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Hello everybody! Today I recorded a number of test scenes trying to cover as many of the video modes as possible (i've checked the different pictures profiles both in FF and S35 mode as well as the various 1080p speeds all the way up to 120fps). I'm gonna try to put together a video tonight (there's a lot of material!) but for now i've uploaded two clips straight off the card for you guys to check, both 4K, same scene, one is in FF mode and the other one in S35. Settings as follows: - Slog2/Sgamut (detail -7) - ISO800 (minimum iso for Slog2 on the a7rII) - WB Cloudy - Sony/Zeiss FE4/16-35 @ 24mm/f8 ps. ignore the file date, i just realised i set the camera clock two days behind!! here's the link to download the clips: http://we.tl/xNEDXe3WId First impressions are generally positive: the camera feels very well in the hand (massive improvement over the a7s design) everything went smoothly, (although the software feels just a tiny bit slower than on the a7s but it's the first revision so it still might need to be polished a bit) the camera gets quite a bit warm during 4k recording but didn't have any problems (to be honest London is quite chilly at the moment which may helps!) :-) Power consumption seems on par with the a7s, the EVF is wonderfully massive and bright, not a big fan of the new locking mode dial (you have to keep the centre button pressed to be able to turn it, i prefer the GH4 design where the dial can be left lock or unlocked) In order to record 4K video you need a UHS Speed Class 3 SD card otherwise you get a warning on the LCD. (i've used a Transcend W95/R60 64gb and it recorded perfectly) Last but certainly not least it is finally possible to assign the movie record to a custom button of your choice, REJOICE!!! :-) Thanks for reading, have a good evening everybody!

Jordan Drake tweeted, "Just got word from Panasonic, they will officially announce the GH4 V-Log L delivery date on Sept. 1! Stay tuned... #TCSTV "

You put a 30000$ camera in place to shoot lions or hyenas(or what not) at night and pray to God that an elephant or a rhino doesn't come by

I imagine NASA and Co will have their eye on this too. Very much a niche camera... Hope we are not in for another day of "Canon, lolz, no 4k in 2015 on a $30k lmao” Good on any company that takes a risk on ultra niche products.

lots of different issues in this thread. 1) does log in 8bit ruin colors? 2) does much power come with log and is it magic? 3) are wide gamuts the real problem? 4) does Kodak choosing 10bit for Cineon mean that 10bit is the least you can get away with before you see artifacts? 5) is it really all about the camera as a package and the sensor, codec, even the lens for example? 6) should we be more concerned with chroma sub-sampling? 7) is this debate incredibly boring and useless? 4) trick question, Cineon was designed to re-print a film negative, not based on digital to digital tests, it was also R',G',B'. so unfortunately i don't think it can be used as a fair comparison, even though it was how this workflow started. 7) not at all, i just wasted several minutes. i think log has the same advantages with 8bit that it does with 10bit or any other depth, even though i disagree that 8bit is not distinguishable from 10bit unless doing keys. when you combine 4:2:0 compression with 8bit you get a negative re-enforcing effect (the blocks get much larger in dark areas because they have fewer codes to use), which shows up when doing lifts in particular. but all that is slightly separate from the initial log color question, of which log is the easy part to untangle; figuring out all the other stuff is really the challenge. so in that sense i think the "other" things that affect color, such as everything in question 3 and 5, are really the problem. the thread started with 8bit log and color, but sub-sampling and bit depth came up so i thought i'd re-post this old video i did, it's exaggerated but hopefully useful. hit spacebar (pause) when the description changes.

Trying out the 100/120 fps in real life, shots I'm interested in. Trying to find weakness in the image like aliasing etc. Very impressed so far:

I think you got a bunch of kids that want to act like they know a lot --so the contrarian opinion mixed with criticism makes them feel like they're offering insight. It's a curse and blessing of being young...and, yes, stupid.

RX100 MK IV / RX10 II are best for this, hands down. Forget the interchangeable lens mount options if you need a sharp image & moire free. That's a good budget choice. Way off the RX100 IV for quality but not so far off NX1's 1080/120fps, which looks like upscaled 720p anyway.

