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I work in a rental house and see Alexas, Amiras and Minis fly off the shelves all day long while F55s and Dragons sit in their boxes. And it's only increased as the attention has turned to the newer models and the original Alexa has come down in price. People who might've once settled for a prosumer-style digital cinema camera like the C300 or F3 can now afford to hire an Alexa, and many do without a moment's hesitation. It's the only camera that really operates on a "what-you-see-is-what-you-get basis". The Canons come close, and the Reds and Sonys are a hideous mess of LOG profiles, LUTs and complicated menus. And one thing I can say for certain is that the Alexa is the only camera that is dead-on with its ISOs. ISO 800 on the Alexa is a true ISO 800, seven stops over and under middle-gray. The Canons and Sonys are somewhat faster. The FS7 in particular is way off. I would reckon that ISO 800 on that camera is closer to 1600. Meanwhile, you can take the Alexa out of the box, hit LOG-C on 2K Prores, pull up the Rec.709 LUT on your monitor, light the scene using your light meter like they did in the good old days, and go home with an image that can look good without requiring any special color-correction sauce beyond gamma and color tweaks. And it holds up on a 40-foot screen, And it never breaks or fails. At my workplace, we practically never receive customer support calls regarding Alexas. They come back in perfect condition and our technicians turn 'em around in a matter of minutes. Meanwhile, these Reds are making my co-workers tear their hair out. Simplicity, reliability and raw image quality independent of specs and numbers is where it's at. Arri gets this, which is why they keep winning despite the exorbitant cost of their products.

One's really got to be shortsighted to not appreciate the performance you're getting from such a camera at such a price point. Honestly, it's kind of ridiculous how good and cheap this is. In my mind Its a value on par with the BMPCC that was sold @$500 awhile back.

My trick is to hold the camera at like chest/neck level and walk around like that and just act like I am pondering something then when you do bring it up to your eye no one is like WOW a camera everyone was kinda already expecting it lol. Also another small trick that helps me is I push rec before I bring the camera up (NOTE NX1 you need to make sure EVF is on first ) for some reason in my head I feel like its less of a "now I'm recording" moment and I tend to act more casual about the whole thing lol.

Got my GX80 yesterday. Switched it to 30p/60p and did a few test shots. Image stabilization is incredible. Used the 14-42mm and the collapsible 12-32 vor the first shots and it s really amazing. Now handheld shots really become usable for me. Continuous AF is for sure not as reliable as on the a6300 or the 70/80D but that is OK for me. Tab to Focus works can be used in two ways which is not really described in the manual: Set Continuous AF to OFF. Set AF to AF-S: During recording or before, tab on the screen to select the area you want to focus at, push the shutter button halfway to engange focussing. Set Continuous AF to OFF. Set AF to AF-C: During recording or before, tab on the screen to select the area you want to focus at and the camera performs a focus transition from the current focus setting to the point selected (no shutter button action involved). The (not really expected but) appreciated behaviour is that the camera only does one focussing action. If you move the frame and your focus selection point to a blurry part of the image the camera will not try to get focus again. Probably because "Continuous AF" is OFF. From what I saw in the first shots the transitions are pretty smooth, especially for a CDAF system.

I found it easier to shoot public if you wear an uniform or look like a tourist, I dunno why but people just automatically just ignore you. You occasionally get children coming up to you though who wants to be on television, after a while its gets VERY annoying but its not like you can yell at them in the public.

Sure. Bought mine here, but it's the "German" model of the GX80 in France... not sure what that was about. They seemed serious and sent it quickly. They have a shop only about 2 hours from where I live. That's why I went with them and they're the only ones in France to have it. Do what you like... not an endorsement. https://www.digit-photo.com/Appareils-photo-hybrides-numeriques-aFA0090/PANASONIC-Lumix-DMC-GX80-Boitier-Nu-Silver-rPANADMCGX80EFS.html

