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That 20mm Lumix pancake was a gem. It isn't all about size of course, but about differentiating your toolset from the others. There's a market for all sorts if it makes sense. Shoehorning a M43 mount onto an S5 II speaks of a lack of ideas or clear differentiation. A competitor like Panasonic on 4-5% market share vs Canon at 45% needs those unique selling points. They can't just copy Canon and Sony. It all goes to show that Panasonic have completely lost sight of what made Micro Four Thirds special. It's one thing for the S5 II to be full frame with large lenses, and a body that isn't nearly as compact as the full frame cameras I've pictured above alongside! It can get away with it because insanely good value for money is on offer, and you're getting the largest possible sensor for the money and best image quality. Lacking in the charm department though. Let's take a look back through memory lane to when Panasonic was one of the most creative and differentiated manufacturers vs the boring samey DSLRs. This thing was a true one off, a thing of beauty and speaks volumes about Japanese design culture. It does not kowtoe to the Americans in the slightest bit. Once LUMIX in the US realised their customers just want to turn up in front of a client with the most "PRO" and biggest intimidating piece of kit imaginable (think RED), all that went out the window. You have to partially blame the customer. People do not value the more interesting designs in significant enough numbers, at least not in the same volume as they value BIG PRO DICK SWINGING COMPETITIONS I could think of a GAZILLION designs of camera that GH6 sensor would be more at home in and more interesting in. At least Fujifilm continue to stick to their guns and bring out systems that make sense. Hell, they even have a medium format PANCAKE! I absolutely love the design of the GFX 100 II and that thing is tiny compared to what medium format used to be or a large format cinema camera. If you're going to go DSLR size then it has to either be all out like the GFX 100 II or a Sony a1, or good value for money with sensible compromises. What I don't get with Panasonic though is a sense of culture in their products any more. The S5 body was never that well designed in the first place or satisfying to pick up. It felt like the team behind the G100 got a promotion. That thing is basically a Canon G5X knock off in the design and ergonomics department. It has no soul. You only see the abyss when you look at it. The capitulation of Micro Four Thirds as a system. When I look at the S5 II and G9 II I see a well meaning intention and to deliver to a certain price. It is by no means a bad deal, but what happened culturally at Panasonic to go from a GH1 or LC1 to a fucking G100!?

I'm not sure who's more excited about this really. You for receiving your new camera or the rest of this forum that a new member started a thread asking for camera buying advice and then didn't disappear never to be heard from again. Well done on both fronts !

As you can see here with this Sony rep and his Zeiss CZ.2 lens, shaving those precious millimetres off the camera has revolutionised the way he shoots. And that is before you even get to the main raison d'être of a 1.4kg weight saving vs VENICE 2. That 1.4kg is crucial and a game changer when you have 35kg of tripod head, rails, cages, matte box, monitors, EVF and lens attached. He must really feel the difference in his back all day long. Here is one of our most adventurous and creative shooters, Nino. As you can see the size of the BURRITO is once again a total game changer here as it allows the lovely new Cooke to move back a few cm making it necessary to break your wrist to reach it. The added advantage here is that your hand forms a lens hood, reducing that nasty flare from the single coating! And as we can see, the ENG style rig high up on the body definitely isn't unbalanced with a high centre of gravity from all the shit mounted on the top handle! Finally we have the more minimal rig here. The 2.8kg BURRITO clearly needs the 68 rods under it and a tripod head the size of a bus. Otherwise the whole thing would collapse, giving an unprofessional aura to the shoot. I think that is an absolute brick of a battery on the back which is all part of the absolute game changing form factor as a cinema camera. Have you EVER seen a rig like this before!? REVOLUTIONARY!!! Yours for only $25,000! *Or just get a Sony a1 with same sensor from cash converters

Hopefully it will be BMD's response to the Sony BURANO Camera! 😉

In another forum when people were speculating that it would probably just be ‘broadcast stuff’ John Brawley said “it will be worth watching” . As we know he’s pretty heavily involved in Blackmagic Cinema line cameras so 🤞

Panasonic has partnered with DJI to integrate their LIDAR technology, which when coupled with a focus motor, can do AF on any manual focus lens. The technology is coming. Ironically, if Panasonic releases this soon, they'll be the only manufacturer who provides easy AF on MF lenses, and then we'll see if all the Sony/Canon PDAF folks obsessed with plant-eye-detect-AF switch over because Panasonic would have the best AF in town....

