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Mat Mayer

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Everything posted by Mat Mayer

  1. I adore my G7 for the ergonomics, weight and size. Ultra portable with a pancake, or I can stick on a bigger lens and it is still manageable for all day street shooting.
  2. This is interesting and I assume because the GH5 has a higher bitrate and whatnot. Because under exposing on my G7 tends to ruin video by introducing macro blocking.
  3. Mat Mayer

    Lenses

    Interesting story Jon. I found Saigon too hectic with people driving bikes on the sidewalk. We were only there a few days but it felt like it would only be a matter of time before I got injured and I have seen how bad it can be for foreigners in Asia if they dont have health insurance. Even then hospitals can be pretty bad if you get taken to a cheap local one. That happened to my wife. I would have paid for a nice one but wasn't with her so the Thais just took her to the nearest one, which was nasty compared to western standards. Have you not thought about Hoi An or Da Nang? I loved visiting Hoi An and may move there someday. Its nice for casual cycling and the weather was awesome in March, so I am guessing it is a good mix year round. I like touristy towns as they have western comforts. For example, I just had a burger so delicious and juicy it squirted juice out like a cherry tomato. Thanks to being in a touristy town in Thailand with an American restaurant. I think Manila put me off big cities.
  4. Mat Mayer

    Lenses

    It is certainly not a comprehensive list and it is one to be taken with a grain of salt. The ordering is strange and they leave certain lenses out for obviously lesser ones e.g. no PanaLeica 15mm but there is the Sigma 19mm. I think rather than an elite list of the best of the best, they have gone for a mixture to cover all types of shooters with all budgets. It has actually got me interested in the Panny 30mm which I have never thought about before, because it informed me it has stabilization. It was top 33 lenses recently so at least they are keeping it updated with ones like the 8-18. They probably don't have access to all lenses which isn't their fault.
  5. Mat Mayer

