BTM_Pix

Be sure to check back in at the end of this month when the new free firmware update enables it. Well, the upgrade is free its just that you need another £900 to actually record it

I've been browsing across different news sources and YouTube channels and there were some interesting products outside of the usual main players. It was always this sort of stuff that I found more interesting when going to NAB. This slider is pretty cool. Supposed to going to be $2000 complete with all of the motorised stuff. More info here http://www.waterbird.at ---------------- If you've got an interest in iOS or Android mobile film making then this is a really nice dual channel wireless solution for it. And also has analog outputs so it can be used with an ordinary camera as well. $249 for a receiver and one transmitter or $349 with an additional transmitter is a decent price.

And with the removable top handle it breaks down easily to fit into a small backpack. They could've saved even more space by leaving off the EVF! The ones I'm going to use it with are all featured on their should work list so fingers crossed! The EF-S ones require some modification to make it fit into the mount but should be OK. I picked up a great deal on a 10-18mm (£130) that is a much better lens than it should be expected to be even for its real price so that I could have a cheap small wide for the LS300 but also for my other MFT mount cameras. I followed this guide to modifying it to make it work with the metabones so I'm looking forward to testing it when I get the adapter. When I say that I 'followed' the guide what I mean is that I did all the same steps in removing the screws but then as I haven't got a Dremmel I reverted to using a hacksaw!!

I'll get back to you about that when I get my metabones Canon smart adapter! It does actually have face detect AF too and according to the manual its got some scope to tune it properly with the hysteresis particularly. But I think the world has seen enough face detect AF tests!

Here it is doing that particular job by the way. HD to the card and simultaneous live stream broadcast via the £10 Edimax dual band wifi adapter you can see sticking out near the back next to the peephole viewing device. Or the EVF as JVC laughingly refer to it. And my Nikon 70-200mm seeing some action as a very functional broadcast lens ! As this was in HD, using the Prime Zoom (or Zoom Zoom in this case) actually turns it into a 70-460mm f2.8 lens. Not too shabby really.

I did ponder that it might be the Sony but wondered if he'd be bothered with the extra hassle of recording external audio. Of course if it WAS the Sony then he'll obviously have to fly Max and PhotoJoseph in to get to the bottom of it

Yes. It adds some improvements to the remote monitoring as well so you can control it when it's in 4K mode.

Has Neistat moved over permanently to the GH5 now? Just curious as if you look at his latest vlog when he's doing a piece to camera on the bridge where he proposed to his wife then he must've had it in the hitherto unknown Bridge Detect AF mode....

Puzzled by his answer to when the new LS300 firmware will be available. "It won't be released until March" Erm....its already April mate. I hope its not March 2018! As a side note, I used the LS300 on its first job this week live streaming a press conference. Not thrilling obviously but it shows how versatile this thing is. Just having the USB host port on it so you can plug in a cheap USB wireless or ethernet adapter and get out live direct off the camera or even just plug in a 4G modem stick and go live is an absolutely incredible feature. Considering how much a Teradek Vidiu would cost to add this function to another camera, thats well over a third of what I paid for the LS300.

I was watching that with headphones on. I'm sending you an invoice for some new underpants.

Thats a real let down isn't it? As you say, all the ones I've seen seem to operate panels no problem but no consolation. Its not just the batteries either, the chargers can sting a bit price wise as well. Cheapest way in that I've seen are the batteries where you get the direct tap charger included. Though whether I'd budget for a fire extinguisher to go with it is another matter! http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FENTION-FS-BP150-V-Lock-V-Mount-Rechargeable-10-4Ah-150Wh-Battery-Charger-Kit-/361957152174?hash=item544653d5ae:g:rsQAAOSwmCVY9dAy

That Slingstudio system that they're talking about is very very interesting. I've just been tearing my hair out trying to devise (i.e. cobble together) a more cost effective version of multiple Terradek Vidius and switching system to do some (very) small scale multi camera live outside broadcast stuff and going backwards and forwards with different permutations of small hardware switchers, software switchers and no name hdmi to rtsp encoders. This thing seems to do it all as one integrated and much more cost effective system. https://www.myslingstudio.com

