jase

Shot on the GH5 in 3 days. A concept trailer done having a zero budget for our upcoming first feature film.
I really like what I can squeeze out of the internal 10 bit V-Log footage. DR, lowlight and colors are really good.
Everything was shot with sharpening and nr set to -5 and a Tiffen Black Pro Mist filter applied in front of the lens (12-35mm 2.8 V1, 20mm 1.7, 42.5mm 1.7) to make it smoother. Colorgrading done in Davinci Resolve. Drone shots by the DJI Mavic (the internal sharpening is hideous tbh...).
 

It is true for all Oly lenses that have the MF declutch mode. The 45 1.8 doesnt have this mode, so the behaviour on this lens might be / is different.
Like i said, when you have such an oly lens with the focus ring pulled back, the AF-ON button is disabled (I set the AE/AF lock button to this mode). Once you push the focus ring back to normal mode, the AF-ON works as expected (even if you set your camera (not by using the lens!) to MF mode.

I shot this video using the oly 17:
The lens is really nice, but I like the Pana 15 way more. What is really a pitty about the Oly lenses is that once they are in MF mode, the AF-ON button is disabled. When not setting the lens to MF mode, the focus ring is not linear anymore - very annoying for focus pulls.
The pana 15 fixes that since the focus ring is linear and even better than the one of the oly, again even when it is in its MF mode. And since we have a 1.1x crop in 4k anyway (at least for the GX80), the pana 15 actually becomes a 17

I think @jase made a very nice video with that lens.

I also have this manual and found a guy on dpreview who did this mod to the LX100. I really would like to do it and i can solder, but the mic out will always be a weak point and it is very questionable how good the quality will be without a dedicated mic-in.

Ok so I found a GX85 repair manual online and also found this http://www.instructables.com/id/Add-external-Mic-jack-for-Canon-T1i500d/
I found youtube videos for this hack with other cameras too.
I am very close to pulling the trigger for GX85 and I would like to try this.
Anyone crazy enough to try this? @jase ?
My soldering skills are very basic and I would probably have to practice a bit more before trying.
Also found this maniac who made his own battery grip!
 

Thanks jon. I think I will try to do some tests on my own to see whether I can see the difference in my work. 
On a sidenode: god, whenever I watch your videos I feel the urge to buy the Summilux 12mm at an instant. As soon as we get the successor of the G85 that will enable the Teleconverter option also in 4k, this will be it for me.

Dear Jon,
 
yes, scenario is the main criteria, be that climatic, experimentally motivated or commercial ones f.i.
I don´t think it is ETTR what you are doing. I think it is getting the maximal amount of light before the nasties are appearing, in order to avoid noise, in order to get the
maximum potential and not always immediately visible visual information.
With RAW it is supposed to be ETTR big time. Taking pictures with my GF1, even in RAW, it is a no go. But exposing as much as possible is still desirable regarding quality of the signal.
I think, it is that what you are aiming for. And sometimes that can be -1/2 dialed into the camera, because sometimes camera meters are different than others.
In my bright sunlight scenario with huge dynamic range and plentyful light to feed the sensor, the risk of noise was much lower than the huge risk of nastily overexposed mess.
That mess could have never been rescued afterwards, not technically nor in any pleasing visual manner at all.
 
For the jerky movement with auto shutter, I can see it very often too. Just check my bicycle video, if you like for stuttery motion because of that.
I filmed a little exercise two weeks ago, with auto shutter, -2/3, in softer GX85 HD and by accident with gruesome ISO 1250. But it turned out kinda pretty,
because amount and even more the quality of natural light was beautiful.
 
Regarding color shifts, that is even a thing one can try in Resolve. Pure white can expose nasty greyish purple if pulled down
in post. So for filming or acquiring material, it sure will show how we expose. And getting the curves right in Resolve can be a tricky one too,
sometimes a lucky one.
 
Once I graded one of your G81 videos and it turned out awesome, because you had captured great quality light.
Event though I dled it from youtube.
 
In Glenns videos I never noticed stutter, neither in Jase´s. Only in mine, which is not fair!
So I usually prefer to stick to a fixed shutter. I actually recognize stutter and jittery motion, with anything that doesnt involve faces.
And on my HDMI monitor I can see the jagginess, I wasnt able to see on the VGA I have been using until only a few months ago.
Tilts and Pans sometimes look terrible. It´s quiet an art to do handheld with these Panny photo cams. Was amazed @mercers videos
because his camera movement always looked stunning.
I wish you all happy shooting and experimenting.
 
