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Official review, mentioned in another thread, it’s fucking awesome. I didn’t expect to like it as much as I do, but actually… So the OG S5 I really liked and I switched from Fuji for video and stills because I wanted a full frame system over a cropped one. For a while, I actually carried on shooting a ‘cropped system’ for video because the 4k 50p in the S5/S1H/S5ii is of course cropped, so it was more for the stills I wanted full frame. My overall feeling at the time was it was a marginal step up, but nothing anyone else would really notice. Bought a pair of S1R’s and whilst the image quality could not be questioned, did not care for the body too much and it was just a bit old school DSLR and too different from the S5 and S1H. Bought an S1H for video. Stellar camera. Would still be using it today if it just had a couple of features the S5ii has. But it doesn’t so had to eventually go. S5ii’s became my video workhorses and can’t really fault them but hated them for stills, especially coming from S1R and S1H which were MUCH better IMO as photo cameras. S9. Bought it. Sold it. Bought it back again. Love it, - my favourite run & gun video camera ever. Yes I have a few niggles with it such as it’s too easy to knock the dials etc and when I thought I was shooting 1/100th notice I am shooting 1/80th or 1/160th from time to time and aaaargh. I need to look at maybe even just a small bit of tape or something to prevent that. S1Rii vs Sony A7RV and Nikon Zf, because it has replaced both of those cameras. Vs the A7RV I’d say it’s about equal. Near identical sized and handling bodies, build, rear LCD’s etc with zero real world image quality difference. The Sony is a touch better in the AF department but not by much. Vs the Zf, the Zf is more ‘fun’ and my favourites point & shoot camera ever and again, very little real world image quality or AF difference, but the Lumix is a better lens platform and as a single body over a pair, it’s very very good. Pros: Size, weight, handling, build, image quality, hybrid crop zoom. Cons: I honestly haven’t really got any. I was hoping originally for the sensor from the Leica SL3 and a mini S1H body and whilst we did not get the former, I’m over that and re. the latter, it actually has that vibe. I had a few minor niggles first job I shot it, but then realised I had missed a few things on the set up so tweaked those areas for the job I am currently working on. What’s missing and any other comments? Well as above, hated the 28-200 zoom and it’s going back. I prefer primes but recognise they are not always practical for what I do or shorter zooms, preferably with internal zooming (or at least very short extension) are my preference. And do not care for slow, variable aperture lenses. So it’s going back and getting the lens that I know will work for me and that is the Sigma 28-45mm f1.8. What is missing for me now is just one more lens, a same size but longer focal length to the above lens, ie, something like a 45-90 f1.8 internal zoom. Please Sigma, make this lens 🙏 But for now, I will have to make do with hybrid zoom which is a bit of a revelation to me. It’s a massive thumbs up from me and now having 1 less camera, 3 less lenses and everything in one system, just a much better way of working.

There is a time for a clean aesthetic. There is a time for a more timeless more filmic aesthetic. There are times for a far grittier aesthetic too. Those who have been following my other thread will know I've mostly got my travel / walk-around AF setup nailed. (GH7 and GX85 bodies combined with the 14-140mm zoom, 12-35mm F2.8 zoom, 9mm F1.7, and 14mm F2.5 pancake lens) This setup will give a relatively clean starting point which can be graded to create a pretty wide range of looks. However, not everything can be achieved in post. I have also collected a bunch of modern MF lenses and vintage lenses over the years and these might be useful in creating other looks that I can't do in post with the above kit. So I'm trying to work out if I should just archive them or if they're still good for anything I want to do, and if so, what might that be? I've looked through my continually growing collection of lens comparisons, but found nothing conclusive. Thus begins a moderately sized lens / camera test... The setups included in the test are below. The details in brackets are the FF equivalents. OG BMPCC + 12-35mm F2.8 (35-100mm F8.0) This setup is included as I think it will be a reference for the rest of the setups (at worst) and might end up becoming part of my standard kit (at best). GF3 + 15mm F8 (30mm F16) This setup is included as it's essentially a modern Super-8mm camera, and considering it is absolutely tiny and takes the same batteries as the GX85 it's almost inconsequential to bring on a trip. GX85 with: Modern: Panasonic 12-35mm F2.8 (24-70mm F5.6) Modern: Panasonic 14mm F2.5 (28mm F5) Modern: Panasonic 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 (28-84mm F7.0-11.2) Modern MF: TTartisans 17mm F1.4 (34mm F2.8) Vintage: Cosmicar 12.5mm F1.9 SB (36mm F5.5) Modern MF: Voigtlander 17.5mm F0.95 (35mm F1.9) Vintage: SB + Yashica 28mm F2.8 (40mm F4.0) Vintage: SB + Tokina 28-70mm F3.5-4.5 (40-100mm F5.0-6.4) Vintage: SB + Takumar 35mm F3.5 (50mm F5) Vintage: SB + Mir-1B 37mm F2.8 (53mm F4) Vintage: SB + Takumar 55mm F1.8 (78mm F2.6) Vintage: SB + Helios 44M 58mm F2.0 (82mm F2.8) Modern MF: Voigtländer 42.5mm f0.95 (85mm F1.9) Modern MF: TTartisans 50mm f1.2 (100mm F2.4) I haven't included all my lenses, but the ones I have omitted have been included in other tests previously and are broadly similar to ones I have included, so if they become interesting as a result of this test I have some more reference materials. I watched a doco on Netflix the other day called Attack on London, and was really inspired by the look of the 'recreation' images they have obviously filmed for the doc, and seem to have used one of the filthiest anamorphic lenses around (and potentially added more dirt in post as well). Here are some screenshots.. These might not have been streamed at the highest bitrate available, but I don't care - they look great and have so much texture and feel. This isn't the exact aesthetic I'm going for, but it's one that I saw recently that has a lot of texture and FEEL. My hope is to work out what the ingredients are to getting this kind of feel and then work out when I would want it and then work backwards to what equipment and processes I'd use to get it. My initial impressions (guesses) are that the ingredients are: shallower DoF lower levels of sharpness decent amounts of grain film colours (especially having a tint and having subtractive sat) The above images have more elements to them than this, but I don't care much for things like CA etc, so I don't think they're part of the minimum required elements. I plan to shoot comparisons with the setups above in a range of different scenarios and then see what I can see, before moving onto the post workflows and what role those play.

