DBounce

It's flexible and good enough to get the job done.  Go shoot something!

It's flexible and good enough to get the job done.  Go shoot something!

A Nikon D750 could outperform an Alexa but it's still limited by the Nikon lens mount and focus direction.  A nikon dslr has about 1/10th of the optics selection that the 5dmk3 has at its disposal and around 1/100th of the selection that the a7rii has.
Go to a almost any video rental house and there aint no Nikons to be seen - all because of the lens mount!  
 
I'd take the ability to run any cinema or stills lenses (and I mean any lens) on the a7rii in exchange for the quirks and more often the learning curve faced by most who jumped on (and jumped off too quickly) the a7 bandwagon without taking the care to learn how to get the best from it.  
 
  

Alright,  I've about had it with all this nonsense, tell you what,  I'm going to sitdown this afternoon fire up my engineering workstation and create a brand new stabilizer that will blow this away. That way we can stop this silly thread once and for all.
Expect my product on kickstarter... Mark my words, it will work, it will cost less and it will be easy to use. And everyone will want one. This camera stabilization thing is not really that tough of a nut to crack. 

Alright,  I've about had it with all this nonsense, tell you what,  I'm going to sitdown this afternoon fire up my engineering workstation and create a brand new stabilizer that will blow this away. That way we can stop this silly thread once and for all.
Expect my product on kickstarter... Mark my words, it will work, it will cost less and it will be easy to use. And everyone will want one. This camera stabilization thing is not really that tough of a nut to crack. 

I think you have this backwards. It's not that sony cameras can look artificial. Quite the opposite... they tend to look too real. I liken it to the difference of watching a movie on set as opposed to watching the finished production in a movie theater. Clearly the behind the scenes view is the more accurate representaction of what really transpired. The fact is you prefer surreal to real. 

Alright,  I've about had it with all this nonsense, tell you what,  I'm going to sitdown this afternoon fire up my engineering workstation and create a brand new stabilizer that will blow this away. That way we can stop this silly thread once and for all.
Expect my product on kickstarter... Mark my words, it will work, it will cost less and it will be easy to use. And everyone will want one. This camera stabilization thing is not really that tough of a nut to crack. 

Alright,  I've about had it with all this nonsense, tell you what,  I'm going to sitdown this afternoon fire up my engineering workstation and create a brand new stabilizer that will blow this away. That way we can stop this silly thread once and for all.
Expect my product on kickstarter... Mark my words, it will work, it will cost less and it will be easy to use. And everyone will want one. This camera stabilization thing is not really that tough of a nut to crack. 

Seems like SLR magic will soon make available their new anamorphic lenses. I was pretty excited about these and was looking into ordering one. But after noticing the price, it seems I'll be staying out of anamorphic for a while longer. Just can't really justify it for what is pretty much a hobby for me.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1233201-REG/slr_magic_slr_ac50133pl_anmrpht_lns_1_33x_50mm_lns_cs.html

Panning seems to do it. Worst still, when this happens it makes the footage useless. Don't get me wrong, when it's smooth, it's very smooth. But it just seems hard to get shot of more than a few seconds before it all goes to pot.

So here is the long and short of it. The Beholder DS1 is heavy. It can get some very smooth shots, but you will be challenged to keep the shot on target for more than a very short while due to the weight. Additionally, I noticed something unexpected, certain movements can cause the unit to freak out. This results in a type of fast micro-jitters, that will appear as jerky image artifacting. 
I wanted this unit to work smoothly. I do not know if this behavior is normal or if the unit is defective. But I can tell you normal handheld seems more pleasing to my eyes, despite being less smooth. Normal handheld just seems more organic. 
 

Interesting comparo... A7Rii looks to be better than A7Sii at 3200iso:
http://***URL removed***/reviews/image-comparison/fullscreen?attr18=daylight&attr13_0=sony_a7rii&attr13_1=sony_a7sii&attr15_0=raw&attr15_1=raw&attr16_0=3200&attr16_1=3200&attr171_0=off&attr171_1=off&normalization=compare&widget=13&x=-0.7114353680119314&y=-0.5467697883462821

Got in the brand new Video Devices PIX-E7 yesterday. Quick observations, build quality is first rate. Tap to zoom is very handy and works well. When plugged into the A7Rii it defaulted to 422HQ 10bit. The resulting recordings looked very good and the unit was not loud when operating. The PIX-E7 does get warm, but not hot. The display is very nice, pulling focus was quite easy and noise was easy to detect when present. Colors looked good. The monitor allows you to add non-baked in LUTS which is very handy. Peaking and zebras are also nice to have.

Got in the brand new Video Devices PIX-E7 yesterday. Quick observations, build quality is first rate. Tap to zoom is very handy and works well. When plugged into the A7Rii it defaulted to 422HQ 10bit. The resulting recordings looked very good and the unit was not loud when operating. The PIX-E7 does get warm, but not hot. The display is very nice, pulling focus was quite easy and noise was easy to detect when present. Colors looked good. The monitor allows you to add non-baked in LUTS which is very handy. Peaking and zebras are also nice to have.

