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Basil

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Everything posted by Basil

  1. Andrew, I love your accent. Reminds me of some of my friends when I lived in London (a long time ago). It just makes me smile!
  2. Basil

    Fuji X-T4

    Just looking at this thread now, and I saw this little side conversation on the LX100 and LX100 II. FWIW, I actually have the XH1 and the LX100 II - they complement each other nicely. I love my XH1, it is not the best camera at anything in particular, but it is quite good at everything. I use primarily for stills - everything from street photography, bird and wildlife photography, event photography, and studio portraiture. It has it's minor flaws, but the ergonomics are wonderful - old school. I'm definitely interested in the X-H2 or X-T4 or whatever it is they call the X-H1 successor. In the meantime, I am grooving on the Fuji glass (and not missing full frame lenses which so heavy) As for LX100 II, I use that primarily for my scuba travels - I have an underwater housing for it, and it would prohibitively expensive and tiresome to change systems - the LX100 II fit into the same scuba housing for LX100. I've shot some great underwater video (on my Youtube channel if you are curious) and stills with LX100 II and it's predecessor, the LX100. I also use it some for travel and street photography - it is small enough to toss it into my coat pocket. Panasonic image app is the best (I've used Sony, Olympus, and Fuji - they are not nearly as useful). I want to try out time lapse video on the LX100 II, and experiment with outdoor portraits in bright sun -- where I can leverage the camera's leaf shutter and really kill the ambient light.
  3. Hi Andrew - I totally understand, that is why I asked first. I'll look for a genuinely "cheapie" camera
  4. Andrew I have an LX100, which I was preparing to sell (since I got the LX100 II). I am looking up prices on eBay (filtering out stores) for comparison sake, and I am getting anywhere from $160 to $325. Would I be qualified to participate? Thanks -Basil
  5. I was home alone (spouse on a work trip), so I played a bit more with the camera last night and night before (my poor cats seemed annoyed with my being paparazzi). I will post a few pics and video clips tonight or tomorrow, but a few observations (subject to revisions, retractions, edits, etc...): 1. I tested out the Tamron 15-30 F2.8 wide angle lens. Yes, it is big and heavy and I didn't like using it on my A77II. It seemed much more comfortable on the A99II, which is the same size body, but is heavier. I guess that lens is better balanced on the A99II body. The AF only uses the separate PDAF unit, (likely the same unit as in the A77II), but it worked just fine. 2. I enabled center lock AF (it's in one of those menus), which works in video mode. I then used the AEL button to lock the exposure in video mode. I was shooting 4K 30P, and pointed the camera toward a light source, until the shutter speed dropped to 1/60, then locked the exposure. That froze the shutter speed where I wanted it. The camera freezes the aperture at F3.5, which is annoying. Interestingly, you can adjust the ISO, or just set it to auto. I then used the video with the AF, and shot a couple 10 - 20 second clips of the cats (who were not being very cooperative). I still have to pull the clips in Final Cut, and take a look on the computer, but on playback on the LCD screen -- the AF worked nicely. It tracked my uncooperative subjects (who walked out of the room!). This could be really useful for quickie run & gun (non-professional, clearly) clips. It would be great, if the aperture wasn't locked at F3.5, or at least if the lock was eased a bit to maybe a cap of F3.5 (since I was using my 50mm F1.4 lens) - just to have some control over depth-of-field. One final note: I was futzing a lot with the camera (still figuring out how I want to set it up, program buttons, etc...), but even with my clumsy, unsteady handling -- I noticed that the 5-axis image stabilization is pretty damn awesome in video mode.
  6. I love the picture of the dog!! (is that with the Minolta 28-105 that you posted about? The colors are really nice!) I get weak for photos of both dogs and cats. Then again, I do a LOT of pet photography, and I am looking forward to using the A99II for that. I shot a few pictures of my cats, and my parents --- I got a really nice shot of Dad with the Sony-Zeiss 50 F1.4 So the A99II has this "hybrid autofocus" which appears to combine the separate phase detect autofocus (PDAF) unit (79 AF points) from the A77II with the on sensor PDAF (399 AF points) of the A7R II. However, to leverage both, you have to be using Sony lenses on the A99II. Anything other brand (Sigma, Tamron, etc...), and you only get to use the separate PDAF unit (the 79 points), not both systems together. From what I understand, that same restriction also applies to the old Minolta lenses. Sony's support page for the A99II actually has a section (if you dig around enough) listing which lenses are compatible with the hybrid autofocus, though it only lists Sony and Minolta lenses. On one hand, this is kind of an annoying restriction. However, it's not exactly unique to Sony -- Panasonic uses proprietary "depth from defocus" (DFD) technology to improve the contrast detect (CDAF) on their cameras (they profile the out-of-focus characteristics of the lenses), but lo and behold, it only works with Panasonic lenses. Having used the A77II for some time, I've never had autofocus issues with the 79 AF point -- it always seemed like enough to nail my focus, and it works just fine with my Sigma and Tamron lenses. I'll test those same lenses on the A99II. The only difference I can think of is the fact that the 79 point AF unit covers a smaller percentage of a full frame sensor than it does on an APS-C sensor, but I don't think that is a major limitation. I have limited wide angle experience: I recently did a bit of real estate photography (and want to do more), and for that I bought the new Tamron 15-30mm F2.8. On the A77II, the 15mm is equal to 24mm in terms of field of view, so I am looking forward to getting a true 15mm FOV when I put it on the A99II. The lens is sharp, colors are nice, but it has a fair amount of barrel distortion (though I am told that is common on wide angle lenses). But OMG is it a big heavy monster of a lens, and it has a big curved front element, so mounting filters is a bit of a challenge. I think for landscape or real estate photography it will be great, but for video, I probably want to try a smaller prime...or maybe I will just hang on to my Sigma 18-35 F1.8 for now.
