The goal for me is increasing the battery life when doing long form live streams and recording if there’s not a plug available. There’s lots of ways this could be accomplished, and I’ve tried other things such as batteries mounted on the tripod as well, but they all have some downsides and tend to limit mobility.
I like 22mm for this. But as with anything, it depends on what you’re trying to accomplish and what style you want. But for a generic shot, 22mm is usually wide enough to get both and a bit of background but it’s not too wide to give a lot of perspective distortion.
EVGA XR1 Lite is the best I’ve used. The blackmagic ones do well also but they don’t work well with normal software. If you want something that works like the cam link but actually works then EVGA is solid.
If you just capture 10-bit and then export the same video as 8-bit there’s no real benefit. You may get some benefit depending on how exactly the software interprets the colors vs how the camera does in its algorithm but this is typically minor.
I’ve found that if you’re doing a cheap long-format stream, the capture card makes a big difference. For this type of “add on” I’ve settled on using EVGA XR1 lite’s for the capture, feeding from an atem mini pro as the switcher, and bouncing the signal to a re-streamer service in the cloud. You’ll get a 30 second delay but it looks good and doesn’t break the bank. Personally I don’t use OBS but if you need overlays it’s a good option. I use it with a racked Mac mini for the computer.
It’s the same, sensor readout isn’t done directly to the card, it’s cached for processing first. I spot checked against the different codecs and also raw when I made this and saw no differences.
A7IV in crop mode does have a faster rolling shutter, but I think that has to do with the way the data is downsampled. I’m not sure that the sharpness and image quality are better, it looks like the fx30 is most likely doing full downsampling whereas the a7iv is center cropping for direct read or maybe like skipping. I have no way to confirm this unfortunately, and both images are quite good, so it’s really splitting hairs, but if true then the fx30 should have the potential for slightly better image quality vs aps-c mode a7iv.
I personally wouldn’t shoot xavc-S-I unless you have a good reason to. The benefits are pretty specific to certain situations and the downsides are always larger files and much more expensive memory cards.
Prores 422 or Prores 422HQ are my preferred choices for easy editing. If your system doesn’t support those, then DNX HR is also a good choice (or dnx HD if you’re editing 1080p).
I like the package handle better than the k3m, it screws into the body and feels nice and secure. It’s a bit plasticky and it does flex, but I’ve had a ninja on it for a few shoots and it wasn’t really a problem if you treat it like you should.
Thanks! I used the guided ocean layer in Houdini. Rendered in Redshift. Comp in Nuke (I just started learning comp so I’m well aware that’s the weakest part of the shot). But any advice would be killer.
Way beyond my skill level with Houdini, the only successful ocean sim with boat scene I’ve done was in blender, closely following a tutorial. It turned out good enough for what I needed but not great.
The dr60d isn’t a very good recorder for gain-hungry mics, and is probably part of the problem. But I think the main problem looks like you have a grounding issue or using a cheap cable.
V60 is guaranteed to sustain 60MB/s write speeds, and V90 is guaranteed to sustain 90MB/s. That’s sustained write until the card is full, which is different from what the card makers advertise which is usually “best-case” and they say things like “up to” or “max speed” to wiggle out of it.
Thank you, You mentioned when I use a FF on an APSC I need to crop in, thus I loose resolution? Right? I May go down from 6K to usable let’s say 5.2K -> then the camera samples down to 4K? So the quaility is higher with APSC lenses? Or misunderstood what I read?
No there’s no downside besides the larger size and weight, and the ff lenses available focal lengths being geared toward a larger sensor. You won’t find an 18-105 full frame lens, for example. The fx30 is an aps-c camera so you can use full frame or aps-c lenses with no problem or compromises.
You can apply a camera lut in the browser for footage shot with a particular camera. I mostly use matched cameras these days, but I used to mix Panasonic and Sony and had to match them. It takes a bit of effort for the first one but then it’s not bad, it helps if you shoot a color chart with each camera but it’s not strictly necessary.
