Just got the LS300 camera - very happy so far

[William Hohauser]

Used it for two shoots since getting it last week. All in HD.

The camera is a step up from my Panasonic GH series cameras and it succeeds in that in almost every way. My first shoot was following a musician as he played walked through a sculpture that was very dark in places requiring a fully open aperture at times using a Panasonic Lumix 20mm lens. With the GH cameras I could not have kept focus but the combo of the sharp LCD and focus assist I was able to maintain focus 80% of the time.

Just today I used the LS300 as a second camera in an interview shoot. I used the VSM with an Olympus 45mm. It gave just enough play in the image so I could zoom in or out on the interview subject while keeping the nice DOF. This is a real boon.

Of course the balanced audio inputs are a great asset as is the easy access to camera controls on the side. And the ability to change ISO while filming really helps.

A curious quirk is that some of my lenses will not work with the JVC auto-focus (the 20mm for example) but others will.
I have another interview to film this week. So far I have left the color space in 709 but I might experiment with Jlog this time.

[Noa Put]

Alltough the peaking is very accurate on the camera the quality of the lcd and viewfinder are pretty bad in comparison to about any camera i have used the past years. You really need to use peaking to confirm focus, if you don't and just judge based on what you see you will come home with more then one shot that is out of focus. I also find the autofocus of this camera unreliable, not talking about continuous autofocus but having the camera in manual and press a button to let the camera refocus based on what it sees in the center, while it's rare I have soft focus on my gh4 when I focus in that way my jvc often focuses either behind or in front of a subject, I actually need to confirm with peaking to know if I"m spot on.

[Steve Rosen]

Noah's comments are valid, as you will discover - hopefully not the hard way.

I treat the LS300 as a manual camera, like an S16 Aaton, not like a Panasonic DVX200. After buying it, I bought 4 Rokinon Cine lenses on sale, and, with the addition of several Leica-Rs, and using the Prime Zoom (in 1080) I'm pretty happy with it.

As I've said elsewhere, I also use MFT zooms from Olympus and Panasonic, and have tried auto-focus, but never when I need to count on the shot.

I haven't used the viewfinder much, or the LCD (I had a Gratical before getting it) but in any case, I highly recommend an EVF. I tried my old first generation Cineroid on it and it works surprising well (they had great peaking). I've seen those used for less than $150. The Zacuto Z-Finder is another good choice for $5-600... They're not as hi-res, but way better than the on-board options - in fact in some ways I prefer the Z-Finder over the Gratical because the image size is much larger (I've accumulated 2 Z-Finders over the years too, which I use on my Pocket Cameras).

[William Hohauser]

I found the peaking very reliable at a certain distance, at least with the 20mm lens. Beyond 10 or 12 feet, the peaking was inaccurate. I was working in very difficult circumstances regarding light and movement, I'll post some stills later today. The reason I chose the LS300 over my JVC HM600 (which would have kept me in focus) was the much better sensitivity in low light situations. I had filmed in a very similar circumstance with the HM600 before and the noise from the needed db boost was not happy making for the client (although I thought it worked). As I said, I hit about 80% success in focus, the shots that were not in focus were almost always when the subject was 10 to 20 feet away from me. The distance indicator in the camera was also accurate for close shots but wildly off mark when I focused further away. Unfortunately I had the camera on a shoulder brace which kept the extended focus button away from my reach. Yes I know I can probably reassign it to a different location on the body but I didn't have time. Doing live filming with shallow DOF is a task and I was bleary after an hour on continuous hand-held filming in a very humid situation. But I have achieved enough footage to make the promo piece.

Regarding the LCD quality, I have a GH2, a GH3 and worked with a GH4. None of those cameras could I reliably rack focus with the LCD. The JVC LCD, without peaking activated, I am able to accurately assess focus. Maybe I am just imagining it. Actually I have found that the GH2 viewfinder was the best for non-assisted focusing, I can't say anything about the GH4 viewfinder, didn't use it. The JVC viewfinder, I agree, leaves a lot to be desired.

