25Apr Mitakon 35mm f0.95 for the Panasonic GH4?
From what I’ve heard, my Panasonic GH4 body will be shipping out sometime next week and I’m still on the hunt for lenses. I’ve been looking into the Voigtlander Nokton 25mm f/0.95 as a good fast manual prime for the GH4 but the new price is a little steep at around $1000. I might still end up with a Nokton as I’m scheduled for one of those shifty Craigslist coffee shop meetups later today, if the price is right, I’ll take it home.
My research into the Voigtlander Nokton ended up leading me to the Mitakon 35mm f0.95 above. At a price of $664 on ebay, the Mitakon 35mm f0.95 seems reasonably when compared to the $1000 Nokton 42.5mm f0.95. Sure you loose a little reach as the Mitakon is a 70mm equivalent and the Voigtlander is an 85mm equivalent, but for a $300+ price difference I think I could live with it. Also the Mitakon appears to be a bit heavier at 1.5 lbs (680g) vs 1.26 lbs (571g). The weight difference actually makes sense because the Mitakon is designed to cover a APS-C sensor which means the glass elements have to be a little bigger. This also means there wont be much if any vignetting wide open on a m4/3 body.
I’ve done some hunting and haven’t found any conclusive reviews on the Mitakon 35mm f0.95. There are a lot of statements like “it’s very solid” and “image quality is good” but those aren’t exactly comprehensive reviews. Have any of you Panasonic shooters given this lens a try?
24Apr Samsung 28-Inch 4k Monitor $629 on ebay
If you missed out on the $599 easter pricing on the Samsung 3840×2160 4k monitor I posted earlier this week, you can still pick this monitor up for far less than the $799 the price has shot up to on Amazon. Right now there are a hand full of these monitors on ebay for $629 with free shipping. While it’s still a $30 markup over the original MSRP of $599, it’s a lot more tolerable than the current $200 markup happening everywhere else. Hopefully if all goes well I’ll have mine here sometime next week.
24Apr Canon 5d mark III body on sale for $2,560
As all the new cameras from NAB start to hit the market it affects current camera prices. Right now you can pickup the Canon 5d mark III body with free shipping for just $2560 on ebay. That’s about $500 to $700 less than the normal pricing. I’ve purchased a number of cameras from this particular seller and had pretty good luck, but keep in mind they normally require a signature for delivery which can be an issue for some. Also, these cameras are often from a lens/body combo package with the lens removed. It’s not a huge issue, but you do end up with a larger box. For the price it’s usually worth it. As with all of these sales there are a limited number of cameras so if you want one, you might want to move fast
.
24Apr How much does a GPU really affect your Adobe Premiere workflow?
I’ve been talking about GPU upgrades so I thought I’d post some rendering tests I did awhile back on the GTX 670 and the GTX 285
with CS6. Adobe CS6 is a bit long in the tooth now that CC is out, but I still know a lot of people who use it. The specs on both of these systems are what I would consider middle and lower end respectively in todays market.
I used two timelines, the first I’ll call the “Easy timeline” which is comprised of a 2 minute and 42 second clip with a few audio tracks, a few video tracks, no major effects, simple transitions, and a few color corrections made. This would represent a basic film, cut, and edit type of situation. The second test timeline I’ll call the “Complex timeline” which is composed of a 2 minute and 36 second clip with 3 audio tracks, 14 video tracks, complex nested sequences, AE timelines, and dozens of effects. This would represent a music video, composting, or a motion graphics situation.
Here are the specs on the two test computers:
Desktop editing system one:
- Intel Core i7 Processor i7-920 2.66GHz
- 24GB (6 x 4GB) of G.SKILL Ripjaws DDR3 1333 Ram (16GB dedicated to CS6)
- EVGA GeForce GTX670 4GB GPU
- 500GB 7200 RPM main drive and 500GB raid 0 editing drive
Desktop editing system two:
- Amd phenom II x4 Processor 840 3.2GHZ
- 8GB (2 x 4GB) of G.Skill RipJaws DDR3 1333 Ram (6GB dedicated to CS6)
- EVGA GeForce GTX285 2GB GPU
- 500GB 7200 RPM main drive and 500GB raid 0 editing drive
Number one will set you back around $700 or so used on ebay depending on your motherboard, power supply, and case selection, while number two will set you back around $350 to $400 used depending on the same factors.
