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Panasonic did officially put it out there and sought the publicity. If they are to do that again, some concrete details about release date and pricing might help!

The filter makes such a difference. I'm surprised not more people bought it after we talking about it

EXACTLY! One of the reasons anamorphic is the go to for a true big budget looks is because it tends to only be advocated by the best DOP's, with enough professional brunt to demand shooting in anamorphic, and dedicating greater budgets in doing so. Watch how each shot is framed in Django, Casino, Inglorious Basterds, etc. They've been perfectly frames on set. the set is moved to accommodate the desired frame. Its been so meticulously crafted to accommodte for the limitations of optical resolution of the wonderful panavision anamorphics that even if they switched to spherical at the last minute, selecting wider FL's to suit a post crop, the image would have almost the same power as with the anamorphics due to the production value the meticulous shooting process adhered to and demanded by films who can afford to shoot 4 perf anamorphic.

FFS. how about rather than debating something that benefits no one, and is impossible to debate without knowing exactly what's happening inside the camera, why not go and shoot something and benefit from the feature. It's shooting 24/25p, and with a shutter speed of 1/4 or 1/5th of a second. That's whats on the screen, so that's what's happening. The engineers at Sony know more than anyone here. Canon limits the shutter speed to 1/30th in video mode. Sony limits to 1/4th of a second. whether its 25fps with 5 frames duplicated, or 5fps, the result is EXACTLY THE SAME when conformed (sped up) to a smooth motion (600% in 24p/1/4th or 500% 25p/1.5th).

I'd be inclined to suggest going full frame (a7s or a7r2 (or even a 5dmk3 raw hacked)), Even 1080p full frame, cropped to 4:3 and losing horizontal sensor resolution will outperform smaller sensors shooting 4k with most lens options. there are no anamorphic lenses that shoot with exciting apertures and that also resolve 4k resolutions on sensors as small as the sensor area the gh4 uses in 4k 4:3 mode. INFACT, most down even resolve 1080p onto a 4:3 provided by the gh4. I'd sooner shoot full frame, cropping the 16:9 unsqueezed image, and making use of a proper frame height and the associated fov and dof you need for anamorphic to be worthwhile. I think the a7s immaculate oversampled internal 1080p full frame mode (and associated DR, small file sizes etc), and a 2x anamorphic, cropped to 2.4:1 and losing 1/3 of the horizontal res is way better than pointless extra resolution where most lenses dont deliver anyway.

You know, one other thing I should mention since this is a site where there's a lot of discussion about color science and how it's incredibly highly valued... Well, I've been shooting a Canon 5DII and the EM5II side by side on the same projects for a few months now. They match up quite well and can often look indistinguishable from each other depending on white balance and f-stop settings.

FWIW, I record audio directly to the EM5II camera using a Sennheiser wireless Ew100 system. The preamps built into the camera are on par with a Zoom H1, I think. Not great, but very useable if you take care. Send a strong audio signal into the camera and it'll stay clean(ish). You can knock down the floor and make it work. If you want things to be REALLY quiet, you'd record on something different than a Zoom or an EM5II anyway, but I've been doing doc work following a comedian around as he does shows. Lots of ambient noise so you never hear the preamp hiss. That last EM5II video I posted on this site in a different thread was shot using the internal audio recorder of the camera for the interview, check it out for a listen if you want. You can tell it's good, not great. Here's something else, combined with the HLD-8G Hand Grip with Headphone Jack and HLD-6P Battery Holder, you get "power on" battery hot-swap --as well as audio monitoring with headphones. My 3rd party bats have been giving me at least 2 hours shooting with video and the fast battery change without power interruption is nice. Seems to me that the EM5II is a under-rated video camera since the IQ is slightly behind the curve. Everyone got all bothered when the camera was released because the image had limitations and isn't the best IQ on the market. Big deal. You work within the limitations and go do stuff, IMHO. IQ is most definitely not the only thing you need to consider when doing docs. Getting what unfolds in front of the lens and getting it well is paramount. The 5-axis helps in this regard. Shooting simple and easy to keep everything under control matters. So, small and efficient combined with 5-axis stabilization that allows for useful handheld shots? Not bad and worth consideration. I don't know exactly what you have planned, but I find unassuming gear works best for following people around in public during a documentary. It's not intimidating. Most people don't even realize you're shooting video. You just look like a weird photographer hanging out with someone. I'm using the EM5II to finish out a documentary shoot this summer and it's working for me. As for the codec, I don't shy away from 8-bit on my doc-film work. My last doc was shot on a Panasonic GM1and looks great as far as I'm concerned. Another note: The handgrip makes holding the camera feel really solid and reassuring. Combined with older metal FD lenses with some serious mass, the set-up has a comfortable hefty feel that actually allows for better shooting, I think. It's small but dense, which I like. Finally, the moiré that's prevalent on the EM5II with modern lenses is almost nonexistent with older glass and a speed booster. You could buy a full set of FAST cheap prime lenses for the cost of a brand new lens and significantly reduce one of the shortcomings of the camera. Not a bad deal. I'm not proselytizing for the EM5II per se, just saying it can work for you if you want it to. All the other suggestions here are legit too.

