Damphousse

1 hour ago, Kisaha said:

It is not only a matter of "features" and future needs, even the simple things are not so easily achieved by Tascam. Build quality of the 60/70 is terrible. Power options too, flimsy plugs/unstable micro USB power connection. Terrible Menu system, etc

You are going to spend thousands and thousands of euros for 2 lenses (among the dozens you have), and you can't afford 300 more euros for your one and only recorder?!

Pro sound for video productions is extremely expensive, you can't even imagine, the F4 definitely is not among the expensive options, but the money, and choice, is yours!

Uhhh... No.

I own the Tascam 60D MK I.  It's build quality is not "terrible".  Are you playing ice hockey with it?  And the power options are fine.  USB power powers it all day with any quality external phone/tablet battery solution.  I can power my BMPCC and my Tascam off the same external battery pack and get hours of use off of it.

The Zoom F4 seems to be an excellent solution (never owned it).  But it is over 100% more than the Tascam DR_70D.  If you can't get excellent sound out of the Tascam 60D MK I let alone the DR-70D something is wrong with YOU not the equipment.  You can get better work flow and incrementally better sound out of much more expensive equipment but dumping on the Tascam 60D is comical.

BTM_Pix's video opened my eyes.  I was actually going to post it to help people out but he beat me to it.  The sound game is nuanced.  The Tascam 60D doesn't have very much about it that is garbage.  Headphone output is not great.  But if you use the XLR inputs properly you will have a great production.  The digital potentiometers have been highlighted as a weak spot under certain circumstances and the digital limiter is also a weak point.  But for less than a third of the price of a Zoom F4 what do you expect?  And for a lot of people neither is ever an issue.   It just depends on your use case.

Unlike cameras where 4k RAW off a prosumer CMOS looks dramatically different from line skipped 1080p H.264 Canon mush there are precious few people that will be able to tell the difference between competent Tascam 60D and Zoom F4.  Zoom F4 is going to have more flexibility and make your life easier but to use the word "terrible" with the 60D let along the 70D is a bit hyperbolic... Don't you think?

I am not trying to get people to skimp on sound.  Lord knows if money was no object I would roll Sound Devices and be done with it.  But let's be sane.  Tascam 60D ($188) vs Zoom F4 ($649.99)?  Be serious.

Hobbyist.  I use the BMPCC.  Shooting has dropped off a lot.  I have a backlog of videos to color correct and edit.  Should get out and shoot more.

6 hours ago, IronFilm said:

I feel you created this "needs" list by looking at the C200 spec sheet then listing what it is on it? (and not including anything that is not on it)

When you take that approach it becomes very easy to justify your decision to exclude others! haha

Not trying to take Arikhan's side or defend Canon but that does seem like a pretty reasonable and general "needs" list.  I mean there are a billion threads by a million people request all those features.  Frankly I think that is why the thread is so hot.  The camera checks all the boxes besides 10 bit 4:2:2... and a cheap price of course

The frustration comes from the fact that the camera is almost there.  That's the real irritation.  But you can't discount all the other positive things about the camera because of one irritation... even if it is a big irritation.

And yeah.  Pretty big dick move by Canon.

12 hours ago, Mark Romero said:

I am just going to have to do some tests and make sure that I can get away with ISO 1600. I know that since the GH5 is m43 while the a6500 is APS-C, and that in real estate I WANTE more depth of field, I can use a larger aperture and still get the same DOF. So in thery, I could shoot at f/5.6 and ISO 1600 whereas with the a6500 I would have to shoot at f.8 and ISO 3200 to get the same DOF.

 

No.

In real estate you also want to go wide in you field of view.  Going from APS-C to m43 makes no sense if you are taking pictures of cramped interiors.  You would want to go to full frame and squeeze more real estate in with optics that distort less.  A cheap extremely low distortion 50mm lens is going to have a field of view of a 100mm lens on m43.  Once you start adding in things like speedboosters or wider and wider lenses distortion creeps in and is evident with all the straight lines in interiors.

Not saying you can't use something smaller than FF but physics is clearly on the side of FF.

The Panasonic 12-35 ii is expensive but the GH5 corrects the distortion in camera.  Could be a nice way to "cheat".

