sgreszcz

Having shot some Olympic snowboarding from the stands with a GH5+PL100-400 and some sailing from shore with the same camera and also the Olympus E-m5iii + 12-100 the results are actually quite good hand-held with their dual IS systems. It's just a shame they never got together to have dual IS compatible across systems. The Panasonic digital teleconverter (true crop) seems better than the Olympus implementation which seems like some resampling. On the other hand, the Olympus PDAF autofocus makes stable shooting and focusing at 800mm+ FF equivalent much easier.

I second what Fuzzy says. I sold my GH5 + PL12-60 combo for a E-M5iii+O12-100/f4. The Olympus colours are great out of the box, the IS with that lens is gimbal-like, and the C4k is lovely. The camera is not as rugged as the E-M1 series, but I can attest the to weather proofing as have filmed for hours in the pouring rain. Just miss zebras as the histogram is not really accurate (although good enough not to clip highlights, and I think that my LCD needs the exposure lowering as it is always brighter than the scene. @fuzzynormal what colour profile do you generally use and does anyone have experience with the best C-AF settings especially for face-detect focusing? As Fuzzy says, the E-M10iii is a steal and the C4k images is the same as the other more expensive Olympus cameras. I've seen them for less than £200 on e-bay. I'm considering selling my two GH5 for a pair of E-M10iii to use as B-cam and timelapse cams.

Thanks for that, they were sold out on Amazon, but I managed to find them on Ali Express: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32918185600.html

Yeah, I loved my GX80s, and I still have them (use them as small timelapse cameras, even have the USB dummy batteries). Unfortunately the IBIS and viewfinder let them down.

I've seen E-M10iii for less than £200. Looking for a steal as a B-Cam to my E-m5iii. Same image, just no PDAF. Would love to see them open source the code. That could be revolutionary like Magic Lantern or the GH2! Imagine what people could squeeze out of that hardware. Olympus has the best IBIS hardware and PDAF sensor, they just need more software features like zebras and better codecs beyond the C4k which is quite nice.

I'm sure they can do all this and more. I find it strange though that they are finally upping their video game _after_ being sold. Also, I'd like them to have similar firmware for all their cameras like the continuous bounding-boxes for face-detect focus while recording. That feature is not on the E-M5iii. I was thinking today, that those Olympus cameras could do so much more. They should open-source the firmware - ha ha.

I totally agree. For the stuff that I do, the Olympus E-M5iii and 12-100 f/4 is a fantastic combination. Small, light, weatherproof - the PDAF is a bonus although I often use the manual clutch on the 12-100. That pair shoots a very nice, extremely stable (gimbal-like) cinema 4k image with good colours that I don't even need to grade. The 12-100 f/4 with the extra 2x punch-in crop gives me 24-400mm full-frame equivalent range in 4k. Also it allows for macro-like close focusing. I throw that combo, the Panasonic 25 f/1.4 for interviews, a couple of Instamics, a Rode video micro, a small tripod, and my Mavic Air drone in a little backpack and I'm good to go for the day. No, I'm not going to be on Netflix or win any awards, but for the outdoors/environmental and event/community video that I do, Olympus is more than great. As far as excess gear, I probably should sell off my GH5 as I'm not using it as much now I have the E-M5iii. I also am thinking of selling my 17 and 45mm Voigtlanders which I love, but don't get a lot of indoors or low light work, especially after COVID. I still keep a Panasonic GX80 with dummy USB battery as it is so handy for timelapses and useful as a backup camera. Maybe I should look at a cheap E-M10ii as a B-cam to match my other Olympus. I've been considering other systems (fuji, sony, canon) but they all have limitations (size, stability, cost) compared to m4/3 and especially Olympus that has a little bit more "magic" to me over Panasonic. There must be a market for small, good quality video, stabilisation for vloggers or people like me. @fuzzynormal seems to be in the same camp as well as people like Chris Eyre-Walker. Too bad Olympus didn't capitalise here and Panasonic is making similar mistakes. Olympus should have thrown in every trick they had including better video-assist tools into two cameras - a small EM10 and a larger "pro" EM1. Panasonic needs a GH5 in a GX80 body and similar tech in an LX100 body with fixed, high-quality zoom lens and IBIS.

