ade towell

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. 

Yep, I couldn't give a shit about 6k, just give me IBIS, flippy screen, better battery - the 30 minute limit removed, full size hdmi, and an easier 10 bit to edit would be icing on.the cake but I don't want anything that will push the price too high. The  XT3 is a great camera that just needs a few improvements, big difference to Canon who are finally coming out guns blazing after all the crap they've been serving up these last few years.
The R5 sounds like it will be a great camera too but at a much higher price with big heavy full frame lenses required. I much prefer the sleak svelte Fuji system

C'mon, R5 is not for you! ; ) You couldn't give a shit about 8K... LOL : -)

Yep, I couldn't give a shit about 6k, just give me IBIS, flippy screen, better battery - the 30 minute limit removed, full size hdmi, and an easier 10 bit to edit would be icing on.the cake but I don't want anything that will push the price too high. The  XT3 is a great camera that just needs a few improvements, big difference to Canon who are finally coming out guns blazing after all the crap they've been serving up these last few years.
The R5 sounds like it will be a great camera too but at a much higher price with big heavy full frame lenses required. I much prefer the sleak svelte Fuji system

Yep, I couldn't give a shit about 6k, just give me IBIS, flippy screen, better battery - the 30 minute limit removed, full size hdmi, and an easier 10 bit to edit would be icing on.the cake but I don't want anything that will push the price too high. The  XT3 is a great camera that just needs a few improvements, big difference to Canon who are finally coming out guns blazing after all the crap they've been serving up these last few years.
The R5 sounds like it will be a great camera too but at a much higher price with big heavy full frame lenses required. I much prefer the sleak svelte Fuji system

Yep, I couldn't give a shit about 6k, just give me IBIS, flippy screen, better battery - the 30 minute limit removed, full size hdmi, and an easier 10 bit to edit would be icing on.the cake but I don't want anything that will push the price too high. The  XT3 is a great camera that just needs a few improvements, big difference to Canon who are finally coming out guns blazing after all the crap they've been serving up these last few years.
The R5 sounds like it will be a great camera too but at a much higher price with big heavy full frame lenses required. I much prefer the sleak svelte Fuji system

That statement is not only ahistorical and incorrect, it’s downright disgusting.

Such a joke that the Parasite wasn’t nominated in this category.

make the screen flippable and cut the 30 minute limit too please

make the screen flippable and cut the 30 minute limit too please

fuji xt3 if you can stretch that far.
oh sorry didn't read the whole thread if you absolutely need IBIS then one of the Panasonics. Otherwise xt3 with I.S. lens is hard to beat

am curious why you need full frame - (and I think there is a bit of a crop anyway, 1.3ish?)

my serials are all pretty close. but I wouldn't worry to much about color. any difference, if there even is one, is going to be a minor shift that's easy to account for in post.
This is my first camera with IBIS and it takes getting used to. When using manual lenses you have to remember to set IBIS for the correct focal length and I've managed to bungle that a few times already. I also learned (the hard way a few months ago) that IBIS is not something you want to use with an 18mm lens. Ruined more than half of my footage. Now, what I'm liking about the IBIS is that it doesn't feel like stabilization (unless you screw up the settings). It almost feels like the type of handheld camerawork you get with a nice heavy 20lbs+ cinema camera rig.
Oh he was really happy with it. But he has a healthy approach to it. He sees it as a separate work of art and encouraged them to make it their own and to not feel beholden to make a straight adaptation. That being said, it's pretty damn faithful. Some shots are basically live-action recreations of his panels. I was surprised just how faithful they were.

Seems people like pairing their S1H with Leica-R lenses... and I'm one of them! I'm shooting a short doc on my brother about his comic book, "I Am Not Okay With This", as it's currently being adapted into a series for Netflix. This will be the second time he's had a comic book adapted into a series. The first was "The End of the F*cking World" which did well, however, he told me that people would see him signing copies of the original comic at cons, and accuse him of "ripping off the show". So this time, i wanted to help raise his profile a bit when "I Am Not Okay With This" is released, and it gives me something to flex my creative muscles on. Anyway, some sample stills... Panasonic S1H, Leica Summicron-R 35mm, 50mm, & 90mm. Not a final grade -- just wanted to get some images out.

I’m at home, got beer, kids asleep. Fancy some fun, wild speculation? 

Death of the Gimbal 
They will always have their place in high end TV and cinema, however for nearly everything else, I think we’ll see them replaced with insanely improved IBIS and a boat load of sorts gimbal-ish “fluid movement” remote type pistol grips. Every man and his dog will have them. 

