Mark Romero 2

I am guessing that the original author @GURN is hoping for an ETA on version 5 of the EOSHD Pro Color for Sony a7S III. Although I agree with others that it would be difficult to make the OP's post more vague than it already is.

Yikes!!! That is scary. Unfortunately, there probably won't be an easy solution any time soon.

Just to update this last conversation with @Jimmy G regarding CFExpress / XQD card: In a recent interview on a well-known photography forum, Yosuke Yamane, director of Panasonic's Imaging Division, he mentioned that the heat buildup of the CFexpress can cause thermal issues when shooting video. He also mentioned that Panasonic expects there will be improvements in writing to CFexpress that will reduce heat buildup (and then allow for additional internal recoding options). So maybe the GH6 will get a CFexpress / XQD slot???

Sure, I can understand your feelings. It would be great if they can find a way to make use of the XQD slot. One thing is they may not have appreciated at the time of designing the camera was the heat generated by the XQD/CFExpress slot and media. Matt Frazer alluded to that in the recent Lumix Live video about the S1 / S5 / S1H updates. It seems like they at panasonic / lumix are really afraid of having overheating issues. Or maybe they are just really afraid of eating in to S1H sales???

GOING OFF TOPIC (SORT OF): I have to admit that one of the the things that sold me on the Sony a6500 was a couple of tests by Max Yuryev and a test by Kai and what'shisface on Digital Rev where they demonstrated that there was a LOT more detail (acutance???) in the 4K a6500 image than in a lot of similar cameras shooting in 4K. I think on digital Rev they compared the a6500 to the a7S II in 4K, which has bigger pixels, but isn't supersampled from 6K sensor readout to 4K recording the way the 24MP sensor of the a6500 is. So aside from the rolling shutter, is super sampling 4K from 6K (or, conversely, supersampling 1080p from 4K) the way to go??? If I recall correctly, doesn't the FX 9 have a 6K sensor that supersamples for 4K recording??? The other thing is dynamic range for mirrorless cameras and cinema cameras that DON'T have the 16-bit digital to analog converter that Arri cameras have. Don't cameras with MORE megapixels have generally better dynamic range (while cameras with LESS but larger megapixels have better low light)? It seems that way for RAW STILLS but don't know if that holds true for video when the codecs are the same.

Thanks for the explanation. Much appreciated. Another question if I may: My understanding is that h.264 and h.265 have a 1:2 relationship, meaning that h.264 at 100Mbs is equal to h.265 at 50Mbs. But do we know if either one is better (or has less artifacts)? Or is it pretty much more or less the same? Or do I have my numbers mixed up?

Regarding Compression Question I asked Above ^: It starts at the 38:16 mark of the Part 2 video. I guess what he is doing is trying to emulate what a highly compressed codec does when applied to a UHD or above resolution (spoiler alert: it leads to banding). It was difficult to understand because 1) I have no idea how nuke works, and 2) he wasn't really explaining what he was trying to show (just showing it "with compression" as well as "without compression"). At least I guess that is what he is trying to show. I don't know whether those compression artifacts are also caused by using Long GOP as opposed to All-I compression, or whether it is just a matter of bitrate and / or bit depth. So would using a "consumer camera" like an S1 but recording externally in ProRes HQ or DNxHR HQX avoid that compression? Or does one have to export RAW to avoid the compression artifacts?

Could someone explain to me the "compression" issue that was covered in part 2 of the video??? The part which showed all the macro blocking? What was causing the compression that he brought up? It wasn't just simple down-scaling from 4K (or 6K) in to 1080p, was it??? I admit I was having a hard time staying awake during the second one because I started watching around midnight. And much of what was been shown was going over my head. there was one section though on the effects of "compression" that showed off some serious macroblocking. This seemed - to me at least - to be one of the most serious problems. I tried re-watching that segment but couldn't figure out what was causing the compression issue. Again, I was kind of struggling to stay awake and got frustrated with trying to find the exact part in the video where he covered the part on compression (and macro-blocking).

Primarily for stills shooters. Unload the buffer faster and also would be able to download from card to computer faster.

OK, so I downloaded and watched. It is hard to say a particular scene has a difference in quality, but it sure seems softer when you punch in. So a scene might start wide but when it is zoomed in / cropped in, it seems softer. Am I missing something??? I don't have the best eyesight.

I'm on it. Thanks!!!

Thanks!!! Gonna download it overnight because AT&T bandwidth is VERY slow!!!

Would love to see the video.

Agree with @MrSMW above. The 24-105 f/4 is a great stills lens but is a bit on the clinical side for video.

So there (to me) are two issues; The pulsing (as @scotchtape brings up and demonstrates), which to me isn't quite as bothersome as the focus breathing, which @Trek of Joy brings up. Of the two, the focus breathing when using a wide aperture with a more animated on-screen talent is more annoying. As for the pulsing, even in the magnified examples above, I don't really notice it that much (yes, even zoomed in and with a big red arrow pointing at it, I guess I just didn't notice that much).

