Parker

A few more for the road. Damn does the F3 grade well.

Yes, with a motor add on (which won't necessarily be a Tilta one but could be) it will then be a generic product that can be used on any camera with any lens rather than being specific to the Blackmagic as it currently is.
A motor option will not be far behind the release of the Blackmagic version.
 

Video is much like theater plays; there are a lot of moving parts. Sound, music, costumes, acting, vocals, stage production, lighting...and you have to do it in realtime (in motion)...and you have to meld all of that together. If just one aspect is off, the illusion is over and the audience not only knows it, they feel it too.
It’s incredibly difficult. However, the payoff can be incredibly satisfying because you can elicit emotions out of the audience unlike any other medium. I would say literature  comes close but even there you have the power of the readers imagination to “fill in the scene” that you never have with cinematography.
You have too be a master painter, a conductor, a writer/storyteller and a magician.
There is nothing quite like making something and them watching your audience be brought too an emotion. That can be incredibly powerful, healing even, life changing, when done right.

I love photography and do quite a bit of pro photo work, but for me it just doesn't quite scratch the itch like video does; I dread the drudgery of endless hours editing photos. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy post-processing a few of my favorite pics from a shoot, but then I feel satisfied, and it just feels like a chore to have to get through the rest of them. 
Video, on the other hand, the post process is so satisfying! Cutting a sequence together, adding the perfect music, finessing the story... I can't get enough of it! 
Video vs. photo, particularly of the same event, is also an interesting comparison; the moving image just captures the moment so much better. Last month my sister had her first child, and I shot a handful of clips between photos as my parents got to meet their first grandchild, and ended up with enough footage, as it turned out, to cut a little sequence together. The photos are great, they're precious, they'll hang on the wall for years to come, but the video truly captures the moment, the emotions, the environment, in a way the photos never can! 
That's what keeps me coming back to video; photography, particularly on vacations, will always be a hobby, but with video, it is just so multi-faceted! I enjoy the scripting and pre-production phase, then get tired of it and can't wait to shoot, then after long production days I'm exhausted but very excited to start playing with my images in the edit, and by the time I'm through with that process I'm dying to get away from the screen and get back out shooting again, all the while constantly trying to improve my skills, hone my craft, better my storytelling abilities. I don't think I'll ever get sick of that. 

In some sectors, Chinese are just closing the gap and sometime, even beating western companies. Drone is one of these sector. Innovation and production cost are two different things. Plenty of consumer product companies do innovate and place their production line in low cost countries.

DJI are just the best at what they do. They did it first and much better than the competition. Initially the French company Parrot had an edge in he drone consumer market but their product were cheaply made. DJI moved up market and proposed higher end drone (Phantom) able to carry a GoPro, then a gimbal  (zenmuse), then they integrated the gimbal and camera on the drone with a nice ready to fly package (Phantom 3). Meanwhile Parrot proposed the piece of crap Bebop which was just an horrible product (I know, I was one of the product ambassador). The Parrot Anafi was better but by that time, DJI became a giant and it was impossible to close the technological gap. Therefore Parrot left the drone consumer market.
The same thing happened with American 3DR: they just designed bad drones (IRIS, Solo, etc.) which were under-powered or poorly tuned. The 3DR production line in Mexico didn't help with cost neither.
GoPro also made the same mistake with the Karma, it took them years to develop, they wanted to do everything in house and meet the market with a drone that was already obsolete by the time it was release. I approached them for technological consulting but they knew better than the rest of the world at the time... GoPro tried to compete with the Phantom when DJI released the Mavic 1. Guess what? The Mavic 1 was sold out for months while the Karmas were crashing out of the sky due to the battery fiasco. GoPro quickly quit this market with massive financial loss.
And unlike the camera or phone industry, DJI didn't copy or catch up with anybody, they create their own market with technological and commercial innovation. They came up with ready to fly bundle in what was a DIY industry. They made everything nice and simple by innovation, improving existing solution (e.g. the controller and tablet integration introduced by parrot with the horrible and massive skycontroller). They didn't fear to cannibalize their on product line and they sunk the competition with extremely fast product cycle (sometime less than a year between each release).

