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As an a7s owner, with all due respect, I can say that you are wrong. There is huge difference between s-log2 and raw. Both color and image density are significantly worse with s-log2 compared to the raw stills. Also, a7s externally recorded 4k downscaled to 1080p is easily more gradable than the in-camera 1080p. good examples here: http://blog.inventome.com/Blog/2015/2/a7s4Ktests/Sony-a7s-Exposure-and-Noise-Workflow-with-UHD-and-Odyssey-7Q-Plus Sensor, noise, processing, etc surely matter a lot but downplaying the importance of the available tonal precision is pointless. Yes, you can have badly quantized and processed data encoded in 10 bits, and it will still be crap. And you can have well sampled, quantized and processed data encoded in 8 bits. And it will STILL be bad if the curve is too flat for the available space. Ideally, one needs well processed data in at least 9-10 bits for log encodings with extensive DR. It is no coincidence that the father of all log curves Cineon log is 10-bit. Back then nothing was taken for granted, nor there was any prejudice about 8 bits, so this was extensively researched by Kodak. They concluded that 9 bits are likely enough but went for 10, since 10 fits better with computers; plus, a little bit of redundancy doesn't hurt. And lets not forget chroma subsampling. After all 4:2:2 is twice the chroma info contained in 4:2:0, and 4:4:4 is four times the chroma info contained in 4:2:0. So not all 8-bit is created equal. In general, wider color gamuts do help grading by having better color separation, but there is no point having a wide camera gamut if there isn't the color precision to encode it properly as is the case with S-Gamut and s-log2 in the a7s. Note that many digital cameras have native color gamuts wider than film leading to color precision smaller than scanned film when encoded with the same bitdepth.

Hi Julian... Thanks for the response. After a close family friend passed away years ago I arranged for the sale of his old Arriflex II-C camera, His Iscorama lens was given to me by his niece as a "thank you". I've used it for years, shooting slides, then shelved it when I "went digital". Several years ago I stumbled across the EOSHD website and it rekindled my interest in using it for digital work. It's only fairly recently that I've played around with it with the idea of adapting it for close-up shooting. I'm still not fully up to speed with it when working at close distances. The very shallow DOF at high magnifications is a problem, and working with mongrel supplementary lenses scavenged from junk lenses is "iffy" at times. There's a tremendous amount of variability in image quality when I mount add-on lenses on the Isco, depending upon which primary lens I'm using. Through quite a bit of testing I've created separate sets of supplementary lenses to work with the Isco when mounted on specific primary lenses. A few of my add-on lenses do vignette a bit, which is cropped away preserving the normal decompressed aspect ratio. I haven't run any focus / compression tests at anything closer than about three feet, but feel as you do, that if I leave the Isco at infinity there probably won't be a shift in the amount of "squeeze". Here are a few sample images, all taken using an old Nikkor-H 85mm f/1.8... stopped down to f/16 or f/22, with a variety of supplemental lenses. The 85 and the Iscorama both have their focusing ring "locked" at infinity with wide rubber bands, focusing is achieved by moving the camera. Lighting is from either the pop-up flash, or a small speedlight bounced off foil covered cards or shot through a home-made bowl diffuser. Forget-me-nots, 85mm Nikkor-H, Iscorama, objective from a junk Soligor 450mm reverse mounted on the Isco. Orb weaver leg regeneration, Nikkor-H 85mm, Iscorama, Soligor 450mm objective. I really like the bokeh here (out of focus evergreen branches). Web repair, 85mm with Iscorama, Soligor 450mm objective reversed on the Isco, with a Soligor 90-230mm zoom lens objective reversed on the 450mm. Bee, Nikkor-H 85mm, Iscoama, with a Soligor 90-230mm objective reversed on the Isco, and a Panagor 85-205mm objective reversed on the Soligor. Freshly moulted Funnel Weaver, Nikkor-H 85mm, Iscorama, with the objective from a Vivitar 28-210mm zoom lens reversed on the Isco. Tiny fly, Nikkor-H 85mm, Iscorama, and the objective from the Vivitar 28-210 reversed on the Isco. Baby funnel weaver with a fruit fly, Nikkor-H 85mm, Iscorama, and a Raynox MSN-202 close up lens on the Isco. This add-on lens is mounted on an adapter ring that fits the Isco, not in the "snap-on" adapter supplied by Raynox. The results I've been getting with the Iscorama are very encouraging. It's been great for general photography, but seems to work well up close too. Shooting anamorphic macro images is great... but there are a huge amount of "throw-aways"... more than with using a macro lens without the Iscorama. Shooting extreme close-ups with the Isco is probably "pushing the envelope" a bit, but I'm getting enough decent images to keep me at it. I've been asked why I'm "wasting my time" with the old isco, and been advised that shooting wide angle and cropping might be easier. Having done that years ago... there's no comparison. I just like the look and feel of the anamorphic images better.

