Matt Kieley

Shot some BTS footage of a friend's short film last weekend. Some of it looks good in B&W.

The Ai robo voices always remind me of this:

My fellow lens nerds, I need some lens advice. I just got the GH5 again, and I was toying around with the nifty focus transition (focus pulling) feature with the only native MFT lens I still have: the Panasonic 25mm 1.7. I love it so much I want to fill out a set of native maybe 3 native lenses so I can use this feature in narrative film projects. I have a nice set of FD lenses and a follow focus, but I love the idea of just being able to tap the screen to pull focus.

So I was thinking of getting more Panasonic lenses, but I'm not a huge fan of the 20mm focal length, and I've gotten sick of 14mm. So I'm also considering Olympus lenses. I prefer 17mm (35mm FF equiv is my favorite FOV) and it does have a longer lens at the tele end at 45mm. But I honestly kinda want longer a longer focal length than 45mm or 42.5mm (something closer to 150-200mm FF equiv) and the only options there are more pricey zoom lenses.

Does anyone know if the focus transition feature in video only work with native lenses, or could EF lenses with an electronic adapter/focal reducer also work? I'm just trying to consider all options.

Update: I pried the fucking thing off with a screwdriver. Everything still works properly, but I added a few scuff and scratched to the aperture ring. But now I have to get to work, so I'll have to wait till tomorrow to shoot some actual test footage.

I already came across that video, which is for the Angenieux 6-80mm. This 8-64mm doesn't have normal screws on the side like that. There are some kind of smooth screws or pegs or something. I honestly am not sure what they are or how to remove them. It even looks kinda like they're cemented in or something. I know this part can be removed because Pro 8mm removes them from this specific lens for their Max 8 modified cameras, I just don't know how.

Just got the Angenieux in the mail. This lens looks practically unused, except for some scuffs on the lens cap. It even comes with its original caps and lens hood. Focus and zoom are super smooth. I did a flashlight test and only saw a faint amount of dust particles inside. It's gorgeous. But now I have to get the reglomatic motor off, and I'm not sure how it can be done. The Schneider 6-66mm had a few simple screws to remove but this lens seems a bit different. I would ask cantsin but he hasn't posted here since 2018.

I'm starting to test out raw shooting with this camera again. The mlvapp workflow is definitely faster with my Macbook Air M1 than with my old PC when I first tried out raw 5 years ago. I just got a good deal on an Angenieux 8-64mm f/1.9 (as well as a loupe and pistol grip for Super 8 style shooting) that I'm dying to try out.

Octopus Cinema Camera actually posted yesterday about a side project they're working on using their software with the Raspberry Pi camera.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CaaLmwyKNhO/

44 minutes ago, webrunner5 said:

If you have fat fingers, then the RX10 is not a camera you want. There is Very little room between the lens and the grip. I had to sell mine because of it. But if it works for you, I highly recommend one.  They have pretty much everything you need in a small very well-made package.

Luckily I have dainty little lady hands that are good for the glut of tiny cameras on the market.

8 hours ago, mercer said:

I think you'll really appreciate it. With sLog2 or Cine2, and Monochrome color, the camera feels like a S16 film camcorder. The zoom lens is amazing and it has a rocker. The internal ND helps with the need to overexpose sLog2. Even the preamps are pretty good, and you can even get an XLR attachment for it. A really fun camera. If I ever find now for the right price... I may pick up another one because there isn't a camera like it... well the FZ2500 is pretty great too actually. With the instant slow motion button while recording offers some pretty unique opportunities for stylized slow motion shots.

I'm excited. I was actually re-doing the color grade with FilmConvert nitrate for a short I shot on the a6300 years ago but haven't finished, and was blown away by how much I could recover overexposed shots on Slog2, and how good the "bad" Sony color looked with FCN. If I can do the same with the RX10 II footage, then it might be the perfect camera for me: fixed motorized fast zoom lens with great range, manual focus/zoom ring, clickless aperture ring, log, stabilization, nearly s16 sensor size so I can get manageable DOF for pulling focus but also still able to get a shallow enough DOF for close-ups. 

51 minutes ago, mercer said:

There was something very cool about the RX10ii, though. It felt like some kind of cine-camcorder.

I coincidentally just bought one today for dirt cheap. I wanted one about 5 years ago but it was still a little pricey for me at that time. I'm excited to playa round with it, especially in Monochrome. 

I recently rebought the Panasonic 14mm f/2.5 which was the first native wide angle prime I ever bought back in my GH1 days. This is from a lighting test but I like how it looks, so here you go.  This is shot wide open on the G9 in 4K, CineV. Graded with FilmConvert Nitrate (Fuji Astia 100).

Sigma

Can't believe I forgot to put these gems in my previous post:

My favorite short film:

And a bunch of other favorites:

Darkness/Light/Darkness by Jan Svankmajer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1THMc9g5SaU&t=2s

Also Antoine and Collette by Francois Truffaut. Not on youtube it seems but I believe is on the Criterion Channel.

