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Damphousse

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Posts posted by Damphousse

  1. 5 minutes ago, jax_rox said:

    Apple isn't unprofessional. They just own a computer company, and see no particular reason in developing for the competition. Windows also don't develop players for .avi and .wmv for Apple computers. The only real difference is that .mov and Quicktime has become so ubiquitous and industry standard, particularly with ProRes, but also H.264, mp4 etc. etc.

     

    Yeah, that difference is kind of the point.  And there are way more Windows machines out there than Macs.  And who cares about .wmv?  I'm talking about an industry standard.  Good luck having people trust you to be the developer of an industry standard.

     

    Quote

    Adobe sees 45% sales growth for Mac video tools after Final Cut Pro X exodus

    http://appleinsider.com/articles/11/09/08/adobe_sees_45_sales_growth_for_mac_video_tools_after_final_cut_x_exodus

    They really have a habit of shooting themselves in the foot.  If you are going to be an industry standard don't just drop critical features or support entirely with no warning.

  2. 1 hour ago, cantsin said:

    The other side of the coin is that Adobe, Avid, Grass Valley, Sony and Blackmagic have been thoroughly unprofessional, too, by relying on a piece of software that's only listed as compatible with Windows up to Windows 7. All these companies have released NLE/postproduction software for Windows 8, 8.1 and 10 relying on a component that never has been officially compatible with these operating systems.

    You know full well any NLE that was incompatible with Prores would be DOA.  Apple got everyone to build their product around their codec and then ripped the rug out from under them.  And FYI the BMPCC was only announced a few months after Windows 8 was generally available.  And we know how production machines are.  People stay with tried and true OSes for YEARS after a new OS is out to wait for a SP or two to remove bugs and achieve polish and stability.  My production machine is still on Windows 7.  So your argument is meaningless for me and many people out there.

  3. I'm surprised.  I thought this topic would elicit a lot more replies.

    Apple is thoroughly unprofessional.  I guess that's what we get for relying on a smartphone company for pro video support.  I own a BMPCC so I really don't have any options unless I want to shoot in RAW 100% of the time... which I most certainly do not.

    I can't tell you how many times I've seen someone request demand Prores as an in camera codec on this forum.  Well those days are over.  Nice job crapple.

  4. The last year and a half has been a massacre for GoPro.  It has seen it's stock drop from the 90s down to single digits.  This has been one of the most massive destructions of wealth in the stock market in recent years.  I used to think Canon's stock graph was ugly.

    GoPro was a company we constantly heard about as being innovative.  People asked why isn't Canon as innovative as GoPro.  I tried to tell you guys GoPro was a one trick pony and their product would soon be commoditized and elicit shrugs just like the incremental releases of Canon Rebels.  Flavor of the month flash in the pan stuff will come and go but a solid camera system is something you will use for decades.

    You also have to consider once everyone has a decent camera they aren't going to upgrade every year.  I still use my T3i.  That is my main digital stills camera.  We have to see what the Sony a6300 is like in real world usage but for $1,000 if it lives up to its spec sheet it is getting pretty damn close to good enough for most consumers.  Actually at the moment most consumers don't even have the computing hardware to edit and/or grade 4k video.  So with Sony giving us all that for $1,000 where does that leave the $1,500 Samsung NX1 and the $1,300 GH4?  Seems like a little shake out action is in order... as I predicted.

  5. It's getting even harder to hang on to a camera for longer than 5 seconds before something else comes out ;)

    $500 BMPCC still going strong.  No 10 bit Prores nor raw camera out in the price range to compete.  I like this Sony camera but there are things the BMPCC can do that this camera simply can't.

    Panasonic are forever playing catch up on specs as they can't compete on a level playing field with the smaller sensor.

    GH5 should start the transition to Super 35mm.

    Otherwise it will have to be seriously impressive to lure us away from Sony (raw, ProRes, 10bit, 120fps 4K) or to maintain any kind of uniqueness.

    As I predicted.  Stills camera sales are falling because stills cameras have kind of plateaued.  They all take good enough pictures and it just boils down to which system you want to buy into.  As video plateaus it is going to shake out.  Perhaps Samsung and Panny won't be in the camera biz long.

  6.  

