Messages

631

Chronos User Discussion / Re: Review of Chronos 2.1

« on: October 06, 2020, 09:44:44 AM »

just did a quick search, and found an kind of affordable Phantom Gold HD, at 16k€ used.
 https://www.ebay.de/itm/Vision-Research-Phantom-HD-Gold-1000fps-High-Speed-Camera/274043307223?hash=item3fce4104d7:g:2YAAAOSwRwpdnGIe
 this one is about as close as you can get to the 1kfps @ FullHD from the Chronos 2.1, though i am not really sure if it can hold up with the Higher Framerates of the 2.1 when used at lower resolution.
 As i said, you also need to buy special Storage, a special reader for that storage, a way of powering it if you intend to use it on the field, and a External Monitor (a Spare Laptop to adjust Settings Quickly would also not hurt).
 Then it is huge and Heavy, and has a PL-Mount. so better get a serious tripod and a bunch of actuall cine Lenses. Good luck finding cheap lenses for that mount... and you wont be able to use any Nikon or canon Lens btw. (Without professional Lens Remounting or even Rehousing), as much about the "bad Mounting solution" of the Chronos.
 Never used one of those, but Image Quality should be quite a bit better than the Chronos, just because of the way bigger sensor alone, so less noise.
 If you got the money to get one of those, it propably would be worth it, if you can make the cost back from Client work in a reasonable amount of time. For my usecase this is just a bit tooooo expensive and setup time will make the 15/30 minute Warmup time of the Chronos seem fast, unless you build yourself some serious camera Rig for that.
 .
 If you actually wanted to go for the cheapest Camera in the Highspeed-Field, with best image Quality, maybe look into film Highspeed-Cameras. even 16mm Film will give you at least 4 to 8 Megapixels per frame on high Quality film Stock, and cameras are usually rather cheap to get. There Are also still plenty of 35mm Film HS-Cams for sale. While Film Stock can get expensive if you shoot a lot, if you got customers, that pay you for good results, it might be worth it. 35mm Film has huge Resolution potential and Image Quality is mostly limited by the kind of film you feed your Camera. Highspeed Filmmaking is one of the Few fields of filmmaking where i think usage of Film is still interresting (apart from some Film Purist People) because of the very low price of Camera Hardware (but VERY high running costs) if you just want to get into it and want to get high resolution results. While i still will prefer Digital over film even for highspeed because of a few rather obvious reasons, it might be an option to think about. But also keep in mind, developing the Film takes a lot of time and money, and Film Stock availability can become a Problem depending on what you shoot. also the obvious problem of pre-only Trigger and very limited Record time on most of such cameras.
 for example Fastax Cameras can be had for under 200€ usualy (but they have short record time and if you allready disliked the Chronos Mounting Options, well prepare for some Nasty surprises with the Fastax Mount, where only a handfull of Lenses Are Available, nobody even knows the Flange distance, and Adapters arent a thing AT ALL. You will litterally need to modify lenses to fit on there if you want to use anything apart from the original, now very expensive Lenses for Fastax-Mount), and there are also a bunch of other, more Rare Film Highspeed Cameras.
 Again, wouldnt get one myself, but might be an option for anyone reading this....

632

Chronos User Discussion / Re: Review of Chronos 2.1

« on: October 05, 2020, 06:58:54 AM »

On an other note about the noise in general, i found, that i need to expose Images rather (almost too) bright, so the image will always be clipping to 100% white in some areas, and then just crush the Darker Areas to black, that way, even if there is noise, i found it to be not that much of a problem. If you need to brighten up the Shadows at any point, yes, Noise will look really bad.
 Thats one somewhat strange thing to get used to with this camera. The general known best practise is to never over expose anything in the image and rather get your image a bit too dark, then push exposure and the Shadows a bit in post, but with the chronos i found it to be better to shoot a bit on the bright side and drop exposure in post if needed.

