BTM_Pix

Bizarrely enough, I have a use case for it exactly as they show it with their 14mm lens that means I might well buy it! Or two actually ! Basically, taking a fully fledged DSLR for the goal cam shots is a waste of camera, lens and packing most of the time. To get proper coverage you ideally need two (which hardly anyone does for obvious reasons) so a lot of the time its a bit of a lottery as to how successful the image is as you have to go very wide and crop in depending on which side the ball goes in the net etc. They are also a right royal pain in the arse to set up as you have lie down on the (often soaking wet) pitch to set the framing and then there is the issue of getting the images off them in any sort of timely manner as you aren't allowed to access the pitch until half and full time (hence the enormously long ethernet cables you can see which lead back to the main photo positions). All in all, they are a hassle and of course you are going to have to get lucky to get something different from everyone else but they are a necessary evil and I've tried numerous different strategies to ease the process (especially the framing issue without getting soaked) but its still a pain. So..... Looking at that module, it might be a bit of a godsend if its the right price. If the camera is say £200 then the package with their 14mm lens (which will give 28mm if its MFT) would be just over £500. So for £1000 (way less than the price of any lens you can see there!) you can cover both sides of the goal with something much, much smaller to carry round. With it connecting to a smartphone then the framing issue is sorted because you can do it standing up. As a smartphone is part of the deal then that means it would be eminently feasible to automatically ftp the shots wirelessly to the editing computer. The only missing link then would be the triggering but if there is one company that know a bit about triggering remotely then its YongNuo. If they built a triggering port in to it (which I'm guessing they could because it is likely to have a USB port) then it would cover every need that I would have for it. Unless it does like 1fps or something stupid obviously

The problem in the UK isn't caused by the real Police but by the private security companies. The Police (by and large) know the actual law about theses things and if they don't they can at least be reasoned with in regard to you asking them specifically about which laws you are breaking. The private security companies think they know the law and also, bizarrely enough, think they have the right to enforce them, both the real law and the ones they think should be law. The really stupid thing here - which should be blindingly obvious to both the real Police and the pretend ones - is that because of their overt paranoia about photographers then anyone who is genuinely up to no good will of course never be carrying a camera and a tripod because they run the risk of being pulled. One thing that you do have to be careful of is that, increasingly, what you think is public land in the UK actually isn't, often due to council's selling off areas for development to private companies. It might be a public space and have no deterrent to access but its not actually publicly owned so in that instance the private security companies are well within their rights to ask you to leave.

As someone less than politely pointed out on the other thread, I appear to have been a bit of a lazy arse in the almost 12 months since I tripped over and found the Cinelike d thing. You may recall it happened because I was researching making a hardware controller and after several iterations, here it finally is. And yes, it does look rather like a calculator doesn't it? The different iterations (including an Android app at one point!) have been in pursuit of making something small, standalone, self powered, fast connecting, push buttons and with an integrated screen at a lowish cost and, well, here we are. Here is the finished spec and features : Compatible with all Panasonic Lumix cameras that can be controlled by wifi Integrated USB rechargeable battery Full colour screen 20 keys with 3 bank switch keys giving 60 direct switch operations of functions Control of Aperture, ISO, Shutter Speed, White Balance, Colour Profile, Contrast, Saturation, Sharpness and Noise Reduction. Automatic unlocking of Cinelike D and Cinelike V on GX80/85, LX10/15 and TZ10 Control of manual focus in fine and coarse steps Control of One Shot AF Control of Record Stop/Start Store and Recall 8 focus points 4 selectable transition speeds between focus points Store and Recall 8 setup presets (each consisting of Aperture, ISO, Shutter Speed, White Balance, Colour Profile, Contrast, Saturation, Sharpness and Noise Reduction) Presets are stored in non-volatile memory so are available in any session. Boot time to camera connection and control under 2 seconds. Wifi control range tested to 20m. Optional accessories : Interface module to support Nintendo Nunchuck controller for manual focus control (native lenses and adapted lenses with smart adapters) and zoom (integrated lens cameras and power zoom lenses only) Wireless interface module to sync remote record and stop on supported Tascam, Zoom and SoundDevices audio recorders. The controller fits a regular cheap cellphone to threaded adapter holder so as well as being used handheld it can be mounted to anything you have a need for with the right attachment so could be on a cage or a gimbal or whatever. I'm going to be doing some more testing of it in anger in the next couple of weeks and I'll put up a video of it in action then. So, I have been a bit less lazy than first imagined By the by, the controller has both wifi and bluetooth so it begs the question would anyone be interested in a version of it for the Pocket 4K ??

Maybe it was posted from a RED Hydrogen and none of us can see it in its holographic glory on our regular antique phones?

For his NTG2s that he was going to use it with I meant. As a matter of interest, can the F4 provide phantom power through the EXH6?

My reading of it is that purely as a lav recorder the Tascam edges it because of the size, single battery and dual recording. The F1 can be a bit more of a swiss army knife and do things the Tascam can't but the Tascam is the better knife.

Yes, I thought you were using it with NTG2's so you wouldn't need the phantom power. But I may have dreamt that.

