ac6000cw

What's the problem with H.265/HEVC licensing - it's handled by MPEG-LA in the same way as MPEG-2 & H.264 as far as I know (and it's quite cheap - free up to 100,000 units per year, $0.20 per unit over that - see https://www.mpegla.com/wp-content/uploads/HEVCweb.pdf )

Minimising the cost of media storage and distribution (bandwidth cost) is what has always driven the development of data compression. It is the reason that broadcast TV originally used interlaced image scanning (it halves the transmission bandwidth compared to using 'progressive' frames at the same picture update rate).

What is your budget? You seem to be looking for the perfect camera but that doesn't exist, so you have to compromise to get as many of the features you would like and put up with things you don't like (especially if the budget is fairly limited and you want it small and light). I'd prefer the G9 to be smaller and lighter, but I put up with that to get the features I want (like excellent IBIS and 4k50p) because they are important to me. If I want to take out a smaller, lighter camera I'll take my GX80 instead and put up with 4k25p, worse autofocus, worse IBIS and shorter battery life in exchange. It's choices and compromises...like life generally...

LX100 isn't a M4/3 camera - it has a 16MP M4/3 sensor, but it doesn't use the whole area (it uses slightly different parts of it depending on the aspect ratio you select). That's why it's a maximum of 12.7MP stills. The lens needs to cover a smaller sensor area, so can be more compact. I think it relies very heavily on electronic correction of the lens distortions, as a trade-off for the small size - even so there is some barrel distortion visible at the wide end, and it's prone to flare sometimes.

I own both of those. LX100 is a great stills camera, and the on-board audio is much better than the GX80. Stabliisation is 'OK' but nowhere near as good as the GX80. Lens is great, although avoid zooming it during video shooting - it tends to look a bit jerky and 'flickery'. No tilting or touch screen, no in-camera charging. The GX80 is a better video camera - better stabilisation, better 1080p, easier to use as a hybrid i.e. switch instantly between stills and video. Tilting touch screen. Has in-camera charging. Poor sounding on-board audio (and there is no mic socket). Viewfinders are about the same on both. Batteries are the same type on both, and battery life (shooting video) isn't brilliant on either, but decent third-party batteries are cheap (as are USB chargers for them) so just carry a few spare batteries with you. I'd go for the GX80 with the 12-32mm pancake, and add the cheap/light/small 25mm F1.7 prime for low light etc. If you want a 'travel zoom' then get the 14-140mm F3.5-5.6 - it makes a nice 'super-zoom' combo while still being pretty small overall. All of those lenses are cheap used, and the two zooms support dual-IS.

I agree completely - it's hard to believe the G100 has been 'designed' by the same product planning team that bought us a succession of ever improving G, GH and GX series cameras - have all the good people departed, or are they being over-ruled by higher-up management? It just looks like a hurriedly-put-together response to the ZV-1 (Panasonic having got wind of what Sony was planning).

Not substantially but noticeably heavier and larger. The EM-1 II is about the same size as a G80/G85 (but heavier). The G9 is taller and deeper but good ergonomically, especially as it has a lot of assignable buttons - the two on the front between lens and grip (under your fingertips) are *really* useful, I have one of them mapped as an alternative video record button.

Only a few of the pro-level native micro-4/3 lenses are heavier (the G9 weighs 658g) and I don't own any of those, partly for that reason - adapted lenses don't count 😉 Even my F-mount Tamron 17-50 F2.8 plus cheap speedbooster combo is less than 600g 🙂

It's a great choice - after 'sitting on the fence' for ages about buying a G9 due to the extra size and weight, I bought one about a year ago and discovered just how good a camera it is - no regrets at all. It's head-and-shoulders better than the G80 I also have - superb IBIS and EIS, no-crop 4k and excellent 1080p, plus lightning fast AF-S for stills (and for my purposes video C-AF works fine, it's much better than people seem to want to give it credit for). I've also recently bought (at the sort of price Andrew mentioned) a used EM-1 II as a smaller but still high-end camera - my first Olympus camera. Not been able to do much proper testing due to Covid-19 lockdown, but it's been interesting so far comparing the two...

Speaking as an experienced FPGA design engineer, if you can implement it in an FPGA you could put into an ASIC (or into software, depending on how fast you need your processing to run). There is nothing magic or special about FPGAs other than their basic ability to be user programmed/re-programmed, which is their 'Unique Selling Point'. That makes them very attractive for low to medium volume products which need high-throughput data processing - instead of sinking a lot of up-front development capital into an ASIC. It also makes it a lot easier and cheaper to fix bugs and add features after you've launched the product.....

The S1H firmware 2.0 update is now available from the Panasonic download page - https://av.jpn.support.panasonic.com/support/global/cs/dsc/download/index4.html (without the "RAW Video Data output over HDMI" function "due to some technical issues yet to be resolved")

Panasonic G9 (with a 10 minute clip limit)

I'd fully agree with that - it also means you can crop/zoom/re-frame/software stabilise with little quality loss (for 1080p output). Incidentally - if you need to convert 4k at 24p/25p/30p to double frame rate, the 'SVPcode' capabilty of SVP (SmoothVideo Project) is worth a look - I used it recently to up-convert 4Kp25 from the G80 to 4Kp50 to intercut with 4Kp50 from my G9 (final edit was 1080p50). It only costs $25 (for a 2 computer license) and as it uses FFmpeg for encoding, in theory you can output the converted footage in any of the encoding formats FFmpeg supports e.g. ProRes. If you intend to up-convert the footage, i think it's better to shoot it with a shutter speed matching the up-converted frame rate e.g. use 1/100s for 25p - that will look better and also provides sharper frames for the software to work with when it does the motion interpolation.

