Fuji X-T3 and X-T4 discussion

[androidlad]

1 hour ago, TrueIndigo said:

Is the UHD crop mode on the X-T3 only available for high speed shooting? I was wondering if you can set lower speeds like 25 fps in crop mode (with a view to using some old C-mount lenses on it).  

If you enable SD film sim/HDMI F-log, you can shoot all 4k frame rates at 1.18 crop.

[Jay60p]

I have used the 1.18 crop to advantage with a C mount adapter, for 2K.

Using a Vario-Switar zoom 18-86 f2.5 from a Bolex 16mm camera, you can shoot 4K60p and edit in a 1080 60p timeline in Final Cut Pro

well within the image circle (set "Spacial Conform" to NONE). I usually reduce the scale to about 0.84 before is see vignetting, to get the widest view.

This is a H16 RX lens, but I find no focus problems from the RX adjustment for the Bolex viewfinder prism. Its very sharp at mid apertures throughout the

nearly 5:1 zoom range. The version of this lens I have is one of the early ones without the electric eye & automatic aperture so it has a smaller projection

coming off the side with the Bolex trigger, so it is not a problem mounting this on the X-T3.

[Jay60p]

Vario Switar continued:

And now for the limitations to this setup...

1) The 18mm wide view is about equivalent to a 30mm APS-C lens, or about 55mm FF 35mm equivalent, since this 18mm is not covering the entire sensor. So it's more like a "normal to telephoto" zoom.

2) Closest focus is about 5 feet.

3) The live view in the finder shows the image circle surrounded by black and is hard to judge the true edges of the (to be) cropped 1080 frame.

You'd probably want to mask off the cropped image on the LCD with tape.

5) I don't actually use it mounted as in the pictures above. I put the camera on an aluminum plate that sets the camera farther back, and has an

adjustable lens supporting screw that comes up under & just before the zoom ring that makes the setup much more stable and balanced.

I mainly made that plate for supporting long Canon FD zoom lenses.

 

The advantages of this setup (for 2K) over still camera zoom lenses is the constant aperture throughout the zoom,

the lack of exposure stepping and focus shifting because the lens is not electronically focused & zoomed "by wire",

and the nearly 5:1 zoom ratio (X-T3 kit lens is 3:1) . And for me it was a free left-over from my Bolex days.

It's so cool to be able to use that lens again.

 

[TrueIndigo]

Thanks for the info. In C-mount I have a Schneider 10mm, Angenieux 15mm and a Bausch & Lomb 26mm which would be fun to try out.

 

[Xavier Plagaro Mussard]

I have a computer question. Anybody has a Mac which can edit 4K60p h265 10 bit footage easily without using proxy?? I am wondering if an I7 Mac mini or a new MacBook Pro 16 can cope with it.

[josdr]

45 minutes ago, Xavier Plágaro Mussard said:

I have a computer question. Anybody has a Mac which can edit 4K60p h265 10 bit footage easily without using proxy?? I am wondering if an I7 Mac mini or a new MacBook Pro 16 can cope with it.

New model MAC mini i7 64 gb ram. Premiere will do it with stuttering, resolve a bit better. Mac's are worthless for this kind of work.. You would need an external gpu case _ gpu i for macs in order to edit with ease. Or convert the h265 to prores that works great for editing.

[Xavier Plagaro Mussard]

Thanks for your answer. I use FCP X, I don't know if that would change things or not. I read the T2 chip on Mac minis help to decode h264/h265, I don't know how efficient it is in doing it. 

[Anaconda_]

I have a 27-inch 2019 iMac and it's no problem cutting 4k50p 10bit footage. I think it's mostly 200mbps Long GOP.

In Premiere, it can run very smooth on 'Full' quality even with a light grade in Film Convert, so I guess 60p would also be no problem, especially if you knock it to 1/2 while editing.

[Xavier Plagaro Mussard]

Thanks Anaconda. What cpu do your iMac have i5, i7 or i9??

[Jay60p]

4 hours ago, Xavier Plágaro Mussard said:

I have a computer question. Anybody has a Mac which can edit 4K60p h265 10 bit footage easily without using proxy?? I am wondering if an I7 Mac mini or a new MacBook Pro 16 can cope with it.

