herein2020

In case anyone is interested...DR 17.0 just came out of beta. You can read about the announcement here: https://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=135371 I have been using it since the first beta and it really is a good upgrade from 16; still quirky in some ways and still buggy in others but definitely worth it.

My 20-60mm is gathering dust after using it once while I waited for the EF adapter. It was just too slow for me on the long end. If I ever switch to L mount lenses the 20mm end might be interested as long as its daylight. I thought the exact same thing when I read it. I really like 24mm on the wide end and I also really like F1.4 when there is no light or I'm shooting detail shots; so this lens is interesting but falls right outside of what I need both in speed and in FOV. Right now my favorite 3 lenses on my S5 are the Canon EF 24mm F2.8, the Canon 24-105mm F4.0 L, and the Sigma EF 50mm F1.4 prime. A lens like this almost replaces all of them....but falls short of each of them in some way. Now a 24-105mm F1.4 would absolutely replace all of them (I'd even take a 24-70 F2.0)....but it would then be way too big and heavy for gimbal work so back to square one.

I doubt they will...Panasonic wants to sell native lenses; Sigma also wants to sell Sigma lenses and their L Mount cameras, so no one has any incentive to assist in adding CAF for EF lenses. Also, not sure how true it is, but I read somewhere that due to the rapid pulsing that DFD uses to achieve focus lock, EF lenses aren't designed to support this focusing method continuously which could be another reason why there is currently no CAF support for EF lenses on Panasonic bodies.

Well my .02 is I stopped using LUTS for primaries grading for the S5 and feel like my footage is now better than before. LUTS always seemed to do things to the footage that I had no way of knowing what exactly they did with no good way to get back whatever was lost. The C200 is a different story and I cannot match the Canon CLOG3 to Rec709 LUT so I still use that for primaries grading for the C200's footage. For the S5 I always shoot in VLOG 10bit and use the following workflow in Davinci Resolve as my starting point for all clips: I create 3 Nodes (Primaries, Curves, FalseColor) In the primaries node I add 90% saturation and 1.17 contrast, I then adjust the lift and gain until the image looks right to my eyes while making sure that it fits within the WFM for Rec.709 I have a false color LUT and I apply that to node 3 then disable the node. After grading the primaries node I enable node 3 to check skin exposure, if the false color LUT shows the skin is over or under exposed I adjust the lift and gain as needed to get proper skin exposure. After the project is complete I sometimes add an adjustment clip over everything and apply a creative color grading LUT to the adjustment clip to give the entire project a creative grade. Also, but very rarely I use Node 2 to adjust the curves if I'm not getting the granularity I want with the primaries wheels; but its pretty rare. Really the only time I do this is when I need more contrast in a specific area but don't want to affect the rest of the image. My whole process for each clip only takes seconds and after I grade the first clip I just copy the grade to each subsequent clip and make slight adjustments to the lift and gain as needed depending on the lighting conditions. If there are no people in the video or for that particular clip (i.e. for real estate), then I just use the WFM and make sure nothing is over or under exposed. Definitely not Hollywood quality, but I'm also not being paid Hollywood rates. For the project settings I've always just left them at their defaults (Davinci YRGB and timeline color space Rec.709).

No, this is a nato rail, it creates a clamping surface for other accessories: https://www.amazon.com/Smallrig-Release-Safety-Spring-Scarlet/dp/B00EVG3M68

I use a nato rail to connect to the camera cage then the handle's coldshoe to connect the monitor and wireless lav equipment. My particular top handle has two cold shoes. https://www.amazon.com/SMALLRIG-Camera-Anti-Off-Designed-Spanner/dp/B07X1QKB1Z/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=smallrig+top+handle+wooden&qid=1612396679&sr=8-1

Top handles usually have a mount on them, you just need to figure out what mounting options your top handle has. Mine have enough mounts for two more pieces of gear once the handle is attached. I typically attach the monitor to the front mounting point and the Sennheiser receiver to the other. If you look at the link I sent it will show you how the monitor can be mounted to the top handle.

The instant sharing part is a very important piece of the puzzle. When I am doing a photo shoot there are more pictures of the model on her Instagram page from her cell phone during the shoot than I am going to deliver for the whole session and the model spends more time trying to set up her phone for behind the scenes footage than she does listening to my directions. Also, I always say, thanks to cell phones the expectation is for quantity, not quality and an Instagram filter to fix it in 2s vs me spending hrs in Photoshop and Lightroom refining every detail. People don't care anymore if their heads are cut off, the composition is terrible, the camera is slanted, the WB is off, etc. The only thing they care about is if they are in the picture and if it got uploaded while it was happening; as if all of their "followers" will disappear if they don't get a constant stream of selfies from a model they have never met. Photography and Videography are a dying art and camera makers moving to the higher end to offset the lower sales was inevitable. These days reviews of a $6000 camera gets more views than the actual video and images taken with that camera.

