Django

@TomTheDP Interesting video! I'm a bit late here sorry but after working with Komodo footage for the first time the other day I think I am seriously considering this camera for my high-end cine needs. I love the R3D raw options (skin contrast, highlight rolloff etc) and how ISO works in post, you can get really creative and overall the files have so much information yet the file sizes are so small. The noise is also really organic/filmic compared to let's say BMD or Canon RAW. The motion cadence is also beautiful. Really I'm just blown away by the IQ and how you can massage those files in Davinci. ARRI is still the golden standard, the benchmark, but this feels like its just right below it IQ wise and for resolution or high ISO probably better. The compact size of the camera, the traffic light exposure system, global shutter, RF mount, 6K resolution and even on-board PDAF makes it a really tempting A cam for me personally. I was all set on a C70 but after playing around with Komodo footage, well it just feels like a huge step forward in IQ. I think I will just upgrade my R6 to an R5 for hybrid all-around mid-level projects and go with the Komodo for anything higher. Now of course I gotta figure out how to finance it all!

Yeah I'm pretty brand agnostic too but ultimately its the lens system you're invested in that drives you into a particular ecosystem. I've been to every single company except Panasonic, because AF is critical to me in event photography. I actually switched from Nikon to Canon when I was doing weddings specifically because of the AF system. I rented a 5D3, learned it in & out, and was hooked. The main thing was being able to toggle from single-shot to servo AF using the DoF preview button. That alone was a game changer. And like I said earlier, Canon still has the best button customisation like how R5C allows you to toggle the EIS on/off. These are things spec sheets won't tell you, but that make world difference on the field. I'm very curious about R3's eye-control AF. It sounds insane. Like you said whatever can help you be more efficient on a job is worth it. These are tools of the trade for us pros so specs, AF performance, UI, reliability are all equally important. The Z9 body does tick a lot of boxes but native lens options are kinda meh plus I don't know about Nikon ditching mechanical shutter. I've heard of banding issues and low max flash sync speeds so I dunno. Would need to rent one and put it through its paces if I were to consider one but the main problem with that camera is it is still on constant back-order. Some guy in Italy has been waiting on his since last November, crazy.. Pretty sure I'll be sticking with Canon, probably upgrade to an R5 or R5C. For high-end cine work, I'm seriously considering the Komodo. RF mount means compatibility with all my lenses, and the R3D raw is simply phenomenal.

Well if you need 8K60p specifically then that rules out the R5 as well. So you're left with Z9 for your specific requirements! I'd also consider R3.. 6K60p which imo is a really good sweet spot.

I hate the fake camera phone DoF look for stills & "cinematic" video modes. Just like beauty filters etc, it just screams fake and hence cringe. That said, standard photos on my iPhone 13 can look great with a little editing, especially for social media & sharing. I just got back from a big holiday family trip and 90% of my shots were done on the iPhone and only 10% with my Canon R6 (basically only for low light situations). The best camera is the one you have on you and I just didn't feel like lugging the MILC+lenses around, especially since we were on boats, beaches etc every day. I didn't even bring the Leica M as it made me nervous getting lost/stolen. So yeah, smartphone all day for travel snapshots & camcorder moments. But for serious portraits, night & pro work, you still can't beat a mirrorless with fast glass. The phone lenses are the real IQ bottleneck imo. That Sony Xperia Pro1 caught my attention though, great option if you're in the Sony Alpha & Android ecosystem.

Well if you've got lens IS + EIS you might not see a huge difference when shooting wide/medium but if you're on EF primes mostly like I am then shooting handheld without EIS will be shaky. And to me that defeats a big part of going mirrorless. Plus it took so long for Canon cameras to get IBIS, I really don't feel like going back to not having it. 8K60p is of very little interest to me, I don't wanna deal with those file sizes. Things like shutter angle however are clutch on the field, as is magnify while recording etc. I mean don't get me wrong, there is a lot to like about the R5C, I've been praising it since it was announced. But R5's 1.6 update does throw some shade at it and may even trump it in some scenarios.

