sudopera

Friday 7am London time sees the release of a firmware update for the Sony FS5 which optimises the performance of internal recording, fixing the issues spotted by early adopters of the camera including myself (Andrew Reid) and Paul Antico.
Read the full article

Barrel distortion is too pronounced for my taste, at least in that video.

A unique, shallow lens mount would be awesome, but I doubt it considering they already slapped Canon mounts on their high end cameras.
It's a modular system. The central hardware has great longevity, the rest is upgradable, and (unlike RED) none of it's proprietary. 
I'd love to see more first party accessories from BM! They have a nice little array of cameras that cover a range of needs and price points. They should focus on delivering and supporting those. In the meantime, bring out some tools to keep people in the ecosystem. 
A few ideas: 
-a small, cheap Ninja Star-style recorder that uses SD cards. Maybe give it dual SD slots for simultaneous ProRes HQ and Proxy recording.
-an audio preamp/recorder with XLR, phantom power, dedicated volume knobs, and dual headphone jacks
-a battery solution that works like a base plate or battery grip. Include a few different plates for different types of batteries-- LP-E6, Sony BP-U60, Panasonic GH4 batteries, etc. Bonus points if it could plug into the camera and provide dedicated buttons for ISO, WB, REC stop/start, etc. 
-combine the last two ideas--make it like a YAGH box for people who work in real production environments, except with battery plates on one side as well as DC power
-a higher end ~19" production monitor
-4K Video Assist with a 7" screen
Pipe dreams mostly, but wouldn't it be nice? 

The thing is... you said:
and it's actually the other way around. In light terms, illumating a 2x crop frame sensor by e.g. a f/2.8 lens results in a 35mm equiv. depth of field that would be shot at f/4. So, if you want to shoot for the same look you have to shoot the FF at f/4 and the 2x crop frame sensor at f/2.8. Sure, I think we can agree on that. Now... if you don't give a jolly gosh darn about equiv. depth of field and just shoot the lens as is, with the exact same settings, except you switch the lens in between shots with each lens at its widest aperture: the Sigma at f/1.8 and the Canon at f/2.8, the result will be that the Sigma illuminates a brighter image onto the sensor. The Sigma is clearly the faster lens. Then again, no surprise as it's f/1.8 VS f/2.8. Like TRM said 'Light gathering, not bokeh'. Besides, 2x crop isn't APS-C, so what stops you from speedboosting the Sigma as well?

I'm going to go ahead and say it. This $1,000 camera looks slightly better to me than the URSA Mini 4.6 footage I've been seeing -- in terms of color rendition and motion cadence. That's a matter of taste to be sure but damn it if it doesn't make sacrificing resolution a no-brainer for such a beautiful cinematic image. I have one pre-ordered. Maybe i should sell my Pocket and get two of these.
 
 

I just found a comparison between GH4 And G7 on Videomaker. Is it possible that G7 is so much cleaner in higher ISO? There is side by side ISO test in the video.
http://www.videomaker.com/video/watch/reviews/18520-panasonic-lumix-g7-vs-gh4

The Video Devices PIX lineup manages to record 4k ProRes to USB 3 hard drive enclosures. Integrating such a system into a camera could be pretty revolutionary. 

Maybe you can try here
http://cvp.com/index.php?t=product/blackmagic_bmd-hyperd-avidas5hd_video_assist
or here
http://www.marcotec-shop.de/en/products/cat_611/detail_7390.htm

