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Gee I don't know what to say. Well certainly thanks is in order. Yeah i missed you guys also. I went though some scary ass medical problems, actually died for a bit, but I guess too mean to die too long so hey here I am. Sepsis shock just about did me in. It knocks you down in just about every organ you have so at my age, nearly 75 now, hard to crawl back, well I never will make it back to what I was, and I have just aged the more since, happens you know. But actually right now I am really not doing too bad. My mother died a few months ago, my one daughter just had double mastectomy with breast cancer, well not much fun not counting this God Damn Pandemic. Just what the hell I needed lol. So I have been sort of out of it for a bit, literally, bummed out for a bit and working my way back. I am reorganizing my camera, video gear for less heft, and a little more creativity. Nobody knows how long you will live but I know I am running out of time so I just want to have a bit of fun while I can. So I came back here to be re educated and reunite with some of my old friends, which I have had very few of in my life. I hope I can contribute a little past knowledge, screw ups and all, plenty of those, and have a few good forward thinking threads evolve. And maybe a few fireworks to add to the fire. Hey I am still Don you know. But yeah I have mellowed a bit trust me. I went out though the tunnel and saw what few have seen and felt, and for the limited time was super peaceful and intriguing. I think I was going up and not down like a lot of people thought would happen. 😬

All this autofocus talk makes me laugh. Other than maybe the latest Canon DPAF 4th gen I would not trust AF if it is an important shoot for nothing. There is no such thing as set it walk away and it will be great. If it can go to shit it will. Even if it drifts out of focus once it is ruined in my mind, just like crappy audio is a total turnoff. If you get the right lens with the right sensor you can cover just about anything in MF. You find the right backdrop to use to mask unwanted distractions. Yeah one man band stuff is hard and most of it looks it. Why do people think you can just take a modern camera and shoot a full length feature film solo on it. The laws of physics have not changed that I know of, They have tape hooks on cine cameras for a reason. DOF charts abound on the web. Some of this stuff just sounds like laziness to me. I have said it 200 times on here. Video is hard as hell to do. Every damn aspect of it is hard. From storyboard to final cut. They have 20 people helping out for a reason. And your going to trust AF on something you probably can never repeat. What if he picks his nose, blows his nose, has a hell of a big nose and turns his head. You can't even use eye focus on a woman with long bangs and other types of long hairdos. Your asking for the impossible with AF. And you are even talking a Panny SIH, a hell of a camera with less than Steller AF. Yikes.

over here we have a small goods manufacturer named don i'm just going to leave the slogan right here. by the way you need to enunciate that with the proper Italian accent.... and welcome back don 😀

Times have changed, I shoot almost exclusively with AF thanks to being farsighted and shooting in the sun a lot - which makes anything outside of the EVF difficult to judge focus. As a solo shooter I can't monitor through the EVF and conduct interviews at the same time. Sony's Real Time Tracking is easily as good and in many cases superior to Canon's DPAF. Its been a game changer for me and has actually sped up my workflow. I can get the shot faster. It can track a subject far better than you can with MF, even with super shallow DOF like with the 50/1.2 or the long end of a zoom lens. I was shooting someone walking down a path with the 200-600 at about 500mm LOL, and it stuck to her like glue. Just awesome. If you haven't used it, you really don't have a leg to stand on with that argument. It reliably sticks to whatever you lock on to, and if there's a face or eye it'll track that with amazing precision, even with things like dogs or birds moving at speeds faster than most can follow manually. If it drifts a bit you can always cover it with Broll or use the drift as an edit point just like you would with any other shot that's out of focus since anybody manually focusing large aperture lenses can't nail focus 100% of the time. And with Sony's new breathing compensation you can easily eliminate any of the background movement as the AF tracks people moving. Its really a thing of beauty. Do I get missed shots because the AF misses, sure, but I get far less than focusing manually. That's saves me time, and time is money for me. I get it, some just don't want to embrace change or new tech, but these are just tools to get the job done and they do a damn fine job of getting the shot. As always YMMV. Cheers Chris

I'll be getting one of the new Macs... once they figure out how to run Linux natively on it and I can erase the whatever Apple OS is on there.

