Chrad

URSA Mini is the wrong name for it. It seems more like a replacement for the Cinema Camera/Production Camera line to me.

​I agree with that. It sure ain't 'mini'. 
I think this camera is what the original BMCC should have been. A camera with proper ergonomics for filmmaking that doesn't require a huge amount of additional rigging.
​It's a nice new tool that could solve some of the headaches we have to face. I don't think any of us are under the illusion that it's going to transform us into better filmmakers.

Did you see the eriknaso.com link? ​It looks like a nice fit for a shoulder. I wouldn't say 'massive'.

Good deal. Only $500 more than that Canon fixed lens 1" sensor camcorder. 

Did you see the eriknaso.com link? ​It looks like a nice fit for a shoulder. I wouldn't say 'massive'.

Shooting weddings, events, or Broll for an organization with people in it, I must say, I get more and more tired of people's fear and dislike for cameras. You're an adult, get over it already.
Getting the stink eye gets old after a while. Just because cameras reveal and remind you of how stupid you look and how dumb you sound, please don't take it out on me.

​Bingo.
The full frame DOF at f1.2 on an 85mm is so insanely thin as to be impractical for recording objects in motion. Sure, it's nice to have the option available, but the applications of that 'full frame look' are so niche, I don't think it should be a major consideration for the majority of video shooters.
Stils are another story.

That looks so gorgeous and I would love to own such a great camera and play around with it. But this ratrace for tech and gear is exhausting and these permanent comparisons between video and film are unnecesssary. Video is video and film is film. What's wrong with that?

​I think maybe you need a more active imagination.  This capability has existed for years now.

​And what is "local news report" but a story? It's basically storytelling. Sure, it's not "cinema" and it's not meant to be, but it requires a fair bit of talent and creativity to make it good.  Or at least watchable, because the "live events" are usually very boring.

The more I think about it the more I think celluloid motion picture film really is an environmental disaster.  Leaving aside the chemicals required to make it, processing it requires huge amounts of a witches brew of toxic chemicals - the bleach contains potassium ferricyanide, potassium bromide,ammonium thiocyanate and various acids.  The developer contains formaldehyde; the fixer ammonium and sulfur compounds.  All of these chemicals are further contaminated with heavy amounts of silver waste washed away from the film during processing.  And loads of clean water have to be consumed at each rinse step.  An 120 minute 35mm film requires at least 36,000 feet of camera negative processed (at a conservative 3:1 shooting ratio).  Back when movies were released on celluloid to theaters it took a staggering 24 million feet of release prints processed (12,000 feet per print times 2,000 theaters) for just one movie!
For digital, you need toxic chemicals to make the storage mediums, but in far smaller amounts; making a tiny memory card consumes just a drop in the bucket compared with the amounts needed to process just two hours of celluloid (12,000 feet of 35mm).  And digital storage mediums can be reused hundreds or even thousands of times, compared with the one-time use of celluloid.
 

Judging from the TCSTV video it looked pretty soft though. Of course, it doesn't help that they were shooting the rest with the awesome FS7 and that Chris was on the controls, lol. But yeah, this does look like a winner in terms of video. Take your 3-axis gimbal system and leave it at home, because it has industry leading 5-axis IBIS. That means you can take your old vintage, cinema, or third party system lenses and get it stabilized time after time! (Not to say there isn't a place and time for a 3-axis gimbal system)
Since the E-M1 FW update only seems to mention an upgrade in burst shooting (was hoping for the new E-M5II's video functions on it as well)... I will go through some more video tests posted online and then probably will ditch the E-M1 in favor of the new E-M5II. Pretty sure they aren't rushed with pushing out an E-M1II. If anything, I think this was a statement that they are interested in giving a camera some more videofriendly functions, because their IBIS actually gives them an angle to start snooping away at that section of the market, which hadn't been acknowledged in the E-M1. The vari angle display finishes it off. Not sure if they will go bananas on the E-M1II though. They might just keep it for the mainly serious photographer audience... my feeling is they don't want their flagship known to be great for video. I think they don't mind making that change for the E-M5 line, making the E-M5II the hybrid flagship. They're even stating it...
"OM-D Movie that provides cinema-quality movies in hand-held shooting"
"To compensate for image instability, the OM-D E-M5 Mark II in-body 5-axis image stabilization system uses a VCM driver, which floats the image sensor with magnetic force. This construction makes it possible to shoot smooth, hand-held movies without a movie tripod, mini-jib, rails, or other specialized equipment."
"Advanced movie features for professional level movie making"
"Equipped with Multi Frame Rate, High Bit Rate, ALL-Intra shooting, and able to set time codes, professional level movie editing is possible."
"Focus Peaking is now available in 4 colors (black, white, red and yellow), and the intensity can be selected from low, normal and high, making focusing easier when shooting."
"Audio can also be recorded using an Olympus IC recorder equipped with linear PCM recording connected to the microphone jack for optimal audio levels and high quality audio recording. Because power supply settings to the external microphone can be turned on and off, users can use a high-end condenser microphone or dynamic microphone with a power supply."
"Camera grip HLD-8G (sold separately) with a headphone jack can be used to listen to recorded audio while shooting."
"Functions that go beyond flagship models"
~ http://www.olympus-global.com/en/news/2015a/nr150205em5mk2e.jsp
Interesting.

