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I really have no plans for 2024, this year has been a steady stream of a wide variety of jobs, possibly one of my busiest yet as repeat customers keep repeating and new customers keep showing up. As far as gear goes, I never thought I would like a crop sensor so much but every camera that I own other than the R7 is gathering dust right now. I would say 80% of the jobs this year were hybrid photo video jobs and nothing in my kit is better at that than the R7. Social media is really prioritizing video these days and my setup is perfect for social media content as well as editorial and some light commercial work. I still love the C70 but its useless for hybrid jobs and so is the R5. I did pick up two Tascam DR-10L Pros for 32 bit float audio recording and a new tripod with a Sachtler head because I shot a lot of dual camera projects and needed a better video head for tracking the talent but that's it. So for next year I plan on no new kit whatsoever and really just keep focusing on keeping my current customers happy while occasionally taking on new work where it makes sense.

That's one major reason I decided against an S5 ii - the others were the size & weight of long telephoto lenses and the APS-C crop in 4k50p/4k60p (I normally shoot everything in 50p, so it would effectively be an APS-C video camera for me). So sixth months ago I looked seriously at more upmarket APS-C cameras for video instead, but having played with an R7 and an XH2s I decided they felt too large and/or awkward in my hands (the Sony A6700 wasn't announced then, and the FX30 has no viewfinder so ruled out). Then the XS20 was announced and I pre-ordered it... but before deliveries started a used OM-1 turned up at a really good price so I bought it and cancelled the XS20 order. So in the end the fact that I already had micro4/3 lenses and the OM-1 just feels 'right' in my hands (and is weather sealed, with top-notch IBIS and a lovely 5.76M dot EVF) kept me in the micro4/3 world a while longer...

Yes, I typically have the C70 as my A camera locked down with XLR input from the mixer and the Canon EF 24-105mm on it with a speed booster and the R7 is my B camera with the RF 70-200mm F2.8 on it. I track the peak action with the R7 and discovered none of my current tripod heads are smooth enough when punched in at 300mm+ to smoothly track moving objects so I had to get a better fluid head. The Sachtler Ace XL Fluid Head did the trick after buying and sending back two other brands. I have shot everything from opera performances to music videos to dance recitals this year with that setup.

R7 is the underappreciated camera of the year. I sold my R7 earlier then bought it back again cause it is the only one in the price range that offer long 4k recording without worrying about overheating and offer 32MP stills which is perfect for hybrid setup, when paired with Sigma 18-35 1.8 the image is quite nice.

The ability to edit my message timed out, so adding my final sentence here: Those times I come across the FX6/FX9 are: very occasionally on ultra low budget shorts films I do (but it's unusual! It's more normal to see a non-Mini ARRI, or a Blackmagic camera), or low budget adverts, or corporates, or reality tv shoots. Which while I do those types of shoots as well now or then, I do however tend to do narrative more often. Edit: ohhhh... I forgot Sony VENICE! Worked on a small number of those, and of course that's LF format. Maybe if I exclusively worked on high end productions, then perhaps I might have seen a brief period of time of a year or two when the majority I worked on was either Sony VENICE or ARRI Mini LF. But because I work such a massively broad range of productions from low budget, to medium budget, to high budget then there was always a mix of original ARRI Mini / other ARRIs / FS7 / URSA Mini / Komodo / Gemini / etc making sure that S35 was still frequently in the mix!

