Mozim

I actually think it's pretty cool to see Nikon offer a set like this. Sure it would've been cool to see better video lenses, but the focal lengths / f-stops are pretty useful for dabbling into video. And it's nice to see them include an external recorder and useful items such as a proper microphone, spare batteries and ND filters.... plus you save quite a bit of money instead of buying everything separately. It's not perfect but then again, if Canon was to put together a "Video kit", it would consist of a rebadged T2i and their cheapo 50mm f/1.8 and they'd charge $2000 for it.

This topic is about the NX1 compared to the Canon C300 in terms of resolution, sharpness, dynamic range and colour reproduction. No one's saying that this camera will automatically make your movies better. Personally I shoot a lot of fast-paced action / sports stuff in forests, so to me dynamic range and highlight rolloff, rolling shutter, slow motion etc. aren't just geeky technical aspects but have a huge impact on the quality of my videos. Is there any option to record sound when shooting 120fps? I understand that the camera doesn't record sound internally when shooting at 120fps (only up to 60fps I think?). Sound recording doesn't have to be internal as long as there's a way to sync it in post. Any ideas?

Very interesting to read about the 0-255 vs 16-235 over at dvxuser. Shooting in 16-235 might result in a higher dynamic range. The reason for this is that the transcoding software treats the footage as 0-235 footage and thus throws away all the detail in the highlights, leading to harsh clipping and lower DR. There are some files uploaded that compare the 16-235 footage to the 0-255 footage. I haven't checked it out yet (downloading right now) but it seems like the 16-235 footage does result in nicer imagines and a higher DR. Andrew: Any chance you could test this?

​Thanks! Is the quality of the 120fps mode the same as the other 1080p modes? Or is the new 1080p Pro mode only available at normal frame rates? Andrew: How noisy are the shadows when you push the Master Black Level to +10? I recall that the results weren't that great when pushing the GH4s Master Pedestal up (in fact most people said that the Master Pedestal adjustment of the GH4 is pretty useless) but considering that the NX1s blacks were almost completely free of noise, I imagine that they still look very decent when pushing the black level to +10?

How's it possible to struggle finding a 50mm full frame lens with a relatively fast aperture? Sony 55mm f/1.8 Canon 50mm f/1.2, 1.4, 1.8 Nikon 50mm Nikon 55mm f/1.8 Samyang 50mm T/1.5 Sigma 50mm f/1.4 just about any vintage 50mm lens

Thanks for the write up Andrew! The NX1 seems to do a lot of things right, but isn't quite there... yet. I'd like to Samsung fixing the existing issues first before focusing on new features. Two questions about the NX1: How does the new 1080p Pro mode compare to other 1080p cameras? How's the 4K rolling shutter compared to other cameras (A7s, GH4 etc)?

Samyang will release a new version of these lenses soon. In Germany they're supposed to come out in February, so I imagine they might be released earlier in other countries. The only differences are more markings on the lens body and the gears for a follow focus are in the same place on every lens. Not sure if they're already out in other countries but you might want to plan on waiting just a little longer to pick up these newer versions.

Thanks for sharing the video Ed! I really like what I'm seeing. I can't say what exactly it is, but I like this video (and the Lisbon video Andrew posted) more than anything I've seen from the A7s or GH4. Rolling Shutter does look pretty bad, so the camera shouldn't really be used for certain shots. I noticed that there's a lot of micro jittering going on. Is that (partly) due to the rolling shutter and sensor readout speed, too? Or is it simply because it was shot handheld without a rig/cage/additional weight and/or a lens without optical stabilization?

​It surely must be a lot easier and cheaper for the manufacturers to enable linear focusing as a menu option / firmware update instead of adding a mechanical mode? Glad to hear that you feel the same way. Maybe if enough people chime in, the manufacturers will realize that this is a serious issue for filmmakers. I would have no issues whatsoever investing heavily into the MFT lens system if I knew that I could use the native lenses for stills as well as for video. They're perfectly fine for stills but unusable for video because of the focus mode.

Hey, is it possible to upgrade lenses that focus electronically instead of mechanically in a way that they have a constant, linear focus? When I picked up a MFT camera, I actually liked the build quality of the native lenses that I bought along with it (Panasonic 25mm f/1.4 and Olympus 45mm f/1.8). The focus rings feel good and there's an alright stiffness to them... plus I like using native lenses. When I started shooting video with them, however, I found them to be pretty much unusable for pulling focus manually because they don't focus in a linear way. If you turn the focus ring quickly, it'll go from close to infinity almost instantly. If you turn the focus ring slowly, it'll take much, much longer to focus from close to infinity. This means that it's impossible to replicate focus pulls and I can't rely on these lenses at all when shooting video. I noticed that the new Sony lenses focus the same way, and apparently the new Samsung lenses do that, too. To me (and to many other shooters who focus manually) this means that all these really good native lenses are pretty much useless for shooting video. I don't know the technical details, but since these lenses focus electronically, it must be possible to have different focus modes, right? Is this something that could be fixed by a firmware update? What do you think?

