Trek of Joy

Personally, outside of interviews, I prefer to shoot 30p and slow it down to 24p. In that case there's less of a crop with Fuji vs the a6x000's 4k. Plus with Fuji you have the 14, 16, 18, 23, & 27mm primes, and the 10-24 to cover most wide FL's (17.5mm on the wide end), along with 3rd party 12's and others. As mentioned, if adapted, you can go speed booster. I agree with Django, its a great SOOC cam. If you're doing something with a quick turnaround, its a great option. For things like weddings, people love the look. You can get Canon-like colors with ProNeg and nice Fuji colors with Classic Chrome and others. Love the image out of the XT2.

There are Fuji run tests on YT with the grip hitting ~2.5 hours of recording before all three batteries are extinguished. Camera Labs recorded over an hour of consecutive 10 min clips before the single battery was out of juice. No overheating at all. Same sensor. I have the a6300 and I can't get three consecutive 10 min clips without the camera shutting down. I did a run test indoors, with A/C and a fan on the cam, got 43 min before the battery was empty. The Fuji grip gets you a headphone jack too, something Sony won't put in the a6x000's. IMO some of the missing features are a deliberate effort to push people into FF and the a7 series. That's why they waited two full years to put IBIS in the APS-c line, and that's why they're letting the APS-c lens lineup collect dust. If you want headphones, a grip for better ergos/more batteries, two control dials (not putting a front dial on the a6500 grip was dumb) and so on you're SOL. Plus you're stuck with that goofy 16:9 screen that Sony has been using since the first Nex3, so when you're shooting 3:2 stills, you have a smaller view with black bars on the side. AF is excellent and the buffer finally solves (sort of, not UHS-II so its still slow to write) one of the many complaints, but they didn't do enough to get me to fork over another $1400 a fe months after plunking down $900 for the a6300. Again, my opinon.

I voted for the EM1.2 since its the first serious entry into the video world from Olympus, being a new player like the XT2, that's most interesting to me. The a6500 video is identical to the a6300, there's no difference from an imaging standpoint, and we've seen the IBIS in the a7rII for a year and a half. The Panasonic is a known commodity as well since the GX80/85 has been around for awhile. M5 is a mirrorless 80d, yawn. 5d4 is only meh. Just my opinion.

From your short description, video invitation makes the most sense to me. I think using film or movie confuses things, because if I'm reading things correctly, its not a film or movie. Keep it simple and to the point, you can use other terms for SEO, but if you're offering to shoot video invitations for people, that's what I would call it. Good luck.

Lenses are a big deal IMO, as Sony has completely ignored APS-c for years. So you're stuck with 2 good primes that are f/1.8, the 35/50. The rest are nothing special. Most of the crop zooms are average to mediocre, and slow. The best FE/GM glass is excessively large on APS-c since it has to cover a FF sensor. GM/Zeiss lenses are not cheap, and if you shoot crop, you're essentially paying for a lot of lens you're not using. You can adapt, but to take full advantage of the AF, you have to use E-mount lenses. To cover a full range of FL's, you're almost forced to adapt or overpay for FF lenses. Fuji's OIS doesn't give up much to Sony's IBIS, because quite frankly, Sony hasn't completely figured it out yet. You don't get Olympus levels of stabilization, but you do get some serious rolling shutter and tons of heat. Sony has great 4k IQ, but its wrapped in a terrible body, has soft HD, and has some serious warts that Sony doesn't seem to care about as new generations suffer from the same problems. Colors can be finicky too, this site and many others are full of discussions about trying to get rid of color casts and funky skin tones. But people keep buying Sony bodies, so they'll keep cranking them out with new headline grabbing features and price hikes, while ignoring basic usability issues that people have been complaining about for years. I've owned a ton of Sony cameras, but the churn is a big put-off for me when the same issues persist. After using various combinations of Sony camera and others, I need more than a great sensor. As always YMMV.

