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Internal NDs, tilt screen, and dual mini XLR make it worth the extra $500 over the 6K. This is probably the perfect camera for them to release right now.

I'll go further and say there should be a future for M4/3 but might not since Panasonic's backed themselves into a strategic corner. To start with, why should M4/3 hang around? Well, aside from the obvious benefits that it generally yields smaller and lighter camera kits —especially for telephoto—has sufficient image quality for both stills and video and is broadly supported, there’s two other distinct advantages. The first is, for any given sensor generation, a M4/3 sensor will read data off faster. This is where I think the traditional camera makers have gotten lost. Did the stunning jumps in iPhone image quality come from bigger sensors? They’ve gotten marginally larger, but no. The jumps have come from throwing massive amounts of computational power at the data, which means reading it as fast as you can. Blown highlights? Merge multiple exposures. Terrible low-light performance? Same! But with different algorithms. Excessive depth of field? Depth map! A smaller, but still sufficient, sensor like M4/3 fits the computational imaging paradigm better. And as a bonus, they’ll also hold an edge in IBIS, heat generation, and battery drain due to the smaller size and mass. The second is smaller sensors—or more accurately, smaller image circles—have distinct theoretical advantages for lens design. I don’t pretend to understand the theory, though I do know the complexity of making lens elements increases with the cube of its diameter, so all things equal you should get better, smaller, or cheaper lenses for M4/3 for any given field of view versus larger formats. Which leads to the tragedy of Panasonic going the L mount route (in the dumb business decision sense, not Romeo and Juliette). I get the rationale of wanting to consolidate their cinema and Lumix lines on one mount, and the logic m4/3 was too small for the former. The problem was they picked a sensor size, 135 format, putting them in direct competition with Sony and Canon, who offered, or were inevitably going to offer, soup to nuts mirrorless solutions, picked a mount designed for APS-C, and stranded their entire current user base. Heck of a job, guys. Worse, since L mount is now their halo product, they’ll be loathe to undercut it by offering better features on m4/3, even if they’re technically feasible. So a GH6 that substantially outperforms the S1 or S1H? Probably not going to happen, even if S series sales continually underperform. But I would love to be proved wrong.

More like; paid myself 24k less last year and my business went 9k into debt with a loan. 1/3rd of this year’s bookings have already either postponed or cancelled so as things stand, it’s either going to be a case of 50% as bad as last year, or worst case, 100% as bad. The ONLY reason I am even looking beyond my S5 (plural once business does get going again) is the reliability of the tracking AF and actually, it’s not enough to get in a pickle about. It does everything else I both want and need it to. Ah well, c’est la vie. I’m still interested to see exactly what the FX3 turns out to be though it seems pretty much most of it is now known, but financially, not only does it not make sense, it’s not even doable. Also curious about Sigma’s FP-L announcement, next week I think...

There can be a future for M43, it just really depends on if Panasonic wants there to be one and if they're willing to pull out all the stops. Everyone has caught up or surpassed them, so they need to do something that grabs people's attention like they did for the GH4 and GH5. 3 years ago I'd have said there is little doubt that they will but then came the LX100 II, G95, and G100. Those releases pained me as a Panasonic user because of how underwhelming they were, particularly given how interested I was in the LX100 II and G95. Things like eND, internal ProRes (even if not Raw), proxy recording (especially if they go with 8K), and other higher end features need to be seriously considered. And it needs to be competitively priced. You may never be able to win over the people that refuse to use anything other than full frame, but there are a lot of people that don't care about sensor size and care more about what it can do more than anything. I think the Pocket 4K and 6K, and even the ZCams, have shown that to be true. If your provide value it will succeed. If you don't then it won't. One thing is for sure, at least for me: if they let M43 go out with a whimper I don't see myself going with Panasonic or the L-mount. As much as I love my Panasonic cameras and as much as I'm tempted by their FF offerings, I'd really feel as though they abandoned us loyal M43 users. I also have my doubts about the L-mount in general, and Panasonic in particular. The alliance doesn't seem very unified, Panasonic lenses are still very expensive compared to their Sony equivalents, and Panasonic's stubbornness when it comes to AF in my opinion has become a serious detriment to the brand at this point. As much as I hate to admit it, the influencers have influenced people into making it into THE selling point and it's impossible to ignore how many people, from larger to smaller YouTubers, have left Panasonic. It's pretty much the first thing people tell me they want more when asking for camera recommendations. As much as it shouldn't, that stuff matters a lot now. I'm watching for developments and already looking at plan b myself. Plan b is just trying to decide between Sony and Fuji, though the unlimited recording with Sony makes it the favorite which doesn't make me very happy.

