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How many of you guys have actually rigged up and used an Alexa in single operator mode? It actually works really really well. Everything I see online points to how its a crew camera, not made for single op use, you NEED a 1st and 2nd AC etc. This usually comes from people who have either only shot it this way, or it's repeated by people who have not even shot with it. There is nothing unique to the Alexa that makes it require a crew any more than any other camera. In fact, because of how ridiculously simple it is to use and it's great ergonomics, it's more single op friendly than a lot of other camera's I've used. The trick is setting it up to make it single op friendly. This is the basic setup for a shoot I DP'd last week. 6 hours, 5 locations, all shot shoulder mount (obviously missing the front handgrips, motor controller/cables and shoulder pad). Focus is through an RT Motion 3.1 setup, controlled from the thumbwheel mounted on the right handgrip. The thumbwheel also has run/stop control. The EVF is setup with focus peaking, which works really well. Out of the 100 or so takes I did, only 2 were not usable due to buzzed focus. I'm using EF Zeiss Milvus lenses which only have electronic iris control. Iris is controlled on the operator side directly on the Optitek EF lens mount - super easy. The setup is powered by IDX 185wh batteries. Each battery powers the entire setup for just over 2h. They weigh 50g less than Anton Bauer's 90wh batteries and half a kilo less than their 190wh batteries. Power for the Optitek mount is drawn directly from a ribbon cable inside the mount, so no external cables. Power for the RT motion setup is drawn from Alexa's 12v output on the operator side, so no DTAP cables running back to the battery - super clean. This makes switching batteries fast and easy as there are no DTAP cables to switch over. I've got a hot swap battery mount arriving next week, so there will be no need to power down. I'm using screw-on Firecrest ND filters which are completely neutral even at higher strengths, so no need to touch white balance or tint as I increase or decrease ND. In the EVF I have control of FPS, shutter speed and white balance/tint all controlled via buttons on the EVF, all without removing your eye. The buttons on the operator side below the Alexa logo are user configurable. At the moment they trigger the Rec709 LUT on and off, false colour and fullscreen view inside the EVF. No need to take the camera off your shoulder... Once you setup your project and format your cards on the operator side at the start of the day, there is no need to return to that side as the important functions are all available inside the EVF. I load in 2 x 128gb SxS cards at the start of the day, which record around 2h of Prores 4444. So theres usually no need to swap them out during the shoot. From here I'm adding a Movcam MM4 lightweight mattebox. It has Arri rosettes on each side which allow you to attach handgrips directly onto the mattebox. This will shave some weight and further streamline the setup as I no longer need the BP-12 bridge plate, 19mm rods and the handle bridge. Still unsure if 15mm rods are too lightweight for this task, we'll see... I need a new mattebox anyway. I'm also going to add 2 Dynacore 310wh batteries which will power the setup for around 3.5h each. And they're still 200g lighter than AB's 190wh batteries. Is it as nimble as an A7 or GH5 setup? No. But from my experience, when shooting Alexa shoulder mount I'm moving just as quick as someone shooting mirrorless. Except if I've done my job right on the day, I can then grade that footage to match pretty much any feature shot on the Alexa. I can't really do that with mirrorless cam footage...

My guerilla short :

Need for an external monitor depends on how you use it. If camera is on a tripod then you're probably fine, but if you're hand-holding for an ability to quickly get a variety of shots then you might miss a screen that can't articulate vertically. In terms of hand-holding I can hand-hold my XC10 / Gorillapod 5K setup with my arms fully outstretched at 240mm steady enough so that the IS locks the shot with no movement, so it is possible. Depends on the vlogger and what you'd call a "vlogger" (as opposed to many other styles of YT film-making). I see YouTubers with A7SII / Atomos external recorders, C300s, C100s, 1DXII, A7RIII, GH5, GH5s, EVA, etc. If you definition of 'vlogger' is only people that prattle endlessly into the selfie camera on their phone while walking somewhere to get their nails done, then your definition needs expanding radically. I'm happy to provide examples of YT channels with high production value if you're interested.

Thats what I believe as well. It is a flimsy connection, with well used ports I have drives that you touch the cable and they loose connection. It should be fine on a tripod but unless someone makes a locking version for both the camera and the drive itself I would be willing to spend more money on cfast cards just to be on the safe side.

