Oliver Daniel

You're right, I'd never buy any camera without throwing it straight in the deep end first. The first time I hit record on the FS7, I was filming one of the most lucrative jobs I've done. It worked out. The URSA Mini is due September now. It really seems like a great piece of kit so I'm happy to wait until the rental house has one. Or it's the FS7 for sure. Some people do forget that the URSA Mini shoots raw. I'd use it for the money shots This is my general rough list: A Camera - must have HFR (FS7, URSA Mini). B Camera - RX10 II, BM Micro. Edit - Mac Pro or iMac Retina Full Spec.Large Thunderbolt 2 RAID Drive - G Tech, Lacie, Promise.Lenses - Sigma ART zooms/primes. Lenses - Modified vintage lenses. Light - Lupolux LED 1000w, 650w x 2 + batteries. Light - Scorpion Lights x 6 + batteries. Slider - Upgrade Edelkrone to motion control or buy Rhino EVO motion. Monitor - Small HD 501 or 502. (mainly for gimbal, RX10 II Slog LUT). And bits and bobs....

If we had to judge by this comparison, the Canon 1DC annihilates the NX1 in every aspect. That said, I hope Samsung have the confidence to make a cinematic camera.

I posted a few months ago about a friend who got an investment, and the replies were pretty cool so thought I'd try again - but this time it's me. I've now got access to a £25k ($38876) equipment fund to move my video business to another level (another level of fancy toys, that is)....and I'm wondering how to spend it. Short story... the company I run employs three people, including me. Our work has been historically music video production (exclusively), but we are now in development of making a lot of commercial/corporate work. Not boring talking heads stuff on white backgrounds.... cinematic, edgy, highly stylised videos for businesses who want to be more adventurous. We had an equipment investment a few years ago.. iMac, lighting, grip, monitor,cameras. I'd say the only survivor of this investment moving on is the lighting gear. We've sold most of it off and have rented a bunch of stuff since. So we have a lot of areas to improve. Due to our clear out...we need replacements/additions for A camera, B camera, monitors, Mac, hard drives, lenses, lighting, bits and bobs. We have kept things like our DJI Ronin-M, Edelkrone Slider Plus, 2 x Kino Flo Divas, 3 x Dedolights, vintage lenses. Everything else has gone. (we do have some GH3s knocking about too). Lighting is No.1, as always. We know what lighting we want (LEDs and bits) to add but everything else is up in the air. We've kept our good lights but need more, such as Lupolux and Scorpion, to open possibilities and creativity. In terms of cameras, we use the FS7 often but certainly are curious about the URSA Mini. It's important to B-cam this stuff, as we will also use these for lower budget stuff as A-cameras. (RX10 II etc to go on grip stuff like Ronin-M). Lenses needs vary, bit of all worlds required really. I've got a solid idea of what I want..... but just for fun... what would you do in my position?

Totally agree. I see some of these "characteristics" an issue in a lot of these new consumer 4k cameras. Images so brittle and oversharpened that they look hyper-real and thin. A lot of electronic lenses are the same. You see a huge difference when shooting raw where images have color depth, tonality, organic motion cadence, and high dynamic range. Nearly every single camera out right now has a "video look". The best way around it is to shoot raw and use cinema lenses. Then become bankrupt.

The small amount of stuff I've shot on the RED Epic has 20x better image quality than my DSLR stuff, about 10x better than my FS700/FS7 stuff. (That said, the content I shot on the Epic pales in comparison to the others!). It's easy to understand why other cameras (such as the 1DC) are more expensive than others. It depends if it's right for you. (content & client base).

I wonder how many people suffer from Obsessive Compulsive Canon Dissaproval Disorder (OCCDD)? Symptoms include: not getting over the fact Canon DSLR video is a bag of crap and being unable to get over it. Medication includes: Using a Sony mirrorless that isn't as good at color than Canon but has more fabulous features, or becoming bankrupt after purchasing a C line camera and wishing you got an FS7 with lenses instead.

As does a lot of the other "internets". You will also find those who constantly bash manufacturers are more tech geeks rather than actual filmmakers.

Canon are doing just fine. They don't need to make big, innovative waves year on year as they sell more than anyone else and have a more recognised brand. They are able to wait for the market to move first. I still know a lot of people who film on their Canon DSLRs. They rent C300's, to go with the lenses. It's not as if Canon are going downhill, is it? Canon are differently innovative. Instead of relying on fabulous specs, they rely on reliability, ease of use and cameras that "just work" and work very well. No dodgy slow menus, poor battery life and unstable firmware. Canon make high quality stuff. I don't have any Canon gear. I'd love a C300 MK II but I couldn't justify it. I'd get by just fine with an RX10 II and Sony FS7 rentals. I'd only buy a Canon for stills or to mess with Magic Lantern. Such the quality at lower prices these days, I couldn't care less what Canon are doing, as long as there are options I can afford from other brands. I'm more concerned about my own creativity than curling up in bed having nightmares about Canons so-called lack of innovation.

