FreshGiant

No. Cropping won't change the lens characteristics just field of view.

Hey good to see someone else from Chicago on here. I'm on the south side. Hope you are staying safe. Finding a platform is easier because you can not only do all the branching on their software (including quizzes and stuff) but you get all the analytics. So if I make a video about my business that has 50 branches, I can see which paths are most popular and which ones lead to the most contacts. Ultimately I'd like to pitch this to clients (choose your own adventure sales videos), but I need a reliable platform. The problem is that the good ones all sell to school districts for e-learning and the budgets are incredible. Like I said $1000-$1500 a month with 12 month contracts. I didn't know if anyone had ever done a project like this before, but I'm guessing they are still pretty rare.

I run a little video company in Chicago. Clients are usually small companies doing video for the first time. I pay for ads, lots of people click and out of them very few contact me for a project. To improve those numbers I have an idea to produce a branching (choose your own adventure) style video on my website of me answering all the questions every new client has (mostly how pricing works and the video production process). I want to create a seamless experience that is better than just a bunch of youtube videos linked together, I want a real branching video platform. And after searching for a long time I've found 2 options A) open source stuff like H5P that is beyond my technical knowledge (but free) B) Great but incredibly expensive platforms like Hapyak that costs $1500 a month and requires yearly contracts Wondering if anyone has every done any interactive/branching video projects and if so what platforms did they use.

Yes, I''ve seen heavily used FS7 drop below 3k. Its starting to get pretty tempting. I think the Z Cam E2 image is better despite being a smaller sensor, but that is still a very in demand/versatile camera. My hope was that they would bring the costs of C300 mkII down (my dream 2nd hand camera). Sadly that camera is still around 6k used.

Since I do 1 man band stuff mostly, I really like the idea of staying small with m 4/3 cameras/lenses. And since 99% of my stuff is indoor, NDs are not as much of an issue for me. I can always screw one on if needed. But I too have looked at that S6 version. And like you, once you do the build up it gets a bit too expensive for me. Like I mentioned, I think I'd rather have multiple small cameras, I don't think the internal sound preamps are great. I've heard issues. The Wooden Camera A box Plus (which isn't out yet), seems like the best solution. Its like a little juicedlink box. But depending on the price, original Mix Pre3 used on Ebay is about $400. That would work as well under the camera. I would almost never use V Mount batteries for shoot, only if I'm doing a bigger shoot with an ad agency and I wanted to build up the camera to make it look like a mini RED or something to impress. 3+ hours on an NPF battery off Amazon for $25 seems pretty great. But there are V mount solutions. Tilta made one but isn't released, but there is a mounting plate from a chinese company Nitze for $150 on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Nitze-Universal-Gold-Mount-Adapter/dp/B082PF2NKP/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2IHT0SRHS6EU1&keywords=nitze+z+cam&qid=1582723142&sprefix=z+cam+nitz%2Caps%2C160&sr=8-1

So I'd have the Portkeys monitor on top (which controls the camera). Then I would just use Wifi app to monitor/control the other 2. Old Iphones like 6s are $75 on ebay. Here is an example of 1 iphone/magic arm. Imagine another on the other side and a top monitor. Still pretty compact. I'd probably go with the Sigma 16/30/56mm F1.4 m43. Would be an excellent affordable 3 camera interview kit.

90% of my work is solo corporate work. Half interviews the other half corporate events (like conferences). About 10% of the work is branding videos with small teams (I hire 1-2 people). I shoot on the S1 and rent an Eva1 if needed. I started with the GH series, so i'm most comfortable with V-log. I like packing small, I do travel. This year I was planning to sell the S1, invest a few thousand dollars and get a used EVA1 or maybe C200/300mk2. Obvious advantages from moving to a camera like that from a mirrorless. But recently I've thought about going the other direction and buying 3 Z Cam E2 (yes 3), when the price starts to drop (about $1350 used meaning I could get 3 for about $4k) . I always thought I should move up and buy more expensive cameras, but I'm starting to think that for my kind of work having more cameras allows me to significantly change what I can offer my clients. The camera/M43 lenses are so small, I could pack a 3 camera set up in a backpack. Maybe even a small motorized slider. I could produce much better interview content with multiple angles. For conferences I could do 2 stationary cameras and one manned and produce multi-cam keynote speeches. For branding work, I could build the camera up (metabones XL, Full Frame glass, V Mount) and it would look fine for agency people. Unless something comes out at NAB that is just jaw-dropping, I really think multiple small cameras is the best approach for me personally.

