kye

Since one of the stated reasons for documenting the journey was accountability, how did your first night of shooting go?

Gotcha - if you're more comfortable with the 35mm equivalent FOV, a 17ish vs a 20ish mm m43 lens makes total sense - and if you value AF, it's not your best option by far.  From what I remember, it's a bit noisy and slow.  I'm sure the Olympus 17 or the Panasonic 15 is faster.  For me, the 14/2.5 and the 20/1.7 were no brains to keep in my kit when I was still using M43 because they were just so tiny.  It felt silly not to bring them, especially since they're both really decent lenses.

For me, the 75/1.8 was always useful for either portraits (though one has to stand a little further away than I like) or for landscapes (as I age, I like telephoto landscapes more and more - just choose the little bit of the scene that I want).  The fast aperture let me get pretty sharp stuff even when shooting from a moving car or train without having to crank the ISO on a smaller sensor.  At this point, I have a Summicron-M 90/2 ASPH so unless I'd need autofocus, I'd just prefer it for that sort of landscape shot (and on FF, it's a really nice length for portraits, to boot).

Anyway, if you don't mind the aperture limitations of the 14-140 when it's racked to 75mm, you're definitely set there.

For me, my travel kit contains a few redundant focal length primes - though they're less for the faster aperture now and more for being smaller/lighter/nondescript.  Does 1 extra stop on the Fujinon 63/2.8 make any substantial difference than the 32-64/4 racked out?  Not really.  Is there any appreciable difference in quality on the prime?  Not really.  Are people more likely to ignore me when it's on there?  Yes.

I have a similar unbranded lens that's f1.6. With the 2.5K crop mode, it's almost perfectly usable throughout the range. It's a fun little lens, and very versatile. The only downsides are the rotating filter threads, slight vignette at certain focal lengths, the zooming mechanisms/runners showing up in bokeh when shooting wide open, and spikey party-favor bokeh when closed down. So, there are some compromises.
I was looking around the ZLKC storefront on AliExpress and there are lots of neat 1.1" c-mount lenses on offer. I would imagine that they would cover S16, but I can't find any reviews.
Have you installed Crop Mood yet? The M becomes a whole new camera.
Ah, yes. I remember that mod. It was one of my favorite threads on this site. Once you start getting into 1/2" lenses and smaller, it really is uncharted territory. Too bad there aren't many interchangeable lens cameras that can work with them.

These images are really about what the camera captured - with colour grading there is a huge latitude to change things in post, which is where the taste and preference comes in.  The challenge is what you have to work with in the first place.
In the thread about colour grading 8-bit footage I showed that there is huge latitude to push things around in post - to the point that you can bring things up by 4-stops without ruining the image:
Of course, if your highlights are clipped then there's basically zero ability to change it in post!
After reflecting on things after posting the images above (and also of reviewing a bunch of other shots I didn't post) I think that the images look and feel like reality somewhere in-between the two extremes I posted.  I can't recall how much I had to stop down to pull the highlights back into range, and it probably varied depending on the situation, but it might be a case of maybe shooting a stop under what the GX85 wants to shoot at that might give a nice middle ground.
I must admit that the highlight blooming on the lens is quite nice, giving a sort-of magical feel to the lighting, while not making the image to surreal in daylight situations or being impossible to use with strong light-sources.
There's always more lenses to add to the kit!!
I used to shoot exclusively with manual primes and I worked out that for the travel work I do that the following were the right lengths:
16mm equivalent FOV:
This is used for WOW!! shots..  buildings and landscapes. It also does crowded interiors too.  Going wider than this makes things look too distorted, and going longer doesn't give that WOW!! factor.


I forgot to mention it in my equipment summary, but I have the iPhone for the super-wides during the day (it isn't good enough at night unfortunately) so that compliments the walk-around zoom lenses.
35mm equivalent FOV:
This is for environmental portraits, which is essentially the main subject of my work.  I shoot mostly travel with family and friends and the subject of these films is the people interacting with the environment.  Combined with the distance I am normally standing away from the subject, this is about the right FOV.  
If I went wider then the people are smaller in the frame than I'd like and if you get closer to compensate then lens distortion becomes undesirable.




It's also good for landscape shots too:

80mm equivalent FOV:
For things that are further away.  When I first started travelling with the 3-prime setup I took the Helios 58mm F2 with a non-speed-boosted adapter but found the 116mm equivalent FOV on the GH5 to be too long - it was too much of a gap and I found myself swapping from the 17.5mm prime to the Helios and then swapping back.  The gap between the 35mm FOV and 116mm is a 3.3x increase in focal length.  I have since bought a M42-M43 speed booster which remedies this.



