jhnkng

I have a Zoom H1 which I stick into a Rode shockmount, and that does a pretty good job to isolate handling noise. I also have a couple of VideoMic Micros which are great for getting very good reference audio, or ambiance, and possibly a viable backup if everything goes to hell. But really, you need to get a wireless lav system (I have the Rode wireless kit, it works great) if you're going to have people speaking in non-controlled situations. The H1 might be ok if you can put it on a stand and place it close to the subject, but unless you can stick close to the speaker every time they say something you're not going to get consistent sound. One thing I like to do is to run the wireless receiver into the H1, then the H1 into the camera, and just leave the H1 recording all the time. It's an awful lot of audio to comb through later, but you never know when they'll say something interesting when they're off camera. Tell them what you're doing though! Or get a sound person. They're worth their weight in gold.

Just today I was working on a job where I shot the D750 as B camera and I was really really surprised how well it handled the task. And looking at the footage we shot this arvo it looked really nice. I have a D750 for stills, but I'd always shot motion on the GH4, and while the GH4 has lots of video specific features that are really useful, I didn't miss any of them at all while shooting. So much so that I'm now wondering whether I should just sell my whole m43 kit and hire if I need something more than what the Nikon can do. And it makes me look at the D500 in a whole new light -- I'm not at all phased by the 2.2x crop (compared to full frame) in 4K, I shot a lot on native m43 lenses anyway and it never really bothered me. I have the Tokina 11-16 (which I love for video) for wides, and the extra crop actually helps me since I like to shoot longer for a lot of the work I do. I'm actually a little bit excited by Nikon for the first time in ages, and I've shot Nikon for stills for the last 7 years!

Not sure if this is the problem but it's worth a try: If you're on a Mac, go to the files that are locked in the Finder, select the file that's locked, right/two finger click on the locked file and select "Get Info". In the box that comes up, near the top where it has all the date information there should be a checkbox that says "Locked", and if I'm right then it should be checked. You should be able to uncheck the box and close the window and the file will be editable. I'm pretty sure it's a similar process in Windows, opening the file info window in Explorer and there'll be something in there that says locked. Hopefully it's that simple, good luck!

CIPA numbers aren't broken down by manufacturer, but looking at these numbers for April, mirrorless manufacturers don't sell as many cameras as DSLR manufacturers. I'd hazard a guess and say that Nikon sells more DSLRs than at least Blackmagic, Panasonic and JVC combined. http://nikonrumors.com/2015/06/08/spike-in-dslr-camera-shipments-in-april.aspx/ As for mounts and camera size, I have two observations. My D750 is only marginally bigger than my GH4, and the difference in weight pretty much disappears when I mount a Speedbooster and a Nikon lens to the GH4 vs putting that lens on the D750. There's a reason that most of Sony's e-mount are f4 lenses -- f2.8 lenses would be huge compared to the body. http://cameradecision.com/sizecomparison/Panasonic-Lumix-DMC-GH4-vs-Nikon-D750-size-comparison.jpg But with mirrorless I have access to an EVF that lets me see exactly what I'm shooting. I can have a true silent mode like I have on my GH4 so I can shoot BTS stills on motion sets without a bag. I can have better video, both in quality and in ergonomics. These are also features that make mirrorless the future, size isn't the only thing that's great about mirrorless. For ultimate reliability you want the least number of places where something can fail. Adaptors means one extra link in the chain, and each link is a potential point of failure -- no matter how expensive or well engineered it is. And let's be perfectly honest, my Speedbooster rattles, and I've used other Speedboosters that also rattle. They tolerances are good, but not mindblowing. I've never had a problem with my GH4 + Speedbooster combo, but that doesn't mean I don't take the 12-35 with me as a backup. I like using a range of lenses as well, which is one reason I chose a GH4. But if my job was to pump out corporate video after corporate video, or one event after another, or if most of my work has a reasonable budget, I'd probably get a C300 with a set of Cinema Primes and be done with it. Which isn't to say that you're wrong, but its just that you're willing to go the extra mile to find the look you want for a project, whereas lots and lots of people just need a reliable piece of equipment that works exactly the same way, and pumps out the same quality, time after time, with no surprises. I lean towards the no surprises camp, I'm willing to trade versatility for not having to have an uncomfortable conversation with my client. All I'm really saying is that there is a huge market for people who are conservative with equipment, who are risk averse to any equipment changes that has the potential to hurt their business. And those are the people who I think would prefer an F-mount Nikon mirrorless over a brand new/different lens mount.

