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I had similar thoughts. However, I was most surprised by the AF that looked surprisingly similar given the AF upgrade on the S5ii. Clearly, you'd trust it more in a Youtube situation. However, after watching Blooms' Sony video on "manual autofocus", I decided that manual AF is the way to go, even in 2023 for a lot of content. You end up putting way too much trust in the technology and fiddling around with settings when you could simply do another take if you know you missed it. It would seem there's an unhealthy paranoia around focus in general. Talk to a YouTuber and they'd say it's the most important point on a camera with seemingly higher standards than Hollywood... for YouTube. It's a strange world we live in. Concerning the DR Boost, I was also surprised he didn't use it. He should have because all the frame rates that the S5ii is capable of, the GH6 CAN use DR Boost. Also, that crop for 60fps is only mildly bigger that the GH6 60fps 4K. The IBIS on the S5ii looks good on the wide end, but would seriously doubt the long end looking better than the GH6. Also, they was only 1 shot.

I did a shoot over the weekend that required a lot of zooming in and out. It really made me long for the camcorder days and made me ask myself: why doesn't Panasonic release some power zoom lenses? I know they have a couple of lower end ones for M43 that aren't constant and are very slow, but why no higher end ones? I'd buy a 24-105 f4 power zoom lens for full frame (and a 12-100 f4 for M43) in a heartbeat. I can't be the only one that would either. It'd be the perfect lens for event shooters. Right now Sony is really the only one offering power zooms. I think it's time for Panny boy to get in the game.

I hope you will find this test useful :

This post is available on my blog a little more nicely formatted: Link Trailer for the film The making of RE:ACTING Two weeks ago I wrote a post talking about how we shot our micro-budget short film. I talked about how we planned and shot one scene in the film. I got some questions about where exactly the $3000 budget went, so I'm going to start this post by breaking down our costs. Food & snacks for about 10-15 people per day (cooked in the evenings after the shoot) - $500 Camera equipment was mostly lent to us for free, but in order to move quickly we also had to rent two zoom lenses for seven days - $450 Props & costumes - $400 Location costs (parking, location rent etc..) - $400 Post-production - $1250 Keeping the budget this low was only possible because we were able to borrow a lot of gear, being smart about planning and making deals with other companies. For example, we planned the shoot in June because that’s the month most Swedes are on vacation and we managed to get sponsored by a production company that did not have anything scheduled during the shoot, they would let us borrow most of the camera and lighting equipment for the whole production. Additionally, we managed to save costs on props by negotiating a deal with a company that rents out police gear for film, including cars. Usually this would cost a lot as police gear is highly regulated, but we were able to get what we needed for one day of shooting in exchange for doing a short production for the company. Another place where we had to get creative with costs was locations. As we wanted to shoot a total of 26 scenes in 13 different locations, we had to choose and plan our locations and scenes carefully. Not only did they have to come for free or at least very cheaply, we also had to get to three locations per day with a small crew. In the last post I talked about scene 3 in the film and how we shot it in about two hours from arriving at the location. After Scene 3 we drove about 20 minutes to the next location to shoot Scene 22 where we transformed an inconspicuous location into something that would work for the production in more ways than one. Schedule for day 4 of the shoot Scene #22 Scene 22 is a police interrogation with the main character Karl, where he finally gets the courage to act well and completes his character arc. The good thing about interrogation rooms is that when you really look at them and how they appear in films, they're just rooms with neutral-coloured walls and often a one-way mirror. We realised that all we needed for this location was a white wall and enough space to fit a table and chairs. I figured the common room in the basement of my apartment building would fit our needs, and we could rent it for just $30 a day. The corner where the bed is standing is where we shot this whole scene. Doesn’t look like much when you look at it like this, but just dress it up right and light it with intent and you can make anything work. Dressed up and lit. When I scouted this room there were several things that made me feel like this was going to make a good location: Few, small windows, making it easy to block out sunlight Big space, fitting the whole crew without problem Access to a bathroom and a kitchen so we could break for lunch here. (which we did) Bottom floor, so we could get our equipment in and out of the room quickly. We shot during the daytime, so we had to block out the light from the windows and ended up using just an Astera tube with grid for lighting as well as a floppy for some negative fill. Floor plan & lighting schematic I made ahead of the shoot For this scene we chose to shoot from a 90-degree angle to emphasise the movement when Karl leans forward and takes control of the situation. In contrast to the rest of the film which is shot around 28-35mm, we chose to use a tighter lens to make Karl appear more cramped up and put on the spot. Acting tough Being out-witted These are the two shots that run for most of this scene, and the third shot is of Karl's friend and dim-witted drug dealer Josef who is (poorly) trying to talk his way out of the situation. Josef, the drug dealer This shot we chose to do from head-on with the police in silhouette instead. This is both because Josef is acting as comedic relief in the middle of a tense scene and comedy genereally plays better in a wider shot, and also because we wanted to sell the feeling of it being an actual interrogation room more. Rounding up This interrogation room scene is a simple scene but I still think that many good principles were applied in its planning. We kept the lighting simple, we got a location that was close to the other two locations of the day, we didn’t have to do a lot of rigging, and in the end we shot it in a way that made it a lot more interesting than you’d expect when you saw the room for the first time. So, the next time you’re faced with a scene that you don’t have the budget for. Take a step back and consider what the essential parts of the scene are. Then try to be creative with lighting and blocking to enhance your location. If you do this you can often get away with shooting a scene that you thought was out of your budget. In the third part of this series I’ll give another example of how we got away with shooting a scene that on the surface seems impossible at this budget - an interior scene in a moving car during night time. Josef, shocked that we pulled it off. Again, feel free to reach out to me if you have any specific questions.

I don't find it tedious or convoluted at all, you just have to learn your AF system, set it up in an intuitive way that works for you and practice. After a while it becomes second nature and can become a very powerful tool. A big part of using AF is also knowing when to use it and when to disengage it, I always have a dedicated button to toggle it on/off. Of course it helps how reliable your AF system actually is, if it randomly hunts or switches to another subject, you are screwed. Again that's why subject detection isn't always the best approach. That said I do shoot MF all the time on manual glass, my FS7 and BMD cams. Hate it for handheld run & gun, love it for controlled scenes / static tripod shots. I do like to shoot wide open on fast primes so yeah critical focus is always a concern of mine. YMMV.

Sounds like some of you have been on Panasonic too long. Soon you're going to be nostalgic about DFD contrast AF. j/k He's done videos about how to master DPAF way back during C100 days. And he's right, just like for photography, AF is a tool that demands technique and control. I have an entire camera configuration and method for video AF. I don't believe the camera should ever be in full control of AF, but rather the other way around. Sure many video AF noobs often just rely on auto subject detection but that is not recommended on a pro level. Even the smartest AI can't guess what you want in focus. The operator should always be in control, even when using latest-gen AF.

This! I can't stand this trend. It seems to me this was born of laziness and now is actually expected. Like shooting separate B-roll doesn't even occur to people anymore, since whichever Sony ZV-whatever introduced "product showcase" mode. Now people think holding something up in front of your face at F1.4 is the way it's done, and any camera that doesn't enable this is trash.

Awesome write up, thanks! This is what has been great about this forum. Thank you for your generous contribution. @Maxbrand Interesting enough to me that I assumed you filmed this with the FX6. Don´t know exactely why. But usually it´s the modern look I am associating with the Sony powerhouse. These Asteras are really something. But we all know that.:) Still love the trailer:)

I do not know which is best. Here are real data (not opinions) - 8K video from the Samsung Galaxy Fold4 in bright and dim light. Handheld. My opinion: colors great; stabilization really good, over sharpened. Low-light surprisingly good.

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