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Everything posted by BTM_Pix
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Yeah, they have a decent 3rd party dual one on their site but don't have it in stock in any of their stores. I found one in a drawer before I left home this morning so put a 970 on it but its a USB powered one that I have for topping up a bit in the car etc so it takes a while to fully charge one. 11 hours in this case!
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Thanks to the morse code speed of my internet here it will be file in the singular. And even then, the X-T3 might be released before it finishes uploading it.
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All credit to PhotoJospeh for trying to move on from getting bogged down in the whole face detect auto focus thing with his new video about how to set up an in car vlogging rig. Complete with the camera having difficulty focusing on his stationary face....
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I wouldn't say that easily as they were already looking suspicious at the apparently randomly placed camera on the table pointing in their general direction without me pointing lights at them
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I've got it as a way to upgrade all of my cameras to have ProRes and better monitoring and metering and to be able to record 4K60P from the JVC LS300. Being able to monitor in bright light is also a boon where I'm based in Spain. The ability to record FLOG was always only going to be a bonus. So, for me, its going to see action in a lot of different capacities and environments where the size isn't going to be a major factor as it'll be mainly in slower paced and more contained environments. The screen size will actually be a positive advantage in some applications. But, yeah, if I had to use it as an everyday run and gun solution with the X-T2 then it would be a pain in the arse because it ends up being a bit like this.
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I will actually get round to uploading the prores file if I've got some time tonight.
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Yeah, I'm in the Murcia region and its slim pickings here too but I have to go to Alicante tomorrow so thought I might have some luck. Mind you, I could stay around for the other stuff you mentioned there!
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For what its worth - and your mileage may vary considerably - my own view of this is that considering how much fiddling it takes for me to get the FLOG to a base point of the ProNegStd and the diminishing returns thereafter that aside from situations like the deliberate extremes of DR of the couple eating dinner I'm not convinced its a game changer for me really. Certainly not significant enough to put down the extra cash for the Ninja Inferno or similar. Fortunately, the FLOG was only going to be a bonus for me with this as its the edit ready ProRes and superb monitoring and metering that it gives to ALL of my cameras that is the big story here for me with the Ninja Inferno.
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No, I think that you're pretty much spot on and its a conclusion I've been coming to myself recently. I've just done a side by side comparison with log on the Fuji X-T2 and one of their inbuilt colour profiles and with a lot of fiddling I can get the log to look, erm, exactly like the inbuilt profile. Which shows that Fuji know far more about this stuff than I do and that I should just stick with considering their sensor to be a film stock and working with it instead of around it. Its a damn sight quicker and less render intensive too. As a complete aside, you don't by any chance know where I could source a charger for Sony NP970 type batteries in Alicante do you?
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So.....FLOG then. I've done a very brief, not exactly creative test recording FLOG to the Atomos Ninja Inferno. First things first, the Ninja Inferno is a fine piece of kit but it isn't all plain sailing when its paired to the X-T2. One glaring issue is that it can't lock to the 1080/24p coming from the X-T2 and just blanks the screen every half a second. All other sizes and frame rates are fine and the issue definitely appears to be coming from the X-T2 side as a quick test with a BMPCC showed no issue at all. Another issue which caused me some head scratching until I worked it out was that if you have the eye sensor on then it blanks the HDMI output when it switches over. This looked like another blanking issue or dodgy cable until I realised what was happening. Surely no one at Fuji thought that was a good idea? Switching it off and leaving it on rear or EVF solved the issue so I'll have to remember that when switching to video recording as the eye sensor ON is of course my default for stills use. The final thing was that the Fuji FLOG monitoring LUT on the Ninja Inferno actually shows less detail when active than just leaving it in REC709 so they both need to do some work on that. Or maybe I do and download the LUT that Fuji have on their website for editing with to see if that makes a difference. I'll do a separate report for the Ninja Inferno when I've used it with a few more cameras but for now, lets crack on with this FLOG thing. Activating FLOG switches the ISO of the X-T2 to 800. So if you have the ISO on the dial set to less than 800 then it will ignore it and you won't see any changes until you move the dial beyond 800. This explains the couple of stops difference on the meter when switching to FLOG when I was just looking at it on the monitor as the even though the ISO dial was on 200. To keep the test consistent then, I've set the ISO to 800 for both FLOG and non FLOG shots. The comparison is to show the difference between FLOG and using what has become the defacto setting for flattish recording on the X-T2 which is ProNegStd with -2 highlights and -2 shadows. The shots were exposed using the (excellent) luma parade function of the Ninja Inferno so that the brightest part of the image was just kissing 100. Apologies for the not exactly inspiring nature of the shots but hopefully the nature of them means you can get a feel for what sort of DR you can expect when using FLOG. These frames are completely untouched out of FCPX (no FLOG>709 LUT) so that you can shape them yourselves to make your own judgement. If you want to use the official Fuji LUT it is available here http://www.fujifilm.com/support/digital_cameras/software/lut/
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I've just got the Atomos Ninja Inferno as the first part of the equation before I got the LS300 to go with it but I was holding out until after NAB to be certain. I suspect with the recently announced updates for the LS300 that it will very much remain a current camera and that this new one will sit above it in the range so might not be for me anyway. If it creates enough buzz though it might give the LS300 a shot in the arm as well to create awareness that JVC is a viable alternative to the usual suspects if you need something flexible.
