jonpais

This may surprise you if you haven't looked at 43 Rumors recently, but apparently the Olympus EM1 II is being manufactured right here in Vietnam. They built a factory in Dong Nai province about eight years back.

Excellent customer care you received that's true of the entire Internet?

My very first video was shot on the Canon S100 pocket camera (720p).

And even those who are purchasing the G80 for vlogging are probably aware of the inexplicably awkward position of the mic jack, which interferes with the swivel LCD screen. I wonder whether anyone even asked Panasonic representatves about this issue at Photokina concerning the GH5. I imagine it will be the same. At the time, I wanted to purchase a Samsung 840 SSD (not sure if the number is correct) to replace the hard drive in my MacBook, but even though it was available in the States, virtually impossible to locate in Korea. I ended up having a friend bring it over from the States for me.

Yeah, I lived in Korea for 5 years, next to impossible for a foreigner to purchase anything online, not intuitive at all, yet I've managed to buy stuff online from Italy, Denmark and Poland even though I don't speak the language of any of those countries. It was very frustrating. And even here in Vietnam, it is relatively simple for anyone to buy online. Korean companies really make no effort to reach out to foreigners at all. When I was living there, it was a pain trying to find movies in the theater with English subtitles or even watch a K-drama on TV. Yet here, in Vietnam, a country nowhere near as rich as Korea, every theater has English subs for both Vietnamese and foreign movies, and K-Dramas have English subs as well. I should add that, while living in Korea, I spent practically every waking hour studying Korean, but that didn't help much.

@Michael Ma Where did you find it so cheap? Grey market? It's selling for $800 at B&H.

@Liam if you want fungus filled glass, just send me a bunch of lenses. I'll leave them out in the open here for a few months, then return them to you. ???

At around 2:25 you can see the lens zoom ring is quite stiff, which is not ideal, yet he continues to say, 'this has got a nice feel to it, actually', as if trying to reassure himself. Baffling. I own both the 12-35mm f/2.8 and 35-100mm f/2.8 zooms, and they feel like cheap plastic to me. Even some of the lettering around the 12-35mm has worn off, something that has never happened to any of my other lenses. So cheaply made! To each their own. At 5:20, he shows the thin paper bag the camera comes shipped in.

@Hanriverprod Thanks for sharing the video. Several other users reported the same problem over at YouTube. I guess I'll hold off buying the G80/85. I was watching an unboxing video this afternoon, and the 12-60 zoom that came with the camera wasn't smooth, particularly around the 25mm mark. That's another reason I'd avoid Panasonic lenses altogeher, though the G80/85 looks like a great camera once they release a firmware update for the jerky behavior. In that same unboxing video, the reviewer showed how the camera appeared to be wrapped in a thin piece of paper, which made him wonder if it had been properly packaged. I hope your problem gets resolved.

@Austin Hatala One thing holding me back is that most of my EF lenses are too heavy to use with Lens Regain on the Zhiyun Crane. CheesyCam did a comparison on YouTube, LensRegain compares favorably with Metabones, costs less, and throws in the follow focus to boot.

If you feel the need for speed, and you don't mind remortgaging your house to raise the cheddar, how about this Thunderbolt 3 ready SSD RAID from LaCie? Paired with the top-of-the-line MacBook Pro (thank goodness Apple finally listened to professional photographers and removed those annoying SD card slots and USB ports!), you should be able to churn through those Terra 6K clips like butter. LaCie claims top speeds of 2800 MB/s for this 2TB drive, which is encased in one solid block of serious CNC machined aluminum. We all love us some CNC machined aluminum. This represents a twofold increase in read speeds over LaCie's previous record-holder, the 1TB Little Big Disk Thunderbolt 2 (sounds a bit like the name of the son of a native American Indian chief, doesn't it?) released just 2-1/2 years ago. LaCie's most powerful drive to date is appropriately christened Bolt3, because once you see the price, you'll want to bolt out the door at the count of three. And while you're at it, why not also indulge yourself with one of LG's unsightly new 27" 5K monitors with butt-ugly bezel designed with Apple's input, for a mere $2,000, presumably the very same screen used in the current aging iMac lineup. And if you are fortunate enough to be named a beneficiary in the trust fund of a distant uncle, you'll be thrilled to learn that you can drive two of these puppies on the new MacBook Pros. Time to sell your aging Asus netbook and buy a real workstation, one designed for working professionals for whom money is no object!

