DayRaven

Thank-you so much for all the replies!! My experience of these events is sorely limited, so I had no idea - I've been binging on other peoples footage all day but what you've written is absolutely gold for me! The con is Bodypower, all about fitness with an emphasis on massive muscles etc, I have a feeling most people will be fine with the cameras, I tend to err on the side of respectfulness, even when unnecessary. And, yes, more Sony batteries is on the list! Hoping to find them for less than RRP though, £50 a go is steep, but don't want to end up with fakes either!

Ebrahim, I've got a nerve condition which results in fibromyalgia, and because I minimise my pain relief, I use a wheelchair to keep my mobility. For this event, because I won't have my son to look after, I'll be able to use the oramorph and that should see me through, and monopods make passable walking sticks! If you have any general tips for filming, at times when I can't use it, I would be really happy for all advice on this as well - I usually have 4-5 hours during school time to use my camera, and I am very motivated, but sometimes the pain or the difficulties in working from a chair just impede me too much. It's my dream to write, shoot and edit a movie, and I'm having a blast teaching myself the techniques and getting out there and giving it a go, but I just don't see a way to get beyond the writing stage at the minute, I don't feel it would be fair to get other people on board with a project, which I can't be sure of being physically up to following through!

Hi guys, I've until now been proudly and strictly amateur, and really learning for the sake of learning and the enjoyment of the process. Recently, a friend of mine has started his own business and it has been going really well for him. He is going to an expo, and has asked me to attend, to shoot video of the event. Normally I would have said no straight away for any number of reasons, but, this guy has gone above and beyond for me and my family in recent years - to put perspective on it, he has, without question or complaint, or recompense in any form took my learning disabled son out every week for over a year when I have been bed bound with illness, and built a log cabin for me in my garden - so I owe this guy big time.

He hasn't got the budget to pay anyone, in fact, I am helping to cover accomodation for his team, so me being there isn't taking away the chance to get a pro in to get better results than I can achieve. He understands that I am not experienced or professional, he obviously knows my health and emergencies with my son may cause me to be unable to attend or stay and is still happy for me to try, which is why, I said yes.

Obviously I want to do the absolute best job possible, but, I'm a overawed by it all. Firstly, the expo has a press accreditation application, but I don't know if that's appropriate for me, also it allows members of the public attending to "snap away as long as you don't sell the photos for any purpose" , but doesn't mention the exhibitors, presumably the rules for the public apply at a minimum.

Secondly, I have an equipment list which isn't going to do me many favours, this kind of work wasn't on my radar when I was getting my kit together. I have manged to beg/borrow/steal the following which I think will be a suitable kit to take:

Cameras:

A Sony a6300 & NEX 7 C/Y adapter, C/Y Speedbooster, C/Y Zeiss 35-70, C/Y Zeiss 80-200, 50mm f1.8 OSS. I have two Sony batteries, one brand new, one that came with the NEX and has seen years of work along with a year of storage, but seems to be working just fine. I also have two relatively unused off brand batteries.

For the above cameras, I have two 256Gb Sandisk Extreme 95MB/s cards, also an adapter for the go pro's card below, that accomodates the NEX 7's video without a hitch

A Canon XA10 that is barely used but been in storage for years and is in an unknown working state, no cards etc

A go pro hero 4 silver and a metal housing which solved it's plugged in overheating problem. I have a sandisk extreme 64Gb card for it.

Sound:

A Shure Lenshopper with the built in recorder

An AT875R with Rycote Softie

A Shure MV51

A Zoom H4n

Very good (for music) earphones

Stabilisation:

A Gitzo tripod

A Sirui Monopod with feet and ball joint, which seperates into a normal monopod and a little ball jointed tabletop tripod

A manfrotto 502 head

Lighting:

Two large and one small cheap and nasty LED units

Computing:

A surface pro 2 with a 1.5Tb external HD

iphone with it's camera and app ecosystem including a surprisingly accurate enough light meter.

 

Italics indicates gear I have been promised by a reliable person, but, as always, until it's in my hand's I can't be certain I will have it

-------------------------------

The Plan

Day 1 - setting up, Im going to take the go pro and a6300 w. lenshopper on the monopod, NEX-7 to hand (spare in case of failure, photography), and just document the team setting up the stand. The go pro will do a time lapse while I get cool and interesting shots of the process

Day 2 - Trade. a6300 + monopod. I'll spend this time around and about the expo getting interesting shots of other stands, interesting people, interesting locations within the center itself, the signs etc. This is the teams most imortant day and I don't want to be there putting them off or being a nuisance to the people they are hoping will become customers. I'll have some of the product and will hand them out to people to hold while smiling for a photo - models and notable attendees - if they will allow me to take them and my autism doesn't turn me into a puddle of antisocial water, and again if they are willing, a few signed products.