Value for money wise and besides the small size of this camera why will someone spend $7999 on this camera instead of the $7999 on a Sony Fs7 if video is primarily what you shoot?

First off, nice tutorial on imaging basics posted on dvxuser and elsewhere.
 Now on to my Q's. 
Were you some what scientific in your testing methods? , For the Epic Dragon what compression settings, which olpf, your debayer settings and gamma, iso or asa rating (set for optimal latitude or?), the scene captured and its dynamic range, nd filters with or without ir, resolving power of the lens, type of lighting ie.. plasma led, fluorescent, tungsten.  color temp ?
 For Canon 1dc, c log or picture style?  over iso 400? and were all other applicable settings the same for both cams? 
 Then what size screen and its resolution did you view the images on? at 1:1 for both?   Was your working colorspace for broadcast or cinema or was it srgb?  
 On to the grade.  Did you try to color match to each other, throw on a lut or ? This is especially important in the 1dc's case. The 1dc log looks great and you can push it around quite a bit, but the chroma noise comes quickly once colors are saturated, (Had the 1dc since it came out, and see it regularly, but for small screen and web, not an issue) Ppro also definitely causes problems for the 1dc. I didn't take time to figure out the problem like Andrew, I just found it didn't look as good as in other software and moved on early last year. 
2-  Different mfgs use different amounts of noise removal.  Take the Fuji's as an example.  Everyone (including me) loves their colors and raves about them.  Look on any of the major review site comparison images and you will see very little noise, even when compared to some of the best sensors available at any price.  The fine detail is also gone.  It looks nice, but soft.  Notice the 1dc is softer than other 4k cams.  Very pleasing. (perfect imho). Draw your own conclusions.
3-  Depends upon settings above as well as being subjective
5- Dxo (if you believe them) rate Epic as the best they have ever tested.  14.8ev and color bit depth on par with medium format Phase one.  Other proper tests including the one I mentioned in my earlier post clearly show otherwise, and the often quoted and outspoken Shane Hurlburt completely disagrees.  (subscribed to his inner circle and not impressed) Andrews blog is far better.
6-Straight out of cam most seem to agree.  Much better options for making the epic pretty though.
8- 1dc definely has banding on smooth gradients , (even in non adobe products)  Add some noise and most of the time your okay
9- ff6k on the Dragon is 1.25 (roughly) so it is actually minutely larger than the 1dc. 19 megapixels as well. 18 for 1dc
 
" that's not important to me if the 1dc gives me no need to grade at all"
Lets be reasonable. Can you honestly say you would make a movie (other than a doc or reality) where you wouldn't have it graded?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I don't get the obsession with 85mm lenses for cinema use. It's a little on the long side for a proper MCU, but not quite long enough for ECU/shallow focus/compressed perspective/detail shots like a 100mm. If you've never used a 75mm, borrow someone's APS-C camera and try a 50mm. My friend lent me his Sony 50mm f/1.8 OSS and A6000 for a 48 hour film project once, and I almost never felt the need to switch to my Minoltas--in fact, we shot the entire feature with nothing but that lens.

When voting on these focal lengths, think outside the box that photographic lenses may have trained you into. You may be surprised.

​
since the red dragon sensor is rather a lot bigger than s-35 at 30mm wide in 6k mode, if I had the PL mount version of the dragon I'd be looking at these in PL as a viable option.  Using s35mm lenses on the dragon in 6k will be pushing the lenses too far beyond their working limit and thus the need for 'full frame friendly' APO lenses becomes very important if the acquisition of 6k data rates is to be worthwhile.

This grew out of a discussion over on DVX user, thought I'd add it here if anyone is interested.
A poster asked "what is the best c-stand" and my reply was "usually, not a c-stand".
C stands are designed to get small lights and flags into a maze of light stand feet. They're not intended for overheads or big 2K fresnels. They tip easily, they're hard to pack, and the way the column meets the base at a single point makes them even more prone to tipping. For some reason, "c-stand" has become a sort of knee-jerk must-have for people starting to build a kit. I like having c-stands, but especially on a tight budget, I'd shop for stands that are more versatile, can hold more weight with greater stability, are easier to pack, and could reasonably be used for, say, an 8x8 overhead in calm conditions, and (hopefully) cost the same or less. Something that can take an XL softbox or a big octagon without 3 sandbags and prayer.

