Ed_David

opps maybe not - thanks for looking into that! boom, the internet wins again. yes should help roll off slightly good to get to image manupulatino before it goes to card and gets knocked down to 4:2:0 - I think at this earlier stage you are playing with a 4:2:2 image. Don't know if its 10 bit before it gets recorded but seems to be best to work on it while in camera before card

Messing with the A7R II - good, but I would wait if you can till the A7S II - rolling shutter issues. Also save some cash. Here's my receipe that I'm liking: COLOR MATRIX - Pro, not s gamut - reds feel more red COLOR GAMMA - CINE4, not slog - cleaner highlights. Slog2 looks weird with an 8 bit codec how it gets noisy in highlights Black Level: 0 Black Gamma > Range: Middle , Level: -3 Knee > Mode: Auto , Auto Set > Max Point: 95 , Sensitivity: Mid Colore Mode: Pro Saturation: +8 Color Phase -2 Color Depth > R+1, G-1, B+2,, C-2, M-1, Y-3 Detail > Level, -5 Adjust > Mode; Manual, V/H Balance: -2, B/W Balance Type3, Limit: 0, Crispening:0, hi_light Detail: 0 White balance > Manual > Grid setting B 1 (one to the left) You don't have to follow it perfectly, but overall it can get to some stunning results. And the secret to any log recording is post. Use film convert. filmconvert.com. Or impulz luts. Select slog 2 - modify it - less contrast - less of a curve since it's less flat as s log 2 I used Film Convert Arri Alexa Log C profile for grading. FilmConvert setting is Arri Alexa as the camera. logC. film stock is Fuji Film 8543 Vivid. color 93. curve 100. size 35mm full frame. grain 0. But just mess around - find what you like. Have fun! And everyone post your own. Together we can help each other improve. That's what it's all about - using the Hive to get better. Get knowledge, give knowledge.

Yes I was playing that game till recently. I have had a change of heart. Making short films with old gear that you pretend is new gear also can get you that amount of views. I did that with my werner herzog review of the ursa mini 4.6k and had a great run.

I don't know if I would put Red and Arri in the same category. The Red Dragon had quite a few issues and still does - having to pick between a optical filter that allows for highlight handing but effectively makes it a 320 ASA camera without seeing noise in the shadows or a low-light camer at 1000 ASA with very similar limited highlight control and orbing issues is something that in the states made many people turn away from using the camera on shoots. Plus of course the awkward HD-sdi placement, fan noise, etc - and pretty much all of the world is shooting high-end digital on Arri camera. But with that said, I own two red one mx - and I love the image I get out of them. It's so good, in fact, I never replaced them with red epic mx cameras. I'm very happy with them. I think no one should preorder and BMC does release sometimes too early - I really believe in waiting a year or two to jump and then you can get a camera at 50% off, and in the meatime, first just rent it out and test it. The Sony F3 seems to be a much better value than the a7r II based on Andrew's review and right now they are selling new for $4k - or used for $2k - less moire, rolling shutter. And still has s log and nice color and skintones. I really don't quite get the rush to have cameras that don't exist yet.

Hi I think if you use editready they ask you do 16-235 - check their webpage the master blacks I keep the same. I haven't tested it much yet but shooting in Gamma DR seems to be the best - then I usually turn sharpness to minus 15 and contrast I turn down a few notches - with saturation - I keep normal.

also BMC micro with its global shutter will be super interesting as a go pro replacement

I don't think anyone will know how much the camera will lose in 6 months. It's all speculation. But to play it safe, just rent the camera for like $100 and do some tests and see if it's your next best thing. I regret buying the a7s very much - I used it maybe 3 times. I should sell it. The NX1 - I like it - but it has kind of a crappy magenta digital feel to it for stills and video - the h265 encoding is a pain in the butt - I kind of regret it. so that's like $4500 right there in regreted purchases. I should have just been more frugal with it all. I still use the nx1 for scouting because it's so light - and I guess I should sell that a7s when I still can.

How about the blackmagic micro then - 1000 plus a small rig and tiny smallhd monitor and you are up and running with global shutter and probably more natural skintones than possible with the a7r II. Everyone loves to rush things. And yes I shoot a ton with the sony f35 which is from 2008. I own three of them. And I used to shoot a lot with the Arri SRII which is from the 90s I think. Age doesn't matter. And I use tungsten fresnel lighting a lot if I can over HMI because of how it wraps around the face.

buying and selling after 6 months is a time-consuming process. Just buy something at least one year or 2 years old. And if you really need the a7r II - I'm sure you'll be able to rent it for $100 a day on lensrental.com

No, I spent way too much already this year on cameras. I own 12 cameras. Saving up for a Joker 1600. Lighting and lenses and grading at this point matter more than camera choice. They are all about the same by now. Some handle highlight info better than others - but the easier way to improve ones imagery is with glass and lighting and learning how to grade or working with a good colorist. It's a new era of digital cameras.

