Hi Everyone.
I've been scouring every corner of the internet for days now trying to figure out which camera to go for and I'm pulling my hair out.
I'm looking for a versatile mirrorless camera for a mix of documentary and narrative work.
I'm confident that all the options I'm looking at are suitable for the kind of narrative, commercial and music video work I do.
However I also need something that I can use for documentary work - largely handheld. Sometimes filming actuality, following subjects around. Sometimes nice cinematic b-roll. I like to keep DOF relatively shallow.
My priorities:
- Good IBIS
- Good lowlight
- Ability to record and monitor audio
- Good for photography
- A good native zoom lens for general documentary work
Secondary considerations:
- 10- bit internal would be nice
- Autofocus - AF is something I've never used in the past. Being trained in natural history filmmaking a decade ago - the idea of using AF for video was laughable. I'm unsure whether I'm missing a trick here. Is some AF now truly good enough to accurately track and keep focus on subjects at shallow depths of field?
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Right now it's a real toss up between the Panasonic S1, Nikon Z6 and the Fuji XT4
For a while I was pretty set on getting the Panasonic S1. I like the idea of a bigger camera for handheld work and the IBIS looks great. Internal 10 bit also appealing. But once I add the costs of the firmware upgrade and an expensive L-series zoom, the whole kit will cost around €3200, instead of around €2300 for the XT4 or €2100 for the Z6.
I considered the Gh5 and A7iii too but I'm leaning away from them because of the bad low light and m4/3 mount on the gh5 and the lack of 10-bit recording (even externally) on the a7iii.
I'm leaning towards full frame options for what they offer in terms of shallow DOF and low light capabilities.
I have a set of old Nikon AIS primes which I love using and plan on adapting these to whatever setup I have.
Any help here would be much appreciated!