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BTM_Pix

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Everything posted by BTM_Pix

  1. BTM_Pix

    NAB 2018

    I don't agree. Can only think of the E mount adapter where the Terra wins? I'm not sure thats a bigger win than having the MFT mount on the GH5s? Kinefinity's boosted EF mount is only 0.72 reduction whereas you can go deeper than that with a Metabones EF to MFT.
  2. BTM_Pix

    NAB 2018

    And with a more flexible lens mount. And less expensive. But minus the RAW. Its tricky. You might be surprised how dinky the Terra 4K actually is when you actually have one in your hand though.
  3. BTM_Pix

    NAB 2018

    The particular personnel I'm in mind of have a background with both (we were former colleagues in another lifetime!) so maybe they might yet do it.
  4. BTM_Pix

    NAB 2018

    BMD bought some very relevant knowhow when they acquired Fairlight (there is a lineage from key members of their R&D team that leads back to analogue consoles) so they could definitely do it. Speaking of Australian companies acquiring technology, what news of Rode's progress with an affordable Soundfield ? Might we see that launched at NAB perhaps?
  5. Its integrated into one of my test apps in another thread. But give me an hour or so as I want to write a standalone version. I'll update here when its done.
  6. BTM_Pix

    NAB 2018

    Or at the very least working on shipping HDMI cables for it a bit faster eh?
  7. No problem. Hope it works and doesn't break your phones. Or your cameras.
  8. OK, as requested by @Grimor I've just written an additional app for live tweaking of the parameters. Usual instructions, so put your Panasonic camera into wifi mode and attach your phone/tablet then press the Connect button in the app. Select a base profile with the Profile button and then tweak away on the sliders. Press the STILL button to, erm, take a still and the REC button will start a video recording. While the video is recording, your tweaks are still live to the camera and will be recorded. Download link is here https://mega.nz/#!djgk1aIL!fzloi_GiFqTNULCcYhCaG0oZHes6sQd-RzW_PsUlK-I Enjoy !
  9. I agree regarding a real time tweaker (as with my hardware one) but, yes, this is for a different purpose to build a complete reference file of all the permutations in a very structured way. Let me get back to you about a tweaker app as its not a huge effort to knock one together if you want it.
  10. Just a couple of additional notes regarding intended usage. Unfortunately, Panasonic don't offer a way to control the highlight and shadow parameters remotely which is why they aren't included. However, what I would recommend is you setting up the parameter ranges you were interested in using the app and doing several passes with adjustments to the highlights and shadows between each pass. This will achieve the same end. With regard to doing this as stills versus video, the purpose of the video is so that you can put it on a timeline and not only observe the changes all in one place instead of ploughing through hundreds of stills but also to be able to add a LUT to it so you can see if there are settings changes you can make in camera to better prepare it to be used with a particular film simulation LUT you may have. The benefit of the stills is in making your own LUT without the image changing ! Obviously, don't also just think this is for analysing dull test scenes and colour charts but take it out into the outside world and see what you can extract from the sensor and processor in a real scenario.
  11. After watching that Steve Yedlin video again, if I had £10K to spend and wanted a pain free way to get a cinematic look, I'd buy an Alexa for £8K off eBay and give the rest to him to set it up and teach me his workflow
  12. I thought they did plenty well enough without my ham fisted blundering about ! Its portable to the NX though from what I can see of their protocol. If I had one. But prices seemed to take a big jump in the last few weeks of March for some reason
  13. So, as you may recall, I have an interest in tweaking the combinations of the basic profiles in the camera along with the contrast/sharpness/saturation/NR parameters. The purpose of that is basically a mining operation to see if there are some combinations that perhaps may not be intuitive but whose interaction may yield pleasing results. Outside of the usual "select cinelike d, reduce everything to -5" etc stuff that we all do, who really knows if Natural with +4 contrast/-5 sharpness/+3 saturation/+2 noise reduction might actually be the golden ticket? I did a hardware controller last year based on a midi control surface that let you tweak the parameters in real time which, whilst offering a way of 'discovery through play', wasn't exactly ideal from a structured testing point of view. It also wasn't particularly practical (or cheap) for you to go out and replicate yourselves if you fancied a go ! Anyway, in pursuit of something a bit more structured, I created a very simple automated testing app which I thought I might as well hand out in case anyone else is interested in this sort of thing. Its Android only so you elitists with that other phone type are out of luck for now As its also a bit of a utilitarian thing that was only really designed for my own meddling, its not exactly pretty either but it works. Mainly. OK, so here is how it looks, how to use it and what it does. First things first, obviously, is to enable the Wifi on your Panasonic camera as per if you were using their app and then go into your phone/tablet and connect to it. In the ProfileStepper app, you then press the "Connect" button and it will take control of the camera. It might complain the first time about approving the connection but if it does just repeat and it will be fine. Once connected, you press the individual parameter buttons and select the range that you are interested in so in this example we have set it to be using