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Those Olympus zooms are interesting, although they are only F4 equivalent. I didn't know about the Tokina 14-20 F2 - that's an interesting lens although the zoom range seems very short! The Sigma zooms are great for APSC because they're the direct equivalent of the 24-70 and 70-200 F2.8 pro lenses. In stills photography they're referred to as The Holy Trinity which is made up of the 14-24 F2.8, the 24-70 F2.8 and the 70-200 F2.8. But that's my point, there doesn't seem to be a direct equivalent for m43 of those lenses, which would be 7-11 F1.4, 12-35 F1.4 and 35-100 f1.4

Please do! Yeah, I agree. Unfortunately for us!

I sympathise. In a sense I'm at the next "tier" down from you in weight, but was wondering what a heavier setup looked like and how much heavier it can be without it becoming an issue. In a way it's a compounding weight problem. Adding 1-2kg to a camera might mean getting a larger rig, which will add a huge amount of weight to the setup, and also size, which means you need larger cases to carry everything around.. etc etc etc. I think I might have thighs like that! Whilst out shooting one day I contemplated if I should buy some of those weights you strap around your wrists as a kind of training regimen! That would help, but I suspect it's the rotational inertia (weight at distance) of the setups, or that these cameras are normally mounted to something that makes the most difference.

Yes, I feared as much. I just got back from a trip where my rig was the XC10 and Rode VMP+ and all I took was a wrist strap and I kind of regret not taking a shoulder strap as carrying around the camera while not using it got a bit tiring on the hand, and that rig isn't that heavy compared to what we're talking about here! An easy rig is way beyond where I'm willing to go, personally.

That's interesting, thanks. I just started a new thread partially inspired by your suggestion Have you recorded video with it? I don't think I've seen any from this lens - only stills. I guess it depends on what you're filming and how good it is at focus-peaking and other assists. If, like me, you're just capturing what happens, then keeping the composition and focus right can be enough, although I'll definitely agree that brighter would be better!

I shoot hand-held, but because camera shake isn't my aesthetic I naturally assumed that OIS and IBIS were the only solutions, but I'm now wondering if the weight of some of the cine lenses will be as good as OIS. With rigs that have heavier cine lenses do you need OIS? I was inspired by this video which has great looking output and looks (relatively) compact. That setup looks like an XT-3 with Ninja V and MKX 18-55 cine lens. There are lots of other options too, for example a C100 or Pocket4K with appropriate cine glass. I am a little bit apprehensive of the weight too, considering that I carry my rig for hours at a time, although if it was something special I'm sure I could get some comfy straps.

Even in a full rig with monitor and power? That would be interesting to see, but still no IBIS I think! That lens is famous in street photography circles. It is really wide, which is desirable. There's a saying "if your photos aren't good enough then you're not close enough" so wide and close was the combo to have. It is MF and has a mechanical control that your muscle memory can learn and then rely on. It is F8 which is about right for the genre, anything shallower and you don't have time to take the shot, and anything deeper is probably too slow and doesn't have enough separation. I don't know about eye-focus or anything with the latest cameras, but people with all types of camera would "zone focus" because acquiring focus took too long, not too long on certain cameras/lenses, but too long in any case. This gives you MF that can be adjusted, which is kind of the best of both worlds. It is soft, which is desirable because in combination with a bit of ISO noise, makes everything look like film, which is the right aesthetic. It is cheap cheap cheap!! I have been half tempted to get a Pocket2 with a fixed lens as a 'special projects' camera, in addition to the setup that I've been pursuing with a flexible zoom lens. My thoughts were that the fixed lens would have to be a walk-around lens and would have to be special in some way, otherwise a zoom would be better because of the flexibility. A Pocket2 with one of these on it might be a fascinating thing to see the output of.

