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I modded a set of Conax Zeiss lenses myself. Wasn't without its challenges as this was my first time tackling something like this, but 100% worth it. The set includes 28/2, 35/1.4, 50/1.4, 85/1.4, 135/2. Mods include: 1. seamless focus gears from Helicopter Sean 2. bolt on Canon mounts from Leitax 3. knurled step-up rings to 82mm from Breakthrough 4. 82mm push-on lens caps from Kaiser, Canon brand rear caps 5. and most importantly, I custom-made 2x fixed aperture cut from a .4mm thin sheet of stainless steel After sourcing all the lenses from ebay (all are mint or near-mint condition AEG or AEJ), I opened up each one and took measurements for the aperture discs. designed them in adobe illustrator (making alternates that were smaller, and smaller still). When I received the aperture discs I auditioned the different sizes, selected the one i was happiest with, and finally mounted them inside with a semi-permanent adhesive so i can remove them later if i want to re-sell the lenses. Haven't been able to shoot with them too much yet (busy at work). But I did take the 50mm pictured above for a spin. See below. Surprisingly, I've taken some flack when i mentioned this project in various facebook groups because these lenses are highly regarded (and pricey). I don't know, maybe they see me as either incredibly stupid, or reckless... maybe I'm both. But I can definitely say I'm also completely happy with the results.

Guys, the solution is already done, LS300, variable sensor.

If you want to inadvertently gain some, erm, 'quirky' looks from your perfectly good Contax Zeiss lenses and make yourself £140 poorer in the meantime then I can't recommend the Fotodiox Excell+1 C/Y to MFT reducer enough. You gain the extra field of view and a terrific 'shot through a bunsen burner' central blue flare whenever anything remotely considered to be brighter than a coal mine at night passes across it. Not only that, if you don't close the lens down by three stops, you get a built in diffusion filter. Not like a ProMist, more just like actual mist. And not like shooting through a sheer silk stocking but more like shooting through woolen tights. That are covered in more tights. Its some feat for a reducer to gain you one stop of light and then you have to pay it back with two more in interest if you're shooting anything other than 80s soft porn. I'm selling mine if anyone wants one. Hardly used. As long as you count not hitting myself over the head with it whilst sobbing and gently repeating "stop buying crap because its cheap"

My third lens is the Kowa anamorphiC 35 - 1.5x. The other two (Bolex 16/32/1.5 and Iscorama pre 36) I sold already. These three lenses belong to the top of anamorphics at 1.5x. They are different from each other but I like the sharpness and clearness of the Kowa. Perhaps this thread will give others to share ideas and footage. Here my first test, paired with the Voigtländer Ultron 40mm and Samsung NX1. Enjoy!

I'm surprised I haven't really seen anyone here talking about the JTZ line by Fotga, looks incrediballs!

Yeah Alex Buono was the DP for their shorts for a long time. I think he left last season to co-direct Documentary Now. He used to show BTS stuff on twitter. They used everything from 7D's, C300s, Alexa, RED, and actual film. The intro of the show from 2010 to 2015 was shot on a 7D. They also made custom aperture mattes to put in the camera that turned bokeh into the letters SNL.

Alex Buono is a guy to search for if you're curious about some of this. They've used arri and RED and canon 7d's. Sometimes a cast member shoots something with a friend on a dvx100 and Lorne lets it in. Since they've been going for a hundred years, and don't care if the official crew is leading the way (and even they experiment), they've used everything.

Been saying for years, IMO, one of CaNikon's biggest blunders was holding onto compacts and ignoring the smartphone world, instead of getting in bed with Apple or Samsung and developing smartphone lenses and embedding color science into their phone processing. Cameras quickly became the most scrutinized feature of most phones along with the display. Huawei is making huge gains and their flagship has the Leica lenses - lending photo cred to a device by simply having name recognition and separating them from the rest. They don't even have an app to get the Cannon or Nikon "signature look", SMH.