    "$150" is a bit like the price of a RED Brain, it lulls you in with the low low "low" cost...  but then you realise you need to sell a kidney to afford all the pricey media it needs, and this and that on various other extras (like you need a *LOT* of batteries?? araucaria just wrote that they could last as little as 5 minutes in a 50D!! What the hell.... 50D sounds even worse than my BMPCC! Which I used to think is the worst thing ever for battery life).
    And before you know it, that RED camera has just cost you several times what the brain itself cost! (and just like the RED, the 50D has a bunch of "gotchas" as got to enter crop mode to be able to do this or that....)

    Ditto a 50D, I can see it might be easy for me to spend multiples of what the cheap body itself cost. 

    Two solutions.  One buy KomputerBay cards directly from them and test them out.  Exchange if they don't work.  Two, test the batteries your camera comes with.  The camera has been out for a looonnnggg time.  The batteries are probably at the end of their life for most of these cameras.  I doubt a new battery would only get five minutes.  Most Li-on batteries for 2008 suck by now regardless of what camera they are used on.  I would bet you one new fresh battery would work quite well.

    I bought a 50D maybe a couple of years ago.  I played around with it and sold it during the BMPCC fire sale to finance the nobrainer BMPCC purchase.

    The 50D is a pain in the @$$ to use but I have sold stock video from it.  I actually used the digitally zoomed image to get around the moire/aliasing.

  7. Mods, please change the title of this thread.  As has been stated it has nothing to do with resolution nor the latest generation of TVs.  This BS has been going on for years.

    Also TVs are set up a particular way to appeal on a brightly lit showroom floor surrounded by a bunch of other TVs they are competing with.  They are NOT set up the best way for a dimly lit videographer's living room.

    I sometimes don't really notice the settings till I pop one of my movies in.  Then it leaps out at me that the settings are terrible.  The amped up sharpening is the worst.

  8. It is delusional to think Apple's success has nothing to do with a healthy heap of marketing and excessive margins.  Nobody made an iphone before Apple because no one could convince the average person to spend $1,000 on a phone of all things.  Once they got people to pay exorbitant prices for mp3 players it was easy to design a nice phone.

     

     

    I don't think camera companies have problems to sell their product because of a lack innovation, more likely it's the competition of smartphones and the consumer's old exisiting DLSR's that are still enough for them for years to come!

    Yes.  The simplest explanation is usually the correct one.  Although I picked up a BMPCC I still use my T3i.

    Having lived through the PC/MAC years I don't remember it as a slam-dunk.  Keep in mind that Gates did the same thing with IBM.  Hindsight for all this is 20/20.  

    No it wasn't a slam dunk.  If I remember correctly the first Mac was a flop and Steve Jobs was forced out of Apple.  My first recollection of Apple being a force to be reckoned with was the ipod.  That was in 2001.  And stuff didn't go completely crazy until the iphone was released.  That was in 2007.  Jobs' Xerox parc visit happened in 1979.  So you are talking a quarter of a century until fruition of the dream (no pun intended).  What corporation has quarter century plans?

    We went through this same exercise when it was popular to mention the Canon being offered a chance to purchasing Photoshop myth.  It was actually a very early version of photoshop and it was a distribution license not a full purchase of the software.  Further more Canon is a camera company.  It is not a software company.  Anyone who uses Canon software would not want their software engineers anywhere near Photoshop.  If Xerox had kept all their patents and pursued some kind of computer in house there is little evidence to me that it would be some kind of run away success... let along lead to a Xerox iphone.

     

    Anyone that watches the first minute of this video and says Canon isn't innovative is kidding themselves...

     

    I don't know what Canon's strategy is for consumer cameras.  I wish they could give us some kind of APS-C 4k at a reasonable price.  But even if they did I know that wouldn't halt the overall down trend in camera sales.

    When I was growing up, the only people carrying 35mm SLRs were enthusiasts...school newspaper dweebs like myself...and professionals. "Consumers" carried Kodak Instamatics, Polaroid SX-70s, etc.

    Today, SLRs have been supplanted by ILCs, and Instamatics by cell phones.

    So maybe nothing has changed, really. And all this hand-wringing about the death of DSLRs is just the market figuring that out.

    I've stated that point a couple of times on this forum.  On the block I grew up on I didn't know of a single person who had a 35mm SLR other than my dad.  Maybe some other people had one but they never took it out.

