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I kind of think you should turn your question around: if you're shooting narrative films and short documentaries, you should be focusing on learning about lighting and buying the gear that will help you adequately light your scenes, rather than looking for a camera that can handle poor lighting conditions. People constantly focus their budget and attention on cameras and ignore lighting, which is backwards. Lighting is 95% of what makes an image "cinematic." Any camera can look good with good lighting. Nowadays even a single "run and gun" operator can use portable lights; you don't need a crew, C-stands, etc. If I had to do it over again I'd spend 2 years learning how to do lighting before I even started thinking about which camera to get.

Are you talking about real doc work? Or narrative stuff. Because in my experience in the doc world, lighting has to be very selective. Of course I'm lighting interviews, and anything I can. But in the world of fast moving subjects and spur of the moment things happening, it is so incredibly handy to have a camera I can crank up the ISO and get a decent image when the character is only lit by the light on the stove, or the dash lights in their car, or the stars in the desert. I totally get it that knowing how to light is much more important than having high ISO, but that doesn't negate how important it can be for doc work. I guess this all totally depends on the use case though.

This video is pretty out of date and doesn't take any of the new firmware updates into account. Firmware version 1.6 on 11/24/2020 added the "Secret Sauce"... 1. Improved AF performance • Tracking and recognition performance of AF have been improved with an addition of head recognition. • Human/Animal recognition can be set ON or OFF when the AF mode is set to [1-Area] or [1-Area+]. • [AF+MF] can be used during video recording. 2. Added video functions • The following 5K(4992x3744) video recording mode in MOV format has been supported. - 5K30p/25p/24p, 4:2:0 10bit LongGOP, 200Mbps, LPCM • [Like 2100(HLG)] has been added in [Photo Style] to support 10-bit HDR video recording. • [Luminance Level] function supports the 10-bit mode. • High-Resolution audio recording using an XLR Microphone Adaptor DMW-XLR1 is available and it can be controlled with [XLR Mic Adaptor Setting] menu. * MOV only • 4K 60P/50P 4:2:2 10-bit video output over HDMI has been supported. • [SS/Gain Operation] function has been added. • [Red REC Frame Indicator] is available. • It is possible to play back vertical videos vertically.

"let’s have a look at the waveform shooting our standard XYLA21 chart with the GH1 – 8 usable stops are visible: Waveform plot of the 2009 original LUMIX GH1 shooting the XYLA 21 chart – 8 stops are usable. Image credit: CineD 8 stops!? How was I ever able to shoot anything on the GH1 with that seemingly poor dynamic range? Well – interestingly enough, when I now look at some of my early GH1 films on Vimeo they look totally fine to me… it is glaringly obvious that camera technology hasn’t been limiting us anymore for a very very long time. " Panasonic LUMIX GH6 Lab Test - Rolling Shutter, Dynamic Range, and Latitude | CineD https://www.cined.com/panasonic-lumix-gh6-lab-test-rolling-shutter-dynamic-range-and-latitude/

This, plus: Plus: Or my pick which would be a used Lumix S5ii for approx $€£ 1500 There’s a range of quality f1.8 primes and some very tasty but slightly pricey zooms. Or there are some excellent f2 primes from Sigma and some equally as excellent, but cheaper zooms. I’d probably consider the latest 28-45mm f1.8 as a 3x prime zoom set up in a single unit, ie, 28, 35 and ‘nearly 50’. That would set you back another 1.5k and it’s so new, no used options yet. Total running budget, 3k so as long as that focal length is both wide and long enough, add in some of todays cheap but excellent lighting and you are good to go. Some audio also obviously, but all in without going crazy, 3.5-4k max?

I remember those videos. He really led the early movement for minimal camera setups at the time. Very inspiring to me and my travel kits over the years. I think about those old videos and also Kenny Ty and his early Canon T2i stuff on Vimeo whenever I get too fixated on camera specs or have late night GAS...

I remember being very impressed with what Brandon Li shot years ago with his Sony RX100 that he put up on vimeo: https://vimeo.com/rungunshoot But I can't seem to find it again. He likely removed remove, like he did with his Sony NEX-5N videos (probably because of the people who were in them, and didn't want his brand image associated with them any longer): https://web.archive.org/web/20130215084133/https://www.rungunshoot.com/the-350-docu-filmmaking-kit-depreciation-is-wonderful/ (ha, I see my old comment there from 2013! Forgot I wrote that)

You might not have to what till next year,I'm shopping the Japanese websites and seeing some killer deals. At around $1,000 I think the S9 is an amazing deal. I'm going to scoop one up next paycheck and have some fun with it. I sold my GX85 a few months ago for a really solid price on eBay so it's getting close to an even swap for the S9 financially. I would love a new GX body with some of the GH7 love but that ship will probably never sail. The S9 is going to be the little brother to the S5iix and maybe a used S1R to round out my doc travel kit for a current project. If Lumix will end up removing record limits in firmware updates and give us a few more specs I feel like the Sigma FP crowd could even jump ship for the 6k open gate and ease of file codecs. No tax and cheap Fedex for $1,200 on Japanese sites today. Some even have the craptastic pancake lens included.