Ahh I was not aware of that, good tip. Doing video is just so addictive. Every shot you have a chance of getting top notch output. A worthy goal for sure. But it can be the most frustrating stuff also in the very next shot. Ehh what a hobby, a profession. Trouble is now as soon as you get good with the camera you upgrade to a better one and start all over.

The 8bit S-Log2 is not going to cut well with the S1H. The differences between the color science and codec are too big. It is possible to match them but takes too much time. Shooting with a deeper DoF with MF is much more doable. If you want a blurrier background, just create as much distance between the subject and the background. The real issue is budget. Within that price range, you can only get 8bit internal, let alone the highly compressed codec, from Sony (or Canon?). I find recording with an external recorder helps a lot, even though the HDMI output may still be 8bit only. But a recorder adds a lot to the cost and for certain Sony cameras, the face detection simply doesn't work with an external recorder.

I wonder why the Canon 5D Mark IV is at number 2? Even for stills, the R5 and R6 are both better. Nikon is not doing well, kind of as expected. It's sad to see. I still remember the days when Canon and Nikon were the most popular brands, but Sony and Panasonic were doing the right things again and again while Nikon waited and did nothing.

Again man, just read what the OP wants and stop focusing on me. The RX0 clearly isn't it because he wants shallower DOF. I just mentioned 10-bit it since he's looking to cut footage with the s1h, 10-bit will give more flexibility in post. And in his words, the GH5 didn't cut it, so your RX certainly wouldn't either. This is the criteria, ignore me and focus on this: "I want another camera to cut to occasionally that is: A - always in focus regardless of how animated the interviewer is. On some focal lengths even at F4 it's possible for an interviewee to lean in and out of focus very easily. B - reasonably shallow DOF so it looks nice and not like a camcorder. C- unmanned. I want to press go and when i come to edit, know it will be in focus. Those three factors mean I need autofocus for that other camera. TBH I think the current fashionable dogma of "REAL film-makers don't use autofocus" comes from a sort of aspirational attitude, wanting to have a big crew etc. It's fine if you have enough people and time, but both cost far more money than gear. In reality I shoot lots of interviews a year often entirely alone. Autofocus would mean I don't have to hire someone else, something that would be prohibitively expensive budget-wise to get someone good. If you are on your own only holding focus on a face while moving, that isn't an "artistic" task. It's a technical one. We are at the point where computers do such tasks very well and will only get better. I have already tried this sort of shoot with a GH5 b-cam and it didn't work. We aren't even talking about razor thing DOF, just not camcorder/mobile-phone deep. And still it always ended up hunting or pulsing at some point, in the end I sold it. Contrast based AF is just not up to the task. That leaves me with Sony or Canon. My only real worry with Sony was cutting their 8-bit 4:2:0 against the S1H 6K 12-bit raw."

Ok so i was out and about this morning when i came across a 5 foot goanna. I have seen him/ her a few times before in the last few weeks. I have a live and let live psychology. If it don't bother me then i don't bother it. The thing about goannas is they can have a very nasty bite. their mouths are kinda like a portable sewer system. Anyway been wanting to get some footage of this guy for awhile. i did pull out the ever handy iphone and filmed some hand held stuff, then i thought it would be a good opportunity to use the new pole and gimbal system and put some space between us, as i felt we'd both be be more comfortable with some room. by the time i got back, only a few minutes later he'd decided disappear. Using it did bring up some unforeseen issues, which i was addressing this afternoon in the work shed. i did upload a 4k for to youtube which brings me to a question is it normal for 4k files to take 5 hours to process ? the file size is about 70 meg which seems a bit odd

Actually, to elaborate on this a bit more, I only get one chance to shoot something. So it's the shot I got, or nothing. In a way this means that I need to be more knowledgeable than a "competent" DP. On a narrative shoot you can just get coverage and sort it out in the edit later, so a DP just shooting coverage doesn't have to know which will be the best angle, they just have to know how to film a range of them. Obviously as time and budget reduce, so does the ability to shoot full coverage and therefore choices need to be made about which angles will be kept and which will be cut from the production schedule, so there's definite judgement in that. Also, as I am shooting my work essentially in POV, I also have less options that are possible, but also less that make sense for what I am trying to achieve, so I'm not having to be everything to everyone in every genre, but I still have one chance to get it right and know how to make these decisions. I also have no notice, much of the time, although my street photography experience of anticipating moments definitely comes in handy here. If anyone knows of resources that talk about the whole end-to-end and talk specifics then I'm super interested in that. You can't learn to bake bread by learning how to grind flour, how to make an oven, how to raise chickens and cows, how to make crockery and cutlery, how to self-publish a cookbook, and how to design a menu for a modestly-priced restaurant. All of these are specialities, no doubt, but when you add them up you're missing the bit in the middle that actually makes the bread.

