Matt Kieley

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/event/nab2018press

Blackmagic press conference is tomorrow at 9:30am

If this has a s16 sensor, an articulating screen, and higher frame rates for slow motion, I'll be happy. 

Computar 6.5mm 1.8 (@f8) on the BMPCC.

On 3/28/2018 at 9:15 PM, mercer said:

Looks cool as always, Matt. Excited to hear you’re working on another feature. Any details?

Thanks! Think 1950s sci fi B movie by way of the Coen Bros.

I shoot B & W a lot. Combining short films, music videos and tests I have about 25 B & W videos on vimeo right now. I'm shooting my next feature in B & W. Here's the most recent short:

I even used music from one of my all-time favorite films, Night of the Living Dead. This is the second B & W video of my daughter set to music from that movie. Eraserhead is my favorite example of B & W cinematography, and my favorite lighting in any movie as well.

I used a lens to shoot the video (Canon TV-16 25mm 1.4). Everything is shot wide open.

12 hours ago, tupp said:

I am fairly sure that there is a 3x crop mode in Magic Lantern

3x + the 1.6x crop of the sensor. If you want s16 and RAW, just get the Blackmagic Pocket or Micro. It reliably shoots Full HD in RAW as well as ProRes, with a s16 sensor.

BMPCC/Cosmicar 50mm 1.9 (shot wide open):

4 hours ago, canonlyme said:

How did you manage this amount of grain with such speed? Colors would be nice too. Looks nice for doing zooms like in the graduate, haha

I am punched in 200%, which probably makes the noise more pronounced. Here's a Super 8 emulation test where I just applied a mask over the vignetted area, to give you an idea of how cropped in it is:

Te Graduate is one of my favorite films and is one of the reasons I love a good zoom shot. That and Kubrick.

This morning we filmed our friend Ariel Dyer's entry for the Tiny Desk Contest. We shot with the Canon 7D and BMPCC with My Canon TV-16 25mm and Cosmicar 12.5mm. Here are my BMPCC grabs with quick and dirty color correction.

Canon TV-16 25mm 1.4 (5.6/8 split, 200asa):

Cosmicar 12.5mm 1.9 (wide open with ND, 800asa):

The last one was a bit underexposed, so there's noise, but I like the rest of the image.

27 minutes ago, PannySVHS said:

So, Matt, did you find a way to mount your 12.5 Fuji properly?

It looks like the rear element is recessed a couple mm below the the bottom thread of the lens mount, so I'd probably have to either file down the rear barrel (it's big so it would be a lot of work) or get one of those lens spanner tools to pull it out to reset it. I also discovered the front of the barrel is every so slightly dented, rendering the filter thread unusable, so I would need another tool to fix that. At this point the tools to fix it would surpass the $20 I paid for the lens. My Schneider also has a dented thread, so if there's a good c-mount doubler out there that would make the lens more practical, maybe it'll be worth purchasing the tools if I have two good lenses worth repairing.

Since I twice unsuccessfully tried to sell this Schneider Optivaron 6-66mm 1.8 on ebay, I decided to try it on the bmpcc, for shits'n'gigs.  I punched in about 200% on the footage and it's not as bad as I thought it would be. I'm curious as to how this will perform with the right c-mount doubler. I saw one test using the Computar doubler with this lens/camera and it looked like hot garbage, but maybe that's the doubler's fault. @cantsin any insights/advice on this?

About a year ago I bought the Computar 6.5mm 1.8. I knew nothing about the lens, except that it was fixed focus, it was $30, and the seller claimed it covered the sensor of the Pocket. I had written the lens of until now because it was super soft until f/8. Out of curiosity, I decided to try it again, but this time, a light bulb went off in my head. "What if it's soft because it's too close to the sensor and not technically in focus?" So I unscrewed it a little, and everything came into focus, literally and figuratively. It's still not super sharp wide open, but it's what I would deem usable. It gets better at 2.8. 

