EOS R + RF 24-105 vs 1DX II, 80D, First Impressions

[jcs]

yup and yup

also thank you jcs for the continued postings that makes this thread helpful.

if i may ask, was the point source light mounted on your eos r and providing the catch light in her eyes?

again, thanks for the effort and the sharing.

thumbs up.

rob
smalltalk productins/nyc

np rob & thanks for the feedback!

This $39 light is great! https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BBPWKCH/

The Luma Cube accessories work too (not a perfect fit, but stay on magnetically- no adapter/mount needed):
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07N7SPSQC/
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07N7RPB89/
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XDN99WQ/ (after initial test, not sure yet if super useful, $20 is cheap, though that's 1/2 the cost of the light)

Haven't tried yet, could be useful: https://www.amazon.com/Lume-Cube-Dif...dp/B06XDD3XVX/

Luma Cubes are more $$ and have Bluetooth etc., however didn't want/need that. Ordered a similar $30 light and was apparently lost in shipping, so did more research and ordered the $39 brand- recommended.

Got the light more for skin tones / fill vs. eye light- surprised how well these COB/point source lights work vs. the relatively large LED panels. I can see that using e.g. tracing paper and carbon fiber (or plastic, wood rods) it's possible to make really good, light diffusion using point sources on camera (tested with a paper towel- worked), though I really like just the point source with zero diffusion (comes with a plastic diffusor (+ tungsten, + a bunch of color gels)).

[jcs]

The Canon R is looking pretty good here. I will be looking forward to seeing the next generation - IBIS, no 4k crop, 10bit. (hopefully).

Thanks- that's with my custom picture style (little or no color post)- hopefully someday Canon (or anyone!) wiil produce great skin tons like this SOOC with factory/default settings (for these small cameras, ARRI already does this (better) on the high end).

[robfilms]

np rob & thanks for the feedback!

This $39 light is great! https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BBPWKCH/

The Luma Cube accessories work too (not a perfect fit, but stay on magnetically- no adapter/mount needed):
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07N7SPSQC/
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07N7RPB89/
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XDN99WQ/ (after initial test, not sure yet if super useful, $20 is cheap, though that's 1/2 the cost of the light)

Haven't tried yet, could be useful: https://www.amazon.com/Lume-Cube-Dif...dp/B06XDD3XVX/

Luma Cubes are more $$ and have Bluetooth etc., however didn't want/need that. Ordered a similar $30 light and was apparently lost in shipping, so did more research and ordered the $39 brand- recommended.

Got the light more for skin tones / fill vs. eye light- surprised how well these COB/point source lights work vs. the relatively large LED panels. I can see that using e.g. tracing paper and carbon fiber (or plastic, wood rods) it's possible to make really good, light diffusion using point sources on camera (tested with a paper towel- worked), though I really like just the point source with zero diffusion (comes with a plastic diffusor (+ tungsten, + a bunch of color gels)).

jcs-

i did notice that with the lumacube 2.0 there was also the ability to use the light as a flash for taking stills.

i LOVE that idea of holding a small off-camera flash 45 degrees up and out and get a breath of quality light onto my still subjects.

since i do stills and motion, the additional flash capabilities really adds value.

i need to investigate further.

rob
smalltalk productions/nyc

[Bassman2003]

Thanks- that's with my custom picture style (little or no color post)- hopefully someday Canon (or anyone!) wiil produce great skin tons like this SOOC with factory/default settings (for these small cameras, ARRI already does this (better) on the high end).

Thanks for the info. I replied on another thread but which software is this from Canon? Does it offer detailed color adjustments down to the hue? I remember doing some custom picture styles but they did not have very much detail in the way of fine tuning individual colors.

[jcs]

Thanks for the info. I replied on another thread but which software is this from Canon? Does it offer detailed color adjustments down to the hue? I remember doing some custom picture styles but they did not have very much detail in the way of fine tuning individual colors.

You can do targeted color, as well as more general changes + a couple curves: https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/p...itor-Tutorials . It's possible to get good, generalized results- examples for the 1DX II, 80D, 5D3: http://brightland.com/w/downloads/fi...r-canon-dslrs/ (the version I'm using for the EOS R is not currently included in Filmic Skin).

A useful method for creating good, generalized results is to shoot many photos in RAW, then you can use those RAW photos to help fine tune your picture style. For example, you might create a picture style that works well for a single image. After testing with many shots in a variety of lighting conditions, you may find you need to tweak the picture style until it works well for many images (that's how I created Filmic Skin and am confident I won't get surprises, no matter what the lighting conditions).

I was able to match Canon Log by round tripping recorded video and checking scopes in PP CC. Once I understood what was happening with gamma/curves, I was able to get very close to Canon Log for gamma/DR while still being able to use my custom colors for skin tones (not possible with Canon Log).

In summary, there's a lot of power/flexibility using these tools, just takes some time and patience.

[Bassman2003]

Thanks! That looks great. I don't remember the tool being that specific when I shot Canon for video. Although that was a while ago and I was more focused on RAW still profiles. Plenty to work with in order to dial in great color.

[jcs]

EOS R + a variety of Canon RF + L lenses, Filmic Skin picture style (optimized version for the EOS R).

Shot with a fixed WB, which looked correct during playback in camera, however in post was a challenge to keep white white and skin tones right. Going to pick up a lens cap WB tool (Expo Disk or similar). Normally Canon's AWB works well (mixed lighting/doc/verite), however in this case I didn't want WB moving around. I used a custom flat profile which looked good in camera, after adding contrast in post the color issues became visible. Another lesson for important skintone/color shoots: after setting WB, record a clip with normal contrast as well as low contrast to make sure the settings won't require a lot of post work to fix (which I didn't fully fix: got skin tones close and white somewhat close (some shots e.g. shirt is white however in same shot lights/surround are tinted magenta/blue (suspect lights have a spikey color spectrum)).

[toxotis70]

can you share with us your Filmic Skin picture style for EOS R ?

[jcs]

can you share with us your Filmic Skin picture style for EOS R ?

Still working on it.

[jcs]

Something challenging / interesting for color: light the skin with a ~5000K light where the overhead/background light is around 3000K. It's very colorful, though makes getting skin right in post a bit trickier. Probably better to use around 4400K in this case. Note background with a bit of a green tint and foreground skin is slightly magenta (good case for custom WB using a lens disc etc. to also have magenta/green in addition to blue/yellow).

(Holding a two-year old while filming... lens IS + digital IS level 1 works pretty well)