MrSMW

I wonder how soon with a firmware update they might bring the new RED Raw ‘lite’ to the Z6iii and Z8? I guess not for at least 3-6 months after the launch of the Zr in order to not hurt sales… It’s taken me 3 whole jobs to get my S1RII’s dialled in (note to self, never make any fundamental changes mid season, ever again) and for hybrid work, easily better than the Zr… …but the Zr is comfortably better than my S9 and I think at least matches my S5ii and these two are the ‘weaknesses’ in my lineup. ’Weakeness’ in the case of the S9 as the Zr has it well and truly beaten (IMO) and in the case of the S5II because in my specific use case, it’s attached to the 70-200mm f4 which is bordering on being a bit of a lump by my standards and needs the battery grip due to battery anxiety for long takes and that lot requires the use of a heavy duty tripod. I’d prefer no battery grip, a more compact and lighter and faster (f2.8) lens…such as the Tamron 70-180 and a lightweight tripod. Clean sheet today, I’d build a system based off a pair of Zr’s and single Z8, because my ultra compact 4 body Lumix set up, can be beat. I haven’t found a single flaw yet in the Nikon set up, but still searching…

I was going to say the same thing! My neighbour has a pale blue one but he won't sell it to me...

Agreed and one of the reasons why as much as I like the look of the new Canon, the lack of IBIS is a no go for me and if that puts me in the camp of being a non-serious filmmaker, 🤷‍♂️ I also do not want to and will not rig anything up so the micro hdmi I could not care less about.

Yes I think Techart do but they are quite expensive at something like 400+ and I do need AF for some of what I do, but I need it to be highly accurate. The weakness of the old Lumix cameras such as the OG S5/S1H/S1R was forward tracking AF when ideally you needed a stopped down aperture, crop mode and some tweaks to the tracking to stand a chance. Since the S5II, not an issue, but even if there is an M to L Mount adapter with AF (and I have not been able to find one), I would not trust one to do this specific job above any better than the old Lumix system. The rest of the time, I don’t need AF and at 400+, might as well just have a cheap AF lens for this purpose. The Zr looks very interesting however as I always suspected it might. Enough to warrant any kind of flip, is too early to call and there is so much to consider such as… Zr stills mode vs S1RII stills mode I suspect is a win for Lumix being the sensor is 20mp larger and has a mech shutter. Video probably also the Lumix, especially as it has open gate which I shoot in all the time and Nikon does not…but probably can and maybe can in a future firmware release because it’s the same sensor as the S1II isn’t it? Red Raw ‘lite’ makes the Zr very interesting but where it gets even more and most interesting to me is I could build an even more compact kit, both bodies and lenses and tripods, than I currently have. Anyway, 6 or so months to consider and by that time there will be used Zr’s on MPB (so I could at least try one with their 14 day return policy) and Lumix may have brought a more cine-orientated camera to market than the current offerings as maybe, just maybe, they might ditch the current format for any S1H replacement…??

I’m looking at M-L for my current system but that won’t happen for about 6 months or so even if I do not flip to Nikon because my season is over in less than 2 weeks so other than some play time (and nothing really compares to actual work) so too soon. I didn’t know there was an AF adapter or rather I think there is for Nikon but is there for L Mount? It would be useful but not 100% necessary. If I went Nikon, I’d go E Mount though as it would make more sense as all my glass would be adapted. I have looked at every cine lens going and based on; price, size, weight, sharpness, character, shorter than normal focus throw, close focus distance, they are a clear winner for me. I have some final manual focus tests to do with my AF Lumix lenses next job first but other than having just one camera designated to AF duty, currently my S9 with zoom, I’d prefer to go MF on my hybrids as I’m not 100% happy with the AF hit rate with pics and stickiness with video…another area where based on my experience with the Zf, Nikon is better than Lumix and it can pick out faces at something like less than 3% of the screen which is bloody good!

