Danielius

There is so much food for thought here - Thank you all for sharing your insights, they are inspiring!

Hi, 

I’m considering Masters degree in Film-making (Cinematography or VFX compositing). Is it worth it? What are your personal takes?

Backstory:  I’ve recently completed bachelor’s degree (undergraduate) in film-making. It gave me a wide yet superficial understanding of cinema as practice. Arguably, everything that I’ve learnt could have been found online, at a lower price and without wasting 3 years of life. But the BA diploma gave the technical skills that enabled me to find a job, so i will not complain about the humongous debt (UK based student here).

Next year, i want to do masters in Cinematography or Compositing believing that:

1. Masters will give me the diploma recognised by employers, thus better job opportunities.
2. learn new technical skills, but more importantly - different ways of seeing.
3. build up portfolio.

So far so good, but in reality:

• People say that the only masters degree worth doing in Cinematography is at the NFTS (and Compositing at the Escape Studios) and that other MA degrees are superficial waste of time (which is how i feel about my BA).
• Masters degrees are very expensive in the UK. 
• How much you learn really depends on you not the education. Majority of resources are online and cinema equipment is getting more affordable every year. 

What are your opinions on Masters in Film-making? Are these essential in finding a successful job, or you would rather go straight to work? Is the knowlegde that you get worth the high price tag? Are less prestigiuos universities not worth the hussle? Would love to hear opinions from EU and beyond!

Hi,

I'm looking for a rental house with competative pricing and good customer service in London, UK. What are your favourite ones?

Cheers,
Dan

 

 

 

On 6/3/2019 at 11:16 PM, tupp said:

Wonder if these would work at £48.00

Just got a set of Manfrotto feet for 32£, they work a treat. 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Manfrotto-565-Rubber-Shoes-Spiked/dp/B00131GCAC/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=manfrotto+feet+rubber&qid=1559735204&s=gateway&sr=8-5

Thank you for the suggestion xx 

23 hours ago, webrunner5 said:

Where do you live to see such great deals? I have Never been that lucky lol.

London, UK. It's a tedious work looking for these deals 

8 hours ago, tupp said:

Might be worthwhile to attempt to find some other solution.

 

Wonder if these would work at £48.00:

Thank you - these look exactly like the feet on the dolly! Also, judging from Amazon reviews, seems like people are having luck using Manfrotto feet for Vinten tripods. I will try your suggestion first and let you know which one works

5 hours ago, webrunner5 said:

As far as I can tell that rig is like a 6,000 Dollar or more setup new. Yeah I think I would spend 132 Dollars for the feet lol.

Off-topic: a few weeks back, I bought a used Ursa Mini 4.6K for 1200£ from a local CEX. It came with 2 VLock batteries, a charger, two 128gb CFast cards, and a top handle. Seems like every time a new ‘revolutionary’ camera is announced, these shops are flooded with older generation tech, priced lower than everything on eBay. 

42 minutes ago, webrunner5 said:

I Seriously doubt anyone makes a knock off of those feet. Probably the reason you got it cheap. Unless the tripod meets your needs and is a heck of a good tripod depends if you buy the feet from Vinten or throw it away. They make damn good stuff, but there low end is nothing to write home about just like all the others players are also. A Good, great Tripod and head cost a fortune unless you really luck out on a used one. And they are about as important as anything, even today to have.

 

Thank you, I think you are spot on here. It was 150£ for Vision 11 head, Carbon Fiber legs, Vinten dolly all in a padded case. I will just get the original ones.

Hi,

I just bought a tripod at a local flea market, however it came without rubber feet. A straightforward option would be to buy original replacement feet, however they are double what I payed for the tripod itself. Do you happen to know of any knockoff alternative options for such item?

https://cvp.com/product/vinten-v4160-1901-rubber-feet-flowtech?gclid=Cj0KCQjwitPnBRCQARIsAA5n84nWXBtOfQj3JNWJNW_Zqsi7wmWrcN4cX62KrqizV3h5lXCzOe22KgUaAoe8EALw_wcB

Cheers

12 hours ago, Anaconda_ said:

Have you tried formatting to both OS X Extended and ExFat in camera ? 

If that's no help try both options from a computer before putting it into the camera.

Also try that card in both slots, maybe there's an issue with the slot not the card.

Good luck!

Thank you, @Anaconda_

I did check both slots and they are working fine with other CF 2.0 cards. 

As you suggested, I formatted the card to ExFat using PC. However, I had to initialize the card first in order to format it. I never had to do this with any camera media in the past. After formatting, the card would record on camera perfectly. Once the card got full, I was able to transfer the files without any issues.

However, if I try to format the card inside the camera, I get the same error message ('formatting failed. Please check your card and try again’.) and the card becomes unusable.
So I have to plug it back into the PC and initialize it again. And then it becomes recognised by the camera. And the vicious circle repeats.