I hope samsung adds h.265 8bit 10bit and 12bit 444 and 422 at least to the 1080p. would love to see that also that happening in other resolutions. Also they could introduce 2k 1.85 DCI 1998 x 1080.

Hi Guys. I'm actually in the process of designing the mechanical focusing section for OLIVIA-SCOPE-1.5x since current glass prototype is fixed at infinity in order to get the cylindrial section perfect before moving onto the simple and easy spherical focusing optics. One thing I do know is that the amount of focus throw, and spacing of elements is going to be very similar to the optic spacing in the Iscorama, from 4ft to infinity (around 10mm), so I am currently designing the mechanism to shift the huge front focus element back and fourth. Here's the cool thing... I'm going to be manufacturing the focusing mech as a scaled down prototype to test its function, before making something that costs around £250 worth of brass alone for the full size unit. I'll be designing the miniature mock up to fit the current elements from the Iscorama 36 and pre 36 (since I have one here). So there may be the possibility of offering a limited run of isco 're mechanising' to existing Iscorama users who are not willing to leave the 'rama platform and it's compactness and low weight. So, the focusing mech/rehousing will provide 3.5ft-inf focus, with hard stops at each end. non rotating front element, with a profile 82mm filter thread, minimal added weight, focus gearing (where gears dont rack back and fourth during focusing), the rear element willremain protruding to allow for deep seating into the front recess of a taking lens, and probably have some type of rail support. Pretty much everything the original Van Diemen rehousing should have been. When it comes to manufacturing, I'll likely have a few mechs made. it'll be a one off run at this size, and am expecting the cost of the mechanism as well as rehousing of a supplied iscorama to be in the region of £500-800. So if there are Iscorama 36 / pre 36 users who might be interested please let me know so i can hit you up at time of manufacture and see if you want me to have some parts manufactured. R

Did a quick test yesterday, just an exercise in shooting something and uploading it the same day since I haven't done anything for a while, but I thought you guys might like to see it because there's no colour correction - you can see what the Nikon D5200 looks like in these conditions: interior near a window, and one LED light for fill.

Not a lot can beat the ProRes HQ image coming out of the BMPCC (apart from RAW from the BMPCC - but you really don't need to ever film in RAW). And don't listen to the detractors (with their 4k consumer bs): The screen isn't really that bad, i've never missed focus with it (you can get a z-finder - i use a £10 clone from my 60D); battery life lasts as long as a 64gb card, 45mins (if you're indoors plug into the mains, if not get used to turning it on & off - there are cheap external battery options, Anker Astros get praised); you don't need to buy the Metabones adaptor (2nd gen RJ focal reducer is v.v.good at a snip of the MB price); it really shines with Vintage lenses & they'll save you loads of cash. This little camera really shines & will blow your mind, as far as image is concerned. It inter-cuts seemlesly with Alexa footage, enough said really. The only thing that will top it will be the Micro, but who knows when that will be released... But its your choice so think it through carefully.

I did a very quick and dirty edit:

Thanks. I went back to square one after having quite a few unsuccessful attempts and remembered and old video from me, which i really liked: Recipe is as follows: Standard with -5,-5,-5,-5 Highlight / Shadow 0,0 Iso was Auto, but i guess it was 200-400 Tiffen Ultra Contrast 3 Filter FilmConvert with GH4 Profile, FJ SuperX 400 emulation was used with 30% grain Some slight adjustment in the shadows to give it more contrast, thats it. Works out of the box on the GM1 and seems to work out of the box on the LX100. Will put up some small demo video later.

