Trek of Joy

I voted move to a sub forum, despite the obvious bias presented in the poll options.
Lots of forums have places for political discussions since they always tend to get heated. The arguments always go in circles since an internet argument isn't going to change anyone's opinion. Its also clear from reading through some of the recent threads here and elsewhere, some people really don't know or understand American politics (especially on a state/local level which had a huge impact on recent elections), our economy and our history.
As an American I fully support free speech. But I don't go to camera, Jeep, mountain bike, guitar and travel forums to read ill-informed political discussions.
Chris

That's great, DJI is killing it. I didn't believe they could fit a one inch sensor in a Mavic size drone but they managed to design it. I'm curious about the final size and weight of the drone.

I voted move to a sub forum, despite the obvious bias presented in the poll options.
Lots of forums have places for political discussions since they always tend to get heated. The arguments always go in circles since an internet argument isn't going to change anyone's opinion. Its also clear from reading through some of the recent threads here and elsewhere, some people really don't know or understand American politics (especially on a state/local level which had a huge impact on recent elections), our economy and our history.
As an American I fully support free speech. But I don't go to camera, Jeep, mountain bike, guitar and travel forums to read ill-informed political discussions.
Chris

As mentioned in the other 4K Pocket 2 thread...
In episodic TV, where I spend a lot of my time, we shoot three cameras almost all the time.  The show I'm on now shoots 8+1, meaning 8 days of main unit and a day of second unit (while making unit starts the next episode).
We tend to shoot about 2 hours per camera per day.  
So that's 6 hours by 8 days of footage. On second unit they shoot with at least two more cameras, if not three.  So that means on some days the data wrangler has 12 hours of dailies to process from set from two units.
The footage is backed up on set, then shuttled to the post house offsite.
They backup twice again and then transcode the footage for editorial.  We shoot in Atlanta but editorial are in LA cutting on AVID.  So they grade (time) the dailies, for editorial and render DNX files and send them over a very secure connection to LA.  All done Overnight ?
Editorial then sound sync the dailies, first thing, compare the shots logged vs what they've received and sign off that they have everything that we say we shot (down to the shot).  After the emails I see from editorial are notes querying the wrong slate number just so that they can verify this.
As well as doing all that they produce the pulled or select dailies and generate 264's of just those circled / printed takes and they get assembled into a H264 file that gets uploaded to DAX for about 200 studio execs and production people to watch / refer to.  There are also some secured rotating ipads that get the same 264 files updated to them for those of us that hate trying to scrub 264 files over the internet.   I get those myself, and the director of the episode gets one as does the writer. 
Right now the show I'm shooting is on air 9 weeks after we started shooting.  That's a clock winding down, because it airs every 7 and we take at least 9 days to shoot each episode ?
You can see how it escalates.  There's no safety net for time at all. An episodic TV series will generate a LOT of footage that can quickly overwhelm a production and there's very little room for a slow down at any point.
The studio I'm shooting for now is Fox.  They still only air in 720 so they only master in 1920.  
Despite the rhetoric about 4K, the reality is that MOST TV DRAMA production isn't shot 4K.
We shoot 1920 ProRes and I always make ProRes 444 the minimum because it's 12 bit.  That's all I really need from a grading point of view and RAW workflows offer very few genuine advantages.  Try designing a test to show that it does and I'll show you a TV network that shoots 4K.  (None of them do)
They're not even interested in mastering 4K for a future proofing scenario.
4K also quickly kills workflow because everything is that much harder with all the above numbers.
I think ProRes RAW is an interesting option, but honestly, over 12 bit ProRes, I don't see much need to shoot ProRes RAW.
I have some friends on Stranger Things at the moment.  They do 12 to 14 days per episode.  We have 8.  That's nearly double the amount of time to shoot the same screen time.  They tend to shoot single camera too, because that's the style of the show.  But that's a large part of why they need so much more time.  I guess you can argue it's success makes the investment worthwhile, but days shooting is the most expensive part of TV production.  Because of the cast generally and their availability.  A show that shoots for longer tends to find it much harder to hang on to good actors.
JB
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Got my DJI Ronin S a few weeks ago and while digging through the app realized that I could program tilt and pan moves and repeat them. I paired the Ronin S with a motorized slider creating a small motion control system. This allowed for some interesting VFX in a music video I just shot. I was able to created several versions of the singer interacting with himself while the camera moved around following the action. Check it out:
 
