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Showing content with the highest reputation on 12/18/2015 in all areas

  1. M Carter

    Some real-world NX1

    (Do let me know if I'm posting too much NX stuff… but for those on the fence…) Did a real-world shoot and a tough one - school for severely - and I mean severely - cognitively disabled kids. No lights, rooms were not very bright, mix of flos and skylights. So, nightmare. (I'll be doing interviews with the directors and parent testimonials that will be properly lit down the line). Shot with these lenses: Old Nikkor 80-200 2.8 AF push-pull, wide open - bought it used maybe 18 years ago, pre-D version and mojo for days; More modern Nikkor 28-70 2.8 (aperture ring lens), wide open; The little 16-50 Samsung kit zoom - wanted to try this for handheld stuff and mimic a steadicam using the AF and OIS. Other than the day being sort of emotionally devastating (can't recall how may times a kid would absently take my hand if was standing still - sweet, beautiful kids who are mostly non-verbal) I was really psyched - I've never shot sony DSLR, only Canon and Nikon, but this thing is by far the best DSLR I've used. Never stuck a loupe or monitor on it, and only used the EVF outside - the OLED with peaking gave me great focus, even at 200 2.8 (I wore a pair of reading glasses when shooting). I was constantly hitting custom WB and looking for something white - very mixed lighting and it really came through, with the usual light casts to highlights that are the norm in those situations - yellow/pinks that clean up easily in post. Shot from 800 iso to 2200, mostly from 1200-2000, all day. I can't tell the shots apart today. Was not thinking of this as a low-light (or mid-light) beast, but I'll be damned - it is crazy clean up to 2200 at least ( I didn't have murky, black shadows to deal with, lighting was dim but even). Images below - 200mm 2.8 - really pretty character, yet sharp as hell where needed - just a touch of color correction in Photoshop; 70mm 2.8 - 100% detail crop, ungraded or sharpened; The kit lens, wide open - cleaned the highs a bit in PS. A note about that kit zoom - I really dug it for wide & stabilized stuff… wide open. We shot out in a playground and I didn't know we'd be outdoors, so shot at F16-F22. It is a weird-ass lens stopped down like that. The sharpness is simply bizarre (and I had sharpness dialed all the way down). It's a lovely piece of glass wide, the OIS isn't earth-shaking (or earth UN-shaking) but will give warp stabilizer a head start), but the AF is freakishly, crazy useful for that sort of shooting. I see these going for as low as $140. If you don't have the big S zoom (hell, even if you do) it's a useful lens. I need to research the wide 2.8 pancake primes for these sort of shots now. Very impressed with the camera so far. Battery life was reasonable, and I was 2nd-nature, not really thinking about anything but the image, on my first gig. Damn it Samsung, don't give up on the NX!!!
    2 points
  2. 4 hrs later... But on a more serious note... indeed good job on listening to the feedback and make amends.
    2 points
  3. He is at 2.5 hours without overheating. I guess we should never speak of it again. I can say I did not expect this. Good job Sony. Seams to me companies have started listening more and more these days.
    2 points
  4. Lenses: Any Leica lens will work ... at some point. Presently T and M and R lenses via the T adapter. Soon S lenses with AF?! Any lens adapted to the M series will work with dual adapters ... looks like singles coming down the road ... so Nikon mount. Pentax 67 via new S adapter or the Nikon to M to T adapters. PL mount coming soon ... shown when the camera was announced. BH Lists coming adapters : http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?atclk=Camera+Fitting+(Male)_Leica+T&ci=3420&N=4077634486+3934378023 Bob
    2 points
  5. I just finished my new anamorphic wildlife video. I filmed for three days over the last few months on St. Vincent Island Wildlife Refuge. A very unique and beautiful place. So before you and I get lost in Starwars, The Revenant and The Hateful Eight, please sit back relax and take a journey through this wild island with me. Technical: Filmed on a Panasonic GH4 in 4k Bolex 16/32 1.5x anamorphic lens with Voigtländer 25mm F0.95, Voigtländer 42.5mm F0.95 and Takumar SMC 135mm F2.5 V2 as taking lens. I shot in anamorphic 4:3 mode on GH4.
    1 point
  6. 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
    1 point
  7. I think Rian Johnson will bring a fresh style to the series. He's a great choice for the second one.
    1 point
  8. Thanks for the heads up! I expect since the battery grip could very likely be firmware controlled and set up to feed the camera with moderately more voltage, the sensor could be made to run cooler due to lower current/resistance. lower running heat translates to even lower noise levels! Irritatingly the birdcage i just grabbed won't permit use of my battery grip and I was about to sell the grip. I might end up chopping the grip up and routing the wires to a satellite dual battery pack to benefit from this update!
    1 point
  9. It all becomes moot when you consider why a user would shoot 35mm rather than medium format. It's all about cost and compactness. Otus is a doubling of your investment of a 5ds or a7rii, for a 'normal lens' of 50/1.4. very few dslr users will think it viable to invest in the Otus lenses and a d810, a7rii or 5ds (which do get you very close to medium format). If they do, their camera system becomes heavier and more cumbersome than a phase one system and the difference in price isn't as much of a factor (even if investing £20+k in a new setup (usually on a lease). you can get a phase one camera with a 80/2.8 and a outdated 40mpx back for the same price as a 5ds and an otus, with 16bit colour (which actually makes the 40mpx more powerful than the 50mpx of the 5ds). The debate here is coming from those who wont ever have the need for an otus and a 5ds in either their professional or hobbyist endeavours. Why bring them into the equation? The fact remains that assuming this adaptor doesn;t degrade the iq (and compresses the image circle down in a lossless fashion), users of the a7rii and a good MF lens like a pro quality 80/2.8, they'll have a lens of similar quality (resolution, fringing, distortion, frame illumination uniformity) to the otus 50/1.4. get a good 80/2.8 for £300-400 and this adaptor and you have a sub £1000 otus setup. Unfortunately I doubt the optical designers, and the manufacturers of this unit are at the level of that from zeiss, who left no expense spared on the otus line.
    1 point
  10. DBounce

