Jimbo

From what I have read from multiple sources the 40mm STM and this new 50mm STM do not enable face-detection AF on the C-line cameras. A real pity =(
I'm currently invested in the m43 system for my business but have been researching the C100 Mark 2 for a potential new A Cam. It looks like a fantastic machine.
However... the one thing that I currently see as a weakness for the Canon C-line cameras is... the lenses. I know you must think I'm crazy, people are always singing the praises over Canon's incredible lens line up, but I just don't see it for their Super 35mm sensors. I either have to buy very expensive L lenses that have focal lengths and image circles designed for full frame, or sharp EF-S lenses that have plastic build quality, un-cinema-friendly zoom/focus rings and very uninspiring aperture ranges.
If I spend £4000 on a camera, I want an awesome standard zoom lens that uses all the features the camera is offering. I want f/2.8 throughout the range (so I can gain the advantage of the Super 35mm sensor!), I want 24mm full-frame equivalent at the wide end, I want a beautifully smooth zoom and focus ring so I can operate old school, and I also want OIS and all those sexy AF options at my fingertips so I can nail more shots on the fly.
Maybe I want too much? =)
Anyway, I love the image I can get from my GH4, and I love my Olympus 12-40mm lens. It's a real swiss army knife of a lens with its clutched hard-stopped focus ring, great zoom ring, constant f/2.8 and that wonderfully handy minimum focus distance, and the whole package weather-sealed. Okay, no OIS, but it does everything else perfectly and no problem sticking it on my small Glidecam HD1000 for stabilised shots.
Anyway, sorry to jump on your thread Ebrahim. I do like your posts, I just worry you are too deeply in love with Canon sometimes and she blinds you with marketing ;-)
Canon still have some work to do before they get my hard-earned money. Strangely at the moment it's the lenses that are the biggest sticking point for me.

From what I have read from multiple sources the 40mm STM and this new 50mm STM do not enable face-detection AF on the C-line cameras. A real pity =(
I'm currently invested in the m43 system for my business but have been researching the C100 Mark 2 for a potential new A Cam. It looks like a fantastic machine.
However... the one thing that I currently see as a weakness for the Canon C-line cameras is... the lenses. I know you must think I'm crazy, people are always singing the praises over Canon's incredible lens line up, but I just don't see it for their Super 35mm sensors. I either have to buy very expensive L lenses that have focal lengths and image circles designed for full frame, or sharp EF-S lenses that have plastic build quality, un-cinema-friendly zoom/focus rings and very uninspiring aperture ranges.
If I spend £4000 on a camera, I want an awesome standard zoom lens that uses all the features the camera is offering. I want f/2.8 throughout the range (so I can gain the advantage of the Super 35mm sensor!), I want 24mm full-frame equivalent at the wide end, I want a beautifully smooth zoom and focus ring so I can operate old school, and I also want OIS and all those sexy AF options at my fingertips so I can nail more shots on the fly.
Maybe I want too much? =)
Anyway, I love the image I can get from my GH4, and I love my Olympus 12-40mm lens. It's a real swiss army knife of a lens with its clutched hard-stopped focus ring, great zoom ring, constant f/2.8 and that wonderfully handy minimum focus distance, and the whole package weather-sealed. Okay, no OIS, but it does everything else perfectly and no problem sticking it on my small Glidecam HD1000 for stabilised shots.
Anyway, sorry to jump on your thread Ebrahim. I do like your posts, I just worry you are too deeply in love with Canon sometimes and she blinds you with marketing ;-)
Canon still have some work to do before they get my hard-earned money. Strangely at the moment it's the lenses that are the biggest sticking point for me.

