MrSMW

Having said that, I am not ruling out going with 3x S5's and 1x S1 come next Spring instead of 4x S5's, purely to have that S1 in the dedicated static no record limits, video role...

Yep. Or at least how I saw it and was considering. But then I looked at the price of an S1 now vs an S5 and weighed up what the S1 would bring me that I needed over an S5 and the answer was unlimited recording. And that was not a sufficient enough answer when I factored in all the other 'stuff' I was getting with an S5, mainly in the size & weight department. I am not exactly uber-obsessive about every last nanogram etc, but it all counts and adds up. Ultimately it's what works for our own individual situations and these things can depend on what kit you already have, but if starting from scratch... Well that offers up more choice.

Even Leica lovers are laughing. I don't knock shit for the sake of knocking shit and was quite interested when they first started talking about this back in around 2004 or whenever it was. But in 2020, they just jumped the shark that was eating a Q2 that a dentist had been surfing with.

Say it isn't so?! I love this lens. It's not fast and so a bit limited in low light, but it works for me in a number of ways... Static wedding ceremony and speeches lens with a focal range equivalent to 30-90mm. OK, I need to test that long end at f5.6 but I always throw some constant light on the top table/speaker so even outdoors in the dark at 6400, I think we'll be OK. Think...I need to test, but used to use a 1" camcorder which was about equivalent f64 or something... Then it's my 20mm wide angle wedding landscape/architecture lens plus wide establishing room shots such as bride prep, 30mm if we're talking 4k 50p video. Also, it's my personal/travel family lens when we get back to things hopefully next year. OK 60mm isn't that long for stills but for family stuff it will be fine and my last personal camera was an X100 and that was 35mm equivalent. It's solid, it's compact, it's weather resistant...it's extremely limited on a proper landscape shoot as I found out just before Lockdown 2 so looking forward to the 70-300! But it's useless piece of shit if it's just going to be gathering dust! Speaking of the f1.8 quadrilogy, but original plan was for one of each, all of which would get used, but the 24 was never going to be quite wide enough for when I need wide angle video (dancing) and the 85 not quite long enough for ceremony stills and if I was using it for such, then I wouldn't have anything long enough for the ceremony. The conclusion was I'd need multiple copies of the 85, something wide than the 24 and I'd have to do some juggling of lenses throughout the day and although the very thought of zooms hurts my soul (deeply), I also have to be realistic in regard to my specific needs as a solo hybrid shooter on a typical 9-15 hour wedding day. The answer I came up with is it had to be zooms and on tripod and freestanding standing monopod for video and essentially the good old combo of a 35mm + 85mm prime for stills except in my case the combo of 20mm + 45mm + 105mm. Which is slightly different but does not require any lens changes all day long on any camera, stills or video. But as the saying goes, no plan ever survives it's first encounter with the enemy. I think this one has a good chance however as it's not really a 'new' plan, but yet another evolution of what came before. I actually tried to squeeze the Sigma 50-100mm f1.8 into the mix but including tripod collar, mount and adapter, it would have been a 2kg beast of a lens, but one which with one twist of the zoom ring, could have been a 75mm f1.8 or a 150mm f1.8 (in 4k 50). But I'd be lugging it about all day long and coupled with the camera body, monopod, powerbank strapped to monopod, from (lighter) previous experience, it's actually a bit much for a sololist also juggling stills, audio etc. Samyang cine...damn, I missed that one but no, must resist, I have looked at every other option from cine-modded Iron Glass through Voigtlander through the Sigma APSC trilogy of primes etc etc etc. Sticking to plan. For now...

