pablogrollan

These seem to be the obvious choices for all-purpose lenses:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/732292-REG/Sony_SEL18200_DT_18_200mm_f_3_5_6_3_Zoom.html

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1001011-REG/sony_selp18105g_18_105mm_f_4_g_lens.html

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/835058-REG/Tamron_AFB011_700_18_200mm_F_3_5_6_3_Di_III.html

I can't speak about their quality because I haven't used them (I mostly use Nikon primes) and they have mixed reviews, but I suppose they do the job and size/weight-wise are very light compared to Cannon L glass.

Dithering to hide 8bit shortcomings is not exactly new... In fact, if I recall correctly, many programs from 3D renderers to video encoders used to have -many still do- an option for "8bit dithering" so that you didn't have to manually compose it.

Someone must confirm , but with metabones on the a6000, AF in photo is slow, and not useable in video mode. Because of phase detection not compatible with canon lenses i think.

True, they even get to say that is not fit for pro use and disappointing for enthusiasts, but when it comes to video using autofocus is an oddity. Sure, the new autofocus systems for video will improve and become common use, but as of today I still have to witness a professional shooting environment where autofocus is even taken into consideration.

Ondrej, if you plan to are going to be video-centered, the a6000 makes more sense in my opinion. It'll just take a little time getting used to the small form factor coming from a 7D, but functions such as zebras and focus peaking make up for it.

If you are looking for a retailer, try B&H Photo and Adorama, both in Manhattan (check the address online). The first one is probably THE store when it comes to anything photo or video related.

But isn't that the same guy who shot the official footage?

Meaning we'll have to take the results with a grain of salt -though I don't doubt his honesty-, and judge depending on how scientific/fair the tests look. Still, any additional info, even if it's coming from interested parties, is welcome.

Better DR and finer detail on GX7, but I see some artefacts on the building on the left at 00:13 in the Panasonic's video and a lot of "dancing noise" in dark areas. As someone already said these are two great cameras with some limits and issues. Thanks for your useful video, Inazuma.

I disagree regarding DR. What I see in the test (houses and tree footage) is that in the white balance in the GX7 is way too cool (the whites are bluish) and that the image is more saturated, but that doesn't mean a higher DR. I also see the GX7 to be considerably sharper, but I'm not sure about more detailed -those two concepts are often mistaken-. In the night scenes at 3200 ISO the GX7 is noticeably noisier in dark areas (sensor size maybe?). Still, as far as the tests show the image quality is pretty close.

@Olly P and @pietz

I was talking about the live broadcast from B&H that was linked in  the first post, not Andrew's review which is in fact much more detailed and useful.

@pablogrolian

 

1. I think the rep was actually quite honest in his assessments for being a company man.

He was, but as a company man he was obviously biased (it's his job!) and the other two didn't address any "issues" that the camera may have.

Overall, I enjoyed the camera getting some B&H love. At least in the USA, they are a major player in cameras and putting something other than a canon or nikon in front of the people for a few hours is nice. 

B&H are the reference camera retailer for the whole world. Perhaps that's why I expected something more "informative" and less branded, that's all.

Disgaree that 10 bit codecs, 4:4:4 and raw shooting are for lazy cinematographers, or that wishing for a camera to have any of these is being lazy, it is not...

But yes I agree, when implemented well, an 8 bit 4:2:0 codec, can be enough for nearly all applications, including high-end theatrical releases and broadcast.

Never said 4:4:4 and Raw were for lazy cinematographers or anything of the like, but that stating that they are absolutely necessary to get good results is an exaggeration. 8bit 4:2:0 is limiting, or should I say challenging, but being meticulous you can make it shine. Act of Valor and a bunch of House M.D. episodes were shot with 5DMKII, and whatever the limitations or problems they faced, with some extra work they were overcome.

I just wanted to express that by asking for better and better specs we seem to be forgetting that the best final product is usually the one that had the best production work involved, and that the increasing trend of "fixing it in post" should not be the way to go.

Nothing special, the only interesting thing is that it seems to be able to auto focus in dark enviroiments, but he doesn't compare it to other cameras so who knows...

Thank you.

[On live webcast...]

1. The moment you see the Panny rep you know the camera is going to be free of shortcomings and flawless in every aspect.

2. The best use they can come up with for slo.mo are family videos.

3. They omit the imminent launch of the Shogun and "the brick" is presented as the only option to record 422 4K externally.

Just about any modern display these days IS a "retina" screen, whether it's on a mobile phone or laptop or PC. Apple seems to have created an amazing mystique around the term retina, when all it really means is moderately high pixel density compared to viewing distance.