I'm comparing stands here to the Avenger Turtle-Base (unless you are 100% studio, you really don't want 1-piece C-stands - I feel they're a pain to pack). And turtles do give you the floor-stand option with a butt plug. Yet I'd take a Beefy Baby over a c-stand any day, in most cases. 
So - Stands in the $200 or less range you should consider. In the US, all the stands below can be found with free US shipping. There's probably a few more choices out there, but here's what's top of my radar:

BEST VALUE:

Matthews Steel Kit Stand
25 lb load, 37" footprint - 9.5 ft. tall
(Actually better height, load and footprint than the Beefy Baby)
$87, free shipping
Not as heavy steel as Beefy Babies (and thus lighter to pack)... and, DUDE, eighty seven bucks!! That's two c-stands!!


THE KING OF AFFORDABLE STANDS:

Kupo Master Combo HD $156
88 freaking pounds max. load!
55" footprint! ELEVEN FEET high.
baby pin AND junior receiver.
Leveling leg!
Cons: a very very wide footprint (very stable) that might be overkill on a tiny set.

OR SAVE A FEW BUCKS:

Kupo Master Combo Alu Senior Stand $144
26.5 lb load at a maximum height of 12' 4".
Footprint: 46" - still pretty big.
Aluminum construction, a triple function universal head and a leveling leg.

THE KNEE JERK C-STAND, (most agree) THE BEST VERSION AVAILABLE:

Avenger turtle base c-stand $169
9.8' feet height, 3' footprint, 22 lb max load, baby pin. Anyone who puts 22 lbs. on a fully extendedd c-stand may be asking for trouble though...
If you shoot strictly in the studio, you can save some money and get 1-piece (non turtle) c-stands. Which are a pain to pack.
If you use turtle base stands, you should invest in some butt plugs at $20 or so each. Makes a great floor-level stand.
Or buy the narrower turtle base and a butt plug.

BEST ALTERNATES TO THE C-STAND
In addition to that $87 Steel Kit Stand...
Matthews Beefy Beefy Double Riser $173
8.5' height, 22 lb max load 33" footprint. An industry standard. Essentially same price as the best c-stand.
(Was manufactured with a 12' aluminum column for some time, and those show up cheap on the used market - I wouldn't extend those fully or use in the wind, as the column is weaker than steel. I have two of the aluminum stands and I feel the column could buckle with enough stress. Great lightweight stand to get smaller flags up very high though, great for big softboxes at reasonable heights.)

Matthews Beefy Beefy Triple Riser $203
12 ft height, 20 lbs max load 33" footprint. A killer stand.

WANT WHEELS ON A KILLER STAND?

Kupo Junior Roller $199
17 lb max load - 45" footprint - 8.8' high
With super useful and good-sized braking wheels - bigger wheels than the Matthews roller in fact, which don't have brakes (well, mine don't).
(Avenger roller is same price, 1 foot shorter, only 28" footprint.) The giant footprint of the Kupo roller suggests it could be used for smaller overheads in calm conditions if big height isn't needed.
This type of stand is a dynamite thing to have - I use them for microphone booms, they're sturdy and reposition fast, rarely need sand bags.

Not sure what the confusion is.  mm's is mm's.  What camera you put a 24mm on matters for FOV, but mm is a measurement.  millimeter.  People that use s35 sensors/filmstock don't have a different metric system than someone shooting with a full frame, 4x5" film, or a m43 sensor.
Forget the cameras anyway.  That's actually irrelevant.  You're talking about a lens.  On your glass it's the distance from the point where light rays converge to the point where they form a sharp image onto the focal plane. 50mm is 1 millimeters plus 49 other millimeters.  
If you're arguing otherwise you've been misinformed.  The idea that film shooters have special math that is unique for them is ... well, not right.
This issue really gets convoluted because folks new to all this stuff (and even some pro's apparently) tend to overthink it and conflate various camera terminology.  But if you just consider the lens, ultimately it's pretty simple.
Which is why, if I was shooting a low budget action film with an ASP-C sensor, I'd tend towards the 40mm lens, as it would be a nice "standard" FOV.  Not too wide, not too tight.  But nothing wrong with a lens with a bit longer FOV either, you just adapt to what you got and go.  
I wouldn't burn time worrying about 10mm.  
I'd worry more about other aspects of film making.  Actor and camera blocking, sets, design, stunts, lighting, acting, EDITING.  Holy crap, that's the stuff that matters more.  Try not to get wrapped up in gear-centric-fetishism on the low end of film making.  If all that other stuff is half-assed I don't care what FOV you have, whatever film you're trying to make is going to suck.  Make the most of what you have and be creative around your limitations. 

