BTM_Pix

It comes in over wifi and 3C and the Nucleus Nano talk to the camera over BLE. There's nothing particularly elaborate going on currently as I'm just splitting their app and scaling the UI of mine to make it work. Its a bit clunkier than I would like to initially setup but works perfectly once it is. The question is whether its worth doing the extra work to do a single app that properly integrates their feed. My current view is that it might not be as it might well work well enough for most people as is (plus I've got a fair bit on at the moment) but I'm going to study it a bit closer. If nothing else I'll just go with a startup option on 3C to put it in reduced UI mode and a tutorial on how to set everything up so people who've got a Cineye can benefit from it if they want. As I say, in the way I have it set up in the initial post with the Nucleus Nano wheel its a very nice little setup.

Yep, this uses the Cineye. Its the simultaneous aspect of it being on the same screen without switching thats the difference. All to do with scaling the interface to enable it which is a bit more work and maybe even hosting the stream directly. Ultimately, its whether people are prepared to pay the £200 for the Cineye that I'm trying to establish. In some respects I've got no dog in the fight as I won't be making any money from the hardware so its more a question of whether its something worth including as a service option within the app.

Yep, I think this is the nub of the issue. Whether its simply a wanted/wished for feature versus what sort of numbers of users of this particular camera have enough of a pressing practical need for it that they'd invest in a solution.

So, I've been kicking this around for a while and have now found some hardware that I think is worth pursuing it with in terms of quality and more importantly latency. Tying it into the 3C app with its new Title Nucleus Nano integration, we have this. With this setup you can have all the usual 3C stuff of focus control, full parameter control, setup memories etc with the focus wheel and low latency live view from the camera. What I'm evaluating is whether it is worthwhile me dedicating more time to in terms of progressing it as whilst its fully operational right now its a bit clunky to setup. The question I have really is that whilst I hear a lot about people wishing the Pocket4K had remote live view capability, what is the reality in terms of how many of you would actually use it and more importantly how much people are actually prepared to pay to add this functionality on to their cameras ?

No, as impatient as I am to get one, I'm going to Japan in February and the price differential (FP with 40mm is £2400 in the UK vs £1500 in Japan) is just way too stark for me to not wait for a couple of months. Plus, in the intervening period there is enough time for a few used ones to show up there which will mean another chunk of money off and also enough time for some of the rough edges to be knocked off the early firmware.

The Viltrox only has the issue with the BM cameras so isn't an issue on other MFT cameras. Panasonic don't make it easy to do this kind of integration because it doesn't allow for a lens to be sent to a specific position. It only allows for two different offsets (+/- 1 step and +/- 10 steps) so requires a different approach entirely to keep everything tracked accurately. However, I have already written stuff to do that so it is possible to port it into a standalone app if there is enough interest. I've made some hardware changes to the little controller (bigger screen,much bigger battery capacity) so its slipped due to that but also due to incorporating the Nucleus Nano functionality into that as well. In point of fact, the Nano support was done in the controller first and then ported into the 3C app Just getting final case design done to accomodate the hardware changes and it will be available for pre-order in a few weeks.

Does the Production 4K not potentially represent a sweet spot for what you're after? EF, Super35, ProRes, Global Shutter, cheap media and the majority of the stuff I've seen shot with it properly looks pretty compelling. Odd but not insurmountable ergonomics. The price the two systems change hands for used now means you might even make a small profit swapping out the Micro for one or at least break even.

I think the new version of the Gnarbox might have some potential to do a sort of variation of this, albeit it as a background/post shoot task rather than strictly in realtime. It can act as a USB drive and can also transcode so potentially could be used as the recording medium and then automatically transcode the files as a batch operation. Currently it doesn't have the transcode formats (I think it only has 720p mp4 proxy and ProRes 4:2:2 options at the moment) but I don't see a technical reason why they couldn't incorporate more if there was enough demand for it. As I say, it wouldn't be realtime (or anything like realtime) but at least would give an automated option for it to be ready for when you want to start editing.

Some shameless pimping for v1.4 of 3C in case you missed it in the other thread. Added support for using Tilta Nucleus Nano focus wheel to control native and EF adapted lenses without requiring gear rings/focus motor/power. Ideal for gimbals or just to keep the overall package form down.

Yep, just need to sort out the overheating issues.

