TrueIndigo

I also think the Panasonic G7 is an important low cost UHD camera.
During the period when I was making decent money, I used to buy a new camera every year, as a personal exploration which I enjoyed. Last few years though I had to stop that, but strangely didn't miss it. I sold off a lot of stuff (currently down to five stills cameras and two camcorders) and spent more time exploring the cameras I already had, rather than exploring yet another camera. Because I really think we have been in the era of "good enough" for some time now. We can make a solid starting point for colour grading and using creative LUTs which can radically change the look of the final image anyway.   
I did lapse recently though, and got the G7 because there was a good deal going on it, presumably because it's now an outgoing model. At £380 for the body, I think it must be the cheapest new camera I've ever bought. After experimenting with various Mods to the Natural picture profile and Daylight white balance, I'm seeing an image not so different from the Nikons which I love. Way back I bought a GH1 when it first came out, so I still had a lot of MFT lens adapters and enjoy using my vintage Nikon AIS prime set. My main reason to buy it though (after a long time shooting video with DSLRs) was not so much about image, but a usability consideration: the opportunity to have a high res EVF for hand-held shooting (using a pistol grip to hold it to my eye). Feels like shooting Super 8 all over again, and I actually enjoy using this little camera. I think you can't underestimate how important the usability and pleasure of actually picking up a camera becomes, now that image quality is so good on almost everything. 

Yup +10 for this thread. A few months ago, after I sold my GX85 and before I bought my 5D3, I was unsure what route to go, so I was just shooting with my humble D5500 and I found it liberating to try silly shots and experiment.
I missed the GX85's 5-axis so much, I used my Benro monopod, the one with the swivel ball feet, and pressed it against my shoulder as a make shift shoulder rig.
With that freedom, the low hanging sun of mid winter, 60p and a fast 35mm lens, I started walking around and shooting. This what I came up with...
There was something interesting within the way the bokeh and the branches and the sunlight/shadows worked within the confines of D5500 slow motion... obviously it's just a little slow motion, who cares, but I found it pretty fun to push one of the cheapest cameras I have ever bought and I may be the only one, but I like what came from it. 
Disclaimer: it is long and possibly boring... so proceed with caution... ? 

Just for the heck of it. Here is the same cameras doing what cameras do best.. pet pics
Fuji XT2

 
Sigma DP2

 
Sigma SD Quattro (BTW click on this one and full ress. The colors.... yummy..)

I also think the Panasonic G7 is an important low cost UHD camera.
During the period when I was making decent money, I used to buy a new camera every year, as a personal exploration which I enjoyed. Last few years though I had to stop that, but strangely didn't miss it. I sold off a lot of stuff (currently down to five stills cameras and two camcorders) and spent more time exploring the cameras I already had, rather than exploring yet another camera. Because I really think we have been in the era of "good enough" for some time now. We can make a solid starting point for colour grading and using creative LUTs which can radically change the look of the final image anyway.   
I did lapse recently though, and got the G7 because there was a good deal going on it, presumably because it's now an outgoing model. At £380 for the body, I think it must be the cheapest new camera I've ever bought. After experimenting with various Mods to the Natural picture profile and Daylight white balance, I'm seeing an image not so different from the Nikons which I love. Way back I bought a GH1 when it first came out, so I still had a lot of MFT lens adapters and enjoy using my vintage Nikon AIS prime set. My main reason to buy it though (after a long time shooting video with DSLRs) was not so much about image, but a usability consideration: the opportunity to have a high res EVF for hand-held shooting (using a pistol grip to hold it to my eye). Feels like shooting Super 8 all over again, and I actually enjoy using this little camera. I think you can't underestimate how important the usability and pleasure of actually picking up a camera becomes, now that image quality is so good on almost everything. 

I also think the Panasonic G7 is an important low cost UHD camera.
During the period when I was making decent money, I used to buy a new camera every year, as a personal exploration which I enjoyed. Last few years though I had to stop that, but strangely didn't miss it. I sold off a lot of stuff (currently down to five stills cameras and two camcorders) and spent more time exploring the cameras I already had, rather than exploring yet another camera. Because I really think we have been in the era of "good enough" for some time now. We can make a solid starting point for colour grading and using creative LUTs which can radically change the look of the final image anyway.   
I did lapse recently though, and got the G7 because there was a good deal going on it, presumably because it's now an outgoing model. At £380 for the body, I think it must be the cheapest new camera I've ever bought. After experimenting with various Mods to the Natural picture profile and Daylight white balance, I'm seeing an image not so different from the Nikons which I love. Way back I bought a GH1 when it first came out, so I still had a lot of MFT lens adapters and enjoy using my vintage Nikon AIS prime set. My main reason to buy it though (after a long time shooting video with DSLRs) was not so much about image, but a usability consideration: the opportunity to have a high res EVF for hand-held shooting (using a pistol grip to hold it to my eye). Feels like shooting Super 8 all over again, and I actually enjoy using this little camera. I think you can't underestimate how important the usability and pleasure of actually picking up a camera becomes, now that image quality is so good on almost everything. 

