FHDcrew

2 hours ago, herein2020 said:

As far as lighting goes I am with @FHDcrew, nothing beats natural light for most projects. Some projects of course are made for artificial lighting such as music videos but not because the lighting is needed; more so because the lighting is needed to add a certain mood to the video.

It certainly goes a long way! If you use golden hour right for example you can get beautiful lighting without needing ANY lighting gear!  This frame I shot is from a 4 1/2 year old FF camera! Lighting and grading are what set things apart visually.  I’m serious cameras are close enough in terms of IQ that it doesn’t matter. 

On 3/7/2023 at 5:34 AM, SRV1981 said:

Very cool and thanks! But what about image? Do you feel the c70 image is distinguishable when watching YT versus the R7 let’s say? 

I'm gonna be honest man, I would really quit worrying about cameras and focus on your craft.  For the longest time you keep posting about camera recommendations and advice.  This is great for sure, but I'm sure you have a wonderful camera already.  They're all great.  They all have great DR.  They all have great color.  They all have more than enough low light.  They all have more than enough shallow DOF with the right lens.  So go out, film and learn lighting, even just natural lighting.  Focus on things like that instead of the pursuit of cameras all of the time.

3 hours ago, Thomas Pawlowski said:

To me the camera is more important if you have no control of lighting. I'd take an Alexa everytime as it handles natural light really well, unless you are shooting in the dark where you need like 12,800 iso.

 

Now is it worth the time effort considering what you'll likely be paid for run and gun shooting, probably not.

This is true. If you have the control anything made in the last 10 years can look great, especially if you only have online delivery. Throw away that control over lighting and all of the sudden things like dynamic range and highlight rolloff become immensely important 

Just now, FHDcrew said:

On 2/23/2023 at 2:57 AM, stephen said:

simply put the recorder in a bag and have a small and tiny HDMI cable hanging on the side.

@stephenwhat bag do you use?  Does the recorder ever get hot for you?  I tried this once (stupid idea) with a Fanny pack and my Atomos Ninja V got MUCH too hot!

On 2/23/2023 at 2:57 AM, stephen said:

simply put the recorder in a bag and have a small and tiny HDMI cable hanging on the side.

15 minutes ago, Beritar said:

Do you know if the GH5II also has the heavy sharpening from the GH6 ? My GH6 and my S5II are very similar about sharpness, rough sharpening even at -5 with the standard profiles but also less fine details than S1/S5 and G9 because of the new "intelligent details" processing in the GH6.
I really hoped Panasonic didn't put these processing on the S5II but it looks even worse.

From what I’ve heard the GH5 II can have sharpening completely disabled, unlike most Panasonic cameras. 

2 hours ago, Kisaha said:

"From a pure lab test perspective, it seems that there is no gain without pain: the new LUMIX S5 II has nice new features including solid autofocus, but unfortunately in the lab, it falls a bit behind the previous generation, the S5 – when pushed to the absolute extreme, to keep things in perspective.

Not only is the rolling shutter worse (1ms more in full frame, 1.8ms more in APS-C), also the latitude result is not as good – it finishes with 7 stops of exposure latitude, mainly because of banding artifacts in the shadows and a more blotchy noise pattern which doesn’t look as pleasing to the eye.

That said, the dynamic range results are very similar to the previous generation LUMIX S5."

I would expect exactly the opposite, slight improvements on those numbers..hm..

Maybe the ever so slightly decreased latitude is that quality decrease Panasonic kept saying when they tried to defend doing with Dirt-From-Defocus AF 😂 

Looks very organic to me 🙂

Just now, FHDcrew said:

You may want to consider a used S1 instead. Not that much more expensive, but it does offer full-size HDMI. 

 

Alternatively if you like autofocus you could get a used Nikon Z6, get the RAW upgrade and be able to shoot BRAW with a full frame sensor and AF. But it’s not 6k. Prores RAW is line skipped. Not sure if the same holds true for BRAW but my guess is that’s the case. 