Hi Ebrahim,
Here's a little review about the camera. If you go on dvxuser or other forums, you can read negative comments by panasonic fanboy: I can understand them, they are very frustrated and without any perspective for the future (as me 2 weeks ago). I think this camera has many advantages:
1) the VSM, the S35 sensor and the micro4/3 mount give you a unique lens versatility: you can mount every lens you want, digital or manual focus. Furthermore, this camera has allowed me to save all the money I've invested in M43 lenses
2) VSM is well enginereed: as you can see in the first frame, there are not evident artifacts
3) someone has said: this camera has not a filmic look. Sincerely, I cannot understand this kind of opinions by people that has never tried it. Surely S35 sensor is more filmic than m43 one. Secondary, the camera is fully configurable, has a cinema gamma and a cinema color matrix and you can achieve the look you want. You can even set the gamma value, but no scene files. Finally, in PP you cam make what you want
4) EVF is terrible. On the other side achieving a perfect focus is very easy. All my manual focus clips in 4k were simply perfect, without any external monitor or viewfinder. There are 2 focus assist: magnify and color peaking with B/W screen: you can use them in the same moment, they are fully compatible. If you use the 2 FA at the same time you have always a perfect focus, even in 4k and even with a fully open iris
5) Achieving the right exposure is not as easy as making focus: no waveform, no histogram, only one zebra position, in wich you can set the lower and the upper limit: you need to practice
6) the use of the dual slot is very clever: you can make a. series recording (with hot swap); b. parallel recording (a copy of the clip in the second card, very useful in important productions); c. normal recording in slot A and proxy recording in slot B and d. you can record continuosly on the second slot, regardless the pause button
7) there's a connector for external power supply (no false battery), very useful. If you connect an external power to the camera you can charge the battery while shooting (good) but no battery charger in the package. On the other side, a shotgun mic is included. No remote control also. If you need remote, you can use your smartphone.
The camera is small an light, but if you use a serious lens it is unbalanced and is mandatory that you put an hand under the lens in handheld shooting.
Finally there are the streaming functions, but I have never tested it.
The biggest lack? An effective monitoring of the manual exposure. This is my first request for a future firmware (if that were possible with a simple firmware update)
 
Regards
 
Gary

​Dude you made a feature film how many people can say that NOT many Nobody likes their work name me one artist director that loves his films or art and say Shit man i am good this is good
No for some HARD CANDY LOVE stop bitching and moaning you wont get any sympathy from me and go have fun by making short films and stop thinking that one day you will be some bog movie director. You think all those directors you mentioned started because they wanted to be big and important at the beginning NO they do what they love. Keep doing what you love and if one day you make it then more power to you my philosophy is if i don't like it if it is giving me stress i don't do it.

PS I was in a war 4 years at age 14 (Bosnia) lost 2 brother and father to that war escaped to Croatia over the mountain took me 3 weeks  to travel 230k almost got killed in doing it, from there went to Pakistan for 2 years as refugee almost got raped in one of the refugee camps, come to Canada with red cross was homeless for 6 months in Toronto barely spoke any English lived from shelter to shelter could not get work thanks to my English took me 3 months to get welfare got my education went to collage for graphic design and film All that was 15 years ago do i make films NO do i work as Graphics designer NO I fabricate kitchens in a small town make good money have a beautiful family my own place nice SUV car there is clean water coming from my tap i have electricity and this film staff i do it as hobby and threat it as professional hobby why because it makes me happy
 
But i am the happiest when i take my 2 kids to the park every day watching them play while i sip my coffee what i am tying to say don't over think just do what makes you happy if you make it then good
I don't know it any of this makes any sense

​I'm not qualified to advise you on your career, but as someone who's been married for some time I can tell you this (having someone who loves and supports you) is worth more than everything else you mentioned when it comes to happiness. My suggestion is to recognize and cherish that.

I relate a lot to that. Hardly requires a response, but I'm inspired by a lot of the same things and agree that it shouldn't be for anyone other than yourselves (especially if you're making something Cassavetean). I've had some trouble thinking of things to write about lately too, but sometimes I'm still making notes of a situation that gives me crazy anxiety and hoping later they can combine into something. A loose scenario with creative friends is a place i wanna go soon, maybe straight up improv, maybe more like group writing, but that could be a freeing solution or detour while still being significant. Good luck, Baxter! I enjoyed that post a lot

