Zach Ashcraft

​Welcome to YouTube!!!

​Awesome work, Zach! How did the 750 perform in the field? Was the battery life adequate? How were the ergonomics? Any problems nailing focus without peaking or anything? 

I still see quite a bit of discussion and questions about the Nikon D750 here. I've had one for a few months and love it, though have never shared anything here I don't think. As a stills camera, its incredible. Makes the 5D3 (which I've owned and used plenty) obsolete in this regard, in my opinion. 
As a video camera, its great. Really nice image that holds up to grading quite well. I shot a lot of this in the flat profile, though some in the standard as well. Graded using Film Convert as a base and James Millers DeLuts to varying degrees. There isn't much of a narrative to this video, just an event recap video for the company I work for. Shot on Nikon 70-200 F4G (mostly), 35mm F/2D, 24mm F/2D + Cinevate Duzi v3 slider and some handheld action
 

I know people like to poke fun at Canon due to their seemingly underwhelming specs (myself included at times!) but for what its worth, during my 3 months or so with an A7s I found it slow, clunky, unreliable (crashed occasionally) and the battery life was of course terrible. I was always thinking about the camera. During my 6 months or so with a c100, the opposite was definitely true. Theres something to be said for cameras that "just work" and Canon definitely has that figured out.  
Hoping the a7rII brings an improvement in this area as it looks like a slick camera! 

I know people like to poke fun at Canon due to their seemingly underwhelming specs (myself included at times!) but for what its worth, during my 3 months or so with an A7s I found it slow, clunky, unreliable (crashed occasionally) and the battery life was of course terrible. I was always thinking about the camera. During my 6 months or so with a c100, the opposite was definitely true. Theres something to be said for cameras that "just work" and Canon definitely has that figured out.  
Hoping the a7rII brings an improvement in this area as it looks like a slick camera! 

I know people like to poke fun at Canon due to their seemingly underwhelming specs (myself included at times!) but for what its worth, during my 3 months or so with an A7s I found it slow, clunky, unreliable (crashed occasionally) and the battery life was of course terrible. I was always thinking about the camera. During my 6 months or so with a c100, the opposite was definitely true. Theres something to be said for cameras that "just work" and Canon definitely has that figured out.  
Hoping the a7rII brings an improvement in this area as it looks like a slick camera! 

I know people like to poke fun at Canon due to their seemingly underwhelming specs (myself included at times!) but for what its worth, during my 3 months or so with an A7s I found it slow, clunky, unreliable (crashed occasionally) and the battery life was of course terrible. I was always thinking about the camera. During my 6 months or so with a c100, the opposite was definitely true. Theres something to be said for cameras that "just work" and Canon definitely has that figured out.  
Hoping the a7rII brings an improvement in this area as it looks like a slick camera! 

I know people like to poke fun at Canon due to their seemingly underwhelming specs (myself included at times!) but for what its worth, during my 3 months or so with an A7s I found it slow, clunky, unreliable (crashed occasionally) and the battery life was of course terrible. I was always thinking about the camera. During my 6 months or so with a c100, the opposite was definitely true. Theres something to be said for cameras that "just work" and Canon definitely has that figured out.  
Hoping the a7rII brings an improvement in this area as it looks like a slick camera! 

I know people like to poke fun at Canon due to their seemingly underwhelming specs (myself included at times!) but for what its worth, during my 3 months or so with an A7s I found it slow, clunky, unreliable (crashed occasionally) and the battery life was of course terrible. I was always thinking about the camera. During my 6 months or so with a c100, the opposite was definitely true. Theres something to be said for cameras that "just work" and Canon definitely has that figured out.  
Hoping the a7rII brings an improvement in this area as it looks like a slick camera! 

My main concern is colour... I don't care what you say about s-log, luts etc... The colour on the a7s just isn't great. For cool colours, it is nice... For natural or warm colours it is a pain

Thanks for the feedback!

I pulled the trigger and bought the D750 with a Nikon 24-120mm F4 IS lens yesterday. I only got the chance to test the video performance very, very briefly but compared to my GH3, the dynamic range and low light performance is much, much better. ISO 1600 looks very usable and shadows and highlights look much more pleasing. So far I really like it!

This is the biggest challenge for me as a photographer and filmmaker today. You have to promote the crud out of yourself, because nobody is going to do it for you. I've made some connections with clients who i've made incredibly happy that promote me almost every time I shoot something for them, and I'm discovering clients/relationships like this are absolutely invaluable. 

I have to say, after picking up the Nikon D810 and D750 (I'm primarily a stills guy) I couldn't be happier with the video I'm getting out of them. Especially the D810. Sharp 1080p 60 FPS footage that grades surprisingly well. Haven't spent too much time with the D750 in comparison, but it seems to have a comparable image. 

​I try every creative angle I can to get anything I work on - either as a DP or my own films out there.  The right people.  And at the end of it, it's just banging down on as many doors as you can.  Finally someone will respond.  How do you think Quentin Tarintino got Reservoir Dogs made?  Did you ever hear that story?  There are some amazing stories of persistence in many people trying to get their foot in the door.
Even, unfortunately for a lot of male and especially female actors - having to hit the casting couch.  And they do it.  Ugggggg.  
What's also interesting is that once they are big, if they remember the struggle they went through when they were younger or if they blocked out the hard times.