I use them nearly daily; they are a great relatively inexpensive way to increase the production value of a project. That being said, many people overdo it or end up with long boring drone videos that only other drone pilots would want to watch. To me a few seconds here and there to tell more of the story or to set up for a transition is all that's really needed. Also, living in FL, they are invaluable for boat and ocean footage when it is needed.

I for one have never delivered stills from video. I work pretty heavily in the fashion and modeling industry and stills from video isn't even remotely comparable to the type of quality that my clients expect. It would be great actually if I could deliver stills from the video but the difference is too great at least for what I do. Real estate is another area that I shoot and its definitely not possible there. The main difference for my particular use case is the extensive lighting setups that I use for photography that would not work for video. I think now that we are in the cellphone era stills from any video shot with a camera better than a cell phone will be good enough for most clients but not in the areas that I typically work with.

I did a pretty comprehensive thread on the add-ons that I put on my camera. I use cages with all of my cameras setup for video. Here is the link to my thread where I posted my different setups. At a minimum I go with a removable top handle, tripod plate, and side handle. For me, I'm always adding something to the camera; wireless audio transmitters, XLR modules, directional mic, gimbal, monopod, rails, batteries, etc. So a cage is critical for me. Also, I actually like the feel of the cage when I am shooting handheld, it adds weight to the camera and size so it feels better to me than without the cage and it protects the camera from certain types of impact.

I have the C200 with the Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 lens, here is a sample shot in low light at ISO800 4K30FPS 4:2:0 8bit LongGOP. I haven't had any problems with noise or saturation out of the C200. Remember all LUTs are just meant to get you close, you still need to use your color grading NLE and tools of choice to finish developing the image. For the attached sample image, I did not add any saturation. Also, I tend to slightly ETTR until the highs show a little hot in the WFM then pull down the Lift in post to lower the black point. It is a balancing act though, I only ETTR if I can get away with it using nothing but the aperture; if I have to increase the ISO to ETTR then I just go for proper exposure. The processed image below is without any noise reduction added. If you feel like you cannot add back enough saturation are you sure your monitor is calibrated? Also, a lot of YouTube videos heavily oversaturate their footage because they think it looks better, but if you watch Hollywood movies they don't have as much saturation as your typical YouTube video. It could also be your lens; the 24-105mm is considered a very clinical lens....great all arounder but not something you want to use for 'cinematic' footage.

