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ac6000cw

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  1. Like
    ac6000cw got a reaction from newfoundmass in Any recommendations for a small hotshoe mic?   
    For a height comparison, these are the three relatively small stereo mics I use, mounted on my Pana G9 (which is around the same size as an S5).
    Tascam TM-2x (cardioid capsule X-Y stereo, plug-in power). Overall the most flexible, with a switchable low-cut filter, two sensitivity settings and a shock mount that works.

    Boya BY-PVM50 (cardioid capsule X-Y stereo, uses LR44 battery). The 3.5mm jack is at the rear centre of the barrel, and the mic can be moved forward and back in the shock mount.

    Boya BY-MM3 (omni capsule stereo, plug-in power). This is overall the smallest/lightest/least obtrusive, but as it's non-directional it's only really suitable for 'ambient sound' recording.

  2. Like
    ac6000cw reacted to hyalinejim in Perfect vignetting correction for any lens you own   
    Because I'm a cheapskate who is recycling his 5D Mk II era EF glass on the latest and greatest Panasonic body thanks to the wonderful Sigma MC21 adapter, I can't take advantage of in-body camera corrections for things like vignetting and lens distortion. And sometimes I would like to do that. It's a lot of fun using the phase detect AF in the S5II to shoot wide open and get in-focus footage with my Canon nifty fifty. But wide open, that lens has something like 2.4 stops of vignetting. That can look really cool sometimes but other times it's not. I first noticed it when editing some interview footage shot against a plain white wall. I wanted to do a little bit of reframing and it looked kind of bad because of the heavy vignetting.
    I know there are effects that attempt to add or remove vignetting, but I was interested to see if there's a way to do it perfectly, as you can when shooting RAW and using Lightroom. And there is!
    First of all, I put a semi-opaque piece of white plastic over the lens, focused it to infinity, set the aperture to wide open, pointed it at the sky and did a manual white balance. The aim here, in terms of exposure is to get the brightest part of the image (the exact centre) at exactly 50 IRE. Or you can use ACES to make a linear change to the data to get it looking like this:


    Then desaturate it, invert it and export as a 16 bit TIFF or similar.
    Place this image file on a layer above your footage. Change blending mode to Linear Light and Opacity to 50%. Hey, presto! Bye bye, vignetting!

    (Note: doing this in ACES linear gives perfect results, but it works pretty well in log Rec709 too - the center needs to be 50% IRE in both methods)
    This is how it looks on real world footage.
    Before:

    After:

     
    Obviously, this isn't as convenient as doing it in camera as you would need a different vignetting profile for each f stop. But it will allow you to finally shoot your Nocticron f0.95 or whatever wide open without that pesky vignetting! I'm not quite as flush as all that, but I'm quite pleased that my old Canon plastic fantastic that I had in a drawer behaves a little more like Panasonic's version which costs 4 times the price. And a simple Lens Distortion filter at -2 knocks back the distortion. Now if only there was a way of making the focus motor perfectly silent...
  3. Like
    ac6000cw got a reaction from PannySVHS in Making the most of the iPhone, GX85 and GH5 and shooting in the real world   
    Yes, it's a nice lens (used it as my main video lens back when I had Pana G6 with a 'power zoom' toggle on the body). It doesn't support dual-IS though. The Oly 14-42 EZ pancake is also 'OK' and has zoom and focus rings instead of toggles, so is a bit nicer to operate. I think build quality is better on the Pana lens though.
    Oops - yes, quite correct, I was thinking about the mid-range 20MP Pana cameras (GX9, G95, G100 etc.) when I wrote that, which have 1.25x crop in 4k. No excuse really as I own a GX85...
    I suspect the processing chips could do 100Mbps All-I 1080p, but having lots of video mode choices in a mid-range camera (aimed at ordinary buyers/users instead of video enthusiasts like us) I think would just be regarded as confusing.