I first saw The Damned in 1977. Most of us will be amazed its even in colour let alone anything else.

The upside to the F1 is that the 10 pin port doesn't only take their microphones (which aren't exactly stellar lets be honest) but it also takes the EXH6 module which will give you 2 XLR inputs. Thats a big differentiator here. It also acts as a USB audio interface as well which means that you could have better mic inputs to your computer or tablet should you need them. That makes it a very neat modular little system to me that offers more versatility than the Tascam. However..... If all you want is the lav recorder aspect then the Tascam is smaller but crucially also offers the dual level recording function that the Zoom doesn't. That final part could swing it if you are working on your own and trying to work fast.

Pages 200-499 will be devoted exclusively to discussions about it missing its release date.

Not all shoots have a script though. Even if you are just going out to shoot stock footage, you'll still have a list of shots you need to get and a schedule. Ditto any event work.

As per the other thread, here's a sneak peek

Sneak peek

When this camera arrives there will be no more rain Jon. There'll only be sunshine and nice things for everyone.

You'd laugh if I told you how easy it was to find that ! I'm not worth suing !

Oh...hello...what do we have here

He had me at gaffa tape.

Always trying to avoid buying their expensive ones you mean

Aside from the 4k60p external upgrade, the last firmware update (4.0) also gave it 4:2:2 internal 4K, although only 8 bit. It was from June/July 2017 so might be worth comparing with older footage to see if its improved any in that regard. I only really use it for live ENG streaming so haven't done too much with any of the new features.

Oddly enough, I've just posted a new thread about the LS300. Very intrigued why a major UK dealer is making a new promo film about them ! It has a doubler in it so its a choice of using that and losing some light or use the VSM on the LS300 to alter the image size. In HD, the extra reach from the prime zoom goes to the rocker of the LS300 so you have huge zoom on the lens and then you can carry on with the internal zoom! It makes the camera pretty long so if you haven't got it on a tripod and use a shoulder mount then you have to use an additional EVF mounted quite far forward. Which, considering how bad the EVF is on the LS300, is pretty much a given anyway. At the end of the day, I'm going to say its probably the best 15x par focal servo zoom with a constant f1.7 aperture in M4/3 mount for circa £250 on the market at the moment

Quite surprised to see one of the UK's leading photo/video retailers producing a brand new (and pretty comprehensive) video about the LS300 this late in the game. Its a very decent run through though for anyone who hasn't really taken a detailed look at its array of tricks (and foibles) before. I'd expect to see bundles with this probably around the £3K mark when the Ninja V comes out as the last firmware update gave the LS300 4K60p to external recorders. Used, I've seen them go for £1500-1800. I can't really see it making some sort of miraculous comeback as there are tons of other options out there now compared to when it was released. Having said that, sometimes for certain jobs you just need a camcorder and at the prices they are getting to used there aren't many offering more bang for the buck than this one does. Budget for an EVF though.

Its for the LS300 really but I thought "Micro 4/3 mount....might as well have a go on the GX80 as well"

In ETC mode you'd just about get away with it with a small crop. If the OP wanted servo zoom as he's described though, he'd have to go for old B4 ENG lenses with an outboard 12V supply to drive it. You'd have to be quite mad to do something like that though. Like this weirdo attaching an Angenieux ENG lens to his GX80 and lashing a Sony battery to it. Oh hang on..... Thats mine

When I first read this I was wondering whether it might have to do with having the HDMI record trigger set to ON but, nope, its the same with it ON or OFF. That is not cool at all. Also, while you can monitor (for what thats worth) on the camera while recording externally you can't play anything back on it until you unplug the external monitor.

Right, after battering away at this thing all day from numerous different angles, I now remember why I put it on the back burner in the first place ! When you try and put cinelike d or v on it, it responds in exactly the opposite way you want it to and puts a ton of contrast into the image with a saturation boost just for good measure. The histogram looks like a truck has driven right through the middle of it and pushed everything to the shadows and highlights. And not a small truck either. A big fat one. Possibly with a sidecar attached as well. On both sides. Trying to correct this in camera with exposure compensation and highlight/shadow curves made a difference but still nothing even approaching usable. One interesting thing (well, interesting is all relative but after hours of fucking about with this you take your pleasure where you can) is that there is the expected colour response difference between the cinelike d and cinelike v so it knows what its supposed to be doing but this is also accompanied by a hue change. Again, trying to correct this with hue adjustment commands wasn't exactly a roaring success. What I suspect is going on is the other two cameras that share the same guts, the GH4 and the HVX200, have exposed (if you pardon the pun) controls for hue, levels (i.e. 0-255) and master pedestal and its a combo of these that the LX100 just falls apart on when it receives the cinelike command. The HVX200 is the only one that has an app (iOS only which makes it trickier though not impossible to harvest commands from) that can access those functions remotely so there is no chance of me finding anyone with that combo to have a look it. The camera I do have that has these functions is the FZ2000 but its all done in camera rather than via the app so no chance of harvesting the commands that way either. So, sadly, no cinelike for the LX100. Which is all the more reason to give EOS HD pro colour a whirl on it