Andrew Reid

  You don't get it. It's a second option, creatively. You can use it in really creative ways. Even if you're doing basic stuff like an interview, to break up a long boring clip of someone talking with a punched-in close up and a wide shot in post is super helpful, it means you can just let them talk and talk when you're shooting, no break in coverage whilst you reframe for the close-up. The timing of the reframing is in post as well, so makes planning the shoot a lot more straight forward. Don't knock it until you've tried it.   Also what I am about to post from the NX1 will blow the C100 Mark II away for image quality. You will see :)

Digital Bolex if you need a wide colour gamut. It is unmatched. CCD sensor so analogue feel to colour, very much like film.   However if raw isn't your thing then the A7S in SLOG 2 comes a lot closer than the C100, especially to the Atomos Shogun in 4K. It's just a much larger pathway between sensor and card. More colour data in there. And if you scale to 1080p in your edit (which is trivial to do by the way) you have 4:4:4 luma. GH4 is also an option... will give you 10bit to the Atomos Ninja Star. It's the cheaper option compared to A7S + Shogun for sure.

Just emailed out some missing guides where people didn't receive the email from the EOSHD cranky server.   Anyone I've missed? Let me know...

Will look into it guys. Just me here, so bear with me!

  OK own up! What department of marketing do you work for at Canon USA? Best in the industry? Try telling that to Alexa, F65, Dragon users delivering high def 1080p for broadcast. Exactly what the C100 II is designed to do, but not as well.

  The colours are nothing unique, you can get the same look on other cameras, in particular the NX1 in 4K is very Canon-like. The A7S just needs the right grading when it comes to S-LOG, as would the C100 in LOG, though clipping of bright blues can be an issue. The GH4 is giving us 10bit out of HDMI. Something to consider for VFX heavy shoots. The best colour of all though, comes not from the C100 II but from raw. Blackmagic, Digital Bolex, Magic Lantern and F5 / FS700 to Shogun.   Low light performance is eclipsed by the A7S.   Super 35mm - indeed, but no PL option on the C100 II so you are pretty much stuck with shooting through the centre of full frame lenses. EFS lenses are a bit crappy compared to PL cinema stuff aren't they!   The ergonomics are overrated. It is nice handheld with the articulated screen & IS on the lens. But then, so are other options.   It's a solid option. A work-a-day kinda tool. I dislike the lack of innovation really and there's nothing 'special' or unique about the image it produces. Trust me there isn't.

  4K is the future. 5K display already on an iMac. Can't tell the difference? I don't think so. C100 II will be obsolete in a year and you will have to sell it and get the C100 III with 4K. Also it makes no sense to spend $5k on one when you can get an FS7 for $3k more which is 3x more future proof - 4K, slow-mo, 10bit output. Personally I need 180fps 1080p of the FS7. Even if you don't, then I fail to see what the C100 II offers over the FS7. If you are laying down that much money for a camera, the stretch to the FS7 isn't a huge problem. Unless you can barely afford or justify the C100 II, in which case you shouldn't really be spending $5k on a camera in the first place. For the commercial shooters these cameras are aimed at, $5k or $8k - doesn't matter, the camera will pay for itself. For everybody else, stick to $3k and avoid the nasty depreciation of pro gear. That's my advice. Invest in lenses and ideas instead.   Now let's speak artistically... Canon's EF lenses are designed for full frame. They are wasted on a Super 35mm sensor. It is only the A7S which gives you such good video from a 4K full frame sensor, at half the price of the C100 II. So artistically, A7S would be my choice over the C100 II. The rendering of the corners, look of the lenses, field of view, and in particular the look of a fast F1.4 aperture at 24mm wide angle is something you simply can't get on the C100 II. You can however get it on an FS7 thanks to Speed Booster.   I don't care about built in ND filters. How many variable ND filters can I buy for the $2500 I save by using the A7S!? Whats more I can adjust exposure much more precisely with a variable one. On the C100 II I still have to adjust the aperture, can't always shoot at F1.4 & 180 deg shutter.   The ergonomics are overrated. EVF is still shoddy compared to the Fuji X-T1 for instance. The shutter dial is too small and in the wrong place. Rather stick to controlling aperture mechanically on my Contax Zeiss or Nikon AI lenses.   Your opinions may differ. Just be aware that they're flawed ;)

  Well put it this way, I'd be disappointed if it didn't do that for $5k. Haha.

