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One of the most useful pieces of technical advice that has appeared on this forum.

Add one more reason: If (like me) you already own a couple of the original Micro Cinema Cameras, you can buy this one and your spouse/partner will never notice that you bought (yet) another camera. Seriously, though, for me this is an interesting option because I already have everything I need for it (cage, monitor, bigger external battery (the one Dmitry Shijan made), but it would give me much better low-light performance than my Micros which is important for some of likely situations in my case.

Unfortunately or maybe fortunately depending how you look at it, the skill to get in now doesn't need to be as high anymore. Even many people at very lofty levels of the film industry are not as skilled as they used to be. DP's can utilize high resolution color accurate monitors to see what they are getting rather than light metering. Cameras are so sensitive now you don't need crazy light fixtures. A lot of big budget shows are now are using mostly small LED fixtures combined with natural lighting. There's certainly a level of skill still required especially on the biggest of productions but it's become less and less. Think about changing a 35mm film mag vs digital media. Same with getting good results shooting 35mm film for a wedding vs digital. Night and day

I’m guessing one of the camera brands involved as showing a lot of variance would have been Fuji as they had a very optimistic idea of how much light there was when I was using them side by side with Nikons.

Based on a presumption of the ISO/Gain relationship between the P6K and the Ursa Broadcast G2/Studio Camera 6K Pro (which are both P6K in different form factors) then I would expect the same relationship between the P4K and the Micro Studio Camera 4K G2. So, 0dB and 18dB would equate to the Pocket 4K's dual native ISO values of 400 and 3200 respectively.

Yup! That's why I rated it as one my camera releases of note from 2023:

XDCA module was part of Sony's legacy design. On the FX9, it allows for much more than 16-bit RAW and 4k 120 (S35). You can power a giant B4 lens, for example, and offset the weight. You can also stream and transfer files. It's a full professional feature set for those who need it, especially broadcasters and those in field recording. This is all before they integrated RAW output into the body of the FX6. It will be interesting to see how they move forward with the FX9 II design in case they drop the module or modify it. At the moment, we have the aging FX9 at $10K and the brand new Burano 8K at $25K. That's a huge price gap in the Sony cinema lineup that they need to fill. The "Burano 6K" could fill that gap nicely and still separate itself from both cameras. I believe the "inflation adjusted price" for the F5 was $3000 over MSRP, so I'm not sure how that will work. I think you will find buyers for the FS7 who don't want to pay FX6 prices. It is still a capable camera and perfect for many applications. I still shoot with the C500 (original) and the image is great, especially in RAW. The only problem is the size/weight of the camera and Odyssey recorder when all rigged up.

It does have two but with it being made for broadcast it is expressed as gain (0db and 18db in this case).

Sounds like a good method. I didn't use the color chart in a precise way, it was held closer to the camera, probably a 6ft difference. Plus I shot the color chart about 20 minutes later. That said I'd still imagine it being closer than it was. It was a room with Cyan walls, so there is a lot of tinted light going on. I am going to try it again today and make sure I do it properly and see if it makes any difference. A normal shooting situation would involve more pure lighting. Skitones are a large reason I choose to shoot with an Alexa or at least RED. Every time I have done a mixed camera situation the colorist comments on how nice the Alexa/Red skin tones look compared to 10 bit DSLRs.

Actually, here's my nomination for best-bang-for-buck camera nowadays - the Blackmagic Micro Studio Camera 4K G2 just announced by BM. Here's why: It's tiny, and fits the entire ecosystem of the previous Micro models, including battery type (Canon LP-E6) It can record BRAW up to DCI 4K60 to USB-C.... so you don't need a big expensive external recorder, you can use any old HDMI monitor you like! BM specifies 13 stops of DR, the same as all their previous cinema cameras, and up from the 11 stops they quoted for the previous Micro Studio camera It has AF (it won't be fast, but the previous BMMCC didn't have AF, and the OG BMPCC one was quite useful) It's $995! So, it's smaller and cheaper than the P4K, but appears to only have one native ISO. Interesting.

I mentioned in another thread about the PZ-E1 adapter they previously did for the EF-S 18-135mm. It doesn't look too dissimilar so I'm struggling to see how its gone from $150 to $1000 in six years. If they get it supported in future lenses then that would soften the blow spreading that cost over a few different ones but I'd be cautious because they never did add support for the PZ-E1 beyond that initial lens.

