Zeng

The experience of shooting is important to me and I do not like shooting with the Pocket 4k or 6k. Battery life is a pain, ergonomics are awful, don't like EF mount, want IBIS, prefer full-frame, like Panasonic's IQ more, etc. Red Komodo has a lot of the same issues and its IQ is wayyyy below other Red cameras.
I'm sure Panasonic will come out with something soon, so fine with waiting.

Oh I think Ukraine has already won the war. Putin Really screwed up on this bone headed decision. Not sure Russia will ever recover from it, and Russia has lost the false narrative that their Army was strong and advanced. There will be more and more countries join NATO down the road and Russia will be boxed in forever. Putin has thrown all the people in Russia under the bus I am afraid.
I think down the road Russia will even loose what it already had in Ukraine. They will be driven out.

Yeah I like the color coming out of the FP better and CDNG just looks more organic than anything I have seen from the S1. That said otherwise they are very similar cameras. Possibly the same sensor? You get more resolution and frame rate options on the S1.

I agree the S1 is super convenient. pretty nice button layout, IBIS opens up a lot of new shooting styles, solid full hdmi, and small but pretty high quality codecs.

The thing the S1 is still lacking like every other "cheap" camera is poor focus peaking and HDMI lag. It's hard to pull critical focus as the HDMI out introduces noticeable lag. Not a problem for the most part but if I am on set with an AC, its not a great situation. Plus these smaller cameras are often the "gimbal" or odd rig cam where you actually really need remote focus. I don't know if you've ever used ARRI focus peaking or RED but it's night and day better than on these cheap cameras. Another issue, though this is less critical I suppose, is proper REC709 monitoring. On Alexa or RED what you see on the LCD is what you are getting. Accurate color and noise. Monitoring on the S1 or any cheap camera I have seen is not accurate.

In terms of usability the FP has to be rigged up for handheld shooting for sure. The micro HDMI is very concerning but I'll do my best to keep it intact.

The Pocket 4k is hard to beat. It is so cheap to start with. Blackmagic menus are the best in the game. The non tilt screen is annoying as well as the relatively short battery life. Overall though I have never loved the BM image, which is why I've not bought any of their newer cameras. Overall though the P4K is a great value, 1k for something that is close to full frame with a speedbooster and has internal compressed "raw" up to 4k 60p. It does suffer from the same hdmi lag and shit focus peaking. It does have full hdmi which is a blessing.
Yeah at the end of the day it's recording 12 bit linear RAW, when the sensor is capable of 14. So data is being thrown away. I am personally not big on the Sony look which is why I wouldn't go the A7S3 route. I honestly feel the FP image is better despite capturing less color information. The thing about the Alexa is even if you just record in 422 it looks fantastic. I feel the color you can quickly get off the Sigma is really really nice. It's almost making me want to sell my Alexa, but the FP is just not suited for A cam usage on a "real" set.

 

I used a Leica CL with a 40mm for a long time for stills and the Sigma FP comes really close to that idea of minimalism. 
I think the FP is very convenient.  And I haven't actually come across any aliasing in practice with the 4K DNG vs the URSA Mini 4.6K where I have it in the test scene (showing on the URSA on the color checker) when I compared the two cameras.  The FP is very clean and vibrant.
I bought SmallRig accessories, cage, rail adapter, and ssd holder and a top handle when I need to adapt the Sigma FP into a larger setup, but also just using it bare bones with the EF adapter and an Canon IS lens has really been smooth.  
I've remapped the False Color to the 'AEL' button on the back as well as the 'Mode' button to ISO and 'Tone' to Peaking.  Then with the aperture / shutter dials enabled in cinema I can bump around exposure.  I have a few Hoya Pro NDs and a magnetic adapter ring.  I have a Canon 5DS for stills and while the colors are slightly different out of the box I don't have any issues trying to match it if that's what's needed.  
And the post workflow is honestly very quick if you drop into a DaVinci Color Managed or ACES project and not any different really than taking the stills to Lightroom / Photoshop Camera Raw or Capture One. 
I don't expect it to be an Alexa, but I think there is plenty of runway in the files for any kind of imagery you want to make with it.

If I understand you, you're saying what if you don't need to catch very bright highlights? I'm a bit of a fetishist for stops over middle grey, where I like to capturing the highlights of naked practical sources, specular highlights etc. But if they're not needed for the subject matter then it's overkill. I'm just interested to see what can be captured in what I would consider to be a great many cases, and I don't mind a somewhat raised noise floor if it looks natural.
Like you said, when the highlights clip, they clip whereas it's more subjective with the low end and it also depends on the look you like.

