BTM_Pix

If you’re trying to emulate f2.8 Full frame then the Sigma ART f1.8 give you exactly that on an APS-C or via a smart speedbooster (to retain the AF) on an M43 camera though. The size and weight penalty of using lenses like that with a speedbooster comes with the territory if you want that sort of spec as full frame f2.8 zoom lenses carry the same penalty. The compromise between fast and flexible is exactly the same on full frame cameras because their zooms max out at f2.8 as well so anything faster will need a prime there too and, again, the speedboosted lenses can match that speed. Its only when you get to the daft stuff like 400mm f2.8 that bozos like me have to buy that you can’t get equivalence. But carrying one of those around isn’t as stealthy as you’d like to be

Which is why they have not been usurped for my day job. But for video, they need to get a move on. In 4K, my D500 has got a bigger crop than an Iowa corn field.

The problem you’ve got @kye is that it’s not just the lack of a single camera that covers everything but that all the criteria is actually spread between the different manufacturers. Sony have got the FF and low light, Fuji have got the lenses, Canon have got the AF, Blackmagic have got the RAW, Panasonic have got the IBIS and Nikon have got....to get a move on. Unfortunately, due to many factors, it’s unlikely that any of them are going to become the strongest in all categories in the near future and hence unlikely that a single camera to excel in all areas is going to happen either. Until then it’s just a question of picking the most acceptable compromise today and if you’re changing system, gambling on who is going to get closest over time. Sony probably have the most pieces of the puzzle minus the RAW and if Sigma can make some improvement from Sigma on their AF then they bring better and cheaper lens options so you’d say currently it was Sony that ticked most boxes. An out of focus shot is still going to be out of focus irrespective of whether it’s heavily compressed or RAW so it sounds like that should take precedence for you for what you want to use it for. That would point to Sony being the current best least worst option for you but based on the track record of these companies and how they drip feed functionality, if RAW really is what you’re after, you’d have to take a view on what you think would happen sooner : Blackmagic improving the AF to a good enough level for what you want it for or Sony offering RAW video on any camera outside of their F/FS line? Based on the philosophy of those two companies? Mmmm.... I know one thing though, as many of the things you want to shoot are life events and holidays and family growing up etc, don’t waste the opportunity of capturing those moments while waiting for a manufacturer to come up with a camera that has it all because they are dancing to a different beat. Oh and buy a camcorder

As I say, it's way better than it should be for the price and the pan bar is smart but obviously manage your expectations at that price. But the same could be said for heads at a few times the price of it as well in my experience. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01MYPV01O/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_0VHjBbW506PVC

The person showing it to me didn’t mention that. He mustn’t have been on the advanced sales training course.

I saw a fridge in a shop a few weeks ago that had a dark glass door on it that when you tapped it became clear and showed you what was inside. We can't be far off someone doing an electronic variable ND in a square filter format if that sort of tech is finding it's way into consumer products. Without the having to tap it to change the setting though obviously.

I had an Apple Newton and I'm not sure what was the bigger death knell for it fashion wise - me buying it or Steven Segal using it as a recipe book in Under Siege 2. My patronage also saw off Windows CE, the PalmPilot and the Compaq Ipaq so Light will be encouraged by the fact that I haven't bought an L16

And tears in your eyes no doubt !

The Sony 1.4 ?

Add another 10% to that

Yeah, I probably should have read the 'magnetic mount' part before offering up solutions to a problem you weren't actually having But if you don't want to have a magnet near your camera to hold them (and I can think of a couple of reasons why I might not want to) then you nowat least have two additional clunky solutions available

I don't own the H.264 version. Logic would tell me that it would be worth it and I do regret it a bit to be honest. The non-battery H.265 version is the same price that I paid for the battery version of the H.264 and on balance it would've been better as I could have made a lower profile battery solution anyway. I might actually end up with one of them as well now that I know they work for what I need them for as extra channel inputs for cameras are never a bad thing. I know, right? I think these are the perfect storm for camera tests. Cats and colour charts in one go.