It's late 2023 already?? Where did the year go!! Scary, scarier than Halloween was. Just limiting ourselves to cameras released within the past year? The easy top three cameras of note for me released in 2023 are: Sony FX30 (came available for sale in stores later 2022, so just barely-ish squeaks in here if you look at the past 12 months or so). Is the latest S35 cinema camera from Sony, and also their most affordable one ever! The L Mount camera from Blackmagic. Finally, another mirrorless mount cinema camera from BMD! Been a long time since the P4K was released. Blackmagic Design Micro Studio Camera 4K G2. It's a big upgrade from the previous Micro Studio Camera, especially for film shooters as it's now so much more than "just a studio camera". If you're an OG BMPCC user who thought the BMD "Pocket" 4K was too big for you, then this Micro Studio G2 is the upgrade for you! Plus it is cheaper than ever, is priced at sub US$1K, even cheaper than the Pocket 4K. Don't be fooled by the "Studio" in its name, yes it is packed full of studio specific features, but in a way this is also their new "Micro Cinema G2" camera as well. Opening it up to any cameras that exist? Then "it depends", just whatever is suitable for the job at hand. Even a super old Sony EX3 might be the right buy for me these days. Although I think I'm going to sell my Sony FS7 soon, and just not buy anything else for the foreseeable future. Juggling working kinda full time in the Sound Dept plus studying CompSci full time too, means there simply is not enough hours left in the day to devote to chasing down camera gigs too and developing my craft. I've done very little of that this year. And I think if I ever do try to take the camera side of things (rather than an exclusive focus on the Sound Dept) more seriously, then I think I'll be doing one of three options: 1) just shooting ultra low budget indie drama stuff, not really caring too much about the money, simply doing it for the love of it, and whatever That means buying one of: Going fully nuts and getting an ARRI ALEXA Classic, splurging an amount that doesn't make any financial sense at all (but the Alexa Classic is so dirt cheap these days, it's not that much to indulge in as a hobby passion. Many people spend more on golf / fishing / drag racing / Ironmans ) Going more sensibly low budget with a Blackmagic (be it a dirt cheap P4K or BMD Micro Studio Camera G2, or a secondhand URSA Mini Pro) Or continue my love affair with CineAlta, and get a dirt cheap Sony PMW-F55. 2) going into the multicam live streaming niche, this probably is where the overlap of my skillset / personality and business opportunities overlap to make the most sense from a financial perspective Which means one of these options: Buying up a handful of old Sony EX3 cameras on the cheap (maybe mixing in a few other Sony models, such as my Sony PMW-F3 that I'm stll keeping) Buying a handful of BMD Micro Studio G2 cameras. Gives a better image, gives me 4K as well. Integrates nicely with the BMD ATEM ecosystem. But it could be marginally more expensive for the whole setup, once you've rigged out the Micros with everything. And I have a lot of questionable suspicion about if even brand new BMD cameras will be more reliable than secondhand old Sony PMW-EX3 cameras. Plus a Micro vs EX3 looks less "impressively pro" at a conference / sporting event, if you care at all about client impressions. (which do actually matter a lot) 3) going hardcore into some ultra techy geeky niche, that has relatively little competition. Such as 360VR filmmaking, although sadly 360VR turned out to be a fleeting fashion fad which these days there is no interest in. (maybe it is not too late to jump onto the hype of virtual productions such as The Mandalorian used? But that's more about massive time and money investment into computing power / workflows and huge LED walls. And not at all about cameras you'd be buying for it) But if I was to go into 360VR, then I'd do one of: Multiple Sony RX0mk2 cameras, for the first ever 4K 10bit and waterproof multicam rig for 360VR Multiple ZCam E2-M4 bodies, this seems like a fairly well proven and very low cost option for high quality 360VR filmmaking. Definitely the safest bet option out of all of these I'm listing in the 360VR category. Multiple Sony FX30 bodies, a bit higher cost than the E2-M4, but I get to carry on a love affair with CineAlta into the 360VR world. However, this is an unproven configuration nobody else has done. And the body form factor is much more awkward than the body E2-M4 bodies. Multiple BMD Studio G2 camera bodies, another unproven configuration that nobody else in the world has done. But their form factor should be ideal for this, and might make for a better image quality (or at least a more familiar workflow for productions, an equally important consideration, or arguably is an even more important) than the ZCams have. But, one big benefit of this choice is I could also use these multiple Studio G2 camera bodies for multicam live streaming! Multiple revenue sources? Just need to swap out the UWA MFT lenses for B4 zoom lenses with adapters. Multiple Panasonic BS1H camera bodies, this is the dream! It would be a low light monster, the best the world has ever seen with 360VR filmmaking (although... this means this is also an unproven configuration, as nobody has ever attempted this. But the BS1H form factor is at least good for this). Although, this is the most expensive option by far! However, the BS1H has seen such a massive drop in price recently, that if I could get a little bit of funding behind me for a 360VR web series, then this could be a viable option to go with.