Note: Some of the parts are old enough on these systems that you would most likely have to find them used, that includes the GPUs.
For each test I exported the clip using Adobe’s standard Mpeg2 1080p 29.97 preset and timed the render process with and without the Mercury Playback engine GPU acceleration. Above is the Easy timeline with a total length of 162 seconds.
Editing system one: without MPE GPU acceleration enabled, it was able to render the Easy timeline in 133 seconds, with MPE GPU acceleration enabled the Easy timeline rendered in 117 seconds. Even without GPU acceleration, system one was able to render at 21% faster than real time playback, with GPU acceleration that number Jumps up to 38% faster than real time playback.
Editing system two: without MPE GPU acceleration enabled, it was able to render the Easy timeline in 155 seconds, with MPE GPU acceleration enabled the easy timeline rendered in 141 seconds. Without any GPU acceleration it was able to render 4.5% faster than real time, with acceleration it was able to render at 15% faster than real time.
Add the GPU acceleration to the mix and there is a noticeable jump in rendering speeds. If most of your work is simple editing with few complex effects and your average timeline isn’t longer than 15 minutes, you probably won’t need the extra boost in rendering speed. The GTX 670 definitely provides an advantage over the GTX 285
, but you’ll have to decide for yourself if it’s worth it to spend an extra $150 on the 670 upgrade. You could render that 20 minutes timeline in 12 minutes (GTX 670), 17 minutes (GTX 285) or 20 minutes with a low end graphics card.
I used the same render settings on Complex timeline (Mpeg2 1080p 29.97) as I did on the Easy timeline and timed the render process in the same manner. The Complex timeline (above) has a total length of 156 seconds.
Editing system one: without MPE GPU acceleration enabled, it was able to render the Complex timeline in 27 minutes 46 seconds (1666 seconds), with MPE GPU acceleration enabled the Complex timeline rendered in 9 minutes and 55 seconds (595 seconds). That’s a very impressive jump in rendering speed and really shows how much heavy lifting the GPU can do.
Editing system two: without MPE GPU acceleration enabled, it was able to render the Complex timeline in 38 minutes 45 seconds (2325 seconds), with MPE GPU acceleration enabled the Complex timeline rendered in 11 minutes 34 seconds (705 seconds). That’s still a very nice improvement to render speeds over the base system.
This test really shows how much the MPE GPU acceleration can do for render speeds even on a lower end system. However, I was less impressed with the 18% speed difference between the GTX 670 and the GTX 285 rendering the Complex timeline. The 670 wins the battle for speed but loses the battle for value. You can buy a used GTX 285 for around $60 v.s. the GTX 670 at around $230 used
, is an 18% speed gain worth the price difference?
That’s not quite the end of the battle though. Timeline playback is also a very important issue to address. I can set Timeline playback on the GTX 670 to 100% quality without any playback issues on the Easy timeline, and 50% quality on the complex timeline and still get real time playback.
The GTX 285 stutters a bit on the Easy timeline at 100% quality, and plays smooth at %50. On the complex timeline, even at the lowest quality settings, playback is choppy after about 30 to 40 seconds. Pre-rendering effects in the timeline was really the only way to get smooth playback on the GTX 285 running the Complex timeline.
Conclusion
Although the GTX 670 does provide a noticeable rendering speed increase, it’s biggest value for me is real time playback. With the MPE GPU acceleration enabled most GTX cards (1GB and above) will provide a good boost to rendering speeds. If you’re work doesn’t require much more than 3 or 4 video tracks and some basic editing, the best value is going to be one of the lower priced cards like the GTX 285
. On the other hand, if you use a lot of motion graphics, multi-cam, and AE projects in your timeline, spending the extra money on something like the GTX 670 or newer is definitely worth consideration.
22Apr Radeon R9 290x GPU prices fall, best value card for Adobe CC?
Adobe started officially supporting the Radeon R9 290 series graphics cards in december and the original list prices for these GPU’s looked pretty nice at $399 for the R9 290 and $549 for the R9 290x. In most tests the R9 290 and R9 290x performs with in about 5% of the GTX 780 at $499 and GTX 780 ti at $699. If the MSRP of the R9 290 cards would have been consistent, the $100 to $150 in savings would have made the Radeon cards very attractive.