Am I wrong, but didn't the XT3 have record limits?

Yea, I always format in camera before I start shooting. I've had problems with Adata and Sand Disk Extreme. Both I've used on GH5 400mbs 4k with no problem. Thousands of clips. I've had maybe 2-3 errors on the S1 (shot 100s of clips) with both kinds of cards. Moved to Sony M cards and haven't had a problem yet. I bought them on Amazon, but I think it was Adorama as the seller (but can't remember for sure). This isn't an isolated issue. If you go on the FB page and search you'll find someone posting every few days reporting various cards. I thought it was only SD but someone posted and mentioned the XQD slot too. Yes, i could dual record with an external monitor, but if I'm adding another 1k to a 2k camera, at that point I could just sell and looking at a used EVA1 or FS7 which are both under 4k now. This is why the Xt4 is interesting. 2 cameras would be within my price range (I do lots of interviews), but reliability is my #1 concern. Love their color science, auto focus, and lenses.

I've always used Panasonics (GH3, GH4, GH5) and have never ever had a problem. They were all workhorse cameras. But on the FB group for the S1/S1H there are lots of reports of card issues. Even using V60 and V90 cards. The Xt4 looks like a dream camera, but so did the S1. Its all about reliability, and hopefully Fuji gets it right with this one.

Any word on video record limits? Seems like if they wanted to go after Panasonic for the hybrid video king, you would need to figure out how to never overheat and have no clip limits. I am actually unhappy with my S1. I've had issues with various (expensive) SD cards. about 1 in every few hundred clips will not write to the card forcing me to pull the battery. This happened on a paid shoot and was very embarrassing. I don't want to record onto an external device (loud/power hungry/heavy/expensive). I was planning to get an S1H as an A cam and S1 as a B cam, but now that I'm having trouble with the S1, I am considering getting 2 XT-4s and moving to the Fuji system. But if there are overheating/video clip limits, that is going to be a deal breaker no matter how great the images are.

I would suggest the S1 and the 24-105 f4. Ibis is excellent battery life is excellent (2+ hours per battery) No record limit (or overheating) AF is good Great in low light Shoots in UHD 10 bit 422 to sd card 14 stops of V-LOG (optional) Very good skin tones Is a 6k sensor so you can do a APSC crop in camera so that 105mm becomes a 157.5mm and the lens is parfocal. Because fo the S1H and all the other cameras you can find them used for $2500 now for the camera/lens combo. I do a lot of corporate events (trade shows or conferences kinda thing), and it really works well.

My guess would be that they put the 6k IMX410 sensor from the from the S1 in a box with better processing power and maybe codecs they had to license (ProRes/ProRes RAW). Maybe similar to what Z Cam is trying to do with their full frame 6k camera but with an L mount instead of an EF mount. Add dual XLR and internal ND and it would be a very interesting camera if they can keep the costs at or below the EVA 1. Why do this and hurt the EVA or the cine division? I have an S1 with an EF adapter (waiting on 10 bit/vlog), but I would be worried if I was Panasonic about the whole L mount thing. They need to come out with a great L mount camera, just to make the whole alliance thing viable. If they were selling a ton of L mount cameras then developing lenses make sense, if no one is buying the cameras they might need to abandon the whole project. Which is why it might be coming from the Lumix division since their big picture might be lenses, where the video/cine division isn't focused on lens sales.

Sage, I love the LUT (bought both versions). Is there any plans to come out with a full V-LOG version? With the prices of EVA1 coming down and S1 getting full V-LOG in July, I think there will be more interest in a full V-LOG to GHa LUT.

Looking at a used FS7 from a rental company. System hours 3000, but I could get it for $4k. Any thoughts? Anyone have an FS7 with really high hours? I've heard it is a workhorse camera, but I honestly don't know what the life span of a camera like that is.