jgharding

So you may have see that Olympus latest M4/3 camera the OM-D EM1 iii (I'm not sure I could come up with a worse name as a joke) has "1053 phase-detect Cross Quad Pixel AF". 
I feel this is going to be the make or break generation for Panasonic. I recently bought a b-cam for the S1H and went for a Sony, not a Panasonic S5, due to the AF alone. In the latest Sony bodies it is nigh-on flawless for interviews, you can leave it on its own, wide open and it doesn't miss a beat. On the S1H i pull it myself, and the massive HDMI delay means I have to use the tiny screen to do it. Rumours for GH6 say it still uses DFD autofocus, now adding "AI" to the end of it and claiming this works five-times better. Which I assume means a future S body will also have some variation of DFD too... I'm waiting to see what happens, but don't have too much hope. If it isn't as good as Sony's I don't think I'll stay in the system regardless of Panasonic's superior colour and DR.
I do know the mantra "pros don't use AF" but that's just untrue in the real world, it's typical forum dogma. Pro does not just mean "working with a massive crew for a cinema film or Netflix", it means making a living from moving image making. Not everyone has a focus puller, most people don't. Professional crews are smaller these days, and AF is really useful in more circumstances than not and thus translates to sales, which translates to camera being supported, updated and made in the first place. I'm not just speaking for myself when I say AF is going to end up making me pick an inferior image quality for more convenience, it's all over the Panasonic groups too, loads of people jumping to second hand A7S3.
As much as one can worry about cameras, I worry that Panasonic will stick rigidly to their contrast AF, pretending as they do that it is usable for video or even in the same league as their competitors... I get it, it allows the sensor to remain unadulterated, but as it stands it just... doesn't work. I'd love to be proven wrong but... I think I'm out of faith.
I just think it's such a weird hill to die on. We know the other system works. Why persist with trying to fix something broken, when you could switch to a system that performs said function properly?

That electronic ND is the best though, really wish it was in every camera.

I think Dual Pixel AF will come to Panasonic's next bunch of cameras.
A lot of people here I am sure would love to shoot with an Alexa, Digital Bolex or RED with manual focus lenses or anamorphic LOMOs so autofocus isn't even the top priority for most but I do 100% agree it's very useful for every day work
I really think the R5C should have these too, being a Cinema EOS camera and likely $6000+?
It's more likely to be exact same hardware as R5C just with the fan and firmware update to remove the artificial record timer.

My two cents too, vimeo vids shot with tech pre 2015 are much nicer thought out, are more felt with an artists sensibility and competence, more interesting done than with hightech stuff from the later years. Low budget HD cams beginning with the likes of GH1, Canon Ti and so on showed an approach more connected to the possibilites and impact of visual cinematic language than these days. I am talking about semi pro stuff. Pro ads and big money productions are not of interest to me when it comes to the short form of film.

Hi all,

Many thanks for all the extra input, I can't really go through and reply individually to all the points but it was good to get more input and insight.

I have the ZV E10 now and am in testing to try and make myself a post-pipeline and LUT setup to make colour matching as painless as possible, so there isn't so much repeat work.

TBH the autofocus is pretty phenomenal with native Sony lenses. It really has come so far now, I don't think I could match it unless I were only doing the job of focussing and practiced a lot. The robots will have us beat in not too long for most circumstances. It's very impressive on a gimbal too, I ordered the new Zhiyun Crane M3 and all put together it is very light and easy to use.

The ZV E10 rolling shutter is utterly horrific in 4K mode though, but for the most part it should be fine. I mean it's really bad, as in if a subject sways to the side quickly their head bends!

I guess that is the downside of Sony trying to squeeze as many models as possible from this old sensor.

I did own the original RX10 back int eh day, and still have the RX100 MK V, though I will probably sell it now. I think they're useful cameras, but the 1-inch sensor definitely has a certain crunchy look to it. It's quite cool and 16mm like, but I reckon the APSC will cut better TBH.

Hey JG good to see you back. I think it's RIP DSLRs because they are taking sales away from EOS R lenses, as people like us already do, a lot of people still buy EF because we can use them on all the new mirrorless systems.
So if they nuke the entire line-up and EF mount cameras, they bait everyone into switching systems.
Some thoughts on that:
https://www.eoshd.com/news/eoshd-outlives-the-canon-dslr/
A lot of money in pros switching and having to rebuild their entire EF mount lenses in R mount.
It may however backfire on Canon as some will see it as an opportunity to dump Canon DSLRs and take their EF lenses with them to Sony, Nikon or Panasonic.