Unfortunately there have been two issues plaguing these GPUs. First, up until a few weeks ago virtual currency mining was driving the R9 290 series card prices up as high as $800 to $900 a piece, making the GTX 780 and 780 ti much more attractive for both video editing and gaming. Second, the stock Radeon design for these cards only provided a single, very loud cooling fan.
Thankfully both of these problems are starting to fade away. Virtual currency prices have dropped down low enough that they no longer seem to be effecting Radeon GPU prices. Also brands like Sapphire (Tri-X above) and ASUS have started to release cards with much quieter and more efficient custom cooling shrouds that keep noise levels and operating temperatures down.
Where things start to get interesting is that as the virtual currency prices fall a lot of people are beginning to unload large amounts of R9 290 and R9 290x cards on to ebay. This has been driving the used prices of these cards down by an extra $100 to $150 on ebay while the GTX Titan, GTX 780, and GTX 780 ti prices stay about the same. If the prices of a Nvidia 780 ti and Radeon R9 290x is the same, i’d say go with an Nvidia card but if you can save a few hundred dollars for 5% less performance and higher operating temperatures, the Radeon cards start to look like a pretty good value.
I ended up winning a Sapphire R9 290x Tri-X card for $380 on ebay yesterday while I was in the doctors office waiting room which is what actually got me started looking at current GPU prices. I was very impressed with the 4k Radeon Adobe CC editing demos and rendering tests I say at NAB this year. They were getting great playback and rendering at 4k on a 4k timeline with nothing more than a R9 290x and a i7 4770. Plus the $319 price savings over a GTX 780 ti is money I can spend on a nice monitor upgrade.
In my two editing bays I currently run a GTX 680 and a Radeon HD 7970. After the updates that were released by Adobe at the end of last year, it seems like both of these cards have been keeping up with editing tasks quite nicely. Each card supports a few different effects in my timeline, but it seems like there is a lot of overlap right now between OpenCL and CUDA support in Adobe CC. Both seem to be helpful in both rendering and real time playback, especially when the layer count gets above 5.
20Apr Samsung 28-Inch 4k Monitor U28D590D $599
There have been a few affordably priced 4k monitors on the market, but all of them were limited to 30 hz refresh rate. While 30 hz is fine for video, it can be a little painful for normal computing tasks. The Samsung 28 inch 4k monitor is one of the first somewhat affordable 4k panels running at 60 hz to hit the market. At a price of $599 you get a 3840 x 2160 (Ultra HD) workspace in a 28 inch desktop friendly package.
Originally the estimated price on the Samsung 28 inch 4k monitor was $699, but amazon dropped the price to $599 this morning so I ended up pulling the trigger. This will be replacing my much loved Catleap 2560×1440 panel that I’ve been using over the last few years.
Apparently one of the benefits of the Samsung 28 inch 4k monitor is that you can run the monitor off of a single displayport cable at 60 hz making it much more attractive than some of the dual DVI 4k options. I’ll let you know how it turns out when it finally shows up. Might have to upgrade my graphics card, not sure if my HD 7970 GHz Edition or my GTX 680 4GB will be enough to handle a 4k panel. I’ll only be using this monitor for editing so I might end up with enough GPU power to get by.
On a side note, if you are running Nvidia cards in SLI there is currently no support for this monitor. So if that’s your setup you might want to hold off until Nvidia finally releases an updated driver.
18Apr Varavon Panasonic Gh4 machined Camera cage
Varavon had some very interesting prototypes at their booth this year at NAB. They had one of the sexest looking Panasonic GH3/GH4 cages I came across on the floor. Machined from a single block of aluminum, the reps said this was actually one of the first prototypes from the factory floor. The final version will be anodized black.
The Varavon Panasonic camera cage has a nice lip at the front of the unit to prevent any kind of camera twisting and built in cold shoe adapter at the top of the unit. It’s less of a protective cage and more of a all in one mounting solution.
There are cut outs around pretty much every control you’d need to reach on the camera with plenty of 1/4 20 mounting points. They’ve also included a nice leather hand strap for hand held use. It’s hard to get an idea of the actual size of the cage from these photos, but the camera cage is slightly smaller than a Canon 6d body.
