John Matthews

Had the OG…or was it the II back in the day and quite liked it as I’m quite partial to a fixed zoom camera.
Changed it for a camcorder with the same sensor in the end but that was about 117 cameras ago or something…

Originally posted in another thread, but given what it is, I think it deserves a place of its own.
There’s something very real happening here right now. This is not just a minor upgrade.
: )
Insta360 sample for focal length range.

source 
(from Leica HQ BTW)
 
And that detachable screen is basically an on-set field monitor. WOW What a killer combo : X

Dammit, v7 had a mistake in it, so re-exported and uploaded it.
 

I was chatting with ChatGPT about the look of cinema and it gave me some things to think about, one of which was experimenting more with diffusion, which I don't think I've really found a good way to emulate in post.
This is v6 of the test shots.
Changes made are:
Slightly less softening Less gate weave, just because I don't really like it Lowered Midtone Detail as a sort-of diffusion method Definitely a work in progress, but if anyone has any strong opinions on this then happy to hear them.

Stepping away from film emulation for a moment, the thought occurred to me to that we have softened the image enough for the 2x and 4x in-camera digital zooms to be tested.
The GX85 sensor is 4592px wide, which with its 1.1x 4K crop factor, means that the horizontal resolution for its 1x is about 4174px, with the 2x crop it's about 2087px, and the 4x is about 1043px.  Normally the 2x is usable on a 1080p timeline and the 4x is not, but with the film emulation on it, the only way to find out is to test it in the real world.
Here is the GX85 with 14-140mm lens on it at F5.6.  
Optically zoomed to about 25mm:

At 14mm and zoomed 2x in-camera:

To me this looks completely fine.  So far so good..
Optically zoomed to about 50mm:

At 14mm and zoomed 4x in-camera:

This is the big one.  I see some differences here, but not enough that if I saw this in an edit it would pull me out of it, which is really what I'd want - to know if it's usable.
For some context, I shot this test with three lenses, the 14mm F2.5 pancake lens (which is the lens I'll be using), the 12-35mm F2.8 and the 14-140mm shown above.
While the light was changing during the test, what is interesting is that the 14mm F2.5 has much less contrast.



The reason I point this out is that when comparing the 14mm F2.5 with in-camera zoom to the other lenses I think the lens rendering itself is the most significant difference.
2x comparison:



and now for the main prize, 4x:


This is an excellent result as far as I am concerned!
Caveats:
This is with the v5 film emulation grade, which as @eatstoomuchjam pointed out might be on the softer side of the range for what 16mm film rendered However, this grade DID NOT include the lens emulation stack, so the lens barrel distortion, vignetting, and corner softening hasn't been applied, so that could go some way to evening out the look I haven't done any sharpening to compensate for any softness.  In the past I've discovered that a digital zoom of about 1.6x can be equalised by some careful sharpening in post, so sharpening isn't to be underestimated, especially in the context of an edit where (hopefully) the viewer is looking at the content and not the image Super-16mm film was often shot on several primes, where some would have been sharper than others, or on zooms, where the zoom would have been sharper in certain parts of its range than others, so natural variation in this stuff is potentially making it a more accurate emulation rather than detracting from it I suspect that the 4x is on the edge of being too soft, which makes sense as it's a 1K sensor readout going through a lot of processing and rescaling, but this is a great result.
So....  the GX85 and 14mm F2.5 lens is a Super-16mm setup with a "turret" of T2.5 lenses that are equivalent to 31mm, 62mm and 124mm, and it's (just) pocketable and fits in the palm of your hand!
Happy to share the power grade if anyone wants to play with it.

Here's a shot where I graded the 4x digital zoom to match the optically zoomed reference.  
I sharpened, added midtone detail and played with curves to counter the diffusion from the 14mm F2.5 lens.
14mm with 4x (look only)

14mm with 4x (graded to match)

Optically zoomed to 56mm (reference image)

So there we go, if I wanted to get a 4x shot to match, even between lenses, then it's completely possible.

If I'm honest, this Fuji announcement has pissed me off a bit with Panasonic. Frankly, the price and value tread deeply into the core of M43. Having Panasonic basically refuse to make anything and allowing Fuji to own the market says volumes about the current state of Panasonic. Let’s be clear: they’ve come out with ONE value proposition in the past year, and it was for pros (S5II/X). We’ve been begging for a newer M43 camera like the GM5 or GX9, and Panasonic continues to ignore us, despite having an ecosystem for those cameras. To add insult to injury, they come out with an overpriced S9, effectively moving the amateur price point to $1500. Oh, and by the way, we have a new BS 'lens' for you—a manual focus 26mm fixed f/8! What the hell? Now we have Fuji putting the amateur price point back to where it should be—$800. It’s time to lower the price of the S9, announce a new GX9-type camera, or say goodbye to that market.

Well, they just launched the Canon R6V, so I hope Panasonic enjoyed their 20 hours of PR!

