Equipment and Related Software subforums?

[tin2tin]

With an informative post like this I think it would be very useful with a subforum for DSLR equipment(I'm sure that the ML users are the most well informed of the lot):

For budget options Pentax lenses are a far better choice. Very common and cheap. No concessions toward the image quality and fine m42 adapters cost 5 Euro on Ebay. My current favorites are: Pentax takumar super-multi-coated 50mm f1.4 (needs uv light treatment to get rid of the yellow color casts) and the MIR-24H 35mm f2. The MIR is sharp open, the Pentax after stopping down to f2 and both have a very nice bokeh. These cost between 50-100 euro. But if you take a 50mm f1.7. That one is great and a lot cheaper.

Aside for Pentax you can use Nikon, Olympus, Yashica, Tamron Adaptall lenses, Leica and loads of others with their own adapters.
Ricoh, Minolta should be avoided as they have the same problem as Canon FD.

And maybe also a subforum for ML related software like Malcolm Debono's HDSLR Offloader or the EnfuseGUI.   

[bart]

Hi tin2tin,

Welcome. I think it's a good idea to add equipment to the "using magic lantern" section. Because a lot of functions work with equipment like monitors and also lenses. The third party software can be part of the post workflow. Maybe add some subsections there. I'll discuss it with the others.

And off topic:
Could you share your avisynth experience like with HDR video post production. My adventure ended with your fusion2 script. I didn't get any great results with fusion2 because of the harsh crushed blacks. As for open source solutions maybe the Blender solution works better here with the GUI and more visual control over the final image. I'm currently testing that.

[tin2tin]

On HDR I didn't get much further than what I posted on the doom9 forum(fusion2), however I can see that the Interframe Avisynth plugin has been updated a couple of times since then, so maybe there is a much improved way to generate the in between frames.

Some time ago I and some of the more clever Avisynth coders played around with Lut correction and micro-moiré here: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=162797

Completely off topic: I'm struggling with getting decent levels on my audio recordings. Initially I had a Røde Video Mic and bought a Fiio 5 to amplify, but that introduced a lot of noise. Now I've bought a Tascam DR-40, but that still doesn't give a decent audiosignal with the Røde video mic(works fine with the inbuild Tascam mics), so now I'm considering to try with a Røde NTG-2. Do you know anything about this stuff, how to get a decent volume audiosignal recorded on the camera? 

[Malcolm Debono]

Completely off topic: I'm struggling with getting decent levels on my audio recordings. Initially I had a Røde Video Mic and bought a Fiio 5 to amplify, but that introduced a lot of noise. Now I've bought a Tascam DR-40, but that still doesn't give a decent audiosignal with the Røde video mic(works fine with the inbuild Tascam mics), so now I'm considering to try with a Røde NTG-2. Do you know anything about this stuff, how to get a decent volume audiosignal recorded on the camera?

Have you tried the Rode VideoMicPro? It has +20db built-in. I have one, and it allows me to turn the down analogue gain on the camera quite a lot (usually near 0).

[tin2tin]

I know about the VideoMicPro, however now I've got the Tascam DR-40 I'm thinking that I should go for an XLR (pro) solution with Røde NTG-2. Does your Zoom HN4 + Sennheiser G3 solution give you strong enough audio for the camera?

[Malcolm Debono]

Depends on what you're shooting. I mostly shoot weddings, and I find my setup pretty good for my needs: a Rode VMP on camera to capture ambient & reference audio, and the G3 running into the H4N capturing audio for speeches. I mic the groom with the G3 during the ceremony to capture the vows on it.

[tin2tin]

@ b4rt
Thank you for adding Hardware and Accessories. 

@ Malcolm Debono
Do you sync the audio from the Zoom HN4 in post or are you able to get a good signal into the camera directly?

[Malcolm Debono]

I sync them in post using Pluraleyes. I use a Rode VideoMicPro on-camera which records into the camera, and record audio from the G3 separately on the H4N. This way, while having good quality, I also have backup audio in the video files.

[bart]

I have a Rode videomic and I used it only once with the 'dead cat' and had a low signal as well. It was for my entry of "One Day on Earth". It was very very cold and windy and the dead cat didn't help much. I had to do some serious audio editing to make it somewhat presentable. Anyway the staff of this event, wanted to have my footage for their feature movie. So it's not that bad. I normally don't use continuous music but in this case it did a great job distracting the viewer from listening to the wind noise. If you don't listen to what's been said, you listen to the music. And the wind noise added just more mood. The result is far from perfect, but hey what can you do in just 7 hours.

Normally I just use the internal Canon mic. I think it's pretty good for interviews. Well not if you need to isolate a voice from a crowd. Then I'd use a wireless Lavalier mic. I also run a Zoom h1 next to my camera as backup or for recording background sounds. I sync the audio in Adobe Premiere by zooming in the audio track and match the waveform visually