DPStewart

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14 minutes ago, IronFilm said:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Good-BP-U60-7800mAh-112Wh-Battery-For-pmw-280-PMW-260-PMW-160-PMW-100-PMW-/271313492536?hash=item3f2b8b5a38:g:GI8AAOSwkoNTzguj

 

I'm going with this here instead. As a double bonus it can power either my BMPCC or PMW-F3! :-D :-D

What does its mounting plate cost? And how does it attach to your rig?

All of those are way too huge to put directly into a shoulder or tripod rig. I mean to have it be "form fitting and out of the way and clean".
Heck - we can hook a car battery up if we want. There are literally a million of these batteries out there in all shapes and sizes and if they have the 9v/12v outputs they all work the same.
They're all the same in function. All of them. That's not the purpose of my recommendation.
The XT Power is of a specific shape, size, and weight that to me lands RIGHT on the sweet spot. Plus it has LARGE power-remaining lights that are extremely clear when you need to see them. They're not hidden off on one side. It's all these little details that make it so much more pleasant to use busy shooting day after busy shooting day.

Those Ankers are like attaching a pizza box to your rig compared to the XT Power.
Same with that large RAV Power. Now, I use a much smaller square RAV Power to power my audio recorders - and you can't even hardly tell it's there. Size matters. LOL!
Even that "Aukey" brand is a half-inch wider and FIFTY PERCENT longer that the XT.
If you want a really big powerful battery? Get a V-Mount - superior in every way. But much much heavier and much more expensive.

If you watched my video were I showed the battery mounted on shoulder/tripod rigs you'd see that even the XT Power is not small at all, and that anything larger is going to be an enormous pain in the ass.

Hey everyone,

For those that watched my video on cheap camera support gear last week and asked about that XT Power $60 battery - well JUST TODAY the link came back online and it is showing as back in stock as of March 6th. Still just $60 too.

Get 'em while they're hot!

http://www.amazon.com/XTPower-10000mAh-Recorders-Sensation-Connectors/dp/B00935L44E/ref=sr_1_1?s=wireless&ie=UTF8&qid=1447976251&sr=1-1&keywords=battery+charger+bmpcc

53 minutes ago, Dean said:

Have you had success with this?

I've tried the Canon LOG with the EOSHD LOG for NX1 footage and never had any luck making it look decent.

The Red Gamma profiles seem to work a lot better with the NX1 flat footage IMO.

Also, I reckon FC looks better on the NX1 using the Arri Rec 709 profile but not with the EOSHD LUT ... i.e. using just Gamma DR settings at default. 

Cheers.

I dislike 80% of everything that comes out of FilmConvert,
Their Canon LOG presets don't knock me out, no. But I find everything needs to be adjusted a lot with FilmConvert or it's just too heavy.
 

If your BM is RED....you need to see your doctor immediately.

If you use Andrew's NX1-to-LOG conversion, then I think FilmConvert's "Canon LOG" profiles are already there. Clever of Andrew to do it that way.

4 hours ago, Jonesy Jones said:

DP, so again, I know that you probably don't have this lens, but considering your experience with the DS1, BMPCC and 18-35, what would you think about the Sigma 10-20 paired with BMPCC on the DS1? It's over a half pound lighter (nearly a third of the weight) and over an inch shorter. I believe both lighter and shorter work in the favor of it going on the DS1. 

The lens itself seems to be a great lens that would pair nicely with the 18-35. Anyway, thoughts?

I'd say there's a 75% chance that will work if you use the foot of the speedbooster or the foot of any other lens adapter as the mounting point - not the BMPCC.
You may still have to put a little weight on top of the BMPCC, but putting an external Sony NP770 on top of it for longer use is a good idea anyway. Kills 2 birds with one stone.

 

3 hours ago, SR said:

Does anyone know the difference between Ikan Beholder DS1 and Beholder DS1? It appears to be the same item, yet have a price difference of a $100.

 

 

Most of what Ikan sells is just re-branded items. It's the same.

4 hours ago, Chant said:

I started this research when the nx1 first came out, saved and tracked the firmware, and then started digging into when the rumors of the exit started happening. The tech inside this camera is just magic. Compared to what other companies are doing its a few years ahead. And due to samsung being able to roll their own chips it seems they didnt cripple anything because it was too costly. Im not going anywhere! 

This is so frikkin' cool to watch...

I know enough about software structures to understand what you're doing, but not enough to help. Damn fascinating to watch though..

Again - THANK YOU to everyone involved!
 

Cadence, or motion quality is at least slightly different on each make of camera.
Some people don't really see it, others can't miss it. I'm one that can;t miss it.

