Thpriest

I think the problem is there are lots of options out there and if we are honest, there has been no clear indication of when or if there will be a GH6 and whether it's worth waiting for.
If it's over 2000-2400€ and doesn't have 6K 50p, eND, good AF and lowlight then I'm nor sure what the point of m43 as a pro camera is. And I have a GH5 and GH5S and loads of lenses. Whilst it's been a great camera for me I really feel my GH5 doesn't cut it anymore on quite a few of my jobs. Mainly due to lowlight, noise and af issues. GH5S only solves lowlight problem.

There are too many m43 lenses around to let the format just die..I doubt Panasonic will make more money from their full frame mount, which until now semi-fails to make a stronghold in the market.
Also, Olympus is not quite dead yet, there have been some recent releases on lenses (?) I believe and some plans for a camera release.
When the tiny sensors are OK for most people in the world (phones/, I see that there is potential for the much bigger m43 one.
A video workhorse GH-6 with less mass and weight for 1.999€ maybe is what most people need at the moment. I still see people using professionally their GH5 around.
I can see a future for m43, a pro level camera every 5 years and a new cheap model every 2and a half (and keep just 3 product lines, very cheap - 599$ new, 999$ middle level, and 1599$ - 1.999$ pro level, depending the extras such e-ND, audio ports, e.t.c).
It is a good platform and unlimited cheap lenses around.

When? Probably too late as everyone has left the m4/3 building.
(I'm half way out!)

Learning skills can vary depending on if you're shooting more work or not.  The downtime has allowed me to learn new skills such as colour grading, but also shooting so many Weddings per year allowed me to quickly learn the ins and outs of shooting with a particular camera and general use of the editing software.  I picked up Resolve quite quickly 2 years ago, learning on the fly, because I had to.  When you have actual projects to direct your learning, it can focus my efforts more than if I were to just dip in for the sake of learning.

They need to get their shit together and announce something soon as I just see people drifting away from MFT (me included).
 

They need to get their shit together and announce something soon as I just see people drifting away from MFT (me included).
 

My business is weddings. Destinations weddings as in I live in France and they come to France for their wedding.
Last year, actual work, I did 4%.
That figure is based on me doing 5% of what was booked and losses that make up another 1% from what I did not book for last year, during last year, because there was no last year. Other than the 1 job I did, ie, 1/20 when it should have been 25/25.
After some state assistance, my income ended up being around 30% of what it would normally be.
I also took out the maximum allowed state backed loan which for me was 9k. I cannot borrow any more and technically, my business is now 9k in the red.
2021 should have been a 'claw some of it back year' but now is at least a "50% at best" year re. bookings & turnover.
Worst case, 2021 is going to be a zero work year and realistically, it's going to be somewhere between 0-50% work.
I think it will end up somewhere between the 2 figures and be a workload of between 20-25% of what it should have been.
It depends on 3 factors:
1: The UK gov being correct and not backtracking on their 'everyone is free' from the 21st June.
2: France agreeing with them. Ha, miles...kilometres behind...if the UK really is that far ahead.
3: Travel. By July, folks in the UK may be able to do as they wish and us in France also, but we may (probably will) still have a travel issue that prevents couples from either going through with their weddings here, or deciding within the next month or so, it's too big a hassle for them and their guests and pulling the plug.
I have already lost approx 1/3rd of all this year's booked work through postponement to 2022 or outright cancellation.
I lost 2 more just today and expect all with dates prior to the end of June to go with a certainty (had 10, 4 remain) and at least 50% of the rest of the season which is July-early Oct.
Bookings for 2022 are quite strong but by my calculations, to claw back the losses of 2020 will take 4 years running at 120% turnover, ie, 5 years total to be back where I was at the end of 2019 financially.
Based on the fact that 2021 is pretty fucked already and is going to end up I'm projecting at 20-25%, at least another 3 years at 120% turnover...if that is even possible, making a grand total of: 2 'lost' years + 7 'trying to make it up' years...if it's even possible, for a total of 9 years to be back where I was at the end of 2019.
Or after our daughter finished school and hopefully goes to uni 1 year this September, we sell our house and downsize to something smaller and cheaper and bypass having to even attempt 7 years of recovery, which realistically would be very hard to achieve anyway.
Longer term, has it damaged the industry? 
Not really. A least not as far as I can tell. I'm not seeing any great rush to elopements even though social media is constantly chittering about it. Folks seem to be booking exactly what they would in any given year, but just asking hard questions about Covid policy for the future.
Mentally, it's not great. I'm not depressed. Just frustrated for want of a better term. Massively frustrated.
Having very little money to do anything...not that there is anything to really do anyway, but going into debt when after a lifetime of trying, we had just cleared it at the end of 2019. Seriously, - no mortgage, no car finance, no credit cards, no nothing. For the first time in 25+ years of adult life.
I had some funds banked from previous gear sales so have spent some of that on some kit as I'm still doing some very low rate commercial work and freebies plus a few personal projects to stop myself from getting too rusty, but otherwise, we are spending very little.
Perhaps the hardest part of it is having zero control or even ability to do anything that constitutes 'having a life' according to how I wish to live mine.
Pretty much just existing and waiting...

