As a software engineer, I've had many of the same thoughts about camera software. Glad to know I'm not crazy. We've seen this on my side of the tech industry; this is what happens when you let hardware engineers design software.
You forget that they are in the business of selling cameras. If they make the perfect camera, people won’t buy anymore cameras. It’s a style of built-in-micro-step-obsolescence.
Exactly, it has been this bs for ages in the world of video cameras... the bad news are that it wasn't for film cameras, who were one lifetime buy... until they all became also digital video cameras like the rest of it.
@@picxlproductions Props where props are due. Red fanboys used to say Red cameras had higher DR than Alexa's simply because Red listed a higher stop value than Arri. When it was obvious they worse.
Thank you for a good review. I think that Ronin 4d 8k with the new colour science is the no brainer. Many people are laughing to it. It is so easy to use in every scenario !! You can use almost every lens you find out there if you rig differently. Rolling shutter is not so good, and yes there is room from improvement, but as first version of dji cinema it's good. I really think Dji are going to change the future of cinema cameras, and soon!!
i think conversations like this are so interesting bc we often hear the 'well if it aint broke dont fix it' response and as you said theres this feeling the need to accept things simply bc its a testament these things even exist at all. i remember the day i found out how often sensors get reused, it had me looking at cameras from a very different perspective. you're probably the second youtuber i've heard point out this stagnance and its always interesting to be reminded of.
Appreciate this video so much and at the same time I am super glad that you aren’t the lord of all manufacturers. A touch of chaos and confusion is the result of the source of innovation.
I agree with everything you said, I own several systems like RED, Sony, Lumix and as of late, Fuji and I love them for different reasons but still, they come with many inconsistencies and drawbacks that could be an easy fix, software operation is an easy one, it’s crazy how phones from 10 years ago have a more fluid and reliable software experience than a $5k-10k+ camera… it’s nuts really, I’ve come used to the reds boot up time but I’m sure it can be improved.
Agreed! USBC ALL THE THINGS. If there needs to be propriety locking systems then factor that into ergonomics. But you’re right, the bandwidth is now manageable across the majority of hardware. Secondly as a designer by trade, the convoluted UI/UX I experience across camera manufacturers is shockingly bad. When you consider the advancements of mobile devices and product apps. Camera manufacturers feel archaic.
Sees Nick with an Apollo in the thumbnail (immediately clicks). Back on topic, I agree with pretty much everything you said, and its incredibly refreshing to see legitimate criticisms regarding cameras. The only the I dont see changing anytime soon is dynamic range. I dont think the technology currently exists to capture more dynamic range without the drawbacks of having insane power consumption which then needs a complex cooling system. Thats why cameras have been topping out at about 12 stops at a snr of 2. I think all of your ease of use problems will be resolved before something under $15k can compete with even the original alexa as far as dynamic range goes.
Hm, it will be interesting to see whether DR or usability improves first, but you’re probably right. But it’s important to note that shadow detail has VASTLY improved by way of RED’s sensors. They don’t see into highlights as far as ARRI due to the DGO patent thing. But their hardware offers the cleanest full frame signal of any sensor ever made. So theoretically the Raptor could beat out the Alev4 if patent restrictions were lifted. I’m curious what will happen when DGO becomes public domain. Oh and stay tuned for that Apollo footage. I’m testing the A set for a few days (40,60,100) and it’s absolutely unreal.
@@nick_salazar So is the reason Arri seems to be so far ahead in dynamic range just because of a patent? Reading the technology page on their website it seems pretty trivial to record pixels at two different gains. I guess RED is getting a taste of its own medicine, al a its compressed raw patent? Their workaround is recording the same image at two different shutter speeds, but having a dual gain sensor makes way more sense. Kind of sucks that both RED and ARRI seem to have a chokehold on the market through patents.
I struggle with the current camera world as well. It seems there is always compromises when i know 100% they don’t need to exist. For example Sony Canon still don’t want to implement open gate which is a must for anamorphic. Now with lenses like the Blazar Apex with autofocus for anamorphic they would be perfect if not for the lack of open gate. The fx supposably doesn’t even autofocus when desqueezing. Now you decide to pick something like a panasonic s5IIX. They have other downsides, autofocus is not on Canon Sony level. Canon and Sony could easily up their game but probably purposely limit it for some outrageously priced high end cameras.
2 หลายเดือนก่อน +2
Idk, but ... i think if circumstances make no logical sense to be bad, it is a problem somwhere else, development budget, segmented departments, with completely different teams working on the fx3 and the fx6 for example, prototyping, cost efficiency etc. quality control. There is a point in companies where you have to stop prototyping and sell that half baked thing otherwise the whole company suffers. Then there is the end price, i was at a lighting workshop from Arri a few years back, their philosophy was: "we get our LEDs from the same factory in china where everybody gets their LEDs from but we throw away the ones that do not meet our expectations" same goes for many other things. I never met a product designer, or Engineer that said "oh i never thought of that good that you mention that" it is mostly, Quality vs. Cost vs. Company interal crap that leads to maximising profit by short product lifespans. They have a roadmap but they rarely go the alexa 35 or a7siii way where they make a lot of effort to get ahead of the competition by a lot. etc .etc. you might get what i mean
Yes, you are completely right here. I mentioned this towards the end of my review of the DJI LiDAR. These companies have to put their development dollars where they will make the most bang for the buck in terms of sales. But, if enough consumers demand a particular kind of product, the firms will pay attention, because it will change that calculus of development dollars versus profits back in. So videos like this, in my opinion, make sense. We need to demonstrate to these firms what it is that we want to see.
Highly agree with these minor improvements with large efficiency benefits. I’ve been voicing for a high nit 5” ‘pro’ lcd from Sony for their fx6/9 line. Extremely happy to see BM offer it! These seem so obvious when you are the customer using them products day in and day out. One question: I am a fan of sdi, I wonder how usbc would handle large runs like over 50ft runs. Is there any signal deterioration? That’s one of the main reasons why sdi is the current standard.
Thank you so much, there’s no way I could’ve said that as well as you just did. I’m so tired and investing horrendous amounts of money into a camera ecosystem that don’t do what I need them to do 100%, one gets most of the way there and then you’re stuck. What I think you should do is bring on to a podcast some camera experts that are engineers themselves to talk about the problems. You have the intellect to steer that ship and get to the bottom of these issues. If you took a humble approach and let them educate you and the reasons why things are so weird. I think that would make riveting content for all of us that are frustrated.
