eatstoomuchjam

I’d go a different way entirely and say that instead of many of the things suggested above, you could spend about $4-5k and get a used C70. The only thing you’ll miss is a somewhat boxier form factor. 😉

Is there that big of a market for people that are hired by Netflix to make content and want to shoot on $2k cameras as the a cam? Their approved list is only for content they produce in-house. If you want to sell a film to Netflix, you can shoot it on anything you want - and you can shoot some percentage of footage on non-approved cameras as well.

I had backed the original E1 on Kickstarter or whatever and I kept it around for a while. I only rarely used it, though, and every time I did, I was disappointed. It was basically a Micro 4/3 sensor attached to an action camera chipset. The colors were a bit odd and the dynamic range was extremely limited - with only rudimentary tools for validation of exposure. I'd say that if you're willing to go for that sort of compromise, you might also consider something like a Sony QX1, assuming that the app still exists for it. I think Olympus pulled the app for the Air. The QX1 can only do 1080, though. If you don't need autofocus and don't care too much about sensor size, you might also consider Back Bone's modified RX0 Mark II. Then you should be able to get 4kP30 from its 1" sensor (and I think it has a decent HDMI out without insane latency, but maybe I'm wrong?) - and I think it also has a flippy screen. That'll be the smallest still-shipping 4K camera with interchangeable lenses, I think - though the price is high for what it is. Similarly, I have the Insta360 One R 1" edition modified by them with a Micro 4/3 mount - that gives a 1" 5.3k sensor. The only thing that keeps it from being one of the most fun cameras of all time is the lack of HDMI which means focusing on the little screen on the brain or using the smartphone app over wifi.

If buying a newer Mac, before buying it, load up the maximum number of things that you expect to be doing at a time and actually use the computer with all of them running for a bit. Then you can go into Activity Monitor and see how much RAM is in use. But at least that much and if possible, buy the next step up. With how fast processors are these days, there's a good chance that with the extra RAM, you will have a computer that you'll still be happily using in a few years. That and avoid the smallest SSD, as it usually has half the performance of all of the others.

I keep assuming that others have done it before, but I don't see it! On big productions with pro colorists, it's probably a waste of time, but on the sort of small productions that I work on, it feels like a cheat code - especially if the editor/colorist is using Resolve and can nearly instantly get the cameras to have a matching neutral grade to start from. 😄

Yeesh. Performance from that type of USB drive is usually terrible. Glad it worked out for you, but load time for applications must have been unpleasant. One mitigation (but not solution) for the cable problem is to use one with a right-angle connector going left or right depending on where you attach it. Velcro to the back of the screen is smart - I should probably do that (and get some right angle cables). That'd go a long way to reducing my irritation when editing from an external drive that's flopping around every time I want to get up. 😅

Are your filters coated? What you're describing sounds like what happens when you point uncoated optics at a light source. You might want to pick up a multicoated filter and see if the problem is removed or reduced.

The extra DR from the R5C vs the R5 would have to been substantial for it to match with the C70. As I said, I shot R5 and C70 on set over the weekend and the difference seems substantial to me. I have no reason to doubt that the R5C (and R5) offer benefits at ISO 3200, but thankfully I'm not lighting for that on set. In my case, the R5C also gets a 1 stop boost because I've screwed on the EF speed booster. That'll cover me most of the time. As far as matching color between them, I have a color chart taped to the back of my slate and ask the PA to flip it around after calling the shot. I just use the color chart tool in Resolve on the first or second node and other than DR and noise, I'd be hard-pressed to say which camera is which after that. They both look great. Unless the R5C changes the colors a lot, I can't imagine that it would be too hard to match to the C70 or C300II.

Which tests? Any objective test that I've been able to find shows the R5C having marginally better DR to the R5 (as you said, possibly due to better cooling or different processing), but still much lower DR than the C70 at SNR 0.5 or 1. Having just used the C70 and R5 together side-by-side on a shoot last weekend (both using raw lt), I'd say the C70 images were overall cleaner and have a lot more detail in the shadows (even aside from having less noise) - I was glad, I was a bit worried that I'd end up feeling silly having traded in a bunch of gear and some cash to get the C70. 😃 As far as the main topic of the thread, if your debate is between Z8 and R5/R5C/R3, the choice probably is going to be more emotional or based on ergonomics, ultimately. They're all very good.

If you give GFX 100 II's for Christmas presents to your spouse, I think a number of members of this forum are going to try to woo you away from your wife!

