ade towell

I recently started a web series about Quarantine Life and shoot it mostly on the Panasonic S1H (some shot on the EOS R). Thought you'd like to see some real world footage of the S1H and maybe have a laugh as well. Like most of you, I had almost all of my work for 3-months canceled, so this is based on a very true story.
 

I'm hoping the Sony announcement is for the fx6. That camera intrigues me more, and if it keeps the colour science and AF from the fx9 and prices itself under £5k it could be a winner 

I'm hoping the Sony announcement is for the fx6. That camera intrigues me more, and if it keeps the colour science and AF from the fx9 and prices itself under £5k it could be a winner 

Wonder if he'll self isolate in the fridge again

Wonder if he'll self isolate in the fridge again

New Yorker is a Left Biased magazine, you can not expect objectiveness from a media like that, obviously nobody except Left Biased people will believe on it.
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/new-yorker/

Don't worry, not all of us 'mericans are drinking the oddly orange colored Kool Aid currently being served up by the Cheeto in Chief, along with his usual sides of confusion, baseless self-aggrandizement, ruthless politicizing and swindling the gullible. But those who are drinking it... well you've read the results of that right here.

There is always some dumb mf that has to make a global calamity into some political shit throwing contest. So. Sick. Of. It.

Lol, you seriously believe this?  The only country? You americans trully live in another world.
Your president just had dinner with an infected minister from Brazil. Good luck.

Yeah right ! 
Louis Pasteur, Edward Jenner, Hiro & Tasaka, Von Behring, Shibasaburo Kitasato, Albert Calmette, Camille Guerin, Charles Nicolle, Vieusseux, Guy Henry Faget, Jules Bordet,  Octave Gengou, Michiaki Takahashi... those good ol' Yankees from Merica !

Trump has golf courses in the UK and US, doesn't want to lose business...

Trump has golf courses in the UK and US, doesn't want to lose business...

Yes eleison I'm not really sure what point you are actually making and to be honest lost interest a long time ago. You say technology waits for no man etc... and as anonim has pointed out, the cutting edge comes to m43 a long time before it does full frame - we're still waiting for that to catch up with much of what the gh5 has been offering for years. And you also say let's wait for the unicorn that is the A7s3 and lets not go chasing the latest and greatest. Am confused...
Anyway always excited to see where a possible gh6 could push what's possible for mirrorless video, Panasonic are always trying to provide the best they can as opposed to Sony's recent regurgitation of 8 bit overheating jello vision

I work (and have worked) in multiple rental houses that have rented to all types of productions. Easyrigs get rented a lot, but mostly to commercials and branded content. They work great for getting that spontaneous, free-floating handheld look, shot-from-the-hip style that's prevalent now in ads, both on TV and stuff that get's aired on Youtube. It's also great for documentary work, since it allows to hold the camera for much longer periods of time. 20, 30, 40 minute handheld takes become much easier with an Easyrig.
For actual dramatic, narrative material, easyrigs are used much less. Dramatic cinematography relies on the ability to control your frame and land precisely on marks. This is really hard to do with an Easyrig because it tends to swing the camera when you turn. Also, extended handheld tracking shots are impossible because when you walk with an Easyrig, the motion from your hips gets transmitted through the arm and is visible in the footage. There is a use for the Easyrig for helping with low-angle handheld shots with really heavy rigs (such as Alexa 65, or Venice with certain anamorphic lenses), but the standard in handheld cinematography is a well-balanced camera on the shoulder and a pair of strong hands either holding grips, or the mattebox.

Sometimes it helps to comment on or discuss the content you introduce. Using the forum as a repository for videos which you have found (and, let’s be honest, others could find too) doesn’t develop a topic. Even providing something as simple as a justification of why you selected those particular videos would be interesting. 
Just my observation.

Even though many of these videos are helpful and I'd miss them if it weren't for you @Emanuel, I'm with @Snowfun on this one.
It almost feels like I opened YouTube and was greeted by my 'Recommended' section.
Some videos there are on point, some are random, some cover the same topic again and again. And how do I know, which are worth my time?
One could spend his whole life browsing through what YouTube offers us.
It's not that I don't appreciate your contribution - I really do. You keep quite a few threads afloat and try to arouse some discussion and that's awesome.
But if I could ask for only one thing, this would be some sort of a short commentary. What can we expect in the video, what did you find helpful / interesting, why did you choose to share it in the first place.
No need to be defensive (at least that's what I felt reading your post above), since nobody here tries to attack / offend you in any way.
Cheers!

Oh that's easy. There is a spray you can get that swimmers use for inside their goggles.
Anyway, she's doing it wrong because she needs a canary in there.
If the canary falls off it's perch, basically you are fucked.

