MountneerMan

Not totally underrelated but why can’t adobe make a grading interface for premiere that is identical to lightroom or adobe camera raw? Lightroom is multiple times easier to “grade” pictures than anything I have tried in premiere or aftereffect.

If anyone knows of a plugin for premiere that will give me sliders from the “basic” section in lightroom (eg. temp, tint, highlights, shadows, whites, blacks, saturation and vibrance) I would pay good money for that plugin.

Does this already exist? This in my opinion is by far the fastest and easiest way to get the look you want. At least 10 times easier than the three way color corrector hell it would even be easier than using a LUT, IMO.

39 minutes ago, Snowfun said:

Took out my new steadicam solo (bmpcc plus weights) for its first walk around the garden... reviewing the footage,  I thought I must have bought a yacht! 

I had read that it isn't easy but I was quite surprised at just how difficult it is to stop it swaying. And, yes, it does seem to be balanced and it has a drop time of 2s. One thing I did notice during the drop test is that it does develop a spin. Presumably that means that it cannot be balanced.  

The steady Cam solo is one of the products that I was curious about. What made you choose this model?

Currently I am looking into the following (I have kind of grouped them into two categories);

1.1 Glide Came HD1000/2000 (most likely the 2000) This appears to be the industry goto benchmark product so naturally its high on my list but I still struggle with the price.

1.2 Came-H4. I have been reading about some quality problems with this one witch worries me alot because quality and durability is one of my main requirements. What is everyone's experience with CAM products in terms of quality?

2.1 Steady Cam Solo I am interested in these steady cam/mono pod combos but wonder if they are any good as mono pods or if it is just a gimmicky addon.

2.2 Came-150/200 (most likely the 200) A cheaper alternative to the steady cam but again wonder if the quality/durability is not as good as the steady cam brand.

Unfortunately There is no stores near where I live that has a good selection for me to test them out and I tend to research the hell out of a product before pulling the trigger

7 hours ago, mojo43 said:

Just picked up an H4. Looks like a really good rig!

Excellent. Currently this is the one I am leaning towards but need to find a store that has it so I can try it before committing.  Please let me know if you like it and what camera/lens you use it with. As stated before I am looking to use my NX1 w/ 16-50S lens and Rode VMP.

If you transcode just use the build input LUT option in rocky Mountain movie converter...  It is the fastest transcoder i have found and my system cant edit HEVC smoothly anyways

18 minutes ago, Hanriverprod said:

Lee Kun-hee, former chairman of Samsung group, has been very ill for a long time, some speculate that he's already gone. His children are consolidating their main brands and shuttering many subsidiaries for tax reasons. Korean owners of conglomerates create many complex subsidiaries to protect themselves from taxes. Besides their core profit streams like semiconductors and smartphones, a lot of their satellite companies and tech are being sold off or restructured. All this is happening because the family members of Samsung are divying up the company right now.

Yep, I understand how big companies work. I work for and am part owner of one. But I fail to see your point. You think that samsung was making lot of money on the NX cameras and decided to stop production not because is was a financial business decision but because they plan on selling off that division?

EDIT: in any case its not worth discussing anymore, I am sorry for letting it go on for this long. I am just board at work I guess lol.

1 hour ago, aldolega said:

Right now this instant, I grab the HD1000, just because I've barely used the H4 yet. 

I wasn't putting the HD1000 up as the specific HD model you should get, by the way. That's just what I have. My 60D setup (body, Tokina 11-16, Rode VMP, Manfrotto QR adapter) was about 3.5lbs and that was maxing it out I think. It always flew well for me but I wouldn't want to go any heavier.

I only loaded the H4 to about 3lbs when I used it, but I'm also suspicious of that supposed 6lb max. My gut says more like 4.5-5.

Between the two, from my very limited experience with the H4, I think the Glidecam is going to be the better performer, but the H4 packs up much much smaller/lighter and goes inverted much easier, which for me personally are more important than that last tiny bit of performance.

Frankly I haven't really used the Glidecam much at all in the last two years because I got sick of hauling it around, and combined with getting over the typical initial OMGGLIDECAMALLTHETIMMMMEEE phase everyone goes through, it just started staying at home pretty much always.

 

Thank you for your insight I agree with that I would prefer the smaller lighet more compactness of the H4 over the HD1000/2000.

Do you think its fair to compare the HD2000 to the CAME-H4. After looking at the specs I think the more fair comparison would be the HD1000 and CAME-H4. Would you agree?

Also, is your gut feeling that the CAME could fly more than the HD1000?

Sorry to keep bugging you with questions. If you dont want to respond I wont hold it against you.

