Quirky

Lieferzeit ca. 5 Tage I bet that's not too far from reality. Could be sooner than that in some places.

indeed. Or think of it as the equivalent of Kodachrome 64. Back in the film days Kodachrome was popular and kept its devoted users until the digital age, even though the mainstream was using mostly ISO 100 to 800 films, and Kodachrome was more expensive and slower to process than the mainstream films. That didn't stop the Kodachrome users from buying and using it. You bought a roll of Kodachrome in your camera fully aware of its nature, but you still chose to load it in your camera, fully aware of its nature. The end result was worth the extra effort. There were eager users for Ektachrome and Velvia 50, too, which needed about a half a stop more light still. Not to mention the few crazy ones who used Kodachrome 25. Now that's a bit extreme, especially towards the end of the film era, but not every photographic product needs to be just like everything else.

Really? His piece, especially the first half of it makes no logic sense. It makes him sound like yet another narrow-sighted gadget nerd. I agree with him about two pretty obvious things, though, that the piece is only his opinion, and that the A7s and himself aren't a good match. That's not the fault of the camera, though. It's merely tells us that the A7s is absolutely the wrong camera for him and for the likes of him. Which is fine, no camera is perfect, no camera can be a perfect fit for everyone, and there are plenty of other nice cameras around. I can't help feeling that it's a matter of how you read the stories, and what your own inner wiring diagram looks like. He may or may not be in a honeymoon stage, but that's irrelevant. It's quite possible that Part 2 will have a different tone, but the relevant part about that is why and how. If you read his entire piece with a pragmatic (enough) mindset, it was quite informative. The message that comes through is that in the 'right' (capable) hands the A7s is indeed capable of delivering fine and pleasant results, even pleasantly 'cinematic' even under lower light. But that needs some work, as always, including getting familiar with the features of the camera and understanding how it works. And also trying to work around the quirks of the camera. And doing the necessary work both during shooting and after it. Which should be common practise with any camera, shouldn't it. You can create pretty pleasant looking footage with some other cameras, too, if you know what you're doing, but that's not the answer people are looking for, is it? I can't help but feeling that one of the issues people have with Andrew's story is that they read his piece with a typical enginerdy, I/O, either-or kind of mindset, which only want to see product X being either the best or crap, either better or worse than product Y, because choosing between X and Y will dictate the fate of one's cinematography. Automagically with a press of a button, of course. Then, the moment they see Andrew considering the A7s being perhaps nicer a tool than the 5D3, or even the GH4 in certain areas, that's all they choose to see, and then they get blinded by that throughout the rest of the story. I also can't help but feeling that what peeks out of some of the comments is that questioning the authority of the Holy 5D3, that's blasphemy! :) But you shouldn't really worry, because the A7s is not likely to become a big mainstream hit. Mostly because it's not a Canikon, and because it "only" has 12 megapixels. No self-respecting pixel peeper is going to openly admit that he owns a FF camera with less than 36 megapixels. BTW, there is no such thing as "5D3 RAW." The RAW part is a 3rd party hack, not provided, authorised or endorsed by Canon. A regular 5D3 is another product. If you wish to participate in a length-peeing contest, doping your instrument won't take you to the podium. It only takes you on the top of the dunghill. Just saying. ;)

Where did you get the idea (info) that the NX30 is region switchable? I've been under the impression that the NX30, as well as the NX300 are both 30fps only, and unlike the G6, they don't do either 25p or 50p, which we normally use in Europe. So to me it looks like it's the other way around, the G6 is more useable in Europe with its 25/50p, whereas the NX30 is somewhat crippled with is 30p, even in a PAL (only) model. What do you need 30p for in Germany, anyway?

Edit: Nevermind, the point about bots and poster is already made well enough above. No need to add more clutter.

During the previous century, maybe, but in the brave new world of today, dream on. On the other hand, regardless of the antics of the NYPD, surely it was obvious ever since the first commercially available drones came available that the proverbial shit is going to hit the fan. It's bound to happen when any moron can buy a remote controlled aircraft and fly it almost anywhere. Which is exactly what morons with no aviation skills will end up doing, eventually. I'm openly against creating a police state (which would/will no doubt ban drones and then use them to monitor and herd the citizens), but when it comes to aviation, certain basic skills, along with some rules and regulations make perfect sense. Not every moron with enough dough need to be allowed to fly one anywhere, any time. A smart drone pilot is not likely get entangled with the law&enforcement in the first place, unless bad luck was involved.

