John Brawley

​No. It has an electronic global shutter, not a spinning mechanical shutter like the Alexa Studio, F65 and the sadly defunct Aaton Penelope Delta JB

​ Hello. I can't say as it's beyond the bounds of what I can discuss. But mostly everything on the list here was also on my list that's already gone in. It's good to keep adding to it though. What I can say is that Olympus have told me that they intend to do firmware updates and add more features across all their models and plan to do so roughly every 6 months. The recent E-M1 updates are evidence of this intention. They will aim to do this for all current models. They have also told me they plan to make the E-M5 model their video centric camera, much like the GH series in panasonic. The E-M1 will still always be their flagship and top tier camera but aimed more at pro stills photographers. The E-M10 will be their enthusiast camera. The following is my conjecture only from what I know and the recent contact I've had with Olympus. They want to understand and do video well. But they're only just starting to incorporate it in their product planning and thinking. This makes me think that we would never see things like 4K suddenly added to the current E-M1 just through firmware. I also know that things like 24P aren't so easy to add in firmware as it should seem to be, mainly because if they haven't PLANNED for it, it's pretty hard to change the internal architecture to do it EVEN though logically it seems like a simple thing to do. They do things in their own way. They were the first to do live view. They were the first to do ultrasonic dust / sensor cleaning. They do lightweight, small and weatherproof as a matter of course... They're only just now seriously thinking about video. Tell them what you want.... JB

Hi. Most at of your list has already been passed on :-) JB

In my experience diffusion doesn't much help. Youre looking to dial back higher frequencies than those that diffusion filters target. JB.

​Hello... Moire...Well, I don't get offended by it as much as others... but for some reason, I don't tend to get it happening to me a lot....It's something I put down to my shooting style.....It's one of those things we all face as DOP's to varying degrees. Right now I'm shooting principally with Sony F55's and have done for the last two TV series I've done ( Party Tricks and Hiding ) And despite the fact they have OLPF's they can moire pretty easily. More so when shooting 2K RAW but even in 4K RAW. Sony actually have another OLPF they suggest you can use for 4K RAW for HD delivery, but I found it was wayyyyy to soft... In fact, another peer DOP on a fairly mainstream show that shoots here had huge big problems with a particular set that they had on the series. He had been shooting both F65 and F55 and had almost no problems at all in the same conditions with the F65. We spoke at length about moiré minimisation strategies. It's very hard to remove in post as I'm sure we all know. The last two shows I did were with vintage / film lenses which are a bit softer and I tended to shoot pretty shallow so I only had a few shots across the whole eight episodes that were problems. He had problem shots a lot more frequently... I've found anecdotally it's moires less than a 5DMK2, which is my benchmark for borderline unusable for moire. I do turn the sharpness down in the EM5MKII though so I think that probably helps a little. I also tend to use older film era style cine lenses which again, help a little too I think. Having the sharpness turned down on the camera also gives, to me, a more pleasant less "processed" look. Kind of like what happens when you over use the clarity slider in PS. A lot of consumer cameras like these tend to do a lot of processing under the hood (things like detail, coring, noise reduction etc). There's also a lot of things that affect sharpness perception and I'm not much one for the hyper sharp 60 FPS look so I like my motion blur at 24 fps please and I think that helps too..I used to to exactly the same thing on 5DMK2's and turn the sharpness all the way down... I've also been working through it on the Blackmagic cameras, none of which have OLPFs and all of which to some degree are fairly prone to moire. Again, it hasn't stopped me form putting many many shots to air, and it rarely bites me in a way that makes something unusable. Usually I can spot it when we're shooting and it's usually rpetty easy to make a small adjustment to avoid it.... I still get bitten though. There are a couple of shots in Curiosity that are bad. Personally, as I said, It has to be pretty obvious for me to find it offensive, but I have a higher threshold than others I think. I know many many DP's hate seeing it at all. I think if it's something you're really averse to seeing, then it's probably not for you. JB

Hello. Im lead to believe it's only ISO 200. I've certainly found it gets pretty noisy by ISO 1600. I haven't liked anything beyond that. Which codec are you shooting ? I've only found noise presenting by 800+ ISO. JB

Hi. Im on set so stealin 5 to respond. Select OK in movie mode then scroll and choose IS in the quick menu. Then em choose info and manually set a focal length. I I find that setting a higher number when on actually on wider lenses helps. So so on the OLY 12mm I choose 17mm or 20 for example. JB

