Mat Mayer

Probably best to find a version with a decent dedicated graphics card, otherwise I assume everything else is in order. Don't be tempted to get a cheaper or more powerful Windows laptop- it really sucks going back.

You can check graphics cards easily here: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Computer-Games-on-Laptop-Graphics-Cards.13849.0.html

Thanks for taking the time to find those examples. The sunset shots look fine. Looks like SLR Magic lenses are not available in Thailand or Malaysia though. I saw the Oly yesterday and it is tiny; a very attractive attribute for travelling light. Really over priced in Thailand though, so will see if I can grab it in Malaysia where it is £150 cheaper. As I am mostly making true to life landscape videos; not having the character of the SLR Magic isn't such a big loss for me.

Do it! Comparable video to GH4 with less crop. If on a budget consider getting a cheap Pentax K adapter to add super cheap vintage lenses from eBay (longer focal lengths than the kit lens). You could probably get a few lenses, camera, memory cards, filters, tripod and an extra battery for under £500. Then upgrade in future to the Metabones and better lenses and/or the GH5.

That lens looks awesome, I had assumed it was more expensive so wasn't considering it. I only use manual focus and it has a stepless apeture ring too, which for me is a bonus. They also make a matching variable ND filter with steps, which is another a big bonus. The only downside is the center distortion shown on Andrew's review- it is pretty horrific and I plan to film sunsets which would be ruined. As a noob I am unsure if distortion can easily be corrected in Premiere Pro without losing resolution for videos, so will have to do a bit of reading before forking out for this one. It looks like a lens I would treasure though compared to the old plasticy vibe of the Olympus 9-18.

After a bit of reading I have discovered the 7-14 is unsuitable for my purposes of shooting out in the sun, as you get persistent flaring and can't attach an ND filter easily. Lots of chromatic aberration too; maybe the GH4 will fix that though.

I may of liked the Rokinon/Samyang 10mm but it weights 620g which is an issue for me (similar reason to avoid the Tokina). That leaves the 9-18mm Olympus which seems decent enough, can use filters and weighs just 155g. Similar price to the discounted 7-14 too. The Pro 7-14 Olympus is too rich for my blood.

Can anyone recommend (or warn about) the Panasonic 7-14mm? It is under $600 on Amazon US. If that price drop comes to Asia I want to grab it ASAP.  Seems to be mixed reports online about distortion.

For that price it is a great deal, as long as you won't miss the 4K of the LX100. It is so nice to have such a small but capable camera with you all the time. It is a jump up in video because the first version only does interlaced 1080. My guess is that the 3rd and 4th versions aren't that much better to warrant paying the much higher prices, unless you need the specific features like EVF and slow motion. 

Cine D with minus 3 sharpness, minus 5 noise reduction, minus 5 saturation is a pretty good all arounder. It is a kind of semi flat profile which can be manipulated a decent amount. There is at least one free lut out there specifically for Cine D.

V Log is a bit risky without testing first, but it has the best potential. Be careful not to underexpose.

Edit: I don't film people so listen to Matt below as skintones isn't something I considered.

Once I triple my investment with the Sigma lens, Metabones speedbooster and an external 4K recorder; I am sure V Log will be awesome. At the moment shooting internally with a kit lens I see the dynamic range potential, but it has highlighted to me how important it is to know how to expose properly (which I don't). I shall be taking things back to basics for a while with another profile, unless in great light outdoors when I have time to shoot twice.

At the moment it just feels like I am breaking the image by shooting in poor to average light on a slow lens: gaining some dynamic range at the expense of noise. I have to say it can handle pretty high ISO from my limited time with it- part of my initial issue was under exposing to try and keep ISO down, which was a mistake. 

Correct. Some (or all?) sites have an exclusive option which you can leave unselected. The standard is non exclusive so you can do what you like with the footage.

Pretty much decided on the top spec version with 512gb SSD and upgrading RAM myself. Looked at loads of laptops today but none were right; either not as powerful or poor screen. The only ones with a decent screen are 17 inches and weigh a tonne, but had an issue like not upgradeable and poor hard drive. None ticked all the boxes. The more I read reviews, the more horror stories I see for brands like Asus and Lenovo. Its just not worth paying half price on a machine which might break when abroad. Customer service isnt UK standard out here in Thailand, laptops are bought from pretty dodgy stores.

