Michael Coffee

1 hour ago, mercer said:

3. I have recently become interested in stills photography, but now lack a camera to shoot with, so is micro 4/3rds a viable stills camera as well... Specifically the GX85's raw capabilities?

 

In my experience with the gf1 and gx7 on the stills side, I like the results with vintage lenses, and they have bags of character, and a "snap shot" smaller film format feel.. a real still guy could probably get amazing results, but when I had even a aspc Canon 50d for a while, even with a crappy old canon kit zoom and on full auto, the pics coming out of that thing blew away anything I have been able to get with the Panasonics! Again, I'm no stills expert, but it seems you have to be a pretty serious photo guy to pull amazing images out of the Panasonics.. love them for video, apart from the motion.. can work around the colour.. but for stills - I would almost reach for my el cheapo $100 Samsung Galaxy J1 phone! MFT stills always just seem congested within the frame somehow for me.. the can't touch even the aspc Canon's for my tastes! I love the look of medium format stills even more

Tons of options for stills, built in intevalvometer.. good burst rates etc - all the stills features, but no where near the Canon's etc for me!

Sure the Panasonic can take ok photos, but all the photo's that make me say wow, and look like you could reach into the frame have usually been on a 5d or medium format cam.. never really seen an MFT still that really wowed me! Again, I am not a huge stills shooter in any way, just my two cents worth

GX7 with Minolta 28mm

GF1 with Olympus 25 2.8 4/3

Samsung Galaxy J1 smartphone

7 hours ago, Oliver Daniel said:

I perceive this attractive "motion candence" in cameras that shoot raw. Maybe because the image feels "complete" and compression takes away a lot of the motion anyway.

It's subjective but those of us with more than an eye can spot it.  

Then on top there's:

- 24/25p 180 degree shutter. 

- Fast shutter readout.

- High dynamic range (smoother roll of frames). 

Lovely cadence:  Alexa, RED, D16, BMCC (raw), Kinefinity, Varicam LT, Canon 5d ML

Medium Cadence: Canon C series, Sony F55, FS7 (only just), X5R. 

Poor Cadence: All Sony mirrorless, FS5, Panasonic GH and AF, any cheap mirrorless, GoPro, DJI X3 and X5. 

This is annoying. Please Panasonic Varicam team, fix the motion on the poor people cameras like GX85 - from what I've seen so far it still looks like gh series video like motion.. a little better perhaps, anyone think/seen or noticed if the GX85 has had a step in cadence aesthetic?

I don't know what it is but these cams don't seem to do 24p well - I feel like 24p on my GX7 sucks, and most Panasonic footage seems the same. Everytime I see almost any other cam, Canon, BM, etc it seems to be better at 24p. I feel like a phone could almost look nicer. It's not like Panasonic had anything to protect anyway, the serious cinema VariCam only came out like last year... just looking at gx85 24p now, it still looks like bad video to me. I just don't get it.. have they seen Alexa footage? Even Canon? C'mon Panasonic..

Even go pro's seem to shit on the Panasonic motion.. and I know it's not just me

1 minute ago, Mattias Burling said:

It will be fine with two aperture rings.

BTW, I can't recommend the ND throttle enough. Aperture ring and built in ND Fader of high quality.

Hey Mattias, no issues with CA when stopped down or anything? Considering one of the cheap EOS to mft focal reducers with the apeture blades here.. 

Hmm - some seem to have it, some don't.. the standard for me is film, then Alexa's..  the impression I get from my Panasonics is that it almost seems to have artifacts similar to early video compression codecs.. jerky, stuttery, frame tearing .. maybe the higher bit rate codec is why the GH4 seems to do a little better than my gx7.. if the gx85 doesn't have more pleasing motion (this is all at 24p) I will be looking into external recorders, and also filming at 30p and twixtor/optical flow to 24p .. I'm already shooting at less than 180 shutter (1/40 at 24p) - it helps alot when usable for me. Global shutter camera's seem to help, but things like the BM cams, Canon's and even the Sony's just seem to have more filmic motion for me out of the box, however some cam's with really low rolling shutter like the NX1 in 1080p seem to have similar cadence issues to the Panasonics in the footage I've seen.. again the Panasonic's and Samsung's motion seems to be more together in 30p mode - I have been putting off experimenting 30p- 24p in post because I hate having to do another step! 

8 hours ago, fuzzynormal said:

Not really. It allows me to find focus of the actual shot, but because the evf image is so soft (and slightly distorted as well), my eye is always straining to comfortably focus on the image. 

This is is not an issue with my Olympus EM5II  

Hard to empathize, I know, unless you've got old person eyesight.  Which, btw, seems to happen within a few months.  Beginning of the year you have good vision, by the end of the year you need bi-focals.  

Hey Fuzzy - have you tried something like this? http://exercises4eyes.com/ - really helped my vision a few years ago - I don't need glasses anymore!

Heya John, even my el cheapo focal reducer just seems to give some sort of s35 thing to my little gx7 - I use mostly vintage manual lenses, really should have got it ages ago! Highly recommended, and I will be moving up to a lens turbo 2 soon, eventually an active speedbooster - plus I hate maths, so now I never have to translate for s35 sensor equivalent! 

