Andrew Reid

20-60 is great. Pana have always been an innovator with the small zooms, going back to 14-42mm in GH1 days. Also underrated, on the Sony side is that 28-70 slow kit lens that has been around for ages. The rendering is actually really nice and it weighs literally nothing compared to the latest big buck F2.8 equivalents.

You have some very good points, so I've edited the OP's post to better reflect his true love.

Who says I changed what a user wrote? Replacing a misleading and spammy youtube video with a picture is not doing that. And it sends a message that if you don't check your sources, or post poor quality outlinks, you will have it deleted. That's not about being unfair, that's about good moderation. Why are you indulging an entitled whiner? The joke was made clear by me in the comments and there are far greater controversies you should be upset about, maybe gaza or something, but not this.

I've given the topic a proper title which may help.

Haha, it shows my lack of interest in all things Canon as I have never even looked at a C80. If it is really a 3:2 sensor in a cinema camera - Doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to me - then we'll see what else they do with it in that case.

The rumour is total bollocks as the C80 sensor is widescreen 36.0 x 19.0 mm https://www.canon-europe.com/video-cameras/eos-c80/specifications/# Whereas a plain old photographic tool needs 36x24 obviously.

Stunning!

Pinned topic, keep it going 🙂 The internet how it should be.

The price is fantastic, and the autofocus looks very capable too. There's very little action under $1k with new releases so good on Fuji for keeping some excitement going. Latest image processor is a plus too. I would like to see what Small rig have in store, grip wise. A nice wooden grip please.

Panasonic need to find their unique appeal again, they are trying to be too much like the others. Panasonic will not beat Sony at the same game. How about a captivating XPan digital camera though, with a panoramic screen and sensor, and in the same sort of body design as a beautiful Hasselblad original XPan to boot. How about a different form factor for the S1H II that leans into the video features rather than just copying the plain old DSLR style body shape that the camera industry has been defaulting too since about 1961? How about starting a whole new niche, which then becomes really popular with mass appeal. There's a lot they can do other than simply trying to out-spec and out-price Sony.

Definitely one of the best stabs at a social mirrorless camera yet. I don't like to think of it as a "Content from creators" era camera, it's more than that... like compact X100V alternative, great for travel adventures and street photography. Loving that new film dial too. Fuji have however missed a trick not releasing a higher-end $1500 X-E5 at same time with IBIS, EVF and the newer 40mp sensor. Maybe they didn't want to cannibalise the X-T5.

Yes a lot to like in the S9, my vision for Panasonic is just more ambitious - we want them to take customers off Canon and Sony, and compete on cutting edge. The new strategy has its merits... Micro Four Thirds topping out with phase-detect AF on the GH7 is a nice surprise, I'd thought they'd cancel after GH6. The focus on small full frame bodies and lenses to replace Micro Four Thirds is a clear new direction... 18-40mm lens on an S9 is an able replacement for a Micro Four Thirds cam. But Panasonic risk losing the halo effect on the high-end stuff unless they get the S1H Mark II out soon at very least. S1 is probably dead, the S5 series has replaced it. The S1R is probably dead, the Leica SL3 has replaced it 🙂

Let's look at the bright side now... The LSI and firmware keeps being developed, this is a good sign as they are expensive to do. Panasonic may have cut the budget but at least they are still getting access to the latest chips, new encoders, ProRes, and so on. Also, both the GH6 and GH7 had brand new sensors, seemingly not from Sony - perhaps this indicates a switch to OnSemi, makers of the ARRI ALEXA 35 sensor, or even a switch to a joint-venture Panasonic managed fab. This would explain a delay for the flagship full frame cameras with new full frame sensors, if they cannot just pick a Sony up off the shelf. The S9 was certainly a lukewarm move... The lovely but niche Sigma Fp has shown that there's not a particularly mainstream demand for very small full frame cameras, as the Sony a7 stuff is small enough for most but with the extra features you need such as an EVF and IBIS. The S9 is also a very cost driven product, when you pick one up in your hand you will realise it. But again there's the new processor and firmware, with extensive LUT support and latest gen phase-detect AF. The S5D is of course the strangest move imaginable, but it also could have a positive connotation... The S5D is born of a collaboration with DJI who are in the L-mount alliance. It could be a sign that DJI and Panasonic are developing a closer relationship with the intent to produce a full frame DJI mirrorless camera with L-mount. DJI are an extremely innovative company and this could really be quite a special beast if it was to come to market next year along with a Panasonic S1H Mark II with a similar sensor (and huge DR) to the ALEXA 35. So I've not lost hope yet, just a bit concerned and worried because nobody least of all me wants to see a diminished Panasonic presence in the camera market. One of the great things about the Japanese is that they have largely avoided the monopolies and duopolies and mergers that you see in the US tech sector... Does one country need 6 or 7 camera companies all taking sales off eachother? Probably not, but it is good for us.

