Leaderboard

I was lucky enough to break six figures last year with 73,000 subs. I’ve never enjoyed my work more and i’ve never made more in my life. I highly recommend it if you’re thinking of starting a youtube channel.

First I'd like to say that I appreciate that the Lenses sticky thread is now it's own Sub-Forum. It really allows members to post more specific topics and it allows readers to ignore topics that may not be useful for them. With that said, @noone had a great idea creating a topic with one of his favorite lenses... so I figured I'd follow suit with one of my favorite lenses... Nikkor 35mm 1.4 ai-s As I started writing this brief, real world review, I realized that this lens represents a larger story of me as a filmmaker as it chronicles the highs and lows of my life since I started shooting my film... So what started as a brief review morphed into a much longer story. If you don't have the time or inclination, stop now. For those that are still interested... here we go... I love fast, wide angle lenses. They offer shallow depth of field while allowing you to get close to your subject. And a fast 35mm straddles a wide angle FOV and a normal FOV making it almost the perfect full frame, focal length for my style of filmmaking. This is my second copy of this lens and truth be told... I've almost sold this lens a half a dozen times over the past year. My first copy I bought when I started shooting my film. I had a simple game plan... the Canon 24-70mm f/4 IS lens for daylight and the Nikkor for lowlight. Here are a couple frames from the first shots I took with the lens for my film. For some reason I decided to go a different route for my lowlight shots and bought a Canon 35mm f/2 IS lens. In most ways, the Canon is a better lens, but it lacks the charm of the Nikkor even if it did match my zoom a little better. At the time, my film was moving along at a steady pace, so I decided to keep the Nikkor for a different, upcoming film... Well... Life had a different plan, like it often does, and some unforeseen medical issues in my family slowed production to a near grinding halt. With those medical issues came some unforeseen financial issues and I was forced to sell a bunch of lenses. For a brief time I thought I'd be forced to sell my camera as well, but I luckily made it work. Before I sold the Nikkor, I decided to take it out for a final spin. Here are a couple frames from that last day with the lens... By this time, I was also forced to sell my Canon zoom and my Canon 35mm f/2. Over the next 6 months I raided my closet to test any and every lens I had that could work for my film. Luckily, during that time, I found a Canon 28mm 1.8 listed on eBay "For Parts" for peanuts. Needless to say, I won the auction and found another one of my favorite lenses born from need. For the next 6-8 months, the Canon 28mm 1.8 lens became the only lens I used to shoot my film and at the time, I couldn't be happier with the results. But I still missed my Canon zoom and my Nikkor 35mm 1.4. Last year, I came into a little extra money and immediately sought another copy of the Nikkor and after a few weeks, I found one. With the extra money in my account, I took the opportunity to test a bunch of lenses I couldn't otherwise afford but always wanted to try. I tested some beautiful lenses but being a hobbyist, I needed to contain my obsession and build a couple logical lens sets. I used the end of my sporadic shooting days to test a lens. My method was simple, use my main actor as a model in the same locations I was shooting my film. Here are a few frames from those tests... After hours of deliberation and footage, I finally realized that I don't change lenses that often and I grew to like the idea of a single POV, from a single lens, as if the lens' FOV represents an invisible narrator's eye. I used my feet to zoom and put together a simple rig consisting of a closed monopod with a tilt head and a tape measure pouch clipped onto my belt. The bottom of the monopod fits snuggly inside the tape measure pouch giving me a stable image with a handheld-like flexibility. During these tests, I realized that I had way too many lenses and could easily shoot a short film a month, for well over a year, and never reuse the same lens... What was I thinking?! I am just a hobbyist with no delusions that I will make the next great indie film. This was getting out of hand. So I set up a final round of testing and narrowed down my keepers to a grand total of 5 lenses with the only "set" consisting of my Canon FD 50mm 1.2 L and my Canon 28mm 1.8. At the time, I even contemplated selling the Nikkor 35mm 1.4 one more time to keep with my minimalistic utilitarian approach. But after some careful thought, and some good advice from some other EOSHD members, I decided to keep it. Although I was still unsure if I needed the lens, after a recent go at some of the footage with my mediocre color skills and my crappy monitor, I came up with these frames from one of my test shots... Although, I realize that none of these shots are particularly spectacular, but each one represents something I like about cinematography and tells a story about my life over the past 3 years. Sometimes the gear we buy is more than just tools for the stories we tell... they become part of the story... part of the journey. Maybe I am being too sentimental but when I look at these perfectly imperfect images taken with a perfectly imperfect lens, I remember the moments that brought me from then to now and what I learned during that process... This lens taught me that my equipment is better than I am. I learned that I don't have to shoot everything wide open and that I probably shouldn't if I ever want to pull focus on an actor walking. I learned that some lenses have a vintage look when wide open, but when stopped down can look crisp and modern. But most importantly, I learned that I need very little to make a movie and gear is the least important. If you're interested in a more technical review, I recommend Ken Rockwell's review of the lens. He gets into the nitty gritty of the characteristics of the lens. I feel he's a little too hard on the lens but everything he writes is dead on accurate... https://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/35f14ais.htm For me, I can sum it up in one paragraph... The Nikkor 35mm 1.4 ai-s lens has a warmer tone and when shot wide open, the images are dreamy, a little soft with a ton of coma on the edges. Stop it down to f/2 and it cleans up a little. By f/2.8 it's like you're using a different lens and that lens is as sharp as a knife. It's like having two lenses in one with both being sharp enough with a bunch of character. So there you have it... thanks for reading.

