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FUJI XPRO2 ACCESSORIES! This pretty much rounds out the accessories I have added to the Fuji Xpro2. They are, in no particular order, the Fuji hand grip, the Xpro2 thumbrest, which combined with the Fuji hand grip aids tremendously in getting a firmer grip on this camera, and lastly the soft button. The bottom plate is a Manfrotto quick-release system I use on all my gear. All these accessories are extremely well made and just blend in nicely to the ergonomic of the Xpro2!

REAL ESTATE PHOTOGRAPHY I started taking shots for Real Estate and Contractors Remodeling work!

MY NEW CAMERA! It's been awhile since I've posted anything on this blog. Aside from this blog, I have two others, one devoted to the Samsung NX1 and the other to the Fuji Xpro2! Both are great cameras, and I use them both for video production and taking some still shots. The Fuji is a pure photographers camera, so I don't know WTF I'm doing with it! Seriously, I bought this camera because I loved the video I saw coming from it. The Fuji definitely wouldn't be my first choice of cameras to shoot video with, but it's 1080HD is stunning! It is a fantastic stills camera, it's a ton of fun to shoot with, and it was about time I learned more about Photography!

Shooting 4K for a re-comp

One thing I see a lot that may not be obvious to some is how you plan for a re-comp in the edit when you're shooting 4K video. What we're talking about here is when we take 4K footage and edit it in a 1080p timeline. One very important thing to keep in mind when you're on set and shooting your 4K footage is how you're planning to edit the footage. An example; let's say you're shooting a talking head interview, and in the edit you plan on varying the shot. Well, here's the deal, if you frame that shot with perfect headroom, you leave yourself no way to properly re-frame/scale-in that shot tighter, and have proper headroom for that tighter shot. I see this a lot in an edit were the re-frame has to go into an XCU shot because it wasn't shot with the right headroom for the re-comp. You have to keep in mind, you can't add something to that shot, that wasn't shot to begin with. Meaning, if you shot with perfect headroom throughout the interview, that's all the headroom you have to work with. Okay, so how do you zoom in with a prime lens without physically moving the camera? You tilt-up on the shot, that's how you zoom in. Now, in the edit this particular section with the excessive headroom, can be scaled-in and re-framed for a proper looking shot. You can vary your shot in and out of B-roll giving the illusion of a varied shot. You can even keyframe a slow zoom in that looks every bit as good as a servo zoom from and ENG camera. So, it boils down to planning on set where you want to vary that shot to say a MCU to CU and tilting up on the shot, and of course having the nose room to go along with it for your edit!

NX1 Slo-Mo Function

There has been quite a bit of posts on how to record slo-mo using the NX1. There are basically two ways of shooting slo-mo with this camera. The first, you can set the camera to record slo-mo and have the ability to playback that slo-mo within the camera, which would come in handy if you needed to see this playback on set. The other is to record at a frame rate that you later conform within your NLE for the particular slo-mo you're after. Slo-mo record/playback - Under the MOVIE ICON go to the MOVIE SIZE and set that to 1920 X 1080 (60p) Now scroll down to the FAST/SLOW MOVIE and set that to the top hit X0.5 (120P) This will allow you to not only record slo-mo in 120p, but also playback that slo-mo within the camera. Slo-mo conform to NLE - Under the MOVIE ICON go to MOVIE SIZE and set that to 1920 X 1080 (120p) You'll notice if you go into the FAST/SLOW MOVIE setting there is no option for slower playback. Once you bring this clip into your NLE, you can set this to conform to whatever frame rate you've setup, and it will playback in slo-mo. Between the two methods, I really see no quality difference, the only thing I do see is the first method will show that clip as 60p no matter what you shoot it at. I've tried to get an understanding of this and the only thing I've gathered that is complicated, but makes sense, is that in this type of recording for slo-mo the NX1 is putting creating this in a 60p container.

This is a prototype eyecup of sorts for the Samsung NX1. This worked out pretty well and is a big improvement over the stock eye piece.

This is my Isco Gottingen 180mm f4 lens. This is an old German made lens that still holds pretty sharp detail wide open at f4. The video from this lens also looks pretty good.

This was shot with a Mamiya 55mm f1.8 - shot @f4. This lens is pretty much my go-to lens for shooting interviews. It’s a beautiful lens that is very Zeiss-like in many ways, and has excellent image quality.

