BTM_Pix

So as I've hinted more than a few times in the other thread, the discovery of the Cinelike D and other bits and pieces for the GX80 etc was actually a bit of a happy accident while I was trying to do understand the Panasonic wifi stuff for something else.
And here is that something else.
Well at least a prototype of it but it is fully functioning and will just be finessed a bit more.
Basically, its a wireless hardware remote for the G series cameras that operates over wifi and can currently control record start/stop, shutter speed as well as aperture and focus if you're using a native lens, including a single shot AF switch.
For the non-Cinelike D cameras that can now be hacked to have Cinelike D there is also a dedicated button to toggle it on and off so you don't need to mess about with browsers and computers or smartphones anymore.
Focus and aperture control are done on a joystick and everything else is switches.
I'll be putting a layer switch on so that it can be toggled back and forth to a different control mode for ISO, WB and other stuff.
As this is the prototype it is nowhere near the finished piece and it will be reduced in form factor to just be about the size of the control board. Power is by any USB source so there are billions of options.
There is a lot more finessing and feature enhancement to go on with regard to the focus control (and yes, I know exactly what you'll all want it to do !) but the hard part is done now.
It does support the display of the values on a screen and I'll be sorting some options out for that.
The purpose of this gadget is primarily for use with a gimbal but it can also be really useful on a tripod bar for anyone shooting live event stuff. For cameras with inbuilt lenses I'm going to add a zoom mode on the joystick.
A very quick very rough demo so you can see it in action.
Any lag you might see between me operating the controller and the camera video is just a sync issue between me throwing the two recordings on very quickly  
 
 

I can only speak to my own job of sports photography but I think they might struggle with a D6 or even a D5s. No one is really crying out for higher speed at this point and if they are the economics are so tough at the moment that there are still plenty of D4 and D4s being used that shows people aren't ready to spend on the D5. That's the problem with selling workhorse cameras, people will take you at your word when money is tight!
If this D850 is to be the last hurrah for the D8** line in a mirrored format then maybe there is something in it being called 850 rather than 820. If they are looking to go out with a bang and also keep sports and photo journalists in the fold then a halfway house between the 820 and a D5 would be very popular. Something just a bit less resolution but that had proper performance at 12800 would be enough for me to do what I don't want to do which is buy another mirrored camera!
There are plenty of D8** cameras used in sport (by me included) but they tend to disappear into the bag when the lights dim. In the wilderness years before the D500 came along, the D8** was effectively - due to how far you could crop in - the best pro APS-C DSLR that Nikon made and that's how we used it. If they can combine that with better low light performance then it won't be a difficult sell for people like me with battered cameras who are baulking at a D5 price ticket this late in the mirrored game.
Who knows, maybe if they're committed to NOT doing another mirrored D5 successor then they might say "fuck it let's just make the last high end DSLR we make also be the best DSLR we ever made".
If they're looking for legacy like they did with the F5 when digital was coming in then that's exactly what they should be doing. As it stands, their legacy from this era will be the D3. Which is no bad thing but it would be great if they bucked the trend and went for giving us everything they could in a product instead of holding back.
Dream on though eh?
It'll be a million mp, useless beyond ISO3200, 1080p with a 5x crop, and have a mirror slap that could be measured on the Richter scale. The only thing approaching IBIS it will have is the Irritable Bowel Syndrome it give you when you shit yourself at the £3.5K price tag.
 

They're trailing it as 'the next frontier' but I wonder whether it might also be 'the final frontier' as far as DSLR's are concerned?
At some point the mirror will have to yield and you wonder how many more times round the block they can go before that happens.
The D8** series being Nikon's highest resolution cameras and having a 2-3 year cycle, could this be the last one before mirrorless takes over as its hard to imagine them hanging in there until 2020 isn't it?
Its weird to think that an announcement like this, which doesn't exactly have the pulse racing, might turn out in the fullness of time to have been for a camera that would be the highest watermark DSLRs ever reached.

