mercer

They're sensor specific but you can probably get by without one. If it's anything like the Micro/Pocket, moiré is a lot better in ProRes. If you're going to get one, though, look into the RawLite brand. I believe it has an IR Cut Filter built in, so that alone is worth the extra cost. They'll pop up on eBay once in a while.

I was referring to your comment about an a7s with Venice color. I actually kinda like the grungy, funky colors of the a7s... it reminds me of an older indie film look.

When you pull that much gain with such high ISOs, it's bound to affect the color fidelity a bit.

Nah... I'm pretty sure I invented it. 🤪 Haha... movies are not meant to be made by a one man crew. Lol. Thankfully, it's given me a lot of time to rework the script as needed. I've been watching a bunch of Amira videos on Vimeo and they look amazing!!! If I could own any camera, I'm pretty sure I'd pick an Amira.

I've read that article before and if you like flares, I know why you posted it. He has some beautiful examples. In his article, he seems to be using the EF version of the 50mm 1.2 L. I have the FD version. I haven't tested it for flares, but now I'm gonna. The filter thread on the FD 50mm 1.2 L is 52mm. I think the EF version might be 72mm, but that's just a guess from memory. Helios 58mm f/2 is kinda the King of Flares, so that may be another good lens for you.

Thanks, after 3 years shooting with just the 5D3 and ML Raw, I'm still as enamored with it as I was the first day and haven't really scratched the surface of what the image is capable of. Once I removed the need for 4K out of my brain, and accepted 1080p raw as a superior image to consumer level 4K, I stopped chasing rainbows. If you don't fall madly in love with the LF, then there's probably something wrong with you. Lol. My ultimate dream is to sell my film and make enough money to rent an Amira or Alexa Mini for an upcoming film. Leica Rs are beautiful lenses. They're a little out of my price range so I've never used one. I'd love to try the 50mm f/2 summicron or ultimately the 35mm f/2 one day. There are so many vintage lenses that add a little extra to an image, IMO. For instance, Pentax Takumar lenses, from the 60s, still impress the hell out of me. Nikkors lenses are great choices, though because there are plenty of options in their line up for every budget... as long as you don't mind the focus direction. The 35mm 1.4 was considered one of their "professional" lenses marketed to photojournalists and street photographers. It even has 9 aperture blades as opposed to the traditional 7 blades that most of their lenses have. But the 35mm f/2 can be had for less than half the price and is a great lens as well. My first ML Raw test was shot with the 35mm f/2 and that lens led me to the 1.4.

I have a Benro monopod already and they sell some inexpensive heads... nothing more to it really. As far as complex moves... maybe I overstated with the word complex... just basic crane movements. It's just I came up with the monopod/tape measure pouch idea out of need to have a quick, easy and cheap handheld-like solution. I never intended to do anything more than stay steady while being as mobile as possible. But with these belts, a monopod, and a tripod head, basic jib arm movements seem easily possible. No need to start another thread, I don't care if things go off topic. Conversations evolve naturally.

It's only a matter of time before one of these companies go this route and it would make a lot of sense for Fuji... DCI-2K in ProRes up to 120p, no crop, decent tracking AF... and IBIS... Umm... yes please... take my money.

Exactly why I see no point in upgrading my camera yet.

The MogoCrane belt looks like it will accept any tripod with a 1/4-20 thread on the bottom, so for the price of the belt, it may be worth a try to get some small and smooth jib shots.

Here's another product that's been around for awhile that works similarly. https://mogopod.com I may get a cheap Benro head for my monopod so I can do some more complex moves if I want to.

I was thinking the same thing. As it is, the tape measure pouch adds no weight to my bag, I use a carabiner to clip it to the bag's handle and if I don't want to use it, I have a monopod at my disposal as well. I figured this out because I hate carrying around tripods and since the monopod is attached to my center of gravity, it's actually less shaky than my monopod by itself.

Haha... smart phones are the great equalizers. It looked good. I wasn't following that contest too much but yours definitely had a cool look.

Some of the Magic Lantern Raw apps that process MLV files will also process cdng files to ProRes and they have a lot of features to repair issues with the raw files. I don't really need any of those features so I don't know if any of them will help this issue but they might. I know auto detect black levels is one of the things I tick off when I use Raw Magic... but I don't think that program processes cdng.

Haha. This looks pretty slick but a bit much for my needs. One day, something like this will be perfect for me, though.

So no 6K... then what's the biggest new feature... IBIS? Well, if they can keep the cost of the X-T4 very close to the X-T3 and include IBIS... IMO... that's an instant win. However, I would love for Fuji to do something out of left field like ProRes... I hate h.265.

@heart0less nice video. I was always a fan of the a6000. I briefly had the a5100 and liked it as well. What camera was your Citadel Park video shot with... X-T3? To the OP... if you can make the a7s work for your needs... then yes... go for it. It still makes a very unique and great image.

Thanks, Kye! It's not your traditional review but hopefully somebody more talented than me will be inspired by it and make a great film with this truly unique lens. This "review" barely scratches the story of how my life has changed since I started my film, let alone since I became interested in filmmaking. I could probably write a small book. I'm actually surprised that more filmmakers aren't interested in lenses like the regular visitors of the Lenses sub-forum are. In a digital medium, where we often discus processing, sensors and specs, manual lenses gives us a physical connection to the recording process as we manipulate the image in real time for effect. I guess they humanize the machine on some level. It's a great little lens. I look forward to seeing your Micro footage with it!!!

