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I have a new setup and pipeline and I'm really happy with it. GH7 shooting V-Log in C4K Prores 422 internally, at around 500Mbps 14-140mm F3.5-5.6 lens for daytime, 12-35mm F2.8 for night-time K&F True Colour 1-5 stop vND Pipeline in Resolve: CST to DWG as working colour space Plugin for basic shot adjustments Film Look Creator for overall look (and for taking the digititis out of the image) ARRI709 LUT to get to 709 output I went on a walk on Monday to test the full setup, and it was a crazy hot day (37C/99F) and direct midday sun, so seriously challenging conditions. Here are a few grabs (be sure to click-through rather than viewing the preview files embedded in the post). My notes and impressions - while shooting: Setup was GH7, 14-140mm lens, vND, and a wrist-strap and that's it I used the integrated screen, showing histogram, zebras, and focus-peaking to monitor I used back-button focus to AF before hitting record, so no AF-C going on while shooting (and randomly changing its mind about what to focus on) All shots were 14-140mm at F5.6 for constant exposure The K&F 1-5 stop vND had enough range, when combined with the DR of the GH7, so I never needed to change settings, despite going in and out of shadow (and even inside, which isn't included in the above images) The vND had a much more consistent sky and colour render than my old (crappy) vND, so I'm really happy with it I did ETTR and bring images down in post, but my tests indicated that V-LOG is very linear so there are a good few stops of latitude there The "tripod mode" of IBIS, which locks the frame completely, was very effective (despite me being hot and not having eaten for hours) and I could hand-hold past 70mm without it needing to drift, and even at 140mm (280mm FF equivalent) the shots will be fine with a bit of stabilisation in post (C4K on 1080p timeline) I shot about 18mins of footage in about 1.5 hours, camera was on most of the time with screen at full brightness, and didn't get any notifications about the battery, and didn't look to see how much was left since I have a spare My notes and impressions - in post: I chose a Film Look Creator preset and then just messed with it for maybe 10 mins, while scrolling back and forth through the footage, and I deliberately pushed the contrast to create a really strong sense of the contrast between the beating sun and the deep shadows Shots had exposure adjusted (obviously, due to ETTR) and some had contrast lowered and a few had slight WB tweaks, but that's it I never felt like I was fighting with the footage, and it didn't feel like work when creating the look.. I've shot with a lot of cheap cameras with tiny sensors and you always feel like you're trying to make gold out of lead, but playing in the FLC was more like choosing between a large range of high-quality options I used another copy of the FLC to adjust exposure etc per shot, with it set to not impart and 'look'. The advantage of that is that in Resolve there is a mode (Shift-F) that maximises the preview image and gets rid of the GUI except for the vertical toolbar on the right-hand-side where the DCTL and OFX plugins are, so it's a way of getting almost a full-screen view but keeping the controls visible.. very useful if you don't have a control surface or a second monitor handy. I'll talk more about my thought process and how I got to this setup in a later post, and also go into some of the technical stuff (DR, high-ISO, etc) but more importantly than that, I finally feel like the tech has come of age. What I mean by that is that I now have a setup where: I can shoot with a conveniently sized setup that doesn't need a rig and is ergonomic to use It has the right usability features, such as histograms, zebras, focus-peaking etc internally The monitor is bright enough The GH7 plus lenses (14-140mm F3.5-5.6 and 12-35mm F2.8) are long enough and fast enough to shoot what I see, without being too large, heavy, or prohibitively expensive It has enough spec that it can deal with almost all the situations that I actually shoot in, with enough DR for the sun, enough ISO for night-time, and fans so it doesn't overheat before I do, etc It shoots internally using a colour space and codec that don't look cheap/amateurish and make me think about upgrading It doesn't fight with me in the colour grade Resolve and the Film Look Creator are able to easily give me the flexibility in post to match images and correct any weaknesses from shooting (e.g. if there's a bit of movement when shooting hand-held at 140mm) Resolve and the Film Look Creator are able to remove the 'digital/video' look and instead give me a range of options that don't look artificial and most importantly, contribute a feeling to the footage without distracting from the content of the images (this is, after all, the entire purpose of what we're doing here.....) For the first time it feels like I'm getting the results I want because of the equipment I have, rather than in spite of it.

