HelsinkiZim

I just did the same thing. I'll put out a conspiracy theory... I think the guy exists, but I don't think it is the same guy posting - even the informative posts. For someone with a life and career like that, I cannot imagine they would take the hours needed to write the in-depth posts he writes. I would likely assume that is is a shared account of a company that had some sort of social media marketing campaign that involved forum posting etc, probably funded by some rich dude. Or there was no company and it was a large social media build up at a long term scam that got cut short because they couldn't think of a way to bank big. I am sure selling a red package was on the list. I would doubt that if you searched long and hard you would ever find more that a social media footprint of this guy. I think it was an, almost, genius scam run by a few people who know about consumer gear from reading online. Thats my theory anyways....

You shouldn't feel so bad. In a way you too have been scammed of your credibility. I hope you figure it out. However, scammers may have figured out that these forums are the way to go if you can hack a respectable users account. Its not that absurd a thought. But people were threatening to come to your house and that wasn't cool.

We should really be rallying around Horace and Pete because it shows us we can sell the videos ourselves, without having to release into the streaming ecosystem. The creative possibilities of creating your content on a week by week bases with a couple of Canons, actors and one set (has anyone used airBnB for locations?) is exciting. i would imagine that will be the case in 10 years, you will get your content directly from many different independent providers that specialise in one type of content. I feel places like YouTube Red will eventually become too clunky for people as they won't see why they need to be distracted by anything else except what they want to see.

I was thinking about the notion of the studios getting their way and shutting down online piracy. It sounds great from almost every angle, to anyone in the industry. But I think there is another side to the Many-Faced demon of online piracy that we haven't considered. The fact may be, that torrent sites are the last remaining 'hosts' of ALL films anyone has seen in the last 2 decades. Before the internet, the selection becomes more about 'what films we are supposed to see'. If torrent sites disappear, then the history of modern cinema lies in the good graces of Netflix. Is that such a good idea to give so much control of our film history to a profit driven data-bank? Will there be movies like Joe vs The Volcano that will never, ever, be seen again by anyone on this earth (Its kind of like trying to quantify in reality the length of time it takes for nuclear energy to dissipate - the language we speak now will literally not exist - so will go the visual references of Turner and Hooch)? Availability of movies will become truly democratic, because you will never see it unless your peer demand it. But isn't that the most cannibalistic way of learning a craft... though public preference? Where will the next post-millennial Tarantino's get their inspiration from. Another question, can a site like Netflix host it all? Do we need to start thinking of some kind of digital film archive... Torrents, in essence, are data on our ever changing hard drive storage systems... so the future of cinema is in our hands?

So, I have grown to acknowledge that I always post and suddenly realise all the things I need to correct. I see the madness in my words and opinions only after I have made them public. Today I realized that this extends to my personal video work (paid work is scripted, so paint by number). i thought I had checked everything to hell and found some pretty glaring 'visual typos' the moment I watched it on YouTube as a public video. I even, started as private and reviewed the video, but as soon as I made it public I noticed everything. What the hell is that about? how do you peoples' double check your personal work before uploading? Edit!: is it some kind of perfectionism, misguided belief that my work/ opinions matter or some kind of post-millenial online asperges (like Netflix binge-watching... OITNB was great this season by the way)

Thanks Liam, will have look...

I laughed my ass off the other day when a filmmaker literally said... "The Ursa footage doesn't look like video, but it doesn't look like film. Quite frankly, it doesn't look like anything I have ever seen before." This is a good or bad thing depending on what you gamble is the future of digital video. Black magic footage will either get dated or go mainstream, either way it will always instantly jump out as Blacmagic footage when used in consumer hands.

I don't know much but I know canon and I know Sony when it comes to event reportage. Nobody ever said wow to the Sony footage out of the box. Brides, friends, famy... everyone loved anything shot in the Canon XL series. (Edit: I had a camera owner/ operator work for me on a job and her footage was incredible. But she had spent a lot of time with that Sony z series and knew how to wrestle it into submission. Then it was actually a bit more natural and superior to the Canon. From what I can see, not much has changed in this regard) They, Canon, simply nailed the DIY, pretty footage out of the box market. I can't speak to anything else but this obvious 'fact'. These folks with 10 seconds with Lebron are living in a fact based reality. They are showing you indirectly their weapon of choice. To dismiss them as uninformed on the 'plethora' of options available is to quite frankly sound a bit ridiculous. No insult intended. Just bemusement. Edit: the fact based reality is you are making crap money for long hours with stiff competition, and nobody wants to color grade your footage at 1am when you send it to the studio, or listen to your excuses about how your equipment overheated, or has a magenta cast, or is not broadcast ready -yet, or wants you to telepath your filmconvert ritual to get to rec709...