Well, "on set" is basically me with a camera in hand and a few lenses and spare batteries in a backpack, and happens when I'm out doing something interesting pretty much from the moment I put my shoes on till I take them off at night. The challenge is that I am completely responsible for the film that gets made, from choosing when to film, what to film, how to film it, how to edit it, how to colour it, how to do sound design, and how to ship it (and if I will ship it at all). I'm not responsible for what happens, as I'm videoing what happens on our adventures, but the film part is all me. So there's no anything that isn't me. Which is why I want to understand the whole, which seems to be much more than the sum of the parts. The challenge is in the tangible things that make up the intangible. When I choose to shoot and when I don't has huge impacts to my options in the edit. How I compose a shot will have aesthetic consequences - the use of movement or not and what type and what speed and in what direction will all have an impact on the final edit. How do you hold a camera in a way that says "happy"? How do you move a camera to create serenity? How do you compose in a way that shows chaos? I have some ideas about these questions, but really, I need the answers to about 1000 combinations of these things. There are resources that discuss concepts like this "The Filmmaker's Eye: The Language of the Lens: The Power of Lenses and the Expressive Cinematic Image" by Gustavo Mercado is one such book, literally showing frames from movies under headings such as "Vastness" "Awkwardness" "Suspense" "Shock" "Impairment" "Anxiety" "Wistfulness" etc. But it's a book about lenses and composition, not movement, nor timing, nor editing, nor coverage, nor sound design, etc etc... https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/0415821312/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Luckily I'm not the writer! Life is the writer, and my wife (and the kids to a lesser extent) is the director as she is normally the one that chooses what we'll do and what we'll see. I therefore don't have many issues with writing, continuity, story structure, or other such things, as those are taken care of by reality.

Yes, set electricians (but rarely the gaffer) arm-out lights from C-stands. There are three common methods for arming-out with a C-stand: Mount the item on the grip arm and extend the arm "righty-tighty;" "Cantilever" the grip arm with a ratchet strap or a trucker's hitch; Boom the grip arm, using a sand bag as a counter weight. It depends on the size of the stand and the load to be armed-out. A junior/combo stand will be capable of a larger footprint than a C-stand, and they are much stronger than a C-stand. A typical baby stand might not be as good as a C-stand for this purpose. There are countless ways to arm-out a light, and there are many booms and cantilevers designed especially to do so. It's a large and involved subject. There are just as many ways to suspend diffusion in front of a light. Here is a basic primer on setting C-stands. In my opinion, booming is the best and most versatile way to arm out a fixture with standard gear, but the cantilever method is most often seen on big sets. The problem with the cantilever method is that the strap or trucker's hitch has to be reset every time you want to move/adjust the height/angle/extension of the arm. Since there is always downward stress on that arm, it is a hassle to reset a cantilever. Again, there are plenty of specially made boom rigs that fit on combo stands or C-stands. A popular such rig is the menace arm. Relatively recently, versatile cantilevers rigs have appeared, such as the Matthews Max and Max Mini. By the way, if you are not familiar with the set lighting hierarchy, you should know that there is usually only one gaffer on set. The only exceptions to having more than one gaffer occurs when there is a B-unit or C-unit, or when there is a separate rigging crew. Likewise, there is only one key grip if there is only a single unit and no rigging grip crew. Here are the typical ranks regarding lighting personnel in most big, departmentalized shows with separate electric and grip rankings: GAFFER (Electric Department); - BEST BOY ELECTRIC; - THIRD ELECTRICIANS (usually 3 or more); - KEYGRIP (Grip Department); - BEST BOY GRIP; - GRIPS (usually 3 or more). Essentially, the electricians do anything that directly involves lighting fixtures and power on set. The grips are in charge of "outboard" light controls that do not touch the lights, such as flags, scrims, silks, frames, etc., and they also provide some set rigging for fixtures and set pieces. Grips are also in charge of camera support when it involves a dolly (hence, the dolly grip). Most grips nowadays will dispute that they take orders from the Gaffer in regards to lighting, but it certainly was that way for a long time. Until a few decades ago, there was no such position as a "Best Boy Grip." The "Best Boy" was only a management position in the electric department. Grips eventually realized that they also could benefit from a middle manager.