I recently picked up the Autel EVO II Pro 6K after having flown nothing but DJI drones since 2014. DJI's geofencing system kept becoming increasingly intrusive until 2wks ago when it suddenly thought my Mavic Pro was in a no fly zone and force landed it into the ocean. I had never even heard of Autel before this incident but after the incident I never want to own another DJI drone so after a lot of research I ended up buying the Autel EVO II 6K. THE BAD Most of the things on this list really aren't that bad, in fact if it weren't for DJI the Autel would far exceed my expectations. But after using DJI drones for so long its pretty apparent that Autel is about 2yrs behind DJI when it comes to their drone's maturity. Tablet Holder - This problem hit me before ever even taking off. There are no good tablet holder options. One option doesn't fold at all so it doesn't fit in any of the current rugged cases and the other option does not hold an iPad mini which I found out the hard way. I ended up with the GPC tablet holder but had to make some serious modifications to hold my iPad mini. The GPC mount also feels really flimsy where it attaches to the holder. The App - The app is nowhere near as good as DJI's app; the worst part about it is when you run it on a tablet it will not use the full screen so a lot of screen real estate is wasted as if they never thought people would want to use anything except their phones. Besides the scaling issue, it can be difficult to get the camera information quickly. In the DJI app you can always see things like frame rate, EV, resolution, etc. at a glance; with the Autel App you have to scroll around quite a bit to see all of your settings. Obstacle Avoidance - Obstacle avoidance feels like it is way too sensitive; a few times in the middle of the air with nothing around it it kicked in and slowed the drone. Also, when flying lower to the ground it was a real pain to deal with and seems overly cautious. I know it can be turned off but it would be nice if it had a lower sensitivity setting. Lens Flare - The 6K version of the camera suffers from really bad lens flare at certain angles to the sun. Of course all lenses have lens flare under certain conditions but the way the 6K camera handles it is not good. The flare was very uncomplimentary and pretty much made that particular angle in relation to the sun unusable for professional work. I never had that kind of lens flare problem with the DJI drones. No One Button Ludicrous Mode - With the DJI drones I use Sport Mode all the time to return quickly after completing a project or if there is a strong headwind or cross wind I use it to improve the handling of the drone for the return flight after filming. The Autel remote does not have a dedicated button for this and you could lose valuable seconds in a strong headwind scenario having to go into the app to enable ludicrous mode. Controller Battery Life - The remote's battery life so far seems worse than the Mavic's probably because of the display screen. This could still be because the batteries haven't fully broken in yet, but I noticed just updating the firmware made it drop by 20% and a single flight cost around 15% of the controller's battery life. Custom Color Profiles Don't Save - I plan on shooting exclusively in LOG and also like to turn sharpness down to -2 and contrast down to -1, but the app does not save the settings. So now I have to remember to set the settings each time and lose battery life while doing so. Company Size - Autel is tiny compared to DJI; I read somewhere that DJI literally has hundreds of scientists in their R&D department. Autel feels like they have maybe 10 on a good day. So due to their size I feel like new developments are going to happen much slower, and customer service will be difficult at best, and that's assuming they even manage to stay in business. THE GOOD No Geofencing - Without a doubt my favorite 'feature' by far. It was a relief just knowing there was no chance geofencing could kick in during the flight and risk downing the drone. Range Test - While the range was acceptable it was not exceptional. This was a little disappointing; I have taken every drone since 2014 that I have owned to the same park and performed the same tests over the years so I know for a fact that the EVO II started dropping its video signal at the exact same range as the DJI drones; and yes I pointed the controller in the direction of the drone and I had the antennas pointed down. Straight Line Test - One of the tests that I do is position the drone exactly aligned with railroad tracks and see how long the drone can fly in a straight line over the railroad tracks before it drifts off course. I have the center cross hairs turned on for this test. The EVO II performed better on this test than any DJI drone I have ever tested this way. DJI drones tend to turn slowly left without constant slight correction during forward flight. Orbit Test - Orbiting is one of my favorite drone movements so I always see how a drone performs during orbits. With the center cross hairs turned on I orbit clockwise and counter clockwise around an object. Once again the EVO II straight out of the box with no tuning performed flawlessly. Orbits in particular require very precise control input and the drone must adhere to the input without drifting to perform a smooth orbit which is why I like this test. Camera Angle Feedback - I have wished DJI would add this feature since 2014...I even emailed it as a feature request to DJI and of course got no response. It is nice to see the camera angle shown in the app. There are plenty of times when you want to mirror a specific camera angle such as if you were filming something and had to land to change the batteries then took off again and want the footage to look like a single take; or when you are creating progression construction photography and want each visit to the site to look identical to the last