Hello! First videography camera? C100/FS100

The FS series doesn't have viewfinders. Again, I have no used them, but I hear the loupe is useless because you can't really press your eye up against it without tilting the screen. The C100 Z-finder, on the other hand, can be firmly held in place with an articulating arm.
 
Is the hinge strong enough to support it? Regardless, I'm not too keen on its placement right in the middle of the camera body. I could be completely wrong, but others have said the same.
 
wgtwo said:
Is the hinge strong enough to support it? Regardless, I'm not too keen on its placement right in the middle of the camera body. I could be completely wrong, but others have said the same.
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The hinge is fine with the loupe mod. The loupe is lighter when you remove the center piece, so if anything,
it puts less stress on the hinge. Placement is good and bad. Pretty much sucks for high angle shots.
However, if you are doing interviews, you often want to 'stagger' the look direction of your interview subjects
so it looks as if they are 'talking to' each other. First interview subject looks screen left and second one looks
screen right and so on. Used to be kind of hard as a one person crew, to sit on the right side of the camera
and be able to check your framing on an interview as the LCD screen was on the left side of the camera.
With the FS700, you just flip the screen to the right. So, not perfect, but if you are comparing it to the C100,
just check out the reviews on the C100 screen. One of the most commented negatives from many shooters.
The C100 screen is in the very back, and will slide a little 'out' to the left, but you can't flip it around or anything.
It's pretty much a fixed position in the very back of the camera. I guess everyone decided they were going to
chance position from the traditional 'left side flip out screen'.
 
The C100's LCD is not very well placed, but I still reckon it's a lot better than the FS one. Can still be tilted down for high angle shots. You can flip it around, just not quite as much as one that flips all the way out to the left.
 
Hi all - thanks so much for your replies! You have been a massive help, seriously helpful - I'm swaying more and more to the FS700 - if my budget can't stretch then I will go for the C100. That said - I'm looking about August-December time to make a purchase, by which time there may well be something else out there. The grading is important to me so an external recorder will be the way forward! There are Samurai recorders where I work that I may be able to borrow :)
 
Using a Samurai gets you nothing with any of these cams.

Only a Odyssey 7q which takes and processes the raw feed from the FS700 to raw or proper 10bit actually gets you a better image than the onboard codec.

The F3 is the only 'cheap' camera that has 10bit out and is improved by using a recorder.. (apart from the FS700)

S
 
Hmm not so clear, it says it records DNG, the 700 does not o/p DNG but a sony stream that must be converted to DNG

AFAIK the O7q is the only camera that can do that.

The 700 puts out either crappy 8bit which is not worth recording or the sony stream which can be converted to DNG or proress - either are worth having.

S
 
wgtwo said:
The C100's LCD is not very well placed, but I still reckon it's a lot better than the FS one. Can still be tilted down for high angle shots. You can flip it around, just not quite as much as one that flips all the way out to the left.
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I don't agree at all. If you want to be anywhere other than directly behind the camera with the C100,
you are out of luck. As someone who does a lot of 'talking head' stuff as a one person crew, I like to
sit or stand next to one side or the other of the camera and have a conversation with the person I am
interviewing, and still be able to monitor the framing by just glancing over at the screen. Not really a
fan of having to stand behind the camera and have it between me and the interview subject. Of course
if you shoot a lot of high angle shots over your head (I'm 6'3 so it doesn't bother me nearly as much)
and not many interviews, you would probably prefer the C100's LCD placement. But to the OP, be warned,
the C100's screen placement has drawbacks just like the FS700's does. They are just different ones.
 
morgan_moore said:
Hmm not so clear, it says it records DNG, the 700 does not o/p DNG but a sony stream that must be converted to DNG

AFAIK the O7q is the only camera that can do that.

The 700 puts out either crappy 8bit which is not worth recording or the sony stream which can be converted to DNG or proress - either are worth having.

S
Click to expand...

As Morgan says, the 7Q is the only CONFIRMED way to get 10bit or Raw out of the FS700. Other solutions may
come out, but right now, none of them are confirmed to be able to work with the FS700. So if you are looking
at the FS700 with external recorder to get better quality, just to be safe, you should budget for the Odyssey 7Q.
 
Something to consider is that Atomos has been working closely with Sony on the Shogun, cross-promoting it and the A7s. Food for thought.
 
wgtwo said:
Something to consider is that Atomos has been working closely with Sony on the Shogun, cross-promoting it and the A7s. Food for thought.
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As you say....and Sony let CD record the raw 4K raw to the Odyssey 7Q , which many people thought would
never happen because it would compete with Sony's own recorder solution. So nothing would really surprise
me at this point, who knows what is just around the corner? I was just saying, budget for the 7Q because
that is the cheapest confirmed working solution. If something cheaper comes out and works, even better!
It's all educated guesses or even better WAG (Wild A$$ Guesses) :Drogar-Happy(DBG): as to what we will see next!
 
I'd buy a GH4 with speedbooster and invest in lenses, rather than spending $5,000 or more on a camera body at this point. Things are changing so quickly, it's not a good time to be putting a lot of money into your first real videography camera. Meanwhile, the GH4 is very good for a current-gen camera, and in some ways outspecs a C100. Whatever you do, I would definitely NOT buy a AF100... that was mediocre as a last-gen camera, and obsolete today. FS100 was good as a last-gen camera, but nearing obsolesence now.
 
I mainly shoot wedding, I sold my FS700 so I can save money for the Sony FS7 combo with their new 28-135 zoom lens a good run and gun. Would like to hear what other think on that. What interest me is the 1080p at 120fps, of course all the other feature that come with which I will use for the highlight.

To the orginal poster, have you tho about buying that instead of the FS700?
 
After all this - I went for the HC-X1000 from Panasonic, on pure budget and versatility, with a view to adding an additional camera later down the line to cope with low-light situations. Thanks for the input everyone.
 
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