agolex

Just got this camera and so far i am in love! did some filming of a police helicopter searching in the park close by here in Oslo, Norway. And the camera handles motion perfect! almost no rolling shutter! insanely good  
 
Here is a 4K video i shot on Auto downscaled to full hd : https://vimeo.com/133804417
- There was not much time to grab a tripod or anything, so this pretty much all handheld on auto, and no grading.
 
 

But Andrew, it's a CANON!

Nah, it should just be regulated properly. But not in a sense that it would be exclusive to companies that have invested tens of thousands to become a legit aerial business, keep logs, have a company specific operator's manual, and so on.
Here's my take on it. I mean. Take roads. Is it exclusive to logistic companies and their trucks? Or public transport with bus drivers? Nope. There's your average Joe commuting to work with his own private car too. And Janine who goes out for some grocery shopping. Mark doesn't like cars, he does like nice weather and motorbikes, it happens to be nice weather and so he takes his Harley out for a spin. Regular folks in control of vehicles that are quite possibly killing machines!
But you know what? You can't just (atleast legally) decide from one day to the next 'you know what, I think I am capable of driving a car, how hard can it be?', then buy a piece of junk car for next to nothing and with zero skills and knowledge then wreck it, not only possibly hurting yourself, but others and also properties. That's what is the problem now. People think it's a toy and good fun. They're not capable, they're not being responsible. But we need them to be! So... people are going to have to prove themselves proficient. You're going to have to earn it. So I'm for a system where you could go and get your drone license, much like a driver's license. You need to take a test to prove you got the theory down, you have to know the rules. You have to get some hours of practice under supervision and pass a practical examination. You do all that and you might end up getting a drone license! Yay!
Now. Having a license is one thing. Being allowed to put it to use is a second. Since you've studied the rules, you know you can't just fly anywhere. So this is where stuff needs to get regulated and a punitive system has to be put in place much like participating in road traffic... mild fines for speeding, going through red, that kinda thing. Then there's getting your license revoked, or even your vehicle impounded if you pull off some really stupid and irresponsible shit. Yeah, depending on severity even jailtime! Don't want that? Follow the friggin' rules. Avoid temporary no-drone zones, stay out of restricted areas, regard safety, privacy and all that. Then you need to inform local authorities on short (but not that short) notice about your activities and how they can get in contact with you. Just like a car, you need to be insured. All that stuff!
Hey, like that, it's still for everybody... but not for everybody. Anyways. That's my take on things.

A music video that I directed for my band T-Slam.
We're about to play a big concert with the Israeli Symphony Orchestra of Rishon, so we decided to have fun with the classical theme.
Shot with the GH4, Natural profile, Helios 44-2 with a poor man's Speedbooster and a Lumix 12-35mm/f2.8 lens.
Edited with FCPX 10.2
 

As an American I can tell you we fret about many trivial things and are lax regarding the profound, but there are indeed idiots that fly these things without much consideration.  They are dangerous in a way, but I feel this is more newsworthy as an item of media paranoia than a serious peril to anything.
Keep in mind this sort of thing is a way for politicians to "get tough" on a perceived ambitious threat --that, oh by the way, just so happens to be an industry that doesn't have any lobbyist dollars to tell them otherwise...or any type of social traction.  It's a soft target.  That's the pragmatic political reason these quads are destined to be regulated drastically.
If for some reason the nomenclature for these things was "Remote Controlled Model Helicopters" or "RCMH's" rather than the loaded word "Drones" I doubt this would even be much of a public interest story, to be honest.  

The Ministry of Aerial Muggle Affairs

The Ministry of Aerial Muggle Affairs

20% Off, DJI Ronin M, Ronin
Effective Period:2015-07-21
Times : 1
CODE: 5HALV48D

20% Off, DJI Ronin M, Ronin
Effective Period:2015-07-21
Times : 1
CODE: 679RZHWX

Hello everyone! I'm a french film school student (however we don't practice often it's just mainly theoretical courses and film analysis) and we had recently to create a short fiction (we were to do around 7 shots). We had the plan with my teammate to explore an old abandoned coal washing facility and decided to make something with it, so here it is!
Sound is important so play it loud
Now some explanation. I don't have a lot of money, and our school doesn't have any gear to loan, so we made it a 0$ budget short ahah (well the only thing we paid for was the gas mask). For the prep we had only a few days, so we thought of a story, and we only did the storyboard for the first half of the short (until he enters the factory), as we didn't know what it looked like inside, and we had to improvise on set. It was really run'n'gunning as we only had 9h on location, and some shots are quite rushed...
I shot it with a sony a6000 in AVCHD, with for the most part in exterior the sony 18-105G F4, then in interior the Sony 35mm F1.8 OSS and a Leica Summicron 90mm F2 (pre-asph, which I found in my dad's old camera gear).
For the lighting setup we used an outdoor LED floodlight (which is what the actor is holding inside the factory) and a 200*160 5in1 reflector to bounce some light back.
I edited everything and made the soundtrack on Sony Vegas, then graded everything on DaVinci Resolve Lite.
I'm kinda in a love-hate relationship with it haha, during the edit and post-prod there was some moment I just wanted to delete everything, and I was noticing every little mistake or imperfections, but considering the time limitation, budget the result is fairly ok, and initial feedback was good so I wanted to share it more with people working in this field!
I'd love any advice or feedback from you!

Wanted to test the new SLR Magic 50mm Hyperprime Cine Lens alongside their 25mm, and last night provided a unique opportunity to get some great clips.
Panasonic GH4 (Natural Profile, ISO 800)
SLR Magic 50mm T/.95 & 25mm T/.95
Recorded in 4k on an Odyssey 7Q+
 


 

If you're talking video, maybe the Canons weren't sharp enough to notice?