There aren't wrong focal lengths of course, only tools for a job. I've been told many times that shooting with only one prime is a great way to focus yourself and really learn how to see what the camera sees before holding it up. I can also totally understand if someone really likes the feel of a certain lens and just wants to use that. I did my fair share of street photography, much of it with the 14mm F2.5 m43 lens and have shot enough now to also be able to 'see' a range of shots that are possible with a zoom lens, and frequently would walk into a place, shoot half a dozen or more compositions in my head before rejecting all of them and not bother to do anything with the camera even though it is in my hand. In my case I'm looking to tell the story of the event or trip and so I really want to be able to capture anything I can see, unfortunately that would require something like a 10-600mm lens which is obviously out of the question. I can crop into the footage to extend the long end and also the viewer will also unconsciously crop when they see the bit of the frame with the action in it. I can also extend the wide end of the lens by panning or tilting which in a way creates a reveal, but if you're at the top of a mountain it's still a bit like looking at the world through the mail slot. You're probably right, but definitely hilarious! ?

+1 And we should all work hardware to understand how we shoot and what our requirements are. Of course, if they just go ahead and make a FF Arri with GH5 stabilisation in the body of a C100 we can all stop hanging out and making excuses and go make the best darn cat videos the world has even seen!

Really they should test them both with and without the corrections, but that would be too much work I'd wager! 35mm equivalent is a very good walk-around focal length, so if you want flexibility but want the benefits of a prime then it's a good choice. Yesterday I stood in line for the Pantheon behind a guy with a 6D, a 50mm prime and no bag (so potentially no others lenses). I have no idea what images he took, but my 24-240mm zoom was still not wide or long enough for many shots so I guess we were all shooting with the wrong focal lengths!

+1 for @webrunner5s post. I side some testing of different apertures vs depth and discovered that I only need F4 equivalent to get the look I'm going for. I also made a few videos at F2.8 equivalent and many shots were too blurred. I'd recommend to anyone that they test out different settings and see what works for them. On FF going to F4 from F2.8 means the lens is smaller, lighter, cheaper and if it's a zoom is probably longer and also has OIS.

The footage does look pretty good, and assuming the stabilisation is done before the compression it will help to get the most from the limited bitrate. Be aware that any official footage will be the absolute best possible, so ensure that you look at real-world examples too. It does look pretty tempting though. When is it shipping?

I know the question wasn't directed at me, but I'm getting great results from the kit 55-250mm zoom on my 700D. With the crop it goes to 400mm equivalent, it's small and light, and the IS is really good. The IS is so good in fact that it is usable even when I record video in crop mode in ML where it's a 1200mm equivalent FOV!

I'm not being serious... I'm waiting for a camera with a combination of features from different types of cameras, so I'm likely to be waiting a long time. It would be quicker if I was wait for 8K! I am waiting for a plane though. The most important thing is the stuff you put in front of the camera!

8K? ???

Completely OT but I was travelling through the US with a couple of friends in wheelchairs and when they got whisked off to a separate line for TSA I got accidentally left with their carry on bag which contained the disconnected hand controller for the electric wheelchair that they checked. Not only did it raise some eyebrows going through the scanner, but the all-metal clip in tray table also in the bag wouldn't have helped either. "Sir, is this your bag?" <choose words carefully > "Err, that one is with me...."

I'm not sure if the lack of adjustable screen is due to it being a 'cinema' camera where the world is expected to bend around the camera instead of the other way around, or if it was a size or cost measure, but the idea of it being a 'cinema' thing fits with the great attention and effort towards image specs and (relative) lack of effort towards ergonomics for hand-holding. I must say that as someone who shoots in whatever conditions I am given, a tilt screen is worth a huge amount to me, enabling up to a third or half of my shots, either with a low angle or a high angle to get over the heads of the other tourists in front of me! We're really seeing a merging of devices with cinema camera specs in an almost DSLR form-factor meeting DSLR and mirrorless cameras with video specs almost at cinema camera standards, but the two haven't merged yet. It'll only be when we get a camera that shoots RAW but also has IBIS and a half-decent grip that we'll have achieved unification. I'm waiting for that day eagerly!

