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Showing content with the highest reputation on 11/28/2016 in all areas

  1. Shoot everything at 1080p. Don't shoot yourself in the foot with 4K. Although I do like shooting ceremonies at 4K for the post crop. Canon skin tones are the best. Even a used 70d would be better than Sony IMO. The C100 mk1 and 2 are the best cameras for weddings IMO. I've shot a few recently with C100 mk1 and my 1DC and it's super nice. Here's a teaser I did with 1DC/ C100 combo: You MUST MUST MUST remember that wedding films are CONSUMER PRODUCTS. DONT EVER FORGET THIS. THIS IS 6 years of experience and over 300 weddings shot of experience talking to you. These people aren't professional filmmakers. They aren't producers. They aren't film snobs. All they want is pretty shots of them on their big day. If you shot it all with a t2i and a 50mm 1.8 they would love it because it looks "cinematic". Don't get caught up with the gear when it comes to shooting weddings. That's the biggest waste of time and money. The couples simply don't give a shit. I hope you enjoy it. Weddings are a fantastic way to get lots of experience and become a ninja shooter
    11 points
  2. I'm shocked at how nice some of these 1dxII frames are looking. I can finally tell which lenses are sharper than others.
    4 points
  3. What I like to do to analyze what a shot needs... I go into Photoshop and then add a layer of color balance. I ended up liking MT CR+6/MG-9/YB-9, SD CR+2/MG+1/YB0, HL CR+13/MG-7/YB+18 and then a layer to reduce the vibrance by about 20%, some exposure tweaks... and you'd go from: to So... looks like it could use a little cooler setting? Yet with boosted reds and taken out greens. So concerning that 'trial & error', give that a go!
    4 points
  4. @IronFilm Yes, but most people I know, just downsample the 4K footage to 1080p NOT because for crop / zoom / pan, but for benefits of IQ in downscaled sequences. The lack of honest 1080p is still a shame for all manufacturers declaring the mushy something their cameras deliver as "Full HD"....The race to more and more resolution is just a blatant marketing lie, if manufacturers aren't capable to deliver the resolution they claim when selling their devices. So, the "1080p lie" is just the same as the coming "4K lie": for honest (real) 4K the manufacturers will tell us, we need 8K footage...WTF? Why do consumers have to handle 4K, when just needing 1080p? For sure, shooters who want to crop, zoom, or pan around are well with 4K. These possibilities are doubtless benefits of the high resolution footage. But the lack of real 1080p forces camera users to shoot in 4K. I don't like people forcing me to buy a Porsche Cayenne, when I just need a car for modest mobility purposes only...Many manufacturers don't care about our real needs and requirements - they just about caching technical lacks in their overpriced devices and care much more about marketing wish-wash... Look, I shoot 4K too - because I love tack sharp footage. But this is my hobby. Beeing realistic, I NEED "real" 1080p only...Just because it's much easier to work with on a "normal" laptop, doesn't need much storage space as 4K, etc., and because a vast majority of today's consumers watch footage on small mobile displays or TVs with a maximum of FullHD resolution. Without any doubt, 4K is useful and "real" 4K well shooted is really beautiful...BUT: Why do consumers have to handle 4K, when just needing 1080p?
    3 points
  5. You already have three really really great cameras, don't waste money and mental energy on bothering with anything else for low budget wedding shoots. Just use it!
    2 points