So now that I've moved to the GX85 and the crop factor in 4K is 2.2x, the FOV of the lenses is:
Laowa 7.5mm F2 is 16.2mm FOV TTartisans 17mm F1.4 is 37.4mm FOV (2.3x previous) Helios 58mm F2 with SB is 90.6mm FOV (2.4x previous) The 20mm F1.7 would be a 44mm FOV, which is a bit too tight in my experience.  
Of course, if I use the 14-140mm F3.5-5.6 zoom during the day and 12-35mm F2.8 for walking around "well-lit" places at night, the only use for the primes I would have is for very low light situations where I can shoot slower and take the time to MF properly.  In terms of what those situations demand, I'm not really all that sure.  
The Olympus 75mm 1.8 might be a useful addition for super-tight low-light shots, although it might be a pretty specific lens.  I want to capture what I see, so it's not a case of going out with a lens and finding the frame, it's a case of going out and experiencing things and capturing the most that I can.  What use cases would the 75mm f1.8 capture that the 14-140mm F3.5-5.6 couldn't?
If I had the budget, the 20mm F1.7 is so small that I could easily fit it into my bag, but the 15mm F1.7 is also a lot smaller than the TTartisans 17mm F1.4 as well that either one would work just as well, except that the 15mm is wider.  The 4K from the GX85 can always be cropped slightly without much impact to image quality too.  
I already own the 17mm F1.4 so it's not a case of having a preference, although the 20/1.7 is 2.7x the price of the 17/1.4 and the 15/1.7 is 4.4x - so budget might have had something to do with it!  I was using only fast manual primes, but now I've come to value AF over DOF, so the primes are relegated to low-light duties, however if I could get fast AF primes then that would be desirable too.  It's probably something I'd look at upgrading to over time, assuming I stay in the MFT system, of course.

I'm sorry to hear that.
Maybe if you switch to creating content with an interchangeable lens camera, learning lighting and blocking, then you will be able to attract a viewership with a taste for more cinematic images?
I hear that once the algorithm has pigeon-holed you in one genre it's hard to change because you have to break out of the echo-chamber you're currently in.

Thanks but the compliments must be addressed to Kenjo McCurtain to begin with. "The man" behind this piece of work. I've just tried to serve of a little help : )
There's team work, of course. So, everyone also has a role to play there for sure. This is the outgrowth of a collective effort without doubt. To each their own, anyways :- )

Congratulations!! 

If your looking at used S1, make sure it has the vlog upgrade or you'll need to figure that into the cost. Between the S1 and S5 I have both and prefer the S1, the full size HDMI will one day serve you well if you want to shoot RAW. If you haven't held either then visit somewhere that will let you experience the difference, the S1 is solid and feels reassuring but it is heavier which for me is a preference. The S1 viewfinder is more than twice the resolution and a joy to use. Both are great cameras but for me the S1 stands out. Good luck.

When I saw Johns post I did a little searching to see if there were other faster options around the 17mm mark..  just for curiosity here are all the options I could find:
Sigma 16mm F1.4 (large) Oly 17mm F1.2 (large) Voigtlander 17.5 F0.95 (MF) Panny 15mm F1.7 TTartisans 17mm F1.4 (MF) Mitakon Zhongyi 17mm F0.95 (MF) Laowa 17mm f/1.8 (MF) I'm guessing that if you care about having a small AF lens then there aren't that many options, but lots of people have had a go in that FOV range!

Magic Lantern, how about 12-bit RAW on the Panasonic Cameras 😉
 

one of my go pro 12 videos with a lot of moving shots got multiple up votes and highest viewing rate on my channel. good stabilization with 60 p beats 24p no stabilization day by day. 

S5 is definitely "better" image quality than GH5 imo, and that certainly factors into my choices, but technology is at a point where pretty much everything looks pretty good. So if all my lenses were MFT, or if GH5 had some other feature that I really needed, I'd be happy with GH5 as well. Better photographers than I might have a more nuanced look at photo ergonomics, but to me all hybrids are roughly the same amount of pain when rigged for a narrative shoot.
For my amateur photography, every camera I touch reminds me that the NX1 was more comfortable 😞
The S5 has a great APS-C crop mode, which will pair nicely with your Sigma 18-35. You're already in the system, no pressure at all!