I for one am keeping the RX10 II, it's a really impressive compact package.

The canon has better colours argument is a myth. It's simply that people haven't become accustomed to how to set their sony cameras up properly. If i take an auto white balance picture as a jpeg out of the A7R and compare it to a jpeg from a 5dmk3 the 5d looks nicer. But if i process the image, the a7r image smokes the 5dmk3 image. With careful adjustment of the wb - temperature + the cyan/magenta etc adjustment a sony can be made to look like a canon and vice versa.

Song 'Her' from the EP collection 'The Mud Here Has Memories' by Bunny Suit. Copyright owned by Universal Music Publishing. Filmed by Andrew Reid.  Featuring guest vocals from Aurora Aksnes. Poster frame shows close-up resolving power of the LX100 at 11mm F1.7 in 4K mode. The first retro-styled camera from Panasonic is the first ever compact to shoot 4K video from a large sensor. The first compact that I would call "exceptional" in almost every respect. Read the full article here

Thinking about the smaller version of the Rangefinder... You can call me crazy but... i was thinking that it could be useful for BMPCC users to use it with Nikon 1 lenses (especially the wide zoom 6,7-13mm). Would it be possible?

Full frame vs APS-C mode. High ISO. Rolling shutter. Color rendering in all available color matrices. Resolution. Over/under exposure test. See how the sensor/codec responds to bringing up underexposed footage and bringing down overexposed footage. Highlight/shadow rolloff. See how the camera renders a normally exposed scene with one or two very dark shadows and another with one or two bright highlights.

Okay, I received my NX500 today. It was not made of chocolate, or anything. I don't have a lens for it, so I will not be able to test it out until my adapters arrive, but it looks new and although the box was opened to remove the lens, it was resealed with a professional looking sticker. I will have time to charge it and mess with the menu tomorrow morning.

I'm excited about using them. It's going to feel quite liberating to use a bunch of these with the Lupolux lights, which are able to output 1000w/650w equivalent from a 50w draw. Battery powered. When you're in a small crew, it can get very draining on a shoot having to setup somewhat infinite reels of cables that turn into endless spiderwebs of chaos. To be able to pick up the light, move, assess then shoot will be awesome for productivity and creativity. Go anywhere, light almost anything. Anytime.

This is all very cool, but if it has a rotating front element it means that it almost demands a matte box, but the second you place it within the matte box you can't reach the focus ring gears, right?

I've just picked up an early shipment of the camera here in London! I'll do a field test and an evolving review over the next few days on my blog if anybody's interested! :-) http://www.drlapse.com/?p=398

Nick, I probably can't offer any more of a detailed review that Billy right now, but I will say that I love the light. It's like having a mini Arri 650. It's a pretty narrow throw but can get pretty bright at the highest setting (obviously not like 650w, but pretty bright.) Solidly built. The mini gels with magnets are cool. I think I'll mainly be using it as a kick light, and as a practical light reinforcement.

Here is a link to the article, it's mentioned under Dynamic Range. https://***URL not allowed***/lab-review-sony-a5100-video-dynamic-range-power/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=lab-review-sony-a5100-video-dynamic-range-power

I'm thinking about buying one as well from there. Hope everything works out.

