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Olympus/OM System OM-1 + 12-35mm f2.8

@Tulpa Maybe John is best placed to talk about camera bodies, but here's a few thoughts: you absolutely want weather proofing, and should read the manual to see what this can cope with (and what it cannot) IBIS is great but the mechanisms are fragile and I'd imagine that if there are any constant vibrations from cycling you could easily break them (e.g. will there be hours and hours of off-road or riding on rough roads?) consider what you'll be doing for audio - if you want an audio input then you'll need the G or GH line of cameras, not the GX line which lacks audio inputs docos are about getting the shot, not having a setup that looks incredible but isn't flexible or fast enough to use in the field. for this I recommend simple setups and zoom lenses. if you go MFT the 12-35mm F2.8 is a great lens because it's got some flexibility and also enough low-light for most situations. You need to think about the whole ecosystem involved. You will have the camera, lenses, filters, batteries and chargers, media, potentially separate microphones (and therefore all their battery and charging needs), etc. You might want a cage and maybe external monitors. You'll need camera mounts, definitely for mounting things to the bikes, but also a tripod is probably a must-have too. If you're shooting interviews you might want some small lights, which come with their own battery and charging requirements too. Then there's media management. How will you offload cards, and where will you store the data? Will you be able to backup to the cloud as you go? Can you buy drives along the way and mail them home as you go? Having three copies of something is great but if they're all in your bag when it gets stolen then the footage is still lost. This ecosystem is something you need to assemble and then use a few times to work out the kinks and get everything optimised. The reason I say all that is that by the end of that process you might decide that you don't have space or the weight capacity for the camera after you pack a wireless mic and a laptop and some hard drives.

I'd be apt to leave that to the micro 4/3 enthusiasts like @kye and @John Matthews. My guess, and please do take this with a huge grain of salt, as I haven't owned a real micro 4/3 camera in years, is that the camera body suggestion will look something like a GX85 or OM-3/OM-5 II for small/light/sealed, but I don't follow m43 enough to know off the top of my head which have 10 bit. If the Panasonic 14/2.5 or 20/1.7 are weather sealed, they could be alright. Otherwise, the humble Panasonic 14-42mm kit lens is not bad. The Olympus equivalent might be alright too. You'd probably want one of the primes for low light.

This is a fascinating topic because for me it seems that I experience it differently. For me, if it looks like video then it's video, regardless of how well the framing, rhythm, tone and storytelling is. It's like this video comparing Gemini Man in 24p vs 60p: To me, the 24p looks like a movie and the 60p looks like a video, a very high quality video at that, but the 24p looks like a movie and the 60p looks like an amateur videographer happened to have a nice camera and be shooting in a room with someone that happened to be Will Smith. The lighting is the same, the framing, rhythm, tone, and storytelling are all the same, because they're literally the same takes, but the feeling is completely different. For many, the 60p completely ruins the look, and many would say that 60p isn't even cinema at all. It's like it's a matter of categorisation - video vs cinema. For me, this special sauce that cinema and Gawx (and others) is like that - a prerequisite to even be in the right category. Once there, I can consider the elements like framing, rhythm, tone, and storytelling, which are absolutely the difference between a good movie and a bad movie, but if it doesn't look like a movie then those are the difference between a good video and a bad video. Thanks, this is really helpful. The showcase doesn't seem to be choc full of the secret sauce I am looking for, although the ones with less detail do seem to lean slightly more in that direction, so it seems it's not a case of just buying the tool, but how you use it. Of course, this might be able to get the look I want and maybe other print emulation packages might not be able to, but I doubt that will turn out to be the case. I did a bit of searching, firstly to find the price, which is pretty eye-watering, and also to read a bit more about it. As far as reddit is concerned it's pretty good and amongst the other usual suspects, like Filmbox, Dehancer, and FilmUnlimited, which is interesting because I have the 2393 power grades which are a watered down version of FilmUnlimited and I'd forgotten about them, but should revisit them and see how they go with the GH7. My current theory is that I have the tools required to get the look I want, but I just have to work out what it is that is making the difference for me, and to work that out I just need to put in the work. This is sort-of what this thread is in a way, me doing the work and sharing it along the way for those that can't or won't do their own tests. I've really benefited along the way from watching other peoples tests, and am constantly surprised at how much can be learned from them and yet despite this there are so few tests online. I'd be very happy with "cinematic vibes" as sadly almost all videos on YT are "video with film emulation vibes" that only remind me of cinema to the extent that they definitely aren't cinema. Sort of like when people shoot oversharpened 4K h264 on ultra-sharp lenses and then put a PFE LUT on it and think that it now looks like film - the PFE is necessary but not sufficient. Like this, I've identified a lot of things I like, but until I've found everything that is required it won't be sufficient. Once I've managed to get a constellation of things that work I can try removing things and see which elements are required and which aren't.