Keep on working out, surely you'll find other benefits eventually. That's the whole point of creative benefits, isn't it. Your imagination, skills, good timing and a bit of luck together with the given tools at your disposal will create that magic serendipity. The creative benefits are up to you. The point being, no one can explain "creative benefits" to you exhaustively, because creativity is subjective. People can explain the technical benefits of low light performance, which you have already figured out, and the rest is up to you. It's up to you to make something cool of it. I'm pretty sure Mr. Bloom was merely trying to make a point with that video clip, not cinematic art or technical perfection. As such the clip works just fine, but obviously it's not intended for extremely pedantic viewing. Or for the most pedantic of viewers, ftm. Now we (well, most of us, anyway) have established that one can get shots in pretty low light with that camera. It's up to each of us to make something useful and good looking with that feature. If you have no use for that feature, feel free to ignore it, or the whole camera.

Whilst I think that ignoring the loud and pedantic online critics is a feasible idea, can't help but wondering if you see any contradiction above? At least to an outside observer it would seem so. Or maybe it's just me, but in case those incandescent lights were just ordinary household/office fluorescent lights or LED lights, using "incandescent lights," "AWB" and "biased colour science" in the same sentence wouldn't sound too logical to me. Suffice to say photos/frame grabs taken under such circumstances may look nice and could be used to highlight, compare or even judge a number of things, but surely not reliable 'colour science?' Or even accuracy of skin tones, for that matter. Just sayin.' I'm sure you will, and the results will look nice, especially in better lights. Carry on posting your findings, despite the grumpy critics. Don't let your inner 'Canon bias' slow you down, either. :P

...and because the virtual swords of verbosity are non-lethal, I predict a high page count for this thread. :P Meanwhile, I tend to agree with Philip Bloom, get both, and make use of their respective strengths, and work around to cover each others' weaknesses. Budget permitting, of course. Not much point in bickering which one is better, because it's always more or less subjective. The numerous online 'test videos' won't change that.

Yes, unfortunately. I love the Foveon look, too. As well as leaf shutters. Even if it means sticking to low ISOs and slower maximum shutter speeds.

I've been a Mac user for ages, and I still have an old bumper sticker decorated with a fruit that says "Un-PC and proud." B) S'pose I'm ageing myself with that comment. Apparently these days you need to be 'old enough' to get the joke. ;)

Good for you, but as I've said, my original comment (which you probably misunderstood) had nothing to do with Panasonic or your owning one. Or even with Nikon, which actually is the original topic of this thread. But nevermind, carry on.

#want. http://www.photonbeard.com/led-lighting.html

Well, keep on trying. You're the only one who can figure that out. After all, it's your meme, your straw man. Maybe you'll figure it all out, eventually. Or not. It's up to you. Either purposefully or willy-nilly, people tend to take certain words and phrases out of their original context and turn them into their own straw men, which they can then attack and burn with righteous fervour. After a while, everyone is so worked up about the heat of the bonfire that no one cares about the truth any longer. Let alone the original message, which often was nothing to get worked up about in the first place. That's how memes work, that's how they're been used, and that's how the game is being played online and in world politics, too. Decade after decade, century after century. Whether or not the distraction was purposeful or not, it doesn't really matter. Therefore I have no interest in carrying on with this particular thread any further. The original remark was not worth it, and it was slightly OT to begin with. But by all means do carry on burning your straw man. Have fun. FWIW, I do blame myself, too. I forgot The Curse of the N-word in the Header. Looks like it never fails.

Well, in that case, perhaps you should have considered ignoring those comments entirely. That much is screamingly obvious. But I wasn't talking about reviews. As many as you wish. It's entirely up to you. Your money, your internal wiring, your decision. I have never suggested that. But you can of course keep telling yourself whatever you want. As one does.

So... until A7g is out, then. ;) Yup, that seems to be the obvious route along which digital cameras are evolving. First to go is the flipping mirror, which has sort of happened already. Next to go, the mechanical shutter. But before that can happen, there needs to be a reliable global shutter that is not too big a compromise. Then, when that happens, or maybe even before, the global shutter will be standard in most larger sensor video cameras, too. Maybe five years is indeed what it takes. Meanwhile, too bad other companies haven't tried the D16 route with today's tools. That is, taking a CCD sensor and trying to work with that.

