fuzzynormal

Let's all hang out at my house in Borrego Springs and film some tests.

FWIW, I just go with standard ND's. Variable ND's are faster to use, but that particular convenience has never been important enough for me to accept the odd color cast and gradients it can create on certain shots. I'd say it really depends on how fast you need to be shooting or want to be shooting.

I've been using the em100/EM5II for real estate "profile" videos. Lots of talking heads and such. Short shoots that last an hour or so. I've done close to 40 of them so far. While that real estate stuff isn't on my vimeo page, this one below is very similar in style and used the same em100/EM5II set-up: I don't have the EM5II spec sheet in front of me. I don't know what Ω it prefers, but it plays nice enough with the Sennheiser. I'm not going to say it is wonderful audio. I've got gear that does better, but it's not horrible either --and it works well enough for me to use it without any stress that it's going to fail.

I've heard gripes about the lousy pre-amps in the EM5II, yet I'm clean audio with it and my Sennheiser em100. I dial down the input to a minimum and then adjust the input level accordingly on the wireless mic. It's not an impressive preamp, but I've found it useable.

Good luck with it. I appreciate JVC, but they typically just do things with their design and manufacturing that doesn't quite jibe with me when I'm using their cameras.

I've traveled around the world and back. As long as you have a competent camera, you'll be fine. I'm not ashamed of any of the footage I captured via SD, neophyte HD, mature HD, or UHD. Although I will say, on some shots it would have been nice to have more DR, since controlling the lighting was never an option. From my experience, I'd say a good long lens can be a cool tool to have every once in awhile. Otherwise, shorter and standard focal lengths are fine. The smaller and assuming the camera, I've found, is the best bet as it lets you move around people without being too ostentatious. Also, who's to say it's "once in a lifetime?"

Well, you don't see the 2 additional storytelling scenes that never made it into the shoot and tied together a few concepts --because so many people bailed on their responsibilities. Once that fell apart, I was forced to stretch stuff to cover those gaps, which sucked some of the sophistication right out of the production. The end result is basically just a glorified performance video. It was originally a bit more than that. Alas! Anyway, lay people don't exactly know what's involved to craft stuff, and no matter how much you pound it into their heads that A+B=C, they tend to think "C" can just somehow happen on it's own, like magic. Some get it. Some do not.

I did a vid for free 4 years ago. Spend a good amount of time working with the band in pre-pro, arranging things, doing it all for free. Because, hey, "fun" right? Also, one of the kids in the group was related to me, so I figured I'd help. Well, shoot day shows up and I'm the only one there on schedule building the set. They're hours late, about 10% of their promised background actors (their big responsibility) for the concert scene actually showed up, and I had to recruit a neighborhood kid to help me do lighting. Had to completely improvise on set to try and salvage something around the limitations of it all. When they watched the clip for the first time they only had criticisms because end result wasn't anything like we had talked about in pre-production. I laughed out loud at 'em. Not angry or anything, just had to tell 'em how things either work or don't work depending on collaboration. And 1st cut was the final cut. --And, oh, I could also tell you about the guy I traveled across the country to film who then never showed for the gig and wouldn't answer his phone. That was wonderful. Meh. Local indy bands. Whatyagonnado? The best bet it to treat it like a paying gig, including the up front paperwork/contracts/releases, and you give yourself a bit of a security net.

I'm looping back around this month to give it a go on the 5DII. I really just dabbled a fews years back to load ML up and see in general what happened. Never really put it through the production process, but now I'm doing a short doc, so I figured I'd finally load it again and give it a shot. What didn't you like about the 5DII/ML combo?

Same here. Really not keen on hitting the reset on lenses and building another collection. But, glass being glass, it always holds value well for resale, regardless of manufacturer --so the stuff I have can be sold and then go to new lenses. I've been really patient with Fuji, just waiting for the sensor tech to push them into acceptable video. The closer it gets the harder it is to wait! Same with Oly and their 5-axis cams. Just waiting for them to allow 4k simply because it's part of the basic evolution of sensors is hard to do. They're in no rush even though I am. With Oly I pretty much only need to use their 5-axis cams for video. So cheap old manual lenses work for me on those.

True. In my head I was thinking of the Kardashian clan when I wrote about rubbish.

On the other hand, one can generate loads of rubbish and establish a lucrative career doing so.

