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okay, so i'm upping my game here and taking one for the team. before the weekend I switched from renting a Pocket to owning a Pocket. it's shipping from Paris (I got a great deal ($565) from Lovinpix.com on a new one) so I expect to hear my Micro Cinema Cam will ship anytime between now and the day my new Pocket arrives at my doorstep... because again, that's how these things usually work. You're all welcome.

Just started shooting a music video this weekend, only test shots though, grading isnt final either, here are a few :

For his upcoming snowy western Tarantino unearthed special cameras and 1.25x anamorphic lenses at Panavision which hadn't seen the light of day since 1965. The film was shot on 65mm film and will get a 'Roadshow' release on Christmas day in amazing 70mm. Read the full article

Also this one from Mr CheesyCam (not settings or grade noted): And another random one from Vimeo (again no settings noted): Can't tell a lot from these two but the image looks "fuller" to my eye than internal footage. The golf course video showed some nasty artefacts in the shadows at times, but by the look of it I'd guess he didn't upload a very big file so hard to say what's causing it.

It depends on the viewing distance. see here: http://www.photokaboom.com/photography/learn/printing/resolution/1_which_resolution_print_size_viewing_distance.htm

at say 300dpi, you could print a 1920x1080 frame at 6.4"x3.6"

Correct, to create an appealing B&W result you have to manipulate contrast in order to bring out the important parts of the image. If you don't then it appears "flat and lifeless". Color mixer inside camera or in post can get there much easier than with a true B&W camera that you *will* have to use physical filters and adjust contrast in post. The nice thing about setting B&W in camera versus post processing is that it is easier for the codec and you get much much better results like that. I had no problem pushing the E-M1 to the max iso (3200) like that, whereas with color you would get really bad resolution and macroblocking. Here is an interesting review of the MM from Ming Thein.

ANAMORPHIC ON A BUDGET - VAN DIEMEN CINE-ISCORAMA CONVERSION. http://www.tferradans.com/blog/?p=8186 ANAMORPHIC ON A BUDGET - RECTILUX EXTREME LOW LIGHT TEST. http://www.tferradans.com/blog/?p=8292 ANAMORPHIC ON A BUDGET - RAPIDO CLAMPS. http://www.tferradans.com/blog/?p=8311 Some unusual and new gear reviews. SLR Magic's reviews are coming soon.

Thanks for expediting the release of the Micro Cinema Camera with your BMPCC order! Just curious: How much was the shipping from Paris to L.A.?

You liked the pocket that much? Nice. Look at it this way, you can do a two cam shoot and only need to pay the actors for half the time.

VW also cheat at tests.

I shot the video with a B&W MRC Yellow Filter to give a bit more separation and contrast. Bob The lens ... VC 35 1.4 SC is an older design with single coating on the element to give it a fairly low contrast look .... the video was shot at F4 and a lot of the softness is due to the restricted DOF with the FF sensor. Yes the sensor is stellar for single photos and loses a bit as video but the dynamic range persists. I added no sharpening in post as I thought that the look seemed fairly organic and did not border on the brittle look that reflects oversharp artifacts. This was a 10 minute deal after 3 straight days of constant rain and just a trial of the camera in video mode. I hope to put my Wooden Camera cage on it in order to mount it to my video tripod and use a few different lenses ... 55 and 85 Otus and Rich's DSO FF 38 58 88 for sharpness and flare effects. I am a bit disappointed that I do not have a HDMI out on the camera although I was surprised at how sensitive the internal mic is. I may get a chance to try single shot photos into film and am sure that the native resolution of the sensor will be better seen there. Thanks, Bob

Hi there, We just posted a follow up on our article with Canon's response and ours and their testing methodology side-by-side: https://***URL not allowed***/canon-measured-15-stops-dynamic-range-c300-mark-ii/

The problem the Lieca M solves is getting a full-spectrum brightness at each pixel, in contrast to the bayer sensor which samples either R,G,B at each pxiel. However, when a bayer downsamples 4 pixels, it has the same information as 1 pixel in the M. Therefore, the real advantage of the M is getting HIGH RESOLUTION black and white images without spectrum distortions, essentially. Using the M as a video camera, which must sample down to 2K, gives it no real advantages. Indeed, the footage shot looks very soft to me. Taking photos and putting them into a film would have given much better results. Video compression favors motion over single image IQ. You might do another video where you compile it from photso taken. I'd love to see it!

I assume that SLR Magic 50mm f1.1 would have the same T stop spec or very similar - much cheaper and smaller, declicked: http://www.sonyalpharumors.com/slr-magic-announces-the-new-cine-50mm-f1-1-fe-lens/ Although, a wide-open test would make the comparison much easier.

I know Tony & Chelsea like it, not because it's perfect, but because the light gathering comes in handy and it's just loads of fun... maybe a decent watch for you:

Amen! In black & white footage there should be black & white! I'd probably shoot in color, for a bit more post-processing flexibility converting to black & white. The E-M1 actually has a nifty feature where you can actually dial in how the black & white should react to the colors which is quite interesting.

I tried to grade them in LR, starting from the gammaDr profile suggested by Andrew: http://***URL removed***/forums/post/56855303 What do you think? Suggestions?

I wasn't aware that was the case. I watched a video recently with a guy who has the VA and the Micro Studio 4K and he said he couldn't use the VA to operate the Micro's menus. Have a link or something where you've read that the VA's touchscreen can be used to navigate the camera's menu system, and not just its own? I'd like to read up on that.