At that price, if it's in decent condition, just buy it... Then add a few cheap 3rd part batteries, V30 rated SDXC cards (for 4K) and some cheap but good lenses and go out and have fun! (I own a G80, G9 and GX80 - the G9 will beat the other two hands-down for video quality but the G80 is smaller and lighter, and the GX80 is the one I usually pick up if I want to take a camera with me 'just in case'. Which one is my favorite - hard to say, it depends on the situation...)

Based on a quick look at dealer prices for *used* G6, G7 and GX80 in the UK, the G6 is maybe £120-160 (but there are not than many listed), the G7 around £250 and the GX80 around £200. On that basis, unless you can find a really good deal on a G6 or you need a mic input, I'd go for a used GX80.

I'd agree with most of the above suggestions (having owned most of the cameras mentioned) - personally I'd go with the LX100 or GX80/85 and take a small/cheap audio recorder with a mic input to workaround the lack of mic input on those. The GX80/85 has the advantage of USB charging so that's one less thing to take with you, and the video autofocus is much better than the LX100, if that matters. If you are considering the GH1 then add the G6 to list - as Andrew commented in his review years ago, it's a 'GH2 redux' with good 1080p (up to 50/60p) plus a mic input, lightweight, and it's very cheap secondhand (as are 3rd party batteries and USB chargers for them). No IBIS though so you need stabilised lenses or a tripod. As a general versatile 'travel camera' I've taken a GX80 plus 14-140mm Panasonic zoom lens a few times - overall smaller than some 'superzoom' cameras, dual-IS, nice to use, EVF+tilt LCD, good 1080p and 4k video with excellent stabilisation and USB charging - what's not to like?

Apologies if this has already been mentioned, but I was just looking at the Lumix firmware update page and noticed an update for the S1H was added on 10th December (version 1.1) - https://av.jpn.support.panasonic.com/support/global/cs/dsc/download/index4.html# The change log:

I've been using 'SanDisk Extreme PLUS 128 GB microSDXC Memory Card + SD Adapter' in a G80 at 100 Mbps & a G9 at 150 Mbps (4k50p) recently on a long trip. Note that they are only 'V30' video rated - this means they should sustain a minimum of 30 Mbytes/sec write speed (=240 Mbps), so are not suitable for 400 Mbps. See here for SD card video speed ratings - https://www.sdcard.org/consumers/choices/speed_class/index.htmlhttps://www.sdcard.org/consumers/choices/speed_class/index.html

But that upgrading is what pays for the development costs of the new cameras - if people didn't buy them there wouldn't be A7IV/EOS-R/S1/Z6 etc. to drool over... ? (nor would there be loads of cheap second-hand camera bodies available for those on a tight budget).

With Sony, Canon, Nikon and Panasonic all now seriously in the full-frame mirrorless market, there's the inevitable price war going on, so the 'street price' for a new 24 megapixel camera body seems to be settling at the 1500-2000 $/£/€ price level. Panasonic can't be too far out of line with that pricing if they want to sell the S1 in reasonable volumes. Re. them selling off the chip business - I'm not that surprised, they are a small player in it, fabrication plants are very capital intensive things and the chip business can be very cyclical. As Mokara says, it doesn't stop them designing their own chips and having them manufactured by a 'foundry' - that's how most chip companies work anyway (even some major players like Broadcom, Qualcomm, AMD etc. are 'fabless'). I think Panasonic are (sensibly) far more interested in fast growing markets like rechargeable battery production for vehicles than chip making.

Yes, it is (and the G9 is even better). Due I suspect to a mixture of more sophisticated noise filtering and some sensor performance improvement.

Good deal on a Panasonic G9 body plus accessories for £899 at WEX in the UK - https://www.wexphotovideo.com/panasonic-lumix-g9-digital-camera-with-25mm-lens-dmw-bgg9e-battery-grip-and-2x-dmw-blf19-1723562/ ...plus this as well ("free with this product") - https://www.wexphotovideo.com/lowepro-nova-sh-160-aw-ii-black-sandisk-128gb-extreme-pro-170mbsec-uhs-i-sdxc-card-10002965/

IMHO, it's quite decent, but it does suffer from some aliasing e.g. on brickwork/roof tiles etc. perhaps contributed to by it being a bit over-sharpened. On the plus side, I've never noticed any moire. Put it another way, I've owned the G5 & G6 and I don't think the G80 1080p looks much better overall than those two, just a bit different (it looks sharper and punchier but I think you pay for that with some occasional moderate aliasing problems).

Yes, I agree re. the G80/G85 - that's part of the reason I eventually bought a G9 (the other main reason was 4k60p), on which the 1080p quality is in a different league, really.

The street price of the body-only version of the G80 has almost halved in the UK over the last three years (so it's not much more than the G7 now), so I suspect it's almost bottomed-out. I'd watch for cashback offers over December/January, especially if Panasonic do a 'double-cashback' promotion for a short period as they sometimes do (I got that on my G9 back in April during the last 'Easter' period promotion).