I very much prefer the image of the OG S5 over the S5II X, but people really make a mountain out of a molehill when it comes to the "worse" image. It's really not that bad. In the year I've had it not one client or viewer has complained about the image; in fact it has been the exact opposite! I feel like cameras have plateaued so now people over analyze and overstate every little thing. But virtually all of this stuff doesn't matter to the audience that we are creating these images for. Anyone with any discernible talent will be able to take the S1RII and create compelling images with it. That bride is going to love the pictures you take, the corporate client is going to be ecstatic with the talking head interviews you shoot, the MMA school is going to be psyched with the promotional video you film, etc. As long as it's in focus, the colors are okay, and it's framed well, these folks aren't going to really care if it's a little noisier than the R5II or if the rolling shutter is slightly worse than the A7RV. I don't know how it is where you all live, but there are literally people making money using cheap Canon Rebel DSLRs and kit lenses in my area. I see friends post their wedding pictures, their kid's senior portraits, baby pictures, and all of that stuff on Facebook all of the time. Most of the time these photographers aren't even good at what they do, put people I know still go crazy over them and post these photos they paid for proudly on social media! These photographers still get paid work, not just because they are cheap (that certainly helps!) but because the average person's standards aren't all that high. That's not to say that we should lower our standards, just that we should remember the big picture (no pun intended) and stop worrying about the small things that aren't going to matter to 99.9% of our clients/audience.

Maybe they meant their OWN FX3 rather than Sony’s.

To save you bothering to watch that video (as pretty as the visuals are) here is what it ended up being about.

After being in a pretty heavy accident on Saturday that has written my car off, my new favourite art camera is the Ring Doorbell camera. My car was hit at a 90 degree angle from the side by some clown who sped out of their driveway and across an empty bus lane flipping my car round and causing the rear tyre to blow. The art that the Ring Doorbell camera produced was in two parts. The first being a beautiful record of my hitherto unknown stunt car driving prowess to correct the induced swerving to avoid the trees on the pavement side and then the oncoming traffic in the other lane and bring the wreck to a controlled stop. The second and best bit was when the homeowner of the Ring Doorbell came outside and showed the footage to myself and the other driver who had thus far ludicrously been somehow claiming it was my fault. Upon which the other driver, faced with the reality did their own rendition of the Larry David fake fainting. As the Ring Doorbell was still active, it caught that too 🙂

So the forum is pretty good at the moment thanks to some spicy discussions, it would be boring if we all agreed all the time, but I also think we should encourage people to come back - big names from before like Mattias Burling , Dave Maze, they are missed. Maybe we could occasionally drop them a note to say so. I can't promote the forum myself, it just looks like I am spamming people with my blog. Maybe that's where you all come in 🙂 Would some of you be willing to post a few links here and there in popular Reddit groups, on DPReview and on social media groups? It would supercharge the place and get us noticed more... Then we'd have some great discussions with new people, and regain some control over the camera community in an independent way, rather than everything being hoovered up by the big US social media giants who are opening supporting a fascist regime at the moment. Never been a better moment to get our independence back from social media. Mark Zuckenberg and those like him are pure evil. The forum way is a better way. It offers everyone here a higher profile and higher involvement. The better our content, the better the discussions, the more people will come... I know a lot of forum posts have to reference other people's talking point or content, so a topic can devolve into lots and lots of URLs to social media, or YouTube video embeds. But rather than have rules around this, which I don't want to do, it would be great if we could encourage people to join who will use the forum a bit like having their own blog - Posting original hands-on opinions and content about cameras and shooting... Our own insight is better than constantly referring to that of others - It would be good for the community. Just some thoughts and open to more ideas too about how to grow this rather nice place that we've got.

I've lurked here for years but this S1RII stuff has gotten real silly. It's like there's resentment it's not an S1HII even though we all know it's the R series. And the criticisms of the S1RII are especially strange considering the Z8 (which I've owned) was subject to criticism when released (overheating, dynamic range, AF = nice try, but no Sony/Canon, no Bird Detect, not 1 but 2 recalls, did I mention overheating?). Now the Z8 is the model camera the S1RII just can't match. Almost as if firmware updates make a difference. Is Panasonic good at firmware updates? Gee, I dunno. The new Slashcam review certainly seems bullish on the S1RII.

I'm honestly a little shocked at the reception to the camera on some forums. It provides a fair bit of upgrades to both the S5ii and the S1R while still staying at a lower price point than the competition, and even it's own predecessor. It seems to me that every brand's offerings are more or less the same with little differences here and there while also offering their own distinct competitive advantages. I can't help but notice that many folks want Panasonic to do everything Sony or Canon does, PLUS their own thing. Or that these manufacturers have running checklists that they compare and contrast to each other line by line when developing a camera versus largely doing their own thing. I preordered the S1Rii so my bias is clear, but as someone heavily invested into the Lumix S system I can't see this as anything but a solid camera for their lineup.

https://www.l-rumors.com/hot-panasonic-will-announce-a-new-lumix-l-mount-cine-compact-camera-in-april/ Maybe now everyone will leave the poor S1Rii alone…

