IronFilm

It was a great occasion to enjoy some of Photokina with Dave Altizer. This video was an experiment in many ways, to plant a seed for more EOSHD YouTube content. I hope you enjoy the start of EOSHD TV - let's see how this goes in the future when I rope more unlucky people in front of the camera and come up with more content (the channel won't just be interviews).
We talk about a range of camera-nerd stuff in the video, not least of all that's on the table in front of us.
The Fuji X-T3, the Hasselblad X1D and Fuji GFX 50S medium format cameras, along with the other interesting finds at the show.
Warning: contains controversial opinions!!

Here are the cinema cameras we use all the time from Feature films to run n gun documentaries. I have shot with Epic and Alexa in hot, dusty outback Australia as well as sleet and snow and have not had issues.
Pic1. Red Epic has two large holes with fans on the top. 

Pic2. Alexa mini has it's large holes/fans on the side and back
 

Pic3. Sony F5 has it's large holes/fans on the top

Pic4. Last picture is what we do when it starts to rain

 
A Large plastic bag looks very low tech, but given that these cameras can all be rigged so differently depending on shoot requirements, t's by far the most versatile way and gets the job done.

Lol at the BMD sub-forum getting renamed. 

I disagree. I just used a Nikon d4 on a pro job and heard not one complaint from my client.

Yes, of course great things can be shot with a cheap camera. I'm certainly NOT arguing against that. 

But with a cheap camera then:
1) there are more of those cameras out in the wild, thus you see more of everything with them
2) "cheap" people tend to buy them, which often means (just a correlation though) cheap in production values or skills. Which leads to poor resulting videos, even if the camera itself is capable of much more
 
I feel like Panasonic "fixed" many things of the G7 when the G85 came out:
1) weather sealing / better build
2) live HDMI out
3) IBIS

There is a Korean auteur called Hong Sang-soo. His most recent cinematic releases were done on the F3. I had the pleasure of seeing them on the big screen and the images were very good. I personally don't think the two compare if you are talking about cinematic imagery. 

The Cameras

In this corner, we have the Sony F3--episodic TV and corporate/commercial workhorse, best known for its use on season 1 of Key and Peele and the feature film Safety Not Guaranteed. Super 35 2.4K sensor that downscales to 1080p in-camera. 10-bit output up to 4:4:4 RGB. 

In this corner, the Sony A7 III--a modern hit, barely out and already one of the most popular mirrorless cameras around. Full frame 24 megapixel sensor that downscales to 4K from both the full sensor and from the APS-C crop. 8-bit 4:20 internally, with the option for 4:2:2 externally. 

The Test
I generally light my work, so I thought I'd test with a scenario I often face: talking head interviews. One big soft key, a soft backlight, something splashing the background, maybe a practical. Now, this is a hella lazy, sloppy lighting execution--the backlight is a little too far around, background splash not nearly strong or interesting enough, and there's a huge bit of blank wall amidst the clutter--but it does contain some useful information. More on that after the camera notes. Just keep in mind that it was a rush job and try not to be too critical. 

Each camera used the same Leica R 35mm Summicron set to f/5.6. This was to keep color, contrast, and sharpness consistent, as not all my Rs match perfectly and I wanted any differences in the image to be down to the cameras. I did not adjust the tripod distance, instead opting to let precise frame matching go in favor of minimizing inconsistencies. I'll do another test that keeps framing identical. 

Since I unfortunately couldn't get ahold of a color chart for this test, I have a few various colored objects in the scene to act as references. The sweater is a deep forest green, the hat is a pale pinkish-red, the UHaul logo is a distinct orange, and the furniture blanket is a nice primary blue. They don't line up with anything specific on a vectorscope, but I find the subtle differences in how these colors, along with my skin tone, are rendered is quite telling. 

Yes, that is me in the video. I am not a model, or really comfortable on camera at all. My being in the hot seat was PURELY a matter of desperation, as my roommate was busy and I didn't have another day free to do the test. So you'll have to deal with my pale, blotchy face and greasy hair this time. 

