MrSMW

Absofuckinglutely. I see what others get out of the S5II and it’s always a case of ‘must work harder’ (an ongoing lifetime project) and never a case of ‘I need a better camera’. A smaller one. A lighter one. One with better (actual) IBIS, or AF that is reliable, all valid reasons to be looking elsewhere, but if it’s simply a case of your work looks a bit cack next to A.N. Others output, well that’s on us.

Not as far as I am aware. I use DXO PureRaw on raw stills files. Video software is available such as Neat but I have never used it myself and haven’t experienced any issues with video noise. Possibly because in lower light of after dark, I light everything…

Or DXO or Topaz. I run everything through DXO these days. 1000 files is about an hour while I walk the dogs. Then when I am back, I import the DNG files into LR with my import preset and hand edit from there on in, but noise is a potential issue that has already been solved.

For now, I’d agree. But these things always get leapfrogged and when the next gen Lumix and Sony appear… But today, if I was going out shopping for my needs from scratch and had the necessary bag, I’d go with an all Z6III lineup for sure. If I was invested as I am in 75% L Mount, I’d be very interested to see what they do next as ideally, I’d like to be 100% within a single system. What stops me currently, cost aside? Lenses. For my needs, Canon has it, Sony has it, Nikon has it, Fuji has it…basically everyone except L Mount. What is missing for me are 2 things: Thing 1, the actual deal-breaker; no long fast zoom under 1kg. That happens any time, I’m in for good. Thing 2, a ‘current’ camera from Lumix that is fantastic for stills. I hate the shutter feel and sound on the S5II and for me it’s a deal breaker for stills use, hence why I am currently with Sony. When a replacement for either the S1R or S1H appears, we’re covered, but Thing 1 still applies. So for me, L Mount is one lens and one body away from being perfect. The body will happen within 6 months, I am pretty sure. The lens though is a massive issue for me and one I have wrestled with for the last 3 seasons.

Yep, but then most other brands also have this? My Sony does and my Nikon’s do. But that is how I work with an outdoor setting, an indoor setting and a low light setting. 3 is a magic number.

Kinda…but not really. Nikon has: Zf, Z6III, Z8, Z9 L Mount has: the super expensive Leica SL3, the old and lacking in so many ways, FP pairing from Sigma and Lumix has the S5II/X. Plus the soon to be replaced S1 line with the S1R long since out of production and the others, what 5+ years old now? Now if we’re talking end of this year or next, then yes, with what will probably be a new S1 line (or single camera at least), I think the balance might be addressed. But until then… And don’t get me wrong, I am an L Mount user (3 of my 4 working cameras), but the S5II/X is really the only current ‘pro’ camera that could arguably be recommended. New Z6III over an S5II? Maybe. Not really looked at it other than for stills and for that, easily a Nikon win for me. And I haven’t included the Lumix S9 as it’s a toy camera only a complete muppet of a pro would use…which is why I have one on preorder and should be my main workhorse by the end of this month 😉 Horses for courses and all that and I don’t know your needs, but blank slate, I’d go Nikon for my needs right now. But as I don’t have a blank slate and have to write my own checks, a 75% Lumix, 25% Sony mix it is. Unless the Sony fails to deliver this weekend and then that 25% will revert back to Nikon…

Neither have I, so should test that really… But then I hate changing settings because inevitably I forget to change them back! WB is often one such thing… 🤪

I need to watch it again. I watched it on the laptop with the missus but I think it deserves another viewing on the 52” 4k TV screen. Maybe this Winter as I have too much on this time of year…

You could just imagine Lindybeige, in a pub, on his own, having a good old chat with himself. About anything.

"Lindybeige!!" 👍

That was the sum of it for me and many others. And for my work, I need reliability above all else because even an average result is infinitely better than no result at all.

None taken, none given, - this is all just chat/opinion!