Maybe the BURANUS? "Where the black magic happens" 😄

I often wondered what would come first, Panasonic putting PDAF in an MFT camera or aliens being discovered. Based on whats going on in Mexico today it looks like Panasonic just about won that contest. Maybe the aliens had them under an NDA.

Nino is a trained poser 🙂 The a1 aside from the price has no weakness at all and is invincible. 8K, but it doesn't sacrifice low light like you'd think it would, or introduce bad rolling shutter. 4K but not capped at 30 or 60...it's 120p. 4K 120 from a 50 megapixel full frame sensor is end game for me. I don't need higher numbers until the next end game comes out! Brilliant AF even with the Leica M thingy They fixed something big in the colour science / sensor readout and so no complaints there & that firmware update with the chunky 422 codec allows it to compete with RAW without the massive file sizes. No complaints with the excellent EVF, battery life, compact size and weight, overheating, etc. Maybe the one niggle for me is that the clear-image zoom in 4K for Super 16mm lenses doesn't 'stick' when you power cycle the camera, so takes a few extra taps to put it in Micro Four Thirds 2x crop mode for those lenses. Also perhaps it could have done with that magic eND mythical unicorn tech or a way to simulate the look of 180deg shutter somehow. Actually it does have a few other downsides but they're not dealbreakers for me: - Doesn't have anamorphic open gate - No in-camera LUT support - Firmware updates a bit thin on the ground from Sony - EVF res can drop when it is autofocusing

Great thorough review. This seems like one of the best ones. Hopefully someone tests the G9ii's video quality with the GH6 (I suspect it may have slightly cleaner video and thus slightly better dynamic range). P.S.: That streaking issue has been fixed in the G9ii. I really feel Panasonic needs to Re-Brand and Re-Market their M43 lineup. A huge reason for not selling enough G7, GX85, and the GM5 cameras may have been poor marketing IMHO. The G9ii is a video monster, and Panasonic should leave no stone unturned to shout this to anyone and everyone.

That would be great.

P4K

You can add the FX9 top handle and get four channels of audio. This camera is truly incredible and probably my next purchase from my C300 III unless Canon follows up with something equually as impressive quickly. The fact that this camera inherits almost everything from the most popular cinema camera in the world that doesn't have Arri in the name (the Sony Venice), while also adding features that its target audience (indie and doc owner operators) will love - namely IBIS, E-ND, downsampled 8.6k, Venice color and image, smaller form factor, etc - is pretty incredible. I mean, IBIS?! I did not expect to see IBIS and E-ND together for the first time ever in a cinema camera from Sony - but I'll take it. This is truly an incredible release. Probably the biggest cinema camera release (again, not called Arri) since the original Venice and the Red Monstro before that.

Nikon and Fujifilm need to slow these releases down. I never got round to buying the previous three nailed on forever cameras and now a new one turns up. It does look to be the last word so maybe this time I’ll jump in before forever runs out !

And about size: my last mft camera (and the best, loved it) and my current APS-C camera. The one on the right have 6.2k open gate 10-bit 4:2:2, in H265 or All-I. 4k60 with a 1.1x crop. 1080p120 fps (did not count the 240fps option because is crap), a huge battery, and PDAF (in fact, the AF works much better than I expected, after the last firmware update). Lenses? Yep, the Fuji branded ones are bigger, but not so much. And a Sigma 18-50 f/2.8 is the same size of the Panasonic 12-35 f/2.8, even being made for a larger sensor - yep, don't have OIS, but IBIS takes good care of it, and is even much cheaper. The Nocticrons are small, too. MFT should be the perfect EDC / travel cameras. Newer lenses should take the Sigma zoom route - ditch the OIS and make a 12-35 f/1.8, or a smaller 2.8. Compact f/3.5 zooms. Pancake primes. Make them cool - just look the X100v lesson. But they gone in the opposite direction.