I'm a low budget event shooter so I shoot lots of stills and video. Shooting with the a6x000's can be a chore with only one top dial, so you have to use the goofy d-pad wheel on the back to adjust two of your exposure parameters since you can assign ISO, SS and Aperture to the one top dial. Fuji has physical controls for all three right on the camera, plus exposure compensation and front/rear control wheels that are clickable for more functionality. You can adjust everything while looking through the bigger/sharper/brighter EVF - which is how I shoot almost all of my stills. The grip adds extra battery capacity and slightly improved camera performance, along with some killer ergonomics. The joystick makes moving the AF point a breeze. They both have great IQ in 4k, HD is better on the XT2. But the shooting experience is worlds apart. I just sold my a7rII and a6300 - was considering getting twin a6500's, but since Sony ignored overheating (manual override of the shutdown is not a fix), ignored awful rolling shutter, hasn't released a new APS-c lens in a few years, didn't add UHS-II support or fix any of the other issues the a6300 had outside of adding IBIS and a half baked touchscreen, I decided screw it - I'm not giving Sony any more of my cash. I now own two XT2's and a slew of Fuji lenses.

Arrrggghhhh, all these video make me nuts, no Mavic's unless you want to pay a scalper way more than retail.

Looks great on my 5k iMac. I'm also impressed by the lack of banding in the skies, aliasing with all the lines on the boats, no weird artifacts on the rippling water, and no moire in the brick walls.

Just spent a couple hours on Free Music Archive, great site with lots of great tracks.

Olympus claimed the same thing, if that's the case current sensor tech seems to have peaked in m43 land at the moment. 6k photo mode just sounds like a full(er) sensor readout, its only 18.6mp. Anyone expecting improvement is more than 1/3 EV or so isn't being realistic, in the last couple years that's all we've seen from new generations of a given sensor size. Until something revolutionary like the long rumored organic sensor sees the light of day, new sensors are just a small evolution of the previous generation.

Judging by the DPreview comparison tool, IQ with the EM1.2 is no better than the the rest of the current m43 world. Unless the GH5 has an entirely new sensor, it will be virtually identical to what we're seeing from the G/GX80/85's. Olympus' claims of a 1-stop improvement are clearly bunk.

What about a used Canon 17-55/2.8 IS?

I posted a couple videos that cycle through the films on page 1, linked below. Colors are much nicer than the NX1 IMO, plus less rolling shutter and a better lens lineup.

More experience maybe, but your BMMCC footage is amazing, everything I shoot is all run-and-gun ENG style since I worked in broadcast news for a long time. I don't shoot anything narrative, and I don't so any lighting outside of on-cam and fill for interviews. I'm in awe of anyone lighting an entire room/set. I've decided some of the compromises with my current Sony setup are no longer things I want to live with - namely a hit/miss lens lineup that getting zero attention on the APS-c side and bloated overpriced/overweight lenses on the FF side, the worst rolling shutter of any camera on the market, rampant overheating, and that damn LCD going dim when you hit record. I've decided I'm passing on the a6500, and selling my a7rII/a6300 to move to a dual XT2 kit. Lenses like the 16-55/2.8, 23/1.4 and 56/1.2 are calling me for photo/video event coverage, and the OIS on the 10-24, 18-55 and 50-140 are really good. I can add a Zhiyun Crane if the need for more stabilization arises.

I'm in my 40's, I've shot on Betacam so I'm more than thrilled with the powerful tools we have available today. I'm also heavily invested in Sony, but starting to rethink that decision since I also shoot a lot of stills and I'm really liking everything the XT2 does.

For me it stems from the fact that Sony sort of addresses some major complaints (limited functionality touch screen, overheating override instead of making changes needed to eliminate it) and fails to fix others (LCD darkening, awful rolling shutter). I watched the Fuji Guys video on the $600 XA3's touchscreen, if Fuji can make one with such comprehensive abilities, surely Sony can instead of the half assed way its implemented on the a6500.

Good thing they added IBIS since the LCD still darkens when you record 4k, at least you know things are relatively stable when you can't see what you're shooting.