  9. Blackmagic Video Assist Firmware 1.1 was made available this morning.  It corrects several major deficits.  At this pace the Video Assist may be the monitor I've been waiting for.  I would still like even more exposure tools but this is a great start.  At a minimum they are shaking up the monitor/recorder market.

    What's new in Blackmagic Video Assist 1.1

    • Adds Focus Peaking indication
    • Adds Zebra indication for setting iris
    • Adds central Zoom to aid focus
    • Adds timecode over HDMI
    • Improved battery information
    • Performance and stability updates
  10. On most cameras I've used that have peaking, it doesn't work that great if you use whole scene due to the way peaking works. But, with focusing magnification engaged it is pretty accurate.

    There is demographics with that? Of course not, as you well know. I'm guessing that it is a pretty safe bet to say that most of the Canon and Nikon buyers are older, and most of the Sony buyers are younger. Also, it is worth pointing out that the vast majority of people who buy Rebel type cameras know very little about cameras, and buy those because it is a brand they recognize, no other reason. A decade ago pretty much the only brands that a presence in the popular mind were Canon and Nikon, but that is changing now.

    People who buy traditional technologies tend to be older, those who buy cutting edge technologies tend to be younger. That is how it works with everything else, not sure why you think cameras are different.

    Brand loyalty will go the same way. Older brands will feature strongly in the older demographic, because that is what they grew up with. The younger demographic will be more brand neutral, because they have no preconceived ideas and go with what is best rather than what has the traditional logo.

    You actually don't have anything to back up your age assertions.  I doubt older people with solid incomes are buying up all the $400 Canon rebels as an early retirement gift to themselves and 22 year old hipsters are buying up all the $3,000 Sony mirrorless cameras.  Have you seen the wage and unemployment numbers for 20 somethings in the United States?  Tons of Canons are being sold because they are in a totally different market than $3,000 Sony cameras.  I've never spent $3,000 on a camera and I know way more about photography and videography than 99% of mirrorless users.

    A sub $400 DSLR made by the number one camera company in the world is mass market.  A $3,000 camera made by a third place runner up is niche.  That doesn't mean it is a bad camera but that whopping price difference has to be taken into account in your analysis... along with disposable income for various age brackets.

  11.  

    Where I live the big "Best Buy" type of stores carry Olympus, Panasonic, Sony and Fuji. But they are just not selling very well. Not to mention the used prices. I bought the NX1 when it was pretty new. My regular store gave me 20% discount just to try and get the sales going. Now they have stopped carrying it all together.
    The smaller Panasonics like the gm1 and gx7 are selling well now when they are just under $300. Same with the E-M5.
    I remember the Sony Nex-5t also got a boost at the $170 with lens sale just before it got taken of shelves.

    So I think those US stores are simply playing it safe. Inventory costs money and why bother when DSLRs are still selling just fine.

    Either way its great for me that can buy cheap gear. The little GM1 I picked up is a great house camera that we use for all kinds of stuff.
    Im also seeing an E-M10ii when it hits 50% of its current price. Should be before spring. 

     

    Yeah mismanaged inventory equals great deals for consumers.  Unfortunately I'm going to be forced to buy my gear on the second hand market.  I just can't get the screaming deals you are seeing.  Even then it can be tough.  People on ebay are paying more for USED GH4s.  I see a seller selling new GH4s for less than $1,000.

  12. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/27/canon-results-idUSL4N0SM25K20141027

    "The consumer shift to smartphones for casual photo taking has pummelled demand for compact cameras, while the growing popularity of lighter mirrorless cameras has taken away market share from higher margin single-lens reflex cameras."

    Hardly surprising; Canon hasn't done much to improve its DSLRs since the 5DMKII came out in 2007, & if it wasn't for the demand for feature improvements from filmmakers & videographers, Canon would've lost even more of its market share sooner.

    So you think people that have turned to smartphones for photography are going to spend over $1,000 on some brand of camera they never heard of to shoot 4k video?  How many people in America do you think even own a computer that is capable of smoothly editing 4k video?  I do not personally know anyone who even knows what adobe premier nor da vinci resolve are.  I'm just shocked when I see someone holding their phone horizontally when shooting a video.  I'm not saying there isn't a market out there for cameras that shoot great video but it is nowhere near the size of the DSLR market back in the heyday.

