Zak Forsman

Thanks Hugo, appreciate the time and the energy you took. I agree with Rich, some comments were pretty harsh. Don't see why sharing is rewarded with flak; it only serves to push people away and thins the community. As to the footage (well shot and yes, controlled but fits the style of the piece). Would like to see some rapid focus pulling on the lenses (as well as speed shifts in the edit). I own their Anamorphot and the nature of that beast is that it needs a tape measure involved to hit the marks. Thanks again

The comments so far seem very harsh.  Admittedly you could give Hugo a 550d and a 18-55 kit lens and he'd make something beautiful with it.  Add some artistic themes, a great soundtrack and a truly beautiful lady in a semi transparent top into the mix and as a sexist pig I'm gonna like it.  
 
Optically it looks like these lenses were being used in their sweet spot in terms of a scene.  subdued light, little opportunity for edge CA to become apparent.  I see the classic SLR Magic browny orange/blue CA mix going on which to me is undesirable.  LOMO's do CA properly.  In a lomo square you get CA which doesnt cause a harsh effect.  These look like they may suffer from the typical SLR magic CA which to me isn't nice.  
Positive thoughts are that these lenses really look anamorphic.  subdued flares are nice, nice defocus, barrel distortion isn;t too corrected (barrel distortion is one of the best features of anamorphics from yesteryear).  On a wide shot it draws your eye into the centre, and reminds the viewer they're watching a cinemascope movie.  The sheer number of elements in the optical pathway are showing themselves really nicely.
I'd still rather grab a rama 36, a tokina and a set of cheap 50, 85 and 135 lenses and shoot full frame 16:9, with 3 times the sensor area, and 3 times the shallowness of dof, with almost no CA, the perfect amount of distortion, and a German badge from 1970 on the front rather than a 2015 Chinese badge.   
  
   

I used to stick oval apertures on the back of old nikons. drew them up in adobe illustrator and had them made here... https://www.ponoko.com
I'm sure there are others. they charge too much for brass so i've only gotten them made in black acrylic or delrin.
I have six Helios 44-2 lenses arriving tuesday. looking forward to cracking them open and making a general mess of things.

just to add, keep up contact with your second choice. in case the first one falls through. having a backup for each location has saved our butts quite a few times. most memorably, we were supposed to shoot on coastal bluffs in Malibu. the day before our shoot, they caught on fire. my producer was able to shift everything to the back up location in long beach and we didn't miss a beat.

just to add, keep up contact with your second choice. in case the first one falls through. having a backup for each location has saved our butts quite a few times. most memorably, we were supposed to shoot on coastal bluffs in Malibu. the day before our shoot, they caught on fire. my producer was able to shift everything to the back up location in long beach and we didn't miss a beat.

just to add, keep up contact with your second choice. in case the first one falls through. having a backup for each location has saved our butts quite a few times. most memorably, we were supposed to shoot on coastal bluffs in Malibu. the day before our shoot, they caught on fire. my producer was able to shift everything to the back up location in long beach and we didn't miss a beat.

just to add, keep up contact with your second choice. in case the first one falls through. having a backup for each location has saved our butts quite a few times. most memorably, we were supposed to shoot on coastal bluffs in Malibu. the day before our shoot, they caught on fire. my producer was able to shift everything to the back up location in long beach and we didn't miss a beat.

Same here. I actually pre ordered it, and then cancelled when V Log was released, and now wishing I hadn't cancelled.

I'm looking closely at the Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera now because of this. Looks like I already have all the support gear I'd need for it minus a cage and rod riser of some sort. Wish it was 4K of course, but color and DR are more important to me. And I think I'll be more satisfied with the results. optional global shutter and i'm expecting better noise performance given the better cooling inherent in the BMMCC's design (compared to the Pocket). ...sorry for going off topic. 

just to add, keep up contact with your second choice. in case the first one falls through. having a backup for each location has saved our butts quite a few times. most memorably, we were supposed to shoot on coastal bluffs in Malibu. the day before our shoot, they caught on fire. my producer was able to shift everything to the back up location in long beach and we didn't miss a beat.

just to add, keep up contact with your second choice. in case the first one falls through. having a backup for each location has saved our butts quite a few times. most memorably, we were supposed to shoot on coastal bluffs in Malibu. the day before our shoot, they caught on fire. my producer was able to shift everything to the back up location in long beach and we didn't miss a beat.