Good point. I never intended to be a filmmaker, let alone a considerate one. I keep trying, some days it pays off, some days it doesn't. Every day I learn something, usually through my failures more than my successes. 

A rather quick edit of a short sailing trip in The Hague:
Again I am really satisfied with the quality. The Summilux really sings. Stupidly enough I did not bring my field recorder so I had to rely on the built-in mic of the GX80, which I only could use in the beginning. The lack of a mic is is really annoying me, my next camera really needs to have have a mic in. I even considered checking out the A6500 but gave it up quickly after hearing about the dimmed screen issues.

That's a fair price for it though. So good on you! I love mine. This is the first time in a long time where I haven't felt like an incompetent shooter/colorist... so I can only imagine what some of you guys can do. 
Also looking forward to testing the 4K Raw next week. 

So as some already know, I recently purchased a 5D3 primarily to shoot Magic Lantern Raw. Well this week I started my first short film with it. It was definitely a learning experience but I really don't know of any camera where I would have achieved such pleasing images. I also purchased the Canon 24-70mm f/4 lens and I am consistently blown away by what a great lens it is and the OIS is so damn good, even at 70mm, that the majority of my short, thus far, has been shot handheld.
With the recent 4K Raw developments, I figured I would post some pros and cons in case somebody else is looking to pick one up.
Well the first pro is that shooting Raw could not be simpler with it. Set up Raw histogram with the overexposure hint and when it shows your color channels are starting to clip or the word "over" appears on the histogram, then just dial back your exposure a touch.
Another pro is that there are a bunch of people on this forum still shooting with the 5D3 and everybody is helpful. If you have a problem about any aspect of the process or workflow, there are plenty of other ML shooters around here that go out of their way to answer even the stupidest of my questions... not nearly as daunting as the ML forum.
Now a couple cons... you need a bunch of cards... or a computer and hard drive to offload your footage... 12 minutes on a 64GB cards gets filled quickly. Even with 3 cards, and trying to be conservative with my shots and shot ratios, I still ran out of space 3/4 of the way through my second day of shooting.
Converting the footage is a bit tedious. The RawMagic route of converting the MLV files to CDNG is fairly fast but then you still have to process the footage through Resolve or After Effects before really seeing what you have. I really like the MLRawViewer program, but although you get to preview your footage, the conversion is slow and after I updated my Mac to Sierra, the version I have does not work with it, but I believe there is a newer version,  so hopefully it will work then.
I guess that's about it for now, so I'll leave you with a couple graded screen grabs, from a couple shots I briefly messed around with yesterday...

I can't remember when I actually made the switch from being a consumer to being a creator. All I knew was that when I was a kid I was fascinated with TV shows, old Hollywood movies and European art house films, so it seemed quite natural to want to create something that would have a similar effect on other people. My parents bought me a second hand Standard 8 cine camera, on which I shot home movies and animated toys on the carpet. This was followed by a new Super 8 camera, which I hard-matted with cardboard to fake the look of CinemaScope. I didn't realise then how important the fun side of things was to me. By the time I went to art college I had a 16mm Bolex, which kind've slowed me down because the stock costs were too much for pocket money. I used the 16mm cameras at the college for the course projects, but never really used my own camera very much, and eventually sold it about 10 years later (it had become just a wonderfully built ornament on the shelf).
I followed my college friends to London and worked for a film and TV company for many years, working non-stop on TV series and that eventually wore me out -- I made a few personal projects along the way, but the joy of story-telling with film (as in those Standard-8 days) was just gone. I was also becoming tired of the city, too, so went back home where I can just go for a walk in the fields when I want to. I continued to work in multi-media, laying out books and magazines for a publishing house, then doing fine art printing for a gallery. I never forgot film making, though, because it was in me, but I wasn't doing anything about it. But then DV camcorder technology and affordable computer editing we're growing up together very nicely, and I was shooting just for the fun of it again. It was portable, it was cheap, it was available and eventually it was even full HD. And when the still cameras started recording video, well, there was a welcome filmic glamour to the video image that was quite exciting.
Coming more up to date, I was a full-time staff video editor for a small local video production company, though after five very busy years, I've since gone freelance. Doing much less work (and pretty broke as a result), but I have more time to work on my own projects. After an abortive start on one film, I'm currently making the props for another feature length no-budget project. I just can't seem to shift the idea that film making is something I have to do. I recently wrote a novel, based on a character from one of the scripts I wrote about twenty years before, so that was me genuinely trying another medium. And the freedom of writing, compared to all the hoops you have to go through even for unambitious and informal film making like mine, is quite remarkable. I've now written half of the sequel, so I must enjoy it, but, there's something about film making that really means something important to me. Perhaps it's because I like working with people on a collaborative art project, whereas writing is a solitary experience. Or maybe it's just that you never really forget your first love: Watching mysterious and surreal TV series like The Avengers, or 1940's American film noirs, and wondering if I too could create such atmospheres and involving entertainments.