I agree with the DR. The Audio industry is already reaching its peak point and it’s now just a matter of artistry paired with good reference speakers. I’m hoping for the same thing with sensors and just play around with good HDR reference displays. Probably not in my lifetime due to patent constraints
Great rant. More creators need to speak up about this stuff. If I’m paying thousands of dollars for a setup and I don’t have shutter angle or good autofocus or an easy UI… it’s kind of a slap in the face. More and more I’m like… I might as well just be using my iPhone for this.
THANK YOU 🙏🏽 THANK YOU 🙏🏽 YOU ARE POWERFULLY SO TRUE. I have all these ecosystems except for the big ones like Arri Alexa (LF, Mini, 35), Reds. In fact, they are playing with us. Why ? The power to control and of course, Money !!
DaVinci Resolve is the biggest value in cinema, full stop. Every single person who wants to be involved in video in ANY capacity should be dropping $300 for the Studio license. Their cameras are also fantastic value, but haven't been quite the right fit for me. For small cameras, I like having really good autofocus, so I have stuck with Sony/Canon. For big cameras, I went with the V-Raptor X for a variety of reasons (you can watch my review of that camera for more info). But I think they have great stuff and they do a lot to push the industry forward.
Thank god some one is saying something about this. Even new cameras coming from this companies don't have major update. I mean they have enough time to Innovate something knew to fix the problem which is efficiency by the way, but instead they are circling around the problem by adding features that cost a lot more to make or not but the pricing is not fair at all. Anyways thanks for the video I really hope these companies can open their eyes and leap forward.
Great topics. Deep topics that I think dive more into a capitalist space. It's all pretty much about profit margins and scaling. Also it's about the major companies planning decades into the future. If they just launch everything they have into one camera straight off the bat, that doesn't give their R&Ds enough time to come up with ideas and test them. These arguments are primarily focused on just that fact. It takes a very long time for us to come up with new ideas and test them to the point that they will make a difference. Look at the cell phone. Virtually unchanged in almost 20 years. Faster computing yes, but overall they have done generally the same thing since 2007.
@@phrasalsyntax It doesn't have Global Shutter. So no that's not everything they have. BM has made cameras with global shutter in the past. So it's not a question of are they capable.
@@sixofsix Blackmagic probably decided that it was better to develop a new sensor design (RGBW) with very fast Rolling Shutter (2nd in the ranking after Venice 2) than to reuse their older Global Shutter (GS) technology or what is available on the market at the moment in terms of GS. When you read the full sensor at speeds of 5.5 ms (8K downsampled from 12K) you are basically in Global Shutter territory ---that’s also why they can record full sensor with at 8K at 120 fps in Braw, matching the V-raptor which is a GS camera, and surpassing the Alexas by far. And differently than in their previous GS camera, you don’t sacrifice dynamic range with this new sensor design (2nd in DR ranking after Alexa 35 and on pair with Alexa Mini LF). So in this sense, I still think they launched everything they have into one camera straight off the bat with the Ursa Cine 12K. In this sense BM is different than most companies in this industry and I welcome that.
I'm not sure what you mean by "exposure stages." The Alev3 sensor captures about 15.5 stops total, about 14 of which are at least twice as loud as the noise floor (signal-to-noise ratio of 2). And yes, that's as true for Alexa Classic as it is for the Alexa Mini. I highly recommend the tests published by cined.com and the testing done by @CVPTV as well.
I just want a SINGLE mirrorless camera that's entire goal is to give me a soft, organic image. The XH2s is so close with its 14bit readout and nice noise profile, but it needs a heavy heavy olpf...There are so many new cameras constantly coming out, but there is nothing exciting about the image coming from any of them. Just bland, super sharp, boring. That's why I bought an Alexa Mini and I'm happy, but I would love a soft image to match out of a mirrorless body.
Alexa Mini is a fantastic choice. But yeah, you won’t find that strength OLPF in a mirrorless because all the photographers would think it’s too soft. See the C70 for an example.
I’ve always felt the SDI protocol is absolutely insane that we have to worry about that in order to not destroy the SDI port if not the whole camera and it’s such an easy thing to forget. I suppose by analogy we can compare using HDV cameras like the XHA1 and HV30 with their unique systems like HDV tapes, FireWire for real-time data transfer etc. how long did that take to phase out once hdmi and sd cards became the norm? It’s literally like we’re evolving to the next level. Now with USB-C we have high power and data delivery all within one cable without the risk of frying ports, that’s huge. It’s just gonna take time for the whole manufacturing ecosystem to catch-up. Tons of products will be rendered obsolete. Nobody is gonna want to use HDMI hell or even SDI monitors pretty soon with products like the Pyxis monitor. 20+ stops of DR?! who needs highlight recovery lol
85% of complaing of this video are unkown to me as a Lumix user. but looking for red cameras in the future, so glade I saw this and i really thank you for the rant
talking about how to simplify the body design reminds me of Volkswagen. They have dozens of models across multiple make and only a few engines and chassis. Copy & Paste.
That’s why I love my s5iix. They have every anamorphic desqueeze option, all controls are customizable, 6k open gate, can use dummy battery, can have external monitor and lcd display on at the same time the list goes on.
Unless you want to record 4k 60 then you need to APS-C crop, or you want to use open gate and it can't be done in raw and the sampling drops to 4:2:0. Low price, but majorly crippled.
DJIs stab at a Mkii ronin 4d or a traditional cube will be a big step forward compared to other manufacturers. It’ll be my next investment simply for the amazing ecosystem that kills rats nests.
I would die for a komodo x with full frame coverage. With DJI focus pro evolving ,I don't think we need internal auto focus that much, and all sony G master lens don't have characters.
@@poti732 a lot of modern lens have huge pertrusion, which is impossible to mount on a speed booster.and with speed booster, you'll introduce more optical imperfections.
@@Unitedpersona Iv meassured my speedboosters , the difference was minor in optical quality. If buy the good ones u will have nothing to worry about.ONLY SOME PL LENSES would not clear it , every other " modern lens " will work . I have an RF to EF and an RF to PL speedbooster and so far iv only found a couple of lenses that does not clear the distance between the back element and the speedbooster.