The panasonic GH2 and GH3 (to a lesser extent the GH4) have a rough juddery edge quality that just never looks like smooth motion until you take the shutter angle all the way down to blur.

Canons are much smoother to watch. Blackmagic even better.

Again, many people just don't see it. I wish I was one of them...

9 hours ago, NX1user said:

I've had a DS1 for a couple of months now and it's been very solid. Any problems I've had have been from me trying to cut corners on pre-balancing it. As long as I properly balance it, everything is fine. The only other issues I've had are from not knowing what is happening with it due to the manual not being clear. So, here's some tips on the DS1:

* It starts up in follow mode.

* One button press and you will hear a tone. Now it's in lock mode. (The manual is clear on these two modes).

* Another quick press, gets you a tone and you're back in follow mode.

* To go into half-follow mode requires a two second press. Confusingly, it doesn't give you a tone when you do this.

* To add to the confusion, a five second button press completely disables the joystick. Also no tone. The manual doesn't mention this at all. I imagine that after improper balancing, this undocumented feature causes the most customer confusion.

* Invert mode is easily accessed, just hold the DS1 upside down. You don't even have to turn it off! 

* They don't advertise the DS1 as water proof or resistant, but I've read some people think it is because the wiring is concealed under foam. WRONG! If you carefully look at the DS1 under sunlight you can see the copper wire windings in the motor housings through the gap between pieces. So don't believe the people tag think t may be water resistant.

* I built a double handle rig for it with a couple 15mm rods, two handles and a mounting plate in the middle. That's about another $60 of hardware. It's great for holding the DS1 for longer periods.

I'm happy with my DS1. I got it to work with my NX1, 16-50 S lens combo which is heavy. It does fine. The only problem is that the 16-50 S lens is so heavy that the NX1 has to sit back on the plate very far. This means your tilt range is very limited and that you won't be using any focal lengths longer than 16mm. That's obviously no fault of the DS1.

Here's a couple sample shots where I attached the DS1 to a monopod and used it as a jib (not with the 16-50 S lens):

 

THIS POST RIGHT HERE.

I have a DS1 too and it is AMAZEBALLS.

But listen folks - you DO have to LEARN how to use it. You have to learn weighting. If you're getting vibrations that almost always means your motors are set TOO STRONG for your current camera weight.

You have to learn to balance it, to calibrate it, to custom tune the motor power and other settings for YOUR exact camera weight, and COME ON...you can't just abruptly swing it any radical direction you want and expect it to be magically able to handle that.

Considering what you get for the money - this thing is absotively posilutely AMAZING.

For anyone who has not seen the effect for themselves - doubling the bit-rate will blow you away. 

The Panasonic GH2 had even more issues with the image quality than the NX1 does, and with the 150mbps hack the difference is HUGE.
EVERYTHING is better and all the problems of mush in the image and macro-blocking and colors breaking up all just vanished.

Really the only reason I don't use my GH2's as 'A' cameras is because their older design has less dynamic range...maybe 9-stops. 9.5 if your exposure is absolutely perfect.

If we were to double the bit-rate on the NX1 even the Noise Reduction and Sharpening would be FAR less of a problem because they would both be working with so much more image data.

Very Insta-resting.

1 hour ago, boxtree said:

Can anyone recommend some good Lenses to match up with the speed boosters on the G7? 

Thanks 

Boxtree

All of them!

Ha! I mean that the result that you will see is that every lens will act like a wider lens, and the speedbooster increases the light coming through your lens as if you increased the ISO by an entire stop. 

OK folks - here's the complete product link list from the video.

Lord have mercy - that is one tedious process. The dang sellers had better NEVER change those links or I'm crackin' skulls! 


Products discussed in my Video in the original post:

 

"One size fits all" Cage - $149

Movcam BMPCC Cage  - $323

Fotga Follow Focus - $170

Follow Focus Speed Crank - $13

Giottos Quick Release Adapter - $38

Offset Riser Clamp - $18

Cavision Matte Box - $99

Cavision Matte Box Rail Mount Clamp - $28

Cavision Matte Box Riser Bracket - $15

XT Power Battery - ~$60 (On today's date - Feb. 24th it's out of stock like I mentioned might happen)

Fotasy Rods - $15

Fotasy Rod Connectors - $5

Neewer Handles - $30

Fotga Shoulder Pad - $15

Flashpoint Counter Weight - $30

Glide Gear Portable 4" Jib - $159

Davis & Sanford Bowl Mount Tripod - $159

Davis & Sanford "Airlift" Tripod (The taller one) - $149

Carry Cases - Stanley "FAT MAX" Tool Box - $35 online price. (Will almost always be only $25 if you can find them locally.)

