giostrante

Of course you can spend a huge amount of money for an external monitor and some ultra expensive Zacuto stuff, OR you can make the perfect setup for less then 50 €!! All you need is this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Viewfinder-Extender-2-8x-Canon-Mark/dp/B009SXO5BK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397841866&sr=8-1&keywords=v1+viewfinder and this http://www.amazon.co.uk/CowboyStudio-Shoulder-Support-Camcorder-Camera/dp/B0036NMQ7S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397842085&sr=8-1&keywords=shoulder+mount+Cowboystudio I can assure you, I'm shooting with d800 for more the one year now, in every kind of situation and this is a super reliable setup. With this kind of shoulder mount you can grab the camera with your right hand like when you shoot stills and use the left for focusing, very stable even when you're moving. The viewfinder has a x2,8 magnification factor and is perfect. Another great feature that the d800 has is the removable screen protector, you can buy a second one and put the viewfinder frame on it, as I did (see below). I can't believe people spend a bunch of money for a zacuto vew finder, it's crazy. Unless you're rich of course... Believe me, there's no need to buy an expensive rig, all you need is training. I can track focus on a 50mm f1,8 with no problem, all you really need are good lenses and a good tripod (a Manfrotto 055xprob with the hd 501 head is a perfect and cheap combo). And if you want to spend money buy an Atomos Ninja for hdmi uncompressed, that is a good purchase. Don't listen who will say "this is a cheap rig, it can't be good", check the Musgo trailer on the web, is a film made with an hacked gh2 and this shoulder mount. And look how is cute my d800 with viewfinder!

Yes, but this is not the case, for stills there's a huge difference, and only one win. Guess who?

Absolutely true, that's why I'll stay with my d800 and probably buy an Atomos Ninja or a Star. But we were discussing about image quality, just a technical point of view, some useless nerd stuff ;). Another great truth! :D Well, this is another point, from the beginning of the dslr video story all people went crazy for this absurd and extreme reduced depth of field. To me is a nonsense, it's just something for dreamy look images, videoclips and weddings, but the cinematic image is another thing, try to watch every good movie ever made, pay attention and you'll see, deep depth of field is in 95% of the images, that's why they use tons of light and money! Poor d800, its look is really underrated, I know, but is a capable camera. It's a coincidence but just today Andrew decided to give it a second chance, there's a new post here with a couple of good examples (with Atomos Ninja), give it a look!!! And there is a small videoclip I made and a video test of the new hack of a friend of mine. I'm going to post soon on vimeo some recent wedding or a show reel. As you can see, considering that is internal recording is not so bad, even for the low light parts, of course is better download the files as you said. And especially the second video, I doubt that the 5d h264 can reach that sharpness and detail, even if sharpened in post. But I'm a nikon guy, so... :P Anyway, let's see what Andrew will do and let's keep shooting, down with cameras, people rule!

Yesss Andrew, give this underrated beast a try!! You can install the hack safely, I'm using the 64 mbps in the last month without any issue, except the playback problem of course. I'm in Berlin too, I'm curious to see what will you shoot and what will you say!

Well, look at this, look other wedding video from this guy, it's always a gh3 with a 25mm and a 50mm, for me that's no comparison, no way. I don't know what is "excellent" in the video you post, speaking just about image quality of course. The steady parts in the church are really poor, I have to say, I can't believe it's raw!! I know what the 5d raw can do, I know it's amazing but this is definitely one of the worst examples I've ever seen, always speaking just about image quality of course, I don't comment the video. A d800 can't do raw, unfortunately not yet, but I can assure you that you could easily compare the h264 nikon footage with some parts of this video, like the church part as I said. And as you can see in the link you can also be outclassed from a little beast like the gh3!

Anyway, the first video is gorgeous but the wedding, let me say, it doesn't even seem raw, not a good example!

