MrSMW

Well my work season is April-October and at the end of my 2019 season, I sold off my Fuji based collection of kit anticipating either starting new with something else in the Spring of ‘20, or going with an XT4 based system, but new/different lenses. Then as we know, Covid hit and 2020 in my industry was effectively cancelled. I did 1/25 booked jobs and had to buy back some used kit to do that job. I then sold it off intending to go S5 and late last Summer/early Autumn, seemed like an OK plan. Got the body, the 20-60 lens (loathe to call it a kit lens as it’s better than that) and then the 85mm f1.8 and did 3x commercial marketing type jobs. And then everything shut down again and has since been shut down and looks like it will continue to remain shut down for at least the first half of this year. So I have planned out the rest of the kit that I need; another 2 bodies and a further 2-3 lenses, but not spending another single euro until such time I am within a definite 4 weeks of work starting back up again. At a pinch, with no back up, I could actually do my job bare bones with what I currently have but it would be compromised. Otherwise it is what it is and nothing I can do about it but it’s looking like best case scenario will have been 1 job in over 20 months if my market starts back up this Summer. And that it beyond crazy.

Oh. I owned a Canon lens once but that has been my extent of Canon use in 20 years as a pro. May have had a compact at some point though... I suppose the native 16-35 won’t cut it either as it ends up being more like a 24mm at the wide end shooting 4K 60P. It’s widely stated these days that there isn’t a bad camera or lens being made these days and that is probably largely accurate, but it seems all cameras are compromised in one way or another for most people. For me with the S5, it is purely in the department of forward/backward AF tracking, but it still fits my needs better than anything else at any price point. OK, so if Panny or Canon are going to be square pegs in round holes, Sony A7Siii then. Adapter, your Canon glass and boom? I came so close to it being one of these the other week purely for video with a pair of whatever the rangefinderesque thing is, A7C or something...purely for stills and scrap the whole hybrid in one body approach. But the cost killed it mainly for me and it offered no other advantages to me other than in the AF department. It’s actually quite a tricky balance when you have very specific needs!

Doh, I wrote that before the coffee had kicked in this morning and for some reason was thinking exteriors...and then later thought, don’t be so dumb man, you intend to use the 20mm wide end for your interior bride prep room shots and that’s only just wide enough for stills. So indeed, you really are looking at a 10mm or similar or not shooting 4K 60P, or even not the S5 at all. Maybe with all that Canon Glass, R6 is a better option?

No no, no no no no, there are limits!

Would the 20-60 not do it for you at the wide end or is ‘30mm’ not going to be wide enough? It’s my wide angle lens but more for stills as a FF 20 than a cropped video 30. Have you really tried it for stills? This is the one area where the AF really is not an issue, - pretty fast and very accurate, even with tracking. OK it’s not a rapid fire sports photography tool but for any/everything else...

I’m just here for the bronzed MILF’s.

Spent some time today (not a lot else to do!) looking at the most recent crop of S5 and S1 material online. About 80% of it is utter garbage, about 15% pretty good and around 5% exceptional and simply showcases, “in the right hands...” It’s a beast of a tool, stills or video and in regard to the latter, 1080 120p, 4K 60p, log internal or raw external, but don’t judge on the sea of dross out there!

I’m looking forward to viewing some of the stuff folks have posted and will do so when I’m not limited to just my phone.

They Live in a TikTok style. Yep, that’s about the sum of it.

I really liked the look of the Amazon Prime series, Tales From The Loop. To me, it had just the right balance of ‘vintage & modern’. A lot of it is the sets/location and lighting of course.

Kiwis and Aussies...and then there are those folks in Tassie 😉 Sweden and Denmark speak a different language but mostly understand each other. I’ve watched ‘The Bridge’ 🙂

Hmmm, opinions and all that, but I am pretty sure there is a lot bigger difference between European countries than there is between US States?!

Well I don’t have the 24-105mm f4 but it is a consideration and going back to one dedicated video unit plus two dedicated stills cameras vs 3x hybrids. If I did go to the f4 zoom, I think I’d be more inclined to go log and manually shoot 640 outdoor and 4000 indoor. With the f1.8 primes being just over 2 stops faster, 100-1600 works pretty well for me but I think log has maybe another couple of stops of DR over a standard profile? On the other hand, log is not so good with the AF on the S5 due to the lack of contrast? So I understand though not tested that theory myself. Yet...

Most of this kind of thing is wasted on most people most of the time. I make the effort to get something/anything to the best level I can and in a style that I like both for my own satisfaction and because that is what I get booked for, - my style/vision/presentation of my work. So I guess it comes down to what your work is and for whom.

I think I will wait until it comes out on streaming services...and then avoid it.

I have been meaning to investigate further just how dual gain works... Is it only in log then? Ie, the camera itself will only switch between 640 or 4000 as it sees fit and disregards all other ISO's, or something else? But yes, I (currently) shoot in the Natural profile though I am considering log after some further future AF and lens testing. So shooting with a profile, dual gain doesn't apply, ie, the best settings are not necessarily 640 and 4000, but whatever works best? My rule of thumb is always to shoot with as low an ISO as possible and I use a variable ND all the time outdoors during daylight plus indoors a lot of the time because I tend to shoot mostly wide open with fast glass. Ultimately for me, it's about finding the best balance of; workflow (log requiring more work), best picture quality (log if graded well without resorting to raw) and highest dynamic range (log I presume?). Currently quite pleased with what I am getting from the Natural profile, but if I can get a better result without creating a headache for myself re. workload, I'm interested in looking at it further.