 

From my experience face detect AF works fine on clear single face shots, but it starts to hunt or switch focus once other faces come into view. We had a busy event the other day and the A73 on gimbal couldn't keep up with Canon's dual pixel face tracking on our A-cam:


The eye AF remains the most impressive Sony AF feature imo, unfortunately it disables in video (hopefully not in upcoming A7S3). 
As for skintones, it's a mixed bag as well.. on youth it's pretty uniform but once facial hair, wrinkles and other skin imperfections appear, they get exaggerated somehow..
 
Not the most flattering... combined with typical mixed lighting AWB issues..
Noise reduction also creeps up heavily in low-light as you crank up ISO, giving waxy airbrush look to skin tones:

Never got this side effect on A7S2 so in that regard it's a step backwards..
All that being said.. i still think A73 is great bang for buck and paired with good glass ( we're using Batis here) it's got that FF wow factor clients crave, but i wouldn't yet pass on Canikon giving them a good run for money with their upcoming mirrorless offerings..

The rumored specs have listed 5-axis for quite some time. If Fuji can do it, I'm willing to bet Nikon can too.
Chris

Is this the first and only feature film created about a video editing application? 
Website for the film here.
I've not watched it yet, but I can see the creators have passionately made this film to prove people wrong about FCPX. I agree! 

Now we all shoot at 800 asa. actually, I have heard some younger people get upset if they can't shoot at 1600 asa.  Pretty amazing to me.
Since most modern cameras can do this easily, and that gives you enough natural light in most locations, you just come in and shoot.  The style these days is use what already exists, and augment the lighting, and use grip to subtract light.
Subtracting light.  Before ASA 800, when many of us were shooting at around 200 ASA, you would add light.
Now we show up, use a window light - maybe put one light outside of it, and then 4-7 pieces of gripwear to cut it. 
Toppers, cutters, siders, eggcrates.   
But a recent job I did for a liquor commercial, we were shooting with the digital bolex as a b camera.  The bolex is a beautiful organic image, with a ccd sensor for beautiful motion and the ability to use 16mm glass, which is beautiful and lightweight.  We lit for this camera's low native iso, and the A camera, the alexa, we set at 200 ASA as well. 
At 200 ASA, I was back to where I started 10 years ago, and it was thrilling again.  
Light didn't spill all over the place - it faded into the darkness, had lots of falloff - and everything was deliberate. We Could liGHT up spaces deep in the bar with red color, and push light into areas we wanted, and hide the rest.  It was easier to do, since there were less stands to place on the ground and less rigging to do.
Grip takes up a lot of space and stands.   Lights -  not as much.
And we ended up making the bar more interesting than what it was - we transformed it. 
(I'll post videos and stills once the spots are released.
It was putting on a different brain from an earlier era - cause we had to move a different way. 
And we painted with 1k tungsten lights in a jem ball again and got that tungsten warmth again.  That color of a tungsten fresnel - it has a golden warmth to it.  Coming back to it, it reminded me of how unmatched by LEDs which have more green and yellow in them than that pure lovely orange glow are these chinese balls.
To rediscover those old tungsten fresnel units, that was also important to me.  These old lights you can now get as every grip house throws them out, as the world has moved onto led lighting like skypanels, these old lights are a thing of beauty.