  4. Haha
    ac6000cw got a reaction from PannySVHS in Panasonic GM1 review - another pocket cinema camera   
    Isn't that an OM-5 😉🙂
  5. Like
    ac6000cw got a reaction from John Matthews in Panasonic GM1 review - another pocket cinema camera   
    Isn't that an OM-5 😉🙂
  6. Like
    ac6000cw reacted to newfoundmass in Sony lack of firmware updates is getting completely ridiculous!   
    People can repeat that until they're blue in the face but it won't suddenly make it true. 
  7. Like
    ac6000cw got a reaction from PannySVHS in What cameras are you actually using?   
    Having been a confirmed (amateur) Panasonic micro4/3 user for years, I dipped a toe in the Olympus world after the OM-1 came out and the used prices for the E-M1 iii dropped dramatically.
    My Pana G9 beats it hands-down for basic video quality, but for me the E-M1 iii is such a nice camera hold and use (it fits my hands perfectly) that it's become the camera I take out most often. Battery life is excellent, as is the (adjustable strength) IBIS. You get used to the menus eventually...
    The GX85 is another 'feels great in the hand' camera, so my usual travel cam is a GX85 with an Oly 14-150mm lens (overall smaller than some actual 'superzoom' cameras), and the G9 is the 'max video quality' and 4k50p option.
    (Also got a cupboard full of other Panasonic cameras - G80, GX800, G6, LX100, LX7, and far too many lenses! )
  8. Like
    ac6000cw got a reaction from kye in Making the most of the iPhone, GX85 and GH5 and shooting in the real world   
    The Pana 14-140mm f3.5-5.6 is not much larger/heavier and has better OIS (but it's much more expensive used). It's been my main 'travel' lens for years.
    Apart from market segmentation and heat issues, I suspect the processing chips used in the lower-end cameras can't support it. They also have major crops in 4k and pixel-binned (probably) FHD, versus uncropped and over-sampled video in G9/GH5/GH6.
  9. Like
    ac6000cw reacted to Novim in What cameras are you actually using?   
    For my own purposes I am still with BM Pocket (2K, the 1st generation), and (when 4K is needed) the GX85, both paired with stabilized Lumix G X 14-42/3.5-5.6 or, for low light, PanaLeica Nocticron 42.5/1.2. My students use different gear, some "professional", some latest and "greatest". Personally, unless you are in film or TV industry, the gear does not much matter, as long as you have a story to tell, light to follow and angle to shoot from. The rest is good editing of motion and sound. 😊
  10. Like
    ac6000cw got a reaction from John Matthews in What cameras are you actually using?   
    Having been a confirmed (amateur) Panasonic micro4/3 user for years, I dipped a toe in the Olympus world after the OM-1 came out and the used prices for the E-M1 iii dropped dramatically.
    My Pana G9 beats it hands-down for basic video quality, but for me the E-M1 iii is such a nice camera hold and use (it fits my hands perfectly) that it's become the camera I take out most often. Battery life is excellent, as is the (adjustable strength) IBIS. You get used to the menus eventually...
    The GX85 is another 'feels great in the hand' camera, so my usual travel cam is a GX85 with an Oly 14-150mm lens (overall smaller than some actual 'superzoom' cameras), and the G9 is the 'max video quality' and 4k50p option.
    (Also got a cupboard full of other Panasonic cameras - G80, GX800, G6, LX100, LX7, and far too many lenses! )
  11. Like
    ac6000cw reacted to majoraxis in What cameras are you actually using?   
    GH6. There is something special about V-Log with high dynamic range enabled and the Panasonic V-Log to REC709 LUT. I have never had such an easy time with color grading. I made the move up from the GH5 because I wanted better audio focus and to be able to record 4 channels of audio, which the GH6 will with the Panasonic stereo XLR audio hot shoe adapter.
  12. Like
    ac6000cw reacted to MrSMW in High quality video camera and lens for under $3,500   
    Really? Compared with ‘The Latest Sony’, yeah, not in that league, but it’s not too shabby! 
