Cinegain

Sure, where you in Italy, or am I mistaken? If so... I always check http://geizhals.eu for availlability throughout the EU. From what I've gathered they only get a handful of units in every once and again and Blackmagic doesn't give them any heads-up, it just shows up... (or doesn't). So, best to (pre-)order it somewhere, like CVP, and hope that they'll get some in sometime soon and there's not a whole lot of people in front of you who reserved one... I was particularly interested in the same combo as well. Were two decent topics on the BMD Video Assist and Micro Cinema Camera around here somewhere. I was wishing some company would come up with something that would allow a little something like this: As I found this seeming a little awkward to use like that: There's some signs of life, but I haven't heard or seen anything when it will actually be availlable to go and pick up. I guess it's Blackmagic after all. They've been doing this for some years now though, you'd expect them to have their shit together by now. The button says 'Shipping in February'... but it has said other things before, so who knows...

You could throw something like this together for perhaps 50 bucks with third party accessories. Like a pistolgrip, brackets, loupe, maybe some spraypaint and decals/printable stickers. So indeed, horribly overpriced and super hipster. Kind of like some of these crowdfunding campaigns that were there to have a pistol grip for your smartphone... didn't this start out as one of those too? Believe this isn't new. I don't know... and don't care. This is definitely not for me. And if I would want a pistol grip, I'd already be using something similar build from scratch.