Day 3 - Public. Go pro in an unobtrusive corner, a6300 on monopod, nex to hand. I'll be hovering around the stand, getting shots of the great unwashed being, hopefully very enthusiastic about the products and the team being pleasent, lovely people.

Day 4 - Public and tear down - Another Go Pro timelapse of the teardown and more public shots admiring the product

Evenings - Candids of the team (go pro, a6300) and a few more formal "interviews" (MV51, tripod & lights)

Obviously if the Canon is is good working order, I will be using that in place of the a6300 with the AT875R mic, the a6300 with become my backup and photography and the NEX will stay in the bag.

------------------------------------

So, what do you think? Am I mad to even try, have I overlooked anything important, am I overthinking this way too much, will I get kicked out?

I would be extremely grateful for any and all advice, ideas, guidance and wisdom. The expo is in May, so I have time, and I can afford to invest £500 or so, but that's only justifiable if it will be useful to me for what I actually use my cameras for - short films & family stuff!

It's worth pointing out, that gear that I have (or have access to) which I'm not taking includes:

A BMPCC in a decent rig with sigma 18-35 with a tilta follow focus and a z finder pro, big external battery, 5 internal batteries

A Phillip Bloom Slider of unknown length (but almost certainly won't be the shortest if the guy who will lend it to me is anything to go by)

Beyerdynamic M99 with cloudlifter, NI komplete Audio 6

A bunch more lenses and adapters for the e mount

A metric tonne of mounts for the go pro.

 

Cheers!

7 hours ago, tupp said:

Nice look in the video.  No discernible hint of English in the skin tones.

No, but more than a hint of Wonkaland, though it's hard to tell if that's the camera or fake tan!

I'm so glad you brought me in to help outwith Mr Scuffles' house, I've got some amazing ideas...

 

Just as long as you're not bringing 50 people through my house like the last guy

 

No, it's just me!

 

Great, an improvement already. So, here's the yard, there are the planks.

 

Ok, that's cool, but I'm not going to use the planks, you can take them away.

 

Huh? What are you going to make it out of

 

Whole sticks, straight from the tree

 

Er... Why?

 

It's so much more natural, don't you think, theres no need to interfere with the perfection of wood straight from the tree, the act of shaping it and bending it to your will just takes the emotion from it, makes it less alive, more dull.

 

Well, I was going to ask you to paint it.

 

Absolutely not.

 

Geez, OK, if you're sure you can make it look good - All the other neighbours have planks, they all look great.

 

Do you want a dog house like all the others

 

Yes

 

No, no you don't and when I'm finished, all the other neighbours will be copying you

 

Fine, theres a tree over there, I'll get the nails.

 

Nails, oh no, we won't need nails.

 

How are you going to build it then

 

We shall await a storm, and where the windblown stick fall, there shall be your dogs bed.

 

 

Just now, s0ny said:

YouTube quality is terrible, even in 4K. HEVC is not an option now as my encoding time increases by many times (can take 20 hours for a 3 min video). I'm looking at a balanced quality-size ratio. 

If one of the criterias is what you personally find acceptable, how are we going to be able to help you? You'd be better served encoding a couple of clips at various different quality levels and working out the minimum you can tolerate, and going with that option.

Just now, vaga said:

How do I get my short films to look the way this does? Right now, I shoot with a T3i, but I'm planning to either upgrade to the NX1 or a6300. Of course, a lot of this has to do with lighting, makeup, lens selection, and color grading. But the best tips and tools you have would be great!

 

Thanks, Vaga

I think I'm very much in the same place as you - I'm seeing stuff I absolutely love and I have no idea how to replicate it - I'm finding a lot of mileage in grabbing a notebook, dedicating a double page for each scene, writing down everything I can tell about the scene from:

a writing perspective - how the scene is communicating to the viewer and what information it is giving

a photography perspective - The physical layout of the subjects in frame, and what is not included in frame

a cinematography perspective - How the frame changes through time

then I pick up a camera and spend a week trying to perfect that scene, using the second page to make notes of what works and what doesn't.

