kye

As someone with a pretty average life (job, family, house, car, etc) who shoots with my GoPro a lot I actually disagree about them being good for family events.
They're wide angle, which means that you have to either zoom in, which is pretty difficult to hold them remotely still (unless you rig them up, in which case just use a larger camera with IS) or film everything close up, which is kind of strange and the lens distortions are EXTREMELY UNFLATTERING to average people (who don't have the figures of models or people used to seeing themselves on TV).
I actually agree with @Kisaha that the best cameras for recording normal life is the smartphone, as it has many of the advantages but also lots less disadvantages.
Also, I think that action cameras are cameras that require huge amounts of editing to get good end results from.  You film things close up, film things that are moving quickly (either in slow-mo or real-time), put them over fast music and do a fast edit with lots of cuts.  That's the GoPro aesthetic.  I think this video proves that:
In researching a replacement for my GoPro I was reading forums about potential other cameras, and one person said their camera recorded nice quality at first but later on in the file the quality reduced.  One of the replies was to only shoot short clips because "long clips are really boring" - obviously that person assumed the clips wouldn't be edited at all!
Last month I shot a film at a club for a friends birthday (I posted it in the GoPro replacement thread) and I shot it with my GoPro precisely because I didn't want to pass my phone to drunken adults in a club.  Plus I wouldn't have gotten my DJI Osmo Mobile 2 past security - they took a few long looks at my Bobber handle that I had on it.
Completely agree.
I did actually go swimming with my iPhone 8 deliberately at the beach when I first got it as I was wondering if I could replace my GoPro with it.  I haven't edited the footage yet, but I can tell you the 1080p240 at 400% quality from MoviePro app looks absolutely spectacular in full-afternoon-sun, the screen only worked sometimes, and it took a few hours to dry out afterwards before it would charge properly again.  I actually did what you're not meant to do and I plugged it in to charge, so it should have killed something but I was lucky.
With your phone you don't have anything else to carry, you get a nice large screen (huge by camera standards), you can edit in-camera, and you can upload direct from the device.  Action cameras require SD card adapters a full computer or hours of file transfer time, and all the stuffing around that keeps an army of post-production staff employed around the world.
I have a big camera with zoom lens which is good for everything except being discrete (or wider than 24mm), my phone which is very discreet but no zoom, and my GoPro which is waterproof and very wide.  In this sense it's a specialist camera used for very particular things.

I thought they’d already discontinued the pocket ?  Watch that become a cult camera if it isn’t already.
I think they’ll keep the micro going for some time.  It’s really a different camera.
In the photo above the camera has a wooden camera cage, a Noga arm and a BMD 5” VA as the operating monitor. On front is the SLR Magic 10mm T2.1.  I’m manually focussing myself, using peaking on the VA.  
By way of example almost all of this promo is either Ursa Mini Pro or Micro using that exact rig.
This whole scene is shot Ursa Mini Pro
 
 
I have used a LOT of Ursa Mini Pro and Micro in the resident.  Not just as an insert camera, but shooting whole scenes using only the Ursa Mini Pro.  Most scenes have a mix of Ursa Mini Pro and ALexa, and I’d estimate more than 40% of the show is Ursa Mini.
I tend to use the micro camera for these kinds of surgery shots where I can very easily reach into the scene and get super close before diving down to almost inside the surgical field, and then transitioning back to another actor. It keeps it very agile and alive shooting this way.  I’d anticipate the Pocket 2 will replace this rig for these kinds of shots.
JB

I pretty much use the terms "guerilla filmmaking" and "run and gun" shooting interchangeably. They're both war metaphors. The shooting style is applicable both for when you have permission, and when you don't, when you have actors, and when you're filming real people. There's also "one man band" which fits in a similar mould. To me run-and-gun is a relative term. A Hollywood person might use it to describe a crew of 10 people, LOL. If there is a difference between the terms it's that "guerilla" implies an ethos - get the film shot by any means. When I shot the piece below, for instance, I never had more than two crew members and was usually alone. All of the rooftop shots were a location that we sneaked onto (and setup a slider and handheld LEDs, ha). The terms guerilla, run-and-gun, and one man band apply to nearly every shot: 
 

Seriously, great video!
I consider all the action cams unacceptable for me. What I use mostly (not waterproof) is an old NX3000, an APS-C 20megapixels very very small mirrorless woth the native, tiny amd great 10mm 3.5f fish eye.
The 1" Sony must be great as well, but the other option cost me less, 3 years ago, and arguably the quality is great.

