Andrew Reid

Quotes like that annoy me as well because it's too easy when you have money rolling in left right and centre from professional video work to say "ah, throw that $12k 1D C aside I'll use it as a doorstop" and run out and spend another $3.5k on an A7R II. Way too easy! However for the majority of people $3500 is a lot of money and significantly more than a GH4 or NX1 and thus the deliberation needs to be more critical. When the Samsung NX1 came out Cinema5D basically rubbished it. The reason? Bad rolling shutter! Yet here with the S35 crop mode of the A7R II we have what looks like potentially even worse rolling shutter problems and they are practically mute about that... do I detect a Sony bias? Well I have seen Cinema5D's guys operate first hand myself, at trade shows such as Photokina and they do know a few Sony people and get cameras early. It is too easy to recommend something when you have the camera literally dumped on your desk by a PR company as well. I was offered a trip to the US to shoot with the A7R II by Sony and I turned them down. I was offered a demo unit by the US PR agency Sony had organising the A7R II marketing and I turned them down. On Wednesday 5th August I will walk into a shop, hand over my hard earned cash for the A7R II and if it is rubbish I will say so and take it back for a refund. The only reason I am going anywhere near Sony and their PR agents is that they have organised an interesting shoot the day before on Tuesday and it is a chance to get some decent footage. Most of what I say to the Sony people there will be about how it can be improved and what the most glaring flaws are, because that is what I regard as feedback... saying "wow buy buy buy" does not have any useful substance to it, it is pure hype. And so back to the topic... It's an open secret Sony want you to buy more than one camera! That's one reason why the launches are staggered like this. If the A7S II and A7R II came out on the same day you would be able to compare them and select the best ONE. As it is, this week if you need an internally recording 4K full frame mirrorless camera and can't wait for a mystery to unfold 6 months from now then you are obligated to buy the A7R II. Personally this is the approach I am taking because there's always eBay to shift gear whenever you like, whenever it is superseded. I am sure the A7S II will push video to even greater heights, 4K 60p and at least 250fps 1080p, much less rolling shutter, better low light, etc. it's a guess though and the A7R II is a guarantee of quality right now. However there's always the danger with waiting for the next model and upgrading in that you never appreciate what is right in front of you.

The A7R II review will start with boxing footage... a good test for rolling shutter, motion cadence and whether the colour comes out as nice as the 1D C which I will bring with me as well!! Then A7R II versus A7S in low light... this is one thing giving me pause for thought "shall I wait 6 months for the A7S II?" Then versus 1D C shot A-B comparison, especially with regards to colour and what it is like to grade! I think the 120fps mode should be interesting vs NX1 and GH4. RX10 II will probably beat it there. Let's see if moire is a problem vs 1D C which is very clean. And I also have the Convergent Design Odyssey 7Q to test the HDMI output. Wonder if it is better than the one on the A7S which had issues especially with S-LOG and the smudgy APS-C upscaling to 4K.

What's so god damned hard about a dedicated ISO button though?????

Yep, Vimeo downsampling 4K to 720p will do that!! Until he shares the original footage that test is completely bunk.

It's an interesting strategy to say the least because it means video shooters end up buying two bodies. Like I said in the article, you can't put them in the function menu or on a custom button... so you would have to assign them to one of the mode dial "memory modes" instead, but problem I find using those is that it also saves preset shutter speed, aperture, white balance, etc. so you could have exposed one way in Movie mode then gone to memory mode and have it all nicely fucked up for you.

There was a 6 month gap between the original A7R (Oct 2013) and A7S (Apr 2014) announcements.

Seems like the ergonomics of the XC10 were done by Canon's new junior team or something. The grip isn't the only problem. It has no ISO button!

Thanks for the video Davide, great stuff. I'll feature it on the blog later!

This first hands on is with a pre-production model, so no footage for now. Instead on Wednesday August 5th I will shoot for the first time with the final retail boxed Sony A7R II in Berlin at a boxing academy. Be sure to check out EOSHD for that and the full review next week. The Sony A7R II represents a significant escalation in specs for both stills and video, a truly next generation camera. To kick off my coverage of Sony's 1st 4K internally recording full frame mirrorless model I bring you this exclusive hands-on. Read the full article

Congrats on the NX1. Great camera. That F2 zoom is good too. Get EditReady for $50 and it is pretty painless. RX100 IV overheating mainly in 4K on long shoots, not a problem in the 1080/120fps/240fps modes so far for me. I have used the RX100 IV as a 1080p camera more than a 4K one. It has the best 1080p of anything I've ever used. Like an FS7 but smaller sensor and 1/8th the price. Yes that 1" sensor does give you a bit of a flat image at times but S-LOG helps make it look cinematic if you're good at grading. Really helps get rid of the 'video' look to highlights, better dynamic range, smoother roll off, etc. Digital Bolex also has a Super 16mm sensor but it looks cinematic as hell because of the colour, grain, texture, so it is not all about shallow DOF and you have your 1D C for that anyway My footage from the RX10 II and RX100 IV is coming soon... it doesn't look like camcorder footage! I'll be interested to see how you get on with AF on the NX1. It is occasionally magic but mostly unreliable and doesn't do what you expect given the specs. Same with the RX10 II and RX100 IV though, continuous AF is really quite terrible in movie mode and HFR, but not as disastrous as it would be on a larger sensor like Super 35mm.... so approach with caution I'd say.

