MrSMW

That’s not my situation Kye. Not being big headed or anything but absolutely zero issues with capture or exposure. The opposite. I never come back from a job, look at the footage and say, “Oops, I effed that up. How am I going to fix it?” Never happens. Or at least not to any degree where it’s a concern ie, some random human mistake we all make from time to time, but never incompetence or any shortcomings in technical ability in that sense. Instead, I’m more than happy with what I bring back on a technical level and if I am less than pleased with any results it will be due to other factors that were beyond my control…and a lot of fuckwittery can go on at weddings! Re. log or beyond that, raw, it’s simply a case of something you alluded to above… …but rather than this sentiment regarding AF (and I agree with your sentiment), the same principal regarding log vs shooting a profile. Accordingly there are 2 and only 2, issues that I wrestle with and these are: 1: Why can I not get correctly exposed clean log footage to look better than I can the same thing shot with a profile? I guess because I really like what I get from the profile I shoot or because I am not sufficiently skilled in grading to achieve what someone else might from log. I suspect the truth is both things. 2: This ´truth’ as it were that log is better than a profile just as MF is better than AF or raw is better than Jpeg. Technically and in the right hands, I do not dispute for 1 second that log has more scope than a profile. How can it not and MF in the hands of a master probably beats AF and I know for a fact that raw beats Jpeg as I do that one week in week out. So it is ultimately just one single thing and that is whilst I can get more out of raw vs Jpeg, I cannot currently get ‘more’ out of log than I can my tweaked profile. And I don’t know why that is and the truth is, I am not overly concerned but rather would like to explore further why despite ‘the rest of the world’ saying that log is best, to date, it has not been for me. My season starts shortly and I have run out of time with log, - I need to start and complete the season with consistency. What I shall probably do however is shoot the final job of the year as log and then use that as a project to crack the bloody thing!

I think there is an element of fact in that but also there are more people than there ever has been with more access to tools that are ever easier to operate and a platform to inform the world that reaches more people by a factor of x 1000+. By that or any logic, far more and arguably some even greater artists exist, but at the same time, the body of water has increased exponentially… A Mozart or a Davinci was a big fish in a relatively small pond. His or her equal now live in an ocean. That doesn’t mean they can’t be seen or heard but rather they have to work harder to be found. I know that even in just over 20 years, there are at least 5-10x more people offering a wedding photography service now than there was back then and there are more ‘better’ photographers than there was in 2000 also. On another level actually. Back then it was easy to be found and it took maybe 5% of your time and effort at most meaning you could spend the other 95% effort in your craft. It is almost impossible to put a definitive number in it today, but I’d say for effort alone, it’s more than 50% of what I do, - being found and seen/heard. And I think if you can remain authentic and that has a market, you can do well.

That’s what I intend Kye. I may very well travel somewhere in the world to do so and combine both some kind of vacation with the educational. I am 100% sure it’s me because you can’t ague with physics but also coupled with the fact that Panasonic’s profiles, like Fuji’s, are great SOOC. Not that I use them SOOC but have a very unique combo of a tweaked profile, lens choice, filter choice and a grading LUT I have created specifically to suit this footage and the end result I am looking for. And even then, each individual clip is also tweaked. And this I think is my problem and was the same problem I had with Fuji before. I developed something that suited me from what is arguably the lower potential source…but then I don’t and never grade hard so… Finally, it probably helps that I shoot a pretty specific thing in fairly similar circumstances which is a girl getting ready in a bedroom near a window followed by an outdoor ceremony followed by an outdoor party followed by some indoor dancing. Sometimes the outdoor stuff has to take place indoors either due to weather or choice, but it’s all pretty consistent and takes place mostly Apr-Sep. I also don’t need to be colour accurate to a clients brief but simply be consistent to my style. I don’t want to call it ‘rinse and repeat’ but actually, it mostly is; different couple, sometimes same venue, sometimes same venue back to back weekends, but generally the same blue sky, green backdrop, bird in a white frock. I think all of the above adds up to less requirement to have to try and fix things in post because for me, there is rarely anything to ‘fix’ because familiarity meant I shot for it in the first place. Usually… 😜

