Driftwood Cluster X Series 4:│Moon T8│Spizz T7

pundit

Currently shooting a documentary using Moon T8. (Yeah I know!) Anyway results are looking pretty good.

Here's a few frame captures...

dracore

So spanning at 24H works with my Sandisk Extreme Pro 64GB. So now I believe that spanning is not dependent on just the R/W speed of the card (my PNY meets and/or exceeds my Sandisk Ex Pro card) but rather some other attribute (extra buffers when it opens the next file for writing?).

pundit

At the end of each days shooting, after transferring and backing up, I fully format my Sandisk Extreme Pro 64GB 95MB/s cards using SD Formatter from the SD Association...

https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/

Takes around 20 minutes to do a full format on my 2012 MacBook Pro.

Aashay

@Pundit.. Beautiful frames. What lense are using mate?

pundit

@Aashay

Rokinon 85mm F1.4 @ F2.8 with ND1.5 (shot around midday requiring bounce fill light from right)
Pentax SMC-Takumar 85mm f1.8 @ F2.5 (window light from left, bounce fill from right)
Rokinon 85mm F1.4 @ F5.6 ??
Voigtlander 17.5mm F0.95 @ F2.8 (window light from left, bounce fill from right)
Voigtlander 17.5mm F0.95 @ F4.0 ??

Normally I wouldn't use two different lenses of the same focal length on a shoot but I wanted to give the Takumar 85mm a try.

Frame No. 2 was the 'B' cam with the 85mm Takumar

Frame No. 4 was the 'A' cam with the 17.5mm Voigtlander

In camera settings 'SMOOTH' & -2, -2, -2, -2

Aashay

@pundit.. Incredible. Loving the texture. Do you plan to grade it cause it looks pretty gorgeous as it is? Moon/Spizz.. Everything in Cluster X is a beast. Also, I have been looking for a cheap vintage 85mm or or above tele lens, Any recommendation?

pundit

@Aashay

I meter each shot and use a WhiBal card for white balance and also an XRite Color Checker.

Main thing with the GH2 (or most DSLRS's with limited dynamic range) is to avoid overcooking the highlights and then use fill in the darker areas if required. I tend to use reflectors quite a lot. White for full sun and silver for overcast.

The first frame above was in almost full midday sun so plenty of reflector was needed.

As the GH2 doesn't allow for a very flat profile I try to keep things within around eight stops of range.

The less latitude you have, the more important it is to get it as 'right in camera' as possible. If you nail the white balance and keep the exposure within range then, theoretically, less grading is required.

If I have to grade something too much it tells me I got it wrong in camera.

I'm not a fan of crushing the last couple of zones to black.

The hacks seem to help here as you can often pull quite a lot detail out of the apparent darkness, but I'd rather do it with the lighting than in post if possible.

I really hated that Magic Bullet crushed blacks look that every man and his dog seemed to be applying to their 5D MK2 and 7D footage a few years ago. I read somewhere it was to hide all the compression macroblocking that lurked in the shadows.

The 85mm Rokinon is a bargain, while the SMC-Takumar 85mm F1.8 is great but around $400-$800 s/h.

If I could afford it (and justify it) I would like a set of Zeiss Super Speeds or Cookes but one can dream...

AlbertZ

@pundit very good work, man!

Jim_Simon

" I believe that spanning is not dependent on just the R/W speed of the card"

I'd agree with that. I recently tried the Transend U3 card, the one recommended for the GH4's 200 Mb's mode, and it failed miserably with Moon Trial 7's 50 Mb/s 24L mode, where as the slower rated SanDisk cards work perfectly.

darkraymond

@pundit Thank you, SD Formatter is work. It solves a problem that some of my sd cards can't be recorded continuous even those cards are USH-I and fast.

tired

just testing Space - not spanning on a Sandisk extreme plus 80mbs - PAL 25fps FHD

works on Sandisk Extreme Pro 95mbs - we'll see what happens on the wedding tomorrow, living on the edge!

Aashay

@pundit.. Cheers man for such detailed explanation. It is really helpful. Would it be right to say that one should keep the darkest part in zone 2 and highlights in zone 8 for best quality out of the cam?