The way I look at it is that it costs $3k for an iMac and in a year I will be able to get around $2k for it. So that's $20 a week for a beautiful machine, and I know from experience that I will be far more productive on it. The quality of my grading should be better too with the new screen color range; I have done some real crap on a laptop screen. My Premiere timelines are fairly simple, so I expect it will be smooth enough (RGB curves and some cross fades and dissolves). No idea when iMacs will be available here, but apparently the education discount is easy to blag here.

I did not know that. Will have to have a re-think.

"The iMac's screen actually looks more vibrant than ever. Apple is using a new display tech on the 4K (and 5k) model that it says can show 25 percent more colors "

The new iMac has just been announced. The 21.5 inch versions are not strong enough, so 27 inch it will have to be. That can have a 4GB AMD graphics card which I assume will breeze through 4K from a GH4. I will upgrade the RAM myself to 24GB (it can go to 32gb).  Unsure about which processor to choose between:

Option 1 - 3.3GHz quad-core Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 3.9GHz

Option 2 - 4.0GHz quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 4.2GHz (plus $250)

Both are Skylake. I am abroad so will be selling it in a year or so when I move, so no need to get the very best that will last longer. Just want something to smoothly edit 4k on that awesome screen for a while. The 2TB Fusion drive has 128GB SSD which sounds fine to me.

Price wise it seems to be on a par with the Lenovo P70 which would be a more logical long term choice for someone like me who moves around, but Lenovo sound like they suck at customer service and build quality, plus a 5K 27 inch retina screen versus a 17 inch laptop screen isn't even a comparison. Also selling a Lenovo doesn't sound easy to me, whereas you will always find a buyer willing to pay a fair price for an Apple.

Sounds like the processor is only i7 dual core in the high end Surface Book. So one site says the cheaper dual core i5 version may be worth going for as it should only be slightly slower. Websites are guessing the graphics will be an equivalent of NVIDIA 950M with 1GB, which looks like a fairly decent card according to NotebookCheck.

I am unsure how much the 1GB thing matters or whether the actual card is more important. But that and the processor makes me assume it won't be ideal. Think I read somewhere that it only works with the dock when not connected to keyboard, which could mean the GPU can't be used with a monitor. After noticing lots of bad reviews for Lenovo it is back to Mac for me with sites guessing an announcement on Tuesday. Mac seem to always get away with low specs so maybe Microsoft have manged to squeeze extra out of their modest specs too?

Interesting, will check it out now. Might be pretty cool editing with the pen on my lap, then use it like a tablet whilst it renders footage. Would still want a big monitor and the dock though, which will probably make it $4k ish. On the other hand it could replace my tablet and it is super light/thin for travel. Only other issue is the battery just lasts 3 hours when not connected to the keyboard.

Microsoft haven't revealed what the graphics card is in the Surface Book. My guess is that it will be too weak and just 1GB or so, which is nowhere near enough for 4K video editing. My Macbook Air has 1.5GB GPU and has no chance of editing 4K, it does FHD slowly but fine. It will also cost around $3000 for the top spec Book model, which is too much for a machine that will barely,  if at all, be good enough. Their sales pitch was all about being the fastest and newest in the world at various things: they can't do that with graphics; so have conveniently decided to be vague about it. If they had said the GPU/keyboard could be swapped in future then it could be worth considering.

Next week there should be a new 21.5 inch iMac announced with 4K screen and (hopefully) good enough graphics card/s. Then next month the lenovo P50 and P70 laptops will be released (with UHD screens and awesome specs), just in case Apple under powers the iMac. I am probably going for an iMac as I love their screens so much and am happy to do no editing with the Macbook Air when on the move. These options will all be around $3k. There are certainly no laptops where I live available for $1k, even if there was the screen would surely be poor.

A friend who does weddings told me he just bought a PC for $7K+ yesterday, which makes me feel OK about the $3k options.

I do feel a bit sorry for them. Maybe they should come out and be honest about needing to cover costs and setup a donations page. If not I will probably try and buy another Panasonic lens or something. The camera with V Log for £750 currently is on a par with the BMPCC half price deal last year,so maybe they will sell lots more to make up for it.

Thanks to Panasonic. Seems like they went to so much trouble to secure it lol. This isn't even a hack, there is no grey area. It is obvious and freely available. No need to delete this thread imho. It is the same thing as a shop putting a 0 cents price sticker on a product: obvious mistake but you would be crazy not to take what is being offered to you. I will of course pay, just like everyone else on this forum. And just like everyone else I never pee in swimming pools

Perfect timing for me as I have a shoot planned for tomorrow. God damn the image is flat- going to be a lot of fun with the brand new finished Resolve 12. It's like Christmas in July September 

I think the iPad Pro looks useless. 32gb of non expandable storage, max 128gb storage.

