sgreszcz

On 6/17/2018 at 6:23 PM, fuzzynormal said:

It's a cheap one.  Zomei.  Adds hue to the mix, but whatever, one lives with it.  I can shoot outside in the sun at f.95 with it.  No hard stops, but that's okay as I'm often adjusting exposure during a shot (when one tries to capture candid doc stuff, the camera just keeps rolling).  My issue is the extra layers of glass really does flare alot and it does knock down other details.  But that's true on whatever VND you use, or any stacking of glass.

Yeah, it's a GH5, for whatever that's worth, with (mostly) a Voightlander 42.5mm.

Hi fuzzynormal,

How do you get such a wide aperture (0.95) with your VND?  This weekend I shot an outdoor carnival event in the mid-day sun.  With my 12-60/f2.8-4 and Heliopan 0.3-1.8 (six-stop) VND I was at around 50% to 2/3 strength on the filter.  By the way, I liked the promo above.  Pretty nice, smooth movement despite using only the GH5 IBIS.  Do you notice much difference between the GH5 stabilisation and your old E-M5ii?

I've been going back and forth between using a fixed breakthrough photography 3 or 6-stop filter with xume magnets, and the heliopan VND.  The breakthroughs definitely seem to have more life in the shots and good colour, but you need to vary the aperture to get the right exposure. The VND definitely makes the image (especially people) look flatter or more "matte".  I've been thinking of trying those new aurora VND on kickstarter as they go a little bit darker and maybe I can get away with larger-aperture primes.

Always tradeoffs, as I wish the 12-60 had a wider aperture on the long end for easier shallow depth of focus.  I used to like using the 35-100/2.8, for events but sold it with my second GX80 and bought a used GH5+12-60 to try and do it all with one camera.  Maybe next time, I'll be brave like you @fuzzynormal and shoot the whole event with my 15/1.7 or 25/1.4 and rely on the GH5 4k ETC mode + 4k->1080p cropping in the edit to get more range...

I've only just started editing, but I think that the Heliopan VND is keeping the colour quite true.  I shot Cine-D with either auto WB or "sunny" and applied the Leeming LUT as a start.  The vectorscope shows fairly good skintones.  (Although I can only go by scopes as I'm colourblind).  I think that I might push the saturation a bit and see if the colours of the costumes pop a bit more...

Any suggestions would be highly appreciated!

On 6/18/2018 at 7:13 PM, Márcio Kabke Pinheiro said:

@sgreszcz I have a Crane M, never messed much with the default settings, use much heavier lenses with my GX85 and it works ok (albeit rarely do the movement that you are describing). 

Did you manually balance the gimbal with the camera + lens combo? When I started playing with it, incorrect balancing even sometimes shut down the motors. Correct balancing and "resetting" the gimbal - there is a (somewhat complicated) procedure for it in the app that seemed to help.

After a while, when I got the hang of balancing it fast when changing lenses, no more problems. I recommend to put a very small Arca clamp (I used one like this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/FC-25-Quick-Release-Plate-Clamp-Adapter-for-RSS-Arca-Swiss-Benro-Tripod-Ballhead/382455971141?hash=item590c26fd45:g:JP8AAOSwG~ta1b6X) since it helps the balancing (and take the camera out) without much weight.

Hi Marcio, thanks for the reply.  I just re-updated the firmware, re-calibrated the gimbal and now is is not juddering during tilt/crane shots (up down).  

Can you explain the three modes to me?  When I start up it is in pan mode where you twist the handle and the gimble moves in that direction slowly.  When I press the button again, the gimble seems to keep the camera in the original position as I move the handle.  When I press it again (the second time) I'm not sure what it really does differently.

Also, if you have any links to videos or whatever that show how best to practice shots with a gimbal, I'd appreciate it.  What do you do for exposure when mounted on a gimbal?  Auto exposure?  I'm worried a bit if I'm in a mixed sunny/cloudy situation.

@jonpais or anyone else - Hoping you can help me with my Crane.  I just got the Crane-M to use with my GX80 and small primes (Lowa 7.5mm, PL 15/1.7 and P42.5/1.7) .  all the weights are around 500g which is under the Crane-M capacity of 650g.  

