BTM_Pix

I wasn't being entirely serious, of course. But yes, I have seen various ones that can move without looking like they've had an accident. Surely our problems would be solved by them being exactly like us but without our problems. Which is exactly what my wife says about me by the way They can analyse data that builds a model of what it is we like about something though, which is all that pleasure from a certain aesthetic translates to. Give anyone/anything enough data and enough time and they could transform what we'd currently call "je ne s'ais quoi" into "Not only do I know exactly what that certain what is Monsieur but here its is as a preset for your Panasonic BrainInterface20000 camera". Its no different to current practices of EXIF mining and cross checking it with Likes/Retweets on social media to find out what sort of image capture components drive the most interest and affection. It may be cruder now but its the same principle that given enough processing power and time can be extrapolated out to a more granular level that will provide a fair idea of what sort of images ping the pleasure sensors of most people. The Lytro got a lot of hate - much of it justified - but if you ever played with one for a little while then the glimpse was there of where we'll end up going. Take that concept on two or three generations (which may or may not happen now Google own it) and with enough data mined about what works then I can easily envisage a camera system that slaps an instant and satisfying enough auto-aestethetic on it complete with not only colour and dynamic range adjustments but focus point, depth of field and re-composition as well. And then they'll cripple it by putting a slow lens on it and no microphone input obviously.

Thorlabs do this, which might work for you. It takes 5 filters up to 60mm width and you'd just have to rig up some narrow rails for it. Its not cheap but it would do the job https://www.thorlabs.com/newgrouppage9.cfm?objectgroup_id=2805 If you are looking for a cheaper DIY solution then if you used a Cokin (or no name equivalent) system then you could use two graduated NDs like this but, unlike this picture, keep one of them upside down. Lets say that filter 1 is 4ND grad and filter 2 is an 8ND grad What that would let you do is slide filter 1 up and filter 2 down (they'd both at their clear graduation positions so no ND) and then by doing the other permutations of position on the each filter (i.e. one in its clear position and the other in its ND position and then both in their ND position) you'd be able to have the following with a couple of slides and not having to remove them. 0 ND, 4ND, 8ND and 12ND

The first thing these robots need to do is to build a robot that can walk properly. Otherwise, in the upcoming war against the rise of the cyborgs, we'll prevail just by virtue of knowing that we have to shoot the ones that look like they've shit their pants

Not a total recommendation as such but Andoer do a compact 5kg load head which you can get on Amazon for £30. Its far better than it has a right to be for that price really (and the elastic band trick smooths it out a lot as it does with all of them) but what I'd really recommend it for is to be able to get the extendable pan bar which closes really small and is perfect for travelling As far as I know, they don't sell the pan bar separately so you can use it on other tripods but they definitely should do !

I forgot to mention that it does scent release as well. So, yeah, if you want fart jokes then they can do a very decent dinosaur one complete with wind, movement and smell ! It was the same price as the usual IMAX 3D ticket. They make double the money on the drinks and snacks though as most of your initial purchases end up all over you the first time the seat lurches while you're slurping your coke and munching your popcorn !

You'd have to think that the reduced data rate of the H.265 version would be of benefit but I've never tried it. Also, it would depend on the speed of the encoder and whether you are getting a benefit end to end in terms of latency. No, not compared to their higher end ones but it is a bit more of a footprint than the Vidius which I would imagine anyone looking at these would be comparing it too. I got that price differential from a random search yesterday on Aliexpress so could be a special offer or stock clearance but it is usually not far off that. The non-battery version appeal would be in the reduction of the form factor as well as budgetary really. The power input is a 12v barrel so it can be powered from a dtap or a £1.50 usb to 12v barrel adapter so it could be attached to existing power sources on a rig in the case of the former or to a slim usb bank attached to the top of it in the case of the latter. From a financial perspective, the saving would more or less pay for a pocket 4G router like this one, which would round off the system. Yes, it is totally unacceptable for that. If its viewed, if you pardon the pun, as a framing monitor and a distribution device then its acceptable (especially for Fuji owners who have no alternative of viewing on a smartphone without sending their camera's recording resolution back to 2005). I'd take anything monitoring wise with this as a bonus over its primary functionality. Its the finding the instructions that is the difficult task though Especially that when you turn it into wireless AP mode it has an entirely different (and undocumented) addressing system which means you can't find the address for the stream but worse still the address for the control panel. It doesn't reveal its router address in network control panel so there was a lot of head scratching and probing going on until I found it hidden away when I got back in using the ethernet port. I almost had to email them ! Yes, Live:Air can take in RTSP streams as camera sources, so you can see in the panel next to the colour charts is the feed from my LS300 which has the streaming function built in. The colour chart was just what I had the camera (the A6500) with the Uray attached pointing at at the time I did the screenshot as I don't have a cat as a test subject.

