herein2020

I think the Z4 was around $1600USD but it takes a lot of work to get it that low. HP charges ridiculous rates for their memory and addin NVME cards so I used a few tricks to end up with just the tower, CPU, memory and power supply, from there I sourced parts elsewhere, so I guess I did kind of still build it out.
- I always pick the Linux option when buying from HP so that I don't pay for Windows 10 since I already have a license
-I picked the cheapest SATA storage possible since I already had NVME sticks from my previous system
-I picked no add-in video card since I already had that
-No optical storage since I never use CDs or DVDs
-No keyboard or mouse
-The one thing I don't skimp on is the Power Supply, I got the 1000W version due to the video card and to power all of the internal storage
-etc etc, until it was almost barebones, I then called and managed to get a few more things removed and an additional discount over the phone. Many people don't know if you build a system on the Dell or HP website then save it, call them and ask for a discount then give them your build invoice a lot of times you can get up to 20% more off especially around the holidays, you can also get them to remove stuff you don't need like hard drives which the online system configurator won't let you do. You can also go to the outlet version of the online store and sometimes find good deals there on returns or canceled orders but when I got the Z4 it was too new to find any deals in the outlet store.
After getting the tower with 8GB of memory, no graphics, almost no storage, etc. I then got a 4 port NVME Dell PCIe controller card on eBay for $100.00 (HP wanted $1300.00 for only 2TB), 64GB of memory for $150 (HP wanted $1600.00!!), dual SSD drives, etc. I also got the RTX2080Ti used on NewEgg for around $700.00USD.
The main thing I've learned over the years is I don't want to deal with motherboards, picking out a tower, power supplies, and memory; these are usually the source of instability later on. HP's memory was so expensive that I went ahead and got that separate and even then I pulled the memory that it shipped with and used the part number to exactly match the vendor, bus speed, etc. online.

I think the total build to do it all over again today would be right around $3300.00USD.  I had a lot of the NVME and SSD storage from other systems, and the RTX3080 brand new is only $700 (if you can find one) which is better than my 2080Ti. I only buy/build a new system every 7-8yrs or so and so I saw it as a worthwhile investment. Since I use Davinci Resolve for video editing, I think my system is pretty much future proof, all I'll need to do is upgrade the video card again at some point once H.265 10bit 4.2.2 is supported on the chip. The system itself is rock solid stable, with enterprise class reliability which was my intent.
Another thing that a lot of people do not realize is how power can make their system unstable. I live in FL, the #1 place is the world for lightning strikes, so I have a line conditioner and two surge protectors between my system and the wall outlet. Slightly dirty power is the cause of so many system instability issues and people have no idea that's what's causing their problems; for a system that gets taxed like a video editing workstation I always recommend spending another $200USD or so for a good line conditioner and surge protector.
 
Yes, the CPU and video card is always the most expensive parts. I've never understood how motherboards can be so cheap; to my eyes they look way more expensive than the CPU let alone the video card. 

For someone that says he doesn't want to build, sure seems like you jumped through a lot of hoops to get that PC!  Not that I'm not impressed, and you got a HP supported Enterprise System, just seems like a chore.  I'm transitioning off of PC editing and will just pay the "Apple Tax" for their computers.  Yeah, it's more expensive, but oh well.  The biggest concern with a new Apple is getting the thing out of the box.
OTOH, I might Hackintosh my old PC just for grins...but I'm not going to rely on that sort of futzing around to be my main editing rig. (which, honestly, my editing is not THAT demanding anyway.  I'm a make-everything-proxies-kind-of-guy, so powerful editing rigs aren't a necessity)

It will be great if they ever get the Fusion integration right. As it stands now its an endless source of frustration. I'm always waiting for things to cache and the performance is terrible, simple things like Fusion titles cause the whole program to stutter, anything changes above or below a Fusion comp and the caching starts all over again..etc. etc. I think by DR20 they will have it where it needs to be. The rest of the program is already fantastic.

It will be great if they ever get the Fusion integration right. As it stands now its an endless source of frustration. I'm always waiting for things to cache and the performance is terrible, simple things like Fusion titles cause the whole program to stutter, anything changes above or below a Fusion comp and the caching starts all over again..etc. etc. I think by DR20 they will have it where it needs to be. The rest of the program is already fantastic.

It's a great bit of software. There's no need for a dongle any more, if you have two machines activated and try a third it just de-registers the others, so it's all automatic.

The "Cut" page makes no sense to me, and remember that Fusion is a distinct piece of software that they've bolted in, so it's more like learning After Effects than a bit of an NLE.

But yeah I recently tried Premiere again out of curiosity and the terrible stability etc meant i didn't last long in it.

I'll admit, I find the Cut page the most confusing thing imaginable, in fact I dislike it so much that I removed the tab from the UI. Even after watching their tutorials on it there was nothing I liked about it.  I would love to be able to click the mouse a little less and resize the UI a little less, but the Cut page just doesn't click for me. I also do a lot of work with multicam sequences, Fusion compositions, motion tracking, lower thirds Fusion titles, etc. so even if I learned the Cut page I think I would end up in the Edit page at some point.
 
 
The Blackmagic Forum is a good place too, especially for Fusion questions. Hollywood grade VFX experts are actually hanging out on the Fusion forum and there's also more and more great YouTubers who post DR tutorials and they help a lot when I'm trying to figure out how to do something in Fusion.

