Caleb Genheimer

Yeah, I have several. I have a Kowa Anamorphic-35 1.75X (a variant of what most call an “Inflight”,) which, while for 35mm gate size, is easily usable on MF (considering everyone and their mother uses 16mm gate scopes like the 16-H on full frame cameras without issue.) I also have plans to modify my B&L CinemaScope Attachment II, which is natively for projecting 70mm prints, and has an absolutely ginormous rear element. I honestly don’t care how much my rig weighs, or how big it ends up being. I’m gearing up to shoot narrative fiction, not a YouTube vlog. I’m after unique, immersive and impactful images that feel at home on a theater screen, that create their own world on the screen. I love Nolan’s work on 70mm, especially Dunkirk and Interstellar. The Alexa 65 has also shot several films which really leverage the larger sensor to achieve a unique look: Bohemian Rhapsody, The Revenant, Rogue One... I’m not saying smaller sensors can’t look great on the big screen, but a really big sensor leveraged the right way can’t help but look like it belongs on the big screen. If prices drop on the S1H, I’ll very likely end up with that body, I’m just a bit bummed with Fuji (or perhaps Sony is imposing limitations on the sensor,) because I REALLY like Fuji. I like their physical design philosophy, their color science, and their overall proclivity towards a “left-field” approach (like leapfrogging Full Frame straight from APSC to MF.) I’m perfectly happy to wait out the market with my GH5S and Pocket 4K, they’re a great duo for getting the job done on contract work... but they’re not what I’m after from a personal creative perspective.

I can’t imagine Sony being very afraid considering they make the sensor. I’m a broken record at this point but the big sensor feels wasted when there’s no open gate video mode. If it had that, I’d be all over it at $6K. Unfortunately the S1H is still a much smarter buy in the LF video arena.

Not sure how I missed this thread... I have one! Currently doing a rehousing project to use it on my 16mm camera at 18/24/50/70mm set.

Wow, this sounds way less oppressive than Adobe subscription plan! I’ll have to look into it!

I’m kinda with Gerald on this one. If it was a grand or so cheaper, I think this would be a very different discussion, but as it sits, it’s in a pretty tough bracket, where (IMO) being a bit out of left field in size and shape don’t set it apart enough to ignore technical deficiencies versus the other options. I hope they’re still building this platform in 5 years, because at that juncture, I think we’ll be looking at a very different playing field, where even the “alternative” brand offerings will have more solid feature sets. I’m absolutely in love with their size/shape/styling. If either of these had an open gate video mode, I’d already own one just on principle. Blackmagic REALLY needs to take notice with their “pocket” cameras. That 6K Pro literally made me instantly say “oh.... oh no.” Because it made it abundantly clear that BM thinks their pocket body is still an appropriate design. I want to like the FP/L really bad, but I just can’t quite bring myself to jump on board when it’s knocking on the door of buying something like the S1H.

Please have an open gate raw mode!

My GH5S is free-99 because it’s the camera I already own AYYY But seriously, most every camera in the last 5 years looks pretty dang good.

This is a free and open SDK only for cross-platform decoding as far as I can tell, not for in-camera encoding. Sure, they’ve made it free and open for 3rd party developers to implement it in their software, but I don’t get the sense it’s open-use for cameras. There may still be other reasons Japan wouldn’t use it as you’ve mentioned, but then they’re each going to end up with their own “RED Patent Workaround” RAW codec. I wish Blackmagic would work out a way to convert other RAW format footage in post into BRAW (ProRes, CDNG, etc.) because it edits so smooth and stores permanently at reasonable file sizes.

