John D

I love my a7s.  It's amazing.  But I can't spend that much for another one and also would like to have this second camera potentially as a photo shooter since the a7s is good but not great in that area.  (and sorry for the delayed response - I just noticed my post didn't submit before) 

Thanks everyone for these great suggestions.  We had some kit stolen recently (including an a7rii, a 85 batis and the 55 sonnar) so I'm down to the 24-240 that we got for general purpose stuff.  We also aren't allowed to purchase used equipment so can't go down that road.  I'll look at the g7 and the gx85 and the Fuji (for kicks - less likely).  I had hoped to stay in the aps-c arena but used to use a gh2 and can work around m43 dof and low light issues if necessary.  Does anyone have any thoughts about the Nikon 3300?  4k would be great but it's not a dealbreaker and having some extra funds to put towards a fast prime would be helpful.  

Any recommendations in this price range?  I have an a7s but don't have to stay in the Sony family for this camera.  I teach at a university and need a less expensive camera for some of our department's projects.  I teach in the dance and theater area so lowlight is helpful but not a dealbreaker.  

This is amazing news.  I hope/assume that the update will help the overheating issue when using a power cord. Downloading now to find out.  

I'm pretty sure it depends on the source signal.  My understanding (albeit limited) is that you don't get more color depth out of recording 12 bit 4:4:4 if the incoming signal is 8 bit 4:2:0 (a7rii), though apparently it can help with flexibility in grading later on.  Not sure it's worth it in that case alone.  But if you're shooting consistently with an FS7 then it would absolutely be worth it as you can record full 12 bit 4:4:4.  Regardless, I can confirm that both recorders are definitely 4K.  Take all of this with a grain (or six) of salt as I'm definitely no expert.  

I'm very interested as well.  Hope you will post for all.  Thanks!

Well here's a shot in the dark (pun intended!).  I'm ready to purchase the A7s but am concerned about the RS issue for my main subject material - dance.  Would anyone with the camera be willing to shoot someone running around for a minute or so in ff and aps-c mode and then post or send me the file so that I can see if it will work for my purposes?  Wearing a tutu is optional, of course.   ;)  I know this request is a bit of a stretch (more puns!) but with the DR and low light capabilities of this camera I'm hoping it will work out. 

 

Thanks in advance!  

 

John

 

PS - Just to say, as a college professor with two kids, I honestly can't afford to rent the camera to do my own test.  Let's see - new clothes for the kids or a camera rental for dad?  'Nuff said.  My school will be making the purchase for me and they aren't allowed to rent with state funds, hence this somewhat unusual request.  

Love it.  Thanks for making something more experimental with this camera to show how its capabilities can shine to creative effect.  These are exactly the aspects of the camera (low light sensitivity, high frame rates and, of course, FF look) that I am excited about with this camera.  I wish I could afford to be a plus member on Vimeo so that I could see it without Vimeo compression as it looks noisier than it surely is straight off the camera.  Thanks, Andrew!    

 

PS - just read Baltic's comment.  Not to be confused with a EOSHD "fanboy," my comment is purely in response to seeing someone use the camera's functionality in a more experimental way.  I've been boring myself silly watching all the lovely but uninspiring shots of streets, skies, leaves, etc. and simply appreciate getting to look at the cameras capabilities in a different setting.  

 

'Nuff said.  Hope this thread stays on track.  Best wishes to all in expressing their widely divergent responses to blog posts everywhere.   :)

VERY exciting news.  For those in the US, the only one I could find was by Avenview - looks like the same build but more expensive at $325.  

 

http://www.avenview.com/4k-hdmi-scaler-p-1608.html

 

Also found a less expensive option ($160) for a different scaler on B&H but not sure of the quality of the processing.

 

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1054513-REG/shinybow_sb_5652k_1x2_hdmi_4k2k_distribution.html

 

With the aps-c mode helping solve the RS issue and now this in terms of detail, the scale for my upcoming camera purchase is slowly tipping from the GH4 to the A7s.  Still gonna hold off 'til the thorough reviews of the A7s are out and the Canon 7DM2 announcement at Photokina (not much hope there but I'd be happy to be surprised by an amazing aps-c offering from them).  Good times.d

The thing that blows me away is seeing the stars like that.  Amazing.  I also love the way light reads overall in this.  Probably would never shoot in conditions as crazy as that, but I can imagine a lot of less extreme low light situations where staying clean (or close to it) would be incredibly helpful.  