the base Natural profile and how it looks with all permutations of Contrast from -5 to +3, Sharpness from -2 to 0, Saturation from -5 to +5 and NR from -5 to +1. Next up is to set if you want to use Stills or Video, which we toggle between by pressing the Stills button and then to create a delay (of between 1 and 10 seconds) between shots you press the button (currently set to 2 seconds) and select it. When you are happy with the settings range, press the Start button and the app will begin compiling the list of commands it needs to send to the camera. As this is a variable amount of time (in our example there are 2079 commands ) you may see a progress pop-up before it proceeds to the playout screen. Be patient. The progress screen will then appear and display the value of each parameter in the set it is sending to the camera and the current progress (in this case we are on set 4 of 2079). After it sends each set to the camera, if you have the mode set to Stills it will then fire the shutter on the camera. Obviously, make sure you have a decent memory card capacity if you are testing a lot of permutations! If you are set to Video mode, a recording will begin on the camera as soon as you pressed the Start button and the changes will all be recorded into this one recording. This is where the Delay function becomes useful as it determines how long each setting is held on the video as it progresses. As with the Stills mode, be careful regarding capacity as if you have 1000 permutations with a Delay time of 5 seconds then, well.... In either mode, pressing the Stop button will abort and return you to the main screen and if you are in video mode it will stop the recording. The purpose of the progress screen is not just to provide you with a countdown to whats going on but also meant to act as a slate so that you can put your phone/tablet in your test scene and the settings will then be embedded in the images/video when you review them. This is an example frame from a GX80 to illustrate. There is a 3 second delay built in to the beginning of the command playout process to allow you to do this but obviously as the camera is being controlled over Wifi you can place the phone/tablet in the scene and press Start from there anyway. This just gives you a chance to get your hand out of the way ! So there you go. Its a bit of a niche app to say the least but might be useful for some. Bear in mind, its not really meant to be about analysing every single permutation in one go (though it can do that if you want) its more about helping you to look at how more targeted ranges of settings interact with each other (such as Saturation and Contrast in a specific Profile for example). And what exactly is the Noise Reduction bringing to the party in terms of colour shifts and sharpening etc. Download link is here https://mega.nz/#!Vux3UDIK!TPJNYc8gJ6YrQY5T8xkZRAQ_IpBac16xIIGe3ET6R0Y You'll need to set your device to install apps from non-Play store sources etc. Its completely free, no ads or any bollocks like that. As I say, its my own test tool and wasn't designed for general release but thought it might be useful to share. If nothing else, its a quick way to get the Cinelike D hack on to your camera! Because its just a quick and dirty test tool, there is no particularly elegant error handling going on (other than telling you that you haven't connected the camera) so if it throws one up just quit and restart it. If you set the To range to be lower than the From range (i.e. the From is -3 and the To is -4) then it won't execute the commands so don't do that. NB - The eagle eyed amongst you may have spotted the Bracket function at the bottom of the screen. This does exactly what you might expect but its unrelated to the main function but I needed it to test something so you get it as a bonus! You set the shutter speed and then the 1/3rd steps above and below and press Bracket and it takes the required frames with suitably altered shutter speeds. Its a bit flaky on some Panasonic cameras because they don't all allow the 1/3rd shutter changes so your mileage may vary and, as I say, you can largely ignore it.
  14. I largely think we've managed to get things arse backwards when it comes to emulating a film look. Because everyone now has the ability to change everything about an image in post there is barely any emphasis on getting it right - or at least consistent - in camera first. If a camera manufacturer said : "OK, we are putting all our eggs in one basket here but we have absolutely perfected an in camera look that is identical to Kodak Vision 250D (for example). Our entire sensor and processing design is based on purely just replicating that but we guarantee that if you shoot with this it will be indivisible from if you'd used that stock. Oh and you'll only be able to use it to shoot up to ISO800 though". Would you buy it? I think I would. Personally speaking, taking away all those variables that offer endless rabbit holes to explore but often just disappear down and making something work within a constant framework would be challenging but ultimately more creative and productive. This is a really interesting piece about preparation in camera to match film and the follow up piece is here : http://yedlin.net/OnColorScience/ Its quite timely that this has come up because I've been interested in tweaking combinations of base colour profiles and constrast/saturation/sharpness etc parameters in Panasonic cameras for a while with a view to mining some in camera combinations that may not be obvious ones but actually work well visually. The timely part is I've just finished an app today that does automated stepping through all combinations (from selectable ranges) whilst either capturing a still per combo or as one continuous video with the changes embedded. I'll give it its own thread tomorrow if anyone is interested.
  15. OK, I've made the app and it does + and - 18 step bracket in 1/3rd stop steps (so, 6 full stops in both directions).
  16. BTM_Pix

