MrSMW

My prediction is it will and it is a step up from the S5II. I’d also choose lens but Sigma 28-70 will soldier on for now as I prefer 28 over 24 personally and 70 over 60, but the Lumix 24-60 is probably the better lens now.

You won’t be buying tickets to my new feature, ‘Escargot!’ then will you?! It’s a 5 hour documentary about the life of garden snails in rural France and with every ticket sold you, you get a free lettuce.

One of the best channels on YouTube in this industry. Thorough, no hype and do actually make quality productions out in the field and not simply spout BS from behind a desk, holding a lav mic wearing clothing back to front.

New firmware dropped today, apparently S2 cameras no longer catch fire and several 8k open gate tests have been shown to outlast battery life. No mention of the latter being improved and maybe they sneaked something in there in that regard as it’s less than I am used to and my only real criticism of the camera. New Sigma 17-40mm f1.8 landed for me personally also. So far, so good. Internal zoom, hurrah. Not big nor heavy, hurrah. Bright f1.8 constant aperture, hurrah. Hybrid zoom works with 4k 50p and there is a 422 all-intra mode, albeit at 800mbps, another lower one at 600mbps and a long gop 420 at just 200mbps and most likely going with that with the new Cinelike A2 profile that is not as flat as the D2 or as punchy as the V2. With the hybrid zoom enabled plus the standard level (ie there is a higher level with more punch in) EIS engaged, gives a good FF equivalent range of 28-66mm which is perfect for my needs. I think we’re going to get along beautifully and should do exactly what I needed which was to reduce kit (bodies, lenses, lens swaps etc) down to a more compact level. The proof of course will be out in the field but it’s a mild evolution than any kind of revolution after 5 years now with LUMIX, so not expecting any surprises…

I think this one is the most likely as Panasonic already have some kind of relationship with Arri and also with Leica so why not? And as one of the riff raff slum-dwelling Panasonic Loser Boys, there might be some future trickle down benefit to me… I don’t much care for their Log LUT though and think Panny’s standard Vlog is better, but what do I know…

I think very few of us would know and even less care, what anything was shot on unless told. I do not know too much about the movie industry except that in Hollywood, it’s a massive racket of control, tradition and expectation whereas outside of Hollywood, filmmakers are saying fuck off to your control, tradition and expectation and making films with less kit, less bodies and far less BS. I suspect like all great empires, it’s had its day and is falling apart with something else taking over and that something else is the rise of the less controlled, less traditional, less expectation and almost a return to how it began with a more pioneering filmmaking style. I rarely go to the cinema these days and it’s even more rare for me to have even the slightest interest in any big budget movies because as has been mentioned, if they are not an over AI’d bunch of balls, so much is badly scripted, poor story, woke rubbish…made by companies who lack any passion for the craft and are simply about making as much money as possible. It’s not the camera and never really has been. One thing is for sure…I think…and that is the industry is not dead or even dying, just the structure of it is changing, coupled with the mass market viewing practices, but that is another topic and one I suspect we can’t get past.

U-turn, - would not be the first time in my life and won’t be the last… Ordered and arriving Tuesday as my new principal video lens. On an S1RII. Why? Simple, - the only way I can make a 3 camera (over a 4 camera) system work, is with zooms. And although I keep considering it out of need over choice, anything over around 700/750g is just larger and heavier than I’d like and really, ideally no more than 500g. As much as I love the Sigma 28-45mm f1.8, it’s a bit big and heavy and slightly limited, even if engaging hybrid zoom crop mode making it more like a 28-70mm (hybrid zoom = x1.4 and engaging standard digital IS = x1.1). It’s a 1kg chunk of glass and isn’t that stable on a freestanding monopod. I have the Sigma 28-70mm f2.8 and that’s been a workhorse and remains so for me, but is now welded to my other S1RII for stills duty, again with hybrid zoom mode making it more like a 28-100mm but without that last bit of compression a 28-105 might have. There is the recent Lumix 24-60mm f2.8 full frame lens and it was an option, but I like the crop option f1.8 from Sigma with its internal zoom. On the S1RII, it offers 4.7k 50/60p in 17:9 and with standard EIS engaged, a useful range of 28-66mm is full-frame terms. Anyway, that is the plan subject to testing it out over the next couple of weeks and if it doesn’t work out as expected, the Lumix 24-60 could be an option, but it’s the more modern reincarnation of the old 18-35 f1.8 but with more range and vastly better AF. Keeping my Lumix 18mm f1.8 to slap on for those few but essential occasions where I do need more width than 28mm for video and the 35mm f1.8 for better low light capability for stills, but the 50mm is basically redundant and the 85, dunno, undecided… I ended up using the 85 a lot more for video than expected the second half of my last season just gone, but about 15mm too long most of the time so probably also going… So going forward I can dedicate one unit to stills, one to roaming video and the third to static video and as a one man band, I don’t think there is a better option for my needs.

