leslie

If I ever visit you, I'll have to remind myself not to take up any offer of a home made cupcake.

watching utube pretty much every one uses the mini muffin trays to cast lead ingots or alloy ingots. I think the king or random started it, but i ran with the herd anyway ? and it has been quite a learning experience.
It seems like i have an interesting assortment of things that i want to do to tick of my bucket list ?
i have an area set aside about 100 meters from the house for experiments and i'm pretty keen to keep them both separated don't worry about that  

watching utube pretty much every one uses the mini muffin trays to cast lead ingots or alloy ingots. I think the king or random started it, but i ran with the herd anyway ? and it has been quite a learning experience.
It seems like i have an interesting assortment of things that i want to do to tick of my bucket list ?
i have an area set aside about 100 meters from the house for experiments and i'm pretty keen to keep them both separated don't worry about that  

been a busy week. Got the tripod base cutout got two made. One has holes in it, the other is blank. got some ideas about milling out the perspex base i had made earlier and inserting the tripod base into it, kinda still at the ideas stage with it at the moment.
I also picked up the last part for the anamorphic adapter. its kinda like a step up ring but more substantial it will take the weight of the anamorphic,  but i do plan on using support anyway. Had the pentax m42 85mm 1.9 attached. I think its 58mm thread size. alignment was a little bit off when tightened up, thought about it for a bit then applied a rubber band to the rear of the anamorphic right where the threads end and put it all together tightens up quite nicely, seems to work as a temporary fix for now.
This afternoon i found out i can melt lead and quite easily it seems. I used my gopro4 with a letus anamorphic lens attached, filmed some and then timelapsed the rest, yet to import it into resolve and have play with it. Hopefully its a little bit interesting. Had a lamb born about lunch time today, mom brought it up this afternoon,  canon 60 d m42 50mm 1.4 lens. So there is a bit of a mix picture wise. enjoy

been a busy week. Got the tripod base cutout got two made. One has holes in it, the other is blank. got some ideas about milling out the perspex base i had made earlier and inserting the tripod base into it, kinda still at the ideas stage with it at the moment.
I also picked up the last part for the anamorphic adapter. its kinda like a step up ring but more substantial it will take the weight of the anamorphic,  but i do plan on using support anyway. Had the pentax m42 85mm 1.9 attached. I think its 58mm thread size. alignment was a little bit off when tightened up, thought about it for a bit then applied a rubber band to the rear of the anamorphic right where the threads end and put it all together tightens up quite nicely, seems to work as a temporary fix for now.
This afternoon i found out i can melt lead and quite easily it seems. I used my gopro4 with a letus anamorphic lens attached, filmed some and then timelapsed the rest, yet to import it into resolve and have play with it. Hopefully its a little bit interesting. Had a lamb born about lunch time today, mom brought it up this afternoon,  canon 60 d m42 50mm 1.4 lens. So there is a bit of a mix picture wise. enjoy

perhaps try maybe old railway tunnels except no real character to speak off. sometimes 4 wheel drive enthusiasts know of caves that aren't known to  members outside of the club .the few caves i know about are quite shallow and have glow worms. think tourists by the bus load ?
In a similar vein i bought 100 tea candles all i need now is a very still night and i'll find out how many candles to illuminate the bmp4k or i'll be building my own man cave ?

so the Bermuda triangle is the one that got away ?

There was no change in "highlights" to our log curves or otherwise. The previous manual dynamic range chart was incorrect, and was corrected.
There is also no inherent "highlight rolloff" in digital cameras from the sensor. They are all (mostly) linear capture devices. Same with Alexa, Red, etc. When they all clip in linear, they all clip suddenly/harshly. All of them.
 "Highlight rolloff" is really about total dynamic range, how you expose, and curves (which you can manipulate yourself).
Our log curves are optimized to store data in 10bit SDI and video files so the highlight roll off in our existing log curves is merely a function of optimising the dynamic range to fit in this data range with relation to the "native sensitivity" and desired ISO. The more dynamic range the sensor has the more highlights will roll off in the log curves, the same with Alexa/Red/etc. You want to use your own curves after in grading to create the roll off you want. Expose the sensor so middle grey is lower and leave more dynamic range in the highlights, and you can create a very nice gradual highlight rolloff in grading - with mostly any modern digital camera.
But it's pretty much all down to total dynamic range, exposure, and curves.