Rent an Alexa:)

9 hours ago, John Matthews said:

I concur. Sensor size has nothing to do with focal length. Sensor size will determine only how much of the projected light coming from the lens is recorded.

Just remember, if you are on a speedbooster, adjust accordingly - so if the focal reduction is 0.71 it would be ie: 50mm x 0.71 = (approx) 35mm

Haven't shot colour charts yet.. might start.. probably a good idea to start doing this - always nice to have great colour straight out of the cam though - my idea of the perfect grade is the one that you barely have to touch, ha!

Hi Javier, like the video - good to see you on here! Did you use the standard rgb profile in film convert?

wow, this turning sideways thing really seems to work well on pans... is there any reason sensors aren't mounted this way?

The colours really look like a nice neutral base to grade from, and I can't wait to get one and play with the in camera look a bit!

11 hours ago, RobD said:

I'll try my other lenses and see what happens. But the 50mm with adaptor , the camera asks is this a 35mm lens - yes no?

yeah, to the camera it is seeing 35mm lens with a 35mm field of view, and that is the correct focal length to enter for the ibis/camera calibration..

53 minutes ago, DevonChris said:

As a Panasonic owner, and ex Nikon user, I'm intrigued by this oft stated view about "Panasonic Colours".

My experience is that if you take care of white balance and experiment with profiles and really get to know your camera, then it is as easy to get good colours from a Panasonic as it is from a Canon (or in my case, Nikon) camera.

Why not create your own LUT or standard set of controls/profiles and apply them in post, for example?

If you want a thick image to grade, hook up an external recorder. The cost of the Panny GH4/GH5 level cam and external recorder will be less than a C100ii, but the image quality is definitely comparable if not better (1080 of course, not the 4K that is on offer from the Panny's).

Although I am impressed by my GX8 I am no means a Panny fan boy, but there does appear to be some sort of myth circulating that Panasonic colours somehow don't cut it.

Look - I have to disagree regarding my gx7 - no matter how carefully I white balance, and grade, there always seems to be something wrong going on in the red to orange range for me.. I try to avoid those colours, and yeah, it can look pretty good but I get to the point where I think its ok, especially with filmconvert..  - then look at any Canon footage straight out of cammera and think that it just looks so right, more pleasing.. the gx85 does look alot better at this stage to me though - from what I've seen it looks somewhat Blackmagic like with the colours.. slightly more neutral than the Canon's and looks like a great base colour look for grading!

Two frames from where I'm happy with the Panny's colour:)

I think if Panasonic can improve the autofocus, with the ibis and seemingly better colours - the gh5 will be a really strong camera.. it really seems the main area they are lagging behind

And this guy has a robot to write new Friends episodes!!

http://nymag.com/selectall/2016/01/friends-is-even-better-written-by-a-robot.html

I loved this. The script is hilarious. I want one of these:)

1 hour ago, kidzrevil said:

WHAT IF HAD SCORCESE'S REAL VOICE ?! OMG im excited

We really are living in the future:) ha

2 minutes ago, kidzrevil said:

Didn't think of that. What about a camera with an intel i7 chip, nvidia graphics card & SKYNET artificial intelligence that shoots & directs for you and assures you that its not a consumer camera ? Sound cool enough ? 

that would be cool. The camera says, hmm, don't like that shot, how about we frame it up this way - then downloads 50 reference shots to the monitor:)

"based on your preferences, we suggest this shot" - download a Scorcese director profile etc

Just now, Buckster said:

I'd have been tempted with a GX8 as I like the form and fit - it feels nice in the hand

BUT I get absolutely fed up with having to consider shutter shock all the time on my G6 (with my 14-140 MKII)

add the built in IS and its a no brainer

I am all over the gx85 and can't wait to get a hold of one - it seems they have fixed the colours alot, my major gripe with the gx7 - was about to go into Canon's again - but with the ibis, for me the gx85 seems to be the best "pocket cinema" camera yet..

Sounds good.. motion seems to be better in the gx85 than my gx7 for sure..  my number one wish for the gh5 would be better video autofocus I think. Hope Panasonic can catch up with the others in this dept.

38 minutes ago, TheRenaissanceMan said:

G7 and GX85 use the same 16MP sensor. The GX85 doesn't have an AA filter, but for video the quality is identical.

The GX8 is a completely different 20MP sensor.

So is the gx8 the same sensor as the GH4? I will be happy if the gx85 holds up like the g7 at higer iso

6 hours ago, kidzrevil said:

@John Matthews  my guess is stabilization will be the new wave. I can see companies trying their best to give us good in body stabilization i.e. panasonic 

How about an AI electronic virtual focus puller with voice recognition:)

1 hour ago, Nikkor said:

Convince them to put some sort of compressed raw into the cameras, it would make the gh5 a little bit more relevant.

Higher bitrate pro res or dnxhd would be great too:) A low rolling shutter mode..