Oliver Daniel

On 7/14/2021 at 12:12 PM, Andrew Reid said:

Not if you're focussing with a manual focus lens outdoors.

Dress like an old lady and wear a scarf over your head. 😂

I do agree with you on screens though, they need to be bigger, brighter and fit elegantly with the body design. Blackmagic have got this mostly right with the the 6k Pro. 

I was an EVA1 owner for 2 years. 

The problem with the camera was that it felt unfinished. It wasn't the most reliable and took irritatingly long to change frame rates. It would crash often. 

The EF mount also made the small and compact body a bit heavy, because of the EF lenses. For handheld use, it would get quite straining after 5-10 minutes.

The 120fps + modes were disappointing. Just too soft. 

The spec was too late and should have been a bit more blockbuster, but the ageing FS7 was still spec'd better in a  few departments. An EVA2 would have a huge task now in beating the FX6. 

It has a lovely image though and is certainly better than the FS7 for that. I enjoyed using it and made some work with it that I'm very proud of. 

Overall, it was a solid effort but they should have gave it another year of development, under cut the FS7 and knocked it out the park! 

On 7/12/2021 at 12:37 PM, Andrew Reid said:

And a screen worth more than 10 dollars that you can see in daylight.

Haha. That’s why I use a Ninja, but I know having an additional 5 inch clunk isn’t for everyone. 

I’d love to see d as one modularity concerning screens. A bigger screen that actually detaches from the camera itself and takes SSD’s or something smaller. Would that get around the internal compressed raw issue? 

I know that this idea is essentially an external monitor, but my point is that it could be designed to work perfectly with the camera it’s made for - removing the need for fiddly unbalanced rigging and expensive third party accessories. 

I had a C70 which has a lovely image and an excellent body concept but something was bothering me with it. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but in my gut, something wasn’t right. 

I also had an A7SIII at the same time, and still do. The gut feeling that overshadowed my positive view of the C70 might have been the A7SIII. That camera is simply a marvel that I love shooting with. Maybe I enjoyed the sheer flexibility of the A7SIII more, hence the demise of the C70. 

I always shoot with 2 bodies. Instead of getting an A7SIII again, I picked up the FX3 as I wanted the XLR’s and the video centric button layout. 

When the FX3 was delivered, I was very surprised at how it felt in the hand. I was surprised at how small the XLR handle unit was. The grip feels really good. I was thinking “wow, Sony have nailed this”. 

At first, the button layout was confusing as I’m used to the A7SIII. It still trumps me now as it has a function where you can lock your shutter, ISO or IRIS and I keep forgetting it does that. So I always have a few sections feeling frustrated when the values aren’t changing, because I’ve forgot they are locked. 😂

The camera is identical to the A7SIII, minus the body design. Everything is the same. 

I use it with the Ninja V which is a powerful combo for this size. It feels amazing handheld without the XLR handle and the Tilta cage but with the XLR handle it does feel a little clunky and unbalanced in the hand. Now when I’m handheld, I don’t use the XLR handle unless I’m recording some audio with a handheld look, which isn’t that often. On a tripod, it’s fine. 

Capturing shots with the FX3 is very liberating. You can do pretty much anything with it without lugging a brick around. Some people like to rig it up but for me, it’s just very unnecessary with a body this size. 

The image itself is fantastic. What I will say is that it won’t perform miracles for you. People have this misconception the FX3 or A7S3 will light an image for you. No, it won’t. Stop being lazy, feed the camera what it needs and it will shine. 

Again, Slog3 won’t perform miracles. It takes practice, patience and resilience. It isn’t the best between 3200 and 12,800 ISO. To shoot at these high values is a bonus but the best image is SLOG3 640 ISO, so to get great results, shoot for that as much as possible. 

The FX3, just like the A7S3, does have superb colour capability. If you don’t WB, or expose correctly or nail your focus, it would look like garbage. It is not forgiving, you can’t be lazy. I can match this very easily to the C70 - I couldn’t do that with previous Sony cameras. 

Using both Alpha cameras together is extremely powerful and liberating. When treated and operated correctly, and not lazily used to perform miracles, the image you can achieve is just fantastic. 