  6. Hi Jimmy, I've been shooting weddings for 5 years so hopefully I can help out a little. I shoot with 2 x GH4s and a mixture of fast glass (adapted and native). The GH4s do a great job and I love the small size (as I'm very sensitive to being unobtrusive). However, I would suggest, as others have, that the C100 MkII is the dream camera for weddings and events if you can afford it. I've been very close to pushing the button a number of times but I'd have to switch my lenses and get a larger Glidecam and I'm not willing to take the financial hit at present. The C100 nails lowlight, skintones, internal NDs, small file size and great audio, pretty much all the key elements to the technical side of weddings. But... I've seen people craft beautiful weddings films with pretty much every camera we discuss on these forums. You're A7sII is no slouch for this kind of work, although record times, reliability, battery life stopped me going down that route and sticking with the trusty GH4s which have never let me down. If there is a particular camera you just love shooting with, then you can make the technical limitations work. Regarding size of C100, I wouldn't worry too much about that, even in the UK. It's not too big, and I think what's most important is the way you approach the filming. Some people won't like being filmed whatever camera you use, but an apology, smile and some self-deprecating humour will usually win over even the most vehemently shy/grumpy guests. Most people are fine. I would suggest the other key area of investment is sound, especially decent lapel mics . Mic the groom for the ceremony (vicar/registrar too if they don't mind) and mic speaker for speeches individually if possible, or get them to hold a mic, or take a feed from the venue's PA system (if you are working at one specific hall then you should get this down pretty quickly!) I think killer audio from the ceremony and speeches is one of the areas that can boost your films to the next level, and the sound bytes can drive your highlights films too. A few tips off the top of my head: - Attend church/hall rehearsals where possible, good to ingratiate yourself with vicars (some have had bad experiences with photogs/video guys) and good to suss out all your angles ahead of time, and meet the close family and friends. Getting them onside can make the days so much easier. - It's invaluable for ceremony, speeches and first dance to have a wide "safety" angle set up to cut too - Editing is a real bitch when it comes to weddings, if you're like me you are going to feel that intensity to film EVERYTHING but every shot you take is going to have a knock-on effect with your editing pipeline. My footage is better when I shoot less and observe more; waiting, looking, for special angles and moments. Of course, sometimes you've just got to grab what you can given the day's timings. - Don't overcomplicate your gear. I personally find it very easy to get bogged down into lens decisions, shall I go Glidecam now, shall I get the tripod out? Ultimately, I've found my best footage comes from when I'm stuck with a single lens (usually a prime) and I'm handheld or monopod and I'm just enjoying the filming. Weddings isn't my dream work either, but wow is it a good place to learn fast, and work with footage that involves beauty, emotion and story... all key ingredients to narrative films. If you can handle weddings you can handle just about any filming environment too. Not to put you off, you'll be fine, but you have to get creative and think fast and plan ahead to get good shots in an environment you don't have control over. If I can help any further with specific questions, feel free to message me or what not.
    2 points
  7. 100K just lying around? I need to do weddings. Augh. I hate weddings.
    2 points
  8. Click bait would've been "$500 G7 Crushes $3500 5D IV for 4K Video!!!" Max is just doing an honest, thorough, blind test of two very different cameras to give people an objective idea of how they perform for the money. The 5D IV is better in some areas, but the G7 remains an excellent value for $447 (or whatever the Black Friday sale was).
    2 points
  9. Eric Matyas

