newfoundmass

Yeah, the ergonomics and color science alone make this more appealing to me than the a6500. The Canon color really is leaps and bounds above Sony. The 1080p on both is nothing to write home about though.

I mean, in the second post of this thread you referred to it selling by the truck load and proceeded to be dismissive of my skepticism and all feature requests people have made in a thread about what features we, as potential customers, want. Then, when engaged in actual discussion you ignored comments, criticism, and concerns, defaulting back to talk of the specs, etc. All the while I've been cordial and appreciative of your enthusiasm for the camera (multiple times no less), only for you to resort to name calling and accusing ME of being a troll? OK.

At $249 on B&H the E1 in 2018 is actually a bit of a steal if you need a really small 4K camera, as like you said the firmware updates greatly improved the camera. When looking at it in that price range, the muddy image and not great color become less of an issue. I know at least one vlogger recently started using it as a webcam.

None of the VR cameras they've released have gotten the attention of the E1. To pretend otherwise is to be argumentative for the sake of being argumentative. I'm sure though that you're right and it'll be critically acclaimed and sell like hot cakes, just like the E1 and their VR cameras, which outside of the initial fluff pieces covering their launch and include virtually no critical analysis, reviews (despite being called reviews on the Z-Cam site) received very little media and user attention. How can it not? Look at those specs! .

But that's the thing: they can do all of that while maintaining a small form factor. Really, how much larger would the camera have to be if instead of 3.5mm it had mini XLR, etc.? Again, to arbitrarily handicap it to offer lower quality connections / features because it absolutely has to be this tiny brain just seems silly even if they offer modules, etc. But their most significant release was, in fact, the E1. I get being excited, and I appreciate they're even trying, but again, you seem to be giving them the benefit of the doubt and are dismissive of virtually all criticisms of the camera, criticisms that I think are pretty valid. That, by your own words, people have the wrong idea about what the camera is / is trying to be again shows how hard of a sell this all is, because Z-Cam has done a pretty poor job at explaining that. Going to their website, none of this is explained. It just has specs and a price. And the specs are great, but they mean very little if they don't deliver in other ways. Again, I appreciate your excitement, but going into a thread titled "What we want in the ZCam E2" and explaining away valid thoughts and wants if kinda silly. What then are we supposed to talk about in this thread?

I mean, the E1 retails for around $250 new these days. It shows that they didn't exactly set the world on fire and it had, if I recall, pretty major firmware issues on release. The video was also muddy looking with not very good color science. That's cool and all, but again I'd prefer recording to SSD without having to use the USB port. Whether we buy cages, external monitors, etc for our cameras we're still able to forgo all of that and shoot beautiful cinematic footage without it. I can take my GH5 out of a bag, put in an affordable SD card, add a mic and lens and be off to the races. Meanwhile you can't even use it as it was intended without costly CFast media ($200 for SanDisk 64 GB) and a monitor ($150+). The specs can be better than the Pocket 4K but ultimately things like ease of use, color science, etc. are all major factors in why people are far more interested in that, in addition to the low retail price. It already is a tough sell, though. People are interested and are watching to see how things develop, but it's not like we're seeing a lot of people clamoring for this camera outside of the Facebook group. I haven't heard much chatter about it outside of the initial discussion the week of NAB, even though I think it's supposed to begin shipping in the next two or so months. And this is why the form factor itself is silly. They want to position it as a cinema camera but they have arbitrarily decided that it NEEDS to be so small that it can't include tech that would add minimal size that would be worth it for added features / functionality.

That's a big if, though. I really appreciate their ambition and these kind of companies are honestly what push innovation faster. I suppose my biggest issue is CFast being the chosen media. I'd honestly prefer a slightly larger body and SSD over CFast, if they're going to completely forgo SD (which I understand.) CFast just raises the cost of entry, given I've never owned any CFast cameras and don't have any of that media. I do have quite a few SSDs though. I feel like that's the issue in general with this camera: you're going to need to invest quite a bit into realizing the full potential of this camera, assuming it can live up to the promises. While that's no different really than what happens when getting into higher end cinema cameras, it's a hard sell given the options out there that provide more of an all in one system even if they don't match the specs and are a bit more pricey, or in the case of the Pocket 4k, cost even less. Of course, all of this could be far less of an issue if they really hit a home run with this camera. But it's a tough sell, I think.

See, I feel like the LX100 did pretty well because there was a lot of talk about it for the first year or two of its release, with all the usual suspects releasing glowing reviews of it. There was also pretty frequent videos shot on it all over YouTube. Not saying that it set the world on fire, but it certainly didn't seem like it was released and then immediately lost in the abyss like some cameras were. That we still see videos on it from within the last year is pretty impressive, honestly. If they released a new model with some key updates, especially a mic input, I'd snatch one up in a heartbeat even though I really don't need another camera. I think a lot of people would. It'd serve so many uses for a lot of my stuff.

Caleb Pike made something like this. I feel like you could, pretty easily and much more affordably, make your own set up that does pretty much the same thing.