I haven't seen the video you mentioned. In fact, I haven't even watched his GH4 and 'coming out' video yet. I'm not one of those sceptics, I don't do that kind of stuff. Quite frankly I don't give a toss about what he's shooting with. Whatever makes him happy. Yes, exactly, just like I said. I am sort of positively amused that he (too) has now switched away from the Canikon camp. Maybe it becomes a bigger trend soon. Neither. I'm sorry, but you still seem to be missing the point. I was not referring to Dave. I was referring to people who act like lemmings and let online celebs tell them what to buy and what to shoot with (a slight exaggeration, but still valid). You can replace Dave Dugdale's name with any other recent switcher, it's totally irrelevant! It could have been Andrew Reid or whoever blogger/YouTuber, it doesn't matter. The only reason I mentioned Dave's name is because Michael Strip used him as an example of being "shocked" by some YouTube celeb's recent switch of brands. The sponsorship was only a reference to Michael's "drumbeat for Panasonic" which I used in a broader sense. The drumbeat is working in more ways than one. I never said Dave Dugdale is being paid by Panasonic. That is your own false interpretation. Worse still, looks like now it has become a new silly meme. Sigh... people don't read too good any longer. Or maybe my writing is very very bad. Or maybe a little bit of both. But not necessarily in equal proportions, surely my writing is not quite that bad, is it. Well, whatever, carry on.

I wonder how long, or how many camera generations still do we have to wait until most cameras sold for video have a global shutter or something else to eliminate the rolling shutter issue. One could think a thing like that would be a high priority, but apparently it isn't, or it is very hard to battle. Another thing I sometimes wonder is how hard could it be to come up with a S35-sized CCD sensor camera with a reasonable price tag. Like a D35, for example. That would be something, wouldn't it, although it might not have a reasonable price tag. Please remember to share your experiences with the other wannabe D16 shooters here when you get to that.

Well, what did you expect? After all, it's a full frame CMOS sensor camera. Of course it'll show some, especially if you wiggle it. Even APS-C and smaller size CMOS cameras have some rolling shutter issues. Some more, some less, but they all have some. I don't think expecting no rolling shutter from a FF CMOS (4K) sensor camera is entirely realistic, so far. Better to try finding ways to work around the problem. You might want to go for either a Digital Bolex (S16 CCD) or Blackmagic Production Camera (S35 CMOS with slap-on global shutter), then. I'd love to have either one, (or both:), too, but can't afford either one right now. Hopefully in the not too distant future I'll have one.

Okay, that does indeed make a significant difference, doesn't it. Yes, that is quite interesting, and it's an undeniable fact that both Panasonic and Sony, and even Olympus (and Fuji) have managed to lure in even some well known pro shooters from the Canikon camp, and only a very few of them are either Sony ambassadors or Lumix Luminaries, aka sponsored celeb users. Quite a few of them are genuine, unsponsored switchers. The tide is slowly changing. As for the reason why Dave switched to Panasonic, yes, I know why he switched, and I know migrating to another system is a big undertaking, but that was not the point. That was not what I asked. My point was in the notion that many people seem to form their opinions and choose their gear based on the antics of celebs, rather than try out things and think for themselves. The brands themselves have nothing to do with it, it could be any of the major brands. On the other hand, needless to say that YouTube celebs like Dave Dugdale publicly switching to Panasonic is free and valuable advertising for Panasonic. Even if they are sponsoring his switch. Thanks to that mysterious lemming effect. If you are referring to answering my (somewhat rhetoric) question above, I think you missed the point (too). Dave has his valid reasons to switch away from Canon, but that has nothing to do with the lemming behaviour I was talking about. Dave is just one of the recent switchers. Many of which are coming from the Nikon camp.

oops, double post, internet connection crapped out for a moment. Moderators, please remove.

I think the way you record your scene depends on many things, the mood and style of your production, and what you wish to accomplish, and of course how you're shooting the scene(s). If it is possible in any way, I'd record both characters separately either with a 'shotgun' or a lavalier, and then worry about the final soundtrack when editing. As a general rule of thumb, always try to get as good an audio track as you can. That's where a small recorder like the H1 or two come handy. I'd say that forget about the scientific thingies and worry more about catching good audio of all your talents, experiment, use your ears and watch movies and TV documentaries for inspiration and reference. I'm not a seasoned expert but that's what I did and do. When we have limited resources to use, we sometimes need to improvise and make do with less. But that's where the inexpensive tools like the H1, a couple of stands, flash brackets and the Røde Videomic come handy. You need only one dead cat to cover the microphone part of the H1. Covering the body with one doesn't help at all. Don't put the H1 in the suspender, get a mic like the Videomic Pro and plug that into the input of the H1. In other words, use the H1 as a recorder, not as a microphone. Buy a cheap bracket to attach the H1 and the mic onto if necessary. If the mic has no suspender of its own, (the Videomic does), put the mic into the suspender, and attach the H1 somewhere within the reach of the microphone cable. When you've got two mics, you can plug one into the H1 and another straight into your camera. I hope this helps. I think selling the H1 would be a mistake, because there's nothing wrong with it. It's quite a handy and compact sized tool, despite its shortcomings. Especially for its price. I use one as a field recorder with one of my mics most of the time. It is quite usable as a standalone microphone, too, when you can use it on a table tripod, for example, or on a light stand that no one is touching. It's quite handy for recording sound effects and a sound bed for your soundtrack. I also use the H1 as a USB microphone when doing hangouts online. So my advice would be to keep the H1, learn how to use it, and buy a couple of microphones to accompany it. It doesn't matter which mics you end up buying, because they won't make the H1 useless. If you end up buying a better recorder at some point, you could still use the H1 as a secondary recorder, with a lavalier mic, for example. Two recorders is always better than one.

