Andrew - EOSHD

5dmarkIII with RAW is the best DSLR that shoots video at the moment. The image is gorgeous, the colors are great and lowlight is wonderful.

 

I also think it has a lot of dynamic range (always been a bit skeptical about the 11.7 stops that keeps floating around). You can get great results when applying a bit of neatvideo (works wonders with RAW). Processing time is quite intense but that's part of the experience.

 

The d800 was ok when I used it on a shoot but it had usability problems (couldn't take stills during filming and settings were different between still/movie modes etc.) H264 was maybe a bit sharper but 720p is useless on the d800 while slowmo on the 5d is still quite workable. 

 

p.s How come everyone is railing against the mirror? It doesn't hurt or even interfere in my shootings and it's great for photos. What's the big problem with mirrors? Unnecessary dead weight? Like what is that supposed to be?

 

I agree on the 5D3.

 

Today I took the D800 back to the shop. I just couldn't quite get excited about it enough to write that mini-guide.

 

It was interesting tuning the image in post and seeing how close I could get it to raw but in the end, it wasn't so much the video quality that turned me off it... I wanted it more as my stills camera actually... but realised the quality of my shots was actually suffering compared to when I am composing through an EVF or articulated LCD on a mirrorless camera.

 

The optical viewfinder just doesn't give you an accurate representation of the image. It looks lovely in and of itself. That's about it. Time and again I was misjudging manual focus and exposure because of it. Focus meter is horrifically inaccurate with manual glass and non Nikon CPU lenses.

 

The live-view implementation is absolutely horrid on the D800 compared to the 5D Mark III unfortunately. The exposure of the shot never seems to match up with what the live-view screen gives, and this was despite putting the lens data in when using a non-CPU Leica or Nikon lens on the camera. I had a bunch of Leica R lenses converted to Nikon (very easy to do, a DIY mount change) and with these the camera just doesn't want to meter properly, whereas the 5D Mark III had no issues.

 

When I went back using a GX7 I immediately felt I was taking better shots from being able to judge the image 'as the sensor sees it'.

 

Sometimes I yearn to get away from the electronic gizmo crap and go back to an old-school DSLR.

 

I have learnt that this is actually counterproductive and I've left the D800 even more of a big fan of 'electronic' shooting than before.

I guess the source of the trolling must be a certain gentleman who thinks he's better than Magic Lantern. No guesses for who that is.

 

Hahah!

Andrew great test, as always. How video AF works on GH4 with third party lenses? Is it possible to use speedboster and i.e. Sigma 18-35 (nikon mount) with video AF?

 

No, it's a passive mount adapter with no electronics. The AF in Nikon lenses is usually optimised for phase detect sensors and the GH4 uses contrast detect so even if it worked through a smart adapter, it probably would be a bit shit :)

In the D800's stills you have less noise in the very darkest shadows if you bring them up all the way in a raw file using Photoshop's ACR controls vs the same stills from the 5D Mark III.

 

However in video mode and at high ISOs the 5D Mark III is better in low light.

I don't think the production cost of a camera (or whatever device) is very relevant for the retraul price. Sony can (and will) price it whatever they want and whatever they think is 'best'. Maybe they haven't even determined the price yet... just feeling how the market reacts to it.. price it accordingly.

 

The marketing team have a large hand to play in setting the price, that's a big part of their job.

 

They will be getting feedback as we speak and some pros with money to burn will be telling them that the A7S is a Jesus Camera and should be priced $6000 :)

Who the fuck deleted my post yo?

 

I did! And mind the language too.

Working on the moderators today, will get it set up.

 

Cheers all!

The D800 has re-emerged!

We have the Mosaic Engineering VAF-D800 filter, compact $299 Atomos Ninja star ProRes recorder and now even a hack project based around the camera.

So I've picked up a D800 and plan to see what I get out of it.

Read the full article here

It's not really a matter of insisting. It has to do with the process of making the Silicon wafers and there are numerous other reasons for it, apparently. Some interesting answers here.

 

For example:

 

 

 

Another issue is the size of the wafer. They have been using 200mm for ages now I think. There is some switching going on to 300mm and 450mm is in development I think, but it probably will take a decade or more before it is standard, because all the machines have to be replaced and remade for the bigger wafers.

 

Btw... imagine the cost of that new 50MP Sony medium format sensor :) The price of the Pentax 645Z is incredible if you take that into consideration.

 

/Edit:

Interesting stuff on wafer sizes here.

57.8% of chip production (not only image sensors!) is already done on 300mm wafers. This will be 70% by 2017, but 200mm wafers are still being used for image sensors...

 

I love this stuff.

 

You're right the price of the Pentax is amazing and it would seem Sony are making huge strides forwards with their CMOS business. Usually very hard to break performance and price barriers both at the same time. Somehow they are managing to mass produce sensors that have unheard of until now spec for the price.

 

If Canon are playing catch up in 2 years time and image quality on their DSLRs lags significantly behind Sony, and Nikon are using Sony sensors, it could spell a serious problem for Canon, something not easy to fix overnight as Sony has been building up to this level of sophistication for years and have surely spent many millions of dollars in the process.

We could have a separate forum for selling lenses, but I'm not sure about it.

 

The for sale threads in the anamorphic forum keep it quite lively and bring about discussion of various unusual lenses. If we hid these away in a sub-section it might make the place a bit more dead.

 

What do you think?

Very interesting.

 

I wonder why they insist on making the wafers circular.

 

36% of the area wasted on the full frame sensor yield is pretty wasteful.

Did I miss anyone? Julian would you like to have moderator powers too?

 

Misbehaviour sticky - I'll leave this as defined by wider society :)

I would happily do that to some internet users.

If you pre-order now, expect this camera by March 2015, right before BM announces 3 more cameras...

 

It will probably ship with the two giant audio meters disabled or something :)

I'm not sure, sorry, how you can really compare slow-mo from a small sensor without interchangeable lenses, to the look of a large sensor with interchangeable lens. They will look completely different.

It came out.

Yes indeed.

 

Look - a sickly plastic texture to fine detail and a general lack of it. Looks like 720p!

Yes. But it still looks like digital puke to me.

 

No offense to the crew they did a good job making it look much better than it should be, but had they shot it on the 5D Mark III it'd have looked better especially in raw.

1.

Can we get this straight please? D4S image quality in full frame video mode is a disaster. It is not an accurate video. They used the crop mode which is very sharp but only uses a 2.7x crop of the full frame sensor. Why spend $6k on this? Great stills camera, not great for video.

Looks like something is off in your render there.

 

Maybe do another test but with them both set to 25p rather than the A6000 at 50p, as the codec gets pretty soft at that setting.

Hey, I'm new here too, thanks for all those great infos on the GH4, can we a have a comparision with a blackmagic pocket too?
I'm looking forward a good cinematic look and I'm a little afraid with the gh4 despite all those good things you think about it.

Keep up the good work!

 

Pocket was included in my studio test scene video with the GH4 here 

Did you test maximum exposure time for an electronic shutter still? It was 1 second with the gh3. To have long exposure possible electronically would be a big deal for timelapse people. I've asked a few places and it seems nobody has looked into this yet.

Thanks.

 

Frank has the camera at the moment for a Red Bull shoot but when we next meet up I'll check this. It's on my list!

Clearly a lot of that is shot in 2.7x crop mode which is a 1:1 crop of the full frame sensor and very sharp, but you lose the full frame look and a bundle of low light performance.

 

There's also some timelapse compiled from 16MP stills in there too.

 

So be careful what you're looking at when looking at a marketing video.