Get the preset here: Dering After Effects Preset

Everything in this tutorial will be done in After Effects but you don’t need extended knowledge of the software to do so!
Before we start, I want to give credit to Bargus.org to have created the workflow and the preset, but they have been inactive for years and we want to preserve and archive this technique.

Alright, let’s get started on removing those sharpening artifacts!

So let’s take over our footage over After Effects, either start a new composition or if you work in Premiere you can do this at the end of your edit by doing a dynamic link to AE.
In this case, I am using drone footage, newer cameras don’t really have this issue but cameras with a smaller sensor and low processing power, like drones are more prone to this.

All we need to do is to duplicate that layer and apply the preset to the top layer.
Change the top layer blend mode to Multiply and bring it’s opacity down between 10-15%.

There you go, you salvaged the footage and the sharpening halo artifacts are (mostly) gone.

We can see that without sharpening rings the footage is more pleasing and less harsh.

Hope this will help you as much as it helped me!

Credits: Bargus

The post How to Remove Sharpening Halo Artifacts appeared first on The Video Pro Guys.

What I will be doing today is jazzing up this documentary of a court case which is on a 16×9 timeline which was sent to me. To level up the quality a little bit, I thought that it would be nice to keep within the 16×9 format so that it doesn’t clash with the whole initial look. The idea is whenever there is a narration of court ruling, we see this image at the top rather than just floating text.

I thought that having a folder over a desk could be kind of interesting and remind everyone of a court case. I went over a multiple of sites to get stock photos that will fit into what I have in mind. After going through the files, I found one desk I really liked.

It was a great starting point and had breathing room in the center, I placed it the way I liked on a 16×9 canvas, and imported my folder image. Did a little bit of basic color correction of the canvas so it matches the rest of the image and then added a little bit of shadow. That was the first part, once I was happy with the layout I basically started playing with the colors.

Now the color is popping too much, I have some footage from the producer, he sent me what he filmed so far and it is with an older camera so it is not as sharp as the new cameras so basically I de-saturated the colors a little bit and found that the orange and the green plant was a little bit in your face which made me de-saturate the orange and the green. Once I did this in Photoshop I was done and saved the document and then I imported it in premiere pro.

I could have used after effect but premiere pro would be as easy and save some time. I started with adding an adjustment layer over the background with some blur. I didn’t want the camera footage and the background to clash too much with the graphics so that’s why the blur is there. And then I created the title, basically, I tried to recreate the court document in the title.

The idea is anytime there is a narration of that court ruling and when the producer want to insert those graphics, it’s going to fade into that top view and blur out and then this text is going to pop out off the screen. So basically I tried to make it as true as possible to what the document is, that way it really is reminiscent of what you see on the desk. You see exactly the same thing in the middle of the screen when it pops out.

In the end, I went with the jpeg the producer sent me, they are already created. It will be easier to do than making a title every single time which would have been really time-consuming. Once I did this, I just did a few extra overlays to make sure my timing was perfect –added an extra layer to make the text pop out more even with a lot of blur. I added a white layer and played with the blend mode until I was happy and the text became legible. You have to trust your eyes. I set a few key points, did my fade-in fade-out and exported it to my client.

The post Creating stunning graphic titles with Premiere Pro and Photoshop appeared first on The Video Pro Guys.

Matching colors in premiere pro is quite a complex one for lots of people but this video will help you. Stay tuned!!!

This is a project we have filmed earlier in 2018, and we filmed with a Sony A6300 on a gimbal and the Canon C100. Obviously, they have two different color profiles and we have to match both. There are two similar shots to help me find my baseline. Here is the Canon shot and here is the Sony one. Both were shot in the log but S-log is much more flat than C-log.

First, we will put the lumetri effect on both clips, I just search for it in the panel and slide the effect on two shots in the timeline. Sometimes what I do is to turn the image to a black and white image (you can do this by going to the lumetri panel, basic correction and turn the saturation down) which helps me focus on the contrast and exposure of both images without getting distracted.

