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In the race to 8K, 12K, and beyond, how much resolution do we really need to tell a story? I brought my trusty FZ47 on a little New Year's trip to Arizona, and I think that 640x480 might just be enough: Technical: I scaled up to 1920x1440 (no "smart" or AI rescaling). I did not add any sharpening or softening to the image, and I resisted the urge to clean up the digital artifacts and just embraced them instead. I did however do a little color work. I was actually shocked by how good this footage looks, probably because it's progressive and not interlaced. I think I'd put this footage up against the DVX100, XL1/2, or comparable camera. And as we've seen in the 8-bit grading tests that @kye shared with us, it's kind of shocking how much you can push the image around in post (especially if you are either okay with some macro-blocking, or willing to soften/hide it). I think that's part of what makes this camera so much fun. Is there a unique aesthetic afforded by this low resolution? I'm not sure. I've degraded 1080P footage to have a similar level of detail in the past. The compression artifacts are definitely smaller and easier to hide. But in full motion, I feel like they add a nice texture.

Thanks all ... I've ordered a T9 2Tb. Rationale: Tried and tested brand and series I was concerned that the odd shape of the T9 would be a problem (the T5 and T7 can fit into a slot for camera mounts) but I figured that it's so common that people will make some kind of mount for it T9 wasn't much more expensive than older generations but will be more future-proofed In case anyone is curious about the business case and stakeholder management aspects, I explained it to the wife using this argument: I tried editing the honeymoon trip from the HDDs I have, but they can't keep up I have an SSD, but it's not big enough to hold the whole trip The SSD I have is still a great performer, even though I bought it many many years ago, so they last Apple charges $600 per TB for their internal SSDs, external ones are a fraction of that and transfer from one computer to the next I just got paid, so......

No. 12bit LOG uncompressed for more than 10 years. The most very recent model, the Alexa 35 does 13bit log uncompressed.

8-bit rec709 profiles are much more flexible in post than you might think. I'm not saying they're as good as an Alexa or whatever, but they're a million miles better than people give them credit for. Here's a latitude and WB torture test of the GX85, in the standard profile (8-bit rec709) customised to have reduced contrast but normal saturation. For each of the below, the left image is the properly exposed reference image, the middle one is the graded image, and the one on the right is the image SOOC. Exposure latitude test - +3 stops: Exposure latitude test - +2 stops: Exposure latitude test - +1 stops: Exposure latitude test - -1 stops: Exposure latitude test - -2 stops: Exposure latitude test - -3 stops: Exposure latitude test - -4 stops: Exposure latitude test - warm: Exposure latitude test - cool: Exposure latitude test - magenta: Exposure latitude test - green (as far as it would go!): Notes on the testing method: GX85 shot in manual mode on cloudy day Exposure varied by changing lens aperture WB varied by changing colour temp and tint Tools used in Resolve were mostly Lift/Gamma/Gain, saturation, and some had a bit of Shadows/Mids/Highlights Notes on the results: If it's clipped then it's clipped, there's no getting around that If you've shot a whole sequence in the wrong WB then shoot a test chart replicating the error, spend some time on the correction, then apply to all the shots... a bit of work but worth it to rescue a days shooting If you've shot on auto-exposure / auto-WB and want to correct the small errors then this is easily possible - it won't have gotten it nearly as wrong as what I have shown above Most cameras shooting in rec709 will do funky stuff to colours depending on their luma value as part of the look of the profile, so when you over/under expose and then pull things back the hues and saturation levels will have shifted around in odd ways compared to a normal exposure, but if it's a real shoot then you most likely won't have many dominant hues in the image and you only have to correct the ones that are in the frame and distracting, so the above is far more work than normal shooting would be The days of needing RAW or even LOG to change exposure or WB in post are gone, and although the rec709 profiles often have lower DR than log profiles, they're much better than you think. If anyone wants me to post full-sized versions with titles so you can flick back and forth then just let me know. Happy shooting!

Is there that big of a market for people that are hired by Netflix to make content and want to shoot on $2k cameras as the a cam? Their approved list is only for content they produce in-house. If you want to sell a film to Netflix, you can shoot it on anything you want - and you can shoot some percentage of footage on non-approved cameras as well.

