Andrew Reid

  No it's a news article.   The 4K capabilities of the Leica S are completely unknown at this moment. You're expecting me to write about something which is a complete unknown. Where's the logic in this?

  This comment put me in a bad mood so the reply is going to be pretty harsh I'm afraid.   You are not offending me so much as offending logic itself.   "Compared to the GH4" - fact is that since the GH2, this series of cameras has been THE benchmark for performance and all-round features for 90% of my readership, at the affordable price level. It is and continues to be the benchmark I compare stuff to. In the case of the medium format stuff, even though they are completely different price points, you'd still want to know if the video feature set lived up to the benchmark, wouldn't you? Or perhaps I should start comparing everything to the 1D C instead? A camera only a few people can afford and one that doesn't even feature 1/5th of the stuff that the GH4 does. Not even peaking.   Not a very good benchmark is it?   For 4K the GH4 is the current most promising solution. Everything else either has an extremely high price tag (1D C) or a potential deal breaker (A7S rolling shutter and no internal codec). Also I write EOSHD from my own perspective, it is a mixture of subjectiveness and objectivness. You have to be really thick not to be able to tell them apart. Thick people come to me all the time and say "hey andrew, stop stating your opinion as fact". I say to them... "hey learn to fucking read".   And if you have a lot of Canon lenses and want a 4K solution, you know what to do. 1D C or C500. Get your wallet out and good luck!

  Great stuff!! Thanks a million James.

Because full frame is just too small, Sony are supplying a 4K video capable sensor to Leica and Pentax in the region of 40 to 50MP. According to a Leica rep at NAB the company is planning 4K video for their implementation of the sensor in the Leica S. Indeed Pentax have already announced that their 645Z will record 4K video. Read the full article here

"Luminance is more important than chrominance, so that's not so bad. So best case, we have 10-bits of information in Y and 8-bits for U and V"   I think Thomas did indeed mention 10bit luma in his original post.   The luma data alone is enough for a nice true 10bit black and white image. U and V contain the colour information. So luma (i.e. the bit important for smooth gradation and high dynamic range) goes 10bit and colour remains at 8bit. Am I correct here or talking out of my arse? :)

Just add an EVF and Amira style shoulder pad and it would be usable on the shoulder without that unnecessary 10" screen.

  The camera handles 4K internally it just doesn't encode it, instead it sends the debayered final image to the HDMI port instead (uncompressed).   Can't compress the 4K image to XAVC...   This feature is reserved for their cheaper cameras like the AX100 ;)

The large LCD should be detachable, and with a cable you could mount it somewhere else or take it off for shoulder usage when you'd rather have an EVF.   Simple.

Stainless steel huh? Well they have really thrown the kitchen sink at that camera ;)

Just tried it and works to output the DPX, the files look superb. I opened frames in Premiere, which does not treat it like a clip, but the frames grade superbly and look amazing.   However Resolve 10.1 gives me flickering playback with some frames shifted, some half black, to a random degree. Anyone else had success with Resolve yet?

  Impressive.

I'm no mathematician either JCS but my eyes tell me the GH4's 4K grades for 2K like a 10bit codec. It looks and feels completely different to the 8bit stuff I'm used to. Hopefully Thomas can put this to rest and explain the maths behind it in a way we can all understand?

Great news. How are you finding the 2k images Thomas? Does it smooth the slight aliasing on the car windows in the Porsche shot?

A few days ago Thomas Worth of Rarevision (5DToRGB and RAWMagic) asked me for some original files from the GH4 so he could develop an experimental app he had in mind. The result is an embryonic new command-line app for the Mac, which takes 8bit 4:2:0 4K files from the GH4 and resample them 2K 10bit 4:4:4. Read the full article here

These images (>download the original 4K file at Vimeo to get even a clue of the full performance of the camera) are rather lovely. The colour, texture and detail is quite amazing. I'm also very impressed with the 2K slow-mo at 96fps. Read the full article here

Indeed so let's not say we will pay more than $2000 for it.   The sensitivity and XAVC-S is nice and I will definitely sell my A7R for it but the price doubles when you want to make use of the camera's biggest selling point, 4K, whilst that is not the case with the GH4.

Sorry, Copy seems to be kaput. I'll link to each individual file separately on a new page. Got to rush off now though, so will be tomorrow now.

  Agree. GH4 would have made more sense.   Can see the advantage of unplugging if you want small size.   I just think what most people wanted was a similar solution but smaller and less overkill.

One of the enigmas emerging from the A7S is whether you can shoot 4K in APS-C crop mode as well. This would allow the use of standard Sony E-mount / NEX lenses, Canon EF-S and Nikon DX lenses, even PL cinema lenses on the full frame sensor. Sony's information (above) implies that is the case with "both resolutions available at both full frame and APS-C size". I dug a little deeper to find out more... Read the full article here

Not sure - do the HDMI > HDI converters work in 4K?

  I would love the 2.5K BMCC sensor in a decent form factor with more features. They had 2 years to make this but didn't.

Indeed. I thought Blackmagic had a nice unique product line going, providing for a genuine market that existed and needed the products... and then suddenly here they are putting all they R&D and best software features into a couple of high end cameras aimed at Arri and Sony, at a price tag too low for pros and too high for 90% of the previous user base.

A clue is in the body. It is A7 based with same shutter. It doesn't have the more expensive trimmings of the A7R body.   Therefore I am expecting the price to be around about the A7 level, which would be a steal.   The recorder is likely to be the more expensive part... but still considering the end spec you are getting - full frame 4K ProRes 4:2:2 with 14 stop dynamic range... it ain't bad.

  Why can't you have some empathy and stop forcing your world view on other people... what is right for you, for example, is right for you. It isn't right for The World. The filmmaking world is very varied, many flavours, many different techniques, sizes of crew and shooting styles.   I used both the Production Camera (aka URSA sensor) and GH4, preferred the GH4's image... and that is $1699.   And hey for your $1699 you even get audio meters. Imagine that!?

It's not too expensive for what it is.   But the size and weight are throwbacks to a bygone era.