Once this is done, pull up your tools (lumetri scope and reference monitor is what I use). You can go between the two shots while using RGB parade and see the difference between the two. Here, the C-log shot is between 10-80 IRE, and the S-log shot is between 18-65 IRE which means there is a contrast difference between the two.

Since Sony S-log has more latitude, am trying to make that one make match the C-log shot –so we will increase the contrast of the S-log shot. If you go a little too dark on one shot it’s ok, try a couple settings and see how that works. Your eyes should be what you trust the most even if the tools are here to help you. Once you have found the right setting and it looks good, we can put the color back into it, hit reset or type 100 in the saturation slider.

Next we will bring the shots into the same color space overall. What I do is look where the difference is comparing the RGB parade, the Canon shot has more red.

So again looking at the reference monitor, adjust the shot overall will tell you the difference –trust your eye. If you are not sure, experiment and you will get better at it. The Sony image has lesser red so we will add the temperature first and see where it brings the image. Sometimes what I do is go to an extreme and pull it back until I’m getting closer. Bouncing between the two shots will give you an idea if we are getting closer, and we are!

Now we have another problem! The Sony S-log shots are leaning towards the purple side while the Canon shots have more shades of yellow and green. Next we go to HSL secondary –this is meant to target a specific color so select the color picker and select the color you want to target, it will give you a good base to start with. What I like to do is select the show mask, that way I am seeing exactly what I am selecting.

In this case, we can see that we are missing out on so much portion of the image so all we need to do is play with them until satisfaction. I usually add a little blur and a little denoise which helps in blending the color.

Looking at the color wheel, the colors on each side of red are purple and green but first we will push the needle towards green and see the effect then just pull back towards orange and we are getting to a similar tone. The Canon C-log is more saturated so we need to reintroduce saturation. Add this and voila we have a happy ending.

For today this is the end product.

The post Easy way to color match in Premiere Pro appeared first on The Video Pro Guys.

One of the most asked questions by beginners is: how to shoot cinematic video with a DSLR or a mirrorless camera. Well, we decided to create the ultimate guide to send you on the right track.

In this article, we will separate all steps into 3 sections, the settings, the post-production tricks and the techniques. Without further adieu, let’s get started!

Camera Settings

1. Shoot in 24p

One of the settings that will make your video get the film look is the frame rate. The film (or motion picture) standard is a frame rate of 23.976 frames/s or 24p. Our eye has been seeing it our entire life and what is 24p automatically look “Cinematic” when we see footage at that frame rate. Most DSLR and mirrorless cameras offer the choice between multiple frame rate. It is changing but there are some cameras that are set up by default to something like 30p or 29.97 frames/s which are the framerates that make your camera look like a home video. You just need to change it to 24p (25p if you are in a PAL region), and you are good to go.

2. Set your Shutter Speed to 1/50th

Back in the film days, the cameras were exposed at a shutter angle of 180°, and this created a specific motion blur. Motion blur again has been ingrained in us since the beginning of films. The right shutter speed to get cinematic footage is 1/50th of a second. Some cameras may have 1/48th of a second as this is the exact equivalent of a 180° shutter angle, which is even better if you do, but if you don’t 1/50th is the closest setting and will bring you the same results.

3. Film in Flat or LOG Color Profile

The use of a flat color profile or log profile can help you achieve the film look. These color profiles can be loaded on your camera (CineStyle, Flaat, and Cineflat) or are already in your camera (c-log, d-log, s-log and more!). By using a flat color profile, you will get the most of your camera by preserving details in the shadows and highlights. The use of a flat or log color profile will require color correction in post (It’s OK we have a LUT below for you!)