Maybe its the "Americanah Concept Trailer" it matches with the Specs and the Badroom. These infos are given from User cantsin Look at this example - according to its maker, it has been shot with a GH4 using the internal codec, Panasonic 12-35mm F2.8, 20mm F1.7 & 42.5mm F1.7 lenses, Tiffen Black Satin filter, three cheap Yongnuo LED lights and a Nebula 4000 gimbal

liam i think you already answered your own question if i may read between the lines here well lets see, do you WANT to be a poser, who people think is full of shit?? is it somehow WORTH IT for what youre doing rn??? the answers are no and no, and thats that. heres my advice: build a social media following to whatever degree, organically, and small as it may be itll be there for you in the future, when you produce great work and you actually want lots of followers – active followers lead to more active followers. but just let it happen i think its normal and very contemporary to have Follower Anxiety™ but its just media noise that makes us feel that way!!! its a general malaise... and the creative mind does not function well when we're under stress!!! also: give yourself a break~! youre putting WAY too much pressure on yourself for no good reason!!! let yourself develop, and as that happens, and you make more and more stuff and find your voice as an artist, your vision of how you want to portray yourself online and in the world will become crystal clear. it happened for me~! now i want you to stop stressing out and chill so u can have great ideas...!!! ? if this doesnt make any sense pm me lol

"The Cooke Book and A Cooke Look Back" free 74 page pdf for bed time reading http://www.musitelli.com/site/files/Cooke_Histoy_Book_by_FDTimes.pdf

Neat! You can still see Twixtor artifacts in some shots, but it plays much, much better with higher frame rates. A lot of those shots would've not worked at all with Twixtor and 60p.

Feel free to add whatever piece of gear you feel like may be useful to you or other people or then your comment. Here's to begin with:

This was shot in Hiroshima over a couple of days in 2016. I'd just gotten the BM Micro Cinema Camera and I wanted to give the camera a good shakedown, and I thought a personal project was a nice way to do that. I shot a lot on the Tokina 11-16 with the BMPCC speedbooster, and various Nikon primes. I tried to lock in down in sticks where I could, since I hadn't really worked out how to rig it for handheld at the time, and since I was travelling I didn't have all my parts with me to franken rig it as I was shooting, so the hand held stuff (particularly in the car) is pretty messy. I struggled with moire like crazy, I only had a Tiffen IRND with me and it wasn't always enough ND so I was stopping down for some of those outdoor shots, which really amped up the moire. I managed to tone down the worse of it, but an AA filter is a must with this camera if you intend to take it outside. I shot it in Prores LT, edited in Premiere Pro and graded in Resolve. Some of the night shots needed noise reduction, but mostly to remove the colour noise -- I actually like the structure of the noise, just not that keen on red and blue ants crawling all over the screen. Neat Video does a good job of removing chrominance noise while leaving the luminance noise, and it blends nicely with a little bit of grain using Filmconvert. Hope you enjoy the film, love to hear what you think! -- Daisaku & Takae have run their local grocery store in the hills of Hiroshima together for the last 53 years. In that time they have seen huge changes in their neighbourhood, and profound changes in the way local people shop for essentials. From humble beginnings selling cigarettes from a window in their family home to a bustling grocery store that served their community, they have seen and felt the rise of supermarkets and convenience stores and the impact that has had on their livelihood. Here they tell their story of how it started, what keeps them working, and what they will do when they finally retire. CREDITS Direction/DOP/Sound/Edit/Grade by John Kung Translation and Interview by Iku Motonaga Very special thanks to Daisaku and Takae for their generous telling of their story.

Some other little pieces of random gear that in this case both have a crowdfunding background: http://www.rogeti.com ( https://www.indiegogo.com/individuals/11984945/campaigns ) And if you're more into fixed value NDs than those vNDs, these sound super promising and the campaign is still going: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/breakthrough/dark-cpl-and-x4-gnd ( https://breakthrough.photography )

This one here from the other threads too? Have you followed the comments section as well? And about those GH5 tips? You know a camera requires time and workaround for optimization... No, Jon said it seemed 480p instead... Can I add some criticism to a personal level without look like to be a jerk or even offend you? I notice your posts for awhile enough to dare myself to feel I know a bit of you or your approach to stuff in general, you know? And you know what I feel? You're often superficial or too quick to jump for conclusions of your own... Maybe good for a gambler or a soccer goalkeeper for example : ) Never for filmmaking. It doesn't matter how good scenery or your capture/edit is :-)

