leslie

They say "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" and that describes exactly where I am with Virtual Production.
The reason for setting off on this journey ?
Curiosity in the process is one aspect - and is something I'm hoping will sustain when the expected big boulders block the route - but I also think VP is going to be a process that trickles down to lower budget projects faster than people might expect so it is something I'm keen to get involved in.
What aspects of VP am I looking to learn about and get involved with ?
In the first instance, it will be about simple static background replacement compositing but will move on to more "synthetic set" 3D territory both for narrative but also multi camera for virtual studio applications.
There will also be a side aspect of creating 3D assets for the sets but that won't be happening until some comfort level of how to actually use them is achieved !
And the ultimate objective ?
I'm not expecting to be producing The Mandalorian in my spare bedroom but I am hoping to end up in a position where a very low-fi version of the techniques used in it can be seen to be viable. I'm also hopeful that I can get a two camera virtual broadcast studio setup working for my upcoming YouTube crossover channel Shockface which is a vlog about a gangster who sells illicit thumbnails to haplessly addicted algorithm junkies.
I'm fully expecting this journey to make regular stops at "Bewilderment", "Fuck Up", "Disillusionment" and "Poverty" but if you'd like to be an observer then keep an eye on this thread as it unfolds.
Or more likely hurtles off the rails.
Oh and from my initial research about the current state of play, there may well be a product or two that I develop along the way to use with it too...

I'm already ahead of you, lost 5k kilos since i  saw  the dietician late last year. I do have an issue with getting the p4k mounted to the bike however 🤔  Since there not much else happening  down in the forums i'm in. 

The thing is, they don't looks the same.  The testers even acknowledge that fact on the video (but they dismiss it).
Furthermore, they didn't actually set the cameras to look the same -- they set the cameras mathematically, according to the DOF formula, but they disregarded any inaccuracies in the aperture markings, and they apparently didn't match the effective location of the apertures.
 
Well, there actually seems to be general differences in the DOF from optics designed for different formats.  The difference is not in the location of the front/back DOF -- the difference is in how the focus generally "falls off" within and without the DOF range.
Unfortunately, like 99.99% of all such equivalency tests, we can't see how the focus falls off nor can we see the location of the front and back limits of the DOF range.  Here is what we see in the videos main test :
SOFT FG OBJECT  >>  AIR  >>  SHARP SUBJECT  >>  AIR  >>  SOFT INTERMEDIATE BG OBJECT  >>  AIR  >>  SOFT OPAQUE BG WALL
Most such tests don't include the foreground object nor the intermediate background object, so I will give them credit for adding those items.  However, to properly conduct any DOF or equivalency test there must be a continuous ruled surface (or continuous line of closely-spaced, uniform objects) that runs from the near foreground to the distant background.  Such a proper set up will reveal the locations of the front/back DOF extremes and how the focus falls-off at those points and elsewhere.
 

@leslie
You might wanna consider an additional IR cut filter when using stronger NDs. All BM cameras suffer rather strongly from IR polution. They also prefer 5600k over pure tungsten. Great idea with lego lighting.:) cheers

If you have a 1990 bmw e30 that needs a good home, i'm your man 😉

If you have a 1990 bmw e30 that needs a good home, i'm your man 😉

Here's the desk setup:

I'm trialing the numeric keypad with macros before I splurge on a Stream Deck.

If you don't mind paying a bit more then you might want to look at something like the Delux T11.
This video shows it is a real world comparison in Resolve versus using keyboard shortcuts.
 
To be honest though, if you are looking to get a slice of the editing acceleration that the DaVinci edit controller gives you then I think you could do a lot worse than the  Contour ShuttlePro v2.
I think a lot of people have forgotten about it because its been out so long but it really does offer some good functionality.
You can combine it with one of the cheap programmable keyboards if you like too and also do the same with the cheaper Contour ShuttleXPress if you just want the jog/shuttle wheel and a few programmable buttons.
 

