mercer

Thanks. No, I would just leave the mic on 0db with about +32 on the volume in the XC10. Part of the reason the vocal track sounds good in that video is a solid multi-band compressor applied in Premiere with about +3db treble. Then I also put an EQ on the music taking about -8db out of the 3000 and 7000 bands so the voice cuts through it. 

We gained from a narative point of view as the actors perfered this way of working doing longer takes and complex moves with marks all over the set floor became the norm, we did this alot and the movie gained from that freedom , I always opperated the A camera on every take so that handled all the complex moves and focus pulls ,
yeah Panasonic bullet time here we come !!
the Director wanted David Fincher/Nicolas Winding Refn style of shooting so alot shot on legs careful framing , using symmetery where we could find it , and slow dolly moves , the camera only moves when it needs to ,no sudden movemets or randon pans,  there are only about 6 or 7 hand held shot in the whole movie , the Director is not a fan of hand held Paul Greengass wobblecam ,
I do like the hand held look alot and my next film is a Bourne /Bond syle classic British spy film and Im shooting this movie mainly all hand held as it add a dynamic realismto that style of movie.....I'm just starting pre production and tests shoots for this film now.
here are 2 test shots from last week I did for the Spy film with one of the actresses Joanna Bright, Panasonic G7 and Nikon 28-70mm with Metabones XL Speedbooster.
Arri 300s and 150s gelled and diffused.

IMO, that comment is what makes FCPX so damn special, especially if you ever used iMovie HD. To me it seems like they took the best parts of FCP7 and iMovie HD and created this amazing hybrid. It's not for everyone, but I can appreciate it. 

I recently had to travel around Europe on a job documenting Study Abroad classes. The XC10 made it easy and pleasurable. This was shot in all 1080 c-log, not 4k if you'd like to check it out.
 

Took this photo with my 1D C today with my CONTAX Zeiss 50mm f1.4. I've been shooting stills with an X-T1 for a while now as that was my only stills camera.... I forgot how much of a pleasure it is to shoot with a dslr! I'm buying a manual focusing screen to add to the camera to help assist me with all my manual glass. I don't own any EF glass at the moment. Just my duclos modified CONTAX set with EF mount 

Funny.. I just bought a 5DIII (there are crazy good deals on it right now) although mainly for stills and as B-cam to my recently acquired C100 DPAF. I just love the L glass.. and Canon skin tones. Ergonomics, doesn't get much better then EOS Cxx. A7S2 is seriously good but for it's price i've got a problem with the consumer-y body, horrible menu/ergonomics and battery life. and yeah S-log3 at 8-bit doesn't really cut it in post.. I'd wait a month or two until 5D4 gets announced if you wanna remain DSLR.. especially if you're invested in Canon glass..

thats why I got hired for the movie!!
  I come from a pop video background for 20 years ,I always shoot with gels on my lights , the Director wanted a very modern bold stylised use of colour , he came to me to design the whole look and style of the movie , so I have used different colors and contrasts of colours through out each section of the movie so each scene has a look to it , It was  a very small crew I was DOP and Gaffer ,so I lit the entiremovie myself as well as shooting it .I have big lighting package I brought to the movie of 25 Arri Fresnels , (1k pups , 650s , 300s 150s etc) and kinoflo tube lights 
yes I do use Lee gels all sorts of colours plus I shoot alot at 4000k for interiors the Panny looks better at 4000k than 3200k , just that bit warmer , I shoot day exteriors at 6500k and all my night exteriors at 2500k , yes I do try and use contempory colours there is modern colour palatte in the industry I have embraced alot , this movie has no day exteriors in the whole script , all the exteriors are night time so I got to play with the colours alot which was fun gelling all the Arri HMIs at night I used alot of Peacock Blue and 1/4 blue.
Lighting is a totally subjective subject , I like to treat it as a completely creative tool to help tell the story and a contast in light and dark is also complemented by a contrast of colour in the lighting , why limit your self to what I call boring plain 'white light' , you dont have to just use your lamps as is , gel them with colour and diffusion , most of my Fresnels have F1 diffusion on them all the time , (I rarely use undiffused lamps) ...along with a gel , if you want to play around with this then just get some full CTO and Full CTB gels and start with that , the possibilities are endless!! get creative......

Yes, if this what you mean: (from https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/products/details/camcorders/professional/xc10)
"The advanced CMOS sensor uses Over-Sampling HD Processing for 1920x1080 capture, the same high-image-quality signal-processing system used by the high-end Canon EOS C500 4K Cinema camera." 
New firmware improves HD low-light a bit, as well as AF.