I do not think that Atomos decided to rate the camera differently. My assumption is that the gain levels are not correctly transferred. Because if they would, also the Rec709 screen should correlate with the false colors, no?
Bottom line for what I do, as said before measure the real sensor clipping via false colors in the Ninja V set to PQ for max DR it can show. For instance ISO 100 shot on ISO 100 gives you exactly the clipping point as when you switch to ISO 800. The false color screen looks identical and due to PQ mode you can still see a somewhat correct preview picture. If you in post turn the ISO 800 back to ISO 100 it will look exactly the same as the one directly captured in ISO 100. This is, because you are not changing the light falling on the sensor with my method.
Afterwards I have increased the ISO values in full stops, so ISO 1600, 3200 etc. Camera switches to second native ISO when you go to ISO 3200 that is correct. However the real value behind is ISO 640. Take my table and try for yourself 🙂 By the way I have turned down the exposure a little to keep more details in the lightbulb. The false colors and the sensor can go up to super white, clipping point is at about 105 IRE.
Interestingly it can be assumed that the fp shares the same sensor as also the Lumix B1SH there Panasonic states ISO 100 and 640 as native values...and Sigma does it too, but only for their photo mode in the manual some pages above.

I think there is a lot of misuse of the camera. Dynamic range seems impressive when exposed to protect highlights. It would be nice of course if they had included a nice log curve. I am going to buy one within the next month.

My approach is similar to the one projectwoofer described.
It consist of two main steps
    1. Color correction and conversion from Panasonic V-Log to REC 709 or another color space if step 2 will be executed
    2. Color grading creating certain look.

For step 1 tried:
    - Davinci Color Space transform (CST) for Panasonic V-Log to REC 709    
    - Panasonic provided conversion LUT from V-Log to REC 709
    - 3rd parties conversion LUTs in my case from 55Media, which is similar to S1Alex conversion LUTs from V-Log to Arri LogC
I can get similar results from all 3 methods but the easiest one and the one giving me slightly better results are correction LUTs from Media55 (Panasonic V-Log to Arri LogC). Also have in my Davinci Resolve node tree, nodes for White Balance, Exposure Correction (primaries), color saturation, contrast and stabilization.
Most of the times just perform step 1 and convert from V-log to Arri LogC to REC 709, adjust individually white balance, exposure, saturation etc. on the individual clips if needed and that's good enough for me. Processing all clips this way is easy, fast and gives me good and consistent results.
For step 2 tried
    - some LUTs
    - Dehancer which works only in Davinci Resolve and gives you great film emulations. Tried some of them on few small projects and so far like the results very much. There are reviews comparing Dehancer to Film Convert and they say Dehancer is a little bit better. For sure you will be able to get great results with Film Convert too.
    - using some film emulation in Davinci Resolve and more specifically Kodak 2383 print film, which I also like. Juan Melara has LUT and Power Grade for Kodak 2383, one day I may get them.
    - using this simple trick in Resolve to steal looks from movies or clips that I like.
  
Later may try to replicate the looks with power grades.
For most of my projects 70-80%  just do color correction / conversion  and that's good enough for me. Is it better than Natural Profile in Panasonic S5/S1/S1H ? It looks so for me. Better dynamic range and better control on colors, saturation and ability to use a look / grade.
For the rest 20-30% use 2-3 looks that I like using Dehancer, Kodak 2383 and eventually power grades that am working on. Having another 2-3 special looks in future is maybe my limit. Using an individual look / grade for every projects, that's for well funded commercial projects and Hollywood 🙂 Having 3 to 6 looks and using them would be good enough for me.
Hope this helps
 

Hi, I know this forum has been quiet for a long time, but I did not want to miss the opportunity to share this teaser of my next movie. All shot on a GH5 using GHalex.
This film began to be filmed in the middle of the pandemic, and now it is in post production to be released in 2022. I cannot help but thank @Sage for his work in creating this color matrix that has made my life easier.
Cheers!

One of the reasons I immediately embraced Jim's vision on his Red endeavour from day one ; )
Blackmagic Design is what RED didn't succeed to be : )
And today, I come here to the pioneering effort put by our webmaster to respond @kye or @mercer when they wonder themselves why I relegate to a second place the traditional manufacturers ;- )
Even though I always salute their progress (half dozen of Canons and more than a dozen of Panasonic cameras over my inventory yet nowadays :- )

For all of the cameras that have been produced before this new revolution that would benefit from it.
Having the external ProRes RAW option on my Sigma FP, for example, is great but I don't want to have a Ninja V attached to it as it defeats the camera's biggest strength.
Being able to add non RAW versions of ProRes to things like my Leica SL which does 10 bit external would also be a boon, again without having to add the big screen.
 