Peoplr saying these cameras are conservative and underwhelming need to re-check their opinions. Sony gave us almost everything in pristine 4k and it delivers. They are unique on the market in terms of feature set, and it shows. 

Most importantly, the FX3 as a step forward in camera concept for cinema application is the right one. It’s exciting to work with and getting great shots isn’t a pain in the arse or a cripple on your back. 

What I would like to see in the next version is the FX3 and A7S3 to merge into one camera offering with: 

- On-sensor ND or similar tech. 
- A thicker image in feel and robustness. Not bothered about 6k or 8k, just even better 4k please. 
- A larger back LCD. 
- A flip up EVF like BMP6k Pro. 
- An improved XLR unit that is more modular when used with accessories. 
- Possibly both an IBIS and non- IBIS version. 

If they deliver the above, that would be near perfect. 

Still have my GH5, what a camera it is. 

Since, things have moved on and the GH6 must have something unique up its sleeve,  as the A7S3 now exists with 4k120p 10bit for a bit more money. 

If it was $1700 with an ND system? Bingo. 

I enjoyed it, thought it was thoroughly enjoyable. 

The thing is, the audience doesn’t care about vintage lenses and dead pixels. Only a tiny niche of people do.

Sure, the shallow aesthetic was noticeable to me, but that’s only because my eye is trained to see it. But I thought it looked quite “dead eyed”, and complimented the theme of the film well. 

Also, this was a film where you come to see very powerful zombies fucking shit up, and it does that very well.

I personally don’t want to see deep storylines here, I want to see the chief zombie riding a zombie horse and causing absolute carnage. 

Also, for what’s it’s worth, there is some reference to Synder’s loss of his daughter which was a nice touch (if you know about it). 

It’s a bold, fun movie, uniquely shot in shallow DOF where cool shit happens and nothing more. Top job. 

Wow, this doesn't really follow the "blockbuster" upgrades the GH series is known for.  Who would buy this when you can get a GH5 for very little money? There's barely a difference. Seems bizarre. 

Although the A7S3 is more expensive, it has amazing 4k120fps in full frame with stunning low light and great DR.

They have to make a compelling offer at half the price of the A7S3, and this isn't even close. 

2 hours ago, kye said:

It seems like we got given a dizzying array of new cameras, between the A7S3, Canon C70, and others, but it seems there's probably more to come this year.  A few people have mentioned the idea that BM might release a new camera this year.  There's still a mythical GH6 in the wind that could arrive at any time.  The C50 is rumoured.  Etc.  Etc.  Etc....

What cameras do you think will arrive in 2021?  What are you hoping for?

Personally I'm watching with anticipation of the drama of it all, both hoping for the perfect camera to be released, and also hoping it won't so I can use what I have and focus on the craft..

Honestly, I think you could ignore camera releases for this year.  2020 hit a benchmark with so many great tools at more affordable prices. 

10 hours ago, good_1da said:

Why is the idea of UK laws being made in the UK so strange to you?

We have our own Parliaments and Assemblies for the purpose of law-making, why do we need another layer of bureaucracy?

Australia, Canada, New Zealand, USA, etc, do perfectly fine, they don't have other countries playing a role in their law-making yet they still have trade agreements and cooperate with other countries.

You've got the wrong end of the stick.

I was asking what laws people like yourself needed so much, that we couldn't get before? What did you personally have no control over being in the EU? Why can nobody just provide a simple explanation? 

I guess we'll just leave it as that a these questions seem to be impossible to answer. 

6 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

Yeah so did I, there was a lot of ideology and feelings wasn't there in the run up to the referendum and very little fact. You had to brush it off and do a character judgement on those advocating for which direction to go. My character judgement on Farage, Gove, Boris, Cummings, Arron Banks, Tice, etc. was that I didn't like them. Unintelligent dilettantes from Eton. Privileged little fixers and opportunists. All middle aged white men with an axe to grind. Probably all racist too.

If this puts me into the category of "snobby" then fair enough, it's a label that was pinned on the remain side because we were painted into a corner by people like Farage holding a pint down the pub, and enough people believed it. We are liberal elites apparently!! When a culture turns against intelligent thinkers and well travelled people with an open minded view of foreigners then you know your country has a racism and class problem.