633

Chronos User Discussion / Re: Review of Chronos 2.1

« on: October 05, 2020, 06:43:57 AM »

While i am absolutely with you on the point about the Screen and the White balance/ Color Settings in general, those can be quite frustrating indeed, i have to disagree in a few points about this post.
 Have you ever used a Phantom Camera? depending on the exact model you end up using, the fans can be as loud or even WAY louder than the chronos one. for sure, a completely quiet camera is always nice to have, but then again, when you shoot 1000+ fps, sound will very rarely be an issue. i can post some Reference for really loud Phantoms if you never seen any of those.
 And about the Mount bit, i also have to disagree with your post, C-Mount or more precise CS-Mount in this case is a very apropriate mount for this camera. The Chronos is a Highspeed-Camera, which while aimed a bit at motion-Picture productions, has still a lot of users in Industry and Research. and in this field C-Mount and CS-Mount are very much THE STANDARD for Lens Mounts.
 There Are Adapters readily available to buy for both Lens Systems you named there, nikon and canon, so i dont get what your problem is, if you just want to use Standard SLR-Mount Lenses. Things get indeed a bit more hairy if you tried to use Some Speciality Lens made for a Mirrorless-Mount. But even then, The Chronos itself allows for mounting even Sony-E-Mount Lenses, MFT-Mount Glass and much more, there are just no Mass-Produced Adapters Ready to buy as of now. If you need any, there are plenty of people on the Forum that can build adapters for those more special mounts or help you make one. The Design of the Camera itself is very good in terms of mounting options, so that is not true. Just name one (somewhat reasonable, there are Some wicked strange Lenses out there which are not possible to be mounted on the Chronos without a lot of modifications to either Lens or camera or both, but most of those Lenses will also not be possible to be mounted on any today Digital Camera without a simmilar amount of modifications, so....) Lens you cant mount on there?
 And on the Point of Image Quality, i am partly with you, but also partly not...
 While i am also a bit disapointed about the Low Light Performance, i have to say this camera can produce very Stunning images in the Right conditions. And every camera or lens will have some limitations at some point, and especially if you want to work as an camera operator or even Highspeed-Cam-Operator, you should know better than anyone else how to get the best image out of your camera, even under not absolutely perfect conditions. you can shoot pretty bad quality footage even on the most expensive of cameras, so the camera itself is always only part of the result.
 The Cinematographer creates the image, the lens paints the image, and the Camera captures it.
 So, if you work with customers or directors that will freak out immedeatly about a bit of image noise or something like that, you are propably are not secure enough about yourself or work with the wrong clients/ people. There should be enough trust in a healthy work enviroment in the film industry to be able to explain what is going on with the noise and that it could be easily removed in post (and if it can not, there is too little Light on your set) without anyone loosing their cool over that.
 and while i also agree, that, if you are able to afford a Phantom, absolutely go for one, but allways keep in mind that they need special Storage, Storage Readers, some Serious Power Supply, an External Monitor, and some even an actual Computer to even use them propperly. Those can be bought for "reasonable" prices sometimes if you are lucky, but more stand-Alone more modern Models are usually more expensive. The Cheapest, kind of compareable stand-Alone Phantom i know of is the Miro Line of Phantom Cameras, and those are a bit over 7x the Price of the 2.1 in basic configuration, some modells of the Miro cost way more.... So, yeah they are better for sure, but i would be highly shocked if they where not at that kind of price point... If you can afford to get one or can live without the Mobility of the Chronos, and only use it in an Studio enviroment, where you have a bunch of Cables and stuff attached to the Camera anyways, those older Phantoms are sure a great option. Just dont forgett all the other stuff you need for the Phantom to be actually able to use it, which you dont need with the Chronos.
 Just had to put this out there as my opinion. Nothing personal, but a few of the points you made there in your review are just not correct (especially the thing about the mount).
 Hope you will get better in using the Chronos 2.1 and get really good results with it, or find a camera that fits your needs and butget.