    Free Music Resource

    Hi everyone, I have a site up with free music that you can use in your videos. It's all original...all my own work. All I ask is to be credited as indicated on my homepage: http://soundimage.org/ I sincerely hope my tracks are helpful. Any and all feedback is welcome and always appreciated. All the best, Eric
    1 point
  10. Recently, I had the opportunity to play around with the DJI Osmo Mobile. I used it with a Google Pixel XL. I also took some shots with the Canon 1DXMk2. Both cameras have their strengths. But the Canon fitted with the 100-400mm F4 was too big and heavy to fly. Not because the Letus Helix Jr could not manage it, but with that kind of payload the rig is too heavy to reasonably hold for any length of time. The Osmo Mobile, by contrast was refreshingly light. So there is a trade-off of quality vs maneuverability. In the end I decided to just forgo the Helix and hand hold the Canon. Indoors without lighting the smartphone is, well... not great. But I wonder if it can in some circumstances be a better tool to tell a story? Below are some quick intros to a horror idea that I shot with both. Just having fun. Thoughts welcomed. Don't Go To Bed.mp4 Scared to Death Cinema.mp4
    1 point
  11. Why not just *key* the skin and color correct it? I made this an effect. With mix-slider, everything in one small window.
    1 point
  12. Axel

    Wedding videography advice

    Valuable information above. I am no professional wedding videographer, did 12 weddings over the past 9 years and always demanded a new piece of equipment as compensation. For me, shooting weddings is big fun, a bunch of challenges and a thousand times as rewarding as shooting corporate videos (I know a few people in that business). I did that two times, no problem. As I said, I'm not a pro, but I went to film school, and I know how to present my point of view. What I wouldn't touch is if either the groom or the bright is an abominable wedding videographer, the most begrudging species in the world. They always hate their rivals and despise their work, if they admit it or not. The work of others is either cheesy, poorly photographed, has no story, too long, boring, the music makes my toenails curl in horror (and/or is stolen, would like to report you) or it's completely professional, an exchangeable template, lifeless, loveless, everybody can see how much you disliked the bride by the amount of diffusion you applied, are you so dull to miss that? And so forth. How I know? I once had been reading guest of a wedding videographer forum to perhaps steal some tricks. Make no mistake: hell didn't exist before, it was invented for this vermin. Good distinction: special angles (beautiful photography) and special moments (emotional mise-en-scène). A successful wedding video always has both. When in doubt, go for the emotion. A sequence of perfect beauty shots that looks like a lavish commercial: unendurable. Grandma fighting her tears, whispering God bless you: YES!
    1 point
  13. There's no rules. And that would be even more visible.
    1 point
  14. So they can do magic with skin tones but have the worst sounding intro ever, seriously that hurt my ears! A first poster magically posts the promotion video that have 71 views and raves about customer support. Sounds legit.
    1 point
  15. That's the Blackmagic Pocket Cam. I really love both cams...XC10 has a feature and ergonomic usability advantage over the pocket. The pocket has 10bit prores out of the box and RAW in a portable package. I love both images but I feel the pocket is more cinematic with it's movement. I will say this....IF i had to pick only one to shoot a feature on I would probably grab the XC10 before the pocket simply due to it's built in features...ND filters, 5 axis stabilization, auto focus, better scratch audio, slomotion, 4k, and wireless monitoring. I would simply need to light my shots and I could get more done with less....wouldn't need a ronin to get stable shots, it's low profile, good battery performance, has a great adapter for shooting in the sun, can hand hold in a car and get stable shots etc. Even though I think the pocket's image is better....it's occasional moire, IR pollution, abysmal battery life, bad audio preamps and need for rigging make it a less compelling tool to shoot with in dynamic situations. Also I think you to get the best image out of the pocket you NEED a speedbooster on it.
    1 point
  16. No, I have yet to find one that I can live with size and weight wise. Have been kicking around the idea of the moondog labs 37mm adapter. But that means a bigger beefier gimbal. So for now I'm just letterboxing it. And yes, I know it's not the same thing... Believe me, I know. But how do you keep it small and light, with single focus, and anamorphic? Better still, how can I keep the brilliant 1DXMk2 DPAF and still do anamorphic?
    1 point
  17. To me, smaller filter size and larger aperture should be better choice. So OM 50/1.2 is the one worthy to try, only with 49mm filter thread.
    1 point
  18. I would recommend this but be aware that many zooms from this era does have a rotating front element which are not usable with anamorphics (It seems to exist 2 different version of the pentax zoom, one with and one without the rotating front filter). Might sound obvious, but just in case you haven't thought of that. (I know I did not :o ) As for the fixed length, I don't mind my anamorphic sliding on the support, but it's a good idea to find a fixed lens one (And I guess you'll vignette from 35 to 40mm, but I'm not sure)
    1 point
  19. As you can see here, while recording video, iso, Aperture and shutter speed values are presented on the screen, watch around 12:30 time:
    1 point
  20. Davey

