Matt Kieley

I got the Tokina RMC 17mm 3.5 lens, as well as a cheap-ass Pixco Focal Reducer: f/3.5 f/5.6 I love the look and feel of this lens, even wide open. It has crazy lens flares that I kinda love: I usually see this lens going for like +/-$200-ish on ebay, this one was in pristine condition, listed "buy it now" for $115, and I had been thinking of getting a vintage wide prime to go with my other FD lenses, so I jumped on it. NO REGRETS!

Stop making me want these lenses.

Damn, making me miss my favorite DV camera: the DVX100. I may have to come up with a project to shoot on DV. I made a feature film on the DVX back when I was much more of an amateur than I am now. I'm curious what quality/look I could get now that I'm better at lighting and shooting.

Thanks! I actually got the GH1 because I couldn't afford the GH2. I got it from someone on dvxuser for like $300 in 2011. I kinda want a GH1 when I go back and look at older work, but it might be more out of nostalgia. Thanks man!

I've recently started applying to freelance Director of Photography jobs, but one thought has been nagging me: do people take you less seriously if all you have is a cheap DSLR or Mirrorless camera? I feel like my reel, which is all BMPCC, Sony a6300 and even some T2i, should speak for itself, but a lot of jobs I see posted on Mandy and elsewhere demand Red, or Alexa (I never even see a mention of Blackmagic). I think these are producers or directors who are hiring a DP because they don't own equipment, and possibly don't know anything about cameras other than Red and Arri because they're "the industry standard". I understand some people just want "the best" and so they look to what Hollywood and Indywood are using. I understand why they would want to use the big fancy expensive cinema cameras. I know I can get great results with any camera I use--I've proven that to myself with all of this buying, trying and selling cameras I've done for the past year+, but I wonder if I could just be disregarded entirely when I say I have what are basically cheap mid-range cameras. To any DPs here working on narrative films, have you ever been passed up for not owning a Red or some sort of expensive fucking camera? Or do you get work based on the strength of your reel and convince the producers or whomever to shoot on whatever you want because you're the DP and you're in charge of that department? Do you have to have the strong reel AND the expensive equipment? Do you feel like the fancy camera opens more doors? Or is it just as competitive no matter what you own and how good your reel is?

I don't recall if it had 24p but the mjepeg 4:2:2 I believe was limited to 720p. I always used the 100mbps Max Latitude patch in AVCHD 1080 and loved it. I always thought the GH1 with that hack had a nice mojo to it: The camera did have a problem with macro blocking and banding, but as long as you didn't go above iso 500 and nail the exposure/WB you could get a good look with minimal grading. And of course a good lens always helped. This is a test I did for a movie written and directed by my friend Myron Ward (who is in the video) in 2013 that I was going to DP. The project didn't happen, but we did this test with the hacked GH1, Helioss 44m, both flat and anamorphic:

With c mount lenses 25mm is usually pushing it in terms of vignetting in full m43, but with the extra crop in 4k on the G7, GH4 etc it covers. I actually have an 18-108 Fuji c mount zoom that barely vignettes at 18mm. Here's a video example:

Thanks, that's very encouraging! All you do to make it seems like a curved dolly is set up the slider like you would for any lateral slide, but begin with the camera at a 45 degree angle, and end it on a 45 degree angle, panning the camera as you track.

Thanks. The settings I've been using with CInelikeD are Contrast 0, -5 Sharpness, -5 NR, -2 Saturation. Graded with Lumetri (with Fuji 250D preset) in Premiere Pro CC. I love the 12-35, but it might be a little too expensive to keep, so the lens you suggested seems intriguing. I'm also looking at the Tamron 17-50mm, and the Canon TV-16 25-100mm c-mount zoom, although it's apparently really large and heavy and needs extra support.

Thanks! I've actually been working with Hectic Films since 2005 but this year the founder/director started a commercial production business and has been paying me to edit and shoot stuff full time. I shot all of my stuff on a cheap regular generic 32" slider from ebay.

Here's another short documentary in a series I did for work--this time on airbrush artist Craig Fraser. Shot mostly by me on the G7 with 12-35mm, with a couple of shots on the Canon 7D with the 16-35mm (Straight on static interview shot and the time lapse shot)

I figured I should start sharing some of the work I do as part of my day job. This is a little documentary of the local Art Walk that I shot and edited. G7, CinelikeD, 12-35mm 2.8:

Thanks! I'll send you the private vimeo link. I'd get a 5D3 if I could afford one. I might get the EOS M again just play with raw (since it's super cheap). ML raw has always gone over my head a bit in terms of settings/workflow.

The DVX100 is a classic. It's only a 1/3" sensor, but I could easily get shallow depth of field with it (NDs + Wide open aperture) just don't expect 5D SDOF since most (all) handycams/camcorders had tiny sensors. Here's a teaser to my feature film shot with the DVX (just showing this one because it has some shallow DOF shots):

I'd rather watch a David Lynch film shot on DV over anything made by anyone on this board. But that's just my opinion.