I'm going to pimp this again!
Really flexible (literally) thing that can adapt itself to numerous support functions and thanks to the mounting threads all over it can have other things like monitors and recorders attached to it as well.
Folds down small as shown with the diminutive GX80
 

I've just picked one of these up and its a pretty nifty little thing.
Basically its a series of locking bars that you can easily change to be anything from a selfie stick for Vlogging to a top handle to a shoulder mount or even a poor man's low mode stabiliser.
As the joints lock in any angle its really flexible in being able to be shaped to what you need it for. Its really useful in the shoulder mount mode actually because you can make the angle of the piece that runs over your shoulder to be really tight so it hooks in firmly.
Each piece also has 3 mounting holes so you can attach handles, mics, lights, monitors, cup holders or whatever else rig enthusiasts like to cram on there if thats your thing.
Its light, versatile, folds down small enough to fit in a coat pocket and at £38 its not exactly going to break the bank.
With something with IBIS like the GX80 I've got it with here, it gives some great additional stabilisation advantage and still keeps you stealth.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Camera-Photo/Movo-SV1000-Aluminum-Combination-Stabilizer/B012Y7UVB4/ref=sr_1_19?ie=UTF8&qid=1498822792&sr=8-19-spons&keywords=movo&psc=1
 

I can only speak to my own job of sports photography but I think they might struggle with a D6 or even a D5s. No one is really crying out for higher speed at this point and if they are the economics are so tough at the moment that there are still plenty of D4 and D4s being used that shows people aren't ready to spend on the D5. That's the problem with selling workhorse cameras, people will take you at your word when money is tight!
If this D850 is to be the last hurrah for the D8** line in a mirrored format then maybe there is something in it being called 850 rather than 820. If they are looking to go out with a bang and also keep sports and photo journalists in the fold then a halfway house between the 820 and a D5 would be very popular. Something just a bit less resolution but that had proper performance at 12800 would be enough for me to do what I don't want to do which is buy another mirrored camera!
There are plenty of D8** cameras used in sport (by me included) but they tend to disappear into the bag when the lights dim. In the wilderness years before the D500 came along, the D8** was effectively - due to how far you could crop in - the best pro APS-C DSLR that Nikon made and that's how we used it. If they can combine that with better low light performance then it won't be a difficult sell for people like me with battered cameras who are baulking at a D5 price ticket this late in the mirrored game.
Who knows, maybe if they're committed to NOT doing another mirrored D5 successor then they might say "fuck it let's just make the last high end DSLR we make also be the best DSLR we ever made".
If they're looking for legacy like they did with the F5 when digital was coming in then that's exactly what they should be doing. As it stands, their legacy from this era will be the D3. Which is no bad thing but it would be great if they bucked the trend and went for giving us everything they could in a product instead of holding back.
Dream on though eh?
It'll be a million mp, useless beyond ISO3200, 1080p with a 5x crop, and have a mirror slap that could be measured on the Richter scale. The only thing approaching IBIS it will have is the Irritable Bowel Syndrome it give you when you shit yourself at the £3.5K price tag.
 

I have no doubt that as a stills camera, WHEN it comes it will be as good as it gets for image quality.        It is possible it could well be Nikons last high pixel count DSLR (I think they might go another round for sports/speed shooters both pro and amateur).      Then again, Nikon being Nikon, there might be one more high pixel count DSLR after this too.
The only thing that they have revealed here really is that it is called the D850 and not the D820. 
Many companies give out presents on their birthdays, Nikon gave an IOU.

They're trailing it as 'the next frontier' but I wonder whether it might also be 'the final frontier' as far as DSLR's are concerned?
At some point the mirror will have to yield and you wonder how many more times round the block they can go before that happens.
The D8** series being Nikon's highest resolution cameras and having a 2-3 year cycle, could this be the last one before mirrorless takes over as its hard to imagine them hanging in there until 2020 isn't it?
Its weird to think that an announcement like this, which doesn't exactly have the pulse racing, might turn out in the fullness of time to have been for a camera that would be the highest watermark DSLRs ever reached.

