leslie

I wouldnt second the assumption of lesser talent at all. It's lack of opportunity and collaboration. In the end Eoshd could develop a bit more into a collab space with meaningful feedback and exercises and experiments plus curated discussions. So how about for all the contributors of this thread, to try to give a meaningful vista a glowy gloomy painterly look, just one framing. Should be possible to attempt.

I have seen dune at the movies this afternoon and i have to say i was impressed. i read the books when ahem.. i was younger. So it was nice to see it brought to life. Mind you it has been a while since i read them, so watching the movie was almost like,  a new experience. I have seen the earlier dune movie and i will only add this is a much better rendition than the previous effort.
Although there were no plot surprises, for me it was still very enjoyable. I can't always immerse myself in a movie and sometimes i find myself analyzing some movies far too much as i watch them. However i thoroughly enjoyed  dune. 
The soundtrack matched the movie very well i thought, there were a couple of scenes where the music kind of (morphed for want of a better word) into the scene, i noticed two occasions and thought hey, thats very nicely done.    
I am certainly no pixel peeper or cinematographer for the matter, but personally  i reckon its extremely well crafted visually and aurally ,  its up there with blade runner and blade runner 2049 , its vast, its epic, its cinema and thoroughly enjoyable. But maybe i'm easily entertained.
Do yourselves a favour. See it on the big screen with pop corn and a frozen coke and be entertained and taken too a place far away for a couple of hours  or what felt like a couple of hours.
 

If the crocodiles make it this far inland, i'll be doing some home leather tanning 😎  Only have one pair of work boots.  Another pair of something fashionable  might just do wonders for my charisma 😉
 i did a tree change 14 years ago then worked kinda hard paying it off. To be honest i don't miss the cities at all. Although the nearest camera store is 2 hours away. Got good neighbors, lots of picturesque countryside to film what more can a bloke want ?
Changing the conversation a little, here's something i don't see enough off. With a bit of effort, i hope to remedy that this year.  Experimenting with low light on the p4k. there was a bit of a breeze and some thistle swaying around. It was actually quite dark, overcast skies and right on dusk.  The iphone 13  and some photoshop auto levels has done an amazing  job of making it look like noon. How about that, lol. 
I have ordered a 77mm 3 stop nd filter for the tokina 28-70. 

true. 
Still you have to admire someone, who's actually out there giving it a go, and consistently i might add. 
We should Probably ask @Andrew Reid about  hosting another competition. You know, New year, new sever, new competition.  In the interests of incentivizing a few people and maybe getting a few of us off our asses, i'm prepared to offer up a bottle of australia's finest ( well i presume it's Australia's finest, as i don't drink the stuff. Which is why its currently sitting there unopened. ). 

Its not a new camera i know, However if you were to win i'm sure it would make you feel all nice and warm and maybe fuzzy inside depending on how quick you drink it 😉
May as well base the project off this thread, i propose we do a series of locked of shots on a city at night, which can include a sunset or sunrise. How hard can it be ? 🤔
The last competition had an element of cost involved to keep things fairly even. As noted in another thread, a bunch of us have cameras that don't get much use. This time around lets showcase our cameras and portray your city in cinematography awesomeness.  Oh and make sure you have some fun as thats important too.
 

No Glitch in the Matrix !! 
 

Well video is about as hard as it gets. They make it look easy on TV or in some of the fancy YouTube videos but that is about as far from the truth as you can get. If you really look hard at good videos or movies most of the shots are blocked off. Meaning they are single shots of actors or scenes that hell might have been taken weeks apart, the other actors might not have even been cast yet.  So it is Easier that way to set up scenes, light them, and take WB, get focus perfect.
  But Auto WB has gotten better and better as of late, your A6400 ought to be pretty good at it. But you still can't run form a desert scene to a forest scene and expect it to react quick enough or fade into what you want seamlessly. You have to think ahead and figure if you need to trust auto WB or do it manually. In reality most shoots don't change that much unless you are driving through a tunnel or going from outdoors to indoors, or day and night.
 The whole trick to most of this is you have to shoot and shoot and shoot some more to learn your camera in all respects, how it all comes together and then you are still going to have to learn how to edit WB in your NLE because it is Never going to go perfect unless you never move from one spot to another. There are some pretty good Smartphone Apps out now that are good at Kelvin temps. On my iPhone I use one that is just called Light Meter. I also with my Sony use a gizmo called a Expodisc That you put in front of the lens to set WB on cameras that can be set. Works like an Incandecent light meter did years ago. You are not going to get even good doing video overnight; it is crazy hard to do.

