While planning a trip to the Indian jungle to film a short documentary about Pench National Park, my colleagues at cinema5d challenged me to leave my standard gear at home and take the new cinema camera Z CAM E2 instead – would it be up to the task? Edit: just after completing this review, Z CAM introduced a new firmware update (V 0.88) featuring ZRAW (internal RAW capture, partial debayer, supports up to 4096×2160@30fps initially). We might take a closer look at this ZRAW firmware in the near future. Z CAM E2 camera For a while now I have been following the development of micro four thirds cameras. To be specific, I bought my first one exactly 10 years ago, the Panasonic LUMIX GH1. Back then it was hampered by a weak codec (Full HD, AVCHD in 17Mbps) and the max. usable ISO value was 400, but the Voigtlaender lenses gave it the full frame look (e.g. the 25mm f0.95), and the hack of V. Kiselev at a later stage improved the bitrate to a stable 25Mbps. All in all, I loved the images – so much that I never sold it… Fast forward 10 years and I have the new cinema camera Z CAM E2 from the Chinese manufacturer Z CAM in my hands. A micro four thirds camera capable of shooting 4k DCI using a LOG profile (Z-LOG2) recording ProRes HQ 10bit 4:2:2 internally up to 60fps (4k H265 up to 120fps, 160fps in 1:2.4 mode). Wow! Z CAM E2 – Minimum...
Published By: CineD - Monday, 19 August, 2019