mercer

Good idea, there’s been a few posts that asked the question... “How would you grade this? Usually the OP would post a frame grab of the ungraded and graded grab as a tiff file. It was a lot of fun until some turd would inevitably post disparaging comments about people’s grades. And then the thread would die off.

Well, it’s like zoom lenses... you can stand in one spot and zoom in and out but to get good separation, you still need to use your feet. Eventually, you can quickly see how your subject reacts to the foreground and background along with whatever composition you are going for... it kinda snaps into place. I’m sure more seasoned shooters than myself can figure it out without waltzing around the set. Also, there is something to be said about using only one lens. My next film will be shot with one lens and it will probably be either a 28mm, 35mm or 50mm. I think it’s Polanski who believes that a scene should be shot with only one focal length otherwise the perspective will be too askewed and it will be harder for the audience to be pulled into the scene.

Excuse me because I think in terms of FF now but an 85mm is slowly becoming one of my favorite lenses. It’s really cool how you can get depth in the frame by having your subject between the camera and infinity. It’s a really cool effect. And the way it slightly compresses the background without feeling surreal. I guess that’s why I used to like 50mm lenses on aps-c but it wasn’t exactly the same. That’s supposed to be an incredible lens. You may actually like the Tokina 28-70mm Angènieux lens. It just oozes “cinematic...” to use a bad word. Lol.

Thanks Mr. Jones! As I’ve said a couple dozen times, what you accomplished in The Luggage with a 7D and sheer will (not to mention talent) has been very inspiring to me. But I’m actually not that close to finishing. Scheduling and finances has been way more of a problem than I anticipated. This mock-up is a one off that I am toying with. I have a final round of casting and I am putting together a teaser to help get some actors. I also don’t love the graphic design of that shot but I do appreciate that you get the SOS element as that is pretty important. I will probably end up doing some type of animated graphic for the opening title shot that appears as the water ripples out to sea and I may have the SOS stay a little longer or appear first. Good idea for the Universal Yellow. The story is pretty dark, so some sort of dark red may work better but yes, I get what you’re getting at. It’s funny you mention the 28mm FOV. Until recently, I’ve only had slow 28mm lenses and when I got that fast Canon 28, it opened up my whole world visually. Wide angle close ups denote such an interesting feeling and in FF, I can go handheld with it... which is a big plus for my run and gun style. You don’t know how many times I’ve toyed with making my film B&W... For the sake of the discussion, the top 3 were shot with the Canon 24-70mm f/4 and the last shot was with the Canon 28mm 1.8. Hahahahaha.... that is actually what the font was called. I went with it because it looked like writing and I liked that it looked aged or weathered. But yes I agree... it’s not right.

Good point @webrunner5 ... I actually posted an earlier version by mistake... here’s the fixed one... I don’t know if I love the font that much either but it’s meant to look like handwriting on a post card that is part of the mystery of the story.

I must admit, I’ve been tempted by the R but until I finish a couple of these films I’m working on, a new camera would probably spend too much time on the shelf. FF 1080p with DPAF and C-Log sounds pretty awesome though. Have you done much video with it? I’d love to see something like that old NX1 video you shot years ago. Btw, how is the DPAF with the 28mm 1.8 and 85mm 1.8? To add, yeah the prices on the C100 are at a stupid price. I saw one sell with less than 50 hours for $810. If I hadn’t already bought a lens that week, I may have bid on it.

Sorry, I think that may be a repost. I’m thinking way too hard about lens choice I guess...?

The other week I was going through my IG feed and saw an amazing video... from the hashtags I realized it was shot on a C100 Mark I. This guy seems to shoot on anything and everything according to the project requirements but still has his personal C100 that is 6-7 years old and still puts out amazing results with it and even more importantly for him... makes money... by now it’s all profit since that camera was paid for 6-7 years ago.

Here’s a mock-up poster for my film. It was shot with the Canon 28mm 1.8...

Yeah it really is. While I don’t agree that a Canon camera is the path to an Academy Award doc, the fact that people are even coming around this thread to dispute why all of this year’s nominated docs were shot on a Canon is just an exercise in futility. Facts are facts. I don’t visit many other forums than this one, but from the opinions around here I would think that Canon shouldn’t even be in business anymore but then when you go to Instagram, it seems that a lot of working pros use Canon cameras. Not that I care if they do or don’t but I think even Ed David sold his UMP for a C300 ii because, I believe, he said the image from the C300 Mark II was closer to an Alexa.

