BTM_Pix

I am currently checking out two controllers to use with it that I think will be the definitive ones for people to choose. There'll be an update with them next week so stay tuned !

Always think Flickr pools are a decent resource for lenses as you generally get thousands of examples to look at and they come from a very broad range of lighting conditions and subjects. And because the exif data is generally intact you can see what camera they were used with then you can see if they are tuned for their native cameras etc It won't give you that same degree of feedback regarding handling for things like AF or IS and so on like YouTube or Vimeo does but its a lot easier to have an overview based on multiple sources of its general optical performance. https://www.flickr.com/groups/mzd17mmf18/pool/

This video I thought showed it quite badly but who knows what his settings were so its difficult to tell. But having said that, the first video you see on YouTube when you search for the lens and adapter is Canon themselves demonstrating it at the broadcast show on a C100 so they don't seem to be shy about pushing it for the C100 so its definitely worth a demo of it as a combo to see if there maybe is some sorcery going on.

Not thus far but my work on it at least is suspended while I'm doing the hardware controller. We've got a lead with an old version of the app that had the 'free' VLOG glitch but needs someone with a GH4 with the old firmware before Panasonic shut the door on it to try and do some exploring to see if it could be applied to the G7. Priority list for what I'm up to is the hardware controller, followed by Cinelike D on LX100 and then after that I'll revisit VLOG if no one else has been looking at it. I don't think the extra bitrates are viable using this method.

EDIT However they're achieving it, its working pretty well on this video. I'd seen a few others where it was very noticeable but I suspect that what they were exhibiting was it not being set to f5.6 so it was stepping through its maximum apertures for each part of the range. It may make a bit of mechanical noise though from other comments I've read.

I don't have a Sony camera to test it with but does their smartphone app enable manual focus or touch AF with the A7xxx cameras? I might be able to do a version of my Panasonic wifi controller for it for gimbal use if it does.

Yes, you can save it to the custom picture profile but it is easy to overwrite it, meaning you would have to do the hack again which might not be convenient if you're out and about ! Safest thing to do IMO is do both and save it into one of the C registers.

My speculation is that they would manipulate the ISO (secretly ) briefly at the crossover points to smooth it out rather than you needing it be enabled but its just a guess as to how they could do it. But I'm basing that on how bad the phenomenon is on Fuji's wide zooms (and to a far less extent their tele ones) but perhaps its just fundamentally better on this Canon lens. If I come across one in a shop I'll let you know.

Such a coincidence that you mention this combo as I was only looking at it yesterday as I had no idea that that little adapter even existed. It looks like a great little product but I was curious about why it only supports one lens. From the B&H reviews that I looked at there were a couple that mentioned flicker but it doesnt make it clear in either whether it was because it really was changing aperture as they hadn't locked it at 5.6. They did say that the auto ISO counteracted it so maybe that's what Canon use in the demo video and sneakily smooth it out even if it is locked at 5.6 as they know where the transition points are coming? It would make sense if they did but wouldnt solve it for me as I want to put it on a non-Canon body!

Its definitely smoother but its still disruptive as you've got hands on to do the turning, which sounds like it would be a big issue for the application you're talking about. Depending on the filter there is also colour shift issues to be considered but its one of those things where there are plenty of reviews online so you you should be able to find one that suffers less from this. The version Aputure do of their Lens Regain with variable electronic ND looks like a great solution but it comes at a price at around $700. One potential way of giving you a different solution would be for you to lock your exposure put a fixed ND on which is strong enough for the brightest zone and and then ride the ISO for those exposure changes to effectively counteract it for darker zones. Unless you go too mad, there is enough wiggle room with ISO on most cameras to tolerate that without destroying the image. It will still be stepped so not as smooth as a variable ND but at least you know you won't be getting colour shifts etc. I know exactly the person that could offer you a small handheld solution to do that wirelessly .... If you look at this video from my controller yesterday, you can at least get an idea of how riding the ISO (or the aperture or shutter speed actually) would look. As I say, its stepped so nowhere near as smooth as a variable ND but its not too bad (and could be smoothed further quite easily in post). Ignore the fact its running on a gamepad type controller as that sort of function can easily just be put on a tiny controller with a few buttons on to do what you want.

Its a Sony one. Does more then the arduino one but with poorer colours.

Yes and yes.

And in today's episode of "Fun With Lumix And Gaffer Tape" we have the new LCD display module which gives you a pro SLR style top panel info for your little GX80/G7 et al. Well, pro style if Nikon and Canon used more gaffer tape in their production process that is.

Always amazes me too. Just looking at numbeo.com comparing prices of goods where I live compared to Sweden and according to that I reckon me an Mattias could have a mutually beneficial arrangement if he gets gear for me there and I pay him in beer, tomatoes, oranges, petrol, Levis or men's leather business shoes.

I didn't say he did, to be fair. It was the OP himself who said he needed it and thats why he bought the BMPCC. Was just saying there was a way for him to preserve that and help him with his focus with the setup he already had that he was struggling with rather than having to throw the baby out with the bath water as it were. ** EDIT *** Hang on, it looks like thats exactly what I said wasn't it! Haha I meant to say 'It sounds like RAW is what you want' rather than 'what you need'.

