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Live update from the counter of the shop as I’m making the purchase. It has very much NOT gone as expected. More news to follow

@Geoffrey there's also the idea that you upgrade to keep your investment at a certain level. When a new camera comes out, the old model's value goes down quick. If you don't need the upgrades and don't plan on needing anything more for a few years, then yes... you might as well keep it. Who cares if the used value drops in half over the next year. But in some instances small upgrades can eventually allow you to afford a higher price bracket of cameras. So if you sell the S5 now, you may get $1000 for it and you'd only need to shell out $800 for the new camera. If you wait a year, you may have to shell out more. If you skip a generation entirely, you may have to shell out a fortune more. With that said, I've been shooting with the same camera for almost 6 years, so every case is different. Good luck.

This for me and this only. It has to be quantifiable. I just traded 2x (used) S1R’s plus 65mm and 24-105mm lenses, for another (used) S5ii and a (used) 70-200 f4 because it will both make my actual shoot workflow better and improve my end output. Ie, less kit to carry (2 bodies + 2 lenses swapped for 1 body + 1 lens) and fumble about with, but extends my focal range from what was capped at 105 up to 200. Less fumbling about = both less fatigue and more focus which = greater creativity which = more/better material to then work with…which should lead to an elevated level of output that will increase my own job satisfaction plus attract an ever higher quality of client with ever higher budgets. It all boils down to making decisions that either have a high probability of, or even better, a guarantee of making ‘everything’ work better for you. But if it ain’t broke… and in your case @Geoffrey it sounds like it ain’t broke.

I'm not across the details of the S5 vs S5ii, but as a general rule I think you should only upgrade equipment when the upgrade will fix an issue that you routinely have when using your existing equipment, or it would increase the quality of your output in some way that matters to you (e.g. can you charge more, or get the same result in less time, etc). This philosophy helps cut out the temptation to upgrade because the grass seems greener, the manufacturers marketing looked enticing, or you are playing 'what if', which are all normal human reactions and completely understandable, but don't actually help in being more effective/efficient.

I've shot projects in prores where I've changed the WB in post, often significantly, and found it to be really easy to work with. So easy to work with that it made me quite angry with the entire rest of the camera industry for not implementing codecs and colour science that was easier to work with. If BM can do it with a Prores file in 2013 then WTF are the manufs doing in 2023 when the WB slider is just a slider to make footage look like crap... It's one of the things that made me realise that all the modern cameras are flawed crap and the reason we use them is that we have Stockholm'd ourselves into being ok with it.

To further reinforce @bjohn s comment about Prores, my experience with it has been that it's as easy to grade as the RAW, and doesn't seem more processed, so if you haven't tried it then it's worth giving it a go and seeing what you think. I'm happy to shoot a few test clips if you're not able to.

Actually I will elaborate on just how long it has taken me, but as briefly as possible… I was shooting Fuji hybrid up to 2019, but that system did not quite have the set up it offers today. I had big (creative) plans for 2020, but Covid reduced my booked weddings from 30 to just 1. I then took the opportunity to switch to Lumix and the S5. With hindsight, that was a sideways step. It was all supposed to then happen with the 2021 season but again, Covid did for it with what ended up as 5/30 and another frustrating year. 2022? So swamped with work it was an exercise to simply keep my head above water. No complaints about having work but there’s having work and bouncing off burn out and that is no good for creativity. 2023? OK start but the first few jobs I found I was still wrestling with the gear, despite thinking I had cracked it over the Winter. Paper plans and all that… I then cracked my own personal formula needs and again, with hindsight, it seemed so obvious but that’s how it goes sometimes. I’m currently waiting on one tiny piece of kit I can easily live without but otherwise I have finally been able to flip that creativity switch I wanted to turn on 3+ years ago. We get there in the end… The S5ii has been a large part of the puzzle.

Thanks all, sound advice indeed! And MrSMW totally agree about less fumbling about - I have spent the last year trying to ensure my setup incurs the least fumbling as possible, mainly so I can focus on creativity and helping the 'talent' feel easy and attended to. The biggest aim was to be able to mount the rig on the tripod then when desired, simply lift the whole thing off with one hand and carry on as before. I even sized up the dimensions of the bag so the rig can already be setup so I just have to lift it out the bag virtually ready to go.

I’ll find out soon ! Judging by the release notes for the latest firmware there are still a few known issues. One known issue they solved in this release is that you can now have two rather than one BLE timecode equipped device synced to it. That there was any limitation to one was unknown to me and increasing it to two is a bit of a limitation. I’m guessing they still want people to buy an UltraSync Blue to act as a hub to increase capability up to seven (one direct and six using the UltraSync Blue as a hub for the other six) There is always some niggle with Atomos products. https://f002.backblazeb2.com/file/atomos-uploads/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/02174154/AtomOS_10.92.00_NINJAV_Release_Notes.html

Agree with kye. In my case the EVF, AF, punch in to check focus while recording and 6K were compelling reasons. The fan a bonus piece of mind although I’ve never had problems with over heating even when filming in 35-40 degrees for long periods of time.

And in Davinci Resolve you can use the chromatic adaptation mode to get color-space-aware WB changes.

C300II gets it right, but then not completely so with its mush under certain lowlight conditions. @kye Which exact conditions that would be, I´ve always been wondering about ever since though. They srcewed that one up more than called for.:) Cine 4K seems allright. Or recording externally like with the Cinealta F3 but then you could get a F3 instead, the F3 being much cheaper and providing an HD image just as beautiful without the mush. Too bad no 2K just HD. No 4K is fine with me. Like with the BMMCC, to get back on topic. That one should have had 2K I must complain!:)

There are a couple of threads on the BMD cinematography forum with details on which cards work for which formats, and I saw a link to a youtube video as well. Here is the youtube:

The most reliable ones I've found so far are the Angelbird cards, which they have only tested for the original Pocket but I can vouch that they work on the BMMCC although I haven't tested 60fps since I almost never use slow motion. I got two of the 128 gig cards from them a couple of years ago and they've been rock solid. If I remember correctly 60fps is not available in uncompressed raw anyway, I think you can shoot it in CDNG raw 3:1 and ProRes, but I haven't checked the manual to confirm. You may have to check with Angelbird directly to see if they still have these cards available; for a while they had removed them from their website but when I wrote to them they said they still had a good number of them and sold two to me. As far as I know, no new cards support 60fps on the BMMCC; only the old SanDisk ones that were approved by BMD. I have a stash of those that I use along with the Angelbirds. The cheapest cards I found that worked were the Kingston Canvas Select, but mine only lasted a year before giving up the ghost. Those were reliable for ProRes and CDNG up to 30fps but I did occasionally get frame drops in raw at 30fps and even once or twice with ProRes. If you don't mind ProRes, the way to extend the lifetime of this camera is to get one of BMD's newer video assists or another external monitor/recorder that records ProRes; those can accept modern SD cards.

If you absolutely promise that you won’t want to pan/tilt while recording then a geared head might well be the solution for you. The venerable Manfrotto 410 will support up to around 5kg and won’t break the bank.