EOSHD $200 challenge - Voting begins!

[KnightsFan]

3 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

Feel free to edit up your piece and post it anyway mate.

Always interesting to see what people come up with.

Thanks, but I sort of went on a DIY adventure and never got to the point of having a complete camera. But maybe I'll post a late "entry" in the future once it's all duct taped together.

[Andrew Reid]

*** THE RESULTS ARE IN! ***

Congratulations to @PannySVHS for winning the Best Cinematography EOSHD Forum Oscar

Congratulations to @Framed_By_Dan for winning the Best Image Quality category!

Now comes the sticky bit...

I see that @Nordee and @leslie came joint last with no votes in either category. Very unfair!!

Therefore dear Nordee has an opportunity to mail off their camera to @PannySVHS and then Panny send it back with some tips and post what he shot on it

Sir Leslie can give his camera to @Framed_By_Dan if he wants - none of this is obligatory, and Framed By Dan will give it back after - right?

I'll announce my EOSHD Judge's prize later in the week when my entry is posted on the front blog.

Feel free to now REVEAL what you bought for under $200 and shot the entires with. I for one am looking forward to finding out...

[kye]

Congrats to the winners - well deserved!

I figured I would lose the competition so would have some fun with it, so went very very budget.  I also wanted to see how far I could 'improve' the footage in Resolve.

Camera #1:

Fujifilm J20
Point and shoot - 2009 - 640x480 30p (final video was cropped to 16:9)
Price is about $15-30 on ebay (mine was purchased by my wife when new, so has been sitting in a drawer for about a decade)

Final video:

Unprocessed footage:

 

Camera #2: 

Fake action camera
It claims 1080p, but is FAKE and shoots the worst 640x480 30p I have ever seen (final video was cropped to 16:9)
Price was AU$17 brand new on ebay (which included free shipping across Australia - about 5000kms)

Final video:

Unprocessed footage:

 

Camera #3 was going to be a D-Mount lens on my old GoPro, but sadly didn't survive the modifications..

 

[Andrew Reid]

Sheer brilliance mate

[thebrothersthre3]

Really awesome! The before and after is quite something. 

[kye]

I'll write up what I did in case it's useful to anyone.  Watch this space  

[leslie]

16 minutes ago, kye said:

I'll write up what I did in case it's useful to anyone.  Watch this space  

you killed it !! how much more technical can you be ? ? by the way was it a silver or black you sacrificed  ?

However you did get an honorable mention so i guess thats ok ?

[heart0less]

Now, that's called dedication! 

Great work, kye. 

 

Here is a picture of my setup:

NEX5 (the original one, not N /R /T), which I bought for ~40 $ (it was missing battery, charger and, supposedly, its battery doors wouldn't close [they do, though]) + Helios 44-4 (which I bought many years ago in a combination with working Zenit ET for 20 $) and a cheap (10$) ND filter. 

 

It's got one of the quirkest video modes. 

You can lock the exposure during recording only by holding down the shutter button, otherwise it's full auto and shows a tendency to quickly ramp your ISO quite high. 

That's why some people came up with and idea like this:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:8270

 

Waiting for next reveals. 

(( :

[leslie]

i got a bit fixated on the losing camera bit, completely missed the fine print about entering just for the judges category. But thats life.

I'm a bit surprised with the amount of entries or lack thereof, as i bid on 3 or 4 cameras but was out bid on everything. I was sure you guys must have been buying everything up  for the competition. The old video camera segment  of ebay must be quite abit more active than one would have thought. Too cut a long story short i ended up using a logitech c920 webcam with a letus anamorphic adapter taped to the front. My reasoning for using the letus was to help differentiate my entry from the others. i figure if speedboosters were allowed if you already had them an anamorphic should be ok as well. Not sure if anyone else shot anamorphicaly. Considering i went to the trouble of using the letus i did forget to get any footage of the lens flaring which was kinda dumb. Since my entry has proved surprisingly unlikely to win the point is moot i guess.

I'm glad i entered i learned a whole bunch of things that i can apply to the next challenge. i am fairly confident i can increase my vote rate by at least a 100% next time round ?

So dan the man pm me your address if you need a webcam for  the odd late night online dalliance. Mind you, you can keep those tips,tricks and footage for your own personal gratuitousness ok ?

 

[mrjim]

It's fantastic and great fun to see what people used for this challenge. I bought this used Sony WX500 fixed zoom (30X) lens compact about 22 months ago on ebay for £133 plus postage. It has a 1/2.3 type Exmor R CMOS sensor and seems to be a cheaper version of the Sony HX90V minus the EVF, and I believe is missing some of that model's more sophisticated manual settings. It does have a flip-up LCD screen (not touch), which is useful for waist-level video and selfies. I shot the video using the XAVC S HD format at 25p which tops out at around 50mbps. You can also choose the same codec at 50p. AVCHD and MP4 are other options, but no 4K.  

Leaving it on automatic is ok but you can get blown highlights, and the ISO is pumped up to get a useable picture inevitably resulting in some noise in lower light conditions. However, there are some manual tweaks available. You can adjust and fix the ISO setting and, in the case of the Bexhill video shot in bright sunlight, I chose 200 ISO. I selected Multi Metering Mode, Focus Area Wide, Daylight white balance, Steadyshot Active, face detection ON and Low Soft Skin Effect. I didn't grade the footage, it's straight out of camera. Being a small sensor camera, optimal image quality is achieved by shooting in well-lit situations, which was the case here. I was impressed by the fine detail captured by the WX500, and the dynamic range in the scenes isn't bad at all. It's fair to say it's a surprisingly capable and inexpensive pocket video-cam with effective stabilisation.

[anax276]

Hi!

My camera is an Olympus OM-D E-M5 (2012) with an old Canon FD 50/1.4 lens, used with a basic, cheap adapter.

