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I would say that Z mount would be the way to go. It can adapt everything you’ve got in your lens collection to be near native. Not just your AF EF and F mount but with the TechArt you can have AF of all your manual lenses as well. If you can stretch to a used Z8 then that would close the argument on every aspect and would be a - if not THE -forever camera. I say this as someone who has still failed to buy one for the past three years despite it being THAT camera to me. But I’m going to London this weekend and you know what, I might well end up feeling saucy and doing a Wayne Campbell…

Hello all, settle in for a long post... For the past 10 years I have mostly shot with my Canon 5D Mark iii with ML Raw. Other than a couple short stints with some native lenses, the only one I kept was a beat up 28mm 1.8 because it was cheap and I really like the rendering. I also have a Sigma FP which delivers a fine raw image but I've always found it to be an awkward camera to work with... especially with its horrific battery life and annoying SSD tethered to the camera. For the past year I've been using a GH6 a lot I bought on the cheap. It has the Arri LogC update, and I've been fairly happy with it except for my normal distaste for crop factors... although I have found the cheap 7artisans 24mm 1.4 lens to be a treat. For the most part, I think the GH6 could be the ultimate low budget filmmaker's camera. The LogC curve/color science mixed with 4K/5.7K ProRes HQ codec truly is remarkable... not to mention the IBIS which is nothing short of miraculous. Even the 1080p, with its small ProRes file sizes looks pretty amazing to me. Otherwise, I borrowed a friend's Canon R7 for a few weeks and found it to be a pretty amazing little camera. The h.265 files were way better than I thought they'd be. The cLog2 was a treat to grade, the AF was practically perfect and the IBIS was better than I expected. Since the pandemic, I've gotten into shooting stills a little. I first started with film and loved it. I still shoot some, but they're a little expensive since I don't have the capability to process/scan them myself. I then picked up an Open Box Pentax K10D which I enjoy taking out and getting some random shots with the beautiful CCD sensor, but video is more important to me than stills and I don't want to maintain multiple systems so I am thinking of starting over and investing in a new camera and a lens or two... So... I was looking for some advice from anyone who has first hand knowledge about a few different systems. My criteria for stills is basically nothing... shoots decent stills. For video, I'm looking for a full frame camera that shoots internal raw video, or ProRes, has decent IBIS and decent AF. I'm a few months away from a purchase, but I'd like to keep it below $2500 for the main camera and then possibly pick up a second, lesser model, camera in a year or so. Right now, it seems like Canon or Nikon are the two obvious options, but after reading Andrew's mini review of the FX2, I'd be open to going Sony as well even though there's no internal raw. I have ruled out Panasonic and the L Mount. I have extensively used an S5iiX and have meh feelings about it. I just didn't jive with it. I'm kinda leaning towards Nikon due to the ZR, but it doesn't seem like the best hybrid camera. But in a lot of ways, it's kinda my dream camera... even though I think 6K is a bit of overkill. I'm also interested in the Z5ii because it seems like it gets me a good bit of my list and gets me into the Z ecosystem for a fairly decent price. But since I started shooting video with a ZR65, I've always gone back to Canon and have always been relatively happy about it. And finally, although lenses are important for stills and those times I'd like to track an actor in a short film or something, I'd probably use my vintage lenses more often. Anyway, I know this is a lot, but any insight you guys might have would be much appreciated.

If you do decide to go with Nikon the FTZII adaptor works very well with F mount AF-S lenses and the resulting auto focus speed is very close to z mount.AF-S lenses are easy to get second hand and far cheaper than the new lenses in Z mount .My AF-S 35mm f1.8 was only Aus $200 second hand and to purchase new in Z mount is around Aus $1000.

Yes, Z8 is a temptation. And now ZR... : ) However in my case, the Blackmagic 6K FF and the FX30 are both in a league of their own.