4. Use the Highest Codec Available

While we are in the settings, it may sound obvious for some but the use of the best codec and bitrate possible should be selected. This will help you capture as much detail as possible and help you in your post-production workflow, what you don’t want is to use a codec that is meant for size saving and have your image fall apart in post. Some cameras have highly compressed codecs selected by default, you should make sure you are getting the most of what your camera is capable of.

5. Use a Shallow Depth of Field

This point is a hybrid between settings and techniques, using a shallow depth of field will help you achieve cinematic shots. A shallow depth of field is what is called “that beautiful blurry background effect”. To achieve this you need to set your aperture, or f-number, to a low number. If you only have a kit lens available to you it may be harder to achieve but one neat trick to get this look is to step back and zoom-in with the lens, this will create the same effect.

Post-production tricks

1. Color Grade your Footage

Color correction and color grading play a big part of making your footage look more cinematic. With colors you can express moods and emotions, and, it gives your footage a stylistic touch. Studying a color pallet to fit the mood of your scene is part of the personalization you can do, I personally use Adobe Color CC to inspire me. Also, there are popular looks that are used in Hollywood blockbusters, and, will give you the film look, like Teal and Orange, which is available as a LUT in our Toolkit. You just need to load it with your favorite editing program. If you are not sure how to work with LUTs, we have an article for you here.

2. Add crop lines or use an Anamorphic timeline

Adding crop lines is one of the most popular tricks in the history of frugal filmmaking. These are overlays that you place on top of your footage in the timeline and make your video look like it has a wider aspect ratio. Alternatively, you could change your timeline specs to achieve a similar effect but for some reason, the crop lines always make the footage look more cinematic than a different aspect ratio timeline. Rest assured, our FREE Cinematic Toolkit includes all the crops lines you’ll ever need.

3. Know Editing Basics

Learning and practicing the basic editing technique is really important, either you want to edit to the beat or use fancy transitions, knowing when to use them and when not to will go a long way. This is even more true for dialogue when learning the J-cut or L-cut would be your best asset to make sure your dialogue flows better. There are plenty of resources out there to get you started.

4. Add Grain

Adding grain to emulate the film look is another trick that will make your footage stand out. Depending on the look you are going for, you may need finer or coarser grain. With most grain, you just import it on your timeline, extend or copy to the desired length, set the blend mode to overlay and you will be set. There are tons of options out there, Adobe Premiere even has it as an effect, but if you are using another software we have grain in our Toolkit here.

5. Adding Suitable Music

Adding music is another artistic choice that will make your footage feel more cinematic. Choosing the right music that fits your piece is something that will help transmit the tone of the scene. There are many good free resources like the Youtube Audio Library, or there are some really good inexpensive composers out there like Contimusic.

Techniques / Skills

1. Use Prime Lenses

Using prime lenses (fast ones) will open you to new possibilities. Fast prime lenses have low f-number and will help you achieve the shallow depth of field that we are after. Prime lenses generally have less barrel distortion and vignetting than zoom lenses which will help you get a cleaner image. The use of zoom is less desired to get cinematic footage, and, is a more advanced technique that should be used on specific occasions.

2. Framing

Framing and composition are really important to make your video cinematic. Knowing the basics like the rule of thirds and the 180-degree rule will make a long way to get the film look. Everything in your shot should be looked after, not only the subject, so look at your foreground, background and subject to see that your shot is properly composed. A lot of this comes as a second nature with practice.

3. Lighting

A lot of people will say that this is the most important part of making your footage look cinematic, and they are right! Lighting is prevalent in making sure everything looks right, sometimes a simple 5-in-1 reflector is the only thing required to change flat lighting to something great. Nevertheless, understanding a simple 3-point lighting setup and light diffusion techniques are the bare minimum to achieve the film look.

4. Camera Movement

Learning the moves like Pan and Tilt is important, as well as executing them smoothly is as equally important. Every camera movement should have an intention and/or motive behind them, and, should be executed as smoothly as possible. This is why it is important to get a good fluid head tripod like the Manfrotto MVH500AH to be able to execute those movements. Once you master these, you can incorporate dolly, jib, gimbal and aerial shots.

