Matt Holder

I am calling it now - if you need a laptop in the field and you are a Final Cut user the New Macbook air is the go to option. And represents great value for money. I STILL use my 2013 Macbook air for infield ingest, shot organisation and quick daily update edits. With Thunderbolt SSD connectivity it deals with and scrubs through 4 k video like butter. Pretty impressive for 8 year old technology. And it is so small i barely notice it on my load outs. Do not under estimate the value of a small light footprint in the field. Rendering is slow for any colour / fx edits which is why: The 2019 Imac does the heavy lifting at home - where 98% of my editing occurs - and absolutely kills it. I Think i will be visiting an apple store soon. Then again i can actually still work just fine on the road with my 2013 Macbook air...

Its funny because its true. B roll on youtube has become the tail wagging the dog. Solid acting on that piece by the way.

Wow - fantastic looking images - its hard to believe it was all shot at 1 focal length. I guess diopters (surely it doesn't focus that close without them?) and framing can achieve a lot. Do you have any feedback on working with the combo? The results are great. And on an old gh4 too! I like how you supported the camera more in this video with locked off frames or subtle handheld work.

Did someone take these guys dogs as hostages and force them to do this? They look terrified and awkward. I love panasonic and shoot gh5 daily - but this as a marketing effort is a bit tone deaf.

My first proper shoot with this adaptor. I am pretty damn happy with this adaptor for the price. It has its limitations but they are easily worked around. Gh5, voigtlander 25, slr magic compact 40 1.33

My first full run on the gimbal - yes it is hard to hold focus when moving on an anamorphic adapter!

A bit of run and gun at f2 and f2.8 at around 5 ft from the camera (mostly on Near setting)

Some more shooting action on this combo - this time covering Greyhound racing (these were extra shots on the side in between interviews and race intros which i was covering) - I can say that focusing at distance 5ft and out was reasonably straight forward. I was mostly at f2.8 and NORMAL setting for these shots.

Thought i would share some initial Focus test results with my first foray into anamorphic. I got the tape measure out and trialled some distance and f stop settings at the limits of wider apertures that might work. I used a zhiyun crane v2 on a gh5 to keep movements conttolled as it seems anas dont lend themselves well to handheld work. (unless you are trying to create tension) I am only finding my way with focusing 5 ft and further out seems pretty easy as you just focus through the NORMAL setting. It feels like i found some limits in the 2-5ft range using the NEAR setting. It feels like f1.7 ish might be useable at times (not in very close though) f 2.0 seemed ok from 3 ft and out. But as a newbie to anamorphic (but with 15 years of cinematography experience) there is a lot i am sure i dont know. It looks like the compact 40 MAY punch above its weight with sharpness relative to its cost. I hope this video helps others out there with this popular adapter.

looking good - i have been experimenting with the gh5s at high isos (3200 and 6400) and using the lights on dialled down settings - and you get great run time on set.- and as the lights run at lower power percentages they look a bit more diffused too. High iso performance changes the game in terms of overall gear footprint and set up times / practicalities. It would be interesting to hear your thoughts on high iso shooting and its subsequent effect on lighting requirements.

Panasonic NATIVE LENSES MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE!!! - The Panasonic 12-35, 12-60 and 35-100 have worked really nicely with AF since the previous firmware update - I use them on paid shoots in AF when i have a tricky focus (like a slider / dolly push into an object) - it looks like the latest update is even better. I have the Oly 7-14 (I love it's field of view for real estate) and DO NOT use the AF with that (luckily its not a fly by wire focus system) as OLYMPUS and Pana firmware dont seem to communicate that well. Its AF is dodgy as - so I would strongly recommend you try this test with a panasonic lens - I think you will be impressed.

TAKE ONLINE VIDEO REVIEWS WITH A GRAIN OF SALT... These guys compare the DR of a GH5 and BMPCC by having one camera pointing into a flare (the Gh5) while the other one sits in the shadow (the BM) the hilarity begins at 9.42s - you can clearly see by the parallax of the window frame and the flowers that the gh5 is in a different position. https://youtu.be/bTFlmcDu5bg This issue is more illustrative of the "tell me what camera to buy" culture and the noise, be first culture that prevails at the moment. 49 000 views, a ton of comments about grades, vlog , skin tones AND NO ONE PICKED THIS UP. Andrew Reid of EOSHD is all across this problem too - and he is dead right. And that is why you have to use your own skills to determine what is right for you... (For the record I like both cameras)

I have looked at the sample videos - and Casey's stuff. IN NO WAY DOES THIS COME CLOSE TO THE RESULTS FROM A GIMBAL!!! It is pretty impressive stabilisation for sure. But to say it replaces a gimbal is very misleading - the stability approaches perhaps 60% of what a gimbal gives you. (which is impressive - but they are over stating the results) Having said all of that- I am tempted to get one.

their auto exposure casues shimmer and flickering - you have to disable it - I was watching an episode of Chefs table on Netflix and they used some beautifully framed video of a Temple in South Korea - BUT they forgot to turn of auto exposure - which meant that treees had this weird shimmer going on in them. Shots were awesome otherwise.