Unfortunately, the support for firing a still is not included in their protocol so its a hardware only function. This is a Bluetooth controlled physical switch presser that I'm sure I could persuade to do it though

I've mentioned this on here before but you might want to look at Digital Film Tools DFT product. It actually incorporates the original Tiffen Dfx suite that simulated all of Tiffen's optical filters. DFT also adds a lot more on top of that in terms of corrections, film simulations and lighting. At $595 its not particularly cheap but spread that cost across what it can do for multiple lenses, time saved in making your own corrections and saved cost in not buying more and more lenses to chase looks ( ) then its actually pretty reasonable. There is a 15 day fully functional trial available too so even if you just use that to audition the Tiffen filter looks to make sure you get an approximation of the right strength/combination for the look you're after it would potentially be time well spent. https://www.digitalfilmtools.com/dft/

Unless Viltrox have changed their firmware, then they don't support focus control so you need a Metabones. I must admit that I don't know why Viltrox haven't done it yet as Metabones were not compatible initially but solved it with a firmware update a fairly long time ago now. With regard to connection time, the whole process of scanning and connecting both devices is between 8 and 12 seconds depending on environment (there is a filter function if you are in densely bluetooth crowded areas). This is all done on the start screen of the app so you don't have to go into Settings on the phone or the camera. Because the app is constantly communicating with the camera to monitor changes you make on the camera, there is a watchdog that detects when the camera switches off so you can leave the app running in your pocket and it will just drop you back to the re-scan page when you are ready to turn the camera on again without exiting and re-starting the app. Buy the app I have to say that I'm very impressed with it outside of what I'm using it for here as well. The only slight bugbear really is the powering of the motor. Its great that its USB so you can use little power packs but they are awkward to mount and the dual 18650 battery pack holder that Tilta do for it is not far off a quarter of the price of the whole kit and doesn't include the batteries !

The ToF autofocus adapter is still in early stage development but we anticipate it being available in early 2020. But without giving too much away, it might be in a somewhat different form.............

Thank you, that's very kind of you to say.

Well, as those of you who are existing users of 3C will know, the new update rolled out last week and you now have support for wireless focus control of your native and EF adapted lenses using the Nucleus Nano focus wheel. As we have a couple of other things to include shortly that will make up a bigger v2 update, this new update is now called v1.4. 3C is available to buy from the Google Play Store here https://tinyurl.com/3CbyCDATEK And here is a little video of it in action.

They are pretty good (particularly the 23mm and 11-23mm) but ridiculously expensive. I have the 18-56mm and even as a used "bargain" it was the better part of £700. £700 for a used f/3.5–5.6 zoom lens. Its a good f/3.5–5.6 zoom lens of course but even so. Sigma have their own APS-C L mounts on the way so I'd definitely hang on to have a look at those before committing. If you are looking for small then I'd recommend going down the M mount route with an adapter as you'll get full frame coverage, fast apertures and very decent prices with the 3rd party brands like Voigtlander and 7Artisans. Manual focus of course but looking at the AF performance on those Benny Hill reboot videos posted further up the thread its not that much of a loss to me

Yes, the html file attached to the post below should let you know whether it will take the HLG colour profile.

If you want to have a headphone monitor on the way in and get the bonus of an XLR input and phantom power then this pre-amp will do the job for £35. If you want to monitor it post input then there are plenty of Micro HDMI to VGA adapters that extract the audio output that can be used to give you a basic headphone output for under £10 on Amazon.

I think using right angle HDMI and USB-C connectors and channeling them upwards would alleviate any concerns I'd have about it but its early days yet anyway so no doubt cages with clamps will be along before long. Also, if you are only recording internally, then as the live streaming video above shows, the FP is a UVC compliant device so you will be able to plug it into your phone and use that as a monitor with any number of UVC apps.

