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There’s also another camera in the LUMIX lineup that barely anyone talks about and that is the S1IIE. I overlooked it myself when it was announced as I already had S5II’s and the S1II and especially S1RII looked a whole lot more interesting…and arguably are, unless… Price + you prefer the updated body and a few other specs over the S5II and in the UK, a couple of places such as WEX and Park are doing them at £500 off, ie, £1800 none grey import. Compared with my S9 which I have now decided to replace (it isn’t robust enough and I’ve had too many niggly issues with it trying to use it as a pro tool) and the S1IIE seems to make the most sense to me. LCD is in line with the body and not sticking out of the side. Hurrah. MUCH better built than the S9 but hardly a chonker. 6k 50/60p in 2:4-1 CinemaScope and before you spit your dummy out, drop that on a 16:9 timeline, it’s about a 1.3x crop and on a 2:1 timeline, only about a 1.1x crop compared with the S5II/X with it’s 1.5x crop. And you can do that log gop 420 300mpbs or 422 all intra 800mpbs which is not tooooo large. No it’s not open gate and I was all for open gate until a few weeks ago and the end of another season when I came to 2 conclusions: 1: Divorce stills from video in the same unit and go back to dedicated stills or video units. 2: Use something else for the fast turn around social stuff such as a Pocket 3. Not pushed the button yet and things may change, but I think an S5IIE could become my run & gun unit with S5II on sticks and either a single or pair of S1RII’s for stills, dependent on a set of primes or a single all in one 28-105mm f2.8. I really can’t be arsed with any large scale brand flips, but swapping a body and a couple of lenses is pretty straightforward and low cost.

Lightly sand the front element and smear a bit of Vaseline around the edge et voila, instant character! I know what you mean though Phil. They are optically quite clinical and the most boring things to look at for sure. For video AF, they are the best option though. For a margin more character, the f2 Sigmas have it at the expense of a tiny bit of AF. Then there is the rest of the stuff where it’s trading or losing AF for character gain. I personally prefer to have the better starting point and add character in post but then some character is inherent in the lens so… There’s always a trade off! That new 40mm f2 might just be the sweet spot…

To be honest it's the less than stellar but fast & small third party lenses that I crave. For Fujifilm you have the Viltrox f/1.4 & f/1.7 primes. For Sony you have a ton of smaller lenses like the 24 f/2.8, 35mm f/2.8 or 40mm f/2.5 but also again third party AF lenses from Viltrox, TTartisan, etc. I realize that the 1.8 primes from Panasonic are great, but they're not checking my criteria, I'd prefer them optically a bit worse but smaller with more character. I remember when the vision for mirrorless cameras was that you could get lenses at the same performance at a smaller size... and now nearly everything that releases is a really big, technically ideal lens at a high price. I used to like lenses like the EF 50mm f/1.4 USM which were okish but had interesting rendering over the great but huge Sigma 50mm 1.4. Guess I'm just an old man yelling at clouds.

Sadly a lot of the British public distrust it as well thanks to the constant brainwashing they've been subjected to by social media and Russian bots. I see the influence of the BBC outside the West as an attempt to spread the UK's voice, and system of democracy, and of course in some places this isn't welcome and will never be. The purpose of the BBC is not to please everyone all over the world all at once, they were set up only to serve the British public at home and abroad, i.e. with World Service radio and the BBC news website, if someone in Afghanistan or Turkey doesn't agree with a couple of programmes then so be it, not our problem. At the same time, people in other countries are well within their rights to have different opinions, and to tell the BBC to fuck off out of their airwaves. Equally, the Americans should fuck off out of UK politics too and leave us to it. However when it comes to some BBC content like David Attenborough people in other countries would do well to watch it. Maybe they would then have a less appalling attitude to animals.

Ha! Ans it's said one is supposed to get more conservative as they get older. For me, I just can't shake capital being the vehicle for fascism. Souped up and hot-rodded to fly down the drag strip. And, yeah, since pseudo-capitalism is now global and we're on the verge on climate collapse? Woo boy. Buckle up. Yup, sure is hard not to be conspiratorial about it all. As someone once said, have a nice day "you fucking dumbasses" 😉