Yes. I've used a stock Mac Mini i5, 8GB ram for a year editing 4K60p H265 HEVC 10bit 200mb/s in Final Cut Pro without transcoding.

For a single track of video the playback is smooth with the viewer's "View Quality" setting at "Better Performance". This slightly reduces

the resolution of the playback display but at 4K is still a great picture to edit with. And as soon as you stop or pause playback it refreshes to full res.

Set at "Better Quality" you get full resolution playback in the viewer, but the frame rate drops to maybe 15fps. Still, playback does not stall and the

audio keeps up in sync without dropouts.

Adding an effect may stall playback, but color adjustments (curves & color wheels) and audio equalization usually will not.

If you are stacking layers of shots for keying, superimpositions, etc then you would want to transcode from H265.

You need the latest Mac OS, Catalina for the correct handling of H265, the previous Mojave had a problem that crushed the blacks & whites of HEVC.

[Anaconda_]

7 minutes ago, Xavier Plágaro Mussard said:

Thanks Anaconda. What cpu do your iMac have i5, i7 or i9??

3.6GHz i9

[Jay60p]

5 hours ago, josdr said:

New model MAC mini i7 64 gb ram. Premiere will do it with stuttering, resolve a bit better. Mac's are worthless for this kind of work.. You would need an external gpu case _ gpu i for macs in order to edit with ease. Or convert the h265 to prores that works great for editing.

From your post it appears Premiere & Resolve struggle with H265 on a Mac.

Why spend so much on a Mac and not try Final Cut Pro X?

Are you avoiding Final Cut Pro X because of the magnetic timeline?

I started with Final Cut 3, and hated the new X version at first.

But to do 4K video I tried it again, gradually learned how to use it, with the occasional temporary frustration. 

Now it is second nature. Thank god for searchable PDF manuals.

 

 

[josdr]

5 hours ago, Xavier Plágaro Mussard said:

Thanks for your answer. I use FCP X, I don't know if that would change things or not. I read the T2 chip on Mac minis help to decode h264/h265, I don't know how efficient it is in doing it. 

Just to make it clear, I am talking about h265 4000mbps All intra files, which stutter. I never use long gop/200 mbps so cannot comment on that

[Anaconda_]

But you can’t record 4k60p in all-intra on the XT3... Right? 

[Jay60p]

1 hour ago, josdr said:

Just to make it clear, I am talking about h265 4000mbps All intra files, which stutter. I never use long gop/200 mbps so cannot comment on that

I just tried this on the X-T3 and Final Cut Pro on my Mac Mini i5.

Switch to FCPX and your problems are solved.

Unless you are not using an X-T3 there is only ....

"* All Intra with following settings.
DCI4K/4K 29.97p/25p/24p/23.98p 400Mbps
Full HD(2048×1080)/Full HD(1920×1080) 59.94p/50p/29.97p/25p/24p/23.98p　200Mbps

(direct quote from Fuji website).

I just shot long slow pans with X-t3 at DCI 4096x2160, 29.97fps, 409.35 Mbits/s H265 HEVC 10bit Full Range PCM 24bit Stereo 48000hz  (reported in Quicktime player on Mac Mini)

Both Quicktime Player and FCPX Viewer play this smoothly,

and FCPX viewer will play this back in "Better Performance" mode (thats at full resolution) smoothly with no skipping or stutter.

That's even better performance than longGOP playback.

 

[Jay60p]

26 minutes ago, Jay60p said:

and FCPX viewer will play this back in "Better Performance" mode (thats at full resolution) smoothly with no skipping or stutter.

That's even better performance than longGOP playback.

 

Correction, I meant "Better Quality" mode.

And I just tested the longGOP at 29.97 HEVC 400mbps, and that also plays back smoothly in "Better Quality" full resolution

mode, a compression I've never used before. So no problems with 29.97 HEVC at any compression.

It's the 59.94 fps HEVC that needs the "Better Performance" mode in the FCPX viewer.

 

[josdr]

On 2/6/2020 at 6:55 PM, Jay60p said:

I just tried this on the X-T3 and Final Cut Pro on my Mac Mini i5.

Switch to FCPX and your problems are solved.

Lol....No thank you, i will not be using that POS. Premiere is way better suited for team work. As for its timeline.....

Quote

Unless you are not using an X-T3 there is only ....

