John Matthews

Also, I'm fairly sure that's Morgan Freeman doing the voiceover for the trailer.

It sure looks like it. How times have changed in 40 years!

That's solid advice. I know that @kye has been recording at 4k 100mbps 8bit and that's basically the same as 1080p 10bit, but with a little more detail, which makes a ton of sense. I would also like to put the 1080p 12mbps 10bit Proxy on the S5ii up against my 4k 100mbps 8bit on my GX800. I'm not so sure the 4k would come out 10x ahead, especially since I can barely tell the difference at normal distances with 6k (and don't get me wrong, the 6k looks amazing at 100%). Of course, nothing is "for free", but 1080p HEVC gives a little bit of that impression sometimes.

Yes, after seeing more photos, it looks like it. I'm guessing the lens is the Angenieux 9.5-57mm zoom lens.

Saw this film last night and I was wondering if anyone knew the make of the camera and lens used. They actually showed quite a lot about the workings of a film crew in the broadcast industry. I'm not quite sure it was realistic, but it seemed believable to me, except for the use of lights in some of the shots.

This would also explain why Panasonic doesn't offer any 4:2:2 in H.265, only H.264. I think when the Canon R5 came out, many were complaining how uneditable the footage was because it used H.265 and 4:2:2. With the S5ii, I think Panasonic wanted to avoid that. They really seem to be paying attention to professionals. Are you interested in the Frame.IO feature? You can tell a difference if you pixel-peep to 200-600% and A/B the images. I've also noticed a slight color shift too. There are also a few artefacts, but it's still 5.9k downsampled to 1080p 10 bit- not bad. If you slap on a touch of sharpening, no normal view could tell the difference and you have something that would be 5% the size of a 6k image. Thinking of the crop, I think the more interesting EOIS setting is 25fps FF with the 1.43x crop and that 10-18 Sigma. That's the one I'd like to try.

According to this video I saw a few days ago, the APS-C 4k 50fps with EOIS High enabled gives a whopping 2.08x crop; a 24mm becomes about a 50mm in terms of field of view. Maybe I'm wrong, but the S5/ii/x doesn't seem to be the best camera for 50fps shooting. It should also be noted that the video compares the full resolution 4k/6k to the 12mbps HEVC files and I'll be damed if I can tell the difference on my M1 iMac in full screen Youtube mode (4.5K). I've even played around with the 6mbps files and they didn't seem that degraded. I even tried doing some simple edits on my 2020 Intel Macbook Air i3 and it whipped right through them. The grade wasn't that heavy, but still. I think the Intel Air i3 must have some sort of hardware for that though.

It's only "Standard" with a 1.09 crop or "High" with a 1.43 crop. There's no adjustment for the behavior, thank god. There are already so many things to adjust on this camera that trying to figure out the perfect stabilization to use on a given shot would be like trying to figure out which picture profile setting on a Sony camera works best- paralysis by analysis. I'm trying to simplify these days as it shouldn't be that hard... I might even go back to iMovie, seriously!

I think there's a fine line between making stabilization appear natural. I think the gold standard will continue to be gimbals and steadicams with experienced operators. The "pinball" vlogging effect is also apparent on GoPros and such and I think most people don't notice that much. Again, if you're operating the camera and filming others, you don't notice and it looks amazing, like no other FF camera.

My feeling is that H quality would be better than the lowest available bitrate in the camera (20mbps H.264 8bit) as it's 12mbps H.265 AND 10bit. I think the compression is about the same but with more color information. I haven't really tried the M quality- the compression seems massive in that though. It would probably depend on the scene. The quality of the H Proxy really looks quite acceptable. The L quality was a huge step down though. I'll need to try the M setting tomorrow. Concerning the EOIS at the wide lenses and vlogging style videos, it seems rather unnatural (as the video above indicated). Sure, it the background looks stable, but the subject seems to bounce around everywhere like a pinball. I think it's probably better as a traditional gimbal replacement where the camera's a little further from the subject and the operator is carefully walking. I have the Panasonic 70-300mm lens and it has great Dual IS 2. I haven't really noticed an improvement to already one of the most stable setups on the market. In face, I'd say the EOIS interferes with the OIS of the lens. Again, I need more testing.

One "issue" I'm seeing with proxies is it caries the 4 channels of audio is you're shooting MOV and you choose the highest and medium quality proxy. That's probably the behavior you'd want, but I'd really like to have some sort of option. The only way to get 2 channels (L and R) in the proxy is to record in the MP4 option or you go to the 720p proxy (H.264). In terms of file size, proxies are often less than 10% of the "keeper" file- huge savings. Now, I need to figure out the best to use them in Final Cut Pro. I imagine you could put the bigger files on a much cheaper storage option and just edit with the proxies. Another cool thing is to apply the Realtime LUT to only proxies and leave the original as vanilla V-LOG, much like a RAW + JPEG photo workflow.