This is probably a bit low brow on populist for most of you but anyway.... So I went to see Jurassic World in 4DX the other night. Not a great film but definitely a great experience. I don't really know what I was expecting, maybe just a bit of motion rumbling in the seat and a few gimmicks of the odd tiny blast of air and a bit of water but it was way beyond that. Of course, its not going to work with every film type but with something like Jurassic World you've already left any pretence of high brow at the door anyway so if you're going to go for it then you might as well really go for it. The range of movement in the chair was way beyond what I was expecting both in distance and velocity which made every crash or shock point really shake you but I was also surprised at the subtlety that really put you inside the aerial shots and also when the camera was tilting up to reveal something. The air jets coming from the front were obviously good for weather stuff but the ones in the head rest were very effective for bullet fly bys but the big surprise where the ones behind your calfs which they used to simulate little creatures running around your ankles. And honestly, the rain effects with the water spray were fantastic ! As an old cynic, I shouldn't really be getting excited by this stuff but I had an absolute whale of a time as did everyone else in there. Its a long time since I've left the cinema and people have seemed as euphoric as that. And that is with what is a decidedly iffy film as well. Also, as I've said before on here, we really all did give up on 3D too soon. I would love for Spielberg to do a version of Saving Private Ryan for 4DX as it would lend itself very well to the inclusive immersion aspects. Flame away

