Vintage Jimothy

So to follow up on that whooping 35 minute short film from Sigma, I just found that they'd released a Behind-the-Scenes video highlighting the crew's experience using the FP for the project and what their thoughts on it were!
 
Gotta say, if Sigma continue to listen to the feedback they're getting on this camera and keep that in mind moving forward, I cannot wait to see what Sigma's followup camera to the FP will be like. They've got a monster of a camera on their hands, just iron out some quirks here and there and the next model will be insane.

Man, this new firmware update is MASSIVE. Definitely breaths a ton of new life into the FP and fixes a few of the issues that Caleb mentioned in his video! 
However, I feel it's worth noting that Sigma confirmed in a new interview with one of the sites that can't be linked here that they were ultimately unable to create a proper LOG/flat profile for the FP due to technical limitations... So apparently that's not coming any time soon for the camera. Not the end of the world, as I'd wager most filmmakers buying this camera are investing in it for the various RAW codecs it can provide internally and externally. Hopefully though the next model in the FP lineup fixes that issue and provides a LOG profile at launch. 
In cheerier news though, Sigma just released a whopping 35 minute long narrative short film shot entirely on the FP! Unsurprisingly, it looks pretty great.
 
 

Have you tried the GHa luts for the S1? I can tell you that they work great and elevate the colour completely. The S1 files have enough data and latitude that you can match to the Alexa pretty well. 
Here's another lut pack that does the same thing - 
 
 

Speaking of the VariCam, I’m honestly shocked that Panasonic haven’t announced a full frame/Large Format version of the camera yet.

Yeah, I'm honestly shocked that Panasonic have been taking so long to release their own top end Large Format cinema camera to compete with ARRI, RED and especially Sony. The Varicam was really popular with a ton of Netflix shows, but it's quickly been replaced for a ton of those productions with the Sony Venice. 

I was pleased to find this interview, but learned very little from it, because most urgent question is: Where is EVA2/Varicam LT with S1H sensor or better.
Panasonic organic sensor is a big hope, as it would make NDs irrelevant, which can probably not be incorporated into L-mount cameras with an IBIS.
The S1H is amazing and a great B-camera for my 5 year old Varicam LT. Although imagewise the S1H is rather the A-camera now.
But rigging up the S1H for my needs is a nightmare and will always be a compromise in terms of usability.
Where is EVA2 with S1H image pipeline??? It´s a damn long wait.
Then Varicam LT with organic sensor.
I hope the wait is worth it.

Panny REALLY has their stuff “on fleek.” Bulletproof indeed. I’ve wandered off to Samsung and Blackmagic, but I always end up back with Panasonic, they really nail everything down. AF may be a bit behind the competition, but everything that works REALLY works and is 100% dependable.
There are some deals floating around on the S1H that I might just bite on soon, it seems like a decade kinda camera.

Maybe not most underrated but the Panasonic S1 is definately underrated outside of this forum. It's giving an FX9 quality image for peanuts. I would say it could compete with the C500 MK2 and C300 MK3 as well. The C500 can see into the shadows better by 2 stops or so, but it doesn't have dual native ISO. The Panasonic S1 can do 4000 iso with 4 stops of headroom in the highlights and a couple in the shadows. That punches the C500 dynamic range in the gut at the same ISO. 

Yeah, I was able to make it relatively easier on myself to switch from M43 to L-mount in part because the only native M43 lens I have is the kit lens that came with my G85. The lens kit I built for myself was comprised entirely of vintage SLR lenses from the M42 and Minolta MD mounts and were easily adaptable to the L-mount. I'm currently unable to autofocus with the S1 because of that, for obvious reasons, but then I rarely ever used autofocus with the G85 anyway.
It really is crazy just how much new life Panasonic breathed into the S1 with Firmware 2.0. I've no doubt that we'll see plenty of more advanced models with even better specs come out in the relatively near future, but practically speaking I could absolutely get away with using the S1 as my main camera without upgrading for a good 3-5 years or so. Perhaps even longer once I pick up a Blackmagic Video Assist 12G recorder to utilize the camera's RAW output capabilities.

It's a little worse in Open gate but probably not noticeable for most people. The 4k S35 mode is probably acceptable rolling shutter wise, though its still noticeable. The 1080p S35 mode is really fast, Alexa level, but the HD on the S1 is pretty sucky, especially in S35 mode. 
 
I know, it would be an instant buy for me. Or more like an EVA2 as I feel the Panasonic S1H is too consumer of a sensor to put in a varicam, even though its incredibly good regardless. 

I feel that the Panasonic Varicam LT is one of the most underrated cinema cameras of the recent era. 