1 minute ago, tugela said:

Nah. The bulk of the cost associated with products like this is up mostly front in the form of development and marketing. Once they have all that worked out, the actual manufacture and assembly is relatively trivial. If you go out an buy something in a store, the actual cost of making it is pennies to the dollar. The rest is all derived from other expenses, both net and gross.

They would have abandoned the line not because of manufacturing costs, but because gross revenue was insufficient to pay for support services and the development cost of the next generation product.

Definitely, that could very likely be the reason they discontinued production.

Here is another possible reason, again in formula form

(Revenue of Product A - Production cost of Product A in factory A) x the number of units they expect to sell < (Revenue of Product B - Production cost of Product B in factory A) x the number of units they expect to sell

Where Product A is an NX lens for example
and Product B is a GS7 for example

My point wasn't the exactness of my formula it was that they are looking at actual costs and sales numbers and are making business decisions base on them

I worked extra hard last week so I would have more time this week to watch videos and read NAB news witch is almost non existent. Hence my increased activity on here 

EDIT: Actually I was wondering, what does everyone think about the new Sennheiser stero shotgun mic? http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1248110-REG/sennheiser_506258_mke_440_compact_stereo.html

The price seams right.

33 minutes ago, TheRenaissanceMan said:

I would be very curious to hear a comparison between the HD1000 and CAME H4.

I second that request.

49 minutes ago, aldolega said:

The screw-style fine adjustment (HD series, DG edition, Came H4 etc) is welllll worth the extra money over the simple sliding adjustment (XR series/Flycam/etc). It makes fine-tuning your balance actually practical/possible, which if you have to work anywhere near quickly is essential. If you're just putzing around on personal stuff with infinite time to fiddle with your rig, and you're a patient but broke person, save the money on the cheaper units with the sliding-style adjustment... I guess... still not worth it IMO.

I hear you... note taken the XR and optika have been taken off the list.

49 minutes ago, aldolega said:

I shot with my Flycam maybe four-five times before shelving it and picking up an HD1000. Night & day difference, and worth every penny of the $200-ish difference at the time, just for being able to pull the HD1000 out, have it still be 98% balanced, and then tweaking the knobs to get to 100% within a few seconds. The Flycam was a ten-minute struggle every time, if not more, and even then its cheaper gimbal and build quality didn't give quite as good of performance.

I saw the HD1000 but its only rated for up to 3 lbs and figured that is was like tripod ratings where they are usually pretty generous with their specs meaning in order to get good results you should stay well under their specified maximums.

What is your experience with the HD1000 can it comfortably fly 3lbs? How about compared to the CAME-H4 witch is APPARENTLY rated for up to 6 lbs(eye roll).

49 minutes ago, aldolega said:

I actually have a Came H4 too, that I have yet to really run through the paces, but it seems promising. Good build quality, much more compact than the HD1000, and the sliding gimbal lets you switch to inverted mode pretty painlessly.

OK... I am going to put you on the spot.... you have to grab either your HD1000 or your CAME-H4.... What do you grab?

41 minutes ago, vasile said:

I doubt the BOM is over 200$ for the body, let us say 300 with manufacturing. The rest is retailer markup and getting a return on the investment in IP.

IP investment can be considered sunk cost at this stage. I guess what I am trying to say is incremental cost/camera for Samsung is very very low, once they have written off development costs - which they seem to have done after the restructuring of their imaging division.

So there's nothing to prevent them to continue to make just enough of them so they can still claim it is not discontinued, and keep their options open in case the market recovers.

Agreed... I guess my point is that samsung is a large company and they are looking at the actual sales figures and production cost and are doing what they think makes the most business sense.

Its really just too bad they wont fucking tell us all what that actually is?

13 minutes ago, tugela said:

If people are still buying them it is weird that they would not continue making them.

Especially since it looks like they could have kept the camera relevant with firmware updates, which you would think would be a relatively small investment for them.

The cost of production > the revenue in sales(people will only buy them at a discount now) ...  Simply put it does not make sense for them to make any more lenes

11 minutes ago, vasile said:

I am fairly sure they will bring more in, but in an irregular fashion. All elements seem to point to Samsung not officially discontinuing the system and only running short-ish batches of items, depending on received orders. At some point B&H had them as "discontinued" then they got new ones, now they are again out of stock (ok discontinued, although at this stage I won't believe it yet, since they were suddenly "undiscontinued" just a week ago I think).

I am kind of thinking that samsung is just moving existing stock around from retailers that have stock but are not selling it to retailers who don't have stock but could possibly sell it.

So as of yesterday I am officially on the market for a Steadicam and would like some suggestions/help choosing.

So I want to use it with my NX1 with the 16-50 S lens and a rode video mic pro (~1,400g or 3 lbs) but would also like some room to grow if my next camera is heavier. I plan on also buying an arca quick release so I can easily switch between the steady cam and tripod. Is this recommended?

