bmp4k adventures

[leslie]

broke out the dremel yesterday and today did my final hacks to both of the housings i use to enable the use of the battery eliminator cable. Had to grind away about 2mm on the left inside of the frame, for the alloy frame

The plastic housing had more room to work with, however i had to grind a bevel on the top and bottom of the replacement rear housing as with the camera inside, the back housing was catching on the rear top of the camera. I still have to fill the voids with silicone or something, still considering that. I think i can make the plastic housing splash proof or rain proof i think but i doubt that it will be water proof, but thats ok for my purposes i think. Pretty happy with the mods i have made, i do think it will open up a few options to explore.

I did get outside just on sunset with the letus anamorphic and the faking it frame i have made, yet to look at the footage. Guess we'll see if it has any potential shortly

[leslie]

updated davinci resolve to 16.1.1 the other day and the p4k camera to 6.6 today. No issues with either updates.  The camera update stalls at 70% for two and a half minutes  but i knew this from the p4k thread. While its at 70%  i get a couple of notifications that the p4k  drivers or whatever are being installed, which is a bit disconcerting as you get the usb bell sound informing you that something is either inserted or removed and i'm thinking the update is about to fall over however it doesn't.

  Had a bit of a lung infection lately, might have overdone it on friday spent 16 hours in the car driving around helping the brother and his boss out. i also had a plan to video some of their expensive Arabian horses on sunset, due to a couple of showers of rain that didnt happen, we had pizza and watched the latest aladdin instead. Got home around midnight spent the next 18 hours sleeping i think. Ironically the bosses wife breeds and train Arabians and then sells them back to Arabia, go figure ?

I always though my laptop was 8 gig, after reading the p4k update change file, i checked and found i only had 4 gig, looks like the next spend will be on computer ram.

[leslie]

windows has done a couple of big updates over the last few days, whatever its done has broken viewing dng folders and image sequences. Maybe i need to reinstall the codec perhaps, not really an issue i guess since i updated resolve studio and are now playing with raw. Raw files display just fine in explorer

[leslie]

seeking enlightenment, i ran the black magic raw speed test that came with resovle 16.1.1. It looks like my dell laptop i5 with 4 gig will only handle  hd at its various frame rates.

No big deal for me as i have no 4k tv yet anyway and i have been happy enough shooting 1080. I do plan on adding more ram to the laptop and i do have a usb 3 port maybe i could plug a gpu into that perhaps, something to look into.

i did notice the minimum frame rate is 25 for the speed test, whats up with that ?  why no 24fps ? its kinda canonish isn't it lol  ?

In the long run its probably a non issue, most people will probably spend the money on a fast card or two or get the samsung t5.  What i do think would be cool is if bmd could implement a speed test for cards, i know bmd have a list of recommended cards to use however i think it would be advantageous if users could perform their own tests they could then decide if they wanted or needed to spend $$ on the faster cards. I know i can record braw 3 to 1 for at least a minute with a cheap 32gig card from woolworths. With 6.1 and dng's i got about 35 seconds. In one way i was kinda lucky i pre ordered waiting 5 months for the p4k gave me a chance to put a few dollars together to get the samsung t5 ssd, if the p4k had of turned up earlier priorities may have changed perhaps. I probably appear a bit stingy and you'd be mostly right .?

[leslie]

dusted off the elmoscope anamorphic today, tried a couple of different lenses 24mm vignettes quite badly, 35mm just gets the corners, a 37mm might just be ok 40mm should be ok.The issue being i dont have a 37mm or 40mm i do have a 50mm so that will be the next on the agenda to try.

