Michael1

Andrew, thank you for the comparison test. It's always great to see how cameras perform next to each other. Someone please help me out here. I am looking at the dynamic range test, but am not seeing what variable is fixed for comparison purposes. The Sony's sky is a bright, vibrant blue compared to the washed out 5DMkIII, but the shadows are much darker than those of the 5DMkIII. In fact, the tree goes to black on the Sony, while I see green in the 5DIII tree image. If the 5DMkIII was exposed that dark, would the sky saturation come back? If the tree had more exposure on the Sony, would the sky turn pale? GH4 was awesome in the resolution test at 4K. It was as if a veil had been removed. Like to see additional GH4 comparisons. a7S vs. GH4 seems to be on everyone's mind these days. Enjoy these reviews. Looking forward to Part 2. Michael

It's actually worse than I thought. There are only two FE lenses with optical image stabilization. Michael

When you guys see these spots are they always in the same location, even after changing lenses? Michael

I about fell off my chair when I saw this Tech Radar chart with the GH4 being up there. Based on other graphs I found, it looks like it is blowing every other camera out of the water, including the D600, D800, 5DMk3. I wish it was true, but I'm not believing this. Michael

I don't think I understand why you think they made mistakes for the a7S, or somehow the tests are wrong only for the a7S. If you don't do the same tests for all cameras, then you don't have anything. Michael

a286ca56f7ec27d41b315034bfed4f61

I saw an a7S comparison test (to other cameras such as the 5dMkIII and D800) where even Asian complexions looked too yellow. Michael

Lot of magenta in the first shot (interview). The audience has a lot of magenta. Was that the lighting there? Michael

Nice work! What kind of masking were you doing for this? The shopping scene looks familiar. Beverly Hills? That's blond is knockout BTW. :) Michael

Does any camera support Rec. 2020 yet? That's a much wider color gamut. Michael

I'm interested in hearing what turns up here for full frame shooting. In looking at the Sony FE lenses there are still only a total of only five, count 'em five! I thought Sony was going to start cranking out more lenses. Other than the "kit lens", they are expensive, too. While the performance is great, they are overkill for video. In fact, they are overkill for the 12MP sensor. So then you have the adapters...(more money, more clutter) http://briansmith.com/sony-a7-a7r-lens-mount-adapters/ Looks to me that only the Canon lenses are really supported for auto focus and aperture, but it doesn't look like distortion, chromatic aberration, or vignetting correction is supported. Michael

No, it's not. You need a video card with a good GPU (lower end cars won't cut it), and playback software that supports GPU acceleration. You also can't use an old video card, no matter how fast It is, that doesn't support the latest version of DirectX. Michael

What resolution test are you using to make this statement? Since the GH4 produces 1100 lines of resolution in 4K, that puts it just out of reach for any 1080 camera. Michael

I know you are rolling your eyes, BUT AFAIK, Nikon was the first to virtually eliminate moire', and aliasing while still retaining image detail using onboard camera image processing. Michael

I have to admit I cringe when I read about fixing a problem by running a full frame camera in crop mode, and then fixing the crop mode "problem" with a SpeedBooster. :D Michael

If you look at the financial statements for Nikon, you'll see they are actually doing surprisingly well. Their peak sales were last year, and this year's sales are only down 2%, but their profit is up 15%. You would think by reading posts on the web that Nikon is on the brink of bankruptcy. Nothing could be further from the truth. Michael

Here's one. Appears to be a GH4 promo short. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5niWpEJQxJkc Here is the "Behind the Scenes" for the short. http://vidhouse.co.uk/video/O8PP9uYHqk8/Behind-the-scenes-of-GH4-short-film-Dalia-s-Dream.html Probably not the best example of what could be done. It seems to have a '70's look to it, which maybe is what they were after. In fact, they should have put the credits in yellow. :) Michael

I've got to say, I'm impressed with the way Panasonic is actively involved with customers and addressing issues. It seems like they really want to be tops in this market. Michael

What I am not understanding from the article is it implies that at large apertures, the camera is automatically compensating by increasing the ISO, but the user is unaware of the ISO increase? So the camera says, for instance, ISO 1600, and the camera is really at ISO 3200? Michael

Nice tutorial. What have you been doing regarding the yellowish skin tones? Michael

Nice short, but if it was done by Kendy Ty, the credits would have been him, the actor, and that's it. That's one thing that is so impressive about him. When other directors yell out, "Lights, camera, action!", Kendy only yells out "Action!". There are no lights, and the camera is in his hands. :) Michael

Hi Maxonics, The reason I say that the direction will be to more pixels again, is because as time has gone on, low light performance has improved, even as pixels have shrunk in size. Right now the 1:1 pixel mapping used for 4K, is really just mapping pixels which are sensitive to one color to a pixel on the screen represented by a red, a green, and a blue pixel (excluding color subsampling). The ideal case is a set of RGB pixels per pixel of resolution for maximum color fidelity, similar to what is done on 3-chip cameras. In addition, I think DSLR cameras (vs. dedicated video cameras), will always be under pressure to perform well as a still camera, and that means high pixel counts. Sony is really pushing the limits of creating a video camera in a DSLR type body. Also there is the issue of hot and dead pixels. It is easier to cover those up with more pixels to work with. I saw one test where the a7S had a lot of (big) hot pixels if the noise reduction was off, way more than they saw on the a7R. I am no expert, but I would be surprised if you could fix the bad color science I am seeing by just tweaking white balance. White balance adjustment would shift all colors, but from what I see not all colors need shifting. Michael

Got to hand it to Panasonic, they really take these issues and the GH4 seriously. That was fast! They are going for blood. :) Michael

I see the low pixel count sensors as a temporary phenomenon. I believe pixel count will rise again in hybrid DSLRs as CMOS read speeds increase, and processing power increases, as they naturally do over time. What is concerning regarding the a7S is the color science. I have been using comparison tools at various websites The a7S colors are just off. It's particularly noticeable on flesh tones. The a7S has a strong greenish-yellowish cast, that makes people look like they have Jaundice. The Canon 5DMkIII seems pretty much on target, and the Nikon D610 and D800 are close with a slight magenta cast. The Panasonic GH4 also tends towards a yellowish cast, but it is subtle. These results seem to align well with what I have seen in videos. Michael