Our friend Ollie Kenchington used to be a regular cinema5D writer until recently, but since his day job at his production company KORRO is keeping him extremely busy, he is now an irregular contributor to the site. In this post, he tells us about his first experiences with the new Canon C500 Mark II in low light. Full disclosure: Ollie is not a Canon Ambassador, though he does occasionally do paid work for them as a trainer/speaker. Back in September, at IBC, I had the opportunity to have a play with some 6K raw footage captured with the C500 Mark II. It occurred to me then that it would be great if more people could have the same opportunity to experiment with this powerful codec. I therefore proposed to Canon that they send me a unit prior to release, with the intention of capturing content that could be made freely available for interested users to download and play with at home. I finally got the chance to do just that last week. 6K Raw Demo You can see the short sequence I cut together from the 6K raw footage here: I only intended to capture the sunrise and the tree, so the rest was just me killing time between the sun coming up, and when it eventually hit the tree. You can download the raw shot of the tree (pictured below) from here. FOR EVALUATION PURPOSES ONLY. © KORRO LIMITED 2019 This is the camera original file. Please note, all cameras apply noise reduction internally when not shooting raw. If you haven’t seen raw footage before, you may be surprised with the amount of noise you see in low light areas. This is normal and a consequence of capturing a completely unadulterated image. Noise reduction can (and should) be applied in post when processing raw footage. Filmed at Shearwater Lake, Longleat Estate, Wiltshire, England Dec. 2019 with a pre-production* model Canon EOS C500 Mark II. Technical Details: Codec – Canon Cinema Raw Light (CRM) Frame Rate – 25fps Resolution – 5952 x 3140 Bit Depth – 12bit Chroma Subsampling – 4:4:4 White Balance – 5600k Daylight Preset Colour Matrix – Neutral Gamma – Canon C-Log2 Gamut – Canon Cinema Gamut ISO – 800 Lens used – Canon 16mm-35mm f2.8L Low-Light Demo You can see the short sequence I cut together from the low-light footage here: This was completely unplanned; just me wandering around the Christmas market for around 40 minutes. There were some shots I assumed would be unusable when I got back to my computer, like the shot of Pulteney Weir, at the start, and the wide shot of the city at the very end. Both of these were captured at ISO 12,800! The point isn’t that they are noise free, they are obviously noisy, the point is that the amount of noise is similar to what I get on my C200 at much lower ISOs. Understanding the limits of a camera is crucial, and now I know that, with the C500 Mark II, I can shoot in very low light situations without having to worry if a shot will be salvageable or not. You can download the ungraded sequence from here. FOR EVALUATION PURPOSES ONLY. © KORRO LIMITED 2019 Filmed in Bath, Somerset, England Dec. 2019 with a pre-production* model Canon EOS C500 Mark II. Technical Details: Codec – Canon XFAVC (MXF) Frame Rate – 50fps Resolution – 4096 x 2160 Bit Depth – 10bit Chroma Subsampling – 4:2:2 White Balance – 5600k Daylight Preset Colour Matrix – Neutral Gamma – Canon C-Log3 Gamut – Canon Cinema Gamut Lenses used – Canon 24mm-70mm f2.8L & Canon 85mm f1.4L IS One of the unexpected pleasures during this test, was the new in-camera digital stabilisation. All shots were handheld, with the camera stripped right back to the bare essentials. The vast majority of it was shot on the Canon 24mm-70mm f2.8L which isn’t even an I.S. lens! There are shots that, if I hadn’t captured them myself, I’d have sworn must have been acquired using a tripod. The close up shot of the briefcase on the floor, with the CDs for sale, looks like it was shot with a gimbal. As someone who loves to shoot handheld, I was blown away by this aspect of the camera. Make sure you download these demo files using the links above, then let us know your thoughts in the comments below. *Hardware and/or firmware may be different to shipping models. Purchase decisions for camera equipment should never be made based on demo footage alone. Canon did of course not pay me or cinema5D to shoot this content, or have any input in the writing of this article. How do you feel about the Canon C500 Mark II? Has Canon finally gotten it right again? Let us know in the comments below!

Plugable, a leading manufacturer of USB, Thunderbolt, and Bluetooth devices has released a fast portable SSD capable of eye-popping speed aimed at the filmmaker on the go. With Thunderbolt 3 and NVMe technology, they are pushing past previous limits on storage speed. A Blazing Fast Portable SSD for Filmmakers Internal SSDs in computers have been getting faster and faster, but external drives have fallen behind. That’s because until very recently, external SSDs haven’t taken advantage of NVMe technology. Ask anyone who has built a custom PC in the last couple of years – when it comes to fast and reliable storage, NVMe is the good stuff. When SSDs were first introduced, they were built to fit seamlessly into working environments designed for standard spinning-disk drives. They connected through a SATA connection, which works fine for hard disks but wasn’t designed to keep up with increasingly-fast solid-state drives. Enter: NVMe storage. The old SATA connection suffers from latency (a lag between input and output) because of its indirect connection to the CPU. You can think of it as basically travel time. Newer NVMe drives with an M.2 connector have a straight shot in with almost no latency. But more than that, they aren’t bottlenecked by the slower SATA connection. To give a sense of scale, SATA connections can only carry about 550 MB/s (source). The Plugable Thunderbolt 3 Drive clocks in at 2800 MB/sec read and 1800 MB/sec write. That’s about 4x the speed of a traditional SATA drive like the popular Samsung T5. Capacity The Plugable Thunderbolt 3 Drive comes in 1TB and 2TB models, perfect when shooting with larger codecs and higher resolutions. A 1TB drive is capable of storing 155 minutes of ProRes 422 HQ 4K video, or 175 minutes of DnXHR HQ 4K video.  Make no mistake, the cost per GigaByte on the Plugable Thunderbolt 3 Drive is fairly high. But keep in mind that you’re paying for speed, not capacity. This drive works best as a scratch disk for an active project, or a portable backup for high-speed footage dumps on the go. It’s formatted as exFAT out of the box, which works well on both Mac and Windows machines.   Portability Weighing in at 6.1oz, the Plugable Thunderbolt 3 Drive is about the size and shape of a modern smartphone. It is encased in anodized aluminum, and the full metal body is acting as a heat sink to dissipate heat and keep the SSD cool while also protecting your data. And, as a nice little bonus, the Plugable drive comes with a plush velvet carrying case, so you can go from shoot to shoot without damaging it.  Price and Availability The Plugable Thunderbolt 3 NVMe External SSD is available now for $299 for the 1TB version and $499 for the 2tb version. How could you use faster on-set storage? What are your biggest footage bottlenecks? Does the Plugable Thunderbolt 3 Drive solve them? Let us know in the comments below.  