Thanks so much guys! I really dig that image quality isn't really a factor in your answers - can't really go wrong either way so that takes off the pressure. I will ofc compare recording time limits and see what works better for me and have a thought about ergonomics as you pointed out!
Definitely! I work in post-production and it's mainly unscripted TV run and gun...natural light all the way expect for interviews. So if I were to talk my way into a shoot MFT would not be the way to go. Can't believe I didn't even think about this!
The GH5 was only because I already had the sigma+metabones but when I saw the S line price I was like hold up now might be the time to jump to the S line. Specially because I am only shooting for myself now so I can ease my way into the system without too much pressure 🤑 and for my personal work which is the plan for the next couple of months, I like to use the Super Takumars, Helios and I just got a Canon FD so there's really nothing stopping me from making the change.
Thanks a lot guys!!

10-bit is always better than 8-bit, and 4:2:2 is always better than 4:2:0, but the question is if that difference is actually visible / meaningful.  If you're doing very little grading in post then 8-bit vs 10-bit and 4:2:0 vs 4:2:2 probably doesn't have any visible or meaningful difference.
But I suggest doing a test.  Just find a bunch of scenes around the house (or not out of the way) and shoot the same composition in each mode and then just load them up side-by-side and look at them.  If the 8-bit 4:2:0 shot doesn't make your stomach turn then just go with it.
In the end, if you can lessen the impact or eliminate overheating, that you can lessen or eliminate the impact of running out of SD card space, then that means you can relax more while recording, you could shoot more, you can have extra time and energy and headspace that was previously devoted to worrying about or managing these things.  If you can have more headspace and be more relaxed while shooting then the way you use the camera, and the way that you behave while recording will be better.  If you behave better then what is in front of the camera might also be better.
So, realistically, the option is potentially of having a very slightly worse recording of potentially much better material.

It's hard to recommend the GH5 at this point, despite the fact that I'm a passionate MFT user, when the specs of the S5 and S1 are so much better.  You can make great content on anything of course, but better specs gives you more options on set, or means you don't have to be as picky about lighting etc, and when you're on set, time is money.
I'll paraphrase the recommendation from @KnightsFan and suggest you start with your end goal and work backwards.  Your end goal is to create a certain type of content with a certain type of look.  This will best be achieved using a certain type of shooting and a certain type of equipment that makes this easier and faster.  Then look at options for lenses across the crop-factors, then choose your format/sensor-size, then the camera body.
Going the other way results in nonsensical decisions!

Script and partial shortlist written. Ready for action tomorrow night when wife is out, so hopefully no interruptions!

The 14-140 is definitely on my short list. I think I might go with the 17mm f/1.8 for indoor stuff/low-light.

Thanks! I actually did try to crush the blacks, mainly to keep noise down but also because like you I see no reason to reveal detail in shadows that isn't helpful to the image or wasn't visible at the venue (and believe me, not much was visible..this place is really, really dark!).
And I do have my eye on the new Micro studio G2; I want to see if anything else is announced at NAB (unlikely but possible) before I pull the trigger, but it would be a nice addition. I'll try playing with boosting the saturation and contrast even more than I already did (I boosted saturation to 60 percent already; I'll try 70 or 75). Exposed at 1600 this was already quite underexposed and I had to boost exposure by at least 2-3 stops just to be able to see much in the footage.

Also, if you've got some budget then the new BM Micro Studio Camera 4K has dual native ISO, which could radically improve the footage and lens options in conditions like these.
Also, also, if you have a few BM cameras, maybe hiding them around the place would give you a few more angles to work with in post?  If you don't have other fast lenses then maybe you could go down to 12fps with a 360 shutter to have a special effect angle with 1.5 or so more stops of exposure.  If such an angle was static then the extreme motion blur of the shot wouldn't be so disorientating.  
Music videos is a place where there's huge creative license, so don't be afraid to lean into the challenges and create a strong look 🙂 