I'd love if there was a 10 bit H264 option so I don't have to always transcode files. Anywho though its not the body that matters as much as the lenses too me. Full frame bodies aren't usually a biggie, its those gigantic lenses.

A lot of modern get rich quick schemes centre on content creation and YouTube. Snake oil, the lot of it. There is only one general rule and that is the relevance and quality of the content. You are right there are a ton of variables too. You can put out absolute shit and see it rocket in popularity - look at all the clickbait out there - but these channels are fads, 15 minutes of fame, and don't sustain a career for 10+ years.

The real challenge is longevity and to avoid being jaded by your own content and subjects, honestly that is a big challenge after a few years, as is burnout, because YouTube (and blogs) all have a relentless pace, it never ends and takes over your every waking thought. It's easy to turn off from a normal 9-5 job but not if you are a YouTuber. If you can keep the hit videos and passion flowing for 10 years without a break, that is honestly a miracle and almost never happens. I sometimes tune out of the camera world completely and stop blogging on EOSHD for months. This isn't because I've lost interest or no longer want to talk to people I know and like, sometimes it is as simple as wanting to do something else, not having anything to shoot, but then coming back refreshed with new ideas. Well done @DaveAltizer with how the YouTube channel is working out for you, it's great. And we should do the podcast soon as well, when I am back more regularly in world of cameras.

I personally know people with over 2 million subs and they're definitely not rich or anywhere close to being rich. There are a lot more variables at play. The type of content you make, who watches it, etc. plays a huge role. My friends that have hundreds of thousands of subscribers but deal with pro wrestling content don't get much at all since YouTube allowed advertisers more control over what videos they advertise on and most passed on advertising on wrestling related content.

Spent some time with the 1DX3. It's an amazing beast of a camera as expected. The AF is so fast I could hardly notice it 'working' half the time. Lightning quick response. The touch screen response is also on another level VS previous generation. AF is definitely present in all shooting modes (including 120fps) except above 4K30p. RS quite visible in FF 4K24p. Gets much better in 4K crop mode (which is 1.3x like 1DX2). Anyways, I realise everybody is waiting for R5/R6 announcements now but the 1DX3 is definitely a power house. I'd even say the most advanced performing DSLR I've ever handled. Quite impressive.