You're watching it and have the exciting revelation of "Right, they're all the same in the final analysis so all I'll ever need is something that shoots 2K RAW so fuck all you manufacturers trying to brain wash me to lust after higher specs than that, its clearly a waste and I'll never need it and I'll now never even think twice about anything with a higher resolution than that."
Its truly liberating and you feel you've broken free of the shackles of this ludicrous pursuit of something you don't need and that you'll never be able to justify having financially, technically and especially creatively.
Hurrah!!
And then the Alexa 65 came on.
 

You're watching it and have the exciting revelation of "Right, they're all the same in the final analysis so all I'll ever need is something that shoots 2K RAW so fuck all you manufacturers trying to brain wash me to lust after higher specs than that, its clearly a waste and I'll never need it and I'll now never even think twice about anything with a higher resolution than that."
Its truly liberating and you feel you've broken free of the shackles of this ludicrous pursuit of something you don't need and that you'll never be able to justify having financially, technically and especially creatively.
Hurrah!!
And then the Alexa 65 came on.
 

You're watching it and have the exciting revelation of "Right, they're all the same in the final analysis so all I'll ever need is something that shoots 2K RAW so fuck all you manufacturers trying to brain wash me to lust after higher specs than that, its clearly a waste and I'll never need it and I'll now never even think twice about anything with a higher resolution than that."
Its truly liberating and you feel you've broken free of the shackles of this ludicrous pursuit of something you don't need and that you'll never be able to justify having financially, technically and especially creatively.
Hurrah!!
And then the Alexa 65 came on.
 

There are two ways to do this.
The NASA spending millions on a pen to write in space approach or the Soviet using a pencil approach.  (Yes,yes, I know thats turned out to be an apocryphal story but I like it anyway  )
The NASA way would involve copying and renaming files (there is a catalogue file hidden away in a Panasonic folder on the SD card) and using a hex editor to append chunks from a genuine file and trick it into thinking it came from a Panasonic camera. I've just spent some time doing this and managed to change the error but not much else so you'd need to dig a lot further in. Another NASA approach would be to use a tracker in your NLE to graft the video onto the GH5 screen.
The Soviet way would be to play the file you want on an iPad or some other screen and just film it with the GH5. No hacking, no plugins, no rendering.
Its up to you but I know which route I'd choose, tovarich.

Thanks for the great replies guys. The Soviet way prevailed.

There is a curious paradox that you're experiencing there regarding acceptance of more overt activity that you would think would put people more on their guard but its often the exact opposite.
Its a phenomenon that I experience a lot when shooting flavour stuff outside stadiums of spectators before kick off. My preferred way of doing it is using small mirrorless cameras as I can't stand people who ham it up when they see a chance to get in a newspaper and I much prefer candid shots. It has to be said though that people are far more on their guard if they see you pointing a small camera in their general direction as they think you are up to something furtive. This is also very much the case with security services who are now unfortunately part and parcel of major sporting events because of terrorism. 
So whilst we all want to strip everything down and not make a song and dance of our presence, it actually often pays to be less discrete as people just accept you must be doing something legit and authorised if you're wielding big stuff.
Its counter intuitive to say the least but its definitely a thing.
See also 'furry mic syndrome' where wielding a large Rycote encased microphone on a boompole is like some sort of magic wand that grants de facto filming permission in most public places

It is basically some additional setup that can be done when the camera is sent in for repair.
The primary useful function for end users is for PAL users to get the additional frame rates by changing the region code.
As far as I understood, the Australian version of the GX80 did not have the record time limit but there doesn't seem to be a way to get to setting up a European GX80 for example to be Australian from the region change so the best you can achieve from using the service mode (and its not a bad trick) is to get the extra frame rates.
There are also some additional diagnostic functions for errors which may be useful if you're suffering from card errors and want to determine yourself if its the cards or the camera before you send it in for repair.
It also lets you save and load ROM stuff but that is for saving and restoring user settings prior to and post repair as far as I can tell.
Here is the GX80 service manual if you want to explore it yourself.
All the Lumix cameras have the same service mode so its applicable for everyone
https://www.apotelyt.com/doc-pdf/panasonic-gx85-service-manual.pdf