I can't remember when I actually made the switch from being a consumer to being a creator. All I knew was that when I was a kid I was fascinated with TV shows, old Hollywood movies and European art house films, so it seemed quite natural to want to create something that would have a similar effect on other people. My parents bought me a second hand Standard 8 cine camera, on which I shot home movies and animated toys on the carpet. This was followed by a new Super 8 camera, which I hard-matted with cardboard to fake the look of CinemaScope. I didn't realise then how important the fun side of things was to me. By the time I went to art college I had a 16mm Bolex, which kind've slowed me down because the stock costs were too much for pocket money. I used the 16mm cameras at the college for the course projects, but never really used my own camera very much, and eventually sold it about 10 years later (it had become just a wonderfully built ornament on the shelf).
I followed my college friends to London and worked for a film and TV company for many years, working non-stop on TV series and that eventually wore me out -- I made a few personal projects along the way, but the joy of story-telling with film (as in those Standard-8 days) was just gone. I was also becoming tired of the city, too, so went back home where I can just go for a walk in the fields when I want to. I continued to work in multi-media, laying out books and magazines for a publishing house, then doing fine art printing for a gallery. I never forgot film making, though, because it was in me, but I wasn't doing anything about it. But then DV camcorder technology and affordable computer editing we're growing up together very nicely, and I was shooting just for the fun of it again. It was portable, it was cheap, it was available and eventually it was even full HD. And when the still cameras started recording video, well, there was a welcome filmic glamour to the video image that was quite exciting.
Coming more up to date, I was a full-time staff video editor for a small local video production company, though after five very busy years, I've since gone freelance. Doing much less work (and pretty broke as a result), but I have more time to work on my own projects. After an abortive start on one film, I'm currently making the props for another feature length no-budget project. I just can't seem to shift the idea that film making is something I have to do. I recently wrote a novel, based on a character from one of the scripts I wrote about twenty years before, so that was me genuinely trying another medium. And the freedom of writing, compared to all the hoops you have to go through even for unambitious and informal film making like mine, is quite remarkable. I've now written half of the sequel, so I must enjoy it, but, there's something about film making that really means something important to me. Perhaps it's because I like working with people on a collaborative art project, whereas writing is a solitary experience. Or maybe it's just that you never really forget your first love: Watching mysterious and surreal TV series like The Avengers, or 1940's American film noirs, and wondering if I too could create such atmospheres and involving entertainments.

All I know is... my D5500's video looks more cinematic at 1080p than the G7 looks at 4K. The LX100 and it's 12MP sensor has more mojo than the G7 at 16MP. Now I'm not picking on the G7 or Panasonic or anyone else, but when a conversation arises about good, clean 1080p, the D5500 and the D750 always gets mentioned. And who cares about MPs? 21 MPs are more than enough.
I am excited for the D7500. The 4K video I've seen from the D500 looks great. The 1080p I've seen from the D500 with it's IS looks great. 
@jhnkng recently posted a video from the D500... I thought it was shot in 4K but it was actually shot in 1080p.
Yeah the crop could be better, but it's basically the same as the GH4 and IMO, the D500 has better 4K than the GH4.
But I do wish it had peaking. 
In the end, the cream rises to the top. And any camera from Panasonic, Sony, Canon or Nikon, etc... can be used to make a fine film.
A couple months ago, I told a story about how I was at the movie theatre over the holidays and the projector went haywire and the menu showed on the screen during the trailers. All of the trailers were being projected at 720p. Last week I worked a trade show and on their theatre sized screen, the video was being displayed at 720p video and it looked amazing.
So we should probably stop worrying about this spec and that spec and instead work on making better films.

