Lengthy blackout time ... its a non optical mirrorless camera ... go figure ... want a Leica ... then shoot a Leica.
Really poor review in that he continues to evaluate a new MF camera in the light of his present love.
Bob, I own many mirrorless cameras, none of which have the blackout time the X1D suffers from. It makes it borderline unusable for me in the shooting circumstances I intend to use the camera in.
Which I thought I was pretty clear about. I was hopeful the X1D would give me a rangefinder (not Leica per se) style of shooting in a digital medium format camera. It doesn't quite get there for me, mostly because of the EVF blackout.
Reality is that six hours with a camera does not allow one to wax eloquently about the deficiencies of a digital camera ...
doubt that he discovered all of the inticacies of the shooting envelope in that time.
I did acknowledge that I only had a few hours of shooting and a few hours being forced to work in a post application I'm not familiar with either. I thought I did pretty well.
I know photographers who are reticent to discuss a camera they have not lived with for less than a year ... 6 hours may be the
new low limit for comment. I surmise it is similar to commenting on the character and strengths of someone that you had a one night
stand.
I'm not going to try a camera out for a year to then learn she's not the one I'll marry if there's a fairly big question as to the viability of it as a picture taking tool.
We live in a time of the sound ... visual ... and cerebral ... evanescent moment ... do we really have the need to share our incomplete
shallow understanding of an event?
And yet I could find few reviewing it from my perspective as a rangefinder mixed lighting shooter, nor could I find any actual RAW files I could download and process. Bob where was the review shallow ? From what point did I demonstrate incomplete understanding ? You want me to take it down ?
God ... I am old and feeling older every time I read one of these poorly conceived emotive sharing events.
And yet here you are posting one of your own.
Do not take this personally ... just a comment on the falling standards of our community and society.
Don't take this personally, but your view makes it sound like you've got other issues in your life that are affecting your ability to simply understand that people approach cameras with many perspectives and needs.
I do have the camera ... working through its mixed bag of issues ... but honestly ... after 3 months am not able to do a walk through. May be
that I am a slow read ... or reticent to show my ignorance.
Or you know enough to call mine out for it's shortcomings ?
As an aside ... the HD from the camera is very good ... not made for whipping the camera or the video but what a beautiful MF view
with decent resolution.
Hey now you're in my house.
I'm a professional cinematographer.
This is a terrible video camera.
It's has a terrible integration time. That means a terrible rolling shutter which will create skew on any verticals and make it nearly impossible to shoot anything hand held, or even on a tripod that pans and tilts, or mounted to a vehicle for a tracking shot, or even on a gimbal, because anything that moves in the frame, no matter if you're moving the camera or not, will also have the same image artefact of a slow integration time. When the last time you saw a great film where the camera or subject didn't move ?
Anything more than 20ms is going to be problematic and it looks to me by eyeballing it, something upwards of 30ms.
I haven't shot a film or television series that didn't move the camera. That's why they call it moving pictures.
I was actually being kind because the video specs themselves are so terrible by any standard I didn't even bother.
It shoots 1920 8 Bit 4:2:0 video.
That was good video in about 2002 on a consumer camera.
An EM 1 Mark 2 or a GH5 wipes the floor with it. And they have far more useable rolling shutter integration time, the ability to change exposure mid take without the iris clicking loudly and unevenly and are stablised, either by optical lens IS or sensor IBIS.
The video is also highly compressed. Did I mention it's 8 Bit ? Who cares what resolution it's super sampling it from when you throw most of it away.
John ... we both are aware that it is not a video camera ... not a rangefinder ... and probably a poor mirrorless camera. First rendition
is going to be flawed ... but the sensor is without a doubt a winner ... and Phocus allows for amazing recovery of highlights ... color fidelity
is superbe. I wish that you were able to use it for a number of months in trying situations ... beats the hell out of any Leica M I have owned ...
M6 M7 M8 M8.2 M9 M Mono M246 ... all great cameras and fabulous lenses ... which the XCD lenses cannot surpass. But 35 FF vs this small MF sensor
... my vote is to carry a bit more weight ... and deal with the somewhat clinical rendering of the XCD lenses.
Sure, but that's your opinion.
I don't think it beats the Leica's I own because they're lighter more discrete and don't black out the image for a second or two when I take a picture.
But maybe I'm willing to compromise on that point and others. Hence me workshopping this idea in this piece that I wrote. Also known as my opinion.
Not an Alexa mini ... but honestly nothing else is close.
I did not once at all mention that camera. Why would you bring it up even ? It's not relevant at all to what we're discussing.
I don't think you actually read the piece I wrote. I am seeking a companion stills camera, maybe to replace a rangefinder style of shooting I already do now, not a replacement for an Alexa Mini
John ... would love for you to acquire the camera ... learn its strengths and weaknesses and report back in a year. Should be a very different
story ...
Just saying ....
Really ? I'm not going to buy a camera and invest the time if it's got issues that make it a non starter.
You've invested in the camera, it obviously does what it needs for you.
As it stands right now, when I go back and look at the photos I took while I had a similar amount of time a Leica S 006 then I find myself more drawn to those. I think I still prefer the look of the Leica S / Leica lenses over the X1D in this MF size. Again, my opinion. I don't think my board opinion would change from using it for a longer period of time. For me handling it while taking photos is as important to the end results themselves. That's not going to change.
But I won't even buy a Leica S 006 (or 007) because it's too big and I can't carry something that large around with me. Bringing it back to the point. Is the X1D small enough and functional enough to be that style of shooting in a MF format ?
Happy to engage in discussion, that's why I wrote it, but have some consideration that not everyone approaches these choices with the same metrics that you do in to your own style of shooting.
JB
