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In part 1 of the Sony A7R II review we will look at the A7R II not as a consumer camera but as a professional cinema camera. The benchmark for this camera is going to be the Canon 1D C. Read the full article

The sad part is nobody seems to be truly objective anymore, you can spin things any way you want. Canon (especially the hallowed, beyond-any-reproach-of-any-kind 1Dc) can have any number of flaws, but you can always take refuge with two words: "color science" (whatever that is). And be sure to ignore what you can do in post, it don't matter. Kind of like the $8K Leica M Monochrom buyer ignoring all objective comparisons and calling it worth the price because it's just "magical" (whatever that is). And it's not just with cameras. Last night we had a Republican debates with 10 candidates, want to know who the winner was? Any of them, depends on who you ask. Heck, we don't know anything for sure anymore, from if there is a multiverse to if OJ was guilty to if a7RII or NX1 can render color as well as 1Dc. Reminds me of what Jack Nicholsen tells Diane Keaton in Something's Gotta Give: "I've never lied to you. I've always told you some version of the truth."

Just received the RX100IV today and I'm dang excited to create some things with it. I had the mark 1 and despite its limitations, had lots of fun shooting with it. I created a 15 second instagram video at work today just as a means to try out the 4K mode. I was in a hot warehouse in Texas right next to an open door. After 1 take, it began to display the overheat symbol. After two takes, it told me to let the camera cool and shut off. Switching to 1080p mode and I was just fine. This is by no means an A Camera, but I do think it is an absolutely incredible creative tool. Its so versatile! The 4K is sharp and clean, and the image grades well. This particular short was shot in Picture Profile 4 and graded with film convert to add a lot of punch. I'll continue to share my thoughts and include more video after I've had more of a chance to shoot with it. General light coming from a nearby open door. A bit of spot from below added by a pair of Lumos Trip Pro LED's. Cinevate Duzi V3 slider.

Found this video here by Daniel Peters: https://vimeo.com/135591796 I was already rather impressed by the dynamic-range exhibited by the RX10 II. However, after bringing it into After Effects and pulling down the highlights by 2 stops, I was even more impressed. If only it were 10bit. Regardless, pretty amazing for the price and form-factor. Gives me high hopes for the (possible) BSI based "A7000". Anyways, here's the original shot, followed by a shot with the highlights pulled-down, then a slighted graded, de-noised, and re-grained version: ORIGINAL SHOT HIGHLIGHT'S PULLED DOWN GRADED, DE-NOISED, RE-GRAINED

I always enjoy a review with a sense of humour. You do have to respect Canon for actually making products that always work. That's why they are slow. They are not a joke like some people make out. (although it is a joke you don't get basic video features like peaking on a 1DC. That's just a very silly joke indeed!)

I just sold my a7s. I'm skipping this one and waiting for the a7sII.

Found this on dvxuser and thought it was really interesting. Tells a lot of us what we kind already know but in a lot more depth. Article: http://www.inventome.com/Blog/2015/8/a7exposure/Sony-A7s---how-to-expose---cine-or-log? dvxuser: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?339113-A7s-detailed-breakdown-of-the-gamma-curves-slog-or-cine Basically, SLOG2 is mostly great but overexposing correctly and bringing it down in post but will generally crush the blacks. Cine 1 is great for when you want to retain detail in the highlights. Cine 4 is when you'd like to keep detail in the shadows. I'm a big fan of Cine 1 for bright outdoor conditions so this makes sense to me, I know a lot of people are also Cine 4 fans. But recently I've been using SLOG2 more and more and the general aesthetics are beautiful.

Or maybe they just like their products? Seriously, why are people acting like BM cameras are so unstable? They have some quirks, but as sensors in boxes, they deliver. Not to mention that they have led the charge on providing features via firmware--features which were never promised and they had no obligation to provide. They don't crash like Magic Lantern, the more aggressive GH2 hacks, or even the newer RED cameras. And overheating? Their cameras have some of the best internal cooling of any camera out there. In terms of low-light, I'm not sure why people have so much trouble. I can easily push the BMPCC two stops (to 3200) without objectionable noise, and the Ursa Mini is reported to have a stop more latitude in the lows. Combine that with a downsample to 2K from 4.6K and you should be able to get a decent 6400 out of it. If you need more than ISO 6400 and an F/2 lens, your light probably sucks anyway.

Quite a lot of negativity about Blackmagic here, and maybe rightly so. They do deserve credit though for being so aggressive. In terms of considering the extra bits... I have V-Locks, a lot of media storage, vari-ND's. Cfast2... bit annoying, but all cinema cameras have very expensive media. Low light.... I light everything. Lupolux, Dedolight's, Kino Flo's, Scorpions, reflectors, polyboard... always got it covered. I built up my video business on a Canon 60d and two crappy EF lenses, so I'm quite proud to have the ability to go for these options today.

