Papiskokuji

Yeah thanks ! Don't worry ! Everything's fine ! And I was a bit harsh with the "plastic feel" comment even though it was my first impression. The front rec button makes no sense haha, I tried it for fun, but the camera is impossible to hold this way (I mean for insane vloggers who would choose bmpcc4K to vlog !). But it doesn't hurt to have it. Edit : And one last thing, I don't know where to find the serial number. It's not on the bottom (I also looked for where it was built, singapoure ? But found nothing)

Hehe yeah, I don't know It was still sealed with plastic and I guess he's a busy man !

Just opened the box, put a battery, a lens and a card. First impressions : the camera looks like it has already been used or feels like a prototype (which it is not)... The rubbers on the side protecting the ports don't feat snuggly, especially the top one. The sensor had a dust on it, the body cap has scratches, etc. The camera feels plastic, easily scratchable (if it's a word), a little bit less well finished than the previous blackmagic cameras (I haven't used all of them to be fair). Maybe it is still very rugged and it is just to remove some weight. There was some kind of screen protector misplaced on the back of the camera. Hehe but it's all ok I guess ! The good part now : when you turn on the camera, the screen is so big, so nice ! It's great ! The buttons while feeling cheap, are well-placed, responsive, so is the touchscreen. The menu, the function buttons are a delight ! It is very user friendly ! The noise at high ISO seems negligeable (just judging by the rear display, haven't recorded anything yet). The peaking is red and I haven't found a way to customize it (I'm sure you can do it, as you could in the past BM products). Extended video looks great (even if the weather and light is very dull right now, it needs further testing The funny thing is... I can't find where you format the card ! Seriously... Haha... If someone knows where it is. And apparently I'll be able to record 4K 60p PRORES HQ with just my SD card (the ones for Sony UHD xavc s) And I can't change the language in the menu (It doesn't bother me at all, but it really seems like a beta firmware ?!) Edit : I just found how to format the card. You have to touch the icon, it's not in the menu. I have also found for the peaking and zebra settings

Hey Guys ! Here it is ! I just picked it up at Photocineshop in Paris I was the first in queue, I called them monday, they told me they expected it mid october. But I received a call today telling me it's here so... They received only 3 cameras. They ordered 75 and have 60 in queue. Funny story, the guy at the counter told me the boss was mad at him because the boss wanted to keep the first ones for rent (it's also a big rental company) and not fulfilling the first orders ! I think I have the first retail version in France ( I know it's a lame sentence !) I'll try to shoot something decent tomorrow and put it online the same day ! But I only have relatively fast SD cards. I just need to sell a kidney for a CFAST on which I'll be able to record 12 seconds of RAW footage :))) I can't wait to test the dynamic range and the battery life of the camera, my two biggest concerns.

I’m amazed at how only few people are concerned by this image streching issue ! As everybody’s always so eager to attack every manufacturer for anything. I find this ratio problem much more worrying and shocking than even overheating. Eventhough there’s lens distorsion coming into play when it comes to proportion, I find it puzzling that people let Sony go with this one... I can’t imagine myself explaining to a client why its product looks streched on this or this packshot. For me it’s the basics : having a 1:1 aspect ratio... Hope it’s gonna be fixed later with a new firmware but I need more people to complain about it I’m waiting for the A7S III anouncement before I buy anything but I seriously consider buying the A7 III, if and only if this issue get fixed (not that anyone cares!) Am I the only one shocked by the stretching thing ?

Thanks ! I have both the BMPCC and the BMMCC and I have the mosaic filter on the pocket. It is a necessity to me. I'd like to buy one for the BMMCC as well but it's so expensive I got away without it in this very video thanks to vintage glass wide open and diffusion... Thank you ! For the light being diffused. It actually was I used a Tiffen Black Pro Mist 1/4, it is very nice to get those highlights spill all over the place ! (Kidzrevil also uses thoses filters extensively) The filter combined with the use of vintage lenses wide open (almost all the time if I remember correctly) soften the image quite a bit. I used a Yashicha 55mm macro lens and a canon FD 28mm. But it is true that blackmagic images have an analog feel to them. I agree with cantsin, it surely has to do with the lack of "over processing"/NR and having a great uncompressed codec.

Hi guys ! Just wanted to share a short piece I shot with my BMMCC during a sunny afternoon in Paris !

Thank you for taking the time to test it ! Great to hear it works good !

Hi guys ! Anyone here having the sony A7 III kind enough to test something for me ? I'm tempted to buy an A7 III but the Sony full frame lenses are quite expansive... So I was wondering how a 18-105 F4 would fare autofocus wise on a A7 iii body. Do you think it does a better job at autofocusing than the A6500 ? I read/heard somewhere that in aps-c mode, the A7 III had 299 phase detect points which is less than the A6500. I would use the A7III as such : I'd use the zoom when I need versatility and good autofocus in aps-c mode, but I'll go full frame with manual lenses when no need for autofocus but more shallow depth of field. But once again, sony's full frame zooms are to heavy and too expansive for me. Has someone actually tested both A6500 and A7 III crop mode autofocus ? Or just the 18-105 on the A7 III body ? Thank you !