One of Nikon's strengths is that they have a mount that's compatible with lenses dating back 50 years, why on earth would they change that now? Especially for a full frame sensor? Plus Nikon makes a ton of money on lenses, why would they make it easier for people to swap to different brands of lenses? All this talk about wanting adaptable mounts is just what a very specific kind of user wants. Regular consumers will use whatever lens came with the camera, and maybe a 50mm prime or some such. Professionals making an investment in a system and making money off that system wants reliability, and lens adaptors are just one more point of failure. See it from Nikon's perspective -- for those who really want lens adaptability they already have Sony and m43, it potentially eats away at their lens sales, and pros who already have a bunch of F-mount Nikon lenses are crying foul because they have to use an adaptor. It's lose lose lose for Nikon, and they need a solid win to boost sales right now. Unless Nikon debuts a new camera with a new mount with at least a native 24-70 and 70-200, and offering a figleaf to existing pros with an F-Mount adaptor. In which case everything I've written is total BS!

Well I suppose if you only ever work on jobs with six figure budgets then I can see how you can come to that conclusion. But if you've ever spent any time working on sub-10k jobs, or events, weddings, some online content, even reality/bts for TV, you'll find all sorts of pros shooting all sorts of cameras, using all sorts of adapters. And that's a lot of working professionals doing good work.

As a guy who shoots stills on Nikon for a living, I can unequivocally say that if Nikon releases an NX1 with no other changes than to fit it with an F mount, I will be down to the store that day. As much as I like my speedbooster on my GH4, it's still nothing more than a stopgap to let me use my Nikon glass with my GH4. If Panasonic made lenses with a look that I like as much as Nikon's, I'd sell all my adaptors and go native. The difference in weight is completely immaterial, knowing that I can mount any of my lenses and it being 100% reliable is by far more important. Maybe Nikon can keep the NX mount for consumer versions of that camera. But if Nikon is releasing a professional line of mirrorless cameras, F-mount or bust!

I've bought the original Surface Pro and the Surface Pro 3, and I have sold both of them. I've love the idea of working with images on a tablet via a stylus, but as of right now, the software isn't there yet. Neither Lightroom nor Photoshop worked very well with a stylus, because the UI wasn't anywhere near usable. Lightroom was getting there with the touch UI for Windows machines with a touch screen, but it wasn't very intuitive, and the Surface Pro 3 wasn't quite fast enough to handle 24 and 36 megapixel files -- the machine would stutter and lag, and that just exacerbated the problems. I was really, really interested in the Surface Book, until I found out the price. I'm super super keen to try the iPad Pro with the Astropad app -- I think that might be the best bet yet for what we both seem to want to do. Ultimately what I really want -- and reading all the reviews, what all the reviewers want too -- is pro apps on the iPad Pro. I also want to be able to plug in a hard drive into the damn thing to copy files into the iPad as quickly as possible!

I bought a Ninja Assassin specifically for V-Log, and despite my initial reservations it's been absolutely worthwhile. Small and light is great, but having that 7in screen means I just got it right more often, and that alone was worth it. And V-log looks AMAZING in 10bit -- skin tones in particular just looks so good. I did go back and forth over whether spending double what I paid for the camera (once you factor in SSDs and batteries) is a worthwhile investment, but while I could have sold all the m43 gear and bought a Sony, I'd then have to spend a ton of time learning a new camera system, find the pitfalls and ways to get around it, develop new workflows... and that just isn't worth it to me. I know the GH4 well enough now that it won't surprise me when I'm under pressure, having a big screen means I can see what I'm doing, and importantly when we're working fast my client can see as well, so there's no surprises at the end of the day. Did I mention how good V-Log looks in 10 bit? Because it's GLORIOUS!

Well, nice of Panasonic to give us a free, err, preview of V-Log while we all wait for our pieces of paper with a number on it...! I've just shot a little at 1600 ISO and the noise seems to be more obtrusive than with the Cinelike profiles, but then I'm also getting better looking skin straight out of the camera. Colours look very accurate using Panasonic's VLog to rec709 LUT. Can't wait until morning so I can shoot some outdoor stuff! Don't quote me on any of this, I am not an expert and this is pure conjecture... ...but I think the Zebras are working as it's supposed to. The V-Log curve, if I understand correctly, pulls the highlights down so that what used to be 255/100% now sits at more like 80%. I came to that conclusion by pointing the camera at a bright light and adjusting the zebra threshold in settings until I showed that I was over -- zebras would show at 80%, but not show at 85%. So basically with V-Log 80% is the new 100%, so we all have to adjust the camera settings accordingly. I'm willing to bet that the zebras will function the same way when activated using the key. The only thing this workaround did was to "unhide" the V-Log profile in the camera, because the Panasonic Image App wasn't updated to read whether the camera has V-Log activated, and it shows every profile that is installed on the camera. Panasonic pulled the firmware upgrade because that's easier to do than to patch and update both the iOS and Android apps. I'm guessing there will be new versions of the app coming out very soon, with the workaround disabled.