I have had this lens for ages. Not something I have used a real lot but I do love it and think I am going to use it as the only lens I use for a few weeks. Mine does not have a build date mark (that I can find anyway) and is a battered old copy externally but nothing wrong with the glass. A small lens for the speed. Is actually usable in a pinch for landscape infinity shots though much better stopped down or close in. Has a large hand ground front aspheric element. On Sony it also works great as a super fast 2x zoom for jpegs and video. Well worth getting if you can get one at a decent price (there are some that are at collectors prices on Ebay). Just snaps walking around. wide open and 5.6 at distance. Close in at 1.4 and again at 2x clearzoom. I took a photo of a friend I met that i would love to post but do not think she would appreciate it. Will have to find a nice stranger to shoot and post as well as video from it.

Shot by the Lumière Brothers in 1896 this is some of the first footage committed to film. There is now a technique to upsample this footage to high resolution 4K/60p using neural networks. Here it is in action on the piece “Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat”. Read the full article

That's interesting... I never really thought about it but it makes sense. When I think Day for Night, I always think Jaws but after looking at some stills there definitely is a lot of grey in the shots as well. I shot an impromptu short film years ago... well it was actually a scene for a larger film that I attempted to turn into its own short film but I needed a Day for Night establishing shot of a cabin... for other reasons, the short ended up being in B&W and that ended up being tremendously helpful selling the Day for Night effect. Which brings me to my next point... I have been so spoiled by shooting raw. I aim to get my WB close in camera, but it's so easy to correct in Resolve's Raw Panel, that it doesn't really matter... I don't know if I can go back to a traditional compressed codec. Even when I originally had the Micro, and shot ProRes, I used 4500 as a middle ground and I would just correct it in post. I wouldn't do that now that I know better, but ProRes is beefy enough that I didn't have any issues. If I were to shoot on a compressed codec now, I really think I'd shoot mostly in B&W. In fact, if I ever get a second camera... a GH5... or whatever... I'd probably use it as a B&W only camera. There's an old saying amongst editors when they couldn't get a cut to match... "If you can't solve it... dissolve it." I use a similar saying when it comes to color... "If it don't look right... try black and white." 😎 Those guys at LGG are either professional colorists or aspiring professional colorists. When you devote yourself entirely to one discipline, you're going to get really good at that one discipline and learn a ton of tricks. A lot of us end up being Jacks of all Trades, out of necessity, and as Jacks of all Trades, sometimes we need to choose our battles. Oh I know... my whole film is basically shot with available light. I have a few shots at the end of magic hour that have been giving me trouble. As I said before, with raw it's a bit easier because I can adjust the color temperature but getting the tint right has been a chore. Sometimes I'll just scrap the shot. I'm usually chasing the light anyway, so the shot probably wasn't that great to begin with since it was often rushed. To the original point about AWB and working without it. I stopped using AWB once I moved away from Canon to Panasonic. But you can use AWB to see what's "supposed" to be right and then adjust your Kelvin temperature until it matches... but more often than not, your eyes will tell you what's what and it will be damn close. Once you figure out how each camera and sometimes lens affects WB, then the Kelvin temperature becomes second nature.

Good news for us, we can now sell everything and shoot on an iPhone knowing that somebody in 100 years will neural-network the footage to make it look like its shot on an Alexa.

Relax people, you're not losing your identity because of someone taking your picture.

Mine just arrived! Paired it up super easy and adjusted the button settings to my requirements, but not had a chance to use it properly yet. Looking forward to it though.