Nope, not by far. Most PC displays are 1920x1080 or 1920x1200, some -but few- high end monitors are 2560x1440 and most TV sets are FullHD.

Retina refers to pixel density per square inch -regardless of how far you are- reverting back to the method used in print, since supposedly the pixel density is such that you'd find it hard to tell the difference between printed characters and screen-displayed characters. The bigger the display, the more difficult it is to make it "retina". The iPhone 4 was Retina due to the small screen, but the later released iPad with slightly improved technology was not. It took apple two more generations to bring Retina density to the iPad.

I don't know if it's already been posted...

http://www.chip.de/video/Sony-Alpha-7S-a7S-Kamera-Erster-Eindruck-Video_69896252.html

My understanding of German is next to nothing, so any kind souls fluent in Goethe's language please let us know if anything new or interesting is said.

At least this reviewer has been allowed to hold and wave -maybe even lick- the camera in his hand, but no sample pictures or video mean the SD card stayed in his pocket...

GH4 looks sharper, however C100 still leads in DR (look at how easily the highlights blow out in the clouds of the GH4 shots). Then again, I'm not quite sure this is a very fair test (although that would be quite a challenge considering the different log formats, crop factor, etc.)

True, it is not very fair/scientific and we have to account for Vimeo's/Youtube's compression artifacts but from all the footage I've seen I'm too under the impression that GH4's dynamic range is below C100/C300 (12 stops). Considering the Panny sensor is rated at 12.8 stops for RAW stills, that may translate into 11-11.3 stops for video, which would be quite alright if handled properly.

If a person is unable to do their business without copyright infringement, there is something terribly wrong with that business imo.

I completely agree. Especially since the word "business" and not "hobby" is included in the sentence. Depending on how much money you charge or generate from your work, you have to adjust your budget accordingly. Just like you can't always afford to shoot with an Alexa, if a project is small or personal you can always resort to Royalty Free, Public Domain or Creative Commons music and leave the 3K$ licensing fees for commercials.

I'm only concerned with human/bot ratio in Vimeo's policy. I always use properly licensed music in my projects and it would be trouble if a client has problems to upload it to Vimeo just because it is "flagged" by software without even giving you a chance to send them the license certificate.

I exagerated a little bit, but there is really a problem with skin tones when using flat profiles in a 8bit codec, it just doesn't look natural anymore and you have to nail exposure otherwise they will look terrible, so in a lot of cases you will need to light the faces to make a shot possible (when there is a lot of DR). 10bit would make that a little bit more flexible.

Aren't you supposed to nail exposure? All these complains sound a little bit like wishing for a camera that would render a proper DP and proper lighting useless... which ain't gonna happen!

Cameras have light meters, histograms and now even an EVF that will give you a very approximate preview of what's being recorded. The issue is that you are supposed to expose correctly! We all make mistakes and regret the shot that could have been but we missed. The better we are the less we miss and still newer 8 bit codecs allow for a 1-1.5 stop correction, which should be enough. Let's not use technology to become lazy or as an excuse for our lack of technique/attention.

You week to be forgetting something from canon, namely magic lantern!
Eh..... Wait

...Or that Dual Pixel autofocus thingy that seems to work really well in video -never tried it though-.

Say for example a musician is busking and singing a cover version.

 

Nobody tips and they die of starvation... That is non-commercial use of the cover, so Fair Use.

Not really. The moment you allow the possibility of a tip or any kind of retribution, it is commercial use regardless of how much you earn. Just like if you were selling the song in a store and managed to sell 0 copies.

In addition, Fair Use belongs to American legislation, so it may apply to lawsuits generated in the US or by American artists -even if the infringement happens in Europe-, but if you use Kraftwerk music in your video and publish it in Germany, Fair Use would not apply.

Having said that, I agree that the system and legislation needs re-thinking to make sense in our age, not because it is "blocking artists" -that is never a reason, come on!- but because the business model is obsolete. If you could license a Coldplay song for 50$ nobody would complain. The key is switching from a thousand 3K$ operations to a million 50$ operations, just like you used to buy VHS movies for 40$ and now you can download/stream them for 5$. It's all about moving on (mentality-wise) to a market with a customer base of 800 million users. Now you can easily buy footage from American companies or music from Australia, something unthinkable in the tape & mail model...

I personally don't see a problem with keeping an eye on copyright violations as long as they do it right. Bots are not capable of subtleties and personal attention from Vimeo will be a must. If your video gets flagged but you are given a fair chance to let them know the content is yours or fully licensed or for personal use -which would be questionable, since it is for everyone to see-, then it's OK.

