New b-cam? Swap my 5d mark III against a Gh4?

[Eirik Nicolai Heim]

Hi!

I am one of two in a film production company. We mainly shoot with our Red Epic Dragon, and we cooperate with others if we need more cams and of course people on the set.

But we also do lots of outdoor movies like ski/snowboard backcountry missions and sometimes we are only one of us or both.

Then I would like to have a b-cam that is much more mobile, but still can be used together with the Epic delivering on the net.
Multiple reasons why:

- Solo film jobs, multi days out in the wilderness and no snowmobile or other transportation.
- A lightweight and ok camera to document the trip to the top, while the Red Epic and the operator is ready to shoot the riding when going down again.
- Not all companies around our parts can afford the Red Epic, and we should have an alternative to offer. (Northern Norway)

We have a 5d mark III, but I no have the chance to swap it in against a gh4.

I have not tried the gh4, but the lightweight body, weather proof, smaller lenses and the possibility now to use our canon optics because of the new metabones adapter and 4k speaks to me. Also the ability to do some slow mo since we are doing lots of action sports. I do not think the slow mo looks that good from what I have seen around, but I know it is of course not fair to compare it against a red epic dragon. And you have all focus peaking, histograms and other video functions as you do not have on dslrs.

But then the 5d mark III is an amazing stills camera and really good in low light, and I know about the raw hack and have already tried it out. I like the fact of the raw possibilities and of course 14 bit. But the workflow is not that fast and you need lots of expensive cf cards, and yes it is a hack. What shall I say to the customer if the camera stops working on set?

Any one tried both in here and have worked with a red epic and a gh4 in the same project?
I know about the Sony a7 of course, and that it can shoot 4k and that it is full frame which of course is nice. But you need an external recorder and I have heard it is bad on rolling shutter, and I can not swap it with my used 5d and get a new Sony, which I can with the gh4.

Cheers,

Eirik Nicolai Heim

 

[Justin McAleece]

The GH4 cuts much better with the Epic. It has much more detail and a different feel than the 5Dmk3. I have both, and though the GH4 is a little more complicated, I would always reach for it as a B-cam sooner that the Canon. The 4K is awesome. It's a helluva camera and it works great on a Ronin. The wifi monitoring and control is amazing as well. Highly recommended...

 

[Eirik Nicolai Heim]

Thanks for the reply. We also have a movie m10, suppose it will be a good combo.

Seems like I will have the opportunity to test the gh4 today, and tomorrow I will be able to test it with a metabones ef adapter, and check how the look will be with our canon optics. Should be a nice depth of field and look like super 35?

Leaning against the gh4

 

[Julio Quintana]

Erik, I just posted this in another thread, but the new CNN series "High Profits" is shooting on Dragon with GH4 on an octocopter and it looks great. I was skeptical at first (the DP is a friend of mine and they're using my Dragon), but I've seen the footage on a larger screen and it actually intercuts really well. The GH4 looks way better than a 5D in my opinion.

Julio

 

[Björn Benckert]

While our dragon is out on a feature I been fiddling with some BMCPC's with speed boosters... And I have to say if you are delivering HD and use these little cameras right then it looks really freaking good. I'm it does not work handheld if you dont weight the camera down like mad, holding it in your hand as it is does simply not work, it looks like iphone footage at best but if you put it on something fixed or a proper tripod or even gimbal and move smoothly it really works well. Getting proress right out of cam and ready to edit is not a bad thing... I used it with FD lenses and the result is so good so next week we shoot some fashion stuff that actually will be projected 4k but I'm not worried to use BMCPC's for closups and intercut with the dragon in proper light and short dof it will work just fine. Here is a frame shot with FD 135mm at f2 with the speed booster... it was low exposure and worst tungsten possible. Still it delivers a usable image I think.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/108703124@N02/15430503547/sizes/o/

will upload a video clip of the same shot in proress so you can judge it moving...

Edit videolink:

download to see full HD proress422 render.

 

[Michael Tiemann]

I've stopped using my 5D3 cameras for video and now use GH4 as a "C" camera to my SCARLET DRAGON ("B") and EPIC DRAGON ("A"). I like the "Natural" profile with saturation turned down as a starting point to match my DRAGONs. I've pre-ordered a Atomos Shogun, which should make its 4K images gradable. As it is, the GH4 looks great, but it falls apart quickly when grading due to limitations of the 8-bit 4:2:0 codec.

 

[Eirik Nicolai Heim]

Looks good for sure! Impressing when delivering HD as you say yes. Just did one little test with the gh4 home. Impressed by the details and sharp image. Looking forward to go outside and do some proper testing tomorrow and then with an adapter and my own ef lenses. Impressed with 4k. Not that impressing when doing HD and especially when doing 96fps.

 

[rod bradley]

I would just ditto my experience with GH4 as a B camera to Epic dragon as being amazingly good.