The Last Picture Show is one of my all time favorites. I also liked his first film, Targets.

So, I'm having issues using my Canon nFD lenses with a follow focus (Tilta Mini). They keep slipping, which is not a problem I have with my Rokinon 12mm Cine lens. I thought maybe it was just the rubber Tilta seamless gear on the lens, so I tried one of the gears with my shitty Sakar 28mm FD (breech lock mount)  and it worked perfectly. That lens does have a very smooth focus ring, and I realized the Canon lenses have a lot more friction/resistance in their focus ring. Are these my copies of the lens, or do others have this experience? I was thinking of getting a couple of different lenses (24-28mm, 50mm) to use for video instead of the FDs. It's a shame because I love these lenses, but either having them serviced or buying multiple copies and comparing is going to be too expensive. I had also read a while back that the older breach lock FD lenses were better for cine use. Any recommendations for lenses in the standard nFD price range that are suitable for cine use? I don't want to get a whole new set of expensive glass, but 2 lenses are all I really need with the G9 since I already have the Rokinon 12mm for wides, plus an FD focal reducer, and ETC mode for more focal length options. 

18 hours ago, mercer said:

Were they speedboosted or did you use a regular adapter?

 

No speedbooster, just the straight adapter.

18 hours ago, mercer said:

Nice, they look really good. I have the 12.5 and the 25mm and I'm always surprised by how well they handle contrast for old CCTV lenses.

They do look nice, and I used them a lot for a while. But there's a lot I disliked about them too. The 12.5mm Is tack sharp int he center at f/1.4 but you had to stop down to f/4 to get sharpness from edge to edge. Plus the entire fronts rotate when focusing which can cause problems with polarizers. I'd only recommend them to people who are able/willing to do the heavy modification needed to adapt the 25 and 50. The 12.5mm and 50mm had nice sizes though, not as tiny as the 25mm and other c-mount lenses. The Fuji zoom lenses are good though. Here's a few more things shot with the Fujis:

Edit: top is a Reel of some of my favorite shots from a short film I DP'd years ago. It's called Escape Room if you want to watch the whole thing (I'm not even sure if it's online) but the director opted to add a shitty sepia filter to everything, though I offered to grade it for him. So this reel consists of my favorite shots (Micro + Pocket + Fujis) with proper grading.

This was a little promo shot for a friend/local library (one of a few I've done for them with these cameras. The only shot that isn't with Fuji lense sis the B&W stuff which was a Computar 8.5mm 1.3 that I used for effect.

18 hours ago, mercer said:

That B&W really captured that Apollo era look and I think the dreaminess of those Canon TV-16 lenses helped accomplish that. I have a small set of old non-ai Nikkor lenses from that era (28mm f/2, 50mm 1.4 and 105mm 2.5) and as soon as I attach those lenses it is instant vintage.

The Canon TV-16 Lenses are probably my favorite c-mount lenses for the same reason my FD lenses are my favorite FF lenses: that vintage Canon magic. I can't put my finger on it, but they're soft and a bit dreamy wide open, and stopped down they get sharp but not overly sharp. They just hae a pleasing rendering that goes well with he Pocket and Micro. Here's a bit more of them. Nothing special, just some random BTS footage and another home movie:

This was all 3 lenses in the set, mostly wide open (the 25mm shots were at f/2) with the Micro.

This was the 25mm the first day I got it. Shot on the Pocket.

This was shot on the Micro. Two fo the interviews are shot with the 50mm 1.8, one shot on the 13mm. The b-roll was a mix of the 13mm and 25mm, plus the Fujinon 18-108mm 1.8 and 18-108mm 2.5 zooms.

18 hours ago, mercer said:

I also have this lens and the 1.4 version. The 1.4 is an oddball because it isn't the silver one but it's a zebra version like the f/1.9. There is just something about those Cosmicar lenses. As you may already know, they were made by Pentax, so they share some similarities to old Takumars with color and contrast. There are some old shots I took from my first BMMCC and it takes me a second to distinguish which were from the Sigma 19mm 2.8 and from the Cosmicar. Great lenses.

I know the newer 1.4 cctv versions were made by Pentax, not sure about the vintage ones which have the Cine Ichikuza logo, which are the best ones. They're sharp wide open, and look nice, and don't need any modification, unlike some of the newer ones. I used to have the "zebra" versions but now have all black ones that are a little smaller but seem to have the same optical quality. I got the 12.5mm for $10, the 25mm for $30, and the 50mm for $50 I believe. I also have a more modern 8.5mm 1.5 that covers the s16 sensor and a Pentax 6.5mm 1.8 fixed focus lens that covers s16.

18 hours ago, mercer said:

Glad to see you're still shooting with the OG BM cameras. I think there is something special and unique about them.

I always go back and forth but keep coming back to these little cameras and c-mount lenses. I have a lot more videos shot with them, including an entire concert at the Wasteland Weekend festival (it's like Burning Man + Rennaissance Faire + Mad Max). There are more home movies as well that I shared here a long time ago. 