+2 We'll see huge consolidation and what happens now will decide who will be the new Canon and who will be the new Pentax in 5 years. The reasons that I think the third category is small-screen and enthusiast content is that more and more people are producing video content for online and many of those will need multiple cameras for interviews, and even if you can use your phone for one of them you're probably not going to buy two other phones for the other two angles, although you might just use last year's and the year before that. Everyone wants a wedding video, an engagement video, there are now clandestine proposal videos being shot by photographers hiding in bushes nearby (I kid you not) and this trend will continue as the first world economies change from manufacturing to services economies. Social media and human vanity and sentimentality aren't going away. The other segment of this market is cashed-up enthusiasts. Every office building has a dozen or more people who own a 5D and 24-70 F4, not because it's got the FF look, not for the low light, but because they earn 100K a year, like photos and want "the best" or "what the pros use". It will take a long time for the answer to those criteria to be "use your phone". Don't forget that photography is an art that people think comes from the camera. "That's a lovely photo, you must have a great camera". This alone might be Canons entire profit margin - selling the same camera that took the lovely picture to the person that wants to buy the ability to take similar ones on holiday or at the park.

I see two major trends in this sector, convergence of stills and video, and computational photography. I don't see computational photography being ready for some time and there isn't really a market leader (Apple perhaps? Hardly a likely partner), leaving video as a potential direction. Olympus has deep stills experience so maybe they partner with a video only company, like Red or Arri. I have no idea how likely that is, probably almost zero, but it would make sense from a certain perspective. The cinema company would get a partner who does lenses, has deep stills history, and is in the consumer market. Olympus would get a partner who can give experience designing bodies built for huge data rates and image processing. The not-so-distant future of imaging belongs to the smartphone for mum and dad, the cinema camera for the big screen, and the hand-held run-and-gun setup for small-screen and cashed-up amateurs. Adding AI and computational photography to the mix would best be done by acquiring a third partner down the track once we've moved forward a bit.

What are you thinking of? IIRC it's a nice camera but had some significant flaws, RS comes to mind. A C100iii would be a fascinating thing to see. Of course the interesting part would be how crippled it was. Even if it was the same ILC / S35 form factor but matched the digital specs of the XC10 / XC15 that would be great. Including 4K60 and IBIS would make people pee themselves with excitement at the announcement event. The more that I think about it, the more I realise that a tiny cinema camera fits my needs better than a hybrid, but of course the lack of IBIS in "cinema" cameras is an ongoing issue. Maybe I should do another review of the ILC camcorder options again.

Cameras are a funny thing - it's one of the only things I know of where having more money wouldn't help me that much. If you want an ILC cinema camera with good 4K smaller than a C100 there are simply no options. That is, unless you're a billionaire, in which case you can probably ask one of the manufacturers to design you one! Edit: with great IS for handheld work. Otherwise the Pocket 2 is fine

Many people forget that other people are shooting in different conditions to them. I shoot home and travel videos for myself, but the conditions are generally the same: The event comes first, photography shouldn't get in the way, camera placement is often restricted No re-takes, either you shoot it when it happens or you missed it You may have some control over lighting, you may not, but anything you do can't get in the way of the events that are happening There are parts in low light = high ISO performance There are scenes with high contrast = good DR There are action scenes = ok RS, and slow motion You have to be mobile and move very quickly = monopod / gimbal / hand-held = good IS etc etc etc. I started my photography / videography journey with a <$100 Nikon point-and-shoot and every upgrade since then has been based upon the quality of the end result from me actually shooting what I shoot. I haven't gotten a setup that I really gel with but my current setup is close, however I have shot enough to know what my style is and so I am not trying to buy equipment to hit a moving target - I know how I work, where I work, and what I am trying to achieve. If someone has different feature desires it might be because they're shooting different films.

And we see absolute magic coming from people that wouldn't have been able to operate or afford to make anything on that old equipment. The old days aren't better, or worse, they are just different. Get over it. Anyone who has the privilege to be able to do something and is complaining that too many people also have that privilege is just showing fear of being inadequate. Master artists aren't campaigning for schools to stop giving students access to art supplies!

Excellent! Can you please share the technique for me to round $50k on my next family holiday down to zero? (Yes, I know....)

ML.. the app!!