For weddings I stay with my d800 over the 5d all the time, as I said, small files, better quality, an entire wedding is 20-25 gb of footage with standard bitrate, less then 50 with the new hack, is perfect for that use. There's no need for 4k or other formats, the price people pay me for a wedding is right just for a h264 video. I work alone and with one nikon, a tokina atx-pro 35-70 f 2,8 (an unknown lens, build like a tank, light, with an outstanding quality even wide open and the best and smoother zoom and focus rings I've ever seen in my life, if anyone is so lucky to find one grab it immediately), a tamron af 20-40 f 2,7-3,5 (another masterpiece of lens, almost zero distortion, great sharpness, another tank-made glass and is like having 3 primes in a single package, 20, 24 and 28 at f 2,8, go for it also if you need wide lenses) a nikon 50 f 1,8 series E for extra low light and a shoulder mount. I make wedding reportage and it's a perfect combo, all in a backpack, with 2 batteries, a viewfinder, a videomic pro and I can shoot all the day in every situation. I'd like to have raw and prores but not for the weddings, mainly for other works like videoclip, little movies and so on. But I think that in the future using a black magic pocket camera for wedding could be an idea, batteries are cheap, lenses are cheap, ultra light, great dynamic range and good in low light, it would be interesting. Anyway, I have considered various factors in this days, and after all the posts here now I know what to do, I stay with my beloved d800, until the photokina in september at least, then we'll se what nikon, canon and other brand will do. In the meanwhile we'll have more information and test on gh4, sony a7s and so on. I think that buying a 5d mark III now just for raw video would be a mistake,specially considering the standard h264 which is really outdated and overrated. And who knows what will happen during and after this summer? Maybe there'll be chances to see new 4k canons and nikons, or a nikon raw mode, maybe with an official firmware update (in my dreams), who knows?? So for now let's using what we have to make beautiful things!

Yes, I shoot also weddings, video and photo, it depends. And for video considering the 5d mark III stock mode I prefer the d800 all the way, more detail, more sharpness, better color rendition, lowlight is not always problem, there are always my nikon 50mm 1.8 series E and neat video for that, of course! And in one year of weddings I've never had a problem with moire, it's very rare and anyway difficult to see, especially for the clients! And considering the d800 lower bit rate I can save various weddings in less hard drive space, even if now I'm using the new hack (64 mbps vs 20 mbps original). That's important for me, is a big factor, with the 5d I would have worst image quality in more space! I'd rather use tons of gigabytes only for high quality material like raw or prores, not muddy h264!

Yes and no, it's of course better than the gh3, but I don't think it can match a proper dslr for photo, especially a full frame. That's interesting, I could drop from d800 to d610 and invest in a bmpcc (and a speed booster in the future), which is a real video camera with the benefit of the raw and the prores HQ also, great idea! I've just seen some comparisons and I prefer the look of the black magic over the canon, it's more flat, more natural, the 5d has always that "blu-magenta-contrasted" look, I can't explain well, is something proper of the canon image, something more digital and less filmic, it's in the stills and in the video files also, h264 and raw too. Is a personal taste of course, but is there, I can easily see it looking at the borders of a subject, I think is a mix of sharpness, contrast, latitude and colours, simply canon doesn't have the image quality that nikon and the black magic have, it's different, worst for me, look at the sample below. Anyway with this solution I could still have my beloved nikon look for pictures and a new powerful and proper tool for video, awesome! Definitely goodbye 5d! Thanks for the idea!

Hi everybody, I'd like to discuss with you my case. I started my digital dslr experience with a Nikon d40 only for photo, then I switched to canon 7d for the video mode, later to a 5d mark II and last year I switched again to Nikon d800 cause I was tired of the horrible, soft and muddy look of the canons, tired of the colors and of the fact that the 90% of the images around the web were all the same, cause everybody used Canon. And the 5d mark III at that time didn't change anything, the video mode was even more soft and muddy than the mark II, just better for high iso. So considering that I always used and I'm still using old nikon ai-s lenses for video (with adapter on canons) I chose the nikon for the best sharpness and dynamic range despite a worst iso performance, and I was satisfied with the results. But this was before the magic lantern raw revolution. Now, I've waited a year the gh4 and the new sony alpha, cause I really like the idea of small and light camera body and lenses, and the video modes are amazing but for serious photo work the mirrorless are still too slow, they are not good for every type of photography like a real dslr, not yet. From the other side this magic lantern raw hack make me crazy, the video images are absolutely a bless, and the possibility in post processing are huge, the workflow is still a pain but the results are outstanding. And you still have a proper dslr in the hands, one of the best. But for photo I still prefer the nikon look, the incredible power of the d800 sensor, the ability to recover blacks without color noise, the dynamic range, the grain, almost everything is better in the nikon for me, but the raw video is a mirage. I'm a follower of nikon hacker project which is great, but I honestly think that they'll never find the rabbit in the hat, no raw magician, there will never be a trick. They are few guys with few resources, too complicated. A raw video mode for the d800 will blow out of the water every canon model, 1dc included, I'm sure about this, but it's a pure fantasy, sadly. At the moment my natural choice can only be a 5d mark III, but who knows what will come in the next photokina (september 2014)? If comes out some new d800s with 4k and all the other super marvellous feature of this recent cameras I'll die! It would be a serious concern for me, a real epic fail! So the question is simple, would you buy a 5d mark III now? Or would you wait the end of this year at least? (sorry for my english!!)