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I don't think I currently have the experience or time to successfully modify the NX1/NX500 firmware. I don't even have one of those cameras. However it would be a shame to let the interest in this die, so I guess I'll post some of my notes/thoughts about the firmware in hopes that it might help keep the ball rolling. Note: if you aren't into technical minutiae, the only interesting part of this wall of text is the bulleted list at the end detailing what is and is not possible in my opinion. Here are the files listed in the header of nx1.bin (version 1.4.0): version.info: offset=0x0 size=0x3F (same as found in /etc/version.info) linux image: offset=0x0130 size=0x00624748 idk: offset=0x624878 size=0xD8E9 linux image: offset=0x632161 size=0x3192E8 linux image: offset=0x94B449 size=0x638518 idk: offset=0xF83961 size=0x01FF10 idk: offset=0xFA3871 size=0xB35140 rootfs: offset=0x1AD89B1 size=0x117A89FF (lzo compressed ext4 filesystem image) opt: offset=0x132813B0 size=0x58E91C (lzo compressed ext4 filesystem image) pcachelist: offset=0x1380FCCC size=0x7000 (PAGECACHELIST, preceded by a header, I think) idk: offset=0x13816CCC size=0x35BCC44 (lzo compressed. header indicates swap image?) Anyone with the skills to reverse engineer a camera could figure this out pretty easily, but it was fairly tedious so maybe this will save someone 20 minutes of poking around in a hex editor. If anyone knows what's up with the files I've labeled "idk," I would love to hear about it. The checksum algorithm is fortunately unchanged from the NX300 as far as I can tell. As documented at sites.google.com/site/nxcryptophotography/diy-firmware "width=32 poly=0x04c11db7 init=0xffffffff refin=true refout=true xorout=0x00000000 check=0x340bc6d9 name="JAMCRC"" "jacksum -x -a crc:32,04c11db7,ffffffff,true,true,00000000 [file]" The main camera app binary is (I'm pretty sure) located at /usr/apps/com.samsung.di-camera-app/bin/di-camera-app in the rootfs. It seems to access the hardware through a relatively high-level API with the /usr/lib/libmm* libraries. libmmf-camcorder.so is particularly interesting. The function I've focused my attention on is mmf_camcorder_set_attributes(), which comes from libffm-camcorder and is used repeatedly in di-camera-app. It conveniently (and strangely IMO) takes strings as identifiers for the attributes that are apparently being set (why not just an enum? I suppose I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth...). Some of those attributes include "target-time-limit," "audio-encoder-bitrate," and "video-encoder-bitrate." The guy who successfully removed the recording time limit on the NX300 did it by modifying the instructions that set the variable being passed along with "targe-time-limit." I found the control flow instructions he mentioned in that thread, so it should't be hard to get rid of the time limit on the NX1, provided the camera accepts the modified firmware. The NX500 is probably similar. The "video-encoder-bitrate" attribute also looks promising, though it would take some more advanced reverse engineering to figure out where the values are being set. So from what I've seen and read, here is what I think is and is not possible to modify on the NX1 and NX500: Remove time limit: Highly likely. Seems to be the same as the NX300. Pretty easy too, if there aren't any new security measures in place. Increased bitrate: Possible. Needs some real reverse engineering to find where the rates are set for each resolution and quality. Noise reduction and sharpening: Possible. Haven't seen anything that looks like it's controlling these, but if setting the bitrate works, this should be possible too. FWIW I think that increasing the bitrate would help with the noise reduction issues. H.265 tends to smooth things out a lot to achieve low bitrates. Re-enable 2.5k on NX500: Plausible but difficult. It depends on whether they just removed it from di-camera-app, or if they removed it from the underlying libraries as well. Either way it would likely require actually adding control flow to the binary, which opens a whole new can of worms. Beyond my current ability, for sure. Focus peaking for NX500 4k: Maybe? I have no idea, really. There might be a good reason they didn't include it, there might not. 4k crop on NX1: Plausible but even more difficult. We know the hardware can do it, but it was probably never implemented on the NX1, even in pre-production. Gamma profile on NX500: Plausible. Similar to porting the NX500's 4k crop to the NX1, I think. 6k 24fps H.265: Highly unlikely. The H.265 encoder would have to support frame sizes larger than DCI 4k and be able to handle twice the pixel rate (clock speed) of 4k. Furthermore it would require implementing a brand-new video mode at a very low level. I can't say for sure it's categorically impossible, but don't get your hopes up. 10bit H.265: Nope. The H.265 standard does indeed allow for 10bit encoding, but I highly doubt Samsung would include the significantly larger (wider busses, more complex encoding) hardware necessary to do it. It would be a miracle if Samsung had really decided to go to all that effort and not use it. 6k or full sensor 4k at more than 30fps or 1080p at (significantly) more than 120fps: Impossible. The image sensor simply isn't fast enough. If you hope for this you will just be disappointed! RAW Video: Not really. It might be theoretically possible to dump the live-view feed as in Magic Lantern. Who knows how fast the SD card interface is, though. Certainly no more than 1080p. I can imagine tricking the GPU into packing 12bit 4k RAW into 1080p 444 HDMI like Apertus, but consider that a pipe dream. Don't get your hopes up. Anyway, that was longer than I expected, but I enjoyed poking around in the firmware, so I don't regret it even if it comes to nothing. It's a shame Samsung appears to be dropping the NX line; they are cool little cameras. p.s. If you know anything I've said is wrong, please correct me; I'm learning this as I go along.

