jase

Quotes like that annoy me as well because it's too easy when you have money rolling in left right and centre from professional video work to say "ah, throw that $12k 1D C aside I'll use it as a doorstop" and run out and spend another $3.5k on an A7R II. Way too easy!
However for the majority of people $3500 is a lot of money and significantly more than a GH4 or NX1 and thus the deliberation needs to be more critical.
When the Samsung NX1 came out Cinema5D basically rubbished it. The reason? Bad rolling shutter! Yet here with the S35 crop mode of the A7R II we have what looks like potentially even worse rolling shutter problems and they are practically mute about that... do I detect a Sony bias?
Well I have seen Cinema5D's guys operate first hand myself, at trade shows such as Photokina and they do know a few Sony people and get cameras early. It is too easy to recommend something when you have the camera literally dumped on your desk by a PR company as well.
I was offered a trip to the US to shoot with the A7R II by Sony and I turned them down. I was offered a demo unit by the US PR agency Sony had organising the A7R II marketing and I turned them down. On Wednesday 5th August I will walk into a shop, hand over my hard earned cash for the A7R II and if it is rubbish I will say so and take it back for a refund.
The only reason I am going anywhere near Sony and their PR agents is that they have organised an interesting shoot the day before on Tuesday and it is a chance to get some decent footage. Most of what I say to the Sony people there will be about how it can be improved and what the most glaring flaws are, because that is what I regard as feedback... saying "wow buy buy buy" does not have any useful substance to it, it is pure hype.
And so back to the topic...
It's an open secret Sony want you to buy more than one camera!
That's one reason why the launches are staggered like this. If the A7S II and A7R II came out on the same day you would be able to compare them and select the best ONE.
As it is, this week if you need an internally recording 4K full frame mirrorless camera and can't wait for a mystery to unfold 6 months from now then you are obligated to buy the A7R II.
Personally this is the approach I am taking because there's always eBay to shift gear whenever you like, whenever it is superseded.
I am sure the A7S II will push video to even greater heights, 4K 60p and at least 250fps 1080p, much less rolling shutter, better low light, etc.
it's a guess though and the A7R II is a guarantee of quality right now.
However there's always the danger with waiting for the next model and upgrading in that you never appreciate what is right in front of you.

Here is a link to the article, it's mentioned under Dynamic Range. 
https://***URL not allowed***/lab-review-sony-a5100-video-dynamic-range-power/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=lab-review-sony-a5100-video-dynamic-range-power
 

9 days straight?  Not enough time.  You prove my point.  A guy who spends 9 days on something and decides to disregard it because he can't get good results.  There are so many people with this mentality. they go straight for s-log or another picture profile without understanding how to get the best from them.
 
 
other than subjectivity, please tell me what's wrong with the colours here?  I see nothing wrong with them at all, and I did little to the picture in post 

​Yes. I'm saying that the A7S in this mode should show less moire than the A6000. I'm saying that the differences between the cameras won't show so much in a close-up scene with subject separation, fairly shallow depth-of-field and so on, like the shots that you've provided. I'd be interested to compare the cameras shooting a deep focus scene with lots of detail, such as a landscape.

Just did the update, too. 50Mbit like the A7s! Very nice. Will do a A6000 vs A7s comparison later this week.

Just did the update, too. 50Mbit like the A7s! Very nice. Will do a A6000 vs A7s comparison later this week.

Just did the update, too. 50Mbit like the A7s! Very nice. Will do a A6000 vs A7s comparison later this week.

Just did the update, too. 50Mbit like the A7s! Very nice. Will do a A6000 vs A7s comparison later this week.

Just did the update, too. 50Mbit like the A7s! Very nice. Will do a A6000 vs A7s comparison later this week.

Just did the update, too. 50Mbit like the A7s! Very nice. Will do a A6000 vs A7s comparison later this week.

Just did the update, too. 50Mbit like the A7s! Very nice. Will do a A6000 vs A7s comparison later this week.

Watch your language or your going to be the subject of Ed's upcoming documentary. 