And I just moved from 4K with A7s/CD Odyssey 7Q+ to a C100 Mk II .... Today. Looked at the FS7 and could not get the little plastic thing to focus the LCD ... too many little into the menu things. Do not want a 20K C300 Mk II but was pleasantly surprised by the well thought out format of the C100 Mk II. So my A7s Woodencamera Cage and mount and the CD Odyssey 7Q+ will be on the market. I have owned Sony EX1R Red One Red Epic a huge number of MF Digital Cameras and have extensive experience in color correction but I will not continue to play the find the correct LUT for each damn clip and try to match them all. Ideally an ARRI Amira would work ... but I will try to duplicate a simple color balanced film look from this camera. Oh its fan is imperceptible in use but it does not overheat. And a simple ATMOS Ninja Star will give me Prores. The AF is delightful and it weighs not much more than the A7s and cage. Easier to balance and I can start recording without setting off a seismic perturbation that takes 10 seconds to still in video. Now when they give me 4K or 4.6K at this level for a moderate price I will be there. Played with the Canon EOS Cinema lenses .... seem as well made as the Zeiss CP.2s Overall a big day ... Bob

Not to be annoying but could you guess as to when you'd publish your final review on the RX10 ii, Andrew?

Heres a quick clip uploaded in 4K! Shot in slog2, graded with film convert. Around 70mm F/5.6 or so. I think I'll typically stay away from SLOG as it generates so much noise on this tiny sensor. I was using hot fluorescents on either side of the camera, and the camera did give me an overheat warning while shooting, but never shot off. I was sweating! Added a gradual crop throughout the length of the video.

Agreed, and for every person that did that with an A7s, 100 people did the same with a Canikon.

Exactly, and where I live Sony stands no chance against Canikon. No competition. Not yet at least. Consumers are very different in different regions. Here Sony would have to cut the cost of the a7rii in half for it to even make it to the shelves outside of the Internet.

I have a a7s and a SMAD-P3 and have asked Sony about this. They said they might make a SMAD-P3 with a 3.5mm input for ch.2. I can see that you would need more advanced audio circuitry to control two different inputs, but you could always hope.

Thanks! Bought it to use when i rent a fs100 with G log next time!

1080p full frame, 4k 1.3x crop (between full frame and super35), 1080p super35 crop are the options. they're all decent, maybe super35 is better than full frame, but the 4k is easily the best

Thanks very much for this great review Andrew. I made the biggest mistake of my life when I sold my 1DC last year and I've been regretting it ever since. I never had overheating issues with it and the color it produced was stellar right out of the gate. I'll wait a month or two to see what Canon has to offer in terms of 4K in the DSLR range and may well end up going back to the 1DC. I was hoping for an improved codec that would give the same wonderful skin tones but at less than 500 Mbps. But if that's what it takes, I'll just have to buy more CF cards. Ever since, I've had terrible trouble getting good skin tones out of my A7s (even with LUTs). If I had the choice now to shoot a talking head interview, I would always choose with the 1DC over the A7s just for the skin tone aspect alone, for all the reasons you mentioned.

It looks amazing, but out of my budget range - for the new sensor and a good set-up, they're asking for close to FS7 money.

From Hook's video to the review by OneRiverMedia, the footage coming off of that sensor is apparently jaw dropping. It'll just be something bizarre than needs a firmware update - like footage recording upside down or something.

I always take a wait and see approach with blackmagic.

Not a bad idea. You can always return it if it's a fail. I doubt it will be though.

That f-stop isn't T-stop? Personally, I just use what is needed. And hardly will I reframe something and then not check the metering/settings. And I don't do zoom-ins/-outs. So indeed I also feel it isn't much of a biggie.

Thanks and sure. : ) Camera settings: Kholi's A7s Cine2/Pro PicPro (PP6) Black Level: -11 Gamma Slog: Cine2 Black Gamma > Range: Wide , Level: +7 Knee > Mode: Manual , Auto Set > Max Point: 95 , Sensitivity: Mid, Manual Set > Point: 105%, Slope: 0 Colore Mode: Pro Saturation: +6 Color Phase -3 Color Depth > R+3, G-3, B+1,, C-3, M-2, Y-5 Detail > Level, -5 Adjust > Mode; Manual, V/H Balance: -2, B/W Balance Type3, Limit: 0, Crispening:0, hi_light Detail: 0 White balance > Manual > Grid setting B 1 (one to the left) -- Software: Premiere Pro, filmconvert (Arri Alexa DCIP3), bit of Lumetri (really loving the new PP).

