Alex Uzan

7 hours ago, xenogears said:

Manfrotto MHXPRO-2W

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1060928-REG/manfrotto_mhxpro_2w_2_way_pan_tilt_head.html

I don't know how I missed this one. It's the perfect fit for mirrorless.

But a the same price as the 502, with a plan to use it indoor only, I'm not sure it's a better deal.

3 hours ago, Trek of Joy said:

I've had the S8 with the carbon sticks for a year, been shooting mirrorless for years. The head is big, but for the price you're not going to find a better head, its far better than the Manfrottos and others (IMO after trying everything in the same range at B&H). It also has extra mounting points for an arm, wireless receiver and so on. Its a great head.

Good to know.

But actually, the offers at Benro is kinda confusing : too much references with no true explanation about why they exist.

s2 - s4 - s6 : ok they're quite the same, but for different weight: no drag ajustment or counter balance.

s8 : flagship with drag ajustment and counter balance, but really big and made for heavy stuff.

s7 : succesor of s6 with counter balance and drag ajustment

bv4 - bv6 - bv8 : New heads with step drag ajustement and counter balance (more weight = more steps)

That's too much choice for me.

1. Why to buy a s6 if a s7 is available ?
2. Why to buy a s*head if the bv*head are better and at the same price ?
3. Why some video tripod are only available in kit, while you can buy a head separately ?

Thak you Stanley for your feedback

Indeed I will get the flat based, since I'm planing to use the head on a slider and a monopod as well.

On 12/12/2016 at 1:54 PM, jonpais said:

You could just slap a Crane on the tripod and pan remotely.  

It's not a bad idea 

But I can't take the gimbal everytime. So after reading and and seen a lot of reviews, I think the manfrotto 502 is the good one.

Of course it's kinda overkill for a A6300, but it's still useable and ready for next gear.

12 hours ago, jonpais said:

I would go with the heaviest duty fluid head you can afford. If you're at home, you won't be carrying it around much anyway I assume. And if you ever get a larger camera, you are all set. Don't cheap out on a poor tripod head. Actually, good fluid heads for lightweight cameras are not that common. Be sure the fluid head counterbalance can go down as far as 0 kg or you will always be struggling to balance it. You don't say what tripod you are using, but a 75mm bowl would be ideal.

So far I have a bunch of tripod and a really good monopod (sirui 204), so at this moment I just need a head.I'm planning to buy a more dedicated video tripod next year, maybe a Benro with bol, but not decided.

My needs are pretty simple :

I'll do video reviews of consumer product in a dedicated room at home. I thought I could use the manfrotto befree live for this, but the head doesn't alow really smooth pan or pitch movements. I can see on the Benro website, that counter balance & variable control drag are only on S7 and S8 models. That's why I'm interested in those.

Today I use an a6300 with almost no gear around. But of course, that could change in 2017

Thank you al for your answers.

But is overkill mean unusable ?

I don't mind to pay more for better I dont' need today, since my needs could be different tomorrow. But as suggested webrunner5, if the head doesn't work well will small weight, I can't consider to buy it.

All I want is the perfect "true fluid head" for,my mirrorless, since the one that came with the Manfrotto Befree Live is only a simple "fluid head".

Hi there,

I need to buy a new tripod head to use with a A6300 (and maybe the bmpcc 2 )

So I was looking to a Benro S8, but man, this head is big

Is that not  to big for a mirrorless ?

My main use will be at home.

Thanks

Ok, so I,ve seen many video on yt and vimeo, and I can definitly say that my unit is defective.

Even in full mode, without using the joystick, the gilbal can not maintain vertical pitch above 45°.

I sent a mail last week to the Zhiyun support, but still no answer.

6 hours ago, jonpais said:

Sorry to hear about that, Alex. Seems like you're having bad luck these days.

Thanks for simpathy Jonpais

But you know, it's only gear.

That's annoying it's true,  but fortunately today, if a manufacturer delivers a product not as good as promised, it's very easy to get a refund.

1 hour ago, dbp said:

How is the Befree overwise? Been looking getting it. 