For sub-$2,500, a used EOS R5 ticks a lot of your boxes, I think. Afraid of overheating and want longer takes? R5C is right at the top of your price range, but would be doable. If you're willing to compromise on IBIS for the Nikon ZR and if you're willing to bypass stills, a used OG Komodo is just in the $2,500 price range. If you already have some stuff around for rigging up a cinema camera, you'd be able to use it pretty cheaply after that. If not, you'd probably be in a few hundred bucks more and out f your price range. The Komodo does have a built-in gyro, though, so it can be stabilized. Otherwise, the ZR seems to be a fantastic choice. A used Nikon Z8 would be just out of your price range, but would also be a really solid choice. A used Z6 III would do you really well too. Price is about the same as a brand new ZR. lensrentals.com has a used BMCC 6K for under $2,500 as well. It's a sensor from 2018, but you can get good results and nowadays, it has surprisingly good autofocus. No IBIS, though.

Well WTF - turns out "1 inch sensor" is marketing BS and it's actually 13.2mm wide, making the crop factor 2.73x, and only just a touch larger than Super 16 which is 2.88x. Source Lots of MFT glass and also lots of c-mount options too as already suggested. Ironically, with the lack of electronic contacts you can't control the aperture on most modern MFT lenses, so much of the sharpest glass will be unavailable (making the 8K sensor spec rather redundant!). However getting shallow DOF will probably be more difficult, especially as we have no idea what kind of focus assists it will have, so stopping down might be the best move (focus wide open then stop down to eliminate any slight errors) and that will sharpen up older / lesser lenses. This might end up being the mythical tiny S16 cinema beast that people have wanted (or said they wanted!). It's much smaller than even the BMMCC and that's before you realise the BMMCC doesn't have a screen so you have to rig it up to use it. I am still skeptical though - there's lots of stuff we still don't know about and given GoPros history I have complete faith that they'll include at least one fundamental fatal flaw that will prevent this.

None are shown on any pictures. Luckily, there are about a bazillion lenses that can be adapted to Micro 4/3 mount - including a lot of C-mount lenses and probably at least some D mount lenses will cover or work in a cropped mode. 'The same 50MP 1" sensor as..."

Z6 III vs ZR, you said? Both are full frame, both use the Z mount, both have subject detection AF for 9 subject types, and both offer internal RAW up to 6K/60p. The Z6 III has a 24.5MP full-frame sensor, and the ZR also uses a 24.5MP full-frame partially stacked sensor with EXPEED 7. From there, though, the split becomes pretty obvious. The ZR is the one Nikon has shaped as a compact cinema camera. It gives you internal R3D NE, RED colour science, Log3G10 / REDWideGamutRGB, 32-bit float audio through the internal mic and 3.5mm jack, plus a 4.0-inch screen designed more for actual filming without leaning as heavily on external accessories. Nikon is very clearly positioning it as a compact cinema body. The Z6 III, on the other hand, is much more complete as a stills camera. It has a 5.76M-dot EVF, burst shooting up to 120fps, Pre-Release Capture, mechanical and electronic shutter options, and up to 8 stops of stabilisation with Focus Point VR. It is simply the more all-round camera of the two. Physically, the ZR is noticeably smaller and lighter at around 134 x 80.5 x 49mm and 540g body only, or 630g with battery and card, whereas the Z6 III is larger and heavier at roughly 138.5 x 101.5 x 74mm and 670g body only, or 760g with battery and card. The viewing setup also says a lot about the intent behind each one. The Z6 III has an electronic viewfinder and a 3.2-inch vari-angle screen. The ZR goes the other way with a 4.0-inch rear monitor and is not really being sold as an EVF-centered body at all, but as a video monitoring-first tool. Audio is another area where the ZR is in a different class, because the 32-bit float recording is a major selling point and still quite unusual in this form factor. The Z6 III has serious enough audio for video work, but that is not one of its defining features. Even the card slots tell the story. The Z6 III uses CFexpress/XQD plus SD UHS-II, while the ZR uses CFexpress/XQD plus microSD. That alone already says a lot about the difference in philosophy between a photographic hybrid and a compact cinema camera. The Z6 III is still the more rounded hybrid camera, while the ZR looks much more like a compact cinema body built primarily around video use. On paper they overlap in some important ways, because both sit in the same broad full-frame Z-mount ecosystem and both are clearly meant to appeal to shooters who care about strong video features, but the intent feels different. The Z6 III is the camera I’d look at first if the job includes serious stills as well as video, because it gives you the EVF, the more conventional hybrid ergonomics, the stronger photographic identity and a much more all-purpose way of working. The ZR, by contrast, seems aimed at the person who is leaning far more into filmmaking and wants a smaller cinema-oriented body, RED-style workflow influence, more specialised video tools and a more stripped-back approach that is less about being a do-everything camera and more about being a focused moving-image tool. That is really the core of it. The Z6 III is the safer all-rounder. The ZR is the more interesting specialist. So if somebody mainly shoots photo and video in equal measure, I’d say Z6 III. If they are really after a compact cinema camera in Nikon form, then the ZR is the one that makes more sense.