5. Shoot Anamorphic (or fake it, again!)

Anamorphic lenses will get you the cinematic look right away with their light streaks, ellipse bokeh, and wide aspect ratio, but those lenses are expensive. If you can’t get one, other alternatives are available, like using old projectors lens. Alternatively, you can somewhat fake it with a Vid-Atlantic Cinemorph filter or go the home-made route with a piece of fishing wire taped in front of your lens.  You won’t get the lens distortion from them but it will add a little creative touch to the footage.

We hope you liked and learned with this article and video, if you have any comments or questions feel free to reach out, and, follow us on social media.

The post 15 steps to make Cinematic video footage and get that Film Look appeared first on The Video Pro Guys.

We acquired the Autel X-Star recently and before we take it out for a project we want to make sure we get the most out of it. So we have decided to put this drone through almost all the settings combination possible and select the best one.

So we did the test in 2 parts. First, we created a controllable test environment indoor where we could compare apples to apples. Out of that test, we created our shortlist of settings and tested them in the real world to see which one was the best.

Part 1 – Test Environment Testing

The very first step in this test was to compare the “None” color profile to the LOG profile and see if there is actually a difference.

The findings came with a few surprises. Mainly is that, at the time of writing, the Autel Starlink app histogram seems to be slightly off. When we pulled up the “None” color profile on-screen it seemed a little bit-underexposed while the histogram on the app was slightly different using the whole band from 0 to 255. As for the LOG profile, we didn’t change any settings between the two shots, the histogram on the app was compressed and exposed to the right (about 1/3 to the right) but with plenty of room before clipping, and regardless it created some hot spots on the image. Nothing we haven’t seen on lower end cameras but it is good to know we can’t ETTR with this drone.

Regardless, the LOG profile appears to have a slight edge to the standard “None” color profile. This will be our choice.

Color Saturation Setting

Next, we will start with the color saturation setting.

So we put them all next to each other to quickly weed out the bad ones.

From this comparison, we can see right away that +1, +2 and +3 are over-saturated, so we don’t want to go with those ones.

Which leaves us -2,-1 and 0 to compare to each other. When we quickly color correct them in post, we can see which one seems more suitable. In this case, -1 seems to have the best tones, color rendition, and range.

Contrast Setting

Now let’s move to the contrast. This test can be approached a little bit differently by comparing the highest and lowest setting. From there we can see if there is an actual difference between the lowest and highest, and from our test, there is.

The lowest setting, -3, seems to render a better image detail-wise than +3, but +3 may have a slightly better noise pattern. Which at that point we need to investigate where would be the happy medium, and, from our tests, the image quality really changes around 0. -2 would be our happy medium, but -3 could also work.

Sharpness Setting

Now onto the sharpness test. The method is similar to the contrast test, we take the highest and lowest settings and compare the range. We are trying to get the most range to sharpness ratio. Since sharpness is easy to add in post-production we preferably want something on the softer side that can be brought back in post with a better sharpening effect/plug-in.

So comparing -3 and +3, we can see that there is a big difference between both and even with a maximum of sharpness in post, we can’t achieve the detail level of +3.

Which, bring us to gradually try the other settings and see which one is our candidate. In the test, we found that with added sharpness, -1, 0 and +1 are good candidates with a decent amount of detail.

Now with all that info, we have a shortlist of what we want to try with our “real world” testing.

There are a few candidates we want to try: +1 -2 -1, 0 -2 -1 and -1 -3 -1. For the last one, we want to test -3 contrast to see if there is a difference in the real world or if it will just make it harder for us.

Part 2 – Real World Testing

Alright, now that we have our settings we want to test, we can do a somewhat repeatable flight and see which one stands out.