(note: the capacity is 128GB, not 258 as said in the original post, typo.)

 

Hi,

Im a recent URSA Mini 4.6K adopter (not the pro version), so I’m unsure if it’s a common issue or not.

I’m using two SanDisk 256GB CFast 2.0 Extreme Pro-cards: one of which works fine with the camera, and the other one keeps getting an error message every-time I try to format it inside the camera (error message says ‘formatting failed. Please check your card and try again’.)

Has anyone else had the same issue? Were you able to fix it or had to buy another card? 

49 minutes ago, ac6000cw said:

You don't say which country you are from, but note that the European spec versions of the G85 (the G80/G81) have a continuous record limit of 29 minutes and 59 seconds.

Also note that the battery life of the G80/81/85 is much shorter than the GH4, due to using smaller, lower-capacity batteries, so you'll need several batteries for each camera to get through your 5-6 hours (but 1 hour of continuous recording should be OK, battery wise - Panasonic quote 110 minutes per battery in continuous FHD, MP4 record mode in the manual).

This does apply to me, thank you for the heads up

51 minutes ago, BTM_Pix said:

The FZ2500 is a lot of bang for the buck.

Internal ND, 10 bit 4:2:2 HDMI output if you are going out to a switcher, 200Mbit/s All Intra internal 1080p recording if you're not, comprehensive remote monitoring and control functionality through wifi if you need it, unlimited recording time with SDXC cards (though it does file breaks after 3 hours ), 5 axis OIS etc etc

I don't run mine for as extended periods but as far as I'm aware overheating isn't an issue for people that do.

A quick reference in the cameralabs test for battery life and heat on a single battery for similar record times that you are looking for

https://www.cameralabs.com/panasonic-lumix-fz2000-fz2500-review/

I think we've got a winner here - going to rent and see if it does the job. Cheers for your input  

Both GH4 and G85 are brilliant suggestions, thank you @newfoundmass @IronFilm! G85 w/ Viltrox speedbooster and EF glass looks very appealing. 

10 hours ago, newfoundmass said:

Can you give us an idea on shooting conditions? 

It's a conference type set up. The cameras will be locked off on tripods and each have a camera op to manually focus, so auto-focus isn't needed. The stage will be lit, so low light shouldn't be an issue either. 

The camera needs to record in sequences of 1 hour for around 5-6 hours each day. It will have 20min break time to cool off between each recording. My main concern is overheating - does GH4 or G85 have such issues or is it just Sony mirror-less problem? 
 

1 hour ago, MurtlandPhoto said:

How about the Canon XF400? Much smaller than the XF305 and has the latest specs. 

Great shout. I forgot to mention that the budget for each camera is 1000$£€ tops, so the XF400 is a bit out of reach.

Hi,

I'm looking to purchase 15 cameras to film long form content, i.e. something without record limit and overheating issues. It's for web delivery so broadcast codec or 4K resolution would be nice but not required. 

An obvoius solution imho is to get a camrecorder (like XF305). But they are heavy and bulky, and I dont have a van to transport the equipment when needed. 

Could a mirrorless camera powered with a dummy battery or A/C be a viable option? Something like Panasonic FZ2500 or Sony RX10 mk3. 

I have very little experience with mirrorless and your insights would be greatly appreciated

With the newest GH5 firmware, V-log can be used in photo shooting. Is there any advantage of using log over other picture profiles? 

Thank you all for input!

Have tried using SD Association's formatting sofrware (as well as SanDisk recovery, Lexar's Image rescue and Panasonic's SD card recovery, Easeus), all of which yielded no results. Messages such as 'formating failed' or 'error occured while formating' appeared. Tried both exFAT as well as FAT32.

I have used CF cards from both brands ever since I've got XF305 and later on 5D without any issues. This situation makes me re-think media (thus camera) choices for professional work. 

 

Hello,

I have been using Lexar UHS-II 2000x, UHS-II 1000x and Sandisk UHS-I 95MB/s cards with my GH5. I have used them for over a year without any issues. Cards were formated everytime when using the camera. My workstation is running windows. 

However, after most recent job all of my cards are corrupted. When I insert them into the camera I get a message 'memory card error format this card?'. After endless clicking 'ok', the message still appears and the cards are unusable. I was unable to format them neither on FS7 nor XF305.

Have you ever had a similar issue? 

Additional info: DIT person was running a Mac based laptops and there were errors when importing the footage which resulted in lost data. The computer sill recognised the SD cards.


 

Hey everyone,

I have been obsessed with listening to podcasts on a daily commute. However, I am struggling to find any good ones related to film/video. Do you have any suggestions? What are your favourite podcasts?