I am not naturally good with superlatives. So on many levels, its great,  most would agree i think.
As far as i am aware the human eye does not notice flicker quite the same as cameras do. My eyes don't anyway, but i digress.  I think its a bit unfair to draw attention to something the eye doesn't see, but maybe thats just me.
Leds are a recent invention, to say a city look  is now defined by pulsing leds, seems odd to me. 
While we are all being artsy, cinematic and technical, personally i am not sure that a scene benefits from the added realism of flicker. If viewers need an additional layer to tell them its a city, either someone has done their job incorrectly or God help the human race.
Lastly lets not forget a very small percentage of people will be adversely affected by that flicker that some camera has captured.  They could have walked down that street or scene and normally been none the wiser or worse off, but watching it now will suffer vertigo, nausea or go troppo perhaps. 
Ok its a bit extreme that last statement, however it won't take much to have people switch off.

I am not naturally good with superlatives. So on many levels, its great,  most would agree i think.
As far as i am aware the human eye does not notice flicker quite the same as cameras do. My eyes don't anyway, but i digress.  I think its a bit unfair to draw attention to something the eye doesn't see, but maybe thats just me.
Leds are a recent invention, to say a city look  is now defined by pulsing leds, seems odd to me. 
While we are all being artsy, cinematic and technical, personally i am not sure that a scene benefits from the added realism of flicker. If viewers need an additional layer to tell them its a city, either someone has done their job incorrectly or God help the human race.
Lastly lets not forget a very small percentage of people will be adversely affected by that flicker that some camera has captured.  They could have walked down that street or scene and normally been none the wiser or worse off, but watching it now will suffer vertigo, nausea or go troppo perhaps. 
Ok its a bit extreme that last statement, however it won't take much to have people switch off.

over here we have a small goods manufacturer named don
i'm just going to leave the slogan right here. by the way you need to enunciate that with the proper Italian accent.... and welcome back don 😀 
 
 

you referring to the scene with house of gucci and the very next scene which is even more noticeable ? i was thinking it was just me. overall i quite liked it except for the flickering.
I liked the atmosphere kinda moody.  Do you people think thats diffusion or  foggy town perhaps ?
 

Ok so i was out and about this morning when i came across a 5 foot goanna. I have seen him/ her a few times before in the last few weeks. I have a live and let live psychology. If it don't bother me then i don't bother it. The thing about goannas is they can have a very nasty bite. their mouths are kinda like a portable sewer system.
Anyway been wanting to get some footage of this guy for awhile. i did pull out the ever handy iphone and filmed some hand held stuff, then i thought it would be a good opportunity to use the new pole and gimbal system and put some space between us, as i felt we'd both be be more comfortable with some room. by the time i got back, only a few minutes later he'd decided disappear.
Using it did bring up some unforeseen issues, which i was addressing this afternoon in the work shed. 
i did upload a 4k for to youtube which brings me to a question is it normal for 4k files to take 5 hours to process ? the file size is about 70 meg which seems a bit odd 
 

One last project before the year comes to a close. The original extendable painters pole i bought and modified to fit a crane gimbal is actually too long to fit easily in my vehicle.
It would need roof racks to make it more useable or chop it down perhaps. I'm loathe to  cut it down. kinda defeats the purpose.  However the expense of a nice set of roof racks has that idea on hold for now. 
About a week ago i bought another shorter pole for $42, with an adjustable head For $24. Still thats easily 2/3 or more, less than a set of roof racks. 
Today i found some time to have at it, with drills and other sundry equipment. 
The only thing i'll add is a bike mount phone holder and two  1/4 thumbscrews to make it quicker to assemble / dissemble.
The intention is to have it  live in the back of my car and if i see something interesting i can pull it out and be ready to go in a couple of minutes.  I like the colour, it should prove difficult to lose.  I think it extends from about 1.2 to 2.4. Not the longest perhaps, but it should extend my reach and give me another option besides just holding the gimbal at arms reach. I should be able to film some properly cringeworthy footage tomorrow. ok thats about it for now.
Happy new year everyone

over here we have a small goods manufacturer named don
i'm just going to leave the slogan right here. by the way you need to enunciate that with the proper Italian accent.... and welcome back don 😀 
 