It's arrived. First impressions = impressed. Feels like a very slightly chunkier S5ii and as it is taking over from a Sony A7RV (and a Nikon Zf), that is no bad thing. When it was first announced, I was disappointed on two counts... Count 01 = the body, - it was and is not a mini S1H. No top dial for one thing. Boo! Count 02 = it didn't have and still doesn't have the 61mp sensor from the A7RV/Leica SL3. Boo. Initially boo anyway. Count 03 = I am The Count and I like to count ha ha ha. (Bonus Count) But over time, these two 'issues' have become non-issues for me. The body first. Yes, I would rather it had the top LCD and was it's own design, but they have addressed my criticisms of the OG S5 and S5ii which were less than great rear LCD and horrible clacky shutter. It does have a sort of mini S1H feel, despite the lack of a top LCD. Summary, in reality, in the hand, I genuinely like it and everything works exactly or at least very similar to, how I am used to with the S5ii's, but just better. And the 44mp sensor over the 61mp? Came to the conclusion that 61mp was overkill anyway and was always shooting in 26mp mode so with the new Panny, I will actually be shooting in a higher resolution. Most importantly of all though, this has been an exercise in both downsizing my overall kit; this year from 5 bodies and 9 lenses to 4 bodies and 7 lenses, and then in 2026 (or poss later this Summer) from 7 down to 6 lenses. And all 4 cameras with the same batteries, menus and very close manual controls. Setting it up now for stills duty across 5 days from the end of this week and then it will also be on hybrid duty from mid Aug. Looking forward to pulling some 7.2...1k frame grabs.

99% of the people on YouTube cannot be called 'creators' unless the word is applied after the word 'content' and that followed with, 'for the sake of' and more often than not, proceeded by the word 'banal'. An endless stream of copycats with very little originality. It does exist (originality) but there isn't very much.

It's been a while since I've been able to work on any kind of movie, but here are some recent landscapes photos. I'm not doing anything artistic, just trying to capture some of my favorite places the way they felt at the time. The only edits are very slight changes to saturation and exposure. 90% of my photos are from 10+ mile hikes so I only bring my lightweight 28mm and a CPL, but in this group is a rare photo taken from the roadside using a 24-105.

