Al Dolega

Oh, I've imagined all kinds of things for it, but in the spirit of this type of camera itself (i.e. practicality), I don't expect to ever see them realized. I don't think they sell enough units to have multiple models in this space, so I doubt the XF400/XF405 will ever get direct similar-size replacement; the XF605 seems to be the replacement for both the XF405 and the bigger XF705. Raw and global shutter would probably land flat on their face in terms of attracting the buyers of these types of cameras, who probably would be more interested in better battery life, better stabe, a longer and wider focal range, streaming and broadcast hookups, etc.

I added a "zoomy camera" to my quiver in 2019- the Canon XF405. Basically a bit chubbier version of the soccer-mom sized palmcorders being discussed here, with a top handle/XLR box (which comes off). 1" sensor, 25-380mm lens, C-Log3 was added via firmware about a year after which I was happy about. The XF fills a specific role in my kit and does it well- a small-enough-to-always-bring-it cam for three-point-handheld-with-the-EVF shots that need AF and smooth zooming during the shot, in good light, without a need for massive DR or super shallow DOF, in 4K60 to twin SD cards. Resolution is decent in good light, obviously doesn't match say my S5iiX's 6K-to-4K downscale FF mode, but it does look good cut with the 4K60 from APS-C mode on that camera (which is barely oversampled). Of course I would love for it to be 10-bit and intraframe, have more external controls, be better in low-light, EVF could definitely be better, etc etc; but I'm happy with it for the $1800 I paid for it used. The XF605 checks some of those boxes for an upgrade but it's bigger than I want and still too expensive. Maybe in a few years when used prices drop. The HVX/HPX/etc are still so popular with skaters/action-sport folks because they render motion so well (CCD=global shutter), there are workable fisheye adapter options for them, and they're pretty cheap nowadays which is important when your cam is often in physical danger (dropped when filmer falls while follow-filming, or cam gets kicked/hit, etc).

I would say I vacillate between #2 and #3. Maybe an occasional brief flash of #1 when I'm lucky. Oh no, not at all. We shot this over the summers of 2015, 2016, and 2017- that's where the title comes from. Probably 40-50 shooting days of anywhere from 2-6 hours each day. The curved rail at 2:48, for example, we were there for about three hours, in 90+F July heat. I shot 176 tries, with the landed clip you see in the video being around hour 2 and try 100. But Chy and I are both a bit of compulsive perfectionists and we wanted a following fisheye angle too, so we kept going and only stopped because some guy selling fireworks in the parking lot next to us wandered over and lit an industrial smoke bomb in the middle of the spot because he thought it would give a cool music video vibe 😄 Was kind of a blessing actually as you couldn't even see your hands after that and it forced us to stop.

Wow thanks@PannySVHS! Never thought my stuff would be brought up here. The S5IIX, to be honest I haven't been shooting much this year so not a ton of time with it yet, but a bit of a mixed bag so far. Love the new AF, the intraframe codecs are nice to have as my stuff has so much motion in it. Other than that it's mostly the same as my S1, which was/is great (other than the AF). On the negative side, my X has had a problem with looseness and glitching in the mic jack since I got it. Wasn't bad at first as I customized my cage to put a little bit of pressure on the plug, which worked for a while, but now it's gotten worse and I have it boxed up to go to Panasonic for repair. I'm not a fan of the new processing for the linear profiles, I shoot entirely in V-Log so it actually doesn't affect me, but... gross, looks like cellphone footage. I'm eagerly awaiting the S1Hii or S1X or whatever comes next, but they'd better fix that processing. The piece you posted was almost entirely Cine-D, a couple of V-Log L shots from when there was that "hack" to install it on the GH4 for free- and I'm glad I didn't just pony up for the official upgrade, because I couldn't get around banding in the sky (you can really see this in the shot at 0:17, and it's not just YouTube's compression), would have been a waste of money. For post I just used the Leeming Cine-D LUT, and then his "Rich Velvet" Quickie (look) LUT, pulled back a bit. I liked the density and saturation this gave me, reminded me of some HVX200/HPX170 stuff that I'd seen years ago. Past that just some selective Neat-ing and a bit of unsharp mask. I appreciate you noting the detailed/not oversharp look, that's what I've always gone for. Lenses, for fisheyes the GH4 had a cheap "manybrand" (Samyang/Bower/Rokinon etc) 8mm f3.5, on a 0.64x Metabones BMCC booster that the shutter would crash into if triggered so I had to remember to WB with a different lens. Then on the G85 I had the native-mount manybrand 7.5mm f3.5, much easier to work with, smaller/lighter/cheaper/sharper, but not as wide of a FOV. The booster/8mm shots are the ones with the slight vignetting in the corners. For regular lenses it was about half adapted Minolta MD/MC stuff, no booster as I couldn't find an affordable one that didn't flare/blue dot like crazy, and half Nikkors on a Metabones 0.71x booster. No Panasonic lenses as I couldn't get good results with manual focus or AF. Thanks @kye, the truth is that I really struggle with editing and rely heavily on beat/music/rhythm for structure and flow. So that means a lot. The B-roll shots are actually a bit sparser in this piece than usual, this is a reaction on my part to so many other video profiles of female rollerbladers often being padded out with too much slo-mo, B-roll, and second/third angles of tricks, usually to cover for a lack of clips of actual tricks. Chynna is arguably the best in the world at this style of skating so I wanted this to be a bit more "all killer no filler"- 35 tricks in 4 minutes- typically the better men in the sport will have about 25-35 tricks in this length, while the aforementioned female pieces have 15-20, plus plenty of slomo of them tying their hair up and putting their skates/helmets on 😄