That’s what I think also. At one end of the scale there is filmmaking. At the other there is photography. Cameras such as these sit somewhere in the middle. Arguably something like this the GH6 sits slightly more towards the filmmaking side of things and something like the S1R, more towards the photography, but both are hybrid cameras. The S1H is also regarded more for it’s video capability (and is a very underrated stills camera) but for filmmakers, it’s box brother, the BS1H (though why they labeled it BS is beyond me) is more suited to rigging out and being a filmmaking specific camera. I am in no way a serious filmmaker and no longer purely a photographer as I once was (haven’t been for over 10 years now actually) so I need tools from that middle hybrid/crossover ground and I think if Panasonic’s camera division is not to die, they need to really gun for a bigger slice of the pie. That can only come with having a great, relevant, competitive autofocusing piece of kit. Plus some at least above average marketing. It’s just my opinion, but I think they could and should be regarded over and above Sony if they only had better AF and marketing. But they don’t and Sony has been eating their lunch for some time now. I really hope so anyway because they tick more boxes for me than anyone else and I think the next gen…if it happens, could tick them all.

It was a Uperfect and cost about 1k. I also went with a Uperfect but a smaller, cheaper and less capable one. With even further hindsight, I should have spent a little more and gone for another identical Benq for my home away from home on wheels. It will do the principle job I need it to do however which is really just a display monitor.

No video evidence (well I do but I'm not posting it) but finished my final pre-wedding season AF tests and can report that the S5 with the 20-60 is in fact 'quite decent'. My final tests today were based on it being mounted on a tripod with the Sony ZV1 hotshoe mounted for comparison. It did pretty well and was mostly reliable with all the walking towards tests. Anything else is a breeze. Tripod, 4k 50p, Natural profile tweaked to my taste, one area AF + face, speed -1, sensitivity -3, f5.6 and shot at 20mm 35mm and 60mm. I was going to test the 24-105 also but in the end decided not to because the few times I need AF and the above combo, the 24-105 is shooting stills on my S1R so of no use to me whether it's better or worse! Some folks reckon it's actually better and I suspect it might be by a small margin, but the 20-60 is OK for my needs. The combo actually BEAT the ZV1 on one occasion and that was a mock exit where I 'walked up the aisle' and the S5 tracked me perfectly and the ZV1 decided the background trees were more interested. F**k you Sony Boy! My final conclusion is this entire season of 33 hybrid shooting weddings, I'm going with: S1R 90% stills, 10% handheld or monopod video. S1H 100% manual focus handheld, monopod or tripod (ceremony) video. S5, manual focus ceremony and speeches, AF entrances, exits, confetti etc, 100% on the tripod. I did use this combo 5th of last years meagre 5 weddings and the S1H + pair of S5's combo the 4 previous so know it well enough now. Just nailed down now what is being used where, how and with what lenses as a workflow based system. Juggled with the drone, ZV1 (BTS) and Action Go 2 (timelapse). Phew 😜 Bring on the rest of '22!