Why not have both a stills camera and a video camera. Basically with the A7R II you'll still need a monitor to see more than its onboard, and XLR input and some way to get timecode into like the odysey to consider it for any serious A camera work - and that's the same as the URSA mini - which all in all, is all about the same price. Or what would you use the A7RII for? Let's see - narrative - you need XLR and all that DOC work - you need XLR and rig it out for shoulder Wedding work - you need XLR pretty much everything - you'll make this little camera bigger. the comparison I stand by. And resale value - my a7s isn't going to only lose $500 - it's going for 1k right now on ebay.

Shooting film on a sub 100k budget is nore expensive than digital. On a 40 million dollar or higher budget its not that big of a deal. The costs are from labor etc. But elswitt shot alexa on nightcrawler to get the stop he needed. I just sold my srii. Processing film is pricey. It costs about 800 dollars for every 10 minutes you shoot once all is said and done. I usually shoot about 30 to 40 minutes a day on a film. Maybe you can get down to 15 minutes. But a 3 day shoot thats 4 grand to shoot film. Shooting digital would be like 400 bucks for the hard drives. You could then spend the extra 3 grand on an editor and colorist. But yes something to look into.

Basicially to get similar output you would need a a7rii with an odyssey 7q+ and would end up costing same as ursa mini. Also in 6 months the a7s ii will come out. So before you buy. Have patience. Wait for reviews. Dont blow all your money on the new toy. Issues of skew and jello. Look harder at images Rent and compare cameras. 3 grand plus is a lot of money.

The most important test ill do is skew and jello from full frame to 35mm mode and compare w a7s and nx1. Also see how the still images look and compare w the sony f3 to see whats the better buy.

4:4:4:4 12 bit raw means nothing if the sensor's readout or photosite information is limited - it's the back end vs front end I think a few people made that point in regards to the BMC 4k camera. So many factors to take into account than 8-bit vs 12-bit, and log vs raw vs rec 709 - Ebrahim made this point really well in his post on all of this. Just find a camera that you like and learn how to light and compose better. By messing with instagram on my android galaxy s4, I have found myself getting better frames in my cinematography work. Not endlessly speculating on what camera will give me what I need in codecs. Just by shooting with a crappy camera and figuring out what I can squeeze out of it.

owning gear is good if you want to shoot your own stuff and to play with a camera and figure out its quirks - it can be good - that's how I did it. I still use gear on tons of jobs - mostly the monitors and support and all that. The actual camera and lenses at a certain point you can just rent. But it's really good to know the fundementals of it all, and saves you money when you want to go out and make a film or let your friends make a film. Rental houses will cut you a deal on your small stuff, but well I didn't go that route. But with that said, it's an expensive, endless game - owning gear. Stuff is always breaking. Insurance costs. It's a lot of work. I enjoy it, but I feel that it keeps me from also thinking about more important things like this script I am procrastinating on or learning lighting.

gamma and matrix are two seperate things. Log and CINE gammas control the dynamic range and contrast matrix is the color - this I prefer PRO for more natural skin tones and use Kholi hick's settings for the best skintones. Just experiment around. See what combination works best. I think generalizations like it's too green and yellow isn't give the camera a fair chance. But then again, I'm a hypocrit because I make fun of the nx1 being too magenta. SO who am I to judge?

that link to that music video shot on the fs7 and a7s blew my mind. I need to reevaluate how good the fs7 can be with the right DP, lens, lighting, and colorist so much to always learn and Ebrahim is right - it's more than 8-bit codec. 8-bit just means less colors available and also less luminescence data so it can get more noise - but also the sensor itself affects the noisiness of it all. All complicated -the codec, the native sensor and photo sites, and just everything else. so find the best way to maximize a codec and I think slog on the a7s was very noisy

I saw Taritino's latest - the slavery film on a 4k projector - looked bad - shot on film. I saw Birdman on a 4k projection - shot on alexa plus - looked great It's really not about film anymore -and Jurassic World was shot on film but San Andreas was shot on Alexa and San Andreas in the theatre, the trailer, looked better to me. It's not as simple as film and digital projection. It's lenses, it's DI, it's lighting, it's everything. You really can't just say "Film is better, end of story" - there is more to the look of the film than what you shot it on. Vince Gilligan is a very great show runner - I love breaking bad -but he's not a DP - he's a exec producer - it sounds great to say you shot on film - but in reality - I tell every production I rather spend that money to shoot film on getting a good editor or colorist and it will look better.