It's not that bad, but quite expensive for what it offers.

Therefore, there is no many option when you talk about light travell video tripod, except the Benro Aero 4. But it's not as compact than the befree Live.

I have tried two units, and same issue.

It's not acceptable, and I will send them back.

Hi there,

Hello les gens,

I've just received the Manfrotto Befree Live, best travel video Tripod according to a lot of YT reviewers, But I have an issue with it.
Here's the thing:

As you can see, the buble go out of the ring when I pan, and I'm not sure it's supposed to.

What do you think ?

Thanks Jonpais.

I made more tests, and the swipback move occurs only when the pitch axis is above 45°.

At 44.9° = nothing

At 45.1° = swipback

So I can't really say if my unit is deffective or not.

On 29/11/2016 at 1:55 PM, Uli Plank said:

What is happening when you try?

Mine flips over without any problem, I don't even need to change mode or whatever – I just turn it upside down. Very impressed, actually.

Here's my two issues :

First, when I tilt too much, the Gimbal doesn't like it and reset its position.

Even if the camera is quite light.

Second, when I try to flip to revert mode, it's not smooth, as the arm try to maintain before suddenly change the position.

Sorry for video quality

Hi there,

I've just received my Gimbal, son I can't really share my thougts about it, but one thing intrigates me :

There is two handle mode, normal and inverted, but can we safety flip from one to the other ?

Because when I do that, my unit doesn't seem to like it.

thanks

22 hours ago, Alex Uzan said:

Ok thanks, it's good to know.

I'll do more testing this week en

Ok, I did some tests, and you were absolutely right.

i was wrong all these years, thinking that std 0-0-0 was unprocessed.

Thank you again for the tip.

Ok thanks, it's good to know.

I'll do more testing this week en

What you say is, that sharpness 0 is actually +3.

So if I want the less processed image, sharpness -3 is the way to go.

Weird that Sony didn't name them as 0 to +6.

3 minutes ago, BrorSvensson said:

My favorite sony profile is portrait with -3 sharpness -2 saturation and -3 contrast

I read that somewhere, but still wonder, why to decrease sharpness ?

I get that we don't want to add artificial details by increase it.

But decrease ? We still can do this on postproduction if neccessary.

19 hours ago, John_Harrison said:

Are you using SLog 2 or SLog 3? 

SLog 3 gives you a wider dynamic range, but I've heard a lot of people have had problems with it because of how compressed the XAVC-S codec is. SLog 2 has a milder curve which produces less artifacts when graded. 

Slog2 or 3 have the same artefacts (or color macrobloking).

Other gamma profiles are clean.

17 hours ago, DaveAltizer said:

Bro. I have found the best profile! I've shared it with so many people because they all want it it's so good.  it's got a very "Canon" look to it and it grades so nicely. It really adds a ton of depth to the image that lacks in the normal Sony profiles. It's all about that "color depth". 

THE SONY PROFILE

Black Level: 0 (it's disabled in s-log2 anyway)
Gamma: S-log2
Black Gamma: Range- Narrow, Level -7
Knee: auto
Color Mode: sgamut3.cine
Saturation: +32
Color Phase: -2 (this is for a7sII and a6300, for original a7s use -5)
Color Depth: +6 (all of them)
Detail: -6

Expose 1.5 to 2 stops over.

You may need to dial the green tint out in the white balance shift. Let me know how you like it. I found this profile somewhere on dvxuser and have fallen in love with it. Now all my friends shoot on it

Thanks for this, but I'm not sure that fix the macrobloking issue.

Hi there,

New a6300 owner, I'm trying to find the best way to record videos.

Since I like postprod and color grading using Resolve, my first tought was to use a Slog profile.

Unfortunately with those two profiles, there are too much noise, artefact and banding to my taste, and with h264 compression, it doesn't look good.

You can see what I mean on this crop sample

Slog orginal (800 iso)

Slog graded (800 iso)

No profile (800 iso)

As you can see, a lot of color artefacts on slog graded.

So which other flat profile to choose ?

Thanks