Hi and welcome to the channel! I'm Timo Varakas, A freelance photographer and content creator based in Finland, central Finland to be exact. On this channel you'll find things regarding RU-vid, photography, content creation, making videos, editing photos, vlogs from my life and all kinds of other stuff about those things. I'm passionate about motivating and inspiring others and hopefully helping them out in their photography journey.
For business and other stuff or maybe you want to send me something? Contact: varakast@gmail.com
@@TheKev290 I can’t really go and compare the 2 because they are different. Phones have a much more smaller sensor and are usually digitally enhanced to the point that I see it as more awkward. Also the aperture and background blur is made digitally so it needs a lot of trial and error to get it right. If you get it wrong you’ll see haze around the subject or it sharpens too much of the background. Ofc it’s a matter of opinion and taste, but I’ll always prefer a camera over a phone, even a point and shoot camera as the camera works with the lens and rarely digitally enhances or does anything you don’t want to.
@@TimoVarakas That’s a valid and very fair explanation. Thanks for clearing that up! I wanted to know the hype behind all these point and shoots especially for the price points. But that makes a lot of sense
It’s a great camera in the end and brings a lot of joy. The only thing that bothers me is the timing, why now and why only hdf. Of course it fills out an empty hole for the Ricoh fans and is great gateway for newcomers, but it’s been awhile since the GR3 came out.
Interesting how the Fuji Instax has become such big hit among the young. To me Instax/Polaroid is always going to be the test shot before the actual exposure on film😀Thanks for sharing.
@@TimoVarakas Back in the day we had a special Polaroid back for the (medium and large format) film camera so we could use the same lens and the same settings as with film. Not sure how it would work with that Instax camera but give it a go and see what happens😀
@@mattisulanto oh yeah! I have an RB67, should get a Polaroid back for it! I doubt I can meter light with the instax in anyway, maybe with the polaroid now, but it only has f/8 so it’s going to be hard 😂
Very creative idea! I saw Pierre Lambert do something similar with a portable printer and then he'd give his prints to the person (if in the shot). Cheers from Canada :)
Your channel just popped up on my YT stream. Great to see another Finnish photography related channel. Nice photo walk, Jyväskylä looks awesome on a sunny summer day. Thanks for sharing.
@@TimoVarakas Sure thing. It really makes me happy to see more Finnish camera/photo channels. Keep pushing it😀Next time I'm in Jyväskylä maybe we'll do a photo walk together.
Hi! After 9 months have you encountered any issues? I ask as I had an ntg but I’m looking for something. With a little more to it and this has been in my shopping cart for a month now 😂
@@Williamcarver. nope, no issues. It’s been 9 months on my camera and about 12months had all in all (first 3 as my studio mic). Changed to wireless a few months ago to get more variety and flexibility making videos, but I still use it once in a while like in my latest vlog.
My autofocus experience with the update has been horrible. I like Reala Ace, but im just glad ive got the DJI focus system now, because with my Viltrox lenses (with updated firmware), are extremely slow and jittery no matter the focus mode settings or speeds. It even made it worse in photo mode. It reminds me of my gh5 with the sigma 18-35 on a metabones back in the day. Its that bad.
If I understood correctly you updated the lenses too? I haven’t tried my other Viltrox lenses, then the 13mm, after the update. The 13mm has been working fine, but the others (23, 33) were jittery with before the update. Dunno which one is at fault here.
@@TimoVarakas yeah I updated the firmware for the lenses. Viltrox put out updates a while back. The 13 has always been good because it's so wide so the motors don't have to react and move as much. The 27mm used to be better, but now it reacts slowly and jumps around more than before. The firmware update helped a little, but it's still much slower than it used to be.
@@MikeMarrah damn, might as well start thinking about selling them myself. I need the 23mm for upcoming weddings, but the 33mm is a waste. I could also use the Tamron 17-70. That lens works fine, just tested it out. But the f/2.8 is a major problem indoors and that’s why I mainly use primes. This is a bit of a bummer as I’ve really liked the quality that the lenses give.
@@TimoVarakas the Viltrox 23 and 33 lenses are from a different older generational series than the 13 and 27. Completely different focus motors and all that. We know the 27mm isn't the issue in and of itself because it's been an absolute hit for Viltrox with the Sony apsc shooters the last few months. So it really comes down to Fuji at this point.
For vloging you can put the front light to turn on when recording, much more easier to see compared to the red box on screen. You can see the light meters away.
I put it Lightroom and the pictures are really noisy, soft etc. at least without proper lighting. You can’t get any separation if you do portraits so it requires a lot of editing. Maybe it’s good for landscapes. Got to try that out.
The best advice I have ever had when pricing my work is this: A $100 client will never be a $5000 client. So don’t sell yourself cheap. Calculate the cost of your gear and divide it over certain number of gigs. Calculate the taxes. Calculate your own salary. Calculate your own expertise. Your time is worth it. In my case, the camera body needs to be covered over 20 gigs. Lenses must be covered over 10 gigs. Every gig needs to pay for software I am using, as it is a monthly expense. Then comes the salary, how much is your time worth per hour. The money you charge from the client needs to be based on something.
That’s true. What I was going for is if you just decided. You haven’t done gigs and the pressure when getting paid can be something else the just a model posing for the pictures. I know I was shitting my pants in my first wedding. Like you said, you got to calculate your own expertise, but in some cases the person asking for the same price as you might have a 5-10 year expertise and it might barely cover all costs at the beginning. But in the end what you said is the way to go.
