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Metabones recently announced the long-awaited Canon EF mount Speed Booster Ultra for Fuji X, which will be one of the must-have accessories for X-T4 owners. This will have support for phase-detect AF and incorporates Caldwell Optics advanced 5-element ultra-high index tantalum optics. The Caldwell Optics focal reducer remains the best you can get. In this New blog post: https://www.eoshd.com/news/the-big-eoshd-interview-metabones-lens-adapters/

I actually helped develop this mic over a year ago when I had a meeting with Andrew from Deity. I was sharing how I really hated how muffled audio sounded when talking behind camera for vlogs. I wanted a solution and they delivered. Not only does the mic have two mics on it... but you get an input that allows for a lav or other audio source to feed into your camera or recorder. The Rode Wireless GO is perfect for it and can clip right onto the Rycote mount. Just wanted to share these vids with you guys. Jeven and I are the only people who have posted hands on reviews so far... IDK if we are the only ones who got them or what... but this $89 mic is well worth the $$ in my opinion.

Don't want to sound like a dick but what's with the picture covers on youtube? Everybody does the same thing. Funny face and the product smashed in front of it. Is there an agreement on this or just an established trend?

I've got quite a few Metabones products and don't disagree necessarily but its difficult to be definitive in this particular case when they don't make a comparable medium format reducer product for any format. It would be good if Metabones did provide Baveyes with some competition for these products as the price is pretty steep in Europe at least, though whether this price reflects it being a thus far niche product or Kipon having a monopoly is up for debate. I've seen quite a few reviews of the Baveyes MF reducers on Sony A series cameras but not on the SL but I think someone on here has done some stuff with one on an S1 or S1H but I can't remember what thread its in. The one Andrew has is actually mine (long story!) so I'm looking forward to seeing how it fares once this COVID-19 travel situation eases and we can meet up on a bridge somewhere in Berlin and do the hostage exchange for the Contax Zeiss lens of his that I'm holding Ah, OK Apologies.

Ah, OK. Apologies.

Part 2 is up. https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2020/06/the-great-flange-to-sensor-distance-article-part-ii-photo-cameras/

When I started out, I had barely any budget for lights and bought 3 X 800w redheads for £120. They sparked when I plugged them in, burnt my hands and melted all my gels in like 2 minutes. But they played a huge role regardless. Since I’ve only had pretty expensive lights... Dedolight, Kino Flo and Lupolux to name a few. But as I’m now on the search for a very portable setup, couldn’t resist seeing what’s super dirt cheap and actually decent for a bit of fun. Cane across a brand called GVM (rather humorously called Great Video Maker). They make RGB Panels (like the 50RS) for hardly any money and only seeing very positive reviews. Tempted to try one for a laugh. What other dirt cheap lights do you use that are actually good?

lol no offense taken. I understand. I’ve texted this myself and statistically I get higher click through rate when my face is on the thumbnail as well as when there is a more intense expression. It doesnt translate well here because the image is so large... but on a youtube home feed it can help make your video stand out. Correct it works. I’m sorry you hate it. YouTube is filled with a bunch of adhd tweens who just click on the first shiny thing they see. Ya it really is. It gives you a lot of extra flexibility for a marginal difference in price.

It would be amazing if Metabones did a speedbooster to compete with the Kipon ones, but ideally made it 0.64x or 0.58x to make better use of the 645 imaging circle. The current price of the SL to Mamiya 645 version isn't that bad in Amazon UK, compared to the prices on ebay at least (where you have to order from China). Here it is: https://amzn.to/3dOKTUK The test I did with the Kipon on the S1H is in the thread below. I mentioned the speedbooster was a bit soft with the Mamiya 80mm wide open at f1.9, but have since discovered that it's actually the lens that is soft, not the speedbooster:

It works. I hate it and I refuse to click on baity videos, I can't stand it. I'll have to check this mic out, sounds interesting. I love my ride video micro, sounds so good for what it is.

Yes, I’m aware of the Kipon! I’ll be holding out a while longer to see if Metabones offers a comparable product. From the limited review knowledge out there, the Kipon is very good but not without distortion. I also have extreme respect for Metabones’ locking mount variants. It doesn’t matter how good your optics are if the adapter wiggles, and a locking mount aim the adapter is the only way to guarantee full stability.

Kipon's Baveyes reducers are available in SL mount for Mamiya 645, Pentax 645, Hasselblad V and Pentax 6x7 https://www.adorama.com/l/Photography/Lenses/Kipon~Lens-Mount-Adapters?sel=Camera-Fitting-lrbr-Male-rrbr_Leica-L I'd probably expect a review of the Mamiya 645 version on here before long by @Andrew Reid

Legendary screen writer/director Paul Schrader updated his book 'Transcendal Style' a few years ago. Would recommend looking up the book and his opinions on slow cinema etc... https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.indiewire.com/2018/05/paul-schrader-non-narrative-film-diagram-lynch-kiarostami-ozu-1201966364/amp/ Sometimes the academic discourse around this genre can be more enticing than the films themselves. (Bela Tarr comes to mind)

I have not, will check them out. Well I was hooked on the trailer for the cinematography, so this might be the case here. By B-roll I mean the the shots where there are no actors involved, like following a part of a train, or a piece of car. There is a lot of voice over on this movie and it is always on those parts. Yeah I need to finish it, its good news that the first half is meant to be incoherent, maybe I will like it better by the end. (I think I was at the part where he was lost in the cave, with the ping pong battle, which was quite weird as well, and not sure why the film needed these scenes).