IMO the A7R2 is hands down the best current video and stills shooter if you have the budget to invest in two metabones adaptors - a non speed booster for stills and a speed booster ultra for video. Onto the subject of CA caused by the sony camera itself. This isn't a viable subject in this debate. It's down to the fact that 90% of users are using lenses incapable of delivering good enough results for such a high end sensor - particularly with dslr lenses shorter than 50mm. Try the Loxia 35mm/2 wide open and it's optimised for modern sensors with shorter back focus distances (and the micro lenses) - think of the loxias as modern leica M lenses. Canon L lenses are prehistoric by comparison - most of which are derived from designs originating in the late 80's before they envisaged digital being the norm, kept in production out of laziness rather than because they deliver. Ask any 5dsr shooter and they complain that the lenses can;t deliver onto their sensor. To me the likes of lenses like the 85mm/1.2L are a waste of money for contrasty colour photography. they fringe so badly that the dof advantage is gone since you need to be at f4 before the image becomes enjoyable to look at. Take them in low light, indoors without any high contrast edges or use them for b+W work and they are magic.

Don't listen to the average person over the internet. You have to calibrate the monitor or at least download the profile that was developed at notebookcheck. I have been using the previous generation XPS and it has a great monitor. Peple were just using the wrong settings! See a report at anandtech.

The Blackmagic Video Assist is 549,00€ (VAT incl.) from amazon.it. The Micro Studio Camera 4K is also available in Italy - but the Micro Cinema Camera is not listed yet. Shooters are doing interesting work with the Micro Studio Camera: UHD with Shogun This one is 1080p with the Video Assist:

I've recently started numerous anamorphic lens projects based on the idea that 1.79x squeeze is the ideal ratio when dealing with a 4:3 sensor . It's often stated that 2x squeeze on 4:3 gives you the DCI standard 2.39:1 scope ratio, but of course this isn't quite true. If you really want a perfect mapping of 4:3 to 2.39:1 without having to crop the sides, then the correct math is: 2.39/(4/3) = 1.7925, which I'll round off to 1.79. So, for the ARRI Alexa, RED Dragon and Panasonic GH4 used in 4:3 mode it seems to me that 1.79x is ideal. Also, if you consider the Alexa in its Open Gate format (1.55:1) you get 1.55 * 1.79 = 2.77:1, which is almost exactly equal to the classic Ultra Panavision 70 (2.76:1 aspect ratio). You might be concerned that 1.79x wouldn't give enough anamorphic artifacts, but based on my experience so far it seems that the artifacts are very similar to 2x, and in addition there are significant advantages in size, weight, cost, and image quality. Some time ago I built a 1.80x prototype that used very traditional rear-group focusing with counter-rotating astigmatizer aberration compensation, and found that it compared very favorably to a similar-spec 2x 140mm Hawk V-Lite: So, my question is, since I'm about to start spending money like crazy developing this stuff, am I crazy to be going in this direction?

