Replacing my XH A1 + Blade with what?

[Razz16mm]

I've had my Digital Bolex for about 18 months now and wouldn't trade it for any current camera near its price range. It is remarkably free of the common digital artifacts that plague most low end cameras: no rolling shutter, aliasing, chroma moire, macro blocking, banding, etc. Color gamut is well beyond what HD REC709/SRGB can reproduce. It fully covers the DCIP3 gamut. It can handle low light shooting reasonably well up to about 1600 ISO. You will want to have Neat Video or some other noise reduction capability for some low light footage, but the noise/grain is analog, not fixed pattern, so has a nice random film like quality to it when you desaturate the deep shadows a bit. If creative grading room is what you are looking for, not many cameras can match it.
It is a 1"/S-16mm format camera, so FF35mm style shallow DOF is not part of the aesthetic, but you can get very nice shallow DOF under many circumstances with fast lenses for medium and tight shots where it matters most. Get the MFT mount version and a BMPCC speed booster and you will pick up two stops on your Nikons as well as getting 35mm focal length equivalence and much sharper MTF than with a straight lens adapter. So DOF control will be similar to your SGblade if you use ND filters for the wider apertures down to a max f/.74 rated for the Speedbooster.
You will want an external monitor or EVF, but the camera is completely ready to shoot out of the box with nothing needed but a lens. It is a well built, robust, reliable camera. Mechanically and electronically much more so than a BMPCC. I like the form factor and ergonomics much better than the DSLR form factor for shooting motion.

 

[David Evans]

The Digital Bolex does seem incredible. I was also wondering about the Blackmagic 4k Production Camera. This is S35mm and global shutter, right? So, no speedbooster needed to reduce the crop factor (should be around 1.7?). Would this be a good choice as well? The pocket camera has rolling shutter, right? :S Unfortunately I hate the jello effect and I can't have that on my movies...

 

[David Evans]

I've read some great advices here, great cameras mentioned. Some of them I already thought about. Others I didn't, like the Sony FS700 and there are, actually, great deals on ebay for that camera. Problem is always the same... recording formats... I really need professional formats like RAW or Prores at least. Sony FS700 or Canon 100 both have great sensors but they record... ughhh AVCHD... Unsuable in post.

Which cameras, besides Blackmagic, can I get for the same price range, that give me great professional formats, great DR and sharp images? From what I've been reading everywhere, I guess blackmagic is the only brand doing this...

 

[David W. Jones]

I've read some great advices here, great cameras mentioned. Some of them I already thought about. Others I didn't, like the Sony FS700 and there are, actually, great deals on ebay for that camera. Problem is always the same... recording formats... I really need professional formats like RAW or Prores at least. Sony FS700 or Canon 100 both have great sensors but they record... ughhh AVCHD... Unsuable in post.

Which cameras, besides Blackmagic, can I get for the same price range, that give me great professional formats, great DR and sharp images? From what I've been reading everywhere, I guess blackmagic is the only brand doing this...

Truth of the matter is.... There are many folks out there doing professional work with cameras like the FS700 and C100 everyday!

As a matter of fact, many of us cut together projects which were acquired with both very high end cameras, as well as cameras you would seem to snub your nose at. And when done, nobody can tell which camera was which.

I sure would love to see examples of your work.

 

[David Evans]

Truth of the matter is.... There are many folks out there doing professional work with cameras like the FS700 and C100 everyday!

As a matter of fact, many of us cut together projects which were acquired with both very high end cameras, as well as cameras you would seem to snub your nose at. And when done, nobody can tell which camera was which.

I sure would love to see examples of your work.

Ok.. Did I came out as snobbish? I didn't mean to, at all! Look, I love my XH A1, I really think it was years ahead of its time. And the combo with the Blade, looks awesome. But I'm bit obsessed with stylization and being able to find a certain look for a movie. I'm not that good at it, but I really feel the need to mess around with the footage all the time. And most of the time, what I feel is that the codec makes the footage too thin to be messed around for more than just a few gamma corrections. Try to bring some shadow or highlight details and they're just black and white pixels, empty of information... So, while I'm always trying to find a look that I like, I always frustrate myself, because the more I mess with it, the thinner it looks. Not at all the experience that I have when I edit my photographs (which I shoot in RAW).


So, I guess what I'm saying is... this is indie filmmaking right? There just isn't a camera that does everything right (well, there are, but not for my pocket). There are cameras that do some things right, and people favor different things. Some people favor big sensors, other favor good audio preamps, connections, ergonomics, construction, etc...

For example, audio is not a big thing for me in cameras, because I already have a MM1 with a good set of mics that give me great clean audio. Nowadays, I look for a camera that records to big formats that allow big colour grading, great skin tones and sharp sharp images. That's what I favor.


I'm sure a lot of people here (you, probably) do a much better work than me and do it with any camera. But for the kind of workflow I like, that's what I favor. Maybe it's part of the learning process and one day I'll find out that I could do the same with much "less" (a Sony FS700 is far from being less that any other camera discussed here).


I'm just trying to get some help from other people more experienced with different cameras, than I am.
Thanks for your help, nonetheless!

 

[roxics]

No there is no perfect camera. All of this is constantly in flux.
I've watched people ask for full frame video, get it, and then complain they can't keep it in focus.
I've watched people ask for raw, get it, and then complain it takes up too much space and requires too much post work.
I've watched people ask for smaller cameras, get them, then complain about the ergonomics.

You kind of just have to try things out and pick what works best for you most of the time. Or rent based on the job. Usually a bit of both.
There will be compromises with everything.

I think a lot of these Japanese companies make camera like they make cars, small and efficient. I think it must be a cultural mindset.
Whereas in the west we like things big and raw and powerful. But most of the western style companies are higher on the price end (RED, ARRI).

You can certainly do the job with a compressed camera, you just have to do more of the work in front of the camera rather than in post. Which honestly for any production, that's where it counts anyway.

 

[David Evans]

From what I've been reading and watching, I think the big winner for me is the Ursa Mini 4.6k. A lot more than I wanted to spend but watching some footage done by many cameras on vimeo and youtube, made me realize the difference in detail that a camera like this can achieve in comparison to others, including the pocket camera. Curiosly, one thing that made this difference clear to me, was starting to watch these videos in my big screen TV (FULL HD, not 4k). That's where I really noticed the limits of some cameras and the brutal detail of the Ursa Mini 4.6k. I'm really sold on this one, but since nobody knows when the camera will be available, I guess I might discover something else, by then.