I now believe that DJI is unbeatable due to its commercial and technological advance. At least on the short-medium term.
I've been working in the drone industry since the early 2010s and no one comes close to DJI. I've seen countless drone start up crash. Even Autel is just catching up with DJI and their technology is way behind DJI. They obviously don't master the stabilization issue. DJI R&D department is probably as big as the entire Autel company.
DJI is also the only drone company with a good digital link. Autel radio range don't even come close and they would have to spend millions in R&D to reach that level. A few years ago, a drone company in Asia tried to develop an Ocusync alternative but they quickly abandon due to the cost: R&D alone was in millions, then came MOQ (minimum order quantity) from supplier which were also very large to be competitive.
So no, innovation is what made DJI. Western companies just performed poorly and they lost. It has nothing to do with production cost.

As for the industrial/military market, this is a completely different world. Industrial drone is a niche market which is being tackled by DJI, and they are pushing more and more in this direction because the consumer market is becoming saturated. Incoming regulation are not going to help neither. As for the military, many countries will just exclude a Chinese provider.

Yeah NX1 still amazes me, how something so 'conventional' in design feels so right. The smooth curves, big grip, direct controls, lightning fast responses, superb build quality, great screen, and then there's the image itself and the colour. Easily holds up today!

I just decided to pull the trigger on the Forza 500 about six months ago and be done with it, and have been happy with my choice. If/when the 600D is available I will re-evaluate, but I didn't want to wait, and now I have a nice, bright new light on every shoot. 

@jgharding just keep using the emotive color Luts, they're not an exact match like they are with the GH5, but I use them on the S1 all the time and it looks awesome. Can get both cameras to match quite easily with minimal tweaking 

I agree, he's super over the top and kind of annoying to listen to for more than a few episodes. For filmmaking-related podcasts, I prefer the Go Creative show and its short, really good interviews with top-level DP's and actual pros about what they're shooting. 

The T-Stop Inn is also pretty good, lots of really cool insights from legends of the industry. 

If you're more interested in the purely entrepreneurial, 'from the bootstraps-up' type of indy filmmaking that Wandering DP provides for a lot of people, then Alex Ferrarri's Indy Film Hustle is decent, although I haven't listened to a huge number of episodes, his personality can also be a little much. 

My advice: try to get repeat clients to go on contract for a monthly retainer. My freelance work was up and down and very unreliable for years, but once I got my first client on a retainer, things have gone much more smoothly for me, the consistent monthly paychecks have been awesome while still being able to enjoy the flexibility of freelance. 
One tip for negotiating these kinds of deals with clients is to look through job listings for full-time video work in your area, contacting the companies in question and pitching a freelance retainer solution instead, which they might be happy to do since it will save them a lot of money in the long-run, so it's a win-win. 
Best of luck! It's a lot more fun doing what you love. 

Within the week; I'm finishing the last details and trying to figure out email. Email is a logistical nightmare

Per Ted Sims on the 300Dii, via Facebook: 
"Release date in the next two months! Yes, that is an all-in-one controller box. No more noisy ballast. The new design is all built together with zero fans, all passive cooling. 20% brighter. DMX added. Powerable from a single battery. Quick release super clamp mounting point on the controller box. 360 degree reinforced yoke. Built-in Effects and Wireless Control via APP."

I don't think many white men feel the so called privilege.
Which is why we end up with protest votes at election time.
The whole political correct thing doesn't connect with ordinary people.
Politics is obsessed with skin colour, not the gaffer on a film set who just happens to be born in a country where white people are a majority.
Why should he feel ashamed just for being part of an industry?
I don't think anybody who works in the film industry should be shamed into believing they are part of an institutionally racist conspiracy.
Some of the most incredible countries in the world are monocultural. Japan is about as close to a monocultural society as it gets and where is no shame in it. In fact Japan is arguably all the more unique and special for it. Are we suggesting Japan should now be reduced to 40% to 50% native Japanese people, in order to represent a greater number of skin colours and cultures? No.
Discrimination against majorities is as wrong as discrimination against minorities.
This constant shaming of talented hard working creative people for being white males has gotta stop.