634

Chronos User Discussion / Re: Dust on sensor. Any tips to get rid of and to avoid?

« on: October 04, 2020, 06:08:46 PM »

Sensor does not collect dust from cooling air, unless you use some kind of strange adapter which will allow airflow from the Fan to the Sensor via the front side. When using Standard C-Mount lenses or adapters, this is not a problem, but i had some Air Leaks with an Self-Built adapter which was so large that it allowed some air from the Fan in the Front to get directly to the sensor, but that was just a bad adapter design by my self. Unless you do any modifications to the Camera itself and as long as you use it with C-Mount Lenses/ Adapters, cooling air will not be the reason for dust on the Sensor, there are air Seals all around the sensor, so no problem here. Watch the official 2.1 Teardown from tesla500 if you want to know more about that, he explains the airflow quite a bit in this video. In your kind of usecase most dust will most likely come into the Camera while changing lenses, for example from a dusty enviroment and as i allready said from dirty/ dusty Lenses. the more you change lenses/ the Longer you keep the Sensor exposed to the Air, the more dust it will collect. Some DSLM and DSLR People which are really afraid of dust on their sensor will even go as far as making sure to allways have the Sensor facing the ground, when there is no lens attached when Changing the Lens for a few Seconds as to avoid dust collection from Gravity. While this can seem a bit extreme, it does actually help to avoid dust in the First place, also it helps to allways keep on lens-Caps and Camera-Body-Caps when nothing is attached to them. An other Note: when cleaning Sensors, always make sure to use the propper Cleaning tools to make sure not to SCRATCH your sensor. Those Gel cleaning kits are my favorite, because you just tap the glass and the dust comes right off, no risk of scratching. other kinds of cleaning kits need you to wipe the Sensor which allways puts you on a risk of draging across some small bit of dirt across the sensor, which will cause a scratch. so be carefull, especially if you dont have a lot of experience. Also, most serious camera shops will also provide a Sensor Cleaning service, most of them should proppably agree to also clean the Chronos Sensor, since its basically nothing else then an DSLR-Sensor. They have the Propper tooling to clean it professionaly and also trained people with a lot of experience. So if you or anyone else is unsure about cleaning it themselfs, maybe let it get cleaned at a camera Shop rather than damage anything.

635

Chronos User Discussion / Re: Dust on sensor. Any tips to get rid of and to avoid?

« on: October 04, 2020, 01:14:28 AM »

Also, keeping your backsides of your lenses Clean alone can help to avoid a lot of the dust coming into the camera in the first place.

636

Chronos User Discussion / Re: Dust on sensor. Any tips to get rid of and to avoid?

« on: October 04, 2020, 01:07:23 AM »

Well first off, there is an Filter Glass in front of the actuall sensor itself, which isnt that expensive to replace.
 Then, there are those gel sensor cleaner kits, with an Gel cleaner and Special Sticky tape to clean the sensor.
 Bought mine from a name Brand at a local camera shop for like 30€ with a bunch of tape included, i dont know how much i would trust those China-Things from Ebay but heres a link, so you get the idea to what i mean:
 https://www.ebay.de/itm/CCD-CMOS-Sensor-Staub-Reinigungsstift-Jelly-Cleaner-fur-DSLR-Blau-ersetzen/401582965352?hash=item5d8035c268:g:7fQAAOSwXl9bdkHN
 Those always worked great for me, even for cleaning my sensors on location. I would make sure to get one with an propper Metal case and a Sealing cap for the Gel.
 Number of uses of those Gel Cleaning sets is limited by the amount of Tape it comes with (for some you can order refill-packs of Tape which i did for mine, mine worked great for over 2 Years now of intense use)
 The 2.1 Sensor gets dirty faster because its a lot bigger in surface area, so also more area for dust to land on.

