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Yeah possibly and they are also quite rare, seen in low quantities at the usual second hand places. The a1 prices will benefit though from the cash-rich section of the market - working pros - wanting latest and greatest a1 ii and a9 iii instead, whereas previously they had been focused on the a1 as the ultimate workhorse from Sony. I dare say they might also be migrating to the FX3 as well. And I say... buh bye, close the door behind ya 🙂

I use the 70200gm2 and 200600, regarding the af comment. And the "older" cameras are the a7s3 and the fx30, and newer are zve1 and 6700. Of course the ai chip must be involved in some improvement of af, but my comment refers to an specific scenario: forest, branches and leaves in diferent planes, so i understand that many times i can't see my subject who is hidding from me and the camera, so how could af work perfect on that conditions... Flying subjects are another scenario -and less demanding one- were i don't see stellar diference between the ai and non ai chipped cameras. But i didn't do specific test of af with the 6700 or comparison with the other bodies... My "test" are the shots i make, and the comment is more an impression than a more scientific test you can rely. Regarding macro work the 70200 have some usability for insects, but now i use mostly a7s3 and fx30, and again DMF and tracking are good partners for bees or others species of that size. I don't have the 6700 anymore but i could use one that i have access to it and make some shots of flowers and bees because in here is spring and everyone in forest is sharing his/her colors... So with 6700 or zve1 i will make some insect shots and then compare with the fx or a7 footage to see if there 's a significant difference of the af rate success with and without ai chip.

Did you know (do you even care…) that the venerable S1R can shoot 10 bit, 5k 30p internally? I didn’t until the other day but discovered it does so just for some amusement, tried it. Holy cow, - it’s better than the 4k 60p I have been getting out of all the S cameras shooting the Natural profile. It’s a 3:2 format, but so what. There’s no log available but the Flat profile is quite gradeable. I kind of knew it existed actually but had simply dismissed it as the 6k doesn’t look as good as the 4k so just ‘assumed’ 5k wouldn’t either. Wrong! I shot a few scenes back to back against my usual setting and it’s much nicer so giving it a run out at this weekends wedding… Had to flip everything to NTSC on all 4 cameras and will be working on a 24p timeline instead of my usual 25, but I can squeeze a little more out of my slo mo as it will be 60p @ 40% instead of 50p @ 50%. All the 30p will be @ 80% and only the static talky bits will be in real time, ie, 24p timeline shot at 24fps. So: 24 @ 100%, 30 @ 80% and 60 @ 40%. Could be a ‘game upping’ weekend… 🤔

I do care…!!! Just scooped up a deal on eBay for a really clean S1R with two Sigma Contemporary primes (24mm and 35mm f/2) for $1,400 total. Ends up being about $750 US for the S1R body. So excited to play with the 5k mode and have the higher res stills compared to my current setup. Used LUMIX cameras continue to offer crazy specs for the price. Going back through the posts looking for tips and info now on getting the most out of the camera.

No it’s not. The biggest name in pro sound timecode clocks. https://ambient.de/en/products/acn-nl-l-nanolockit-timecode-logging

We absolutely should cut down on headphones that don't have replaceable batteries, yes, and ask that companies either make batteries easily replaceable or offer a program where you can send in your headphones to get the battery replaced.

I agree best thing about the a1 II is the price of used a1, if it gets down to $2500 that is an end-game for less than the price of an a7r V. It has very few disadvantages compared to Z8... Only the 8k60fps is missing and oversampled 4K... The subsampling is ok just something to be aware of, because of the occasional moire and it changes the grain texture in low light. That 8K though... believe me when I say it's the BEST I've ever seen from any camera that small and soon to be affordable

The use of internal, non-replaceable batteries continues to increase. For now it's not being done in professional grade equipment, but it very well could start and likely will. And these consumer and prosumer products are increasingly being used on smaller and medium size professional productions. Look at cell phones and laptops. My $1,000 Samsung phone is less than two years old and it's battery life has decreased significantly. The battery will die and make this phone useless sooner than the usability and functionality of the phone will, maybe before I even pay it fully off at this rate! My MacBook Pro M1 Max is 3 years old. The battery too has started to hold less of a charge. It too will be rendered useless by the battery dying before anything else on it goes. Just more stuff that will end up in a landfill.