Potato Jet just posted a super lengthy R5C review. Far from technical but pretty thorough, I learned a few things about the camera like how you can set a button to toggle on/off the EIS. I really like this extensive button customisation, that's a key feature on Canons that I've always valued. His battery test results were also better than I expected even though you'll still clearly need some kind of external solution for a long day shoot. But now with R5's new firmware fixing the overheat, it has become a much more tempting option. For $1000 cheaper the R5 has IBIS, better battery life, fast photo/video switching, C1/C2 etc. R5C has all the video assist features and LUT import which is really helpful though. But losing IBIs feels like a giant step backwards, especially considering I mostly shoot EF primes with no IS. And then there is the C70 with its DGO sensor, ND filters etc. So hard to pick what model to choose from right now.

Yeah I'm still pretty upset the R6 didn't get any kind of overheating fix but at least R5 seems like a solid option now. I'm in the US currently and there are some pretty good deals ($3,500) not to mention the second hand market. This makes the R5 a lot more appealing than the R5C now imo since you gain IBIS, battery life etc for at least a $1000 cheaper. Kind of a game changer I guess. Its finally the killer hybrid spec camera it was meant to be and the price is getting appealing too.

FWIW, he went from C70 to FX3 to R5 to R5C.. and now back to R5?! all in the span of 10 months lol.

So they fixed the R5 overheating a.k.a auto temp shut off but didn't bother fixing it on the R6?! Now that really pisses me off. Canon is playing mind games again. They want you to fork +$4K for a non-overheating FF 4K camera. $2500 isn't good enough. Probably only fixed the R5 as they were losing sales to R5C. This really makes me wanna ditch their system.

Its certainly not a vintage mojo lens but rather a very practical APS-C zoom that covers the narrow but useful 27mm-52mm range and with a constant fast F1.8 aperture. It is very sharp and can really benefit from a Pro-Mist, upside being it resolves high-resolution exceptionally well. I really like to pair it on a P6K and I imagine will do well on a R7 too.. some "cinematic" examples of it:

That's inherent to all Fuji X-Trans cameras. I remember it drove me crazy back when I had XT2 & 5DIII. The dark reds could never be as rich as on Canon. Some shades of red were almost pinkish red and I could never get them right in post without messing up the whole CS. I remember doing multiple side by side tests and the difference was night & day. The deep reds was by far the most annoying thing about Fuji color science to me.. Hopefully ProRes/ProRes RAW mitigates this on XH2S.

Fuji XH2S also has open gate, this Fuji DP had this interesting perspective to say about it: 3:2 aspect ratio is attractive for me. I have always wondered why I usually shoot in 3:2 or 4:3 when I take photos, but as soon as I switch to video, the angle of view changes to 16:9. 3:2 allows me to use the full pixel sensor, and I was happy to be able to shoot video with the same angle of view as stills. I have to say I really like this aspect ratio, even without anamorphic lens. it reminds me of a super16/TV ratio. Bit more square and a nice change from widescreen 16:9.

right but again though aside from one crane shot he's just shooting alone on a tripod, sometimes even handheld no gimbal, no cine lens involved either:

Lol I'd normally agree with ya but if you look carefully aside from that one gimbal crane rig shot most of the shots are just the guy alone with a tripod. For the ProRes RAW recording on Atomos he's got an assistant (probably from Fuji). The rest of the visible crew are probably just typical people you'd find on any music video set (props, makeup, sound etc). It honestly wasn't overkill. Also that BTS is for two separate music videos, that's why it may seem like there's a lot people/gear.. I find this type of real-life shoot so much more interesting than pixel peeping color/DR charts or walking around backyard testing AF/IBIS.

Perhaps the first ProRes RAW shot project: The super grainy grade is a little extreme but there is just something about that 3:2 open gate mode I love. The DR looks really good too and overall this extreme grade shows the image is quite flexible. Also here is the BTS: https://youtu.be/ER_Ec8YbXss

No way. The C70 is already an RF C300 mk3 just without EVF/SDI etc. They didn't cripple it, in fact they recently gave it RAW. Besides middle codec is now standard across the range including $1500 R7. My guess is C300 mk3 will get a significant drop before being phased out for a mk4 with RF mount and new sensor, high resolution etc.

interesting, also missed the rumours of an R7C: The Canon EOS R7 C will record 7K60P in Cinema RAW Light and will reportedly have the same codec options as other Cinema EOS cameras, including the Canon EOS R5 C. https://www.canonrumors.com/a-canon-eos-r7-c-is-on-the-way-but-not-in-2022-cr3/ If priced nice and with IBIS that could be a real winner..

