tokhee

I had the camera for half a year and used the hell out of it. I had no problems exposing etc.  You can gargle numbers at me all you want but I test the shit out of all my cameras and really found no discernible difference in DR. And ergonomics are subjective of course but the LCD/viewfinder were inferior to even my lx100 ( and I was using the mark ii not I)

Nobody cares? Then you are nobody ;-) since you are the one who does not care. 
 
Anyway, you don't understand what I mean, and this is probably a limit of me (as a writer) and of you, as someone ignoring the capabilities of a great camera. It's not 'my precious'. It's an outstanding piece of hardware, well ahead of its time that, like many other tech goods, was underrated and surpassed in sales by way inferior products, due to ignorance (i.e. lack of knowledge) of potential buyers, like those thinking that this xt2 is something 'new and great'.

nx-patch v5.3 is out. One point of interest to videographers: killall switch added which basically returns camera to factory settings (until battery pull) EXCEPT for the already set bitrates. Pull battery to reactivate mod UI.

Better wait a bit, most likely a new version out tomorrow. 

Good finds today.
A 100% mint 15mm f4.5 that covers most full frames. Viewfinder and awesome rearcap included. Total cost $250.

Sample using T-Max 100.

Also a Fujinon 12.5mm f1.4. Very solid and good price. No sample so far, will use it on the Bolex.

The M6 will also use the 15mm.

this :-). Have fun.