Maya

@driftwood Is there a fix for In camera playback for Moon T8? Clips above 20 to 25 seconds doesn't play in the camera. i hope there will be Moon T9 with all Working and Improved. thk u :)

pundit

@Aashay

Shian has covered the zone system in relation to the GH2. As far as people and skin tones are concerned I generally meter and expose for the brightest side of the face and then apply some fill light to the darker regions if required.

I mostly use a reflector but sometimes a little fill from a small battery powered LED either bounced, or through some diffusion does the trick if there's not enough ambient to bounce.

The other thing to consider is when shooting a no/low budget anything with only around 8 stops of DR is a carrying small makeup kit.

While makeup is expected on narratives it's amazing how it's overlooked on many documentary shoots. Shooting a sweaty bald guy in full midday sun is not what these cameras do well.

The tiniest patch of shiny skin can add another stop or two which will easily cause blow outs.

Once you hit the upper exposure limits the highlights will clip abruptly. No soft knee here. When you're right at the limit a third of a stop is a lot with these cams.

dracore

@tired - you could just easily pop in your Extreme Pro and hit record - letting it run for 5-6mins to see if spanning works

dracore

@Jim_Simon - Yes, I also have a PNY 32GB and 64GB. Both rated at same R/W speeds, however when I use the 64GB, it randomly fails on write with Moon T7 due to buffer overflow. No problems with the 32GB though.

jobox

Moon T8 expand perfect with cheap SD cards, I use "Komputerbay 64GB 10 600X UHS-I" (price $25 in Amazon). The secret is to use "SDFormatter" and format in "FULL OverWrite" and "Format Size Adjust: OFF", it takes a while to format the card like 45 minutes. Then put the card in your camera an format there. Thats it!!!! Enjoy more than a 25 minutes (never stops but was my longer shot) continusly of expand and playback every time on camera of the great MOON T8!!!!!! The secret i think, is to have a good speed SD card and format in your PC with the free SDFormatter. I hope this help. Thanks for all Mr. Driftwood! Moon T8 Rules!

DerekTseng

Shot on hacked GH2 with Moon T8 Lenses: Panasonic 15mm/f1.7

x_worpig_x

GH4 with 24mm Canon FD 1.8 (first photo) GH2 Moon T8, 100mm Canon FD 2.8 (second photo). Ungraded.White balance was set to auto.

filthy

@x_worpig_x - nice shots. I'm finding these two cams cut together much better than my previous GH2 / GH3 combo. The CU shot is noticeably cooler here (probably due to the auto WB), but easily correctable in post.

inqb8tr

@x_worpig_x

How do you find GH4 perform as a B camera? :)

peternap

@DerekTseng Real nice. Can you tell me a little about your settings and post?

Frame

I did download Jim_Simons T7 - T8 comparison footage posted on page 6 but I think it is not very helpful. The changing light over time and no 100% identical framing mace judgement impossible to my eye. I think the best way for comparisons is using manual lenses, freeze/nail focus and tripod, do your first shot with firmware 1, flash the camera as quick as with firmware 2, do the second shot and so on and so forth. I did some comparison with earlier hacks only during cloudy days so changes in light are not as quick as in direct sunlight... All the best, Frame

kingkorg

Hello folks, i am new here. Just bought GH2, and Sandisk Extreme Pro 64Gb 95mb/s, but i seem to have problem with almost every setting. Tried moon t7 it stops recording immediately in any 720p mode, have to take the battery out, tho it works great in 24p modes, but not in iA. Tried Moon T8, stops in every mode after few seconds, tried DREWnet latest edition, freezes in 720p. Tried to format card in every possible way, didn't help.

I'm really getting frustrated, don't get what could be wrong. I know i could try with some low bit rate settings, but come on, did i buy 95mb/s card to settle with that? :D

DREWnet has considerably lower bitrate than moonT7, it should work as a charm.

I did read almost every post in cluster X series, tried everything, changing ISO values, turned off additional functions...

Thanx in advance for any suggestion.

kritzresn

@ kingkorg

did you format using sdformatter ?

More importantly, i would advise against using iA at all times, also T7 is more a patch to optimized at the 24p level its not the best patch for 720p as far as im aware of it.. (i only record at 1080p 24 or 25 with this patch)

May i ask what lenses you are using ?

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