Bioskop.Inc

Soon - i bit the bullet on the RJ M42. It fits the pocket & you can adjust back focus to get infinity on those tricky lenses. But is coming from Singapore

Say it Rich & say it with Pride! I think they make a lot of sense on the Pocket cam & hopefully they'll come down in price (or not if people don't stop dumping their SLRMagics on ebay).

Thanks, that's v.nice of you. I suppose on the upside it'll never be that bad again. The use of Colour and B&W was to make the distinction between the different time zones - the gig & after the gig. And i converted the concert footage to B&W because during the set they were showered in this horrible Pink light & the band didn't like it. So it was simpler to go B&W with H264.

This will probably go down as one of my worst filming experiences: 1) Ideal wide shot unavailable because the venue has loads of big support beams scattered around, which block everyone on stage. 2) The main act have so much equipment that the support band are scattered into small spaces (the drummer is behind some keyboards & the bass player is doing a balancing act at the top of the stage stairs - he does fall down them at one point). 3) The only available wide shot is the worst wide shot in the history of wide shots. 4) The band play the wrong song during their 10min sound check & so you get what you get as far as close ups go. 5) The band insist on recording their own sound (better quality) & they forget to record the first 1m48secs of the song, so you have to use some of the sound you recorded with the 60Ds internal mic. GOOD GRIEF! So this is what i managed to put together: Canon 60D (H264), Mir 1b & Iscorama 54.

I'd go here & ask if i were you: http://forum.mflenses.com/

I'm using my Isco Wide-Screen 2000 with my pocket on either the Nikkor 24mm or Mir-24m (it seems to like lenses that can close focus for best focus through results). However, once i've got the back clamp, front filter adapter & diopter/s on it becomes less & less compact, but no lens support! So Baby Hypergonar it is really & its hefty price tag.

nice, but which one is it? (so i know which one to avoid)

I'd be happy to put my name in the hat, as an ex-Uni Lecturer/BBC man - to keep things on topic, stick up for the small guys & the educational side of things & perhaps getting people to write stickies that would be useful/interesting to the forum community.

You need some level headed moderators to help you out, as its obvious that you aren't really coping. However, there does seem to be a rise in trolling, either for the fun of it or by arrogance or by accident! Not just here but everywhere - loads of forums seem to have become very very angry places. By trolling i mean derailing interesting posts (on purpose or not) & disrespectful replies which are normally done by people who are know-it-alls or just want to be right all the time or just want an arguement. And this can & has come from a variety of posters new & old (or should i say respected?). Also it would be nice to have a few extra stickies e.g. Andy Lee's Most useful lenses etc... or Lighting options on a budget (with examples of work done) etc...This could cut down on the repeated posts asking the same questions over & over & over again... No more selling, but that's been tried before.

No problem, if you run into more trouble or need answers just carry on posting. You can get some nice footage from the 60D & you don't need to spend a fortune - get out there, shoot, make mistakes & learn from them.

Well, i'll say it again put Magic Lantern on your camera, if it means buying another SD card then do it - I use the cheap Transcend SDHC class 10 16gb no problem. Make sure you've got the right 60D firmware for ML on your camera (1.1.1 - there are links etc...) Its easy to do, just do a low level format in-camera. Plug the SD card into computer & copy'n'paste the files you've downloaded from ML onto it (where all the other files on the card are). Put SD card back into camera. Put camera in M mode, then turn it on. Open up Canon menu & go to the Firmware section, enter & click OK (as if you were updating firmware). Wait until the ML sucess screen comes up & restart the camera. With ML you can now film RAW files (if you use a nightly build). But for better H264, you can up the bit rate to 3.0x & get far better quality video (no sound, but its shit anyways). Also, get some vintage lenses - a Helios 44-2 (pre-set aperture so no click stops) will be cheap, produce great images & is a very good place to start. Neat video is an expense you don't really need at first, but is nice to have to clean up low light footage. Visioncolor's picture profiles (VisionTech 02 being the one i always use) are amazing, no one has ever complained buying them after a recommendation! If you shy away from this advice you'll be left with v.average (noisey/grainy) looking footage.

Wow! Thanks for the tip. I'm short sighted so i've been using an old pair of glasses & can see the Pocket screen just fine when on a shoulder type rig. But I hadn't really thought of getting a cheap viewfinder like this & it just struck me that i could use it without any glasses at all, since i can see things really clearly up close. This viewfinder is only £10 in UK & i can use it with my 60D - Result!

