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Nope, normally it's worse. We didn't get a single Public Safety Alert talking about air quality... in two weeks! Maybe because it was rainy season and humid as hell. August gets about a third of their annual rainfall. Maybe the Chinese farmers aren't burning off this time of year, who knows.

Last set of stills from Seoul. We took a walk through backstreets and alleyways down to the river, stumbling across a tiny neighbourhood railway crossing...

OG BMMCC + 12-35mm F2.8 lens + IR/UV filter + vND + monitor + wrist-strap and that's it. 🙂

Hongdae. Choosing stills is different than choosing shots for an edit because the movement really makes things completely different, so I've ended up with much cleaner and more minimal stills. In reality, every street and alleyway in every direction looked like this virtually as far as the eye could see:

Yeah, you need an OLPF like @Sven said, my Tiffen 1/8 BPM filter didn't get rid of it. The people I see online get the Rawlight ones, but they're expensive and fog up over time and need replacing. I see it on an occasional shot here or there, but if it ruins the odd shot for me it's no big deal so I haven't bothered.

Gangnam. It's all glitz and glam and occasionally quite disorganised telephone pole wiring, but it's no backstreets of Yongsan, which I'd take any day of the week over this.

Talk is about lens emulation, but it demonstrates the capabilities of the new Resolve 19 to mask the foreground and background in order to process with blurs etc. Both the Magic Mask and Depth Map plugins are used, which I think are both AI. Not perfect, but getting better with each release, and if used sparingly on the right shots then I think they're already usable.

Hmm, ok. It hasn't happened that many times and seems to be fixed with a restart, so I guess I'll just carry on. The whole thing of shooting slowly because it's fully manual seems to align with the idea that you miss things happening, so if a shot here or there requires a bit of fiddling then it's not a big deal really. Speaking of carrying on, went for a walk in the backstreets of Yongsan last night. I had to cheat another stop by going to 360 shutter as some places were seriously dark, but in post I was able to raise up images by a stop, and if I put a bit of NR then I could go even further without issue. Of course, this requires grading the images properly - where blacks are actually black! I'm actually surprised how good the low-light is. This is only at F2.8 with a zoom and IS, and yet it's basically usable to replicate what you can see in real life, despite being S16 and almost a decade old. Images even less graded than previously: One thing I've noticed is that with the 12-35mm not being that long a zoom, and with my monitor set to show a 2.35:1 crop, I tend to compose with people smaller in the frame than with other cameras I've used. I don't know how well this is translating, as in theory this should make the 'world' larger by showing people smaller in comparison, but as I only have my laptop and not my normal monitor I'm not used to judging.

I definitely agree with @IronFilm that this is a larger question, about ecosystem and about your preferences. If you want something lightweight and small then the Laowa is hard to beat. If you think you might be changing over to larger sensor cameras, like the BM Studio Camera 4K G2, or even S35 options, and don't care about the weight so much then going with S35 lenses and a speed booster could be the better choice in the longterm.

I've had a few issues with the BMMCC while shooting. A few times I've had issues where the focus throw on the lens won't focus all the way to infinity, so I can't actually focus properly. This is with both the 12-35 and the 14-140. Resetting the camera seemed to fix it. Another issue I've had with both lenses is where I'll focus then hit record and it will instantly change the focus to something wrong. This focus-change has also happened when I've adjusted the aperture through the camera. I suspect perhaps dirty lens contacts? It's only happened a few times and otherwise the setup has been solid, but if anyone has any advice I'm happy to hear it.

I definitely agree that it's the logical conclusion. The rig doesn't change except for the addition of an SSD, which isn't too much of an imposition. I've been thinking, incredibly non-seriously, about what I might do if I am ok to have a relatively light rig. In theory I could have any camera, but it comes back to lenses of course. A zoom is a must, and OIS is a must if there's no IBIS, so an MFT and 12-35/2.8 combo still seems the most suitable. However, as usual, I'll force myself to work with what I have (which is incredible so no complaints) until I've proven that any purchases won't sit unused after the novelty wears off. Also, the newer BM cameras don't have the same look, so unless I'll still be able to replicate it, potentially with the Film Look Creator and other tools, it would be a sideways move at best. I've decided to focus on actually producing images so anything has to be in service of that.

I own both the SLR Magic 8mm F4 lens and also the Laowa 7.5mm F2 lens, and the Laowa is the superior lens by far in every way, except cost.

Yes, 12-35mm f2.8 for all stills shown on this trip so far. My wife and I got sick for a few days, probably covid which is rampant here, but are on the mend. During this time I've been shooting a lot out of the hotel window, which has a pretty awesome view. For this I've been using the GX85 + 14-140mm F3.5-5.6 and the BMMCC + 12-35mm F2.8 as well as the fast primes I brought for the dusk / blue-hour time when the lights come on, which are the 7.5mm F2, the 17mm F1.4 and 50mm F1.2. The extra crop factor on the BMMCC with the 50mm was welcome in focusing in a bit more on certain parts of the view. I'd really like a small, light, F1.4 or faster prime though. I've looked and it doesn't seem like there are any good options, except maybe the Rokinon/Samyang 85mm f1.4, but more research would be needed. I'll definitely keep shooting the view from the window as I will have enough for a decent sequence or even a whole film just from this vantage point - there is so much happening here! I've actually had an epiphany while being here and shooting with this camera, but that's a whole other thing and I'll share more when I'm back and have digested it a bit more, but spoiler alert, I think I'm now a convert to shooting fully manual with rigged cine cameras in public, and it has nothing to do with the image.