​Hi. I have been told there is a 6% crop in MODE 1 when shooting video compared with MODE 2. When I looked very unscientifically, I actually couldn't see any difference between them in terms of crop, but I'd need to go and get in front of a chart to be sure. I've found MODE 2 to still be very good and I've been preferencing that lately. MODE2 also suffers less form the IBIS warping on wider lenses (if you're not doing what i do and manually overide the IS focal length on anything below 25mm... I have a feeling the overall crop chosen is more to do with how they are binning the sensor. It's most likely a compromise.... I'm using the E-M5MKII a fair bit on a feature right now as a kind of POV camera on the film... There's a lot of footage that is shot by characters in the film / story world itself and they have non functional prop cameras (with weapons attached) and we then switch out the prop cameras for E-M5MKII's when we want to show what they are shooting. The cool thing is that they are just extras and actors but you can set them up with the camera and send them off in to the scene and they are getting pretty decent results, and IS is a big reason for that....Especially considering they are operating cameras without credintials ! JB

​I used a gimbal because IBIS doesn't replace a gimbal (or dolly or steadicam) for doing long continuous tracking shots. Nothing will. And I had longer tracking shots I wanted to do in difficult terrain...over water etc, where you can't really lay tracks (and I dind't have a grip). IBIS on the E-M5MKII is very very good and absolutely trumps optical based stabilising systems. But on those very wide and longer shots where I was making really big moves, it would help a lot but it doesn't replace using the right tool for the job. IBIS is very very good for hand held. It's so good that sometimes you can get away with using it for tracking shots that might have the feel and look of a dolly or steadicam. Interestingly, I found that the IBIS helped the gimbal shots because it took out some of the coarser up and down movements that Gimbals can't smooth out. JB

The impact of the sensor working at higher temperatures is that you get more noise and other sensor faults like FPN and dead pixels are more likely to show up. These are the symptoms of sensor heating. We talk about overheating and it's not really because the components will somehow fry, it's just that more heat can change the performance of the sensor. If you were looking for symptoms of overheating (or operating outside of normal temperature range) that's what they would be... Some cameras have black balance features that enable you to set the black levels (and thus the noise floor) and to also re-map dead pixels. Most recommend you do this at the "operating" temperature of the camera. I have been shooting a lot with the Sony F55 a lot. We're shooting day nights at the moment and on the very first setup about 20 mins into our day I spotted a dead pixel. The camera had been on for a while and I hadn't seen it on the two rehearsals we did. After an APR the dead pixel went away. The F55 has a black balance / dead pixel re-map feature they call "APR" and I normally have my assistants have the camera on for 30 mins and then do the APR function once it's at operational temperature. RED have similar issues because their cooling generally isn't as good. On very long takes when their cooling fans wind down for sound, they can often have the sensor temp go above the range specified during their black balance. They have a specific warning for this and their suggestion is to pre-heat your sensor to your normal operating condition before doing a black shading / black balance. The idea is that you're calibrating the sensor for that operating temperature, even if it's higher than normal. Alexa (and Blackmagic) approach it differently. Neither camera has a black balance / dead pixel facility available to the user. Instead they use solid state cooling to maintain the sensor temperature to their ideal operating temperature. It's like a refrigerator with a thermostat on the back of the sensor. They maintain a constant thermal performance and that, along with dual gain architecture sensors is why they both have such large DR (the 2.5K and pocket). JB

​ ​Now that I have some "in" with Olympus, being able to change exposure on the fly was my biggest gripe :-) I'm hoping that kind of thing is easily addressed in firmware, and they've told me they intend to do firmware updates for their cameras every 6 months or so. JB

​Cheers. I think the camera is capable and I prefer it for video very much to the E-M1 no question. It's very useable overall, wanting only for what we all want...more DR, higher bit depth internal recording and 4K.... There's still a lot to like though over the pocket, but it all depends on what's important to you. JB

​Yes, I think 4K is the next major hurdle for Olympus to get over, let's hope they don't dither for as long this time...! jb

​Sharpness...well.. It's 1920. So I'm not expecting a lot. It's OK in low light. I've shot 1250 and 1600. The codec starts to get overwhelmed with noise at that point. JB

I coudn't say as I've never shot with the GH3. Only the hacked GH2. It's better performing than a 5Dmk2 and about the same as a pocket, totally subjectively of course...

