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I’m excited - got my camera cage sorted and ready to go!

Our avid action choreographer and director @hmcindie has done several high paced pieces. Many of them were some of my favorite posts for showing off a variety of cameras. Now one with the original Canon EOS R, testing its capabilities and showcasing the skills of the filmmakers. Awesome indie stuff. Interesting enough that this footage looks more compelling than Canons official footage for their new R5 and R6. This is a rolling shutter test par exellence. And great proof of handheld skills. No overheating camera, just heat of the action!

Again I'm not so much interested in the personal or individual targets (just examples to illustrate a wider point)... I am sure she is a success at what she does. But Mediocrity is the new gold standard it seems. The most successful and highest watched are those who have put the most vapid eye candy on social media and marketed themselves most effectively. And it's all very middle class. Whilst the actual interesting voices, the ones without so many sponsors or the backing of a corporation to gain them attention, go wasting away and eventually will give up because the system is rigged against them from the start. Have you walked around the streets of Berlin recently and seen for yourselves how many Kim Kardashian bozos there are driving around in big expensive cars their Kayne West husband bought for them, off the back of his 'how the hell did that make money' bozo business idea? Our culture is going to shit and we casually excuse it every day.

No one knows what's going to happen with Olympus, but I'd just like to give context that makes sense to me. Many other companies are also in trouble for three major reasons: Phones provide "good enough" quality for most people with easy sharing abilities since most people don't print anymore Most people don't want to carry an extra device for making photos or videos Although cameras keep getting better, the human eye is not; hence, there are so many awesome options out there for great quality, even on the ever-growing used market (crazy deals!). You can talk all you want about megapixels, 8k/12k RAW, etc. but this fact remains. Olympus Imaging accounts for only 5.5% of the total company's business, contrary to other companies like Nikon, Sigma, Leica, Hasselblad and Blackmagic who are seemingly much more imaging-centric companies. Olympus has about 40,000 employees and a fraction of them are involved with imaging. Here are some other companies for context: Canon (200,000), Fujifilm (32,000), Nikon (25,000), Sony (114,000), Blackmagic (600), Sigma (1,135), Panasonic (273,000), Ricoh (98,000), Leica Camera (1,800), Hasselblad, part of DJI (660). Many of these companies are dealing with significant losses in profits due to the current trends and economic situation. All of the companies are dealing with year-over-year market shrinkage to the tune of greater than 50%. That’s huge. Of the companies above, only the ones that adapt to the market trends will be around in 10 years or they’ll have to foot the bill in terms of losses in imaging (not likely?). I would say Olympus management inspires confidence in that they’re being proactive. They will be selling their imaging business (highly likely) and JIP will have to either adapt it to make it profitable, shut it down or sell it again. My guess is the following: JIP will take it over, hire consultants and market analysts to identify a profitable future and in what markets they can compete. This will mean they’ll cut a lot of jobs (not necessarily a bad business thing if you’re trying to adapt). The end result will be a much more efficient company with a brand-new, modern factory in a low-cost country (Vietnam, not China-bonus). That is not such a bad position. They'll either sell it back to Olympus or Olympus imaging will become its own company. This will be the best scenario in my mind. The worst scenario is that they cannot make it profitable and they’ll try to sell or shut it down. In all cases, we still have fantastic Olympus gear with an amazing selection of lenses. I don't think they're going to strip the company of its patents and sell the Olympus name to the highest bidder- it's simply not going to happen. The Japanese are too proud to let that happen to a household name like Olympus (who's not even that invested in the imaging business). Given current market trends, I have doubts about a brighter future than Olympus imaging for some of the companies above. The catchy headlines of “Olympus has fallen” are not the entire truth, but time will tell.

