Nick Hughes

Here on Brazil at Rio de Janeiro the things are really messed up.
I work with green screen to record teachers. The bosses make us export in 480 with extreme compression to save disk space and make uploads faster with the horrible internet they pay. The cameras are very old sony camcorders with 1080i that almost never get WB right and the wage its equivalent to $350. If you find somewhere that pays around $500 you've got the hell of a good job. 
Freelancing you can get around $100 a day or per edit, but people generally have zero knowledge about image quality here (720p barely arrived at or tvs, mushy 480p its a norm and its by air with tons of noise depending on where you live). Its a pain having a G7 and losing the job to someone with no idea of what hes doing and is asking $50-$100 to record and edit the footage,  just because he has an old DV cam that looks more "pro" or a T2i that is a canon and for being a canon its obviously great.  People talk about Canon here like it is some kind of god, but i never actually seen anyone who heard about ML or got courage to use it. Panasonic even quit our market because of this and got no official seller here now. 4k? People talk about it as some kind of ultra pro high end stuff that is totally useless. Our taxes are also pretty abusives (a7rii are around $4500 and even the G7 its $1000). 
Fortunatelly there is still some hope and with some good quality footage you can get some nice jobs as the TEDx im gonna cover next month and keep growing. But my advice its to stay away from here. It is almost only Stress and there is only one giant company ruling the high end market of Radio,  TV, Newspapper and even Cinema. And they dont like the kind of things we like. If you dont wanna do some kind of comedy for the masses they dont want you. There are many people doing great stuff here and there always has been, but its up to creativity to make good stuff with little to no resources. There has been an Brazillian animation at the Oscars. Never seen anyone out of my film schoo who ever heard about it. It didn't even make it to the theaters and was there with a nominee.
Its a pretty bad place to live with cinema stuff... But if you guys look at movies as the one that Rogerio Sganzerla, Glauber Rocha, Eduardo Coutinho or Kleber Mendonça did, there is still hope. 

I believe there's absolutely a middle ground where one can be prolific while still producing quality content. 

I’ll admit it, I use camera forums a lot.  Too much, probably. I use them to check out the latest cameras and lenses and lights and accessories. I waste about two hours a day on them.  Time I could spend watching “the View.”
When I started out shooting part-time in 2005, I got a DVX100 because a juggler who was a featured extra on a tv show called “Sons of Saddam” told me to.  “Cause it does 24p.”  I didn’t know what that meant, but I plunked down $3,000 - all the money I had in savings on this camera.  
The camera could have been a bust.  But I did it because a juggler who played one of Saddam’s sons goons said so.  That’s how easily influenced I am.
Then I bought a HVX200, not even testing it first.  “Cause it can do HD.”   I bought the Redrock micro adapter because I watched the work of MacGreggor and some other DPs back then do stuff on a Gorilla 35 lens adapter that hadn’t even come out.  I hadn’t even tried it first.  Just sent in my credit card info.  
Rinse and repeat.
All these periods of time I bought things just based on videos I saw shot on them. No tests - I didn’t understand tests.  Just videos shot with them and the opinions of people I respected.  I could look at screen grabs but just scroll down to their opinions.
Well finally 11 years later, I am seeing what I was doing - buying based on people’s emotions.  Based on the emotions of people whose work I liked.
This is fine to do, but it’s not always the smartest thing to do.  
There are several, maybe twenty influential figures online in the cinematography world.  David Mullen, Shane Hurlbut, John Brawley, Art Adams, Geoff Boyle, and of course Andrew Reid, come to mind as leaders who people follow and listen to.
Even the opinions of the above people and the other influencers are, in the end, just their opinions.
When someone says, “this to me screams filmic” or “this looks digital” - again, that’s all an opinion.  If they say, “that grade is terrible” or “man you nailed the skin tones” - again, that’s all opinion.  Even looking at test charts and camera tests, the results are subjective.  Aesthetic is subjective.  There are scientific tests, but they lead to opinions.  This isn’t pure math - this is an art form.
There is no such thing as filmic.
Everything is digital.  Film emulsions see the world differently, but they go through a digital intermediate.  They become digital .  And I think that’s probably about 99.9% of all films shot on celluloid.  Maybe a few hipsters shoot film and use a steinbeck, but they still upload their results to vimeo, which converts this to a h.264 file.
I have very strong opinions, and a lot of people have very strong opinions.  That’s why we work in film.  It’s an art form that is full of passionate people.  But I also have low self-esteem.  My whole nature of existence is based on others approval.  I’m getting better at trusting my own self, but this is my basis.  
I think maybe most artists have low self-esteem or why would they want to share their art?  Is it ego?  Or the attempt for others to connect?  Yes that’s part of it.  But whether you want to admit it or not, we love when people love our work.  We live off the feedback, or why would we check vimeo 5 times a day to see if someone commented?  Why else would we have awards?  Especially in an art field where awards are just based on opinions of a community who may or may not get your work?
Something is beautiful if you think it is.  You don’t need an oscar in cinematography to be happy with your lighting or camera movement or angle, or have your opinion mean anything less if you aren’t in the ASC.  Everyone brings something unique to the art form.  Everyone brings a new perspective that is needed, especially now, when everything feels pretty much the same.  