Here is my preliminary setup. This little setup here is amazingly powerful.

Recently I've been playing around with modifying a sub-$100 action camera, and have been having more fun than I have in a long time. What is the most fun piece of equipment or rig that you have had, or used? Why? What made it fun? Post some pictures! Here's my "cinematic beast" with a few M12 lenses in front of the GH5 for scale: and here's the most recent video I shot with it: Shooting with this thing is so much fun because no-one takes a camera the size of a box of matches seriously, and assumes that the lens is really wide (it's about a 60mm equivalent FOV so it's really not that wide) and the only controls you get are on/off, record/stop, and where you aim it. What has put a smile on your face?

Fair point. Sorry if I misjudged.. That said, I'm no longer one to complain about spending now. That new Pocket 6K Pro just announced will be preordered by me once I can. I'm hopeful some work will come from this year and I've still got savings to pay for it. I'll take a chance and hope like you did last year that things will play out. I'll probably pick up some Corporate work once lockdown ends I the UK as I did last September.

I’m wondering if the new design is part of a future FF EF mount model with internal ND?

More DR does not make an image look better, as there is so much more that goes into it. The entire Lumix line has more DR than all the BM line, yet Blackmagic looks better. Even the first pocket camera with it's 10 stops beat out many cameras that came after it.

For sure. I understand BRAW is a killer and in some cases decision making feature. But DR is such an important feature for the "look" of the camera and I think that is something a lot of people don't discuss enough with the c70. Pocket 6k is great, but it is still using a Sony based sensor that has less DR. Regardless, you are right and for many people a pocket 6k makes more sense for the money. For me, I am a solo shooter on a gimbal who has invested in RF glass shared with my R5. So auto focus and RF are very important for me. But, I still think if you are ok paying more - the sensor, auto focus, and battery life without a need for a grip, could make it worth it. Also, though there is no raw, the CLOG 2 out of the C70 is mind blowing.

Taking away a major internal feature from the P6K to make your argument doesn't really work, though. For my money, two P6K Pros are worth more than one C70. You may feel differently. Everyone has a different balance they need to reach.

Do we not care anymore about the actual inside of cameras anymore? Last I checked the C70 has a 16 stop DGO sensor found in a $10k cinema camera. It also has 10 stop of ND vs 6 stop. 3 hour battery life with no need for a battery grip. Far superior mount in the RF. It also has a button for every single thing you could want. I would pay more just for the DGO sensor alone. Pocket 6k pro is an amazing deal. But, minus BRAW, C70 is better in almost every single way.

It really is remarkable how opposite their body designs are from their OS. One is ugly as sin, the other is truly elegant. Unless you need auto focus it's hard to justify getting the C70 over this. There's A LOT of value in this. $2,500 for all of that is a tremendous value.

Oh this is what I want. Pocket 6K Pro takes all that was good with the Pocket cameras and added ND and tilt screen thats better to view in sunlight. Okay, I need to learn more, but if this holds up, this is the camera I need.

I dunno - it's definitely the camera Batman would use.

Yes!! Not a very pretty camera though lol

I was about to be furious about the Extreme's pricing until he said that there was a separate ISO model. I already begrudgingly sold my Atem Mini Pro when the ISO came out only months later so the thought that they'd add 4 more inputs for only $100 more was giving me flashbacks. The two new models seem very well priced/specced.

To bring this roughly back to the FX3, I just wanted to mention that for me, Assimilate Scratch is a great piece of software for ingesting ProRes Raw from the Sony cams and getting the maximum dynamic range and image quality out of them. It then allows going into Resolve, or Nuke, of course. For my tests, I've exported from Scratch as ACES OpenEXR, which is the biggest bucket possible for dynamic range and wide colour gamut, so I'm confident I'm getting the most the camera has to offer. I accept that other people are probably looking for more convenience, though.