Just the timing and market was bad for it. 

Varicam S35 before it wasn't too successful (too expensive, and too heavy? And late-ish to market), thus even though the Varicam LT was 98% of the Varicam S35 but at a cheaper price and a lower size (addressing the two biggest issues of the Varicam S35), there wasn't the strong success of the Varicam S35 to build upon. 

Plus by the time Varicam LT arrived, it was already too late, ARRI had their claws solidly into the higher end market, and the Varicam LT was still too expensive when the likes of the Sony FS7 / Canon C300mk2 did the job well enough for the low/mid budget and were massively cheaper. The Varicam LT just couldn't find a large enough niche to be a huge hit with.

S1/S5/S1H does all have a magenta cast in VLOG to varying degree but if grading in Resolve for example then it's easy to dial out. Alexa LOG C has always a had a green cast for example so not only Panasonic that has a color cast. You can also easily fix it in camera by just adding 9 points of green (or a bit less depending on taste) to each kelvin setting and then save it in custom modes and then you don't have to dial it out in post. In the end I would say magenta cast is a non issue. Two biggest issues except autofocus is moire (on S1/S5) and rolling shutter in full frame mode. Both could be better but in general I am just blown away by how good a camera it is for the money.
 
 

Yeah, I was able to make it relatively easier on myself to switch from M43 to L-mount in part because the only native M43 lens I have is the kit lens that came with my G85. The lens kit I built for myself was comprised entirely of vintage SLR lenses from the M42 and Minolta MD mounts and were easily adaptable to the L-mount. I'm currently unable to autofocus with the S1 because of that, for obvious reasons, but then I rarely ever used autofocus with the G85 anyway.
It really is crazy just how much new life Panasonic breathed into the S1 with Firmware 2.0. I've no doubt that we'll see plenty of more advanced models with even better specs come out in the relatively near future, but practically speaking I could absolutely get away with using the S1 as my main camera without upgrading for a good 3-5 years or so. Perhaps even longer once I pick up a Blackmagic Video Assist 12G recorder to utilize the camera's RAW output capabilities.

It really is crazy how great of a value the S1 is, especially used with the V-Log upgrade already installed. 

I went from using a G85 to the S1 and while I've done good work with the former camera, there really is a noticeable difference in capability that the S1 provides. 

Yeah, I was able to make it relatively easier on myself to switch from M43 to L-mount in part because the only native M43 lens I have is the kit lens that came with my G85. The lens kit I built for myself was comprised entirely of vintage SLR lenses from the M42 and Minolta MD mounts and were easily adaptable to the L-mount. I'm currently unable to autofocus with the S1 because of that, for obvious reasons, but then I rarely ever used autofocus with the G85 anyway.
It really is crazy just how much new life Panasonic breathed into the S1 with Firmware 2.0. I've no doubt that we'll see plenty of more advanced models with even better specs come out in the relatively near future, but practically speaking I could absolutely get away with using the S1 as my main camera without upgrading for a good 3-5 years or so. Perhaps even longer once I pick up a Blackmagic Video Assist 12G recorder to utilize the camera's RAW output capabilities.

That´s a mini Varicam for 1000 GBP! That´s a steal! @Tim Sewell
I am curious to test some primes with it. So far I have used my S1 with little cheapo zooms. The 35-70mm F4 Canon FD is indeed a little beauty. Mechanically it´s flawed. Lens alignment is shaky once the rubber pads inside get worn out. Here is some footage for location scouting with the kewl Tokina 25-50. Sun was very harsh. It was a beautiful summer day, to say it with other words.:) The mellow contrast of the Tokina gives the S1 image nice smoothnes. Anyway, this camera is fun. Hard to believe what kinda quality we get for around 1500EU if bought used. Grading is a bit too greenish. Was trying to built a greenish Lut I guess.:)
 

Yeah, I was able to make it relatively easier on myself to switch from M43 to L-mount in part because the only native M43 lens I have is the kit lens that came with my G85. The lens kit I built for myself was comprised entirely of vintage SLR lenses from the M42 and Minolta MD mounts and were easily adaptable to the L-mount. I'm currently unable to autofocus with the S1 because of that, for obvious reasons, but then I rarely ever used autofocus with the G85 anyway.
It really is crazy just how much new life Panasonic breathed into the S1 with Firmware 2.0. I've no doubt that we'll see plenty of more advanced models with even better specs come out in the relatively near future, but practically speaking I could absolutely get away with using the S1 as my main camera without upgrading for a good 3-5 years or so. Perhaps even longer once I pick up a Blackmagic Video Assist 12G recorder to utilize the camera's RAW output capabilities.