Really Panasonic is so frustrating. They would have fixed the shitty AF and makes real marketing strategies, they would own the video mirrorless market right now. But they don't want to change their DFD focusing tech and they are so lame at marketing themselves and their products. My S1H was a true workhorse and so close to a perfect camera. But I really felt the need for a reliable AF even though I am used to manual focus. it just makes life easier now that I switched to Sony a7SIII. 
Panasonic should really wake up.
 

That's 4 I count! (screen as well) Clearly sets it apart from all other cameras.
 

I'm concerned that four methods of showing you its in record just isn't enough.
So I'll be waiting until SmallRig or Tilta release their Marine Flare Launcher cage add on for it just to be on the safe side.
 
 

That's 4 I count! (screen as well) Clearly sets it apart from all other cameras.
 

It's a complete game changer. Red box round the screen. Red line on the back. Red tally light on the top. But because this isn't noticable enough, the record button is illuminated!

A quick thought, will they make a 4K MFT version?

Me too.  I'm going witb S35 until I've made my mind up about fullframe.  Pocket 6K Pro will be first non MFT since Canon 60d I owned 10 years ago.  
You can still transcode BRAW footage in Resolve.  I did it to supply footage to clients and it took no time at all.  Depends on how quick your turnaround is.  You'd might have better luck simply familiarising yourself with the cut page in Resolve.

Well, Panasonic was working on something:

https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/18/22289331/panasonic-farting-cat-robot

How common are "lemons"? A serious question.

I think it's a bit overstated how good the highlight rolloff is on the P6K. I think the colour science is a bit Arri-like but the sensor is nowhere near as capable of holding bright highlights.

I will say that from my limited testing, the C70 is no slouch due to the DGO sensor. 
I can probably test it at some point if I rent a P6K. It'd be interesting to see where they all land.





 

It's odd that my learning process isn't quite as riddled with confusion as yours.  Yes I bought some items I ended up not needed.  That is normal and had nothing to do with misleading advertising or comments on the Web.  It's just that what sounded good in theory didn't work for me in practise.  Or maybe it didn't fit my way of working.  No one but me will know that, so there was nothing anyone else could say or do to change that.  It was my mistake to make and to take ownership of.  I don't blame others for it.
Again if I or Panasonic described the GH4 as a handheld camera, I doubt I'd hear a peep from you.  Assign the same term to another camera brand and its suddenly a bone of contention.  Would you describe the GH5s as handheld?
If Blackmagic advertised that you could film stable footage handheld, then yes, it is misleading advertising.  Describing it as handheld, just means it's small enough to be held in one's hand whilst working with it.  In this case, it is true.  As born out my those of us who do so.  To me the Pocket cameras are handheld tools in the same way my GH4 cameras are and my GH5s.  I can hold and operate them entirely with my hands, without any additional straps or support.  Therefore Blackmagic isn't being misleading.  They even have a handgrip.... 