    SONY FS5 vs SAMSUNG NX1

    nor really, I'm still shooting with mine:-)
    1 point
  11. DBounce: more and more ppl are now realizing how good the NX1 but, probably and very unfortunately, it's too late.
    1 point
  12. I have no experience with the old firmware, so I cannot speak to that. However, I can tell you that the 1080p is dam good. Also the 120fps looks great and is not cropped. My only concern with the NX1 was low light performance. I didn't need to see in the dark, I'm not conducting surveillance, so I light my scenes. I just wanted usable footage at 6400 iso or less. Fast glass took care of those concerns. Battery life is great, no overheating, memory cards cost half the price (don't need super fast cards) and store much more because of the codec. Files playback on any high-end android smartphone. It's a big win.
    1 point
  13. Oh when I was comparing it with a RED, I wasn't meaning that it would end up costing a similar amount! LOL No, as my comparison was how looking at the "body only price" (US$150) can be very misleading. As the price creeps up much higher with all the other extras (thanks to how very expensive fast CF Cards are, at least they were back in early 2013), and it has a bunch of other "gotchas" (like crop modes, and volume of data to handle with the post workflow. Like with a RED). Heh, I don't really care about its stills capabilities. As already got a Nikon D90/D5200 to use (plus heaps of mirrorless cameras). Plus... the camera is *stuffed* when it comes to being a stills camera! Haha Throws up error messages if you try to take a pic through the OVF. Is why I got it so dirt dirt cheap. But it is fine for ML raw use :-D As live view works. But why would you be so evil as to give a Canon DSLR to a kid for their Christmas present?? You're leading them astray setting them down that path... Yup, I reckon if I do go ahead and take it a bit more seriously and do a few projects with it then I'll want at a minimum 2x 128gig cards But which ones.... so many options! Hoping Komputerbay 128gig 800x are a wise choice. The camera came with 3 batteries, but I suspect I might be wanting a couple more. Got the loupe and little gorrillapod already. I've got heaps of Nikon lenses! ;-) Is how I ended up buying this camera, as I purchased a Nikon 85mm f/1.8D from the seller and I got the 50D for only a very tiny amount extra. Hehe... I got it for much much less than US$150 ;-) It was priced at a deal that I could not refuse!
    1 point
  14. I have heard the Tascam DR-60D mk2 has a really good pre amp for its incredibly low price.
    1 point
  15. andrgl