The a1 has by and large flown under the radar so its diminishing price on the used market does make it an interesting proposition a bit down the road to do a poor man's 10% of the price / 90% of the image version of the Burano with one. Need a name though. Base it on the Venice* obviously, so it has to be something with lots of canals. But a bit more rough and ready to reflect the price. And a bit more northern for the dourness and attitude. Right, the Birmingham it is then. * Fun fact is that Birmingham is one of the gazillion places referred to as the Venice of the North but in actual fact it should be that Venice is called the Birmingham of the South as Birmingham actually has more miles of canals. All built by order of The Peaky Fucking Blinders presumably.

Yes it is about little details like that, which can add up and make a totally different impression. It is also about the big details too like what the point of it existing is. That is quite alluring and really quite rare as GM5 wasn't made for long, I find it tricky to across one on eBay at all, let alone in red, let alone for under £600. Take that crap lens off it though 😉 The trick with those Sonys is to use a gamma curve rich in tonality and contrast, along with a wide colour gamut like S.Gamut.3, and play around with the extensive settings to find something you like. This was the principal of EOSHD Pro Color. Punchy straight off card cinema on a stick, but not with Sony's colours. The wider colour gamuts really help to avoid the clipping, Bart Simpson skin tones, and other issues... Also you have to take care with the white balance, that also makes a big difference. The codec is alright. Not enough data rate or bit depth for S-LOG3 but you can get away with baked in colour profiles and a bit of S-LOG2. Just to touch on big details again, in the design of a camera... GH6 should have had that big detail called a built in ND filter and done internal ProRes the way Fuji has with LT option for reasonable file sizes. They should also have had new cinema film stock emulations in there or at least provided the LUTs already installed on the camera. The GH6 should also have had PDAF. These are major details. Then the ergonomics, buttons, tactile feel of the dials, etc. could all have been done better, they are naff. S5 II if I were planning it would have been positioned as a cheaper full frame camera to compete with EOS R8, but with the classic styling of a Fuji X series cam to draw in the photography crowd, who see Pana as more a microwave oven and camcorder provider. The S5 II is uncomfortably high specced especially for video and really crashes the GH6 and S1H party. In fact it wades in and trashes the place. The G9 II on the other hand would have been a MUCH more Leica affair with emphasis on video. Why do we need the GH6 video features twice on two almost identically specced machines at a similar price?

So my two cents and a dime and 1798.88 Euros on the new kid on the block and a bit of a fan song to the M43 system, not overpowering all you other fans of course.:) So here in all modesty: M43 has the largest variety of camera bodies, with some of the prettiest cameras on the planet. I imagine prices rising for some of them like the GX1 has been lately. Same with the two GM cameras. Others prices are sinking, becoming super affordable. Saw a used GH5 for 400 Eu! To me, M43 would be the most attractive video system if they had the image of the GH6 combined with the high resolving soft look of the GH5 II. So for now my S1H has to offer me that. Codecs, framerates, AF are already a winner on the G9 II. If it fullfills the promise of combining the image quality of a GH5 II and GH6, I will get one some time next year unless there are some streaking or other oddities showing. In the video department this camera might smoke all the APSC models regarding overall image quality, frame rates, usuability, battery life and heat management. It surely has some of the best and most robust codecs in the industry on board, both in flavors of All Intra and Long Gop. If HD is of perfect quality, this could be a HD Prores cinema dream machine as well. Let the reviews coming. The ones from slashcam and Richard Wong show a very interesting beast of a video monster machine. Richard Wongs OOC Jpegs showcased some impressve colors as well! Panasonic has awakened the Godzilla once again after the inferno that the GH4 caused in the Dslm video market and the thunderstorm that was the GH5! Full frame step aside, your overheated performance and no light obsession is put to ridicule by the towering new kid on the block, the powerful Godzilla Lumix G9 mighty Mark II!😊