While playing with various bits and pieces i cobbled two helicoids together and mounted that to the el nikor 63mm enlarging lens to the thinnest m42 mount i had then there's a 6mm spacer in there as well. Its not exactly pretty but i can get infinity focus. Now just need btm to add a button for stills into his app then all will be good in the world. Because its pita to press the button on the p4k in the dark lol

i'll get a few photos tomorrow,

[leslie]

here is the photos of whats involved in getting the el to infinity focus. At this point its not a particularly elegant solution, it does however give you proper lens like focus. The other way of doing things is to follow tito's guide but that only gives you infinity focus and i was more inclined to having a lens with focusing abilities. I do have one thinner mft mount on order yet to arrive once i get that i'll reexamine things and find a more suitable helicoid, that should make it a two piece solution i hope. The helicoids i used were two 12-17mm.  I should point out this arrangement is only for the mft mount on my bmp4k. How it would work on a different mount i'm not sure yet, i can try it on a ef mount  but that will be later.

i have also bought a bolex 16mm anamorphic lens, it has fungus issues, i either stuffed up the currancy conversion or i wasn't cheap enough as he accepted in less than an hour ?

[leslie]

Put in a session with the p4k and the lomo 40mm and elmoscope this afternoon.  the lomo fits inside the clamp housing and slides in nearly 10mm, no vignetting with it at either up against the elmo or sitting at the back of the clamp. the only issue is that the lomo has the aperture adjustment on the front close to the lens which is a pain in the ass. So its not a long term solution but at least i learned 40mm doesn't vignette on the p4k with the elmoscope. 35mm does vignette with the elmo but since i usually crop the sides it would probably be ok. Thats a test i want to do soon.

One layer of masking tape allows for a nice snug fit with a cheap 77 step up filter and nd on the front of the elmo. Had some issues with my cheap card dropping frames so the samsung t5 ssd holder is back on duty slung underneath. Has anyone found a usb 3 cable with a 90 degree end ?

[kye]

Looks like you're making lots of progress...   what are you shooting with this thing?

[The ghost of squig]

10 hours ago, kye said:

Looks like you're making lots of progress...   what are you shooting with this thing?

Feral pigs by the looks of it.

[leslie]

5 hours ago, The ghost of squig said:

Feral pigs by the looks of it.

your not far wrong... chickens and sheep and the occasional flower for the practice. flowers are kinda rare at the moment with the drought. 

 

15 hours ago, kye said:

Looks like you're making lots of progress...   what are you shooting with this thing?

just farm life at the moment. as actors the animals are a bit skittish, probably confusing it with something else ?, However i cant complain about the pay rate, all it costs is a bag of feed ?

been thinking of offering to document some of the activities at  the local mens shed as a way to break some ground and gain some experience.

[kye]

5 hours ago, leslie said:

just farm life at the moment. as actors the animals are a bit skittish, probably confusing it with something else ?, However i cant complain about the pay rate, all it costs is a bag of feed ?

been thinking of offering to document some of the activities at  the local mens shed as a way to break some ground and gain some experience.

Cool..  

I can't remember where I read it, but there's some fairly standard approaches to doing profiles of people as mini-documentaries.  Interview someone on camera, shoot a bunch of B-roll and then cut it together, finding the story in post.  Obviously that's a drastic oversimplification of what is a deep art form, but once you're comfortable with the tech, shooting things like this allow a lot of room for error and if they're historic / human interest pieces that are unpaid then expectations will be low and you have lots of flexibility in post.

What are your goals?  

[leslie]

More landscape based i think. i have seen a bit of australia. I'd like to revisit those places and capture some of it with the pk4 and anamorphics, to do it some justice. its a big country it needs to be done anamorphically ? maybe some  shorts that interest me.

[leslie]

The bolex anamorphic projector lens turned up a couple of days ago. Haven't had a chance to do much till this evening. there was some haze on the inside of the front and back lens elements, i knew this before i bought it. I took a gamble that i could get it cleaned up and it wasn't fungus or between the cemented elements. I have managed to disassemble the front part and clean the front lens. Its cleaned up really nicely. Someone else has pulled it apart before as the front lens ring which has the cutouts for the lens wrench was put on backwards however it was only done up finger tight. M hand did slip undoing the last bolt on the brass part of the helicoid and i have scratched a 1cm long mark on the housing, bummed about that !! The bolex is quite a bit smaller than the elmoscope. I'll have some photos to share tomorrow.

