iamoui

Thanks. Yeah, I reckon the Ai-S lenses give a nice look to the NX1 ... sharp but not too sharp. As you say less distractingly sharp. I was hoping they would look OK as I have a nice little collection already  I think half the fun I'm having with this camera is because of the EOSHD Log LUT. It's good fun starting with a flat image and seeing what can be done. It seems to take well to FilmConvert, OSIRIS & Impulz..

Oh, completely agreed. My film student friends laughed when I bought Blackmagic instead of Sony, but guess whose stuff looks better? Guess whose camera still gets talked about? Guess whose camera cost 1/3 the price of a used A7S?
This guy. :D

we did alot of testing at Media City with Cine D and Natural (contrast -5 and saturation -5) and hands down the best look to work with and grade was Natural (contrast -5 and saturation -5) and this was in a hi end Davinci Grading suite that does feature films every week for Sony Pictures etc .
Cine D takes a whole bunch of correction just to get it usable - THEN you apply your look ontop and the whole thing is so tweeked up its a mess .
So I'm shooting the whole movie on Natural (contrast -5 and saturation -5) Im thinking like I used to do 20 years ago shooting film stock ,
Natural (contrast -5 and saturation -5) is my film stock thats the look ...and I'm shooting the whole movie like that .
 
and yes the XL is essential in my opinion as it makes the whole package a usable filmaking tool , dont forget it SHARPENS your lenses too !!
 
We did some test with an Angenieux 28-76mm 2.6 Optimo on a RED EPIC and a Nikon 28-70mm 2.8 with Metabones XL on a Panasonic G7 and there is nothing in it !
if anything the Panny Metabones combo was sharper and cleaner in the blacks no noise at all compated to the RED /Angenieux combo!!
That test convinced us the Metabones makes your Nikon Zooms into SERIOUS cinema quality Glass - faster, sharper and wider! nuff said its no brainer .

It's getting even harder to hang on to a camera for longer than 5 seconds before something else comes out

I'll say this. Its getting harder and harder for us to come up with excuses for not making films

There has to be a catch...

Well to be fair, the FS5 is a video camera targeted at video shooters, the 1dxII is Canon's top of the line stills camera targeted at sports/wildlife shooters and photojournalists that also shoots 4k video, while being weather sealed, having one of the best AF systems on the planet, and offering 14fps with a 170 frame raw burst and so on....
Apples and oranges. To the max. People on this forum are not Canon's target with this camera, despite its video capabilities.
Look at the shutter count on used 1dx's, in many cases people are firing off 200,000+ frames a year. I've seen used models with over a 1,000,000 clicks on the shutter.
The upcoming 5d4 will probably fill the 4k void at a lower price point. The 5d3 was dropped shortly after the 1dx started shipping, hopefully the pattern continues. 

File sizes are not too big for the NX1 at all. It doesn't need transcoding now, and it was always clear H.265 would get broad support in NLEs pretty quickly. The transcoding step I did put up with... it was a $1500 camera not a $6k one. I don't see why I should have to put up with MJPEG at $6k in 2016. On a used 1D C from 2012, that is understandable but it isn't now.
Yes the FS7 is too big for me which is why I got the FS5 instead!
My only use for 60p would be slow-mo. 60p offers mediocre slow-mo. I would rather sacrifice the resolution and unmanageable file sizes and shoot 240fps 1080p on the FS5... Oh did I mention the FS5 is also $400 cheaper than the 1D X Mark II, has a variable ND filter, LOG, small 4K file sizes, Speed Booster and proper video ergonomics & features?

Looks like a nice camera for stills.

Sorry but 4K 60fps at 800Mbit/s is a total bullshit feature
10 minutes per 64GB card and impossible to edit without a transcoding step.
At $6k, only $2k off the price of an FS7 which does 4K 60fps in a body designed for video to a codec designed for editing.
Also there are so many cheap cameras that do 1080/60fps if slow-mo is your aim... Or even better many cameras half or even quarter the price of the 1D X Mark II that do 120fps!
Small correction. The GH3 was not the first to get 1080/50p... Sony NEX 7 was.
You see, we have had 60fps for mediocre slow-mo since 2011... why because it is now 4K is it suddenly a HUGE deal again?

If there's a better metaphor for the plodding of American politics, I'm not sure I could think of one at the moment.