Yeah but we're bored waiting for it already so have to fixate on something to get the page count over the 100 mark

Even then it's not so simple. BM have photos of this camera being used in a multicam setup with one operator. If I was that operator, I'd have all the cameras linked up to monitors and have the monitors in a line. Similarly, I regularly shoot interviews and ask the questions, I always have a monitor on a tripod next to me to check focus and framing during the conversation. The lens poking right over my shoulder, so it's easy to reach up and adjust focus/framing if the talent moves a little bit. On top of that, if someone else is conducting the interview and I'm filming. More often than not everyone is sitting down, apart from me. Having monitor on top of the camera means I won't break my back leaning down to see the frame the whole time. Point being, tripod shots will also benefit from a monitor.

Why in God’s name would a vlogger use the Pocket 2?

Thought it would be interesting to share the BTS videos we take on shoots. This is BTS from a car mount shoot, and what I did to capture the audio:

Anyone with thoughts or experience with the Litepanels Brick One? I currently have a Litepanels Astra EP Bi-Color and am wondering if two of these Brick Ones would make for a solid 3 point interview lighting kit, or are there newer, more affordable options that might pair well with an Astra EP?

Haha, they could do a revival and call themeselves US⚡BC Really sorry about that terrible dad joke!

I believe they developed this system for aperture control back in the 60s On the positive side, it allowed very easy & smooth control of the aperture with cheap adapters...

I'd double check write speeds of those little drives. That one is only 65mbs.

Yeah, something small like that is perfect... I’d much rather use a direct plug drive than a cord based. A simple piece of bent aluminum or sheet metal, as a shroud, can protect it from accidental knocks.

I got this one, it is really tiny and backwards compatible http://www.poweredbymushkin.com/Home/index.php/products2/item/129-swap/1320-swap-64gb-usb-3-1-type-c-flash-drive-1 (I am trying hard to get us to the next page)

Thank you! that is an excellent solution connecting my laptop to my USB C monitor, I was seriously searching for something similar on ebay the other day, but I wasn't sure how I could describe it. I hope I do not have to put my 27" monitor on top of that P4K thread, for monitoring purposes! There are surprisingly just a few options on ebay. https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=USB+C+Extension+Adapter+Right+Angle&_sop=15

Idk if mirrorless sales will ever surpass DSLRs for Canon and Nikon. I foresee an environment where their mirrorless offerings will be 2nd cameras in serious photographer’s bags and not their go to camera. For beginners, until there is a mature, inexpensive system, I don’t see people buying mirrorless over DSLRs. Since I switched back to a DSLR, Idk if I can go back to a small mirrorless... especially now that I shoot FF. With the added weight and size of the FF DSLR, I’m able to go handheld with a non stabilized lens up to a 35mm focal length. With a mirrorless, without IBIS, it would be shake city... of course I’m still looking for a small rig or chest pod... so if anybody can recommend a good, small chest/shoulder pod or support, I’d appreciate it.

Look, I've found a right angle USB C adapter. So I'm not going to waste that bit of research and I'm all for getting another couple of pages out of discussing it now

In case you change your mind, she's on pornhub. Or so I've heard...

I think "Guerrilla shooters" describes most people that are here and use cheap mirrorless and dslr cameras to create an image

The T5 has a small, blue, blinking LED indicator on the port-end that flashes when reading or writing.

That's the ISO space I prefer being in, settled around 400, stay under 1600. Interested to do more testing now. Thanks, tweak.

If you use the camera everyday, then just buy a couple SD and/or a couple CF cards. I do not understand how suddenly recording on an external USB C drive became mandatory workflow, and puzzles us for 4 pages! It offers another option, it doesn't mean that replaces other media completely.

Even if you have 1tb media? If so, like others have suggested, disconnect the drive from the cable, not the cable from the camera during the shoot. My mistake. Don't you feel leaving in an extender could do more damage though? It's something to get caught when you're putting the camera in or taking it out of the bag, something to snag onto your hand as you reach to focus the lens, another connection to go loose midtake (unless you use epoxy). My feeling is I will only use the USB if all my other media is full, or if the camera's locked off on a tripod and I can fix the drive onto the tripod leg with some velcro. Minimizing any risks. trying to go handheld with a cable that doesn't lock in won't be worth the risk to me. That said, I'm fairly certain someone will make an SSD cage, complete with USB clamp on both ends. I imagine playback will work fine. Thinking about it, I've not seen any blinky lights by the card slot, so it'll alert you in the same way you know you're recording to the SD. most likely with space or time left on the selected media. should the cable slip out, you probably get an error message and any blinky red recording lights on the monitor and tally lamp will stop. Does the drive have a little read/write led? Most hard drives do, but I don't know about this one. Judging by this photo, it tells you how much you can record to the media connected to the camera. And it'll be hard to miss if it stops recording for any reason.

