Trek of Joy

4 hours ago, jgharding said:

The 18-35 clearly has a key weak point wehere the slim plastic joing the two metal parts (the main lens and the mount), I have a feeling if it were metal too it may have survived

I've seen a couple incidents of the Sony 70-200 splitting in the middle, plastic at failure points sucks when its surrounded by metal. Hopefully a repair isn't too costly.

2 hours ago, sgreszcz said:

Newshooter.com report.

http://www.newsshooter.com/2016/11/11/look-mom-no-gimbal-janne-amunet-on-amazing-olympus-em-1-ii-image-stabilisation/

 

Still get the walking bob like you do with a gimbal, but damn that's amazing. 

I'm always so paranoid about my tripod flopping over, I have a Benro S8 carbon and the head weighs twice as much as the legs, so it feels really top heavy. Fortunately I don't use a spreader and with the legs in the first locking position its rock solid. I still hang my bag on it photo style to keep the center of gravity lower in case the operator (me) bumps it, which frequently happens.

20 hours ago, SuperSet said:

Another question to the X-T2 users about custom settings...

Does the X-T2 have buttons or something that you can assign for custom settings?  Like you could switch between them easily?

If yes, does it save the Resolution, Shutter and ISO?

With my GH4, I could easily switch between 24P, 60P and 96P just by spinning the custom button wheel. So, I'd like to know if the X-T2 has similar.

The Q menu that's activated by a button on the back of the cam has 7 different memory banks - C1, C2, C3..., and you can just scroll between them with the rear command dial when you hit the Q button. You can assign movie modes to one of the tiles in the Q menu, along with WB settings, film simulation and so on. 

http://fujifilm-dsc.com/en/manual/x-t2/shortcuts/q_button/index.html

1 hour ago, Kisaha said:

I do want full control and shooting M most of the times, and I do not found the Fuji controls to my liking. It was good some time ago, simulating analog ergonomics, in my opinion is not sufficient for 2016. I love the NX1 ergonomics, if anyone has any experience with it (you can do most things without change your holding) and the Canon C ones for video.

You can set the front and rear command dials to control aperture and shutter speed if you want it to act like most other cameras. I like the fact that the SS is easily locked down with the top dial. I can't count how many times I've changed the SS just moving the camera from shot to shot. The a6300 is two dials short of a complete set of controls - it needs one more on top and a front dial below the shutter, I hate using the goofy dial next to the LCD. I hate Sony's micro record button on the side of the thumb rest too, just let me assign record to the shutter button dammit! The NX1 is nice, I bought one to try and get away from Sony. But they started pulling out of markets and I was concerned I'd never see the lenses I need, so I sold it. The rolling shutter in 4k is also pretty bad, for me better lens selection and a future won out, despite Sony's awful RS numbers. 

11 minutes ago, Kisaha said:

@Trek of Joy Exciting times and great tools we have.

I mostly agree with what you said (almost what I already said), one point thought that most people seem to misunderstood, is the fact that if you need only 3-6 lenses that you can find in a specific system, then the hundrends of lens options in other systems are not that important. How many people can afford, or need so many lenses? Also, the NX1 is 2 years old, but still better in most things than any Fuji. Sony is kind of a joke in my opinion (especially for APS-C users), but their aggressive stance gains them a big market share and they eventually (A7sXVI) will produce the perfect hybrid.

For me I need the holy trinity of zooms for event work, a UWA (10-24 in Fuji), a standard (16-55) and a tele (50-140), Fuji's top Sony's APS-c f/4 options in terms of IQ/speed and the GM's are just silly at $2500, and of course they're FF. For low light and creative stuff I shoot with three fast primes, a 16, 23 and 56 which hits 24/35/85 in FF terms. Sony's 16 is garbage and while the 24/55 are really good, given Fuji's regular lens sales - Fuji's are faster and cheaper. After testing the XT2, all I can say is I'm impressed - enough to be seriously considering a system shift despite the costs. Its just so much nicer to shoot with than any body I've used, and that includes the Nex7, a6000, a6300, a7s, a7II, a7rII, GH4, EM5, NX1, 5d2 & 3 and d750 in recent years. I'd prefer a touchscreen, but most of the cameras I've owned don't have one so I can live without it. IBIS is the one thing I'll miss the most with a Fuji move, but after shooting handheld with stabilized lenses the XT2 footage is more stable in my hands than Sony because of the awful rolling shutter Sony's produce. Either way I'm adding a gimbal like the Zhyiun Crane because Sony's IBIS doesn't offer enough stabilization for me. Its good to have options.