I don't. One of the nice things with using an external drive is that the cost is usually not huge. If I find myself in a place where the drive can't keep up with the footage, I'll go buy another faster drive. It's been a while since that came up, though - modern external drives are awfully fast and it's unlikely that I'd intentionally shoot anything more than 8K in the foreseeable future. As it is, just about the only reason that I shoot 8K is because the R5 doesn't have a 6K mode - that and I've been playing around a little bit with Laowa Nanomorphs with the GFX 100 II since its 8K mode crop is almost perfect for them. By the time 12K becomes mainstream, it's very possible that Thunderbolt 4 will seem antiquated. Adoption is likely to be slow since most people (me included) can barely see a difference in 4K and 8K from a reasonable viewing distance. 😄

If the camera meets your needs, it's a fantastic deal. If the camera doesn't meet your needs, even at half that price, it's a terrible deal. Will you feel good if you spend 1500 Euros on a camera that constantly feels big, bulky, and awkward in your hands and that you feel is working against you while shooting? To me, the S5IIx isn't all that big/bulky and the footage I've seen from it looked great - so if I were in the market, it'd be a great deal. If it's not for you, there's no need to agonize about it. Just wait for a camera that meets your needs better.

Welcome to the GFX 100 II club! You're gonna love the stills. Assuming you're going Fujinon for glass instead of your previous plan of PL mount, which lenses did you pair with it? For me, my go-to kit is 23/4 32-64/4 110/2 (in competition with the Leica Summicron-M 90/2 ASPH for my all-time favorite portrait lens, in the category of "if you were to buy a whole camera system just for one lens...") 250/4 1.4x TC For Turkey, I also brought the 63/2.8 (for when I wanted to be a bit more inconspicuous) and an old Minolta MD 58/1.4 for low light (it's one of the few 50ish mm vintage lenses that covers the full sensor + a bit for IBIS). There's a wide angle f/4 zoom now. If I were starting from scratch, I might choose it over the 23 prime, assuming it's as good as the 32-64.

I meant that when you purchase, you can go through a configuration tool on the Apple site and upgrade from the base option. After purchase, you can upgrade neither memory nor disk on any modern Apple laptop. This is why you want to make sure both are enough to last a while when you purchase. How high is the resolution that you need? 8K ProRes from the GFX 100 II or 8K raw from the EOS R5 both work for me. Canon R5 8K raw (maximum quality) is 2,600 megabits/second. A Samsung T9 (USB 3.something) can read at about 2,000 megabytes/second - that is to say 16,000 megabits/second. Google tells me that 12K raw from the Ursa Mini 12K is about 578 megabytes/second (5:1) - so even that should be fine from a decent external SSD... unless you need like 4 streams of it at once. If so, I suppose you'll need another solution. 😉 Even Q0 as mentioned above (missed that 578 is 5:1 when I first wrote this and hadn't seen kye's message yet) would be fine, though there you'd be limited to 1 stream before things got choppy. 😅

There's one other consideration with Mac - the smallest SSD usually has about half the performance of all of the other SSD's. The short answer is to always take at least the one above the smallest (so if the smallest is 256, go at least 512) and make sure you have enough space for whatever files you want to keep locally. If not, upgrade. Any modern high-performance external SSD (whether USB 3.x or Thunderbolt) is going to be fast enough for the vast majority of people. I went with 2TB because I like to be able to temporarily dump things to the internal drive so that I can edit on airplanes or while on a couch/in bed without having an external drive dangling from the side of the computer.

Sure, you're welcome to play with some of my tourist footage from Turkey. I refuse to pay google or other cloud providers for space (I have plenty here) so mine are all full all the time. Do you have a google drive/dropbox/whatever where you'd like me to share it? I could also share with something like Resilio if you use that.

I just traded in my Sigma FP and FP-L after coming to the conclusion that they were sitting on the shelf all the time because they didn't do anything better than several other cameras that I already have around. I used the DPL stuff with them, though, and almost never had a problem. The one problem that I did have was that one of SSD's fried, I think when I was downloading footage. I used the Sabrents and didn't realize that it's necessary to peel off the included sticker/thin heat sink for it to fit right in the DPL case. Power C set me straight when I asked about it. I kept the SSD's partly because I really like their little cases (and maybe I'll eventually buy their cage for the Video Assist which uses it). Otherwise, whether I was shooting a bunch of short clips or some longer clips, they were fine for me. YMMV, though, and use caution when voiding warranty by peeling off the factory heat sink sticker.

Mine is sitting in the next room. If what you want is relatively straightforward, I'd be glad to shoot something small. Keep in mind that the outdoors are pretty grey at this time of the year in Minnesota so "bright outdoors scene" won't be possible. If you just want any footage at all, I have some random uninteresting tourist stuff that I shot in Turkey.

First, please make sure to meet them in a safe public space. That price is bordering on "too good to be real" so please don't get mugged. Do you have some media to bring with you? Ask them to make sure the battery is charged and then you should be able to shoot some test images and a bit of video footage, and then to play it back. If you have an external screen, you may also want to bring it and the appropriate cable to make sure the HDMI port is working.