I've updated the firmware and played with the settings, including light, medium, strong motor weightings.  The crane seems to be working great, but I get judder in one axis when I try to do "crane" shots.  For example when I'm holding the camera in an upright mode with two hands and I move it into "flashlight" mode and then "crane" up to an upright position again.  It judders in the vertical axis.  When I'm in inverted mode the crane doesn't judder when I do a "crane" movement.  The problem with inverted mode is eventually the rear crane motor will get into the field of view of the lens.

Also, can anyone explain what the three "modes" are good for?  I find when I click through them sometimes the crane goes sort if into an "off" mode where the camera is back in balance but the motors are no engaged.

Thanks or any help!

Stephen

OK, I RTFM and it looks like C-AF doesn't work with VFR, so I guess the best I can do is 60fps and bringing down to 25p in post.  Looks like the 179 angle trick works to "fix" 24/25/30fps autofocus.

I'll give it a shot tomorrow and see what happens, but if anyone with experience with fast objects moving towards the camera could share their settings, I'd appreciate it!

Cheers.

Does anyone know what VFR (if any) that the C-AF will work in?  I'm hoping to capture some accelerating athletes, so would like to get AF working in this case...

I would only upgrade my gx80 if the viewfinder was better. Too difficult to manually focus with EVF even with peaking.  The GH5 I just got is significantly better, as is every Olympus since e-m5 including the vf4 on my old pen cameras.  Shame panasonic hasn’t  implemented in-recording punch-in focus.

That being said, I do love the size and image quality of the gx80. You can pretty much shoot anywhere without being noticed.

The main advantages for me using the GH5 are the IBIS is significantly smoother (like olympus quality) with the PL12-60, the EVF is miles better, and the slow motion is outstanding. I was shooting Olympic halfpipe slowmotion 180 and 100fps (in 1080p ETC mode) with the 12-60 and 100-400 (at 1600 35mm equivalent) and the fact that I could actually even do so hand held is insane.

58 minutes ago, jonpais said:

Shoot a snapshot of your screen so we can see. Only other thing I can suggest is to reset camera to factory default and start over.

@sgreszcz you are aware that you can move the histogram wherever you want, aren’t you?

Hey Jon, I did some more googling and found that it was a combination of last having been in VFR mode and having limiter being off that made it stuck - even if I was in photo/‘A’  mode. Anyway, disabling vfr, turning limiter back on allowed me to turn off audio meters.

i knew I could move the histogram, but I’m always used to it there

i think I have this camera mostly set up and now I just have to get used to all the extra buttons, joysticks, and dials compared with gx80.

Another strange thing is that ETC mode disappears at the higher VFR modes...

13 minutes ago, jonpais said:

@sgreszcz did this happen after loading the camera settings I sent you?

I tried your settings, but I needed to change a lot of them so I've reset the settings for what I want for this week at the olympics  (C1 4k 50p, C2 1080p VFR).  After that I went back to set up my photography settings under 'A' and for some reason I cannot shut off the audio meter display - weird..

Your settings, Griffin Hammond's video about GH5 settings, and Caleb Pike's GH5 course helped me understand what is different above and beyond the GX80/G7/GX7/LX100 that I've had experience with.  I'm still not sure to shoot natural between my GH5/GX80...  I spent a few hours on the plane to Korea trying out the settings.  Strange that AF gets disabled for VFR > 100fps for some reason.  I don't use it exclusively, but it is nice to have S-AF+M focus to get the focus close, especially for fast moving things.

Stephen

Does anyone have the problem where the "display audio monitor" is greyed out and can't be shut off the display?  This is even happening in "A" photo mode and the audio meter is overlapping the bottom left where I have the histogram.

1 hour ago, IronFilm said:

It is a little surprising and a little sad when I see so many comments like this.

Because we're all media creators here, yet we're totally unaware of one of the biggest media creators on the biggest media platform of them all?!

As Logan Paul was one of the biggest vloggers of 2017, his content has billions and billions and billions of views across all the platforms.

For all the obsession this forum has about Casey Neistat, he is small fry next to the Paul brothers.

Next people here will be telling me they don't know who PewDiePie or Jon Olsson are....

I guess I don't watch the right youtube (or enough) since I don't know who any of those people are except Casey Neistat.  Then again, I probably cannot name any "famous" person these days as I don't consume much popular culture.   I do watch a significant amount of video creation content and technical tutorials on youtube so as someone above said you get what you watch. 