Just looking at the specs for this on B&H, it seems beyond exciting.  It's almost like someone from Panasonic is reading our messages on this forum and paying attention to what we'd want!
At $1,500, I'm not a buyer, but between $1,000-1,200 on the used market or on sale, I'll definitely become more interested.  Maybe some vendor will give a deal on a trade-in for my Sony ZV-1 that I still have kicking around here somewhere.

https://www.43rumors.com/just-announced-new-panasonic-lumix-l10/
I wasn't that interested until earlier today when I went to set my S9 up for the imminent season only to discover the audio on it has stopped working.
Or is at least intermittent enough I can't use it until it's fixed and as there is zero chance of that happening before my season starts and I am between 2 countries so which to even have it fixed in, is a bit of an issue.
So ordered a used S5ii from @Andrew - EOSHD favourite used camera emporium to tide me over.
But then, less than 2 hours later, my YouTube feed gets flooded by the Lumix Bros who have been on another jolly and...actually, as above, wasn't particularly interested as I had my S9 as my compact C cam and social media unit...except, this would work even better, so probably going to put a preorder in as they should be available in June.
The only thing I find odd is that every man and their dog has a video or press release and the only one's who don't seem to have mentioned it yet, is Panasonic Lumix themselves.
Same funny old Lumix marketing department 🤔

I've seen this before, but usually it's with channels (especially old ones) that have been hit with copyright strikes and such. Mattias's channel take down seems to be voluntary and perhaps political.
I simply don't have the hard disk space to save all the videos I really enjoy, but it makes me really sad to say goodbye. It feels like it's the digital equivalent of burning books and erasing history. Personally, I don't think I could do that. Then again, we don't know the exact circumstances. @Mattias Burling, care to respond?

I'll have a dig and host them here if I find the mother lode

I just commented on the Lumix Live weekly upload asking for a modern, small MFT camera- most liked comment. IMO, there are so many people, for whatever reason, want this. It could be practical or nostalgic for the Lumix fans. Just do it Lumix.

That’s about the sum of it John.
Except I’d swap out the word ‘reassure’ for ‘excite’.
To quote a famous movie line, “build it and they will come”.
In the case of Panasonic Lumix, build it and they will come, but of as much importance, build it and they will stay. But if they already buggered off elsewhere because instead of telling them something they wanted to hear, you said nothing and 🤷‍♂️

I have the Sanity hacks (not 100% sure), Apocalypse Now (Drewnet), Cluster X (Drewnet), and Cluster X (Moon). I wish I took better notes. Why are personal view forums down? That's a good site.

I'll genuinely appreciate that a lot. Please preserve the gh2 history, don't let it vanish

No manufacturer is going to reveal a future product before it is ready to be sold unless they are in dire straits and their current products have zero chance of selling.
 
To me it seems that manufacturers consider small cameras more entry-level and make a progression so that in each level up, most aspects of the next higher-level camera is better than the level below, except for size and weight, and the cost increases along with weight, features, performance, and quality. Since Panasonic have (more expensive) 35mm full-frame cameras, they have incentive to make the micro four thirds products less in most ways, to motivate people who can afford the FF to go with it instead of the MFT. Sony does emphasize small size and low weight throughout their stills/hybrid camera lineup. A small camera is more difficult to make more powerful (in terms of performance, image quality, high end video codecs etc.) and people will invariably complain about whatever its flaws may be, be it lack of efficient codecs, overheating, operation etc. 
 
IBIS makes the camera significantly more expensive. In the small sensor class, IBIS would be useful (just as it is with larger cameras) but it would increase the camera size, weight, and cost, all three factors noticeably, hence reducing the advantages of small size, light weight, and moderate to low cost.  And this class of cameras is competing with smartphones as well, due to their pocketability and communications abilities. It's just a tight place to be in. Probably this is why Nikon discontinued the 1 series and Canon their M system. 
 
Full-frame telephoto lenses have also gotten much smaller and lighter in recent years. 

Why would anyone use MFT today?
They want a small, capable camera setup (under 500g with lens); They want high-end telephoto quality without the extreme weight. Almost everything else can be done with a larger sensor without too much weight penalty, which is the point. You'd think in this interview he'd at the very least mention that there's a small MFT camera in the pipeline. Instead, they say they're committed to MFT (and simultaneously discontinuing lenses like the 20mm f/1.7). They've had that G100/D since 2021, using the same tech as from 2015, only worse (no real IBIS). Meanwhile, the now old and abuse GM5 is poised to pass up cameras like the GH6 on MPB. Does anyone need more proof than that to know there's a serious want for consumers today? Come on Panasonic! Get your $hit together!

That tracks.

I really appreciate you taking the time to come post about this on here - I was wondering what happened and I'm glad I found this thread when I checked again recently.
I found some of your old videos + reviews really entertaining and useful when I was considering trying blackmagic cameras, so thanks very much for that. I have a lot of fondness for some of those videos, and if I'd realised the channel would completely disappear I probably would've saved them. 10 years from now it would be nice to be able to look back on them.

Well, there's one hell of a metaphor in the "context" of this.

"Tsumura-san confirmed that photographers who compose through viewfinders “strongly request the inclusion of an EVF,” and that Panasonic is considering the balance between compact size and EVF inclusion as they work to “meet the expectations of as many customers as possible.”
LOL. GM5 anyone?

Yes, I don’t get it either.
You are in the full-frame LUMIX ecosystem and are considering a new camera and on your interest list is the latest options from Nikon and from Sony. You are increasingly tempted to jump ship even though it’s a big move.
Which one of the below options do you wish to hear?
A: We are working on a new flagship camera that will be launched in the Summer.
B: Expanded horizons, creative direction, global market strategies, Operation Epic Bullshit, waffle waffle waffle, blah di blah di blah.
I didn’t watch it and haven’t read a single word of it but 100% sure it wasn’t A:
A perfect example of how not to retain customers.
There is a saying which applies to all business and that is no matter the size, small, medium or large/international, just because you are in business, doesn’t mean you are any good at business.
Some companies are more clueless than others…

Agree this is a waste of time. They should say "a cinema camera is coming" or "the S1ii is our cinema camera". Either would help a lot of consumers decide what their next move is.

On the cined web site, there is a text version summarizing the interview - much less time-consuming to digest.