Cheers

11 hours ago, Kisaha said:

I do not see many video professionals going full time Fuji, as of now. Maybe in the next couple of years or so.

Enthusiasts, die hard Fuji funs, and upper-middle class purists and hipsters. There are a lot more specialized users, than let's say, people buying the 700$ Panasonics, or a6xxxx.

The Fuji system is not cheap, it is a notch and a bit more than Sony APS-C, and a lot more than NX and m4/3 (thought, now with the new GH5 and Olympus,  and the 1.2-1.4f lenses the price difference us mininal, or in favor of Fuji), while this is the first truly good camera for people doing 60/40% video, or more. 

The picture profiles, are existed in every image capturing device too, I like Fuji's as well, but it is not so groundbreaking as people suggest. With slight tweeks at post one can achieve similar results, and can use a picture profile, and then add a little bit of something (real super35 film grain?) or even luts.

They still need a few things, but they are going there. I closely follow them and I am excited about every new product, as they seem to be the best listeners in the industry (them, and Panasonic!).

Fuji certainly isn't cheap, but Sony's F1.4 primes and F2.8 zooms are considerably more expensive than Fuji's, and none of their APS-c only lenses are faster than f/1.8. When you start looking at the system as a whole, costs are not very different and can easily fall in favor of Fuji when you start comparing all of the lenses. The Em1.2 is $400 more than the XT2, and I'm betting the GH5 will be priced even higher.

NX doesn't have anything close to Fuji's lens selection, outside of the two S zooms, everything is slower and doesn't cover nearly as many FL's as Fuji. And there won't be any new NX lenses. Or bodies. Ever.

Fuji has a new lens every few months and all of the traditional focal lengths covered. They have zooms from 10-400mm, along with fast native primes in 14, 16, 18, 23, 27, 35, 50, 56, 60 and 90mm with more coming. There's also 3rd party Touits and Sigmas that are mirrored on Sony. 

I've been a die hard Sony shooter for years, but I'm seriously looking at Fuji with the XT2 and dumping my a7rII and a6300. The controls, dual cards, the joystick, the speed (its so much faster than the a6300 and a7rII in operation), the SOOC colors, the lack of Sony's ugly magenta tinted skin tones and so on make it a pretty compelling option. I rented one for a few days and absolutely love shooting with it more than any Sony body I've ever used.

These are great times, we have so many compelling options that are capable of producing some incredible images.

Happy shooting.

5 hours ago, gt3rs said:

Forget any 4k editing on a Surface Pro with Resolve because is too GPU dependent.

Thanks, Resolve definitely isn't going to work for me.

18 minutes ago, Antonis said:

It really is hard to beat the performance of a Mac & FCPX. It's just much more optimised, even on the "slow" Macbook 12" 

I think I'm going to take a 12" Retina for a test drive, thanks!

3 hours ago, DPC said:

Resolve Lite perhaps? Is your 13" MBP Retina really too heavy?Why would the lack of a retina screen on the MBA be a deal breaker? Just curious...

The screen resolution is terrible on the MBA, 1440x900, not even HD. I tested one out and its just not sharp at all. The 13" Retina with charger is over 5 pounds, that's about double the Surface or MacBook Retina weight. Every gram adds up when you're going to be living out of a carry-on size backpack for a few months.

Resolve is a bit of a resource hog, that's why I didn't mention it. Its slow, really slow compared to FCPx. I may just buy a MacBook to test.