Ok this is going to be fun.
BTW in case you wonder why I have time and state of mind to write this long post, see here :-(.
So all you have so far is two contradicting claims coming from me and KS, and you cannot be sure which of us is right.
Let us rectify that. I attach the spreadsheet I used to calculate the bitrate values - you will need to keep it open in Excel because otherwise you will not be able to properly follow the rest of my post. NB. you will need Excel 2013 or later because it uses some Excel functions that were unavailable before Excel 2013.
I also attach a print screen for those of you who would rather not download it and instead look at a picture :-), or do not have Excel 2013.
Unfortunately the machine I am writing this from does not have Excel 2013 either so I cannot plug in the 40Mbit value - but you will see that the spreadsheet calculation gives the exact value I used and KS quoted - see cell E48 (If you want, tonight I will post an updated picture).
BTW if you have not heard of hexadecimal (base 16) numbering which is used in computing because it is easier :-) just remember that instead of numbers containing 0-9 you will see in the spreadsheet many numbers using 0-9 and A-F (coz base 16). If you are unfamiliar with this, do not be discouraged - I will not ask you to make any calculations.
So, if you are ready to invest 10 minutes in understanding where do the rates come from, here we go:
When I looked into the newly broken-in NX500 it was obvious that the di-camera-app was the program to look into - the name makes it so. So my initial objective was to see where the bitrates are set - well, to cut a long story short, I identified the place in a certain function call, and I saw that the bitrates were loaded into a CPU register via a couple of ARM instructions (different for each bitrate slot).
These instructions are called mov.w and movt. The end result of running them one after the other is that a 32-bit value is loaded into a target CPU register. For the bitrates, the target register needs to be R3 (except for nx500 pro bitrates which need to be put in R0 - note that KS did not say what is the cause of this exception).
Now we go in really deep.
Basically we need to re-encode these instructions such that instead of loading into R3 whatever bit rates Samsung marketing decided, they should load whatever __I__ wanted.
From now on I will start each paragraph with the cell you need to look at.
Cell D9 - So let us pick the target value - in this case 85Mbps.
Cell D10 - to keep things easy let us convert it in a 32-bit hexadecimal
Cell D11 - let us not forget the target register (for nx500 pro bitrates we would change this to r0)
Cell H5 After thoroughly reading the relevant section of the ARMv7 reference manual, I built the tables H5-AM9 and B13-AM23. Let us discuss then a bit.
The two ARM instructions I am trying to assemble are each 4 bytes = 32 bits. Since this is little-endian ARM, the values are stored in memory as shown in table H5-AM9. that is, a bit scrambled :-). If you read the ARM reference manual, you will see that these two instructions are very similar, the only difference is that one loads a 16-bit value in the lower half of the target register (mow.w) and the other of into the upper half of the target register (movt). They are encoded with some fixed bits (background white in the tables) and some variable bits which contain the 16 bits that make up the value to be uploaded into the register (yellow background).
So now all we have to do is split the 32 bits of the target value into two sets of 16 bits, and spread these 16 bits into the dedicated yellow spaces reserved for them.
Cell B13 Let us start with mov.w  (cell B13). The mov.w neds to contain the lower 16 bits of the target value - see cells E14 and E15. These 16 bits I then manually (ok through formulae) sprinkle into the proper yellow places in the encoded ARM instruction.
I then do the same for the movt instruction. The upper 16 bits from the target bitrate I "sprinkle" into the necessary places within the encoded instruction - see cells B19-AM23.
So now we have the ARM instructions codes, exactly how they look if we dump the memory: see cells AB16 and AB22.
BUT, since I am going to use gdb to patch the memory, they are inconvenient, because gdb would require four set statements if I tried to patch byte by byte the memory. So what I decided was to make out of these 4 bytes an integer (which can be patched with one gdb set statement). How to do it? Well, because ARM is little-endian, I needed to reverse the memory byte order to arrive to an integer that gdb will use for patching. Hence cells AB17 and AB23 - notice that the bytes are in reverse order compared to what you see in the memory. This is because gdb, when putting an integer into memory, will know ARM stores them in reverse order and therefore will do the same. The net result is that we end up with the proper value in the memory.
Finally, again to make my gdb task easier, I decided to concatenate these two ARM instructions together so I do not mismatch them and because they are easily split again in gdb. I did that in cell AD25.
So now all we need is to add the surrounding text to make it simply a copy/paste in the gdb script and thus avoid re-typing errors. This I did in cell Q27.
But this calculates only ONE bitrate value, and I am lazy so how can I force Excel to calculate all of them without me having to replace each value in cell D9? Well, Microsoft was kind enough to provide for array operations (I think they are called so) and I took advantage by telling Excel to basically replace D9, successively, with the values I wanted, and store the result in a table. You will find the table in cells D46 to G82.
From there I simply copied the result into the gdb script I publicly released.
Now if you have gdb, go to the memory addresses that change the bitrates and compare my spreadsheet results with the original SAMSUNG values, you will see that they match perfectly: the instructions generated by my spreadsheet are CORRECT - every instance of original Samsung bitrate set instructions, read from memory, matches the corresponding value calculated by my spreadsheet. This proves that the elaborate construction I put together in this spreadsheet is correct.
Finally, for those who open the file, there's a second section of the worksheet that I did not discuss, and which is basically the development of the algorithm used by my current nx-patch and which calculates on the fly the bitrate allowing you to set it to whatever value you want. This development I integrated ad-literam in my nx-patch - see bitRateOpCodes function in nx-patch.cpp.
NB. This is a very very short explanation of my thought process how I went from zero ARM assembly knowledge to encoding these instructions, by using the ARM reference manual.
I hope this post will clear any lingering doubts about the correctness of my calculations.
 

NX wip v18.xlsx

I would rather not take sides. I support what both of you are working on and at this point they are quite different mods that appeal to different peoples needs. Vasile is working on a lean and clean mod with only a few features(right now its just bit-rate) and Kinoseed is working on squeezing as much as possible out of these two amazing cameras (witch to date has been amazing what he has been able to get out of them).
Having said that It doesn't really matter what bill gates stole from Steve jobs or what Steve stole from bill gates they both have two different products for two different demographics. Besides I would hope that if someone comes up with a better way of doing something or something super useful the other would use it as well. You guys are both publishing as open source don't forget. 
Full disclosure, All I really care about at this time is the bit-rate hack so I am leaning towards vasile's stripped down mod at this point in time but I really like what kinoseed is doing as well. As stated above my preference would be a world were everyone could get along and work together to exchanging ideas, even if they are working on separate projects/mods. unfortunately I know that is not really the world we live in  .

I guess some clarifications are in order.
NX-KS works with the new fw versions (1.12 / 1.41) for both cameras, and sets the bitrates as before, with one addition of 400Mbps for time-lapses.
@MountneerMan, vasile was never really part of NX-KS, from the very start I did uses his mod, but very soon after Otto made "poker" I started using that, which allowed for faster loading, and higher stable bitrates. Vasile, even tough apparently he obfuscated the bitrates and had to be "hacked" to be used with "poker" was given full credit.

