MrSMW

Nice. What lens did you use and is it log, the grade etc. We need to know this kind of stuff?!

I knew it. I went to Perth WA for an entire week once and it was just too quiet. You could pull up for instance and park right outside a restaurant on a Friday evening without a problem. There was a big movie being filmed around the same time elsewhere and they needed a lot of extras, so it makes sense now why the artificial city of Perth was so quiet. My brother lives there now. Says he does but now I realise that is a lie. My own family lie to me. What is this world coming to? Must dash, I have Aslan and Mr Tumnus coming round for breakfast shortly. Conspiracy theorists 🤣

I have tried a couple of cine lenses but didn’t really get on with them, especially for hybrid use, but if I only shot video, for sure I’d probably be using a set from someone like DZO or even Sigma, but the latter are a bit pricy. Before I pushed the button on trying this 40+ year old lens, I was considering the DZO 35-80, but the cost size and weight put me off. It’s 1.5x the weight of the Lumix 70-200mm f4 which I somewhat grudgingly have because I need it, but only use it at 3 specific times on a job. The thought of using that 35-80 all day long, well just 🤪 The CZ 40-80, around 600g so probably around 700-750g with the adapters and is more compact than my 70-200, a nice balance of heft for stability but not taxing to use all day. Just been eyeing up the CZ 80-200…but I’m not going to get ahead of myself!

Speaking of movies to be inspired by, the 3 that I am most looking forward to this year are: Asteroid City Openheimer Dune 2 I guess I have a thing for deserts!

The convenience I don’t need so much working with 3 cameras as one of the others is dedicated to AF, but yes, IQ will be interesting… From what I have seen, the 30-70 looks pretty good, but the only real test is how it looks when you shoot anything yourself. The 40-80 will be especially interesting because I can’t find anything so that means it’s either very rare, or hasn’t caught on. Or is just a bit shit. My other concern though is over this thing called ‘character’. From what I have seen with so many vintage lenses, is too much ‘character’. The Helios 58mm f2 for instance. Waaaaay too much ‘character’ for me and I have seen it in a direct head to head with the 30-70 and for my tastes, the results from the zoom looked just like I’d want them to and the Helios like some weird surreal absinthe fueled dream 🤪 But we will see. If it works, then great but if not, it was a 330 euro hit including adapter, but I’ll get 90% of that back re-listing it back on eBay. The Sigma’s that I currently use are often described as being a bit sterile, but I like them. A bit sharp but a 1/8th mist takes that edge off and this is where I am hoping that a more ‘clinical’ but older vintage lens might take some of that digital look out of that modern sensor and lens equation without having to resort to filters or in post.

It’s borderline deal-breaker for me. Some think the S5/II is great but to my ear it sounds loud, thin and cheap, but the entire S1H shutter mech is just sublime, from the damping/actuation through the sound and as someone who only uses mechanical shutter… If the S5ii had this shutter mech, the S1H would have gone as it would have been just enough to warrant 3x S5ii’s. But it doesn’t and at the price the S5ii is, can’t really expect it to.

The thing with contrast detect AF is that it does tend to be slower than equivalent phase detect cameras, but not by that much other than in low light conditions but it does tend to be highly accurate. When I first switched from Nikon DSLR, I was pretty horrified about the Fuji X Pro1’s lack of ability to lock on to anything that moved forwards or backwards. First wedding, no processional or recessional shots in church because it just failed and err, I should never have trusted it that soon. Or at all. The results I was getting…when it locked on however, along with various aspects including the colour science convinced me to keep using the system and future firmware improved things a bit, but after a few years, I do wish I’d waited for the next gen as just like when moved from film to digital in about 2005 (?) with the Nikon D200, it really was too soon. But CDAF for the last 10 or so years has been pretty good and no real world difference to PDAF for stills other than on the most extreme situations.

I’ve never had an S1 but have used extensively; S5, S5ii, S1R and S1H. For video, all ‘good’. For forward tracking, ie, someone walking towards you, depends on the lens, the settings and the aperture, but in 4K crop mode, f4/5.6/8, pretty good actually, but if it loses the subject, it’s game over. Unless it really goes wrong like someone walks in the way, the S5ii is of course a lot more reliable than the non-PDAF models. For stills, real world not a lot in it. I have shot thousands of frames at (each of) 45+ weddings with L Mount and it’s both fast and accurate. If I was shooting sports, there are much better options such as Sony and Canon, but as long as we are not talking subjects charging around zig zagging, any of the S line are great but as above, IMO the S1H is the pick of the bunch for stills. Not max detail commercial or studio work, (because that is the S1R’s forte) but for events and people, S1H for me on pretty much every level; size, weight, ergos, shutter damping, speed, results. Just superb. Plus it’s superb for video as a secondary role 😉 Otherwise yes, also waiting to see what the next gen will be because there is something specific I am looking for…but that is another story.