Shot with the BMMCC in Myeongdong for 2.5 hours in the (light) rain today. It's a trooper. Images barely graded as usual. and a POV pic of the setup. I might have gone a touch dark on the grade, but these were just taken from checking dailies to catch any tech or usage issues. I think I'm getting the hang of this.

Went to tea cafe / tea museum. Very formal in a handmade sort of traditional way. Barely graded stills:

A few frames from yesterday.. Almost no grading done.

Arrived in Seoul and recovering from flights etc. A storm rolled in and I grabbed some shots with the BMMCC. I'm just getting used to the low-light limits so these are test shots as much as anything. I've done almost no grading to these at all, but they look like movie frames, I'm really impressed.

Damn.. 10 minutes is a long time in a test. I've heard that cards can start off working fine but then after a while start to act up and miss frames after using them for months. I think that was the Kingston ones, but can't be sure.

If you have a local camera store that cares about customers, it might be worth going down there with your camera and a rig and saying you need a card but need to test it before purchasing. You'll likely pay full retail but you'll spend zero time and energy buying the wrong ones or waiting for shipping on something that may not work.

Interesting observations. I've mentioned my priorities elsewhere previously, but the first one is to get the shot. What this means in reality is having a camera with you that you actually take on the trip. Then that you take with you when you leave your accommodation. That you take out of your bag / pocket and turn on. That has the right lens to get the shot you want. That can focus and expose and compose fast enough to capture the moment. There's lots of pitfalls along that road for cameras to fall into and result in not getting that shot. Packing a smaller MFT with a long zoom and a faster lens option for low-light is a master-of-none package that threads the needle pretty well to get the shots you want. Do they look like a Cooke on an Alexa 35? - hell no. But if I had one of those on a trip and pulled it out in public the only thing I would be able to film would be people looking at the bozo who was shooting a movie, that is until security stops me asking for permits.

How odd - I guess maybe it was a firmware bug? or dirty electronic contacts perhaps? Did it work at other times? or was it consistently playing up? I've recorded a bunch of clips with the lens and not had any issues so far.

This is the kit for my trip to Korea coming up. The BMMCC is slower to shoot with, but I think I'll try and make it the main camera of the trip. Equipment: BMMCC GX85 14-140mm F3.5-5.6 12-35mm F2.8 primes: 14/2.5 and 7.5/2 and 17/1.4 and ~50mm F1.4 iPhone The Helios 58mm F2 is pictured, but I might end up taking the TTartisans 50mm F1.2 instead. Still deciding. The BMMCC will benefit from the OIS in the zooms significantly. I only have a couple of old Wasabi LP-E6 batteries, and so far in my testing I'm getting about 1h45m of battery life, with it not really mattering if the camera is on standby or recording. I think when I'm there I'll probably buy some more batteries. Pics:

Having your files on SSD will have a huge impact on editing performance. If you're going to upgrade anything then I'd suggest this is first. Depending on what you're doing in the edit/colour grade, this might be all you need. Assuming your machine has an SSD, just copy a few dozen files to it and then cut them up in a timeline and see how it performs.

The irony is that family video isn't "JUST" anything. It's shooting uncontrolled scenes, in mixed and poor CRI lighting, with subjects in full-sun, with scenes involving direct sun and deep shadows, camera moving between interior and exterior, and compositions often include the sun in shot during sunrise and sunset but also need to render subjects. Subjects will often not be wearing make-up, will be tired or red with activity or sunburn, and aren't used to seeing themselves on video and may be sensitive about how they look, especially combined with non-flattering lighting and camera angles. The skillset required to edit and colour grade in post to mitigate these factors is likely to be absent in comparison to professional productions of all budgets. Family video is the single most technically difficult genre to shoot, bar none. .... and yet, the cameras to do it are the least capable of all types available.

Nice. The flexibility of a zoom for getting lots of interesting shots in a single location really is hard to beat - no other variable seems to make nearly as much difference. I'd assume it's the Kodak 500T and 2383 combination? This grade is quite accentuated. Do you / would you use the power grade on other work and give it a lighter touch? I recently came upon the 2014 Valvula Films Demo shared on CML which compares Arri Alexa XT, Sony F65 and Red Epic-X MX with real film scans (Vision3 200T 5213 and Vision3 250D 5207), and not only do they share the stills, but also a high-quality video file of the scenes with matching grade (1080p ~40Mbps) so you can see the motion and texture of the image. After watching all the YT film emulations which seem to only emulate 35mm from 1957 / 16mm from 1972 / 8mm film from 1986, I was surprised at how good the quality was. It's still unmistakably film, but it's waaaaaay better than you'd think.