    Video Card Upgrade?

    Do you even have a bottleneck? Your SSD and RAM should be able to handle small bits of footage. Assuming you can scrub through your footage in real time, I'd say save the money for a 4K upgrade down the road (monitor, video card, at that point a new machine.)
    1 point
  16. DBounce

    SONY FS5 vs SAMSUNG NX1

    I think when comparing to a camera that is down-sampling from 6.5k, you had better bring your A-game. I'll just come out and say it. The Sony looks soft. Not just the FS5, but the entire Alpha line up. There have been other post about this.
    1 point
  17. Hey folks, I've been posting here for close to a year. All the while working on this project in the background. It's a dramatic coming-of age tale. We shot on both Canon c500 and Red cameras, with vintage Cooke S2 lenses. Let me know what you think!
    1 point
  18. The 5dsr 1080p/24 footage looks noticeably better than 5d3 non-raw footage IMO. Nice and detailed; clean. Shot some last night and the good 'old Canon colors are there. The AF in video mode works better than I thought it would. Not quite to the level of the 70d's dual pixel AF, but much better than not having it. Very impressed with the still image quality of the 5dsr so far. I've tried it with the Sigma 50 1.4 art, the 35 F/2 IS, the 70-200 II and the 16-35 F/4 IS. All look great. ...which annoys me why Canon didn't include 1080p60 on this camera.
    1 point
  19. Jimmy

    Scarlet MX/Dragon advice

    The other obvious one that should last for some time is the Ursa Mini 4.6K...
    1 point
  20. Incredible price. Happy for those buying now at those prices, but...this is one of the reasons why samsung has never been taken seriously. A 50% price drop after one year is ridicolous. Not even a CPU or a video card depreciate at this rate.
    1 point
  21. Phil A