This is the fine example of a juicy thread ; ) Pity we cannot express all the feelings we have towards what we read. A special mention though to a couple among my favs now @QuickHitRecord@kye despite to never undersestimate the contribution of everyone of you... : ) I think it's one of the flaws here when people tend to neglect any of the voices heard. Every simgle one of you always have something to bring for our lives, so take care of each one of you. Your milestones, presence, daily life, even your beloved ones and part of your being, expressed in your stories posted in these lines, reach some other people here. Maybe not everyone but the ones to count. I believe a bit more of love and compassion for the other one is never enough either. To read this or that had this or that misfortune is something we should meditate about and feel sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings of others, as well share their achievements and joy with zero envy. As much as possible. Even though how human this flaw is, unfortunately. - EAG

Each time I apply blur to my footage on the S5II, it becomes unatural, some textures look good and some don't. The sharpness is not the only issue, like I said. The S5II/X have more spatial chroma noise reduction, leading to loss of colour detail, like in skin texture and foliage, about a value of 20~25 in Resolve is required to match the S1/S5 chroma detail to S5iiX. But yes some people are prefectly fine with the internal output of the S5II, especially if they don't crop a lot inside their videos, but to my eyes, the S5II internal recording is really not as good as the S1, S5 and S1H. I am not even talking about the standard profiles in 4K or C4K, one of the worst image I've seen between every Panasonic cameras I owned (almost all since the GH4), the difference with the S1,S5,S1H is huge, very excessive sharpening and smoothed out details (I think I've posted some videos about the issue).

Look how great 8bit is! ...10bit is better ...12bit is even better than 10bit ...I think I know where this conversation is going. According to ChatGPT, to get the most out of 8bit: Use a Flat Picture Profile: Any suggestions on Panasonic (without adjusting highlights and shadows)? Expose Carefully: I use roughly -.3 to -.7 EV comp. Anyone else? Control Contrast: that's part of the Picture Profile (on Panasonic) Use a Lens Hood: good point in general, but it makes my setup bigger. With modern lenses, does it really matter so much? White Balance: seems obvious... for those don't have multi-camera setups, do you just use auto WB? Avoid Aggressive Color Grading: of course, it's 8bit, but how far can you go? Shoot in the Best Quality: what's the minimum? 4k 100mbps -ish? What about on a tripod? Use a Tripod or Stabilization: less movement = better image? Control Lighting: obviously, but does 10bit even matter in such controlled situations?

Limitations can help to balance it more with raising the creative side of our own very often ; ) - EAG

Great thread and what a fun final edit! Don't fall into the cacti!! I think for me, one of the most enticing aspects of shooting with "bad" quality cameras is that the "get a technically great image" part of my brain shuts off and I can relax and feel free to be silly and engage with the situation etc. The fact these low-quality cameras are often small also contributes to this freedom. This has an enormous effect on the footage, obviously. I take a slightly different strategy to you by shooting the highest resolution from whatever camera I'm using but then deliberately degrading it in post. The connection between the methods is that I'm choosing the camera based on how it is to shoot with, and not immediately ruling it out because it doesn't hit some spec or other. I've mentioned before in other threads that a new project I'm just starting is to shoot fun / whimsical / vintage style videos in order to learn that style and integrate it into my other personal work, but within that I'm also going to try and replicate an 8mm film image as a sort of minor goal. Posted before, but I shot in SD for the last cheap camera challenge with the mighty Fujifilm J20, a point and shoot from 2009. Final video: The fact these often shoot only in 30p gives the "opportunity" for a slight slow-motion effect, which is just enough to make the footage a bit more surreal, which I think lends itself to the already slightly-surreal aesthetic that comes from the footage being so low resolution. I find these images to be emotional in some way that I can't explain. The nay-sayers put forward the argument that it's just nostalgia for the past and that if the past was in 12K then we'd be nostalgic for that instead, but I don't think that's the full picture. TBH, I don't think highly of the past and I'm not nostalgic for it - on the contrary actually - I tend to think of the past as sort of uncomfortable and dirty, like when you visit old people and they haven't cleaned their houses properly and everything is dusty and gross. My life has also gotten a lot better over the decades and the thought of going back is not a desirable one either, so my associations for the past are not positive, which rules out nostalgia as the single explanation for these aesthetic associations. I wonder if dreams might be a factor - they are often vague and surreal but are sometimes highly emotional and definitely the language of connection to our semi-conscious and unconscious minds.

