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In my point of view, I don't know why the AF discussion have to be so binary. Never use AF x always use AF. Manual focus with a good focus puller will always be preferred in professional cinema. It is a well trained skill from the professional focus pullers, it is cheaper to pay a focus puller (considering all the other costs involved) that have to reshoot constantly because of an unexpected AF behaviour, and it offers somre focus creative choices that you could not have (or that would be difficult to reproduce) with an AF system. AF is very useful in solo shots, low budget productions, solo vlogging, or when you don't have or can't pay a focus puller. Or when your production don't have very critical focus nailing needs. Both are more or less adequate depending on your budget / needs. Hence Alexas don't have AF; and hence solo / action /vlogger shooters wants good AF. Different situations, different needs. But with hybrid cameras, that generally are used in lower budget scenarios, AF tends to cover more use cases. And if you have good AF, you can still use MF - the reverse, not. That why Panasonic needs a good and reliablish AF system. Arri not.

The challenge is that the camera must know who to focus on and when. This is essentially an impossible thing, especially for narrative. Imagine a shot with a composition like this, but where only one character is in focus at a time: The background character starts in focus... BG: You've screwed everything up....... I can never trust you again pause FG: I'm sorry When should the AF change focus from the BG character to the FG character? The answer is, it depends on the director. It could change during the pause in 1, before 2, after 2, in reaction to 3, or not at all. If the answer is anything before 3 starts speaking then how the hell could a camera know that this was the moment to transition focus???? This is the fundamental challenge of AF. Anyone who doesn't understand this doesn't understand how to use focus as a creative tool in a film. Lots of people don't need to know this of course, but I find that even in making videos of my family this stuff becomes relevant, which is hardly the pinnacle of the art form.

I have a feeling we will see a new sensor from blackmagic soon as the ursa mini 4.6k and 6K sensors are quite old (in bm terms). So I might hold on till the end of summer.

The URSA has SDI out and will give you monitoring options without slow latency issues. If you are a solo shooter the P6K pro is definitely superior. Smaller and gives you everything you need. Super bright sharp built in screen, EVF if wanted, 6K, 3200 iso, internal ND's. If you need a camera that is suited for a more professional environment the URSA is superior. It's just made for that purpose. The P6K has only a single HDMI out. Rolling shutter is another issue. The P6K has pretty noticeable rolling shutter where the URSA has a super fast readout, like an Alexa. You also get 4k 120fps on the URSA. Handheld on the URSA looks much more organic but you can work around that by uses stabilized Canon lenses on the P6K. The Pocket 4k is a great camera if you can get by without internal ND's. Its got a fairly fast readout so the rolling shutter is much less noticeable than on the P6K. You actually get a wider FOV with a speed booster on the P4K as well, close to full frame on the .64 metabones ones. You save some space with data on the P4K and 4k is a bit easier on the editing software. Color is better on the P6K, the low light performance is a bit better, it also has more dynamic range. The Pocket 6k actually has better dynamic range than the URSA, tho I think the URSA looks a bit more organic.

Perhaps first ask yourself, why "upgrade" from your P4K? What is it not doing for you? Is it even necessary to get anything else?

This right here. I am not enjoying your rants, Andrew, because (a) it’s a losing game, (b) makes you come across as bitter and (c) doesn’t seem to be your ‘groove’ and doesn’t accentuate your differentiation and strength. Whether you are right or wrong isn’t the point; you can’t change the rules of the game and it doesn’t make for entertaining content. In my opinion, your strength is the intersection point between technology and creativity (I would love to see more of the latter to balance the tech side). You aren’t competing with bloggers, YouTube’s or even cinematographers if you create your own category. And that doesn’t mean you can’t voice a strong opinion as part of your concept. I just would rather see you fight FOR something instead of AGAINST.

Nikon today launched the Z Fc. Formerly the Df retro plastic camera, Nikon has improved the concept with even more plastic and a smaller sensor. You can feel the retro authenticity during each buzz of the power zoom and the flappy plastic concealing a port used for live streaming. It's every film camera shooter's dream Minox Nikon! --- What did Df stand for anyway? What does Fc mean? Fruit cake? Football club? Are you OK Nikon??

It's certainly far noisier than the in-camera codecs, that's for sure. But most of the time I'm lowering the ISO in post quite a bit anyway, and I actually quite like the textured, much more organic feel, at least for certain projects. It feels like there's an added depth and thickness to the images that I'm a fan of.

There is a shit ton of noise in ProRes RAW! I did a shoot in the daytime and I had to run it through Neat Video for a few fucking days because it was for a corporate client that had been spoiled by the S1H noise free image. That was the first, and maybe the last time I use ProRes RAW on corporate work.

Yeah, plus, our F3 thread needs more input. I just cannot get myself to be lugging around that heavy sister so I rather grab my S1 for filming fun.

The world is full of people telling other people what to do. Don't be one of them.

Some of you guys seriously need to get a sense of humour.

I heard a rumor that Panasonic have been in discussion with the Jedi Council (after The Dark Side, Sony, told them to, “go do one”…the evil bastards) in regard to potentially using The Force in order to improve their autofocus. Above is a pic sourced by @kye that supports this. Never mind PDAF, it’s TFDAF we want.

Ohhhh... please start a new thread documenting your journey! Should be fascinating to follow along.

Gerald’s review of the fp is based off his usage, which is a personal thing and since he’s influential, his personal tastes are passed on to the sheep of the earth. For my personal needs, this camera exceeds plenty! I had the chance to purchase a BMD12K, Komodo, a GFX100 and a FX9, but decided on a pair of Sigma cameras. A fp and fpL kitted out with some lenses from Irix and Dulens. I also paired them with two Atomos Ninja Vs. I really watch these YouTubers just to get perspective. I make up my mind by simply testing and knowing what fits the workflow I want to use.

Bumping this, because I'm not sure it needs a whole new post. The second trailer is now finished, but I'd love some opinions before it goes 'live'. All comments and feedback welcome and encouraged!

I am about to upgrade to the 10 year old Alexa Classic. 😆

Ah, FML! I just reformated the cards for a shoot tomorrow. Hope the guy who DIT'ed the job copied the whole cards, but I bet he didn't. Luckily it's not essential. He can always use foley.

I have been saying this for a long time, the focus peaking on the S5 is horrible to the point of unusable; I have to punch in to focus and it seems that then sometimes focus peaking is decent but its still better to just look at the screen and try to gauge sharpness that way. The focus peaking is definitely nowhere near as good as the GH5.