Yes, he's pricing the NPfs at $30 a piece by the looks of it. So 2 hours means he's using 2 x NPF at $30 each and the adapter at $50 so $30+$30$+$50=$110 And then every additional 2 hours of power is $60 (2 NPF x $30)

From the original post on Cheesycam, someone ran a test on another LED light between a real v lock and two NPFs on the adapter. Won't be absolute in terms of how long they will run this new Dacast of course because its on a different light but the comparative figures will be a good guide. The advantage of the NPFs is obviously cost but also that they'll do double duty as there are numerous low cost powering solutions for cameras like BM and field monitors/recorders that use them. From the original thread >>> "I did a test on the CN-600s with a Beillen 150 Wh V-mount battery, and it lasts 3 hours. The cheapest 150Wh V-mount battery I see on Ebay, Lanparte brand, is about $200, and the Beillen --also Chinese-- is about $250. The dual-NPF solution is much more economical. 3 hours v-mount=$200-250 2 hours NPF+adapter=$110 4 hours NPF+adapter=$170 6 hours NPF+adapter=$230" ------------------------- http://cheesycam.com/v-mount-adapter-for-sony-l-series-np-f-batteries/

Curious decision at that price point to use V lock batteries. I know Dracast do their own V locks so they'll be happy to sell you some to use with it but they're more than the price of the light itself. A cheap light for a pro if you've got v locks kicking about already but not having it use NPFs makes it less so for everyone else? Has anyone tried one of these NPF to V lock adapters? The no name ones I've seen on Amazon seem to be supplied with a suspiciously large number of spare fuses!

I'd be interested to see them side by side to be honest. The versatility of the LS300 has had me wetting myself but I'll reserve judgement over the image quality for a while. Yeah, I think this is where they should be heading myself at least in the short term. There is a big hinterland between the SLR form factor cameras and the FS5 etc Thought it would be an area for BM to dominate but they seem to be leaving it alone and going after the £5K+ area. Who knows, there might be a very good reason for that in that people like the idea of a production style GH5 but don't actually like the idea of buying one in the end!

I'd see it more as a refresh of the DVX-200 internally with the lens removed so they could get it into a price range closer to £3K than the £5K of the FS5. Might be easier for them to own a market segment of their own and bring an existing user base who are invested in the mount up with them than try and slug it out with Sony in a market where they wouldn't have a price advantage? An integral speedbooster would be the way to arrive at an attractive compromise if they could pull it off

It seems the quickest, easiest and probably lucrative thing riding the crest of the GH5 buzz would be to swap out the GH4 sensor from the DVX-200 for the GH5 one and take the lens off it. And not paint it red this time. I picked up a used LS300 a couple of days ago and its a very compelling package with the combination of sensor size, the versatility of the mft mount and some smart stuff from JVC. I've had native mft lenses on it (which you can use way beyond the 82% scaled coverage that JVC recommend for mft by the way), PL cinema lens, long Nikon primes with and without speedbooster and small Contax primes which it can magically turn into par focal constant aperture zooms complete with a rocker switch! All with the convenience of built in NDs, physical switches, XLR's etc So it can go from stripped down shot grabber to cinema style to sports and wildlife broadcast camera and all points in between within a few seconds. That type of functionality with the goods on offer from the GH5 like IBIS and 10 bit and so on would be a pretty incredible camera and theres no reason it couldn't come in at the same price or less than the DVX-200. With all of that capability, would the sensor size be an absolute deal breaker?

You know, I didn't really want to get drawn into responding at length to this - hence my earlier self deprecating response - and I don't want to now either to be honest but I'm just going to say I'm a bit bewildered at such a withering put down at the suggestion of how separating the sensor and the processor and being able to modularise the rest of the interface and control to shape it to the function. Surely its better for the user to be able to use the same imaging unit stripped totally down for, say, a drone or gimbal and then built up again to shoot in a compact form for other shots and then even put in an SLR style body because you want to go and shoot some stills than to buy separate cameras? And for the manufacturer, why miss out entirely on a piece of the drone market because you don't make a specific camera for it when you could just repurpose your sensor? Anyway, I'll just leave this here .... http://www.newsshooter.com/2017/04/24/sony-umc-s3ca-block-camera-a7s-ii-sensor-in-an-even-tinier-package-nab-2017/ Sony eh? Clueless pricks.