Just now, jcs said:

Are you aware that Jeff Bezos owns WaPo, and he has a .6+billion dollar deal with the CIA? Are you familiar with Operation Mockingbird? The Rulers goal is divide & conquer.

I am not divided.  Regardless of what someone's personal politics are left or right you just don't post crazy stuff on the internet or send crazy company wide memos.  Honestly would you hire either of these guys?  I mean if you put one of these guys in front of a client how do you know they won't say some crazy stuff?  I am on certain topics left of center and I have worked at a lot of hard right places.  You have to have a sense of discretion and know how to keep your mouth shut.  This isn't even a political thing.  It is just how the professional world works and most of us get it.

Quote

A university professor suggested Harvey was karma for Texas Republicans. Then, he was fired.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2017/08/29/university-fires-professor-who-suggested-harvey-was-karma-for-texas-republicans/?utm_term=.5b2e82c2a526

Regardless of political ideology people are fired all the time for saying stupid sh-t.

On 8/23/2017 at 7:01 PM, quivering_member said:

If his point is that the media does a bad job of diluting complicated messages into simple ones accurately probably because a nice outrageous simple message generates more clicks then yeah.

Yes, there is a reason we are here at EOSHD.  There are plenty of multibillion dollar international news organizations who have millions of dollars of camera equipment and yet we have to come to EOSHD to get the real news about cameras.  MSM outlets don't cover topics in depth or in a nuanced fashion.  Not for cameras and certainly not for complex things like gender and race.

Having said that I think Google did the right thing running this guy off.  The battles we choose to fight say a lot about us.  This guy is a privileged white male probably making six figures and yet this is his big complaint?  Good thing he wasn't born black... or with a vagina.  He would have committed suicide by now.  The guy is a cry baby.

I agree we should all try and get along but really we can't waste our time coddling people like this.  Here are some statistics...

Quote

Colleges won’t say it, but this is happening because elite schools field applications from many more qualified women than men and thus are trying to hold the line against a 60:40 ratio of women to men. Were Brown to accept women and men at the same rate, its undergraduate population would be almost 60 percent women instead of 52 percent—three women for every two men.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/07/30/achieving-perfect-gender-balance-on-campus-isnt-that-important-ending-private-colleges-affirmative-action-for-men-is/?utm_term=.ba2da2754dce

Quote

Women dominate high school honor rolls and make up more than 70 percent of class valedictorians.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/41928806/ns/business-us_business/t/men-falling-behind-women/#.WaRl0MaQy71

Quote

The previous record for most female CEOs on the list was set in 2014, when 24 women made the list. This number stayed unchanged the following two years (as of December 2016), meaning that the percentage of women at the top of the Fortune 500 has been holding steady at 4.8%.

http://fortune.com/2016/12/22/female-fortune-500-ceos-2017/

Only on a white male dominated forum could someone craft a narrative that white males are victims in the United States.  In academia when everyone shows up and takes the same test women destroy men but once you get out of college and have to deal with the white male old boys club they are relegated to a rounding error.  Is anyone else shocked by this statistic?  Does anyone look at that statistic and think to themselves "boy white males are really getting screwed"?  Does anyone look at that statistic and think "man I need to send a company wide memo because my white male feelings are hurt"?

And I like the little hidden affirmative action program going on at universities (except all girl schools) that gives males of every race a nice boost while holding women back.  Isn't if funny how the Google crybaby and none of the males on this forum have EVER complained about that?  I wonder why they haven't?  Ladies do you have any theories?

I searched the web and I didn't see the Google crybaby crying about the global warming, children without adequate healthcare, the plight of migrant workers, the heroin epidemic or a thousand other things.  But he had to set the world on fire and hire a lawyer because some chicks and one black guy had a diversity meeting at Google.  Wow.  Priorities.  Says a lot about the guy.

Seems like renting is in order.  You can own a C200 and rent additional C200s as necessary.

I shoot as a hobbyist on a BMPCC and I am really not seeing results from RX10s or G7s that rival a BMPCC as far as color and flexibility.  I lust after 4k but I don't want to give up the gorgeous raw image the BMPCC spits out.

Canon definitely has an issue but the GH4 isn't perfect either.

2 hours ago, yoclay said:

The vast majority of rentals are for cameras that people cannot afford themselves.  The average price point for a camera rental package is 10-30K.  Otherwise people just buy the cams.  The C300's go out all the time.  They are one of the most popular cameras out there for rental.  The cost of renting a C300 is not very different than renting a C100, so why

 

So are C300 MK II rentals doing well?