The Mitakon Lens Turbo "Mark II" or "New Version" or "Second Version" is a real bargain at around $150.

The "blue blob ghost/flare" optical problem the original version had when pointing anywhere into direct sunlight has been virtually completely eliminated.

It is optically very good, and certainly a great value for the money.
I have the older MK I and I also have the Metabones Speedboosters. Even the older Mitakon MK I is really great if you avoid direct sunlight.

Marco - Andrew's NX1-to-LOG converter goes first. 
Then it depends on how you're applying your output LUT.
Sometimes you'll have to "correct" your image from the flat LOG image to a more correct contrast and saturation before applying an output LUT. But sometimes YES, you can just add the output LUT as the next step. FilmConvert for instance, uses presets that take you directly from a Canon LOG space to your output LUT. (And about zillion other source presets.)

What I meant about "no alterations" was the NX1 in-camera settings Andrew lays out in his guide.

7 hours ago, kidzrevil said:

I solved my macro blocking issue at low iso. I simply changed my luma range from 0-255 to 16-235 and it made a huge difference. 0-255 gave the impression that there was detail hidden in the deep shadows and bright highlights. I feel like the way h.265 or simply the nx1 handles 0-255 range is ineffective. 16-235 keeps it all in a usable range and you don't have to use a curve to bring the highs down or to raise the shadows. I guess how the codec compresses the 16-235 range helps with the macroblocking. I then took the files in rockymountains and converted to prorres 444 and it graded beautifully even with a heavy LUT like deluts 

Yup.

I'm currently just using Andrew's NX1 LOG converter and his whole recommended setup - no alterations. Then I add an Osiris or Canon/Arri LUT and I'm done. (or a few customized BMD LUTs I have.)

After moving from Panasonics and Canons to Blackmagic RAW I'm just burnt out on battling compressed codecs and picture profiles and all the zillion possible settings.

There are no "settings" on the Blackmagic cameras really. You shoot at the native ISO or 1-stop above or below pretty much only. The you just white balance and set your exposure and shoot. You either like how the camera looks or you don't. I absolutely frikkin' LOVE how the BMD cameras look so I'm DONE.

That awesome Hong-Kong video that Dean posted a few pages back convinced me to try Andrew's package. I'm sold.
It's really so good that I'm not interested in doing any further nit-picking. 
I LIKE that look and it can cut with the BMD footage so I'm happy. It does what I need it to do, and it does it reliably.

I suppose I would still be interested in other picture profiles or settings on the NX1 if it was my 'A' camera, but it's not. I need it to cut with the Blackmagics.
Plus I just personally REALLY like the look it gives in general. 
What a relief, ya know?

Really this is all stuff you can do even just in Premiere or Resolve or FCPX.
It just takes a lot of work because YOU must make a LOT of decisions about each and every clip in order to get these kinds of edits to work visually. This is why software really can't do it for you. By the time you've told it all the parameters you want it to follow for a particular pair of clips - you've basically completed the edit yourself already.
However, depending on how you shoot the "frozen in space camera" effect, you may often need to use a tracker like in AE.
Re-framing, key-frames, blur, and zooms/pans will do pretty much all of the MANY other types of edit-transitions featured in this piece.

A lot of this relies on a very basic principle of editing - "line of sight".
When you line up the main subjects of the clips that are drawing the eye to them, then there is less jarring movement of the viewer's eyes that is required in order to easily and quickly focus on the subject of the next clip.
 

4 hours ago, tupp said:

We had a new, zillion-take take director, so we had the camera on for two to three hours in some scenes, sometimes going through two XTPower batteries in a half day.

 

When the BMPCC got warm, more continuous hot pixels appeared.

Ha! I think I've met 'that' director!

Okay, I'm going to have to look out for the heat issue on longer continuous shoots. Thanks Tupp.

42 minutes ago, jcoons32 said:

@DPStewart Hey man, great post and video. I may be speaking out of line here as I'm primarily a run-and gun DSLR shooter, but I'm curious why you didn't touch on monopods. I actually just wrote a post about this today on my blog because I find myself using my monopod about 90% of the time for my style of shooting. It's super versatile and allows me to quickly reframe shots, much quicker than a tripod. Like I said, I may have been speaking out of line because I'm not sure of your style of shooting, but I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Yeah...DOINK!
I totally use monopods for quick stabilization and I REALLY should have mentioned that. Brain fart.
I have a Manfrotto monopod with the 3 little feet on the bottom and the little ball-joint. It's great for sure, But maybe I didn't include it because it cost almost as much as an entire Davis & Sanford Tripod with the fluid head. I know the Sirui is a really great one too. But I don't actually know of any 'good' monopods that are really cheap.
I'd like to try out a MogoPod sometime as well.