What I'm finding is that the most important things will get me shouted at if I write them here, but after you have those things sorted, you get to really hammer down how to make the scene work bit by bit, and each time it gets easier, more natural, your instinct gets you closer straight away and your natural style incorporates those elements.

It's not the quick easy way, but I feel, for me at least it is the best wayt for the long term.

Theres the Sony Picture Profile Guide which helps explain things if you need the basics:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/18357586/Sony-Picture-Profile-Guide.pdf

and on an 8 bit camera, the smart money seems to be on Cine 4 or S-Log 2 with SGamut3.Cine to avoid the banding in flat colours that S-Log 3 gets while still taking advantage of the newer colour science. Personally I favour Cine 4 as the gain of SLog 2 is only about half a stop, but is much easier to use.

I haven't got any advice for matching the two cameras mentioned, I'm working on matching the BMPCC with the Sigma 18-35

On 14/03/2016 at 11:52 PM, Andrew Reid said:

Nope, he looks English to me.

I think some people look at fashion magazines and assume that's what skin looks like! I wanted to post a video of my son taken with the a6300, but I knew people would talk about the "sony skin tones", but that's genuinely what his skin looks like.

18 hours ago, Epoca Libera said:

This would mean that the first issue is because of the adapter.

So with Sony lenses aperture changes automatically during movie capturing and auto exposure mode.

Please inform me if you have a notification  saying  'Running on NTSC"  that appears each and every time the camera is starting up.

Yes the Sony lens I have adjusts the iris during movie capture automatically, as does the e mount sigma in shutter priority or program modes. Aside from the Minolta, I have no other automatic lenses.

Can confirm I have a PAL camera - UK stock so I get that message in NTSC mode and have to format the card.

Just now, Epoca Libera said:

1. I noticed that in movie auto exposure mode the camera will not change (correct) automatically the aperture value during movie shooting.

2.  Here I think I have discovered a firmware bug: Camera will not set the correct aperture on 24p movie modes

I have the sony 50mm f1.8, the sigma e mount 19mm 2.8 and neither of these two things you have observed affect these lenses, however the first issue affects the Minolta 135mm STF T4.5 through a Sony LA-EA2 Adapter when the second A mode iris is engaged, even though the camera recognises that A mode has been engaged and adjusts the iris display to match. I cannot find a lens that replicates your second issue.

Just now, tweak said:

It's ok, but given it's downfalls I don't exactly think it's an amazing prospect as of now. Perhaps Sony will change my mind with some updates.

I'm still really interested about -
CIZ on this cam? and can it be used in 4K as well? or is it only 1080p? If so how's the quality of that???

If someone has this cam to test try it out and let us know. This is something that intrigues me and adds further value to the cam imo.

Yep, only just got the camera myself, so I havent got to grips with the menu enough to test if for you right now, but I found this:

and it's also mentioned on p27 & 72 of the manual which is avaliable to download

Just now, vaga said:

Is the Mount the same for all?

No, the G series use the Contax G mount, it's got a much smaller flange distance - similar to a Canon screw mount, and certainly a smaller diameter too. I would assume, but cannot say for sure, that they are completely different designs and unlikely to share the desirable characteristics of the C/Y Zeiss glass being discussed here. Not to say that they aren't lovely in of themselves, but not glass that would match.

3 hours ago, vaga said:

I was planning to buy the 80-200 too! Lots of god deals on Amazon.

Can someone clear up a few doubts I had? I see that Contax has a Contax G line that has autofocus (I am assuming from pictures of the mount that the 80-200 doesn't have any pins to interface with the camera in the first place). Is there any smart Contax to Canon EF-S or Contax to Samsung NX adapter that can carry the autofocus signal to this lens? What other differences are there between the Contax C/Y mount and Contax G?

Contax G are rangefinder lenses, - The N line has autofocus and are very rare, and reportedly not good and expensive to get working.

11 hours ago, Michael Ma said:

Sony should start making their cameras with optional heatsink+quiet fan attachments accessories.  Seriously, we would rather have that than an unpredictable camera.  And maybe the processing unit can be clocked faster for less rolling shutter.

I think with the likes of the cinema box that rich made for the nex-5 a few years ago, this camera won't overheat for sure, direct sun seems to be it's issue, so a shade and an icepack would be the budget workthrough - not excusing Sony at all here - but rolling shutter is just going to be a part of this camera, it seems, no-one has hacked a Sony yet.