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Things we'd like to see in a future GH5 firmware upgrade
BTM_Pix replied to tomsemiterrific's topic in Cameras
Option to write IBIS data into the video file (or one channel of the audio file) a la SteadXP to enable shooting without it and doing it in post with more control using a Panasonic plug in that they also don't make yet. They should all do this to be honest. -
I did say 'studiously' to be fair. I was acknowledging that the kids with the dslrs are being a lot more thoughtful but I'm doubting over the longer term (which is a very short term in modern terms) whether the way in which the images are consumed and how those images are now so closely aligned with people's 'brand' and often sense of worth will see ordinary cameras largely disappear if it can't hit that functionality. Consumer's photographic workflows with smartphones mimic a live editorial press photographer's workflow (and actually surpass it in both speed of delivery and distribution) and I think that speaks volumes about where photography is in people's lives. Its a bit of a chicken and egg as to which one drove the other but whichever way round it was, its the new reality and its tough to fit 'normal' cameras into that. And thats not necessarily a bad thing of course but it does mean that photography is heading back to the tinkering in the shed and borderline trainspotting hobby it had become before the digital boom Within their market - and they do know their market - it will do well because it will be a fine camera. How long that market is there and how big it is compared to what it was and what the potential is to bring new people in to it is another matter I think. How many dollars of market research Nikon need to spend on incremental upgrades that are largely preaching to the choir is an interesting issue I suppose. It might well be that that market research has told them to stick with what they know, reduce costs and increase margins on a shrinking sector. I dunno, I use their stuff and have for nearly 40 years. We've grown old together. And thats probably a problem for both of us.
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I agree with this, wholeheartedly. For most people, cameras are beginning to get in the way. This is the journey of an image that I take for work from it happening to a member of the public seeing it CLICK >Pick the best image from the burst >Lock the image to initiate the wireless transfer into the laptop >Ingest the image into the editor automatically adding basic caption data about event. >Edit the image >Complete caption data listing the names of everyone that is in the picture and what is happening. >Export the image >FTP it to the agency server >Agency server distributes to publications based on embedded caption data (i.e. different territories, sports etc) >Publication picture desk receives images, picks the ones for usage, scales and re-captions and pushes to website or print >Consumer then has to actively seek out that content (visit the newspaper website or newsagents) Now, all of that happens at the fastest speed that all of the parties involved can manage (me, the agency and the media outlet) and compared to the days of film and even five years ago it is like science fiction magic but consider the journey of a picture that a kid sat behind me in the stand has to take to reach his audience. CLICK >Write ‘Goal!!!’ >Hit send. >His consumers get it instantly and automatically because its straight in their feeds. It’s a strange contradiction that a professional workflow is so much more cumbersome, slow and - as modern as it is compared to relatively recent times - feels so much more antiquated than the consumer one. Is this kid’s image ‘better’ than mine? Of course not (well, hopefully anyway!) but in terms of how people now consume media then it is arguably far more fit for purpose. Its a very transient world now for content. Very, very few images have any sort of longevity now so unless an image is unique (difficult these days when everyone has a camera of sorts in their pocket) or destined to be utterly iconic it is going to be swimming in such a sea of other content then just getting it out there faster trumps most other considerations sadly. This is why newspapers are sending out junior reporters with iPhones to cover stories. It means they can keep costs down, the quality is adequate based on the criteria above and it feels like the most natural thing in the world to the reporter because they’ve grown up with instant publishing. For video, all of the factors above are multiplied a hundred fold and the end to end process of getting a moving image from the lens to your audience using a professional workflow are almost laughable to a generation that need to get their content out while its still warm. Even just capturing video and then pushing it onto a social media site is too slow a lot of the time and they’re now broadcasting it on there live. If you are in a tourist heavy area like London for example, and you see a party of teenagers on a school trip or whatever, you’ll see maybe one in ten of them have a small dslr. You might also notice that it is generally girls that have the dslrs rather than boys oddly