WINNING!
TLDR; The combo of a eBay keypad and the USB Overdrive utility (for Mac) is a winner with Resolve, and likely other NLEs too.
Longer version....
My portable editing setup now includes the BM Speed Editor, the Beatstep controller and Beatstep Resolve Edition software, and now this little custom keypad.
The keypad and USBOverdrive allows macros, so you hit one key and it sends the computer a string of keyboard commands.  In combination with the keyboard shortcuts in your NLE, you can make it do pretty cool stuff.
In the Cut page, the Speed Editor works in a certain way which creates limitations, and Resolve has a few bugs (in my version at least) that also limit things.
I have set keys that highlight the current clip, trim start/end to playhead, then unselect all clips.  Or similar but splitting the clip.  Or similar but ripple deleting the clip.  These are mostly workarounds to the peculiarities of Resolve and the Cut page and Speed Editor, but I think it's an excellent addition to using it.  
I can navigate using the wheel on the Speed Editor, hit a key and trigger a macro, and then fine-tune on the Speed Editor if further refinement is required, and then keep going.  I had some, let's say, distracting, workarounds that I had to do in order to perform these functions involving not only having to take my hands off the controller, but also triggering my frustration with BM at not building things in more flexible ways, which really took me out of the zone!

Looks like this approach might be catching on....
 

Yer the lack of an articulating screen is a real bummer, my canon 60d from 10 years or more  ago has one.... 
Times are tough no doubt about that, i'd hate to be a business owner or company right now regardless of the type of work.
Smart phones are wonders of technology, in comparison i feel cameras / video cameras are lagging or dragging the chain perhaps. No one company wants to put a camera together  with all the bells and whistles. Not saying i want a calculator on my bmp4k but you know what i mean.  
Magic lantern did amazing things for my canon, you'd expect canon and magic lantern to jump into bed with each other and sell zillions of cameras, yet its the opposite, touch our cameras and we'll sue your pants off. After the timer incident on canons later cameras, and the way they segment the camera market, well i don't have much love for canon anymore. 
I do like my p4k, i cant imagine how they could make a cinema camera much easier to use ( apart from a flippy screen )  All i can suggest is you do your research, if camera b has a few extra points in your favour buy that. Your the one using it. 

Now is a good time to watch a few lighting videos and try the various techniques on your little test setup.
First thing that comes to mind is putting up a bounce as fill.

All work and no play, makes for a very dull day. There's also the fact, its been raining  To remedy that i bought a cheap $13 led light and and lego kit and have been experimenting. 

A couple of hours of construction later, i had me a fast car again, albeit a miniature one. Must be near 40 years since i played with lego and i'm gonna call it therapeutic and quite adsorbing. 
Anyway they say to start small. Fairly confident you cant get much smaller than lego and its a convenient size. Learned i need either a brighter main light and or some additional fill lights. I'm thinking a small set like this could teach one a lot about lighting, without a lot of expense well thats my theory. Did i also mention its fun, there's also the possibility, i'm regressing.  
I don't remember lego having so many fiddly bits. Another thing to note is once i'd finished there were spare parts. Really i hope they included some extras as there was 1 of each of the really small pieces extra.  I wasted some time re reading the manual and i'm confident its all assembled is per the instructions.
 

Contax-Zeiss Sonnar 135mm f2.8 on Sigma FP
Shot about 25 mins apart on a very changeable weather wander!

if i win the lottery, i'll take one of each in mft 😀

In the heat of the day i decided rather than do some meaningful work on some aspect of the property, i'd rather take some dng's  and some  footage with the p4k and the nd filters i have.
I may have to do it again as i didn't take any notes which kinda makes for an all over the place test. At least i learned i should structure my approach.
Heres one dng that i have graded and converted to jpg. This should be the okko variable nd and a black promist 1/8. it was one of the last images and i thought what the heck lets mix things up. If nothing else i should at least get a grop of grapes this year. 
 

Playing devils advocate momentarily... the bm p4k is mft, Not sure that black magic design, got your memo about cuteness or smallness or a flippy screen 😉 
Still i am happy enough with my camera. With a olympus body cap lens, i can get it in a pocket just... 😀
 