2 hours ago, DayRaven said:

Mines supposed to be arriving today, so as soon as I'm able, and if no-one else gets round to it first, I will

Just had an email from Park Cameras asking me to confirm my address and previous address before dispatch as I am a new customer... My pre-order has been with them since the second, you informed me it had been dispatched yesterday with next day delivery, why haven't you confirmed this with me already and why did you tell me it had been dispatched, causing me to take the day off.

TLTR, It doesn't look like I can help out today

1 hour ago, Tony Anastasi said:

someone in Dubai is saying since he is using PAL, and he and three other friends have not gotten overheating using PAL mode.. can someone test this out and run it in PAL mode 4k please?! 

Mines supposed to be arriving today, so as soon as I'm able, and if no-one else gets round to it first, I will

15 hours ago, Phil A said:

I also had to smirk that certain lenses will make it impossible to mount the A6300 on a longer quick mount plate like most fluid heads use because the mount is too close to the bottom.

Same place as the Nex 7 and I've never had a problem mounting QR plates, as lenses too big tend to have their own mounting point

16 hours ago, Geoff CB said:

They announce some incredible new feature in their next camera and the defaul answer from anyone with intelligence will be "I'll believe it when I see it BM."

To be fair, that should always be the case when dealing with marketing for an unreleased product

I know it's a pain, but I really think you could find trying to charge for the footage more hastle than it's worth. If he decides to lie to a court, you will be sorely lacking in evidence to back up your agreement, and it could easily go against you. Personally, I would either give him the footage, but only release it when he signs an agreement that you can use it for whatever you want, and agrees that your name goes nowhere near his edit OR give the other three the final edit, get them to sign the contract as it was set out verbally before releasing it to them and let them deal with this character.

I think for this situation, the three most important things are:

1) You retain permission to use the footage for yourself - that was your payment, in a sense

2) If he gets the raw files, he knows that your name is not put to his creations

3) To take away the experience, that whenever you turn on your camera on behalf of a client, you have their signiture on a clear - not necessarily lawyered document stating your responsibilities and the recompense you expect for the work

 

Good luck!

Just now, BrorSvensson said:

if you are interested here's the link. Its an swedish site.

http://www.blocket.se/stockholm/Sony_FS100_HD_video_camera__Super35_sensor_65683421.htm?ca=22&w=3

Wow, thanks!

Just now, BrorSvensson said:

Seeing as the FS100 can be found for as low as 700$ on the used market it is really a compelling option if you dont need 4k. 

If anyone have used one how do you find it? Is the 1080p any sharper than the other 1080p sonys and hows the dynamic range?

Wow, that's quite a deal - I've not seen one for under £1000 in the UK, and I've been keeping half an eye out for one.

Just now, tweak said:

This thread cracks me up reading about rolling shutter being OK as you can use it "stylistically"...

That's not at all what I said. After providing one specific example which answered a specific question, I said "but in general, you want to try to minimise it"

Just now, JurijTurnsek said:

My point being, that it will sell a ton irregardless of the conclusions of posters on this forums. Your voice is the minority. Your opinion is being taken into account for FS5, since you are the intended user group.

They put two S-Log profiles in, if they were marketing it purely to casual users, this would be a terrible decision. In fact, if they didn't want to broaden the reach of the sucessor to the best selling mirrorless of all time, then they wouldn't have included a lot of the features they did and priced it at least £200 cheaper.

Just now, rs3d said:

Regarding Rolling Shutter - actually I like it in this video since it emphasizes the motion and scale of the city... Are there maybe examples where you find the RS a useful stylistic device or is it always something to be avoided?

Imagine you were shooting a movie with a1st person perspective of a character who was drugged or poisoned, you could really use rolling shutter heavily as a style for that shot, but in general, you want to try to minimise it from the level some cameras display, because it is too much, but trying to avoid it on some cameras becomes more effort than it is worth - plenty of great movies have it, but people are too involved in the story to notice or care.

16 hours ago, Ed David said:

4.  Can you give names to who the cleaning staff were and their contact information privately to me so I can speak to them?

This would surely be illegal if they did so! It wouldn't matter how any previous employers had treated me, or how much on my side anyone they handed my details too, I would be furious at the breach of privacy if any company I had previously worked for did this, and, quite rightly, in the UK there are laws preventing this.