The problem for me is not my own personal filter but the recommender algorithms being polluted by spambots and all sorts of weird shit being served up to kids who don't have the wisdom to filter.  Thus, all the informative content that I have access to is off limit to my kids (at least in my house and my control).  TV was bad enough with constant commercials pushing crap (never regretted my TV license fees to mostly avoid that minefield) but youtube is a continuous series of unboxing videos or commercials.  Once that and the weird stuff gets in front of young eyes and into the brain, thats it for good - no erase.

No way to filter except to turn it off.  Shame.  At least with the plain-old internet you can do a decent job using the right search engine, web filters, and DNS servers.

16 hours ago, Germy1979 said:

If you've ever suffered 5 minutes of Youtube Kids, your "algorithm" statement is completely correct.  Watch Sonic the Hedgehog drive Lightning Mcqueen off a skyscraper 1500 feet onto a farting velociraptor with breasts and Don Johnson loafers...  while "Daddy Finger" repeats in the background. 

Yeah, this.  I can't believe that for some reason I thought youtube kids was curated.  How naive was I considering I work with data and algorithms (although for very dull purposes).  As soon as I started seeing weird stuff pop up in the "what to watch next" and read this article (about how the spammers game the algorithms) youtube was gone from anything my kids have access to.  Shame as there is potentially a lot of good educational content there (I've learned a lot about how to shoot video there), but impossible to filter.

https://medium.com/@jamesbridle/something-is-wrong-on-the-internet-c39c471271d2

From the article: 

"As someone who grew up on the internet, I credit it as one of the most important influences on who I am today. I had a computer with internet access in my bedroom from the age of 13. It gave me access to a lot of things which were totally inappropriate for a young teenager, but it was OK. The culture, politics, and interpersonal relationships which I consider to be central to my identity were shaped by the internet, in ways that I have always considered to be beneficial to me personally."

...

"Someone or something or some combination of people and things is using YouTube to systematically frighten, traumatise, and abuse children, automatically and at scale, and it forces me to question my own beliefs about the internet, at every level. "

8 hours ago, Christina Ava said:

us being born at internet BC and our kids being born with the internet as a "nanny" at internet A.D., my son doesn't watch tv. I have limited his access to youtube after the daddy finger crossover Dino crossover Lighting mcqueen autism inducing videos drive him insane as mentioned above. We filter the crazy, its sad that the next generations view these things as tame. Not at all shocking anymore

I've had to delete Youtube as have not had luck filtering within Youtube itself so have had to delete/block except for on my work machine and my and my wife's phones which are locked.  Too much weird crap that keeps popping up.  Any tips would be appreciated...

On 06/12/2017 at 6:04 PM, fuzzynormal said:

FWIW, just in general, I've been quite underwhelmed with Pany's implementation of Dual IS from other lenses as well.  A big fat "meh."

Which is why I'm tempted to just go back to the E-M10iii now that Olympus has 4k video.  The Olympus IBIS is really that much better than Panasonic's (at least base on my GX80 experience compared to the E-M5ii) and Olympus has better viewfinders in their smaller cameras too.

6 hours ago, leeys said:

Ah, there're two versions. Thanks for the info. Amazing that the newer lens is worse than the old one.

Wow, I can't believe that Panasonic got OIS wrong in video with the first 35-100/2.8 lens and then fixed it starting when the GX80 IBIS came out and now it seems as though they've broken it again with the new 35-100/2.8ii.  That is a double-shame as the 35-100/2.8 was a lovely lens for stills.  (I've just gone and sold my 35-100/2.8 v1).

Here is a video I did with the 35-100 lens when I first got my GX80 and compared it to my G7 and Olympus OM-D E-M5ii.

On 22/11/2017 at 3:36 PM, mercer said:

I did get a chance to mess around with his E-M10iii and there are a few quirks that are kinda silly. For instance, you have to go into the menu to change WB, the meter doesn’t show up on the screen in Video mode unless you hit the ISO button and then it will only be on screen until you’ve set ISO or dismiss the screen. Also the focus peaking is amazing but you have to keep pushing the button to enable it.

The Muted Profile is really nice. I’d say the IBIS is better than GX85’s and the 17mm f/1.8 Olympus lens is awesome... it is so tiny and the manual clutch works great.

Thanks for the feedback!  I don't remember those quirks or the peaking working like that when I had the E-M5ii - I thought it kicked in automatically when focusing.  The weak EVF and the wobbly GX80 IBIS is why I'm making a move.  I prefer the size of the GX80 and E-M10iii to the GH5 or G9 however I have a documentary to finish (winter sports / olympics related) and want to upgrade my camera for that.

