The Chris

If size is a concern and you have Canon glass, the GH4 and the A7s are probably the best options since you have electronic adapters and speedboosters for both. You can get something like the A5100 as a B-cam for the A7s that will also serve as a backup, they use the same batteries and it'll take 24mp stills. I keep one in my bag at all times, usually with the 10-18 for great UWA shots and handheld cutaways. GH4's cost less than the A7s, you could easily get a 2nd one or a cheap GH3 as a backup. Lots of options.

Cross the Ursa off your list if you need it in the next couple weeks, even if it does drop early (B&H lists it at Oct. 22 now). I own and really like the A7rII - its a stills and video powerhouse, but if I were buying a camera to shoot a doc and already had Canon glass, the C100 (mkI or mkII) would top my list. That's what the C100 was made for and it does the job really well - dual pixel AF, C-log and so on. Unless you want something smaller. I like the smaller form factor so for me - get a couple GH4's or a pair of A7s' (used prices are in the $1700 range). Sriracha the movie was shot mostly with a GH3 and the Panasonic 2.8 zooms (stabilized), it looked good to me, but I'm not hyper critical and its an entertaining story that was well done. The IQ from the GH4 with 4k downscaled to 1080 and V-log will be much better than the GH3 - but it will probably surpass what you've already shot as well. But so would the A7s and C100. Just my .02. Good luck.

You get longer recording times at the lower bitrate and it doesn't overheat as quickly. IQ looks good to me. Plus you don't need a U3 card unlike 100mbps. This is most of a 4k frame that will eventually be scaled down to 1080p.

Easy, the A7rII. 4k downsized to 1080p looks every bit as good as the A7s internal 1080p, and you have room for reframing... or 4k.

Agreed. The Pix-E5H looks nice. Hopefully we see reviews soon. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1137222-REG/video_devices_pix_e5h_5_4k_recording.html

The math makes my head hurt, but this is cool. Easy to see how paparazzi get topless shots of celebrities from a couple miles away. Someone is always watching....

GH4r has been announced according to this: http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/latest/photo-news/panasonic-tweaks-lumix-gh4-to-launch-gh4r-60067

You keep posting about the resale value of a camera you don't even own, why do you care so much about the depreciation of someone else's camera?

The main flaw is Samsung's crap lens lineup and lack of decent adapters. Outside of the two zooms there nothing great from a video standpoint because all those goofy pancakes suck when you want to manually focus. Sony is moving quickly to fill out its lens lineup and is announcing 7 more lenses this year, along with stellar entries from Zeiss - plus we already have a plethora of electronic adapters and speedboosters. Samsung? Nothing since the NX1 was announced.

I've noticed the battery gets really hot when shooting 4k. Swapping it with another really helps.

Zak, colors look pretty good with the SLR Magic compared to the Tiffen. I had two different versions of the LCW Vari-ND (not the new thin version which is supposed to be better) and the Singh-Ray and they both had the dreaded X at about 5 or 6 stops, beyond that it was unusable for me. Gonna have to check the SLR Magic out.

Gonna try this out. I like Autumn Leaves per Brandon Li's recommendation for the A7s, its a nice SOOC look for fast turnaround stuff. Thank for posting. I think I'm going to finally bite the bullet and get Film Convert, I like a lot of what I see from other FC users.

Nice piece. Gonna have to get a cup or two next time I'm in the area. I like supporting business that give back.

Having a little fun in the sun today experimenting with the 10-18 on the A7rII - so I let the 4k roll until it hit the 30 min time limit - again no problem so for my needs this is a non-issue. Forgot to change the WB from fluorescent in the screencap below. This is about 14mm in FF. As long as your subject is in the center this lens is great, if its on the edge of the frame its only ok to bad depending on where you are in the zoom as it only works from 12-17mm without severe vignetting. If you go with something like 2.35:1, the worst part of the frame (extreme corners) is cropped off. Still debating this, the CV15mm vIII or the 16-35 as a UWA.

Damn. This is gonna set my credit card on fire. Been waiting for a Macbook Air sale.

This guy has posted some samples to download with 1080p included. http://www.alexpasquini.com/blog/ A video with 1080p and 100fps (720p) upsized https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih59oMJkQ1M

Its the exact same image, two different programs are going to give you two different results. If you open it in DXO there will be differences between the other two. I'm not getting defensive, you just refuse to accept reality - ACR is the problem.