IDK, it doesn't look too bad to me - especially considering the extreme level of pixel peeing going on here: By the time you're viewing this at 1:1 on a UHD display after you've exported the footage, I'd seriously doubt there's a meaningful difference to it. When you apply a blur to the footage, the first thing that it does is to reverse any sharpening, then when you apply more it starts pushing it into what people might think of as soft. The mathematics of blurring and sharpening are opposite. Blurring is literally "un-sharpening". To get more technical, both operations adjust the frequency response of the image by adjusting the high-frequencies in the image. Think of it like a WB, if the image is too warm then you make it more blue, but the image doesn't instantly become blue. The reason it doesn't become blue instantly is because it has to cancel out the warm tint first, and only after that is cancelled out will the image become blue. Applying a blur is like doing a sharpening balance, where you un-sharpen to bring the image back to a more neutral place.

NM

For those who are interested by the difference of the fine details rendering (internal recording) between the S1 and the S5II in 5,9K. V-Log, ISO 4000, sharpness and NR at 0, internal recording, 10 bits, same lens, same settings : The S1 has at least the same level of detail but looks more organic. The S5II on the contrary, has rougher edges. Natural, ISO 1250, sharpness and NR at -5, internal recording, 10 bits, same lens, same settings : This time the difference is much worse with the standard profiles, it looks like smartphone footage, of course there are more details than on smartphone (even with 8K smartphone), but they are really over-sharpened. On the S5II, I never use 4K and C4K because they are even worse, especially with the standard profiles. But using the 5,9K/6K or Open Gate mode decrease the IBIS performance, it's very noticeable while walking (of course ambassasors never test the IBIS with these modes). I really hope the rumored S1II and S1HII will improve the video engine of the S5II.

Remote focus control doesn’t mean it needs to be auto focus. They are not the same thing. It is precisely because BM cameras don’t have continuous autofocus (well mine do actually) that a remote follow focus is required. Claiming that people don’t use current BM cameras on gimbals because they don’t have continuous autofocus is a complete nonsense. The box nature of this new one makes it even more applicable as it is easier to balance.

As a full-time freelancer, it was a rough year for me. I made about 2/3 of what I did in 2022; it was the worst year I've had since 2018. I'm still trying to understand why. It was probably a lack of focus as I helped my wife through her cancer treatments, the last of which was in April (as far as we know, she is cancer-free). Also, I lost a large account -- a relief for my mental health, but it did account for a double digit percentage of my income over the past two years. And I took two personal trips, which meant turning down quite a bit of work (as they say, "take two weeks off, lose six weeks of work"). But yeah, it just felt really slow, especially the Fall/Winter. I've been watching the rise of AI and big jumps in smartphone technology closely, and I am wondering how much longer my skill set will be relevant. It may be time for a change soon, though I can't think of anything that I would rather do. Equipment-wise, I bought a second C70, two RF zooms, a Red Scarlet-X, and an M2 Mac Studio + BenQ monitor. I sold about 50 items that I just haven't been using. I probably have another 10 that I can let go of too. My new reel for 2024:

Only the compare revealed the copying errors. I too was shocked when I saw them and when I used Window's Event Viewer to look at the error logs, there was nothing there to indicate any device errors. The first time this happened, I wiped the T7 by reformatting it and tried the copying again, and got the same results, although the copy errors were in different files and the missing files were different. I tried this several more times with two other T7 drives and got similar results. The files being copied were about a TB of RAW files from my Canon still cameras along with associated .PSD files. In all cases, the drives were connected to my PC using USB C to a native USB C port on the PC. I tried four different USB cables to rule out a bad cable and it didn't make a difference. I tried the same tests with several T9 drives and never saw any binary copy errors or missing files. At this point, I have zero confidence in the T7.