@Tulpa If you are buying from scratch and don't have a lot of lenses etc in a particular format that you want/need to use then I'd be looking at this camera too. It is smaller and lighter than even the very compact GX-80/85. Compared to the bigger MFT offerings in the G and GH series then it is even more of a stark difference in form factor but it is also dramatically cheaper. Video specs, it shoots 4:2:2 10-Bit and has the open gate mode which for this sort of expedition might well be beneficial to you as you can more easily reformat the footage in different aspect ratios for social media etc. It has the colour profiles for ease of use but it also shoots in both flavours of F-Log so you can roll your own look. Lens wise, it has not only got a huge back catalogue of native lenses (a lot of which have stabilisation) and are plentiful on the used market but it also has a lot of fast compact 3rd party lenses like Viltrox which are available at the sort of prices we all remember MFT lenses being back in the day ! Obviously, it has the larger sensor too.... The "downsides" would be considered to be the lack of IBIS and having what appears to be a vague degree of weather resistance - I couldn't find any definitive answers on that one. The lack of IBIS may well actually prove to be a blessing in disguise if the camera is going to spend any amount of time on the handlebars while you traverse over what for large chunks of the journey will be less than smooth surfaces. Wear and tear over three years will be bad enough without throwing the fragile mechanisms into the mix. There is a reason why shows such as Top Gear went with the IBIS-less GH5s (although I'm not sure if the story of show wanting to use the GH5 minus it was actually the trigger for Panasonic to make that version is apocryphal or not). Whatever way you go, I'd spend some research time on the best shock mounting options as it will be a point of failure for any camera that you go with over that period of time. As for the weather sealing... Back in the dark distant past when I was a professional sports photographer using battleships like the D3/D4/D5 etc they could take a hammering but as soon as the rain/sleet/snow became a bit too much none of us were taking that chance that they were immune to it so out would come the covers for both the bodies and the lenses. Think Tank make good ones but they are all designed for bigger cameras rather than the X-M5 so on a more prosaic level, these are cheap and cheerful at less than £11 for a pack of four and won't take up much space. On a trip like this when you are likely going to encounter very real weather, I wouldn't take any chances with the weather sealing rating vague or otherwise of smaller cameras.

OK, decision made, flipping the S9 and an S5ii plus a lens, for a second S1RII, - it's worth it to me. 4 bodies down to 3 from what was 5 at the start of the year. 9 lenses down to 6, down to 5. I'm hoping to get that down to 3 at some point in the near future... 3 camera brands down to 1 (already happened)...but need more batteries because this S1RII is a power hog. I'm one of those that normally scoffs at folks reporting crap battery life and can normally exceed the official numbers by a factor of around 3, but with the S1RII, only by about 1.5. I now have 12 batteries and have 2 on charge at all times and as soon as Llano have the Lumix battery charger with built in power bank available, will have one of those in my bag. But the power issue aside, I think it's a bit of a no-brainer to me and really it comes down to one single factor more than anything, - e:shutter, - I hate it (for stills) and am going back to mech shutter only. The Sigma 28-45mm f1.8 is great by the way. Not quite as big or heavy as I expected, or at least no larger or heavier than expected, fast, very well built and no frikkin' extending zoom!! I'm just hoping they make a longer focal length version and then I really would be set for the remainder of my career.

A 2.36mp EVF and a fixed LCD in a $5100 camera. Oh boy.

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Do you have those clips that I did with it? Because I’m fucked if I can find them anywhere ! I’ve got some frame grabs from them (with the base then the different ARRI LUTs applied) when I was moaning on here about the warpy IBIS on the S5ii but not the actual clips. Not that they are a great loss to the world !

Just pointing out that "weather sealing" is useful for more than just filming in the rain. It's also protection against dust (which is a very common problem in arid areas). It's protection against something in your bag breaking open and leaking on the camera. Or your tent leaks in the rain at night and you had your camera sitting out. Or you just drop it in a puddle/fountain/shallow water for a second. And yes, it is good to understand how weatherproof something really is, but simply having gaskets around a lot of the buttons and on the lens mount is a big deal. And sealing on a zoom lens can be even more important in a dusty area so that zooming the lens doesn't suck in a ton of dust.

I wouldn’t and I think it’s a great bit of kit. But no weather sealing to speak of and it’s build I’d say is OK, but it’s not built like an OM-1. Or even close, that thing is built like a tank. Despite being a full-frame guy for photo and video, bike packing around the world, M4/3 for sure. I can’t see past Olympus/OM Systems for this kind of thing.

I can, especially as a one man band photographer filmmaker/videographer who always works solo. I currently use 2x photo dedicated cameras, 2x video, 1x monopod, 2x tripods, 2x lightstands, 2x lights, up to 6 pieces of audio gear, 1x drone, multiple camera angles at the same time, photo and video at the same time... There are parts of every job where I use every single one of the above at the same time except 2x photo cameras. I can have 3 video units rolling, with an audio feed to each, shooting stills with the drone up shooting video straight down statically. OK, with the drone, it's a frikkin nightmare doing that and last time out I crashed it into a tree landing it 200 metres away...but it can be done. And that's with single attempt no second chance scenarios. Now carry all that on a bike plus all the other gear? Obviously not, but a single robust dedicated camera and either 1 or 2 max lenses, carbon travel tripod, super-lightweight collapsible lightstand and small LED plus audio gear takes up near zero space and battery life is excellent. Tiny compliant drone. Yes, I can see one person handling this just fine, especially if you are taking your time. I think all of us to a degree can overthink these things and volume of kit creeps up. I'm on a reduction mission myself right now in this regard having allowed my own volume of gear to creep up. I had a kit rationale recently and asked myself, "do you really need 6 lights and when have you ever used 6?" Err, never. Do I really need that 3rd camera angle for video or is it just overkill and one more thing that actually risks screwing the entire scenario up because you are now juggling too many pieces of kit that all need to be focused, or not focused and rely on AF and is the transmitter for the audio switched on and is the receiver also and... Sometimes, often even, less can end up being more.

