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Topics - nedyken

#1
I'm shooting with a Canon 5D Mark II.  I'm building a little shoulder brace rig so I can mount some stuff and have some stabilization.  I'm considering purchasing a small field monitor.  I had heard something about there being an issue with how the 5D Mark II displays video on a field monitor.  Something about the newer 5D Mark III having resolved this issue.   I don't totally understand what the issue is.  Does it have anything to do with a feature called "DSLR Scaling" that some field monitors seem to have?

Also, if you use a field monitor with Magic Lantern, will it show the same Magic Lantern-related visuals being displayed on the little LCD screen?... such as the focus peaking and histograms, etc? 

Would really appreciate some advice on which field monitor to go with that is best suited for the 5D MArk II and Magic Lantern.  Thanks in advance for any help!
#2
So I guess because I like taking shortcuts, I bought a Rode NTG-2 Shotgun mic kit off B&H:  http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/747422-REG/Rode_NTG_2_Shotgun_Microphone_HDSLR.html  ... It comes with an XLR to 3.5mm adapter that I'm using to just directly connect the mic into my Mark II's 'Mic" port. 

Crazy, I know.  I had seen some videos mentioning using some kind of "JuicedLink" device, but I wasn't totally catching the purpose of the device.  Additionally, the model that was being recommended (CX231) is apparently discontinued on B&H so I figured I'd just buy that mic kit now and if I had trouble I'd worry about it later.

Yesterday I finally got a chance to test it out.  The first I noticed was that the audio was VERY faint.  I wasn't really sure what settings in Magic Lantern I should try tweaking to resolve this.   

In order to have the audio at an appropriate level on the audio meters, I currently have the following settings:

Analog Gain:  32DB
L-DigitalGain:  12DB
R-DigitalGain:  12DB
Input Source:  Auto INT/ext (sounds identical if I just select "External Stereo" here)
AGC: Off

That allowed me to hear the mic at a proper level, but it definitely seemed to be introducing a lot of audio noise.  Is that the purpose of the JuicedLink?   

Also, I tried connecting a Sennheiser wireless lavalier mic (it naturally has a 3.5mm output), and it was naturally much louder than the Rode shotgun.  In other words, I didn't need to crank the Gain nearly as high in order for it to be registering at a appropriate level on the audio meters. 

So am I missing something in the settings?  Is that just the way it is... and the purpose of the Juicedlink?    If so, what model of the juicedlink do you recommend (since that model I tried to find was discontinued)... or do you just suggest I use a separate recorder like the Zoom H4N and sync the audio later?

Note:  I should also mention that I'm using this little Sescom adapter to plug my headphones directly into the A/V port and I'm having no trouble monitoring audio:  http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/749719-REG/Sescom_DSLR_5DMKII_HOCF_Canon_5D_MkII_A_V.html
#3
So I've been playing a little with FPS override and It's actually pretty darn cool, imo.  It seems like a much easier method of taking timelapse video... the alternative I guess would be to use an intervalometer (or Magic Lantern's onboard option) to take a photo every X seconds, but that would probably wear down the shutter.

I have a couple questions, though.

Theoretically, if I set the FPS to .25 FPS, wouldn't that be the equivalent of taking a photo every 4 seconds? ... .50 FPS being the equivalent of taking a photo every 2 seconds.  1FPS the equivalent of taking a photo every second? 

I noticed that the shutter speed is automatically set based on what Framerate.  I assume this relates to the 180 degree shutter rule... so in other words 1FPS would set the shutter speed to 1/2?  Am I correct in that assumption?

This morning I pointed the camera out my office window (our windows were dirty.. I was just doing a test) and set the FPS Override to 1FPS.  I think because of the shutter it set, it understandably caused everything to be extremely bright.  Even with my aperture closed to f/22 and the ISO set to 100, I was still a bit overexposed and peaking in the clouds.  A FPS slower than that and I probably would have been entirely blown out.   I left it shooting for 16 minutes... which gave me a 40 second clip.  I then sped that clip up 400% (giving me a 10 second clip).  That should be about even to taking a picture every 4 seconds:  http://youtu.be/NlWrC0fCUZc

It doesn't look too bad to me.  I think I should get some creative use out of it for various B-Roll in the corporate videos I'm doing.  Am I right to assume that on a bright day using a very slow framerates (like .20FPS), I'd probably need some kind of ND filter to make up for how bright the low shutter makes everything?  I didn't tweak any of the default settings.  Anyone have any pointers on tweaking those default settings?  Im interesting in doing another test tonight in low light... I imagine it works great in low light, because of the very slow shutters.

Also, I think it had set to "Optimize for:  Exact FPS"... I'm don't know what "high/low Jello" means and which of those settings I should be selecting.  Can anyone clarify?

Last question... I'm next thinking about playing with the Magic Lantern "HDR Video" function... has anyone had success shooting footage using both HDR Video + FPS Override to create an HDR Timelapse?  I"m using Final Cut X, and I believe someone has created a generator plugin for using ML HDR footage that I plan on testing out.  Curious if anyone has tried shooting with both of those options on.

#4
I'm pretty new to a lot of this stuff and unfortunately there are certain things that are still slightly confusing to me.  I'm doing my best to learn this stuff with the available resources, but I could really use some help understanding some concepts.

I'm using a Canon 5D Mark II.  I have ML firmware installed.  I am using the cinestyle picture profile.  I'm editing with Final Cut X.   

#1 - LUT:  I'm still having a little trouble understanding the purpose of a LUT... not to mention, the LUT doesn't seem to be available to download on Technicolor's website anymore and LUT Buddy doesn't seem compatible with Final Cut X.   With Mark II/Cinestyle footage (and all footage, really), I can color correct directly in Final Cut X.  I typically just use the histogram and waveform monitors and then just raise my highlights so they are just below 100 and drop my shadows so they are just above 0.  I increase the saturation a little.    Why would I need to use LUT Buddy and a LUT? What is it doing that my color correction process isn't covering?  Doesn't it just add a curve (which i'm doing manually by modifying highlights/shadows?)

#2 -  I've read some people mention their workflow includes complicated process of converting footage from 4:2:0 to 4:2:2 color space.  I'm a novice when it comes to this.  What is that doing and why is it necessary?  At the moment I'm just capturing video with the Mark II, importing the files directly into FInal Cut X, manually color correcting ... and that's it.  What's the purpose of this 4:2:0->4:2:2 conversion process... and if it's necessary how should I go about doing that?

#3 -  When actually capturing footage with Cinestyle, I've read a couple mentions of overexposing/underexposing intentionally specifically in regards to using Magic Lantern.   I couldn't get a firm grasp on what people are talking about.  When I'm capturing footage with Cinestyle/Magic Lantern I'm usually just looking at the ML histogram and waveform.  ON the waveform I make sure I'm just below the top line.  On the histogram, I'm making sure I'm just to the left of the right edge.   Do you mean to say that I should have the waveform peak a bit over the top line and on the histogram I should be slightly to the right?  Why is that?  Does cinestyle mess with the way exposure is read on those meters?   

Any clarification would be greatly appreciated.  Apologies in advance for my noobish ignorance.   

I should mention that I'm completely new to DSLR in general.  I barely have any idea what the hell I'm doing.  I took some test clips the other day in a dimly lit birthday party.   I was using the stock 24-105mm lens... I had the cinestyle profile selected (which gave all my clips a very flat grey haze).  Then I just imported those clips directly into Final Cut X, raised the highlights, dropped the shadows, increased the saturation a bit and exported it out.  I'm wondering what steps I'm missing.  Here's the result of that exercise:  https://vimeo.com/55335045