I think the YAGH thing that was released with the GH4 being a flop might make Panasonic a bit gun-shy on trying another add-on grip accessory. Costs them money not only to design and manufacture the unit, but also raises the cost of all the camera bodies as you have to add the connection. Although maybe now with having USB-C, that could be the connection, and the body cost wouldn't have to increase.

I've seen a couple videos about turning 2230-size NVME SSD's into CFE-B cards- just takes a simple adapter/casing. Still limited speed-wise by the CFE-B slot I suppose, but certainly cheaper than real cards.

The non-log profiles in my S5IIX do have a bit of that gross cellphone-like edge sharpening. Some people have blamed this on the addition of PDAF, citing Panasonic's past statements about PDAF affecting picture quality, but I don't see how that could affect the picture globally, I would think that would only affect the phase pixels. Seems to me that this could only have to do with the new processing that they touted at release, as part of the "new" L2 partnership with Leica. Which if Leica is actually responsible for grossness, is surprising given their historical tradition for natural image quality. I've only used V-Log for years now so luckily it doesn't really affect me, and I haven't noticed a difference in my S5IIX footage. The B-Raw implementation on the new cameras is better, so there is some small compensation there.

Hopefully this means a simplified and more unified product line. Looking at their fixed-lens camcorders the last few years, they would have one or two "prosumer" models that were 99% the same as one of the "professional" models; apparently this was done because the "prosumer" model was handled by the Lumix/consumer division, and the "professional" model was handled by the pro A/V division, and I guess both needed to show they had produced something. I think fewer, better models would work better. With the S5ii and G9ii sharing a body, maybe some consolidation is already happening. I would assume that this means no EVA-1 replacement anytime soon, if the S1H replacement has the internal ND they patented a while ago.

You're assuming that "smooth" is the goal. For many it's not. (for the record, I mostly shoot in 60p and deliver in 30p, so I'm not some 24p hyper-traditionalist)

Seems like pretty typical new-camera-release hyperbole to me. Full-time YouTubers have to play that game to stay afloat, doesn't bother me and is pretty easily ignored. I am excited for global shutter to reach the mid- and low-price markets. I hope for that to happen relatively quickly, maybe five years. Seems like the savings from deleting the shutter assembly will be a good motivator for the companies to get the sensor tech scaled and affordable. I guess it depends on if Sony lets that happen though, they may want to milk this cow as long as they can.

Exciting! Been waiting for a global shutter hybrid for years. Would love to have no rolling shutter and an unlimited flash sync speed. Now I just have to wait about five more years until it's available at a price point I can afford, and from Panasonic 😄

I'd love to see an update to the LX100. Add IBIS and PDAF, maybe ruggedize the body a bit, more modern video specs, tilt screen, bam. Maybe offer a vlog variant where the screen tilts but can also flip up over the top of the cam (like some of the RX100 versions do), with a 16-35 or 20-50 equiv lens.