Am sure this is the first and last time I'll ever see rifles being used to construct a diff frame! As on the weekend I was working on a friend's little short film, he was the Director / DoP / Writer / Editor / Gaffer / DIT / 1st AC / "Everything" (even acting in some of it!), except for Sound (which I of course did. Although I helped out a little teeny bit sometimes in other areas too, such as lighting). Due to the nature of the shoot (almost no crew, basically no budget, and out in the middle of nowhere) we had very limited amounts of gear at our disposal. So while a couple of combo stands with a proper diff frame was constructed for the first scenes of this film we shot down at the beach (which even that took a fair bit of hiking through the bush to get to), later on when we went further up the hill/cliff, then the heavier stuff was ditched. As wasn't viable to keep on carrying everything with us (and even a little dangerous? A little further on up from here is where one of our actors ragdolled their way down when they slipped and fell. Luckily they're still ok! Pity that moment wasn't caught on camera). Thus you see the improvised situation here! Making the best out of what we had at hand in the moment.

For me it's the original Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera. That camera, and all the wacky c-mount lenses I used with it, was just so much fun to use and everything I got out of it looked so much better than it should have, at least to my eyes. I FELT like an artist using it, as opposed to a videographer. That was such a special sensor, and to this day I still don't understand why every camera manufacturer hasn't switched to a menu system like it (and the other BMD cameras.)

Every time I think I may be done with the Sigma FP, and think I need AF and IBIS, I mess around with some old footage... Shot with the 50mm f/1.4 Super-Multi-Coated Takumar

Manny just released a video saying that he made a mistake about the noise is stiils. According to him, he made the comparison opening all the files in Lightroom - he found surprising that Adobe have compatibility on day one with the new camera. But Panasonic told them after that Adobe jumped the gun and the drivers were not optimized yet - and that he should compare in Capture One, because in C1 they worked together and the drivers were right. After he opened the files from Panasonic in C1, the noise problem was gone, and the files from the three cameras, bar from color differences, were "indistinguishable". In fact, what cought his attention is that the files from all the cameras were much better (color, details, rendering) in C1 than in Lightroom...

I get that people love to dissect every little thing, but as someone working with some of the biggest media companies, I can tell you that a lot of these so called issues don’t even come up in real world professional work. The S1R II delivers solid image quality, stabilization, and dynamic range. More than enough to create high level content. I’m not saying don’t analyze your tools, but at some point, you have to ask, is this actually making you a better filmmaker, or just keeping you stuck in analysis paralysis? If your priority is making great content, you’ll be just fine.

I kind of agree, but 2 things initially spring to mind. Thing A, a roll of film would need to revert back to costing 5 dollars instead of whatever it costs to buy & develop these days. Thing B, good luck trying to get this implemented. I feel the same about the other side of my own work, ie, in photography. I would LOVE to go back to being a pure film photographer but the single reason why I do not is a simple one and that is financially it would not fly today. Why, because around 75% of my turnover per job would go straight back out of the door and have to go on buying & processing film and at today's rates. I'd be out of business. Or double my rates and also go out of business because no one booked me. And then 2 other things. Thing C = not all older movies look great. Some...a lot even, look shit to my eyes. Thing D = not all modern movies look shit. Some...a lot even, look superb to my eyes. Summary, I think there is too much rose tinted spectacle nostalgia about 'The Good Old Days' and that everything today is trash. Everything today is not trash, - it's just different times. I am currently re-watching Ripley on Netflix. To my eyes, it is one of the most superb and cinematic creations ever made. Arguably it is not a movie per se, but a series, but actually it's a 6 hour movie in 8 parts. Almost every single frame looks superb. It's a modern day film noir that makes most older film noir look incredibly dated. OK, some of it is actually CGI. The boat scenes with (no spoilers), Tom & Dickie has a huge amount, but that's just a tool available to the modern filmmaker. Anyway, just my opinion. They also make a lot of shit today. Probably 19+ out of every 20 movies released today I would not wish to see, but they do still make some gems when the right people are involved.

You can film 4K on cheap v30 cards. You can get a 256gb SD card for under $40 and a 512gb SD card for under $60. I use them on my S5 and S5II X.

Exactly. He has almost 500K followers, he is part of the problem, he helped create it and now he is playing the virgin. It sounds to me like a butcher lecturing on veganism. This is the second whining he has done in a few months and both times it was because of a Lumix review. At this point I don't think it's a casual thing. Yet if you read the comments to his whining, everyone agrees with him. Maybe all the loser haters are here.