It depends what you're after. Burger King is still king if you're after a burger worse than MacDonald's but still sort of edible. I feel that the Alexa is indisputably the best general purpose A camera still, but others surpass it (some far surpass it) in specific respects that might tip one's choice in another direction. But yeah, there are so many ways the Alexa is ahead of everything else in terms of look, workflow, reliability, and Arri Log's saturation/gamma curves that it's taken a while for anything to catch up and nothing has. That said, remarkably few of its strengths can't be faked cheaply with some ingenuity. Professional tools are largely built on reliability and ease of use, but they also require a larger crew to operate but also need to move faster because time is money. One really talented person with a (good) dSLR can do a lot more than one really talented person with an Alexa or Red IMO. But you'd need to be REALLY talented. Remember, Mad Max was using 5D Mark IIs. The image quality wasn't great, but the images were. The F35 is nice, but it's not even in the same league in terms of DR. Good color, though, very very sharp 1080p. The F35 and C300 have the sharpest 1080p, but due to how they interpolate by skipping Bayer. Film competes with the Alexa but not for workflow, it's even harder to use. I've worked with the Alexa regularly since it was released and nothing has yet to convince me I want to work with anything else. But I work in post, and when I shoot personal videos without much money I always choose a smaller camera. There's this myth that not having the best camera is getting in the way. That's so wrong. The best camera–say, an IMAX camera–gets in the way the most. The worst camera, say a dSLR or a go pro, gets in the way the least, and lets you focus on content. So yeah, the Alexa is best still. But if you're seriously thinking of using one, you'll have the money to run tests hopefully to determine if it's best for your needs. The GH4 and C100 get shockingly close for much less money. The A7SII gets WAY better for low light, and with a good grade and an A7SII you could blow away even Alexa owners. Too bad the colors and codec need work.

More difficult though if your camera is a canon rebel and you look like you're twelve, haha

To be fair, that moire is only appearing in 1080p with pretty harsh circumstances. And the a6300 has a really soft image at 1080p. Haha, we will nitpick at anything these days huh.

Yeah, yours was an opinion i was hoping to see here, based on some of those images you shared. Wow. But still, frickin Arri, man. Maybe once it's decided we're only okay with reeeeal 4k, some Alexas will drop down to like the... $2000 range........ :D

Waiting for your video...

I have both the GX80 and A6300, I much prefer the Panasonic so far.

There's been quite a lot of people comparing the A6300 and the GX80. Here are my thoughts: I considered the A6300 back when it was introduced, but I concluded that it just had too many problems (they have been mentioned before in this thread). The killer for me was the price in mainland Europe... for some reason, Sony wanted us to pay a much higher price. I thought the G7 or even a 3-year old GX7 would have been a better value choice. I ended up getting a GX7, but the GX80 was announced; so, I sent the GX7 back and got the GX80. I'm quite happy with it now. I'm sure the A6300 is a competent camera for stills and video, but at that price with all of its problems? No thank you. One could also make an argument in favor of MFT for the lens choices too. Hope that help anyone looking to choose.

Good to know, thanks. Bayer does better aspirins than camera sensors, I suppose.

That's a problem with every bayer camera.

The only other monitor I've used and can compare it to is the RED 5" monitor, which it beats soundly for both resolution and features. Trying to pull focus on that thing was a nightmare.

I shot with the D-20 back in the day when it was flagship new (for a music video)...lovely image and having an optical viewfinder was pretty darn sexy. D-20 is the Alexa's grandfather. D-21 was newer internal board and not a huge leap from D-20. Saw one on eBay sell recently for the cost of a 5DmkIII.

This is why I like the UM46k so much. Set to Film mode with Rec 709 LUT, and shoot. It's nearly impossible to botch exposure or color.

Thanks for this link! Canceled the preorder @amazon (they didn't even know when they'd receive stock) and bought it there: they have it in stock and it will be shipped on the 30th of May. If I'm lucky I may also get it before vacations! I had already resigned to getting it later in June. So, thanks again. Also @wobba, judging by reviews, the AF is excellent on stills and acceptable on video. So I'm not sure what you're talking about? If you're talking about video, looks like it's good enough for candid/family shooting, and that's it. I think any serious videographer would pull focus manually anyway.

I'll go out on a limb here and say the GX80 doesn't "suck" at anything. AF is almost instantaneous in stills... needs work in video, but it beats a long list of other cameras in AF in video.

Unless you need AF in which case GX85 sucks.

I did the same. Sold 2 DSLR's and an RX100 to buy the GX80 and a lens. Mainland Europe has the best deal right now at 599 Euros body only. I'm quite happy, but you should be aware that the GX80 initially feels a little small and fiddly compared to a DSLR IMO. I got over that quickly and it felt great after a few days. There's so much tech in this camera to satisfy many people. You won't regret it. Welcome to the forum!

You're certainly right about the 5D2/3 raw, it's a thing of beauty, some of the best 1080p you can get. If you want even more dynamic range take the OLPF / AA filter out of the 5D3. Should give you an extra stop in the shadows and the colour balance shift is actually quite pleasing, but would be easy to correct from the raw files. I'm thinking of getting a 5D3 again, in a way I do miss that image. I have the 5D2 and it's very good but the 5D3 seems to be where the current ML development effort is centred.