Were they the Pixco ones ? As I intend to buy a few of them, I'm wondering whether I just got a good one as I had no problem mounting a load of different lenses as well as all the adapters ! Yeah, as I said in the original post, using the native electronic ones is completely futile but as a way of getting manual lenses like the Meike's to double up for MFT and E mount APS-C these ones are a good proposition for me. I can't find a PL to E mount adapter less than £160 so being able to re-purpose my PL to MFT adapter for roughly a tenth of that price is a big win for me

The FX cameras do have an APS-C crop mode in video so it is workable on those. I'm guessing the Z50 would get more attention if it had the "one day soon, absolutely certainly definitely soon probably" ProResRAW option. Based on their non-delivery of it for the Z6, they might as well have said it had it too

Yeah thats what set me off on this as it didn't seem to be all the lenses in the set and it also would have tied me in to E mount without a user swappable mount to MFT. To be honest, even a user swappable mount would be more hassle than this mount adapter particularly as my rather clumsy mechanical skills would no doubt lead me to break something in the process

Thought about doing it? Nope, me neither. Except.....I've been thinking quite a lot about the Meike cine primes over the past couple of weeks and the slight sticking point of them being tied into the MFT lens mount cameras. Its not a massive deal breaker particularly as there are no shortage of great options to mount them on but as someone who also owns a couple of E mount cameras, it would be nice to have the versatility of being able to use them on those too, albeit it in APS-C mode. The Veydras, which the Meike lenses are "closely associated" with, did have an E mount option IIRC but the new ones don't. Which got me thinking about whether, as there is some flange distance to play with, there was an MFT to E mount adapter available and it turns out that there is one made by Pixco so £18 later, I now have it and here it is. As there isn't a massive amount of flange distance to play with (1.25mm) then the adapter is understandably quite thin yet doesn't particularly feel flimsy but I did find that when changing lenses its better to dismount the lens with the adapter attached and then re-attach it to the next lens as its a bit fiddly to lift the locking pin release on the adapter. Now the first thing to say is, other than to just try that it works, there is absolutely no point in mounting an electronic MFT lens such as this. You will have absolutely no control of the aperture, focus and in most cases the lens will not fill the sensor. So, absolutely pointless and probably explains why there is no particularly buoyant market in making these adapters Of course, for our purposes, of mounting manual only MFT lenses to it then it works perfectly. That doesn't just go for the Meike lenses but of course for any manual lens such as Voigtlander, Samyang, 7Artisans etc. Its worth checking but most of these lenses are usually originally made for APS-C so even in MFT mount they will have enough coverage. Where things get really interesting for me though, and I suspect for people with both MFT and E mount systems is being able to re-utilise existing MFT adapters. For me, these range from an obvious one such as PL... To being able to use my Nikon F/G to MFT speed booster which with its integral aperture lever control is so much more usable than having to use a Canon version with a thin F adapter on it and the fiddly aperture lever. Next up is being able to mount the Vizelex Lens Throttle Variable ND adapter to make a compact fast swappable full frame system with vintage primes. Last but not least is being able to use Aputure DEC Lens Regain on the A6500 to speedboost Canon lenses and have electronic follow focus control. OK, so most of these things can be done with dedicated E mount versions of these adapters but the biggest issue is the additional cost of buying them all again if you run both systems. That £18 adapter (which I had no idea existed ) has saved well over £1000 in additional adapters for the E mount cameras. Using my warped justification logic, that means I am now legally entitled to buy two of the Meike primes as I will still be £250 up on the deal Seriously though, for anyone who is moving from an MFT to E mount system or who has E mount cameras and never had MFT but wants to take advantage of the usually less expensive and more widely available MFT versions of adapters available used then its definitely worth splashing out the £18 for one of these. Ditto for anyone who has a Z mount system as Pixco also make an MFT to Z mount adapter with which you can do the same tricks.

Which is why all roads should lead to Meike for you and your GH5 When the additional focal lengths are released shortly the entire 6 lens set will be available for less than £2500, which is a seriously good deal based on their "similarity" to Veydras. The bigger investment for you though if you went that route would be in adapting to the practicalities of using them, predominantly in terms of using some sort of follow focus. On the upside, with a matched cine set having commonality in terms of focus gear placement, filter thread size means swapping lenses is simpler than when using a disparate bunch of stills lenses. I'd actually say that in terms of adding bulk and conspicuousness to your shooting rig, the Tilta Nucleus Nano wireless follow focus is neither here nor there compared to a small shotgun mic with a furry on it and the difference it will make to your focusing control is well worth it. Of course investing in the Meike's would tie you in to sticking with MFT mount cameras but with BM and Z Cam offering more pure cinema paths should you want a different alternative to your GH5 then its not a particularly bad cul de sac. Well, I say it keeps you tied in to MFT mount cameras but I'll put up a thread later on that actually disproves that