majoraxis

Tilt adjustable 1500 nit LCD... that's a nice improvement. I wonder what resolution the EVF is and if it is OLED? with the brighter tilt screen it's nice that it is optional and not built in to the product and price.

I think there is room between the USRA Mini Pro 4.6k G2 and the USRA Mini Pro 12k for an USRA Mini Pro 8k for $7,500 that is basically the USRA Mini 12k that restricts the resolution to a downsampled 8k image. This could also be upgradable for $3,500 to 12k including installing the 12k enabling board at a local Blackmagic dealer. I would like to see the Pocket 6k sensor with M4/3 mount in a Micro Cinema Camera body with SDI output and dual micro XLR microphone inputs for $2495. I would like to see a 6k global shutter sensor with M4/3 mount in a Micro Cinema Camera body with SDI output and dual micro XLR microphone inputs for $2995. I wold like to see a Pocket 6k with M4/3's mount for $1995. I assume there is very little research and development that is required to create this product variation. I would purchase any of the above 6k M4/3 configurations if and when available.

Thanks - interested in seeing how the rainbow flares from special coating look.

I tried the Crane 3 S Pro to see if I could get it to work the same as the DJI Ronan RS 2 Pro Combo but handle more weight for my manual focus vintage lenses. Unfortunately, the Crane 3 S Pro was not as easy to set up a the RS 2 Pro Combo. One of the function that I assume would just work was using it as a monitor and a controller at the same time. We the RS 2 it was all in one app - video monitor and gimbal controller. With the Crane 3 S Pro it was 2 apps, one for control and one for monitoring, so I could not figure out how to monitor the video through my iPhone while using the iPhone to move the gimbal remotely at the same time. I was also not able to figure out how to get the Crane 3 S Pro track subject from the video monitoring application. I have read that it can do subject tracking so it must be user error, the wrong firmware or I need the additional video receiver and remote control option. In either case, the RS 2 worked as expected and the Crane 3 S Pro did not so I am returning it. What was nice about the Crane 3 S Pro is that it has supper strong motors an extension arm to expanded it accommodate really large/heavy camera rigs. If I was doing all of my gimbal control from the gimbal then it would have been a different story as you can operation/move the gimbal from the joystick on the gimbal while monitoring video wirelessly and there are also the focus and zoom motors that are included with the Pro packag.. So for a single operator with a heavy camera rig that does all of the control from the gimbal, it could be an excellent tool. I also liked the built-in/ integrated rails to hold the focus and zoom motors. Botton line it was not for me, but it may be preferred to the RS 2 Pro Combo by others who need maximum weight handling. My minimum requirement for a gimbal to support creating a remote AI based auto focus system (to support the AFX sensor tracking a moving subject) is the gimbal's ability to send real-time video to a smart phone to allow the smart phone to process the video and send back gimbal control information to track the subject selected on the smart phone, and have the weight and size handling capacity to handle an appropriate camera, lens and focus motor. The DJI Ronan RS 2 Pro Combo does this as it can handle up to 10 LBS so running a Pocket 4k with an Panasonic autofocus lens with the AFX on the camera shoe should be within the weight handling capacity. The RS2 Pro combination may also handle manual lenses that are not too heavy, large or long with the Tilta focus motor attached.. The less expensive Ronan RSC 2 Pro Combo may also do similar tracking as it also transmits video, but with with 6.6. weigh limit and the smaller gimbal frame size, IMHO it is not worth the price difference to lose the weight and size handling. There are probably other options out. if you can think of any, please let me know. Thanks! Mark

@Caleb Genheimer Great idea! I am going to try a Crane 3 Pro gimbal for tracking, but I still need to check the tracking accuracy and speed with a heavy lens to see if it can keep up with the subject. The other nice thing about using a gimbal is being able to do the tracking control by moving the phone to manually to move the gimbal and track the subject by hands and eyes. So instead of focus pulling, it is focus pointing.

@BTM_Pix Thanks for making your system incredible flexible! This is fantastic news for people who own or plan to own more than one AFX and MMX. It reminds me of what Steve Jobs said when he first introduced the iphone... It's an auto focus distance sensor, it's lens motor driver, it's relational database, it's a Bluetooth Low Energy Multi Client/Server... It's all of these, but together it is a revolutionary autofocus tool kit where networked autofocus sensors can distribute autofocus distance information allowing you to co-locate two cameras, one as your autofocus subject tracking camera, one as your subject/scene framing camera. Whatever is in the center of your screen on this first camera can determine what is in focus on your second camera, that can have a completely different framing. Add a gimbal with subject tracking and you can have AI track your subject around the scene, then distribute the autofocus distance to the second camera, which can frame your subject/scene however you like, while your subject stays perfectly in focus. Perfect Framing with Perfect Autofocus = Revolution.