Based on NOT having access to the service manual for the FP or the EVF11.......
The USB-C port is more than likely a simple pass through rather than being used for power/control of the EVF11. You can test this by putting a USB-C cable from the FP to the EVF11 and then another one from that into an external SSD. If the EVF11 doesn't power on and the camera can still see and use the SSD then that will confirm it. Based on it not being powered from the USB-C port then the presumption is it is being powered from the two pogo pins, with one of them being power and the other one obviously being ground. From tracing the connection from the pins of the HU11 flash interface to its hotshoe just now, the ground pin (unless there is some internal re-mapping) is the middle pin on the bottom row of the FP which would mean the one adjacent to it (as the pogo pins are horizontal on the EVF11) should be the power. However, I can't tell from the images of the EVF11 (as I don't have one unfortunately) whether this is on the one to the left or right but you should be able to determine that when you offer it up to the FP for connection.  Once that is established, you should be able to measure the voltage coming from the FP to determine what external power you will need to provide. If there is no control information between the FP and the EVF11 through the USB port then it will be being provided through the HDMI port's data control channel.  If I was going to look at hacking the EVF (heaven forbid, obviously) then I would start with extending out the connections from the FP to it in the same way as with the USB-C port before looking at the power as that offers the least chance of blowing up the FP and/or the EVF11. 
So, put some clips between the pogo pins of the FP and the EVF11 and an HDMI cable in between too.
You can then remove the HDMI cable and see what happens both with it going to fresh air but then also what happens if you plug it into another HDMI device, what happens when you plug it back into the FP etc.
This should tell you if there is any specific data communication over HDMI from the FP to the EVF11 that prevents it working with any source as if it does that then there isn't much point going on to the power aspect.
If it does work with another HDMI source whilst being powered from the FP then you might still not be out of the woods as there could be an initial handshake that is happening prior to you changing source so the next test would be to power it on with the other source already connected and see if it still works.
If it does then you are only looking at the power situation but obviously proceed absolutely at your own risk with that both from the initial measuring side on the FP to then building something custom based on that to power the EVF11.
 

Yup, my BMMCC came with the Metabones Nikon speedbooster, but I really would have preferred the Canon version for those reasons. The Canon 17-55mm would have been a joy to use with the Micro as well as the 35mm f/2.

@leslie You could also get a cheapo focal reducer with 0.71 factor instead for less than 90USD. Yeah, following the route BTMPix is describing has all the mentioned advantages. A single adapter solution could provied better fit without the jiggle of a seconde adapter and without uncertainties such as lacklaster infinity focus due to mediocore quality of second adapter and so on.

It might sound counter intuitive but, even though you've got F mount lenses, I'd look at getting the EF version instead and using an F to EF adapter on it.
The reason being is that you get no electronic control of Nikon lenses with the Nikon version anyway so you aren't losing anything there but what you will gain is more flexibility by being able to put EF lenses on it as well, where you will get electronic control from the P4K.
So, if you do get any EF or EF-S lenses, you will be able to use aperture control and one shot AF but also take advantage of the IS on the lens if it has it, which can be a boon with the P4K.
With the EF mount being shallower than the F mount, there is no lens you can adapt to F that you can't also adapt to EF so you don't lose anything there either.
On the contrary, you actually gain several mount options, including C/Y and M42, that can be adapted to EF with simple adapters whereas you would need adapters with optical elements to use them with Nikon F and maintain infinity focus.
 

i found this a few days ago. As i have been on a black white binge for a bit. I thought the results were impressive.  Photoshop was used but maybe the principals could be  applied in other programs.
 

Yeah, You're good to go with that speed booster.
Nikon G adapters like that are just Nikon F adapters that have an aperture control mechanism built in for nikon G lenses without external aperture rings.

Ok so i lied about the watering.  Got some good news today and instead went for a drive up to the big smoke (Toowoomba).  I mean how can one go to a big city and not go into a camera store 🤔. Which invariably led to an impulse buy, an okko variable nd filter 2-400. fairly pricey,
A quick  generic google  search for  okko nd brings up about a 99 reviews in some language that could be russian  and the one nd filter review was for a freewell nd filter, not exactly inspiring. I may have early onset of buyers remorse  at this point.

 A similar search with the nd 2 - 400 added brings up pages of K & F nd filters. Either K&F are really good filters or someone's handing them out like candy.  

Never heard of okko before and it was pretty much the only one in 77mm diameter. Apparently its a kiwi brand thats made in china. they use either Japanese agc glass or German Schott glass. Sounds promising so far 
Tomorrow i plan on doing a series of test shots. It may even lead to a warts and all utube review to address the obvious disparity between filter brands. It will either be tears of joy or i might be cracking the seal on that bottle of rum i haven't opened yet. 

Some Voigtlander 40mm f1.4 M mount stuff on the Sigma fp from a recent trip to the frozen-ish north to see the in laws.
The vignette and slight softness when shooting wide open makes it quite suitable for festive stuff !
Didn't shoot RAW so these are grabs from 4K all-i mov files.