Color wheels are my first go to, but yeah I wind up with the curves usually too after that. But for first step color correction the wheels seem more straightforward to what I’m used to, and they have a white balance and tint correction tool right there too.
The mke600 is a good mic, I’d use it without hesitation. The videomic is better than the built in camera audio, but it’s not in the same league at all.
Thank you. I heared the G Master Are the best lenses? Compared to the Sigma art the G master is 200 / 300 more. And the Tamron 200 cheaper then the Sigma?
The GM are excellent lenses, but it really depends on your budget and what you want to do with them. They’re mostly focused on full frame cameras and tend to be larger and more expensive than you need for an aps-c camera, and I don’t wind up using my GM’s on the fx30 much. I do use them on the fx6 and a7iv a lot though.
The film sims are the opposite of log: they’re effectively very good luts tailored for the sensor. Could be re-encoding, but at least as likely to be wrong colour balance and out of focus- especially at f2 with no one behind the camera.
Yeah if that’s the case with the Fuji “film sims” then you’re probably right. I was thinking the film sims were like black magic film mode where it’s a log gamma and color ranges are subdued. If Fuji is applying the transforms for you it should be pretty good out of the camera if the exposure and colors are set properly.
Yeah, it might have a lot more to do with the layers of compression and re-encoding he’s adding. I don’t know much about the Fuji systems, but I remember the first time I shot video on a pro camera with flat settings and opened it, expecting the ultimate video quality, but it was quite disappointing until I figured out what to do with it.
I was specifically referring to the adapter that lets you run the uwp-d directly into the hotshoe. I believe it’s the SMAD-P5 for current uwp receivers, and SMAD-P3 for the older series.
The SMAD-P5 lists compatibility with the a7iii right in Sony’s website, but it’s not clear about what cameras support direct digital conversion. For me the digital part is nice to have, but the main benefit is a compact rig with two wireless channels that feed right into the camera, and it looks like you get that with the a73. Mics have been analogue for a long time, it’s not really a big deal if you gain-stage properly.
I use a rycote invision, the one with a single long clip, I think it’s the 7HG maybe. works great for me. Haven’t tried the cinela but they look pretty pricey. Worth it you think?
Lucky man, I got started with crappy Chinese shotguns and mystery mics that looked good but didn’t work. Pure ignorance and a steep learning curve on the audio side.
Audio for post production has always seemed like a mysterious artform. The amount of cringe stuff I did when starting out due to following terrible advice online is still something that haunts me.
Go talk to your friend and tell him, offer to kick him a referral fee for the first few videos you do. If he asks you not to take it, you gotta respect that, but it sounds like they’re not bringing him back either way.
STL?
I put it on thingiverse but it has to wait a day before it will go public for new accounts. Will post back when its ready tomorrow.
I will never understand people who rig out a perfectly ergonomic and powerful camera for it only to be twice the size, with no real benefit.
The goal for me is increasing the battery life when doing long form live streams and recording if there’s not a plug available. There’s lots of ways this could be accomplished, and I’ve tried other things such as batteries mounted on the tripod as well, but they all have some downsides and tend to limit mobility.
I like 22mm for this. But as with anything, it depends on what you’re trying to accomplish and what style you want. But for a generic shot, 22mm is usually wide enough to get both and a bit of background but it’s not too wide to give a lot of perspective distortion.
EVGA XR1 Lite is the best I’ve used. The blackmagic ones do well also but they don’t work well with normal software. If you want something that works like the cam link but actually works then EVGA is solid.
If you just capture 10-bit and then export the same video as 8-bit there’s no real benefit. You may get some benefit depending on how exactly the software interprets the colors vs how the camera does in its algorithm but this is typically minor.
I’ve found that if you’re doing a cheap long-format stream, the capture card makes a big difference. For this type of “add on” I’ve settled on using EVGA XR1 lite’s for the capture, feeding from an atem mini pro as the switcher, and bouncing the signal to a re-streamer service in the cloud. You’ll get a 30 second delay but it looks good and doesn’t break the bank. Personally I don’t use OBS but if you need overlays it’s a good option. I use it with a racked Mac mini for the computer.
