jonpais

Six months ago, many were considering moving up to the Leica 12-60 from the Olympus 12-40 in order to get more reach, not realizing that ETC turns the Zuiko into a constant aperture zoom with 56mm at the telephoto end.

ETC stands for extra tele conversion, which in 4K gives you a 1.4x crop with no visible degradation of image quality, effectively doubling the number of lenses in your collection. I just posted a sample in 'lenses', where the Laowa 7.5mm does double duty as a 10.5mm.

The Edo shots do look staged: they're immaculately composed, the lighting is nice and dramatic as well: but they're a bit too detached for my liking.

Grumpy old man tests out the Laowa 7.5mm f/2 lens in ETC mode.

I'm guessing he's missing those built-in ND filters just a little.

I haven't got any of these filters yet, but from what I've shot myself, I think you're going to want to be cautious with them, as not every lens or every situation will require diffusion filters. For example, shooting ridiculously tight with the Olympus 75mm f/1.8 and ETC enabled on the GH5, even at wide apertures, the images were too sharp, whereas I find the Olympus 25mm f/1.2 is just fine with similar settings. The Leica 12mm f/1.4 could also benefit from some filtration. On the other hand, I sort of like the Sergio Leone look, where you can count every pore on the actors' faces, but if I were shooting weddings, or wanted to flatter a talent's appearance, I'd definitely consider picking some of these up.

@Andrew Reid ha, I thought it looked nice and clean, but I'm no web designer.

A few days ago, I realized my video of the Laowa 7.5mm was out of focus. I did another test to confirm this afternoon. Oh well!

From what I can tell, in 4K, the rs of the GH5 is half that of the GX85.

This is way beyond my ken, but imo, if you're an active member of the forum, I think it's pretty safe to say you're alive.

Agree with the above posters about the Sigma 18-35mm - it's heavy as a truck, but superb color and sharpness imo, better than any of the native zooms as far as I'm concerned.

Who clicks on those ads anyway? anyone here?

@gethin Congratulations! You'll love the camera, even if setting it up is a bit cumbersome at first. Hopefully, Andrew will release his manual soon. V-Log Lite is supposed to offer twelve stops of dynamic range compared to the 10 stops of Cinelike D, but I don't think it's always absolutely necessary. Being able to load LUTs into the camera for previewing your image is also a definite plus. The Cinelike D of the GH5 already seems to have greater tonality compared to that of the G85.

It's crazy for sure, but it's still far simpler setting up my TV than my camera. To get my GH5 ready, I had to change over twenty settings: Creative Video Mode, M Menu, Shutter Angle, VFR, Record Format, Continuous AF Off, Photo Style, Noise Reduction, Contrast, Saturation, Sharpening, Hue, Luminance Level, Mic Level Limiter Off, Mic Level Adjust, HDMI Settings, ISO Increments 1/3 EV, Extended ISO, AF Assist Lamp, Peaking On, Guidelines, Zebra Pattern, Fn Buttons, Beep, Live View, Monitor Luminance, Eye Sensor, System Frequency... and I'm still not finished. Waiting for your manual, Andrew! The one good thing with the GH5 is that you'll just be able to copy all the settings to your SD card and away you go.

This one with Matthew Scott's also interesting, as he's a talented DP as well as an experienced colorist.

@BTM_Pix naw!

So I'm in the middle of watching Nicolas Winding Refn's The Neon Demon (booed at Cannes), and stunned by the beautiful lensing, I take a moment to find out what it was shot on. DP Natasha Braier chose to shoot with Crystal Express lenses, made from old Cooke S2 and S3 Panchros. Search some more and I learn that Cooke will be releasing a set of Cooke Panchro i/Classic lenses from T2.2 to T3.2 sometime this Spring. Of particular interest to me is that they will be available in Micro 4/3 mount. They'll run something like $9,000 apiece, but one can always dream! (I don't think this is exactly fresh news, but heh...)

Hi Liam, Your first link takes me to the 'get Vimeo pro' page... Maybe because I'm not signed in to Vimeo? Anyhow, a director who has worn just about every hat imaginable, Shinya Tsukamoto, may interest you. I remember being spellbound watching Bullet Ballet, Tokyo Fist and Snake of June,

@Lorian @Andrew Reid This 'grumpy old man' apologizes to Lorian and all forum members for my ill-considered response to the OP's post. This is a great community, I'm sincerely sorry to have let anyone down. A moderator should lead by example - from today on I hope I can earn your trust to do just that.

We're way off topic here, but I tend to prefer sharp lenses to fuzzy ones. A quote from Roger Deakins: Deakins: I think the Master Primes are the fastest and cleanest lenses out there, as far as I can tell. So that’s why I used them. I don’t know why I’d want to screw around with the image from the LEXA. I quite like the image. When we did Skyfall, [director] Sam [Mendes] and I talked about adding [digital] grain [in postproduction]. Then we saw some tests when we were doing the final timing and we both decided that it didn’t make any sense. It looked good as it was. There is a fad, I suppose, for using older lenses, but I’m not sure I quite understand it. I’ve used lenses to distort an image for a particular effect like in The Assassination of Jesse James, but I’m not sure why I’d want to use a soft lens all the way through a film. My eyes are pretty good and the world looks pretty sharp and crisp to me (laughs). So I like to reflect that in the way I shoot.

A camera's just a tool, whether film or digital. One is not inherently superior to the other. But there can be no denying the importance of digital: it's democratized filmmaking and enabled work to be seen around the world at the click of a button.

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Thanks for the friendly suggestion.

@Mattias Burling You can insult my lenses all you like, just don't talk about my mom's stew, all right?

I think you are mistaken.. those aren't numbers for the entire digital camera industry, just Arri. And where did you read that film was dead? That's news to me.