FE 35mm F1.4 ZA

Ryoya Takashima’s recipe for a delectable cooking vlog

monika — Wed, 27 Apr 2022 06:25:10 +0000

Ryoya Takashima’s recipe for a delectable cooking vlog

monika Wed, 04/27/2022 - 11:55

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FE 35mm F1.4 ZA

‘To create food that is good for all people and the environment; encouraging viewers to live consciously and sustainably’. This is the philosophy of Peaceful Cuisine, a widely popular vegan cooking YouTube channel run by Chef Ryoya Takashima. Known for its unique, calming style, viewers keep coming back to the channel due to Ryoya’s professional and artistic way of presenting his recipes. Founded in 2010, Peaceful Cuisine aims to please not only the taste buds but also the eyes of its viewers.

Ryoya was 22 years old when he got his first camera. That was when he started shooting photos and embarked on a journey as a photographer. He would then publish his photos on his blog, where he would also share his own plant-based recipes and other cooking tips he learned from his macrobiotic cooking class. Several years later, he would then get his first video camera, which opened the doors for Peaceful Cuisine.

“Back then, I felt that there was a lack of high-quality vegan cooking channels on YouTube, so I decided to start it myself. I shifted my content from blog posts and cooking classes to videos because I thought that it was a more efficient avenue to convey my recipes. Also, I had a feeling that video content would be a major thing in the future,” said Ryoya. He was right! Video content is well-received by different kinds of audiences from across the globe, and he is now reaping the benefits of his future-forward, creative thinking.

A day in the life of content creator Ryoya Takashima

Ryoya’s recipes are inspired by his travels. Whenever he tries different cuisines from the countries he visits, he recreates them at home and films his original recipes to share with Peaceful Cuisine viewers. Having done cooking vlogs for more than a decade, creating content has now become a part of Ryoya’s lifestyle. A typical shooting day for him starts early in the morning to catch natural light and ensure that he finishes before the sun sets.

“I usually start preparing from the day before. For example, when creating a cooking video, I’d prepare a recipe the day before and start shooting it in the morning the next day. I like shooting in natural light, so I normally get up a bit earlier than usual and finish shooting before sunset,” the chef-vlogger said.

Ryoya has always relied on daylight as his lighting equipment. “Shooting in natural light is something that has never changed from the beginning. I don’t use electric lights because I want my footage to look as authentic as possible.”

Believe it or not, most of his videos, as cinematic as they are, were shot from his home kitchen, using only minimal equipment.

“Something I intended when creating videos would be to make it attractive to most people, regardless of their diet or lifestyle. I hope that will influence those who are not interested in healthy food to be interested and/or try cooking healthy food without even realising that it is vegan.”

Alpha 7S III helps achieve the cinematic nuance of Peaceful Cuisine videos

Alpha 7S III with Distagon T* FE 35mm F1.4 ZA

Ryoya has been a long-time Sony user. “Alpha 7 II is my first full-frame camera. Then I bought Alpha 7R II, Alpha 7S II, and Alpha 7 III. There are several reasons why I’m still using Sony cameras. First, it’s very compact. Second, the battery life is excellent, you can even keep recording while charging through USB,” he said.

Currently, his go-to camera is the Alpha 7S III, which he bought since its original release and has been using it ever since. Among the key reasons behind this is the high sensitivity of the gear that can capture precise intricate details and accurate hues. “You’d be surprised at how clean the footage is from this camera,” said Ryoya.

He partners this with the Distagon T* FE 35mm F1.4 ZA (SEL35F14Z) lens, shooting at 4K/24 frames per second with a shutter speed of 1/50 and an aperture of F2.0. The beautiful bokeh of this lens adds just the perfect allure that makes his food even more aesthetically inviting. This exact setting, complemented by the right amount of natural lighting that enters his home, makes his videos cinematic

SEL35F14Z

Alpha 7S III

“Shooting on 24fps is something I really need for my cooking videos. 24fps is basically the same frame rate as used in cinema. It looks like cinema. If you shoot on 30 or 60fps, it will look too smooth and realistic, therefore it's quite hard to get a cinematic feel,” he said. His usual setting is to fix the lens aperture at F2.0~2.8 with shutter speed of 1/50 and an ISO that is usually set to ISO1600 or to as low as possible. Ryoya also establishes that an ND filter is among the essentials to making the footage look more cinematic. The ND filter allows users to have a wider aperture to help capture footage with more bokeh, producing a more artistic output.

Ryoya uses a monitor to check and ensure the accuracy of exposure, since it’s difficult to adjust it when referring to the camera screen alone.

He also takes advantage of the S-Log3 setting to find the right balance between highlight and shadow, and to make color grading easier to adjust. “Shooting with Log profile is a must for me. Color grading the Log footage is tricky but it's worth the effort. You will love the color you get from it.”

