agolex

I've been, too. Got the Sony twice and the Sammy thrice (and kept it). Two quite different beasts and hardly comparable imho. Would have loved to keep both, but couldn't afford it. In the end I ditched the Sony for the bad ergonomics, but I still believe it has the better IQ and more solid files (not to talk about low light even). Just for stills-like landscape shots the NX1 is better due to internal 4K and well, I enjoy shooting with it which with the Sony didn't work that well (except at night, NX1 is horrible in low light or for astro photography). I'll wait for the a7s II, but I just have major issues with Sony, don't believe in them usability and software wise.

Life itself is highly ironic.

I'm someone who needs closure. On practically every subject, however small it may be. With my perfectionism I'm extremely involved in everything I do. I've only been into photography and later filming/videography for a little more than a year and I have to admit, as much as I love the stellar results you can get with the latest technology and expertise of it: it's killing me. I'm more of a stone age guy. The world is changing so swiftly nowadays, I can't adjust to it properly (and I don't want to, either). For me the only form of creativity I can fully respect (as much as I love all the great, imaginative movies out there, be it from Fritz Lang, Buñuel or even Dupieux nowadays) is writing, because you create everything by yourself and don't have to rely on tools. Everytime I hear statements like 'know your craft', 'know your tools' and stuff like that I can't help but think 'well, sure, if your creativity is not sufficient, you surely need tools and crafts'. But luckily enough I will be gone in a few years, decades or whatever and no one will be talking about me. Which I can live with perfectly, because I don't care about it really, at least all the time I'm lucid and my judgment isn't clouded by corporeal needs. Because, imho, next to technology, one of the great creativity killers is sociability.

I feel you, Ed. Not that I have a name in filming or cinematography (or any other renowned art form for that matter), but I believe that what you say for filming is true for most parts of life, society and even economy (which – tbh – I'm not really interested in). That fresh thinkers are needed. People who just don't care about proven methodology and all the shebang too much, but who are just open-minded, interested in the subject and want to create or move something in their own special way. I write lots of IT job ads and every company claims innovation for themselves or asks for people who are innovators – yet, it's all about improving on the same old principles, maximizing efficiency, finding new ways of selling and marketing stuff no one really needs. To me, that's no innovation. I believe in people who just have a notion about something and follow that notion on their very own terms, treading paths that others hardly consider sane. I believe that you can't change anything without being outrageous, because otherwise no one will sufficiently notice. There will be 1000s of Facebook likes, but no one will actually get influenced by what you say/write/show. I have to admit that I don't believe that things can be changed for the better (with mankind and stuff), but I say thanks to all the people who are different, say different and try different. Because it's oh so comforting to know that there are others similar to you, who can only be happy if they are allowed to be themselves and not cater to any norms. So, yeah: kudos! P.S. Considering PTA: love his other stuff, but Inherent Vice I've found kinda pretentious. Might have to rewatch, but I doubt my opinion will change drastically. With that stellar cast, what a pity!

I don't have a Quadro myself, but the way I understand it from reading, you use the gaming cards for the rendering process and the Quadro-type cards for the UI.

As for the GTX 970: I'd probably consider the 980 instead. The 970s use only 3.5 gig of their memory effectively, Nvidia is having a bit of trouble with them, because they've advertised them wrongly. http://www.anandtech.com/show/8935/geforce-gtx-970-correcting-the-specs-exploring-memory-allocation

Dresden is a great idea, it's said to be really beautiful. Will definitely pay it a visit some day. Leipzig should be neat, too.

​Firefox has extensive color management options which Chrome does not. You can have Adobe RGB colors in Firefox. I've never been really content with a single browser, there's always something missing. Chrome makes the most sense for me due to the extensions and Google integration, but back then I liked Opera the most.

Bit too far and I'm not a fan of the city. Should you be around Cologne, give me a shout. ; )

​The Sigma 18–35 is one of the first choice speed booster zoom lenses for the BMCC, doubt it will be any worse on the GH4. I tried the Panasonic with the GH4 and I kinda didn't like the plasticky feel of the lens (but it's probably one of the best built non-metal lenses). Course the Sigma is much heavier with over 800 grams. If you don't care about stabilization and AF, it's the most versatile lens imho. I do have the Voigtländer 17.5 and I think it's a great lens as well, you can focus extremely close with them (around 15 cm) and in conjunction with the wide aperture you get dreamlike footage, I for myself love that very much. It's said to be not the sharpest lenses, though. I'd advise you to stay away from the cheap speed boosters, I have a 1st generation RJ and the blue spot issue is present most of the time.

​Oh, I love the image of the a7s, no question, aside from not having internal 4k and probably less sharpness, I find it superior to the NX1. There's just so much other stuff that doesn't work for me as well as with the Samsung.

​I've only started last year with filming, I probably wouldn't have had the nerve for it before, because it would have been too fiddly and complicated for me. I've only this year finally gotten to having a PC that works the way I desire it to be (speed-wise and so on) and I've been building my own PCs for 20 years. Seems, I'm a bit picky, too. Problem with the a7s: I hate the body. It's too small, it's too thin, it's made to look cool and be small/light, not to be used (IMHO). With the vertical grip it was OKish, but with a bigger lens still horrible (the vertical grip has quite medieval build quality, as well). I don't like the wheels. The record button is absolutely retarded. There were too many restrictions in the menu; you're in this mode can't do that, yadda yadda. I'm just generally someone who is quite anal about usability and when stuff doesn't make sense to me, I just can't tolerate it. Like I said, I've started last year with photography and filming. First Canon 6D (loved how it felt in my hands and everything), then Nikon D800, not as great, but still good and I preferred the controls after some getting used to them. Then a few weeks ago, before getting the first a7s, I saw this video of a photographer who raved about how bad Nikon and Canon are and how Sony has revolutionized his way of shooting (dunno, he seemed to be some sort of fanatic or just payed by Sony). Then I got the a7s and was so underwhelmed by the body and controls. I did love the picture, though, I mean that's why I bought it in the first place. I saw the Castle video by Ed David and thought wawaweewa, that's my camera! Especially under bad conditions, shot a lot of video inside my flat at first and it was all really usable, can't say that about the other cameras I've tested (GH4 and NX1). But shooting pictures with it felt horrible. The Nikon to me has great tactility, I love the shutter sound, it just feels right. Although shooting stars with the a7s and an Android tablet is an absolute breeze due to the high resolution live view. The NX1 felt great for shooting pictures as well, it just fits nicely into my hands and I like the shutter. The grip is high quality and thought out well. You can have three batteries at a time.