I got asked to do video (and photos) again at this event this coming summer, and since I really don't like shooting video on my Sony I decided to test the limits of my Blackmagic OG Pocket (which by extension would test the limits of my two BMMCCs) by bringing it to a very dark jazz club where I frequently take photos for some young musicians in town. When I shoot photos at this place they are usually at ISO 16,000 or 20,000, far beyond the limits of the OG BMPCC. But I did some test shots in our basement and it seemed like I might be able to get something. I used the lowest frame rate (23.976), set the shutter angle to 270 degrees, shot CDNG raw, and set the ISO to 1,600 for exposure purposes. I already had white balance readings from the photos I'd taken there previously, so I set that in advance. I used my SLR Magic 10mm Hyperprime, wide open, where it is quite soft and dreamy, and for kicks I added a star filter.
I wanted a handheld look so I used a Zacuto Marauder Mini as a brace, along with a Zacuto viewfinder that provided additional stabilization as it allowed me to press the viewfinder against my face. What I didn't count on was that the viewfinder fogged up at one point and I could barely see with it so I had to take it off and just look at that little LCD screen; it was hard to see whether anything was in focus as focus peaking was barely visible. I shot some footage from the front during the sound check, and asked when that same song would come up during the set. Just before that song came up I went to the back of the performance space so I could shoot from behind the musicians. What I didn't count on was that the actual performance of that song was a bit faster than how they played it at the sound check, so I couldn't align the video shot from the front perfectly with the audio. For the audio I used a Sound Devices MixPre6 with a stereo pair of Line Audio CM3 mics.
I boosted the exposure by a couple of stops in Resolve, brought down the gain a little, adjusted contrast, saturation, and mid-tone detail, and that was it. The resulting footage was noisy, of course. For Instagram I didn't even bother with noise reduction as the noise wasn't very noticeable when viewed on a phone. For Vimeo I applied NR to each clip in Resolve, which softened the image quite a bit (and the shots of the drummer, who was completely in the dark, are too plastic-looking for my taste; I could have backed off the NR there). Overall, for a quick test I'm happy enough with this and I'll use my BMD cameras for the dance this summer; this jazz club is quite a bit darker than the hall where the dancers will be.
 

My combo is usually the 14-140mm plus 25mm F1.8.
On my last 'serious' trip (almost two weeks of railway video/stills photography in Southern California), I took a G9 + 14-140mm + 25mm F1.8 (for low light), used hand-held, with G80 + 12-32mm used as an occasional tripod-mounted 'B' cam. I took the G80 instead of the (smaller) GX80 because it has a mic jack.
If I were doing a similar trip now I think it would be OM-1 (main) and ZV-1 (B-cam), but lens choice for the OM-1 would be harder as I recently bought a used Oly 12-100mm F4 IS Pro. It's much larger and heavier than the 14-140mm Pana, but it supports Sync-IS on Oly/OMDS bodies and the overall stabilisation performance is fantastic.
If you buy a used Pana 14-140mm F3.5-F5.6, be careful about which version you are getting. Panasonic sold the Mk 1 version (H-FS14140) in two different markings - white, gold and red 'HD' lettering (earlier lenses) or all white lettering (later lenses). Then they updated it to the Mk 2 (H-FSA14140) with weather sealing and all white lettering. AFAIK all are optically the same, and support Dual-IS and Dual-IS2. I've come across dealers who've mixed up the white-lettered later Mk 1 and the Mk 2 versions in their used listings...

My friend takes stills of his family holidays and has an ancient relic (IIRC it's a Canon 30D?) that he would always take with him.  He is a minimalist and was sick of hauling it around so did his first overseas trip without it and used his iPhone 5 (current at the time).  He took a bunch of photos on the trip, but when I asked him about it his thinking wasn't clear.  On his next trip he took an updated iPhone (maybe an 8?) and took lots of photos again, but still didn't have clear thinking about it.
It was only several years later that he had a good reply, he said "The photos look fine but I realised that I never felt compelled to print and hang any of the photos from it".  He still can't define what it is, but something is missing for him.  I've looked at the prints he's got hanging in his house and the difference isn't obvious - it's not like his prints have shallow DOF or anything, they just have this timeless sort of look about them, and his iPhone pics all look like iPhone pics (unsurprisingly).
Even the RAW stills from my GF3 from 2011 don't look like iPhone pics, even the current ones.  It might be a matter of blurring the iPhone images a bit, and toning down the strong saturation and contrast, who knows, but maybe they'll get over that hurdle soon.  Maybe they already have - I still have an iPhone 12 mini and don't use the stills in my creative work.
TBH it's probably the "everything is awesome!!" processing that Apple do to their images.  Maybe the RAW images off the sensor are fine.

