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So yep... I've been shooting with the A7SII pretty extensively on a bunch of music videos. This particular video is narrative-only, shot in Whitby UK within 6 hours with a crew of 5 people including make up artist. My duties? I wrote the idea, shot, lit, graded and edited the video in FCPX. Most of the video was shot in natural light. One night scene was lit with Lupolux Dual LEDs and Scorpion Lights, powered by batteries (lifesaver!). The sun was going down quick and we used the A7SII up until ISO 12,800. Picture profiles were custom Slog2 profile and also custom Cine2, shot in 4k 25fps. We used the Sony CLM-FHD monitor on the camera (very useful). Would never used the camera without a monitor again unless desperate. Camera remains light and easy to use. Gimbal shots were on the Ronin-M, with the full IBIS activated with the Sony Vario-Tessar 24-70mm - operated in upright mode. Fantastic combination. Handheld lenses were Sigma 18-35mm (used at 35mm), Samyang 14mm and Helios 44-2 85mm (bloody well hard lens to focus!). This video wouldn't of been possible to shoot in 6 hours without the A7SII. The aesthetic helped the video with it's murky look, and the portability with IBIS was awesome. Helped keep us on our toes and be creative with the shots. Issues? I went through 9 batteries and er, the zip on my coat broke and er... I got a wet ass?... that's about it. I'll let you guys decide what you think the story is about and all that jazz. Hope you enjoy it!!

It's funny, you guys represent The Camera Store, and have an in-built bias, let alone reason to maintain a good relationship with Sony... ... So the fact you are one of my most trusted reviewers speaks volumes to the hard work you put into your content, and by constantly being fair and consumer minded with your reviews, you have, despite those in-built percieved bias', always "been on my side" when it comes to making a purchase - the respect you get in the community is well earned, and long lasting because I have experienced enough products you have reviewed to know that you have always been absolutely upfront with a products shortcomings. Also, the fact you go through a products shortcomings without pouring vinegar on the product, which may work well for others who don't need that specific feature or can work around it makes you guys an absolute pleasure to watch!

Hey Andrew, After all the dumping you've been doing on every reviewer, I was surprised to see my video at the top of your blog post. But hey, we all need content right?

Honestly, I'd be happy with a pocket 2 that just had the BMCC 2.5K sensor and 60p. A better screen would be nice, and a more secure HDMI connection, but otherwise the old body is fine.

a7rii tested on TRUMP88 with a 1.5x oval aperture. camera was set to AWB, neutral picture profile, -3,0--3, auto exposure for 0.0ev, multi mode exposure metering. No grading. Just a film scan overlay from cinegrain. no ibis

Again, how gorgeous is that!

when you are working on a Movie you sign a contract and NDA ! and that contrat says there is an embargo on anything going out without premission from the film company - they own everything they paid for it including all my tests - now we live in a world of Facebook and twitter film companies dont want any leaks beore their marketing department decides what people can see and when . So yes I can tell you the results of all my tests right now - just take my word the G7 kicks ass , with a Metabones XL - Nikon Glass and Atomos Ninja Assassin all rigged up on my Gini Rigs cages it s a serious film making tool Now Colour grading is all in my eye - I shoot flat and add the colour in post - alot of my colour is on set I light always with coloured gels and get the look I want in camera - just on a flat profile so I get cleaner blacks with more detail - not crushed out

Awesome test Geoff did - try to guess the lens. Some are $70,000 glass, some are $600 glass. http://cinematography.net/CML-CMIR-Lens-Tests.html Also great article on clinincal glass look vs round - http://yannickkhong.com/blog/2016/2/23/the-problem-with-modern-optics Partly why I love the Leica R glass so much.

+1 italy is here..im ready for give donation and agree for hacking nx1

in terms of pure sharpness and detail in great lighting, am i the only one that thinks NX1 still beats the hell out of a6300? the a6300 image just doesn't seem to 'pop'.

This is slightly of topic but I wanted to share. Did a side by side of the NX1 and RX100iv and noticed how much sharper the NX1 (often to sharp). And when both cameras are at their default settings.. man its like a knife. Same settings on both, ND on both, no correcting, standard PP. UHD 25p frame grabs. (click for full res) RX100iv NX1

NX1 feels like the better bang for your buck unless you shoot a lot of nightclub stuff or wedding receptions. Or you could simply invest in faster glass.