From the get-go, +1 -2 -1 is clearly over-sharpened and the noise is pretty high. That is something we do not want. Then we are left with 0 -2 -1 and -1 -3 -1. The -1 sharpness -3 contrast lacks detail but the image smoother with less color fringing, and 0 -2 -1 seems to slightly over-saturated and does a bit of color fringing. It’s like we are missing a half-step between the two where -0.5 sharpness would be the sweet spot.

So let’s do another test with -1 -2 -1 and 0 -2 -1. We can discard -3 contrast, it doesn’t do anything significant and make the screen harder to read while piloting the drone.

0 -2 -1 and -1 -2 -1 are two viable options. I would say -1 -2 -1 look smoother (without ND filter) and lacks detail a bit BUT if you are using the drone footage to edit with DSLR footage like a Canon 5D, this is the settings you want to use. Be aware that this setting does not export well on low bitrate codec so you will have to use something like DNxHD or ProRes to get the most of it. If you can work around all of that, it is a viable option. Otherwise, 0 -2 -1 is the best setting combination to use. It will give you the most detail you can get from the drone, it exports fine on h.264 and doesn’t have to much noise.

The best settings for the Autel X-Star are 0 -2 -1.

Get the Autel X-Star LUT color correction preset below for FREE!
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I hope you liked this article and video, if you have any comments or questions feel free to reach out, and, follow us on social media.

The post Best settings for the Autel Robotics X-Star appeared first on The Video Pro Guys.

Wait… the Canon C100 Mk1… a 2012 camera vs the Sony FS5, a 2015 camera still widely used. Why would anyone want to see this?

Well, for starter, both cameras are abundant on the used market and at great prices. Second, older doesn’t mean it can’t keep up. And 3rd, some people may be looking at many different options and this could sway them toward a decision.

So we decided to pin both cameras against each other, doing all the basic tests, and see if the FS5 is light years ahead or if the C100 still hold in today’s standards.

All of our tests were made with both cameras at the same settings and with the same lens.

Let’s get to it!

Dynamic Range: C-log VS S-log

In the dynamic range comparison, the difference can be seen right away. The Sony FS5 really shines here capturing both shadows and highlights in the image while the Canon C100 struggles to get all that information.

Here the Sony FS5 is the clear winner with its 14-stops of dynamic range

Rolling Shutter

For the rolling shutter, it is a different story, Sony cameras are notorious for rolling shutter and the FS5 is no different. In our test, our subject (the windows) are slightly slanted to the right, but with the motion, it completely skews them to the left, when for the C100, it still skews them a little but not enough to reverse the orientation of the windows.

Rolling Shutter wise, the Canon C100 handles it better.

Moire

During this test, Marc and James though the C100 would have moire since it produced some on the monitor but when the footage was imported at full resolution in the computer no moire was apparent. With the Sony FS5, no moire is produced in the footage.

In this round, it’s a draw, both cameras handle moire like champs.

Low Light Performance

As for low light, the Canon C100 is surprisingly (for a 5 years old camera at the time of this article) good all the way to its max ISO with a clear image and a minimum of noise. The Canon C100 produces useable footage even without denoiser at high ISO. The Sony FS5, on the other hand, doesn’t shine here, which is surprising for a camera with a high native ISO. For a camera that the ISO can be cranked higher than the C100, the FS5 falls apart really quickly, the image becomes muddy and lose tons of detail in low light (same observations were made in our a6300 vs FS5 article). In the FS5’s defense, the noise becomes a lot less apparent when color corrected but the muddiness stays the same.

For the low light, the C100 is the winner.

Image Detail

This one is a tough one. Both cameras are identical to our eyes, if we adjust the picture a little bit to match on both cameras, it becomes really hard to differentiate which is which. In this case, no camera seems to be ahead of the other one, both have a good respectable image quality with plenty of details.

Image quality… it’s a draw!

