Lux Shots

1 hour ago, JR Lipartito said:

at fairly equal compression I think you’d be hard pressed to find much difference in quality between BRAW and Prores Raw.

BRAW’s advantage is having several lower-bitrate options, with the lowest 12:1 @4K compression lightweight enough to be recorded to fast SD cards. Some people might have got higher modes to work with certain cards too. And 12:1 still holds up very well to post-production abuse, even chroma key.

The real problem for BRAW though, are the BM Video Assists themselves. To the built-in SD card slots you’ll only be able to record that lowest bit rate option (as far as I know). For anything better you’ll have to connect an SSD to the Video Assist over USB c...that’s just one too many points of contact where things can go wrong.

So I wouldn’t get too excited about this update until BM puts out a View Assist with better internal recording media.

 

 

Yeah, I think that is a hard pass for me right now. Media is cheap (1 TB WD Blue SSD cost $100), and the Ninja V is cheaper than the BM Assist, not to mention the need for a USB-C hard drive feels janky as hell. For the life of me, I don't know why they didn't simply add M2 slots at best or the old reliable 2.5 " SSD drives.

Anyone know how BRAW support is in Premiere Pro?

So, now that I just stretched the legs of ProRes RAW on a job today, Panny goes and makes me make more choices! 😀
I think I will stick with ProRes RAW, since I can record it with my S1 and S1H.

But is there a significant quality difference between ProRes RAW and BRAW? I've heard the nightmares about stability with the BM external recorders. Has those issues been fixed yet?

On 3/16/2021 at 7:37 PM, Jimmy G said:

Hi Lux Shots,

The OP stated, "when connected to a timelapse intervalomer" (bolding mine), and that says to me that they were using an external intervalometer device.

Yes, I know there's a built-in intervalometer and I asked the OP why they were not using it.

My apologies if my previous post was not clearer. 🙂

Jim

Yeah, I completely overlooked that, because who would use an external intervalometer with the GH5 right? 

That's what I get for not reading carefully.

11 hours ago, Jimmy G said:

Hi Marta, and welcome to the forum!

I'm curious as to which external intervalometer you're using (make/model, pics?) it may give a clue as to the problem.

Also, is there a reason you're choosing to use an external intervalometer over the camera's built-in intervalometer (time-lapse) features?

Get back at your best convenience, 🙂

Jim

It's built into the camera Jim! I don't think the OP was using anything external.

I have been submitting footage to a client using the standard V-Log LUT from my S1H, and they complained about too much magenta hue. I thought it was because I was boosting saturation too much (and maybe that did boost the red hues too much), but switching over to using the Nicest-709 LUT took care of all their complaints.

Your drive dial needs to be set to intervalomer, not single. You probably also have that switch in the creative video position. Please post a cell phone pic of your mode dial and menus.

This is a great topic!

I had a bride to be die of COVID, so I had to give a full refund for that poor guy. I had 8 friends and one family member die and a dozen or so associates.  I got one of my vaccination shots with another in a few weeks. COVID is a full bitch.

The whole year I shot five weddings instead of the 25 I usually shoot. Most didn't want to splurge on video, so I went back to offering $500 wedding stills in people's backyards since everything else was shut down. The worst thing is, I live in Ohio, and the majority of my clients are in Pennsylvania, and the two states imposed a travel band between each other. So I would have to get a COVID-19 test to travel to P.A. and quarantine when I arrived back to Ohio, even though it was only 45-60 min away.

I was blessed to do several corporate jobs for my biggest client, and that kept the income on the year flat, with much less stress than any wedding work. Problem is, that is one big client making up 70% of my income. That ain't the best from a diversification standpoint.

21 hours ago, Davide DB said:

Have you ever considered switch to Edius?

Probably it's the most used NLE from wedding videographers for its speed.  With your PC specs it will literally flies. It can even create proxes on the fly or setting lower resolution to speed up editing.

Once you get into the Adobe Ecosystem, it's hard to leave. Whether it's for application specific plug-ins, like noise reduction or it's seamless integration with Audition and After Effects, switching is a bitch. At least I don't have the ability to do it, without a large time investment which runs against said productivity gains.