When we released our review of the SIGMA fp on October 18th, we noted some issues with the implementation of CinemaDNG. Well, the SIGMA fp firmware has officially been updated to version 1.01 to address these and other problems. The SIGMA fp – a full-frame pocket camera (Image source: cinema5D) What Is It? For those unfamiliar, the SIGMA fp is a tiny, modular, full-frame mirrorless camera. It is designed to be powerful and highly-customizable for every application. The small, boxy camera can be built out with everything from viewfinders to handgrips. That’s before even talking about cages! Its backlit sensor makes it very capable in low-light situations, and it shares the L-mount found on Leica and Panasonic full-frame cameras. What’s in the SIGMA fp Firmware Update In our review, Johnnie found that the SIGMA fp had some bugs when shooting in Cinema DNG, an open RAW format designed by Adobe. SIGMA has quickly patched the simplest of these in firmware version 1.01. From their press release: ・The firmware will correct the phenomenon when the recording to the external SSD drive. Regardless of the recording bit and frame rate part of the first and second frames of playback will be enlarged as well as the thumbnail images when the recording format is set to Cinema DNG and the resolution is set to UHD. ・The firmware will correct the phenomenon whereby shooting in the Cinema DNG format, depending on the ISO sensitivity the level of the dark area changes for each frame. ・The firmware will correct the phenomenon whereby some parts of the recorded video become disordered. ・The firmware will correct the phenomenon whereby the camera freeze when the lens firmware is updated through files downloaded via Mac. The SIGMA fp – a full-frame pocket camera (Image source: cinema5D) Takeaways While these changes seem small, the big picture is more important. The hardware of the camera is locked in at this point, but there is plenty of room in the firmware to make fixes. This SIGMA fp firmware update demonstrates that SIGMA is listening to feedback from users and reviewers, and working to solve problems as they arise. At the end of our review, Johnnie listed a number of small frustrations SIGMA could address, like 25fps recording in 12-bit cDNG. He also noted the lack of a log profile for filmmakers. This firmware update, so soon after launch, gives hope that these other features could also be in the works. While you’re waiting for that update, check out our tour of the SIGMA factory! And let us know what you’d like to see in the next firmware update!  

US patent court dismissed Apple’s challenge to RED’s compressed RED RAW recording patent due to the lack of relevant evidence. Their patent withstands Apple’s challenge for now, so ProRes RAW remains to be used in cameras only with RED’s permission (license). Apple’s Challenge of RED RAW Dismissed. ProRes RAW Format In August 2019, Apple challenged RED’s Compressed RAW recording patent by the US patent court. It seems the reason was Apple’s ProRes RAW codec. The Cupertino tech giant wanted to push their own developed codec further and make it available for other camera manufacturers. This codec, by the definition of it, fulfills RED’s patented compressed RAW codec recording. That’s why anyone who wants to use such a codec in their devices, needs to either make an agreement with RED (and pay for the use). Right now, ProRes RAW is only available at selected Atomos recorders. The Australian company most likely made an agreement with RED and they are licensing the use of ProRes RAW. It seems that by challenging RED’s patent, Apple wanted to find a way around having to pay the license fees. Apple’s Challenge Dismissed The new update in the case from yesterday is that Apple’s challenge by the US Patent court has been dismissed. They stated it as Denying Institution of Inter Partes Review. The 19 pages PDF document is available for download at United states patent and trademark office website. The conclusion is written as the following: III. CONCLUSION Petitioner has not shown a reasonable likelihood that it would prevail in establishing that any of the challenged claims 1–30 are unpatentable. IV. ORDER It is ORDERED that the Petition is denied and that no inter partes review is instituted for any challenged claim on any ground of unpatentability. It seems to me that if Apple wants to go further with this case, they can provide additional evidence and make USPTO open the case again. For now, however, RED’s patent withstands the challenge. Please note that this article also includes my speculations. Both companies, of course, don’t publish every bit of information concerning their legal disputes. RED and Apple have had an active business relationship for years. Jarred Land’s post. Source: RedUser RED’s president Jarred Land, of course, reacted to this by posting a short comment in the new thread on RedUser. I pasted the full version here: We are pleased to see our REDCODE patents withstand another challenge. To be clear, as I mentioned before, this never really was Apple vs. RED. It has always been APPLE + RED, and this was all part of the process defining how we work together in the future. RED integration with Apple’s METAL framework for realtime R3D playback is coming along well and the work that the two teams are doing together is exceeding expectations. We are very excited for the new Mac Pro and the new XDR pro display and the power they bring to the entire RED workflow. He also posted a red-apple-heart photo on his Instagram, stating that both companies will continue to work together closely in the future as well. There is no official statement from Apple about this case yet. View this post on Instagram RED ❤️ APPLE #r3d A post shared by Jarred Land (@instajarred) on Nov 9, 2019 at 8:30am PST What do you think of this case? Do you expect Apple to try to challenge the patent again or not? Let us know in the comments underneath the article.

