Video Hummus

On 3/15/2021 at 6:08 AM, Jimmy G said:

My hope here (expectation, actually) is that Panasonic will go with their own organic sensors for their next wave of releases (post-Japan-Olympics) with a line of 8K/wide-DR/high-ISO/global-shutter cameras (yes, MFT, too).

A FF organic sensor S2H could really shake things up but my guess is we will see a S35 Organic Varicam model first after the specialized prototype cameras are possibly used in the olympics.

If Panasonic isn't going to move beyond DfD for their AF they need something else, because buying sensors from Sony that are already in new Sony cameras bodies 4-6 months before anyone else, with awesome AF, decent color, and 3,000 Youtube videos at launch, doesn't leave room for much of a completive edge...

Camera manufactures need something to propel them away from the gaping maw of smartphones photography/video.

My iPhone is awesomely convenient, but the god awful flaring of light sources, especially at night, ruins it for me...and the plastic skin tones, and the flickering HDR auto modes, and the clunky controls when I want to manually control anything, and the ergonomics in my hand.

I'm not that convinced smartphones are going to eat everything or that traditional cameras will be regulated to a niche of a niche geek obscurity. Video is exploding. Production values are going up. Technology is advancing on all fronts.

Clinical in the video sense is basically any lenses that does a fair amount of lens aberration correction either by optics (Leica APO being on the extreme end) to purely software based corrections...many times both.

The new ARRI master primes are a good example of a move to more "corrective" lens design in cinema lenses. 

On 3/10/2021 at 5:08 PM, ade towell said:

Ah that would be wonderful thank you 

Here you go. 20 seconds straight from camera in clog. The only thing I did was strip out the audio and exported as ProRes HQ. Oh, it's also in a 2:1 aspect ratio but it was shot in 4K DCI.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/y9m9mg6g10ddkfq/R5_4KHQ_4KLQ.mov?dl=0

On 3/10/2021 at 8:40 AM, John Matthews said:

Just an idea... why not use manual focus and let the person just go slightly in and out of focus? ...much less distracting than electronic pulsing.

Blasphemer!

6 hours ago, ade towell said:

Anyone know where there's some R5 4k hq and lq 24 or 25p footage to download of peoples faces not landscapes, am finding it surprisingly difficult? Got some of R6, would like to compare.

Any HD footage from either camera would also be good. Thanks

I could probably hook you up this weekend. 

1 hour ago, Rinad Amir said:

This! Green tint from polorpro PeterMc edition old gen got both 1-5 and 6-9 only cure i found was to use gray card it basically adds slight magenta to tackle green tint.  

I can imagine this would be bad for some Sony cams that already have a green tint in the color. Maybe not so bad for Canon which almost always leans into magenta.

Almost all variable NDs suck when it comes to color shifts and polarization artifacts. They will all tint your footage, especially at higher strengths.

But in general I would go with one that:

• Has hard stops
• Has smaller range; 1-5 and a 6-9

I use an aurora-aperture 1-6 stop ND. It’s pretty solid. The 7-11 stop version is not very good. I’ve been looking at the polar pro mist+nd combo going forward. Still haven’t made up my mind. 

38 minutes ago, TomTheDP said:

It's the best hybrid at its price point imo. A7S3 is awesome but it just won't cut it for stills for many or most. If Panasonic or Fuji's auto focus was up to par it would be a different story. Who would have thought Canon was offering the best specs at the lowest price point. 

If they allow clog2 or 3 in a firmware update it would really be great. 

This was the conclusion I came to when weighing A7SIII (rumored but pretty solid specs at the time) and the Canon R5/R6 and Panasonic.

Panasonic S5 AF still kinda crappy so it’s out immediately. Panasonic fix your shit.

A7SIII amazing specs but 12MP is just crap. I don’t care if it was fine in 2007. My baseline is 20MP.

So it came down to the R5 and R6 and I sprung for the R5 for the MP, the video crop mode, the internal RAW, the typical canon pro body build, and RF & EF ecosystem with canon adapters and focal reducers.

Sony then released the Sony A1 and its superior in many ways but $6500 bucks, so Im happy as a clam after using the R5.

The camera needs clog3 or even clog2 though, so I can’t wait for the new firmware update.

I like my FHD downsampled from 8K to 4K and then downsampled again to FHD. 😂

5 hours ago, SteveV4D said:

Canon have dropped the ball with their R5/R6 release.  Neither were the camera many hoped for.  I had hoped to add a R6 to my gear, but the release fell far short of even modest expectations.  Overheating and rolling shutter plus other notable misses as well.  Shame on Canon.  

Sony are pushing further than Canon in some areas, but Canon is in others, but for video, Sony is doing better IMO.  And I say this as someone who has never enjoyed a single Sony camera I have owned and prefers Canon colours to Sony.  Sony is narrowing the gap and I predict a day when Canon won't have the edge in AF and colour it once enjoyed.  Unless Canon can stop limiting their cameras so drastically, they will continue to lose their market to Sony, as they have done already.