I don’t agree that the Remain argument was snobby either. We’re certainly not snobs. I just found it to be more factual, basing most of its argument on what will go wrong (Project Fear). 

The Leave argument is like a feeling of patriotic inspiration experienced after a speech by Farage. “We can make our own laws” blah blah. What laws? What laws do you so desperately need in your life that the evil EU have stopped?

Then the response.... “we want our country back”. Back from what? Why can’t they tell us, factually, what they want back? I just want a simple, everyday explanation of getting “back” these incredible benefits. Anyone? No? 

Alas, I do believe it was immigration. People are so misinformed that they believed leaving would result in saving our jobs from Khalid the neurosurgeon and Łukasz the male nurse. There was a saying, not all Leave voters are racist, but all racists voted Leave.  
 

p.s Jacob Rees Mog (the haunted Victorian pencil) and company are full of shit who don’t care about anyone but themselves and their bank balance. 
 

Anyway, who will kill filmmaking first? Climate change will. 

10 hours ago, good_1da said:

 

In the words of writer Dominic Sandbrook (who voted remain)...

"As for my fellow Remainers - well, where do you start? Snobbish, sneering, risibly prey to conspiracy theories, many ardent Remainers made complete fools of themselves. They didn’t try to understand their fellow Britons, and refused to accept defeat with good grace. And if they had succeeded in subverting the referendum, as they hoped, they would have dealt our democracy a very heavy blow."

I agree with the behaviour from the Remain camp, who in a lot of ways were just as bad as the woefully dishonest Leave campaign.

It muddied the waters - which I believe is a strategic technique used by Dominic Cummings, called the Ooda Loop. But the bigger culprit in this “muddied waters” is technology, namely the truth twisting on social media. 

What is actually true? What is right? Honestly, I think these days a lot of people can’t speak for themselves and will just recite a series of memes they’ve seen and base their truth on that. 

I went the Remain route, as brushing all the political structuring and ideology aside, I looked at the simple things. I understood what Leave was trying to do, but I couldn’t relate to it at all. Nor was there any simply set out information on exactly what it meant for the everyday person. 

I do hope it wasn’t all an unnecessary  nostalgic pipe dream and that a lot of the issues are resolved, and that we start seeing an everyday benefit to it all. 

Then, a Leave voting or Remain filmmaker can make a Netflix film on how it all turned out, and say “hate to say I told you so.”

It might have to be a comedy. A dark one. The villain of which is the monstrous brain imposter, the snarling, cunning and hungry Social Media Beast. Then the world blows up, because y’know, climate change? Did we forget about that? 

1 hour ago, Andrew Reid said:

Look at the sham of the school meal packages recently - supposably £30 for 5 days of food, and what the mums got was £5 of baked beans. Where did the £25 go

The Covid contracts have had similar treatment. Same old story. 

Im still waiting for somebody to give me a simple explanation as to why they voted Leave or jumped onto the Tory vote. I guess it doesn’t help when the low educated gather their news from memes. The sharing of “information” is a shit shoe of the truth. 

Some people don’t like to admit it, but I think it’s immigration. Foreigners taking their jobs and all that. 

Will Brexit / Covid / Dominic Cummings’ eye test kill filmmaking? No, because artists are going to get more pissed off, grab their cameras and make films to either document the carnage, or help us escape through utter joy. 

22 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

Wish you would though. I am still waiting for all the specific advantages for me to be communicated by somebody on the Leave side but as usual it's just a load of hot air about taking back control!

This. 

It is important a country is in control of itself, certainly. But I’ve yet to hear any real, tangible day to day benefit of leaving. What will I benefit from by walking out the door, and going about my day? Can someone tell us please, without going on about the political funfair and it’s system?
 

Where’s that £350mil a week for the NHS for instance? Every visit I’ve made to the hospital, for whichever reason, is unbelievably long. Can’t we fund it properly so we can cut down waiting times, more people get seen and have a higher chance of survival? It’s those things that matter. The day to day bread and butter. 

Let’s remove all this political structuring and ideological flag of glory, and see what the actual real life benefits are yes? 