That's some beautiful footage. Thanks for sharing! Even though I try not to, I think I'll seriously have to consider this camera. This is better than anything that I've seen coming from an A7s or a GH4 - not that I've seen everything though... It's funny though, some shots, the ones without any motion, do look like they're still frames because there is no visible noise whatsoever. How does the 1080p mode compare to other 1080p cameras under normal shooting conditions? Is it on par with, let's say, the GH3? I don't expect the Samsung 1080p to beat the Sony A7s 1080p but if it's on par with the GH3/G6 BUT offers 120fps AND offers 4K shooting at normal frame rates... well in that case I think I've found my next camera.

Danyyel, the D810 is a bit sharper and resolves a bit more detail than the D750. They are fairly close but the D810 is a bit better in terms of sharpness and resolution. Have a look at this review: http://www.slashcam.de/artikel/Test/Nikon-D750---Nikons-beste-Fullframe-Video-DSLR-bisher-.html - Google Translate should give you a fairly good idea of their opinion. Feel free to ask me if you need specific bits or sentences to be translated.

Yeah, why not? Give it a try and let us know about the results! To me it seems like most people go out and buy a camera, then read a shooters guide and don't do any experimenting themselves. It seems a bit silly that a camera manufacturer would allow you to change so many parameters when, at the same time, there's one best setting for all shooting conditions. Matt, I've been enjoying the footage you've put online recently as well as your thoughts, so let us know how the experiment goes.

Andrew, do you still plan on publishing a review about the 120fps / 1080p mode of the NX1? That'd be fantastic!

Thanks for the replies! I'm very happy with my GH3 but of course I'm curious to find out if there are better options. I'd pick up a 4K camera in a heartbeat if it was able to shoot 60fps, because that's what I need most of the time. But I'm hesitant to pick up a 4K camera because the quality between the 24/25fps footage and the slow motion-footage seems to be very different. For example the GH4 shoots fantastic 4K @ 24fps but the 96fps mode seems to be very soft, especially compared to the 4K footage. Any idea how the 120fps mode of the Samsung NX1 compares to the GH3 @ 60fps? If the quality is the same (or even better) plus the camera gives me the option to shoot 4K when I need it, then that'd be a major improvement. How do the Sony A7S and Nikon D750 compare to the GH3 in terms of resolution?

Hey, what camera currently shoots the best 1080p image at a higher than normal frame rate? I know that right now 4K and crazy low light shooting is all the rage, but for the stuff I shoot it's very important to slow down the footage every now and then. Right now I shoot with a Panasonic GH3 in 50fps. I'm happy with the results. I don't really see a point in picking up a GH4 because 4K only goes up to 30fps. So what's the best (affordable) option right now when you constantly need higher frame rates? Sony A7s @ 1080p/60fps? Samsung NX1 @ 1080p/120fps? Panasonic GH3/GH4/G6 at 1080p/60fps? Cheers!

A cage will make your camera more stable because it adds to the weight of the camera system. It also comes with a lot of 1/4" and 3/8" threats so you can mount a ton of stuff on it. For example you can add a monitor, an external mic, a top handle and an LED light all at the same time. Plus it might improve the ergonomics of your camera system. In your case, it doesn't sound like it would add utility to your experience but then again other people have other requirements. It's not like there's one best solution. They don't neccessarily have to cost a fortune though, there's some really good fairly cheap ones. Also, if you're looking for a top handle, there are ones that connect to your camera through the hot shoe mount of the camera.

This might make me sound like a beginner but anyways... Would a 24mm (well, 21.8mm to be exact) f/0.9 APS-C lens give you the exact same look and feel as a 35mm f/1.4 lens on a full frame sensor? Or let's say you have a magic camera with two sensors, one full frame and one APS-C, and you mount the two lenses right next to each other so they're virtually in the same position. The framing will be almost exactly the same, you get a slightly faster f-stop on the APS-C camera so that compensates for the better ISO performance on the full frame sensor. But will it look exactly the same? From what I understood so far is that the background gets pulled in a bit more on the full frame camera because after all, a 35mm lens is a 35mm lens and a 24mm lens is a 24mm lens. So while the framing itself will be equal (X and Y axis), the depth of the image (Z axis) will be different and the full frame camera will give more of a 3D look, right? I know this has been discussed numerous times, so please let me know if I'm wrong.

