mat33

I don't know what the guy is talking about, as he seems to say the images are too flat but then a 1 inch sensor in the RX100 is ok??? Anyhow, there are plenty of great images shot on the olympus system, and the PRO zoom lenses are some of the best and are small for their focal lengths. There are many other great systems out there, so you need to look at your style of shooting and what is most important to you. If IQ is king and you don't care about size and weight, then save up for a Pentax 645Z. But if you want something you can take with you anywhere, that are fun to shoot with, and have some pretty nice innovative features (like live composite mode, high resolution mode, great IBIS that allows handheld shots at 1/4-1/2 sec). Also, check out John Brawley's latest video on the EM5ii and see if the IQ of that is good enough for what you are going to shoot? I think if you are only delivering to the web then its fine, and your viewers are going to notice other things more than the IQ. Anyhow get what fits your needs, not what everyone else is using or are raving about at the moment. It what you do with it that counts not what you are doing it with.

Why is the E-M10 or E-M5/1 not that great for photos? Unless you are a pixel peeper, then I think the current m4/3 hold there own for most types of still shooting and the array of high-quality AF glass (and often quite affordable i.e olympus 25, 45 1.7 primes) shouldn't be discounted.

I think the big issue with the XC10 is that it looks like a small dSLR and so everyone expects it to handle the same way. I think Andrew has nailed it -it is not a manual focus camera and the focus ring is to help direct the AF to the desired focal plane. While the AF isn't super fast, it does act in a quite human fashion, which helps minimise the lack of speed. I think if you work on accepting it as an AF with manual assist only then it all works a lot better. For me the main thing I would like to see is being able to assign AE lock to a programmable button when in shutter priority mode. Its never going to be a low light monster so I can live with the lens not being 2.8 at the long end, but is is nice being parfocal and its easy to get a nice s16 vibe going with the zoom.

If they do add DPAF hopefully they offer this as an upgrade option for existing XC10 owners like they did with the C100.

I think there might be some truth to this -IMHO the best motion (and colour) is the global shutter in the Digital Bolex

Well looking at the differences between the XA30 and XA35, which are part of the XC10's camcorder group, I wouldn't be surprised if the XC15 only adds HD/SDI output for news broadcasters and maybe some type of XLR input or add-on pack. You would think if it was a new lens, dual pixel focus (which would imply a new sensor?) then it would be an XC20 based on the XA ranges naming history.

If you have the time, light and skills the camera really doesn't matter. Me, I'm often taking vids while travelling, and rigging a camera with external recorders etc just doesn't work for me most of the time. It would be great to see the E-M1 mark ii with a robust codec like the XC10 (which I am using as my grab and go video cam).

This looks great. I'm a big Olympus fan -love my E-M1 for the colour, IBIS and ergonomics, it just make shooting fun.

So just got my XC10, and it definitely has a cool s16 aesthetic. IS is probably a bit better than olympus E-M1 IBIS but need to do some further tests, and onboard audio is a lot better than GH4 that it replaced.

The AE lever on the C/Y lens doesn't fit properly with the EF mount BMPCC speed booster. They need to be filed down to fit, check out this thread on BMCuser about it: http://www.bmcuser.com/showthread.php?17173-Contax-with-Leitax-Canon-EF-Pocket-Speedbooster-BMPCC

While Canon may have said it is a hybrid camera, they didn't trump it as a bridge camera which is what most people seem to compare it to. To my mind, almost every photo camera now is a hybrid that can take stills and decent video including dSLR's, but the XC10 is a camcorder that has better still capability than other camcorders. In any case, I don't think anyone who saw the Canon press releases or videos, would think 'I'm not interested in video at all but Canon says XC10 is great at stills, so I'll get it), whereas a bridge camera may be brought by someone with no interest in video at all.

Amazing how well the Digital Bolex team nailed the colour science given their modest resources compared to much larger competitors.

Well, I just called my local camera store and ordered a XC10 (I try to buy local as much as I can, as we only have one decent camera store). They were a bit like 'you're sure you want one of those' so the initial bad reviews have certainly made their mark. I am now in a bizarre situation where the largest sensor I own, is in my smallest camera (a ricoh GR).

Sounds great. The Xume adapters are definitely a good idea. I think I saw somewhere that the zoom was par focal so you can do s16 style crash zooms -does it seem that way to you? I wonder what the IBIS is like compared to Olympus's system...

Sounds great, how are you finding the build quality and general ease of use?

Yeah agree that there is a big big place for larger sensors and DOF control/lowlight ability. I have shot a few travel vids and with a larger sensor camera, I had a nice cinematic image but also had to carry a lot of gear, deal with ND filters, and missed some quick shots by not nailing focus or exposure before the shot was gone. I think something like the XC10 which had a great image and easy colours, would be a good option -just one camera in the bag and a videomic pro and you're all good.