Got in the brand new Video Devices PIX-E7 yesterday. Quick observations, build quality is first rate. Tap to zoom is very handy and works well. When plugged into the A7Rii it defaulted to 422HQ 10bit. The resulting recordings looked very good and the unit was not loud when operating. The PIX-E7 does get warm, but not hot. The display is very nice, pulling focus was quite easy and noise was easy to detect when present. Colors looked good. The monitor allows you to add non-baked in LUTS which is very handy. Peaking and zebras are also nice to have.

Got in the brand new Video Devices PIX-E7 yesterday. Quick observations, build quality is first rate. Tap to zoom is very handy and works well. When plugged into the A7Rii it defaulted to 422HQ 10bit. The resulting recordings looked very good and the unit was not loud when operating. The PIX-E7 does get warm, but not hot. The display is very nice, pulling focus was quite easy and noise was easy to detect when present. Colors looked good. The monitor allows you to add non-baked in LUTS which is very handy. Peaking and zebras are also nice to have.

There are a few out there:
This Philips should work or this LG or perhaps this Seiki? 

I have the FE mount 35mm 1.4 Zeiss Distagon, and can tell you it is a truly awesome lens. But at $1600, it should be.

And when it's half of that new price, and I've seen footage from it, then I might be interested. But at $3200 we are in A7rii, Ursa mini, A7sII price range and more than the NX1. Sorry, but any one of those is a much more solid pick. I could see $1500 with osmo handle thrown in. And that is only if the battery life on the osmo improves. I get about 20-40 minutes out of ours. Oh, and ditch the smartphone. It should have a dedicated screen.

The better cameras get,  the more important the story, script, direction and all cinematography become. That is if you want your work to stand out from the unwashed masses of people with next gen 8k stabilized smartphones, with built-in software to instantly add film grain, color correct and vignettes. 
These are just tools. What's really important is the art and the stories we tell.
I spoke with an old school photographer a few weeks ago, and he shared the following wisdom with me... "Every picture doesn't need to be sharp or perfectly exposed, this is art".
So me, I shoot images that add to my story. If it doesn't do that, it does not make the final cut.

Having a blast with my Sony A7Rii. A most awesome little camera. Below are some shot I captured with it whilst playing with lighting.
 

Found myself in NYC over the holiday and decided to pop into B&H Photo Video to get some new sticks. Great store, nothing else like it really. I saw pretty much everything that I have read about online. Must have tried a million lenses. Really good time.
Finally settled for a Manfrotto 504HD/536 CF set and a Sirui monopod. 

It should come as no surprise to many here that I have been spending some time filming and taking stills with Samsung's mighty NX1 camera. What some may not realize is that I have also been getting to know Sony's own heavy weight contender... the A7Rii. In this writing are some of my thoughts and conclusions.
Pros - Samsung NX1:
1. Excellent 16-50mm S-lens (Clean optics, pretty fast... Great performance for the buck).
2. Feels good in the hand.
3. Excellent user interface (Easy to use).
4. Better than expected low-light (Good up to 6400 iso).
5. Future proof H.265 codec means it is compatible with cheaper/slower SD cards.
6. Good auto-focus.
7. Cinema 4k (Very cool).
8. Great OLED display.
9. Good battery life.
Cons - Samsung NX1:
1. Limited lens selection.
2. When recording video you cannot switch back and forth from EVF to rear display panel. 
3. Unnatural motion cadence when panning or recording a moving subject (deal breaker).
4. Limited dynamic range (troublesome).
5. External flash requires purchase of second expensive flash unit for off camera use.
6. Internal flash creates shadow when used with kit 16-50mm S-lens.
7. Stock battery grip does not fit correctly (QC fail).
Pros -  Sony A7Rii
1. Feels like the real deal, solid, well made... Quality (Confidence inspiring).
2. Amazing auto-focus (In a different league).
3. 42MP stills (Wow, just wow!!!).
4. Accessories (Flashes galore, wireless sound with connection though smart hot shoe, grips etc...).
5. Amazing lenses (Zeiss Distagon 35mm with selectable de-clicked aperture... must be seen to believe, Batis 85mm etc... ).
6. Adaptable (Canon lenses focus faster than on native canon bodies).
7. Large EVF (really large).
8. Video motion cadence is good.
9. Pleasing colors (Thank you Sony... at last).
10. Good battery life (With the new firmware I shot all day on a single battery, mix of video and stills).
11. Excellent low-light performance - full frame clean to 12800 and APS-C clean till 25,600 ISO (more than enough, unless you are doing surveillance).
Cons - Sony A7Rii
1. Expensive (Body alone is $3200 US)
2. Native lenses are expensive and mostly slow.
3. Rear LCD display should be better at this price point.
4. Non-intuitive user interface (Doesn't Sony make smartphone also?).
5. Battery grip use requires removing the in body battery.
6. Large file sizes means it takes a long time to write to even the fastest SD cards.
Let me first add that both are great cameras. And truly fantastic results can be accomplished with either. But that said, there really can only be one winner here. And after shooting with both cameras, I can declare with great confidence that if stills are entered into the equations... at all, you can just start saving your pennies now. The A7Rii is an amazing stills camera. The auto-focus is mythical. The burst speed is truly something to marvel at. The A7Rii is without a doubt among the best full frame stills camera currently available. 
As to video, after extensive testing I am forced to realign my previous thoughts regarding the NX1. While it is an excellent camera, it is simply out classed by Sony's offering. Overall image quality is superior on the A7Rii. Colors seem more true to life without the need for tweaking. The video motion cadence seems more natural. Dynamic range is much better also, with far better black levels. Auto-focus in video mode is very good on the A7Rii. 
I need to make a disclosure here, I am not unbiased in this review. I REALLY wanted the Samsung NX1 to blow away the Sony A7Rii. If it had, it would have saved me many thousands of dollars. But in the end, the results where undeniable. The A7Rii is the better camera. If you are on the fence and wondering if it is worth three times the money... Wonder no more. Safe in the knowledge that the new firmware has resolved the worrisome overheat problems that plagued this camera, the only sensible choice is the A7Rii. While the A7Sii does offer 1080p 120fps capture, the A7Rii's ability to deliver super high res stills  combined with the flexibility of filming in both full frame and APS-C video modes make it the clear winner for anyone outside of a private eye on a stakeout.
Verdict: I find for the Sony A7Rii.