We were told they weren't renting very well.

23 hours ago, Mattias Burling said:

I will stick to mint condition used with warranty because its what we get here and its cheaper than any "refurbished" Ive ever seen.

If you reread the thread no one commented on the Swedish consumer goods market.  I think we are all willing to concede you know more about it than us.  What I find curious is you are not willing to concede Americans may know more about their market than you do.  I live in America at the moment and I have seen good deals in the new, used, refurbish, and open box categories.  I've bought cameras in the new, used, and refurbished categories that were good deals.  In America there is no need to have such rigid thinking.  If one sweeping rule covers every scenario in Sweden that's great.  Glad things are simple for you.

On 6/15/2017 at 10:37 AM, Mattias Burling said:

I guess...

I think that is the problem.  You are guessing where as I live in America and I have worked in manufacturing at a cutting edge multinational corporation and your characterizations of "new", "used", and "refurbished" don't bear any resemblance to what I did when I was running testing and doing some repair in a modern factory.  There is tons of stuff that is "refurbished" that has had way fewer failures and repairs than some stuff that is new.  The difference between "new" and refurbished is a matter of when the defect is detected.  A massive defect requiring hours of repair can be sold as new if my unit caught the defect in the building.  If the product left our doors and even a relatively minor defect is detected anywhere else in the supply chain the item could not be sold as new even if a customer never touched the thing.  It could be something as simple as a damaged box.

If you think "refurbished" is a scam you must really loath "new".  Refurbished has always meant what I thought it meant.  Actually I had an upside surprise when I learned how much perfectly fine stuff that has never had a problem is sold as "refurbished".  The same cannot be said for "new".  When I learned what "new" really meant I was pretty certain 99.9% of the people out there buying "new" were not expecting the number and nature of repairs we were doing on their high end equipment before we sold it to them at top dollar.

It kind of makes sense though.  If you look at the history of manufacturing there has always been areas of the manufacturing floors where repairs are made by hand on defective products before they are ushered out the door and sold as "new" to the unsuspecting public.

Look at Intel.  They make a wafer of chips.  The ones with the fewest defects they sell at top dollar.  The ones with more defects that they can't clock as high they sell as an entirely different product!  They don't even bother to repair them (doubt they even can).  They just call the defectives some slick marketing name and sell them as a new cutting edge product!

P.S.  I've seen the deals you find in Sweden that you have posted on the internet over the years.  I can't think of a single one that I have seen that I've been able to replicate in the US.  I am happy for you for all the sweet deals you seem to find over there but they simply are not applicable in my neck of the woods.  The same goes for when I tell people in Brazil about the killer deals I get in America.  The situation is different from country to country.  It is incumbent upon everyone to do their own research.

18 hours ago, tupp said:

Apertus is an open source organization. 

It could be interesting as a test bed for all the crazy ideas kicked around this forum.  I would be interested to see if they ever do phone apps.  It would be nice to capture clips on the camera and send them to a contact right from the field by wirelessly sending it through your phone.  I'm not talking long clips.  Something like 10 second clips but high quality.  Cell phone clips are just so bad in even mildly difficult lighting conditions.

On 6/13/2017 at 1:30 AM, Mattias Burling said:

And the retail stores sell just as cheap when they get tradeins. Plus they never use bogus words like "refurbished".

Honestly, Im not sure "refurbished" would be legal. The correct term they use is "used". And that lowers prices.

Btw, refurbished...common.. people treat them as new when some guy have wiped the screen and maybe done a factory reset

 

This in no way describes the word "refurbished" in the United States...  at least if you buy directly from Canon or some other reputable multinational OEM.

I think people should speak for whatever country they live in and do business in.  It is usually a bad idea to extrapolate things like consumer law across the entire globe.

"Used", "refurbished", and "new" are distinct classes at reputable US retail outlets.  Some places sell all three in addition to the category of "open box" and "display model".  Americans like choice.  And it is nice to have so many categories.  Everyone picks what they want based on their own finances and individual risk tolerances.  I've seen killer deals in all those categories.  And I've seen unscrupulous outfits sell garbage in all those categories.  Do your research.

