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I'm just on the way home now and look what I've got in my bag 🙂 For me, the clincher was that phase AF works with my old EF lenses with the MC21

Don't be put off by that! I would assume that the observations I make there regarding V-Log colour are the same for other flavours of log, ie: that different methods of gamut conversions (or non-conversions) will be more or less accurate to objective colour. I don't see how working with V-Log would be more difficult than C or S Log.

Well, as you can imagine, I spent the afternoon running towards and away from the camera like a fool, trying to figure out if phase AF work for the EF lenses I own (it does). I would guess at this stage that every EF lens will work with the MC21 and, who knows, possibly with other adapters too. But the important variable is how noisy are they going to be. Up to now, I had been using an old Sigma EF 70-200 2.8 as my main interview lens for corporate/promotional vide. The phase AF works very well on the S5II but the noise of the motor is too loud and distracting to be usable for my work. My other workhorse lens, the Tamron EF 24-70 2.8 is not too noisy, and in APSC mode gives me roughly the field of view that I Iike for interviews. The Canon 24-105 is not too noisy, but I don't really like it (low light transmission and weird non-constant aperture behaviour when stopped down). My only other EF AF lens is a nifty 50 which we already knew works fine from Kai or somebody. This was my motivation to get the S5 II. I had noticed that occasionally I missed focus in interviews if the subject moved a little and I felt that wasn't good enough. Now I don't need to hover near the lens quite so much, sweating bricks if the subject leans forward or takes a half step back. The other thing I began to have a look at was if it would change how I shoot B roll. I was fairly happy with how I pull focus manually previously. Nevertheless, I now have the option use human tracking when shooting B roll of people, and normal tracking when shooting objects. I'm also looking forward to putting phase AF through its paces in trying to nab some shallow DOF shots of my kids running around the place.

The GH6 needs PDAF.

hmm.. but doesn't the Sigma MC-21 adapter kinda invalidate his point? As a Canon user myself, the above AF results on EF adapted lenses are rather impressive and could bait me to switch. I've said it before but the S5ii is the first ever Panasonic camera I've got on my radar. As for GH6, I think its target remains M43 lens lovers. Most of them use manual glass so AF is maybe not as important, and the camera still has some exclusive features such as internal ProRes and the dual gain sensor. I do suspect the very delayed release of S5iiX to be calculated in an effort to avoid cannibalising S5ii & GH6 sales. I find this strategy kinda sneaky. For only $200 extra why would you go with S5ii over S5iiX once both are available? Anyways I look forward in testing out some S5ii Vlog footage. How it grades is really the main question mark I have regarding switching. Hopefully maybe someone here can provide some! 😉

Our man @Andrew Reid is back at it! Also the lighting looks GREAT this time too!

https://9to5mac.com/2023/01/23/m2-max-vs-m1-ultra-prores-video-export/

I would have sworn I have seen the exposure meter on my S5 jump up and down when switching between vlog and the standard profile but as I checked recently, it now also stays fixed on 0. I wonder if it is one of those things they also silently fixed during one of the firmware updates. Or the fix accidentally got included as it is part of a common code base that gets shared between all models. Anyway, it behaves properly now on at least the S5.

Wex in the UK has stock for S5ii next day delivery, unfortunately for me it is still showing as pre-order for the kit with the 2 lenses - has anyone got their hands on one yet? Am interested to see how good the internal audio is - 96khz 24 bit and line level in with supposedly decent pre-amps should hopefully make recording seperate audio a thing of the past, at least for me. Pairing the Canon R6 with my Sound Devices Mix pre-d was quite disappointing and poor quality compared with the mix pre into Sony PCM M10 audio recorder. Panasonic seem to take audio a bit more seriously in their mirrorless cameras so fingers crossed their pre amps will be more comparable to the audio recorder.

Try applying this LUT to your footage on export, (it is in the export window settings in Premiere) https://we.tl/t-eHqZmP04NB It fixes the gamma problem.

Switch to Davinci Resolve....problem solved. Just kidding (but not really). I used Premier for years, got tired of paying the subscription fees, learned Davinci Resolve in 1 week, best decision I ever made. If you shoot LOG with a DR supported camera, DR's managed color is another real time saver; there's also tutorials that help you do the same things you do in Premier in DR; I used a few of those, a few of Blackmagic's training courses, especially on color grading and project setup, and within 1wk could do everything in Resolve that I used to do in Premier. No more endless subscription fees, no more weird render failures, no more crashing, no more forced updates leading to project instability, etc. etc.

Yeah must admit it seems to be the best looking footage I have ever seen out of a Red camera.

R6 has pretty filmic luma noise compared to other R series. C70 has been proven in underexposed tests to not only have a much lower noise floor (thanks to DGO sensor) but also a more filmic noise with no horizontal patterns and low chroma noise which immediately scream digital. Fuji XT series I also found the noise pleasing.