@@TimoVarakas Yeah, making informed decisions based on actual number crunching is way easier than just winging it. Otherwise you’ll just end up making $250 per gig forever, which does not pay your expenses.
In after effects! Pretty much just record a scene of your eye, take the clip to after effects and use bulge! Key frame bulge from small to large and add a transition to the end 😊
We save for our trips by having a weekly budget for groceries & co, in our case €150 per week. Every friday everything left of the €150 will be transferred to a savings account. We started to save up for this year’s Finland trip right after last year’s trip and without doing any ”actual” saving or sacrifices we are not able to spend that amount of money. At the beginning of the video you actually show the flights to Japan, sell the lot and there you have your plane tickets and some change.
Yeah so everyone’s life is different. I’ve cut a lot of fees to gain something to my savings account. The fact that you’re suggesting that I sell all my gear when I’m actually going to do a project where I need that gear is astounding 😅
Do you _want_ or do you _need_ ALL of that gear. Yes, we all have our priorities and I for example can’t afford a car and driving with an e-scooter to catch the night bus at 2am to get to work is the price I have chosen to pay for gains in some other areas like a couple of trips each year is more value for me than a warm car would be. Or when I sold everything and moved to Berlin. I lost every single piece of my property and only had a backpack with some clothes but I gained so much life experience and it lead to my dream job at the end. Had to give up so much but gained at the end even more and that was more value for me than the few possessions. You get value to your life from other things than I do or the guy there on the back and there is nothing wrong with that. Always dream big BUT don’t be afraid of sacrificing something to get there. It pays off.
@@leomannisto well not all of them. I could sell the vintage lenses. Film cameras have a sentimental value, so those stay. Have to think about the newer lenses. I use everything in a cycle. This video was done with a night walker and probably my next video is done with something else. Every lens also has a specific job and picked out for specific reason (excluding the vintage lenses). I have my portrait lenses, landscape lenses, video lenses etc. to spice things up once in a while and that’s the what keeps me learning and motivated to learn. Yeah, we’ve made some choices and I’ve lost a lot of freedom because of that. My wife wanted a house and she bought a house. I could’ve stayed in my old apartment, but didn’t see the reason after living together anyway. I chose to ride my bike to work and pretty much everywhere to save on gas money. By now it’s become even cheaper than a bus or even a e-scooter. I put away money every month to save for this trip, but once in a while there’s something that needs immediate attention and extra fees so I lose money. The plane is ticket there and back is 1000€ and that is on a non season. Season is 300€ more expensive. But the fun thing is I’ve already saved for a ticket and even some accommodations. The budget I’m asking for is for the projects. To travel around Japan to fulfill those projects.
Hi Timo, what is the point of a lot of talking without pictures? Which would have been interesting is to see portraits not comments, depth of field example, we are photographer , the main point is visual comparison not talking, because at the end of your video, we are not more advanced as at the beginning of your video, sorry for my honesty
There is a pictures though. And there is a video where I take pictures during winter time. You might be a photographer, but I do video also so I cover the video side of things too. There is also a comparison to the 56mm. Also as I said in the end of this video, I had it for 2 DAYS. So there’s not much you can cover in 2 days lol. But Sorry to hear you feel this way.
Very cool … I might like to try my hand at getting a proper cinematic look with my X100V if possible. This RU-vidr in Japan that I follow has apparently managed it! Thanks. 📷😄 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-53S5CP3sWU4.htmlsi=yMAbh4CVUotgqKsA
First image I knew it was a Classic Neg recipe. Those greens, every time with this ! And that recipe is a lot like i shoot it too, with a lot les less red/violet. But I would not describe it as the perfect recipe cuz it changes colors so dramatically. In the wrong situation it can get really awfull (mostly if underexposed and on black/brown or too redish skins, but you can get blow highlights really fast with it too). But maybe it's the best, because Classic Neg is a striking departure from the "standard" photo look, it really is a style in itself. Weel apllied on a portrait, it can give it so much caracter... As for the name : Classic Var? Playing on your name and the term "Variant".
Have you encountered any noise issues and RF interference issues with MKE600 while having it connected to camera for its use as on-camera shotgun mic vs using it as XLR to XLR? I ask because when you have XLR balanced signal going to TRS, it becomes unbalanced signal and have tendency to pickup lot of RF interference and also have quite a bit noise as the noise signal do not get canceled out (XLR pin 2 "hot" goes to Tip and Ring of TRS connector and XLR pin 1 "ground "and 3 "cold" signal merges and goes to Sleeve of TRS connector providing hot signal to both Left and right channel as expected by camera, this does not eliminate noise as there is no cold signal transmitted like in an XLR to XLR balanced signal).
The MKE 600 comes with a XLR - 3,5mm adapter by itself so that already told me the answer to that question when I asked it to myself. I did a lot of research before buying it and looked at other options in the same price range. It hasn’t had any kind of interference when using it on camera, at least in my case. I use it sometimes on cam, sometimes in studio with XLR. The only difference I hear, is that using only XLR and a recorder the sound is much softer then plugging it straight to the camera.
@@TimoVarakas Perfect. Thank you for your assurance. I bought pre-owned Rode NT5 matching pair for 250 CAD, barely used though. These are short diphragm so perfect for indoor.
Thank you I’ll definitely try that. The CCB punched the blues and greens a bit much, but I guess that’s compensated by turning off CCE? Man I need to actually learn how how those work. Just liked how it looked and posted the recipe and results 😅
Oh dayum. Do they even sell that anymore. Or is it from the limited edition that they made? My film cameras have been sitting on the shelf for awhile now, they could use some of that.