Funny you mention this. I was explaining to a producer/ friend how my gh4 manual lens+variaable ND+tascam recorder+shoulder rig+large diaphragm condenser mic was a nightmare to film an event (a protest with interviews of public) ... as one individual. I said that that combo would work best in a controlled environment, and he asked me 'what is a controlled environment?'. I thought about it and came to the conclusion that it's any shoot where you can ask people to do it again... 'but this time with feeling.' (While you sort out the tech stuff knowing the first take was fine, except for your exposure, focus, temperature etc - butbwe don't say that's why exactly;). Run and gun is when you shut your mouth and need to get it right first time as many times as possible. Then you are in c100 territory as a base level fundamental camera consideration.

I remember you mentioning the FF glare before. Must have killed a nice sequence you set up! What matte box do you use now?

Ok, so many comments by very knowledgeable community members sometimes illustrate that their preference for a particular camera is its film-like cadence, or movement. I often see comments suggesting rolling shutter helps achieve this. Try as I might, I cannot nail down a description in my head that lets me know "ah, this camera has film-like motion cadence..". Can someone explain to me why they feel this about a camera and what they are looking for? For example, I understand that some of you feel the micro cinema camera does a good job in this regard. Also, form a tech standpoint, do you feel it is something that you could apply in post (if someone creates a good plugin for different cameras a-la filmconvert) to replicate the effect/ viewing experience? I don't mind being spoken to like a five year old, but I would like to understand as I have never even touched a film camera in person.

Haven't had this good a laugh to a response to a forum quote in ages. People think it will fool the public today because of resolution. Ha! They were taking the piss out of that notion decades ago. I wanted to bring up crop factor which seems the sacrifice for great DR at consumer level. There, it's brought up. Any thoughts? Edit: and no matter how much folks take communion for speedboosters at the altar, I can always see the difference of a full to 35 sensor. People don't look like like toys in the frame.

I meant, literrally the FS7: codec, bitrate etc I think the FS5 was not too well received for some of its image quality problems - judging from some of Andrews article's? edit: but from what I can gather noone really has any major complaints about the FS7 besides its cost. Maybe it is a great camera, I will try and look for some downloadable footage online.

I find it so funny to find everyone talk about camcorders like its the new a-ha moment. I left the panasonic hvx-200 to jump into dslr (before was z1 - never had complaints), now everyone is pining for camcorders functionality and I have only just figured out how to rig all these bits and bobs. Life is funny sometimes. I will put this on record: The next best selling 'disruptive' camera will be the fs7, for below 5 000€. I don't know who will combine the multiple push-button, reliable, ND filter, run n gun form factor of the Sony camcorders with the data capture capabilities of a blackmagic or kinefinety. But we are getting closer and closer. Whoever does this wins the race and then we can all go back to talking about other things than DR and crop factor, and sooper slo mo. ... i know the smaller sony camera was supposed to be the FS7 in a tiny package, but it is not. To be honest if Kinefity pull through with the Terra, then it is game set match. They may actually become a legitimate worldwide company.

Ironfilm, please make a new one, I was using 'trending' camera's I see referred to here frequently. I didnt think too much and dont know mich either. Super subjective, this one is.

*Mattias NOT Matthias...

Thanks Ebrahim, you were someone I was looking to get an opinion from. I only thought of the commonly brought up cameras on the forum, but I can see from your list that our options are really quite limitless for producing cheap quality work. I left out the C100 because its such an easy choice for corporate/ documentary that it is too much of a no-brainer (and it's ass is too un-DSLR-ly... but so is the Cinema Camera's but bmcc is square enough to be akward, therefore DSLR-ly, and it has no xlr inputs, so super DSLR-ly compared to C100). But maybe I should have had it instead of Mark III. Anyways, maybe someone can make a more accurate poll in future. These are the camera's on my radar now, so it is subjective.

Sorry, I edit too much so some of my wit is lost to first responders I know this is true, we know because we have used the cameras in real life situations. We also know that versatility is like water - it's an art that cannot be confined to a specific set of tools. But if someone is looking to buy a cheap camera it means they are new at the game, which means that sometimes you need to jump in and learn the quirks for yourself so you understand FPN, moire etc. edit: ... crop factor, DR, ergonomic balance, monitoring options, on and on the list can go...