4 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

Still wondering what specific advantages are in it for you?

I think of these things in the most simple terms, such as, what impact will it have on my life, and what has happened? 
 

Simple day to day things like:

- Takes longer to queue at the airports. 
- Can’t use my UK streaming accounts abroad. 
- Some shipping fees from Europe are more expensive. 
- EU muscians I work with are now cautious about travelling to the UK due to added costs, hence less income for me! 
- Cancellation of funding for EU funded projects, back to the drawing board. 

I’ve personally felt no benefit, and so far I can’t see what benefit there will be for my day to day. 

Unfortunately, a lot of the more intelligent arguments for leaving seem to be quilted with hardcore patriotism - some type of false ideology built on an imaginary pedestal that died decades ago. 

I do believe that the swing for the Tories will die out as the younger generation take their place with a refreshed mindset, and Brexit will turn to Brentry and take over all media for what feels like 100 years. 

@Andrew Reid - I agree on so many levels. It's at a point so monstrous and disorientating it's just.... f*cked. 

You're around Manchester aren't you? My space is open. You could occupy one of the (many) empty coworking desks with free coffee etc, bitch about celebrity Youtubers, play with my C70 and film the empty sad streets around the utopian Ancoats area. It's dark and raining. 

9 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

Here begins a series of blog thoughts from me on the state of the world and filmmaking in 2021, after humanity decided to go headlong into a full dystopia like you see in the movies. There will in the future be many great cinematic masterpieces about our plight as citizens in the year 2020. Anyone who has seen Black Mirror writer Charlie Brooker’s “Death to 2020” on Netflix can see for themselves the historic plot twists and sheer lunacy of what we’ve been going through the past year.

New blog post...

https://www.eoshd.com/news/andrew-reid-on-filmmaking-when-the-truth-is-so-awful-only-liars-win/

I feel the pain mate. 

As well as this virus turning life upside down, it has also exacerbated personal issues in relationships and with my mental wellbeing to the point that everything is like a sludge of clay. 

I strongly agree with your views on internet and truth. When people are using memes as their “news” source, there’s a big problem. Then comes the nonsensical behaviour of our Governments. Nothing can be trusted but we trust in our own stupidity.

Social media and internet control is a pandemic in itself, that’s got out of control. It’s a crazy illness that affects us deeply, so Zuckerberg makes money at the expense of your health. 

The best course of action is to dramatically minimise internet usage and consumption, which I know it’s hard is your job depends on it. But make your usage more meaningful and useful to you, instead of “being the product” that feeds the monster. 

I still come to EOSHD as you can have an open discussion. There’s very little of that going on, so keep at it. Someone has to. 

@Andrew Reid, I agree. 

2020 was a behemoth of a challenge. Mentally it’s been awful but I think I’ve done well to persevere and pursue a change in direction.

2021 doesn’t change anything, it’s just a number. I’ll just continue and crack on. 

You’re right about Youtube. Anything that becomes oversaturated starts spitting out trash so it’s harder to see the better layers underneath. Many camera “reviewers” spend half a video giggling and skateboarding. They don’t represent the industry and make it feel glamorous. It isn’t. We don’t have to watch them. I don’t anymore. 

The A7SIII is definitely my camera of the year. But now I’ve used it, I’m not sure how much better they can get. I feel like they have plateaued. How will the GH6 appeal now? I see it being the last one in that series. 

I feel the camera companies should focus on quality of the image. Not resolution, just the “meat and sauce” of the image. The codec quality. The user experience quality. .The connectivity options.

But all in all, although us users crave the next gadget, we don’t absolutely need them to make great stuff. I hope more people seek their inner creative, improve their skills and speak own their voice - instead of licking their lips over an iJustine advert *cough*, I mean review. 

Also, I hope more people spend less time online. It’s mostly not good for you and can be counter productive, and damaging to your mental health. 

Get out and shoot @Andrew Reid, show your voice and ignore the commodity that plagues your mind. Maybe change your editorial for EOSGD a bit, and focus on the inner creative aspect. 

17 hours ago, josdr said:

The RF lenses have been designed very video centric, I think you will get great AF one you use them. thanks for the heads up!

