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My STILL ongoing journey of achieving M2 Edge to Edge sharpness
- Thread starter sotty
- Start date
I will get some real footage up later today.
Peter, I have used over 100 combinations of settings, right now the settings I have now are;
720P/24P
Shutter: 180
Detail: +3
V Detail: +3
Detail Coring: +4
Chroma Level: -2
Chroma Phase: +2
Color Temp: +2
Master Ped: -8
A. Iris Level: -2
Gamma: CineLike D
Matrix: Cine-Like
Skin Tone DTL: Off
Hard mounted, M2 glass/boot removed. I also tried not hard mounted.
Here's what I'm finding. Seems mostly HVX/M2 owners are getting best results
at around Z74 to Z70. MF from 14-16. However that takes away close up focus. I get best results with an extreme closeup zoom of the image element. I have it set to Z85, MF16 hardmounted. Redrock is sending me another image element (ground glass) and another HD achromat.
Steve your rez chart is excellent.
Peter, I have used over 100 combinations of settings, right now the settings I have now are;
720P/24P
Shutter: 180
Detail: +3
V Detail: +3
Detail Coring: +4
Chroma Level: -2
Chroma Phase: +2
Color Temp: +2
Master Ped: -8
A. Iris Level: -2
Gamma: CineLike D
Matrix: Cine-Like
Skin Tone DTL: Off
Hard mounted, M2 glass/boot removed. I also tried not hard mounted.
Here's what I'm finding. Seems mostly HVX/M2 owners are getting best results
at around Z74 to Z70. MF from 14-16. However that takes away close up focus. I get best results with an extreme closeup zoom of the image element. I have it set to Z85, MF16 hardmounted. Redrock is sending me another image element (ground glass) and another HD achromat.
Steve your rez chart is excellent.
Lenilenapi
Carbonite Member
Sotty,
Is your zeiss lens a cinema 35 lens or a Nikon mt? If its cine than its image is smaller than the nikon's SLR image that's probably why you are zooming in farther.
That is confirmed by the fact that you are still focusing about the same distance away.
If its nikon then you have decide to zoom into the the center of the nikon image. this has pro's & cons -
The pro is that you will get better edge sharpness.
The Con is that 1-you are now using a more telephoto lens and
2- also that by not using the full image from the lens you will lose some overall resolution - like blowing up from a smaller negative. this may be pretty minor though.
My guess on this is that you are expecting better sharpness than you can get from this unit.
Steve's chart is very good, but I can't always shoot at F4. Also what is the HVX's f-stop. My experience is that that affects sharpness more than the Nikon. However in real life I often need to be wide open on both, so that's where I need acceptable results.
My M2 is softer on the edges than I would like, but my guess is that's just the way it is. Isn't bothering my clients yet, but I've mainly been doing interviews.
Is your zeiss lens a cinema 35 lens or a Nikon mt? If its cine than its image is smaller than the nikon's SLR image that's probably why you are zooming in farther.
That is confirmed by the fact that you are still focusing about the same distance away.
If its nikon then you have decide to zoom into the the center of the nikon image. this has pro's & cons -
The pro is that you will get better edge sharpness.
The Con is that 1-you are now using a more telephoto lens and
2- also that by not using the full image from the lens you will lose some overall resolution - like blowing up from a smaller negative. this may be pretty minor though.
My guess on this is that you are expecting better sharpness than you can get from this unit.
Steve's chart is very good, but I can't always shoot at F4. Also what is the HVX's f-stop. My experience is that that affects sharpness more than the Nikon. However in real life I often need to be wide open on both, so that's where I need acceptable results.
My M2 is softer on the edges than I would like, but my guess is that's just the way it is. Isn't bothering my clients yet, but I've mainly been doing interviews.
Last edited:
Lenilenapi said:Sotty,
Is your zeiss lens a cinema 35 lens or a Nikon mt? If its cine than its image is smaller than the nikon's SLR image that's probably why you are zooming in farther. That is confirmed by the fact that you are still focusing about the same distance away.
I'm using Zeiss zf nikon mounts. I also have Nikons as well.
https://photo-shop.zeiss.com/Categories/Objektive/ZF
Lenilenapi said:If its nikon then you have decide to zoom into the the center of the nikon image. this has pro's & cons -
The pro is that you will get better edge sharpness.
The Con is that 1-you are now using a more telephoto lens and
2- also that by not using the full image from the lens you will lose some overall resolution - like blowing up from a smaller negative. this may be pretty minor though.
Right. I like the full Z85 zoom on the ground glass. But for some shots I will zoom out to about Z74.
Lenilenapi said:My guess on this is that you are expecting better sharpness than you can get from this unit.
Right again. I know its in the M2. But I also know that there are to many varibles with the M2 when it comes to fine tuning. The main problems are the ground glass not being 100% true round. The nut with the spider washer is not perfectly balanced and the big one is the sprocket adjustment in/out piece with the 2 small allen wrench screws. Terrible design if you ask me. The ground galss is a nightmare trying to balance and take out the wobble.
Lenilenapi said:Steve's chart is very good, but I can't always shoot at F4. Also what is the HVX's f-stop. My experience is that that affects sharpness more than the Nikon. However in real life I often need to be wide open on both, so that's where I need acceptable results.
I always have it at 3.4 to 5.6.
Lenilenapi said:My M2 is softer on the edges than I would like, but my guess is that's just the way it is. Isn't bothering my clients yet, but I've mainly been doing interviews.
Slowly coming around to that conclusion. I shooting a $100k feature in March
so I need this setup to be as best as can be. Or I will have shoot HVX only and forgo the M2. Or rent a better camera.
Lenilenapi
Carbonite Member
At 100K I probably would go with a Varicam anyway.
How can you afford to shoot with an M2 and the HVX @ 4 or 5.6. The light budget alobne would be better spent on a Varicam.
I don't think I have too much wobble, but I haven't looked carefully. It seems if it wobbled the whole thing would be off proportionate to the distance from the center and i don't see that, but it could be machining differences. I think my ground glass is spinning evenly
BTW I go with detail @ +7 with the M2 which helps alot and I see no downsides. But my coring is 0 and my vert detail is 0 also > i can't see much value from coring though maybe I'm just missing it. Should make the blacks cleaner, but the softness bugs me.
How can you afford to shoot with an M2 and the HVX @ 4 or 5.6. The light budget alobne would be better spent on a Varicam.
I don't think I have too much wobble, but I haven't looked carefully. It seems if it wobbled the whole thing would be off proportionate to the distance from the center and i don't see that, but it could be machining differences. I think my ground glass is spinning evenly
BTW I go with detail @ +7 with the M2 which helps alot and I see no downsides. But my coring is 0 and my vert detail is 0 also > i can't see much value from coring though maybe I'm just missing it. Should make the blacks cleaner, but the softness bugs me.