- So let's see,
the last time I did one of these
overly dramatic self filming intros,
it was August of 2019.
I used the Ronin S in track mode
to plot predefined locations,
then film myself while using
the Sony A73's auto-focus system and a native lens.
It's now a year later, and again
I'm the only one in the studio, and we have a similar setup.
Only this time, something is fundamentally different.
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I'm using the RS 2's Wi-Fi transmitter RavenEye,
to send a near latency free feed to my phone,
(gentle whistle)
I dragged a box around me,
so now the gimbal is tracking my moves from 25 feet away.
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And Oh yeah, the RS 2's new 3D track sensor
is using Lidar technology,
known as Time-of-Flight, to keep me in focus.
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It's sending pulses of light,
measuring the time it takes to return,
then feeding the telemetry directly
into the follow focus motor.
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The lens I'm using, one of my favorites.
It's a manual 50 millimeter F 0.95.
This Speedmaster Mark three.
And you guessed it,
we're opened up wide at F 0.95.
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Auto focus
at F 0.95.
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(objects clattering)
Right, let's start my day.
What are we gonna work on today?
(loud clap)
(hands rubbing)
(gentle groan)
(keyboard clattering)
(loud clap)
Wow!
That's,
wow, one take F0 95.
How is the focus look?
Looks good?
(laughs loudly)
I swear to God there's no trickery,
that is real,
manual lens F0 95.
What 0 95 lens do you know,
that has auto focus?
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Kind of a last minute episode for me,
normally I like to spend a little bit more time on episodes,
but I wanted to get this out,
as DJI was gracious enough to send me one of these,
so I could test it out and see
what's working and what's not.
Now that first clip that I sent you,
I obviously edited it.
And so let's now, let's just watch it again,
without any editing at all,
and you guys can see where it drifts off.
So, there are two systems at play here,
there's the Time-of-Flight 3D focus module,
but then there's also subject tracking
using an iPhone in the Ronin app.
The focus works best
when the subject is in the center frame,
we can see it drifts when the tracking portion
goes too fast or too slow,
and the subject works its way to the side of the frame.
The subject tracking by the way
does not require a smartphone to be attached,
and the signal is pushed through a Wi-Fi signal
from the Raven transmitter,
which is included in the combo packs.
This video I wanted to focus just on kind of like
a couple of things that I found really, really useful.
I have a better video coming out.
In fact, DJI paid me to do one of these videos,
and instead I decided to make a film.
So I made a follow-up to this.
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(robot beeping sound)
(robot whirling sound)
(robot beeping sound)
(robot whirling sound)
(robot beeping sound)
- [Robot lady Voice] Systems online.
(robot whirling sound)
Estimated flight time, three minutes.
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(robot whirling sound)
(indistinguishable lady voice)
(object dropping)
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- How do you do a follow-up to that?
I,
I don't know.
I'm still in the editing room,
figuring it out.
(loud tapping sound)
We'll see, wish, wish me luck.
What did I think.
Anyway, "Anamorphia 2" is gonna be finished up in about
maybe 10 days.
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(wheels screeching)
(engine roaring loudly)
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There's a ton of creativity packed into these devices now,
I mean, they really are giving us a ton of tools,
things that we didn't know we needed,
like 360 barrel roll time-lapse.
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Oh yeah, we did that.
We did that for sure.
Now, anyway, if you guys wanna see
how I use that actually in a film,
the context,
make sure you subscribe,
hit the little bell notification.
And when I upload "Anamorphia 2" next week,
we can break the internet together.
Right, here they are.
We got the big boy that RS 2,
and we got the little brother, the RSC 2.
Which this, surprisingly,
can hold,
a Sony camera with a 70-200.
So there's considerable more horsepower than before.
This might be, like the most gangster set up.
Black Magic 6K with auto-focus.
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So, the biggest questions in my mind are,
how good is the auto-focus?
How hard is it to set up?
And what are the best scenarios and applications?
And in short, I don't know yet.
I have some theories but it'll take some further testing.
So far, I'm very impressed with the speed and accuracy,
particularly at razor-thin depths of field,
where the tolerances are next to zero.
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And as suspected, the auto-focus seems to be a center zone.
It's unclear if this will have options
like other auto-focus systems
where you can slide zones or boxes or face or eye tracking,
but for now it's pretty indiscriminate.
Whatever's directly in front of the sensor
and can bounce the photons back,
tells the motors to set focus at that point.
So the minimum and maximum focusing distances
are still unclear,
but I assume it's close to the range of one meter
and four meters based on 3D calibration process.
Also what's very impressive is the low light,
where it pulls ahead of other camera systems.
Now this makes sense.
Unlike other auto-focus systems,
this is using Lidar technology.
It's simply emitting and collecting its own photons,
and isn't actually communicating with the camera at all.
Here's what I'm talking about, check this out.
I can pull the battery out,
(soft clicking sound)
and it'll still find focus.
(object clattering)
(motor whirling sound)
(gentle gasp)
which makes total sense 'cause
the sensor's just firing out its own photons
and collecting them.
It's not even communicating with the camera.
You can shoot overexposed, underexposed,
you can have heavy backlight,
you can even shoot in the dark,
which is kina mind blowing.
So just to give you an idea,
this is shot in the Black Magic 6K,
opened up at F1.4
at the max ISO
25,600.
And the only light in the room,
is the "Exit" sign.
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Here we have it alongside the Sony A7S3 with a Sigma lens.
Now this is a very imperfect test,
so further testing is definitely required,
but you can get a sense of what I'm talking about.
The Sony A7S3 and Sigma combination,
is one of the fastest, most reliable
auto-focuses I've ever used.
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And here we can see
under very poor, low light conditions,
it's struggling to hold up.