What about Pentax? Kidding.
Canon bashing is a sport here, but I've said it all along, a good mirrorless offering from CaNikon will put a big dent in Sony's sales. Nikon is targeting enthusiasts and most rumors point to Canon doing the same - so they're both targeting the a7's. They don't have to win the spec wars, good ergos and great AF along with the best from their current sensors will slow the migration to Sony. We know Canon can do mirrorless AF, and Nikon had the first hybrid AF with the 1 series a full 7 years ago. The various Canon AF adapters only exist because so many are using Canon glass with Sony bodies. Give those people Canon colors/menus/ergos - plus a 35//2 that they miss on Sony bodies and you have a hit. Detail's that Sony ignores because there was no competition, but makes a camera much more useful - like fully articulating LCD, functional touchscreens (the 5d4's is so much better), time lapse/focus stacking functions and so on will be what separates them from Sony.
Nikon has shown they can crank out lenses at a pretty fast pace, focus that output on the Z mount (or whatever its called) with a fully functioning adapter to make it easy for DSLR shooters to add a mirrorless body to their kit and the monopoly Sony's enjoyed will come crashing down pretty quick. I keep seeing comments like "why would anyone buy into a system with only 3 lenses over Sony," but what people seem to forget is that the number of DSLR shooters is still many times greater than mirrorless, and a lot of them simply don't want to leave the CaNikon ecosystem or give up CPS/NPS. Also, I know they hate to tip their hand, but a roadmap of the lenses planned for the first year or so would help for early adopters. Show off the next 10 lenses in the system after launch and people will buy in, all that's needed in the first year or so is the zoom trinity and reasonably fast primes in the 24/35/50/85/135 fl's - that covers a lot of ground. Switching systems is hard and costly, especially if you're invested in lots of high end glass. 
Once the Nikon 45mp body is announced, keep an eye on used Sony bodies - I'm betting the number of a7r3's will spike, meaning good deals for bargain hunters. I've seen barely used copies on Fred Miranda for under $2400, I bet they hit $2k when pre-order fever starts on the Nikon.
These are good times, the bar will be raised across the board with competition from the big 2.
Chris

I prefer the a7III for stills as well, the AF is better in every situation I've encountered - especially fast action and low light. For stills - in terms of detail - there's very little difference, but the a7III has a significant edge in terms of DR and noise (it has the same advantage over the NX1 and every other smaller sensor). At base ISO the Sony will have a lot more information in the shadows/highlights - about 1.5 stops. At 6400 the files are so clean its amazing. Face/eye detection are next level, as is the 93% sensor PDAF coverage - once it locks on to something it can track it across the entire frame, the Fuji can only track reliably in the middle portion of the frame.
The three smaller primes are gems - the 28/2 (sharp in the center, a little field curvature - at faster apertures keep your subject in the center), 55/1.8 (super sharp, great bokeh, lots of CA) and 85/1.8 (cheap, sharp and nicer bokeh than the Batis IMO). The new Tamron zooms looks great as well. I have the f/4 zooms, the 16-35 is a stellar UWA - its my most used E-mount lens, the 24-70 ranges from ok to good depending on the FL you're shooting and the 70-200 is a workhorse. I'm going to swap my 24-70 for the Tamron as soon as I can find one, its the hottest lens around right now. The Samyang 35/1.4 looks like a winner too and its just $500. I have one on the way, the 35/1.4 is my workhorse for event shooting.
The number of 3rd party lenses will expand much faster now that CaNikon are getting into mirrorless since they can build them for multiple mounts. Fuji's lenses have slowed to a crawl since they're focusing on the GFX, only 3 new lenses between now and 2020. There have been about two-dozen E-mount lenses released in the last couple years and that pace isn't slowing.
The new Sony body fixes a lot of the ergo issues compared to earlier models. Its not without flaws, Sony went cheap with the LCD and single UHS-II card, they stripped out app functions like time-lapse and have not replaced them - with Fuji that and focus stacking is built-in. People complain about menus, but once you get it set up you rarely need to go menu diving anymore. You can assign custom functions for both stills and video modes, along with the Fn menu - everything else you frequently use can be added to a "My Menu" so you don't have to search dozens of menu pages.
I like shooting with Fuji except its IBIS still has that jerky-ness in video that Fuji hasn't fixed, its AF is a generation behind Sony's, and the DR with stills can never catch the larger FF sensor in the a7III. The ISO dial fell off one of my XT2's as well, a lightly used body with less than 5k clicks, had to replace the entire $210 top plate. Grrr... I was all set to get the XH1, but after using one for a short time it just didn't offer enough over my XT2 to upgrade. After using the new Z battery with the a7III, I'm not spending top dollar for another small battery camera, Fuji really shot themselves in the foot not putting the GFX battery in the XH1, that and the XT100's tilt LCD were major blunders that made it a no buy for me.
If you use Adobe to edit stills, Sony's color got a real shot in the arm with the new color profile from the update earlier this year. Plus you can now easily apply LUT's to stills, Eterna with Sony's raws. Love it.
I've been a faithful Fuji shooter for awhile now, but the future for enthusiast cameras is clearly FF, especially if you shoot a lot of stills since CaNikon is entering that space in the next few months. Tamron, Sigma, Tokina, Samyang and Zeiss are all making AF lenses for the E-mount and many others are doing MF lenses. Plus you can adapt Canon glass. Its just a more versatile system with all the adapter options and such. Smaller sensors can't compete with the DR or the resolution. With Fuji you have one sensor and nothing else for years until the next update. With Sony you have options, APS-c/FF, absolute speed, high resolution and so on. Personally I'm going to be moving on from my Fuji system, the a7III and recent Sony lenses like the 85/1.8, 24-105, 12-24, and 100-400 has all but killed Fuji for me.
Cheers
Chris