Actually ended up buying the olympus 12mm f2. Gave it a bit of a test run in the shop, poked it out the window took a few shots. Looking forward to picking it up in a week or two. I think it weighs about 130 grams so still inside the weight constraints.

In church 30 grad celcius with A6400 2 hours with no problem. Maybe with Ibis on A6600 is different ??

What exactly are you shooting such that you're using 5x FS700R? Pity about Caleb making them popular again, if not for him, your average price could've been HALF that!

Remember the Panasonic Varicam S35 is even older than the EVA1, and it still has seen no new release to replace it. But then again, they're still seeing usage! I'm about to start this week on a popular tv series shooting this season with 3x Panasonic Varicam S35 cameras.

Bang for buck with a tight tight budget, you still can't beat a Panasonic G85. You might even want to go cheaper, and check out a G7, leaves more spare dollars in the budget (which will disappear faster than you think). Just spend zero dollars on audio, and get someone else to do it instead.

I'm here all week - tell your friends!

The Af is substandard compared to other cameras, no doubt about that. And full frame is indeed where the other competitors are headed. But for hybrid shooting, the S-Series of cameras are really good. I am really impressed by VLOG at ISO 4000. The S1H has 6K internal, and that is coming to the S1 in the next firmware update (this spring?!?!?!) The Panasonic lenses (although there aren't that many of them) are great for shooting video (as long as you get things in focus). Minimal focus breathing, near parfocal performance on the zooms, linear focus, adjustable amount of focus throw. Maybe no one cares about that but people like me. Which is a way of saying, yes, the full frame cameras need to be significantly better to grab a larger part of the market. The thing is, for m43 (and for Panasonic in particular), they really are only missing: 1) Great AF 2) Better Low-light / high iso 3) Better dynamic range / lattitude 4) More AI features??? 5) 6K internal? 6) ProRes Raw over HDMI So they are going to be dependent on what Sony or any other chip fabricator comes up with. (An m43 sensor with dual gain optimization like the Canon C70 has would be great and would take care of #2 and #3 above).

Maybe a Panasonic G9 with a Panasonic 12-60mm f3.5-5.6 from the used market

That's a very good idea. I'll have to talk to the client about whether this works for the project, but it would solve the problem and help bring context to some of the pieces we're going to use.

Their expectations about the color grade, that's a good one. The more I think about it, the more I realize I'm beating myself up over nothing. This client is currently having me edit short videos sent in by authors and musicians on random phones and cameras in random resolutions (lots of 720p, even 960 X 540 or 568 x 320 for crying out loud, in a 1080 timeline). Some of the video landscape, some is portrait. Half is shot way too dark so the noise is insane. They don't notice, or don't seem to care. Their pain threshold for video quality is really high. Mine isn't. That's why I was worrying. I shouldn't. I'm not going to really mess with WB or levels too much with this one. It should be fine.

Easily my Laowa 24mm f/14 Probe Cine lens. Macro, built in LED lights, and the end is waterproof. So many amazing things you can do with it. (not my footage, but shows some of the awesome stuff you can do with it)

Based on information coming from OM Digital Solutions it looks like a new sensor is coming later this year in an updated E-M1X. With their renewed focus on wildlife I would think this sensor would have a faster readout like a99/a1. I would expect to see the GH6 around the same time with the same sensor. https://www.43rumors.com/qa-with-om-digital-solutions-uk-hints-a-new-high-end-e-m1xii-might-be-coming/

It is not ridiculous in the slightest. Heck, there are even pro lenses which are f5.6!! F-Stop has relatively little to do with if they're "pro" or not.

Currently in the honeymoon phase with my FS5. I bought mine mid summer last year and it took a couple of months to get the images I wanted from it. Here's a mix of games I shot a few weeks ago. 10 bit 422 240fps in 1080p with no crop has been amazing. Variable ND filter is a game changer as well. FS7 dropping in price is tempting ngl, but the FS5 is so much smaller and easier to travel with. FX9 inside of an FS5 body (which is definitly possible) is my dream camera. Great DR, class leading cine cam autofocus, class leading cine cam lowlight performance with dual native iso, variable ND, great mic preamps, and a rugged body. 😵

Recently, I modified an old projector to scan super 8 frame by frame. I had the support of one of the most charismatic members of this community. It was a fun project!