 

over here we have a small goods manufacturer named don
i'm just going to leave the slogan right here. by the way you need to enunciate that with the proper Italian accent.... and welcome back don 😀 
 
 

i'm really quite jealous of all this anamorphic goodness now that i have an ipone 13 turn up. im looking at getting the sandmark or moment anamorphic. Which ever one gives me the golden flare. something a little different perhaps, but blue is a little over done i feel. Gold may give me an edge especially since i do like a good sunset.  Sunrises tend to be elusive beasts, not sure why 😎

oOh  do tell us more... confession is good for the soul 

oOh  do tell us more... confession is good for the soul 

thanks kye, seeing those flowers make me think of a project i been meaning to try with some split screen photography. Because of a short attention span, i keep forgetting to google it. However i have fixed that now. 
Lens wise and in no particular order,   i liked the voights, the taks, the rmc tokina the hexanon. That cosmicar is a bit of a dark horse isnt it i wouldn't have thought it would do so well.
For a long time now i have been thinking any well made lens made back then will perform admirably on todays cameras and it seems i'm not wrong. They also do ok against modern lenses as well not that it should be a competition. Some situations they will all exhibit some type of character, however as users, i think its up to us to either enhance or minimize that effect according to ones preferences.

Thank you guys for your points. Both my topics were covered awesomely and even put into context with one another. Great write ups! Now with that Varicam, it would be a camera I would absolutely love to have in my arsenal. If the seller puts the price down again, I will make him an offer.

No, I think you have that mindset... You know good POVs of other people contribute for deeper insights of ourselves : ) P4K is able of that contribution IMO : ) For some reason they've called it a Pocket camera! : D

It borders on criminal negligence doesn't it, owning good gear and not using it. I know the feeling well. I doubt the bm p4k i have has much more than an hour it.
I have over time managed to accumulate the gear to rig it out. Heck i have even gone to the trouble of finding a suitable hard case for protection and making it more accommodating to my needs.
Another aspect is my laptop doesn't like 4k and tends to fall over a lot when running resolve and 4k. I have taken steps to remedy that with a computer build, however i have hit a wall  and cant find the energy to finish the build... perhaps in the new year.
Yet i lack the incentive to use it. Other gear like the gopro, om-d10 and the iphone get a lot more use. I put it down to anxiety and the sheer convenience of using something.
The smartphone, i can pull it out of my pocket swipe the screen twice and be either taking a photo or video. Thats pure convenience. For a little more effort i can mount the phone to a crane gimbal in about a minute and not look like someone with Parkinson's desease, again a win.  Its great for me.
Would i blog with it ? yes i would. Would a cinematographer blog with it perhaps not, but each to their own.
The p4k on the other hand requires a more involved setup and a different mindset. I have yet to develop that mindset i think.
 

Good to hear back from you, and i kinda hate you 😉
 Do you know what i have spent on lenses....
Its important to dabble, no matter what the interest is . I cant throw myself in at the deep end either anymore, i lack the enthusiasm.  I like to chip away at the edges these days, learn one thing, cement that away, then proceed to the next. 
I dont envy you, trying to move that fd lens on. It will probably take time too find the right buyer. 