    But yes it’s a better image than the S5ii. 
    In fact it’s better in every way other than AF or if size & weight are a priority. And it’s cheaper!
    I bought another a couple of weeks back, it’s that good.
    I use its AF all the time, but mainly to acquire focus in the first place and then flip to manual with the switches on the side of the lens that Sigma provides along with manual aperture control 🙌
    I do have a need for reliable AF every now and again and the S5ii takes care of that, but at a pinch, even the S1H’s tracking is not bad if you use a few tricks…
  13. Thanks
    ac6000cw got a reaction from Chxfgb in Noob question about video type on TVs   
    The problem is probably caused by 10-bit files and/or too high resolution. I think 10-bit is more likely to be the problem on older TVs e.g. ones that don't support HDR etc.
    As Michael S says, for maximum compatibility use common/older formats e.g. H.264/AVC 8-bit 4:2:0 1080p
  14. Like
    ac6000cw reacted to herein2020 in Video business   
    It is tough, very tough, even now most of my well paying clients are repeat clients; I do a ton of one hit wonders like headshots, photo studio work, etc. but repeat business and word of mouth is the real secret. Of course that is the photography side of things. For video many of my customers started with photography and eventually needed video then kept coming back to me for both.  
    My particular video niche is big events (boat races, car shows, food festivals, fashion shows, etc). That niche in turn spawns tons of side projects (photo shoots, promo videos, talking heads, training videos, etc. etc). So if I were starting over right now today I would just Google events in my area and start going to them and filming them for free.
    I have a branded shirt with my business name on it, I also have business cards, and I would wear my shirt and pass my cards out literally everywhere. I would shoot entire highlight reels of the events, really focus on handing out my business cards to the vendors and try to figure out who the organizers were. If I could work my way up to the organizers and main sponsors I would offer to tag them on IG and FB when the video and photos were out and give them my business cards which would ensure they saw my work.
    I would give it less than 3 months of that before I started having sponsors, organizers, and event attendees reaching out to me for photos and video. Within about 6 months in a reasonably large city I would have my whole network built back up.  I keep stressing photography because in my niche it is so important. So many people contact me for photography and they never even considered video until I recommend it. One thing leads to another and next thing you know I've been working with that client for years. Events are also great because they are recurring year after year so that is repeat business if you work for the main sponsor or the event organizers.
    Almost all of my business comes from these events, people at these events are getting married (they need wedding videos), they are having kids (birthday party videos / gender reveals, etc.), they run their own business (business promo videos, product demos, etc needed), etc. etc., I shoot a ton of small stuff thanks to these events. To this day if I haven't handed out 500 cards at an event that I am filming then I am not doing it right.  I never let up on the networking because events, sponsors, and attendees come and go each year so relying too heavily on any one of them for revenue the next year is a recipe for failure if they don't host or sponsor that event the next year.
    Of course my approach only works in a large city or somewhere where you can easily drive to a large city. Where I live I could literally shoot nearly any type of event I wanted on any given weekend (sports, food festivals, music festivals, races, fashion shows, etc.). I once shot a live concert for a customer that needed a city activities promo video and ended up shooting a music video for the band because I gave them my card after the concert.
    I have also had plenty of offers to work directly for the sponsors on their media team but I like being freelance, after working literally everything for the past 10yrs I am not interested in joining a team; but if that is your thing that could be the way into a more predictable career field.
  15. Like
    ac6000cw reacted to herein2020 in Panasonic S5 User Experience   
    CAF doesn't work with the MC21 and EF lenses for the S5. I have heard that somehow it works for the S5II, probably because they mostly ditched DFD.
     
    Actually yes it is, with useable CAF I would have had a far higher keeper rate which is why I am now back on the Canon train. I have heard it all, who needs AF, real shooters use MF, Hollywood cinema cameras all use MF etc....but none of that matters to me when I am shooting an event and flying a camera on a gimbal that has no AF or shooting handheld at an event or for a project.
