sanveer

When the 5D Mark II and Panasonic GH1 were all the rage, I picked the GH1.
I keep thinking back to why and it appears that the full frame look wasn't important enough compared to other factors, like price, codec, articulated screen, EVF, autofocus and so on.
Now Panasonic is doing it again... The G9 II has 4K/120p for $1500, extremely good codec, packed feature set, cheaper than GH7 but same sensor, very clean in low light, the list goes on...
If I wanted these features on a full frame camera I'd have to pay at least $3000.
Also something else is nagging me...
I have grown to dislike the cliche of a shallow DOF where you can't see the setting or background properly.
Yet I still want the character of a lens wide open, the smoother bokeh, the light vignette, more 3D and the best flares.
So I think back to my Kern Switar 26mm F1.1 or Voigtlander Nokton 25mm F0.95 on the GH2, and realise that I can shoot wide open at mega fast apertures yet still see the background. It will be lightly out of focus (unless the subject is REALLY close) and that I like. On a large sensor it would look very different.
I think it's time to do a Micro Four Thirds vs full frame test, at fast apertures wide open on both, same FOV, same setting and framing.
It will be really interesting to see what the rendering is like and how the G9 II stands up in terms of image quality, dynamic range, and high ISO. As they have come a LONG way since the GH2 and GH4.
I also think some of the Super 16mm and 2x crop lenses out there are really characterful, whereas full frame lenses at least all the modern ones tend to be too perfect looking.
I think it's more challenging to set up a shot on a large sensor... You often have to stop down, which negates the low light advantage, changes the rendering and bokeh, the flare, and nearly everything.
By the way, I'm sure part of this is nostalgia... In 2009 when Vimeo and DSLR filmmaking community first got going, everyone was happy to be called a filmmaker. It's interesting that now "creator" is the preferred term, as it covers anyone who creates anything. But does that also mean we are specialising less in one area and relying on modern technology over human artistry and the human hand?
With IBIS, shallow DOF, unmotivated camera movement, drones, walking around with IBIS handheld, autofocus, and such like... I feel all this usually fails 9 times out of 10 compared to a simple locked down shot on a tripod Spielberg style.
Maybe it's time to get a G9 II, turn off IBIS, take my time, stick it on a tripod with a C-mount prime on the front and see how this style works compared to the convenience of luxury of no-tripod, a faster shoot, a full frame Nikon Z8 with IBIS and autofocus on a modern lens.
 

The gap between APS-C and Micro Four Thirds has turned into an advantage to Micro Four Thirds with the G9 II
And the gap between the G9 II and full frame is very small.
Impressive little camera.

NX1 one was the first camera that moved the needle following the GH4 which brought 4K to the masses at a cheap price for first time, and Samsung needed to stay the course, they are the only equal to Sony in terms of manufacturing capabilities... at least were, in 2014 anyway.
I agree consistency is the problem, they chop and change too often.
Imagine a full frame NX1 style camera from Samsung with IBIS, 10bit Samsung LOG, and all that custom hardware today, would really take the fight to Sony and Canon.
I suppose the nearest we have today is what Nikon is doing.

The NX1 is a very special camera. By far my favorite photo camera I ever used, the only downside was that there was no active EF adapter. If it had a 10 bit log profile for video, I would still be using it today! Video tech moved on, but the photos it produced could not have been better, imo. The ergonomics and menu were simply perfect as well.

I also despise it, the form factor is terrible. Poor balance, top heavy, overcomplicated, poor battery life, unreliable, wobbly cable, you name it... And the advantage is minimal, the main use case for a rig is to make it look more fancy... in front of clueless clients.

Yes it does. If the battery dies and your $300 Wireless mic no longer works, that affects the final result. We shouldn't be spending money on items that don't have replaceable batteries and will end up in a landfill. 
These companies could very easily make it possible to put in new batteries. They just refuse to, because they want you to keep purchasing the latest iteration. It's wasteful, in a multitude of ways. 

Right wingers has X, liberals have Threads and BlueSky. Maybe we're heading for a situation where there is a film industry for conservatives and another film industry for liberals. 