I posted my heat testing results on DVXuser (mine was the camera that turned off without warning). Further testing yesterday with an external power supply and a cable battery adapter, and there's no difference in overheating. Again around 27 minutes in S35 and about 48 mins (with a 1min break at 29mins) in FF. I did notice that in S35 4K mode, that it did sometimes overheat without first getting a temperature warning icon. And testing with USB power wasn't enough to to keep the camera on.

I vote for the NX1 - largest sensor of the 3, and much easier to get wide and shallow DOF. The 1080p120 looks fantastic. Is it perfect? No, of course not, but IMO the best of these three. The RX100v4 won't shoot slowmo or 4k for very long takes, and the 96FPS of the GH4 is pretty low-res. All 3 are good choices IMO.

Best not ask.... And I have no clue.... Bob

The Rectilux is nearly half the weight of the Focus Module. The Focus Module alone weighs 850 grams, Rectilux alone weighs just under 470 grams. I don't own a Focus Module, but i can say that breathing aside, The Rectilux is a neutral addition to my scope and taking lens. By that I mean, the taking lens is not restricted any more than it would be on its own in terms of shooting wide open. Chromatic aberration or blooming is not further exacerbated by the Rectilux. It is definitely more costly, but in my opinion, it's money worth spending for a piece of gear that doesn't degrade the optical chain in any way. And the breathing is nearly identical to what you see with this old Russian Lomo anamorphics. And you can keyframe it out via horizontal scaling in post if you need to.

Agree 100 %, it makes so much sense if you run around all by yourself. Just frame, touch where you want the focus and shoot.

One thing that irritates me with the Sony cams is the lack of touchscreen. I don't understand the reasoning. Some of my favorite footage from the NX1 comes from @Mattias Burling with 30mm pancake. The only thing I don't like is that his (and a lot of people's) skies are completely white instead of beautiful shades of blue but of course a lot of that is due to color grading.

In my experience FM works well with most lenses and doesn't work well with some. I couldn't get a sharp image using some really fast lenses wide open in some instances, but in most cases, especially when using a slower lens or using lenses stopped down, or using vintage primes with simple element designs produced very sharp images and it didn't add or subtract from the image that you would get from the anamorphic attachment alone. I guess in that respect the performance is pretty much the same with the Rectilux, although not speaking with any scientific comparative knowledge. However both the Rectilux and Focus Module has significant lens breathing and both are quite cumbersome in size as well. It really depends on your style of shooting but FM was a bit too big and heavy for the type of work I mostly do thesedays. Which is why I really like the idea of the Rangefinder.

I'm impressed by the RX10ii also, but i'm affraid for noise when shooting indoors, i've heard for outside shooting with S-Log ISO 800 is needed and add extra exposure. In combination with that small sensor i don't know if i would feel comfortable when using it as A-cam. Btw im from the Netherlands. I don't know what it is but the samples i've seen from the NX1 looked more cinematic to me than the GH4. Also with the NX1 i get a new lens (16-50S seems to be good) and for cheap i get an EF-adapter so i'm also able to use my Canon lenses, and with the GH4 i'll continue with the same glass and maybe the change isn't that satisfying. Questions like these playing with my brains constantly. Thanks, i'll take a look at that cam! It's very difficult huh to make a satisfying decision

This is the camera everyone was expecting Panasonic to make.

