Phil A

I've bought the 17.5mm after considering getting a Metabones SpeedBooster and some fast adapted lens and can only say I'm happy I decided this way. It's a great lens, both from a mechanical as well as an imaging standpoint. The downside? I now really lust to have the others!

I feel like the GH5 isn't really an ideal combination with the Zhiyun Crane when it comes to convenience. Currently I have the GH5 with the Panasonic 14mm f/2.5 as my gimbal setup and I directly screw the camera on the crane. This way I can still fully rotate all axes, as well as "fold" the Crane flat to put it into my backpack. I tried to balance it with my Manfrotto and Cullmann quick releases but that moves the center of gravity far enough that I have to move some adjustments so far that they will lose full range of motion on some axes because it'll eventually collide. I also balanced it with the Olympus 12-40mm f/2.8 but then decided to buy a smaller lens for the gimbal, just simply for fatigue reasons. I didn't manage to balance it at all when using the Voigtländer 17.5mm f/0.95 and a quick release plate because the roll axis ran out of adjustment range before I could get it to balance. This could probably be overcome by adding some additional weight (maybe with strong velcro) behind the motor that is responsible for tilt but my goal isn't to make the Crane as heavy as possible to loath even bringing it.

I used the SmallRig 1138 clamp ( https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00SIRAYX0/ ) and added this quick release ( https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B01LXOJTU4/ ) between the clamp and the magic arm. I have the same quick release on my handheld rig, so I can quickly change the monitor between the two. For the Sony a6300 I just used a rather small Cullmann Revomax quick release ( https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00NHCMG6O ), have the same on the bottom of the Crane. With the A6300 you can't use the HDMI and the remote cable at the same time, there's just not enough space. That's a lot easier with the GH5 now. Also I've replaced the HDMI cable with a Sanho Hyperthin cable.

You're not really supposed to manually focus while flying the camera on the gimbal. So you basically have three choices: A) a lens with auto focus (which rules out the vintage lens you want to use) on a camera with reliable auto focus (which rules out the A7sII) B) set the lens to a small aperture with enough depth of field and use hyperfocal distance C) set the lens to the desired aperture, focus it (you can put the gimbal into sleep for that if you fear it strains the motors) and keep the distance to what you film consistent

Using the GH5 for quite a bit of photography and some little video clips. Using it with a combination of the (really great) Voigtländer 17.5mm f/0.95, Olympus 12-40mm f/2.8 and the Samyang 35mm f/1.4 & 85mm f/1.4 both on a dumb adapter and a focal reducer. My personal opinion: it's maybe one of the least emotional/passion inducing cameras I ever had, I don't feel any excitement about it... but... it's probably the most usable camera I ever had. Can 100% approve and would recommend to 95% of all DSLR/MILC users without hesitation if asked. It doesn't have mind blowing dynamic range, the low light is just ok, the colors are good but not Fuji good, it's comically big for a camera with such a small sensor. But it just is very well thought out (nothing is perfect). The swively screen, high quality EVF, touch screen works well, WiFi function very usable, AF-S perfectly fine for my photography uses, focus peaking & magnification very well implemented, rather good battery run time (eh, I come from Sony!). I had none of the issues people complain about on the internet so maybe I'm just lucky. I think the only drawback is the native lens system if you come from an APS-C / FullFrame system with a good choice of fast native lenses and are completely set on that look.

I don't think that's actually possible on any system but Nikon. There was talk about a non-speedbooster adapter that can do some level of auto focus but there was never much talk about it and it might have been only for e-mount.

I quickly went to search their FB feed, here's the post from March. I bought mine via Amazon when they had a sale on it back in November, so it was way before that whole "authorized dealer" mambo jambo. From the stores that have it in Germany, I had good experience with Marcotec in the past, I also think they're an authorized dealer (they had the official Smooth Q pre-order in Germany).

A while ago Zhiyun Tech informed on their Facebook page that they will not honor any service/warranty issues when not bought via the official importers. I'm not actually sure if that stance is even legal in the countries with strong consumer protection laws but it might be unnecessary hassle in any case. So maybe check that beforehand.