Today, Canon announced they are working on their new flagship DSLR camera, the EOS-1DX Mark III. On top of the improved photography specs, the new model will offer some impressive video capability too – 4K video at up to 60fps, plus the option of capturing RAW video or 4K 10-bit 4:2:2 video with Canon Log both internally to CFexpress cards. The new EOS-1DX Mark III. (Image credit: Canon) The EOS-1 has been Canon’s DSLR flagship line since the first EOS-1 was announced in 1989. That means this year Canon is celebrating the 30th anniversary of the EOS-1 line. How else can one celebrate a product line other than announcing a new addition to the line? Just today, Canon announced the development of the new Canon EOS-1DX Mark III. The last generation EOS-1 camera is naturally the EOS-1DX Mark II. Even despite being targeted mainly at professional photographers, it got fairly popular among filmmakers too. The video-oriented specs of the 1DX Mark II were and still are pretty impressive. Sure, the camera is really big and heavy, but it offered 4K up to 60fps high bitrate video, dual pixel AF, pleasing colors, and other useful features for filmmakers. You can check our previous articles about the 1DX Mark II: First impressions review, Lab test along with Canon 1DC comparison, and Second real-world review. Let’s take a closer look at the features and specs of the newly announced EOS-1DX Mark III. Canon EOS-1DX Mark III – Canon’s Flagship DSLR The EOS-1 line has always been about high image quality, ergonomics, and speed. It is very popular especially among sports and nature photographers and journalists for its unbeatable speed in continuous mode. The continuous stills capture will be really fast with the new Mark III as well. It will offer a 16fps frame rate with the optical viewfinder and 20fps using either the mechanical or electronic shutter in live view mode with full AE and AF. The new EOS-1DX Mark III. (Image credit: Canon) Talking about autofocus, according to Canon, the EOS-1DX Mark III features a brand-new AF sensor with more resolution than its predecessor, using advanced AF algorithms with deep learning technology for unparalleled focus tracking. In Live View and video, there’s the added advantage of Dual Pixel CMOS AF across approximately 90×100 percent of the sensor with 525 AF areas. The camera will offer a new full-frame CMOS sensor along with the new DIGIC processor, which will offer cleaner results in high ISO levels. In terms of connectivity, the EOS-1D X Mark III features Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy, and GPS. It also offers double the transfer speeds of the EOS-1D X Mark II via the built-in ethernet port or through the optional WFT-E9, and with a revised user interface. Video Capability – 4K 10-Bit 4:2:2 and RAW Internally When it comes to video specs, the new 1DX Mark III looks very impressive. It will be capable of recording 4K video at up to 60fps plus the option of capturing RAW video or 4K 10-bit 4:2:2 video with Canon Log both internally to CFexpress cards. It seems the camera will have two CFexpress slots. There are improvements in the ergonomy of the camera as well. It should offer improved battery life using the LP-E19 battery. It will have new illuminating buttons and an all-new AF point selection control within the AF-ON button in addition to the multi-controller. The 1DX Mark III will also have a new bright viewfinder. All these features will be packed in a magnesium alloy weather-sealed body. There is no information about the price or availability yet as this was only a development announcement. The EOS-1DX Mark II is currently selling for $5,500 after discount, so I expect the price of the Mark III to be somewhere above $6,000. According to Canon, the EOS-1D X Mark III will be on display at the Canon booth during PHOTOPLUS, the largest annual photography event in the U.S., held from October 24 to 26, 2019 in New York City. What do you think of the new EOS-1DX Mark III and its video specs? Do you shoot with the 1DX Mark II? Let us know in the comments underneath the article.

Update: New firmware to combat some of the flaws we found is now available to download from SIGMA’s website by clicking here. The SIGMA fp full frame camera is almost here and we were lucky enough to put our hands on a production model device. BUT, as we are so close to the official delivery date (October 25th), it means that the company is working hard on making further tweaking to the camera firmware, so the image quality you see above is NOT final as I was filming with a NON final firmware version. Eager to learn more? Hope you will find my SIGMA fp review useful.  SIGMA fp – A true pocket size camera (Image credit: cinema5D) We have been covering the launch of SIGMA’s first mirrorless camera that can shoot video since it was announced about three months ago. Personally I have a great interest in this product as this development has different aspects. To start with, it is an interesting move by SIGMA, a company which is well known for making quality lenses but when it comes to cameras, their Quattro line is aimed for photographers and those who want to explore the advantages of using the Foveon sensor for their photography leisure or assignments. Secondly, in what seems to be a crowded market, SIGMA saw an opportunity to shine by making something a bit different and I was keen to find out what it is. What can make this little (yet big) camera special? After playing with it for a few days, do I have the answer? Maybe not in full, but close enough to share with you guys my findings.  SIGMA fp – The Philosophy When Yamaki-san, SIGMA’s owner and CEO was first to introduce the camera, he mentioned “portability”, “scalability”, and “seamlessly” (the ability to change shooting modes between video and stills effortlessly). I can confirm that all those points were fully fulfilled. This small in size camera is very capable of producing nice moving images (depending on the recording mode you choose) and when it comes to scalability, I truly liked what I saw. It is very refreshing to see a manufacturer who takes the responsibility of offering a wide range of original accessories to its creation and not rely on third-party vendors. Speaking of which, the camera is being delivered with the “left side accessory” where the cold shoe attachment and HDMI protector resides. One thing that truly strikes me is the build quality of the camera and the accessories I’ve used. Both camera and Viewfinder felt like tanks and the attachment point between the two is seamless, meaning, it felt secure and robust. So much robust that one can hold and pick up the camera by holding the VF. On top, if you are in a need for a fast temporary solution for placing your external SSD, look no further. You can actually nicely gaffer tape it on top of the VF without fearing sudden drop. SIGMA fp and Samsung T5 SSD gaffered on the viewfinder. (Image credit: cinema5D) SIGMA fp – The Menu Structure Camera menus, in general, are a sore subject in our industry… I can maybe count one manufacturer who does it right when it comes to simplicity and effectiveness. In this regard, SIGMA