Yes my crime was to use the camera. It arrived the day before my flight to Italy, so I had no time to sort out a replacement. At the track in Monza, I used the Pocket 6K for a few shots before the power went kaput at 50% battery meter every 30 seconds. So the next day, I persevered and wanted to try out the slow-mo, but it crashed with a black screen every time I tried. Lost a lot of material. Shot the rest of the time with different camera. So feeling pissed off on the way back from Italy to IBC in Amsterdam, I decided to take my camera to Blackmagic at the show and ask what was going on. I was insulted, fobbed off, patronised, belittled and offered no solution. The next week after a month long trip I finally arrived in Berlin and contacted the dealer to return it. They did the usual quibbling, before partially refunding me after they received the camera back in the state I received it brand-new... Scuffed and used looking, but I may add just to be clear I didn't add to it... Not during my troubled and brief use of the camera at the Grand Prix nor at IBC. No more damage that was already there from the shrink wrap. EOSHD is not a purely unfeeling, fact based endeavour for me, I'm afraid feelings and emotion do come into it. When a company puts out shoddy quality control and fobs me off or insults me, it doesn't make me want to help further the online Blackmagic community for them or put work into Blackmagic related content. I have news for you. I am biased. My strong advise to Blackmagic users is seriously to look at the alternatives and get off the hype train. Canon 1D C used has a more cinematic image than both the Pocket cameras and is as low as £1599 / $1900 now X-T3, and all the new mirrorless cameras. etc. If you enjoy your Blackmagic don't let my experiences stop you... But let they be a lesson for Blackmagic to improve their lot.

Shit, that's a good idea. Great write up and fantastic images. If do decide to sell that lens again, holler.

Having worked in the corporate video field for close to a decade, I am sadly well too aware of such situations. I've had my own share of cool projects that were green lit only to be later butchered by the PC police or worst: shelved during or after completion. I know its games risk but the motives are often so ridiculous, and results in a total waste of time, money, creative talent & energy. You would honestly expect in the creative field that a company like Fuji would stand behind their ambassador amidst such a ridiculous controversy, or at the very least issue a statement.. but just plain dropping him like that because of a few wild comments saying he should get punched in the face is vile imho.

I have 100x more trust in Fuji delivering the goods with any speculated camera than for Canon to do the same.

Exactly. Fuji are wrong. The whole thing is a travesty. They are dragging his name through the internet outrage machine, too scared to defend him in case they lose a few camera sales. If they really stood up for artists, rather than abusing them for profit, Fuji would defend him. As usual it tells us far more about Fuji's marketing men than it does about Suzuki's supposed "predatory" behaviour. Again we see, sadly someone (@barefoot_dp) stating the obvious and because they consider it normal, it is somehow justified. Sure, companies can do whatever they like for profit. That's not news. Is it right? If they perceive edgy art to be a PR gaff all of a sudden is it ok to chuck one of your best known Japanese street photographers under a bus? When will you people get it, christ fucking wept. In reality is not a kill-switch controlled by the company at their advantage, it is a reactionary hysterical kill switch controlled by a few outraged idiots on the internet. Companies need to get a fucking GRIP IMO.

This camera can't come out fast enough.. I skipped XH1 because of XT3, and then skipped XT3 because of XH2/XT4. Cannot wait to get back into X system! (sadly my XT2 got stolen 2 years ago. Miss it SO much!)

Between lesser (probably for at least some of the users) known authors, I'd highly recommend works of Ye Lou. Encouraging indie-sort of thinking and movie making, there's so much to learn about superior freedom of camera movements and, in general, cinematography out of cliche, as also about cleverly purposed montage, interesting angle of view and way of story telling, building of emotional atmosphere and suspense, rich and subtle usage of serious music add. So, Ye Lou: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0521601/?ref_=tt_ov_dr

Yeah, his anamorphic clamps and adapters are top-notch. We'd need to provide him with some details, though. Like I said, my friend and I are on it, but it'll take some time, since he's a busy person.

Maybe RAF camera can do something? Very good quality and good prices too.

It seems that at least in 2.3x or so ratio Voigtlanders might also work completely without vignetting

New godox lights are pretty nice. You can also replace the fans pretty easily. I am pretty impressed with the Godox 200w video light.

It seems that a lot of people have love or hate for the lens. In a lot of ways, the lens is infuriating. On occasion the WB will seem off with this lens, to the point that I set daylight WB at 5000 instead of 5600 sometimes. And you're right it does veil wide open, but the contrast can be added back nicely in post creating a soft, contrasty haze instead of a low-con veil that some vintage lenses have. Some of the older Zeiss lenses have this too... maybe it's micro contrast? I think Olympus OM Lenses will forcefully mount on Nikon cameras too.

