eatstoomuchjam

Cool story, but nobody's asking you your opinion of how they spend their money.  If the OP has more than $4k in their pocket and wants to buy the best camera for what they're doing, that's their choice.  They don't need some toxic internet person yelling at them about other ways they could spend the money.  Not everybody bases their spending decisions on purely utilitarian criteria.

Keep in mind that I'm not saying I'm a Roger Deakins or a Hoyte von Hoytema (and not even close), and it's likely that the OP isn't either, but please do go lecture either one of them on how dumb they are to shoot with multiple $100k Arri kits and $50k Venice setups.

Anyway, there are also "literally millions" of other ways that you could spend your time, other than criticizing other people's hobby budgets.  Maybe you should find some of them.

Looks interesting, curious to see the 8k 24fps quality once is available, the 2x zoom sensor crop seems kind of ok so I expect the 8k to be quite good for this type of camera.
Also curios to see how the "AI" motion blur works compared to do it manually in Resolve. 
From the first videos around low light it is still not great but much better than any other action cam on the market.

A pity that it seems to be missing 10bit log and user replaceable lens. I wish they would also offer an add-on even wider lens for POV like the MAX MOD 2, very useful for MTB, Ski and Snowboarding.
8k at 25fps would have been nice too as it is only 1 fps more so probably doable, maybe with firmware?.

As @eatstoomuchjam mentions insta360 studio and I also add the iOS App are the best from any action cam manufacturer and they continue to improve them.

XF-AVC on the C70 is, unless I'm mistaken, a 10-bit 4:2:2 version of H.264 in a fancy wrapper.  I think there's an all-I mode so it should be alright, but it won't stop editors from giving me an unhappy look when I hand over footage.  Regardless of technical merits, people really like ProRes.  🙂
For a lot of stuff, I'll probably use the lighter of the two raw formats that it offers (except for overcranking past 60fps where it's not available).   It's just not good for quick turnaround (like 48 hour film project stuff).
 
Yeah, the integrated (or small first-party add-on) EVF is really nice to have.  I'm sure that Zacuto make some sort of rubber band contraption that can go on the integrated screen for like $3,000, though.  Then you can pretend you have an EVF and lose all use of the touch screen.

As far as the cine lens size/weight, I've used CN-E's a lot with my E2-F6 which is smaller and lighter than the C70.  By the time you add a handle and screen to the body and put rails on the front for your focus motor, etc, the "small" cinema camera bodies become "not so very small" and I haven't found the size/weight of CN-E to be a problem, at least.  If OP wants to use Arri Master Prime, that might be a different calculation.  😉

If you can't tell the difference in a camera with about 14 stops of dynamic range at SNR=1 and a camera with 12.1 stops of dynamic range at SNR=1 - or you can't see the difference in 28ms of rolling shutter vs 9ms of rolling shutter when the camera moves, then you probably shouldn't be dispensing camera advice to anybody, ever.

It's not to say that a camera with only 11 stops of DR and 30ms rolling shutter is unable to produce a nice-looking image.  I was thrilled with my 5D Mark II at the time and compared with modern cameras, it had terrible DR and RS.  Especially with ML, you could shoot with that camera today and come up with something that looks better than half of what I see entered in local film contests.  Similar things could be said of the GH2 or GH5.  However, the question asked by the OP isn't "what low-budget camera can I buy and find ways to work around its limitations to get the results that I want?"

Also, some of the nicer options suggested (including the C70 that I was just talking about) are already pretty light and remove the need to buy a decent set of ND's.

170Mbps...   not terrible.
Let's see what the implementation is like, especially the sharpening, NR, and auto-awesome AI.
I like the idea there's two of them, with the "Pro" one having a larger sensor and more resolution etc.  I feel like most action products are the generic model and somehow they never release the higher up models.

The image of the camera post-collision doesn't look modular - at least not like their current stuff.  Among other things, it lacks the bottom battery and any sort of seam in-between the brain and the lens (plus it has a door, probably for the charger, in more of a GoPro-type location)

GS is useful for more than whip pans.  I'm not sure why people always jump to that.