"* All Intra with following settings.
DCI4K/4K 29.97p/25p/24p/23.98p 400Mbps
Full HD(2048×1080)/Full HD(1920×1080) 59.94p/50p/29.97p/25p/24p/23.98p　200Mbps

(direct quote from Fuji website).

I

 

I grant you there was an extra 0 at the 400mbps bit, but as I wrote I neither shoot long gop or at 200 mbps so what is the need for this "direct quote"?
 My original assertion stands. You need an external gpu for serious work and transcoding with a mac mini.... Timeline stuttering and ludicrous export times is all you can expect

 

[BrunoCH]

First shot with my new Meike cine lenses (25 and 35mm). It's just a sequence for an actress demo reel. Really satisfied with these new lenses.

Pros :

- great color rendition and contrast.

- almost no focus breathing.

- long focus throw

- the aperture ring is not linear (exposure adjustment is much easier and precise)

- build all metal

- price

 

Cons :

- 25mm is the widest focal length for X mount. (12 and 16mm cover only MFT sensor)

- 50mm and 65mm will be released later, but doesn’t yet exist in X mount.

- very sensitive to side flare.

 

The wide shot with the 25mm

Close shots with the 35 mm + black promist 1/4 filter

2000 ISO

[Jay60p]

8 hours ago, josdr said:

Lol....No thank you, i will not be using that POS. Premiere is way better suited for team work. As for its timeline.....

I grant you there was an extra 0 at the 400mbps bit, but as I wrote I neither shoot long gop or at 200 mbps so what is the need for this "direct quote"?
 My original assertion stands. You need an external gpu for serious work and transcoding with a mac mini.... Timeline stuttering and ludicrous export times is all you can expect

 

Well, the 2018 Mac Mini i5 has been working fine for me for a year, no timeline stuttering and fast export times here.

So what I expect is ... it will work again today.

I don't use an external GPU. I thought I'd need to add more memory, but so far I don't. Just needed to add a big external hard drive. I only use the internal SSD for system and apps. 

Premiere seems to work fine in the 2019 iMacs too, according to Anaconda in a previous post. I haven't tried one.

I'm not part of a team so I'm not sure what you mean there.
I'd assume a team would be a group of professionals who would be using $5,000 systems and don't need recommendations from us!  The amazing thing is I can do everything I want in 4K video on a $1,000 mini.

I don't quite understand what you're saying besides bashing Macs.

What hardware are you using that works for you?

 

[josdr]

2 hours ago, Jay60p said:

 

 

Well, the 2018 Mac Mini i5 has been working fine for me for a year, no timeline stuttering and fast export times here.

So what I expect is ... it will work again today.

I don't use an external GPU. I thought I'd need to add more memory, but so far I don't. Just needed to add a big external hard drive. I only use the internal SSD for system and apps. 

Premiere seems to work fine in the 2019 iMacs too, according to Anaconda in a previous post. I haven't tried one.

I'm not part of a team so I'm not sure what you mean there.
I'd assume a team would be a group of professionals who would be using $5,000 systems and don't need recommendations from us!  The amazing thing is I can do everything I want in 4K video on a $1,000 mini.

I don't quite understand what you're saying besides bashing Macs.

What hardware are you using that works for you?

 

Hello and good morning. I can only presume that the medium of the internet loses some of the intended message between us. So let me start from the bottom. I am not bashing macs, I have been using them for almost two decades. Nevertheless they have some glaring shortcomings when it comes down to video processing, in the case of the mini the absence of a dedicated gpu, which for such an extensive product should have been there.

You are of course correct about the need for huge external ssd's and a raid filesystem to keep everything in order

As far as Premiere and Resolve are concerned when used in my mac mini configuration (resolve being better in that regard) , footage shot at h265 All-Intra 400mbps stutters and the timeline is not smooth. As for exporting said footage, it does take a lot of time.Granted,  Premiere does need to update its codebase but it has certain characteristics when sharing projects between team members and organising lots of footage that other editing software lacks.  I like resolve but why  the monitoring screen cannot  detach and be used separately in another monitor is astonishing. I work with a mac mini at home and with an Asus Rog and a pc rig (both with ge-force cards at work). If you can afford it I would suggest that you get an external gpu case and a compatible gpu to use with your mac. The difference will be spectacular. Have a nice day!