LOL Nothing better than starting the year to read your posts ;- )

Man, loved your post, that's what makes sense to be here and feel you part of our lives! EAG :- )

I know I am going to piss everyone one off that has commented but to the OP forget all they say and just go out and buy a M1 Mac of some kind and All your troubles will be over with. That is what I did, Long time PC guy, hand built nearly all of them, and said piss on it, bought a base used M1 Mac Mini , a used M1 13" Macbook Pro and hey guess what problem solved. Run Davinci Resolve Studio like it is a hot knife though butter. Piss on any more PC crap. It is all sitting in my closet gathering dust Never to be seen again. Apple Silicon is UBER as hell. I still have a gaming laptop for my online games but that is it. I Even bought a new Ben Q 4k 32" monitor to boot. Shiting in High Cotton as they say and for WAY less money than any PC is going to do.

Overall nicely done but I could have lived without the pulsing lights.

I am also running a Fujinon B4 15x lens with a 2x on it on the BMPCC. The servo actually works on the lens which is a big plus. So it is my poor man ENG rig. Brings back old trimes. Pretty Dope how much reach it can have and how crazy good the optics are on those lenses, not counting being Parafocal. Even at long a distance it can be pretty good using a good fluid head and good tripod which I have. I am using it mostly for birding.

II have a pretty nice setup for the BMPCC, I have a Tilta cage and am running a Zucuto Pro EVF on it and a Rode Pro VideoMic and I use the 12-32mm Panny lens a lot on it. Makes for a pretty small package. The Canon M I use a lot of crazy, had forever, MF lenses of all kinds of brands. Sort of like Mercer, but he has more high end stuff, he is rich, I am not lol.

Well sort of the main thing is having atop the A7s adds to more stable shooting experiences. Also I don't have a 4K recorder for the A7s. So I can have the RX0 II fill that void. Now no way the two cameras match hardly at all. The RX0 is Crazy sharp both in photos and video. I have a Smartphone Gimbal but not suited well for the RXO. And as small as the RXO is it is just about impossible to handhold it and get anything that is useful. The tripod I have even though it is Carbon Fiber weighs a ton so not much into that, and the monopod I have, a good one at that, is still a fail using the RXO. I have a OG BMPCC and a Canon EOS-M also that I use for Magic Lantern. SO I have a pretty crazy mix of stuff that in hardly any way matches. I probably need to sell all of it and buy one great thing and be done lol.

I missed Tokina having a small bump - also interesting. The Angenieux EZ series is pretty interesting. B&H have them listed for USD$14K each. 15-40mm T2 and 30-90mm T2 seem pretty on the money, and 4.7lb 2.2kg each is very reasonable. Apparently this was shot on them.. A quick look through the B&H PL cinema zooms listing shows that Tokina have a bunch of price-competitive offerings, and also that the EZ zooms are faster and cheaper than the Zeiss CZ.2 series which are 28-80mm T2.9 and 70-200mm T2.9 at USD$22K and 15-30mm T2.9 at USD$26K. I'd imagine they'll be very popular. A set of these and a Komodo would be an impeccable image for a very modest price.

Nice little test. If you want an upgrade from that Cosmicar try the Zeiss Tevidon 25mm F1.4. Covers full sensor and has all of the c-mount appeal for around $100.