Oh for sure. APS-C sounds fine!
So why a GH4 over the A7SII or A7RII for example? Well, first of all: yes, the price. Sure, we'd all be shooting ARRI Alexa XT and Alexa Minis if we had the budget to run our operations like that, but if you're starting out at an indie level, you kinda hope to achieve a whole lot with a whole little. And that's where the folks at Panasonic have found themselves a real market. You can spend the money you saved on more important stuff like lenses, lighting, audio and talented people... To stick with saving on a camera... the A7RII does really well at S35... why not just buy a S35 camera to begin with and save a few pennies that could be put to better use?
The new Canon and Nikon flagships are fullframe and do 4K, do they set the bar? Well, here as well. Not exacty in everybody's ballpark financially speaking! And they must be great for shooting stills and fun as hybrid cameras, but since they rely heavily on the traditional DSLR approach, they're not really optimized for video use... besides, there's video crops there too. The 1D C does things well, but still doesn't have all the mirrorless gizmos. I think the times where we'd pick up cameras like the T2i/550D, 7D and 5D are long gone.
Ok, so back to fullframe and then mirrorless with Sony. You could get a 2nd hand A7S, that shouldn't set you back too much? True. Why did people ultimately go and pick-up an A7S? Because if you're running and gunning things you won't be setting up much lighting at all. The A7S excells at lowlight. That's the main issue with micro four thirds, the performance just isn't quite there. Everybody tries to avoid cranking up the ISO above ISO800. With an A7S you crank it up to in the thousands and just not care. That's a huge benefit. The A7S is fullframe, there's no muliplying the crop factor, so your wide lenses stay wide. Additionally fullframe enables you to more easily get a shallow depth of field, again, something that people would say contributes to a filmic look. Bitdata usually is better and more accurate too when you increase the pixel surface, allowing it to gather more light, although we haven't really seen any of that back in the colors, which require some work with both Panasonic and Sony.
So... sounds like things are in the favor of the A7S over the GH4? Depends on what you're going for. Let's first take a look at how we might go about getting the GH4 more up to A7S level... we could make the image brighter by concentrating light onto the smaller sensor by use of one of these speedboosters, lens turbos, focal reducers, whatchamacallit. This also helps with creating a shallower depth of field. Better... still not there by a long shot though. So what's the point, then? Well, the real power I think Micro Four Thirds has is the size of the system. Not so much in physical size of the camera itself perhaps as it's a no smaller of a camera than the A7s, but as a system, combined with the lenses to go with the sensor inside. To cover that A7S sensor you got to bring serious glass with serious coverage. Besides, serious lenses ask for serious prices too. The GH4 gives you a really discrete low profile camera to shoot with, be it with an affordable pancake lens or quality Vedyra Mini Prime cinema lens, not drawing too much attention, or just being able to cram it in every nook and cranny... or fit it underneath an aerial platform. Yet at the same time it's an enough of a powerhouse to behave well when fully rigged up in frankenstein fashion. For example rigged up with rods, follow focus system, matte box, external monitor/recorder, audio, V-lock battery, speedbooster, Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 D. It's just so multi purpose. And... you can really grow with your camera. As we've seen you can even try out some anamorphic stuff.
Then... what do you have to complain about anyways? You seem happy enough. Why not settle for minor improvements? Well, yeah, I'm very grateful to have something like availlable to us. But at the same time... we were still not able to bridge to gap in performance or get that really shallow depth of field. Now... the Nikon D5300 showed us that it's not a stretch to get nice organic rendering and great quality 1080p out of APS-C. And the look's just right somehow. Actually, not somehow. APS-C translates to S35. Guess what that before mentioned ARRI Alexa XT shoots at? You betcha, S35! One of the reasons people fell in love with the Samsung NX1. S35 and nice organic colors! The A5100 and A6000... APS-C too, yet, not the Sony mirrorless cameras known for their breakthrough video features, although the effecient XAVC-S was a nice touch. However, with their new A6300 they take everything people liked about its bigger sensored brothers and crammed it into the APS-C mirrorless body... perhaps with a few exceptions like in-body stabilization. Still though, internal 4K. The A7S didn't even do that. There's some new sensor tech inside which should mean it should perform nicely... better than MFT, still short of its fullframe brothers. It can do the same trick as the Panasonic though, concentrate light onto the smaller sensor for better performance and increased capability of creating shallow depth ot field. The A7RII has a great S35 crop mode, if it's anything like the performance there, it's more than enough for most people! It just sounds like it will leave the GH4 eating dust... that's all I'm saying.
Just about the bigger APS-C sensor? Well, again, taking the ARRI XT as an example... you know what some of its keypoints are? Film-like, organic look, High Dynamic Range, Sharp, natural images for HD, 2K, 4K UHD or 4K Cine deliverables, High sensitivity, ARRI color science, Multiple in-camera recording options, ARRIRAW, Apple ProRes, DNxHD, Two independent HD-SDI outputs... sounds familliar? Some of these points remind of Blackmagic cameras as well. BMD Pocket Cinema Camera, Micro Cinema Camera, options at around a 1000 bucks. Along the lines of the GH4 that is. So, no, it's not just fighting APS-C, it's fighting the same Micro Four Thirds standard for other aspects that are appreciated for good video.
What stops you from buying an A6300 or BMD Micro Cinema Camera? Well, exactly, nothing. Except the change from MFT to APS-C might not be so easy when you're heavily invested in native MFT glass. The BMD Micro Cinema Camera just doesn't do 4K, so that could be a reason to pass up on it, yet it has some of the features that makes an ARRI camera an ARRI camera... it's film-like, has that organic look, high dynamic range, sharp, natural images, decent color science, RAW/ProRes recording, which is worth something. And let's not forget optional global shutter mode! The A6300 gives you that performance boost and has those great features. It will provide that S35 look or even goes overboard with a focal reducer attached. So the question really becomes... what will Panasonic do to keep you from buying any of these? Well, that's why I said 'Panasonic needs to make it be worth it, which is going to be tough, especially if they really will take their time and not release it this year, with people switching away... so yeah'. Like I said, I still have the E-M1 as well, so I won't just part with my collection of native lenses just yet and the GH5 might up things enough to ditch the A6300 again (which I will initially primarily adapt Nikon mounted lenses to)... but it has to be more than a minor improvement. They'll have to pull out all the stops and really go for it. I don't understand why people would get this camera if they don't want its video features, so yeah, maybe there shouldn't be a GH5, or atleast, not in the capacity we're talking about here. Maybe they should brand it Varicam already. The Panasonic DMC-VC5, because the GH-range is more than just another addition to the G-string of stills cameras. You want a camera that does stills and still has some fun 4K video features without spending the money on getting too serious, get yourself something else. A G7 or so.
Anyways. Time will tell. And different opinions and insights aren't a bad thing.