$1000 off and a 120fps firmware update: http://pro.jvc.com/pro/pr/2016/releases/gyls300_slomo.html

Excellent quality. Good for small scopes.

Ricoh Imaging's president is doing a Q&A at 6PM EST responding to Facebook comments! I'll be asking quite a few about the conservative video features and future plans for the platform

Dell monitors are very nice, including those in their XPS laptops indeed. In fact I know most of my friends are/were using Dell for photography editing and they do recommend them. For the price it's really nice.

Attached are three .DNG frames from three separate raw clips I shot on the URSA Mini 4K. They were all shot in 4K RAW 400 ASA. If you want to see the clips in action, check out my video on vimeo: Fazer_1_2016-02-10_2344_C0016_000609.dng Fazer_1_2016-02-11_0023_C0005_000194.dng Fazer_1_2016-02-11_0023_C0005_000566.dng

To get the best quality in both audio and video in a compact package with IBIS you can get an A7rII/A7sII with the XLR-K2M module that I believe bypasses any gain inside the camera, or you can try @Mark solution with the juicedlink and your EM5ii.

I guess the choice you have to make is wether you'd prefer to focus more on FCPX? When it first came out, it broke my heart, I loved 7. I've since moved to Premiere and they've made a lot of moves to make it similar to FCP 7, including keyboard shortcuts and the like. Though I hear these days that FCPX is a powerhouse and not to be overlooked, so I guess it depends wether you want a machine that could do premiere and FCPX?

Not sure if anyone else has mentioned this, but the MBP is supposed to be moving to Skylake (new cpus) in the next few months, so there will be a refresh. If you are going for an integrated GPU, the new models will have a better one. Though in saying that, its a lot to spend on a work laptop without getting one with a GPU. Apple moved back to AMD graphics with their last MBP refresh and I think theres mixed feelings about this as theres no longer CUDA support. Personally, I know a lot of people say you have to get on the bus eventually and cant keep waiting for the next computer to come out, but I'd seriously wait for the next machines this time and maybe save the extra to get a dedicated graphics card if you are set on a RMBP.

From what I was reading about the t6S mode, it does do alternating low/high ISO frames... that is why it is only available in 720p mode, as it needs 60p. The 800D should be able to do it in 1080p. The one sample I could find looked pretty unimpressive though, hopefully they have worked on it a little more. The ML HDR feature was pretty cool, to be able to blend it in camera would be a nice touch.

the t6s has it, its basicly boosts the shadows a little bit.

Thank you very much for you hard work.... I think this is definitely best summary related to possible hacking of NX1! Let's hope that someone else will be able to continue this way to higher bitrate in NX1.

There is some for sure. I wouldn't call it severe - this was the 85 1.2 II @ 2.8. Closer to wide open it gets worse. Just went back into Lightroom - I didn't even have the "remove chromatic aberration" box checked. But IMO this lens is known to exhibit purple fringing badly. It's not a defect that bothers me that much, so who cares. I like lenses with character more than the sterile "sharp" image. IQ and what is best is always subjective.

Hi everyone, This week's new free tracks are all of the looping variety. I hope they are helpful! “Puzzle Game 2″_Looping (on the Fantasy 2 Page) “Dystopian Game Open”_Looping (on the Fantasy 2 Page) “RPG Intro_v001″_Looping (on the Fantasy 2 Page) http://soundimage.org/fantasy-2/ “Far Away Technology”_Looping (on the Sci-Fi 2 Page) “Cyber Streets”_Looping (on the Sci-Fi 2 Page) http://soundimage.org/sci-fi-2/ Daily updates are here: https://twitter.com/EricMatyas Have a great week!