I've got to ask... Is there any meaning to the numbers at the end of some of your posts? I've been noticing this for a while now and got me intrigued.
Are they referring to passages from the Andy Lee's Bible of Filmmaking? If so, where can I get one?
404

I think now a days we can all shoot log - and we get lost in that log - we get used to that flat look - but rewatching monsters - it has a deeper s curve and dark black and nice raised midtones - it’s bolder - it’s more natural I think - more like the cinema that I grew up on.
It's hard to throw out dynamic range when you have it, but sometimes you have to - and you'll love it.  below I took out window detail to gain a pop that I enjoyed - maybe if I graded better I can do a power window and have it all!

I think it honestly comes down why you buy a particular camera. I did not invest all the money to get the A7s because of DR. But my audience is also totally different: I make videos for my friends and myself when we are spending time together. They honestly dont care about DR. They also dont care and dont see whether I use my GM1 or the A7s... However, when I do some low light work, they actually do care because they see the difference. 
Yes, I know that with a ND I can overcome the iso 3200 limitation easliy, but I am a run&gun shooter - if you take a look at my work you will notice that everything is spontaneous.. I just point and shoot and just care about aperture and focus of course. Thats it. I dont care about shutter and very often I dont care about ISO as well - thanks to the A7s I dont have to, anymore. All boils down to your needs. I heard from many people that SLOG is not necessary in 99% of the situations - for you it is quite the opposite. But hey, thats ok - personal preference

austinchimp, I have the a7s since a couple of months and I am still on a path to get decent skin tones while having accurate colors. Trust me, I tested all those profile guides that I found on the net.
s-log is at the moment no option to me since I want to have ISO 100 and i did not start using ND filters yet. Anyways, you might give those settings a go:
Take PP2 as a base (with default values of course) and change the following:
gamma: cine4
color mode: pro
color phase: +5
 
These settings work amazingly well for me, here is one quick example:

Another very important aspect I found out is setting the white balance manually to appropriate kelvin values. You can look them up using Google if you are not familiar with them. Interestingly, I found myself nearly always using 5600k during daylight circumstances, no matter whether it is shady or bright sun (even with snow!). Only on tungsten light or halogen, I change the white balance to about 3900k and within the above mentioned color profile, i change color phase to +2 (i use PP3 for that to change it more quickly), otherwise the image is very yellowish.
 
You could give those settings a try. I would love to hear from you if it helped a bit since I am sure that this journey is not done yet.

great job guys - these all look really nice!  yes James loves to lift the blacks!  I enjoy the looks he gets on his footage very much.  tweak tweak tweak.  I like the digital bolex stuff you got a lot - great job!

​Thanks Ben. I don't own a BM Pocket, however I have a couple 5D3's. For RAW stills, the 5D3 is far better than the A7S RAW stills (JPGs too for that matter). Interestingly, once WB is carefully set, and exposure is carefully set, the A7S's video color looks better than the RAW & JPG still color. That said, the 5D3 does indeed hold better color through over and under exposure, and the white balance isn't as tricky: set Incandescent WB and PP Neutral/Faithful etc., and you'll get a pretty good image. For RAW, only exposure is critical (final WB set in ACR).
What makes the A7S worth shooting with over the 5D3, even in RAW (ignoring the extra post work), is Sony autofocus and IS. There's no autofocus on the 5D3 for video, and the IS is not as strong and is tuned for stills. The 50Mbps A7S files are tiny and still look great. Using the 5D3 to take reference RAW stills can really help with color grading the A7S in post: the Canon stills provide a good target reference for color. With or without 5D3 color refs, once figured out, the A7S provides really nice color, which grades well in post and can provide a very filmic look.
When I first started using the A7S, I stuck with stock PP6, then later a tweaked PP7 (changed Color Mode: Sgamut to Pro) for one scene (shot at the Salton Sea):
http://brightland.com/w/delta/
Stock PP6 (eyes are contacts + Premiere CC masked effects):

Stock PP6, lit by tricky unknown parking lot light source (sodium?). Shot with Canon 50mm F1.4 at F2.0 and gen 1 MB SpeedBooster (crop mode to reduce RS, SB keeps noise similar to FF mode). All other A7S shots with Sony SELP18200 (FS700 kit lens):

