine?

Wow I never thought I'd learn something non camera related on this forum, especially as I go to Reddit everyday. I had no idea about this research lab and the other stuff. I just assumed someone fucked a wild animal and caught their flu. Based on the research you've done it sounds like the most obvious answer is that it leaked from the lab. My question is - knowing the potential dangers, why wouldn't this lab concurrently work on a vaccine?

Damn. I know they say 'if you have it, flaunt it'. But do they really got to flex on us like that. Geez.
I would love to own a set like that someday. I know it's a lot of money, they're really sought-after, but you know they say it's a solid investment... can't see that going down the drain anytime soon... or wait...

Could these sample videos be any more boring?

This thread had turned into less of a discussion on the Corona Virus/Covid-19 Outbreak/Epidemic/Pandemic and more of guys having their periods (we're a hundred times worse than the women, and we don't even have biology to support our behavior).
They should probably hand out male sanitary napkins along with face masks and testing kits, to help everyone calm their t!ts.
I don't care about anyone whining or spewing vitriolic in disagreement with me, someone who hasn't or cannot read newspapers or watch the news and is drowned in his political bullshit of a viewpoint, or someone generally frustrated with life and everything in it. It reminds me of college when some office staff worker pushed me and I punched him in retaliation  (I am very rarely provoked). I was taken to the principal who asked the guy why he was misbehaving. When he said his mother died the precious evening, I asked him why he came to work instead of being at her funeral/cremation, and there was this strange silence. He got his leave and the principal apologised to me. Long story short, if your life is completely screwed up and the world is getting screwed too, stop spreading the rabid vitriolic. Everyone already has enough on their plates. And quite frankly nobody gives a flying f that your life is sad or you're planning to jump off a 100 floor building. Right now, sensible people are keeping themselves away from infections, stocking up essentials, and having a few backup plans.

Could these sample videos be any more boring?

He always leaves the camera's on default setttings, also he doesn't set white balance, he uses the "daylight" or "cloudy" setting on the camera which each manufacturer sets differently. 

His excuse is that the "normal" person just leaves it on default settings, when anyone watching his channel should be trying to get the most that they can out of their cameras.