I did have the O17/f1.8, and loved that lens.  I'm using the P15/1.7 and find it quite good too for manual focusing and the aperture ring.

On 22/11/2017 at 5:27 PM, PannySVHS said:

Here is a trailer for my shortfilm I shot end of summer. It´s shot with the GH5 in 8bit 100mbps with natural profile. So should be similar to what a G85 can deliver if using its UHD mode. It´s a pity that not many people are sharing their shortfilm efforts on the web or not shooting any. I remember the GH4 launch and along with all the slomo, flowers, walking backs of heads, there was a variety of interesting and inspiring fictional shortfilms, pieces of fictional filmmaking.

Little sidenote, my G6 video I posted above was kind of a concept quickshot for the shortfilm this trailer is from. I must say I am still very fond of the G6. But color rendition of the newer bunch of Lumix cams is impressive, when graded. So even more a pity, that the newer Lumix cams don´t seem to inspire to shoot shorts as much as they are used to film documentaries, webcontent, fashion ads,  imagefilms, and stuff like that. Some wedding films with the GH5 are super impressive. Would love to see that in the fiction shortfilm area.

 

Hey, I really like the look of this.  As for fictional short films, I wouldn't know where to start.  Maybe my kids will have some ideas some day

On 11/11/2017 at 7:41 PM, mercer said:

My friend picked up his first 4K camera the other day, the E-M10 Mark iii and even with its measley 4 stops of IBIS, I found it better than the GX85’s. And the color was fantastic... so organic. The E-M1 Mark II has 5.5 stops, so that camera will probably have IBIS as good, or better than the advertised 6.5 of the G9. Olympus IBIS is pure insanity. I saw a video from it and it looked like steadicam footage even while walking.

Yeah, debating two EM-10iii to replace my GX80s as I want better EVF and the Olympus colour which I prefer.  I was about to pull the trigger on the GH5, but the size puts me off a bit.  I might wait for the replacement GX camera to see what Panasonic offers.  I'm in no rush and don't have any projects on but have been contemplating selling all my lenses and going with the new Olympus 17.5/1.2 and 42.5/1.2 lenses and the 12-100/4 for outdoor run-and-gun.  Simple hybrid solution.

On 11/11/2017 at 7:41 PM, mercer said:

My friend picked up his first 4K camera the other day, the E-M10 Mark iii and even with its measley 4 stops of IBIS, I found it better than the GX85’s. And the color was fantastic... so organic. The E-M1 Mark II has 5.5 stops, so that camera will probably have IBIS as good, or better than the advertised 6.5 of the G9. Olympus IBIS is pure insanity. I saw a video from it and it looked like steadicam footage even while walking.

Yeah, debating two EM-10iii to replace my GX80s as I want better EVF and the Olympus colour which I prefer.  I was about to pull the trigger on the GH5, but the size puts me off a bit.  I might wait for the replacement GX camera to see what Panasonic offers.  I'm in no rush and don't have any projects on but have been contemplating selling all my lenses and going with the new Olympus 17.5/1.2 and 42.5/1.2 lenses and the 12-100/4 for outdoor run-and-gun.  Simple hybrid solution.

I did a 40-minute doc with two GX80s.  I'm not a pro, and mistakes were made, but I got paid and the clients and those who were involved with the project and who saw it really liked it.  The main feedback was that they often forgot I was there (invisible), the kids and other interviewees were comfortable in front of the little camera, and the quality of the image was much better than they expected.  All the a-cam was shot handheld except for interviews and I was able to get pickup shots in locations where I really didn't have permission to shoot video (museum, only stills with no flash allowed).  

Would love an updated GX camera with better EVF for manual focusing with some of the GH5/G9 features.

1 hour ago, Andrew Reid said:

Nope. Only the Sony cameras allow this. Not even the Panasonic GH5 lets you do it.

I'm still not sure why Panasonic cameras (or Olympus) haven't implemented this, especially now with the increased CPU power. in the cameras.  All the Panasonic cameras can punch in  before pressing record with a simple click of a wheel.

On 02/10/2017 at 11:23 PM, mercer said:

@sgreszcz that e-m5 Mark II Footage looks great. After shooting with the Oly, what made you choose the GH5 over the e-m1 Mark II?

