Chicago II - GH5 + SLR Magic 2x 50mm Anamorphic

[AaronChicago]

I decided to shoot a short sequel to my GH4 VLog video "Chicago." Recorded internal at 8 bit on the GH5. Handheld with IBIS. V Log L.

 

[mercer]

Really nice work Aaron. I was a fan of your original Chicago film and this is a fitting sequel. 

The good, the bad and the ugly...

The Good - excellent color work, you are really making that GH5 shine!!!

The Bad - the boat was a little hot, but that would have been a hard shot without letting that creep around 100 IRE. So the bad is actually a testament to exposing that difficult shot so well.

The Ugly - the moire is crazy. Is that only in 4K 8bit or is there a lot of moire in the other codecs as well?

But I was stretching to even make a complaint because the whole piece looked excellent. I wish you guys would stop trying to get me to spend my money. 

I wanted to add that the composition is amazing. That subway shot is a work of art. I'd love to see a B&W version of it. 

[AaronChicago]

@mercer thanks! Yeah the moire is really obvious in anamorphic mode for some reason. I rarely see any moire in regular 4K. Maybe it's 8 bit? Not sure. It could be the way I scaled it. Sometimes I'll create a ProRes file using 2x desqueeze, then render using 2x pixels instead of square pixels. In this case I just brought it into Premiere, reduced the height by 50%, then rendered using square pixels. Maybe that's the wrong way?

There's enough info to make the boat not clip. I just decided to not add keyframe masks, but if I did it would look like this.

 

 

[mercer]

Wow, that did come down nicely. How much usable DR do you think the GH5 has? Also, being a UM46 owner and a GH5 owner, how do you think they compare... if they're even comparable at all?

Btw, I would love to learn a little about the color work. It has a modern sepia tone look to it. Very interesting. 

[jonpais]

@AaronChicago Looking real good.

[DBounce]

I like it. Was the setup hard to work with? What taking lens were you using?

[AaronChicago]

1 hour ago, mercer said:

Wow, that did come down nicely. How much usable DR do you think the GH5 has? Also, being a UM46 owner and a GH5 owner, how do you think they compare... if they're even comparable at all?

Btw, I would love to learn a little about the color work. It has a modern sepia tone look to it. Very interesting. 

It's hard to tell exactly, but I would say you can cheat 13 stops out of V Log. It may be 12 on paper but with some power masks you can save certain areas that are either too hot, or too dark.

I used Impulz Tetrachrome as the base LUT. Added a lot of contrast. Tweaked some of the saturations. That's about it.

53 minutes ago, DBounce said:

I like it. Was the setup hard to work with? What taking lens were you using?

It was the actual 2x Prime like this one: https://www.ukdigital.co.uk/slr-magic-anamorphot-cine-50mm-t28-2x-anamorphic-lens-mft.html

Sort of an all-in-one anamorphic lens.

[mercer]

6 minutes ago, AaronChicago said:

It's hard to tell exactly, but I would say you can cheat 13 stops out of V Log. It may be 12 on paper but with some power masks you can save certain areas that are either too hot, or too dark.

I used Impulz Tetrachrome as the base LUT. Added a lot of contrast. Tweaked some of the saturations. That's about it.

It was the actual 2x Prime like this one: https://www.ukdigital.co.uk/slr-magic-anamorphot-cine-50mm-t28-2x-anamorphic-lens-mft.html

Sort of an all-in-one anamorphic lens.

Not bad. At 12-13 stops of DR plus the form factor, I imagine the GH5 will see a lot of use. 

I love Tetrachrome, it has that M31 look without being so M31ey... I find if I'm having trouble grading something, a little Tetrachrome can make all the subtle difference.

[DBounce]

19 minutes ago, AaronChicago said:

It's hard to tell exactly, but I would say you can cheat 13 stops out of V Log. It may be 12 on paper but with some power masks you can save certain areas that are either too hot, or too dark.

I used Impulz Tetrachrome as the base LUT. Added a lot of contrast. Tweaked some of the saturations. That's about it.

It was the actual 2x Prime like this one: https://www.ukdigital.co.uk/slr-magic-anamorphot-cine-50mm-t28-2x-anamorphic-lens-mft.html

Sort of an all-in-one anamorphic lens.

 Been thinking of picking one of those up, I wanted to get the 50 mm, as I read it was the most sharp. 

[Teemu]

@AaronChicago looks great. A bit too sharp for my like. Is it just the lenses? How was your V-log setting sharpening -5?

You shot at 50/60fps 8bit everything?

These SLR Magic lenses are interesting. I would like to test those out.

 

I have shot anamorphic quite a lot with my GH5 but would love to have some native anamorphic lenses. Free from adapter problems and just native lenses. There is just that I am not sure if I like the image those produce or not...

