Carlo Macchiavello

All is possible

Author: carlomacchiavello Page 2 of 18

12 ways to be sure to have problems with Braw

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On 15 November 2023

In Techinque

For several years now I have noticed that there is more interest in negative articles, probably because they work like reverse psychology, or maybe because there is a form of masochism inherent in the net in looking for the negative instead of the positive, buth…

Many times I have seen and heard about the problem of braw files, especially nowadays with larger files and too much thinking … fluid in handling media and their characteristics, which is then an excuse for not following the rules 😯 .

What can give problems with Braw files?
  1. Recording on the wrong medium, not certified
    (certification is not a simple speed test, but means that bmd or some other tests under many different conditions the reliability of the media from the first to the last byte, too many elements can break your speed chain and ruin a recovery)
  2. Recording on fragmented media
    (delete and write files from computer or other)
  3. Recording on media not formatted by the camera
    (not many people know or do not check how many hidden files are written by certain brands, because they obviously optimize their cameras)
  4. Recording on media with the wrong cable
    (not all cables are the same)
  5. Recording on external media with insufficient battery
    (this is a less considered problem, but it is the cause of 90% of corrupted files on external disk, many external battery plates have a dual 7.4v -12v power supply, be sure to connect them to the right 12v pin).
  6. Recording to a media that is not properly attached to the camera when shooting on the go
    (usb c is the weakest connector in the world, a little movement can cause a pin to disconnect, enough to ruin the shot)
  7. Turn off the camera without waiting for it to stop working on the stand
    (many people turn off the camera in play mode. they go back to recording mode and turn it off)
  8. Record at a higher bitrate/quality than the media without warning about missing frames.
  9. Open media from Windows and allow chkdsk to do its job to destroy data (more common than you think, never leave external media connected to Windows during reboot, chkdsk originated for very small files, ages ago, today when it acts on large files it causes 99% only damage)
  10. Lowering power during recording
    (disconnected or ignored battery at end of life, remember that when the battery dies, the camera starts to reduce power to the external device and then shuts down, this causes corruption of Cfast or Usb disk which closes braw files)
  11. Support firmware upgrade
    (sometimes the frantic mania to update everything forgets that the whole chain is based on the old state of the chain and updating something is never a good thing).
  12. Copying files without control, today we have a free tool in Resolve to clone the contents of our files to another hard drive, if you don’t like Resolve there is a great free tool called QuineCopy https://www.quine.no/quinecopy.
    Very often file problems are related to copies not being made properly.

And to that I’ll add one, but being superstitious I won’t call it 13

12.5 Using the ExFat filesystem on very large files.
Where it is possible, Blackmagic allows you to do so, instead of the ExFat filesystem we use the HFS , born in Apple and the counterpart of the more robust NTFS from Micorsoft. If you use Windows there is a driver costing 12 euros to read and write it as if it were native (Paragon HFS for WIndows), it will be the best money spent of your life.
The reason is very simple, ExFat was born for WindowsCE in 2006, with the limitation of a few GB maximum size (it was for pocket products), and then modified later to be able to format and handle larger media and archives, but…. unfortunately writing very large files this filesystem is much more susceptible to errors, problems in data recovery in case of damage to the disk structure etc etc etc.
So if you have a chance, avoid that FileSystem, we use NTFS under Windows and HFS and later under Mac.

In case of corruption problems, but the data is there, a method to recover the data is shown in this video :

or you can contact Aeroquartet

My experience with BMCC, BMPC4K, Ursa Mini Pro G1, p4k, 2x p6k G1 gave, following the rules, almost zero problems with corrupted files while working 😀

Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6k FF

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On 17 September 2023

In Techinque

Since the first Cinema Camera from Blackmagic I have always left a comment on them, I have owned several, I own several, and I find them to be very interesting products for different reasons, often not the mainstream ones that everyone gets excited about.

Everyone screaming about the miracle because it’s a fullframe, larger sensor than the classic cinema super 35, as if it were the panacea for all ills, or the secret sausage for the cinema effect (which remember the classic cinema format is smaller…).

The specifications have all been bandied about, and if you are interested, just go to the dedicated page here.

Let’s analyze what I think is most interesting about this camera and why :

Open Gate 3:2 : finally the possibility to shoot in a format not pushed in width, a concept that comes from early cinema, which many modern filmmakers (from Sam Raimi to Wes Andreson) have exploited in Arri cameras to create formats with particular proportions and then use them as a narrative method.

Option that introduces Multi Aspect ratio that allows traditional, Anamorphic, and many combinations of formats and frame rates to solve all kinds of shooting needs.

New Dual ISO Sensor at 13.5 stops of DR in the first gain stage : many people talk about dynamic range, but they don’t know that most cameras have the maximum dynamic range ONLY at native Iso, moving around they don’t offer the same dynamic range, while here we find the same range spread over the different ISOs.

H264 proxies created in parallel with the Braw files, to simplify both previewing and editing as well as using the Blackmagic Cloud where you can upload materials and start working before you have even received the derived raw.

CfExpress for high-speed recording.
There has been a lot of controversy in the past regarding SD cards (fast ones cost a kidney) and Cfasts that have never come down in price, while CfExpress in addition to being adopted by several brands, already seem to be cheaper than the equivalent Cfast2 or SD v90s (of course we are comparing similar products in performance, not the mobile microsd that would not even be able to record raw frames).

Display 5-inch HDR 1500 nits articulated inherited from the pro, to make it easier to use the camera in bright sunlight and not have to add additional monitors. Then if you prefer, there is always the Blackmagic Viewfinder already in use for pocketG2 and 6kPro.

