John Matthews

Let's remember the great Francis Ford Coppola Preferred the hacked GH2 image! That must have pissed someone off. In my opinion, pissing people off by shooting "lesser" gear is a good reason to continue to do so. I still use my GH2, old reliable, and get paid for it.

Yes, I remember. What's funny is that the results are so clear that they decided to never do it again. And that was exactly 12 years ago.

One thing I learned from watching those videos was that if you take 2 Alexas and film the same thing at the same time with the same WB, you still have the possibility of having visible variations in color. This was a big surprise to me and it's no surprise to me that there would be even more variations with a GH7. I guess even $100k cinema cameras have copy variation and DP's continue using Alexas. The real question is: does it really matter so much? I think if you're a pro colorist, you can make any cameras appear similar enough that only a pro colorist would know the difference. In short, I don't think it really matters for 99.9% of the time. This is probably more about workflow. On a side note, I thought the GH7 looked better than the Alexa in most of the shots with a simple 709 Lut. Blasphemy?

Everyone agrees. There aren't really enough lenses from Panasonic for this camera.

Yeah, it really depends. I was making a reference to an hour north of Seattle. I've never tried with Prime in the US or in France. Without Prime, Amazon gets things to me consistently in 3 days or less. France is much smaller and if you choose a distribution point/locker, it goes fast. In the Pacific Northwest, Spokane (smaller items) and Seattle are major hubs, but the distance is still quite far. I should add that nothing about Amazon is really sustainable in the long-term.

Trust me. It's not necessarily a good thing to have Amazon. Your taxes will pay for their warehouses and run everyone out of business. In the end, you have a bunch minimum wage workers with Amazon never paying for the infrastructure they degrade. Never mind the fact they will soon have a monopoly and you'll have no choice but to work with them.

It's all relative. Amazon, in Seattle, takes longer than in France. Go figure.

I think you're discrediting the French. They were probably expecting a message from Nikon over Minitel, not fax.

Correct. 420 in opengate. Yes. I've never heard it, but I haven't really tested that either. No. Not in continuous focus- it will have focus wobbles.

I think there will be features from the S9 and GH7 coming to the S5ii... I hope. The S2H, I presume, will be a GH7 full-frame, if it's possible to make that MFT sensor into full-frame. It's going to be WAY out of my budget though. Should we also expect internal VND? Hopefully.

Sorry, my comment was a joke. I was just noting that it would seem everyone has forgotten the S9 after the announcement of the GH7.

GH7 just came out... S9? What's that?

Can someone explain why Panasonic won't get sued by putting the option of recording Prores RAW internally?

I'm declaring this a successful launch. Some leaks, but not massive. No one knew about the Arri partnership as far as I know- surprise is always good. No one is crying in their corner because they weren't invited to the "show". I loved the GH6, but I replaced it with a S5ii. The main reason was for photography. Still, I miss all the other cool video features of the GH6 that the S5ii doesn't have, but suspect some will soon come (and better) in a firmware update (like PDAF at 100fps).

Wasn't it Apple who was designing phones on a tic-toc rythem? Panasonic is clearly doing the same. GH5 (tic), GH5ii (toc), GH6 (tic), GH7(toc)- it makes sense. The "tic" is usually a big jump over the previous generation and the "toc" is the one you wish the "tic" was after using it for awhile. The GH6 had quite a few bugs (banding with backlight, slow startups, etc.). Still, it is a great camera Panasonic should be proud of, but I think the GH7 is the one people wanted from the GH6.

I was a happy GH6 user, but I didn't like the fan system. I find the one on the S5ii/x much more acceptable and discrete. I hope it's more on those lines than the latter. However, I find the flip-up or out screen a big reason to buy that camera over any other. It just worked perfectly and never really felt flimsy.

So, the GH7 is going to be announced and it'll probably be the most capable from Panasonic while the S9 will be the "fun" camera. This was not the scenario I would have predicted: a big, capable M43 camera along side a rather small, limited FF camera.

I’m guilty of getting lenses; then, selling them and buying them back. I did it with: Pany 14mm, Pany 14-42.5 PZ, Pany 45-150mm, Pany 35-100 kit lens, and I’m forgetting one or two.

Wow! What a useful range. I have Pentax 35-105 f/3.5 and it's great, but no AF and you can't really use IBIS because you have to change the settings every time you zoom in and out. That does look big and heavy though.

Nothing. It is/was a great camera. Design by committee isn't necessarily bad, just different.

I think they often have the good information, but I also believe Panasonic is a company run by committee. I don't think there's one primary designer who's creating camera concepts nowadays, probably with a few exceptions. Companies like Pentax and Olympus had people like Yoshihisa Maitani. I think we can kiss those days goodbye. The results from those designers were probably hit and miss but, when they hit, they'd strike gold. Panasonic needs to have input from everyone under the sun and you get results like the GH4, coming from the GH3. I don't pretend to know the inner workings of any brand, but I imagine it's something of the sorts. So, why do they get it wrong? Some voices are louder than others is what I think. When Steve Jobs was around, he was the loudest voice at Apple and you'd get the right product at the right time because he was an experienced genius. Tim Cook, as smart as he is, listens to the wrong people sometimes and you get some products that seem "out-of-sync" with the times. Panasonic seems to chose not to develop to their own detriment. For example, someone with loud voice said that the point and shoot market was too hard to get back. And yet they don't have the foresight to understand people would still want a PAS experience. Fuji did and we got the X100 V and VI. Panasonic is seemingly slow and reactive, which is too bad. They need to find a better system somehow because Fuji is eating their lunch in the PAS market IMO, regardless of their savvy production knowhow. Besides, where in the HELL is a small rangefinder-style M43 camera with 10bit H.265 and Vlog with full sensor readout and a mic jack? How many years have we asked for that? It's getting embarrassing and sure hope someone at Panasonic is blushing at this point.

I forgot to say the one caveat for wedding photography: you're natural light only- no flash. I think for some that would be the biggest dealbreaker for this camera, along with the fact of no EVF. Still, they'd look cool on your suit. I still have a hard time believing that. I can believe the venue would have been chosen and a hotel reserved, but getting upwards of 100 YouTubers and partners to come to Japan seems rather daunting and I doubt they would have gone not knowing at least the category of product (consumer vs. pro, l mount vs. M43). That would be putting a lot of faith in Panasonic. Honestly, I think Panasonic expected some grace for that 26mm pancake, but what likely happened was a delay or a problem with the 18-40 rather than a hiccup in the actual camera or category of camera.

I have my doubts that could have thrown that all together at the last minute. It would be giving them too much credit. However, there are some indicators of that- the use of stock photography for one, and the lack of a proper lens being the other. Still, they handed out a lot of cameras to people and I doubt they could have made a production run in that little time if the theory is a last minute change. Yes, a 35mm and 85mm, each on a S9, for a wedding shoot would be a nice setup. You could also color-code them as to not get confused!

Yeah, I imagine not having a proper shutter would be a big deal for weddings. There's also the lack of a shutter sound. I agree that the 45mm and 90mm would be the best first purchases. Also, one could wait for the 18-40 to fit the rest, maybe getting rid of the 45 and stick only with a two-lens setup. For this camera to have further reach, they really need a real 28mm and 40mm pancake. If they could get it as small as the 26mm, the whole system would be that much viable.