As Deadcode said, it has more to do with raw than with bits. I know you tried to push hard the image so it doesn’t apply to you kye, as having a 10 bit file helps with grading no matter what, but I find it always annoying those comparisons about 8 and 10 bits SOOC saying « i can’t see a difference » when you know almost NOBODY has a 10 bit display. 10 bit doesn’t do much of a difference for internet delivery anyway, but there is a difference, especially coupled with a good codec like prores (codec is even more important than bits to me!).

Hi guys ! I’m far away from home right now so I have no footage at my disposal to back up what I’m gonna say, but it’s funny you brought up that discussion about motion cadence as I very recently watched old videos I shot with the RX10 mk II (sold since) and told my self how cinematic motion looked with this camera ! I actually realized it just now and it makes me want to buy one again. It became clear with a piece I shot with both the RX10 and the A7S II. Nothing was wrong with the A7S but the shots with the RX10 looked more « cinematic », more pleasing. To be honest, I don’t know if it vas to do with the RX10 image being softer or if there’s truly some kind of magic involved. I sold the camera because of its lack of sharpness, and now I want to buy it again for the exact same reason ? Contemplating the footage from the camera is like having the best of canon and sony. The cinematic distance (again, is it all just do to soft image?) of the old 5D but sharper and free of artefacts with sony’s dynamic range with slog2. I also have the RX100 mkV and it doesn’t have the same feel. Another reason might be the form factor. With its super zoom, handheld, with good color grading, the footage reminds me of a super 8mm camera. The other video that struck me about the motion cadence and cinematic feel was a video taken at the back of à train. Maybe it has to do with the movement of the train itself, but the motion is so great ! ? Anyway, wheither it’s the softness of the image, or the motion going on my shots, or the composition, Motion cadence of the RX10 II has something special. I hope I can upload stuff some time so you can judge by yourself. I was surprised as much as you might be reading those lines ! And maybe it’s a bit of a stretch here but sometimes, RX10 II footage reminded me of my bmpcc ones. The pocket having also a great motion reproduction to my eyes. And weirdly enough, cinematic motion would be more like having less frames than the contrary. Well I guess it’s not that weird...

Hehe thanks for the insight ! I actually haven’t made up my mind yet. It’s just that I have an opportunity to get one for a good price and that I know I’ll be able to rent the A6500+gimbal set up quite easily... Something also dramatically changed my mind about sony slog2 100mb 8 bit codec recently... I tried the last version of Magic Bullet looks and I don’t know how they pulled it off but they have great color correction tools which don’t break the image ! No pink macroblocking, no nothing ! So impressive ! You can also easily change the skin color. The results are astonishing ! Very cinematic, very flexible ! I’m sure the GH5 can produce « thicker » images... but it’s more expensive, you have to buy v-log, the storage space needed is greater... I have my 5D mkIII for this I dont know, we´ll see what I end up buying !

Great news ! Thank you guys for your answers ! Looking forward to hear from your tests Mark !

Very encouraging ! Maybe the nicest screen grabs I've seen from the GH5. Especially the first pic of the post and the last one of your last post ! Finally not an overdone color grading. More cinematic and yet natural looking. Really nice ! Makes me wanna buy one ! By the way @Benjamin Hilton what do you think about the 10 bit codec ? Is it strong enough ? Compared to let's say Prores ? Do you get pink macroblocking ? That's my nightmare ! And I'm curious to know your workflow for this grade ! Thx !

Hehe thanks but I was seeking for more specific answers related to the X-T20 camera. It's purely technical. I don't know Matt if you've ever shot some piece with a fuji camera but the video handling is quite tricky. It's easy to get crushed blacks and also there's this waxy skin tones issue well known of Fuji users. Adding some grain helps breaking this banding/waxy effect but I don't think it is satisfying. Anyway the video results I get are a bit underwhelming... Although, once again, the jpegs ootc are stellar ! But Fuji film simulations I think, don't handle well the kind of compression the codec/bitrate gives. Maybe it'll be better with this new film simulation and this 200mb codec...

Canon 5D mk III ML raw

Hi guys ! I'm about to buy an A6500, but I was wondering if the PDAF works in 120 fps mode. Does someone have the camera and could tell me with confidence if it is the case or not. I have a RX100 V and the PDAF only works in 60p max. In 100/120 fps, it relies on contrast detection only... Thanks ! And also, if someone has an idea about the quality difference between the A7S II and the A6500 in 120 fps mode. I think they're quite similar (if I remember correctly).

As I watch all those Fuji videos everybody posts, I keep wondering how do you guys get such good results with these cameras. I have a great deal of experience shooting with Sony, Canon, etc. cameras but I can’t seem to get decent or consistent results with my X-T20 in video mode. Not that it really matters, I bought it almost only for taking stills (the best mirrorless camera I have ever used) but all the videos have waxy skin tones (some stills have it too, only on jpeg at high iso), crushed blacks, and are definitively soft. I really hoped for a camera I could use the output right away. And it’s not the case. So I ask you guys, do you have the same feeling ? What are your settings (+2 in highlight and shadows doesn’t solve the problem for me...) ? What film simulation, color, sharpness settings ? thanks !