My friend takes stills of his family holidays and has an ancient relic (IIRC it's a Canon 30D?) that he would always take with him.  He is a minimalist and was sick of hauling it around so did his first overseas trip without it and used his iPhone 5 (current at the time).  He took a bunch of photos on the trip, but when I asked him about it his thinking wasn't clear.  On his next trip he took an updated iPhone (maybe an 8?) and took lots of photos again, but still didn't have clear thinking about it.
It was only several years later that he had a good reply, he said "The photos look fine but I realised that I never felt compelled to print and hang any of the photos from it".  He still can't define what it is, but something is missing for him.  I've looked at the prints he's got hanging in his house and the difference isn't obvious - it's not like his prints have shallow DOF or anything, they just have this timeless sort of look about them, and his iPhone pics all look like iPhone pics (unsurprisingly).
Even the RAW stills from my GF3 from 2011 don't look like iPhone pics, even the current ones.  It might be a matter of blurring the iPhone images a bit, and toning down the strong saturation and contrast, who knows, but maybe they'll get over that hurdle soon.  Maybe they already have - I still have an iPhone 12 mini and don't use the stills in my creative work.
TBH it's probably the "everything is awesome!!" processing that Apple do to their images.  Maybe the RAW images off the sensor are fine.

I own the original version of that 14-42mm kit lens, but I also own the 12-35mm f2.8 lens, and it's only larger at full extension by about the thickness of a lens filter and is slightly fatter, but it's also 1-2 stops faster, which matters on these single ISO MFT cameras if you're walking around at night.
In reviewing my footage from previous trips I concluded that in reasonably well lit exteriors (like outdoor shopping malls) my main iPhone 12 camera is fine (it's got similar noise to GX85/GH5 with a F2.8 lens) but the iPhone 12 wide rear camera has the noise performance of the GX85/GH5 with an F8 lens, and the footage was so noisy it was hard for me to use on my home video edit.  So if I'm going to potentially be in less-well-lit interiors or anywhere at night, I'd appreciate the F2.8, and with the GX85 you can always crop in post on a 1080p timeline to get the slight extra reach.
I haven't really had an issue with the internal audio of the GX85, but I mostly use the camera audio as ambience and have music over the top.  Of course now we have these AI tools in post it's easy enough to clean up a voice if someone says something I want to put in the final edit.  If you haven't seen them, they're absolutely stunning.
A mic input changes everything, of course, including radically altering the camera size and conspicuousness, unless you are running a lav to it, but even then, having even "a touch of the Borg" attracts attention.  The general public are very vigilant against assimilation - oddly even including those that never watched Star Trek. 
I definitely agree that the 14-140mm would make a great option.  I only do a few trips a year and so think carefully in preparation for them.  
My current thinking is this:
Full tourist mode is the GX85 and OG BM camera setup, and is where I don't care about weight and want the ultimate options:
GX85 + 14-140mm for walking-around during the day GX85 + 12-35mm for walking-around well-lit places at night GX85 + primes for less-well-lit places at night BM for high-DR situations where I have time to manually expose and shoot (lookouts at sunset, for example..  these are strangely frequent on my holidays 🙂 ) Equipment: GX85 + 14-140mm P2K or M2K with 12-35mm F2.8 Primes: 7.5mm F2, 14mm F2.5, 17mm F1.4, 58mm F2 with SB This all fits into a camera insert inside a generic backpack Stealth tourist mode is the GX85 and is where I want to be stealthy and shoot quickly:
GX85 + 14-140mm for walking-around during the day GX85 + 12-35mm for walking-around well-lit places at night This fits into a sling bag, which are now fashionable, how convenient! Non-tourist mode is the GX85 and 12-32mm zoom (and maybe the 14mm F2.5 if it'll get dark) slipped into a jacket pocket.  If I'm travelling this is what I would take if I was leaving the hotel but didn't want to take a bag.
I don't own the 14-140mm or 12-32mm lenses currently, but assuming my thinking doesn't change in the interim, I'll buy these in preparation for our next trip.
I ended up shooting a lot with the GX85 and 14mm F2.5 in South Korea (almost exactly a year ago) and got a lot of great shots with the combo, and I really liked the size even though I took a backpack almost everywhere due to being in full tourist mode.  I've shared some images from this combo before in other threads but happy to re-post if you haven't seen them.

I think this is about the sum of it, at least from the ‘quality’ side of things.
I think raw only came to iPhone with the 12, but could be wrong and for me as someone who only shoots raw, probably part of my personal ‘disconnect’ from photography using my phone as in I have not been using it’s full potential.
Also, whilst I don’t need to be in ‘full on pro mode’ all the time (when not actually working), I probably need to get out of ‘point & click phone mode’ when using my phone and use it more like a camera. If that makes sense?
Something I probably need to explore…