kye

I know very little about optical design, but one trend I've noticed with all the old manual lenses I've bought is that a larger aperture means a significantly longer lens. The MFT pancake lenses are tiny but also have smaller apertures, so, all else being equal, going to a larger sensor size would have a big impact on lens physical size, I think.

Looks like you're making lots of progress... what are you shooting with this thing?

Nowhere close to every Helios, but a sampling...

Yes, a colour checker is useful, but if you're very budget constrained then you can make your own "unofficial" one from paint colour samples from a hardware store. It won't be an absolute reference (but neither will the cheap ones available commercially) but it will help to match shots between different cameras.

OK, that makes more sense. Gotta love it when tech people take some kind of information and squeeze the absolute bejeebers out of it to make it semi-useful!

My advice is to shoot a test first, and include each profile from the Z6 then match the images in post and see how you go with each profile and which one works best for you. In theory anything can be matched with anything else, but in practice that's limited by the skill of the colourist, the tools available and how close a match is required. This isn't the most sophisticated approach but it will get you into the ballpark and it only relies on basic tools that most NLEs will have..

I'm not seeing the advantage of the apps.. The apps are all limited to the 640x360 that the camera sends, the native app goes fullscreen and has the same focus peaking modes available that the camera uses. I think the problem is that pulling focus at 0.6k simply doesn't have enough resolution. A 1080p display from the hdmi won't have peaking but at least it would have enough resolution to focus, although a large screen would be better than a small one for that. This whole thing is is messy and makes me want to side-step the whole thing, which is pretty much the definition of when technology fails us.... When I was using the Sigma 18-35 on my 700D with ML I had a similar setup with the punch-in feature, making the lens a 29-56 and something like a 90-180mm in crop mode. If ML was more reliable and the setup had IS then I might still be shooting with it. It was pretty heavy, but the flexibility was great.

Thanks @BTM_Pix... Bummer. Why they'd use the same icon for a different function is a bit strange, but ok. I'm back to wondering how to nail critical focus when filming myself with MF lenses. I'm thinking it's back to either a large TV from the HDMI out or your DIY EVF solution of a 1080p screen for the raspberry Pi, a USB power brick, and a long HDMI cable. Can I just buy a Pi screen and hook it up to the GH5 with a long HDMI cable and power it via a USB power brick? I'm thinking it'll be like a HDMI cable with a large monitor / dongle on the end..

and then this.....

It depends on the refresh rate and also on the content. Anything where you're moving your eyes a lot and there are high-contrast edges make it more visible. If you want a torture test then watch The Crow - lots of high contrast fast moving edges in that and it was unwatchable on the first generation tech back in the day. The other thing to consider is sports. Those who watch a lot of sport will have a very different requirement than those who don't watch any.

Yes, manual lens. What confuses me is that I've got "AF Mode/MF" set to a button on the camera and that works just fine, so why it's not available in the app is confusing..

Does anyone know how to enable the "af mode/mf" function while operating the camera remotely with the app? It's greyed out for me in the app but works fine when using the camera directly... I'm really hoping I'm just making some silly mistake? Does anyone else have this working? Is it possible?

I'm waiting for 8K....

I can't speak to the CZ lenses, but the general principle is that a lens sharpens up when you stop down the first 2-3 stops, which is one of the reasons to get the fastest lenses you can. Even the five-figure lenses in the cine lens thread still have minor CA and fringing when wide open.. Interesting.... 8K is pretty high resolution to claim.

and thank goodness we're not talking about broadcast.... that is one hell of a lens!

Like @KnightsFan says, a node operating in Linear might do it via Gain. The Offset control is also worth examining although I suspect it operates in Log mode. In terms of calibrating it, take two test shots and expose one a stop up, then do the above and match the levels on the +1 shot. In terms of being obvious, there are only so many things you can make obvious, and once a piece of software gets more features than screen real estate you need to start hiding them. Saying that Resolve is like PS is quite true in the sense that "it can do almost anything" is true for both due to the flexibility in structure they both offer, rather than it being a 'feature' that was programmed deliberately by someone. Resolve is also the F1 of colouring packages and the learning curve is somewhat similar - most people stall an F1 car before they've managed to make it go further than its length, and most people probably wouldn't be able to get footage into Resolve and edited and coloured and exported their first time either

A setup that might work is where you have three bags: a smaller carry-on that houses the equipment in its dismantled form a large checked bag (maybe hardcover) that can house the rigs when they're built out a largish softer bag for all your clothes and non-camera stuff and you would put the larger soft(ish) bag into the large hardcover case when flying and then you can remove it at the accommodation for days on set and keep the rig built-out. Just wait until you're on the "downhill" side of 40 ???