I'm not sure why you would be limited to 75'. There are plenty of fiber optic HDMI cables that will go well beyond that.
Yeah you can use special cables or I use cat5 extenders personally, but I’m talking with normal hdmi cables.
Sure they’re just neopixel lights, you can control them from the Pi just fine.
Can you include the measurements for XAVC S-i for both the cameras?
It’s the same, sensor readout isn’t done directly to the card, it’s cached for processing first. I spot checked against the different codecs and also raw when I made this and saw no differences.
It also means A7iv in crop mode 4K is far better in terms of sharpness & RS than FX30 4k!
A7IV in crop mode does have a faster rolling shutter, but I think that has to do with the way the data is downsampled. I’m not sure that the sharpness and image quality are better, it looks like the fx30 is most likely doing full downsampling whereas the a7iv is center cropping for direct read or maybe like skipping. I have no way to confirm this unfortunately, and both images are quite good, so it’s really splitting hairs, but if true then the fx30 should have the potential for slightly better image quality vs aps-c mode a7iv.
I personally wouldn’t shoot xavc-S-I unless you have a good reason to. The benefits are pretty specific to certain situations and the downsides are always larger files and much more expensive memory cards.
Do you have a proper file codec to transcode to? Just it is easier for me to navigate through a bunch of difference codec
Prores 422 or Prores 422HQ are my preferred choices for easy editing. If your system doesn’t support those, then DNX HR is also a good choice (or dnx HD if you’re editing 1080p).
I like the package handle better than the k3m, it screws into the body and feels nice and secure. It’s a bit plasticky and it does flex, but I’ve had a ninja on it for a few shoots and it wasn’t really a problem if you treat it like you should.
What is a good/cheap mic for the handle?
Sony makes one for it that’s not bad, about $120. It’s the Sony ECM-XM1 and if you want cheap that’s probably the way to go.
Needs cabin lights, sails should be down. Very nice sim though I’m interested in how you did it.
Thanks! I used the guided ocean layer in Houdini. Rendered in Redshift. Comp in Nuke (I just started learning comp so I’m well aware that’s the weakest part of the shot). But any advice would be killer.
Way beyond my skill level with Houdini, the only successful ocean sim with boat scene I’ve done was in blender, closely following a tutorial. It turned out good enough for what I needed but not great.
The dr60d isn’t a very good recorder for gain-hungry mics, and is probably part of the problem. But I think the main problem looks like you have a grounding issue or using a cheap cable.
Hey thanks again for all the info - really appreciate the time you put into it.
V60 is guaranteed to sustain 60MB/s write speeds, and V90 is guaranteed to sustain 90MB/s. That’s sustained write until the card is full, which is different from what the card makers advertise which is usually “best-case” and they say things like “up to” or “max speed” to wiggle out of it.
Thank you, You mentioned when I use a FF on an APSC I need to crop in, thus I loose resolution? Right? I May go down from 6K to usable let’s say 5.2K -> then the camera samples down to 4K? So the quaility is higher with APSC lenses? Or misunderstood what I read?
Depends on the camera, they do it for you when you pick the mode and resolution.
E.g., on the FX30 I use FF lenses any downsides? Any resolution loss? Or is it only the other way? FF uses APSC lenses?
No there’s no downside besides the larger size and weight, and the ff lenses available focal lengths being geared toward a larger sensor. You won’t find an 18-105 full frame lens, for example. The fx30 is an aps-c camera so you can use full frame or aps-c lenses with no problem or compromises.
You can apply a camera lut in the browser for footage shot with a particular camera. I mostly use matched cameras these days, but I used to mix Panasonic and Sony and had to match them. It takes a bit of effort for the first one but then it’s not bad, it helps if you shoot a color chart with each camera but it’s not strictly necessary.