I think certainly for stills, at least at ‘ordinary’ viewing levels which for 99.9999999999999% of all viewing these days is on a device and mainly a phone…and with compressed images at that! The artist/craftsman in me still and always will fight back against that even if I am the only one that sees or even knows about it. It’s one of the reasons I am chasing more megapixels. It’s not because I think it improves the image in any way as such, but because I can crop ever harder with a lower loss of quality which means I can use smaller and lighter kit which has so many benefits including enjoyment. Tech for tech sake no. If it’s just data on a spreadsheet, who gives a shit, but when that tech relates to real world quality of life…

Forgive me because I've been terribly sick and am just waking up, but the rolling shutter only seemed really noticeable when dynamic range was on. For everything else it looked fine.

Deep Joy

There are some significant negatives on the Z8 versus the S1rii: No Open Gate No IN-CAMERA Live View Composite No IN-CAMERA Pixel Shift No Waveforms No False Color No IN-CAMERA 32-bit audio possibilities No anamorphic modes No anamorphic-specific IBIS Not great IBIS at wide angles No breathing compensation for Z-mount lenses The Z8 is about 100g heavier Maybe, they'll add some of these in a firmware update, but then again I'm rather certain Panasonic will also add stuff. These negatives were just off the top of my head, but I imagine there are more. The crazy thing is that the specs today are so good that it doesn't really matter all that much. All of the cameras will do; some just have a few more features than others. What sucks about reviews in general is that you watch them and you cannot help thinking that they are significantly impacted by how the company treated them in the past or present. Apparently, retribution is a real thing in the camera review business.

Even MFT lenses can find a home on the Z mount. Yes it will only be for manual but that encompasses a lot of very fine and affordable lenses (particularly cine) that can be used and the vast majority of those will cover APS-C. https://pixco.com.cn/products/micro-4-3-nikon-z-adapter

Agreed. For a new camera you can't beat the value. It's not really fair to hold used prices against it, either. Is Lumix supposed to price it to match the R5 or Z8's used prices? I don't fault anyone that decides to buy those instead, but Lumix can't control that.

Anyone here specialize or enjoy documentaries? My wife and I made a doc for our small community and were wondering if it had any viability beyond in-town screenings at the local film fest. https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/gorqbss1yxq6lufl81x44/HAWK_WATCH_SCREEN_DRAFT.mp4?rlkey=x5d8vcd4igr3bix0cdsgajq0b&st=mt1xzunz&dl=0 The 1st draft here is still loosey-goosey, but if you're so inclined, take a look and see if the story intrigues you enough to say, "Yeah, you might be able to get this out there other places." We feel it's such niche topic that distribution isn't much of a reality, but maybe being niche is a positive in a certain way --and with a significant cut down it could have opportunities? Not sure. As one work on these things one gets rather myopic. As you might imagine, feedback from folks in our local community is too biased. They're just happy to see themselves, colleagues, and friends in a film. Any advice is welcome if you have time to watch.

Agree with what everyone has said regarding there being many poor looking film movies that we forgot about, many great looking digital movies, and everything in between. I believe a better thesis would be, "movies looked better before smartphones were invented" A big reason that mainstream movies look bland is because they are no longer designed for a giant screen in a dark theater, nor even on a big flatscreen in your living room. They are increasingly consumed on 6" screens in broad daylight (as well as theaters and living rooms). Now to go on a sight tangent, the same can be said of writing. Often when I talk to friends, they'll say, "oh yeah, I saw that movie. It was on netflix in the background while I cleaned my house" To some degree, it's not that writers are worse, it's that modern writing is designed to be consumed at 50% attention with chunks missing. The percent of audience that watches every second at full attention is simply getting smaller. I don't believe that shift has anything to do with filmmaking technology.

S5ii had improvements over orig S5, but lower level of details with oversharpening was annoying, even with 6k VLog and also with a LUT burnt in. It was especially noticeable on extracted stills when viewed from a big screen. If you check Connor McCaskill’s latest S1Rii Youtube clip, he has a download link to his footage. Had a play on resolve, and damn, S1Rii IQ looks definitely better and different than what came from S5ii sensor. Grades pretty effortlessly too. The only downside with Z6iii NRaw along the big file sizes is the NR. Don’t know if the full M4 Max chip is enough to play the timeline in real time with NR, and it is expensive. Have a PC with 5800x CPU and RTX 3080 GPU too and editing is more stuttery with it than with M3 Pro Macbook. The latest Nvidia 5xxx GPUs have 4:2:2 support now, but they are not cheap either, and I prefer the ease of using macOS. A new camera usually means you need to get a new computer for editing too, but with S1Rii that does not seem to be the case. Even M1 Pro would be fine

Might be a bit of survivor bias here. The older movies that were shot on film might seem to be of a nicer IQ standard, but those are the ones that are still acknowledged. As an dude that went to the local 1$ 'grindhouse' theater rather regularly as a kid, I assure you that the quality of the image for the forgettable films were often nothing remarkable. However, I will say that the darker, deeper, contrasty look that was in fashion among better cinematographers back then is something I miss. Less is more. Too much detail in a scene can be a detriment at times. All that dynamic range often is not needed. Spielberg's West Side Story looked remarkable and like shit simultaneously, imo.