With a bit of luck and searching you can find an E-M5 for €200 (or a bit less) on eBay. I bought the lens also on eBay for a low price (I don’t remember exactly how much). 

No other equipment or colour grading was used.

 

 

[BTM_Pix]

Well done to everyone who entered.

Hopefully we can have another edition so that shiftless lazy buggers like me can actually get their act together and join in this time.

[Snowfun]

Sony A5000 (£100) and Nikon 18-55 (£49).

12 minutes ago, BTM_Pix said:

Well done to everyone who entered.

Hopefully we can have another edition so that shiftless lazy buggers like me can actually get their act together and join in this time.

...And justify the €12.99 or whatever it was you spent on some delectable objet d’art! 

[Grimor]

Congratulations to the winners! I would like to propose a similar but different challenge for another edition: we would all use the same camera and lens, so the film differences would be by framing / filters / sound etc ... I would like it to be GH2 and Helios 44-2 58mm, a combination that many of us already have. So the choice of hack and gradding would also be free. Even the script could be common to everyone. A daily scene to choose from (go to work, buy bread, something like that). It would also be a fun exercise

[kye]

5 hours ago, leslie said:

you killed it !! how much more technical can you be ? ? by the way was it a silver or black you sacrificed  ?

However you did get an honorable mention so i guess thats ok ?

How much more technical?  hahahaha..  just wait!

4 hours ago, heart0less said:

NEX5 (the original one, not N /R /T), which I bought for ~40 $ (it was missing battery, charger and, supposedly, its battery doors wouldn't close [they do, though]) + Helios 44-4 (which I bought many years ago in a combination with working Zenit ET for 20 $) and a cheap (10$) ND filter. 

I liked your video - it looked vintage in both the colours as well as lens.  Interestingly I didn't spot the Helios despite having done lots of lens comparisons and owning two of them myself!

Great stuff!

3 hours ago, leslie said:

Too cut a long story short i ended up using a logitech c920 webcam with a letus anamorphic adapter taped to the front.

You absolutely win my vote for Most Off The Wall Choice!!

I am going to claim that I had the thought of a webcam running to a laptop, but not with an anamorphic adapter!  and of course, I only thought about it, you did it, so big credit to you!

If only you'd pummelled the image to death in Resolve like I did!!

3 hours ago, mrjim said:

It's fantastic and great fun to see what people used for this challenge. I bought this used Sony WX500 fixed zoom (30X) lens compact about 22 months ago on ebay for £133 plus postage.

You did well on the IQ - fourth place well earned!  Plus you were the only person to include a Dalek, so special bonus points for that!!

1 hour ago, anax276 said:

My camera is an Olympus OM-D E-M5 (2012) with an old Canon FD 50/1.4 lens, used with a basic, cheap adapter.

I voted for you in the IQ category - excellent choice.  This has great IQ, nice colours and contrast, and getting that SOOC is impressive!

36 minutes ago, Snowfun said:

Sony A5000 (£100) and Nikon 18-55 (£49).

Nice!!  These old cameras are still pretty good!

13 minutes ago, Grimor said:

Congratulations to the winners! I would like to propose a similar but different challenge for another edition: we would all use the same camera and lens, so the film differences would be by framing / filters / sound etc ... I would like it to be GH2 and Helios 44-2 58mm, a combination that many of us already have. So the choice of hack and gradding would also be free. Even the script could be common to everyone. A daily scene to choose from (go to work, buy bread, something like that). It would also be a fun exercise

I like it!

Of course, I don't own a GH2 and wouldn't buy one so would keep my current strategy of using the cheapest camera on ebay and grading it within an inch of its life!

I am hatching plans for how we can do this again in some way.  I have an action camera I don't want, so maybe the rule will be "everyone must enter this competition because if you don't I'll mail you this action camera" ???

[BTM_Pix]

1 hour ago, Snowfun said:

...And justify the €12.99 or whatever it was you spent on some delectable objet d’art! 

It was €12.49 in the end as I do like a haggle.

[Michael Steiner]

Congrats to @PannySVHS and @Framed_By_Dan and to all other participants as well! Some very exotic camera choices and lenses already revealed. Now I'm particularly curious to see what camera @TrueIndigo has used. I liked the colours of that one the most. And of course which lens created that unusual bokeh in the contribution of @Wronzoff.

My choice was very boring and unspectacular, as I used what I already owned: Canon 60D and 60mm Macro with some cheap 0.9 ND (EOS standard colour profile without any grading).

  

[leslie]

1 hour ago, kye said:

If only you'd pummelled the image to death in Resolve like I did!!

hey i'm still learning but i might save that for next time

Just now, Michi said:

Congrats to @PannySVHS and @Framed_By_Dan and to all other participants as well! Some very exotic camera choices and lenses already revealed. Now I'm particularly curious to see what camera @TrueIndigo has used. I liked the colours of that one the most. And of course which lens created that unusual bokeh in the contribution of @Wronzoff.

My choice was very boring and unspectacular, as I used what I already owned: Canon 60D and 60mm Macro with some cheap 0.9 ND (EOS standard colour profile without any grading).

  

your a braver man than me. i like my 60d too much to have chanced it in a comp. which turned out to be the right decision for me in hindsight

[Michael Steiner]

In all honesty: I would have paid off the winner of the competition the amount 60Ds go on Ebay right now rather than handing over mine if I lost. This is the first camera I bought with my own money so it has some emotional value for me and will remain on my shelf ? 

[kye]

Here's my write-up on how I shot and processed my entries.  I created a separate thread in case it turns into a grading discussion

 

 

In a way I used this competition to test a couple of theories and to try a couple of things I've had in the back of my mind too.  Trying to modify an action camera with a better lens has been on my radar for some time now