Wow, GH5 so bad. You can see the auto focus pumping all the time in the video of the moon. Are they using face detection? Just kidding

So I tried to use an "iPad only" workflow last weekend when traveling with the GH5. The iPad Pro can import the 10bit 4:2:2 1080p files (I shot in V-Log L) via the Apple USB-adapter kit but you can't play them. So far so good. I tried to open the files in the "Video LUT" app but they don't work. So you can't put a LUT on the 10bit files this way. I tried to open the files in iMovie and they actually open AND play in it! So I exported them from iMovie again and as expected it converted them to 8bit material that can be played/used in other apps. With the files exported this way I went back to the Video LUT app and tried some LUTs. I have 3 LUTs from FilmConvert and one of the Osiris LUTs imported so I tried these. Unfortunately I got crazy severe banding and block artifacts in the sky, I can't judge though which step is at fault: the Video LUT app, the actual *.cube LUTs or the (probably low quality) export from iMovie. My guess is the latter. Tl;dr: There seems to be no working 10bit workflow on the iPad/iPhone. 8bit might work (didn't try) but then you need separate source material than for the actual edit on your computer.

The Ursa is like 7.5kg without a battery, no? How do you have tripod, etc. to stabilize that efficiently? And the v1 sensor doesn't have the same slowmotion frame rates like the v2. Plus as Geoff mentioned, you will lose dynamic range and you're strictly bound to ISO400 compared to the BMMCC.

The sidefinder only works with the 501/502 (I think they're 500 NIT) and is quite bulky. When using it you have a lower rez (720p I think) and I read some reviews that were not too impressed by distortion and light leaks.

I have searched the forum for quite a bit but couldn't find anything regarding (even though I'm sure I saw such a discussion somewhere before), so bear with me: What's wrong with the V-Log L View Assist feature? I have installed the V-Log L update last weekend (makes you wonder if they couldn't manage to deliver it on a floppy disk with following code activation via fax to go full retro) and played around with it. I'm used to the View Assist of the Sony a6300 which brings the image back to Rec709-ish colors and contrast but I'm kind of baffled by the implementation on the GH5. The pre-installed Rec709 LUT doesn't bring back same level of contrast as using one of the regular picture profiles. So I exported my standard setting from FilmConvert in the V-Log L specific preset version, converted it to *.vlt with LUTCalc and put it into the GH5. But it still lacks contrast to what I get when using the FC profile in Resolve or when using the exported LUT in my SmallHD 501 for monitoring. Is this working as designed, is it a bug, is I dumb?

I have to agree regarding the new Leica kit lens. People seem to be very positive about it but all I care for is what the picture looks like in the end from an aesthetic point of view (I don't need perfect sharpness, don't really care about vignetting, I can live with some mild distortion, etc.) and no one would get excited about a 24-120mm f/5.6 - 8 lens for his 5D III regarding what the results look like. I bought a cheap, used Olympus 12-40mm f/2.8 but I find to only use it at the both extreme ends of the range (might sell it and get a small wide angle for gimbal work + one of the 42.5mm lenses instead). m4/3 only really works with the primes in my opinion but, as I probably mentioned multiple times before, I also wouldn't want to shoot lenses slower than f/2.8 on a FF camera when it comes to photography. Then there's the blah quality of many m4/3 lenses that gets tarted up in-camera or automatically in most raw converters. I always heard in the beginning of mirrorless how lenses could be smaller, cheaper and better because they have to cover less sensor real estate. But then you get examples like the Olympus 12-40 f/2.8 with a smashing 8.5% distortion at 12mm (maybe they can even increase it and market it as a fisheye zoom?), that by far exceeds the 4.3% of the Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L which by most regards is considered a rather mediocre lens in image quality. Most of the really good lenses are anything but cheap & small.

https://***URL not allowed***/photo-video-apps-mobile-creator/ Article by Cinema5D about "9 Must-Have Photo and Video Apps For The Mobile Creator". Last weekend we had an Instagram story thing going in parallel to a cooking video we work on. Basically while shooting the video I also shot short snippets in vertical orientation. Threw them on the laptop into Resolve, smashed FilmConvert und another LUT over it, exported and transferred to an iPad. Used Video Rotate & Flip to change the meta tag about the orientation to vertical to put it into the Instagram story. Obviously day and night quality difference to shooting your story snaps with the phone, very little effort though. Next step is now to see if I can get the video quickly to the iPad (SD adapter or Lightning-to-USB adapter) without using the laptop and use the Video LUT app to smash my exported FC profile & stylized LUT as *.cube files straight over it. Wish I could upload to the IG story from Windows.

Made up my mind on lenses

But then BladeRunner (which I love as a movie) was a bad representation of the book "Do androids dream of electric sheep" in my opinion, the book was so much better. The movie diverted so far from the story, they might as well make a sequel.

Just saw that on YT yesterday. No real information or value in it but "inspirational vid bla". I think there's two trends. One is shooting with the phone, the other is actually shooting with a real camera and editing mobile to directly post to social media.