To be fair though from sample footage I’ve seen the line skipped footage looks fine

3 minutes ago, Matt Kieley said:

So I've been using a bmpcc 4k for nearly 4 months now, and while I love the image from it, the braw codec, and the UI, it definitely has some limitations as a camera with a 5 year old sensor and lacks things I've missed from the GH5 and G9 like IBIS and the ergonomics (I'm not a fan of the P4K body/ergonomics). With the new S5 cameras being released, the used prices of the original have already gone down to tempting prices, so I've been thinking about getting the original S5 and using it with the BM Video Assist 12G. I figured that could be sort of the best of both worlds between mirrorless and cameras the p4k: ibis, braw, prores, bm touch screen UI, less processed/sharpened looking image, an XLR audio interface, options to use SSDs or SD cards, high quality monitor, false color. I was actually thinking maybe the Video Assist would be a worthy investment because I can always use it with different cameras if I decide to switch to something else later. It's almost like a cine cam brain but without being limited to one sensor or lens mount, you can basically use any camera (though not all offer raw, you could still record prores). It turns the S5 into a FF 6K braw cine camera/audio interface it ibis for around $2K. The only tradeoff is rigging and powering a separate device. I was hoping to hear of the user experience from anyone who has used this setup, or if there are caveats I'n not aware of, etc. 

You may want to consider a used S1 instead. Not that much more expensive, but it does offer full-size HDMI. 

Alternatively if you like autofocus you could get a used Nikon Z6, get the RAW upgrade and be able to shoot BRAW with a full frame sensor and AF. But it’s not 6k. Prores RAW is line skipped. Not sure if the same holds true for BRAW but my guess is that’s the case. 

On 2/19/2023 at 5:41 AM, PannySVHS said:

Panny has been in the video, camera and broadcast market for very long. Canon had no broadcast cameras for decades. 🙂

2014, Panny started the 4K revolution. GH2 had lotta charisma, Lumix still has to me. Sometimes our assumptions and conclusions become a bit shaky after series of posts and replies.  @FHDcrew posted a spiffy video shot with Nikon z6 to external prores. Looking better than 99% of youtube stuff. Some of the best looking stuff on this forum regarding colour and overall craft of the finished video. Solid!

This made my day man!  Thanks so much! I feel like I’ve grown a lot mainly in terms of lighting over the past while, and I also am always really satisfied with the image the Z6 spits out!  Such a great budget cam. 

21 minutes ago, MrSMW said:

First attempt at grading Vlog.

Well first proper attempt and with the S5ii because I have tried in previous years with the S5 and S1H and always ended up going back to first the Natural profile and then the Flat profile.

This was with Gamut's (old, I need to download the latest version) re709 conversion and then my grade on top.

4k 50p S35 crop footage shot with Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 APSC lens.

This looks great!  Nice use of natural light too!

An attempt at a more "filmic" grade with the Z6 NLOG image.  It’s actually pretty darn simple. In Davinci Resolve I converted the image to rec709 with basic exposure/contrast adjustments. Then I transformed the color space from rec709 to cineon (designed for this specific LUT). I applied one of the film LUTS built into Davinci resolve.  Then I add a glow effect to bloom the highlights. I increased saturation and adjusted the  color temp to warm it up.  That's pretty much it!

You can push and pull Nikon FLAT a decent amount!  Obviously will still break if you push it too hard but it does well for not being a LOG profile

1 hour ago, PannySVHS said:

Pro job! Would love some z6 8bit stuff in the good old artsy fartsy gh2 style. It's always easier for me to ask than going out and film and edit some myself:) @FHDcrew

Yeah just filmed some z6 8 bit and it has more flexibility than one would respect. For 8-bit lately I’ve actually done a CST to Arri LogC and then applied the Arri Rec709 LUT. Liking the results, and the camera can be had for like $850 if you look hard enough 😮 

If I had no money I would be shooting with a Canon 50D. People keep saying the EOS M is the budget king (valid) but this camera literally costs $109.98 with shipping! That is freaking cheap for 14-bit RAW video!

