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The ultimate statement about DR is perhaps that people shooting with an Alexa or RED which have the highest DR capturing around still light and control their contrast ratios. Yes, they can push and pull the RAW / Prores files from those cameras in ways that we can only dream of, but they still take the time and effort to capture it right in-camera. There's no substitute for making your scene look how you want it, even if you have 15+ stops of DR and have 14-bit RAW.

Sure: https://firehorsephotographyfrance.com/2022-weddings/the-two-sams-wedding 90% handheld with a pair of S1R’s, Sigma 35mm f2 and 65mm f2, 5k 30p plus church (dim) and barn speeches (dark, lit with single LED panel), S1H and S5 in 4k 60p. There’s shade, bright sunlight, backlighting, golden hour…the lot. There’s even some AF tracking! 😬 And a bit of lighting flicker/banding so gone back to shooting 25p and 50p as a result! Flat profile, light grade as previously described. I’m not a grading expert so it’s more a ‘good enough for the purpose’ grade. Pity the 5k is not available in 50/60p, but then there’s a 15 minute record limit for 5k on the S1R so not good for ceremonies or speeches. So for now, I use the 4/5k mix and look forward to seeing what Panny do next with the S line.

Well eBay is like anything else, if it is priced well it will sell, if you are asking a crazy price if will never sell, but you can get a lot more on eBay than if you sell it to Adorama or B&H. But why not a Panny S5 or a Panny GH5 over a XT3?? I have got to the point that I F ing hate FF lenses for the size and weight.

Neck strap, gimbal, OIS lenses (several third party including Canon and Tamron that can be adapted) plus some post-stab if needed. If budget is a priority, then XT3 could be a good call.

It was an issue for me, manual cine or vintage primes aside, but improving now.

Well it’s been ages since I have posted anything. Found this at the supermarket today while shopping. Very nearly bought it, if it had been a 100 iso I would have. Had a germ of an idea bouncing around upstairs for awhile now. Have had the magic 2 pro out a couple of times in the last two weeks. Webrunners post about the iPhone LiDAR and the p4k has me inspired to do something, not entirely sure what yet.

I vaguely remember you saying you did stint as a wiz kid. No intent of giving btm_pix a run for his money ? It’s never too late you know 😎

I’m not really sure how to answer this… For one thing, I rarely look at what anyone else is doing as it’s such a rabbit hole. Otherwise, I have a plan of sorts in regard to what I shoot with both stills and video, and there is some crossover, but at the same time elements unique to each. Ceremonies and speeches for instance I use 2 ‘extra’ static cameras which leaves me free to roam, mostly shooting stills. Details that a lot of pure videographers shoot, I tend to ignore and leave purely to stills. Candid people tends to be the biggest crossover area when I tend to capture the same scene in both formats ‘at the same time’, ie, seconds apart. There is also quite a bit of focal length difference. I dunno, it kind of just is what it is and kind of evolved by itself over the last 12 years I have been shooting hybrid… 🤷‍♂️

There's no substitute for dynamic range. Ultimately you can emulate the nice rolloff (highlights, shadows, or both) of high-DR cameras by using curves but that will increase the contrast of the image. If there's already lots of contrast in the image then you can emulate the lower-contrast look by reducing contrast so the mid-tones are softer, but that will ruthlessly reveal your white and black clipping levels. Another trick is to raise the levels of your image, which means you have some extra space to lower contrast or rolloff the highlights nicely, but that will raise your noise and black levels, so the trick is to apply noise to mask this. The cost of this look is that you'll have elevated black levels and lots of noise in the image. It's not really for modern work but it can work for vintage / film looks though. High DR cameras are desirable because they give you the flexibility in post to choose whichever look you want, but lower-DR captures (like 709 profiles that don't include the full DR of the camera) simply can't do everything - you have to choose the trade-offs. Higher DR cameras are also a challenge in post because you're trying to pack all the DR into the lower-DR 709 profile to publish them, so in a way your lower-DR capture is just doing in prod what you would have to do somehow in post anyway, except that you don't get to fine-tune or apply curves like you can in post. I shoot higher DR shots with moderate DR cameras (GH5 HLG which is almost 11 stops and OG BMPCC and BMMCC which are 12.5 stops) and even these are difficult in the grade when you are capturing the full DR on these.

Yer i should have said an iphone with lidar. although in reality it seems only last two iterations of phones thats that have it then. Seen some apps that make use of it for measuring and mapping i think. But since i cant see a need for it i'm loathe to install any apps onto my phone unless i use it frequently. Its kinda ironic ( to me at least ) just how much homework you need to do, to keep a handle on things in an effort to save some dollars regardless of hobby 🙄 with a pk4 you'd think i'd be all over it except i'm not 😔

doesn't seem to connect with blutooth on version 6.9.1 on the pk4 now downloading version 7.9.1 for the bmp4k 🙄 Its a cheap option only if you already have a late model iphone and electronic lens. Although iphone 13 ultras aren't exactly cheap either. Lucky i have one lying around... knew it would come in handy one day.... So for a whole bunch of lenses that i own, i would be better off with @BTM_Pix lidar setup and focus motors. While not cheaper per se , its at the moment probably one of the few options if you travel the path of vintage lenses. Thinking aloud, it seems to me theres a bit of a fork in the road with lidar you can go down the path with a p4k, vintage lenses and btm_pix's product and focus motors ( and autofocus lenses as well ) or grab a iphone that has the lidar sensor and use lenses with auto focus. Neither is a particularly cheap path if your starting from scratch, if i'm honest but it is what it is. Not that i'm saying this stuff is expensive, its certainly cheaper than 5 years ago and you can do a lot of amazing things with it today. I guess its a bit of, if it were really easy or cheap everyone would be doing it. Plus anything that gets me inspired to grab the p4k for a change is probably a good thing. Plus its nice to see some action down in this particular forum 🙂

We used the small pocket on the gimbal two weeks ago during film production in Bulgaria and Greece, the road was very narrow and there was only one solution, the small pocket on the gimbal. We use the camera for certain scenes and whenever the Arri Alexa is used as an A-Cam. Do you know why? There is no modern camera that combines better with Arri Alexa except the older Blackmagic cameras. Smartphones will never replace it, because it's not the sensor size, but the sensor specifications, the color science, dynamic range and the possibilities in color grading. Some think that the sensor doesn't matter and that RAW or a good codec is all that matters. I can tell you from my experience with colorists that this is not true.

Really top notch stuff Simon. You had to be one busy person doing what was involved in that wedding. Hats off to you.

Have you tried playing with Saturation vs Colour Boost? Sat expands all saturation evenly, whereas CB only expands the low-sat stuff and doesn't increase the high-sat stuff, so using various combinations of them you might have a setting that doesn't need any masks. Maybe a combo of Sat with negative CB to boost stronger colours and not over-do the skintones? Any time you can apply an overall adjustment vs pulling a key is always safer. You could also try the spider-web tool (Colour Warper) to boost sat for all hues except the skintones?

Awesome. Please link your video when you make it. It'd be great to see a comparison between the multiple options. I haven't pulled the trigger on the EVF, but I'm sure I'll pick it up eventually. I wanted to wait for a sale of some sort but it never seems to budge in price! I have a decent raw recording setup now, but I like the thought of going even smaller with it, and seem like the DPL solution is the best way to go to do so. It'd be great to have the ability to use the EVF, or have a coldshoe for a mic, but I think the slim model might make the most sense for compact handheld or gimbal shooting. You might have already seen, but there's an interesting NPF battery grip on the way as well.

Well for all you BM guys out there looking for focus and AF help this may be a cheap answer.