Thank You! Lenses used were the Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 DC ART, Canon 70-200f/2.8L IS II USM and Metabones Speedbooster XL. Shot in 4K, downscaled to 1080p on a 1080p timeline in Premiere Pro.

Going to get mine on Thursday now, Sony had a delivery technical issue so they are coming in a few days late here. Looking forward to it. I do wish Sony would change their menus, ergonomics, skintones, colour, LOG profile, jello, banding, macroblocking, edge tearing, etc. quite a long list isn't it? You can be assured my coverage won't be a PR smoothie unlike ALL OTHER SITES SEEMINGLY IN EXISTENCE. Can I just say that Sony have some SUPERB PR people.

Yes you can use Luts in Photoshop. When you open a raw in Photoshop you will get the ACR window. At the bottom it will say "Adobe RGB (1998), 8bit, etc..." click on this. Now select 16bit, and also click "Open in Photoshop as Smart Objects". This simple step will give you the best quality and let you do RAW adjustments after opening the file in PS (just double click on the thumbnail on the layer window). Now you can make an Adjustment layer called "Color Lookup" which will let you select a lut. (you can do this without the first step)

Good news, bad news. Good news is that I have learned a lot about the srp( samsung reconfigureable processor) architecture. Bad news. It is very very very very complicated. Machine compiled c into binary. Unknown yet when it is loaded into the firmware and if the .cpp files that are listed are infact that, or just other hard ware controls So the srp is like an fpga in the way you can change what it does on the fly. It differs in the way that it uses VLIW instead of bits to do its magic. Reverse engineering the binary into something workable.. is possible, but time will tell if and how much can be changed. The plus side of a simple isp changing values in softwear can do something like what the gh2 hack did. The downside being you are stuck with the hardware. The plus side of the srp implementation.. Building a custom algorithm to..exchange the hevc codec with something else.. Could be possible. Unknown yet if the nr is a part of this or just a software implementation. Also if the rumors were true about the ml guys approaching samsung, this would be why it didnt happen. They dont release the srp compiler. One instance of them giving access to it at the SAIT school in Korea is all I could find. very very proprietary. But the dream for me of having a cheap 14bit 6.5k red competitor is what keeps me going. The confirmation of the UHS-II bus sweetens the deal. Going to investigate the possibility of a SD-SATA converter.. I wouldnt mind having a 1tb ssd attached to the back of the camera. TL:DR This camera is complex and things are not getting easier but still progression is being made.

Italian nx1 user number 3 is here! I'm ready to make a donation!

So far they've only managed a picture of Darren Aronofksy Too bad

If Digital Bolex got a picture of Wes Anderson holding the D16, people would go nuts.

So with all this debate aside, do you have one to post?

Ive shot with both at the same time and it's definitely the bmpcc that has the wierd form factor of the two. The D16 is the BMPCCii or URSA Micro imo. And its not just grade and lens. At least not in close ups, imo. I can get you tiff files with charts tomorrow. Have to sleep now.

Yeah, BMMCC, more like they Better Make Me Cameras, C'mon!

Ok I can't stop now: These are D16 Gold! (imo) Love the universe he has created.

Yeah, dunno. I appreciate the effort. Surely it's one of the better stuff of the DB I've seen of it, but still the Digital Bolex just doesn't jingle my bells somehow. I must be messed up like that. But dang, that The Universe of that mentioned fella on Vimeo... a pocket, a speedbooster and one lens (and a glidecam) and such awesome results. I don't know, maybe because it's gentler or something, but that's my kinda cookie. Nomnomnom, I do love me some Blackmagic with my milk.

One is available today, one is available tomorrow, one is available..... Love what Blackmagic is doing, just don't have the patience anymore to wait for a camera that was announced almost a year ago and was originally supposed to ship a few months after. They do this every year, wish they would just announce less and deliver more.

The original pocket is great as well. This guy's work is really nice. https://vimeo.com/101441424

Neutral is a picture profile. Just because it's not labelled as one doesn;t mean it's not a profile. A film scan overlay just provides grain. it can be overlayed with settings to not change the image colour or contrast. I wouldn;t have posted my sample if the film overlay had changed the image any more than film texture.

forum etiquette

I used to dial it down in sharpness and contrast etc. Now days.. nope. I shoot in Gamma DR but leave sharpness, saturation, contrast at default. Think the image is great.

