Why I'm not taking my S5ii on holiday.

[PannySVHS]

2 hours ago, John Matthews said:

You're definitely more serious than me. I understand kids leaving the home as I'm down to a 12-year-old who's not always keen on being photographed or filmed. 

That sounds interesting, especially nowadays. I'd be scared of significant confrontation (even when it's legal). It would seem you can do anything with a phone, but when it's a "camera", people think the worst.

I would not want to get filmed by a phone and fed into a data munching cloud or phone os. I wouldn´t mind to get filmed by some GH2 afficiandos though. If with a Voigt 17/25mm, anytime, handsdown. And after that some nice nerdy lens talk with my peer.:)

[BTM_Pix]

I read the title and thought your S5ii had been naughty.

On my next holiday, I’m taking the camera and buying the lens when I get there.

So, I’ll be taking the Sigma Fp and buying the Panasonic 28-200mm lens for the typical used price in Tokyo of around £400.

The big draw for the Fp is that this lens is optically stabilised and is an appropriate size for it.

It’s not the fastest but that keeps the size down and it’s a great range for travel.

The beauty of the Fp is the modular nature so I can take off the EVF to strip it down to go with a couple of the fast compact M mounts I’ve got that I’ll take as well.

Incidentally, for anyone interested in this lens and the S9 then Panasonic are bundling them together and the lens then works out at around £400.

Like with the Fp, that’s a good package for a full frame roll your own cinecorder.

[John Matthews]

20 minutes ago, BTM_Pix said:

I read the title and thought your S5ii had been naughty.

Haha! Clearly, the S5ii had been filming the wrong things.

21 minutes ago, BTM_Pix said:

On my next holiday, I’m taking the camera and buying the lens when I get there.

So, I’ll be taking the Sigma Fp and buying the Panasonic 28-200mm lens for the typical used price in Tokyo of around £400.

I was also contemplating this option until I realized the price of the 28-200mm in the USA (and it's sold out almost everywhere) because that would be an option. One lens to do it all, the ultimate travel setup IMO. You still need to worry about getting mugged, just not in Japan. That's a crazy good price. I'm sure you'll get remarks about how you should have to pay taxes on it.

Please let us what you think of the OIS and Sigma FP. Judging from that video, it looks great, especially for micro-jitters. 

[kye]

17 hours ago, John Matthews said:

You're definitely more serious than me. I understand kids leaving the home as I'm down to a 12-year-old who's not always keen on being photographed or filmed. 

That sounds interesting, especially nowadays. I'd be scared of significant confrontation (even when it's legal). It would seem you can do anything with a phone, but when it's a "camera", people think the worst.

I have always been fascinated by complex systems, and film-making is one of them.

It includes having an understanding of:

• perspective and composition and camera movement 
• optics and optical design
• analog electronics
• digital electronics
• data compression
• colour science
• editing concepts and the manipulation of time such as montage, cross-cutting, jump cuts, etc
• sound design
• music
• aesthetic perception such as colour theory, psychoacoustics, symbology, culture
• storytelling and explicit and implicit forms of communication like words and body language
• emotion and memory
• etc

..and more importantly it involves learning how each of these effects the others, and how to manipulate each of these elements within its domain in order to create a coherent and affective end product.

In that sense, the fact I end up with home videos is only a part of the equation, and my goals are both to make them and learn about this system and what it can tell us about the world.

17 hours ago, John Matthews said:

That sounds interesting, especially nowadays. I'd be scared of significant confrontation (even when it's legal). It would seem you can do anything with a phone, but when it's a "camera", people think the worst.

I'm still thinking about this one but I think it really depends on how you do it.

People seem to have a good intuition about cameras, and if the lens is sticking out a long way and you're pointing it exactly at them and moving to follow them then they'll know 100% you're filming them specifically, but if you change any of these then it's far less confronting.

Perhaps the opposite of that is to pick a composition and hit record and just stand there and let people walk through your shot.  If you look at something behind them and act like you don't see them then they're just as likely to assume you are shooting what is behind them.  If you have your hands on the camera and are focusing on it then they might assume they've just walked through your composition and you'll wait for them to pass and then try to take a photo.  The fact you didn't hit the shutter button while they were in front of it probably signals to them that you didn't take their photo.

In aesthetic terms, I'm not particularly interested in taking telephoto shots of random people.  To a certain extent the street cinema aesthetic leans more towards the idea that the city is the subject and the people are like ants, anonymous and scurrying and flowing in a mass like water within the larger environment, or that the city is empty and people aren't there, or if they are there then they might be alone, etc.  These leanings are far less confrontational to shoot.

In a sense if you want to capture the spirit of a place, the way it makes you shoot would be an ingredient in that, so would be aesthetically relevant.

