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I don't see your problem, just build strength by carrying around a brick all day when you're at home or running errands. It's a standard industry strength training practice. This photo shows a steadicam operator popping down to the shops on his day off:

If I had to choose just one lens to keep out of my collection, it would be the Pana 14-140mm F3.5-F5.6 - for the range it provides it's relatively small (75mm long) and light (265g), it supports dual-IS2, focus breathing isn't noticeable and on my copy at least the zoom ring is reasonably smooth. It's been my most-used lens ever since I got it as a bundle with a G6 years ago. If I could keep a few more, then... The Oly 12-40mm F2.8 - just a great all-round, reasonably bright, moderate wide to moderate telephoto, no noticeable focus breathing, 85mm long and 382g. (The Pana 12-35mm F2.8 is a bit smaller and lighter and gets you dual-IS - I was considering both a while ago and then a really good used deal on the Oly came up so I went for that). The Oly 75-300mm F4.8-F6.7 - what I use most often for wildlife, pretty small (117mm long) and light (423g) for the focal range, and decently sharp for something that small/light/cheap. Low light? usually just chuck the Pana 25mm F1.7 into the camera bag or pocket in case I need it - cheap/small/only 125g. I also own the old Pana 20mm F1.7, but that's noisy when focusing, so I might swap it for a 17mm or 15mm fast AF prime at some point (Oly or Pana Leica probably). I've recently acquired a used Pana 35-100mm F2.8 (to complement the Oly 12-40mm F2.8). Decent lens and not too large/heavy for a 'pro' lens, but it's got noticeable focus breathing so not ideal for video C-AF use. (and yes, the Pana 12-32mm pancake is great when you want to keep things as small as possible, especially if you're taking two cameras on a trip, so that would be a 'keeper' too).

I really like this pairing and whether one body and switching lenses, or a matched pair, if I was shooting 4/3rds video, stills or hybrid, those full frame focal lengths of 20-50 (indoors in my world) and 50-100 (out) are near perfect. The only thing that bothers me is the size and weight that isn’t quite in keeping with the 4/3rds approach, but then compared with equivalent (that don’t exist!) full frame zooms, they are hardly tanks. I prefer primes in principle but fast zooms are just more convenient more of the time.

I just saw this video where Waqas demos the OFX version of the Motion Blur effect, and it does a seriously good job - I've linked to the final result: He's also applied a blur to counteract the ridiculous sharpening (what a great idea!), corrected for the lens distortion, and added a subtle grade. I have no idea if the OFX version of this has recently gotten better or if it's just been there all along, but it's waaaaaay better than the tool in the UI, which is what I tried previously. I haven't played with it yet, so this might be a cherry-picked example where it worked ok, but it's interesting and worth playing with, especially on clips with more subtle movement.

Speaking of weight, one of the principle reasons I am shifting some of my kit, - my main unit clocks in at just over 2.8kg 🤪 My targets now are 2 units 1-1.5kg each. I don’t mind a bit of chunk and heft, but anything over 2.5kg…as just one of 3 units is a bit much on 12+ hour shoots!

I started with the situations I find myself in, what I have done in those situations that worked and what didn't, what I like the look of and what I don't care about, and then tried to work backwards from there. That thinking lead to a number of realisations that helped me focus, for example: I see compositions in all sorts of focal lengths My home videos are only when we go somewhere interesting, so are about the people interacting with the environment (so are environmental portraits) and this means I want to keep the background relatively in focus most of the time During the day I will see compositions of far-away objects but at night you don't normally look at far away things, but if you do then you normally have time to change lenses (e.g. if you're at a lookout) Painting is about adding things into your composition but photography / videography is about removing things, so in cities I tend to use longer focal lengths more than I would when I'm in nature How big the camera is has a big difference on how I feel when shooting, and that influences when I shoot, how I shoot and how people act in the footage, so this is more important than FOV in those situations etc. Obviously yours will be different, but it's the thinking-it-through that I think provides the insight. A fun thought experiment is to start with nothing and then only add things into your setup when you can justify needing them. Then when you identify a need not met by the current hypothetical kit you add something that only satisfies that requirement and not more. This way you are sure to not over-spec. Mine is similar too. I worked that out when I had the Canon 700D and Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 which were 1.4kg and were definitely too heavy and by a good margin. I later had the GH5 + Voigt 17.5mm + Rode VMP+ which was 1.3kg and was a challenge, and XC10 + Rode VMP+ which was 1.1kg and manageable but at the upper limit for carrying it around and having it constantly in the hand and ready (e.g. at the zoo for a few hours, or at a festival, etc).

At twice the weight and 1.6x the length of the 35-100 F2.8, I didn't even contemplate the 40-150 Pro F2.8. I did consider the Oly 40-150 Pro F4 as it's about the same size & weight as the 35-100 F2.8, but decided I'd prefer the faster aperture. Compromises... Basically my target weight limit for body + lens is around 1 kg.

