mercer

I don’t mind. Please do. I’m practically flying blind with this damn MacBook Air screen, so I imagine half of my images look jacked. But since I posted those frames, I looked at a bunch of other ones and I came to a conclusion. I need to just keep this stuff simple. I am not that talented at it and I need to get back to the writing portion rather than laboring over lenses. So, I think I am going to roll with my first, gut purchases... my Canon and Nikon lenses and the Samyang. This will keep my collection way below 10 and I’ll use the proceeds to invest in a better monitor.

I couldn’t agree more.

Trying to compare a newer Zeiss ZF 25mm 2.8 vs an old Rollei Zeiss 25mm 2.8. I’ve learned that a direct comparison doesn’t really help me too much as I get lost in the comparison... eventually my eyes can’t tell the difference. So I decided to take each lens to a different location and just shoot with it. First up is the Zeiss ZF 25mm 2.8... And for a totally different location, here is the Rollei Zeiss 25mm 2.8... So, in my endeavor I learned that I enjoy shooting with the Rollei Zeiss a little more but the ZF Zeiss is definitely sharper. Eventually I am going to narrow my lenses down to but a few with a goal to have one “vintage” and one “modern” lens for my favorite focal lengths. The Zeiss ZF “Classic” lenses are interesting because they seem to teeter the line between vintage and modern.

With ML Raw, you really need to expose to the right as much as possible. I don’t think a 1.2 lens at ISO 100 in a dimly lit room is enough light. With the 5D3, which is better in lowlight than the eos-m, I’ll be at ISO 400 in a well lit room with a 1.4 lens. In a dimly lit room, I’d be at 800 or 1600 ISO.

I don’t know, it doesn’t make much sense to include clean external 4K 10bit 4:22 but not have 24p 1080p. So if Canon is leaving features out for certain product segmentation then why leave such a glaringly higher end feature in?

I don’t own the camera, so I can’t say for sure, I’m basing this info from the Canon website spec page...

To add... although humorously frustrating, this feature is actually a pretty amazing f#%k up by Canon. EOS-R shooters can utilize the 4K crop, of the SL3, to turn a general EF zoom lens as a long zoom or their cheap nifty fifty as a fast telephoto prime. I can see wedding shooters, setting up an SL3 on a tripod in the back of the church with a Ninja V and getting some beautiful ProRes close ups of the bride and groom.

As most already know, I love Canon cameras. Every one I’ve ever owned is a joy to shoot with. The ergonomics, the menus, the color science, and most importantly... Magic Lantern. But even as a fan of their products, I can recognize the arbitrary, non sensical way in which they add or delete features from their cameras. I understand product segmentation, but their recent elimination of 24p 1080p with the EOS-RP and SL3 has left me bewildered and shaking my head. With that being said, I have been on the lookout for a compact ILC for photography. Since I have a small collection of EF lenses and manual primes either adapted, or converted to EF, I decided to have a look at the SL3... Well... While looking at the specs on B&H, I found an odd feature that led me to further investigate if it was just a misprint by B&H or if it’s actually true... Well... Apparently it’s mostly true... the SL3 is the cheapest camera to offer a clean 10bit 4:22 HDMI output at UHD 4K?!?! https://downloads.canon.com/nw/camera/products/eos/rebel-sl3/downloads/canon-eos-rebel-sl3-specifications-chart.pdf So it seems Canon arbitrarily picks and chooses swaths, or blocks, of features from their existing software. As much as I enjoy Canon cameras, and as much as I understand product segmentation and technological deficiencies from being the only camera manufacturer, obviously other than Sony, that produces their own sensors for their own cameras, I am at a loss to understand how, or why, a $500 camera doesn’t have 24p 1080p but does have 4K 4:22 10bit output.

I wish I had access to an old 50s car... my film could really use it.

