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JVC 4K cameras, including GY-LS300 - 4K for $2995, GY-HM200 and GY-HM170
  • 298 Replies sorted by
  • belfrymanbelfryman

    @tubefingers yes indeedy, guessing you are too!

  • tubefingerstubefingers

    I am yeah! - you shooting corporate stuff?

  • belfrymanbelfryman

    Some of the time yep. Mostly do actors showreels, the odd doc and some corporates. Am in Kew.

  • belfrymanbelfryman

    Mostly direct, write and edit.

  • tubefingerstubefingers

    Cool, perhaps we can work together in the future, DM me a link to your stuff/contact details etc

  • MikeLinnMikeLinn

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    Another review

  • MikeLinnMikeLinn

  • belfrymanbelfryman

    Another little scene using the LS300.

  • tubefingerstubefingers

    Nice looking clip @belfryman !

  • belfrymanbelfryman

    Merci @tubefingers

  • tinyrobottinyrobot

    @belfryman With the clip above, what's the reason for the different color grades/temperture of the same shot? Was it on AWB?

  • belfrymanbelfryman

    @tinyrobot tell me where and I'll fix it! will just be my grading I imagine, although it's my camera i'm writing/directing/editing and doing sound not shooting but I'm pretty sure it wasn't on auto. It's very different when you get into the OTS's but the content's got darker so figure I can get away with that anyway. I've been finding it not as easy to grade recently, I don't know why, like the temperature is off, but when I use it I set it manually, but the LED is really pink, mine is, so it's hard to tell if it is playing ball, it will look fine on the atomos with a lut applied but the LCD with lut as I say looks like it has a rosey hue and I can't see any way to adjust the colour balance of the LED.

  • tinyrobottinyrobot

    @belfryman You have a couple spots like compare: 00:33 and 00:39.

  • belfrymanbelfryman

    @tinyrobot Thanks for that, it was a v quick job, v quick grade but have fixed that and taken the red out of the reverse on him, hopefully looks OK now.

  • LiftCMLiftCM

    @LPowell I'm coming into this late in the game. Long story short, after choosing to move on from GH2-GH4 and loosing battles with mosquito noise, I bought an LS300 early last week. (Got tired of commuting to rental house for Sony cameras for interior shoots). Continuing my corporate work (lots of interviews of professors and such in interior settings with only tungsten and window light, Im having same issues with the LS and the noise in the shadows as I did with the GH4. I'VE given up on J-log for this purpose (J-Log was great outdoors last week). I remember seeing you post somewhere your preferred settings that delivered clean picture in less than ideal interior light. Did I imagine this? I think I had better luck with a GH2 but I also havn't had the time and bandwidth to spend days and days testing and researching.. I did some low light experiments to check out what kind of noise. The noise seems only slightly better than the annoying mosquito-dance type noise out of the GH4. Also picked up an a6300 as a B cam. Its slightly better in these situations..

  • LiftCMLiftCM

    https://vimeo.com/liftvideoproductions/review/191660859/b67d541015

  • LPowellLPowell

    @LiftCM Thanks for the link to your LS300 footage. I also use this camera to shoot 4K footage in a mixed lighting situation (450-seat theater with both tungsten and LED lighting). Here's my take:

    1. JVC's LUT's are garish, way too saturated. With J-Log1 I use the LS300 Leeming LUT and/or FilmConvert (for a more artistic interpretation).

    2. I've found the LS300's Rec709 modes overreact to highly saturated LED lighting. Rec709 can produce better shadows than J-log1 in dim tungsten-only light (because you can compress the largely monochromatic highlights in the knee), but J-log1 has superior dynamic range in sunlight. Manual white balance is critical, don't trust the auto white balance in mixed light. Problem is, you can't use the LS300 LCD or viewfinder to judge white balance, an external calibrated HDMI monitor is required.

    3. When mixing tungsten with daylight, you can get oversaturation in the red channel that the histogram will not detect. With J-log1, I never trust the 0-800% exposure meter, it is completely unreliable. I use the zebra religiously, backed up by the histogram for a reality check. Forget ETTR, make sure your highlights aren't clipped.

    4. The LS300 is not a great high-ISO camera, I keep it down at ISO 400-1000 in J-log1 mode. Noise issues in the shadows pointed out in your video are chroma noise, not macroblock artifacts. To my eyes it doesn't look that bad, but that could be Vimeo's compression. Frankly, every H.264 video camera I've used produces coarse-grained purple-green color saturation in the shadows. I routinely tone down shadow saturation in post and use Neat Video as needed.

