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I took this path more than a year ago for several reasons. 1. BRAW. Using BMPCC 4K realized how good BRAW is - various degree of compression and file size - ability to adjust white balance - great support in Davinci Resolve, - smooth playback, scrubbing and editing One of the main reason I've choose Panasonic, instead of Sony or Canon was support of external BRAW recording. Only Panasonic and Nikon cameras had it. But Panasonic support is better as it gives you 6K and no line skipping, auto focus was not a problem for me because can use manual focus for 100% of what I shoot The other reason was price. Even then Panasonic S5 almost new from the box but second hand costed me 1100 Euro. Cheaper than BMPCC 4K which new came at 1400 Euro. If we add speedbooster and monitor price is also pretty much comparable to Panasonic S5 + Video Assist 2. BMPCC 4K is great but it's difficult to shoot without external monitor. Maybe it's just me but without a good 1500+ nits monitor which sits at 45 to 90 degree to the top of the camera or camera + cage + top handle it was really difficult and painful to shoot. In general I find that the most convenient, practical and useful setup for professional or serious shoots is camera + cage + top handle + monitor. It adds weight which is good for stability and it makes shooting so much easier. If we add the monitor to BMPCC 4K, then in terms and weight and size Panasonic S5 + BM Video Assist, suddenly became almost identical to BMPCC + monitor and even more compact in terms of length. Panasonic S5 can be used on most gimbals, BMPCC 4K on just a few. If I stayed only with BMPCC 4K had to buy a new gimbal. Sometimes it is great to be able to shoot with one small camera and lens, similar to the reporter style of Henri Cartier-Bresson. But BMPCC 4K is not good at this. It lacks EVF and is too big in length. Panasonic S5 on the other hand is. For those shoots I can skip the recorder and use 10bit 4:2:2 internal codec which is also very good or simply put the recorder in a bag and have a small and tiny HDMI cable hanging on the side. 3. BMPCC 4K sensor size. I used Metabones speedbooster x0.64 and in term of DOF and bokeh this camera and setup were great. However crop factor is kind of weird - 1.21, can't use my primes lens sets on their specific focal length. No big deal but still kind of problematic. With Panasonic S5 any vintage lens has exactly the same focal length / angle degree it was designed for. Panasonic S5 + BM Video Assist 5'' 12G solves most of BMPCC 4K shortcomings like poor battery life, lack of EVF, IBIS and smaller sensor size. Plus it is a great photo camera on it's own. Plus it could be used without BM Video Assist 5'' and will still give great image quality. Shortcomings of Panasonic S5 + Video Assist: Micro HDMI, always kind of problematic, needs special attention and mini cage with a clamp to hold it on place or micro HDMI to HDMI adapter clamped to a cage as well. You need a bigger bag in order to be able to put camera and recorder together as one piece but same is true for BMPCC 4K + monitor. You have to start / stop two different devices. In general I find S5 + BM Video Assist to be more convenient and enjoyable camera setup than BMPCC 4K + monitor + speedbooster. New S5 II solves the micro HDMI port problem and adds tracking auto focus. Can we call it cinema camera ? Yes, with BRAW it certainly is capable to deliver high picture quality.

So I've been using a bmpcc 4k for nearly 4 months now, and while I love the image from it, the braw codec, and the UI, it definitely has some limitations as a camera with a 5 year old sensor and lacks things I've missed from the GH5 and G9 like IBIS and the ergonomics (I'm not a fan of the P4K body/ergonomics). With the new S5 cameras being released, the used prices of the original have already gone down to tempting prices, so I've been thinking about getting the original S5 and using it with the BM Video Assist 12G. I figured that could be sort of the best of both worlds between mirrorless and cameras the p4k: ibis, braw, prores, bm touch screen UI, less processed/sharpened looking image, an XLR audio interface, options to use SSDs or SD cards, high quality monitor, false color. I was actually thinking maybe the Video Assist would be a worthy investment because I can always use it with different cameras if I decide to switch to something else later. It's almost like a cine cam brain but without being limited to one sensor or lens mount, you can basically use any camera (though not all offer raw, you could still record prores). It turns the S5 into a FF 6K braw cine camera/audio interface it ibis for around $2K. The only tradeoff is rigging and powering a separate device. I was hoping to hear of the user experience from anyone who has used this setup, or if there are caveats I'n not aware of, etc.

Astonishing what this stuff is capable of. And equally astonishing how cheap they can sell it. There were times I assumed Blackmagic had moved into refrigeration - everything is “pretty cool”.

Just watching the live stream and he does confirm a new camera is coming up later in the presentation. It will be upcoming after this extremely awkward "I didn't think this one through properly" presentation of the new ATEM where he is attempting to drive the panel from behind.

This is my thought as well, as a S5 user. The mini HDMI is one of the reasons I don't use external monitors very often on my S5 bodies and will use my GH5 instead when I need to.

Yeah, I don't know the ins and outs of the arrangement but there are certainly slim pickings when it comes to DX lenses in Z mount (although there are a number of them on the lens roadmap) so these Sigma lenses certainly fill a gap for Nikon to encourage sales of the two DX cameras. Canon have the same issue with their RF-S range being small and exclusively fairly slow zooms so could also really do with these Sigma lenses for their R-50. Looks like a triumph of pragmatism over ideology to me but, knowing my terrible prediction skills, Canon will now launch a raft of RF-S lenses next week 🙂

Much better than the GX85 in C-AF - in fact, just used this weekend to film my daughter, and worked very well.

They need to ditch this ridiculous "pocket" design. I hope they release an updated 4K version of the real pocket camera. Also, a Komodo-like, modular box design w/ built in NDs. 6-8K. I don't expect autofocus or any cutting edge technology, but they can make these relatively simple changes.

People from the marketing departments of these companies must read these threads and start furiously pleasuring themselves.