FX30 first outing

[Tim Sewell]

Went to Manchester for the firs time (at 60!) and it's very photogenic - I will definitely be returning (with a tripod).

 

[Tim Sewell]

As far as the FX30 goes - well it's an excellent little camera. Very easy to use, produces a nice image and with the latest update even has shutter angle! A few of the lower light shots needed some NR adding in Resolve, but nothing outrageous. For the video above I didn't use Cineprint. CST, NR, Balance, Contrast, A dab of Film Look Creator then out through the DVR Kodak 2383 D55 LUT, via a CST to Cineon.

[kye]

On 10/18/2024 at 10:37 PM, Tim Sewell said:

As far as the FX30 goes - well it's an excellent little camera. Very easy to use, produces a nice image and with the latest update even has shutter angle! A few of the lower light shots needed some NR adding in Resolve, but nothing outrageous. For the video above I didn't use Cineprint. CST, NR, Balance, Contrast, A dab of Film Look Creator then out through the DVR Kodak 2383 D55 LUT, via a CST to Cineon.

Nice!

I think the FLC is a bit of a game changer for trying to get higher-end looks with non-cine-cameras.  You could get most of the same results doing things manually, but it makes it so much easier and faster to do that it really unlocks it.

What lens(es) did you use?

[Tim Sewell]

1 hour ago, kye said:

What lens(es) did you use?

Being lazy, my Sony 18-105 f4 (love the power zoom!).

[SRV1981]

Looks great! Making the fx30 shine 

[bjohn]

Nice! Did you use IBIS or gyro for stabilization? I definitely see some catch-up jerkiness in the pans and some of the tilts so assume IBIS.

[Tim Sewell]

1 hour ago, bjohn said:

Nice! Did you use IBIS or gyro for stabilization? I definitely see some catch-up jerkiness in the pans and some of the tilts so assume IBIS.

Thanks. IBIS and AS in camera, then some stabilisation in post. Like I say, I'm taking a tripod next time!

[kye]

5 hours ago, Tim Sewell said:

Thanks. IBIS and AS in camera, then some stabilisation in post. Like I say, I'm taking a tripod next time!

Depending on your preferences, there might be benefit to testing some options for stabilising hand-held shooting as well as taking a tripod.  For example you had lots of shots inside vehicles and while on the move, where a tripod isn't really practical.

What I mean is that for things like IBIS, if you can reduce the shake from being just-too-much for the IBIS to instead where it is operating within its travel, you can cut out all that jumping/lurching that the IBIS does when movement is beyond its limitations.  This might only require a reduction of (say) 30% of camera shake but could reduce the vast majority of shake-related issues in the resulting footage.

Things to consider to stabilise hand-held shooting could include:

• Different ways you hold the camera (where your hands are gripping the camera)
• Different positions of your arms (e.g. shooting at belly height and pushing your elbows into your sides)
• Use of extras like wearing a camera strap and pulling the camera tight against it as a third point-of-contact
• Adding something small/foldable to the camera (table tripod sort-of thing) that can act as a stabiliser like an Edelkrone FlexTILT which can obviously act as a table tripod but can also act as a handle when hand-holding, or can even be extended backwards to form a shoulder-rig or pressed against the chest as a third point-of-contact

You could even get a very compact/light travel tripod and hand-hold the camera with it attached, essentially using it as mass to make the rig heavier and larger.

Alternatively, you could shoot much wider for such shots and then stabilise aggressively in post with a large crop.  This risks having shake-related motion-blur in the shot that doesn't align to the post-stabilised motion of the final frames, but it can work in many situations.

My approach is to use as much stabilisation as possible (ideally technique+rig+OIS+IBIS with post-stabe if required), so that all the mechanisms are operating comfortably within their ranges and will therefore create less artefacts and also allow more usable shots.  

For b-roll where no specific shots are critical, there's also merit in just shooting a lot and being pickier in the edit 🙂

[MrSMW]

Or a small lightweight gimbal.

[Tim Sewell]

Not really the car shots and so on that I'm thinking about - I quite like them to be a bit jumpy. It's the huge number of really impressive buildings I saw in the city that just cry out for long, considered, pans/tilts/combinations that you can really only achieve with a tripod and a good head.