In conclusion, the C100 Mk1 is still a really good camera to this day, if you are a videographer that is starting or looking to get a package that is a little bit more professional than a DSLR, the C100 Mk1 is a good contender. There is a lot of talk of “future proofing” and whatnot but the fact of the matter is, that most of us create short-lived content like commercials that will be only relevant for the next 6 months or YouTube content that will be forgotten in 2 years. For this, in our opinion, 4K is not a mandatory at the moment. The hurdles it creates such as storage management and expensive workstations required to edit it is not worth it.

For all those reasons, the C100 MK1 is still a really powerful camera in the hands of a videographer that knows the basic.

But this is not a pro-C100 review, the FS5 is James’ favorite out of this battle, but we have to be honest and face the facts, you need to get the tool that is best suited for you. So, if you film everything in 60fps+ and hyper stylize your image, then the FS5 is for you, but if you would never use those features, do yourself a favor, and save money at the same time and grab a C100!

We, hope you like the camera shootout and we would love to hear from you. Leave us a comment below and follow us on social media.

The post Canon C100 Mark I vs Sony FS5 : Camera Shootout appeared first on The Video Pro Guys.

So, pretty much everyone knows the theory behind 8 bits, 10 bits and 12 bits RAW footage, but what does that mean to us filmmakers? Does it actually matter? My answer is… it depends.

If you are new to this, understanding color depth is a requisite. So color depth is separated by channels, Red, Green, and Blue. So, 8 bits has 256 values per channel, which is 256*256*256 = 16 million colors. 10 bits has 1024 values per channel and 12 bits has 4096 values per channel. In theory, 12 bits has more tones and shades than 8 bits, and this is how you can stretch the color information without creating banding and degradation.

I did this test a few times in the pasts but camera technology is changing so much and having the Atomos Shogun on hand with the Sony FS5 right now calls for a redo. Things I learned is that not a single camera will wield the same results to this test, compression, and codec is also a big part of it, so your equipment may behave better or worst than what we have here.

So for the test, we have recorded the footage with the FS5 and Atomos Shogun. The 8 bits footage is the internal 4K XAVC, the 10 bits is in Prores and the 12 bits is in CinemaDNG.

Here is our starting point

8 bits footage

10 bits footage

12 bits footage

Now, let’s throw a heavy curve on them to see which image will fall apart first.

8 bits footage

10 bits footage

12 bits footage

With the heavy curve on, we can see the 8 bits footage becomes “blocky”.
As for the 10 bits footage, we can see there is a little bit more latitude less pixelization in the colors than 8 bits.
The 12 bits RAW footage, in this case, is smooth when it comes to color gradient transition. There is no noticeable banding or pixelization.

Regardless of the differences between the footage, I am surprised how the 8 bits footage is handled by the FS5, it holds up pretty well. From my previous tests a few years ago, I thought the gap between the 8 bits and 10 bits would have been bigger.

From those test, in my opinion, I don’t think that recording in 10bits or RAW is worth the hassle and the storage management it creates for most projects. Not that it is useless, far from it, I love grading raw footage, its make it for a breeze. And if you do have the equipment or a 10 bits native camera like a C300 it is a nice bonus to have, but 90% of the time, a great end result can be achieved at 8 bits.

Anyhow, I hope you liked the article and if you haven’t watched the video yet, I would suggest you do so as it shows this test a little bit more in depth.

The post 8 bits vs 10 bits vs 12 bits footage appeared first on The Video Pro Guys.

In this article, we are looking at the JTZ top handle, the JTZ side grip and how all of that integrates with JTZlink.

We will mainly talk about the controls of the handle since we already reviewed its construction and features in our JTZ DP30 a6300 cage review, but in short, I still, to this day, think it is the best handle I’ve ever owned.

Let’s move on, the top handle has 4 buttons:

1. Wide
2. Tele
3. Focus
4. Wide & Tele – Fast or Slow

Basically, the first button zoom out, the second zoom in, the third prompt auto-focus and the forth changes the speed at which you zoom in and out. One thing to note is that I couldn’t get the Focus button to work on the a6300, I’ve tried it on 2 lenses, with different camera settings and none of them would focus. So, this Focus option may be a hit or miss depending on what camera you are using.