LOL.. cool images though - I love the colours. It must be so rewarding to shoot live events where the lighting is so dramatic and expressive.

YES!! but Director of Finance says no... Basically decided on Voigtlander 42.5mm f0.95, and likely the Laowa 7.5mm F2. The Voigtlander because it is a very good performer stopped down, opens up as wide as they come, and matches my existing 17.5mm lens. The Laowa probably wouldn't match so well but is a good performer too and can be degraded in post to look similar when required. I was tempted by the completely amazing performance of the Veydras and the potential that Meike will be similar but for less money, however they're not as fast and the lens tests I did with the 17.5mm Voigt at smaller apertures combined with the 4K mode on the GH5 were too sharp / sharpened and so I'll need to soften the whole image anyway, so the pursuit of higher resolution isn't really something I'm pulled in the direction of. Although, the purpose of this thread was mostly to use my lens purchase as an excuse and motivator to do a deep dive and learn about lenses. I still haven't worked out if there's a difference with larger sensors, or if a 55mm + SB is somehow nicer than a 40mm, but in my tests I couldn't see any difference, so in that sense it doesn't factor into my understanding of the whole situation and I've kind of relegated it to an academic question for me that isn't that high up the priority list. I'm intending to shoot a bunch of lens tests with the lenses I have to kind of compare them to the database of lenses that others have tested above, so that might be interesting to compare what is readily and (in some cases) cheaply available.

@Matt Kieley nice images and cool story.. Glad it turned out well and you have a cool set of lenses. I still have a 13mm D-mount lens that is waiting to get Frankensteined onto an action camera.. I'm really looking forward to seeing the results. @Cinegain cool stuff. VLFV is a cool acronym, I like it. I've just taken delivery of a 1000W halogen light so am almost setup to do some lens tests with the various Russian lenses I have. I think people will be surprised at how well they perform, assuming they're not already familiar with them.

I'm not sure if you got to see the final footage (or SOOC) but if you did, was the effect just a general lowering of contrast, or did it typically show off light-rays (eg, through windows) and have other 3d effects? The reason I ask is that I'm curious if they were just lowering contrast (and perhaps giving a bit more 3D pop to things in the foreground) or was it definitely visible, because the lowering of contrast is something that a lens can approximate, going back to the coatings / BPM type of effects.

Haze.... I didn't see you mention that first time around, but it reminds me that I read somewhere that haze is one of the secrets of Hollywood, and that practically every shot has at least some degree of haze, and that fog machines are a staple. It makes sense and they're highly visible on interior shots in things like The Queen, Peaky Blinders, and other high budget (and gloriously produced) shows. It might not be so obvious in others but it might still be there and just not calling attention to itself. Any news on this?

I haven't checked, but I'm thinking there are probably several ways to get Resolve to do this. It's a bit like photoshop in this sense - being so powerful that it can do anything but that nothing is immediately obvious. What context would you want to do this? I can probably suggest one or two approaches..

There is now! But yes, in hindsight it's amazing the LUT peddlers on YT didn't come up with the phrase first!!

That's one of the huge advantages of MFT - having a bright exposure and not having to contend with a razor thin DoF. It took me ages to realise that and I couldn't work out why people were saying that getting f0.95 lenses for low light was ridiculous because they unusable and I was thinking "it's not that hard actually" - then I realised they were thinking about FF exposure and DoF and I had one of those "ah ha!" moments! Agreed. Fast wides are a weakness, but if you shoot sports then you can laugh in the face of those people with their hernia-inducing 800mm prime lens setups!