On 4/26/2017 at 4:04 PM, tugela said:

But the NX1 does put Canon to shame.

Cool.  You convinced me.  I will head by my local Best Buy and check it out and compare it to the Canon models on the shelf.

4 hours ago, sandro said:

Well guys no good news, kinda.

The service center just called me and said they can't repair the sensor cause they don't know if they'll ever get the part or a new NX1 to give me as a replacement. So they offered me a full refund. Problem is if I accept it I'm out of options since I can't get a new one (not being sold anymore) and I can't find a valid substitute for the same money. Basically either i keep the defective product or I lose it. What would you do?

They screwed me!

Another happy NX1 customer.

Can you imagine?  If you owned five or more high end lenses like I do for my Canon cameras I would be pissed.

9 hours ago, Kisaha said:

I have yet to deliver any 4K content. Our TV stations just last year started to send HD signal, and not all of them, and people (and clients) still ask for DVDs. This is our market.

I just started recently to work with -very limited- 4K, and the only reason is re-framing. BUT, I wouldn't buy a no 4K camera in 2017.

 

I am not a pro and all the videos I have delivered to my stock agency are 1080p and there is plenty of demand for 4k videos.  I can't speak for every market in every country but there is healthy demand for 1080p and above in the US.  It doesn't matter that most consumption is sub 1080p.  That's like saying I won't record this song in a decked out studio with high end pro equipment and instruments because most music is consumed via subpar mp3s and compressed streaming.

The other thing is 1080p off of most CMOS sensors is not true 1080p after demosaicing... regardless of what is painted on the side of the camera.  Shooting 4k and downsampling to 1080p for deliver will get you a much better product.

26 minutes ago, mkabi said:

See... this... we've been saying it for years....

And you've been wrong for years.  We were told that the NX1 would put Canon to shame...  a few months later Samsung unceremoniously exited the camera business.  Camera gear is expensive.  For video people jumping from system to unproven system may make sense but for photographers changing systems is rare.

On 4/7/2017 at 8:37 AM, longbow said:

Hmmm... Despite those fabulousIy amazing MacBookPro sales we were being lectured recently about by Schiller do I smell a hint of fear?

Apple shouldn't have any fear.  You see the number of rabid fanbois they have just by reading this thread.  And they f'ed up so badly all they need to do is put out a Mac Pro with a more traditional case that allows swapping or expanding HDD, SSD, M.2 drives, memory, graphics cards and other PCIE cards.  They do that with some semimodern specs and they will have a hit on their hands.  Apple is so extremely stupid that if they just evidence a hint of common sense they will do well.

Oh, by the way here is why Apple doesn't give a toss about desktops...

6 hours ago, wolf33d said:

Interesting. I use mac at home and PC at work. I can't believe the number of people still using PCs these days. The Mac OS is so much better, the integration with the hardware is in another league, the global experience (speed, bugs, viruses..) is a million time better. 

I would not get a PC even if it was the same specs for 10 times less money. The fact is when you want to buy a real equivalent pc (for exemple a PC that copies the MacBook Air, same aluminium, same battery life of 15h, ...) it's the same price yet the value goes down a lot more. What a joke....

FYI I have a MacBook Pro at home with latest specs, same at work in a PC. Again, same specs but such a different experience. 

 

Interesting that even when Apple themselves admit what we all already know there are some people who keep pushing the old party line.  Apple admitted they f'ed up.  Time to move on.

There are so many kinds of computers out there it is within the realm of possibility some people like you went out and purchased or were handed screwy PCs.  The rest of us do a little research and have a great experience.  Personally I don't like being over charged and dictated to with closed off out of date hardware.

Computer sales in historical terms are down.  Most people are perfectly happy with the computer they have.  I'm more a PC guy but I get that some people like spending more for lesser specs.  They are still going to be able to surf the web, send emails, and listen to MP3s.  And I can do all those functions whether you give me a mac or PC.  If you really can't surf the web and check email on either a mac or PC something is wrong with you.

As far as individual pieces of more robust software are concerned they vary from OS to OS.  No OS has a monopoly.  MS Office is better and more bullet proof on the PC.  I don't care if someone thinks their overpriced closed off iMac looks nicer.  I make my money with spreadsheets.  I need industry standard software and hardware that has maximum up time.  If you work in another industry or office where Mac software is better good for you.  Get a Mac.