Well I use an S1H as my A cam and a ZV1 for my static longer form stuff, so an even smaller, simpler and cheaper solution.
However, I don’t mix the footage but use it for a separate purpose.
I picked it up to replace my previous same 1 inch sensor camcorder that had been my workhorse for the same purpose for the previous 5+ years, sacrificing the much longer zoom lens (didn’t need anyway) for the tiny size and better AF.
I think the only way you are going to know if it will work for you however is to try one and see?
I tried my S5 in this role for all of this years 6 jobs (should have been 30 so fuck you Covid, but that’s another matter) with the ZV1 mounted on the hotshoe to capture the same scene.
Used the ZV1 footage only on each occasion.
The Pros:
Smaller, lighter, cheaper, very good 4K 25p footage, excellent AF, no recording limit and can be powered off a power bank whilst recording.
The ‘Cons’:
The footage is not as malleable as it is with the majority of cameras as it is ultimately a 1 inch sensor, but you are looking at it’s newer and slightly larger sensor brother so…
I think as tempted to change myself to the ZV E10 but then asked myself why?
I can’t find enough reason to upgrade but if I was starting from scratch I’d probably go ZV E10.

I had a think about this last year.

End of the day an Alexa classic is a massive heavy 1080p camera which, although it produces a phenomenal image, was designed for crew work and is losing ground now.

I now use an S1H recording externally to BRAW, plus GH Alex LUTS and it's close enough for me, plus i can shoot entirely solo and get good results.

So TBH I think they need to come down a bit more in price.

it seems to vary camera to camera, the whole 8-bit vs 10-bit thing,

Like Panasonic S1H the 8-bit in vlog has the weird banded magenta thing and can render it unusable, Sometimes even in non-vlog profiles, but the 10-bit is great.

But the 12-bit BRAW for the Video Assist is just excellent! Such a huge jump up if you're going to do keying and heavy grading and so on.

it seems to vary camera to camera, the whole 8-bit vs 10-bit thing,

Like Panasonic S1H the 8-bit in vlog has the weird banded magenta thing and can render it unusable, Sometimes even in non-vlog profiles, but the 10-bit is great.

But the 12-bit BRAW for the Video Assist is just excellent! Such a huge jump up if you're going to do keying and heavy grading and so on.

This image shows the upcoming Sigma Fp-L, with the new EVF-11 module attached which gives it a nice rangefinder-style form factor.
Cleverly, the EVF attaches directly to the HDMI port with no cabling. It's able to communicate via USB C and is powered by the camera.
Since the Sigma Fp-L (and original) have quarter inch threads on both sides of the camera, a 1/4" screw secures the module in place (as if it were attached directly to a cage).
New blog post:
https://www.eoshd.com/news/sigma-evf-11-is-a-masterpiece-of-design/

Again, a great point I forgot about. I did have two of these, and now I record on Ninja V exclusively, so had forgotten, but yes it's a travesty. To allow this in their top DSLM body and just not address it other than tell people to buy new cards, then start blaming card manufacturers etc... it was all terrible.

I just switched to Ninja and carried on. There's no visual gain from ProRes at all, even if you push the footage into a pixelly mess of colour it's the same, you just have bigger files and slightly easier compatibility.

I'd prefer to use internal but I don't trust it, so yeah I see what you're saying.

The Ninja is a good tool regardless, but I wouldn't want to carry it around for a wedding, you'll wanna stay light I guess? I've never shot a wedding.

I don't think I'll need another camera for the next couple of years.
I own 2x S1 and 1x S5 at the moment, and they are exactly what I  need at the moment.
The only 'downside' is that the camera's can't record 4:2:2 10-bit and full frame at 50 fps. But, I have now invested in anamorphic lenses and these camera's offer great anamorphic support. In camera desqueeze and even the IBIS takes the squeeze factor into account. Also nice is that the 4:3 crop of the sensor is a bit higher than the normal S35 / APS-C crop (and slightly narrower) and that means that the crop factor when shooting a 1.33x anamorphic lens is reduced with about 20% as opposed to shooting in s35 mode. That's close to APS-H territory which is IMO, all you need for video.
Add to that the great photo quality and decent AF (for photography), the relatively small filesizes, the great DR when shooting in V-LOG 10-bit and the price... I really can't complain.
Well if I have to complain, it's the lack of an OLPF. 

