Aussie Ash

"Good news is he says he's going to find us love!" Some of us are already in love with our cameras Ebrahim.

Samsung: Blu-Ray 4K UHD Standard Could Be Commercialized by End of the Year In a bid to distribute UHD content, Samsung Electronics proposes to use more advanced Blu-ray media that complies with the BDXL standard that supports triple-layer 100GB RE (rewritable) and R (write-once) discs as well as quad-layer 128GB R discs for commercial applications Another technology that is needed for distribution of 4K movies is high efficiency video coding (HEVC, also known as H.265 and MPEG-H part 2) technology that is used for UHD video compression. Being 51% -74% more efficient than currently used MPEG4-AVC/H.264, the HEVC technology allows to compress 4K movies to around 80GB – 90GB, which means that 100GB – 128GB BD media should be enough to store it. The H.265 is currently supported by numerous decoder/encode chips that can be used inside players. extract from Xbit http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/multimedia/display/20140113232834_Samsung_Proposes_to_Use_Multi_Layer_Blu_Ray_Discs_for_4K_UHD_Video_Distribution.html

"They'll love your film if you get the sounds of the bike appear 'larger than life' in your film." I agree with Quirky 100 % here it really is worth putting in the extra effort to obtain high quality Motorcycle sounds even if it means spending an afternoon recording sound when there is minimal background noise,people talking ,wind etc. I video lots of air shows and deliberatly go on practice day because it's much easier to capture clean audio -no stupid public announcement system .Microphone about five metres behind exhuasts but out of the prop wash and a Spitfire starting up sounds pretty cool. "The World's Fastest Indian" has some pretty good motorcycle audio on it -even Bert cranking her up at 5 in the morning ,no muffler. Here is a clip of a Manx Norton which gives a reasonable illustration of how the sound changes according to microphone placement. www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgoHSk0dNg0

VFX guys, how much of your present work is in 4K ?? I was also surprised that one member said VistaVision was used for VFX plates on Captain Phillips

i seem to recall that Vermeer had to pay a small fortune for Cobalt blue

Matt you asked "Why not make HD the best it can be before moving on to 4K?" There has to be higher quality video codecs for DSLRs in the pipeline ,I think it's just a matter of time which manufacturer is going to have HD 4.2.2 first for DSLRs ? 2014 is shaping up to be a very interesting year for new video cameras even with the push for 4K I bet there are more capable HD DSLRs on the way too.

Philip Bloom had a lengthy blog on this back in October here is the link and his pros and converts philipbloom.net/2013/10/10/4kraw/ Now the pros and cons of 4k PROS: Incredibly detailed images, 4 times that of HD but they are not obviously so. Fantastic ability to crop in post. Something I do on all my interviews for docs now that I shoot 4k for them. I am not shooting 4k docs – just 4k talking heads. I can then go in for tights or back out whenever I want in the edit. Way better. “Future proof†I am bit hesitant about this as I see very little need for future proofing most of my work. Now for high end drama and big docs then yes. Do it. You have a higher end format to sell to clients. Sometimes an advantage. Not always though…see cons. Scaling down to 2K in post often yields quite stunning results. CONS: Inefficient codec mean massive files. Even efficient ones are pretty big, which means expensive cards and lots of storage. Inability to edit natively for the vast majority of people. Proxies are used which of course adds time. Most production companies I have dealt with cannot take it. Almost nobody can actually watch 4k (yet). I can’t. It can lead to lazy cinematography. Although I use the crop to help me in interviews, this is not due to being lazy but to give me options. You should never forget the tight shots because you can crop. The whole aesthetic changes. The depth of field remains the same so it doesn’t look like a true close up You need to be even more skilled, as mistakes are easier to spot. Incredibly unforgiving and harsh. Showing the flaws in everything, especially people. Fantastic for beauty shots etc..for drama it’s actually too detailed and causes the DP many issues. Needs a really big screen to really see the difference. Will it actually take off as a consumer format for the home? I am very pessimistic about this.

