BTM_Pix

With a 0.7x adapter the overall crop factor is 1.05 so a 50mm gives a FOV of 52.5mm

You put your finger on the orange dot in the middle and slide it to the left to move focus nearer and right to move it further away.

I'm not sure I follow why it removes that possibility? With a full frame lens you set the VSM scaling to 100%. So a 50mm lens on a 0.7 speedbooster would then be 52.5mm FOV (50 x 0.7 x 1.5). Not quite full frame coverage but very close. And faster. Yeah, it certainly helps something cheap and cheerful like the Tamron, especially as it sharpens it up a bit as well which is important at the long end with that lens. With it having IS it is actually a good all round solution for ENG stuff with the LS300. That Canon 18-135mm would be very interesting regarding if the servo zoom add on could somehow be integrated.

Its now getting to the point price wise of being silly. If we get our Samurai V at NAB then it will be very tempting.

True enough (and with an external recorder, albeit a more expensive one, it actually blows the LS300 away) but the OP has MFT lenses so I was factoring that in and it was also responding to his point about it being superseded if he bought one.

Yes, it acts as an APS-C camera would so you get full coverage with an APS-C lens and a crop of a full frame one but obviously you can also use a Speedbooster on the full frame lens to get a lot of that crop back as well as an increase in speed. One aspect that seldom gets mentioned is that if you want you can actually use an APS-C lens on a Speedbooster to make it faster and then use the VSM to crop back into it to counteract the vignetting. So, for example, I have a Tamron 16-300mm all purpose travel zoom that is a bit slow at f3.5-f5.6 but on a Speedbooster it becomes a far healthier f2.8-f4 and I set the VSM to 85% to take out the vignetting. Ditto for the Sigma ART 18-35mm f1.8 it becomes f1.2 and the VSM at 85% maintains its field of view as though it were on an APS-C camera. With a little extra reach as well of course courtesy of the additional zoom function.

You can use the slider on the app screen, the increment/decrement buttons on the app screen, the one shot AF button on the app screen or the joysticks. The rationale is to be able to focus (and do all the other controls) without touching and thereby disturbing the camera when it is on a gimbal/tripod/jib.

Then no. It is two separate things. The live view from the camera is purely for monitoring (using some separate hardware) as the camera does not allow external control to simulate its screen being tapped.

We still might be talking at cross purposes ! Are you asking if you have live view from the camera on the Android device and then can tap that live view image to focus the camera ?

Its a small HDMI encoder/transmitter on the camera and a receiver that plugs into the Android device. It works now but it won't be in the initial release. It will be around £125 extra. One shot AF is still there

So, for complete clarity This is the app screen You set the focus of the lens from the app by using your finger on the slider or pushing the increment buttons here : You can store and recall up to 6 focus points (A to F) using these buttons here. A long press stores the focus point and an ordinary press recalls it and sends it to the camera When you press one of the focus recall buttons, the way in which it moves focus from the current focus point to the target focus point is controlled by the Cut/Transition and the transition Time buttons here. If you select Cut then the focus moves immediately to the the stored point. If it is set to Transition, then it racks focus over the period of time you select next to it (in Yellow) which can be set between 1 and 5 seconds in half second increments. In addition, you can move focus manually using the joysticks on the wireless gamepads and also use them to select to switch between the A and B focus points using the Cut/Transition behaviour that you currently have selected. All of this functionality of control and memories is also available for any compatible power zoom lenses that you have attached to the camera. If you want a more traditional wheeled type focus controller then you will have to wait until May for my standalone hardware controller.....

I think we may have got our wires crossed regarding Touchscreen focus control ? I thought you meant could it drive the touchscreen of the camera ? If your question was can you drive the focus from the touchscreen of the Android device, then the answer is yes you can use the slider on the screen, the single up/down increment buttons or use one of the joystick options such as these. Yes, with some additional hardware.

Yes, that was the point I was making about the zoom rocker switch. You can assign the focus control to it so that you don't have to touch the lens. Yes, it has focus assist. The user manual is here for your reference http://pro.jvc.com/pro/attributes/4k/manual/GY-LS300EN.pdf

Not internal but can power lens IS. Autofocus is always a difficult question to answer for any camera as it is dependent upon a lot of factors, not least the lens itself. Its fair to say that the LS300 doesn't have anywhere near the AF options that other cameras have but, again, it comes down to how good is good enough for what you want to use it for and I don't think anyone else could answer that other than yourself. Suffice to say though, that "fantastic AF" is not the first thing that springs to mind when I think about the LS300. One thing it does have in its favour is that you can map the focus controller to the zoom rockers which makes it very smooth to pull focus manually with AF lenses. This video shows it doing AF with a lens with IS.