On 2/19/2021 at 5:35 AM, Stab said:

Hi guys. I'm looking at upgrading my PC.

I'm considering the Ryzen 5900x and 5950x at the moment. It would be paired with 64 GB of ram @ 3200mhz. My current GPU is a 1070ti and because of the low supply of current gen GPUs that will probably go back in there as well. Does anyone of you have experience with these CPU's with Adobe Premiere on Windows and the h.265 files from the S5 / S1H?

I'm a wedding videographer and will only shoot in 4k 50 fps 10-bit 4:2:0 h265 codec from this season onwards. If there will be any season 🙂
Transcoding is not an option for me and I would really like to stick to Premiere (on Windows), which I know both are not 'optimal'.

But I figured, one of these high end CPU's might do the trick. So, how is the timeline playback performance? Are there any dropped frames? What about 2 or 3 video tracks stacked on top of each other? And with some color grading and scaling?

Anyone that has experience with this or a similar setup? Or maybe h265 files from the a7s3 or R5? Which are 4:2:2 I believe as opposed to 4:2:0, I don't know how much of a difference that makes.

Thanks!

Hello!

I exclusively use Premiere Pro and run with 32GB of Ram with a Ryzen 1700X with the Vega Frontier Edition 16GB Video Card, and I edit 5.9K H.265 from my S1H, albeit at the minimum reduced resolution. The performance is not optimal, as there are tons of dropped frames, but I also edit video straight off of my NAS drive over a 10GB SPF+ connection. If I copy a project locally onto my SATA drive, performance improves quite a bit. I also get a big performance boost if I have only 4K 60p footage.

Here is a screenshot of my typical sequence, which I consider moderate complexity.

I would have thrown in a 5900X or 5950X by now, but my motherboard doesn't currently support it 😞.

My Panny 24-105 f/4 stays glued to my S1H at least 90% of the time for video work. I also have the Sigma 35 f/1.4 and the lens is killer sharp, and a great full body photo lens, but it's speed is wasted on the video side because of the horrid autofocus not being good enough, even at f/8. I also have the Panny 20-60 that I kept when I sold my S5. It's a nice compact lens that gives me just enough to keep me from having to pull out my adapted (and optically bad) Sigma 12-24 f/3.5-5.6. 

Like everyone else here, the 28-70 checks a lot of boxes, but is not wide or long enough, though it's the perfect compromise from a speed perspective. I'd love a 24-105 f/2.8 to keep me at around ISO-6500 instead of the under exposed ISO-10000 I'm running now for reception video work, but there goes my wrist and my back running this on my gimbal. I may try and grab a used Sigma 24-70 f/2.8 for stills and manual video work, if I can find one around $750. Before I sold my S5, I used it on an adapted Canon 80-200 f/2.8 in manual focus mode for stills for weddings, and I'm definitely not looking forward to shooting this beastly lens on my S1 while the S1H rocks the 24-105, just too much damn weight!

4 hours ago, TomTheDP said:

Prores RAW is coming to the S1 with the new firmware update. The internal codecs are great but definitely start to show their limitations when paired against something like REDraw. I am really interested to see what Prores RAW is like though whenever that firmware update comes along...

ProRes RAW is fantastic on my S1H, so hopefully they don't time limit the capture. I got this off of Panasonic's website, and unfortunately, they won't have jam sync timecode on the S1. 😢

1 hour ago, MrSMW said:

...I'd go with a pair of S1H's actually as I'm over the size of it (as a unit without grip, cage or anything but a lens) especially now that the AF has been updated....

Don't waste your energy, as the AF is still garbage unless you shoot interview type work at f/11. Even 75mm f/4 is out of the question in a talking head scenario.

On 2/17/2021 at 12:38 PM, MrSMW said:

I'm going off the idea...

I've sat myself down and had a word, mostly from a financial viewpoint.

Saw a really good YouTube yesterday by Roman Fox, a Fuji user from London and it rang some bells, the summary of which was; stop, write a list of your needs, what you have, what you are looking at, pros/cons/costs etc.

I did just that today and realised that to move to this as the core of a Sony system over a Panny S5 one, I'd be looking at spending at least 5k more.

In these times... nah.