Lets say that "falling out" is put mildly as there was never a "functioning team", often resulting him demanding of proof for this or that, like when I posted a very high-bit video, he demanded that I show him jump-table for a hack or give him credit for the video that I made, as "apparently I modified the bitrates using his spreadsheet" ... and so forth. Lets say the constant slander was almost a harassment.

When the new FW showed up, I gave him the new addresses, but the values were suspect, and after waiting a week for him to produce the new bitrates (as I suspected were different) he just said "they are the same" while apparently he's been working on his "mod". Well something didn't add up as the values from Samsung did not match Vasiles.
So I redid his hack, and found he had miscalculated the values 4 bits out of 8 bytes, (which was not critical in the end, but gave different values) maybe it was not from his calculations, but error from his obfuscation - no idea, didn't really care to check his work that much.

I can't speak of his new "mod", as I have not checked it, and don't intend to.
But since he didn't contribute anything for the latest NX-KS mod, and only made sure his work can't be really used as opensource, was enough to let him go and do his own thing, although teaming with Otto was great.

That about sums it up. : )

But of course I had to say Otto has my full respect!
He is the one that made it all possible.

I never shot at F22, neither F16. 
I am not doing a paid project here, just a personal project for myself as a travel video. I can see the difference between 1/50 and 1/500 but I do not care since the result of my video above please me and I feel that if all would have been shot at 1/50 with a bunch of hassle ND filters to screw/change all the time then the result would have not made a difference for me to like the video more. What it would have done however is make my holiday more painful and less practical. 
So don't worry I will go ahead. 
Sometimes people focus solely on gear and theory and techniques and forget about the rest (experience of shooting and the result you want). 
 

Yeah it's too easy to get locked into that "grass is greener" game… although I have to say I shoot an A7sII at work most days and for me it's not all it's cracked up to be, ergonomics are horrible, everyone knows about the menus, battery life way worse than nx, bloody awful screen… it just feels soulless. For me the nx1 is basically the perfect camera ergonomically. So comfortable to hold and easy to shoot with. 
The only thing the sony's really have going is the low light and of course it's a little bit easier to achieve shallow dof, but to be honest with fast glass I pretty much never have to go above 1600, ever. Who actually NEEDS 25,000+?! And why are they only filming in pitch black caves?!
I do love (and frequently use) the NX1 for stills as well, but lately I've been batting around the idea of picking up a full frame just to utilize all my FF lenses the way they're meant to be used… which means mirrorless over dslr, to adapt all that glass, so I've looked at used A7r prices, but then it sucks to buy a camera that sucks for video, just in case, so then… gah… round and round it goes.
 

More difficult though if your camera is a canon rebel and you look like you're twelve, haha

Agreed, the bitrate is by far the most important improvement. From my point of view, there is only one thing that I would really happy to get, that is an improvement in low light performance.

You are right. The genre of documentary was invented in 2016. Before that it didn't exist. TV news does not exist. 100% of the people here that shoot events etc use AF 100% of the time. Every documentary ever made is AF or with a huge crew. This is fact and thank you for teaching me. I will call my latest client and tell them the doc I did is illegal because I didn't use AF and must be deleted. I'm sorry for saying MF is usable. It was a lie. MF is only for Nazis.

Yes, please, teach me everyting about how to become dependent on lots of stuff instead of getting the job done. Speaking of horseshit...
If you can't pull focus on the run with a 1DC you need practice, not a focus puller. No need to be a dick just because thousands of people out there can pull focus on everything from DSLRs to BMPCCs. 
No need to debate this, I just wanted to point out to newcomers that your opinion was just that, an opinion. 

Of course you can, I've shot several documentaries all manual. All single operator. Are you guys kidding? Never heard of a "cameraman"? 