Thanks for everyone's advice. I bought the FX3 in the end and so far so good. Now spending a small fortune on SD cards, spare batteries, Metabones adapter and new SSDs for my Atomos Ninja so I can work in ProRes Raw. I've been looking into file formats for recording on the FX3 and considering XAVC S-I 4K or XAVC S-I DCI 4K but it seems that DCI is locked to 24P. Am I right? I will probably work mainly in 25P or 50P with some 120P shooting. Thank you.

Not sure I could stop myself turning into Vic Reeves every time I had to say Burano though

I think, when it comes to M43, Panasonic is stuck trying to win over a segment of the market that simply will never buy a M43 camera. YouTubers have moved on to full frame to film themselves on a tripod in their "studio" aka basement, garage, or spare bedroom. Even if M43 leaned into the strengths of the system those folks will never buy in. Obviously they have more data than all of us, so maybe focusing on niche users just isn't viable. But it's hard to imagine that trying to win over folks that have moved on to larger sensors because they're "better" is a recipe for success. I loved the GH5. It was a game changer for me. But it was released during a very different time. You could overlook the increase in size because it had best in class features that no other mirrorless camera had. Everyone caught up though. I don't think there will ever come a time when I'll be all in on M43 again. But I absolutely would be open to dipping my toe back into the system if they released a compelling camera that could be a good b or c cam, or even an a cam when I'm trying to not draw attention. But it needs to offer something that others don't. For me, that's a feature rich (within reason), stable, and small camera.

I have acute Main Character Syndrome. Its always about me. I pride myself on my Morrissey levels of unhappy-go-pesimistic and deep seated lifelong grudges so I doubt its that. I just accept that people talk a lot of shit on the internet. And that a lot of people are hysterical Marys. Hence, my ignore list is extensive. Well, to be fair, its right there on the front page of their organisation that does have the power to decide that. "Micro Four Thirds is a versatile and highly mobile system that meets all kinds of photographers' needs and chases an optimal balance of high image quality, compactness and lightweight in cameras with interchangeable lenses." https://www.four-thirds.org/en/ The semantics can be argued regarding the relativity of the elements of the balance but there is no doubt that the thrust of it is in the direction of smaller. Otherwise, what would be the point of differentiation or even mentioning it. They could have saved some space and just put: "Micro Four Thirds is a versatile system that meets all kinds of photographers' needs in cameras with interchangeable lenses" Then I have misunderstood a whole swathe of your posts in regard to this matter. My understanding was that one of your primary desires was for a camera that had the discretion necessary for you not to be ejected from museums and galleries. Which is why I would advocate for and made the point for the more demanding internals of the GX80 to be housed in something faintly approaching but not matching the Fp but with its heat management system. It would be entirely possible so making the cameras in the form factor of the G9ii is a choice not a necessity. Which is perfectly fine because its their choice. And its my choice in terms of buying it. So we all get our own way in the end. Its actually 9 in 7. It does APS-C coverage and is a bit faster too so it is to be expected. There is a specific lens type that can be calibrated called "LINK" It is similar in terms of connection to the "FIZ" option in that it uses the MMX multi mode expander option but only uses two motors. Unlike "FIZ" where the AFX gives you independent control of each motor, the two motors in "LINK" mode are as the name suggests linked. During calibration, you adjust the focus of the anamorphic lens with one motor and the focus of the taking lens with the other motor until the image is in focus. Once calibrated, the motors then automatically move the two lenses to their respective focus points based on the distance to the subject detected. It did but the gap is much narrower now. I'm very surprised - pleasantly so - by how good it is on the S5ii. But all of that goodness is relative to within the context of how you view IBIS anyway. The irretrievably destructive nature of it in terms of the distortion of the image (not just in the "that doesn't look steady") is what puts me off it far more than the "is it actually looking stable" or the perceived "oh it looks too floaty for me" aspect. The double whammy with this is that it not always easy to see what it has done when you are looking on a small monitor/EVF so you tend not to find out until its too late. Tripods and balanced shoulder rigs still remain by far the better and safest option but its not always practical of course so its all just part of those compromises when you aren't in control of the environment. I do have a way of testing IBIS systems that involves putting a 1/4 20 mounting point on something that has repeatable and controllable degrees of small lateral movements but I suspect that using the item that I have in mind would mean that the results would only be available on OnlyFans.