So far this is my list of options:

Glidecam HD200:
My friend has this one and I have used it a few times and I really like it so it is definitely high on my list. My main issue with the HD2000 is the price. It is the most expensive option on my list currently.

Glidecam XR-2000:
I was looking at this one because it is really close to the HD200 but with a few less features at less than half the cost. The primary feature missing is the XY screw adjustments witch seems quite critical to me but seeing as I have very minimal experience balancing steady cams how important is this feature considering that I will be using an additional quick release?

CAME-TV H4 Carbon Fiber:
This little guy is extremely appealing because it’s compact, light, and affordable and it comes with the micro adjustments. Right now it is the front runner except I feel like the quality is lacking compared to the Glidecams

Cheap “Amazon” Steady Cam (Opteka):
I am curious if this is actually any good at all. It appears to be decent but I am worried that it is shit. Anyone have any experience with this one?

Steadicam Solo Stabilizer & Monopod
I am curious about the monopod functionality because I really like versatility. Also the build quality looks quite nice and it has a lot of really good reviews. It appears to be gear rental work horse witch also appeals to me. Any one have any experience with this Steady cam?

Just wait and get a gimbal
This is the less appealing of all the options beacuse I feel like there is so much settings involved I feel like it would be just be another excuse for me to play around with settings oppose to actually shooting. I also feel like waiting even just a year the gimbals will be twice as good and half the cost where steady cams have definitely been refined to the point where they are not getting alot better.

Any feedback is wanted and helpful. Thank you all in advance.

EDIT: It is also worth noting that I have used the 'C' type steady cam like the merlin and I did not like it.

18 hours ago, Pavel Mašek said:

DR of 180Mbps footage. Great thing is there is no macroblocking in lifted shadows, just litle lack of details... but still very good result I think. 

BTW - First image is unedited 0-255, Standard, MBL +8. Second is converted to 16-235 with some grading (also added saturation becuase there was lack of colours in shadows and just a little bit sharpness to left side of image)

 

 

 

 

Wow that is amazing. is that the NX1 or the NX500?

10 hours ago, M Carter said:

I mean the little kit lens, tiny thing, goes for about $140 on eBay. Sweet little steadicam lens, and if you own an NX1 its kind of a no brainer. TINY thing. I put a 52mm step up ring on it and use 52mm filters for steadicam and ditch the matte box. You can pick up Tiffen or BW ND's on eBay for next to nothing in 52mm. It's f 3.5 at 16mm to 5.6 at 50, but I only use it wide and generally with steadicam you go wide and F4 - 5.6 anyway. If you stop it down to F16 or so, it's just absurdly sharp - too sharp. I've only used it wide open. Very fast AF, but with steadicam or handheld, you have to really work to keep the focus point on the subject so I usually go MF or at least do takes with and without AF.Shoulder mount I go with my big old Nikkors. Big fan of the 28-70 2.8 for fast moving gigs on the shoulder mount.

I don't think Came makes the model I own anymore, but I've been happy with it and gotten some great shots. Really, really nice with slowmo for corporate stuff, manufacturing, b-roll, etc.

Do you think you would be able to use the 16-50 f2-2.8 lens?

11 hours ago, MountneerMan said:

I figure it out it is 

prefman set 0 0x878 l -10

I was playing around with this last night and it looks like you can get the Saturation, Sharpness and contract to values that are not shown in the menu including negative numbers. 

ex:  if you set sharpness to -10 in the menu and do "prefman get 0 0x87c l" comes back showing the value is set to 0 and like wise if you set sharpness to +10 in the menu and prefman get again reads the value as 20 therfore -10=0 and +10=20. now if you do "prefman set 0 0x87c l -10" witch would be an equivalent to -20 sharpness in the menu then do a "prefman get 0 0x87c l" it read the value is still being set to -10.

I will do some more testing to see if the value is actually sticking during or after recording and if it makes a difference to the quality then report back.

I also wrote a script last night that uses nested while commands to consecutively record 5 sec clips testing all the gammaDR setting in a given range. this could in theory test every possible combination for saturation, sharpness, contrast setting automatically(1000 tests total). Let me know if any one is interested in this script for themselves.

This script could also very easily be altered to do or include MBL, RGB setting or HUE settings if that is your kinds of thing.

20 hours ago, M Carter said:

I've got a Came carbon-fiber, pretty simple model, no battery rig at the bottom. As far as operating, yeah, you need tons of practice, but I've gotten very useful shots, corporate gigs, b-roll stuff. I can't imagine it being any better for what it is, very well constructed and smooth, quality piece of gear.