If you're an independent artist of any type you gotta hustle. If you can make even $100 bucks selling DVDs that's $100 more bucks than you had before. Doesn't mean though that you don't explore more modern methods of distribution in conjunction. I feel like people are too quick to move on to the latest technology, eager to leave behind old technology before its even dead yet. Physical media still accounts for 15 or so billion dollars in sales last year. Streaming only recently, as in 2016, made more revenue than physical media did. That's pretty remarkable given Apple hasn't updated/supported DVD Studio Pro since 2009 and Adobe hasn't updated/supported Encore since 2012, showing how early they'd given up on physical media. Indeed there are still areas in the country that don't have fast enough internet suitable for high quality video streaming. Other countries are even further behind. I live in a very rural state, Vermont, that has areas where they don't have high speed internet or even high speed wireless. For those areas streaming/downloading isn't feasible. I personally still get Blu-ray copies of movies I really love. Classic horror movies that have limited edition cases mostly. I'll then rip a digital copy for myself that I can watch while traveling, etc.

I'm actually surprised that they haven't released a successor yet, given I feel like this little camera was really successful and popular. In fact a lot of people I know still have and use it to this day, even on paid shoots. The ability to have a pocket b-cam is quite underrated, especially when you're running and gunning / don't want to attract a lot of attention. I debated getting one not that long ago for that reason.

While those people buying DVDs are declining there's still enough of a market, at least in independent professional wrestling where I work in, for them and Blu-ray to still warrant releasing them in my line of work. I think there will always be people that want physical media. Vinyl, cassette tapes, even VHS, have all maintained a consumer base, and in the case of vinyl, have seen that base grow. If my company can still make $400 or more (profit) selling DVDs or Blu-rays at wrestling events then, for me, yeah, it's still worth it and will remain so until it becomes too much work for not enough reward.

I'd ignore Jon. For as long as I've lurked here he has been rude and argumentative. He's also very defensive of the GH5, so it's to be expected. With that said I don't really know that putting a 5 inch monitor on the GH5 will add that much weight. I use a 7 inch Lilliput monitor (forgive me I'm poor!) on mine and it's honestly pretty light when attached to my GH5 and G85. I can see why you might not want to go this route but I think it's worth looking into it a little more. Re: lenses, have you looked into Rokinon lenses? I use those, as well as adapted Minolta lenses that I use with a focal reducer, which I'm very happy with. The only Canon EF lens that I have is the Sigma 18-35, which is a beast of a lens, so I don't have a ton of experience but those options are much lighter in weight and some are pretty fast. For me it'd be difficult to no longer be able to shoot 4k, so I'd be very hesitant to get a C100 mk II even though, in reality, it's probably not as big of a deal as we tell ourselves. It might be worth going the monitor route for now and waiting until you can afford something that shoots 4K?

I've always thought the 1080p on those Sony cameras are pretty bad. Beautiful 4k, since it's downscaled from I think 6k, but the 1080p isn't very good, at least from what I've seen / heard.

I don't think it'd take less time and effort, but you'd be able to fine tune things more than you would with log. You would be able to match them pretty well if you wanted, especially if you use a color checker card. It's unlikely though that they'll add RAW output to the LS300, I feel like that'd be a pretty large undertaking for a camera that's nearing it's third birthday. I'd do back flips down the street if they did though!

Why not the Moza Air? It can hold 7 lbs and has gotten better reviews than the Zhiyun from what I've seen? I got mine on sale from B&H for $399 in April, which was a steal.

Yeah, I forgot to mention the Cinelike D hack. I almost got the GX85 as a b-cam for my GH5 but decided to spend a little more for the G85. But if you don't need a mic input it's a great option. The G7 is a good option too, though. It shouldn't be too hard to match in post, though the GX85 will look a bit more like the G85.

Have you thought about the Moza Air?

I do believe it has the recording limit in the US too but it's easy to get around, if I'm not mistaken. I think it's a great option as a b-cam for the G85. The GX85 might be an option too, though it doesn't have a mic input. If you're recording audio separately though that shouldn't be a problem. The benefits are better SD card slot placement and IBIS, and sometimes having that smaller form factor is nice when shooting b-roll in public and not wanting to get too much attention.

Depending on the price I wouldn't be opposed to purchasing it again today depending on what I'm needing in a camera. I come from a very hyper budget background where I used sub $1000 Sony handy cams up until about 5 years ago. For me what's important is getting the most bang for my buck and also versatility. For me the LS300 was, and still is, an ideal camera, one that allows me to use it as a camcorder AND as a cinema camera, while giving me SDI out, a log profile, XLR inputs, ND filters, etc. While you could achieve this with other cameras, having it all in one package is incredibly convenient. And getting that package for under $2500? That's pretty impressive, especially when you consider how well JVC supported it even after it didn't make a huge splash on the market. It's not my only camera, I have a GH5 and G85, but I still see myself getting quite a few years out of it.

I'm quite fond of the LS300 and truly felt that it was an incredible bargain. Really, it still is. I'm very hopeful that they are continuing development and I hope that more people give it a chance.