 

It should come as no surprise to many here that I have been spending some time filming and taking stills with Samsung's mighty NX1 camera. What some may not realize is that I have also been getting to know Sony's own heavy weight contender... the A7Rii. In this writing are some of my thoughts and conclusions.
Pros - Samsung NX1:
1. Excellent 16-50mm S-lens (Clean optics, pretty fast... Great performance for the buck).
2. Feels good in the hand.
3. Excellent user interface (Easy to use).
4. Better than expected low-light (Good up to 6400 iso).
5. Future proof H.265 codec means it is compatible with cheaper/slower SD cards.
6. Good auto-focus.
7. Cinema 4k (Very cool).
8. Great OLED display.
9. Good battery life.
Cons - Samsung NX1:
1. Limited lens selection.
2. When recording video you cannot switch back and forth from EVF to rear display panel. 
3. Unnatural motion cadence when panning or recording a moving subject (deal breaker).
4. Limited dynamic range (troublesome).
5. External flash requires purchase of second expensive flash unit for off camera use.
6. Internal flash creates shadow when used with kit 16-50mm S-lens.
7. Stock battery grip does not fit correctly (QC fail).
Pros -  Sony A7Rii
1. Feels like the real deal, solid, well made... Quality (Confidence inspiring).
2. Amazing auto-focus (In a different league).
3. 42MP stills (Wow, just wow!!!).
4. Accessories (Flashes galore, wireless sound with connection though smart hot shoe, grips etc...).
5. Amazing lenses (Zeiss Distagon 35mm with selectable de-clicked aperture... must be seen to believe, Batis 85mm etc... ).
6. Adaptable (Canon lenses focus faster than on native canon bodies).
7. Large EVF (really large).
8. Video motion cadence is good.
9. Pleasing colors (Thank you Sony... at last).
10. Good battery life (With the new firmware I shot all day on a single battery, mix of video and stills).
11. Excellent low-light performance - full frame clean to 12800 and APS-C clean till 25,600 ISO (more than enough, unless you are doing surveillance).
Cons - Sony A7Rii
1. Expensive (Body alone is $3200 US)
2. Native lenses are expensive and mostly slow.
3. Rear LCD display should be better at this price point.
4. Non-intuitive user interface (Doesn't Sony make smartphone also?).
5. Battery grip use requires removing the in body battery.
6. Large file sizes means it takes a long time to write to even the fastest SD cards.
Let me first add that both are great cameras. And truly fantastic results can be accomplished with either. But that said, there really can only be one winner here. And after shooting with both cameras, I can declare with great confidence that if stills are entered into the equations... at all, you can just start saving your pennies now. The A7Rii is an amazing stills camera. The auto-focus is mythical. The burst speed is truly something to marvel at. The A7Rii is without a doubt among the best full frame stills camera currently available. 
As to video, after extensive testing I am forced to realign my previous thoughts regarding the NX1. While it is an excellent camera, it is simply out classed by Sony's offering. Overall image quality is superior on the A7Rii. Colors seem more true to life without the need for tweaking. The video motion cadence seems more natural. Dynamic range is much better also, with far better black levels. Auto-focus in video mode is very good on the A7Rii. 
I need to make a disclosure here, I am not unbiased in this review. I REALLY wanted the Samsung NX1 to blow away the Sony A7Rii. If it had, it would have saved me many thousands of dollars. But in the end, the results where undeniable. The A7Rii is the better camera. If you are on the fence and wondering if it is worth three times the money... Wonder no more. Safe in the knowledge that the new firmware has resolved the worrisome overheat problems that plagued this camera, the only sensible choice is the A7Rii. While the A7Sii does offer 1080p 120fps capture, the A7Rii's ability to deliver super high res stills  combined with the flexibility of filming in both full frame and APS-C video modes make it the clear winner for anyone outside of a private eye on a stakeout.
Verdict: I find for the Sony A7Rii.


 

Zoom vs prime... well that's certainly a fair test for sharpness... Next!