The upscaling software is Topaz gigapixel for video, this software is in current closed beta for developers and testers to use, is not in the web page. But, since I'm in the beta test page, i can provide a link: https://topazlabs.s3.amazonaws.com/packages/win/videoenhanceai/VideoEnhanceAI-1.0.1-windows-x64-installer.exe?fbclid=IwAR2fORNpdKqvFvleUeH_xkvNOfmz3c92tjigWOwcMRsKrb5-WP6NseMlaWE Bye!

well you could also buy subscribers until you got enough actual viewers...it must happen quite often if stuff like this goes unreported

Obviously, even available light has a color temperature but yeah I get what you're saying. There's an old trick where you use a low color temperature and a polarizer or ND filter to shoot day for night. It makes the image look like moonlight. So I am sure there are plenty of tricks and effects professional cinematographers know to obtain quick looks. I didn't mean to imply that it always is. I know I would much prefer DPAF than manually pulling focus to track my actors. My shooting ratio would probably be cut in half... or more. But honestly, I'm surprised you aren't experiencing color shifts using AWB with your Panasonic. Canon always had pretty good AWB but with Panasonic I rarely had good results. The presets were pretty accurate though. With that said, I loved shooting Shutter Priority and AWB with my XC10 and FZ2500. In fact, I often said that shooting with those cameras was liberating and felt like point and shoot filmmaking where the equipment got out of your way. You're just such a proponent of manual lenses that I assumed you shot full manual. But shooting fully manual becomes second nature and lets you choose what you want to prioritize in a shot and it really only takes a couple seconds to decide and set.

Funny thing is I had the Nikon 35 1.4 and hated it. To be fair though mine had issues when i got it that I knew it had before I did. It was just a bit too "vailed" for me wide open and I thought it was not really usable wide open so I would have been better with a slower 35. I might have thought better of it with a better copy though and 35mm lenses have not been a thing for me really either. It probably did not help that i mostly used it mounted bare on Pentax DSLRs at the time (they fit kind of mounted on Pentax turning the other way but as ever, do this at your own risk). You have showed that may well have been just my copy.

Ah, yes. This makes sense now. Coming from shooting available light this is pretty much an alien concept, but of course. I've heard how cinematographers speak about the various looks from different WB and lighting setups, it's all completely known and they can nail a look first try without having to test anything because they just know. I'm yet to test RAW vs the compressed modes, but the fact that big productions often render RAW to Prores then just use that as the master footage and never go back to the RAW suggests the quality involved, so it makes sense. Thinking about all the people that shoot in h264 as their master when prores is of higher quality puts it back in perspective I know it's good for me, but I'm not sure that manual is better than auto for everything... with my limited cognitive CPU power the less time I spend on doing things the camera can do the more time I spend on the things that the camera can't do, like composition, camera position and movement, focusing, etc

He's totally free to push the limits of people's personal boundaries within public spaces for the sake of his art. By the same token he better be totally ok with the potential repercussions of his actions. Matter of fact, I'm sure he instinctively picks his subjects/victims based on how much of an immediate threat they might pose to him, which speaks to the predatory nature of his behavior... and that's regardless of whether his end goal is art, creepy kicks, or both. But to me the scarier people are those who can't just acknowledge that all these things are equally legitimate factors worth acknowledging when deciding whether what he is doing is actually worth it, for the sake of art... or whether there might actually be a way for him to do his art, while respecting the boundaries of his subjects (what, too hard of a proposition to wrap his boundary-pushing artist head around?). Personally I have way more respect for the artist that cares about that part as much as they do their precious art.

1: XH1 2: XT3 3: Panny G9

This is the source they say they used for the original, not the one you linked. They do link the other one as "original" to look more impressive. The coloring is cool but it's not really much better that the original imo. Sharper edges tho. *edit* It does add some detail but it's spotty on what it decides to enhance. This is the first frame.

