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Black market import shenanigans anyone? https://petapixel.com/2025/12/23/us-government-bans-new-dji-and-other-foreign-made-drones/

I think Lumix IBIS is the best, along with the original Olympus cameras. It depends on what you use it for but for me it has been the biggest change in how I use a camera over the last 10 years.

A timely piece as I’m looking to upgrade from my Fuji x-s20 in terms of bigger body, and I need better IBIS. Love the image but again hate the form factor and IBIS. Also have a 2019 6-core intel MBP so don’t need huge files or raw at the moment. Would the OG S5 offer me better ibis than my current kit? The thought of trying a GH5 is tempting as well as I would then probably have 500 I could spend on a couple nice primes, maybe more vintage glass.

Open gate for professional work is a real time saver. I had to film a series of interviews with football players for a bank here in Spain with was released in vertical and horizontal formats. 6K open gate gives so much flexibility. I vote for my Lumix S1ii as new camera of the year, for me at least. I think the Lumix S5 and S5ii are incredible bargains on the secondhand market.

@stephen Thanks for the heads-up on the iPhone raw Cinema DNG app. Is it by the same people (or associated) with Motion Cam? Phones are not meant to replace mirrorless cams for video, and the file sizes in the raw video apps are of course enormous. But you have to admit the image is rather lovely and it's fun to play with. I like that it is open gate with optional 18fps mode, you can get very close to a vintage super 8 look with that. Interested to compare it to Blackmagic Video app LOG in terms of the unprocessed look though.

I'm actually surprised there's not a camera with a vertical sensor yet, for portrait video seeing as it's basically the dominant social media format. No square sensor either. And if Open Gate didn't pretend to be for anamorphic shooters, it'd be 1:1 not 4:3!

Fair point.

Don't forget that there is a silent army of people who are making work for clients. I am in a number of private groups with professionals (shooting corporate, advertising/PR, etc) and things like open gate are absolutely critical for those amongst them doing commercial work. I thought that Cams video on open gate was actually really good and explained it well. Basically every camera argument is people saying "I definitely need the things I use, and no-one needs the things I don't use".

Absolutely. I am a huge proponent of doing tests. Pick a lens and go out and shoot with it for a day, edit, grade, and export it, then watch it over and over again for a week or so and see how it makes you feel. Do it again. Do it with a different camera. Do it with a different technique. Pick a sequence of 5 shots and then shoot that sequence with several lenses, edit the sequences together and then compare them. Shoot a latitude test (the same shot but with each at a different exposure) and then work out how to grade them in post to match the shots. This will check if you have your colour management setup correctly, and will also show you the limits of your camera. Take a series of shots and lower the saturation on all of them, and duplicate the shots many times in a timeline. Then test every method you can find to raise the saturation again, label and export them. Over a week or so look at them, compare them, see how each makes the footage feel, makes you feel. Take the same series of shots as above, but try every LUT, try every method to add contrast, every way to apply a tint, every way to change WB, every way to add a split tone, every way to sharpen, every way to soften, every way to grade. Test every look.. film emulation, VHS emulation, etc. Test every resolution. Every way to add grain. Every way to reduce noise. Every aspect ratio. The goal is to learn how to see.

shot this music video with it last year, although the band has decided to release it just now. i think it's pretty cool for how low budget it was

I think @MrSMWmeans the social media game. You can post all the content you want, but if you're not posting content in the way people want to view it (vertical) then you might as well not post it at all. The difference in viewership is massive, whether it's the algorithm simply not serving up non-vertical content or people just swipe away from it. If I can film something that can both be used for long form traditional content AND social media vertical content, then I definitely will prioritize cameras that allow me to do that. Open gate is very advantageous feature for those of us who have to create content for both.

What game, tho'?

Yeah, I hate having to do it but if you don't you're screwed. I really, really, hate it.

It has video. If you thought people got into a hate frenzy about the stills side, that’s mild compared to the video side.