This is the biggest challenge for me as a photographer and filmmaker today. You have to promote the crud out of yourself, because nobody is going to do it for you. I've made some connections with clients who i've made incredibly happy that promote me almost every time I shoot something for them, and I'm discovering clients/relationships like this are absolutely invaluable. 

This is the biggest challenge for me as a photographer and filmmaker today. You have to promote the crud out of yourself, because nobody is going to do it for you. I've made some connections with clients who i've made incredibly happy that promote me almost every time I shoot something for them, and I'm discovering clients/relationships like this are absolutely invaluable. 

Here’s my story - I promoted “Lessons for a Tailor” I film I shot for Galen Summer back when Vimeo first came out.  I submitted it to tons of blogs.  That then got buzz and that was the start of my career.
Later, I helped my friend and former roommate Sean Dunne promote the film I shot for him, “The Archive” - that eventually got picked up by a hip hop blog then the big break - Gizmodo. That then led by his own submission to Sundance, then acceptance!  Then it went on PBS POV and got a Doc and News Emmy nomination!  Me and him were the perfect team of promotion!
That was then, around 2008.  The land of blogs.
Now in 2015, we have facebook and twitter and instagram and I still promote films the old fashioned way - well not so much - but I still try to email people about the film.
But I think more and more “Gatekeepers” of good online films are more immune to this than ever.  Now you need to get creative.  And of course it’s just persistence - knocking on doors, believing in your film, not caring about rejection.  It always has been and always will be.  Eventually someone will give it a chance and play the film.
Recently a lot I have taken to twitter to promote my work - most recently -”the Quiet Escape” - and overall it’s been great.  It got the film to be seen on Gothamist.
But today I got called out by a blogger.  I won’t name her name, because maybe she’s just having a bad morning but this is what she said:
Fair enough, that’s par for the course.  I did tweet to about 10 bloggers today, because I still haven’t beyond gothamist for non filmmakers to see the film, which is of course an important thing for me.  I want my film to spark a conversation on whether living in NYC is worth it or not.  That’s my goal.  To start a dialogue.
But the blogger on twitter’s reaction was so visceral it hurt me emotionally and made me stop trying to get my film out there.  And I’m sure she didn’t mean anything personal, she probably doesn’t know I’m a real person and an artist to push myself, but jeeze, I feel so bad for everyone who is just trying to get their idea or book or blog post or film out into the world and can get that kind of response..  
I remember years ago I got a direct message from someone on vimeo about their film and I was snappy about it because I thought it was just a long impersonal “hey look here” and he got upset, then I apologized, I watched it and enjoyed the film.  I felt like a douche bag.  And never again, after this one tweet from this blogger will I treat any email from a person just trying to get their 2 cents in, their viewpoint or their film, with anything but respect.
At the end of the day there is a person on the other side of that keyboard or phone.   The energy, negative or positive, must go somewhere.
And maybe in the future I send out customized twitter messages only - tailored to that blogger so they don’t think I’m spamming them. Maybe that’s my take-away.

Ran across this article on Nikon Rumors. This process wouldn't work at all for narrative work (aside from exteriors, cutaways, and such) but if you have the patience and hard drive space for it, it produces some pretty fantastic results. 
Oh for the day that we don't have to devise crazy workarounds and hacks to receive image quality of this level. 
http://nikonrumors.com/2015/03/07/capturing-8k-video-with-the-nikon-d800-camera-quicklapse.aspx/#more-89496

​Zach, you're one of the rare few who see it. Just ask any Canon shooters and they think their 5DIIIs and 6Ds are great. Not that they're bad, but if they did what you did, they'll probably not hold the Canons up in so high esteem, and probably not go through the nerd-rage to do things like rate this thread with a 1-star rating. 

I think photographers are starting to see the light as well. While I love video and this site is my favorite video resource, I am primarily a photographer. In the last 6 months i've sold my entire Canon Setup (5d3, several L lenses) and switched to Nikon. The difference in image quality and versatility to me is not even close. Nikon is ahead by a mile. I had a brief pitstop with the sony A7r and A7s and while I love the images theyre capable of, they just aren't usable in a high speed environment like a wedding. AF speed is the main drawback for me. 
My two cents 

Anyone have $20K I can borrow?
 
http://www.arri.com/alexamini/

I'm kinda on the fence... a GoPro Hero4 Black or this... hum.

Thanks, I am pretty sure you will love it. We have been to SA as well Cuba just as amazing and maybe a little better. It's hard to beat Bolivia though ​
 
​Thanks Zach, I am Canadian so we just flew from our home town. I believe that Americans (if that is where you are?) can fly to Mexico or Jamaica and then take another flight to Cuba. It's a bit more effort, but well worth the travel. It is like stepping back in time. Sadly I am pretty sure things will be changing very quickly over there.

Hey guys, I just posted my new vid called GO Cuba. It was shot with an A7s in Cine4, Pro colour mode. Hope you like it.
 
PS. How do you embed videos again?
EOSHD replies: Just paste the URL in. If it doesn't work first time, edit the post, remove the hyperlink from the Vimeo URL and paste the URL back in again, then press enter to go onto a new line and the video should show up.

​You know what's the real scary part? It's a camera that sits below the 5D3's price bracket.
I said it back then, the D750 would be a 5D3 killer if people would stop thinking that Canon and pro bodies are so great.