TheRenaissanceMan

Log on compressed 8bit video files? Did I miss something?  Wouldn't grading such files cause banding and other such horrifics on files from the Gh4?   

The A7RII isnt even out yet, and for some reason this makes the GH4 (which is now over a year old and a third of the price) insignificant? Do brand new camera releases suddenly mean the previous awesome camera (GH4) isn't awesome enough to film with? 
I haven't bought a GH4, A7S, NX1, FZ100, LX100, G7.. (or any other 4k mirrorless). Still using my GH3 as the small camera. It does fine, still makes money. Doesnt have V Log or 4k and is just as good as when I bought it 2 and a half years ago. All on cheapo FD lenses. 
Firmware is a simple equation. Either crippled for product segmentation or promising the world (whilst delivering poorly in other key areas such as battery life!). Let's just buy ALL the cameras and we can have all the firmware we want! 
I do agree firmware is very important though. Poor firmware affects my creativity. The slow, sluggy speed of the FS7 menus means I have less time to work on the shot. The Monitor LUT dissapears. WHY!? The 1DC (official cinema DSLR champion) doesn't have peaking. And this camera launched for $634,000,345 as a Cinema EOS whatever thingy. 
"Modern" firmware is the way forward. Samsung has ideas and Blackmagic really seem to be onto a really simple, inutitive, elegant system. Sexy. 

Based on just a few hours of shooting XAVC-S on the A6000, the new codec does improve the levels of detail in the image a lot. I'm on the road at the moment and I don't have access to a 1080p monitor right now, so I don't want to draw any conclusions just yet. I am seeing a touch of moire here and there, in detailed brick-work etc, no worse than any down-sampling cam (but I need to look at it in 1080p). It looks like it's only in the luma channel, so at least it's not colourful rainbows. Sony's AVCHD lagged quite far behind Panasonic and Nikon's 1080p image (I have a G6 and I used to have a D5200). XAVC-S seems to close the gap, but I need to shoot more before coming to conclusions.

Same here, and I don't know where he got 5% from. Where I live it's 14%.
Off topic, It's funny how some say "Europe", "Africa" or "America" like it was just a country

Great points ruined by crying :(

Im a total vintage lens hoarder and therefore see the appeal of Sony in front of Canikon.
I've had the A7 and really enjoyed it with cheap glass. 
But honestly, in that respect Panasonic kills the A7x.
Anybody want to prove me wrong, show me the FF equivalent of thousands of nice small, compact, well built ,fast, and cheap primes streching all the way from 8mm Kowa to Fujinon 5mp 25mm.
For me even m4/3 is to big. S16 is where it's at :)

​If you're a hybrid shooter, keep in mind that the Sony still uses lossy 11+7 bit compression for its stills and has no mic jack for video. 

​Well, as a liveview shooter (the D5300 was my first non-mirrorless), hybrid shooting on the D5300 isn't the greatest experience there is, so I need to either give in and start appreciating the OVF or perhaps give up on stills altogether. Then there's the thing that I have a bunch of vintage and third party lenses and the most I can get of them now is from a 16MP M43 sensor... so it would be actually kinda nice to have those 24MP albeit full manual operation, since the only native lens for the Sony would then be the kitlens that comes with it. Atleast it would still have some mirrorless features mirrored cameras just don't offer. So XAVC-S coming to the A6000 might just seal the deal; was just wondering about the overheating issues. Will have to keep a lookout, maybe I can spot a nice deal. Thanks for the input.

Oh and Dave Dugdale did. And Sony reps (your heroes!) were just talking about their 2/3" sensor cameras recently at NAB, made for super telephoto work. Sorry, we should get back on topic :3
 
edit: and... Orson Welles would have considered it if he could have... because they were going nuts trying to get shots like these

 

So this being a site that hails great new tech that indies and owner operators can afford, I thought I'd give my first impressions of a 15.6" field monitor I recently picked up. It's made by OSEE, a company I never heard until they recently released a 1080p, 15.6" 10 bit field monitor for 650.00 called the LM 156. Let that sink in for  moment. Usually specs like this start at three grand or more. I also liked the size. 15.6" inches is like the difference between the 17" Macbook Pro and a 15". For my uses, doc, indies, run and gun and having to hop on a plane with little warning or assistants to lug my gear, the smaller size at 8 lbs definitely felt like it could fill a need for my style of shooting. And it can in a self contained, metal shipping case that doubles as a stand. Specs, size and convenience, I bought on faith.
Anyway, I got a chance to test it on an indie I'm shooting in NYC called "Dick and Jack".   So far so good. The color calibration is absolutely neutral with no shift. Easily beats my old Panny BTH 1700 and is on par with a Flanders 24" 1080p I used to own. Gone is the 8 bit banding. The other great thing is I can install LUTs. Will be trying that tomorrow. Anyway, not sure how it'll stand the test of time, but the overall build is quite pro. It's menu driven but my DIT had no issues navigating. The only problem we had was it wouldn't take the loop through from an F&V 4.3" hdmi to sdi. But it did take it from an A7s HDMI to F&V 4.3" HDMI out to HDMI to Paralynx transmitter to Paralynx receiver. I'm suspecting the signal from the F&V just isn't strong enough while the Paralinx receiver with its independent power must boost the signal. More testing is necessary. 
Also, regarding power, it'll take AB, V mount or AC power, but I ended up using 5000mah Lipos, without a hitch. One would last over six hours. Not bad.
In all, the colors our honest and no green or magenta bias I've found with some other leading brands. It's as neutral as FSI monitors. Anyway, we'll be taking it through some serious use in the next two weeks, so I'm sure I'll more to report. In the meantime, I'm still in awe that the threshold to 10 bit field monitors is now in grasp for folks like me. 