It is basically some additional setup that can be done when the camera is sent in for repair.
The primary useful function for end users is for PAL users to get the additional frame rates by changing the region code.
As far as I understood, the Australian version of the GX80 did not have the record time limit but there doesn't seem to be a way to get to setting up a European GX80 for example to be Australian from the region change so the best you can achieve from using the service mode (and its not a bad trick) is to get the extra frame rates.
There are also some additional diagnostic functions for errors which may be useful if you're suffering from card errors and want to determine yourself if its the cards or the camera before you send it in for repair.
It also lets you save and load ROM stuff but that is for saving and restoring user settings prior to and post repair as far as I can tell.
Here is the GX80 service manual if you want to explore it yourself.
All the Lumix cameras have the same service mode so its applicable for everyone
https://www.apotelyt.com/doc-pdf/panasonic-gx85-service-manual.pdf

Wrote up a little guide for people new to this and looking to buy their first recorder. And is the way I see the world of low budget recorders is they're ranked like this (starting from worst/cheapest to best/expensive):
Tascam DR22WL / Zoom H1 (I'd suggest skipping right over this tier of recorders! But hey, my first ever short film I did years ago was with a chinese shotgun running straight into a Zoom H1!! :-o Shocking but true... everyone starts somewhere!)
Tascam DR60D mk2 (the DR60D mk1, before the mk2 came out, is what I myself started out using for no budget shorts as a budding location sound recordist)
Tascam DR70D (the *minimum* I'd recommend for a location sound recordist, even if you're just a student / no budget guy. Although in desperate cases, you could scrape by with getting the DR60Dmk2, but doing the opposite and stretching for an F4 is very worthwhile. Certainly, I could travel back in time I'd just have gone straight for the Zoom F4 from the starts! *Except* the F4 didn't come out until a few years later...  you live in a very lucky time with so many wonderful options to choose from!) or Tascam DR680 (these can be found at bargain prices secondhand, which is what I did before I then later on purchased a Zoom F4 once that came out & I spotted an F4 at a good price)
Zoom F4 / Zoom F8  / Sound Devices MixPre6 (I skip right over the MixPre3, as the MixPre6 is very similar yet does so so much more at only a relatively small extra cost. Also I regard the three of F4/F8/MixPre6 as all on broadly the same level to each other, just varying slightly from each other in one area or another that ones might have a small lead over the other one. This is the tier where I'd see you're now reaching the semi-pro level)
Sound Devices 633 / Zaxcom Maxx / Sanosax SX-R4+ (finally you have now got up to the "industry standard" when it comes to recorders people use for small shoots, especially when mixing from the bag. If you're doing this full time as your job or hiring someone who is, then likely this is what is being used. Either that or similar gear, or even something better above this)
And if you considering ones priced above those last three....  you're surely doing this full time as a sound recordist and getting a healthy income from that, so why are you asking us here on Frugal Filmmaker? ha! :-P But yes, tonnes and tonnes more options exist at the higher end as well!
Finally, if you're considering something in the budget range within what I just covered, but isn't one of those that I mentioned, then it probably is *not* a good idea to buy if you're intending to be a location sound recordist. 
Something else only might *maybe* make sense if you've got in mind some other purpose for it, such as perhaps you want to record a band in a studio (which has very different needs / constraints), or you're the rare exception which proves the rule, or you are getting lucky finding some amazingly priced deal which can make an otherwise bad purchase decision then make sense if "the price is right".
For instance I didn't include the Roland R88, as I feel it is extremely poor value for money in 2017! However.... there was a time at the end of 2016 when the Roland R88 got a huge price drop because it was being discontinued. Even with that massive price drop, the Roland R88 probably still wasn't a smart purchase vs the Zoom F8, but the big drop in price at least made the R88 a somewhat competitive option worth mentioning in a round up of all the various choices. However, that sale is now long since ended, and the prices I see on eBay for a Roland R88 is even higher than what you used to be able to buy it new from B&H Photo! Clearly those eBay sellers are dreaming. 
Anyway, that was just one example which might have been applicable but isn't now, so I don't rule out the possibilities of something like that perhaps popping up again in the future especially if you very keenly look around for secondhand deals. But for over 95% of people reading this, that won't be applicable, and just stick to going with one of the main ones I mentioned earlier.
 
