KrisAK

But when you factor in a decent lens, a external recorder for long takes (which is all I do), etc., the value proposition of the XC10 becomes startlingly clear. I've costed-out multiple options (the GX8, 12-35 and a Pix-E5H is my current favorite) that would give me more flexibility down the line, but in each case I think, sure, great, but I'll also be screwing around with a much more elaborate setup, cursing to myself while moments slip away. In a narrative or corporate talking-heads stuff...scenarios where I'd have the luxury to take my time...that would be fine. But for grab-and-go shooting, forget it.

Did you use any noise reduction in your video? I'm asking because I finally got around to renting one, and while I'm closer than ever to making a purchase, my one reservation is the amount of chroma noise in some of my HD footage...1600 ISO, I think it was...which is something I've not seen reported elsewhere. (But maybe it's par for the sensor size / ISO course.) You can see a bit of what's going on in this guy's throat...though it's deceptive because of the speckled coloration of the tiny feathers underneath.

I think the concepts of "VR" and "narrative" are fundamentally at odds with one another. Watching a narrative...2D or 3D...is a passive activity; asking people to do more than turn their heads a bit is about as far as I think you're likely to go, in terms of what people find desirable. But the IMAX deal makes perfect sense: a 20-minute VR "Experience" of flying in space, climbing Everest, diving the Mariana trench, etc., is a perfect application. As are VR promos for conventional narratives, as with your Insidious 3 example. (I keep meaning to buy one of those cardboard things.) I'm not sure there's anything new here, though, except another step towards the "feelies" of Brave New World. I'm also guessing that after 20 minutes, or so, some sort of VR fatigue sets in. Last night I watched the Shanghai Tower "on the roofs" video, and was simultaneously fascinated and disturbed at just how visceral an experience it was. And that was on a measly 24" screen, in a well-lit room:

Oh, just to clarify, in Resolve 12 the consolidate functions have been relocated/renamed to "Media Management."

User: yes to your first question. As to the second, sorry, but I don't have access to a Mac. (The two-track filter trick should work, though, to check for lossy-ness.)

For what it's worth, Resolve (free) and Premiere both support functions called "Consolidate Clips" or "Consolidate Project.". Throw your long clip(s) on the timeline, cut out the crap you don't want, then run "Consolidate Clips": it will stream-copy only the used material to an entirely new folder of your choosing. All in a friendly UI. This works for me on Windows, and I know it's lossless because Windows doesn't have a native ProRes encoder, and I don't have one of those third-party encoders. Regardless of the method you use, you can check for generational loss by syncing the original and copied versions on two video tracks in the timeline, then apply a difference filter. What you're left with is the pixel-level generational loss that's occurred (if any) during the copy.

Kind of a glass-half-empty thinking. From my point of view, give the BMPCC some auto-exposure functionality, 4K and a great fixed lens, and at would be a cool competitor to the XC10.

That's a Straw Man argument. We're not talking about the behavior of a half-assed, undisciplined camera person banking on vaporware. We're talking about Blackmagic Design marketing and selling vaporware.

I wish I could agree. But I can't think of another line of products, in any industry, where companies have played so fast and loose with features, and where paying customers themselves apologize for the companies lack of follow through. It's almost a form of masochism, and I get the impression companies like Sony and BMD bank on this attitude to help them cover a multitude of engineering compromises. But the real killer here, for me, is the BMMCC product web page I perused last April/May (after NAB, when the camera was announced.) At some point, BMD product planners sat around a table designing that web page...which features to emphasize and specifications to call out...while apparently fully cognizant of the fact that the thing didn't even exist. That strikes me as a HUGE ethical failing on the part of BMD. (Sony never advertised that their cameras will run unhindered by heat, so credit where credit is due.) The creative community has enough of an uphill battle that they shouldn't feel obliged to be jerked around like this.

Wow. That comes across as one of those "sorry to inform you" Kickstarter updates. Why would they announce the global-shutter BMMCC if it hadn't been successfully prototyped and tested?

Thanks, Andrew. I was holding out for more reviews of the a6300 regarding HD capabilities, and now there's this from Cinema5D: "The camera can shoot in full HD resolution, but the image is very soft and dirty in terms of aliasing," along with a sadly distorted Siemens's star. Disappointing, but also in line with what I've seen in HD samples from Camera Labs, Imaging Resource, and The Camera Store. (The Camera Store review briefly cuts to an HD shot, saying it's very good, while the image is anything but. Not sure what that's about.)

But not if you need 60p. That's my primary use, with an occasional need for 4K. And I do remember tech reviews at DVInfo saying that the internal 60p HD on the A7s, internally downsampled from 4K, was some of the best they'd seen; it never occurred to me that the A6300 might be a step backwards, if indeed that's the case. (I wonder if an external recorder circumvents any of this?) Of course, I don't want to read too much into that single sample, and am hoping to see more at 60p, though it looks like most reviewers are focusing on 4K or 120fps.

