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Was this an aesthetic choice or the result of software settings? Or is the lens that lacking in contrast?

Great question, and totally and aesthetic choice. I had decided that for this video, I wanted it to feel sort of vintage like an old episode of Nova, so that's the way I colored the footage. I was trying out a bunch of old movie lenses at the time, and it was really just the mood I was in.

Perhaps you could glue small strips of vinyl or similar flexible plastic along the edges that touch the cam.

Good suggestion, there is a little bit of light leak from the top edge that a flexible seal could prevent.

Also I think when what your filming has moving objects it makes more of a difference.

My observation as well, and it does make color grading a hell of a lot easier. Far fewer artifacts in the shadows to fight with, better definition on edges of moving objects. Video just has better definition in general.

Thanks for the hint.
I am new to the M and I have bought some cheap M42 lenses off Ebay with an M42 to EF adapter and an EF to EF-M adapter but I keep getting errors
"lens communication faulty, clean contacts" or
"lens firmware update failed"

Hmm... Can't make mine give me those errors, but it probably has to do with the EF/EF-M adapter. Best suggestion I can give is to make sure that in the MENU, wrench #4, open "Custom Functions(C.Fn)". Find "Release shutter w/o lens", then enable it. If that doesn't fix it, buy a M42/EF-M adapter instead.

Just got a Fujian 35/1.7 from Hong Kong with EOs M adapter. But focus is only within a very limited distance and not anything further than 4-5 feet/ 1 ++ meter. I understand that should indicate a to large distance from lense to chip. But how....?

Don't shave anything off the lens, the Fujian 35 needs a shim for most adapters (I discovered); a 1/16" rubber ring from your neighborhood hardware store should do the trick. You'll always be fiddling with tightening and loosening the threads to get proper infinity focus, but that's CCTV lenses for ya'. If this doesn't help and the flange distance is in fact too long, return your adapter and get a different one.

What is that lens/adapter combination you are sportin on the M?

The lens is a C-mount Fujian 35mm f1.7, the adapter is C-mount -> EF-M; really fun little toy-like lens, cheap on eBay. Heavy barrel distortion (no vignetting) on APS-C which makes shots sort of dreamy.

This doesnt really help much, i dont think its worth to use it, difference is minimal, i think its best to bump up screen brightness like on your phone during sunny days cause its basically touchscreen from phones.

I beg to differ Mr. Negativity; I wanted to get the sun off my screen, and that's exactly what it's done.

Wanted to share this here for those who don't visit the hardware thread: DIY LCD Hood Template for EOS M

Most annoying issue I have with my M is outdoor screen glare, but I haven't been able to find a hood that's the right size, so I did some measuring and created a template to make my own.

Tried it out with some black foam-board; not the perfect material, but not bad either. (sorry 'bout the potato quality images)





You can download the template I made here: http://anthonyengelken.com/ml/eosm-lcd-hood-template.pdf

If you find a material that works great, let me know. Also, if you use my template, watch and share this teaser trailer for my new film maybe?

Captured some footage with a Computar 12.5-75mm f/1.2, shared to the forum here: http://magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=11456.0

Captured some random footage yesterday with my M while exploring the Mt. Wilson Observatory. Purchased a modified Computar 12.5-75mm f/1.2 C-mount lens on eBay a few weeks ago and wanted to give it a test run. All captured in h.264 at CBR 3.0x using Technicolor CineStyle. 1080p/23.97fps with no fps override, ISO 100 and 1/50 shutter, all in 600d movie crop-mode (2.7x crop). Video was graded hastily using MB Looks by way of AE.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=746116892086750&l=7263547619848187406

The lens (and camera) is fantastic and fun, and it is amazing that it does not vignette on the ASP-C sensor (the lens is rated for a 2/3" sensor).

Fujian was probably taking into account the barrel distortion while making the 2/3" claim.

Was under the impression that the 3x crop mode on the EOS-M would turn it into a Super16mm camera--I was wrong.