Not a fan of monitoring in B&W here either. I (currently) shoot profiles (a tweaked version of Natural current choice) as I'd rather get as close a sense of the final result as possible. Each to their own and all that. Tried it with photography also and nah, it's not for me.

I need to test this dual gain ISO more as it’s new to me but for anything under 1600 which also includes everything outdoors during daylight hours, 100. Indoors, anything that is typically 1600 or over, just set the thing at 4000 and be happy. With f2 or faster primes, should work just fine? Maybe with anything slower than f4 after dark might be pushing it at ‘just’ 4000? I remember my first digital ‘pro’ camera maxed at 1600 but was pretty awful at 800 😂

Never had a GH5 so nothing to compare to in that regard but my perception is it’s better than the camera I replaced, the XT3. LCD that is, EVF seems about the same but nothing really that I have given much thought to in either case. How are you switching between stills and video? I have C1 set up for stills with every single thing I can do on and everything I can switch off, off. C2 I have set up currently for 4K 50P which is my standard for video. C3 for 4K 25P as one of my options because I have S&M mode or whatever it’s called configured for 1080 100p. With my previous Fuji’s I never did any of this because despite using XT3’s for both stills and video, I had units set up and dedicated to either but never both. I took the time with the S5’s to set them up as true hybrids. You can set pretty much any and everything in the custom modes so it really is a dedicated stills machine with one turn of a dial and then turn again, it’s back to being a dedicated video unit. Re. the focus peaking, I agree, it’s a bit shit and I think that’s connected to it being contrast based as anything with little to no contrast doesn’t show up in peaking so you need to judge it a little by eye. Not the greatest but I use AF far more than MF so not a real biggie for me.

I think the LCD isn’t too bad actually. The EVF is adequate at best. Pity they didn’t use the S1 one, but they had to cut corners somewhere I suppose. But the LCD I think is pretty decent and only exists to give an approximation rather than a true representation of what has been captured. Zooming in on pics to the max amount for one thing will always disappoint. These tiny screens just can’t do it. So yes, don’t judge anything in camera and try and avoid shooting Jpeg, especially in tricky lighting. But otherwise, the S5 for me beats anything I was previously getting from Fuji APSC which was/is excellent and far beyond the Nikon DSLR’s I was using previously. I do believe we have been at that point where most kit will produce the quality, for some years now and it’s more a case of being able to shoot at ever higher frame rates, lower light, stickier eye AF etc that is the only difference these days.

I think no one can dispute that 2020 sucked balls and especially for creatives. I personally managed around 5% of my booked work with the rest either postponing to ‘21 or cancelling outright. Some of those re-booked ‘21 jobs are already postponing to ‘22 and I am pretty sure that at least the first 1/2 of the year will either bail out of fear, or because they have to. Social media is mostly a cancer to me. Was prior to the virus and even more so now. I think the virus has done as much damage if not more so from the fall out and behaviour of others as the disease itself. I largely ignore the news. It is near pointless to consume and 90% doom & gloom and is another form of cancer itself. Cameras and gear, yep, it gets less interesting year on year but at the same time, with so much free time last year, like many others, I may have over-indulged. I think maybe I am more like Andrew than I previously realised... Nowhere near as political or opinionated 😉 but Sony leaves me cold and I am a fan of Fuji, Panasonic and Leica, plus the new Sigma lenses. So 2021... My main wish is my industry (destination weddings in France) actually gets back on track this year because otherwise I do not have a business or an income which would mean unless supported by the state, I am fucked. If it does...and it’s still a big if, I am currently aiming for an S5 based system for my hybrid work. Intrigued by the new Sigmas; 35 f2, 65 f2 and 105 f2.8, I’d like to use them if after testing, they work for me. The hardest task for this new year is probably trying to remain as positive as possible (or at least not negative) and that means keeping up avoiding the news and social media as much as possible. But otherwise, a HNY to all.

Not really sure what you mean? I shoot raw, for; subject, composition, framing, moment etc, ie with intent, but the resulting image is brought to life in Lightroom. The S5 has a nice clean starting point and you can do pretty much what you want after that. Having said that, because of what is now last year, I have shot less than 5% of the work I would normally do and most of that was with Fuji so not really used it extensively for photo.

I have hummed and hawwed over the possibility of an A7Siii over one of my S5’s purely for the CAF and...well actually that is it. Other than the fact that it’s twice the price and I don’t like what I have seen it capable of producing as much as the FF Panasonic, it’s not for me either. 4k 120p, or 100 in my case would be nice, but the times I’d use it, 1080 upscaled will suffice. Pretty sure I’d be very happy with the Sony, but I prefer the Panasonic’s. For low light stuff, the Panasonic’s also look better from comparison’s I have seen. No one camera ticks every box. At least not fully for me, but the S5 ticks the most.

If the II model had been launched as the original, it would have been a lot more popular, but then the same could be said for a lot of kit, but for many, the original Z6 just underwhelmed (compared with certain other options). Had something like the II been launched a couple of years back, I probably would have gone with it but it was only the lack of 4K 60 and twin card slots that put me off. The lack of 10 bit also, but that would have been my compromise. Well it’s still 8 bit, internal anyway and folks are waiting on the 4K 60, so still losing customers I suspect. Anyway, original Z6 at what are now much lower than launch prices...I like the look of the thing, the size, the weight, the lenses. Tried one briefly, but preferred the XT3 in every way except the lack of IBIS and the XT4 fixed that. So it’s not for me personally, but that shouldn’t put anyone else off and if you like it, great, go create with it!

One of the better/best ones out there...and most are awful. I’m going to give the -2 +3 a go next chance I get and see how that works out.