Those are good recommendations. For pro lenses, I currently have 12-40 pro, 17mm pro, 40-150mm Pro f/2.8. For non-pro, I have the 9mm, 14mm, 14-42 EZ (with a killer automatic lens cap), 17mm, 25mm, 45mm, 75mm, 75-300mm. I also just picked up (in a kit) the 12-32, and 35-100 f4-5.6, but I'm not sure I'll keep them. I want the 25mm pro 1.2 when I find it at a decent price... and I'm determined I will. It would be great with the already amazing 17mm Pro. I have thoughts on all these lenses that I'll probably share soon. (time permitted)

I have both the 10-25mm and the 25-50mm, these lenses are the pinnacle of M43. Sure, they are very sharp, not extraordinary sharp as my 35mm GM, my 50mm S Pro or even my 24-70mm S Pro, but they are among the best you can find in M43. No, what make them special, apart from their focal range is their rendering. Their local contrast (and colors in my opinion) is crazy good, especially the 25-50mm, one of my favorite lens ever. I also have some of the fast little primes like the 20mm f1.7 II, the 15mm f1.7 and the 25mm f1.4 II. They are not as sharp as the PanaLeica f1.7 zooms, but, the 20mm f1.7 is tiny, produce nice colors with good global contrast, and the image has a very good sense of volume, it is why so many people love it. The focus is slow and noisy (really noisy), but accurate, and from what I've seen the G9II makes the AF almost usable (certainly usable for me). The 15mm and the 25mm are more expensive, slightly bigger, slightly less sharp wide open (especially the 25mm f1.4 which can be nice for video), but their AF is faster. They have not the same sense of volume as the 20mm in my opinion but they have solid local contrast, thought not as good as the Oly 25mm f1.2 Pro by exemple.

No, the GH6 is able to do 4K 120fps as well. The issue is with 5,7K, only available in 17:9.

Easy! It's that black thing with some white writing on it.... duh!

I have the GH5 and GX85. The GH5 was my default body, and I used it with the Laowa 7.5mm F2, the Voigtlander 17.5mm F0.95 and the Voigtlander 42.5mm F0.95. Occasionally I'd use a longer lens for wildlife etc, like the FD 70-210mm F4, or the Tokina 400mm F5.6. I would carry the 12-35mm F2.8 for difficult situations where I need very fast zooming or extra IS. That was up until a recent trip when I discovered the GX85 with the 14mm F2.5 pancake lens combo. Not only did I fall in love with the size of the setup, and the lack of attention it raised, but I also discovered that the AF-S was extremely useful and the DoF was adequate. I've since come upon the idea that there are three setups that I think I will pursue: GX85 with 14-140mm F3.5-5.6 zoom lens Having a 10X zoom lens will be liberating because I'll be able to shoot whatever compositions I can see, the AF-S will allow me to work really quickly, and (after spending a lot of time with a DoF calculator) I realised that the DoF should be sufficient for the work I do. This is a day-time setup. Interestingly, this lens is the same size as the 12-35mm F2.8 lens, so not too bad in practice. GX85 with 12-32mm F3.5-5.6 pancake lens Compact walk-around setup when size really matters, and still gives a good zoom range. Similar use-case to the above. GX85 with 7.5mm F2, TTartisan 17mm F1.4, and TTartisan 50mm F1.2 lenses This is the low-light setup. All that is in combination with iPhone, and especially the wide camera, which acts as a second body and gives quick access to a super-wide angle. If I was going somewhere that camera size didn't really matter, like doing a tour with a busload of tourists, then I'd consider taking the GH5 instead, but I'm struggling to put my finger on why it would be that much better. I know it has various better specs, but in reality I'm only doing home video stuff, so the shooting experience and the reaction of people in-frame matters more than DR etc. My philosophy is to think hard about how I shoot and what I am trying to achieve and to challenge my assumptions. Hope this is useful 🙂

According to the G9ii specs, 4k/C4k 120p is 300Mbps HEVC. These are the open-gate specs: ...so it's 200 Mbps up to 30p 4:3 and 300 Mbps up to 60p 17:9. I've captured Olympus C4k at 237 Mbps and G9 150 Mbps 4k50p to Sandisk Extreme (non-Pro) 128MB & 256MB V30 UHS-1 cards with no problem, so 200 Mbs should be fine to a high-spec V30 card (V30 rating => 30 MBs => 240 Mbps sustained write speeds). In reality I've found the high-spec, larger capacity (128GB or larger) V30 cards are very fast, limited as much by the UHS-1 interfaces as anything else, so you may find that 300 Mbps works fine. Datasheet performance figures for a UHS-1 Sandisk Extreme (non-Pro): ...and the Extreme Pro version:

Check out this Blackmagic studio/broadcast camera setup (try and discover where the camera is hiding....):

Enjoy!! I think it's a solid choice - apart from the size of the body making people very excited it looks like a great spec'd camera.

