Andrew Reid

Bought a Nikon D5200 yesterday - This thing is really surprising me... appears the new Toshiba sensor in the Nikon D5200 fixes moire. There's nothing like the problems here that plague the D600 and D800 full frame sensors. There's still a tiny bit of aliasing but no more than on the GH2. It is giving really nice Canon C300 approaching detail in 1080p, all on a $800 DSLR. You can dial it down really flat in-camera too, though I prefer to shoot graded in camera with a standard picture profile.   In producing footage for the review I have found it to be in the same league as the mighty GH3 for video so far. Here's a 100% crop of a 1080p frame grab shot in 25p mode. The picture profile on the GH3 was slightly flatter in-camera so ignore the contrast difference, just look at the detail. Really nice!  

You need different mounting frames as the screen aspect ratio is different between 5D2 and 60D.   Z-Finder itself can be used on both with correct frame.

I agree. I much prefer the Red codec to Cinema DNG. It is also better supported and more reliable than CineForm currently is.   These things take a lot of processing power to encode though, and a lot of time & skill to develop. I don't think Blackmagic are quite at the point of doing proprietary raw codecs yet on their camera line yet. This is their first attempt at a camera.   I'd like to see 4K ProRes though, and a stronger OLPF.

How does the Blackmagic Cinema Camera compare to an established film industry standard, the Red Epic? Along with ReWo at MBF Film Technik in Berlin we decided to find out.

The C300 is certainly priced for rental.   I prefer the image from the Blackmagic. To get a job done easily and fast - I'd probably choose the C300, for pure artistry the Blackmagic.   I'm not surprised the 5D has disappeared from rental... It never made much sense to rent one when they are so cheap to own! I bet there's a lot of owner operators still shooting their commercial work on one.

  Above: my Blackmagic Cinema camera with ReWo cage - a shootout with the Red Epic is coming soon BlackmagicUser.net recently did an interview with John Brawley, the cinematographer close to Blackmagic Design and main tester for the cinema camera. His experience exposing the camera goes along with what I am finding, that the Blackmagic Cinema Camera works best when you 'expose to the right'.

Nothing I have seen in video mode on any camera can match what the Olympus OM-D E-M5 can do, now even with legacy glass and adapters. It is certainly worth a look for handheld shoots even though the codec sucks and is 30p.   I'm not a huge fan of the OIS on Panasonic lenses for video. Sometimes it jumps and the Lumix lenses are a little bit too clinical looking for my tastes. You are far better off stabilising the camera with a shoulder mounted rig.

You know, the camera I'm most curious about in this test is the Sony F5.   I hope they pay attention to all the cameras equally as I am not sure any one person would be able to get the best out of such a wide variety of them, and some of Shane's info recently has been a little slap-dash... Especially saying stuff on twitter like the Canon Super 16mm lens covers the Blackmagic sensor perfectly with no vignette. I know a guy who actually went out to buy one based on that info and I even wrote an article about it!

8K is certainly useless for TVs... I'd even go so far as to say TVs are dying. The internet is the new TV and when I want to watch something where image quality is a factor I project it onto a 100 inch wall!   In the UK TV is still very much part of the living room but the next generation I feel have moved on from it.   Getting back to resolution... I think there's always going to be a measure of detail but it might not be pixels :)

I film look takes a lot of data.   I think the compression required on DSLRs plus the fact that engineers think grain is a fault, makes for a very electronic looking image.

I think they need to get focus sorted out for digital displays.   Peaking isn't the answer. Nothing they have come up with so far has been much good.   I would suggest a small green focus confirm box which moves around the frame and sits over the focus point like a face detection square.   That is the least intrusive way of showing where the focus is.   Peaking makes my composition look like it is bleeding and the magnified focus assist is absolutely 100% useless when trying to shoot live action.

