Lens for low-light

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smswise

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Lens for low-light

PostSun May 12, 2024 10:34 am

Hi all,

We've been using the BM Studio Camera 4K for about 4 years now, with the Panasonic HSA35100. Overall pretty happy with it, but we don't have a copious amounts of light in our sanctuary. If the speaker leaves the pulpit area for any reason, it gets incredibly dark.

Is there a different lens anyone can recommend that will have a lower aperture availability, still have a similar zoom range, and powered zoom?

Thanks!
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rick.lang

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Lens for low-light

PostSun May 12, 2024 2:23 pm

In Davinci Resolve, there is a Relight feature that may be helpful. It may take lots of fooling around until you find the settings that work best in this situation. You may need to use two occurrences of the virtual light , one to the right and one to the left of the areas that need light.

I use that effect on music videos that often have insufficient lighting for the grand piano compared to the other performers.
Rick Lang
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Cary Knoop

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Re: Lens for low-light

PostSun May 12, 2024 3:28 pm

smswise wrote:Hi all,

We've been using the BM Studio Camera 4K for about 4 years now, with the Panasonic HSA35100. Overall pretty happy with it, but we don't have a copious amounts of light in our sanctuary. If the speaker leaves the pulpit area for any reason, it gets incredibly dark.

Is there a different lens anyone can recommend that will have a lower aperture availability, still have a similar zoom range, and powered zoom?

Thanks!

If you have a setup using a fixed camera in a controlled room it is much easier to just add more light.

Even a low-light camera with a large aperture lens will give you bad video quality, light makes videos look good!
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smswise

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Re: Lens for low-light

PostTue May 14, 2024 9:44 am

Thanks for the help. Since we don't do much in post with our videos at this point, it's more the live-production I'm after improving.

Any chance you guys can recommend some good stage wash lighting that doesn't break the bank?
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ShaheedMalik

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Re: Lens for low-light

PostTue May 14, 2024 10:26 am

Mole Richardson lights on Ebay.
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Howard Roll

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Re: Lens for low-light

PostTue May 14, 2024 2:02 pm

Even with a faster lens the ratios are still going to be the same.

Rather than add more fill I'd drop the key. Hanging a bunch of 1Ks isn't as simple as folks would make it seem. Also it's likely that there is some form of stage wash in place, take to the lighting guy and see if there isn't something to be done to adjust the ratios.

Good Luck
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Joenkeck

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Re: Lens for low-light

PostTue May 14, 2024 3:51 pm

Do you mean the studio camera 4k G1? If that is the case I would recommend getting the G2 since I don't believe the G1 has dual-native-ISO like the G2. It looks like your lens already goes to f. 2.8 at this point I'd recommend either getting a camera with better low-light performance, or altering the lighting on the stage.

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