Next try (4k, JPEG rendered by FCPX):

A last note only to let who cares noticed, I sent my apologies for my overreacting. Civilized people react accordingly. Glad now to post that the feedback received tops.

Well you can always open a topic about Tarkovsky so we can all start discussing filmmaking.

I just took a 6D with the 40mm pancake on a two week trip to europe and it didn't feel heavy at all. If I'm doing serious stills I feel like I want full frame.

It's good enough for almost anything, man. Check out this wedding photography work taken on the last generation of M4/3 cameras. http://www.mu-43.com/threads/61628/ I'm not saying the Nikon isn't a great camera, but the difference in stills quality between APS-C and M4/3 isn't nearly as devastating as forumites would have you believe.

Samsung NX1 is the correct answer. UHD, ISO 100, 85 mm f/1.4. It's actually a screenshot from Premiere's fullscreen preview, so that's why it's 1920x1080 (display is using that resolution). I don't know if print screen + pasting into photoshop + exporting for web made any difference in terms or banding or anything. I personally like it really much how this camera handles the colors. I've used GH3 and LX100 before it, and it was really difficult for me to get natural look out of those cameras. Lips were always purple.

What about an Olympus em5 ii with ef mount sigma f1.8 18-35mm & metabones speedbooster? That's 2,600, 2,750 with variable nd by tiffen. Actually it might be less cause that's for the xl metabones. You don't get 4k but you invested in a good ef lens for future camera bodies and a good run and gun stabilized body. Stabilization in post is a headache I'm finding especially for gh4 4k unless you have a really new and high end machine/software which will cost even more to invest in and still add time. Your light and stabilization needs with this setup would be mostly taken care of. With the gh4 your limited to tripod work, investing in more lighting and a3 axis stabilizer, which only some will support the heavier glass a metabones uses and again will put you way over budget. You're better off sticking to 1080p right now and if that's the case the em5ii will save you a lot of time at the sacrifice of some quality, I think it's mainly moire and aliasing that it's not great at from reading. If so you could get it and sell the body in a year and only be out a fifth of your total investment.

Great review. Really loving the camera so far. Agree with some others about low light. I just used it to shoot a wedding and there's going to be noise over 1000 ISO for sure, but nothing that a little noise correction can't fix. Shooting 4K made a lot of the post work (cropping/stabilizing) so much better/easier. Here's a couple of test shoots I did when I first got the camera with my daughter. It's a mix of 4k and 1080 120fps slo-mo. All shot in SLOG2.

My main beef is this rumor did not come from Panasonic. Should Panasonic be expected to add features and respond to every rumor on the internet? All current GH4 owners entered the purchased based upon the current spec sheet, so what is the problem? Let me right now start a rumor... Their is a "secret" GH4 firmware that can add 14bit color and 16 stops of DR. Will you be angry if it turns out these features are in a totally different camera? This really is how silly this argument is. These rumors didn't come from Pannie... They don't need to respond nor support the rumored features.

Yet Blackmagic can do 10bit for a quarter of the price of an A7R II with the Pocket Cinema Camera and Micro. Yet GH4 has 10bit 4K HDMI output, albeit seemingly unable to make much noticeable difference to image quality. So I'm not really too appreciative of Sony's excuses. JG is right, they left it out on purpose to segment products. They are free to do that, so just tell us. Don't make silly excuses! As for a GH4 style flip screen making the body too thick - that's a load of tosh. The E-M5 II has one and is a slimmer body with weather sealing. GH4 is not really bigger, not in any meaningful way. Flip screen for selfies is important to consumer market and A7R II is a consumer camera so I hope they change this in future.

By "the processor can't" they of course mean "we didn't design it to" or "because we don't want it to yet". bit depth is a separating factor for market sectors, design of processors is not 'out of their hands', it is part of the segmentation of product lines.

Trolling is a healthy tradition on Internet forums, specially when it envolves people that are too lazy to use the search function and read.

