All Activity

There is nothing wrong with Braw, one bit! however EVERY single edit house we ship footage to only accepts Prores LT or ProRes, so it would have to be a transcode, which if you have time is not an issue (but then why shoot raw and not use any of it's advantages) but in very quick turn around situations when you have to hand off a drive, Braw is not possible! These are challenges where you are part of a much bigger production, but if you are a solo shooter and cut your own work, then it's absolutely not an issue!

Have the older Xiaomi 13 Ultra for almost 2 years. Same sensors and lenses except 75mm telephoto one is 62mm in reality. My idea was to use it as a pocket video / cinema camera that is all the time with me. And also as my main and only camera on some trips where I don't want to bring additional photo / video equipment. Still use it from time to time but not as much as thought would be using it. It has many limitations that make getting good footage difficult and ruin as a whole the joy to shoot. Maybe as a photo camera it would be better The good: Picture and video quality from main sensor is really good. Can be treated as BM BRAW video in Resolve. Can easily color grade it and get great results. Really impressive picture quality from a smartphone and tiny camera that is always in my pocket Main 1 inch sensor (23mm) lens is good in low light All 4 sensors/lenses are capable of shooting RAW video at 4K 24fps, 30fps and 60fps As you said, those smartphones have standard case that makes attaching ND filters really easy. I use 67mm magnetic ND filters and they work like a charm. The not so good or the shortcomings and limitations Lens optical IS should be working in MotionCam but in practice I can't get stable handled footage by just using the phone with a simple plastic case for the filters. Gimbal or special metal case with two handles are needed which totally kills the idea of pocket cinema camera for me. This was not the case with iPhone which I could use and get stable handheld footage by simply holding it and even when walking with no additional support. Main sensor is good in low light but the other (three) 1/2'' inch sensors are not. Multiple dot like flares when shooting at night. This is common problem with all smartphones including iPhone. Because of the lenses being so small at night when there are multiple light sources on some occasions you can get multiple small bright dots dancing in your frame. It can completely ruin the footage. Limited lens focal lengths. My preferred focal length for video are 35mm and 50mm. Xiaomi best sensor is on the 23mm lens. MotionCam can't crop the sensor. It can't even properly frame to 35mm or any given focal length other than native one. Can zoom in the screen which is also the viewfinder but there is no indicators to which focal length it corresponds. Video still will be shot at 23mm and I have to crop in post to get 35mm or 28mm eqv. focal length field of view Bad ergonomics. Yes I can get the shots but there is no joy in the process. While picture quality is impressive for a smartphone it can't match a Full Frame sensor or even APS-C sensor. As you said it can't bend the law of physics I need to look from time to time trough a viewfinder. Old habit and addiction that I can't overcome. 🙂 Bottom line: I still prefer a hybrid camera and a lens and I don't use much Xiaomi 13 Ultra as camera. Watched a video about street photography where the author argued that having a tilting screen and shooting from waist level is the best if we want to take stealth photos where people don't stare at the camera. We can even keep interacting and talking with the people while shooting. This would be impossible with a smartphone. Anyway this is my experience, hope it will work better for you.

Fortunately, I am a big Wes fan!

Yeah, every time I think about how you might be composing for both horizontal and vertical I just imagine you turn into Wes Anderson and frame everything centred. There are probably other ways to go about it, but I'm glad it's not something I have to work through!

2025 model is arriving... this April 22. Updated X series version. A few people say it is the last one of this design. Both their teaser and this beta tester hint that we'll have an interchangeable/swappable lens camera this time...

Same here. 16:9 is very device friendly for full screen use but isn’t as *cough* cinematic as 2.35:1, but I find that sometimes too extreme to be standard ‘style’ for all my work. I’m still debating whether to use 2:1 this year or stick with good old 16:9… The advantage of shooting open gate is we have options and with Lumix, multiple frame markers and conscious of my socials, one of those markers is 9:16. Being able to produce 2.35:1 and 9:16 from the same footage is a bit tricky, even with open gate and I will probably just stick with 16:9 + 9:16 as it’s the least extreme option. Well 1:1 is the least extreme, but no thanks as that’s for squares.

The beauty is that you can shoot whatever resolution without crop. I would never shoot above 4k. But the 12k sure does have pretty colors.

In all seriousness though, now that everything is devices and standards don't matter anymore, it's worth taking a few images and cropping them to different aspect ratios and seeing how the images feel. I've become very fond of 2:1 lately. Wider than 16:9 or 17:9, but not so wide that normal-sized screens force the subjects in the frame to be too small, as can happen with 2:35:1

The only video one needs on aspect ratios:

You'd be mad not to wait for the 17K version. I mean, is 12K enough? Really?

Well... oh clients, other professionals in the same business/craft? ; ) @CaptainHook (https://www.eoshd.com/comments/profile/34137-captainhook/) is not here anymore, maybe this helps without such need for a call ;- ) https://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?p=620814&sid=6daba22ef40403a68f15e835f55d4556#p620814 Anyway TBH, hard to tell how anyone can be indifferent to Resolve nowadays...