Test shot with the Soligor 28mm @f4

An old Soligor 28mm f2.8 that is in awesome condition. This lens pretty much rounds out my arsenal of lenses for the Samsung NX1. Well, maybe not quite!

I picked up another old Nikon lens for my Samsung NX1. This is a Spiratone 18mm f3.2 in fantastic condition! These old nikon lenses are perfect for shooting 4k video, in that, they’re not quite as sharp as the newer lenses and tend to take away a tad of that razors edge, giving you a more cinematic look to your image.

My outfitted Samsung NX1. Opteka Gage, Cinevate Cyclops, Lee Filters Holder w/Schneider 4x4 Polarizer, Nikkor 50mm f1.8 Lens. This Lee Filters holder comes in pretty handy when I don't want to attach a Matte Box, which, if I'm not getting any optics in the lens, I prefer this setup.

This is a great user group forum, were owners of the Samsung NX1 exchange ideas and talk about this fantastic new camera!

This converter is pretty amazing as it was created by a samsung NX1 user that wanted something better than what was available, and I must say, he delivered! This is the fastest H.265 transcoder I have come across by a long shot, and the creator is gracious enough to offer it for free! Both PC and MAC compatible.

I recently bought the Samsung NX1 DSLM (mirror less) camera, which is Samsung’s flagship debut into this market. The NX1 is a 28MP, ASP-C sized sensor that features BSI (Back Side Illumination) which we won’t get into. I won’t bore you with the technical specs of this camera as there are numerous sites that have that kind of information. What I will bore you with are some of the video features this camera offers. Note; I can’t really speak of the still photography side of the NX1, as I’m not a professional photographer, other than to say, sure, I know how to take a decent photo, and this camera is really fun to shoot stills with, but to go in depth about the stills capability, I’m not the guy. The NX1 shoots 4k internally to SD cards, and is the most technologically advanced APS-C sized sensor currently on the market. You can also connect the NX1 externally to several devices that offer 4k recording. The NX1 offers touch screen technology, which isn’t new by any means, but this being from Samsung, a leader in the smartphone industry, it offers a wonderful touch screen experience. If you happen to own other Samsung devices, namely their HD TV’s, or a smartphones, the NX1 offers state of the art connectivity to those devices. The Samsung NX1 is really the camera I’ve been waiting for, it’s not by any means perfect, but the image it produces is stunning! For me, it offers a blend of the Nikon D810 into the 4k mix that takes the clinical look that is inherent of a 4k image. There are a number of lens adapters for the NX1, which gives you the ability to adapt just about any lens you want to the camera. I’m using an old Nikkor 50mm f1.8 from the 50’s that produces amazing 4k video images. I haven’t had the opportunity to try any of the Samsung lenses, yet, as I really would like to stick to mostly manual lenses with this camera. Beings this is an introductory flagship model from Samsung, it goes without saying, but, I’ll say it anyway, it’s share of quirks. Basically, any camera you buy that is an introductory model, you the buyer are basically beta testing that camera. The NX1 has had it’s share of bugs that the company was quick to remedy with already two firmware updates with the latest 1.2 being pretty significant adding many features, mostly on the video side. In my opinion, the biggest weakness of the NX1 is the fact it shoots to the H.265 codec period, and currently there is no NLE support from Apple or Adobe. This equates to having to transcode the H.265 to ProRes 422, which is time consuming depending upon what you’ve shot. An example would be a Wedding Videographer that has shot 8-10 hours of footage, which would equal massive amounts of transcoding time before you could even begin the edit. It’s something to definitely keep in mind. However, the word is the H.265 codec is the future replacing the current H.264 codec. Whether that future is the near future, or light years away, time will only tell. The bottom-line, the Samsung NX1 is a wonderful camera that has some drawbacks, but offers stunning 4k capture and is a ton of fun to shoot stills!

Tools of the trade!

A matte box and a simple set of filters are a definite if you're going to shoot video outdoors. I've never been a big fan of screw on variable ND filters, yes, they work, but unless you're spending a couple hundred on the filter, my experience from owning a couple, it will alter true colors. What you see above is a d-focus matte box, along with some Schneider filters. A 6 stop ND filter, polarizer filter, and gradient ND filter. I usually stack two filters when I'm shooting outdoors. These filters are not cheap, the average cost is $200-300 per filter, but they can have a dramatic effect on your footage, and should be of serious consideration for every videographers kit.

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