    Your ideal NX1 Settings

    Wow, the price for the NX1 just dropped again in Switzerland at my favorite vendor. Body only is 629 CHF (which is like 630 $) while it's still double the price in Germany. I'm really considering to go buy one even if the system might be soon announced dead, that price is so ridiculous. I'd probably adapt my Nikon glass and be happy. Edit: Took me 44min of consideration and convincing the gf that there is massive reasons why I totally have to buy it. Now the 5 to 7 day wait for delivery starts... Monday I'll get my SmallHD 501 to play... looks like this year Christmas will be busy.
    1 point
  22. Keep in mind that if you are investing in the Ursa Mini, you would not be able to use the 501 natively (without SDI - HDMI converter box) So you would maybe have to choose the more expensive 502 model (with SDI & HDMI input).
    1 point
  23. The smartphone idea might not work for me. Looking at mics on B&H's awesome website, I could see that the mid-range $60 lav mics require phantom power through the mic jack, and unlike the recorders, smartphones don't provide any phantom power through their mic jacks. I'm def learning that preamp is in the secret sauce. My Rode Videomic has zero preamp, and apparently part of the trick with AGC is to preamplify the signal so that the camera's AGC doesn't try to boost the signal because it'll also boost the noise...creating the low hiss I hear all the time despite turning on the high pass filter. Apparently this is the trick on the Rode Videopro microphone. It preamps the signal before it ever reaches the camera, which helps trick the in camera AGC into not trying to boost the sound. But that's really just a hack. Without being handicapped by a camera's AGC, a better strategy seems like a recorder with decent microphone + good preamp + manual gain control + lossless recording format. This review and this review were helpful because of the commentary on the quality of the preamps in various under $400 recorders. Now all I need to do is find the right microphone preamp recorder combo as my first upgrade from a Rode Videomic without dropping $3K on a Sound Devices 552
    1 point
  24. I had one briefly while sampling various mf lenses before deciding on a planar 80/2.8 for Forbes. It's a good lens, but at f1.9 it's not quite good enough IMO. Only when at 2.8 does it start to get refined (as in, that refined tack sharp look you get from a hasselblad 80/2.8. the only 80/2 that I've tried that comes close to a good 80/2.8 is the Xenotar for the rollei 6000 series, and even that falls short. Obviously I am coming into this discussion purely with relation to the resolution gain from this new kipon adaptor. I am looking at it simply as a way to obtain the superb iq by compressing an image from a good 80mm onto a smaller frame and having a resultant 50mm lens that outdoes a 50mm for 35mm format. I am biased due to being a 6x6 80mm+ image circle man rather than a 645 70mm one. If you compare the 80/1.9 vs a planar 80/2.8 on a 645 back you actually won;t see much difference in exposure - certainly nowhere near a stop difference. and the sharpness at f2.8 on the planar actually makes the dof feel shallower due to the ration between in/out of focus being so much more. the focal reducer needs to be placed as near to the sensor as possible otherwise it needs to be made a lot bigger - so big it wouldnt fit in the mirror box. your ffd is also reduced by approximately the same as the magnification of the focal reducer so if your using a 0.7x reducer, the ffd reduces by around 0.7x
    1 point
  25. The NTG3 is absolutely fantastic from what I've heard! I kinda regret getting the NTG2 instead of the NTG3 (even though it is far more expensive). In your list before of audio points, you left off a big one: the quality of the pre amps! Very important, is a big reason why I'm buying a Sound Devices 552
    1 point
  26. I have had a Zoom H1 for years and it has taken a beating and still works great. I have a cheap lavalier and a cheap shotgun mic that I use with it, and the sound has been very nice. IronFilm was spot-on in mentioning the H1's advantageous smallness allowing it to be used in the actor's pocket with a lav mic. My shotgun mic is the Audio-Technica ATR-6550 (US$53 at Amazon). Here is a review of the ATR-6550. My lavalier is the Audio-Technica ATR-3350 (US$25 at Amazon). Here is a recent Frugal Filmmaker review comparing the Aspen HQ-M battery-less lav with the Radio Shack version of the ATR-3350, both used in conjunction with the Zoom H1. By the way, Frugal Filmmaker has a lot of helpful instructional videos. Here is one that shows how to make a simple $3 adapter that adds an attenuated safety track when using a mono mic on the Zoom H1 (which doesn't have a built-in way to independently adjust the two channels). One other thing -- audio is important. It is one half of your movie. It takes a little knowledge to get good audio. Don't just hand the boom to your cousin or brother-in-law and expect the audio to be usable. The person operating your boom (and your mixer) should basically understand how a shotgun mic works and how to optimally use it's characteristics. I can't count how many times I have seen PAs holding a boom close to the subject, but aimed away from the subject (usually at a distant AC unit). Generally, a shotgun mic should be on it's narrowest setting, aimed directly at the subject's mouth. The mic should be positioned so that any distant noise makers (such as AC units) should be off-axis to the shotgun mic (as opposed to positioning the shotgun so that the noise is coming from directly behind the subject). Also, the boom operator should minimize sliding hand movements on the boom pole and avoid any kind of finger impact on the pole. If the boom needs to be rotated back and forth between two actors, it's best to rotate by using one's wrist.
    1 point
  27. Check by yourself: AudioTechnica ATR-25 ZOOM H1 H2 H4n comparison https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52efPmB6ECA Zoom H1 V.s. Zoom H4n quick head to head https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Fn6-WWJFeA Zoom H1 VS Zoom H2N | Best Mics For DSLR Audio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J61cLwIGg4w
    1 point
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