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With the new data rates that this thing uses, I was surprised that my inexpensive 1 TB Western Digital Blue SSD could handle ProRes RAW HQ in 5.9K and 4.1K 60p. I plan on using this new codec specifically when doing outdoor weddings. As of now, I have been severely underexposing just to make certain that if the sun peeks from behind the clouds that I don't burn a hole straight through the brides dress, never to be recovered ever again. Canon and Sony have had some interesting releases the last few weeks. The only realization is that the S1H clearly would best both to an extent if it had Canon/Sony level autofocus. With that said: I know how to manual focus. Glass f/2.8 or faster and ISO 12,800 looks fantastic. Anything more, I will light it. I've run my camera for over 4 hours straight (Hindu Wedding) in 5.9K, and my camera didn't overheat! When video work dries up, this thing is a competent stills shooter. I really don't know what job this dynamic duo of S1H and Ninja V can't do.

I've been messing around with it for the past two days. My findings: (of course do your own tests too if possible) + Sharpest/most detailed image I've ever filmed on any camera before + Easier for me to get a colour grade as a beginner that I'm satisfied with than when shooting V-Log + Edits easily on my mid tier gaming PC (i7-8700k + GTX1060) with Premiere Pro + ISO 12800 with enough light looked better than expected. This needs further testing for sure. - Higher data rate than initially expecting, this means I will still shoot mostly internal probably - In 5.9K mode only I experience choppy frame rates on the Ninja V sometimes. A quick swap to 4K and back returns this to normal. I imagine this will be fixed in the final released firmware.

I don't earn my living from video, but my main takeaway from both the Canon and Sony launches is this: if, for your bread and butter, you need things like 8K, massively over-sampled 4K, 10bit internal from a full frame, top-of-the-range AF, high frame rates, minimal RS and cinema colours all in a single A camera package that is reliable to professional standards and doesn't overheat... don't buy a hybrid in a DSLR/hybrid body shape, as with current technology all of the above just isn't available in that format. To get all that, you need a proper cinema camera in a proper cinema camera form factor. Sorry, but that's just how it is.

It is now available https://www.panasonic.com/global/consumer/lumix/s/s1h/firmware_atomos.html Most cameras do 4K ProRes RAW and have to pixel bin to achieve 12bit, as a full pixel readout at the higher colour depth would be too slow. This is where the S1H is different... It is the only one to do a full pixel readout, in native 6K at 12bit. Amazing sensor technology.

He loved the C300 and literally released a video saying it was his favorite camera. 3 weeks later he received a camera to try out that he preferred and instead placed an order for 3 of them. Not everything is a conspiracy. It's okay to disagree with his conclusions, but let's be real.

I love it when people complain about skin tones in heavily graded YT videos them conclude the color science is trash. Big brain time. I'll admit the sooc files from my a7iii with artificial light can be horrendous, however once corrected they look great to me. Resolve really helps, without those color tools I don't know that I would be as satisfied with the color.

Seems Canon have done just enough to get Sony and Panasonic to step up their game and for that I applaud the release of their new space heater.

Skin tones look good to me. Even at iso 50,000 they look natural whereas previously there would be a strong yellow or green shift. Also that rolling shutter performance is incredible

Yeah, though my work horse lens is all in EF so not really concerned about it yet. Here is a compare between bmpcc6k vs komodo i saw online

Nothing wrong with the colour. If you can't make great images with it, blame yourself not the camera's colour.

Even crewed productions still have budget worries. Thus they'll choose the DoP's S1H over renting an ARRI. Or perhaps they're shooting in a bathroom, or in a car (or outside a car! Rigged up), or with lots of tricky moving gimbal shots. Plenty of reasons why you'd choose the S1H over a bigger camera, even if you had a larger budget.

It was shot in 4K normal. R5 8K/4K HQ: 21ms R5 4K normal 24P to 120P: 8ms A7S III 4K 24P to 60P: 15ms A7S III 4K 120P: 8ms

So I know they were saying "FX9 colour, everything is fine now" but I watched this official video and her skin is doing the "Sony thing", jumping from yellow, to magenta, to magenta blotches in low light. I guess I'll have to try one out and see how it is IRL, but this doesn't fill me with confidence... The initial shot is nice, but the blue light ones she is blue and magenta, in blotches, the tunnel ones she is yellow... I don't know what's at play here, ISO colour shift, how the sensor reacts to different lights (it seems to be having a horrible time with bluer than daylight and those tunnel lights, which are probably fluros) but it's not a good advert for the camera. In the Kitchen video there's also some weird stuff going on with the tungsten lights going very yellow too.