"Better resolution" froess. Can only laugh at that. You must be completely blind to say the 1080p on the C100 Mark II has better resolution than the NX1 internal 4K.

If you're shooting raw with Magic Lantern check out the used price of the 5D Mark II, it's a bargain especially with the VAF anti-aliasing filter.   Then stick a cheap fast prime on it.   If that is out of your budget then yeah the G6 is a nice choice, but you'd need to invest a lot more in lenses to get it to look as good as the 5D

Glad you got the FS7.   The more people keep buying the old 1080p stuff from Canon the more they are going to keep the 4K stuff in the vault and coast along. They can sell us a $5k 1080p camera and then also a $8k 4K camera at some point in 2015. Such profit. Please people stop buying dated equipment and reward the innovators like Sony...

It's news to me that the C100 Mark II's image competes with the full frame A7S 4K output, or the 10bit 4K GH4 output or the NX1's 4K output oversampled from a 6.5K sensor output.   "DSLR killer" it isn't.

  Yes shot tons of it.

Just tried DVDFab. 50Mbit/s limit though? The resulting H.264 files at highest quality are smaller than the H.265 files so you must be losing something.   The blacks are somewhat crushed on default settings compared to what Wondershare does on -20 contrast or the Samsung app's flatter output.   This seems to produce less banding in the sky though compared to either of the other two apps in particular Wondershare.

  Don't convert to H.264 in Wondershare, use ProRes LT. Will try DVDfab, interesting to have another option.

Yes it does look like a marketing person got given the job of colourist on it and they could have used a few cinematographers on it, looks like it was done using crude stabilisation and self-shot, though I guess that was the idea.

ISO works for me too during movie recording, I have ISO assigned to the large rear scroll wheel for quick adjustments. The exposure changes smoothly. I don't tend to change ISO during a shot, only before, but make no mistake, the NX1 has full manual control of everything in movie mode.

An EOSHD reader, obviously ;)

Perhaps experiment with filters over the lens and see if one of them reduces the problem. It only seems to occur with very bright blue specular highlights. Try different white balances also. It's worth experimenting by trial and error on this one...   Sony cameras have had this issue for a long time. Very weird.

  Of course you see it. Would you buy a 2MP stills camera?

  Keep dreaming!

What matters is the sensor readout for us... 4K is all the image data. 1080p is traditionally a line-skipped mess or pixel binned atrocity, exception being the A7S.   Go back to 2009, compare 1080p on the 5D Mark II to a JPEG from the 5D Mark II, now do the same with the NX1 video at 4K and a 28MP JPEG off the same camera and tell me 4K doesn't matter :)   We've come a long way, and all in a single year.

If you don't need 4K, get the A7S. You can always add it later with Shogun. Though form factor isn't ideal.   If you need clean ISO 3200 and above, A7S.   If you need full frame look to lenses, A7S. It's more important for wide angle stuff than it is for mid-range, close-up or telephoto shooting.   If you prefer to have the resolution of 4K and the absolute best internal recording quality in good light, with the best colour - NX1. It is truly lovely.   If you want the extra features of the GH4 and you have the lenses to match, then still consider it but on balance I now prefer the NX1.   If you need a Super 35mm sensor to match your lenses, (PL for instance) NX1 will give you that and 4K internal whereas A7S won't.

  It doesn't do slow-mo, but yeah go ahead and put it in a high speed camera! Great logic that!

  So the Sony F55 then.