@KnightsFan Great question! Honestly, I don’t, but I switched the color profiles back and forth and P3 looked the best to me. It looked very similar to the default iMac color profile. I think the key is to bake the color space and the gamma settings into the resultant QuickTime file and set Resolve to Use Mac Display Color Profiles for Viewers I assume if you had your own calibrated color profile it should work just as well.

@kyeThanks for the information! I’m not applying and removing the LUT with the Display P3 work flow and the results match. For people on iMac with Resolve I would try the 3 steps listed above (without the LUT), as it is a no fuss workflow. That said, if you do try the 3 steps (to color consistency), please report back your experience to confirm or deny the validity of this workflow (for iMac users). Thanks!

When you export to a Quicktime file from Resolve, if what you see in the viewer in Resolve does not match what you see when you playback the resulting Quicktime file - check out the following article: (It's a long article, so I summarized what worked for my scenario below.) https://www.thepostprocess.com/2020/03/16/color-shift-fixes-from-davinci-resolve-to-mac-displays/ Here's the steps I followed for my 2017 iMac running 10.13.6 and Resolve 16.2.8: 1. In System Preferences->Displays->Color (Display profile:)->Display P3 2. In Resolve Preferences->General.“Use Mac Display Color Profiles for Viewers.” to grade through Apple’s P3 display profile. 3. In Resolve Delivery->Custom->Advanced Settings->Color Space Tag->rec.709, and Gamma Tag->rec.709. In my tests, it worked great.

I received a New Campaign Update from Indiegogo regarding the The AFX - Autofocus Adapter: "Holiday Greetings We would like to send our warmest regards to all of our backers for this holiday season and thank you for your support of the AFX. In terms of the project itself, we are pleased to report that we are starting to receive the scheduled production samples of the main AFX and MMX boards and accessories. It goes without saying that 2020 has been a challenging year and we wish you all a safer and more prosperous 2021." @BTM_Pix Happy Holidays! Great news that things are moving a long. I can't wait to receive my AFX and MMX early next year! Happy New Year! Mark

I think YouTube also will be a player. YouTube offers movies which you can watch for free with ads, some you can only rent and buy and some you can only buy. It's kind of like watching YouTube with all of the ads, but the content is a step up from a lot of the YouTube content and as you get to pick, and it is better than the movie of the week on Television. Stuff like Robcop, Mr. Mom... etc. I'm not saying movies should be watched with ads in middle but giving the choice I would much rather watch a movie on YouTube that is not on Netflix than I would watch other YouTube content. So if you are a movie maker and you don't mind ads playing in the middle of your movie there, may be a business case for releasing a low budget movie on YouTube, when I say release I mean with ads, rent or buy... I know it is blasphemy, but some my choose to release their movie on YouTube and that is fine by me.

Black Friday audio purchases: 1. DDMF Metaplugin https://ddmf.eu/metaplugin-chainer-vst-au-rtas-aax-wrapper/ allows you to over sample your entire audio processing chain inside Metaplugin for better bass response on compressors, limiters, clippers, and dynamic eq 2. FLATLINE - Mastering Clipper https://www.submissionaudio.com/products/flatline I run this before Voxengo Elephant Limiter to excellent effect providing clean loudness without losing bass or distorting the mid range as many Clipper and Limiters do. I run both inside DDMF Metaplugin over sampled 8x for best bass response. 3. Voxengo TEOTE Automatic Mastering Plugin https://www.voxengo.com/product/teote/ I purchase this a month ago but it is on sale for Black Friday. Excellent dynamic automatic eq that allows you to balance your mix and it constantly updates based on spectral content. A missing link in my mastering chain. Also has better bass when over sampled in DDMF Metaplugin. in general TEOTE help fill in the bass frequencies and would be excellent for post production. 4. DDMF Comprezzore https://ddmf.eu/comprezzore/ Compressor that can be used for mastering which allows you to plot your compression ratio curve so you can have a deeper amount of control than you normally would have over compression and it is pretty transparent. I use it as dynamic problem solver for mastering.

Hi, There are a few Free Black Friday Audio Plugins - Waves and Slate Digital that are worth getting while they are still available. Waves - CLA EchoSphere - Take a Lexicon 480 Plate Reverb and a Tape delay. Great for music vocals or try in for post an use a small rooms with little or no tape delay for ambience. https://www.waves.com/lpn/black-friday-2020/free-plugin Slate Digital - Fresh Air - high frequency enhance that mimics the dobly A stretching audio trick - add to vocal or voice over to add clarity and intelligibility. https://slatedigital.com/fresh-air/ Both free for a limit time, and time is almost up.

