Geoff CB

1 minute ago, noone said:

Question from the clueless!

Is the A7siii 10 bit only in log (like the Canon R5 which is otherwise 8 bit 4:2:0 when not in C log) or is it 10 bit in standard picture profiles too? 

Does it make a difference anyway?

 

 

10-bit in all profiles.

5 hours ago, sev7en said:

It is what is stopping me to buy blinded eyes the S1R... it is enough some small wind to trash a shoot and we know... you haven't a second play.

It's really embarrassingly bad. I would rather use the AF on a NX1 or A7r Mark II

Image quality is excellent, but can only use MF 😞

Wish I could find a ACES transform for this camera. Some V-LOG shots manually graded. Lens was the Panasonic 24-105 F4

Also if anyone wants to know the H&Y Variable MRC HD ND+CPL Filter is what I used for these. It's excellent and color neutral, if a bit fiddly to use. 

I REALLY hope Panasonic steps up their AF game next time around.  

1 hour ago, sev7en said:

Dear for your information 😄

noooooooooooooooooooooo today I am going to see.... maybe (nooo) buy the S1R! 😛 

Really not interested in the S1R, limited record time, no 10-bit. Extra megapixels alone is no where near worth the extra expense.

Let's GOOOO

7 hours ago, IronFilm said:

Interesting, I hadn't yet read that the S1 IBIS beat out the Z6 IBIS
 

I only tried the S1 very briefly so far and I would say it is better Ibis than my Z6. Using adapted primes instead of native glass 

Sony seem hamstrung by the e mount in this regard. Don't have enough room to move the sensor as far. Seems to be the reason that the a7s3 has the advanced mode that crops in more to ignore the sides. I do hope more editors like resolve can take advantage of the gyro data, as I've seen great results from that.

16 minutes ago, PannySVHS said:

@QuickHitRecord great share and post! I was reading through this a few months ago and downloaded the film just to fancy myself buying this camera very soon. Now this beauty is waiting for a 5inch Blackmagic VA HD. Hopefully they show up for little money. So far no luck the last couple weeks on ebay. @IronFilm You just want me to buy a second one, you rascal. 🙂

Highly recommend a PIX-E5 or PIX-E7 if you can grab them, those recorders are tanks and can get 4:4:4. Or get the Atomos Ninja V with SDI adapter. 

1 hour ago, Parker said:

Were you disappointed with the photo AF results you were getting?

I have shot band photography in very dark, very low-light bars with the S1 and native 24-105 lens, pushing iso 12800 and beyond without a problem (mostly in eye-detect mode) and come away very impressed. 

No I've not had a chance to fully use it yet, borrowing it this week to give it a try.

Does anyone know if you can punch in when recording?

9 hours ago, thebrothersthre3 said:

Excited to see your results. 

Me too, initial v-log impressions were good. The lack of affordable lenses in the system (Thankfully sigma at least is giving cheaper 3rd party options) and the AF are the only thing keeping my wallet in my pocket. Not even really concerned about AF for video, I need it to be good enough for the occasional photo work in low light situations.

Held one of these for the first time yesterday. Love the setup and features and the IBIS seems even better that the Z6. Viewfinder is absolutely beautiful.  Hope the next iteration can improve AF. 

Will be testing out the video next week.

1 hour ago, Antoin e said:

Some grabs from a futur project, it was very hot outside, nearly 40°C outside for about 3 hours but no problem with the camera !

Those look great! Awesome setting.


Some from me, these are all Prores 422 LT

7 minutes ago, hoodlum said:

I do hope that Nikon can survive but the latest Q1 results look incredibly bad.  Revenue was down 63% while Canon dropped 30% during the same period.  Nikon's market share must be well below 20% now and Nikon is now forecasting a 5B restructuring expense for later this year to slash costs. based on this new norm.  This is going to hit R&D and the future product pipeline beyond this year.

https://nikonrumors.com/2020/08/06/nikon-q1-financial-results-are-out-2.aspx/

 

They need to open up their mount for cheap to Tamron and Sigma and get 10-bit video in the z6s.

There is no way they catch up if they rely just on their lens development alone.

5 hours ago, IronFilm said:

 

What "certain gear" have you seen more of?

 

Lenses, grip gear (Tripods) recorders  (There was no listings for the PIX-E recorders and now there is a bunch, even though the price on them has gone up) , GPU's . Those are the ones I've been looking at so outside of that I don't know. 

14 minutes ago, IronFilm said:

That's exactly what I mean! 
Feels like the prices are higher for some secondhand cameras than they used to. 

When I had expected the opposite, with people feeling the economic crunch and needing to sell off surplus gear meaning a flood of supply vs no demand for it (as everyone is penny pinching). 