(And to avoid nitpicking, I am fully aware that for most of the stuff, really low RS (<5ms) is functionally as good as GS)

- Shooting handheld in general unless you're as steady as a tripod (with 20+ms of RS, the jello is almost always noticeable)
- Shooting fast-moving subjects, especially from the side (trains, cars, etc)
- Mounting the camera to a car (improved with gimbal for RS, but still noticeable)

Not how you shoot?  Cool, but that doesn't mean it's not how others shoot.

Definitely not the first "dual lens" action camera - the Insta360 One R with the 360 module would technically have "dual lenses" and I wouldn't doubt that there are others that I am not thinking of.

But otherwise, good luck with your spam!

I believe this commercial was shot on one of these cameras.
 

Back to the original topic, I'm a huge fan of the Dark Power Labs stuff.  I've been using the Sabrents that PC recommends in mine.  One thing that he doesn't mention (should you go that route) is that you need to peel off the heatsink sticker on it - the enclosure uses a thermal pad to attach to the SSD so it isn't needed anyway.  With the sticker attached, the enclosure is too tight.

Do they get hot?  YES.  When recording, it hasn't been too bad for me.  When dumping a full disk?  The enclosure gets uncomfortably hot.  That's going to happen with just about any extremely small/fast SSD during heavy I/O.

Anyway, I use the smaller enclosure attached to the EVF on my FP-L (no cage) and I use the DPL cage with the longer SSD enclosure attached on the bottom with my FP.  Either way, it's a pretty slick setup.  One of the things I like is that when I'm just shooting photos or don't need 12-bit, I can just unscrew the holder and throw it in my pocket.

It's a comedy channel where the host does wildlife photography which almost entirely consists of the squirrels in his neighborhood and where he renamed "bokeh" to "toneh" to make fun of Mr. Northrup going too far with shallow DOF.  If you're upset that he goes light on the technical details and doesn't produce Roger Deakins-level cinematography, I think you've missed the point.

(And I definitely enjoyed Kasey's video as a standout in a sea of people reading spec sheets and basically shooting the exact same video as every other channel who got invited to Japan)

Here's a gift from and to EOSHD.  It's been a journey these past 10 years.  Me and mine have bopped in and out of here over the years.
We would like to share our old-fashioned American Christmas film.  It takes place on Christmas Eve, so I guess today's an appropriate time to share it!  This film wouldn't have been made without EOSHD and everyone's wisdom helping us grow technically, especially with advice regarding M43 cams.
If you like classic Hollywood movies, let us know what you think about our attempt at making a 1930's style film.
Happy Christmas!
 

I may just do this. With the fringer EF-NZ this strategy can definitely work for me on my Nikon Z6.
 
Best route is to adapt EF and get sigma glass, that way you can get working AF on a Sony body if you ever go that route

When I decided to ditch Sony for good - and when I decided to ditch Micro 4/3, I was bummed at all of the system lenses that I had and sold for not enough money so I've decided that for now, for the most part, I'll just get EF lenses and adapt - the Canon adapter for the R5 autofocuses about as well as I need and I also get the bonus of having a built-in ND filter tray so I don't need to bring other ND's with me.

The only exceptions will be lenses that are totally unique to a system (800mm f/11!), lenses that have some truly major improvement for a given system (the RF 70-200 f/4L is shockingly tiny and still pretty good), and GFX lenses (some EF lenses work fine on GFX, some don't - plus every GF lens I've used (except the 80/1.7) is freakin' incredible).

Anyway.  This strategy makes jumping systems easy once the vendor gets complacent.  I moved to Sony mirrorless from Canon years ago because EF bodies stagnated and they kept releasing new cameras that were the same as the last one, but with only one or two spec bumps where Sony was going crazy with improvements - not to mention the first A7s was mindblowing for low light on a consumer camera.  Then...  Sony started releasing a bunch of ho-hum updates... and Canon suddenly had the R5 which, aside from early overheating shenanigans, is incredible...  by mostly having lenses that work with every camera, I won't get stuck to a system where the vendor decides to stop innovating because it's hard to move away with thousands invested in lenses.

Anyway.  EF lenses are often not the greatest, but also are often good enough for anything I need.  I strongly suggest the strategy to everybody!