1 hour ago, Liam said:

Hitfilm works reeally similar to premiere. You may want a couple paid add ons for the free version though, and you're restricted to 1080p export, but I'm a big fan. Blender and Shotcut are probably the other best free ones (besides Resolve), but less intuitive, and some different restrictions. Hard to cover it all, I love Hitfilm. Hitfilm, Blender, and Shotcut also run perfectly fine on my i5/8gb ram laptop

I have no problem paying for software, just want to avoid the CC and Premiere. Will check out the others, haven't heard of Blender or Shotcut.

3 hours ago, mercer said:

This. 

There has been a few discussions over the past year or so about using a surface for editing and I don't remember if there was any resolution on how effective it is...

I think @Mat Mayer was researching a Surface for editing. So he may be the guy to ask. 

I have a 2015 Air and it works pretty good with FCPX. And since you're already used to Final Cut, I'm not sure why you'd want to change and invest in a new editing program.

With that being said, I haven't used Vegas, but my friend had it for a little while when he was in between Macs and he really liked it... He thought it was the closest to Final Cut/iMovie.

At the moment I'm just exploring my options. I've already invested in FCPx so my preference is to stay Mac and just move what I use to a laptop. I was ready to buy a MBA as the rumors had it getting a retina screen with the newest MBP refresh, but that never materialized.

I have a friend that uses a 12" retina MacBook and he gets by fine. Until two years ago my whole setup was a 2009 2ghz dual core MBP with 8gb ram, 512mb Vram and a 5400rpm HD. Benchmarks show the new MacBook easily topping my old machine. I've never used Vegas, will watch some demos.

Thanks

1 hour ago, Franz Schuier said:

I travelled and worked in india 4 weeks with a 12inch retina I bought specifically for this trip (and sold afterwards). The speed of the internal HD made editing 4K h264 with fcpx possible. I used a USB-C SD card reader and one external USB C HD. So LIGHT!!! A surface pro wont be much ligther, check it out before you switch.

Esp. with the power adaptor being a ipad one / most people dont factor the size and weight of the power adaptor / Whats a light laptop worth if the power adaptor weights 500g?

One of the projects I shoot and started to edit there (A7sii and loxia lenses / I had my whole kit and clothes in a carry on backpack)

 

That looks really good, can you talk a little more about working with a 12" Retina? My preference is to stay Mac. PCIe 3.0 makes for some insanely fast SSD speeds, it makes my new 5k iMac crazy fast. I've watched a few videos and it looks more capable than my old laptop at a fraction of the weight. I'm counting every gram so if I can make it work - and I'm patient enough to be slow and methodical when scrubbing and letting things render overnight and such.

Thanks

Hello all, I'm going to be doing a lot of extended traveling in the next year and I want to keep my kit as light as possible - so on the camera side I'm downsizing from Sony FF to Fuji with the XT2. Now I'm looking at portable editing solutions lighter than the most recent 13" MacBook Pro Retina's that still has the SD card slot. If the MacBook Air had the retina screen it'd be a no-brainer, but it doesn't and I don't want to spend that kind of jack on a low rez screen. My other lightweight option is a loaded 12' MacBook, but then I need dongles as its down to a single USB-c port. I'll be carrying my whole life in a backpack for months on end, so less is better.

That has me considering a Surface Pro 4 to use for the next year and something other than Premiere - because Premiere is so clunky and I'm not paying for CC anything. Not planning on doing any heavy grading, just want to edit travel videos on the road with a quick/efficient NLE. I know very little about Vegas and Hitfilm, any others? Any experiences with other editing platforms and thoughts on using them with a scaled down machine like the Surface?

Thanks in advance.

Super impressed by the lack of RS. Olympus claimed the new dual processor setup eliminated it, sounded like marketing speak, but it looks legit.

Good Fuji 4k samples in this piece. C-AF and IS look good too IMO. After spending a couple days with the XT2 I came to a realization, I'm done working around Sony levels of rolling shutter just to get the all the bells and whistles on their spec sheets. Being able to use color SOOC is big for me as my grading skills are very much a work in progress (in other words they're bad, but I'm working on that).