Maybe this doomsday scenario for sellers will still happen, but it is another six months away. 

 

I think people might be downscaling. They are selling their expensive gear and then picking up cheaper cameras, hense the low end getting more expensive. 

Because while I've seen used gear get more expensive, I've also seen a lot more of certain gear than was on eBay before COVID

Or not, just a theory.

Sony F3 went up a lot because of those YouTube videos on it and probably some of my posts. Also drove up the price on recorders for it as well.

22 hours ago, Hayk said:

What you think Blackmagic Design will announce this year or late in 2021 a new full frame camera Blackmagic 6k Pro?

Considering their brand new high end camera is not full frame I doubt it will happen anytime soon. Probably 2023 at the earliest. 

51 minutes ago, Dustin said:

Can someone advise real quick on the differences between x-h1 and x-t3 for video after the firmware updates?

You don't get internal 10-bit or 4K 60p on the XH-1

2 hours ago, Dustin said:

Ha! Good to know! I think this was using color transform in resolve or a 1d lut slog 2 to rec709. Tried a couple different ways. My struggle was that I could pull the highlight info back but the shadows were too dark. Then I didn’t want to fool with masking. I’ll need to look into luminance mapping...I was eyeballing after conversion to pull the image down.

Also consider a ACES transform as well, still my favorite option with Sony Footage. 

This was only done with a ACES transform, Input Transform: Sony Slog2 (Daylight), Output Transform: Rec. 709. Did not touch any adjustments.  

Graded to Brighten it

17 hours ago, Dustin said:

So some thoughts...

1) This filter for $60 is excellent. The blue sky performance isn't bad at all compared to my previous genustech filter (nearly $200!) No X pattern thanks to the hard stops

1b) I will be returning this filter because it's just not strong enough for outdoor work. I have ordered the ND8 version which will be here in a couple days.

2) I suck at exposing slog2 but truthfully haven't used it that much over the years

Below is an image I grabbed really quickly this afternoon pulled out of resolve in a) slog2, b&c with a simple rec709 conversion and color correction to taste. Highlights are blown on the clouds because the ND wasn't strong enough but also the whole thing just looks way TOO dark.

3) I know from shooting film my Nikon e-series 28mm 2.8 vignettes pretty bad but with the viltrox speedbooster, it also vignettes. This image isn't soo bad but on some others, it gives off the horror look without intending to! Even my Sony 35mm 1.8 vignettes badly as well...

I've read the Sigma 16mm 1.4 doesn't vignette that bad but with the lack of an affordable, native zoom below an f4, I don't think I can continue with this Sony system on my low budget...Thoughts on the stills (minus the obvious missed highlights) are welcome. I don't believe I've ever posted actual work on here before..

 

 

 

 

You did not blow out the clouds. Clearly still there in the log image. How are you coverting to rec709? Just a LUT? Are you in resolve? If you are make sure to use lumanence mapping when doing the color space transform.

If you are in Premiere pull down the highlights and they should come back.

2 hours ago, Dustin said:

These are some good points! Good to know on the firmware update.

The only downside I can find to the Fuji i can find is probably ibis. Seems like their native primes at 16mm and 35mm are reasonably priced. 
 

Still wondering about GH5 but I’m sure I won’t be satisfied with the photo capability. I think I may pick up the x-T3. I also apparently live under a rock and didn’t realize the atomos ninja V can be had for $500 ish used. Would be a nice upgrade with a cage and top handle to shoot prores out the gate no? I’m not really a rig guy but didn’t realize it was that affordable. 
 

Is my San Disk extreme pro 95mbps 128gb card compatible with the higher codecs of this camera?

Depending on how extensively you plan on using the external recorder I would consider the Nikon Z6. Full Frame, Ibis, and far better battery. If your sticking mainly internally XT-3 is a better option. 

One thing to consider is the XT-3 is extremely annoying when your switching between photo/video as the settings are not separated. I tried it out, think I may switch away from Z6, and that drove me up the wall and I found I really missed the IBIS.

Also God do I hate the micro-HDMI on the XT-3. Can't use a monitor without a cage

1 hour ago, ajay said:

Both Undone and Bloom are the best IMO. I always look forward to their reviews. I did learn a few new tidbits from Bloom's review of the A7SIII that are important to my style of work (wildlife):

• Animal eye detect autofocus does not work in video (stills only). Philip has started a petition on this, here's the link if you want to sign this.
• Tracking autofocus does not work while using Clear Image Zoom.
• Tracking autofocus does not work while using an external monitor.
• Punch-in does not work (manual focus) while recording.
• Clear image zoom works to 1.5x.

Lot's of positives with the A7SIII but there are negatives too. I wish this camera had Canon's autofocus capabilities. With that stated, I'd much rather deal with these issues than a camera that can't recover from overheating until hours later, has line skipping in 120p 4k and humongous file sizes.