Indeed. I actually use MF over 90% of the time and with the S1H, close to 100%. The only time I need and use AF is with the S5, on a tripod, entrances, exits, confetti, ie, maybe 1 minute actual shooting time during a typical 9-15 hour shoot. The S1H I can't see being anything but MF this year as that's my more 'artistic', on me at all times, filmmaking camera whereas I class the S5 in it's use (as above plus entire duration ceremony and entire duration speeches) as my video camera. But...and it's the big BUT, that 1 minute or whatever per job when I need reliable AF is what counts. And based on my most recent tests, the S5 with the 20-60 with my current latest tweaks to the AF set up is not bad at all. In fact, it worked when my back up Sony ZV1 which has excellent AF, failed. Answer? Hotshoe mount the ZV1 on the S5 for those crucial moments and double-team it! Yep, I wouldn't trade my S5 for an A7iv as it's a sideways step and personally for me, if anything, a slight downgrade in various regards except AF. The business case for the R6 is very good for anyone with EF glass. Makes complete sense. As long as you can live with the potential or even just the fear of overheeating. I reckon I could take that punt if needs be and if I shot Canon, would use an R5 for 90% stills and 10% video and use a pair of R6's purely for video, but only one would run for extended periods of time so I could...pardon the pun, hot swap them if needs be. Providing they do bring out the next gen S1/S5 line, I'd say it would be suicide to do anything less so I'd expect the AF to not necessarily be PDAF, but simply 'really quite good and reliable', plus 6k 60p full frame would be my best guess. Probably asking a bit much for them to jump to full frame 8k 60p...and I personally don't want or need it anyway. I shoot 128GB SD cards and rarely have to use a second on any wedding day and that's over a typical 9-15 hour shoot. If it's been a pretty heavy day, I might swap the cards out before evening speeches because despite the bride assuring me, "oh it will only be 20 minutes", some 1 hour 20 mins later and the light has faded plus all my additional lighting has run out... 🤪

Hmmm…how about because then I’d need to change an entire system of 3 bodies and 5 lenses, lose a shit ton of money and need to learn a whole new system? 😜 Never say never though… I came very close to flipping to a new OM-1 system but it was too risky on several levels at this point in time. Like most if not all things, it comes down to compromise and my current compromises are: A. The tracking AF isn’t the best available. B. The S1 bodies are slightly larger and heavier than I’d like. C. I cannot for the life of me get a better looking result using log than I can using my tweaked Natural profile with a mild grade using Film Convert Nitrate…and I have followed meticulously (and played with for good measure) around 1/2 a dozen ‘experts’ instruction. I think maybe when this season is over, I will pay someone to edjumicate me with my own footage and show me the error of my ways. But right now, with a packed season about to begin, I have not been able to make it work so I’m going with what does work. For me.

Ha, just been going through a similar kind of quest really… I have a decent desktop PC with a 25” Benq monitor. I have a new 14” MacBook Pro for work on the go. I shoot 50% stills and 50% video so both of equal importance. All was fine ‘on paper’ until I tried editing video in the MacBook. Screen real estate. It has nowhere near enough! So I bought a 15.6” portable monitor to use on the road (I work out of my caravan/travel trailer roughly 2 months per annum) which solved the issue as rather than a ‘mirror’, I have set it up to keep Premiere Pro tools on the MacBook and the actual video window full screen in the monitor. But then we hit another problem which is it is impossible to calibrate them to be the same. I use Xrite and you cannot calibrate a MacBook Pro with it so what I have done and do is as follows: 1: Calibrated my desktop using Xrite. 2: Manually calibrated my second monitor to resemble visually as close as is possible, it’s bigger (and better) desktop brother. It’s not perfect, but not too far off. 3: The MacBook itself I can’t get anywhere near like the second monitor or the Benq, so what I am doing instead is: A: Doing the assembly work on the MacBook Pro on the road, but stop short of grading the project and instead… B:…wait until I get back home to my office and then transfer the project to my desktop PC and do the colour grade, final tweaks, export and upload etc. Conclusion. With hindsight, I would probably have been better off going with a Mac Mini and so when I get home, plugging that into my big Benq. But it’s no biggie and the only real difference is a portable HD between the 2 systems. When my PC finally needs to be consigned to the scrap heap, I will go Mac in the studio which will provide better consistency. I have only one other option to try and that is when I get back from a job, connect the MacBook itself to my Benq. I’ll work out the most efficient and best workflow as this year progresses…

Yes I can see how that would affect you so it always comes back to the same 3 choices: 1: Give up and don’t try and fight the tide. 2: If you can’t beat them, join them. 3: Remain a beacon of resistance. I face similar choices in my business as I am well aware that newer, cheaper folk come along and approach the same venues & planners I am in with and say, “hey, I’m half the price of that guy and for every booking I get that you punt my way, I will give you 10%/x amount”. Even with some of my more rock solid venues and planners, someone gets in at some point and I drop off their radar as the work dries up. Ultimately no one gives a shit, except for ourselves. It’s just business and it has always been a fact for thousands of years that you have to go after your slice of the pie, then defend that slice as hard as you are willing to, but the one thing you will never win against is the tide. Maybe it’s not enough to occupy the moral high ground and keep your integrity but I think there is (an argument for doing so) and it then becomes a case of being niche and not mass market? I dunno and am just musing really while I loll about on a Saturday afternoon in my deck chair…