I realize it's sharpening more than detail.. though I've seen some evidence there's an insane amount of detail in the nx1's 4k as well. but to me, the nx1's sharpness is way less of a defect that it can be in some other cameras. it usually isn't like an artifact to make it look shitty and videolike unless you're really punching in or in certain shooting situations. I'd like to see some side by sides by the nx1 users who soften it a bit to fix the bit of an issue. because even now, I hardly consider it a bad thing. it's a great image

To be honest, I got a little confused by the Cinematic/Filmic conversation that went on - I knew what they were trying to say, but they just weren't saying it! It's like people who go to Wikipedia, read the page & then think thats that - i know everything now. Or when students (yeah, I used to teach this stuff) would ask me whether they really had to read this or that book and then they'd go to Wikipedia, copy the half-arsed explanation down (not realising that I have a computer too) word for word & then get surprised that you fail them or mark them down! Language is there for a purpose, to enable people to express themselves properly, in order to be understood. The Language of Cinema is/can be difficult, but if you're going to use it, use it properly! (Sorry, bit a rant - not aimed at you Cinegain). I know what you mean about the DB & there are some nasty examples out there - especially when they've been coloured badly! Perhaps these examples of the DB might change your mind? In the right hands it can look awesome! Spike Lee: Someone else:

It's only a problem when people don't read between the lines and in context. Then there's nothing wrong. But of course, you're right. But I wouldn't worry about it too much. And to be honest, I think I might be the only one that really doesn't like the Digital Bolex look at all. Do love me them Blackmagics though.

I'm slowly forgetting about the A6300. :P And thinking about the BMMCC & G7 with a Pilotfly H2 + handle kit.

Have you seen this? http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?340808-Leeming-LUT-One-%96-the-best-LUT-for-the-Panasonic-GH4&p=1986618646#post1986618646 Maybe you/someone here can help out, seems he needs base material to get it going, but gots none.

Yes, Sony E. I'd personally take an NX1 for ergonomics, color, and battery life, but it depends more on your tastes and priorities than anything.

Are they made of gold? Same sensor in the gm1, you get three used for the price of a GH2

I bought my nx1 last June as an open box/refurb for 1085 body only. Using the samsung parts site, I got both of the S zoom lenses for ~$1500. So I'm in for less than 3 grand for my samsung NX stuff, with a focal range of 16-150 2.8 IS. Not advocating for anyone to do anything, but the value is undeniable. Hard to pass all that up.

Those are cool and all but there's just something magical about the gh2 image. And you could get 3 gh2s for the price of a new bmpcc!

Tough call. In part due to the excitement about the potential NX1 hack, and in part because I missed it, I picked up an NX1 recently. It was $2800 for the NX1 + 16-50 S, 50-150 S, 10-24, grip, batteries, and case. At that price, I could have had a D500 and kit lens, or just an S II, or just a lone f2.8 telephoto. The NX1 is clearly the value proposition here. But the S II is a monster of a camera with massive creative potential, and if you have legacy glass or a big piggy bank, is a great choice. You can run Zeiss primes stabilized on the S II. With native lenses like the 24-240mm, you can use 1080p crop modes (1.5x, 2.2x, or just digital zoom that is mostly lossless) to hit 500mm FOV. It's 1080p is demonstrably superior to the NX1. I actually like it's colors, skin tones in RAW stills and have a lot of success in LR - in video it's a bit tougher, but it's possible when you nail exposure. The biggest selling point, of course, is low light. Into the evening, you can shoot the S II at f8 and be cleaner than the NX1 at f2 - in light that the NX1 won't autofocus in. It's not an easy decision, and would be made easier if the NX1 had IBIS, or shot clean into ISO 6400, but it doesn't. Decisions, decisions...

Yeah thats a good deal! I would like to stay away from the price of the a7sii if i can. lol Hmmmmmm..

Here is a guide about how to use LUTs in Photoshop CS6 and over : http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-editing/color-lookup-cs6/

O.K., but 10-bit and 4:2:2 together are already seven league boots compared to ... (you know)

That is something that would be very simple to remove compared to what I just explained. A secondary task though, first we get to the good bits, and everything else is second. The way the srp even loads in is something that isnt well documented, let alone on a camera.