This will probably only have an audience of one - hello @IronFilm - but might be of use for anyone else who has a need for what it does. So what is it? Its a small(ish) box that takes an HDMI input and encodes it into a live H.264 IP data stream that can then be used for monitoring or as an input source by devices on a local network or pushed to streaming services such as YouTube, Facebook etc. The version I have has an integrated Sony NP battery mount and hotshoe mount so is a completely standalone solution for use in the field but it can also be powered via a mains adapter. If you want to save some money and will only be using it in a studio environment then the version without the battery mount and hotshoe mount is also available. There is also a version with an integrated 4G modem so you can live broadcast from your camera on to YouTube or whatever service you use without any additional equipment. There is also an H.265 version available as well. Physically, the unit isn’t massive but isn’t what you would call compact either. Seen here on my LS300 camera (which ironically doesn’t need to use one because it has this stuff built in ) it looks in proportion but to be fair it does dwarf a small mirrorless camera a little bit. Seen here alongside its far more expensive alternative - the Teradek Vidiu - you can see that the base units its not that much bigger but obviously it gets much bigger when you slap the battery on as opposed to the Vidiu which has a built in rechargeable one. What has to be borne in mind though is the functionality you are getting here and should consider how much more unwieldy things would be if you had to mount a laptop to your A6500 as that would be the only way to get the same functionality. At this point, I’m going to have to say that if you’re not comfortable with some basic network configuration stuff then this product is not going to make you any more comfortable and you might want to walk away now OK, after plugging our camera into the HDMI port, we have to log in to the device and configure it. This is done by attaching an ethernet cable to the LAN port and typing in an address in a browser that brings up a control panel of the sort which will be familiar to you if you’ve ever setup a router. In here you set up all the options for the type of stream that you will be generating from the incoming camera signal and you can alter everything from re-scaling it, to frame rate and a wide range of quality settings from data rate to encoding profile. Most of it is self explanatory but you’d better get used to this interface because you’ll be seeing a lot of it as you tweak the settings for the optimum results. OK, so once its encoded your video and is merrily streaming it you can access it directly through its own LAN or WiFi interfaces or you via a wider network if you connect it to another router (which you will need to do if you want to get your stream out to the internet). This router can be anything from your home router to an internet access point in Starbucks or your mobile phone’s hotspot function for onward broadcast to the internet. So lets get down to some actual use cases. The first use - and the one that @IronFilmis waiting on - is to use it as a way of remote wireless monitoring on set from a camera. In this mode, we set it up as a WiFi access point and connect whatever device or devices to it that we want to monitor on and use a media player that can play network streams to watch it. Basically, any device that can run VLC will do so you use your phone, tablet, computer or even smart TV to monitor the signal. All you need to do is to enter the address that the stream is playing on into VLC and away you go. And if there are a few of you, then as you can see here with my MacBook, my iPad and my Android phone, you can all watch it together. Although, as I said, its more likely that you would use the encoder in access point mode for this, you could actually use a larger network infrastructure if you wanted to for extending the range and extent of the monitoring. These devices are used in this capacity to deliver digital TV service to hotel rooms so its very much a scalable thing ! The other use case that I have it for is to use to encode camera signals so that they can be accessed inside Live:Air which is Teradek’s live video production software that runs on the iPad. In this scenario, cameras can be connected to multiple encoder units which can then be brought into Live:Air and switched and have overlays added etc and streamed out to the internet for a pretty comprehensive live broadcast. When used in this way, the encoders and iPad are connected wirelessly though a portable 4G router to move the data around get the final output from Live:Air out on to the internet. The encoder can operate with 2.4G and 5G routers and clients. If you just want to do direct from the camera live broadcasts then the encoder can also be configured to overlay some lines of text and graphic logos onto the outgoing stream. Price wise, you can pick up the encoders for about £110 for the non battery version and about £180 for the version I’ve got. To be honest, you can easily knock up your own powering solutions for these for far less than the £70 difference so I’d be inclined to go for the lower priced one unless you need the really, really long run times you can get out of the NP ones. For comparison, even the basic version of the Teradek Vidiu (which doesn’t support the RTS protocol for monitoring on VLC) to encode live video for Live:Air or for YouTube broadcast is around £700 so it represents a significant saving - particularly for a multi-camera setup. So, is it any good? Yes for me but maybe not for you. It does what it needs to do well enough but the nature of the beast with these devices is that there will be latency and how much of that is acceptable is down to you and what you are using it for. The bigger problem is that this latency is also very dependent on how you configure it and your network infrastructure and even location if you are in a highly saturated place (which is where the 5G capability actually does help). All of this variance makes it difficult to recommend with any confidence purely as a MONITOR solution only. You can tweak away and noodle about with scaling down, bit rate, GOP, profiles etc and mitigate the latency but its never going to go away completely and I’d say that its difficult to find an acceptable balance thats not going to be below 1/2 a second. That doesn’t mean to say it is without utility when used as a monitoring solution but it would be in a secondary capacity as a distribution method where absolute real time instant monitoring isn’t necessary. So in this way you would loop it through from the primary operator’s monitor and allow everyone else on set to wirelessly monitor after that. There is also the question of how much real time you may need if you are using it in the capacity of primarily a framing monitor. If you have a Fuji XT/XH for example, this offers a solution to not being able to monitor and trigger the camera over wifi without it dropping to 720p resolution like it does with Fuji’s app. For Vlogging for example where you just want a remote view of the framing then this would give you that and allied with a cheap wireless shutter trigger you can get round the abysmal state of affairs with the Fuji app. Bear in mind that there is latency but not dropped frames. For my purposes of using it as a (much, much) cheaper way of getting camera signals into Live:Air than using Teradek’s own encoders then the latency is not an issue at all as each channel has an individual time align control to compensate for the latency. Similarly when broadcasting direct out of the camera to the internet, the latency at that level is not relevant. In summary then, if you have a need for the things that it does then it works well and is a huge saving on the alternatives. Its a bit clunky getting it going as the documentation wasn’t exactly readily available so I wasted a lot of time being unable to connect to it as an access point because the router address it uses when wireless is entirely different (and undocumented) to what it is when you are using the LAN port or it is in bridge mode.( Its 192.168.8.8 by the way ) Being able to live stream to YouTube directly out of your DSLR might not be something you want to do every day but if you ever have the need for it (especially away from the studio) then it doesn't come much cheaper and simpler (once you've unearthed the manual) than this. If you want to use it as your primary real time wireless monitor (other than just for framing or as per the Fuji example where its the only game in town) then I don’t think its the way to go because of the latency. If you are interested in purely doing that then I have another solution for that that is really low latency but thats for another day. Full product link here http://www.szuray.com/h-pd-84.html#_pp=0_304_9_-1 And here is the manual that you won’t find on their site either . User Manual Of Mini Video Encoder copy.pdf