Are the Atomos products really the only solution for external recording?  What about the BMD Hyperdeck Shuttle 2?  Perhaps a bit of a hassle as a part of a run and gun rig, but much cheaper than the blade or the star.  I'm hoping the HS2 will work for those low to no budget people like myself.  ; )   

Is that firmware update for real?  And how much could it really improve, given FF and especially in 4k?  I ask because the rolling shutter is the main deal breaker for me as I mostly shoot dance films.  If they could bring it down to GH2 levels (my current camera) that would make my decision between the A7S and the GH4 much more difficult.  

Interesting.  No ProResHQ?  

 

Andrew, do you feel that the GH4 codec grades as well as ProRes?  Or will with the 4:2:0 to 4:4:4 RGB process that you posted?  ProRes is a big selling factor for me in considering the BMPCC, along with the sigma/speedbooster combo, but I'm still on the fence. 

Thanks to both of you for your responses.  

 

@Maxotics: I really appreciate the information you supplied in your blog and your comments regarding the amount of work RAW will take to look better.  I have a GH2 already and a decent canon "video" camera so I feel like I can produce decent compressed images at this point.  It's having the OPTION to produce something really beautiful and more truly representative of the light/color detail in performance footage that is interesting to me.  My hope is that Black Magic (or someone else) will come out with some variant of the BMPCC at NAB that will give it a clearer edge for my use.  They are already offering so much for so little that I'm basically sold - RAW for $1k is crazy, but add 60fps and a slightly larger sensor and it would be off the charts.  

 

Thanks again!  I'll let you know which way I go and how it turns out.   

I am looking for advice on cameras that will shoot in theatrical lighting situations (dance and physical theater productions).  It is quite common to have sidelight, downlight (including down spotlights) or backlight with very little "fill" lighting from the front in dance productions.  The use of these angles of light creates beautiful shadows and makes the dancers' bodies look more 3-dimensional but also makes for a very high contrast image in video terms.  In other words, when you expose for skin tones, you blow out certain areas of light and you lose all shadow detail.  The result is that it is extremely hard to get a good recording of what the dance actually looked like in live performance.  

 

I have a hope that getting a camera with a higher amount of dynamic range (bmpcc perhaps) will help with this issue.  If anyone has any advice I'd really appreciate it.  I have $3000 to spend, though I might be able to get approval for more if the right combination of lenses and camera is a bit higher.  I have some good MFT lenses that I use with my GH2 but have access to some nikon and canon glass as well, so I'm flexible in terms of what sensor/mount situation would be best.  I know NAB is just around the corner but just thought I'd get some thoughts on this question - hoping some of the experts will weigh in on this one.  

 

Thanks!

 

John 

Hey Zach,

Check out this link for a description and benchmark of the Seagate GoFlex thunderbolt adapter ($99usd) with an OCZ Vertex SSD (128gb - $99usd). It's another $50 for the cable but this was the least expensive portable thunderbolt solution I could find. The only issue i've heard of is that you have to be fairly conscious to maintain the dock connection, but that seems obvious to me. Just to say, I haven't actually purchased yet as I won't be traveling substantially until next summer and will wait for ssd prices to drop even further. Also, I personally wouldn't bother paying more for a thunderbolt connection on a 7200rpm external drive as the bottleneck will be the speed of the drive long before the connection. For thunderbolt (or usb 3.0 or esata) ssd really makes sense. Hope this is helpful.

Good luck!

http://cheesycam.com/seagate-goflex-thunderbolt-adapter-docks/

You know, I have it and use it for other purposes, but I haven't used it for rewrapping. I had hoped to figure out the problem with Media Converter because it's so incredibly fast, but I'll definitely try MPEGStreamclip as well. Thanks for the suggestion!

John

Thanks - that's a good suggestion. I've figured out a crazy workaround for now involving screen-capture software, but hopefully I'll get the underlying cause worked out at some point.

