[kadajawi]

I have a friend who shoots with the G9, stills-only, and who is quite taken with the camera's capabilities and form factor. She wants more pickles and larger sensor and is looking L-mount at present.


Steve

I can't be tempted by the L-mount. I'm curious, of course, and I would like to get my hands on one at some point. But the L-mount spoils the one thing I love about Panasonic: Their lenses are miniscule but still of great quality. They feel good, the image quality is wonderful (especially the Panasonic/Leica lenses), and they are a fraction the size and weight of similar FF glass. What would I gain from going FF? More back pain? I was easily running around all day with 5 lenses, 2 bodies, a powerbank and some additional gear. Could I do that with FF? No way. Mirrorless or not.

[ikonographics]

I'm also having abysmal results with the K70's video. I thought I'd get better results recording my drawing tutorials with my K70 than my smart phone and the image quality is dreadful. Even though it shows it to be in focus before recording (and I then set the focus to manual so it won't change) as soon as I press record the image goes soft. Am I doing something wrong or is this camera incapable of shooting sharp video?

[clackers]

I'm also having abysmal results with the K70's video. I thought I'd get better results recording my drawing tutorials with my K70 than my smart phone and the image quality is dreadful. Even though it shows it to be in focus before recording (and I then set the focus to manual so it won't change) as soon as I press record the image goes soft. Am I doing something wrong or is this camera incapable of shooting sharp video?

Post a link to your footage, Ikonographics!

[richandfleur]

Am I doing something wrong or is this camera incapable of shooting sharp video?

Short story, it's crap and offers video capabilities that are well over 5 years old.

Pentax haven't done much of anything lately, and modern video functions aren't at the top of the list for when they eventually do anything either.

[monochrome]

That's a bit of a problem these days since the DSLR look has taken over a lot of video production. I work on a weekly tv show and we have traditional video cameras that are strictly for video. They don't shoot stills of any kind. However, we're about to change over to mirrorless cameras so we can get that more film-like look.

My daughter was Operations Producer for a Network News daily broadcast. They tried dSLR and MILC for remotes, but went back to broadcast quality Sony video cameras finding the quality of the camera files unsatisfactory.

[PiDicus Rex]

Even though it shows it to be in focus before recording (and I then set the focus to manual so it won't change) as soon as I press record the image goes soft.

How do the files look when played back on a good screen?

What you see on the LCD, may be related to one of the issues with the HDMI.
I posted a comprehensive review of the K-3 when I tested it, it's around this part of the forum somewhwere, but the TL;DR part that's important, is that the output of the HDMI changes resolution and frame rate when Record is pressed - it goes from 1080 to 720.

If what I suspect turns out to be correct, and that the HDMI is downstream of the LCD, what you may be seeing as 'soft focus', could be the camera dropping to 720 on the LCD.

If the files are still sharp when imported to the PC and played back there on a 1080 or higher res screen, then the vision is fine.

If it's soft in those, there's something else going on - try turning off any lens correction and see what happens.

---------- Post added 04-07-19 at 07:40 PM ----------

My daughter was Operations Producer for a Network News daily broadcast. They tried dSLR and MILC for remotes, but went back to broadcast quality Sony video cameras finding the quality of the camera files unsatisfactory.

Sony do a range of Camcorders ideal for that - small bodies with 1 inch sensors, plus inbuilt wifi.
Really good balance of features that can do shallow enough depth for the look, and sensitive enough to shoot at night with the gain up and not have much noise.
I was using a PXW-X70 a couple of weeks ago as an auxiliary to a full sized ENG camera, and was really impressed with the output.
Good for News, Doco's, Behind Scenes, or Student Films, but not quite there for TV Drama or Cinema.
3/4 the price of a K-1 body.

[ikonographics]

Post a link to your footage, Ikonographics!

Her'es a link to the footage. This is speeded up, but you can see that it it's soft focus

You Tube

You Tube

---------- Post added 07-04-2019 at 03:56 PM ----------

Short story, it's crap and offers video capabilities that are well over 5 years old.

Pentax haven't done much of anything lately, and modern video functions aren't at the top of the list for when they eventually do anything either.

I knew Pentax were bad at video (it's not why I buy their camera's) but I didn't expect a dslr to be miles worse than my samsung smartphone!

[monochrome]

Sony do a range of Camcorders ideal for that - small bodies with 1 inch sensors, plus inbuilt wifi.
Really good balance of features that can do shallow enough depth for the look, and sensitive enough to shoot at night with the gain up and not have much noise.
I was using a PXW-X70 a couple of weeks ago as an auxiliary to a full sized ENG camera, and was really impressed with the output.
Good for News, Doco's, Behind Scenes, or Student Films, but not quite there for TV Drama or Cinema.
3/4 the price of a K-1 body.

I’m sure it beats buying clips on the internet, which is want local TV news does (and even some Network Feature news shows do). When sh left New York two years ago to be a political office Communications Director they were still using full size for B-Roll.

[ikonographics]

How do the files look when played back on a good screen?

What you see on the LCD, may be related to one of the issues with the HDMI.
I posted a comprehensive review of the K-3 when I tested it, it's around this part of the forum somewhwere, but the TL;DR part that's important, is that the output of the HDMI changes resolution and frame rate when Record is pressed - it goes from 1080 to 720.

If what I suspect turns out to be correct, and that the HDMI is downstream of the LCD, what you may be seeing as 'soft focus', could be the camera dropping to 720 on the LCD.

If the files are still sharp when imported to the PC and played back there on a 1080 or higher res screen, then the vision is fine.