Hi there, @SRV1981 Yes, you are in the right forum. You should be able to create videos similar to the ones that you linked to using FCP, Keynote, and your Sony a7 III and the Tamron 28-75 lens. I don't think you need a wider lens unless the room you are going to film in is very small. Ideally, you would move the camera further away from you and zoom in instead. If you are close and zoom out to wide angle, then you can often see wider than the background. Also you would want to be far enough away from the backdrop that your shadow doesn't fall on the backdrop. Unfortunately, while the Shure SM7B mic has pretty good audio quality, it is a dynamic mic and is designed to be used VERY CLOSE to the audio source. So for a person, you would place the mic right in front of their mouth. Meaning, while you are on screen talking, the mic would need to be right in front of your face. If you want to emulate the "look" of the three videos you linked to, you would want to use a boom mic with a cardioid pattern (or a shotgun mic on a boom). These mics are designed to be placed about 18-inches away from the speakers mouth. You will need a boom arm and stand to mount the mic. Alternatively, you could use a lapel mic. The lapel mic would be more convenient (especially if you get a wireless lapel mic), but it can be prone to rustling noise if you move and the fabric of your clothing rustles against it. Also you might want to hide the lapel mic. And in general, mics that are boomed overhead have a different sound than lapel mics. I don't know if it is a huge difference in sound or not. The Audient ID14 input looks like it is good for recording sound in to your computer. But is this what you want? To make things as easy as possible, you would want to record the audio in to your camera. If you record the audio separately in to the computer, then later on you will need to sync up the (separately recorded) audio to the video. It's not rocket surgery, but it is more convenient if the audio is recorded directly to your video file. As for lighting, you are probably going to want a key light in a softbox (possibly with a grid), then a fill light, then one or possibly two lights for lighting the green screen evenly. Godox makes several affordable LED lights, and many people use the SL60 if you are going to be filming one person from the waist up. They aren't super powerful, and the fans can be a bit noisy (so you would want a good directional mic to minimize noise from the fans). A step up would be the aputure lights, which are a bit quieter and the color of the light might be slightly better. They are significantly more expensive than the Godox lights, but as they say, you often get what you pay for. My understanding is that a good green screen requires EVEN lighting and you need to remove wrinkles as best as you can. And don't wear green clothing. And don't have green eyes. I would look up tutorials on "Lighting a one person interview" because that is mainly what you will be doing. Same thing for looking up tutorials on audio for a one-person interview. Hope this helps.

Something isn't right because I'm not the only one to experience the 'dark side' of Blackmagic. Strange shills that come out of the woodwork on my forum during big releases. Anonymous email spam about Blackmagic news. Even though I have bought almost every BM camera at some point or another... For some reason I never felt valued as a Blackmagic customer, more like used. Used for publicity and a guinea pig early adopter, a beta tester. Waiting ages for pre-orders. Black hole where sun should be. Dreadful card compatibility. Dust and debris on sensor of brand new cameras. Scuffs on the body. May as well have bought used. But if you think support is bad wait till you deal with a certain Mr Patrick Hussey (big boss of communications in the UK and Europe). Never felt so disrespected in my life and this is from a guy's whose actual job description is to look after the press and reviewers! Bought the original BMCC, original Pocket too, the new 4K, and the 6K... that is 4 cameras and thousands of quid! And yet still this wasn't anywhere near enough to generate any positive support or acknowledgement from the company or representatives, even though some of the staff and John Brawley used my forum to discuss and promote Blackmagic while taking my money at retail! Don't get me wrong. I am all for camera companies speaking direct to users. But I think if Blackmagic staff are going to use this forum to promote their products and engage with customers, the very least they can do is OK it with me first and get on good terms. Otherwise, what's in it for me? They are looking like heroes, getting on the publicity and adulation, whilst I sit here ignored with my stack of broken Blackmagic cameras. I think using this platform for promotional purposes, whilst not giving me (actual buying customer) the time of day, is disgraceful ethics. I have since come to the conclusion that they don't even care. In my opinion the core of the company in Melbourne is a great engineering led team, seems very innovative, but the camera design side (ergonomics) needs massive improvement, the production (build quality) and shipping quantities need to be in a different league for them to challenge RED, Sony, Canon, ARRI, and support needs to improve big style before I buy another BMD camera. Purely in my opinion, Grant Petty needs to delegate more and to better people, and sort the marketing department out so that it doesn't add insult to injury for a customer who bought 4 dodgy cameras in a row (me).