We wanted democratisation of the art of filmmaking not so much the business of it. It is important in the business end to always have demand outstrip supply. When anyone can pick up a cheap piece of kit and go and shoot adverts, then you have a problem. Evidently not everyone can pick up a cheap piece of kit and shoot something artistically interesting, so it's still of value to do that. The problem with that however is that you have to be very fortunate to make any money doing so. The film industry has put group-think, profits and franchise filmmaking before creative interest, and is now struggling with an unappealing product that is watered down and too much in abundance, i.e. mediocrity in creative terms now passes for the gold standard as long as it has a high production value and gets made by one of the big streaming channels. It doesn't grab people's attention in a world that is very demanding on one's time and attention. This isn't the fault of the EOSHD Forum btw. There's the technology side which is causing the supply and demand problem in the low-end of production and the lukewarm content, oversupply of material killing the high-end of production.

The thing is, this was the last chance for 2024 to do something. Which means heading into 2025 there is not an update to 3 important 2018 cameras. That is quitting.

I'd say the A7 IV has a better sensor in a similarly priced body ($1500-2500 market). The Z6 III clearly is a new generation of sensor, in that same mid-range price bracket. The S5 Mark II is competitive on price, but Panasonic may as well give up on taking any sales away from the others. I really do think now that they have quit the flagship enthusiast and high-end market, in order to leave it to Leica. There can be no other explanation. The S1 series didn't sell well enough, so why throw good money after bad when they can use a tiny fraction of the budget on very low-cost stuff like the S9 with a 7 year old sensor? And they have continued to get new LSIs and new firmware features such as on the GH7, new codecs, ProRes, etc. So maybe there is a built up to a new S1H or something like that. But I just find it all very strange that in the 6 years between the big important S1 series launch and now, they have absolutely nothing to show for it. https://www.eoshd.com/news/panasonic-hiatus-worries-as-flagship-cameras-remain-nowhere-to-be-seen-in-2024/

They have not entirely quit the camera industry but it does feel like a soft quit at the moment.

BTW do you have an URL for the figures?

Wow... the buying public really are not rewarding the innovation shown by Panasonic and Fuji judging by those numbers. You wonder how sustainable 260k is for Panasonic, as 3.6% is just pathetic for a company that size. What were Samsung on before the exit? Olympus? OM are doing very badly considering the size of a system they inherited, many loyal users. Canon, what can I say - they just don't deserve to be that far ahead when there are so many better options behind from Sony, Nikon and Fuji. People... their habits die hard don't they. Makes me think they rushed out the original EOS R just to bind people into the RF lenses early.

There is a rumoured Panasonic... i mean Leica SL3-S coming soon, and another sign things are not well. Panasonic have given Leica an S1R Mark II and an S1 Mark II, and it would be trivial to put the same thing in a Panasonic body with a Lumix badge... But they haven't. It's all very suspicious in my view.

All it takes is a tiny amount of prompt engineering. Just a tiny amount. Is this the secret to embracing household chores then? You couldn't do it in CG though because it would be the computer moving stuff, whereas claymation is about the human hand moving stuff. It's a big difference.

In that case, I'll replace the video with something with more value to the DJI discussion 🙂

That's the thing, it's all become very insular. Self-congratulating technological achievement, and I don't really feel to grateful towards it, whereas an actual human artist you do feel a sense of awe and gratitude and good will when they do something brilliant, or anything that demonstrates talent. Now the danger is that the feedback loop of inauthentic procedurally generated content feeds into the AI and it becomes split off from human input to a factor of something like 9:1, which will unmoor it even more from the hand of an artist. What could save it is only if it concedes more control to us, not less, and becomes a proper in-depth tool, not a single button press or prompt. I recently watched the documentary about Hayao Miyazaki, A never ending man, where he retires and instantly regrets it because he's a total obsessive. He's aging and can't be fudged with a feature, so decides to delegate to a team of CGI experts and instantly regrets that too, so he ends up literally drawing it himself on top of the CGI frames. Even though the CGI experts were absolute top notch, almost all of his style got lost in the delegation process. It didn't matter if he sat next to them and micro managed, it just wasn't conveyed. The only way he could do it was to put his hands directly on the paper. It's the same with AI, unless your hands are directly on the paper and it stays in the background as an assist, it will never be authentic art!

To be honest looking at GH6 used prices now you could probably stretch to one of those for not much more?!

I haven't been following his recent personal stories for obvious reasons!