 

so what? I am using auto-shutter all the time. Do you notice it in my videos? Well, I dont - which is good for me, I am apparently easier to please

so what? I am using auto-shutter all the time. Do you notice it in my videos? Well, I dont - which is good for me, I am apparently easier to please

so what? I am using auto-shutter all the time. Do you notice it in my videos? Well, I dont - which is good for me, I am apparently easier to please

I am by no means experienced in the department of grading, but my last 3-4 videos or so i underexposed with -2/3 and I love the results I am getting. However I also have to conclude that my GX80 is sometimes overexposing, so turning it down by -2/3 makes the zebras go disappear in the highlights area.

so what? I am using auto-shutter all the time. Do you notice it in my videos? Well, I dont - which is good for me, I am apparently easier to please

I am by no means experienced in the department of grading, but my last 3-4 videos or so i underexposed with -2/3 and I love the results I am getting. However I also have to conclude that my GX80 is sometimes overexposing, so turning it down by -2/3 makes the zebras go disappear in the highlights area.

Agreed...except one of the best aspects of that lens is the fact that it's a pancake....on a stabilized camera, you can be on any street corner grabbing stellar footage while attracting no more attention than a tourist!...huge value in that stealth factor for me...I've actually contemplated the 14mm 2.5 Panny pancake for this very reason...they are tiny and optically excellent for the price!

Thanks jon. I think I will try to do some tests on my own to see whether I can see the difference in my work. 
On a sidenode: god, whenever I watch your videos I feel the urge to buy the Summilux 12mm at an instant. As soon as we get the successor of the G85 that will enable the Teleconverter option also in 4k, this will be it for me.

I really like the look of your video, congrats. This 15mm lens seems amazing, I didn't know this Tiffen Ultra Contrast 3. 
 
Is it possible to increase the 1080p bitrate with this hack?

nothing special, but i really like the cinelike d hack!

Yeah it's fun. Cinema5D just said $8000 is Little Money for the C200, haha.
I like your idea of cheapest premium camera you can find. $28? THAT is "Little Money"!!
The Sigma DP1 is a really unique tool for colour, for pleasure and for art... slow, but so much going for it. I wish more people would cover the cheap cameras and hidden gems. Samsung NX1 was one as well. Most of those who bought it didn't feel need to go all out and blow $3000 on a Sony afterwards.
My current tip for a bargain for 4K, art and sheer enjoyment is the GX85 with cinelikeD hack
And for stills a $500 Sony A900 with $80 Minolta 24-105mm F3.5-4.5... Can't go wrong with that. Full frame and the lens has character... whilst being 1/7th of the price of the Sigma ART 24-105mm F4, almost as sharp and 1/4th of the size.

Next gig, next clip:
This time OOC.
 

Next gig, next clip:
This time OOC.
 

