jgharding

I've done this on a couple of shoots while operating the camera, shine it across the front element for flare fun!

That's the thing about 3.55:1. Everyone in the mainstream was saying "it's silly it's too wide". Then someone puts a famous person in the middle and they say "it's awesome how creative". You should always do what you like! ;)

   Awesome, I can't wait to see it, I wonder if he'll upload the originals to WeTransfer for us? Would be great to try out some straight from camera...

Mmmm I'm interested... One of my favorite videos I made so far has really quick cuts! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgh-RSJh_Qw Though they were taken from long clips... It'd be harder to capture just what you want in the right second!

Downloading the "original" from Vimeo, it's so heavily banded and compressed it looks like a GIF, so I think it's been exported from the NLE at very low quality.   Will need some files out of the camera to pass final judgement i reckon...

Of course! I'll need to see if I still want it first, if it doesn't get used in the next month or so I'll let you know...

Here's a poptastic example of double 16:9 and big big flares:   http://youtu.be/HrAclaz5GvA

I sometimes use this desync with bright lights as an intentional effect! When you know the issue you can also use it to your advantage...

I'm wondering if (notwithstanding the hugely expensive Leica) there is a tradeoff between sharpness and Bokeh quality at such wide apertures...   Hahah it's true I'm quite fussy about bokeh quality. For narrative pieces I often use shallow DOF for putting a focus on one part of the image and surroundings, usually, so if the background is full of things jumping out it bugs me. Some people don't care though...

Manual lenses can be noisy, some more than others. Is the shotgun in an isolation cradle of some kind? Like one of these:     That can help with vibration noise. Still, if it's a noisy lens it's noisy. That's one of the reasons camera-mounted sound can be a problem.

I recently bought a Contax RTS II because I already had the lenses from video shooting.   It is really fun and there is something different about it, it's soft and comforting, it simultaneously has more detail, yet in a softer way.Good detail, if you will, not surgical detail. You could probably scan up to 150MP with very slow 35mm film and still see new things... beautiful!   You do learn good discipline too.   You learn what we've lost and appreciate what we've gained with digital, all you lose is money.   If you want your own scanner the Reflecta Proscan 7200 is good, there's a software package you can buy to improve it a lot too.   I think the result is about 16MP or 18MP if I remember rightly.   My favorite film is 3200 or 1600 speed black & white, I love grain more than 50ASA studio film. Some people hate it, but if I wanted it clean I'd shoot RAW digital!   If you aren't looking for idiosyncrasies and want maximum control, shoot stills with a 5D and L glass. As far as I'm concerned most of that glass could strip the life out of a streetfight, and make a sincere moment look like a cereal advert. But I digress!   If you want some unpredictable fun, get on film!   Not that film is unpredictable or uncontrollable if you know what you're doing, but I don't... ;)

Lovely! What are your taking lenses and camera here?

Oh man. Reading back I was uncharacteristically angry there! I think that bokeh just caught me at a bad moment ;) sorry if I seemed a little too harsh

Do the masks replace the aperture ring?

I just checked out another 25mm f0.95 video too, and that's got "gibber-bokeh". Not quite as bad when it's not wide open, but still enough that eyes keep getting drawn to background objects that are way out of focus, as contrasty lines that jump out.   Now this a £10,000 Leica f0.95, and no I can't afford it either, but this is what Bokeh is supposed to do:     In fact it's what Bokeh really means, not just out of focus, but the painterly or emotional quality of such areas.   Silly example? Probably. Here's a Contax Zeiss 50mm f1.7:     You can get these for a hundred quid. Not perfect, but pretty good.   Yes, I know these aren't fast 25mm lenses,  but the point is, if "SLR Magic" are going to market this as a 50mm low DOF solution for small sensors, the bokeh should actually have a pleasing character, like that which is cheaply available for larger sensor, not just high speed at all costs, including image quality.   Each to his own of course though, if you like how it looks, it will make you happy!

Wow, quite a difference! I find the SLR Magic bokeh character to be a disgusting eysore! Urgh! :/ In every bokeh filled shot the juddery out of focus lines were really distracting. Bokeh is pretty important on an f0.95, who cares about sharpness when you're not even looking at the face because of the rest of the frame duistracting you.   It stopped me looking at the subject's face. It almost made me angry, it reminds of really nasty lenses  :E   Maybe they should go back to CCTV lenses (though you can't make enormous profit from simple components that way)... or develop a version 2...   The Voigtlander wasn't amazing but it wasn't that ugly. Should I ever go small sensor I know to avoid the SLR "Magic".

***SOLD*** on eBay

I have that mini motion cam one, It works with heavier stuff if you use some more weights... Once again it's not getting a lot of use so I may have to sell it, as with the RX100 and H4n

I'm currently flogging my H4n as I tend hire higher end stuff on budgeted shoots   It'staken a few knocks but works great, they're invulnerable!   http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/200904328818?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649   Open to offers to end this auction, or feel free to bid if you want to. It shouldn't go tto high because the crack looks ugly.   Funny of course, because it's no different in function to a new one, but you know what people are like... turn up to a professional shoot and everything is a bit worn out because it actually gets used. Hang around with hobbyists and it all looks like it's come out of a packet a minute ago... it's a funny old world... ;) whatever you buy, wear it out from use... it's so sad that so much gear wastes away...   JG

Cool! A tenner. I have their cheap steadycam, works great.   I sold my follow focus because it was to much hassle setting it us and I could do better by hand! Maybe this is a got option for me...

***SOLD*** on eBay in the end

My Helios plays much better with the anamorphic than my Contax Zeiss set... it's weird, but true.   Sharp focus is easy with Helios, but really hard with Zeiss Contax 50mm. Probably the simplicity of the glass and coatings.

I was gonna say, the problems is licencing. Cineform is owned by Go Pro now too, who knows if they see these guys as friend or foe.   My favorite thing about Red footage is the compressed RAW. It's brilliant. Is there an open source compressed RAW antone knows of?   Until then, transcoding cinema DNG to Cineform seems like a smart bet.

Managed to find a GTX580 3GB for a bargain price online, looking forward to some better performance, thanks for the input, guys.   JGx

My favorite film last year was The Hunt (Danish drama). Beautiful cinematography, astonishing performances, not perfect but still better than most that were nominated. A great maturation of Dogme 95.   I don't expect it to win at something like the Oscars though, but it received recognition at many other festivals: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2106476/awards   Joaquin Phoenix put in the performance of a lifetime in The Master. That scene with the interview is a tour de force, mind blowing stuff... I didn't expect it to get any awards though. Anderson is quite open about not be fussed about them. Good on him I say!