Just out of curiosity, would you not consider getting another Nikon D7200, since that's the camera you've used and the camera you know? I only ask because if it's a job, you want to remove as much of the unknowns as possible, and if you're getting steady work with the gear that you had, then you don't have to worry about having to learn all the new gear and work out a new workflow and all that stuff. For what it's worth I shoot a GH4, and I think that's the best value all-rounder package on the market right now. The 4K footage looks great, and being able to shoot 4K without the humungous file sizes is a revelation. It has really useful functions for video like peaking and zebras, the LCD works well in daylight and the EVF is really nice as well so you can operate without a monitor, the battery life is astonishing (I've shot whole days on just 3 batteries). For everything else it does ok compared with the other cameras it competes with. So it's not as good as an A7s in low light, but it's perfectly usable (assuming you expose correctly). The colour isn't as nice as a Canon, especially anything that shoots C-Log, but with the right settings on the camera and the right post-production process, you can get good colour from it. I've been using Andrew's GH4 Log Converter, and it's made getting great colour out of the GH4 a snap. Here's something I shot recently with the log converter: https://vimeo.com/137681905 V-Log is going to improve things dramatically on this front -- I had a look at the V-Log footage Nick Driftwood released and put Panasonic's V-Log to Rec709 LUT on it and it looks brilliant! If you expose well when you're shooting your post-production is going to be super-simple once V-Log is available. That little film was shot with the GH4 and the Lumix 12-35 f2.8, which is a nice combo that would work for lots of different circumstances. I also have a Voightlander 17.5mm f0.95 which is my go to lens for night time shooting, and a Metabones Speedbooster which lets me use all my Nikon lenses when I need to. Most of what I do is hand held, or I need to be fast and lightweight, so the GH4 is perfect for me. I think if I did a lot more video work (I'm primarily a stills photographer) I would look more seriously at something like a C300. But then again, maybe not -- you can buy a whole lot of lighting with the difference in cost between a C300 and a GH4.

I just wanted to throw in my two cents of experience with Andrew's Log Converter. I've shot a couple of little jobs with it and it's been absolutely great for me. I transcode my footage to Prores with the LUT applied, and in the latest version of Premiere I use Premiere's 1DC input LUT in the Basic panel (made by the SpeedLooks guys), and choose one of the built in LUTs (I like the Clean Punch HDR) in the Creative panel. That gets me rich, punchy colours, and great skin tones -- really, cleaning up skin tones is by far the best bit about the Log Converter. The other thing I like about the Log Converter is that I can shoot a pretty contrasty look in camera (using Andrew's in camera settings), so I get a good sense of what I'm looking at. I find it difficult to get the mojo going looking a flat flat images, and I love that I can see a punchy image on camera and know that I have a reasonable amount of flexibility in post. Below is a screenshot from a job where I used those settings (her skin is a bit red because she had red brick walls on both sides of her). Of course, Your Mileage May Vary, but for me it's a total winner. Thanks Andrew!

Assuming you're not under crazy deadlines, transcoding is your friend! I ttranscode my GH4 4K footage to Prores and I can edit on a late 2012 Mac Mini, it works great. Last time I built a computer from scratch I used an i7 4770 with a Gigabyte board and 16gb of RAM, with a GTX770, and that allowed me to edit my GH4 4K natively in Premiere. No such luck in Resolve, I'd peak out at 22 fps -- I read deep in the Blackmagic forums that to edit h.264 natively in Resolve you need to throw a ton of CPU cores, so I'd have to look at 6 core or 8 core CPUs for that to work. Personally I'd go the transcoding route, and use your $1000 budget on new hard drives (you'd need them!)

https://vimeo.com/45985040 Not sure if you guys have seen this, but it's pretty awesome. The last quote from Coppola was especially relevant!

[media]http://vimeo.com/45749406[/media] Hi everyone, this is my first video with the GH2, and I have to say I'm mighty impressed! I'm using the flowmotion v2.02 hack and it's brilliant, completely reliable and looks great even with the 24L setting. I shot this with a $16 Holga lens because I was looking for that vintage home movie look, and even though it is just awful technically (especially the flare) I really love the way it renders colours. And I'm really amazed just how much detail the GH2 recorded even though that cheap plastic lens -- even with the Vimeo stream you can still see some of the details in the bushes in the back ground. So overall I'm super happy to have gotten the GH2, hope you enjoy the video :)