Hey there, I'm trying to edit GH5 HLG/HVEV video in FCPX 10.4.8 on OSX Catalina 10.15.5. This is a new computer and I could have sworn that I was able to see and edit that codec in my old Mac. Also, when I export prores 422 with other footage, for some reason I can't playback that output in Quicktime. I tried seeing if I had the proapps codecs installed and googled a bit last night, but couldn't find what I had done wrong... Any ideas?

Thanks everyone for the comments and suggestions, I'm putting together the proposal now, so this helps me get my thoughts together, especially for the "risks/expectations" section.

Yes, the client gets this - it is far from for cinema release (ha, ha). I will also be doing most of the key events and interviews, and they've worked with me before so they know what to expect. I will be editing it, so yeah I guess praying that what I get back from the remote parties is OK. I'm going to have them upload the video as they complete sessions and events so I can give feedback and if needed, pivot... Thanks for the response, it is appreciated!

I've been asked to work on a documentary project, and due to the various events being geographically distributed and budget restrictions one of the suggestions was to use crowd-sourced mobile video. In this case I would video the key events and interviews for the narrative, but would need to rely on amateur mobile video for b-roll and possibly event video/audio. Does anyone have any tips or suggestions for tackling this? I'm going to put together a document and video of simple "top tips" for recording better video and audio and perhaps including in the budget a mobile phone tripod/gimbal and an inexpensive hand audio recorder to get close to any speakers or for local the local teams to use. Any other thoughts would be appreciated.

Oops, I didn't see this limitation? I was using my E-M5iii in the pouring rain/mud last week with a lens-hood and not a problem with it and the 12-100/4 lens. For the stuff I shoot in the UK weather, sealing is a must.

Also can the fujis do a 1.6x or 2x digital zoom at full 4k resolution like the GH5 and Olympus cameras?

Yeah, I noticed the same thing - some weird wobbles and shudders in the corners. In comparison the latest Olympus with IBIS and sync-IS lenses + Electronic Image Stabilisation (slight crop) is almost as good as a handheld gimbal.

That looks cool, but very $$$. I found an open-box Afidus ATL-200 which I'm going to test now. I've got one, but not had great day-to-night or night-to-day weather to try it with. Might attempt through a window.

Thanks for the information @ted1000. I've been looking at the cam-do solutions with the GoPros. I think that they are the best "budget" solution, but even so your setup there costs around $1500. There is also the Afidus ATL-200 camera that I think I will give a shot. You can't get at the still images, but it does 1080p and has a motion sensor which could be cool for nature. I'm working on a long-term environmental development documentation of outcomes project and part of it is building new sand environments for the sand martins to hopefully nest. Another project is restoration work of a historical phone booth and also some massive willow head mounted in a tree (as the nature/seasons pass).

That is a real cool function, but seems to use computational photography with different composite exposures. Real neat innovation though:

Another good example that reminds me of that: I am switching back to Olympus after abandoning them when the Panasonic GX80 was released with Panasonic's first IBIS and much better video. I eventually upgraded to the GH5, but found it to be too big and really more camera than I need for what I do. I was going to get a Em1ii after they recently updated the firmware, but decided on the E-M5iii as it has all the same stuff, is a bit smaller, and has the 120fps slow-mo. The IBIS + 12-100/4 IS lens is a mind-blowing combination for hand-held video stability. Very gimbal like when you add the EIS (slight crop) and no weird wobble. Olympus could be a killer with the leading IBIS, weather proofing, small size, great lenses, excellent PDAF C-AF, great colour. They just need better codecs outside of Cine4k, 4k60fps, and 10-bit internal. If they added a real internal ND they would have the best vloging/travel/event video camera.