I wasn't being entirely serious, of course. But yes, I have seen various ones that can move without looking like they've had an accident. Surely our problems would be solved by them being exactly like us but without our problems. Which is exactly what my wife says about me by the way They can analyse data that builds a model of what it is we like about something though, which is all that pleasure from a certain aesthetic translates to. Give anyone/anything enough data and enough time and they could transform what we'd currently call "je ne s'ais quoi" into "Not only do I know exactly what that certain what is Monsieur but here its is as a preset for your Panasonic BrainInterface20000 camera". Its no different to current practices of EXIF mining and cross checking it with Likes/Retweets on social media to find out what sort of image capture components drive the most interest and affection. It may be cruder now but its the same principle that given enough processing power and time can be extrapolated out to a more granular level that will provide a fair idea of what sort of images ping the pleasure sensors of most people. The Lytro got a lot of hate - much of it justified - but if you ever played with one for a little while then the glimpse was there of where we'll end up going. Take that concept on two or three generations (which may or may not happen now Google own it) and with enough data mined about what works then I can easily envisage a camera system that slaps an instant and satisfying enough auto-aestethetic on it complete with not only colour and dynamic range adjustments but focus point, depth of field and re-composition as well. And then they'll cripple it by putting a slow lens on it and no microphone input obviously.

Thorlabs do this, which might work for you. It takes 5 filters up to 60mm width and you'd just have to rig up some narrow rails for it. Its not cheap but it would do the job https://www.thorlabs.com/newgrouppage9.cfm?objectgroup_id=2805 If you are looking for a cheaper DIY solution then if you used a Cokin (or no name equivalent) system then you could use two graduated NDs like this but, unlike this picture, keep one of them upside down. Lets say that filter 1 is 4ND grad and filter 2 is an 8ND grad What that would let you do is slide filter 1 up and filter 2 down (they'd both at their clear graduation positions so no ND) and then by doing the other permutations of position on the each filter (i.e. one in its clear position and the other in its ND position and then both in their ND position) you'd be able to have the following with a couple of slides and not having to remove them. 0 ND, 4ND, 8ND and 12ND

The first thing these robots need to do is to build a robot that can walk properly. Otherwise, in the upcoming war against the rise of the cyborgs, we'll prevail just by virtue of knowing that we have to shoot the ones that look like they've shit their pants

Not a total recommendation as such but Andoer do a compact 5kg load head which you can get on Amazon for £30. Its far better than it has a right to be for that price really (and the elastic band trick smooths it out a lot as it does with all of them) but what I'd really recommend it for is to be able to get the extendable pan bar which closes really small and is perfect for travelling As far as I know, they don't sell the pan bar separately so you can use it on other tripods but they definitely should do !

I forgot to mention that it does scent release as well. So, yeah, if you want fart jokes then they can do a very decent dinosaur one complete with wind, movement and smell ! It was the same price as the usual IMAX 3D ticket. They make double the money on the drinks and snacks though as most of your initial purchases end up all over you the first time the seat lurches while you're slurping your coke and munching your popcorn !

You'd have to think that the reduced data rate of the H.265 version would be of benefit but I've never tried it. Also, it would depend on the speed of the encoder and whether you are getting a benefit end to end in terms of latency. No, not compared to their higher end ones but it is a bit more of a footprint than the Vidius which I would imagine anyone looking at these would be comparing it too. I got that price differential from a random search yesterday on Aliexpress so could be a special offer or stock clearance but it is usually not far off that. The non-battery version appeal would be in the reduction of the form factor as well as budgetary really. The power input is a 12v barrel so it can be powered from a dtap or a £1.50 usb to 12v barrel adapter so it could be attached to existing power sources on a rig in the case of the former or to a slim usb bank attached to the top of it in the case of the latter. From a financial perspective, the saving would more or less pay for a pocket 4G router like this one, which would round off the system. Yes, it is totally unacceptable for that. If its viewed, if you pardon the pun, as a framing monitor and a distribution device then its acceptable (especially for Fuji owners who have no alternative of viewing on a smartphone without sending their camera's recording resolution back to 2005). I'd take anything monitoring wise with this as a bonus over its primary functionality. Its the finding the instructions that is the difficult task though Especially that when you turn it into wireless AP mode it has an entirely different (and undocumented) addressing system which means you can't find the address for the stream but worse still the address for the control panel. It doesn't reveal its router address in network control panel so there was a lot of head scratching and probing going on until I found it hidden away when I got back in using the ethernet port. I almost had to email them ! Yes, Live:Air can take in RTSP streams as camera sources, so you can see in the panel next to the colour charts is the feed from my LS300 which has the streaming function built in. The colour chart was just what I had the camera (the A6500) with the Uray attached pointing at at the time I did the screenshot as I don't have a cat as a test subject.