The quality of the final video is pretty good for a gopro!
The flare is caused by greasy lens, you can avoid it if you are not using the skeleton case, but the frame. Of course in this case the camera is no longer protected against the elements.
Almost all of the action cameras are using the same sensor, the low light performance is most likely the same. With the gopro's you can use a special professional mode where you can turn off all of the precessing.
For this mode you need Protune 2.0 capable camera so Hero3+ at least. Use the usual Protune, Native WB, Flat settings, fix your shutter speed (1/50-1/100) and instead of "max iso" choose "fix ISO" value. In this mode the in camera noise reduction turns completly off. In this case you get a very detailed (and of course very noisy) results till iso1600, but after NR the final footage can look better.

Older blackmagic cameras with gen1 color science (BMCC, BMPCC, Micro, etc.) have much less sophisticated color science than the modern Blackmagic cameras.  They look good with nice dynamic range and good skintones, but when you want to match them to better cameras, it's a little bit harder. It probably has more of a baked-in look that people prefer.  The color science of the newer 4.6K Blackmagic camera is very nice and matches much better to higher-end camera systems.
I think mainstream is a good thing with this new Blackmagic camera as it will get their name out there even more to the general public.  If they sell a large enough volume of cameras they might even make other manufacturers reconsider the features they're putting in the cameras which will benefit everyone.

It may sound like I’m a newbie to stock footage/photos, but actually I still have a portfolio of footage which I put up onto a few agencies about ten years ago. I just want to get back into it again now as I have a bit more spare time.
You are absolutely correct in not being able to predict what sells. My best selling footage is a of a hand (mine) putting coins into a piggy bank, I shot that on a Canon 550D (T2i) 8 years ago with the lighting setup, shoot and editing taking not much more than 20 minutes in total.
It’s an appealing business model whereby you can have a long earnings tail from your portfolio, but I am the first to admit that it is really competitive and very hit and miss. You also need a huge number of clips to get over its randomness,
I’m not considering this as a main earnings stream, but more of an add on to my client work and other earnings streams.  

According to the sticker on the card, this one will just about manage, and is also the cheapest I can find... Whether it actually holds up is another story though: https://www.integralmemory.com/product/ultimapro-x2-cfast-2.0-memory-card

IIRC the fashion is to have shallow depth of field but the killer technique with Sony users (no front-facing screen there either!) is to extend your arm out with fingers pointed up and focus on them, as when holding the camera that's the same focus distance as hand to your face..  :D
In reply to the above and also in general, we're in (yet another) situation where worlds collide.
World #1 is people who shoot RAW and see the camera as a tiny cinema camera.  In this sense SDI > HDMI and professional standards > consumer standards.
World #2 is people who want the 'best' ILC camera for under $2000.  In this sense, HDMI > SDI, consumer standards > professional standards, and front-facing buttons/screens/etc are nice features to have.
Neither world is wrong, it's just that before the DSLR revolution and YouTube these two worlds had never touched before.  Now they're in full collision mode.  Camera companies are trying to make products that appeal to both worlds and failing to connect, and both worlds look each other up and down then go back to whispering in separate groups like 10-year-olds in the school-yard.
In a decade we'll have worked out how big the market for online video is, how many people it can sustain at the various levels of quality, and what products make sense.
At the moment it's a mess, where the 'best vlogging camera' debate includes your phone, the RX100, the Canon M50, the Sony A7III, and the Pocket 2.  Any application that includes tools as varied as that lineup should indicate that we still haven't worked out what the hell is going on yet.