Yeah I’m all about the curves myself, but sometimes a more basic tool like the colour board is better
Color wheels are my first go to, but yeah I wind up with the curves usually too after that. But for first step color correction the wheels seem more straightforward to what I’m used to, and they have a white balance and tint correction tool right there too.
The mke600 is a good mic, I’d use it without hesitation. The videomic is better than the built in camera audio, but it’s not in the same league at all.
Between those two I’d pick the s5ii, but I’d recommend you circle back and look at the fx30 if you’re ok with an aps/c sensor size.
Of those I’d take the 17-70, 24mm is a bit tight on the wide end for an all-in-one.
Thank you. I heared the G Master Are the best lenses? Compared to the Sigma art the G master is 200 / 300 more. And the Tamron 200 cheaper then the Sigma?
The GM are excellent lenses, but it really depends on your budget and what you want to do with them. They’re mostly focused on full frame cameras and tend to be larger and more expensive than you need for an aps-c camera, and I don’t wind up using my GM’s on the fx30 much. I do use them on the fx6 and a7iv a lot though.
The film sims are the opposite of log: they’re effectively very good luts tailored for the sensor. Could be re-encoding, but at least as likely to be wrong colour balance and out of focus- especially at f2 with no one behind the camera.
Yeah if that’s the case with the Fuji “film sims” then you’re probably right. I was thinking the film sims were like black magic film mode where it’s a log gamma and color ranges are subdued. If Fuji is applying the transforms for you it should be pretty good out of the camera if the exposure and colors are set properly.
>iPhone does a lot of processing internally, so it’s all done for you already, and their algorithms are generally pretty decent for what it is.
Yeah, it might have a lot more to do with the layers of compression and re-encoding he’s adding. I don’t know much about the Fuji systems, but I remember the first time I shot video on a pro camera with flat settings and opened it, expecting the ultimate video quality, but it was quite disappointing until I figured out what to do with it.
Is that the K3M you're talking about? Just found this, seems to work for the A7III as well.
I was specifically referring to the adapter that lets you run the uwp-d directly into the hotshoe. I believe it’s the SMAD-P5 for current uwp receivers, and SMAD-P3 for the older series.
I vaguely remembered reading that the A7III doesn't support digital audio and found this
The SMAD-P5 lists compatibility with the a7iii right in Sony’s website, but it’s not clear about what cameras support direct digital conversion. For me the digital part is nice to have, but the main benefit is a compact rig with two wireless channels that feed right into the camera, and it looks like you get that with the a73. Mics have been analogue for a long time, it’s not really a big deal if you gain-stage properly.
I use a rycote invision, the one with a single long clip, I think it’s the 7HG maybe. works great for me. Haven’t tried the cinela but they look pretty pricey. Worth it you think?
You want a hosa ymm-261. Run the lav in one port and a sennheiser mke600 in the other.
Would work with the 600, but not every Shotgun mic has a battery. If OP has one that needs phantom power that solution might not work.
Yeah he’d definitely need a shotgun with internal battery power option, any of those should work though.
I actually got my start using the c02 and a zoom recorder. It was a solid rig for indoor dialogue at the time.
Lucky man, I got started with crappy Chinese shotguns and mystery mics that looked good but didn’t work. Pure ignorance and a steep learning curve on the audio side.
Audio for post production has always seemed like a mysterious artform. The amount of cringe stuff I did when starting out due to following terrible advice online is still something that haunts me.
Same here…. So much cringe and still so many that do it and don’t have a clue. 😬
Any reason for the white ones over the black enerloop Pro?
White ones last longer in lower current applications. Most portable devices are lower current if they’re designed to be battery powered.
Huh. That’s interesting. I’ve been using the black ones because of their higher capacity, and I’ve been getting 8+ hours in wireless kit.
Turns out I was wrong, don’t remember where I saw that but it’s not right.
Go talk to your friend and tell him, offer to kick him a referral fee for the first few videos you do. If he asks you not to take it, you gotta respect that, but it sounds like they’re not bringing him back either way.