Nikon have a rare opportunity here to sway hybrid video users with no video line to protect. If they manage to get decent (PDAF) video autofocus, a beefy (10-bit) codec or better yet raw with something like N-Log, i think a lot of heads may be tempted to switch. I kind of doubt we'll get all that cuz Nikon seems to always lag behind in video dept but who knows they might pull a Fuji and all of a sudden pack video centric specs. The new sub F/1 primes is also pretty enticing imo and could give an edge over Sony/Nikon offerings, especially if priced smartly..

100% agree. AS LONG AS having 24mp allows for better video features. It seems difficult in today's tech to have 24MP + 4K60P ... ...
 
If Canikon releases an A7III copy (same video feature and quality, AF on par, stills on par, IBIS) I will buy it. In fact the Canon will have better AF for sure and probably worst video feature and still quality. Nikon will have better still quality (Dynamic Range as always) but AF is a question.   THEN I will buy it to replace my A7III. Why? Because in the past for DSLRs Sony was always behind and always the brand releasing good specs on paper but worst in real use. Honestly they did not change much when you see all the ergonomic cons of the A7. 

BUT NOW Sony will release an A7SIII with 4K60p, which for sure the Canikon won't do. So I will need this one for video and will be stuck with either having an A7SIII and the Nikon FF or stay completely with Sony. 

Ideally for me, as Andrew said I would love a 24mp camera with best video features 4K60p and so on from Nikon and one 46mp D850 like mirrorless. 
Best in class codec and profile, best in class ergonomics... Would be perfect. 
But A7S sales are very low in comparison to A7r and A7 so for sure Canikon will not do an A7s competitor. 
Frustrating to see that 1DX II is old today, yet it is the only FF with 4K60p and best FHD120p...
 

Pretty epic teaser! 
Looks like NR was accurate with the scheduled announcement info, big budget marketing campaign etc. Here is the recap:
 
We are one week away from the rumored new Nikon full-frame mirrorless camera announcement. I have received some new pricing information, this time from Europe (I assume the prices are for a lens kit):
Nikon 45MP full frame mirrorless camera: €4,000 (around $4,670, 20% VAT included in price)
Nikon 24MP full frame mirrorless camera: €2,500 (around $2,900)
One possible (rumored) scenario is that 45MP Nikon mirrorless full-frame camera will be announced first (at the end of July) while the second 24MP Nikon mirrorless full-frame camera could be announced at Photokina. The shipping of at least one of the new Nikon mirrorless full-frame cameras is rumored to start at the end of August or in early September.
The upcoming mirrorless full-frame camera is rumored to be the most expensive Nikon marketing campaign ever with bloggers meetups in exotic locations and maybe even some celebrities involvement.
Here is a recap of the already rumored Nikon mirrorless full-frame camera details:
Two Nikon full-frame mirrorless cameras expected: one with 24-25MP and one with 45MP (48MP is also a possibility) - I reported the two sensors configurations in October last year. BSI sensors (supposed to be a new tech with advanced AF).
Similar body size to the Sony a7 camera but with better ergonomics and a better grip. Nikon is putting a lot of emphasis and effort into the shooting experience of the new mirrorless camera. The camera was designed with ergonomics in mind.
5-axis in-body stabilization
9fps
New mirrorless mount. We already knew that,  but the number I was given this time is 55mm. The Z-mount dimensions I reported a few months ago were 49mm for the actual opening and 65.4mm for the entire mount diameter.
The new mirrorless mount will allow for f/0.95 lenses - remember the NOCT trademark and f/0.9 lens patents?
Memory cards: XQD and CF Express - now this is a surprise for me, but it is what I have heard (ProGrade is coming with a CF Express card).
EVF resolution: 3.6MP (update: I am not sure if this is MP or million dots, the translation could be wrong since the specs originally came from Asia)
Initially, three lenses will be announced: 24-70mm f/4, 35mm and 50mm (I think the 35 and 50mm will be f/1.4). There is also talk about a 24mm, but it may come later.
 