At an NAB I was working at a union worker threatened to knock one of my co-workers off a ladder because they were attempting to change a light bulb. They were told it was “union work” - probably considered it “electrical”. My co-work let them change the light bulb. Otherwise, I really enjoyed going to NAB. Got to see the raw output of a Genesis camera and asked why is the output so green and was told that’s what the sensor sees. I thought that doesn’t look so great - who’s gonna buy that - even if they are shooting a model a motorcycle - probably before monitors had built-in outs. Got to see Red launch the Red One after following it for months in HDforindies.com. Got to meet Rupert Neve at an AES one year and as an audio nerd that was a highlight. At the hight of the dot com boom the parties were crazy. Herbie Hancock playing jazz on a piano in the lounge of the Strat hotel over looking Vegas for private party for 30 people. All night open bar and wedding style buffet at the Rocket Nework launch party with BT doing the record release of his album Movement In Still Life album for 300 people in a small LA club. Black Eyed Peas doing a private concert at Hardrock Cafe for some audio industry folks and having Wil.i.am address the audience and say “I know you’re from company XYZ. But we’re the Black Eyed Peas - cone on, you got to make some noise.” it was a great time to work at and attend trade shows before the dot com bust.

I love trade shows because it provides a timeline for companies to announce, ship, and demonstrate products. I love trade show because I can meet the engineers behind products and often the owners of small companies and start or reinforce business relationships. I love trade shows because it is a time to network and gather with industry friends old and new. I love trade shows because anyone can blog about a cool new product that I might not otherwise be aware of. Large companies hate trade shows because they are an expensive budget line items that do not provide as much of a return on investment as compared to other marking activities. Large companies hate trade shows because they do not always naturally align with product cycles, which cause inefficiency in product realization, release schedules and product marketing or worse it may mean there is nothing new to show or announce. Large companies hate trade shows because they have a buy a booth that is large enough to compare with their competitors who also have to have to spend lot on a large booth to look equally well established and successful and also they have to sponsors different trade show related events, signage, panels, mixers etc. even more ways to get even more money from large companies who don't necessary want to be there in the first place. Small startup companies love trade shows because they can release/show a new product and make as much noise as a large company for a fraction of the cost. I understand why, if all of the large companies of an industry get together and collectively decide that they are not going to be the anchor tenets of a specific trade show, that they were, for many years forced to attend/sponsor and now they have an excuse (COVID) not to attend/sponsor and don't want to commit to attend in the future, why some of the trade shows I love and they hate are going to go away.

That's a nice combination. The 16gb 1TB is the sweet spot for me as well...

I purchased both the AFX and MMX and cables. The idea of having auto focus on my manual lenses is irresistible. and it is more than that... BTM_Pix is making real products to meet film makers needs and that is worth supporting!

Looks like I was wrong about using my iMac in target mode as a monitor. I just read "iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014) and later iMac models can’t be used as Target Display Mode displays." Bummer - looks like I need a new monitor for my new iMac when I purchase it.

As long time Mac user, I always felt like I was paying more for less. I paid $2600 for my 2017 iMac used in 2019 and that seemed like a good deal at the time. Now I can pay less for more. I can just buy a new one rather than hustling to find a good deal on Craigs List on a used one. Now it seems that I should try my the 5K retina display on my iMac in target mode as the monitor for a Mac Mini. I haven't tried it as I don't have the mac mini yet, but it seems like the best use of the old iMac at this point, if performance as a monitor is reasonable.

ASUS ProArt PA329C 32" 16:9 4K HDR IPS Display looks like it is a good monitor as well and it is 600 cd/m2 vs the ViewSonic VP3268-4K which is 350 cd/m². Not sure if the extra brightness make a big difference but wouldn't it help when displaying HDR content?

Looks like Apple could make an M1 “iPad” that could edit video with a touch screen interface. That would cool...

Great post - the more color control tools the better! I use Tint and Temp adjustments all the time. I have 3DLut creator but this seems like it will be better as it is Integrated. Also I would love to keyframe the mess if possible. Is that possible? Thanks!

@BTM_PixThis is great news! I will definitely purchase the additional new interface when available! Thanks offering this option, I really appreciate it!

First off, this is a great question, which I had not thought about from a cost benefit ratio. If the question was: would you purchase this camera to shoot a conference - I agree, it would not be my first choice. Regarding the technical benefits of using this camera for shooting a conference, The entire URSA mini pro line, due to b4 lens compatibility options, makes it a good choice for shooting a conference. If I were purchasing a Blackmagic camera on that basis alone, I would probably buy the URSA mini broadcast. if I owned a 12k and it was not being used on another higher paying job, I would adapt a b4 lens to it and shoot the conference. Seems like this would also be cool for shooting concerts or festivals, if shooing all day was a requirement, shooting at lower data rates may be just the ticket. (Pun intended.)

Delivering 4K in camera maybe a delivery requirement for some productions, so getting it right in is essential. Plus, there may be times when shooting an interview or an all day conference etc where you would want the highest quality at the lowest bit rate.