The foil is this - Aloha - that movie was shot on film - and it doesn't look that impressive. Most film since the late 90's has gone into DI - digital intermediate - so you can't really say film is the best thing ever - it's the whole pipeline. This is where film still wins - highlight handling - smoothness, motion of it, the response, the randomness of film grain. But I have been fooled so many times - watched Kit Kitteridtch on Netflix - thought was alexa. Watched Better Call Saul - thought it was film - it's red dragon. You can't simplify it all to if its film stock. some cameras are CCD, some are CMOS - each sees motions differently. But really - the only way to see which one you like is like Oliver above - test all three formats - test yourself. Test, test, test. Try it out - rent a digital 8 camera and shoot some reels. Mess with color. Play with blur - see what you like and what you don't like. And then you'll start to notice just because you get the producer and director on board to shoot film, it may not look that much better than if you used panavision primo lenses on a canon 5d.

Great shoot-out Andrew. I think the 1dc is a great find - and further proof that last generation's king can deliver images on par or better than the new generation, and with less waiting for firmware updates. I also notice a magneta shift in my NX1 photos and video - but still for $1300 to 1500, it's an amazing deal. That sharpness doesn't feel digitally enhanced on the nx1. Also I rate the NX1 at ASA 800 at around 12 stops - it's good to use test charts to test what you like in shadows and highlights - it has a harsh highlight roll off - but what I like abut the NX1 is its natural sharpness and really nice skin tones out of the bat. Excited to see what the canon c300 mark II can do as well as the URSA MIni 4.6k - and the digital bolex, with my test of it - I would rate as a 200 ASA camera. Past 400 ASA it gets noisy. The king still for beautiful RGB CCD images is the Sony F35 which you can buy on ebay for cheaper than a digital bolex - here's the test I did. - https://vimeo.com/128483083

Tip Jar never really worked that well - I agree to go VOD I still wish Vimeo would focus on building a community vs going for Cameo - a iphone video creation tool - I think most real filmmakers aren't going to make films on their iphones - that's more a youtube thing But hey, if they want the younger crowd, go for it. For now, youtube compression is bad, but vimeo isn't that much better.

So Gawker melted down - I followed it - the biggest thing that was really behind it wasn't what was on the surface - that poor story about the conde nast exec - it was corporate management taking over editorial - and well it was secretly really about this article - http://gawker.com/brands-are-not-your-friend-1684232182 - why brands aren't your friends.In their meeting they talked about firing the author -Sam Briddle - as Gawker starts to care more about making money. Some say growing up - but there is nothing wrong with this article - it's not offensive to a person, it doesn't destroy someone - it's purely truth to power.And they wanted to fire the writer - and that's not good to admit publically.But why should we care - we are filmmakers? Because all film is politcal. We are a wing of journalism even if you are a VFX artist on Michael Bay films -that's political - it's your choice to support this modern blockbuster world - and you are making something seen by many.You can't escape the politics.And part of why I got banned from 2 other forums is because I started to show the truth behind the corporate control of those sites - almost the same reason they wanted to fire Sam - and I thought that corporate control of a forum to advance the discussion and science of filmmaking was harmful to the online principle. It was so nice of the admin to create this site.But see this is the thing - I work for advertising and I love them and the people I work for - they are all great people - we all are good people - we just know that corporations exist except for b corporations to solely make money. Everything else is secondary. So I have no ethical quandry being a counter to some of these measures especially since I believe in environmental and economic sustainability, just like the Pope, and that puts us in conflict. This doesn't mean I don't like working on commercials - I actually love it because it gives me the free time to do my own work to try to help the world out - I couldn't do that if I was working for little to no pay on a doc that would take 70 hours of my week away. I love advertisers - but there has to be boundaries. Or soceity will continue to fade more and more into environmental and social decay.There is a reason the press exists - it's a fundemental part of freedom and democracy. When the press starts to cowtow to corporate interests anymore than it already has, it gets weak. And then the bad will continue, more and more. And this isn't fun to watch.

Dear Andrew Reid, On behalf of Canon's marketing division, we would like to thank you for pointing out the diminishing sales factor of the DSLR business. We would like you to know that the DSLR stills business still primarily cares about stills photography. Video is not our priority in this department. That goes more to the C100 and C300 and C500 set of professional product line we launched to great success. We cannot speak for other manufacturers, but it is noted your concern with our video offerings. We still think the Canon C100 gives more value to most film productions that a GH4, NX1, or A7R II - because of its audio capabilities. Let's say we release the Canon Mirrorless camera that can do 4k and up to 100 FPS - well that might hurt the sales of the C100 and C300, right? So maybe our strategy is actually a pretty smart one. And for now, why not celebrate the value of the c100 and c300 - which has shot countless and beautiful features including Blue is the Warmest Color which won Cannes in 2014/ Do you see a camera such as the GH4, or NX1, or A7S being used on a film of that level? Would any DP pick one of these little cameras as their A camera over something with timecode? That's a good question/ Sincerely, Mitsao Kitzou Canon Product Rep

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