enough. The ones with the dslrs will be studiously taking the odd shot that you just know will be ‘arty’ but it is of objects and general scenery but not of people . Meanwhile the rest of them are snapping away taking pics of themselves, their friends and the general stuff too but you can see that they look at the back of the phone, make a quick few taps and boom its on its way and already published before the dslr girl has took her lens cap off. And the story will be the same for her as it is for the professional photographer in that her stuff will have more value in one currency which is creative and technical but nowhere near the same value in the most valuable currency of the day which is speed. With people measuring themselves and what they do based on the number of likes something gets then if the dslr girl is getting fewer of those because the ’news cycle’ of these kids trip has moved on by the time she gets her images processed and out there then she’ll end up ditching the dslr as its getting in the way of that. The old adage of the only technique you needed to master for documentary photography was ‘f8 and be there’ has now been replaced with ‘4G and be there’. Nikon and the other manufacturers needed to rethink the interface to get the camera out of the way and they had the opportunity to do that a few years ago when photography began a real resurgence but I think that ship has sailed and the smartphone is now too ubiquitous. The iPhone etc can and have improved their photographic offering to the point where the extra quality difference is utterly trumped by the convenience and ‘real’ cameras will be back to where they were pre-DSLR as an enthusiast product. Its difficult to think now with the boom in photography all around us that even 10 or 15 years ago it was largely a dying hobby kept alive by gentlemen and ladies of a certain age. I think its heading back there too. As for the D7500 itself…. I use the D500 professionally on a daily basis. Its a fine camera and if you can get that performance for £600 less or whatever it is then you’ll be getting a bargain. I wouldn’t be too sure about people not using this professionally either. 8fps is more than adequate and the dual card slot thing is a bit of a red herring as speed dictates in what I do at least that whilst RAW on one card and JPEG on another might be a way of working, its JPEG all the way anyway. Dual slots were useful as overflow when card capacity was measured in meg rather than gig but we're way beyond that now. And the cards themselves are plenty fast enough to be writing RAW+JPEG if you have that need. The buffer is more than adequate as well to be honest and wouldn’t put me off. At 8fps, it amounts to a 12 second burst or something. If you need more than that to get the shot then its probably a video camera you need rather than a stills one. It does seem to have weather sealing as well and in terms of its robustness, my experience with Nikon over many years now is that its the lens mount that is the achilles heel rather than the rest of the body and that problem goes from the flagships down so it wouldn’t worry me too much. Would you use it as your A camera as a pro sports or journalistic photographer? No because you’ll already have one of the flagships if you’re working at that level. Could you use it as your A camera if you needed to? Based on the IQ of the D500 then absolutely yes. And as a lightweight supplementary or backup camera, its ideal. I still see a lot of D7xxx cameras being used by pros which were bought in that post D300 period when Nikon didn’t have a new pro APS-C body. For those that haven’t subsequently moved on to the D500 (and with shrinking budgets not everyone could), I can see them buying these. It’ll do OK.
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I wouldn't say this is anywhere near a definitive test (there seems to be a lot in the comments about how the FS5 could have been pushed further for example) but in and of itself the result from the LS300 is certainly very interesting here.
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If I ever remember the rationale for this I'll pop back into this thread and update it. For now, all I've come up with was it being related to heavy medication.
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If only you had a DeLorean that could hit 88mph and could get back to 2015 with this sage wisdom about unknown future products and save me from buying it....
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I think I must've meant 18-200 So we can downgrade that to merely massive and very very expensive! I did actually have some rational basis for how that could be achieved but I'm fucked if I can remember what it is now.
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I have the MS-1. The best thing about it is that its just about heavy enough to really give yourself an effective enough beating around the head to punish yourself for buying such a piece of shit without actually killing yourself. So, it's very well balanced. Unlike any camera that I've ever tried putting on it.
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I've ordered the Ninja Inferno. Expect some flog to be making an appearance here soon...
