new camera purchase

[kye]

12 hours ago, maxJ4380 said:

Plus there's the fact my dad had a stroke 2 weeks ago and is paralyzed on the right side

Really sorry to hear about this, hopefully it's temporary, the body can be more resilient than we think so fingers crossed for you and your family.

12 hours ago, maxJ4380 said:

I have yet to try 8k and to me 8k, seems like complete overkill.  I dont mind 4k reduced down to 1080 the stills seem a little sharper / cleaner perhaps. Although @kye might be a  little nonplussed about that 😉

Everything is a look, and there are no right or wrong answers...  I just take exception with the people who run around telling people that the look of cinema is 8K and razor sharp F1.4 prime lenses and "accurate" colour science.  Sadly, there are so many of these people sitting around repeating this BS to each other that common sense is hardly able to be heard above the cacophony, and when it is heard the mob chases those voices from the discussion for fear they'll realise they've wasted all their money and spent years sitting around looking like idiots when they could have realised it with a few downloaded reference images and 20 minutes in Resolve!
Then the new people come in and see all the "experts" saying these things and because it's overwhelming they have to just swallow a bunch of it because no-one can possibly analyse and check every detail of what they're being told.

[maxJ4380]

On 7/1/2026 at 12:19 PM, kye said:

Really sorry to hear about this, hopefully it's temporary, the body can be more resilient than we think so fingers crossed for you and your family.

Everything is a look, and there are no right or wrong answers...  I just take exception with the people who run around telling people that the look of cinema is 8K and razor sharp F1.4 prime lenses and "accurate" colour science.  Sadly, there are so many of these people sitting around repeating this BS to each other that common sense is hardly able to be heard above the cacophony, and when it is heard the mob chases those voices from the discussion for fear they'll realise they've wasted all their money and spent years sitting around looking like idiots when they could have realised it with a few downloaded reference images and 20 minutes in Resolve!
Then the new people come in and see all the "experts" saying these things and because it's overwhelming they have to just swallow a bunch of it because no-one can possibly analyse and check every detail of what they're being told.

I’m just doing a bit of light stirring, I think you can handle it ok. I wouldn’t have bothered if I thought otherwise. 
 

Now a question for the group. I would like to film some smoke, I presume in front of a green screen although green colour may or may not work.

i do have smoke machine  to create the smoke and I think the best option would be to video it as I think a bunch of photos would not give me the smoothness I’m looking for, as i intend  to composite as a special effect.

im also wondering if i need to shoot a clean plate as well ? I suspect i need to watch a few more vids on compositing to help get my head around it. 

[kye]

1 hour ago, maxJ4380 said:

I’m just doing a bit of light stirring, I think you can handle it ok. I wouldn’t have bothered if I thought otherwise. 

No worries at all from me!

1 hour ago, maxJ4380 said:

Now a question for the group. I would like to film some smoke, I presume in front of a green screen although green colour may or may not work.

i do have smoke machine  to create the smoke and I think the best option would be to video it as I think a bunch of photos would not give me the smoothness I’m looking for, as i intend  to composite as a special effect.

im also wondering if i need to shoot a clean plate as well ? I suspect i need to watch a few more vids on compositing to help get my head around it. 

Compositing used to be only green screens, but now you can do it in lots of ways.

Considering that smoke is (mostly) colourless, you could just film against a black backdrop and then use the Add blending mode to put it on top of a shot.  The path to understanding compositing is to have a clear idea of what the different blend modes do mathematically and then you can film something to match the blend mode that you want to use.  You'd probably be better off using different modes and shooting setups for different things.