Andrew Reid

There's nothing to stop an enterprising 1D X user trying anything under the sun.   If one has the technical knowledge and the camera you can take the open source code and compile it for the 1D X, but it's way beyond my knowledge on how feasible this is, whether it would work, or if it would need the know-how of the Magic Lantern guys to get it working.

Today I bought a Nikon D5300 for review, and a bit of shooting, but mainly for the blog with intention of sending it back after.   Well, so far it is surprising me.   The dynamic range with the flat picture profile is really quite something. Head to toe with ProRes on the Blackmagic Pocket Camera. I'd put it at 12 stops. Very good colour and good shadows, and again good low light performance. The codec in 1080/60p seems ok so far too. The main drawback seems to be the cheap-mid-range Nikon ergonomics (not enough buttons and dials). Wish they had put this video mode (and articulated screen) in the D7100 instead.   But so far so good peeps!

There's currently no way to do it.   Magic Lantern won't do it, concerned about legal complications. Big shame!   I'd love to see it and I think it would be technically feasible. 1D C 4K maybe, raw video definitely maybe.   A used 1D X can be bought for £3500 on eBay right now. That's only £500 more than the 5D Mark III was when it was launched. Almost prosumer price territory and a lot more accessible than the £8500 Canon want for the 1D C.

  Yeah the encoder and codec are both upgraded to avoid blocky break-up and mud, it seems pretty solid and low light performance is great too. There's about the same level of detail as the E-M5, which is to say not bad, but less moire and aliasing this time round.   Actually I can learn to like 30p, the more I watch of it, the more cinematic it feels. Stabilised shots do feel smoother in 30p than in 24p.   But at least give us that 50Mbit and 24p for those locked down shots with lots of detail, Olympus.

Just fresh from shooting a music video with the Olympus OM-D E-M1. I love this camera for professional video. The 5 axis stabiliser is unique on the market. No other interchangeable lens camera can do what the E-M5 can do with Micro Four Thirds lens and that stabiliser. It's unfortunate however in that the video mode has an unusual bug. Read the full article here

If you are in LA I highly recommend going along to Hot Rod Cameras on Wednesday. Joe of Digital Bolex will be there to answer any questions and host a try out session for the camera along with Hot Rod Camera's Illya Friedman! I would be there myself if I lived in LA. Have fun people! **** Read the full article here

The 5D Mark III isn't entirely aliasing free, so some can be expected. But is sharpness turned all the way down in camera raw? That will help reduce it.

  I have a creative unit in Berlin and sometimes we will shoot a music video, sometimes a theatre trailer, sometimes my own documentary style music video taking in the surroundings and creating a mood (like most of my stuff shot in Taiwan and Japan for instance). The kind of stuff you can do on your own or with a very small team.   My decision to shoot 4k won't come down to client requirements or business requirements, it's purely be an artistic choice.

  Well they already have image quality in spades, so the 4K revolution isn't as important for the Alexa.   We're going to be comparing a consumer 4K camera like the GH4 to the GH3. Much bigger difference, a much bigger leap.   Just wait until you see the 1080p from both cameras, one oversampled from a 4K output and the other pixel binned on the sensor at the earliest stage in the imaging pipeline.

  It isn't the codec. Try bypassing even crappy AVCHD on the A7R and record with the HDMI output. The image still looks like crap. It's all to do with the crappy sensor output, which does a hotchpotch job of delivering 5% of the available pixels it uses for glorious stills.

  4K in general, first with the Panasonic offering.

  Yes this could well be another reason. In Europe pretty much every shop has an entire cabinet of Panasonic and Olympus stuff with a full range of accessories. Canon and Nikon don't dominate the floor space, even though most people still end up buying a Canon and Nikon over a mirrorless camera.   Perhaps people are just too invested in their Canon and Nikon glass to ever change systems.