    If I had a support team and a dedicated focus puller and all of the Hollywood bells and whistles I wouldn't care about AF either; in fact I still use MF quite often even with Canon bodies for many situations such as talking heads, rack focusing, shooting through obstructions such as grass or fences where the AF will pick the wrong subject, when it is too dark, etc; I have no problems manually focusing when the situation calls for it; but having to manually focus for every shot will absolutely yield more throw aways than with a camera with useable CAF unless you have a dedicated focus puller, or something else contributing to your success (wider lens, simpler scenes, more time to prepare, etc.)
    It is easy to cherry pick specific instances where MF looks fine, and when you have the time to properly block a scene and dial in the focus or repeat a scene then that's all good and well, especially if you are shooting as a hobbyist where no one cares about the footage you didn't get; in fact I have plenty of tack sharp footage in many projects that were shot with MF, but try MF shooting even one of my events and you will encounter a much different story.
    My typical event has a shotlist that is multiple pages (vendors, VIPs, activities, talking heads, etc.), I am shooting photos and video, going from indoors to outdoors and back, working with the audience or attendees who will only stand still for a few seconds for a picture, and maybe a few seconds more for a quick video clip, and all the while everyone and nearly everything is in motion, and that is all handheld, I haven't even started talking about shooting on a gimbal yet; and yes I did it for years with the GH5 and S5; but at the end of the day it was completely exhausting and limiting to always have to work within the limitations of MF, to never know if a shot was sharp until reviewing it later, etc. 
    So yes, it is my opinion that in 2023 if your keeper rate is low due to lack of useable CAF then it is absolutely the camera's fault. MF is great and even necessary for many scenarios, but when shooting as a OMB so is AF. Both have strengths and weaknesses and there is nothing wrong with having the option to use AF when that particular shot can be better served by AF allowing you to focus on other things (no pun intended).
  16. Like
    ac6000cw reacted to hyalinejim in Panasonic S5 II (What does Panasonic have up their sleeve?)   
    Hopefully Panasonic will include a -1 sharpening option in firmware update like they did before.
    I haven't seen it yet in any of my footage. To be honest, if someone regularly underexposes their footage by 4 stops they  probably have more pressing things to worry about than what camera body they're shooting on 😂
  17. Like
    ac6000cw reacted to Robert Patts in Panasonic S5 + BM Video Assist 12G: a better investment than a cinema camera?   
    I have ran with the S5 + VA for a long time. The only real benefit of BRAW is file size and playback speed. You will get no additional benefits in DR or "motion cadence"
  18. Like
    ac6000cw got a reaction from SRV1981 in Travel Compact/Easy to use Camera   
    Another thought if weather sealing and top-notch IBIS in a fairly compact ILC body is important are the Olympus/OMDS E-M5 iii and OM-5.
    Both have PDAF and basically the same video quality (up to DCI4k@24p & UHD4k@25/30p) plus mic inputs. Essentially the E-M5 iii is most of an E-M1 ii and the OM-5 is most of an E-M1 iii in smaller & lighter bodies. You lose the dual card slots, the headphone jack and the large battery (and Log video on the E-M5 iii).
    Never owned either of them, but I do own the E-M1 ii & iii - the video C-AF is definitely more flexible and better behaved on the E-M1 iii and you get auto-iso capability in manual exposure video. That also has adjustable movie IBIS (3 levels) but I don't know if that has carried over to the OM-5 (the user guide for it doesn't go into that level of detail).
  19. Like
    ac6000cw got a reaction from SRV1981 in Travel Compact/Easy to use Camera   
    I'd also vote for the GX85/GX80, maybe paired with the 12-32mm 'pancake' zoom and the 25mm F1.7 prime - both are cheap used, lightweight & good. It's just a nice, solid-feeling camera to hold and use, and has in-camera battery charging. One downside for video is the noisy audio (and no mic input). Mine usually has an Oly 14-150mm lens on it, and I use it as my travel 'superzoom' camera - laid on its side that combo fits in quite a small camera bag (or I put a neoprene wrap around it and stuff it into a small bag or rucksack).