Thanks, they are just extremely expensive at the moment. 

On 12/27/2020 at 12:39 PM, josdr said:

That was great footage and editing. Is the band's name stone deaf? Shazam did not come up with a result

Trying to leave buyer's bias aside, do you think the C70 is worth its price tag now that you have shot with it? Would a form of raw recording from it, help you in the editing and the overall look/feel or do you think it is just right?   How would you describe the performance of the aF and its general handling?

 

P.S The A7siii / c70 footage seems to cut together very well

The video is for a guitar pedal brand, and the track was recorded especially for this video. 

I need more time with the C70 and I need to see how it is with RF lenses (but they are $$€€££!!) 

Id say it’s definitely worth the price tag. It fits in everything a video camera has into a very helpful (and innovative) form factor. You just pick up and shoot, no messing around. It’s the form factor of the future, in my opinion. 

Its always nice to have RAW, however I barely use it. For its purpose, I don’t think it needs it. But is always nice to have. 

The footage is very high dynamic range, I’m not used to it being this high. It’s easy to grade and the footage looks great. The A7SIII is a little more contrasty. 

4k120 is slightly softer, whereas the A7SIII is the same in every 4k frame rate. 

The AF is good on Sigma 18-35, not great on the 50mm. Not used RF yet. It’s not as good as the A7SIII with native lenses. The A7SIII is more featured and works fully in all recording modes. 

I need more time with the C70 but my early impressions are very positive. The A7SIII is really in it’s own “space”, it’s probably the best all round video tool for the money and in my opinion, “camera of the year.” It’s almost flawless and very refined. 

The C70 wins as a conceptual innovation. It’s beautiful to hold and makes shooting very joyful. 

Have a beautiful festive break, and kick some ass in 2021!

1 hour ago, DFason said:

I recently received my Mac mini M1 with 16gb. I love it but has its limitations. 

Sony A7Siii - Everything runs perfect until 120. I get a little lag with some 120 clips. I am running the M1 resolve. Grading is easy. Adding grain or NR does drop frames in 100%.

BM - Runs perfect with grades. Less drop frames when adding NR or grain 100%.

I am so happy with the purchase. I shoot more photos and the system burns through any file. The system is almost silent which is helpful. 

Another thing to note is while rendering video I can still use other programs. On my other system I had to wait until the file was completely finished to work on anything else. 

Looking forward to using mine, although I expect it will perform a bit better in FCP. 

Not even took it out the box yet, not had the time! Have to wait til new year. 

On 12/19/2020 at 10:53 PM, Cameramoto said:

Nobody in the industry works on final cut sadly. Broadcast is on Avid. Then the indie filmmaker is on Adobe Premiere. For colour most indies will work on Davinci or wing it on the basic tools of premiere for corporate crap made with stock footage. And by the way Arri Alexa generates Prores 444 files. The commercial industry and the cinema industry has been working in Prores for ages. There's no way it's going to change. So I don't think closing yourself in a weird isolated workflow isgoing to help your cause. Stay compatible with others workflow and the industry's standard.

False. 

People do work on FCP in “the industry”. 

On 12/19/2020 at 6:51 PM, andrgl said:

I'm considering picking up an ARM Mac and Atomos Shogun 7 for what I assume is currently the best exprience for ProRes RAW.

Currently shooting CDNG with a FS5II to an Odyssey 7Q and editing on PC with DaVinci Resolve. It's... OK.

 

Please chime in if you're editing ProRes RAW on the new ARM Macs! I would love to hear your thoughts, good and bad. 🙂

 

@Oliver Daniel any updates on switching to the ARM mac?

I have it but I haven’t even took it out the box yet. Too many projects. 

I think you could grab pretty much any camera now and make the audience believe it looks like a “real film”. 

@kye notifies sone great points. It’s more about what’s in the scene, and how that is coloured and lit. 

Sure, cameras like RED, Blackmagic, Arri all have a special feel to the motion. No doing about it. But the audience will barely notice. 

At the same time, most consumers have “TruMotion”, “Smooth Motion” switched when watching films on TV. They rarely notice it, but they notice production design, colour and performance quality above all else.