MrSMW

OK, slept on it and decided it's either going back because I can't get it to work, or possibly just going on eBay along with the SSD and docking port. It's not just the issue I have had getting it to work, - that is more a case of 'the straw that broke the camel's back', but the battery chewing issue and other minor niggles that all add up to, "is it worth it to me?" and the answer on balance is not. I think it's a superb bit of kit, build is exceptional etc, but not all things work for all people. Hey ho, I tried!

As above, all good and you can't really go wrong with any of them. The Panny GH5 is probably the more 'purist' filmmakers choice but the weakest for AF. The Fuji the 'new' filmmakers choice plus excellent stills. (My personal choice). The Canon possibly the least decent filmmakers choice with too many niggles to be the king of this lot. The Nikon a good all-rounder, stills & video. The Sony arguably the 'best' all-rounder stills & video. Budget option, probably the XT3 with kit 18-55 lens.

The guns were a bit crap in Princess Bride and the car chases even worse. Tremors was fun but no Gimbal Gun.

Correct! It looks a bit like the weapons they used in Starship Troopers...and that was pants ?

This is the thing. I wanted to at least test the Ninja and see something that I could say was better by a quantifiable margin, but don't seem to be able to get that far. However, in the process, discovered other issues that you can only discover through personal trial and error such as... My Feelworld monitor with the same battery will last about an hour rather than less than 15 minutes. The 5 batteries I have will last an entire day as long as I don't have the thing running all the time. And I don't. Using the Ninja though would mean either buying some bigger batteries (more expense and more weight) or a charging point that some DJ or band won't come along and unplug so they can stick their crappy lasers in (that I will then refuse to video later as the last time I did that, they fried my XH1's sensor). Bastards. Instead, use the Anker powerbank attached to the Smallrig cage and have camera power all day which is another potential issue. There's a limit to how many batteries I can and should be charging on a job. With this version, Feelworld and Anker for XT3, precisely none until I get back home. And then there is the quality... I shot some 4K Eterna today in bright sunlight back to back with HLG and then graded the two. The difference is diddly nothing IMO and it means if I choose to shoot Eterna which currently is my preferred option, I can do so at 160 ISO and not a minimum of 1000 which makes for less use of variable ND. Whether that has anything to do with anything, but a less noisy image at 160 than 1000 though nothing anyone would really notice. I do need to test some bright sky backgrounds though, - 160 Eterna vs 1000 HLG... I'm not expecting much difference. The moral of this story is (I hope) to just shoot internal Eterna and get the f*ck on with it and stop dicking around with evermore kit which only gets in the way!

I'm thinking so and leaning to just internal and sticking with my non-recording monitor as above. Life will be simpler!

Yup. Unless I am missing something somewhere, I just cannot work this one out. I have read the manual in regard to this, both of them, several times!

No, not a stupid question, - willing to try anything! No difference. As soon as I come out of that Input screen and press record on camera, camera recording works but Ninja does not unless I press record manually there also which suggest to me the cable(s) are good and on playback it all looks good. Go back into Input however and trigger has been reset to off. Every time.

Weird, the Ninja now reads over 5 hours of recording time... well that is that one sorted at least, but still stuck on this dual record! Camera is set: Page 4/5 Movie Settings: HDMI REC CONTROL (ON) Ninja: Input page: Source = HDMI, HDp59.94 2.0 HDMI Standard Trigger = set to on (though switches itself off every time I come out of this screen) Camera Output = LogHDR on and Fujifilm camera F-Log + Rec.709 + HDMI HDR Auto

@thephoenix done that, repeatedly, but nope, still will not dual record from camera. Either unit on it's own or both manually, yes. Plus, no matter how many times I set it, come out of that screen and it's turned itself off again. It makes no sense. I'm going to sleep on it but I think I'm going to pass on it. On paper, it's all great and I'm sure for most other users, it's great. But try as I may, I cannot get it set up right and on that basis, don't 'trust' it. Too many other issues also such as: 1: It's heavier than my Feelworld monitor. 2: It chews through batteries at an unbelievable rate. OK, I only have the smallest of the Sony batts, but it munched through all 5 faster than I could recharge them. On the verge of pushing the button on one of the bigger jobs one reviewer said lasted him over 3 hours of continuous use, the Anton Bauer NP-F976 Sony L series Battery - 7.2V, 6600 mAh Lithium Ion Battery 47w/h if anyone is interested. 3: The XT3 likes to eat batteries which as we know are hardly the biggest/longest lasting and based on this mornings fiddling, ideally need to use my Anker powerpack to charge the camera which = more weight to lug around and on a typical 9-15 hour shoot... 4: I can claw back the 1k I spent on the Ninja, the SSD and the dock. 5: Was I unhappy with Fuji 1080 Eterna internal last year? No and I can shoot 4K Eterna internal this year and even Flog etc, just not in 10 bit. If there was something like a 1 day workshop out there, I'd happily pay for that but I'm just not going to go out on my next paid shoot (coming up very soon) with gear I'm not fully familar with or isn't even set up right, no matter how good the footage is because if the footage is missing... It's all a massive PITA but for whatever reason, it's just not working for me.

That's where I am trying to set it? The other thing that is frying my brain is that the camera is saying I have 74 minutes recording time on a 64GB SD card recording 4K but the Angelbird 500GB is only saying 2 minutes longer and 1 hour 16 minutes? Eh? I have both set to record HLG. I'm missing something here...

