zlfan

On 6/27/2025 at 2:14 AM, stephen said:

Those are urban legends. Every blind test I personally witnessed and those we know from youtube shows exactly the opposite. Color science, micro contrast and any other  superiority claims falls short. Even professionals can't distinguish between different cameras and lenses. 
Like this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZjIz8sB2vg

Or even older and much more professional Zakuto Great Shootout from 2011. Does anybody still remember it ?

those photogs are veterans with 30+ years experience, all have best nikon, canon, pentax, etc lenses. been there. 

On 6/27/2025 at 2:14 AM, stephen said:

Canon 5D Mark III is outdated compared to modern cameras. It is OK for fun and experimenting but that's it. 1080р is line skipped, so real resolution is somewhere around 1600px not 2K. Rolling shutter 21-22ms is OK but again far from modern standards and  dynamic range is around 10.5 stops. It is a DSLR, so no EVF, you have to use external monitor. Workflow is not optimal as you need to transcode first from mlv to Cinema DNG. Compared to the low resolution, files are relatively big and take a lot of space. 

I don't see any reason for Magic Lantern project to exists when now we have so many cameras with internal 4K RAW Video recording. 

ml raw on 5d3 can do 10 bit uhd raw. ml raw at 10 bit and above especially at 14 bit, is vert different from typical mirrorless raw or 10 bit preres h.265. been there. 14 bit raw itself is unparalleled even now. 

i doubt r50 has better video quality than 5d3 ml raw. 

I remember a story I learned from a famous photo forum. A group of veteran photogs prepare a set of chosen photos for Leica photo exhibition. Only photos taken from Leica lenses are allowed. Some smarties think they can trick Leica Reps by using best lenses from other brands. They intentionally put these best photos of theirs into the chosen set, yet all are sieved out by Leica Reps. They then believe that Leica taste exists. 

On 6/23/2025 at 5:36 AM, FHDcrew said:

Agreed modern Canon bodies really are not very crippled. The fact that the $649 R50V has CLOG3 10 bit is proof. But still, advancements on these older cameras is always exciting, and those old canon sensors certainly have a unique look that I think isn’t quite the same on the newer bodies. 

I always suspect that the current crop of high dr sensors tuned for high dr but sacrificed other aspects. 

Using OM1 as an example, it is very nice in 60p photo mode, especially the dr is impressive. Yet, when I use some vintage lens on 5d3 with ml raw, something just looks different, scientifically not explainable, yet it is there. Aesthetically, I really like this subtlety.  

On 5/16/2025 at 4:00 AM, Andrew Reid said:

If anyone wants to have some retro CCD fun then I have found a fun little bargain for you...

https://www.wexphotovideo.com/olympus-e-500-digital-slr-camera-body-used-3242908/

This is using the same Kodak CCD sensor tech as the M8, just a slightly smaller chip at 2x crop vs 1.5x.

The colours and grain are a thing of filmic beauty and it has the rather lovely Olympus colour science in JPEGs too.

I have one e500. Small, coupled with oly 43 25 f2.8. Good for travel. The lens has some distortion. The camera is not good at night. Other than that, it is good to use. Color is good at iso 100. At iso 400, it starts to smear. I brought it to DC once as my sole traveling gig. I like it except limited use at night. 

On 4/10/2025 at 2:02 AM, ac6000cw said:

I've found that in video C-AF, if a lens is stopped down to a small aperture, the OM-1 (and the E-M1 ii/iii) will sometimes decide it's not quite in focus and pulse it to check. If the lens has low focus breathing it's often not noticeable as the depth-of-field at small apertures hides it. But it means lenses with low focus breathing are a good idea if using C-AF in video.

Oly/OMS cameras don't have an AF-lock function, but you can assign the MF (manual focus) function to a button, which basically does the same thing (provided you don't touch the lens focus ring!). Also the AF-ON button can be used to force a re-focus in both C-AF and MF modes. So in MF mode, pushing AF-ON to get initial focus then tweaking it with the lens focus ring if necessary is easy.

This lens breathing is what I experienced, at F8 or F5.6, even at F4. I will try MF. Thanks a lot for the input. 

On 4/10/2025 at 2:02 AM, ac6000cw said:

 

What video 'IS Level' are you using (-1, 0, +1) and is this in M-IS 1 (with digital) or M-IS 2 (sensor shift only) mode?

At the +1 setting it will be jerky if you move it too fast (It's intended for static hand-held situations), but -1 and 0 settings should be OK for normal movement (in my experience).

i used +1. will try 0 for moving. 