  7. Hi Andrew I just don't understand the snark factor around here. My A99II just arrived this weekend (I got a good deal on a perfectly clean open box copy from one of my favorite retailers for $2720, complete with a full manufacturers warranty). I am upgrading from my A77II (soon to be on eBay), am I am focused on stills, for which this camera is just absolutely lovely....Here are a few first impressions: 1. It is almost the exact same size as my A77II, but has more weight to it. I really like how it balances in my hand. It strikes me that it is a larger body than the A7 series (for obvious reasons), but it's smaller smaller than most (all??) full frame DSLRs. I get the sense that the SLTs are kind of this weird blend/middle ground between DSLRs and mirrorless cameras (probably unintentionally). 2. Menus are better organized, but good heavens, there are a lot of features. The layout reminds me a lot of my Olympus E-M1 (which I sold) in a way because it is powerful and infinitely customizable (tons of features and buttons), but on the other hand -- it can be really overwhelming. That said, I am much more comfortable with the A99II so far, because I have been using the A77II for the last several years, and there is enough similarity to be familiar. 3. I have the Zeiss 50mm F1.4 --- and it just shines on this camera. It is a nice size on this body, and it makes some gorgeous images. I still have to test out my other A-mount lenses on this (some of which will be sold off, since money is an object...). Do you have the Sigma Art 18-35 F1.8 in A-mount? Have you tried it on the A99II in Super 35 mode? (I have it as my go-to for my A77II, and was planning to sell it, but I may reconsider if it is a video shooter "must have".) For what it's worth, thanks for all your work, and for sharing your excitement and passion.
  8. Andrew I am seriously pining for an A99II as well, as an upgrade to my A77II. Mostly, I want to use it for stills work, I am starting to get much more serious about portraiture and architectural photography. I have some decent A-Mount lenses now incl the Sigma 18-35 F1.8 and the Sony/Zeiss 50 F1.4 (My other camera is a Panasonic LX100, which I use for video (mostly underwater in a scuba housing), it is a perfect 2nd/travel camera). Anyways, Dan Watson did a video about using ND filters and AE Lock button on back of the A99II, to partially get around the manual exposure/autofocus limitation. He locked the exposure with ND filters on, then took them off and shots in Program Auto. The aperture is locked at F3.5, the shutter speed is locked by the AEL button at 1/50 or 1/60 of a second, but he the autofocus still works Here is the link I believe Mike Kobal also did a similar video on an earlier A-mount camera (I think it was an A77)
  9. I'm very interested in this camera, for both photo and video, but really disappointed on the video AF. Cinema 5D posted an interview with a Sony exec -- they have purposefully handicapped this camera, by not giving the A99II AF for video mode, unless it is in program mode (the earlier a-mounts have the same limitation). No AF with any manual exposure control. In the interview, the Sony exec says they may listen to customer feedback -- who knows, and change this via firmware update presumably. Who knows. It's really a disappointment, because I use AF in some of my video clips -- it is very convenient. I always manually set and lock-down the exposure, and you cannot do that for video in Program mode. I would love to be able, for example, to use my a-mount telephoto lens and shoot some 4K video of wildlife, or sports, and manual focus in that sort of situation is kind of questionable. I understand -- Sony not wanting this camera to cannibalize sales of the A7RII and the other e-mounts, but those cameras have other advantages over the a-mount lineup: newer lenses, and the ability to adapt all kinds of glass. I think Sony is making a mistake because this camera competes more with the Canon 5D IV, and even the IDX II. It hold ups well for stills, but Canon at least offers video AF, while using manual exposure settings. That stopped me from pre-ordering this camera today, which is a shame because I wanted to upgrade from my A77II, and otherwise this camera looks very attractive. Here is the interview (it's informative): https://***URL not allowed***/unraveling-sony-a99-ii-4k-as-good-a7-line/
  10. I'm a newbie, most of my video has been underwater (my beloved LX100, in a scuba housing) I am kind of curious about the gx80/85/g7MarkII for both photo and video (I used to own an EM1, and I appreciate stabilized video). I know the gx80/gx85 doesn't have either the Cine D or Cine V profiles, nor a Log profile -- which is fine for me at this point, since my color correcting experience in video is pretty limited. But can you shoot 4K video using the L Monochrome photo profile, to play with black & white video?
  11. (at the risk of sounding dense....) Should I send you a single picture, or a few seconds of video?
  12. Hi Andrew: I'm a long-time reader, just taking baby steps after much hesitation. I have an LX100 (a travel cam, and also used underwater, in a scuba housing - it rocks at both). Would these LUTs work on my video clips from the LX100 (since it runs on the same Panasonic engine, but does not have the CineV and CineD profiles)? Regards, Basil
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