Andrew Reid

I think I'd rather shoot with the 5 axis IBIS of Panasonic / Olympus and have a proper image

As far as I know the Sony A6300 is the only current camera that allows this.

We are critical because we care. Samsung made mistakes for years and nobody cared! They finally got it right and were rightly applauded. The 80D would set the enthusiast and consumer video market ON FIRE if only Canon made a few upgrades to the 1080p. Oliver - the 1D X II for that price is without VAT I assume?

Is that a specialist policy for photographers and how much per month does it cost?

And a telephoto end. Finally

I have been trying out the EOSHD C-LOG and Film Profiles pack on a few other cameras, and came across a cheap 80D today. Installed a few of the profiles on the camera in-store and boom - MASSIVE improvement. So the camera I said I'd never buy is going to get a review after all! Hmm these words are tasty! Right now in my bag I am shooting with the 1D C, NX1 and now 80D. Let's look at how these compliment each other, because after all I'd rather just carry one camera in an ideal world - NX1 is in there for the 1080p 120fps. This used to be a bit pants. But subsequent Samsung firmware updates and now the bitrate hack means I get sharp, detailed 120fps at 160Mbit (equivalent in quality to approx. 300Mbit H.264). This camera continues to astound me. 1D C is in there for the sheer brute image quality and full frame goodness, both in 4K video mode and as my main stills camera. I am even starting to warm to the full frame 1080/24p image again because of my Film Profiles. This camera already has Canon LOG but it is immensely satisfying to carry my own pre-graded no-hassle looks around with me and see instantly what the finished shot is going to look like, in cinematic full-frame-o-vision. Also the JPEGs not just the MOVs. 80D is in there for many more reasons of where it is strong than where it is weaker. The camera is surprising me. First the size and weight - it is my travel camera when I can't risk the 1D C or don't want to lug it. It is my crop sensor camera when I need a good quality zoom but don't want to lug around a full frame 24-105 or 24-70mm F2.8. I have the Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 and love to make use of it, I have the Canon 18-135mm and despite it not being a super fast aperture zoom, it is light and gives a fantastic range with a cinematic image + fantastic stabilisation. The Canon 24-70mm F2.8 II lovely though it is on the 1D C does not have the range, stabilisation or small size. I sold it and now just use primes on my full frame camera. The main reason however for adding the 80D to the bag is for the Dual Pixel AF and articulated screen. This makes the 80D a much better run & gun choice than the 1D C. When it is slow tripod based lock-down art shots I select the 1D C. When it is documentary, camera movement, quicker pace of shooting the 80D can 'get the shot' much better. I have not yet felt justifiable the 6000 euros for a 1D X Mark II so the 80D at 1/6th of that for the same Dual Pixel AF performance and an articulated screen allows me to 'live without' 4K for now. Now to image quality. The 1080p of course could be better, this is Canon after all. But the skintones, colour science, codec, rolling shutter performance and low light are all very nice indeed - much better than most of the 4K cameras out there in fact and much better than Sony. The image upscales well to 4K on my LG DCI 4096 x 2160 display. In fact overall detail appears much higher than any Canon DSLR before it, way better than the 60D and 70D. It looks like the GH2 on many shots especially those at closer focus distances. Check out the 1080p frame grab below. It is much better than when I first tried the camera, maybe Canon did a tweak. Shot in C-LOG, graded with EOSHD CINE LUT 1: The 60p seems as highly detailed as the 24p. Just a shame about the aliasing and the moire can still rear up and bite you, but overall the image is very satisfying when the conditions are right to use it. And if it means getting the shot vs not, then this justifies the 80D's existence. The stills are superb - fantastic dynamic range, resolution and colour, can barely tell it apart from full frame for the most part. Now a surprise The 3x crop mode with 1:1 sensor output (full pixel output of a cropped region) delivers absolutely superb image quality with no moire or aliasing. Wrap up The whole usability seems refined, a very nice sense of ergonomics and straight-forwardness. Touch screen for Dual Pixel AF works superbly. Build quality could be better, it doesn't feel as solid as a Nikon D7200 for the price point. Dual Pixel AF is very quiet for the most part and flawless, especially with the STM lenses. Enjoying the 24mm F2.8 EF-S pancake. The C-LOG image grades superbly. It's a good codec on there even in 60p.

Great to see it working on the EOS M cameras as well. I have just tested it on a Canon 80D. Liked the results so much I bought one. Also Magic Lantern are developing for the 80D right now. Until there's RAW though, there's C-LOG and small files sizes

Nice, enjoy. 5D Mark IV should be out next week I hear!

