Leaderboard

Black hole aside, am I the only one here that thinks the NX1's image looks better than the Sony?

I'm surprised at the lack of V Log enthusiasm on EOSHD considering the amount of GH4 users. I'm blown away every day by how great it looks via 10 bit Pro Res. Maybe the A7SII release has something to do with the deterred attention.

Never noticed anything of that sort, but ill take a look and do some real life tests. Im gonna do some more tests with settings and do a new topic on it, and how I do some of my grades, considering a few people have asked me how its done.

Why does the consensus seem to be that it is harder to grade S-LOG? Because it's 8-bit, 4:2:0? Are people confusing color grading with color correcting? It isn't raw. You have to set the white balance correctly for every lighting change. That is as easy as holding up a grey card or using an expo disk and shooting a custom white balance. Done. I find it is much more difficult to do a final color correction on Red footage because no body ever shoots a grey card. I might have a bit more room to tweak colors, but I HAVE to do a job that someone COULD have done in the field. I haven't noticed any banding.

I love this type of post, and the Internet / camera forums in general. We go from arguing over how great a camera is going to be, to unboxing videos and camera lust / jealousy, to the inevitable honeymoon is over phase so quickly. So in lieu of shooting something reliable and proven, we put loupes on our Sony bodies, worry about overheating, worry if the Metabones adapter is going to not work, drag around ND filters and step up rings, external mics, remember to overexpose 2 stops in log mode so we can squeeze 1/5 of a stop of extra dynamic range just to spend hours later grading footage of our....cats. All while trying to avoid banding skies, black hole suns (Soundgarden anyone?) and instead of actually ENJOYING shooting a nice crisp 1080p signal (like my FS700) and worrying more about content - before we hit record we're trying to remember what our "knee" setting was for test shot #1047. Hey, I'm one of you too. Having gotten a proper ND filter / good built-in audio / slow motion FS700 the past few days I've just been shooting everything. Mostly not even slowmo stuff - and (oh the horror) not $5000 adapted Cooke glass - I even tried the 18-55 Sony kit lens - which smoothly autofocuses and face tracks my subjects. I locked the iris, set the ISO gain limit and just hit record. Looking now for cool low angled shots, framing, keeping my subjects (my family) the focus and not the settings. More "keeper" footage in 3 days non stop shooting than 4 months with the 1dc. But, I am one of you - always on the quest for the best. But at some point we are going to have to remember there is *no* perfect camera, nor will there ever be. DSLR's will probably never have true built-in ND, XLR inputs (save the GH4 and the clunky poorly-powered YAGH), smooth AF in video mode and colors right out of the camera (and dynamic range) that we all like. Camcorders will never be small, take exception stills, nor have the stealth factor. I walked around Halloween with the FS and at least 3 people asked me if I was with the news. At the baseball games with the 1d + 300 2.8 they asked if I was with Sports Illustrated. Sigh. /ramble off.

The GH4 is just grainy in dark conditions, like the F35 or film. Once you accept that, you'll like it a whole lot better. Unlike A7X S-LOG 2/3, I've seen almost uniformly great results from V-LOG in samples from Vimeo and Youtube. Externally recorded and exposed properly, it can hang with--or even beat-- cameras in the the $7-$10k range. Keep in mind that 4K recorders will only get smaller and cheaper from here, and the ones we have now are already practical for most shooting situations.

At 1h50min. into the video, does Alister basically say: "If you record in 8bit, do not use SLog3, period." Or am I mixing something up? Edit// This comparison makes a lot more sense to me now, after hearing Alister talk about Slog3 in 8bit vs 10bit: https://vimeo.com/143132608 There is so much more colour information available in the 10bit files from the FS7.

Well, grading (not color correction) is a personal thing, so if you like high contrast, then you go for high contrast...what the rest of us think means squat. Having said that, you do need to watch the whole clip for the lows and highs. E.g., you say the lows are at 10 mark, but that is only at the beginning; if you scrub forward, you'll see the level touch 0, and that part is going to be too dark if you corrected for the beginning. Anyway, if your goal is to increase contrast, once you set the lift/gain to adjust low/high levels, you might want to try reducing gamma for the lows and increasing it for highs. That will increase contrast, but in a much more subtle way. E.g., see below for for what happens to your clip if we do that (I also increased the saturation a bit). It is for illustrating the gamma adjustments only and may be nothing like what you want or meant to be pleasing in general.