IIRC the fashion is to have shallow depth of field but the killer technique with Sony users (no front-facing screen there either!) is to extend your arm out with fingers pointed up and focus on them, as when holding the camera that's the same focus distance as hand to your face..  :D
In reply to the above and also in general, we're in (yet another) situation where worlds collide.
World #1 is people who shoot RAW and see the camera as a tiny cinema camera.  In this sense SDI > HDMI and professional standards > consumer standards.
World #2 is people who want the 'best' ILC camera for under $2000.  In this sense, HDMI > SDI, consumer standards > professional standards, and front-facing buttons/screens/etc are nice features to have.
Neither world is wrong, it's just that before the DSLR revolution and YouTube these two worlds had never touched before.  Now they're in full collision mode.  Camera companies are trying to make products that appeal to both worlds and failing to connect, and both worlds look each other up and down then go back to whispering in separate groups like 10-year-olds in the school-yard.
In a decade we'll have worked out how big the market for online video is, how many people it can sustain at the various levels of quality, and what products make sense.
At the moment it's a mess, where the 'best vlogging camera' debate includes your phone, the RX100, the Canon M50, the Sony A7III, and the Pocket 2.  Any application that includes tools as varied as that lineup should indicate that we still haven't worked out what the hell is going on yet.

Its unfortunately very common and is actually at its most prevalent on what you would think was the safe side of the fence which is in the accredited areas themselves.
Its only happened to me once (touch wood) at a final in Berlin a couple of years ago when one of the stewards stole my iPhone off the top of my peli case while I was shooting the trophy lift over the other side of the pitch.
Funnily enough, it caused me far more of a problem than if he'd took a camera because it had my boarding pass for my flight home on it, it was the GPS for me to drive back to Leipzig because that's where I'd flown in from etc etc
I have quite a few of those dividers and use them for turning an Ikea rucksack into a camera bag but also for quickly packing real camera bags as I swap between different capacity ones so its easier to keep certain lens combos in the dividers all the time and transfer them in one go.
 
 

Similar advice to when you don't want your camera to get stolen
I've been reluctant to go for a larger sized camera body, as before I got into photography that was how I judged if a person was a professional photographer (wrong I know, but it is what it is)!
In terms of looking the part, I think I've got that down...  I just got back from a 10 day trip to the Northern Territory of Australia and in addition to the shorts, t-shirt, backpack, and scowl from wrangling kids I also bought one of these so I didn't burnt to a crisp in the sun:

I'm pretty sure that no-one, after seeing my hat, had the inclination to take me seriously 

Similar advice to when you don't want your camera to get stolen
I've been reluctant to go for a larger sized camera body, as before I got into photography that was how I judged if a person was a professional photographer (wrong I know, but it is what it is)!
In terms of looking the part, I think I've got that down...  I just got back from a 10 day trip to the Northern Territory of Australia and in addition to the shorts, t-shirt, backpack, and scowl from wrangling kids I also bought one of these so I didn't burnt to a crisp in the sun:

I'm pretty sure that no-one, after seeing my hat, had the inclination to take me seriously 

For me it's actually slightly different - I'm shooting totally legally but I must still be clandestine.
I'm shooting in places where people can shoot video of their kid with their phone, but if I shot the same shot with a C300 then I would get kicked out or get hassled or attract unwanted attention from the surrounding public.  I'm not doing anything wrong, but I also want to use a better camera than my phone without getting hassled, thus the need to be clandestine.
With your 5d3, what lenses and sound equipment do you use?  and where do you shoot?  I find it to be a question of how big your camera setup looks that is the main factor unfortunately...

I'm not sure if you were asking for recommendations, or just being thankful that I offered...  but regardless, here's a few 'vlogging' channels with high production value:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpnuadQ_w3r6f4Q_NRlqd-w Kraig Adams - makes vlogs and travel films on A7SII - used to be a pro wedding videographer https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3DkFux8Iv-aYnTRWzwaiBA Peter McKinnon - makes photography / videography focused vlogs and shoots C300 in studio and 1DXII out of the office Here's a few channels with high production value that aren't 'vlogging' channels:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3stPIuUoCDHG7COfwr0tEA Brandon Li - makes short travel films with A7 cameras https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2hAbftpVjHtFrDOpEM90aA Action Movie Kid - short videos where the (average IQ) videos are CG'd by a professional CG guy https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJHA_jMfCvEnv-3kRjTCQXw Binging with Babish - cooking videos shot on A7SII with Atomos ext recorder and just for sanity, here's potentially the best YT channel out there, which is probably shot on a point-and-shoot... https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAL3JXZSzSm8AlZyD3nQdBA Primitive Technology, which is videos of a guy making things without any tools - he literally has a pair of shorts on and walked into the jungle and makes things with what he finds.  Why is it so great? He doesn't talk, there's no music, but they're still hugely engaging.  It's a combination of "what is he doing?" and one of those rainforest tapes people meditate to.  This is a channel where the content is so good I don't give a sh*t what it's shot on.
I got as far as him saying he "looked at the spec sheet and....".  Judging a camera from the specs alone is the equivalent of judging a restaurant by googling recipes of the dishes on the restaurants menu.
The fact that this thread is mostly around this has not escaped me! :D

Haha, they could do a revival and call themeselves US⚡BC
 
Really sorry about that terrible dad joke!