Oh for sure. APS-C sounds fine! So why a GH4 over the A7SII or A7RII for example? Well, first of all: yes, the price. Sure, we'd all be shooting ARRI Alexa XT and Alexa Minis if we had the budget to run our operations like that, but if you're starting out at an indie level, you kinda hope to achieve a whole lot with a whole little. And that's where the folks at Panasonic have found themselves a real market. You can spend the money you saved on more important stuff like lenses, lighting, audio and talented people... To stick with saving on a camera... the A7RII does really well at S35... why not just buy a S35 camera to begin with and save a few pennies that could be put to better use? The new Canon and Nikon flagships are fullframe and do 4K, do they set the bar? Well, here as well. Not exacty in everybody's ballpark financially speaking! And they must be great for shooting stills and fun as hybrid cameras, but since they rely heavily on the traditional DSLR approach, they're not really optimized for video use... besides, there's video crops there too. The 1D C does things well, but still doesn't have all the mirrorless gizmos. I think the times where we'd pick up cameras like the T2i/550D, 7D and 5D are long gone. Ok, so back to fullframe and then mirrorless with Sony. You could get a 2nd hand A7S, that shouldn't set you back too much? True. Why did people ultimately go and pick-up an A7S? Because if you're running and gunning things you won't be setting up much lighting at all. The A7S excells at lowlight. That's the main issue with micro four thirds, the performance just isn't quite there. Everybody tries to avoid cranking up the ISO above ISO800. With an A7S you crank it up to in the thousands and just not care. That's a huge benefit. The A7S is fullframe, there's no muliplying the crop factor, so your wide lenses stay wide. Additionally fullframe enables you to more easily get a shallow depth of field, again, something that people would say contributes to a filmic look. Bitdata usually is better and more accurate too when you increase the pixel surface, allowing it to gather more light, although we haven't really seen any of that back in the colors, which require some work with both Panasonic and Sony. So... sounds like things are in the favor of the A7S over the GH4? Depends on what you're going for. Let's first take a look at how we might go about getting the GH4 more up to A7S level... we could make the image brighter by concentrating light onto the smaller sensor by use of one of these speedboosters, lens turbos, focal reducers, whatchamacallit. This also helps with creating a shallower depth of field. Better... still not there by a long shot though. So what's the point, then? Well, the real power I think Micro Four Thirds has is the size of the system. Not so much in physical size of the camera itself perhaps as it's a no smaller of a camera than the A7s, but as a system, combined with the lenses to go with the sensor inside. To cover that A7S sensor you got to bring serious glass with serious coverage. Besides, serious lenses ask for serious prices too. The GH4 gives you a really discrete low profile camera to shoot with, be it with an affordable pancake lens or quality Vedyra Mini Prime cinema lens, not drawing too much attention, or just being able to cram it in every nook and cranny... or fit it underneath an aerial platform. Yet at the same time it's an enough of a powerhouse to behave well when fully rigged up in frankenstein fashion. For example rigged up with rods, follow focus system, matte box, external monitor/recorder, audio, V-lock battery, speedbooster, Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 D. It's just so multi purpose. And... you can really grow with your camera. As we've seen you can even try out some anamorphic stuff. Then... what do you have to complain about anyways? You seem happy enough. Why not settle for minor improvements? Well, yeah, I'm very grateful to have something like availlable to us. But at the same time... we were still not able to bridge to gap in performance or get that really shallow depth of field. Now... the Nikon D5300 showed us that it's not a stretch to get nice organic rendering and great quality 1080p out of APS-C. And the look's just right somehow. Actually, not somehow. APS-C translates to S35. Guess what that before mentioned ARRI Alexa XT shoots at? You betcha, S35! One of the reasons people fell in love with the Samsung NX1. S35 and nice organic colors! The A5100 and A6000... APS-C too, yet, not the Sony mirrorless cameras known for their breakthrough video features, although the effecient XAVC-S was a nice touch. However, with their new A6300 they take everything people liked about its bigger sensored brothers and crammed it into the APS-C mirrorless body... perhaps with a few exceptions like in-body stabilization. Still though, internal 4K. The A7S didn't even do that. There's some new sensor tech inside which should mean it should perform nicely... better than MFT, still short of its fullframe brothers. It can do the same trick as the Panasonic though, concentrate light onto the smaller sensor for better performance and increased capability of creating shallow depth ot field. The A7RII has a great S35 crop mode, if it's anything like the performance there, it's more than enough for most people! It just sounds like it will leave the GH4 eating dust... that's all I'm saying. Just about the bigger APS-C sensor? Well, again, taking the ARRI XT as an example... you know what some of its keypoints are? Film-like, organic look, High Dynamic Range, Sharp, natural images for HD, 2K, 4K UHD or 4K Cine deliverables, High sensitivity, ARRI color science, Multiple in-camera recording options, ARRIRAW, Apple ProRes, DNxHD, Two independent HD-SDI outputs... sounds familliar? Some of these points remind of Blackmagic cameras as well. BMD Pocket Cinema Camera, Micro Cinema Camera, options at around a 1000 bucks. Along the lines of the GH4 that is. So, no, it's not just fighting APS-C, it's fighting the same Micro Four Thirds standard for other aspects that are appreciated for good video. What stops you from buying an A6300 or BMD Micro Cinema Camera? Well, exactly, nothing. Except the change from MFT to APS-C might not be so easy when you're heavily invested in native MFT glass. The BMD Micro Cinema Camera just doesn't do 4K, so that could be a reason to pass up on it, yet it has some of the features that makes an ARRI camera an ARRI camera... it's film-like, has that organic look, high dynamic range, sharp, natural images, decent color science, RAW/ProRes recording, which is worth something. And let's not forget optional global shutter mode! The A6300 gives you that performance boost and has those great features. It will provide that S35 look or even goes overboard with a focal reducer attached. So the question really becomes... what will Panasonic do to keep you from buying any of these? Well, that's why I said 'Panasonic needs to make it be worth it, which is going to be tough, especially if they really will take their time and not release it this year, with people switching away... so yeah'. Like I said, I still have the E-M1 as well, so I won't just part with my collection of native lenses just yet and the GH5 might up things enough to ditch the A6300 again (which I will initially primarily adapt Nikon mounted lenses to)... but it has to be more than a minor improvement. They'll have to pull out all the stops and really go for it. I don't understand why people would get this camera if they don't want its video features, so yeah, maybe there shouldn't be a GH5, or atleast, not in the capacity we're talking about here. Maybe they should brand it Varicam already. The Panasonic DMC-VC5, because the GH-range is more than just another addition to the G-string of stills cameras. You want a camera that does stills and still has some fun 4K video features without spending the money on getting too serious, get yourself something else. A G7 or so. Anyways. Time will tell. And different opinions and insights aren't a bad thing.