RED do face online attacks when something goes wrong. There are plenty of professionals who use forums. Let's try to see the positive side of this rather public relationship Blackmagic and RED have with their customers. We can all share knowledge and sort out a huge number of support issues online, rather than having to go to a service centre one by one like sheep. I am sure whatever issues Blackmagic have with the URSA Mini 4.6k, they will sort them out, as RED would do, or Arri, or any of the others. This is a very grey area and to pretend any of us know all the answers is pretty dangerous. There are just so many aspects to this. By saying 'designing' you could mean numerous things - inventing new technology, planning out pixel architecture in a design room, or simply asking for a certain spec and having a custom order... it's a pretty broad spectrum. The manufacturing of the sensor is an ocean of different aspects linked in with the design as well, if you're going to invent a new kind of pixel architecture or readout mechanism for example you need to have the tools to manufacture it. Arguing about where on this spectrum of engineering a custom-made sensor falls is a bit pointless because... The image is about the whole package - Blackmagic's colour science and sensor calibration is superb. Along with Canon and Olympus I think Blackmagic's colour is one of the most flattering of the talent in front of the camera. Until we see the exact same 4.6K sensor in any other camera, the URSA Mini has exclusivity... I'd question why the whole topic even matters, since as I just said, it's the whole package that makes an image unique. The whole workflow as well - this is an important part and the sensor is just one link in the chain between the lens and the final image. Respectfully disagree. RED don't have an entire sensor design and manufacturing workforce in-house. RED call on similar outside talent to develop a CMOS design, specced out for a particular camera. Probably TowerJazz. Leica do it as well - CMOSIS and Panasonic both design and manufacture sensors for them. Where's the shame in this? Fairchild are just another sensor design company to partner with and a very good one at that. Blackmagic and Fairchild = "lack of expertise" is a really below the belt comment and just not true. In fact, that is just your assumption. You don't actually know.

Bags of dynamic range, superb 2.5K image. Shame they dumped it in the bin afterwards and never updated the camera properly. URSA is a totally different beast!! I want another BMCC 2.5K!

Sweeet! What camera will you be shooting with? Use EOS Utility 3. They are PF3 files not PF2.

D3300 no articulated screen. D5500 is mega small / light, video is basic but very clean, easy to handle files, decent low light.

Erm no turn E-stabilization for video OFF. That is the digital, cropped stabilisation. If the 5 axis IBIS isn't working or is greyed out in the menus, that isn't right - it should be immediately noticeable and you should not have to turn on digital stabilisation

I am going off this camera a bit. GH5 is just around the corner. 1.75x crop on the X-T2 in 4K not my cup of tea. No stabilisation or full Canon EF lens compatibility. GH5 has both - and with Speed Booster XL, crop goes to 1.28x. Better to wait for the GH5? I think so. Plus it will probably do very good high frame rate slow-mo. X-T2 has nothing past 60p.

Here's my tip. Reduce the pool of gear to a smaller amount of items, so you can keep your bag within arms reach at all times when travelling. I never put stuff in overhead areas or leave it out of my sight at any point. If you have a smaller bag you can just put it down by your legs. Unless you fall asleep, nobody is going to get it off you then. Don't bother re-buying the following... Lumix 20mm pancake Lumix 25mm 1.4 Lumix 12-35mm Olympus 45mm Olympus 40-150 Clinical 2x crop glass...zzz. Replace your SLR Magic 12 with the SLR Magic 10mm, it's better than the 12 and stays nice and wide on the GH4 in 4K. Re-buy the Rokinon 85mm, it's handy. Or even a Canon 85mm F1.8 EF. Now invest in the Metabones Speed Booster XL. Pick up a Sigma 18-35mm for your wide angle shots. Use your good old Rokinon 85 for any shot that needs longer. In-between is kind of a no-mans land although you may already have a fast 50mm you can use on the EF Speed Booster. Don't bother with the Lumix OIS glass. You have in-body stabilisation for the Sigma 18-35mm and Rokinon 85mm on the Panasonic GX85 now. Much better image than the GH2 in 4K of course and 1080/60fps. Better in low light as well. That will get you up and running again right now. Then, skip the GH4 and wait to see what the GH5 offers. If you invest mainly in Canon EF lenses now and use the Speed Booster, you even have very fast AF for stills with these lenses on Panasonic bodies, and because you jettisoned 5 lenses from your prior collection and now only have 3-4, much easier to carry even though EF lenses are larger than their equivalent Micro Four Thirds ones. If you end up missing a nice zoom, then Canon 24-70mm F2.8 II is your friend. Not cheap, but the image is glorious.

