MrSMW

And when he also did a test of standard Vlog vs Arri log, the standard Vlog looked a lot better to me. Someone else and I forget who now (but it was someone UK) also did a side by side between the S1II and S1RII and all though he made a case that the S1II was better, about 90% of the comments including myself, disagreed. I was playing with building a new custom non-log profile based on a download from LUMIX Lab, but heavy rain has stopped play 😒 Agree as it stays on and there is less risk of touching the glass and getting fingerprints on it or having to put it somewhere safe every time. I also had mine flip down rather than up as it looked less crap. I might go back to it now I back to primarily shooting one video designated unit as I could make a VND work better with that, but as above, was working on a non-log profile with an ISO of just 80 which in most scenarios, would remove any need for ND. But ground to a halt thanks to the crap UK weather...

Something else I forgot to say was the difference between the S5II/S9 video and the S1RII is how clean/nicer the latter is. Working with all 3 on the same timeline, especially with lower light stuff, it’s very clear which is which because the S5II/S9 footage whilst not muddy, seems muddy when compared with that coming from the S1RII. This is partly why I have moved the S9 into a very limited secondary role where along with the S5II, they will be responsible for pretty much just 3 scenarios resulting in 3 pieces of footage, albeit in the case of the S5II, that means full length wedding ceremony and full length speeches. Anyone using these cameras together will probably confirm the same difference.

That ability to flip between stills and video is great…as long as you either: A. Don’t mind using an ND for stills. Personally I do mind. B. Or don’t mind cranking the shutter for video. Personally I don’t mind and last 3 weddings I shot with zero ND and did not notice any difference to the quality of the video other than the image quality was better than the previous 3 jobs shot with a VND. C. Or use a flip up or magnetic filter and I have tried both and didn’t care for either. I think one of the beauties of shooting video with the S1RII is base 200 ISO in log (and 160 with ARRI log C but personally think Vlog looks better most of the time bit could make a better base if also baking in a LUT) meaning less requirement for using ND anyway. I have however decided to go back to having separate bodies for stills and video because it just works better for me, with less kit, more range, near zero lens swaps. On that basis, I currently have one of my S1RII’s dedicated to stills with the 28-70 with hybrid zoom (28-105 and still achieving 18mp stills at the long end) enabled for outdoor use, with the 35mm f1.8 as my low-light indoor option. The second S1RII I bought used came with the Arri Log preinstalled and I have this one paired with the 17-40 crop lens (and with EIS enabled it’s giving me a FF equivalent range of approx 28-66) as my dedicated run & gun video unit, with 18mm f1.8 as my wide angle FF option, especially for indoor low light, tighter scenarios. S9 has had a stay of execution and I have welded the 85mm f1.8 to it and mounted it on a lightweight tripod as my sniper video unit, plus is serves as a back up to any or all of my 3 main cams. The 3rd main cam being the same S5II workhorse with the 70-200 f4 on heavy tripod for all my static and long form capture stuff. I also have the 50mm f1.8 in reserve for it for tighter, lower light, indoor scenarios, so all bases as covered as they can be. But going back to the video/stills settings, being able to have I think 9 dedicated stills settings and 9 video at the turn of a single dial is fantastic. I only have 4 settings set up and these are; outdoor landscape, outdoor people, indoor lower light and indoor/outdoor extreme low light as in after dark, each with appropriate ISO ranges and WB etc. It’s crazy really how good this kit now is and the S1RII might not be my favourite camera of all time, but it is easily the most capable and zero complaints other than yes, I would have preferred the more rangefinderesque body style (and hope Panny makes one or at least a Leica Q3 43 rival) and average at best battery life. And obviously, the 4” screen a la ZR would be very welcome, but I’d personally want it with the S1RII style mech and not flipped out to the side. I’d prefer just tilt even to flip out to the side! Best video quality I have had out of a camera and it’s pretty robust with equal image quality to the best I have ever had which was Sony A7RV. As a pure stills camera, I think the A7RV does still have the edge being honest, but it’s a narrow margin and as a hybrid, the LUMIX comfortably tops it. Not updated the firmware yet but that was very welcome. I hope your shoot goes as well tomorrow.

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…