Even then it's not so simple. BM have photos of this camera being used in a multicam setup with one operator. If I was that operator, I'd have all the cameras linked up to monitors and have the monitors in a line.
Similarly, I regularly shoot interviews and ask the questions, I always have a monitor on a tripod next to me to check focus and framing during the conversation. The lens poking right over my shoulder, so it's easy to reach up and adjust focus/framing if the talent moves a little bit.
On top of that, if someone else is conducting the interview and I'm filming. More often than not everyone is sitting down, apart from me. Having monitor on top of the camera means I won't break my back leaning down to see the frame the whole time. 
Point being, tripod shots will also benefit from a monitor.

Need for an external monitor depends on how you use it.  If camera is on a tripod then you're probably fine, but if you're hand-holding for an ability to quickly get a variety of shots then you might miss a screen that can't articulate vertically.  In terms of hand-holding I can hand-hold my XC10 / Gorillapod 5K setup with my arms fully outstretched at 240mm steady enough so that the IS locks the shot with no movement, so it is possible.
Depends on the vlogger and what you'd call a "vlogger" (as opposed to many other styles of YT film-making).  I see YouTubers with A7SII / Atomos external recorders, C300s, C100s, 1DXII, A7RIII, GH5, GH5s, EVA, etc.  If you definition of 'vlogger' is only people that prattle endlessly into the selfie camera on their phone while walking somewhere to get their nails done, then your definition needs expanding radically.  I'm happy to provide examples of YT channels with high production value if you're interested.

Need for an external monitor depends on how you use it.  If camera is on a tripod then you're probably fine, but if you're hand-holding for an ability to quickly get a variety of shots then you might miss a screen that can't articulate vertically.  In terms of hand-holding I can hand-hold my XC10 / Gorillapod 5K setup with my arms fully outstretched at 240mm steady enough so that the IS locks the shot with no movement, so it is possible.
Depends on the vlogger and what you'd call a "vlogger" (as opposed to many other styles of YT film-making).  I see YouTubers with A7SII / Atomos external recorders, C300s, C100s, 1DXII, A7RIII, GH5, GH5s, EVA, etc.  If you definition of 'vlogger' is only people that prattle endlessly into the selfie camera on their phone while walking somewhere to get their nails done, then your definition needs expanding radically.  I'm happy to provide examples of YT channels with high production value if you're interested.

Need for an external monitor depends on how you use it.  If camera is on a tripod then you're probably fine, but if you're hand-holding for an ability to quickly get a variety of shots then you might miss a screen that can't articulate vertically.  In terms of hand-holding I can hand-hold my XC10 / Gorillapod 5K setup with my arms fully outstretched at 240mm steady enough so that the IS locks the shot with no movement, so it is possible.
Depends on the vlogger and what you'd call a "vlogger" (as opposed to many other styles of YT film-making).  I see YouTubers with A7SII / Atomos external recorders, C300s, C100s, 1DXII, A7RIII, GH5, GH5s, EVA, etc.  If you definition of 'vlogger' is only people that prattle endlessly into the selfie camera on their phone while walking somewhere to get their nails done, then your definition needs expanding radically.  I'm happy to provide examples of YT channels with high production value if you're interested.

How many of you guys have actually rigged up and used an Alexa in single operator mode? It actually works really really well.
Everything I see online points to how its a crew camera, not made for single op use, you NEED a 1st and 2nd AC etc. This usually comes from people who have either only shot it this way, or it's repeated by people who have not even shot with it.
There is nothing unique to the Alexa that makes it require a crew any more than any other camera. In fact, because of how ridiculously simple it is to use and it's great ergonomics, it's more single op friendly than a lot of other camera's I've used.
The trick is setting it up to make it single op friendly.