Watching that last video I came to the opposite conclusion - maybe because I watched most of it with the sound off so I didn't have to hear Gerald's commentary. My observations were: 1. The base rolling shutter is fine and the criticisms amount to hysteria. The 15ms shots looked better, sure, but only because you're comparing back to back. No viewer in the real world would care. 2. *Panasonic has provided multiple modes that allow you to mitigate RS*. Amazing that isn't the the takeaway. You can get decent read speed in a pinch, you just have to make some (minor) compromises. 3. Don't do panning shots with telephoto lenses. If Robert Altman super-zoom pans are your jam, then the S1RII sucks. I like how the first thing the camera guy Gerald wrangled along said was 'I mainly do dolly shots so rolling shutter doesn't matter to me' and then had to come up with some debilitating circumstance for bad RS. If you listen to Gerald's commentary then you get a negative take-away. If you just use your eyes you see a really capable and flexible camera.

I recently switched to an FX3 (from shooting redcode on a RED Komodo) and found the workflow for ProRes RAW to be horrendous. I've helped build an Adobe Premiere plugin which is an entire RAW processing pipeline with proper RAW controls. OCTOPUS RAW Studio You can finally set white balance and ISO and a lot more! It also supports CinemaDNG.

Instead of spending $7-10K per talking head to get twenty or thirty of the bros to Osaka to film each other eating ramen and doing running to camera AF tests, it would be much better to use that money to fund ten people to make actual small films with their new camera. They’d end up with a far more inspiring showcase of the camera and I don’t doubt the ethical aspect would make them feel better about themselves as well.

As it’s the current obsession in camera world, I’m trying to work out what would happen if you used a camera with terrible rolling shutter when filming pottery throwing when it starts to go awry on the wheel and gets the wobbles. Will it make it look like a lava lamp or will it go the other way and cross the streams in the Steven Wright “I put instant coffee in a microwave and almost went back in time” way ?

None of the ^above^ just no harm/enjoyment in considering alternative options. Same as if I owned a Porsche, - wouldn't stop me looking at the latest Aston on-line, at a car show or simply parked up in the street and then wishing I had a bigger garage. And bank balance. I sometimes look at multi-million currency yachts and houses I will never own, plus more affordable ones I could if I wished. Call it an 'enthusiasm for the industry as a whole'.

More Nikon fuel to the fire. In case you are interested how S5ii, GH6, GH7 and Z6iii look on one timeline, here’s a video from footage we shot last year. About first 2/3rd of the video is shot with S5ii and GH6, and the rest with Z6iii and GH7. Edited and color corrected in Resolve UHD 2020 ST.2084 (PQ) 1,000 nit timeline on a M3 Macbook Pro with P3 ST 2084 display preset. Exported to H.265 80Mbps with HDR10+ metadata embedded. Resolve color space transform: GH6, GH7, S5ii: input color space Panasonic Vlog or with Lumasweet LUTs Z6iii: Color space transform from Rec2020 NLog to Rec2020 ST.2084 Camera codecs and resolutions: GH6 and GH7: 5.8k25p open gate, 5.7k50p and 4k100p S5ii: 6k25p open gate, also with Sirui Saturn 1.6x in 2.40:1 AR, 4k50p Z6iii: 6k50p and 4k100p NRaw, 5.4k50p and 4k100p H.265 NLog Lenses: GH6: Olympus 75mm F1.8, 25mm F1.8, 20mm F2 GH7: same than GH6 and Nocticron 42.5mm F1.2 S5ii: S Pro 50mm F1.4, 100mm F2.8, Sigma 35mm F2, Sirui Saturn 1.6x 75mm T2.9 Z6iii: S 50mm F1.2, 85mm F1.8, 40mm F2 The video is shot in various lighting conditions on different locations through the 4 seasons, while S5ii IBIS, AF and Estabilization firmware updates were also tested when they were released. AF was used on some of the clips with S5ii and GH7 and almost on all clips with Z6iii. And last, it’s mainly a bouldering video. In bouldering you try to climb up a specific spot of rock. The more difficult the boulder is for you the more you have to try and fail, until you may succeed. As a bonus you get to enjoy nature, what views and joys it has to offer, and capture those memories too.

