Gregormannschaft

Apparently native FE lenses are coming soon as well. I'd love to finally cash in on my 24-105mm L lens and get a Sigma 24-70 2.8. I'll take any kind of autofocus I can get with my Sony A7SII at this point...more for casual photography than for video.

I'm always amazed when I see work projected in a kino environment, instead of on a monitor or a screen. Mushy, crap footage you thought looked bad can take on very natural qualities. Footage you thought looked great, now looks stunning.

6 hours ago, Orangenz said:

I use one on the 12-35 panny lens. I set the lens to F2.8 (wide open), the camera to shutter priority at 1/50s (as I'm shooting at 25fps), then rotate the variable until I get the 100% zebras at a point I'm happy with, ie. a few small highlights in the sky but mostly clear. There's usually an obvious point that it needs to be at. Works the same on my 25mm 1.4. The only problem that sometimes arises is in particularly bright light, the variable ND can cross hatch at darkest setting, so you have to pull back a tad from that. 

I use a GenusTech variable ND. Get the f-stop you want, and then make stronger or lighter depending on what you want your exposure to be. For me, that's always either +1.7 or +2.0 on the Sony A7SII with SLOG2. Unfortunately, it's not quite enough on a very sunny day with a really wide aperture. I wish it went to 10 stops of ND, but oh well.

10 hours ago, Kisaha said:

It isn't something you say, it's something you do;

if you are not sure what you are bringing to a production, maybe you are not ready for such a prominent role, yet. 

To be exposed on a big set it can be the worst thing ever happen in your life!

Start humble, and step by step build your arsenal (skills, knowledge, experience).

Maybe you should ask to these Bollywood producers if they have a smaller part for you on a big production, or a bigger part on a smaller production.

There are sets with tens, or even hundreds of people, in front and behind the camera, you have to be ready to solve swiftly and adequate any problem arise and always perform at maximum level.

This is great advice right here.

So er, I found the problem. There's a tiny button at the bottom of the Tascam DR100 Mk.II where you can switch between 'Mic/Line1' - I switched it to Mic and it works perfectly now. 

Basically, this: 

Quick question: Is this useable with the Sony A7SII and no native lens?

I wanted to use this with a vintage 35mm lens but have only now realised that getting focus might be quite difficult, what with the screen and EVF obscured. Would I need to pick up a native Sony lens to make best use of the gimbal? This was made with the Sony A7SII and native lenses but the videographer did note he wasn't overly impressed with the native glass.
 

6 hours ago, Matt Kieley said:

I ended up getting more money for some gear I was selling than I expected, so I bought a used Nebula 4000 Lite for about $300. It's a bit of a splurge (for me), but I'm excited.

Nice! After my experience with this cheap Steadicam I'm very tempted to splurge on a Zhiyun Crane.

52 minutes ago, iGamer4tv said:

We are in the same boat then cause mine is fine with that cable into my camera as well. And it is fine with a battery and XLR to XLR in my amp, but not having the battery in it wont work. Even wiggling the cables to get some type of ugly sounding feedback wouldn't work, even messing with the filter switch while doing that didn't do anything at max gain. So, its either a button or setting on the receiving end, or the mics have some fault with it. Assuming all my brand new cables are perfectly fine. 

Hmm, OK. Maybe we're just missing a setting somewhere? Very odd, but glad you made this topic!

Good call, thanks guys, really is much appreciated. 

Just now, iGamer4tv said:

So the only time yours worked was with a battery and 3.5mm cable into your camera? Yeah something might be wrong with both of our mic's, my cables work fine with other equipment. I'll be home in a few hours and going to open it up and post back here.

I have a feeling it's the audio recorder, or a setting I'm missing somewhere. The mic doesn't need phantom power, and it performed fine plugged into the camera with the xlr>3.5mm cable. So in theory there's no reason why it wouldn't record when paired with the Tascam XLR input. 

2 minutes ago, Grimor said:

For Glidecam only practice is needed.

A lot of practice, and nothing more.

For perfect balance you need a stand or anything that keep it in place by its handle. Then put a quick plate between camera and glidecam.