People forget so quickly that the A7s doesn't shoot 4K internally.

Feels like this is the price this camera should have been from the start. 

Cool for photographers.
Irrelevant for film makers. ISO sensitivity for photos is 100-6400...uh oh. I doubt it will improve on 5D Mk iii video.

Lol, this list was ridiculous.

This lamenting about business ruined by dilettants isn't new. Things change and it's harder for established photographers to make their profit. As it had always been. Amateurs don't make good photos even though they can take 1300 for a wedding. It's a fundamental difference if you cover every angle ten times in order to later choose the, er, 'best' - or if you get into the mood, compose the image in your mind, wait for the magic fraction of a second and push the button (the only excuse for SLR cameras today and against the slightest delay of LCDs),
I don't consider myself a good photographer. Or videographer. But I do understand this difference. You don't aim your camera at your motif, pull the trigger, shoot a heap of pictures in machine gun style and capture the essence of it. It's much like a fisherman who drains the whole lake and afterwards digs out the fish.

On my first shoot with the Sony FS7 - I was very impressed with the image out the camera and the ergonomics, but I was very disappointed with the performance of the firmware. It was slow, glitchy and hard to use. (The video is out Jan 29th - edit this week). 
I chose the FS7 again for another shoot as the client was adamant on 4k and slow motion. I agreed and received a brand new unit from my rental provider. Things were a bit different this time, as the body had the extension unit and battery bolted onto the back, plus a Vocas railing system underneath. I chose ProMist filters to diffuse the skin of our lady pop star with a matte box, locked off on a Satchler tripod. 
I shot the video in XAVC-I 4k 25fps and slow motion in 1080 150fps, SLog3. I had plenty of lighting such as Kino Flo, Arri and Dedolights so I could light the vast location which was a decadent seaside theatre room. 
I have to say, the dynamic range wowed me even more. Lighting the large interior was a smooth process. Detail is very impressive. The zebras and peaking are very good. Noise looks minimal. Motion cadence however does look a little 'video', although I can't judge this fully until the grade. 
Handling the camera was fine on the tripod, as expected. An annoying issue with the extension unit is that it gets in the way of the HDMI port. You have to really force it. We didn't get it to work in the end. May have been an issue elsewhere, so we used the very good LCD throughout. 
Firmware wise - the camera performed better than before. I'm not sure if the unit before was a bit faulty, as it was slow and crashed a lot. Still - it wasn't as responsive as I'd expect. The menus are dreadful and over complicated, it takes so much time just to change the most simple settings. As a user experience - the firmware performance and user experience is very poor. I've got used to it, but it really does need a complete overhaul. 
The button layout on the side of the camera is also slow and fiddly. They really need to come up with a modernised way of button layouts on these types of cameras. Finding where to play a clip was a nightmare, until I found a little button called 'Thumbnail.' Not the best name! 
Another issue was the Speedbooster. Changing aperture on an EF lens was terrible, as the aperture setting would go crazy and go from f2 to f16 with a slight dial. Metabones and Sony need to chat. 
With these issues aside, the camera is great to shoot with and delivers a lovely image. It makes the FS700 look like a toy. For the money, it is fantastic. I much prefer using this camera compared to a RED Epic and Blackmagic CC. I do miss the quicker setup times with a DSLR/DSLM camera, but you gain quality features for a better picture. 
I will definitely use it again and can't wait to edit the 2 music videos I've shot. When they are released, I will share! 
Here is me and the camera: 
 

Hi everybody.  I was at CES today and at the Samsung CES booth where they had some NX1 cameras mounted around a photo booth with a couple of models in a living room setting.  I happened to notice that the Samsung people did not have the NX1 SD card slot glued shut so I slipped in my own SD card and made some video using the Gamma Normal, Gamma C, and Gamma DR profiles that is in the 1.2 pre-release firmware.  I thought that I would share them with all of you.  Before I made the video, I performed a RESET ALL on the camera so I would be shooting with pristine default settings.  Attached are the screen grabs of the video playing in KODI/XBMC of my MacBook Pro.
Take note of how the black colors in the picture frame that is on the bookshelf to the left of the model's head perform under Gamma DR and Gamma C, and Gamma Normal.
 
You can get the raw H.265 files from my MediaFire file share:
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/63s4q7yuwp7nk/CES2015_NX1