I successfully upgraded my S5ii to v3.0. It's going to take some testing, but the EOIS High seems great on wider focal lengths. I'm not too convinced on the telephoto side.

Here's another video on the firmware that should be coming out within the next few hours:

M43 must come up with capable small bodies- PDAF and 4k 60fps. Instead, we've got very capable FF-sized bodies. I've still got some decent lenses for the system, but my patience is running thin as used M43 gear keeps going up (the opposite effect of what you'd think, but the need for small systems has skyrocketed). I'm very curious to see what the new S5ii firmware does. Sure, it still has some limitations with regard to FF 60fps, but it makes up for it in other ways, especially tools. I don't think Panasonic was expecting so many options for L mount APS-C. Sigma is going to start taking some market share from M43 IMO.

This video answers a lot about EIS high. I look forward to trying this out on Monday. This guy tried out lots of APS-C L-mount lenses- I was surprised how many there are now. Also, there are some that could be amazing with that 1.43x crop in EIS high. Here's the S5i with the Sigma 10-18. I imagine this would be a cheap, great combo. I've long thought that if Panasonic makes just a little smaller L-mount camera (FF), they'll kill M43, especially with all the APS-C lenses now available. Right now, it seems M43 only has 4k 120fps and widely available smaller lenses; the rest is practically a wash, including price.

I like the idea of Auto-WB and have done it many times. The only issue I have with the idea is when the camera decides to alter the WB mid shot; then I need to go through the footage and try to correct. It always seems to look strange. Panasonic, in general, isn't so bad at this, but my camcorder (VX980/81) is more agressive with this. If I shoot in daylight WB and just make sure I don't turn on any lights (or add daylight lighting), the shots will look generally great. If I'm off a little, I can correct the whole thing at once.

Yes. The question I've asked myself many times has been: "If I make a mistake in WB, is it better to error on warm side or the cool side when considering skin tones in 8 bit?" From your results, I think it's more on the warm side. Do you concur? When I shoot, I'd really prefer to just choose ONE WB for the entire time. If I need to, I'd like to adjust just a little in post. I think the most important is to get the first shot right.

Thank you so much for this hard work. I'm going to look further into this during my holiday. Yes, some of the images with wrong WB and underexposed would be expected to be trash, but it's nice to know there are some editing techniques that save it a little. In all honesty, I'd probably just go for monochrome or tint if this were to happen to me.

I'm rather curious to see how the AF features translate to video. From what I've seen from the G9ii, it's very good. I'll be one of the first to check into this. Also, I'd like to play around with those proxy files as they could be changing many people's workflow and storage considerations. I remember the A7r ii started with style of proxy editing and I wonder if it'll be better with Panasonic's implementation.

I've purchased some new and some used. If you're super lucky, you can buy new for used prices. IMO, that is the time to buy. For Panasonic, it's during Black Friday. A few years back, I got the Olympus E-P7 with the kit lens and the Olympus 75mm f/1.8 for 899 euros. That's probably the best deal I've ever found for new. In France, you have leboncoin, which is very good too with some amazing deals from people who just want to unload material or just don't understand what they have. When you buy, you have the choice of sending it back. If you know your cameras, you can thoroughly test it. Buying off Ebay is an option too, but you never seem to find good deals anymore (I gave up). MBP is also a great choice, but they're too expensive for some cameras and lenses.

If size is the utmost importance, I'd just stick with the 20mm. Yes, the AF is a pain 1-3% of the time, but you can live with it. I got rid of two of them and I regret it today. I love the Olympus 17 f/1.8, but it is just slightly bigger. Otherwise, I'm fine with the 14mm f/2.5. If size isn't important, I have the 17mm f/1.2 and I find it a true gem...

The 14-140 is definitely on my short list. I think I might go with the 17mm f/1.8 for indoor stuff/low-light.

I agree that the only usable MF (focus while filming) is on the Olympus 14-42 EZ, but no OIS as you said. The Panasonic 14-42 PZ is the next best with a silly MF lever. I've had all three lenses though and never thought of trying to manual focus one after the other- could be an interesting comparison.

Yes, we have talked about it. I'm not sure if it should be disqualified due to a lack of a proper shutter for photos.

Yes, I saw a few videos regarding this. He's right- it's a fun camera and I wish Panasonic would update it. The best part of it is the flip-up screen. Unfortunately, the worst part about it is the moiré in 1080p and overheating in 4k at 5 minute or less. As a travel camera or B-cam, it's a great choice IMO. What I find amazing is the fact that many of the newer small cameras cannot be kept in-stock; yet, we see nothing from Panasonic who IMO is the leader in know-how for this category of camera. I'm not sure if their heads are stuck in the sand or just bad forward thinking. In any case, it isn't good. Hope they turn it around soon.