kye

This seems like a good overview, and includes a few little sections to make sure social-media-bros now some of the basics...
 

that camera looks insane

I'm not sure that this applies for wedding videographers.... 🙂 

I personally think it's possible to use the v4 firmware false color feature on the camera, but I don't have it yet to verify that. I've just been playing around with test footage.

The thing never discussed in these debates is "who".  Who should it focus on?
Very early on in the AF game you could program your camera with photos of your family and then it would look for those faces specifically and focus on them, not whatever face happened to be most convenient at the time.
I've never heard features like this mentioned in these debates.
Sure, AF from Canon / Sony are phase detect, which means that it can focus on the object it chooses for you.
Sure, AF from Canon / Sony are face / eye detect, which means that it can focus on the face or eye it chooses for you.
I've used some of the worst AF systems ever made and had many many shots ruined by them.  As often as not, they were ruined because it focussed on the wrong thing or wrong person.
AF is great if you're trying to keep a talking head in-focus on 100mm at F1.2, so I guess it's good enough for professional videographers, but as someone who shoots home and travel content, it's no-where near sophisticated enough for my needs.

I must admit that I haven't kept up with your discussions on this, but I got the impression that you can't use the False Colour mode on the FP to accurately monitor things across all the ISOs - is that correct?
The way I would use this camera would be either manually exposing or using it in auto-ISO and using exposure compensation, but I would be using the false-colours in either mode to tell me what was clipped and where the middle was.
I'd be happy to adjust levels shot-by-shot in post (unlike professional workflows when working with a team) and know how to do that in Resolve, so I'd be comfortable raising or lowering the exposure based on what was clipping and what I wanted to retain in post.  If the false-colour doesn't tell me those things then it would sort of defeat its entire purpose..

Nikon Z6 plus an Atomos ninja star, along with the right HDMI settings, gives oversampled 1080p 24 or 30p, full frame 10 bit with a nice log curve and tons of DR. That should be a 1080p contender. 

Same.
You gotta get that camera rigged up to shoot something with! If I could find one for the right price, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. It goes against my compact, run and gun preferences, but the IQ is undeniable. I regularly look at the video with the classical music and beautiful red headed woman. It's one of the nicest images I've seen on an accessible camera. 

One more thing, if you can live with inferior AF, the S5 I think is a better video tool. Having internal 10 bit is mighty convenient. Better IBIS, V-log DR is probably more than N-Log, you get 4k 60p, etc. 
But the Z6 plus an external recorder is the cheapest full frame 10 bit camera with useable autofocus. Can’t think of anything cheaper. Keep in mind Canon R6 and A7iv used prices are barely a deal over the cameras new anyways. 

Well it’s 2022 now, and seems like I’m the only person using this camera for video. Everyone likes to use a Sony a7sIII or a Canon R5C. The Z6 provides an interesting feature set for those who cannot afford a more expensive option. At an affordable price it has what I call the “triple Goldilocks” featureset.  That is, this camera is full frame, has 10 bit 4k, and has very respectable phase-detect autofocus. 
 
This camera desperately needs an external recorder. Without one the camera seems pointless for video. You lose both 10 bit and log, a big smack in the face. The internal files lack dynamic range. I’ve gotten decent results with the neutral picture profile and the contrast dialed down a tad, but lighting needs to be optimal. Highlight rolloff is terrible and I’d honestly prefer Sony A7iii 8 bit because we at least have somewhat useable log. 
 
However, if you do hook up an external recorder, you are in for a treat. You get full frame 10 bit 4k. You get a really nice log profile with solid DR, great highlight retention, and a gentle rolloff. You can pick up a Ninja V plus a used Z6 body for sub $2000. This puts you in similar territory to the S5, but you get better autofocus that I think is very useable with the right lenses. 
 
N-log grades quite well in post. It responds well to overexposure. For interview shots I put middle gray at 50 IRE instead of the recommended 35 IRE. For run and gun I just look at my scopes and make sure the image is overexposed by a good amount without clipping. 
 
For grading, Nikon’s 3D LUT is horrendous. It’s better than nothing, but it seems to ruin the solid highlight rolloff of N-log. You also get a purple tint thrown in for free. It is much better to use the color space transfer in Davinci Resolve. This gets you clean, accurate color. If you overexpose the shot, a great way to bring things back is to use Resolve’s HDR panel by setting it’s color space and gamma to rec2020/N-log. Then use the “global” slider to bring your exposure down. You don’t have to use any other HDR wheels, just adjust your exposure here. Then go back to your primaries in a new node, and grade as normal. Voila!
 
