Andrew Reid

"Luminance is more important than chrominance, so that's not so bad. So best case, we have 10-bits of information in Y and 8-bits for U and V"   I think Thomas did indeed mention 10bit luma in his original post.   The luma data alone is enough for a nice true 10bit black and white image. U and V contain the colour information. So luma (i.e. the bit important for smooth gradation and high dynamic range) goes 10bit and colour remains at 8bit. Am I correct here or talking out of my arse? :)

Just add an EVF and Amira style shoulder pad and it would be usable on the shoulder without that unnecessary 10" screen.

  The camera handles 4K internally it just doesn't encode it, instead it sends the debayered final image to the HDMI port instead (uncompressed).   Can't compress the 4K image to XAVC...   This feature is reserved for their cheaper cameras like the AX100 ;)

The large LCD should be detachable, and with a cable you could mount it somewhere else or take it off for shoulder usage when you'd rather have an EVF.   Simple.

Stainless steel huh? Well they have really thrown the kitchen sink at that camera ;)

Just tried it and works to output the DPX, the files look superb. I opened frames in Premiere, which does not treat it like a clip, but the frames grade superbly and look amazing.   However Resolve 10.1 gives me flickering playback with some frames shifted, some half black, to a random degree. Anyone else had success with Resolve yet?

  Impressive.

I'm no mathematician either JCS but my eyes tell me the GH4's 4K grades for 2K like a 10bit codec. It looks and feels completely different to the 8bit stuff I'm used to. Hopefully Thomas can put this to rest and explain the maths behind it in a way we can all understand?

Great news. How are you finding the 2k images Thomas? Does it smooth the slight aliasing on the car windows in the Porsche shot?

A few days ago Thomas Worth of Rarevision (5DToRGB and RAWMagic) asked me for some original files from the GH4 so he could develop an experimental app he had in mind. The result is an embryonic new command-line app for the Mac, which takes 8bit 4:2:0 4K files from the GH4 and resample them 2K 10bit 4:4:4. Read the full article here

These images (>download the original 4K file at Vimeo to get even a clue of the full performance of the camera) are rather lovely. The colour, texture and detail is quite amazing. I'm also very impressed with the 2K slow-mo at 96fps. Read the full article here

Indeed so let's not say we will pay more than $2000 for it.   The sensitivity and XAVC-S is nice and I will definitely sell my A7R for it but the price doubles when you want to make use of the camera's biggest selling point, 4K, whilst that is not the case with the GH4.

Sorry, Copy seems to be kaput. I'll link to each individual file separately on a new page. Got to rush off now though, so will be tomorrow now.

  Agree. GH4 would have made more sense.   Can see the advantage of unplugging if you want small size.   I just think what most people wanted was a similar solution but smaller and less overkill.

One of the enigmas emerging from the A7S is whether you can shoot 4K in APS-C crop mode as well. This would allow the use of standard Sony E-mount / NEX lenses, Canon EF-S and Nikon DX lenses, even PL cinema lenses on the full frame sensor. Sony's information (above) implies that is the case with "both resolutions available at both full frame and APS-C size". I dug a little deeper to find out more... Read the full article here

Not sure - do the HDMI > HDI converters work in 4K?

  I would love the 2.5K BMCC sensor in a decent form factor with more features. They had 2 years to make this but didn't.

Indeed. I thought Blackmagic had a nice unique product line going, providing for a genuine market that existed and needed the products... and then suddenly here they are putting all they R&D and best software features into a couple of high end cameras aimed at Arri and Sony, at a price tag too low for pros and too high for 90% of the previous user base.

A clue is in the body. It is A7 based with same shutter. It doesn't have the more expensive trimmings of the A7R body.   Therefore I am expecting the price to be around about the A7 level, which would be a steal.   The recorder is likely to be the more expensive part... but still considering the end spec you are getting - full frame 4K ProRes 4:2:2 with 14 stop dynamic range... it ain't bad.

  Why can't you have some empathy and stop forcing your world view on other people... what is right for you, for example, is right for you. It isn't right for The World. The filmmaking world is very varied, many flavours, many different techniques, sizes of crew and shooting styles.   I used both the Production Camera (aka URSA sensor) and GH4, preferred the GH4's image... and that is $1699.   And hey for your $1699 you even get audio meters. Imagine that!?

It's not too expensive for what it is.   But the size and weight are throwbacks to a bygone era.

It looks fine to me on the dynamic range front. Very little of it is blown out. The actual shooting could do with a bit more imagination but I'm not seeing any glaring problems.   Dynamic range does not look like LOG or CineStyle BTW... Nor does it look like the horrible HDR sick. Dynamic range for cinema really is how much of the shadows and highlights remain while keeping a ton of contrast in the image. Alexa and BMCC are good examples.

Try this for Copy instead - https://copy.com/EoeMcoA2T9L4

Hopefully Canon will react to A7S and GH4 with a 5DC / 4D with 1D C sensor (and image quality) - just not the pro photography features or as high build quality. Ideally it would be more up to date on the 4K side with more space efficient 4K codec than MJPEG. 10bit via HDMI would also be useful.   Price no more than $3k.

  BMC as in Blackmagic Cinema Camera?   The AJA is $9k so not the same market.