A couple of months ago I built a PC from scratch for a great price.  It was like building Lego.  Frankly I like so much control over my experience I don't even buy PCs off the shelf.

And as far as your cost analysis goes I can buy a premium case, power supply, drives, graphics card, etc. and carry it over for build after build.  Only an idiot would buy a brand new computer at retail price every time they needed a processor bump or graphics bump.  But with an overpriced imac?  WTF?!  You have to write off everything including the screen!

Oh, and the virus thing always cracks me up.  PC have more viruses because they are more popular!  It is called being a victim of your own success.

6 hours ago, Phil A said:

 

I agree that it's great how Mac is such an integrated system, the energy saving functions are a lot better than on windows with its non-standardized hardware support woes.

I don't know how macs are in this regard but I have definitely seen PCs that were rock solid in all other respects have issues after sleep and wake.  It is something I advise people to avoid on PCs.  The nice thing though is with the cheap M.2 PCIE drives it takes only a few seconds to go from power on to desktop.  I got a killer deal on a Samsung M.2 NVMe drive on Black Friday.  The thing works like a charm.  Completely plug and play.   Did a straight fresh OS install to the drive on a PC I assembled from scratch.

I am going to see where things shake out with AMD.  But the next PC build may be an AMD.  There is so much going on right now there is no way I could sit still and wait 4+ years for someone to hand me an over priced closed off mistake.

On 3/16/2017 at 8:25 PM, Andrew Reid said:

If you read multiple sources you will end up with the sum average of a big PR effort to sell you the camera.

I have a science degree so I have the training not to view all sources as equal.  When Nature tells me man made climate change is real and CO2 is a contributing factor I don't do a straight average with whatever Brietbart's opinion is.   I may read Brietbart but it is weighted very differently.  There are plenty of sites I've read for longer than EOSHD has been in existence but I don't put much stock in their evaluation of video capabilities because they are stills guys who aren't passionate about video.

On 3/16/2017 at 8:25 PM, Andrew Reid said:

It's not quite as life or death as that.

Ever heard of Amazon?

If you don't like it you just send it back.

Unfortunately I live in the United States.  That kind of thing is tracked.  I prefer just to do my research and buy and keep what I get.  I have to do high dollar purchases of technical equipment and supplies for my day job and I really don't want to have that f'ed up because I am serially buying and returning cameras I don't like.  It's a hobby for me.  So no, buy and try isn't going to be a part of my routine.

On 3/16/2017 at 8:25 PM, Andrew Reid said:

 

It's about highlighting the truth and putting good info out there.

 

I guess what I am saying is someone somewhere putting out wrong or bad information isn't worth quitting your blog if it is you passion.  If you want to quit for financial reasons or to spend time with your family I get it.  But because someone somewhere on the interne is wrong?!  No way.  If I had to quit because someone somewhere was wrong and still got nice breaks because of politics I would be permanently out of work.  Just put out a good product you believe in and ignore the rest.

Correcting the Internet is the wrong business to be in.  I read review after review of Canon Rebel cameras that talk about the fantastic 1080p video the Rebel cameras produce.  I simply don't have time to have a heart attack and bang wildly on my keyboard every time I read stuff like that.  I go to work and do the best I can and forget the rest.

The other thing is we all screw up.   I learned early on jumping on someone's neck when they f up only breeds hordes of people who are all itching to gang up on you when you inevitably f up.

I don't understand all the gobblygook going back and forth about the GH5.  Frankly if anyone buys a $2,000 camera based on one blog post on the internet they are either an idiot or rich.  I read multiple sources and watch every quality video I can before I make a purchase. If I was considering purchasing the GH5 I would wait until plenty of reviewers have it in their hands AND all the critical firmware updates are available.  The codec that is most interesting is not even going to be available at launch.  Wait for the codec to come out, and for it to be reviewed, and for sample videos to be posted.  Anything less than that and it is on you if you buy a camera that is a dud or prematurely write off a camera.

Also places like this forum are a great resource.  Let others pick up the camera and report their results.  If it sucks or if it is great you will read all about it on this forum.  The results will not be kept secret.

27 minutes ago, Vesku said:

I think using a gray card method in "interesting light" gives too neutral or "pure white" result. What is the right method to capture "golden hour" or other interesting scenes? Is it best to rely on screen or EVF or is it best to know by experience what kelvin degree suits best for the wanted result.