Yes eleison I'm not really sure what point you are actually making and to be honest lost interest a long time ago. You say technology waits for no man etc... and as anonim has pointed out, the cutting edge comes to m43 a long time before it does full frame - we're still waiting for that to catch up with much of what the gh5 has been offering for years. And you also say let's wait for the unicorn that is the A7s3 and lets not go chasing the latest and greatest. Am confused...
Anyway always excited to see where a possible gh6 could push what's possible for mirrorless video, Panasonic are always trying to provide the best they can as opposed to Sony's recent regurgitation of 8 bit overheating jello vision

But as far as I notice, cutting edge technology nowadays in respective field (and market) is always coming  first to m43 format and just with delaying time (not so non significant) to FF? Aren't you quite obviously in a proper or best topic - so not by chance - for such quoted preference - because of well founded expectation that GH6 will be first camera from some future best technology offer? Or, in another words - it seems to me that exactly weighting leading technology as particular aspect of interest, in last decade m43 is The system that regularly leads in that sphere and has to be in special favor for such primarily preference. That's why we are in GH6 topic, expecting that it will be the again the first with some combination (not just one isolated spec) of new technology offer with higher level of usability?
(And btw, just because of mentioning of usage of vinyl recording as retro in the same time with cutting edge quality - in term of high(est)end quality (that was idea of quoting), vinyl recording is not surpassed with digital (at least at classic music field that I was sometimes called to judge)... Unfortunately I have no similar opportunity and experience with highest quality film based camera vs digital to suggest if it could be the same case, at least in some spec.
Imho there are some limit in creative art that solely technology can reach because of nature of human perception, and after that limit it becomes obtrusive and need self-establishing propagandist ideology to be really accepted.
At the end of the day there's no modern manufacturer that can approach near close to quality of Stradivarius or Guarneri violins. Even Steinway's pianos have been perfected about 15-20 years ago (to the last little drop, but actually much earlier) and there's no necessity nor expecting regarding further developing  without impossible destroying innate human audio perception. So, as far as I can see, we are in the middle of trend of serious democratizing creative opportunity, and it is at least one reason to feel privilege to leave today and to read such greatly elaborate research contributions as Kye's - that discussed how close we are in approaching natural perceptive limit for truly artistic usage - in topic about 3000e cameras.

Except that camera is unwieldy and heavy and just has a terrrrrible design. The C100 series (and C200 and C500 II) are just way better designed. 
 
if Canon wants to keep rolling, they need to be OK with cannibalizing the C300 II, a camera that was way under specced at its release 5 years ago. 
 
With all the competition and a new RF Mount with amazing lenses they want to sell, would be real dumb to protect the C300 at this point. 

A C100 mk2 would be great but would love it to have 10 bit rather than just the 8 bit that is in the C200. Have been spoilt maybe by the GH5 and XT3 and would feel 8 bit is a backward step in 2020. It would allow for better use of the different c-logs

A C100 mk2 would be great but would love it to have 10 bit rather than just the 8 bit that is in the C200. Have been spoilt maybe by the GH5 and XT3 and would feel 8 bit is a backward step in 2020. It would allow for better use of the different c-logs

Car chases are always exciting, but this scene just looks rediculous. Huge props to the camera team, but have been a highly stressful situation for the guy in the passenger seat.
 
 

Since the XT3 and XT4 are so good, they should just go all out with the X-H2 and make it first and foremost a video camera. Make it an XC-15 style camera (or a smaller C100), with modular XLR adapter,  internal NDs, all the video codecs, timecode, etc etc - plus the things people don't believe belong in a cinema camera - like IBIS. 
Go right up against the lower end ($2,500 - $4,000) cinema lineup that Sony, Canon, and Panasonic have abandoned (other than the S1H, which is still a hybrid mirrorless photo camera). 
Finally give the X-Mount a reason for their beautiful X-Mount cinema zooms and great mini primes. Make the ultimate doc/journalist/one-man-band camera. 

First I'd like to say that I appreciate that the Lenses sticky thread is now it's own Sub-Forum. It really allows members to post more specific topics and it allows readers to ignore topics that may not be useful for them.
With that said, @noone had a great idea creating a topic with one of his favorite lenses... so I figured I'd follow suit with one of my favorite lenses...
Nikkor 35mm 1.4 ai-s
As I started writing this brief, real world review, I realized that this lens represents a larger story of me as a filmmaker as it chronicles the highs and lows of my life since I started shooting my film...
So what started as a brief review morphed into a much longer story. If you don't have the time or inclination, stop now.
For those that are still interested... here we go...
I love fast, wide angle lenses. They offer shallow depth of field while allowing you to get close to your subject. And a fast 35mm straddles a wide angle FOV and a normal FOV making it almost the perfect full frame, focal length for my style of filmmaking.
This is my second copy of this lens and truth be told... I've almost sold this lens a half a dozen times over the past year.
My first copy I bought when I started shooting my film. I had a simple game plan... the Canon 24-70mm f/4 IS lens for daylight and the Nikkor for lowlight.
Here are a couple frames from the first shots I took with the lens for my film.