[bjohn]

1 hour ago, Tim Sewell said:

Not really the car shots and so on that I'm thinking about - I quite like them to be a bit jumpy. It's the huge number of really impressive buildings I saw in the city that just cry out for long, considered, pans/tilts/combinations that you can really only achieve with a tripod and a good head.

Yeah, it was the building pans where I noticed the IBIS artifacts. In theory gyro should do a better job here because IBIS is always playing catchup; it's very fast but the lag can produce noticeable artifacts. There is no lag with gyro, but there's a crop and you have to use a lower shutter angle (typically 90 or even 45 degrees) and then add back motion blur in post. The lower shutter angle is to counteract situations in which the camera is moving faster than the exposure time per frame; if you use a 180 degree shutter angle the camera will often be moving faster than the exposure time per frame and you'll get blurry images.

[kye]

49 minutes ago, bjohn said:

Yeah, it was the building pans where I noticed the IBIS artifacts. In theory gyro should do a better job here because IBIS is always playing catchup; it's very fast but the lag can produce noticeable artifacts. There is no lag with gyro, but there's a crop and you have to use a lower shutter angle (typically 90 or even 45 degrees) and then add back motion blur in post. The lower shutter angle is to counteract situations in which the camera is moving faster than the exposure time per frame; if you use a 180 degree shutter angle the camera will often be moving faster than the exposure time per frame and you'll get blurry images.

I was the opposite - it was the hand-held shots in the car etc where I saw the jumping the most.

That's why, to me at least, using a tripod for the buildings etc will fix those but still leave a gap for the in-transit hand-held moments.  Thus my earlier reply about addressing that gap.

This style of video is something I've been thinking about a lot for myself, and the way I see it is that to create some movement and contrast in the edit, I'd mix up pacing and subject matter such that there are in-transit shots, abstract shots, wides, teles, people, architecture, looking up, low-angles, high angles, shots with diagonals and leading lines, shots with lines horizontal and vertical lines (e.g. from looking at a building straight on), etc.  I've also been contemplating an enhanced way to do the sound design too, so that it fits better with the edit.

[kye]

1 hour ago, bjohn said:

Yeah, it was the building pans where I noticed the IBIS artifacts. In theory gyro should do a better job here because IBIS is always playing catchup; it's very fast but the lag can produce noticeable artifacts. There is no lag with gyro, but there's a crop and you have to use a lower shutter angle (typically 90 or even 45 degrees) and then add back motion blur in post. The lower shutter angle is to counteract situations in which the camera is moving faster than the exposure time per frame; if you use a 180 degree shutter angle the camera will often be moving faster than the exposure time per frame and you'll get blurry images.

Another thought, I really think it's down to the IBIS implementation.

The GH5 has two IBIS modes, one that smoothes motion, and the other eliminates it creating a stationary frame.  The normal smoothing one is how you describe, but it's the other one that's of interest.  
If you put it in that tripod mode, but then pan the camera, it keeps a stationary frame until you've moved it too far and it realises it has to 'follow' you, and if you keep panning you get the smoothest pans I've ever seen without sticks.  The level of stabilisation is incredible.  When you're doing it the feeling is a cross between pulling the frame through treacle and one of those time-warp things where reality is delayed (because it moves a second or two after you start, and then it keeps moving a bit after you stop again).

I really miss that mode on the GX85, as it only has a normal smoothing mode, and if you hold it steady the frame sort of floats around randomly because it didn't completely eliminate all the motion.

Interestingly, the OIS from the 12-35mm F2.8 on the OG BMPCC and BMMCC (which don't have IBIS) tries to keep a much more stable frame - if you hold it steady then it will have a much more 'locked off' shot with far less drift than the 'normal' modes from the Panny cameras.  I haven't compared it between cameras, so it might be the lens, or might be the camera doing this.

I think there could be a lot of benefit if they included several levels of smoothing on the IBIS mechanisms.  Light, Medium, Heavy, and Tripod modes would be very useful I think.