Note: none of my commentary is personally directed at you, I'm merely replying to you as a way to share my thoughts 🙂 It's useful to talk about the various merits of different systems in more depth than the typically "meme-deep" level of analysis in discussions. It wasn't you that was doing it, but it was definitely that dramatic. If I had the time and inclination I could go back and find a torrent of "MFT is dead" "if the GH6 isn't PDAF then Panasonic will go out of business" "4K isn't enough" "6K isn't enough" "36MP stills might be enough, but if I could get 48MP...." "you need at least 13 stops of DR" "I'm selling everything because I can't afford to stay invested in a system that is dying" etc from other forum users. If you don't remember those nuggets of ridiculousness over the last 5 years of forum posts then you're a much more happy-go-lucky and forgive-and-forget type of person than I am! I had to stop rolling my eyes when I read those lest I develop some sort of permanent vertigo-like medical condition. Everyone seems to have decided that the point of MFT was smaller cameras, but where was that declared? and who has the power to decide that? If we start dictating the size of the camera by the size of the sensor then Apple has been making iPhones far too large for their tiny sensors and so the next iPhone should be a 2" display maximum! Maybe the G9 should have been a lot smaller and a lot more difficult to use for people with large hands! Personally, I want cameras to get better and smaller but not in that order, and I'm definitely on record for those preferences, but to say that size was the point of MFT I think is missing something. When you flex the size of the sensor you change more than just the size of the camera body you're wrapping around it, you start trading off things like exposure vs low-light vs DoF vs heat vs mass (important for IBIS) and probably a bunch of other things too. We have sensors that range from S16 to 65mm (and further) and I would say that there is no reference so everything is relative, but it's not relative because there is a reference. The reference is human vision and perception. For human vision, we tend to see across a range of brightness levels and have various depth-of-fields as our iris opens and closes and we focus closer and further away and have noise and loss of colour perception in very low-light conditions. I would say that the best sensor size would be one that is able to fully reproduce that behaviour, with a bit of extra leeway for creative purposes and practicality of use, of course. If you look at the current market and the low-light and DoF vs distance performance and take into account the lens availability then I think you end up somewhere around MFT/S35. Modern FF camera / lens combinations wide open at F2 or F2.8 seem too shallow in DoF to me to seem unnatural, and are definitely way shallower than is used in almost all tasteful story-driven cinema. That combination is also far more capable in low-light than is needed to recreate anything remotely natural-looking either. On the other end of the spectrum, S16 seems to be difficult to work with in low-light and getting shallow-enough DoF is too expensive and lenses selection is too narrow to match what seems to match human vision. ....and we all know that smartphones have no chance with either of these things, which is why they're going computational to try and fight the laws of physics. The 14mm is a much simpler lens - 7 elements in 5 groups: The Sigma is much more complex - 16 elements in 13 groups: The difference I see between them is the pursuit of optical perfection, which makes all lenses significantly larger, especially when they switch optical recipes to make them better, but it makes them much larger. Ironically, the more that people talk about sharp lenses and high resolutions and shallow DoF the more that manufacturers make the lenses bigger. Not to say I told you so, but I did, and everyone screwed it up for me as well as themselves. Of course! I'd forgotten you mapped this territory early on! That's a seriously cool feature - I must have missed that when you were talking about it. Do you have links to the relevant info? Please post 🙂 Yes, IBIS, another thing that MFT has a huge advantage over FF with, but the manufacturers deliberately hide and forum folks steadfastly refuse to learn about. Manufacturers rate IBIS in STOPS, which is the amount any vibration is reduced by the mechanism while the mechanism is working within its mechanical limits. As soon as you move the camera too far and the mechanism runs out of travel then the movement can't be reduced any more: FF camera needs to move the sensor twice as far as an MFT camera would need to move its sensor to achieve the same motion reduction. If the sensors are the same thickness and density, a FF camera needs to move around four times as much weight as the MFT sensor.. It is also likely to reduce how fast the mechanism can move the sensor, and a slower mechanism lets through more high-frequency motion, which is the most aesthetically offensive motion. This all takes battery power too. As someone who shoots exclusively hand-held with IBIS cameras, I can tell you that the stabilisation fails because the movements are too large for the IBIS mechanism, it doesn't fail because there aren't enough stops of reduction. I have never used a FF camera with IBIS, but I find it unlikely that they've scaled up the IBIS mechanism to twice the size of the MFT one and juiced it up to move the sensor as quickly, so it will likely perform far more poorly in real life than an MFT equivalent. But, this is yet another thing that isn't talked about, isn't understood, and no-one tests in anything remotely approaching a scientific way.