Now THAT was a smoking reel! I felt transported to another place - great art direction, variety and dynamic pacing in the edit. A tip of the hat to you sir. Cameras be damned! That could have been shot on anything half decent (except maybe the super slow motion) - the lighting and concept design trumped everything else. As it always does.

Drones are becoming like tripods - its expected that you have one. However... when everyone is doing something its important to pivot. For example - Gimbals - got one, love it - but 90 % of the time my edelkrone slide has more impact and use in the edit. Its more precise but also has a different look to what everyone else is doing. Same with Drones - apart from my industrial progress shoot clients I generally only use them as a real quick intro and outro shot - and the shot has lost so much of its impact due to oversaturation of drone footage from everywhere. Maybe its time to go back to static shots? The great news in all of this gear chasing - STORY and engagement are King (as they have always been) - dont expect clients or audiences to be wowwed by your drone footage anymore (like they were back in 2014) - its just another angle now and the edit had better have a reason to use it. Having said all of that - motion is great for creating 3 dimensionality in shots - and there are great opportunitites to use this for 3d motion capture to embed shots into your flying camera footage.

im interested in the voigtlander 10.5 too (which gets even wider on the gh5s with the reduced crop factor) - its a lens that is surprisingly un loved on line though. Right now I use the Olympus 7-14 and its great - but it has to be locked down - even on the gh5 / Gx85 the IS does not play well with the super wide angle - i think IBIS and super wide angles dont play well as the lenses are actually really sensitive to making small moves look big (i know its counter intuitive) - the sweet spot for wides on IBIS seems to be around 12-15 mm

Voigtlander 25 is worth a look... I had a voigtlander 85 in my hands the other day - both lenses should look pretty "full framey"

Canon 70-200 is 2.8 on a focal reducer is an absolute cracker - if your content leans towards tighter shots or shooting from further away

The major improvement i noticed - based on footage put up is that high light roll off was much improved going from GH5 to Gh5s. But you never know if the person shooting was protecting their highlights or not. I love the gh5 and use it daily for commercial work - the only criticism i have is that you have to be really careful with highlight protection. But The Gh5 is simple an incredible set up when you know how to use it well.

In my field in Australia there are a ton of businesses that have communication goals - that they cant do themselves. Thats where a skilled photographer and or Video producer comes in. Its a genuine need / problem that they need solved. They dont have the time , skills or time to do it themselves. Sure things like Freelanced.com are an insult with their rates - but they soak up the lower end of the market / the self entitled business owners who think they deserve a great video shot and edited for $50. Maybe its a good platform to provide new entrants with work while educating the cheaper end of the market about false value. In the meantime there is everyone else - that you can create a great image is a given. If you can solve your customers challenges faster and easier than they thought possible with great FOCUSED production value (stills or video) and maybe even throw in some good strategy in pre production - then you will remain busy. If you are the guy hiding behind your camera and not doing the business hustle then chances are things will be slow.... Social media is very overhyped for gaining imaging business -(but it delivers the product well) traditional face to face networking, thinking ahead - shooting proactively for potential / related customers , canvassing all the strategic ways video / stills / visual communication investment can pay off via solved sales challenges, in house communication, recruiting, customer education. Collaborating with a few other good operators so you can scale up and scale down for work. These are some of the tricks to staying busy. Just being an image maker probably isn't quite enough.

Dont be afraid of a simple steadicam as well - a lot less hassle once you get it set up (i use both)

Nominated 14 times - finally got one in the bag! Congrats Rog! (not that you needed this kind of validation - your and your crews work speaks for itself)

Here is some insight to 30% of what I do - event coverage. I also shoot corporates, real estate and weddings (I strictly limit myself to 3 or 4 a year)

I threw together a few A and B samples - First shot in sequence is non lut, the next is the same shot with the EOSHD Pro colour lut applied keep your eye on anything white or bright in the first version (windows, lights, concrete) - There just seems to be some real mojo going on to improve the " contrast flow " - without highlights / whites suddenly falling off a cliff. Its the only characteristic of the GH5 I dont love - but the Gh5 Procolour lut seems to solve it.