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If I were the modern day Chris and Jordan in a camera store somewhere I would try and explain it like this... Buy the S5 II as it's cheapest, unless you need a few extra video features, which I'll explain in a moment. But if you're a photographer, get that, it's definitely cheapest. Unless you compare it to the Canon R8, Nikon Z6 II, Sony a7c, or wait actually I forgot the S9... That is the cheapest for photographers, except not if you are a photographer that needs to look through an EVF or wants a mechanical shutter. I'll explain what that does in a moment. But first, you say you're actually quite interested in video, so I'd recommend the S1 IIE instead, as the S5 II is already made obsolete by it, so pay the extra for the E version and you will get... erm... An E on the badge. Also are you sure you don't want to go all the way out to $3500 for the S1 II, yes that is $1000 more than a Z6 III for the same sensor and no N-RAW, worse body design, but it is the best Panasonic... for video... I think... At least for a month or 2 before the S1H II might come out, or it might not... Oh shit, we're forgetting the S1R II. That does 8K open gate now, they just gave it a firmware update. Hey, Johnny where're you're going... Come back Johnny! HEY! STAY AWAY FROM THAT CANON EOS R5 II FFS!

They must have needed to buy that 24 megapixel sensor in such large quantities, the 7 different models were a necessity. And by the time the year is out, it might turn into 10!

https://www.eoshd.com/news/what-to-expect-from-nikons-first-red-mirrorless-camera-the-nikon-zr/ Finally a larger than 3.5" screen on a mirrorless camera? Sign me up If they bring the RED Motion Mount technology to it, then sign me up for 2!

An EVF less Z30 with a big screen sounds very much like one of these to me.

You might want to have a look at the Xreal range https://www.xreal.com

Hi Andrew exciting to see you have the x14u as well! I've started writing a Xiaomi 14 Ultra mod guide to maximize its MotionCam Raw Video potential. It's far from complete yet (still many questions unanswered xD) so all input is welcome 🙂. P.S. I've been reading your blog posts since forever and read new articles the same day they're posted. But I don't look in the forums that much, found this thread by coincidence. Would love to one day read a full blog post, featured on the front page, about your experience and experiments with the x14u! 😁

About at 16:50

I'll have to take a look at that!

I don't know anything but in the last Media division S1 II review they showed a goggles linked to the camera used as a monitor or something like that.

Last night I (solipsistically) spent a while watching my own videos via our Quest 3 VR goggles in 'cinema mode' and I must admit, seeing things on a virtual 20 foot screen certainly makes them look better! Any other forum users been doing this? But it got me to thinking - a great use of this technology would be if you could link it in to a Teradeck or whatever so that Directors and DPs could see, in real time, how a given scene or shot will look on the big screen. Is anyone doing this, or am I being silly?

Make that seven if you live in Europe with the S5D.

when’s the last time you’ve shot or made one? this comes off as jealousy that you couldn’t maintain your position as a reviewer-influencer.

Thom Hogan: "Nowhere in Panasonic's press releases or marketing information I've seen so far do they actually seem to know how to market their six different 24mp cameras (S1II, S1IIE, S5II, S5IIX, S9, and BS1H). In the S1IIE features list the sensor is listed as "inspired by the performance characteristics of the Lumix S5II," which tells you nothing. Those of us in the press these days are dealing with AI driven press releases, but I'm failing to even see the I in Panasonic's. Nothing tells me which 24mp camera to buy, let alone why I should buy it instead of Canon's, Nikon's, or Sony's. This feels like "stuff the channel and see if it sells" product management, not clear, user centric marketing."

If Prores Raw HQ at it’s highest bitrate on S1II is 4200Mbps and Panny H.265 is 200-300Mbps Prores Raw takes about 21-14x more space to get rid of the NR. 6k50p N-Raw normal takes only 7,8-5,2x more space and still your SDDs can feel it. 1,5TB of N-Raw footage would be only 192-288GB in H.265.

from Nikon Rumors: Brick-shaped, video-oriented design, without pentaprism and EVF – a combination of the current RED models design, the Sony FX3, and the Nikon Z30 Many features and tech from RED will be incorporated inside (not a new RED camera with Z-mount – we already got that) Z6 III sensor inside Very large LCD screen The official announcement is expected later this year, most likely in the third or fourth quarter of 2025 I don't know what Frankenstein of a brick body would be the combination of RED/FX3/Z30, but "very large" LCD gives hope its a bit different from whats already available in the market.

Well they are gonna increase the price in general soon, maybe FX2 has taken the tariff in as account. https://photorumors.com/2025/05/15/significant-sony-price-increase-coming-on-may-19th/

I would prefer to have it if I could for the few times I would like to be able to do 50% slow motion, but that option alone is not worth the compromise for me having to go back to a much larger and heavier camera over my S9. Instead I accept the crop factor involved and have it on the mode dial rather than a default shooting option.

Same as with all other natural disasters such as the Icelandic ash cloud for instance. Folks were trapped and wanted to get home so all public transport, car hire, hotels, you name it but if they could, raised prices astronomically in order to milk that cow whilst she could still moo 🐮 And then what tends to happen is when the crisis is over/the tarrifs have been lowered or even dropped, prices remain disproportionately higher than they previously were and because folks carry on paying them because they are either too lazy not to or because they feel they have no choice, inflation.

As did Lumix for the S1R.

Must say, my A7CII is maybe my favorite camera i've ever used. It checks every box repeatedly.

Gotta squeeze the last juice out of the fruit. There are a lot of FX3 users itching to buy a new camera, and either the FX3II isn't coming soon or they plan to raise the price significantly.

Pyxis also does 72p open gate for not a lot more - though it can only do open gate 72p at 8K, 12k is limited to a mere 40. And the UC12K does 12k open gate at 80fps and 8k at 144fps. Komodo-X also does open gate at 80fps, though open gate on K-X is 17:9. All of those cameras support those framerates in raw. I think the S1 II can only do it in 10-bit or less formats, right? Not a deal-breaker, but another limitation. I don't know why anybody acts like shooting high FPS open gate is a hugely exciting feature, though. Is shooting slow motion 3:2 really a huge use case? For the sort of stuff that I shoot, we're usually delivering in scope and overcranking done rarely at best.

... and Black Magic seem to be able to source sensors from Fairchild. And Red from Towerjazz (or at least they did once?). Even if those are exclusive contracts, there are plenty of others able to make image sensors. https://us.metoree.com/categories/image-sensor/ At least in the case of BMD and Red, that also means that they have sensors that are a lot more interesting than others - with Red having a global shutter with similar DR performance (or superior in the case of V-Raptor) to non-global shutters used in most mirrorless cameras. And in the case of BMD, the RGBW sensor in the UC12K and Pyxis is fantastic and a great differentiator vs Sony's offerings. The catch is that there's a big upfront cost in development of those or other sensors and Panasonic are unlikely to invest that - instead focusing on extracting money from customers who are locked in to their mount and from technology licensing deals with Leica.

Except they made a sensor https://petapixel.com/2024/03/11/panasonics-organic-sensor-may-be-complete-but-likely-wont-be-used/

I think the problem with Panasonic is that they do not have much in the way of leverage for semiconductor/image sensors. Sony dominates image sensor market, Canon produces their own sensors/lithography equipment, Nikon is second to only ASML for lithography, Fuji has patents dating back to film. Meanwhile Panasonic is better known for making TVs or batteries.