Just for the sake of some S5 talk... 😉 Pretty much finalised my set up for 2021 and going forward...and it isn't exactly as I originally intended... I've dropped my requirement for hybrid use of a camera on the fly, ie, flicking back and forth between stills and video...and instead, having identical hybrid camera bodies, but they are going to be designated either; photo, filming, video or hybrid. This means 4 bodies instead of 3. Aaaaaaaaaargh, more expense, but it's more important that I get real world usability for my specific needs. So here's what and why. I reserve the right to change my mind further down the line if needs be, but for the moment: S5 + Sigma 45mm f2.8 for 'medium-wide' stills. This is my version of a 35mm lens in that I prefer to work just a little more backed off so 45 gives me a tiny bit more reach and compression. My free 45 hasn't arrived yet and recently received a delay blah blah blah notification from Panasonic Europe, but hopefully will soon. S5 + Sigma 105mm f2.8 as my portrait/tele lens for stills. It's a teeny weeny bit long for indoor use, but outdoors, will better suit my slightly more backed off approach instead of an 85mm, though I will lose the previous 135mm ability I had. I'll just have to crop. S5 + Panasonic 24-70mm f2.8 as my filming (monopod) workhorse. Because I shoot 4k 50p for all my clips, this is effectively a 36-105mm which is perfect because it more or less matches my stills camera focal lengths above. I really wrestled over so many options or combinations in regard to this one but in the end it came down to the max flexibility of a 'one and done'. S5 + Panasonic 20-60mm f3.5-5.6 for static (tripod) video but also as my wide angle stills lens/unit...which is convenient as the only time I need this function is when I'm not recording video, ie, this combo will be the only true hybrid use. But also not really because those times are different, though all on the same day. Currently, I only have the one single body, the kit lens and the 45 on the way and it's enough to do the few commercial jobs I have booked, but delayed for this Winter, but the closer we get to next years wedding season...if it happens, I will start spending the cash. It will still all fit my single backpack ethos, including 1x lightweight lightstand, light and audio gear, though I also will have my small/medium camera bag which carries all of the latter plus; batteries, powerbank, chargers etc. But what about those lovely new f1.8 primes??!! The 85mm I have on pre-order. As much as I love them for size, weight, faster aperture etc, unless I go back to juggling lens changes all day, I can't make it work. I'll keep the pre-order for now and at least try the thing, but can't see a business case for keeping it. Just for info/fun/out of lockdown boredom.

S5 for me and it keeps everything even more incestuous other than the batteries.

Nah, it’s about an hour max. Average clip is 10 seconds and I don’t watch every single one as some are repeats and if the first one was what I wanted, skip to the next clip. This way I only import into Premiere clips I will probably or definitely using.

It’s fugly.

OK, no problem. 1: Shoot with intent in the first place. I rarely shoot anything 'just because' and if I know it's going to be garbage, don't bother in the first place. Once I know I have what I want which is typically, A: the obvious and B: the more creative, I stop shooting that/any scene and move on. Net result, from a typical wedding day, I might come back with 300+ clips. 2: I'm shooting 2 cameras: The first is designated 'filming' and is for capturing clips and is on a freestanding monopod. The other is designated 'video' and is for longer stuff ie, the ceremony and the speeches and lives on a tripod. The latter also records the master audio using Rode Wireless Go. 3: Get back from the job and download cards. 4: Start watching footage straight from the folder and I simply note all clips that have potential and scribble a few notes if needs be in regard to how/where I am going to use certain clips or something else specific. 5: In Premiere, dump the ceremony footage and audio onto the timeline. Add the ceremony lav mic audio. Auto-sync. Cut & delete master (the Go material) when and where individual lav mic material is better such as readings and vows. 6: It's a single viewpoint piece, so there is no visual material to mess with, just the audio. Add a fade in and add a fade out. Export, job done. There's no 'grading' as such as I don't shoot log though I may make a global adjustment to exposure or contrast etc, but nothing that takes longer than a couple of minutes max. Seconds normally. 7: Repeat same process for speeches. Couple of hours max and these 2 productions are finished. 8: Chop & copy the vows out of the ceremony plus a few key lines from each of the speeches and dump all of these onto a new timeline for the 'Wedding Film'. I have already chosen which 2-3 tracks I will be using which I did on the previous job I was editing photography on, ie, I listen to Artlist.io whilst editing photography and marking favourites for potential future wedding film use. I then group tracks into blocks of 2 or 3 to make approx 8-12 minute productions and choose one for whatever film job I am about to start based on 'feel' such as "this one felt a bit more lively" or "this one suits something more gentle" etc. 9: So dump my 2-3 tracks on the timeline which now has these tracks plus synced/finished footage/audio from vows and speeches. 10: Start dragging over clips and building the story based on 2 factors; chronological order of events and the soundtrack. It doesn't take long to add and cut 50-100 clips. 11: Tidy up all the material into one cohesive whole other than any grading or transitions or ducking etc. 12: Tweak each clip in order as in 'grading' except in my case, it's not really grading as such as all I am doing is making a few minor scopes adjustments mainly, add any transitions and duck anything that needs ducking. 13: Export and watch through and then go back to make any final adjustments and add titles. I can't think of anything else really. The bottom line for me is that having come from being a photographer, I think and work like a photographer who just happens to be capturing longer versions of my photography in addition to my photography. It actually requires very little thought, barely more time on the job and obviously more time in the office, but not these weeks and weeks I hear some folks talking about. And as I said before, I don't overshoot, I don't dither, I don't procrastinate and naturally am very efficient, do not get distracted easily and work extremely quickly compared to most. I hope that helps!