Idk, I think the majority of people would accept a pretty crappy image if the story was good. With that being said, I love the Canon image, I own a Canon camera and rejoice when I hear news like this. But I think only a small portion of the members of The Academy that vote would even notice the IQ of the camera used. But then again, it could be subliminal. On another note, if you look at the Doc competition for Sundance, Canon doesn’t have as good a showing. They have a lot but so does Sony. Even the GH4 has one. And there are even a ton of camcorders used in Sundance docs. And if you look at the narrative films... nearly every film was made with an Alexa... interestingly at 3K ProRes or less for the most part... with a decent number shot at 2K ProRes. So although I agree with the spirit of your comment, and agree that a lot of folks around here choose to dismiss Canon while a lot of professionals making films choose to use them, I really don’t know if I could be as hardlined as you but I couldn’t agree with the silly anti-Canon “art” post someone else made either. However, this is an interesting discussion when you add the Sundance films into the mix and would make a great new thread.

Idk, I think someone posted a link in a Canon thread that showed all of the Acadamy Award Doc nominations were shot on Canon cameras and a bunch of people came here to dispute the sense of shooting on a Canon. The reality of the situation is this... NOBODY CARES WHAT CAMERA YOU USE!!!!!!!!!! They only care about the STORY you tell with that camera. Case in point, I recently watched The Florida Project and I really enjoyed it. While watching the credits I learned it was shot on film and then i also saw the Filmic Pro logo. Immediately I looked online and learned that the last scene/sequence was shot on an iPhone and you know what... while I watched the film... I didn’t even notice. And after learning the iPhone was used... I didn’t even bother to go back and see if I could tell the difference because I enjoyed the story.

Diffusion interests me a lot but I don’t know how much it would help my 5D3 Raw footage. It already starts off fairly soft but if I’m using a more modern lens, I’ll use a cheaper Variable ND. I find the Bower brand to be great for this. It takes the edge off the modern clinical look but doesn’t affect the Sharpness too much and is still fairly neutral. Did you use a speedbooster with your Takumar lenses?

I’ve been visiting this site for about 5 years now and this is some of the best color grading I have seen from anyone on this site!!!

Nice work as always Matt! I think you’re the one person I’d love to see a film made with a GH5 and one lens. I think your signature indie look would make that camera sing. Mans I swear, I truly think those Panny cameras are built for those c-mounts.

@JordanWright is that your video? Either way, it looks great. Man I wish the GH5s had IBIS. If it is your video, and you also have a GH5, would you mind doing a test with that Meike lens on the GH5?

@PannySVHS haha, that Fujinon c-mount was the only reason I was going to keep the G85. But in the end, I just didn’t use the camera enough. But if I can find another G85 for the right price, that 12.5mm and the 25mm may sway me back to M4/3... old c-mounts and IBIS are a thing of beauty.

I thought the X-T3 got a 10bit h.264 firmware update?

Was that shot with the Micro? Looks great. I have that lens and the others. The 20-40 zoom is pretty cool as well. RJ Camera makes an adapter with an aperture built in... http://www.rjcamera.com/ocart/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=50

Here’s my 2 cents... the X-T3 is great. I think it’s the best camera released last year. The GH5 is also great and offers some production elements that are unheard of for a camera in that price range. But to keep in mind, to use both of them at their highest level, it will require a pretty good computer to edit the footage unless you’re okay transcoding to a different codec before you bring the footage into your NLE or using proxies. I’m unsure how proxies work with h.265 footage since it’s such a compressed codec that it still may require a fair amount of processing power to go through them. I’m surprised nobody has mentioned the P4K. Even the 4K ProRes LT looks great with that camera but it will require some patience to get your hands on one and a little bit to rig up. Good luck with your choice.

Here's another one from the Carl Zeiss 85mm f/2.8... I just ordered a new monitor so I'm hoping my color work will get a lot easier since I wont be flying half blind with this MacBook Air screen I've been using.

That sounds like a good idea. No reason to test obvious lenses that you don’t like from your initial tests.

Haha, I know what you were referring to. Let me try again because I think our signals are crossed. People moving in the background is not a function of how the out of focus areas are rendered but each individual lens will render out of focus areas differently, so people moving in the background may look worse with some lenses than others.

Haha. I don’t think motion cadence is mythical but that’s an argument I don’t care to engage in. Lol. But, I wasn’t referring to motion cadence, I was referring to motion blur and how the out of focus areas may be impacted by people passing by, birds flying by, panning, etc...

Well, in some ways, this is subjective to which camera you have... right... in the end you are going to be shooting video with a GH5. But also remember that not all Raw is created equal. There is this misconception that all Raw is the same but you have to take into consideration the bit depth (only 12bit Raw with the GH5) the filter stack, and the sensor size. So although you may learn more about your lenses shooting Raw stills, your end goal is video, so I would think a video test is important? Also you probably should find someone to shoot to see movement and skin tones. I always liked how Nick Driftwood and Philip Bloom do their tests. They take a long ass lens into the public and get some footage. Obviously, this isn’t the same thing you’re after and in most cases they are testing cameras and not just lenses. So maybe if you do an elimination of your lenses, you can do a final round of tests with video at one of your favorite places to shoot the video tests?