Actually, that is a good question...  I've always preferred the Olympus colours and look over Panasonic, and I started shooting video with my original E-M5.  I think I switched away from the E-M5ii for a couple of reasons: the GX80 came out with IBIS and dual-IS with improved colour and 4k in a small body with a tilt LCD which I prefer over the flip-out ones.

Come to think of it (which I really haven't before you mentioned it), I probably could shoot with a E-M1ii (a-cam) and E-M10iii (b-cam) combo to get the better IBIS, 4k and the killer dual-IS with the 12-100/f4 for events (as well as better EVF than the GX80). 

I guess I was lured by the GH5 2.0 firmware update, 4k/60 as well as 1080p/180, and 1.4 4k ETC zoom.  I mostly have Lumix lenses now which work better with the Panasonic bodies for IS (especially the long 100-400 zoom).  I don't think that the E-M1ii is much less expensive than the GH-5 with PL12-60 after I trade in one of my GX80.  I've already sold my two Panasonic 2.8 zooms so I hope that the ETC mode on the GH5 can help me rely on the one main 12-60 zoom and less primes too.

Other than the Olympus look and the better IBIS, any other reasons to go with the E-M1ii over the GH5?  Just curious if anyone has any experience as I've not seen much recently about the E-M1ii.

3 hours ago, jase said:

Your review sounds quite promising. Does anyone know if the sound quality of the Shure is better than, lets say a Rode videomicro directly connected to the camera? I know myself and the less I have to fiddle around when recording, the better I can focus on what I want to do. Switching on the camera and a mic all the time and then synching it in posts sound rather.. annoying compared to connecting a mic without a preamp directly to the camera. But maybe the quality is way low with such a mic compared to the ones with integrated amp... Then again, a videomicro should be way better than the onboard mic. Choices.

For the Tiffen, do you just use that filter and no ND?  I think I'm going to experiment with no ND and motion blur in post processing...

According to the Dave Dugdale test, the Shure is better in build quality and RF shielding than the original Rode VideoMicPro and better at off-axis (side) sound isolation.  However, the overall sound quality was better on the Rode.  Always the best to get a mic as close as possible and sync even if you have to hide it somewhere.  Doesn't help with people moving around though.

Yes, sync is a pain.  I haven't figured out a good workflow or habit for run-and-gun that makes it easy to remember to start/stop record on the Shure or to deal with the hassle of one long audio track on the Shure and syncing with multiple little video clips.

I did use the Rode VideoMicro when I had my Olympus OM-D EM-5ii (with not so great input preamps) and it worked better than the built-in mics with excellent wind muff.

I'll try to bribe my son to sit in and model for me tonight to test my audio.  I'm actually pretty rubbish at audio (especially post-processing) but it is something I want to improve in.  Here is a BTS from a Rode Reel short I did showing my minimal audio setup from when I had the Olympus (I still can't believe how great the IBIS in that camera was!).  I also plan on doing a colour swatch / skintone comparison with my lens collection and GH5 (when it arrives).

11 hours ago, Cinegain said:

Glad to hear! Myself, I'm sorta getting fed up with Instamic. Now, I've backed numerous crowdfunding campaigns (100+) but this is absolutely one of the worst ones I've dealt with communication wise. There's just no information and they'll even ignore e-mail inquires (friendly ones, with patient intervals of weeks/months), just responding to them with... silence. I've recommended Instamics to a fella doing car reviews stuff (would be great for commentary and exhaust notes I figured) once and then he's gotten his in before I did mine... now I'm okay with delays, complications and what not, but man, no communication is really something that's no bueno in my book.

Man, that really sucks.  I think the only reason I got a couple of mics from the first batch is that I had a couple of projects planned and they wanted me to try them out.  The original firmware was flaky (bluetooth connect), but after upgrading them they work much better.

I've supported a few video/photo kickstarters myself (PeakDesign - excellent, Instamic, Breakthrough NDs - great, Rolocam - haven't used it, SteadXP - refunded, PlexiDrone - refunded, Aetho gimabl - refunded, several documentaries) but have been lucky with most having shipped and being useful to me.

I try to keep my gear as minimal as possible, which is why I love micro4/3 and cameras like the GX80.  The Instamic is just so good for getting better (but not the best) audio quickly and unobtrusively.