When it's perfectly balanced put marks on quick plate so whenever you put the camera on glidecam, you can repeat exacly the same mounting position.

Thats the way you can set it up in 5 minutes in every location.

Another important thing is the way you handle it.

You have to use booth hands. The main one in the handle and the other hand with just 2 fingers in central bar to avoid the spinning and making little corrections if needed.

Ok, that's good to know. I've never used one of these before so a lot of it was hit and miss. For example, to extend the bar lower or to make the whole thing shorter? I had/have no clue what extending it might do. Often it would make it more unstable. And, put the weights to the sides of the camera or front and back? Weights close to the pole, or far away? There are so many variables it kind of drove me crazy.

4 minutes ago, iGamer4tv said:

I literally am experiencing the same issue with my NTG-2. Maybe one of the wires inside is disconnected like one of the above people said. But it works fine on battery, does yours work normal on battery? 

No, battery and phantom power didn't work at all. I switched to a XLR>3.5mm cable which seemed to work much better, with levels still a little low. But the mic plugged directly into the camera worked fine...very odd. I'm going to do a few more tests at home tonight to check, but I've had back luck with this audio recorder. I feel like I've missed a setting somewhere...

On this subject...

I had a corporate shoot this week, and for some unknown reason my Sennheiser MKE 600, plugged into the XLR input of a Tascam DR100 MKII simply wouldn't work at all. AT the highest gain, it would only register a -42db sound when I tapped the front of the mic. Tried switching XLR inputs, still the same. Tried 48v phantom power, still the same. Anyone had this problem before per chance? I hate audio when it doesn't go as expected.

I bought a cheaper knock-off Gildecam last week...my word, IMPOSSIBLE to set up properly. I spent 2 hours at the weekend trying to get it stable and eventually had to give up, go to sleep and simply not use it on a shoot this week. Is there a trick to these things? Is it simply a case of practice makes perfect? I got it relatively stable, but it would always spin to the right slightly.

To be honest, a built-in ND filter would be better for me than 10bit. A6500 level autofocus, built in ND and 60fps in 4K would be great.

I'd also just suggest to white balance often, and carefully. If the custom white balance doesn't work and gives you a green cast, it's because you're doing in SLOG. I know, bummer, but if you switch to a Cine profile and custom WB, then back to SLOG, you'll have your correct settings. 

All these cameras are good.

19 minutes ago, eleison said:

But with an A7RII, you lose insane low light capabilities.  In addition, one needs to shot in crop mode to reduce rolling shutter which basically necessitates buying a good  focus reducer which cost iirc an extra 3 to 4 hundred dollars.  Also, with a focus reducer, you cannot iirc use native lenses which basically means adapting canon or some other lens mount which means the auto focusing could be "spotty at times" and the NON-native lens/body combination is slightly bigger than a native lens/body combination.

The A7RII and A7SII run head to head wrt video imho, but I think the A7SII still comes out ahead... especially for me.  I want to minimize the amount of stuff I am carrying and I don't want to support two camera mounts.  Also, the low light ability of the A7Sii pretty much means I can shot in more environments than I can the A7RII.

That being said, I do miss having a better focusing system.  I do miss the high megapixel images...  When A7SIII comes (hopefully with better autofocus, higher megapixel, etc);  I will be upgrading...

 

ps. I also love my a7sii.

Not following on a few things here. I love my A7SII too, but I think you've got a few things mixed up here unless I'm mistaken. And, caveat, this being the problem of the ridiculous caveat machine that is the A7RII.

- The reduced rolling shutter mode is full frame 4K. Which has a little less detail, and a lot less rolling shutter.
- The shaper, more detailed mode is Super 35mm. But you get added rolling shutter. But this isn't a problem for lenses, you just get a little crop. No need to change mount and I wouldn't bother with a focal reducer for such a minimal crop.

- ISO performance was supposed to be very strong on the A7RII, equal until around 25k. I rarely ever shoot higher on the A7SII. I doubt many do.
- A7SII real benefits are SLOG3 support, in-camera LUT for SLOG, that slightly higher ISO performance. 