    The LX100 is smaller and lighter and has a nice fast lens, but the rear screen is fixed and the stabilization for video is mediocre (as is the video C-AF). IMHO it's a great camera for stills but only 'OK' for video. (I own the first version, have never tried the mk2 version).
  20. Like
    ac6000cw got a reaction from John Matthews in Travel Compact/Easy to use Camera   
    I'd also vote for the GX85/GX80, maybe paired with the 12-32mm 'pancake' zoom and the 25mm F1.7 prime - both are cheap used, lightweight & good. It's just a nice, solid-feeling camera to hold and use, and has in-camera battery charging. One downside for video is the noisy audio (and no mic input). Mine usually has an Oly 14-150mm lens on it, and I use it as my travel 'superzoom' camera - laid on its side that combo fits in quite a small camera bag (or I put a neoprene wrap around it and stuff it into a small bag or rucksack).
    The LX100 is smaller and lighter and has a nice fast lens, but the rear screen is fixed and the stabilization for video is mediocre (as is the video C-AF). IMHO it's a great camera for stills but only 'OK' for video. (I own the first version, have never tried the mk2 version).
  21. Like
    ac6000cw reacted to So Ros in Panasonic S5 II (What does Panasonic have up their sleeve?)   
    No! You’re not being harsh, I’m really speaking to m43 users that need it.  That’s fine if you don’t but there are some that do, like solo bloggers, YouTubers and fast action photography. I understand some want high specs like 4k120/6k60 but there’s a sub set of m43 users that just need the autofocus not the high specs.  It’s the reason some didn’t upgrade to the GH6, some moved to sony/canon and some moved to the S series.  Gh6 sales weren’t as good as the GH5, let’s be honest here but it could be better.  If they make one m43 camera with pdaf, then that will shut YouTubers up.
  22. Like
    ac6000cw reacted to John Matthews in Panasonic S5 II (What does Panasonic have up their sleeve?)   
    Yes. I'm just not sure they're going to go with PDAF in a interchangeable lens camera first though. It would be even better though. I think it'll be a small camera though. We'll see.
    Do you have real sales numbers on low GH6 sales? Yes, there were massive deals on Black Friday (especially in France), but that is much like what has happened with other cameras (G7, GX80/85, GX850, GH5 G9, etc.)... it didn't necessarily mean they were selling "bad". It could just mean it was a planned promotion like with all those other models.
    YouTubers are often wrong about anything regarding M43. Many of them have said it's "dead", and they can't focus worth a damn... apparently YouTube standards in the camera world surpass Hollywood. Meanwhile, they point their FF camera at themselves at f/1.4, marveling at how their purple and blue twinkle lights don't flutter in the background because, after all, this is what really matters. Am I being harsh?
  23. Like
    ac6000cw reacted to herein2020 in Canon EOS-R8, EOS-R50 And New Lenses Announced   
    That's a good point with the MF switch, I just haven't gotten used to it, when I need to switch back and fourth I usually hold the camera differently and keep the left hand on the lens barrel vs on the side handle, plus I need it there anyway once the lens is in MF because I need to use the focus ring on the lens to keep focus from that point forward. 
    The R8 actually has nothing I want, I don't need a FF sensor for anything that I do and the R6II has nothing that I need. My camera purchases are done hopefully for at least the next 3-5yrs. I have a dedicated photography camera (R5), dedicated hybrid camera (R7), a dedicated video camera (C70), a dedicated time lapse camera (Canon Rebel), and a dedicated action camera/underwater camera (GoPro), between those five there is no project I can't shoot that comes my way and if I need more for a specific project then I will just rent what I need.
    I wouldn't mind upgrading my timelapse camera to a body that uses the same batteries as the R5 and R7 but the Rebel is so good at what it does (3000 pictures when the battery grip is installed) that I have never needed to swap batteries on a shoot; plus I don't want a more expensive camera that is usually unattended for hours at a time so its a small loss if it gets stolen.