Your Dreaming 🛌 and I Like it!! Why is it that the Cell phones have all these options ? can we get 20-30% of their use ability the touch screen on a iPhone is insane I want that on my camera!! I Love my R5C honestly it’s going to be hard to use the C80 with half the Codecs I’m just getting it for the new sensor!!
Exactly. The C80 is a perfect example of intentional crippling. No reason it couldn’t have a CFexpress B card, plus a stills mode and stills menu, to give it full hybrid functionality. Do that, plus allow its screen to mount freely like the C400, and Canon can have my money again. But as it is, the C80 is too compromised and the C400 is too big to pull me away from either my big camera (RaptorX) or my little camera (A9iii).
Lumix already does many of the things you talk about here, but they just can't seem to catch a break in terms of brand awareness. We have active cooling, shutter angle, waveforms, codecs, AF and great firmware updates. All we need now is 4k 60 no crop and ideally for Lumix to introduce their DR boost tech found in the GH7. People would rather buy Sony because "tHe cReator waS shOt wiTh an FX3" as apposed to buying the best tool at a reasonable budget.
But unfortunately Lumix doesn't have the autofocus maturity of Sony, which is part of what I want in a small camera. So for now it's Sony, warts and all, and then the godly but larger V-Raptor X for my big camera.
all of this is great, the issue is I think everything is money driven so all the questions and statements the answer that would follow would be, its money.
Obviously financial incentives drive product development, but that is basically just a truism. What we need to ask is what money is at stake, in what areas, and how it might be moved. What markets could be driven in what direction to make the changes I suggest financially appetizing for the big camera firms? The first step is what I’m doing above: identifying and demanding the change I want. If enough others chime in, agree, and demand the same, that’s the next step. If the sound of this demand is loud enough, these firms will have no choice but to listen. They’ll ask who is demanding what, and how they themselves might profit from satisfying them.
An Iphone(!) allows me to independently select resolution/framerate/codec/bit depth. I can make any combination of these. But for some reason mirrorless Sony Camera that might be 5x the price not only hides these settings into separate menu items, but also only allow me to choose a specific combination of these. No, you can't shoot H265 into 30p, only 24 or 60. God knows why. No, you can't shoot H265 into FullHD, only 4K (well, you can record proxy). Some of the modes only allow 10 bit in 422, and if you need 420, it's 8 bit only. The UX is awful, they can't even copy Apple or Google in this regard. Phone camera apps have better UX that professional cameras.
Nah. Their software is good enough, it's just that software varies in reliability. If not, buckle up and join us dweebs coding instead of spending time on comparing apples n oranges. Anyone can buy equipment, but most aren't up to the task in creative software. It's a lot of patience and willpower to sit at a computer crunching numbers and navigating loopholes.
The 'excuse' is that the big companies need to play patsy so they can keep us on the hook to get more and more of them! Luckily, we have a bunch of creators willing to push them to their audience at a moments notice, though!
Cameras, in general, cater to a niche market. As a result, companies don’t seem to prioritize keeping every user satisfied. Even video game consoles, which target a broader audience, are becoming increasingly stagnant in terms of innovation and upgrades.
Nothing very different about Venice 2. Some DPs like it for one reason or another, but it's not significantly different from any other major cinema camera on the market. Personally I would probably not choose it for a large project. If you're going to be using a camera that big/heavy, in my opinion it might as well be either an Alexa or a Raptor. Sure, it has the Rialto, but there are plenty of ways to get a camera into a small space for those kinds of shots. The Raptor can be stripped down very small, without the need for an expansion unit, has better dynamic range, etc.
I own Canon R5C and I love it but yeah.. There is nothing but iterations in new cameras of what's already there. Why there isn't false colour for photo side of the camera when movie part has it? It's just ... histogram? Why don't they develop a focusing aid based on lidar mapping? Sony had something like that in only one camera. It looked like false colour but for focus. Internal ssd like in Hasselblad? Open gate is another ... Come on people, are you asleep there? It looks like slapstick comedy, why they do with cameras.
Consumerism on client side promotes slow progress. Why company should work hard if customers happy to buy new stuff even though there is nor real reason todo so.
lets not even talk about all the ways in which they nerf their cheaper cameras to not cannibalize their (and their competitors) more expensive ones. and other things like a raw histogram. MY PHONE CAN GIVE ME A RAW HISTOGRAM BUT A FULL FRAME MIRRORLESS CAMERA THAT COSTS 10X AS MUCH CANT, and will just give me a histogram of an agressively tonemapped jpeg that for some reason i am looking at instead of an image with flat tonemapping. Also camera uis could look so much different. ive been experimenting with different camera apps on my phone and although that market is also flawed because there is relatively little demand for them, a phone camera app is often easier and faster to use than the controls of most cameras. its ridiculous, oh and screens in cameras suck.
I agree. But we all know why this all sucks ! Because of business and consumerism. Camera makers and gear makers want and need us to buy buy buy change change buy gear !
Maybe … but Sony has an autofocus system that’s actually usable in a wide variety of situations. If I hadn’t cared about that, I’d have stayed on the R5 C as my small camera. Or gotten a Komodo X.
Terrible software with arbitrary limitations. Like every other photo camera. (Yes, I am a Panasonic shooter.) After using Blackmagic everything else is from the stone age. The S5 Mark 2 doesn't even have all the features from the original S5. Apparently the API stack is so poorly written they need to re-implement every piece of firmware for each camera. The remote apps are also terrible. So this system doesn't address Nick's concerns.
Bs1h2 w internal prores raw and 10 bitb422 this time instead of just 420. Last time you had to do prores hq for 422 I think. S1h2 is supposed to add a stop of dr. S1h was already has high as the cine cams on cine d. It beat the a7siii/fx6/fx3 which ties ties the venice in xavc. Top that and put it in a box? Give it 12bit raw? It seems to be in the deck of cards to eventually be released, given the plans for the s1h2.
All cameras suck!? I get people trying click bait to get views. But come on! Only Arri is improving dynamic range sitting next to a V Raptor X? It’s better in the shadows than Arri and matches it in the highlights with the extended highlights feature. Oh and it’s an 8k VV global shutter sensor. It’s the best cinema camera on the market😂
The V-Raptor X is the best camera I’ve ever used. And it still sucks I comparison to what it COULD be. If you watch the video, you’ll see there’s more to it than how you’re interpreting the title.
