Clark Nikolai

Wow! I've never heard of this before and I was around then doing video. I don't know why I haven't. Nice image quality.

Pretty much. It's cool that the tech is now at a point where we can do 4K without straining our cameras and computers but for presentation, HD is plenty.

I haven't. It's something to check out though. I see now that there are several software options for this kind of thing out there.

So, just found out about a software plug in called Real Smart Motion Blur. It analyzes the footage then applies motion blur to things that are moving. I haven't tried it (yet) but the previews look pretty good. https://revisionfx.com/products/rsmb/fcp/ This might let me use a fast shutter speed but still have it look like I was shooting at 180º.

These look really good. It's nice to see camcorder design with modern features like using AI for focus, etc. The image quality looks very good too. Love those handy (and big) thumbwheels for iris and ND. The price isn't bad considering all what you're getting and that these will likely still be useful 15 years from now. For someone who makes a living, or for a broadcaster, this is a great price for a well designed tool.

I did another test. In case it's useful to anyone I'll document my process. (And I'm still learning it so there might be a better way.) I shot with an iPhone mounted on the camera rig and started SensorLogger app a bit before rolling. I tested it with all the shutter angles narrower than 180º. There's a balance between avoiding weird motion artifacts (blurring) and movements looking to jittery. I found for my taste the best to be either 120º or 90º. I'll have to play around more to decide what to use. In Gyroflow, I brought in a video clip, then set the Lens Profile (there are crowd sourced presets or you can make your own or use one that's close to your lens and sensor size). Then open the motion data (the gyroscope file from SensorLogger). You then click somewhere on the timeline and choose Guess IMU orientation here. This analyzes the data and figures out which value is X, which is Y and which is Z. (As every device is different.) For my iPhone 8 and SensorLogger it's Zxy. (Once you know that you can just enter that each time into the IMU Orientation field and you don't have to have it guess again.) There's a field (and check box) called Rough gyro offset. Check that and enter how many seconds you figure was between starting the app and rolling the camera. Then you click AutoSync. It works away and stabilizes and lines up the stabilization with the footage. There are a few different ways to view it. Full cropped frame, or zoomed out with a rectangle and you can see your footage moving behind that. There will be vertical red bars in the timeline that indicate where the black outside enters the frame. You can adjust the FOV (field of view) and Smoothness to not have any red bars. For me shooting in 2K and finishing in 1080, I set the FOV to 0.94 which means it won't scale up larger than pixel to pixel. I then adjust Smoothness so I don't get any red bars. I also have it set to No Zooming. This is for a project where I want to just smooth the camera motion a bit but leave the camera motion in. Then export to ProResHQ and edit those new clips. (This is using the stand alone app. If I end up using this a lot I'll check out the Final Cut plug in.) I'm pleased with the results so far. Hope this helps somebody.

Very nice. I like the framing of some of these. It's great you brought it along. Good to have in your pocket. It's too bad that BM doesn't just make it again. Doesn't need to even be 4K, just needs to be good and small.

Okay, so I did a test. Using a Digital Bolex and shoulder mount rig, three lenses, 5.5mm, 10mm and a 17mm. I mounted an iPhone with a holder, had it facing up with the app SensorLogger to record gyroscope data. I started the app a few seconds before rolling the camera. The Gyroflow software seems to figure out how to auto sync them very well somehow. (I didn't try the plug ins for Resolve or Final Cut.) It took awhile to understand how it works but I think I got it now. This video helped a lot. NURK FPV - The Definitive Gyroflow Tutorial https://youtu.be/QAds3x8UU1w The results are very good. I'm impressed. I shot in 2K so finishing in HD would mean potentially not losing any resolution. I'm mostly interested in just smoothing things out a tiny bit so this should be good. I like this better than operating a gimbal. I need to play around more with it though. There are some points with smearing that comes from a 180º shutter. I'll do another test sometime with a narrower shutter angle/shorter shutter speed and see what that looks like. If this becomes a normal part of my workflow I might want something simpler, like a GoPro or something. (It is one more thing to do when shooting.)

I like how behind this camcorder is the word "Triggers". It sure is one for some of us. Hah!