Hilarious. The horse & cart is not that far behind the motor car. OK, the S5 is not quite as bad as some make out but the single biggest issue between these two and tests is as follows. The S5 and the S1/S1H/S1R, are finicky bastards when it comes to video as in there is a combination of settings and tweaks that need to be made to achieve the optimal AF within their capabilities. Then there are circumstances to add into the mix. And then lens choices as in real native as in Lumix, or L Mount native such as Sigma. Then differences between zooms and primes. Flip to the S5ii and 90% of these issues cease to exist. Of course, same as with any camera, AF can be optimised and optimised for certain specific scenarios, but the S5ii is way ahead of the S5 regardless of what some random YouTuber has to say. And that is not to denigrate this particular YouTuber as I have no idea who he is and nor have I watched the video, - just speaking from experience. I have not tweaked a single setting since moving to S5ii's from S5.

What got me thinking about this was my move from Nikon to Fuji to Lumix to Nikon to Sony for stills. Nikon film for 5+ years, then digital for around another 5. Night and day difference between the film and digital in that the film was soooooo much nicer. Fuji was a step up at the expense of AF and the bonus of a massive size and weight advantage. Lumix full frame files definitely had an edge over Fuji APSC. Fujis SOOC Jpegs crush Lumix’s but Lumix’s raw files are better. Almost 10 years with Fuji and then 3 years with Lumix. Nikon Zf has the same sensor as the S5ii but maybe with some minor differences as the files are almost identical and placebo effect (?) I found the Nikon files to have an edge. Less than 6 months back with Nikon and the switch to Sony is not as drastic as it might sound as I made the decision to leave Lumix for stills based around lenses. I invested in E Mount lenses with the knowledge I could use either Sony cameras natively, or with Nikon adapted. What swung it for me then was the extra stuff the A7RV has over the Nikons which is principally: 61mp allows for a ton of cropping and a ton of cropping allows for less lenses and lens swapping with just a single camera. Compact size & weight. Lenses are native so have an edge in AF and in camera lens corrections. But what I am struggling with slightly is colour science… 24mp Nikon files are nicer and easier to work with than Sony files. I can’t quite put my finger (yet) exactly what it is, but there is a significant difference. Having said that, I have not been able to process the files in my normal manner because who knew that no image software on planet Earth does not denoise 26mp Sony medium raw files. Unless you do each one manually and with an average 1000 images per shoot, not an option. But even with the 10-15% I shot at 61mp uncompressed raw, there’s a difference I need to overcome in the processing as I do not yet love the result as I did the Nikon… Also, still not quite managed to get the result I would like out of my Lumix files for video and I don’t think that is a colour science issue per se, but more me. Working on that one…

Video only for me with the S5ii.

AFC 1 area + eye face body I use it to acquire focus and usually just let it do it's thing. If I feel the scene is a bit confusing or there's any danger of it losing focus, I'll flick the lens to manual focus. If it's a long form thing like a static set up for a ceremony, manual focus obviously. Entrances, exits etc, AF.

Could be... I think my S1H had better IBIS than my OG S5, but the S5ii has better IBIS than the S1H...which is to be expected because it's a much more recent camera. OM-1 was really good...

I use my S5ii's with default settings without CAF, but with face & eye switched on. Zero AF issues and I rely on my AF a lot of the time.

OK and agree, but I am really referring to Canon 14 bit camera vs Sony 14 bit camera vs Nikon 14 bit camera vs Lumix 14 bit camera, same or equivalent lenses, focal lengths, sensor sizes et al, ie, all things being as 'equal' as they can be, including same light, same circumstances. Ie, is then colour science an 'issue' or subject to the most minor of WB and hue shifts in camera, the differences would be so minuscule it's not a thing?

High, medium, low, not at all? SOOC. Surely in this day and age, not only can we make a couple of micro adjustments in camera, but also in post. There seems to be so much debate whether Nikon is better than Canon or Sony is better than Nikon or whoever etc... Obviously, some 'tests' are highly skewed with some 'testers' pushing the files that are not their chosen system in the wrong direction (yes really, sometimes The Internet lies!) but just how relevant is it in 2024 with the latest cameras? Personally, I rank it as being exceedingly low and not a deciding factor. That is not to say I do not care about colour because I do, but I personally do not see what a camera is producing SOOC being the be all and end all of criteria and unless I am totally wrong, tweaks both in camera and after the fact can easily be made. It's not my specialist subject, just curious...