This camera highlights why Canon have been successful and profitable. Wish I could sell a 2MP sensor for $30,000 and have it all makes sense in eyes of the customer!! There is demand for this camera and it will be lapped up by broadcast and industry. No more infrared B/W shots on Big Brother! Yes they could have sold it to consumers and enthusiasts for $2000... it's only a new sensor, with massive 19 micron pixels (A7S is around 8 micron) but most would have looked at the crappy megapixel count and then struggle to get any use out of the 4 million ISO - even the creative filmmakers we are would have only a very limited use for that! 1 scene out of every 100 kind of thing. So they have done the right thing for business and dollars...this is a specialist use camera for the industry. Is it valid to say "no internal recording and only 1080p for $30,000 - that sucks?" well the customers who will buy this camera for the set of Big Brother or an astrophysicist up in his telescope will say that isn't a valid criticism at all - they will want a live feed off the back of the camera, no need for internal recording, no need for 4K either as delivery will be in 720p or even SD...but it is valid in the sense that there must be quite a bit of margin in this camera!! And it is a shame that Canon are not so innovative in their DSLR imaging at the moment by comparison.

"Ok ,you sir, yes you the male Lion.. could you move closer to the Arri light and Esteban can you walk up and put a reflector on that crocodile. Sweet, everyone ready? Ok, "On the African River Banks at Night", Scene 5, Roll Sound, Camera, Action!... Cut!, Ok someone explain why they are all running away? and Esteban stop putting your head in the crocodiles mouth...."

Plenty of stuff to cover indeed but I'll do my best to put together a thorough and informative review guys! For now I uploaded a short unboxing video on my blog page... now I better charge the batteries and catch some sleep, tomorrow is gonna be a busy day! :-)

agolex, TheRenaissanceMan, Thank you. I didn't realize the camera would automatically pick an iso when I chose PP7. I just manually set the camera to iso 800. 3200 did seem a bit high for such a small sensor but I thought I'd ask to be sure. Now the learning curve with Davinci resolve and maybe I'll be able to make some nice videos. Thank you again.

Reviewed my stills again and you're right. Quite a few nice shots around 3200. The ones I complained about before, I've just noticed, just had fast shutter. I like the grain very much, too, looks nicely organic.

As some may know, I ordered the NX500 two days ago from the eBay seller that has the body only priced at $344. I have been itching to shoot 4K for awhile now, and at this price, I had to go into debt, and get one. Of course, now I have to sell off some lenses to pay for it. Anyway, I received the camera yesterday, which is pretty fast, even if the seller is in the same state as me. Yesterday afternoon, I only had time to open the box, and inspect the camera. Everything looked good, and new. The camera has a nice, balanced feel to it, and doesn't feel cheap... But most importantly... It just looks cool. The first "problem" I've encountered is that Samsung went the cheap route and didn't include an external battery charger... So if I decide to keep the camera, I'll have to order one, and a couple extra batteries... Good news is the batteries, and charger are cheap. So, I plugged the camera in to charge, and turned her on. Since it was a body only sale, and I don't have any NX lenses, I was only able to check out the menu, and set some preferences, until my adapters arrive... Hopefully by tomorrow. The menu is simple to navigate, and organized well. The first thing I checked is the firmware, and as I assumed, it is 1.0. From what I have read, it is a cinch to update the firmware through the camera's wifi. Once the battery is charged, I will giver her an update. I really like how they employed the FN button for on the fly changes. It's much better than some systems where you have to go deep into the bowels of the menu to make basic changes. From the FN button you can also set up, and customize your picture profiles, and they give you a lot of options for the customization... More so than the Sony or Canon cameras I have had in the past. Along with normal preset profiles like standard, and vivid, etc... you also have a few custom profiles, where you can adjust the RGB, sharpness, saturation, contrast, and hue. Without the ability to see the image, I dropped everything down to -10, except saturation. I'm sure once I get a lens on her, I will tweak them a little more to get the flattest image. But with so many customizable options, it seems like you could do a dirty and sloppy in camera "grade" for videos where you may need a quick delivery. Anyway, that's about all for now. I'll add to the post as I progress. To Be Continued

Thanks. Actually, my whole point with this paragraph was that even uncompressed 8-bit 4:4:4 log has its limits and they aren't particularly high. : )

Nice latitude. Looking forward to seeing some human faces.

Someone on another forum (I forget which) says they managed to find the 20mm pancake, 30mm pancake, and 45mm for less than $400 combined. Even as a second system, $750 total for that kit is amazing value for what you get.

right, I knew you weren't complaining at all lucky people jumping on this deal! If I had any money, I'd give it a look

If it's not your only camera, and it was such a good deal, 45mm equivalent could be really nice as your only lens on certain shoots if you like. Considering now I mostly use my 80mm equivalent, that lack of wide wide doesn't sound so bad anymore. Glad this camera is having a bit of a resurrection from when everyone was so mad about the crop at first

There's a side by side with the A7s at identical settings posted on DVXuser... http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?339027-A7Rii-In-My-Hand&p=1986564737&viewfull=1#post1986564737 The OP also has a IBIS test.