1.8

2.8, with the lens unscrewed even further for a close-up (that's my finger "focusing" in the top right corner, it's not vignetting). It's pretty loose when unscrewed, so I need to figure out a shim solution for this.

You can see the lens is distorted, and it's not as nice as the Cosmicar 6.5mm (wish I still had it) but this would be a lens I would use for very stylized shots.

I got to use my Canon TV-16 25mm 1.4 on an actual shoot (an eating competition show on youtube--my first time directing an episode as well). This was shot wide open.

7 hours ago, mercer said:

Matt, I always look forward to your posts because there’s a possibility you are working on a film with a different camera. The interesting aspect is that you really find that narrative sweet spot with every camera you use.

The Rokinons are interesting and I’ll be keeping an eye out for them but my only concern is that they seem like they’re big chunk of lenses?

Thanks!

The Rokinons definitely are not compact lenses. Most have 77mm filter threads and are pretty long/bulky. 

14 hours ago, mercer said:

Thanks @Matt Kieley I’ve always loved your work! That Snapshots video looked amazing! That may be one of the best NX1 videos I’ve seen... I never knew you had one.

The 24mm, 35mm and 50mm intrigue me the most... but I would probably just get one, so the 50mm is at the top of the list if I decide to give it a go.

I briefly had the 12mm and 21mm cine versions for micro 4/3 and honestly liked the lenses more than I liked Micro 4/3... lol. 

If you can find anything from the 50mm, that would be awesome.

Thanks @mercer that means a lot. I had the NX1 in early 2015 and sold it (to someone here on this forum) when I got an apartment with my girlfriend, so I could have some extra money in the bank.  The 50 was definitely nice, even if I didn't have it long enough to use it on a shoot. I did sound for a web series which was shot on the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K with Rokinon lenses. I lent the DP my Rokinon 50mm and he absolutely loved it. I don't think I have any NX1 footage besides the footage of the two videos I posted. I don't save most of my test footage. 

11 hours ago, mercer said:

How about Rokinon/Samyang cine Lenses... are they supposed to have a modern look? I know they have some character, which is good, but I’m looking for that clean, sharp modern feel.

Here are a few things I've shot with Rokinon lenses (10, 12, 16, 24, 35):

These are mostly BMPCC, and a couple of NX1 videos, but they can at least give you a rough idea of their quality. I never ended up using it in any of my posted videos (just a couple of tests), but I also used to own the 50mm 1.4. I'd say the 12mm 2.2 (MFT, not the fisheye one of APS-C), 16, and 50 were the sharpest and most modern-looking ones I owned. I shot my latest short film "Chicken" almost entirely on the 16mm with the a6300, but I can't post that yet.

10 minutes ago, AaronChicago said:

Raise the glass!

By glass, you mean our lenses, right?

@mercer 

Thanks for all of your help. Here's my copy of the lens/adapter:

I think the rear element of my copy is recessed farther in than yours :/

6 minutes ago, mercer said:

Hmm... Okay, will it screw on at all? And is the bottom of your lens beveled?

It screws on, but the bottom is not beveled. 

2 minutes ago, mercer said:

Hmm... do you have this Fujinon 12.5mm...

It works on mine. 

The very same, and my adapter looks like that too.

On 3/2/2018 at 7:29 AM, mercer said:

@PannySVHS you need the Fotasy brand c-m4/3. 

I tried this adapter and it doesn't work.

Fujinon 12.5mm 1.4 on the bmpcc, shot wide open. I still need an adapter that will allow me to focus past 2ft, but I wanted to at least get a rough idea of the sharpness of this lens at f/1.4. I'm pleased so far.

11 hours ago, Mattias Burling said:

Looks terrific!

Thanks!

On 2/24/2018 at 2:50 PM, Mattias Burling said:

Looks great @Matt Kieley

Thanks, Mattias. Here's the video, at last: