Leaderboard

No surprises here, but I'd say it's the Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera. A modular cinema camera under $1000 brand new, uncompressed Cinema DNG RAW at 60p, and a beautiful image. The image doesn't look like that second generation iPhone or camcorder that Canon love to imitate when clipped either.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMb6CR781Kc With Resolve it superscales to 4K beautifully too. You don't actually want 4K, you just got trained by the camera brands that 1080 is bad because they compress the absolute living crap out of their images - no-one is rejecting the Alexa 1080p because it's not 4K! With great quality RAW images you can push and pull them in post and they keep on giving and this is pretty darn close to that... Plus it's the easiest camera to grade that I have ever seen. Great images just appear when you drop a LUT or CST onto them, rather than struggling for hours to get good colours.

There are some things in life that are only highly rated in your head and yours alone. You stand drowning in a sea of indifference, trying to convince the resident Kanye West mouthbreather to listen Dream Theater's first album. With cameras for example, I've stood in the sea of indifference myself for a long time with the waves of stupidity lapping at my feet, making my socks all damp, as I try to convince the mainstream that Sony is not your best buddy, despite what Gerald says and that Canon is not the messiah but a very naughty boy! So here are my top 5 most under appreciated cameras of the current era. Please read on. Reading is also very underrated! New blog post: https://www.eoshd.com/news/what-are-the-5-most-underrated-cameras-for-filmmakers/

Just picked one up for GBP1025 including VL upgrade, so have read this whole thread. Looking forward to getting my hands on it. Anyone want to buy a FS5 Mk1 with RAW upgrade?

I for one wouldn’t disagree with you. Stupid stupid stupid contrived business decisions that really do not deserve rewarding…but at the same time, for most users real world needs, I couldn’t disagree with you and it would be in a race…which it would likely win, with the XT4, for being my choice if the S1H didn’t exist. The win would be mostly down to the glass options.

Yes, it does. 🙂 With firmware coming on 10th of July, Panasonic made Lumix S1 irresistible to me. Full frame 6K BRAW from a camera that has gorgeous EVF, best in class IBIS (not that important to me, but thank you), 10bit 4:2:2 internal for the projects where BRAW is not needed, great low light, 60p, the list goes on. And all this for less than 2500 Euro (Panasonic S1 camera + Blackmagic Video Assist 12G 5inch Recorder and Monitor). It's a great value and incredibly good camera for video and very capable for photo. It's underrated because of the auto focus. But hey I use manual focus lenses all the time. Wish Panasonic to stay in this game. We need them.

Yeah, I was able to make it relatively easier on myself to switch from M43 to L-mount in part because the only native M43 lens I have is the kit lens that came with my G85. The lens kit I built for myself was comprised entirely of vintage SLR lenses from the M42 and Minolta MD mounts and were easily adaptable to the L-mount. I'm currently unable to autofocus with the S1 because of that, for obvious reasons, but then I rarely ever used autofocus with the G85 anyway. It really is crazy just how much new life Panasonic breathed into the S1 with Firmware 2.0. I've no doubt that we'll see plenty of more advanced models with even better specs come out in the relatively near future, but practically speaking I could absolutely get away with using the S1 as my main camera without upgrading for a good 3-5 years or so. Perhaps even longer once I pick up a Blackmagic Video Assist 12G recorder to utilize the camera's RAW output capabilities.

As a GH5 owner, I've watched Panasonic gradually improve the colour bit-by-bit with every new camera they've released, and they've really taken it to a nice place now I must say. The GH5 still gives spectacular images, but I must say that with the colour science improvements of the newer models that the grass is getting greener. If I didn't have to spend thousands and/or buy all new glass then I'd be tempted. Of course, considering I haven't shot anything in the last 18 months due to covid, it'd be hard to justify upgrading from a camera which is ageing rather than wearing out. I bought the Voigtlander 42.5mm f0.95 and Laowa 7.5mm F2 lenses in 2019 and haven't used them on a trip yet!

I'll go out on a limb and say that the Canon R5 is the most underrated HYBRID camera, especially after seeing how the A7sIII practically took over the Youtube circle jerk crowd in the blink of an eye. The R5 got rightfully panned because of the overheating failure and extremely poor marketing, but take another look at it now. It's a brilliant stills camera with great autofocus, colors and resolution and the shutter sound is subliminal. It's also a 10bit 422 video camera that I for the life of me can't get to overheat when recording 4K standard (which I know is softer which I actually prefer) and the s35 oversampled crop mode is rock solid, it doesn't overheat no matter how hot the ambient temperatures are. Still better colors than Sony, very good rolling shutter performance and a huge amount of glass if you are willing to use adapters. And it feels like a camera, the ergos are perfect.

Honestly I think what hurts Panny’s L-Mount beasts is their very own S1H perched high atop the pile. It deserves to be there, but a LOT of folks tend to shop between flagships, ignoring tertiary models. In reality… The S1/S5/S1R compare to everyone else’s lineups, and the S1H just… sits in its own tier. If they had sorted the AF, I’d probably have procured two and hung up my camera shopping hat for the next two decades.

It really is crazy how great of a value the S1 is, especially used with the V-Log upgrade already installed. I went from using a G85 to the S1 and while I've done good work with the former camera, there really is a noticeable difference in capability that the S1 provides.

Yeah I am pretty mad at Canon for not offering a RAW output on the C70. Pretty much every other camera company is offering a RAW output or internal RAW these days. I'd rather shoot on my S1 with an external recorder for half the price of the C70. The C300 is a nice option but they should have went with an RF mount. I guess its nice that they used the same sensor as the C300 MK3 in the C70 at a much lower price point. Product segmentation is just such a ridiculous idea when the customers are aware of it.

Unlimited 4KHQ and 8K recording - No mods needed! Just know where the heat building up is coming from. https://youtu.be/IM3ulAK5f8k

Someone woke up this morning feeling cheerfully bright and optimistic!

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.

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!

Hello, I wanted to share with you a vid we filmed over a day a few weeks ago about Alzheimer's. Let me know if you have any questions about it.