So, I guess I'll be the voice of dissension, the first version was better. I liked the grade and the subtitles way better. The distraction of the subtitles worked with her character's thoughts being all over the place. 

http://www.canonrumors.com/canon-eos-1d-x-mark-ii-video-frame-rate-options/

My opinion? Keep the NX1 and buy a used A7s for those heavy low light situations. Will save you money compared to selling the NX1 and buying the new A7s II or A7r II. If you have nikon glass I recommend checking out a D750. Excellent low light even at 60 fps an a great image. 
Why do you need 4K? Do your clients demand it? Are they going to know that you upscale the lowlight footage? Or is it that  you just prefer it? If your doing event work no one is going to care about the resolution, just getting a good image. 
Also, get a simple shoulder rig. IBIS will not solve all your problems and switching to a body with a smaller grip isn't going to make handholding any easier. 

So the moire in the net curtains is completely eradicated by the VA (or caused by the UHD transcoding)?

These days working with ML raw is a breeze. Reqired CF cards are much cheaper than a year ago. I have 5d3 and love working with raw. I have bought 2 sandisks 128gb 160mb/s and they NEVER gave me dropped frames. Never unexpected recording stop. NEVER. It is very reliable. 128gb last for about 25min 24/25p 1080p.
My workflow now is:
-put CF card to the reader - 2 seconds
-use  an app called MLVFS which "mounts" the files from the card and makes them virtual CDNGs - 128gb take maybe about 30 seconds
-open resolve 12 and import files - 30 seconds
Color correct, cut, do everything and export  - there is NO need for any conversions at all.
Thats it. There is some nice app, all-in-one solutions in the making right now  - called MLVProducer.
On shoot i had 4 CF cards and nextodi 2730 with 2TB HDD onboard. Archiving 128gb takes about 25min. Then i can take HDD out, plug it to the PC via sata cable and work straight from it. Memory is getting cheaper very fast. Instead of investing 2-3 thousands $ into new camera (and cry about 8bit etc) i rather buy 8 new sandisk cards for 1300$ and have 200 minutes available without a need of copying it on set.

Another re-edit :

I realized, I stopped taking pictures almost completely, and instead use only framegrabs...The quality is simply outstanding, and quite honestly, the gap between photo and video has become so thin, its barely noticeable.

Yeah, 'motion cadence' is something as non-quantifiable and vague as an image that 'pops'.
But it kinda has to do with the organic flow of frames following up eachother. Even though the framerate and shutterspeed are set the same, there might be a different feel to the motion with different cameras. Something you can't quite put your finger on, but kinda know its there. Not science, but magic.

I also wondered what this might mean. I haven't noticed anything strange with my NX1. I like to always keep shutter speed 1/50 (or 1/125 when shooting 100 fps slowmotion) and use ND filter. In my eye the motion seems very natural.

First time poster.
In regards to the Samsung NX1, I'm considering a purchase, but I'm a bit curious about your comment regarding "3. Unnatural motion cadence when panning or recording a moving subject (deal breaker)."   Is this in reference to some form of extreme rolling shutter when recording UHD or 4k?  
I've seen that the 4k rolling shutter is pretty bad on the Samsung but its also not great on the Sony A7 series.  However, the Samsung 1080p rolling shutter is one of the best among CMOS sensors.  My thought is that during scenes with extreme action or during lots of hand held shooting, I could drop to 1080p to compensate.
Or does motion cadence refer to something else?  To my mind, something shot at 24 fps at 1/50th shutter speed should be pretty much the same across cameras unless rolling shutter plays a major role in what is perceived by the viewer.
I'm very curious in regards to what people are referring to when they reference motion cadence.  Seems a very nebulous trait of a camera and I'm very interested in what makes good cadence vs bad cadence that would constitute a deal-breaker for a certain camera.

If A7r II has "good battery life", then NX1's battery life should be "mindblowing battery life from different galaxy". It's just joke that you gave them both "good battery life" when A7r II is so much worse.
Cinema4K with NX1 is softer than UHD, so that shouldn't be plus, and 4K with A7r II is cropped which should be huge minus.
A7r II also requires good color grading to get useful results, while NX1 looks awesome straight out of box.
Screenshot from NX1 video (4K@1080p):

Perhaps since when the nx1 is the best and most affordable 4k photocamera? :-P 

Award of the most useless post of the year !

I'm with you on the NX1, Andrew! It has captured striking imagery with an astonishing success rate for me compared to any other camera. It might not sit atop any specific quantifiable ranking of cameras, but what it's capable of is just short of miraculous. On the Ronin, that AF system is a dream come true, and paired together in the right hands, most any shot is possible. It handles extremely well, is reliable as heck, and it has good tech specs where it counts.

Other than the transcoding hassle, the #1 issue I had with the NX-1 is the fact that once you hit RECORD only the EVF *or* LCD is active.  You cannot toggle between them like the Sony a7x series.  This drove me nuts.