I work on productions with ARRI cameras all the time. REDs etc less often. Because on the high end RED doesn't exist much. And in the mid range RED struggles against the massive popularity of Sony FX series (or before that the Sony FS7. Or to a lesser extent, Blackmagic). Peak popularity for RED was in the distant past, it isn't now in 2023. Have worked on only a handful using one of the ARRI LF cameras (usually the Mini LF), a small enough number I could count it on my fingers. The standard Alexa Mini was still by far the most massively popular option (or one of the other ARRIs if it was a lower budget production, & couldn't afford a Mini). At least that was my personal experience over the last few years. Rather oddly, Panasonic Varicam (full size or LT) would be in my top three cameras I most commonly work with. (first and second being the ARRI Mini & Sony FS7, although I don't see a FS7 around so often in the last couple of years) Fourth place might go to the Blackmagic URSA Mini. However, Panasonic Varicam is only so "popular" in my personal rankings because there is one particular production company (which is massive) that I've worked for quite a lot, and they seem to like it on their shows. I for instance just got home from booming on location for a tv series using 2x Panasonic Varicam S35. Next couple of days I'll be in the studio, and they'll be using three Panasonic Varicam S35 cameras! I'm quite sure however my experience is fairly atypical, and for others the Panasonic Varicam won't even rate in their top twenty cameras they have worked with in recent years. And no point was LF ever a popular format I came across! Unless it was an absolutely no budget at all production using a Sony a7S or similar as their A Cam, or a micro budget production using the a7S (or similar) as their B / C Cam. There were not a tonne of Mini LFs around (although I'll admit the seemed to have brief flash moment of popularity). RED Monstros I've almost never worked with. REDs are just not that common. (I've worked with the RED Komodo though on a handful of productions). Sony FX6/FX9 have got a fair bit of popularity, but I'd say mainly because they're the natural successor to the FS7 and not because they're LF. However I only seem to work with them occasionally. I guess because I'm more in the narrative world, and FX6/FX9 are super rare in that, unless it is ultra low budget.

And the Panasonic BS1H mk2 will have eND too I hope! Along with most important of all..... zero delay SDI output!! Panasonic GH6 already can do 4 channels of audio Clean and info overlays at once! Give us two independent outputs please. With your personal circumstances of: 1) a sweet MFT lens collection 2) a want/need for telephoto lenses, but with a back/bank that can't necessarily match your wants/needs ...then I'd go with the Panasonic G9mk2

FYI, went for a used Xiaomi 12S Ultra. Will report back after using it a bit. Thanks yet again for the advice.

If some manufacturer managed to do very compact and very good quality f/5.6 zooms, I would move to FF.

The G9 makes sense as you have the glass. I'd wait until it drops in price though. The GH6 is so cheap now used and is practically the same camera. It is the same with the S5 ii though, the original S5 goes for under $1000 now used. Essentially paying a grand for auto focus and prores on the S5X. Do they have sharpening and NR turned off tho? Panasonic usually has some pretty bad processing issues that are fixed in firmware a few months later. That was the case with the S1 and S1H. Both had really bad internal sharpening that couldn't be dialed all the way off. They fixed it a few months later.

Re. S5 ii moire and aliasing tests, the test-chart videos here are pretty comprehensive - https://www.optyczne.pl/70.4-Inne_testy-Panasonic_Lumix_S5_II_-_test_trybu_filmowego_Jakość_obrazu.html For comparison, these are the GH6 tests - https://www.optyczne.pl/62.4-Inne_testy-Panasonic_Lumix_GH6_-_test_trybu_filmowego_Jakość_obrazu.html - and this is for the OM-1 - https://www.optyczne.pl/59.4-Inne_testy-OM_System_OM-1_-_test_trybu_filmowego_Jakość_obrazu.html Unfortunately they haven't tested the G9 ii yet... Yes - as far as I know, all mirrorless cameras with PDAF use some form of contrast detection to 'fine tune' focus after PDAF has got it close (and more so in low-light and with small apertures - I guess diffraction affects PDAF in that situation). Also I remember Olympus saying that C-AF in video (on their cameras with PDAF) uses a mixture of PDAF and CDAF. But in reality, I think with modern cameras the main C-AF issue is how they decide what to focus on (and then track it) - the 'Ai' part - rather than how they do the focusing.