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.

Here at a camera store in Berlin we have the 3 musketeers. 2012 vintage RX1R OG, the one without the AA filter. It's very nice and I can't understand why it only goes for $900 used. Because it's got a much better lens than the Leica Q. No red dot though. RX1R II, the one with the tilt screen, phase-detect AF and pop-up EVF. It also shoots 120p, albeit no 4K. It also has a further innovation - the AA filter can be switched on and off. This was Sony when they felt they needed to catch up with Canon and Nikon by really pushing the boat out. 2014-2015 vintage Sony. The $2000 mint condition used RX1R II is reasonably rare but when you do find one, it's still cheaper than the Leica Q OG and closer to the Leica Q2 in terms of image quality. The pop-up EVF is mechanically a thing of beauty and offers a big field of view. Although without a rubberised eye cup, it isn't the most ergonomic or comfortable. So to the new one, the one with the 10 year gap. Sony have made sure to price it so that nobody buys one, which is good because they want you all to buy E mount lenses. Just to summarise the street prices: RX1R: $800-900 used RX1R II: $2k used RX1R III: $5100 / 4900 euro The lens is identical to the previous cameras. Which is fine to be honest, but I had more issues with the AF in macro mode on the RX1R III vs II. Weird. I also dislike the finish and build quality, doesn't feel as premium. It feels a bit like the A7CR. Not great and nowhere near a Leica and the RX1R II also feels more premium. I do prefer the buttons though on the new camera, they are raised for a more tactile feel. Gone is the pop-up EVF, in place of it a smaller standard one. The resolution of the live-view feed is better, but the overall optic is worse and more pokey. Gone is the articulated screen. Which is a really weird one. In comes a fatter battery - very welcome. 4K is there with no crop in 24p/25p... However, there's no IBIS or even OIS, which is a downer. The AEL button has changed to an AF-ON... Again a welcome change, because the first two models had no back-button AF at all. Well done Sony. So if you're looking for a full frame compact, the first two models are a steal. I got the RX1R II again. I regretted selling it the first time out!

After 4+ yrs of shooting on my trusty Nikon Z6 I decided it was finally time for an upgrade. I wanted internal 10 bit and better IBIS. I felt I had pushed my Z6 really hard and taken my due diligence to use it on tons of shoots and really make the most out of it, so upgrading felt fine to me haha. Originally got a Canon R7 and Sigma 18-35; I filmed a lot on a Canon R5 and loved it. I equally love the r7, decent lowlight for a crop sensor, great ergonomics and image, really fun camera to shoot with. But then I found the deal of a lifetime…a Panasonic S9 AND the 20-60mm for only $700?!?!? How?!?!? I’m fortunate to have a good reputable liquidation auction in my area and they happened to have the Panasonic S9 open box with this lens up for bid. I bid on it and won and am picking up today; if I love this camera, I return or sell the Canon R7. If I prefer the R7, I can literally sell the Panasonic for a profit. But seems like such an insane camera for the price even what it normally goes for on eBay. But $700 for this pair is insanity; I could sell the kit lens if I wanted to and be paying under $600 for an S9 body haha…now we are almost in what used to be Panasonic G7 pricing territory (my first camera). So pumped for this camera; I can overlook its flaws for how cheap it is for me. I never been use an EVF and I don’t take photos enough to really miss the electronic shutter or lack of a hotshoe. For me the excellent IBIS, full frame, lowlight, 6k open gate etc etc make this camera appealing. I ordered the smallrig cage with a grip; this will be my a-cam and I might keep my OG Nikon Z6 as a b-cam, since with the ninja v its full frame 10 bit image will match well with really any camera I get. But yeah, can’t get over how good of a deal this thing is. Picking it up from the auction today, will make a more detailed comparison post against my R7 and document what I decide to keep.

Torn now... After 2 full jobs fully Lumix, I'm thinking I might just flip the S9 for another S1Rii, - 2x same bodies, weather sealing, twin card writing, option of mechanical shutter, same colour, 7.2k 30p open gate, potentially Arri log... The Sigma 28-45mm f1.8 is on it's way and would be bolted on to one unit and the other, flip between the Lumix 18mm and 85mm f1.8's making the 50mm f1.8 redundant. I think I'd do it today but for the cost so will have to think about it some more, but it's very likely. Still to use the video side of the S1Rii but based on my experience with the S9 and S5ii's, I already pretty much know what the benchmark is and that the S1Rii will exceed that. Makes the loss of the A7RV and Zf slightly more palatable!

Hi everyone, here comes a new music video shot on insta360 v4. Somehow the process is really fun becuse after shooting you get to animate all the camera settings in the insta 360 app. That ist actually quite fun, feels a bit like old analog photography as you find new aspects that you did not see during the shoot. Nevertheless the process is not too good yet as you have to animate the camera settings in the app, then export it and then edit it in Resolve. Pretty time consuming! So i hope there will be a resolve plugin in some time in the future... If you have any experiences using this technique i would ne happy if you could share it here!

Not too bad... RX1 OG: 700 euros used RX1R: 900 euros RX1R II: 2000+ euros The Mark II price is only going to stay high and may even go up as it has features the Mark III removes such as the articulated screen, oops. The old pop-up EVF is more premium and funky too. I think the hiatus was about protecting E-mount, as for some people a fast 35mm is all you need, and the return is about trying to out-Leica Leica on profit margins. Sony are a very numbers driven company. I have always liked the RX1 series as it was one of the very few options if you wanted a full frame sensor and beautiful fast 35mm Zeiss lens matched to the sensor, in an overall package that is smaller than even Micro Four Thirds. Hands down one of the best compact cameras ever made... the Contax T3 of our times. The successor was never going to be cheap, but the price escalation in the camera industry really makes me an unhappy customer. I haven't bought a camera "new" for years.

It is a very nice camera from my experiences with it, though I've only used it a half dozen times. I actually just texted my buddy who owns it and asked if it had overheated yet, since it's now the hottest time of year here in Vermont, and he said it hasn't and he has had it out in the sun on 90 degree days. He doesn't do super long takes though like I would as an event shooter.

I'd say that if I had $5,100 burning a hole in my pocket for a compact camera (and I don't), I'd be a lot more likely to buy a GFX 100 RF for $300 less than that and then take myself and a friend to a nice restaurant and share a meal and some wine with the rest. (The 100RF really needs to start aging and showing up in big numbers on the used market already, would love to buy one at a big discount from one of the buttholes who bought one for retail and is now trying to sell for $7k)

I was on a very, very slow internet connection this morning so YouTube was loading in instalments. It loaded the titles but the thumbnails were a long time coming and it’s interesting how much more appealing a lot of the videos were to me when just looking at the title but how much less so they were when the thumbnails eventually loaded. I’m probably missing out on a great deal of good content by my inner “oh fuck off you absolute tit” dialogue when I see the content creators stupid gurning shock faced bullshit. Whether the narcissism that infects so many of them would allow them to just do a content relevant thumbnail is the big question. I can hear the ”But the algorithm makes us do it” whining from here.

Here's one of the issues with M43: Granted, the OM-3 is quite possibly a more functional setup with a better build, but the S9 could be all you need and will beat the OM-3 in price, low-light, and video output. Personally, I'd rather go with the S9 even though I've bad-mouthed it quite a bit.

An OM-3 with a 14-140mm and a small M43 prime barely takes up any space. An action camera barely takes up any space. A phone is probably coming anyway. That's a primary camera and two backup cameras. For lights, if they're needed at all for the style of documentary being done, a small pop-up reflector weighs almost nothing and can do a lot. Combine that with one or two Aputure MC's and maybe an ultra-portable light stand and you've got a workable lighting setup. Don't want the reflector? Include a white t-shirt or hoodie in the package and use it as a bounce. It'll look ridiculous on set, but I've made it work with worse. The MC's are also nice because they have a magnet built-in so with some creativity, you can find a place to put them without necessarily needing a light stand (if it were me, I'd bring at least one small one, though. For mics, a DJI mic 2 kit and one of the tiny Deity or R0de on-camera shotguns? The Mic will pair with an Action 4 and can also record internally. Total weight of that entire kit? <2kg Not bad for a setup that can record fantastic-looking video (in the right hands) and capture acceptable audio! Need a tripod? If it were me, I'd skip a traditional tripod and go with something like a Cobra 3 monopod with the little "tripod" that folds out at the bottom and a foot pedal to unlock the top. With such a small and light camera, it'd be stable enough (I'd set a bag on the feet on a windy day) and with a fluid head or ball head on top, you can also fake a slider, a dolly, and to some extent, a steadicam. That's another 1kg or so. Don't want to offload media using the phone (this is doable with a modern iPhone and a USB-C hub these days) or want to edit on the go? Add an M4 Macbook Air which adds just about 1kg more. It'll be plenty for just about any editing OM3/action camera/phone video. The rest of the stuff mentioned that's needed (sleeping bags, etc) is all a sunk cost in terms of weight for a long biking trip.

Stay of execution for the S9… A. Trade value is trash and I refuse to take that kind of hit, providing… B. I can get some use out of it and soI am going to repurpose it as; spare/backup body/lens (with the Sigma 28-70 which I was keeping as a back up lens anyway) dedicated slow mo unit for such times I need such a thing which is every job, but less than 5% of any job. Ditto ‘gimbal-like’ duty. Potential 3rd angle that I recently decided was overkill to have a camera full-time dedicated to. So occasional roles I could have covered mostly, but may as well use the S9 for. So not quite down to 3 cameras from what was 5 just a few weeks back, but I’ll call it 3.5!

Yesterday I played around with FLC and grading some clips from Korea and the GH7 and 14-140mm. I plan to do a range of tests around settings for softening / sharpening / adding grain / other texture treatments in post, but YT compression is pretty diabolical so I'll need to do quite a number of upload tests to see what settings in Resolve get you what result on YT. I also went much bolder with the colours too, thinking of Gawx. This was a first attempt just to work out the ballpark of where to start. Probably the immediate takeaway is how the grain is quite different per shot, despite it being applied evenly to all shots. Here is a comparison between the timeline in Resolve, the 42Mbps h264 4K export, and the 12.6Mbps h265 4K YT download. Shot 1 - Resolve: Shot 1 - Export: Shot 1 - YT stream: Shot 2 - Resolve: Shot 2 - Export: Shot 2 - YT stream: Shot 3 - Resolve: Shot 3 - Export: Shot 3 - YT stream: Impressions: I'm told that film grain is most noticeable in the mids and shadows, so the distribution is consistent with film, which partly explains why the first image has less noticeable grain as most of the image is quite bright or quite dark. The sky shot seems to have lots of grain as it's a flat surface in the right luma range, but it seems that more grain is retained on the YT stream because there is less movement in the frame for the compression to cover. Whereas on the street scene the grain is considerably reduced despite having similar darker flat surfaces. I didn't apply any softening to this video, so the sharpness is direct from the 14-140mm -> GH7 5.7K to C4K downsample -> C4K 500Mbps Prores 422 -> 1080p timeline image path. The 14-140mm isn't tack sharp but it's not too bad. I've noticed in the past that grain can make images look sharper than they really are, but in this example the grain combined with the compression probably softens detail as a net result. I will definitely be exploring this relationship more. Film is known to have a sharpness of >1 at its maxima, so having some sharpening applied seems appropriate. Overall it seems to do a pretty good job capturing the grain, here's the next frame from the YT download so you can compare what is grain and what is detail and texture in the scene.

Great info from John and definitely agree on the zoom + fast prime combo. I have the 14-140mm and love it. I was tossing up between it and the 12-60mm F2.8-4.0 because I wasn't sure how often I'd use the 60-140mm part of the lens, but since getting it I was really surprised at how often it really comes in handy. Essentially, it means you can shoot whatever you can see, which really helps when you're trying to give a sense of a place. It's slower than the 12-60mm but neither is a low-light lens and the DOF differences aren't relevant in a doco situation. Here's a video I did showing the stabilisation, but it should show you the versatility of the lens. I shoot travel videos and have found that AF zooms best allow you to document the places and experience you're in, as they support the approach I've developed to shooting: Shoot a good variety of shots so you have lots of options in the edit Shoot the wide so you have an establishing shot, shoot the people, shoot the buildings, shoot the motion, shoot the colour Shoot the space (especially if it's large), shoot the details, look down at the ground and look up at the buildings / trees and the sky Think about what makes this place special and shoot that Think about what makes this place feel the way it does and shoot that In general, the faster you can shoot the more you will capture and the more authentic it will be because it will be more spontaneous and more based around your initial impressions rather than shooting slowly and having too much time to think about it. Plus, sometimes things happen very quickly and often they're the most important things to capture. I'd also second @tbonnes idea of combining the action cam and mirrorless. The action cam can be mounted on the bike ready to grab footage at a moments notice and doesn't need to be put away even in torrential rain or a dust storm. Then, once you've stopped you can pull out the mirrorless and get some shots. If you're a masochist then you can even go ahead, setup the mirrorless and hit record, go back again and ride through the frame, then go back and retrieve the camera. It seems like a great way to shoot a film and a spectacular way to remove as much pleasure from the experience as possible. This raises the other option - a drone. It's the fastest way to get shots of you without having to ride the same section of road three times. The laws for flying drones seem to have stabilised in a lot of places allowing drones under a certain weight, but it's something that would require an incredible amount of research beforehand to make sure it wouldn't get confiscated or get you into hot water just for having it.

@Tulpa sound like a cool project. Haven't done anything like it but have brought a bunch of different cameras on training rides filming my wife (a mountainbike pro) for the last decade. I would strongly consider a combination of an action cam and a mirrorless. The Osmo Action paired with their mic mini is a brilliant combo. The camera alone can be used in a bunch of conditions without risk (rain etc.) I have no experience with M 4/3 but used to bring a Samsung NX500 in my back pocket. It was brilliant at that. Has now been replaced with a Fuji X-M5. Same size.

10-bit and weather sealing. There's the rub. Panasonic: GH5, GH5 ii, GH5S, G9, G9ii, GH6, GH7 Olympus: OM-1, OM-1ii, OM-3 Anything smaller, you'll need to forgo 10-bit. For lenses, there are many options from flagship zooms (all are great, new and old) to small primes. However with the latter, there aren't necessarily that many that are weather-sealed. Panasonic: All the new versions of the Leica-branded primes, minus the Leica 15mm f/1.7 Olympus: All the Pro versions and the new versions of the 17mm and 25mm f/1.8. For run and gun in 2025 (AF in video), I'd choose the G9ii (lighter) or the GH7. For lenses, I'd go with two- one all-purpose, do everything lens like the 14-150 (Olympus), 14-140 (Panasonic), or 12-100 (Olympus, heavy!). After, I'd go for the Leica 25mm prime (new version) if weather-sealing is necessary; if not, the old version of the Leica 15mm f/1.7, Olympus 17mm f/1.8 or Panasonic 25mm f/1.7. If 10-bit isn't the issue, I'd go for the smallest camera with the best output. I'd go go a GX85 and an audio recorder, the E-M5 iii, OM5, OM5ii (all of these have decent audio and AF). It's sad that Panasonic cannot offer us anything under 500g with 10-bit, decent audio, and decent IBIS in MFT. For that, they can only offer the S9 in FF with NO pancake lenses- a CRAZY situation that is costing them dearly every single day!

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.

I used it for approx 90% of everything I shot in these last 3 jobs with just the 50mm f1.8 and my own baked in LUT. The latter still needs a few tweaks, but that is a work in progress... https://firehorsephotographyfrance.com/journal

Context matters in film production. You have more context. What you possess through experience is an asset. --Might be a minor asset that doesn't really matter much, but it's certainly not a liability.

I've sold them probably 15k+ over the years and just sold them 2 bodies and 4 lenses and they upped the quote on the 2 bodies even though I selected 'Excellent' for my OG quote, raising what they were going to pay me by nearly €150. I was 'happy' with the OG quote and wasn't expecting another cent...but I'll take it with thanks! No going back now, I'm now officially 100% L Mount. Didn't think that was going to happen and just 3-4 months ago, I would have said I would probably be 0% L Mount in 2026. And before some wit says, "you still might", even if you're paying, I don't think so, - never had a better set up and can't fault it other than one more tweak too the exact combo of bodies and lenses to make. There is nothing else comparable for me that exists at this time and if it did, it would only be a sideways move at a lot of expense, ie, pointless.

I’m not 100% focused on color accuracy here—I rely on scopes for that—since calibrating two machines in different environments is never going to yield perfect results. My main reason for using BetterDisplay is to match the exact 4096x2304 resolution of my 2019 4K iMac. Retina displays don’t play nicely with standard external monitors, like the one I currently have connected to the M2 Mac Mini. I’ve heard some users connect “dummy” displays to the encoding machine to force the proper resolution, but this setup with Parsec achieves the same effect. If I send a standard 4K signal to the iMac, it doesn’t look as clean—the image is upscaled and noticeably less sharp. With this setup, I just launch Parsec and connect to the M2 Mac Mini. What I see on the iMac looks almost indistinguishable from running natively on the 2019 i3 iMac with 8GB of RAM—except, of course, I get the performance of the M2 Mac Mini. In fact, I often forget I’m even using Parsec. I’ve accidentally shut down the Mac Mini thinking I was turning off the iMac! And the biggest surprise? I’m getting Thunderbolt 4-level performance on my media drives—despite using only a 1Gbps Ethernet connection. As long as latency stays below a certain threshold, the experience is virtually seamless. The iMac just becomes a glorified thin client- exactly what I want.

I just found out that Stalker is free on YouTube.... I saw the movie when I was young but not since, so I'm waiting for a good time where I can sit and watch uninterrupted.

I’m not @mercer (obviously) and not answering that beyond what I said above, but after 3 days shooting with the S1Rii my official review is now available for public consumption below. It’s fucking superb. That’s my review. Indistinguishable image Q to the A7RV and almost indentical handling, ie, excellent, but the Sony does have marginally better AF. Not quite as ‘fun’ to use as the Zf which for me was the ultimate point & shoot, but as a ‘one stop solution combining the talents of both and within the L Mount family’, fucking superb. I would be interested in a ‘rangefinderesque’ body a la RX1 line, but no idea if Lumix ever plan on making one 🤷‍♂️ But don’t need one.

Right, is it the hood or the bag that is made in Japan, because if it’s not both, I’m not interested as I prefer cloth and plastic from Japan and find similar items from countries such as China, Vietnam, Thailand etc, to be far inferior with their shitty cloth and plastics. I’d pay no more than $195-197.

I was going to say that's a crazy markup for about $0.10 in plastic, but then I saw that beautiful cloth bag that is included and it all made sense. 🤣

Far right cameras 😂

Define ‘bad’? -5 magenta and boom. One camera is a Golf GTi and the other is a Porsche Boxster. One is a better all-rounder and the other is better at one specific thing. Mid-range mirrorless vs low end cinema camera 🤷‍♂️

So this has changed from you comparing S1Rii colour compared with S5ii compared with OG S5 to S1ii vs Black Magic, I can't keep up 😜 I could change the topic now to your Black Magic colour science vs my Lumix IBIS. But in all seriousness, there is no one single one stop solution to anything but rather a case of whatever suits your needs best!

I don’t know but it came from MPB UK with their standard 6 month used warranty and I doubt they’d deal in stolen goods. Most likely someone’s favourite YouTuber said, “actually, I know I just hopped over from Sony to LUMIX, but I’ve decided to now go to Nikon”. One of those talkers/collectors who never actually shoots, just talks and collects and maybe one day, when they have finally assembled all the right kit, will actually use it 🤷‍♂️

2.36mp EVF, in 2025, OMFG...... what is Sony's obsession with using the worst quality screens/EVFs on their cameras. Also I'm not sure who mentioned it, but at that price honestly I would much rather grab the GFX100RF!!!!!

Well that is interesting… My ‘new’ S1Rii came with firmware v1.2 and Arri log C3 installed so some mug just bought and sold this camera pronto to MPB and I snaffled it for £2700. Unless I am the mug and they sold it to MPB because of some fault…but then surely they would have sent it back for a full refund to wherever they bought it on the first place? Someone probably lost over £750 in depreciation + Arri license… Not that I can use it because my other 3 Lumix cameras will never get option. Instead, looking forward to giving @Andrew Reid option a whirl, but it’s finding the time, - heavily bogged down with work at the moment…

...and then mere nano-seconds later, thought, nah. I am in the process of trading my Sony A7RV and Nikon Zf for a Lumix S1Rii. Why? Brings it all in house as my 3 video units are Lumix so it makes sense to have my stills camera also Lumix for cross compatibility. I will miss both however... The A7RV has been my workhorse 'pro' camera for 1.5 years now and it just delivers and never disappoints, at least when it comes to build, handling and most importantly results. HOWEVER, it has only one 'fault' and that is as much as I like and respect it, there is something missing, - that 'if a camera had a soul' thing. The Nikon Zf on the other hand is hands down the best shooting experience stills camera I have ever owned...and I have had dozens. BUT, only with small AF primes. It is probably fantastic with MF primes, but I have never tried and I didn't care much for it with the 3 adapted Tamron E Mount primes I have tried with it. Nope, works best with the Smallrig grip and the plastic fantastic 40mm f2 SE lens. If it's so fantastic, why sell it? Well at one point, I was hoping that Sony would indeed pop out an RX1Riii, ie, my A7RV in a 'rangefinderesque' style body, but probably at a stupid price. And guess what, they have done exactly that! Would I trade my Zf for that? Not a chance. Would I trade the A7RV for one? Are you having a laugh? But trade both for an S1Rii that kind of straddles the gap between the two...if you squint a little. Yes.

Been on the look out for a yellow lens for awhile now. Some one said something down in the lens thread a while ago about a yellow lens , that got me thinking... Also i know there's two trains of thought with with photography / videography either do it in camera or do it in post. In most ways i like the in camera theory. Seems more authentic to me to do it in camera or more personal / intentional perhaps. In post seems more like an after thought to my way of thinking. Not wanting to rock any ones boat and if you like to do things in post that's great, please continue. Anyway finally decided on a lens, a super takumar 35mm f2. Should be a thorium lens from what i have read. So probably best, not to sleep with it under the pillow. I purchased this lens mostly with the intent of adding some warmness to an image / video. Not sure if the result will be a yellow or more sepia effect. There's a couple of images for your perusal. Should arrive before my birthday i hope.

Has anyone noticed with some of the biggest tech reviewers on youtube like Hardware Unboxed or MKHB, there's a trend at the moment for deadpan anti-hype style reviews. Be careful with that as well, it's a style-change to counteract the falling viewing figures caused by them overhyping everything every day for the past god-knows how many years, as people catch onto it and get bored of it.

congrats, The S1Rii may not be a dream camera, but it's been a fantastic tool that just shows up and works. I really enjoy the files for stills, (I've mostly pushed mine into stills duty) tether shooting into C1 feels a wee bit slow, but not bad enough to make it annoying. The only strange thing the s1R2 has done for me is make me want a GFX100ii 🙂