This is another existential filmmaker post spawned by a few recent threads. You've been warned. Also spoilers for a film.
Recently I saw a film that articulated a question I didn't know I was asking. That film was "Frank" the story of a talentless, wannabe songwriter/keyboard player who is recruited to join a band led by a man who wears a fake head at all times. You might have seen it floating around Netflix, and maybe you even disregarded it because it sounds gimmicky, or the poster looked like quirky nonsense, but I decided on a lark to watch it, and it was absolutely devastating. The "protagonist" of the film seems like a nice, sweet guy in the beginning, until he starts exploiting Frank's talent by secretly filming and posting videos of their rehearsals to youtube, eventually earning them a slot at SXSW. He tells Frank "People love us." to which Frank replies "People love us?" The pressure of the show, and pleasing an audience cause Frank to have a nervous breakdown. This film resonated with me in a major way. I watched it once, over a week ago, and I'm still thinking about it. I thought about how fame and success never occurred to Frank. He just created music for the art and expression of it, and when faced with the pressure of a major debut performance at a festival, he creates a terrible song that he thinks is his "most likeable song ever". The entire experience breaks him.
The whole film forced me to think of my goals as a filmmaker. I've wanted to be a filmmaker since I saw the Making Of Jurassic Park on TV when I was six years old. In high school, I got serious about having a career in film after seeing Pulp Fiction and El Mariachi. I then discovered the French New Wave and John Cassavetes, and I wanted to make honest, devastating, achingly truthful and beautiful masterpieces of cinema. I made my first feature at 21...and now I'm almost 28, with not many shorts, and not a single follow-up feature since my first. My first feature was extremely disappointing to me. I was obsessed with it for years, and even tried to make a quasi-remake of it, which was a disaster. I've been struggling to come up with an idea for another film that I like. I haven't been able to finish even a first draft in two and a half years. I used to be able to crank out script after script, draft after draft with all the blind confidence in the world. And since my feature, I've come to the realization that I only really have a few basic themes that I keep going back to, and I keep trying to force myself to think of something different, to be a different filmmaker, but I'm not. And now I'm questioning my goals.
I've wanted a career making indie films so I wouldn't have to work a crappy day job. I've been working the same crappy day job for almost four years straight, except for the nine months where I moved to LA to pursue my career. I could't even find a day job to pay the rent. Toys R Us interviewed me twice and wouldn't hire me to work in the stock room during the holidays. I sold a bunch of my lenses, and the DVX100 I didn't use anymore, for rent money. I moved back to my hometown a year ago, broken and miserable. A year later I'm in a great relationship with a woman I'm moving in with in a month. She also has a three year old daughter, and though I thought I never wanted kids, now I can see myself raising this child with my girlfriend, and marrying her. We both see it. She's extremely supportive of my filmmaking, and doesn't want me to give up. But I just feel discouraged. Discouraged that my films will never look good enough, have good enough acting or be important enough. And I still want to make films, but I'm wondering why I want, or need, to be successful at it. Before I got "serious" about it, I used to have fun making movies. The same group of friends and I would get together and film shorts on the weekends. Most people here I'm sure had the same experience. I think all I want now is to form a troupe of actors/crew members and make cheap movies in our spare time for fun, and perhaps never even show them to anyone else. I'm accepting that I'm nowhere near the level of talent as Francois Truffaut, Paul Thomas Anderson, or David Lynch, and it's okay. I'm giving up on success. I just want to make shit.

you kinda did it too jfr, and tons of people here love the nx1. I'd rather we get off topic than nasty

Here is a new video out shot with the JVC looks darn good to me.
Other then better low light shooting i do not see the Sony as any better in any other way,  Both the JVC and NX1 record 4K, And the JVC gives you pro audio, Video streaming and a lot more. I like the JVC for a camera you can go shoot with that has everything built in ready shoot, I have had no problems shooting with my NX1 i have had since December i have well over 100 hours on it the image quality is sharper then the Sony and when you need auto focus the NX1 is much better, and i have no problem with Dynamic Range. And he HD slomo is quite good to at 60 and you have 120 as well.
 
And here is the guy that shot all that talking about it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PW_U93HJbAo 

​Me too! I'd be happy, and would promise not to contribute to wishlists ever again, okay, well at LEAST for 12 months. But seriously, I'm very tempted by the C100 Mark 2 as an all-in-one 1080p machine for the next 3 years, but I'm loath to buy into the Canon system due to their "just enough" approach. Come on Panasonic, you can do it. I'm hoping it's just slightly more compact than the AF100, and looks less like a shoebox with a toilet roll coming out the back.
​I agree, if they nail the ergonomics and it delivers beautiful images out of the box then they will have a winner on their hands. If designed right and priced right it could cover the C100 and C300 market segments like the FS7.