Where do you get all the Knowledge how it should be done? And why did all the r&d departments are not so smart? And for wich usecase your „idle“ cameras is now ready for. A lot of these things are ideas not that smart for „cinema cameras“. So why should they build that way?
So you aren't mentioning "Enhanced Highlights"? Have you lost regard for EH? Doesn't EH bring RED to the forefront even over the Alexa 35? You've seen the direct comparison video "search: Extended Highlights 8K Thai" - that site has a comparison vid showing EH better by 2 stops in the highlights?
I haven’t seen that video, I’ll have to take a look. So far I’ve found it to be far less usable than I’d hoped. So I just leave it off and take care to watch my highlight clipping on the traffic lights. Thankfully the shadow performance is SO good that as long as I’m not clipped, I can pretty much always bring up a dark exposure and get good results. It would be nice not to worry about highlight clipping, but the motion artifacts are there, and at double the data rate it’s just not been worth it, for me anyway.
I’ll look into the EH evolution, sounds interesting. As for the Raptor, I don’t think it’s a bad camera at all! But ALL of these cameras could be a lot better. RED is known to be a bit buggy, and obviously it doesn’t have Sony level autofocus. But both of those things could very easily be solved. So let’s demand that they be solved.
I agree, that you are an old man, chasing the kids off the lawn, except swinging a walking stick, trying to hit them 😂 Nah, I feelya man I too think about this, which is why it's important to keep on investigating, our considered purchases before we buy 😊 Like watching this video ❤
People think software is easy and hardware is difficult. It's the opposite. Hardware engineering usually is waiting on software and there are always bugs.
Why do people who are pros in film end up do this zoom camera angle effect edit which to me looks like a breathing lens, acts just like distraction to a very good info post????
I have a feeling you know just enough, and have enough passion to create your own competitive camera that has all the functions and ergonomics that we all want in cameras. So, go get it. Make your own. I’ll be your very first customer.
Thanks Matt. I do have a decent background in product design and mechanical engineering, and developing a company from the ground up. But I’d really have to study electrical engineering to get my feet on solid ground for something like a camera.
As a second thought, I think you're also under-selling the ability to have a global shutter at 8k? That's a serious innovation. Also, I think your understanding of software engineering is reductionist - reporting on the "ease" of innovation while under-considering the complexity (I'm a software engineer). Anyway, it's clear that something "triggered" you to do this vid? You were SOOOO EXCITED about owning the VRX - what happened? Also OBVIOUSLY there's a reason why REDs and Alexa's take awhile to boot up? Do you know what the boot-up sequence is doing? My suspicion is that the boot-up sequence might include some sensitive "extra juice" they are doing? The coordination of focus engineering/mechanics might be something that is proprietary intellectual property?
I love the Raptor X. As I say in the video, I think it’s the best overall cinema camera in existence. Global shutter with that much DR is incredible. Compact form, integrated screen, etc. My point here is that ALL cameras including the Raptor could be SO much better. And I’m not ignorant to the world of writing software, everything here I suggest is completely doable. I’m not a full-time software engineer, but I’ve definitely written a couple hundred thousand lines of code in my day. There is no reason whatsoever that these cameras need to take so long to boot, or have so many bugs. If we demand it, it can happen. If we sit complacent, we will keep getting slow, buggy, feature starved messes with 18 different and shoddy connector types.
@ I just think red has been pretty responsive, and I’m almost sure that you’re not the first or second person to mention the boot up time? :-) so my thinking is that there has to be something they’re doing in these top-tier cameras during bootup maybe it’s waiting on the temperature to stabilize? To see if the sensor is within calibration thresholds? I have no idea but I don’t think it’s fair to assume that because a Sony Alpha cameracan boot up fast that top-tier cinema camera should be able to do the same.
@@cogmission1 My understanding is that Burano and Venice can boot pretty much instantly. I mean, if you don't care about boot times, more power to you. But for me, it can be a hassle. Sometimes a RED camera will boot and it didn't properly connect to the DSMC3 monitor, the only solution for which is a reboot. Or, even if that bug got fixed ... imagine that the camera is off, and I know I want to shoot something compressed, meaning I will need to switch from RAW to ProRes. That's a couple minutes lost every time that happens (1 minute to power on, 10 seconds to change the setting, 15 seconds to power off, 1 minute to power on again). Madness. On a Canon camera, that procedure goes like this: 4 seconds to power on, 10 seconds to change the setting, done.
As a software engineer, I've had many of the same thoughts about camera software. Glad to know I'm not crazy. We've seen this on my side of the tech industry; this is what happens when you let hardware engineers design software.
Well said sir.
But you’re making software for hardware. So you have to let hardware guide it right? Elaborate if I missed something
You forget that they are in the business of selling cameras. If they make the perfect camera, people won’t buy anymore cameras. It’s a style of built-in-micro-step-obsolescence.
Yup, this is why.
Exactly, it has been this bs for ages in the world of video cameras... the bad news are that it wasn't for film cameras, who were one lifetime buy... until they all became also digital video cameras like the rest of it.
I love how you own Red gear but aren't a fanboy. Down to earth and honest. That's we need. 🙂
So when you give RED props you’re a fanboy? So what are you when you give Arri props?
@@picxlproductions Props where props are due. Red fanboys used to say Red cameras had higher DR than Alexa's simply because Red listed a higher stop value than Arri. When it was obvious they worse.
@@apachewolf6460 Yeah okay man 🤦🏿♂️😂
@@picxlproductions 😂
@@picxlproductions you haven't been around for long have you? 😂
Thank you for a good review. I think that Ronin 4d 8k with the new colour science is the no brainer. Many people are laughing to it. It is so easy to use in every scenario !! You can use almost every lens you find out there if you rig differently. Rolling shutter is not so good, and yes there is room from improvement, but as first version of dji cinema it's good. I really think Dji are going to change the future of cinema cameras, and soon!!
i think conversations like this are so interesting bc we often hear the 'well if it aint broke dont fix it' response and as you said theres this feeling the need to accept things simply bc its a testament these things even exist at all. i remember the day i found out how often sensors get reused, it had me looking at cameras from a very different perspective. you're probably the second youtuber i've heard point out this stagnance and its always interesting to be reminded of.