Well, I'm sorry if my statement rubbed you the wrong way. It wasn't my intention to offend anyone. I was merely stating, in an albeit brief and blunt way, that using "art" to excuse, or endorse, a behavior can become a slippery slope. And since we live in a world where everybody gets a trophy for showing up, I feel that certain accolades should be earned, or bestowed upon, rather than self-proclaimed. But you're right, by the definition of the word, any asshole that can put paint on a brush and slop it onto a piece of paper is technically an artist and are creating art and who am I to say it isn't.

The point is that Andrew can only write a review based on his experience with the camera and his experience with their customer service. He never said that the BM image or what they offer at the price point is bad, he merely wrote his experiences with it... what more can a blogger do?

Obviously, Blackmagic needs to cut some corners to deliver products at this price point. But this generation of cameras seems to be a turn in the wrong direction. The P4K would have been a steal at $1799 or $1999 and would have given them a lot more margin for their build quality. Other than the normal BM annoyances, the OG Pocket and the Micro were solidly built. If you had a YouTube channel, with the instant subscribers and viewers you'd receive, discussing these issues, I'd bet money they wouldn't dismiss you so lightly. I'm sure with your skill you could put together a great looking video showing the pros of the BM IQ and when you add the cons of their build quality and customer service things may change... at least with the way you've been treated. Right now, BM have enough "ambassadors" giving them the freedom to deny, deny, deny. Unfortunately we've seen it on this forum by some people whose work I truly admire. Try saying that you prefer the image of the OG Pocket/Micro to the P4K, in the P4K sticky thread, and you'll see somebody pop up to denounce your opinion. The whole thing is kinda creepy. At least the Red fanboys stay at their own site. Lol.

That's interesting... I never really thought about it but it makes sense. When I think Day for Night, I always think Jaws but after looking at some stills there definitely is a lot of grey in the shots as well. I shot an impromptu short film years ago... well it was actually a scene for a larger film that I attempted to turn into its own short film but I needed a Day for Night establishing shot of a cabin... for other reasons, the short ended up being in B&W and that ended up being tremendously helpful selling the Day for Night effect. Which brings me to my next point... I have been so spoiled by shooting raw. I aim to get my WB close in camera, but it's so easy to correct in Resolve's Raw Panel, that it doesn't really matter... I don't know if I can go back to a traditional compressed codec. Even when I originally had the Micro, and shot ProRes, I used 4500 as a middle ground and I would just correct it in post. I wouldn't do that now that I know better, but ProRes is beefy enough that I didn't have any issues. If I were to shoot on a compressed codec now, I really think I'd shoot mostly in B&W. In fact, if I ever get a second camera... a GH5... or whatever... I'd probably use it as a B&W only camera. There's an old saying amongst editors when they couldn't get a cut to match... "If you can't solve it... dissolve it." I use a similar saying when it comes to color... "If it don't look right... try black and white." 😎 Those guys at LGG are either professional colorists or aspiring professional colorists. When you devote yourself entirely to one discipline, you're going to get really good at that one discipline and learn a ton of tricks. A lot of us end up being Jacks of all Trades, out of necessity, and as Jacks of all Trades, sometimes we need to choose our battles. Oh I know... my whole film is basically shot with available light. I have a few shots at the end of magic hour that have been giving me trouble. As I said before, with raw it's a bit easier because I can adjust the color temperature but getting the tint right has been a chore. Sometimes I'll just scrap the shot. I'm usually chasing the light anyway, so the shot probably wasn't that great to begin with since it was often rushed. To the original point about AWB and working without it. I stopped using AWB once I moved away from Canon to Panasonic. But you can use AWB to see what's "supposed" to be right and then adjust your Kelvin temperature until it matches... but more often than not, your eyes will tell you what's what and it will be damn close. Once you figure out how each camera and sometimes lens affects WB, then the Kelvin temperature becomes second nature.

Thanks! We were walking to a location one shooting day and an impromptu shot came up, rather than extend the monopod, I stuck it inside the pocket of my hooded sweatshirt and that worked a lot better than my laziness thought it would... the tape measure pouch was bought the next week at Home Depot.

It seems that a lot of people have love or hate for the lens. In a lot of ways, the lens is infuriating. On occasion the WB will seem off with this lens, to the point that I set daylight WB at 5000 instead of 5600 sometimes. And you're right it does veil wide open, but the contrast can be added back nicely in post creating a soft, contrasty haze instead of a low-con veil that some vintage lenses have. Some of the older Zeiss lenses have this too... maybe it's micro contrast? I think Olympus OM Lenses will forcefully mount on Nikon cameras too.

Obviously, even available light has a color temperature but yeah I get what you're saying. There's an old trick where you use a low color temperature and a polarizer or ND filter to shoot day for night. It makes the image look like moonlight. So I am sure there are plenty of tricks and effects professional cinematographers know to obtain quick looks. I didn't mean to imply that it always is. I know I would much prefer DPAF than manually pulling focus to track my actors. My shooting ratio would probably be cut in half... or more. But honestly, I'm surprised you aren't experiencing color shifts using AWB with your Panasonic. Canon always had pretty good AWB but with Panasonic I rarely had good results. The presets were pretty accurate though. With that said, I loved shooting Shutter Priority and AWB with my XC10 and FZ2500. In fact, I often said that shooting with those cameras was liberating and felt like point and shoot filmmaking where the equipment got out of your way. You're just such a proponent of manual lenses that I assumed you shot full manual. But shooting fully manual becomes second nature and lets you choose what you want to prioritize in a shot and it really only takes a couple seconds to decide and set.