Yes it is a shame Nikon don't make a mirrorless camera as serious as the D800.   They have very old school people who think optical viewfinders and mirrors are somehow relevant in 2013.   Of course from a business perspective swapping to mirrorless may involve an entire lens line-up to be wiped from shop shelves. Canon and Nikon both got bitten in the ass big time when they moved from the old AI / FD glass to modern Nikon and EF lenses so they are relucant to let this happen with the mirrorless revolution. Both pay lip service to the mirrorless models, the lens line-ups for the EOS-M and 1 Series are PITIFUL.   I think they want us to keep buying the old glass and not just to adapt any old crap to their new camera :)   But Sony have gone the other way since they don't have such a big legacy of existing glass to protect. They actively promote third party lens adapters in their Sony Style stores, at least here at the flagship one in Berlin. Interesting strategy which I feel benefits their camera sales, but not so much their E-mount lens sales. So you can understand Nikon and Canon wanting to hold onto their magic ability to 'lock' people into a specific lens range.

It certainly explains the dynamic range. Combining the two exposures at the earliest opportunity is very clever.

There's just been some pretty startling research published by a university in the UK which could herald the biggest change to imaging since the switch from film to digital. Indeed before it has even begun, 4K may become obsolete along with resolution itself - killed not by 8K or Super-Hi Vision but a completely different kind of technology. A vector based video codec has been developed at the University of Bath.

The other thing to look out for is that only Leica R lenses adapt to Nikon mount easily, the rest are a no-go even M42 which is off by 1mm.

It looks like Toshiba didn't get the memo "All DSLRs must suffer from moire and aliasing in video mode". The Nikon D5200 equipped with a new Toshiba sensor appears to outperform both new full frame Nikon D600, Canon 6D and even the Nikon D800 when it comes to video.

I find the magic window magnified focus assist is working well. Keeps your composition full screen and magnifies the centre.

Well, at least it encourages one to be extremely economical with takes - almost as if editing in camera like John Ford. That way when you get the stuff back to the editing room no producer or executive can mess with your shoot quite as much ;) Less control sometimes equals more control!   It is the anamorphic mode I'd still love to see, as that has a material effect on image quality. I'd love those almost-2000 lines of resolution, it would be competitive with 4096x2160 on the 1D C if you cropped that but used an anamorphic on the BMCC. I certainly would rather shoot that way than hanker after 4K in any future model.

  No - GH2 is better than AF100 on a test chart for resolution.

I've tried the GH3 with Blackmagic HyperDeck Shuttle 2.   Unfortunately there's no quality gain from the HDMI 1080i output. Internal codec is very good and the HDMI output is interlaced before it reaches the external recorder. I could successfully deinterlace it with JES but final result was a bit softer than internal recording. It would be interesting to try the 1080p output, but you'd need a recorder that can do 1080/60p.   It doesn't do 24p or 25p native 1080p via HDMI. The 24/25p is PsF (interlaced wrapper).

Nope. Shot on it tonight and love the image. It is the best image you can get cheaper than a Red. Lots more Blackmagic stuff coming soon. Things only slowed down because of the winter period and Christmas.

What's new? Timelapse interval recording Canon lens F-stop display on the monitor ExFAT file system support for SSD media SDI output now supports RP-188 timecode I've installed the update and here's what I think...

So how do you think they shot this material? With an empty box!?   https://vimeo.com/41309513   https://vimeo.com/37930525   https://vimeo.com/53660366   https://vimeo.com/38327634   https://vimeo.com/38286282   Do you think this bunch of engineers sit on Facebook all day with no work to do?     What WOULD they do with no working prototype? Why employ them at all?   Your hypothesis is fundamentally flawed.

Engineering samples and prototypes exist. If that is fiction then maybe there's a bit of HAL floating about in space?

I really do believe people need to cut them some slack.   It took a company with a backing of millions of dollars (Red) years to deliver their first camera and it was very late.   These guys have what, $150,000 from Kickstarter? That is peanuts.   They are delivering a camera which does 2.4K from a global shutter for $3000!!!   This will be a fine back-up for the Blackmagic where rolling shutter would be an issue on the BMCC CMOS sensor.   The image quality from the samples so far look great.   The form factor is fine, it is is still a picture making box like all the other cameras. I don't see what is wild and weird about it. The handle comes off and you can rig it up like a DSLR or put it on a tripod. I do prefer the Epic's form factor but there were very few complaints about the original Bolex's form factor, and tons of interesting 16mm stuff was shot with just the handle and nothing else.