Good to hear back from you, and i kinda hate you 😉
 Do you know what i have spent on lenses....
Its important to dabble, no matter what the interest is . I cant throw myself in at the deep end either anymore, i lack the enthusiasm.  I like to chip away at the edges these days, learn one thing, cement that away, then proceed to the next. 
I dont envy you, trying to move that fd lens on. It will probably take time too find the right buyer. 

not really, no, its kinda depressing really. I'd rather 2022 hurry up and get here. Lots of things i could do better. Of that there is no doubt. New years resolutions and all,  i shall endeavor to do more with what i have. Next year will be more about caring for family and friends, where i can help. Cant save the world, but i can probably help some people who deserve it, in my books anyway.
  I haven't seen any input from @noone for a while, i hope he's ok. I think i may have,  even seen webrunner about again. I wish the rest of this community good health and prosperity, although i'd rather you don't confuse prosperity with wealth.
I think 2022 will be a tough year, i hope for the best  however i fear for the worst. whether your vacinated or unvaxed does not bother me. Its a deeply  personal decision, and for me a religious decision. 
I worked three days leading up to xmas which left me with some spending money, sadly i couldn't get into cinema as i'm unvaxed and new "laws" took effect that pay day. Its rather ironic that i can work, ern money, yet be unable to spend it. Which incidentally  doesn't really bother me. It certainly hurts small business owners as that money stays in my pocket. So in a round about way im richer for their efforts.  
Now that i have an iphone i have been binge watching stuff on my new amazon prime account. I ummed and arrrd about getting netflix, prime, or one of the others. the deciding factor for me,  was i have read the wheel of time novels and i wanted to see the amazon prime adaptions, so far im enjoying them. It certainly beats tv in some regards, not having to endure  6 advertisements every 5 minutes is breathtakingly refreshing. 
summing up, i hope santa was good to you, happy new year and stay safe as you can.

"What's the point of driving that fast if we were going in the wrong fucking direction"
- my vague recollection of a quote from the Gumball 3000 episode of Jackass when the team realise their short-cut is actually a dead end and that driving fast isn't the most important factor.
Like most years, I'm doing a personal retrospective of the year, and would encourage others to do so as well.
The purpose of this exercise is to get past the stories that we tell ourselves (white lies, if you will) and get to the truth of things, and learn and grow from it.  We all choose to focus on certain things and forget other things, always in our own favour, but that doesn't lead to facing up to our own shortcomings and overcoming them, that's just a form of denial.  It's normal, but as sentient beings, we can do better.  To refer back to the quote above, it's a way of realising we're driving in the wrong direction.
Rich people track and manage their wealth, Fit people track and manage their fitness, why not put a small amount of effort into reflecting on our lives?
It might be tempting to just say "2021 was fucked because of COVID" and just wanting to forget the whole thing.  I would suggest that makes it more important to reflect because we need all the help we can get in such situations, and it's also more valuable because when any COVID-like-substance hits the fan it reveals deeper things about us that wouldn't normally come to the surface, so there's more to learn than ever.
I enjoy detail and analysis, so get into it pretty deep, but it doesn't have to be.  It just requires that you are real with yourself.
I suggest contemplating:
What you spent your time on (it's our most valuable resource - look through your calendar if you keep one to get to the truth) What you spent your money on (review credit card purchases, eBay / Amazon / etc purchase history, etc) Where you got your money from and how your finances were tracking (bank statements, value of investments and assets) What you spent your energy on (review emails, journals, blogs, vlogs, etc for the high and low-points, frustrations, etc) What goals you have and what worked to get you closer to them and what didn't work I also divide things into the following categories, which might overlap but are useful prompts:
Career Business Finances Wealth Assets Family Friends Relationships (both with others and yourself) Health (physical, emotional, mental) Fitness Fun and Toys (I like toys! I suspect most of us here are in the same boat with this one!) Lifestyle You can list any specific projects or goals separately, but I'd encourage you not to, as the goal is to have the nicest life and if something doesn't align with one/several of the above then why are you doing it? I suggest writing things down, and doing it in two phases.  The first is gathering the info - what actually happened?  This is how we cut through some of the lies we tell ourselves and get closer to the truth.  Then second, review all the notes and contemplate what they mean.  
Once you collate all the facts it's hard to hide if you're spending too much or too little on some things, and where you actually get your money / energy / inspiration / success from.  If you run a business a good exercise is to see which clients generated the most income and which were the biggest PITA, you might find that there are clients that are huge pains but don't generate much income - firing them is an easy life upgrade!
Anyone else reflecting back?