Yea, I would buy an S1H if it wasn't for all the people complaining about corrupt .mtd files, camera freezes, etc. I also had those with my 3 S1 bodies. Many times and I was furious when it happened during weddings. But since I changed to CFexpress recording, I have no more problems. The S1H does not have that option, only SD-card recording. Which frankly, I don't dare to use anymore on paid gigs. Especially weddings...
Now there are many people without problems, but some never had problems and then all of a sudden, boom, a corrupt file. Did you ever have anything happen?
The Facebook groups of 'S1 and S1 users' are full of those posts.

I got an S1H before lockdown, it's not been used a lot but will pay for itself in some time.

I've been on the Red Komodo pre-order list for 4 months or so with no word. TBH I may cancel it as work is light. I'll see how I feel when i finally get the "do you want to complete your order sir?" call...

The S1H for me is like a baby Alexa, such a good image. But I prefer Komodo post pipeline due to the raw codec. That's it though, TBH the S1H is better for everything else. Maybe I will cancel it TBH, seems like there's little benefit at the moment.

I got an S1H before lockdown, it's not been used a lot but will pay for itself in some time.

I've been on the Red Komodo pre-order list for 4 months or so with no word. TBH I may cancel it as work is light. I'll see how I feel when i finally get the "do you want to complete your order sir?" call...

The S1H for me is like a baby Alexa, such a good image. But I prefer Komodo post pipeline due to the raw codec. That's it though, TBH the S1H is better for everything else. Maybe I will cancel it TBH, seems like there's little benefit at the moment.

New blog post here!
https://www.eoshd.com/news/eoshd-podcast-episode-2-an-interview-with-michael-moores-producer-jeff-gibbs-and-their-new-film-michael-moores-planet-of-the-humans/
And new podcast can be streamed here:
https://anchor.fm/eoshd/episodes/The-EOSHD-Podcast---Episode-2---Jeff-Gibbs--Director---Michael-Moores-Planet-Of-The-Humans-epsucf

He is so scary in Sexy Beast. That and Paddy Considine in Dead Man's Shoes are some of favourite intense performances.

I personally met him in Oporto along a film festival (Fantasporto) a couple of decades ago... lovely personality, polite, not vedette-diva type at all, human and attentive mate, my kudos to him. My personal perspective : ) Even though, I've heard the film festival organisation had (in 2004) some complaints on his hotel expenditures when he left... LOL :- )
- E.

It will be great if they ever get the Fusion integration right. As it stands now its an endless source of frustration. I'm always waiting for things to cache and the performance is terrible, simple things like Fusion titles cause the whole program to stutter, anything changes above or below a Fusion comp and the caching starts all over again..etc. etc. I think by DR20 they will have it where it needs to be. The rest of the program is already fantastic.

It's a great bit of software. There's no need for a dongle any more, if you have two machines activated and try a third it just de-registers the others, so it's all automatic.

The "Cut" page makes no sense to me, and remember that Fusion is a distinct piece of software that they've bolted in, so it's more like learning After Effects than a bit of an NLE.

But yeah I recently tried Premiere again out of curiosity and the terrible stability etc meant i didn't last long in it.

I'll admit, I find the Cut page the most confusing thing imaginable, in fact I dislike it so much that I removed the tab from the UI. Even after watching their tutorials on it there was nothing I liked about it.  I would love to be able to click the mouse a little less and resize the UI a little less, but the Cut page just doesn't click for me. I also do a lot of work with multicam sequences, Fusion compositions, motion tracking, lower thirds Fusion titles, etc. so even if I learned the Cut page I think I would end up in the Edit page at some point.
 
 
The Blackmagic Forum is a good place too, especially for Fusion questions. Hollywood grade VFX experts are actually hanging out on the Fusion forum and there's also more and more great YouTubers who post DR tutorials and they help a lot when I'm trying to figure out how to do something in Fusion.

I considered it but once I got a PC with a Ryzen and an RTX3080 the idea became a bit silly.

I fear Apple's love of just dumping software and other things with no notice.

Yeah I'm using the S1H and Nucleus Nano, the stills are amazing and the high-res photo mode is exceptional for still subjects, Vlog images are beautiful, and though Ninja V RAW is of limited use TBH it's still nice to have 

I think the issue is... how many of us are there? For me this is the best image available outside of Red and Arri, but are there enough of us who want it to keep them making these cameras?

Yeah I'm using the S1H and Nucleus Nano, the stills are amazing and the high-res photo mode is exceptional for still subjects, Vlog images are beautiful, and though Ninja V RAW is of limited use TBH it's still nice to have 

I think the issue is... how many of us are there? For me this is the best image available outside of Red and Arri, but are there enough of us who want it to keep them making these cameras?