PP7 with Pro Color Mode: background video shot at the Salton Sea (Actor is GH4 4K, Natural PP, greenscreen in studio):

GoPro Hero 3, ProTune color mode. Getting nice skintones underwater was tricky. Note that white isn't white anymore- now magenta tinted (dress; didn't do masked/tracked grading just for face, which would have allowed keeping the dress white):

A7S RAW stills processed in ACR: http://brightland.com/w/delta-bts
 

austinchimp, I have the a7s since a couple of months and I am still on a path to get decent skin tones while having accurate colors. Trust me, I tested all those profile guides that I found on the net.
s-log is at the moment no option to me since I want to have ISO 100 and i did not start using ND filters yet. Anyways, you might give those settings a go:
Take PP2 as a base (with default values of course) and change the following:
gamma: cine4
color mode: pro
color phase: +5
 
These settings work amazingly well for me, here is one quick example:

Another very important aspect I found out is setting the white balance manually to appropriate kelvin values. You can look them up using Google if you are not familiar with them. Interestingly, I found myself nearly always using 5600k during daylight circumstances, no matter whether it is shady or bright sun (even with snow!). Only on tungsten light or halogen, I change the white balance to about 3900k and within the above mentioned color profile, i change color phase to +2 (i use PP3 for that to change it more quickly), otherwise the image is very yellowish.
 
You could give those settings a try. I would love to hear from you if it helped a bit since I am sure that this journey is not done yet.

austinchimp, I have the a7s since a couple of months and I am still on a path to get decent skin tones while having accurate colors. Trust me, I tested all those profile guides that I found on the net.
s-log is at the moment no option to me since I want to have ISO 100 and i did not start using ND filters yet. Anyways, you might give those settings a go:
Take PP2 as a base (with default values of course) and change the following:
gamma: cine4
color mode: pro
color phase: +5
 
These settings work amazingly well for me, here is one quick example:

Another very important aspect I found out is setting the white balance manually to appropriate kelvin values. You can look them up using Google if you are not familiar with them. Interestingly, I found myself nearly always using 5600k during daylight circumstances, no matter whether it is shady or bright sun (even with snow!). Only on tungsten light or halogen, I change the white balance to about 3900k and within the above mentioned color profile, i change color phase to +2 (i use PP3 for that to change it more quickly), otherwise the image is very yellowish.
 
You could give those settings a try. I would love to hear from you if it helped a bit since I am sure that this journey is not done yet.

austinchimp, I have the a7s since a couple of months and I am still on a path to get decent skin tones while having accurate colors. Trust me, I tested all those profile guides that I found on the net.
s-log is at the moment no option to me since I want to have ISO 100 and i did not start using ND filters yet. Anyways, you might give those settings a go:
Take PP2 as a base (with default values of course) and change the following:
gamma: cine4
color mode: pro
color phase: +5
 
These settings work amazingly well for me, here is one quick example:

Another very important aspect I found out is setting the white balance manually to appropriate kelvin values. You can look them up using Google if you are not familiar with them. Interestingly, I found myself nearly always using 5600k during daylight circumstances, no matter whether it is shady or bright sun (even with snow!). Only on tungsten light or halogen, I change the white balance to about 3900k and within the above mentioned color profile, i change color phase to +2 (i use PP3 for that to change it more quickly), otherwise the image is very yellowish.
 
You could give those settings a try. I would love to hear from you if it helped a bit since I am sure that this journey is not done yet.

austinchimp, I have the a7s since a couple of months and I am still on a path to get decent skin tones while having accurate colors. Trust me, I tested all those profile guides that I found on the net.
s-log is at the moment no option to me since I want to have ISO 100 and i did not start using ND filters yet. Anyways, you might give those settings a go:
Take PP2 as a base (with default values of course) and change the following:
gamma: cine4
color mode: pro
color phase: +5
 
These settings work amazingly well for me, here is one quick example:

Another very important aspect I found out is setting the white balance manually to appropriate kelvin values. You can look them up using Google if you are not familiar with them. Interestingly, I found myself nearly always using 5600k during daylight circumstances, no matter whether it is shady or bright sun (even with snow!). Only on tungsten light or halogen, I change the white balance to about 3900k and within the above mentioned color profile, i change color phase to +2 (i use PP3 for that to change it more quickly), otherwise the image is very yellowish.
 
