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Best Stills 4K Camera?


Henry Gentles
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I'm thinking of selling all my Canon 5D mk2 and 600D Camera's and going 4K for the Video/Stills but the the thing that has prevented me is that I need a Pro Stills Camera for weddings and portraits etc.  Which 4k Camera is best for stills or should I stick with DSLR? Anyone been down this road?

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I'm thinking of selling all my Canon 5D mk2 and 600D Camera's and going 4K for the Video/Stills but the the thing that has prevented me is that I need a Pro Stills Camera for weddings and portraits etc.  Which 4k Camera is best for stills or should I stick with DSLR? Anyone been down this road?

I'd say wait a bit more for some more long term reviews of the a7rII comes out and make your choice then.

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Guest Ebrahim Saadawi

Do you want the fullframe aesthetic for stills? I believe it's indispensible for wedding and portraits to have a fullframe camera with a 50/80mm 1.2-1.8 lens. It gives weddings and portraits a wow effect to clients in stills that can only be matched with medium format. 

If you agree and need a fullframe great stills camera WITH 4K video, you only have two options, the 1DC (used) and the A7r MKII. 

Since you already own a 5D fullframe Canon and lenses and I would definitely make the move to the 1DC for great 5D level FF stills + 4K video. A7RII has an overheating issue and can't be reliably used for recording long times, but if you shoot video in short chunks and don't rely too much on time, it's the next best option. 

If you don't need FF stills, the best stills + 4K video camera is the Samsung NX1. It's APS-C stills and you'll need to invest in a new lens system to get AF, IS, Iris control, which will probably end up as much as a used 1DC body alone that's ready to go and you know the UI and system well, and you'll be ending up with an APS-C stills camera with an EVF and not really awesome lenses for portraiture so a downgrade in wedding stills but an upgrade in video. 

If you have the budget, your best option is a 1DC, look for them around and find out whether you can afford one. It's a FF, and a much much better stills camera than your 5D AND one of the best 4K video cameras out there, with the same system and lenses and UI you're already using, just as simple but better and faster. 

Can't afford that, then look at the A7R II + Metabones Adapter for EF lenses and see how the overheating issues develop with early testers and how it will work with you. It shoots great FF stills and works with Canon EF lenses and has 4K video too, the body plus Metabones will be over 4000$, so if you can find a 1Dc close to that I wouldn't hesitate going for a monster 1D body with OVF and 4K video. 

If that's all too expensive, you can just use the 5D MKII you already have for stills/weddings/portraits and purchase a second small 4K camera, something that will also take you Canon lenses with a cheap adapter (GH4, G7, NX500) or something with a fixed lens (LX100, RX10II) and just have a two-camera setup one for stills with FF and OVF and one for 4K video. 

So depending on your budget these are the options. 

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The Nx1 has amazing video quality, heres 2 frame grabs from a 4k video from the NX1 (taken from facebook, cuz I lost the original files).

 

5Su9RYj.jpg

vANL2xl.jpg

 

Ungraded, straight from the camera (once again, taken from Facebook, so its compressed by facebook). I was using the Canon 50mm f1.8 at the time, camera settings were Normal Gamma, -10 sat. -10 sharpenning. You really cant get any better, specially for the price...I had a Canon 600D, and its just another league, even comparing to the D800 video mode, the only thing I'd love would be a Speedbooster to make it "Full-Frame", that would make these cameras sell like hot buns !

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The Nx1 has amazing video quality, heres 2 frame grabs from a 4k video from the NX1 (taken from facebook, cuz I lost the original files).

 

5Su9RYj.jpg

vANL2xl.jpg

 

Ungraded, straight from the camera (once again, taken from Facebook, so its compressed by facebook). I was using the Canon 50mm f1.8 at the time, camera settings were Normal Gamma, -10 sat. -10 sharpenning. You really cant get any better, specially for the price...I had a Canon 600D, and its just another league, even comparing to the D800 video mode, the only thing I'd love would be a Speedbooster to make it "Full-Frame", that would make these cameras sell like hot buns !

That looks great!!! I have the NX500 and when I go -10 with saturation, it turns it black and white... Did you mean -10 contrast?

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That looks great!!! I have the NX500 and when I go -10 with saturation, it turns it black and white... Did you mean -10 contrast?

You're right ! It wasnt -10, the settings where : Normal Gamma -5 Saturation, -10 detail - 5 contrast. You do get a sort of "Magenta/green" hue over the footage, but disapears after grading, quite honestly I think it has a very very cinematic feel, I dont thing it needs grading with those settings. Im still getting used to this camera, specially to the screen, I feel like while recording, I need to underexpose by quite a lot, but when I get home the footage is incredible and well exposed, I may need to fine tune the little amoled screen.

I will be opening a new thread this week, with all sorts of tests on the NX1 with lots of lens combos/settings.

I agree with Andrew Reid, I went for the NX1 after reading all of his articles and hes spot on. If I could afford the A7RII, I'd probably go for that one, the 1DC, as amazing camera as it is, I dont think it justifies for the price. I bought the NX1 for 1470€ (was the cheapest I could find, but its way cheaper in the US it seems) + 50€ for Canon/Nikon Adapters + 900€ for a new editting computer, all of this for still under 1k€ what the A7RII costs. Im still hopefull someone comes up with a speedbooster for the NX1, that would be simply amazing, and would be too hard to do.

Andrew Reid, since you have lots of gear, would it be possible to test any speedbooster+adapter on the NX1 ? Idk because of the distance if it would work, but its worth a test.

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You're right ! It wasnt -10, the settings where : Normal Gamma -5 Saturation, -10 detail - 5 contrast. You do get a sort of "Magenta/green" hue over the footage, but disapears after grading, quite honestly I think it has a very very cinematic feel, I dont thing it needs grading with those settings. Im still getting used to this camera, specially to the screen, I feel like while recording, I need to underexpose by quite a lot, but when I get home the footage is incredible and well exposed, I may need to fine tune the little amoled screen.

I will be opening a new thread this week, with all sorts of tests on the NX1 with lots of lens combos/settings.

I've been using -5 across the board and am pretty happy with the results. But I think I'll give your settings a try. Are you editing and delivering in 4K?

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g7/gh4 do also get close to full frame for stills with the speedbooster ultra (1.28x crop factor I believe?). Probably take canon glass better than the nx1 too(?)

I've definitely been enjoying AF on the GH4 with my canon glass. Wouldn't count on it for non-repeatable moments (sports, weddings), but it fares well in most situations. 

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g7/gh4 do also get close to full frame for stills with the speedbooster ultra (1.28x crop factor I believe?). Probably take canon glass better than the nx1 too(?)

No AF for stills though with that adapter.  I'm sure he'd want to autofocus in a "pro" level body.

I've definitely been enjoying AF on the GH4 with my canon glass. Wouldn't count on it for non-repeatable moments (sports, weddings), but it fares well in most situations. 

Does the speedbooster "ultra" AF now?

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I'm thinking of selling all my Canon 5D mk2 and 600D Camera's and going 4K for the Video/Stills but the the thing that has prevented me is that I need a Pro Stills Camera for weddings and portraits etc.  Which 4k Camera is best for stills or should I stick with DSLR? Anyone been down this road?

Sell your 600D, buy a LX100 or FZ1000 (the first for low-light, the second for long zoom)! Best of both worlds!

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