 

Do you also shoot anamorphic stuff with your GH5 combined with vintage anamorphics?

[AaronChicago]

3 hours ago, DBounce said:

 Been thinking of picking one of those up, I wanted to get the 50 mm, as I read it was the most sharp. 

Yeah, and all around versatile. I’ve used the 35 and it just has too much distortion for most situations. I haven’t tried the 70mm.

2 hours ago, Teemu said:

 

Do you also shoot anamorphic stuff with your GH5 combined with vintage anamorphics?

No i dont. This is the only anamorphic lens i have for MFT. I had a vintage Singer 16D that I used w/ the Ursa Mini but I got tired of how complicated everything was to set up properly. 

[EthanAlexander]

Great work! N00b question: What's with the weird wobble/side-shift? (Especially obvious on the shot at 0:20) Is that the lens? IBIS?

[AaronChicago]

31 minutes ago, EthanAlexander said:

Great work! N00b question: What's with the weird wobble/side-shift? (Especially obvious on the shot at 0:20) Is that the lens? IBIS?

Thats the IBIS. I usually turn it off when i have the camera/lens on a shoulder rig but that day i was carrying just the GH5 body and lens.

[icarrere]

1 hour ago, AaronChicago said:

Yeah, and all around versatile. I’ve used the 35 and it just has too much distortion for most situations. I haven’t tried the 70mm.

No i dont. This is the only anamorphic lens i have for MFT. I had a vintage Singer 16D that I used w/ the Ursa Mini but I got tired of how complicated everything was to set up properly. 

Hi Aaron, the 50mm exhibits quite a lot of distortions as well, and it is more noticiable as the main actor is the city and its buildings. The stablilization in camera doesn´t play well with anamorphics together and doesn't help. But I like a lot your skills (all the other related things were the tools), the colour you've done and the shoots in general, the composition, your eye.

[AaronChicago]

43 minutes ago, icarrere said:

Hi Aaron, the 50mm exhibits quite a lot of distortions as well, and it is more noticiable as the main actor is the city and its buildings. The stablilization in camera doesn´t play well with anamorphics together and doesn't help. But I like a lot your skills (all the other related things were the tools), the colour you've done and the shoots in general, the composition, your eye.

Hey, thanks. I'm trying to improve on anamorphic framing. The 50mm does have some distortion but I kinda like the look. Compared to the 35 it's a lot less. That one is almost like a fish eye. 

[Emanuel]

9 hours ago, icarrere said:

Hi Aaron, the 50mm exhibits quite a lot of distortions as well, and it is more noticiable as the main actor is the city and its buildings. The stablilization in camera doesn´t play well with anamorphics together and doesn't help. But I like a lot your skills (all the other related things were the tools), the colour you've done and the shoots in general, the composition, your eye.

I don't think it is IBIS faulty IMHO, but certain 2x anamorphics coupled as far as I've seen since the early footage going along from there.

Take a look on the adapter 40 compact 1.33x version instead.

I guess Jurek, the shooter had used IBIS and does really help without any wobble distortion at all: https://vimeo.com/user2020056

[Emanuel]

(EDIT ^ up there in the previous post:)

*IBIS faulty combination

 

PS:

To my and everyone's eyes, I guess, both 2x and 1.33x are distinct worlds and they have nothing in common.

Hourses for courses, though. I don't think handheld is the most suitable route for 2x anamorphics.

[AaronChicago]

4 hours ago, Emanuel said:

(EDIT ^ up there in the previous post:)

*IBIS faulty combination

 

PS:

To my and everyone's eyes, I guess, both 2x and 1.33x are distinct worlds and they have nothing in common.

Hourses for courses, though. I don't think handheld is the most suitable route for 2x anamorphics.

Its definitely in a different league when using it with IBIS. If you hold fairly still it works perfectly. Any movement back and forth, side to side, or walking it becomes wobbly.

[Emanuel]

2 hours ago, AaronChicago said:

Its definitely in a different league when using it with IBIS. If you hold fairly still it works perfectly. Any movement back and forth, side to side, or walking it becomes wobbly.

Right. IBIS is not the beef, though, but handheld use actually.

[Teemu]

@AaronChicago have you tried to compensate that 35mm distortion in post? I mean distortion post correction. 

Or does it need so much stretch for the image that it comes more or less pointless?

 

Also can you share your experience on close focus. Its like +100cm (3'6 feet) away from the lens, right?

Have you tried some diopters with the 50mm?

I have experienced that I am always wanting to get even closer with anamorphic lenses. Even that my modified FM lens + Kowa can focus as close as 40cm. And that is without any diopters.

 

What ND solution you use? Am I right that these SLR Magic 2x Anamorphic primes does rotate from the front when focused, so it might be a problem with VariND...

 

Many questions but I hope you could share your thoughts and experiences on these things. Thanks in advance!

-Teemu-