Here is a link to a rare interview with Niels Arden Oplev the Danish director of "Girl with The Dragon tattoo".He says that he endeavored to follow the book as closely as was possible. I loved the Scandinavian cinematography,a breath of fresh air. Budget for the Swedish film was $13 million , Hollywood's version two years latter is not even half as good and cost them $90 million! www.charlierose.com/watch/50049939

At least 20 new 4K cameras will hit the market between now and NAB 2014, according toJeromy Young, CEO and founder of production technology developer Atomos. Some can be expected to be announced at IBC next month in Amsterdam.The Australian vendor, maker of HD-SDI hard disk recorders like Samurai, has advance warning of release dates for the cameras in order to develop products that link with them. He did not reveal further details of plans, which are under NDA.(extract from The Hollywood reporter)

Matt James Smith-Does anyone actually know any reliable statistics regarding DSLR video use relative to stills (i.e. numbers of people that buy DSLRs primarily for video rather than stills)? I imagine it's pretty hard to gauge how niche the HDSLR market is ... We have quite a large newsagent handy and today I counted the different magazines covering DSLR photography- fourteen ! (how do they stay in business ???) They only one related to DSLR video is "digital Film maker" a British magazine .That gives a rough figure of 7% DSLR magazines focusing on film making. I would love to know how many GH3s have been sold as surely most are being used for video.

Looking good Matt,is this a homemade monocam ?? Camera is bringing out some nice tones and details in the shadows too. Hope you had your wellies on.

Hi Matt Glad you like your 5300 .I am pretty happy with mine too , high quality of the still photos it is capable of taking is a bonus too. Have you played around with any sort of "follow focus" ? I am using AFD lens with manual focus and just using focus marks on sticky tape.

"I dont understand the hype with those mac's. There is nothing special about the hardware and the software is a pain in the ass. You always have compatibility issues. Whats the point of having a software that works if most things wont work with it? And its WAY overpriced." I work for a company that employ 200 staff.The Windows system we use crashes at least once a month usually a FULL working day to get things up and running again.In the mean time we have to go on to temporary hand written orders and deliveries and have No access to accounts.Windows sure keeps the IT people in a job .

How about the GH2 hack? Hi Tim .Philip Bloom wrote about the GH2 being hacked way back in July 2011 a lot of water has passed under the bridge since then.Quite a lot of GH2s appearing on the 2nd hand market too. Lets see what the GH4 is capable of ???

Oleg Kalyan's, wants list for the D5200: Kelvin temperature, full time histogram, full time audio monitoring. I hope Nikon will do it in the next firmware update. Here is one of his on youtube www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7_Sagw6GBY Sergey&Anna wedding teaser

JBraddock Actually, I have been following your posts closely and I also own a D7100. As an amateur, I have a lot to learn and in regards to the suggestion of separate topic similar to the one on Dvxuser, I thought that having a topic about how to shoot with Nikon cameras would be useful. May be we could use this thread. dahlfors Such a topic would be great, although I'd suggest starting a separate thread for it. I've been shooting with D800 for quite a while, and there really isn't many online discussing issues/solutions etc. Matt James Smith I'd be up for this too, though I'd really rather it was a new thread. And if we do it on this forum we may need to dodge the odd bullet every now and again. *Ahem* There is a "Nikon HDSR International User Group" on vimeo -about 30 members. Although the movies posted are getting comments there seems to be very little in the forum. I think a Nikon video group is a great idea but would prefer to see it at this forum as for some reason posters here are very willing to contribute and discuss. Nikon USA are slowly waking up to the potential of video which is good to see http://cinema.nikonusa.com/blog/

NO ADVERTISING ON THE FORUM! - EOSHD “We used the Alexa as a baseline and had the D800 recording to an outboard recorder uncompressed and to an internal memory card at H.264 compressed,†says Fletcher. “We also tested a Canon C300 with a Cooke lens on it—a $40,000 setup—running alongside the $4,000 Nikon D800 setup. The Canon footage had what you might call an over-smooth look to it. But the D800 uncompressed footage blew us away.†When they looked at D800 footage alongside the ARRI baseline at Technicolor, he says, “we really couldn’t see much difference. But our jaws really hit the floor when we brought up the compressed D800 footage. Right then the decision was made with the post supervisor Megan Walsh that if we shoot with this camera, there is no need to shoot uncompressed. That means the file size goes from 4GB to 600 MB. That’s just the factory setup, too.†“It won’t ever replace the Alexa, which is a better form factor, a better picture, and has more dynamic range. The Alexa is also amazing at highlight retention, and that’s because it is doing an in-camera HDR and noise mask. But when you look at how the Nikon is handling the roll-off on the highs, how it is handling the toe of the curve, [and] how it is handling no information to getting into the dark grays and coming up in the middle tones, it is doing a fantastic job. Footage is creamy and smooth, much like the Alexa footage. It really looks cinematic and stellar.â€

Correction to my post of 24th November."The D5300 user manual is 84 pages and whilst is adequate for stills photography there is only two pages on recording movies !! Nikon should get their act together they are leaving purchasers in the dark about the settings available for high quality video." This evening I had a look at the CD that came with the camera, there is D5300 Reference manual on it as a pdf 280 pages including index.This goes in to far more depth than the printed booklet. I am very happy with the camera though shooting video on it is taking some getting used to coming from a camcorder background.