If I do anything beyond 2x S5 bodies, it will be a single S5 body (have) and a used S1H.

You should consider a used S1 body and a used S1H.  I had the S5, and as beautiful as the footage is, having limited internal 10-bit 4K recording ended up biting me in the ass on the first job I used it on. I traded it for a used S1 after Panasonic announced the S1 getting 5.9K support and timecode (hopefully over the PC Sync port, so I can sync my S1H with the S1). Same batteries, and mostly the same media. Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll add ProRes RAW support to the Ninja V. It's nice to have the ProRes RAW option, but to be honest, I only used it twice with my S1H and I could have done the job just as good with straight 10-bit V-Log. Where the ProRes RAW shines is in the 5.9K capture, as it's miles better than Panasonic's H.265 codec. Hundreds of miles!

On 11/12/2020 at 2:50 PM, SteveV4D said:

If I was building a number of cameras from Panasonic fullframe alone, I would have a S1H, S1 and S5...  each offering their own advantages.

However I am looking at one hybrid to balance the Pockets I own, which because of RAW and my preference for BM colour, work the best for the image I am going for.   

I am looking to add maybe the C70 or Komodo or if BM offer something similar, plus a fullframe hybrid next year.  Unless Canon can deliver a decent spec reliable hybrid camera 🤣🤣, my money is more on the S1.  The 6K upgrade would be very useful in some occasions and I prefer bigger cameras to smaller ones.   Plus full-size HDMI is important for any streaming or connection to playback screens which I have sometimes been required to do.

I had the S5. I traded it with someone for the S1. With the 5.9K internal and ProRes RAW coming next year, it was a no brainer for me.

This news is so good, I'm trading my S5 for a used S1 and the Sigma 45mm f/2.8 and a spare battery. This will fit nicely with my S1H and I also get the deeper buffer and the no time limit 10-bit recording, as well as internal 5.9K!!!

29 minutes ago, Mark Romero 2 said:

I gotta ask why you thought that was stupid???

Lenses have different color tones and different blooming characteristics. You may see the difference from one scene to the next because of these characteristics. The biggest difference if the amount of sharpness between the lenses.

2 hours ago, newfoundmass said:

What were the lenses you used? What made ya go with the GH4/5? Did you find shooting in low light to be a problem? What would you say was the most difficult thing? BTW! It looks good! Please let us know when it's available! 

This is one of my biggest mistakes of the production to be completely honest.

I shot most of the scenes with Canon FD 28mm f/2.8, 50mm f/1.4 and 35-105 f/3.5. Beautiful glass, but you need to stop down a stop or two to get it really sharp. I lit all the scenes with LED Fresnel lights and panel lights, but sometimes that wasn't enough unless the lenses were wide open, so some shots are way too soft for my liking, like the black guy with the white guy in the car scene. I was away from power, so couldn't use my A.C. powered lights. 😥

When I rented the GH5 for some scenes, I also rented the Sigma 18-35 f/1.8 and Speedbooster. This is the lens that is shooting the scene with the guy and girl in the bar (shout out to my fine ass wife 💞).

In other scenes, I even used the Panasonic 42.5mm, 25mm and 20mm f/1.7 primes. That was just stupid of me. I even used the 14-45mm 3.5-5.6 in a scene because I needed a much wider shot indoors. The guy looking out the window at night was shot with this.

The one other thing I wish I had was an electronic gimbal. I had a vest with spring arm and mechanical stabilizer, but I really wasn't good at it at all. It would have been better for me to go into more debt to add better motion shots, as many were killed and just shot on sticks.

I went with the GH4 and GH5 because it was the camera I had. I made certain to always shoot out to a Ninja 2 and at the time I was using DNxHD as a codec. All in all, I'm very pleased with the quality.

You may be surprised, but low light shooting wasn't really an issue! Every single scene was lit, so I didn't go over ISO-1600 for any shot. This is why I really can't understand cameras like the A7S line (even though I eventually bought the GH5S myself) when it comes to filmmaking. For docu work, yeah, that's a perfect camera, for weddings it makes life super easy. But when you are trying to sculpt a look with light placement, when shooting a film in available light, you relinquish all control of the visual medium. Now you could use negative fills to great effect (never seen it done once on an indie set) or fly large diffusion panels and scrims, but what indie production can afford to do that?

