Andrew Reid

You didn't read the post did you! No not really. That's not a small stills camera that does great video. And it certainly isn't under $2k. Eh? Blackmagic offer 10bit in this price range, even under $1k with the Pocket. 5D Mark II raw, etc. with Magic Lantern also... that is 14bit. Anyway, let's realise one thing about 10bit - it doesn't improve colour science, colour richness, colour in general - it only increases the number of brightness steps between shades. I am pretty sure some people think of 8bit vs 10bit almost in a similar way computer gamers used to think of 8bit colour palette (255) versus 16bit! It's really not that big a difference. Raw is. Not a chance in hell they will put the 20MP GX8 sensor in it... that does 4K only from a very heavy crop. We'll see. I have high hopes for it as you can see. Anything less and people won't buy it.

Without doubt my favourite camera series of the last 5 years has been the Panasonic GH range. But with the Sony A6300 on the horizon sporting a Super 35mm sensor with full 6K readout, is the future looking a bit shaky for Panasonic's video wunderkind? Read the main article

USB 3 unreliable? I very much doubt that. Samsung NX1 has no issues with it and WiFi. Meanwhile it has been on Macbooks for years. No issues with WiFi or reliability issues there.

Fantastically shot video with great sound, but tackily edited. Picture quality looks great. Not head and shoulders above the 1D C though - it looks like the 1D C does when you turn off Canon LOG. Digitally sharpened in-camera and baked in colour. What do you think is Canon's reasoning regarding the lack of 4K HDMI, something even a £600 Panasonic G7 has? I really don't understand it. With Sony very keen to work with Atomos and Convergent Design, Canon seem to want to shun them.

Is the 70mm print plain old stereo? As that hack JJ is prone to saying... a story is a mystery box. I avoided reading anything at all about The Hateful 8 before I saw it. Worked a treat. The sense of 'what is going to happen next' keeps you on the edge of your seat and stops it from becoming boring. Really important that... I think the best way to read up about a film is after you've seen it.

Nice idea but typically Samsung style they have fucked it up. The cameras should be higher up, they're too low down. I wouldn't trust it in a million years.

Saw it a few days ago (no 70mm just digital). Grain in 2K digital is crap. Would like to see the 70mm version just for the nicer film grain. Also the digital version is terribly soft on the wide angle shots. The film - loved every second of it. Yes it's much slower than Django especially first half, very slow build up but the atmosphere is intoxicating. Can't you feel the tension in the build up? Pay attention. Great acting, fantastic dialogue, no good guys vs bad guys - just really bad guys all the way through. So it's not the same kind of movie as Django, they're pretty much all rascals with only some very minor characters who'd I'd say were angels. Utterly loved the cinematography... it is subtle but there's so much going on - glowing tables lit majestically, stunning backlit coffee smoke and breath in the cold hut, snow flakes hovering like dust in the carriage with sun streaming through the windows, lovely soft rendering of the Panavision anamorphic lenses. Exploding sweet jar, exploding heads, slow-mo chaos the cherry on top. Fair enough if one couldn't get into the characters or story then all this is isn't going to be the thrill it was to those immersed in the content. It's not to all tastes. My sister for instance loved Django but didn't like this one. Oh and it's full of humour... didn't feel nearly 3 hours long... it flew by for me. The running joke over the broken door of the cabin was handled superbly... repeated in a different way each time so it stays fresh, and the shout off screen the first time hints to later plot development in a very funny way, it's just you don't realise it until after the film has finished.

The Sony cameras have a couple of issues at the moment. Skintones are not flattering especially for faces, they're too revealing and contrast is too high. I am working on a Skintones LUT for my FS5 to fix this. Secondly the banding issue in skies with S-LOG 3. I am hoping Sony can address this in firmware, at least for the 10bit 1080p mode. Raw output will also fix it.

Thanks for buying the guide and LUT dude. I have an NX500, might tweak the LUT for it. That's quite a huge difference between EditReady and RockyMountain. I believe due to EditReady expecting 16-235 footage and the NX500 delivering 0-255 maybe... On my NX1, setting in-cam to 16-235 helps with the crushed shadows. The D750 and D5500 have more dynamic range either way. Might try RockMountain on my PC. It is PC-only right?

Looks nice. Squarely aimed at the RED and Arri crowd. I still think they would be better doing a Super 35mm AF100 replacement with that VariCam S35 sensor. Just because the AF100 failed on the market doesn't mean to say Panasonic can't get it right the next time out. Instead it is almost as if they haven't bothered.