The F3 has two sets of clips: one taken internally in XDCAM, one externally in ProRes HQ (10-bit 4:2:2). I don't have access to a 4K recorder, so the A7III files were all recorded internally to the SD card. 

If you have any other questions on my methodology please feel free to ask. Even with the studio conditions, it's very possible that something was overlooked. 

What to Watch For
Personally, these are the elements I found most interesting.
-The colors of the various objects listed above, as well as their relative brightness. The A7, for example, makes the blue moving blanket much brighter.
-The big patch of blank wall behind me is a great place to watch for midtone noise, compression artifacts, and banding. 
-The black portion of the moving blanket, back right corner by the boxes, and the shadow by my left ear under the hair are good spots to look at shadow noise/compression.
-Obviously, the face is there for skin tone reference. I'm pretty pale, and exposed a stop above key to keep noise down, as I generally do in a real interview. This pushed my skintones into the flattest part of the LOG curve, smoothing them out a bit, but in this scenario that's not entirely undesirable. Just something to keep in mind. Additionally, my eyes are a pretty deep shade of blue, with some green flecks. The cameras and color profiles render them with mixed levels of success.
-My hair, beard, and eyes are all good places to look at for fine detail rendering, noise, and moire/aliasing. 
-The lightbulb and background splash were an attempt to look at highlight roll-off, but upon review it doesn't seem all that useful. The next test will use a stronger light doing a better scrape for DR/gradient, as well as a bulb with a filament to see how each camera renders hot highlight detail.

The Footage
These clips are straight out of camera/recorder, with no grading or edits. I could've at least trimmed them for brevity/convenience, but I...didn't want to. So. Sorry. 

You'll find them at this link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=159ig4Dq7emsxIE6GWpwj8H9SX73XMSQU

Feel free to download them and play around. I can show you my grading results, but I find nothing helps more than massaging footage yourself.
Here are the settings for each clip:

F3
1. 1080p Cine1 F35Like ISO400 172.8* shutter f/5.6 (I don't know if F3 internal profiles suck or I just suck WITH them, but getting a good SOOC result with it still eludes me. Think I'll try the AbelCine stuff next.)
2. 1080p SLog1 SGamut ISO 800 172.8* shutter f/5.6 (ISO 800 is native in SLog, which is why it jumps here. Everything is otherwise identical.)
3. 1080p SLog1 SGamut ISO 1600 172.8* shutter f/5.6 (An attempt to test overexposure. In retrospect, I should've opened up to f/4 instead, but this still shows clipping behavior when cranking up ISO for exposure.)
4. 1080p SLog1 SGamut ISO 6400 172.8* shutter f/16 (High ISO noise test. The levels themselves are pretty good, so this is more a test of how much penalty you pay for cranking ISO to get by with smaller fixtures inside.)

A7III 
1. 4K Cine4 SGamut3.cine ISO 400 1/50 f/5.6 Full Frame (with +15 or so saturation. My favorite out of camera profile so far.)
2. 1080p Cine4 SGamut3.cine ISO 400 1/50 f/5.6 Full Frame
3. 4K SLog2 SGamut3.cine ISO 800 1/50 f/5.6 Full Frame (I prefer SLog2 to 3 for banding and skin tones. Like F3, 800 is native for SLog)
4. 1080p SLog2 SGamut3.cine ISO 800 1/50 f/5.6 Full Frame
5. 4K SLog2 SGamut3.cine ISO 1600 1/50 f/5.6 Full Frame
6. 4K SLog2 SGamut3.cine ISO 800 1/50 f/5.6 Crop Mode
7. 1080p SLog2 SGamut3.cine ISO 800 1/50 f/5.6 Crop Mode
8. 4K SLog2 SGamut3.cine ISO 6400 1/50 f/5.6 Crop Mode
9. 4K SLog2 SGamut3.cine ISO 6400 1/50 f/5.6 Full Frame

Again, I'm happy to clarify any questions on my methodology. This was mainly to give me a nice broad spread of information on how my most used settings compare for quality.
Conclusions

I'm more curious what you guys think, so I won't say too much right away. My main take-away is that the F3 is nowhere near obsolete yet...in fact, it's my preferred camera for noise, color, skintones, gradation, and overall look. The A7 has the obvious advantages of full frame, strong internal recording, size/weight, and IBIS. 