I’m considering it myself… Seems to get a pretty long run time out of a single battery and overheating despite not having any active cooling doesn’t appear to be a problem. Perhaps I should have waited before going all in on Lumix 🤪 I still want to see what it can do for stills and would want to test it first, but a trio of these might work as I have the adapters for the Sony lenses and the Tamron zooms are the best in my experience. I’m moving towards a pair of Thypoch Simera C’s also and as these come in native E Mount, also has appeal going fully Nikon. Love the RED colour science from what I have seen and the camera itself including that rear screen is what I have always wanted and hoped Lumix might do. I still think what I have is super great, but always open to other options if they might suit me better and trimming down even further to 3 small bodies and just 4 lenses has a lot of appeal. 6-7 months to think about it and meantime, Lumix might pop out something similar and that might swing things back in favour of L Mount. Certainly not rushing into anything or blindly jumping ship but musing on options…

Cool stuff. I look forward to trying it later this year when less busy as Lightroom is my go to for stills, but I would like to get out of Adobe in 2026. 👍

Exactly why/how I am shooting the S1RII; 7.2k 30p 3:2 open gate and *horror* no VND and allowing the shutter to go into even the thousands, because 1/60th is too slow for most stills. If there is any chance of banding such as LED’s, 1/50th here in the EU fixes that. Having said that, not pulled any stills yet, but based on shooting 6k 30p @ 1-50th I know it’s going to be better.

Not that I have tried it yet, but post-season, for the first time, I am going to as storage is cheap and why not at least try the full capability of the camera?, good point, the data rates on Lumix has always been good!

Which is exactly how I’d use it with Tamron zoom’s, the: 20-40, 28-75 and 70-180 f2.8’s.

Admittedly only looking on my phone but I wouldn’t know which is which unless I was told. At the extreme, I am sure the RED camera has a marginally better image/latitude, but for 99% of the time for 99% of real world users needs (the latter of which is not RED’s market of course)… The 2 best things this camera has is the image quality using the RED raw 12 bit and that screen.

I'm not sure I agree... I think some folks expected Nikon to take everything from RED and simply dump it in a Nikon body and to then charge 20% of the price of a RED. Was never going to happen. Who would then buy a RED camera going forward if they could basically get it all for a fraction of the price? Virtually no one and they would have cooked their golden goose. What they have done is made a RED-lite camera (arguably more Nikon than RED) that can either act as a B cam to a RED user, or something for the Nikon user to use alongside other Nikon cameras they may already have such as the; Zf, Z6iii, Z8 or Z9. and give them a taste of RED, if not the full-blown illusion of shooting something much more than it is (the 'Creator FX3 effect'). Or for the minimalist, low-budget filmmaker (or content creator) who fancies a bit, but not full on, RED colour science and 'RAW-lite'. I've watched a few reviews now and I'd definitely have gone for this (subject to overheating and battery life tests) for my needs as a hybrid shooter. In fact a pair along with a pair of Zf's (a pair of the new black & silver models) for a pretty compact, capable and fun to use set with a super-nice image output. It's not a full-blown cinema camera and I do agree, the choice of placement for the card slots is bloody awkward (as it is for my S9), but that rear LCD more than makes up for it for me. Now if they could just get the spec of the Zr into a Zf body...

Ditto. I see this new Zr as more comparable with the S9 than anything else within the Lumix lineup. It’s build by all reports is a notch up and the rear LCD on another level. It’s a ‘red cinema colour’ Nikon camera though rather than ‘RED in a Nikon body’. I like it and would have one if I was in the Nikon ecosystem, but nothing I’d switch to or build a system around. And as a 50:50 hybrid shooter, vs the S1Rii, it’s not even a conversation.

Between the two, the new Canon and this, obviously if you are in the Canon ecosystem or with Nikon, the choice is obvious, providing either of these things can do what you need them to do. I think they both look the part, but neither of them really suit my needs so still perfectly happy I went full Lumix, and even if they had been Captain Amazeballs, I still wouldn't have jumped. If I had gone for one of them, I'd have gone the Nikon route, but only if I'd stayed within the Nikon body, adapted E Mount glass camp where I partially previously was. I am happy they exist even if they don't tick all my boxes.

OK, the new Canon looks good, despite the spec not yet fully known and I suspect the Nikon ZR will also be competitive so Lumix, over to you, - how is that S1H coming along because the time to pop it out would be immediately after the other kids do otherwise you risk all the newly found brand hoppers, hopping in their direction?

Stills to micro SD

Absolutely. I could not work without a camera with great stability and I mean great, not merely OK. If it can be achieved digitally, I’m OK with that but yes, Lumix is the best I have seen and experienced. I have my S9 set up to be ‘gimbal like’ with both mechanical and digital IBIS, but it’s not reliable enough for consistency and next year I am going to pick up (for the 4th time 🙄) a gimbal, except this time it won’t have a camera that needs balancing, ie Pocket 3.

53 minutes recording 6k 30p continuously 31 degrees Celsius in the shade before the heat warning came on but it kept rolling and the speech ended before I got to experience a shutdown. Not too shabby!