25 minutes ago, tupp said:

Make transcription text files with time code references to all spoken lines in your footage/audio.  Then, edit "on paper" before you even get close to sitting down at the edit bay.  It makes the process exceedingly easier and much more thorough.  You can add b-roll/cut-aways during the paper edit and/or during the NLE session.

 

If you have a lot of footage/audio (more than ~20-30 minutes), hire a cheap transcription service to make the text files with time code reference.  The least expensive transcription services are probably in India and, perhaps, in the Philippines, and they can often transcribe most languages.  These services are worth every penny you spend on them.

Also check out something like speed scriber if you are in a Mac as it uses AI voice recognition to transcribe to text with markers. It can also import into most NLE and with FCPX you can search for words and find the clips when the people said those words. Also you can export to PDF or SRT for subtitles.

the latest FCPX grill podcast talks with the guy who made speed scriber.

10 hours ago, jase said:

Interesting, I need to check this out, thanks! Still, you would have the post-sync pain, but on the other hand if it is decent, why not... Yet, this is not really usable for ambient stuff, right?

Hey @jase,

First of all, I really liked the wedding video, and I actually like it a bit more raw than some of the overproduced wedding videos that I see.  Yes, you can see the judder in the beginning, but I don't think it takes away from the images.  I had the same problem with the IBIS during my documentary when I tried some pans and camera movement (see the shot of the costumes in the museum) or when someone might have bumped me.  Overall though the GX80 IBIS really helped me be able to move fast, and unobtrusively compared to having to use a monopod or tripod.  For shorter static shots you probably cannot tell that it was handheld.  

I like the look of your movie too.  Was that due to a filter that you are using or done in post?

As for the audio and microphones - I think you are in Europe.  I own the Shure VP83F (I got it second hand) so if you want to try it out PM me and I can see if I can loan it to you.  Since I mostly have had cameras without audio input (LX100, GX7, Olympus, GX80) I decided to get this one with built-in recorder.  The microphone works well and is very sensitive it picks up great ambient sound.  I have had troubles with wind noise as the deadcat I have isn't the greatest, but the low-pass filter helps a bit with that.  The mic has a shockmount and which isolates it quite well from the camera body.

Dave Dougdale did a comparison with the Shure VP83 (the one without the recorder):

I my last documentary, I used a combination of the Shure VP83f, the Rode SmartLav+ and Tascam DR-10, the Instamic Pro, and a Sony ICD-SX1000 hand recorder (small and way better than a Zoom H1, but unfortunately discontinued).  If I had some time, I should put a few clips together from the documentary comparing the raw audio.  The Instamic was a bit of a godsend.  It doesn't have as good sound as the SmartLav+ but it can be controlled remotely with a mobile phone and can record a safety track at a lower dB (configurable).  (The DR-10 also has a safety track but only records in mono).  Also it has magnetic attachments so I hid it out of sight on walls, chair legs, overhead lights.  The magnet also made it easy for kids and other on-mic talent to put on their own mics.  The instamic has a mic muff which helps with the wind.  It is a bit uglier than a Lav mic, but I don't think that it was too bad.  If I can get my son on-camera I will set up a test comparing the Instamic, my SmartLav+ into my phone, the Shure on-camera, the camera mics, and the Sony hand recorder close but out of camera on the floor.

7 hours ago, tonysss said:

:-) my wedding "combo"  GH5 Sigma 18-35 and spot shoot  GX80 - Pan 42,5 f1.7

Hi there, I really liked the shots.  Was everything there handheld or did you use a gimbal at all?  How did you match up both cameras?  What profile did you use for both cameras?  How do you like the 42.5/1.7?  It seems to almost double as a macro lens.

I'm really curious about this combination as trading in one of my GX80 and have sold my 12-35 and 35-100 2.8 lenses to upgrade to a GH5.  I was thinking of using the 12-60/2.8-4 on the GH5 and the 42.5/1.7 with dual-IS on the GX80.

8 hours ago, PannySVHS said:

@sgreszcz, nice video and great effort. I think your audience must be very happy with your documentary.