AWB in Panasonic is not making images too neutral indoors or in colored lights. Gray card makes much more neutralizing.

Crudely for golden hour?  Use the daylight manual setting on whatever camera you have if it has one.  That's a good starting point.  If the cast isn't warm enough to match what you are seeing dial it up a few Kelvin.  If it is too warm for your tasted dial it down a few Kelvin.  There are several approaches I've read about but they all kind of work off of that idea.

There is not one universal rigid right answer but every article on the topic has said AWB in that scenario is a no no.  It is fighting you.

It is really straight forward if you think about it.  If something is white under high noon sunlight then it should be yellow, orange, or red under the setting or rising sun.  AWB doesn't know it is sunset and it will attempt to make the item white like it is noon.  It has no idea.  Having said that I have used AWB at sunset on some cameras and it doesn't fully correct to white.  Curious.  At any rate I can't afford a computer crap shoot so I do something like 5200K and adjust from there.  High noon?  Custom white balance and leave it alone... unless your subject moves into shade.  But you get the idea.

7 hours ago, Vesku said:

I wonder if I have opened another Pandora's box and soon it will be closed.

My question/assumption is that the plain manual kelvin adjustment is not as accurate as AWB or WB set by gray card because it is not balancing image color completely using RGB color correction. My experience is that usually I can get better white balance with AWB than with manual kelvin adjustment. A WB-lock would be good with AWB.

AWB fails in some situations for example if a person with blue shirt comes in image.

Well your "experience" does not include shooting under interesting lighting conditions.  Which is fine but be upfront about that.  I realize you like backsolving into this auto everything idea and that is fine.  It's a free country.  You can shoot with the lens cap on if you want.  My post isn't to convince you.  You have already made up your mind.  I am just posting in case any other noobs come along and wonder why a wonderful looking scene they shot looks like garbage when they get home.

One thing I learned with photography as my skills progressed is to seek out interesting light and to know how to handle it.  Now when I go on vacation I get up even earlier than when I am at work and I miss happy hour in the evening.  I go out and shoot during the "golden hour" so I don't end up going home with a bunch of crappy vacation snapshots.  You simply can't use AWB during the golden hour.  It totally defeats the purpose.  The shape and quantity of the shadows is still nice but AWB screws up the colors.

Worrying about RG adjustment when your Kelvin is totally off makes no sense.

I wish my BMPCC had custom WB option for those times I am shooting at high noon.  It would be nice because it would take into account the color casts imparted by my variable ND, UV filter, and whatever lens I am using.  The BMPCC codec is robust enough to handle a lot of adjustments in post but I would rather not have to do the adjustments to begin with.  And yes I have seen people on the internet lambast anyone who wants custom white balance on a "professional" camera like the BMPCC.  I simply don't understand why people want to push either all manual or all auto.  Don't people use their cameras in a variety of settings and realize all this stuff comes in handy quite a bit?

9 hours ago, Vesku said:

There are at least 3 ways to set WB.

-Full auto WB

-Choosing kelvin degree manually

-Using (exposing) gray card and saving a WB preset

Can I get the same result with manual kelvin degree than using auto WB or gray card? Does the camera AWB make additional adjustments for image color like green-red or blue-yellow adjustments so that it is impossible to get as good result by just setting manual kelvin degree. 

It is important to get right WB in video in the first place. It is also disturbing if the WB changes rapidly during a clip. A WB-lock would be nice if using AWB.

From your post I guess we are to assume you either only shoot under very controlled studio lighting or only when natural lighting is the least interesting.

As with the auto exposure thread all these things are tools.  There simply is no rule about one being better than the other or using one vs the other all the time.  Frankly if you are going to use one all the time better to learn how to use manual white balance because a) there are cameras that don't have AWB b) you can use manual white balance in all those instances where lighting is actually interesting.

The laws of physics dictate that you will not be able to use AWB most of the time... assuming you are the kind of person that likes to shoot under interesting light.  So worrying about GR adjustment is moot.  The Kelvin you set manually will be a million times better looking that whatever the dumb computer comes up with regardless of how many adjustments it makes.  Computers can't make artistic decisions.