Anyone have experience with long-term, unattended, weatherproof time-lapse solutions? I've been looking at this quite a bit for a project where I need to leave some cameras unattended in the wild but only want to do field maintenance every couple of weeks. I also don't want to have the solution too big or expensive (as people might find/steal them). Here is what I've looked at so far: 1) Go pros and go-pro clones. Pros: can be externally USB powered, small, weatherproof, good image quality. Cons: they are constantly "running" so drain even large USB battery packs quickly. The shot interval is too short (too many unnecessary frames). There is a commercial solution by https://cam-do.com/ that provides an timed power on/off switch for go-pros, but on the internal batter still only will last about 3 days and cost about $300. So far this is my best plan. 2) Brinno (£180) has some good stuff, but you can't get the jpeg still images and it only makes a series of 720p AVIs. It is waterproof and small and lasts forever. You can get larger (17cm x 17cm), more expensive (£600) "construction" time-lapse kits from Brinno that do 1080p, but still no still images to process on your own, AVI output. 3) Wildlife trigger cams (many different types on Amazon). Work for a long time on AA batteries, not that expensive, waterproof, you can get still images to make your own time-lapse, not too big. Unfortunately poor image quality - might be good enough depending on what you need to do. 4) TimeLapse Pro mobile App (iOS and Android): This is a great, customisable time-lapse app. I tried this on old Motorola G Android and iPhone 6 devices. I think that this is one of the best solutions as you have the screen to frame and they are quite small. Unfortunately I found the app slightly unreliable (more on the Motorola) with crashes causing me not to want to trust it for long-term. 5) I'm now trying my old GX80s in a waterproof casing with dummy USB-powered battery to see how long it can last with e-shutter and sleep modes. I'm not sure that this will give me enough time to swap out the USB battery and I'd hate to have the cameras stolen even though they would be cheap on e-bay these days. I also need to find an inexpensive micro-43 lens too as don't want to use my good ones. 6) I'm looking at building my own time-lapse device using a Raspberry Pi Zero, and a hat that controls the power-up / power down of the device (as Raspberry Pis aren't really "low powered"). There are pretty decent 4k cameras available now for taking the still images. The only problem is finding a small waterproof case where I can pack in the zero, the hat, and the camera. Does anyone have any experience with this type of long-term time-lapse video project on a budget?

I am selling my GH5+PL12-60, it is actually a little large/heavy and probably too much camera for my needs. I bought an Em5iii when it came out, (it is much better value after the price just dropped to $999). I just shot some outdoor activities in the pouring UK rain and mud with the Em5iii an Rode videomicro. The interviews were done with two little waterproof Instamics. The IBIS with the Olympus 12-100/4 dual-IS is incredible. You can do much larger movements and walk with smoother results than with the GH5+PL12-60 dual-IS combo. With the x2 teleconverter I can get stabilised 4k from 24-400/f4 FF equivalent. I don't really need my Osmo Pocket anymore, except if I want to do boom-type shots with a selfie stick. The PDAF autofocus works great, especially with the face detect in interview situations. I'm getting a little lazy relying on it as it also works great for reveal "slider" shots and touch rack-focusing. The C-AF was the only reason I got the Em5iii over the Em10iii, but I could have got two for less than the price of the Em5iii! I like the Oly image, but still tweaking a bit to get the best out-of-camera colours (just using natural, -2 sharpening) and exposure without having to do much grading in post. No zebras, so relying on the histogram which is much nicer than on the Panasonics (stretches across the bottom). The EVF isn't as good as the GH5, and the mic input gets in the way of the flippy screen. The GH5 4k 10-bit picture looks better, but youtube and social media where I do my local/community event films have crappy quality, so it doesn't really matter. I do wish the Em5iii had the constant face-detection box during recording like with the newer Em1iii - just to give 100% confidence that the C-AF is doing it's thing. The only missing thing to make the Olympus the perfect camera for me would be built-in NDs. F4 and ISO 200 and no ND at 1/48 shutter is OK in the UK winter, but I use fixed NDs for the sunny weather (tired of fixing vari-ND colour messes in post). I carry the camera around much more than I did with the GH5 so have more opportunity to shoot stuff. I'm also really downsizing my overall kit as I only do small local events and documentary paid jobs on the side. My Voightlander 17mm and 42mm are going too to raise some cash. I'm keeping my GX80s for time-lapse cameras as they aren't worth much on the used market (working on a long-term time-lapse waterproof setup). When I see stuff like this, I know it's me lacking as a filmmaker, and not the camera that I'm using:

