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That ability to flip between stills and video is great…as long as you either: A. Don’t mind using an ND for stills. Personally I do mind. B. Or don’t mind cranking the shutter for video. Personally I don’t mind and last 3 weddings I shot with zero ND and did not notice any difference to the quality of the video other than the image quality was better than the previous 3 jobs shot with a VND. C. Or use a flip up or magnetic filter and I have tried both and didn’t care for either. I think one of the beauties of shooting video with the S1RII is base 200 ISO in log (and 160 with ARRI log C but personally think Vlog looks better most of the time bit could make a better base if also baking in a LUT) meaning less requirement for using ND anyway. I have however decided to go back to having separate bodies for stills and video because it just works better for me, with less kit, more range, near zero lens swaps. On that basis, I currently have one of my S1RII’s dedicated to stills with the 28-70 with hybrid zoom (28-105 and still achieving 18mp stills at the long end) enabled for outdoor use, with the 35mm f1.8 as my low-light indoor option. The second S1RII I bought used came with the Arri Log preinstalled and I have this one paired with the 17-40 crop lens (and with EIS enabled it’s giving me a FF equivalent range of approx 28-66) as my dedicated run & gun video unit, with 18mm f1.8 as my wide angle FF option, especially for indoor low light, tighter scenarios. S9 has had a stay of execution and I have welded the 85mm f1.8 to it and mounted it on a lightweight tripod as my sniper video unit, plus is serves as a back up to any or all of my 3 main cams. The 3rd main cam being the same S5II workhorse with the 70-200 f4 on heavy tripod for all my static and long form capture stuff. I also have the 50mm f1.8 in reserve for it for tighter, lower light, indoor scenarios, so all bases as covered as they can be. But going back to the video/stills settings, being able to have I think 9 dedicated stills settings and 9 video at the turn of a single dial is fantastic. I only have 4 settings set up and these are; outdoor landscape, outdoor people, indoor lower light and indoor/outdoor extreme low light as in after dark, each with appropriate ISO ranges and WB etc. It’s crazy really how good this kit now is and the S1RII might not be my favourite camera of all time, but it is easily the most capable and zero complaints other than yes, I would have preferred the more rangefinderesque body style (and hope Panny makes one or at least a Leica Q3 43 rival) and average at best battery life. And obviously, the 4” screen a la ZR would be very welcome, but I’d personally want it with the S1RII style mech and not flipped out to the side. I’d prefer just tilt even to flip out to the side! Best video quality I have had out of a camera and it’s pretty robust with equal image quality to the best I have ever had which was Sony A7RV. As a pure stills camera, I think the A7RV does still have the edge being honest, but it’s a narrow margin and as a hybrid, the LUMIX comfortably tops it. Not updated the firmware yet but that was very welcome. I hope your shoot goes as well tomorrow.

Must not be true then!

And your prediction is correct! A huge difference in responsiveness in general and so much easier to use when switching between video and photo. I felt it worked a lot better with my Godox flash as well (I’m still pretty new to flash). I feel I have way more “keepers”. The screen and evf are great. I had it on for 5 hours pretty much non stop with no problem although it was probably only about 20 degrees in the venue. Tomorrow I have another similar event (video and photo) and on Saturday anther event with photos only. I think they are going to be a lot easier to manage than they would have been with the S5ii. I would probably have had 2 S5iis, 1for doing photo and 1 for video. Now I can do the same with one camera!

Pretty sure pre-recording does not cover a minute or two longer periods and it probably needs someone to press the shutter or record button before action starts. Nikon has this auto capture, that would be a better solution if it works reliably and starts when subject enters the frame as configured in the settings and stops too. Still, in certain sports you need to start the camera well before execution, and not worry what it is doing, if you want to be able to perform.

The screen is the gateway drug. I am much weaker than @BTM_Pix and after handling one briefly for 15 minutes ordered it 3 days later. It's coming tomorrow. I'm not bothered by the "lackluster" DR results or anything. I also bought it in hopes the firmware updates will add even more value, which is a big no-no but I heard ProRes LT is confirmed coming.