Quite frankly, no - do you mean the blotchy nature of it all? I'm not saying its not there but with Vimeo compression, its all a blur. You really need to shoot something longer than a few seconds & with less contrasty scene. Another thing to take into on board is that a lot of people us vintage glass which blurs things up. Also, a lot of videos online have used Neat video or something to clean up footage. The 60D is far from perfect & it takes a while to get things looking nice.

Just not sure what type of noise you're talking about when watching your clip - maybe vimeo compression isn't helping. I would say don't use cinestyle cause it really ain't that great - neutral flattened is better. With the 60D/H264 you need to get it as close to the finished look & only tweek it in post, because if you push it too much the footage will fall apart (ah, could this be your problem?).

Also, reading the manual would have told you that when shooting video you need to use multiples of 160 for ISO. Further, do not use their picture profiles, but if you have to use the Neutral one & turn down the Sharpening to 1 or 2 (would really recommend you buy VisionColor's canon picture profiles, they are the best & cheap). Put the stable release of Magic Lantern on your camera too, it'll give you zebras, histograms & loads of other useful tools for shooting video.

Took them long enough, but for a free editing system it might have been worth the wait as this could be very good.

Got to remember its NAB & they are just setting out their stall - a bit naively, but hey. The real crazy thing is that BM are totally dismissing their track record as far as after sales is concerned. Can they seriously think that someone will buy this thing & regard it as a safe buy? What really bugs me about this camera & its upgradability, is that they are quite obviously saying our 4K sensor ain't great but have it anyway until we make you buy a new one, which might be plagued with similar problems, along with dubious firmware updates - cynical yes, but deserved. On a brighter note, there are reports that there will be more than 1 firmware update in the near future, but again the wait begins.

Forget auto focus on anything that costs this little - it will be absolute shit. Show me a camera with this image quality, in this price range that has it working flawlessly? If you didn't know, you can double tap the OK button to zoom in & can leave it there whilst recording - not ideal obviously. Also, if you're trying to keep something in focus then a shallow depth of field will make it that much harder. This cam really does need an additional Monitor/EVF to film with - I still haven't got one, but its on my list. Basically they lied about what this camera is & especially, who its for - don't be fooled this isn't a DSLR by any means. Its cheap because it needs extras, not loads, but enough to mean that even if you spend the same again on the extras, you've saved money. There is a sticky (frequently asked questions) on the BM forum that has links to the best answers for some of the important questions. New camera, new learning curve.

This camera is almost certainly aimed at Broadcast TV shows (dramas will use the Alexa) & so it really isn't aimed at the majority of people on this forum. I would hazard a guess that there are a lot of jobing TV cameramen rubbing their hands at either the BM URSA or the AJA Cion - 10K for a camera like this is peanuts compared to the +20k (more like 30-40K) that you would have had to drop some years ago. Also, it looks quite small (a little bit bigger than the Z1) & quite frankly 7kg is light for something like this - it'll give you just about the right amount of weight for nice steady shoulder shots or when using the top handle. The only thing that immediately jumps out as illogical is that they have put the big 10" screen on the wrong side - as it is no one will be viewing this whilst its on your shoulder, but that's probably the point. +1 on the changeable sensor, which they did because of all the trouble they're experiencing on their other 4K cam. If you don't get why they've released this cam (& the other one) then just move on, since you've obviously never worked in a Broadcast TV environment.

No of course not, i'm more interested in the minor things that would fall under the etc...heading - the pink noise generated by lights, maybe a few extra WB presets (for ProRes). Eventhough i've got my Pocket cam that produces lovely images, i still use my 60D because no one really gives a shit. No 4K for me as there is only one real platform for it & that's cinema - the new Panasonic/Sony cams look like they always did, a bit video-ish.

The AJA Cion seems to be absolutely packed with every type of connector/feature you'd want (no 10" screen), but will it hold up to the BM image quality? I wonder when we'll see something smaller/cheaper/prosumer from Alexa - just to put the cat amoungst the pigeons!

This certainly looks the business on paper or should i say their nice video preview, packed with everything you could possibly want, but their sample videos didn't really tell you that much about how it shoots.

Yes, lets hope histograms etc... come in firmware updates ASAP.

I suppose some people might go a bit bonkers over this release, especially if you bought the 4K cam. However, we know that the release date of July is bollocks, so gives us time to save up for Jan next year. Now they really are trying to go after the Alexa! I wonder if the HDMI version could be upgradeable to add a sensor/lens mount at a later date?

Studio camera, who cares! They've just announced the Blackmagic URSA on their website, a user upgradeable 4k camera! Now that looks v.interesting... http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/blackmagicursa