Hey Lens Geeks, I went onto Mr. Gale's website and saw that his DSO Trump lenses have been removed and replaced with these really cool looking APOGEE lenses. They come as set and cost a significant amount of cash. I congratulate Rich on making these lenses so awesome and sought after, but I don't have the funds for that set, even though they look perfectly featured. I'm looking for any other type of well constructed, modified vintage type lenses that portray unique flare, artefact and bokeh in the images. I understand there's loads of olds stuff on eBay, but I'm really looking at something more polished and solid to work with. Maybe also some people who change the bokeh look in Helios lenses (but not shit). Also, I'm wondering if anybody knows of any accessories that also add an effect, such as any lens filters. This is what I know of so far: Lomography - they have some cool looking lens sets, like he Petzval, and have a Kickstarter on this portable Neptune set. MotionSix - they have tinted and anamorphic flare filament lenses on offer. I've used a 29mm from them with a fixed 3.5 oval aperture. Flares are very nice, but lens was difficult to focus and extremely soft. LensBaby - never used their products, so can't vouch on the quality and features. VidAtlantic - they do lens filters and anamorphic oval mods. Don't know what they're like. MeyerOptikGorlitz - they are making modern versions of their legendary soap bubble bokeh lenses, like the Trioplan. Anything to share / know of / blah blah / etc etc ??

Here is a test showing it with a Contax Zeiss 50mm f1.7 and a Panasonic G7. Shots are 1.7 with a dumb C/Y MFT adapter, f1.7 with the Fotodiox, f2.8 with the Fotodiox and f4 with the Fotodiox. As you can see, it does the field of view part right at least but sharpness doesn't make a comeback until f4 Crop of the f1.7 with and without the Fotodiox.

Yes...but as IronFilm suggested...it's probably something with B&H ....Adorama lists the camera on backorder...Amazon has it..=probably unlikely to cancel a camera that is selling so well.

Seen all of this. I replied to the Mavic thread. I am now using +1 sharpness and neat video As for the GH5 update I do not believe they can do miracles with contrast based AF, pardon me if I am wrong 480p? Are you sur you did not mean 144p...? Don't forget it is slow mo only 120 and + fps. Don't forget the shitty lens, and YouTube. Otherwise I don't know what to say. No way I would bring a 12mm only. I needed lightest weight PLUS zoom versatility. Your comment for AF and landscapes is not relevant, I am shooting a person in a landscape, not just a landscape. And please watch my Cuba video on my YouTube channel. It looks a lot better and it was shot with A7RII and also you will see why I need the focus.

Either HFR or frame interpolation from slowing things down will do that. The high rez timelapse will make the effect more obvious, as will the youtube compression.

Some anamorphic goodness.

Both are dreamlenses. The Bolex gives more flares and the Kowa give some clearer images. Both are extremely sharp, but I cannot say which one is more sharp. I took some pictures from buildings and the Bolex did look sharper. There are also differenses between several Bolex and Bolex Möller lenses. But this is what I see so far. I am happy with the Kowa ;-)

Is that the Fotodiox Vizelex Light Cannon? It started life as a cheaper Metabones Speedbooster substitute (actually more like a cheaper Lens Turbo substitute which is a Metabones Speedbooster substitute) but is obviously nowhere near as good so it "became" a "soft focus adapter" at a greatly reduced price and I think they were then giving them away with other purchases in the end. I got one in Nikon to M43 mount when they became the "soft focus adapter" for cheap but was still way over priced. As it was originally intended, the Lens turbo is much much better (both being "dumb" focal reducers). I was actually hoping to adapt it to my FF Sony with my M43 to E mount adapter but it doesn't fit in the adapter (adapter is too thin). If you start with a REALLY sharp lens, it can be used I guess and it may well have some benefits for a soft look so I hang onto it instead of tossing it in the bin. EDIT- Just checked and it seems the Excel +1 is the IMPROVED replacement for the Light Cannon!!!!!!

I think the DJI Ronin M is your best all around gimbal for the price. You could easily have a 7D on there and put a monitor on the handles so you can check your focus manually.

yeah, i was a bit paranoid about that. I used a thin slice of double sided tape on the far left and right edge of the disc. People have also suggested Canadian Balsam to me for use in lenses.

Definitely agree the JVC-GYLS300 is already a viable option. I really don't understand the lack of interest for this camera.

