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ixhumni

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    ixhumni reacted to Andrew Reid in Canon 1D C used price slips under £5000 - and why I decided to take the gamble and get one   
    I'll do a detailed image comparison between the 1D C and A7S soon on EOSHD so look out for that.
    Even after owning the 1D C I can't argue with some of the ways the A7S is superior, but most of those relate to it as a 1080p camera.
    When you rig it up with an external recorder for 4K it becomes something rather different ergonomically. It isn't a small mirrorless camera with EVF any more. In fact you can't use the EVF at all whilst it is outputting 4K. It just didn't deliver what I needed. The screen visibility and battery life of the Shogun became a pretty big issue for me, whilst as a 1080p camera I had neither problem, at least with the battery grip and a few spares!
    So here I was in a predicament. The Shogun on the one hand was a fantastic piece of technology and I'm going to get some more use out of it for sure, once I solve the issue of seeing the screen outdoors and powering it properly, and the ergonomics of rigging it to such small cameras.
    But the main predicament was that although I had quite a few beautiful images coming out of the various cameras I owned, they all had practical flaws.
    I wanted the colour, dynamic range and full frame loveliness I was getting with Magic Lantern raw video on the 5D Mark III, but the file sizes were even larger than the 1D C for plain old 1080p. Reliability also an issue, I found the 1000x komputerbay cards kept going through slow phases (possibly due to file system fragmentation) and especially at higher ISOs the recording would keep stopping. The problem with 1080p is it isn't a future proof format. It will be consigned to the dustbin. Not like Super 8 or 16mm or film which creep back over time for their artistic qualities. 1080p will just go to the grave I feel, like 720 and SD. If it comes back as a retro format it will have a particular look like VHS in the future and so be very niche, not like super 16mm film which is more flexible in the way it looks, so can be used for a broad range of filmmaking even in 2015.
    The NX1 and GH4 shoot 4K internally but their images are a little too compressed. The NX1 holds onto a lot of fine detail but doesn't have a grain character to speak of in plain shaded areas. However the image isn't so much the issue - it is the lack of active Canon EF adapter to NX mount and the lack of low light performance once you get past ISO 1600. I will still be using my NX1 when I need the smallest file sizes and super 35mm sensor in good light, and the upcoming firmware will be very interesting. Good b-cam. As is the GH4, will be keeping that, just not for low light!
    The A7S ticked the most boxes overall, great in low light, S-LOG with minimal banding, but the need to shoot at ISO 3200 in bright light using strong filtration, the need to add a lens adapter for Canon EF lenses that still doesn't always work right, the need to add the recorder for 4K on a wobbly HDMI cable... all this weigh heavily against it for my purposes.
    So to the 1D C, now at around the same price I can sell my GH4, 5D Mk III, 5D Mk II and 7D for which effectively it replaces (although I'll definitely keep the GH4 anyway) it solves a number of problems. First it replaces the 5D Mark III as a stills camera so I can finally get rid of it. It shoots 4K internally and is weather sealed. It has a native mount compatible with my best glass. It works well with the IS on my Canon lenses and no bugs. It is ultra reliable. The image maintains a fine noise grain. It is capable of matching or maybe even exceeding the dynamic range I had from S-LOG2 on the A7S and ML raw on the 5D3. It has colour which is easier to get right from the flat profile (Canon LOG) much like the D750, so takes less work to grade. It especially has better colour in the standard rec.709 picture profiles. It has less moire and aliasing in 4K than the A7S to external recorder, possibly due to stronger OLPF. Yet it resolves the same amount of actual real detail minus the false detail and 4K is enough detail to last me almost forever anyway. It lacks the niceties of the mirrorless cameras though but makes up for it with heft and build quality. No EVF but I've added one without radically changing the form factor or adding too much unbalanced weight. No peaking or focus assists whilst recording but again that is solved by adding the EVF. No mirrorless mount so I can't use my Cooke PLs but these don't cover full frame anyway (so corners would likely be soft in 1.3x). I will use my NX1 for those. Very good internal 1080p in Super 35mm mode and to Ninja Star, but the full frame 1080p isn't as good as the full frame 1080p from the A7S. Those are the things I miss and the banding can rear up sometimes especially at low ISOs in C-LOG but generally I feel there's some logic behind it now at £5k, whereas there wasn't before with so many promising other cameras that I thought would supersede it. They haven't. And the main logic failing of the 1D C was always the price not the image, and the fact they didn't add enough video bells & whistles.
  2. Like
    ixhumni reacted to Andrew Reid in Canon 1D C used price slips under £5000 - and why I decided to take the gamble and get one   
    AccordingToMe - you're not making the forum a nicer place with your pomp and unpleasent attitude, I suggest you tone it down.
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