Next, I want to see how each camera does with fluorescent, LED, and daylight skintones, as well as mixed color temps, motion, compression/bitrate issues, DR, and resolution/detail. If you have any suggestions for future tests, or anything you'd like to specifically see compared, just let me know and I'll do my best to throw it in. 
Thanks, and hope you enjoy!
 

Aware of what? Was he convicted of a crime? We are getting into very dangerous territory when all that need happen is a woman claims abuse and everyone is expected to believe each  and every word she says whilst totally ignoring comments from the opposing party. From what I can see, if something happened she should have filed charges and they both would have their day in court. Until then it is nothing more than a case of "he said, she said". I'm not defending PB... I don't have any unique information regarding this alleged incident. I'm just sick of this pitch fork mentality.
I'm sure some will take exception to what I have written. To them... you can take a long walk off a short pier. I have personally known someone that was falsely accused. Thankfully, there was an investigation and exculpatory evidence proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the supposed victim was full of $h!t. 
Really? Didn't someone once suggest something unsavory about you? Should we take their comment as fact without proof also? Glass houses my friend.

Perhaps. But that doesn’t give anyone on here the right to condemn him.
Especially based on rumours less well  evidenced than the specs of the A7S3.
Focus on his abilities as a film maker and life will be happier for all.
(superb review of Mavic 2 Pro on Bloom’s site)
 

Can you adapt a mirrorless lens to EF? Physics say no. 
But to MFT? Without even looking the specs to check if it is possible, I can say this is very very very unlikely to be done with the electronic connections you'd need to fully control the lens. 
(although of course these new mounts lack many needed lenses, but what I mean is that there is no new lens which alone could drive me towards them)

Don't reveal the end goal! You've given the end game away.

So you haven't shot a wedding video or indeed been paid for shooting any video? Which makes you an amateur videographer who has never shot a wedding video who still feels entitled to criticise a working professional doing something which you are incapable of doing. It doesn't matter how fancy a photographer you were you don't know what you are talking about.

I was on set last week watching the camera op pull off beautiful dolly shots with an Amira off an EasyRig. It still takes a practiced hand but you couldn't do that with a lighter camera.

Excellent, so you can show us some work then? Which I'm sure we won't harshly and unfairly rip into with no thought to context or the conditions you worked under.

+1 I couldn't have put it better myself. Her images were a bit over-contrasty for my taste but otherwise it was great. It was in focus, smooth & she got the right shots. I haven't shot a wedding in five years but I would have been perfectly happy to deliver video like that to my clients.
@jonpais has clearly never shot a wedding nether does he any appreciation of how a wedding is shot. An assistant with a diffuser or reflector? Are you kidding? ND filters? Just crank up the shutter speed. You are shooting a live event there are no re-takes & if you miss a shot like the first kiss or the ring shot you are stuffed.
Good for her! She is making money & giving her clients what they want. She doesn't need to care about some amateur nitpicking about the quality of her work.

I mean interesting to the bride and groom though, not to filmmakers... Look at the 15 or so shots in that minireel that were form the bride and groom alone time, let's assume she had the standard 15-20 mins you get with the bride and groom... She has a nice variety of angles and compositions... good variation in locations... good, steady movement... alot of focus on the bride... some good wide shots... all the bread and butter shots like hands with rings.
Whether a filmmaking forum will swoon or not doesn't come into it... Those shots are gonna be loved by the clients and it's another $1500 in the back pocket.
I don't know if you've ever done a wedding shot, but you come out of that 15-20 minute session frazzled. To come out of it with all the classic shots is amazing in itself.... If you get 2-3 "oh wow" shots, then it's been a great day. 

The nikkor PC-E 45 2.8 is a very nice lens.
 

Pop down to your local hardware store and browse, always interesting stuff there, you can probably reuse various types of tool boxes there for your needs.
 