The biggest  problem for this project is, well,  life.

Everyone in the film has jobs, businesses and careers. Getting the moons to align was quite the difficult task. Many a time it was a shoot day, and someone had to be at work early the next morning and couldn't make it. At that point, I just needed bodies for grip just to not loose another day. I even hired my handyman that does home repairs for me to do grip work!

Almost all shooting was done exclusively at night by design, but that worked out in my favor.

The budget went to craft services, location rentals and gear. I also paid a talent agency to wrangle extras for me for two scenes. At least these people had an interest in the business, as you really can't have just any Joe or Jane do this because more often than not, they will fuck up your shot by looking into your camera or talking when they aren't supposed to, etc.

I hope this helps!

Ooops!

On 10/28/2020 at 6:25 PM, Thpriest said:

Anyone using the Sigma 18-35mm 1.8 with the MC21 on the S5?

Or the Canon 18-135mm f3.5-5.6?

And a question about flashes! Do the Godox O (Olympus/Panasonic) flashes work on the Lumix S line?

I use the entire Flashpoint system, and they really do work great! I use the Flashpoint XPLOR 600 and the Zoom LiOn.

On 10/28/2020 at 6:25 PM, Thpriest said:

Anyone using the Sigma 18-35mm 1.8 with the MC21 on the S5?

Or the Canon 18-135mm f3.5-5.6?

And a question about flashes! Do the Godox O (Olympus/Panasonic) flashes work on the Lumix S line?

I use the entire Flashpoint system, and they really do work great! I use the Flashpoint XPLOR 600 and the Zoom LiOn.

On 10/28/2020 at 6:25 PM, Thpriest said:

Anyone using the Sigma 18-35mm 1.8 with the MC21 on the S5?

Or the Canon 18-135mm f3.5-5.6?

And a question about flashes! Do the Godox O (Olympus/Panasonic) flashes work on the Lumix S line?

I use the entire Flashpoint system, and they really do work great! I use the Flashpoint XPLOR 600 and the Zoom LiOn.

On 10/28/2020 at 6:25 PM, Thpriest said:

Anyone using the Sigma 18-35mm 1.8 with the MC21 on the S5?

Or the Canon 18-135mm f3.5-5.6?

And a question about flashes! Do the Godox O (Olympus/Panasonic) flashes work on the Lumix S line?

I use the entire Flashpoint system, and they really do work great! I use the Flashpoint XPLOR 600 and the Zoom LiOn.

On 10/28/2020 at 6:25 PM, Thpriest said:

Anyone using the Sigma 18-35mm 1.8 with the MC21 on the S5?

Or the Canon 18-135mm f3.5-5.6?

And a question about flashes! Do the Godox O (Olympus/Panasonic) flashes work on the Lumix S line?

I use the entire Flashpoint system, and they really do work great! I use the Flashpoint XPLOR 600 and the Zoom LiOn.

16 hours ago, herein2020 said:

Don't forget the S5 has a mini HDMI port vs the S1H with the full HDMI port so if you use an external monitor a lot that could be pretty important. For me personally, the S line never interested me until the S5 due to the cost of the bodies and the lenses. With the S5's reduced cost and the EF lens adapter, my two main reasons for not considering the S line were removed. For the S1H specifically, I was never sold on the fan either. Of course it prevents overheating when shooting video, but for hybrid photo/video shoots I felt like too much dust and moisture could get pulled into the body via the fan.

As far as All-I goes, most if not all of the tests that I have seen say there is no difference in 99% of the scenarios, supposedly All-I is easier to edit since there's a keyframe for every frame, but the data rates are so high that you need special cards to support it, storage is up to 4x more required, and it is still LongGOP compression; I would rather create temp proxies than deal with the headache of All-I. For All-I data rates I'd rather skip straight to raw if I'm going to deal with that kind of headache.

Don't fret about the fan, as it's really ingenius how they did it. The fan intake does not go into the body, but just draws air over the radiator fins that are completely sealed from the body internals. You will struggle to hear the S1H fan in most any case. I first though my fan was broken until I literally rested my ear on the camera!