jsandas

I shot a short film yesterday and used the Canon 35mm f/2 for a few shots. What a great utility prime with IS. Here are a few shots with a quick LUT thrown on. The film may end up being in B&W.


 

Anyway, to cover recorders up to the "mid budget" price point, you have, once you go past the price point of Zoom's offerings: 

Very low budget:
1) Sound Devices MixPre1 (the Gen2 version), basically it doesn't beat a Zoom F8n Pro even though it is a lot more expensive. At best it is "equivalent" to an F8n, but "different". So people might prefer that, just like some people prefer the flavor of hokey pokey icecream over chocolate icecream.
Entry level professional: 
1) Sound Devices 833, part of their 8 Series and basically the "633 mk2" (the 633 for years was the standard staple for many professional sound mixers, thanks to its affordable price and compact size) however with the tonnes of capability the 833 has it could for many people be all they ever need! (unlike the 633, which is totally unsuitable for mixing drama productions, especially back at launch of the 633) The 833 is out performing the former "high end" products from Sound Sound Devices (788T/688).
2) Zaxcom Nova, a bit like the F8n vs MixPre10 discussion, I wouldn't say the Nova is "better" than the 833, just "different". However to fully get all the benefits of the Nova you really must also buy into the Zaxcom wireless system as well, so don't get a Nova if you're not going to do that. Plus Zaxcom is very much like the "RED of the audio world", rather controversial with a lot of cons lurking under the surface. So while they're a strong choice, and very innovative, don't go in without your eyes being wide open. 
3) Sonosax SX-R4+, while I think when the SX-R4+ was released it was probably "the best" in this niche, it was also the first of "the new generation" (i.e. Nova / Deva 24 / 8 Series / Cantar X3 / etc came afterwards), thus I think in 2022 it is much harder to make a strong case for the SX-R4+. 
Mid budget: 
1) Sound Devices 888: this is basically the 833 but with DANTE! And an extra fader. And a few more outputs. And 4 more tracks. 
2) Cantar Mini: if I could afford it, I'd get a Cantar Mini in a heart beat, no doubt about it. Many of the top pros in the drama world are switching over to Cantar as they've taken the leader in terms of capabilities / workflow / responsiveness to users / etc
High end budget:
1) Sound Devices Scorpio: same as the 833 / 888, but with MORE!! More outputs, more inputs, more faders, more tracks. But fundamentally the same software/features as any other 8 Series. 
2) Zaxcom Deva 24: it is a Zaxcom, enough said. (if you are not in the Zaxcom ecosystem, this probably isn't for you. If you are.... then this should be #1 at the top of your shopping list to consider)
3) Cantar X3: The King. 

I have exactly the setup you're talking about, and absolutely love it. It's so light weight and the footage is fantastic. I will say though, monitor on for external raw is well worth doing. Braw works pretty well in Premiere now, and you have the added benefit of changing the angle of the screen. I have my monitor mounted on the back, so to the person being filmed, it doesn't look much bigger or more intimidating than the actual camera without the monitor. Here's a couple images with a 28mm FD lens (also a very nice combo)

Yes, but (and for the benefit of anyone reading who might be considering a GH5) if you shoot VLog and get your footage into ACES space there are no WB or exposure quirks. The colour science is not so easily answered, however there is one solution in my other recent thread.

I just went back and checked, and saw that Andrew raised the question of built-in ND filters in his interview with Panasonic's Yosuke Yamane last year, and if I understand the reply correctly, Yamane basically claimed that a built-in filter would negatively affect either the image quality (if it's always there?) or the size of the camera (if it can be moved aside?). This is probably true in itself, but I think they underestimate how many people would be willing to make that tradeoff.
As for the OM-1, the live ND function is entirely done through software, isn't it? I know that it only works for stills, but I wonder how far away we are from that sort of thing being viable for video.

Have you tried WBing GH5 10bit VLog in an ACES colour space? You should be able to do it with relative impunity.
I know there's no GH5 IDT, but you can sandwich Vlog to ACES to VLog and get your footage back to what it was, but with WB fixed.
Incidentally, I don't think that GH5 VLog should be treated as Rec709 gamut. Admittedly, converting to V-Gamut gives slightly wonky colour (slightly pink skin) but leaving it as is gives much worse (horribly green skin). 