Hi, Hank, 
Here is the independent encoder unit, which can be rail mounted on the side to record rotational information of the focus ring. I also provide two controller packages for order, package A & package B. package B is the one without the motor unit, and it's part 0009 at http://www.rapidotechnology.com/home
I can modify the controller parameter to work with your Berkey motor, I can also provide an additional motor cable connector, which you can wire it to your Berkeley motor. Thanks. 
Jim 
Rapido 
 
 
 

A 1.5x crop on APSC? 😬

My favourite cams right now are either the OG BMMCC or GX85.  I would buy a GH7 to replace the BMMCC but it's $$$$$.
You could interpret that by saying:
Blackmagic and Panasonic are my favourite manufacturers, but that's definitely not right Blackmagic in 2014 and Panasonic in 2016 are my favourite manufacturers Blackmagic and Panasonic suck because the best cameras they released are around a decade old Everyone sucks because the best cameras are around a decade old Camera users suck because they keep wanting things that make it so cameras are either rubbish or are absolutely huge Your choice!

Once upon a time, Vimeo.
For reasons officially unknown (I'll come back to this later) Vimeo stopped being, for us Europeans, a community of video storytellers. (As it still likes to call itself).
Basically, in certain regions of the world you can no longer use the video search function and at the same time you can no longer browse other users' videos. 
I can only see and search my own videos and eventually see a video of another user only if I have its link. Even if I know his name I cannot search for him. I can only see his profile if I know his exact url.
This post sums up what happened:
https://shortverse.beehiiv.com/p/vime-nooo
I am so angry. 
I noticed it by accident and I also looked like an idiot because I as well as thousands of other users thought it was a bug. No communication at all. Out of the blue. The entire UE community lost. Membership fee is the same for everyone but I have most of the features disabled.
  Those who read this thread and, for example, have an account in the U.S. or other countries not affected by this ban might think that this does not affect them.
But it absolutely does not!
I have several friends in the U.S. who use their Vimeo account for showreels, basically a videocentric Linked-in. In their profile they have written "available for hire." Here, you must know that their profile is no longer searchable from banned countries. And we don't even know which ones they are. I can only access a video of theirs via direct link but I can't go to their profile or search them by name via the search function.
This is my following people page:

I can see their names but I cannot click on their profile icons. Sounds like a joke. What is the point of these lists now?
Just imagine my frustration, I've been a member for 13 years and I've developed a whole network of relationships over all these years and now I can't even see the profiles of people I've collaborated with, anymore.
Think about it before you renew your subscription!
 

You have some very good points, so I've edited the OP's post to better reflect his true love.

Nikon recently released a new universal N-Log technical LUT for all their cameras, which replaces Nikon's original camera-specific LUTs. The original LUTs handled highlights particularly poorly. In fact they didn't really handle them at all - they inexplicably clipped all N-Log values above ~68% to white.
Here is my analysis of the new LUT. First here are the tone/gamma curves for both the original vs new LUTs, which I calculated by converting both 3D LUTs to 1D and graphing the resulting curves. Notice how the original LUT clips all highlights above 68% to white, whereas the new LUT has a nice, smooth roll-off.

Here is a visual comparison showing the original vs new LUT in action. This is a high DR N-RAW capture from a Z6 III, with the original vs new LUT compared, along with a comparison to the same scene using Davinci Resolve's CST with tone mapping.

For reference, here is how Nikon describes the new LUT in the comments at the top of the LUT file:
# Development Color Space = REC709
# Output Gamma Curve = BT1886
# Output Tonemap = MEDIUM_CONTRAST
# Highlight Rolloff = Rolloff 2 - medium

Was trying to edit my other post to add more of my thought, but I guess I was too late…
 
 
As a camera tech aficionado, I’ve noticed gear buying has become more about status than skill, even among so-called “professionals.” The pros I’ve learned from? They stuck with their equipment for years and still delivered incredible work, focusing on mastering their tools instead of chasing every new release.
That said, I’ve evolved too. I used to scoff at autofocus, but now, as a one-man band, I need gear that lets me concentrate on composition and sound without worrying about missed focus. That’s why any new camera I get has to have dependable autofocus. I’m leaning toward the GH7 for its 32-bit audio. Its perfect for solo shooters. And while the X-M5 has stunning image quality, I’d only consider it if the autofocus could keep up. For now, the tools I have are more than enough.
 
 
 

If it has the C80's triple native ISO that could be interesting. Panasonic's lens mount and AF will always be its own worst enemy and they haven't updated the S1H since 2019 so anyone who was going to move on from Panasonic already has and has already had 5yrs to delve into a different camera maker's ecosystem so I don't see anything from Panasonic making anything from Canon or Sony DOA. BTW I am a big Panasonic fan....just being realistic.

