IronFilm

2 hours ago, Dan Wake said:

 

what about 7D + vaf filter? I'm thinking about it and I'm searching a used one. I also opened a topic in the "gear for sale" section. thx!

The big big BIG problem is the 7D uses SD cards. And Canon pinches pennies by putting in the cheapest shittest SD controllers into their cameras.

So ML raw is crippled.

Unless...  you use CF cards. Such as the 5Dmk3 uses.

1 hour ago, TSV said:

Yeah, what happened on this front? I hacked my GH1 to get more BR and it was really cool. Did Pana went berserk on the group of guy who did it? ML made some amazing improvement over what did Canon, would have been nice to have this ported to Panasonic too.

It was never a group, it was just one guy: VK.

After VK hacked, then others released various different flavors of patches. But they never did the core hack work themselves. 

And for many many years since then VK has done nothing. So it is 100% reasonable to expect we will not see another Panasonic camera hacked again :-/ :-(

1 hour ago, The Chris said:

So Panasonic is going to crush the everything they sell under $25,000 at the three year old GH4's price?

SMH. 

Panasonic has *nothing* priced under the Varicam LT as an ILC to protect at all.

Unlike Canon, or Sony (but Sony often ignores "protecting" their higher end gear, the FS7 is one classic case). 

55 minutes ago, Cassius McGowan said:

So you're saying panny isn't going to put everything that's in the GX85 cam into the GH5? How would it kill the FS5? Thats the same as saying people would buy a 5d4 instead of a c100 mark ii.

The FS5 and GH5 are from different companies! Is complete bonkers of Chris to think Panasonic wouldn't put something in the GH5 because Panasonic fears taking away sales fron the FS5??!?!

7 hours ago, noone said:

What I love about Canon- Lenses!

I don't see what is so special about Canon lenses at all. Nikon makes great lenses too! So does Sony and Panasonic and Olympus. And now so does Sigma/Tamron/Tokina/etc

16 hours ago, gethin said:

I had a 6000 for a wee while found the 60p a bit meh. Yes 4k downsampled would be nice but need that 60p. Bmmcc would be nice but ISO limited and small sensor.  So 6300 is a possibility. What's the 60p like?  Is it moire tastic? I have rx100iv, love that it's usable and lovely in all its modes and I'm used to menus and slowly getting used to its colours

 

Use a focal reducer and you'll get near APS-C/S35  FoV/bokeh. And the low light will improve nearly ish two stops!! And use a fast zoom like a Sigma 18-35mm f1.8 and 50-100mm f1.8 and you'll be sorted! As the BMMCC is already a solid enough lowlight camera by cinema class standards (such as vs F35 or RED MX etc)

5 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

Consider the Panasonic GX85.

It's far and away the best of the cheaper cameras in 2016.

I have the D5500 and the image is nice, closest to A7R II Super 35mm you can get if all you need is 1080p and want to put stuff on Vimeo. Only if you're pixel peeping the image will you find it different in terms of detail. The colours, codec and dynamic range are VERY similar looking. Yet the D5500 is much cheaper than an A7R II.

It doesn't have any moire or aliasing problems to any meaningful degree and is a very clean image.

However the GX85 just takes things to a whole new level for a similar price. In-body stabilisation, more flexible lens mount, Speed Booster, 4K, proper video shooting aids, EVF, the list goes on... You are getting a LOT more for your money with it.

From a filmmakers' perspective,  how do the Nikon D5200, D5300, & D5500 differ from each other?

As I've got (thanks to Andrew Reid's great review of it!) and like the D5200 but never thought it is worth upgrading to one of the newer bodies, other than for 1080 60p.

29 minutes ago, The Chris said:

The overhype machine is churning at full speed. Prepare to be letdown. 10-bit 4:2:2 and IBIS in a $1500 body ain't happening. That's a $3000 camera, if not a $5000 camera.  

Prepare for 5d4 levels of disappointment.

Nope, Panasonic doesn't have Canon's knack or track record of such epic level let downs.

1 hour ago, Dan Wake said:

Thanks Sinjun, I have a canon 7D with ML and I wish to try something different. Could you suggest me an alternative please?

thx!

7D with ML raw is shit.

5Dmk3 with ML raw is great.

I'd also suggest BMMCC or secondhand BMPCC. Or maybe even BMCC MFT if you don't care about the weight. 

