Recently Atomos released their 6.2 update which among other things added the ability to shoot to Avid DNxHD (for HD) and DNxHR (for 4K). One little mode I found curious in the DNxHR settings was DNxHR LB. The LB stands for Low Bandwith and I saw the shooting time on a 256GB SSD jump from 46 minutes to nearly 4 hours. Okay, you’ve caught my attention.

Typically you might ignore such a highly compressed version of a codec on your recorder, dismissing it as simply for proxies. However, the A7s only outputs 8 bit over the 4K HDMI signal. So is shooting to the 10 bit depth of DNxHR HQX or ProRes HQ/422 overkill? Let’s find out!

I tested HQX against LB since HQX is the only version of DNxHR that supports 10 bit. You can find all the bit rate info for DNxHD/HR here. First step, after shooting the footage, was to install the codecs for DNxHR. After some digging, we found the download link. With that installed, we were able to load the footage into Adobe Premiere.

I find the most challenging scenarios for most cameras are shadows and gradients. This is where you start to see compression, noise and banding. To test this, I shot two different scenarios. The first was motion blur. Having this much motion and gradient in the frame can overwhelm the codec and cause it to break. The second was a shadow gradient. Simply shooting a wall that had a very gradual tone change can also cause 8 bit codecs to break due to the lack of color information across 8 bits.

Click the following links to see the images in full 4K.

DNxHR LB – Motion Blur
DNxHR HQX – Motion Blur

DNxHR LB – Motion Blur Cropped
DNxHR HQX – Motion Blur Cropped

DNxHR LB – Shadow Gradient
DNxHR HQX – Shadow Gradient

DNxHR LB – Shadow Gradient Cropped
DNxHR HQX – Shadow Gradient Cropped

DNxHR LB – Shadow Gradient Graded
DNxHR HQX – Shadow Gradient Graded

Although this isn’t exactly scientific, you can see the similarities and differences of the codecs. Across the board, HQX does better. There is less noticeable compression, banding and loss of information in the picture. The image is also much sharper in HQX which is important if you plan on cropping in or displaying in full 4K. But is it worth the nearly 5x space requirement? That’s really up to you. In an 8 bit environment, I feel that LB does remarkably well and may be perfect for most of my A7s shooting. LB looks very similar to most AVCHD footage I’ve worked with and seems to fall apart pretty close to the same point. So if you’re comfortable shooting something in AVCHD then you probably would be comfortable shooting it in DNxHR LB especially if you plan to downscale to HD in the end. If I’m doing something that I feel I may end up heavily grading or that I want the added security of the best possible image out of the camera, then I will probably go to HQX or ProRes HQ/422.

I will bring up the GH4 as a final comparison. The GH4 shoots to a 100 Mbps (12.5 MBps) bit rate internally. DNxHR LB is 18.26 MBps which is roughly 146 Mbps. Very similar in file sizes and quality. Of course the GH4 has the option to output 10 bit 4K if you get the added module.

For me, the A7s is still the perfect little camera for my needs. When I need high bit depth, I’ve got my FS700. But for gimbal work, low light shooting and other small-camera rigs, the A7s is a great tool. Having the option for higher compression in 4K is really handy and great for playing around with 4K without filling up my hard drive too fast.

Wait, what?! Didn’t you look at the Blackmagic Cinema Cameras (Pocket & 4K editions)? Surely they were the biggest hit of NAB 2013.

Well I’ll admit they had a ton of buzz and will probably sell like hotcakes to eager filmmakers hoping to spend a few bucks and have a magical movie making machine. The problem with the BMC cameras is that they aren’t the best for a wide range of productions. Studio work – CHECK! Green screen work – CHECK! Commercial productions – CHECKAREENO! Web video…ummm… Event shooters, documentary shooters….errrr, uh….

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for companies innovating and Blackmagic has certainly done that. But I need a camera that does many things well, not just one.

That’s why I purchased the FS700 close to a year ago. I was very impressed with the long list of features…ND filters, Cinegammas, super slow motion, etc. 4K was something I was hopeful for but wasn’t the main reason I purchased the camera. But with NAB 2013 fast approaching, I was eager to see what Sony would be announcing for 4K and what third party support would be available.

The NAB Show doors opened Monday morning and I headed towards some of the recorder manufacturers I knew from previous years. Atomos…nope, no 4K. Ki Pro…they had their Quad but not much new information. Convergent Design…hmmm, what’s this Odyssey thing? Oh, wow!

