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What are you going to be mainly shooting? If it's just going to be web content/vlogging, then a DVX200 would be okay. If you're intending on doing bigger stuff like maybe web series, commercials, music vids, shorts, etc, then go with the GH5. The GH5 has much better longevity (and a better codec) than the DVX200. EDIT: poo poo just saw you were going to be shooting trains, yeah the dvx200 will be fine.
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Aug 21, 2017 05:17
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Race Realists posted:any good books for a film student looking to start out in cinematography? what are the cheapest cameras available for short films? Blaine Brown's "Motion Picture and Video Lighting" and "Cinematography: Theory and Practice", Kris Malkiewicz's "Film Lighting", Bruce Block's "The Visual Story". quote:i need three of the same for each camera angle Wait, why would you need three of the same for each camera angle?
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Aug 21, 2017 09:23
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New Sony flagship got announced: Sony Venice I think it's an interesting camera but it's definitely a rental-only camera.
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Sep 6, 2017 21:22
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Anyone got any thoughts on the new sub $10k cameras they'd like to share? (Canon C200, Panasonic EVA1)
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Sep 29, 2017 09:03
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powderific posted:I thought the eva1 2500 ISO looked bad enough in the previews to cancel my preorder and see how it does when it's out for real (but was excited enough about it to preorder before any footage had come out.) The C200 I've seen some.m nice stuff from, but not having a codec between raw and kinda weak is annoying. I went to the Panasonic event where they screened at the promo films and the only things I remember that were shot at 2500 ISO were the night campfire stuff in "Next to Superstition" and I think one shot in "Radio 88". The night stuff in NtS were okay though they had a bit of fixed pattern noise in a few shots in the beginning and the one shot I'm thinking of in R88 was kinda crappy on the screen but the director/DP said that was a no light situation. In general, I thought the camera was pretty alright and the Panasonic rep there made it pretty clear that the footage that night was the crappiest it was going to look and it was going to be better once the production models come out since the engineers are still working on it. C200, I think I've seen only one example where it looked really good and not the videoy look Canon is known for, but I agree on the codec situation: having nothing between raw and 8 bit 420 MP4 is ridiculous. Everyone who bought the C200 is lobbying Canon to have a 10 bit 422 codec but it's never going to happen. EDIT: Also, the cinematography for all those EVA1 promo films.... super not impressed.
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Sep 29, 2017 19:29
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melon cat posted:In my experience, S-log (or any Log footage, for that matter) really needs to be shot with an external monitor. Sure, it IS doable using your camera's EVF/screen, but it's so much more difficult to properly expose it especially given how trash Sony's screen's are in bright daylight. I'm pretty old school, but I firmly believe that this is where the combination of using a light meter, using your eye, and doing over/under tests in pre-production helps so that you don't have to rely on external monitors or EVFs. powderific posted:I finally found some LUTS for my Ursa Mini that work well as display LUTS on the camera and it's been incredibly helpful. The built in LUT is sooo extreme and if you judge your shot by it you'll wind up way underexposing. Which one? I've found a few good ones like the JDL BMDFilm -> Arri LogC -> Rec709 one and the InstantC LUT.
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Nov 28, 2017 23:21
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powderific posted:The problem for me is when I'm showing the director the screen they'll be all wigged out about how it looks even though they've seen log files a million times, so every loving shot I have to go in, turn off S-Log (or with the Ursa Mini before I got these luts, way underexpose) to show what it'll look like, and then once they're cool reset everything and get proper exposure. If I'm by myself I don't need to do any of that. And now with the comet luts the display is close enough to good that I don't have to gently caress around with exposure just to show something that "looks right". The director/client/video village should never see log footage. Any display that's going to be viewed by the general set always has the display LUT on it. 
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Nov 29, 2017 18:33
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Scruff McGruff posted:You just don't get it, it's so much more ~real~ and ~authentic~ when I refuse to use (re: pay for/learn) any sort of dedicated sound or lighting He's probably a Dogme 95 adherent, which is funny because none of those guys even adhered to that philosophy when they were doing it and they all abandoned it after they discovered how limiting it was. Anyway, as a DP/gaffer/key grip, yea, having someone who has experience is a godsend. I was just on a web pilot and it was mainly just me (gaffer) and the key grip and we largely had scenes lit within 30 minutes with 5-8 minutes between shots for coverage. EDIT: poo poo, new page.
