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bowielow

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Everything posted by bowielow

  1. That's really nice to hear mate but I already got a guy. To accommodate you we'd probably have to give up the Alexa Mini but this is a once in a lifetime experience and I want to use that camera. I really hope you get to go on projects like mine too though, I was lucky.
  2. I'm doing a documentary in rural parts of South East Asia (i.e Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia etc), it's going to be a two-man (max) film crew with a one host. We could've used a cheaper camera and gotten a sound guy but I wanted to use the Alexa Mini. I actually bought the Mini. I'm coming from the FS7 so I have pretty much very little idea what I'm getting myself into here. I will be using an external recorder that's for sure, but I need some form of scratch audio into the video footage so I can sync them afterwards. I thought about timecode using the Tentacle Syncs that I'm contemplating to buy but honestly I have no idea how to use them, I always synced my audio using waveforms. I've done a little bit of research into timecodes and the timecode modes, and realised that the best option is just to set it on 24 hour run because I can't possibly be timecode jamming all the time when I'm moving around. I just found out about the MixPre-D that allows me to output to two 3-pin XLR that I could possibly just adapt to the 5-pin lemo but that seems like a very bulky option. I really hope someone makes a portable preamp that outputs to a 5-pin lemo so I don't have to go through all these conversions.
  3. I was just curious what do you guys usually do when recording audio to or with the Alexa Mini. Do you record it separately from the camera? How then do you sync it? If you are recording it directly to the camera, how do you do it? The way I do it is through an external timecode generator and I record audio separately, but one one-man shoots that is usually a huge pain in the butt. The Alexa Mini has a 5-pin lemo connector, which is so new I think I've only seen on this camera. There might already be some adaptor solutions out there but the fact that the camera only accepts line level audio means I can't use those portable preamps because they usually output to a 1/8" stereo mini jack. Have you guys found a preamp that outputs to one or two XLRs?
  4. I'm a wedding photographer/videographer who's looking to get new gear, for the fun of it mostly, but also to have an alternative to my current lineup of lenses and video cameras. I was feeling kind of bored and I was looking into buying one of the Canon Cinema cameras. I realised that unlike the FS7, the C300 Mark II doesn't have 60p in 4K and it can only shoot at frame rates higher than 60p in a severely cropped mode. That got me wondering whether the camera is physically capable of shooting at those requirements and if so, will Canon release a firmware update? Or will they just lump the whole full set of video capabilities in the C500 Mark II. At the moment, the C500 can only record 4K to an external recorder, which isn't what I'm looking for exactly because I prefer to have my cameras as minimally setup as possible. I don't like chunky attachments when shooting on the go.
  5. I've had very mixed information about what the actual D810 video dynamic range is because many say that in video mode, the D810 isn't producing the 14 somewhat stops of dynamic range that we are promised in stills. The D810 has a monster of a sensor let's not take that away from it, but is the video actually good enough? The A7S II was released recently and SLOG3 promises around 14 stops of dynamic range, whether that is true or false will probably be revealed in the near future but Nikon has been relatively silent about the numbers. Through observation, it's evident that SLOG3 is way flatter than the D810's flat picture profile, I would even go so far as to say that it's flatter than third-party profiles such as flaat_11, flaat_12 or cineflat. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to put down the D810, it is and always will be my favourite camera, but I'm not sure if I want to use it for video. What does the A7S II has for video that the D810 doesn't? And what is the real video dynamic range of the D810, considering line skipping etc.
  6. Thanks for everyone's replies, I am genuinely surprised that the D810's flat profile is already that capable because the information I read online points the other way. I always thought the Nikon flat profile has only around 10 stops of dynamic range and the SLOG3 has close to 14, but I may be wrong on that front. 8-bit video is a bummer, the antiquated H.264 codec is even more of a bummer. I wonder why Nikon doesn't develop their own codec or at least use Sony's AVCHD or XAVC since they are more efficient. I know these are codecs built on the compatibility of H.264 but I still think that other codecs are much better. Also, 10-bit video at a higher bit rate to match the GH4 might be a nice touch in the future. The GH4 pumps out 200mbps in 1080p mode and the Nikon does around 40mbps, or 50 I can't be sure. I don't care for 4K since it has been out for a while now and none of the people I know actually have 4K devices at home. I don't shoot for Hollywood or major adverts so 4K is still a very niche feature.
  7. I'm sorry if I come off as a little naive, but I don't get it. The D810 beats the A7SII in dynamic range for video? I mean for stills the D810 has a dynamic range of more than 14 stops, that's all too familiar for me, but I'm assuming they have not been able to implement this into video as efficiently as Sony has done with the A7SII and SLOG3. Also the D810 shoots in H.264, which the last time I checked, was a pretty inefficient codec as compared to the XAVC/XAVC-S or AVCHD. The D810's video bitrate is also around 40 mbps? I don't know how much it matters in terms of video, but the Sony seems to be able to shoot in 50mbps (100mbps in 4K) bit rates and the GH4 is capable of 100-200mbps. So the Nikon has a picture profile better than SLOG3? Enlighten me because I'm pretty new to video thanks.
  8. With the whole hype with Sony's A7S II, it is natural that many people would be starting to learn video, which is probably a good thing since the price of video equipment can only become more competitive from here. I was wondering if Nikon would ever venture into the video world aggressively. Panasonic introduced it's GH4 a couple years back and my did that shake the world of videography. The A7S came and once again, even pure photographers like me have found myself discussing video with other pure photographers, more specifically, about the awesome new A7S and more recently, the A7S II. Nikon has a lot of catching up to do when it comes to video, even though the 1080p60, 8-bit, 25mbps, H.264 D810 is holds it's own really well, spec-wise, it leaves much to be desired. What I am curious to see is if Nikon is interested in this arms race of sorts, because still photography has always been what Nikon has shot for (no pun intended). It's dynamic range for still images surpasses the Arri Alexa, which to me is the pinnacle of imaging technology. Although I'm not really sure if DXOMARK figures are to be trusted, but the D810 produces more than 14 stops of dynamic range for still images. I guess the real question is, will Nikon introduce more features to it's camera lineup in terms of video? or is video on a Nikon camera just a nice-to-have?
  9. I'm starting to learn videography on my D810 and my A7S II and I am wondering how all this work. I understand the theory of it all, i.e flat profiles are able to capture a wider dynamic range and can be worked on in post, applying specific LUTs, grading, correction, conversion from LOG to REC709 and vice versa, printing it to film etc. What I don't get, maybe because of the lack of concrete data on the internet, is the difference/relationship between 10-bit and 8-bit video and how it relates to picture profiles. Also, what is the difference between Sony's LOG profiles? Is this just nomenclature and a Nikon flat profile can potentially achieve the same amount of dynamic range as the SLOG can? What makes a picture profile a log profile and can other picture profiles based on logarithmic exposure curves be called log profiles as well. In that case, isn't the Cineflat profile a log profile as well because it's curved as such? Also Tassinflat and Flaat profiles. I'm still learning so I have loads of questions to ask. Bear with me. Also, what's with bandwidth and bit depth? I get bit depth as it relates to photos, does it work the same for video because I assume videos to be just a composite of many photos. Say we have a device recording 100mbps at 10-bits and another recording at 200mbps but at 8-bits, what will be the difference?
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