    When I go to my local big box electronics store I see Canon and Nikon DSLRs.  I saw two Sony mirrorless cameras an a6000 and an a7.  No a7s.  No Panasonic, as usual.  No Olympus.  You would literally have to drive 100 miles in chunks of America to find someone that has any Panasonic or Olympus interchangeable lens cameras in stock.  No one I know personally owns a mirroless camera nor a Panasonic or Olympus interchangeable lens camera.

  13.  

    Actually, I just spoke with one of the top private dealers of Sony products here in Berlin. He told me that they have sold more than 80 A7rii cameras and he has not received one report of over heating. He went on to say that he feels that this is some kind of 'internet forum' issue. So yeah.

    I doubt 80+ people bought $3,100 A7RII cameras for serious video.  I think the 42 megapixels are aimed at photographers.

  14. Update from Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective - "Recent update from a friend of mine working with LWC:

    "Updates coming soon from LWC but B&H warehouse workers showed incredible strength and solidarity today in the face of employer intimidation. Forced management to do a complete 180 and claim workers were never fired and are all welcome back to work tomorrow. POWER."
     
    #BHExposed"
     
     

    This doesn't do us any good.  Please list for us the reputable online retailers with a clean bill of health so we know where to buy from.

  15. This is union muckraking, and I'm sorry, but anyone who doesn't see through this is stupid. This is the 21st Century US, not 40's Nazi Germany or behind the Iron Curtain. If the job is less than safe, then quit. They're not being forced to work there. Why weren't they reported to OSHA for their allegedly poor safety practices?I'm sorry but the timing of this expose' and the timing of the unionization of the BH workers are just too close to be called coincidental. And this nonsense that they aren't allowed to go to the bathroom... If you work a job that won't let you poop when you have to poop and you comply to their no pooping on the job policy... Then... You probably deserve to work that job. 

    EDIT: I apologize "stupid" is a strong word, I should have said misinformed or naive. 

    Well I think the problem is the abuse is so pervasive it isn't like you can just walk out of that job and find another one that's better.  Ed David is right in regards to the NYTimes article on Nail Salons.  It looked at an entire industry... not just one nail shop.  If they just highlighted one nail shop it would give a false impression and people would simply go down the street to a different nail shop... which could very well be orders of magnitude worse than the one they are boycotting.  I just like my journalism in context.

     

    Also re: Walmart - I don't think raising the pay of their workers has much to do with their losses - I think its the change in how people buy stuff - more online than brick and mortars.  Not many brick and mortar stores are doing well.  Best Buy I think turned it around.  But that's purely "creative" reporting.

     

    Even USAToday takes my analysis - http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/markets/2015/10/14/walmart-amazon-dislocation-stock/73925812/

    The USA Today article simply says "lower earnings".  It doesn't say why those earnings are lower.  They are lower because Walmart is going to take money that would have gone to bottom line income and instead reinvesting it in people... and they were thusly rewarded... with a 10% drop in their stock price.

  16. I feel like the people in this thread that are in denial about worker exploitation are the same people that gave Philip Bloom the benefit of the doubt over his domestic abuse. The world doesn't always adhere to your majority view. It's a deeply unjust place. 

    The irony is you posted this less than 24 hours after Walmart had one of it's biggest one day drops in it's stock price after it said it would hire more people and raise wages across the board for it's lowest paid workers.

    Shares of the world’s largest retailer tanked 10 percent, its worst percentage loss since the late 1980s, as the company presented a bleak outlook while it invests heavily in e-commerce and increases employee wages at an analyst meeting in New York.

    As it warned that profits would drop as much as 12 percent in the next year, heirs to the Walmart throne watched more than $11 billion of their combined net worth wiped away over the course of a few hours, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

    http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/10/walmart-billionaire-stock

    Anyone on this forum who says they would voluntarily casually lose $11 billion in a matter of hours just to raise some grocery checkers salary is full of it.  That just isn't human nature.  Some people would do it... but most?  No way.

    Operating in the retail space in America is cut throat.  Unless the government steps in with a decent national minimum wage and comprehensive immigration reform any business that tries to run itself like a religious charity is going to face significant headwinds and probably bankruptcy.