was sticking to their Quattro camera menu and as a first time user, I have to say that I had some difficulties to adjust. In a way, the menu structure is trying to be very straight forward but in reality, so many functions are buried deep inside under sub-menus. So plan to take some time to learn how to get the best out of it (here is a challenge. Try and find where to turn the “Zebra” on/off). When it comes to SHORTCUTS, the “QS” button might be your best friend. Try and customize it for your needs. As the camera does not have so many buttons in general, I would have liked seeing better usage of assigning shortcuts to them. One sample is the back wheel keys. Only two out of the four buttons can be assigned and this is a bit of a pity. While being on the subject of the back wheel,  I find it to be much too sensitive. In my case, it was assigned to control the shutter speed and unfortunately, I found myself turning it by a coincidence too many times to the wrong shutter speed value. SIGMA fp QS menu – The easier way to get around. (Image credit: cinema5D) Camera Picture Quality The new SIGMA fp camera is capable of producing nice-looking images if shooting on CinemaDNG RAW format, no matter what bit depth you choose to record on. But let me start from the beginning. Currently the camera is capable of shooting in three different formats: MOV ALL-I (4:2:0, 8bit, Up to 420 Mbps), MOV GOP (4:2:0, 8bit up to 120 Mbps) and CinemaDNG (RAW recording format up to 2500 Mbps). In each recording format, one can choose different resolutions and frame rates. When choosing CinemaDNG, be prepared too work with a format that will “drink” the capacity of your recording media, but at least the camera is smart enough to allow the flexibility of using different bit depth externally (8, 10, 12 bit), and a single bit depth when shooting into an SD card internally (8bit). I can only hope that a more efficient RAW recording format will be supported in the near future and hopefully it will be one that doesn’t require an external recorder (the external SSD recording solution is working perfectly well and helping in keeping the small form factor of the camera too. I had great success using the Samsung T5 1TB SSD. My only griff was not buying the 2TB version)… Picture quality-wise, the outcome is mostly clean and pleasing to the eye. I write “mostly” as you never know when Moiré will surprisingly raise its ugly head. This is the result of the camera not heaving an OLPF in front of the sensor. (Optical Low Pass Filter. More information about the functionality of this filter can be found here). In addition, at times, I found the images coming out of the camera to be a bit too contrasty. This is why I chose to change my gamma settings in Resolve 16 to 2.6 while “developing” the RAW images in order to have a less contrasty image and more details in the shadows (without adding additional noise). Things get a bit more complicated when choosing to shoot in MOV format. Although ALL-I is good to have and 420 Mbps is a good benchmark (Albite 4:2:0, 8bit), the picture coming out of the camera is noticeably inferior to what we got used to in this category. Moiré can become very evident especially when moving the camera (again the absent of OLPF is very noticeable). For me personally it is a drawback as it hurts the overall flexibility of the camera. There was some discussion on the net about the logic of including 8bit CinemaDNG RAW recording option, and I guess one of the reasons for it is to allow higher video recording capability in a reduced data consumption (if comparing to 12bit), so if you find the MOV format to be not satisfying enough for your project, maybe filming in CinemaDNG 8bit will be a proper solution. Indeed I’m comparing apples to oranges, (MOV vs. CinemaDNG), but I’m raising this point as a possible, yet not perfect, solution. A frame from the timeline – Be aware of possible Moire SIGMA fp – Strengths and Weaknesses Strengths: (In no particular order) One of the main things to remember is that the SIGMA fp camera is priced at  $1899. A very aggressive and competitive price for a full frame sensor camera with RAW video recording capability.  The SIGMA fp is an extremely compact camera. I love it for that reason as it allowed me to operate incognito everywhere. Built quality is very impressive and in terms of scalability, it has a masterpiece design! As an example that indicates the camera built quality, there was a night when I was running with it and a sudden pouring rain surprised me. I’m happy to report that although the camera got COMPLETELY wet, I had no issue to turn it on and start shooting after wiping it with a dry towel.  CinemaDNG RAW recording internally (SD card) and externally to a fast SSD is an extremely welcomed feature. I will always value such an option over using an external recorder whenever possible.  The lowlight capability of this camera is exceptional. With a base ISO of 100, I find it simply amazing in regards to how high I could go and how usable the images from the camera in those high ISO values are. (On minute 4:38 I filmed Mai-san in the car with only the very small door light activated at ISO 25,600. Grainy but absolutely useable ). Battery life: I didn’t measure how long one lasts (sorry, was busy filming), but it is not that I felt at any point that it is too short. Camera getting hot while recording: I tried different shooting scenarios. Indoor, outdoor, interviews, and general image gathering. I didn’t really have the possibility to take it to the extreme, so some additional testing is required. (In those normal filming conditions I had no issues at all). Nice to see that SIGMA added the ability to record audio at different levels on channels 1 and 1 if wanted. SIGMA fp – What the eye can see (Image credit: cinema5D)   SIGMA fp – ISO 6400 (Image credit: cinema5D) Weaknesses: (In no particular order) Please allow me to separate between those functions that I think are missing and those that are included but could work better. Based on offerings by other respected manufacturers and user requests, this is my list concluding some missing functions: Flip/articulated screen, In Body Stabilisation System and audio output jack. (Why SIGMA way)?, Those are all given and can not be changed now. When it comes to functions that are already included in this camera but could/should function better, I would like to highlight the following: Flickering image can be very obvious in all recording formats and frame rates. Currently the only way to combat this phenomenon is by applying a de-Flicker filter on the footage. (I had to De-Flicker many of my shots in the above video). The camera is using a contrast base focusing system and unfortunately, it is struggling to maintain constant autofocus performance when tracking moving objects. Electronic image stabilization can be better than having nothing but in our case, it can be activated ONLY when working in MOV filming format. Apparently there is a technical challenge to apply it when filming in CinemaDNG maybe due to the crop factor needed when deploying it. I’ve already mentioned my take on the MOV picture quality. I wonder if anything can be done via firmware update in order to make it more capable. The camera has a few picture profiles (let’s name them “Color Modes”), but the essential flat LOG picture profile is missing. If the menu structure can be improved it will be a treat. In addition, more flexibility to assign functions to the camera buttons is needed. There is a phenomenon that when pressing the shutter button halfway for achieving focus in autofocus mode, the LCD screen is becoming momentarily darker. This is a small thing, but one that greatly disturbs throwout the working day. If you are planning shooting anamorphic, take into account that currently, no “de-squeeze option is available. It can be that there is a technical limitation in implementing such function when filming in exposure modes other than “manual”, but as we all shooting with fixed shutter speed and given ISO at a time, maybe this function can be considered and implemented.  