FS5 / KineMINI / Terra / UM4.6K / FS700 / etc are all good as well if your budget stretches up that high.

6 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

Ah so I see what is happening.

C300 is everywhere and cheaper.

Sony FS7 if you need slow-mo

C300 Mark II butts up against the higher end RED and Alexa stuff, whereby you may as well rent one of those instead.

It is kind of in no mans land and a victim of the C300 and C100's continued popularity.

Canon have blundered - ooops.

Just go look at local rental prices and you can see for yourself. A C300II is not at RED/Arri price levels to rent  (unless you live in LA perhaps? Which have an over supply of REDs! And seem to be rediculously cheap to rent over there from what I hear). A C300II is only a little bit more expensive to rent than an FS7.

And the C300 mk1 being everywhere and FS7 only for slow motion I see as being a little incorrect,  an FS7 offers so so much more than the C300 mk1!!

That was true in the old days pre FS7, when every man and his dog had and used a C300 mk1, and the Sony FS700 was just got in for slow motion usage on the cheap ("poor man's Phantom").

7 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

OK, now that is interesting and quite unexpected.

I thought the C300 II was well received.

I always knew the 1D C was left on the rental shop shelves for the most part, but the C300 II seems to have everything C300 users were asking for aside from the slow-mo spec.

Maybe it will take a big Cinema EOS model to crash and burn before Canon realise the error of their ways with the DSLRs and how they have ignored the competition from Sony. They have unnecessarily let the FS7 into the market big time and it will hurt in the long run.

A good job most FS7 shooters are using Canon EF lenses otherwise the situation could have been even worse!

I think the recent big price drop on the C300 mk2 has helped a lot in peak interest in it again. Also here in NZ they've got very generous finance terms & package offered with it as well  (Sony NZ doesn't seem to have that for theirs that is as generous)

Before the price drop I'd never seen a C300 mk2, but since then I've got a couple of friends in Auckland seriously talking about buying it, and I did (I was sound) a short film recently with the C300 mk2 that a production house had just purchased  (and you guessed it... their previous one was a  C300 mk1!)

5 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

They won't do it.

They are protecting their margins.

If a big rental house got a lot of demand for a camera like that, they might order 100x DSLRs for $5k each, instead of 100x C300 Mark II's for $15,000 each

At least that is what Canon THINK

I don't think it works like that. I think they're idiots.

If people buy their own instead of going to the rental house then instead of selling 100 to the rental house they'll sell thousands to individuals! 

4 hours ago, DBounce said:

I just wish that they would do a proper firmware update to the 1DX MKii. One that would add the glaringly omitted features (sensible file sizes, peaking, zebras, c-log). Those easy additions would sell the 1DX Mkii to everyone that's been on the fence.

But that said they might feel that the 1DX Mkii is already selling well enough. 

It isn't an easy addition if the processor already can only barely do the poor MJPEG compression. Which seems to be the case.

http://blog.planet5d.com/2016/08/rant-the-canon-eos-5d-mark-iv-doesnt-have/

"Canon has designed a DSLR that does what 80-90% of the market needs. I’ve said this before until i’m blue in the face too: Not everyone needs 4k! 4k video is still such a small hunk of the market. Growing but Canon’s growing into that market too"

Wow, he basically outright admits the 5Dmk4 is **NOT** a 4K camera! Ha

Fair enough,  I could probably agree with that as an honest assessment of the 5Dmk4. But that is not what Canon is trying to spin it as! And as a camera that will have 4+ years on the marketplace as one of their leading products, that is a very sad situation by Canon.

I'd seriously consider the Panasonic G7 in 4K, plus GX80, and the Sony A6000 (& if budget can stretch... the a63000).

Or secondhand BMPCC  (but no 60p, and a new BMMCC with 60p costs quite a bit more).

Otherwise nope, I think there is not many other solid good alternatives.

Waiting a little while for the Panasonic G80 to be announced might be a smart move. 

It *could* be done, I'm just pointing out reasons why I personally feel that is unlikely. 

If you're seriously considering the C300 mk1 then get the Sony PMW-F3 instead. As it is a superior camera over the C300 but can be got for a fraction of the cost.

If serious run and gun is your thing and you want the C100 mk2 instead then spend a little bit more and get the vastly superior Sony FS5 instead. 