I've heard of it before but never tried it. Now that I'm putting together a shoulder rig, I should experiment with it. Even if I only use it a bit now and then it might help. I do want to maintain the shoulder held look and don't want the gimbal look.

So what I ended up doing for my camera rig is get an arm that sticks out in front and holds a small monitor. I have my Desview R6 on it. I've been doing some tests and I think it'll work out fine for what I want to do. So, I'm no longer looking at EVFs for shoulder rig work.

Of course, my friend!😂 Yeah, so true. I find I check out photography stuff even when at a thrift store or garage sale. You never know there might be something cool even though I already have more than enough gear. So I have a new parameter/rule for myself. Use what I can and if it falls short of what I think I need, I have to get creative to make up for that. One example, I have two wide lenses that vignette on the D16. An 8mm and a 6.5mm. I've been looking for some super wide C-mount lenses that don't vignette. Very few were ever made and they are asking over $1000 for them. So, as I want to do some shoulder mount work on my next project and want to go wide for that, instead of justifying to myself to spend a lot of money on expensive lenses, I'm going to get creative and use the lenses I already own and just mask to a slightly narrower aspect ratio to cover the vignetting. (I've decided to use The Golden Ratio of 1.618:1.) So something that was because of a financial limitation now will influence the look of the project and might even make it "better" in a way than what I was thinking of before.

Yeah. the people were just clearing out old stuff. They said they didn't know if it even worked anymore, they hadn't used it in ten years. I didn't know the model so didn't know if it was good or not but I bought it (despite already having a bunch of cameras). I'm glad I did as it's a very good camera. Does it still count as G.A.S. if something doesn't cost much?

It's kind of liberating sometimes when you set aside all your perfectionism and just have a good time with modest tech. Recently I went on a several day bike trip on Vancouver Island (beautiful place) so I couldn't bring much. I also wanted something I could pull out of a belt pouch with one hand and click while still cycling. I have a Canon G16 (garage sale find for $6) I was first considering which takes beautiful pictures but is kind of bulky then I found in a drawer an old Sony DSC-T100. It's only does JPGs at 8 megapixels. Below my current standards but then these things are a trade off. I was only just going to email a few people some pics when I got home so it's good enough. I liked how small it was on the trip. I also used my phone but it's an older one without a zoom, also it's awkward to use compared to a camera. I had to stop cycling to take a picture with it. With the "real" camera, I could reach down, put the wrist strap on, flip down the front flap to turn it on and click, and put it back, all while still cycling. So it all worked out and I got some amazing pictures within the limits of the situation.

This might be something that takes some figuring out. On the series I worked on, with the initial meetings with the producer, both the editor and I preferred Final Cut, the producer had heard some things from the early days of the FCPX launch and was hesitant. We did have to figure out a workflow though and buy a third party plug in to output a AAFs for the audio editor (who used ProTools). I'm so glad we didn't end up having to use something else.

So true. I AE'd on a feature a few years ago that was using Avid and it took about five months, it would have been one month in Final Cut. I wasn't complaining since I was getting paid by the hour, but it was like going back in time. Yeah, AI enhanced interpolation with slo-mo, better auto colour correction and working with the new multi-cam iOS app.

I've used most of the big NLEs and prefer Final Cut. The magnetic timeline is so fast to use once you learn it that tracks seem so 20th century to me. Like they're something left over from a Steenbeck film editor or something whereas Final Cut is definitely from the 21st century. I'm sure if they hadn't patented the magnetic timeline all the other NLEs would have copied it by now. The roles thing and the built in database are so good, again once you get to know them. I've assistant edited on both TV series and narrative films, (including a feature) using it and it's much less work and takes less time than my experience with Avid or Premiere. I think Apple is going with the approach that they have something so good and it's so popular that they promote it much. They kind of don't need to as it's become the de facto standard for web video production. They don't update it as often as some would like but when they do it's always a better version of a feature than anyone else's and tends to be rock solid too. I think it's not going anywhere, in fact they just had an update this morning.