DOP Klaus Merkel and directed by Nikolai Müllerschön For the first time the cameraman worked during this collaboration with Panasonic cameras with up to ten parallel GH3s and thus can shoot each scene simultaneously from a variety of different settings. In this case, the camera man convinced the compactness of the GH3 over classic cinema cameras: "With her settings were realized, which are difficult to implement with traditional film cameras. Scenes inside a car or fancy angles can be on set with the GH3 so easily realized. "Merkel said the editing reserves that the footage (All-Intra 72 Mbps, in mov format) also offered in post-production. "Behind the scenes" is viewable on Youtube also downloadable -173 MBd http://hybridcamerarevolution.blogspot.com.au/2013/11/upcoming-german-film-frauen-women.html

Review by Michael Hession at Gizmodo gizmodo.com/canon-70d-review-dslr-video-nirvana-comes-more-into-fo-1444911115 "Unfortunately, for Canon and its many excited customers, the 70D stops there when it comes to offering video shooters anything new. The video quality is not improved one bit over previous models. It still exhibits significant moire distortion in certain subjects, and just looks a bit muddy in finely detailed shots. True, it's no worse than every other DSLR out there except the very top end—the 5D Mark III and Nikon D800. But still, we should expect some kind of quality improvement over 5 years. Perhaps more inexplicable is the lack of headphone jack. How does Canon expect a video shooter to choose the 70D when they are unable to monitor audio? It doesn’t make sense." in comments-"GH3 controls moire reasonably well and is superior than Canon APS-C video in that regard (also more detail)".

Great to have you call in and comment Brandon. Angela Nicholson has reviewed the camera at Techradar "Our tests of the D5200 revealed that images taken at ISO 3200 or higher sometimes suffered from banding in darker areas and this significantly limited the size at which they could be viewed or printed. Naturally, we have explored this area with the D5300 and it doesn't appear to suffer from the same problem. Noise is generally controlled well and has a random distribution and fine texture." She also has it on youtube www.youtube.com/watch?v=83BHJMKWUW8 Very little comments on the cameras video abilities but note the improved iso range over the D5200.

The 5300 has six picture control options. if you choose "Portrait" the sharpening,contrast,brightness, saturation and hue can be all adjusted and named and saved as a color profile. Here is a guy that has downloadable picture controls www.similaar.com/foto/flaat-picture-controls/index.html

Had a closer look at the benefits and implications of going the Canon/Magic Lantern path and came to the conclusion "not for me at this stage". Just purchased a 5300 .So far very pleased with it ,no sign of the fixed pattern noise,video quality has exceeded my expectations,great in low light ,50P is quite smooth .Interesting that Gordon Laing measured the 1080p60 High quality footage at an average bit rate of 35 Mbps wheras the 5200 was 24mbps at high. Flip out screen is nice and crisp and can still be read when you eyes are at a sharp angle to the screen, I had trouble focusing with the screen on my old Canon HV30. The user manual is 84 pages and whilst is adequate for stills photography there is only two pages on recording movies !! Nikon should get their act together they are leaving purchasers in the dark about the settings available for high quality video. Only power supply is the battery and charger ,an external power supply is available from Nikon or just get more batteries ,apparently there is a firmware update so that 5200s can take 5300 batteries. More to come in a few days,having fun !!

Hi Andrew Thanks for suggesting to look at the options in depth. Canon 60D can still be tracked down for about Aus $680 new so EF lenses would give better compatibility with Black magic a couple on years down the track.& option of Magic Lantern.

Hi Andrew many thanks for checking out the 5300 for us.Nikon Australia have released the pricing for their dealers but the first shipment hasn't arrived yet. Body only is Aus $885 or $775 for 5200 ,Pany GH3 $1250,Pany G6 only $770 Black magic pocket $1,239 ,Black magic cinema $2475. I am happy to go with the 5300 and Nikon glass on hand to serve my video projects for the next 18 months or so. Hoping that Nikon have reduced the FPN but if not applying noise reduction is no big deal. With the video camera scene changing so rapidly the prospect of getting in to micro four thirds lenses just does not appeal. The Black magic cameras are only the first versions one would hope that in a couple of years time they are more user friendly .