Cute bird I find the noise a lot better in 1080p mode with Canon LOG enabled, you can even go up to 6400 with that combo. In the other picture profiles not to much, 1600 is the max, 800 better. It's just not a good comparison anyway. The A6300 is a completely different kind of tool. It's an interchangeable lens camera for starters. The XC10 is a 10x zoom camcorder designed to be used handheld for the most part, whereas the A6300 is an APS-C stills camera that just happens to have a sensor which shoots very nice 4K video, it won't give a user experience to match the Canon, nor is it quite the shot-getter without the fuss but it will give you the look of Super 35 and all those different looks from various lenses. The XC10's lens is a good all-rounder but nothing special aside from it's small size and useful 10x zoom range.

Noice!!! Some of your best NX1 footage.

Don't count on it. I've learned over the years that's it's just a waste of time to get your hopes up over Canon. I think that's why you see such 'canon hate' on this website. I assume it is brand that the majority of us all started on, or have definitely used at one time or another. We all know that if they REALLY wanted to, they could easily make "the perfect hybrid camera" that everyone of us wants, and they could do it without even breaking a sweat. But they won't. I'm sure the 5D4 will be a modest upgrade over the mark iii, canon fanboys will eat it up, and the rest of will be left feeling cheated once again.

In this price range if you want 4k, its basically pick your poison. A6300 has bad RS and funky crops with 1080p. This has moire, no audio input and low bitrates in 1080p. NX500 has a crazy crop, no EVF and Samsung left it for dead.

https://vimeo.com/168318112

Have had some time with the ALEXA mini and it's the best I've worked with. Color, highlight roll-off, etc.

Oh bloody hell. Now you've got me interested in ML 5D mk II. I've never used it for raw video. Kind of like the idea of using an "old dinosaur", adds to it in some emotional way. The manufacturers have skipped making 1080p near perfect in favour of brittle, highly compressed 4K images. What we are getting is insanely high resolution images with poor compression artefacts - when what we need is lovely 1080p with thick, chunky images. Ive got other raw cameras on my radar, and maybe this 5D II for fun!

I think the reason nikon raw images don't fall apart as much as canon's is because the shadows are cleaner, as soon as you start going crazy with clarity,etc... you bring up a lot of noise. But if you overexpose, or expose to the right on the Canons you can get a lot out of those files (nikon cameras don't like overexposure, I made the test long time ago and it screws up too fast compared to canon.

Alexa is king, Alexa Mini is queen...Amira is the prince. VariCam is probably one or two generations away from entering the castle with it's sword drawn...but King Arri will probably put stop to that revolting nonsense. F65 is a Knight at the round table If the big boys stopped waving their resolution and iso performance stats around - and instead worried more about colour rendition and simply a 'nice looking image', then Arri would have a contender. As it is however - nobody understands what a filmic image should be, or how crews are meant to work around a camera - quite like Arri does.

Another UM46K DNG: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jmwoz3lykygdksx/Blackmagic%20URSA%20Mini_1_2016-05-12_0606_C0021_000002.dng?dl=0

^Down periscope!

In the description it says that he voluntarily did not correct the images.. go figure! Quite the charming video, though, and lovely playing. Some shots are quite detailed and sharp (though less than what I've seen from the GX80/85 until now), others are just a blurry mess (like the one at 3:04). What gives? How would you compare the gx80's sharpness and detail in 4k video against your GH4? Is it better, worse or same? And now a quick question for those who already have this camera: is grading with the natural profile that much of a far cry from the CineLike? Cause I read this camera doesn't have a Cine profile, and I was wondering whether this can prove or not a real dealbreaker for someone who wants to shoot some good video too, although using it mainly as stills camera. I have reserved a GX80 from Amazon.de (btw, if you're interested, lowest GX80 prices in Europe, as far as I've seen) and it's bound to ship next month, but I'm still researching like crazy, even though I've already read a lot on this camera and I'm 95% sure of wanting to do that DSLR-> Mirrorless (m43) jump, especially with this camera, which looks to be a pretty good piece of equipment all around. Also, great article, this also made me discover Zoo Quest! Great stuff. And since this is my first post here, hello everyone.

Im excited to buy an mark ii when the mark Iv drops. I know a lot of people who skipped the upgrade to the mark iii because of the not to big changes. I think the mark ii will hit <500$ mark.

Nice one Tito! Overall I'd say I agree that story is far more important than lenses/ gear. If it's captivating you're not focusing on the quality too much. I think that the night shots also helped hide some of the lenses imperfections better than broad daylight would have. There were a few shots in there that I thought "well that looks really soft", but as I said it didn't stop me from watching it. At a guess I would say it was the small Century, but I couldn't be sure on that (I don't own any of them).

