mkabi

Sounds like North Korea…

Just came out of watching Sinners in IMAX.

What can I say? Its a good movie, I really liked it a lot and I would highly recommend it.

Cinematography 12 out of 10.

Acting 10/10

Story 9/10 - I would give this 10/10 if I didn’t think it was slightly inspired by dusk till dawn. If you don’t think so… 2 criminal brothers flee south to some bar to fight off vampires… [SPOILER ALERT] 1 brother is level headed and the other one is off…in both movies there is a girl that is forbidden fruit where the brother that is off wants that forbidden fruit. In Sinners the forbidden fruit is a white girl (black guy in prohibition time), in Dusk till  dawn Quentin Tarrantino (yeah he acted in his own movie) was the creep that wanted to fuck the 16 year old (the forbidden fruit). Look… there are some sequences in this movie (sinners) that you’ve never seen before and that alone makes you forgive the inspirational notes and thats why its still a high 9 out of 10 for me.

On 4/24/2025 at 10:49 AM, fuzzynormal said:

I just worked with a "director" on a mil+ budget doc that completely failed at this fundamental.

God, what a waste of time.

Got paid, but it was soul crushing trying to make an edit out of a pile of crap. Bleh. 

Well… take it as a learning experience…

What was your job on that project?

In the future, if you have some input on it… state the gaps in pre-production.

And, also… just to elaborate on “Figure out the story you are trying to tell before shooting.” A lot of people have an “idea” or an epiphany of what they want to shoot… that’s not the same thing as a story. Usually a story has a beginning, middle and end; a good story has a climax and resolution with characters and character building (so the audience has some connection with the characters they are watching)… now having a climax… characters… may be too much… but at the very least have a beginning - middle and end (thats the bare minimum requirement). The idea or epiphany is stuck in the beginning… there is no middle and there is no end.

You don’t need to have a full on script… especially if it’s a one man band. But, write it down (may its a 1 page - point form thing) because it will help organize your thoughts.

Biggest lessons I learned…

Figure out the story you are trying to tell before shooting. How is the image helping you tell that story?

Massage/manipulate the image before shooting… wear complimentary clothes, move things around… turn an image that would’ve been great with normal clothes and current setup to something more epic.

Last one is controlling light. Yes. We all know to adjust shutter angle and iso in camera, we also know to bring a couple ND filters, pro mist filters… and even lights for late night shooting… but there is a thing and its really magical if you know (again about controlling light)… for example - the golden hour (specific hours in the day where the sun works with you instead of against you). Filming on rainy days….Throwing water on concrete (day or night) helps a lot, something to do with how much light is absorbed vs reflected. Adding smoke (smoke machine) or filming on foggy days (fog machine), it adds layers to the image but it also limits the light entering the camera.

4 hours ago, Ninpo33 said:

No, I’m not new to the scene LOL. I got a camera for my birthday and developed my first role of film at 8 years old. Shot home movies and skate videos on Hi 8. My first nice camera was a Panasonic DVX100 and then a AF100 followed by a 5Dmk2, Red Scarlet, GH2,3,4,5… etc

So sounds like maybe YOU are new to the scene LOL. 
 

I said slow, INCREMENTAL changes and that’s exactly what your post confirms. Sony is known for expensive cameras and making huge advances every 5 years and then trickling out the little changes here and there and riding their big releases for years. Then they give their new tech to lower end cameras and piss of the pros that bought a flagship. 
 

FX3 is how old now? Then comes the ZV-E1 with 90% of its features for half the price. It’s their business model and you can be a Sony Fan Boi all you want but LUMIX, Fuji and some others who are innovating and pumping out generous firmware updates, (That don’t brick your camera) have my loyalty. 
 

the A1mkii is just another meh update from them and they continue to piss off a lot of their flagship base. Many of the pros I work with mention it to me all the time. 

I'm actually 44 years old, been in it since 2010. My first cam was t3i - been around the Canon camp for a while, my current cams is an R5 & BMCC 2.5K. I also owned a Raven at one point & the prime trio of cinema lenses, downscaled a lot. I like Fuji a lot... had the xt-30 for a solid minute but then sold it. But, I praise Fuji over Sony and Canon all the time. I'm in the Canon camp cause of the eco-system - hard time selling these lenses.

But your 5 year schedule and/or trickling down theory... I think you're hyper focused on the iteration between a7s2 and a7s3... every other alpha camera... put it out sooner (see the schedule here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Sony_MILC_cameras). They didn't have to put out a camera with the latest tech cause they didn't have any real competition.

You are praising Lumix... where is the s1h mark 2? What happened to the S9 isnt that trickling down?

On 11/19/2024 at 10:41 PM, Ninpo33 said:

Sony is known for its slow, incremental releases...

 

You must be new to the scene... cause this scene isn't even that old. Even the alpha cameras are only coming up on 10 years... we are already in like 5th iteration (especially in the a7r line)... every 2-3 years isn't slow, actually fast compared to Canon's 4 to 5 year per iteration. Yeah... they've slowed down compared to the beginning, but thats cause they know they got the Youtube community in their hands and they are quickly catching up to Canon's numbers. But to say they are "known for its slow, incremental releases..." since when? between Sony a7s ii and Sony a7s iii?