Or you could get off your soapbox, turn on LENR and use Capture One - Adobe is obviously having issues with A7rII files as these issues are pretty much non-existent in C1. But common sense never seems to be the chosen route. Geez.... From the post you linked to on DPR, Capture One to the rescue. No BS, a simple fix until Adobe gets their shit straight with the A7rII. Not so ridiculous now, eh?

Making definitive statements about it being useless for anything is complete hyperbole and a gross overreaction. The hot pixels are in every Sony sensor camera. If you take a long exposure with the lens cap on, push the exposure 5 or 6 stops and lift the shadows all the way and then blow up the image 400% there will be noise. Try the same thing with Canon or and m43 and it won't be any better. You can see the same thing on the A7s and D810 here: http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1380165/2 and its also in the A7r files. Capture One easily eliminates all of this with no loss in detail. You can do long exposure noise reduction in cam and it takes a black frame and does the same thing. This does impact people stacking 200 images of star trails as that's not a practical workflow. But for most its a simple fix. Really. All of these declarations are such overreactions. First its the greatest camera ever! Then it overheats shooting non-stop 4k so its junk! Now there's noise in the shadows its useless! Take a step back, the reality is definitely somewhere in the middle. I've seen some pretty damn impressive landscape images from the A7rII and there will be many more. In no way are any of today's cameras holding you back. The A7rII certainly has warts, but I've said it before and I'll say it again - its a powerhouse camera that can replace the A7s/A7r and an external recorder for most - except for those that need lots of continuous 4k recording. But it still adds IBIS, 4k internal, better AF, faster startup time, 42mp (18 in crop mode) more adjustments (like minimum SS with auto ISO, assignable record button) and so on...

So I decided to look at 1080p a bit since that question has come up. I shot a boring subject - the contents of a cabinet - because its raining outside. Everything was shot at ISO 6400, same shutter speeds, same aperture, STD profile 0,0,0 and AWB because this crap takes time and I didn't feel like messing with it. I have three images of combined screen caps. The first is 1080p from the A7rII in s35, FF and 1080p from the A5100 to compare. The second is 1080p quickly downsized from 4k on the A7rII in s35 and FF. The third is the full rez 4k frames. Note - all the 4k was shot at 60mbps because I took the day off and I left my U3 card at the office. I used the FE 70-200 to try and match framing as close as possible. I left it at f/8, despite the differences when moving between FF and crop modes. S35 is the cleanest in either 4k or 1080p, and downsized its clearly better than the others. Its a push between the s35 1080p on the A7rII and the A5100. FF is the worst at high ISO's, its much better at 1600 and below. 4k to 1080p really pops compared to 1080p in cam. Its not the best scenario, but it gives you an idea of what it looks like. I don't have anything else to test it against. Right now the A5100 and A7rII are all that's in the bag.

Nice video wolf33d.

Yes.

Long exposure noise reduction, use it and there's no issue. Raws opened in Capture One don't show this issue, the results are much worse with Adobe and Rawdigger. You can also do a manual remapping of the hot pixels by setting the internal clock forward a couple months and restarting the camera. It it does seem to support the theory that there's a new raw formula. Though IMO the results with Capture One and Sony have always looked better than Adobe.

I haven't gotten the overheat warning from 1080p at all. Only in 4k and its worse shooting in crop mode compared to FF. The full readout in crop mode really generates a lot of heat.

I'm a big fan of native glass simply because of the array of AF modes. The 16-35 is definitely a good choice for a gimbal because as mentioned the continuous AF is quite good. Eye-tracking is really impressive too. it does a great job of staying locked on to your subject. My setup is the FE 16-35, 35/1.4 and the 70-200. My main video lens when I don't want AF is the Tokina 28-70/2.6-2.8, a cheap and brilliant zoom that's a wonderful video lens. I have the Batis 25 and 85 on order, don't know when they'll ship or if I'll keep the order. I may re-align my prime lineup to the 25/55/85 and ditch the 35, but its so damn good I'm going to have a tough time parting with it. But with the 25/55/85 trinity, you get a lot of versatility with the crop mode as they have the FOV of 42.5/85.5/127.5. I wish the 25 was a 21. I think that will be a part of the 7 lenses Sony has stated will be announced before the end of the year.