My experience was from a Lacie failure and moving to the Hitachi enterprise drives in the G Techs. Here is a sampling of reviews from Apple online store. As an external storage device it does the job it is supposed to. It is relatively quiet but if you are doing any recording that n … More(Read full review) Written by Michael H from New York Mar 21, 201523 of 26 people found this useful Was this useful?External DriveYes NoDefective, right out of the box1.0out of 5starsPlugged into my iMac 5K and the lousy drive made my Mac reboot continuously. I asked for any other drive besides LaCie and was ass …More(Read full review) Written by Carleton J from OTTAWA Mar 14, 201518 of 26 people found this useful Was this useful?Defective, right out of the boxYes NoDon't mistake this for an enterprise grade device2.0out of 5starsBogus power supply within six months (which is a VERY common complaint if you search the Web). The service department responded qu … More(Rea Bob

Doug Jensen has a series of training videos for the FS7 and a number of well done videos using the camera... he has gone F3 F800 F55 FS7 and now shoots mainly with the F55 but uses the FS7. His setup videos help nail color and exposure for pro shooters. Worth the price if you go FS7 ... and you have the option for RAW out of that camera in the future with the CD Odyssey 7Q+. Thunderbolt 2 Drive .... would caution against Lacie as they have had terrible failure rates. The G Tech uses Enterprise class drives in its best RAID configurations ... highly recommended and at not a huge premium in price. Bob

Thanks for the heads up. I did this with my previous model That said, I get a 17% discount on the iMac.

I read on PV that the NX500 does not have focus peaking a in 4k mode - does anyone know if that is that still the case? Does anyone know what is is the native luma range is (as Andrew said there is no setting option?) Does anyone know if the NX500's HDMI outputs a signal when recording 4k and if so is what the resolution is and if it is clean? Thanks!

I have FedEx confirmation that my shipment is on it's way.

9 days straight? Not enough time. You prove my point. A guy who spends 9 days on something and decides to disregard it because he can't get good results. There are so many people with this mentality. they go straight for s-log or another picture profile without understanding how to get the best from them. other than subjectivity, please tell me what's wrong with the colours here? I see nothing wrong with them at all, and I did little to the picture in post

Transcend SDXC UHS-I U3 64GB (95 MB/s Read, 60MB/s Write) e.g.

owning gear is good if you want to shoot your own stuff and to play with a camera and figure out its quirks - it can be good - that's how I did it. I still use gear on tons of jobs - mostly the monitors and support and all that. The actual camera and lenses at a certain point you can just rent. But it's really good to know the fundementals of it all, and saves you money when you want to go out and make a film or let your friends make a film. Rental houses will cut you a deal on your small stuff, but well I didn't go that route. But with that said, it's an expensive, endless game - owning gear. Stuff is always breaking. Insurance costs. It's a lot of work. I enjoy it, but I feel that it keeps me from also thinking about more important things like this script I am procrastinating on or learning lighting.

Well, if you had waited more than a couple days, I would have my paycheck, and I would have bought it out from under you But there's no use in getting a 2nd B&H unit until I know I can do the mod on the 1st one. As soon as I get that paycheck I'll be ordering a helicoid of eBay (add a couple weeks for shipment from China) and I should be ready to startmodding in mid August. I'll definitely post back to the forum with the results!

damn, man! you forced my hand! I had an eye in that for a while, thinking if I would go deep into that mod project, and now I had to get it. hahaha. Well, I'm gonna be following your steps pretty close, please keep me updated on your findings, will you?

I don't like the camera much (body design and control, no possibility for speed booster), I really prefer the G7 as a camera, but for $350... I can't argue

Log is a compromise of normal 8 bit color for better dynamic range. You can lose some detail because you are recording colors with less disparity and gradient information between two objects. Plus, it takes a lot of knowledge, effort, and experience to grade 8 bit color because any small adjustment in post can and probably will clip a some color information in some parts of the image. Then you have to start manipulating individual colors rather than doing a white balance adjustment, which will never look as good as white balanced raw image. Avoid using log when possible by improving your lighting. When you really need the dynamic range and you want to sacrifice some detail, you can use log.