Ehm, I think your overestimating the part of users that use this for stills primarily (or at least the '90% of users of gh4 would'nt need these features'). To me it makes hardly any sense to buy the GH4 if you're hardly interested in its more advanced video capabilities (Olympus seems a far better choice for stills, or even other Panasonics like the GX8, or the G7(0) if you want stills but 4K as well, because should you shoot video at some point, you want the latest and greatest, it's still a numbers game that gets some people to play). Thats the thing it does, that is what they've come to push the GH-range for. It's being used for aerial video, on many productions as alternative angle/B-cam and even as A-cam. With the BLEGH-unit released along beside the GH4, how can you deny it's not just a small market that cares about the video on the GH-range. That IS its market. And they've done great with it too. Panasonic US even puts pressure on the folks in charge overseas to give it more advanced features and make it more suitable at pro level, just take this recent talk on shooting anamorphic with Matt Frazer: Just now with fierce competition, mainly Blackmagic and Sony... myself, heavily invested in the MFT system, I will probably be going with the A6300 next... I can still see me using the E-M1 for stills (IBIS with primes especially, compact and pretty), but for video I've come to appreciate the performance and aesthetics of the APS-C D5300. Now, Sony has a very adaptable system, the S35 crop makes it easier to find and use wide angle lenses in comparison with MFT, smart adapters and focal reducers getting close to fullframe, making it easier to create a shallow depth of field, which often contributes to a filmic look. Not to mention the better performance when using it at and above ISO800, especially with the new sensor tech. I bet everyone would appreciate more usable ISO1600 and ISO3200. ISO6400 even perhaps. As well as the other tech feats. So Panasonic needs to make it be worth it, which is going to be tough, especially if they really will take their time and not release it this year, with people switching away... so yeah, I'm not so sure about that ('All it has to do is minor improvements').

Hum, the 11-16mm f/2.8 is a widely adapted lens. Now... that Tokina 50-135mm f/2.8 could be an interesting one to adapt as well. And with 1.5x crop (like the 11-16 meant for crop systems) it would result in something along the lines of the popular 70-200mm range. It has APO qualities too. Quite impressive actually. From what I've gathered it was selling up to 2010 or something, then just gone. Interesting to see they kept it alive for their cinema range zooms, must've been some lens, ey. Comes in at 3x the 11-16mm T3.0 too. Hidden gem? People who went and got the stills version seemed impressed with the image quality, just not so much the focusing system. But adapting it to shoot video with manual focus, that's no problem. Must be great on S35 E-mount or M43, but indeed then lacks an inbetweener like Nikon have with their 28-70mm. Hum...

They have the Aputure DEC in E-mount: http://www.aputure.com/dec-compatible-lens-list . Something like that you mean, I suppose? One of the first bridgecameras to sport 1080p was the Canon PowerShot SX1 IS. It used the navigational dial on the back in MF mode to turn and control focus. Totally OT, but just for nostalgic sake let me share this video where someone made a test to show how flexible the zoomrange is that sold me on the camera: Neways, back to focus by buttons... I could imagine Magic Lantern coming up with a similar thing. Main thing: it has to be appointed in-camera and I don't think out-of-the-box it's switchable, so something like the DEC would be worth a try. Just... it's limited to Canon mount lenses. There's a bunch tested as well as the Sigma ART 18-35mm f/1.8 that should work.

Well. I'm rooting for JVC giving you a loaner as well! In theory it's kinda something along the lines of the FS5 and DVX200 it seems, just at the same time not at all either. So it be interesting if someone could still find some life init. Especially now that prices dropped, because nobody seems overly eager to pick one up, yet it might be interesting to get... We've all been discussing the possible GH5... which is rumored not to even come out this year, but next... and this would already do that S35 trick! Plus, it's not a Varicam, but it's somewhere to go from owning a GH4 to getting a bit more solid system without resorting to Sony & Blackmagic and rendering a native M43 lens collection useless, Yet something's holding everyone back apparently... is there really something off with the system or are we just scared of things that aren't the norm?