And speaking of having the gear, wedding a couple of weeks ago, band turns up and sets up. I ask them if I was correct in observing they did not bring any lighting. At all. And it's a pretty dark room with near zero lighting and what there is is hardly 'disco' lighting. They confirmed I was indeed right and with these "overseas gigs we don't have enough room in the van for lighting". OK. You told the couple this? Well, no... Well luckily for me, I have 2 bigger plugin lights on tall stands and 2 smaller lights with 'disco light' settings and so for the duration of me being there, ie, the first set, there was lighting. After their first set, I cleared up and cleared out. What they did after that, I have no idea, but it probably wasn't good...

Yep, just one of those days when it went a bit tits up for a while and would indeed have been unthinkable without options. But for 5 minutes, I had lost both my principal video unit AND my sole photo unit. Resolved it pretty quickly and making a few adjustments going forward, mainly in how those units are attached to my person…which was the weak link here. Tried a new carrying set up and it didn’t work and the only way to discover that was on a real job. Hey ho, no matter where you are at, there are always lessons to be learned!

Carnage on Shoot 01 Second Rode WG2 was DOA At least I knew about this in advance… Within the space of 10 mins, damaged my video workhorse Sigma 28-70 and totally destroyed my stills Tamron 28-75, plus A7 baseplate. Managed to soldier on with the Sigma for video but could have switched to a 20-60 but it’s going to need to go into repair ASAP. Just had to order a new Tamron though and then see if this one can be fixed as the lens came clean off the mount. Had to switch early to the 10-40 which is a bit wider than I’d have liked but hey ho, nothing like a baptism of fire. The damage was all caused by the Cotton Carrier system and first thing when I get back will be switching back to my previous twin set up of harness plus Spider Holster. The harness system means you cannot drop a camera. The Spider Holster takes the weight off your shoulders/back and on to your hips and stops the cameras swinging around as they tend to with a harness. Lessons learned 🤑 Otherwise GREAT set up.

I would imagine. There is a certain quality to size and below a certain size (and weight even) it can become an issue. It’s more a size thing for me these days over actual weight as in I’d always pick the smaller heavier set up over the larger lighter one. Love the A7RV + Tamron 28-75 for this very reason. Loved it right up to the point where mid shoot yesterday, I smashed the mount off it and bent the baseplate on it’s very first outing 🤪 Back to Spider Holster over Cotton Carrier because one of them is secure and the other ‘a bit shite’.

I don’t think that for 99% of us, 99% of the time, we would know what anything has been shot on without being told. And 99.9% could not care less. The movie and TV industry has been built on big cameras, initially because they just had to be a certain size. Today, they do not and are arguably the least important part of the entire puzzle. And that image of big camera = professional camera filters all the way down to us lowly wedding hacks. Well, the lower down the food chain, the less important a ‘Big Camera’ is, but it wasn’t until the last decade really that even at weddings, videographers did not have bigger shoulder mounted cameras. In the movie industry though, unless you are a Greig Fraser and can ‘get away’ with using FX3’s, the issue is mainly how you would be perceived. OK, he wasn’t using $250 kit lenses but you know what I mean. But it’s changing isn’t it and even larger studios using smaller more ‘regular’ cameras is becoming more common. I think there is still a ton of snobbery though of cameras. But back to the S1H specifically, mine is now on borrowed time… Despite it having better image quality than my S5ii’s, I turned it from it’s static role of the last year or so, back into my primary run & gun unit for the first part of a 2 day job, yesterday. This morning, first thing I did was put it back into the static role and reset one of my S5ii’s into the run & gun role. Why? It’s just too slow compared with the S5ii and ultimate image quality aside, some things are more important and the top of that list is getting the shot. If I was shooting a movie though, S1H hands down.