When I was checking out the G40 there were almost no reviews, and all the gear sites didn't even mention it when it was released at CES. I think the issue with camcorders, and to a degree the XC10 when it came out, is that they aren't sexy 'cinema' cameras as it seems a lot of people want to be a 'cinematographer' and so end up having to shoot everything rigged up like they are shooting a narrative, when they are often doing work that is better described as 'videography' and would be better served with a small, handheld option which lets you forget the camera and just focus just capturing the moment.

Ah great, all this talk of sweet handheld, IBIS, 4K, c-log shooting goodness means I have to talk to the CFO again about why I really 'need' another video camera....

Ah, the good old days...there's nothing like the smell of miniDV tape rolling at the end of a long day :-) I have been seriously thinking about the XC10 as well, in NZ I can get it for ~$1500 USD so very very tempting. While I love my lens collection, I think it would be refreshing to have something similar to a camcorder experience, that is 'self contained' and just works without various paraphernalia.

Just the other day, I stumbled upon my mini-DV Panasonic GS400 in the cupboard, which was my first video camera, and man nothing that has followed has come close to the ease of use/focal length range in a small handheld form factor. I thought the G40 looked pretty sweet, if you aren't fixated on shallow DOF.

Thanks, I suspected as much. I think I'll wait and see what Olympus comes up the the E-M1 mark ii, will it be the fabled mirrorless unison of great ergonomics, EVF, IBIS, battery life, and IQ.......

I've been seriously considering the GX80 as the IBIS looks good, but I did a quick shoot today and decided to take my E-M1 along (in all of its 24Mbit glory :-) ). Man, it quickly reminded me why I like olympus so much for low-profile run and gun- the ergonomics just click for me and the single AF + manual focus is such a pleasure to use. Can anyone with an olympus and GX80 chip in on how they compare usability/ergonomics wise? After today, I'm thinking I might just hold out for the E-M1 mark ii which will hopefully even the IQ gap....

There definitely is a race to the bottom and a generally dumbing down of content on the internet -if the trend keeps up then we will all need to be taking ritalin to keep our attention spans long enough to read anything longer than paragraph. But there was a time where well researched, comprehensive, and balanced content was popular and attracted a number of readers, enough to make a number of sites sustainable. Have all of these people being assimilated by the short attention span masses or are they still out there, lamenting at the fact that the resources they once enjoyed are a shadow of there former selfs (not saying that eosHD is this)? If these people are still out there (which I think they are), then surely there is a niche for good long-format content? These 'traditional' high quality blogs aren't going to see the kind of views that you might get on clickbait sites, Facebook and Instagram, but does that matter if the views are from the 'right' people? I think we might end up seeing a bit of a reversal of the mobile OS craze, once more people start waking up to the fact that it is difficult to be productive on a mobile device (and even a maxi-pad screen isn't going to help). As a parent, I could see my son becoming very familiar with iOS, but apart from drawing and reading (which he could do with paper/pencils/books) he was just consuming content. Now there is nothing wrong with this but I want him to also be able to be productive, to create and contribute to society, and to understand how a computer, networks, html etc works rather than just being able to push a icon with his finger. So he is starting to learn how to use a laptop (with Linux to boot). I saw recently that a school district in the US has canceled their order for iPads and replaced them with laptops for their older students after surveying what teachers and students actually wanted -so maybe its starting already. I think for some of us, gear is a way to reenergise our creative mojo. We might live somewhere that isn't very inspiring, or have family/job commitments that limit what we can realistically achieve when filming. A new camera or lens, is a way to get excited about filming again, a new way to look at familiar scenes and activities, a reason to put the time and effort in, a new challenge to extract the best IQ possible. At the moment there is a lull in new gear -we may have hit 'peak IQ' for current tech and we are only seeing smaller incremental improvements but have been used to the ground breaking announcements (just look at this years NAB compared to previous years). We are like gear junkies, who are being weaned from the frequent highs to a more sustainable state, and it may be a bit of a downer for some. On the bright side, it is a relief that the camera you brought 6-12 months ago is not obsolete yet and a chance to look at our true motivations for filming. If Andrew is looking for inspiration for a post -I would suggest a part 2 review of the digital bolex -it has come a long way since the original post and no other blog or site has formally looked at again, and I think fits in perfectly to the ethos of this site. Oh and by the way, thanks Andrew for all of the excellent work.

Heres a few snapshots from the D16

I like to think of it as a vertical anamorphic flare :-)