 

Mechanical shutter is not quite the same as global shutter. 
And all those cameras which use the BMD 4K sensor (which means the AJA CION as well) are rather flawed cameras, some people accept that, but others run far away and avoid it. So they can be excluded. 

Thus in that sense the Sony F55 is kinda the "only" cinema camera with a global shutter. (wellll.... if you ignore the few CCD cameras as well. So yeah, that "F55" response is mostly true but also has a fair few asterisks after that statement)
 

Possibilities:
1) this was specially staged (so not normal) just for the YouTube video, and no photographer was present
2) they just framed out the photographer and didn't include in the edit
3) it doesn't matter.... even if you get a video shoot time slot which is all to yourself during a wedding (that you don't have to share with the photographer, and that is kinda unusual, especially on the low budget shoots she is doing it seems), then you're talking about mere minutes you have per pose/setting/clip you need to smash out quickly on the spot before they need to get back to the wedding. And it is highly likely she could be working alone (even if she isn't working alone, then possibly her second shooter has to stay back at the wedding venue to "hold the fort" in case any spontaneous moments pop up which they'd want filmed)
In my past as a videographer, I have shot a LOT of weddings. Usually as a B cam shooter for someone else, and it is very very rare to see lights used at a wedding on the shoots I was on. 
The exceptions:
1) a "high end" Indian wedding I worked on that a couple of dedolights were carefully used for part of
2) an old timey wedding videographer who sometimes rarely used a LED worklight (yes... from the hardware store) because her ancient Sony EX1 kinda needed it occasionally. 

Hey Guys !
Here it is ! I just picked it up at Photocineshop in Paris  I was the first in queue, I called them monday, they told me they expected it mid october. But I received a call today telling me it's here so... They received only 3 cameras. They ordered 75 and have 60 in queue. Funny story, the guy at the counter told me the boss was mad at him because the boss wanted to keep the first ones for rent (it's also a big rental company) and not fulfilling the first orders ! I think I have the first retail version in France ( I know it's a lame sentence !)
I'll try to shoot something decent tomorrow and put it online the same day ! But I only have relatively fast SD cards. I just need to sell a kidney for a CFAST on which I'll be able to record 12 seconds of RAW footage :)))
I can't wait to test the dynamic range and the battery life of the camera, my two biggest concerns.

Internet forums all over the web are overheating in anticipation of this camera.....

30p is great ! Smoother than 24p on pans, yet still cinematic.
 
Of course, so-called "purist" don't like it. I think they should go back to super 8 and 18fps.
 
(just slightly kidding).

Jon, here in Greece the couples that are getting married really do not really care about image quility. They care more about the brand(if the photographers are famous). I have seen some terrible video in the wedding industry and people are loving it because they are just... bad. And also the wedding industry will always be male dominant. She just got famous of good marketing as you can see because her image is terrible. Marketing is key.

I was going to film a wedding in a Church and I saw those two guys before me shooting there with 2 a7sii without lighting and I asked them. Where is are your lights? 'Muh a7sii shoots at 25000 iso'. I lost it there. And these guys are booked a full year.

It is not just the lens, but the weight of the entire rig of camera + V lock + accessories etc that makes the image stable. 

But by the time you get to that point, then you can no longer hold it steady for any extended period of time. Which is why you then need an Easyrig (or at least a shoulder rig, but that is limiting in various aspects, and still is not something you want to do for very long periods once it gets heavy). 

Have been very seriously considering getting a knock of Easyrig from China to use with my Sony PMW-F3 rig. For instance:
 
https://www.ebay.com/itm/3-18kg-Easyrig-Gimbal-Vest-Easy-Rig-Flowcine-for-DJI-Ronin-3-AXIS-Camera/332708600544
https://www.ebay.com/itm/YELANGU-3-18KG-As-Easyrig-Camera-Gimbal-Stabilizing-Vest-with-Arm-Rig-Accessory/113146003427
https://www.ebay.com/itm/8kg-Easyrig-Flowcine-Serene-Arm-Steadicam-Vest-Arm-For-3-Axis-Handheld-Gimbal/392028734017