Much better than expected all round.
Probably a bit overkill even.
But ProRes and that insanely fast sensor with very little overheating even in 8K makes it unique.
I am impressed.
They are saying the sensor rolling shutter is as fast as a mechanical one.

First Nikon Z I'm genuinely excited about. 8K60p / 4K120P. Internal Log, Raw, ProResRaw & ProRes 422 HQ!!
No overheating problems and good RS performance.
I mean damn could this be the full spec no compromise pro hybrid?!
Even the price is a nice surprise. Well done Nikon!

Internal ProRes HQ and internal 12-bit RAW coming in firmware. Nikon is going all out with this for video it seems. 

The last 18 months have changed me completely as well.
No more traveling because the company “is remote first”, no more creative minded colleagues, it’s all about process and numbers. All Zoom meetings are to the point, no more laughing. Dealing with 9 hour time difference (USA HQ)
The 2 years before that was helping my wife with her rehabilitation after she suffered a stroke. Which was hard with a 1.5 year old and a 7 year old. We were back in the Netherlands coincidentally (we came back to NL for friends and family) when it happened, and so I decided to immigrate back not knowing whether she was going to recover and be able to speak and walk again. The immigration causes all kinds of financial challenges (taxes, insurance) which cost me close to $100K in the end.
 
These events - rehabilitation, lockdown and now isolation shook me to my core. It changed me. I feel completely burned out. Life has gotten more “bare” and I have to find myself again, find what I truly care about. Connect with people, build something new.
Add on the fact I’m 41 and probably having midlife crisis at the same time (proof: I drive a Tesla!), and the party is complete.
Sorry for the long story - what I’m trying to say is that your personal struggle resonates with me and I want you to know that many people around me including myself have severely struggled the last 2 years. Social media didn’t help either; it has created a fake lens of the world, especially the last few years. It’s like 99% of the people are acting or presenting a version of themselves, instead of being themselves. 

Things will get better, but as you said you may have to force change. Whatever you choose to do next, I wish you all the best. Never, ever give up the values you live by.
Take care.

Panny REALLY has their stuff “on fleek.” Bulletproof indeed. I’ve wandered off to Samsung and Blackmagic, but I always end up back with Panasonic, they really nail everything down. AF may be a bit behind the competition, but everything that works REALLY works and is 100% dependable.
There are some deals floating around on the S1H that I might just bite on soon, it seems like a decade kinda camera.

I agree. It doesn't need to be as small as the BGH1 but I agree no need to make it bigger than it needs to be. I think full frame is a must, its definitely the preferred sensor size for the market the EVA1 falls into. A raw module made for the camera to capture prores RAW would be nice. I wouldn't mind if they went with an easily mountable V mount battery module too. 

Right now there is a spot to fill for a $6,000 full frame 6k camera. The FX6 takes the 4k spot, the RED Komodo is 6k but S35 and no ND's, the C70 is 4k and S35. The Z-cam F6 is 6k but its not as run and gun friendly as an EVA2 could be. The EVA1 just feels overpriced now considering you can get a full frame S1 or S5 for under 2k. 

I hope they don't go the 8k route, I just don't see the point outside of hype. 