Ehm, I think your overestimating the part of users that use this for stills primarily (or at least the '90% of users of gh4 would'nt need these features'). To me it makes hardly any sense to buy the GH4 if you're hardly interested in its more advanced video capabilities (Olympus seems a far better choice for stills, or even other Panasonics like the GX8, or the G7(0) if you want stills but 4K as well, because should you shoot video at some point, you want the latest and greatest, it's still a numbers game that gets some people to play). Thats the thing it does, that is what they've come to push the GH-range for. It's being used for aerial video, on many productions as alternative angle/B-cam and even as A-cam. With the BLEGH-unit released along beside the GH4, how can you deny it's not just a small market that cares about the video on the GH-range. That IS its market. And they've done great with it too. Panasonic US even puts pressure on the folks in charge overseas to give it more advanced features and make it more suitable at pro level, just take this recent talk on shooting anamorphic with Matt Frazer:
Just now with fierce competition, mainly Blackmagic and Sony... myself, heavily invested in the MFT system, I will probably be going with the A6300 next... I can still see me using the E-M1 for stills (IBIS with primes especially, compact and pretty), but for video I've come to appreciate the performance and aesthetics of the APS-C D5300.
Now, Sony has a very adaptable system, the S35 crop makes it easier to find and use wide angle lenses in comparison with MFT, smart adapters and focal reducers getting close to fullframe, making it easier to create a shallow depth of field, which often contributes to a filmic look. Not to mention the better performance when using it at and above ISO800, especially with the new sensor tech. I bet everyone would appreciate more usable ISO1600 and ISO3200. ISO6400 even perhaps. As well as the other tech feats. So Panasonic needs to make it be worth it, which is going to be tough, especially if they really will take their time and not release it this year, with people switching away... so yeah, I'm not so sure about that ('All it has to do is minor improvements').

New short film from Macgregor shot on Sony F35 is simply mouthwatering. I dare to say that I haven't seen anything better imagewise in digital camera world, but I have to admit that great grading also helps in this case.
 

New short film from Macgregor shot on Sony F35 is simply mouthwatering. I dare to say that I haven't seen anything better imagewise in digital camera world, but I have to admit that great grading also helps in this case.
 

Congrats on the Vimeo staff pick. Your work looks amazing.    I posted the link to your short earlier in one of Ed's posts (probably not the best place), but I was curious if Ed had seen it.  (bought the F35 myself thanks to you and Ed.)

New short film from Macgregor shot on Sony F35 is simply mouthwatering. I dare to say that I haven't seen anything better imagewise in digital camera world, but I have to admit that great grading also helps in this case.
 

New short film from Macgregor shot on Sony F35 is simply mouthwatering. I dare to say that I haven't seen anything better imagewise in digital camera world, but I have to admit that great grading also helps in this case.
 

New short film from Macgregor shot on Sony F35 is simply mouthwatering. I dare to say that I haven't seen anything better imagewise in digital camera world, but I have to admit that great grading also helps in this case.
 

