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Andrew Reid
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9 minutes ago, mercer said:

True but nothing about this “test” is fair. Pitting an f/2 lens vs an f/2.8 lens wide open isn’t fair. Also Nikkor lenses are traditionally warmer than Zeiss lenses. Hell, I may have even set the color temperature differently in the Raw panel because I preferred one over the other at the time.

I have a very modicum amount of grading skills, so I prefer to allow the equipments’ natural tendencies to do some of the job for me. Color grading is a craft in and of itself and as a one man band filmmaker, it is impossible for me to be great at every discipline. Of course I try my best, to do my best and your point on the lesson is definitely taken and food for thought. 

There are only three skills needed to be a good colourist:

  1. To know what you like, what you want, and what is good for the project
  2. To be able to see colour - to look at an image and notice that the shadows are cooler, or the highlights have a soft rolloff, etc
  3. To know what knobs to twiddle

When you have the first two, the third becomes almost a non-issue.  Watching truly skilled colourists work has taught me that the top people can get 90% of the results with only a few controls - even if you only gave them lift/gamma/gain controls then they'd still put out beautiful work, add curves and they can make magic.

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10 hours ago, mercer said:

So, I took a drive yesterday in the cold to do a test of a few lenses... the Nikkor 24mm f/2 vs the Carl Zeiss 25mm f/2.8 in the Rollei QBM mount. 

Here are the results...

Nikkor 24mm f/21645641437_Binoculars-Nikkor24mm2.0_1_20.1.thumb.jpg.c21cbb5cfcd1eaa64452a1d8534bda66.jpg

Carl Zeiss 25mm f/2.8

898761844_Binolculars-Zeiss25mm2.8_1_16.1.thumb.jpg.08275d3c6c30400baa00351e88a000dc.jpg

I found the speed of the Nikkor to be pretty helpful considering that that shot was taken about 10 minutes after the Zeiss shot, but there is just something about that cold Zeiss look that has a definite pop to it that seems more cinematic... maybe it's in my head? 

Full disclosure... I didn't attempt to match these images, I just did a basic Rec709 conversion and a little bit of curves and saturation. Also I am still using my MacBook Air screen for all of this preliminary color work and lens tests. I'm in the process of deciding on a monitor upgrade... so these may look like crap compared to what I am seeing in Resolve... oh the fun of hobbyist color work... lol.

too bad you didn't use a tripod and shot exactly the same image. but i agree, your feeling is influenced by the colors and not the "qualities" of any lense.

but isn't it what we all look for, being attracted by a "look" more than cold technical informations ?

if you look into pure technicals specs then the russian lenses would never sell :)

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11 hours ago, webrunner5 said:

Have you ever used B4 lenses on it? Amazing lenses for hardly any money.

Yes, this one (shown here on my GX80).

Also an Angenieux ironically enough.

Even got the servo zoom working on it with the aid of the trusty £10 Sony NP battery sled and a cable!

5928bfb93705b_AngenieuxB4001.thumb.jpg.534f0d05c4c4e7ea9f791b064475321b.jpg

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13 minutes ago, mercer said:

Does the IBIS help to stabilize... the camera?

It actually sits quite solidly in the hand if you use it with the screen tilted in the fashion shown in the pic in a look down configuration.

But yes it is very much a lens with a camera attached rather than the other way round !

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40 minutes ago, BTM_Pix said:

It actually sits quite solidly in the hand if you use it with the screen tilted in the fashion shown in the pic in a look down configuration.

But yes it is very much a lens with a camera attached rather than the other way round !

It actually looks like it is balanced fairly well. Do you have any clips or screengrabs with this setup?

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10 minutes ago, mercer said:

It actually looks like it is balanced fairly well. Do you have any clips or screengrabs with this setup?

I'll dig something out over the weekend.

I've got a few bits of M and R mount lens stuff that I've been meaning to put up as well from some recent scores.

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19 hours ago, kye said:

Interestingly, I was distracted by how sharp the bokeh was in both the Zeiss and Nikkor images above

Good eye, Kye. This morning I had a look at those clips and realized I had Sharpening turned up to 25 in the Raw Panel. I usually leave it at the 10 default setting. 

After our discussion, I decided to process the clips through the MLVApp to ProRes and have a stab at them in FCPX. I think this one turned out nicer...

Carl Zeiss 25mm f/2.89C6640BC-2AD3-429F-8D33-1156C5AB991C.thumb.jpeg.088ea57a4a27855dd2eacb6e5070a878.jpeg

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12 hours ago, BTM_Pix said:

Yes, this one (shown here on my GX80).

Also an Angenieux ironically enough.

Even got the servo zoom working on it with the aid of the trusty £10 Sony NP battery sled and a cable!

