Geoff CB

guys, this applies to engines, whiskey, amplifiers, blu-ray players, vfx, lenses, monitor panels.. it's your job as DIY'ers, to find these imbalances, take the labels off, solder off the capacitors, hack the firmware, de-restrict the exhaust, snap the aperture rings... and keep it a secret: it's a good thing.

Just like the previous post from Ben said. Do you have any idea how much time was spent developing your product?

If you feel it's unethical to differentiate products solely based on software, then that means you feel that software has no value. Software is intellectual property that breathes life into the silicon your camera is made up of.

Also look at it this way, do you have any idea how expensive it would be to bring a product to market without the substantial leveraging of previous hardware? The price of the F55 was set at is based off of the quantity of F5 units they hope to sell so they can leverage quantity buying power (+20 points of cream for their troubles).

In other words, if they couldn't make the low end camera off of the high end one, they would have never made the high end one, because there's just not enough buyers to get an ROI.

Companies do this all the time, they just aren't stupid enough to leave the workaround accessible in cleartext!

I'm a full-time software engineer -- and this is what you guys are missing: That one line of magic code that turns the F5 into a 4k beast -- probably took thousands of man-hours of engineering to get it working properly. Sony has the right to make a ROI on the costs of hundreds of engineers hours.

A 24-105 T4 would be great.

A 24-105 T4 would be great.

Awesome, thanks for this.

Alexa Log-C (2K, ProRes 4444) : https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_KuHKCXVppYbkFSRnlReTBNQ2c/view

Buy Samsung camera division and make the NX2

For low budget indie, get something with high quality focus tracking and manual focus assist such as the C100 Mark II (we use the C300 II and 1DX II). While the A7S II is great for low light, and we can make skintones look decent, Canon color is still much better for skintones and requires less time in post, which is very valuable. Getting your shots in focus, especially moving shots will save time and money. If you have an experienced focus puller available, this is less of an issue, however your camera rig will be much more complex, and some shots such as gimbal/steadycam benefit greatly from solid autofocus. The C100 II is razor sharp 1080p- the soft wide comment must have been the lens or focus. The files are also very small and easy to edit. Sony is getting better with skintones with each new camera release, and their autofocus is improving as well. I would expect their next release to be very competitive. Until then, the C100 II is a great sweet spot camera for bang-for-buck, reliability, autofocus, low light, and skintones.

ES declared what was it 10 days ago he would never contribute to this site again because he knew his credibility was tainted.. then yesterday i see him post all kinds of bogus advice in threads. And now today he's whining no one locked his account so he took that as a free pass to continue his BS activities. Kid even has nerve to say "it's your fault" "don't get a seizure about me helping people"..  I'm glad mods are finally taking a stance towards this punks behavior. I understand the are leaving his account open until situation gets resolved but really it should be restricted and his signature modified ASAP with a warning of his fraudulent activities. It's like giving a sex offender a slap on the wrist. You know it's a matter of time before dude commits crime again.. Seriously, the leniency given here is starting to give this site a bad look I'm afraid.. where is Andrew btw? he needs to step up & address this imo..

Seriously Ebrahim, you have admitted that you are a 21 years old film noob kiddo with a canon 1100d plus a regretful scammer, edit your signature and put that there instead of all the 61 years old filmmaker crap, maybe they let you post.
So when a 21 years old kiddo with a canon 1100d writes that the Canon 1DC is the best lowlight camera in history, the guy who reads it will understand that this is just the opinion of a 21 years old kid -who made a scam- based on footage he saw online.

Every discussion between the two cameras have people falsely stating the a7 R 2 is unusable in full frame, when it really is not. It makes people reading threads think that they shooting full frame on the a7r 2 is not even an option.

 

Assuming it's shaky-cam style like the first, I can't think of many cameras worse than the A7s/A7sII. Jello city!

With those sigma lenses, Nikon all the way.

...and more unstable than either of the standard options. I did this for awhile until an OSX update made my sound card stop working, with the only fix being a hardware update. 