I’d seen gear from Convergent Design before and hadn’t found anything that I really needed for my production. That all changed with the Odyssey7Q. A 4K recorder that was officially supported by Sony that also happened to be a very sweet professional field monitor. So instead of slapping a giant brick to the back of your camera (Sony’s recorder option) I could consolidate my monitor and recorder into one device. Big thumbs up! Then they started listing off features including a wide gambit of codec support that I only need to rent or purchase if a shoot calls for it. That keeps costs down for me. Also the ability to shoot 240fps continuous RAW. Not saying I’ll need it often, but it’s very handy to have if a production calls for it.

Then I headed over to Sony to get the low-down on their 4K upgrade path. Low and behold, they had a Odyssey7Q hooked up to their FS700. That means Sony is embracing this as an option for FS700 owners. While talking about 4K with Mr. Juan Martinez, he casually noted that the FS700 would be getting S-Log 2. Whaaa-wha?! You mean the thing that I’ve always wished for and envied in F3 owners? RAW is great, but I expect to be living in a 10bit Prores or DNxHD workflow so S-Log will be my best friend. 4K and HD RAW when I need it, but HD 10bit for most everything else.

After NAB 2013, I really, REALLY am happy with my FS700 purchase. It just became the best value camera on the market. There’s really nothing else more I could realistically want from the camera. And the best part is it still shoots to the very robust AVCHD codec on board when I don’t need 10bit. Again, this keeps me lightweight for event shooting and web video. To do that on a RED, you need a $13,000 module. No thanks.

Convergent Design, makers of the popular nanoFlash and Gemini recorders, has just announced the Odyssey7. The Odyssey7 starts off as a compelling 7.7″ OLED 1280×800 high-end monitor with pro features like Waveform, Zebras, Histogram, Vectorscope, Focus Assist, False Color, Timecode Display and Audio Level Meters, and 1:1 Pixel mode. Where it jumps ahead of the rest is the inclusion a fully functional built-in recorder. All for $1295! …well not exactly.

Convergent Design has gone a unique route in making a high-quality monitor with a built-in recorder that can be “unlocked”. For $1295 you get the monitor with no recorder functionality. For an extra charge you can purchase or rent a license to unlock recording options for compressed, uncompressed and various flavors of RAW. No word yet as to what the pricing will be.

How does this tie in with the FS700? Well Dan Keaton from Convergent Design teased on DVXUser.com the following:

Dear Friends,
We expect to make some FS700 owners real happy.
Stay Tuned.
Respectfully,

Dan Keaton
Convergent Design

However you want to read that, I’ll take it to mean that the Odyssey7 will work with the FS700 as some form of 4K recorder. Not only will it be more cost effective, but by combining your monitor and recorder into one device, you’ll have a much smaller package than Sony’s version of FS700 4K.

Of course NAB is just a few days away and we’ll have plenty of opportunity to hear more from Convergent Design and potentially other manufacturers jumping on the 4K bandwagon. Only time will tell.

Find out more about the Odyssey7 here and in the video below.

RED of course was first to the game when they released the RED One a few years back. Since then it has been both a popular and hated camera choice. The choice to shoot 4K RAW was a godsend for many shooters, however the RED One came with a good deal of frustration and anyone who has shot with it will attest that it is a camera you can’t fully trust. RED announced a few weeks ago that they were slashing prices on all their current cameras. The One body was brought down to an incredibly low price of $4,000. Of course it sold out quickly so that deal won’t be available at the time of this article. Still the RED Scarlet and Epic bodies were also slashed putting RED at a much more competitive place in the market. Still, when you price out a full kit for the One, Scarlet or Epic, the cost shoots back up.

Canon showed off their C500 and 1DC at NAB. While many were hoping Canon would come in as a low priced competitor, Canon had other things in mind. Pricing for the C500 and 1DC were set at $26K and $13K respectively and still required an external recorder for 4K acquisition. The first company to meet the demand was AJA with their Ki Pro Quad. The $3995 recorder can capture up to 10 bit 4K to solid state drives.

Sony shocked many when the FS700 was announced. A camera that can shoot up to 240fps in full HD with numerous bells and whistles shooters have been dreaming about and the promise of a future 4K upgrade. At $8000 the camera seemed to come in a very competitive price point, but the Sony’s plan for implementing 4K on the FS700 was left with several unanswered questions.