Agreed, I get a little suspicious when people rant about specs too much, it is a bit like guitars...when someone says such and such a guitar is sooo much better because of this reason or that, the first thing I want to do is hear them play. As Steve Vai once said...when people get too caught up in I use this amp, with this vintage valve mic, thru to such and such a pre amp and then to tape...yada yada...well you grow old that way LOL!!
Obviously there is a difference between say a great guitar and a shit one, but that difference is not that great (as some make out) between say an NX1 vs GH4 vs C100 or C300 or whatever from Canon..or even a Red, perhaps even the "GOD" Alexa!
So if anyone says the GH4 footage is just "OK" thats fine, but perhaps show something you have shot that is miles better, that anyone could see..(without pixel peeping) otherwise its just words.
Take this footage for example https://vimeo.com/125389854   this could have been shot on an Alexa or anything else, its great!!
However if you think it shows the failings​ and limitations of the GH4, thats fine...but then post something "you have done" that is noticeably better that anyone can see....its easy to quote specs on a forum (and yes specs are important...to a degree) but the reality is, the GH4 (even without V-Log) can produce an amazing image in the right hands.
Buying an NX2 or a GH5 is not going to make your work "miles" better, it will simply give you more options thats all.
How do I know? Well I operate a 20 core Xeon E5-2680 v2 CPU and a ton of VST plug ins, libraries of sounds, and a couple of very versatile DAW's..and a lot of mastering plugs and hardware.
You know what? I cant make better music on this than I did 5 or so years ago on a quad core with far less,the reality is I am limited by my imagination and skills...its the law of diminished returns, go back 20 years...yes there is a difference, go back 5 years...not so much.                                                
The GH4 vs the NX1 vs Canon or others ..even less so.
.

I love NAB, been more than a few times, but maybe it's my age and where I am in life, but the more stuff I see the more I'm starting to believe that the tech has maxed out for me.  So I ask myself, when any semi-affluent middle-school kid has access to comparable IQ that I have, what's the point of chasing the best IQ?
12 stops of DR vs. 14 stops of DR.  This color science vs. that color science.  If not applied to a good story and a foundation of compelling shots, using the best isn't really much of an advantge.  Love great new capabilities.  It's exciting, but rarely do I leverage it in any similar exciting storytelling way. 
For far too long I've focused on playing with the cool toys in the sandbox.  Ultimately, I'm thinking I would have been better off learning how to build a superior sandcastle.
All one has to do is wander around Vimeo to see a bunch of decent looking IQ and lousy filmmaking.  
And god forbid you're on a film festival selection committee.  So much stuff looks great these days, you're forced to sit through feeble storytelling until you realize the narrative isn;t going to say anything remotely interesting, is just a bunch of hoary tropes, and the story doesn't come close to matching the imaging.
Dang near everybody has great IQ devices...and if they don't they will soon...even if they're not actively searching it out to acquire it.  It will come with their phone, watch, eyeglasses, pocket drone, or whatever.
For me it's time to ignore the camera and go back to the concentrating on ideas and story.  That skill is truly where any advantage in this career will allow advancement.

I have no interest in mastering to 4k yet but you can't even try to pry my 4k cameras out of my hands. It just opens the doors for me as a run & gun videographer (weddings mostly) to be able to crop and recompose in post. I do this all day long with photographs...it's about freaking time I can do it for video. Plus my frame grabs when I need them are much more usable. Every now and then I even stabilize in post which usually amounts to a crop. I still have my 5D3 for photography use but almost never use it for video anymore. Canon is dead wrong if they think 4k isn't a must have. Though granted, I still have yet to master out to 4k for projects...though I do enjoy watching my home videos on my 4k tv which I do maintain at 4k. Maybe my kids will thank me someday for their high quality home videos. 

I'm presently agonizing over, say, and NX1 or really biting the bullet (artillery shell?) and getting something like the Ursa mini. For my work that I need to look beautiful.
But y'know what? 70% of my video income the last year has been with an AC-130. Not sure why, one big corporate client likes me to shoot their community events and whatnot. I grabbed that camera the week before a shoot out of the US, loved it and still use it weekly.
Sometimes the local news is out there (smaller markets, big master planned communites out in the country - but $1m homes) with their DSLRs and AF-100's. And when things are moving fast, they miss about half the shots when I get 'em all.
All I've wanted as an upgrade for that kind of work is a 4K 24p camera, that can at least do 1080@60p, with decent low light and that will take my existing focus and zoom controls.
Looks like I got it. There's a market for this camera. At $5k, I dunno - under $4k, yeah. Sure, I guess we could use a another swappable-lens "cinema" camera with 4K. Throw in remote focus, iris and zoom, built-in ND, XLRs, etc, a good VF and affordable media and I could see it replacing this form factor for me - I would love love LOVE to have one system for everything I do. But often that means it doesn't do everything well. This new camera is great for a scenario that has a lot of billable hours. It's an evolution of a product that's worked well, from the DVX to the HMC to the AC line. I'm pretty psyched.