Doubt it.
Sharpening has nothing to do with the debayer, and there was only one such pattern in the kernel that I saw, and if you were right, there would be only 2 settings.
However the most common (and seems here is no difference) is the USM (hence the halos). And yes, even debayer is done in software. ; )
imho to avoid the USM use -10

cheers
 

FW archive is here https://drive.google.com/a/cmcfirm.com/folderview?id=0Bwt0uzFgEoRkQ2ZLOUJOM295UGM&usp=sharing

Now that's what the Magic Lantern team should do. Hack the APS-H M8 or the FF M9 CCD cameras and give them video with Leica/Kodak/DB Mojo I would pay anything
I'm very pleased with the colors straight from my M8s sensor.

I know it won't happen and is probably impossible, but still....

That is very true, I think there is a big difference between nx1 and nx500 here in NR section. I can't shoot any video with proper noise, but it's almost two month since we start digging NR in NX. But you know, while I print this, one thought come to mind and I think there is a way to test nx1 about NR I didn't check yet. As always, good talk ))

Allow me to explain further rimpamposh, because that video is explaining the situation in my opinion in a twisted and counter intuitive way IMO.
Lets look at the RGB waveform of this NX1 file:

If you look at the top of the waveform it seems the highlights are clipped. However pay attention to the bottom right Clamp Signal checkbox that is checked on and that I circled in green. That clamp signal checkbox, clamps the display of the highlight. It does not DISPLAY in the waveform scope the highlights above the 100 line. However the information is in the video file, it is simply not displayed because that checkbox is checked.
 
Lets have a look at what our waveform looks like once we uncheck it:

As you can see we have more highlight information visible in the waveform scope than what was previously displayed. 
And that is all that has changed, the clamped highlight information above 100 is now displayed in the waveform monitor only. In our video it is still out of range because it is above the 100 line, so in our video those highlights are still clipped. How do we recover that information and unclip the highlights in the video? 
This is where in the video he says to set the 235 number. You do not need to do specifically do that, and you can do it with a variety of tools. And that specific amount will not be adapted to every situation. All you want to do is bring the highlights down. That is all. In this instance I did it as following:

You can do it in different ways. Hope it helps.

Thank you so much, it really means a lot =) 
I havent been doing color grading for too long, and the NX1 is my first "pro/enthusiast" camera, I used the Canon 600D for about 1,5 years. I think with the NX1, its a matter of time, you need to get around its quirks, get to know its flaws, and most people just didnt bother to explore it enough.
A few pages back (I think it was this topic) we were talking about limiting yourself with gear (lenses), and I think that is the best way to evolve and progress, and the same goes for cameras, I cant afford to buy more than one camera, so when I spend 1500€ on a camera, I need to learn how to come out with the best product I possibly can, because I cant get enough money to buy another camera.

Let me know what you think of my reel. Thank you! Cameras used are the Canon T3i, and Samsung NX1. Everything shot in Oregon. 

Got some used stuff today.
The two Voigtlanders are in absolute mint condition but very cheap. The camera was in good condition with the desirable brass patina. The lenses had two years warranty and the camera one + the regular Leica warranty for fabrication errors.

I wanted the camera since I love editing Raw on my phone and I enjoy range finders. A happy accident is that Leica M adapts to Panasony and Fuji. And they of course cover the full s35 of my LS300.


The build quality of the lenses are just like they usually are with Voigtlander, Excellent!
Smooth, all metal and solid.

Here are a few quick shots from my garden on the M8. They have had their contrast quickly corrected and one or two got some saturation and a vignette. So no grading.
Also, I corrected the raw on my phone under harsh sunlight, drinking beer, so no master pieces
50mm


28mm

DP Review is own by Amazon and they surely have a certain policy with the manufacturers. Yes they have the "think positive" attitude but they are honest and it's easy to read between the lines or see the sample by yourself.
I can't say the same for a vast majority of blogs and other websites that puke advertorials all over the place to maintain their "preferred relation" by distributing constant 3 to 5 stars ratings.

What I expect from a review is to show me all the bad and the ugly, not to sugar coat the reality. And I deeply thank you Andrew for doing that with Canon and all the other, Sony included.
I myself do a little bit of review and testing in a different industry and it's very hard to resist the ambient corruption. It takes courage and that's not easy.  The comfortable position is to get invited, paid and promoted by all the "partners" and this is what most reviewers and "journalists" do because they have to pay the bills at the end of the month and being the white knight quickly close all the doors and turn you into a black sheep in terms of PR.
Long life to EOSHD.com