(Also, adapt all manual focus lenses to Leica M mount and you'll only ever need Leica M adapters for your cameras)

When I decided to ditch Sony for good - and when I decided to ditch Micro 4/3, I was bummed at all of the system lenses that I had and sold for not enough money so I've decided that for now, for the most part, I'll just get EF lenses and adapt - the Canon adapter for the R5 autofocuses about as well as I need and I also get the bonus of having a built-in ND filter tray so I don't need to bring other ND's with me.

The only exceptions will be lenses that are totally unique to a system (800mm f/11!), lenses that have some truly major improvement for a given system (the RF 70-200 f/4L is shockingly tiny and still pretty good), and GFX lenses (some EF lenses work fine on GFX, some don't - plus every GF lens I've used (except the 80/1.7) is freakin' incredible).

Anyway.  This strategy makes jumping systems easy once the vendor gets complacent.  I moved to Sony mirrorless from Canon years ago because EF bodies stagnated and they kept releasing new cameras that were the same as the last one, but with only one or two spec bumps where Sony was going crazy with improvements - not to mention the first A7s was mindblowing for low light on a consumer camera.  Then...  Sony started releasing a bunch of ho-hum updates... and Canon suddenly had the R5 which, aside from early overheating shenanigans, is incredible...  by mostly having lenses that work with every camera, I won't get stuck to a system where the vendor decides to stop innovating because it's hard to move away with thousands invested in lenses.

Anyway.  EF lenses are often not the greatest, but also are often good enough for anything I need.  I strongly suggest the strategy to everybody!

(Also, adapt all manual focus lenses to Leica M mount and you'll only ever need Leica M adapters for your cameras)

When I decided to ditch Sony for good - and when I decided to ditch Micro 4/3, I was bummed at all of the system lenses that I had and sold for not enough money so I've decided that for now, for the most part, I'll just get EF lenses and adapt - the Canon adapter for the R5 autofocuses about as well as I need and I also get the bonus of having a built-in ND filter tray so I don't need to bring other ND's with me.

The only exceptions will be lenses that are totally unique to a system (800mm f/11!), lenses that have some truly major improvement for a given system (the RF 70-200 f/4L is shockingly tiny and still pretty good), and GFX lenses (some EF lenses work fine on GFX, some don't - plus every GF lens I've used (except the 80/1.7) is freakin' incredible).

Anyway.  This strategy makes jumping systems easy once the vendor gets complacent.  I moved to Sony mirrorless from Canon years ago because EF bodies stagnated and they kept releasing new cameras that were the same as the last one, but with only one or two spec bumps where Sony was going crazy with improvements - not to mention the first A7s was mindblowing for low light on a consumer camera.  Then...  Sony started releasing a bunch of ho-hum updates... and Canon suddenly had the R5 which, aside from early overheating shenanigans, is incredible...  by mostly having lenses that work with every camera, I won't get stuck to a system where the vendor decides to stop innovating because it's hard to move away with thousands invested in lenses.

Anyway.  EF lenses are often not the greatest, but also are often good enough for anything I need.  I strongly suggest the strategy to everybody!

(Also, adapt all manual focus lenses to Leica M mount and you'll only ever need Leica M adapters for your cameras)

It's a comedy channel where the host does wildlife photography which almost entirely consists of the squirrels in his neighborhood and where he renamed "bokeh" to "toneh" to make fun of Mr. Northrup going too far with shallow DOF.  If you're upset that he goes light on the technical details and doesn't produce Roger Deakins-level cinematography, I think you've missed the point.

(And I definitely enjoyed Kasey's video as a standout in a sea of people reading spec sheets and basically shooting the exact same video as every other channel who got invited to Japan)

Keep in mind that those same YouTubers will keep saying over and over again how they aren't being paid for the review...  but also that they all know that if they don't say mostly nice things about the camera, they won't get free flights/hotels in Japan, a loaner camera + $20k in loaner lenses, or have a camera to make a video before launch day the next time.

The reviews are biased and are part of the Panasonic sales strategy.  Wait until real users and smaller channels start receiving the camera.  Right now, it's all part of a hype machine to drive preorders.  Panasonic have a long history of delivering excellent hybrid cameras and there's no reason to think that this one will be any different, but NEVER trust launch day YouTube reviews for any camera.