Once every while someone mentions the GY-LS300 and the fact that on paper it's a very exciting camera (e.g.). But hardly anyone actually dares to go there and these topics die fast. Nobody really seems to give a damn and the footage, especially some of the first stuff that came out, isn't really pursuading anybody it appears... User TSV I think was the only one to go a try one out: His conclusion as follows...

Yup. I know of G.L.Optics. Duclos... Cinematics/PCHood. I might've mentioned them a couple of times around here. But rehousing by third parties always ends up being super expensive (like 3500 USD expensive and it's still the same optics and coatings as the stills version, Tokina's own VDSLR/CINE versions are still based on the same optical formula, but they can optimize it for its new purpose from the ground up, which give them a great advantage over normal rehousing, making the up in price suddenly not so far fetched). Then I'd rather have the manufacturer come up with something... Like Samyang/Rokinon: VDSLR/CINE, CINE DS versions and XEEN.

Update btw...

Amen brother. Haven't picked up the D5300 in a while now. I'd rather work a bit more on getting MFT right, than dealing with the D5300's quirks and underwhelming features. Although... that A6300 already has that S35 we're talking about the GH5 should have and has just about all the mirrorless features you could ask for. Even adapts M43 glass... that does spike the interest...

I wish Sigma would do something like that... Sigma ART... meet Sigma CINE!

From a size perspective... the A5100 and A6000 are smaller than GH4. All APS-C stills cameras are aimed at the consumer crowd and priced accordingly/affordable (except perhaps the 7D & Hasselblad Sony rebrands). Just about all fullframe cameras are aimed at the enthusiast/prosumer/pro crowd and priced accordingly as well. There's a big gap in between APS-C and FF. Yet, between M43 and APS-C not so much. So from a costs perspective, I'm not sure why you'd oppose it either, if anything, APS-C actually seems the more mainstream, convenient and economical option to go with. Lenses... I have seen small enough lenses on Sony E-mount cameras as well. You don't want to use other than M43 lenses with your S35 camera... ok, fine, don't. You can still use your M43 line-up lenses and have the sensor cropped accordingly, acting as a 4/3" sensored camera. Don't see why introducing a new line-up is a bad thing? Mutliple manufacturers have more than one specific sensor area covering mount. Panasonic has to keep up. Easy as that. You can't just magically make a sensor suddenly be hell of a lot more sensitive... but what's always an easy fix is increasing it's size. And as I said before, I think APS-C is where it's at. Sure they could introduce a fullframe system or a strictly APS-C one... but that's bad. You already have a eco system... and you want to give the people already shooting a Panasonic, having a bunch of native lenses to not start a system with like 3 lenses that will work natively only. Introducing a S35 camera that takes an existing lens eco system and expands on that with a new line-up... I think it's a smart move. Sure you could say 'well, if that's your philosophy, then you can also make it a fullframe camera and make it take M43 and act as a 4/3" sensored camera', well, you're forgetting why people love the GH-series then. S35 just makes sense. To me atleast. I'd like to see it. Don't find it too far fetched at all.

Well, if it's for monitoring only, you might as well rely on liveview with the app over Wi-Fi.

Yeah, good to have the option. Interesting!

What do you mean, redesigned? I think they've only announced doing the C/Y and OM to M4/3 like three weeks ago... http://stkb.co.jp/info/?p=2949 . To my knowledge they just follow the adapter types for EOS and M43 that were out earlier ( http://stkb.co.jp/info/?p=2446 ) and don't see how there would be a redesign already? If you have more info about that, I'm eager to learn about it! Thanks.

Lilliput's still a thing too, e.g. http://lilliputdirect.com/lilliput-hdmi-monitors/lilliput-7-inch-hdmi-monitor/lilliput-663-version-2 or their new update to other ones: http://lilliputdirect.com/new-lilliput-monitors/lilliput-339-high-definition-field-monitor . But yeah, these 7" monitors do tend to be bulky and heavy. 10"-ers even more so. But then again... quality and functionality. I doubt your smartphone will have any monitoring features, except for it displaying the image that is being output? So then it's more just a display than a field monitor. If it would be that easy, noone would bother with the costly SmallHDs...