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Feb 2, 2018 19:04
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I got really excited since I saw 7 new posts (which hasn't happened in a while) and got disappointed by phone talk.
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Feb 6, 2018 22:27
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Soooo I finally bought my Ursa Mini Pro. DCI 2K Prores 444  4.6K Raw 4:1 
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Mar 6, 2018 21:39
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I've been testing mine out the past day and I've been finding that I'm probably one of the lucky ones, no FPN (even at 1600), no magenta corners past f/5.6. There's chroma noise but that can be easily taken care of with chroma noise reduction. Still testing it the next couple of days (gotta take it out for some day exterior stuff). The viewfinder is a little green but I usually don't judge color by monitors anyway. I've also replaced the viewing LUT in the camera with a better BMDFilm 4.6k v3 to Arri LogC to Rec709 LUT and the stuff just looks way better. The shoulder of the curve doesn't clip as fast or as dramatically, same with the toe. Also probably going to be buying Kholi's viewing LUTs for the UMP. EDIT: quote:edit: also, if you have the EVF SmallRig finally released a top cheeseplate type thing that works with it. Yeah, I have this. I should post of a pic of my rig sometime. It looks..... huge.
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Mar 7, 2018 01:22
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BonoMan posted:Oh hey just an FYI that B&H has the Teradek Bolt 1000 wireless video set for $3,990 today. That's about $1500-2000 off the actual price. Deal's over now but a good cheaper alternative to Teradek and Paralinx is the Cinegears Ghost Eye. I've heard from many people that the reception is way better than either Teradek and Paralinx (they're the same drat company) because the Ghost Eye uses a much better antenna. Shaocaholica posted:Crosspost. Uh, in what way? Actually taking old film, scanning it, then taking it into a workstation to get rid of scratches and tastefully use digital noise reduction to reduce film grain? Then no, I personally have not done that though I've had an interest in it and thought about going into that instead of trying to become a working cinematographer. This question would actually be good to ask Ben Solovey, aka Ben Solo on the forums, since he did the restoration for "Manos: The Hands of Fate".
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Mar 13, 2018 23:47
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I've shot with Sony cameras extensively (Sony F5, F55, and F65) and my advice is to always shoot Slog3 with SGamut3.cine. Slog3 because the exposure curve mimics the D log E curve of a film stock; Slog2 is pretty useless as it's packing the majority of data in the highlights, which the majority of image information won't be. SGamut3.cine because you're sort of in the largest color gamut possible, except the cine flavor of it which actually narrows the gamut a little bit to make coloring easier. As for ISO and exposure, it's highly recommended to rate the sensor slower than what Sony recommends. For example, Sony will tell you the native ISO of the F5 is 2000 ISO and the F55 as 1250 ISO; it's a little bullshit so you're better off rating it two thirds to a stop slower than what Sony tells you.
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Jun 7, 2018 06:51
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keyframe posted:I just got my FS5 ii today. I just don't know how I lived without that variable nd before this. Having internal ND is such a godsend, I couldn't live without it. So much easier than dealing with 4x5.65" ND filters and matte box filter trays.
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Jun 23, 2018 05:19
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Narzack posted:I have an fs700 with the stock lens and I want to buy a new one. What's a good starter lens worth buying? I remember with my 5D, the conventional wisdom was get that 50mm 1.8 first. Which I traded it up for a beautiful 1.4. Probably a 35mm 2 or 1.4 since that would be the equivalent normal lens on Super35.
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Oct 12, 2018 06:07
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Probably doesn’t matter to most of you but the 6.0 firmware for the Ursa Mini Pro came out today and it is glorious. 
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Nov 14, 2018 07:02
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the_lion posted:Same problem worldwide, I see it on the Blackmagic 4k pocket group on Facebook. Kind of a bummer, I ordered in November. It sucks that they learned when they put out the Ursa Mini Pro, but unlearned it when putting out the Pocket 4K.