I always like to think of David Lynch shooting Inland Empire on the Sony PD-150 with the autofocus on. He started shooting the movie not knowing it would be anything more than just a scene, using the cheap little DV camera, but then finding it creatively liberating. I wouldn't buy a Red or Alexa, even if I could afford it, for this reason. Digitial started out as this new, creatively liberating medium where you could just pick up a small camera and start making a movie without the need of a big crew, using a heavily rigged cine camera or camcorder just kind of defeats the advantages of the medium (for me anyway). My favorite shoots are the ones where it's just me and one or two actors.

Thanks. I have both cameras right now. I'll sell the a6300 after I finish shooting my new short (I want to keep a consistent look). Yes, it was CinelikeD.

Panasonic 12-35mm 2.8 on the G7. Loving this lens/camera.

There's weirdly a lot of G7 talk in this thread, and I just happened to get one. I've tried a bunch of cameras in the past couple of years and I liked all of them, but this one is my favorite. To use the sentiment popping up in this thread repeatedly, it's a joy for me to use. I love the feel of the body, and the monitor is so good. I shot B camera on a short documentary video yesterday with the G7+Panasonic 12-35 and I can nail focus manually with just the peaking and the monitor. I didn't even bother to hook up my Marshall VLCD50, which is something I can't say about my a6300. I attempted to do the ETTR technique with the G7 on the doc video yesterday, and today when I graded it, I was amazed how much detail was held in the highlights. There also seems to be very little RS skew in 4K. It's there, but barely perceivable. Maybe it's on par or worse than other cameras and the a6300 has just made anything look better. I don't know. I love the image I get out of the a6300 with SLog2 but it's such a fussy camera. I feel like I can get a better image more easily, with a body that feels good to use (and it doesn't overheat). I'll be selling the a6300 after I finish shooting my short film.

I'm developing a mocumentary project with the style of 16mm documentaries like Crumb and American Movie, so I tested my Fujinon 18-108mm c-mount zoom on the Panasonic G7, in CinelikeD with Super 16 Gorilla Grain. I like the results so far. I was pleased that the Fujinon barely vignettes in 4K, only really when it's focused close. It seems to work better if I'm 5-6' away. This was mostly shot wide open at f/2.5, with maybe one or two F/4 clips. I still need to test this at more f-stops and distances.

I feel you. I love doing my own cinematography , maybe because it's kind of challenging to me, and I'm kind of a control freak, but recently I've worked a few times with a really talented and nice DP who owns a Red with Schneider lenses (he's even shot stuff for Schneider for their booth at NAB) on another director's project and he's offered his services. Ed David on this board has offered too. And lately I've been thinking I'm not really doing myself any favors by doing my own cinematography, and that I might even be holding myself back. But I still have that nagging feeling driving me to do it all myself. It's compulsive. Maybe if I let a good DP shoot one thing for me, I'll never ant to go back to doing it myself.

I'm thinking of going electric like Dylan and buying native E-Mount lenses for my a6300. Since I've been working for a commercial production house, I figure stabilization and AF could be very useful in commercial work, and my own narrative work, since I don't have the benefit of an AC, like ever. I'm thinking of the Sigma 19mm 2.8 DN and Sony 50mm 1.8. I like the look I've seen from these lenses. Anyone have any thoughts/advice? I'm used to using manual lenses, so I don't have any experience with this. I won't be shooting anything fast moving, just glidecam and slider shots.

Thanks! It's made me a Sony fan for sure. I am selling my BMPCC. It's still a great camera, but I got the a6000 for the APS-C sensor so I can use FD lenses without nearly twice the crop. And I wanted a camera that doesn't require much grading (there's barely any in this video, just some level and color wheel adjustments in Lumetri) and can work more easily without the need to rig it. I had been eyeing the a6000 since it first came out, but the reported overheating issues scared me away from Sony. I haven't had any overheating so far. I even let the camera run for like 5+ hours to stress test it and it was fine. Thanks! I love Scorsese, but I forgot that song was in Mean Streets. It usually reminds me of a different movie with Harvey Keitel: Bad Lieutenant. And also John Carpenter's Christine, to a lesser extent. The opening shot/song was inspired by the Harmony Korine film "Mister Lonely"

Here's my new short film, shot on the Sony a6000 with Canon FD Lenses. Harold is having a birthday party for himself. The only problem: he doesn't have any friends. Here's a bonus video I made with leftover footage:

Thanks! I don't have the 28mm anymore, so I don't know. I recall it being very sharp as well. I love this camera so far. I'm shooting a short film tomorrow to put it to the test. Yes, my video was shot in XAVC-S 50Mbit. I believe that was added in a firmware update a couple years ago. It was already on the camera I bought, no update necessary. From the little tests I've done it feels like a good codec so far.