PannySVHS

Yeah, saw some awesome stuff shot in cine4 with it and internal HD 8bit 420. So maybe one of us starts a thread with the best buys, and additional best buys which we ever hardly used plus the stories to not using them! That´s right!:) But, at least FS700 got used for two paid gigs, one of them with internal HD SLog2. One of the two gigs was last year even.:) In 2021 I had to do two shorts with other cameras due to lack of rigging, time or due to request of the producer. At least my S1 got some use as a B-Cam and produced beautiful images. Last year it was BCam and even ACam to a C300II. But still, darn you are right.:) My F3 waiting for an EVF and for its first legit footage. BMMCC getting ready for some digital Super16 anamorphic, but still waiting after a first test. Darn, but in a good way too, so much exiting tech!:) I would hope CS was pretty good from my experience with my FS700. I heard that it either performs better under 5600K or 3200K, making a huge difference. The vari ND for sure would be a great thing to for some variation in DOF. Should browse vimeo a bit for some nice filmic experiments with it.:) ANYWAY, the Varicam LT sold for 5500EUR! It was completely rigged, with two P2-Cards, viewfinder, shoulder rig, handles and V-mount. Before, it was even offered by the seller for 4500, but seems like too many potential buyers offered more, so they put it back in for 5500. I was hoping the other way around.:)

@dreamplayhouse So, which of the cameras are in your closer circle of choices? I would say, go for a GH4, same HD resolution as G6, G7, GH3, with the benefit of a professional grade body, when it comes to DSLMs. It has up to 200mbit All-Intra and 60p in HD mode, best in class battery life and the additional beautiful 4K. If GX7 had a 50mbit or better 100mbit codec, I would propably get one of these even now. As fuzzy said, beautiful colour response from what I got to see on vimeo back then.

Mounting Tevidons has been a challenge to me. I got a whole set in C-mount. Except the 100m, which I dont have at all unfortunately.:) Of my lenses only the 35mm fits on my S1 with the C-mount to L-mount adapter. None of them goes beyond 2m with my Mft adapter. On my S1 I have to use some spacing with a bit of tape. The 35mm is a little wonder lens, covering S35. They sell C-mounts on Ebay, which you exchange with the original Tevidon bayonets/mounts. Then you have to go from there with an adapter from C-mount to your desired mount. I was hoping my C-mount variants of Tevidon lenses would fit well already. So there is still a challenge ahead from me, giving the exchange mounts a go and finding the right C-mount adapter to go with it. Instead on could also mount the C-mount to mft adapter by screwing it on the body of the lens, after the original Tevidon mount has been taken off. Would love some more Tevidon love and FOOTAGE with them from you guys.:) One interesting thing encountered me with my Angie 75mm C-mount lens. It gave me super flat and hazy images when I took some portraits of people. But some dedicated RAW love in rawtherapee gave me some of the most exiting colours with it. My native Oly 45mm 1.8 on the other hand didnt during another location.

Perfectly said @Mark Romero 2 Lantern has a pretty nice curtain to really block as much light as one wishes btw, if we talk about the one from Aputure, which comes in Bowens mount.

@leslie Prices are way too high for me at the moment to get one and sofore no confession yet.:) But instead I confess of having bought the Konica 35-100mm f2.8 some time ago. Still looking for an opportunity to make it shine. Aweseome! You really would put many smiles on the faces of C-mount, BMMCC and BMPCC lovers. So practically on a lot of our faces.:) Interesting about the Pentax thing. I read that there are some gems under lesser know brand names. F.i. Miranda 25mm f2.8 is supposed to have the same glass like its Zeiss counterpart. Same with Minolta and Leica 2.8, though I wouldnt call Minolta to be unknown of course. I have a full set of Tevidons and some doubles, just missing the 100mm F2.8. Mounting and adapting these is a sucker though. Have mounted a C-mount version of the 35mm on my S1, using some gaffer tape to adjust the flange. It works perfect in S35! Mounting it with my mft adapter on my GX85 does not work. None of the others mount adequately on neither my S1 or GX85. The doubles are all in Tevidon mount, so even more variables with the Tevidon to C-mount adapter, which you subsitute for the Tevidon bayonet and screw directly on the lens. I mean this thread is about vintage lenses, so hopefully you won´t mind this little excourse @kye🙂