I desaturated to b&w to correct exposure, then raised the saturation to -5, and balanced the mids, then did a curve and raised my blacks a touch, then pulled my lows a touch towards yellow and my highs a touch to blue. Of course i have a sneaking feeling I may need to calibrate my screen...

Beautiful. I liked this a lot!!! Such rich colors. What cameras did you use?

This is a personal taste, of course. And not only that, it should be related to the mood of the piece, So here's my attempt at that, just some basic correction, boost on skin midtones, muting the rest of the colors and adjusting blues and greens slightly to the teal. All with Color Finale in FCPX.
 

Was at the old computer and thought to give this pic a go.  Gave a very quick grade.  Eyes see spots at times so don't laugh too hard at my attempt.  Cheers.  

I can never really get anything from test videos like these.. in this case they may say more about the camera than others, since fuji picture profiles were used sometimes and will be used by people who get it for video, and most other cameras need a lot of adjusting first.. but it's all so cheesy I have no idea if it looks good. Anyone know yet if the d500 has the d750's secret formula but in 4k? That would give me some more hope here, since I was also unimpressed by those tests

Very quick grade in FCPX + https://www.fcpeffects.com/products/white-balance-plugin (which I like a lot).
I would suggest using Paul Leeming's LUT  http://www.leeminglutone.com/ and following his advice on exposure. This will correct the Panasonic oranges that are clearly seen in your footage. It looks pretty soft to me too.
 
 
 

Such conflicting opinions. I primarily use vintage lenses and one thing I did notice with the G7 and now with BMMCC is that the crop factor sometimes crops out some of the character of the lenses and since I will primarily use vintage lenses for stills as well, I wonder how much that will come into play? Honestly, I am completely in the middle on this one. I also have a couple small paid gigs at the end of the summer that will affect my decision based on the video side of the camera. 

Great choice, I have loved that camera since I learned what 4K was. 

I'm so thankful to this forum. Its a place where I can get honest amazing feedback and a place that is open to thinking outside the box.
I am DP for a pretty high profile web doc in Mexico and we are going to some exotic locations next week. I asked your opinion on what to get and I went with my gut. I got a used 1D C and I am so stoked to finally own a camera again instead of renting stuff. My B Cam operator will be rocking the C100 and we will have an a7S II that is there specifically for slow motion and thats it. A-Cam 1D C. We have a sound guy who will be recording and booming everything separate so the crappy internal audio isn't a problem with the A Cam. Just more syncing in post for the editor
Im bringing my CONTAX Zeiss primes and will be prioritizing those over the typical Canon zooms. I get so bored with docs I see on Netflix and on VICE and I realized its cause everyone uses the same boring Canon Zooms. There is nothing sexy about the 24-105. Of course its practical and if we are in a run n gun situation, I will pop it on. But lens character is just as important as the Camera! I am so excited to pair my vintage CONTAX Zeiss lenses with the 1D C sensor. I have a feeling its going to be gold. 
I shot a doc in Nicaragua two months ago with the GH4 and it was nice and I was surprised by the IQ of it...but the 1D C has some sort of mojo about it that I can't explain. I shot with one in Haiti about 3 years ago when it was way out of my price range and loved it. Im stoked to be able to use it and to own one.
As soon as I get home I will be directing a medium sized budget music video that has VFX and very fun lighting. I will use the 1D C for that too. So in the next month, I will have two very different experiences with it. Im pumped. 
Sure it will take up a ton of storage on this trip...but I can buy 2 5TB drives on amazon for like $300.
Like Andrew said on this forum a while back when he got his 1D C:

"Yes I may still regret it but you only live once.
I believe at it's current used price it's a bargain, bonafide Hollywood cam."
Honestly...seeing that these two hollywood films were shot on it...sold me on the camera. Im looking forward to getting it and doing some tests soon! I have it overnighted so I should receive it Friday. Cheers! 
 
 

I've just finished filming a short film.  We used 5D Raw, A7s + speed booster, GH4 + speed booster, and the XC10.  The best looking and "organic moving" footage in my opinion came from the 5D Raw and the xc10 in 4k.  The a7s was the 3rd best and the gh4 was the sharpest "out of camera".  We could have comfortably shot the whole thing on the XC10.  

