sgreszcz

Visited my family in Canada and picked up a E-M5 II for $899 CDN from the Camera Store Calgary. That is about £450! The bad news is that the LCD stopped working after a couple of days. The good news is the Olympus repair contractor shop was 30 minutes from my mom's and they repaired it by the next day. I picked up DSCs oneshot to try as I was visiting Canada, and their office is there: http://store.smpte.org/product_p/dlab-smpte-pos.htm They had a batch with a very small defect on the grey card side, so I got a discount. I want to try it to see if I can match my LX100 to my new E-M5 II, and it seems to be easier with a vectorscope than the Macbeth Chart on the X-Rite Passport (which I also own). http://wolfcrow.com/blog/how-to-use-the-dsc-labs-oneshot-x-rite-colorchecker-or-datacolor-spydercheckr-with-davinci-resolve-to-match-color/ http://www.provideocoalition.com/what-good-is-a-macbeth-colorchecker-chart http://www.provideocoalition.com/cameras_rough_guide_to_color_grading_with_the_new_dsc_labs_oneshot Really new to this, but will be something interesting to learn.

Seems like the autofocus only works with Panasonic cameras and not Olympus? Seems strange since both use the same u4/3 mount.

Does anyone have any tips on reducing the handling noise on the Zoom H1? I find gripping it really tight works OK but that plastic body seems to pass through any slight movement.

I second both Xume + standard ND (I've used Heliopan, but now trying the Breakthrough Photography NDs - review (not mine) of 10-stop filters that include the Breakthrough NDs: http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/10-Stop-Neutral-Density-Filter.aspx). With the Xume magnetic adaptors in a small filter pouch it is almost as convenient as using a variable ND. I keep a 3 or 6-stop on my camera, and use it like a lens cap. I've also used both the Heliopan and Genus Eclipse variable ND filters which also give a good image. I watched your Genus Eclipse vs. Cheap variable ND review, that was really useful. I also found two more here: https://frankglencairn.wordpress.com/2012/12/08/nd-fader-shootout-heliopan-vs-the-new-genus-eclipse/ http://www.newsshooter.com/2012/12/06/genustech-eclipse-fader-nd-filter-sets-new-standard-all-for-165-us/ I don't use lenses larger than 58mm and step up to filters of that size, so it keeps the cost down. Some day I need to take the time to do a comparative colour/sharpness test...

I agree with everything that Mattias says (although I've never used the rx100 series) The LX-100 OIS is really quite good, unlike my Panasonic 35-100/2.8 which is a great lens for still but for video is full of jitter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1sNjEfD3GE I used to own the E-M5 I (and E-P5) and really loved the colours and shooting video in portrait situations with shallow depth of field. What I didn't like was how the image got all blocky when there was movement or if the shot was detailed/wide. I really liked the camera for stills too, so I recently sold my Gx7 to replace it with a EM-5 II to get the better stability with longer lenses and the stills features that I missed. The video isn't as good on the E-M5 II compared to Panasonic, but I will mostly be using it for close-ups and shallow depth of field and my LX-100 for the wider/detailed/4k shots. As for flicker, I owned the E-M5 I, and shot both in Europe and in Canada and adjusted the shutter from 1/50 to 1/60 depending. I really didn't notice any flicker, except sometimes a "skip" or "flash" that randomly happened in the video sometimes. I saw this with both my E-M5 and E-P5 and other users on the OMD video facebook page said that they experienced the same and said that maybe it was interference from the IBIS? I'm not really sure how much the whole 25/50 fps and 30/60 fps issue is. I bought an LX-100 in Europe for around €700, but would have preferred to get one for $600 in the US. I'm glad the E-M5 II is a world camera (PAL/NTSC), but I'm not sure how bad the flicker problem is? What do people do with flicker when shooting 24fps? I always just default to 25 fps in PAL-land as it is close enough? Here are some stills showing some good video from the E-M5 I and some bad video:

