Andrew Reid

I'm a big Blackmagic fan but the 4K camera has it's work to cut out to compete in 2014 with what is coming, a avalanche of better stuff is on the way. Starting with GH 4K, let's just say Blackmagic are going to have to lower the price a lot to sell against Panasonic.

Any 1D X users want to pick up a coding book and try? :)

So has Arri reached critical mass?   And why the Cinema EOS cameras cropping up in such top flight productions? The image isn't as good as the Alexa!

  Video.

Yes indeed focus peaking totally sucks on the E-M1, thankfully the punch in focus assist is pretty good.

SetLife Magazine (a recommended follow  4baec9ae1f3a8494261538e25f63d714 >on Facebook) has compiled technical specification slates showing us who shot on what when it comes to the big 2014 Oscar nominees. Interestingly Arri cameras still sweep the board. There are also nods to the Cinema EOS cameras and even the GoPro, but the really surprising thing is not a single one of the films were shot on RED. Read the full article here

GH3 does not line skip either. They all do a pixel mixture on the sensor. Better than the A7R and non-5D3 Canons.   The GM1 has the edge on the E-M1 in terms of resolution and a bit more dynamic range. None of the other features that make the E-M1 such a creative tool though.

Let's take a look at the two current flagship Micro Four Thirds cameras. The results may surprise you. Read the full article here

It's like some people have skim read the article. I'm clear that any image quality is camera dependant. Taken in a general sense if you are going to get 4x the data off the sensor and onto the card, you will gain a lot of other attributes if the camera's image processor and codec are up to scratch.   For DSLRs to move away from line skipping and binning to a 4K video signal from the sensor, that avoids one of the ways so much dynamic range is lost in the first place, the throwing away of lots of pixel data.

Walking with IBIS over rough terrain in a forrest is simply asking too much of it! It replaces a tripod and a shoulder rig and an EVF loupe (use the internal one)... a ton of gear you don't need any more if using the E-M1.   Let's see a tripod vs no-tripod vs IBIS comparison, for locked down shots. This is there the 5 axis IBIS is special.

  Interesting suggestion, will give it a go if it becomes a problem again!

Yes much smaller than a 5D Mark III or D800. Much lighter too.   The smaller sensor means you can also put smaller glass on the front.   The A7R with my Canon 100mm F2.8L Macro is a nightmare ergonomics wise.

There's nothing to stop an enterprising 1D X user trying anything under the sun.   If one has the technical knowledge and the camera you can take the open source code and compile it for the 1D X, but it's way beyond my knowledge on how feasible this is, whether it would work, or if it would need the know-how of the Magic Lantern guys to get it working.

Today I bought a Nikon D5300 for review, and a bit of shooting, but mainly for the blog with intention of sending it back after.   Well, so far it is surprising me.   The dynamic range with the flat picture profile is really quite something. Head to toe with ProRes on the Blackmagic Pocket Camera. I'd put it at 12 stops. Very good colour and good shadows, and again good low light performance. The codec in 1080/60p seems ok so far too. The main drawback seems to be the cheap-mid-range Nikon ergonomics (not enough buttons and dials). Wish they had put this video mode (and articulated screen) in the D7100 instead.   But so far so good peeps!

There's currently no way to do it.   Magic Lantern won't do it, concerned about legal complications. Big shame!   I'd love to see it and I think it would be technically feasible. 1D C 4K maybe, raw video definitely maybe.   A used 1D X can be bought for £3500 on eBay right now. That's only £500 more than the 5D Mark III was when it was launched. Almost prosumer price territory and a lot more accessible than the £8500 Canon want for the 1D C.

  Yeah the encoder and codec are both upgraded to avoid blocky break-up and mud, it seems pretty solid and low light performance is great too. There's about the same level of detail as the E-M5, which is to say not bad, but less moire and aliasing this time round.   Actually I can learn to like 30p, the more I watch of it, the more cinematic it feels. Stabilised shots do feel smoother in 30p than in 24p.   But at least give us that 50Mbit and 24p for those locked down shots with lots of detail, Olympus.

Just fresh from shooting a music video with the Olympus OM-D E-M1. I love this camera for professional video. The 5 axis stabiliser is unique on the market. No other interchangeable lens camera can do what the E-M5 can do with Micro Four Thirds lens and that stabiliser. It's unfortunate however in that the video mode has an unusual bug. Read the full article here

If you are in LA I highly recommend going along to Hot Rod Cameras on Wednesday. Joe of Digital Bolex will be there to answer any questions and host a try out session for the camera along with Hot Rod Camera's Illya Friedman! I would be there myself if I lived in LA. Have fun people! **** Read the full article here

The 5D Mark III isn't entirely aliasing free, so some can be expected. But is sharpness turned all the way down in camera raw? That will help reduce it.

  I have a creative unit in Berlin and sometimes we will shoot a music video, sometimes a theatre trailer, sometimes my own documentary style music video taking in the surroundings and creating a mood (like most of my stuff shot in Taiwan and Japan for instance). The kind of stuff you can do on your own or with a very small team.   My decision to shoot 4k won't come down to client requirements or business requirements, it's purely be an artistic choice.

  Well they already have image quality in spades, so the 4K revolution isn't as important for the Alexa.   We're going to be comparing a consumer 4K camera like the GH4 to the GH3. Much bigger difference, a much bigger leap.   Just wait until you see the 1080p from both cameras, one oversampled from a 4K output and the other pixel binned on the sensor at the earliest stage in the imaging pipeline.

  It isn't the codec. Try bypassing even crappy AVCHD on the A7R and record with the HDMI output. The image still looks like crap. It's all to do with the crappy sensor output, which does a hotchpotch job of delivering 5% of the available pixels it uses for glorious stills.

  4K in general, first with the Panasonic offering.

  Yes this could well be another reason. In Europe pretty much every shop has an entire cabinet of Panasonic and Olympus stuff with a full range of accessories. Canon and Nikon don't dominate the floor space, even though most people still end up buying a Canon and Nikon over a mirrorless camera.   Perhaps people are just too invested in their Canon and Nikon glass to ever change systems.

Mirrorless camera sales in the US have slipped because in Japan they have a "smaller is smarter" mentality and love novelty, but in the US it is a "bigger is better" culture and people equate something like a Nikon D4 with quality, because of the heft and substantial size.   The biggest mistake the mirrorless market continues to make (even the Sony A7R) is that they are focussed around small size.   Mirrorless is the future direction of all cameras because digital technology is the successor to mechanical and optical technology. The mirror is not going to still be flapping up and down in 100 years time, we will have EVFs so good as they will resolve far more than an optical viewfinder and give us super-vision, better than our own eyes can see, especially in low light conditions.   Instead of driving home the fact that mirrorless is a POWERFUL technology and DSLRs are a past tech, the Japanese manufacturers gave us cute little GF cameras and dinky PENs. Ridiculous.   Only now are they on the right path going high end, but Sony are still trying to downsize their FE mount lenses at the expense of lovely fast apertures, and Olympus are still adding gimmicks on their high end cameras, and none of them have an answer to the workhorse pro cameras like the 1D X and D4. At least not for stills.   I have always found a use for mirrorless cameras because the video has often been better - both in terms of image quality and features. That hasn't changed.