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Jan 13, 2019 21:49
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Pham Nuwen posted:I’ve been meaning to fool around with recording video with my DSLR, nothing particular in mind beyond maybe some nature stuff out in the woods as of now. What’s the best software for editing video these days? I’ve got Windows and Linux available, and free or inexpensive would obviously be ideal. I've been using Resolve lately to edit my cinematography reels and I've had nothing but good things to say about it. I don't know what all this hubbub about it being different from Adobe Premiere is all about, I changed my keyboard shortcuts to the Adobe Premiere setting and it works exactly the same. You can get Resolve for free, the restrictions I'm aware of are that you can only work in 8-bit and you can't use Resolve's noise reduction.
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Feb 21, 2019 06:29
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I recently filmed a social media commercial spot on the Pocket 4K and it's a nice little camera. Doesn't have as much dynamic range as its big brother, the Ursa Mini Pro, but it's certainly close enough. As for the A7s series of cameras, I actively try to avoid shooting with them. I've never liked any of the footage that came out of them and I think the low light capabilities are overrated and massively overstated. Sure, you can shoot in moonlight/candlelight but good luck cleaning that footage up. Color science also leaves something to be desired on Sony cameras that aren't the F55, F65, or Venice. If you have a sizable budget for a camera, going with the Pocket 4K or a used FS7 would probably be the way to go.
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May 10, 2019 23:37
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Alan Smithee posted:Does anyone use high end LED light like Aputure or litepanels? Yes, and with Sony NP-F batteries, it depends on how many watt-hours they can provide (plus, I don't know if they make battery plates for the Sony NP-F, it's usually V mount or Gold mount). I think a 6600 mAh battery at 14.4v is equivalent to 92 wh, which would probably last like 10 minutes on something like a Litepanels Gemini. You usually want a V mount or Gold mount battery in the 150 wh or larger capacity.
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Aug 3, 2019 08:06
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Alan Smithee posted:any personal experience? Only using house power/generator or V/Gold mounts, never Sony NP-Fs. Batteries are really if you’re in a jam about power, like if you’re on a location that doesn’t have house power and the location owner won’t allow a generator. In that situation, you have to be mindful of how much battery you’re using up and turning the units off between takes/shots. VoodooXT fucked around with this message at 08:41 on Aug 3, 2019 |
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Aug 3, 2019 08:38
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Welp, Blackmagic just announced the Pocket 6K. Sorry to all the folks still waiting for their Pocket 4K orders to come through.
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Aug 8, 2019 21:08
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Honj Steak posted:You can’t really build speed boosters for EF mount anyway. Apparently some company named LucAdapters made a speed booster for the Ursa Mini Pro EF mount, so it's possible. As for the Pocket 6K, several of my friends bought 'em. One immediately put it up on Sharegrid, and the other friend did a test recently and his conclusion was that the dynamic range is slightly better than the Pocket 4K, not a lot but noticeably better. Overcranking and the noise floor also supposedly looks better when the sensor is cropped.
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Aug 14, 2019 09:09
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The funniest thing about all this is that this is all because the Jinnimag guy wanted to sell third party compatible Red Minimags and Red wouldn't let him. Red could've avoided all this just by letting him sell the drat things. In any case, I'm happy this is happening to Red, they deserve it. All marketing bullshit and it's scary how the company and the fan base operate like a cult. I went to one Red event and I felt so uncomfortable there that I don't go to them anymore. I've known a few people who applied to work there but ended up turning down the job because no matter the job you're applying for, they tell you the main job is all about marketing the company and pulling more young saps who don't do any research into the Red cult. If you've ever interacted with any of the Red reps, it's never about answering straightforward questions about the camera or the tech; they just sidestep the questions and start talking about how many Ks their camera can do. Who the gently caress cares about how many Ks, I wanna know if you guys stopped putting the fan exhaust on the bottom of the goddamn camera.
