24Mar Canon EOS-M Rig
The Canon EOS-M is a pretty tiny little camera and there’s not a whole lot of room to mount accessories. In order to make the camera a little larger and add a few more mounting spots I attach it to this used flash bracket and a Giottos MH652 quick release plate. I’ve made a few makeshift updates to the flash bracket
like the foam grip tape wrapped around the right hand side and the bits of white velcro to make the whole thing a more comfortable to use. While it’s not the most beautiful looking rig, I find it reasonable practical.
The overhead bracket provides a nice place to mount a mic or LED panel and the right hand side of the bracket works out as a nice hand grip with easy thumb access to the record button on the EOS-M.
The rig also leaves the left hand side of the Canon EOS-M open and easy to access. This works fine for the mic input, but you might want to be careful if you’re using a field monitor with the EOS-M because there is nothing protecting the HDMI port.
Rounding things off the beachtek DXA-SLR is mounted below the flash bracket and ends up providing a nice solid base to set everything down on. The whole setup weighs about the same as a 5d mark III with a battery grip and easily breaks down for travel and storage. If you missed it, you can check out a full overview of my EOS-M kit here. It’s a great little camera for the price.
21Mar Azden FMX-DSLR Review video
Over all I’d say the Azden FMX-DSLR is a pretty good buy. It’s more straightforward and easy to use than a Juicedlink RM333 and it’s less expensive than the Beachtek DXA-SLR. It also offers up a few more routing and mixing options as well as lav power via the 3.5mm jack.
As I mentioned in the video, my only real complaint with the Azden FMX-DSLR is the location of the phantom power switches. While this is a bit of a pain, I’m sure many people would be happy to put up with it for the $40 price savings the Azden offers over its nearest competitors. As long as the Azden can maintain a price advantage I think the Azden FMX-DSLR is a great buy.
I’m currently working on an audio comparison test between the Azden FMX-DSLR, Beachtek DXA-SLR, and the Juicedlink RM333. Hopefully I’ll have something out next week before I head off to NAB. Also drop me a line on Twitter if you are going to be at NAB this year, it’s always fun to have a meetup and drink with some fellow filmmakers.
21Mar First Panasonic GH4 Lens buy Olympus 12-40mm f/2.8
After doing a large amount of my own research, talking to friends, and hearing from you guys I’ve made my first Panasonic Gh4 lens purchase, the Olympus 12-40mm f2.8. Thank you for everyone’s input and suggestions on lenses for the Panasonic Gh4, those of you who are long time Panasonic owners have been extremely helpful.
The final decision ended up boiling down to three things. First, and probably most notable for me is this video that Cfreak linked to. It’s pretty easy to see in the video that the f-stop is effected as the Panasonic 12-35mm f2.8 zooms in and out. While I don’t do a lot of zooming in and out I also don’t want to have to make slight settings adjustments every time I make a focal length change.
The second is something Sol mentioned about repeatable focus which was very helpful and something I might have missed if I hadn’t been looking for it. The Panasonic 12-35mm f2.8 is completely fly-by-wire and there are no hard stops, while the Olympus 12-40mm f2.8 has a clutched focus ring (similar to the Tokina 11-16mm f2.8) that allows repeatable focus and hard stops at 20cm or infinity. Even though the Olympus is a bit chunkier and doesn’t have image stabilization, repeatable focus is a relatively important feature for me.
Lastly but not least, I was able to find the Olympus 12-40mm f2.8 on ebay for $750 +$16 shipping. I hadn’t actually planned on buying the Olympus today, but I put in an offer for $750 and it was accepted. So I’ll actually have my first micro 4/3 lens in my hands before I have a camera to shoot with. Maybe I’ll drag it along to NAB and see if I can test it out on one of the floor models.
If you’re still not sure about what lens to buy, read through the comment section on this post from earlier in the week. Everyone had great recommendations and good reasons for different lens selections, the discussion ended up being very informative for a first time micro 4/3 owner like myself. Thanks again guys for all your help!
20Mar Preparing for the Panasonic GH4 – Memory cards
I have a few Sandisk Extreme Pro SD cards laying around as well as some less “pro” Extreme cards. I spent some time today working through the math and speed testing to see if any of these cards would keep up with Panasonic Gh4’s 4k recording function. In order to save you guys some time I figured I go through it here for future reference.