QUESTION: Would putting the LAVs under the clothing of the talent help cut down on reverb / phase issues?

Thank you for the real-world report, @scotchtape So I guess it wasn't possible to have the on-screen talent constantly jumping in and out of the frame the way all those wonderful AF testers on youtube do? That seems to be where Sony excels at autofocus. The focus breathing is one of the things that gets me less excited about Sony AF, and the lack of focus breathing in Panasonic lenses has me happier about owing a couple of Lumix bodies. I know I won't be able to do the super shallow DOF thing (but those lenses are pretty much out of my price range anyway). Some situations the AF is good enough on the S series of cameras. Sometimes you just have to go manual I guess. And yes, I have experienced the thrill of having my S1 or S5 focus drift off in to the heavens never knowing where the focus point will land again.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I have to admit; I haven't had much of a chance this last year to shoot anything with skin tones (since I shoot real estate mostly), so I am probably not seeing the differences that you notice between the V-LOG and BRAW. Maybe you could link to a shot you have done recently on the 4K with skin tones in it? I only ask because there seems to be a lot of REALLY BAD sample footage out there shot in BRAW on the 4K and 6K cameras. I had been really contemplating getting a 6K for BRAW (since I edit in Resolve and have zero interest in going ProRes RAW). But a lot of the sample footage I had seen on the internets just looked bad. Maybe it was just the people who were posting it didn't know how to grade. Also, maybe inadvertently, you bring up another point: while the Panasonic lenses are great for VIDEO, they might be too sharp for FILMING, if you know what I mean. I love the parfocal, minimal breathing, and linear focus of the 24-105 f/4. and for photos, I love the rendering and sharpness, and the 1:2 macro. But most certainly I am going to have to invest in some sort of diffusion for that lens as I hope to take on more projects involving people.

I know people were bringing up the particular excess red in Panasonic V-LOG. One thing I do in Resolve is put a node near the end of the node tree that I turn off channel 2 (green) and channel 3 (blue). This means it only effects the Red channel. (Leave color space for the node as RGB) Then if the red is too much, I bring it down a touch in the color boost or in the saturation (in control wheels palette). If you like working with curves, you could use the Y curve (since it is only affecting red channel, pulling down the Y curve will reduce only the red). The HSL levels won't work quite as you expect, but sat vs sat and sat vs luminesce should. It's quick and dirty but works pretty well.

True, The AF is not dependable, but I am not personally convinced that you will be getting that much of an improvement shooting in RAW over the internal 10-Bit V-LOG codec. Pretty much all the tests I have seen seem to show only minor improvements. It's a really good codec and in Resolve 17, just use DaVinci Wide Gamut and the HDR grading tools and you've got a ton of flexibility. As for autofocus...

Is the amount of money you get from these gigs really enough to justify a major equipment upgrade??? Are you getting paid enough that the clients really expect great color grading? What made you decide that your a6500 and X-T3 weren't good enough? Was it something a paying client said to you? Or was it something you read on a forum somewhere? If you still have the a6500 try looking up extrashot on youtube for his s-cinetone setting for the a7 III (not the a7S III, just the a7 III) and see if they might work well for the a6500. Yeah, the color science of the a6500 is different than that of the a7 III but I think it would get you in the ballpark. Otherwise, use cine 4 or just use the Portrait creative style with contrast, saturation and sharpness turned down.

Sorry, tried to delete my post but couldn't. Fotodiox makes a cheaper, fully manual adapter for Nikon F mount lenses that has a built in aperture ring for G-Series lenses (those lenses without an aperture ring).

Just a follow up to using my S5 with side flippy screen on my weebill S... It seems to work fine for the most part. If you keep the weebill S UPRIGHT (not in the underslung mode) and you don't have any added handles to the side, you should be fine. If you have a side handle attached and either lean the weebill s too far forward or go in to underslung mode, you could potentially cause it to bang in to the attached side handle (I have my side handle on the left side of the weebill s). However, that would really only be a problem in either pan follow or pov or maybe the go modes. If you use lock mode like I do 99% of the time, then it isn't really a problem. Not a surprise, the S5 is MUCH easier to use on a gimbal than the S1.

Unfortunately for someone like me who shoots real estate, I have found 10-bit LOG to be really useful 🙂 When you are trying to capture a dark bedroom with a beautiful, sunny view of the Pacific Ocean, that extra dynamic range comes in handy. And the color casts from mixed lighting are a lot easier to deal with in 10-bit footage. I mean, people are paying stagers $8,000 to $12,000 to have furniture brought in for the photos and videos, and the stagers are putting in bulbs of different color temperatures in the same small room 😞

I agree with what you are saying, but if you are going to be doing client work, then there comes a point where you need to look at the gear and say, "Can I either 1) make more money, or 2) spend more time with my loved ones" with this new gear.