IronFilm

(emphasis mine) Again, I take this with a heck of a lot of skepticism and a very big grain of salt! What on earth Hollywood AAA blockbuster movies (or even tv series) are there out there being shot with a Canon C Series camera as their A Cam such that they'd want a XC10 to "match" it?? That doesn't pass the smell test. (again, the only reasonable explanation I can give for why you'd see them is that they were used for budget tight EPK. If you see an a7 series, but probably not a7S, with a stills lens on it and on a tripod in a BTS shot then it is probably there for photogrammetry or VFX plates) It's more likely say small / mid budget budget TVCs, or corporate shoots, or web series, or reality tv shows, or other local tv series, or etc might be using them. That's the only rare time I've come across an XC10, where it was an Advertising Agency's internal camera for ultra low budget shoots (social media clips and such) and was brought along to a TVC just as a back up to their rental C300mk2. (almost was needed!)

While this would be nice, it would be a fairly niche approach. The low/mid end of the professional market wants something that has similar (or more!) power than a FS7 but is compact like a FS5. (for instance: FX6 & C70. Both of which are already compact enough for gimbals/drones) That is where the bulk of the sales are, and where it makes sense to target. Komoda makes sense because "modular" is RED's entire DNA, that's what they do! (although even RED realizes this isn't necessarily what the market wants, thus they've for instance brought out the various flavors of RED Ranger) Z Cam is taking this approach themselves because: 1) it is lower cost than making a more fully featured camera & 2) they're very small time players thus need to try targeting a different niche to get a toehold initially Panasonic has the reputation, history, size, experience, and brand name to be able to take on directly FX6/C70/C300mk3. But they need to do it now, not in four years time. Feel that Varicam LT mk2 should aim for half that price, or at least a good 25% less. Needs to be undercutting C300mk3/FX9, and not be priced up at the C500mk2 end. Because that price bracket between FX9 and ARRI Mini is "no mans land", it's tough for a camera to survive there.

Well, my ancient Nikon D5200 was announced by Nikon 2012, and is still available to buy refurbished from Nikon: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/984944-REG/nikon_1501b_d5200_digital_slr_camera.html Even the Nikon D3000 from 2009 is still available as a refurbished DSLR from Nikon: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/731094-REG/Nikon_25460B_D3000_SLR_Digital_Camera.html Sony PMW-F5 / F55 also came out in 2012, and can still be purchased new: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/898427-REG/Sony_PMW_F5_CineAlta_Digital_Cinema.html https://www.engadget.com/2012-10-30-sony-goes-red-hunting-with-pmw-f55-and-pmw-f5-pro-cinealta-4k.html

Definitely not being used as an A Cam or B Cam! Unlikely even as a C Cam. But perhaps the XC10 might be kinda semi popular ish for EPK, maaaaybe. Can you share these BTS pics you're referring to?

An EVA1 MFT would've had an identical S35 sensor to the sensor to the current EVA1 Although the DVX200 shares its sensor with the GH4, and I reckon the DVX200 should've been MFT too. And would a "DVX300 MFT" for US$3K with the GH5 (or GH5S) sensor have been cool? Yes it would've been! This is exactly what I've been saying all along, the EVA1 MFT (ideally a locking MFT mount) would be able to use the widest of wide ranges of lenses: EF, MFT, PL, F, etc Yup, I'll agree the biggest problem with the EVA1 is it came too late in the lifecycle of that generation of cameras. The FS7 already had a firm firm grip on the low/mid end range (and if you wanted something else than a FS7, you already had a lot of choice too). But the 2nd biggest problem of the EVA1 was the missed opportunity in not having a MFT mount.

But the Varicam S35 never really took off in a major way, thus the pool of users looking for a Varicam B Cam is extremely small. While the Panasonic GH series was a massive hit for Panasonic. Thus a Panasonic EVA1 MFT makes far more sense. The challenge of getting Canon users to switch to an EVA1 EF is greater than the challenge of getting Panasonic GH lovers to upgrade to an EVA1 MFT as they already know and appreciate Panasonic products. An MFT crop of the EVA1 4.6K sensor would've still been sufficient for a 4K image.

But Alexa doesn't have the: extreme low light, P48 audio, slow motion, or 4K!

I think if Panasonic had released the DVX200 a year earlier, with a MFT Mount, so that the AF100 owners had a semi reasonable wait. (a 3yr-ish product lifecycle), and.... Then released the Panasonic EVA1 (again, with a MFT Mount) a couple of years earlier (again, that means a 3yr-ish product lifecycle after the DVX200 MFT) you'd have a very very successful product. As you'd have a Panasonic EVA1 MFT being launched in late 2015 / early 2016, only a year or so after the Sony FS7 launch, still soon enough after the FS7 for the EVA1 MFT to grab a large chunk of the market share. Plus the EVA1 MFT would be building upon the successes and large customer base of the DVX200 MFT / AF100 (& variants) plus all their other MFT users (especially GH series).

The Panasonic EVA1 was a great camera, giving the power of an FS7 (and arguably a prettier picture too) in the smaller form factor of a FS5, but..... it had a few problems, a few examples: 1) came out too late, the FS7 had already got a firm grip on the low/mid end market (same problem the C300mk2/C300mk3 suffered from) 2) lacked a MFT Mount, thus couldn't build upon the huge huge success Panasonic had created with the GH series (and the rest of their MFT range) 3) Panasonic lacked a history in the S35 market to build upon, unlike Sony or Canon (which had their older F3/FS100/FS700 or C100/C300 etc). Not even on the high end did Panasonic have much of a track recorder having not long ago (relative to the EVA1 launch) brought out their Panasonic Varicam S35.