According the spec sheet, the Panasonic Gh4 captures 4k footage at up to 200mbps which is equal to 25MB per second. If you aren’t big into tech you can find out more about bits vs Bytes here. A 64GB card, when formated, gives a little bit less than 60GB of usable space but i’m going to round to 60GB because it’s pretty close. 60GB equals 61440MB so if you are writing to the card at 25MB per second you’ll want to divide 61440MB by 25 which gives you 2457.6 seconds of recording time or about 40 minutes (40.96 to be exact) of recording time on a 64GB card at 4k. So here’s how it works out.
200mbps data rate recording times for 4k (unknown see update) and 1080p
- 16GB = approximately 10 minutes of record time at 4k
- 32GB = approximately 20 minutes of record time at 4k
- 64GB = approximately 40 minutes of record time at 4k
- 128GB = approximately 80 minutes of record time at 4k
- 256GB = approximately 160 minutes of record time at 4k
100mbps data rate recording times for 4k and 1080p
- 16GB = approximately 20 minutes of record time at 4k
- 32GB = approximately 40 minutes of record time at 4k
- 64GB = approximately 80 minutes of record time at 4k
- 128GB = approximately 160 minutes of record time at 4k
- 256GB = approximately 320 minutes of record time at 4k
So will my Sandisk Extreme cards be able to handle 4k? The answer is maybe. While the Sandisk Extreme has an average write speed of 42.47MB/s in CrystalDiskMark, that’s only an average. If at any point during that test the card dropped below 25MB/s it might not be fast enough and you could end up stopping a recording. Don’t get me wrong a 42.47MB/s average is pretty good and you might be able to record 4k all day long at that speed depending on the buffer size in the Gh4, but it’s a low enough number that it could conceivably drop below 25MB/s at some point during a shoot.
The Sandisk Extreme Pro test tells a happier story. With an average write speed of 70.95MB/s the card would have to dip below 35% of it’s average write speed before it stopped a 4k recording. The Sandisk Extreme Pro cards are most likely fast enough to handle 4k recording on the Panasonic Gh4. This is nice when you consider that 32GB Sandisk Extreme Pro SD card are around $49, compared to the new Extreme PRO UHS-II 32GB cards at $130 a piece.
One thing to note is that Sandisk says “up to 90MB/s writes” on the Sandisk Extreme Pro cards, but they say “a minimum sustained write speed of 30MB/s” on the more expensive Extreme PRO UHS-II cards. This probably means they’ll guarantee the more expensive cards will work and leave you hanging if you have any issues with the older Sandisk Extreme Pro cards. I guess “Pro” means something different than “PRO”.
UPDATE: A few of you have mentioned that 4k recording is only in 100mbps mode. This might be the case, the answer I received from Pansonic was that “4k requires a card with a minimum sustained write speed of 30MB/s” which is actually 240mbps I assumed the extra 40mbps was a built in margin of error, but I could be wrong. Also in this interview with Panasonic at about 6:49 in the video he says 100mbps and 200mbps after talking about 4k. Maybe this only refers to 1080, but it seemed like he was implying 4k as well. If you look at the Panasonic GH4 speck sheet here at the beginning of each list is “[4K] 3840×2160:29.97p,” after the comma it lists another bit rate and format, but there isn’t any bit rate listed with the first format. Maybe this is referring to external recording formats but it’s not specified. If anyone gets a definite answer let me know and I’ll update the post again.
20Mar Tascam DR-60d neck strap option
A couple of you were asking about the strap I use with the Tascam DR-60d. There isn’t anything very fancy about it, it’s simply a camera strap quick release buckle and an old camera strap. I’ve been using it for almost year with good results but i’m always open to other ideas if you guys have any recommendations.
To keep the stress off the XLR inputs I loop the XLR cable through the strap before feeding it into the recorder. This method also saves the DR-60d from damage if cables get yanked, though it can give you a nasty rug burn on your neck if you’re not careful. I usually attach wireless units to the 1/4 20 stud on the top of the DR-60d and occasionally I’ll mount an XLR adapter box to the bottom and feed a few extra channels in via the DR-60d’s 3.5mm input.
