New nex-ea50 film: Sahara

[Noa Put]

I posted a preview in the presets topic on this forum this afternoon because I had been experimenting with the pp5 preset and I did apply a yuv curve to it in Edius to further crush the blacks and added some saturation to make the footage “pop” more. I also experimented a bit with the sound to add a mixture of live sound, some stock sound and a bit of weird experimental music. :)

So today I went out ‘sight seeing”, just 15 minutes from where I live and went really early to catch that nice morning sun color, it was the first nice day today since weeks, freezing in the morning but 16 deg in the afternoon. First visit was at the “sahara”, a place called like that because of the white sand and there is quite some wildlife, I also went a bit further as I live in an industrial area so you”ll find larger factories, a windmill park and so on, I just wanted to have sufficient footage .

I’m quite pleased with how it turned out, I’m beginning to like the camera a lot :) This time I slapped on some bars on top/bottom of the video , was hoping that this together with the pp5 preset and yuv curve would give a more “cinematic “ feel. What do you guys think of “the look”? Are the colors not overdone?
Tech info: just the camera with the stocklens this time, my tripod and a slider. Filmed at 1080p 50p so I could slow down most footage 50%. Used the internal mikes for sound which are very good at capturing ambient sound.

The stock lens, eventhough it has it quirks, is definitely my goto lens for outside filming, just being able to cover so many different focal lengths without the hassle of constantly changing lenses is a big time saver. Also, and that is a issue, the sensor VERY easily picks up dust if you exchange lenses, I don’t exaggerate when I say you MUST check for dust spots before every shoot and even during if you exchange your lenses. I have had to clean my sensor several times already with my arctic butterfly. You can see the spots if you point the camera at the sky and look true the loupe and then underexpose a lot, the spots do appear then if there is dust on the sensor. You also have to zoom in and out to be sure. If you don’t do that these spots can ruin your image, mainly in the sky.

The video is also available for download from vimeo for those that want to pixelpeep, remember that it’s a lower quality then the original, on my big screen the native image looks very good. For those that are interested, you can drop me a line if you want to see the 1080p 50p master, I rendered a 35mbs 1080p 50p file (about 900mb) so I might place that on a dropbox account for those that want to download that.

Sahara on Vimeo

[Jerome Cloninger]

NICE NOA! I'd love to see the 900mb file you mentioned! My dropbox account is the email address you have from when we were talking the other day.

I think I'm going to pull the trigger soon on this camera...

[James Manford]

By far the best film i've seen you make ... was convinced for a second I had the Discovery Channel on lol !

Well done.

Im sure Sony would be proud seeing you put there EA50 to work so well !

[Dan Eskelson]

Great work Noa! Encouraging to see the potential of the stock lens.

I do not think the color was overdone at all...I will give the PP5 a try also.

Keep up the good work!

[Chris Harding]

Nice Noa

I always bug people about this point but wouldn't some narration be a big bonus ... you know what you shot but no-one else does? a story line about the region could only be an enhancement or maybe a narrated poem about the glory of early morning ?? Maybe I look at things different but I do like a story line on a documentary shoot. Why did you title it Saraha?? or am I dumb??

Beautiful shots and PP5 profile looks really good for early morning shoots...you are braver than me getting up when the temperature is close to freezing.

Chris

[Jerome Cloninger]

I watched this a few times... downloaded the "original .mp4" on vimeo and looks better than the one embedded. I'd still like to see the 1080p version though.
I've researched a lot on this camera because I'm thinking seriously about buying it... I don't know the settings for PP5, but looks like you might want to tone down the detail or sharpness in the settings of it. I haven't noticed much aliasing or moire in your clips, but this one I did on the end "mechanical" shots.

FYI, I liked the punchiness of the colors in this clip. It fits the mood and time of day.

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Chris Harding

Nice Noa

I always bug people about this point but wouldn't some narration be a big bonus ... you know what you shot but no-one else does? a story line about the region could only be an enhancement or maybe a narrated poem about the glory of early morning ?? Maybe I look at things different but I do like a story line on a documentary shoot.

You are right, it would be a bonus but I don't have the right voice to do that, on the other hand, all shorts I make don't have the intention to inform but to make people curious. In this film I added all the location I filmed at the end so local people know where I have been and if they don't know they can ask, that means I made the curious. :)

Originally Posted by Chris Harding

Why did you title it Saraha?? or am I dumb??

"lazy" might be a better term (just kidding :D) It's in the description, the area where I filmed is called like that because of all the white sand, the lake actually is manmade, all the sand, where now the water is, was used for glass production.

Originally Posted by Chris Harding

Beautiful shots and PP5 profile looks really good for early morning shoots...you are braver than me getting up when the temperature is close to freezing.

Weather is starting to turn, still freezing cold in the morning right now but at least some brighter weather during the day though the forecast is (again) rain the next days. Getting up that early makes all the difference though to your shots, there is a reason why it's called the magic or golden hour at sunrise or sunset. :)

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Jerome Cloninger

I'd love to see the 900mb file you mentioned!

Will try to upload it as soon as I can.

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Jerome Cloninger

I don't know the settings for PP5, but looks like you might want to tone down the detail or sharpness in the settings of it. I haven't noticed much aliasing or moire in your clips, but this one I did on the end "mechanical" shots.

I did sharpen all footage but I noticed that turning the sharpening on or off doesn't make that much difference to the visible moire or aliasing, this is what the camera is showing. From a distance on a big screen you hardly notice it, eventhough it's there. It's good that moire and aliasing is less then on my 550d.

[Jerome Cloninger]

Interesting... maybe more prominent in Vimeo? Anyways, I just purchased one! Can't wait to play with this thing....

[Noa Put]

I just saw the video review on another site and he said the camera doesn't produce any moire or aliasing but he didn't look right or filmed the wrong objects, you can also see it in the last shot and look at the powerlines in the distance, that's some nasty aliasing going on. Most of the time you won't notice it and it's less visible then on my dslr but the camera does produce moire and aliasing. On a big screen the aliasing on those lines are quite visible though, it doesn't ruin the image but should be something to be aware about.

[Dmitri Zigany]

Great stuff as usual!

[Chris Harding]

Thanks for the explanations Noa... The Sahara title had me pondering but having done software for the bottling industry I can see how you arrived at it ... I assume the lake has now been returned to nature?

I think the PP5 will be great for scenes like this but it may make skin tones a bit contrasty... I did a property shoot using the bright CineAble profile that uses Cinematone1 and the colours were magic but start putting people into the mix and skintones become very dark and un-natural... Once you get into Summer and some weddings it will be interesting to see what profile works best for the bride and groom outdoors ...I'm still finding that it's easier with lots of people to use PP3 and then with a bright outdoor setting simply lift the saturation in post. That way the skin tones seem to remain a lot more accurate.

If you get a chance try PP5 on a nice sunny day when you have one and shoot some people.

Chris

[Joel Corral]

great stuff! Thanks

JC

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by James Manford

Im sure Sony would be proud seeing you put there EA50 to work so well !

They would make me proud if they could fix some shortcomings I added to the firmware wishlist I started :)

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/sony-nex...wish-list.html