Yep. If camera output is set to 'standard camera' on the Ninja, I can switch the trigger setting on. If it's set to Log/HDR and Fujifilm, I can switch it on, but hit record on the Fuji and it only records there and going back to the Ninja input settings, the trigger setting is switched back off?

Ah ha...except it's pink and off and I can't work out how to switch that on!

This for one thing... I can hit record on the Ninja and it will record that only and also hit record on the Fuji and that will also start recording, but just hit record on the Fuji and nada on the Ninja? I will also take a look at that video, cheers.

Right update and some help if anyone can... After damaging the USB port and having to send my XT3 back to the UK to Fujifilm to be repaired (try getting that done in France...) it's back and working again. Tested the cable I bought and pleased to say it seems to be correct...but I am struggling to get anything else to work properly. Does anyone know of a decent video on-line in how to step by step, set up the Ninja V? Ie, a guide for dummies. If it was available, I'd spend the money on flying to the UK or anywhere else in Europe for a day's hands on tuition so if anyone knows of the existence of anything like that... I have tried searching the internet and found nothing. It's driving me NUTS!! No problems last year with XH1 and Feelworld monitor and this should be quite straightforward no, - the only difference being trying to shoot 4k instead of 1080 and having it recorded onto an external monitor? So if anyone can help, I'd really appreciate it. Cheers

Charlton Heston would have backed it had he still been around.

Looking forward to getting my XT3 back any day so I can have a play. In the meantime, been doing some surfing and the HLG looks like my preferred option and looks pretty decent with that Alexa X2 LUT.

Could well be right @frontfocus I had the 90 for a while and it was a stellar lens, but it was always a toss up of carrying the 50-140 and the 90 but not both, though this new Viltrox 85 might just sneak into my bag. I love the idea of the 33 f1, but I suspect it will still be too big and costly. It would be asking too much to expect it to work with the 1.4 TC adapter wouldn't it? I'm sure it's Fuji only and then only about 3 lenses...? I haven't got one but having a lens like this (I know the Fuji 80mm works), work at 2 or more focal lengths would be exceptional.

30? Still a child! I have THE BIG 5 OH looming in less than 2 years... But then I am a child myself to my mother (born 1945) as she is to her father (still with us) born 1916! A lot of age (other than ultimate limitations due to age) is in the mind. One of my brothers, not even 40, thinks his life is over because he does not have a successful career. Only another 30 working years to sort that one out! I myself physically feel around 30, but then I do workout 6 days a week so a bit of a nutter in that department. A lady I was talking to recently did not believe I was older than 37. Yes dear, I actually am nearly 50. Mentally, I feel around 30 also? Act like I'm 6 sometimes though... Oh and dogs instinctively do want to chase cats, but they can be trained quite easily. We have 2 large rescue hunting dogs (terrible to train for most things other than sitting for food!) and one of them especially wanted to eat the already resident tiny cat, but now it's the 2kg kitty that rules the roost over the 30+kg dogs and they love her, even sleeping in the same bed sometimes.

I think it the perfect balance (rather than compromise) between m4/3 and FF so is my personal choice and has been for 7-8 years now. Some call for Fuji to become a FF player but why swim in the big pond when you can be a big fish in the smaller ponds. Smaller ponds which are not so small as some folks originally thought!

I skipped the review initially only glancing at it and thinking, "manual focus only", but it's got my attention now... f1.8 beats my current 50-140 f2.8 and whilst this lens does not have the reach, a very viable alternative to the 90mm f2 that I sold as too much crossover with the zoom. But at that price, I think it will be making it's way into my bag as soon as it's available. Should be a very nice pairing with one of my XH1's.

So sounds like IBIS will be coming to the XT4... The 33mm f1.0 though. This is one lens that on paper at least, I thought wow, but having seen the mock up of the thing, by gawd it's a bit too massive for my tastes! Nailing focus at f1.0 is a tough enough gig as it is and how often would I really use it? I shoot my 56mm f1.2 wide open quite often and that's a near limit and I think if I wanted something wider for photo or video, I'd go Mitakon and manual focus. Plus a lot lot cheaper!

After 2 hours 59 minutes, I couldn't find any otters. So gave up. Would have been fun and may still have a go, but currently my XT3 is with Fujifilm UK being fixed which is a very legit reason to be a loser.

Yes and use it with the Sigma 18-35 f1.8. Eye AF with the XT3 is already very good (within a reasonable distance anyway) so looking forward to next month's firmware upgrade which is set to improve that considerably. I don't know about stabilisation as obviously neither this body or lens has it and always work of a tripod/monopod so not an issue.

Re. the XT3 stills (we're going a little off topic here...) I don't understand this 'mushiness' comment. Ever since the X series was launched 8 years ago, there has been more chatter about perhaps any other camera regarding the processing of images, especially since the X Trans sensor came out. The single biggest issue I think has been not so much 'user error', but rather a case of using methods previously used for DSLR combined with the fact that getting the best from Lightroom was something of an art...so perhaps is best termed 'user error' after all? With every version of the X Trans sensor and Adobe, improvements have been made and it's really only misuse of the detail slider that can cause any issues these days. I've been shooting the X Series professionally for 8 years using Lightroom and if it was in any way crap, like thousands of others, would not still be using it today! In summary, it does require some adaptation, but less so with every version of both hard and software.