I've balanced it pretty quickly to different cameras, lately I find the NX1 with the tiny 16-50 kit lens to be excellent on it with the optical OIS turned on, sometimes even use the AF. I use the manfrotto release plates everywhere, I had to mount one to a little plywood block so the release knob would clear the release lock on the Came, but I can switch from sticks or shoulder to steadicam in a flash and give the balance a quick tweak. I skip the matte box and use screw-in ND on the kit lens, I just got a 52mm step ring and a rubber hood for it. 52mm filters are all over the place, whatever flavor you want can be found pretty cheap. Generally for steadicam you shoot wide and stopped down so I haven't had a reason to stick any big glass on the thing and the Samsung kit's an impressive little lens.

I haven't looked seriously at gimbals due to the expense and hassle factors, but they are coming down in price and the usability bugs seem to be getting ironed out. 

Gimbals are, to some extent, like drones. Drones are just killer to cheaply get very high-dollar shots, like huge crane moves and helicopter stuff. But most drone ops are like "look at all the stuff this can do" and suddenly a classic cinematic move starts screaming "look!!! I'm a drone!!" Gimbals aren't quite as bad in that regard, if someone executes a well planned shot - the clip that sold so many on gimbals was the roller blader with the taxi cab shot, a good example of shot design that's exciting but not something that would pull the viewer out of the scene. To me the gimbals seem like the kind of thing where I'd rather just hire an op that knows it well and cans et it up quickly. My brain is too full...

Sorry I have a few questions if you don't mind.

what came carbon-fiber steady cam do you have? I was looking at getting one for myself so I don't need to borrow my friends and was considering the CAME H4

When you say Samsung 16-50 kit lens do you mean the 16-50 S lens for the power zoom one?

Thank you in advance.

If you could go by the Samsung booth and just say.... What the Fuck guys.... WHAT THE FUCK lol.

Apparently they do have a booth so if you could go by there and take some pictures of the professional broadcast level fridge camera that would be great. Thanks

8 hours ago, MountneerMan said:

Does anyone know how to set the the gamma DR settings on the NX1 (saturation, sharpness and contrast) from telnet? I have tried both prefman and st cap capdtm with out any luck. 

I figure it out it is 

prefman set 0 0x878 l -10

Does anyone know how to set the the gamma DR settings on the NX1 (saturation, sharpness and contrast) from telnet? I have tried both prefman and st cap capdtm with out any luck. 

37 minutes ago, Dean said:

I think that most everything they did with this camera was for their TV's.

Sharpening the image would be to give more of a WOW factor when watching home movies on their Samsung TV's. Being Samsung, I'm amazed that the NX1 is actually as good as it is. Most of what they do is pretty shite or else a sneaky copy of what Apple or some other company has already come up with. They are a shit company and they way they handle their camera business being a total failure is yet more proof.

The image does look overly sharp to me but still ... I love the camera.

I really don't want to start a debate about Samsung so I am going to just say that that is your opinion and my opinion is that samsung makes many fantastic products with leading edge technology.

I also believe your statement about "Most of what they do is pretty shite or a sneaky copy of X" could be said about almost every company that has ever existed including apple, Cannon, Panasonic, Black Magic, etc. They all copy each other and they all make alot of shity products that is what competition is all about.

on a not entirely unrelated note I love the way the walking dead uses color grading to set the mood

When the characters are in a safe location like behind the walls in their compound everything is super bright and all the colors are really saturated then they will quickly transition to being super flat and de-saturated.

I am not a huge fan of this show as a whole but think it is a perfect example how color grading can really make the viewer feel a certain way eg. safe and comfortable and unsafe and on edge.

1 hour ago, hirsti said:

They are all in the st cap live commands tree which are changes to the live view screen (EVF or LCD) and don't effect capture to SD card.

IC, thank you that makes sense.

Do you know what the command "st cap live sd dump [1-5]" does? from what I understand doesn't ML get RAW video by dumping the live view data to the SD card? I could be completely wrong about that thought.

EDIT: @hirsti, do you know what the command is to turn on video standby mode? I am curious to know if putting the NX1 in video stby will save the video the setting mile prefman save does.

9 hours ago, Pavel Mašek said:

Any idea what can be "nrmenable 0 - 1 (0:off/1:on)"? Noise reduction in movie mode? :-) 

Yeah I was wondering about that myself.

I am also curious about the following commands as well

• startfisheye
• stopfisheye
• setpath 0 - 2(0:OTF/1:IPCout/2:RawOut/3:Ldc Out/4:120FPS OTF/5:120FPS IPC out
• stremmode [0 – 14]
• sensorframerate 240
• outputframerate 240
• dataframerate 240

Hopefully I will have some time to play around with it this sunday.