newfoundmass

On 9/2/2021 at 10:26 AM, Video Hummus said:

Hybrid AF could mean many things.

Perhaps with faster scanning speeds and readouts from newer sensors DfD is finally able to achieve performance like PDAF. The inherent weakness of DfD is it having to pulse focus to achieve focus. This side effect is clearly hard to hide and ugly and undesirable.

I just don't think they will get over the stigma of DfD without getting rid of the pulsing (which becomes more apparent with wider and wider apertures) and then rebranding their autofocus technology. Anything branded as DfD Version 3 has already failed in its naming alone. Overcoming the interia of years of "contrast based AF is inferior to Phase Detect AF" in almost every camera review featuring a Panasonic camera will be hard without PDAF or a massive performance improvement and a rebranding of the technology—at least in the mirrorless market dominated by Sony A7 and Canon R series cameras.

Agreed. I'm cautiously optimistic that they've decided to go with something more than Dfd, but I am not going to get my hopes up too high. I really, really want to stay with Panasonic but we'll see. The next six months will be very interesting. 

https://www.43rumors.com/ft5-gh6-will-be-released-q1-2022-and-will-include-some-sort-of-hybrid-af/

"A source told us this:

GH6 will be released Q1 2022

AND will include some sort of hybrid AF

I am sure Panasonic will share more GH6 specs this autumn but with the worldwide chip shortage it’s very likely you will get the camera in your hands by early 2022 only. I guess hybrid AF means we can expect to get both: phase and contrast detection AF!"

They're usually pretty reliable... Interesting stuff. 

On 8/28/2021 at 12:28 PM, androidlad said:

With the resolution/framerate and amount of motion involved with those devices, they are in need of a codec/bitrate overhaul, or you always end up with heavily compressed blotchy mess that can't hold up in post.

Yeah, the resolutions, frame rates and stuff are nice but I'm just never happy with how the footage looks coming out of GoPros. 

I keep expecting them to come out with something that really makes you take notice but I really don't know why anyone would have purchased these last few unless they really needed to replace an old or non working one. Even then, I think the DJI Osmo Action is a much better buy and I prefer the image. 

On 8/24/2021 at 2:56 AM, sanveer said:

Oh ok. Thanks to China (Fauci, Bill Gates, etc too?), Covid has slowed down the world, and ensured most peoples lives are seriously disrupted. Also, the super shady behaviour of the UN (Tedros) and others is extremely strange.  

Please keep this conspiracy nonsense to yourself. 

1 hour ago, KnightsFan said:

@newfoundmass USB audio is an existing standard which, if implemented in cameras, would let people use USB mics, but more importantly they could use mixers and completely bypass camera preamps and ADCs. And it would open up to a whole range of audio devices, like MixPre's, Zooms, or even desktop mixers from Behringer, Tascam, FocusRite, etc. That would streamline a lot of types of shoots.

Fair! 

2 hours ago, Eric Calabros said:

Most of us are not doing any Hollywood level project.. my mic is always 20 cm away from my camera.. how much noise may I get in that distance?

However, have you checked Tascam TM-250U mic? The output is already digital in this case. You can plug it to your mac, to your iPhone, to your Android phone.. but not your mirrorless camera! 

 

https://tascam.com/us/product/tm-250u/feature

Other than because you have it already, why would you want to? 

These USB mics are all lower end consumer devices targeted towards people that don't really know a lot about audio. While there are some higher end USB mics they're again targeting novices that prefer ease of use over quality.

I guess I can see why it'd be nice to be able to use them if that's what you have to work with, but I feel like that'd be catering to such a small part of the market and there is probably some work around already, such as using a mixer. 

18 minutes ago, seanzzxx said:

Guys this camera is not meant to primarily shoot 12K. It downsamples BRAW in camera, so the RGBW sensor enables full sensor full rgb over sampled 8k and 4k. THAT’S the selling point, not the 12k.

What are you talking about? It's literally called the Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K. 

I saw that this morning and was pretty surprised, though maybe I shouldn't be. You didn't hear a lot about it after it's release, as I think it was out of reach for a lot of people financially.

In many ways this camera came too early, as dealing with so much data just seems like a total nightmare for smaller productions.  

42 minutes ago, herein2020 said:

Actually after watching the YouTube video all desire for this camera evaporated. Definitely an incredible deal but the reviewer in the video used a $43K lens, $4K+ stabilizer, generated 990GB of data, etc, etc and IMO after YouTube got done with it, the footage honestly did not look any better to me than C70, S1H, or A7S3 footage. The image stabilization wasn't even close to what even my S5 delivers without a gimbal let alone with a gimbal.