Yes, Gordon Laing notes that this was S-Log 3. (Hope he doesn't mind I did this.... Thank you, Mr. Laing!) Also, I know nothing about grading S-Log, and just bumped the contrast/saturation to get a rough match. I didn't know enough to watch for the banding issue (and shadow noise), so thanks for mentioning that. I'm really curious to see how 60p on the A6300 stacks up against that from other cameras.

Here's an extremely rough comparison between the two shots posted at Camera Labs. Does the loss of detail in the upper-half (native HD) seem excessive?

Native HD footage (over at Camera Labs) shows a severe drop-off in detail, compared with the same scene shot UHD and downsampled. Does it not do full-frame readout for HD? I'm a little concerned about the quality of the 60p. (I just saw AlexO's earlier comment about this issue, and yes, that's the material I'd watched.) But the question remains: how's the native 60p, compared with something like the Panasonic G7?

4K via firmware? That's a little hard to believe. I mean, aren't you also talking about considerably more processing power, heat dissipation, etc? Would they really have built that much extra capacity into the system? I guess it's possible, but....

Andrew, please aim your venom towards Sigma Photo Pro. (Or are you using one of those third-party Mac apps?)

Bone Tomahawk popped onto my radar because of a pirate streaming site, as did interesting films like Resolution, Yellowbrickroad, House of the Devil, etc. There's almost zero likelihood that I would have heard of these films had it not been for illegal sharing (well, that and the AVClub.) In each case, I made note of the filmmakers, and have since been on the lookout for additional work, which I've purchased POD (e.g. Spring, The Sacrament.) In contrast, which of the also-rans at Sundance am I likely to hear about? How will those films...some of which are no doubt diamonds in the rough...be brought to my attention? That's a huge problem, both for filmmakers and audiences looking for new talent to watch. It used to be that I could wander through a dozen local video shops, each with their own unique taste in obscure cinema. Netflix and Amazon Prime don't provide anywhere near that level of variety, and neither facilitates discovery. ** I see Bone Tomahawk gets a UK release this month. That film's gained a lot of attention as that other, better Kurt Russel western, and I can't help but wonder if the strong word of mouth wasn't at least partially fueled by the pirate sites.

If you insist on buying other people's memories, I'll sell you mine. My genuine Sankyo Super-8, INCLUDING 150' of readymade nostalgia: pre-shot, pre-developed, pre-gunked and pre-shredded through the merciless gate of an 18 fps projector.* *Merciless projector not included. Additional 50' memory-modules sold separately.

US price for the XC10 just dropped $500. List price is still $2499, but now features an instant rebate of $500. And unless the product pages haven't been updated, it looks like the 64GB CFast 2.0 card and reader are still included, as is a free 1-year subscription to Premiere. I'm terribly tempted to hit that buy button.

I feel the same way about Speed Boosters and shallow-focus. Enough, already!

I was about to bitch about the lack of objective reviews for this camera...particularly in light of that idiotic post by The Camera Store. But, as if on cue, up pops a (much) more rounded write-up from DVInfo. http://www.dvinfo.net/article/acquisition/review-canon-xc10-1-4k-hybrid-compact-cameracamcorder.html Key line for me: "While the XC10 allows full manual control, it’s really optimized to operate in a partially- or fully-automated mode: it’s a camera designed to be working within three seconds of pushing the power button and getting the shot..." Guess it's time to rent the thing. (25% off rental promos are up in full force.)

Are you saying that, within the context of your specific setup, Resolve 12 performs better than PP CC?

When I was growing up, the only people carrying 35mm SLRs were enthusiasts...school newspaper dweebs like myself...and professionals. "Consumers" carried Kodak Instamatics, Polaroid SX-70s, etc. Today, SLRs have been supplanted by ILCs, and Instamatics by cell phones. So maybe nothing has changed, really. And all this hand-wringing about the death of DSLRs is just the market figuring that out.

I think it's a necessary article; on that might, among other things, correct the occasionally misguided push towards the large-sensor, shallow-DOF aesthetic. Two related issues you might want to call out are thermal management (overheating) and maximum clip run-time. For my uses, a lot of maybe great cameras are taken off the table for want of an unlimited (e.g. to card capacity) continuous-take. Neither the GH4 nor XC10, of course, suffers from these issues, and I'm wondering if that played a factor in your choice. Panasonic deserves a lot of credit for being the only (I think) DSLR-style manufacturer to explicitly address these things at the engineering level. I can't imagine buying, say, an A7s II, setting up and simply "hoping" it makes it through the second 29:59 minute cycle. (Shouldn't there be an ISO rating for that sort of thing?)