360p youtube looks worse than anything:) But thanks for getting a point across. Why this film. Looks a bit dull. There are other classics of Soviet cinema. There are also more than one classic Soviet lens. Helios 58mm is not the end of all lens desires. This film looks rather like something like this, to give it a lens equivalent. 🙂 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smena_(camera)

Don, I think I got all your points.:) @webrunner5 American West Coast Grunge Music just sounds great. Wonky colours, sure, why not embrace that wonky film emulsions! Your point of view makes me want to browse the vimeo archives for that (in)famous A7s treasures of video with wonky or surprising colour. 🙂

Wow, your answers getting epic. 🙂 @kye i think the Sony will do well with the nice ooc color, if similar to the A6500 and its AF. Codec will not be stressed in these settings. I would love to see a dull interview filmed with that thriling combo of a S1h and the Sony. 🙂

5D2 and 5d3 cameras will be rising in price again, like Andew wrote or maybe because he wrote so.:)

Welcome back, dear Don! Now that sounds like a worthy phrase from cinema!:) Now I have to check out that Takumar 28mm F3.5!:) Happy New Year, everyone!

@kye Thank you again for your camera- lenses combinations and insights. I find the GX85 perfect with sharpness dialed down all the way. It is a dogma for my Panny 4K acquisition. On my G6 it was -2 for sharpness.One thing about dof and angle of view is different in my opinion. The pairing for a 7.5 f2 on mft would be a 15 f4 on ff afaik. So 17.5 0.95 would have a FF equivalent of 35 f2 and so on. I also enjoyed your perspective on using focal lengths and its purposes and intentions! The 12.5mm 1.4 Fujinon covers the GX85 in 4K with just the normal IBIS, no need for the electronic one. With abrupt and fast pans the vignetting shows for the seconds of impact though. @webrunner5 I have an Olympus dream lens. Once acquired I will let ya know. Supposely the best in its class and hard to find for my desired price. Now isnt that a nice riddle:)

DP achieved effective and beautiful compositions. I found some of the shots with stonge geometry and perspective very engaging, Light was very painterly and dreamy. Great lensing regarding focal lengths and glass. Other shots felt rather sufficient in holding the edit together. As a whole, a good display of talent and also of the cameras sensor and the urban places.

Improvement would have to be seen when heavily graded. The thin AVCHD codec with its low bit rate should show so much mare artefacts than ALL Intra. Also in movements more mushiness due to compression.

@jgharding filming in HLG with it should give you results and dynamic like a A73 colour wise. I thinke the ZV E10 could compliment the S1H very well. The image from the A73 is loved my many one-man-band people. ZV E10 should do well. Have seen some great colour from the A6500 as well.

Funny enough, I was browsing for some steals and found a 5D2 for 350EU. It is a very pretty camera to hold and to look at. Just love the robust and no nonsense body and design. BUT, I do not own any EF lenses for photography nor sufficient glas in Nikon mount besides my Tokina 28-70 2.6 and a Vivitatr 35mm 1.9. No chance to adapt FD glas, which I have a handful fun and nice lenses for. There is a fascination coming from these big robust full frame DSLRs. I can imagine snapping a 5D2 or 5d3 sometime soon. When a friend of mine dped for a musicvideo he had a 5d2 on set for bts photos. That camera gave me great pleasure to hold in the hand and the satisfying sound of the mirror really made it click to me. My S1 does not resonat to me like that at all. Hardly do photography with it at all. Video as B- or Ccam only so for due to lack of rigging and batteries.

Thank you guys for your points. Both my topics were covered awesomely and even put into context with one another. Great write ups! Now with that Varicam, it would be a camera I would absolutely love to have in my arsenal. If the seller puts the price down again, I will make him an offer.

The Takumar and Cosmicar look the most impressive to me. The Pentax for its overall quality, the Cosmicar in regard that it´s just a TV lens for 16mm or super 15 image circle. Colors and contrast and resolution just look right. Thanks for the test, put the Takumar on my radar.

I don´t know. I usually look for comparision charts of the models, comparing one to the other. 1070 outperforms the rx580 by a significant margin. I would go with a 1070 or 1660.