Maybe he can give the clients your phone number and you can explain it to them? 😉

What's wrong with braw?! : ) 'cause your fav NLE doesn't support it yet? Otherwise, it's beyond me, like to say I need two domestic partners because to stay with just one of them is to end too limited... LOL :- ) Apples to oranges to my view IMHO.

EF, yes. Loads of EF options. The pyxis needs an extra monitor the c500ii does not. The limitation of only braw is also a dealbreaker. I hope they will include a different codec soon. As lots of clients dont accept braw.

I understand. It's going to take some time for this. If they actually start taking away food stamps, financial aid, medicaid, and other help. Then it'll become "real" for them- sadly.

Will you be OK with only using lenses that mount to EF or PL mount? And would an integrated flip-out screen be a selling point?

In the same boat. Lens Rentals has C500mk2s for sale around $4700. Love its image, I think the pyxis 12K LF has it slightly beat in dynamic range and detail…but I can’t help thinking the C500 is better value. I’m invested in canon with 2 R5Cs that I love so I’ll probably go the C500 route to not be limited by just braw.

Anecdotally, I'm not experiencing it getting better in my neck of the woods.

Let us know how it goes. I have the 12 and find using it for video is too fiddly for me to enjoy it. I've captured great shots with it, but not without effort.

Hi, I really like the pyxis 12K LF. But... now with the price drop on the C500II they are almost in the same ballpark pricewise. And I am not sure why I would pick the pyxis over the c5OOii. C500II: Ibis, monitor, AF(allthough blackmagic is catching up), internal ND's. pyxis 12K lf. It's newer. Might be easier to mount on a gimbal. Have not seen any image comparisons. I love the IQ from both camera's, but have not seen any side by side by these 2 camera's. Any other input? Thanks!

Apologies for the delayed reply. I think it depends how you want to expose. In low light situations, similar to the ones you describe, I find that at least a part of the subject is usually decently well lit. In the example of camping headlights a nearby subject (person, tree, what-have-you) would be illuminated - you can expose fairly normally for it, but everything else (background, distant subjects) will fall off into shadow. And the shadow area will be nicely controlled, not noisy. That looks nice to me on video. The problems come when people want to 'see in the dark', and treat a night time scene a little more like a daytime scene. If you raise distant subjects or background info up, either using exposure or in post, you can run into problems with noise and unnatural colours. Also, to me, the whole scene starts to look 'off' as the viewers mind starts to reject the unnatural light levels being portrayed. If you want the former exposure effect, rather than the latter, I think the C70 is the better option. If you want the latter effect then the C80 is definitely going to win. Funny enough it was head torch only footage that sold me on the C70 in the first place.

I have one on the way after looking at the image samples here: https://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_14_ultra-review-2683p5.php The 75mm F1.8 lens in particular... Like some of the famous Zeiss Distagons it has a floating element to get close. With such a fast aperture in combination with the close-focussing abilities make it look incredible. The 14 Ultra in fact has two such lenses, a 75mm and 120mm. And the main imager is 1" Which also in the close-to-mid focus range has a very shallow DOF. I have lighted tweaked that last one in Pixelmator Pro, the JPEGs have a surprising amount of chonkiness to play with. Then there's the RAW capabilities... With Motion Cam Pro there's the RAW Cinema DNG recording. Within Xiaomi's own camera app is the expert RAW mode for stills, with Leica's colour tuning. This allows you to completely turn off any noise reduction and sharpening... one of the main caveats of modern smartphones. I think at £600 used this is the real deal. The 15 Ultra doesn't change things very much, indeed to go any better would require a big leap. We're talking at least Micro Four Thirds size sensor instead of 1", and F1.4 maximum aperture. And to make this pocketable is going to require a lot of physics bending. There are some other options like the Oppo Find 7 Ultra, and Vivo X100 Pro which have a large 1/1.4" sensor on the telephoto lens, 200MP. But the lens quality itself is a bit compromised as a result. The Vivo X100 Pro has the Zeiss modes, Zeiss lens simulations, even RAW video built into the main camera app I believe. But I find Xiaomi's image processing with Leica to be the best of the bunch. Looking forward to when it turns up from CEX this weekend with the photography kit which gives it ability to use filters and a proper shutter release button! I think for street photography requiring stealth, 3 lenses in one pocket and very high speed, this is a better choice than a proper camera, X100 VI or Leica Q. The ultimate shot getter?

TikTarrif

Yes but I mean rather than selling to buy, you have already bought so just sell, same as with shares etc, ie, buy when low and sell when high. The only thing in this situation is only a few knew and in the future, will know exactly when that time is.

Powershot V1 in China have hiked up the price to $1099 from RRP of $820.. crazy!