One last project before the year comes to a close. The original extendable painters pole i bought and modified to fit a crane gimbal is actually too long to fit easily in my vehicle. It would need roof racks to make it more useable or chop it down perhaps. I'm loathe to cut it down. kinda defeats the purpose. However the expense of a nice set of roof racks has that idea on hold for now. About a week ago i bought another shorter pole for $42, with an adjustable head For $24. Still thats easily 2/3 or more, less than a set of roof racks. Today i found some time to have at it, with drills and other sundry equipment. The only thing i'll add is a bike mount phone holder and two 1/4 thumbscrews to make it quicker to assemble / dissemble. The intention is to have it live in the back of my car and if i see something interesting i can pull it out and be ready to go in a couple of minutes. I like the colour, it should prove difficult to lose. I think it extends from about 1.2 to 2.4. Not the longest perhaps, but it should extend my reach and give me another option besides just holding the gimbal at arms reach. I should be able to film some properly cringeworthy footage tomorrow. ok thats about it for now. Happy new year everyone

Sorry to everyone for taking this off topic, but I have to ask something @tupp : Can I interrupt and ask you a question about c-stands??? Since I know you have experience with such things, do gaffers actually hang lights from c stands on grip arms and gobos? I have to ask because so many people on youtube say that the "proper" way to boom lights is use a c-stand and a grip arm, but I have also seen a few people say that is completely wrong. since C-Stands have a narrower footprint than spreader stands are are more likely to tip over (even with sandbags). I thought that most gaffers would mount lights either on a spreader light stand, or if they were to use a C-stand, they would mount the light on on the baby pin of a c-stand, and then use a grip arm on a separate c-stand to hold diffusion in front. I though booming lights was supposed to be done on a light stand with a (counter-weighted) boom arm. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

The konica hexanon 40mm is really really sharp. I used to use it as an anamorphic taking lens but the "dracula's coffin" bokeh is very distracting. Wish it had more blades!

I hadn't heard that about the Miranda. Interesting. I know that some of the Yashica ML lenses were made in the same factory as the Zeiss Contax and supposedly Yashica used some of the Zeiss glass. I have the 50mm f/2 and the 28mm 2.8, but the 50mm 1.7 and the 24mm 2.8 are supposed to be the real jewels. The Cosmicars are nice lenses... I have the 12.5, 25mm, 50mm and the 75mm. I was thinking about getting an FP and hoping that the 50mm would just cover the FF sensor. I also have the 10mm Zeiss Tevidon in the bayonet mount. I bought the c-mount for it but haven't gotten around to installing it yet. My new favorite lens is the older Sigma 50mm 1.4... the EX DG. I've never used the Art version but I hear it's even better. My only issue with it is that the focus ring is horrible. It makes you want to buy the cine version of the lens. Here's a couple test shots from it...

Welcome back Don and a happy new year from us!

Man, film look is all about time (not colour space, resolution, etc.), i.e., shutter speed, people today tend to forget it : ) Reason why the "2021 cameras" smartphones are made by stupid and ignorant manufacturers' developers who don't understand a bit about what they're doing : X Once we're entering in 2022, let's hope one day this will change! ;- )

Here's some a7s color...

Don, I think I got all your points.:) @webrunner5 American West Coast Grunge Music just sounds great. Wonky colours, sure, why not embrace that wonky film emulsions! Your point of view makes me want to browse the vimeo archives for that (in)famous A7s treasures of video with wonky or surprising colour. 🙂