Cameras like these are like sports cars. No matter how good the deal is for the car, you need to be prepared to pay for all of the additional costs required to get the most out of it.

I have no doubt that the 12K source footage looked amazing, but for me, my final delivery platform is Vimeo, YouTube, and Instagram for most of my projects where all of that extra quality would be wasted.

I've watched some stuff filmed with it on YouTube via my 55inch 4K TV and I think it looks spectacular, much better than A7S3* but not significantly better than S1H or the C70. It still looks really good, though. The cropping capabilities are out of this world, though I'm not a fan of doing that personally. I agree though, I don't have much interest in it for my uses. 

* I recognize the strengths of the camera and why people love it, I'm even considering it if I switch from M43 because of its ease of use, but I don't love the image. It's flat to me. 

7 hours ago, Eric Calabros said:

They even could create an open standard for USB mic input, but didn't. XLR is really ancient for this "mobility and convenient" world. 

Most of the best mics are XLR. I'd never use a USB mic over an XLR one. Give me a locking XLR with a beefy cord any day of the week. It doesn't bother me at all when using the Panasonic XLR unit. 

Honestly, under the circumstances you're going to use them under, you'll only notice a difference if you're looking for one. There will be slight differences in sharpness, DOF, background compression, etc. but really these aren't things the average person will notice unless it's thrown in their face. The biggest concern is color matching the two cameras, but it sounds like you're set with that. You might wanna play around with sharpness in post, but I think you'll find they cut together nicely as long as their properly color matched. 

If you've got the money go with one of those tall tripods but you can get a 12 ft or taller laser/construction tripod for a fraction of the price and just adapt it. Cheesy Cam uses a pan/tilt head in this video. 

An even cheaper option is something like the Impact 13' light stand.

Impact Air-Cushioned Heavy-Duty Light Stand (Black, 13') https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B006U6NWFS/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_3Z4XMJS6QAH7YHJ30JQW

It's very sturdy and can more than handle a small camcorder. I have two and have used it as a tall tripod before and it works perfectly. I put the Bescor pan / tilt head on it and it works great especially for a $175-200 set up. 

Look into "laser tripods" or really tall, sturdy light stands. You'll have to adapt it, obviously, but you'll save hundreds (thousands?) on it. 

I've only ever used the Bescor Motorized Pan & Tilt Head, which is affordable but is wired and not very fast. You're looking at spending thousands for a faster wireless solution. The gimbal idea Kye had is an option but not an ideal one for a long soccer game. 

17 hours ago, HockeyFan12 said:

Thanks! On the S1H for 400Mbit ALL-I I think V90 is basically a necessity. But I think the 6K HEVC is half the bitrate so I was hoping to cheap out a bit since I only have an S1...

Doh, I'm sorry then! 

My friend uses V90 ProGrade 256gb cards on his S1H. They're the most affordable trustworthy option and we've never had any problems with them.

He doesn't have any V60 cards to test but when I see him in a few weeks I can bring some of my SanDisk Extreme Pro cards to try it out, but I imagine you'll get a better answer by then! He did say though that the reason he went with the V90 cards is to make sure he didn't run into any problems. 

13 hours ago, Caleb Genheimer said:

I’m fairly suspicious that using Sony sensors involves use-case restrictions, not slapping the S1H sensor into a cine body could be one of those.

Has the S1H sensor been used in any other cameras? I'm surprised that Z-Cam hasn't used it... There might be something to what you're saying if no one else has used it, though I'm unsure if it's even legal to restrict a sensor's use other than who can and can't buy it? It could be that Panasonic has exclusivity and just aren't interested in a full frame cine camera? Or it's in development? 

1 hour ago, sanveer said:

That's what I seem to feel from this interview. And the perpetual emphasis on Pro for the S-limg and portability, size and zoom for the M43 lineup. 

He said nothing about the GH6 that we didn't already know and wasn't going to break any news in an interview. He did however emphasize that the GH6 is for professional use and talked about "serious amateurs" after Andrew brought up enthusiasts. 

These interviews are less about giving us information on future releases and more on getting an idea on where they're going technology wise, their attitude and viewpoints on potential features, and just an acknowledgment that they're aware about what their users are looking for. 

I have no doubt that the GH6 will be a powerful camera with most, or maybe even more, of the professional features in their S line. 

7 minutes ago, sanveer said:

Curiously, Panasonic doesn't seem to want to equip the GH6 much above the GH5, regardless of what the customers want. They are keen to protect the S-line, and seem to want to go to great lengths to handicap the GH6 just that little bit. 

