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Watch A Compact Flash Going Against A XQD Card, And Getting Decimated

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One of the big things that got us wondering with the up and coming Nikon 5D was the fact that they supported XQD cards. In fact, you could choose between CF cards and XQDs.

Nikon is making a big push towards XQD and is putting significant weight behind the tech. And now Nikon is giving a push to show how much better XQD are compared to the older Compact Flashes.

In a movie released by Nikon Asia, two Nikon D4Ss are compared, one using a UDMA 7 CF card rated at 160MB/S and the the other D4S loaded with a Sony XQD card rated at 400 MB/s.

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This Chart Puts 2015 Video Cameras Head To Head

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2015 was definitely a year of video for everyone, especially with Sony and Canon releasing the A7RII and 5D SR which made (semi)pro video available at a pretty low price point (assuming you consider 3K low).

If you think that 3k is too high, here is some perspective for you. The other side of the production continuum has cameras where 2-3 thousand dollars can be their daily rent fee. Of course there is a reason for that, and those cameras provide superior image quality (usually at low light), dynamic range and bit depth, as well as other non-quality related features.

To get your GAS going cinematographers Tom Fletcher and Gary Adcock compiled a list of all available production cameras for 2015. Starting with the Alexa 65 which shot parts of The Revenant  through the Sony F65 (shot Tomorrowland) and Red Epic Dragon (The Martian) all the way to the affordable Canon C300.

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1998 Canon D2000 Goes Head-To-Head Against The 2015 Canon 5DSR

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Sometimes we complain about how our cameras function. Even if we are not doing so out loud, there is this voice in our heads that says “If only the ISO could go higher…” or “If only the card was faster…” or “If only the camera was lighter…”. And this is OK. Or course, those complaints get a different perspective once you take a look at where digital camera were only 15 years ago.

Photographer Jim Goldstein of All Things Photo did us a service. He took the 1998 Canon D2000 and put it head to head (and shot to shot) against Canon’s current lo-and-behold 2015 Canon 5DSR.

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Sony A7R II Goes head to head with The Canon 5DS R And Nikon D810

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It is never a good idea to say that the mega-pixel war is over, but it looks like we are having a rest at around 40-50 MP with most pro cameras providing enough resolution. So why would one camera is better than the other?

Actually, once we remove the ‘how does it feel for you‘ argument, I am not sure any “same-level” camera is that much better than the other. With that in mind, the team from Fstoppers took three cameras to the test: The Sony a7RII, The Canon EOS 5DS R and the Nikon D810.

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Super Battle Of The Nifty Fifties*: Canon, Sigma, Samyang, Yongnuo & Zeiss!

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So, you are out on the market for a Nifty Fifty, (or as some may still call it: a 50mm f/1.8 lens). This is not surprising. The Nifty Fifty is often the second lens anyone will buy. It is usually cheap, at 1.8 it is relatively fast, and it gives a great Bokeh (or as some may still call it, blurred background).

Here is the thing though, while you’d think this is simple, the choice you have is actually kinda big, and if you budget around $1,400 (its a round 1,000 pounds) and can go up to 1.4 it really starts to get a matter of which of the lenses will provide the most value for you, and at what price. Christopher Frost did a great comparison of 10 of these options, starting with the cheap Yongnuo 50/1.8 (at $50) all the way up to the most expensive Canon USM L 1.2 ($1400).

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GoPro 4 vs XiaoYi and AMK5000 Go Head To Head In An Extreme Durability Test

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Usually when comparing action cameras we assume they are built strong enough and compare them by footage quality, battery stamina and features.

However, what happens when you put these cameras to their durability extremes? Kai of DRTV took four cameras to the test: GoPro 4 ($500), XiaoYi ($60-$80), AMK5000 ($72-$90) and a vibratorcam (which we will ignore for the sake of this article). While each of these cameras have a slightly different set of features, this very-Kai-style test is not focused on any of them. This is a pure durability stress test:

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Comparing Sony a7s vs Canon 6d Shutter Lag for Light Painting

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Eric Paré is famous for his light painting photos (here and here), most notably his process is very accurate and almost repeatable. So when he put up a post comparing Canon’s EOS 6D and Sony ‘s a7S I thought the results were quite interesting and worth sharing.

Eric uses a process where he shoots in the dark for 1 second and ‘light paints’ during that second. This process is so fine tuned that it serves as quite a good basis for comparing the camera in a real world scenario.

Obviously both cameras produce a very good image but they are not identical and the differences are quite interesting, especially on shutter lag. I was expecting the Sony to win hands down, but the Canon took an obvious lead there.

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I switched from Canon to Nikon To Medium format to Canon Again

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I love Canon cameras, I really do and it was with great regret that I moved away from Canon last year after being an EOS system user my entire life. I started when I was 5 years old on my fathers EOS 300 film cameras and have then enjoyed every camera up to and including the 5D MK3, but there was a problem.

I’m sure it wasn’t just me, I’m sure a lot of other pros felt like Canon wasn’t listening. The fact that it felt like I had been abandoned by the system I’d bought ito throughout my career hadn’t come at a great time – I was at a crossroads in my career and wanted to make the jump into medium format, I couldn’t then still have my Canon cameras as they weren’t a viable backup with the vast difference in resolution – to me the only option looked to me to jump over to Nikon and use their D800 bodies as backups for my Mamiya Leaf & Credo system that I had bought into. I wasn’t the only people thinking about the switch, it was a conversation that was becoming more and more common when I caught up with other photographers, there seemed to be a general feeling of frustration at Canon.

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ARRI Alexa Goes Head To Head With BMPC. Winner Is Obvious, But There Is Still A Valuable Lesson

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How you would you rate a shoot-off between a  £3,000 Black Magic Cinema Camera and a  £150,000 ARRI Alexa? Actually, to make this a better budget vs. high end Cinematographer Olan Collardy included matching lenses in the price: A Samyang 50mm T1.5 for the BMPC and an Angenieux 24-290mm Optimo T2.8 Cine lens for the Alexa.

Fair play, right? £150,000 camera/lens combo vs. £3,000 lens combo. While results may not surprise you, Olan has a lesson he wants to share.

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Olympus E-M5mkII Vs Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH4 Image Stabilization Test

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So, with HDSLRs becoming so affordable, some interesting options come up, like sub $2K rig that can really shoot decent video. Two very popular options are the GH4 from Panasonic and the OM-D E-M5II from Olympus, each with its their pros and cons. One notable feature of the E-M5mkII is its 5 Axis stabilization. And if you are shooting lots of hand held-on the move footage, this may be a deciding factor for you. The team at panophoto put the two cameras on a place and gave them a run.

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