My Yashica 28mm also has about 270 degrees throw Hi, just looked and it is actually a Promaster 28mm f2.8 - not a Vivitar! Its supposed to be a rebrand of the Sigma mini wide II ... Good long focus throw

Finally got mine through. I've done a few blind test shots with some old Angeniuex glass and the picture quality is superb. It's going to be a shitter to rig properly though...

Yes, if you turn a minus into a plus, you're basically fishing for justification. Being honest gets things done.

It seems 4K is guaranteed by the trusted sources. Lack of Clog is pretty much guaranteed too, but other nice profiles will be available. TBH I've shot c-log in anger once in the years I've had C100s and that was with external recorder, as long as there's as something like VisionColor it'll have nice options. The biggest issue is the lack of usability software, like peaking and zebras and so on. If it doesn't have these basics, it'll be a pretty poor choice for many video situations. Buying it because you hope Magic Lantern will hack it is not good for anyone. It tells Canon it's fine to not bother adding essential features and it leaves the purchaser with a half functioning camera and fingers crossed. Canon apologists are becoming a bit like Apple fanboys, who throw themselves on the altar everytime they're given a kick in the nuts and tell everyone how "it's actually a good thing it has no ports and has half the power of a PC and cost me twice as much". I can hear it now "I actually like not having peakeing, I can work hard to focus, I don't need proper video controls, this frees my creativity to think about the image". You're not fooling anyone, theoretical strawman fanboy I just invented. Buying a camera is not the time to turn the other, already rather sore, cheek.

Yeah it's too easy to get locked into that "grass is greener" game… although I have to say I shoot an A7sII at work most days and for me it's not all it's cracked up to be, ergonomics are horrible, everyone knows about the menus, battery life way worse than nx, bloody awful screen… it just feels soulless. For me the nx1 is basically the perfect camera ergonomically. So comfortable to hold and easy to shoot with. The only thing the sony's really have going is the low light and of course it's a little bit easier to achieve shallow dof, but to be honest with fast glass I pretty much never have to go above 1600, ever. Who actually NEEDS 25,000+?! And why are they only filming in pitch black caves?! I do love (and frequently use) the NX1 for stills as well, but lately I've been batting around the idea of picking up a full frame just to utilize all my FF lenses the way they're meant to be used… which means mirrorless over dslr, to adapt all that glass, so I've looked at used A7r prices, but then it sucks to buy a camera that sucks for video, just in case, so then… gah… round and round it goes.

The lack of C-log on the 1dx ii is a pretty clear indication that they are committed to protecting the c-line of cameras.

The Micro, unlike the Pocket, will let you record in "BMD Film" while sending the Rec 709 "Video" signal with increased contrast and saturation over HDMI to your monitor of choice. So no, you do not need a monitor with LUT capabilities.

I bought an "indian" one when DSLRs started really taking off, figured I'd eventually replace it. Still use it every week though, guess I got lucky -it was like $250. Look for: At least two stages & at least one rotates; Height adjustable; Detachable flags that don't have gaps between the flags and the main hood assembly - and hopefully the front flag stays put when used without the side flags; A swing-away front is really handy; If you use different sized lenses (DSLR style shooting), I found it's easier to just get screw-on rubber lens hoods to seal the lenses against the matte box opening vs. nun's knickers or swapping out foam donuts. If you use cinema lenses it's not such an issue. (You usually need something though - the first time you get back to your NLE and see the reflections of focus gears in your ND - yeah, that bites!)

A bad workman always blames his tools... inproper wb settings and poor exposure. get them right and you wouldn;t have had a problem

Yea, Sony are dropping out more cameras than girls off the estate drop kids... It's hard to keep up. As Dave said, didn't the RX10 II get launched with the last a7R II? That was, what, June 2015? How can they justify that?

agreed completely!! You want the best camera and lens and lighting and bla bla bla, for the job, but whatever you have or get, make that sucker shine! Don't just say, "oh I suck, I give up, no way." just figure it all out. Maximize the strengths, minimize the flaws.

RX10-II users - can anyone give me a rundown of codecs? Are these common formats that can be dragged from the card clip-by-clip (like H264, etc)? Or more like the AVCHD style, where the entire card has to be read and translated vs. a folder full of accessible shots? Any issues along the lines of Samsung/H265 encoding, or is this footage easier to access? (I shoot a lot of Nikon DSLR and I can open clips right from the card to preview in QT player, and drag my favorites to an MPEG Streamclip batch, very easy. My "event" cameras are Panasonics, where I have to go through log & transfer in FCP to get prores clips, similar to C300 footage, etc. Those are my two transcoding paths I use daily).