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I know why moiré and aliasing occurs and of course there are differences but as someone who has had important shots ruined by it and a as someone with a heavy addiction I’ve owned and tested more cameras than what is considered to be sane. And I can tell you this: a good olpf clearly makes a whole lot of difference both with regards to moiré suppression and the texture of details in the image. Canon R5(c) and the Sony A9iii has stood out to me when it comes to this. The whole A9-series have very good OLPFs and the latest iteration is no exception. Canon usually does well in the cinema department too and the perfect downscaled 8K to 4K and an OLPF is very effective on the R5-series. There is a reason the Sony Venice and the Alexas have dedicated teams who only work on producing the most effective OLPF possible.

At the start of this Canadian video somebody says that although Panasonic paid for their hotel, travel and lunch, and that they rubbed shoulders with Panasonic people and consider them friends, that definitely in no way influences the positive opinions they have about Panasonic's products, which is nicely convenient, imagine how embarrassing it would be otherwise. No matter which way the client YouTubers spin it, the S1 II price is too high and it is being released at least 2 years too late (and that is being kind, as the original was a 2018 launch). My problem with it is not the extensive feature set and specs, it's that huge 7 year gap and the pricing strategy, along with the rest of the product strategy which is batshit crazy, and I put my money where my mouth is by refusing the invite by Panasonic to go and praise it along with a bunch of client social media click weasels. There are so many similar options with better lens mounts to choose from now. And the complexity is not always a good thing. Look at how much more fun the Sigma Bf is or the minimalist Leica approach. Had the S1 II been 2.5k and the year was 2022... Sign me up. But as it is, I am going to pass. May get an S9 again though as it's now under a grand, it's a fun toy. With regards to the 51st state of shilling, if you just ignore the impact this is having on independent media, the non-embargoed opinions and journalism as a whole, then it's a perfectly mediocre review that can fit on a single side of a4. If you get big picture though, it's near enough fascism. An entire media platform singing in tune under a corporate embargo. Charlie Brooker should make a Black Mirror episode out of it. I might write one myself. It would be far more enjoyable than making your average 2025 camera 'review'.

The 51st state of American YouTube

I don't know about the S1II, but owning the S1RII, the mushy fine details and chroma NR are still there. Only the sharpening has been decreased a bit when using the 709 profiles. Prores Raw is better and has nicer fine details, almost as good as on the S1 and S5 H264/H265, but it's not a replacement for me as it is cropped (on the S1RII), the files are huge, there is no lens correction (as opposed to N-raw) and there are sometimes some black/colored pixels I can see when cropping inside the footage. This is something the Panasonic ambassadors will never speak about. About dynamic range I really wonder if there is a real difference between the S1II (without DR Boost) and the Z6III, because Gerald Undone only tested the DR of the Z6III raw video but not the S1II (he only tested Prores HQ and not Prores Raw). It seems nobody want to test the internal raw video mode on the S1II, I understand Prores Raw is not supported by Resolve, but still ... It could be a good indicator of the real performance of both cameras as there is almost always backed in NR without raw.

I can speak to Resolve, but I'm sure that other editors can do it too. For something like the above, set your timeline to a 16:9 aspect ratio. Import your footage and set the pixel aspect ratio to 1.33, 1.5, 1.6, 2.0, etc. Then in project settings, go to the image scaling tab. I believe you'd use "scale entire image to fit." Then you should have what you're looking for - output with black bars at the top and bottom where you can write things.

Kofi can be a little annoying, but I think this is quite a nuanced review. Near the end he mentions that, without mentioning these new bodies, he asked on social media what price people thought the next FX3 should attract if [list of S1II features] were added and all the responses were well above the actaul price of these new Lumixes. Anyway...

While I agree with most of the criticisms of Panasonic's marketing, as far as pricing goes I feel they may be getting treated a bit harshly. The S1 launched at $2500 in 2019; with inflation that's about $3150 in today's money. So not really much of a price increase, although of course overall wages have not kept up with inflation, rates on video jobs are always being squeezed, etc. Then there's the US tariff fiasco to take into account, that has to be affecting the pricing somewhat. I bet in a year's time when the counterpart models from the other brands are out that their pricing will be similar because they're dealing with the same fees and uncertainty. Not entirely fair to compare the pricing of one of the first cameras to come out post-tariff-ridiculousness with that of models from before. The S1ii is in at least one way very similar to its predecessor, which was also using a newish Sony sensor that had debuted the year before (IMX410 in the A7iii), but did an arguably better job with it than Sony did.

