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I agree and unless you absolutely need in camera 4K 60p or twin card slots, these cameras are still as good as the day they were launched. It’s not like anyone had a gun to their head to buy them or anything else. They will make superb used options for a lot of people also. I do think the Z line has been the most underestimated and over-criticised system of these last 2 years.

Your terminology seems confused: image density refers to how well exposed a (film) image is. A well exposed negative will literally be denser/thicker than an underexposed one, which will be thin.

The Zoom F8 was a revolution for low/no budget indie filmmakers when it comes to the sound department, like the D90/GH1/5Dmk2 was for low/no budget indie DoPs.

I thought the same thing about the EOS R. Why do Canon's expensive mirrorless cameras feel like toys? Sony's A7 series does too, as well. But man, the Panasonic cameras are built SO NICE. Love their design, the way they look, feel, operate, and how they feel like professional tools.

I've also checked out DXO's portrait colour rating. The last thing you'd want for a nice portrait is accurate colours. Perhaps it's better to call it a colour accuracy rating then (and who knows whether their methodology is sound or not). But accurate colour is not nice colour. Reality looks kind of shitty, in terms of colour, compared to how its colours can be represented in photographic images. Colour accuracy should not be the goal, IMO, unless you're reproducing artwork or products. I would like my images to look better than reality, when it comes to colour. So I would absolutely not expect the top rated DXO cameras for portraits to make nicer portraits SOOC than those lower on the list.

Well it is official for me, I'm going to return it. I probably won't even keep it past the weekend. The countdown timer is completely unbearable; shooting video with this camera feels like one of those outdoor shoots where it can rain any minute and ruin the shoot; except this is how it will be every time I use it. It can't replace my GH5, 5D4, or C200, and it can't even be a reliable C cam so it has no place in my gear bag. Just shooting BTS footage today with a mixture of clips and photos and I managed to get the overheat timer down to 5min. I tried changing the date and pulling the battery but the time remaining didn't change. To my touch the body was barely warm and the ambient temp was around 78F. The only good news is that the overheat timer did seem to recover pretty quickly after the camera was turned off, it went back up to 10min within a few min of being turned off. This is with FW 1.1.1. I think calling the R6 a hybrid is generous when its video features are less reliable than my 4yr old 5DIV. Basically for me this camera will never pay for itself, and I will always need to bring something else as a backup if it is a true hybrid session so there's no point in keeping it. I know this thread is supposed to be about the user experience and not the overheating but in real world hybrid use the overheating ruined the user experience for me.

The image is fantastic IMO. Looks really good on my MBP and my 65" TV. But as always YMMV. Chris

OK, I reset everything and now just looking to apply the corrective LUT and some level of a neutral starting grade. Here is just 24 second clip of one of the first clip. Just goes to show, I was so focused on the highlights, I completely ignored my blacks and shadows. I think from here, a decent creative grade could be done, with plenty of room to push it. https://vimeo.com/user122394328/review/464516430/65a7a1eb4d Below is my workspace AFTER removing the damage from AUTO, and doing what I was trying to avoid (basic grade that might have my interpretations in it, but oh well). And here is the cringy BEFORE, where I hit AUTO on my video layer and later when I went to see what it did on my adjustment layer, it looked to be no changes, when in fact it was. Notice just how crushed the blacks were with the auto button and it just goes to show you, not to focus on any one aspect. I would really appreciate feedback on what is considered a good neutral starting point after ETTR to 94+ and then applying the Leeming corrective LUT for S-Log3. I'm looking for some good starting point that you could then take and apply a creative LUT to match another camera or do a custom grade to taste. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I figured out what happened. I use Adjustment layers in Premiere, and normally work on it. I applied the corrective LUT first to the layer, and then went and did more edits. At some point the "AUTO" was done on the video itself, and I went on and did other things. Then when I checked the first time, I went to the Adjustment layer and it looked like AUTO didn't do anything, so it was just the Leeming corrective LUT. When back on each video clip was the mess that AUTO had done.. SMH What I was hoping to achieve was a neutral display of the various codecs and options with movement and challenging light. Your process commented above, is more of a full grade. Any suggestions on how to keep this as neutral of a test as possible, yet still get the footage past the typical dark starting point of the Leeming corrective LUT? I'm looking for a very repeatable process that will take us right to the point, anyone would start with that corrected footage and apply creative adjustments from there. Also, it sounds like you have your RGB Parade in 8bit, since you mentioned 16-235 (on a 0-255 scale or 8bit). Mine is set on 10bit which obviously is showing 0-1023. Since I am publishing this Vimeo that supports 10bit, I was thinking I should be in the 10bit color space. What are your thoughts on that?

That should come as ZERO surprise to anybody, because early adopters always pay the price, no matter what it is we're discussing.

Yes! What this little machine can do was really unheard for the price point, and still is too much for too little. It even has automix that I know for certain that some pros use. I wouldn't, like I do not use AF on lenses - and I want to have full control, but the option is there.