well thats embarrassing  never been concerned with post dates before. now.  Not sure how i can carry the burden of responsibility  now that i have to watch post dates as well. I feel abit like jesus bringing lazarus back from the dead 

This a screen shot example why I think Digital on certain things can not look like film. This was probably killer looking on the origina; print.
 

if you had video and and some vintage lenses and  were moving into 35mm then i would buy a system that could use the lenses i already had and build onto it from there. of course that doesn't work so well for medium format or bigger. Believe it or not but i have a nikon coolscan sitting under my desk. i somehow lost my desktop with the raid controller when i moved. i have no idea how one loses a complete computer but i did. slowly been putting an older system together that could run the old scanner, but well video keeps getting in the way.

well its been a week or so, got some pics with the canon 60d attached to the elmoscope. Not sure why, but i find it much easier to double focus with the canon attached to the elmo compared to the bmp4k, maybe i'm used to the canon, it seems really odd to me that there is such a difference. But it could be just me. Is there anyone else out there that's stuck a 2x anamorphic in front of a bmp4k ?. Like to know how it went for you.  As i  said i took a couple pics yesterday i was quite literally running out the door, wanted to get the elmoscope and pentax m42 85mm across to the machinist, should have it back by next friday.  Then i should be sorted i hope. i had the 18-55 kit lens on the canon, wanted to see if it vignettes at what focal lengths, it vignettes slightly at 55mm to really badly at 18mm, but how do you know if you dont try ? not sure if my scope is not vertical or i wasn't hold the camera correctly but ignore the leaning brickworks lol its just for testing. i guess i have to get into the habit of putting it onto a tripod even when in a hurry. Hopefully the pics i uploaded turn out more anamorphic than the last attempt

got another object to cut out on the water jet
 

i'm excited its rained not heavy rain, but rain none the less. Which is wonderful seeing as most of western queensland is drought declared. So been undercover doing a few things. Heres a sneek peek of my youtube logo, got  alot of sanding and polishing to do but you get the idea and remember you saw it here first  ?. Those letters are 200mm high i did them big as a few of the smaller prototypes broke so i gave them some size to give em some strength. Their cut out of marble i had hoped to get some veining through the marble, some of that colour will come out when their polished i hope.
 
 

why not just buy a canon. there's like 5 different models with three different tiers, surely you could find something to suit your budget ?

why not just buy a canon. there's like 5 different models with three different tiers, surely you could find something to suit your budget ?

why not just buy a canon. there's like 5 different models with three different tiers, surely you could find something to suit your budget ?

if you had video and and some vintage lenses and  were moving into 35mm then i would buy a system that could use the lenses i already had and build onto it from there. of course that doesn't work so well for medium format or bigger. Believe it or not but i have a nikon coolscan sitting under my desk. i somehow lost my desktop with the raid controller when i moved. i have no idea how one loses a complete computer but i did. slowly been putting an older system together that could run the old scanner, but well video keeps getting in the way.

i doubt their too concerned about us. We hit about 380 pages before the bmp4k even shipped.if they were interested in excitement you'd see more action from captain hook or some other person from bm. Besides bm have their own forum, surely they would consult with the party faithful before us or another forum Not that i'm complaining its nice to see the occasional post from bm with what ever they feel pertinent about  and correcting the odd post thats got incorrect information in it, which i think is also nice. They sprang the no more dng files with no warning. i expect that will continue, no idea how deep the rabbit warren is but its bm who have theirs hands on the wheel so buckle up and enjoy the ride or get a sony ?

if your friend is agreeable try some oval aperture frames in his anamorphic, basically an oval shaped cardboard  cutout installed at the back of the anamorphic. like they do to for some lenses you see advertised on ebay. Actually you could buy some already made
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Anamorphic-Bokeh-Custom-Lens-Aperture-Frame-4x4-set-6ps/253314572787?hash=item3afab9a1f3:g:YSAAAOSwk1haNA5I
but im cheap so i'd cut my own. That might be an interesting experiment for an afternoon. I'm sure I'm not the only one who would be interested to see how things turn out. So a couple of pics and a short results video would be excellent ?
 