In a world where we have so much horrible light in our environment (low quality led lights, nasty discharge bulbs, energy saving, neon etc), monochrome is a escape from it all. I think with the way available light night time scenes look nowadays, I'd probably discard the colour vision from my eyes during night time all together. it looks better in b+w imo

I like the exterior shots, the look reminds me of the cinematography in this season of Fargo.

Most of my sample images were to impulz luts. The FC is just a version of their lut called (film contrast). There is also a lower-contrast one call VS (visionspace) Flimconvert is I think is interesting, but I still go towards visioncolor. Mixing the two for the outdoor street test was interesting. Also redid and also did a pass going to CINEON then the release print (2383) and Fuji print - and that's very interesting too. I wish they did vintage film stocks as well - that would be pretty cool. here's the technique of the DI they used in "oh brother" where are thou

I am not a photographer, and barely a videographer, but maybe it would be a better idea, since the majority of your work is photography based, to get a D750 for stills, and a separate camera for video (maybe a RX10ii) Sell off your lenses and slowly build a good set of Nikkors and Sigma Art lenses.

No it is a FF mono sensor without a Bayer array ... in the M Type 246 a CMOS 24 mp sensor ... no HDMI on camera so internal capture to SD card. Much better than I hoped for ... internal mono mic but very sensitive ... you can add a stereo mic to the hotshoe but I will probably run an external recorder and sync when it is critical. My next test will be with Zeiss Oti lenses on adapters . Bob

Well get a 7D then. Even cheaper. And crop will help telephoto reach for sports. Problem solved.

Optics is mostly simple, with some occasional complexity thrown in to make it interesting. In fact, I've almost completely forgotten all the fancy math I learned after high school, since by and large all the math you need to know to be a successful lens designer is geometry, trigonometry, and a bit of algebra. In your case, assuming that the anamorphic portion is working at infinity (i.e., parallel light in and parallel light out) the aperture of the optical system is determined by the diameter of the iris diaphragm in the taking lens *unless* there is some other limiting aperture in the system. Imagine that you take a pin and poke a tiny hole in a large piece of aluminum foil. Next, open the f/1.2 taking lens wide open and place the aluminum foil in front of your Rectilux so that the pinhole is centered on the optical axis. Clearly, in this case the f/# of your lens system is determined by the diameter of the pinhole and not by the diameter of the taking lens' iris diaphragm. So we would say that the pinhole is the limiting aperture in your lens system. In your case the clear aperture of the back of the anamorphic section is 43mm in diameter (assuming it is round and not rectangular). This means that the collimated on-axis beam of light exiting your anamorphic section cannot exceed 43mm in diameter, and may be less if any of the other optical surfaces in the Rectilux or your anamorphic group are limiting apertures. The entrance pupil diameter of your 85mm f/1.2 taking lens (most likely 1/3 stop faster than f/1.4, or f/1.2599 in reality) is 85/1.2599 = 67.5mm. Since 67.5mm is bigger than 43mm you are underfilling the entrance pupil of the taking lens. As a consequence, you could stop down the taking lens until its entrance pupil is reduced to 43mm, and have no impact on the actual f/# of the system. In your case, the actual maximum f/# would be f/(85/43) = f/1.98 ~ f/2, and not f/1.2. Again, this assumes that the limiting aperture of the system is the rear aperture of the anamorph, and not some other surface in the Rectilux or the anamorph. If either of the latter is true then your true f/# would be slower than f/2.

I sold my 1dc about a month ago. I haven't really missed it. IMO it still doesn't look as good as the 5d3 raw @ 1080p, even downscaling the 4k. It's a camera that will never AF in video mode, always be a very large DSLR, will never shoot high frame rates, and the 1080p60 is pretty soft. So is the 1080. You basically buy that camera for the skin tones and 4k @ 24p / s35 mode. Since it's the 1d class ML will never support it either. The C-log does not allow single "push" AF or any sort of auto-ISO - so it's really only good for controlled / non-light changing scenes. Still, it's a stills beast and shoots very pretty 4k footage.

Right dude? I get a camera with a 5" 1080 folding monitor, 4.6k sensor able to capture 15 stops of light, slo-mo, and an internal 10-bit or RAW recorder. It doesn't use proprietary media and the accessories are reasonably price. All for less than $5000. Oh wait, hold on, I get the lack of enthusiasm: it doesn't shoot over ISO 9000, hasn't got triple-pixel laser auto focus, no 8-axis stabilization, and, it doesn't even make my bed for me! I mean, shit, Red Raven has TWO fans, Ursa doesn't even have one. Blackmagic, Grant Petty, epic fail.

Where are you re-locating to, Mars? Can't be back to England or somewhere else in Europe as you'd just drive that shit there.

Folks, I had a chance to cover a stage event last Sat and used NX1 and NX500 for a two-camera shoot. Both were at DCI 24p, with NX1/Samsung 16-50 covering the whole stage and NX500/Canon 70-200 the center. Thought you might be interested in how these two gems capture the image and how much flexibility 4K gives in reframing when outputting in 1080p. Comments/critiques welcome.

Panasonic G7 is 599$ by now at B&H with a Rode Videomic for free on the package. It's 4k for cheap with a 100mbps codec and a good mic for run n gun. Black Friday deals ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Just wanted to let everyone know that I've rented a Blackmagic Pocket Cam for the next 10 days which *should* mean the Micro will ship any day now -- because that's how these things work.

Why can't Sony fix this obvious defect in several of their cameras? They have to know about it. I mean you can't use the camera in most situations dealing with bands, plays or club scenes and definitely not Disney world at night.