Yes, it does. 🙂 With firmware coming on 10th of July, Panasonic made Lumix S1 irresistible to me. Full frame 6K BRAW from a camera that has gorgeous EVF, best in class IBIS (not that important to me, but thank you), 10bit 4:2:2 internal for the projects where BRAW is not needed, great low light, 60p,  the list goes on. And all this for less than 2500 Euro (Panasonic S1 camera + Blackmagic Video Assist 12G 5inch Recorder and Monitor). It's a great value and incredibly good camera for video and very capable for photo.
It's underrated because of the auto focus. But hey I use manual focus lenses all the  time.
Wish Panasonic to stay in this game. We need them.   

As a GH5 owner, I've watched Panasonic gradually improve the colour bit-by-bit with every new camera they've released, and they've really taken it to a nice place now I must say.  The GH5 still gives spectacular images, but I must say that with the colour science improvements of the newer models that the grass is getting greener.  
If I didn't have to spend thousands and/or buy all new glass then I'd be tempted.  Of course, considering I haven't shot anything in the last 18 months due to covid, it'd be hard to justify upgrading from a camera which is ageing rather than wearing out.  I bought the Voigtlander 42.5mm f0.95 and Laowa 7.5mm F2 lenses in 2019 and haven't used them on a trip yet!

No surprises here, but I'd say it's the Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera.
A modular cinema camera under $1000 brand new, uncompressed Cinema DNG RAW at 60p, and a beautiful image.  
The image doesn't look like that second generation iPhone or camcorder that Canon love to imitate when clipped either..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMb6CR781Kc
With Resolve it superscales to 4K beautifully too.  You don't actually want 4K, you just got trained by the camera brands that 1080 is bad because they compress the absolute living crap out of their images - no-one is rejecting the Alexa 1080p because it's not 4K!  With great quality RAW images you can push and pull them in post and they keep on giving and this is pretty darn close to that...
Plus it's the easiest camera to grade that I have ever seen.  Great images just appear when you drop a LUT or CST onto them, rather than struggling for hours to get good colours.

It really is crazy how great of a value the S1 is, especially used with the V-Log upgrade already installed. 

I went from using a G85 to the S1 and while I've done good work with the former camera, there really is a noticeable difference in capability that the S1 provides. 

Would have been interesting to see the C70 in there with the dual gain architecture. I think the DR is superior to C500 II on that.
Still only 5-10% better than a $1500 Lumix S1 though. So I would never spend that much on a camera. After GFX 100 and Leica SL2 I will probably never buy a very expensive creative tool again because the depreciation and overkill is really quite upsetting.
Going back to a humble S1 is itself a humbling experience for a $10,000 camera owner.

Wow the S1 holds up well there.
Just shows it is a match for Alexa / Amira when you nail exposure correctly.
Great colour science.
I see the main flaw being that the skin tones go green in his ETTR test and then there's the banding after that, so not quite as flawless as the Amira there but then it isn't shooting ProRes or RAW in his test. Just internal V-LOG I think

In HEVC 6K I think the S1 has highlight dynamic range similar to the Venice, but is cleaner in the shadows because it's more compressed. I never got into the Red ecosystem but some people seem to love it. The Dragon image is nice but it has just okay highlight dynamic range and it's also really noisy, but nice texture to the noise and the color has improved.
This guy's channel is pretty spot on I think:
https://www.youtube.com/c/Jsfilmz/playlists
 
 

RAW video is always much nosier because it come strait from the sensor. In camera video recording is heavily denoised. Great performance of sensors in low light when using internal recording is mostly result of good in camera denoise.
When using RAW footage and high ISO you'll have to denoise in post production. Result will be even better than in camera denoise but unfortunately requires powerful GPU and will take a lot more time for the final rendering. Actually one colorist said that you have to denoise always when using digital camera. 🙂
Another way to reduce the noise of RAW footage with Panasonic S1/S5/S1H would be to shoot at 6K, then reduce resolution to 4K in post. It automatically gets rid of some of the noise.
It is also well known fact that BRAW is partially debayered in camera otherwise it will infringe RED patent about compressed video. External recorders are not affected by the patent. While not true RAW, BRAW recording results are more than good for me and major factor to buy Panasonic + Blackmagic Video Assist. BRAW has other advantages as for example multiple quality settings and as result reduced file size. And of course ability to edit straight from the recorder in Davinci Resolve. Using ProRes RAW or Blackmagic BRAW is more choice of NLE than anything else. Quality differences are negligible and visible only in some cases and with heavy pixel peeping.
Here is a good test of Blackmagic BRAW vs Prores RAW which demonstrates well the noise problem and differences between the two RAW formats:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPB6wrVKHiw