    Wedding videography advice

    Have used the a7sii in low light weddings and the skin tones are a nightmare. They are dead. Shines above all else when the party starts and the lights go down. Don't really need a gimbal if you know how to move the camera and are taking short, swooping shots over a 5ft distance. Obviously, long tracking shots are a different thing. Personally, I'll go with non electronic gimbal type in future - the DS1 I bought is utterly useless. I'd use a cheap Canon for close-ups of people or perhaps master Andrew's colour settings for the Sonys. I've yet to buy them and am holding fire until the WB issues are understood (by me).
    1 point
  21. @tugela Talking about h.264 and 4K and more: h.264 is for >4K, demand for more IQ and the requirement in easier and affordable editing a "no future codec". It's h.265 the codec to go when having visions of 6,5K and more, while preserving IQ of compressed footage. You are right! They have intelligent and creative egineers and developers, but just don't want to invest money for additional resources and fundamental changes (R&D). From economical point of view, they just want to ride the "h.264 horse" to death. It's just a matter of profit, as simple as that. That's why the NX1 was a revolutionary camera. The Samsung engineers just broke with existing rules - with fantastic results for enthusiasts and freaks. But though, Samsung retired after that... Manufacturers are conservative and don't like dramatic changes. The only hope of independent or enthusiatic filmakers is still the competition, companies that brake existing rules and "standards", just offering their clients a little bit more for money than competitors...And that's the point bringing us back to Northrup and Andrew Reid's article: Does the film gear industry really want the "democratization" of film making by availability of affordable cameras and gear with great IQ for masses? Or should "serious fimmaking" stay in the hands of experienced companies / people with some REDs, ARRIs, and endless possibilities in lighting, editing, special effects, etc. - people with high-end gear and deep pockets, unaffordable for normal Joe?
    1 point
  22. @John Matthews I'd probably use a grey card if I were you Has anyone tested the "Flkr Decrease" setting? It is available on most Panasonic cameras. It allows you to set a fixed shutter speed. I'm wondering if you set this option to 1/50 and use Aperture priority and Auto ISO, does exposure compensation still work? That is one of the drawbacks of manual mode; you can set SS and Aperture but if you have auto ISO on you can't use exposure compensation past or below 0.
    1 point
  23. Thank you so much for that help. Since I was at 5600K and A0M4, I'll try to add a little more blue 5400K and A0M5. It should up the blue and remove a little more green. I'll give that a go.
    1 point
  24. @jonpais Yeah...BUT when Samsung presented the NX1 with h.265, self proclaimed experts blamed this (talking about "downsides of the NX1"), though it was revolutionary at that time. The truth is, there are only TWO possibilities to handle footage: compressed and non compressed footage (RAW). For people aiming to work with compressed footage, there must be efficient codecs on the market. And the h.265 is doubtless an efficient codec and (from current point of view and technical knowledge) probably one of the best possibilities to handle compressed, high quality images in 4K and above. Not perfect, but at the moment a very efficient (IQ <-> compression rate) possibility... So far the theory...But many camera manufacturers refuse the implementation of h.265 in their devices, and offer consumers low end or shitty codecs for their cameras... Sometimes I think, buyers WANT to be kidded...One funny example: There is no Panasonic "professional" camcorder up to 3.000 Euro offering by far the same image quality as the 550 Euro GX85 - an affordable consumer hybrid camera...Guys, that's an unacceptable joke. And it only works because buyers ("professional users") just accept overpriced devices and kidding wish-wash argumentation...Best review and the only client side argument manunfacturers understand, is NOT BUYING their devices (in this case, the camcorders)...
    1 point
  25. This is only controlled light in a studio setting without any other shots. In fact, I have a fluorescent light behind a window and I'd like that light to be more like window light shining inside... if that makes sense.
    1 point
  26. Modified EOS Standard Sharpness +4 Contrast -4 Color Depth -4 ISO 1600 Lighting = Back light from tv and 1 z96 LED at about half power @ about 3 1/2 feet away. I did the same shoot with CLOG and visible ghosting appeared.
    1 point
  27. another interesting review:
    1 point
  28. 1 point
  29. • Up to $500 nikon 5200 - Sony a6000 • $500 - $1000 BMPCC - BMMCC • $1000 - $1500 GH4 - FZ2000 (to be proven) - Samsung NX1 • $1500 - $2000 Fuji XT2 • $2000 - $3000 Digital Bolex (not built anymore) • $3000 - $5000 Panasonic HX1, Sony A7S II • $5000 - $10,000 Red Raven, 1DX MK II, • $10,000 and above... Panasonic Varicam LT - Arri Alexa - Red Scarlet W - Epic - ...
    1 point
  30. If you skip to 10:50 for the sample footage, you can see some really amazing images coming out of this camera. Dare I say it almost looks Alexa-like in its color rendition and has a certain "filmic quality" to it. Unfortunately this does not extend to the dynamic range... although I bet F-Log would help substantially.
    1 point
  31. It seems you are right, it's the tap to focus... Anyway I love 60p drone footage. I wish the Mavic had it in 4K.
    1 point
  32. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ofey0eqC74g&lc=z12ew11pnvnvdjdfh232g1si1rb3ulh1m
    1 point
  33. Still from Bali series... and etc... a low light sample: 2.7K acquisition mixed with iPhone 7 Plus + FilmicPro app coupled to a slider for non-aerial shots: and another shootout:
    1 point
  34. The connection issues with S7/S7 Edge seem to be fixed now. Still waiting for more confirmation but looking good so far.
    1 point
  35. IMHO if we keep the video aside, for a moment, the DJI Mavic is way more advanced than the GoPro Karma, simply by the insane level of its features (travel range, speed, ability to tackle obstacles, follow users, respond to gestures for commands, sending great quality video to the controller/ smartphone, being like 1/3rd or 1/4th the size of the GoPro Karma, etc etc). These features alone push it into a different league. Then add the price difference. The GoPro throws in a removable camera, and a removable gimbal, but for a lot more (many hundred dollars more). If DJI had a removable camera module, with a built in stabilizer or a stabilizer stick, the GoPro would have been a joke. I doubt whether Anyone would have bought it. As a Drone they aren't even in the same category, atleast where features are concerned.
    1 point
  36. Here you can find the original MP4 file so you can rule out the YouTube compressions..... https://www.dropbox.com/s/k62sd0cqrjauyfc/DJI_0028.MP4?dl=0
    1 point
  37. hey guys, please find below my first serious attempt of shooting with samsung nx1. It's just a travel film but i wanted to be more like a manifesto for the people in Nepal that stood straight before a cruel fate. Did my best to put the edit together and to grade the footage the way i saw it. Comments are much welcome :
    1 point
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