The entire concert is on my YT for those morbidly curious and 45 minutes to waste. Above is an excerpt. We shot with a Pocket and Micro with Fuji zooms, plus a friend's Canon 80D and Sigma 18-35mm for the wide shots of the stage. I've been hired to do some pretty fun little jobs and I've used used the Pocket and Micro cameras for most of them. I also shot a number of episodes of a food contest web series, a country music concert, promo videos. Too much to share, really.

18 hours ago, mercer said:

Are you working on any new personal projects?

A few feature length scripts. My pet project for years now has been a feature based on my Crazy Pete shorts. I want to shoot it this winter possibly. Unless Covid gets in the way again.

1 hour ago, mercer said:

Awesome work as always @Matt Kieley ! Do you remember which lenses you used?

Thanks man! 

The first two narrative shorts were shot with Rokinon Lenses (10, 16, 35)

The 15 second horror shorts and the promo video were shot with Fujinon c-mount lenses (18-108mm 2.5, 17.5-105mm 1.8, 12.5mm 1.4, 25mm 1.4, 50mm 1.4)

Lonely Astronaut was the Canon TV-16 25mm 1.4 c-mount lens.

Catch Hold was the Cosmicar 12.5mm 1.9 c-mount lens.

I've posted older versions of some of these, but I thought I should post some old BMPCC/BMMCC videos, some of which are uprezzed to 4K.

Narrative shorts:

This is a promo video a friend I did shot on the Pocket/Micro with only available light:

And some personal home movies:

I figure this thread might as well be about the original bmpcc too. I just bought it again. It's like an old girlfriend I just keep going back to. I was going to sell my Panasonic G9 but decided to keep it as a paid gig workhorse since I have some new work coming in. But the bmpcc will be for my narrative film projects. 

Also, if anyone happens to have a cage for the bmpcc they need to get rid of, message me because I need one.

On 6/18/2021 at 5:17 AM, barefoot_dp said:

Used it on a shoot for the first time today. I was slightly worried about the fan noise beforehand but didn't even notice it on set. Certainly not enough to make me want to perform surgery on it and if there is any hum in the recordings, it should be nothing that a bit of noise reduction can't fix.

I had a setup that was pretty much worst case scenario - a moderately wide shot looking out a window in to midday sun on a very bright day. It maxed out the FS300 but I was able to get a decent amount of wrap and fill on the subject. Lost the sky due to shooting in Rec709 (client request) but managed to keep most of the detail in the trees. I feel like if it had been log I could've saved the sky... maybe.

It's a lot of light output for the price!

 

What was your ISO/aperture in this shot? I was thinking of getting the FS300 for this kind of set-up (exposing the interior and exterior through windows) as well as possibly using it as a fake sun for some shots. 

I recently upgraded to a new laptop that can actually handle Resolve Lite, which only occasionally worked on my previous laptop, so I threw in some old EOS M (with Canon FD 35-105mm 3.5) footage I shot behind the scenes of a music video in 2017 or '18. I just wanted to see what Resolve Lite could do with this old 8 bit footage scaled to 4K, with the WB pushed to a cooler tone, and 16mm grain added. There's no music as I only made this for my own reference, but decided to share anyway for anyone else who might be curious, or just for EOS M fans. I still have one and it I still think it looks pretty good with the right lighting/lenses/post.

On 3/23/2021 at 11:04 AM, dreamplayhouse said:

Love the 16mm film look from my original bmpcc but really would like better battery life, good video autofocus (when I need it as I will mostly shoot manual focus using vintage lenses) and IBIS. Any great alternative for under $700 body only??

I'm thinking about the OMD EM1 mark ii.

 

 

It goes above your budget but I just switched from the Blackmagic Micro to the Panasonic G9. In 4K the Ex Tele Crop mode gives you a 2.8x crop, very close to the 2.88x crop of the original Pocket and Micro. I got one used with Vlog already installed for $900. I'm very thrilled by this camera. You can get a 4K s16 without all the horrible moire and IR pollution. With Vlog and the Panasonic Vlog lut I'm getting great color and dynamic range. Plus with a focal reducer I have s35, and of course the native MFT sensor crop as well. And I can still use all my c-mount lenses. And I have IBIS and good battery life, and more importantly, I don't have to rig it up to make it more usable. A friend of mine still has a Micro, so I may be doing a side by side test soon.

9 hours ago, Anaconda_ said:

What about the Z-cam E2c. It's the cheapest 4k raw option around, also internal ProRes, and about the size of the Blackmagic Micro.

I think All setting and monitoring can be done with a phone with no added hardware.

It'd be the closest thing to low cost, high quality crashcam... But is it low cost enough to purposefully smash it?

I used to have one. You only get prores and raw with an external SSD. And the Rolling shutter is pretty bad, even with fairly slow pans. And it's bad in both 4k and 1080p. Otherwise you can get a nice image out of it, with a lot of detail retained in the highlights.