The pistol grip will likely boom into 2016 with lots of options, so I would actually wait (unless you can afford it). Just liek with 4k cameras.....wait a bit for your investment and you will get a superior product for your hard earned cash just months later. (although this can also be considered an eternal matter). I think in the early stages of development, this certainly rings true.

Andrew, how is the stabilisation at the 200mm end? I usually have some kind of support for the smaller cameras - just wondered how it does with a nice steady hand with one eye on the EVF? I'm planning to film a bucketload of my lower budget music video stuff on a couple of these... see what happens.

​Oh yes that was a question, how is manual focusing on this lens? I'm assuming the obvious in which you can switch off the zoom function and just have manual focus. I would actually laugh if it didn't.

​Most of it will be terrible - along with all the "smartphone look" 4k shots of buildings, leaves, trees etc. (cats get away with it, because they are awesome).

I've been telling the guys in the studio about this camera. It's a no-brainer for us - quite frankly a steal when you think about the creative options and compact features. Thanks for covering the 120fps mode... sounds great.

It seems that's how Canon are trying to sell it (B cams to bigger brothers). It's a good buy for current C-series owners, but a hard sell for everyone else. Looking forward to your thoughts on the RX10 II. It could be a right little cash cow for smaller projects, and a lovely artistic tool for personal stuff. We've heard a lot about the 240fps +..... I'm wondering about the 120fps mode. Nothing has been said about it.

​ Before I say anything, I will be buying an RX10 II for low budget stuff and won't be buying an XC10. Yes, the RX10 II certainly is the better deal really, but consider that the XC10 is made by a camera manufacturer with a very reliable, high selling, high quality Cinema line. Buyers of this item will likely want one as a B or C cam for their Cinema EOS cameras. Add the value of having a smaller camera that perfectly matches your A-cam in a small package. These users will be able to afford it, and many will buy it. Then consider the organic film quality of Canon in 4k in C-log (championed on this site via the 1DC recently), and how it is quite unique given that many other consumer 4k cameras are over-sharpened, brittle, hyper-real and characteristically "video". Like the Arri Alexa is a benchmark and very premium, I'd think the quality from Cinema EOS is the reason why this is a premium over the consumer Sony's and Panasonic's. Also, Sony and Panasonic need to include more impressive features because they need more share of the market. Canon can sell on the name alone, because they have users who've invested heavily into their system and will stick with it. (not always). So I'll be buying an RX10 II to make the low budget stuff easier and more creative. It fits. It's good enough. I don't own any Canon stuff, so there you go! No complaints. Life goes on.

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Very well done music video using the Olympus, it was a little soft but that's ok! The only other minor issue is that the editor needs to tighten up the lip-syncing.... looks a bit off to me.

​ It's also laughable when people base the performance of a camera on someone else's work. Try them, and then judge! From what I have seen though, I think the XC10 is capable of producing lovely footage for the price.

I can get a 39% discount on it, so it would be rude not to!​

​ So there are 2 major downsides reported here... bad rolling shutter and terrible battery life. Shock, horror!! Would like to try one though.

​Sorry, the video hasn't been released by the artist yet. If you want to see a selection of my stuff on my Vimeo, then go here: https://vimeo.com/videoinkofficial

The RX10 II seems excellent for low budget music videos. I might just pick one up and see what happens.

​The issue with using 4k to simulate camera movement is that there is no effect of parallax. I do find it effective as a subtle dolly though. Just recently, I shot a video in 1080p with absolutely no consideration for resolution. I "destroyed" the image by cropping in to stupidly low resolutions, made the grade fuzzy and pixelated, blended images over images over images, used "crappy" old lenses to make sure the image wasn't sharp and had loads of flaws...the list goes on. I did this because the project required this style over the full duration of 4mins30secs. If i made it all "perfect" looking... it would of cheapened the video. Yes that's right...it would of cheapened it. This video would of looked like garbage in pristine 4k and 14 stops of dynamic range. Next weekend, I'm shooting a high end music video funded by a beer brand on the Sony FS7 at the highest quality the camera can record in. It's got to look classy, modern and sharp. A massive difference to the other project. It would also look like garbage if I did the same principle then above. It's awesome that we have these options these days. As with anything, you have got to have your reasons for using the technology - but never let the camera specs dictate your creative output or you have already lost.

​ Mr. Gelaxstudio, I was stating the "worst case scenario" with exaggerations to make a point. It's foolish thought to decide an unreleased camera is better than everything else - specs don't mean anything until the camera is used extensively by the filmmaker.

​ No problem Christian. My site is mostly Sony FS700, Panasonic GH3, Sony FS7 and a little RED Epic. Bit rate basically means the amount of data you have to play with. The more data, the better the quality output. Watch out though - some high data rates are impractical and some codecs aren't as robust as others. Generally 50mbps for HD is fine. The secret to good image quality isn't just the camera. Decent lighting is the key to good quality. Buying a better camera will make little difference if you don't focus on lighting. Do not ignore it. Get that stuck in your head and get shooting!