For some reason I decided to go a different route for my lowlight shots and bought a Canon 35mm f/2 IS lens. In most ways, the Canon is a better lens, but it lacks the charm of the Nikkor even if it did match my zoom a little better.
At the time, my film was moving along at a steady pace, so I decided to keep the Nikkor for a different, upcoming film...
Well...
Life had a different plan, like it often does, and some unforeseen medical issues in my family slowed production to a near grinding halt. With those medical issues came some unforeseen financial issues and I was forced to sell a bunch of lenses. For a brief time I thought I'd be forced to sell my camera as well, but I luckily made it work.
Before I sold the Nikkor, I decided to take it out for a final spin. Here are a couple frames from that last day with the lens...


By this time, I was also forced to sell my Canon zoom and my Canon 35mm f/2. Over the next 6 months I raided my closet to test any and every lens I had that could work for my film. Luckily, during that time, I found a Canon 28mm 1.8 listed on eBay "For Parts" for peanuts. Needless to say, I won the auction and found another one of my favorite lenses born from need.
For the next 6-8 months, the Canon 28mm 1.8 lens became the only lens I used to shoot my film and at the time, I couldn't be happier with the results. But I still missed my Canon zoom and my Nikkor 35mm 1.4.
Last year, I came into a little extra money and immediately sought another copy of the Nikkor and after a few weeks, I found one.
With the extra money in my account, I took the opportunity to test a bunch of lenses I couldn't otherwise afford but always wanted to try. I tested some beautiful lenses but being a hobbyist, I needed to contain my obsession and build a couple logical lens sets.
I used the end of my sporadic shooting days to test a lens. My method was simple, use my main actor as a model in the same locations I was shooting my film.
Here are a few frames from those tests...




After hours of deliberation and footage, I finally realized that I don't change lenses that often and I grew to like the idea of a single POV, from a single lens, as if the lens' FOV represents an invisible narrator's eye. I used my feet to zoom and put together a simple rig consisting of a closed monopod with a tilt head and a tape measure pouch clipped onto my belt. The bottom of the monopod fits snuggly inside the tape measure pouch giving me a stable image with a handheld-like flexibility.
During these tests, I realized that I had way too many lenses and could easily shoot a short film a month, for well over a year, and never reuse the same lens...
What was I thinking?! I am just a hobbyist with no delusions that I will make the next great indie film. 
This was getting out of hand.
So I set up a final round of testing and narrowed down my keepers to a grand total of 5 lenses with the only "set" consisting of my Canon FD 50mm 1.2 L and my Canon 28mm 1.8.
At the time, I even contemplated selling the Nikkor 35mm 1.4 one more time to keep with my minimalistic utilitarian approach.
 But after some careful thought, and some good advice from some other EOSHD members, I decided to keep it. Although I was still unsure if I needed the lens, after a recent go at some of the footage with my mediocre color skills and my crappy monitor, I came up with these frames from one of my test shots...


Although, I realize that none of these shots are particularly spectacular, but each one represents something I like about cinematography and tells a story about my life over the past 3 years.
Sometimes the gear we buy is more than just tools for the stories we tell... they become part of the story... part of the journey. Maybe I am being too sentimental but when I look at these perfectly imperfect images taken with a perfectly imperfect lens, I remember the moments that brought me from then to now and what I learned during that process...
This lens taught me that my equipment is better than I am. I learned that I don't have to shoot everything wide open and that I probably shouldn't if I ever want to pull focus on an actor walking. I learned that some lenses have a vintage look when wide open, but when stopped down can look crisp and modern. But most importantly, I learned that I need very little to make a movie and gear is the least important.
If you're interested in a more technical review, I recommend Ken Rockwell's review of the lens. He gets into the nitty gritty of the characteristics of the lens. I feel he's a little too hard on the lens but everything he writes is dead on accurate...
https://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/35f14ais.htm
For me, I can sum it up in one paragraph...
The Nikkor 35mm 1.4 ai-s lens has a warmer tone and when shot wide open, the images are dreamy, a little soft with a ton of coma on the edges. Stop it down to f/2 and it cleans up a little. By f/2.8 it's like you're using a different lens and that lens is as sharp as a knife. It's like having two lenses in one with both being sharp enough with a bunch of character.
So there you have it... thanks for reading.