Andrew Reid

A noble cause but Blackmagic have already done the same thing... with digital.

How much time into prep? Zero. It was a spontaneous thing really.

One turnip for effort, silver for performance :)

Select ProRes 444 in your Premiere timeline settings and don't edit in native H.264.   Export in ProRes 422 Proxy.   Simples :)

  Why does 'content' always get reduced down to 'story'. I've seen a lot of great stuff that has absolutely no story whatsoever!   I see this also in marketing and in the workshops, it's always a focus on story telling.   Story telling like a children's book :)

  I actually consider gear to be part of the content. It's the camera and lens that helps shape the look and mood of the content. And without the 5 axis stabiliser this video wouldn't have had the same spontaneous content, it would have been more staged.

The E-M1 is a real surprise for a video. For this review I decided to set myself a challenge with a musician friend, where we'd shoot a music video 'Dogme 95' style. Entirely handheld with the Olympus 5 axis stabliser Very basic lights (iPhone torch and a flame) Maximum of 2 shooting days In the process I learned a lot about what makes the E-M1 such an effective camera for filmmakers. Read the full article here

Added the G6!

  Updated the article into leagues of 10, take a look. RX10 has a nice clean image, but the codec is a bit muddy and the sensor is quite small. The full frame look and interchangeable lenses make for a more cinematic end result on the 5D, whilst the RX10's look is largely determined by the lens it comes with.

When you have to start explaining each position on the list it's not a chart anymore.   Yeah GH3 should be ahead of GM1 but it isn't... because it's purely an image quality chart - ergonomics and features aren't really factored in it.   Again the image from the D5200 and D5300 is so similar they are grouped on the chart. Once you start charting cameras on features you end up with 'not an image quality chart' but something a LOT more complicated.

  C100 internal quality is better than FS100 internal but not by a huge margin. Both similar codec, AVCHD at 24Mbit. C100 just gives that bit more detail and is cleaner with less aliasing around bright highlights.

  Yeah of course you can. Now good luck making 100 charts to go with it :)

  Pretty much a NEX 5N with a worse form factor for a lot more money, so I've never used one, therefore I wouldn't know where to place it on the chart. Pretty close to the bottom I'd say.

  These was one of the most subjective areas of the chart. I like the full frame look, low light and lack of moire of the 5D Mark III in stock video mode, even though I hardly ever shoot that way because of the Magic Lantern raw revolution. But the GH3 resolves more detail and has the better video-related features and ergonomics.   Yes the 5D Mark III was a disappointment when it came out - it could have been even better had Canon given us more video features and more resolution.

G6 I forgot. It would come in between the GH2 and GM1. I'll add it to the March chart.   Hacked GH1 would come in around the 5D Mark II level. Smaller sensor but the cleaner image makes up for it.   Maybe better to have leagues of 10 next time too.   Any other suggestions?

This chart is an overall look at the whole spectrum of video and cinema cameras from the Arri Alexa right down to the Fuji X series of stills cameras. Read the full article here

Nothing wrong with zooms if used cinematically, something for Panasonic to sort out on future ones I think.

  4:2:0 leaves a trademark artefact if you look at bright red highlights for example and high contrast areas of bright blue as another example, like a the edges of a neon sign or lightbulb.   In 4:2:2 footage these edges are smooth and in 4:2:0 they are aliased.   Guess which the A7R shows... aliasing all over the place :)   The aliasing might be a result of the line skipping but if the HDMI is indeed 4:2:2 sampled on the sensor, it doesn't show any of the image quality advantages.   Regardless the real problem here is not whether or not the debayering process does the 4:2:2 or 4:2:0 sampling, it's that the debayer has such flawed data to work with in the first place, and has to do it very haphazardly on a processor not really designed for video.   Some sensors do a decent pixel-mix to get down to 1080p - rather than hacking the data down with crude line skipping. Toshiba one in the D5200 / D5300, Canon one in the 5D Mark III and the Panasonic NMOS in the GH2 all did a good job.   It's just that Sony have chosen not to implement this feature on their sensors (even the one destined for the $3000 VG900 video camera) for reasons which presumably made sense to someone.   It can't be that hard, because Toshiba can do it, in a low-to-mid range $700 Nikon.

  This is from an earlier look at the camera. In my retail camera, which is a final unit (I bought it from a Sony shop), you can't assign the video record button to C1 or any other button.   It's a ridiculous decision by Sony.   Also I don't see the logic in moving the record button to an awkward position AS WELL AS having the ability to turn it off in the menus. Surely the photo-hardcore guys who hate video so much can just turn the damn button off in the menus and not hassle the rest of us with their out of touch stupid feedback they gave to Sony on the matter.

Sigma 18-35mm on the GH3 is fine. It only vignettes on the oversized mutli-aspect sensor on the GH2. That's a 1.86x crop. It is right at the limit on the GH3 but holds up well even at 18mm.   Yes I agree on 30p to 24p - it doesn't quite work :)   However I must admit to not hating 30p quite so much as I used to. The reason is not HFR in cinemas, or having watched too much 60p and got used to it, or something! The reason is that 30p suits the stabiliser on the E-M1, it makes handheld work look buttery smooth. On a tripod I still prefer 24p.

Indeed. Consumers are price sensitive, but the people the Amira is for - aren't really. If you need to invest $39,000 in a camera, and can do so, it's obvious you have a way of earning that back. $5k or $10k here or there won't be the main point. It will stop the C300 crowd going for it maybe, but it will replace the C300 in the sense that the high end of the community would probably prefer the benefits of the Amira. I know the high end of the rental market certainly well. It's more robust.

You do have a point actually, because most cinema lenses are used stopped down to T5.6!   With 4K I will be stopping down more often than not because if your focus is off even by a small amount, people will notice with that kind of resolution on screen.   But the T2.0 aperture of the bigger S4s is another option, because the look of a fast aperture is quite different still - it's not all about low light. With the Cooke stuff and Hollywood, price doesn't really come into the equation so much as outright performance. Even the most expensive lenses and camera equipment are small change for the film industry as a whole compared to other costs. The T2.0 aperture is the important bit for them. Don't forget in the days of film (still with us) cinematographers didn't have the sensitivity they do with digital either!

  Between the A7R and GH3. The image isn't a huge strength of the RX10 but it's respectable, the main reason I liked the RX10 was the general usability and features it offered, especially the Zeiss lens, which there's nothing else similar to on a DSLR. Built in ND filter, step less aperture ring, huge zoom range, fast constant F2.8 aperture, like I say - find a DSLR lens like that with the built in ND and long zoom range yet fast constant aperture. There's not one :)

  Well the same goes for DSLRs in general. A bunch of disappointments punctuated by a few flukes like good video on the D5200 and Magic Lantern raw video on Canon DSLRs. And of course Blackmagic but they are not making DSLRs.   2014 this will all change because of the push to 4K. There's also a trend towards the new HDMI spec and 10bit over that. So finally a reason to actually use it. The photographic CMOS sensors are perfectly placed to offer 4K video and the huge leap in image quality this entails.   So we're back on track, but yes, the 1080p stuff did not pan out as I had hoped and the A7R just carries on with a very mediocre trend.   There also seems to be a major disconnect between the video-savvy marketing department at Sony and what their actual engineers deliver...

  Stop being a twit!   The legal disclaimer was put up after Jim Jannard tried to sue me / silence me over the negative Scarlet articles.   The inconsistencies - i.e. covering expensive gear like the Amira and Cooke lenses or judging a Sony aspiring filmmaker competition - are inconsistent with what exactly? EOSHD is not all 100% coverage of consumer cameras. I have at least 10% reserved for dreaming!!