Very small mice are operating pulleys to physically move the lenses in and out of focus. Hang on, it’s not mice it’s small motors. Nikon’s FTZ adapter takes care of the AF Nikkors and for manual focus ones you just use the M mount one with additional M to F adapter stacked. And indeed the same for any other type such as C/Y and M42 etc that have M adapters. The other Z mount adapter that you may or not be interested in is the MegaDap E mount adapter which opens up the world of small and affordable primes. There is even a Fuji X to Z adapter which is obviously only for APS-C lenses but would come in handy if your additional down the line Z camera was the not at all shit Z50ii. It would be a tacit admission that the end is nigh 😂

It seems to be the case. Pretty amazing what Nikon has accomplished in the past few years. That is a pretty cool feature, even though my mind cannot grasp how the Techart is accomplishing it. I had a quick look on BH and they only seem to have an EF to Z and a Leica M to Z... do they make an F to Z? The M mount one is kinda interesting because the more I get into shooting film, the more I have become interested in an M6 or earlier model... again completely perverse for my needs considering I usually shoot with an FE or the random Pentax/Canon/Minolta camera, but there's just something unique with a rangefinder. Speaking of the FE... the FE/FM variants are damn near perfect cameras for stills for the type of stuff I shoot so as I started researching Z mount cameras, I almost forgot about the ZF and I instantly got a little excited about it... even though it lacks a lot of the video requirements I want for a hybrid... but so does the ZR... anyway after a quick search I found this... Then I searched for a size comparison of the ZF vs. the DF and other than the grip, they were basically the same size... I thought mirrorless was supposed to give us smaller, lighter bodies. I mean my GH6 is only a little smaller than my 5D3... What a joke in some ways... Rant over. The Z8 would be amazing, but I don't know if I could do it. I think I'd rather have a ZR/ZF combo or just a Z6iii. Maybe if I could figure out a way to make some money from this stuff, a Z8 could be in my future... but then that would open a whole new set of possibilities... an R6iii/C50 or C70 combo... And this is the problem I have been dealing with since I started this hobby. No camera meets all my needs (wants) but it's obscene for me to really have more than one camera. Another off topic rant... I've been seeing social media posts from the filmmaker Pete Ohs... I posted about him a long time ago because he made a film a year with a 5D Mark iii with ML Raw and his films were screened at SXSW and Sundance and they all got some type of distribution deal... well he's still making at least a film a year... his films are still being screened at SXSW and Sundance and he still gets distribution deals and he still makes his films using his 5D Mark iii with ML Raw and when asked, his reason is... "that's the camera I own." I immediately feel like an a complete asshole for chasing these other cameras. Of course, he's a tripod guy with very static shots that he shoots in basically one location (or very few) whereas I am trying to shoot more run and gun and stealing locations whenever possible., so I've realized how important IBIS is to my style of shooting and AF on some level... but not as important... END RANT. Anyway, I'm still in my early phase of thinking this through. I guess if I was smart, I'd dust off my tripod and shoot with my 5D or FP... or learn how to grade Log footage and use the GH6... but I really want 32 bit float audio and R3D/ProRes files... or nRaw/ProRes files... and IBIS in FF with some halfway decent AF... is that too much to ask? first world problems... Do it!!! You're a Nikon guy at heart it seems and you've been taking about it for a while... how nice would it be to have your "forever camera?"