I should also say that I shot a few outings (walk on the beach / visit to a park / etc) in Prores LT and even Prores Proxy and what was interesting was that although you can see the compression artefacts, the 'feel' of the footage didn't change, it still felt malleable and cooperative.
I'd be tempted to say that the linear response and overall cooperative colours isn't matched by other cameras because they do something in their colour science to tint or otherwise process the shadows differently to the mids and highlights, which is why when you underexpose or overexpose and then adjust levels in post you don't get the same kind of image as if you shot it with the right exposure.  However, I'm not sure if it's true.
In theory if you process all colours the same, regardless of their luma value then you should be able to pull up underexposed shots or pull down overexposed shots and still keep the same colours.  But it's more complicated than that to get a "neutral feeling image", because it doesn't work like that with magenta/green shifts in WB, like I obviously have in the above.
If you have a WB control that essentially moves the whole vector scope around then you have to process all hues the same otherwise you'll bend the colour response.  For example, imagine a scene where there is a white wall lit by three lights, one is neutral, one has a CTO gel and is mostly on one side and the other has a CTB gel and is on the other side.  If you WB the camera properly, you should get a straight line on the vector scope going from orange to cyan through the middle of the scope.  
Now imagine we introduce a magenta shift in the WB of the camera.  We'll get a straight line on the vector scope, but it won't go through the middle of the scope, it will pass on the magenta side of the curve.  Here's the kicker - the BMMCC rotates and desaturates hues on the magenta and green sides of the vector scope, which will bend that line.  If we then adjust that line in post we won't have to pull it towards green as far because the magenta got desaturated (quite a lot actually) and that will mean we still have magenta in the warm and cooler parts of the image - the middle of the wall will look neutral but the sides will look magenta.  If we adjust further towards green the sides of the wall will be warm/cool but not magenta or green, but now the middle of the wall will be green.
I haven't done this test, but I do know that the camera desaturates the magenta and green parts of the vector scope.  It's actually quite a long way from neutral, you'd be amazed at how something so distorted could look so nice.
I don't have the BMMCC one handy, but this what the Kodak 2382 film emulation LUTs in Resolve does, which the BMMCC and Alexa would be doing similar things to.
Unprocessed vs processed:


Note that hues are rotated, saturation is compressed, blues and green are desaturated and yellows are quite saturated.
Having said all that, I don't know what the BMMCC is doing because if you shoot something and then adjust the green/magenta WB it doesn't feel like it's falling apart or that colours are going off in that way.  Maybe they are but I just haven't noticed, or maybe there is some 'buffer' built into the skin tone areas so that if you get the WB wrong the skin tones will behave predictably when you try and recover them in post.  Who knows.

Maybe not most underrated but the Panasonic S1 is definately underrated outside of this forum. It's giving an FX9 quality image for peanuts. I would say it could compete with the C500 MK2 and C300 MK3 as well. The C500 can see into the shadows better by 2 stops or so, but it doesn't have dual native ISO. The Panasonic S1 can do 4000 iso with 4 stops of headroom in the highlights and a couple in the shadows. That punches the C500 dynamic range in the gut at the same ISO. 

Usually you denoise and then add grain :).

The way it works in the camera industry is that you sign an NDA, with an embargo date. This way the manufacturer can orchestrate a coordinated release of reviews for maximum clicks on the announcement day. There is a select few - a handful of people - in each country that are privy to the camera launch details about 2 weeks before the release date for the public and are legally bound not to say anything until the embargo is lifted. However usually always 2-3 weeks before or even earlier, the scumbag rumours sites will leak it all out anyway. So that effectively mutes you on the topic, whilst everybody else is free to talk about it. So the only advantage of signing that NDA is you get the info from the official source rather than the same info from a rumours site. For sites like Camera Labs or DPReview then, it is 100% necessary to get the actual camera early and do your review in time for the launch, otherwise be left out of the circle jerk and launch day manufacturer publicity drive... The review would have to come out a week or 2 after most customers have got the first batch of stock in their hands. Also you save money this way naturally, by not buying anything and just taking loans that go back. There is no enjoyment for me in this, as for me the camera is a personal item and a long-term investment in my work. I only accept a loan if it is long term with no strings attached.
The manufacturers never stipulate that you have to write only good things about a camera. It is an unwritten rule that if you're too honest of course you'll be phased out of involvement in future. Even in feedback sessions and market research you get the sense that some marketing people only want to hear from the yes men. The marketing approach of each company differs. Panasonic is more honest and straight forward. Sony have a tendency to play the big hype game with social media influencers. Canon seems to delegate a lot of their marketing to outside PR companies.
What I enjoy with Panasonic is the technical side, the ability to send feedback direct to the engineers in Japan. I value this very much. I deal with Panasonic in the UK who do a very good job on all fronts and sometimes Panasonic in Germany who just aren't as helpful at least in my experience. After 11 years in this industry, Panasonic are the only company who have stuck by EOSHD and made sure our voices get heard in the development of their cameras. Almost all the other companies I have dealt with see this community as purely a marketing channel to be exploited for their own gain, and not for the advantage of us. Fujifilm in particular, once sent me an interview in a fucking spreadsheet of one line answers and expected me to publish a strictly censored version of it with key questions taken out. Needless to say, I sold both my GFX 50S and 50R afterwards and GFX 100 is next.

