andy lee

I only dial down the saturation and contrast to -5 everything else is at zero, then grade it to put the colour and contrast back in .

yeepee welcome to the Zeiss Party - these lenses are amazing ! the 28-70mm T* F3.5-4.5 is very good it pops its so sharp !! and its small and light too great for outdoors all the Zeiss C/YPrimes are great too - same glass formulation as the Super Speeds and Ultra Prime Cine Lenses

thats the point Im making from Andrew Reeds original blog on this combination . you have a Super 35mm field of view like and Alexa with an image quality that in my tests looked as good as the Alexa footage we campared it to - all at a fraction of the cost ...and Size too , you can get a Panny on a car Dashboard easily I do this alot for incar shots.

I used to use Zhongyi on my G6 but now I use Metabones XL on the G7 as it is x0.64 and cancels out the 2.3 crop down to an APSC 1.6 I like best.

the point is when you shoot Super 35mm film (and I shot pop videos on this in the 1990s) I used Zeiss lenses ...28mm for my wides 40mm for my mids and 75mm for my close ups Now Im shooting a Panasonic G7 and with a Metabones XL on the front I can do the same lens choises and have roughly the same field of view as I had on Super 35mm film . (The reason I harp on so much about the Nikon 2,8 28-70mm lens is that this one lens is so good you can do all the above focal lengths on one lens , 28mm wides , 40mm mids and 70mm close ups - Bingo! it works ! go shoot a whole movie on it ) So I know I have a similar look - bokeh depth of field etc it makes it all alot more ...whats the term we like to use....Cinematic ...because it is the same perameters as Super 35mm film . The Panasonic G7 and Metabones XL is a stunning film making tool that we all can use to make great images that look Cinematic Andrew Reed brought this up in his article on this forum last year , it he was pushing this combination because it works , I read his blog and jumped on it and it works great.

the point Im trying to make is we all can shoot images with a Panny and Metabones and some good glass like the Nikon Bourne Lenes that is equal to any major movie images , its just a bit of thought into how you light it frame it and shoot it , everyone on this forum can do this without buying a Red or and Arri Alexa and some Arri Zeiss master primes .

AS I SAID EARLIER ALL THOSE IMAGES ARE LOW RES SAVED FOR WEB VIA PHOTOSHOP IMAGES SUPPLIED BY THE PRODUCTION COMPANY , just so you can see colour ideas not pixel peep for micro blocking - that micro blocking is from photoshop save for web . there is no de noiser used on any of these shots its all natural profile saturation -5 and contrast -5 , at 800 iso some shots are 400 iso , never anything over 800 iso thats my limit I light for that , The Panny is very good upto 4 stops under exposed so dont be affraid of playing in the shadows the Panny can handle it perfectly well , all this rubbish I read about Pansonics being no good in low light makes me laugh , as thats where I use it all the time - UNDEREXPOSED!! , you dont need a Sony to shoot in low light , a Panny at f2 800 iso lit right is killer . all those shot above are at f2 .

G7 does grade well just be aware if you push it heavly in the grade you can see micro blocking , im talking really push it hard , 24 fps and 25 fps is fine at 50fps the files are getting a bit thin so get the look right in camera first and you are ok , avchd all the way for 1080p

vivitar / cosina make a 19-35 zoom that is rectilinear

its a nice lens very low contrast compared to the nikons , very grey blacks very little contrast ,not as sharp as the Nikons , but still a usable lens if you cut it with other low contrast lenses like the Tokina ATX and ATX PRO range of zooms

plain old hd 1080p files 50p 1080p is only 28mb/s so its not as thick a file so be careful when you do heavy grades on it