No lies were told in this beautiful rant! 🙌
Appreciate this video so much and at the same time I am super glad that you aren’t the lord of all manufacturers.
A touch of chaos and confusion is the result of the source of innovation.
I agree with everything you said, I own several systems like RED, Sony, Lumix and as of late, Fuji and I love them for different reasons but still, they come with many inconsistencies and drawbacks that could be an easy fix, software operation is an easy one, it’s crazy how phones from 10 years ago have a more fluid and reliable software experience than a $5k-10k+ camera… it’s nuts really, I’ve come used to the reds boot up time but I’m sure it can be improved.
Agreed! USBC ALL THE THINGS.
If there needs to be propriety locking systems then factor that into ergonomics. But you’re right, the bandwidth is now manageable across the majority of hardware.
Secondly as a designer by trade, the convoluted UI/UX I experience across camera manufacturers is shockingly bad. When you consider the advancements of mobile devices and product apps. Camera manufacturers feel archaic.
Sees Nick with an Apollo in the thumbnail (immediately clicks).
Back on topic, I agree with pretty much everything you said, and its incredibly refreshing to see legitimate criticisms regarding cameras. The only the I dont see changing anytime soon is dynamic range.
I dont think the technology currently exists to capture more dynamic range without the drawbacks of having insane power consumption which then needs a complex cooling system. Thats why cameras have been topping out at about 12 stops at a snr of 2.
I think all of your ease of use problems will be resolved before something under $15k can compete with even the original alexa as far as dynamic range goes.
Hm, it will be interesting to see whether DR or usability improves first, but you’re probably right. But it’s important to note that shadow detail has VASTLY improved by way of RED’s sensors. They don’t see into highlights as far as ARRI due to the DGO patent thing. But their hardware offers the cleanest full frame signal of any sensor ever made. So theoretically the Raptor could beat out the Alev4 if patent restrictions were lifted. I’m curious what will happen when DGO becomes public domain.
Oh and stay tuned for that Apollo footage. I’m testing the A set for a few days (40,60,100) and it’s absolutely unreal.
@nick_salazar Yeah, or if RED can find their own way of implementing DGO like Canon did.
I'm waiting in anticipation! I know you'll do them justice!
@@nick_salazar So is the reason Arri seems to be so far ahead in dynamic range just because of a patent? Reading the technology page on their website it seems pretty trivial to record pixels at two different gains. I guess RED is getting a taste of its own medicine, al a its compressed raw patent? Their workaround is recording the same image at two different shutter speeds, but having a dual gain sensor makes way more sense. Kind of sucks that both RED and ARRI seem to have a chokehold on the market through patents.
7:15 somehow you can check which shutter angle you shooting at in Catalyst Brower, but I doesn't have that option on camera. Why Sony? Just why?
Great explanation on how to make future cameras much better with existing technology without reinventing the wheel.
Love the rant ! I'm right there with you!!! I'll definitely have you on my team when I design a cinema camera!
how about looking into audio processing for starters?
I struggle with the current camera world as well. It seems there is always compromises when i know 100% they don’t need to exist. For example Sony Canon still don’t want to implement open gate which is a must for anamorphic. Now with lenses like the Blazar Apex with autofocus for anamorphic they would be perfect if not for the lack of open gate. The fx supposably doesn’t even autofocus when desqueezing. Now you decide to pick something like a panasonic s5IIX. They have other downsides, autofocus is not on Canon Sony level. Canon and Sony could easily up their game but probably purposely limit it for some outrageously priced high end cameras.
Idk, but ... i think if circumstances make no logical sense to be bad, it is a problem somwhere else, development budget, segmented departments, with completely different teams working on the fx3 and the fx6 for example, prototyping, cost efficiency etc. quality control. There is a point in companies where you have to stop prototyping and sell that half baked thing otherwise the whole company suffers. Then there is the end price, i was at a lighting workshop from Arri a few years back, their philosophy was: "we get our LEDs from the same factory in china where everybody gets their LEDs from but we throw away the ones that do not meet our expectations" same goes for many other things. I never met a product designer, or Engineer that said "oh i never thought of that good that you mention that" it is mostly, Quality vs. Cost vs. Company interal crap that leads to maximising profit by short product lifespans. They have a roadmap but they rarely go the alexa 35 or a7siii way where they make a lot of effort to get ahead of the competition by a lot. etc .etc. you might get what i mean
Yes, you are completely right here. I mentioned this towards the end of my review of the DJI LiDAR. These companies have to put their development dollars where they will make the most bang for the buck in terms of sales. But, if enough consumers demand a particular kind of product, the firms will pay attention, because it will change that calculus of development dollars versus profits back in. So videos like this, in my opinion, make sense. We need to demonstrate to these firms what it is that we want to see.
Highly agree with these minor improvements with large efficiency benefits.
I’ve been voicing for a high nit 5” ‘pro’ lcd from Sony for their fx6/9 line.
Extremely happy to see BM offer it!
These seem so obvious when you are the customer using them products day in and day out.
One question: I am a fan of sdi, I wonder how usbc would handle large runs like over 50ft runs. Is there any signal deterioration? That’s one of the main reasons why sdi is the current standard.
Thank you so much, there’s no way I could’ve said that as well as you just did. I’m so tired and investing horrendous amounts of money into a camera ecosystem that don’t do what I need them to do 100%, one gets most of the way there and then you’re stuck. What I think you should do is bring on to a podcast some camera experts that are engineers themselves to talk about the problems. You have the intellect to steer that ship and get to the bottom of these issues. If you took a humble approach and let them educate you and the reasons why things are so weird. I think that would make riveting content for all of us that are frustrated.
I agree with the DR. The Audio industry is already reaching its peak point and it’s now just a matter of artistry paired with good reference speakers. I’m hoping for the same thing with sensors and just play around with good HDR reference displays.
Probably not in my lifetime due to patent constraints
Great rant. More creators need to speak up about this stuff. If I’m paying thousands of dollars for a setup and I don’t have shutter angle or good autofocus or an easy UI… it’s kind of a slap in the face. More and more I’m like… I might as well just be using my iPhone for this.