If it's soft in those, there's something else going on - try turning off any lens correction and see what happens.[COLOR="Silver"]

It looks just as bad on my PC. When I focus, it looks perfectly sharp, but as soon as I press record it visibly goes soft on the lcd and when I stop the recording it goes sharp again, but I've just realides that that is the focus peaking. I've disabled any lens corrections and there is no difference. For a comparisson to the footage I posted above, here is footage from my Samsung Note 8
S4T8 Drawing Deacons (Preview) - YouTube

[clackers]

This is speeded up, but you can see that it it's soft focus

Looks focused to me, Ikonographics.

The saturation, contrast and sharpness can all be boosted in your postprocessing - the Samsung has already done this, of course. Your clip's white balance is a little warm, too, there's nothing genuinely white in it. See advice even for Photoshop here if you don't have Premiere or similar: https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/190-pentax-k-1/325048-k1-video.html#post3699639

If you want to try to emulate the Samsung (for me both clips came through in 720p) straight form camera, you can try to crank those up in your Pentax JPG settings, but the pros prefer to get muted footage that they'll adjust to taste later on, because artifacts can get created if you just leave it up to automation.

This guy shot a K-70 with a Muted Profile, +1 sharpness, 1080p, 24fps, no postprocessing:

Youtu.be

Youtu.be

[stevebrot]

Looks focused to me, Ikonographics.

I concur. Pause the video and all is reasonably sharp, at least at or near the table surface.

It is not clear how the video was produced (stop-action?) or how it was sped up, but the frame-to-frame registration seems off, possibly due to poor camera support, zoom/focus creep, or the occasional bump. There may also be softness introduced by poor focus/inadequate DOF, or lens quality (dreadful lens mentioned in previous posts?).

A clip of an uncomplicated, high-contrast static subject with no special effects might be a good place to start in terms of troubleshooting. Some indication of camera support, lens used, and how focus and zoom were secured during and between takes would also be helpful. FWIW, the Samsung version was taken at much lower magnification and without the speed-up, hence the apparent sharpness.


Steve

[ikonographics]

Looks focused to me, Ikonographics.

The saturation, contrast and sharpness can all be boosted in your postprocessing - the Samsung has already done this, of course. Your clip's white balance is a little warm, too, there's nothing genuinely white in it. See advice even for Photoshop here if you don't have Premiere or similar: K1 video - PentaxForums.com

If you want to try to emulate the Samsung (for me both clips came through in 720p) straight form camera, you can try to crank those up in your Pentax JPG settings, but the pros prefer to get muted footage that they'll adjust to taste later on, because artifacts can get created if you just leave it up to automation.

This guy shot a K-70 with a Muted Profile, +1 sharpness, 1080p, 24fps, no postprocessing:

Pentax K-70 Test - YouTube

It's my fault for having the stupid idea to try and use the camera to record the tutorial at the last minute without having time to mess around with it first, but at least I'm learning from my mistakes lol! Thanks so much for the photoshop tip, it looks like that is exactly what I need. I shot the footage without thinking that the editing software I use won't be able to handle the job. Unfortunately I can't afford Premiere and I've been using Filmora which has been fine when my phone has been most of the adjustments anyway. The footage was sped up in Filmora and then exported at 720. It's just a quick preview of the full tutorial. I know that for film the pros go for a muted look, but for a drawing tutorial the important thing for me is that the drawing is very clear so I want it to have a fair amount of contrast and clarity.

---------- Post added 07-05-2019 at 02:16 PM ----------

I concur. Pause the video and all is reasonably sharp, at least at or near the table surface.

It is not clear how the video was produced (stop-action?) or how it was sped up, but the frame-to-frame registration seems off, possibly due to poor camera support, zoom/focus creep, or the occasional bump. There may also be softness introduced by poor focus/inadequate DOF, or lens quality (dreadful lens mentioned in previous posts?).

A clip of an uncomplicated, high-contrast static subject with no special effects might be a good place to start in terms of troubleshooting. Some indication of camera support, lens used, and how focus and zoom were secured during and between takes would also be helpful. FWIW, the Samsung version was taken at much lower magnification and without the speed-up, hence the apparent sharpness.


Steve

This clip was sped up in post processing (Filmora) as a preview of the full tutorial. The camera was stable on a tripod, I tried various depths of field with the same results. And the lens I used was the DA 35mm 2.4 which on all accounts is a good lens (the other lens has now retired!) The sharpness is the same in both the original and the sped up versions.

[PiDicus Rex]

Sadly, both look equally sharp, as posting on Youtube means they will be recompressed again, again,..

First when recorded, then when exported, and finally by youtube.

With the camera off to the side, if the iris is fairly wide open, the depth of field is going to kill some of your focus across the subject area.

Try using a D.o.F. calculator app, fixing the focal length, then making the iris setting smaller until the calculator spits out a number for DoF that is wider then you drawing space.

Set that focus distance and iris on the lens, then lift the ISO to get a more correctly exposed image, but avoid going higher then 800ISO on any body except the KP, which looks okay at 1600 - Higher ISO's cause an issue with colour blotching when the codec is dealing with signal noise that looks like grain in stills.

If you still need more exposure, it's time to bring the lights closer with diffuser or bounce.

[fsge]

I am not sure people buy pentax SLRs for video purposes. I bought a dedicated sony cam for that specific usage.

[PiDicus Rex]

Well, that's a helpful comment,....

Why do people have to wander in to the video dedicated part of the forum to post anti-video-on-pentax posts so often?

I could just as easy go over to the Flash section and post "Pentax flashes are shit, buy a Canon, it'll work with Yongnuo gear better"

Pointless, and unhelpful to anyone wanting to learn how to get good results out of gear they already own.