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Driftwood Settings, Series 5: Cluster v6 ULTRA RELIABLE, Mysteron, Crossfire, Quantum 9B, Sedna...
  • 1029 Replies sorted by
  • strancalistrancali

    @sleepy32 welcome and pretty cool video :)

  • sleepy32sleepy32

    First time on here :) Been doing some testing in low light situations with Cluster V6. I've liked it a lot, been playing around with MJPEG mode also.

  • consciusconscius

    my normal patch is sedna or canis majoris. An i'm now going to greece for 8 days. So I was also looking for the ideal patch. (very good quality, lower bitrate than sedna and canis majoris). For me it will be cluster V6 gop6

  • sohussohus

    Driftwood Cluster v6 or Cake 2.3? The first gives me 45 minutes on 32GB card the latter 1 hour. I am going to India for a month so I want to have bang for the buck = most minutes with best quality image. My normal patch is Sedna AQ1 but I don't want to run out of memory space and I also do not want camera playback issues so I can review and delete footage from my cards on the go! Might bring a 2,5" harddisk to copy some footage over during hotel stops (if they have computer with USB). Prefer SS though for safety and reliability!

  • MisterBinkMisterBink

    @pundit - Nice, clear response. Thank you for your feedback, I really appreciate your view. The quality on your video is stupendous btw, well done

  • consciusconscius

    If you ask me, Cluster V6 is good for narrative to (in 24H modus). Not only docu

  • punditpundit

    @strancali @driftwood @feha Thanks and yes the Pentax FA31 Ltd is a bit of a gem. As this is getting off topic please refer to the 'Lenses' topic where I've posted some info on the FA31 Ltd.

    Here... http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/3795/pentax-fa31-limited

    _IMG8464.jpg
    797 x 1200 - 365K
  • punditpundit

    @MisterBink Sedna AQ1 was going to be my first choice until Cluster V6. If you were shooting a no compromise production, well at least as far as the GH2 is concerned, until something else comes along, then from my somewhat limited experience I feel Sedna AQ1 would rate near the top of the list.

    However for me, Cluster V6 with it's 'short GOP like' quality at reduced bit-rates/file sizes, was a compelling alternative for doco work which I decided to go with the night before the shoot.

    I have two Sandisk 64g 95mb cards and also took a Netbook and 1TB external drive to make sure I was well covered for data storage. In the end I filled just over half of a single 64g card. (stop/start shooting).

    As I'm a one-man-band and don't have a data wrangler (who does on no/low budget shoots?) anything that reduces my workload on a shoot can't be ignored. When I return for the next session I will probably just hit 'record' and let it run until the card is full as the subject became somewhat stilted when he knew it was a 'take'. So I figure the 'forget-all-about-the-camera-natural-friendly-chat approach' will be much better but use up a lot more storage therefore the reduced bitrate of Cluster is even more desirable.

  • nomadnomad

    I'd say: yes.

    The Intra only codecs get to such high bitrates (on the right card) that they are in the region of to really professional codecs, even intermediate ones like DNxHD or ProRes. Under controlled scenic shooting, where a single take should rarely exceed 4 GB, the fine noise structure which is changing from frame to frame is looking more like film grain than any other settings.

    Cluster is fantastic for any shooting where longer takes may be needed.

  • MisterBinkMisterBink

    I see a lot of documentary shooters/ interviewers and such particularly raving about the Cluster series, which is great, don't get me wrong, but in terms of filmic look (and 24p), is it still better to stay with Sedna, Quantum and Mysteron? Just interested to hear what peeps have to say.

  • fehafeha

    @pundit, wow, amazing, Cluster v6 is my favorite :-)

  • MartinDMartinD

    Cluster v6 12/15 GOP "DREWnet" settings. 24p Cinema (1080), smooth, {-2,-2,-2,-2}, 24H
    Looking forward to seeing how this 1080p24Hz compares to Cluster v6 6 GOP Variation 'Nebular'. Nebular(?) ...Drew will be crushed! lol
    Video Below: Settings are posted in YouTube descriptor. The video was not enhanced.


    Video Below: Settings are posted in YouTube descriptor. The video was enhanced via CS5.5 Premiere Pro: Auto Levels and Sharpness were both added to the video. I was out of focus in original footage.

  • JPB1138JPB1138

    @luxis Thanks. Im always going for some kind of mood or feeling. First thing I think about.. Who needs story? hahaha. Hopefully within a year I intend to do a short or feature.

    @driftwood Thanks! Your settings have made it a lot easier to grade and lift shadows. Sedna really lets me do some cool stuff in post and minimize the macroblocking and noisy shadows.

  • JeffGibbsTCJeffGibbsTC

    Cluster V6 test high contrast, moire.

  • driftwooddriftwood

    @JohnTollwannabe Zzzzz!

  • peternappeternap

    @JohnTollwannabe Good question and a loaded one. It's like comparing a pair of beautiful twins. The devil is in the details.

  • driftwooddriftwood

    Awesome looking lens @pundit. Tell us more what you think about the Pentax FA31 LTD F1.8 please. I'm interested. :-)

  • driftwooddriftwood

    Wanted: Canis Majoris Day AM beta testers please sign up. pm me.

  • strancalistrancali

    @pundit thank you so much!!! This is absolutely beautiful. I will have to look into that lens. You sure you didn't use a red epic for this shot?!?. Get some rest :)

  • JohnTollwannabeJohnTollwannabe

    So, how does the new Cluster compare to the new Flowmotion patch?

    Did I open a can o' worms? :)

  • punditpundit

    @strancali Here you go! Apologies for no audio but the only thing this 10 second clip has been through is a quick conversion to MP4 using Handbrake on my HP Mini Netbook before being uploaded straight to Vimeo with no grading/correction.

    Shot using a Pentax FA31 Limited F1.8 @ F3.2

    Full details on Vimeo.

    I suggest you go to Vimeo and download the 1080p file for the best quality.

  • peternappeternap

    @evanflys You have no idea how much that helps Tim, Thanks! Don

  • driftwooddriftwood

    @hank Cluster? The 6 GOP 'Nebular' version is looking better at HBR25p/30p with the 12/15 GOP variation 'DREWnet' not far behind.

  • JeffGibbsTCJeffGibbsTC

    I just repeated my blue deep bay water of moving water, jumping kids, flying boats scene wherein the V5.1 version had locked up the camera (and failed to write the video file to boot) with my Sandisk 64 gb super-duper card that handles Sedna flawlessly, with V6 DREWnet and were NO LOCKJAW CAMERA PROBLEMS!!! Just now looking at the footage. By the way though I appreciate different folks have different needs, I most appreciate 1080p tests, can't really judge the detail on 720p. Thanks everyone for the work getting all these patches tested and Driftwood for the patch.

  • evanflysevanflys

    Hey @peternap, I'm Tim AKA @evanflys and I helped Driftwood out the best I could with testing the 12/15 "DREWnet" setting and this "Nebular" setting. My role was mostly in torturing the camera as best I could to ensure no freezes or write errors and giving him as good a quality feedback as I could about what I found.
    The sweet spot for my usage is 720/60P in shutter priority at 1/125 with Panasonic AF OIS lenses. I do a lot of aviation video stuff and that's the setting I use the most. It also just so happens that the GH2 has the toughest time with those parameters. I did run it through as many NTSC and PAL tortures in all modes as I could and Nick has a winner here folks! I'm not a good pixel peeper, and honestly very much still an amateur, so I'll leave that to others but I can say the reliability is dead on and the IQ sure is beautiful to me! I'd share some clips but I have videos in the queue I have to finish.

    hope this helps, tim

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