Video is you friend here 😉

Interesting...and I appreciate this is a slight digression, but for me 8-12 hours filming = about the same in the office. Commercial or wedding, within 1 working day, I have started, finished, exported and uploaded a typical (for weddings anyway) 9-12 minute wedding film plus second full ceremony & speeches production. I will however typically spread that workload over 2 days just because I can and won’t deliver to clients for at least 7 days if not longer because I tell them it’s about a week’s work to give my worth more ‘value’. This could be because I am a very efficient person by nature, do not procrastinate and work to my own brief and no one else’s. Yes, even commercial.

Self-regulation is the answer on an individual level. I’m not sure which is worse though, Fakebook or MeTube...but probably the latter as for so many it just seems to be a soapbox for people to spout their vitriol. Both my mother-in-law and father have been banned from various groups and I am ‘friends’ with neither. Which says a lot. YouTube has some really great content. Some exceptional content in fact. But also a million tons of shit and I’m not sure what is worse, that million tons of shit or the misinformation purported as fact from so-called ‘experts’.

It’s easy to stretch these things out with a 5 minute Storybollocks ad. Me myself and I are still working on how to get some stock NYC footage into one of my rural SW France weddings...

And that being said, you also forgot to say numerous times, ‘and that being said’.

I think the lack of sponsorship by Storyblocks or at least Squarespace reveals so much. As a result, I have liked and subscribed twice.

All I am interested in really is the non-clipping, locking lav, size and price. Easy to stick the results from each (3 for me) on a timeline based on master Rode Wireless Go and auto-sync even if the latter has drop outs. Then delete the ‘master’. That’s how I’m planning to work in 2021 with these F2’s. It’s cheap and efficient and will deliver the results. Anyone want to buy 3 Sony recorders and 3 Rode lav mics? 😘

I do think if you'd tried harder, you could have found could have found could have found an even worse track that repeats repeats repeats it's janky out of tune 'tune'. And turned up the volume on it. And maybe waved the camera around a little more. Ah, so it's a Cinemadpographer? You need to TM that before someone else does. Otherwise, carry on.

Cinedetographer? 😂

It’s not a stupid question but a valid one...but no for many reasons I won’t bore anyone with! I’m struggling to see past an S1H now. Same money as 2x S5 bodies, but I can probably justify it based on expected useage of 75 weddings so extra cost covered with the 1st wedding of the year.

For pure stills, the R5. For pure video, the Sony. For hybrid, could go either way depending on your picture requirements. Would be my opinion.