I want them to make a FX3 killer with low noise 5k sensor, 120fps, active cooling, and RED codec/log. But they won't. They're much smaller a company than Sony, and have to spend the limited R&D budget on upgrading the current line up. And they have to ramp up their glass business too; they have much work to do: filling the gaps in still lenses, and develop cine lenses (they got curiosity from cinema community, now they need their attention).

Sure, @ landcapturer on IG you can see my photography. If you like landscapes you will be served. Travel videos like the Cuba one, I do not do them so much anymore. I love to film, so I filmed a full video in Japan, in New Zealand, In Taiwan and other places. I have hundreds of hours of footage but it's all unedited. The truth is I enjoy the video shooting but not so much the video editing. So the only thing I edit is paid work, but that is not my main job, so rare thing once a year. For overheating, they fixed most of the overheating issue but even before that it was never a big deal for me. I shoot clips that are 20 seconds, not 20 minutes. I have never done an interview or something like that so it never bother me especially after the update. Where do you live? The mini, as I mentioned does it, but quality lacks. The Air 3S does not shoot vertical. Good to hear that! And yeah lot of $$ for sure gotta pay to play lol, but also everybody and their grandma have 8K with AI autofocus on a gimbal so there is nothing special now it's all the same cameras, all the same videos. Everybody and their grandma is also a YouTuber, influencer, etc. I did not follow the IG trend of posting reels all the time, I went from 15K followers to 10K in no time with 0 engagements because people don't care about photography anymore, they want to see viral garbage all they long and so that's what instagram feeds them. Fucking disaster, I am so glad I have a job because there is no way I was going to fit in this trendy pile of crappy content just for the sake of making views and get my paycheck. I feel sorry for the influencers that have to keep up with 2 reels a day to make a living, following what the algorithm wants instead of following their creative path. But don't start me on the fucking disaster of a world we live in guys. That's why you see my on my IG camping in remote locations in the middle of the desert or mountains. Far from all that shit! 🙂

I don't hate Gerald or think he's a bad person, I'm just bummed at what he has become. He genuinely seems pretty miserable doing this stuff, and the more he shares about himself (the comments about why he doesn't create anything were really illuminating) the more I wonder why he is even into cameras to begin with. If you aren't inspired to actually use these things to create art or entertainment, then what are you even doing? Those comments in particular brought me back to a comment he made in his previous video last year, where he bragged about being brought on these press trips to exotic places and filming nothing. Say what you want about those trips and whether they are ethical or not, how are you not inspired to photograph or film the sights and sounds of these exotic locations and the elaborate sets these marketing folks have created for you if you're even remotely into cameras? Surely your interest in cameras has to go beyond what you film in your basement and the tests you run on them... right?

Indeed this is where the real-world perspective helps. If a camera isn't designed to run in the highest quality mode for hours of continuous monologue, don't use it for that. Show us instead what it can do and what it's suited to. Unless there's a serious issue like with the EOS R5 at release where 30 or so photos in live-view locks you out of shooting 30 seconds of 8K for half an hour at a time!!! I don't use my Sigma Fp-L in Cinema DNG as a Twitch streaming cam! What next? GFX 100 for OnlyFans? It's the imaginary user he has in his head that's the problem isn't it? He doesn't quite have the average filmmaker in mind. Indeed and this is what fucking pisses me off about it. The Sigma Fp for example is an cine-art tool, it isn't a webcam. And he gave it a shit review because for his use-case of pointing it at himself doing selfies with autofocus on a tripod it wasn't optimal. Had he gone outside with it and shot a mood piece of nature and beauty in Cinema DNG, with a great sound track over the top maybe he'd have appreciate it more. His rant about not showing us any beauty and how he justified that was pathetic. As if he was looking down at art altogether and saying look how fucking irrelevant it is to camera reviews. It's the whole fucking point of a fucking camera you fucking dick.