Pretty much everyone is using Sony sensors, yeah? (Canon excluded). So it’s more about HOW WELL they utilize and package the sensor than the sensor itself. Let’s be honest, the S1H (AF excluded,) whoops most all other offerings. It’s about the closest a hybrid could ever be expected to get to a cine camera. I think it woke the Sony beast, and they realized that gatekeeping small bits of sensor tech is not a guaranteed safeguard against other companies making better cameras. It’s probably why Sony is handing out S-Cinetone and perfecting their AF (still no open gate video though.) For me, at least, the S2H will be the decisive camera. Either it will have reliable AF and therefore be the camera to get, or it will come out with minor upgrades, and S1H prices will at least drop enough to make the S1H a no-brainer upgrade. More importantly, a large coalition of camera manufacturers need to band together and challenge that idiotic RED raw garbage. I simply cannot understand why Blackmagic Design doesn’t fully open up their BRAW codec to any camera manufacturer that wants it for internal recording. If they did there’s no doubt in my mind it would swiftly overtake ProRes Raw as the new de-facto compressed raw codec, simultaneously rocketing Resolve to the top spot as an NLE. It might hurt sales of BM cameras in the short term, but that would be a small price to pay, and it also eliminates the idiotic Atmos monitor/recorder setups plaguing the market segment currently. Im sure Nikon will utilize the sensor admirably, but it’s “more of the same” in the segment can only last so long before some player finds a way to break loose.

The next step would be to see if you can find a home brew way to re-introduce some fresh coatings! Always great to see a lens gain new life rather than be thrown away.

It’s worth noting that the new Rapido Technology FVD-35NP will allow us to shorten long scopes, reducing the squeeze factor... but also gaining angle of view.

I’m curious if the next implementation of the Ursa 12K sensor will implement DGO... there’s already some really different sauce in that thing with the RGBW bayer, and I’d think the bayer groupings have plenty enough individual photosites (4 total, 2 White and 2 colored) in them that half could operate at an entirely different gain for some serious DR increase. Even if it pans out to a little more noise, there’s just so much resolution to work with there, even a moderate amount of noise reduction wouldn’t cripple it below DCI.

Electronic ND, Dual Gain Output (simultaneous ARRI-style,) and Full-Frame open gate video would have me buying this camera almost for certain. I agree with many it needs E-ND to set it apart from their other offerings, and IMO DGO is very quickly going to become the new flagship “flavor-of-the-month” (FINALLY we might get some dynamic range competition instead of this pointless hyper resolution!) It’s high time for CMOS to break through that ~12-13 stop ceiling. And full frame open gate video? It’s just really aggravating to have a nice big sensor but be unable to utilize it fully. Some of us shoot scope! Some want some re-frame options! Some shoot for squarer social media aspect ratios... Just put the dang mode in there for crying out loud, it’s not like that forces anyone into using it.

Full👏Frame👏Open👏Gate👏Video👏Please!

Just here to say, I wanted the new Fuji to have an open gate video mode enabled SO BADLY. That alone would’ve put me in “sell all my other bodies for a switch” high gear. I’m still holding steady without a sweat... GH5S for anamorphic, Pocket 4K for easy Raw, C200 from work if good AF is needed. I want LF video just because I find it interesting and really want to explore it. The S1H is tempting, but that darn AF keeps it from being the monstrous all-rounder I’m after. Hopefully the S2H fixes AF. If not, hey... S1H prices will probably drop at the same time and make that purchase more justifiable. I think the shaky market is still at a point where it may be a good thing, pushing the manufacturers to condense their lineups and get solid features into all cameras... but I guess we’ll see.

Still basically only Panny that’s doing real open gate full frame video, don’t understand why nobody else will put those modes in their flagships. Here’s hoping they get their act together whenever the S2H rolls around and it has actual autofocus though.