4K/60 is becoming a broadcast standard and it would have been nice to see SIGMA supporting this frame rate in 4K resolution at least in MOV recording.  When filming in CinemaDNG 12bit, only a single frame rate is supported (23.97 fps). To our European friends, you are restricted to choose between 8 or 10bit recordings when filming in 25 frames per second. Previewing footage from within the camera when filming in CinemaDNG (Or deleting a file if not needed) is currently impossible. According to SIGMA, the possibility of previewing video will be added at a later stage via a firmware update. When filming in CinemaDNG RAW, I would have loved to see the possibility of adding a metadata flag to the footage so when imported it to Davinci Resolve, one will have the possibility to mute the recorded color and start working on a flat image profile directly.  The camera can not be operated/charged via an external battery when switched on. Charging via an external battery is possible only when the camera is turned off. Speaking of charging, a charger is not included in the camera package. Take this into account when planning your shooting day as the camera is your charger and obviously can not be used while charging. Using “LCD touch screen to autofocus” is possible but when placing the original Viewfinder on top of the LCD screen, this functionality is of course not possible…Currently, the back wheel keys do not support focus point placement when recording. Magnification while recording for refocusing is not possible. The magnification function will work only in standby mode.  The original SIGMA VF is is a nice well-built product but a bit limited in its diopter strength. (+1 to -2). Take it into account if you are wearing glasses or contact lenses. No audio output. Monitoring the sound coming out of the camera is not possible. MOV format dynamic range is limited for 8 stops only! Additional note: SIGMA fp – frame/bit rates The current maximum recording time is up to 2 hours. SIGMA fp Camera lab Test – Rolling Shutter & Dynamic Range Gunther, the man behind our lab tests has put the SIGMA fp camera through its’ paces and here is what he had to say about the camera. (If you are not familiar how we test dynamic range than please refer to https://www.cinema5d.com/the-cinema5d-camera-lab-is-back-dynamic-range-tests/) Running the Sigma fp through our cinema5D lab to test the Dynamic Range actually left me with more questions than answers. I was very much looking forward to this camera – a small full frame filming device with RAW recording capabilities and the right mount to use all my glass – As far as I’m concerned, a dream come true! I was close to pull the trigger and get this cam but for now, let’s take a closer look at what it can do.  Looking at the lab results it is a mixed bag. Here is why: There is no official documentation from Sigma’s side on the color & gamma settings for the cinemaDNG sequences. And most importantly, a flat or LOG picture profile is missing. Strangely, the noise floor is partially cut off by the way how the code values are distributed. For the MOV ALL-I H264 4:2:0 8bit files, IMATEST could not calculate the noise values in our signal to noise ratio of 2 threshold criterion – those lower stops simply don’t exist. The CinemaDNG footage was flickering significantly, therefore results were not fully consistent between the individual frames. So, step by step. Let’s start with the good results:  Rolling Shutter measurement As mentioned earlier we are filming a strobe light at 300Hz which leads to a series of black and grey bars due to the nature of readout of CMOS sensors. Each pair equals to 3.3 [ms] rolling shutter. In the rolling shutter department, the SIGMA fp fares quite well – at full frame 3840×2160 23.98, 25 and 29.98 fps settings, I am getting 20.8 [ms] of rolling shutter. This is a very good result for a full frame sensor. The Sony a7 series have a rolling shutter of about 25 [ms], the Panasonic S1 has a value of  22[ms] for comparison. SIGMA fp – Rolling Shutter Full frame UHD 23_98p 20_8ms   Rolling shutter halves at the full frame 1920×1080 settings for 23.98, 25 and 59.94 fps: 10.4 [ms].  This is a very very good value, but unfortunately a clear sign of skipping lines during readout of the sensor. Ideally a proper downscaling of the 6K sensor is used to get a really good 1920×1080 image – from the rolling shutter measurement, we can conclude that this is not the case. SIGMA fp – Full Frame FHD 23_98p 10_4ms Dynamic Range for 12bit cinemaDNG 3840×2160 ISO 100 (Native ISO) This mode is only available via external recording. PremierePro (latest version) does not recognize CinemaDNG files hence I moved to DaVinci Resolve. Here, we are left to speculate on the color space and gamma settings in the Camera Raw tab to develop the CinemaDNG sequence: Resolve CinemaDNG settings The picture profile we used, in this case, was NTR (neutral). There is no “flat“ or “log“ picture profile available – which is clearly limiting the potential of this camera. Let’s hope this will come in a future firmware update! Have a look at figure 1 and figure 2 for waveforms of our Xyla 21 step chart at “sRGB“ and “2.6“ gamma curve settings. For “sRGB“ the noise floor is almost nonexistent – all the lower stops are buried. For „2.6“ gamma curve settings, something similar to a noise floor becomes visible, but the lower stops are very faint and almost nonexistent. For gamma 2.6 settings the Dynamic Range reading of IMATEST shows about 11.3 stops at a signal to noise ratio of 2, see figure 3, which is also evident from the waveform at figure 2. But this result varies a bit from frame to frame as the image flickers – almost like filming neon lights (regardless of what you shoot). I have no explanation for this flickering. The lack of a noise floor also means that you will have difficulties protecting your highlights and still getting meaningful information from the shadows at the same time.  Fig. 1: Waveform plot of the Xyla 21 step chart using sRGB as the gamma setting for CinemaDNG 12 bit UHD at 23.98fps ISO100. The 11th stop starts to vanish in the noise floor – which is almost nonexistent. Fig. 2: Waveform plot of the Xyla 21 step chart using a gamma 2.6 setting for cDNG 12 bit UHD at 23.98fps ISO 100. The 11th stop is clearly visible, but the 12th starts to vanish in this faint noise line above the 0 code value line.   