Thank you for this eatstoomuchjam. And if you you could have your pick of camera and lens, do you know what that would be? 10bit and 4k as a minimum with good low light capabilities? I'm not only considering shooting from the bicycle, but collecting stories from the situations with people along the way. Any thoughts?

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If it's being mounted to the bike, then yes, any of the current crop of decent action cameras would be a good choice, especially assuming that some parts of the tour would be in the rain or dusty areas, etc. Even better yet if they can pair directly with the manufacturer's wireless microphone system (DJI and Insta360 both do this). This can also be augmented with any halfway decent modern phone. Otherwise, if you wouldn't want to go the action camera+phone route, I'd find the smallest and lightest camera on the market with decent weatherproofing and go with that, making sure that all of the lenses are similarly weather-sealed. There are lots of used options, especially that are M43 mount, that would be good fits for small and light and can give better results than an action camera. Better than 1080p is nice, but as far as I know, any festival will still accept it as a resolution. More than 4K is realistically unnecessary unless you plan to crop/reframe in post.

Dear Eoshd members, I've been a long time lurker and it's clear that there are some with an exceptional wealth of experience here. I used to be quite up to speed with the latest camera tech but completely fell off a cliff about 3 years ago. I'm not so sure a lot has happened since then, but I would be curious to have your insights on what would make a solid camera choice for an upcoming project that I'm moving towards. The project involves cycling around the world for several years under all kinds of conditions and producing a cinematic documentary about it. I know that many use things like GoPro, Insta 360 etc with decent results. But I'm wondering what you folks would use to obtain your results if you were to embark on such an adventure and why? I'd be grateful for any insights or observations any of you may have!

The camera that was supposed to be in so much demand is in stock and already has a $100 off rebate 🤷‍♂️

Testing the Sirui 1.25x adapter at various F-stops, including all the way down to F0.95. I wanted to see how much the Sirui was compatible with faster apertures than F2.8, which is what the manual suggests you use. Setup was with the GH7 shooting 5.7K and the Voigtländer 17.5mm F0.95 lens, which isn't so sharp wide open. The below stills from a 5.7K timeline. I matched exposure on the middle of the image, and used a fixed WB (the Voigt has colour shifts). It seems like it does soften the image slightly, but it's pretty minor and I also can't be sure that I focused it 100% perfectly either (the Voigt goes a little past infinity and the GH7 only does 6x punch-in), so it's at least as sharp as these images. I'll have to test flaring in a separate test, and also other focal lengths, but if you don't have bright lights in frame then it seems like you can go faster than F2.8, at least at around 17mm, which really opens up more possibilities I think. I also randomly grabbed this shot last week with the 14-140mm and Sirui - no idea if I focused it properly but the vibe is pretty nice!

Well I have only had the chance to test the official Arri Log vs Phantom's version (that I have been using for the last 2 seasons) and can't beat what I already have. Been through a load of the official Arri conversion LUT's and all of mine, bought or created and IMO, Phantom beats them all. So either I am doing something wrong or the Phantom LUT is pretty bloody good! As the saying goes, "if it ain't broke..." And I'm too busy to explore further so all I can say is LUMIX users, try Phantom LUT's if intensive colour grading is not your thing!

Jump Desktop Connect is my app of choice for remote editing.