Interesting. I have a Panasonic HDC-SD9 which has 3 CCDs but then compresses badly to MP4. I've been thinking of testing it with an external recorder and seeing what it gives. (It's a camcorder that had good potential but then in trying to be the world's smallest they did some bad compromises with the design. It could've been so good.) I miss the robustness and longevity of tapes, the ability to just pop another one in when you've filled the previous one, etc. Having said that some of my old tapes are developing drop outs so I guess longevity isn't even there (with miniDV/HDV that is, oxide particle tapes are still fine from the past.) I remember some years ago running into a friend on a corner as he was shooting with his then new Panasonic HDC-SD7 which he had just got. He showed me that it records to a card and not a tape. I was suspicious of that because I knew that a file on a drive can get corrupt, accidentally deleted, etc but it's hard to accidentally tape over a tape. He said that "tape was dead and cards are the future". I didn't believe him but he was right.

I read that the dark lighting on film noir films was for budget reasons initially. To cover up gaps in the budget in the sets by just not lighting some areas. Ah, yes, The HV20 (and HDV) revolution. I did some great stuff with my two matching HV20s. The image still holds up. (Some of the tapes haven't though. They're starting to develop drop outs.)

Interesting... I don't like it either. I suppose it was novel at one point but not now. I follow a YouTube channel located in the French Riviera. Shot with iPhones with the stupid "Portrait mode" which means the backgrounds have that artificial blur added to simulate low DOF. It bugs me because it's a place I've never been and one of the reasons to watch their channel is for the scenery and because of that I can't see the scenery. https://www.youtube.com/@MeandMonAmi/videos It's become like the difference that used to exist between video/television and movies. The super crisp sharp look is now associated with real time, documentary or "real" things and the "filmic" look is associated with fiction. Oh, don't get me started on it either. I was hoping that the Pyxis would be it, and while it looks like a good camera, it isn't a Digital Bolex successor. (It's more a successor to the Micro Cinema Camera.) In a way there are new cameras that have that look but they start at $20,000.

Interesting, so for me, somebody just needs to make an adaptor to go from HDMI and DC power to this USB-C EVF standard. One thing I would need though is that things like the focus assist and grid lines be part of the viewfinder and not be something the camera has to produce.

Yeah, probably. At this point I realize that there's no rush to get an EVF of my own. I have access to a Cineroid EVF I can borrow any time I want (though I don't like how big it is), it does work so I can take my time getting something. Ideally I think something like a Zacuto Gratical Eye would be great. I would need an HDMI to SDI convertor. The smallest I've found is an e2work brand one. It seems to not be available anywhere anymore. All the others are bigger physically. Another one that would probably be fine is a Kinotehnik LCDVFe, but seems to have been discontinued years ago. I know I'm being picky here but I really don't want it to be too big.

Interesting. When I felt it was time for me to go to a better camera I was seriously looking at the Ursa Mini Pro but the fixed pattern noise thing was a turn off. I also was looking at the BM Production Camera 4K, Digital Bolex, the Ursa non-mini even (which were like a full size VHS camcorder). I see the BM 4K Production Cameras now on Craigslist for only CAN$1100 which is pretty amazing for their image quality. I wasn't liking the poor audio quality part though. There are always trade offs with cameras. I ended up getting a deal on a Digital Bolex and loving it. It's not easy to shoot with but the results are worth it for certain types of shooting. I had a small group over for supper and a screening (projected) of my latest film shot with it and one of them, who's a layperson and not involved in film at all, said something like the image had a certain quality to it and wondered if I had a special camera or something. In the end I paid a lot but I'm super happy with what I ended up with. No FPN, good audio, amazing image quality, etc. It's also become a bit of a conversation piece when I've been out shooting. I've met a few interesting camera buffs that way. I think to compliment this would be something like a 4K camcorder with built in gimbal type stabilization. Sony, Canon and Panasonic all make similar models. I have an HD Sony (PJ650) that I love for its ease of use, stabilization and all that. We live in a golden age of so many camera choices and most of them are very good and much better than the few choices we had in the past. In fact we can even get super picky about minor details. It reminds me of coffee and craft beer. Thirty or more years ago it was all crap and now so much amazing beer and coffee is available we can look down upon very good coffee because we can choose super good coffee.

Now I want to put cameras in my shoes.

And of course I meant to type 24 (not 23) there. I find the projectionists can vary a lot in experience. They can range from the very experienced to volunteers. If you can make your file fool proof it'll hopefully look good.