I’ve been working out my own methods on this stuff for quite some time now, and as someone who also shoots some actual film here and there, some of the extreme minutiae are maddening to mail down, and prompted me to move into Resolve’s Fusion tab for many operations. It has been like learning to ride a bike all over again, and I’m not there yet, but Fusion is absolutely powerful enough to get me where I want to go eventually. There is complex spatial and temporal interplay (especially with overscanned footage) that simply can’t be done easily with power grades and edit page compositing. I guess do 99% of people even notice? Probably not, but we do, right? Im interested to see how filmbox is implemented, as well as Tom Bolles power grade (which for that approach looks to provide a lot of nuanced manipulations resulting in the most convincing Color tab results I’ve seen so far). I will probably grab Cineprint 16 just to see if I can replicate the various nodes in Fusion alongside my own spatial machinations. Digging deep into this stuff at all kills render times like crazy, but that’s maybe half the fun, right? I still think halation could be brought 80-90% of the way there in the physical world with a bespoke filter from some expert like Tiffen or Schneider. Film has a set tonal dynamic range, which honestly a number of digital cameras get close enough to these days as to not make much difference, but spatially especially with regards to halation, the dynamic range in film’s reaction is much higher. Basically, something can be blown out, but two blown out sources of different luminance will still show a difference in the amount and reach of halation, and that reaction is still way outside the dynamic ability of digital capture... but a physical filter I believe could be constructed to react with that nuance and that could be subsequently baked into digital capture. Tiffen’s glimmerglass (of which there is a “bronze” variant already) looks to my eyes to be a prime candidate. If that could be tweaked to be red (or add red), it would to my eyes go a long way to achieving that nuance, and a bit of digital halation would be the added tweak to polish it off to taste. It’s super fun to build film effects, but at the end of the day, it’s also not all that difficult to just shoot film on certain projects, and in that case, the look is just... there. I’d encourage anyone who is spending significant time on emulation to also put some solid time into researching 16mm cameras, and doing a bit of hunting until you find a kit that fits your use-case. SR3s and Aatons are nice cameras for sure, but there are plenty of other very capable cameras out there, and you can still find good deals if you are patient.

Yeah, if folks haven’t figured it out by now... Canon is gonna Canon. It’s an overtly abusive approach to product lineup/development from a customer perspective, but it’s just their chosen philosophy. I follow all camera release news aggressively, because I find the technology advancements very engaging, but there’s no way I’d jump in on a multi-thousand dollar piece of kit before it has been well proven out in the wild, because all camera companies have their weak spots. They’re just tools, good tools will prove themselves through use. Canon makes some good tools, even if the peripherals are less than honest. I’m not saying that they shouldn’t be called out or pushed to change their approach, but it’s also important for consumers to step back and just take an objective look at the available tools, ignoring somewhat all the noise and baggage around brands, especially new release hype.

“Add a gimbal with subject tracking and you can have AI track your subject around the scene, then distribute the autofocus distance to the second camera, which can frame your subject/scene however you like, while your subject stays perfectly in focus.” Ok yeah, I’d take a V2 where the sensor is built into a little DJI Osmo kind of micro-gimbal camera that has object tracking to keep the sensor pointed at the subject... that would be straight up insane.

Great video, glad you opened it up. People are so precious with these things, but their construction is very simple unlike most other lenses. my bet is on one of your optical groups having worked itself loose and rotated. There’s a front block and a rear block, that’s it. For what it’s worth, many folks don’t use screws anyway, as they’re not always in exactly the right place. You could just glue that tab once you find the right position, or if you’re handy, you could still and tap a couple new holes... just clear out the chips before reassembly. But fist thing first, make sure the two optical groups are not rotating within their assembly. They have to maintain axial orientation. Look up for various videos on “tuning” an anamorphic lens, and you’ll get an idea of the general concept.

The front knurled ring “locks” the focus, so loosen that first. The wider knurling will then be able to rotate. The infinity mark may not be exact, but shouldn’t be far off. Put both the scope and your 50m at infinity markings and then point at something detailed in the far distance. You should be able to get it sharp with micro adjustments. are you supporting the weight of the scope adequately? An over heavy setup can sag enough to throw out focus.

Is it possible to use the MMX “manually?” AKA with a wireless focus wheel? Or is it only controlled by the AFX?

Let me know if I understand this correctly: one cable is included with the AFX which can power it and connect data on an M Motor. therefore, to run a second M Motor via the MMX and to power it as well, only one cable 3 is needed?

What taking lenses do you use and on which sensor size?

I’m curious what (if any) vignette the modified HCDNA introduces vs the scope by itself. Would not an FVD-35 be better on this particular scope? Also, what’s on the front of the HCDNA? Looks different!