You could give those settings a try. I would love to hear from you if it helped a bit since I am sure that this journey is not done yet.

Two words: liquid nitrogen. No more noise, cool & sexy 'fog', and they can sell their own brand in a can (dewar). For super high frame rates you can switch to liquid helium, to get the sensor down near absolute zero. Liquid helium gets the sensor so cold it can then actually hit 16 stops of DR. This is achieved by running the sensor in Quantum qubit mode .

One month has passed since i bought my NX1 and i thought i would share my thoughts so far.
Coming from full frame as my main camera i was hesitant to the change in the beginning. I started my hobby with a Canon 550D/t2i and then later upgraded to a 5D Mark 3 which was really pleasant, i loved the full frame look. The choice to abandon both Canon and full frame did not come easy but a Panasonic G6 (Micro 4/3 entry level camera) helped a lot in the transition.
The NX1 really fits well in my hands and after a not so steep learning curve of the controls i feel comfortable to just pick it up and shoot. I have pretty large hands so when i changed from a 550D/t2i to a 5D I pretty much decided to never again buy a smaller camera. That didn’t work out as I later bought, tried and sold the A7s as i was reminded why i don’t like small cameras. This is of course a very personal opinion, i know that many people prefer portability. Somehow the NX1, being smaller than a 5D, feels really good to hold for hours.
 
Image quality of both stills and video are great, just great. You can throw whatever specs and lab test at me you want saying that the NX1 is inferior in dynamic range and what not but i just love the sensor and the colors it produces. With that being said, im not a professional and i don’t have professional needs. What i also like to point out that this is a $1500 camera, not an Alexa. And what you're getting for your $1500 is in my opinion a very capable camera.
 
On a lot of videos posted from the NX1 there have been comments on banding and macroblocking, including my own. As there is no/almost no banding or macroblocking in the raw files this is a result of transcoding. I use Samsung Movie Converter which comes with the camera and it’s clearly not the best option yet every other software i’ve tested seems to fail me in some way (Maybe i should invest in a new computer?). Still waiting for Adobe to support H265!
 
To sum it up. I feel that i have finally found a camera that will stay with me for a long time. I'm not over the "wow i have a new camera let's see what it can do"-phase but i have high hopes for this plastic monster. This camera has been discussed a lot on this forum but if there’s any questions i'll be happy to answer them.
 
Here’s my latest video shot with the NX1, 16/2.8, 30/2.0 and 45/1.8. Shot in both 4K and slow motion 1080p. Standard picture profile with sharpness and contrast set to -5. No change to luminance or master black levels. Edited, stabilized and graded in Adobe Premiere with Visioncolor LUTs Osiris M31 and KDX as base and then RGB Curves. No sharpening in post.
 

​FF: 16mm F2.8
S35: 16mm/1.5 = 11mm, F1.9. Tokina comes close with an 11-16 F2.8. On m43 with a Speedbooster the crop factor becomes 1.42:
m43+SB: 16/1.42 = 11mm, F2.
Again, if an 11mm F2 doesn't exist, it's a current limitation of lens systems. Nothing special about the 35mm sensor in terms of looks. Does the 'full frame look' go away when an 11mm F2 becomes available?
Looks like Canon already has a patent for an 11mm F2 design: http://www.canonrumors.com/2011/04/ef-s-11mm-f2-patent/
It's best to focus on measurable image characteristics we're looking for, such as shallow/deep DOF, bokeh, contrast, color, resolution/detail, MTF, low light, distortion, flare, starburst pattern, coma, chromatic aberration, astigmatism, etc. (sometimes we want defects, for character). From there we can figure out how to put together a camera+lens system to meet the requirements we're looking for. Focusing on sensor size when it doesn't provide a unique measurable look isn't useful.