Not necessarily; in movie crop mode, Super 16 glass would be quite ideal for 2k raw sensor utilization (if the M could capture more than a second or two of 2k raw). Standard 16 glass on the other hand projects about the perfect circle for 1080p h264 capture in 2.7x crop mode. The M's sensor/pixel proportions don't seem terribly different from the Digital Bolex's.

I have a question for those in the know: Is it just me, or is the field of view much narrower on a c-mount 35mm than on an ef-mount 35mm? Rather, I was expecting my c-mount 35mm to have a similar field of view in crop mode as an ef-mount 35mm in full-sensor mode, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Instead, both the c-mount and the ef-mount lenses have about the same field of view in crop mode.

Maybe I need a cinema history lesson, but were much wider lenses used back in the day when 16mm was common? In effect, while 25mm is sort of a go-to wide for Super35 format today, did the go-to wide use to be 8mm or 12mm for Super16 format?

What is the native iso for the M?

Some time ago I asked a Canon rep. this and they said that if by "native iso" I meant "highest dr with the least noise", then it's 100. This 7d sensor analysis seems to suggest however that 200 may have the "highest dr with the least noise": http://www.clarkvision.com/articles/evaluation-canon-7d/index.html

The question is under thorough investigation here: http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=10111.0

The benefit of this lens, to me, is it takes you away from the technology and back to primitive imaging--though with fantastic sharpness in the center (or where you're focused.).

Totally agree with this, but calibration never hurt anyone. Love the lens, by the way; beautiful shots so far.

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If you get infinity by unscrewing the lens, it means you will be able to shim it slightly, i.e a little ring of some suitable material between the lens and the adapter takes care of it.

Good to know this isn't out of the ordinary, will probably hit up the hardware store tomorrow for some washers.

I too, put on the Fujian onto my EOS-M on a lark and now I can't bear to take it off!

Received my Fujian today, and I have a couple of questions for you. Seems the back focus needs a little adjustment to have accurate infinity, same case with yours? If I unscrew the lens a ways, I'm able to correct this, and I'm just wanting to make sure my adapter is built right. Also, I don't know what the GH1/NEX guys are talking about, but I have zero vignetting with this glass; seems to cover the whole sensor. Again, same case with you?

https://vimeo.com/75122636

Man, check out that wonky focal plane. Damn it's sexy.

Don't expect the Fujian to be stellar...

I have lots of CCTV lenses, none is tack sharp at full aperture, a lot of spherical aberration and some coma. Stop down to 5.6 or so, and they get good.

That's sort of what I expected, but I just ordered it for cheap test purposes. If I like the results, then I'll hunt around for some better glass to use. All the same, found some test videos of the Fujian and I kind of dig the dreamy barrel distortion. Not great of course for all applications, but fun for what it is.

Doing the math, the M is really a 16mm shooter. Movie crop mode in 1920x1080 (h264) only requires 9.48mm sensor coverage, and standard 16 glass gives about 11mm.  Super 16 lenses cover about 14mm, which would be great if 2048 raw gave more than ~60 frames at a time. Just received my c-mount adapter in the mail, and the crappy little eBay Fujian 35mm is on its way from China now. Plan to get a PL adapter and rent some legacy 16mm glass for a weekend experiment soon. If I shoot anything fun and noteworthy, will be sure to share it.

I get what you're talking about. You'd need a focal reducer like the Metabones Speedbooster or even the crappy Mitakon (that would probably be sharp enough in the center with the crop mode). Just moving the lens closer or farther away wouldn't give you what you want because the focal plane moves. You need something that reduces the cone of light but keeps the focal plane aligned properly. There was a metabones speedbooster being tested for EOS-M at one point. I don't know what became of it. You can see it on YouTube. That would reduce some of the crop from crop mode. by 1.7. Fotodiox is toying with a 2.0 focal reducer (probably not for the EOS-M). That wouldn't cover the sensor for stills but would work great for  crop mode.