A MONOPOD SHOULD BE IN YOUR KIT!!

Thanks for the reminder Sir!

20 minutes ago, tupp said:

I shot a feature using two BMPCCs, and, fearful of under-voltage and wanting to keep the internal batteries topped-off, I always used 12v for external power.  About 2/3 of the way through the show, I accidentally ran one BMPCC with the 9v setting on an XTPower, and it worked flawlessly with less heat and noise.  Wish I had had that accident earlier in the production.

Interesting. What kind of continuous shooting times are you talking about?
Like I mentioned, I've run up to about 2-hours of continuous recording and not noticed any difference, and the lens-cap test always shows you what you've got noise wise.

Coincidentally, I hold an Extra Class ham radio license, and I was a drummer in many bands for longer than I care to admit.

Oh gawd! Two drummers talking back and forth? It's a wonder anyone can understand us at all!

24 minutes ago, tupp said:

Great video!  Very informative, and it is further helpful that you demonstrated that some of the gear is booger-proof!

 

For my personal gear, I tend to go for much cheaper and lighter solutions, such as those shown on the Frugal Filmmaker channel.

 

The XTPower batteries are great.  I have 3 of them as well.  On the other hand, I sort of wish that I had instead purchased less expensive Sony NPF clone batteries, as they run at most cameras' (including the BMPCC) operating voltage of around 7.2v-7.5v.  The 12v setting on the XTPower units is nice if you want to charge the internal battery on the BMPCC while you are shooting, but such higher voltages heat up the camera and sensor more than necessary, and, thus, produce more noise.  The 9v setting on the XTPowers reduces the heat/noise, however, here is a video on how to easily use a cheap voltage converter to get 7.4v from 9v-12v batteries.

The BMPCC is DESIGNED to run on an external power source of 12-18v. 
Any batteries will supply less voltage as they run down so using the 9v setting on the XT Power can cause an UNDERsupply situation that can cause internal operational problems.
The BMPCC has an internal DC-to-DC regulator that wants 12-18v coming into it. That regulator is going to send the correct amount of current to that various internal systems. Using the 12v setting or even the 9v setting on the XT Power is not going to cause an overheat condition in this camera. 
That 12v power supply that comes with the camera? The engineers designed the camera to run off of that.
I have run BMPCC's for over 2 straight hours of recording on both internal and external batteries (switching out the internals as fast as possible) and I have not ever noticed any housing temperature differences over all 3 of my BMPCC's.

Simple test: Keep the lens cap ON and run the BMPCC in record for one hour each using both internal and external batteries.
I saw no difference in noise.

The SONY cameras like the A7s described in that video may be an entirely different design that does indeed require a lower input voltage.

FWIW - I have a BSEE. That's a degree in Electrical Engineering. But then again I'm also a drummer in a rock band - so I might be crazy.
 

Remember folks that LENS choice has a HUGE impact.
The 4k cameras can very easily suffer from TOO sharp an image. That's one reason the NX1 usually dosn't look nearly as smooth as the 1DC or the BMPCC. The Samsung lenses can be extremely sharp. 

Motion cadence is unique to each camera maker usually.
Some folks can see the difference, others can't.
If you ask enough people, the Blackmagic Cinema and Pocket cameras frequently rank very high, as do the Canons if they are shooting an all I-Frame codec

Having seen many test comparisons done, I can tell you this - you'd be shocked by how similar many cameras can look when you put the exact same lens on them and shoot the exact same scene.

On 2/25/2016 at 4:44 AM, Jonathan Lee said:

Thanks Dane. Awesome tips. Any recommendations specific to the BMCC?

Well pretty much everything I talked about in the video applies to the Cinema Camera, but there IS one thing...

I JUST got this cage - showed up in the mail yesterday. And I think it's going to be GREAT. - $237. 
It has a lot of similarities to the Movcam BMPCC cage - like the nice big base so the thing won't tip over when you set it down etc..
It looked like overkill to me at first but the price was great and I've had decent luck with "the cine city" before so I ordered it.
Now I can tell I'm going to use this without the left handle - that's just unnecessary for most setups, but I like the right handle with the record trigger for sure.
It's not made as flawlessly as the Movcam but it's definitely good. The included rods are cheaply painted and I already scratched them, but I'll be replacing the bottom rods with 40cm Fotasy rods anyway. the finish on the rest of it is better than on the rods. Some of the rigging it comes with I probably won't ever use - but it's nice to have it all included in the price anyway. You never know what you'l need...

http://www.thecinecity.com/eshop/CAMTREE-HUNT-Pro-Cage-For-Blackmagic-Cinema-Camera-Production-Camera-4K-CH-CPRO-BMC.html