Yes, if you are using electronic EF lenses then there are no additional requirements.
If you are using manual focus lenses then of course you need to add Nucleus-N or M motors.
As above, the current production have all sold out and there will be another run when the component cost/supply chain issues have settled down so there is no ETA at the moment.
If you have contacted or do contact cdatek regarding future availability then you will automatically receive an email when they are available.
 

I don't watch most of those Canadians anymore. On Youtube, you really need to look for authenticity because you won't find it in almost any of the bigger channels. I've been watching for a long time now to see it go from authentic (and often normal) to shameless self/product promotion. 99% are simply infomercials, nothing more. You can still learn and laugh from them, but that is still the core of what they do.
"Still Life - Art and the photographic image" by Justin Jones. He's a British guy who's into all forms of art and has 2.72K followers. He will never be known most likely, but his content is great. He's the type of YouTube I like. Here's a video:
 

Well, Sigma France very kindly in the common parlance, 'reached out to me' and asked me if I'd like to test the FP-L and any lenses.
So for the last couple of weeks, I have been doing just that. And it's not for me.
It has several positives, but far more negatives FOR ME AND MY NEEDS.
First of all, I need a camera to either be a pure stills unit, pure video, or hybrid.
It doesn't really tick any of these boxes for me and I hoped it would tick at least one.
The video specs don't really suit my needs and from a photography perspective, I got banding in low light due to the electronic only shutter.
I'm getting ahead of myself however and straight out of the box, it was both bigger and heavier than I imagined.
Everyone goes on about how Panasonic's S line FF cameras are HUGE, but I don't find them so and have the biggest of the lot, the S1H.
And everyone says how tiny Sigma's FP line is and for me, it was bigger than expected and not much smaller or lighter than the Panasonic S5 with the same lens attached.
From that point onward, it really began to fall apart...
Handling. Awful. It needs a grip and yes, I am aware there are both native and aftermarket options and I could not imagine using it without one.
Lack of tilt screen = fail in my book. I am no fan of fully articulating screens but if I had an FP/L I would at the very least need to look at that aftermarket option in this regard.
The side attached EVF. If it was in the centre, in line with the lens, I'd be a fan. Attached to the side, not so and it makes the camera wider and bigger feeling than my S5.
The menu. Like any menu system, you would get used to it after a while, but I found it rather infuriating and I did not have this problem when I first picked up a Sony (often criticised for their menus as are sometimes Fuji and Panny but the latter 2 are easily much more intuitive).
Stills image quality for outdoor photography. Absolutely stellar, but not enough to win me over.
I said the same thing in feedback to Sigma France and that is I wanted to like the camera.
Ideally, I'd like to want it enough, or even just find a reason to buy one, but I can't, - it's just too compromised for my needs.
FPL-2 for me would need:
A mech shutter for stills.
Tilt screen.
4k 60p.
Centrally mounted EVF.
I'd like to see a better menu system, but that would not be a deal-breaker and neither is the lack of a grip, - that is the point of modular in both these regards (grip and EVF).
And that's my 'review' of the FP-L.
I also had the 65mm f2 in for test and loved it.
I used it for both stills and video with my S1H and it produced great results.
AF, especially in tracking, was not as good as native Panny, but not utter garbage, in fact, quite useable a lot of the time.
But I sit on the fence with whether I will buy one or not as I'm probably going to stick with Panny and their expanding range of f1.8 primes, mainly for the greater range of all f1.8; 24, 35, 50 and 85mm vs Sigma's f3.5 24mm (nope) and 35mm & 65mm f2 pairing (yep).
I also have as a side note Sigma's 28-70mm f2.8 and it is excellent for both photo and video although I am going to have to send it in at some point as it's an early serial number and has the ghosting issue in certain light.
Final note and that is I like Sigma. A lot. I think they are a great company and offer some really great products, at least in their lens lineup. The FP is probably another generation away for me, but there's always hope...
Merci à Renaud de m'avoir donné l'opportunité de tester ces articles !

