SRV1981

It's not a question of quality, but purpose.
Is a car better than a truck?  Is a TV better than a tablet?  Are headphones better than loudspeakers?

You're watching a video with a single person in an otherwise-quiet room.  Unless listening on high-quality speakers/headphones, the differences will be negligible.
Here's a more useful YouTube search for you to be able to understand why a cardioid or supercardioid mic is different from an omnidirectional mic and when you might choose to use one vs the other.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=omnidirectional+microphone+vs+cardioid

Discussion on arri log 

The Single Most important thing, "has Gerald been invited or Not?"
 
On a more serious note, I feel Panasonic can squeeze out another 1/2 of dynamic range (from the G9ii) by tweaking the VLog, improving heat management and improving the Sensor coating further. That's 11.8 (G9ii) + 0.5 stops. That Full Frame territory. A few flavours of ProRes, BRAW and RAW wouldn't be too bad. They could shrink that horrible YAGH attachment that they made for the GH4, to about 1/3rd it's size, and have external multiple flavour RAW in the recorder. 

Yep, it is coming - not surprising giving the latest news.

https://www.43rumors.com/confirmed-panasonic-will-announce-the-new-lumix-gh7-on-june-5/

"Unconfirmed" specs:

 
Most features of the Lumix G9II 
internal RAW
new 32bit float recording methods via a new XLR unit 
has large fan
Lumix LAB app support
in Stock in July

pretty much the best response I’ve seen 

Yep, can't stand that stupid channel, but at the same time, no problem with him earning a living.

I've hit saturation after this one - well made video. Still boils down to:
 
1. The software improvements with LUTs are really inspiring and hopeful moving forward
2. The image is top notch and can't complain, absolutely beautiful
3. The body size is overshadowed by the large lenses - might as well just use an S5II
4. If they can figure out a good audio solution and a true pancake 2.8-4 lens i'd consider this as the ultimate EDC/travel combo (until then, i'll stick to my Ricoh and possible a pocket 3)

Not affiliated at all for sure but found this one a no-brainer, as usual BTW coming from that usual suspect, kudos to him actually:
 

what is he missing in his tests? Out differently, how would one rationalize $5-6k more for the leica ?
 

Curtis posted this and I think it's a much more measured view on what is at play when it comes to the current YouTube landscape and reviews. He spent the last 10 weeks making videos on only things he paid for himself and this is his thoughts on it. It was done based on his own thoughts and curiosity, not out of bitterness because he wasn't invited on a trip.
As far as YouTubers go I feel Curtis is one of the more transparent ones and is overall very thoughtful. 
 

This is hilarious. Some Moral High Ground Fable was Woven by some guy named Gerald, whose sulking cause he didn't get invited to a launch party, and people have started bashing the whole world. This is ludicrous. If he doesn't get invited to the Academy Awards next year, he'll probably have an absolute meltdown. 

Hopefully we remained as true as can be here. We tried to share our honest thoughts. Neither one of us would buy this camera with our own money at the moment either. It's too expensive for a fun camera for us. But for some people it may be worth it

These guys get flown to awesome locations to review cameras. They use the video as a prop to put sponsored ads   But we also have no real alternative to learn and see cameras so we just have to accept it and move on. They need to make a living too and this is their chosen route. 

What's better for you in general?  Playing with gear or actually making motion picture stories with gear?
Personally, I don't fault either.  I'm more the former if I'm being honest.  If you're tech head and like get excited about that, go for it.  If you're a true creative and that's your priority, that's fine too.
I have my biases about online freelance marketers, but a few of them seem to have eventually evolved into trying to be real filmmakers and left the influencer game behind.  Curious about your perspective.