Fig. 3: Dynamic range result from IMATEST for UHD 23.98fps cDNG 12 bit ISO 100 at a gamma setting of 2.6 – 11.3 stops are shown for SNR = 2. However as is evident from the strange code value distribution (top graph of the 3 on the left side) the lower stops of the step chart are very faint and almost nonexistent. Strange. Dynamic Range for 12bit cinemaDNG 3840×2160 ISO 4000 I was curious if a noise floor would be there for ISO 4000. Looking at the waveform plot for gamma 2.6 settings below (figure 4), yes, there is a significant noise floor now. And the dynamic range result drops to about 9 stops. IMATEST reads 9.25 stops at SNR = 2. Fig. 4: Waveform plot of the Xyla 21 step chart using a gamma 2.6 setting for cDNG 12 bit UHD at 23.98fps ISO 4000. 8 – 9 stops are visible above the noise floor, which is very pronounced. Dynamic Range for H264 8 bit 4:2:0 MOV All-I 3840×2160 ISO 100 The first surprise for the MOV H264 recording – a very low bitrate of roughly 28 Mbit/s is encoded. Next, the noise floor is completely cut off in this mode, see the waveform (figure 5) below – 8 stops are visible before the zero code value line is crossed. IMATEST, therefore, cannot calculate the noise for the lower stops – nothing is there. Fig. 5: Waveform plot of the Xyla21 stepchart for internal UHD 23.98fps H264 8 bit 4:2:0 All-I recording at ISO100. The 8th stop barely makes it above the zero cut off line – there is no noise floor. Lab Test Conclusion: The lab test results show a mixed bag. The rolling shutter result of 20.8 [ms] for a full frame sensor at 3840×2160 readout is very good. The dynamic range results – despite having the capability of RAW recording in CinemaDNG format – leave room for improvement. I think this camera has not reached its full potential yet. Future firmware updates could certainly change the game here – for example, if a LOG picture profile would be implemented. Conclusion The fp camera is SIGMA’s first attempt to enter the saturated market of mirrorless cameras that shoot videos. In my opinion, its uniqueness lays in its compactness, mobility, sensor size and the ability to capture images in RAW file format. In regards to mobility, this camera screams “take me out and start shooting”. I hope that SIGMA will consider favorably developing a line of compact stabilized L-Mount lenses (Zoom or fixed focal lengths) to go alongside with it. If you ask yourself who is this camera for, well, it is not easy to answer. Uncompressed RAW is great for certain filming scenarios but for “every day (documentary) work” it is a REAL pain. For greater flexibility, I hope that better implementation of the MOV format can be considered. When it comes to Dynamic Range measuring vs. Images, well, charts are charts (And we should not ignore them), but at the end of the day what counts is the actual image that comes out of the camera. I’ll let you judge by yourself if you like what you see or not… I’m also happy to report that after communicating directly with the good folks at SIGMA, I heard that they are fully committed to enhancing the functionality of this camera by future firmware updates whenever possible.  EDIT: SIGMA acknowledged our findings and released an official statement. We are happy to see they are taking care of it and working hard to solve the issues.    Man at Work with the SIGMA fp camera (Image credit: Shari Lai) With Mai Watanabe-san. Image Credit: Sheri Lai Many thanks to Mai Watanabe-san for contributing with your precious time. It was truly a pleasure spending half a day with her! The above video was shot on a SIGMA fp camera. (Final hardware but not a final firmware so final images can be different). Picture mode: NTR, 23.97 fps. Recording format: Mostly CinemaDNG 12bit. (Mai-san performance was recorded in CinemaDNG 8bit) and I sneaked 2 MOV shots too…Edited on Davinci Resolve 16 latest beta version. Unfortunately, Adobe Premiere does not fully support its own RAW format files for video editing. Lenses used: SIGMA 24mm and 45mm L-mount and SIGMA 24-70 Canon EF mount. Colored with Lutify.me.  I used tripod for 95% of the shots. The rest handheld  and  some stabilised in post. All under available lighting conditions. Music courtesy of MusicVine.com – Get 25% off any Pay-Per-Use license with code C5D25 (valid for one use per customer). You can find out more about the SIGMA fp camera by visiting the official SIGMA site.

At IBC 2019 our own Nino Leitner had an interesting in-depth sit-down with Atomos CEO Jeromy Young, talking about 16bit RAW on the Sony FX9, updates to ProResRAW with regards to support in NLEs, as well as the pending multicam switching software updates to Atomos’ Sumo and Shogun 7. At this year’s IBC Atomos has not announced any new products, but has instead concentrated on consolidating support for its ProResRAW collaboration with Apple, as well as integration into new and already existing cameras like the Sony FX9, Panasonic S1H and Nikon Z series. Additionally there had been some pending updates to the Sumo and Shogun line of products, as well as a rather surprising brightness improvement on the Shogun 7 via software update. State of the union for ProResRAW Atomos has been central in the proliferation of ProResRAW and Apple’s closest ally within the industry regarding the same. Now, where Apple might just advertise ProResRAW as the future of any RAW workflow, Atomos founder and CEO Jeromy Young has a more nuanced view of the niche that ProResRAW might live in in the future. Whereas Hollywood will probably continue using very high-profile resource-heavy RAW workflows that will most likely stay cost-prohibitive for most other parts of the industry, the wide-spread adoption of RAW workflows might just change and improve the way that video is shot in broadcast and independent filmmaking communities. In particular, Atomos CEO Jeromy Young sees a lot of potential for cameras with a more photography-related DNA like the Panasonic S1-H, Nikon Z6 and Z7 being able to be more closely matched with A-cameras in broadcast related contexts, namely the Canon C200 and C300, Panasonic EVA-1, or the new Sony FX9 which is set to take over the FS7’s hold on the broadcast market. Sony FX9 RAW recording While Sony has apparently given up on creating their own RAW recorders to be integrated with the FX9’s XDCA extension unit, there is a solution involving the Atomos NEON line, with a master control unit (which is basically an additional Ninja on the NEON’s backside), giving it the ability to actually process the 16bit RAW that the Sony FX9 outputs. This is not yet a standardised solution, but Atomos is working out how this might look. Jeromy Young mentions that pricing might be somewhere around $ 5000.00, but this still needs to be ironed out. Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro CC adoption During our interview Atomos’ Jeromy Young mentioned the recently announced support of ProResRAW in Avid Media Composer. In addition to the native support of ProResRAW in Final Cut Pro X, Media Composer’s support of the format adds one more widely adopted NLE, which has a particularly dedicated community of supporters in the film and broadcast communities. This adoption of the format might help ProResRAW make inroads into said communities in the near future. Surprisingly after our interview was done Adobe also announced support for ProResRAW in Premiere Pro CC. With Premiere’s very large user base this is a big step for the format and in turn for Atomos, being the principal hardware manufacturer for products supporting it. It also takes ProResRAW one step ahead of Blackmagic RAW, which is only supported via plugin in Premiere Pro CC and Avid Media composer. There is no timeline on when ProResRAW support will be implemented into Premiere Pro CC yet. 3000 nits on the Shogun 7 via firmware update In another surprising update Atomos announced that their Shogun 7 recorder was to receive an update increasing its brightness from 1500 to an incredible 3000 nits. Now this increase in brightness is not supposed to make the Shogun 7 a daylight viewable monitor, but it is meant to better represent the whole dynamic range of the sensor being monitored – meaning if your sensor has a dynamic range of 15 stops, with the updated Shogun 7 your monitor will be able to more closely match that dynamic range on screen. How can brightness be increased via software update? Well apparently Atomos shipped the Shogun 7 with zone-dimmable backlight LEDs already built in. However the software side wasn’t quite ready, so these LEDs were locked to 1500 nits across all zones. Just to recap the problem here: LCD screen produce colored pixels. These pixels then have to be lit to actually be bright enough to be seen on screen. In the past these backlights ran in strips around the edges of the LCD screen, thus causing the problem that blacks were actually never really black on LCDs because they were always lit by the illuminating strips. OLEDs solved these problems by the technological brute force approach of every pixel having its own little backlight – the downside being increased cost and a lower life expectancy for the displays. Zone-dimmable LCDs are something of an in-between solution: these are traditional LCDs, but the backlights are arranged in zones, which means they can be dimmed individually and thus produce much greater dynamic range. The obvious problem is this: to decide which LED-zones have to be dimmed, the image has to be analysed in real time, and then the array of LED backlights has to be coordinated. This is the step that took a little longer for Atomos to implement, but now that it’s done the Shogun 7 can unlock its full brightness potential of up to 3000 nits per backlight zone. Again: this is meant for HDR monitoring only, not for daylight viewability. The Shogun 7 firmware update for this feature will be available to download soon. Multicam switching on Shogun 7 and Sumo Jeromy Young also gave some insight into the status of multicam switching on the Sumo line and the Shogun 7. Apologising to the users who might have thought that the Shogun 7 was to ship with this feature on board he conceded that the development process was far more difficult than expected. That said Atomos seems to be making some progress here, since the Sumo line will receive the software update enabling said feature end of the month with the Shogun 7 following in October. While Atomos might not have announced any new products, it is nice to see them work so hard on consolidating the software side of things and doing the hard work of building partnerships with companies spreading ProResRAW to more environments. We will keep you posted of course, once any new developments arise. What do you think about Atomos updates? Do you own a Shogun 7 and a camera that will allow you to take advantage of the 3000 nits brightness update? Let us know in the comments!

Z CAM E2 newest firmware (0.89) is already available for downloading (see our article by clicking here), and the big news is, it allows internal RAW recording. That made the Z CAM E2 a perfect candidate for our cinema5D latitude test. How does it fare? How does it compete directly with the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K? Interested in finding more? Please read on… BMPCC 4K and Z CAM E2. Photo credit: cinema5D For quite a while I have been using the Z CAM E2, a camera made by the Chinese manufacturer Z CAM. I shot a mini documentary with it in India (see my hands-on review here) and currently I am testing the VAZEN Anamorphic 1.8x 40mm T2 lens with it as it offers this nice almost full sensor 3696×2772 mode in ProRes HQ which desqueezes to a 1:2.4 ratio (review is coming soon). Z CAM is constantly improving on the feature set of this camera via firmware upgrades, and just recently they made another important move and released an internal RAW recording option by the name ZRAW. My colleague Jeff elaborated on ZRAW in this article, but in short, ZRAW supports up to 4096×[email protected] recording to the internal CFast card (60fps to come at a later stage). In theory, the new RAW recording feature should put the Z CAM E2 “on par” codec wise with it’s major Micro Four Third sensor size competitor, the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K (BMPCC 4K). So we had to put this new feature to the test against the BMPCC 4K in our cinema5D latitude test. The cinema5D latitude test If you are a regular reader of our website, you have already seen some of our latitude tests. Let me quickly recap on what it is: Latitude basically shows the capability of a camera to retain color and detail while over- or underexposing the image and normalize it back thereafter. In this test we have a standard scene which shows Johnnie sitting next to a color checker: Standard studio scene showing the Z CAM E2 at zero exposure level: Johnnie’s face at max. 60% luma, the white sheet of paper at 65% luma level. From the baseline settings (exposing the face at max. 60% luma, the white sheet of paper at max. 65% luma value) we successively underexpose the shot by 1 stop until we have reached 4 or 5 stops of underexposure. Which we then push back to zero in post, by using the respective camera tools like the ZRAW VideoSuite for the Z CAM E2 and the DaVinci Resolve RAW camera tab for the BMPCC 4K. Developing the ZRAW Files – the ZRAW VideoSuite As said above, the ZCAM ZRAW files were developed using the standalone ZRAW VideoSuite which you can download from the Z CAM homepage (Windows 10 only for now). The standalone ZRAW Video Suite from Z CAM (Windows 10 only). It provides all the necessary exposure correction and grading tools that you could wish for to (batch-) develop the ZRAW files and convert them into DNxHR HQX files. However, it currently does not interface with any 3rd party software like Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve, hence the workflow is quite cumbersome for now. The color grading and exposure correction tools in the ZRAW Video Suite. For this latitude test I basically only adjusted the exposure settings (shown in 1/3 stops, so the encircled “15” value above means 