In order for these buttons to work, you will need a Sony PowerZoom lens, without one you won’t be able to use the four buttons, but the REC button will work.

Now for JTZlink, JTZlink is a communication protocol similar to LANC where you can connect many accessories to each other and that way they will communicate with each other. To use the handle, you need to first connect the JTZlink cable to the handle, then the other end of the cable to the cage. The cage itself has all the electronics internally and has 2 JTZlink ports and 1 LANC port. Then you plug the USB cable that comes out of the cage to the camera and you are set to use the handle.

As for the grip, you can connect it to the cage via the LANC or the JTZlink cable, it doesn’t matter which cable you are using. The grip has limited functions on the Sony a6300.

The grip does what the top handle does and more! You can trigger REC and use the zoom functions. You can throttle the speed of the zoom as well to a faster or slower speed, 8 different speeds in total. The Focus and Iris functions do not work on the Sony a6300 though.

The grip can be used by itself with other cameras, like the C100 or Alexa, I tried it the Sony FS5 and it worked flawlessly, you only need to connect the LANC cable to the handle port and it will work.

Now with the FS5, all the functions are available. The iris controls and the focus work well. For the focus, the speed throttle also works that was you can set it to your preference.

And of course, the REC button works as well like it does on the other cameras.

If you want to see everything about the handle and grip, have a look at the video at the top where we go into more details.

The post JTZ DP 30 Top Handle and JTZlink Review appeared first on The Video Pro Guys.

There are many ways to setup and handle your rig, some of you may be looking for a shoulder rig to do so which is a great solution for run and gun shoot. The Neewer Portable Filmmaker system is an entry-level shoulder rig that offers the basics you are looking for.

Quality wise, this rig is well constructed, everything is made of aluminum alloy and feels sturdy. The rods and accessories are 15mm, and they are true to size, they will work with any other manufacturer accessories and rods. The tightening screws on the shoulder rig feel solid and can be tightened down without fear of the threads sheering or snapping.

The shoulder pad is good, it is a simple molded block of rubber, and nothing more but it is comfortable especially for the price. It slides on the rails pretty easily, so you can see this as a plus or minus, it can be annoying as it can shift from time to time but on the other hand, it is easy to position.

The handles feel solid and do have great hard rubberized textured grips which eliminate the fear of the rig slipping off your hands.

As for the camera base, it has a height adjustment which is a great feature that will give some more longevity to the rig as you upgrade your equipment along the way. This flexibility will make sure you can almost always make your camera line-up with a mattebox. The baseplate used on this rig are Manfrotto 501/503 compatible, another plus in my opinion since a lot of equipment use this standard. Another feature the camera base has is an integrated level which is always a good thing to have even though we may not be using it as often as we should.

There are 2 cons with this rig in my opinion. The first one being that the baseplate tightening handle falls right under most DSLRs and mirrorless cameras battery door, so changing battery or SD cards is a little more laborious. The second one is the way the rods are connected, rather than using a male threaded rod going to a female rod, it uses a connector piece connecting 2 female rods together. On the unit we have, one of those connectors is loose which creates play in one of the rod. It could be probably fixed with Teflon tape but if you need to disassemble the whole rig to travel, you would need to bring Teflon tape with you.

Other than that, it is a great little shoulder rig for the price. Some competitor offers rigs in the same price range but most accessories are in plastic. This one feels sturdy and we were impressed with the build quality at that price point. We tried it with Full Frame DSLRs, mirrorless cameras and even pro cameras like the FS5 and C100, and, it held well. I also recommend getting the counter-weight with it, it makes a huge difference.

To get the shoulder rig, click here.

The post Neewer Portable Filmmaker system review appeared first on The Video Pro Guys.