I agree.

I would say Sony has already met and in some cases exceeded Canon's DPAF. Sony now has 10-bit codecs with more refined colors and S-Cinetone for easy workflow and an army of YouTube influence peddlers.

Canon still the only one offering internal RAW in mirrorless or DSLR form factor. It's not very compressed and hard to work with but its there and more accessible than anything from Sony.

I think Canon R1 will set the tone for them going forward, or at least it should if they are smart.

Sony is really killing it as far as technical specs are concerned...and its showing.

Just now, IronFilm said:

Hopefully Panasonic's new organic sensor comes out and becomes mainstream sooner rather than later, to shake up this current near monopoly situation. 

I think it will be Panasonics only saving grace, that, and continuing to bring more cinema level features to smaller and more affordable cameras.

S2H: "yeah we don't have good AF... but we got a new organic sensor with 18 stops dynamic range, built in eND, false color, and Varicam color science for $4K with a flip screen and tilt screen!

Any camera manufacture beholden to buying Sony Semi. Conductors sensors are always fighting an up hill battle. You bet your ass Sony's contract around buying sensors from Sony Semi. Conductor is a good one. They always get the latest technology first.

The last generation of cameras were all using the same sensors. A7III, S5, Z6, SL2, Z7, S1R, SL2. I'm sure I'm forgetting some too. It's all about how they are wrapped now and I'm afraid all these other camera manufactures are doomed If they can't come up with better wrapping (AF, ergos, colors, codecs, processing, internal RAW).

Perhaps Nikon has an edge here with ProRes and BRAW. I just don't have much faith they can execute it well given their history.

And Canon, is well Canon. But at least they have DSLRs and mirrorless with internal RAW, albeit not very compressed RAW.

I think for what the Wireless Go II is and considering its form factor it's a great product. I could totally see them releasing a Pro version with two channels, internal recording, and 32-bit float and ability to monitor at RX. The 2.4Ghz frequency transmission still would make it a no-go for most weddings venues, however, unless they added safety of recording the captured audio on transmitter as well as at the receiver.

I almost bought Wireless Go 2 weeks ago. It was backordered so I didn't. In the back of my mind I thought...maybe an update is coming soon. Especially since other Rode products were backordered too, like the Rode NT-USB I ordered 4 weeks ago.

3 hours ago, MrSMW said:

My business is weddings. Destinations weddings as in I live in France and they come to France for their wedding.

Last year, actual work, I did 4%.

That figure is based on me doing 5% of what was booked and losses that make up another 1% from what I did not book for last year, during last year, because there was no last year. Other than the 1 job I did, ie, 1/20 when it should have been 25/25.

After some state assistance, my income ended up being around 30% of what it would normally be.

I also took out the maximum allowed state backed loan which for me was 9k. I cannot borrow any more and technically, my business is now 9k in the red.

2021 should have been a 'claw some of it back year' but now is at least a "50% at best" year re. bookings & turnover.

Worst case, 2021 is going to be a zero work year and realistically, it's going to be somewhere between 0-50% work.

I think it will end up somewhere between the 2 figures and be a workload of between 20-25% of what it should have been.

It depends on 3 factors:

1: The UK gov being correct and not backtracking on their 'everyone is free' from the 21st June.

2: France agreeing with them. Ha, miles...kilometres behind...if the UK really is that far ahead.

3: Travel. By July, folks in the UK may be able to do as they wish and us in France also, but we may (probably will) still have a travel issue that prevents couples from either going through with their weddings here, or deciding within the next month or so, it's too big a hassle for them and their guests and pulling the plug.

I have already lost approx 1/3rd of all this year's booked work through postponement to 2022 or outright cancellation.

I lost 2 more just today and expect all with dates prior to the end of June to go with a certainty (had 10, 4 remain) and at least 50% of the rest of the season which is July-early Oct.

Bookings for 2022 are quite strong but by my calculations, to claw back the losses of 2020 will take 4 years running at 120% turnover, ie, 5 years total to be back where I was at the end of 2019 financially.

Based on the fact that 2021 is pretty fucked already and is going to end up I'm projecting at 20-25%, at least another 3 years at 120% turnover...if that is even possible, making a grand total of: 2 'lost' years + 7 'trying to make it up' years...if it's even possible, for a total of 9 years to be back where I was at the end of 2019.

Or after our daughter finished school and hopefully goes to uni 1 year this September, we sell our house and downsize to something smaller and cheaper and bypass having to even attempt 7 years of recovery, which realistically would be very hard to achieve anyway.

Longer term, has it damaged the industry? 

Not really. A least not as far as I can tell. I'm not seeing any great rush to elopements even though social media is constantly chittering about it. Folks seem to be booking exactly what they would in any given year, but just asking hard questions about Covid policy for the future.

Mentally, it's not great. I'm not depressed. Just frustrated for want of a better term. Massively frustrated.