hmm.. so you're exclusively into EF FF lenses & FoV.. but your main cam is a S35 RF C70 & you're considering the APS-C R7 which is also RF? Obviously you could put speed boosters on both but what a convoluted approach. Not taking a dig at your gear choices as I understand the paradigm you are faced with. As for now the only FF mirrorless that don't overheat are the R5C & R3, but one doesn't have IBIS and the other is ridiculously expensive. Canon needs to release a sub $3K FF with IBIS that doesn't overheat as well as sub $6K FF cine cam. In the mean time, yeah R7 is probably as you say the accidental best choice for an affordable Canon hybrid. But in your shoes it would make better sense to go with Sony as they now have a very wide range of native compact FF lenses that compares to EF as well as FF cine cams (FX3, FX6, FX9). No adapters/boosters needed. Lot less headache. But of course, switching systems isn't a meagre affair and you're well invested in Canon so not an option I assume. I am on a dual system and even though I better appreciate the ergonomics, shooting experience, AF and skin tones of Canon, I am also at the same time tempted to dump them and go all-in with Sony. I already have the metabones speed booster so I could even keep my favourite EF lenses, and by setting the Sony to S35 mode gain the stop of light. But 90% of the time I'd probably be on native Sony lenses as I simply hate messing around with adapters (including on my R6). Also very tempted to go back to Fuji with the XH2S. Staying put at the moment but if within 6 months nothing really moves in the right direction from Canon I might seriously reconsider.

I'm very prone to "motion sickness" (car travel, sea travel, VR etc): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_sickness zero problems in airplanes, trains, or when I'm driving myself (only as passenger). the worst is FPS video games & VR, I get sick within seconds. Probably why I had similar reaction to the gyro stab tests..

Pretty impressive stuff and not that big of a crop-in. However viewing those tests gave me heavy motion sickness (I'm super sensitive to it), felt like I was in a FPS / VR game. Stabilisation is almost too good lol. Kudos to BlackMagic though, their name really holds true.

I think it looks superb and makes me wanna dump my gear and go out and shoot with an XH2S immediately! According to the BTS video/page it was all shot in 6K open-gate mode, mostly Flog2 and those noisy shots were at ISO8000. I like the Fuji noise though it resembles film grain not ugly chroma noise or banding. https://fujifilm-x.com/fr-fr/stories/x-h2s-short-film-where-are-you-going-x-aditya-varma/

We often tend to obsess over camera bodies but it is indeed the native lens selection that makes/breaks a system for me. And hence I can't really recommend R7 at this point. It has only 3 RF-S lenses atm. Meaning you're going to have to adapt either FF EF or EF-S. Meh. On the other hand Fuji released its most accomplished hybrid and has a plethora of excellent lenses, including new generation primes and that parafocal motorized 18-120mm F4. AF on XH2S seems to finally be on point with a very sticky face eye detection. Plus of course the Fuji IQ and the film simulations for SOOC goodness. I'm also tied into not one but two other systems (Sony & Canon) and what I like about them is they have pro cine lines (I like having mirrorless + cine cam) and both FF/S35 but I'm finding it very hard to resist going back to Fuji with the XH2S and a couple primes (18mm F1.4, 33mm 1.4, 56mm F1.2) and the new 18-120mm. Can't wait to test that camera out.

Anton Bauer Titon base is the way to go imo for proper batt life.. dummy battery p-tap mode: works handheld too, here in USB-C mode.. most annoying part of the Pocket 6Ks is the unreliable battery life metering.. another reason to go external with indicator.

Hadn't read these posts, thanks @gt3rs for the feedback. To be fair to Canon, it seems most of the R5C video 'issues' are also there on the C-line cameras. The C-line AF is not as snappy as an EOS hybrid. It can't compete for sports/action. Video playback is one by one, no quick scroll. Etc. I understand how this could be jarring for EOS users but its something C-line users are familiar with. Its true Canon should further integrate the two teams/OS's and merge the features a bit. I guess you can feel its a gen-1 type product. For me none of those would be a deal breaker though. I don't do sports/action. I guess R3 would probably be a better solution than R5C for such cases. The battery situation however seems much worse than I thought. @gt3rs Have you looked into the Titon base P-Tap kit? Seems tailored for the R5/R5C: https://www.antonbauer.com/en/kit-my-camera/canon-eos-r5/