I don’t think the ad revenue argument stands up to any scrutiny to be honest.
Have a look at the views for all of the S9 videos.
YouTube pays what these days, $2-3K per million views?
Big channels covering it such as PetaPixel have broke 100K views but the rest are mainly sub 20 and 30K.
I’s be surprised if the total viewership from all of the attendants broke a million views so I don’t think anyone is making money on ad revenue.
As I said, those days are gone and these numbers are indicative of it.
The first dozen or so times I went to do work in Japan, I didn’t see any of it either.
Thats why I went back on holidays there.
The only reason I could do the latter was because I got paid for the former.
No one was getting my work time for free and no one was getting any of my holiday time for free either.
If someone has paid me to go on holiday but expects me to attend a seminar, bussed around on a few organised days of photo opportunities and then produce a video about their product in a deadline no less then I either haven’t really been on holiday or I’ve allowed myself to be paid a negligible rate.
It would be akin to going on a free “holiday” from a timeshare company.
In the imaging industry there has been a race to the bottom fuelled by the initially creeping and now virtually ubiquitous expectation that people should work for the exposure and the networking opportunity so I find it out of order that people are aiding and abetting the practice for a manufacturer.
When the practice now actually begins with the manufacturer, how will that situation improve for anyone who they want to sell the product to?
In the past decade or so, malignant interests have bought off politicians in the UK and other countries and it’s a toss up between what has been the more surprising; the ease with which it has been done or how little it actually costs.
I suspect many manufacturers (not just of cameras) view their relationship with many YouTubers in exactly the same way.
 

Just watched the Gerald piece.
Brands have been pursuing the same format for launches on social media for many years, but maybe they have now jumped the shark. It's becoming easier and easier to see who is in the preferred circle of manufacturer mouthpieces and who isn't, and therefore what's not objective and what is just a sales pitch and straight forward shilling.
It has undermined the internet and social media so much, that it's starting to become a turn off for even the most unassuming consumers and customers.
We on this forum of course spotted it coming a mile ago, and I think we know how to not get sucked into the hype and just focus on the objective info that comes out of these videos.... although to be honest, usually most of that fits on the back of an envelope even after a 20 minute viewing session.
I've been to a few launches myself and it does absolutely on a personal level make it very uncomfortable and embarrassing to come back home afterwards and then be truly critical to an audience of thousands, it feels like kicking a lot of nice camera company people in the teeth. You will lose that access as a journalist (as I have). You might even be bullied into a non-disparagement agreement as was the case with me and a certain Mr Jannard at RED or made persona-non-grata without future access to pre-release hardware as was the case with Sony and now also Panasonic as well.
The question for me with Gerald is whether he is truly concerned about any of this, or whether he is being hypocritical. I am assuming the latter given the very close relationship he has maintained with nearly all the major PR agencies and camera manufacturers in our industry for years without ever raising these kinds of conflict of interest and objectivity issues until many years later, i.e. now, and even then, purely because he's butt hurt about not being invited on a fancy trip to Tokyo.
On the other hand, props to Gerald for being one of the few Canadian YouTubers who aren't born salesmen / Camera store duo *cough cough*.
It makes perfect sense for the camera manufacturers of course to nurture the next generation of salesman by bringing them to the fore on YouTube, rather than nurturing filmmakers, real reviewers and journalists who can say troublesome things like me.
Some of the key moments for me...
"Why now, why Lumix launch"... I think it's because he wasn't invited. Otherwise, he would have done a video like this about 8 years ago after a Sony launch or a Canon launch. Because the same thing has been going on since about 2012 and the ramp up in YouTube & social media hype of consumer brands.
"I'm just sitting at home reading the reviews"... This is him painting himself as a casual observer, and therefore an objective one.
"Didn't get invited to the S5 II launch in Japan, didn't get invited to S9 launch, because I was critical of GH6"... Exactly, but had he been invited to those - would he still be putting his superman cape on and making a video like this? Nope.
Because in the end he has always been 100% happy to benefit from early access and press trips when it suited him, the sanctimonious bastard.
Sorry... not very polite of me, but then I aint Canadian.

Nice of him to spill the beans after only 10 years of benefiting personally from such beans.
What's next...
A pivot to reviewing Macs?

I've got one for me (personal use, remember).