Honestly, I think you’re splitting hairs. I’d go with the K&F of that lot for the hard stops. I really like my cheap Bower Variable NDs... hard stops, neutral color... based off the default numbers in Resolve’s Raw Panel, it’ll be within 100 Kelvin with WB and less than 1 with Tint from my target, they’re less than 30 bucks a piece, 2 to 8 stops of ND, they do soften the image a touch but I’d say it’s more like a digital diffusion. I also have two B+W Vario NDs at my two most common filter diameters and they’re equally neutral as the Bower but do not soften the image as much... but they’re only 1-5 stops. I’ve also heard good things about the Simmod Variable ND. If I decide I want a sharper ND than my Bower, for my 77mm filter thread lenses, I may give it a try, but for now, the cheapie works fine. But I can attest to Simmod as a company, they do really nice work and are very pleasant to deal with.

Love what you’re doing with the EOS-M, zeek! The Milvus/Samyang comparison was great. I look forward to your BMPCC videos!!

Nikkor 24mm f/2 wide open, at 800 ISO. This is a test shot of the 14bit Lossless Raw setting in Magic Lantern on the 5D Mark III. I was really trying to push the exposure and stress test the codec.

@Andrew Reid your 3.5K Magic Lantern Raw Guide is excellent. It’s well written and easy to understand. Although the 3.5K is pretty amazing, I’m most impressed with the 1080p 14bit lossless! Not only are the smaller, file sizes a Godsend, it seems the image is sharper and cleaner in the shadows than uncompressed 14bit! Is this just in my head? Thanks for supplying these guides, I don’t think you get enough credit for them... they’re priceless!!!

I tend to shoot chronologically and “edit” in camera, so can you set up a custom setting where you have “C2” set for 60p on the 2nd card slot while you have 24p set to “C1” on the 1st card slot?

I’ve had a few cameras with IBIS and it’s one of the best features ever implemented. The ability to stabilize my favorite vintage lenses truly is amazing and that is a major reason the GH5 is on my short list plus after using the 5D3 for a couple years, I think the ultra clean, modern look of the GH5 is a positive. I think the BMPCC 4K is just a little too much camera for a 2nd camera especially since I’d most likely shoot 1080p with it. But if I find a deal, you never know. As of now, I am wavering between the GH5, the BMMCC and the Z Cam E2C. We’ll see.

My mistake, I didn’t realize that BlackMagic Raw uses the same Raw Panel as CDNG does... I thought it was a separate panel that had it’s own functions.

@JordanWright great images. I like the grade, you managed a clean, modern image with some character.

That’s not a bad deal at all! I’m looking at it like this... the Micro for the ease of ProRes or the GH5 for the ease of handheld. I haven’t decided which is more important to me yet... or if I need either.

Yup, I’ve been saying to my friends... I’ll buy the GH5 or BMPCC 4K when one or the other hit $1000 or less... meanwhile I’m still on the lookout for a cheap Micro.

Glad to hear it. I’m probably going to go a different route than the P4K but if the right price pops up on the used market, without the software, I’d like to know my options... even though I’d mostly likely shoot 1080p ProRes on the P4K.

And aren’t those black levels recoverable in post?

Good to know, thanks. I shot h.265 extensively with the NX500 and had to transcode the files to ProRes before bringing into FCPX and the process took forever... processing my 14bit uncompressed Raw files take less time. Now I know you can edit h.265 natively but I prefer to transcode to ProRes before ingesting into FCPX.

Yeah, but not for BlackMagic... their slow rollout of this camera may have hurt sales of Resolve Studio for the immediate future. That’s good to know but I think you lose some of the “raw” functionality without the BRaw Panel?

When the camera was released, we were told you needed Resolve Studio to edit the footage. But when it was released, BRaw didn’t exist... so if the BRaw Panel is included with Resolve Lite, I guess it doesn’t?

Does the new version of Resolve Lite have the BRaw Panel? Now that the camera is in stock, a couple BMPCC 4K cameras are popping up without the dongle but even though the software is free with the camera... on the used market, it depreciates to a thousand or less without the software... even if the camera is new.