The only hope is a new Surface Pro next month, but I assume it won't come close to the new Lenovo P50 and P70. At least the Surface runs a proper OS that can use software (instead of lightweight apps) and with the dock it has the ports you need. 

I am in desperate need of an upgrade. The Lenovo looks a solid choice but I am secretly hoping Apple release a more powerful Macbook (Air) tomorrow and/or even better could be if Microsoft release a powerful enough Surface Pro 4 next month (then I could swap my iPad and Macbook Air for one slim device and be rid of Apple forever). 

They are such arses at iStock and Getty. I have submitted the correct file types but no acceptance (incorrect file type error). I am on Shutterstock, Dissolve, Videoblocks and Pond5. Any others I should be doing? I will get on iStock/Getty, it is just frustrating dealing with their wrong interface and clueless staff, and I have a feeling they are the biggest.

Damphousse what's the deal with BM? Have they given up on the consumer market now? It would be nice to get the pocket camera with 4K. Seems like they have decided the money is in cinema.

Sorry, not watched the video- Dave's sparkly blue eyes and accurateness bores me stupid. In fairness he is good.

If you don't need slow mo you would be crazy to get the RX10ii imho (bear in mind I am a newbie so don't take my word too seriously). I really considered that camera and am glad I didn't get it, even though I haven't seen any side by side comparisons. I had virtually the same sensor in a RX100ii and the colors were not to my taste, it was always a compromise with image quality compared to my old basic DSLR (Canon 600D- which made awesome "filmic/cinematic" video imo).

Andrew does say the 4K on the RX10ii isn't great in the final review and I can completely see why after using such a similar sensor. Next time they will revamp the sensor, but for now my guess is that it will always be a compromise next to a GH4. The word "mush" comes to mind and I am 90% sure you will see that in edges and highlights. Plus I always found with my RX that I made scenes look like they were filmed late afternoon. It is a nice warm look, but totally inaccurate, so I sold the RX and used a phone for a few months- I preferred the lack of dynamic range for more realistic color.

The RX10ii sensor is better now with 4K and S-Log added, but I still can't imagine that it will genuinely come close to the GH4, even with a crappy kit lens: I got the 14-45mm Panasonic which came with the old G1 camera (£110)- gets better reviews than the newer plastic kit lenses. It was only a bit extra for the lens with a G1; so I got the package, kept the bag and then swapped the G1 camera for a 135mm vintage lens in my local used camera gear store. And bought a cheap Pentax K (PK) adapter (£15). Also found a 50mm PK lens (worth £15, but is actually pretty good), so it has worked out nicely for now.

There is a Panasonic 14-145mm kit lens too, but I think it won't be as sharp from what I read. Sounds like it isn't too far off though if you want the extra range. The best bit is I/we can upgrade when funds allow to a Metabones Speedbooster and the Sigma 12-35mm lens and get V Log, which is like twice the camera again (I think all that costs about £900 extra).

I think the fact that Panasonic's latest camera is just the GH4 with V Log (GH4R) kind of proves that they have reached a plateau. The GH4 is the cheapest pro camera and the RX10ii is the most expensive consumer camera. When there is a sensor upgrade we can go smaller, but M43 seems to be the limit for now to me. Side by side the sensors look a similar size but there is literally more than twice the sensor readout on the GH4.

Google "Supertone for GH4" for the settings- it is just a simple adjustment to the Portrait profile which takes a minute. I haven't had time to look at my footage yet with it compared to the flatter profiles, it just sounds like a nice way to get realistic colors straight out of the camera. I have been meaning to search for it on this forum to see what people think, so I am not the best person to ask really. Actually I will have a browse now for opinions about it from the likes of Andrew, Ebrahim and the like... 

If Full HD is all you need: The BMPCC is ridiculous. If I could settle for 1080p I would get that in a heartbeat. It is a load of hassle but so is the NX1 and people still love that. The BMPCC is the most beautiful video I have ever seen (for the price). Just looking outside our house the footage straight out of it was on another planet.

Get a GH4 which has just been discounted again (£750 body only) with a used Panasonic kit lens (£100). Then use the Supertone settings to avoid grading. Twice the sensor size, much longer battery, feels much nicer in my hands too. 

Plus it has better 4K and the option for V Log if you ever want to step up in resolution and dynamic range in the future. Sounds like you are attracted to slow mo though, in which case the RX10ii wins if you want things like 240fps. I haven't even looked at it yet but I think the Gh4 just goes to 96fps.