I use Gini Rigs parts to custom make my rigs - they are suppling all the rigs for my new Movie Pandora based around the 5D MK111 CAGE .. WWW.GINIRIGS.NET but with a Panny in it on a quick release plate inside the cage Tiffen NDs are the Best I use Chrosziel matte boxes

Severe chromatic aberration in every pic.

The do-everything rig is usually kind of overkill, especially sticking a mic on top of everything else. I opted for a really solid rails & baseplate setup (fore and aft legs between the tripod and camera plates) with a Manfrotto style release (since their release plate is widely available, it's on all my stuff from the rig to the tip of my crane). I have a rail clamp that holds the HDMI cable and camera-in (1/8), just 6" female-ended cables; that way I have a full-size HDMI out. With the NX1, I don't use the loupe, the EVF is fantastic on that thing. Sometimes have a follow focus, sometimes not. Handheld I keep the FF knob near a front handle when possible. With my Nikon, I have the Kamerar loupe which uses the Manrotto baseplate (so that's the camera baseplate) and the loupe pops on and off. I use front handles and shoulder mount that go on the rails, the fronts are wide enough that the whole thing can go on an off the tripod in seconds. I can attach the audio recorder (DR 60D) to the setup when there's no shoulder mount; I don't ever stick a mic on the camera - if I need audio for handheld, the DR goes in a waist pack for the boom op and I get a camera out cable if we can stay close. If not, the internal mic is good for synch. I have a manfrotto mount on my steadicam, so the cables come out of the jacks, the camera comes off the rails, and onto the steadicam. I keep it balanced for my wide zoom. Both the Nikon and the NX1 have audio I can use for editing if they're fed a preamped line source from the DR and if I get all the gain setup properly. The DR has a good limiter and also records a minus-6 track, and for some edits I'll need to either pop in a bit of the minus-6 for spikes, or just use the audio from the DR. I'll stick a monitor on the hot shoe if I'm on sticks. It's all pretty fast to go from handheld to sticks to steadicam, just seconds. But I don't mess around with on-camera mics and can't think of a gig where they wouldn't understand a couple hundred bucks for a boom op (I just trained a musician/friend who has good ears and a good brain to boom, he likes the extra cash). If you're recording audio, it might as well be something you can use in the edit. For synch audio, if you want to skip the camera mic, get a cheap little lav mic with an in-the-case battery, and chop the cable down to a foot or so, tape it to the front of one rail... or something. There's plenty of times I can have a recorder mounted to a boom stand with a mafer or something, and have a mic ready to place and aim to grab quick interviews.

Don't get a high end Macbook for that price unless it has dedicated graphics. Iris Pro... no thanks! Has to be Nvidia or AMD for future proof Premiere / Resolve / video editing performance and at least 2GB video RAM. At least. The CPU and all the rest is nowhere near as important as the GPU for video editing.

Yeah the specs are once again very disappointing for video. But we'll see how it does off paper when it comes out. The power zoom on the new 18-135mm is interesting, if a little bulky and likely expensive for something which Sony and Panasonic lenses have had built in for quite a while now at no extra cost.

Dual Pixel AF already does amazing video AF, so that was never the problem. Just the smooth zooming part needed to be addressed. To bad about the lackluster Canon 80D video specs.

Oh, and the stills? Here are crops all from one picture.