This is the basic setup for a shoot I DP'd last week. 6 hours, 5 locations, all shot shoulder mount (obviously missing the front handgrips, motor controller/cables and shoulder pad).
Focus is through an RT Motion 3.1 setup, controlled from the thumbwheel mounted on the right handgrip. The thumbwheel also has run/stop control. The EVF is setup with focus peaking, which works really well. Out of the 100 or so takes I did, only 2 were not usable due to buzzed focus.
I'm using EF Zeiss Milvus lenses which only have electronic iris control. Iris is controlled on the operator side directly on the Optitek EF lens mount - super easy.
The setup is powered by IDX 185wh batteries. Each battery powers the entire setup for just over 2h. They weigh 50g less than Anton Bauer's 90wh batteries and half a kilo less than their 190wh batteries. Power for the Optitek mount is drawn directly from a ribbon cable inside the mount, so no external cables. Power for the RT motion setup is drawn from Alexa's 12v output on the operator side, so no DTAP cables running back to the battery - super clean. This makes switching batteries fast and easy as there are no DTAP cables to switch over. I've got a hot swap battery mount arriving next week, so there will be no need to power down.
I'm using screw-on Firecrest ND filters which are completely neutral even at higher strengths, so no need to touch white balance or tint as I increase or decrease ND.
In the EVF I have control of FPS, shutter speed and white balance/tint all controlled via buttons on the EVF, all without removing your eye. The buttons on the operator side below the Alexa logo are user configurable. At the moment they trigger the Rec709 LUT on and off, false colour and fullscreen view inside the EVF. No need to take the camera off your shoulder... Once you setup your project and format your cards on the operator side at the start of the day, there is no need to return to that side as the important functions are all available inside the EVF.
I load in 2 x 128gb SxS cards at the start of the day, which record around 2h of Prores 4444. So theres usually no need to swap them out during the shoot. 
From here I'm adding a Movcam MM4 lightweight mattebox. It has Arri rosettes on each side which allow you to attach handgrips directly onto the mattebox. This will shave some weight and further streamline the setup as I no longer need the BP-12 bridge plate, 19mm rods and the handle bridge. Still unsure if 15mm rods are too lightweight for this task, we'll see... I need a new mattebox anyway.
I'm also going to add 2 Dynacore 310wh batteries which will power the setup for around 3.5h each. And they're still 200g lighter than AB's 190wh batteries.
Is it as nimble as an A7 or GH5 setup? No. But from my experience, when shooting Alexa shoulder mount I'm moving just as quick as someone shooting mirrorless. Except if I've done my job right on the day, I can then grade that footage to match pretty much any feature shot on the Alexa. I can't really do that with mirrorless cam footage...
 

When I first joined the forums I thought I was a run-and-gun shooter, but I think now the term Guerrilla film-maker might be a better fit.
I say this because:
I shoot without official permission (and therefore can't have a setup that looks 'pro') I shoot in public where I have basically no control of what happens The subjects of my film (friends and family) tolerate my filming, but won't cooperate to the point of wearing mics or anything else like that This seems to present a different set of challenges to run-and-gun shooters who can mic up people, have control of lighting and 'set', and can have 'pro' looking cameras.
Anyone else shooting in this style?  (I think it's likely to either be hardcore documentary filmmakers, travel film-makers, or vloggers).

I read that sheet when I first ordered my XC10 and I was quite disappointed, but I then went on to read many of the other tests on much more expensive cameras, and I found that many high-end cameras didn't have a huge amount more resolution than the XC10.
And then I read the a6300 test and ended up laughing out loud with its many many issues 
I didn't realise they've since tested the Ursa Mini and GH5s, so I've got some light reading ahead of me
For those that haven't read any of these, I highly recommend doing so:
https://tech.ebu.ch/camera_reports_tech3335 and for older cameras https://tech.ebu.ch/camera_reports_legacy
Tests like these are a good way to cut through the internet BS and brand-loyal-myopia.

There are plenty of ways to get HDMI out to a wireless viewable form on a tablet or phone.
BM also provide full documentation to enable developers to create their own apps for remote control.
So, with this camera at least, these aren't issues.

like this ?
 
http://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/Developer/Camera/20180406-ed2af6/BlackmagicCameraControl.pdf
 
jb