I'm not travelling (and probably stay on this way for a long time), but I'm in a quest for years on how to quickly change my camera from "stills, in a neck strap" to "in a gimbal for movies with an ND" in the shortest amount of time during a trip.

The last solution was:
- Using the Falcam magnetic anchor links on the strap (much faster than the Peak Degin ones);
- Put the ND filter on the lens from a belt pouch using magnetic rings;
- Get the gimbal (since I use the X-S20 + Sigma 18-50 f/2.8, both very light, now is a Scorp Mini ginmal), which already have a quick release, all already calibrated for the combo;
- Mount and shoot.

All very quick, except getting the gimbal from the back and unlocking it. But much better than previous attempts.

Then I saw that 80% of the shots that I use the gimbal during trips are wide-angle ones. And then the Pocket came to mind.

Never was interested before because of the smaller sensors (albeit when researching the 3, saw a lot of examples from the 2 and the image quality was better than I expected), but with the 1 inch sensor of the 3, I was interested.

Got one, and will sell my gimbal. Wide shots, will use it - tighter shots, will use the X-S20 handeld, with IBIS and maybe extra stab in Resolve. Much less fussy, much faster to change "modes".

Did not use the Pocket 3 a lot, but already impressed. Yes, the image of the X-S20 is better, but the difference is much closer than expected. And in a concert that I went recently, the image was good enough (just using D-Log with a Rec709 lut appllied 50%), and the internal mics TROUNCED the Andycine little shotgun that was using on the X-S20.

(my play was to get the Creative combo to use the DJI Mic 2 as a standalone 32bit recorder on the X-S20 hotshoe, but the comb was sold out).

This guy have a series of videos about the Pocket 3 - and use it in a very interesting ways:
 
 

Because a mirrorless sensor is huge, which thus needs a HUGE lens to have a comparable zoom range as the typical camcorder has. 
The vaguely closest thing might be the smallest of the mirrorless sensor, a MFT, in a camcorder. 
And we've had that, the Panasonic DVX200. 

 
It's very compact! But yet still a lot bigger than what your typical family (grand)parents / tourist holidaymakers / etc would like to use. 
I'd say the modern camcorder of today is the fairly awesome Sony PXW-Z90V, it's a (semi)professional grade camcorder. And super compact.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1362802-REG/sony_pxw_z90v_pxw_z90_4k_hdr_xdcam.html 
Or if looking for a cheaper consumer grade camcorder, then the equivalent is the Sony FDR-AX700. 
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1362622-GREY/sony_fdr_ax700_b_fdr_ax700_4k_camcorder.html 
This.
Even though compact cameras (be they P&S or superzooms) have also been squished by smartphones and mirrorless, they still are quite an appealing alternative to a camcorder today. 
Back in the day old school camcorders made sense partially because the video from P&S cameras were so terrible (or  non-existent!). 
But today if I wanted better video than my cellphone, but wanted something smaller / less obvious than a mirrorless / DSLR, then why would I pick a camcorder?? 
I'd probably go with a camera such a Sony RX100 or Panasonic LX100 or Fujifilm X100 or Nikon Coolpix A
Then I get better video and a great stills camera too, and it's more compact / more incognito than a consumer grade camcorder is! 
If I need more zoom than one of these P&S cameras, I'd probably go for a Nikon Coolpix P900 / Panasonic FZ1000 / Sony RX10 / Nikon Coolpix A900 / Panasonic FZ80 / etc instead. They're super cheap on the secondhand market, and again, they're good stills cameras too! 
 
  
I have good news for you! You can get a Sony HDW-F900R for less than a thousand bucks these days, far less than the hundreds of thousands of dollars they used to cost:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/226158157074

I think for some who don’t want to spend time in post, these software features are truly moving the needle forward in a very positive way. 

Here's a top-down view of the S9 with the Sigma 45mm f/2.8. It looks like a really good size but still not pancake. BTW, this is how Panasonic really envisions you using this camera- phone in one hand and camera in the other. I can't do that as would rather be looking at the scene in front of me, not fiddling around on a phone that's way to big to operate with one hand anyway.