I think for you the choices are great but I don't shoot tele a lot and live in the 30-50mm equiv. range. With the DoF of m43 I don't think anything but f/1.4 does cut it (that's equiv. DoF to f/2.8 on FF and no one would consider that fancy). So yes, basically there's only the PanaLeica 25 1.4, Olympus 25 1.2 (so much about cropped sensor mirrorless being cheaper than FF DSLR) and the Voigtländers as native lenses, that's why I asked about opinions regarding good options for adapting. I realize that m43 is not ideal for my shooting tastes but I think I'll end up with an 24mm 1.4 / 28mm 1.8 and some 50mm on a focal reducer. I've googled it quite a bit and I always think it's hilarious when people are asking for fast 35mm lenses for environmental shots with bokeh and are told to just shoot 100 or 150mm instead.

It's one of these "why am I like this?" moments. On the way home from work quickly bought a GH5 and a used Olympus 12-40mm. "No ragrets" Good point! Canon FD or Nikkor Ai-s are probably the way to go. I'll get a Zhongyi LensTurbo II for Canon EF next week for my Samyang lenses and I already have an F to EF adapter so maybe I'll go for the Nikkors, but the FD are so nice. Hard decision.

What are good options for a fast, wide-normal (35-45mm FF equiv.) on mFT? Native lenses max out at f/1.7 with the 20mm and that doesn't cut it for DoF for photography imho. The Panasonic Leica 25mm 1.4 and 12mm 1.4 get the closest to what I can live with, just wish there was a focal length in between them. I'm wondering what would be better, the Voigtländer 17.5mm f/0.95 or a Focal Reducer with the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 DC HSM Art? I guess the latter would have the advantage that if you go for EF mount you could use AF-S for photography. The disadvantage though that there is no fitting tele in the 85-100mm equiv. territory that will match it. I'm really interested in the GH5 on a logical level but somehow I just can't get excited over it and the native lens options make it even worse.

I would expect everyone to know those basics from the article, the question is: how much more data rate will you need in All-I to match the quality of Long GOP? If it's 3 times, you already lose quality with the 400 Mbps codec. @Fritz Pierre is of course right about the "in the right hands" comment, but those also do magic with 8bit 4:2:0 material in 100 Mbps. I've seen a table with comparison of the different compression levels but I can't recall where, I'll edit it in when/if I find it. EDIT: here we go. Apparently the 400Mbps All-I should be somewhat better. http://wolfcrow.com/blog/thoughts-on-comparing-8-bit-and-10-bit-footage-from-the-panasonic-gh5/

I wonder how much that will add in the end. I've seen quite a few sources that claimed that 400Mbps All-I is actually more compressed than 150Mbps Long GOP so the All-I will maybe give you slightly better motion & quality when there's a lot of movement but no image quality boost in most cases.

Also keep in mind that there's two different warranties in Germany. I'm not lawyer so that's my basic knowledge and might be a bit off: The first is the voluntary one (Garantie) that is usually given by the manufacturer, e.g. all that register your camera and get extra guarantee mambo jambo. The second is the legally given warranty (Gewährleistung) that is between you and the vendor and for 2 years. For the first 6 months the vendor has to prove that the problem (or its cause) didn't exist when he sold you the equipment, after that you have to prove that it already existed when you received the goods, which is borderline impossible.

Bringing this thread up again. I'm considering more super short form stuff for social media, even for Instagram story. We've used the Zhiyun Smooth Q quite a bit on a trip recently and it's so nice to have your crappy iPhone footage well stabilized. It's a lot more compact than a bigger stabilizer with a MILC so we had some cases where we actually preferred it over using a Crane with a Sony. Next step now would be to have that stuff actually look good. I have my basic workflow for the look I'm going for in Davinci Resolve, dialed in on my desktop system, as a power grade, so I can also use that on my laptop for quick turnaround by just smacking it on and then doing some fine adjustments, e.g. if I slightly botched exposure or white balance. But I wondered now: is there an app for iOS that lets you slap on a *.cube LUT on footage? I'd love to transfer stuff (that I plan to properly edit later on) to my iPhone or iPad, put a lut on it and post it to social media / snapchat / instagram story or just show it to people. You could even do mini-edits with iMovie maybe. It's obviously not something for narrative or long form documentaries but I think it would be viable for interactive travel documentary, vlogging, etc. Tagging @kidzrevil , you seemed to be quite active in that direction. What's your current workflow?