Leaderboard

If you stare at them for hours and hours then you start to notice differences and they start to look normal. That's how all the YT "cinematic" content now looks nothing like cinema. I just watched Kill Bill 1 again, and yeah, it might as well be a different universe... When the people who can create any image they like with virtually unlimited budget create images like these - contrasty and punchy and not sharp in the slightest, then the people who are pixel peeing the 6K cameras aren't even playing the same game.

I had a faulty GX80 showing me a message a few seconds after power on: "Please Turn Camera Off and Then On Again". I knew it was the ibis failing because only one part of the sensor was static and the other part was very wobbly. So I dismantled my camera following this tutorial until I reached the 10th step. Once I had the ibis+sensor out of the camera, I only had to remove 3 screws and to separate the 2 flex of the sensor. Then, I realized one of the tree electromagnets had no continuity, and added some drop of tin to join the broken copper wire. And it's fixed and working again. I am so happy! I include an image of the point that was failing

They are not even dreaming of the same game, nor the craft, the passion or the work connected to a 3min narrative or a short experimental visual etude.

But how much of that is due to relatively small differences in brightness, contrast and saturation (all of which can be adjusted in post and usually in-camera by tweaking the picture profiles)? We are all used to colours changing due to natural lighting variation, and most people are drawn to bright, colourful, vibrant scenes - which is why the 'standard' profile on cameras is often relatively high in contrast and saturation to produce 'punchy' looking stills and video. When comparing cameras (if I'm thinking about buying one), I'm much more concerned about unnatural image distortions, like aliasing, moire (especially the false-colour variety), compression artefacts (e.g. banding and blockiness) and noise - because those can be distracting and not as easily dealt with later.

DR of course is not world leading.... In less-than-ideal light is not great, but I would say better than the 1 inch that is surprising. You can see from the motion blur that probably it was 1/60 or less (no ND of course), but still some details in me and the bike.. Compared to 1 inch: In quality is definitely a big step forward, I honestly did not expect this much. I think a combination of more pixel, double bitrate and improvement in processing made it possible. Here an iPhone 15 Pro Max 4k screen grab....

If you're looking for SOOC color, you probably want a decent amount of SOOC noise reduction. If you're working on a project which will have reasonable post-production work done, you want the least (or no) noise reduction in camera. Tools like the denoiser in Resolve, Neat Video, and Topaz Video AI give a better result as well as giving you a lot more control of the trade-offs of noise vs lost details and plastic/wax skin.

Below is an approximate comparison of transfer curve for various Log and Sony's three versions of HLG. From the Bolex PDF above: The three versions of HLG that Sony cameras support (from https://xtremestuff.net/sony-and-hybrid-log-gamma-hlg/ ) - HLG3 (upper curve) is the closest to the Rec. 2100 standard : A chart of various Log formats from https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/64243940 (note the 3 EV spread in the high EV limit between the various curves). The highest DR curves look to be C-Log2, S-Log3 and V-Log - but of course they do that by being flatter in the important mid-range area i.e. fewer levels per EV, increasing the chance of banding if pushed too far in post. Note this chart is -10 to +10 EV vs. IRE 0 to 110%, the other two are -8 to +8 EV vs. 10-bit digital code values.

im going to be very honest, i think its crazy you can see the difference between cameras with their stock 709 lut. To me they all look samey, boring and bland.

I should have qualified my comment to say that it only related to my personal preference using 10-bit HLG and OMLog400 from the OM-1 - I've never used HLG or Log from other cameras. I'd actually prefer to shoot in a modified version of one of the standard picture profiles on the OM-1, but they are not available in 10-bit mode - HLG or Log are the only choices. It's interesting how different the log transfer curves can be on different brands and cameras (scroll down the pages to the step chart images) e.g. OM-1 - https://www.optyczne.pl/59.3-Inne_testy-OM_System_OM-1_-_test_trybu_filmowego_Użytkowanie.html GH6 - https://www.optyczne.pl/62.3-Inne_testy-Panasonic_Lumix_GH6_-_test_trybu_filmowego_Użytkowanie.html A6700 - https://www.optyczne.pl/79.3-Inne_testy-Sony_A6700_-_test_trybu_filmowego_Użytkowanie.html FX3 - https://www.optyczne.pl/46.3-Inne_testy-Sony_FX3_-_test_trybu_filmowego_Użytkowanie.html R7 - https://www.optyczne.pl/65.3-Inne_testy-Canon_EOS_R7_-_test_trybu_filmowego_Użytkowanie.html C70 - https://www.optyczne.pl/48.3-Inne_testy-Canon_EOS_C70_-_test_kamery_Użytkowanie.html S5ii - https://www.optyczne.pl/70.3-Inne_testy-Panasonic_Lumix_S5_II_-_test_trybu_filmowego_Użytkowanie.html XH2 - https://www.optyczne.pl/66.3-Inne_testy-Fujifilm_X-H2_-_test_trybu_filmowego_Użytkowanie.html

Unfortunately, it is a consumer device. @kye I agree with you that they should do a pro model, ideally dual 1 inch, SD UHS-III, 800+ Mbits, 10 bit LOG and better DR. With the revival of VR (Vision Pro, Quest 3) there may be more demand for VR180 and 360 content that may push Insta to create a pro model and maybe even 180 3D one.... time will tell.... Anyway, finally there is a noticeable step forward in quality after years of stagnation....

