Caleb Genheimer

The AF is an intriguing potential bonus, but really they’ve built a narrative cine cam, which is tough to find at low prices. Sony already has Docu Cine locked down which is fine, they make good cameras for it, with top notch AF. I struggle to believe any company will bring heat to the AF game without also being a lens manufacturer (and BMD isn’t.) but I could be wrong. It’d be nice to have on the Pyxis in a pinch, but I don’t even own any electronic glass, so I don’t really care.

The elephant in the room for all us sensor nerds is gonna be that Pyxis 12K for the next ~5yrs when looking at flagship mirrorless, and anyone building cameras with sensors from Sony just got undercut by BMD’s RGBW. I expect to see some sort of answer in under two years, and it’ll probably come from Sony putting something new silicone in their own lineup first, but let’s be honest here. I could upgrade from my (still excellent BTW) S1H to this new LUMIX, and get, what? A bit better AF, a bit more frame rate, and a pick-your-poison of either improved DR or improved readout depending on the mode. Or… I pay a bit more and get the Pyxis 12K. Or (and I’m betting on this option,) I wait ~80 weeks, and whaddayaknow?! BMD has either dropped the 12K’s price, or they come out with something new and people sell the 12K at a discount in response. There’s no way a BMD camera holds at launch price past 24 months, it simply never happens. If we’re after a top-tier sensor in a sensible body? Everything else is up against that. Unless you need AF, but if you need AF why haven’t you already bought either a Sony or a Canon? Panasonic has a slim chance with an S1H successor, but IMO it can’t be a hybrid type body. People who like that kind of physical handling already have a figurative bagillion LUMIX bodies to pick from. One more would be the nail in the coffin.

This all highlights something else that I feel plagues Panasonic: too many modes. I don’t know how they pare that down, people would surely complain? They should possibly consider ditching an entire codec just to start. Having internal ProRes basically tops everything, do they really need h.264, h.265, long-GOP, Intra… the endless scrolling list of slight permutations is also a HORRENDOUS way to lay it out.

Agreed. One look at cameras like the C70 gives you all the info you need to assess why “stills” shaped bodies are an awkward form factor for video once there are extensive video features involved.

The thing I don’t get… and mind you, I work as a 1st AC… even if you’re mostly technically minded, and interested primarily in the technical aspects of cameras, there is still a LOT more to that that Gerald doesn’t get into. Especially with these hybrid cameras, what about rigging? Where are the cage reviews? Favorite top handles? Power distribution? Cable management? Back to the S1RII, honestly my main gripe with LUMIX is their slowness to create cameras that are *physically* geared towards filmmaking. I worked pretty hard on my S1H rig, I don’t think it could get better, and it’s still awkward. I’d rather have a Pyxis. But it’s a tool like anything else, and right now, the S1H is a good tool versus the cost of jumping to something else. I don’t want to rig a new hybrid mirrorless again.

I pre-ordered the 42mm at $5K, and the 95mm at $6K. Expensive, but probably the best money I’ve spent on gear. There really is no shortcut to good glass. Most likely the Eterna will be out of my reach though. I’m honestly hoping we see a Pyxis Pro from BMD with that RGBW sensor.

I don’t think CMOS has plateaued for the Comon Man quite yet. I do get the criticisms of over/under tests on the face of it, but the reality is? They’re Tests. I do find value in seeing what a particular camera is doing “down there” (or up in the highlights.) The fact is, as a test, over/under kinda beats out even a Xyla chart, because you can see HOW things blow out, or how they roll into black. Most of the time, I agree, modern CMOS has the chops to hit the stops on paper. But when you look at color performance and how the image rolls off, it immediately enters “not so pretty, is it?” territory. There IS a reason Arri still almost universally enters the conversation. If you look at an Arri over/under? It holds on for more stops, and also doesn’t dive drastically towards strange colors. 100%, exposing a modern CMOS correctly will yield excellent performance, but in reality? Most sensors are gonna let you down if you get it wrong. They’re pretty unforgiving. I could go on about Arri’s color separation, but that’s a whole other thing.

They confirmed open gate in the CineD interview, it’s based on the binned 4K mode, so roughly 4.5K? Readout would land around 20ms and DR will take a hit, but if they’ve got that mode? I’ll desqueeze that sucker myself. Pretty sure Atlas Mercury sneak by on the GFX sensor.

Yes, about a 1 stop DR hit to lower RS to 15ms in 4K 16:9. The open gate which they indicated is based off of that same sensor mode will therefore clock in at 20-21ms readout based on the added lines. Not bad all things considered.

Yep, it’s a niche within a niche hah. Medium format digital is already a small crowd, then when you siphon off the video folks? Smaller crowd. I think the reality is, video users are gonna have to work with whatever sensors will sell well to the photo crowd (at least when it comes to medium format.) Im definitely looking forward to Eterna being on final firmware and in some folks’ hands to see what it can do though. I also hope they see the 100s II as a B-Cam option and align it as closely as they can via firmware.

I hope Eterna does well but it’s a tough crowd. The Open Gate will help though, that’s a truly unique sensor size for a motion picture camera. If it does well we’d almost certainly see a version with the XH2S sensor, which would be an equally wonderful camera. I do have an extremely high regard for Fuji’s physical/ergonomic design. They do excellent work where others get cluttered or awkward.

Yeah that really is! I would expect the additional vertical lines to add a small amount but still expect it to be well within a workable range. Fuji has been leaving open gate video on the table then with the GFX. Since it is the same processor and sensor, I hope they add the mode to the hybrid body also, as those will be more affordable used at some point than Eterna likely ever will be.

And the main lenses I use are Atlas Mercury, so… pretty open field on cameras I could use. I’m not locked into L-Mount.

Yep my main challenge is, I’m not shopping between the two, I already have an S1H. It’s gonna take a bit extra to tempt me away, especially at $3K+

Anything over $3K has me scrolling through Arri Alexa eBay listings anyway if I’m honest lol. Even a decent number of the fuller featured “classic” type Alexa’s are coming in around $4K, and often have cards/case/batteries. But that assumes you want a cinema camera, not a hybrid that punches above its weight.