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But here the Black Magic 6K,
with a manual lens,
and the Time-of-Flight sensor,
it seems to work as good as in daylight.
Now keep in mind, there is a distance limitation.
So anything beyond 22 feet,
does not have enough photons bouncing off of it
to register the focus.
So off the top of my head, just a couple of things,
that the Time-of-Flight sensor is actually,
it only works with the RS 2.
And you need the focus motor combo.
So it's definitely quite an investment.
Focused by wire lenses will not work.
So, if it's a lens that just keeps spinning
it doesn't have a hard stop,
you can't actually use it with the system.
You can't use it with the follow focus motors,
and you can't use it with a 3D focus
because it requires that hard stop
to program the focus motors.
So really it's only gonna work for cinema lenses,
or full manual lenses, portrait lenses with hard stops.
So, here we have it on the Black Magic 6K,
and I have it using a cold shoe mount.
(gentle whirling sound)
And then this essentially is gonna go
into here, to the third one,
and then we hook it into there,
and then we hook it into,
(gentle clicking sound)
the motor directly.
(gentle clicking sound)
And there we go.
Now it's, that set up.
We have a little
wireless transmitter that goes into the bottom one.
And if we want camera control,
(clattering sound)
we can plug one directly into the camera,
and that goes into
(gentle clicking sound)
(soft tapping sound)
this top one right here.
So now, this is completely set up.
So the actual calibration process
takes about one minute to do,
and you access it by swiping right on the dial
and scrolling down to the 3D focus.
Inside you get three memories for different lenses,
which I found convenient because if you swap lenses,
you don't have to repeat the process every time.
You simply select the lens that you're gonna use,
and it'll automatically calibrate the in points
and out points of that focus throw.
Calibrating the Time-of-Flight sensor
just requires you to focus on an object one meter away,
set focus, hit okay,
and then you do the same for an object four meters away.
Then you can select manual focus or auto focus,
and then you're done.
I was very impressed
with how well it did
given that it's its first iteration,
and I was shooting at such a shallow depth of field.
I mean, F0 95 like,
I shot a whole moonlighted at zero 95.
And I can tell you by hand,
that is crazy and it's difficult,
and so for a sensor to be able to do it,
like now you guys know why there's
really not any auto-focus lenses that are
that shallow depth of field.
But super exciting, especially you know,
you can now repurpose older cameras like the Sony A7S2.
So let's breathe some life into an older camera,
and see how good the auto-focus really is
under normal conditions.
While the Sony A7S3's auto-focus
will most definitely destroy the 3D focus head to head,
perhaps the A73 would be a good match-up.
Here we have it pitted against the Sony A7S2,
which many of us Sony users
have been frustrated in the past
with the less than stellar auto-focus.
Now again, this is a very imperfect test,
it should be done with native glass,
and matching focal lengths.
My apologies, it will require a follow-up.
It is a good benchmark to see where
this focus system might land.
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I set the A73's focus setting
to the fastest response level five
and also selected center zone for the first test.
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Now it's hard to detect a clear winner here,
just going away from camera,
I noticed the A7S2 with the 3D focus
works a little bit better.
But coming towards camera,
the Sony A73, is a little bit more responsive
and gets there a little quicker.
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This is kind of a good benchmark
to see where this focus system rests.
I think if we go frame by frame,
yes the Sony A73 does have an edge over,
and I would like to see it with native glass,
to see exactly how good it is,
but let's keep this in mind,
this is a new Lidar technology,
and frankly it's working better than it should.
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Or the A7S1,
right?
The auto-focus on that.
This is probably better.
You now can repurpose old cameras.
It's just, it's mind blowing to me.
Totally mind blown.
Also, a lot of people wanna know if the RS2 and the RSC2
work well with Black Magic cameras,
and both of them work flawlessly.
They have no problems fitting in,
what's really great, is that you can mount,
you can slide it in and out on the side,
(gentle clicking sound)
which is super helpful for the Black Magic cameras,
as they're kind of shaped like a football.
Pretty crazy considering first generation,
they're probably gonna roll out some firmer updates,
especially what I would like to see,
sort of auto-focusing system, where we can either zone
or we can do a wide face tracking,
would be, would be nice,
you know, especially, like given that they have
updated so much of this tracking.
I mean the tracking now,
the tracking you used to have to put your phone
on top of the gimbal in order for it to track you,
and now it just does it right through the camera lens.
I can drag a box around my face,
and it'll follow me,
and it'll also keep me in focus.
Let's see how good it does.
(chuckles loudly)
This is a manual lens,
it's a stupid, expensive lens,
I've never had auto-focus on it.
This is a filmmaker's lens.
And now we have given full auto-focus
to this crazy, crazy expensive lens.
I mean,
surprisingly, it's doing a pretty good job.
All right, let's see how good this is.
We're gonna turn the,
we're gonna turn the speed up a little bit more,
(breathes deeply)
(footsteps trampling)
(breathes deeply)
Pretty damn good, I mean,
let's see if I can lose it.
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(exhales deeply)
Oh, oh, I've lost it.
Guys,
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this is nuts.
We're talking auto-focus, manual lens,
Black Magic 6K.
(tapping loudly)
(clears throat)
I mean, you can now film yourself.
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I mean, it's only getting better.
It's just, it's, it's just kinda blown my mind.
Guys, that's it for me,
stay tuned for "Anamorphia 2",
with that being said, I am giving away RS2 kit.
So, if you guys want to win this one,
or the exact one that I filmed "Anamorphia 2" with,
I'll even sign it, autograph it,
check out "Anamorphia 1",
there's a portal in there somewhere,
I'm not gonna tell you,
but it's the entry to the rabbit hole.
And I will be,
(taps gently)
giving one away through that.
Anyway, this Josh Yeo saying,
thank you very much, stay creative.
(claps loudly)
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