So we are reaching that freaking point where filmmakers are considering smartphones as tools and vloggers want to record stuff in ProRes or even RAW... Wow.. BM shouldn't have put that rec button above the mount. It's like a beacon for these guys. You know, these guys that when the spec list of this camera showed up the first thing that came on their mind was "dude this is fu**ing ugly!!!". The same guys that would make a Vlog with an Alexa if the price was "right" for them, thank god it isn't...

The bearded Kiwi may find this one interesting for the soundtrack

I would pick something with a bit more light control ability. Like a spot LED with barn door that I can control or have ability to soften it with shooting it through a reflector or something else. My needs are different I need something to travel with and setup different lights. I just ordered one of these to test. Should be here on Friday and I can play with it a bit. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1305546-REG/genaray_cd_contender_daylight.html He does a lot of videos on different light setup, you might find something interesting in his reviews: https://www.youtube.com/user/dslrvideoshooter

Thanks, kye! Yesterday I saw this, and became so angry that I - almost - downvoted the video, something I'd never done before: This tells me, of course, that I already am a true P4k fanboy . Be it as it may, I also watched a GH5s review (not the first one, not my last one, despite my admitted fixation to BM). It showcased the ergonomics and built quality. The vlogger said: what a pity! It's got everything I asked for, even *very good* lowlight through Dual Native ISO, but the AF sucks and no IS, epic fail! Was again tempted to vote "thumbs down". But how had this been justified? I had bingewatched vlogger's vomit all evening! Last report, this a funny one. About Sony A7iii, and how it smoked, killed and destroyed the whole competition. Yes, it's 'a full frame MONSTER', it has IS, it has AF, but that's the extent of it. Terrible ergonomics (as usual), threadbare 8-bit codecs, he dumb thing smokes itself. I'm allowed to say, as a Sony owner. It's a Phony.

Why not? At least it's a little smaller than...

Lol. Ive seen her before. I need to look away :P

I always export to h.265 now, since Vimeo accepts it for upload. Basically as a rule I just push the bitrate as high as it can go to whatever gets me the closest to that 5 GB upload limit. It is usually quite a bit slower than exporting to h.264 of course, but theoretically the hevc codec offers far higher quality at the same bitrate than h.264, so for me it's perfect as a delivery/upload codec for the highest possible quality without astronomically large file sizes.

I don't edit directly with my recording media (I mean I have, occasionally, for super quick, tiny little projects, off of SD cards) but for the past couple months I have been editing all of my projects off of my Samsung T5 USB-C ssd, which is what most will be using with the new pocket, and it works perfectly. Super tiny, light, and incredibly fast. Once I get my my hands on this wonderful-looking new cam, recording with the Sammy and then editing immediately should be a breeze.

I like the low con look of the nikkor but the Leica does pop

But the Leica '(3d) pops' nicely. The 35-100mm ain't bad either.

It has SD, CF AND usb-c, which none other has. It records internal raw and various ProRes. I see no issues here, only options, and no external recorders/monitors needed (but I will be really happy to use my Focus on this one).

Idk, I think we need to define (or redefine) ultra low budget feature if an Amira is being used to shoot it.

Apparently we are only 15 years away from commercially viable nuclear fusion reactors. Funny, but when I went on a tour of the Joint European Torus 35 years ago they said we were about 15-20 years ago from commercially viable nuclear fusion reactors then too.

Looks like it outputs 1080p max via HDMI period. it's a bit an odd limitation but then again with internal RAW/ProRes, not much reason to record externally so it seems the video out is there mainly for external monitoring purposes. I hate HDMI, it's unreliable on the field but hey can't have it all at this price point!

Today I think it's more vlog-oriented, but back in the day I really liked dvxuser and Channel 101. Both had five-minute film festivals that some real talent emerged out of! Back then virtually everyone was shooting with the dvx100 and better image quality wasn't really affordable. So the discussion had to move to other things, I guess. It speaks to there being a void (or me not knowing the online community as well as I should) that I can't think of a good equivalent that's as popular today.