I'm not on OSEE's payroll or anything, but I was able to reach a real person who went out of his way to get me a model (even though they were way backordered) before my indie feature started. It's good to know there are  electronic companies run by people with first and last names. I wasn't expecting any kind of customer service at 650.00, so this review is my gratitude.

If you have MFT glass you like, I would definitely give the Blackmagic cameras a look. I recently upgraded from the GH3 myself and as nice as it was to use, the Pocket's image is in another league. 
I wouldn't be worried by specs. There are always going to be new and improved cameras coming out, but if you're still making great images with your old gear, who cares?

​I have

I'm sure this crew said they wanted IMAX and couldn't afford it. Had to settle on Super 16mm. Amateurs.

Nor can you achieve the DOF, Extreme Tele of MFT on a FF format. Different tools with ups and downs to both.

I mostly use large sensors for stills and then its Full Frame that has a weird crop factor, difficulty to achieve wide angle and need super fast glass to get any sort of SDOF.
I shoot Medium Format, its nice but also has a pretty tough crop factor compared to Large Format.
(As an interesting side note, The Swedish word for Full Format is "Small Picture" since Full Format 35mm has such a huge crop factor compared to standard (large) format and Medium.
Large, Medium and Small (FF). )
 

In what other way than shallow DoF? I find the RAW and DR from the BM cameras opens up way more creative possibilities than simply using a larger format.

In what other way than shallow DoF? I find the RAW and DR from the BM cameras opens up way more creative possibilities than simply using a larger format.

If you have MFT glass you like, I would definitely give the Blackmagic cameras a look. I recently upgraded from the GH3 myself and as nice as it was to use, the Pocket's image is in another league. 
I wouldn't be worried by specs. There are always going to be new and improved cameras coming out, but if you're still making great images with your old gear, who cares?

Just did the update, too. 50Mbit like the A7s! Very nice. Will do a A6000 vs A7s comparison later this week.

​They should focus on color.

Testing quick skin tone test - with fujifilm look on Alexa and Sony F35 - seeing if they can intercut.
So Amira was on 100mm ultra prime on sticks
Sony F35 was handheld with 85mm ultra prime.
Opps!  Should have both cameras on sticks and with same lens!  Being lazy helps no one.
Anyway, I found the cameras incredibly similar looking.
Hope this little test is useful in some small way to someone out there, anywhere.
And if not, I am so sorry I wasted your time.  I really am.
If I wasted your time, please comment that I wasted your time and I will reply and say, "I''m really sorry I wasted your time."
The other thing is that the f35 with odyssey 7q to dpx 12 bit is around a $10,000 solution right now and the Amira is about a $60k solution.  Sure the Amira is a much nicer ergonomic system and has built in NDs and has many more nice convenient options, but really - you save $50,000. Because people don't like stuff from 2008.  They need stuff from last year.  It's kind of nuts how "gear-forward" everyone is.   Especially now that most cameras are in the same ballpark of log or RGB recording and resolution and sensor size.  Oh well, gotta keep selling the latest and greatest.
So you save $50,000 - that's a lot of money.  Just by buying something that was once new and cool and expensive but is now forgotten.  
This is what you can buy with $50,000 you save.
A set of nice lenses
A house.
A really nice car
Help save the planet's infrastructure
Help save the planet's wealth discrenpancy problem.
Shoot a feature film.
Bail your friend out of jail.
It can buy a lot of great things.
Remember kids, the latest technology is nice - but the best stuff from 2008 still holds up.  Go ahead, give it a try!  It's fun to play with old things!

That was good!

Watch your language or your going to be the subject of Ed's upcoming documentary. 

​man I wish I hired you to write some lines!

How can I be amused when the cold blue deepness projects into the void of the horizon and reflects back nothingness? 
Here on the edge of this urban wilderness, we ask ourselves, are we more or less than this visible spectrum?
Spinning like a dancer.  Like photons; never existing but always existing  
Yet, the dog continues running alongside his master. Day after day for hundreds of miles.  

I'm pretty sure its just that he hates everyone here