A rather interesting thread this has been so far. Thanks Brian for the idea. I have owned the Canon 24-70mm F2.8L II and Tamron 24-70mm, to be honest there's not a lot between them aside from price. The Tamron is certainly very good indeed for the money especially on the Speed Boosters. The Canon is a tad sharper. The old Canon 24-70mm F2.8L is a LOT darker wide open than the Tamron and the newer lens, it behaves more like a F3.8 Very nice character though.

There's still some moire and aliasing there, looks similar to the Samsung NX1's post firmware update 1080p. Not as clean as A7S or D750 1080p. Colour looks snappy though and plenty of detail. Don't write off what a non-bayer pattern can do for colour. X Trans I am not sure but Foveon sensors definitely make everything else look like they have a brown piece of glass in front of the sensor. Shame hardly any OIS lenses from Fuji. Handheld it is going to be a bit naff.

Yes the image can match in terms of colour in post... A7S II just takes more expertise. The A7S II gives you almost everything on a plate but yet doesn't fully feel satisfying sometimes. I cannot quite put my finger on it. Maybe it is the way certain scenes like S-LOG exposed a certain way for best results and you really don't get a lot of help from the camera in knowing when to expose which way. It has to be spot on. Then the footage off the card looks thin, green-tinted grey and you have to work hard in post or find the right LUT... and even then sometimes after many hours I am still tinkering over the mouse and keyboard not quite fully satisfied. The standard pic profiles are C.R.A.P. S-LOG 3 can't do skies and walls. Canon LOG is far superior and the MJPEG codec at 500Mbit/s is 5x the bitrate of the A7S II's 4K codec so it feels thicker with a finer more film like noise grain, it is also 4:2:2. Colour really is outstanding on it, it seems the debayer on the Canon body has some secret recipe to reign in green, boost reds and blues. Green photosites on a bayer sensor outnumber the red and blue ones. I don't feel Sony have a handle on this yet like Canon or Fuji do, and a Foveon sensor beats a bayer sensor for colour and tonality hands-down. You really notice when you see the difference. The 1D C is certainly the better built body and feels more pro, the A7S II has a charmless feel and cheap feel to the dials and buttons. Overall I think the image on the 1D C is more cinematic and the grain is finer, with 12,800 being perfectly usable. The A7S II is a smoother more digital look. Sony's menus are complex and the camera has a busy feel sometimes on a shoot. On the 1D C there are hardly any options on the camera to think about. Shame the files are enormous on the 1D C and it has no EVF or articulated screen. Also you can't punch in for focus during a shot. Battery grip helps the A7S II, bulking up the handling whilst doubling the battery life in-between swapping cells. IBIS on the A7S II works like IS on Canon lenses, it isn't a revelation like the Olympus system but it's a nice bonus.

The Camera Store TV tested a beta firmware I think so it could change.

I'm curious to see the high ISO of the Nikon but I very much doubt either one of these cameras "slaughters" the other. Unless it's video and then the 1D X II definitely slaughters the Nikon

Neither way is wrong just do what you feel most comfortable with. It's nice to have a feel for the colours and contrast of the scene with a standard profile but I rarely switch to one if I am shooting S-LOG. And by the way the View Assist of the A6300 and A7S II solves all this by giving you standard colour and contrast whilst S-LOG is enabled.

So to recap on the all important crops... 24p = no crop Super 35mm 4K (1.5x crop vs full frame) 30p = 2.3x crop 4K 120p = 2.3x crop 1080p Looks like the Samsung NX1 has an ace card here. But I am sure the A6300 will have the dynamic range advantage... and proper LOG profile.

I don't think the G7 has a 4K HDMI output. I have one, will try it with my Oddyssey 7Q+

Glad it is working. Also what probably helped was the new forum software, updated yesterday evening.

It has it

Panasonic are forever playing catch up on specs as they can't compete on a level playing field with the smaller sensor. GH5 should start the transition to Super 35mm. Otherwise it will have to be seriously impressive to lure us away from Sony (raw, ProRes, 10bit, 120fps 4K) or to maintain any kind of uniqueness.

It's getting even harder to hang on to a camera for longer than 5 seconds before something else comes out

You make a good point, it should have a direct AF point joystick and a touch screen. Also hope the rolling shutter doesn't kill it. 20MP is a lot of lines to roll out.

Sony quote 13-15 stops for all their recent cameras so that's nothing new. I would expect it to perform similarly to the A7R II in its Super 35mm crop mode. What I like about the A6300 is more the promising new AF tracking system and the amount it packs in for a price. New low(ish) budget king!

This is going to be such a popular camera. A real bargain for $1000, you're getting the image of an FS5 with better AF system, better EVF and 4x cheaper in a MUCH smaller body. Shame no IBIS but it is only one third of the price of the A7R II! Samsung NX1 only other APS-C camera to do 4K from 6K readout.