Maybe the movie industry will bounce back like vinyl and film when enough folks begin to recognise that they do in fact miss the good old days. Or perhaps not enough will and we are doomed to…well, doom scrolling. I refuse myself not to (use my phone whilst watching something) not simply on point of principal, but because I have an actual interest in watching shows and movies and not simply having them on as background noise whilst I check every 30 seconds people I don’t know or care about, have acknowledged my existence. Or what they just had to eat.

Thanks John for the app suggestion. I use PhotoMechanic for pics and have done for probably at least a decade and it’s my culling software. I do think it was having identical named files 🫣 in both S1RII’s that was causing me the issues because at first I thought it was the latest stoopid Premiere update, but seems the stoopid one was the user…

Thanks fellas. I think I have worked out why I cannot get this to work and that is because I cloned the settings from Cam A to Cam B so they are identical...including file numbers...so the software is only allowing the footage to be shown as 'everything' from Camera A and THEN everything from Camera B. I went into my photo sorting software, PhotoMechanical and changed the file names and then managed to reorder everything once the material from each camera had a unique name. I will only know for sure if I reset each camera to start with say A and the other B and then C etc which is what I had previously and never had this issue before. So almost certainly me as expected 🤪

I might be going mad, but I cannot find a way to do the following… So with stills, whether the material is from 2 or 3 cameras, I can sort footage by date AND time, down to the second at least so as long as the cameras have been synced for time, all good. With the video footage, I only seem to be able to do it by date, so in the folder I am going to cherrypick clips from to add to my timeline, I might have: 200 clips from Cam A followed by 150 clips from Cam B followed by 100 clips from Cam C all shot across say a 12 hour time period. Having to trawl backwards and forwards is an utter pain but all I can find are links to organisation by date only. Premiere user if that makes a difference. Any help appreciated and it’s probably one of those stupid things where once I have the answer I will slap my own head!

If you had my eyesight and shoot exclusively off the rear LCD in both bright sunlight and super low light…

Just one dealbreaker for me with both the A7iv and the FX2, - the rear LCD. I would rather it was fully articulated like the A7RV, S1H, S1II etc, but it’s not. Not a dealbreaker on it’s own. But just 1 million dot? That’s a more than a bit shit, especially re. the FX2 as it’s APSC cousin, the FX30 has a 2.3 million dot LCD. If I was going to go in a Sony direction for my needs, it would be back to an A7RV for stills and a pair of FX30’s for video. And my old trio of Tamron zooms I dearly miss…

Does it have a different processor? I don’t know… I thought it was S5II spec in S1II/R body but I could be wrong 🤷‍♂️ All my long takes will still be S5II so not concerned in that regard but zero overheating issues or even any warnings on the R’s, but then I only shoot clips on them.

I’ll be selling my S9 in Jan if it’s of any interest?! I’m in the UK for a couple of months and not back in France until the New Year. It’s a red one, comes with a Smallrig cage and has no issues that I am aware of… That aside, I think I am pretty set on an S1IIE with the 24-60 as there are some good deals on that and it does all I need it to. This would replace the S9 for me whereas the S1II is a bit overkill and the overheating…well I doubt it would but the S5II doesn’t and the S1IIE is basically that in an S1II body so… Or, I might just go the 3 body approach and shift one of my two S1RII’s over. Basically it’s a 4 body + primes vs 2 bodies + zooms question and there are pros and cons to each. No decisions until the New Year when Panny may throw a curve ball and despite not needing one, an S2H is so desirable, I have to have one 😵‍💫