Come November when Sony announced their F5 and F55 cameras. The F5 as a big brother to the F3 and the F55 as a little brother to the F65, both coming in to fill some gaps that would allow direct competition with Canon and RED’s higher end lineup. While the F55 can shoot 4K right out of the box, the F5 can’t. It requires Sony’s new R5 4K recorder. It was then revealed shortly after that the R5 recorder will also work with the FS700 via firmware update and hardware module. Awesome! …well until the pricing was revealed. Sony’s 4K roadmap for the FS700 looks like this:

AXS-R5 4K recorder – $6300
HXR-IFR5 adapter module – $2000
AXS-512S24 512Gb Memory Card – $2100
Firmware pricing – ???
Battery and other accessories – ???

Total – >$10,400

So 4K on the FS700 will cost more than the camera itself. Now before you get your whiskers all bent out of shape, let’s talk about what that combination will get you. According to Sony the R5 recorder will shoot 16bit RAW and the FS700 can shoot up to 60fps in 4K RAW. 16bit RAW is what REDs shoot to so now we have a camera that can shoot 4K RAW up to 60fps and HD AVCHD up to 240fps which is more than what the Scarlet can do and less than what the Epic can do. If we were to compare pricing:

RED Scarlet (ready to shoot) ~$15K
Sony FS700 (4K ready) ~$18K
RED Epic (ready to shoot) ~$30K-40K

Let’s also bring up one thing that the FS700 can do that RED can’t. What happens when you don’t need 4K RAW? With the FS700 you can just disengage the 4K recorder and be on your merry way shooting HD to the built in AVCHD codec, which has proven itself amazingly robust for most applications. With RED, you are stuck with RAW unless you want to drop $13K on a module to shoot at higher compression rates. This makes the FS700 a much better camera for documentary and web video.

Hey, what about the RED One? Well assuming you can find one, there are a few limitations you will be facing. First off, it shoots to 12bit RAW…not a big issue, but something to keep in mind. Like the other RED cameras, $4K doesn’t get you “ready to shoot” camera. The necessary accessories will cost you a few thousand dollars extra. And perhaps most importantly, the RED One has nowhere near the sensitivity of the new RED cameras or especially the Sony cameras.

One camera we haven’t mentioned yet is the Black Magic Cinema Camera. Technically since this is a post about 4K, the BMCC doesn’t qualify, but we’ll bring it up for the sake of argument. The BMCC is a solid contender with 12bit 2.5K RAW as its default recording format and the option to record to ProRes for smaller file sizes. Where it suffers is in frame rate options (maximum of 30fps), crop factor (smaller than micro four thirds), battery options and on camera controls. It is essentially the HDSLR of RAW video; not the perfect video camera, but a powerhouse in a small body. And at $3K, it really packs a lot of bang for the buck.

So what’s the most cost effective option for 4K? There is one last option that we haven’t talked about. The FS700 + Sony’s 4K option gives you 16bit 4K RAW. But remember back when we talked about the AJA Ki Pro Quad? 4K 10bit for $3995. Sony has hinted that the FS700 will support third party 4K recorders. Right now the Ki Pro Quad is one of the only 4K recorders on the market. Assuming it is supported, all you should need is the 4K firmware upgrade for your FS700 to work with the Ki Pro Quad. Since the Quad has built in debayering, it can handle the RAW signal on the C500 and FS700 and convert them to 4K 10bit 4:4:4 ProRes. Not quite Sony’s 16bit RAW option, but less than half the price. We also spoke to Atomos at NAB who has promised that they are working closely with Sony and plan to release recorders to support future generation cameras. 4K is a logical progression and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a cost friendly Atomos 4K recorder announced at NAB 2013.

So if the Ki Pro Quad is supported and the 4K firmware update for the FS700 doesn’t cost more than $1000, you could be shooting 4K 10bit 4:4:4 ProRes on the FS700 for under $13K. This puts it under the price of a Scarlet.

16bit RAW, 12bit RAW, 10bit ProRes…what flavor do you need? Do you need them at all? With camera prices dropping so rapidly, renting 4K may be easier than purchasing it. Rent a RED, buy a FS700 and rent the 4K adapter…there are so many options to choose from. The 4K update for the FS700 won’t come till Summer 2013 so if you need 4K now, RED is your main choice. But something tells me NAB 2013 is going to have even more 4K announcements than ever before.

Thanks to @noruweijin for the Tweet.

I can tell you that the FS700 is at the top of my list for “must buy”. Glad to see Sony staying competitive in a market that is anyone’s game.