1 hour ago, TomTheDP said:

Looks really good @FHDcrew

Appreciate it!  Anything you would recommend regarding improvements?

Here is the 4k upload 🙂

Dang it I thought I upscaled this to 4k.  I'm reuploading but scaled up to 4k for the better YouTube bitrate.

I wanted to share this recent project with you guys!  Also I guess this counts as a face reveal lol.  Shot entirely on a Nikon Z6 with the Tamron SP 45mm 1.8!  NLOG graded in Davinci Resolve.   Some footage was shot using the Ninja Star, others the Ninja V.  Most of the footage was shot using the oversampled 1080p mode I spoke about earlier in this thread; the AROLL was definately shot in this mode.  Just wanted to share, because one I want to share some of my work and what I do here, and two I wanted to give a good example of what this camera can do in 2023!

Now the prompt is ridiculous: "Explain dynamic range to a 4-year-old, adding in facts about American History."

Hi kids! Do you know what a camera is? It's a tool that helps us take pictures and capture memories. But have you heard of "dynamic range"? Well, let me tell you all about it while we learn about American history!

Back in the days of the American Civil War, photographers had a hard time taking clear pictures because the cameras of that time couldn't capture all the details in the bright sunlight and dark shadows. But, over time, cameras got better and better, and dynamic range became a big part of that.

Dynamic range is the amount of light that a camera can capture. Just like how the American colonists fought for their independence and the right to control their own lives, a camera with a high dynamic range can capture both the bright parts and the dark parts of a scene, so it has control over all the details in the picture.

Think of it like the American Dream - the bigger the opportunity, the more you can achieve. Similarly, a camera with a high dynamic range can fit in more light and capture more details in a picture, just like how Americans have the opportunity to chase their dreams and achieve their goals.

So the next time you take a picture, remember the spirit of American history and look for a camera with a high dynamic range, so you can capture all the details and make your own memories, just like our forefathers did!

Explaining dynamic range to a 4-year-old is apparently possible thanks to ChatGPT:

Hey kids! Do you know what a camera is? It's a tool that helps us take pictures and capture memories. But do you know what "dynamic range" means in a camera? Well, let me explain it to you in a fun way!

Imagine you're playing outside on a sunny day. You see a big, beautiful tree that you want to take a picture of. But when you look through the camera, you see that the tree is too bright and you can't see the details of the leaves and branches. That's because the sun is too strong and it's hard for the camera to capture all the details in the bright light and the dark shadows.

This is where dynamic range comes in! Dynamic range is the amount of light that a camera can capture. A camera with a high dynamic range can capture both the bright parts and the dark parts of a scene, so you can see all the details.

Think of it like a cookie jar with a big opening. The bigger the opening, the more cookies you can fit in the jar! Similarly, a camera with a high dynamic range can fit in more light and capture more details in a picture.

So the next time you take a picture, remember to look for a camera with a high dynamic range so you can take pictures that show all the details, even in bright sunlight!

8 hours ago, BTM_Pix said:

 

In the short to medium term there will be plenty of opportunities for people to have careers as editors of the Ai output.

None of the code that I've experimented with it generating has actually worked (or even compiled) without me finessing it and anything creative I've prompted it to do has shown a propensity to frequently - and wildly - overestimate the number of limbs/fingers humans have and the extent of their range of articulation.

It has also had a bizarre and somewhat disturbing penchant for creating faces in scenes of crowds where one of them has more than a passing resemblance to the former leader of the National Socialist party.

 

This quote highlights the current limitations of AI technology and its potential for creating biased or unexpected outputs. While there may be opportunities for individuals to work as editors of AI output, the author's experience suggests that there is still a long way to go before AI can produce high-quality and reliable results without human intervention. Additionally, the mention of a disturbing output highlights the importance of ethical considerations and the need to address potential biases in AI systems. Overall, the quote suggests that while AI has the potential to revolutionize many industries, it is important to approach its development and deployment with caution and to carefully consider the potential consequences of its outputs.