Amen brother! I mean... if someone would come up to you and say 'hey, I have no money, just this crappy 550D/T2i with the kitlens and 50mm f/1.8, I really want to make something, but I'm holding off on creating stuff, because my gear is so cheap and crap, what do I do now? Sell a kidney?', then sure go reassure them that the core thing to get right is the idea and proper execution and one shouldn't rely on gear to make something 'good'. If the gear you're shooting with should make the difference between something good or something bad, you already lost. It's better to keep creating with lesser gear, than not creating anything in order to avoid pixel peeping comments. But really. I think we can all agree on that. Ultimately though... not all situations are that black and white. Can you have cheap gear and great creative skills and be excellent at what you do and still create captivating content? I'm sure of it! Can expensive gear make up for lacking creative skills? Nopes. But again, you know, that's not even in question here. Who says everyone with cheap gear is creative? And people who care about gear as well suck? Being creative and good at what you do is really not exclusive to people with a T2i you know. If you're really talented and creative, I agree, it doesn't matter that much what gear you use. But if that's the argument, why would you have something against using fancier equipment/better cameras if you just said it didn't matter? And fact is, it IS ABLE to make a difference. It can up the quality and feel of your productions and shooting gets easier because your camera is more capable and you're dealing less with its limitations. So in the end, it takes away some of the struggle and opens up capacity for you to focus more on the creative side of things. Isn't that what we wanted? By the way. Who isn't perfectionistic about how their image looks? Or do you just love blownout highlights and noise? Don't you aspire to create the best visual experience one has ever seen? If not and you exclusively care about story/content, then maybe focus on screenwriting or something and hire a camera crew. If shooting isn't your thing, give the job to someone else who does care about how stuff looks. You won't be able to convince me you don't give a darn heck about dynamic range, colors, details, rendering, lighting, noise performance, nicely executed and motivated camera moves, a stable image and so on. And gear can help you out greatly there! If you have ambition and want to become better at what you do and increasingly deliver better stuff, you'll not only have to grow creatively, but it also includes getting some new gear to make your visions a reality. It's all just tools. And maybe you only see it as a status symbol, maybe you can't afford something else, maybe you just don't want to go with the times. That's all fine. I mean, some want to keep shooting film. Awesome! But you aren't the world standard everyone should adhere to. Let others do their thing. Others might embrace what's availlable in the digital world and what it allows them to do. Just as awesome! If you have the creativity, skills, right mindset and everything, why not have the right gear as well? Especially if you can spare the money (sure... if you aren't doing well for yourself and can't spare the money, well, then yeah, it doesn't make much sense to look at purchasing new stuff. But if you are doing well for yourself and you have good arguments to justify a purchase, by all means: go for it!). Now, there might be people looking for excuses to buy new gear. But maybe the opposite is true as well. Maybe people that can't afford new gear are looking for arguments not to. And that's great to keep themselves in check. But please come to terms with the fact that gear has its part to play and if you want to fool yourself '4K's just a gimmick' and so on, that's fine. But don't confuse your situation with that of others. They might hugely benefit from upgrading their gear. See it from their needs and options, not your own. You might be stuck with the T2i out of neccessity for now, but I bet you will eventually upgrade to better things as well when you can afford 'em along the way. Because it makes sense to go with the times and let the level of gear evolve with your creativity and skills. It's not mandatory, but it sure is nice. Anyways. Attributing to the offtopicness. Hopefully we can get past this subject on EOSHD. So to get back to it. The FZ1000 indeed is great. It really does handle like a baby GH4 and for travelling what's greater than something allround like that? Well, surely there's a catch. Yup. You're going to struggle a bit more with lowlight, highlights, noise and the ability to create a shallow depth of field obviously. It's also a pity that it didn't inherent the constant f/2.8 feature of the FZ200. There's some lens noise audible in (near) silent conditions. The SD-slot is co-located at the battery compartment, so might be a bit of a pain if you're shooting locked down/with a cage of some sorts. But overall... it does have some exciting features and is a great all-in-one travel camera with lots of flexibility. It's kinda the flexibility you might miss a little with the LX100. And you can't just throw on a tele lens (well, maybe a cheapo crappy extender). But if you're good without that much tele reach, there's hardly anything so appealing. For me personally atleast. The LX100 is just a killer camera for casual stuff and everyday use. And the price of both the FZ1000 and LX100 is more than fair. Now... the RX10M2 might just take the new lead here (although also as 'most expensive' of the bunch). That's one exciting camera! I do love the fact that there's great cameras that have an integrated non-changeable lens. It keeps travelling light and compact and won't have regrets of leaving that one lens at home to cut some of the carrying bulk. But... if you aren't bothered with some bulk. Then interchangeable lens cameras do give you a bit up in quality and possibilities. I wouldn't really take the FZ1000 out as an A cam for some corporate video or short film (but I'd bring it for travelling in a heartbeat). A GH4 or BMPCC with some sweet hand picked lenses specifcally to the project might be way nicer to work with to create the kinda thing you want. It's the difference between a controlled and non-controlled environment, mostly. But if you think you can make that work whilst travelling, all the greater! What options concerned. I'm curious to see if the A6100/A7000 will pop up and if it will be any good. But the G7 seems offer a lot of bang for buck, I can't really see how you'd go wrong with that. The A7RII appears killer too. Personally I just don't have the lenses for it and I'm attracted by the M43 charm of having really compact setups (incl. small lenses!). And don't we all rather just keep money in our pockets?

From what I understand, the AnamorphX came in several different versions, each with different grades and layers of coating in order to give users an option for how much fireworks they want in the frame. The type and amount of flaring you'll get is determined by which version you have at hand. That said, the Letus has a really big front element, so it shouldn't be hard for it to catch some stray light at almost any angle.

That's why a lot of us would like companies like Samsung or Panasonic to start offering an internal 10-bit option. Then we wouldn't have to choose! As it is, all these micro HDMI options are just a stopgap solution.

Genius, had no idea this existed. Thanks for the link!

The Sigma doesn't have completely constant transmission across it's focal length range. http://www.dxomark.com/Lenses/Sigma/Sigma-18-35mm-F18-DC-HSM-A-Canon-mounted-on-Canon-EOS-700D---Measurements__870 Would the speedbooster make it more noticeable? Not sure.