Took a bag of primes instead of my goto standard zoom for a change, quite enjoying the difference it forces in shooting! Visited Yodabashi camera the other night, be still my beating heart! So awesome having so much to play with
I finally think I’ve worked out my post LR subscription workflow... subject to refinement with future use but seems okay so far for my hobbyist needs: 1. Copy SD card contents from SD to dump folder 2. Open this folder in FastRAWviewer to cull (it moves rejected images to a reject folder so you can either keep or delete) 3. Open culled folder in XNviewMP to batch rename photos using exif info or whatever I can then either copy the culled folder into my storage hierarchy and edit from there using Luminar 2018 or most likely ill keep the images in my dump directory as it’s on a SSD until I’m done processing the files I want to process and once I’m ‘complete’ transfer to the storage drive. FastRAWviewer seems pretty nice. Very quick RAW preview. Also has a few quick buttons to show highlight/shadow detail and fine detail so you can assess IQ when selecting keepers. Only about $30 for a licence to use on 2 computers (MacOS or Windows). XNviewMP does some of what FRV does but it’s a cross platform Linux/windows/macOS app and getting the RAW preview setup was too fiddly for my liking so I just use it for batch renaming duties. It’s also free. Neither app requires their own database. Ratings etc in FRV are saved in sidecar files. The main disadvantage to this workflow will be my attention to my naming scheme/folder hierarchy since Lightroom isn’t handling it and making sure I transfer manually from dump directory to storage drive often. All I have left to find now is an application on Windows that works like ChronoSync on macOS where it’ll sync a directory on the PC to a location on my NAS as a local backup. It is a great app and only syncs changes and any deleted files it moves to a ‘archive’ folder for a certain period before removing them entirely.
It's like walking into hogwarts. $20K lens just sitting on a tripod ready for you to have a play, sure why not.
i'm doing a lot of video now, and when taking videos of static things (maybe 5% of what I take video off) it sucks because of hand jitterness. Gimbal! To be perfectly honest, i'm only using an iPhone SE but as far as video quality goes, more than perfect. Most of my other footage is taken with GoPro/Sony action cameras. Will a Gimbal that's made for a GoPro be better than one for a phone? It's just that the GoPro is a known weight/size, phones are not because there are millions of them. I'd rather take static video with my phone over the GoPro as it's a hassle taking it off my helmet, putting it on the Gimbal, stop shooting, putting it back on the helmet etc. Could just buy another GoPro I suppose, but why when my phone takes good video (for my purposes)
So sold the Sony stuff so that i could consolidate into Nikon and just bought a Fuji XT2 Really wanted something smaller and the ability to use their film simulations pushed it over the line Picked up the Kit lens (apparently pretty good) and the 56mm 1.2, will see how it goes.
My ZTE has stabilisation and its nice, I do have a gimbal, I have the Zhiyun Smooth 4. I dont recommend it, because you cant do roll shots (no joystick, not a big deal to most people), the app doesnt work with the features its supposed to have (though you dont have to use it, panorama stuffs up for example and doesnt work properly), and they removed 360 degree panning. Smooth Q is much better if you can find it. I can stick my action cam in the gimbal without an gopro adapter, though I do need to use a coin to keep it balance. So you can use a phone gimbal for both. The focus wheel on it is just a meme, joystick would be better, at least could make roll shots with it. Smooth 4 is damn huge. Though at least I can say I can turn it on hand held its basically ready to go soon as I turn it on. Smooth 4 Pros: Standby lock mode (best feature) - you grab and can swing the gimbal arm down and it locks into place in standby mode - no need to turn off, just grab arm and swing up to resume gimbal - good for transporting/putting away without having to go through turning on and off again. Wide range of tilt. USB-C charging. Object tracking in app actually worked well for me. Id also reommend against DJIs phone gimbals, though you may like it. You can find them in JB hiFi and DJI shop to try out and see how they feel in the hand. Maybe the Snoppa ATOM folding gimbal? Its pretty tiny. Since the Smooth Q discontinuation there is no longer any 360 degree panning gimbal you can pick up in a physical shop iirc. Kaiser Baas gimbal is cheap if you want something out of a shop. if I had to buy again, I might get the Freevision Vilta M, which has 360 degree of unlimited panning. also I dont know any gimbal for phone which will follow the pan axis when held horizontally (to get more roll, such as a full barrel roll)
Got me a Osmo Mobile 2 in the end, ok not the best of the best, but for $185 brand new, how can you complain with that? I need carrying case for it though, it going to get broken in my bag - It's huge. Missus thought it was a sex toy at first. Sucks it doesn't have the Osmo attacher thing, so i've got my mic hanging off the tripod mount.... I can see what you mean by standby mode being a good thing, a few times (still noob, i've owned it 48 hours now, boxing day sale I bought it) i've been standing there with the thing going off all spastic
That's why I want the Vilta M, also stand by mode, and less of the drawbacks, and pov follow mode. Object tracking in the apps can be useful too on the various gimbals.
Argh of course I stuffed up heh. Osmo 2 works fine for what I want buuuuut Up on FaceBook a guy threw a Sony FDR-X3000 up (which is pretty much the only action camera on the market with optical stabilisation that's any good) for $200, and like most action cameras, minimal use. It's $549 new I think so I jumped on it. That'll replace the GoPro Hero 5 Black on my helmet nicely. So now I have an abundance of cameras - I have a pair of Sony HDR-AS200V's as B roll cameras so no need to have the GoPro for that use, but now it'll just sit and collect dust - Would have been good to throw it on a gimbal! I can't sell it as it's actually may Dads, he bought it early 2017 and proceeded to never use it, so yeah. Shame. Then again I wouldn't be able to use my external mic with the GoPro mounted gimbal, i'm not paying $90 for an adaptor when every other camera on the market can just plug a mic straight in.
I went and bought myself what seems to be the ugly duckling of the Canon line-up at the moment, the 6Dii. I'm really enjoying it for the most part, and on sale at < $1500 from digidirect it was a spontaneous purchase. I was desperate to get a FF body after having previously sold all of my EF-S glass so that I could use all glass on both my 5Dc and 7D, only to have the 5D shutter go bad. It's funny that the flak it cops is regarding the sensor, yet the only things that I would really like improved are the ergonomics and AF point spread. Now to find a base-only arca-swiss plate that fits nicely...