@kye Exactely, to the point! I love the image quality from the BMMCC the best. I enjoy the promise of the F3 which is still untested. I dont consider my kitchen window a test of image quality.:) I think I enjoy the thought of possibility of testing and using all this gear and the thrill to buy them for cheap. Maybe we could start a thread with the best cam deals we made the last couple years. BMMCC will be for my mini anamorphic set up and lushiest colors. F3 for the hunt for the magic underdog camera, the baby Alexa. FS700 for the ease of use and external Prores 4K60p with a speedbooster. In the end it is easy to gather gear over the years like i have in the last two and half years. So I asked the two questions in one topic. I think it makes sense to talk and write about the oddities and akward habbits of cinematography lovers and camera dreamers. I filmed two shorts this year, 7days all together, first one with the GH5 only, second one mixing a rented A-Cam C300II with a rented GH5 as B-Cam and my S1 as specialty Cam. With own equipment I always realize, I am missing rigging parts, reliable battery solutions, monitoring, etc. Why holding on to equpment which I am not using? Hard to tell. But that is why I imply in the title of the thread what I am, a dummie. The Varicam question stands in relation to that but also for itself in relation to image qualiity and all the other important attributes. In the end I hope to have shared some questions of interest. The answers from you guys already were very satisfying and profound. BMMCC and C300II grade the easiest from my experience. For the GH5 I have serveral Power grades in Resolve which work well for me. But S1 only really excells to me in lit sets or under low light conditions. I have not recognized any artefacts from the S1! GH5 though turns super mushy in super lowlight. I find the S1 harder to grade under natural lighting condtions than the GH5. So the prospect of a Varicam would be, dynamic range and color response like my BMMCC, lowlight exellence and all the goodies of ergos and rigging, if bougth in a complete set. To buy a Varicam has only become a vague option to me, because I found a rigged out package, which is ready to film, with viewfinder, handles, shoulder pad and so. The price was very low for what this camera is. But seller raised the price again. So it´s out of my reach.

Wow, second video with the model is an akward test design and kinda untelling test conditions. All cameras looked bad btw in that test.:) I like the image to price ratio of the BM4K. Friends of mine love it and produce great colours with it. S1 really shines in lowlight, giving awesome colours and quality. Equalling or bettering possibly Alexa and Varicam. Gives you back the image noise, when you film under super low light:) Also a contender would be a Sony FX6, giving fantastic lowlight, NDs and all that. It does not produce mush in lowlight, which is great. FX3 and A7s3 get mushy with higher ISO in super lowlight. Somehow I have a fascination for Varicam as the ultimate camera in Panasonics offerings. The sensor has definately a different response to colours as test number 1 shows.

Great. That is a great advise! So I remembered right. Awesome!:) I got my second Iscomorphot 8 1.5 coming. I want to couple them with C-mounts taking lenses, that way having a super light RAW camera anamorphic setup with two anamorphic lenses! I am very exited. I think the Iscomorphot is perfect for the S16 sensor size. Coupling the setup with a Tilta Nano, Raw anamorphic with wireless focus- a dream come true.:)

1660 Ti should be about the same as a 1070. So 1070, 1660 or 1660TI would all be fine, 1070 offering even 8GB of ram.

Thanks you, great points! Ergo would be top on my list. Still not using my F3 beause I am shying away from spending money for an EVF. Akward, and the epitome of camera GAS. Buying the camera and not being willing to build and rig a system. I find my S1 harder to grade than GH5 material. I considered myself a person with decent color grading skills. But it took me a few hours to get the hang out of the S1. I had bad experience with IR poluted BM Mini Pro footage. It felt like grading 420 bit from a 5D2 to me! Hard to imagine but true. I don´t see many comparisons with the Lumix cams and EVA. From what I saw, the Varicam holds onto colours better under a variety of shooting conditions than the EVA. EVA coming close ore even equalling the image from the Varicam under normal lighting conditions, Lumix cameras having a different signature still. S1 potentially coming close with adequate grading. Varicam should trump with its thick codec for heavy grading. @kye Though the 150mbit codec of the S1 is not easy to break, just like the one from the GH5. Kye couldnt break the GH5 10bit Intercodec, which is a good thing of course:) But I imagine color response and tonality would offer more to the eye with the Varicam.

If I was to buy a card, a RTX2070 would be perfect for my needs. 1070, 1080, 2060 should be good enough even.

Thank you both for your insightful writings. I am shy of introspective at the moment. So thank you for letting me relate to the important points and thoughts you mentioned, you both! What I can state is that I want to contribute some of my last years findings to this forum and to engage more into discussions and exchange with you guys.