Being able to stop down a few stops won't help you much during the day, you'd need to use an ND filter anyway. Of course, in combination with an ND, using the aperture to fine tune the exposure would be useful, but it's not going to eliminate the need for an ND. It wouldn't be noticeable - the 1 inch sensor giving a 20mm FOV means it has a 7.4mm F2.8 lens - not exactly a shallow DoF monster! This lens has infinite focus unless focused very close: When focused at 5.8ft, the focal plane is from 2.9ft to infinity When focused at 5.0ft, the focal plane is from 2.7ft to 36.1ft When focused at 3ft, the focal plane is from 2ft to 6.2ft I very much doubt that anyone shooting with this camera and focusing closer than 5ft would see the background slightly out of focus and want to stop down. I mean, maybe someone somewhere would do that, but it's hardly going to occur frequently enough for DJI to add an aperture mechanism to an entire product.

(Quotes from Panasonic UK G9ii specs. It supports 100p as well)

The camera integration tips the balance for me towards the ATEM family, particularly with the release of the new Micro Studio 4K G2 camera. For under $4000 you can have four of them that are timecode locked and they can be fully controlled from the ATEM not just for colour and exposure but focus and zoom (with the inexpensive powered zooms from Olympus and Panasonic). With the integration with Resolve, the ATEM ISOs and these cameras give you three products to sell to a client from one job. The 1080p live stream The 1080p master recording of the live stream. A re-cut version of the live stream in either 1080p or 4K. The last one is interesting because with any manufacturers camera you can just bring in the ISO recordings and re-cut them in Resolve (as the ATEM generates a Resolve project with the cuts in it) but with the BMD cameras gives you the option to bring in the 4K BRAW recordings from the cameras own recordings. When used with the ATEM, the BMD cameras can provide a 'video mode' output through the HDMI for the live switching whilst simultaneously recording their own 'cinema mode' versions to SSD. This is a great option for doing live videos for bands as they get the 'video' version for the live stream and the possibility of a more cinematic looking version from the recut BRAW files. The ATEM Mini Pro ISO is a bit limited so I would definitely recommend going for the ATEM Mini Extreme ISO not just for the extra four channels but also the additional media player and the SuperSource function which offers a lot of creative and practical possibilities. The drawbacks with the ATEM are in the animated CG and video player aspects. The former you can get around fairly easily with software such as Uno Overlays etc and the latter can be addressed using BMD's HyperDeck record/playback devices. The cheapest of these, the newish HyperDeck Shuttle HD, is interesting in the role of producing live sports as with some inexpensive additional hardware splitters you can coax it into being a very decent instant replay system complete with tactile jog/shuttle control. For around $6500 then, you can have an eight channel switcher with ISO recording and streaming, four timecode synced RAW shooting 4K cameras with full remote control and three channels of instant replay. Unlike the Tricaster TC40 that I used to own (which was nowhere near being even half the functionality of this system let alone how much more its modern equivalent will cost) it will also all fit comfortably in a Peli 1510 case rather than an 8u flight case and is a fraction of the weight ! Another thing that people tend to overlook about the ATEM Mini series is that it has an excellent fully fledged Fairlight mixer in it with EQ and Dynamics on every channel including the Master channel. Its mind boggling really how much of a value that is as they didn't really need to make it that comprehensive ! Don't get me wrong, the ATEM system isn't perfect but it is a very good eco system to start a business around. And you never know, maybe one of these days someone might release a product that integrates a few more things to make it even more useful......

i’m dit-ing a european co-produced feature rn. Theyre shooting on an A35. Almost every feature and tv show here is being on this thing now from what ive heard. The last commercial i was pa-ing on was miniLF.

Indeed. I work with 3-4 cameras, 2 of which can be static any time, 2 lights, 6 audio recording devices, shooting video and stills 100% (or as close to as makes no difference) all day long. But only because of 3 essential ingredients. 1. Practice practice practice, starting simply and building up over time, adding and eliminating elements that work or do not. 2. Having a game plan in advance based on an understanding of what is going to happen and when etc. Advance knowledge is key. 3. Determination/hard work. 4. Bonus element, being organised and having a system. My environment is weddings and at one level they are ‘all the same’ but at another, they are all different and people do random stuff. But it’s rare for there to be enough random stuff to make a difference. It’s not rocket science and there are limits so it’s a case of knowing those limits and working up to what is possible but without it totally frying your brain. It’s more weird for me if I am doing just video or just photo and the latter feels like I am doing just 20-25% compared with both and the kit level is tiny by comparison. My brother by comparison gave up working in the video industry because he couldn’t work alone or make more than solo shooting viable. We must have different genes!

Agreed. The program here is much more broadcast oriented than is film. Which is fine, because through my own experience, forum-reading, YouTube watching, and real-world practice I've found I can learn and mature the skills I need without college. I have learned lighting pretty much solely based on my own research. There are people in this program who are seniors and want to be "film directors", but I sit back and think "what have you actually edited? Did you ever pick up a light during your 4 years here?" Of course, they would rather spend their time in a fraternity or some other stupid thing.

Waiting Tony Northrup talking on the Sphere with only the pimple in the front of his nose in focus.