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Compact camera for vacation photography and video
BTM_Pix replied to Fábio Pinto's topic in Cameras
Pretty much sums up what I do myself on a holiday to be fair -
Compact camera for vacation photography and video
BTM_Pix replied to Fábio Pinto's topic in Cameras
Its funny, Canon get a lot of flack for drip feeding features or crippling them for various ends but Panasonic are just as bad in this particular sector of the market. I have the LX100, the GX80 and the G7 and between them they've got all the features that I want for a small travel camera but none of them have got it all. LX100 - Big plus point is the lens. 1.7 at the wide end, 2.8 at the long end and used sparingly the digital extender gives it a good overall range. But no articulating screen at all, no cinelike D and worst of all no mic input. GX80 - IBIS is brilliant, the collapsible kit lens is better than you'd think if you only want a small footprint, that auto function to do simulated slider moves is very useful and of course access to a billion lenses. But the screen has limited movement, no cinelike D and, yes, worst of all no mic input. G7 - At last, a mic input and cinelike d !! Plus a fully articulating screen which is incredibly useful for travel and especially vlogging. But no IBIS and the form factor just looks like a small dslr so it doesn't fit in your pocket but also isn't very discreet. No one cares if they see you snatching a few shots with the a pocket compact but they do if they think its a dslr. I'm going on a trip tomorrow where I want to record some vlogging type stuff and I've been torturing myself about which compromise to make. I used the G7 a couple of weeks ago for it and that was OK but the IBIS and the discretion/size thing will rule it out. I thought it might be the LX100 that made it but again the IBIS issue was a flaw and much as I like the built in lens, I'm going to have a need for the 45mm 1.8 and that rules it out. So the compromise is the GX80 with the collapsible kit lens, the 20mm 1.7 and 45mm 1.8 for lower light and better reach. I'm going to have to use an iPhone to compensate for the screen not fully articulating (which is OK because it does offer other advantages) and a little zoom H1 for recording audio and hope that I remember to hit record on both! As a result, I'm now going to have to carry far more than I wanted and jump through more hoops than I wanted because I've got the audacity to want to record a bit of audio to go with my pictures. Years ago someone would have cracked open the case of an LX100 or GX80 and be offering a mod to put a mic input on them but now we just settle for waiting for the next instalment of the drip feed from the manufacturers. I think I'm going to bite the bullet when I get back and chop them all in for a G80/85. Form factor isn't ideal but its got the other key features. I'll just have to get combat pants. Better the slight inconvenience to have decent audio and steady shots. -
I've only been looking at it today so have only had a limited amount of time to play. Workflow is to use camera settings as described in Andrew's guide, apply the LUT in your NLE (or through EditReady if you are transcoding first) then apply any shot correction as usual for exposure and balance and then add another LUT for a particular style if you like. I was only messing about doing some stuff of my niece and nephew at the beach so it was hardly a scientific test so take this with a grain of salt until everyone else chimes in. I was on auto white balance and did have the orange cast that @jase reports but went into the CC on FCPX and pulled the orange down by about 22% and that re-balanced it. The CrumplePop AutoWhiteBalance plug in that I'm evaluating at the moment also removed it in one click. Like I say, I'll reserve judgement until I test it properly but I got an end result that, for me, was significantly better than I've been able to create through manually setting profiles and correcting it myself and certainly a hell of a lot faster so again, for me, even if I had to build that 22% cut into a saved composite effect with the LUT so I can apply in one hit then the end would justify the means based on my very limited testing. But your mileage may well vary, especially if you are more skilled at colouring than I am. *And in general, most people that are less skilled than me probably have a guide dog to help them. Probably best check out the pinned thread for other's experiences who've tested it more extensively and critically than I have.
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Just my 2 cents but I'd be inclined to think that for the circa £1600 for the GH5, I'd be looking at spreading that money in different areas. I'd be thinking say a BM Video Assist 4K at £700 which will give your X-T2 a huge boost in terms of better monitoring and exposure tools, FLOG recording, unlimited recording, edit ready Pro Res etc. This will also add functionality to your other cameras as well, so its a big win all round. The other £900 would get you an X-T20 for vlogging and/or when you need a more compact X-T2 and/or being able to do two camera shoots with some change left over for a Zhongyi Lens Turbo to use some old Nikon or Canon glass. Or the £900 could be used to flesh out your lens collection with the excellent 10-24mm f4 or 14mm f2.8 with enough change left over, if you shop around, for the 1.4x convertor which will I've you extra reach with your 50-140 with more or less zero impact on IQ or AF. *Apologies for teaching you to suck eggs if you've already got the 1.4!! Or the £900 could be used for the Edelkrone Slider One and Motion module with enough change left over for more lights or audio gear, of which none of us can ever have enough! When you add any of those combos to what you've already got, I think they are going to yield more return in terms of what you want to get to the screen than a camera body alone, especially as you've already got the Zhiyun Crane to soften the lack of IBIS pain. Have a look and see if you can live with some of the functional compromises the X-T20 has versus the X-T2 as you are getting the IQ with enough change left over to get a couple of the f2 primes. The touch focus of the X-T20 might be something that might interest you as its slowish performance in terms of transition can produce a nice looking pull ! It might well be that there are too many compromises (FLOG being one, although thats going to cost you a LOT more to utilise on the X-T2 anyway) but its worth considering if you can live with them.