A nice collection of SOOC 4k shots using various lenses. Fuji's IS and continuous AF is pretty effective. Color and detail are fantastic. 

1 hour ago, Justin Bacle said:

The OIS looks like it is in a "photo mode" when it try to keeps stable, and then suddenly changes to another point. Not very impressed ... 

It looks more like camera movement to me, IBIS has a floaty feel to it, but the changes look like the shooter is suddenly reframing. From the description:

"I sat in an open trailer pulled by an off-road vehicle driving parallel to the path of the horses. Sometimes it was very hard to keep the horses in my viewfinder because of the very bumpy road."

58 minutes ago, DPC said:

The problem is that we are getting lots of superficial reviews from pretty untalented image makers working far too fast with equipment they don't master in non-professional situations, all, apparently, desperately trying to get views. 

^^^exactly, the Olympus Iceland launch junket and those provided with early samples all seem to be stills shooters. John Brawley posted he's testing one, so hopefully we'll see something from an actual videographer soon. There are a few videos in the other thread that have a lot of handheld movements and I haven't seen any noticeable RS.

5 hours ago, Oliver Daniel said:

It's certainly a tough one. 

I think I'll hold off until the Oly is released on try them out in the camera shop. 

The Fuji is more appealing for stills, but I can't help be pulled by the Oly IBIS for video. 

Honestly from the early samples, I like the XT2's video IQ better, its just the IBIS...

11 hours ago, liork said:

Another sample, no problem with rolling shutter:

 

Geez, those fence posts in the foreground have no skew that I can see. Nice.

1 hour ago, jonpais said:

@Trek of Joy I think you summed up many of the advantages and disadvantages of both systems very well. And I get the feeling from what I've read here and elsewhere on the net that crossing the $2,000 barrier for a u43 camera is a tough pill to swallow for many photographers and video shooters. But having IBIS means you can get a lot of shots that would otherwise be impossible without lugging around a tripod (and a proper one can run from $500-$1,000, but I'm expecting a lot of debate about this) or investing in a stabilizer costing anywhere from $600 on up. And in the case of Panasonic, while we don't yet know how much the GH5 will retail for - if it is actually able to record 4K 60p and 10 bit internally - that would save thousands of dollars that would otherwise be spent on an external recorder. Of course, nobody knows the true specs of the camera yet. 

Everyone is clearly following Sony's lead and taking their lines upmarket while jamming as much as possible into a body. The prices are reflecting that. I fully expect the GH5 to be in the $2500 range, and I felt that way before the EM1.2 price was revealed. Enthusiasts and wannabe's with cash to burn are boosting Sony's bottom line. Olympus and Panasonic are trying to get a piece of that, which makes sense as the bottom of the camera market has cratered and FF prices are dropping rapidly. M43 is fighting sensor size insecurity and for many as we're seeing, its a tough hill to climb.

Anyway, sorry to go OT. The IBIS and touchscreen are the main reasons I'm considering the EM1.2. The XT2 is a seriously capable camera. The bigger sensor will be better on the stills side and Fuji's jpeg's are so good you don't always have to shoot raw and spend time messing with things in post. If you like look of the film simulations, Fuji is tough to beat.