5 stops of exposure correction for example), and developed the files using the Rec709 color space to avoid any additional grading steps thereafter. The file sizes of ZRAW are about 50% bigger than the corresponding BRAW 3:1 constant bitrate files at the same resolution/frame rate of the BMPCC 4K. I don’t want to spoil the result of this test, but I don’t see any advantage using ZRAW vs. ProRes HQ on the Z CAM E2 for now. But, first thing first… Latitude Test Results for the Z CAM E2 and Comparison to the BMPCC 4K Both cams were set up at their native ISO’s (500 for the ZCAM E2, 400 for the BMPCC 4K), at UltraHD 25 fps. Noise starts to appear already at 2 stops underexposure with the Z CAM E2, and we cannot go much further than that as at 3 stops underexposure horizontal stripes start to appear which cannot be removed by noise reduction (see the NR results further down). Z CAM E2 at 2 stops underexposure, pushed back to zero. Still usable, but noise is already strongly present in the image. Z CAM E2 3 stops underexposed, pushed back to zero. Horizontal stripes start to appear which cannot be removed any longer. The point of no return has been reached. Compared to the BMPCC 4K which we ran side by side to the Z CAM E2, we can clearly see that the BMPCC 4K has about 1 stop better latitude – which is consistent with our Dynamic Range measurements of both cams (Z CAM E2 shows 10.8 stops at SNR = 2, BMPCC 4K shows 11.6 stops at SNR = 2): Z CAM E2 vs. the BMPCC 4K at 3 stops underexposure, pushed back. The Z CAM E2 (Left) has crossed the limit of usability, whereas the BMPCC 4K (Right) still holds up. At 4 stops under, also the BMPCC 4K reaches its limits, showing horizontal stripes which cannot be removed (the same result was found in our BMPCC 4K vs. BMPCC 6K comparison here). Z CAM E2 vs. BMPCC 4K at 4 stops underexposure, pushed back to zero. Both cams are beyond their limits. At 4 stops underexposure, the BMPCC 4K image starts to become pink, whereas the Z CAM E2 image retains the colors – but a lot of pink noise appears. Both not very desirable. By the way, have a look at our recent BMPCC 6K lab article – you can directly compare the results as the studio settings as well as the exposure values were exactly the same. Last question – we are dealing with RAW files on both cams, can noise reduction on the RAW files help to recover the 3 or 4 stop underexposed image? So I used a temporal noise reduction of 3 frames, threshold: 30 and spatial noise reduction with a threshold of 10 in DaVinci Resolve on the files from both cams. Z CAM E2 vs. BMPCC 4K at 3 stops underexposure, pushed back and using noise reduction (temporal and spatial) in Resolve. The Z CAM image cannot be recovered as the stripes don’t go away (have a look at Johnnie’s shirt, for example). Z CAM E2 vs. BMPCC 4K at 4 stops underexposure, pushed back to zero and using temporal and spatial noise reduction in Resolve. Now also the BMPCC4K image cannot be recovered any longer (more easy to see during playback of the video files, not so easy to see in the scaled static images of this article). Now you may ask why I haven’t tried the noise reduction features of the ZRAW Video Suite? ZRAW VideoSuite DeNoise settings I did various tests with the DeNoise settings on the ZRAW files from the Z CAM E2 while developing them, from “Low” to “Highest”. As there is no documentation from Z CAM, you are left to speculate what the individual settings do to the image. I found that leaving the noise reduction settings “off” in the VideoSuite and using the DaVinci Resolve settings described earlier was giving me the best results (I used the same settings for both cams). Conclusion and a Statement from Z CAM I love the image from the Z CAM E2 at the correct exposure settings, and I applaud the efforts of Z CAM to bring the internal raw recording to the E2 camera. But at the end of the day, we have to see what it really offers. In essence, you should not underexpose important areas of your image more than 2 stops, and ZRAW shows rather limited possibilities to bring it back. As things are currently, I do not see an advantage of ZRAW over ProRes for the Z CAM E2, and for the following reasons I cannot recommend using ZRAW: File sizes are about 50% bigger than the corresponding highest quality settings for the BMPCC 4K, BRAW 3:1 constant bitrate (and you have the option to use up to 12:1 for even smaller file sizes in BRAW). I honestly can’t see a difference to the great ProRes options that the Z CAM E2 offers as well. Workflow is cumbersome because you have to use the standalone ZRAW VideoSuite (which is currently only available for Windows 10 computers) and do a conversion step before you can use the files in your standard editing software The ZRAW VideoSuite offers a lot of options to color correct and exposure correct your footage but does not offer a video playback (only frame preview) – which makes it difficult to see the effect of e.g. DeNoise settings on the image In stark contrast to all the shortfalls above, stands the strong competition from Blackmagic RAW: File sizes are comparatively small (with a lot of options to further reduce them while retaining the 12 bit raw character of the image), the workflow in DaVinci Resolve is super easy and even 6K BRAW files run smoothly on my 2014 Laptop … A Statement from Z CAM We want to be fair and give a chance for the camera manufacturers to respond to our findings before publishing such an article, so we approached Kinson Loo (Z CAM’s CEO) and asked for his response. He and Jason Zhang from the technical team were very cooperative and responded immediately, giving us some insights on their motivation for implementing ZRAW and de-noising: “The key point for RAW is the details of the image. … The RAW test should always include detail test. Our ZRAW is designed to achieve a visually lossless image of a complex scene. We suggest that you shoot complex scenes to check the resolution of the ZRAW. … This would explain why you need larger ZRAW files. … If you don’t care about extreme details but care more about noise then ProRes is a much better choice. …ZRAW itself should have a lot more noise than a YUV based format as the noise came from the sensor. YUV based files including ProRes and H265 have the image signal processor involved so it will have a different level of noise reduction which cannot be performed at Bayer level. … In camera noise reduction / curves / color correction are some major components of the image signal processor … We don’t add 2D noise reduction and chroma noise reduction in ZRAW VideoSuite and our Z CAM  DeNoiser adopts full optical flow based 3D noise reduction which does not hurt details. We would consider adding more denoise related features to our image processing pipeline in the future. … Since your test is noise based so we recommend using our denoise software Z CAM DeNoiser to process the video and test again. We could reduce more noise in the camera but some professionals don’t like it and that’s why we introduce ZRAW” What do you think? Have you used the Z CAM E2, do you have experience with ZRAW? Please share your comments in the section below.