DigitalEd has more than just one point. The NX1 does open up a lot of possibilities. Just the touch focus with the settable speed is groundbreaking (especially considering that Samsung just did that a few weeks after people asked for it). Course you can say that real cinematographers don't use auto focus and stuff, but then you might argue what 'real cinematographer' means in the first place. Can't say I see a lot of innovative and real artful stuff around nowadays (I might go as far as saying that art is dying, but that's another subject), so I might at least get the basics like focus right. As a one man band without a dedicated focus puller or even the quite clumsy follow focus (it is, if you wanna go solo and really light), it's a helluva feature to have this darned innovative touch AF with selectable speed. At first I couldn't give the NX1 a real chance because of the flicker issue (stuff like that is an absolute No-Go for me). So I got an a7s again and I hated hated hated the ergonomics. Besides that I thought about how backwaterish Sony is in terms of software and I've always felt them to be an arrogant company with not much of a consumer friendly attitude. So I've sent the a7s back again and ordered the NX1 once more. And I'm really looking forward to wielding it again. With the vertical grip it's almost as perfect in my hands as the Canon 6D which I found unbeatable in terms of handling. What Samsung are doing is really disruptive and I love that. If they keep going in that pace, I'd say they will be a game changer like Blackmagic. Can't say that about Canon and probably never will. Oh, but Samsung peeps, I have one request from the bottom of my heart: do give the Android app great image quality (at best above 1080p resolution) with the fast CPU and wi-fi module it's really a pity not to have that. Sony imho are the only ones who've pulled that off. Try the Play Memories App with the a7s, the image quality is stellar. Unfortunately it's basically unusable, because you can't shoot with picture profiles and real manual settings (which I doubt Sony will ever fix). So please, cater to all the one man bands and give us a sweet app that is a much better option to a clumsy HDMI monitor. : )

Heh, two days after I had to return the camera the firmware's out, the usual. Looking forward to some serious exposure tests. Wanna see if I'll order another NX1 or finally go with the a7s.

​Like I said, the LG 31MU97 is great except the red shift to the sides. The panel is super sharp and it is 17:9 which I really love for the extra horizontal working space. It has 99.5% AdobeRGB, you can hardware calibrate it directly and you can even use separate calibrations for each side of the screen, so you can really compare differences (it's still modern single stream). It does DCI as well. No PWM, either. I would only exchange it for the $4k Eizo that will be released in a few months. Comes at a price, though, about 1300 Euros.

I got the LG 17:9 4K 31" and I find 4K leaps and bounds better than the 30" 2560x1600 I've had before. It's like stated before, switching from an old mobile phone to a new one with 4 times the resolution. It's so much less pixely. I also love the screen estate, I now run three browsers next to each other. UI scaling isn't that big of a deal on Win 8.1 anymore. Mac is a bit more problematic though, I've heard. Dunno bout the Dell, but the LG I can almost wholeheartedly recommend (the red shift off to the sides is a bit annoying, but as far as I understand the only top alternatives are the Eizos, which means a few hundred bucks more for the model without Adobe RGB and a few thousand once the model with the 10 bit panel and Color Management comes out (no option for me).

Well, I'm withdrawing from the discussion, this is getting too wild for me. ND Filters? C'mon, sure I know about filters, this has nothing to do with filters. Enjoy the camcorder.

IMHO it would not, no. Every half-decent camera should be able to handle this. At least everything else I've used before can.

Good luck with getting a suitable reaction or even attention with that high specificity.

Impeccable, Alan, now we have something mathematical, too. I prefer to rely on my perception, but this should undermine matters. I doubt it has to do with encoding, though, it's just the camera doing what it likes to do when things get bright. Samsung were probably trying to protect the highlights, but didn't set things up properly.

Yeah, I've been lead to believe that it's also an issue of perception. What some people see as normal is outrageous to me. Did some more tests with the Auto modes. Obviously with a manual lens, shutter priority is pretty manual (just the ISO is auto). But still, the drifts happen once stuff gets just a liiiittle bit to bright to the NX1's liking. So, if you keep everything dark, there is no shifting. Then, with DigitalEd's latest footage, in the beginning there's obviously blown out highlights in the tent, but I can't see any drifting. This camera is pure software mayhem for me right now, dunno. Camera says the update is available, but can't download it anywhere. Still waiting so I can try it out, don't feel like using the 'unofficial' version Ed posted before. I do want to return the camera, if the update doesn't fix the issue for me.

For all our bloom buddies. Get your daily dosage of "bloom" from this sweet footage by Alan Dang (at around 34 seconds). Download the 3GB file and you feel like being in a techno club. :D

Looks fine to me!

​I don't think he was.

Thanks, Ed! Will see, if I'm brave enough to try it when I return home. It can probably be downgraded, can't it? If I choose to return the camera, it would probably help if I didn't have an unofficial firmware on it. :p