It's a comedy channel where the host does wildlife photography which almost entirely consists of the squirrels in his neighborhood and where he renamed "bokeh" to "toneh" to make fun of Mr. Northrup going too far with shallow DOF.  If you're upset that he goes light on the technical details and doesn't produce Roger Deakins-level cinematography, I think you've missed the point.

(And I definitely enjoyed Kasey's video as a standout in a sea of people reading spec sheets and basically shooting the exact same video as every other channel who got invited to Japan)

It's a comedy channel where the host does wildlife photography which almost entirely consists of the squirrels in his neighborhood and where he renamed "bokeh" to "toneh" to make fun of Mr. Northrup going too far with shallow DOF.  If you're upset that he goes light on the technical details and doesn't produce Roger Deakins-level cinematography, I think you've missed the point.

(And I definitely enjoyed Kasey's video as a standout in a sea of people reading spec sheets and basically shooting the exact same video as every other channel who got invited to Japan)

It's a comedy channel where the host does wildlife photography which almost entirely consists of the squirrels in his neighborhood and where he renamed "bokeh" to "toneh" to make fun of Mr. Northrup going too far with shallow DOF.  If you're upset that he goes light on the technical details and doesn't produce Roger Deakins-level cinematography, I think you've missed the point.

(And I definitely enjoyed Kasey's video as a standout in a sea of people reading spec sheets and basically shooting the exact same video as every other channel who got invited to Japan)

It's a comedy channel where the host does wildlife photography which almost entirely consists of the squirrels in his neighborhood and where he renamed "bokeh" to "toneh" to make fun of Mr. Northrup going too far with shallow DOF.  If you're upset that he goes light on the technical details and doesn't produce Roger Deakins-level cinematography, I think you've missed the point.

(And I definitely enjoyed Kasey's video as a standout in a sea of people reading spec sheets and basically shooting the exact same video as every other channel who got invited to Japan)

I saw some of what looked (to me) like pulsing, but as I said, it seemed pretty consistent with their other more recent DFD cameras - and that's not a bad thing.  DFD on their more recent cameras got dangerously close to usable (from what I've seen).  You're right that it's also worse/more noticeable with an f/1.4 lens.  It'll be interesting for sure to see I'm wrong and the MC-21 actually supports PDAF in some way (as far as I can tell, it does not support it on my Sigma FP-L, but the FP-L is also one of the quirkiest cameras I've ever owned).  Anyway, having PDAF on a popular L mount camera that's probably gonna sell a lot is likely to inspire one of the adapter makers to make it work with EF mount lenses.  🙂

As far as CC being an anti-vax/conspiracy weirdo, I've always assumed that was part of the joke.  I'd be really bummed if it turns out that's serious...
 
Humor is subjective, of course.  I'm not gonna bother arguing beyond that.  🙂  
I'm still subscribed to Kai, but a lot of his stuff hasn't been doing it for me lately so I end up skipping a lot - and given that like 4 of my other subs already had up long-form reviews of the camera (which were largely redundant after I watched the first one!), I didn't bother.  I'll go check out the AF section after writing this comment, though!

It's a comedy channel where the host does wildlife photography which almost entirely consists of the squirrels in his neighborhood and where he renamed "bokeh" to "toneh" to make fun of Mr. Northrup going too far with shallow DOF.  If you're upset that he goes light on the technical details and doesn't produce Roger Deakins-level cinematography, I think you've missed the point.

(And I definitely enjoyed Kasey's video as a standout in a sea of people reading spec sheets and basically shooting the exact same video as every other channel who got invited to Japan)

Keep in mind that those same YouTubers will keep saying over and over again how they aren't being paid for the review...  but also that they all know that if they don't say mostly nice things about the camera, they won't get free flights/hotels in Japan, a loaner camera + $20k in loaner lenses, or have a camera to make a video before launch day the next time.

The reviews are biased and are part of the Panasonic sales strategy.  Wait until real users and smaller channels start receiving the camera.  Right now, it's all part of a hype machine to drive preorders.  Panasonic have a long history of delivering excellent hybrid cameras and there's no reason to think that this one will be any different, but NEVER trust launch day YouTube reviews for any camera.