No surprises here, but I'd say it's the Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera.
A modular cinema camera under $1000 brand new, uncompressed Cinema DNG RAW at 60p, and a beautiful image.  
The image doesn't look like that second generation iPhone or camcorder that Canon love to imitate when clipped either..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMb6CR781Kc
With Resolve it superscales to 4K beautifully too.  You don't actually want 4K, you just got trained by the camera brands that 1080 is bad because they compress the absolute living crap out of their images - no-one is rejecting the Alexa 1080p because it's not 4K!  With great quality RAW images you can push and pull them in post and they keep on giving and this is pretty darn close to that...
Plus it's the easiest camera to grade that I have ever seen.  Great images just appear when you drop a LUT or CST onto them, rather than struggling for hours to get good colours.

There are some things in life that are only highly rated in your head and yours alone. You stand drowning in a sea of indifference, trying to convince the resident Kanye West mouthbreather to listen Dream Theater's first album. With cameras for example, I've stood in the sea of indifference myself for a long time with the waves of stupidity lapping at my feet, making my socks all damp, as I try to convince the mainstream that Sony is not your best buddy, despite what Gerald says and that Canon is not the messiah but a very naughty boy!
So here are my top 5 most under appreciated cameras of the current era.
Please read on. Reading is also very underrated!
New blog post:
https://www.eoshd.com/news/what-are-the-5-most-underrated-cameras-for-filmmakers/
 

Emotive Color V5 'SPECTRUM'
The V5 'Spectrum' update is ready. The V5 emails are going out now (let me know if you haven't received it). It is the culmination of four years of engine development, and I hope you enjoy!
Emotive Color Component ('EC709')
EC709 component (Full/Theatrical) rebuilt with new engine, allowing accurate, uniform far gamut projection of Arri display table Arri Rec.2020 now used as the color target (projected within EC709 envelope); results in deeper saturated red and blue that are otherwise clipped in Arri's Rec.709 High Scale is now Full Scale (unlabeled); a direct replacement for LogC+Rec709, with notable advantages (aesthetics and gamut preservation) New Classic 'Soft' and 'Hype' variations (like V3-era 'Soft' and 'Main') Refined natural saturation model Core LogC
Fully realized uniform far gamut projection from known lower saturation samples (solves issue that caused saturated orange to twist towards red) New rolloff math; allows grayscale reconciliation of high saturation brightness values (only available for interpolated .cubes; not achievable in Matrix) Added final, fourth calculation pass (post-smoothing), which allows absolute accuracy to known sample points in final render (while retaining smoothness) Corrected an issue that allowed smoothing algorithm to clash with a 'safety lock' on grayscale hue, that could result in red-green banding near the grayscale (especially with 33x under Trilinear Interpolation); now fully smooth regardless of grayscale Misc.
New Ceiling Modifier [POST] files; allows variable highlight compression New 'Natural' profile [PRE] for GH5 (shares settings with Cine-D: -5 Sat, 200 Iso) Remade all PREs (picture profiles / exposures) Revised Pdf; Important: DaVinci Resolve - Enable 'Tetrahedral Interpolation' under Project Settings > Color Management > Lookup Tables   (allows 65x performance with 33x cubes; complete gradient smoothness - FCPX has this as default) Remade Premiere PREs with new measurements (to reflect 2021 Premiere's improved codec color); no 8-bit VLog or Cine-D PREs needed Significant revision to Premiere Pdf guide; Advanced layering section is no longer relevant, use Lumetri's luma curve (improved significantly) Gradient Test is now 16-bit png (compatible with Premiere) rather than tif Entire Matrix PowerGrade now printed directly from the engine (complete reverse-engineering of .drx format): Precise values entered directly into the curve interfaces, at maximal point density Improved engine gamma accuracy enables significantly improved base matrices New LogC Exposures feature (true exposure gammas extracted from sample data) New 4200K PowerGrade variant If you have any videos or stills you've made that you can share, I'd love to see them!
-Alex

A line of Nikon cine primes would be an instant hit. Nikon manual focus glass has always been popular for filmmaking going back to the days of Vistavision, but their latest generation of still glass just has hopelessly crunchy and awkward mechanics that make smooth focusing impossible. Which is a shame since the glass is magnificent, with warm, beautiful skintones, smooth fall-off, subtle vignetting, and some of the best bokeh around. It looks like a mix of Cooke and Leica, but with a little Panavision character tossed in. If they rehoused their existing high speed G-series lenses into a sturdy cinema housing (like Zeiss does with the Compact Primes) with interchangeable mount, DPs would be all over it.
As far as cameras go, trying to compete in the mirrorless arena is a waste of time for them, in my opinion. Too late, too crowded and always stuck behind Sony thanks to their sensors being inside Nikon cameras. Would rather see them release something more niche and out of the box.