Tim Sewell

Why do camera manufacturers put up sample videos of 4K cams in HD?

Just to throw in my two penn'orth: I received my XC10 (its purchase partly inspired by this thread) late last week and gave it a baptism by fire on our family trip (3 kids, aged 20 months to 13 yrs) to Disneyland Paris. I can certainly bear witness to its effectiveness as a 'shot getter' - I was able to get far more footage than I would have done with my GH4. I had an initial play with the files last night and they seem to grade up very nicely so far. The 2 best elements of the camera, for me (and after pure IQ) are the amazing stabilisation and the tracking autofocus. I also found the digital teleconverter in HD mode incredibly useful.

I could be confused. Don't have it to hand right now - I'll have a look later.

Depends on the camera - I think some Canons don't output audio over HDMI. Audio transfers just fine with my GH4 and FS700 to the BMDVA (non-4K). Also you can audio in directly via mini-XLR inputs on the recorder.

Hey guys - this thread and the other XC10 one have piqued my interest sufficiently that I have one arriving on Friday (I thought about waiting for the XC15 but decided there weren't enough differences important to me to justify the extra cost). One thing I haven't been able to find out so far is if it has frame guides for 2.35:1 etc. Please say it does!

On a related video the creator says "Alexa with the Cooke 25-250 T3.9 MK2"

Shameless plug: I've just posted a GH4 kit (cage, couple of lenses, Lockport, Speedbooster etc) that I'd like to trade for a XC10!

... apart from clean HDMI out!

Didn't they say that about the 5D Mkii?

Love the film. We should also note that Ed is only listed as the DP, which implies that he neither wrote the script nor came up with the hashtag, so maybe we should confine our comments to his cracking camera work.

I have one of these and there's no adjustable diopter - if that's what you mean. Of course it may have changed - I see they're calling it new - but the images on the website look exactly the same as mine. I'm a glasses wearer, so I had to construct an adjustable sleeve to get it to the right distance from my BMDVA screen. It's definitely well made, however.

Blackmagic Design have announced a new camera, which they added is already shipping and available in all major retailers from midnight.

They do - but there are still plenty of theatres (actual theatres, not cinemas) showing a healthy profit. Some art forms, once invented, do such a good job of capturing the human imagination that they will likely last forever.

Thanks! I must say that the 'HDR' on the Flame, coupled with the fairly decent waveform, makes exposure considerably easier in SLog3 than before!

Another day out learning to use my FS700. First one I've felt even slightly like posting. I missed critical focus at a coupe of points, and Vimeo's borked the movement a bit (although re-uploading as ProRes 422 helped with that), but I'm quite pleased with it, visually.

It's easy to forget sometimes that we're still only living through the very dawn of computing and digital technology. Just like a caveman with a flintlock, our great grandchildren will take things for granted that would seem like magic to us now.

I may be talking out of my ass here, but I have had the feeling for a while that what a lot of creators are striving for isn't so much a 'film' look, as an Alexa look, given its ubiquity in film and TV these days (and there's nothing intrinsically wrong with that - it's a lovely look!).

Is it me, or is the motion cadence on that demo reel absolutely horrible?

It shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. At a time in history when we have pretty much unlimited access to all the world's culture and history people are becoming less and less curious, preferring to spend their time in curated echo chambers. I'm 52. When I was a kid (here in the UK) there was very limited kids' TV. Even in the long summer holidays, kids' stuff was limited to the morning. So if I found myself allowed to watch TV on a rainy afternoon it was mostly old B&W movies I was watching. There were far fewer books aimed at kids or teenagers, so I went through my mum's bookcases and read everything from Dickens to Len Deighton (how many parents even have bookcases containing anything other than cookbooks and celebrity memoirs now?). So I imbibed from a huge range of culture that spanned decades at least, if not centuries - as did a lot of my peers. Compare to now, where children have multiple channels devoted to giving them exactly what they want, as a means of advertising to them - no need ever to watch anything outside the comfort zone. Countless 'child-friendly' books - all variations on the same themes - all easy to digest; no need to explore the library or pick a book of the bookshelf to counter rainy-day boredom. Dumbing down is a fashionable phrase, but that doesn't make it any less real. A dumbed down audience is a lot easier to sell to and to make money out of so, as I say, it really shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. BTW, Trump isn't a solution to our dumbed down culture - he's a product of it.

I'm still working on mastering my secondhand FS700 - I'll be holding off any purchases! (Full disclosure: I don't have to make my living out of it)

You're welcome. I've got the Amaran M9 and it's more use as a bedside light than anything else. These Lumecubes punch considerably above their weight.

1500 lumens do ya? https://www.lumecube.com/

Cinetape

I bought the Shogun Flame as high speed raw, for me, was a 'nice to have' rather than a necessity. The situation is thus (on the Flame): 4K raw to ProRes/DNx** via SDI 2K raw also You can also record HFR using the end trigger on the FS700 and output over HDMI to the Shogun to get 8bit 4:2:2 to ProRes etc. The inferno supposedly offers 4K raw to ProRes etc at up to 60fps as well as raw to CDNG.

It was very pleasant to watch and while I was watching it I didn't particularly think about the brand name of the camera used nor the dynamic range presented. So, for me, as a piece of art - it succeeds.