15 hours ago, PannySVHS said:

I´ve been using my BMPCC again the last couple days.

Yesterday I could hardly see anything when I was filming outside under the bright summer sun. But I still managed to grab some beautiful shots. It would be my dream pocket camera with good battery life and screen. That and with 2.5K 60p plus full Hdmi and it would be my dream cinema camera perse. The image quality is just so much fun to work with and so is the challenge of non nonsense no ibis operation. Make it a 3K camera. 3K sounds cool and makes it great to be distinguished from the ordinary 4K crowd.

From my experience the camera does not only shut off because off an empty battery but also due to overheating under even mild conditions. A Fairchild Pocket 3K with 60p, good battery life and screen, how cool would that be!  What a cool name, Fairchild 3K! 🙂

In my bag this weekend are my Bmpcc with a 25mm and my Panny LX15. I would add the 14mm plus Vari ND.

Wow, I had no idea it was prone to overheating.  Interesting.  That skews me towards the BMMCC if I go that direction.

[BTM_Pix]

19 hours ago, John Matthews said:

I'm sure you'll get remarks about how you should have to pay taxes on it.

The price for a brand new one and going to the correct counter at the airport and declaring it to customs is £630 versus £899 in a UK store so its still a massive saving.

And I always go to the correct counter ...

Funnily enough, the new ones seem to have gone short supply there too and I'm wondering whether its to do with them bundling them with the S9.

The S9/28-200mm bundle works out at a fully legal import price of £1524 versus the S9 body only price in the UK of £1499.

Thats a lot of lens for £25 !

For anyone who is looking for the S9/28-200mm bundle without the travel and who don't mind a dealer who is a "parallel importer" then Cotswold Cameras have the bundle for £1699

https://www.cotswoldcameras.co.uk/Panasonic-Lumix-S9-Digital-Camera---28-200mm-f-4-71-Macro-OIS-Lens-Black

I have never dealt with them so have no idea about dealing with them but the Trustpilot reviews are here.

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/cotswoldcameras.co.uk

19 hours ago, John Matthews said:

Please let us what you think of the OIS and Sigma FP. Judging from that video, it looks great, especially for micro-jitters. 

It not until December so I should be able to comment on its weather resistance (or not!) too.

[Clark Nikolai]

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.

[PannySVHS]

On 7/13/2024 at 6:00 PM, Clark Nikolai said:

I have a Canon G16 (garage sale find for $6)

Wow. That's a steal for a great camera.

[Tim Sewell]

I'm off to the Cambridge folk festival next week with my 15 yr old and I'm going to be shooting a mini-doc focusing on why people love this nearly 50yr old festival so much, ie I won't be risking trouble by filming the big acts etc - more aiming for lots of vox pops and street-style imagery.

After a lot of thought I'm just taking my A6600, a couple of my Super Taks - probably the 20mm and the 55mm, together with a straight adapter and a focal length reducer. To go with it and allow me to have some control I'll be adding a 12 inch tube light and a magnetic little RBG, a 14 inch collapsible 5-in-1 reflector/diffuser, 2 little wireless lavs and a VideoMic. All needs to fit comfortably in my mid-size messenger bag. I may take my knock-off cinesaddle as it can double as a pillow in my tent and something to sit on while watching bands!

[Clark Nikolai]

On 7/15/2024 at 12:24 PM, PannySVHS said:

Wow. That's a steal for a great camera.

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?

[PannySVHS]

On 7/17/2024 at 4:36 PM, Clark Nikolai said:

Does it still count as G.A.S. if something doesn't cost much?

Of course, my friend!😂

[John Matthews]

So, something came up during holiday... I need some more serious landscape photos and... I bought a used e-m5 iii. I'll be making some high-res shots of various houses my family used to live in going back to the 1850's in the Palouse region of the Pacific Northwest. I don't intend on going back to that area anytime soon.

The E-M5 iii is a camera that I've used before (for over 2 years). It's amazing how great that camera still is and all the features it has over the GX800:

• An EVF (I've been really struggling on the beach, only seeing the histogram and just trusting the camera finding a face)
• Shutter going up to 1/8000, 1/250 for flash vs. 1/500 mechanical and a ridiculous 1/50 for flash 
• Proper down-sampled 4k covering the entire sensor
• High-res photo mode on a tripod
• Great IBIS
• Dials and buttons galore (comparatively speaking)

The only major things I miss on the GX800 are the flip-up screen and the fact it's 145g lighter. I'll still be keeping the GX800 until I get back to France or maybe longer.

 

[Davide DB]

There's always the beloved old LX10...

 

 

 

[John Matthews]

49 minutes ago, Davide DB said:

There's always the beloved old LX10...