I had a friend who loved engineering and the possibility of things... he'd always be talking about the "potential" of things. I am the opposite, I want potential that is realised. Partly by design, and partly by coincidence, all my cameras have been bought through necessity - the necessity of getting the results I wanted in the conditions that I shoot in. My first camera was a disposable film camera I bought on a trip once, and when some friends asked for copies of several of the shots, I realised I wasn't completely terrible at it. My second camera was a $100 P&S digital camera I bought for my first overseas trip. I knew I would take a lot of photos and so bought that as it would be cheaper than disposable film cameras. ie, the upgrade was based on the situation and previous results. I took lots of great photos with that, and after taking about 30,000 stills all up before I switched to video, a few from it are still in my top 40. But it didn't go wide enough for WOW shots, and sucked in low light. I realised I needed to learn how to stitch images together for the wides, but for low-light I needed a fast lens. My third camera was the GF3, which shot RAW and came with the kit lens and the 14mm f2.5 which helped greatly in low light, and was *just* pocketable. I took it through Europe and the US and Dubai and on full-auto took some spectacular shots, but the colours just didn't pop the way that full-frame cameras do. My fourth camera was going to be a Nikon APSC camera, but ended up being the Canon 700D because my dad had a previous model and gifted me the two kit lenses which he no longer used. This camera was great to use and took wonderful pictures that had the nice canon colours and was much closer to the creaminess of the FF cameras I was chasing. Then came video. Video from the 700D was spectacularly soft, which I realised was not due to the sensor or lenses, and so I learned about scaling and compression and bitrates. Being a well-read stills photographer, I knew two things - you needed Canon colours, and you needed images to be SHARP. They had to CUT YOUR EYES. So, image stabilisation, 4K, Canon colours, and HIGH BITRATES were all requirements, So the XC10 became camera number 5. It was a dream to shoot with, but I realised I didn't love the images. At the time I found the deep DOF to not be to my liking, and I found the colours to be difficult to work with when you treat it like a video camera and put it on auto-everything. I also found the images to be very soft, this is because I was shooting with too little light and it was doing heaps of NR, or too much light and because it couldn't do fast shutter speeds like a hybrid, it would close the aperture down well into diffraction territory. I shortlisted the A73 and the GH5. The A73 had poor codecs and the GH5 had unreliable AF. So I challenged myself and I tried Magic Lantern and the Sigma 18-35, which had the shallow DoF I was chasing, but considering that the setup didn't have any image stabilisation and was terrible in low-light, I knew I needed buy something else. What I did learn though, was that I could manually focus ok. Camera #6 was the GH5. The 10-bit files were night and day nicer to grade than the XC10, and the footage reminded me of watching a professional colourist play with cinema camera footage, it felt the same. I shot bunch of trips on the GH5 and it's still my main camera. Camera #7 was the Sony X3000 - the 4K upgrade to my GoPro Hero 3, which was letting the side down. When travelling I wanted a second camera with a wide angle for POV shots and quick shooting when on the move. I found that I would arrive somewhere, often having driven, and in the process of getting out of the vehicle, wrangling kids if they were with us, getting tickets and getting into a venue, I wouldn't take out my camera until I was inside wherever we were going to see. This means no establishing shots. The X3000 is the shot-getter that I can quickly use to get the transition sequences that glue an edit together. The challenge with the GH5 trying to get great colour. It's good, but not great. But, with a good enough capture, which I believe the GH5 is, any look is a few adjustments away. So I bought the BMMCC for testing purposes (#8). It has spectacular colour, and was affordable. I started filming side-by-side tests with the BMMCC and GH5 and bought a colour checker. Learning to colour grade, and colour grade the GH5 in particular, is an upgrade in retrospective - it upgrades all your previous footage, not just the stuff you're yet to shoot. Around this time, COVID happened and the biggest year of travel yet was gradually cancelled. I started my Go Shoot project, which was about shooting trips around the place, just to keep shooting, and to learn more. It resulted in me butchering my GoPro Hero 3 trying to fit a D-mount lens to it for a vintage look, and then buying the SJ4000 and fitting it with M12 lenses (camera #9). I shot videos on the GF3 again. I loved the look of the BMMCC, but it was too big. Camera #10 was the OG BMPCC, which was meant to be my Go Shoot camera. The form factor was great and I shot a few outings, but it was too slow to work with, and worse, the screen is black when I wear my sunglasses, which in Australia are not optional, so it's a PITA. Camera #11 is the GX85. It has IBIS, shoots 100Mbps 4K, is pocketable with the right lens, and can take vintage lenses. Plus, it's small and makes me look like a happy snapper and nothing more. Every purchase was earned, by studying what happened before, how it went, what I was shooting next, what situations that would be in, and then making my next move. I've shot dozens of trips, totalling hundreds of days, and maybe crossed over to four-figures in terms of locations. More if you count the tests I do, and shooting my kids sports events, which is the other main use for my setups. Lenses is a story for another day, but I could tell a similar story about using what I had 'in battle' before buying new things. My underlying principle is work out what is needed, try and bridge the gap with skill and by putting in the work, and only then, if nothing else works, buy the solution. It's not for everyone, but it works for me.