You have enough material for a spicy new episode on youtube 😉

Come on, it really doesn't suck. Its odd then after how after I "persuaded" the GX80/85 to be able to have Cinelike D that there was a subsequent mass obsession with trying to get VLOG on it. 😉 Physics determines this to be true of course for most smaller sensor versus large sensor comparisons, until very recently where the gap has closed somewhat. So its all part of the +/- mix. Is it enough for me ? Personally yes but I'm also a bit old fashioned with regard to using those three legged (or one legged) things that you can put underneath cameras so I'm not fully reliant on it. Which completely rebalances everything in the equation. Any perceived gap in video performance in favour of the GX80/85 is completely blown out of the water by the gulf in favour of the A7Rii when it comes to stills. Being able to plug a microphone into it doesn't do it much harm either.

Now that!

I would say this announcement is going to tank the prices for the F5/F55 camera bodies, but... I am not sure if they can go any lower! But this is very much aimed at the F5/F55 owner. It's a big jump up from the FS7 (which is what the FX9 was aimed at). While being massively cheaper than the F35/F65 was (which is what the VENICE is aimed at).

Not sure why you are couching it in such dramatic terms as people throwing their cameras out of the pram. There were no hissy fits and not all the old camera were disposed of, rather that the more the new cameras moved away from the original ethos the less inclined people like me were to replace their old ones. I didn't stop buying new Lumix MFT cameras post the GX80 in some fit of pique, its because the form factor of the new ones became increasingly at odds with the point of the system. The system appealed as a much smaller alternative to the bulkier FF and APS-C DSLRs that I had so I was less inclined to buy the newer ones as they began to expand and, of course, this became even more acute when mirrorless FF and APS-C cameras started to come down and meet them in the middle. I didn't mind making the compromise on IQ and low light when it was traded off for size but once that size increased then its advantages as a system went the other way. I didn't and haven't stopped using mine but it has diminished with each passing year over the past five years. Not because they have become unusable just that their USP is no longer anywhere near the U and there are better alternatives. The lenses were always shared with the OG Pocket and Micro and the LS300 but have also found a new home with the P4K but absolutely nothing would tempt me into buying into a new MFT camera and new lenses. I've just got three of my cameras out (GX80,S5ii and Fp) which have similar-ish focal length lenses to illustrate my broader point about MFT. If the G9ii is - as I understand it - even anywhere close to the size one in the middle then a shark has not only been jumped but pole vaulted over. Whilst the S5ii is the elephant in the room when it comes to a choice of buying into a new MFT camera, the Fp is the elephant in the room when it comes to where the system should have gone. An updated GX80 with all the bells and whistles of the G9ii in a form factor somewhere between the GX80 and Fp (which lest we forget has a proper cooling system) would have made me interested as it fits with the original ethos. The lenses are another example of where compact has gone with MFT when I look at a couple of my lenses. They are not the same focal length but still it illustrates how the size has increased from the original ethos of those original pancake lenses like the 20mm here and the 14mm if you want to take the next step up. And of course the Sigma here is actually pretty compact in relative terms to the latter primes and zooms from Panasonic. Coming ? It has been there in the DJI guise - and