One other thing, your mididoc about your grandpa was very beautifully done! In your BTS you write, you´ve been

using the EP5, but your BTS video shows the LX100 and the GX7, great cameras too of course. Just saying

Thanks @PannySVHS!  The interview with my Grandpa was the first edited video that I did and when I shot it, I did use two EP-5 (which I loved at the time due to the tilting EVF-4).  However, I found out about the Rode Reel competition and realised I needed to do a behind the scenes and by then had already sold the Olympus cameras for the Pannys so needed some creative B-roll for the BTS.  It takes a sharp eye and a camera nerd from this forum to pick up the continuity errors

I did a longer 10-minute doc on my Grandpa's life which screened at his 100th birthday in front of 200 people, and unfortunately his funeral at 101 this past spring in front of about the same amount of people.  I'm also working on a doc of my brother who is preparing for the 2018 Olympics in Skeleton.  Still need to do the interview though, although I'm a bit scared to throw him off his game by going too deep with questions and his 10-year struggle!  Maybe a retrospective doc instead...

Loved the LX100 (wish the colour was better, would buy a LX200 in a heartbeat with better IBIS). Liked the tilt-EVF on the GX7.  Love the GX80, but wish it had a mic-in and a better EVF.  Going to sell one of them now (and some lenses) for the GH5.

I don't think I'll ever get to the aesthetic quality of the images that I see from people on this forum, but I'm going to do my best to continue to find interesting stories in my community to document.  Thanks for the feedback and for all that I've learned from people who post on EOSHD!

Just linking to the post I made in the "shooting" forum of a 9-month documentary project I just completed with 2 GX80.  The shooting details, etc. are in that post.  Thanks to everyone who freely share information on this site as I probably wouldn't have attempted something like this without EOSHD as a resource!

Hi all,

I've been a long-time reader of this blog/forum and wanted to report back on my first paid documentary commission that I just delivered.  The project was for a local community outreach project that links in education and culture with Carnival arts (http://www.thenewcarnivalcompany.com/).  I spent since last January (on and off) filming 4 schools and community groups as they learned about the theme (70 years of India's independence) and how that learning influenced the making of thier Carnival costumes.  The last 3 minutes of the documentary is essentially a music video of the final parade through the town of Ryde, Isle of Wight.

I filmed everything with 2 Panasonic GX80 cameras in 4k using primes indoors (mostly native Panasonic lenses with some Voigtlander 17/42.5).  For the Carnival itself I used the 12-35 and 35-100 2.8 zooms.  Everything was handheld except some of the multicam wides and the interviews.  The cameras were great as it was easy to be incognito, film in the historical sites, and the cameras were not intimidating to those I filmed.  I shot in standard 0, -5, 0, -5 and only focused on exposure and skintones when colour correcting.  The auto WB actually worked very good.

The audio was a mix of built-in camera mic, Shure VP83f, Rode SmartLav+/TascamDR10, and Instamics.  I also tried to use the http://www.ohrwurmaudio.eu/ binaural microphone to better capture the ambiance of the carnival, but in the end I didn't get around to syncing it or using it.  The Instamics (although quite visible in the interviews) were so useful as I could get the kids to put them on themselves and didn't have to worry about touching, and wiring up lavs.

Some lessons learned:

I had to move really, really fast as it involved kids and the teachers and leaders were busy - it was really run-and-gun.  I missed having the audio input as I could have got better ambiance audio without having to sync - syncing is a pain.  I wish the GX80 EVF was better as manual focus is hard enough.  S-AF on the native lenses was key as I could ensure focus and cut out the hunting.  I need to learn more about and practice audio post production and improve my editing.

There are some obvious faults (interview eyelines, cluttered backgrounds, slight focus issues, IBIS panning judder, under/overexposure on unmanned b-cam) but overall the client and the organisations that funded the project were very happy with the film.

It took me about 70 hours of editing with 15 hours / 700GB (including multicam) of footage.

4 hours ago, gethin said:

Fastest ultrawide native zoom is 2.8-4 (not including the Olympus). Cost is not much different for a sppedbooster and tokina 11-16, which becomes a 7.8_11.5 f2.  (Or pay a bit extra for the 11-20).  Makes shooting In doors readable with available light

check Jon's video on the Venus Laowa 7.5mm/f2.0.  With ETC you get 7.5mm + 10.5mm-ish and the lens is pocketable.  I have the Olympus 9-18 zoom that I use for travel and probably will sell (already sold the Olympus 7-14/2.8). I think I'll just go with the Loawa for Ultra-wide.  The 4k ETC mode seems pretty useful, and then you can crop more if outputting to 1080p.  This will let me reduce the amount of lenses I have.