The G7 is in my view the finest Panasonic camera on the market right now

have a read of this thread all the info on the g7

switch to using natural profile saturation -5 , contrast -5 , dont use cine d , shoot at 6500k and you will have a much nicer image in camera that doesnt need all that correcting to get it back to normal and your skin tones will be nicer too

just added that reply have a look now those are lo res saved for web viewing files via photoshop so dont go pixel peeking as they are compressed .....as they are just to show the colours we have been talking about , yes they have had a heavy grade added to them to get the look ,

you dont want to be ever using auto white balance either , that is handing over one of the most powerful creative descissions to the camera's internal processor - not a good idea - always set your Kelvin manually - this is the great thing about the Panny cameras they have total control of the colour temperature you are shooting it , you can do this also on the RED and the Alexa .its an essential film making function. I dont use the presets isos and I dont EVER use auto WB, dial it in manually to fit your scene you are filming , this has a massive impact on the colour of the image and its a creative tool so use your eye and set it so it looks good , all the Panny cameras work better this way ,I found out 5 years ago that they look better when slightly warmer in Kelvin than you would normally shoot. EG shoot 4000k when you use 3200K Tungstan lights - you get nicer skin tones outside I always shoot 6500k , if its sunny rainy overcast clouds ...it looks so much better than 5600k which is your standard go to film in sunlight Kelvin setting . Be creative and push the camera into good looking colours using the variable Kelvin of the Panny. Distrubutors still want 2k masters so I edit 2k Proxy files and conform the 4k files for the master , grade in 4k the output 2K ProRes deliverables

I stopped using a meter when I stopped shooting film ten years ago , I didn't use zebras or histograms , I just expose by eye , I like to play in the shadows so I'm up to 3 stops under at times to get a moody look, the g7 is so forgiving you can under expose and not worry about noise in the blacks , I don't like to over light subjects on sets , if I'm outside I'm stacking NDs to keep a f2 stop , focus pulling has to be spot on at f2 so I'm now using the gini rigs follow focus which is big and very smooth and you can reverse it which cancels out the Nikon Bourne lenses focusing the wrong way , this is an amazing thing I've discovered about the gini rigs follow focus that I can't do on any other make of follow focus . will post some pics soon of this nice trick I also shoot my day interiors at 4000k not 3200k this looks alot better on the pannys and I find the skin tones nicer - warmer, I shoot day exteriors at 6500 k and night exteriors at 2500k , ,

G7 beats the GH4 hands down - much cleaner image and amazing low light clean blacks no noise !! is that good Panasonic have given me 4 cameras to shoot a feature film with.

Im shooting 16:9 and extracting 2.40 in post - framing for 2.40 in camera using the guide line and tape on the rear screen . I always shoot natural profile saturation -5 , contrast -5 I put the colour back in with curves , no LUTS no Cine d , no LOG profiles , keep it simple and it looks good . use your eye - its the only way for me

when you are working on a Movie you sign a contract and NDA ! and that contrat says there is an embargo on anything going out without premission from the film company - they own everything they paid for it including all my tests - now we live in a world of Facebook and twitter film companies dont want any leaks beore their marketing department decides what people can see and when . So yes I can tell you the results of all my tests right now - just take my word the G7 kicks ass , with a Metabones XL - Nikon Glass and Atomos Ninja Assassin all rigged up on my Gini Rigs cages it s a serious film making tool Now Colour grading is all in my eye - I shoot flat and add the colour in post - alot of my colour is on set I light always with coloured gels and get the look I want in camera - just on a flat profile so I get cleaner blacks with more detail - not crushed out

Metabones XL and G7 is a killer combination , G7 is much cleaner in the blacks and less noise than GH4 , G7 codec is very thick you can grade it to extreme levels with no micro blocking , its like grading ProRes!!

No HDMI out while in recording internally onto card , HDMI constanltly streams out so you can record on atomos ninja assassin externally

Metabones Ultra x.71 speedbooster for the GH3 as the XL is x.64 is for the 2.3 crop of the 4K cameras

I very rarely use a lamp without it being gelled and diffused - thats the look I use

Arri Fresnels , 3x1000w , 3x650w 3x500w 3x300w 3x150w , Kino Flos x 3 , 3x Red heads 3x Blondes 3x Par56 cans , that covers just about everything . Lee gels and diffussion on the lot