If you've got the Zoom to do external audio anyway @Chris Oh then the GX85 with the Cinelike D hack would edge it for me over the G7. With the hack and the external audio you've matched what the G7 has the edge with and gained what it can't do which is the IBIS.

If only there was some way to have bigger and more buttons to control it with

If you're happy with the image quality of the BMPCC (sounds like RAW is certainly what you need for what you're doing) and that Sigma is an EF Mount have you considered part-exing the Metabones for the newer versions which support AF and IS? Doesn't tick all of your boxes still but will get you the focus issue out of the way and for probably only about £400 difference. If youre looking for something relatively hassle free to tick some of those other boxes then you could do a lot worse than something like the Sony RX100 Mark V or the Panasonic FZ2000/2500. Neither are stellar low light performers but are a good combination of easy decent results but with offering more tweakable options like LOG when you want to delve a bit deeper. Nothing wrong with good all auto stuff if it keeps you motivated to keep shooting as its so easy to get deflated as you've found with the BMPCC. A total spend of probably £1300 then will give your BMPCC a new lease of life (and it IS worth hanging in there with) for the RAW stuff you want to do and an additional camera with a bunch of tricks for other stuff and hidden depths that you can grow into if you like.

Another little update video that might be of interest to LX100 owners (and those with cameras like FZ1000/2000 etc) which shows the wifi controller operating the zoom and focus. The zoom controls on all the Lumix cameras are quite clunky in transition so its limited by their inherent performance so better suited to re-framing than any ambitious slow creeps.

FWIW, I regularly have to shoot stills at ISO5000 and the Fuji's haven't scared me off from that point of view. They don't have the bordering on night vision levels of the A7S etc but they're competitive enough at 'normal' high ISO levels.

I'd take a look at the Fuji X-T20 and the 10-24mm F4 4K, can turn things round quick because of its OOC looks, light enough to mount on the Crane, A/B as a stills combo against a D800 and Nikon's 14-24 f2.8 and its not embarrassed in the slightest, you can put an ND on it without jumping through (expensive) hoops, the lens has IS, touch screen focus etc etc And you can put a lens turbo on it to use all of your Nikon lenses. I used the 14-24mm far more than you'd imagine a sports photographer might (stadium views, low ringside at boxing,in the melees after a trophy presentation etc) and the key word there is 'used' as its been put into retirement now by an X-T20 and 10-24mm for ALL of that stuff. Might not be the total answer to what you want (and by the wrestling you're having there probably isn't one) but its worthy of a look if you have a local camera store that stocks them. I could've saved myself a load of typing if I'd seen this first!!

As soon as I've got everything on it that I want and settled on what I'm running it on I'll sort out a guide to how people can make one. It should be a matter of just buying a board and putting the software image on it then sorting yourself out for how to power it and getting a gamepad. Total cost for the bits you need to buy should be no more than about £45 even if you got for a wireless gamepad. There'll be a bit of a challenge sorting out an easily deployable software image that people can flash themselves but I'll sort that out over the next few weeks. Presuming anyone wants one that is of course.

So...... A bit of an update I've spent the past few days redoing this from the ground up and there's been what you might call 'a bit' of progress. The camera functions are now controlled by a gamepad, which gives a bit more scope in terms of buttons etc. By separating out the part that does the actual talking to the camera, this means that that can be smaller for mounting and the choice of the input device is now far more flexible as it can support pretty much any USB device that can be attached to it. In this version, the gamepad itself is wireless too so not only is it a lot neater but it can also be used to extend the overall distance of wireless control (its range to the control box is added to the range from the control box to the camera). I can also make it support multiple devices so you could have something smaller just to do basic control (or a USB numeric keypad would be quite good for that actually) and then use a more elaborate one when needed. Or do both simultaneously if you want control of exposure and someone else to do focus etc. Speaking of focus, this is now controlled by an analog stick so has a bit more feel to it (ignore the transitions in the video, the debug mode makes the control much coarser) with a press in the centre of the stick activating a one shot AF. If your camera has a powered zoom lens (hello LX100 etc) then this is controlled from the same stick by pushing forward and back. I believe that this will also work with those MFT lenses that support power zoom but I don't have one so I can't confirm that. I've made a drivable AF joystick point mode which you activate by pressing in on the right hand analog stick and then using the D Pad to drive the focus point around the screen and then pressing in the stick again to action it. There will be more focus enhancements coming......... The shutter speed and aperture are now controlled by the shoulder buttons on the gamepad and the ISO is now also directly switchable on two buttons. I've got a few more enhancements coming over the next few days as well so I'll keep you informed. In the meantime, here is a video of it controlling a GX80

I've had a bit more of a dig about this because I was pretty sure that I remembered that the viewfinder app was upscaling to fill the phone screen. I had remembered correctly as it turns out the live stream resolution is only 640 x 480 so that would immediately rule it out.

Yes, it does all of the same functions (and a few more actually) and you could fit in pretty much whatever worked ergonomically. Once its in its finished much more compact form (just the size of the blue-ish control panel in the video) its pretty small. You could probably gut something like this PC Joystick (which is about £15) to use the handle part which has a similar ergonomic approach to the Sony grip and mount it in there. For me, its better as a pocketable thing but thats the beauty of it being a bit of a DIY hack, it can be a lot more custom than an off the shelf product.