    Lenses

    I like how the £105 35-100 Panasonic kit lens is 8th. Above many amazing lenses I haven't had the chance to try yet. I love the 35-100 and would like to see it compared to the O75, S60 and O60 (someone is selling one of these around the corner for about £240 and it doubles as a macro lens). Will try and dig up some comparison photos. I dont use these focal lengths as much but would if they are better optically than my 35-100, they will certainly have better bokeh. Edit: just realised the O75 is 18th which is ridiculous as everyone seems to rate it as one of the best few M43 lenses. Only complaint is many people dont use it enough. Edit 2: according to the Imaging Resource samples the O75 is literally off their resolution chart and the corner sharpness is ridiculously good. The S60 is very good as expected, with it being known as one of the best M43 bargains. The O60 looks surprisingly average. The 35-100 is decent except for 50mm, something went wrong as it isnt that bad and they said their copy was decentered.
  6. This is an awesome idea. Found the PCSPECIALIST website and it seems ideal to build a laptop without having to actually put it together. Prices seem very reasonable to me on first glance. Unfortunately I probably left it too late, selling my MSI was a spur of the moment decision, so I need something someone has in stock nearby as I leave Tuesday. Might see if they can deliver Monday if I order tomorrow morning. Currently also looking at mini PC's, as I will be getting a monitor anyway and small ones can easily fit in luggage. Also the black HP Spectre x360, which is thin, fairly light and can be used in tablet mode, so it would replace all 3 of my devices (tablet, notebook and workstation laptop). I like to spend time looking so I get the best device and deal- will post the winner of best 4K portable computer when chosen. Might wait though because I checked Mac prices in Singapore and they are way cheaper than in the UK: for example £4,049.00 for the most expensive Mac Pro in UK and £3,409.57 in Singapore (approx 15% cheaper). Would rather steer clear of the c*nts at Apple though until I settle down and get an iMac. They leave people in the lurch all the time with their updates e.g. my spare monitor doesn't work with Macbook Air anymore and thousands have had the same problem for many years with no help from Apple. Microsoft make stupid decisions but I always find a way around them eventually. Edit: Found the perfect laptop: Dell XPS 15. 1TB SSD, 32GB RAM, 2GB 960M GPU, i7-6700HQ. Same screen size as my big MSI, but feels more like the size of a 13" Air. 4K touchscreen too.
  7. Proxies doesn't effect the rendering time right? It just makes the editing process smoother, yeah? Or have I assumed wrong? I usually only use a single simple clip, hence my avoidance of proxies as I dont need to scrub through much. I want a machine that will render faster and not constantly throttle/overheat the computer. Obviously a custom made poweful PC would be ideal but I am not settled in one place, otherwise I would make one or get the best iMac. My guess is the top of the range Macbook Pro from 2 years ago or so will be the best, most solid option for now, without being overpriced. But there are some nice looking ultrabooks mentioned above which I will check out before deciding. If the Surface Book did what it originally promised that would be my ideal as it would replace 3 devices- my workstation laptop, ultrabook and tablet.
  8. I am selling my rather large and heavy Windows laptop as I want something more portable. Any suggestions for something that can easily cope with 4K h.264 and h.265 on Premiere Pro? I don't want to use proxies. I am also selling my 2013 Macbook Air which I love as it is so light and thin. I am open to Windows or Mac. Anything available that fits the bill? Or is there something in the pipeline? I could wait a month or two. Thanks.
  9. I have just seen that Dolby replied to my question about what specs we need for Dolby Vision. I was asking if 4:2:2 on the GH5 would work... "Thanks for the question! We talked to some of the people who know the technology best, and the short answer is that lots of content can be color graded for Dolby Vision, but the best results often come from cameras capable of 4:4:4 capture." I know nothing about colour science, just putting this out there in case anyone else was wondering. I assume with the high bitrate that the GH5 will make the grade, especially with solid 10 bit V Log with the summer bitrate upgrade?
  10. Looking forward to trying it out with frost soon. I know this is a silly place to ask but I was told on here recently that putting my computer out in the cold would ruin it because of condensation. Is that the same with non weatherproof cameras like the G7? (and non weatherproof lenses)? If so is there anything we can do, like leave the camera in the garage overnight?
  11. They dont want to because they take more than 50% of the reveune from the ads which are pasted immediately on disputed videos. When the disputes fail they keep 100% of the ad revenue. Basically its a scam. It is their easiest source of income as they are getting all the money from ads. They have billions in the bank and have no reason to stop the scam until some lawyers get on their ass and they get some bad press.
  12. Sorry for not being clear. The only point that matters is that Youtube is full of spam and has a terrible system in place for protecting video creators. I do not use Youtube ads in videos and have no intention of ever doing so. I wanted to create a subscription channel which would offer long videos ad free, they take a long time to render so I would need a powerful PC. Just tried an Android ad blocker, doesn't work for Youtube, but will keep searching. I am a big MMA fan and there was an event last night, tonight and tomorrow. The number of ripped off interviews and fights is enormous. Half of the stuff I have been watching all day is stolen content with ads, so I have no qualms about blockings ads on pirated content. For reviews I just watch David Thorpe for a down to earth, simple, practical opinion from a guy who has been in the business forever (plus he just sticks to M43), and indepth reviews like Andrew does on this site. Plus look at the comparisson sites like Imaging Resource. Bloom blabbers on too much and makes promises he doesn't keep, whereas Thorpe gives me the jist in few minutes, then I known whether to come somewhere like this blog for some more in-depth opinion and samples. The Hong Kong guys are likeable but useless for reviews imo. I like their different stuff like getting someone like Bloom to use a barbie doll toy camera. That series is fun to watch and get some unique perspectives. Their reviews infuriate me as they are more concered with acting stupid. At least the top photographers using the worst cams in the world is a cool concept which forces them to show us some creativity.