visit. Overall Handling - Many YouTube reviewers stated that the EVO II does not handle as well as the DJI drones; I don't feel that way at all, straight out of the box settings feel very smooth to me, the only thing I am going to do is turn down the gimbal tilt speed which is the same thing I did with the DJI drones. ALOG - The EVO II's ALOG is way better than anything I have seen come out of DLOG. DJI in my opinion is overly aggressive with their LOG profile and they tend to throw away data that cannot be recovered. Autel's ALOG was a joy to color grade; it took seconds in Davinci Resolve to grade it to the Rec.709 standard. Highlight Rolloff - So many people get caught up in dynamic range and low light performance; few people discuss highlight rolloff. A camera can have great low light performance and dynamic range but terrible highlight rolloff and the image will be unrecoverable when the highlights are over exposed. The EVO II 6K camera has great highlight rolloff from what I can tell so far. Camera Settings Buttons - This is a nice feature that the DJI drones don't have; I was able to change all of the camera settings without having to touch the tablet screen. Flight Time - Flight time was ok, it did not seem any longer than the DJI drones though; its supposed to be 40min but that must be when it is just sitting on the ground with the blades spinning because just getting it into the air and my remaining time dropped to 33min. The batteries will probably perform better after a few charging cycles but for now its nowhere near 40min. This really isn't a bad thing though, 30 useable min is still plenty to me. Initial Setup - DJI's initial setup where it demands your email address and account information always irked me. I felt like they were demanding far more information than should be needed just to fly the drone. The EVO II's setup was much less invasive although it would be nice to know exactly what information is sent during the "Activation" portion of the setup but I was surprised that it did not even ask for an email address. Battery Temperature Recovery Time - The EVO II's batteries do not seem to make you wait until they cool down to start recharging. This was always a major annoyance with DJI; you had to wait sometimes up to 2hrs just to start recharging their batteries starting with the P4, so mobile charging was impossible. WISH LIST WFM - Its always annoying to me when camera makers add a LOG profile but leave out the waveform monitor which is the number one tool you need to expose for LOG footage. It would be nice if they would add a WFM option. In lieu of a WFM I used the histogram to set exposure and its ok but nowhere near as useful as a WFM for LOG footage Monitoring LUT - Another tool I wish they would add when shooting in LOG. A Rec.709 monitoring LUT would be great to improve visibility. The good news is that the ALOG footage is nowhere near as flat as DJI's DLOG so it is not as hard to monitor even without a monitoring LUT. Better Remote - the current remote just feels really odd in the hands; the ergonomics aren't great and the handles feel like they are going to close at any moment. Also the remote has no way to attach a lanyard, the P4's remote is still my favorite to date (built in tablet holder and lanyard loop). I know this is meant to be smaller but I still think there's room for improvement here. Lets not forget those terrible buttons on the underside, they are so easy to push that its best to just not assign anything to them. I wish I could disable them completely because the remote still beeps when one is pressed. Different Color - The orange is pretty hard to get used to. Altitude Limit - The altitude limit is set to a generous 2600' or so but it would be nice if there were none at all. Prior to the pandemic I travelled outside of the USA quite a bit and frequently took a drone with me; when you are going up a mountainside with a drone it records how high you are from your takeoff point not based on AGL, so I ran into a few situations with DJI drones where it refused to go any higher because it thought it was 1500' AGL when it fact it was only a few hundred feet above the mountainside. Even stateside the FAA lets you go above 400' when you are close enough to something higher than that in certain airspace. Controller Charging Interface - Getting brand new consumer products that still use the old USB standard are just annoying at this point. As consumers we will never be able to get rid of our old chargers and standardize on USB-C if we keep getting brand new products that don't have USB-C ports. So it would be nice if the charging interface were USB-C. OTHER This is just general information that I'm finding out on my own as I use the EVO II. These are things that either are impossible to find in the documentation or that aren't documented at all. Crop Factor - It appears the EVO II 6K has a crop when shooting 4K60FPS, I'd estimate the crop factor to be around 1.2x or 1.3x so not much of a crop but it definitely looks like a crop when you go from 4K30FPS to 4K60FPS. 10bit vs 8bit - The 4K60FPS HEVC H.265 footage is only 8bit 4:2:0 footage where as the 4K30FPS HEVC H.265 footage is indeed 10bit 4:2:0 footage, I'm not sure what 1080P is or if changing to the MP4 container or H.264 will matter. THE VERDICT As long as the EVO II continues to perform exactly as it did during its test flights so far then I am happy with my purchase; once again because the completely oppressive geofencing system is gone. I am sure Autel will continue improving the app and the drone and as long as the drone does not do something that is completely beyond my control then it could easily become my main drone in the future. I haven't tried 6K yet and don't expect much since the sensor is so small, but the 4K30FPS and 4K60FPS that I have seen so far more than meets my needs. Is anyone else using the EVO II 6k and if so what is your experience so far?

