John Brawley

Hi Stanley, I'm doing an ABC ( Aussie version of the BBC ) drama series called The Warriors right now in Melbourne and about to head back to the US to do another series over there. JB

I haven't checked and haven't got the camera with me but yes, you can do this in stills mode using the lever near the EVF. Jb

Well gee, everyone is manual over here on the motion forum.... I'm manual. almost always 180 degree shutter. I usually have a stop I like to work at, depending on the lenses I'm shooting. ( on the super speeds I'm shooting right now it's between T2 and T2.8) I use ND's to keep me at that stop when required. WB is always daylight or tungsten preset 99% of the time. I never WB on set. I use FC for midtone, Zebras @ 100% to show clipping if the camera does them and then a well adjusted EVF or monitor to eyeball the look, preferably with the option to turn the show LUT or off.... JB

The flat profile isn't adjustable. It's reasonable in that yeah, there's wriggle room. This is still an 8 bit codec (even if the camera is more) but now that's the bottleneck. Before you also had aliasing and the crop of the sensor. I haven't tried the HDMI output either, and I imagine you could improve it a little, having a better codec. It's still an 8 Bit camera, but it's got a much nicer looking, less artefact'ed (i just made that up) image, it's in 4K, and the IS is even better again. I come from being used to working with 12 bit video. Even 10 bit is a step down for me. So for 8 bit's, if you expose it well enough in the first place, she looks really nice. I'm stuck in the middle of a series right now or else I'd have some actual real world examples to share with you. It's not as good as others, but it's a huge leap forward for Olympus, even from their already greatly improved video on the EM5 Mark II. In two models they've more or less caught up to others with comparable specs and for me, the pictures look better, until you go to 10 bit codecs. JB

I haven't looked specifically, but I found the same thing when they offered the 102 FHD version in the EM5 Mark II. The data rate is variable and it depends on a few factors. If there's more fine detail, if it's low light etc then the data rate goes up. I could only max out the data rate by shooting in more difficult situations and at 30 FPS....I would guess maybe the same for their 4K implementation. The data rate isn't fixed and this is the case with a lot of compression schemes. DVD / Itunes is the same. Thinks like contrast, fine detail and smoke will up the rate. It seems to auto assign how much data it think's it needs. It does look really good though. I've been impressed how much of a leap this camera is. JB

You sure can. I have aperture and shutter speed mapped to the two main dials. You can easily change them in shot if you need to. It was my biggest request to the development team after the EM5II. and yeah, you guys changing shutter speed to set exposure....really ??? You're prepared to draw attention to your shot by CHANGING the motion cadence ? It's poor practice, pure and simple. It's a cheat. If you have that big an exposure change then auto ISO can work well if you don't have a focus puller to change iris for you remotely. If you use iris or shutter speed to change exposure in shot, you'll see a stepping in exposure as you change. You'll find ISO changes can be more seamless. And 8 bit out on my HDMI. (though I'm still on an early build but I'm 99% sure it's going to be 8 Bit in the final release) JB

I hate that there is this rush to call anyone a BM loyalist when all you're doing is pointing out that what they claim actually isn't true. To whit....Windows 7 corrupts clips on an Ursa Mini with V4.0 software. Windows anything has nothing to do with the firmware in the camera being able to record files or indeed corrupt them. In this case, the files WERE NOT corrupted. It's this kind of idiotic misinformation that is irksome to me. Calling it out and being wrong seems to get you labeled a BM loyalist. What does that make the guy making the claim that it corrupts the files ? JB

Or in this case, it's not that it won't work, it's just not supported. JB

huh ? They weren't corrupted. They just couldn't be READ by that particular unsupported setup. The user was able to put the card back in the camera and they played just fine. They just couldn't read them. And in fact, BM themselves responded saying they weren't sure what the actual problem was in that instance, but the glaring obvious starting position is that it's an unsupported setup. Carry on... Indeed, that's my take. It's "old" stock that they're clearing out that have the original V1 4K sensor. JB