Venice looks amazing, I'll be there next year. Astia fits Venice well. Lots of CA with that Canon lens in the sun since there's no internal corrections happening. Have you seen this one? He cycles through all the film's. Here's one with a seascape, cycling through the film emulations as well.

Amazing kitchen, err, I mean can't wait to see the finished product.

Welcome back Andrew! Great first look, hopefully pt. 2 doesn't get shelved with the new cameras coming. DPAF is so underrated, I just wish we could get it in something that's not a DSLR. The M5 is a joke, I don't count it as a serious video tool. Are you planning a XT2 review and maybe some comparisons with the rest of your arsenal? Cheers

This was a really intriguing camera until I saw the AF limitation, now the a99II is a no go for me. Some will throw out the "pro's don't use AF" crap, but AF sure makes it easy to set focus with the short focus throw of photo lenses. And after using the tracking on the a6300 and A7rII - its incredibly convenient for a one-man-band to shoot handheld footage or shoot on a gimbal. I don't use AF all the time, but its something I do use. With an AF system this sophisticated, tracking could be next level compared to everything else. Early adopters are reporting the full AF system doesn't work with older Minolta and 3rd party lenses, so that Sigma 18-35 won't AF either. As much as people on this board want to bash Canon, DPAF works with all Canon lenses and most 3rd party lenses in any mode, not just P and at f/3.5. SMH. So close Sony, so close.

This is a pretty cool update, I'll wait for the version that doesn't require me to walk around with a big goofy drone for handheld shots. They'd sell a LOT of the camera/osmo combos if you didn't need a drone for the recorder. I'd buy the 1" version with the gimbal in a heartbeat. DJI, are you listening?

One other thing I forgot, a simple three act story structure lesson. It's pretty easy to break down things like the inciting incident with examples from their favorite movies. Again get students to think critically about a story.

You say its a workshop, is this a one-day thing, a weekend, a semester class? The amount of time you have should guide how in-depth you go with certain topics. Gear-head talk like sensor size or jobs and gimbals are a waste of time if its a half day thing since few will ever shoot with anything other than their phone. The basics of composition are huge. I worked for an after school program teaching photography, videography, ENG and short doc production for 6 years (full time - worked with high school students every day) and I always started with composition, getting them to understand all of the elements in the image and what to avoid. I'd also add nose room when subjects are looking to one direction, lead room for anything moving, foreground and background, framing, leading lines and so on. After spending years working with students, the most impactful stuff we did always involved hands-on exercises on covering a single topic and critical analysis - so they'd take the cameras out and shoot 10 different examples of the rule of 3rds, or shallow DOF, or setting a scene with long/medium/closeups adhering to all the other rules - then we'd review all of the images as a group on a 60" TV and discuss what was good and what could be improved upon (I never say something is bad, no matter how awful, just what can be improved upon to help boost their confidence and start thinking about what's in the shot instead of just mindlessly hitting the shutter or record button, works great). Scavenger hunts were always a lot of fun, a vague list of stuff to shoot - silver, vegetables, fast and so on - the creativity and interpretation was always a lot of fun when we reviewed the results. You can build on them too, so you do a rule of 3rds, then focus on headroom, then horizon and so on, while coming back to what was previously covered when doing the critical analysis part. Its amazing how quickly people pick things up and start to see everything with a critical eye. I always said your grandmother takes a picture, just points a camera at something and click, then you get those crappy shots of two kids at a table with a lot of ceiling, why is there so much ceiling? They love that. Photographers take photos - there's thought put into each image before its captured. My work was all based on a lot of research/feedback from the students as we were grant funded and had to conduct program research to meet certain benchmarks, so all of our lessons were always evolving as we found more effective ways to communicate. I still get FB messages from students that I worked with 10 years ago about how they still think about headroom and nose room when shooting photos or video. And they all shoot video in landscape orientation, an achievement in itself. But unless they're gear-heads too, talk about sliders, moire and other things are just in one ear and out the other. Focus on skill building that improves the quality of their shooting regardless of what camera they're using. Just my $0.02

Damn, where's everyone getting their Mavic's? Can't find one in stock anywhere.