Youtube has so many users that it is impossible to look at every claim individually. A bot does the work and the innocent get caught in the process with the guilty. It is a great chance for Vimeo to differentiate itself from its competitors, offering a more personalized and exclusive service, which is what they claim all along and the reason they charge a premium.

We'll see how sales go... Anyway, unlike Sony or Canon -who take their time to lower prices- Sony offers rebates and discounts no too long after the camera is released. Let's hope it drops a few hundred $ by the end of the year like the A7 and A7R did.

Meanwhile, 4K is not the only reason many people including myself are interested in the A7s.

Me neither. 4K would be an added bonus. Having the possibility of shooting 4K if by any chance a project/client requires it is a plus, but I'm much more interested in the improved dynamic range, full frame sensor, XAVC-S and clean 6400-12800 ISO -no need to get to 400000 ever, I hope-.

Nevertheless, I'm not too concerned about the lack of test footage online so far, as I'd rather see test results made with actual production models rather than with pre-production models. Whenever the product is 100% ready to be purchased. The typical online test videos alone aren't really that critical, either, as only a few of them are typically of any use, all of them are compressed and none of them tell the whole picture.

So true! I coudn't agree more. My concern is not because the videos are useful, but because it seems suspicious that they are not letting any pro -except for Den Lennie- touch a camera...

So perhaps Sony should have kept a lid on the A7s until they're actually ready to deliver, after all. A delay this long starts eating up the hype advantage gained by the NAB coverage.

On the contrary, it seems to me that they were forced to advance the announcement at NAB so that their target audience would decide to hold a little and not rush into buying a GH4. Imagine what could have happened if they still had not announced the A7S? I'm sure many of "their" buyers would already have the GH4

Speaking of the price tag, do we still not know the actual retail pricing and delivery date of the A7s, in 12 May 2014 A.D.? 

 

I'm not going to join the Panasonic fanboi/anti-Sony curmudgeon choir but, I do believe that withholding the price point this long is beginning to work against them, and help the competition. 

Nope, but Sony has a scheduled announcement on May 15th where "supposedly" the retail price will be revealed. I'm not so concerned with the secrecy about the price. It seems obvious that the launch of the GH4 may have had some effect and Sony has had to re-calculate the ideal price point. I'm more concerned with the lack of pro photographers and videographers releasing pre-production tests to showcase the camera, especially considering it was meant to start shipping early in the summer.

GH4 is much much much much better for a video lover and also from the side photo, as it is breathtaking shots :)

 

Take GH4 for a half price and live happy :)

How on earth could you possibly know that? There are no reliable sample videos/tests and the retail price has nor yet been announced. The GH4 sure seems like a great camera -haven't used one yet- at an affordable price, but we still have no idea of how good the Sony A7S might turn out to be.

If it really has over 14 stops of dynamic range, excellent low light performance and the goodness of a full frame sensor, it could be a better option for the "video lover" in spite of lacking internal 4K. We'll just have to wait and see until we can compare both cameras, though I have the feeling the GH4 will be better on some aspects and the A7S will beat it on others.

Thanks Pablo! A couple years ago I worked on Background Subtraction image processing apps (desktop and mobile) where we removed the background without a green screen. There's lots of cool tricks that would help with a green screen- not present in Premiere's Ultra or other chroma key filters. There's another chroma key in AE- didn't try it as AE is so slow and we had limited time.

Please DO share as many tricks as possible! As you know, no two greenscreen shoots are the same and each time we have to face different "issues". In the last few years I'm liking Primatte Keyer better than Keylight (which is cleaner) because it allows you to remove any kind of background even with compressed codecs, since it has many matte cleaning tools. Whenever the footage is properly lit and shot (right color depth and codec) Keylight does an amazing job.

Have you tried the recipe? That's something I came up with- so far everyone who's tried it loves it. Grapeseed and coconut oil are both healthy oils for cooking (not non-stick per se). We cook on iron pans (safest / most healthy (no teflon)).

I'm sure it tastes fine (it is melted cheese after all, so it should!). It's just that basil, oregano, gouda and grapeseed oil are not very Mexican... With regards to oil, many vegetable oils can and have been really toxic -processed incorrectly- and have killed a lot of people (canola oil, for example), even though they are widely used in the US mainly due to their low price. Fortunately, where I live we only use olive oil and some sunflower.

Frankly, considering it's shot in AVCHD the chroma work is more than acceptable, I'd even say great... hard to get anything more "solid" with such compression. Two thumbs up for those skin tones, and the overall lighting is pleasant, too.

Having said that, the recipe was fuel for my nightmares. Non-stick spray? Basil and oregano? The pretty lady and the nice lighting made it worthwhile, but I hope nobody follows her advice...