Trying to discover Kinefinity

PaulWalker

Hi All. My first post here and I have no idea what I’m doing when it comes to Kinefinity. Never even seen one but stumbled across some YT posts where the camera looks good.

I’m considering buying a Kinefinity. I like the 8k but where I’m probably going to start is to test the system by getting some kind of used 6k and then trading up if I like it. My other cameras are all Canons, my team and I do primarily corporate & commercial so I need to test this to see if I can make the jump.

As a note, my Canons are 4k so 6k, 12 bit is the draw.

Where I’m struggling is in a couple of places. Firstly, media. I’ve seen Kinefinity has its own mags but I’m thinking about price, especially if I want to try a used one. So what do I have to do to get an image out onto the ubiquitous Samsung SSDs? I have a couple of Tb of these so I don’t want to buy expensive mags if I decide I want to go back to Canon.

Also, do these typically have XLRs in? If they do, that’s great and have a phenomenal sound system to bring sound into a camera.

Finally, what’s a cheap monitor I could buy? Again, this is an experiment where I want to shoot a short film and then do a load of other tests over the course of a few weeks. Really get to know a system before I think about moving away from Canon. And strangely, it’s costs way less to buy a system (and resell it if I don’t want it) than rent it!

Also, is there anything else I should be thinking about?

Jerome

PaulWalker hey thank you for the questions. All new kinefinity cameras like edge or mk2 use kinemag nano, which is an media enclosure that serves as a card reader as well. You can buy the empty enclosures for 200 each and install name media making it blazing fast and affordable media. The older cameras like the mavo lf mk1 can use ssd 2.5 which can be find cheap anywhere on the web. Read all about the kinemag nano mags in the article below.
https://gafpagear.com/kinefinity-kinemag-nano-the-revolution/

VishadDewan

You and I are in the same boat. I just purchased my very first Kinefinity after years of gawking at them. Got an Edge 8K, which turned out to be manufactured in 2021 after I got it. I don’t know if I would have been so excited if I had known the build date…but I did get the entire Pro Pack with the Edge 8K, including the original 5″ non-touch monitor, the EVF, all batteries, the battery base plate, handle, all cables, 2 kinemags, etc. So…I figure I got a pretty great deal all things considered.

I’ve used and currently own the Pocket 6k Pro, C100 M2, C200, R5C, Komodo X, Z8, A7S3, Zcam E2F6, and GH6. I’ve only had a few days with the Edge, but I’m beginning to form an opinion.

On the one hand, the Edge firmware is still really annoying. Even with the latest OS8 update, the camera’s menus are mostly unintuitive, but I must admit far, far simpler than anything Sony and Nikon have produced. I don’t hate Canon’s cine menus but they are quite robust, which can take longer to navigate than on the Edge. Nevertheless, the slowness of the menu system on the Edge is a bit frustrating at times.

You asked about a cheap monitor. There are several affordable SDI monitors on the market; Viltrox makes one with high brightness for around $300 USD, and it is quite good. You’ll get all of the necessary features, including focus peaking and anamorphic support. However, navigating menus on a third party monitor will be utter hell. You will be forced to use the side buttons on the camera body to navigate, and that is a huge slog. You can find a used older 5″ or 7″ Kine monitor without touch control, but at least you’ll have menu buttons on those older monitors. If you can, spring for the newer Kine touch monitors since that will be a lot easier overall. Bottom line, if you opt for a third party monitor you’ll end up spending a ton of time navigating menus.

The overall image quality so far seems rather good. I haven’t had much time and have only been testing the various modes for a few days, but out of the camera image is excellent. I haven’t even modified the highlight recovery options yet, and with proper exposure I’m able to get really pleasing images. It reminds me of my Komodo image, but slightly different.

There’s a ton to these Kinefinity cameras. I’m amazed at how much they pack into their cameras, plus the ecosystem they’ve created. Zcam kind of comes close to what Kinefinity has developed.