I’ll just use reconfigure the C1-3 custom modes but instead of settings for stills and video as I do now, base it on custom IBIS focal lengths. Or the lens might just be crap and go straight back on Ebay! I think it should work out OK actually, but we will see…

I was thinking start with as a ‘correct’ as possible conversion LUT such as yours and then develop my own grade on top and then create my own conversion inc. grade LUT unique to me to export and then use either baked in in camera (preferred) or in post. Currently working with the ‘Arri’ conversion LUT from Phantom and then the creative Kinetic LUTS from Gamut and to be honest, the combo is not far off…but I would prefer to develop something that is unique to me. However, Phantom also do some film emulations from Kodak and Fuji (Eterna) that do look pretty good I have to say. I do think I need to move away from Premiere and start learning and using Davinci. But not mid season!

This is the single most part of the whole filmmaking process that interests me right now. It took me the best part of a decade to get the right combo of tools that would allow me to best shoot hybrid weddings. Hardly the epitomy of filmmaking I know, but for the one man band with bills to pay, what I do. All that time, I was also working on my technique, lighting and the output, but have been somewhat hamstrung by the capture process due to continually juggling the tools for workflow purposes. As a result, the reality has been some of the capture process was not what it could have been and that’s OK. There’s no manual for what I do so it has been a process of trial & error. Now that I feel I have that working in my favour, I have been able to turn more attention to lighting, my big ‘thing’ for this year and that is going well so far but not quite where I want it to be. Again, it’s a bit of a juggling act as, as above, 1 man crew vs a 500 crew. Or even a 2 person crew, but the financials don’t work so it’s just me and the reality is one person shooting video and stills can only do so much in real time. And this only leaves two areas for further exploration and development. A: Pulling stills from video, initially in addition to shooting both, but perhaps potentially, only from shooting video. I think the latter is doable now due to the tech that is in a camera such as the Z9, but a different topic… B: Which leaves the colour science/grade part of the equation. It’s the part of the process I have paid the least attention to and need to work on the most. Once my season ends, it’s finally time to put myself into ‘grade’ school. Thanks to @kye I have also subscribed to Cullen Kelly plus a few others. Thanks to @hyalinejim looks like there’s a good starting point for S5ii log now, so that is going to get a whirl. Intrigued by raw, I think I am going to have to bite the bullet and get an external monitor and the paid Braw upgrade for my S5ii’s regardless of whether Lumix bring out a Z9 rivaling S2H before next season or just go Nikon. Either way, an external monitor and any kind of rigging other than a cage and side handle plus shotgun mic, is about as far as I would prefer to go. I’m realistic about it at the same time. Will raw and Resolve and sheer time, effort, understanding and application, plus further improved capture and lighting technique make a difference? Sure, but it won’t make my 2024 wedding films look like Dune, but as the saying goes, shoot for the stars and you might just hit the moon. My end goal is to be able to shoot a baked in look, min 6k 50p, 3:2 format that will then be my only source of video and stills from one roaming and one static camera. I don’t think that is too far away and indeed, could be done today. Just not by me. Yet…

My OCD prefers round numbers based on 10 so 20/40/80/160mm would be my preference so zoom lenses; 20-40, 40-80 and 80-160. Then f stops as: 1,2,4,8,16 so being realistic, f2 for my 20-40, f2 for my 40-80 and f4 for my 80-160. Plus all filter sizes the same while I’m at it. Under 500g, around 750g and no more than 1000 for the big boy. This is my open letter to Sigma 😉

@kye do you ever sleep? Or are you a vampire or at least something of a night owl because I thought you were in the US but post regularly during our Europe daytime?!

Agree. There have been a lot of boring and conventional focal length lenses in recent years, the; 24/35/50/85, 24-70, 70-200 in full frame. Yawn 🥱 Back in the 70’s and 80’s we had far more interesting stuff like; 30-70, 40-80, 28-85 (albeit that one being variable aperture yuck) and recently from Tamron; 20-40, 35-150, 70-180 plus those interesting APSC Sigma 18-35, 50-100 f1.8’s. I’d happily sacrifice a bit of aperture speed for size & weight, even focal range, especially with something like Tamron’s 35-150 f2/2.8, so something like 40-120 constant f2.8 because who cares about f2 for a couple of mm?! For me it’s been the one weakness of L Mount, boring as f**k focal lengths and/or lenses that are too big and heavy. I look at Sony e Mount and Nikon Z with envy. I need an R2D2 projected Princess Leia moment with a message to Sigma about being my only hope…

Well my ‘favourite’ focal lengths just happen to be 40 and 80 as in if I had to choose a pair of primes, these would be them. 40’s are rare and I can’t think of an 80, but 35’s common, otherwise it’s 70 (just a teeny bit too short) 75 OK, 85 OK, 90 getting a teeny bit long indoors. So a lens that with a single push or pull is either 40 or 80 is kind of perfect for me. The 35-70 was going to be the one I was going to try but a bit short and when I discovered the 40-80 existed, it was game set and match. I started out with the Angenieux f2.6 28-70, but again, a bit wide and a bit short and slightly pricy because of the name. Same with a lot of vintage glass such as Helios 58mm. Once something gains something of a cult following, prices shoot up. These Contax Zeiss lenses seem to have a good rep, but don’t seem to have quite that level of cult worship yet, especially the 40-80 which has very little coverage. The results I have seen from the 30-70 though look great. I can’t see any scenario where I would move 100% to vintage glass, especially for stills, as I do have an AF requirement, but then never say never as there are clever LiDAR options so… The bottom line is I don’t like following convention but simply for defying convention sake. If that makes sense?!