Yes, I know what you mean about batteries - over the years, moving through various models and brands, you can't help feel being held to ransom by it. These days though I factor in the cost of every new camera purchase to include a battery grip and several batteries. Ultimately, I don't want the batteries to dictate what camera I buy.  
I've enjoyed using the D5500 and feel the 1080p from it is possibly still amongst the prettiest you can get in H.264 8-bit colour (I haven't tried the Fuji X-T2, though). For usability I have ISO mapped to the FN button for quick changes. The pre-set WB options are pretty good in most situations (personally, I've modified Daylight and Cloudy a bit along the blue axis to be closer to what I want), though if you need to set your own Kelvin values, yes, that's where the low price of the D5500 begins to show.
When it comes to image quality I really do think we've been in the era of "good enough" for some time now, and it was relatively cheap cameras like the D5500 that brought me to that conclusion. Even this camera probably exceeds my current skill set; certainly, I don't feel held back by it! Be interesting to see what Nikon does next...

Thanks for sharing, and the grades look nice, too.

I really hope Nikon doesn't get out of the low end camera business like some rumors are stating. I was messing around with some D5500 clips this morning and man is that Flat profile nice.
 

Congrats on finishing your artwork, and good luck with the pitches. I am currently doing the same with a half dozen scripts I rough drafted over the past five years.
I bought a 50D a few months back for a couple hundred bucks and the image still astounds me. I took the easy route and process the footage through ML Raw Viewer directly to prores but even with a little less latitude in post, and no sound, it mops the floor with any image in that price category. I hope to get a mark iii at the end of this year or in 2018 when the used prices drop a touch more... beautiful image. Please report back when you have some footage to share. Even a shot similar to that one you posted from the RX a while back... I think it was your dog's head out the car window? Good stuff. 

If you shoot a lot viewing the rear LCD screen (rather than the viewfinder), how about using the neck strap? I never used to bother attaching it to any new camera I had because I mostly shot on a tripod. But several years ago I put a strap on one of my DSLRs just to carry it about, and when I used it for informally shooting something, I found that with a short strap, pushing against the two strap connections gave surprising extra stability than handheld alone. You can gimble your waist to perform moves, and pushing against the strap seems to iron out any micro-tremors that can happen if you are holding a camera free from any support.

Thanks, mate, it's something to think about.

For folks who just can't bring themselves to delete the RAW files, this will save some storage space. And if it also helps the actual recording datarate, the older DIGIC 4 cameras will get a performance boost: keeps the 50D and 5DII relevant for people who already own those cameras.

"link doesn't work" -- you are right, sir! New link:
 
 
 

There is no live histogram with the D5500. What I do is shoot a few seconds of a representative view of my shot, and then quickly review it -- no need to play it, just see the (default) first frame. By enabling histograms (in the menus) you can have three colour or a single luminosity histogram display of that first frame to check your current exposure is not clipping. Use the up/down joystick buttons to toggle through display of histograms or no histograms.
This is obviously less elegant than having a live histogram active all the time, but after a while it only takes a short delay to make the check. Of course, there will be a further delay if you actually need to adjust your aperture with an auto lens in response to what you learned from the histogram! You have to go out of live view to make the aperture change and then perhaps shoot another short video clip to again preview with the histogram in order to confirm that your new exposure is going where you want it. With a manual aperture lens you do not need to leave live view to see an aperture change, and I've got the FN button assigned to ISO changes to help speed that up, but you still have the delay of shooting another clip to check the new histogram.
I put up with all this because it's important enough to me to want to know where my exposure is technically. And I've come to prefer the Nikon video image over my previous experience with Canon DSLR video: I've been using a D5200 since 2013 and got a D5500 early this year.

I have a similar thing with writing text on the screen - it looks fine, but the moment it's printed on paper, I see problems straight away.

I've just added my Magic Lantern RAW video camera test for the 50D in the "Shooting" section if anyone wants to check it out:
http://www.eoshd.com/comments/topic/20129-ml-raw-video-50d-camera-test/

Did a quick test yesterday, just an exercise in shooting something and uploading it the same day since I haven't done anything for a while, but I thought you guys might like to see it because there's no colour correction - you can see what the Nikon D5200 looks like in these conditions: interior near a window, and one LED light for fill.

Very interesting idea, Matt, about a creative site rather than a gear-centric site - there are quite a few of the latter but I haven't found one of the former that I've ever bookmarked. A possible idea I have concerns two distinct areas of creative origination:

That which inspires
Such as suggested films that have appeared on this thread. Perhaps a list of films could be created with various peoples explanations added about why (from the point of view of story construction, cinematography, characterisation, dramatic situations, etc) people find them inspiring. Could also include painting, music, TV, still photography (other media that inspires), though that might be straying too far.  

Initial exploitation of ideas
There are quite a few "how to write screenplays" sites, with advice about 3 or 9 Act structure, plot points, how many pages a treatment should be, etc, but I think one of the under-reported issues are how you handle the initial ideas before writing really starts. For example, formulating a powerful "what if statement" (to help you focus the key concept which will hook interest). What makes a story alluring; what sort of themes or subjects appeal to you? Discussions about style, ways of seeing and personal ways of showing.