My PC goes into a 4K display. Found scaling better on the Mac. Will try it in Windows 10 and hope for the best. Does look slicker and better designed than previous Windows versions, so credit to Microsoft for that. As I don't use Windows Media Player or Internet Explorer is it safe to go for the Windows 10 "N" version? Or does losing those take out important functionality / codecs? Well the rationale is that Media Center was designed for media PCs and not as your main PC audio player or whatever. So I can see why they have dumped it. I can recommend an Apple Music subscription and iTunes 12.1 as a replacement. It's superb. It's the future. You don't need to own your own media files any more when it comes to music and most films. All in the cloud and superb audio quality. Doesn't the XBOX ONE supersede any WMC PC? Surely that is the Microsoft strategy in a nutshell. Cheaper for the user too.

12 stops isn't lame dude. It is only 1 or 2 stops off film!

TONS more coming from RX10 II in the review. RX100 IV is a separate piece but I have had to work on that for past week, time which could have been spent finishing off my RX10 II review!

Final part of the review is coming soon. Delay due to accommodating RX100 IV as well. Spoiler: I ended up preferring the small one!!

The power banks are cool. Just found a 13,200mha one in Berlin for 38 euros that charges my RX100 IV approximately 10x over. Charges it quick too... from nothing to 100% in about an hour and a half.

RX100 MK IV / RX10 II are best for this, hands down. Forget the interchangeable lens mount options if you need a sharp image & moire free. That's a good budget choice. Way off the RX100 IV for quality but not so far off NX1's 1080/120fps, which looks like upscaled 720p anyway.

Note also the very nice positive locking EF mount - why isn't that on the C300 Mk II?

LOL. Pretty good considering it is 2MP on a full frame sensor and 19 micron. There are some sample videos already from the sensor before they commercialised it. Here was the prototype - http://www.eoshd.com/2013/03/breaking-news-canon-announce-new-full-frame-sensor-for-video/ And the videos I'll try and find (only low resolution stuff on Canon website I seem to remember) They also have another specialist chip... a massive 200mm CMOS 40x larger than full frame, that one is in a Japanese telescope - http://www.eoshd.com/2011/09/200mm-canon-cmos-sensor-records-video-in-japanese-telescope/

This camera highlights why Canon have been successful and profitable. Wish I could sell a 2MP sensor for $30,000 and have it all makes sense in eyes of the customer!! There is demand for this camera and it will be lapped up by broadcast and industry. No more infrared B/W shots on Big Brother! Yes they could have sold it to consumers and enthusiasts for $2000... it's only a new sensor, with massive 19 micron pixels (A7S is around 8 micron) but most would have looked at the crappy megapixel count and then struggle to get any use out of the 4 million ISO - even the creative filmmakers we are would have only a very limited use for that! 1 scene out of every 100 kind of thing. So they have done the right thing for business and dollars...this is a specialist use camera for the industry. Is it valid to say "no internal recording and only 1080p for $30,000 - that sucks?" well the customers who will buy this camera for the set of Big Brother or an astrophysicist up in his telescope will say that isn't a valid criticism at all - they will want a live feed off the back of the camera, no need for internal recording, no need for 4K either as delivery will be in 720p or even SD...but it is valid in the sense that there must be quite a bit of margin in this camera!! And it is a shame that Canon are not so innovative in their DSLR imaging at the moment by comparison.

It fits over anything provided you have the means to attach it. No idea what the thread is on those. You will probably have to clamp it like I did with the Kowa. It's no fuss.

Thank you sir! Berlin is a tricky place to live in at times but it's worth it. You think living here is exhausting, try living here and having two jobs, one running EOSHD and one being a filmmaker

This is disgraceful! Keep up the good work Ebrahim. It isn't easy doing anything worthwhile, people will always be jealous.

Yep not out long and £12,000 in April 2013.... £4500 in December 2015

1D C / 1D X body quite a bit bigger than a mirrorless camera so they got away with sticking a big heat sink in it. I think Canon need to wait for their new sensor manufacturing capabilities to come online before they will do it... as they are taking so long over doing that, chances are it might be pretty special and worth the wait. How much longer can one company - Sony - get away without being unchallenged? Yes good point... But then Canon likely believes that their average Rebel customer filming birthday parties and baseball games isn't ready for 4K yet anyway. Nikon certainly said as much on record.

$350? Wow. That is stunning for what you get. Don't forget that sensor is the best APS-C CMOS on the market at the moment, so very good stills camera as well even if the crop in 4K mode bothers you.