It's France Steve so much less rigid than the UK! No snooty registrars banging on about legalities (that do not exist) or vicars stating, "though shalt not capture in my church sayeth nobody for no good reason except me". Church is actually maybe 1 in 20 weddings and the rest are outdoors al fresco so virtually zero restriction in regard to what I can set up, where or get to etc, so I pretty much float the perimeter. Speeches are about 1/2 and 1/2, ie, either outside in the open air or if inside, it's usually a barn. I don't miss trying to capture weddings in the UK 😉

I hear you Steve but if it's church, I just press stop as one of the readers goes to sit and then start again. Ditto after and before each speech. However, it's then slightly trickier to sync up audio isn't it?! I think I'm moving towards my third unit being an S1H despite it's cost and bulk, but in regard to the latter, it will sit on a tripod for ceremonies and speeches and then freestanding monopod the rest of the day. It makes sense.

Well the S1 is of course the other option but I suspect there is less of a difference in regard to potential overheating between S5 and S1 as there is between S1H vs S1 or S5. It's not so much the air temp that is an issue because even say 28 degrees indoors is not like 28 degrees outdoors with the sun blasting onto a black camera body which = steadily/rapidly increasing camera body temperature. The Panasonic's do seem to have better than average (class best possibly?) thermal properties, but strong direct Summer sun is another beast altogether!

That is the one area where for my third body, I am actually considering the S1H with it's unlimited recording... Also for the cooling as this 3rd unit designated 'pure video' can be sitting on a tripod in direct sunlight for over 1 hour at 40 degrees C / 100+ F. Actually not had any problems with overheating in this scenario with my old Sony camcorder, but I suspect an S5 as good as it is at not overheating, probably wouldn't last beyond 30 mins (if that) under such circumstances. The above is an extreme rarity, but has to be considered and the norm is more like 30-40 mins in the low to mid 30's in direct sun as Brits getting married in France like to get married in the middle of the afternoon in order to maximise their post-ceremony drinking time. Stop/start recording at appropriate points is not an issue for me and I think this can even be done remotely with the app in a pinch, so it's more for the cooling aspect.

Same here. Not that I have any rival brands products kicking around for side by side comparison. Even adding all of the S1 options into the mix, there is far less material out there compared with Sony, Canon and Fuji offerings as these other brands are far more popular. In the case of Fuji, I think their sales are only slightly higher than Panny, but the cult is much stronger! I think this will continue with the S5 because it just won’t sell as it might if it had PDAF. And while there is some utter garbage material out there on the ‘net, the full frame Panasonic generally looks nicest to me. I can’t remember who it was, but saw a side by side recently with the new Sony and the Panny (S1H) looked better in every scenario including tricky and low-light scenarios. Ultimately though, it doesn’t matter what anyone else is doing or even thinks but how you feel about it and how it works for you and as I said above, I was very happy with what I was getting out of the XT3, but the S5 edges it in every single area except; XT3 AF is faster and will be even more so after it’s recent firmware upgrade. I still prefer the XT3 tilt screen over the out the side job everything now seems to come with. Except the Nikon’s. Err, struggling now... the EVF is lower res? Not that I have really noticed... XT3 is smaller and lighter...but by the time I had built it out to work for me with; battery grip, Fringer adapter, non-native lenses, it was over 1.5kg / approx 3.5lbs...but for me, it was less about the weight and more the size. In comparison, none of my FF sensor S5’s will be much over 1kg at 2.5lbs max. And physically much smaller. It’s these f1.8’s primes IMO that are going to really bring this system to life, especially if APSC crop mode is set up to one of the function buttons because then at the flick of a switch, you have effectively a dual focal length lens. Triple if you set pixel/pixel and with 4K 24mp, plenty to play with. I have not tested it yet because I haven’t got the lens yet, but that 85mm is going to be both my 85 and my ‘135’ which solves my need for a lens longer than 100mm, but in this instance is a single lens (no lens changes!) that weighs 355g! The frustration right now however is too much time for talking and restrictions against doing ☹️