And you need to learn your equipment.  Cameras are different.  My BMPCC doesn't have AWB.  And it doesn't have a gray card WB.  It does have a color card color adjustment that you can do in post with Resolve.  And Magic Lantern's white balance doesn't need a "WB-lock".  You point the camera at a gray card or scene and press a button.  It takes a couple of seconds to analyze what it is looking at and comes up with a WB.  It doesn't change WB unless you tell it to sample again.  You are asking questions and making commentary on a broad category and there simply is no one answer.

58 minutes ago, Don Kotlos said:

Using a set  WB and adjusting in post with an 8bit codec is a very bad practice for the following reasons:

 

Yeah, shoving thin 8 bit footage around because you intentionally botched WB is a bad idea.  WB that stuff, toss a LUT on it and do some further grading and it is artifact city.

6 hours ago, Matthew19 said:

Custom white balance does (at least with Canon and Sony) adjust for green and magenta. Magic Lantern did a great job of showing you these adjustments with its custom WB feature. Sony shows them to you as well. Canon doesn't tell you a thing. After using this for a while, I'm surprised to see how often green needs to be removed because of indoor window tint or bounce grass.

Magic Lantern is awesome.  I used AWB a lot.  I would just give it a whirl by pointing it at a scene.  If it looked good I rolled with it.  Didn't even use a gray card most of the time... out of sheer laziness.

1 hour ago, Stanley said:

Presumption, and technical ignorance on my behalf. And my wife is always right!!

Lol.  Well you did a nice experiment and got a good result.  I actually had to read your post a couple of times before I caught the resolution thing.

With the cameras most of us use the resolution on the box is a lie.  Only cameras that produce their output from a down sampled readout give you true resolution.  I'm sure most people would think 720p output from a Samsung NX1 had plenty of resolution.  If you have good lighting, good sound and good story no one is going to complain if the video isn't true 4k.  Nice colors and dynamic range are a bigger selling point for me.  I like 4k for down sampling and avoiding artifacts.  At this point I don't need 4k output for my own personal use.

On 12/3/2016 at 9:55 PM, Stanley said:

I think most people on this site would have similar experiences with their familie's viewing preferances. I downloaded an episode of Boardwalk Empire from You Tube and it ended up being 480p. So I ran it from my laptop into the plasma TV. I asked my wife what she thought of the quality and she said it was great, just as good as the dvd's we'd watched the other episodes on. I've got to admit that I was a bit surprised just how good 480p can look. 

 

Your wife is right.  DVDs are 480i so 480p should look "just as good".  Why is that surprising?

On 12/3/2016 at 11:14 PM, Liam said:

I was really proud of my family for appreciating when I fixed the motion settings on their new tv. They're no experts, but they knew that was a bunch of bullshit <3 

I don't typically "fix" people's TVs but the few I have fixed have appreciated the difference.   I've fixed TVs and computer monitors.  At least with the monitors I can use a calibration tool.  It's amazing how out of whack some setups are.  I honestly recommended someone buy a new monitor.  Then I "fixed" it one day and sheeplishly said, never mind.  It literally looked that bad before calibration.

5 hours ago, Vesku said:

10 hours ago, Damphousse said:

D: Another major offense I see a lot in stills photography and video is blown highlights.  With raw I expose to the right till highlights are almost clipping.  I then recover the highlights in photoshop.  I don't know how you do that in full auto.

V: Auto exposure prevents highlight clipping. That is the idea of auto exposure. It is not wise always expose ETTR. How do you expose if the scene has no highlights or no faces? Auto exposure usually knows very well.

If I go out and shoot on a high contrast sunny day clipped highlights are guaranteed with full auto.  To be honest with you if I am shooting something like the beach where it is wide open and everyone and everything is illuminated by the same intensity of sun I meter once and set my camera up for expose to the right and then lock everything off for an hour.  Meter again and adjust as the sun gets brighter or darker.  I don't meter and adjust every shot.  That's unnecessary.  I meter and get an exposure that keeps the white clouds from blowing out.  Then I lock the exposure.  Not hard. 

V: What if the light changes very much because of clouds?

D: Bottom line, practice, practice, practice.  Also sometimes full manual is the only way to go and sometimes some kind of auto mode is the only way to go.  In the end they are all just tools.  YOU have to make the decision what is appropriate to use when, depending on your skill level. 

