Review of the Z CAM E2-F6 Full Frame 6K Cine Camera

NorBro said:
If you would really love to see some footage too, maybe some words of encouragement would be nicer instead of "That'll be the day".
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I said a nice thing. How was it offensive?

You are notoriously cryptic about your work and i’ve not only never seen anything you shot and shared, in your some 6,000+ posts, but i’ve also asked you directly and been told you don’t have any public work. It isn’t out of character for you to not share your personal work. If me expressing interest in wanting to see things you’ve shot is rude, then i am at a loss.

You are not some timid new member, you are a veteran poster. I’ve seen you take on Mitch Gross, you have some teeth on you.
 
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I think BM still beats either of the Chinese brands for IQ based only on the samples posted on the their respective websites.
Motion blur on the Zcam 4k just looks bizarre, like it blurs in opposite directions along vertical edges. Towards the direction of motion and away from it. Readout pattern must be pretty strange.
 
Razz16mm said:
I think BM still beats either of the Chinese brands for IQ based only on the samples posted on the their respective websites.
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Straight from camera, there is some truth to that. Seems the zcams have some technical advantages.

Motion blur on the Zcam 4k just looks bizarre, like it blurs in opposite directions along vertical edges. Towards the direction of motion and away from it. Readout pattern must be pretty strange.
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Interesting. The company is pretty open to communicating from what i understand. Have you hit them up yet?
 
Razz16mm said:
Motion blur on the Zcam 4k just looks bizarre, like it blurs in opposite directions along vertical edges. Towards the direction of motion and away from it. Readout pattern must be pretty strange.
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Can you point to some good samples of this behavior ?

I'd like to check this out in more detail.

Thanks.
 
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James0b57 said:
I said a nice thing. How was it offensive?

You are notoriously cryptic about your work and i’ve not only never seen anything you shot and shared, in your some 6,000+ posts, but i’ve also asked you directly and been told you don’t have any public work. It isn’t out of character for you to not share your personal work. If me expressing interest in wanting to see things you’ve shot is rude, then i am at a loss.

You are not some timid new member, you are a veteran poster. I’ve seen you take on Mitch Gross, you have some teeth on you.
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I know it sometimes may be difficult to imagine someone with 6,000+ posts to be nothing less than a world-class DP (although rarely anyone with any sort of known blockbuster success is on forums), but not everyone here has to be behind a camera at all times.

I love cameras, but many of us have different professional backgrounds and circumstances. Consider there are other positions in the video production industry overseeing all kinds of hardware and software and settings and workflows. Some people are hired to be advisors, technically-sound helping minds trusted for their integrity.

I'm not offended; I actually laughed because it was funny. I was asked for footage and it's like, 'when pigs fly', right?

Also, I didn't "take on" Mitch. I once told him he had moxie for saying something about Panasonic cameras. Something he didn't do much before (or never) before being an employee with the company, so I provided a little camera reality balance to the forum from my own perspective. (I'm assuming that's what you're referring to because you quoted me back then when I said it.)

And I may never share what you classify to be work because of your assumptions and the narrative you’ve written in your head, but I think that I do share my work - a unique lifetime of diverse knowledge - every single day.

And I used to post my little beach tests here - sorry you missed them - and actually took the S6 out for a spin this past weekend. There's a lot I could share about this camera right now that I think at least one person somewhere out there in the world would like to hear, including something about the above comment (#22). Between ProRes, H.264, H.265, low/medium/high bitrate options (you can literally choose "low", "medium", or "high" which I imagine reflect data rates), Z RAW, and the low-noise modes and noise-reduction settings, there is some room for difference in the universal picture quality we see online.
 
NorBro said:
I know it sometimes may be difficult to imagine someone with 6,000+ posts to be nothing less than a world-class DP (although rarely anyone with any sort of known blockbuster success is on forums), but not everyone here has to be behind a camera at all times.

I love cameras, but many of us have different professional backgrounds and circumstances. Consider there are other positions in the video production industry overseeing all kinds of hardware and software and settings and workflows. Some people are hired to be advisors, technically-sound helping minds trusted for their integrity.

I'm not offended; I actually laughed because it was funny. I was asked for footage and it's like, 'when pigs fly', right?

Also, I didn't "take on" Mitch. I once told him he had moxie for saying something about Panasonic cameras. Something he didn't do much before (or never) before being an employee with the company, so I provided a little camera reality balance to the forum from my own perspective. (I'm assuming that's what you're referring to because you quoted me back then when I said it.)

And I may never share what you classify to be work because of your assumptions and the narrative you’ve written in your head, but I think that I do share my work - a unique lifetime of diverse knowledge - every single day.

And I used to post my little beach tests here - sorry you missed them - and actually took the S6 out for a spin this past weekend. There's a lot I could share about this camera right now that I think at least one person somewhere out there in the world would like to hear, including something about the above comment (#22). Between ProRes, H.264, H.265, low/medium/high bitrate options (you can literally choose "low", "medium", or "high" which I imagine reflect data rates), Z RAW, and the low-noise modes and noise-reduction settings, there is some room for difference in the universal picture quality we see online.
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Is this an obiturary?


Geez, lighten up.


You seem to ignore all the things you say and do on the forums. You once almost single handidly made someone quit dvx.

If you stopped sharing, that is your choice. I have seen you share with others about things like the Sony a6300. That is a good thing. Just don’t downplay how you tried to tear down Mitch Gross’ career because he had more up votes than you thought he deserved.
 
James0b57 said:
Is this an obiturary?


Geez, lighten up.


