Phil A

The GX8 weighs 490g, what is the kit lens for that camera? Is it the 14-42mm Mega OIS II? That has 110g. As a reference, today I balanced the A6300 (410g) with the 35 1.8 (160g) and the problem is that the lens is too light to actually use my camera cage. So I think your problem isn't solved by adding even more weight to the camera but flipping the mounting plate to have the motor on the left side so you can move it even further forward?

Use a quick release plate under the camera, use a camera cage, a lot of possibilities. I really used the Crane the first time in Venice a week ago and loved it. Surely beats my shaky handheld footage even though I still have to practice walking better. Just wish it was a hint shorter to better fit into my camera bag.

Just balanced mine and tried it out, seems to work fine but I'll test some more. Quick question: do you guys screw the camera right to it or what quick release system do you use?

On Amazon Germany it's currently discounted from 779€ to 623€ in the kit with the remote and little case. Mine arrives Saturday and I won't be home until Tuesday

Same rolling shutter = no interest. Keeping my a6300, which is kinda liberating. We'll see what the next A7 brings or maybe Blackmagic has a surprise at NAB next year.

+1 In Germany it sells used for around 2000€, if it has the AF upgrade sometimes slightly higher. The used C100 II goes for roughly 3000€, so I'd probably directly go for the II at these prices.

Agreed but it's still the priniciple of economies of scale. How many 3rd party battery grips for the Canon 5D III did they sell and how many grips for the BMMCC do they expect to sell? The more you produce, the cheaper you can be. Not to sound negative, I would love to have a grip with controls because I think the BMMCC is so much cooler than the BMPCC. There's actually a thread over at BMCuser where the user Stelvis 3D modelled the rig of my wet dreams http://bmcuser.com/showthread.php?18560-micro-camera-custom-grip-rig-breakout-uber-build

But the 1080p on the A6300 isn't exactly amazing, I wouldn't buy that camera to shoot Full HD with it. We'll see if the A6500 has better image quality in 1080p but I wouldn't get my hopes up. I tried to cut 1080p that I used for the lower RS together with downscaled 4k for a test and the quality difference was really showing, not yet convinced it's a viable solution. I didn't test them side by side but from my feeling the 120fps on the A6300 is also worse than on the NX1.

To be honest I'm not. Look at the cost of a good quality wooden grip, that's 200-500$. Then consider that people expect it to have a bunch of buttons, which would put it at the higher end of that scale. Then consider how many people have a BMMCC and how many of those would buy the grip? I think the market is too small. In general I feel kitting out the BMMCC into a great handheld system doesn't really make sense for price reasons. Many people consider this the minimum setup: BMMCC 1000€ Monitor 500€ Cage 100€ Speed Booster 850€ OLPF 350€ That already puts you at 2800€ which probably kills the attractivity of the BMMCC to rig it out as a fancy handheld camera if you don't already have the stuff lying around from a BMPCC. If you would add a fancy handgrip for 500€, you might as well have directly looked at buying an Ursa Mini when we ignore size/weight differences.

Even raw files can have some form of processing, e.g. noise reduction or downscaling (example is for example RAW, mRAW and sRAW on Canon cameras). MagicLantern also saves raw data which is not identical to the full resolution the sensor has.

I really doubt any Alpha camera getting integrated ND filters.

No you can't. When you start recording in camera it deactivates the HDMI out preview. Nothing to do about it.

The G7 doesn't do HDMI out while internally recording. Was a deal breaker for me when I considered that camera. If you need/want external monitoring, you also have to record externally.

The FS7 shoots 4k 10bit 422 in XAVC-I. That's the big difference to the FS5.

Which? The A7s II and A7r II are double the price (3450€ in Germany), the Canon 5D IV even more. It's kinda harsh how much more expensive it is in Europe though. 1700€ vs 1400$

I sometimes use it but in my opinion you can't just slap it on and be done, it needs manual adjustment and I never add the LUT above 30-50%. I see how using it straight at 100% makes people dislike it, it's in the same territory as overdoing it with Film Convert.

http://www.sony.com/electronics/interchangeable-lens-cameras/ilce-6500 camera is announced. Sounds like an A6300 with IBIS and Touch Screen. Can't wait to hear if that's all that's new or if it fixed overheating, rolling shutter, etc.

I love to use the compact 35mm 1.8 OSS and 50mm 1.8 OSS and have to agree, the Sony APS-C system still lacks a whole bunch of options. A 16mm & 23mm 1.8 OSS would be a great addition as would be a 17-50mm f/2.8 OSS zoom which EVERY other system has. If an A6500 would come with A7 body with the A6300 sensor but IBIS and massively reduced rolling shutter I would totally get that and keep the A6300 as a B cam. I guess it's too early to pray for 10bit 422?

The Micro Studio has only like 7 stops of DR and it's directly in Rec709. Saw some youtube vids which had beautiful colors but basically every highlight is blown. Is the XAVC-L of the Sony FS5 actually any different from the XAVC-S of the A series? It's obviously nothing like the XAVC-I of the FS7.

I don't have the BMMCC, I am too afraid of moire and aliasing but still consider to get a used one once more are out in the wild. I'd rather have something in between BMMCC/BMPCC and the BMCC/BMPC4k, but that gets discussed to death in another thread. I'm using the SmallHD 501 (versatility would suggest getting the 502 with HDMi and SDI) with a Sony A6300 and love it. It has more tools than I'd ever use, the "oversharpening" focus assist works great and I couldn't imagine downgrading to a monitor without LUT support after getting used to it (I shot footage, then graded it in Resolve to my liking and exported the grade as a LUT for monitoring). Will probably get the sidefinder soon but you should read reviews, it is also no perfect solution as it uses a mirror and some people say it feels distorted.

How would you expect to keep the BMMCC setup small using the Ursa EVF? You'd need a HDMI to SDI converter for the video signal and you need to power the EVF via XLR. So you're now at BMMCC + shoulder rig + a small HDMI-SDI converter like the Atomos ones + a V mount battery to power everything. That's not what I'd consider compact. Same for the Zacuto Gratical Eye, it doesn't take HDMI and needs external power via 2 pin lemo. I'd go BMMCC + SmallHD 501 + SmallHD side finder. Both runs on LP-E6 batteries, too.

But did they ever say it's continuous? Might be the buffer only manages 1 or 2 seconds before it's full.

Looks heavy but I like the mounting options.

Rolling Shutter looks, like with nearly all current cameras, rather bad.

I'm probably sounding like a broken record but I like the SmallHD 501. I think for "monitor only" it is amazing. It has all the tools one could need and it's build solidly. It's pricier but I don't expect to have to replace it for a long, long time. Just wish I had gotten the 502 with the SDI ports, but the 501 was on offer for nearly 30% off. it also takes the LP-E6 batteries which is neat to pair with the BMMCC.