Last but not least L mount, to be able to mount high-end optics, or with simple adapters the classic EF lenses to others, the L mount having a very short 20mm flange.
The real difference in using L mount is that in addition to having a product with a more modern mount, it is part of a consortium that has completely spread the data to support in the correct and best way the management of the lenses, as opposed to the EF mount that is adopted by more brands, but always and only with a Reverse engeneering work of the mount, electronics and communication, which then leads to issues of camera lens management.

Optical Low Pass Filter to reduce any moires effects with fabrics or other elements, e.g., ledwalls, which are increasingly present today as backgrounds or set elements. It is also a key element (it seems) in getting that mythical NetFlix certification…for those who care.

I usually ironize about the meanings that come out of the usual incontentativists, who don’t buy anyway, they just stand behind their keyboards and complain…
this time… but also not…

I don’t think I’m going to upgrade anytime soon because many modern optics I own are aps-c (would work equally because in the different modes it also has the crop for aps-c), while the vintage ones are obviously Fullframe.

But if Blackmagic wants to give me one for my project of photographing with a Cinema Camera, to see the alternative effects 😀

Meanwhile on a sunny morning, it allowed me to capture some interesting images, and although I had to halve the size for a purely technical issue (the site would not allow me to upload 6k frames to the gallery) I would say that you can appreciate the quality of the individual frames.

Cable does Matter

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On 9 May 2023

In Techinque

It’s just a cable, what do you want it to change?

How many times have I heard that phrase, and I knew they wouldn’t understand the answer? So.
Short, concise, pragmatic answer….

Below you see the difference of the same Cfast2, same player, same USB port, two different Usb C cables: one expensive quality one, one cheap but often twice as thick and with lots of big words and highfalutin specifications in the description…

Guess which of the two usb-C 3.1 cables offers results from usb 2.0velocità confrontateToday unfortunately since usb-C cables have become standard for charging ccell phones and other devices, they have filled us with perhaps decent cabling for charging, or fast charging, but as data cabling they are quite poor, so the thickness we see probably comes from a cable for charging more, so as not to make resistance, because there is no time to wait to charge one’s smartphone, but when we use it to copy data it’s definitely the fault of the device, not the cable… so much fast charging, we know it’s fast of everything…

 

Communicative obsolescence

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On 8 October 2022

In Techinque

The reflection stems from the fact that I have always gone against the grain, I can’t do things because they are fashionable, popular, because they are done that way, and so I can call myself an outsider, a “weirdo,” one of those who used to be called Nerds, today more polically correct Geeks, sometimes it has paid to be different from others, other times it has been a social limitation, in communication or in social skills, but as I am made of character it is more a problem for others than for me.

This post stems from the fact that Social goes more today, than blog posts (and in fact I have several youtube channels, the first since 2006, as soon as it was born), and Instagram, Vero, Wave and I frequent (but do not produce) for TikTok, Facebook I have always used since its inception, but little because of its scattered nature and strongly oriented to make things disappear, and you read little in theory…

“Algorithms prefer short, redundant articles…”
translation : I should treat you like decelebrates with a 20 mm nail pierced in the frontal lobe by repeating the same intro at least three times, in a different way to become more popular for the algorithm…
I have respect for you. No thanks…

“You write too much, then people don’t read everything”
bah… whatever… these are views of people who don’t even read the basic instructions and then complain that things don’t work because they didn’t remove the plastic tab on the batteries… according to those people, those blogs that have 8 lines but the page looks full because it’s all ads and a headline related to the news are better…
Twitter is the place for you … not my site, here people who want to know and learn come here

” videos are better”
yes, I also have more than one youtube channel for almost 20 years, for different things….

” your channel has no regular content”
the main channel contains tutorials, tricks, on different programs, which I do along with many other things, maybe more varied ones will be born, when I feel like it 😛

Ok … arrived almost to 50 years … I think I can continue like this, be different from others, and be happy to have near those who appreciate it, and far away those who do not understand my choices …
ps Obviously the choice for the image is that of the Geek par excellence, namely the legendary Tim Burton.
pps on curiosity of a friend I found out that although my blog is all against the grain it is visited more than I think, even from Japan…
Different is the new Popular 😛

 

Netflix Approved

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On 7 July 2022

In Techinque

At this time the words “Approved by Netflix” bounce around for the umpteenth time as an excuse to buy the new camera or to justify one’s choice of camera.

All the fault of yet another advertising video by Netflix itself where it makes people believe that they try them out, test them thoroughly, because technical quality is important to them (it’s true of course), but their guidelines are funny… too bad people don’t understand the irony of the choices.

Let’s start with a basic absurdity, the approved cameras are the ones used during official NetFlix Original productions, so billion-dollar productions where the camera is the least of the economic problems, owning a NetFlix-approved camera does not mean you can sell them imams, work or products.

If you produce something, with cameras that are not among those approved, still it can be sold to NetFlix, as a no NetFlix Original product, so much so that in their catalog there are products made with all kinds of chambers.
In the Italian catalog there was for some time also an Italian product “Across the river” made in miniDv, acquired for the catalog because it had won several festivals.

Their requirements are related to resolution (Min 4k), dynamic range (at least 9), color sampling quality, for which masterpieces shot in Imax film are not suitable as quality, because film has a dynamic range between 6 and 9 stops. At the same time much of the products made in recent years with the best Arri cameras, not having 4k as a basic resolution (sensor in 3.5k opengate) are technically to be discarded…

I agree that minimum production limits are set to maintain very high quality standards, but at the same time there should be a practical discourse of result use, it is possible to put an exceptional camera in the hands of a neophyte and bring out horrible footage, and take a basic camera and put it in the hands of a professional bring out good quality footage.

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