Lumix S1RII and it’s identical twin, S1II glare sullenly in your direction. IMO, if it’s ‘cinema’ camera, it either can’t shoot stills at all, or it’s at least a bit crap in that department whereas if it’s ‘hybrid’, it should be able to do both equally as well. Perhaps not video as well as a dedicated cinema camera and perhaps not stills as well as a dedicated camera, but at least both comparable to each other. By its C designation, I would not expect this new Canon to be that great for stills so most likely, will be that smaller more dedicated cinema camera. But where will the hammer strike? I came close to building a hybrid system around R3’s which despite their size are surprisingly light and I think are a really great balance for stills and video. The only thing that put me off was the price and last year these were still commanding 5-6k on the used market but can now be had for around 3k so if I was looking today, they would be very strong contenders. Good stills, great video spec.

Or maybe they are a progressive thinking company for whom the glass is half full and their thinking is; we are a major player in the action cam market, we are a major player in the niche high end camera market, we are THE player in the drone market, we have a pretty unique piece of filmmaking kit in the cinema market, is there are reason we cannot bring some of our momentum and perhaps innovation and enter the MILC market? It’s not a question therefore if they can, but if they should and that is up to them to determine but brands come and go and if anyone can make a strong case for entering into this specific part of the market, it’s probably DJI. But we’ll see… They either will or they won’t but if they do, my money is it will be with L Mount.

Anyone seen my tin foil hat? I’m sure I left it around here somewhere…

Watched and thought it was great but did spend a great deal of the time seeing BTS such as; someone is holding that door open, someone is cranking up the VND, the camera was just handed off out of the window to someone else, he's not really driving that van, it's being hooked up to the drone right...about...now. I've watched and read a couple of BTS pieces on it and somewhat surprisingly, they used just the second take on Episode 01 but all the rest were...if I remember correctly, between 11-16 takes. Any small mistakes they tended to let slide if they could get away with it, but obviously stuff happened and they had to restart at least 10 times on every episode after the first one. Very well acted, especially the kids. The single room psychologist scene, they both cocked up their lines a few times and ad libbed but this happens I believe in movies so... Really well done and as someone who took part in a movie that was filmed at my school as a kid https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090310/ must have been a lot of fun for those that took part!

🙈

Exactly. We live in a world where component and platform sharing becomes increasingly the norm. IMO, if DJI were to release a FF mirrorless and try making that fly (not literally, - they have other products that do that) with their own tiny range of lenses, good luck with that, but it would be a recipe for disaster. E Mount is dead so yes, using older lenses etc is all well and good, but Canon are all in now on RF. And to truly compete against the likes of Canon/Nikon/Sony/Lumix, it almost certainly needs to be a hybrid rather than a pure cinema camera. DJI already have strong links with Lumix, - the S1RII and Ronin 4D share a sensor (not officially stated but the general consensus is it is) and are already in the L Mount system, so a bit of a no-brainer. But then maybe the the whole DJI mirrorless camera is just a fantasy...

Not necessarily... Hasselblad might be owned by DJI, have their lenses built in Japan and source their sensors from Sony, but are still a Swedish company designing and building their own cameras (and I believe in designing their own lenses) and based on their most recent release, seem to happy to be chasing a purely stills orientated market. I can't see them producing a FF or smaller sensor camera as it wouldn't make sense but instead leave that to parent company DJI... ...who from an aerial perspective, makes sense to use their own mount or fixed lenses. But any new FF camera, who would their customers be? Well there is no existing DJI camera (outside of the Ronin 4D and that is a different thing) so they would wish to nab customers from all of the existing brands, so; Canon, Nikon, Sony, Lumix, Fujifilm etc Realistically, in order to do that, they would need to be both innovative and mainstream, ie, have 'something' that the others do not but at the same time, be able to do what say your typical 'mid' mirrorless can do, ie, photo and video. A handful of lenses wouldn't cut it so they would need to launch with a lot more than what is on offer or they'd be dead in the water. People don't buy bodies, - they buy systems. Well business users do anyway, maybe not the average Jo Public. As an existing L Mount user for all my ground based photo and video needs and DJI for aerial, having something that fits in with that has a lot of appeal such as my S9 is currently the most 'at risk' bit of kit in my lineup and it's currently part back up, occasional semi-static, sometimes gimbal-like use and I'm toying with getting another gimbal and making more use of it than I do, but this is where DJI might fit in with their history as also a maker of gimbals...and if the lens mount ties in with what I already use, it makes sense. I guess we'll find out in a few weeks, but if DJI do enter the camera arena, I hope it's FF and it's L Mount and to me, it makes perfect sense that these are the most likely options. But then what do I know?!