Well it has a realistic chance of being available within the next two years so I'm not sure that gels with the current ethos of Kickstarter video and photography products Yes I will be. The Sony version works now. I just need to bury the functions inside six layers of menus though to make Sony user's feel at home

The really short summary is that the really long summary will be posted later on today. It cancelled out all of the car hire savings I'd made that's for sure! The lens budget is ring always ring fenced anyway

I actually got detained by police on my way out there when getting the connecting flignt at Amsterdam airport... Turns out of been caught speeding by a traffic camera when I'd hired a car while working out there last year that hadn't been paid so they got me at passport control and I had to pay a sizeable fine before theyd let me go! Anyway, Yes I got back with my swag but I'm away again and will be back tomorrow and I'll definitely write something up this week about the streamer

At the very least they could have got one of the kids from the team in the background to do the keepie uppies as they surely would've been better at it

Saw this thread come back up and thought the new post was going to be that someone had devised a hack to get RAW out of the HDMI port or something. Alas, its just the return of the over helpful spambot.

Yes, we're probably due an update aren't we. I'm currently finishing porting the Sony version, which is more or less complete. The Panasonic version is functionally complete but the intention is for it to be multi-platform from the off at least for those two systems. The version for Blackmagic will obviously only happen when the camera is released (though I will begin porting it next) so it remains to be seen when that will be. The slave module integration for operating multiple cameras (even different brand ones) from one controller both individually and in a unison mode is also something that is currently being worked on. The slave module will be the small version as you can see here and will also be used to support the remote record start/stop of external audio recorders from Tascam, Zoom and SoundDevices but will also allow direct remote control of the camera through its more limited integrated buttons. With regard to the focus control, it will work on anything that the camera can drive focus on so not just native lenses but also via smart adapters from metabones etc. so, yes, if the camera can control your 4/3 lens then the controller can too. Bear in mind, it can only ever be as accurate as the adapter allows. If the lens has servo zoom then its not beyond the bounds of possibility to create a simultaneous zoom and focus function control but it would take quite a bit of calibration setup per lens to create individual profiles for them. As I don't have any servo zooms for MFT then this is unlikely to happen anytime soon ! As for manual zooming, well, there are a couple of possibilities that I have been thinking about specifically for that but, again, its down to lens access for calibration. Its doable though as I can track the focal length position and then make focus offsets as it changes so I'm not saying no but just not yet * * Which probably means I'll start doing it as soon as I get back

A couple of quick comparison shots from yesterday showing the LX15 lens range from max wide to max telephoto and then with the £25 2x TC on it when used in full tourist mode. Using the mag filter thread adapter its really, really quick to just pop it on when you're at max tele on the internal lens and think "Nope, not tele enough" I'll do the same with the RX100M5 (which may be relevant if all you want an M6 for is the range) when I get back and make a new thread regarding operation and caveats over performance.