🤯 So some early doors impressions of the Nikon... It's been out a while so I won't get into the specs again. The overwhelming impression is that Nikon are mad bastards. It's as if they have taken the Z9 and gone... right let's make this better and reduce price by a lot. Everything about it I prefer to the Z9. The price, the size, the newer features and firmware updates since launch which I am discovering for first time since I sold my Z9 a couple of years back. Size wise, it's barely larger than my EOS R5. Weight is impressive given the slightly oversized body vs the Sony cameras. It feels chonky but light at same time which is a nice feeling. I am reminded how well the Nikon Z mount filter stack works at fast apertures. The manual glass I have like the Voigtlander 40mm F1.2 VM is like a different lens on the Z8 compared to the EOS R5 and Sony a7 IV. The glowing edges are gone at F1.2 and less fringing too. F1.2 looks almost as good as F2! I have gone deep into the menus and decided that there's absolutely nothing missing. The different levels of compression for both RAW stills AND RAW video is refreshing especially coming from Panasonic where's there's only ProRes RAW with very large file sizes or uncompressed Cinema DNG on the Sigma Fp-L. Nikon with the RED patent clearly will lead the RAW video codec race for perhaps the next 10 years or more. I want to do a comparison in 4K (where you can toggle between pixel binning / oversampling!) between the higher bitrate N-RAW and 700Mbit/s smaller file size N-RAW. Of course ProRes RAW is also in there. No mechanical shutter doesn't seem to be a problem so far and you can make it do a cute beep when taking a shot instead of a tacky fake shutter sound. Rather a quiet or optionally silent stills camera than one with a loud average shutter clack... although I will one day miss the 'feel' of a quiet mechanical shutter with a satisfying heft. X-H1, Leica SL2, GFX 100, to name a few. There are still a few mechanical sounds coming from the Z8. And one of them is actually quite annoying... It parks / locks the IBIS mechanism to save power / protect the camera every time you enter the main menu. It parks it with quite a loud clank and unlocks with a similar clank when it activates again. Wish there was a way to turn that off without disabling VR. The only other mechanical part is the sensor protection curtain which comes down at power-off, but you can choose whether to have that off or not. The EVF is enormous. In optical terms the best I've ever used. In resolution terms, perhaps not the absolute most detailed but right up there. Can you use it for manual focus at F1.2 without peaking? Absolutely. There's not this feeling you are looking through a tunnel. It's smooth, high contrast, a big FOV flat with no distortion. The rolling shutter appears to be a complete non-issue and there's no crop whatsoever in 4K/120p. Not tried the 8K/60 yet. I have a few 512GB CFexpress cards to test. Got a feeling I might need to go bigger. I am glad I resisted the tempting Nikon Zf. Only thing I am unsure about is whether the Z8 shares the same level of locked-down IBIS performance in video mode as the Zf, as that was quite incredible. Also tested the Nikon 28-200mm travel zoom which has been reduced recently to around 650 euros. I am surprised how small it is and how light. Sure, it's slow at f4-6.3 but it seems pretty sharp and nifty as a shot getter. The 28-75mm F2.8 Nikon Z is also incredibly small and light for a bright zoom. Not tried the Sigma ART E-mount range yet via the Megadap adapter but those are next up.

Get yourself a gear cart! Doesn't have to be a fancy industry standard Inovativ film cart. Doesn't even have to be a little lightweight Rock-n-Roller cart on the cheap. Just simply one of these garden trolleys (you can even get fold up versions!) that are as cheap as dirt could do the trick for you! They can be total game changers when it comes to carting your gear around shoots, and making your life easier, with the time you save.

Understand the genre you are making, what works in the edit and what doesn't. Most discussion of camera features is just noise coming from people that don't know what matters to them and what doesn't.

Whatever the personal preference on the shots, part of the question for me would be whether that's a capture-time decision or a decision to be made in the edit/color grade. I tend to favor the latter. Best to capture a flexible "negative" that can be manipulated after the fact. As an example, I recently shot and then colored a short film with someone else doing the editing. The editor complained after my first color pass that it was too contrasty and dark. The scene is a tense scene in a hallway with a man in military gear guarding the rear while his comrades rush off. The light in the hallway is flickering and supposed to be faulty. For me, bringing the levels down and crushing the shadows (and yes, losing detail!) was absolutely the right call. The darkness and contrast help to convey the tense feeling of the scene... and flickering lights tend not to be strong! Anyway, thankfully the director/producer liked the darkness so we went with it... but the washed-out look seems really fashionable these days (and I'm not all that here for it).

Even an "ancient" Nikon D800 still does "good" image quality by 2025 standards. Basically for a number of years then stills performances have been in a plateau of at best gradual improvement in image quality. Eventually we're starting to see the same happen for video image performance as well.

Emanuel = part Confucious, part early AI bot. I literally have no idea what you are talking about...but at the same time, appreciate your efforts!