Different people, different decision making, eh. I'd never follow any guide on what to purchase, but there sure is lots of people who do, especially many of the more academically minded. As always, we're just patting shoulders or bashing skulls, so let's keep going.

Well, most reviews are just part of the marketing machine and I don't see a way of changing that. Nice write-up anyhow!

Damn revisiting this all - I need to take a fricking break from online forums. 
Sorry guys for all this.
I am putting myself on a self-imposed camera board ban of 6 months starting now.

Got the Samyang/Rokinon/Walimex/Whatnot 100 2.8 Macro, really sweet lens. Tried a bit of video too with the spider, but it's really hard to keep focus in macro range. Thinking about getting the VDSLR version instead which has more focus throw. However, the lens breathes heavily and might not be for every situation.
Stills shot with Nikon D800, might put something together in terms of the NX1 spider video later on.
 
 

There is a third option. You do the work, you put it out there, and you don't read the reviews (good or bad). The only feedback that means anything to me comes from people who are in the same creative arena I am. We have the same bumps and bruises. We share in the struggle to close that gap between the vision we see in our heads and the ability to execute that in the real world. But the sideline naysayers that offer nothing but a drive-by snipe can go fuck themselves as far as I'm concerned. They risk nothing and contribute even less.

Wholeheartedly agree. ​I object to people who slam this short for being gimmicky or all about the tech, but anyone who gives the film a close watch and thinks about it critically has the right to their opinion, regardless of whether or not they can "do better." The whole point of art is that everyone has a different experience with it.
​I sort of get that. It might just be that we're so used to watching "test videos" intended to be analyzed for image quality that we've started treating EVERY piece of video that way. I know I've fallen into that trap lately.
​That could be interesting, but I think it changes the meaning of the short from what the makers intended. Maybe that would be a good angle for you to use in a project! 
​The anachronistic costumes lent it some charm for me, but I can see how they'd turn you off. I agree the title could be better, but it works well enough. Completely agree on its strengths, though. No labored setup, just starting in medias res and getting on with the action. Good point about the characters having distinct voices. It's an often overlooked concept that ends believability and depth to your scenes. 
​The focus pulling in general was distracting, now that you mention it. Maybe they were having trouble seeing with the noise and dark conditions, but it seemed downright random in places. Like in the beginning, they racked focus between the tree and the stars back to the tree back to the stars, all in the same shot. I don't get it.
​Yeah, you bet. It helps that me and my friends are total sci-fi nerds. 


I appreciate the people in this topic wanting to argue the film's merits, but there's a fine line between defending the film and attacking its critics. Let's stay on the right side of it.

​This is an unrelated discussion forum. I wouldn't have stated my opinion on their Vimeo page or anything like that. Every now and then, though, I just like to let off some steam by writing up my thoughts. After all, I lack peers – being a ghost and everything.
Apart from that, nothing to me on here (or anywhere else) is exact(ly), clear(ly) and I don't have projects, I'm just a lone geek running around with a camera once in a while. I'll wait with my first "project" until I have an idea I deem worth realizing. Finally, I'm not into advice that has not been asked for.

​That is an odd thing to say in a discussion forum, where we should be sharing views/opinions without fear of derision/ridicule. Remember, it is also just your opinion that "the makers of this production are several orders of magnitude above (his) current artistic skill level," not a consensus. Even if it were, if we're to critique someone/something only if everybody agrees we're better (and therefore qualified to critique), then nothing constructive would ever happen.

Let everyone do what they wanna do, I'm just constantly under the impression that nowadays where everyone can do anything thanks to the affordable (to us First-Worlders anyhow) tech, things are going down the drain pretty quickly in the art department. I mean, just look at my aforementioned clip, it's atrocious!
Nowadays, people collaborate until every last bit of originality has been spent on compromise, political correctness and the ambition to appeal to certain audiences. "We need more women, we need a black guy, we need a gay guy, we need an alien, we need more flares, we need more fucks, we need more production value, oh and marketing said we need to put in assloads of Apple products, candy bars and organic food. And the Vice of the production company wants his dog in the film."
Gone are the days where someone had an outrageous and personal idea and fought for it to the bitter end. Now we have social media where you can get uncanny amounts of feedback to help amalgamate your ideas into insignificant clichés with maximum production value and the eternal (a few weeks by today's standards) gratitude of your Facebook peers.
Art is dead, all hail the many-faced void of extroversion!

I'm not a person, I'm just a ghost.

I'm not a person, I'm just a ghost.

I guess creatively, the weird "stars-in-a-day-scene" look does help the alien planet SF story line, but in my (cynical) opinion the real motivation for shooting in moonlight was for marketing/buzz reasons. I mean, isn't that why we're even talking about this short? And people discussing low light and A7s will likely cite this as an example, at least in the near future. Clever. Looked a bit too fuzzy though, probably from heavy noise reduction. Acting seemed better than what we see in shorts.

This isn't intended as a "Content Is King" debate. I'm more interested in how purchasing a camera affects a persons creative decisions. It affects mine certainly. 
If anything has to be said though, it's better to have an idea and no camera, than actually have a camera with no idea at all. 

I know people like to poke fun at Canon due to their seemingly underwhelming specs (myself included at times!) but for what its worth, during my 3 months or so with an A7s I found it slow, clunky, unreliable (crashed occasionally) and the battery life was of course terrible. I was always thinking about the camera. During my 6 months or so with a c100, the opposite was definitely true. Theres something to be said for cameras that "just work" and Canon definitely has that figured out.  
Hoping the a7rII brings an improvement in this area as it looks like a slick camera!