Depends what you call 'proper' colour correction  
Firstly, the F3 and F35 are very different beasts to the newer Sony cameras, with totally different sensors that behave differently.
Secondly, having shot extensively with both the F5 and F55, I'll say they're both different cameras to say an FS7. Perhaps the difference between an FS7 and F5 isn't as pronounced as say the FS7 to F55, but it's still different.
Realistically, an F55 kit should probably still sit within your budget, and the F55 is an great camera. As always, each has their quirks, but I'm very happy shooting with both the F5 and F55 if I can't rent anything else.
Keep in mind the F55 has the same CFA as the F65, so the picture is closer to an F65, the F5 has a picture closer to an FS7. Either way, if you think you're going to get A7s-looking stuff from any of these cameras simply because of SLog2/3 then you are mistaken. It's sad that Slog has had it's name somewhat tarnished by people using it in 8-bit 4:2:0.
I think more important is the glass you put on the front of it - it can transform the look of a camera.
You may also want to see if your local rental house has the new VaricamLT or an Alexa Mini - you might be able to fit them in your budget.

The Sony F3 and F35 are older cameras and don't the same Sony look as the current cameras do, especially the F35.

I'd also say buy an F3 and rent the best glass you can afford. Or buy a KiniMINI 4K and again rent the best glass you can afford. 

If its a desktop, you can get a Mac Pro with a 4k monitor in the same price range. The 5k iMacs have a fan that I found annoying, if you're editing/rendering video or anything else that's processor intensive its on a lot. They also get really hot because there's so little space for air to move. You can get a 6-core with the dual 3gb graphics cards for $3400 from the refurb store. I have the same matching, bumped RAM to 64gb and it plows through everything. Plus you get more ports and its whisper quiet, it sits on my desk next to my monitor and I never hear it. 
 

Do you need 4K? Do you need slow motion (beyond 1080 60fps that is)? 

No? If so, then get a Sony PMW-F3. Goes for next to nothing secondhand. I own one, will be shooting a feature film this year with it (hopefully with two at once if we can squeeze buying a 2nd F3 into the budget). 

Get these lenses (all in Nikon F mount of course):
Tokina 11-20mm f2.8
Tokina 28-70mm f2.8
Tokina 80-200mm f2.8 
Nikon 50mm f1.8D
(could swap out for the Sigma 18-35mm f.18 & Sigma 50-100mm f1.8 pair, but would cost quite a lot more, but either choice is reasonable)

You might think you've got plenty left in your $8K budget... but with tripod/recorder/media/accessories/audio/lighting/etc... that will very quickly disappear! 

If you do "need" 4K or slow motion, then get a secondhand Sony FS700 instead. 
 
Third camera I'll mention to consider, is the BMD Micro Cinema Camera, is a wonderful little beast (like a BMPCC v2.0!).

With those sigma lenses, Nikon all the way.

Once it's sub $1500, I'm going to get one. I needs me some raw, full frame anamorphic action!

99.9% of the 5Dmkiii users have never even heard of Magic Lantern. We are talking about one of the most widely used still cameras in history. Prices will drop when the mk4 is released.

I've been consdering buying used mk3 for the same reasons as you, so I'm glad you started this thread. I'm wondering as squig suggested if it's worth waiting 'til the announcement/release of the mk4 since that is guarenteed to lower the used price a bit...

This is a good list. And I would add the Phoenix Film Festival. It's a crime this festival isn't on that list, as a matter of fact. I've never seen anything like it. Filmmakers get multiple screenings (competition features screen at least three times), they've been attracting 23,000 festival goers each year, and the people who run are awesome. One of the few that truly make the filmmakers feel like the center of the festival. And the audiences are amazing. You will have people asking your cast for autographs and pictures, making them feel like Tom Cruise for a weekend. I had a feature there in 2013 and the festival was so much fun, I've gone back every year since -- wth or without a movie in the program.

http://www.moviemaker.com/archives/best_of/50-film-festivals-worth-the-entry-fee-2016/

http://www.phoenixfilmfestival.com
Here's a little video documenting my first year there that my buddy slammed together.