I how cinematic this shot looks. You used one of the EOSHD CINE LUTs from the pack to grade it right? If so that cinematic mix of cool blue and warm tones in this shot were exactly the look I was aiming for with that LUT... Without C-LOG, if it had been shot with CineStyle, the colours and contrast just wouldn't have had the same feel. So I'm mega excited to see that the C-LOG profile and EOSHD CINE LUTs are working this well even on a 60D. Proof it works across the board. PS - the LUT you used was developed with footage shot in 4K on my 1D C using the real Canon LOG! Amazing that you can apply it to my custom C-LOG profile on a 60D and have it look the same - Canon's colour science is really well standardised across cameras and it is just lovely to look at.

It's a possibility. GammaDR is barely even flat let alone LOG and when you dial things down flatter in-camera, colour goes a bit haywire. So what I did with the NX1 Guide LOG converter is find a balance between delivering maximum dynamic range from the in-camera non-flat file (there are various tricks and it is important for example not to accidentally clip the RGB range in post with the H.265 files) and maintaining the great colour the NX1 is known for. Then this image gets converted by my LOG LUT in post to a much flatter image which is compatible with the usual range of LUTs designed for S-LOG, Canon LOG, etc. Samsung don't have an advanced app like Canon for creating your own gamma curves and colour profiles. Maybe the hacker community can make one. But it remains such an incredibly powerful piece of hardware with a very simple user interface and great physical ergonomics. It is still cutting edge. That sensor seems to be doing a very nice readout in 120fps to get that much detail in 1080p. Oh and rolling shutter in 1080p is practically zero. The only weak point is that you have to avoid pushing past ISO 800. Keep it at 100-800 and it is super clean. Past that is emergencies only especially if shooting 100fps or 120fps. I think aside from the low light capabilities and Dual Pixel AF of the 1D X Mark II the NX1 is my slow-mo camera of choice right now. Sometimes even the video AF-C of the camera with the premium S lenses actually works pretty damn well!

I am getting some lovely results with 120FPS on the hacked Samsung NX1. Latest firmware and the increased bitrates of the hack have done wonders for it since the NX1 first came out. It is much more detailed than the 1D X Mark II 120fps and whips the ass of the mushy A7S II 120fps at a fraction of the cost!! And full Super 35mm field of view! Just make sure to turn sharpness all the way down in-camera. Hacked NX1 1080/120p in terms of moire and aliasing is similar to X Pro 2 1080p maybe a bit cleaner.

What version of Canon EOS Utility are you running and what Firmware version on your 5D Mark II. Make sure BOTH are up to date!

No the A7S II raw file. Skintones in the 1D C's JPEG are better, no matter what you do to the Sony RAW file in Adobe Camera Raw. Maybe Sony's A/D converters are bad, or something else is up. A7R II and RX1R II seem improved but the white balance system is always up in the air, I am never confident it is doing the right thing.

Well I did say "Coming along soon", so unless you count having to wait nearly 2 years as "soon", I rest my case. And what we got wasn't worthy of a 5D camera, as it isn't full frame 4K.

Although obviously I don't have access to Canon's trade secrets with regards to colour re-mapping for a LOG curve, I did make some nice adjustments to colour in C-LOG using hue, saturation and luminosity values on a six colour axis, and am very pleased with the results. On the 1D C in some situations I actually find I prefer the colour from EOSHD C-LOG over official Canon LOG.

Thanks for the insights Luke. Impressive. That is correct but I found when creating EOSHD C-LOG that we're talking rather subtle differences in the highlight roll off and colour compared to the real thing. Seeing the results from C-LOG on the 1D C and how nicely my custom film styles have come out with skintones vs my A7S II (there really is no contest) is convincing me that the lack of real Canon LOG on the 1D X Mark II might not be quite so big an issue. Sorry Sony but the A7S II does not flatter the people I put in front of it - and I'm starting to think it is a fundamental sensor or hardware issue because even the raw stills don't come out as nicely as the 1D C JPEG does out of the box - and that is after a lot of messing in post, valuable time wasted making up for Sony's dodgy colour science How long does it take to conform and write the final file after you stop recording slow-mo? Or is it instant and you can quickly start the next take?

Thanks a lot DBounce. Would be interesting to see the same shot in both 24p and 120fps. Does compression hold up ok at the higher frame rate with motion blur (try a whip pan)... What is the minimum shutter speed you can use at 120fps? Is it a continuous 120fps like the RX100 IV or is conformed in-camera to a standard frame rate?

My C-LOG is a tad more saturated than the Canon LOG but I like it that way. It can be dialled down in post, you don't need to dial it down in-camera.