14Feb DSLR FILM NOOB Podcast Episode 8
Just finished up another Episode of DSLR FILM NOOB podcast, planetMitch from planet5D joins me to discuss USB 3.1 implementation, new lenses from Tokina, slider risers, and more.
You can find the show notes here. You can find the show on itunes here, Soundcloud, or under the podcast tab above. You can also leave questions on reddit at r/dslr.
11Feb Amazon’s offering $10k for creators if selected
This is something kind of interesting I came across and talked about on the Podcast. Amazon is offering free storyboarding software as well as script writing software for people looking to develope their story. If you submit a story idea or concept and it’s selected by Amazon studios, they are also offering up to $10,000 to start development. You can find out more about it here.
The free screen writing and storyboarding software is a very nice deal, even if you don’t take advantage of their development program. If you are working on a script or trying to storyboard something, it might be worth checking out.
10Feb Is the Aspen lav really a JK MIC-J 044?
I was looking at low price lav mic’s on amazon and came across this guy. The strangely named “JK MIC-J” is a $29 lav mic that’s been shipping under a few different names on ebay and Amazon over the last few years. I hadn’t really paid attention to it until just recently.
The JK MIC-J lav mic comes with a Sennheiser style thread on the 3.5 mm jack and sports a mic capsule that looks suspiciously similar to the $54 Aspen Mic I was testing earlier this week. Heck even the shirt clip looks similar.
The specs listed for both of these microphones are also extremely similar. I wonder if this is a case of same mic, different branding. Not sure what the story is behind the JK MIC-J lav mic and Aspen Mic, but I think i’m going to attempt some A/B testing between these two this week.
I wonder if the $25 price difference between the two mics is really just better branding and a tin case. Should be interesting to test the audio and listen to the results. These might be using the same mic capsule.
09Feb DSLR FILM NOOB Podcast Episode 7
DSLR FILM NOOB podcast Episode 7 is up. Devin from impulsenetworks.tv joins me to discus, fun facts about the Olympus E-M5 Mark II, the Canon 5ds, Nvidia GTX 970 frame buffer issues, the EOS-M3, Lightroom on tablets, and more. You can find the show notes here. You can find the show on itunes, Soundcloud, or under the podcast tab above.
Google hangouts does some strange stuff to audio, so if you are just going to let the video play in the background, the Soundcloud playback tool will give you a far better audio experance. The audio version is also trimmed up just a bit.
08Feb More Monoprice 2.4Ghz wireless audio testing with the GH4
So here’s a quick test of the Monoprice 2.4Ghz lav system recorded directly into the Panasonic GH4. There’s no indication to tell you what the output level is on the Monoprice receiver, but I had to turn it down quite a bit before it stopped peaking out the camera inputs. I also turned off two of the WiFi networks in the studio so that there wasn’t any interference.
When youtube compresses the video, the noise is actually suppressed pretty well and you don’t really hear how noisy the audio actual is. I went ahead and rendered out the timeline audio so you can listen to what it sounds like before the youtube mystery compression happens.
The Aspen lav does make a noticeable difference in audio quality and with youtube compression the audio even sounds “acceptable”. If I were to run this through some noise removal in audition before uploading to youtube I think I could pass it off as usable audio.
Over all I think the Monoprice 2.4Ghz lav system does sound better than it’s closest priced competitor the audio technica 88w. WiFi congestion is a big concern with this guy, but I think if you are on a really tight budget, shooting at home, and are just upgrading from an on camera mic to your very first wireless audio system, this setup might be a decent stepping stone.
I don’t think I’ll be using it unless i’m in a pinch, but it was fun to test. Maybe it’ll be a giveaway on a future podcast.
07Feb Riser plate for camera sliders
I was on a shoot a few months ago where we were using the ifootage Shark S1 slider to slide the camera back from a subject to reveal an object off to the side that was out of frame at the beginning of the shot. If you’ve ever tried to use a slider in this manner you’ll know that the issue with a move like this is that at the end of the move you run the risk of getting the edge of the slider in frame.
While I’d seen riser plates for rod systems, I was looking for something that could be dedicated to the Shark S1 slider’s bag and provided enough lift to get the rails out of the shot at the end of the slide. The solution I came up with is this camera slider riser plate.
This camera slider riser plate will run you about $40 and comes with a 1/4 20 male/female adapter as well as a 3/8″ male/female plate. You can also configure them to be stack-able if you need to bring the camera up even higher.
Combine the camera slider riser plate with a Manfrotto 501 fluid head and you’ll be able to pan, tilt, and slide all in a single shot. While $40 is a little pricey for two riser plates, it’s the best solution I’ve found on the market so far. It also made it much easier to get the shots I needed in limited space.
The camera slider riser plate is a pretty handy accessory for any slider owner and it’ll keep the slider out of frame. If you find a cheaper solution let me know and I’ll post it, this thing has been working pretty well for me, but it was also the only solution I could find.
06Feb Canon 5ds & 5ds R just more megapixels?