modesty forbids me to mention from another bijou manufacturer too - for well over three years. With regard to anamorphic, the support for aligned multi motors means that the smaller manufacturer also provides AF for dual focus anamorphic setups 🙂 All that Panasonic is doing with DJI for non manual lenses is basically what that other guy does with Blackmagic in that it uses the LIDAR to control the camera's internal focus motors. If Panasonic had opened their control protocol up in the same way as BMD then the other guy would have done the same for Panasonic cameras three years ago. So they are playing catchup more than innovating to be honest. The innovation would have been for Panasonic to integrate LIDAR into the cameras themselves. Manufacturer maybe but Sony E and Nikon Z users have been able to do this for quite a few years using the TechART such as my A7Rii with a Voigtlander here. In terms of "easy AF on MF lenses" it is actually much easier to use than an outboard LIDAR system too for several reasons as well. It also brings me back to another comparison between that A7Rii and a GX80 with a similar f1.4 focal length lens. Not only is the A7Rii full frame, it too also has IBIS too and the AF with that MF lens is far snappier than the MFT setup at a marginal overall size increase. Maybe I actually should throw that GX80 out of the pram after all 😉

Burano is even getting some positive comments on reduser… so it must be good. I love the naming convention.

If the lenses were already good then maybe there was no reason to update them? It depends on if you do stills or video, but in higher-end moving images the best lenses aren't the razor sharp ones, they're ones with a bit of diffusion and a bit of character. You might be chasing the latest sharpest fastest lenses, but if you're interested in a higher-end look, then that's not the way to go. Often the mid-range MFT lenses have a good amount of the right optical aberrations. I spoke about that here: https://www.eoshd.com/comments/topic/58706-a-manifesto-for-the-humble-zoom-lens/ For example, look at the following 4 shots: Two look sharp and detailed with lots of contrast and saturation and two look more vintage. The two that look sharp/modern are the Panasonic 12-35mm F2.8 zoom and the Voigtlander 42.5mm F0.95 prime, both expensive lenses. The two that look more vintage are the mythical Helios 44-2 58mm F2 lens, and the other is the 14-42 kit lens, sitting somewhere in-between the modern and vintage looks. The kit lens is easily accessible, it's a zoom lens, it has OIS, it has AF, and it's dirt cheap. You can also combine it with diffusion filters to customise the amount of contrast etc. In many ways, it's better than the 12-35mm f2.8 and better than the Helios.

My wish also… At heart, I prefer to shoot a pair of rangefinderesque bodies with primes, for stills and ‘whatever’ for video. Went from great chonky D3S bodies with the 24-70 and 70-200 to a pair of X-Pro1’s with the trinity of original zooms. The penny dropped for me in 2012 or whenever that was. They were a bit slow being honest and the X-Pro2 made up for that and was probably the period in my career when I felt the happiest with the tools I was using. Then Sigma has disappointed twice with the original FP and then the L, both of which have too many shortcomings for me for stills or video. So Lumix, Leica, Sigma, I don’t care which L Mount member wishes to do it, but first one to make a modern iteration of the LC1 or RD1, has my money. I would have gone X-Pro3 except they stuffed up the rear screen for me 😏 The perfect unit for me would be the current X100V but with interchangeable lenses such and I’d even consider a zoom like Sigmas 18-50 (27-75) f2.8. Or fixed lens like the one in the LC1 which was what, 28-90 or something? They never seem to make ‘my’ camera… Or rather they do, but then abandon the line 🤨