After staying up half the night (and working 13 hours yesterday) I ended up getting a used NX1 + grip + 16-50 F/2-2.8. I love my 1dc, but this will be more for casual shooting. It does things the 1dc doesn't, like: Built in EVF / touch screen / 120FPS @ 1080p / AF in video mode - even high speed AF! The gh4 doesn't even do that. My wallet wishes I'd never have watched this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DigAgYD-QY While on paper the Sony looks amazing - I pulled down a few videos for both this and the RX10 II - I just didn't care for the image on the Sony. With the small sensor it just looks to camcorder-like. Yes, I know you can get close to the subject and zoom out and get nice shallow DOF - but look at that video I just posted - that's @ 45mm. I think the REC 709 coming out of the NX1 will be just fine - I'll dial down the contrast/saturation a bit. It will be a pain transcoding the h265, but that's why we have beefy machines, right? I love how small the Rx100 IV is, but the overheating reports scare me. My original RX100 would overheat and shut off during baseball games. So did my NEX-5n and many other Sonys. While it's true for flat out detail and sharpness the new RX models are probably the best, I much prefer the look of the larger sensor NX1 so that's what I bought. I think the 1080p/120 from the NX1 looks pretty damn fantastic. Plus it will hold the AF. Think about that. I shoot my son playing travel baseball - now I can shoot slo-mo him hitting and running through all the bases - that's far too tough to pull focus on with any sort of shallow DOF with the 1dc. This 1080p120 looks far better than the 1080p60 I'm getting from the 1dc. You know that as well as I do. Don't know about you Andrew, but all the sample videos I've seen from the 1" sensor'd new Sonys look like camcorder footage. I don't want anything that sharp at 4k.

I did some tests on NX1 some time back and came up with these as the best: DR gamma, sharpness -10, contrast -5. See my post NX1 DR settings thread for examples and discussion. Given that NX500 is so similar, I'm pretty sure the same settings apply (except for DR gamma, which I believe NX500 doesn't have...yet anyway).

The more powerful the tool, the more chance people will screw it up. What it does is makes us have to sift through a lot of crap to find the gems. I doubt Steve Jobs would want a LOG profile on an Apple Camera. He'd come up with a half dozen "Insanely Brilliant" color profiles and want you to stick to them. and 99% would be happy to follow.

sure would!

TONS more coming from RX10 II in the review. RX100 IV is a separate piece but I have had to work on that for past week, time which could have been spent finishing off my RX10 II review!

Final part of the review is coming soon. Delay due to accommodating RX100 IV as well. Spoiler: I ended up preferring the small one!!

The power banks are cool. Just found a 13,200mha one in Berlin for 38 euros that charges my RX100 IV approximately 10x over. Charges it quick too... from nothing to 100% in about an hour and a half.

Andrew, could you do a comparison between RX100 MKIV/RX 10II and Nx1 ? It seems that would be a great article

GH4 + LINOS MeVis-C 35mm f1.6 C-mount lens + baby Hypergonar 1.75x + SLR Magic Rangefinder

Will the sensor is only 2 mp resulting in bigger pixels/photosites , while the A7S is 12 mp, so if Sony were to make the A7sII 8 MP for 4K capability with BSI and other enhancements it can probably reach above 1 million + ISO. And without real world results and how much noise it generates, how much DR it retains, etc.. we can not tell.

Look at the new Sony RX100IV or RX10II. $1000 and $1300. Both do 1080p120 at the same quality as normal speeds, and even go higher, up to 960fps, but with image compromises.

Or take some cool lens-less photos!

Custom sensor design is very finnicky. The image is affected even by how each element is wired to each other. There's a lot that goes into it, and that's why the Alexa costs the price it does. Sony are pretty responsive in regards to their camera divison - the big difference being that their professional camera division adds features into the already existing cameras, the consumer division simply brings out a new body. Sony will fix the issues you have with your consumer camera - but you'll need to buy a new body to get them. That's been the way even as far back as the NEX series. In my opinion, if you've worked at all with the F5/55, FS7 or F3, you won't be 'shocked' by the colours in the A7s. They're not wildly different (to any camera for that matter), so if you think the F5 has great colour, and the A7s has terrible colour, I can only gather that it's purely operator error... The A7s is slightly different looking, but it's pretty similar - and definitely has that 'Sony' colour. The F5 and the C300 look very different - if you want to compare Sony vs Canon colour, try the difference between those (both can, and do, look great though) The only time I've had issues on my A7s with colours is if the white balance is wrong (which is going to give you funky colours on any non-raw camera anyway, and is pretty easy to fix), or if skin is under-exposed it can struggle to hold up to extreme grading because of the 8-bit codec.