THANK YOU 🙏🏽 THANK YOU 🙏🏽 YOU ARE POWERFULLY SO TRUE. I have all these ecosystems except for the big ones like Arri Alexa (LF, Mini, 35), Reds. In fact, they are playing with us. Why ? The power to control and of course, Money !!
All those features you mentioned AND under $2000! Ah... forgot to take my pills, brb...
What are your thoughts on Blackmagic Design, the whole system, ethos and new offerings in cinema cameras?
DaVinci Resolve is the biggest value in cinema, full stop. Every single person who wants to be involved in video in ANY capacity should be dropping $300 for the Studio license.
Their cameras are also fantastic value, but haven't been quite the right fit for me. For small cameras, I like having really good autofocus, so I have stuck with Sony/Canon. For big cameras, I went with the V-Raptor X for a variety of reasons (you can watch my review of that camera for more info). But I think they have great stuff and they do a lot to push the industry forward.
Thank god some one is saying something about this. Even new cameras coming from this companies don't have major update. I mean they have enough time to Innovate something knew to fix the problem which is efficiency by the way, but instead they are circling around the problem by adding features that cost a lot more to make or not but the pricing is not fair at all. Anyways thanks for the video I really hope these companies can open their eyes and leap forward.
Great topics. Deep topics that I think dive more into a capitalist space. It's all pretty much about profit margins and scaling. Also it's about the major companies planning decades into the future. If they just launch everything they have into one camera straight off the bat, that doesn't give their R&Ds enough time to come up with ideas and test them. These arguments are primarily focused on just that fact. It takes a very long time for us to come up with new ideas and test them to the point that they will make a difference. Look at the cell phone. Virtually unchanged in almost 20 years. Faster computing yes, but overall they have done generally the same thing since 2007.
That doesn't apply to all companies. Blackmagic launched everything they have into one camera straight off the bat with the Ursa Cine 12K.
@@phrasalsyntax It doesn't have Global Shutter. So no that's not everything they have. BM has made cameras with global shutter in the past. So it's not a question of are they capable.
@@sixofsix Blackmagic probably decided that it was better to develop a new sensor design (RGBW) with very fast Rolling Shutter (2nd in the ranking after Venice 2) than to reuse their older Global Shutter (GS) technology or what is available on the market at the moment in terms of GS. When you read the full sensor at speeds of 5.5 ms (8K downsampled from 12K) you are basically in Global Shutter territory ---that’s also why they can record full sensor with at 8K at 120 fps in Braw, matching the V-raptor which is a GS camera, and surpassing the Alexas by far. And differently than in their previous GS camera, you don’t sacrifice dynamic range with this new sensor design (2nd in DR ranking after Alexa 35 and on pair with Alexa Mini LF). So in this sense, I still think they launched everything they have into one camera straight off the bat with the Ursa Cine 12K. In this sense BM is different than most companies in this industry and I welcome that.
Great! Thank you. Tell me, are there really 14 pure exposure stages in Alexa Classic?
I'm not sure what you mean by "exposure stages." The Alev3 sensor captures about 15.5 stops total, about 14 of which are at least twice as loud as the noise floor (signal-to-noise ratio of 2). And yes, that's as true for Alexa Classic as it is for the Alexa Mini. I highly recommend the tests published by cined.com and the testing done by @CVPTV as well.
I just want a SINGLE mirrorless camera that's entire goal is to give me a soft, organic image. The XH2s is so close with its 14bit readout and nice noise profile, but it needs a heavy heavy olpf...There are so many new cameras constantly coming out, but there is nothing exciting about the image coming from any of them. Just bland, super sharp, boring. That's why I bought an Alexa Mini and I'm happy, but I would love a soft image to match out of a mirrorless body.
Alexa Mini is a fantastic choice. But yeah, you won’t find that strength OLPF in a mirrorless because all the photographers would think it’s too soft. See the C70 for an example.
I’ve always felt the SDI protocol is absolutely insane that we have to worry about that in order to not destroy the SDI port if not the whole camera and it’s such an easy thing to forget.
I suppose by analogy we can compare using HDV cameras like the XHA1 and HV30 with their unique systems like HDV tapes, FireWire for real-time data transfer etc. how long did that take to phase out once hdmi and sd cards became the norm? It’s literally like we’re evolving to the next level. Now with USB-C we have high power and data delivery all within one cable without the risk of frying ports, that’s huge. It’s just gonna take time for the whole manufacturing ecosystem to catch-up. Tons of products will be rendered obsolete. Nobody is gonna want to use HDMI hell or even SDI monitors pretty soon with products like the Pyxis monitor. 20+ stops of DR?! who needs highlight recovery lol
You remind me CR7 😂
Very interesting video, I agree with you 100% especially for the boot Time…
85% of complaing of this video are unkown to me as a Lumix user. but looking for red cameras in the future, so glade I saw this and i really thank you for the rant
10:57 the a9 already does that
talking about how to simplify the body design reminds me of Volkswagen. They have dozens of models across multiple make and only a few engines and chassis. Copy & Paste.
That’s why I love my s5iix. They have every anamorphic desqueeze option, all controls are customizable, 6k open gate, can use dummy battery, can have external monitor and lcd display on at the same time the list goes on.
Unless you want to record 4k 60 then you need to APS-C crop, or you want to use open gate and it can't be done in raw and the sampling drops to 4:2:0. Low price, but majorly crippled.
@ learned something new thank you. Are you using an fx3?
@@joshcruzmadeit I am
I love this!!! Super important message right here.
DJIs stab at a Mkii ronin 4d or a traditional cube will be a big step forward compared to other manufacturers. It’ll be my next investment simply for the amazing ecosystem that kills rats nests.
I would die for a komodo x with full frame coverage. With DJI focus pro evolving ,I don't think we need internal auto focus that much, and all sony G master lens don't have characters.
New BM ursa 12k.
@ Personally I like compact body design. And top screen on red with new menu interface is just so easy to use.
Speedbooster??? Like u dont need to die for a speedbooster. Its been existing since forever.
@@poti732 a lot of modern lens have huge pertrusion, which is impossible to mount on a speed booster.and with speed booster, you'll introduce more optical imperfections.
@@Unitedpersona Iv meassured my speedboosters , the difference was minor in optical quality. If buy the good ones u will have nothing to worry about.ONLY SOME PL LENSES would not clear it , every other " modern lens " will work . I have an RF to EF and an RF to PL speedbooster and so far iv only found a couple of lenses that does not clear the distance between the back element and the speedbooster.