This camera is better in almost every way than the A7R II and A7S II.
Lenses... I'll get onto those in a minute but A mount is nothing to be afraid of. Will be selling a lot of Canon glass after this and will end up actually saving money at the same time as increasing quality and decreasing weight.
The AF is definitely better than the A7R II and kicks the A7S II into the dust. At F3.5 it tracks like a hawk. I can now see why Sony did this because at F1.4 on a softer lens it doesn't work nearly as well as Dual Pixel AF on the 1D X Mark II. But to have this bonus feature on the 24-70mm F2.8, losing just half a stop, but gaining amazing run & gun AF for video.
The 1080/24p and 1080/120p are the SAME QUALITY. This makes the 1080/120p the best on the full frame camera market. The nicest ever. There's no crop, it's full frame. A7R II was 720p only and A7S II was a big 2x crop!
What's more it is not just an S&Q mode but a fully continuous normal video mode with 5 axis IBIS and AF tracking, at 100Mbit. The S&Q mode is only 16Mbit.
The 4K full frame quality is also very good but Super 35 does still have advantage in low light and to eliminate moire.
Nice to have a top LCD for shooting info. A7 series lacks this of course.
Buttons are better arranged than A7R II and A7S II. It is not laid out like a RX10 III. It is its own beast in terms of ergonomics.
You can now assign Super 35mm mode to a button, which you can't on the mirrorless cams. The new menus are in there and do group stuff together better but they're not a big enough overhaul to make me really appreciate them. I try to go into the menus as little as possible. Unfortunately you can't assign 4K/1080p to a func. button or the func. menu, you have to dig into the menus when switching between 4K 24p and 1080/120fps.
You can assign video recording to the exp. comp button next to shutter release, really handy. Default video button is better placed than A7 series but on the rear not the top.
Exposure compensation can be assigned instead to rear or front dial when in A-priority mode, then it automatically reverts to shutter speed / aperture control in manual mode.... again super handy.
The LCD can face forward for VLOGs and stuff, cannot do that with the A7 series or A9. It can also sit on top of the hotshoe almost (reminds me of Sony R1), or flips away to the base. More articulation options than the A7S II.
AF for photos.... hmmm lovely. Super quick and reliable.
The A lenses...TOP stuff. Particularly Zeiss 135mm F1.8, 50mm F1.4 and 24mm F2.0.
The 85mm F1.4 is a bit noisy and slow for AF but great in MF. Super optically. The Zeiss 24-70mm F2.8 is like the G-Master lens, and just as big unfortunately.
I prefer wherever possible the SSM lenses (24,50,24-70 but not 135 and 85) if using AF for video - much quieter internal focussing.
I love the green indicator boxes in manual focus mode for video. Way less intrusive than peaking. It stops you from diving into the punch-in zoom mode or racking the focus ring back and forth a little bit to be sure. As soon as you get that green dot you can just stop and relax knowing that area is in focus. LOVE IT
Have dialed EOSHD Pro Color into PP1. Looks WAY better than the default. Not tried S-LOG 3 to see if the banding is improved since A7S II yet. S-LOG 2 and S.Gamut Cine 3 with view assist all present like A7S II and an improvement over A7R II.
42MP stills and 18MP Super 35 mode. This for photography is significantly more in resolutions terms than the 1D X Mark II and allows you to effectively get two high quality prime lens focal lengths in one.
The camera is more responsive than A7R II / A7S II. Starting / stopping video has zero lag. Start-up time very good. Writing the 42MP RAW+JPEG files - MUCH smoother. Max write speed is 60MB/s to UHS 1 cards. Dual card slots. Not Compact Flash speeds (80MB/s plus) on the card controller but much better than A7R II 30-40MB/s.
This isn't a DSLR. EVF quality is very good, translucent mirror doesn't flip. It's instant-on like mirrorless camera.
Body size and weight is similar to the GH5. So far far less than 1D X Mark II.
Has a DC-IN port, but doesn't seem to take charge from USB. Battery is probably too big for 5v 2-amp charging.
There's a very smooth and nice front dial near the lens release which is assignable to things like ISO... It can be clickless or clicking.
Now the bad stuff...
The LCD dims in movie mode when you're shooting 4K or 120fps 1080p. It's either a power management thing or a heat thing. Makes exposure look totally different and 2 stops darker than same settings in stills mode. Very silly Sony!!! It seems all unnecessary on this camera because of the bigger battery than A7 series. Although the screen does get very slightly warm at full brightness outdoors, to think this would contribute to overheating problems is unlikely and it can be flipped completely away from the back of the camera where the hot main board and chipsets back directly onto the rear casing with no proper heat sink (I've seen the tear-down photos).
Sadly my camera came with a small faulty part... a sticky joystick in the 'right' direction. Apparently it 'wears-in' over time but I don't think mine is proper...why would it only need wearing-in to click right responsively and not also up/down/left? We'll see if my next unit does the same weirdness. On this point, I think Sony still have work to do to convince us they can make buttons. Can you imagine this on a pro body like a Canon 1D X Mark II? Journalists would be rabid, foaming at the mouth.
That's it for now, can't actually use it much more as it has to go back to DigitalRev but plan to do the review soon.
I think this is a real rival to the GH5... No 10bit but you gain full frame, better slow-mo, 42MP stills and maintain pretty much all the other features.

That's it with the Zeiss 50mm F1.4
The Sony 35mm F1.4 G is also a nice one... forgot to mention that. It's much smaller and lighter than the Sigma ART 35mm.
Size comparison with the GH5
Although lens mount makes the A99 II look much larger, the tops of the bodies are practically level (look at hot shoe and mode dials)

The grip is a bit deeper on the A99 II and card door a lot wider... dual card slots on both.

nothing special, but i really like the cinelike d hack!

nothing special, but i really like the cinelike d hack!

nothing special, but i really like the cinelike d hack!