Started watching long days journey into night yesterday, did not finish yet. But I expected more though. I like the long one angle camera scenes, but there are far too many long B-roll shots with an voice over(which comes across a bit lazy) and I feel a lot of scenes could have been cut entirenly(or maybe im not far enough into the story to understand). But the film is not an easy sit through as I was confused a couple of times, but not the kind of confusion memento gives for example. But great cinematography and the cast is great also, this kind of filmmaking does require a cast that can hold its own, but I guess I am a bit lost at the storytelling itself. You could check "Too Old to Die Young" which has similar long shots, but was for me anyways an easy sit through. I also like what the safdie brothers are doing. (good time, uncut gems) They have this raw energy thing going for them.

your right, a quick look for np battery lists alot of options for cheaper and more expensive. it could soon turn into a real rabbits warren. I have to confess i'm nearly sold on the smallrig setup. Admitably more pricey than your suggestion, i feel the metal base with the mounting options and the dummy battery gives one a lot of flexibility.

This seems like a brilliant idea. Never would've thought about it myself. Don't tempt me, man!

A quick google search has that smallrig np battery holder on preorder for $ 95 aus from the videoguys. I like it, if i bought the dc cables from bmd thats about the same price. With the smallrig option everything's done for you, hard to screw it up and fry your pk4/6 with the smallrig as opposed to three sets of power cables from bmd but maybe, its the way i think. Nice that your get a dummy battery as well with the smallrig. interesting video, once i saw the battery door come off, i just had to try it 😀 i also like the idea of hanging it off the opposite side to the of the grip as the p4k tends to be lopsided once its on the rails having the battery there may rebalance it. not really a fan of half cages they just look like a job half done... the full cage looks much nicer, again probably my thinking.

I still have not used it for any serious portraits though have taken a couple of quick snaps of people but mostly too quick to get focus right (one woman was fine for me to shoot her and her kid but the kid wanted to do other things). As I said, the minimum focus is a bit long so I have been thinking about using a very short extension tube with it. The Sony Tubes i have include a 10mm one but that is too long. That got me looking for shorter extension tubes and all i can find are 7mm and 8 mm but none in either FD mount or Sony E mount. Next thought was to look for one of these lenses in a mount that there ARE shorter tubes available (Nikon has a 8mm tube as do some others) so I started looking for other copies of the lens in different mounts (there is a Pentax one in Germany listed as good and there is one in the US but i think it is also FD and the condition is unknown). Another reason for a different mount is I am a bit wary of the older FD mount being easier for a lens to fall off (not the New mount) and my lens is the older type. Given how good my copy is (and how cheap it was) though I guess I should stay with it so my latest idea is to buy a FD lens to EF adapter and remove the glass from that and mount it in a EF to E adapter so that should give me something like a 2mm extension tube which might be pretty close to perfect for me (IE just a bit shorter minimum focus and not losing too much for distances I am likely to use it at). The lens is ok at infinity but not something I would really want to use it for and it is a portrait lens for me Anyway, i have just ordered the FD to EF adapter so shall see how it goes when it gets here.

IMHO, nothing beats the Godox SL60W if you want a cheap light with good light quality/color rendition, and one that works like a proper film light (with optional fresnel lens, beauty dish, soft box) which can be used as both a hard and a soft light. So far, it has completely been in a budget-vs-quality league of its own, like only few other pieces of video gear. (Others would, for example, be the Canon EOS-M with MagicLantern RAW, the Rode Video Micro and the Sigma 17-50mm/2.8 zoom lens).

Interesting article, thanks! I can definitely say that I've had to manually shim, rebuild, or otherwise adjust a number of vintage lenses. This becomes problematic depending how many different bodies and adapters you want to use the lens on, though. If the adapter has optics (speedboosters), they often can be adjusted. Since I'm dealing with dramatically smaller volumes of gear than Lens Rentals, I'm doing all of this purely by hand and by eye, so I really don't know any of the measurements or which piece of gear is out of spec - I'm just making it all focus correctly (hard-stop manual focus lenses stop at infinity), starting with one setup that works as a reference and just matching everything to it.

No less technical just from some other complementary side of same neighbourhood:

Thank you! I now switched from NX1 to X-T3 to X-T4.

Or "8 1⁄2" as it's known in English speaking countries. It still feels fresh today, perhaps because the ways in which it bends the familiar rules of narrative have already been absorbed and reproduced in popular culture. You could make a link between Fellini's film and the original self-referential and rule breaking masterpiece, Laurence Stern's 1759 "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman". People have been playing with conventions for a long time, are doing it right now and will continue to do so. Don't disregard contemporary experimental cinema as too obscure, because this is where it's all happenning. It requires a rewiring of your brain, but once rewired it's a joyride. The vast majority of film festivals pander to mainstream tastes. And it's difficult to sit and watch cutting edge experimental stuff at home. I like a screening environment where you sit amongst other people and watch something from start to finish. I had my mind blown at Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin.

One ultra-modern film for me is "Otto e mezzo" by Fellini. Maybe even more advanced to it's time than 2001 Space Odissey.

Ten years ago I would have said Tim and Eric.

Exactly. I hope they'll continue to develop it and introduce this kind of codecs into their future cameras, as well. Seconding that. To me, Panasonic S1 is a hugely underrated tool. Everyone quickly jumped to the S1H bandwagon and forgot all about the basic model. If I were to upgrade from X-T3, most likely I'd choose the S1.

Just make up something similar and quote from your own "book". The viewers of your production won't know any different and you don't have to worry about any copyright nonsense.