637

Chronos User Discussion / Re: Chronos 2.1 lenses

« on: October 03, 2020, 06:56:04 AM »

so I bought a Sigma 18-35 Nikon lens. And I ran into a problem, the standard adapter that comes with the camera does not allow me to focus to infinity at 18mm, but at 35mm I can focus to infinity. When installing the ring that comes with the kit at 18mm I also can't focus to infinity and now at 35mm I can't focus to infinity either

Try adjusting the backfocus of the Chronos, there are tutorials available on the website.
 If you cant set focus to infinity, the Backfocus distance is to long, you need to Screw the Silver Mount part in further into the Camera to make it shorter.
 Adjust slowly untill focus on infinity is possible for both Zoom Setting, then your Backfocus should be set propperly.

638

Chronos User Discussion / Re: Clear statement concerning audio recording capabilities

« on: September 27, 2020, 11:26:25 AM »

Yeah, would be nice to know, for all the other German Buyers, if this comes up at some point.

639

Chronos User Discussion / Re: Clear statement concerning audio recording capabilities

« on: September 27, 2020, 11:07:05 AM »

Mal kurz Quergelesen das Teil, und da steht nicht "Einfuhrzoll:0%" sondern "Zollpräferenz"! Achtung, Unterschied!
 Gern mal die Fußnote Studieren, wo gefühlt hundert Vermerke sind, wann der "Anspruch auf Anwendung dieser Präferenz" nicht gegeben ist.
 Z.b. (sofern ich das Richtig gelesen hab) wenns nen Gewissen wert übersteigt und solche sachen.
 D.h. die Werden das vermutlich nochmal geprüft haben, und festgestellt haben, dass da vlt. noch geld zu holen ist....

640

Chronos User Discussion / Re: Clear statement concerning audio recording capabilities

« on: September 27, 2020, 10:58:29 AM »

well, if they put up much of a fight, it might be better to just pay the 125, still seems kind of reasonable amount of money.
 However, if you can proove them Wrong easily, might be worth a try.
 Seen whole Companies go down because some official financial instance pressed some questionable tax Claims, so watch out, they usualy have the Last word there at the end, unless you know some good lawyers and want to put in the Time and money...
 About the Audio thing, just think about Cameras Like RED, they wont record Audio at all, unless you buy some Specific Add-On-Interface Unit, to even be able to record audio at all. I dont know if those would also fall into said category, but just to Remind, that not all Professional Cameras need to be able to record audio, and still can record way beyond 30min.
 Again, i heard of this, but never looked it up actually, so maybe just look into the Actual Law Texts themself, then you would know for sure.
 #EDIT#: Seen, that you put the Link to the regulation itself

641

Chronos User Discussion / Re: Clear statement concerning audio recording capabilities

« on: September 27, 2020, 10:31:32 AM »

Well, at least the 2.1 is able to continously record at 60fps/ FullHD, and given that you are able to plug in an Huge SSD, i would expect it to record far over 30 Min in one Go, Real Time. Should just record untill memory is full, and at a rather Low Bitrate, you could go for quite a while untill its full....
 I dont know about the 1.4 tho.
Also, i dont really know those laws too well, but i am really not sure about if you would be able to get out of something like this by just saying that it cant record propper Audio. I think what matters here is the Video itself.

642

General high-speed discussion / Re: Lights on the go

« on: September 11, 2020, 01:43:54 PM »

I bought a couple of these Stratus LED units with the reflector. I haven’t put them through their paces yet but they are a reasonably cost effective solution if you don’t mind making your own mounts to hold them.