I’d rather have a phone inside the Sigma BF. But I bought a RED Hydrogen so what do I know…

My gripe with some of the tit for tat comparisons is they almost always ignore the reality of switching costs for folks with established kits. Would a Sony A7iii shooter looking for a higher resolution upgrade be persuaded to switch to the S5Rii versus the A7Rv? Most of the time, probably not. It's hard to get people to switch systems with one camera body, for good reason. Personally, I switched back to Panasonic after 2 years with Sony. The thing that clinched it wasn't actually Panasonic—it was Blackmagic! For those folks looking to start buying into their first camera system Panasonic offers the best value setup both new or used. Some people prefer to buy new things in general so a used Z8 being the same price as a new S5Rii is irrelevant. And, if they don't mind used, Panasonic is an even further better value. What Panasonic really needs is consistency moving forward. It's been a long time since the original S1R and S1H. Release these cameras and establish some sort of regular rhythm to firmware updates and new bodies in the future and they'll regain customers over time. But, one amazing camera wouldn't do it. A good system will.

The deal is done, thank you Foto Meyer Berlin. Sold some stuff, as I realised I didn't need it anyway as the Z8 does it all, pretty much. Z8 has been out about a year already, which is crazy. Still I think 3099 given it's still current is quite generous. Like many of you guys I was waiting to see what Panasonic would come up with after so long. But the S1R Mark II is not for me and S1H Mark II remains missing. I won't pay $3.5K / 500 euros more than the used Z8 for a cost-cut S5 body, no top LCD, worse AF, worse rolling shutter, and a worse mount. Also the S1R II internal RAW codec bitrates are too massive, ProRes RAW only, no 700Mbit custom RAW format like Canon/Nikon are offering with Canon RAW Lite and N-RAW. Although hey, at least Panasonic has internal RAW unlike Sony! Z-mount is equal or better than L-mount for many reasons, primarily: Megadap Sony E mount adapter opens up the entire Sony range of which there is a lot plus allows Sigma full frame lenses in by the back door. Lovely 35mm F2 is small and perfect for Z8. Also the Techart Leica M autofocus adapter is IMHO a must have, and this ain't available in L-mount. Plus Sigma APS-C lenses are in Native Z mount anyway so when I need to go for a very small zoon, 18-50mm F2.8 fits the bill perfectly and the Z8 has enough resolution in Super 35 mode to do it justice. I could not wait another 12 months to 7 years for a Panasonic flagship. S1H Mark II might be really nice... who knows. They're not communicating. Panasonic did not even so much as email me about the S1R Mark II. But the main reason I am out of the Panasonic ecosystem is that the competition is both cheaper and better.

They can. They just need to be a little more vocal about their product line such as: “In early 2025 we will be releasing a successor to the S1R and then in the late Spring, a successor to the S1H”. Press release. Bosh. Job done. Shuts the speculation down with a single sentence. People respect integrity. At least the folks that count do. I’m not saying Panasonic LUMIX lack integrity, but a lot of these companies could kill a lot of the stupid shit that goes on by being a bit more informative and less Secret Fucking Squirrel. In my humble opinion.

Some believe Panasonic is on the verge of shutting down, a narrative that a few users continue to push. I suppose their decision to release the S1R II instead of an S1H II only fuels that perception. The main criticism of the S1R II is its rolling shutter—something even Panasonic has acknowledged, advising those who prioritize it to choose a different camera. Essentially, Panasonic can't win. Pack everything into a camera, and it's too expensive. Leave something out, and it’s not "the very best." The real question is whether it offers good value—and, like most Panasonic cameras (new and used), it clearly does.

Why get the S1rii? 1) the versatility of the back screen; 2) open gate; 3) tools; 4) great IBIS; 5) decent AF. You won't find that combination elsewhere. In fact, the only other camera with that is the S5ii, but the S1rii is probably better.

I think I have answered it myself... The compression in H.265 is the result of bad tests. They are using the MP4 mode which has extremely low bitrates. In MOV we have 8K H.265 10bit 422 at 400Mbit, similar to the Sony a1's 500Mbit 8K mode post firmware update. This I have experience of and it was a match for N-RAW as far as the lack of compression, great shadow detail and a fine noise texture goes. There's also a Prores 422 HQ 700Mbit/s mode in 4K/24p, so a reasonable step up from 400Mbit. Remember however that H.265 long GOP at 400Mbit is equiv. to H.264 at 800Mbit so if you see a ton of macro blocking in that I'll be surprised! The ProRes codec has the advantage of being ALL-I though. According to Newsshooter where you can see the full breakdown of bitrates, 4K in H265 MOV is 190Mbit, so equivalent to 380 H.264. https://www.newsshooter.com/2023/05/10/nikon-z8-announced/ Aside from the wide range of bitrates... I like the fact it has no crop in 4K/120p plus the option of DX and 2.3x crop. The 2.3x crop is nice for Super 16mm lenses. Plus the high-res Zoom option for pretty much any crop factor between 1 and 2.3 One last thought, it seems Nikon did agree with the Canon 70d that the right place for the stills/movie mode is under your right hand.