All I know about any of my cameras is that they all came with dynamic range included. ’It’ could be 7 or 17 for all I know. Are the files SOOC good to work with? Yup. Can I give it a light grade? Check. Job done, regardless of what the number someone says something is.

I’m both really smart and really stupid rolled into a single package 😛

I have 2 responses to that and they are: A: If you can’t beat them, join them. (Generic ‘you’ and what the majority seem to do, ie, mostly sip from the same can of Kool Aid) or, B: Rise above or even simply ignore the noise in the first place. I’m more of a B personally in that I consume a fair amount of what's out there, leave my thumbs up if I lasted the distance, commented if I felt I had something worthy to add, but never criticize or thumbs down anything. At least unless it was total balls and a line had to be drawn in the sand. It’s never really bothered me what the other fella is doing. Unless he’s doing it to me personally and maliciously and in a very misguided manner as he/she has no idea the comeback they are heading for ☠️ Life’s both too short and full of far more interesting things IMO.

I quite like Mr Huff and his understated enthusiasm, especially for Leica and Sigma products…though I think he might have gone off Leica recently, or for a while. Personally I don’t care what any of them get or receive from any brand. Whether they are a brand ambassador, a paid shill, an unpaid shill, a genuine enthusiast or a complete fuckwit, I take it all with a pinch of salt and make my own mind up. I think with Huff he can be a little bit ‘kid in the sweet shop’ at times over new kit, as so many can be, mainly only finding the new good stuff, but you need to live with something long term to get a more balanced picture.

It has always worked for me Kye…and it seems it still does!

I’d like to see the next model in two identical versions internally but one with a built in grip. That way we’d all have choice!

Back to Natural with a light grade using Nitrate! I’ve now tried so many different combinations and the conclusion I have come to is: The look I like the most is lightly graded Natural. The most consistent approach is lightly graded Natural. The most efficient workflow (especially important to me this year) is lightly graded Natural. I can sometimes get a better result using a more time consuming and faffing about log workflow, but for that word, ‘sometimes’. Maybe it’s just me, but for my needs & tastes, it’s a no-brainer. Plus AF is way better shooting profiles so seals the deal. I tried to be a better person, honest!

Slightly jealous of the 35-150mm f2-2.8 OK, it's a bit of a beast, but as a 'one and done' lens... I think I'd need to add a grip to balance something like that properly, but then there is a certain appeal to me of 'built in' grip bodies such as the R3 and Z9.

Same post 3x times 🤔🤪🤨

Possibility, but probably not yet…if at all. All companies have a lifespan. That’s just a historical fact. I don’t think it’s quite time yet for Panny Boy. I am sure they are working on a successor to the S1 line as development time takes years. They probably started that right after the S1/R/H launched, but these things also evolve based on all kinds of factors. When? Well that’s the question I would also like to know as it has a large bearing on where I go and what I do with my own set up because I am actively considering next years kit which is a question of timing + cost. Realistically, I can’t see them announcing any next gen S1 until at least this Autumn if not later. Or at all. I do think they will give it one more shot at least but unless they get the AF up to par, the bean counters will pull the plug on at least the full frame camera division because I do not believe that in this market they can compete otherwise. I don’t care if it’s PDAF or DFD as long as it works. The jury is still out on the AF of the GH6 with some parties saying it is better than the S5 and some saying it isn’t. I’ve seen a few tests (decent ones) and it looks little different to me, but as I always say, it’s good enough for 95% of my needs but that remaining 5% use case cannot be ignored as it is an important part of every job for me. I have absolutely nailed down my entire kit requirements on paper re. a system as a whole, bodies and lenses and as things stand, the closest to that ideal is actually an OM-1 4/3rds based system. Which I would have laughed at just 2 months ago, but is what it is.