Until the part that he is cancelling the C300 III I would have given the doubt but it smell a bit fishy with his conclusion..... also not sure why you choose a cinema camera with ND, RAW, can run for hours, great audio control, etc.... and suddenly an hybrid is better... would he have chosen an FX9 then I would understand. But if he mostly uses for indoor fixed scene like his YT channel then you get two camera and you don't care to much about the advantage of a true cinema camera. The problem with all these YT review that is a race against time and you cannot really compare with others view that are all under NDA so you don't have any input on what to double check. If they would do the review after a few weeks that is broadly available would be much better but nobody will care at that point....

Also after watching the Gerald Undone video, I’m a little suspicious over his motives. He went the extra mile with the R5 overheating tests, causing many people to cancel their R5 pre-orders.. but then says in his video “the A7S3 doesn’t overheat” when we know from several sources it does overheat and VERY quickly at that in direct sunlight. I guess he covers his bases at the end when he says he only did “lab tests” i.e no outdoor field tests.. but not such a thorough reviewer after all. Furthermore, he mentions several times that he cancelled his C300 II purchase in favor of two A7S3’s. He never goes into the reasons why. I find that kinda sus.

Yeah I’ve watched a bunch of A7S3 videos and unfortunately can’t say I’m very impressed by the colors, skin tones and overall look. It has that alpha series video look I’m not so fond of. Of course the 10-bit makes for smoother grading and the ALL-I fixes the horrendous motion cadence of A7III, but the absence of S-Cinetone is a shame. On the PotatoJet video you can really see what I’m talking about as the footage intercuts with FX9 footage that looks so much more organic/filmic. Of course when shooting 4K120p with cine/telephoto lenses the footage looks tasty but otherwise I havent seen anything really impressive.. yet. Will keep an open mind though as this camera ticks many boxes, but after the initial hype passes.. IQ is really what matters to me in the end, especially when considering a 4200€ mirrorless.

yellowish skin tone, a break dealer for me.

Good luck with the umbrella tied to your back doing run and gun on the streets, police probably will think you are crazy and do not ask you for the permissions, nice strategy.

Why are you still even here arguing with me? God has spoken and you shall follow the rule of three: Click Geralds link and add to cart Three A7S3’s.. a C300 Mark 3 you shall forget & replace with thee.

Aah the R5 hits the shelves tomorrow. So we might get some more tests this weekend.

I have been to Italy, rented a car and drove around for two weeks when I was touring Europe a couple years ago. Some of the most amazing sunsets I'ver ever seen were in Tuscany and along the Amalfi Coast. Would love to go back with the a7s3. I tried to watch the video with auto translate but a lot didn't make sense. Still fun to see everyone's reaction to the camera, even if they were acting for the video. Priceless. Cheers Chris

Thank you for your concern but I’ve managed to make the 8bit s-log from previous Sonys look just fine in DaVinci so I’m not really worried. If you can’t get a decent image out of the a7siii I don’t think the camera is to blame. I suggest you get an Alexa LF and be done with it.

What's the title of this? The great Oompa Loompa escape? Or How Sony discovered Cinelike D?

Incredible addition....I really wish they had a better lens ecosystem, a better photography story, and better AF. In every other way though Panasonic keeps proving they really should be the market leaders in the semi-pro/pro video world. The S1H has every feature I have ever asked for....yet for some reason I am still sitting here waiting for Canon to get their act together.

Are Sony's Cine engineers not allowed to work with the mirror-less department? It's clear Sony can't get low cine color correct. If you look at all camera brands you'll see color science that moves down through generational product lines. That's why you hear Nikon color or Canon color or Fuji color talked about. You never see brands change their color science around. It is subjective but it also comes down to over all color science, iso shift and shadow color hue and depth or the lack of the latter two. OMG that color is not good at all. Word. You might want to be concerned about the color from this camera.

I guess more will be revealed of the A7s3 but there are definitely question marks over its reliability with over heating. People mocked the size of the S1H but as can be seen by the Canon debacle and the new Sony you can't cheat physics with heat management and it looks like Panasonic made the right decision in making a larger solid camera people can trust. Paying over £4000 for a camera that may stop working is unacceptable in my eyes and so the R5 is not fit for purpose in a video production. (The A7s3 needs more testing) That leaves the A7s3 and from what I've seen I would say the colour and IBIS are way superior on the S1H, disappointing that the A7s3 doesn't seem to have the same colour dna as the FX9. With RAW and anamorphic modes, higher resolution stills, AF is all that is really lacking I

People skin seams like wax. Color is what you pay for a cinema camera nowdays. If these results are consistent this is a camera to skip, for me

Daft blanket statement. Depends on how you make money as a photographer. I'm a "professional" (I make my living from photo/video). I shot on a d5300 for a few years lol. I used to do a bit of teaching and many amatures/enthusiasts had 5x the dollar amount of my kit. I'll be keeping a beady eye on overheating in high ambient conditions though. Crap loads of sun and 35+degree days are common in Aus.