Don't get mount and sensor size mixed up. My dream is it is a locking MFT mount!

Emanuel, I just don't like the custom AF settings. I've tried many and wasn't particularly happy or impressed with them. 1-area seemed to be the most reliable.

over priced seller. I'd stay away.

Just MFT makes it so easy to adapt from anywhere. Say... what makes you go with Panasonic or Olympus when you can have a set of these puppies for example? (You'd throw 'em on a ZY Optics/Zhong Yi/Mitakon Lens Turbo II EF - M4/3 (or Metabones of course, but again: value!) with a C/Y - EOS adapter) Or instead of going for a 1299 42.5mm f/1.2, get one of these for like a third of the price and throw it on your speedboosters (again, L/R - EOS -> boosted EF - M4/3) : Even the Veydras have been way less than 1000 a pop (12 & 85mm came out later): Love primes as well. Primes, boosters, IBIS. The holy combo. To me/us atleast... maybe we are a select few that delve in a little deeper than going to our electronics store and letting the sales guy advise us on what to get... but to me, there are so much alternatives to pick from that in my eye are so much more bang for the buck... you'd have a hard time selling me that 1299 lens. But they're sticking to it, in fact, it seems the focus is shifting towards the high-end (which kinda makes sense, because smartphones are getting better and better and it's harder to sell people cheap cameras that can't really set themselves apart from smartphones in terms of looks and quality, it's starting to take more to make a difference, so we are seeing more expensive options and even more entry level, still high-end, medium format gets offered now for people to set themselves apart even more) so it must be working.

@Andrew Reid From where the industry is (and where it goes), Canon has nothing to do with entry-entry-entry level devices such camera phones. It's ok to have a couple of dead cheap compacts, just in case, but in a couple of years that won't even make 0,000001% (add zeros accordingly!) of Canon's net profit. Canon has to move into mobile phone's territory, look at Leica and others, it is an industry they will never compete, it's better to get something -imagine a mobile phone "powered by Canon"- that will appeal to a lot of Canon lovers (and they are a bunch), than nothing to do at all, in the biggest retail industry in the whole world. Also I doubt that alone, Canon can compete with the 90% (or something) of a Sony dominant market. Remember 2014's NX1 sensor? and CPU? and fast memory read out? I doubt that Canon has reached this level now, even 3 years later. The Sony sensors are MANUFACTURED by Sony image sensoring division, are not designed by them, and why not utilize one of the few things Canon has a clear advantage against Sony? Canon without Dual Pixel would be nothing in 2017. Anyway, we will see, we don't really know for sure any of these!!

Yeah, that's another thing. 'Regular' storage or batteries even. Concerning storage and GH5 capability: So here as well I felt like only paying for something I think was worth it and ended up with SanDisk (R280/W250), the brand I've been putting my trust in since the hacked GH2 and BMPCC days, we'll have to see if the math/interpolation and logic pans used here pans out... but savings then are around 30%. I see ADATA has joined the party as well: http://kz.adata.com/en/specification/449# . Kind of interesting. They have these series of cards labelled V90, now the 64 and 128GB get around that R280/W250 mark with an even better R290/W260 rating... however the 256GB version drops down to R275/W155 and still gets the V90-label (I guesstimated max. rated to continuous supported would be around factor 3 and V60 being around 180. Though for 400MBit/s - 50MB/s, W155/3 ~> 52MB/s should still suffice). Maybe there's no real indicators after all... or people will indeed start running into issues with that one. Same for Delkin & Integral V60 that seem to have popped up... around the 280MB/s mark readspeed and W100. Dunno. But the R95/W90 by SanDisk that we all know and love has been given V30 with later versions... I imagine they might do the same to the R280 & R300 ones as well (but V90). Concerning batteries. Official Panasonic DMW-BLF19E around 69 bucks. Patona Premium battery replacement: 16,90. There's a lot of saving potential everywhere and all the little bits add up considerably... and indeed, there's so much you could do with that, like getting a serious serious lens such as the Voigtländer 17.5mm f/0.95. Really got to check that one out btw. New they're close to that 1000 bucks, locally even as much as 1299. Locally as well I've seen one on the 2nd hand market that's around 650... but it has a bit of wear and tear... should be cosmetically only, mechanically and optically it's claimed to be in fine condition and working order. Still though, I kinda never go and get lenses that are availlable new and modern 2nd hand and even vintage ones I usually get as NOS (new old stock) or mint condition (exceptions are made for super vintage exeptional lenses, like that one Jupiter-11 red 'P' and 'cm' markings that has a few external cuts 'n bruises). Kinda get what you love about the Fuji lenses. Just... for me... the adaptability is indeed limited... and most of those come without built-in stabilization and Fuji refuses to implement sensor stabilization... so natively... not that eager to switch either (amongst some other things, like not having a touchscreen, or a frontfacing one for that matter... or support for smart adapters). Agreed about reviews these days. Also whoever shoots promotional stuff for the company themselves. Like Olympus just launched a new camera, right... hypes all the features ( http://www.getolympus.com/us/en/tg-5.html ) 'spectacular Ultra HD 4K video', 'jaw-dropping 4K', 'Get creative with TG-5’s Full HD 120 fps High Speed Video for slow motion' and 'Sensor Shift Image Stabilization', then has this to show for: I mean... a reviewer not doing your camera justice is one thing... but how am I supposed to get sold on that coming from the company itself?