There is a hidden feature of this camera. With an external recorder you can get beautiful over sampled 1080p. By default the 1080 is pixel binning trash. Looks like an EOS R. But set your record setting to 4k, and then in the HDMI settings select 1080p. Now it’s downsampling the full sensor readout further, to output a 1080 signal. This works with the Ninja V, giving you easier times in post and 1/4 file size. It also opens the option to use the lovely Atomos Ninja Star. I just bought that thing. Paired with the oversampled 1080 hack, this is a killer combo. You still get the full frame 10 bit log, good autofocus, and detailed image. But now you have a tiny external recorder that sips through battery and adds little weight to the camera. The camera feels more compact and is much lighter. For me I’m happy with a clean 1080p image, and slo mo is rare for my work. As such, this setup works well…if you can manage to find a ninja star. I could fit a whole day shooting onto a 256GB CFast card, no problem. I use the ninja star most often. When I need 4k or slow motion, I switch to the Ninja V. 
 
The camera landscape has changed since I got it. When I bought the camera, if I wanted the aforementioned features and internal 10 bit, I would have been forced to pick up the overheating Canon R6, which was out of my price range. I could have sacrificed autofocus and gotten the Panasonic S5. That camera is better in every way, except for the autofocus and it’s micro hdmi. The Z6 has a somewhat better mini HDMI. I could have also sacrificed sensor size to get a Fuji XT4. That honestly would have been a good option, I sometimes wish I went that route. 
 
Nowadays, if you can afford a Canon R6 or A7iv (and can get decent glass and lighting equipment so your stuff doesn’t look crappy) I would get it over the Z6. I’m not a fan of being tied to an external recorder, and the Ninja V adds too much weight for me. 
 
However, if you can’t seem to afford a R6 or an A7iv, and you want one of the best full frame images WITH GOOD AUTOFOCUS, a used Z6 and an external recorder is worth considering. 

Kinda late to this but its a subject I can definitely relate to and comment on. Clients are more and more educated/savyy about gear. Not only do they know most mirrorless models, they even know about lenses, audio, rigs, gimbals etc. Especially the younger ones, i.e. juniors, interns, assistants in their 20s/30s. I think it's mostly thanks to Youtube. Not always a bad thing, especially if you've got nice gear. Nice glass often gets the most respect, justifiably so. So I won't front, we do tend to overdo it a bit, especially with new clients: cine cams, big lenses, cages, rigs, gimbals, lights, tripods in fancy pelican cases. It's part of the show, even if sometimes less than half actually gets used. It can sometimes backfire though, because more equipment means more setup time etc. And clients aren't stupid, if all that gear isn't backed up with adequate footage, or you're inconsistent with what you're bringing, they'll see right through you and you're just an overpaid clown eating up their time. I've never actually experienced that but it's always on my mind.
There are so many more elements to get right on a paid shoot. More gear also means more things to manage and higher risks/mistakes. I've done some dumb shit by overdoing it. Sometimes less is more.  I won't hesitate to go monopod, handheld over tripod or gimbal, or even whip out an action cam if timing, shot or location constraints demand it. 
Same thing with bringing a ton of people on set of a bigger budget crew type project. Rookie mistake. More people, more problems. Keep it down to the essential.
In the end only, only respecting the time frame + footage results really matters. Show some creativity and confidence with your shots, composition, direction, decision-making, time management and human skills and even the toughest client will respect you no matter the gear..

You don't need to convince yourself because it's true. I already posted a wedge test in an ACES project where I did the same thing with the Sigma FP footage posted. I equalized the input image just by doing exposure shifts in linear space and the result is the same image with different clipping points and levels of sensor noise.
Which is why shifting the range towards highlight capture will give Arri-like, or really, film-like rolloff at the expense of more noise obviously.
And it's important to know that it's not the Arri Rec709 LUT in itself that is the Mojo. That LUT expects the LogC/AWG input. Using ACES gives the same kind of result too with the basic display transform. Both can prove as a starting point and then other kinds of look modification can be added.
And then obviously people like Steve Yedlin are doing an accurate film print emulation instead, and have their own managed workflow that is not specifically ACES, but it's the same idea. It depends on the show and the people involved.
 

Well from all the later posts on this thread it looks like just a simple task of shooting a 20 second clip of your dog ends up with footage looking like your cat instead. 😬

I have spoken about this at length one other forums and been convinced that the Alexa is simply a Linear capture and all the processing is in the LUT.
Here is what happens when you under/over expose the Alexa and compensate for that exposure under the LUT:
https://imgur.com/a/OGbI2To
Result: identical looking images (apart from noise and clipping limits)
Of course, the Alexa is a very high DR Linear capture device so I'm not criticising it at all.  
However, the FP is also a high-quality Linear capture device, and the fact that the ARRI colour magic is in the LUT means that we can all use it on our own footage if we can convert that footage back to Linear / LOG from whatever is recorded in-camera.

