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Help me taking video of... Fireflies!


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One more questions for you guys/girls.

Hotaru (firefly in Japanese) always offer some pretty nice show for the person willing to stay hours outside in the dark. I want to give it a try and I would like to know how to make this possible? I will shoot these little bugs with my GH4 and the fastest lens I have today a 15mm Leica F1.7. I will not exceed ISO 800 since it will be rubish on the GH4, but is there anything else I should do/consider? Moving away from CineV to CineD for this shoot?

Any kind of help (include prayers or sacrifices) are welcome. 

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I am not sure you would be able to capture fireflies in such little light. I am guessing something at much higher ISO with an even faster lens might help.

Most cameras may be able to record the glowing/blinking dots. But because of the low light around the firefly, you may land up with no details at all.

Maybe you hire a 5Diii/ A7S and shoot atleast at 6400/12800 with a 1.4 lens.

Many years ago I caught many fireflies im matchboxes and then transferred them to a large glass bowl. They were magical. I don't think anyone should such terrible things though, amd they must be observed only in their natural habitat.

Btw I am very curious to see how this ends up looking. Pls post as mamy videos from the final shoot as possible.

Best of Luck

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I am not sure you would be able to capture fireflies in such little light. I am guessing something at much higher ISO with an even faster lens might help.

Most cameras may be able to record the glowing/blinking dots. But because of the low light around the firefly, you may land up with no details at all.

Maybe you hire a 5Diii/ A7S and shoot atleast at 6400/12800 with a 1.4 lens.

Many years ago I caught many fireflies im matchboxes and then transferred them to a large glass bowl. They were magical. I don't think anyone should such terrible things though, amd they must be observed only in their natural habitat.

Btw I am very curious to see how this ends up looking. Pls post as mamy videos from the final shoot as possible.

Best of Luck

​I want to shoot in 4K so MKiii out of the equation, the A7S and Sogun will cos me a leg here to hire... :(  I should get one of these F0.95

voigtländer lens sooner than later then, but the 10mm is not available yet.   Anyway I will give it a try. 

I am guessing when the fireflies come out it will be pitch dark right? Lit only by moonlight, if that?

​Most probably. 

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Guest Ebrahim Saadawi

Too dark application for GH4 at 800 ISO and f/1.7.

Solutions:

-Cameras that go to higher ISOs (a7s ideal, or 5diii much better and 12800 is acceptable)

-Faster lenses, maybe a m43s f/0.95

So an f/0.95 and push the GH4 to 1600/3200 + neat video is the cheapest way.

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Found this on vimeo. Sony A7S, ISO 51200, Zeiss 50mm 1.4 ZF / Leica M 90mm F2.5.

ISO 800 + 15mm f/1.7 is not going to come anywhere near this. That is 7 stops darker than the A7S at 51.200 and f/1.4.

A f/0.95 lens is not going to help a lot. That is just two stops brighter than your 15mm.

There's no point in shooting this in 4K. It is going to be terribly underexposed (even at ISO 6400), which will cause a lot of noise so you lose resolution anyway.

Subjects like this is what the Sony A7S is made for and there's nothing on the market that will get you even close to it.

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Yeh I was thinking on the "Moonlight" A7S video that someone put on vimeo not long after the camera came out they were using huge ISO numbers AND a fast lens. So like Julian says its not really possible with the GH4, or most other cameras even.

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Thanks everyone, so I will skip this year firefly show and wait for a future update of the A7S with internal 4K... 

You will still be able to capture the fireflies. Just not the surrounding area.  In theory anyway.  I've not tried it so I don't know  

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You will still be able to capture the fireflies. Just not the surrounding area.  In theory anyway.  I've not tried it so I don't know  

​The final output may look like as if my GH4 have stuck pixel rather than Fireflies ;-) 

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Guest Ebrahim Saadawi

Yes it will probably be a sea of noise with flying hot/dead pixels. Need a VERY sensitive camera to capture fireflies under no light, at least a 5D MKIII which looks OK at 12800 plus a 1.2 lens, or a C100 at 20.000 with a 1.2, or an a7s with a 1.2. Even then, you'll need yo clean up with neat video. 

It's actually pretty amazing we can capture that with current camera systems under 3K. It was complete science fiction to capture high quality video of fireflies under starck night even just 3-4 years back. 

I wonder if there's an actual limit on noise performance. Can sensors get so sensitive that they can record clean 1 million ISO footage say in 10 years? what's the limit? maybe before I die I will be able to take a camera under complete nigh darkness and shoot as if it were 12 PM. 

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