I brought these images into Resolve and had a play, as well as some others I shot but haven't posted. It seems that the squeeze factor might be slightly more than 1.25x in some shots. I de-squeezed by just scaling around 0.75-0.8 vertically, and scaled the shots in post to match framing and got 1.388 on one and 1.276 on another. So even applying a large pinch of salt as it wasn't locked off, the squeeze factor seems to be variable. I wonder if this is distance related as perhaps the adapter moves the lens plane forward so that optically the position the camera sees from is moved forward a touch, as this would explain why the squeeze factor seemed to be more than advertised. It seems it's also a skill to get it rotated exactly vertically (although the adapter itself is easy to use in this regard).

It certainly is, thanks for doing that. Much appreciated.

I just remembered that the 17mm F1.4 has a strange filter thread size I don't have an adapter for, so I went with the Voigtlander 17.5mm instead, plus I also did the Voigtlander 42.5mm as well. I took stills on the GX85 so you can see the full sensor readout, and the SOOC images below are the actual images from the SD card and 7.9MB each so pixel pee to your hearts content if desired. I even remembered to set the taking lens to infinity and focus with the adapter! Voigtlander 17.5mm at F2.8, no adapter, SOOC: Voigtlander 17.5mm at F2.8, with Sirui 1.25x adapter, SOOC: Voigtlander 17.5mm at F2.8, with Sirui 1.25x adapter, de-squeezed (0.8x vertical size adjustment): Voigtlander 42.5mm at F2.8, no adapter, SOOC: Voigtlander 42.5mm at F2.8, with Sirui 1.25x adapter, SOOC: Voigtlander 42.5mm at F2.8, with Sirui 1.25x adapter, de-squeezed (0.8x vertical size adjustment): Hopefully that's useful. I took a shot of something round last week and pulled it into Resolve and rotated it 90 degrees and lined it up at 50% opacity to test the squeeze factor, which turned out to be just under 1.25x, but I suspect this might change depending on the focus distance. I don't know if it might also change with the taking lens, but I'm probably not going to do extensive testing on all my lenses. Also, for my purposes, it's meant to be a controlled degradation so nailing the squeeze factor for all focus distances isn't a high priority. Let me know if you want any other tests, some of these are pretty quick to do.

Same as VW pricing a Golf the same as a Porsche and calling that a win. Err no, you have simply over-priced something massively that is not at the same level. This is not a pissing contest and I only used the Q3 as context, but IMO the Sony only beats the Leica in 3 areas which are; it is smaller and lighter, it has a higher res LCD and it’s AF will be better. Having said that, the Leica is over-priced IMO, but then you expect that with Leicas. It’s more a case of when you compare the RX1Riii against the A7CR and the A7RV it really shows how nuts the price is. Sony have a ton of small lenses and IMO the A7CR at half the price is a MUCH better option. The only thing about the A7CR that really bothered me wss they cheaped out on the LCD and tipped me towards the A7RV. And yes, the A7RV and anything with an interchangeable lens is a slightly different prospect, but still very realistic competitive options. I hope Lumix bring out something similar, - a rangefinderesque type body, either fixed lens or interchangeable because within L Mount we ‘only’ have manual focus M’s or e:shutter only FP/L’s and the massively expensive Q’s. S1Rii spec in an FP/Q3 body for around 3k? As long as they don’t do anything stupid like drop IBIS and preferably has the fully articulated LCD, done deal and dream camera for me.

This whole thing is a really silly take. I can absolutely afford the RX1R Mark III and I can also say it's too expensive and there's no way I'd buy it at that price. And being mentioned in the same sentence as the Q is not a win when the sentence is "this damn thing is nearly as expensive as the Q, but isn't even a Leica." Otherwise, Fuji could just kick up the price on the X Half to $6,500 and enjoy that sweet victory. Obviously some people are going to buy the RX1R III. That was never in doubt. There are always some people who will pay any price for something they want. That's not to say that it's priceworthy.

