John Matthews

Is the Ninja V compatible with 5.8K ProRes RAW? I thought you needed the V+ for that.

I have 2 GH2s. I usually only use them for live streaming, but the other day, I decided to swap it out with the GH6. I "only" do 1080p streaming and the image was about 10% more detailed than the GH2, but by the time it actually reaches the other person, I doubt anyone would notice. I also love the ergos on the GH2. I've come accustomed to operating it backwards. I will say it does weird things when you hit the display button in the HDMI. The internal mics are decent, but I think it's mainly because of no IBIS. The GX85, by comparison, is unusable. This is actually why I use the G100 for a lot of stuff because there isn't any weirdness in the audio. This cannot be entirely the case though. My GX850 has some of the worst audio I've ever heard, even with C-AF off. Manufacturers fine-tune their mics to NOT pick up some sounds (IBIS, AF motors, etc.). My feeling is that the GX85 and GX850 didn't have the R&D budget for that.

Good to hear that there are still people willing to go very in-depth in such nerdy topics. Yesterday, I tried asking ChatGPT about the notion of equivalencies, a hot topic on forums. It failed miserably. I asked for a MFT equivalent of shooting my grandmother's 1936 Rolliecord. I know the "rough" answer, but ChatGPT kept making mathematical mistakes. I have to say I'm super impressed with it though. As an English teacher, it's a tremendous tool. For filmmakers, it's great too. My point with my post was to say that Forums could get eaten up by such services if the forum is mainly used for "help in learning". AI seems to be better, faster, and have fewer barriers to getting decent responses. Also, I've only been using the free version. The paid version is better, I'm sure.

Something that I've noticed is that Chat GPT seems to give efficient and relevant answers to almost any subject, including cameras. It's straight to the point, no BS, no political stuff, no opinions, etc. Only, sometimes, it's flat-out wrong. Here are some of my questions that I've asked, only because I was curious: Does 4k 8 bit have more or less information as 1080p 10 bit? What about 4k 4:2:0 vs 2k 4:2:0 10 bit? What about 4k 4:2:2 8 bit vs 2k 4:2:0 10 bit? How about 2k 4:2:2 vs 2k 4:2:0 10 bit? Does 2k 4:2:2 8 bit have more information than 4k 4:2:0 8 bit? Is 4k or 4k downresed to 2k better for avoiding moiré patterns? What post-processing techniques specifically designed to address moiré are there? Can you explain clone stamping techniques and can you do it with a basic video editor? Will shooting in v-log help with moiré? Can shooting at higher frame rates help with moiré? In terms of detail, can humans see the difference between 2k and 4k at normal viewing distances? In terms of percentage of resolution increase, what's the difference between 2k and SD? Is there the same perceptible clarity between 2k and 4k? What are the benefits of recording in 24fps rather than 23.978fps? How are digital cinema files prepared (file format, bit-rate, frame rates) for cinema theaters? I feel a little "embarrassed" to ask some of these questions simply because I don't want to have others take time to answer them. Also, AI just gives me what I want, nothing more. No need for sifting through info or moderation. Forums used to be a place for some of these questions, now ChatGPT does the job.

I actually prefer the predictable look of just leaving it at one temperature. Maybe it's old-school, but AWB makes me grade differently for each shot whereas setting the kelvin, as long as it isn't that extreme, helps with the overall feel. Shoot a night shot inside and we can tell it's night because of the yellow lighting, morning and evening outside are blue; it just makes sense. Do this AWB and you have to make things feel blue, yellow, etc. in post. I've done tests regarding contrast settings in particular. My findings were clear: Panasonic cameras DON'T have more latitude or any benefit from reducing contrast from the default; if anything, it just might screw up. It would seem that so many have said this (including myself, probably), but when looking at the results, this "wisdom" doesn't hold up from what I see. I've heard people say "the compression doesn't have to work as hard", but I haven't seen anything that obvious to come to the conclusion of -5 contrast and saturation. That was a very interesting test and it probably confirms what I said above as the ones where the contrast and saturation was low. I'm almost willing to throw up my arms and say: "the Panasonic engineers probably know better than me"- just leave contrast and saturation at its default if you like the way it looks. Sometimes, we just overthink it.

Recently, I've rediscovered Cine V and dialing my WB to 5000K. I've been just leaving it there and, to my eye, my footage has been looking much better. I have to wonder if "-5,-5,-5,-5" was just terrible advice that some have given over the years. To me, dialing things back in post makes more sense than making "test chart" dynamic range and pushing everything up in post, only to produce an image that still looks likes it was pushed in post. I think there might be something to having the lion's share of the image pipeline be figured out before post. Maybe it's just me. I need to do more tests. I know that for my GH2, as old as it is, the Vivid profile was doing much better for me than any other profile for my live streaming English classes. Most of the other profiles were washed-out and I looked unhealthy or just "blah".

That makes a lot of sense to stick with a GH5s. Hopefully, the S5ii's AF will get into the M43 cameras. I think it will. It basically is with Olympus cameras. Actually, have you tried the OM-1? I know a lot of pros use Olympus cameras underwater.

Those will just be firmware updates of the A6700 and FX30 with a couple of features removed and rebranded as "new". Isn't that how Sony rolls? Mark my words: "the A7S3 will NEVER get animal detect".

Is this what you do? That sounds like a winner.

They said in the live stream that they were considering ProRes Proxy, but they need to have enough people who want it (go to the comments section of the youTube video). I'm not really sure they'd do it though. Thanks for the link. It's quite comprehensive. Personally, I don't need ProRes. I'd rather bake in my noise reduction rather than increase render times.

I'm not sure this was covered, but I have seen some people ask if the GH6 will receive ProRes LT. It probably won't. Lumix USA covered it in this week's stream. Basically, they say their 400Mbps, 600Mbps, 800Mbps ALL-I codecs are equivalent to ProRes LT, ProRes, and ProRes HQ in terms of quality and edit-ability. Not sure how accurate that actually is.

It's WAY more than what I need! I would have probably purchased a G9 hadn't it been for the ridiculously low price, new, with 3 year warranty for a flagship product. I have absolutely no need for it other than creativity. I'm going to watch the Lumix live stream tomorrow as I think they'll say something. Still, the bigger feature for me is the high frame rates on an external SSD.

I feel like there's a little less delay when making short sequential clips. There's a little more delay on the first clip, but it seems to start and stop a little better. Does anyone else have that impression?

Panasonic just released firmware 2.3. In it, there are various things. I'd be interested in knowing some thoughts of users. I feel like it's a bigger update than they previously said.

IMO, the biggest difference between the GH6 and other Lumix cameras is the colors, almost from any profile. Record a human in a scene and the difference is genuinely eye-popping. I've also seen side-by-sides of other FF Lumix cameras and I still prefer the GH6 colors. Maybe it's because of the bit-depth or processing, but it's definitely there. Granted, you can probably match them.