Getting away from the personal, and from individuals we don't know, we should be talking about the general phenomena instead. It's much more interesting. Since when did people become so infatuated with brand ambassadors instead of filmmakers. Peter McKinnon probably has more followers than Roger Deakins. When I criticise a popular YouTuber it's treated like blasphemy. We are living in a dystopia where Jesus is Kayne West, the Virgin Mary is Kim Kardashian and the religion is consumer goods. So just as the wider general public are enthral to these lifestyles, camera nerds are to Peter McKinnon's "filmmaking" 😂

Dont forget to get the sylvester stalone biceps accessoire. But seems like an reasonable result, i have done a ump rig on a dji ronin with extended arms. But was quite the drag setting it up and also the weight of the rig itself, good for a couple of shots. But for a 4 hour shoot, you def need an easyrig.

8K RAW frame grab, shot with animal eye AF.

I was thinking of gathering the most dramatic and moody shots from my old Berlin pieces and editing them together back to back with new 2020 shots. The beautiful empty haunting Spreepark with the old rusting rides before it was neutered and sanitised, prepped to become an 'eco park'. The empty spaces, in contrast to the rammed streets now and visual shit in every corner (e-scooters, adverts the size of buildings). The eccentricity of earlier shots, the minimalism and the kind of personalities I saw on the streets, in contrast to the uniform start-up scene joggers and Kardashian wannabes that populate the streets now with their identical Instagram face mask make-up and sunglasses. It is social engineering basically. When you select for the most lucrative rental contracts, the city becomes an office and a shop, but the empty spaces die taking the ghosts with them and all that's interesting outside of commerce.

I think you've hit the nail on the head. They are so relentless, so dominant, so hungry and take up so much attention and real estate that the intelligent and artistic minority are squeezed like never before and will soon vanish completely from our cities. And the same is happening online. The reason I don't shoot Berlin vignettes and mood pieces any more is that there is no mood, no beauty to it. The place is being wreaked. Everywhere is.

Purely anecdotal and no exactly a controlled test but might be of interest regarding cooling in general with regard to the Sigma fp. I took this picture during side by side comparison test between a Sigma SD-Quattro and a few other cameras last year. All of the other cameras were OK (it was still rather than video after all) but the heat triggered a hitherto unknown (to me at least) temperature alarm in the SD Quattro and it shut down but it recovered after a few minutes. The Foveon sensor cameras do run warm so it wasn't completely unexpected but maybe points to why Sigma were so particular about the cooling for the FP not just to handle RAW video but also for when they put a Foveon sensor stills camera in the same body in the future. I might go and re-do this with the fp in video mode to see the difference but its a rather chilly 35c here today so I'll have to wait for warmer weather 😉

I guess that sums it up for me. There are three kinds of customer service: - The "Outsourced Human FAQ" where they pay pennies to some overseas company to basically regurgitate readily available information from their own website/forums. - The "Legitimate Access to Truly Knowledgeable Humans" where you might have to wait longer in the queue but once you talk to someone the problem is going to be solved...no matter what. - The "Indifferent and Understaffed Approach". The overwhelming feeling once you're done dealing with this form is that you feel like YOU have been a headache and have wasted THEIR time. The top one never makes me mad. I get it, I might not get the answer I want but at least I can get a swift RMA or return going. The bottom one (which Blackmagic seems to employ in my limited experience) is beyond frustrating because you get the sense that...they have your money and now they don't care. All I know is that the market for this camera is going to be small and the customer service WILL be a breaking point for some people...because RED's is heavenly in comparison. I have my RED reps number in my phone and I can text him when I need something. He responds within like...a minute. It's awesome. It's an awesome buying experience and they are good the whole way through. Almost like they are overstaffed with people that know the cameras well and seem to care about their job. Blackmagic was like calling a Hobby Store in your local town. That feeling when you're fully prepared for the person on the other end to say "no". Whatever the question is that you're going to ask, you just already know what their answer is going to be. You can sense the amount of help you're about to receive. I dunno, maybe the American branch is just that way? I can't say, it's just not ideal and NOT helpful at all. I wanted a simple answer, the simplest...when might the cameras start shipping? Her - "We don't have that information." Me - "Really? Like, not even a ballpark? Q3, Q2 2021?" Her - "I can't say." Me - "It IS going to ship at some point though, yes? You're allowed to say that the answer isn't "NEVER", right?" Her - "You'll have to email support." Me - "Your customer service is atrocious" Her - "Anything else?" Like...I'm exaggerating it a bit but that was about 90% of the gist. I was pretty upset since I just dropped $10K on their product and that's the best they can muster. My first reaction to hanging up the phone was like "Fuck this...I'm cancelling". If it's that bad for trying to get a simple answer of when the cameras might ship, what happens if I actually need something?

