Fuji X-T3 released

The highlight handling of Alexa is worth exploring. Linear top end limiting? Eqiuvalent to multiband (audio) compression?
 
James0b57 said:
As you already know, most of what makes an Alexa so much better is the teams of people creating the content surrounding it. That said, Alexa is not known for being technically accurate. But seeing as how impossible that may be, i think they chose the “right” sauce.

Sony is kind of the poster child of what happens when you strive for accurate colors. Wasn’t until the Venice that they started going for aesthetics.

I don’t really think any camera can really mimic the Alexa, unless they incorporate some form of highlight retention or hdr feature, because no other CMOS sensor i know of can reach into the highlights like an Alexa does. So a simple LUT will not replicate the Alexa look.
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Actually the Sony Venice is using the same sauce as the F65. So the aesthetics were already there. However, DP's wanted that in a form factor and workflow that made better sense. They also get a bit more dynamic range. I have never seen colors that compare to the F65, even from the Alexa.

However, the Alexa has a kind of smoothness in it's transitions and of course, as you say, incredible highlight retention. Not to mention such ease of use, that nothing, simply nothing comes close in post production. It's the only camera where I can apply a LUT in grading and often have to do nothing more. Generally, as a colorist LUT's don't work for me because I still have to do just as much work after applying one, but in the case of the Alexa they do.

I think the Alexa does use a special exposure technique for it's highights, a kind of pseudo HDR, but I may be wrong. It's a bit like fogging film to give extra highlight info back in the old days of shooting analogue.
 
yoclay said:
... I think the Alexa does use a special exposure technique for it's highights, a kind of pseudo HDR, but I may be wrong. It's a bit like fogging film to give extra highlight info back in the old days of shooting analogue.
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It has a dual-analog readout to get those extra stops but, since one rarely uses the full 15-16 on a studio set ... (side note - was watching some Spanish soap while flipping through the channels - my Spanish is barely sufficient for soccer highlights - and I thought that the colors were great but the actresses foreheads were reflecting the overhead lighting for a very macabre type of a look ... so, one the one hand, there's your Roger Deakins; on the other, whoever needed to get out 40 pages per day)
 
DLD said:
Ran on a Hungarian IBM knock-off ... part of the advanced math placement class that my dad forced me into ... (and, by that, I mean forced others to admit me) ... wasn't my thing but the curriculum was mandatory for all ...

Did the debate on the Alexa secret sauce ever get settled? Was it the filters or the sheer processing power? Now, it seems to be all LUTS. "You're making a film on Zenit TTL? I got perfect LUTS for you. $20 will make it look like an Alexa65 with the same depth of field".
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Never worked with PL1- looked it up- looks kinda like BASIC. Didn't excel in math in school, wasn't until I started writing video games that I took an interest in math- you need it to make things fly around, do collisions, physics, fluid dynamics etc. Linear algebra, calculus, and differential equations, as needed for games & simulations, is relatively easy in the grand scheme of mathematics (certainly not my strength- use computers to do the hard work haha).

I think the primary value of the Alexa color science is exposure invariant color. Once WB is set, it doesn't shift highlights toward magenta and shadows toward green (or vice versa) or any other weirdness that most other cameras do. That saves a huge amount of time in post. Additionally, it holds pleasing skin tones in a wide variety of lighting conditions. Highlights are great because of the patented dual-voltage sensor which does HDR in hardware in 'one pass' (don't need to read the sensor twice as with Red and others). Alexa noise is also tuned to be like film, and the overall look was based on years of studying film having created film scanners (and of course film cameras).

I spent a lot of time tuning Canon cameras (DSLRs and the C300 II) to get them looking as close as possible to the Alexa (no LUTs- all in-camera). I think I got reasonably close and wonder why Canon doesn't ship the cameras with colors like that as the default. The Canon 5D3 with ML Raw looks pretty Alexa like ("Baby Alexa" was a common term). Sony's Venice look has the same idea- looks really great as is, though it's a bit of a different look than the Alexa (I think both are great- different flavors). Canon crushes the blacks on their DSLRs (video) and on the C300 II runs very heavy NR- why? To deal with their noisy sensors. Sony has much better sensors (than pretty much everyone, except Alexa in the highlights). If they ever release the A7S III, especially given how amazing the little A6400 already is, it's going to be amazing for us and not so amazing for all non-Sony camera makers.
 
A7SIII will supposedly/allegedly have some sort of a new sensor. Then again, Fuji/Panasonic have been working on an organic sensor for about a decade. Panny did say that it should go into production this fall.

Side note - Panasonic, Sony, Nikon all tweak the same 24 and 45/47 MPX full frame sensors for their latest cameras. Nikon and Panny seem to have the most pleasing colors ... but still not as good as Sigma's Foveon.
 
