M2 lighting test

EP2005

EP2005

Well-known member
A couple grabs with the M2...such an easy to use adaptor, gives amazing results, recommended to anyone in need of professional results at the $1000 range. I myself am still learning how to get the best images, but that comes with trial and error.

TEST FOOTAGE HERE: http://www.justinkady.com/testreel.wmv 9.5mb (right-click and save as)


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what lens did you use (aperture)? the shots look flat. you could definitely get the image much sharper unless softness/flat is your intention
 
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i just looked at these on my mac, and they look very bad...much less grain on my windows. trying to figure out how to fix that now. also, there seems to be a line going through the middle of all the footage, but only when i look at it on a mac, not my windows....hmm
 
I was thinking that they look a little muddy......like underexposed. Maybe it's just the quality of the grabs. How about posting a clip?
 
The image looks very noisy to me. Tons of grain. Are you sure you had enough light. I find that you really need to pump in the light with an adapter in order to get a tight image.

If that's the look you're going for, I'd do some CC try to give it a little more depth.

bigups.

-rook
 
im going for a very dark look. These shots take place in the upstairs part of an apartment, while a party goes on downstairs. The party is suppost to be colorful and vibrant, while the upstairs is dark and depressing. Im a little confused though on the mac/windows deal...these look much sharper on my windows.
 
It just seems that there's far too much detail in the dark areas for a dark look. On my screen it's not coming acrosse as dark and depressing.....just muddy.
 
EP2005 said:
A couple grabs with the M2...such an easy to use adaptor, gives amazing results, recommended to anyone in need of professional results at the $1000 range. I myself am still learning how to get the best images, but that comes with trial and error.
Click to expand...

You may be underestimating the ease of use. These definately need some work. Keep us posted as to how the film gets on. TIm.
 
I know this sounds the opposite than what you should do but... to get a dark look, especially with the M2, you need to light well and then in post darken everything. The DVX & M2 combination needs light. Otherwise the chips can't record enough information to get a clean picture. This is generally true for digital. There's just not enough latitude, especially in low light.

Here's a recent post of mine that contains grabs from a short I did using my DVX and M2:

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=51859

The captured images were brighter. The images posted have all been dialed down to give it a slightly darker look and to darken the background and shadows. It would be easy to keep going and darken more.
 
All that feed back and we get 'Added a Clip'

Come on EP2005 !

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Calibration is your friend


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As is light.

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Man. I so have to get a 35mm Adapter.

Damn it.

I liked this, whether it be concpetual or part of something else or a simple test; the shallow DOF just rocks the image. Anyway; looks great, but calibrate! And like Hansk mentions; light like the pros and then dump the levels in post.
 
lol sorry john, i ment to have the clip up earlier, but rendering took a LONG time...magic bullet booo...


I lit everything with 1500 watts, i thought i was pumping too much light into the image in my first test shots, so i dimmed it down. The original stuff was TOO light, even when i lowered everything in post...all the lowering did was make the image darker, not make the environment "dark"...

i think the calibration is definatly a factor in the images looking "underexposed"...they definatly wernt underexposed.

This all was actually the first day of shooting for a feature that I was working on, but it got scrapped cuz of many many things going wrong...this was my first time lighting anything with real lights, and my first real project other than some bs i did in high school, and i think that's sort of why it got scrapped, i learned i cant make a full feature by myself
 
Hey EP, Don't want to impose any right r wrong, but I thought I should show you another very rough test with the M2, I was going for dark images too, but that was actually a motion test, not lighting.

Still I think it's good comparisson, contrast-wise and grain-wise...

Cheers!

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I honestly don't think I've seen a post with blow you away type footage from the m2. I do agree that people need to start using lights. Get a lighting book and read it! It's not that hard...really.

That being said, the M2 produces very flat picture and retains a video look that I don't think most people really want. It's a shame really that the price is so expensive because I've seen guys make their own for 120 bucks on here and produce the same results..makes you wonder how much a company can hype shlt up about something that maybe just isn't as great as they let on it is. Why not make your own adapters and use the money you've saved on a lighting kit. Just my 2 cents.
 
Angrius said:
I honestly don't think I've seen a post with blow you away type footage from the m2. I do agree that people need to start using lights. Get a lighting book and read it! It's not that hard...really.

That being said, the M2 produces very flat picture and retains a video look that I don't think most people really want. It's a shame really that the price is so expensive because I've seen guys make their own for 120 bucks on here and produce the same results..makes you wonder how much a company can hype shlt up about something that maybe just isn't as great as they let on it is. Why not make your own adapters and use the money you've saved on a lighting kit. Just my 2 cents.
Click to expand...
I've seen some awesome stuff from the M2. I think most people probaby don't know how to use it properly.
 
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