Having very little money to do anything...not that there is anything to really do anyway, but going into debt when after a lifetime of trying, we had just cleared it at the end of 2019. Seriously, - no mortgage, no car finance, no credit cards, no nothing. For the first time in 25+ years of adult life.

I had some funds banked from previous gear sales so have spent some of that on some kit as I'm still doing some very low rate commercial work and freebies plus a few personal projects to stop myself from getting too rusty, but otherwise, we are spending very little.

Perhaps the hardest part of it is having zero control or even ability to do anything that constitutes 'having a life' according to how I wish to live mine.

Pretty much just existing and waiting...

I feel for you man. What a disaster.

2 minutes ago, Trankilstef said:

Really Panasonic is so frustrating. They would have fixed the shitty AF and makes real marketing strategies, they would own the video mirrorless market right now. But they don't want to change their DFD focusing tech and they are so lame at marketing themselves and their products. My S1H was a true workhorse and so close to a perfect camera. But I really felt the need for a reliable AF even though I am used to manual focus. it just makes life easier now that I switched to Sony a7SIII. 
Panasonic should really wake up.

 

I believe part of Panasonics woes is this exact problem. The Sony juggernaut marketing machine is now eroding the classic word of mouth professional back-channel chatter. At the tip of Sony's Marketing spear is YouTube.

1 hour ago, EphraimP said:

Yeah, I'm over Matti and Peter and that whole crew of YouTube influencers with their increasingly worthless camera "reviews" and their endless blogs about their hipster lifestyles.

They are lifestyle channels now. I swear all of Matti's camera "reviews" are the same video. They all follow a script and marketing material with nothing added except their lifestyle stuff.

1 hour ago, EphraimP said:

Gerald Undone, on the hand, is still pretty good on his reviews.

Yes, Gerald at least is still releasing quality information about products without unnecessary hype, most of the time.

2 hours ago, Trankilstef said:

How those "reviewers" could forget how much the S1H is more suited to professional video shootings than this FX3 !

Simple answer, because Panasonic didn't send them a bunch of stuff and a free camera to review and return.

51 minutes ago, Trankilstef said:

Usual suspects with their clickbait titles are out :

[snip]

Yes, and they sent him a bunch of swag in a pelican case to "sweeten" the review. How is that not payment? They have to disclose that Sony didn't sponsor them or have control over the review in anyway, yet they send him all this crap as an implicit: "look at what you won't get if we don't like your review".

Everybody knows if piss these companies off they won't include you in their YouTube marketing and you won't get free shit.

Andrew is so right about this camera. When I saw the release I was like...OK so this is a worst A7SIII for $400 more with a XLR top handle but all the important cinema features are missing:

• No internal ND
• No XLR on body
• No audio controls on body
• Same shitty LCD screen without an EVF to save it
• No SDI
• They didn't even include a way to secure the HDMI PORT! LOL!

Cinema camera my ass!

Oh man. I would have returned immediately to BH saying it was defective. I have seen other people experiencing something similar. Sorry, I don't have any solutions.

I fear with the camera market shrinking that camera companies are cutting on manufacturing quality, parts, and assembly to increase margins. Another pet peeve of mine is "weather sealing". If the warranty excludes weather related damage in their fine print, obviously the company does not feel confident about their product, and anything they say around the subject should be taken with a grain of salt.

ND, polarizer, BPM 1/4.

ND is used the most by far. Would love an internal ND solution in a mirrorless camera.

I'm really excited for M1X or M2 powered Macs, especially a refreshed future Mac Mini. As far as video editing is concerned, the MBP 13" just eats H265 without breaking a sweat...on battery power for 3+ hours with 20% battery remaining.

The performance (video editing) is amazing, but the power efficiency is what really impresses me the most and what really makes the new M1 powered Macs impressive. I have an Anker USB-C PD battery bank that can output 30W charging, adds 94Whr on top of 58Whr internal battery in the MPB, and could probably power this laptop for over a week or more, even with some video editing sessions. Which might be handy for people that might be off grid or traveling where mains power is either spotty or non-existent. 

I can't speak for Premiere Pro but in FCPX I have background rendering turned off and viewer set to Better Quality. I can throw in 4K H265 10-bit 4:2:2 at 480Mbps ALL-I (from R5), apply the Canon Rec709 WideDR LUT and even Image stabilization and play back with no dropped frames. Everything cuts and slices and moves around the timeline without any hiccups. Its so so nice.

PC will get there and probably surpass performance but probably not power efficiency. So exciting times for Mac laptops in any case.

11 hours ago, Beritar said:

Great pictures, Pana Leica 50-200mm ?

Yes, all pictures on the PL 50-200mm (except for the dog; that one is the PL 10-25mm). PL50-200 is one of my all time favorite lenses.

16 hours ago, szamtfsh said:

3.5'' 9.33MP 1280nit 10-bit WCG RGB-OLED Touch Screen with 120Hz AE-AF

Interesting...but camera manufactures are allergic to quality screens. I call fanciful BS.