It doesn't have an OLPF so of course moire will be there. I wouldn't subjectively describe it as "bad" but if it irritates you then you've gunna see it. JB

  Yeah I think we'd all like for it to be able to do it...maybe they'll get around to it.  You should ask for it on their forums.  they're pretty good at listening to what people are asking for...   jb

  There is a kind of workaround. Firstly, the camera REC flashes when there's less than 5 mins of record time left.   You can also calculate how much remaining record time there is on a given SSD if you know the record time for a full disk.  For example, I know a 240GB SSD gives me close to 30 mins @ 25 FPS.   When you play back the last clip recorded, the TC field at the bottom displays the total record time.  This way, let's say it's 00:22:03:00 i know i have about 7 mins of record time left.   They won't do in camera file management.  They might do an in-camera format....maybe...   Alexa's don't allow you to delete individual clips, nor do RED....   jb

[quote name='tobyloc' timestamp='1346924405' post='17436'] Actually no, sorry, you've misread. Andrew says "raw image" not "sensor size", he's quite clear about that, the image you get from BMC is larger than what you get from C300. My 5D has a much bigger sensor than the C300, that doesn't mean it resolves more detail in it's 1080P file, in fact it resolves much less as it resizes (badly) in camera to 1080. I believe you're wrong here too, I believe the whole test chart has been shot so the BMC will be using a wider lens in the test shot because of it's smaller sensor. The reason it looks bigger to you is because the image is bigger, in that example it has not been scaled down to be the same size as the C300 image, they are both being viewed at 100% and it's not the whole image, just a crop at 100%. To be more clear, I suspect you think the same lens has been put on both cameras so the BMC camera is effectively zoomed in more, I don't think this is the case, the BMC has a wider lens on so they have the same field of view, but as we're comparing a 2.5k image at 100% to a 1080p image at 100% the 2.5k image will look more zoomed in as it's larger. if the images were uncropped you'd be able to see all of the test chart in both shots. Hope that helps. [/quote] Shot with the SAME lens, just repositioned the camera so it filled the same frame. jb

I'm in a position to work on shows with enough budget to have the choice. Last few TV drama Shows I've shot are, in REVERSE ORDER EPIC / BMCC Alexa ProRes / EPIC / C300 / BMCC / GoPro Alexa ProRes (cinema release - tested RAW, not enough difference) EPIC / AF100 with Hyperdeck Alexa ProRes / AF100 with Hyperdeck REDMX / GH1 Hacked Canon 7d / 1d Every show I had the choice and often tested the currently available cameras and i then made a CHOICE. As much as I love the Alexa, it's not the only game in town. They are, after all, just cameras. I happily use what's actually required to tell the story, that best suits the resources I have available. Sometimes you need to be discrete and mobile. Sometimes you need to be polished and slick. Every camera has it's strengths. Right now I'm leaning towards EPIC for a show over Alexa because it's got the resolution and higher frame rates options, plus it can build a hell of a lot smaller. Every shoot demands different things. I'm lucky enough to get to choose and I've not had just ONE type of camera in my package for a long time. jb

[quote name='peederj' timestamp='1346458693' post='17050'] Can you get an Atomos Samurai and record the ProRes externally while you record RAW internally on the BMCC? If you can, then you have both with no transcode time, and an external monitor for the focus puller or director. [/quote] Yes. You can. The HDSDI outputs 422 10 bit. Clean. (or dirty if you want). You can also use the thunderbolt to record 422 ProRes through a laptop. jb

[quote name='AVID EDITOROME' timestamp='1346101684' post='16649'] I GUESS THAT AN ADAPTOR FOR SUPER 16 MM LENSES TO EF MOUNT OR MICRO 4/3 TO EF MOUNT WOULD GIVE A LOT OF OPTIONS FOR COVERING THE SENSOR AND HAVING FAST APERTURE [/quote] Except Super 16 Lesnes don't project a large enough image circle to cover the BMCC sensor...which is LARGER than super 16. jb

[quote name='HurtinMinorKey' timestamp='1345877372' post='16455'] Interesting, what did you use for the closeups with the sparklers( those were insane good), and the shot of the woman with the grafiti? [/quote] All the sparkler shots were with EF Canon "L" primes. A 50mm mainly and a 24mm. The woman with the graffiti is a 50mm CP2. I did actually go to a [url="http://johnbrawley.wordpress.com/2012/08/22/afterglow-dngs-are-out-in-the-wild/"]bit of trouble[/url] to explain it all. jb

[quote name='HurtinMinorKey' timestamp='1345823666' post='16417'] And in this case each of the "eyes" on the BMC footage we've seen are more expensive than the camera ($4000 for Zeiss CP). [/quote] Quite a lot of my demo footage was shot using a 15-85 Canon EF-S. jb

[quote name='dangerzonerj' timestamp='1345826562' post='16425'] It will need a rig as our DSLRs need. I'm working on a project with a scarlet and we rented a full rig for that and yet, depending on the lens, it is too front heavy for my taste. Even for balancing on the steadicam is a problem some times... And by the way, BMC will be a problem for monitoring on a steadicam rig since I've never seen a sled with HD-SDI cable to connect on the monitor below, only composite/BNC or HDMI. Even my steadicam Zephyr only have this 2 connections. [/quote] Can't be mounted on Steadicam ? Like this one ? [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/ViLRG.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/YJeut.jpg[/IMG] jb