@aldolega Yep, I just did some research, and the DEC does indeed have some limitations. First, the stepping you mentioned, which may also be accompanied by noise, and which varies according to the lens. The system also requires the use of lenses which have built-in focusing mechanisms, which rules out lenses like the Voigtlander Nokton. It is also awkward to mount on a gimbal, and may require modification, which admittedly is not hard to do, but which may void the warranty.

@Neil Anderson True, to take advantage of Vlog Lite, you need an external recorder. Otherwise it can exhibit banding and weird splotches, which may or may not be visible, depending on the subject matter. You'll probably also want to invest in an external monitor that accepts LUTs because the GH4's LCD and viewfinder will look like greyish mush. I almost always shoot outdoors in the shade, so I don't really need the extra dynamic range. If I'm remembering correctly, you have to shoot Vlog at ISO 800, which would be another pain in the neck for me. On the other hand, one review I watched on TCSTV was shot entirely in Vlog and it was one of the best looking clips they've ever shot. Of the other profiles, some shooters prefer Cinelike D. I shoot everything using the Natural profile. If I purchased the G80/85, I'd probably do the same. Edit: I just checked my camera, lowest ISO with Vlog is 400, which isn't a problem at all.

@Cary Knoop So we can both agree, along with pretty much the whole community here, that micro 4/3 sensors aren't exactly awesome at high ISOs. Which is not the same as saying they aren't good in low light. Slap on a Speed Booster or shoot with a Nokton or Leica and you're covered.

@Austin Hatala You do realize that the DJI Osmo Raw kit with proprietary SSD and follow focus will run over $6,000, while the Aputure DEC Wireless Focus & Aperture Controller for MFT is selling for just $250, don't you? But you'd have to be sure that whatever lens you're adapting doesn't exceed the payload capacity of the gimbal you're using.

@Neil Anderson From what I've read, there is basically no difference in quality between MP4 and MOV files (but apparently MOV files are much larger). But I believe (someone here correct me if I'm wrong), that MP4 files must be converted to ProRes before editing on a Mac, whereas MOV files can be dropped directly onto the timeline in FCP X. I almost always just import the MOV files directly from my hard drive into FCPX and begin editing right away, but it's probably good practice to convert them to ProRes first. Concerning the 200Mbps on the GH4, it only applies to 1080p, not 4K, and according to some shooters, the lower 100Mbps is preferable. I would never intentionally shoot 1080p on the GH4 anyhow, I always capture in 4K and downsample to 1080p in the timeline.

@Cary Knoop What 'high ISO's are you referring to? 3200? 6,400? 'High ISO' is a vague statement, and mud is not an accurate description of the noise artifacts that pop up from 800 and beyond either. In fact, I don't know of any micro 4/3 camera that excels in low light, which is why it's recommended to shoot with fast glass rather than high ISO settings, and I seldom if ever shoot higher than ISO 800 with my GH4 precisely because of noise issues. The G7 supposedly had a one stop increase in clean low light ability over the GH4 according to Max Yuryev (here is a comparison he did between the $600 G7 and Sony's $3,000 low light monster A7s2). And the G85 will in all probability have better low light performance than the GH4, too. So, no reason to prefer the GH4 over the G85 if low light performance is the sole criterion.

The Zhiyun Crane will run from $600-$650. I haven't used DNA glidegear, but it looks rather cumbersome.

I noted in your other thread that the GH4 and Nokton 17.5 can also work with the Zhiyun Crane.

It's also possible to use the GH4 + Nokton 17.5 on the Zhiyun Crane.

I recommend you buy the Leica Summilux 12mm f/1.4.

Any particular reason you're asking about this lens in this thread?

Thanks! A great read.

Maybe because - at the moment he can only afford one lens?

If this were the 8th lens in his kit, okay, but rather than spend $1,600 USD on one ultra wide, I think it would be wiser to buy a set of Panny lenses 20 1.7, 25 1.7, 42.5 1.7 or whatever (not sure about those numbers^^) if I were on a budget (which the OP apparently is) and sticking with Panasonic (remember, even the manual aperture ring, supposedly splendid, only works with Panasonic bodies, if I am not mistaken). More and more manufacturers are going to release micro 4/3 mount cameras in the future (I'm guessing), and I wouldn't want to be locked into one ecosystem.