This is probably a bit low brow on populist for most of you but anyway.... So I went to see Jurassic World in 4DX the other night. Not a great film but definitely a great experience. I don't really know what I was expecting, maybe just a bit of motion rumbling in the seat and a few gimmicks of the odd tiny blast of air and a bit of water but it was way beyond that. Of course, its not going to work with every film type but with something like Jurassic World you've already left any pretence of high brow at the door anyway so if you're going to go for it then you might as well really go for it. The range of movement in the chair was way beyond what I was expecting both in distance and velocity which made every crash or shock point really shake you but I was also surprised at the subtlety that really put you inside the aerial shots and also when the camera was tilting up to reveal something. The air jets coming from the front were obviously good for weather stuff but the ones in the head rest were very effective for bullet fly bys but the big surprise where the ones behind your calfs which they used to simulate little creatures running around your ankles. And honestly, the rain effects with the water spray were fantastic ! As an old cynic, I shouldn't really be getting excited by this stuff but I had an absolute whale of a time as did everyone else in there. Its a long time since I've left the cinema and people have seemed as euphoric as that. And that is with what is a decidedly iffy film as well. Also, as I've said before on here, we really all did give up on 3D too soon. I would love for Spielberg to do a version of Saving Private Ryan for 4DX as it would lend itself very well to the inclusive immersion aspects. Flame away