Varavon also included a locking mic port as well as a cut out for the LCD screen that allows for full rotation. The reps said there would also be an optional HDMI locking port available upon release. Estimated street price is $200 for the cage and leather handle, but they weren’t sure if the HDMI lock would be included in that price or if it would be sold separately.
There are cages like the PNC Honu Panasonic cage for around $99 but the bolted side and top plates tend to make them flimsy. I haven’t seen a whole lot of other options in this price range that look as well polished. This will be on my buy list once it’s released, should be a perfect fit for the Panasonic GH4.
18Apr Big Balance Mustang gopro Stabilizer
Quick heads, after NAB I went straight to another hotel and I’ll be living out of a hotel room until the end of this week so I apologize for my lack of updates. I’m looking forward to getting home on Sunday and getting back to a normal schedule.
A number of you have sent me questions about low price camera stabilizers. There were a lot of camera stabilizers at NAB this year but the Big Balance Mustang gopro Stabilizer was one of the most interesting systems I found under $300. Instead of trying to use a 3 axis gimbal system, the Mustang uses a simple gyroscope in a small box mounted below the camera plate with a free spinning bearing attached to the handle.
The gyroscope design means that you don’t have to balance or adjust your camera on the Mustang making it much easier to use. It’s a pretty old school concept shrunk down to a very tiny little package. I spoke with the guys from Big Balance and they are expecting a May release date with a price somewhere around $220. I’ll most likely be picking one of these up once they show up on the market.
13Apr Panasonic GH4 4k High ISO testing
Even though the Sony a7s looks to be an amazing camera, I still have my eye on the Panasonic GH4. Having 4k in such a tiny little package at that price point really makes the GH4 attractive for lightweight travel. The only real concern I had was high ISO shooting. If the GH4 can deliver at 3200 ISO it’ll be good enough for most applications and it looks like the Panasonic GH4 delivers.
The above test was shot in 4k from 1600 ISO to 6400 ISO (the limit of the beta firmware) and to me both 1600 and 3200 ISO look completely usable. Even 6400 ISO could be usable if you are scaling down to 1080p. The Panasonic rep said this might even get a little better when the latest firmware comes out.
As for editing and recording, I used a Sandisk 95mb/s card in the Gh4 without any issue at 4k and I was able to edit at half resolution in Premiere CC on my laptop and full resolution on my desktop. Doesn’t look like the Codec Panasonic is using for 4k will be to much of an issue.
You can download the file here to see it without all the youtube compression. Overall it’s pretty impressive.
12Apr More Sony a7s low light testing, a Hero 4 in the works, and a 4k pocket recorder rumor
At NAB this week I wasn’t able to dismount the a7s from it’s stand or use a memory card in the camera so my low light testing was a little bit crude. This video just released by Sony really gives you a much better idea of how amazing this camera actually is in low light. As I mentioned in my previous post, the Canon 5d mark III starts to break down at around 6400 ISO in video mode, however at 102,400 ISO in this video, the image still looks usable.
A few of you asked about rolling shutter. We were able to do a little bit of fast motion testing on the Sony a7s before we left NAB on friday. The rolling shutter on the a7s is a bit worse than the Canon 6d I had with me. I spoke with the Sony rep about rolling shutter and they said that the firmware on the display cameras still needed a lot of work. They seemed to be confident that rolling shutter would be as good or better than the Canon 5d mark III by the time of the a7s release in the next 3 to 4 months.
As for 4k recording, Atomos announced the Ninja Pocket recorder. While the one on display is only designed for 1080p recording, several reps at multiple booths seem to think that there was a 4k version in the works. One rep even said “I expect to see a 4k version when the new Hero 4 is announced at the end of the year.” The announcement of a 4k capable (at 30 fps) Hero 4 is pretty likely considering Ambarella, the company that makes the current A7 SOC for the hero 3+ has released the new A9 with very good 4k specs.
If a 4k Ninja Pocket was released at around $300 or so, that would really make the Sony a7s an attractive 4k camera, especially with it’s amazing low light performance. Still, it’s a shame Sony’s marketing team wouldn’t allow the a7s to record 4k internally.
I’ll have more updates from our trip to NAB throughout the weekend and into next week as I get a chance to sort through all of my notes. I’ll keep you posted.