Nothing wrong with this approach, it's what Sony has been doing very successfully for a number of years. 
Can't afford the latest a7Rmk3? That's fine, maybe we can tempt you with the latest and cheaper a7mk3? Oh, that's still not cheap enough for you? Well look, we have an older a7mk2 still available for sale! What, not even that is cheap enough for you? No problem, we've got you, here is an OG a7mk1!
And Sony is still doing this strategy even today. 
Look at B&H, where both an a7mk2 and an a7mk3 and an a7mk4 is available for sale!
I see nothing at all wrong with Panasonic keeping around the Panasonic S5mk1 at a cheaper price. (currently US$1.4K https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1581612-REG/panasonic_lumix_dc_s5_mirrorless_digital.html)
Even better if they keep on bringing it down in price, brand new $1.2K S5mk1 by Christmas? Sub $1K S5mk1 in 2025? 

I started with a GH4, then 2 GH5 bodies, they worked pretty great, went off to Fuji XT-3 as I was hoping to have one system for both Photo and video. Didn't work out and this was when Lumix had the big FW for G9, so bought 2 G9 and a bunch of lenses, went to GH6 (x2) from there. Ended up selling all my M43 once the S5iix was released, as the future was FF and PDAF, and I'm currently on 2 S5iix bodies and a mess of lenses as I had to buy APS-C for Crop 60P and normal range FF glass, I don't Love the S5IIx but they work fine so I guess I'll keep using them till the pro FF bodies arrive, But when will that be? then the GH7 comes along with PDAF, so do I sell everything and go back to GH7? Or sell everything and go Sony???
This is where Lumix has left me personally.
Looking back, I can say that my GH5s and G9s just worked for what I did and served me very well. GH6 and beyond just don't have the same Mojo for me personally!

I think Lumix is damned if they do, damned if they don't. I think we only have to look back to the GH6 to see why they may be holding back. Just months after releasing it they then released the G9 II with PDAF. Within a year they'd go on to release a GH7 with PDAF. With hindsight it feels as though the GH6 was rushed out.
I think Panasonic might be in a similar situation with their higher end offerings.
I hope that Lumix works towards improving their marketing and becoming more transparent with the photo/video community. When you're that far behind the other companies there really isn't a reason not to be. Even if you cannot be specific, letting it be known that you're not abandoning higher end users would probably help. 

What heresy - I can tell in both of those images that there are cupboards just a few feet behind him and he's in a kitchen!  Any proper image with Toneh should be at f/0.95 and I shouldn't be able to tell if he's in a kitchen, at a lake, or mountaineering!

In that case, I'll replace the video with something with more value to the DJI discussion 🙂

Yeah, as per usual, he's serving up more half baked nonsense.

Interested to see what DJI may do.
Not interested in anything Toneh has to say on the matter.

How can we not think they are leftovers?
That is why I continue to say that this announcement is pure commercial suicide.

- Hey, we have 5,000 electronic S5s and S5 shells in stock. What are we going to do with them? 
- Why don't we write a firmware upgrade for the Lidar and resell them?
- great idea!
They would have been better off throwing them to the recycling bin. 

It's regrettable because cameras like the GH2 and GH5 were truly industry-leading in any number of ways.  I loved both of them - but failure to continue innovating has let everybody else catch up or surpass them.

Wow. It sounds like everyone is giving up on Panasonic. Not me. I get the disappointment—no S1H II—but you still have to hand it to them for taking a different path of fewer camera updates and more firmware updates. Granted, they've seemingly screwed the pooch on two successive events: the S9 and the S9 firmware update. It seems this was mainly an attempt at a re-release of the S9, responding to the many complaints about it. Given the hardware they put in it, I think it's successful. No, it doesn’t have an EVF, mechanical shutter, or hot shoe, but they did address other issues. The new 18-40mm lens isn’t exactly God’s gift to lenses, but it's a good start to the lineup. Now, we need to see smaller primes for it to make some sense.
Personally, I won’t leave Panasonic now, nor will I entertain the idea for some time. I don’t see the point in chasing the latest and greatest without any serious need for the features they offer, and I intend to reward the company for continuing to make improvements. Sony offers firmware—it’s called a 'new camera.' Canon offers firmware when people complain enough. Nikon releases cameras and apparently forgets to check if they work as intended. Fuji used to issue major firmware updates, but now they just mess up their cameras. Panasonic is the only one giving a slow, methodical release schedule. Sure, their cameras don’t always hit home and their marketing is wacky, but I don’t see the snafus of other companies. I imagine they are proud of the cameras they release, and they’re probably equally proud of the cameras they haven’t released due to not being ready.