I personally agree that exposure is not really an issue. I'm used to using a light meter or a grey card and false color with the Digital Bolex or Fuji X-T3, and for the most part that can be done with the fp. Highlight clipping is more tricky though. Sorry if the topic has been derailed. I was originally commenting on what the external raw recording may bring to the table as far as more accurate monitoring, and how that may relate to the "none" picture mode. If you want I can post on the other thread instead. I did also mention that people are creating great images with this camera. I saw some of your gorgeous images. Regardless of its quirks when it comes to color workflow, it has a lot going for it. It just depends on the context. I work in film post production and so maybe I'm being too demanding as far as what I expect from this camera, but it seems close to usable in that context. What I'm actually advocating is something much more simple and robust than the rather complex ideas that I see people posting using the log curves of other cameras, which are not necessarily technically accurate workflows anyway. But I understand people need to fill in workflow gaps.

So, it arrives today, and this thing is mint. Not a scratch anywhere. It's identical to my Sankor 16C, but in much better condition. Going to do a flare and sharpness test later.

Pure dross Got to like this comment though 🙂

Blackmagic's IR pollution is not a color science issue and it's not a complicated issue at all. The IR filter they use over the sensor (it is the same one in all models) does not do a strong IR cutoff so that you get more "pure" color. As you add ND filter and use full spectrum IRND ones, in theory you shouldn't get IR pollution. The reason you get some is IRND are not perfect and the blackmagic IR cut filter is a touch too weak. Also in most scenarios without ND the IR pollution is fine but under strong hot lighting like tungsten, IR can show up even without ND. Blackmagic is very stubborn on this issue and it's something you have to accept. They won't change. One other issue is that the speedbooster manufacturers and others have claimed that the glass that blackmagic uses for their IR cut is too thin and creates focusing and Chromatic aberration problems as well. That's why ever blackmagic camera with a speedbooster has always had to have a custom designed one. A lot of BM users rock IR cut for every shot or even use internal IR cut replacements like the rawlite OLPF.

Just look at what JIP did with the Vaio laptop brand, and you get an idea of the future of Olympus' cameras and lenses. The future cameras and lenses won't even be called Olympus because JIP didn't acquire the right for that name, but only "Pen" and "OM-D" without any other brand name. I bet almost any price that they will slap these brands on rather generic Chinese cameras and lenses like the Xiaomi MFT camera and lenses.

Very good example of it

If it were, the AF would be contrast-detect only; the Z5's AF looks to be phase-detect.

so true, it is so difficult to get good talent, usually is expensive and not affordable, but sometimes you are lucky and you are able to catch one or two who really make the difference.

I do something very similar. My set up is a BMp4k (Prores 422) with a Rode lav microphone (soon to be replaced by a Sennheiser wireless lav) and BlindSpot Gear lighting. I have two LED panels which sit one each side and slightly above head level - one is slightly brighter just to give a bit of depth. The third light is behind the speaker (at the side of my green screen) and gives the hair a highlight. I find that in FCP all I need to do is use the “key“ feature and it simply works (unlike Resolve in which I struggle to get the key to work as easily). It’s not best practice but space limitations mean I have to stand close to the screen - it still works! I built a holder for an iPad which I mount just above the lens. I put my text into Keynote (PowerPoint) and use a Bluetooth remote. Eye “contact” is not as good as an Autocue but it works absolutely fine. (I also do this using an ATEM mini and record the hdmi output to a Video Assist which, again, is simple to use and works well. This setup is slightly more convenient to use because it’s all set up on my desk). Ok, it’s not the BBC but I find the setup is very effective. (I should add that I have no formal idea what I’m doing but it really does work!)