Diffraction is an inherent property of light passing through an aperture. What you end up with is each part of the light turns into an Airy Disc with particular physical properties. The diameter of the disc only depends on the f-stop, nothing else. Hence the smaller the pixels the more of an issue it is. This is worth a read and includes a calculator (just ignore the camera section in the lower half): http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/diffraction-photography.htm (Astronomers are even more interested, as stars, being point light sources, really show the effect.) Generally (IMHO) diffraction blurring starts to become an issue at the pixel level when it hits two pixel widths and gets worse at three widths. Exactly how bad it is depends on stuff like the strength of the anti-aliasing filter (if any) and how much blurring the de-bayering algorithm adds (which is always some). It isn't a hard limit, it's always there and just gets worse, so people have to define the point they start to care about it, which varies somewhat depending on who you read. For still photography it has been taken, for a fair while now, that a 30um blur on a FF sensor (divide by crop factor for others) is the limit for good sharpness of uncropped still images (which comes from lots of perceptual testing of people and a bunch of assumptions, like using 8"x10" images at a particular viewing distance). At the pixel level the 2-3 pixel widths seems to be where people are. I personally think if you are at 2 pixels or less you can ignore diffraction effects at the pixel level (compared to other factors). (Edit) P.S. reverse engineering the graph on the previous page gives about 4.4um as the diffraction limit for f8 (10.7um Airy disc), which is 2.43 pixels and 5.8um for f11 (14.7um Airy disc), which is 2.53 pixels, so I suspect they used 2.5 pixels as their limit. It doesn't magically get really bad at this point, just gradually worse. P.P.S. Also remember as you move away from the plane of focus the image gets gradually blurrier, this is where the 30um value is most often used, as the limits of the depth of field. Diffraction softening just adds to this.

I do run n gun a lot. Not sure what your situation is, but I'm typically covering 1 subject. As such, I put a wireless mic on him/her and then the receiver on my camera. Lately it's a EM5II with the battery grip adapter. Good set up in that I can monitor the audio signal and the whole "rig" is small. Also: Simple. No breakdown. No set up. No tripod. I just carry my camera with me and shoot. Shotguns are fine and all, but they need to be be near the subject to be effective. Otherwise it's just an expensive mic that's not located properly for capturing clean audio. If it's a necessity to go with a shotgun, (sometimes the situation demands it) I get an audio operator to boom pole it. For the most part I'll pick up group conversation audio well enough from the lav the subject is wearing. On occasion I've run two wireless mics and I just let it record outboard and carry that pack in my camera satchel.

For all sony shooters I would strongly suggest reading this manual about picture profiles: https://docs.sony.com/release/Help_C198100111.pdf With the FS5 you have the ability to change pretty much everything you need to get the color response the same as any other camera. For skin tones look at color phase and color depth settings and also expose for the skin.

All DSLRs are more or less noisy. You could use this: http://www.juicedlink.com/collections/preamp-selection/products/riggy-micro-rm222 and a mic of your choice, i.e. http://en-uk.sennheiser.com/shotgun-microphone-camera-camcorder-video-mke-600

This is my run-n-gun toy...

Try upscaling it to 4K and uploading again. That will give the HD file roughly tripple the bitrate. Works wonders for my videos at least. Just 1440p will double it but save some space/time.

It took about a year to make. The budget for the shoot was about $25K, includes permits and crew getting paid a bit. A couple regular kinos for this but mostly practical lights.

I've also been curious about trying out this camera. Colour looks like Sony with a dash of Nikon. It's been poorly promoted.

But they are. A FF f2.8 lens will capture the same amount of light over the image as a m43 f1.4 lens (both wide-open). That also means you get the same shot noise (which is most of the noise in the image). You need to increase the ISO on the FF camera by 2 stops to get the same exposure. However that doesn't affect the noise as (i) most of the noise is in the light and changing the ISO won't change that and (ii) the sensor read noise will usually fall a bit with increasing ISO, so the total noise will be lower if anything. (Think of it this way... at the same illumination level if a f1.4 lens puts 1M photons onto a m43 sensor then a f2.8 lens will put 1M photons onto a FF sensor. Of those photons on average 1,000 will be the shot noise, in both cases.) Increasing the ISO isn't a problem as the FF sensor will be able to capture around 4x the electrons of the m43 sensor due to its greater size. Increasing ISO by two stops knocks about a factor of 4 off that so it will be about the same as the m43 sensor and not saturate if the m43 sensor doesn't. Also remember a 50mm f2.8 lens has the same diameter entrance pupil as a 25mm f1.4 lens (17.86mm) so the DoF will be the same at the widest aperture. The FoV will also be the same. Diffraction softening will also occur at the same DoF (it goes with DoF, regardless of format). Hence the minimum and maximum amounts of available DoF are the same.