5928bfb93705b_AngenieuxB4001.thumb.jpg.534f0d05c4c4e7ea9f791b064475321b.jpg

Does that lens cover the m43 sensor?

I looked up that mount and found the image circle was 11mm diagonally, which was a lot less than m43, but it looks like I missed something...?

4 hours ago, mercer said:

Good eye, Kye. This morning I had a look at those clips and realized I had Sharpening turned up to 25 in the Raw Panel. I usually leave it at the 10 default setting. 

After our discussion, I decided to process the clips through the MLVApp to ProRes and have a stab at them in FCPX. I think this one turned out nicer...

Carl Zeiss 25mm f/2.89C6640BC-2AD3-429F-8D33-1156C5AB991C.thumb.jpeg.088ea57a4a27855dd2eacb6e5070a878.jpeg

Ah, yes, that's a bit better.  The other image was a bit worse as it had the parallel lines from the handrail that stood out, but the lines at the waterline are less distracting.

TBH I'm not sure how much that stuff matters when you're watching a moving image, and there's probably also an element of it not mattering if you can direct and hold people's attention - "if people notice continuity problems then your film sucks" type thing :)

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7 hours ago, kye said:

Does that lens cover the m43 sensor?

I looked up that mount and found the image circle was 11mm diagonally, which was a lot less than m43, but it looks like I missed something...?

Many b4 lenses, including this one, have an integral switchable 2x teleconverter that will enable them to cover MFT when it is engaged.

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6 minutes ago, BTM_Pix said:

Many b4 lenses, including this one, have an integral switchable 2x teleconverter that will enable them to cover MFT when it is engaged.

That is very interesting indeed!  I didn't think about the TC giving a lens a larger image circle.  Do all TC's do that?  I would imagine that some of them might obscure the image circle due to other elements of their physical design, but maybe not?

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25 minutes ago, kye said:

That is very interesting indeed!  I didn't think about the TC giving a lens a larger image circle.  Do all TC's do that?  

Yes.

The Kenko branded ones were (and might still be) something that some people used when they got FX cameras to still be able to use their DX lenses.

If you want a modern still lens with an integral switchable TC then Canon's 200-400mm has one. Albeit only a 1.4x. And albeit it at £10K ;)

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Here was my very first try with a B4 on my AF100. Hard to get it to zoom or focus smoothly on a cheaper tripod LoL. The servo didn't work on it, so I had to zoom manually. I only paid 150 dollars for it at Adorama. You are talking a Crazy zoom range. Like up to a 37- 960mm I think with that 19x lens. But they are really sharp and parafocal, and really fast, mine was a f1.7 through the Entire range, crazy. But you loose 2 stops because of the 2x TC which you always have to have engaged..

 

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2 minutes ago, webrunner5 said:

He is my very first try with a B4 on my AF100. Hard to get it t zoom or focus on a cheaper tripod LoL. You are talking a Crazy zoom range. Like up to 960mm I think with that 19x lens. But they are really sharp and Parafocal, and really fast. But you loose 2 stops because of the 2x TC which you always have to have engaged..

 

https://vimeo.com/manage/207939773/general

That link looks like it connects to your account admin page mate.

 

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Finally got my hands on a Canon V10X15 15-150 c-mount zoom lens for just $20. I shot this very quick test on the bmpcc (shot wide open) and I love it so far. The lens is pretty big so I'm using rails and the SmallRig lens support. I like the zoom range--10x is the same range as my beloved DVX100 (though the FOV is different). It has nice round bokeh at 2.8 that doesn't have those odd "dips" as the smaller range c-mount zooms I've had (V6X17 and similar Fuji lenses I've had).

B7F9814B-289F-4EC1-AB68-61E36BAF82D9.thumb.jpg.3fffdd1796c48d7dc83cf0057b6e4fc0.jpg

A4587933-1A62-443E-B182-071BCA0F7441.thumb.jpg.12848d5b137d4d4990c7a7cb87e87f4b.jpg

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9 minutes ago, Matt Kieley said:

Finally got my hands on a Canon V10X15 15-150 c-mount zoom lens for just $20. I shot this very quick test on the bmpcc (shot wide open) and I love it so far. The lens is pretty big so I'm using rails and the SmallRig lens support. I like the zoom range--10x is the same range as my beloved DVX100 (though the FOV is different). It has nice round bokeh at 2.8 that doesn't have those odd "dips" as the smaller range c-mount zooms I've had (V6X17 and similar Fuji lenses I've had).

Looks like retro film, both in the good ways with the bokeh and rendering and the bad ones with the highlight flaring.  Not bad for $20!  Nice work :)

42 minutes ago, mercer said:

So, I was able to get my lead actor to sit through another one of my lens tests. This is the Nikkor 24mm f/2...

What do you think of the image?  Looks just fine to me :)

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