baronmaximus

This is just Panasonic proving to me, yet again, that I made the RIGHT decision when purchasing the GH5 over the A7S II. I will probably never use most of the new features (I am going to have to get an HDR TV now, thanks Panasonic), but it's amazing to know that they're there if I need them. This is a camera that I think I'll grow into, instead of growing out of. I love that Panasonic is listening to its customers and giving them features that the camera didn't ship with. I do wonder WHY the ALL-I codecs look more filmic. There was always something so beautiful about the videos from my GH2. So beautiful, in fact, that I didn't even bother upgrading to the GH3 or GH4. I can't say what it is that makes the images from the GH2 look the way they do, but I haven't seen it in any other camera. Maybe it was the noise, always bouncing around on the screen, like the Digital Bolex. The GH2 was a fantastic camera and I'm really looking forward to seeing what ALL-I looks like on the GH5 at 4K.

Sorry, Noone, I didn't make myself clear, I was talking about native lenses on the A7 series cameras. You're right though, with the short flange distance, they can adapt pretty much any lens to the A7S series. I had the A7S II in my cart at Amazon when I was trying to decide between it and the GH5. I had the money for whichever one I wanted, but I went with the GH5 mostly based on the fact that I do occasionally get my cameras a little wet because I do most of my videos outdoors and there was a huge discussion in the review section of the A7S II about people who had gotten their cameras wet (one guy had some flop sweat fall on it, another got caught out in a light rain), Sony refused to fix them. And then there are the endless videos on youtube about Sony's customer disservice. If I spend $2700 on something, I like to know that the company will stand behind it and will be able to fix it if I break it. I'm not a wealthy guy and I can't throw money away. I'd have LOVED to have had the A7S II low light capability, since I do a fair amount of shooting very early in the morning, just after sunrise and very late in the evening, around sunset, but I was scared away by the customer service horror stories. I wouldn't be purchasing 2 bodies and multiple "G-Master" lenses, so I couldn't get into their "professional" program, so I went ahead and got the GH5 and I'm loving it. I got a speedbooster and put my Nikon 50mm f/1.2 on there and I can actually film the stars (I tried this morning), which was surprising to me. It's nowhere near as good as what the A7S II can do with the stars, but it's pretty amazing to me. I know that Nikon service is amazing. I had to send my D800 in for service on the LCD. I USE my cameras, they're tools and sometimes they get wet/dirty. My D800 looked like it had been through a tornado. When Nikon sent it back after fixing the screen, I actually had to check my serial number to make sure they sent me back the same camera, it was SPOTLESS. I didn't pay for a cleaning, I didn't ask for a cleaning, but they did it anyway. That's the kind of thing that I remember, when a company goes above and beyond what is expected and it's made me fiercely loyal to Nikon, despite occasionally being disappointed by the cameras they release (like the D850). I'm purchasing a D850, but purely for photography. It can't touch my GH5 when it comes to video features, but my GH5 can't touch the D850 for photography, either. It's just unfortunate that I have to have two cameras like that. I'd love to have ONE camera that can do everything I need...and the GH5 is mighty close. If it had better low-light performance, I'm not sure there would really be a reason for me to buy the D850.

IF the 6DM2 had 4K60, or hell, even 4K24, I'd have had to SERIOUSLY consider switching from Nikon to Canon, which would have meant Canon would have sold new lenses, cameras, and accessories. I suspect that I wouldn't have been the only one, either. I've been waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and waiting some more for a DSLR that could do beautiful 4K, have decent dynamic range, excellent high ISO performance, with functional AutoFocus in video and could take stills that would knock your socks off, all on a full-frame sensor, for a reasonable price ($3000 or less). My D800 has served me well since 2012, but it's very long in the tooth. I bought a used GH2 a while back, which was a lot of fun to play with and gave me some pretty exceptional quality video, as long as the lighting was good, but it wasn't what I was looking for. I looked closely at the Sony A7S II, but it has some pretty big issues and it's not exactly a photography powerhouse, not to mention the slim lens selection and all the headaches people experience if they have to service their camera. The GH5 came along and I watched every youtube and vimeo video I could get my eyes on, I read every review that I could find, and decided that it was the camera for me. The GH5's low light is...well, not so great, my D800 blows it away in terms of low light, and it's a 5 year-old camera, but the GH5 produces some of the most beautiful, detailed video I've seen from any camera, and it does all this for less than $2000 AND I can use just about any lens on the planet. I waited until the 6DM2 came out, hoping it would have what I was looking for, because the price would be right. The D850 rumor that it would have an EVF piqued my interest, but when that panned out to not be true, I pulled the trigger on the GH5, I was tired of waiting for Nikon and Canon. And I may still buy the D850, but it will be purely for photography, since Nikon gimped that camera in the video arena too, by not allowing 4K60, or peaking to work in 4K (which is where you need it most). I can't say I'm excited about the features of the D850 though, it's just that I'm due for a new photography camera and the GH5, while taking beautiful images in good light, isn't really useable, for me, beyond ISO 1600. Canon needs to stop gimping their cameras. Nikon needs to get off their asses and buy, or create a FUNCTIONAL video autofocus, like Canon's Dual Pixel AF (which is one of the reasons I was waiting for the 6DM2 before I purchased the GH5)...there's no better video autofocusing system on this planet than Canon's DPAF. Of course the GH5 has abysmal AF performance too. If I wanted decent AF, my only choices were Canon 5DM4 (bleh) or Sony A6500 and I think the GH5 is a better overall camera than the A6500 by quite a bit and the 5DM4 is a bit of a bear for video (what were you thinking, Canon?!?) The whole thing is silly. If any of these companies had any brains, whatsoever, they'd make one PERFECT camera, with EVERYTHING that videographers and photographers want and put the other companies out of business. Imagine a D850 with GH5 video specs (and lack of issues like moire/aliasing, along with 4K60, 2K180, 8/10-bit, 400mbps, many codecs, full-sensor readout, etc), Canon's Dual-Pixel AF, flat picture profiles of the Sony A7 line, Dynamic Range of the Black Magic Cameras (along with the ability to shoot to Pro-Res or H.264) and the low light performance of the A7S II, combined with the photography features of the D850 (even at a lower resolution). People would only need ONE camera, for the first time ever. I'd pay $4000-$5000 for that. Of course we'll probably never see a camera that does both photos and video perfectly, because of all the gimping and lack of thought that goes into cameras today. After owning the GH5 and seeing how much better it is than the GH2, I'm pretty sure that DSLRs are going to go the way of the dodo, not just for video, but for photography, as well. Perhaps not this year, or next, but it will happen. There are so many huge advantages to mirrorless and the only real drawbacks are "full frame aesthetic" (which is mostly nonsense) and low light performance (which is a legitimate concern and one that I share). Unfortunately, for Nikon, which has outright REFUSED to innovate, they will go away when the DSLR does. I've been a Nikon shooter for many years, over a third of my life and I really, REALLY wanted them to succeed, but they're just not doing enough...they just keep throwing out the same stuff, with tiny modifications, but no true innovations. I'd be surprised if Nikon was around in a decade, and a lot of people have already given up on Canon, because of their incessant gimping of their mid and upper range cameras. Canon had such a winner with the 5DM2 and 5DM3, if they'd continued that with the 5DM4, they wouldn't have lost so many customers to mirrorless (primarily Sony and Panasonic), but if you look at the youtubers who have traditionally shot with Canon cameras, almost all of them have gone to mirrorless. Sony is winning, they saw the end of the DSLR over a decade ago. It's just a shame that Nikon can't accept the fact that the DSLR is dying.