Mirrorless camera sales in the US have slipped because in Japan they have a "smaller is smarter" mentality and love novelty, but in the US it is a "bigger is better" culture and people equate something like a Nikon D4 with quality, because of the heft and substantial size.   The biggest mistake the mirrorless market continues to make (even the Sony A7R) is that they are focussed around small size.   Mirrorless is the future direction of all cameras because digital technology is the successor to mechanical and optical technology. The mirror is not going to still be flapping up and down in 100 years time, we will have EVFs so good as they will resolve far more than an optical viewfinder and give us super-vision, better than our own eyes can see, especially in low light conditions.   Instead of driving home the fact that mirrorless is a POWERFUL technology and DSLRs are a past tech, the Japanese manufacturers gave us cute little GF cameras and dinky PENs. Ridiculous.   Only now are they on the right path going high end, but Sony are still trying to downsize their FE mount lenses at the expense of lovely fast apertures, and Olympus are still adding gimmicks on their high end cameras, and none of them have an answer to the workhorse pro cameras like the 1D X and D4. At least not for stills.   I have always found a use for mirrorless cameras because the video has often been better - both in terms of image quality and features. That hasn't changed.

Do people realise that blogs are an opinion and that an opinion is entitled to be in favour of something?   It isn't always about being objective.   Personal opinions matter a lot.   Unless the skewing is for reasons other than just liking something.   When people criticise Philip Bloom for example, for being skewed in favour of a camera, it's his opinion and he can be biased if he wants. It's his choice to use what he likes. We all have our personal reasons for using something in the end...

This blog has been going 4 years now and to be honest I have run out of interesting things to say about the current DSLRs. It's time to upgrade. 2014 will be a big overhaul for image quality on DSLRs. Even those who don't need the extra resolution 4K offers will change their minds when they see what's coming. You see, 4K isn't really about resolution at all… It is the catalyst for a massive leap in overall image quality, especially on consumer cameras. Read the full article here

Judged in isolation the A7R lacking IS isn't such a big deal but remember, this is a comparison and you are comparing a camera with the world's best stabilisation to one with absolutely none, unless you use a Sony 24-70mm F4 for £1100 or a crappy kit zoom, also with a slow aperture.   At least Canon and Nikon have a big range of IS lenses you can choose from when you need it, including fast primes like the new 35mm F2.0 IS.   I'm an A7R owner and a E-M1 owner so it's all real world experience I'm basing this on. Believe me, the stabilisation makes a big difference on the E-M1 by comparison, to overall handling and feel, not just for video.

Can Olympus survive? The scandal is over, but sales are faltering. Their prized position in the mirrorless market is threatened by a revitalised Sony and their Alpha range. This succeeds the NEX line and brings full frame sensors to the table along with 36MP and nearly 14 stops dynamic range. My full review of the Sony A7R is coming soon, ditto for the E-M1. Until then let's take a look at how the top of the range mirrorless cameras perform head to head - not just at video but stills too. Read the full article here

  When calling something "fake" it helps to make a distinction between photoshop and prototype.

It's not a fake, there's a lot of photos and snapshots from the Panasonic booth and they all show the same thing.

4K sticker on a GH3. Very weak way for Panasonic to make it 'official'. Could they not have made a bigger and more imaginative splash than this?

  No just buy the GH4 K instead!

Nice, but big shame about the lens. They should use the one from the RX10!   XAVC-S codec is also a good thing.

A suggestion from left field, is the Digital Bolex camera.   None of the current CMOS sensor based cameras aside from the upcoming Blackmagic Production Camera 4K can capture lightning properly due to the rolling shutter.   The Digital Bolex has a CCD and global shutter readout.   The Blackmagic Production Camera has a CMOS and global shutter so is also an option but 4K at such high bitrates in ProRes likely isn't what you want to have rolling for hours on end, due to the file sizes.   I'd seriously consider either one of those over any of the current popular choices!

  The Magic Lantern community has good leaders.   Personal View does not.   A community is a bit like a family.   Look at the behaviour of the parents and that will tell you about the behaviour of the kids.

Beware! This review is LONG! Have ten cups of coffee at the ready, or print it out and give it as a (late) Christmas present to someone you don't like. The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera is already good, we've established that much. But what's really making this a unique camera what is going on around it. Read the full article here