Good point but the GH4 seems pretty rock solid, so it reflects badly on Canon if they are not able to do something similar. Heck my LX100 is limited by Panasonic to 15 minutes due to overheat concerns, but at least I have never had an issue shooting for 15 minutes straight, and I usually stop after a few minutes, start up again etc many times. I can handle a birthday party just fine with that camera even

Ronin m is too expensive for me. And I preferred a one handed gimbal :'(

I posted this in my other thread, but it's kind of hidden and not everyone would think of looking there. I've spent the past few weeks working on reviewing the Rectilux 3FF-W, paired with a Kowa B&H inside. Taking lenses are Contax Zeiss and an old Nikon which I regret picking up. Camera is the Canon 5D3, shooting RAW everytime. There are charts, flares, vignetting and a real world test there. Check the video and a written review at http://www.tferradans.com/blog/?p=7742 Subscribe to my channel (http://youtube.com/tferradans) for upcoming reviews and anamorphic content!

Nice one! Totally agree about stopping down Anamorphic to get anything properly sharp with a manageable DOF. Because it is effectively a variable diopter, the defocus effects are going to be plenty when stopped down to f4 - f5.6. It's fun to open up wide to get the dreamy look, but when you actually need to shoot anything remotely narrative in nature and follow and actor or action, that razor thin focus plain quickly becomes ridiculous. I think all the footage I've seen so far is from GH4...pretty please could someone post full frame footage, preferably 4:3 1600x1200 5D3 ML Raw? Just would like to see what may be lurking on the extreme edges, and if all major artifacts are indeed cleared up at f4 - f5.6. Nice to see a logical & versatile design that can also be easily used for spherical lenses. That makes it well worth the money from what I can see so far.

16-50 is about 650gr, 50-150 is 950. Body is about 600gr. Specs say 'up to 1.2kg...

Not RX10mII, but RX100mkIV instead, here are some clips I recorded this weekend. SLOG2, 24/120/240fps, mostly 1080 but a couple 4k clips downscaled Also, haven't had any overheating issues with mine as of yet, though I rarely ever get close to five minute clips.

Vs the NX1, no mic socket, no headphone jack, crop in 4K, no 1080/120fps (only at 720p), time limit 15min in 4K, no gamma DR, no luma range setting or black level, but yes it is cheap though for such an amazing image and crop you can get used to. Stills quality also unbeatable for the price. I've shot a shootout between the two and it is coming soon in final part of my NX500 review which I decided to resurrect because I rather like the cam for the price. Decided to keep it even though I had the NX1 as it goes in a jacket pocket with a pancake 30mm F2.

With LOG comes great power and it is down to the user how good ends up looking. There's a lot of terrible looking LOG footage out there due to the individual grade rather than any codec weakness and I don't think 10bit ProRes LOG from the Blackmagic Cameras looks significantly different or better to 8bit LOG. 10bit is overrated for everything aside from keying. I have graded 10bit from the GH4 to Shogun and didn't see an advantage in the grade even when pushing it to extremes to see what was lurking in the murky depths!! In my view, it doesn't suddenly benefit skin tones. That is more down to the sensor and image processor than 8bit vs 10bit. Take for example 14bit raw as one extreme in terms of colour / bit depth... only way you can go more extreme on the specs than that is 16bit on the Sony F65! To make use of 10bit let alone 14bit and 16bit the sensor has to deliver an extremely wide dynamic range AS WELL AS a massive colour gamut. Now, we already have experience of 14bit with Magic Lantern raw. Is it significantly better than 10bit raw from a Blackmagic in terms of codec or grading flexibility? No. The sensor makes more difference. The sensor in the 5D Mark III is very good, very clean, wide colour gamut. The one in the BMPC is noisy and has a harsh run off into the highlights. Great codec, yes, but 10bit vs 14bit with that same sensor performance would have made very little difference. Now we have a shining example of how good 8bit LOG can look for colour... he is called Mr Canon 1D C. You saw how it compared to the NX1 which I previously sung the praises of for being actually very very nice indeed at capturing vivid, rich, satisfying rec.709 colour. What LOG does for a camera, regardless of 8bit vs 10bit, is quite frankly magic and should be highly regarded. There's 'light LOG' like on the 1D C by the way, which doesn't go as flat as S-LOG and doesn't dramatically change colour, leaving it very saturated. I think S-LOG does go to extremes in terms of dynamic range... but it is not 8bit which causes the weirder colour vs the 1D C is it? Because they are both 8bit codecs! A7S owners, indeed RX10 II, RX100 IV owners can do an experiment. Shoot 4K 8bit LOG video. Shoot a raw still. Grade to match. Compare. Difference will be smaller than you think!