True story; Years ago I was hired to fly to Thailand and follow around the worlds leading Michael Jackson impersonator for a concert tour. If things went well I was going to be hired on to film the rest of the world tour. Everything was super last minute and I had just sold my camera so I ended up going totally minimalistic and grabbing the RX100. I had been using it as a B-Cam for a few months and was pretty comfortable with it but it was still terrifying coming from my rigged out 5Dmkii. At my stopover in Hawaii I learned that the Thai people were protesting and they were marching in the street, the economy was tanking and things were a mess. Concert was cancelled. Ended up flying to Nepal to film some other documentary stuff for a friend and his hemp company for two months. RX100 was a blast to use and I really enjoyed going so minimal up in the mountains. Next trip I bought the GH4 and GX85 (Based on Andrew's articles here) And the RX100 was quickly sold after seeing the image stabilization and the really filmic image of the little GX85 beast.

Yes, I mean exactly that. It was my sole video camera for an entire season. No full length ceremony or speeches etc, but hundreds of clips throughout the day. I’ll go see if I can find anything on Vimeo but it might be a bit old now…!!

And *cough* a lot of CGI!

8K with that firmware update for 500Mbit 10bit 422 is what the a1 is all about The super 35mm mode is your usual 5.8k downsampled to UHD... That has been around since the a7r II. No complaints with it but the full frame 8K is stunning. When the R1 hits $2000 on eBay as pro cameras tend to do... and Sony a1 comes down under $3k used, things will start to get very interesting again for enthusiasts.

I think the problem with some of these discussions is the fact that we argue about gear like we are using it for the same purposes. We are discussing the merits of specific trucks, only some of us are using the trucks for a country drive to church, and some of us are hauling loads cross country. This makes the conversations very frustrating. You can take a drive with an 8 stop DR GH1 and get some pretty shots of the trees at sunset and feel the wind in your hair. But have you ever tried to shoot a commercial project or a modern documentary with 8 stops of DR and be competitive in today's market?

It isn’t, but to be expected as it’s a previous gen system. And that of the current S5ii/x just received a firmware upgrade making it better still. Zero issues for me with that of the S5ii and IBIS is VERY important to me, especially now that I have ditched the hated gimbal forever 😉

Too many compromises… Single card slot, rear screen which I use 100% of the time, not even close, some other stuff I forget. On balance, for not that much more money, it’s a hell of a lot more camera. For pro work. Which is exactly why I have stuck with Lumix for video and 3 of my 4 cameras are Panasonic. I looked really hard at much cheaper FX30’s and they would have been perfect for my needs and if starting from scratch, would probably go that route, but no reasons I can think of to exchange S5ii’s for them. I’m still on the fence whether to replace my S1H with a third S5ii or the S9…but it will be one or the other within the next few weeks. Which is also what I almost did having used a pair of them for a season 2 years ago. Fantastic image quality for stills and actually extremely good for video, but with some compromises. The only thing that put me off and sent me to the Sony A7RV was lenses. The combos available for my needs are just too big and heavy and I tried them all! My A7RV with baseplate and 28-75 for instance weighs 1.35kg in the hand and even with the 70-180, only about 1.5kg. Previously, my equivalent, slower, less capable, L Mount Mount set up, weighed in at 2.8kg, so almost double! I’ve only been using the new set up for a couple of days but it’s been a HUGE step up in all kinds of ways; weight, ergos, speed etc, ie, everything I wanted it to be. Pure video needs though? Lumix. Easily. Pure stills, Sony. Hybrid, Lumix. Lumix for me is now one camera (S2H or S2R) plus one lens (a fast compact 50-100 zoom) away from being the absolute for me, but it’s just the ‘anything over 70mm’ that makes it not work for me. So for now at least, happy to have a 75% split in terms of cameras for video from within L Mount and 25% from Sony for stills. At some point in the future, I do hope L Mount can offer me everything I would like so everything is within one system, but my current one just works so I can wait. And if it does not happen, makes no difference to me!