At some point we have got to put our foot down and just pick a bloody camera. As I mentioned, nobody ever commits to saying buy this cam for that occasion. It causes confusion for the less technically inclined, me included aka cinematography newbs. What I was hoping is that people could get a general guide. Headaches are guaranteed with each, but which gives less headache in the given situations. it's not a PhD thesis, just a poll. You can view the voters to ease your mind. Matthias has voted and once Aaron, Zach, Kaylee, Jonesy and/ or Andrew do I am a happy camper (and everyone else too, just name dropping folks who I learn from constantly here). Edit: Here's analogy - what if your best mate came up to you and said... "I need a camera for a shoot tomorrow about X (listed above), what do you recommend? You say.. "There's no such thing as a 'best' camera for anything of these things." He says... "Ok, Yoda, I understand there are many mountains to climb and dragons to slay before I can tame the wicked beast [sic] into doing my willing, but please just give me a recommendation now." You say... "You can't choose an objectively best camera for any of these situations, as an objectively 'best' camera doesn't exist." Your friend goes and asks someone-else's opinion.

I know this is a mute choice for anyone skilled with lighting gear and time, but what if you just had to choose one for each occasion?

And another thing... I, like you, am a Dancing Bear. I perform and people throw money and at the end of my routine I pick it up and then go and pay rent (or in my case, a morgate). I, like you, get home from a hard days lugging kit and filming, and scroll through the forum because I am weird too (so I am told) and love learning about tech stuff and seeing what us idiots are up to. When I see a thread where I can contribute from experience, I do so with gusto. But please don't confuse my heartfelt enthusiasm for ignorance. Video is my life, and always will be. I'm not rep building here, just contributing when I can. I am not aiming to be an internet forum respected thread responder. I am aiming to be the best goddamn budget filmmaker Scandinavia has ever seen. It is sometimes just mal-informed opinion that can and will always change. But if we are not to speak our mind then how are we to learn. I gave up worrying about looking the fool a long time ago. Now I speak up, get answers and move on. Nothing really matters if you think long term. Anyways, that's what I'm smoking.

Hi all, I often read that different cameras are better for different jobs. I, for one, would love to know which camera is best suited for which. I thought I would try to contribute by making a poll of what I sense, form reading the blog, are the most popular camera's I see here today (in the spirit of DSLR) - that are ready to shoot for under 5 000€ (sensor, battery and storage + tax!). I also have a rule to please the internet Thought/ Opinion Police* *Please only vote if you have experience with the chosen camera or have seen the chosen camera do it successfully to your liking on Vimeo or what-not. Don't choose based on promoted tech. stats and readily available specifications. Let the working men and women tell us what's best. Otherwise, I hope it helps the community decide on their next purchase (which it won't because most of us buy on impulse - also known as... being human/ confirmation bias/ wishful thinking). Maybe someone else can do a poll with different cameras or a better selection?

My advice from owning a camdiox generic brand speed booster for a year is: Get the best native you can and 'boost' for deficiencies and not for standard practice. The speed booster is not a good investment but a good lens is. And you cannot put a price on things that simplify your workflow.... which a native lens does. 1 stop here or there do not an attractive DOF portrait make. If you have a blurry background then be happy with it and stop thinking that the blurrier it is the better the shot. Nowadays a small blur is sufficient. The oh-my-god shallow DOF look is sooo circa 2013 Edit: and 1 stop of light is not going to make a gh4 an a7s.

For an 8 000 budget, have you thought about getting a selection of cameras for different scenarios like the BM Cinema Camera (shorts, commercials) + BM Micro Cinema Camera (run and gun b-cam to 2.5K, gimbal, etc) + A7S2 (events, for low light and 4K if needed)? You would be covered for a lot of different scenarios. What do people think about this strategy?

Sorry, I don't know what production houses are using as I left the commercial scene 7 years ago. I just know what frequently uploading content producers are using, home business type folks or small businesses in my area. Adobe is not better than fcpx in usability, but they have nailed a market for content producers who want to streamline editing, effects and 3D animation on a BASIC level to achieve results that used to only be the foray of the MIlls and Mollinaires (if you lived in london). And its just what I see and hear, and experience on a personal level. I am agnostic for tools. But yes sometimes they spit at me when I try do something I have done for ten years, that someone has decided should be done a different way. You said it better than I tried to do, but this was my point. +1 rep.