I think everyone knows it's a work in progress, just quite surprised at the current point of progress in that work. If the purpose of it was to gain feedback then I don't get the differentiation between it coming from their FB group or the wider world to be honest. Unless they've got a Reduser scenario going on there of zero criticism I expect the feedback was similarly lukewarm? Don't take this as being snippy because it's not meant to be - I'm actually rooting for them - but if the people on here who weren't thrilled with what they saw and they were in the market to buy one, then it might not be doomed but extrapolate that out versus people who were thrilled with it and it's not great. As I say, I'm not looking to contradict you necessarily but I think there is some relevance to the perception issue they've caused by putting this out there. Especially as its on their YouTube channel and not just a closed FB group.

That link I posted takes you to the first post in the thread for some reason which is for the bracketed stepper . The real time tweaker app is further down and here is the direct download link for it if you need to use it https://mega.nz/#!92R11RaC!4IuYvd7SWu3UKpHzRK6nZA1PFPRruSEDw1nFp7ERXf4

It's one of those perennials that pops up quite regularly when people are looking for a "standard" zoom lens for Panasonic cameras so it's in a few threads. It pops up as an option because the lens range and speed it has isn't one that you can get in a native MFT lens and if you could it would certainly cost far more than the £300-400 price you can pick up a used LX100 for. It's not a solution for everyone but it can make a lot of sense for many situations because you're basically getting a free backup camera into the bargain. Be aware though that the LX100 can't have the Cinelike D hack so you are restricted to standard profiles (or the excellent EOSHD profile) which is why it won't work out for everyone. But if it does then it's an alternative worth considering. It's one of a couple of such anomalies (like the Leica Q and Sigma DP0 Quattro) where even if you own the interchangeable lens version of the cameras (Leica SL and Sigma DP Quattro in this example) it's still actually cheaper to buy the fxed lens version of the camera if you need that focal length than it is for the equivalent lens for the interchangeable camera. As I say, it's not for everybody but if it fits your needs then it's there as an option

The £10 option is a throwback to when we used to switch Tascam DA88 TDIF connections between different consoles. The TDIF interface carried 4 AES/EBU inputs and outputs via a 25 pin Dsub connector (aka a printer connector) so we used A/B printer switchers to switch them between consoles. For your scenario, this means you could have up to 8 balanced connections on it and basically use the switch to bring them all into play simultaneously by switching to the A position to make the connection and the B connection to break it as that of course would be connected to fresh air. You can pick up used TDIF to XLR snakes on ebay relatively cheap if you dont want to make up the loom yourself and obviously the switchers are £10 or less in most places. You could also just pick up a 25 pin printer extension cable for a few quid and chop the end off and add your connectors. It's not as sophisticated as having some automated relay based system (ie it's clunky) but it will work, it's cheap and available now.

I ummed and ahhd about a used one during my lens buying frenzy. Slept on it and decided it was too good a price not to get it and went back into the shop the next day and they were literally handing it over to it's new owner when I arrived. Apparently it's not polite to exclaim "Oh for fucks sake" in Japanese shops. Who knew. Anyway, I thought we'd all agreed the other week that the best general purpose zoom lens for MFT was actually the LX100