V: They are just tools. What if a user gets the same exposure using auto / EV comp / AE-lock than using full manual but easier and more accurate. Is that a bad thing?

How can I reply for many parts of someones story?

I think you understood my points.  My post was pretty long, detailed, and specific.  You don't gain anything by asking me what I do with exposure when lighting changes dramatically or whether I use ETTR ALL the time.  You already know the answers to those questions.  I think you have inadvertently proved my point.  There are so many scenarios in photography that no one can say EVERYONE should use complete manual exposure ALL the time and no one can say NO ONE should EVER use full auto.

Honestly you are trying to have an argument with me that I'm just not willing to have.  I've already stated multiple times I see a use case for all this stuff.  I don't tolerate people beating novices up for using full auto.  If that is the only way someone can get a critical shot so be it.  But at the same time I'm not going to just let someone say something ludicrous like "auto exposure prevents highlight clipping".  Even with full manual there are times you have to clip highlights.  You are posting misinformation.  All companies have their own proprietary auto exposure systems and they all work differently otherwise if you pointed all the cameras at the same scene you would end up with the exact same exposure.  You don't even get that within the same manufacturer's line.  So to say they all "prevent highlight clipping" is just bizarre.  They are black boxes and all different.  And even on a camera in "full auto" the metering is different.  I mean are you referring to spot metering, average metering, matrix metering, etc?

Modern camera equipment is so good as far as stills you can put a camera on full auto and just spray and pray and you will come back with some nice shots.  I think what people are trying to help you understand is if that is where you stop your development you will be leaving a lot of nice shots on the table.  Learn your equipment and how to use it and you will increase your keeper rate.  It's a free country.  You can use your camera in full auto and it isn't a crime, but please don't discourage people from trying to learn full manual.  There isn't a person that I've taught full manual to that regrets it or has regressed back to full auto.  Once they discover how they can control depth of field, bokeh, freeze or add motion, adjust white balance, etc they are very excited.  They are so happy to finally understand how to get pictures like the ones in the magazines instead of boring family snapshots.  These are people who got wonderful pictures using the full auto spray and pray method and were frustrated because they couldn't replicate a serendipitous shot.  They got a nice photograph but didn't know how they did it.

On 12/1/2016 at 10:15 PM, Jonesy Jones said:

Just came across this article. Amazing. And amazing opportunity for a filmmaker. I bet there are a zillion stories just like this. Anyone interested in making a film? There is an audience for sure. I'd pay to see it.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/442515/fidel-castro-brutal-dictatorship-armando-valladeres-cuban-dissidents-tortured?utm_source=nr&utm_medium=facebook%3Futm_content%3Dhabeeb%3Futm_campaign%3Dtorture

 One of the reasons I had a visceral reaction to your post is this...

Quote

The United States has a higher tolerance for torture than any other country on the U.N. Security Council, and Americans are more comfortable with torture than citizens of war-ravaged countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Ukraine.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/12/05/more-americans-support-torture-than-afghans-iraqis-and-south-sudanese-why/?utm_term=.91516a706903

That news story came out literally five days after you started this thread.  Going on about something that happened over half a century ago is a distraction from the fact that 33% of my fellow Americans think that kind of behavior is acceptable and one of them just got elected president.  That's a lot more shocking and pertinent than what happened half a century ago on an impoverished island that isn't going to invade anyone or drop any nukes.

And as far as fake news...

Quote

Incoming national security adviser's son spreads fake news about D.C. pizza shop

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/incoming-national-security-advisers-son-spreads-fake-news-about-dc-pizza-shop-232181

They were working on getting this guy a security clearance while he was spreading fake news.

Quote

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on the arrest of a man who police say fired shots in a pizzeria while investigating a fake news story (all times local):

6 p.m.

A man who police say fired an assault rifle inside a pizzeria in the nation's capital while investigating a fake news story about Hillary Clinton running a child sex ring has been ordered held until at least Thursday.

http://www.wsoctv.com/news/north-carolina/the-latest-police-pizzeria-gunman-had-ar15-rifle-handgun/473210241

Again within days of you starting this thread.  I didn't post my comments to bash you or troll.  It's just at this time in our nation's history there are much more important stories than what one guy alleges someone did to him on a foreign island half a century ago.

That's just three stories from the last week.  That's what keeps me up at night.