Fixed EF mount is a disastrous choice.  Infact the lack of m4/3 mount option from RED and BM on their Ursa is a mystery as well.  When you give users the ability to stick a SB ultra or SB XL on the camera you open up vast cost effective optical options.  A m4/3 to PL / oct19, oct19, etc etc adaptor would also allow use of cheap LOMO s35mm primes.
 
Exactly the same mistake BM made with the first cinema camera EF version.  Everyone wanted m4/3!   

True Detective Season 2 did a 16x9 extraction. They shot with Panavision lenses. And a show called Miracles starring Skeet Ulrich shot anamorphic and extracted a 4x3 frame from it.

The BBC show Outcasts was shot in anamorphic back in 2011. Arri D21 + Hawk Anamorphics.
Here's the article in Definition Magazine:
http://www.definitionmagazine.com/journal/2011/2/10/bbcs-outcasts-get-anamorphic-shooting-but-not-broadcast.html

True Detective Season 2 did a 16x9 extraction. They shot with Panavision lenses. And a show called Miracles starring Skeet Ulrich shot anamorphic and extracted a 4x3 frame from it.

...says the guy who goes by "user".  

...says the guy who goes by "user".  

...says the guy who goes by "user".  

Rented a Dog Schidt Optiks FF58 this weekend, and I wanted to see how shooting with its oval aperture (f/3.5) would go on a GH4. With V-Log L in the mix I'm happy to say I'm sold. Depending on lighting conditions I had ISO anywhere from 400 to 1600. Also rolled on ISO 3200 for one shot to see who it would look -- it's the XCU of a parking meter with prominent oval bokeh at 1:47. In my opinion, shooting at (-2, -5) external 10 bit is essential for keeping the noise tight and fine and as grain-like as possible. I might drop to -3 Sharpness from now on but the difference would be subtle. And pushing NR above -5 would start turning it into mush.
No grading here. Just V709 + an Impulz Kodak Generic Rec709 LUT.
 
 

...I'll show myself out.

I didn't here but typically I add a little sharpening. just enough that I can see a difference and then i back it off a touch. i've used neat video in the past for NR but lately i've been enjoying the finer, more grainlike noise you get when capturing in 10 bit. so yes and no. depends on my mood.

...I'll show myself out.

Natural Profile
Contrast 0
Sharpness -5
NR - 5
Saturation -3 or -2
Tint 0
H/S default, no change
 

So far I have heard no mentioning of WB in combination with V-log …it has a huge influence and I actually suspect there is a bug related to WB an V-log causing the macro blocking artifacts.
I did some tests with the following settings: WB 4000K and 4200K, Natural vs V-log, Shutterspeed 30, ND 1.2, Exposure 6400, everything in All-I 25fps 1080. Shots where 2 stops underexposed. I used V-log to custom (own brew) on the Vlog clips.
As you hopefully can see in the picture, the noise pattern of the Natural clips is identical in both 4000K and 4200K. The only difference is the color.
The noise patterns (macro-blocking) of the V-log clips are completely different for each Kelvin value. Only when you reach the top values (±9000 and up) the patterns become more identical.
It is as if the WB adds ad-random posterization to V-Log clips as if the white balance is part of "V-log space". I do not know enough about WB and how it works or should work but to me this looks and feel like a bug.
If it's not a bug …I would like to know how to set the WB because even Custom has a a different noise distribution each and every time you set one. The second picture shows this. Each of the four custom settings give different noise patterns, even though the conditions were the same at the time of creation. The two at the bottom look quite similar but that is luck. To be clear these are not four frames out of the same clip. The macro block islands change shape but stay where the are …and their position and number are completely random as far as I can tell.
Hope someone can either confirm it's a bug or tell me how to use WB properly.
Thanks.

Here is V-Log L at 8 bit, captured internally.

And here it is at 10 bit, captured externally.

These are 1:1 extractions from the 4k frame.
Wrote more on the subject here...
http://zakforsman.com/a-dynamic-range-and-tonality-comparison-of-v-log-l-on-the-gh4/