DLD said:
A7SIII will supposedly/allegedly have some sort of a new sensor. Then again, Fuji/Panasonic have been working on an organic sensor for about a decade. Panny did say that it should go into production this fall.

Side note - Panasonic, Sony, Nikon all tweak the same 24 and 45/47 MPX full frame sensors for their latest cameras. Nikon and Panny seem to have the most pleasing colors ... but still not as good as Sigma's Foveon.
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That 47MP sensor on S1 is made by Panasonic/TowerJazz.
 
boo said:
Can someone kindly direct me to the X-T3 thread? Not that I'm counting(past 25 posts ;P)

Here are some low light X-T3 footage(not my video):

https://vimeo.com/325154743
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I know a lot of you refuse to indulge in social media. But for those of you who do, I started a new FB Group, Instagram Page and Twitter feed called Fujifilm Pro Video Shooters, come on over, I need some posters to actually post some images, talk about technique using the XH-1/X-T3, etc. I have discovered that the most popular X-T3 groups over on FB are mainly just photo hobbyists obsessing over which lenses to buy, whenever I post video content, they just scratch their heads almost like they didn't know the X-T3 is a killer video camera. I'm going to see if I can get these social media things happening a little bit before investing the time and effort into a discussion board. The Facebook format is usable for discussion, which is what I think we video users are lacking. DVXUser isn't going to give us a Fujifilm thread beyond this one apparently do I decided to try to start my own.

Join us, would like to see you over there! I'm just doing these for fun and because it's annoying to not have a place where X-T3 users can post rig pictures, screen caps from shoots, tips and tricks, etc. This thread is already devolving into other non-X-T3 related stuff so hopefully we can get a few users to come over there?

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/FujifilmProVideoShooters/
Instagram @FujifilmProVideoShooters
Twitter @ProFujifilm
 
Nice footage of Morro Bay Dan! How's the lack of IBIS working for you with the Fujinon XF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 OIS?
 
boo said:
Nice footage of Morro Bay Dan! How's the lack of IBIS working for you with the Fujinon XF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 OIS?
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It wasn't too much of a problem, although if I shoot with that lens with the 1.4X TC again, I will bring my Sachtler instead of the Miller AIR. When you get out to 560mm with the TC, no tripod head and legs are heavy enough, OIS or no OIS.
 
My X-T30 was just delivered. This thing is tiny! I only ordered on Monday. They said they would start shipping yesterday and they did! Heads-up: the launch bundle deal (any f2 X lens + X-T30 $300 off) still seems to be up on the dealer sites (at least on Adorama). So I got the 23mm f2 bundled with the X-T30 for $300 off - in other words the camera cost $599! This is an insane bargain considering it has same sensor and processor as the X-T3, and outputs 10bit 4:2:2 to external recorders!!! Of out to test it now. Go get that deal!
 
NorBro said:
Took me a long time to find this...

I always thought this was a great example of the BMCC.

You just didn't see this kind of footage from regular people back then in 2012 before Blackmagic came along.

You needed serious money to own or even rent a camera that could come close.

https://vimeo.com/120887527

Now the thing sells for 500 bucks on eBay...I'm shaking my head.
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wow!

it might be a number of years since this trailer was posted but the images are stunning!

which blackmagic was used to shoot this?

truly impressive.

thumbs up.

rob
smalltalk productions/nyc
 
Their first camera...BMCC 2.5K (aerial shots were done with the pocket).

It was a great RAW system with fantastic oversampling. Maybe their most magical camera.

The film was shot somewhere between 2014 and 2015 if I remember correctly. It wasn't online for a bit due to a festival run (again, IIRC).
(The BMCC was announced in 2012...shipping was up to speed in 2013.)
 
norbro-

thanks for the quick reply.

i worked with the pocket several times.

loved the image.

the workflow was a pain.

years ago i played with the bmcc 2.5 and toyed with the idea of picking up a used way back when but the internal battery issue caused me to back away.

i've seen some pretty images from the current bm pocket4k with the new raw download that have me drifting into "what if..." land.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tunB5ES_zdU

ymmv

thumbs up.

rob
smalltalk productions/nyc
 
scorsesefan said:
For those of you who are using external batteries like the Anker with your X-T3, how are you rigging it?
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I havent seen a clean install yet and no matter what, you're still going to have cables in and out of the camera. B&H had a barely used Fuji battery grip I picked up for $250.00, have barely even used it but I will be using it once I shoot more interviews.
 
scorsesefan said:
For those of you who are using external batteries like the Anker with your X-T3, how are you rigging it?
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I would love to see an audio adapter with integrated battery that could also power the camera. With a pretty flat profile. Mini-XLRs would be fine with me to reduce bulk.
 
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