Don't get me wrong, I WANT these things to be good. If they could make a 360 camera that was high-quality enough then it would be useful for filming in very busy situations and you could crop out the interesting moments in post. The issue is that even if they had 27K resolution, the fact they only have 200Mbps means that any crop that isn't an extreme wide angle just isn't good enough. I mean, 12Mbps of h265 is similar to 24Mbps of h264, but seriously... imagine that someone released a camera in 2024 that was 24Mbps! ....and if you want a camera angle tighter than that? You're practically pixel-peeping. I'm not even asking for much - V90 SD cards are common these days and they can write at 720Mbps. Having an EXTREME PRO mode in the camera that has a maxed out bitrate wouldn't be that hard - these things are premium products.

In good light the X4 is just on another planet compared to the 1 inch. Is not apple to apple as is the same location, mount but different time of the year but still I could never get such details from the 1 inch or the R. Just look at the mountains in the background and the detail on me.... Unprocessed screen grab from 8k 30, 200 mbits, sharpening low Processed X4 Processed 1 inch from 5.7 30 I will compare also in low light, but for a first quick look I feel they both look similarly bad 😉

Indeed there is! They were smart to choose the Z Cam EVF for it so they won't need a separate wireless transmitter (though there will be a bit of lag with the Ninja in-between). That one's been discussed here, I think. Should fit in a niche somewhere, though with DSMC2 VV cameras selling and renting at pretty reasonable prices, I'm not sure what that niche might be. 😅

My prediction is: 1: Add 8k RED raw to high end MILC's such as the Z9 or its successor. 6k to lower tier stuff such as the Z6 line... 2: Develop a cine line of their own in tandem with a RED line but a few differences, a bit like Lumix SL2 and Leica S1R (see what I did there?) ie, just boxed and badged slightly differently. 3: The next RED camera will have Z Mount as will any/all future RED cameras and RF for one final fling...if at all, before cutting Canon completely out of the loop. Summary: Nikon have come back strong in the last couple of years, especially with the Z9, Z8, Zf and probably Z6iii and I expect that market share and their image to continue to improve. I expect them to push now into the video/cine market much more than they have with just hybrid MILC cameras and develop a dedicated cine line akin to Sony, so FX3, FX6, FX9, Burano... The appeal and their market will be to 'prosumers', hybrid event shooter people like me, indie filmmakers and the commercial market plus maybe some 'Hollywood' budget level productions, but won't oust Arri or Sony from that perch, ie, will be niche in that regard. Nothing else makes any sense to me. But what do I know, I ain't exactly Quasimodo. (Got to be a boxing fan to get that one) 😜

Was this guy responsible for the genius idea of putting a CFE card inside Red mini mag and charge 10x?

I believe it only offers a S35 crop. Due to the compression methods from the 6K sensor, some say that the S35 crop is superior... but I didn't buy a FF camera to shoot in S35. And the difference is probably minimal and I don't care about minimal. But as usual, I'm probably the weirdo here, because I still prefer good 1080p over run of the mill 4K. For instance, I mentioned earlier that I think some lenses shine with certain cameras. After thorough testing, most lenses look pretty good in 4K. By that I mean, most vintage lenses have a certain level of sharpness that is good enough due to the 4K. In fact, I think vintage lenses help to tame the sharpness... resolution of 4K. Now with my 5D3/ML Raw, some of those same lenses just don't work. But with a more modern lens, the image looks really good, in my opinion better than the FP. Here's a shot from the 5D3 with the older non-Art Sigma 50mm 1.4... And here are a couple shots of the Takumar on the 5D3... Obviously, they're different shots so in some ways they're incomparable... And here's a B&W shot with the Tak on the 5D3 that's a lot more interesting... So what's my point... I have way more options than I need and B&W makes everything look cooler. That is all.

I'm fed up with Atomos, I wasted a huge amount of time doing tests for them for the stuttering issue in ProRes RAW. They didn't even try to replicate it. I reported the problem at the 8th of February, since then I provided tons of test material. And where are we now? They still think it's my unit, or my SSD or my HDMI cable even when I told them I tested with multiple units, multiple cables and SSDs. Unbelievable. In the meantime some other guy asked BlackMagic about the same issue (so apparently this is related the the X-H2s), and they sent it to their engineering team right away, they reproduced it and notified Fujifilm about it. HUGE difference between the two supports. Seriously, even Fuji is better than Atomos, because they don't reply at all, so you won't waste your time with them 🙂

So I have un update on this. I had somehow missed some firmware update that was supposed to fix a stabilization bug. The IBIS could stop working after a WB setting or something along these lines. I flashed the FW v.1.3 and it seems to be working correctly now. I obviously want to test it a bit longer but first observations are encouraging! 🙂

I remember a similar thing came up a couple of years ago and a fix that apparently worked was to rotate it a couple of times around its axis. It might be worth a go.