They could got a flood of new customers just bringing the camera that all non-professional customers are looking now: a compact stylish camera. Basically, a FF GX9. They launched it, but without EVF, hotshoe, mechanical shutter and proper controls. And the worst kit lens ever made. I know, they want to get in the video creator bandwagon, but was a niche product.

I don't see why an FX3 would even enter the conversation with a S1ii- one is a hybrid, the other not. No one would seriously take photos professionally with an FX3; they would with the S1ii.

No kidding. Let's also remember that all their L-mount lenses have breathing compensation built in. Also, many of their lenses are rather inexpensive, representing very good value. Even with a "high" priced body, it'll still be competitive with the lenses factored in.

Not FX3II consider they just released in FX3A, the next Sony release is the camera with tilt EVF

Maybe they went with that old fashioned notion of believing that the actual President of the United States wouldn't say that Canada is the 51st state unless it had any basis in reality whatsoever. Schoolboy error that one.

And, as Sham 69 once said... 'urry up 'arry.

'Arry Log would definitely be played by Alan Ford.

Call it 'Arry Log

What I haven't seen yet is a bundle price with the new lens.

Another question for those who know more than me.. If i make an anamorphic video, is there a way to add text to the black portions at the top or bottom of an anamorphic video when creating a video. It seems to me thats a bit of wasted space and I'm interested in doing something creative within that space. I can reimport the video quite easily and add the text. However i wonder about the quality drop when re rendering. From what i understand i don't think it can be done when the video is created. There's a chance i'm wrong however so i thought i'd ask the question.

I suppose it will depend on the Sony's price. Normally they are a fair bit higher. The FX3 was 4700€ (although it came with the XLR mount). The Lumix comparable XLR mount (not 32bit) is around 400€ new. So we'd still see an 800€ or so difference.

I was only saying it to emphasize the fact that Panasonic truly seems to have a curse that haunts them, or simply the incompetence of their own executives. The timing and manner of presentation of their products are the worst that has ever been seen in industrial history. As soon as the FX3 Mark II comes out, the used market will be flooded, and it's likely that in the following months the same fate will befall its APS-C sibling, the FX30.

Exactly rhe motto I cited few pages ago: when in trouble, go big! The responsibility doesn't lie with the engineers, but with the executives and the marketing/sales department.

I’m still interested! simon@firehorsephotography.co.uk if you need my email.

Not interested! All of these current and recent models can do everything I need them to do and my only interest now is how compact a total kit I can make and do so at the lowest possible cost without sacrificing anything.

An FX3II or something is expected in the next few weeks so Pana will be again one step behind.

Here is the summary: give Panasonic engineers a random sensor, and they give you the most video featured camera around that sensor that you could imagine. The problem is 1. Nobody gives them the state of the art sensor (or they don't like to pay high price) 2. They're asked to repeat themselves for similar sensor/bodies with overlapping customer target. 3. What they do is attractive for niche part of the hybrid market and not enough to absorb new customers. 4. "Similar offering to big three but at cheaper price" could kick the can down the road for a while, but even that strategy is no more with these prices. 5. When a market is saturated, and there are big players in that saturated market, the only way to survive is to be bold and different. Just like what Chinese discovered in the lens market, and so we're seeing 15mm macro!

I will wait too. The S1ii extra DR sounds nice, but not at the expence of overly sharp details with too much baked in NR. If the PRRaw is the only option to get rid of this with S1ii, Z6iii and N-Raw is the better option, as it works with Resolve and file sizes are less than half of PRRaw. After Z6iii got the latest 1.10 firmware update, there’s not much to complain about the Z6iii IQ in shadows, no need to use NR any more, unless you need to lift shadows over 1 or 2 stops. Could be the 135mm 1.8 Plena is doing it’s magic too in low light. After 2.5 months shooting only N-Raw with normal quality I’ve got 1.5TB of footage. With PRRaw that would be over 3TB, and with H.265 only around 300GB🤪