With long form content they kind of expect it, I also added Tentacle Sync to my multi-cam workflow because Davinci Resolve isn't very good at aligning tracks based on audio waveform. In this regards I feel like Premier did a better job. TC is awesome though, one click and perfect alignment across dozens of clips instantly. It makes multi-cam so easy that I have been thinking about picking up another R7 for a locked down mid shot but then I would have to rig it, more batteries, another tripod, etc.....not worth it. That's the exact reason why I feel comfortable pairing it with the C70, no overheating concerns. I also use that same Sigma 18-35 1.8 religiously. Before the R7 came along I literally forgot I owned it and discovered that I already had it when I was re-arranging my camera gear. Now it lives on my R7 for any lowlight hybrid event work. For daylight hybrid work I typically use the Canon EF 24-105mm and the Meike vND RF adapter. That combination is perfect for daylight hybrid work. I have also changed my workflow so that my images are all shot at ISO800 even in the daylight when shooting hybrid. It was just too much hassle to fiddle with the ND filter and ISO for fast events since ISO800 is native for CLOG3. The R7's images are clean at ISO800 day or night so it lives at that ISO. Also the Meike vND does not have numbered markings so you have to watch the histogram each time to properly expose....way too much fiddling in the middle of an event. I've had to run the R7 for 3hrs straight with one 30s battery change and it had no problems. I will caveat that with the fact that it will start to overheat after about an hour in 4k Fine (7K oversampled) mode, so it needs to be line skipped but my clients can't tell the difference.

Yeah, I've seen moiré on that too. In fact, I don't know too many cameras that, with 100% certainty, don't have moiré. I'll bet even an ALEXA might have some frequency where it happens. Awhile back, I purchased some Ikea "lace" curtains and I notice a moiré effect with my naked eye, something that I thought was only possible on digital sensors, but I guess not. Oddly enough, none of my digital sensors would pick up the moiré patterns that I could see. It's 2023 and we've AI upresing and all other sorts of quality improvements, but no software AI has figured out moiré.

I have the GH6, S5 and S5II. I don't see more moiré on the S5II compared to the S5. What I see on the S5II is more edge sharpening and worse fine details. Again, if you don't crop I don't think you can see a big difference. The GH6 on the other hand is less prone to moiré, but since the S5, Panasonic uses some processing to minimize moiré : "Intelligent detail processing eliminates the need for a low-pass filter and smooths fine details like hair and wires to minimize moiré patterns". On the GH6 the result is pretty good but maybe a bit too strong compared to their other cameras, the moiré is most of the time eliminated, but this is the same for some fine details. When I compare my video from my G9, GH5 and GH6, depending of the scene, the GH6 has often less fine details when looking them at 100%, especially in low light. At first I thought it was noise reduction, but the noise structure is very nice and seems unaltered. This is a sort of digital OLPF. There is no miracle, in order to have the best picture (similar to a picture raw file), the less processing is always better, but moiré is certainly an issue for most people. It is why the Panasonic S1H has probably the nicest video quality from a camera below 4000$, details are less processed than the GH6 or the S5II, and the OLPF eleminates the moiré without looking unnatural.

I couldn't find any DR results either. Let's hope that the people who give thorough technical reviews are still working on them, rather than it just being passed over for deeper technical investigation.

Provided the camera can process all the pixels on the sensor to produce the final video stream i.e. no line-skipping or pixel-binning,, then yes, I think in general a higher density is better. It's quite noticeable that the Panasonic S cameras are prone to it (but the high-res S1R not so much), but their micro4/3 cameras are not - but how much of that is due to processing differences and how much to pixel density plus lens resolution I don't know. But if slow-mo is important to you, I guess the 4k @ 120p and FHD @ 240p on the G9ii also has to swing things in that direction?

What about a used OM-1? I had one in for test and loved the size, weight, handling, build…everything really other than that it was 4/3rds. Nothing against 4/3rds per se but for my work, I think it would have niggled at the back of my mind continually. If I did not have the needs I have, hands down easily I’d pick the OM-1 over anything else. Even the G9ii.

If you focus on stability and autofocus and wide angle, cheaper and lighter lenses...the G9 II surely ? Otherwise if the sensitivity and creative capabilities of the FF interest you the S5 II , but overall it will be more expensive and bulky... And wait for in-depth tests on the sensitivity of the G9II ?