​I have the LX-100 and love it. It has decent image stability, a nice lens that covers a useful range (24-75mm), great manual controls, and records a nice 4k picture which looks fantastic in 1080p. I also like the grip and ergonomics of the camera - it feels good in the hand. I also owned the GX7, which I used with my Panasonic 35-100/2.8 lens, but sold it for a few reasons: 1) I missed some of the features that the LX-100 has - auto ISO in manual mode, being able to switch the display to monochrome to allow the peaking colour to stand out, quieter mechanical leaf shutter for stills (the GX7 was loud and electronic shutter gave me distorted pictures), full manual controls of shutter, aperture, exposure compensation. 2) The P35-100/2.8 was giving me a lot of jitter when using the OIS. I had been thinking of trying another copy of the lens, but in the end I just decided to sell the GX7 and buy an OMD E-M5II for any longer focal length video work (and for stills with P25/1.4, O75/1.8 lenses). The LX-100 is a great all-round video and stills camera. I have a step-up filter ring to 58mm which I use with a set of standard ND (3/6/10 stop) and xume magnetic filter adaptors. I leave a 3x or 6x on depending on light conditions and use them like a lens cap. When I went on holiday I fit the LX-100 + a variable ND in a tiny Thinktank Mirrorless Mover 5 case. I have the LX-100 set up quite comfortably (for me) right now. Custom C1 is for stills. C2 is set up for 4k video, and C3 for 1080p/50fps. Fn1 for switching between custom modes, Fn2 for switching between monochrome/colour EVF, Fn3 for locking the control buttons. AF/AE is set for autofocus (which I wish worked during recording when in manual mode!). To switch to video I just select my C2 setting, switch the shutter dial to 60, the back dial to adjust the shutter to 50, and then Fn3 to lock the settings. Outdoors I generally leave the aperture dial to A and modify exposure with ND. Indoors I use Auto-ISO and/or vary the manual aperture dial for proper exposure. I'm using picture profile "Natural", -3 Contrast, -5 Sharpening, -2 Noise Reduction, 0 Saturation which seems to be OK to me (I need to do more colour testing though which is hard for me as I'm colour-blind). I wish the LX-100 had a tilt EVF/screen as I do miss that on the Gx7 as most of the stuff I shoot is of my kids and it is easier to get low shots. Regardless, even the small LX-100 EVF is handy for seeing in bright outside light. It would be great if they could extend the video recording time on the LX-100, as well as allow you set the minimum shutter speed for iAuto-ISO (for stills). I'm also not sure why there is no ETC mode for 1080p settings. Panasonic, in general, should allow AF-S during recording when in manual focus mode. I used this a lot with my Olympus if I needed to quickly regain or ensure focus. I prefer a bit of focus hunting (which I can edit out if needed) than out of focus shots. I also find that sometimes the focus peaking on my LX-100 "disappears" - I still haven't figured out why. It would be nice if Panasonic offered a way to "fix" the shutter speed (say to 1/50 for 25fps or 1/100 for 50fps) and ignore the manual shutter dial to save an adjustment step with the back dial. It would also be useful to allow us to use the shutter button to stop/start video as I sometimes "miss" the small back record button.

I've just sold my GX7, and have the EM-5 II on order. I am looking to do a small doc (for fun) this September about one of the crazy mountain town fiestas in Spain (http://descubriendovillanuevadelcampillo.blogspot.com/p/los-quintos.html). I'm going to use my LX100 for wide/4k with the possibility of picking up a pistol-grip gimbal to use with it. The E-M5 II will be used with some of my longer primes or zooms for closer IBIS stabilised shots so I don't need to mess around with a tripod/monopod and can switch quickly between the two cameras. I liked the image quality of my old E-M5 for shallower depth-of-field or portrait shots, but hated when the image fell to pieces when subjects moved, or there was too much detail. I'll probably have a couple of other cameras on tripods to use for wider cut-away shots inside the cathedral or in the plaza but haven't decided on GH2/G7/GoPro yet. I still have a lot of prep/testing to do, and I need to learn fuzzy's ninja moves to get those nice EM-5 II "slider" shots!

A couple of new Olympus OMD E-M5 II films (music video and behind the scenes).

Thank you for all your input. I'm going to test with a used GH2, and a used gopro that supports protune. I might just end up using them both in the end.

Thanks for your advise and providing a variety of models to look into. Much appreciated. I'm just using earbuds now (haha) but something like this would provide better sound and convenience.

Can someone recommend some small (foldable?) monitoring headphones that I could use for field recording and when recording live audio (run-and-gun) into a recorder/camera setup? Looking for something fairly inexpensive, portable, and hopefully durable. Thank you.

Thanks for the suggestions. The main ceremony will most likely be bright Spanish sunshine, morning or mid-day, although the fiesta takes place day and night. I guess it depends on what is going on and how much filming I can do. I think I'll pick up a used GH2 on eBay and test against a used GoPro including using with shots from my primary camera. I'm going to need ND on the GH2, and will probably need to figure out what to do with the GoPro as I've never used one.

I'm going cover a live event this autumn and I'm looking to get a couple of unattended cameras to cover wide shots of a plaza to allow cutaways from my main camera shots. What would people recommend for this type of shooting? The GH2 or something like a GoPro, or something else? My main camera will be the LX100/GX7 or maybe a Olympus EM5-II for the IBIS when running around. Thank you!