@mfeldt: yeah, that would (roughly) be true, but now you're assuming there's 'the same number of pixels per image area', which means every individual pixel would be of equal size (in microns). However, with an increase in sensor dimensions, in most cases the pixel density actually decreases (even if you compare the 20.2MP APS-C Canon 7DmkII to the 50.6MP FF Canon 5DS R), giving each individual pixel more surface, which increases its light gathering capability, turning it more sensitive and efficient... solar panel logic dictates. That's why the A7SII, a fullframe camera with low megapixel count and 70.6 µm² of surface per pixel is so damn good in low light conditions. And especially with video you can't just take more time to gather more light per frame.

I wrote them a whole essay once about the FZ200, why it should have a successor, what it should be capable of and if they were already working on something like that... they responded in the nicest manner! I get that. Of course you can not leak information just because someone's curious. But little later the FZ1000 appeared which kind of touched all the points I discussed except perhaps for having that constant f/2.8 aperture throughout the zoomrange. Of course I don't think my feedback influenced the product one bit and they were probably having the same thoughts, but I felt heard and that kinda counts for something in my book.

I think platforms should change more. People do seem to prefer the convenience of paid services such as Netflix, iTunes and Spotify to get their content through one platform and not having to search for downloads and hoping that it's not a fake or bad quality... waiting for translating groups to come up with inaccurate subtitle translations... The thing is, if a movie is worth it, people will go into the cinemas to watch it! It's a social event and an audiovisual experience. If it's 'meh', they'll wait for it the first oppertunity to watch it in the convenience of their homes. And... that usually involves pirated movies being out first, so the first thing to turn to! Would movies be released faster, just a few weeks after hitting cinemas, maybe with some monthly fee service (perhaps something like: watch any 10 movies in our library for 19,99/monthly and 15 movies for 24,99, unlimited for 39,99) I can imagine people would pay for the convenience and knowledge everything is going to be proper and not resort to shady half-baked pirated versions! Sure that would mean people would hardly pick up a DVD or Bluray box set anymore. But I think it's becoming a thing like newspapers and magazines as well, everything is trending towards digital formats as means of delivery to the end user.

Yes! Sounds like what I've been saying lately! Would have a couple of other implementations in mind too, like 1440p/2.5K/2.7K with HFR... So, when you say: I say: hell to da yes!!

Yup. That's why I mentioned: ... which is exactly what Video Devices uses. But it's a too bulky of a solution to be dealt with in-camera, so I figured you could probably cover it up with a nice battery grip!

Well, the EF-version is even more expensive, albeit electronic. Which wouldn't help me much as I do not have or care for any Canon EF(-S) glass and dummy adapters would render the electronics useless too. The Nikon one I can use already directly adapted to the 28-70 & 80-200mm f/2.8 D lenses. The Sigma ART 18-35mm f/1.8. Old & new Tokinas etc. So that does give a huge advantage. Maybe just not as adaptable. I didn't count on using the adapter adapted to anything other than Nikon actually, but it was some good food for afterthought! The Kipon BAVEyes sounds like an okay solution, but haven't seen much on them other than articles on rumor sites. The early spottings on eBay for over 300 USD was ridiculous... http://world.taobao.com/item/526919690424.htm | http://world.tmall.com/item/526919622696.htm 1100 CNY (RMB) or 168.85 USD is what it sells for locally in China. I managed to setup a Taobao account not too long ago and placed a trial order at some place since some sellers do ship internationally now. Still... the whole site and all contact is in Chinese though, so it's a pain in the ass. Would help a lot if you could just buy one on AliExpress, eBay or Amazon, that's for sure. And then there's that A6300 too... and Zhongyi/ZY Optics do have C/Y - E-mount II.

Ah, darn it. Just my luck. I see, these adapters say it's for macro and won't have infinity focus... although, the guys I was talking about, K&F Concept, have one with an optical element that claims it 'allows you to use Contax/Yashica lenses on Nikon cameras. The lens distance scale can be used as well as the focusing to infinity and the adapter has correction lens inside'. Same for a 'Kiwi fotos' one. But yeah, cheap glass in front of glass in front of glass... something tells me those are the ingredients of a bad breakfast; better skip that.