My S1 did this, it was annoying, but my S5IIX doesn't.

Is there even a way to adapt it to E mount?

Panasonic S1 and Canon XF405. Shooting both in 4K60, edit/deliver in 4K30. Waiting for my pre-ordered S5IIX to arrive to replace the S1; eager to have the new AF, a little worried about the sharpening/smoothing complaints.

I really hope there's an S1 replacement that's still around $2500, instead of just the S5II/S5IIX and then an S1H-type model at $3500-4000ish.

I also prefer the tilt screen in most scenarios, not strongly but a slight preference. Over the years I've had more cams with the flip screen though, so I know I can adjust just fine. I don't expect the S5II to have the combo tilt/flip, it is after all a mid-range (or basic/entry-level for full-frame) camera, and that market solidly prefers the flip screen. For two grand there are going to be compromises. The S2 or S2H will almost definitely have the combo screen, and hopefully everything else we've been wishing for.

I think we may be getting to the point where the number of things the market is expecting/hoping to be fixed soon via firmware may be outstripping how many things I reasonably expect can be addressed in a single firmware (or several firmwares in a short timeframe). I would love for the banding, oversharpening, smoothing, AF performance, and maybe even rolling shutter to be addressed/improved by the time my preorderd S5IIX comes in in 2-2.5 months, but I am losing faith in that happening. AF on my S1 has actually been behaving itself recently so maybe I'll tell myself to wait until the S2 or S2H is announced.

Very disappointing, the smoothing and sharpening are part of what we're trying to avoid by shooting on a "real" camera! I hope they've addressed this in firmware by the time my S5IIX comes in.

I don't think adding a motor, controller, and rocker/buttons would make the lens any cheaper, especially since it would certainly sell way fewer units than the regular 24-105. Which I think is great, btw. Seems parfocal enough to me, maybe it's "fake" parfocal where it's programmed to adjust the focus as you zoom, but that's good enough for me. The only real improvement I can think of would be for it to go to 120mm like the Nikon equivalent does.

This! I can't stand this trend. It seems to me this was born of laziness and now is actually expected. Like shooting separate B-roll doesn't even occur to people anymore, since whichever Sony ZV-whatever introduced "product showcase" mode. Now people think holding something up in front of your face at F1.4 is the way it's done, and any camera that doesn't enable this is trash.

It'd be nice, and would be an insta-buy for me, but from an overall ecosystem POV there are probably more pressing needs, telephotos >200mm and a fast ultra wide zoom come to mind. I always hoped that the little external zoom box that Canon made years ago would have caught on and been made compatible with all zooms from that point. I remember it was paired with a cheaper APS-C superzoom type lens when it came out but then I think that was it.

Pannyboy does have other conversion LUTs, they have a pack of Varicam LUTs for download somewhere. Most are more "look"-ey but I like the "Nicest" one, that or the standard V-Log LUT are usually my starting point, that or a CST in Resolve.

I've been trying to bug Panasonic in various places to add a 60p 3:2 APS-C anamorphic mode to these cameras (or at least the X). The spec sheet shows they have the 48/50p 4:3 anamorphic mode from the S1H, so I'm hoping that 3:2 being shorter vertically, and thus using fewer lines of the sensor, would let it reach 60p. Marketing-wise this would be a great addition to the whole "shoot in 3:2 for cropping to vertical later" selling point- you would have a slo-mo option with the same aspect ratio as the full-sensor 6K open-gate mode. That and some ~2.5-2.8K modes at higher framerates would really put these cams over the top for me. Now if the X would just get here already!

Just to be clear, the RS halves on the S cameras when in APS-C mode as well. So the S5ii's 4K60 would be 10.5ms, same as my S1, which seems to be good enough for me. I very rarely see skew or wobble and I shoot fast action. I mostly shoot 60p so that I have the option for slo-mo later (editing/finishing in 30p). I've been doing this at 180 degree shutter (so 1/120th), so when I use a clip at normal-mo it does have a touch of the "fast shutter" look, but I think this is less of an issue with 30p. I've been thinking about trying a 270-degree shutter with 60p (so 1/90th) to alleviate this, haven't tried it yet.