The truth is somewhere in between and I do not see Panasonic succeeding as much. Panasonic had the SAME market share with Fuji last year, 4%, that is a huge disappointment for Pana with the dozens of products and a huge win for Fuji that started as a niche hipster manufacturer, and Nikon mirrorless apologizer (a lot of Nikon users had X cameras as smaller/backup ones). Seemingly, with a few right moves, a dedicated video camera first and foremost, better video implementation and some video orientated lenses and upgrade of older designs, Fuji will surprass Panasonic, just like that and without too much fanfare. if they also bring medium format to the masses, then that's it, they are going uphill. where Panasonic goes, I wonder? Will they sell 100.000 streaming cameras to make it a success? Plus, 150.000 more S cameras? And 150.000 more m43? And how many Varicam or EVA? Of course we have to see the official release, but if the pricr is NOT right, this camera will be another recent failure like the newest LX cameras and the v-blogging one, and maybe, even the S releases.

Yes, density of a negative increases with exposure. It's measured with a densitometer. That's where the dense/thick terminology comes from, where it is an observable quantity. For digital, it's a qualitative assessment and its meaning might vary from one person to the next.

woo whooo.. Induro came through and sent me the replacement spider for my shoot tomorrow (shooting an OktoberFest). I'm going to fill in that screw hole with some 6,000 psi ePoxy I have and hope it doesn't happen again

Bingo! That's one of the best rebuttals on the topic of AF I've read in a while.

Frame grab from today's interview. Just made basic adjustments to balance the RGB parade, nothing else. WB needs a little tweaking and I feel like I never add enough contrast... Shot at 4k24p roughly 50mm and f/4 or 5.6, can't remember which one as it was getting brighter and my ND only went to 5-stops, so I had to stop down to prevent hotspots on the boats in the BG. Chris

I feel like the team that brought us all the good stuff in M43 has been moved to the full frame side and M43 has been handed off to a bunch of newbies. Nothing they've done lately has made sense. Who asked for this camera? I mean, really?

Normaly i work from blacklevel upwards, that i lower just before legal clipping point. Than lower whites and raise shadows, always in the range of 16-235 in the RGB parade. Finally add contrast and exposure of your taste and ad saturation if nedded.

Yeah, if its cheap as fuck, I might get one too.. though I highly doubt it. So.. no IBIS, no 4k120, no NDs... meh

Another first impression..... I need to test in several conditions, but I’m sure the WB seems slightly off. I balance on a grey card, but then the skin looks too cool etc. This was a problem in previous Sony cameras, so I hope this is user error. There is definitely a tint of yellow in SLOG3. Also, all the codecs besides All-I are uneditable with proxies on my iMac. I’m going to update my Mac to the latest anyway, and I’ll be recording into ProRes on the Ninja besides 4k100. But for the time being, it’s very sluggish with the native H264 / H265 codecs.

Blacks are totally crushed in grade, doesn't look good.

Looks really good. Nice job despite gear issues. chris

First couple shoots, a delicious Czech Pilsner beer canning (unsealed cans are free samples LOL!), and an interview. Both shoots I used 10-bit 4:2:0 h265 to keep file sizes manageable, and since 4:2:2 slows things down a lot it’ll make my life easier with the edit. So far loving the a7s3, IQ is beautiful and the AF is better than anything I’ve ever used. It’s flat out amazing, well worth it to me so far. So glad I pivoted from the R5 preorder to this. All in all very happy. chris

That's what you want to feel in your camera! Did you hear about the Komodo which got stolen at gunpoint? If he'd had an S5 instead, then he could have fought back!

Ok first impression, the body feels like you can actually kill a person with it, the amount of metal feel is quite surprising, my R5 feels quite plasticky in comparison.

So here's a simple story: I was in the market to hire a guy about 4 years ago for a video shoot. A shooter contacted me to inquire about the gig, but had almost no experience with motion pictures. He was just getting into video from photography and he asked me if his lowly Pentax, which only did 60p @720 would be okay. His photos showed that he had a great eye for composition and when we talked about the assignment he explained that he was a video neophyte, but was willing and eager to learn. Seemed like a bit of a risk to hire this dude. After all here was a guy shooting on a decidedly not video-centric DSLR and admitting that video wasn't his main thing. After some coaching, both of us reviewing past examples of the job I was hiring him for, and collaborating about what I wanted to see in the footage, we decided to partner up, and off he went. Meanwhile, I simultaneously hired another guy for the same sort of shoot on the opposite side of the country. Dude made sure to tell me more than once what his list of gear included (would you also like to know about his C300 and PL mount lenses? Apparently he was convinced I did) --and how he was a video professional with years of experience. Sure, he knew what I wanted, not a problem; don't even need to discuss it. After watching past examples of the job and assuring me he could do it, off he went. With that narrative set-up you can probably imagine who delivered spot on incredible b-roll shots that were a bit IQ mushy, but captured great scenarios and emotion --and who gave me a pile of shit footage with no cohesiveness or creativity, (plus couldn't even get the horizon level) but sure looked super sharp with great colors. I don't know if any of this is germane to the thread, but... Here's hoping that niche players like aspiring videographer Phil from North Carolina hang in there...and their camera gear supplier does too.

Is this site now boycotting Canon, after the R5 experience ? It's just that the Canon EOS C70 4K Digital Cinema Camera has been announced and there is no mention of it on this site. It looks pretty good to me, but I was wondering Andrew's take.... 🙂

Discussing C70 ? Sorry, I still can't see where - can anyone just point me there please.. 🙂