I’ve seen a few audio bags for the DR-60d, but most of them are in the $100 price range. It seems a little unreasonable to spend that much on a bag for a field recorder that only costs $199.
19Mar Preparing for the Panasonic GH4 – Lenses
As I mentioned before, I went ahead and pre ordered the Panasonic GH4. The specs are pretty amazing and the $1699 price tag makes it one of the most attractive 4k camera offerings on the market. However not many people have had their hands on the camera, so the Panasonic GH4 is still a little bit of an unknown. I’ve only seen anecdotal statements about ISO and image quality, but it’s been enough to tempt into the Panasonic world. Would I recommend you start selling off your current gear to pick up a GH4? Probably not, but if you already have a camera and the time and budget to take a chance on a second camera, go for it.
I’ve only ever played around with the Panasonic Gh3 and Gh2 on a few random shoots. Because of that I haven’t looked into micro 4/3 lenses in over a year, so i’m just starting to do some research on a starter set of lenses for the Gh4 body. I called up a few friends who have done a lot of shooting on the Gh3 over the last year and got a list of their recommendations. Out of the 4 people I talked to the Olympus 12-40mm f2.8 and Panasonic 12-35mm f2.8 O.I.S. where to first lenses to be mentioned.
In the micro 4/3 world the crop factor is 2x. So a 12-40mm is equal to 24-80mm on a full frame and the 12-35mm is a 24-70mm equivalent. Both of these lenses fall into the $800 to $900 price category, besides the small focal length difference, the only other thing of note is that the Panasonic 12-35mm has image stabilization while the Olympus 12-40mm f2.8 does not. In my discussions a few of them said they’d gone with the Olympus because of the build quality, while the others said the image stabilization was a big plus on the Pansonic. No one really had any complaints about either lens so the question on this one is, which one should I buy? I know a few of you are Panasonic owners so let me know if you have any input on this. I’ll definitely buying one of these to get started.
I actually took notes during these conversations and the one lens that seemed to be universally loved among the whole group is the Panasonic 35-100mm f2.8 O.I.S. lens. This is equivalent to a 70-200mm f2.8 lens with image stabilization. Apparently it’s made out of plastic which is a downside, but it’s also less than half the size of my Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS making it a very nice telephoto lens to travel with. At a street price of just under $1000, the Panasonic 35-100mm f2.8 O.I.S. lens is also pretty reasonably priced compared to my full frame equivalents. Between this and the 12-35mm (or 12-40mm) lens most general use stuff is covered pretty well.
As for wide angle there was a little bit of grumbling, apparently there isn’t really a perfect 16-35mm f2.8 equivalent. I have yet to do more research, but all of them said the Panasonic 7-14mm f4 was probably my best bet. At around $850 it’s pretty close in price to a used Canon 16-35mm f2.8. F4 on a micro 4/3 body is a little disappointing but 7-14mm is a 14-24mm full frame equivalent so that’s actually a bit wider than I was expecting. I didn’t realize there were any lenses that wide in the micro 4/3’s lineup.
I will probably pick up the Olympus 12-40mm f2.8 or Panasonic 12-35mm f2.8 O.I.S. and see how well the Panasonic GH4 works out in test shots. If I fall in love, i’ll probably sell off some gear and pick up the other two zooms. After that, if i’m still happy I’ll moving on to some good primes, maybe I’ll start with the Panasonic 25mm f1.4. If I get that far, I’ll post some of my lenses choices when I get there.
19Mar Wireless stereo audio with the Tascam DR-60d field recorder
As promised here is a full overview of the Tascam DR-60d wireless setup. All of the audio in this video (minus the intro) was recorded via a Wi audiolink stereo wireless transmitter. I’ve had very good luck with this setup in the field and this method has dramatically reduced the number of times I’ve needed to sync audio in post.