I have been shooting with the A7S II for 2 weeks now. Let's really get under the skin of the camera and see if it is worth your $3000. On my retail model (bought in Europe on day of release, firmware 1.0) sunspots and black holes render it almost unusable. It is a complete lottery whether your shot is going to be ruined or not. The next shot is not even in direct sunlight – the black hole is produced from a specular bounce of light off the floor. Read the review

I am back with another test of the NX500. I have recently been testing the settings that were used in the Cinema5D promo video for the camera before its launch. He used Saturation -4, Sharpness -10, and I believe Contrast -5... even though that has not been confirmed. Either way, I am looking to use this cam for an upcoming horror short, so I was testing out some looks. I still haven't settled on the perfect settings for this camera, but to be honest I haven't done much shooting with it lately. I think I went a little heavy handed with one of the graded shots... Anyway thanks for looking and as always... any tips would be greatly appreciated.

This video is a pure goldmine of information regarding the proper use of Sony cameras and their features, but most of this can also apply to any other camera brand. I bow to the man for this kind of simple but thorough explanation of all the features, codecs, gamma curves, gamuts etc., when and how to use them, why not to use some of them in some scenarios... I highly recommend watching this whole video, because even if some of you guys are already familiar with most of this stuff, I'm almost certain that you will get some new useful info.

Ive been wanting one of these for a long time but never had the opportunity to get one. But today was my lucky day! Only shot a few seconds with it and fell instantly in love.

Hello, I'm trying to find a non rotating front element wide angle zoom, to use with my GH4 and my B&H Kowa 2x anamorphic lens. From my "collection", I only seem to have the Minolta 35-70 macro and Zeiss CY 35-70 macro. Both of the front elements rotate, sigh... Anyone familiar with the native m43 lenses, Oly 12-40, and PL 12-35, do they rotate? What about the Sigma Art 18-35/1.8 ?

i dont think its possible to make one for the nx1 because of the flange distance.

First of all a adapter with no glass will not effect image quality so the E mount version of the sammy is not less sharp than the canon mount. I'd push you to buy the nikon mount samyang 85mm becuase nikon mount is the most adaptable and can be used on most cameras. "Iv'e seen that some lenses have a lower scores because of there mount (nikon,sony,canon) is this because when a lens is adapted from EF to E or the other way around, it get's reduced sharpness because it simply works better on EF fit." That is because the different mounts have difference sensors, lets say canon has a 50mp sensor and sony a 36mp sensor. The lens will score higher on the canon because you can see more detail.

I record in MP4 and all the video files go into one folder for each day

I'm not sure about the Mark II, but I always use Data Import Utility to import files from my Mark I. If I don't, sometimes I will have a small interruption between longer clips that span multiple files. Data Import Utility combines these spanned clips into single files. This may have been corrected in later versions of Premiere but I still do it out of habit, and I try to avoid working with spanned files whenever possible.

They announced this gimbal at the end of August, so I don't think two months is unreasonable or too quick to expect a demo video.

Using a monitor with LUT capabilities is a huge help. Its much easier to focus, see color, and expose properly. My go-to LUT now is the Impulz Cineon to Film Contrast 1.

Tokina AT-X Pro 28-70mm f2.6/2.8 (Angenieux design version - google it to be sure of getting the right version). Its parfocal & the front doesn't rotate - stunning lens, its the only zoom lens that i use or will ever use.

Surely I know that:) If you like standard colors, you should try Gamma C. Colors with it are truly amazing. I think DR is the most overrated thing, and with these low bitrates it's better to get closer to final result in camera instead of that flat look, which may break your footage.

use the evf? It's a cracking viewfinder and adds a valuable additional point of contact to steady up shots. Learn to view with your left eye and with a battery grip the camera rests perfectly on your shoulder.

Never seen this happen, I dont think its codec related, you probably have a faulty unit.

Standard gamma uses photo picture profiles which may cause the problem? So I would test with Gamma D or Gamma C. Also it has been speculated that 4096 mode is just upscaled 3840 (becouse 4096 is softer than 3840) so maybe upscaling causes other issues as well. I personally use 3840x2160, 25p, Gamma C, 0-255, sharpness -10, green x0.95, PRO bitrate, and I haven't had any issues. Sidenote: converting to ProRes (at least with Rockymountains Movie Converter) adds banding, while converting to H.264 wont.

There definitely is...you just don't share it. Important distinction.