6 hours ago, jax_rox said:

Varicam would be just like Sony's 'CineAlta' branding. It's not devaluing their high-end brand - those who are buying (or hiring) at that level are not swayed by brand names - in fact, branding a popular camera like the GH5 as 'Varicam' could push brand and product recognition of their higher-end Varicam models. 

Even if you said that 'Varicam' branded models have the superior 'Varicam' colour depth or something like that.

in terms of an MFT mount, it still could be possible - even if they brought out a seperate MFT body

But none, not even one, or the mirrorless Sony cameras have the "CineAlta" badge.

23 minutes ago, OliKMIA said:

Even if the C300/500 were at $3-4K I'm not interested.

Errr.... if the Canon C300 mk2 is $3K then that is an absolute easy no brainer insta buy for many many MANY people! I'd beg/borrow/steal the funds needed ASAP if I could get a C300mk2 for that price. 

I've done a multi day shoot with the C300 mk2 (although as the soundie, but kinda an AC ish role too), and while it has some very very weird restrictions going on with what monitoring outputs work and when you can use them, at US$3K there would be NOTHING that comes even close to the capabilities of a C300 mk2. 

Pick up a 5Dmk3 soon ish for stills on the cheap? And ML raw with it would be fun to play around with.

I think sell the 1D C for as much as you can, but don't be in a rush, be happy to hold out a month or two for the buyer with the best price to come along.

1 hour ago, tyger11 said:

I'm sure Sony and Panasonic are ecstatic about the 5D Mk IV. Nikon probably has yet to notice.

If Nikon can release a D750 successor that has no crop with its 4K then Nikon has a good shot at stealing away a healthy sized chunk of the market from Canon.

I'd assume they're still banned. Can't imagine the situation would've changed in less than a few days!

Just because I'm curious, I did a bit of digging into how much the total cost would be practically speaking. As we all know the body itself is merely the start of the costs!

A common big big cost with these professional cameras is memory, Arri Alexa Classic uses SxS cards. Even the oldest SxS cards secondhand are "cheap" but very expensive if you're used to SD card pricing! And older SxS cards are no good in an Arri Alexa as they can't handle the full capabilities of the Arri Alexa Classic of 2K 4:3 ProRes 444:

https://www.arri.com/fileadmin/media/arri.com/camera/Digital_Cameras/Camera_Comparison/SUP_11_Data_Rates_ALEXA_Classic_and_XT.pdf

But you probably wouldn't be buying a 4:3 version, rather the 16:9 version which would tend to be cheaper. In that case, the data rate is lower, might be able to get away with the older SxS cards? (even I have a couple, came along for free with my Sony F3! However.... an Arri Alexa would need several more! As you'd be filling them up too fast)

But it just the target rate listed in that PDF, and not the max rate. Thus these older SxS cards could not work if they get maxed out, but... this adapter for SxS cards using cheap SD cards (such as any of the many fast SD cards many of us have for our BMPCCs!) can do up to 480MB/s, which gives a bit more head room.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/786662-REG/Sonnet_SD_SXS_E34_SDHC_Adapter_for_SxS.html

However... not much more head room! So if that isn't enough, can always get this instead:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/840666-REG/Sony_QDA_EX1_SC1_XQD_ExpressCard_Adapter.html

Yes, it is XQD cards which are much more expensive than SD cards!  But XQD cards are heaps heaps cheaper than SxS Pro cards!! :-D Plus XQD cards have came down in price a lot lately, and I expect XQD to drop even more in price as various more affordable cameras come to market that use XQD (FS5/D500/D5/etc). 

They're already more affordable than what we've paid for SD cards in the very recent past (I paid more for my BMPCC cards when I bought them):

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1261721-REG/sony_qdg128e_j_128gb_xqd_g_e_memory_card.html

And you can be sure these XQD cards are way way faster than needed for 2K ProRes 444.

They've been tested in the Sony F5/F55 (which also uses SxS cards, and needs very fast cards):

http://www.hingsberg.com/index.php/2013/12/xqd-cards-for-sony-f5-f55/

Thus that is media "solved" in an affordable way! Thousands saved here.