I spent some time with the XT2 and 18-55 last weekend, its a great combo. Stabilization is pretty good with that lens - I can get three stops with it and I have some pretty shaky hands. Combined with really good rolling shutter (compared to say the Sony's and the NX1) handheld shooting is very do-able and has a great look, not jittery at all. It would really benefit from a touchscreen because the new AF system is up there with the best (excluding Sony's eye AF, though Fuji will continually refine its AF with FW updates). Lots of Fuji lenses and most can be had at a great price used. The best stabilized options are the 10-24, 18-55 and 50-140. I'd be all over the 16-50 if it were stabilized, its among the best standard zooms around. There's a post in the XT2 thread here that matched colors to the C100 pretty well, I'm sure you could do the same with a FS5. No aliasing and moire at all, Fuji really got it right with this one. And there's Flog with an external recorder if you were so inclined. Controls are so nice, everything is right there so adjustments are easy, plus you have the quick menu button and "my menu" in the menus so you can group all your most common menu items in one place. Its really well engineered/built, no plasticky feeling at all. Makes my a6300 feel like a toy in comparison. A cool little thing I noticed, when shooting video if you hit the menu button you always go to the video portion of the menus. So you're not cycling through endless garbage like Sony. The EVF is something to behold, the best I've ever seen and despite the A7rII's having a slightly better magnification spec, the Fuji's looks much better. Focus magnify isn't soft like it is on my a6300 either. I recorded an hour of video (in consecutive 10 min increments), the camera didn't overheat and there was still 15% of the battery left. The grip adds two batteries, extends record time to 30 minutes and adds the headphone jack. 

The EM1.2 really has my attention as well - touchscreen, IBIS, dramatically improved battery life, weather sealing, great ergonomics, blazing fast shooting, dual cards, headphone jack and so on. Like many I have a mental roadblock when it comes to a m43 camera that costs $2000. They surrounded a small/noisy sensor with the best feature set of any camera on the market IMO. Though I suspect the GH5 will cost even more, so the price bar has been raised in m43 land, its a new reality. I just have to decide if that reality is acceptable on the stills side as I'm not running two systems anymore.

Whatever I decide, I'm looking at getting two bodies and investing in the system. I prefer the sensor and the stills on the Fuji. And the price. The XT2 + 18-55 kit is $100 less than the EM1.2 body alone. 

3 hours ago, SuperSet said:

OK, thanks.

Google tells me that there is a Fuji app that you can use for the T2 but the reviews are terrible. Can anyone elaborate if it's doable?  One issue I had with the Samsung NX1 is that the app would override the film settings in camera so it was worthless.  Does the Fuji do the same? 

This review gives a pretty good rundown of the remote app. Looks like it's much better in stills mode, but you can control AF and exposure then hit record. 

http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Fujifilm_XT2/

Here's a half baked review from Steve's Digicams with a few video samples. 

http://www.steves-digicams.com/blog/olympus-om-d-e-m1-mark-ii-review/

Steve Huff posted a video way down his long winded part 1 review.

http://www.stevehuffphoto.com/2016/11/01/the-olympus-e-m1-mkii-review-part-1-iceland/

No RS tests, as if it would have been so hard to do a couple whip pans while walking around Iceland for a few days. Lots of features not tested either, like tracking AF, video AF and other functions. The rush to get these reviews out first result in incomplete testing that reads more like previews kills a lot of the reviewers credibility.

Read the Gordon Liang's (Cameralabs) XT2 review by comparison, lots of in depth testing of all the AF functions, all the video functions and little things like actual battery levels when shooting multiple clips after hitting the record time limit. That in addition to comprehensive ISO tests and such. Spending three days with a camera is not enough time for a real review.

As an aside - I have to admit, at first I balked at the price. But the more I think about it, the better this camera is starting to look as rolling shutter looks really well controlled and the emphasis on speed addresses one of my main gripes about most mirrorless cameras. The touchscreen has me rethinking my decision to move from Sony to the Fuji XT2. The 12-100 and crazy weather sealing would make a great all around travel/video setup and almost completely eliminates the need for support/stabilization. Then you add the 7-14 and a few small/fast primes like the 12/2, 17/25/45/75 f1.8's and you have a pretty good travel/doc kit.

I need two bodies with complete cross compatibility in terms of batteries and such, and $4000 for a pair of EM1.2's as opposed to $3500 for two XT2's (including one with the 18-55 lens) is still a tough pill to swallow. IBIS, touchscreen, weather sealing with lower IQ stills (EM1.2) vs. better stills and 4k that looks better to me at a much smaller bitrate (XT2).

Hmmm...