There is a tendency here to equate “I can’t afford it” or “it’s not what I need” or “I don’t like it” to “it’s too expensive” or “it’s useless” or “why?”. These are very different. This camera will sell - to those who can afford it and for whom it does what is wanted and who are attracted to the form factor, build and features. Notice how it is already being mentioned in the same sentence as the Q. That is already a win for Sony. Maybe not for “us” but I suspect that buyers are certainly out there. Including potential Q buyers. I’d have been a bit tempted but I’ve recently streamlined into a non-Sony system (more on this later when the rest of the new kit arrives!).

Canon's quietly building a full spectrum system: RF hybrids, Cinema EOS, bridging bodies like the R5C, and now smart hybrid lenses + the V line. Less hype, more ecosystem thinking. Nikon is I indeed in the strongest position since acquiring RED to really blow our socks off with whatever is coming. The one brand I’d like to see step up in video is Fuji. The XH2S was a strong start, would love to see that concept pushed further. I know they’ve got that Eterna GFX high end cine cam, but something in between would hit a sweet spot.

I quite like the FX2 myself and but for a couple of things, came close to buildings system around it, but when it came down to it, for my needs, L Mount just had more for me at this time. I’m pretty sure that by the end of the year they (Sony) will have redeemed themselves plus if Nikon make some of the rumored moves with RED as some expect, the momentum will shift once again, as it always does. Canon seem to be the quiet one right now…

I don't think neither this RX or FX2 is aimed at consumer mass. RX has always been compact premium even if you can now find the ageing models at bargain pricing. I think the negative reception is actually from seeing things in a vacuum of saturated camera releases. Not trying to defend Sony here, they are clearly stagnating with incremental releases and recycled tech.. and the pricing doesn't match the expectations. That said I think the online reception has been bit unfair with FX2 dismissing it completely because it crops 4K60p etc. Also strangely to me, the tilt EVF has been redeemed by some as useless! Oddly videographers and even photographers (including yourself I believe) have abandoned EVF shooting in favour of display shooting. To each their own and clearly that's become the norm maybe thanks to smartphone habits, but for me, and I guess I'm a minority, that tilt EVF is brilliant and something unique and missing in the mirrorless world. So for that alone I give Sony a round of applause. Now if they could gives us open gate, internal RAW etc across the FX line, now that would be serious game changer..

Like I said, that video won’t help you hit the celluloid film look you’re after. But it does help with visual language. The cinema refs aren’t about lenses or LUTs.. they’re about framing, rhythm, tone, and storytelling. For me, it’s not just about tricking the eye into thinking it’s film. It’s about intent behind the image and everything working together. Too many people today slap on a grain layer and think that’s the sauce. You can shoot dreamy bokeh with a vintage anamorphic and add film emulation, but without a clear perspective or thread, it can still feel hollow. The Gawx stuff works because it’s curated. A lot of it incorporates visual language of cinema. Now all that said, if you are only chasing the look, I saw he uses Film Vision Pro which many consider it the best current film emulation pipeline: Exactly, it works only because it’s a full on tribute to Fallen Angels. He’s borrowing the whole visual language: ultra wide handheld, pacing, colors, even the music. Sure, it’s a watered down version, but that’s kind of the point. You have to know the reference to really appreciate what’s going on otherwise it just looks like “cinematic” vibes.

Speaking of Q3's, there are 5x 28mm and 11x 43mm for sale on MPB.eu, so obviously a lot of folks have bought and off-loaded them. I *might* be tempted myself with a used 43 next season... I will have been in the industry 26 years and only owned one Leica, a crop TL and it stopped working so I sent it back for a refund, but the 43 ticks pretty much every box for me other than what it costs. I might just treat myself if I can make the business case for it stick...

Without being too flippant, tariffs etc aside, I wouldn't buy this new Sony at above 2.5k and even then, I'd rather have the older 'middle' one. Is anybody actually seriously interested in this camera? I know there are people out there, (about 3 of them), stating, "I don't want no stinking floppy screen or IBIS, just give me a photo camera", but surely even they, and dentists, will baulk at 5k for one of these? It's a tiny bit bigger and a little heavier, but a used Leica Q3 can be had for the same money. 8k, flip screen, IBIS, wider and faster lens, is a Leica not a Sony...

Yeah, I have a bunch of M42, but none wider than 28mm as it's all FF vintage. I'll grab some shots.