  13. That video is one of the few that hasn't had a false copyright claim against it. I have won 100% of the 50-80 copyright disputes I have had to go through. I just wanted to contact someone at Youtube for reassurance that I won't have to go through all that again when I spend 5k or whatever it will cost on a PC that can blast out versions which can be monetized on a premium channel (I made one recently on my average laptop and it took 170 hours or something). We ruin our current videos with ad text to encourage paid downloads. So instead we are spending the money on SMART TV apps and will continue to use Youtube for free advertising. Their loss and it saves me a ridonculous amount of time and effort. So no reason to be bitter really
  14. Youtube has always been full of spam. At least for the past 8 years. There are bots set up to rank crappy slideshows for certain phrases, then affiliate links added. They don't seem to care about the duplicate content thing (stolen videos) either. Instead it is up to the maker e.g. Max to go and find all these stolen videos, then create copyright disputes. Youtube then automatically let Max monetize or remove the videos with their own bots. Humans are rarely involved so if Max is new to it and doesn't file the dispute correctly he may lose, plus there is a rather threatening warning that if you claim wrong your channel is at risk. Youtube has zero customer support. I managed to get an ignorant sentence from an unnamed customer services rep recently. You need to be earning them a lot of money otherwise they arent interested. Even though we have a video with 2.3 million views, no response regarding monetizing it. Vimeo support is excellent, its just a shame they fell so far behind. We have the number 1 type of video for a certain thing and a hundred more. Youtube has been great as a free advertising platform and free video hosting. But despite 4.5 million views on the channel they are not prepared to let me call, or email me to discuss making money with them with a premium channel. Its crazy, they must of lost massive amounts from us and now we want to go 50-50 on a premium subscription channel they don't care. So we have to make SMART TV apps instead and will continue using them for free promotion and hosting. Sorry my rant went a bit sideways there
  15. Just sync Drive to your PC. I use it just like any other folder for all documents and graphics. Everything I have is on Drive (except videos), its amazing because as soon as I make a document it can be seen and edited by someone on the other side of the world or I can grab my notebook and continue it or print it elsewhere. If on Windows you can add desktop icons. Plus you never have to press Save ever again.
  16. Use Wordpress and buy a theme which is almost exactly how you want it to be from Theme Forest. Only choose themes made in past year with at least 20 4.5 star overall reviews. Embedding videos is much easier and it will boost the video rankings on Vimeo or Youtube. Buy your domain name from internet.bs (avoid GoDaddy they will hammer you with unnecessary addons). Host it with Hostmonster if in US or Vidahost in UK. Cheapest package is fine. Actually the domain name may be free with the hosting. Use Tinypng to compress photos or the plugin SmushIt if you want to batch compress. There is also ImageOptim app on Macs for jpeg. Page speed is a big ranking factor for Google. Dont buy any spam links or it will get banned or penalised in Google. Join Google Analytics and Search Console to help get the pages indexed in Google, get advice and see visitor statistics. Join Google My Business Local if you want local clients or Brand if not. Make sure the category is right, then get a couple of reviews and it can be a short cut to the top with the Google Maps listings. This is my first post on here where I am an expert, usually feel like a noob.
  17. It goes red at 90. Just gonna get a cheap ultra thin, ultra quiet fan stand which doesn't have blue lights- most of them have blue lights for some reason. Peace of mind and even if it doesn't help render times apparently overheating is going to kill the laptop quicker, so theres that. When someone makes a computer that I dont need to make myself or spend £5k on I will upgrade. For now a £20 fan will be fine. Its for Vimeo so I can only upload so much on current plan anyway. Thanks all.
  18. 4K 4 hours H.265, a few effects. Quite hard to find reviews online which are impartial, they all have affiliate links in. Even the Amazon best sellers have lots of terrible reviews.
  19. It's down to 73 hours now so it has knocked about 6-7 hours off so far, room is 24 degrees though so will find a cooler one (radiator broken and I guess opening the window is just letting moisture in). Definitely buying one of those laptop coolers now.
  20. Jumped down to 79 hours now. That's proof enough for me. I expect it will continue to close the gap and maybe instead of original 85 it will be just 50.
  21. It seems to work, down from 86 to 84 hours now, in about an hour. The first 2 cores are still 90 and 89 but the other 2 cores are lower at 87/86 and 86/85 (they were both 89 before). The first core goes red at 90! every couple seconds, so I will assume that is throttling.
  22. Thanks for saving my laptop guys, humidity is at 98% so it would of been royally f-ed I've got a big fan. Downloaded Core Temp. And will give it a try.
  23. My laptop has been rendering a video for 70 hours and I am getting bored now, with 86 hours to go. Will it go faster if I pace it in a cold place? I am using Windows and Premiere Pro.
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