    Best shadow noise performance is definitely 1080p with the 422 codec. I will also shoot 4K with the intent of cropping and downscaling to 1080p in post. For that, you definitely want to use J-log1, Rec 709 does not have enough dynamic range.

  • blazer003blazer003

    I had tested the JVC LS300 right after it came out, and I loved the idea of it but the screen and viewfinder were things I couldn't get over. It didn't have Log at that point either. I recently rented it again for a project to pair with my GH4, just to see what JLog and the new firmware had done for it. I forgot how much I like having built in ND filters, and the image was very good. Functionally, most things work fairly well. The functions of the LS300 are just awesome, using all my different lenses on anywhere from Super16 to Super35 is just sweet. Dang I want to like it so badly, but that screen and viewfinder just disappoint me every time. I think peaking was a little better since the initial firmware, but I struggled to overcome feelings that ranged from uneasiness to concern to dread every time I looked at the screen. I tried to switch to the viewfinder a couple times, but that did nothing to calm my fears, or help me find focus.

    I really think that if it had a better screen I would own the LS300 right now, but when something as basic and essential as the screen lets you down (and I acknowledge that with enough time using it, I could probably be a much better judge of how the final shot will look), it makes it really hard to commit. It just feels like a nicely equipped SUV at a good price that you should love, but the speedometer doesn't work very well.

    Hoping JVC keeps it up with the innovation and comes out with an LS400 with a nicer screen and viewfinder, and if so I may have to make a tough decision on that or the GH5/GH6 (depending on when I decide to upgrade from my GH4.)

  • LPowellLPowell

    @blazer003 One of the best things about J-Log1 is how it radically simplifies your camera setup to just two settings: highlight exposure and white balance. The zebra and histogram tell you all you need to set exposure, and in consistent lighting conditions, auto white balance works fine. That ameliorates the image quality issues with the LCD screen, as you only need it for framing, shooting info, and lens focus. The LS300's focus peaking and magnification work well for me, I typically shoot in peaking mode to make sure my tracking shots stay in focus.

  • LiftCMLiftCM

    @lpowell many thanks for taking the time in your response. Many of your points have been confirmed this past week. Had a great corporate interview where the LS footage pretty great. 5500k kino lights, some window light mixed in against white seamless. For the clients dailies I used black magic 4K lut which was less horrible than jvc lut. (I've since bought lemming lut but haven't figured out how to insert it into fcpx settings without having to use that lut loader plug I have. I'll post the video sample later. I also found that well lit scenes mix well with my new a6300 (though the cam overheats and has opened up a whole other can of worms). Yesterday I shot my daughters soccer match. was excited about grey sky's and playing with my vintage canon powered eng lens. I was frequently interrupted by parents while checking settings. Long story short my highlights were totally crushed. There was a solid line around 90 or so on my scopes. I'll have to really pay attention next time I'm setting up including using my light meter which I never would have thought I'd need to start using again. I also need to school myself in properly using zebras. What sucks about being a full time freelancer is just how little time I seem to have to get over learning curves. I'd totally pay money at this point for a well written primer on proper exposing on this camera.

  • LPowellLPowell

    @LiftCM In J-Log1 mode, I set Zebra Bottom at 95% and Zebra Top to Over. The LS300 has a mild highlight rolloff knee above 95%, and these settings alert you to where your highlights are getting crushed. No problem if they're isolated spectral highlights or sun reflections, but watch out if the zebra covers large regions.

    With the histogram, I have trouble seeing the red highlighting, so I make it all-white by setting Histogram Top at the highest F-stop and Bottom at the lowest. These settings allow you to clearly see when the highlights get crushed into a sharp vertical peak near the right side of the histogram, and likewise the shadows on the left side. If both sides of the histogram have smooth rolloffs to the bottom line, you can be assured you've got a well-balanced exposure that makes optimal use of the camera's dynamic range.

  • LiftCMLiftCM

    @lpowell thanks for the advice. I really blew my outdoor shoot so this settings workflow is very helpful. (I spoke to a JVC rep last week with the aim of digging for any more enlightening resources for this camera. While not surprised, he had nothing useful to say..ugh.)

    Not even any insight into another firmware upgrade on the horizon which troubles me. (makes me think this camera is destined for going the way of the dodo bird). Either way your recommendation is the only constructive info with regard to setting and using both histogram and zebras. I've been busy lately doing a lot of post and learning my way around the Sonya6300 so little opportunity to do more shooting with the JVC until mid Dec. Looking forward to it..

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    Available now for $2795 + $250 gift card

    https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1096581-REG/jvc_gy_ls300_4kcam_handheld_s35mm.html

    Almost equal to upcoming GH5 price.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

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