Maybe and that is why I am actually quite interested in raw as I’d like to explore having an image with the most latitude in post. However, contrary to that, I am also interested in a SOOC baked in look! Winter time will have to be my playground and ideally, my next camera will have internal raw as I really do not wish to buy an external monitor, or even worse, use one. From an ergonomic working perspective of a hybrid shooter. It’s not nimble.

Absolutely fine, I use MF about 90% of the time for the exact opposite reasons which is I don’t trust anywhere near as much AF. Or at least didn’t with the S5 and previous Fuji cameras such as the XT3. With focus peaking, it’s just a reliable way to work most of the time. For anything that requires tracking however, such as; entrances, exits, couple walking shots, AF, principally because I will be shooting stills at the same time so the unit shooting video will be on sticks. There is also a certain purity and ‘craft’ about shooting anything and everything as manually as possible which for me = almost everything video and just auto ISO and AF stills. MF just removes uncertainty for peace of mind when working so actually removes a layer of thought process and that is an overall ethos I am always working on which is removing as much ‘stuff’ that gets in the way as possible. My current ‘dilemma’ is the gimbal. I only use it for one thing which is tracking couple shots which I can do on the S5ii it’s IBIS being so good. Not as good, but close/good enough so it begs the question why charge up, transport, set up, carry, use…something if so little value, or is that tiny bit of value sufficient to warrant it’s place. Still debating that one with my alter ego, Mr Kit…

Which to me seems an odd way of doing things ie, to my way of thinking, there would be one single accurate as possible conversion LUT and then you take it any direction you wish with a creative LUT or manually. Yes, I remember that test that Sony won with more picking their images in a blind test than anyone else’s. I was a Fuji user at the time and was most offended…

Great use of the Luma Colour Checker shirt Jim 👍 The only question I have is why a massive company like Panasonic are SO SHIT at doing this themselves?! I don’t know anything about this kind of thing but it’s my mission to understand more over this Winter and once this season is done, I think I’m going to need to give your LUT a whirl at the same time as learning Resolve.

Yep, but never really got on with it because mainly having to relearn a muscle memory thing of around 2 decades. I mean I can do it in a pinch, but I’ve always preferred the half press and the AF set up for focus rather than release. But going to take the opportunity to try an older lens to see if the magic really exists with this particular unit.

Keep an eye on this thread then https://www.eoshd.com/comments/topic/75353-vintage-zoom-lenses-with-ibis/#comment-577142 as I am going to try a vintage zoom lens 😉 My current S5ii AF problem caused me to consider how I might best use this unit for the remainder of my season before I can send it in under warranty to be fixed. Also, because the S1H is my preferred option for stills, that with the Sigma 28-70 f2.8 paired with the slightly dicky S5ii shooting video only with the 40-80 could make a very nice pairing for me. My other S5ii will cover off any AF video needs and longer static duty on a tripod. Could be a great set up but will withhold judgement until I can test it…

Cool and thanks, bookmarked that link to have a play when the lens and Contax to EF adapter turn up, which hopefully won’t be too long…

Yep. The 50-100 never got much love but the 18-35 is revered by many. I considered them all recently but I’m trying to stick with full frame with my Lumix bodies. An updated version of that pairing for cropped sensor users might be a dream come true…

I may even have a dabble with Braw but we’ll see about that as I’d rather not invest in an appropriate monitor if an S2H is coming which would probably have that internal…

I am eyeing up a Contax Zeiss 40-80mm f3.5 to have a dabble in this vintage lens for video thing that some folks do. 40mm (indoor) and 80mm (outdoor) are two near perfect focal lengths for me hence why this lens and using it like a twin prime lens would work for me. I have EF-L Mount adapter with the built in VND from…the name escapes me and I am on my Summer hols, but worked very well with the Meike cine lens I tried. So I just need to work out how to adapt a Contax lens to EF Mount but believe it’s easy to do? My big Q however is IBIS. I know I can set a specific focal length which is what needs to be done with any non-native manual lens, but is there an option for something like this 40-80 or do you need to set 40 and/or 80? I would be using it on the S5ii if it makes any difference. One of my S5ii’s has lost it’s half-press shutter button AF ability and needs to be sent off under warranty to be fixed, but I cannot do this until after my season finishes early Sep. It still works in every other regard but I may as well use this time to at least try this set up for, ‘sinematic’ (TM) effect. If I can’t set IBIS for both 40-80 then I guess I’ll just make a custom mode for each and switch it each time which is no massive deal because as above, it would typically be a couple of hours indoor followed by typically 6-8 outdoor followed by a couple of hours back indoors. Finally, probably no one has experience of this lens being a bit obscure and a photo lens, but any info of interest. The other contender was the 35-70 but the longer reach of the 40-80 ‘sold’ the focal length to me.