Ever since the first "gamechanger" threads on handheld gimbals emerged, I remained sceptic. Particularly the effect of travelling to, away from or around inanimate objects (cars, trees) is something that wears off quickly, more so if done with ultra wide lenses. This is true for Glidecam/Flycam/Steadicam shots as well, as long as they don't serve a well-defined purpose. Similar with extreme sDoF that was en vogue for a few years. But wouldn't you agree that it's nice to have these opportunities in our tool box? We also made some shots with a 70mm, and they were smooth too, something you'd hardly try with a Glidecam. Didn't try longer lenses so far. Very few nowadays explore what tele lenses have to offer. Of course these things shouldn't be misused to just show off. Watch this clip on 'Bayhem' from everyframeapainting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2THVvshvq0Q This is what we missed on the airfield yesterday: long lenses. As you can see, the best dynamic effect comes from cutting between wide shots and tele shots. And I don't rue to have bought the Ronin, because it offers some things you can't do with a Glidecam. But doubtlessly, two or three years from now, the construction of these devices will have improved to such a degree, that you need to change then. Maybe they become lighter, maybe 5 axis stabilization will be standard, who knows now?

I'm going with the Casio Exilim EX-ZS15.

You really like people to chew your food for you, lol.

Ciao Kangaroo, "Standard" is way too videoish, try "Natural" with contrast -3, saturation all the way down, sharpness -2/-3 (but sometimes 0 or all the way down are perfect) and, of course, shutter at 1/50 with 24 or 25p. I'm sure you'll love this little camera

Received my color checker a while go, but just got a chance to audition it. and well, I wish I'd sprung for one of these sooner. Now I get the skintones I prefer from the GH4's Natural profile and can quickly balance the image before grading it. I'm thinking I should just permanently mount the color chart to the slate during production. Here's a sample. Uncorrected frame followed by the instantly balanced version using the color checker grid. I did no other adjustments. GH4, SLR Magic 25mm @T/2.8, Kowa Bell & Howell, Rectilux 3FF-W, Hoya ProND 4. ISO 200, Natural, Contrat 0, Sharpness -5, NR -5, Saturation -2, Tint 0.

Here is an example of why I think DIS is such an important breakthrough. This is a video of close-ups of insect life on flowers, shot with a 90mm (35mm-equivalent) macro lens handheld. You cannot efficiently shoot dragonflies, butterflies and bees at work with tripods - these insects move around and you have to "capture" them opportunistically - you have to be able to move after them with camera and shoot while they are in place. Without stabilization, the close-up video would be unwatchable - way too jitter and shaky. Well, here is what you can get using the NX1 with DIS and OIS combined:

Xavc-s is essentially the same h264 codec that's used in most other cameras. It's really not even close to the 10 bit prores of the bmpcc Btw one thing I didn't mention earlier is that the bmpcc's dynamic range is only significantly better in RAW. ProRes is much more prone to blown highlights. I believe with the right picture profile you might get the same dynamic range on the a6000 as you would with the bmpcc in prores. But even so, there is something special about the blackmagic image. So if you have the time to work with it then I say go with it!

The codec itself doesn't affect image quality much. It's more about how the cameras process its raw information into that codec. From what I know, here's how I'd rate the cameras Sharpness: GH4 / NX1 (4k)BMPCCGH4 (1080p)NX1 / a6000 (1080p)Gradeability: BMPCC (by a large margin)GH4 / a6000NX1Colour (this is really subjective): BMPCCNX1a6000GH4Low light: a6000BMPCCGH4 / NX1Dynamic Range: BMPCCa6000GH4NX1

Here are some images showing my quickly put together test. literally ripped apart a m58 helicoid so it would slide over the original male thread of the original focus part. The front element was fitted into the helicoid. i'd meant to make it so the front element didnt rotate but in the process of reworking the helicoid I damaged it and therefore the front element rotates as you focus. No big deal, but it is actually possible to do this mod and have the element non rotating. As you can see in the pics the front part of the helicoid with the front element seated in place now unscrews. I actually used a rubber o ring cut to the right length which i squished around the front element. this naturally pushes it centre and is tight enough to hold the element in the front part. two shots are show. wide open at f2 on a 58mm lens on aps-c. (3:2). one at infinity, one at around 3 feet. rack from inf to 3ft is around 3/4 of a turn! Closing to f2.8 sharpens stuff up drastically. as does using on a smaller sensor - 4:3 4k mode on gh4 would be ideal for this lens flares are wonderful by the way! NB. this method of modifying the B+H was showed to me by the good man Nick (QuickHitRecord), who was actually going to be manufacturing focus units for the B+H design and made the concept public on this forum long ago. It was unfortunate Nick never got this to the manufacturing stage but i feel he deserves a pat on the back for making this public. Hopefully some other people can make a working unit like this one.