*telephoto

Yes, I understand. Waiting would also make some sense. The G9 ii would be even better for me if it were just a little smaller, but, then again, I have a smaller camera too with smaller lenses. I think Panasonic has done away with all the really small (GX850, GM1, which keep gaining price on the used market) and they've gone with smallish like the GX85 and GX9. Something tells me they might come out with a rangefinder camera soon and it will have PDAF and decent video features, but that size camera won't work for my bigger lenses either whereas the G9 ii or GH7 would. The S5 ii would be super for interior stuff, but I don't want to sink 1000 euros on a telephone with AF. Also, I'd never use it because it's too big. The one thing that bugs me about the S5 ii is possible moiré. I've never seen it on the GH6 and I bet the G9 ii will be the same. The GH6 has been a little too quirky for me in that DR Boost needed to be set on or off. I don't like that.

I'd wait. Both are far too large for me! But for you, I'd say you should think about the total package, including lenses, batteries, accessories, etc, and work out what suits you and your workflow best. TBH, the camera body probably matters least out of everything...

I think it's a combo of the DSLR craze and new filmmakers coming from that mindset of using 35mm photography cameras. Combined with the only 4k ARRI option being LF. All the younger people I know gravitate towards film and more classic cinematography. I think things will trend in that direction more. Though I imagine a large amount of stuff will always be shot LF going forward. It is awesome to see ARRI continuing to be adamant on not needing more than 4k and S35. The original Alexa mini still gets a lot of use on higher end stuff. For the last couple years really big budget stuff is pretty much dominated by the Alexa LF. It will be interesting to see when and what productions choose the Alexa 35 over it.

I use a Nitze mini v-mount plate with my S1H that they came out with last year, it has a USB-PD output to directly charge the camera. The OEM battery always sits in there, fully charged. It’s great power “insurance,” it can’t run the whole rig but in a pinch it means I can still power the camera for a half day if something happens to the v-mount system, which in my book makes it better than a dummy battery setup. It is very compact with 99WH mini batteries, I have it right up against the closed rear screen, which is too small for any critical work anyway, and while the viewfinder is nice, it’s built for stills, not cinematography, so I don’t use that either.

for a small set on a budget. not a warehouse i want different colored lights, like red green blue/ etc flashing on and off what would u do? Hi guys! Hope youre well ❤️

Good morning to everyone ! The day before yesterday I made some rounds towards Delta of Nestos river at Greece where there is a big drought.. It was sliding very very very .. Very very !! Well, I also had the 1st, I would say jokingly, case. Everything is fine, the engine was not damaged either. The video was shot handheld and on a tripod, I didn't emphasize at "luxuries" and props shots cause of the situation you will see. Made with Tamron 28 75 lens & Tiffen mist 1/8 filter in front of the lens Here's the video

Many small cheap LED lights have built in options like this. I use it all the time shooting dancing pictures and video at weddings. There are single colour flashing options, multi colour, lightning effects, emergency services, fire… I’d buy 2 and have one set to lightning flashing one angle and the other set to a colour of your choice flashing from another angle. The randomness of the pair should achieve what you are looking for?

PDAF will no longer be enough for a GH7. I'm guessing they're going to find a body form-factor for a S1H ii and GH7 that works. The eND will be on both.

I had always noticed the HD was subpar coming from the S1H but maybe that is only in full frame mode. The GH5 HD looked just as good as the 4k. Which is something I have noticed when downsampling 4k to HD, even zooming in its hard to tell a difference.

It can break something and shift the viewers attention on someones sharply rendered mustache hairs instead of staying on their eyes. A medicore production can fail even more. GX85 with its additional slight crop in 4k was a blessing for som C mount lenses. Rendering of some of these gems are just a sight to behold. S16, mft and S35 are my favorite formats for the choice and kind of lenses I am using. FF will be interesting too. Keep em all coming!:)

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.