The Chris

2 hours ago, sgreszcz said:

You can see some of my hand-held testing with the Olympus 9-18, Panasonic 35-100/2.8 and 12-35/2.8 here.  The 35-100 was used for the duck pond up until the pier shots which is where I used the P12-35/2.8 (which is also solid).

https://vimeo.com/167339810

Was this all shot in 4k? Looks good. The jello in the walking down the stairs sequence starting at about :45, is that RS or stabilization?

Looking forward to IQ, RS, and DR comparisons with some of the others like the NX1, a6300, 1dc and even the a7sII. Could this little guy be a giant killer?

6 hours ago, Inazuma said:

I got mine on Tuesday  Here are some test shots

Tests of:
1) 1080p to 4k crop
2) Face tracking AF, colour science, colour correction & grade
3) 4k and 1080p rolling shutter
4) Handheld @ 32mm, iDynamic, colour science, colour correction & grade
5) Flare test with difference lenses
(NOTE: 5-axis stabilisation is enabled on all shots)

See video description for download link.

BTW did you know that you can now set Auto ISO in manual stills mode?

Very informative, thanks for posting. RS looks pretty good in 4k mode, really good in 1080p. Hopefully some early adopters can compare sharpness and DR to other cameras in 4k and 1080p modes.

The a6300 was a real letdown outside of 4k24p, which is really good IQ-wise, but the RS was a deal breaker for me. I have high hopes for the new Panasonic's.

4 hours ago, Davey said:

Nothing broken yet, but I can see the tiny screw that secures the base plate's dovetail failing after minimal use - just doesn't feel right. Decided to ditch the 16-35, take another break for a few weeks, try the 55mm on the height plate and perhaps a bit of added weight on the hot shoe. Once I see it working properly and not spinning to the left, I will purchase the less front heavy 28mm F2.

Thanks for the picture.

I've thought about adding a arca Swiss base and just using a L bracket. I'll take a closer look at the screw, it's not difficult to replace with a higher grade steel screw if needed.

The 16-35 is much heavier than the 10-18 I usually fly, even though it's within spec, that's a setup that's really front heavy. That's a small benefit of the a7rII s35 mode, aps-c lenses are much lighter. I can also use the 16-50pz. If I were shooting FF I would use the 28/2 or the Loxia 21.

Being able to easily flip the DS1 and get low shots is what sold me on it over the H1 since the H2 wasn't shipping when I bought mine. Hopefully you can get your issues sorted. 

Cheers

I learned on old Sony beta cams and the VF's were all B&W, nothing wrong with that at all.

1 hour ago, Davey said:

Spent the last hour looking for a solution - even though mine hasn't broken yet. Might just use another plate at 90 degrees and clamp it in two places. If I drill the arm or weld the original plate in place, I cannot see me being able to sell it in the future.

Could you post a picture of your balanced camera when done?

 

I've had the DS1 for a couple months, only used it a few times, but the plate locks in really tight on mine. I spent time when I first got it to make sure my A7rII wouldn't slide out. Once clamped tight, I can't get the camera to move at all. I can't see the camera falling off, its really solid. Did something break on yours?

The DS1 is on and balanced without any tuning to the stock PID's in this shot, just positioning the camera until its level. I'm getting no vibration, though in one of the modes it tilts slightly to one side.

The nice thing about Cine 4 is base ISO is so much lower and you don't have to deal with some of the other issues slog brings to the mix. Even though I shoot a lot of high contrast stuff since I'm always in the sun, its such a PITA to get so heavy handed with the ND's since that creates other issues with regards to color for me - so I never shoot slog with the A7s or A7rII. But I'm not an expert with color correction either, I make minor adjustments and use LUT's for a look with the basic color correctors in Premiere and FCP. I don't do Resolve.

Samuel H. has a lot of good technical info with color charts. http://www.similaar.com/foto/flaat-a7s/technical-tests.html#waveform

Wolfcrow is another great resource, though he's so in depth much of his stuff is over my head.

Hows the DR? Can anyone make comparisons with other cameras? The G7 looks good at 6400, but that's as far as it'll go. The GX80/85 is looking good so far...

1 hour ago, forofilms said:

G7 is highly functional but simply is not filmic enough. The aesthetic is poor - part of it is sensor size, part of it is color science. All depends on your needs but all things being equal, you're more likely to produce an aesthetic that is more film-like with an a6300 than a G7.