Exactly. I'm a hard-core Nikon user myself and love my D810, or for special tasks the D4 as well. But the NX1 is ergonomically perfect. Not too small, not too big - just right. Image quality is great. I wouldn't have thought it but currently I end up using this camera most often, even for stills... Even the smaller LX100 or the RX1R remain in the bag or on the shelf more often than I would have imagined before. Regarding batteries: I think there will be enough third party alternatives for some time to go. And lenses are my least worry. The small pancakes and the S line provide everything you need. If you want to play, the Nikon mount offerings (or Canon if you´re into this brand) via an adapter provide a whole new world of choices. Yes, manual but the really high end stuff from Zeiss is without AF as well. Focus peaking on and everything is fine. For the next couple of years, until Nikon will have cought up, for me this is the solution.

Well.... I have just had a frustrating attempt at communicating with the seller for this: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Miloboo-carbon-fiber-4-sections-microphone-Handheld-Grip-Rig-Support-Rod-Flash-Light-LED-Light-Boom/32332844915.html Because I wanted clarification on the tip used at the end of the boom pole (if I could run internal cabling through it, like on other Miloboo Z901 ones I've seen listed). First response: a single happy face emoji! :-o　 What the hell, that is no kind of response at all 　 Thinking that perhaps they did not understand me, I tried again but in Chinese (" 如果你觉得用英文不方便表达，也可以用中文。"). Second response: the single word "sorry". Huh, seriously? Hmmmmm..... I'll take this as a hint to buy from a different seller instead. Thus I feel I shall go with this one here instead: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-shipping-Miloboo-carbon-fiber-4-sections-microphone-Handheld-Grip-Rig-Support-Rod-Flash-Light-LED/32278111738.html

Wouldnt worry about it. They are still in stock and pop up used all the time. Im looking for a used 50-150 S now. Plan on spending $650. Or wait untill it hits sub $500.

Yeah I payed $1600 for the NX1, 16-50 S, 30/2, 16/2.4, 45/1.8 and an extra battery. And Im sure I could have gotten it cheaper. So image/dollar is definitely the NX1. Between the a7sii and a6300 would probably go a7sii if money wasnt an issue.

Funnily enough they discontinued Canon FD lenses in the 80's and they are still easy to get on eBay in 2016 so I wouldn't worry about anything NX1 related becoming 'unobtainable' any time soon, if anything it will just get cheaper, which is nice. The NX1 is by far the most pleasant to shoot with ergonomically. Feel in the hand is great. My hand and the A7S II have never got on very well. It doesn't quite feel as bad as clutching a bag of nails but it does feel like clutching a soulless badly designed camera body with fiddly badly placed buttons, for sure. NX1 fits like a glove and your hand wraps most comfortably around the most important controls. I even prefer it to a Canon 5D body and that says a lot. A6300 is cute, small, but still just as soulless and fiddly ergonomically as the A7S II. As for the image we'll have to wait and see... I am going to do a comparison with the NX1. I think for the money it is great. Unless you need the in-body stabilisation and headphone jack of the A7S II, then the A6300 will serve you just fine especially with Speed Booster and it can do 12,800 pretty comfortably from what I have seen of the early footage. I rarely go higher than that. NX1 meanwhile will give you better colour straight off the card, no fuss to grade, better ergonomics, top panel LCD, weather sealing and sharper 120fps... Super clean ISO 800. ISO 1600 ok. ISO 3200 starts to get bad. Your call

A7S II is contrast based AF, the A7R II is phase and contrast hybrid. Phase detect active with Canon lenses with the Metabones adapter on the latter, it can be very fast. Lack of native NX lenses, hmm... not really! S 16-50mm F2.0-2.8 OIS? S 50-150mm F2.8 OIS? 85mm F1.4? (It beats my Zeiss wide open) 30mm F2.0? Lovely cheap pancake 45mm F2.0? Again very cheap, light, fast and sharp! Those are the best ones... not a bad line up and covers 16-150 all at fast apertures. AF is best on the S premium zooms What else would you need? Plus you can adapt Nikon, Sony Alpha and a ton of other lenses to it with adapters.

there's not too much of an issue that'll be caused by the nx1 being discontinued. can't upgrade in the same line (ditch native lenses when you need a step up), no more legit firmware updates (off-chance of some awesome hacks on the way). nx1 is sharpened but detailed, hard to say either is better. if you've done your research, hard to say.. play with original files? maybe rent?