Leaderboard

In terms of combining the bits together, you would only add the bit depths if they didn't overlap in DR. For example, if I took two 14-bit readouts, one a stop below the other, then 13 of the 14 bits from each read-out would be duplicate data, and my effective bit-depth is really only 15-bits. So in order to understand the total bit-depth you'll need to know the overlap range in the sensor. That would also be further complicated if they weren't offset by a whole number of stops, which would place the values of one readout between the values of the other, providing more bit-depth but less increase in DR. If you really want to understand this, try modelling things in excel and graphing them. That should give you a more intuitive sense of what is going on. In terms of there being a certain quality in the older sensors, this guy has done lots of tests comparing the older BM cameras to the P4K and Ursa. https://www.youtube.com/user/joelduarte27/videos My overall impression is that most people don't utilise anything like the potential of their cameras, and that the difference between what images most people get and the images that you see from an Alexa or RED is more down to user skill (in terms of lighting, composition, camera operating, and the complete image pipeline in post) than it is about any camera limitations that might exist.

I am going to do a comparison soon. Any other suggestions for tests welcome. https://www.eoshd.com/news/does-dual-native-iso-on-the-panasonic-s5-beat-the-sony-a7s-iii-in-low-light

This. My own 'aesthetic' choice is for the camera to remain static at all times. I do not want it to move as much as 1mm. My clients probably wouldn't be, but I am hyper-aware of camera movement in anything I watch. If it's following a character, OK, that's 'natural' as are several other techniques, but for myself, I just want the scene to tell the story. If that makes sense.

New blog post https://www.eoshd.com/news/pro-camcorder-ergonomics-are-overdue-a-big-change/

I agree. I had the EVA1 for 2 years, which I gradually got frustrated with as it had a hideous way of changing the frame rates. The camera would have to reboot and sometimes crashed. Then, the crew would be waiting impatiently to get the next shot. I’m disappointed to see this in the FX6, which is otherwise an excellent entry for Sony. I agree with the huge amount of buttons being a pain in the ass. I agree that it’s very silly to rig your camera for the sake of rigging. I like to use it as bare bones as possible. It’s more liberating, speeds up the process and allows more creativity. I don’t give a s*it what the client thinks, I’ll do it my way. The C70 is a massive step in the right direction. For my use, it’s simply the best video camera design I’ve ever experienced. It’s just very quick, nimble and easy to use. It doesn’t reboot when you change to slow motion. You can do it in seconds! Also the sticky out screen bit is fine, and my battery doesn’t stick out. I’d love to see the FX6 in a C70 body!

I had the original 4.6k ( so with a Dual Gain Fairchild sensor) and a a7rii at the same time few years ago, the a7rii actually had more dynamic in the highlight in slog2. Of course the codecs on the 4.6k were a lot more solid, but nowadays with 10 bits 4.2.2 in most cameras, something like a a7siii do clearly better than a ursa mini pro. Out of the camera, the images from Blackmagic are more pleasing because of the colour science , but purely in term of data quality Sony sensors are doing much better. If you know what you are doing in post you can make very pleasing images out of Sony cameras, the problem with Sony is that their official LUT are just crap overall ( the most usable one is the typeA IMO), and most of the profiles have way to much contrast making the images look very harsh. The real value in an Alexa for me is that you can put whatever lens on it, shoot log C, just slap the official lut and it look great, you pay more for the camera, but you could technically pay less in post.

Leica have a broad range of L mount APS-C primes and zooms. And, yes, they are as expensive as you might suspect them to be. If not more actually. I have the 18-56mm as I needed something with AF for the T/SL for some development work and it performs very well but is obviously pretty slow. And even used with some serious haggling it cost me £650, which is a ridiculous price for a "kit" lens. I had been eyeing the 23mm f2 and waiting for one to come up at a reasonable price but the Sigma primes have killed that notion. Particularly as you can buy all three of the Sigmas for the price of the Leica and still have a lot of change left.