You seem to ignore all the things you say and do on the forums. You once almost single handidly made someone quit dvx.

If you stopped sharing, that is your choice. I have seen you share with others about things like the Sony a6300. That is a good thing. Just don’t downplay how you tried to tear down Mitch Gross’ career because he had more up votes than you thought he deserved.
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#235

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?363925-NAB-2019-rumors-(and-releases)/page24

I joked about the voting system and mentioned the word pastrami because Mitch loves pastrami (he once shared this with the community).

You spin everything around how you want to see it. Someone else just told you the same thing today.

#463

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthrea...v-Canon-C500-mkII&p=1986814765#post1986814765

JPNola said:
Now James, I said the differences do no matter as much as the culture makes them out as mattering. You rather dishonestly spun that into my having said they do not matter, period. All the stuff about going outside and throwing a ball- childish of you, James. I clearly did not say or even suggest the differences should not be discussed. I spoke to the level of importance given to them ( and the obsession with them, hand-wringing over them, and WEIGHT given to them. )

You took offense to my post and did so by choice. You wildly spun it into what is was not and then knocked down the straw-man of your own fabrication. Which is the sort of thing done in idiotic political sparring. I’d prefer you respond to me like an adult and a professional.
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Like i said, you aren’t some random timid new poster. You are a veteran poster. Thanks!
 
NorBro:

Any news about the ZCam from you? Been putting it through it's paces? I have the flu from hell so have not been really motivated to do much
but downloaded the new FW for the X-T3. Interested to hear what you think of the ZCam once you get some shooting time in with it.
 
I've been playing around with it a lot. I promise I'll share footage soon, I won't forget. I hope you feel better.

But in short...for a $3,000 6K camera there is just not much you can complain about.

These are all just my opinions, but...

Some things I like:
- The design is just perfect for me...small boxes are very easy to use.
- 6K ProRes 422 (the Pocket 6K doesn't offer this...starts at 4K)
- Love the menus (besides the one thing below) and tools and programmability
- Importing LUTs into the camera
- MFT Crop (if you'd like some more reach)
- Mounts are inexpensive and very easy to change
- When you take off a mount, you can see that their design actually looks like maybe in the future OLPFs can be made for the cameras. Many Blackmagics' IR filter glass is held in by a rubber O-ring that you can access once you unscrew the front chamber. Z Cam's looks to be more like RED's design. (I'm not sure exactly what RED's is, but it seems like little filter windows can be dropped in/installed (4 screws) by the operator. However, allowing dust to enter would be 99% probable as the sensor would be exposed.)
- Ethernet connectivity and their software is very user-friendly. This is something I have never embarked upon professionally, but have been asked about. Within seconds you're up and running with the built-in Ethernet port.
- Same thing goes for the mobile app; I can control everything on an iPhone so easily.
- eND looks like a must-have but will add to the total cost of the camera: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1539456-REG/z_cam_nd101_end_module_for_z.html

Some things I don't like:
- H.265
- Terrible AF
- No ProRes 422HQ on any HFRs besides in 1080p. 422 and the other flavors are available on all resolutions/different framerates (depends).
- The rubber door that's covering the C-Fast slot...if I keep the camera I will cut it off (I used BMs like that for years so not really worried about it).
- If the battery is too low the camera won't let you record. I think that's currently an issue with the Leica SL2 too. I guess it's rarely a problem if you have a lot of juice, but I like using the smaller batteries.
- The record and video menus are separate. It's annoying because you have to change resolution on one page and navigate to the other for framerates. Resolutions, framerates, and any controlling of variable framerates should all be on the same page.

There are actually two other cameras I'm testing now as well. Obviously will end up selling one or two...maybe all three, lol.

If anything, this newfound experience has really made me want an ALEXA Mini.
 
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The S6's door is on the other side and supposedly improved compared to the E2's door (at least according to one YouTuber), but that's pretty cool! Thank you.
 
TheDingo said:
So Z CAM are promising PD AF in the future ? ( would be a big jump for them )
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Last I heard, Z Cam was working on an add-on autofocus module for their existing cameras based on a time-of-flight imager. They posted a couple of videos of a very early-stage prototype in September, but I'm not sure what the current development status is.


 
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One little note...there is 6K ProRes 422 HQ in the 2:4:1 mode and it goes up to 25p.

It's of course a wide-screen aspect ratio.

The best way to break a camera's image is to point it at the ocean, ha.

IgUu3z3.jpg
 
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A good demo and helpful debug tool for ToF sensors is to overlay the 3D depth map on top of live video (50% or less transparency, grayscale intensity works well). In this way we can see what the sensor sees, including any issues with IR light etc.

If perfected, this can work with any system that can talk to it (+ all the lens calibration data). Probably only good for fairly close shots though if using an LED. A scanning laser can go kilometers (perhaps too complex/expensive). PD AF is probably best answer for future camera.
 
Sorry for the delay if anyone's been interested.

I don't film very much anymore (still love cameras though), and was waiting for this cool project to happen to share some footage but still waiting on clearance. I know frames are never truly useful as motion is best for overall analyzation, but just wanted to provide something.

7mon7ux.jpg
 
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James0b57 said:
Looks good!
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Thank you!

___

P.S. A Rokinon 20mm Cine DS was used. LOMOs from the Ukraine didn't work out for me. I'm not much of a filmmaker as other pros here, but if I'm making a "film" I'm not putting still lenses on the camera. The Rokinon was a compromise for me but that's all I had.

One beauty of sharp 6K and 8K sensors (this camera is very sharp, too sharp) is having the availability to neutralize them with softer glass.
 
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