Good to know, thanks. All of my Nikon lenses are non-ai/ai/ai-s but I did see that the special edition of the 50mm 1.8G is available refurbished from Nikon for $199... so that's kind of interesting. Of course the 40mm f/2 Z is only a little more, so it'd be a little redundant. Either way, it's good to know that option is available. Do you know if the EF adapters for Canon R cameras have the same level of consistency as the Nikon adapter does? Also are there good portrait, AF-S G lenses that are relatively inexpensive but still good lenses... say 85-105mm?

Thanks for the reply. It looks like I'll probably go Nikon or Canon, but if I was thinking about this at this point last year, the FX30 and possibly an a7c2 would definitely be in the running. I love the output from the FX30 but the media and the price isn't worth it to me. If the FX30 was $1200 or less, it would be a contender. As far as the BM 6K FF... just not a fan of BM cameras for what I do.

Getting good affordable 960p would be cool for lots of people. I see the science explainer channels showing bad quality 960p and the richer channels with Chronos setups. Don't get me wrong about them not being cameras that appeal to a large number of people. They're very good for getting the new "EVERYTHING IS AWESOME AND WIDE AND SMOOTH AND DEFINITELY SHARP SHARP SHARP!!!!" style of video that looks more like video than anything ever made before, but as soon as they say it's a cinema camera, there are 27 things they have to change from every other model ever made, and to bet they'll get every single one of them right is a very long shot indeed.

Slowmo modes are actually OOAK for this price range — 9600 pictures in 10 seconds burst of 1080p is something indeed: more than 6 minutes and a half going with 24p, oh well... To this day, it’s still the fastest camera sale I’ve ever made, though. Just look at the number of subscribers on their official YouTube channel. These are numbers and facts. +46.71% (+0.36) in the past 5 days...

Hi Mercer are you intending to purchase auto focus lenses as part of the equation ?

Think it’s a 1 inch sensor so it’s likely to be 2.7x

A may have, sort have, hacked my Sony a7 IV. Although the firmware is encrypted the .DAT cam settings file isn't. This allows you to dive in and change picture style parameters, without the limits of the camera menus or Sony's tethered apps via USB. This is early days yet, but I've already got a prototype app that's quite useful. First bonus feature... it allows you to save all your Picture Profile recipes and Creative Style settings to your laptop and manage them in a nice to use Mac OS app (Windows version I'll also be working on later). This allows you to store as many "Recipes" as you want and dial them into the camera. Second bonus feature... It is able to apply recipes to Sony raw files and export as LUTs for S-LOG2 and S-LOG3, with a live preview shot as you grade it. Interesting to see the reference to "S-Cinetone 2" in the data... Third bonus feature is that this app might allow us to go further in future... I'm getting a good understanding of how the camera OS works. I have also reverse engineered Canon's picture styles, although this is a topic for a future post 🙂

Is there really no electronics on the lens mount? That's a bit of a shame. Is there any info on crop factor, as I understand it's not an MFT sensor, only MFT mount.

Looks interesting with an MFT mount and the claim the Hypersmooth works with any rectilinear prime (their stabilisation is a pretty important feature, especially with how small they are). Of course, if they don't have animal eye-detect PDAF then the internet will skin them alive!!

genuinely someone should just create an archive database for the old panasonic hardware firmware hacks

Did PTools ever get a ROM address probe feature like Magic Lantern? This could be very useful in this day and age for a new adventure...