https://www.stratusleds.com/module

Well, from What i understood, staticfan5525 wants some ready to use unit/ Light without need to build / make anything himself. Like a Flashlight. There are Plenty of High-Power LED-Modules around, but you will always need to do some DIY stuff to get them Working. In that case, maybe consider Lamps like Krontech offers on their Website https://www.krontech.ca/store/Lights-c27519001 , some of those Type can be run Battery powered also. Then again there are LED-Panels which will run from V-Mount Batteries or Standard Sony Batteries. I have Some Dörr DLP820 Lamps with a bunch of Tripods and 190Wh V-Mount Batteries, but the Batteries on them selfs are allready like 200$, so...
 As i allready said, its kind of a decision between how much money you want to spend and how much DIY you want to get involved.
 If money is not a Problem, might as well get a bunch of Arri Skypanels with Batteries, about as Serious as it gets while beeing really bright, but dont even ask about the Price of those.
 As Far as DIY goes, there are A couple of even far Cheaper options than what CS223 Linked, but then Prepare for some Serious DIY project.
 Whatever Kind of Butget and Final Light Setup you are Going for here, there is plenty of options around!

643

General high-speed discussion / Re: Lights on the go

« on: September 11, 2020, 01:25:59 PM »

Well, there are Pretty good portable, battery powered Lights ready to buy, but good luck finding anything under 300$ without Some Kind of DIY.
 Bright, Flicker-Free, Good color Quality Lights cost a pretty penny. And Battery powerd, nice, easy to use ones even more so!
 Dont know what you trying to shoot, but 20kfps on an Portable Light can get interresting/ Expensive if you try to shoot Larger Scenes.

644

Chronos User Discussion / Re: How does the Color Matrix work?

« on: September 11, 2020, 11:33:26 AM »

So i found this, and thats about it for color Matrix stuff.
 Adding Sliders to More easily adjust Brightness, Saturation and Contrast would allready help a ton. If you can find a Way to add more easy control over the Colors, even better.

645

Software Dev / Re: Screen Brightness Control

« on: September 11, 2020, 11:18:37 AM »

Also thanks for the Reply!
 while i dont really know how the Hard-Ware or software side of things work for this, here is some kind of idea /background info, how i think it could work.
 Most Cameras i have worked with wont really update Exposure instantly, so grabbing a random Frame every Second or twice a second should be fine. If there Is enough Processing power for something like this, and it wont bottleneck anything else, grabbing a bunch of Frames randomly or at certain time Intervalls and getting an Average over time could be helpfull for Scenes with flickering lights or fast moving things which will influence the Average Exposure by a lot.
 .
 Then most cameras (DSLR/ DSLM) will allow you to choose between Center POINT Exposure, Center Average Exposure, and Average Exposure over the Entire Frame. Those will mostly not use the Entire Frame (on the Most modern DSLM they might, but on the older DSLR there usually was just a single Sensor or just a few of those) to figure out exposure. Those options could be very helpfull for example if you are shooting a concert and The stage in the Center is all bright, but nothing else is, so the Whole Frame is well exposed, but the Part you want to actually see is to bright.
 Now for the Chronos, i think you can get away with using like 100 to 200 Pixels which you read out for this, and Taking an Average of those. Average Brightness value over those ~100 Pixels can then be directly remaped to an Exposure Reading visible to the User (or just display it as Raw data, like 0 for minimum brightness, 1 for Maximum Brightness, would allready help a lot). I guess you will have to try that out, but maybe you can get away with using even less data points, especially for the Center Average Exposure mode. I guess it might be Smart to use Pixel Pairs or even 2x2 Pixels for a Single Data point, to not catch a Random Bright or Dark pixel (also Bayer pattern and a certain Color Could be Darker than other Colors, influencing measured Brightness vs. Real brightness, if anything less than 2x2 Pixels are used for a single "probe" Point) and also to minimize impact from Sensor noise. For Center Point Exposure, reading out a bunch of pixels right in the Center will be Good enough. Maybe something like the Average from the Center 4x4 Pixels or something like that....
 For a Propper Histogramm you will however propably need at least 100 or 200 data Points. Then just figure out how to get distribution of Brightness values onto an Graph and The Histogram is done.