Have you considered either a Panasonic Varicam LT or Sony FX9 as well as cameras at a similar-ish ballpark price?

On the flip side though, if you're looking for info about a camera from a hybrid photo/videographer perspective, then Chris & Jordan can likely hit that spot better than a hardcore DoP's review would. Just like for sound, if you're wanting info about being a boom op in the film industry, then Curtis Judd is going to be a terrible terrible source for that as he's got zero experience (or close to it) in that specific crew position. And you should instead listen to Allen Williams. But.... if you want a more gentle intro to an audio for videography perspective, then Curtis Judd is a better place to start with than Allen Williams, as Curtis covers that ground awesomely.

The Fujifilm GFX 50R itself is not yet down to only twenty pounds, it has at least got a thousand bucks chopped off its price now: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1436551-REG/fujifilm_600020523_gfx_50r_medium_format.html US$3.5K for the body.

Even at Varicam S35 pricing??

I feel that the Panasonic Varicam LT is one of the most underrated cinema cameras of the recent era. Just the timing and market was bad for it. Varicam S35 before it wasn't too successful (too expensive, and too heavy? And late-ish to market), thus even though the Varicam LT was 98% of the Varicam S35 but at a cheaper price and a lower size (addressing the two biggest issues of the Varicam S35), there wasn't the strong success of the Varicam S35 to build upon. Plus by the time Varicam LT arrived, it was already too late, ARRI had their claws solidly into the higher end market, and the Varicam LT was still too expensive when the likes of the Sony FS7 / Canon C300mk2 did the job well enough for the low/mid budget and were massively cheaper. The Varicam LT just couldn't find a large enough niche to be a huge hit with.

Not really the Nikon DX Z Mount lens I want to see get announced next: https://nikonrumors.com/2021/07/01/the-new-nikon-nikkor-z-dx-18-140mm-f-3-5-6-3-vr-lens.aspx/ But ok, I guess that's still progress and at least "something".

The problem is when you think of "PDAF", you think of the very latest generation PDAF. But if Panasonic was crazy enough (if they even have that option? Assuming no licensing/patent/etc issues) to jump onto the PDAF bangwagon, what would the GH6 with their brand new v0.1 PDAF be like? Very likely not a massively huge leap over further refined DFD being implemented instead. Panasonic has made a big bet on DFD being the right path for the long term future, as processing power gets more and more powerful in an ever more miniature form factor, then DFD has the potential to be just as good (perhaps even better) as PDAF but without any of the downsides of the PDAF approach. The problem is, this point off in the future might be too far away to save Panasonic's market share.

However got all the frame rate / cropping limitations of the Scarlet. Even at a "cheap" price I struggle to find it appealing to buy.

Yes, Nikon has implement IBIS better in the Z6/Z7 than even Sony has in their a7 series. Is why I was disappointed the Z50 doesn't have IBIS, if they'd done both that and 10bit over HDMI, then I might have got one by now. I just wanted a mini/cheaper Z6 that's compatible with S35 lenses.

Someone woke up this morning feeling cheerfully bright and optimistic!

I wonder what ARRI does to manage the power demands of an AMIRA? Can't be all just because it is a slightly more modern camera?

Yes, if only Nikon had included IBIS (or 10bit) to their Z50 / Z fc, then I reckon Nikon would easily have had a better APS-C choice than Sony. (which is currently a bigger threat to Nikon than Fujifilm) Perhaps Viltrox will save the Nikon DX Z system, or at least as a stop gap measure until Sigma arrives. Just like happened with the DSLR Era for Nikon DX F Mount. If there hadn't been the holy trinity of Tokina 11-20mm / Sigma 18-35mm / Sigma 50-100mm, then Nikon DX would've been a lot less interesting. (I've got all three of these lenses for Nikon F Mount, either the latest version or the previous model)

If you could buy a RED Scarlet MX (that's a complete & working kit) for the same price as a Sony PMW-F3, then I'd have considered it? But 7yrs+ ago, the Scarlet MX cost waaaaaaaay more than what I paid for a Sony F3! Still does cost a lot more than the going price for an F3. With the cost difference in 2021, you could easily buy a Sony FS7 / F5 instead of a Scarlet MX. You might even have enough left over cash to pick up an a7S secondhand too.

The Sony PMW-F3 is waaaaaaaaay lighter than it's nearest (in terms of price) RED! (that is, the RED ONE MX) I'd shot a little with the RED ONE, and that experience was one of the factors which made me in the end lean towards getting a Sony PMW-F3 instead.

I almost used my Sony PMW-F3 for a shoot last weekend. (as my B Cam to the FS7) But we couldn't get it to play happily with the BMD ATEM TV Studio 😕 (no way to get matching progressive into it? The ATEM is quite picky, time for me to buy a Decimator?)

I'm just glad they didn't completely ditch video, like they did with the Nikon Df!! But Nikon will need to seriously up their game with bringing out more DX Z Mount lenses, as Fujifilm has a huge lead with many quality APS-C lenses. Buzzz buzzz buzzz