Don't low about that, the stuff Andy Lee posts looks pretty damn good to me.

Factoring in the various crops with the a6300 (both can be speed boosted) there's only about a stop difference in terms of DOF. Resolution and DR is slightly in favor of the a6300, though RS is much worse and the G7 can touch focus.

Sorry to add to the OT

48 minutes ago, JurijTurnsek said:

A proper comparison would be:

A7SII vs A6300 + Speedbooster, the lens staying the same (you get the same FOV and DOF). The price difference is much less dramatic, but still not small. And A7SII has IS with any lens.

You could buy two a6300/speedbooster combos for the price of one A7sII. If you want IBIS then we're stuck with the A7rII/sII.

I have the A7rII and I'm on the fence about shifting my A7s in favor of the a6300, if the rolling shutter wasn't so bad I would have done this when it was released, if it didn't overheat and I could select the AF point with a touchscreen I'd dump the A7rII and get two as 24mp is the resolution & file size sweet spot for stills for me.

A mostly photo-centric review, but there's a few handheld clips with her waving the camera around to show IBIS starting at about 3:30. Rolling shutter looks really good.

I'd cross the NX1 and the GH4 off your list if you're looking at low light shooting. The A7s and A7sII is unmatched. The A7rII is good, but the S is much better. Skip to about 3:21

If you want CAF with video your options are limited to Sony E-mount lenses, but as mentioned its not very good since the A7sII lacks PADF like the A7rII. The A7sII is a bad choice for tracking moving subjects compared to something like the A7rII or A6300. If you check out Brandon Li's test of the a6300, it can lock/track subjects pretty well.

You will not get CAF shooting video with any Canon lens on the A7sII.

To the OP, you could have canceled your B&H order and just bought from Amazon instead of waiting. If there's an upcoming closure, the website clearly states that with a pop up telling you exactly when it closes and reopens. This message is repeated when placing orders as well. If there's any doubt as to whether it will ship, you can call beforehand and confirm.

I bounce back and forth depending on the item. I can save on sales tax going with B&H, so most big ticket items that I can't get through Texas Media Systems (if you're in the U.S., highly recommended, I get all my preorders in the first wave through them) I go B&H.

Gordon Liang from Camera labs posted 15 videos from the GX80/85 including UHD at 1600-6400 and a few focus pulls. There's also a handheld shot with the 100-400mm at 400 (800mm equiv.) handheld.

https://vimeo.com/user803551/videos

Here's one, that glass is a little dirty in 4k...

I got the impression from a short thread on Fred Miranda that you can use old 1dx batteries in the new cam.

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1421778

Love my trash an Mac Pro, got the 6-core base model when B&H discounted them awhile back, then added 64gb ram, it plows through everything. I run one of the Korean Crossover 40" 4k panels, it's a thing of beauty, even if you're only doing 1080p, plenty of room for a massive timeline, preview window, effects controls and more. The detail when editing photos is unreal, I'm never going back to a lower rez monitor. 

I had a retina iMac on order and wound up returning before opening in favor of the Pro, fully loaded it was only a few hundred dollars less than my current setup (before the ram bump), but what swayed me was a few things - the Pro is dead silent and the iMac is really noisy in comparison, and the iMac gets really hot when it's working hard while the Pro stays nice and cool, the dual GPU's, and the fact I can add a larger SSD without voiding the warranty since you have to pull the screen to access the motherboard on the iMac. 

A7sII is CADF only, the faster AF achieved by Metabones and others is because of the PADF in the A7rII and a6300. The Fotodiox AF adapter is functional on the A7s, but it's awful compared to the A7rII. 

As far as AF during video, the Sigma MC11 has been shown to work with some lenses on the A7rII. Beyond that you will need a Sony lens if you want AF with video. 

23 hours ago, jcs said:

A7R2 + MB IV + Canon lens = AF video?

AF-c doesn't work with my A7rII and MBIV while shooting video. 

The 20 is a great lens if you don't care much about filters, if you do there are clunky workarounds. It does vignette, has some CA, a little barrel distortion and the corners are soft, but there's not much this wide/fast and all the warts are really small compared to many UWA's.

I love the Art 35, it's my favorite AF prime, been debating between the 20 and the 24 since the 20 was announced.