In case you’re wondering the boom microphone being used in the video is a Audio Technica 4073 which is one of the most used microphones in my collection. Also, while the DR-60d does have a “protected recording mode” this mode doesn’t send two different levels via the line out port, it only generates two different volume level recordings internally. Thats why in the video I recommend a xlr Y splitter. Also you can run the Wi audiolink for longer periods of time via a usb port attachment instead of buying two units. While this works, I have had the unit randomly shut off on me while being powered via the usb port so I’ve elected to buy two of them.
There were also some questions earlier about audio quality loss. The Wi audiolink a 16bit, 48kHz uncompressed signal back to the camera. While there might be some loss in the A/D D/A conversions that happens along the way, you’re really limited by the weakest link which is the 16bit, 44.1kHz sampling rate in the camera used in this video. This doesn’t really affect recorded speech, but if you are really striving for higher fidelity sound in a live music environment you might want to use the Tascam DR-60d’s internal 24bit, 96kHz sampling rate and sync in post.
It looks like the Tascam DR-60d is still on sale at B&H for $199 and it still comes with a free copy of Pluraleyes. So if you end up having to sync audio in post, you’ll have a free software program to handle it. You can also find a newer version of the Wi audiolink labeled “Pro” for $259 as well as the original (tested in this video) for $189. I don’t see any difference listed on the spec sheet, but some have reported that the latency is even lower on the “pro” model. For video I haven’t had any problems with latency, but if you are using this for headphone monitoring while playing guitar, it’s enough to be noticeable and irritating. So keep that in mind if that’s your intent.
18Mar Really cheap mini cold shoe bracket ball head
I went ahead and ordered 4 of those really cheap mini cold shoe ball head adapters from ebay (4 for $13.52 with free shipping on ebay). I posted a little while back about some affordable mini ball head options, but these guys are even cheaper at $3.38 a piece. It took 3 weeks for them to show up and I wasn’t expecting much, but i’ve been pleasantly surprised.
While these mini ball heads are cheap, they still feel solid enough to hold a field recorder or 5 inch monitor in place. One nice extra is that when you snug down the wing nut it locks the cold shoe as well as the ball head in place which means no need for glue. At this price, however, the thumb nut on the cold shoe is plastic as is the thumb nut on the ball head. Still for the price they feel reasonably usable.
I was expecting them to be complete junk and it turns out that’s not the case. I wouldn’t describe them as heavy duty, but they are more than strong enough to support a Zoom h1 or the Viltrox field monitor. The cold shoe at the bottom of the unit is even made out of poorly anodized metal and there’s a 1/4 20 female thread on the bottom of the unit for easy attachment.
These mini ball heads are very usable for the price. You might break them after a lot of use, but at $3.38 a piece you can afford a handful of them in your bag. They do take awhile to ship from China so you might want to order 5 or 6 of them to make it worth the wait.
18Mar Canon 5d mark III 1.2.3 firmware Magic Lantern support
One of the main reasons I haven’t been using Magic Lantern on my 5d mark III bodies is that up until recently using Magic Lantern on the 5dmkIII meant you needed to downgrade the older 1.1.3 firmware on your camera to get things working. While raw video is a novel concept, I haven’t found it all that practical for most applications and the clean HDMI output of the newer 1.2.3 firmware has always been more useful to me.
With the recent update posted by Magic Lantern it looks like they have finally move to support Canon’s 1.2.3 firmware update. I might have to give it another try and see how well it works. Magic Lantern displays and clean HDMI out would be a nice combination to have.
17Mar Quick look at my Tascam DR-60d Wireless solution
I’ve mentioned this a few times in the past, but I haven’t really spent much time covering it. Here’s a quick look at my Tascam DR-60d wireless audio solution. Basically I use the line out of the DR-60d and feed that into the Digital Wi stereo transmitter, then record the audio at the camera on the other end coming from the receiver.
You have volume control on the Tascam DR-60d’s line out as well as the receiver and transmitter on the Digital Wi audiolink so you have plenty of gain going into the Camera. The fact that the Digital Wi audiolink transmits stereo audio also means that you have two tracks of audio to work with back at the camera. You can also mix down all 4 tracks being recorded on the DR-60d to a stereo track for the camera if needed.
This is a great way to go wireless when working with a boom mic operator. This is just a quick look at my setup. I’ll have a full video out as well as audio samples towards the middle of the week. I’ll keep you posted.