Not to mention that most people are not only unwilling to learn grading, but downright offended when you suggest that maybe their grade is the problem. A problem that affects 80% of us--not being colorists--is impossible to acknowledge without pissing people off. Isn't that insane? Some flat/log profiles, like C-Log (faux-log designed for 8-bit), Nikon's FLAT profile (not true log), and V-LOG L (I don't really know why) respond perfectly to nothing but an S-curve in post, but they're by far the minority cases and you're still thinning out your skin tones. People realized a while back that 10-bit ProRes (Blackmagic) and 12/14 bit RAW (Blackmagic and ML) held the key to great image quality, then 75% of us promptly forgot the second 4K hit the affordable market. The other 25% are blessed with an amazing gift: the power to remember things!

There's a whole world of clients out there that don't know the first thing about cameras. On rare occasions, there will be someone involved who's played with DSLRs for video and asks tons of questions. Maybe people shooting national TV spots get into these issues, but for small corporations, startups, entrepreneurs doing web marketing, email blasts, Facebook video campaigns and internal communications/training - they pretty much want to see your reel or examples of stuff that is in line with what I'm proposing or what they envision. If an agency I work with gets the gig, I don't even show a thing - the end client trusts the agency. That said - if I shoot with a kitted-out DSLR - matte box, follow focus, rails, monitor, loupe, a big geared prime or zoom and an audio recorder - it does look pretty cool on the tripod. Now the total costs of all that may be well under $2k, but I've had clients squeeze through a tight set in terror of bumping the camera and, literally, they've said "I bet that cost more than my house!" It doesn't hurt for a client to perceive that you're using very high-end gear. But you could be shooting a national TV spot for Revlon and tests showed the BMC pocket with a super-16 lens from the 70's gives the exact look, and the director wouldn't blink an eye - whereas one of my clients would be "hey, you just stuck a lens on a iPhone, right??" For the size of clients I mention above (and in a big city, you can make a good living at that level) setting up an $800 Kessler crane makes them feel like they're getting a lot of bang for their buck. Don't disregard this sort of perception from people without knowledge of the tech side, who are writing the checks.

Their label might. I've worked with a band now on 5 videos for LEGO. The first one, LEGO requested a RED ONE MX to be used, back in 2012. Last year I asked if we could use GH4's and Blackmagic Pocket cameras to keep the profile lower and to use gimbals etc. They agreed and it helped free up money for other areas like costumes. When I look back I can totally see a better looking image with the RED but no one even notices, especially the kids who watch those videos. Hell, LEGO didn't even comment on the image quality of the GH4's/BMPCCs. If I had to guess I'd say clients can sometimes be nervous about how everything is going to look and some of them know the name RED. They'll mention it as an option to help free up some uncertainty. It can be a pain in the ass but it's just how it goes I'm afraid. So, as a business decision, I personally wouldn't buy a camera that expensive. I would just rent.