  ???? Tracking autofocus does work with an external monitor, in the video it shows that it even has the ability to control it from the external monitor. 

12 minutes ago, thebrothersthre3 said:

I am not seeing much noise difference in that comparison shot.

Watch it in the video, definitely a difference in motion. 

Crazy that I ended up in the video! (@7:22) 

Really enjoy his review, but tempered my expectations for the camera as there is still some annoyances that they could have solved. Headphone jack interrupting the monitor is something I know would drive me crazy. 

Time and more points of failure are the reason this is not done. It's pretty much the same reason 3D fell out of favor. 

+2 Cameras = More grip gear and power
+You have to sync the cameras
+The settings have to be exactly the same
+Your LENSES have to be exactly the same (AKA you need high end matched sets) 
+The cameras and Lenses have to be aligned properly and at the same focus.
+You have to pay an extra person on set to make sure all of that is working properly. 
+Good luck changing lenses fast!

It's useful on maybe landscapes and TV demo/stock footage and like you said VFX (Example being the incredible rig used on The Irishman, I wish someone had come up with before 3D died) but it's a nightmare for simple narrative. 

12 minutes ago, Dustin said:

Okay this is a long stream of consciousness type post so take it for what you will. I recently went down the lens rabbit hole and picked up a Samyang f2 for my Sony A6500. My intentions were to have a nice wide lens in my kit. My current kit consists of the following:

- Sony 35mm 1.8

- Nikon E Series Primes (28, 50, 100) with either a Viltrox speedbooster or dumb adapter 

I couldn’t get a satisfying image out of the Samyang to my liking. After two months of toying with it, I put it on eBay and that sold in one day. I now have $250 I can put towards the purchase of either a wide prime or zoom lens. I’m not wanting to jump the gun this time so I’m trying to do some research. 
 

I’m leaning towards picking up the Sigma 16mm 1.4 but I wonder if there is a zoom I could consider. I only hate that the Sigma 18-35 f1.8 isn’t native e mount. I miss the tamron 17-50 f2.8 I used to have with my Nikon. Autofocus in photo wasn’t great but it was so convenient to have this range, quite a shame the Sony version is so expensive (I’m sure it’s a nice piece of glass but I’m on a budget). So regarding the lens I really want to stay under $400-500 used and do want AF for photos. I think my options are probably

- Sigma 16mm 1.4

- Sony 18-105 F4

(I don’t think I want the Sony 10-18 f4)

Ive also had deep thoughts of swapping my entire setup (minus the Nikon primes that live with my Nikon FE2 film camera) for something else entirely. I figure used I could maybe get $1100 for the kit at $800 for the Sony body (with accessories), and another $300 for the Sony 35mm. I’ve seen the Fujifilm XT-3 used on eBay with a 17-50 equivalent 2.8-4 lens for around $1200 on the low side...Also have looked at maybe picking up a used GH5 but I don’t think I want to go micro 4/3 route. Also have toyed with a BMPCC4K used for that price but don’t think I can live without having a hybrid. (Still like taking photos every now and then). I guess the thoughts driving my upgrade is that I don’t have a ton invested in the system and would want to upgrade to a 10 bit codec. That said, I use EOSHD profiles on my camera and I’m usually pretty happy with the look even with all the Sony a6XXX hassles.

 I would get a zoom to compliment your primes and have a zoom option. 

If you can deal with the variable aperture the Sony E 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 is actually a better lens. 

2 hours ago, Danyyyel said:

That's the problem of listening to youtuber doing 15 minutes test of gear they don't know. On normal picture profile Nikon did a lot of sharpening that you can dial down. On the flat profile it is already down on default sharpness. Nikon is doing a full sensor readout, no crop, that is 6k from all the pixel on the z6, which gives you very good 4k video. Only in RAW output that it skips pixel to achieve 4k from its 6k sensor.

Yup. Z6 has an insanely high and accurate level of detail if you turn off sharpening. Like you said, it's people that don't know how to use the camera doing the tests. 

On 7/23/2020 at 1:07 PM, TheRenaissanceMan said:

Fabulous shots, Geoff! Those colors are TASTY. What was your lighting and grading process for these?

Slightly overexposed while shooting with fill from reflector. ACES grade, Secondary corrector to soften the skin tones and sharpened the reflection in the glasses. 

18 minutes ago, rawshooter said:

Where are Super 16 zooms cheap? They're not available as cheap photo camera zooms, and Super 16 cine zooms cost about $4000 second-hand.

??
Many Angenieux zooms can be had for below a grand. Compared to Super35 zooms with similar ranges that cost upwards of $10000 dollars.