I'm living the dream!

yeah, seems like manual focus for that lens was an after thought.. :-) I had the same experience. FWIW: some old manual lenses CAN be addapted to canon EOS mount. Though note that old Canon GLASS can NOT be adapted without a light eating quality sucking lensed adapter.

M42 mount is good, Old Nikon is good. I only offer this as a way to feed the lens jones and still have food for the table. Its not the quality of the high end lenses, but you can get a lot of personal satisfaction from a garage sale gem!
 
I'd say avoid Cinestyle. It can really mess up your skintones and make them hard to recover. I recommend the Flaat series and/or VisionColor. VisionColor costs about $6, but it's worth every penny. Welcome to the world of DSLRs!
 
About focusing marks:

Your general prosumer lens is not going to have accurate focusing marks. The best way to focus in manual mode is to hold down the camera's auto-focus button while manually focusing the lens. When the subject is in focus, you'll get indicators in the viewfinder.

The only lenses I have with accurate focus (and hyperfocal!) marks are my Zeiss primes.
 
Try cropping your footage down to 2.4:1. Makes it look very cinematic. (You might have to zoom out somewhat to make room.)
 
escher said:
Try cropping your footage down to 2.4:1. Makes it look very cinematic. (You might have to zoom out somewhat to make room.)
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I will do that on my next tests, but this was all shot with the 50mm (forgot to take the kit lens with me) and I think it's already too zoomed in for the kind of things I shot so cropping it might make it look more claustrophobic.
 
gebo said:
I will do that on my next tests, but this was all shot with the 50mm (forgot to take the kit lens with me) and I think it's already too zoomed in for the kind of things I shot so cropping it might make it look more claustrophobic.
Click to expand...

Zooming out with a prime means walking waaaay back... :)
 
El Director said:
I'd say avoid Cinestyle. It can really mess up your skintones and make them hard to recover.
Click to expand...

What ?? This makes no sense at all. Do you have any serious source to support this . I've never heard anything of the sort. How can you mess up skintones ? The only thing that you can't recover is the lack of information.


escher said:
About focusing marks:

Your general prosumer lens is not going to have accurate focusing marks. The best way to focus in manual mode is to hold down the camera's auto-focus button while manually focusing the lens. When the subject is in focus, you'll get indicators in the viewfinder.

The only lenses I have with accurate focus (and hyperfocal!) marks are my Zeiss primes.
Click to expand...

That's a good tip but unfortunately it doesn't work with many lenses since the ring moves even on AF. That's how I destroyed the AF on my 50mm, I was always trying to do it manual while forgetting that it was set on AF and so it was opposing resistance..

gebo said:
I will do that on my next tests, but this was all shot with the 50mm (forgot to take the kit lens with me) and I think it's already too zoomed in for the kind of things I shot so cropping it might make it look more claustrophobic.
Click to expand...

Meh, no such nothing. 50mm or 300, widescreen is always gonna look good. Magic Lantern will allow you to visualize directly how 2.40 is gonna look.

Although, I kindda feel 2.40 is a bit too much. So I stick with 2.35.
 
TheArtist said:
What ?? This makes no sense at all. Do you have any serious source to support this . I've never heard anything of the sort. How can you mess up skintones ? The only thing that you can't recover is the lack of information.




That's a good tip but unfortunately it doesn't work with many lenses since the ring moves even on AF. That's how I destroyed the AF on my 50mm, I was always trying to do it manual while forgetting that it was set on AF and so it was opposing resistance..



Meh, no such nothing. 50mm or 300, widescreen is always gonna look good. Magic Lantern will allow you to visualize directly how 2.40 is gonna look.

Although, I kindda feel 2.40 is a bit too much. So I stick with 2.35.
Click to expand...

I'm going to try all those little tricks for the famous "film look" everybody's talking about now that I'm in the dslr club. :yes:
But I also like 16:9, it may suit certain styles better.
 
TheArtist said:
That's a good tip but unfortunately it doesn't work with many lenses since the ring moves even on AF. That's how I destroyed the AF on my 50mm, I was always trying to do it manual while forgetting that it was set on AF and so it was opposing resistance..
Click to expand...

Ack! No no, you put the lens in manual-focusing mode first! You activate the camera's auto-focus button so that the viewfinder will indicate when the subject is in focus. Since the lens itself is in manual focus mode, the drive won't activate and you won't ruin your lens.

I probably should have been more clear about that. (I'm also a real stickler for always knowing what my current settings are, so it never occurred to me that one might forget.)
 
Okay I see what you mean. But he viewfinder doesn't work in movie mode so I guess you pull focus on another mode before switching back ?

I personally just use the zoom on the LCD screen. At x5 or x10, it's quite easy to aim for an edge and find the perfect focus.
 
TheArtist said:
Okay I see what you mean. But he viewfinder doesn't work in movie mode so I guess you pull focus on another mode before switching back ?

I personally just use the zoom on the LCD screen. At x5 or x10, it's quite easy to aim for an edge and find the perfect focus.
Click to expand...

Thanks I didn't know you could zoom the screen.
 
8salacious9 said:
incase you didnt know already, try to focus on the eyes, thats what makes most humans recognisable and is the best place to focus on... from what i have been told
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Yes I did know that, but thanks for pointing it out.

escher said:
I probably should have clarified that I often switch out of video mode to get focus initially...
Click to expand...

Seems like a good idea, going to try that.
 
Today I installed the Technicolor CineStyle profile on my camera. What a huge improvement in image quality! So much more dynamic range! I'm amazed!...

Well that's it... where are you looking at?

:D:D:D
 
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