I have a GX7 and LX100 that I use for stills and video. I'm trying to set it up to allow me to readjust focus using auto-focus (AF-S) when shooting video. When I had my Olympus cameras, it was quite easy to reset the focus automatically when recording was ongoing, but after many tries, I cannot get this functionality working on my Panasonic cameras! I have AF-S setup to work on the back AF/AE Lock as well as the shutter half-press. It works correctly with both cameras in AF and MF (manual switch) mode BEFORE starting recording, but as soon as I start recording, neither button will cause the camera to refocus. Under Motion Picture Menu I have: AFS/AFF/AFC : AFS Continuous AF: On Under Custom: AF/AE Lock : AF-ON Shutter AF : ON Half Press Release : OFF Quick AF : OFF Eye Sensor AF : OFF Focus/Release Priority : RELEASE AF+MF : ON MF Assist : BOTH Constant Preview : ON Thanks for any help here.

​It is a nice little camera, isn't it? The video looks great and it takes pretty good stills too. I've sold off most of my micro 4/3 cameras and lenses in that range and keep a GX7 and a couple of longer primes and zooms if I need more range or for portraits.

​My only Panasonic OIS lens, the 35-100/2.8, unfortunately adds a lot of jitter (even after the recent firmware upgrade), making it less than useful for handheld video shooting. On the other hand The OIS built into the LX-100 does seem to eliminate image shake (at least for me). My longer primes and zooms did stabilise video very well on my E-P5 with IBIS, but I had to keep the depth of focus small with little movement (like portraits) or the image blocked up.

​That's what I used to do with two E-P5s, the Olympus 17 and 75 mm lenses and a couple of NDs. I sold them due to the video quality, but was hoping to return to that way of shooting with the EM-5II.

​Was a little bit tongue-in-cheek. I love my LX-100, especially for video. I've stopped using my GX7 for most things as I get frustrated by the some of the annoying things that Panasonic has since fixed in the LX-100 and by the jitter in the P35-100 OIS that I use mostly on that camera. I still sometimes carry the GX7 with a longer prime or zoom for stills, but the LX-100 is always in one jacket pocket, and an ND fader in the other.

​Thanks for that example. I'm not a pro and that is exactly what I use my cameras for. The video quality looks much improved over the old EM-5, the shots look really steady. I'm still going to wait and see what the GX8 brings, but for me I miss the IBIS (and some of the stills features) in the Olympus cameras.

​Yep, compare the stills of the same shots against those in the video here: https://www.storehouse.co/stories/r9xml-slomosf I wouldn't expect video quality to equal still images, but when I compare the video from the EM-5II to my lowly LX100 (even 1080p, forget about 4k -> 1080p), it is in a completely different league than the EM-5II. The LX-100 stabilisation isn't bad either, as long as you aren't moving around too much with the camera. The one good thing is that the Olympus blocking seems to be gone in more detailed shots, even if the picture detail isn't there yet.

​That's good to know. I haven't used DTC much as I mostly use my GX7 (recently switched from Olympus) with the 35-100 lens and the LX100 doesn't have that feature for some reason. I wish it did, and I would be able to get from 24-150 equivalent from that camera when shooting video. I wouldn't really need to carry two bodies in that case and the LX100 has a decent lens, especially in the centre.

​I found that the DTC on all previous Olympus cameras was useless, too bad it is still the same with the E-M5 II. I think that the DTC has to do with the way it interpolates when rebuilding the full resolution still image, and then has to recompress to 1080p? I thought that Panasonic's EX Tele used a straight 1080p crop which should result in a better image? I have to test this with my GX7. There is no Ex Tele on my LX100. I'm glad the compression is better on the EM5-II. My previous experience with Olympus cameras and video was that images with shallow depth of focus looked quite good and anything wide and/or with lots of detail or movement looked horrible and blocky. I'm still amazed by how much better the Panasonic LX100/GX7 1080p, and especially the LX100 4k video image is over the video that I captured with the E-M5 and E-P5 cameras that I once owned. I still might try to get my hands on an EM-5II this summer as the IBIS does come in handy, especially for longer lenses. The OIS on my Panasonic 35-100/2.8 is still jittery, even after the firmware upgrade. Surprisingly, the LX100 OIS works quite well and covers the 12-75mm range for me.

I tested the OIS stability in video with my Panasonic GX7 with the 35-100/2.8 @70mm vs. my LX-100 @70mm. You can still see much more micro-jitter on the 35-100 than in the LX100. Shame, really as it is a great little zoom lens for stills. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1sNjEfD3GE

​I'm still sitting on the fence with this one. I would like to hear about your experiences with the EM5-II. I miss the Olympus for stills + IBIS for video since switching to LX-100 + GX7, however that is not a bad system either, however needing more external stabilisation.