I'm sure a7V will wow... mostly because of price and config.

On 9/1/2024 at 12:31 PM, MrSMW said:

Phones was one the missus and I were discussing just the other day and how, other than some photo/lens options, there hasn't been anything we have been slightly interested in with the last 3 or 4 iterations of the iPhone.

Nope, nothing, nada.

I think I have peaked for my needs on all things tech whether cameras, audio gear, laptop, phone... Now it's not even a case of 'want', but rather 'might like' at some point if it floats my boat.

I'd rather see innovation now rather than incremental steps of 'progress' of essentially 'the same thing'.

I'm in the same boat/wheelhouse....

In fact, I've moved on to other hobbies.... mainly watches and cars... sometime in the next 5 to 10 years.... there is going to be a used sports car in my garage, hopefully its a 911, or a 1969 Mustang.
 

Don't get me wrong, I still do photo/video... thats still my passion... but gear wise - I've topped out.

Phones, Cameras, TVs.... don't excite me anymore... I used to get excited to go into an electronics chains like Bestbuy or a camera store.... now its like... do I need anything from there? Nope? I'm going home.

I believe that most of time its about attaining the pinnacle or close to what you think is the pinnacle.... I'm sure if Hasselblad released an X3D with 8K and 4K/120p - I'd be super excited about that, but my Canon R5 is good enough.

$600 Euros + upgrade from 7D -> Anything... even entry level stuff... just saying... unless you were using ML religiously, trust me... anything. Shit, the only thing you will be giving up is the weather proofing and the tank like build of the 7D.

If you want to keep it in the Canon family - even a R100 would beat the 7D in the image department (SOOC; no ML).
If you want to venture out of Canon - Fuji... these are beautiful little cameras... even going Entry level here - go X-T30 II.... can't go wrong.
If you want to go full frame - Sony a7 iii - on the Used market (may need to stretch the budget a little here).

If you want to go full frame on Canon - I'm sure you can find an R8 on the used market too (may need to stretch the budget a little here too).

Good luck.

If you went EF mount route, I would've recommended the Magic Booster by LucAdapter.

In my opinion its a cleaner application...
https://www.lucadapterstore.com/product-page/magic-booster-c-2-5k
 

I think he is only applying an OLPF filter here not the actual focal reducer, but same way to apply it:

On 10/27/2023 at 5:40 AM, kye said:

Easy!  It's that black thing with some white writing on it....  duh!

Wrong its the white box - labelled Red under the tripod.... duh!

On 10/28/2023 at 3:39 PM, Kino said:

There are so many cameras coming out in 2024 that there will be better options.

There are even better options in 2025, you should definitely wait.

18 hours ago, zlfan said:

Even so, for high res stills, pros use t2i and 18-55 kit lens to combine 50 photos into one, using special software. 

Which pros are doing this^^^

52 minutes ago, MrSMW said:

I am at the point now where I don't need the latest and greatest and still will often by used or the previous gen, cameras, phones, whatever, but also savvy to the fact that living perpetually in the 'good old days' is not always the best course of action in life.

I'm in a similar boat, I don't technically need the latest and greatest, BUT... if I need to upgrade, for whatever reason, then I will get the latest and greatest.

No point in sitting in the Stone Age and remaining there, complaining about these kids and their new gadgets... sounds like a grumpy old man.

Sometimes you have to move towards progress otherwise progress leaves you.

Not to toot my own horn but I got an 75 inch 8K TV back in 2019.... did I need it? Nope. Funny thing is... I had a 60 inch 1080p TV before it, I used it to watch movies in the basement (my man cave) and it was nearing 10 years since I got it... it could've kept going but I had replaced the living room TV with a 55 inch 4K TV (in that same time). I was late to the 4K TV game, everyone else in my family already had one.... and given that I will be holding onto them for 10+ years.... why not get the latest and brightest. Oh, BTW, it has AI upscaling so the 1080p doesn't look half bad on that screen.

Similarly, I just got a iphone 15 (the base model) - again not trying to show off - cause the last phone before that was an iphone XR... I don't switch every year, I don't see the point of doing that. Some guy was recommending the iphone 14 to me, but since I'll be holding onto this phone for 5 to 10 years too, I would want the latest and greatest just to stay relevant. 

2 hours ago, MrSMW said:

Agreed. I am not that techy but would have thought…if it’s even possible, that it would need sending in to be done physically. But as I said, not that techy!

Folks waited years for the GH6 but I guess you knew what you were buying so can’t be that affronted something else came along with PDAF because that was inevitable if Lumix were going to continue to exist as a camera brand.

I have zero evidence to support that, but outside of some diehard Lumix users, their image was ‘great video specs but utter trash AF so it’s a pass’.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again but I am surprised a company does not exist who will retro-mod older bodies with newer tech.

The body is just a shell and providing it is large enough, why not?

They take older cars and put modern bits in them.

We take old buildings and modernise them.

Why not older camera bodies with new tech?