Hey ! Glad to see you’re enjoying the image, it is indeed so nice ! I think you don’t actually need stronger diffusion. I’ve shot many things, including establishing shots with lots of details that didn’t show any moire and maybe on rare occasions very mild aliasing. My humble guess is it has more to do with the processing of the dngs. In after effects or resolve, you can achieve exceptionnal results (more so in AE but the workflow is a pain!). I don’t know how it works with premiere but i guess there must be some pre baked presets that aren’t optimal in term of sharpness or dynamic range... Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that even if it yields more cinematic images, technically you don’t need diffusion to avoid moire or aliasing ! Can’t wait to see what you do with the 5D !

Hello everyone ! I just bought a new laptop (gigabyte aero 15) working on windows 10 64bits. I'm discovering this OS and its shortcomings... It seems that everything I have installed on my old PC (windows 7) works flawlessly and the same things I install on this new laptop have a bug. I don't know if it's hardware or software related. Anyway, when I wanna play a 4k video in VLC (latest x32 or x64 version) it is so laggy ! If I play the same video with windows media player, it works just fine. But I wanna keep using VLC obviously. I read on a forum the gpu acceleration in vlc is broken on windows 10. Someone else managed to have it worked fine with a nightly build. But strangely, there's only a few forum posts about this important issue. So I need your help, do I do something wrong here ? Is there a version working properly ? Thank you !

Thank you Ben ! I actually watched your XC10 videos a few times, the best along with Mattias Burling's ones. What you're saying makes me wanna try this 305mb codec but I have to find a cheap cfast card somewhere first Great to hear there will be no magenta macro blocking, those drive me nuts ! I'll try to overexpose a bit (it's a shame there's no histogram though !) as suggested.

Hi guys ! I just bought an XC10 but i'm still in the 14 days of trial so I can return it if I want to. I got the camera for 1600€ new. Took it because I thought it was a good deal and I've always been tempted by it. I thought it would come with the CFAST card and a card reader though but I guess it's just a bundle offer for the US. Anyway so far I haven't shot much with it because of very bad weather in Paris and the lack of time but I've been a bit underwhelmed with the camera. The grip feels too big for my hand and the bottom of the camera is somewhat a hindrance to get to the focus ring. I also thought the image straight out of it would be less "dslr" and more "blackmagic/organic", some of you said it has some kind of mojo (some people I trust on this forum). It is a nice image but nothing that I haven't seen before. (I assume you can get a cinematic image shooting c-log and color grading) Hence my question : Do you think there's a major leap in quality with the 305mb codec ? (as I haven't been able to test it) How do you think it fares compared to, let's say, Prores LT ? With C-log pushed a bit, do you get magenta macroblocking like with S-log2 on Sony cameras ? Is there a huge difference between S-Log2 from Alpha cameras and Clog at 305mb ? Like there is with the log of blackmagic in Prores. I would keep this camera only if I get a noticeable improvement from the other dslr cameras I already have, codec wise I mean. And lastly, I love Canon colors from my dslr stills but I found them not that incredible with the XC10 (best profile for out of camera colors was EOS Standard) and actually the "portrait" picture profile of my sony RX100 V comes quite close to the eos standard profile ! Maybe I was hoping for a film look right out of the camera (I got spoiled with the Fuji X-T20 a friend lent me and the film simulations are soooo great for stills).

Hi ! Indeed something's wrong. Eventhough it seems AF performances are affected by the picture profile (slog2 with less constrasty image might results with a little worse AF performances). And a hand is not the best case scenario to test af. But the tyre shot leaves no room for doubt, something's wrong with your camera. I have the same and even in slog2 the af is much more snappy ! you should return your camera if you just got it !

RX10 II could have been an incredible camera if it had : 1) a sharper lens (don't trust those "amazing sharp zeiss lens" bullshit reviews). The lens is barely ok for video, as mercer said, there is something filmic about its softness, but photos are pretty much unusable at the tele photo end, and i'm not exaggerating. 2) a mechanical zoom ring or at the very least a focus by wire with linear response (this should not be so hard to fix with a firmware update). Or an autofocus on par with the RX100 V... Those are the two complains that I have with this camera (actually I just remembered that I hate the lens wobbling around), but they are big ones :/ So I'm hesitating to sell it. I might keep it for its slow mo capabilities and overall versatility though. (and what I can get from it with a video assist, recording prores). We'll see Video reviews to come (RX10 II, RX100 V, BMMCC...), if i'm not lazy !

You chose wisely. Of all these Sony cameras that I owned or used (RX100 IV, V, RX10 II, A6300, A7S II), the one that amazes me the most is the RX100 V. The mark IV is nice, but having this awesome AF allows gimbal work or just not caring about being in focus is worth the upgrade. Its low profile/image quality has no match in any other brand, it is a technical marvel. I'm less forgiving of all the sony quirks (battery life, screen diming, weird WB in slog2) with the other cameras, as they are bigger and tend to be use in a professional environment.