I think the GH6 may not need an attention grabbing feature to stand out considering the price bump.  People who were at the limits of the GH5 might find that the GH6 is worth the upgrade, considering how much money they might have in lenses and the total cost of changing systems.
For example:
120p going from 1080p to 4K is a useful upgrade for those that use that mode, sports shooters for example 60p going from 4K 8-bit to 5.7K 10-bit is a meaningful change too, especially for those shooting log Even in an incremental upgrade there are likely to be other minor improvements.  The Panasonic colour science has advanced quite a bit from the GH5, so even if the GH6 just 'catches up' to S1/S1H performance, that would be something.
Addition of Dual-ISO would make a huge different to people who shoot in low light.  I shoot with f0.95 lenses in available light and that works well, but it would be nice to be able to stop down to get a deeper DoF without the noise overwhelming the image.
A new sensor opens up some very interesting possibilities, including faster read-out times, higher DR, dual-ISO, etc.
A new processing engine is something that's also interesting considering the existing processing engine is actually enormously capable.  I did some testing and confirmed that the GH5 does the following:
4K and 1080p are downsampled (which everyone already knows) 4K60 is downsampled, so is 1080p60 (and IIRC so is 1080pVFR) Also, the 1080p mode with 2X digital zoom is also downsampled from the middle 2.5K of the sensor, even in 60p! None of this pixel-binning, line skipping, BS that other cameras seem to think is normal.
So, if the processing engine is being upgraded and gets new features, they won't be to enable it to do things you'd expect it to do anyway, it will be things that are in addition to normal functions you'd expect.

I still don’t understand RED’s stranglehold on the RAW patent bs. Like, it’s a painfully obvious method for compressing RAW, based on already-existing open tech (even when they originally “invented” it.) 

What, did the lawyers tasked with contesting it a while back just do a crap job? Or does RED just have a bunch of Big Dick Energy lawyers?? It’s absurd, and I’m still baffled that the big dogs haven’t banded together to take that patent out back and toss it in the dumpster where it belongs. 
 
Everyone wants internal RAW, and the codecs exist to do it easily. That’s what I want in a GH6. If not, then at minimum, ditch the stupid HDMI and implement a pro-grade SDI connection.
 
I’ve also been dying for someone to put a dual-gain ADC audio system into a camera, with 32bit float audio file support. The preamps can be only half-decent, and it’s still a MEGA benefit to just plain NOT HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT CLIPPING. It’s like RAW recording for audio. If it can be put in tiny body packs, it sure as heck can be implemented in a camera body.

I understand this thread as opportunity for (the most serious and well minded) message to Panasonic.
Blog post summarized it all.
What I can add as small holistic addition is suggestion that it is the last chance for Panasonic (or it will be done by somebody else) to collect all very important and still distinctive virtues of m43 system and finally offer them in one camera. I mean, don't behave as not too smart little calculating coward - because moment of camera evolution doesn't allow to be as such.
Barrier of price has been already broke through  - I think that even 3000e starting price for m43 movie making machine is pretty competitive with added qualities mentioned in blog post. At the end of a day, this clearly is territory for professionals who make money with camera, or for high end enthusiasts (finding field of deeper self-actualisation in camera usage) seeking for best artistic instrument.
Being now pretty serious involved in sort of art creation, my experience with both m43 and FF system told me that - at least in that field of interest - they are clearly not competitive, but different in some very important areas.
For just one example: contrary, as it seems, to most public, I found that possibility to get deeper DOF with better light gathering (even more taking into account modern sensor sensitiveness) is crucial for my way of thinking. For making truly rich art experience, shallow DOF has to be used extremely sparingly, or even not at all. There is far more demanded mastery, and respective distinctive achievement, in capability to arrange scene with meaningful and seriously thought out content in background, than cheaply and lazy blurred it. Potential in transferring complex and deeper message in just one shot is at the side of deeper DOF, but demands more talented mind and much more crafting mastery.
Being so close to the perfectly capable camera regarding compactness, reliability, ergonomic, RAW as best codec, ND, maybe or not IBIS, with best possible 4k delivery quality as indeed far away future proof, etc mentioned in blog post - price gap of say 500e is not so important. Nor the race between m43 and FF who understand their distinctive virtues.
Chance to sooner bring to table the most rounded instrument is still on the m43 side with its lens ecosystem, including affordable cheap truly cine zoom solutions such as, at the moment, say DZO film's. Even with fast gradually catching up, of course including bonus crop choice, FF system is not even close to offer comparatively affordable and compact cine zoom lens.

I got the H6 Accessory Pack back when I bought my zoom, and the AC adapter that comes with that pack is literally a USB wall socket, so you'll be fine. In fact, I think I've used other USB sockets far more often than the original one. 
The original Zoom unit's output is 5.0V and 1.0A.