    Motion Cadence

    I think where we may end up with this is concluding that the only way to truly differentiate the motion cadence between two cameras is by shooting unicorns in full gallop. So it doesn't matter whether you go there for fuel or chicken you're going to end up with gas either way. Smart marketing.
  17. BTM_Pix

    Motion Cadence

    Well, that's dinner sorted tonight then... https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g293925-d4492725-r189425765-JJ_s_Fish_Chips-Ho_Chi_Minh_City.html
  18. The workaround in this case as far as I can see thus far is to switch it off Honestly, this isn't about unrealistic expectations or wives or anything else - it just isn't working very well.
  19. Its a bit of a how long is a piece of string question but if you based it purely on this year's Oscars you'd say 'how many does the Alexa have?' which is 14. Purely arbitrary though as, judging from that clip, I'd say you're doing just fine without the other 3
  20. No, its not necessarily about the AF performance per se just about conflicts with lens corrections combined with the ones it is making with IBIS. Even trying it in MF might be worth a go.
  21. I couldn't agree more with this. I got accused of having 'real problems' a few pages back for actually trying to look at exactly what is going on with it. From everything I've seen, the IBIS on this camera - even taking into account the sensor size - is a long way even from from being 'isn't that great'. Its not about expecting miracles.
  22. Its better.....but the right hand side of the cabinet is going berserk at 0:37. Have you got a non-native lens you can put on it to rule out additional lens and AF corrections it might be making at the same time?
  23. BTM_Pix

    Motion Cadence

    I'm not suggesting he did anything to mislead but the screen shots of him adjusting WB etc were of a completely different scene to the actual comparison footage with the RED. Can't see an ND filter on it (as they're usually clip on with smartphones so would be visible on the stuff where he's showing it on the gimbal with the RED). However, perhaps the most salient point here is that neither can you see any ND on the lens on the RED, so that would suggest they would both be on 1/800 hence why they aren't showing any difference.
  24. I think the BMPCC/BMMCC/BMCC etc are fantastic sensor and storage solutions to base your own custom cinema setup on. Whereas I think the GH5 is a fantastic camera. With the BM stuff, they give you the insides but you have to provide the camera that goes around it, if that makes sense. Both very worthy approaches but both very different and one doesn't negate the other. I look at the BM stuff versus a GH5 like the Sigma Foveon cameras versus something like a Fuji X100F. Both APS-C, both fixed lens but the Fuji canes the Sigma at every turn for low light, speed and functionality but then you look at the RAW images from the Sigma. Thats not to say the GH5 can't make fantastic images because it demonstrably can but just that - like the Sigmas - within a smaller operating window of and with a lot more effort in post the BM stuff can make images that truly shine.
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