Yep. Modern Panasonic full frame bodies make amazing super35 cams. I’d be interested in re-trying the S9 with the Sigma 18-35; found an EF lens adapter that does NOT force APSC mode….which means you can use e-stabilization high as a super 35 crop and get steady cam caliber stabilization while retaining the full Super35mm FOV…when I had the S9 I used a Viltrox adapter that forced the APSC crop with the sigma 18-35…so to use it on top of the e-stabilization high made the crop almost 2x MFT level…what’s crazy is the image was still very clean and detailed and lowlight was still good; noise was very organic and pleasing at high ISO even when cropped in so far. I only really disliked the build quality. That darn rear dial felt so flimsy. And hearing that they failed all the time…no thanks. I’ve pretty much settled at giving the Olympus EM1X a shot though; I believe the Metabones 0.71x does work with PDAF in video. I’ll be trying that first. EM1X + Sigma 18-35. If I hate it, maybe will get an S9 again. I’ll make a new thread with my thoughts when I get the camera. Gonna extensively test the 8 bit OMLOG400 as well as ProRes RAW to my Atomos Ninja v. So stoked to try this camera. Might be perfect for my needs. And seems build quality is apparently legendary top-tier on the EM1X. But yes, my Nikon Z6 OG as well as all of my F mount lenses and FTZ adapter were boxed and shipped to MPB the other day. Onto EM1X land.

Totally get where you’re coming from! Even a simple, consistent light source can make a huge difference for indoor shots. I haven’t tried the Zhiyun X200 myself, but from what I’ve seen, it’s mostly geared toward video, though the adjustable white light is useful for photos too. Most people I know keep it on white and only use RGB for creative effects. Honestly, for hobby shooting, I’d focus on getting consistent, soft light first and worry about fancy setups later—you can always layer in color later if you want.

I have my S1RII’s set up with: [4.7K] 4736x3552 (4:3) 50.00p, 300Mbps (4:2:0 10-bit LongGOP) (H.265/HEVC, LPCM) Why APSC when it’s a full-frame camera? INTERNAL zoom Sigma 17-40mm f1.8 which with the crop factor for APSC and for standard EIS, makes it a 28-66mm FF equivalent lens and all factors considered, this body with this lens, is a sweet spot for me; cost, size, weight, ergos, file sizes, quality, workflow/bake in my LUT, 1:2.4 pano crop for my films and 9:16 for my socials… The image out of the S1RII is superior to that of my S9 side by side when I shot them 6k. Every frame on a timeline, I can see which is which immediately. For me it’s camera of the year, no question.

Back then, (and for me still currently) open gate was all about anamorphic friendly aspect ratios and max image quality out of a small m43 sensor. Panasonic was competing with full frame options coming from the other companies and opening up the sensor and 5k resolution was a way to give people some pretty advanced features for 2017. but as usual with Lumix, people slept on all of these advanced features at the time. Back then if I needed a vertical content, I just turned my camera sideways. Honestly, all the stuff I shoot for social media doesn’t need 5K, 6K let alone even 4K resolution. Everything is compressed anyway so 1080 P has been fine.

Ok that is a fair point. And I do agree it’s useful. I briefly owned a LUMIX S9 and sold it for financial reasons. It was a bit of a weird setup cause I had a sigma 18-35 so I used it as an APSC camera. But the 3.3k 4:3 open gate mode plus aspect ratio markers I’ll admit was incredible. The Panasonic S9 is a pretty excellent faux-APSC camera.

Indeed. Attention spans get ever shorter and if you don’t play the game, you are not in the game. Whether you like playing said game is irrelevant, - just a necessary evil. Being able to make 2 forms of content relatively easily from one source is the quickest (and cheapest) way to achieving this and why Lumix cameras especially excel, - multiple frame markers. I have mine set up for 1:2.4 + 9:16 with a 75% blackout and it’s 👍👍

I don't wanna come off as defending the YouTubers BUT vertical video (shudder) was a lot less important in 2017. In 2026 it's super important. For those of us who release long form content, but also need to create reels/shorts from that same content, open gate is very important because people are more inclined to swipe away if content isn't vertical for reels and shorts. I hate it with every fiber of my being, but that's how a lot of people consume their content now.

This is a good idea. One thing that art school students get are assignments. This provides them with opportunities to explore things and learn from them. If someone isn't in art school (or film school or whatever) they can still give themselves assignments. Set parameters that they have to get creative within, do a series on a theme, etc.

It’s all about the interplay between light and shadow. By controlling the light you control the shadow. Particularly true for monochrome photography when you don’t have subtle tones of colour to rescue a picture.

So valid haha…and I remember 8 years ago not very many people even cared about the 5k open gate on the gh5. Now a camera is “so useless” if it doesn’t have what the gh5 has had for YEARS…the marketing agencies (oops I mean YouTubers) deem it necessary for clicks.

Yeah the file sizes are def an issue. Colour science is debatable.