120p photo is still the best in terms of sharpness.

colorwise, although good enough, neither art filter 1 nor hlg 10 bit is as good as the 14 bit ml raw or f3.

The Oly 25mm f1.8 is good at mid range, not as good as zf at infinity.

At 25mm the IBIS is very stable, but jerky when panning or tilting. The color can be very good. The dr is still good when pushing the sat and the contrast.

Again, two thumbs up to the OM1. A hidden gem.

Just did OM1 Oly 25mm F1.8. I am very impressed by the dr. The sharpness is good enough. I think the generic focal reducer caused the lacking of sharpness in previous shots. The Oly 25mm F1.8 sometimes pulses in continuous AF in video mode.

From your screen shots, I feel that OM1 has better dr than GH7. I use art filter 1, which is a high sat high contr filter. On EM5, the dr is too narrow, although I like the color and the contrast, I kind of don't not like the whole pictures. On OM1, it is very usable, I get good contrast, good color, and relative good dr, at least the dr does not distract my eyes.

40 minutes ago, kye said:

Thanks..  

To be honest I just find it baffling that everyone is throwing the word "cinematic" around and yet all the colour grades look like they haven't been converted from LOG to 709.  It's one of the easiest changes you can make in post to take your footage from video to cinema, and yet hardly anyone does it.

Pushing as much contrast and saturation as you can was the best film-making advice I ever got.

i like high contrast high saturation style too. for landscape, i push as much as i can. really pushing the sensor and the dsp to their limits.

finally, you take the gh7 bite. a very good choice.

Except top models, like Alexa, Sony Venice, Red Monstro, not sure how much better the low end cinema cameras are better than top of the line full frame or aps c hybrids.

Now with the ZF 85, generic focal reducer, OM1, video mode, c4k 30p, 10 bit HLG H265, I set the ibis focal length at 60mm, sensor shift and digital, +1. The footage is very usable, much better than EM-5 at 50 mm. If I hold my body and arms tight, I guess that the results will be very close to be tripod like or at least mono pod like.

C4K 30p is good enough for slow moving subject tracking, like a rowing man. C4K 30p has more details than C4K 60p. Good for landscape.

I guess that if I skip the generic focal reducer, the results will be even better.

Not to say the unique 120p photo burst mode.

Two thumbs up to OM1. I think it is the best deal today for hybrid cams.

zf 85 supposes to be sharp at f5.6 f8, i suspect that the generic focal reducer is the real culprit.

about video quality of the om1, i think that i used zf 85 mf, which somehow dictates the final image quality. the image looks smooth, but not very sharp, even at f5.6 or f8. very suitable for portraiture, especially to ladies. the color is fine. if using m43 sharp lenses, om1 c4k may be very sharp, will test later with my m43 olympus 25mm f1.8.

The video is very cool. On iPad it is clear enough. 5d2 not bad. Ml raw on 5d3 will make you smile. What is the point of a new cam. I bought a brand new OM1 only for its improved ibis for my mf lenses. 

Sensor shift plus digital +1, at 300 mm, is very usable. 

Maybe this is the key. I remember that I set the focal length in M mode for the 120p burst mode. I will check if the video mode focal length is set up. Thanks a lot. 

6 hours ago, ac6000cw said:

 

Note that some of the stabilization settings are separate for stills and video, so you might need to set the manual lens focal length separately for stills and video:

 

6 hours ago, ac6000cw said:

C4K/UHD 60p is softer on the OM-1 than 24/25/30p - see this dpreview video stills comparison

Sharpest video modes are C4K/UHD at 24/25/30p 10-bit.

Re. the IBIS performance - I don't own any manual lenses, so can't test the IBIS in that situation, but I often use non-stabilized long telephoto lenses like the Oly 75-300mm and Pana 100-300mm (with lens OIS turned off) for wildlife video. With the video stabilization 'IS Level' set to +1 (the highest setting) I can get usable handheld video at 300mm provided I'm leaning against something or sitting down to provide a bit of extra stability.

Is the video stabilization working OK with native MFT lenses? If not, I'd suggest doing an 'Initialize All Settings' and starting again (especially if this is a used camera).

Note that some of the stabilization settings are separate for stills and video, so you might need to set the manual lens focal length separately for stills and video:

Thank you very much for your help. 
 

For ibis in video, I use M IS 1, mechanical plus digital. 

6 hours ago, Snowfun said:

If, for some reason, you are happy with the quality of the gopro12, why are you even thinking about other cameras? If you have found the camera which does what you need it to, isn't that sufficient? 

GoPro is fixed lens camera. I have a collection of mf lenses, so I need OM1 for mf lenses.