Veering slightly off topic I know…

I’ve always had that idea… had it back in 2014 in fact… I said… why not take the innards of a GoPro and put it in a canon??? 
 

I think I said it in the Magic Lantern forum at which point they said that I was trolling (TF?).

Funny thing about this…

It was harder to shoot and edit a movie in this day; forget about the price of equipment too.

Even harder to shoot a “good” movie, forget about an “amazing” movie… with amazing characters and scenes…

But, once it was said and done… it was easy to sell… there was always a major buyer/distributor.

Fast forward to today… easy to shoot and edit, hell you can do it all on your phone… you can do it well too… it might take some time to write the script, storyboard and even find decent actors - go to a drama school and take your chances with auditions etc…. Nonetheless the price of admission is super low… again you can do it all on your phone. 
 

However!!! You will have a hard time selling it.

On 5/24/2023 at 9:18 AM, MrSMW said:

If on the basis I could not afford to switch to a Nikon Z9 + Z8 pairing…which I cannot really justify, my ‘budget’ option would be an XH2 paired with an XH2s.

However, want an even smaller similar capability pairing, ie, one stills orientated and the other more video, but both hybrid, then the pairing of an XT5 with this new XS20 would be a great little set up, especially as the XS20 can take the add on cooling vent.

Lenses?

I’d have to go zoom for my needs and really only 2 contenders and I’d stick the Fuji 16-55 f2.8 on the XT5 and the Tamron 17-70 f2.8 on the XS20.

The Tamron has a longer reach, is slightly lighter, but is not as sharp as the Fuji which is why I’d pair them in this manner.

Real world 24-83mm FF equivalent stills and 27-105mm FF focal length video, both with no aperture changes.

F2.8 light gathering with an equivalent f4.2 DOF.

Would work for me.

The other thing about Fuji is the SOOC results and I’d shoot Colour Neg for stills and Eterna for video.

Personally though, I’d go for the XH2 and XH2s pairing and with battery grips just for the handling as I like the idea of dinky cameras, but for work purposes, nah, not very stable platforms or ergonomically good over long days.

In my strong opinion, skip the Nikon pair and go straight to Fuji.... BUT choose either XH2 or XH2s and pair either one with the Fuji GFX 100S (Fuji's medium format camera).

On 8/13/2023 at 6:01 PM, Andrew Reid said:

 

lol - I have a feeling that Nolan thinks that he is smarter than he really is by targetting the mensa crowd. When in fact he is just alienating the many by tickling the few.

I learned a lesson in grade 12/13 physics... you are not smart if you are trying to explain something complicated in the most complicated way. My physics teacher told us this -> Who is more famous? Issac Newton or Galileo? Did you know that Galileo explained Gravity way before Newton did??? 100 years before...
You know why Newton won over everyone, he explained it so everyone understood it.

You are smart if you can take something complicated and explain it in a simple way.

*ANOTHER SPOILER ALERT* Sorry - but Nolan's need for practical effects didn't really work for me.... we all know about the mushroom cloud... there are images of it from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, didn't see it in the movie. And, the paper flapping on that ladies face, you know what I am talking about... I didn't even see it on IMAX - that couldn't have been good for IMAX.

I couldn't tell that that was Gary Oldman... I was actually surprised he was in the movie...
For the most part, I followed along... *SPOILER ALERT* I didn't understand Downey's character motivations and his need for personal vendetta; its like nobody else has ever insulted him before.... really? So, growing up in that era no one bullied you? So, you are going to create this overly complicated scheme to discredit you through a tribunal to remove your security access? Huh? You take away his security clearance, are you saying that Oppenheimer couldn't teach/work at a University? At that point, Oppenheimer felt guilty - I don't think he wanted to work on the H-Bomb... 

10 hours ago, kye said:

Most influencers, except the serious ones that have mature and controlled processes, just setup crazy situations and then see what happens, recording the whole time, then edit it down.

I would assume - for most influencers the phone is good enough.

I remember seeing some person's home tour - may it was on queer eye (can't remember) and they setup an area because he was an "influencer" - all they had was a ringlight with phone mount.... and I thought... well... record, edit and throw it on the platform - done.

5 minutes ago, mkabi said:

*cough* Canon 1dc *cough* released in 2012 *cough*

Sorry - Red One - released in 2007 is really the first... so, technically Red should be thanked for the 4K revolution. If we are talking about affordability... sure lets bring Panasonic in the picture... but it has to be in the same space as Chinese knock offs (I'm sorry if I'm triggering some people - but the truth hurts) and we all know Chinese knock offs are cheap.

On 2/19/2023 at 5:41 AM, PannySVHS said:

2014, Panny started the 4K revolution. 

*cough* Canon 1dc *cough* released in 2012 *cough*

Sorry - newsletter does say PDAF. Improvement?

Its real - I got a newsletter from Vistek with pre-order details for S5II & S5IIX... Feb 24 delivery date.

I don't know anything about AF though... nor do I know of the real differences between the first gen and second gen.

Wait for the reviews I guess.

Editted to add: Vistek is a camera store here in Canada, its on par to Henrys (but there are way more Henrys than Vistek). Imagine - Bestbuy only for camera equipment (photo & video).