gethin

I wrote to Nikon about this when I got the z6 however long ago that was. Their answer: you’re holding it wrong

ISO sensitivity mentions minimum exposure in the stills version only as far as I can see. I got all excited for a mo. I think the issue is that when I bring this up - the essential problem of Nikon allowing you to shoot at 1/25 when shooting 25fps, the answer I most often get is more like apples “you’re holding it wrong”. People seem bamboozled that it’s an issue but it shouldn’t be there to be an issue. It’s a rooky amateurish policy to have. My workaround is to shoot at 30p which has a minimum shutter of 50fps (it’s not even consistent!) which is close enough to 180 to be passable. Not great but it allows my to get those shots which have 6+ stops of exposure variation

I shoot on a gimbal, variable nds are not an option. Shit even my 7d had a better way of dealing with this. yes Andrew you’re right it’s a lack of setting minimum shutter speed and Nikons dumb policy of allowing 360 degree shutter angle as the max in the auto modes, but shutter angle should have been the easy fix to this.

Let’s say I’m shooting an interior and transition to exterior. I want to shoot the interior at the lowest iso possible. I shoot h.265 with active d light on max at the lowest isos possible. I find I get the lowest noise and best dynamic range this way, better than nlog. If I move to a brighter environment the image will be overexposed. There is no lower iso to go to. If I expose for the exterior then the interior will be at ridiculously high isos. shooting in A it will happily ramp the shutter speed when it moves outside. It works better than ramping iso imho. It’s smoother, and in most situations you don’t see the change of shutter speed.

I’m in the middle of overreacting to Nikon implementing something on my camera that I was using on a competitors 8 years ago and they have stuffed it. I know this shouldn’t be bothering me as much as it is. I really need to get out more. Nikon: the Microsoft of cameras 🤦 The fact you can only use shutter angle in manual mode. Why? Or at least let us set the minimum shutter angle in those modes ffs. Because otherwise the camera will happily shoot unusable 360degree shutter angle video in those modes. (Please don’t post any variety of “real men only shoot manual”. For what I do shooting in aperture priority is essential. It lets me get shots that would be impossible unless I’d have another operator ramping exposure. I’m not shooting drama. It’s not controlled. I could do this on the gh5 ffs).

This popped into my head an hour or so ago. Was thinking they could add features specific to their cameras. Direct wifi video assist for example

thanks, that looks promising!

I probably would But there is a valid reason, you don't want to know. Suffice to say I dont have time to work out a new workflow right now. I've got too many other things going on. RIght now I need a bodge that will see me through to a time where googling "how to do colour space transforms in premiere pro" doesn't induce a panic attack.

I know this is a bit of a hack. I posted the question on reddit and only got one response telling me to transform both to rec-709 and start from there, but i dont want to 😄. I love my nikon workflow, it gloriously bodgy but works. So are there any luts for C-log 3 that will at least get me part of the way there? The canon ones I'm using currently are way off

i dont know if this makes any sense but the z6 and z6ii have a nice fat image. I find the z8 thin. Maybe from my chemical photography days. You could punch through an overexposed fat neg, but had to work harder with a thin one. I often stumble on stuff I shot on the z6 and think "gee that's nice". With the z8 I can get a great image, but i've found I get the best results shooting non log flat mode with the dynamic range boost cranked at the lowest iso possible. And then I'll still often need to denoise a bit.

yep I was thinking of what's on the horizon and including the blackmagic cameras. But yes I'll for sure wait for real world video dynamic range testing before making a final decision (although with the range being limited for stills, It's still not a great fit for me).

https://www.photonstophotos.net/Charts/PDR.htm#Nikon Z 6III I was assuming the 24mp sensor would give me better video dynamic range than the z8 (and maybe nicer hightlight rolloff), but this isn't too promising. Really am starting to think about moving to L-mount. Have a much greater range of cameras to choose from

Not an option for me. I mostly shoot real estate or low budget stuff in rural australia. It's generally not possible to rent, or it makes no financial sense to. But yeah of course if I was doing long form anything, or anything with any sort of budget I'd be renting. I used to live in london. Lee lighting would let you try things, they were fantastic with students. (despite loaning out some dodgy AF gear now and then. Cigarrette foil and the fuse - that kind of stuff 😆

they are pretty cheap too. Since writing I've been poking around and the cheapest I can find are a the nicefoto 600w for A$1400 or the smallrig 450 for $1600. Both a bit more than I was hoping to spend but is anything ever under budget lol

thats great!