    There is nowhere locally for me that even sells Panasonic cameras.  There is no local camera shop.  The only people I can buy this type of gear from are online and lord knows what their warehouses are like.  I just think singling B&H out after a hit piece from an Arab news organization is pretty irresponsible.  Fine.  Run B&H out of business.  Now which saint do I order from?  Adorama?  Amazon?  Buydig?  Who?

  17. I do have the Hoya one as well. It works without the filter amazingly but the second I use the ND it comes back. It's always different though depending on how much ND I use, so some images are great, while others are completely ruined.

    You can't stress test an IR filter unless you use an ND filter.  I use my BMPCC without an IR filter and it seems to be okay.  I haven't done any formal tests.  I stack my Hoya UV/IR cut filter on top of my Tiffen Variable ND.  So when I take the variable ND off the IR filter automatically comes off as well.  It's not really a conscious choice I made.  It is just convenient.  I have no recollection of really noticing which shots use the Tiffen Variable ND IR combo and which don't.  Obviously because of the polarization some of the variable ND shots stand out but there are quite a few that are indistinguishable to the casual observer.  Doesn't mean they are perfect.

     

    My experience is the same as EJ Massa.  Post some pictures and show us what you are experiencing.

    Also the filters you listed in the OP are different sizes.  And the price of filters seems to move around quite a bit for whatever reason.  I know I've seen the Tiffen 77mm variable ND for $70 after $30 rebate in the B&H deal zone recently.  I personally paid $109 for my 77mm filter about a year ago.  I wouldn't pay $139 for a new 72mm Tiffen Variable ND and I certainly wouldn't buy one used for $100.

  18. Yeah but unfortunately I don't think there is any billion dollar revenue business with a large head count that hasn't been sued by a worker and settled.  That's like trying to find a doctor in the US that has been in practice for 40 years that hasn't settled a malpractice suit.  Okay, we stop buying from them.  So who do we buy from that is any better?  I don't know if they are bad people but trial lawyers have so cheapened the legal process in the United States we can't tell who the good guys are.  Even the good guys are settling out of court.  And the race to the bottom ensures everyone is using illegal aliens in code violating buildings.  I buy organic salad.  At least it is labeled organic.  No labels about the labor.  No organic cameras for sale in the US.

    And after paying a visit to B&H on a recent trip to New York I just don't think Al Jazeera is the organization that should launch the jihad against them... optics are terrible...  which I thought a film making site of all places would realize.

  19. 1 article. Written by an Islamic site. Attacking a very Jewish company. Haven't heard from both sides. Probably won't know the ins and the outs unless we take the time to investigate fully..... equals unfair judgement on someone. 

    I was going to say.  May want to take this article with a grain of salt... or boulder of salt.

    The truth is, wherever you live, if you weren't born into money getting work is very difficult--especially if you're an immigrant.   In that story the only job many of those workers could get was at B&H. 

    I've lived in New York.  Fortunately I had a college degree and a high paying job... relative to the masses.  Is there any evidence that any of the other New York or New Jersey outfits offering rock bottom prices operate any differently?

    And I hear you on the Orthodox Jew thing.  New York has some really hardcore stuff going on.  There are groups that operate nothing like the friendly Jewish family down the street in any town USA or even like the average Jew in Israel.  The Jewish population is diverse as any other.  In the end I don't know where on the spectrum the fine retailers at B&H fall.

    Anyone that sees the prices in the US for various things from produce to electronics and doesn't think there is something fishy happening is deluding themselves.  We are all enjoying this capitalistic orgy.  Hopefully Trump doesn't ruin the party by trying to deport all the cheap labor.

  20. I dont get, why are people so provoked by the iPhone?

    No one is "provoked by the iPhone."

    We just don't like clickbait videos.  If people want to be noticed on the internet go out and make good videos about real topics.

    And let's be honest it was a terrible video.  When you shoot a video first you have to ask yourself "who is my audience?"  Next you have to ask, "what is the message I am trying to convey?"  Based on the reactions in this thread the videographer failed.  The only thing he succeeded at is getting clicks.

    Honestly we should just have an unwritten rule on this forum.  If you see a click bait video just keep it to yourself.  Don't post it here.  Posting it here just causes a Barbara Streisand effect.

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