Firmware 3.02

[Scott Berrington]

It's here!

JVC GY-LS300 Firmware v3.02

[Duncan Craig]

JVC Video Cloud sounds interesting. I've signed up to see what it can do...

[B.J. Adams]

It's great to see JVC still adding features. Whilst most of them are directed towards livestreaming, it's still a good thing.

BTW, when was the LS300 officially released?

[Duncan Craig]

I believe it was first seen at IBC 2014, and released early 2015.

I bought mine in August that year after holding out for a while. I watched the Heist promo video and thought it looked completely crap, especially considering that it was shot in a controlled environment. Once some better examples surfaced it appeared to make sense for me to buy it.

[B.J. Adams]

Thanks Duncan. and I agree with you, Heist 1 & 2 are a joke!

[Marcello Mazzilli]

Ehy are they a joke. i thought it was good photography?

By the way. Has anybody tries the fw?

[Duncan Craig]

I have the firmware installed.
Not much to report, I did a test YouTube Live stream and it works OK.

Regarding Heist, it looked really cheesy, over lit and poorly acted. It could have been shot on any camera and did nothing to promote the LS300 at all.

What JVC really needed was a proper promotion that really explained why this camera was so good 2 years ago when it was announced! It already had 95% of what is has now.

My recent factory shoot has just been uploaded in 1080 and it's looks OK, even though YouTube has mashed it up a bit:

YouTube (Short URL)

[Marcello Mazzilli]

I was hoping to find EXTERNAL 4k 60p as I heard in a german video from Japan last week.
Notjing like that here

[Duncan Craig]

No 4K60p yet no.

Marcello, have you bought the camera yet?

I'm not working in 4K much myself, except for my timelapse DSLR cameras. In case you didn't know, when using the LS300 in 4k/UHD you have very little VSM zoom capability. If you have control over a shoot and can spent time moving the camera around then VSM isn't much help, but for a lot of what I do, being able to zoom in digitally while maintaining the picture quality is fantastic.

[Marcello Mazzilli]

No .. not yet... selling some gear to get cash.. don't want to end up as
a camera collector.

You heard too about extarnal 4k 60p yes? I am not crazy no?

I went to see and do some quick testa on the camera at the shop yesterday.
Everything as I expected alltjough I couldn't do intensive picture tests

I understand about the electronic zoom but I eipl be using that only in run n shoot mode, eng, interviews to be shot in hd
i need 4 k for corporate jobs.

i am buyingbthis camera to have ONE object to do two worlda... hope I am right

[Noa Put]

I recall that I saw a German reporter talk about the JVC but he didn't mention anything about 4K60p, you probably misunderstood?

[Duncan Craig]

We had this discussion already:

YouTube (Short URL)

JVC GY-LS300CH 4K60p Support - Report von der InterBEE 2016

A paid firmware upgrade IIRC? Edit: Google Translate suggests it's free. Who knows:

From the YouTube description... 'Michael Lehmann-Horn has discovered a GY-LS300CH at the InterBE 2016 in Tokyo at the JVC booth, which can also process 4k60p. Although it can not record the signal itself, but with an external recorder such as the Shogun Inferno the 4k50p or 4k60p recording thanks to a new firmware is possible in the future. The Firmwareupdate 2017 will appear free of charge.'

[Noa Put]

It appears I recalled wrong, in this video he clearly says 4K50p is possible.

[Marcello Mazzilli]

Great! So I was right.

My main concern now is only ONE.... What is the OUTPUT (HDMI) quality lie. I have found no tests.

This is the road that brought me to think of buying the LS300....

I own a Blackmagic BMPC 4K that I almost never use in RAW. I use in ProRes422 HQ at 400 ISO and I am supposed to have 12 stops of dynamic range. I like the ProRes file and find I can do many things with it in post and I find myself almost never doing WB anymore.
The downpart is that the camera is very dark (can't push it to 800 ISO without noise) and has no in-camera audio. When I have run'n'gun situations this camera is not ideal

What I thought is this...

Hey! The LS300 sensor is Super 35 like the BMPC and it's 4,6K and everybody says it's a good sensor and very sharp! At 400 ISO JVC claims 12 stop of dynamic range (like mine!) but can go up to 1600 with almost no noise artifacts! And there is in-camera audio, ENG ergonomics (almost), etc etc...

So.. <b>if I buy an atomos/blackmagic external 4K recorder I can record the HDMI output at 422 Prores and get EXACTLY what I am getting with my BMPC, maybe even better! </b>And I'll get tons of new features like wifi, variable zoom, MFT mount, variable cropping, etc...

The problem is that <b> I don't find any info on the HDMI OUTPUT SIGNAL.</b>
Is it 422? Or maybe even 444? (420 is NOT HDMI compliant)
Let's say it is 422 (probable).. <b>is it coming DIRECTLY FROM THE SENSOR or is it an UP-SAMPLED VERSION of the 420 signal that is being recorded?</b>

If it's coming directly from the sensor... BINGO... clean HDMI 422 signal identical to the BMPC one but from a bigger sensor, audio in camera, etc...Maybe (2017 firmware) one day I'll even get 4k 50/60p !!!

But if t's just an upscaled version of the 420 recorded in camera then BOOOOO...! Don't need that!

You see my point here?
And nowhere I can find these infos...

:(

[Duncan Craig]

I doubt that you will see much difference between internal and external recordings. Unless you have loads of fine moving detail or you are doing heavy corrections in 4K where the internal recording is 420 and might not be enough colour detail.

But I think that the noise in the recordings should be of more concern to you than the bit/sampling rates.
It's not a great lowlight camera.

The LS300 is (probably) 8bit 422 via HDMI and SDI.
SDI is 10 bit, but 2 bits are unused.

Once this 4k60 update comes along perhaps we'll know more about what the sensor and internal processing is capable of. It would be great if Wayne from JVC would chime in as the LS300 has been getting a lot more interest lately, but JVC are a bit... Dunno... Quirky?

If your clients insist on 444 then you will also need 10bit or possibly 12. But I'll speculate that like the majority of us your clients have no interest in what camera you use. So it's down to you to decide if you can live with the potential shortcomings. Specs won't tell the whole story.

In theory a BM camera with RAW and ProRes, a fancy sensor and a clever eyepiece should be perfect for everyone, but I wouldn't buy any camera currently made by BM. I've used their stuff - yuk.

The LS300 has very similar formats to the FS5 (actually a little better) but I doubt it can compete in low light. Of course an a6500 seems to beat an FS5 hands down in terms of image quality but that's another story.

It'd be great if JVC could include internal 100Mbps, maybe 150Mbps HD 422 but 50Mbps is still decent quality.