This will probably only have an audience of one - hello @IronFilm - but might be of use for anyone else who has a need for what it does. So what is it? Its a small(ish) box that takes an HDMI input and encodes it into a live H.264 IP data stream that can then be used for monitoring or as an input source by devices on a local network or pushed to streaming services such as YouTube, Facebook etc. The version I have has an integrated Sony NP battery mount and hotshoe mount so is a completely standalone solution for use in the field but it can also be powered via a mains adapter. If you want to save some money and will only be using it in a studio environment then the version without the battery mount and hotshoe mount is also available. There is also a version with an integrated 4G modem so you can live broadcast from your camera on to YouTube or whatever service you use without any additional equipment. There is also an H.265 version available as well. Physically, the unit isn’t massive but isn’t what you would call compact either. Seen here on my LS300 camera (which ironically doesn’t need to use one because it has this stuff built in ) it looks in proportion but to be fair it does dwarf a small mirrorless camera a little bit. Seen here alongside its far more expensive alternative - the Teradek Vidiu - you can see that the base units its not that much bigger but obviously it gets much bigger when you slap the battery on as opposed to the Vidiu which has a built in rechargeable one. What has to be borne in mind though is the functionality you are getting here and should consider how much more unwieldy things would be if you had to mount a laptop to your A6500 as that would be the only way to get the same functionality. At this point, I’m going to have to say that if you’re not comfortable with some basic network configuration stuff then this product is not going to make you any more comfortable and you might want to walk away now OK, after plugging our camera into the HDMI port, we have to log in to the device and configure it. This is done by attaching an ethernet cable to the LAN port and typing in an address in a browser that brings up a control panel of the sort which will be familiar to you if you’ve ever setup a router. In here you set up all the options for the type of stream that you will be generating from the incoming camera signal and you can alter everything from re-scaling it, to frame rate and a wide range of quality settings from data rate to encoding profile. Most of it is self explanatory but you’d better get used to this interface because you’ll be seeing a lot of it as you tweak the settings for the optimum results. OK, so once its encoded your video and is merrily streaming it you can access it directly through its own LAN or WiFi interfaces or you via a wider network if you connect it to another router (which you will need to do if you want to get your stream out to the internet). This router can be anything from your home router to an internet access point in Starbucks or your mobile phone’s hotspot function for onward broadcast to the internet. So lets get down to some actual use cases. The first use - and the one that @IronFilmis waiting on - is to use it as a way of remote wireless monitoring on set from a camera. In this mode, we set it up as a WiFi access point and connect whatever device or devices to it that we want to monitor on and use a media player that can play network streams to watch it. Basically, any device that can run VLC will do so you use your phone, tablet, computer or even smart TV to monitor the signal. All you need to do is to enter the address that the stream is playing on into VLC and away you go. And if there are a few of you, then as you can see here with my MacBook, my iPad and my Android phone, you can all watch it together. Although, as I said, its more likely that you would use the encoder in access point mode for this, you could actually use a larger network infrastructure if you wanted to for extending the range and extent of the monitoring. These devices are used in this capacity to deliver digital TV service to hotel rooms so its very much a scalable thing ! The other use case that I have it for is to use to encode camera signals so that they can be accessed inside Live:Air which is Teradek’s live video production software that runs on the iPad. In this scenario, cameras can be connected to multiple encoder units which can then be brought into Live:Air and switched and have overlays added etc and streamed out to the internet for a pretty comprehensive live broadcast. When used in this way, the encoders and iPad are connected wirelessly though a portable 4G router to move the data around get the final output from Live:Air out on to the internet. The encoder can operate with 2.4G and 5G routers and clients. If you just want to do direct from the camera live broadcasts then the encoder can also be configured to overlay some lines of text and graphic logos onto the outgoing stream. Price wise, you can pick up the encoders for about £110 for the non battery version and about £180 for the version I’ve got. To be honest, you can easily knock up your own powering solutions for these for far less than the £70 difference so I’d be inclined to go for the lower priced one unless you need the really, really long run times you can get out of the NP ones. For comparison, even the basic version of the Teradek Vidiu (which doesn’t support the RTS protocol for monitoring on VLC) to encode live video for Live:Air or for YouTube broadcast is around £700 so it represents a significant saving - particularly for a multi-camera setup. So, is it any good? Yes for me but maybe not for you. It does what it needs to do well enough but the nature of the beast with these devices is that there will be latency and how much of that is acceptable is down to you and what you are using it for. The bigger problem is that this latency is also very dependent on how you configure it and your network infrastructure and even location if you are in a highly saturated place (which is where the 5G capability actually does help). All of this variance makes it difficult to recommend with any confidence purely as a MONITOR solution only. You can tweak away and noodle about with scaling down, bit rate, GOP, profiles etc and mitigate the latency but its never going to go away completely and I’d say that its difficult to find an acceptable balance thats not going to be below 1/2 a second. That doesn’t mean to say it is without utility when used as a monitoring solution but it would be in a secondary capacity as a distribution method where absolute real time instant monitoring isn’t necessary. So in this way you would loop it through from the primary operator’s monitor and allow everyone else on set to wirelessly monitor after that. There is also the question of how much real time you may need if you are using it in the capacity of primarily a framing monitor. If you have a Fuji XT/XH for example, this offers a solution to not being able to monitor and trigger the camera over wifi without it dropping to 720p resolution like it does with Fuji’s app. For Vlogging for example where you just want a remote view of the framing then this would give you that and allied with a cheap wireless shutter trigger you can get round the abysmal state of affairs with the Fuji app. Bear in mind that there is latency but not dropped frames. For my purposes of using it as a (much, much) cheaper way of getting camera signals into Live:Air than using Teradek’s own encoders then the latency is not an issue at all as each channel has an individual time align control to compensate for the latency. Similarly when broadcasting direct out of the camera to the internet, the latency at that level is not relevant. In summary then, if you have a need for the things that it does then it works well and is a huge saving on the alternatives. Its a bit clunky getting it going as the documentation wasn’t exactly readily available so I wasted a lot of time being unable to connect to it as an access point because the router address it uses when wireless is entirely different (and undocumented) to what it is when you are using the LAN port or it is in bridge mode.( Its 192.168.8.8 by the way ) Being able to live stream to YouTube directly out of your DSLR might not be something you want to do every day but if you ever have the need for it (especially away from the studio) then it doesn't come much cheaper and simpler (once you've unearthed the manual) than this. If you want to use it as your primary real time wireless monitor (other than just for framing or as per the Fuji example where its the only game in town) then I don’t think its the way to go because of the latency. If you are interested in purely doing that then I have another solution for that that is really low latency but thats for another day. Full product link here http://www.szuray.com/h-pd-84.html#_pp=0_304_9_-1 And here is the manual that you won’t find on their site either . User Manual Of Mini Video Encoder copy.pdf

Well it has a realistic chance of being available within the next two years so I'm not sure that gels with the current ethos of Kickstarter video and photography products Yes I will be. The Sony version works now. I just need to bury the functions inside six layers of menus though to make Sony user's feel at home

The really short summary is that the really long summary will be posted later on today. It cancelled out all of the car hire savings I'd made that's for sure! The lens budget is ring always ring fenced anyway

I actually got detained by police on my way out there when getting the connecting flignt at Amsterdam airport... Turns out of been caught speeding by a traffic camera when I'd hired a car while working out there last year that hadn't been paid so they got me at passport control and I had to pay a sizeable fine before theyd let me go! Anyway, Yes I got back with my swag but I'm away again and will be back tomorrow and I'll definitely write something up this week about the streamer

At the very least they could have got one of the kids from the team in the background to do the keepie uppies as they surely would've been better at it

Saw this thread come back up and thought the new post was going to be that someone had devised a hack to get RAW out of the HDMI port or something. Alas, its just the return of the over helpful spambot.