New short film from Macgregor shot on Sony F35 is simply mouthwatering. I dare to say that I haven't seen anything better imagewise in digital camera world, but I have to admit that great grading also helps in this case.
 

New short film from Macgregor shot on Sony F35 is simply mouthwatering. I dare to say that I haven't seen anything better imagewise in digital camera world, but I have to admit that great grading also helps in this case.
 

Exactly.
This thread has been an interesting marketing lesson for Panasonic!
It shows that if they put an over-sized sensor in there then the perception will be that they are dumping Micro Four Thirds standard, even if per my article (which nobody read) they are actually keeping it.
Panasonic are in a perfect place to introduce two lens line-ups to one camera system.
A dual 2x crop and 1.5x crop system. Small portable M43 lenses and larger coverage S35 glass.
If not then we can just sit here and watch Micro Four Thirds die in a market place where you can buy a full frame camera for under $900 with lenses as small as the FE 55mm.
Also the RX1R II's optics matched with sensor proves that full frame does not automatically mean massive lenses. The lens on that camera is smaller than most Micro Four Thirds primes.
The fact is it is the 2x crop which hurts the GH4 most on the market where it competes with full frame and APS-C Sony cameras, also it is sold into a filmmaking would where 2x crop is a compete NON-STANDARD and Super 35mm is a match for APS-C. Sorry but that makes no sense, Panasonic.

I don't see why those specs that Andrew mentioned should be so unrealistic, to me it would be even logical because that way Panasonic could differentiate GH and GX lines more. GX for photography purists that want to shoot decent video from time to time and GH the other way around. Right now those two lines have almost the same features with different styled bodies, what is the point in that in this overcrowded market? I think it is clear now that GH cameras are recognised more in the market as video tools, so for me it is only logical to give priority to video specs in the next model.
Also who says that Panasonic couldn't ask much more then before for a camera with those specs, if it was priced around 2500$ it would be on the top of my list.
 

I know, but my point is that Panasonic is clearly ready to put a great camera in the market even if it uses competitors mount because they don't have their own solution, so what is the problem with S35 GH5, especially if it is still able to use regular M43 lenses and has native mount.

From a size perspective... the A5100 and A6000 are smaller than GH4. All APS-C stills cameras are aimed at the consumer crowd and priced accordingly/affordable (except perhaps the 7D & Hasselblad Sony rebrands). Just about all fullframe cameras are aimed at the enthusiast/prosumer/pro crowd and priced accordingly as well. There's a big gap in between APS-C and FF. Yet, between M43 and APS-C not so much. So from a costs perspective, I'm not sure why you'd oppose it either, if anything, APS-C actually seems the more mainstream, convenient and economical option to go with.
Lenses... I have seen small enough lenses on Sony E-mount cameras as well. You don't want to use other than M43 lenses with your S35 camera... ok, fine, don't. You can still use your M43 line-up lenses and have the sensor cropped accordingly, acting as a 4/3" sensored camera. Don't see why introducing a new line-up is a bad thing? Mutliple manufacturers have more than one specific sensor area covering mount. Panasonic has to keep up. Easy as that. You can't just magically make a sensor suddenly be hell of a lot more sensitive... but what's always an easy fix is increasing it's size. And as I said before, I think APS-C is where it's at. Sure they could introduce a fullframe system or a strictly APS-C one... but that's bad. You already have a eco system... and you want to give the people already shooting a Panasonic, having a bunch of native lenses to not start a system with like 3 lenses that will work natively only. Introducing a S35 camera that takes an existing lens eco system and expands on that with a new line-up... I think it's a smart move. Sure you could say 'well, if that's your philosophy, then you can also make it a fullframe camera and make it take M43 and act as a 4/3" sensored camera', well, you're forgetting why people love the GH-series then. S35 just makes sense. To me atleast. I'd like to see it. Don't find it too far fetched at all.

Perhaps you can submit a clip of something that does blow you away so we have some frame of reference of the standards you find acceptable...

Spot on Andrew, I just hope that it isn't too late for this if the camera is in final stage of development already.

masters of none looks excellent - nice clean blacks and motion looks really nice.  I am impressed.  Haven't seen much else shot on the varicam but this camera looks to be nice. I think this camera, a red, an alexa, or a sony f65 for higher end stuff and you really won't notice as much difference than the person behind the camera and the colorist.
They are all getting to a nice place.
Now it's a question of ergonomics, workflow, power consumption, weight, recording media, etc etc.