Well it seems like what matters is what you started out with in first place, right? I started out shooting pictures and video on an APS-C sensor, so that's sort of what I'm used to. In the meantime I also picked up an MFT-camera, so that's a 2x crop factor compared to full frame or a 1.3x crop compared to what I'm used to. What matters to me though is that I prefer the feel of the larger sensor. When I export stills from some of my video projects, I always use frames shot with my MFT camera because the resolution and quality are much better. But once things are moving, I almost always prefer the look of the APS-C camera. A 50mm lens on my APS-C camera feels right to me. A 50mm lens on my MFT camera feels great, too, but I always wish that I'd be able to have a larger frame. The difference between sensor sizes becomes somewhat redundant when talking about telephoto lenses and it'll be very hard to spot the difference between the different sensor sizes. But the more I'm shooting with different sensor sizes, the more I'm convinced that larger sensors look better to my eyes. There's a certain 3D pop that's very hard to achieve with a smaller sensor, especially when shooting between 20mm and 100mm (full frame equivalent).

I own a GH3, two native mft lenses (Panasonic 25mm f/1.4 and Olympus 45mm f/1.8) and a bunch of Canon APS-C lenses but no Speedbooster as of right now. I have used the APS-C lenses on my Canon 600D extensively though. Video work: Both mft lenses are great as long as you don't touch the focus ring. There is a little bit of purple fringing when shooting with the 25mm f/1.4 wide open but not worse than any of my Canon lenses. Sharpness is great even wide open. You can't really focus manually because the focus throw depends on your focus speed. If you turn the ring very slowly, it'll shift focus very slightly. If you turn the ring quickly, it goes from very close to infinity within half a rotation. So you can't do repeated focus pulls and I found it to be impossible to focus manually with these native lenses. I had no issues focussing manually with my Canon lenses. As far as I know, there are some mft lenses that offer mechanical focussing so I imagine they're much better for video. Also, the small size and weight of the native lenses makes shooting handheld a lot more difficult because the camera is so lightweight. Photography: Much better than my experience with Canon really. AF speed is very fast, it's very reliable and the results are great. Both mft lenses I own are very usable even wide open. The difference in sensor sizes (mft vs APS-C) usually isn't an issue for me. Getting usable wide angle shots with a shallow depth of field is very difficult. I don't see myself spending 1000€ on a 12-35 f/2.8 lens for an mft system. In general: Build quality of the lenses is alright. They do feel fairly plasticky but that's also due to the small size. I do feel that the native lenses are quite overpriced. I bought the 25mm and 45mm lenses because I wanted to give the mft system a chance both as my main videography and my main photography system. So far I like the system but I can definitely see its limitations. I would not spend too much money on native MFT lenses. I feel like they are very overpriced and the build quality does not justify the price tag.

As usual, thanks Andy for your fantastic input! The Nikon 80-200 f/2.8 is sold by a local shop. I haven't been able to inspect the lens but usually their stuff is in very good condition and they also offer some sort of warranty. They sell it for 599€ - would you say that's a good deal? I have no experience whatsoever shopping for used lenses. I'm afraid the Canon 35-70 doesn't really cut it for me because of the aperture. Using lights is not an option for the stuff I shoot (outdoors stuff in the woods) and most of the time I have to shoot between f/1.4 and f/2.0.

What's your experience with the following lenses: - Nikon AF 35-70 f/2.8 - Nikon AF D 80-200 f/2.8 I currently shoot with a Canon (APS-C) and a Panasonic (mft) camera but would like to invest in future-proof lenses. I'll either get a Speedbooster or make the switch to a full-frame Nikon camera. If I decide to get a Canon to MFT speedbooster, can I use a dummy Nikon to Canon-adapter and use these lenses with the Canon speedbooster?

Here's a video that was shot with a D750: Settings used for the video: - internal recording - all shots taken with the Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 - all shots taken at around f/4, 1/50s shutter speed and ISO between 200 and 800 - the Nikon Standard picture profile was used - no sharpening applied in post I did not shoot this video but thought it might be interesting to share the video and the settings.

Umm... no.

It's been discussed quite a few times, so feel free to do some more research... but here are the main advantages: - 4K gives you a much better, more detailed 1080p image - lack of moire and aliasing due to better resolution - you can reframe, crop, pan, tilt and zoom in post - better low light performance (finer noise structure) Basically 4K gives you a better and more flexible 1080p image.