Return of Canon 
With video rising to such a compulsory level, Canon will crack the cripple and deliver what we’ve all wanted for such a long, long time. Eventually. Or it’s 60fps Canon Log in exciting 720p. 
 
The Fall of RED
The Chinese will knock them out like a weapon in the nuts and force out a RED army of affordable cameras named after mystical creatures. 
 
RAW video everywhere 
Nearly every decent camera will have it internally within years. Masses of terribly noisy Vimeo videos to follow. 
 
Smartphone Domination
They will become “cinema grade” and will be the No.1 choice for Vloggers at least. Computational DOF, crazy AF, all sorts of crazy software. Completely trackable VFX filters. Boobs and penis’s on everything. 

Computational Focus and DOF
Already exists but will mature into an essential feature for most cameras for a very different post experience. “Fix it in post” said after every shot. 
 
Video AF
Will get so insane that only the high end will use manual. Us forum geeks will still be buying $20 f***d up Helios though ?

Video Essential 
It will become absolutely compulsory for every business and person and hamster and pig for everyday communication. Like the internet is now. Video will become the internet. And your very soul. 
 
and finally.....
Cameras and gear will be so commonly incredible but so second nature in operation , getting something technically correct will be as hard as passing wind after a curry. Even your 90 year old Grandma will be able to lock focus at f0.95 and orbit round her cat’s face in 10bit 8k. The tools will be so commonly reliable that they will hardly matter.
We’ll see an epidemic of terrible content with perfect focus and stability. Although this will unearth some under privileged gems, the little fishes will barely be seen in a sea of waste - unless it rises above it. 
 
As creators, we are not just fighting for quality. You will be fighting to the death for people’s time and attention. The “competition“ will be everyone and everything. 
Fun times.  
 
 

 

Some lovely stuff here from Filippo Chiesa
 

Some lovely stuff here from Filippo Chiesa
 

Good thorough review - interesting to see it copes considerably better than the Canon c500mk2 with dynamic range when pushing over and under exposure using internal Sony XAVC and Canon's XFAVC respectively. Wonder how the internal raw on the Canon compares?
Also the AF on the Sony seemed to kick in and track a lot earlier than on the Canon. Be good to see some more thorough testing between these 2 cameras

Believe me, I'm well aware that there's a strategy to manipulate the media, but can we agree that any and all assertions from the POTUS are rarely "little stuff"?
You know, I've heard that "not a big deal" "just a joke" argument as well.  My reply is that lies matter, regardless. I'll always think it's demonstrably detrimental to the nation.  Personal emotional truths are valued over factual evidence, and that doesn't lead to good places in a society that needs to be secular and inclusive to all its citizens. 
Now, you may disagree with that fundamental assertion of what the USA should be regarding evidential facts, and think my rationality is wrong from the start.  One of my friends in particular has realized we're somewhat at odds with this attitude, given his religious devotion, so we know our perspectives --we've learned to cope as best we can.
Nevertheless, hewing to some sort of ideals and reality is a thing that is important, especially in a person unable to hold onto evidential facts being the POTUS.  Petty lies matter or nothing does.  I'd also say, the whole "not a big deal, you shouldn't be so angry" shtick is an argumentative retreat I've hashed out with my friends too.  It's a dismissal and avoidance of criticism; ultimately a sort of "shoot the messenger."  
Maybe tolerating criticism is just something that's not as easily shared if you're a right-leaning personality?  It often seems that way in my experience. I mean, we had some fun arguments when Obama was POTUS, but I personally really never cared too much about allowing such criticisms.  To be fair, I also hang with some hard-core liberals that are annoyingly intolerable with their skewed attitudes about stuff.  Like nails on a chalkboard.  
So, yeah, the "angry" thing as a broad brush?  Not sure about that nor the fairness of the attitude.  Never mind that I'm...as my mom would often say... not angry (with my country or POTUS) I'm disappointed.
So, here's a good example of what I wrote.  The plain and simple fact is that the plant was initiated under the previous administration.  By your reasoning, Barrak Obama should be the one to take the credit. (and to be clear, I don't really believe the POTUS should take economic credit for everything)  Yet, DT did.  
His assertion is a lie, the extrapolation you've drawn from it is questionable ("some companies have changed direction" would like to see your notated examples on that, as I'm aware of companies that are doing more of the same they'd be doing otherwise, but now with stock buy backs, which can be easily argued that hurt the economy overall), but here you are offering him praise rather than skepticism.  Like I'm saying, either the facts matter or nothing does.
It's how DT can get away with "No Quid Pro Quo!" with his supporters even though that assertion is in direct conflict by openly admitted fact from those that run his administration.
This is what manipulation and propaganda looks like and it's not a small thing.