Again, I'd still rather have better AF. Annnyway, these topics are boring. Get what works for your needs and your budget. I only photograph for a hobby so I couldn't rationalise buying the A7RII over the A7SII. If you have a project coming up, buy something in your budget. If you just want to buy and play around, wait and see. There is no right camera, as thousands have said. In 2 years you'll be wanting the latest and greatest all over again. 
 

Just now, Don Kotlos said:

With sony it's hard to predict anything really, but if you " really need a camera badly right now" get one.

A7sii, A7rii, A7s are great cameras and once you play a bit with the settings the color can be really amazing.

The only thing that I believe is needed is some kind of 10bit output to make log profiles a bit more useful. 

If are the kind of person that needs the latest tech but still care about cost, then buy used and sell it 3-6 months after the release of any new camera that you want to buy. 

Love my Sony A7SII...although in hindsight I'd recommend the A7RII for the better auto focus, stills performance and ability to shoot in a mode where rolling shutter is reduced. Check out the Sony rumour websites to get a better idea. Rumours are the A7III could appear in the summer, with the R and S to follow in the next 6-8 months. So, basically, they are a while off.

Very tempted to grab this for an upcoming corporate video. Has anyone in Germany purchased this and could recommend a seller? It's listed under multiple companies on Amazon, under a lot of different price points.

Nice piano!

21 hours ago, mercer said:

Do you have any before or after screengrabs, I'd love to see your results with it. I'm working on a short film that basically takes place entirely in the woods, a sparse pine forest, so I definitely need some DR. I'm going for a soft look similar to this... minus the snow.

 

Sure thing. These aren't final grades, but should give you a better idea of what the profile is like to work with.

 

33 minutes ago, mercer said:

I've only used Auto ISO one othe other time with my D5500 when I borrowed a Sigma 17-50mm for the day. I was shooting in Shutter Priority mode but the D5500 decided to change the ISO values moreso than the aperture, so I turned it off and shot manual. So this is all new to me.

Honestly I don't remember you linking me to an SLog2 profile... Do you still have the link? I'd love to give it a go.

I've always loved Minolta lenses with Sony cameras, but I am going to pick up that Sigma 30mm 1.4 lens and give the Touch PDAF a go.

Yeah I was actually fairly impressed with SLog3, on tighter shots. With some of my other clips, I threw on an Impulz LUT, adjusted the curves a touch and that was it and the clips looked pretty good.

But the project I am working on now requires a lot of wide shots and I can't risk the banding. My interest in Sony again started by coming across some videos from the FS5... man did I drool over that Raw image... even the in camera 10 bit 1080p looks amazing.

I want to test SLog2 a little more, SLog/G-Film and probably EOS Pro... but most likely I will keep it simple with Cine 2. 

I really loved filming with the SLOG2/GFILM combo and am currently working my way through a travel video edit. Some of the shots are stunning, others are less so, but it's well worth checking out. Absolutely 0 banding so far, which is pretty impressive. Macro blocking is certainly there, but not too badly.

Bought this little Carl Zeiss Flektogon 35mm 2.4 lens a few months back. It's a lovely portrait/macro lens. Not so great for landscape work but low contrast lenses always give such lovely character to the shot. Is the Sigma 30mm native E-mount? 

This is a nice trick for when you're moving indoors to outdoors and need to keep the exposure values at roughly the same levels with no fuss. Obviously, the situation I'm talking about requires you to be very flexible with the min/max ISO. 

I'm still a massive fan of the image you can get with SLOG3, it's just a shame that it produces a bit of banding and noise in some shots. Love your use of the old lens as well, vintage lenses + these super sharp sensors are the best.

12 hours ago, Clément Boulanger said:

Yes, ok to always export in the highest quality. But it seemed weird to me to have in FC export settings 1920x1080 as the maximum size.

For me, if the stand-alone app supports 4K, it should suggest this size in export settings, without having to do it manually... It's why i'm wondering. 

If it helps, I don't recall Premiere having a 4K export option in the export presets. I always have to manually dial in the resolution, unless I'm missing something...