Right, that all makes perfect sense. Will keep my ear to the ground.

Sure there might be situations that 'infinity' or 'macro' may be affected but look at how on sensor CDAF/PDAF works, it has NOTHING to do with the lens beyond being able to control the focus mechanism. Correct?

Hmm... I think we're having two different discussions. I don't really care about AF; never use it with video. I'm just wondering about the complications in mounting manual lenses closer to the sensor.

Why would CDAF be bothered by a shorter EF mount?  CDAF is sensor based, and as long as it can communicate to the lens and change its focus mechanism, it keeps trying until the 'optimum' contrast occurs? Correct?  Same for PDAF, just a feedback system of AF.

Auto-focus aside, wouldn't changing the flange focal distance affect focus in general? Beside focus distance not matching the lens' markings, you might also prevent a lens from focusing as near or as far as it previously could. Would be a cool experiment though; might buy one of the cheap after-market adapters on eBay and try modifying it. The light circle that hits the sensor only has to have a diameter of 9.48mm in movie crop mode, while with the adapter, EF lenses are producing a 43.23mm circle I think. Anyone that's a lens expert wanna do the math on this?

Yes, I knew most of it. I wanted to see if i could push for some new info or maybe the devs could maybe expand on what we have. I should have said "besides the crop mode" for less/no aliasing so we can keep our wide angles. I have heard somewhere that possibly new algorithms would help eliminate aliasing and moire. We have to remember that some things a year ago or more were not possible and then the devs came up with new good things for us. I am now at 2.5x with CBR. I have tried higher, like up to 10x,  but it was not always stable. I see I get an average of 77 mbs using 2.5x CBR. Also on VBR.

An alternate solution that may be plausible would be to capture in 5K and have the transcode chip downscale before storage. That being said, I understand that the black box is an enigma, and the M's buffer wouldn't likely put up with a 5K throughput. I don't even expect that the sensor is fast enough to deal with 5K capture at movie frame rates without ridiculous jello/roll. Even if all of this were possible, the transcoder's scaling algorithms might be shit and make your footage look terrible anyway.

That's a lot of ifs, and not even an ideal solution. What I would actually LOVE however is a high quality EF mount behind-lens wide angle converter to compensate for a 4.3x crop. Alas, nothing like that exists to my knowledge.

I wonder what a shorter EF mount adapter would do on the M beside screw with focus?

I can use H264 but I would like to see ways to improve the codec to get the absolute best quality video at 1080p30. CBR? VBR? Setings? New controls?? Is there such a thing as getting ProRes thru software on this camera?

This is what the bitrate controls are for; 3.0x CBR has always worked quite nicely for me and reduces a ton of compression artifacts in the shadows. I've even shot some stuff with that value cranked up to 5.0x without much trouble.

Are there any ways to eliminate or reduce aliasing and moire thru ML software?

Definitely, it's movie crop mode (2.7x zoom) which captures from the middle 37% of the sensor without skipping lines. That certainly narrows your field of view, but it's a 5K sensor. To take advantage of the whole sensor without line skipping, the camera would be shooting at a resolution the hardware couldn't keep up with, and that the transcode processor doesn't support.

These questions coming from you Gary are puzzling; you've done a ton of experimenting, and I thought you knew all of this already.

Just to make note of it here for Jordan, the ML features I use all the time are Bit Rate, FPS Override, Movie Crop Mode, Crop Marks, Histogram, Intervalometer, and everything from the exposure tab.

Super quick question for anyone in the know; emailed Canon, and their reps had no idea. What ISO on the M is effectively the zero gain mark? On the Epic it's 800, but I can't find anything conclusive about Canon APS-C systems and the M. I'd like to start locking the gain at zero, and controlling exposure more with t-stop, lighting, and nd filters.

[edit] It seems the 7d has the best SNR and highest dynamic range at ISO 100, so I'll assume this as my answer because of the shared sensor between the two cameras?