This morning Canon announced the Canon 5ds and Canon 5ds R. Both cameras are pretty similar to the 5d mark III but canon’s added and subtracted a few things. The most significant upgrade is a 50.6 megapixel sensor, which Canon was quick to point out is a proprietary Canon sensor, Dual DIGIC 6 Image Processors, intervalometer, and USB 3.0 support. They’ve subtracted the headphone monitoring, hdmi output, and a microphone port. Update: There does appear to be an HDMI port as well as a mic port, thanks JB for the correction. I spent some time talking about this on Episode 6 of the podcast this morning, but I thought I’d organize my thoughts here.
For $3699, Canon basically seems to be selling you a high megapixel camera. Low light performance wasn’t really mentioned in their promo video which is probably because this goes up to iso 6400 and with the missing video features this seems to be mostly aimed towards specific type of photographers.
The Canon 5ds R seems to be Canon’s opportunity to charge people $200 extra for actually removing something from the Canon 5ds. While I wont argue that there are a few people who actually want and need a 50 megapixel sensor, for the rest of us, this isn’t really an upgrade. It just a 5d mark III with more pixels.
There are rumors of a 5d mark IV coming that might include 4k recording and some upgraded video features. It might even be announced at NAB this year. I hope these rumors materialize, because Canon is really starting to fall behind the competition.
06Feb DSLR FILM NOOB Podcast Episode 6 with video
Just finished up another Episode of DSLR FILM NOOB podcast, planetMitch from planet5D joins me to discuss the long list of new camera announcements from Samsung, Olympus, and Canon. It’s also the first video + audio show.
You can find the show notes here. You can find the show on itunes here, Soundcloud, or under the podcast tab above. Feel free to send in questions to dslrfilmnoob at gmail. We are thinking about starting up a forum of some kind as well as an IRC chat room. Let me know what you think!
05Feb Minolta 50mm f1.4 lens on the Sony A7s
Still continuing to test Minolta glass on the Sony a7s. This time, I have the extremely affordable Minolta 50mm f1.4 lens. This tiny little 50mm lens generally sells on ebay for between $140 to $200 and it’s a great value for the price.
Build quality is in the ballpark of the Canon 50mm f1.4, mostly plastic with a metal lens mount. Where it differs from Canon’s 50mm offering is that there is no rubber grip on the focus ring. Instead, the focus ring is a tiny little ribbed bit of plastic at the front of the lens body which means you’ll probably have a tough time getting a follow focus on this guy. The focus ring moves pretty smoothly and the focus ring travel is a little less then half of a turn, so with a little practice you could probably pull focus by hand with this lens.
The Minolta 50mm f1.4 lens does have a few little quarks that make it interesting. The telescopic lens hood which slides in and out of the lens frame and travels along with the front element as the lens focuses is an interesting feature. Not sure how it would work with a 49mm filter attached but it is unique. The other odd thing is that the ribbed grip on the lens body is made out of hard plastic. Looks like it would be rubberized, but it’s definitely smooth plastic.
The Minolta 50mm f1.4 lens is smaller around and shorter in length than the Canon 50mm f1.4. However, attaching it to the Sony LA-EA4 adapter ruffly double it’s size and because the lens is so light, the camera becomes bottom heavy on the LA-EA4’s plastic base. While I like the price of these Minolta lenses, the LA-EA4 adapter isn’t exactly the perfect solution.
Bokeh on the Minolta 50mm f1.4 lens is smooth and out of focus areas are very pleasing to look at. The lens is soft in the corners wide open and starts to sharpen up by f2. Center sharpness seems good most of the time, but I think I’ve been getting some random AF issues out of the LA-EA4 adapter. Auto focus works great with the Tamron 28-75mm f2.8 lens, but I’ve been getting just enough missed shots on the Minolta 50mm f1.4 to suspect some kind of issue. Might have to do some more testing.
Over all the Minolta 50mm f1.4 lens is a very affordable prime for the price. Image quality is good, bokeh is nice, and it’s a great value. For the most part I’ve been buying these lenses for low light photography, the EF to E-mount adapter has been fine for film making and I don’t plan to invest a lot of money in new E-mount glass. I’ve been considering renting the Sony E-mount 55mm f1.8 to compare it to the Minolta because it’s really the only E-mount lens I would actually consider buying, but until I have time for that the Minolta 50mm f1.4 should do the trick.
One side note. When I was researching Minolta 50mm f1.4 lens, I found a note about the aperture blades. Apparently from 1985 until 1990 the aperture blades were flat and from 1991 through 2006 the blades are curved. I’m guessing I have one of the latter models because I haven’t seen any hexagons in the bokeh. I don’t think it’ll make much of a difference for most, but it is a difference to look for when buying used.
05Feb Join us live as we cover Canon’s friday morning announcement
Canon’s big camera announcement is happening tomorrow and their will be a lot of information to cover. Join planetMitch and I live as we discuss the news over at planet5D as it happens. You can sign up to join in on the show here. We’ll be kicking things off at 9 a.m. CST (10 a.m. EST). There might even be a few guests.
Look forward to seeing you there!