Zebra ring was from part of an old m42 extension tube that was repurposed to make the focus ring on the CineVision easier to rotate once in its custom made mounting collar. These smaller 8mm scopes pose a few mounting issues sometimes, but nothing that a bit of igininuaty or Redstan could remedy. Not tried Sankyoscope, but Yashica looks the closest to the CineVision in terms of design and size, so I'd expect that to deliver similar results but I have a hunch that the CineVision types have higher grade optics.

It's fun to be black and white about these things, but there's a reason high-end cinematographers require Prores HQ at an absolute minimum. Also, why's everyone bashing the BMPC? It's not great in low light, but the highlight rolloff is actually really nice. Andrew: There's a slope of diminishing returns going on. 14 bit to 16 bit is a pretty small difference, 14 bit to 12 bit is noticeable but not huge, 12 bit to 10 bit is a drop in quality but acceptable if you want efficiency, and 10-bit to 8-bit is absolutely huge. If these distinctions didn't matter at all, why would professional cameras offer 12-16 bit recording? If they could get the same results with less back end, don't you think they would? How can you argue against the importance of color depth when you just spent an entire article railing against a 4:2:0 camera for not matching up against the colors of your 8-bit 4:2:2 camera? How can you argue against the importance of bit depth when you spend so much time talking about LOG profiles, which are designed for the sole purpose of imitating the same tonal precision as larger-bit footage in a smaller container? I'm not denying you your point of view. If you think 8-bit is awesome, okay. But it's important for a reviewer with your level of clout to be clear about their priorities and thought process, as that informs all your conclusions. Sometimes it feels like you've changed your mind about fundamental things without telling anyone, which makes your thought process as a critic a little inconsistent and tough to follow. Sorry if this comes across as rude or over-critical, because I don't mean to be. I've written as a film critic for a few years and I know it can be a struggle to get people on board with your train of thought. But there's an important difference between "10-bit doesn't matter" and "10-bit is nice, but I don't think we need it. Here's why." Just a matter of clarity. Cheers.

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.

Awesome! Rolling shutter test, rolling shutter test, rolling shutter test... EDIT: Moire and aliasing too. Thanks!

I will be refreshing your website frequently!

Awesome! Here's to hoping it blows us all away!

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

It fits over anything provided you have the means to attach it. No idea what the thread is on those. You will probably have to clamp it like I did with the Kowa. It's no fuss.

I know Monet, this is not Monet. And I have lived in Berlin, and it's an okay city but you don't become an artist because you move there. It's full of angry poor young people complaining about newcomers stealing their jobs. It's confusing me when you're putting pretentious prose and soft generic music in a test video for a lens and calling it filmmaking. There's no balls here, just filming people without them knowing usually from a distance. (Insert ironic smiley here to deflate any hurt feelings)

It is so stunning that these old pieces of glass can still deliver so well. Remeber they were built nearly 60 years ago!!! The DV crap from Panasonic, Optex, Century is no match for most of them. The fact that 2x stretch is so rare depends on the low resolution of 8mm. There is also too much grain and that distorts as well. Therefore the Hypergonar was not good for 8mm: I never saw acceptable film with it.

The problem is you're just an "arm chair" you fill in the blank......... I've shot countless projects on all cameras and the A7s is no different, people worried about this or that and don't even work anywhere remotely close to any kind of industry..... Canon colors are fine, just like Sony, just like Red, just like etc. I truly wish this forum concentrated more on peoples work instead He Say / She Say bullshit posts........

I agree. The quote that 4k should be soft is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard. 4K is four times the resolution of HD, what makes anyone think that should look soft? I think Reid's losing it, or more to the truth, he's trying to defend his 1DC, which is ridiculous.

After using the GH4 and NX1 I have no desire for a DSLR with OVF for shooting 4K video.

I'm shooting as we speak No need for a changing bag on the K3, daylight spools only.

yes. If its a "real" conversion they recenter the lens as well. But most K3 shooters are happy with just the filed gate. The included zoom covers from 27mm and up. On the m42 one can use a Zenitar 16mm or Peleng 8mm with full coverage. On http://www.k3camera.com/ there are instructions on how to do it. Also one can buy the gate only on eBay.

Awesome. I actually just got a C100 Mark II partly b/c of the Dual Pixel AF. I needed a camera that was "pick-up-and-go" with a good image for about half of the jobs that I do. The Dual Pixel AF is unbelievable! Good to see Magic Lantern working hand-in-hand with it.

  The AF is wonderful. Image isn't far off C100 Mark II at ISO 400 either, but raw baby!