Read more: https://nikonrumors.com/2018/07/15/one-week-away-from-the-rumored-new-nikon-full-frame-mirrorless-camera-announcement.aspx/#ixzz5M4GIElBq

You can order one, but the cool dude with the Ferrari and sunglasses won't tell you the price.
The comment threads on Newsshooter are awesome, the exact opposite of what someone trying to break into a highly competitive market should be doing. He should sell the Ferrari and hire someone to handle the PR/marketing.
Chris

You can order one, but the cool dude with the Ferrari and sunglasses won't tell you the price.
The comment threads on Newsshooter are awesome, the exact opposite of what someone trying to break into a highly competitive market should be doing. He should sell the Ferrari and hire someone to handle the PR/marketing.
Chris

Z-Cam: "We have produced the most mundane and uninspiring footage that any company could ever possibly publish for promoting their cinema camera"
Cinemartin: "Hold my beer....."

I may just go ahead and pull the trigger. Just picked up Andrew's Pro Color and I liked "Totolo-Vision" on the a7sII, a profile shootout is in order. I'm camped out in Arizona right now, daily highs are touching 110f where I am, not exactly 'get out and shoot' weather. 
Cheers
Chris

and here is a complete work (some art event deep inside russian territory):
 

I bought the Lilliput A5 since my Sony's and Fuji's don't have a forward facing LCD. Only tinkered with it in test shots, but so far I like it. With the skinny Sony battery its not unwieldy on top of the camera. The bigger Sony batteries will run it all day. Found a seller on Ebay that had it ad $149 shipped obo. I offered $135 and they accepted, three days later it was in my hands. 
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lilliput-A5-5-1920x1200-8bit-4K-HDMI-DSLR-Camera-field-monitor-F970-LP-E6-Plate/263676993363?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649
Chris

Finally got our Ronin-S review finished! Really loving this gimbal. Although....at the end of the day, if you have an extra operator, the MoVI with all the FIZ control is going to be better. The Ronin-S is a Z Crane killer. 
 

Shot with this yesterday on a shoot with quick turn around. All Procolor V4. Still need a little white balance to match (and Pre boat removal on the horizon )

Might be helpful

So I just got the DJI Ronin S and decided to try it with a couple of cameras. The cameras I have tested so far are the Panasonic GH5S and the Canon C200. The former is well suited to handheld work given it is fully supported with the tether cable which is included with the Ronin S. The C200 is a much heavier affair so I would not recommend using this camera handheld with the Ronin S. However, as luck would have it... that is several phone calls and emails to Glide Gear would have it ? they now have an adapter so that the Ronin S can be mounted to the Glide Gear arm to help support heavier setups. To that end I have tried the C200 on the Ronin S with the Glide Gear Arm and can report it is awesome. I could not imagine using the C200 on the gimbal without some sort of support. I have not done any testing beyond balancing with the C200, and mounting the Ronin S/C200 onto the arm and shooting some spray and prey footage ( I have not attached the monitor as I have not received the monitor adapter yet). Anywho, here are some quick picies of the setup. Comments or question welcomed.

It will use Bluetooth LE to communicate with my controller so a smartphone app could equally be used.
My personal view of that though is that its a bit of an overkill way to do it, especially considering the size and cost of the smartphone even though you might already have it. 
Using something like a small Bluetooth LE controller (a keyfob sized remote control similar to smartphone shutter release for example) is, to me at least,  a better way to control it as the beauty of doing it that way is you don't have to fire up an app on the smartphone so its a bit more instant, not to mention tactile ?
There'll be options for both though.