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Sep 23, 2019 21:59
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bring back old gbs posted:VoodooXT and everybody else, what's the consensus on ZCam? I really like the form factor of the E2. ~120fps 10 bit 4:2:2 4k, $2000. Sounds too good to be true. I haven’t played with it myself but it looks cool. Footage seems to be pretty good and it’s in that important spec point of 4K 10 bit 422. The overcranking I’m kind of whatever about since I’m of the belief that standard cinema cameras should just shoot a max of 60 fps and if you need faster, rent another camera designed for high speed. Also not crazy about the m43 but that’s just me. The one important point I’m wary about is customer support. That’s one of the big things I consider with cameras: if something happens, is there infrastructure to deal with it? It’s the reason why Kinefinity hasn’t managed to break in to America since they don’t have anything in the US that can deal with repairs. It’s something that worries me about ZCam, whether or not they can repair my gear if something happens. I don’t want them to turn out like early Red or BMD, where you came to them with a broken camera and they just shrugged and said, “Buy another one, we can’t repair it.”
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Sep 24, 2019 01:51
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powderific posted:Would you seriously rent a Phantom for 120 FPS? I like having those higher-than-60 framerates available and dedicated high speed cameras are both expensive and a massive pain in the rear end to shoot with. I can’t imagine dealing with that if I didn’t need the 500+ FPS super slow mo kinda stuff. Again, I'm coming at it from a professional filmmaking perspective so that's more what I would do. EDIT: Also about high speed over 60 fps, I largely don’t shoot anything beyond 60 unless I need something specific like a drop of water hitting the ground or something but that’s rare for what I do. I find things are too slow once I go beyond 60. VoodooXT fucked around with this message at 20:51 on Sep 24, 2019 |
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Sep 24, 2019 20:44
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powderific posted:Even in some mysterious realm of unlimited budgets I’d rather shoot with a normal camera than a Phantom for anything under 200fps. Do you seriously budget the day rate for a high speed camera for everything over 60? Or is it more you just don’t shoot more medium frame rates and it’s either 60 or 600? Majority of stuff I shoot is the basic 23.98/24 and most overcranked material is at 48 or 60. The rare times I've shot over 60, it's usually in the realm of 500 or 1000. EDIT: So the answer is yes, I have to budget out the day rate for a HS camera. VoodooXT fucked around with this message at 21:07 on Sep 24, 2019 |
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Sep 24, 2019 21:04
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powderific posted:Does anyone have a grip with Arri rosette they like? I’d prefer something with a hand strap since I’m in hiking around with the camera a lot, but that doesn’t seem to be so much of a thing outside the Canon/Sony/Panasonic camera specific grips. I use this. It's functional and the rubber makes it comfortable without any slipping. I mainly use it in this configuration, minus the dogbones. A lot of my other cinematographer friends/colleagues like this style but I've never been too fond of it.
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Oct 1, 2019 19:50
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powderific posted:I actually have that wooden one and also don’t like it. It’s nowhere near secure enough grip for me and my fingers seem to be a little long for it as they hit the metal mounting in a not comfortable way. You can also buy the Blackmagic handgrip separately now since they don't come included with the Ursa Mini Pro anymore. It's $200 but it's got an Arri rosette, the handstrap, and it has the LANC cable to trigger record/stop.
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Oct 1, 2019 23:45
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So, my director just let me know that our thesis film from film school is now out of the festival run so we can share it. Enjoy, guys (also NWS): Tuesday Crowd
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Oct 3, 2019 01:44
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Alan Smithee posted:Yeah. I’m hoping to test it on someone’s PL by the end of the month If you’re in LA, I have a PL mount camera. 
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Jan 20, 2020 19:59
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powderific posted:Pretty interesting. I’m curious to see what the dynamic range winds up being like — they’re claiming a stop less than the 4.6k sensor. The USB-C port being moved to the back is nice and I wish there was a way I could get that on my 4.6k body. Since it's a new sensor design that hasn't really been seen before in the wild, we'll have to wait for someone to do the actual over/under test. There's been talk that since it isn't a Bayer pattern design, BMD might actually be telling the truth about the dynamic range this time around (UMP G1 and G2 are really 13 stops of usable dynamic range). In any case, I'm not gonna get it. My UMP G1 is sufficient for me already and the new 12K doesn't shoot Prores, which is pretty drat important to me when I have to shoot corporate and docs.