L For pretty much most people this would make no sense (using crop lenses on FF bodies) and whilst I moved to the S5 from the XT3 for full frame stills, I will continue shooting 4k 50p for everything with the S5. Why? Partly so I can slow any piece of footage really easily but also because my focal length for video is mostly anything from 75-150mm in FF terms. This less than 300g lens gives me 85mm @ f1.4 which for me indoors, is just about perfect and with the full frame Panasonic 85mm f1.8 for outdoor use, I'll get something more like 125-130mm. A lot of wedding videographers seem to like using a 70-200mm f2.8 for outdoor stuff, especially ceremonies etc, but these are 1-1.5kg lenses. I know I will be happier with the sub 400g 85mm f1.8 (when it arrives) and with 4k, reasonable latitude to punch in further if needs be, ie, I can skip lugging a 70-200 around. I'm pretty much a prime person anyway and position myself based on certain focal lengths instinctively through use of said focal lengths. If/when I use zooms, it tends to be as 'twin lens primes', ie, at the wide end or the long end but never anything in between. This is why I was considering the Sigma 50-100mm f1.8 because for my needs, it's a 'twin prime lens' of 75mm and 150mm in FF terms. Except it weights exactly half a ton and then there is still the adaptor to consider... My experience of such weight on a freestanding monopod is the taller it gets, the less stable it becomes and the danger is toppling and just moving it around all day is takes it's toll. Back to the Sigma 56 though, as far as I am aware, the trinity of; 16, 30 and 56 are the only native L mount APSC crop lenses? I will get the 16 next Spring, purely for dancing. A 24mm equivalent f1.4 is perfect for that for me and I will probably pick up the 30mm also to complete the trinity, for static evening speeches in the dark other than a few candles, which some clients like to give me to work with! I will have the 56 in a few days so look forward to testing it. YouTube is full of reviews and tests of this lens on Sony crop bodies and M4/3 bodies but basically nothing on L Mount, but even from the Sony stuff, it looks perfect for my needs.

A crop is just a crop whether in camera or in post. There is no other voodoo going on.

I feel like there is a crowd for these videos here. Apologies for the shameless self promotion though.

I'm actually not so sure about DR anymore. I compared the HLG mode vs Cine-D (709 equivalent) modes on my GH5 and the HLG has a couple of stops more DR (IIRC) than the Cine-D, but in real-life the differences weren't that much, even in extreme situations. The only time I missed some DR in my comparison shots was when the sun was in the shot, but even then it wasn't much. I used to shoot and think about DR in terms of making sure nothing was clipped, and then grading it to control everything. Now I realise that I don't care about things with that much DR. If I'm shooting inside and the outside is blown out then I can choose which thing I expose on, and if I care about the relationship between both then typically I can get a silhouette, and times when a face is important on the person inside (maybe they're looking out) then their face will be much better exposed and I can get the outside and their face. I'm not saying there are no situations where extra DR matters, but I'm saying that with, say, the 9-10 stops of DR that most cameras have now in 709 modes, that's enough for most situations. Also, the situations where 12 stops isn't enough, you might find that the 15 stops of high-end cameras is also not enough. Things with high DR that are common like fire, welding, the sun, any night scene where there is no ambient artificial light (eg, moonlight with torches, or moonlight with headlights) etc will be more than 15 stops of DR, so there's no point lusting after an Alexa in those situations either. In terms of lighting, I think maybe you're underestimating how much skill is involved in getting the highest quality shots that top-end shows and movies have. Give someone who is clueless an unlimited lighting budget (and an Alexa and great cine glass) and you'll still get something that looks awful. Lighting budgets only make a difference after you have someone with the skill to know what to do with them.

Yep. Money well spent on lighting, lens, and the training or time to master those. Camera bodies really are the least important thing for most people.

I'm actually excited about the cam. I think it's the least expensive FF interchangeable pro videocamera ever, not counting the Z cam FF model? The latter does not include a monitor or XLR handle, so the price difference is actually not that much between the two once you add those expenses. As of of right now you can purchase the FX6 for USD$7K with a 24-105 Sony lens. That's a huge price difference from older FF pro videocamera models from less than 5-10 years ago where Arri and Red were practically the only players in town. I'm not a Sony fanboy, quite the contrary, but this thing opens a new market for prosumers and videographers who are not cine buffs and don't want/need to spend 10K on extra accesories to start shooting.

I really only film in 10 bit when I am doing commercial or narrative stuff where I'll push the image hard. 8 bit is more than enough for basic little tweaks for my corporate and event work. I love 10 bit, it's why I went with the GH5 to begin with, but I think a lot of people/projects don't really need it. Most clients don't see the difference anyway! Maybe I'm just being silly though!

^^^^^ Sounds like potentially the best plan. I am potentially thinking about getting a GH4 or G7 as a B-cam now. I wonder if Sage's Alexa lut would work decently well with the older Cine-D

That electronic ND is the best though, really wish it was in every camera.