 

 

 

Funny enough, the LX-10 is more expensive than the E-m5 iii (if you already have M43 lenses) on the used market. Also, no EVF.

[PannySVHS]

21 hours ago, Davide DB said:

There's always the beloved old LX10...

As long as one puts some time into grading, this is not only super fun but also a little pocket cinema camera, taking beautiful images.

[Clark Nikolai]

On 7/18/2024 at 8:55 AM, PannySVHS said:

Quote

Does it still count as G.A.S. if something doesn't cost much?

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.

[PannySVHS]

I can relate to that. My best videos have been with less. I´ve seen people on the web shoot better stuff with an EX1 than with a Sony A7S3 on youtube (Phil Bloom fi:)

[John Matthews]

I'm back from holiday. In retrospect, although the camcorder was fun, I suffered from "camera paralysis", a horrible disease where you don't know what to take with you. In the middle of my stay, I realized the GX800's display couldn't cut the mustard in any sort of bright conditions on the beach or in the Palouse area of Washington State. I did the right thing by obtaining a E-m5 iii, an old fav from a few years ago that I had sold. I'm now reconverted to MFT. I'm not sure what to do with my S5ii. I'll probably sell and pay down my car. Might sell the GX800 too (though it's a fun camera). Or, not sell anything.

Next time, I will be bringing MFT lenses that cover ultra-wide to 600mm equivalent and I'll have no need for the camcorder.

[kye]

7 minutes ago, John Matthews said:

I'm back from holiday. In retrospect, although the camcorder was fun, I suffered from "camera paralysis", a horrible disease where you don't know what to take with you. In the middle of my stay, I realized the GX800's display couldn't cut the mustard in any sort of bright conditions on the beach or in the Palouse area of Washington State. I did the right thing by obtaining a E-m5 iii, an old fav from a few years ago that I had sold. I'm now reconverted to MFT. I'm not sure what to do with my S5ii. I'll probably sell and pay down my car. Might sell the GX800 too (though it's a fun camera). Or, not sell anything.

Next time, I will be bringing MFT lenses that cover ultra-wide to 600mm equivalent and I'll have no need for the camcorder.

Interesting observations.

I've mentioned my priorities elsewhere previously, but the first one is to get the shot.

What this means in reality is having a camera with you that you actually take on the trip.  Then that you take with you when you leave your accommodation.  That you take out of your bag / pocket and turn on.  That has the right lens to get the shot you want.  That can focus and expose and compose fast enough to capture the moment.

There's lots of pitfalls along that road for cameras to fall into and result in not getting that shot.

Packing a smaller MFT with a long zoom and a faster lens option for low-light is a master-of-none package that threads the needle pretty well to get the shots you want.

Do they look like a Cooke on an Alexa 35? - hell no.  But if I had one of those on a trip and pulled it out in public the only thing I would be able to film would be people looking at the bozo who was shooting a movie, that is until security stops me asking for permits.

[John Matthews]

5 minutes ago, kye said:

Interesting observations.

I've mentioned my priorities elsewhere previously, but the first one is to get the shot.

What this means in reality is having a camera with you that you actually take on the trip.  Then that you take with you when you leave your accommodation.  That you take out of your bag / pocket and turn on.  That has the right lens to get the shot you want.  That can focus and expose and compose fast enough to capture the moment.

There's lots of pitfalls along that road for cameras to fall into and result in not getting that shot.

Packing a smaller MFT with a long zoom and a faster lens option for low-light is a master-of-none package that threads the needle pretty well to get the shots you want.

Do they look like a Cooke on an Alexa 35? - hell no.  But if I had one of those on a trip and pulled it out in public the only thing I would be able to film would be people looking at the bozo who was shooting a movie, that is until security stops me asking for permits.

If it were to only take videos, I could make do with the camcorder and a phone. However, I find the phone too limiting and ergonomically a black hole of no return. Like you say, "thread the needle" is the name of the game on holiday and travel. Don't want to get too noticed by family or others. There are a couple of lenses that can make the MFT system unique for this purpose:

1. Olympus 75-300mm, at only 423g, it covers a lot;
2. Panasonic 12-32 kit lens, at 70g, why wouldn't to take it?;
3. A favorite fast prime; there are many- just pick and choose your favorite(s).

There are lots of options and I often find myself in the weeds.

[zlfan]

I stripped one of my c300 og to only body, no side grip, no top handle, no xlr lcd unit. paired it with some super zoom like efs 16-300. I did some street shooting, very effective. I can shoot wide and far without changing lens. internal nd is nice. if I take it for travel, I will bring a 50mm f1.8 for low light. the only issue is that I cannot pan and tilt freely. c300 og has 720p 60p but not as detailed as 1080p 30p. if for static shots this rig is fine, the size and the weight are acceptable for travel. not the smallest but very useable.