In fact, they had to solve that bloody thing already mentioned up there which put everything or almost to invariably look like coming from a smartphone... : X

I suspect that it is to do with their own mental and emotional place. If someone is able to connect to their own emotions deeply then they can express themselves in a way that is authentic, which people respond to because we instinctually recognise it. It's hard for someone to stay connected with themselves though, especially if they get commercial success during that time, so that's why they often stop making content of this quality. It also explains why people who are reclusive and take time and release projects far apart can often extend these periods of creative authenticity over long periods. That's my take on it anyway.

Who needs titanium?... Have oversharpening artifacts under control and I am in.

There are better acquisition devices IQ-wise out there :- )

Indeed. I completely understand you. This is one of my wishes for coming one of next Christmas... : D

True. I wish some of the f0.95 M43 glass would re-emerge. At one point there were so many f.095 M43 lenses around. I secretly even hoped for an autofocus version, solely because it would be a little easier to use at night. And at that aperture level, it looked very ... Full Framish 😉

Can record ProRes to an external USBC SSD. 🏆

Correct. But glass is still what I love going along this format. No other one matches the most affordable and smallest variety of glass options we can find. Let alone from slow to fastest ones. Always light and convenient. It's a hell of a format. Everything or almost, even PL mount, LOMOs, anamorphics and so on, fits there. Therefore, FF look too ;- )

Wish there were Anamorphic Lenses with autofocus 😁

The G9ii is similar in size to the S1ii, both of which would be enormous as travel cameras. The Sony A6700 may be a better bet for travel. As long as you don't need the absolute best video quality for it, that should do for most situations.

Dunno but nothing beats these guys now coupled to PDAF IMHO... : P Well, only Blackmagic user/filmmaker camera interface to my book ; ) Reason why P4K is still one of my favs but that's a whole distinct speech TBH, right.

I'm veryyyy excited about this. I'll probably never own one—I'm not at that level. But, it shares enough of the FX line's DNA and is cheap enough that I can see myself renting this for bigger projects. Seems like a real winner.

That is where I'm going with this to be honest and, despite all the hand wringing on here about it, I don't think the motivation for change will come until the 10% become the 90%. Maybe the EU will come galloping (or more likely sashaying considering the pace they work at) to the rescue with a standard rating system for cameras denoting the number of overheating shutdowns per hour. Call it the Sum of Heat Induced Terminations and measure it on a 1-10 scale with the higher number obviously being the worst. It would offer more clarity and might actually shame them into doing something about it. "So, Mr Sony, regarding overheating, what is the SHIT rating for this new camera ?" "Oh, its very SHIT indeed."

90% of customers do not care about overheating. Otherwise GoPro would have gone out of business five years ago.

will be excluded from having new units previewed and condemned to oblivion and youtuber hell 🙂

Even a new version of the 1 inch sensor LX15 with 10 bit and full sensor 4k 60p would be super appealing. A larger focussing ring, Evf and bit bigger grip, perfect pocket cinema camera. With Pdaf all for 799 it would sell like crazy. Gh5 in Gx85 body, kye and I have been preaching that for a long time. Bring it on, Pana. I just bought your big ole S1H. Selling the S1 though.😊

...Or even put IBIS and PDAF in a version of the G100... (but the GX80/GX9/LX100 are much better looking cameras from a style point-of-view). If Sony can sell small, expensive and thermally-compromised cameras I'm sure Panasonic could if they had the right product...

I just saw that in my feed and was wondering what it might be. Fun stuff!

Basically Gh6 with pdaf