On 10/29/2016 at 9:56 AM, jasonmillard81 said:

I cannot get over how insane this image is from this video...is this an easily achievable look or is this heavy grading?

Its all Fuji recorded in-cam, he's just cycling through the different film simulations. 

$1999, not sure what Olympus is thinking beyond a cash grab.

14 hours ago, Michael Ma said:

Yeah, it's a bit unfortunate...Just when you thought Panasonic could do no wrong.  Maybe they should slow down.  This dual stabilization system looks unrefined.  Rushed.  I really hope they get the GH5 right.

Side by sides with the EM5II/GX85 show Panny hasn't got it quite figured out yet.

I have the camera one more day I'll do the rest tomorrow and follow up later in the week with a vimeo video and  dropbox files. Looking at what I shot over the weekend, the 18-55 has really effective stabilization and when combined with much better rolling shutter it looks really good handheld. If I go Fuji I won't miss IBIS that much.

9 hours ago, Viet Bach Bui said:

If you can please include an A/B test to eliminate biases. If you do, please match aperture, shutter, ISO and use the standard picture profile (or no pictute profile) on both to make it less obvious. You can then shoot a number of different scenes and label the cameras differently between them then let us decide which one we like more for each scene. That would be a fantastic test.

Everything will be matched, same FL, same exposure settings. The only difference will be colors (obviously) because I really only use Cine and Autumn Leaves with Sony. Though Pro Neg and Classic Chrome seem to be tops with Fuji.

15 hours ago, Eric Calabros said:

Please do a bright window test in a relatively dark room. one time expose to the window highlight, and next time expose to the room shadows. 

Thanks. 

Will do. Thanks for the suggestion.

On 10/29/2016 at 11:05 AM, John_Harrison said:

Oh Also a comparison of all the different film simulations of the fuji with their equivalent DRs, colors, etc (I'm most interested in Pro-Neg vs Classic Chrome)

I'll cycle through all the simulations using the -2 shadow/highlight settings and sharpness dialed down. 

11 hours ago, John_Harrison said:

I would love to see comparisons of dynamic range as well as high iso performance. I'd like to see how far you can push both codecs in post, and I'm interested in seeing how the HD modes of both cameras look, and how they both perform at 60 fps. I'd also like to see how Sony color science stacks up against Fuji's. 

 

A rolling shutter comparison would be nice too, even though I think that's been done already? 

I look forward to hearing your thoughts! 

Rolling shutter, 4k and 60 are at the top of my list. From the XT2 thread Classic Chrome look like the best color profile, with the a6300 I like Autumn leaves and I have a custom Cine PP. Thanks!

10 hours ago, jasonmillard81 said:

1. ISO +1 (stills and video)

2. Colors +1

3. Human subjects not flowers, walls, landscape

Added to my list. I'll be on the beach, so I'm going to head to the pier and just shoot for a bit. Thanks!

5 hours ago, TheRenaissanceMan said:

1. skin tones, greenery, lake/ocean water, and sky (memory colors). Maybe a box of crayons or some fabric swatches if you've got them laying around.

2. Rolling shutter. Still haven't seen these two compared.

3. Highlight rendering. Shoot a scene with the sun or some bright practicals (a bare lightbulb works well) in the frame and see how gently each camera renders the transition into clip.

4. Over and under exposure. This is the biggest one. Shoot a scene with a correct exposure, then under expose, going by steps of 1/2 stop until you reach 3 under. Then do the same for over exposure. Then, see what each camera looks like when corrected in post. This gives you not only the latitude of the camera (how far off you can expose with good results), but also gives you an idea of DR by showing where the noise sits and when you lose highlight detail.

5. Battery life! See how long each camera will run on one fully charged battery, both in standby and continuously recording (might be tricky with the Sony overheating).

Nice list, thanks! I'm doing a lazy beach weekend so greens, ocean, sky, sun and people should be everywhere. I need to bring a notepad so I can keep track of the exposure changes. I've been able to run my a6300 to the record time limit, so I'll see what I can do.