Yes, I have a lot of gripes about the Ronin S but I actually tested the C200 on it with the Sigma 18-35mm and it balanced it with no problems; so it definitely is incredibly strong. I guarantee you that the S5 with the Rokinon 10mm F2.8 EF-S + MC-21 is far lighter than your current setup. I'm looking forward to testing this setup on my next real estate video shoot.

I shoot nearly exclusively hand held, on a gimbal, or on a monopod; I hardly ever use a tripod. The flip out screen is so useful it was the sole reason I did not seriously consider the S1 when it came out; I had gotten too used to the GH5's flip out screen. I have the Ronin S gimbal and for low shots it is a lifesaver, handheld is even better and even on a monopod when you are crammed into a corner somewhere and have to raise the camera above the crowd the flip out screen is great then too. I never use an external monitor for any of my cameras except the C200 when it is locked down on a tripod; all I use are the tools on the S5's screen to pull focus, check exposure, WB, etc. and while not ideal, it gets the job done for me. When the camera is on a gimbal the flip out screen is so light it doesn't affect it at all. I just balance it like normal with the screen not flipped out, then flip it out as needed during the shoot; it probably helps though that the Ronin S can carry far more weight than the S5.

I think as others have stated...maybe its not the 24FPS that is the problem its the content creators not putting in the additional work needed to make it work. I think because 24FPS is at the edge of what we perceive as smooth motion, if the shutter speed is not right, if the panning is too fast, if the clip was not properly conformed to the timeline, if it was shot at a higher framerate and not slowed down by the proper percentage...etc. it will appear to stutter more so than 30FPS. 30FPS give you 6 or 8 more frames to screw up before it stutters, and the math is simpler when shooting at 60FPS then slowing the footage down by 50%. Just my opinion but I still think all of the extra work needed to ensure 24FPS looks good in the final product simply isn't worth the motion blur that I think most people won't notice anyway when it comes to YouTube / Vimeo content. Hollywood, high paying commercial work, etc. has the budgets to justify the extra time/attention/work needed to put it all together but I know in my own case; not one of my clients has ever said the final project didn't have the motion blur that they expected. Maybe if I had the chance to work on more "cinematic" or "creative" projects I would feel differently but for the work I do (fashion, modeling, events, real estate, music videos, weddings, etc) 30FPS is the better fit.

The funny thing is.....there's still the same number of videos going around on YouTube about the A1...the only difference is all they can do is talk about its specs and compare it to its competitors but not actually go film their cat videos with it....so Sony wins regardless.

Agreed, and as I'm sure you know...the timer counts down even if you are using just the photography features, I did not stick around long enough to see if newer firmware would add a few min more. Also, lets not forget Canon has never said CLOG3 is coming to the R6...without it you won't get to film using the full DR that the sensor is capable of.

I was hyped and I'll probably never own a Sony 😀, actually I'm still hyped right now 30min later and had to watch it again. One thing the video did do for me...it reminded me that some of the recent threads already complaining about its recording limits, shortcomings in data rate, etc....all seem really silly right about now. The camera is capable of producing incredible footage in the right hands and its abilities probably far exceed those of anyone complaining about its technical limitations.

Welcome back...its' been awhile. I pretty much posted all of my thoughts on the R6 on the following thread, which is here: And I ended up with the Panasonic S5 which is perfect for my uses in every way (except AF of course) so this thread may be useful as well:

Truly and without a doubt the best camera demo video I have ever seen. Sony may have finally figured out that having random YouTubers who call themselves cinematographers shoot demo cat video footage with their flagship cameras wasn't doing them any justice. I hope they do a BTS on the making of this video, I'd love to see how much rigging was needed. I remember the C300III BTS, they used about $200K worth of rigging and a full production team for their demo video and it didn't come close to comparing to this.

I'm a hybrid shooter but I'm not going anywhere near it either and not just because it is Sony. You could literally get a great stills camera AND a great video focused camera for the price of this one. I think this camera is literally targeted at the hybrid sports shooter if such a thing exists. I'm with you, I think the quest for the perfect hybrid camera might be overrated and dedicated video cameras are more realistic. Personally I'm starting to give up on the idea of a hybrid camera. I keep thinking that a hybrid camera would make my life easier on a hybrid shoot (less gear to carry) but then when I'm on a shoot there's so many differences between the photography portion of the shoot and the video portion (lighting / audio / camera settings / movement / etc) that I feel like I will always need two camera bodies. Even when it comes to the body, for photography I need a remote flash trigger attached and a battery grip with a vertical shutter release button so that I can shoot portraits, for video I need an audio module attached and can't use a battery grip because of the camera cage.

Probably multiple reasons, not the least of which is the size. The S1H is huge and I get the feeling that the sales numbers were pretty low, probably mainly due to the new lens mount and AF, but the size probably didn't help (the S5 is proof that people are willing to accept limitations as long as the body is smaller). Also, these cameras are marketed as hybrids, a fan in a hybrid would make it less a hybrid and more a dedicated video body. Let's not forget as well that every other maker still needs to protect their cinema line in some way....only Panasonic seems to really throw every single thing they can into their bodies. Last but not least, fans add complexity, drain the battery, and affect the weather sealing, none of which hybrid shooters want to deal with.

I definitely do that already, 29.97FPS and 60FPS are the only frame rates I use. It's just incredible to me that so many people release YouTube videos with that kind of stutter and either don't notice it or don't care; yet the rest of the footage is great (color grade, camera movements, content, etc.) and they had to have seen the stuttering prior to uploading. I'm with @Video Hummus I would think by now it would all be standardized and something like 30FPS vs 24FPS wouldn't even need to still be a consideration.

I don't think so, Canon is already working on the R1; this is in the 1DXIII price territory so its not a direct competitor to the R5, the A7SIII is more of a competitor to the R5. The R1 will be Canon's answer to this camera both in price and functionality. I thought the exact same thing...except the MFT part. Panasonic is dependent on Sony for their sensors, so if they are able to use this sensor in a next gen S1H (and change their AF system).......oh never mind who am I kidding, Panasonic will never change their AF system; but anyway if they were to make a S1H II with this sensor that would be interesting...but probably at least $5500