I can weigh in on this. About 18 months ago I was frustrated because I'd get a lot of very flattering positive comments and reviews about my work, but not really seeing the benefit of this financially. Unfortunately these days, if you're able to give yourself a great social media presence but you're work is mediocre (as compared to a poor social media presence with incredible work) - it's more likely the former will be more successful. I've been studying the "business" and "social media" side of things on a course, and although it would take me far too long to say everything here, the overall conclusion is that marketing does come before your art. Social media is the No.1 distribution platform, so if you're not bothering with it, it could be very difficult to get anywhere. I've only just now, this week, picked up my social media strategy. I'm not being false, I'm not doing monetised reviews or any of that crap, I'll just be documenting what I do in bite sizes, and what value I'm able to deliver and help out (in a very non-salesy, authentic, organic, real way). I'm just going to be myself. I'll show what I'm doing as it is. I'm also camera shy. So there's that too. The difficulty I've had is my creative side feeling starved. The benefit is, I'm hungry to create and the artistic side is about to receive a mighty, mighty push. I advise anybody to use social media to show your work and value. But be real and authentic, or the audience will see the "fakeness" a mile off.

My video of Patagonia with the GH5

I have a friend that used to never want to have anything to do with social media. Then again, he also paid for everything cash, because who knows who's keeping track of the digital traces you leave behind. Now that he has started his own business, he's all about social media and without embracing it he probably would never have seen the growth he has now. Unfortunately you're better of being an attention whore than keeping faith you will catch your break eventually. Your content might be king, but if it doesn't reach the eyeballs of someone recognizing your talent because you're hoping they will bump into it magically, opposed to actively promoting your material... then maybe there's something to it after all. Of course, being true to yourself is a noble thing... so if you can manage to get by without selling your soul then by all means stay sane! In the end of it, it's all a matter of perspective... there's 2 things in particular you mention... 'popularity is the only thing that matters' & 'making films I'm proud of'. Which is the more important one? Of course you can do something in between... like just showing some natural excitement for what you're doing by sharing little bits and pieces, keeping people in the loop... rather than just having to come across forced and spammy.

I recommend these ND filters and filming in 2.7k vs 4k https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MQULKJU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I strongly doubt it. G85 is half the price of a GH5! Which will make it an attractive purchase for many people.

Neither would I

@Shirozina "Are you able to use the footage for client work? If so do you have any footage that I could see please?" my impression is that you can't use the footage for client work. I wouldn't.

Some nice looking shots in there, but there are some really awful artifacts going on. The shot at 1:20, going under the crane. Look at the letters on "Cape Town Cruise Terminal," look at the wires on the crane, look at the water, look at the ships - pretty much everything has this crazy dancing artifcating going on. The shots are beautiful enough to distract you, but once you start to look at pretty much any part of the image and the flaws become pretty obvious.

Like, maybe, probably hmcindie's ELIZA? Also on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob9td6Ic2f8 https://filmmakersprocess.com/blog/filmmaker-story-mikko-lopponen-short-film Also: