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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.

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.

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.

Because I will do literally anything to avoid eBay, I am willing to let some of my favourite gear go for knock down prices. I have a mint GH5S which wants to find a good home 🙂 I also have a Nikon Zf if anyone is interested in some full frame Fuji-style shooting. This is loaded with my pre-release Fuji film styles for the Nikon Z mirrorless cameras. £500 should do it for the GH5S and the Nikon Zf price is negotiable. The stuff is in the UK - collect over coffee in the Peak District or Manchester. Or post within the UK or Europe. I'll be going back to Berlin soon. I also have a couple of compacts which wish to depart the crowded EOSHD HQ and go on a shoot. Canon G12 (CDD) and a Sony RX100 VA. Prices of those can be discussed below if you're interested!

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?

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?

For comparison its his ZR test At 0.1 High S/N ratio, DR is 6 stops. In his R6III test its only 3. Not only he is not curious at all why its so low, but doesn't even notice the drastic fall of it (from 8.26 to 3.04). As a reviewer I would dig into the data. I seriously feel he's not interested about what he's doing anymore. He's like "AF is good". What? How you tested that? Where is the evidence that its good? Canon website says its good, what else you know? And good for who? and why people should pay near $3k to have "good AF" when their current camera already has good AF? I assume R6III AF is "better" than R6II, but I need to see the evidence in practical situations. That's the job of someone who reviews gears for living.