I think it is slightly different when looking at the LS300 in that respect versus looking at say the X-H1 and wondering if the X-H2 is just about to be released. Currently you can get a used LS300 from here (no affiliation other than being a satisfied customer) for £1309. https://www.mpb.com/en-uk/used-equipment/used-photo-and-video/used-video-cameras/jvc-gy-ls300-4k-camcorder/sku-765591/ If you pair that with a Ninja V then for around £1800 you will take care of the crappy monitoring situation with the LS300, add 4K60p recording and ProRes. I can't think of any camera that is going to match that spec and ease of use for a one man band for anywhere near that price. If JVC bring out a new version of the LS300 at NAB, for example, then it will be many multiples of that price. Though if you only need HD and aren't particularly married to you MFT lenses then this is also a solid choice

If you've got some MFT lenses and some vintage ones and want a camcorder form factor then I'm going to pimp the JVC LS300 again ! Super35 sensor, built in ND's, XLRs and on and on. It might actually be a sweet spot for you. Latest love letter thread to it is here Video overview of it here

The default setting for MFT lenses is 85% of the sensor so it zooms in by 15% to match the coverage. However, you can override that because with a number of lenses you can actually get to 95-97% so your FOV with a wide angle lens is actually a bit wider than it would be on an MFT camera. The flip side is that you could also set it to say 75% if you have an MFT lens that has less than stellar performance at the edges.

The upside to that is I will only have to deal with a small number of people suing me for my crappy little app destroying their phones and cameras

Can't believe you've missed the subliminal advertising a few of us routinely do for it in a lot threads Headlines are Super35 sensor MFT Mount Built in ND 4K 4K60p to external recorder Twin card slots XLR on removeable handle so can be compact Variable Scale Mapping which lets you use any lens coverage type (Super 16,MFT,APS-C) and it automatically scales it to full screen. Prime Zoom function (operated from the rocker switch) which lets you zoom with a prime lens as though it was a zoom. Live internet streaming. Remote control with live view from a web browser so can be used from any phone, tablet or computer without an app. Hardware switches for white balance memories etc. Long battery life. Abysmal, truly horrible, atrocious EVF Decent run through here : https://youtu.be/IEhW4lQdFps

In ENG mode I was using it with the Angenieux B4 but I recently picked up a Tamron 16-300 EF mount for cheap so I've switched to that for versatility. Its not exactly a top of the range lens but its surprisingly decent. They have just released a Markii of the lower specced FZ1000 so I guess that means a new FZ2000/2500 is about a year away? I suppose the other option in a fixed format half way house between the 1" and Super35 stuff would be a used DVX200.

The LS300 actually has a web interface built into the camera so you don't need any specific app and can just log into it from any web browser on any phone, tablet or PC and you have full remote control and live view of it. The LANC control can be set to control the virtual zoom or the focus control of the lens. It really does have a lot of smart features packed into it ! The downside to the ND wheel though is that it will prevent any lens adapter with a tripod foot from attaching to it so I've had to remove them off the speed booster to make it work which is no big deal. The LensRegain is a different story though as the electronics are in the tripod foot so you have to very carefully remove it. But with it having AF control of adapted lenses (unlike the Pocket 4K ) and being able to operate manual focus from the the LANC controller then the LensRegain is off less value on it anyway. The FZ2000/2500 is a great all in one package though, especially for the price you can get them for (mine was €750) but its a pity the Panasonic XLR adapter for the GH5 doesn't work with it. If you want the same spec in an EX-1 style then the HC-X1 might be worth a look as it also adds 4K60p into the mix as well as dual slots, dual simultaneous codec recording etc. Its around £2K so its over twice the price and also a bit dearer than a used LS300 but its still very good value for what it offers as an all in one package with pro styling and features.

Yep, its a dilemma. I suppose it comes down to how good is "good enough" for what you personally will be doing with it but I have to say I've been surprised by the AF improvements they have made to the X-H1 with later firmware. This test for example is quite useful, for face detect at least, showing it with a number of different Fuji lenses and I was surprised how well it was doing with some of the older lenses. I suppose the answer to get the best of both worlds is to wait for the X-H2 but who knows when that will arrive

If you like the look from the Fuji but need IBIS then a used X-H1 might be worth a look as it is a bit of steal these days, particularly as the 2.0 firmware seems to have improved the IBIS performance.

Just finishing up writing the user guide and then we are ready to go. Control layout explanation here

Its not exactly an A7sii but for the application that the OP describes (ie a lit stage) the ISO performance shouldn't present a problem. The most compelling reason, in my view, to recommend something like the FZ2500 is the requirement for 15 of them to cover the event. With a fixed lens with the sort of range it offers you have interchangeability of cameras but as it has a LANC port you can cheaply add a zoom demand controller for each operator and with the wifi control it would also be possible to create a central CCU arrangement to sync settings without too much trouble. By which I mean of course that I could make and sell them a custom one for a gazillion euros I can see the rationale of wanting to use MFT cameras to get a bit more performance but I can't think of any that match the utility of the FZ2500 in terms of creating a low budget multicam setup.