Possibility, but probably not yet…if at all. All companies have a lifespan. That’s just a historical fact. I don’t think it’s quite time yet for Panny Boy. I am sure they are working on a successor to the S1 line as development time takes years. They probably started that right after the S1/R/H launched, but these things also evolve based on all kinds of factors. When? Well that’s the question I would also like to know as it has a large bearing on where I go and what I do with my own set up because I am actively considering next years kit which is a question of timing + cost. Realistically, I can’t see them announcing any next gen S1 until at least this Autumn if not later. Or at all. I do think they will give it one more shot at least but unless they get the AF up to par, the bean counters will pull the plug on at least the full frame camera division because I do not believe that in this market they can compete otherwise. I don’t care if it’s PDAF or DFD as long as it works. The jury is still out on the AF of the GH6 with some parties saying it is better than the S5 and some saying it isn’t. I’ve seen a few tests (decent ones) and it looks little different to me, but as I always say, it’s good enough for 95% of my needs but that remaining 5% use case cannot be ignored as it is an important part of every job for me. I have absolutely nailed down my entire kit requirements on paper re. a system as a whole, bodies and lenses and as things stand, the closest to that ideal is actually an OM-1 4/3rds based system. Which I would have laughed at just 2 months ago, but is what it is.

Possibility, but probably not yet…if at all. All companies have a lifespan. That’s just a historical fact. I don’t think it’s quite time yet for Panny Boy. I am sure they are working on a successor to the S1 line as development time takes years. They probably started that right after the S1/R/H launched, but these things also evolve based on all kinds of factors. When? Well that’s the question I would also like to know as it has a large bearing on where I go and what I do with my own set up because I am actively considering next years kit which is a question of timing + cost. Realistically, I can’t see them announcing any next gen S1 until at least this Autumn if not later. Or at all. I do think they will give it one more shot at least but unless they get the AF up to par, the bean counters will pull the plug on at least the full frame camera division because I do not believe that in this market they can compete otherwise. I don’t care if it’s PDAF or DFD as long as it works. The jury is still out on the AF of the GH6 with some parties saying it is better than the S5 and some saying it isn’t. I’ve seen a few tests (decent ones) and it looks little different to me, but as I always say, it’s good enough for 95% of my needs but that remaining 5% use case cannot be ignored as it is an important part of every job for me. I have absolutely nailed down my entire kit requirements on paper re. a system as a whole, bodies and lenses and as things stand, the closest to that ideal is actually an OM-1 4/3rds based system. Which I would have laughed at just 2 months ago, but is what it is.

99% certain it will be, “or…” I just can’t see Panny Boy popping out a new S5 in what has been under 1.5 years since it’s launch. If anything, the S1 line would come next and possibly they might merge the two as they have mentioned size themselves before. Plus the GH6 just came out and it’s a competitor for the S5 for sure. Other than the OM-1, it’s the most compared pairing. I think it’s just lower than desired sales, especially compared with Sony. I have zero evidence of that, just opinion. That is a cracking deal however!

I boarded up my windows a couple of years back.

It’s been and still is quite a polarizing situation. I suspect, as has been the case with DFD AF, there has been a lot of negative hype regarding Xtrans from people who gave it little or no time. Personally I had zero issues with it. Either because it suited me more than some others, or perhaps because I took the time. Probably both. It’s taken me a lot of time and effort to get my Lumix colour to a level I like as much as Fuji, but the length of that time has mainly been down to Covid reducing my workflow by 90%. But otherwise I think you can extract more from a FF S1/S5 file than you can any Fuji Xtrans. I can definitely report moiré from the S5 sensor, for stills anyway. The only wedding I didn’t also shoot video last year, I shot a pair of S5’s and by the law of sod, it was shiny suit day! I’m not sure if this is 100% true or not and I have no evidence either way, but I believe using a 1/8th mist reduces or eliminates moiré as it takes away some of that digital sharpness.