Zach Ashcraft

Merry Christmas all! 

I feel bad for people who didn't enjoy interstellar. I thought it was epic, loved every second of the experience. 

Gone girl I found to be pretty predictable in comparison, and sort of perverted to a fault. Just though the sex and violence was a little over the top and found it a bit distracting. Great story though

Get an A7s, D750, or D810. Buy some nikkor lenses. Shoot to your hearts content

this is surprising to me, given the Mark II rolling shutter issues. Pretty rad though!

Probably just used as a crash cam or on some close ups

Are the speaking at the same time, or separately? 

If they're speaking at the same time your best bet is just to try cutting various EQ frequencies. Probably in the 500-800hz range. 

If separate, why not just fade out the cheapo mic track while the other person is talking? 

The 1080/60 footage I've shot with the A7s is beautiful, I'm really loving it. 

Shot the majority of this at 60FPS. Its pretty heavily graded but theres plenty of other examples out there. I'm liking it much more than the D750 60p footage, as its a little more flexible in post with more dynamic range. 

Dude! Congrats on the Vimeo Staff Pick! 

Don't forget theres also an excellent 1.5 crop mode on the A7s

Definitely don't go if you can't get through it without going into debt and taking out student loans.

Otherwise, its probably a great place to learn and network 

Hacked GH2  B)

Quick question - I just received this camera and I was wondering how to check my exposure while in Video mode. I prefer to do everything in manual, and it's easy to manage with the metering indicator while in camera mode, but it disappears while in movie mode.

 

Anyone?

If you push the info button the histogram will eventually pop up, but i'm failing to find a way to enable the basic meter available in live view in photo mode. 

Just came across this on Nofilmschool. Looks pretty fantastic, color especially. Nice behind the scenes video too 

http://nofilmschool.com/2014/11/creating-high-concept-sci-fi-short-film-no-money

Andrew or anyone else shooting with this camera, do your initial impressions hold up? 

I'm shooting with the A7s for video and the A7r for stills. Very happy with the A7s, but autofocus on the A7r is abysmal. I've already got a lot of nikkor lenses and was thinking of picking this up as a B-camera 

I really got a kick out of the Dog video. Great writing and some beautiful shots throughout  

Yes, really worthless in about %95 percent of shooting scenarios. occasionaly in run and gun type situations at weddings, after I already had exposure and focus nailed using the LCD screen, I could use the EVF just for framing and to help with stabilizing a shot. In daylight though, forget it

Nice job, Zach!  What did you edit in? And which PP did you shoot with?

Thank you! I shot this entirely in PP6. I edited in FCPX using film convert along with the Cine 4 gamma preset in film convert. I'm not sure if this is the correct preset for PP6, but I loved the look I ended up with. 

I'm finding that the footage is just so easy and fun to play with. So many different looks achievable due to the great dynamic range and flexible codec. Its just fun to shoot with from start to finish

Heres another short I shot today using the A7s. Opening shot is using the time-lapse app, which is pretty convenient! 

This was a difficult assignment. Had to arrive at the stadium at 7am and have the thing shot and edited by the afternoon before the finals show started. The a7s didn't get in the way, and the lightweight was a huge plus since I was used to lugging the C100 around. 

Overall Im incredibly happy with the camera

Just shot some 120 fps this evening. Not the sharpest but dang its fun! 

How's that for a change - instead of an on camera light, it's an on light camera :)

There are several shots in that film would not pass QC with my clients. If that's good for you, great. I don't swing ANY DSLR around, but having to recompose my shot just because I wanted a half-decent move pissed me off, especially by the 3rd time. Simple as that. 

Its a great camera. Gives great images. But between the extra mental step of planning for movement, and the Metabones dropouts with the body I'll use something else right now, unless I specifically need the 50k iso and the client's ok with 1080. 

Which shots? Other than the shaky whip zoom, I'd love to know what stood out to you. I won't be offended :)

Heres a short clip from a documentary i'm working on. This was shot probably 50/50 full frame and crop mode. The opening slider shot was in full frame mode. 

I am not finding the rolling shutter to be an issue at all

 

The image from the A7s is lovely, but only if its not moving, and you're ok with 1080. 

The rolling shutter argument is blown out of proportion. I don't find it any less usable than any other rolling shutter camera on the market right now, especially in S35 crop mode

For the record, I sold my C100 and 5D3 and went with an A7s and A7r. Way happier with the results for stills and video. I'll have a review on my site next week that I'll share here

Just keep in mind, the downside about the FE lenses is that the focus is controlled my an electronic focusing mechanism, which basically detects how fast your are pulling focus and adjusts the speed at which it focuses accordingly. This is a pain as its pretty hard to do repeatable and controlled focus pulls. 

That being said, I do own the 70-200 F4 FE lens and love it. Stills are absolutely amazing out of it, and the image stabilization is really useful. Sharp as can be and nice colors + contrast. I'm a fan. I haven't used any other FE lenses

The upgrades are minor, but nice to have. I am disappointed that they didn't upgrade the codec. I'm not really sure yet why someone would choose this over the new Sony FS7, which offers internal 4K XAVC 10-bit 4:2:2 (up to 60fps) for $2500 more.
 
What I am really curious about is what this will do to the price of used C100s...

I just listed mine today. We'll see I suppose.