Or you have pre-recording 😙

Maybe, but if you happen to shoot a lot outside during nice sunset light and with a beautiful view behind where the action happens why on earth would you shoot only h.265, especially with the ZR, if you can shoot R3D NE or Nraw and be happy about the small IQ and ease of color grading improvements. This shooting being just a hobby to me that I can combine with other hobbies even small IQ improvements are worth it, if it makes you spend more time with the hobbies and be happier what you manage to capture. With Pana’s over sharpened h.265 it became more like set the camera and forget, and I had not that much interest chenking the captured footage nor edit it. But you do what suits you the best.

A compressed format seems a lot more appropriate for that use case than raw.

Wow, I'm part of a bunch of Sony communities, and I've never seen any complaints about this kind of issue. Especially SAR, where they nitpick every single last possible (and impossible) thing.

My prediction is it will and it is a step up from the S5II. I’d also choose lens but Sigma 28-70 will soldier on for now as I prefer 28 over 24 personally and 70 over 60, but the Lumix 24-60 is probably the better lens now.

So…after the new firmware was announced I bought a S1ii. I was originally looking at the S1iie but after getting another couple of unexpected jobs before the end of the year I decided to stretch the budget a bit. The reasons are mainly to do with ergonomics, making jobs easier and 4k 50p full frame. I have more and more events where I’m asked to do video and photo. I found the S5ii a little frustrating when trying to jump from video to photo and back again. I’m hoping the dedicated video/photo switch and separate settings will make these events flow a bit better rather than being slowed down when readjusting settings. Same goes for FF 50p, no need to adjust for crop. I’ll be getting the 24-60 2.8 when it’s in stock (at pack price with camera) and selling the Sigma 28-70 2.8. It’s a great lens but I prefer 24 to 28. It’s more practical for the work I do. I’ll also sell one of my S5iis. After reclaiming the vat it’ll be about a 1300-1500 expense including CFexpress cards and reader. First job today, video and photos. Hopefully it lives up to my expectations!

Well, if you do fast sports alone and want to capture the certain moment in slow mo when it happens if it happens at all, the only way is to set the camera to tripod, hit record and go do the sports you do. Then you trim and save only that special moment, not the whole clip. Oh wait, with R3D NE you can’t do that at the moment🤯

You won’t be buying tickets to my new feature, ‘Escargot!’ then will you?! It’s a 5 hour documentary about the life of garden snails in rural France and with every ticket sold you, you get a free lettuce.

I have a rather nice Nikon Zf but you've probably already found one for 6 quid in Japan!

I have never understood why someone would shoot a 30 minute continuous take at 120fps. It's absolutely fucking bonkers. 120fps is for slow mo. If you slowed-down an hour long continuous take from 120fps to the cinema standard of 24p, it would last for 5 hours. Who the fuck is sitting through that?

I'd argue it is the MOST important because without the camera, you don't have a picture. It is the small differences between the latest sensors and codecs that's the unimportant thing. In cinematography, our job isn't to worry about the costumes or set pieces, that's the job of someone else. So lighting and camera are the most important for a DP. What has happened is the gap between the top-end i.e. ARRI and the cheap stuff has closed up. This has been going on ever since the start of the DSLR revolution so it's not a new thing but there's never been a smaller gap that exists now, for example between something like the Alexa 35 and a $1000 used Panasonic S1H. By the way although Magellan has beautiful content and really nice camera-work, the sharpness of it and the deep DOF isn't everybody's cup of tea. It does look a bit too soap opera in parts of that trailer, I think. It looks very different to an IMAX shot film. So there's big differences between formats and lenses still... The same cinema focal length for example on 16mm has always looked vastly different to same on IMAX or large format. Also there are big differences in grading style, camera movement style, and so on. I think most relevant for us is that you don't need to make a massive rig any more to get good results. It's horrible having the weight as a one-man DP. Probably why they used such a small camera on this.