Regarding the auto-focus, I used it for the interview with the Olympus 45mm lens and at 2.8f it was rock solid for half an hour until the subject turned her head for a second. It went out and locked back on as soon as she faced the interviewer again. I switched to manual at that point. Nothing lost fortunately. The focus was sharp on her head with the desired background blur achieved. Of course at 2.8, if the camera was focusing slightly in front of her face, it would be hard to tell. My experience with GH series auto-focus is that it's very good with one-on-one interviews in well lit situations but add questionable lighting and a long continuous shoot, the GH cameras become very unreliable. Worse than several video cameras I have worked with even consumer cameras. I have done theater recordings with the GH cameras where after an hour the camera just can't auto-focus anymore. The lighting hasn't changed, the cameras (both the GH2 and the GH3) just lose it. Maybe the LS300 will do the same thing but somehow I doubt it.

[Noa Put]

I prefer to manual focus all the time and only let the camera refocus with a push of the button, I don't trust either my gh4 nor ls300 for continuous autofocus and for my kind of work I am only satisfied with 100% accurate focus, the only way to achieve that is peaking and extended focus to doublecheck, I have assigned both one push focus and extended focus to the buttons above and below the zoomrocker.

[Luke Miller]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

I prefer to manual focus all the time and only let the camera refocus with a push of the button, I don't trust either my gh4 nor ls300 for continuous autofocus and for my kind of work I am only satisfied with 100% accurate focus, the only way to achieve that is peaking and extended focus to doublecheck, I have assigned both one push focus and extended focus to the buttons above and below the zoomrocker.

That's how mine is set up as well. Works very nicely.

[William Hohauser]

Here are some stills from the music/sculpture project. The camera was set at 6db (or 800iso).

[Noa Put]

Very nice compositions, will the completed filmed be placed on youtube/vimeo?

[William Hohauser]

Thank you. Most of these shots were at f1.8.

At some point in the near future when the edit is completed I'll post a link when it's approved.

[David Dixon]

Originally Posted by William Hohauser

Here are some stills from the music/sculpture project. The camera was set at 6db (or 800iso).

Compared to a 1" sensor (I have the Sony X70 and RX10 mk1) does the 4/3 sensor really give a noticeably shallower depth of field, or is it primarily due to the ability to use faster lenses? EDIT: oops, seems the LS 300 is S35, not 4/3 - sorry.

And, as a retired music teacher and saxophonist - those museum clips brought back a lot of memories. I used to practice facing a wall so I could hear myself better, so I'll bet the reverb of that installation made for some fantastic acoustical effects. I also recognized a 1950s vintage Selmer Paris tenor saxophone. I have one of those also - considered by many to be the best saxophone ever made. I've had mine since 1972 and wouldn't trade it for a new one. Some things are NOT improved by technology :-)

[Noa Put]

allthough some MFT lenses can utilize the entire sensor MFT lenses are normally designed to use a smaller part of the sensor (about 80% of the sensor) and yes, they can achieve a shallower dof compared to a camera with a 1 inch sensor at a comparable f-stop.

[William Hohauser]

The 20mm does vignette a little when using the full sensor. The Olympus 45mm doesn't.

[William Hohauser]

Just filmed this today. Panasonic 20mm lens zoomed in a little, f1.8. Raw from camera file, no color correction, REC709 gamma.

[Steve Mullen]

Very nice as were the sax compositions.

Self promotion follows:

LS300 Part 1

https://www.thebroadcastbridge.com/c...order/?cat_id=

LS300 Part 2

https://www.thebroadcastbridge.com/c...art-2/?cat_id=

LOG

https://www.thebroadcastbridge.com/c...gamma/?cat_id=

[B.J. Adams]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

Alltough the peaking is very accurate on the camera the quality of the lcd and viewfinder are pretty bad in comparison to about any camera i have used the past years.

Everyone is saying so. I can't understand why after 1.5 years from the original release, JVC does not release an updated version with improved hardware