Why is everything about vlogging? Who is buying a $2500 cinema camera for vlogging? There's literally dozens of other cameras that are better suited to that and cost significantly less. Who needs a full frame sensor for vlogging? A Panasonic G9 or Olympus E-M1 series, or E-M5 series, or Fuii X-T4/S-10, etc etc etc... are all right there and much better options.
Flip out screens can interfere with cables and ports, unless you do what Panasonic did with the S1H, which is nice, but significantly increases the thickness. The a7sIII has issues with using the flip out screen while having HDMI or other cables attached.
I'd rather have internal ND filters than IBIS. Does ANY camera have both?
I'm just bewildered by why so many people want features in a cinema camera that aren't really beneficial to making cinema... CAF, vlogging features, IBIS, it's like everyone wants every camera to be exactly the same, even at the expense of cost, usability, or personal preferences. Like everything you mentioned is in the a7sIII, Panasonic S1H & S5, Canon R5 & R6, and a ton of other cameras if you strike the FF sensor.

I have only used a BMPCC4K once and it was a nightmare. It turned itself off, out of nowhere stopped recording normal clips and just recorded 1 second clips. Then it started working again. Random stuff. It was a rental but I know the owner and he said that had never happed before. Scarred me off BM. Really nice image though.
If the BMPCC6K Pro has got rid of those reliability problems it could be very interesting as everything else looks good. Can it do dual recording? I mean, I know it has various ways to record but could I record on SD and Cfast at the same time?

Oh this is what I want.  Pocket 6K Pro takes all that was good with the Pocket cameras and added ND and tilt screen thats better to view in sunlight.  Okay, I need to learn more, but if this holds up,  this is the camera I need.

Internal NDs, tilt screen, and dual mini XLR make it worth the extra $500 over the 6K. This is probably the perfect camera for them to release right now.

Fair point.  Sorry if I misjudged..
That said, I'm no longer one to complain about spending now.  That new Pocket 6K Pro just announced will be preordered by me once I can.  I'm hopeful some work will come from this year and I've still got savings to pay for it.  I'll take a chance and hope like you did last year that things will play out.  I'll probably pick up some Corporate work once lockdown ends I the UK as I did last September. 

To bring this roughly back to the FX3, I just wanted to mention that for me, Assimilate Scratch is a great piece of software for ingesting ProRes Raw from the Sony cams and getting the maximum dynamic range and image quality out of them. It then allows going into Resolve, or Nuke, of course.
For my tests, I've exported from Scratch as ACES OpenEXR, which is the biggest bucket possible for dynamic range and wide colour gamut, so I'm confident I'm getting the most the camera has to offer.
I accept that other people are probably looking for more convenience, though.

There can be a future for M43, it just really depends on if Panasonic wants there to be one and if they're willing to pull out all the stops. Everyone has caught up or surpassed them, so they need to do something that grabs people's attention like they did for the GH4 and GH5. 3 years ago I'd have said there is little doubt that they will but then came the LX100 II, G95, and G100. Those releases pained me as a Panasonic user because of how underwhelming they were, particularly given how interested I was in the LX100 II and G95. 
Things like eND, internal ProRes (even if not Raw), proxy recording (especially if they go with 8K), and other higher end features need to be seriously considered. And it needs to be competitively priced. 
You may never be able to win over the people that refuse to use anything other than full frame, but there are a lot of people that don't care about sensor size and care more about what it can do more than anything. I think the Pocket 4K and 6K, and even the ZCams, have shown that to be true. If your provide value it will succeed. If you don't then it won't. 
One thing is for sure, at least for me: if they let M43 go out with a whimper I don't see myself going with Panasonic or the L-mount. As much as I love my Panasonic cameras and as much as I'm tempted by their FF offerings, I'd really feel as though they abandoned us loyal M43 users. I also have my doubts about the L-mount in general, and Panasonic in particular. The alliance doesn't seem very unified, Panasonic lenses are still very expensive compared to their Sony equivalents, and Panasonic's stubbornness when it comes to AF in my opinion has become a serious detriment to the brand at this point. As much as I hate to admit it, the influencers have influenced people into making it into THE selling point and it's impossible to ignore how many people, from larger to smaller YouTubers, have left Panasonic. It's pretty much the first thing people tell me they want more when asking for camera recommendations. As much as it shouldn't, that stuff matters a lot now. 
I'm watching for developments and already looking at plan b myself. Plan b is just trying to decide between Sony and Fuji, though the unlimited recording with Sony makes it the favorite which doesn't make me very happy.