So did I. Alot of us talked about it. And still do. But thats all we do. No one is actually trying it I would love some footage to play with.

For all kinds of questions regarding vignetting, just use the calculator! http://www.tferradans.com/blog/?p=8615

The Video Devices PIX lineup manages to record 4k ProRes to USB 3 hard drive enclosures. Integrating such a system into a camera could be pretty revolutionary.

I've had the Panasonic G7 for about three months now and i'm really pleased with it. It's pretty cheap now a days which makes it a great bang for the buck!

I use Natural (contrast -5 and saturation -5) and I store it as CUSTOM profile 1 .....leave the NR and Sharpening at 0 yes you dial the colour back in in post ,Im shooting alot of night interior scenes in this movie on sets and I want to record a much shaddow detail as possible , I dont want crushed blacks in camera . so contrast and saturation are -5 , it works great this way . I shot a whole moive that way last year and we got superb results with it. this was shot Natural (contrast -5 and saturation -5) with the colour dialed back in in post /grade. all that detail in the actors uniform would not be there with crushed blacks in camera .

we did alot of testing at Media City with Cine D and Natural (contrast -5 and saturation -5) and hands down the best look to work with and grade was Natural (contrast -5 and saturation -5) and this was in a hi end Davinci Grading suite that does feature films every week for Sony Pictures etc . Cine D takes a whole bunch of correction just to get it usable - THEN you apply your look ontop and the whole thing is so tweeked up its a mess . So I'm shooting the whole movie on Natural (contrast -5 and saturation -5) Im thinking like I used to do 20 years ago shooting film stock , Natural (contrast -5 and saturation -5) is my film stock thats the look ...and I'm shooting the whole movie like that . and yes the XL is essential in my opinion as it makes the whole package a usable filmaking tool , dont forget it SHARPENS your lenses too !! We did some test with an Angenieux 28-76mm 2.6 Optimo on a RED EPIC and a Nikon 28-70mm 2.8 with Metabones XL on a Panasonic G7 and there is nothing in it ! if anything the Panny Metabones combo was sharper and cleaner in the blacks no noise at all compated to the RED /Angenieux combo!! That test convinced us the Metabones makes your Nikon Zooms into SERIOUS cinema quality Glass - faster, sharper and wider! nuff said its no brainer .

your XL speedbooster is an amazing essential piece of kit as it makes the 4k Panasonic cameras into very serious film making tools when paired with Nikon 2.8 Zooms , As I mentioned Im DOP on a British Feature film Pandora , we will be shooting this film with PANASONIC G7 4K cameras and Metabones XL Speedboosters. We have done extensive tesing of the G7 camera in 4k 24p mode with Metabones XL Speedbooster at Media City in Salford UK with my post production house - We Create - (Rod Edney and Paul Whiting) and we have found the G7 / Metabones XL Speedbooster combination to be better in low light and less noise in the blacks than the RED 4K files we compared it against and found it also almost indistinguishable from Arri Alexa files we compared it against. The guys at Media City where very impressed with the Metabones XL Speedbooster. All in all we are committed to making the whole movie with Metabones XL Speedboosters on all 4 camera Rigs. Brian I have just PM's you some info - thanks Andy

der chinese will copy you liks before, already dey read wot u wrote.....

I'm with you on the NX1, Andrew! It has captured striking imagery with an astonishing success rate for me compared to any other camera. It might not sit atop any specific quantifiable ranking of cameras, but what it's capable of is just short of miraculous. On the Ronin, that AF system is a dream come true, and paired together in the right hands, most any shot is possible. It handles extremely well, is reliable as heck, and it has good tech specs where it counts.