I loved the original LX100. Other than the non-tilt screen, weak viewfinder, only so-so stabilisation, and some weird colours sometime (like lips and other reds), the LX-100 original was a fantastic pocketable video and photo camera. Still one of my favourites along with the original OMD E-M5. They fixed a lot of the LX100 problems above with the GX80, however the IBIS and viewfinder on the GX80 are still not the best. I travelled through Malaysia last spring with a GX80 and the Panasonic 15mm + 45-175 zoom, and after I wished I would have brought my GH5 with me. Especially for the zoom work, too much wobble. I have used the 100-400 on my GH5 to film sailing from shore and snowboarding at the olympics and it was magic-stable. I'm not a pro, so I would sell a lot of my M43 gear for GH5 features in an LX100iii. Sorry for the Panasonic diversion. I've always been a bit curious of Fuji cameras so looking forward to what comes with the X-T4. Probably a larger camera than I want to carry though. Can't wait until you guys get your hands on it.

Hi there, I've recently decided to try the new Olympus OMD E-M5 iii after switching from the original E-M5 to Panasonic GX80 4 years ago (and more recently added a GH5). I've decided to try Olympus again now that they have good 4k video codec and great PDAF auto-focus. I've also enjoyed the Olympus colours, the better viewfinder and IBIS (especially compared to the GX80) and the much smaller size/weight compared the GH5 (which I only used for paid jobs, and never carried around or travel with). Is anyone shooting with the E-M1ii, EM1x, or the E-M5iii and can share tips, especially to get the best out of the PDAF C-AF system or other video tricks/tips? From the little testing that I've done the EM-5iii works pretty good. Hopefully it will help me follow focus with the fast moving kids/events that I video, I need to do some more testing. The touchscreen focus also works really smoothly too. Some things I already miss on the Panasonics (like zebras) although I find the Olympus histogram is much more useful with the overall histogram and the focus point overlay. I really do like how Olympus has managed to put all the custom function buttons and levers on such a small camera, which really helps change things quickly like 2x crop, peaking on/off, ISO, etc. However I don't like how stills and photo settings like ISO carry over when changing modes, and I couldn't find a way to put a custom movie mode on the "C" dial. Instead I had to put my stills Aperture mode settings on "C" and use the video mode for video. Luckily is is really fast to change settings (like from 4k for 120fps HD) from the super control panel. I do also miss the focus point joystick on the GH5 though, and find that the Panasonic auto-exposure is better with face detection than the Olympus which seems to overexpose for some reason.

Yeah, I've got an DJO Osmo pocket which is good enough for the things that I do, and with an extension pole I can get pseudo drone/crane shots. I sold my gimbal as it was just too much of a hassle to set up and carry around. The GH5 + PL12-40 with dual IS (which I use now) is pretty darn good when in "tripod IS mode", but when adding some movement it wasn't nearly as good as even older Olympus models in my opinion.

Man, those shots at 1:50 - who needs a gimbal. Probably going to sell my GH5 and go back to Olympus. Even though the original EM5 had blocky video, I loved shooting photos and video with it and always had it with me due to size-weight. I heavily used the GX80, but the IBIS and viewfinder let it down. Was originally thinking of a used E-M1ii and E-M10iii combo, but now might just get a new EM5ii as it is small enough and does all I need... That and the 12-100/4 would be perfect for the event stuff I do.

Hey there, Normally I shoot local events with my GH5 + PL12-60/2.8-4 and PL25/1.4 lenses for outdoor stuff, and Voigtlander 17.5/42.5 pair (plus Laowa 10mm/2) for indoor or lower-light/slower stuff. I realise now I could substitute most of these lenses with the single PL10-25/1.7 zoom (I would keep my P42.5/1.7 and O75/1.8 for longer stuff). Even though the lens is heavy, it would be lighter than carrying either of those two combinations and I wouldn't need to change lenses. I think this might simplify my lens choices. It will hurt to sell the Voigtlanders (although I already sold my 25mm). I don't use them that often, but when I do I realise how lovely they make things look. Anyone tried the Panasonic 10-25 yet? Stephen (I would probably keep the Laowa as it is so small and works great as a timelapse lens on my GX80)