    Of course production companies and TV stations are not using the cameras we discuss here, they have completely different requirements, teams of people and gear to properly rig and support their cameras, and the budgets to match.  My niche is event work and all of the little projects that don't have the budgets for that sort of thing and fortunately there's tons of options these days that makes my job a lot easier.
  24. Like
    ac6000cw reacted to markr041 in Travel Compact/Easy to use Camera   
    Seriously, people favoring phones for video? You have to be kidding. I will give you one reason phones do not hack it for video: motion. The phones have no aperture, so all exposure is controlled by shutter speed (and ISO in low light). In bright light you are shooting 24 fps at 1/500th of a second, with horrible motion.
    Most phones, including iPhones also have variable frame rates, which also contribute to poor depictions of motion.
    The small phone sensors, leaving aside the limited dynamic range, also do not enable shallow DOF shots. No, those are not necessary, but to produce a video that is interesting it is good to have a variety of shots, not all postcards. You cannot zoom either.
    For some reason, people were comparing the VZ-1 to a phone, and amazingly saying a phone was an equal or better. Really?
    Of course, not one of these pro phone posters, posted a cellphone video of their own so we could inspect the results they get.
    I have shot cellphone videos (even in 8K and in HDR), I have shot with some of the contenders here - the ZV-1, the ZV-10 - dedicated, compact video-centric cameras (and lots of cinema cameras too). 
    Here is an example ZV-1 4K video:
    Remember, the discussion here is about vacation shooting - places and people, not narrative films (and not cat videos either). So I chose this one as it is that type of video. Note: the in-camera audio on the ZV-1 is far superior to that of any cellphone.
    I have demos of catalyst browse gyro stabilization from the ZV-1 that beat any phones with a gimbal. I have night videos, lots of ZV-1 examples. And cell phone ones too, if you can stand the over sharpening and bizarre motion.
    I have ZV-E10 videos too, for those a little more ambitious.
    The ZV-1 is tiny, fits in most pockets. And I find the ergonomics of shooting with it far superior to those of any cellphone, except for shooting vertical videos. If that is your favorite mode, then a cell phone wins hands down.
  25. Like
    ac6000cw reacted to MrSMW in Panasonic S5 II (What does Panasonic have up their sleeve?)   
    Ditto. In fact for the way I work, it is better.
     
    I really hope so…
    I have the Fotodiox EF-L adapter with built in VND and it’s a great bit of kit…except MF lenses only and I prefer Sigma DG DN lenses.
    It is. I sold mine though for 2 reasons:
    The variable aperture and the fact that it was a bit too slow for very low light and because sometimes (very rarely, but still sometimes!) I need to go wider.
    Hello Sigma 16-24mm f2.8 but because I am a crop mode 4k 50p shooter, it’s more like a 24-42mm which for my needs is great.
    That was my single biggest issue with the S5.
    My S5ii turns up this week and is actually going to be paired with permanently, the Sigma crop only, 18-50mm f2.8
    Tiny but very capable crop 27-75mm.
    My S1H has had a stay of execution and is not being replaced by a second S5ii as all it needs to do is perform 30+ minute static duty on a tripod without AF, so a second S5ii in that role would be wasted (and the old S5 could not do it in the first place. Not in 10 bit 4K 50p anyway).
    And in a final about face, I am going to mostly be shooting zooms for my stills.
    I was going all primes (from f2’s to 1.4’s) with my S1R’s, but having tried out those f1.4’s, decided that ergonomically, I really needed battery grips to be comfortable on a typical 12-15 hour shoot…but the ergos of the S1R sans grip, are very well suited to that Sigma pairing of 16-24 and 28-70 so sticking with that as I have the lenses. And love them.
    The only prime I am keeping is the Sigma 85mm f1.4 because it’s not too big and an absolute gem for stills at 85mm, or for video cropped at ‘127mm’.
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