Unsharpened ungraded CLOG frame grabs. Having a 1 inch sensor is no hindrance for a shooter like me...i own multiple cameras and i light my shoots.  I'm invested in canon gear, it uses the same batteries as the 5D3, has good battery run time, doesn't overheat and captures excellent video quality that compliments 5D Raw. I don't have to carry around a 25lb camera bag with various lenses and accessories to be able to shoot dynamically with the xc10.  The only accessory I carry is a variable nd filter.  I like to minize rigging as much as possible and I don't want an xlr input on this form factor, a rode videomic pro is good enough.  The only thing i would like is a constant f/2.8 and true DPAF.  I wouldn't even bother with a C100-300 if it had those 2 features.  




More ungraded frames of CLOG + Variable ND filter of me testing the cam on a poor trapped dog.  

I was very doubtful ref my commitment to M4/3s after the G6 - useability great - but photo quality - wasn't convinced with - just didn't like the output much, dull, seemingly not great DR, and files didn't seem to like much post-processing Lightroom
GX80 was cheap enough to take a punt on - at a minimum would make a great video recorder
But .. GX80 from initial tests seems much better photo wise vs my G6 - photo ouput seems very similar in IQ to my Nex 5n - and that is a VERY good thing - the sensor to me seems much much improved

In my experience with the gf1 and gx7 on the stills side, I like the results with vintage lenses, and they have bags of character, and a "snap shot" smaller film format feel.. a real still guy could probably get amazing results, but when I had even a aspc Canon 50d for a while, even with a crappy old canon kit zoom and on full auto, the pics coming out of that thing blew away anything I have been able to get with the Panasonics! Again, I'm no stills expert, but it seems you have to be a pretty serious photo guy to pull amazing images out of the Panasonics.. love them for video, apart from the motion.. can work around the colour.. but for stills - I would almost reach for my el cheapo $100 Samsung Galaxy J1 phone! MFT stills always just seem congested within the frame somehow for me.. the can't touch even the aspc Canon's for my tastes! I love the look of medium format stills even more
Tons of options for stills, built in intevalvometer.. good burst rates etc - all the stills features, but no where near the Canon's etc for me!
Sure the Panasonic can take ok photos, but all the photo's that make me say wow, and look like you could reach into the frame have usually been on a 5d or medium format cam.. never really seen an MFT still that really wowed me! Again, I am not a huge stills shooter in any way, just my two cents worth

GX7 with Minolta 28mm

GF1 with Olympus 25 2.8 4/3

 
Samsung Galaxy J1 smartphone

From a pure photography point of view, the D5500 is better. How much better? We're talking single percentage points better. However, when you compare the feature set of the Panasonic for photography and video (minus microphone input), the Panasonic offers much more, especially for video. I'll also say that 4k trumps flat profile. Get a good external recorder and enjoy great sound. There's my take on it. I looked at the D5500, but came to the conclusion that video isn't Nikon's bread and butter. The GX80 offers cutting-edge 2016 tech and features for a crazy price.

I have a GX8, not a GX85, and the sensors are different of course, but I found that when I moved from a Nikon D810 and two D5200's my photography keeper rate improved dramatically. This is because the stabilisation of the GX8 body and OIS lenses is so good, camera shake at low shutter speeds became a thing of the past.
Also the Panny autofocus and face tracking is so good that it helped improve keeper rate too. I do photojournalism so having good AF really helps in catching the image quickly and accurately. When I realised that no-one wanted the huge images that the 810 delivers, it was time to switch to the Panny.
Although OIS lenses with AF are great, I prefer the more "organic" approach to photography with manual lenses (when time allows) so my go to lens is now the Voit 25mm f/0.95. The inbody stabilisation of the GX8 really helps when using the Voit. I am sure that the GX85 with vintage lenses would be just as good, if not better.

Good to hear. I don't need huge prints, or anything, just have been enjoying photo essays on Flickr and I figured if I want to start with stills, that raw would be the way to go. Do you think the D5500 would be better for stills than the GX85? I don't necessarily need 4K video, but the ibis is a major selling point for stills and video, I'd imagine? I do really like the video image from both cameras... That D5500 flat profile is simply gorgeous and it has a mic input. Ugh too many decisions.
Thanks for the reply!!!

Since it is with a high profile musician, why not rent the C300 ii and buy the C100 mkii for B-roll or in case something happens with the C300. But I don't know if the rental cost and purchase cost exceeds your budget? If you can swing it, the C100 mkii, at the current price is just a money maker... Or maybe even an XC10. You can do a lot with that little guy.