​Those poster guys on the crane better hurry up

​I do 1000$ weddings and can only take 20-25 a year, so i can't ever justify buying even one c300 mk2, let alone 2 or  3 as ideal for my needs.
For US top weddings, something like ray roman does as someone mentioned him here, i think he can afford these cameras, so i see wedding videography using this but only at the highest level of work for this kind of bussines.
Sure, features like raw and 400mb  bit rate are overkill for wedding, but it's not like it can only shoot like that, the headline here is 4k on a 1.5 crop with great ISO and DR, this sounds exceptional for events.
I don't see the filmakers market as an atractive one for canon and i don't think they targeted one specific market, seriously, filmakers rent, videographers buy it for good and are way more than filmakers.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

This is almost everything you would want in a 4k camera, right now, just amazing specs, except the price.
At almost 16k $ this puts the camera in a different category, at least for me, i shoot weddings and it's impossible to justify this kind of camera for the prices i have.
I might be wrong, but, in the long run this camera might lose it's resale value very very fast, with companies like samsung and panasonic that have nothing to lose ( they have no serious market share in any category, proffesional or consumer), anytime they could launch a little hybrid still/video GH or NX camera that does almost all of what c300 mk2 does and more, like 4k 60p.
I hope i'm wrong and c300 mk2 has a long life, hardly the chance when samsung is serious about this and panasonic keeps pushing for more, right now nx1 is 1300$ body only on B&H.
Still, amazing camera, right now this would be almost everything i would want for what i shoot, if someone here can justify the purchase, do it, it really is a very good camera.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I hear Peter Jackson is re-shooting the Hobbit with this new fancy LFR technology. Because he can.

Canon C300 EF now $6499 at B&H

Canon C100 (Mark I) now $2999Many people aren’t ready for 4K yet. These people just got the bargain of the century with a massive Canon price reduction on the old Canon C300.
Read the full article

It's still a $6500 camera with an EVF from the devil's arse

Agree with Andrew. I have had no problems with skin tones on the A7s. In fact, I'm finding the footage incredibly beautiful and easy to work with.  WAY better than my T3i was
I think people just don't understand how to grade. Here is a hint: in FCPX there is a line in the vectorscope - this is your skin tone line. If you crop the image so only a piece of skin is showing, and move the highlight/midtone puck until the vectorscope is right on the line, then remove the crop and you've got a good starting point for your grade.
Proper white balance, proper exposure help too.

I recently had to give my laptop in for repair. It's going to take about two to three weeks. I had been working on a feature film screenplay at the time, and had started on a second draft, but the work was proceeding very slowly. Browsing the web and watching stuff was what was taking up the majority of my free time. I don't have cable in my house, do not have a smartphone, and my computer was also my DVD player. Without it, I have essentially been sent back to the 1950s. So I order to stay productive, I decided to continue working on my script....longhand. And writing it out on paper without the benefit of instant rewrites or having the first draft in front of me has really boosted my productivity. I write more pages per day, and think about things very carefully before putting them down on paper. Because if I want to rewrite something, I have to remove the page, and rewrite all of the stuff on it. I have a growing stack of rejected pages in the folder of my binder.
Then, after I finish writing, I go to the gym (something else I was loath to do with a Netflix Instant account constantly in front of me), then I retire with one of the many books I have on my shelf that I was meaning to read but never bothered to before I lost my computer. It's a true creative's life.
That said, I will hug and kiss my laptop when I get it back from repair. This little vacation from the world of electronic devices was fun, but eight hours of web-surfing is one of the few things that makes me forget about my stresses. It's like a bottle of liquor or a joint. It helps you escape reality. I just hope that I maintain at least part of the discipline I have developed.

I think Panasonic are safe to boost the GH4 firmware without affecting sales of a rumoured AF200.
My hunch is that they will release a firmware update with v-log etc. alongside the announcement of the AF200 so that the GH4 becomes the perfect B Cam for the AF200 with matching colour profiles.
Maybe a hunch, maybe a hope ;-)

I think Panasonic are safe to boost the GH4 firmware without affecting sales of a rumoured AF200.
My hunch is that they will release a firmware update with v-log etc. alongside the announcement of the AF200 so that the GH4 becomes the perfect B Cam for the AF200 with matching colour profiles.
Maybe a hunch, maybe a hope ;-)

I think Panasonic are safe to boost the GH4 firmware without affecting sales of a rumoured AF200.
My hunch is that they will release a firmware update with v-log etc. alongside the announcement of the AF200 so that the GH4 becomes the perfect B Cam for the AF200 with matching colour profiles.
Maybe a hunch, maybe a hope ;-)