I also recommend the B+W for the hyperprime.

And, just so you know, the 58/77 hood (which doubles for a step-up ring) does NOT come with the lens. At least it didn't come with mine. In fact, it's an $80 additional purchase, plus $20 shipping from China.

I took the risk and bought a somewhat less expensive metal step up ring (heliopan - $50 and free shipping) from adorama for the B+W nd filters I'm using. There is only the slightest amount of vignetting at 1.6. However, vignetting hasn't been an issue for me as I only use the ND filter when I'm in bright sunlight, so I'm usually stopped down a bit anyway.

Also, in my research I read a LOT about the unwanted effects of cheaper variable nd filters on footage. I'm sure there are plenty of shooters who don't mind (just like me about the tiny bit of vignetting at full wide with my nd set up), but I chose to go with regular nd filters to ensure the best quality footage I can get for a decent price. The heliopan/B+W combo represented a reasonable price vs. performance compromise in my mind.

With all that said, given that you're on a budget you might just go with a cheaper option and see how it looks to you. If it doesn't work you're only out $15-$25 to get started.

Good luck!

Thanks for your response. That's what I had understood about the rewrap process.

What I don't understand is why any processing would introduce the stuttering/glitches. The rewrapped/.mov files are clean so why would rewrapped files go bad when put through an nle and exported? Is that normal for a file that's been rewrapped using Media Converter or is this unusual? Using Media Converter seems like a pretty sketchy process if you can only stay within one codec after rewrapping.

I just got my department (university - education pricing) to buy adobe's production premium, so I'm going to just stay in the avchd/.mts container for now, but I would really like to figure this out so that I can use fcp/studio if and when I want as, at least for now, I'm faster at editing and outputting in that nle/suite.

Any advice on how to get that stuttering/glitchy footage back? Or is it pretty much a lost cause?

Thanks again!

Per Andrew's suggestion (and others), I recently tried using Media Converter to "rewrap" my avchd clips to quicktime/.mov files. Incredibly fast processing is a major plus but, unfortunately, there seems to be some kind of issue with the files where ANY kind of additional processing (burning to dvd, adding transitions in fcp 7 or imovie, etc.) introduce "glitches" into the video. The glitches are fairly frequent and remind me of tape dropouts from the old mini-dv days. I'm using the [color=#333333][font=Helvetica, Arial, FreeSans, sans-serif][size=2]“Re-wrap AVCHD for Quicktime with uncompressed audio" preset. [/size][/font][/color]

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Most of my .mts files are backed up, but I foolishly dumped two sets and am hoping to find a way to be able to use that footage. Here's Andrew's original article on the subject for reference.

http://www.eoshd.com/content/3576/re-wrap-avchd-clips-to-quicktime-in-no-time

For what it's worth, I don't have any experience with the Oly but I absolutely love the look I get from the SLR Magic lens. You might read up on the lens flare issue and the potential vignetting in adding filters. Nothing that can't be dealt with, but you should be informed before making your final choice. : )

Thanks so much for taking the time to post those photos. They are extremely helpful! Given the slight vignetting without the ring it seems like a very small difference when the ring is on there as well. For the kind of work that I do, the slight vignette shouldn't be an issue in most contexts and might actually add a nice quality. Heliopan it is! Thanks again!!! :)

Thanks so much for your reply. With such a great lens, I would have thought more people would have figured out solutions to this problem. If you don't mind posting a couple of shots, that would be great - just to get an idea of what it would look like. What I find interesting is that the SLR Magic ring is also listed as their "lens hood." I can't really picture how it could function well as a lens hood without causing more vignetting, but I haven't been able to find any images of the ring or shots made with the ring attached. Hopefully the Heliopan will work well enough to just go with it. Thanks again!

Has anyone used an aftermarket 58/77 step up ring for the slr magic hyperprime 12mm lens? I'm getting the lens soon and don't really want to spend $80 + shipping for their proprietary ring.

Clearly there are lots of cheapies and Heliopan makes a thin brass version (still pricey @ $47) but I'm not sure if it's worth it either. I just want to make sure that the ring I get won't cause vignetting with an added filter (ND or other) without paying the crazy premium for the slr magic ring.

Any advice?