I have a crystal sync sound 16mm camera that I acquired for $980, so now every time the latest and greatest digital camera drops, I view the price tag through the lens of how many gold Kodak canisters loaded with a 400’ core load I could purchase and process with the same amount of money. An A7sIII is about 7 loads of 16mm film, processed and scanned. That’s 77 minutes of footage at 24fps. Conservatively, that’s a 15 minute short film in the bag, or a 30 minute film if you shoot a tight ratio. That’s almost enough film to produce the entire first act to a feature if you plan carefully. The dynamic range is ok I guess, and the color science is at least useable, but it doesn’t have AF, and it’s not full frame, so I should probably replace it soon with something newer?

I love how the URSA 12k is released and everyone gets mad because "who asked for this?" and "12k is overkill when all you will ever need is 4k". So Sony releases the A7siii. It only shoots 4K, it fixes the major issues that plagued it's camera, invested in better, not more pixels. Practically eliminates rolling shutter, adds 10 bit h.265 as well as 16 bit raw output and can shoot in full resolution up to 120p and SOMEHOW everyone is saying "this isn't enough" or "I was expecting more". You aren't filmmakers, you're hobbyists!

The race to the most ultra clear, pristine image will continue but there will always be a niche that prefer (at least sometimes) an older picture or ergonomics. I got a Leica M9 some months ago which lacks live view, autofocus and a decent sensor but even that was not enough to satiate my analogue fever. I ended up getting a Nikon FM3a film camera a month later and have been using it since. Meanwhile I've been using a 4k HDR tv recently and marvelling at the 4k footage I'v captured with past cameras. My theory is that it has a lot to do with money tbh. When people are young they don't have much money and so they use whatever they can afford. As they get older, they buy better technology. However I don't agree with your assessment that interest in low-fi is increasing. Most people are shooting with phones and they keep making the cameras on those things better because its the only thing that really drives sales.

The professional production world never stopped using MF. They just transitioned to wireless transmitters/follow focuses.

A lot of it does come down to expense and time. 1080p Prores is easy to process and has plenty of detail and especially color information for most people. Almost any computer can process it. Manual focus lenses are cheaper than AF lenses. And older ones are plenty sharp for most work. Super 16 zoom lenses are cheap and have a very wide range making it easy to get coverage without switching lenses. They are also easier to focus with a deeper depth of field. Shooting slower and more deliberately means you don't have to shoot as much. People gave me some s*** for buying a old Sony F3. I bought it to save me time on set. I don't have to rig it up like a DSLR. I don't have to worry about HDMI's breaking, the tripod plate coming loose, or the battery running out in the middle of a take meaning I have to take my rig apart. I put it on the tripod, put a battery in it, and I'm good to go. I think the reason a lot of people are going back to these cameras is because they know them, it's a pleasing image to their eye right out of camera, clients aren't demanding 4K, and it saves them time achieving the look they want which means it saves them money in the end.

I know I should not compare it to an arri alexa. But dang I just wish these companies could get arri style colour in an affordable package in 2020. The alexa is 10 years old, and these japanese companies dont come anywhere close to its image or colours 10 years later, in tech years thats ages. Sony had great colour on the F35, so not sure why they have not matched it 10 years later.

Both are correct : -)

Lovely piece of work. Thanks for sharing!

^ I'm pretty sure Canon & Sony agree with you there!

I said it before - wide discrepancies in reviews. The problem with Gerald is that he always goes above and beyond to test, and thats what he is known for - but this seems an obvious fail. Is it intentional or did he just miss it? I think a bit of both. You will see for yourself how serious he is as a reviewer with a statement like: "i will replace c300 mkiii with a7siii". This is a very juvenile statement, and you can see what kind of mind he has thinking the c300 and a7s are somehow equivalent. Perhaps for the use in youtube studio it is so. He knows a7s will sell better through his affiliate links than c300. Must continue to hype as "perfect camera". Meanwhile, he shows few seconds of actual footage (not shot by him), which looks like camcorder footage.

This looks horrible. No different to any a7iii footage you see out there, but worse even. It's got good paper specs though.... This is perfect video for this camera as well - travel, youtube, young people selling capitalist lifestyle. People will click on it because they like the camera and specs and marketing bs. But no professional can use this overheating in 24p. Just like the canon turd. But at least with canon, you spend 2000 more and get c200 with nd, raw, audio input, etc. Youtube and vloggers like small form factor the most, and want to sell to you even though it overheat crap.

2020 is a lost year, I will stay in quarantine until January 2021, then will look through the window and if all is the same will come back to bed.

