BTM_Pix

I want a speedbooster that will let me use Nikon lenses on a micro four thirds camera... No, hang on.

Yeah, I'm being entirely realistic about its performance vs a grown up version. I'm basically looking at it as a £300 speedbooster with a £150 remote focus control as a bonus feature. Just simply being able to quickly move from two defined focus points remotely has a practical application for me for what I'll use it for with the LS300 so anything above that is a win for me. The transitions as seen in this demo will be ok for me I think. No way I could justify the expense of a full blown system.

Has anyone got one of these? I'm in one of those flip flop decision modes between one of these and the Metabones speedbooster with AF. To be honest, I'd have bought the Metabones already if anywhere had them in stock but now I think the lack of availability might have done me a favour. Basically, because of the amount of Nikon glass I have, I have the original Nikon speedbooster but now I need an EF mount version for the LS300 and also for my other MFT mount cameras and obviously the AF was a big attraction. (for Face Detect AF testing natch ;)) Not being able to get hold of one has had me revisiting the idea of the Lens Regain and weighing up the pros and cons I'm now leaning towards it and forgoing the AF. Aside from no AF, one downside is that it has slightly less of a reduction than the Metabones (0.75 vs 0.71) but on the LS300 that is less of a concern because of the S35 sensor size. The bulk factor is another issue that concerns me, particularly as it appears that you have to have the handle active to change aperture. Again, less of an issue with the LS300 as stealth isn't really its strong suit but it is a concern with the GX80 ! The upside of it with that really nice controlled A/B focus pull and being able to operate focus remotely if the camera is on a gimbal or jib is probably far more useful for me than an AF capability. The other upside is thats readily available unlike the Metabones and the £200 saving wouldn't go amiss either. With that £200 saving it gets me most of the way to the Kipon Baveyes AF reducer so I could have the best of both worlds albeit with two pieces. So, has anyone got the Lens Regain and is it as good as it appears? And ditto, has anyone got the Kipon and is it a decent performer?

I put this in the NAB thread but might be more appropriate in here. Really neat wireless system for mobile film making but also has a loop out so can be used with regular cameras. Would be particularly good for the DJI Osmo as well as the form factor of it attaching to the back of the phone means no clumsy mounting options like you have to do with regular wireless receivers. Decent value too at $249 for a mic and receiver or $350 for two mics and a receiver.

With the 4K60p of the LS300 once you get over the pain of the purchase price of the Ninja Inferno it does actually work out cheaper per gig to record on SSD (about £4.60 per mb for SD versus £2.30 for SSD) but you do need more space because its recording ProRes but then again that gives you a faster workflow. As my very tedious spreadsheet the other week showed! I use the D500 for work but for stills rather than video and if that D7500 is the same internals then you'll be getting a fine camera. I'l just throw a curveball in though and suggest you take a peak at the XT-20. I got one as a cheaper second XT-2 for work. It has plenty going for it.

This had the air of what Arthur C Clarke meant when he said that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Right up until the point in the demo where it had clearly gone a bit awry. Incredibly promising though and nowhere near as expensive as I thought it might have been.

Get all three. Its the only logical option here! Add the Ninja Inferno while you're at it and get ProRes and pristine monitoring for all three for only $300 per camera!

If all you're after doing is adding to the weight of the camera then one option could be to get one of these hot shoe to tripod screw converters and then put some heavy washers on the screw part. The advantage of using the washers is that you can progressively add them to build up to the correct weight if thats what is causing the problem. If it doesn't work then you'll only be a few quid out of pocket and at least you've got a hot shoe to tripod screw converter which are always useful to have ! And some washers for general plumbing emergencies. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Camera-Mount-Tripod-Screw-Adapter-x/dp/B01KFUBALM/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1493939870&sr=8-4&keywords=hot+shoe+tripod+mount

I haven't got a GH5 buy, yeah, looking at the manual and online videos of the VFR it doesn't appear to be variable within recording like it is on the FZ2500 and their consumer camcorders that have that function. The Dolly Zoom would be out because its a combination of the optical lens zooming in/out and image scaling that requires an integral lens for the software to pull off. It *could* be possible on the few MFT powered zooms that Panasonic do I guess but it doesn't appear to be part of the feature set as yet. Its some camera that FZ2500 isn't it?

Stockings?

Be sure to check back in at the end of this month when the new free firmware update enables it. Well, the upgrade is free its just that you need another £900 to actually record it

I've been browsing across different news sources and YouTube channels and there were some interesting products outside of the usual main players. It was always this sort of stuff that I found more interesting when going to NAB. This slider is pretty cool. Supposed to going to be $2000 complete with all of the motorised stuff. More info here http://www.waterbird.at ---------------- If you've got an interest in iOS or Android mobile film making then this is a really nice dual channel wireless solution for it. And also has analog outputs so it can be used with an ordinary camera as well. $249 for a receiver and one transmitter or $349 with an additional transmitter is a decent price.