Saw this yesterday somewhere, and it's absolutely amazing. The grading is a little curious, but the digital restoration is superb. I guess it could be upressed to 8k too, if necessary.

Re: ProRes ... most productions (TV shows and films) that shoot on an Alexa... shoot on ProRes.

I bought it for ProRes, so it isn't crazy to use it for that. You get a lot more card space shooting ProRes as well. But I already own a raw camera, so the raw video on the Micro didn't mean so much. Kelvin temperature is pretty simple. Set it to the temperature of your light source and you will be damn close. Sunlight is 5600 Kelvin. Artificial light is around 3200... depending on the type of bulb. This is good for you. You're too talented to set everything to Auto all of the time. 😎

No, there is no custom white balance so as @mercer says, you'll have to do it by eye. The manual gives you the ballpark ranges for different light sources. https://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/UserManuals/BlackmagicCinemaCamerasManual.pdf They suggest to pick from 2500, 2800, 3000, 3200, 3400, 3600, 4000, 4500 and 4800K for indoor/artificial light so if this is for a repeatable test setup then I'd be inclined to shoot a couple of seconds at each one then eyedrop the colour of the grey card in whatever editor you're using to determine which one has the most neutral RGB values for your lighting setup.

Idk if you can do a custom WB on the Micro, so I just always used the Kelvin temperature. Since navigating the menus can be a chore on the Micro you can set it at 4400 for raw 3:1 and then change it up or down as needed in post. Even ProRes files are hefty enough to give you some wiggle room in post, but it's probably best to get it relatively close. But you can keep it simple... 5600 for daylight and 3200 for artificial light. You can also shoot your grey card and then temporarily crop to just the grey card, in post, and adjust your WB until the dot on the vectorscope is dead center on the cross... uncrop and voila perfect WB.

Yeah the prices of some are just plain silly. There is a bit of myth/legend about the first FD 24 1.4 though. I guess they probably did not make too many of them and while optically the same (I think) the first version has an extra blade so i guess many of those are really for collectors now. Then there is the fact that no one else made a 24 1.4 for a very long time (even now there are not that many....just the 2 FD versions, the 2 EF Canon versions, 1 Nikon, 1 Sigma and 1 leica (edit and the new Sony) and maybe one or two others at most and most of them have come in the last 10 to 15 years or so). I really did love the 50 1.2 L but I like the Sony Zeiss 55 1.8 even more though I still regret selling the FD 50 L. I wish my 85 did not have the dissolving bearings thing too and I think the three lens set of FD Ls 24/50/85 is pretty special still and differs from any other legacy lens set in all having those large hand ground aspheric elements. A few more from the 24 (the first stopped down a fraction, the second wide open as is the third)

No worries. Sometimes I wonder if ZachGoodwin is a real boy or a character someone has created. With that said, I'll play along... I think the point of the "hometown" documentary was supposed to be a simple assignment to get you working on a quick and small film. So, I wouldn't worry too much about the demise of the project. But if there is a business or even an interesting person that would allow you to make a film about them and it intrigues you, then go for it. I think the greater point you need to think about is that a filmmaker needs a film to make to be a filmmaker. I always thought you wanted to be a narrative filmmaker, so why not spend your time making 60 second short films? Write it, cast it, shoot it and edit it. Then wash, rinse, repeat. Good luck.

Makes sense considering that we have corroborating evidence of camera company dysfunction thanks to hidden camera footage brought to us by this channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwxgo62w72LxZDA1fTibdYg

They are Exposure Pres, conversions made with the same interpolation system as the other conversions (converting color in the mix). Its a lot of fun to use in conjunction with the conversion. The P4Ka workflow video shows it in action in Resolve, though it applies to every NLE (and the Posts, which are an essential part of the picture): They may be stacked in order of greatest to least, and all may be used in conjunction with gain key/opacity to dial in an exact value (Post or Pre).

A monitor causes extra moire effects because of the pixel grid