To be fair, the only unacceptable motion artifacts I've seen (beyond legitimately anomalous glitches with my 70-200mm f2.8 II IS, but anomalous glitches which would ruin an image) were with Tamron lenses. The IS is amazing, but it locks onto one frame...drifts...finds another: feels very much designed for stills with Tamron. Canon is a bit smoother.
But you're speaking incorrectly for an audience who disagrees completely with you, and disagrees correctly.
I don't care about numbers, be it 5k frames analyzed or 4k pixels captured, I care about images. And every image stabilized lens I've used has imparted a slightly unnatural motion, or lagged a bit, or self-corrected when stationary, overshot during a pan, etc. For me, in a guerrilla shoot (what 99% of people here are facing) the die roll is in our favor: it's more stable. For those with the complete control of being on set with top level gear and excellent crew members, the die roll is not in their favor: they're already getting it right, IS can only get it wrong at the worst $100,000 moment.
There's plenty of middle ground, but how much of your shooting with no IS and with IS has been on studio-distributed features? On tentpoles? With the people you claim to speak infallibly for (union camera operators)? I'm guessing not that much. Every union camera op, AFI grad, etc. I've spoken with would disagree.
That said, it's never bad to have the option. But I think Sigma has targeted this lens more toward portraiture and video than toward sports. And to that extent, their omission makes sense.

dagmar!!!

I've been working on a show with the zacuto recoil and z-drive. I also use this lanparte v-mount plate and a wooden camera d-tap cable. Very nice setup- the recoil plate makes it easy to precisely balance the camera depending on which lens you use (I'm usually on a 70-200- there's a nice little lens support built into the plate). We also have the VCT quick-release plate for easy tripod mounting. 
I don't like the stock sony monitor, I use a SmallHD 501 that I basically attach to a long rod coming from the handle.

Light gathering, not bokeh. 

I'm going to go ahead and say it. This $1,000 camera looks slightly better to me than the URSA Mini 4.6 footage I've been seeing -- in terms of color rendition and motion cadence. That's a matter of taste to be sure but damn it if it doesn't make sacrificing resolution a no-brainer for such a beautiful cinematic image. I have one pre-ordered. Maybe i should sell my Pocket and get two of these.
 
 

It took about a year to make.
The budget for the shoot was about $25K, includes permits and crew getting paid a bit.
A couple regular kinos for this but mostly practical lights.

The Video Devices PIX lineup manages to record 4k ProRes to USB 3 hard drive enclosures. Integrating such a system into a camera could be pretty revolutionary. 

Other than not having S35 I think the GH4 is still a front runner for small camera features/quality. Sony isn't offering 10bit4:2:2 output on their A7 and 6000 series. Like others have said if they offer S35 with the ability to record 12 bit RAW on the Odyssey, 1-120fps, that would be an excellent upgrade.
VLogL thru 10 bit is highly under rated in my opinion.

Yup. That's why I mentioned:
... which is exactly what Video Devices uses. But it's a too bulky of a solution to be dealt with in-camera, so I figured you could probably cover it up with a nice battery grip!

The Video Devices PIX lineup manages to record 4k ProRes to USB 3 hard drive enclosures. Integrating such a system into a camera could be pretty revolutionary. 

The Video Devices PIX lineup manages to record 4k ProRes to USB 3 hard drive enclosures. Integrating such a system into a camera could be pretty revolutionary. 

Low light is looking good... 

Here it is!
We recorded hdmi 8-bit 4:2:2 out of it and went to the odyssey
 
 
skin tones overall are nice!  and stabilization is amazing.
 The camera was interesting to use - especially considering that it's a 200 ASA camera and has moire and dynamic range challenges - sometimes this is interesting to have to maximize something with limitations. It's difficult, but I guess it disciplines you.

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

Imo,
Ed talks about the issue. Others talk about Ed. Pretty pontless to argue with those premises.
 

It can be done

http://petapixel.com/2010/04/09/canon-5d-mark-ii-completely-disassembled/

Since Mr. Jones brought it up - 
As a follow-up story to B&H Photo Video and Worker Abuses - they have unionized.  
And this is partly because of people like you and me:
"The workers received additional support on Oct. 22, when a coalition of photography and video professionals launched an open letter to B&H management, calling on the company to end the hazardous working conditions and discriminatory practices. They also called on the company to negotiate a fair labor contract. Within a week more than 1,000 signatures from artists, journalists, gallerists, educators, students and photo technicians were obtained.
“We welcome the workers at B&H to the USW and look forward to addressing their concerns with the company at the bargaining table,” said Shinn."
http://www.usw.org/news/media-center/releases/2015/bh-photo-warehouse-employees-vote-to-join-usw-union
This is an example of social media activism being successful.  The employees now have collective bargaining powers.
Hooray!

Not unless you throw on a couple promist filters to remove any aliasing... and any discernible detail.

Not unless you throw on a couple promist filters to remove any aliasing... and any discernible detail.

GH4 4K has virtually no moire. You mentioned 1080 but hopefully you tried 4K.

He is actually going to shoot something.

Not unless you throw on a couple promist filters to remove any aliasing... and any discernible detail.