Great job controlling the rolling shutter. I find IS lenses help. Which lens did you use on this? This is really encouraging as I’m looking to shoot action on my R too. Nice edit points within the action. And I liked that it was tight, emphasised the speed. Thanks for sharing.

Wow... choreo... I can never get my actors to also do the stunt work.... fight scene fine... flipping to the ground... no no... Where’d you get these guys... that’s what I wanna know.

In the Camera RAW settings in Resolve, you can do the subsampling from 12k to 8k, 4k or even 2k. Is Blackmagic doing Oversampling in the Resolve and in camera it is a different type of math? We may see a quality difference when comparing the two methods (in Camera and in Resolve). Subsampling to 2k looks to be straight averaging so that should look about the same in camera or in Resolve. Because it is not an even ratio of RGB pixels when going from 12k to 4k, the subsampling conversion should benefit from doing advanced math to get the most out of the subsampling process as you are turning a 36 pixel 6 x 6 group of pixels in to 4 pixels. There is a lot of data to work with and maybe simple math, if that’s all that is available in camera, won’t be a big difference when going from 12K to 4k in camera vs in Resolve, if the math is different in camera vs in Resolve. For the 12k to 8k subsampling coversion it is a 2.25 ratio so you are going from 36 to 16 pixels. I would expect to see the most difference between capturing at 12k and subsampling to 8k in Resolve vs subsampling to 8k in camera and creating a 8k BRAW file, if the math is different in camera vs in Resolve. If the subsampling math is simpler in camera, I expect the 12k to 8k in Resolve subsampling to look better. It is possible that they may look very similar now and eventually look better in Resolve when higher math options are available. Testing and time will tell.

I'd search youtube for green screen lighting tips. As Mark mentioned, it needs to be well lit and even with no wrinkles. Plus there needs to be some distance between you and the screen, otherwise the edges around you don't key out very easily. A lot of the issues people have are from inadequate lighting and standing too close to the green. Good luck. Chris

Not an absolute recommendation as I don't personally own one but you might want to look at companies like Elecrow who make slim portable monitors that can be powered by USB or mains. They have a whole range of them but this 15.6 inch one might suit your needs and definitely suits the budget ! https://www.elecrow.com/elecrow-mf156-15-6-inch-full-hd-1920x1080p-touch-screen-portable-ips-gaming-monitor.html They are primarily for gaming or as additional screens for laptops etc so you won't get any monitoring tools and the brightness of 400 cd/m might not be optimal for you but as a budget option it might be worth looking at. If you can live with a 10.1 inch screen then the Feelworld FW1018 might be worth a look as it has focus peaking and is 800 cd/m https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1473463-REG/feelworld_fw1018v1_10_1_ips_4k_hdmi_camera.html/overview Its certainly more made for the job and has SDI inputs as well as HDMI but you are then into 12v power too so that is something to bear in mind and at that size it will likely be less useful doing double duty as an extension PC monitor.

The 4k 120fps out of the URSA G2 should be added to that list.

Unless you have lots of Nikkor glass I think this will all be too late for this years camera wars. Assuming the R5/6 stack up in real life and the Sony A7S3 delivers, Nikon looks a distant third this time round.

excellent work, amazing how good was the action scene, congrats to the director and choreographer, what could be even better?, another video showing how he made it!!!

The EOS R is very capable and underrated by many. I have had alot of fun with it as a hybrid. C100Mk2 + 4k capability. Nice work.

But then you need one set of lenses for full frame photos, one for crop video... Anyway hope the OP has enough to chew on to make their own decision

Wow, I bought Fishtank years ago on DVD. And didnt keep the directors name in my head. Now, you putting it back in there. Thanks. What a cool forum this is. And what an awesome thread. Classic!

Seems crazy to have a second native ISO, but not two accurate light meter readings, one for each.