Your Dreaming 🛌 and I Like it!! Why is it that the Cell phones have all these options ? can we get 20-30% of their use ability the touch screen on a iPhone is insane I want that on my camera!! I Love my R5C honestly it’s going to be hard to use the C80 with half the Codecs I’m just getting it for the new sensor!!
Exactly. The C80 is a perfect example of intentional crippling. No reason it couldn’t have a CFexpress B card, plus a stills mode and stills menu, to give it full hybrid functionality. Do that, plus allow its screen to mount freely like the C400, and Canon can have my money again. But as it is, the C80 is too compromised and the C400 is too big to pull me away from either my big camera (RaptorX) or my little camera (A9iii).
Lumix already does many of the things you talk about here, but they just can't seem to catch a break in terms of brand awareness. We have active cooling, shutter angle, waveforms, codecs, AF and great firmware updates. All we need now is 4k 60 no crop and ideally for Lumix to introduce their DR boost tech found in the GH7. People would rather buy Sony because "tHe cReator waS shOt wiTh an FX3" as apposed to buying the best tool at a reasonable budget.
But unfortunately Lumix doesn't have the autofocus maturity of Sony, which is part of what I want in a small camera. So for now it's Sony, warts and all, and then the godly but larger V-Raptor X for my big camera.
Glad someone said it!
And one more thing that sucks about your RED. You say RED when you really need to say NIKON.
all of this is great, the issue is I think everything is money driven so all the questions and statements the answer that would follow would be, its money.
Obviously financial incentives drive product development, but that is basically just a truism. What we need to ask is what money is at stake, in what areas, and how it might be moved. What markets could be driven in what direction to make the changes I suggest financially appetizing for the big camera firms? The first step is what I’m doing above: identifying and demanding the change I want. If enough others chime in, agree, and demand the same, that’s the next step. If the sound of this demand is loud enough, these firms will have no choice but to listen. They’ll ask who is demanding what, and how they themselves might profit from satisfying them.
An Iphone(!) allows me to independently select resolution/framerate/codec/bit depth. I can make any combination of these.
But for some reason mirrorless Sony Camera that might be 5x the price not only hides these settings into separate menu items, but also only allow me to choose a specific combination of these. No, you can't shoot H265 into 30p, only 24 or 60. God knows why.
No, you can't shoot H265 into FullHD, only 4K (well, you can record proxy).
Some of the modes only allow 10 bit in 422, and if you need 420, it's 8 bit only.
The UX is awful, they can't even copy Apple or Google in this regard. Phone camera apps have better UX that professional cameras.
I am a r5c and fx30 user but I'll always choose the fx30 but they both are so close and yet so far sometimes
Camera "improvements" are conservative bc the most important thing will always be recording when you press the red button.
You are on point sir
Nope, USB-C needs to lock, which can be done
Nah. Their software is good enough, it's just that software varies in reliability. If not, buckle up and join us dweebs coding instead of spending time on comparing apples n oranges. Anyone can buy equipment, but most aren't up to the task in creative software. It's a lot of patience and willpower to sit at a computer crunching numbers and navigating loopholes.
The 'excuse' is that the big companies need to play patsy so they can keep us on the hook to get more and more of them! Luckily, we have a bunch of creators willing to push them to their audience at a moments notice, though!
Please apple, make a camera!
Cameras, in general, cater to a niche market. As a result, companies don’t seem to prioritize keeping every user satisfied. Even video game consoles, which target a broader audience, are becoming increasingly stagnant in terms of innovation and upgrades.
THANK YOU!
These new 'cinematographers want point and shoot everything for their 'films.'
What about Sony Venice 2? I see a lot of big productions starting to use it…
Nothing very different about Venice 2. Some DPs like it for one reason or another, but it's not significantly different from any other major cinema camera on the market. Personally I would probably not choose it for a large project. If you're going to be using a camera that big/heavy, in my opinion it might as well be either an Alexa or a Raptor. Sure, it has the Rialto, but there are plenty of ways to get a camera into a small space for those kinds of shots. The Raptor can be stripped down very small, without the need for an expansion unit, has better dynamic range, etc.
Yes. To all of this.
I own Canon R5C and I love it but yeah..
There is nothing but iterations in new cameras of what's already there.
Why there isn't false colour for photo side of the camera when movie part has it? It's just ... histogram?
Why don't they develop a focusing aid based on lidar mapping? Sony had something like that in only one camera. It looked like false colour but for focus.
Internal ssd like in Hasselblad?
Open gate is another ... Come on people, are you asleep there?
It looks like slapstick comedy, why they do with cameras.
all of this is true love it
Consumerism on client side promotes slow progress. Why company should work hard if customers happy to buy new stuff even though there is nor real reason todo so.
USB-C will allow Chinese manufacturers to create LCD's marketed for RED cameras. RED does not want to eat money with Chinese.
great explanation!
lets not even talk about all the ways in which they nerf their cheaper cameras to not cannibalize their (and their competitors) more expensive ones. and other things like a raw histogram. MY PHONE CAN GIVE ME A RAW HISTOGRAM BUT A FULL FRAME MIRRORLESS CAMERA THAT COSTS 10X AS MUCH CANT, and will just give me a histogram of an agressively tonemapped jpeg that for some reason i am looking at instead of an image with flat tonemapping. Also camera uis could look so much different. ive been experimenting with different camera apps on my phone and although that market is also flawed because there is relatively little demand for them, a phone camera app is often easier and faster to use than the controls of most cameras. its ridiculous, oh and screens in cameras suck.
I agree. But we all know why this all sucks ! Because of business and consumerism. Camera makers and gear makers want and need us to buy buy buy change change buy gear !
sound like you need a Panasonic Lumix S5IIX camera, I have one and i dont have most of the the limitation you mentioned in this video!
Maybe … but Sony has an autofocus system that’s actually usable in a wide variety of situations. If I hadn’t cared about that, I’d have stayed on the R5 C as my small camera. Or gotten a Komodo X.
Terrible software with arbitrary limitations. Like every other photo camera. (Yes, I am a Panasonic shooter.) After using Blackmagic everything else is from the stone age. The S5 Mark 2 doesn't even have all the features from the original S5. Apparently the API stack is so poorly written they need to re-implement every piece of firmware for each camera. The remote apps are also terrible. So this system doesn't address Nick's concerns.