It is a Sony VCL-HG 2030 and was discontinued many moons ago I think but I spotted it in a second hand shop for £30. It used to be about £200 when new so it was a bargain but obviously I still had to negotiate a bit more off ! You can see a few of them on eBay for similar prices so there's plenty of them out there. The caveat is that the 30 in the name indicates the filter thread size so the standard filter adapters for these small cameras are 52mm to stay out of the way of the zoom mechanism so you'll need a step down converter. It also means of course that with it not covering the full width it is like putting a crop lens on a full frame camera so you'll need to zoom in to just over 50mm equivalent to avoid seeing it. But it's there to extend the range anyway so that's no issue whatsoever as far as I'm concerned. So you're looking basically at it being 2x extension on the 50-90mm range (or 108mm on the LX15 in 4K) so it makes it a 100-180mm zoom (or 100-216mm on the LX15 in 4K) that you can have in your pocket for if the need arises. I know it's all a bit old school using tele converters but I routinely use them professionally for work so the problem isn't tele converters per se but shit ones ? I'll do a few shots with the LX15 tomorrow (I haven't got the RX100 with me on this trip) with and without and put them up. With regard to the filter thread adapter, I've got a generic stick on one for the RX100 but for the LX15 I've got a posh Carry Speed magnetic holder one.

I like the ranting that @webrunner5 does though. When he's on a roll I'm always put in mind of him doing it in the style of Gabby Johnson in Blazing Saddles And I mean that with all due affection @webrunner5 do don't down vote me

The Panasonic LX10/15 meets the original spec. It has 3x zoom, the original poster didn't say it necessarily had to start at a 24mm equivalent. You can look at that crop one of two ways in that it's giving you less on the wide end than the RX100M5 but it's giving you more on the long end, which is something that may be more important for his/her needs. I have both the LX15 and the RX100M5 and my opinion is that I don't hate the crop (as I'm fond of the FOV anyway ) and I can always re-frame by stepping back so in that way I can match the RX100 max FOV. But what I can't do on the RX100 is make the lens faster so I have no possibility to match the LX15 in that respect. It comes down to picking what is more important I suppose for how you will be using it. I could make the point to be honest that 24mm is a bit of a meh focal length anyway as its neither fish nor fowl so neither camera goes wide enough really but again that's down to personal preference. With regard to the video itself, with the Cinelike D hack the LX10/15 bridges part of the gap to the Slog profiles of the Sony and might well be all the flat that people need in that form factor. You can use Cinelike D at any iso whereas the lowest of 1600 and 3200 for the Slog profiles does start making a bit of an issue of keeping it's original ethos of being a compact as you have to put a filter thread mount on it for a pretty nuch permanently mounted variable ND. Of course you can use the other flat but not LOG profiles in the RX100 to do the same thing but it does take away that extra advantage over the Panasonic if you do that. Again, though it's horses for courses, and if the purpose of wanting a compact is to primarily offer a better video option while travelling then that may play a part. If it's for more controlled shooting as a b camera for interviews or whatever then that'll be less of a factor. For what it's worth, I have thread mounts on both of them of course ? Speaking of thread mounts, in light of the debate on the Sony RX100M6 thread, I've picked up a very high quality screw on Sony 2x TC for a ridiculous £25 to have an experiment with. Suffice to say from early tests, my RX100M5 can now be an M6 whenever it feels like It works on the LX15 as well and a bit of lateral thinking has me now hunting down the wide equivalent for a similar bargain price to take care of the other end if I really need it. If I had to keep only one of these cameras then it would have to be the RX100M5 but that is purely because it has live HDMI output which is non negotiable for what I'm primarily using it for in a work capacity. If it was just for personal use as a compact camera where that wasn't a requirement then I think I'd go for the Panasonic with the Cinelike D hack because it's half the price, it's far more than half the camera for what I'd be using it for and not least because whoever does Sony's user interface is a sadist. Oh and it doesn't burn your hand if you have the temerity to want to use it for a while

If you look at the down vote in the bottom right of the post and click it, it says that you down voted it. Don't know whether there's something going on with your account automatically doing votes because there's a post in another thread that says you did the big laughing one when it didn't seem like it was a funny post in the slightest! Mind you, us gentlemen of certain advancing ages do tend to laugh in all the wrong places !

I take it you got the cinelike d to work yesterday then ? If you are in Manual mode when you Save to C1 it will be in manual mode when you recall it and should have retained the ISO, Aperture and Shutter values you had set. Sounds like you have saved it in when you were in Aperture Priority mode. Just change to Manual in the camera menu and save it again