However the really big sticking point is lenses! Even "cheap" PL lenses can cost a fortune.  And if one of us was to be mad enough to buy an Arri Alexa, we sadly might not have anything left over to buy PL lenses..... could we use our existing lenses? A Nikon F mount would be ideal in my eyes, and I've done some digging but failed to turn up anything There might maybe exist a very rare copy or two of Arri Alexas that have been modded (Panavised Alexas are the obvious more common example), but basically it seems not to be an option for us. Arri Amira & Mini do have common options for adapters to use Nikon F mount lenses and other options, but of course those are much *much* more recent cameras and would cost a lot more to buy either an Amira or Mini!

So hmmmm.... what to do?? Seems any Arri Alexa purchase would require also getting a set of Sony CineAlta PL / XEEN / PL modded stills lenses (such as GL Optics) / SLR Magic PL / RED lenses on the "cheap" to use with the camera, which a working set could easily run up to another ten thousand give or take a few thousand either side. 

Either that or wait for an Amira or Mini to fall down in price far enough to become "affordable", which would be a very looooong wait indeed!

Edit: hmmmm..... I stumbled across this, but any more info is sadly lacking! But just maybe maaaaybe....  does an aftermarket Nikon F mount for the Arri Alexa Classic exist that can be added on by the user?? 

https://web.archive.org/web/20120321192849/http://www.hotrodcameras.com/?p=3728

Then I found this:

http://cinescopophilia.com/hot-rod-cameras-2012-roadmap-includes-nikoncine-alexa-mount/

But now the trail runs cold :-/ 

If this can be found then it would shave thousands and thousands of dollars off the total outlay cost for a DSLR shooter to step up and buy a secondhand Arri Alexa Classic!

Edit 2: Hooray!!! Have found now THE ANSWER!! This mod exists:

http://www.leitax.com/conversion/Cine/Alexa/index.html

Can buy it here:

http://www.leitax.com/Leica-lens-for-Cinema-cameras.html

I do dream about buying an Alexa.....  even if it is just an old secondhand Arri Alexa Classic

This shows an overview of the various models, for the curious:
https://www.arri.com/camera/alexa/cameras/alexa_cameras_overview/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arri_Alexa#Alexa

Hmmmm.... prices of them are coming down ever lower, here is a couple around the US$17K-ish mark or a bit more:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Arri-Alexa-EV-16-9-High-Speed-120fps-w-Arriflex-EVF-1-Viewfinder-PL-Mount-/182225944123?hash=item2a6d833e3b:g:RJQAAOSwIgNXncYM

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ARRI-Alexa-Plus-HS-with-LDS-/252492760740?hash=item3ac9bdc6a4:g:m~IAAOSw3mpXH6sP

Maybe by 2020 my finances will have risen high enough and prices will have fallen far enough that I could buy one myself! haha :-D  

22 hours ago, no_connection said:

I think that anything with 0* shutter will have bad motion cadence.

 

it would also have EXTREMELY BAD low light performance. 

Sony RX10 and RX100 all have shutters and ND filters. 

The FS700 can take stills:

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/sony-nxcam-nex-fs700-cinealta/508365-fs700-stills-mode.html

So? A little doubtful it is a dealbreaker for an ND, but if it is, so what, just make it purely electronic shutter for the videographers focused GH5R with an ND built in!

1 hour ago, Jimmy said:

Think his point was the ENG shooters are used to having bigger files... the EX1, a real ENG powerhouse of it's day, had 10 bit.

Nope, EX1 doesn't have 10bit internal.

18 minutes ago, jax_rox said:

That's why you'd have a 'Varicam' branded GH5 - the one with the S35 sensor. It would be no different to a m4/3 GH5, but if you wanted to you could turn S35 mode on.

It is a nice idea, and we (us low end guys) would appreciate that. But I doubt Panasonic would want to take the risk and maybe devale their brand by putting the high end "Varicam" label on a cheap stills camera. 
 

20 minutes ago, jax_rox said:

Do you mean the Flange depth? It is rather narrow at 19.25mm, but Sony's FZ is 19mm - I don't know the specifics of the swappable lens mount on the VaricamLT and how it's designed, but it's not outside the realm of possibility. 

Exactly! I very very strongly doubt 0.5mm is sufficent space to make room for an MFT adapter. 

Of course they could have a different base mount than the FZ mount underneath, but I am skeptical there is too much room underneath that is sufficient to make room for an electronic MFT mount.