According to Sony's website, the HDMI output on the A1II is the exact same as the A1: 7680 x 4320 (29.97p / 25p / 23.98p), YCbCr 4:2:0 8bit / RGB 8Bit 4332x2446 (59.94p / 50p / 29.97p / 25p / 23.98p), Raw 16bit Also, note that the gamma was locked to Slog-3 during RAW output. I believe it is still the same.

With the first kit mentioned and if you were to sell the 18-40 immediately to MPB, you'd be paying 844 euros for a brand new S5D. That seems very reasonable, but there might be even better deals. Who knows?

Amazon.fr is offering the S5D (new/old camera) + the new 18-40mm kit lens for 1129 euros. That's not that bed of a deal for new camera (not used) with a full 3 year warranty. Maybe even better is the same camera with the 28-200mm for 1699 euros here: https://www.digixo.com/appareil-photo-hybrides/panasonic/p398960-panasonic-lumix-s5d-28-200mm-dc-s5dhe-k.html

The ‘problem’ is there is so little info out there… When it launched, plenty of initial reviews. Since, a couple of long term reviews. But since the 5k firmware update, you have to look really hard and what there is, isn’t great. It’s simply a combo of time + the fact it’s Panny full frame which doesn’t get a whole lot of love, mostly due to the ‘AF issue’. I couldn’t see any mention of the 5k mode being only pixel to pixel and have spent hours trying to get it out of that mode but it turns out it’s a default and can’t be changed. No biggie, I like to shoot a bit longer than most and if I understand it correctly, the crop factor is 1.56 and it looks about that to me. This makes my 35mm f2 just over 50mm and my 65mm f2, just over 100mm. Perfect, 50 mil is bang on for me inside and 100 mil great for outdoors. I have the 20mm f2 also which works out just over 30 mil and is great for tighter stuff like dance floor at weddings. Overall, it’s beginning to edge it for me as ‘ultimate hybrid’… Yes, spend a lot more and you can get a Canon R5 or a Sony A1 or in a couple of years, a Nikon Z9, but right now, for around 1500 $€£ you can pick up a ‘like new’ body and that is insane value. The sensor is exceptional. Arguably the version in the Leica SL2 and Q2 is even more exceptional as they tweak the thing further, but it’s easily the best I have had in any camera for stills. Easily. Then, batch run the raw files through DXO PureRaw2 and it takes the files to another level. OK, they are now whoppingly massive DNG files, but when I import those into Lightroom with my custom import preset, there isn’t a whole lot more I need to do other than some straightening, exposure, sometimes WB and any cropping. And re. cropping, I can crop those 65mm shot files like they were shot on anything up to 150+mm and have an end result better than anything shot on a 24mp sensor. Niggles? I don’t like the position of the on/off switch though I have got used to it. Much better on the S1H. The top screen on the S1H is far classier being square and lights up black or white, ie isn’t an orange rectangle. Err, struggling now… It’s built like a tank yet is NOT as massive and heavy as some make out. I don’t have the biggest hands but I’d say it’s pretty Goldilocks in the size, weight, handling department. The stability I’d say is about 1/2 to 1 stop behind the S1H, but still really great. So for me right now, it’s just a question of whether the pixel to pixel, 5k 30p 10 bit 420, as part of the overall bigger picture, makes the S1R my best option right now. I think so… If I want to shoot hybrid anyway and have hi res stills and great SOOC video in a single unit. As for the AF, I have a new technique which is use the AF to acquire a lock and then flick the lens switch to manual. Muscle memory soon catches up. But, utterly useless for tracking. Anyone walking towards you, forget it, utter trash. Instead, S5 on tripod in 4K 60p at f5.6 or 8 with native zoom lens and I’d say with the right custom tracking settings, 100% WILL track 95% of the time. There’s only a handful of times every job when I need that so the above is my go to. But S1R, I’d give it 9/10 as a total package for my kind of hybrid needs which is hi res stills and great video of people chatting, wedding ceremonies, etc and maybe 9.5 if the 5k works out for me like I expect it to.