Actually, I'm not offering any advice. That's just the way I see the tech going. I could be wrong, but I really think the tech isn't going to matter as much as it has in the past. Just as the internal combustion engine was some sort of exotic luxurious thing to own in the early years, it eventually became ubiquitous. Many people still love to use the latest and greatest, and finding the unique limits of that technology is exciting for some people. Most of us just accept it as a matter of course, and use it to get from A to B...and if you drive in L.A. it doesn't matter what car you're in a Maserati or a Kia, you're not getting anywhere fast. As for "make loads of stuff & get it out there as quickly as is humanly possible!" I'll let the millennias put up quantity over quality. That's a pursuit better suited for youth anyway.

Indeed. Add to that the consideration that video is moving into a post-technical world, I think. Not that tech is unimportant and the foundation of video, but the fact that even the base-line of stuff will be soon be more than "good enough" and video tech in general will become a raw commodity. In less than a decade you're going to have just about everyone in developed countries shooting 8k on their phones and easily putting it online through any number of services. From there it becomes less of "how awesome is your video tech" and what sort of advantage do you offer that allows me to share it? How can I grab eyeballs with my content and can I do it better with hubbub.com vs. kablooey.com? How the files get served, how information is controlled, how can I monetize my stuff with your service, etc. The tech side will be a low priority.

Well, there's certainly options on the market for cameras that offer it. The PenF has an articulating screen and it's modeled after the retro rangefinder style. I think maybe Fuji is of the "less is more" mindset when it comes to their rangefinder body design?

For what it's worth, I think protests like what y'all did are great. However, if you want to talk about insane, imagine being a documentarian and willingly going into situation like this:

Sorry. Didn't mean for it to come off that way. It's a cool film and well done! The superlative "insane" is a bit over the top is all.

I'm curious, in your opinion, is it more rewarding to make a living creating motion pictures for clients --or creating photo gear content on youtube and social media? Also, how much traffic do you need to actually generate some sort of practical revenue?

Insane run 'n gun? I don't know about that. Looks like it's less demanding than what most, documentary, news, corporate, and wedding shooters have been doing for decades.

It's a new era if Vimeo fails to compete. It's a tough market. I hope they succeed as, from what I can tell, their VOD streaming service is fair to indy filmmakers...but the tech needs to keep up. The fact that a VOD film I have on the site doesn't pop up when doing a search of my production company name is maddening. If anyone knows another VOD service that has a better revenue sharing scheme with equal streaming quality, please inform!

Wow. Ed O'Neil is playing guitar in a Raleigh North Carolina bar band? Seriously though, good capabilities. I'd stop that 1.2 down a touch though. It's actually kind of amusing to see "night" shots a bit over exposed. Technology these days is impressive.

I currently shoot a lot of video on a EM5II, and the XPro2 has better IQ. So it's certainly capable of making pretty images. I'd say it all depends on how often you want to shoot video, what you want the results to look like, and how much you prioritize the video experience over stills. I'm still getting used to making the XPro2 work smoothly as a video cam. Like all "hybrid" photography cams that do video, it's got quirks so I need to get used to them. Seems like it'll be easy enough to do though. I mean, I shoot video with the GM1. If that's possible, then the XPro2 won't be any issue. As a photography camera, I think it's the best thing Fuji has on the market right now. The old school knob control is perfection, IMHO. So much better than the X100's. Everything is much more refined than the X100's too. There's nothing on the X100's that the XPro2 doesn't do better.

Be sure to check out http://f16.click Kevin Mullins' blog for more insight about the Xpro2 if you're interested.

I think I figured it out. He's attempting to modify his budget so he can buy more IKEA coffee mugs! At any rate, great test. Highly informative. All the cameras and lenses are competent, yeah? I'd doubt the lay person would be able to distinguish much subjective difference between shots. My take away from the video is that shooting engaging cinema really comes down to the implementation of the craft. If you told me I had to shoot a narrative film on a GH4 rather than a Red. Well, I'd certainly prefer the Red, but if I didn't have the option, I'd still be confident with that GH4. That's ultimately what the EOSHD philosophy is about, yeah? High level cinema on low budget gear. The wall of entry into the making of film has certainly crumbled fast, hasn't it? I always looked forward to when it was going to happen. Now that it has, I'm still sort of amazed.

Not sure where using a Xpro2 will take me when it comes to video, but like most cams these days it has certain strengths, for sure.