We don't know enough about the GH6 to say that, unless you have the inside scoop? 

1 minute ago, sanveer said:

Do any of the GH/M43 cameras have external RAW recording?

The GH5s has external RAW. Olympus enabled it on at least one camera, if I recall correctly. 

I suspect the GH6 will have it. 

Internal ND would be nice, obviously, but I don't mind putting an ND on my lenses when needed. 

Phase detect auto focus, 32-bit float audio (good idea!), recording to SSD, and a form of internal RAW are all things that I care more about. To me screwing on ND is a relatively painless task, but other things aren't as easy to work around, like needing an external monitor for RAW or an external recorder for 32-bit float audio. That adds bulk and weight to my set up which is typically very compact. 

I'd wait unless you're really in need of doing it sooner. I suspect we'll see prices drop in the next couple months and things will get back to normal as production picks up again. I also suspect we'll see Intel and AMD releasing their answers to the M1 in the next year or so, which should make things very interesting. 

On 7/16/2021 at 5:23 PM, Matins 2 said:

~$4,000 for a camera without global shutter? Wow.

I really don't know many people that care about global shutter anymore. It used to be something we all dreamed about but read out speeds have increased dramatically that it's not even a concern for most people. What are you filming that needs a global shutter? 

I think I agree with IronFilm. I think you'd get much better results if you had two of the same cameras or two cameras from the same brand. Even if you don't mind trying to match them, it just kinda seems unnecessary if you can manage to skip that step all together. 

I think you'll also find that the Fujis give you a superior image. 

It's just hard for me personally to see the benefit in having two different camera systems, especially since I unified mine to make the cameras easier to match! 😂

If Fuji ever gets rid of the 30 minute recording limits and doesn't overheat there's a good chance I'll switch from Panasonic. I love those Fuji colors. 

2 hours ago, John Matthews said:

Here's the deal:

I have 43 minutes of consumer-standard miniDV footage of my wedding. My wife's asking for a nice video, similar to the ones I've offered to others in the family but with much better cameras. Does anyone know of some good examples of decent grades for this? Or, even some examples of interesting looks from low-quality stuff.

Ah yes, MiniDV! The bane of my existence for 12 years! A lot will come down to how you capture it (are you doing a standard firewire capture to DV or are you capturing it via capture card to a different codec?), how well it was filmed (is the exposure and white balance OK?) and what camera was used (a lot of low end camcorders just had horrible, muddy colors unless used in bright, bright lighting). 

You'll want to avoid using one of the cheaper capture cards that will record it to h.264. I've never had good results capturing SD video to that codec and editing it, so I think it's better to capture to DV if you have the ability to. ProRes will also work if you have a way to capture it that way!

If the footage is decent-ish you should be able to do a bit of color correction and get relatively close to what you'd get using a similar modern consumer camera, but you're not gonna be able to get away with heavy grades or anything. The process overall though wasn't radically different to how I worked with HD camcorder footage once I upgraded, so assuming it's decent footage you should be OK doing what you normally would just with tempered expectations. 

If it's not very good footage though you'll have more issues than you would if it were HD. Denoising never really worked that well since it removed way too much detail for a lower resolution image. Maybe that has gotten better thanks to better denoising tools? But muddy and noisy footage is where you'll have your problems; there isn't a ton you can do with that. Even basic color correction is a pain in the ass. 

50 minutes ago, Video Hummus said:

As long as the review system relies on receiving review units early this problem will only get worst. Nobody is going to bite the hand that feeds them. Because eventually you will slip off the priority review gear list, and then not be invited to special events, and eventually receive nothing at all.

Why? Because it’s marketing and they by definition are seeking a ROI.

Simply stop taking free gear from companies to review and buy it on the market. Review it and be as brutally honest as you want. Re-sell to reduce losses and make up the balance wnd some profit with donation/memberships/subscriptions.

Or rent it!

I'm not sure that it deserves to be mentioned along side these cameras but the GX85 is really, really underrated, especially for its price on the used market. 

There are a lot of reasons not to get one but boy do I love mine. It doesn't have great auto focus in video and it lacks a mic input, but I find myself grabbing it instead of my G85 and GH5. The stabilization is really good... Not G85 or GH5 good but close. It's great to take into areas where larger cameras aren't allowed and lately I've just enjoyed bringing it with me on trips with the 14mm f2.5 or the 20mm f1.7. For whatever reason I find myself shooting more photos / video for fun, like I did when I first got a video or stills camera. As nice as it is to have a phone that can do decent photos and videos it just isn't the same... I don't get the same joy as I get using the GX85. I really didn't expect to love this camera as much as I have.