2 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

Why are Nikon in danger of getting squeezed out of existence when they have far more compelling options than Canon?

The Nikon D750 is a far superior stills camera to the 5D Mark III for cheaper!

Whilst the D810 for high resolution is cheaper than the 5DR S, and again superior tech overall.

Because Nikon is far less diversified than Canon, Sony and Panasonic. As camera sales continue to slide, they're struggling. 2/3rds of Nikons revenue comes from cameras, just two years ago it was over 3/4ths, all that's really changed is lower imaging revenues. Nobody knows where the bottom is, but Nikon doesn't have the cash reserves to ride it out. I'm sure we'll see lots of cost cutting soon - job losses and facilities closing.

Doesnt matter how good the product is if they can't pay the bills. 

5d4 will have 4k, the 5d3 still sells well, no need to rush the mkIV until they get everything sorted. With the 5dsr covering the MP race, Canon can recycle the 1dx2 innards in the 5d body with fewer FPS, a watered down version of its AF and so on and it would kill for the next 4 years. 

(CR5) We will also see a real entry into the mirrorless space from Canon this year. ;-)

Nikon is the real wild card with the d810 successor now that they're all in with 4k bodies and the DL series. They really have to start lobbing grenades at everyone because IMO they're in danger of getting squeezed out of existence. 

On April 30, 2016 at 5:26 AM, Lintelfilm said:

The other thing I forgot to mention is that the minimum focus distance is a bit disappointing - just shy of a metre.

This is pretty common with zooms in this range, MFD is always about 1m.

Lots of great shots, the relentless fast/slow makes my eyes ache, would like to see it without all the ramping. Looks like you really got to experience a lot of Cuba and meet a lot of great people.

56 minutes ago, Simon Shasha said:

BSI is the future. Canon is getting left behind.

This one is debatable with large sensor cameras, the original A7r has better DR than the A7rII. Personally I would have been fine with a revised version of the 36mp sensor with all the other updates instead of moving to BSI in the A7rII. Sony's bold claims with BSI in the A7rII turned out to be nothing more than hype. Same goes for the NX1 and its BSI wonder sensor - it was still outperformed by the d7200.

8 hours ago, kidzrevil said:

@The Chris it happens bro. Modern lenses can be so contrasty you can lose an entire stop in DR. Happens with the zeiss glass I own now. I HAVE to throw on a diffusion filter to compensate for that. Lower contrast lenses are better for 8bit and I assume modern contrasty lenses were built with raw and 10bit log in mind

Modern DSLR/mirrorless lenses are built for the always escalating MP race and pixel peepers, hence the obsession with corner crops everywhere.

I don't shoot modern and vintage lenses with the same settings, Minolta MD and Zeiss CY are distinctly different from each other and very different from EF or FE lenses. I've seen differences, but nothing that equates to a full stop. 

Cheers

4 hours ago, norliss said:

Not strictly true.

There were two versions of the Contax Zeiss lenses: the AE variant made up to 1985 and the MM variant made from 1985-2005. Both were made in Germany and Japan - hence AEG, AEJ, MMG, MMJ - and it's the older AE models that exhibit the 'ninja star' effect you referred to, so it's this (rather than where they were made) that is the determinant of this phenomenon.

Thanks for the clarification. 

12 hours ago, TheRenaissanceMan said:

Makes sense. I use a variety of different cameras, including some with passive mounts, and good electronic adapters aren't cheap. I prefer 100% analog whenever possible. 

Organic is a qualitative term that means something like "natural." It's a pretty commonplace term these days.

I read a thread a while back on RED User where a member had shot the same scene with Leica R glass and Contax Zeiss. The Leica R exhibited higher contrast and blew highlights/crushed shadows more readily than the more forgiving Zeiss. This was easily observable both in the image and on the waveform. The Tokina 11-16 and Sigma Art series are also known for reducing DR in this fashion. Again, a relatively commonplace idea among shooters I've spoken to.

I've found CY (28/2.8, 35/1.4, 50/1.4, 35-70 and 100/2) to have more contrast and a bit cooler than the lone Leica R lens I've used (35-70/4). The faster Leica R's have such a pleasing look, such a smooth transition from the focal plane to OOF areas, if I didn't need AF, I'd roll with all Summicrons and Summiluxes and that 35-70 with Speedboosters all around.