The 1080p mode on the GH5 is really quite good; if like me, you are happy with a dense 2K image, then 1080p offers the most bitrate saturated options in the camera (no affect on color)
Cine-D has a slight bit depth density edge over VLog, while VLog has a slight extreme gamut edge. With 8 bit, Cine-D is decidedly better
Great work Parker and Benjamin! Alas, I've got to get the next update out..
Just finished writing one last tool that I believe will be critical for automating camera support, to do the Exp Pres (it is the fourth 'sub-section' of the ECE)

I'm just finishing up a project right now, shot on the S1 and GH5, using GHAlex, turned out quite nice. (These are just low res grabs from frame.io) 

 

@mercer The thing I always notice about GHAlex compared to other luts is how it just adds a nice sort of clear separation to the skin tones, in both color and b&w. It just adds a midtone pop that I really like. 

@mercer The thing I always notice about GHAlex compared to other luts is how it just adds a nice sort of clear separation to the skin tones, in both color and b&w. It just adds a midtone pop that I really like. 

XT3 is in the plans, indeed. At this moment, its down to documenting the process of adding a camera to the server, and then streamlining the Pdf writing process as best I can (later today). This will make a camera cycle as efficient as possible.
From the LogC alone, V4 isn't that different from V3 for the average image. When saturation becomes more extreme, V4 is quite a bit better (much, much more accurate to Alexa). And when using V4 on unintended formats (i.e. Rec709 footage), V4 holds up, while V3 doesn't. Here is a comparison with one of the more saturated images I've got (most notable shift), using Soft (most equivalent variation between 3 & 4):
V3

V4

I'm just finishing up a project right now, shot on the S1 and GH5, using GHAlex, turned out quite nice. (These are just low res grabs from frame.io) 

 

I know who my money's on to come up with a way to beat them both though

Its almost certain to be the case. Efficiency is vital. I have been deep in the code bunker this week, writing a special segment for the EC engine. This will greatly accelerate supporting new cameras, as it minimizes the amount of intervention necessary to conform data (with superior results). As of today, I have a new luma conform tool that is completely free of either hue or saturation distortion, and I am thrilled with it right now (not even Resolve's luma tools work this way). Now, I have to finish the second piece of the puzzle, and (accelerated) camera support will commence.

I was on the same hunt for some comfortable, all-day-shooting footwear last year. I was initially looking at ultraboosts as well, but decided instead  on a pair of New Balance Fresh Foam Cruz, half the price and lots easier to find, their fresh foam soles are very similar to the boosts. I also added powerstepper orthotic insoles and I have literally been around the world in these shoes, fantastic. 

The Z-cam looks really interesting, but it's already $1k more than the S1h, not to mention the necessary cost of still needing to add a monitor, and of course the lack of ibis and need for rigging to make it more suitably ergonomic, all of which the S1H can do out of the box, which is still a fantastic hybrid for still-use to boot. 
That being said, I'd love to see how much of an IQ and potentially DR-edge the Z-cam raw files give it over the Panasonic though. If it blows it out of the water, hopefully that can spur Panny in to giving us some raw-love as well. Gotta love competition! 

The Z-cam looks really interesting, but it's already $1k more than the S1h, not to mention the necessary cost of still needing to add a monitor, and of course the lack of ibis and need for rigging to make it more suitably ergonomic, all of which the S1H can do out of the box, which is still a fantastic hybrid for still-use to boot. 
That being said, I'd love to see how much of an IQ and potentially DR-edge the Z-cam raw files give it over the Panasonic though. If it blows it out of the water, hopefully that can spur Panny in to giving us some raw-love as well. Gotta love competition! 

The Z-cam looks really interesting, but it's already $1k more than the S1h, not to mention the necessary cost of still needing to add a monitor, and of course the lack of ibis and need for rigging to make it more suitably ergonomic, all of which the S1H can do out of the box, which is still a fantastic hybrid for still-use to boot. 
That being said, I'd love to see how much of an IQ and potentially DR-edge the Z-cam raw files give it over the Panasonic though. If it blows it out of the water, hopefully that can spur Panny in to giving us some raw-love as well. Gotta love competition!