“Before, when you can only record on 8bit, colour grading was super difficult. I don't want to do that again. Now, with the Alpha 7S III, it's super easy to colour grade,” he added, elaborating how the Alpha 7S III allows for 10-bit recording, which produces high quality videos when colour grading with S-Log3.

“Creating videos is like creating art. There is no right or wrong in how you make them. I want people to explore their own style and be creative. While there are a handful of techniques that I do, I don’t believe they are for everyone. Exploration of one’s own style is still important,” said Ryoya.

“All you have to do is to try your best to express your style through the camera and show your audience how you see your world. I believe Sony is one of the best camera brands for videography—that’s why I have been using Sony for several years now. The most important thing is how you create your videography, and how the camera gear you use can further elevate your skills,” Ryoya reminds budding and aspiring video content creators.

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Step up your next video shoot with our versatile E-mount lenses

monika — Fri, 22 Apr 2022 04:33:37 +0000

Step up your next video shoot with our versatile E-mount lenses

monika Fri, 04/22/2022 - 10:03

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FE 35mm F1.4 ZA

Fantastic Auto and Manual Focus

The focus on conventional lenses tend to be unstable, drifting in and out. To avoid these, the content creator is left without a choice but to drop their aperture value, resulting with a limited bokeh effect. These E-mount lenses deliver unmatched performance in terms of autofocus, manual focus, manual focus during auto focus and focus breathing compensation. The ability to maintain accurate and stable autofocus, even under these extremely challenging conditions is evidence of how well autofocus will perform in a wide range of scenarios. Our lenses are capable of achieving precise auto and manual focus as they incorporate highly responsive focus actuators to autofocus calculations on the camera. The combination of our E-mount cameras and lenses deliver a high-level focus accuracy.

Professionals are not big advocates for autofocus as they often need to pull their own focus. However, with our body and lens combination, the focus is so precise that it can, for example, shoot 4K at 120 frames per second, while delivering good focus. Having reliable autofocus also means fewer people required to operate it, allowing for scaled-down crews, and even empowering one-man teams. In today’s production, scenes requiring autofocus are growing due to the complexity of the scenes. Situations like maintaining a subject in focus when they come closer to the lens is not as easy to do manually.

4K 120P F1.4

Manual focus is crucial when the user wants to shift focus at a particular speed with high repeatability. "Rack focus" is an effective way to guide the eyes of the viewers within the frame. The E-mount lenses offer a feature called Linear Response Manual Focus (MF), which helps to achieve accurate and smooth focus control. The feature is intuitive enough to deliver a more responsive operation of the focus-ring.

The final area of focusing is the breathing compensation feature that minimises focus breathing. This is accomplished by calculating the amount of adjustment needed for compatible EMAP lenses in real-time. Let us compare the below and see the differences when breathing compensation is turned off and on. As depicted in the video, when breathing compensation is turned off, the angle of view wobbles, and it takes time to determine where the point of focus is. However, with the feature on, focus breathing is minimised and the footage appears more stable.

Superior Zoom Control

We offer some lenses equipped with Power Zoom for video shooting. With Power Zoom lenses, zoom operation is electronically supported to provide superior control. One example is when the user wants an extremely slow zoom at a steady speed, which is difficult to achieve with a non-power zoom lens.

In filmmaking, it is common for videographers to pan and tilt their cameras, but sometimes, these professionals prefer to use zooms for creative expression. It's often challenging for a single operator to have a constant zoom speed while just using the zoom ring. With Power Zoom, it becomes effortless for an operator to achieve the Zoom speed they prefer and maintain it.

Reliable Stabilisation

Active mode optical image stabilisation has become a crucial feature supporting solo shoots. In general, it provides greater flexibility in video shooting, reducing the need for large equipment. Of course, Active mode works with any lens that is compatible with E-mount cameras. Our E-mount lenses are designed to maximise stabilisation performance. This level of stabilisation can only be achieved because the lenses are designed to work perfectly with the camera bodies. The cameras know the precise optical performance of the E-mount lenses, which lead the stabilisation performance to its maximum.

Seamless Aperture Control

Our latest lenses are equipped with aperture ring and aperture click switch offering seamless iris control for video shooting. The aperture ring provides the immediate response that videographers need. In addition, the aperture switch allows the aperture ring to disengage, enabling the rings to move smoothly and quietly. This provide seamless, non-step, silent control if preferred. The non-step silent controls shine when the camera is equipped with an electronic variable ND filter. This gives operators the ease of changing the aperture smoothly while balancing the exposure and adjusting the variable ND filter. It gives videographers an easy, flexible way to shoot with a smooth transition of depths of field while reducing the cost of purchasing additional special gears.

Shifting the groove from conventional lenses has provided content creators with a reliable tool to lean on in difficult situations. Our goal is to give content creators the freedom of mobility and flexibility in a way that will continually broaden their creativity. With useful features found in our versatile lenses at the disposal of videographers, like auto and manual focus, superior zoom control, reliable stabilisation and seamless aperture control, it is now easier for them to focus on the content with ease of mind.

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