To any who may frown on these posts. Let me ask you. Do you want another Ebrahim? He went on for years giving all sorts of advice about image quality, gear, workflow, etc...When people would ask for recommendations, there he was, speaking the lingo, talking like an old pro. As it turned out, he was a kid with a 50d literally out in the middle of the Egyptian desert. As for Kye, I asked his intent, as evidenced by the previous posts, and he equated that to a personal attack. Maybe I should of responded like Matthew Allard of newsshooter responded to a commenter in the Ebu post, when they told him he should call out Allen Roberts about the results of his recent test. "Its like a sports car owner telling a racecar driver what their doing wrong" and Matt owns an F35 and Amirra. If Kye was part of this analogy, he'd be a well versed spectator in the stands. Would you take any heed of his advice on what engine to use or when to change tires? Which brings me to another topic I rail against that keeps getting hammered on, especially by the owners of the gh5. All cameras are "good enough." That may be, depending on a number of factors, including but not limited to screen size and quality, your own preferences, and distribution medium......but do you see Mathew Allard, Matt Workman, Phillip bloom, Robert Allen, or the vast majority of production giving up industry standard cinema and eng cams? And I cant say they wouldn't like to, because no one wants to carry around heavy tools or spend tens of thousands and more on tools, when they could use it for living life instead. Is it safe to say most participants of eoshd have not seen a single uhd bluray? How about the simple task of downloading the exr' s from Geoff Boyles evaluations as a point of reference? how can they then even begin to make a statement of any sort in reference to "quality" of image when comparing one camera to another?

@GregormannschaftHey, if m43 coverage is good enough, you could get a b4 2/3 lens with internal doubler, powering the servozoom with an external battery. Jon, don´t react to negative pms or public messages. They are not worth to be read twice. Enjoy doing your work, just like we do watching it. Mark, I find your last remarks not inspiring nor supporting to do filmwork.

FIRE! Everything is more fun with that :-P Are those special stunt bricks, rubber ones? Or just normal bricks? Is about three years and a bit I've had it. But once it was only a year or two long then it pretty much stopped growing any more. Did anyone notice the seat created out of apple boxes that DoP was leaning/sitting on? I found that amusing. Oh, and the hat I was wearing I got given the day beforehand for FREE! :-D As we were shooting in clothes store.

Well considering that the alexa is barely passing their tests (1440x810 real resolution, 1db more noise at mid gray, some aliasing, some ir pollution) ... their tests are specifically designed for bbc qc and standards... So as the rebel punks anti establishment shooters that we here are, of course we must dismiss their findings.

Agreed, the 3x crop mode is still very unique advantage - especially for macro video. The ability to also shoot higher resolution (even at reduced frame rate) in raw is quite amazing.

https://indiefilmhustle.com/color-science-let-pixar-teach/ http://www.dvinfo.net/article/optical-science/a-short-history-of-camera-color.html Smarter, more experienced people in this industry seem to disagree with your dismissal of color science as a concept. Perhaps, as a beginner, you should spend more time listening and learning, rather than espousing ideas you don't understand? All photosites only capture luminance data. That data is assigned an R, G, or B value, depending on the filter that covers it. Those filters have to be carefully designed to let in their color and a bit of the others: if made too pure, the sensor will not be able to accurately reproduce secondary colors, like yellow and cyan; not pure enough, and colors blend together into mud from lack of separation. These color values must be interpolated from nearby photosites, as each one only capture data for R, G, or B. How that data is cobbled together has a profound result on the resulting detail and color. Then this information feeds into a camera's color matrix, which carefully subtracts channels from each other to create clear and distinct colors. All of which are made to hit specific mathematical targets within the manufacturer's carefully designed color space. These are tuned partially for accuracy, but also to create certain effects on the viewer based on the psychological effect of various colors. So sure, subjectivity plays a part. That's why every manufacturer does their color slightly differently, and has their own "look." But to purport that no math or science goes into the process is misinformed and asinine.

I made this so so long ago on the Canon 50D with ML raw and I remember it had a very cinematic look to it. Also...I know some of you guys saw I was selling my 1DC....well the eBay buyer flaked on me and now I still have it. Im never doing that again. I almost had a heart attack thinking about saying goodbye to it

Digital Bolex has an incredible analogue look and fantastic CCD skin tones. 1D C produced amazing thick files, chunky 500Mbit 4:2:2 4K, with Canon's trademark clean low light and great colour in a small body with a massive sensor. I recently saw one go for under £2000 for first time. It's a steal. C100... Meh BMCC 2.5K is a cinematic beast, I am still amazed by the dynamic range in 2.5K raw it produces even today. The huge touch screen was nice too. Rest of the camera not so much Special shout out to the Samsung NX1. Canon colour in a high-end mirrorless camera, with an image that completely floors whatever the C100 can do.

Caught this one recently. The story has been done plenty of time before, but it's a great effort with minimal budget/crew. 5D3 h.264 in cinestyle, going from the comments/bts.

Funny how cineform raw existited since 2005 and is open source and platform independent but companies drag their feet. Whereas when Apple does something that is restricted toac ecosystem they implement it before it even gets released. I do belong to the Mac ecosystem and while the proresraw might offer faster performance I hate the closed system strings that apple attaches.