My review is coming up soooon. www.youtube.com/anamorphiconabudget

Yep. The downsampled 4k at 24 and 30p is only a one time 30 minute record limit. Assuming that means you can't just hit record again after. Someone will probably come up with a conspiracy theory that Sony is paying all reviewers to hate on Canon while sending unlimited praise to their camera. When I first heard about the overheating I was fine with it. Its pretty normal across the board at this point. I thought 8k really isn't needed much most people will be using 4k regardless. But it just gets worse and worse. 2 hour waits to cool down, overheating in an air conditioned room. Overheating just from shooting stills, not even recording any video? I am sure these limitations will work for some people but definitely not for me.

I do not think anybody is giving it a blanket pass. Just something very different to the Canon. It isn't they overheat as ANY small camera that uses that much power with those sensor sizes and does not have an active cooling system will have a point it overheats. The issue with the Canon is once it overheats it seems to stay over heated for longer than is good and that even shooting stills reduces shooting time. If all you DO need with the Sony is an umbrella or anything just to keep it out of direct sun for external heat, that is fine in my book and Sony seems to deal with the internal heat build up better between these two. To me, it is as if comparing a litre of boiling water in a thermos (Canon) VS a litre of boiling water in a glass bottle (Sony). After an hour the thermos is still going to have hot water, the glass bottle will be room temp. Take the two out into direct sun after that hour and the water in the glass will get warmer while the water in the thermos will still be the same...now if you apply another heat source internally (while leaving them in direct sun), the water in both will get hotter and the glass will also have the effect of the sun added to the internal heat. ...but the glass will cool down again quicker too again.

Andrew, you are of course correct that the 5.1k comes with the crop and would be an expensive R in many ways. However, at least for me the real dissatisfaction with the R5 is that there is no really useful 4K option. The HQ 4K lasts only minutes and the regular 4K is mush. If the crop mode was a good 5.1k oversample and had no overheating then with the metabones speed booster I could approximate full frame, while having a camera that can flex to real full frame, have 8k, and 120 etc.. And unlike the regular R I get 10 bit internal and IBIS. I always found the R files to have very thin color. Obviously not an ideal situation, and Canon should have done this the right way. I have tried Sony and just can't love the colors. I have tried Fuji (X-H1) and like them but still missed full frame and found their lenses a little strange for video. I have an investment in Canon lenses. My favorite image of all time is the 1DC which I still have. All I have wanted for years is a 1DC image with IBIS, autofocus and a flip out screen. What I am trying to figure out is if there is even a franken-adapter sppedbooster way to get the R5 to approximate that, as its the closest contender yet. No one has posted any of the cropped mode footage however.

I don't know if it is photo or video (I guess photo because the the z6 destroys the d800 in video) but for methe z6 is the most enjoyable Nikon camera I have ever use. I am not a big fan of small small camera as is the norm now, so my cage stays on the camera even when I take photos. I take more videos than photos with the Z6, but at least for my use the eye and face detect and nearly full sensor AF are so much more convenient to use. Last year I did 3 set photography and used the z6 with my D810 and I was surprised that I had no problem switching from the EVf to the OVF. Lastly, with the OVF, two custom buttons and where all the controls are it is the best in terms or ergonomic of any nikon camera. I mean only with my right hand I can control, shooting, ISO, shutter, Aperture, AF mode, shooting FPS and I can access the quick menu with all the different options for ibis on off, picture profile etc. That without leaving my eye from the viewfinder. Auto focus might not feel snapy because everything is silent (Was disoriented when I first got it) but I feel the dual expeed processor is a sign they really want to put more processing power for faster autofocus and wake time, which is always a bit disorienting coming from an evf.

I've recently been developing 120 film shot with a 70's Mamiya. You're right. Those that like analog will hew to the aesthetic. I don't mind people doing stuff with what they want to do stuff with; got better things in life to worry about. I'm fascinated by technology. It's fun to see advancements even if I'm not benefiting from the latest and greatest. For instance, I found Ang Lee's last film to be a cool aesthetic choice, but my latest favorite film is "The Lunchbox," and a lot of that film looks as if it's shot on a Hi-8 camcorder...

well that's not really practical. that level of cgi can only come from pixar or dreamworks where the whole film is cgi. a skateboarding video with those lovely characteristics should be done in camera and that wouldn't be too difficult to do

Pretty sure I fall into this category. The footage from this old sensor just looks better to me than anything else that's out there, including the new cameras or the really high end cameras. That's just my personal aesthetic.

Braw was fantastic when I was using it with my G2, but for the A7siii I will probably record internally and transcode to DNxHR ( the form factor is why I m making the switch ) . I did a few projects with a A7iii shooting HLG and it was very correct in post, so hopefully with the 10 bits 4.2.2 + high bitrate we will be able to correct colour balances and exposure disparities without damaging the images too much.

Their MFT lenses work pretty well on Olympus cameras with PDAF.