calebs given you some good advice, as i understand it 1.33 anamorphics are kinda made for your 16.9 format.  there is less stretch so less cropping required on a 16.9 format to get the desired 2.39.1 format.  2x scopes are more suited to 4.3 format, that being said the only issue is what you have to crop at to get to your final desired aspect  ratio.  which depends on your anamorphic stretch . If your coming from a photography background and you see the word cropping. Your first thought is probably that you will lose resolution however this is not the case with anamorphics. The only other concern is the visual differences between 2x and 1.33  the bokeh is nicer on 2x and stronger flares as well i think. One other consideration is flare colour most anamorphics flare blue, not  many flare gold or orange as i understand it . if i shot a lot of sunsets or had enough money for another projection lens that eiki sankor 16f would be on my short list as it has amazing flares for sunsets but that might be just me.

Everyone will have a slightly different opinion on this, but I would pretty much say if you’re after anamorphic in 2019, it is for the stylistic optical idiosyncrasies historically associated with Hollywood’s long-standing use of 2X squeeze factor lenses. 
1.33X squeeze factor lenses will get you a very mild/watered down version of that look, and in most cases will end up being almost as expensive as 2X options, or will be poor quality optically. 
1.5X lenses can be great, but there were never many made, so they fetch a high price.
Good 2X adapters are well-regraded at this point, and you’ll be hard pressed to get one for a truly “budget” price. But there are still a decent quantity of quality examples floating around. All this being said, they are priced as they are because the resulting look is absolutely worth it, and they are still priced low enough that they are accessible.
Your best compromise is probably a smaller 2X, for example, a Sankor or Kowa 16-s. You won’t be able to use as wide of back lenses without vignetting, but the image quality is still top notch. 
If you decide to jump right in, the top dogs would be the Kowa Bell and Howell, Kowa 16-H, and the Isco Ultra-Star. If you are seriously shopping, get the @Andrew Reid anamorphic guide, and watch @Tito Ferradans YouTube channel. 
To use these projection scopes reliably, you need good clamps. Redstan are top of the line for Kowas, and HTN has a great locking front replacement lens body that gives you standard threads while also locking the focus.
The budget variable diopter is the SLR Magic Rangefinder. It resolves excellently and increases vignetting minimally, but the coatings produce flaring that some find difficult to work with. The king of variable diopters is the Rectilux Hardcore DNA, but it is priced accordingly and is only made in small batches with a waiting list.
You are going to want one of these two. Double focusing is a pain and almost impossible to get perfect. It can be the last item you buy, and you can get used to anamorphic without it, but you will need one.
Expect to spend at least $1500 by the time you have a scope, clamps, variable diopter, and a prime taking lens that plays nice with your scope. That’s scraping the bottom of the barrel and getting lucky, but as lens prices go, that’s really not crazy money. $2500 or maybe a couple hundred more should be enough to get you into a good Kowa with a desqueezing monitor and all the extra goodies. 
There is a new line of 1.8X primes coming out that’s running just over $3000 per lens. I’m planning on transitioning to a set of those, but they’re for m4/3 sizes sensors.
There’s a certain economy about the projection adapters, considering the same anamorphic block can be attached to your prime lens of choice for the various focal lengths, but at a certain point, dealing with countless clamps and adapters can get tiresome, and the lens rigs can get long and heavy. Ultimately, projection scopes are not well-suited to a truly professional style production. They’re perfect for passion projects and style-centric work like music videos, short films, etc.
A crafty person who has good problem-solving skills can absolutely DIY some of these things and potentially save a little bit of money, but as I’ve pointed out, there are tried-and-true solutions already on the market for reasonable prices. I for one would say you’re lucky, even if the prices are now higher on the actual scopes.
when I got into it, Redstan was the only good clamp option even though they didn’t have support brackets back then, and variable diopters weren’t even a thing. There were no affordable monitors with anamorphic desqueeze.
now you can pick up a SmallHD Focus (which I would highly suggest you do), and it will serve you well in all your production, not just for anamorphic desqueezing.
If I have one serious piece of advice, it is that cheap clamps will make your experience miserable. Get a lens clamp that can clamp down to 15mm rods. Sloppy loose lens rigs make for unusable footage with jolts in it, and clamping to rails ensures that, once aligned, your anamorphic will remain aligned. No “parallelogrammed” footage.