I have spoken about this at length one other forums and been convinced that the Alexa is simply a Linear capture and all the processing is in the LUT.
Here is what happens when you under/over expose the Alexa and compensate for that exposure under the LUT:
https://imgur.com/a/OGbI2To
Result: identical looking images (apart from noise and clipping limits)
Of course, the Alexa is a very high DR Linear capture device so I'm not criticising it at all.  
However, the FP is also a high-quality Linear capture device, and the fact that the ARRI colour magic is in the LUT means that we can all use it on our own footage if we can convert that footage back to Linear / LOG from whatever is recorded in-camera.

Unique indeed, will try that Assimilate Play Pro way, sounds at least like a good idea in regards to what it does.
For me the solution with the curve presets is working fine. Agree that one should not have to fiddle with that kind of things, but anyway. After 1 year and 4 months of trying to get my feet on the ground in regards to using that camera properly and predictable I am somehow happy now.
Today I focused on something different finally. Highlight rolloff. Trying to get the sharp edge off a little. Seems to be working quite well. 🙂
SOOC:

Highlight rolloff:

 

It is one of the reasons I bought my Sony Xperia Pro-I, it has 4K60 bitrate of 120Mbps and the same in 4K30 on the main camera. 4K120 on the main camera is encoded using the h.265 codec at 140Mbps.
The main camera lens is the 1" one from the Sony RX100 mk IIV. It is using 60% of the sensor area and 12 mp of the original 20mp.
I think that is pretty darn good for a Smartphone to be honest.  In 8bit I am sure. We are not talking about an Arri here, not yet.

I don't mind external recording though I dislike the idea of a cable killing my shot, but I guess that is just overthinking. My main issue right now is BM recorders draw a ton of power and Atomos Prores RAW isn't compatible with Davinci or Premiere. Probably just going to buy a RED. 🥲
 

Sounds like you need to calibrate your monitor!
Let's have an argument about what specification your monitor is, if it has a dedicated video output or is being polluted by your operating systems colour management, what calibration device you use and what software you paired with it, what options you chose for calibration, what the ambient lighting conditions are in your studio and what CRI and calibration the globes have, what colour the walls of your studio are - I mean did you even buy the special neutral colour paint????
No wonder it's all gone topsy-turvy for you!!!
(In all seriousness, those things do matter, but making a film that isn't boring is still way more important....)

Love it.😆

Have you tried correcting skintones specifically though. That is where I have heard 12 bit is most beneficial, due to skintones being one of the trickiest things to capture well.

Panasonics 10bit 400mbps All Intra is their more modern equivalent to Prores HQ at 50 to 60 percent of the file sizes, when using 24p UHD or 25p Cine 4K. It would be intersting to see it compared at 50 or 60p, as the Panny All Intra in the Gh5 or S1H does not get more bandwidth for higher framerates. It's a good codec. The reason why a S1H got a go from Netflix for A Cam production.

I think all crews will always be stretched.
The crew might be stretched because they're all trying to do their own thing well and any spare time/resources is quickly put to doing something better or something more that wasn't originally included.
The crew might be stretched because they're all trying to do as little as possible and therefore the task expands to fill the available time.
The crew might be stretched because they're a smooth running operation who are coordinated and efficient through experience and discipline (which is no easy feat to implement).
The way you can tell the difference is that on the first instance the results are greater than expected from the time and resources, the second is that the results aren't better than expected, and the last is that things seem relaxed and smooth and there are time and/or resources spare at the end.
Absolutely.  People concentrate on image image image and it's so short sighted.
I talk a lot about dynamic range and stabilisation etc in my work and share nice images I've captured and people respond with the old GH5 is enough, but what they're not seeing are clip after clip after clip where I couldn't get my shit together in time and missed the moment, where the DR wasn't enough, where the stabilisation made it unusable, etc etc.
Every usable clip on the card is better than every clip you can't use or didn't capture, and camera choice is huge in that equation.

I thought Gerald was the detailed spec guy?  Like, he was the one who would find and mention all the bizarre and non-sensical cripple-hammer combinations, because he was the only one that had used the camera for more than a day before posting a review about it.
But would you want his recommendations and conclusions?  Definitely not - he's a technician not an artist.
Film-making isn't about technical perfection, it's about the aesthetic.  Geralds (and most internet technologists) favourite aesthetic is beige filters on a beige lens on a beige sensor with enormous resolution to reproduce the mind-numbing dullness of the whole affair.
If you only read the internet, then this would be a delicious delicious image: