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@Video Hummus I agree and it just depends on what your processes are. To me, the ideal setup is about being able to get from the equipment being stored properly to hitting record in the shortest possible time. To this end, I keep my GH5 in its drawer, fully charged, with cards downloaded and in the camera, with the 17.5mm lens on it. This means that if "omg - come quickly!" happens, I can just grab the camera and run through the house to see (and possibly record) whatever is going on. If I had a deeper drawer I'd keep the mic on it too, but alas..

Wow, those Zeiss m42 lenses aren't that expensive... you look at the other types and the prices are all in the "WTF... they're having a go surely" category! You could do far worse than an S1(h) and a set of those.

This video is especially interesting - it's Peter McKinnon basically explaining how he would lay out a smaller studio for Chris Hau who just moved into his first studio. It's really practical and is surprisingly specific and mentions things to mount lighting or cameras to the ceiling, how to put up curtains / blankets to keep sight-lines clear and for Chris and his SO to be able to both be able to film at the same time and not get in each others way, as well as other practical things like a bench for people to come into the space and take their shoes off, where art might be great to hang, etc.

Write it up in your native language and we can put it through google translate? Language isn't the barrier it used to be and shouldn't get in the way of talking about what matters.

Yeah, AF isn't the strong suit, and I agree about the focusing - I MF and the focus peaking is pretty average. I worked out that the peaking is calculated on the display resolution and not the source resolution, so if you have fine detail that is in focus but the display resolution is too low for that detail then it gets smoothed out in the downscale and therefore doesn't show in the peaking. I've had situations where the talent was in focus but the peaking highlighted high contrast areas in the background and didn't highlight the talent at all - completely misleading.

Good write-up, thanks I'm on the GH5 and have wanted to buy an 85mm for a long time as there are a couple of them that are glorious, but the focal length is very much a 'only in a few situations' kind of lens, so I can't justify it. I was looking at the Sigma and also an old Jupiter-9. Yeah, tough call. Having a zoom is a really flexible option and it's also a backup of every other lens in your kit, so if tragedy strikes then you're not short a focal length. My favourite lens is a FF equivalent of 35mm f2 and it's great for the environmental portrait where you want to see the person and also the occasion and location. If my setup was half the size and half the price then I'd be tempted to carry a second setup like you do, and have played with things like that before too. Two Fuji XT-4s with those primes would be a pretty hard setup to beat, Fujis have a great reputation and the images are just lovely. It sounds like a pretty good recipe for happy days!

Yeah, me too. What lenses? I'm starting to notice a correlation between how many lenses people say they need and how much they actually shoot, with the active shooters needing less lenses, not more.

Hooray for things getting out of hand and being as useful as possible!

@BrunoCH looks pretty good to me! Why is the boom operator in your short? Maybe @IronFilm can be a movie star after all!!

Of course... I knew I was doing something wrong! Here, this is how to do it.....

Oh, I don't know... the people who are wasting their life watching TV and movies are the ones (indirectly) paying your salary. I wouldn't be too critical of their life choices!!! Besides, if we only compare the number of people whose devotion to computer games is about computer games themselves, rather than the number of people whose devotion really lies to avoiding the rest of their life, or devoted to hanging out with their friends, or addicted to the thrill of crushing their opponents, or to getting stoned and amusing themselves, (etc etc..) then that ratio would be quite different. Some people got where they are by running towards it, and some got there by running away from something else. You can't sensibly expect jobs for everyone who got somewhere because that was the least worst option they found, so I'd automatically eliminate them from consideration.

The camera is basically the LAST thing you should upgrade. First: Lighting - get some basic lights and learn how to use them Set design - get some much crazier lights and learn about set design - music videos go all out on this so don't hold back Composition - learn about framing, camera angles, camera movement Directing - learn how to work with talent to get the best performances from them - writing and even performing music are very different to knowing how to look good in an extreme close-up Business - making a good film isn't the same thing as making money Yourself.... learn about colour theory, learn how to edit ('cut on the beat' is one style - learn 15 other styles), learn to colour grade, learn about in-camera special effects and only then start to think about camera equipment... or, at least, don't think about spending more than a few hundred. A good way to be practical about it is to only use money you earned from shooting videos to invest in more equipment.

In a way yes, and in a way no. A close friend of mine from uni was computer game mad, and ended up switching from a Commerce degree to Computer Science in order to work in the gaming industry. He wrote his own platform game in his spare time (this was the late 90s so he was writing it from scratch - C and assembler) and used that plus his huge amount of hours playing games to get a job. Last I heard he was a gaming programmer for one of the huge gaming names (can't remember the name, but huge multinational). The idea that being obsessed with something for a long time leading to a career in that industry isn't a far off fantasy - you can get a career in anything if you're passionate enough and willing to persevere. Besides - the gaming industry is way larger than you might think, and you don't need to be technical either.

I currently run Resolve on a MBP and have upgraded to an eGPU. Computer is: 2.9 GHz Intel Core i5, with 16 GB ram eGPU is: SAPPHIRE AMD Radeon RX 470 4GB Resolve splits the processing between CPU and GPU and I think the biggest challenge is getting the balance between both of those. When I edit the 5K h265 files from the GH5 it can only play them back (with no processing) at around 15fps. It's way less without the eGPU connected, but when I'm getting that 15fps the GPU isn't maxed out, it's actually the CPU that is at capacity. The behaviour is similar for the 4K h264 files. I've spoken with BM support and they said that the AMD hardware decoding of the files is pretty new, and so much of the processing is done by the CPU and not the GPU. I was planning on upgrading to the new AMD Radeon 5700 but considering the 470 isn't the bottleneck in my system there isn't really much point AFAIK. Now, if I start applying lots of effects to the footage, lots of that processing happens in the GPU, but all the decoding and other bits will still happen in the CPU, so it's about what is the limitation in your own workflow. If you are grading the footage within an inch of its life with many effects then you will need more GPU and if not then it'll be more about CPU. and the PITA part is that Resolve works great with external GPUs, and gets better when you add additional ones too, but you can't add an external CPU, and that's my current bottleneck. I'd encourage you to think about this as a processing pipeline and you're looking to put your budget into the things that will be the bottleneck for your workflow. I'd suggest doing lots of reading and try to pull together the little snippets of info from forums and YT videos etc into a (hopefully) coherent picture so that you can make sure you get enough capacity for how you work and the software you use.

LOL, the autocomplete in my brain got me with that one. I mean.. how many Calebs do we need in camera reviewing?

Caleb Pike has hit "peak camera"... Me, not so much 😎😎😎

Can't stop watching this.... YT is an amazing place.... Imagine the brief for traditional media - "seedy-looking moustache-clad man makes a funk song and dancing in his apartment while naked except for a bright yellow dressing gown". Oh, hang on a minute, that's on the same level as basically every children's TV show. Nevermind.

Interesting technique I hadn't seen before....

35mm f1.8 FF from a Japanese lens maker...

Perhaps. Of course, drama and tech aren't exclusive, and drama drives views! Totally. If you are doing a makeup channel then you need good skin tones, so it has to be ARRI.

Yeah, that can happen. I think these instances were much more informed purchases and they knew what they were getting into. I was more thinking of the people that make the "I just spend $100k on a cinema camera!!" type posts. The main example I can think of is Jon Olssen, but I've seen others around the place. People that have heaps of money, ask themselves what the "best" or "most expensive" camera is and then they see the amazing specs and then want one, but find it's too heavy for the out-and-about content that typically they shoot themselves or only have a single person crew.

Yep... although the parallels with people buying Alexas to shoot home videos aren't there, because Alexas are big, heavy, and complicated. Cameras are a funny thing - I shoot family travel videos and the best camera for me to do that (even now) is the GH5... regardless of price. Ie, if I was infinitely rich then it is still the best camera I could buy. Even the super rich YT people that you see buying RED 8K cameras typically run-n-gun them for a bit but end up back to the GH5 or A7iii and the cine camera was never heard from again.

I remember being pretty impressed by the huge suit in this video.... Both how ridiculous it is, while also looking very natural Even when he dances in it..

A small insert on the power and charging setup The Outsider has to film his off-grid outdoor log cabin builds: Essentially he's got a solar panel, power station (battery / power management thingy) and an electric blanket to keep all the batteries warm. This type of setup is common for off-grid and #vanlife vehicle dwelling folks, normally minus the electric blanket.

Me too. In fact, when I bought the GH5, one of the things that made me choose it was that it removed the equipment as being a potential limitation on what I am able to create. Or, to put it another way, the GH5 is better than I am in every possible way, and I think may never put a limit on my ability to create. Now, I may buy new cameras in the future, (in fact, I will have news very soon) but I will never be buying a new camera because the GH5 is a limitation on my work that I want to progress beyond. I won't speak for other people, and certainly in Hollywood and the upper echelons of talent, the GH5 might be quite limiting to the artistic vision that others have. But for me, it's like buying a Porsche 4WD and only driving it up the street to the shops to buy milk.