This was so needed. Teal and orange has been giving colorists nightmares throughout this presidency.

I am not American, and I think Trump says the strangest things. But, he is arguably the most successful US president of all time. I may not be a Trump fan, but I prefer him over both the Clintons, Obama and many others. Obama getting the Nobel for farting in his dreams was way more shady than anything else. EVER. 
The US has been heading for a financial collapse for the last few years (since the Dollar Store and Wallmark rise). Now China is literally taking away millions of US jobs and Fortune 500 is inundated with Chinese Companies. Apple would have been relegated to 4th or 5th position in smartphone sales, if the US wasnt doing all the shady stuff it is (to be fair, US Trade and IP Laws have been anything but fair since they were created). Also TikTok and other chinese tech startups are going to be displacing Twitter and Facebook (even though it doesn't do similar things to either) very soon. That's why Google is planning a TikTok ban soon (if it hadn't already). 
Europe and the US are heading for both economic and cultural collapse. The only question, I guess, is how quickly. 

Wading into politics in this heavily polarized & heated environment is a good way to lose half of your readership.

More like the silent majority. The ones that don't look like idiots when posting on forums/social media like the average Liberal does.  

Ah gotcha.

I'm not really directing this at you but just to anyone in general who isn't aware or wants to learn more, and I'm probably being a 'stickler for accuracy' here but obviously a sensor/camera has no inherent highlight rolloff as the sensor is linear (as close as practically possible with calibration) so highlight rolloff is mostly down to the dynamic range of the sensor, how the image is exposed and how the colourist chooses to roll off the highlights. All typical CMOS sensors will have "hard clipping" though, being linear capture devices.
I only say this because I see a few people mention 'highlight rolloff' as part of a log curve or colour science or something when in that respect it is just a by-product of the log curve optimising the dynamic range of the sensor in the container its being stored in. It's still assumed the user will create their own highlight rolloff in grading (I'm speaking just of RAW and log captures, not "profiles" or looks applied in camera intended for display on Rec.709 devices).

ARRI for example have a lot of stops above where they recommend middle grey be exposed for - due partly to their very large pixels and the large dynamic range they have - and when a log curve is calculated for mapping that dynamic range from middle grey to 940 (video white in 10bit where they map sensor saturation to in their log curves) you get a very flat curve at the top as it maps that range. When you flatten contrast that much it also appears to desaturate. I've seen some mention they believe ARRI purposely desaturate their highlights, but if they did that in processing before creating RAW files or LogC ProRes clips you wouldn't be able to inverse it correctly into linear for ACES workflows etc because processing like that is non-linear. They possibly do something like that for their LogC to Rec709 LUTs etc but people seem to attribute it to their LogC/RAW files too.

For our cameras we map sensor saturation at our "native ISO" to 940 also, but for ISO curve's above we go into "super whites" to make better use of the bit depth available especially since we deal so much with SDI output (10bit) and ProRes 422HQ is common for our customers (10bit also). ARRI says ProRes 444 (12bit) is the minimum for LogC because they don't use the full range available. We may change that in the future but the caveat would also be you would need to use 12bit for best results.
In theory you could expose a 10 stop camera/sensor so that you place middle grey at the second bottom stop, giving you 8 stops to create a very gentle highlight rolloff. You would just have VERY little range for the shadows. ?

So long story short, the question I would suggest people ask is 'what is the dynamic range like compared to other cameras' as that will really tell you what kind of highlight roll off YOU (the user) can create for your preference with how you like to expose given the amount of shadow information you like to retain, tolerance for noise, etc.

I finally released my last feature in streaming. It's now on Amazon's Prime Video here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZHRZ782
It's a Drama/vengance/thiller type
I little bit of history with this.
I started to shot this film in the end of 2013 (yes almost 7 years). It took almost 3 years in production. It was shot with a couple of Nikons DSLRs and Super 16mm film. Since it's first screening in the Mar Del Plata International Film Festival in 2016, the film was going around thru some festivals and other screenings. It finally got a theatrical release locally (Argentina) in march this year. It's preaty hard to get distribution to some "kind" of movies.
As you can see, this is a very looong process when you are a "newcomer" in the business, but you just to keep pushing.
I still have in plan try to reach some other platforms. Only time will tell.