@KnightsFan I'm far from an expert but the approach that I have taken (and I'm pretty sure aligns to what I was advised to do) was to calibrate the monitors in the OS so that all apps get the calibration applied, but I'm on Mac so it could well be quite different for you. I take a slightly different approach of having a preset node in Resolve that I append to the node tree, take the screen grab, then remove the node again. I've taken multiple shots and the brought them up in the UI and compared them to the Resolve window and found the match to be acceptable. @Oliver Daniel The other thing I forgot to mention about colour accuracy is to get a bias light that will provide a neutral reference. I purchased one from FSI https://www.shopfsi.com/BiasLights-s/69.htm which is just a LED strip that gets stuck to the back of your monitor and shines a neutral light onto the wall behind your monitor like this: The wall behind my monitor has black sound panels so I just pinned up some A4 paper for the light to reflect off. I figured you can always rely on reflex! There's all sorts of other tricks to getting a neutral environment, but probably the most important aspects are to calibrate your monitor to 100nits and 6500K, to get a bias light, to match the ambient lighting to the bias light (which is an accurate reference) and to ensure that the ambient light isn't falling onto the monitor and that it's quite dark compared to the brightness of your monitor. I used my camera as a light meter to measure how bright the ambient light was, but if you calibrate your monitor and pull up an 18% grey then match your ambient light to that then you should be good. Professional colourists talk about getting paint that is exactly neutral grey (which is available and very expensive) but once again, it's diminishing returns.

I'm fine with Mac, I have no problems with it. I have a whole business ecosystem around it. All the apps I've bought are Mac. I've used FCP for 13 years. I'm happy with it and making platform changes isn't a priority whatsoever. I also don't like Windows OS. I get no pleasure using it. Sorry to disappoint you.

I use FCP and have done for 13 years. I'm not using a PC, ever. Sorry.

That's what I like about the Mac/iOS ecosystem, the final nail in the windows coffin for me was running a digital media production program with 30 workstations on the Adobe suite. Every single day we were diagnosing problems with software/hardware compatibility that kept surfacing. It never ended, even with all windows, Adobe and hardware drivers up to date. It just got to be too much of a drain on resources. We switched to Macs when the slimmer iMac's were introduced and just about every one of those issues disappeared. Not having to address compatibility with every damn component under the sun makes for a much more streamlined and efficient system. I don't care about any of the cost/performance debates - that's all white noise I just tune out, everything integrates beautifully across all my devices allowing me to get stuff done faster with less headaches. The M1 takes it to another level. After the usual iPhone 'S' updates next year to the 12s, hopefully the M1 refresh (M2?) and the next mobile overhaul will fully integrate all device lines. Cheers Chris

I stopped using any IS for my real estate GH5 gimbal work. I just turn it all off, I shoot 60FPS and stabilize in post if needed. At least for the MFT sensor size I found I could get much better results this way. I also spent many hours tweaking my Ronin S settings and perfecting my ninja walk. What I have learned after many years of shooting real estate videos is that you literally should slow every movement to nearly a crawl, especially pans and walks. If you don't start out super slow with every movement you will regret something about the footage later. By moving super slow you will not need IS at all as long as your gimbal settings are optimal. I then use speed ramps and 60FPS to control the actual speed of the footage. You can always speed up footage, you can't always remove instability or slow down the footage enough to make it smooth. But if you start super slow and focus on stability you have much more flexibility in post. For really large properties I've seen people on YouTube use things like skateboards, etc.....to try to remove the up/down bouncing, but if you perfect your ninja walk and go super slow or use speed ramps Resolve can even remove the Z axis movement. The other mistake people make is when they speed ramp real estate footage they only go to 200% or 500%, that's a mistake, that just magnifies any instability that is already there; if you are going to speed ramp do it right.....jump to 2000% or higher then add the motion blur FX and suddenly your footage is buttery smooth; then drop the ramp down to 50% since you shot 60FPS and it looks great. Obviously don't over use this technique and its better for larger houses or commercial properties; for smaller ones I use a mixture of a monopod for pans, tilts, and detail shots, and only a little gimbal work and jump cuts to go from room to room. But back to the S5, I haven't shot any real estate with it and really don't know what lens I would use if I were to shoot one tomorrow. I feel like the 16-35 EF Canon lens that I have would be too front heavy for the gimbal. It would be great if Panasonic released a 14mm F1.8 prime lens for landscape/real estate use.