I don't think sony willing to encourage people keep using their canon lens on a7X instead of buying E-mount lens

This is different than I've seen on Blackmagic cameras. There, the blown highlights just turn black. Easy to fix with one click in Resolve. Here, there's this gunky purple transition from normal overexposure to black hole. I don't know how well Resolve will handle that.

I was very excited about V-Log, because GH4 is a great camera (the one I use most of the time), but really needed a flat profile such as the BMPCC. But, for my experience it is very difficult to obtain great results inside a room with lights or in natural light: I had a lot of noise. Way too much for my taste. Outside it's slightly better, but I had some difficulties focusing. In my opinion it is something not comparable to the amazing BMPCC's ProRes flat file, but I would be more then happy if you have suggestions that could change my opinion. I love BMPCC files, but I really don't like the working process on it, so I end using always GH4. I cannot afford an external recorder in this moment (I just bought a 3 axis gimbal), so probably I cannot have great results because I record on the SD card. Wich LUT do you use for V-LogL? Thank you very much Aaron

Interesting article. There's something I don't get though: S-Log isn't the only way to shoot with the A7sii. People could pick a different workflow, easier to handle with great results straight out of the camera. Sony adding the S-Log to a consumer camera it is actually a great thing, because it gives an option to people who want to go that route. That said, I agree with the other points: S-Log is not easy to handle and, on top of that, can become a real hassle considered the 8-bit limit.

I'm not a fan of the first A7S. Sure the low light is "cool", but the colour at those high ISO's is bloody terrible.

The overheating is a very real issue. I've been renting an a7r ii from an assistant for interview work and having to take breaks to let the camera cool down is very unprofesh.

Why do you come to this conclusion? Why do you not think its the Canon protocol that is closed-sourced and reverse-engineered? Because that is the case: the EOS EF-mount protocol is reverse-engineered, while Sony does provide the E-mount specification incl. the protocol. It's strange that you assume its only Sony's fault when the adapter goes wrong.

I never said it was overrated, or terrible exposure issues. I actually really loved everything about it except the macroblocking. But that was when I was testing it with internal + Varicam LUT. Those 2 are not the greatest combo. I totally get that point of view. In fact that was me a few months ago. I love just having something ready to pick up and record. After testing V Log with 10 bit recorder though I loved the image so much that I can now justify using an Assassin alongside as an A cam option. It can easily cut into Epic or BMCC footage.

Just a note on the OP's desire for XLRs but wanting to stay with a DSLR - I use the Tascam DR-60D as an external recorder, and feed the line out into my Nikon for synch. But what I've found: use the camera's meter and stage the gain properly (mic in, line out level, and camera recording level) so nothing peaks, and keep the Nikon on the low side - under the center of the gain control scale (use the Tascam for your primary gain) and… you don't need to synch footage. Basically use the Tascam as a preamp. My interview audio has sounded great this way (generally with an AT4053a or a Senn G3 w/ OST 801). Very surprised at this, and I do record to the Tascam as a backup (since the tascam records a safety track at -6DB so I'm covered for unexpected peaks). I'm fairly picky about interview voices and usually run my final edit through Pro Tools to reduce any room noise/reverberance and do a pass with nice EQ and comp plugins - I really like a crisp high end with lots of presence (vintage EQ and Massey CT-5 kind of sings with the AT mic) and I've been surprised, but happy. The Tascam ships with PluralEyes so synch is pretty smooth if you use the tascam tracks.

How so? LOG is just one option in the technician's toolkit. It's not like using other gammas in low light eliminates every creative choice you have in low-light scenes. Also...calling out industry gurus for pixel peeping? Hey Pot....Kettle called...

Just go to Vimeo and search "Samsung NX1" the first page is filled with impressive footage from the NX1. Heres a few screengrabs of my latest video (still on edit) http://imgur.com/a/rQHhx I think the camera is outstanding in every way, color/resolution/detail is amazing, you can make it as filmic as you want, or just not at all, its quite versatile. I too am eager to have native support H265 on premiere, it will make my job so much easier.

I recently had a dramatic situation at my house where I had to grab the things that were most valuable to me. I grabbed a few hard drives and my Bolex Moller 8/19/1.5 ;o) It pairs really well with my 50 Karl Zeiss Jena 1.8 as well as some old Nikon AI-S lenses. My brand new Rectilux is being tinkered with right now and I'm getting some good sharpness with this three lens combo. (See still). Although I've lost my close focus but I'll take that loss now that I can focus quickly.