I have a few back-bone modded cameras. Usability tends to be a bit of a challenge. When they say they have the best luck with HDMI, I believe them completely. The cameras that I have are... Yi 4K+ - borderline unusable. No HDMI output, fairly high latency over wifi, minimal or no ability to punch in on internal screen. Can be OK if you can lock focus in a spot and leave it there (like for mounting on a car). C/CS mount w/ 1/2.3" sensor. Hero 7 - More usable than Yi, still really hard to use. HDMI output has insane lag. Wifi tolerable, can punch in on internal screen in photo mode (and maybe in a limited fashion in video? It's been a bit). C/CS mount w/ 1/2.3" sensor Insta360 One R 1" edition - My "gold standard" - No HDMI output available, wifi lag acceptable, double tap on internal screen to punch in makes it the easiest of the bunch to focus. Passive Micro 4/3 mount w/ 1" sensor. I wish the One R could do wired preview to an iPhone, but at least mine only seems to have an option for wired Android connection (maybe the One RS body improves that? I should double-check whether I have one). If it could do wired preview with low latency, it would be completely usable (though with poor dynamic range). Anyway, I keep an EF adapter on my One R and occasionally mount it to the back of a telephoto lens to turn it into a super telephoto (5.7k 1" sensor + EF 100-400L = 1080mm lens - add 1.4x teleconverter for 1500mm - with some ability to crop in since the source image is already 5.7k). So the best answers for "why do this?" 1) 1/2.3" sensor works with tiny C mount (and even some D mount) lenses. "That bulk and weight" is less than just about any S35 camera. 2) 1" sensor = 2.7x crop vs FF, give or take - 1/2.3" sensor = 5.6x crop factor vs FF. Want a thing that's about 1/3 the size of your other camera body and you can easily mount it to your long telephoto lens to get some extra reach? 3) It's fun. All things considered, if the RX0 has a low-latency HDMI output, it might actually be the best option (still) for a Back-Bone camera - it has a "big" sensor and one can use focus tools on the external screen.

You can't use the speed booster with RF glass. It's an EF converter + speed booster. This is a good thing because the EF 24-70/2.8 and 70-200/2.8 are both perfectly fine lenses and you can get them for a lot less than the RF equivalents. No IS in the 24-70, though.

Secondhand was not mentioned in terms of reliability, but in terms of bringing the cost closer to the CinePi (especially if the Resolve license comes with it). A really solid percentage of my gear was purchased second-hand (which is one of the reasons there's a lot of it). Once there's something shipping, that sounds very nice. Until it's shipping, I will imagine setting it next to the 8K Micro 4/3 camera from Sharp, the full-frame "film cartridge + sensor" for vintage cameras, and any number of other cameras that never actually shipped. I was gonna include the Bosma 8K in the list, but it's listed as in stock and shipping from B&H (?!) (really?)... But even once it does ship, I'm not sure that a niche camera with tiny sensor is really revolutionizing anything. If it's cheap and has a proper C mount, I'd get one because I have a bunch of S16 glass which would be fun to play with again (and C mount adapters for Micro 4/3 need to recess into the body which makes it impossible to fit on like half the lenses). If there were a better way to focus 'em, I'd just go with one of the nicer Back-Bone kits at that point. I'm still curious about the one for the RX0 since it probably has a decent HDMI out with low latency...

Sure, RGB microlenses on the CFA could cause some variance - and I certainly don't have a lot of insight to that. I've generally assumed that they're supplied by Sony since they sell both "color" and "monochrome" versions of the same sensors - and largely, the only difference in a color and monochrome sensor is the CFA. 😃 That's definitely relevant to ProRes/H.265 footage and somewhat with BM Raw, but not for cDNG and ProRes RAW. Perhaps there's metadata embedded in the container that instructs the editor/convertor for which color values to use when debayering? And if so, could the writers of the software allow people to override it?

Is there a new camera module? The current camera module used by cinepi is imx477. It doesn't matter how fancy the raspberry pi is that you connect it to, it's still only a 12 megapixel sensor. If Sony have a 45 megapixel 1" sensor that can read out at 12 bits, it could be cool to see that in a Raspberry Pi camera. Until then, you'd be a lot better off buying a used BMPCC4K - it costs a bit more, but it's a lot more usable as a camera... and I say that as a person who doesn't like any "pocket" cinema camera except for the very first one from like 10 years ago. (Or for just. little bit more, a Sigma FP)

Some of this is also being done at the sensor level instead of in the camera. The GFX 100 series have a full sensor width 10-bit 4K mode (12-bit in raw). They're not reading the entire sensor and downscaling. They're using a 4K readout mode that's built into the sensor and when set for raw HDMI output, feeding that to the recorder. It's "raw" in the sense that it's the exact data that the SOC receives from the sensor. I assume that the implementation is similar in at least some other cameras. No links to share just now - just stuff I've read over the years as well as applying logic that if two cameras have the same sensor, but non-matching raw output, they must be doing some processing. Not all are confirmed, but Sigma fp/Sony A7 III, Sigma FP-L/Sony A7R IV, GFX 100/H2D, Z Cam E2/Panasonic GH5S/BMPCC4K, etc etc etc. If zero processing is applied, any of those cameras should look exactly the same when shooting raw... unless the colors are determined by the raw decoder software - and if that's the case, it should be possible for the vendors to easily transform any of those cameras to any of the others. 🙂