[leslie]

i know i said pics were coming and they are.. In the interests of upping my gamesmanship, i have gone with moving pics. I utilized the pk4, the viltrox speedbooster and a pentax m42 50mm f1.4 not to mention some fabric, a board and a lazy susan. Learned quite a bit today, i must really press hard down on the p4k shutter as i had to cut the last couple of seconds of each of the clips due to movement. I also really messed up on two of the clips in the middle  with the colour. You'll also see the scratch i made in a couple of the clips. learned a few more things about resolve as well.

Been raining most of the day, which is very welcome, so was squashed between my mums car and my motorbike. I thought with my mums car being white and about two feet away it would have reflected more light, that wasn't the case.

with pulling the lens off the front i dont think i have the anamorphic aligned properly, since i still have to do the back element, i will pull it apart again as its all just finger tight at the moment. I'm thinking of investing in one of those white out pens nothing else seems to show up on the blackened outside of the anamorphic.

i do have everything i need to motorize the lazy susan except a driver board for a stepper, perhaps next time i do it again it will be all sorted out i hope.

[leslie]

I am convinced somewhere in my room is a a black hole that randomly eats things.. then months later spits them back out ? After looking in the absolutely last place i would imagine for a cable for the gopro battery eliminator to hide in ... i finds it ?  Its been awol for several weeks

As a proof of concept i made up a quick and dirty cover for the gopro since the battery eliminator is waterproof no longer. All it has to do is keep most of the water off the back of the gopro as the front should be ok i think. there's a slot in the bottom for the cable and water to drain away. I have done this just in case i get called away or i get distracted with something else,  while i run a time lapse and a sudden storm comes up. i may add a rubber band around it to keep it together, winds have been pretty severe of late

its surprising how much of the container i had to cut away to avoid it showing in the photos with the letus anamorphic.

 

[leslie]

Good morning all, Happy new year. New year, new resolutions i guess. I plan on being a bit more active/creative this year

Got the gopro setup, running a timelapse as we chat. May have some sort of wildlife video to show for it later today. 

The ugreen usb c lead with a 90 degree angle connector turned up a few days ago. Initial setup wasn't promising, i couldn't get a connection between the p4k and the t5 ssd. However i have had another play with it this morning and turned all the connections either, upside down or the other way around and now i can record to the ssd, not sure if perhaps i didn't have the cable seated properly the first time round which is a bit embarrassing as i left a neutral comment on the ebay feedback link  .  On the back of the ugreen packet is a sticker showing thats its only usb 2 not 3.1 so looks like i have some testing to see how long i can record to the ssd before it drops frames. Considering that it was $10 posted and the tilta p4k cable comes in at $40 posted to aus i 'll be using the ugreen for awhile. The 90 degree connector does make for a more streamlined setup much less chance on getting hooked up on something i hope. Theres nothing on the ebay link to say its not usb 3.1 that i noticed, you just assume that being usb c it would be 3.1. At the moment the main thing is i can record to ssd not sure for how long, at some point i'll have to upgrade. i'm kinda hoping it will be later rather than sooner.

Got an email from sirui this morning apparently there's 10 days to go till the early bird offer closes for the anamorphic so i'm still in with a chance to get one.

Got some  colour correcting gels to play with last week haven't opened them yet. I was thinking of doing an unboxing video for something different and the experience. I have also ordered a cheap led light i have seen reviewed on youtube. When that turns up things should get mildly interesting. there's a metal backboard in the process of being spray painted. I have some plans of using it for testing purposes and vlogging if all the planning comes together.