The Sony a6300 has been praised with glory from filmmakers across the world, but how does it stack up against a more professional camera like the Sony FS5?

We decided to compare them and see how close (or far) apart they are. In this comparison, we will compare few basics elements and see which camera excel in a specific area.

Before we start, let’s address a few things, we won’t talk about each camera features here as the list for the Sony FS5 is way longer than the one for the Sony a6300 since they are not meant to do the same “work”. We will only talk about usability and image quality, and in the end, that’s mostly what us filmmakers are after.

Setting wise, both cameras have been set to their highest settings and we will be using the same lens, the Sony SEL16F28.

Rolling Shutter

Sony cameras and rolling shutter… they all have it! We used to shoot a lot with DSLRs and Canon C100/C300 (still do), and I will always remember the first day I got my Sony a7s how noticeable the difference was. Anyhow, both cameras do have rolling shutter, the FS5 has less of it than the a6300 which makes it more usable straight out of the camera. Luckily, nowadays Premiere Pro has an amazing Rolling Shutter Repair tool which will allow you to fix the a6300 image, but some editors may be using different softwares or not be aware of it, so having a good image baked in is always preferred.

Dynamic Range

As for dynamic range, Sony claims that both cameras have 14-stops of dynamic range, which I believe is true for the FS5, in any situation you can always capture a lot of information. In the example below, we can see how the FS5 captured all the details in the sky.

On the other hand, we have the Sony a6300 here, and, even though you can see it does capture a great latitude, some highlights are blown. We didn’t do any specific dynamic range test, but according to a few sources, the a6300 would have around 11-stops rather than the 14-stops claimed by Sony.

If we look at each cameras RGB Parade, we can clearly see the dynamic range isn’t the same, although it is really good for a tiny mirrorless camera, there is still something happening in the highlights as highlighted in the image below.

Moiré

I won’t spend much time on moiré, both cameras handle moiré really well, for 99% of the time it won’t happen. So with both cameras, you can film, brick walls, chainlink fence, roofing tiles and funky shirts with ease. The 1% when it happens, it is usually something really linear with texture, like really deep building sidings, and you are filming it from far, in motion and you compress the footage. Outside of that, this is almost thing of the past!

Low Light

As for low lights, there is a clear difference between both cameras. I would encourage you to watch the video to really see it on your screen, but the a6300 has an image that holds up all the way to 25,600 ISO (the camera can’t go higher in s-log3) while the FS5 is pretty much unusable after 8,000 ISO. The Sony FS5 quickly lose image details and become muddy at 16,000 ISO while the Sony a6300 stay super sharp all the way to the end with a fine noise that makes all the shots usable.

Image Details

In the image sharpness and detail, the Sony a6300 shines again. Not that the FS5 image quality is bad per say, it is really good but we are pixel peeping here for the fun of it! The a6300 captures every little detail and texture in the image. In the example below, we can read the fine print easily compared to the Sony FS5 where it less clear and difficult to read.

Here we have another example, where we zoomed in in the corner and can see the difference here.

Slow Motion

For the slow motion, both cameras have to be set to 1080p. Again, we won’t compare the features as the FS5 can do 960fps when the a6300 is limited to 120fps. So we compared both at 120fps, and both cameras are pretty much identical at that settings. For both, the slow motion is smooth, it creates a good and detailed image without degradation. You can see it in our video at the top of the page.

Verdict

Both cameras are great, but it is impressive to see the image quality that comes out of the Sony a6300. On the image quality alone, the a6300 is ahead of the FS5, but when it comes to the colors and dynamic range, the FS5 delivers the goods. At the end of the day, both cameras have their place and use. The FS5 is a good all-around camera with a lot to offer, but you don’t always need all the features, and, many videographers out-there are using the a6300 as a primary camera (I surely do from time to time!) and shouldn’t be ashamed of it because, as we have seen it, this is a little powerhouse who is worthy of big productions quality.

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