Funky, as in do bears funky in the woods. I always reserve judgment when I read reviews from people that say the EVF on x,y or z camera is terrible until I've tried it myself as I don't usually find them as bad as people make them out to be, relative to budget expectation anyway. I won't be doing that again after the LS300! I thought my eyes were broken.

Yes, there is this one called VideoLut It has an iPhone version https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/video-lut-colorgrade-video-editor/id1082340556?mt=8 And an iPad version https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/video-lut-color-grading/id1170270352?mt=8 It has a bunch of presets and you can import additional ones of your own. The LumaFusion app is quite neat for editing as its allows a bit more picture control than iMovie. https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/lumafusion-pro-video-editing-and-effects/id1062022008?mt=8 Whats good about iMovie though is that it does have a route into finishing your projects on FCPX (and by extension Resolve via XML) as it can use the desktop version of iMovie to act as a bridge between the two. Why they don't just let you put it straight into FCXP I don't know but the path exists albeit slightly convoluted if you need it.

I can't test this out with any real movement at the moment as its pissing down outside and much as I like to contribute, I'm not going to get soaking in the process! Anyway, here are a couple of stills I've just done using the 10-24 and for a comparison a speed booster Nikon 14-24 f2.8. That particular Nikon is one of their so called holy trinity that even has a big following amongst Canon landscape shooters so whilst its interesting to see how the Fuji compares to it at about half its price, this test at close distance and reasonably wide aperture (f5) is not in the 14-24mm's comfort zone (particularly as its on a cheap speedbooster) so ignore the soft edges as its within expectation under these conditions. It is purely there as a demonstration of a non corrected lens to show you how the native Fuji lens is being corrected. Here are the links to the original files. Fuji 10-24 https://mega.nz/#!lnZxkDKA!K_enymlxtptOM9oHg8NAHR-ZalNjpK-U8UZ53WlEr90 Nikon 14-24 https://mega.nz/#!Fm5QAbzZ!PXOFWjOpC6mKM6jDVMC_MPPGls904qqRCe3VGaJrPnw There is also a very short 4K video file of the 10-24 so you can see the correction being applied in video (and the crop factor for those interested in what happens to the X-T2 in 4K). The dip and correction in the first few seconds is a genuine physical movement as I had the camera on the work surface and was stabilising it with downward pressure and moved it slightly. As you can see, this is completely distinct from the behaviours shown in the other videos. Fuji 10-24 4K https://mega.nz/#!ZqBkAJSa!Cif-oIkckiplwdMX4IBe-w5vyncuXIbl48G5ldR-HWc Everything is straight out of the camera on the standard profile, manual focus and no OIS.

That bundle that I suspected JVC might do with the Atomos Ninja Inferno they are now doing. It's $1000 instant rebate and $150 credit against accessories. So it's $3500 for the whole thing but it's a few weeks wait for the 4k60p upgrade. I see no reason why they won't bring the same offer to Europe as they seem intent on the LS300 having a new lease of life. Or an actual lease of life considering how low key it's been thus far!

If you want a cheap and cheerful simple solution for a fixed shot, maybe this headrest mount might do the trick? Its adjustable so you should be able to position it tight enough to the passengers side. https://www.cameragrip.com/hague-chm-camera-headrest-mount-for-cars/

These seem about the cheapest http://www.biwin.co.uk As an alternative, though not strictly a cheaper card, but certainly an way to have cheaper media is to have a cfast to SSD adapter. There are commercial ones but plenty go down the DIY route. Here is some info about how to build one for £100 which will then let you pay less than half the price for a 256gig for example than even the cheaper cfast cards http://tomantosfilms.com/13682/cfast-ssd-adapter/ I suppose it depends on how much media you will be going through in a single day before you can offload as to whether the cost saving (which obviously only gets bigger when you add multiple SSDs) and the form factor are worth it. If you only need one 256gig card then it doesn't seem worth it. One thing to bear in mind though is if you do find yourself in an urgent need of additional media, you can find electronics shops in even most small towns that you can get SSDs from which definitely isn't the case with cfast cards! I'd be inclined to buy the £200 card from biwin and make the adapter as well. For £300 you're covered both ways then and even adding a 256gig SSD you'll still be quite a bit up on the deal compared to the larger branded media.