It begins.

Evaluating new cameras isn't my favorite thing, so I thought I'd share the pain. I've got a lot of work on ATM, so this will be an ongoing project. I might even end up making a youtube vid ?.
I've been shooting with the 5DMk3 ML raw exclusively for many years, you can check out some of my recent work here:
A few contenders have come along over the years like the A7s and BMMCC, but all have failed to measure up to the 5DMk3 with Magic Lantern raw. These jobs I did recently were particularly gruelling, up to 19 hour days, days on end, uncontrollable lighting, no recce, no crew, constantly on the move, a great stress test for any camera or operator. The weaknesses of the 5D have never been more apparent. With a slight lull in the storm, and some technical hurdles in upcoming work, I took the plunge and bought these two sought after bodies. Not being able to get a Pocket 4K for like 8 months allows a lot of time to pixel peep and contemplate the future. Pixel peeping is one thing, but you really don't know if it's for you until you test it for yourself, or wait for a crash test dummy like me to do the work for you.
Very early impressions: I have to say that of the 2 cameras, I was more excited about the arrival of the Pocket 4K, at least until I remembered the lens adapters I ordered haven't arrived yet. I rummaged through one of my four film detritus drawers and found 5, yes 5 ? Nex adapters (remnants from a brief Sony affair) but not a single M4/3 adapter of course. So I unboxed the P4K, grabbed one of my Canon batteries, and fired up the little beast. The fan: super quiet, probably the quietest fan I've ever heard, a non issue. The firmware: 6.2.1, no CDNG for me. For those who haven't heard: BMD have put a new touchscreen in the latest cameras that only works with 6.2.1 firmware. I'm not really fussed, the Braw stuff I've seen looks really good, and the file sizes are amazing, 4K Braw files are smaller than 5DMk3 raw 1080p files. UHD 12:1 Braw files are roughly the same size as 1080p ProRes HQ files,and 200Mbit/s 1080p X-T3 HEVC files.
I've had the X-T3 for a couple of days and I got an 18-55mm f/2.8-4 OIS lens with it. This lens is fantastic, creamy bokeh, and the OIS is amazing, I can get super steady shots at the long end handheld, I know I'm very late to the party with OIS, but wow. Can't wait to put an Iscorama anamorphic on this puppy, no 58-52mm step down rings in the detritus drawers either ?. Low light on the X-T3 is a mixed bag: up to 8000 ISO the noise is tolerable, film-like chroma grain, no fixed pattern noise, however: the X-T3 image falls apart in the shadows, that's a big minus. The other image related issue that comes to mind is: white balance. I had to go digging into the detritus drawer for a grey card! I mean srsly, what's the world coming to? I haven't used a grey card in years;  I'm so accustomed to shooting raw I just don't even think about white balancing anymore. I haven't drawn any conclusions on custom white balancing yet other than it's absolutely necessary with the X-T3 ?.
Ergonomics: the X-T3 is terrible in big hands, I rarely handhold a camera, rolling shutter micro jitters are a thing, but the OIS lens makes it doable. The Smallrig cage has a handgrip extension, so that may help. The P4K is much better in the hand.
Stay tuned.

i'm excited its rained not heavy rain, but rain none the less. Which is wonderful seeing as most of western queensland is drought declared. So been undercover doing a few things. Heres a sneek peek of my youtube logo, got  alot of sanding and polishing to do but you get the idea and remember you saw it here first  ?. Those letters are 200mm high i did them big as a few of the smaller prototypes broke so i gave them some size to give em some strength. Their cut out of marble i had hoped to get some veining through the marble, some of that colour will come out when their polished i hope.