And with the removable top handle it breaks down easily to fit into a small backpack. They could've saved even more space by leaving off the EVF! The ones I'm going to use it with are all featured on their should work list so fingers crossed! The EF-S ones require some modification to make it fit into the mount but should be OK. I picked up a great deal on a 10-18mm (£130) that is a much better lens than it should be expected to be even for its real price so that I could have a cheap small wide for the LS300 but also for my other MFT mount cameras. I followed this guide to modifying it to make it work with the metabones so I'm looking forward to testing it when I get the adapter. When I say that I 'followed' the guide what I mean is that I did all the same steps in removing the screws but then as I haven't got a Dremmel I reverted to using a hacksaw!!

I'll get back to you about that when I get my metabones Canon smart adapter! It does actually have face detect AF too and according to the manual its got some scope to tune it properly with the hysteresis particularly. But I think the world has seen enough face detect AF tests!

Here it is doing that particular job by the way. HD to the card and simultaneous live stream broadcast via the £10 Edimax dual band wifi adapter you can see sticking out near the back next to the peephole viewing device. Or the EVF as JVC laughingly refer to it. And my Nikon 70-200mm seeing some action as a very functional broadcast lens ! As this was in HD, using the Prime Zoom (or Zoom Zoom in this case) actually turns it into a 70-460mm f2.8 lens. Not too shabby really.

I did ponder that it might be the Sony but wondered if he'd be bothered with the extra hassle of recording external audio. Of course if it WAS the Sony then he'll obviously have to fly Max and PhotoJoseph in to get to the bottom of it

Yes. It adds some improvements to the remote monitoring as well so you can control it when it's in 4K mode.

Has Neistat moved over permanently to the GH5 now? Just curious as if you look at his latest vlog when he's doing a piece to camera on the bridge where he proposed to his wife then he must've had it in the hitherto unknown Bridge Detect AF mode....

Puzzled by his answer to when the new LS300 firmware will be available. "It won't be released until March" Erm....its already April mate. I hope its not March 2018! As a side note, I used the LS300 on its first job this week live streaming a press conference. Not thrilling obviously but it shows how versatile this thing is. Just having the USB host port on it so you can plug in a cheap USB wireless or ethernet adapter and get out live direct off the camera or even just plug in a 4G modem stick and go live is an absolutely incredible feature. Considering how much a Teradek Vidiu would cost to add this function to another camera, thats well over a third of what I paid for the LS300.

I was watching that with headphones on. I'm sending you an invoice for some new underpants.

Thats a real let down isn't it? As you say, all the ones I've seen seem to operate panels no problem but no consolation. Its not just the batteries either, the chargers can sting a bit price wise as well. Cheapest way in that I've seen are the batteries where you get the direct tap charger included. Though whether I'd budget for a fire extinguisher to go with it is another matter! http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FENTION-FS-BP150-V-Lock-V-Mount-Rechargeable-10-4Ah-150Wh-Battery-Charger-Kit-/361957152174?hash=item544653d5ae:g:rsQAAOSwmCVY9dAy

That Slingstudio system that they're talking about is very very interesting. I've just been tearing my hair out trying to devise (i.e. cobble together) a more cost effective version of multiple Terradek Vidius and switching system to do some (very) small scale multi camera live outside broadcast stuff and going backwards and forwards with different permutations of small hardware switchers, software switchers and no name hdmi to rtsp encoders. This thing seems to do it all as one integrated and much more cost effective system. https://www.myslingstudio.com

Yes, he's pricing the NPfs at $30 a piece by the looks of it. So 2 hours means he's using 2 x NPF at $30 each and the adapter at $50 so $30+$30$+$50=$110 And then every additional 2 hours of power is $60 (2 NPF x $30)

From the original post on Cheesycam, someone ran a test on another LED light between a real v lock and two NPFs on the adapter. Won't be absolute in terms of how long they will run this new Dacast of course because its on a different light but the comparative figures will be a good guide. The advantage of the NPFs is obviously cost but also that they'll do double duty as there are numerous low cost powering solutions for cameras like BM and field monitors/recorders that use them. From the original thread >>> "I did a test on the CN-600s with a Beillen 150 Wh V-mount battery, and it lasts 3 hours. The cheapest 150Wh V-mount battery I see on Ebay, Lanparte brand, is about $200, and the Beillen --also Chinese-- is about $250. The dual-NPF solution is much more economical. 3 hours v-mount=$200-250 2 hours NPF+adapter=$110 4 hours NPF+adapter=$170 6 hours NPF+adapter=$230" ------------------------- http://cheesycam.com/v-mount-adapter-for-sony-l-series-np-f-batteries/

Curious decision at that price point to use V lock batteries. I know Dracast do their own V locks so they'll be happy to sell you some to use with it but they're more than the price of the light itself. A cheap light for a pro if you've got v locks kicking about already but not having it use NPFs makes it less so for everyone else? Has anyone tried one of these NPF to V lock adapters? The no name ones I've seen on Amazon seem to be supplied with a suspiciously large number of spare fuses!