http://ironfilm.co.nz/which-sound-recorder-to-buy-a-guide-to-various-indie-priced-sound-recorders-in-2017/

I wasn't being entirely serious mate so I'll probably just hold firm at my current level of calm.
With regard to the D750, I'd love Nikon to recall all of their camera body variants for free shutter replacements just to be on the safe side as it would save me a load of money!
To paraphrase Alan Partridge about The Titanic enjoying 1000 miles of trouble free cruising before it hit the iceberg, at least the D750 owners have had a couple of years rather than a couple of days use out of it
 

Turns out the TL2 is much improved right up until the point you attach their Visoflex EVF at which point it, erm, breaks.
Sales suspended until they fix it and seems as big a failure in testing as Leica have had since they decided on Victoria Beckham as a good candidate for a bit of celebrity product placement.
 

There are two ways to do this.
The NASA spending millions on a pen to write in space approach or the Soviet using a pencil approach.  (Yes,yes, I know thats turned out to be an apocryphal story but I like it anyway  )
The NASA way would involve copying and renaming files (there is a catalogue file hidden away in a Panasonic folder on the SD card) and using a hex editor to append chunks from a genuine file and trick it into thinking it came from a Panasonic camera. I've just spent some time doing this and managed to change the error but not much else so you'd need to dig a lot further in. Another NASA approach would be to use a tracker in your NLE to graft the video onto the GH5 screen.
The Soviet way would be to play the file you want on an iPad or some other screen and just film it with the GH5. No hacking, no plugins, no rendering.
Its up to you but I know which route I'd choose, tovarich.

If you're looking for a cheap, small and ludicrously flexible rig solution then definitely check this out.
Because it can be articulated in all directions you can make whatever you want out of it. What's interesting is if you make it be a shoulder mount you can lock it onto your shoulder like a hook.
 

So true. People have a natural tendency to think that if you're not making an effort to hide the fact you're filming on a big-ass camera, you must not be doing anything out of the ordinary.

Bro! That does look nifty! I was thinking something like that or a gorilla pod like every Youtuber and their moms use..

If you're looking for a cheap, small and ludicrously flexible rig solution then definitely check this out.
Because it can be articulated in all directions you can make whatever you want out of it. What's interesting is if you make it be a shoulder mount you can lock it onto your shoulder like a hook.
 

There is a curious paradox that you're experiencing there regarding acceptance of more overt activity that you would think would put people more on their guard but its often the exact opposite.
Its a phenomenon that I experience a lot when shooting flavour stuff outside stadiums of spectators before kick off. My preferred way of doing it is using small mirrorless cameras as I can't stand people who ham it up when they see a chance to get in a newspaper and I much prefer candid shots. It has to be said though that people are far more on their guard if they see you pointing a small camera in their general direction as they think you are up to something furtive. This is also very much the case with security services who are now unfortunately part and parcel of major sporting events because of terrorism. 
So whilst we all want to strip everything down and not make a song and dance of our presence, it actually often pays to be less discrete as people just accept you must be doing something legit and authorised if you're wielding big stuff.
Its counter intuitive to say the least but its definitely a thing.
See also 'furry mic syndrome' where wielding a large Rycote encased microphone on a boompole is like some sort of magic wand that grants de facto filming permission in most public places