And while it's not nearly as ridiculous as the EOS R5's overheating problems that were almost entirely caused by the Canon 🔨, when you bring out an S1R on any number of shoots for a long time, someone's bound to start going on about how it overheats. I still get that when I bring out my R5 for slider shots/suction cupping to windshields/etc. "Aren't you worried that's gonna overheat? I heard that camera overheats a lot." "They corrected most of that a while ago and I'm pretty sure it'll make it through this 45 second take, regardless."

Now that many of the overheating problems are fixed, I can't wait to see all the videos saying Panasonic has fixed the issues. Oh wait, that might not attract the views.

Yes, long story short. the right tool for the job. I am a wildlife enthusiast and despite being an amateur, I find myself facing "on a small scale" the challenges I see in blue-chip productions, and there I realize how truly fundamental the equipment is in these situations. A true watershed between getting the shot and not getting it. For a project on the marine fauna of the sand, I spent hours filming various types of mollusks burying themselves. I have a rebreather and therefore no time limit underwater. But the camera in an underwater housing does not have a V-mount battery (unless you have a RED with a 30K euro housing) and therefore you have battery limits. A clam took an hour and a half before burying itself, and I had to film the initial moment. It took me 3 hours and two dives before succeeding. Dives in which I filmed and every minute I stopped and started again. A couple of times that damn clam buried itself while I was stopping and restarting the recording. The same thing happened while waiting for a crab to eat a fish. I cursed because my GH5M2 does not have the pre-recording function (the GH6 has it and the GH7 does not). I thus discovered that the pre-recording function is one of the most useful functions for those who do wildlife. A practically mandatory choice if you shoot in RAW and fill memory cards in a few minutes.

One of the best channels on YouTube in this industry. Thorough, no hype and do actually make quality productions out in the field and not simply spout BS from behind a desk, holding a lav mic wearing clothing back to front.

The probability that Sony answers your question is near zero, but if enough people send emails, maybe they release a lame corporate response. Have you seen those TikTok videos the guy ask his fellow mechanics in their shop "which car brand you would never buy?" and all of them say Audi/BMW? Similar thing exists in camera repair community and they would say Sony.

Just got one in San Diego for $300'ish, so always keep looking, you never know what'll pop up.

Hang on, if we have that coffee next week I’m not obliged to buy a camera off you am I? You’re not turning Costa into some sort of camera Herbalife recruitment centre are you?

New blog post: https://www.eoshd.com/news/thousands-of-sony-cameras-are-mysteriously-failing-but-sony-isnt-telling/

I'll return to Lubezki's work. Feeling the same vibes. The stuff he does with Cuarón, and overall in general I guess, really nurture the deep dof. Here's a film he shot in my back yard. I can literally see the location from my office -- which I still get a kick out of being able to 'name-drop' As an indy documentarian, I gotta say, I can't really get completely behind this notion, but I do think I know what you're getting at and why useage-context with a camera is important. I just came off a project where the cinematographer was leaving an insane amount of shots and potential in the field. Why? He was trying to wield a bunch of large production shit on an full-fledged ARRI set up rather than just shooting good extensive coverage with a small simple rig. Yes, sometimes what he got looks great. But, trust me, what he missed (and missed often) had better potential. You can chalk some of it to him not being that spry anymore ... which to me would demand you go light and small to mitigate that, but he is definitely a boy-with-his-toys kind of guy rather than a remarkable creative. Wants to have the best most powerful super car, even if he can't drive it, y'know? Anyway, IQ superior? Yes. Practicality? Debatable. Which, coincidentally, practicality is the DP's argument for the GH7 and a 12mm lens on this Magellan movie. I kind of like the 'too-much-grain' treatment, but, yeah, it's a choice. Damn. I'm rambling. Too much wine tonight.