[leslie]

well the first timelapse of 2020 is done and dusted. If you have a spare one minute 40 seconds take a look,

used the gopro with the letus anamorphic and the rage cam battery eliminator. The battery easily lasted the day. I had the gopro setup on video with the timelapse function so it built a video as it took a photo i ended up with 1.3 gigabyte file. I did edit it down to just show the birds, lots of bees use the water i notice. Pretty sure a lot more animals use the water than i caught this time round as usually the bath is half empty. May have to run a light or two and film into the night, but thats a test for another time. i'll keep going trialing different settings and see what else turns up. I defished in gopro studio then edited in resolve, the cuts are pretty noticeable need more practice with that aspect. there is no sound might have a word with ironfilms about a cheap 2 channel recorder thats good at ambient nature sounds

[leslie]

Ok had to go into town today, took the p4k and the viltrox speedbooster and the tokina 28-70 up to the look out. Been trying to sort infinity focus out on the viltrox speedbooster. Thats been problematic, with all the trees that surround my property, its been hard to get a good focus on a subject in the distance. While i could cut down all the trees to improve the view, i figure with half of australia burning or burnt out probably wouldn't hurt to leave a few trees standing for now. Anyways after some playing around i have pretty much maxed how much in one direction i can get the optics to turn in the viltrox. below i have included a jpg from today's effort. I can get focus peaking from the first houses to the houses in the back of the photo. Plus  i get a little peaking  from the foliage halfway between the houses to the horizon. i would like to other peoples experiences to see if theirs are the same. At this point unless someone comes up with more information i presume that's about as good as i will get it.   I tried peaking on clouds and the moon for the ultimate infinity, but i didn't have much success.  Still the moon is up at about 3 am at the moment, if i wake up early i'll have another go.

 

[leslie]

Bought two cheap led lights of Amazon a moth or so ago. Don't normally buy of amazon, had to open an account normally i get most of my stuff of ebay. However i found a review of some cheap led lights from dslr video shooter. but couldn't find them on ebay. I'm impressed they don't flicker. Been waiting for some other parts to arrive and now they have. Dust has been a bit of a problem this or last year, more to the point. So i have been thinking of how to keep them clean as i'm not big on dusting

i plan on using them for accent lights. I also bought some cheap bike clamp light holders they seem to open wide enough to grip a 45mm table edge ok. Since i love the orange teal look, i bought a bunch of gel filter material and a meter long length of perspex pipe i cut the pipe into three sections long enough to cover the led lights and cut some orange and blue gel filter material to slide inside the perspex. The filter material is one and a half times the diameter of the tube. I can either use them at normal strength or turn the light 180 degrees and get a double strength filter. I plan on getting a mate to turn up some caps for the top and bottom shortly just need to measure the barrel of the charging lead hopefully its smaller than the larger of the tripod threads. I just eyeballed the bottom of the p4k rig it has provision for both thread sizes and the lead with the round charging port will fit inside the larger thread quite comfortably i think. At some point bike mount clamps may not be suitable all the time, I sort of figure i'll get some stands, with the thread on the bottom it should be easy to mount them on stands in the future.

[leslie]

Well its been awhile, a couple of lenses have been added to the collection. The first being a russian lens an industar 61,  53 f2.8,  nice exterior, great lenses but more play in it than the local kindergarten, which is rather disheartening. focusing turns really easily till it hits a rough patch in the middle. it was the only question i didn't ask the previous seller seeing it was pretty cheap it would probably cost more to send it back. So far it seems like it requires a different flange distance adapter to what i have already Things being a bit tight i haven't really worried about sorting it out just yet. The other lens is a vintage canon or fd mount, but its a bit of an odd one for the forum i think, and its still on its way from the usa. Postage was quite reasonable oddly enough coming from the usa, however the conversion rate left me high and dry. Looking on ebay it seems about $60-80 cheaper than some others i have seen, hopefully its a good deal.

I have sworn of lenses till i can put some dollars together for a fvd16a for the elmoscope type 1. Got a confirmation email from rapido this morning that the fvd16a will fit. I'll just buy the front adapter / clamp thing as well, i have the rear mounting already sorted.