You're talking about wedding videos here. That's meant for a very select audience and hardly a grand production you would whip out a RED for or something. I have no idea why you bring that up in this topic. How about we don't stray from the matter at hand here? Just to set straight what it is we're discussing here: He's talking about music video production and corporate stuff (advertising). Now, someone wants a music video or ad shot... guess what? Chances are it's not their first. What ever happened to the last guys? Maybe those are too busy or something. Could be. But might well be that the client wants to up their game by selecting a production company to up it for them. And having some previous experience, they will tell the difference between a camcorder and a rigged up cinema camera, especially when the name 'RED' is involved. They probably have their own ideas in mind, with a creative marketing team. They just need someone to get their thoughts and run with it and turn it into an actual quality production. Knowing that you're good is one thing. Knowing you shoot on a RED is a dealsealer.

it sounds like you everything really wired over there...nice! the only thing I can add from here and watching the colorists and dps work..is that everyone really likes kodak film here..it's like how the human eye sees things.....very passionate and successful professionals .. good luck to you again...

The first Epic footage I shot had some right dodgy stuff going in the blacks. I put it down to user error, but I was surprised at how very very careful you have to be with it. Just like that Chinese website www.pchood.com that rehouses lenses so they look more expensive. I might just get an URSA Mini and stick a RED badge over the BM logo and say its a Limited Edition version: RED Magic Dragon. Ha!

Someone needs to make a RED shell that houses other cameras. Most clients wouldnt know the difference but would be STOKED.

The kind of client that would ask specifically for RED would also probably scoff at a Scarlet, even though the Scarlet dragon looks the business. You also have to consider the OLPF situation, the skintone OLPF is pretty shocking in low light (even 1600).. As you always light your work, that might not be a concern.

I'm glad to hear it! It would be interesting to see how a "Shot On Red" tag would work to attract more clients. A lot of people are drawn to it. Many clients do ask if they can shoot on RED, but those clients are usually a pain to work with. If someone mentions the camera before the ideas, I roll my eyes. I've done Epic work before so I know the workflow etc. Purchasing this camera would take up all my budget and with the URSA Mini on the horizon, it seems hard to justify. Like I said, it would be interesting to see the behaviours if I sold my services with a RED stamp on it.

​Yes you need the U3 card for the 100Mbit/s bit rate settings. These are cheap on Amazon, nothing special thankfully. The RX100 M4 will only go to 5 minutes continuous for 4K before it has to stop and cool down. If you try and make it go again straight away you will only get another 2 minutes before it stops again. And from then on it may shut down altogether. This is a heat limit of the little compact, it does get very hot, poor thing. The RX10M2 doesn't have the same restriction so if you plan to do long interviews, YouTube selfies or live event filming you know which to choose.

Wth. It's terrible in 2015 that they still have issues with heat. Hmmm ... Ebrahim Saadawi writes some of the best posts in these forums. And no arrogance or rude behavior. It's always a pleasure to read his posts.

Cool pack! Hard to keep all of the names straight, haha. After testing each once, I think I like 9270 best. Only tested on C100 so far.

​-No overheating -No record limit -A larger library of smaller, lighter lenses -Longer battery life -10-bit recording -Faster AF -Faster burst rate -Larger buffer -Fully articulating screen I may be missing something. Still, that's a compelling enough list for some to stay with Panasonic. I'd stick with them for the next product iteration if the GH5 has internal 10-bit and V-Log L.

alpha4k ;-)

Thanks for the awesome information as always, Andrew. I do wholeheartedly disagree that the GH5 needs to be Super 35, though. Panasonic should stick to their guns and their strengths of a small hybrid with incredible video controls, features (like anamorphic mode that nobody else currently offers) and reliability. The smaller sensor and its better heat dissipation allows best-in-class battery life and limitless recording time which are paramount features for someone who uses the GH4 for their business like me. The GH line has matured beautifully over the years and I don't think "bigger is better" on the sensor front. I would say a Super 35 sensor (or m43 sensor with 8 or 12mp) would make sense in an AF100 successor though. Don't get me wrong, I'd love better lowlight capability and more DOF options in my GH camera, but not at the sacrifice of the aforementioned positives. This new Sony is a beast, no doubt, but it's probably still going to be quirky in places. However, I'm really watching Sony's progress with interest because on this trajectory the A7s II will probably be impossible to resist adding to the arsenal.