Bs1h2 w internal prores raw and 10 bitb422 this time instead of just 420. Last time you had to do prores hq for 422 I think. S1h2 is supposed to add a stop of dr. S1h was already has high as the cine cams on cine d. It beat the a7siii/fx6/fx3 which ties ties the venice in xavc. Top that and put it in a box? Give it 12bit raw? It seems to be in the deck of cards to eventually be released, given the plans for the s1h2.
All cameras suck!? I get people trying click bait to get views. But come on! Only Arri is improving dynamic range sitting next to a V Raptor X? It’s better in the shadows than Arri and matches it in the highlights with the extended highlights feature. Oh and it’s an 8k VV global shutter sensor. It’s the best cinema camera on the market😂
The V-Raptor X is the best camera I’ve ever used. And it still sucks I comparison to what it COULD be. If you watch the video, you’ll see there’s more to it than how you’re interpreting the title.
@ Yeah I checked it out. I get what you’re saying and you definitely made some valid points.
I'd be okay with the slow rollout on Sony's firmware if they actually took the time to make sure the firmware wasn't bricking their cameras lmfaoooo
nice rant
Money is the problem. Why produce a one all be all when they can keep having us update every year? There’s just to much money in us having GAS.
💯
Yes!🫶😄
Where do you get all the Knowledge how it should be done? And why did all the r&d departments are not so smart? And for wich usecase your „idle“ cameras is now ready for. A lot of these things are ideas not that smart for „cinema cameras“. So why should they build that way?
So you aren't mentioning "Enhanced Highlights"? Have you lost regard for EH? Doesn't EH bring RED to the forefront even over the Alexa 35? You've seen the direct comparison video "search: Extended Highlights 8K Thai" - that site has a comparison vid showing EH better by 2 stops in the highlights?
I haven’t seen that video, I’ll have to take a look. So far I’ve found it to be far less usable than I’d hoped. So I just leave it off and take care to watch my highlight clipping on the traffic lights. Thankfully the shadow performance is SO good that as long as I’m not clipped, I can pretty much always bring up a dark exposure and get good results. It would be nice not to worry about highlight clipping, but the motion artifacts are there, and at double the data rate it’s just not been worth it, for me anyway.
@ I heard they were working on getting rid of the data rate doubling? Basically doing most of the work in memory and then writing to one file.
@@nick_salazar I’m so sad to hear that it’s under performing. I’ve been dreaming about this camera. Hopefully, they’ll improve it soon.
I’ll look into the EH evolution, sounds interesting. As for the Raptor, I don’t think it’s a bad camera at all! But ALL of these cameras could be a lot better. RED is known to be a bit buggy, and obviously it doesn’t have Sony level autofocus. But both of those things could very easily be solved. So let’s demand that they be solved.
today I think I fell in love with you :D
instant click
I agree, that you are an old man, chasing the kids off the lawn, except swinging a walking stick, trying to hit them 😂
Nah, I feelya man I too think about this, which is why it's important to keep on investigating, our considered purchases before we buy 😊
Like watching this video ❤
People think software is easy and hardware is difficult. It's the opposite. Hardware engineering usually is waiting on software and there are always bugs.
It took them three years to add shutter angle to the FX3. No doubt software is tough …. But not THAT tough.
@@nick_salazar i have shutter angle on my canon eos m by using magic lantern...i hope that more coders get into hacking other brands
Why do people who are pros in film end up do this zoom camera angle effect edit which to me looks like a breathing lens, acts just like distraction to a very good info post????
I have a feeling you know just enough, and have enough passion to create your own competitive camera that has all the functions and ergonomics that we all want in cameras. So, go get it. Make your own. I’ll be your very first customer.
Thanks Matt. I do have a decent background in product design and mechanical engineering, and developing a company from the ground up. But I’d really have to study electrical engineering to get my feet on solid ground for something like a camera.
As a second thought, I think you're also under-selling the ability to have a global shutter at 8k? That's a serious innovation. Also, I think your understanding of software engineering is reductionist - reporting on the "ease" of innovation while under-considering the complexity (I'm a software engineer). Anyway, it's clear that something "triggered" you to do this vid? You were SOOOO EXCITED about owning the VRX - what happened? Also OBVIOUSLY there's a reason why REDs and Alexa's take awhile to boot up? Do you know what the boot-up sequence is doing? My suspicion is that the boot-up sequence might include some sensitive "extra juice" they are doing? The coordination of focus engineering/mechanics might be something that is proprietary intellectual property?
I love the Raptor X. As I say in the video, I think it’s the best overall cinema camera in existence. Global shutter with that much DR is incredible. Compact form, integrated screen, etc. My point here is that ALL cameras including the Raptor could be SO much better. And I’m not ignorant to the world of writing software, everything here I suggest is completely doable. I’m not a full-time software engineer, but I’ve definitely written a couple hundred thousand lines of code in my day. There is no reason whatsoever that these cameras need to take so long to boot, or have so many bugs. If we demand it, it can happen. If we sit complacent, we will keep getting slow, buggy, feature starved messes with 18 different and shoddy connector types.
@ I just think red has been pretty responsive, and I’m almost sure that you’re not the first or second person to mention the boot up time? :-) so my thinking is that there has to be something they’re doing in these top-tier cameras during bootup maybe it’s waiting on the temperature to stabilize? To see if the sensor is within calibration thresholds? I have no idea but I don’t think it’s fair to assume that because a Sony Alpha cameracan boot up fast that top-tier cinema camera should be able to do the same.
@@cogmission1 My understanding is that Burano and Venice can boot pretty much instantly. I mean, if you don't care about boot times, more power to you. But for me, it can be a hassle. Sometimes a RED camera will boot and it didn't properly connect to the DSMC3 monitor, the only solution for which is a reboot. Or, even if that bug got fixed ... imagine that the camera is off, and I know I want to shoot something compressed, meaning I will need to switch from RAW to ProRes. That's a couple minutes lost every time that happens (1 minute to power on, 10 seconds to change the setting, 15 seconds to power off, 1 minute to power on again). Madness. On a Canon camera, that procedure goes like this: 4 seconds to power on, 10 seconds to change the setting, done.