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Jul 17, 2020 04:57
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The Clap posted:Can I ask why you shoot ProRes for documentary work? We shoot all of our doc stuff on BMPCC 4K and Ursa Mini Pros, would just like to hear your reasoning for shooting prores instead of BMRaw. Essentially what powderific wrote. Some clients request it because it's what they've worked with before so they know it works, and they tend to edit with Adobe Creative Cloud so Prores will automatically work with it. Blackmagic Raw unfortunately won't work with Adobe CC right out of the box so clients tend to balk at that type of thing, and they balk even more when you tell them they have to buy the Autokroma plugin if they want to be able to ingest and roundtrip Braw correctly, especially if they have multiple instances of Adobe CC to work with so they'd have to buy multiple licenses. I've also been on a few shows where they specifically request you shoot footage with the 709 LUT burned into the footage because they don't want to have to deal with coloring it afterwards and the turnaround time might be super fast. While Braw can have the LUT appended to it as metadata, we'd come back around to the above reason: most clients just don't want to have to deal with Braw and the potential headaches.
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Jul 17, 2020 18:05
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Gunjin posted:You don't need Autokroma any more, BMD has their own free plug-in for both Premiere and Avid, released last September with the 1.5 update to .BRAW. I cant ‘t speak for Avid but its pretty seamless in Adobe, works better than Autokroma did. The BMD plugin doesn’t work if you need to roundtrip a project between Adobe and Resolve. The way Premiere handles timecode messes with the timecode in Braw files so you can’t create XML/AAF files because the timecode extends don’t match. EDIT: A mutual cinematographer friend, a colorist at Technicolor, and I figured that out when we couldn’t get our XMLs to link up in Resolve. VoodooXT fucked around with this message at 05:00 on Jul 18, 2020 |
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Jul 18, 2020 04:57
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powderific posted:drat, I’d had some issues with roundtripping but hadn’t delved into it yet. If I have a project that already has stuff in it with the blackmagic plugin, is there any way to change it over to autokroma or am I basically stuck in Premiere unless I want to rebuild sequences? No, just uninstall the Braw plugin and install Autokroma. No need to rebuild.
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Jul 18, 2020 05:26
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powderific posted:Nice, that’s a relief. Once you do that, there’s an option within the Autokroma plugin to export an XML with the corrected timecode.
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Jul 18, 2020 05:45
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Gunjin posted:I switched because the Autokroma plug-in would wreck the playback speed on my machine, I'd be getting like 12-15 fps on footage even dropping to 1/4, while the BMD plug-in plays back everything real time. When outputting an XML or AAF to bring the project into Resolve, none of the footage with link because the timecode wasn't matching. Apparently it has to do with the way Adobe handles drop frame timecode and it tries to interpret the embedded timecode in Braw files as non-drop frame or something. It never got fixed AFAIK and it caused me a ton of headaches on several projects.
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Jul 18, 2020 17:17
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Gunjin posted:That might explain why I don’t have an issue, for the work I do everything is 24 or very rarely 60 and I don’t ever mess with drop frame, but I also get to control the whole process from start to finish which I acknowledge is not usual for most people. Is there a specific reason why you're shooting 24 and not 23.98? 23.98 is broadcast ready and you really only shoot 24 if you're planning on doing a film-out, which no one really does anymore because there's nothing to gain from shooting digital and printing on film. EDIT: But anyway, it's an Adobe problem because they don't read drop frame timecode correctly and they refuse to fix it.
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Jul 18, 2020 18:29
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Mister Speaker posted:Yeah, I've tried all the settings on the smart slate (obvi the 'generate/read' switch, also the small clock-switch that changes generated TC rate) to no avail. Generates no problem, still doesn't want to play ball with any other clock source. But I haven't tried using the 1/4" input - Trew didn't give me a cable with a 1/4" terminal, just the DIN-to-Lemo one. I'll swing by them sometime this week with the slate and ask. Thanks for your help! Sometimes in the smart slate, there's a dial or switch in the battery compartment that tells the slate what frame rate you're syncing to. Did you check that and see if it's set correctly?
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Jul 22, 2020 01:37
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Mister Speaker posted:I tried that, slate still doesn't seem to want to receive TC. It's pretty much brand-new. I've been putting off going to Trew to see what they have to say about the cable. It sounds like the cameras, while shooting at 25 fps, are probably outputting 59.94i with the 25fps pulled down.
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Aug 4, 2020 21:06
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