@Super8 final warning. Behave or it's over. Full IP address level blocking and ban. Topic after topic ending in You vs 10 others.

More amazing shots...

This stuff just writes itself . . .

Neither. That's the problem. If you expose according to meters at 3200, you're actually two stops under. You will only see that when you import the CinemaDNG footage into Resolve. And "Profile off" doesn't help with that or change it in any way, unfortunately. That's why I wrote that we're talking past each other. The only workaround is to set the camera to ISO 800, meter, and then crank ISO up to 3200 while leaving aperture and shutter speed unchanged. But then you have a 2 stops overexposed camera display, no matter whether you're internally or externally monitoring. That's why I said that a custom LUT that pushes down external HDMI monitor display by 2 stops might be a workaround (but not really, since everything that will be clipped in the ISO 3200 preview display will still remain visually clipped.)

I work on productions every month with cameras that are $10K ish plus. And I don't see myself as particularly abnormal, I'm not someone working exclusively on fancy film sets, lots of my shoots I'm on are still very low budget / indie. Exactly x2 But owning the camera isn't what @thebrothersthre3 was talking about, he said "there are a lot of people on this forum that work for production companies that use 10k plus cameras or rent 10k plus cameras for projects" when you replied to that with your 1% claim.

I have noticed this in a couple of comparisons between BM and Alexa. This is one: This is another: (The shots by the window show the window frame to be very green on the Alexa). Both tests were shot by professional DPs, so I can't imagine that they both screwed up in the same way. Of course you can fix these things in post, but it's interesting to note.

I might end up getting the P6K before it's all said and done. I don't know. The technical issues of Gen3,4,5 color worries me. Maybe @John Brawley can tell me how bad P6K color is in certain areas and how to avoid color issues. With BM I'm not looking for Sony color or Nikon color or even Canon color. I want cine color because that's what's advertised. If not BM my next camera will be above $10K if the lower priced cine cameras are filled with issues and if they all play games with the cripple hammer. I have a feeling you can't get a good cine sensor under $10K.

I don't understand your comment. In the US southeast it's 94 degrees today. In the US western states such as Las Vegas NV it was 108 degrees today. Most of the US has the dog days of summer so any camera if fair game to overheat and have to own that overheating.

I did say this: John does great wonderful work. I have no problem with saying that. His blog post about the BM12k was great and I said that. Magenta cut on his footage is not great. The "first thing a camera should do is make fantastic pictures".

I love that he keeps sweating. Lol I'm surprised the G7 overheated. I would love to see this test with the current 4K FF mirror less cameras other than the A7III. Sony A7III lasted 5 minutes at 4K. That's about what my A6500 would last after the first shut down.

This is from BM BMUM12K page. "The IR filters have been designed to filter both optical wavelengths and IR wavelengths evenly to eliminate IR contamination of the images from which many ND filters can suffer." Everyone is talking about the BMUM12K getting BM into big production theatricals and taking productions from RED. I'm pulling for them but you can't have magenta cast issues when you have specific built in ND's that are suppose to eliminate IR contamination. BM is basically saying "look we addressed this" and then it shows up in promoted test footage. Yes skin tones look the best every from a BM camera. From a BM camera is key. Color balance affects everything. This video does not have magenta cast in the black grey areas. It starts with GH5 footage and then shows shots from the P4K - Gen4 and Gen5 color. Great information about Gen4 / Gen5 and another color issues is discussed.

No one complained but you because you thought we were. The points made were all about improving BM place in the market for high end productions. Sorry but looks matter. Image also matters. It's is odd that BM always touted specs and not image. Now they are touting both. I dig it. It makes people ask what's under the hood.

I agree about the body of the BM12K. They need to stop messing around with the weird design looks and innovate the body so it appeals to RED users or anyone else. If you spend 10K on a camera body in 2020 it should at least look as good what RED produces.

At 01:24s his hair does not have a magenta color to it. In the video it has a light cast. The same with the first scene, girl with the black top and at 01:42s, her hair is a dark brown. The next scene at 01:44 you don't see magenta cast in her hair. It's there when you know black should not have a magenta tone at all.

Easy to forget that one.