Uh-oh... Well, you'd better get busy, then, before the actual directing begins. ;) Fortunately audio is interesting and fun to study and practise with. Yes, the body of the device has not been insulated from the mic head in any way, but that's not a major problem. The H1 is a nice tool out there in the wild. First, to battle wind noises you need a wind shield for any mic or recording device, and that's where the fluffy mic covers come in. I recommend the dead cats or fluffy mic covers from Rycote and Røde. Just slip a dead cat over your mic and/or your H1, and the wind noises almost disappear. Second, like said the H1 is quite a usable tool, but to get most out of it and avoid the handling noise you just need to plug an external mic into the input on the right side of the device. That will eliminate the handling noise, and makes it more practical for many sorts of situations. For example, sometimes the external mic can be a lavalier, and because the H1 is so small, you can slip it in the pocket of the talent. And so on. I use one in my "backbag field system" to record production audio or background sound bed with a separate mic plugged in, and the camera audio works as reference audio or secondary track to record the voice of a talent or whatever. In case you don't have a separate mic yet, you can also try minimising the handling noise of the H1 by slipping on the aforementioned dead cat and attaching the recorder to somewhere separate from the camera. On a light stand, a pole or some magic arm, for example. Use your imagination and adapt. Obviously you don't go adjusting anything during recording. You just try setting everything up beforehand. That shouldn't be too hard when shooting a scripted scene. Also keep in mind that simply attaching the plastic fantastic device onto the hotshoe of the camera won't isolate the handling noises well enough. You'll still hear them, and it's going to be highly annoying. So buy a separate mic, because you'll need one. Or both. The Videomic Pro is a fine multipurpose mic and worth buying in general, even though I'm not quite sure if you can get one for hundred quid. Same goes for the Røde NTG series mics, but they are good for the job. Pretty decent value for the money. In my experience, anyway.

The (more) professional video side of things is actually more interesting than on the mainstream photo/video side, and over there the roles are almost reversed. Not quite, but almost. On the pro vide side, Sony and Panasonic are the established players, Canon is just one of the many newer players but they don't own the pro market, and the role of the purple cow is being played by the likes of Blackmagic, and perhaps even Digital Bolex. But the situation over there is slightly different, as no one has a clear dominance over the whole market segment, and gear is being rented rather than bought more often than on the consumer side. The market dynamics are not quite the same over there, but the same principles still apply. This is something that has puzzled me once in a while, so I'll just ask why? Why is that shocking? Unless you know him personally, why would you care what some online/YouTube celebs/geeks like Dave Dugdale are shooting with? Does it really matter what they are using, and why would/should it affect you in any way? Do you let the online celebs choose your gear for you? Not bashing, not judging, just curious. I'm aware of the lemming effect and the concept of projecting, but I'm just curious how the actual thought process goes.

Nah, it's not weird, it's just about basic market dynamics. Panasonic embrace video because they have to. Nikon, on the other hand, which is (still) the other ruler of the market dunghill, can still get away with doing very little. They can still rely on their massive market inertia supporting them and carrying them forward. For now. Until even the late adopting masses start looking elsewhere. Another route Nikon could take in the near future is the niche route. Which is to carry on their traditional line and trying to rule that shrunken niche of their choosing, for as long as possible. But that's another story for another topic. Anyway, I recommend a book called Purple Cow by Seth Godin. It's quite interesting, and it might help in understanding the intrigues of the modern camera market. In that sense, both Panasonic and Sony are the underdogs who need a "purple cow." Something that stands out from the uniform crowd owned by the market leader, aka Canikon. They cannot possibly win the game ruled by the market leader, so they'll have a much better chance making it by changing the game. Or by choosing another game. The GH4 is a "purple cow." So is the A7s, and the whole A7 line, in fact. Looks like it's working for both companies, if ever so slowly. But it's working, and that's no surprise. The purple cow will win, eventually.