I'm inclined to agree. When you look at other cameras out there, especially in a similar sensor size, there's not much that touches it for STILLS work. Perhaps we're forgetting that it's a stills camera first and foremost, competing with flagship cameras from other brands that cost a lot more (albeit in larger sensor sizes) JB

So far what I've seen is very good. I've not actually done the numbers, but the IS being so good helps a lot too because it takes the camera movement out of the perceptual equation. JB

It's a major major improvement in video, not just because of the 4K. It's the reduce aliasing too. The HDMI out is 8 bit 422 however, the image is just a huge leap forward. Frankly what I've enjoyed most is using it as a stills camera. It handles so beautifully and the AF is insanely fast. The stills have plenty of punch and are also a noticeable jump in terms of res. I say that as a fan of the EM1 Mark 1. The Mark 2 is a giant leap forward just in stills mode. Same can be said for the video. I honestly think Olympus have hit one out of the park here. Even if I didn't have my relationship with Olympus I would be buying this camera. And yes, I'm planning to shoot some video to try and see what we can do with this camera, hopefully in the next few weeks. Let me know if you have any ideas ;-) JB

I'd disagree strongly with that idea. Ive been testing the video on the EM1 mark 2 and it's very substantially improved over the EM5 Mark 2. JB

You know they introduced a flat profile on the EM5 Mark II right ? And they have one for the EM1 Mark II as well. JB

I'm not really sure where this shared LSI stuff comes from. Even if it's true they are different sensors and totally different technology approaches. Olympus really are leaps ahead in the way they do IBIS. There are fundamental differences even between the em5 and the em1 for example. Im fairly certain the HDMI output on the 1 will be 8 bit :-) (though I've been wrong before) jb

I've used many EVFs. I'm a fan generally of EVFs over monitors for framing and exposure. The BM EVF is very underrated. It's as good as any of the more expensive EVFs. I love the original Alexa EVF but the newer Amira and Alexa Mini EVFs don't compare to the Blackmagic in my view for image IQ. They do offer important functionality of course but I've been using the BM EVF on Alexa Mini's for a while. With the Wooden Camera mod it becomes easier to do this with other cameras. JB

Turns out I was wrong. I assumed it was JPEG not RAW. It will barely register past one second though so not continuous :-) JB.

I don't believe it shoots RAW faster than 18fps. JB.

Not sure where 60fps RAW is coming from. It's 18fps. And as far as I understand IBIS is independent of 4K. I haven't specifically checked it but I'm fairly certain that's not right. JB

There is indeed a lot to like about this camera in the video department :-) 4K (and not just UHD) is a big one for starters.... JB

Sony have always done this. Look up Betamax Vs VHS. They always design proprietary media for the same reasons. Notice all Sony cameras use proprietary media. Canon don't allow their mount to be used. But the patent for EF mount rannout around the time you started seeing other cameras in EF mount...2012 :-) You'll notice BM don't say that they support EF-S because that's technically still protected. Canon still don't share EF protocols which is why you see issues with support for iris and IS on some lenses. JB

I think with the smaller sensor sizes I totally agree with you. But again, MFT is an open standard. E mount is not. Pointless discussion. If BM made a universal mount, it's likely that it would be harder to do the electronic stuff on a camera as small as a micro and keep it reliable and good and also be able to scale up to the larger sensors. JB

Sony only license other lens makers. They will never allow another camera manufacturer to make an E mount camera. JB

You're listing being able to adapt C mount lenses as an advantage for a mount we can't actually use ? C mount lenses generally have an image circle for standard 16 (and that's not super 16) AND MUCH SMALLER. These are I can't imagine at all that's a huge number of users. It's basically lenses from the 50s and security camera lenses we're talking about that don't even cover 16x9 2k on the sensor. Youre listing a disadvantage of being able to use lenses that have 16mm and smaller image circles on a mount that typically is 135 format sensors for really old lenses or security camera / toy lenses that don't cover 16x9 on a mount no one but Sony can use. Aren't we getting a teeeeny bit obscure ? jb

Sure. Im not sure how E mount is any better than m4/3 though. JB