@kye Exactely, to the point! I love the image quality from the BMMCC the best. I enjoy the promise of the F3 which is still untested. I dont consider my kitchen window a test of image quality.:) I think I enjoy the thought of possibility of testing and using all this gear and the thrill to buy them for cheap. Maybe we could start a thread with the best cam deals we made the last couple years. BMMCC will be for my mini anamorphic set up and lushiest colors. F3 for the hunt for the magic underdog camera, the baby Alexa. FS700 for the ease of use and external Prores 4K60p with a speedbooster. In the end it is easy to gather gear over the years like i have in the last two and half years. So I asked the two questions in one topic. I think it makes sense to talk and write about the oddities and akward habbits of cinematography lovers and camera dreamers. I filmed two shorts this year, 7days all together, first one with the GH5 only, second one mixing a rented A-Cam C300II with a rented GH5 as B-Cam and my S1 as specialty Cam. With own equipment I always realize, I am missing rigging parts, reliable battery solutions, monitoring, etc. Why holding on to equpment which I am not using? Hard to tell. But that is why I imply in the title of the thread what I am, a dummie. The Varicam question stands in relation to that but also for itself in relation to image qualiity and all the other important attributes. In the end I hope to have shared some questions of interest. The answers from you guys already were very satisfying and profound. BMMCC and C300II grade the easiest from my experience. For the GH5 I have serveral Power grades in Resolve which work well for me. But S1 only really excells to me in lit sets or under low light conditions. I have not recognized any artefacts from the S1! GH5 though turns super mushy in super lowlight. I find the S1 harder to grade under natural lighting condtions than the GH5. So the prospect of a Varicam would be, dynamic range and color response like my BMMCC, lowlight exellence and all the goodies of ergos and rigging, if bougth in a complete set. To buy a Varicam has only become a vague option to me, because I found a rigged out package, which is ready to film, with viewfinder, handles, shoulder pad and so. The price was very low for what this camera is. But seller raised the price again. So it´s out of my reach.

This thread started with a question - buy a Varicam or use your BMMCC. @PannySVHS - that one is easy... just use your BMMCC. Then you elaborate about all the lovely equipment you have that sits unused, which (I think) negates the original question, and proposes a new one. By saying you own lots of gear, don't use it, and still want more, you're saying that you attribute some value to simply owning equipment, even if you don't use it. This means you are also a collector, rather than exclusively a cinematographer. This is a very different mindset, and it's a different kind of value. While one person thinks that owning every piece of tableware from some brand is a worthwhile goal, the next person thinks of it as tacky and a waste of time and money. The value is in the eye of the beholder and only you can answer the Varicam question for yourself. Your question mixes the two however. It seems you derive value from buying equipment that performs well, even if you don't use it, so that's also something for you to evaluate. In terms of my thoughts about camera stuff: Almost any camera can look great, but the better the camera and the better the cinematographer, the easier it is to get it looking great The worse the camera the less latitude it will give you in the grade... bad cameras won't have enough latitude in the image to even point them at anything difficult, good cameras will have enough latitude to point them at difficult scenes or to point them at normal scenes and have a bit of wiggle room, and great cameras give you lots of room to move even in difficult situations @TomTheDP was kind enough to share some S1 files with me and I felt like they had more latitude than the GH5 files, but ultimately they felt the same nearing their limits, and in shots that were quite underexposed I felt like I was arguing with strange colour casts and noise and compression problems in the footage in the same way as I would with underexposed GH5 footage, so the flavour is the same. The S1 and GH5 files I've graded feel awkward and deformed in comparison to grading RAW or Prores from the OG BMPCC or BMMCC, which respond exactly the way you'd expect them to. It's hard to explain but it feels like you've got some setting horribly wrong in Resolve when you work with GH5 or S1 files by comparison. I haven't dealt with BM footage shot as poorly as the GH5/S1 footage I've worked with, but even when both brands are shot well, the BM ones feel fundamentally better TLDR; understand what you're actually trying to achieve, then work out the best way to get there.

Yup. Kind of like being a drummer in a world full of drum machines.

Getting at macro video with A7S3. No dedicated macro lens have been used. Check the video description for more clues.

Sadly, I learned it the hard way. Almost ruined the whole interview. 😆

More likely to happen the other way round, the way things are going