I think the biggest deciding factor will be how much noise the fan makes in those single unit lights.  My VL300's put off heat from the head, the control unit, and the power brick....but they are whisper quiet and I am thinking they got it that quiet by giving heat so many places to dissipate which means the fan has less work to do. I will take my current setup any day over one that is only a single power unit but has a noisy fan.

I think another factor is that the expectation for quality is also dropping. It's become so easy with cell phones that anyone can do it so now the "viral" photos are based on who is in the image vs. the skill that was required to create the image. A horribly lit and composed cell phone picture of Kim Kardashian will get 50M views yet a photographic masterpiece that took weeks of planning and years of experience to create will barely get seen by 1,000 people. Another factor is no one prints anymore, so even if a camera were to advance by the magnitude of a decade or two....the typical viewer would never be able to tell the difference because it would never be viewed on anything other than a cell phone.
The same thing can be said for video....who needs 8K raw when the average viewer is going to watch the final video on YouTube using their cell phone? If your client can't tell (and isn't going to pay for) the difference in quality between a $15K camera and a $2K camera why would you buy the $15K camera?  I have to face these harsh realities each time I consider my next equipment purchase, I would love to own the Inspire 2 but my clients are not going to be able to tell the difference between the Inspire 2 and the Mavic Pro. Likewise the C70....why bother buying the C70 when my clients are going to pay me the same if I use the S5 instead. Thanks to cell phones which are "just good enough" for most people they are less and less willing to pay for quality.

I think it is a real shame too that they are in this situation, they offer every feature imaginable and then some. They put together some fantastic cameras but I really think they are too dependent on others to be successful.....sensors made by Sony, very limited selection of L-mount lenses, even their EVA body is dependent on the EF mount. The L mount "alliance" was the reason that I didn't buy the S1, S1R, or S1H, and if it weren't for the Sigma EF adapter I would not have bought the S5.  The release of the S5 made me go back and look at their offerings and that's when I discovered that there was now an EF mount adapter.
 I don't think they can just focus on video because hybrid is so important these days. Even though they already seem to be mostly focusing on video, the further they move into that niche I think the worst off they will be.  The FF space is very crowded and specs are very similar across all of them; if all  you do is listen to paid YouTubers you would never know the little details that really set Panasonic apart from the rest, simple things like dual slot video recording, the XLR module, WFM, 1/320 flash sync speed (S1,S1H,S1R), aspect ratio guides in camera, internal intervalometer that will  take more than 99 images, etc. etc. 
I think Panasonic has almost no inroads with photographers because they rode the m43rds train for so long and photographers are taught from day one that "real" photographers only use FF.  Then when they finally went to FF they ended up with sub par AF and a new lens mount that means expensive new lenses or loss in some functionality if you use adapted lenses. All the while the market is shrinking and Sony and Canon are pulling ahead in other areas. I just don't see any scenario here where Panasonic comes out ahead.

I think it is a real shame too that they are in this situation, they offer every feature imaginable and then some. They put together some fantastic cameras but I really think they are too dependent on others to be successful.....sensors made by Sony, very limited selection of L-mount lenses, even their EVA body is dependent on the EF mount. The L mount "alliance" was the reason that I didn't buy the S1, S1R, or S1H, and if it weren't for the Sigma EF adapter I would not have bought the S5.  The release of the S5 made me go back and look at their offerings and that's when I discovered that there was now an EF mount adapter.
 I don't think they can just focus on video because hybrid is so important these days. Even though they already seem to be mostly focusing on video, the further they move into that niche I think the worst off they will be.  The FF space is very crowded and specs are very similar across all of them; if all  you do is listen to paid YouTubers you would never know the little details that really set Panasonic apart from the rest, simple things like dual slot video recording, the XLR module, WFM, 1/320 flash sync speed (S1,S1H,S1R), aspect ratio guides in camera, internal intervalometer that will  take more than 99 images, etc. etc. 
I think Panasonic has almost no inroads with photographers because they rode the m43rds train for so long and photographers are taught from day one that "real" photographers only use FF.  Then when they finally went to FF they ended up with sub par AF and a new lens mount that means expensive new lenses or loss in some functionality if you use adapted lenses. All the while the market is shrinking and Sony and Canon are pulling ahead in other areas. I just don't see any scenario here where Panasonic comes out ahead.

Hilarious and so true. I actually have a pretty good generator that is only 52dBA when run under full load and even quieter when run at less than full load.  As soon as you round the corner for a building or go inside a structure and close the door you cannot hear it. I did a lot of research before I went the generator route, but none of the battery options were going to power a smoke machine, panel lights, and video lights for hours except a generator. I mainly just use it for music videos so I don't need the audio from on set. With my generator setup I can shoot in weird places like abandoned farm houses, rail yards, middle of a deserted road, etc without having to think about power.
 
I like the power setup of the Clar better. The Godox VL power is pretty annoying to have to deal with but once its all set up its not that bad. I can tell you the VL300 is whisper quiet when running. I had to shoot a full days worth of content with the talent and a shotgun mic mounted on the camera cage about 8' away from the talent in a very small untreated room and not one bit of fan noise was picked up by the mic....now that's impressive. I'm not sure if the Clar is that quiet or if you care about sound at all.

So I have been shooting more fashion and higher end work lately and wanted to improve my color grading process without adding too much time or going down the endless rabbit hole that is known as color grading. My current process is to simply conform each clip to Rec.709 using a VLOG to Rec709 LUT make some minor tweaks using the waveforms then add an adjustment clip over the whole project to give it a certain look and feel. This works fine for events, real estate, etc. but what I am finding is that the finishing LUT is also affecting skin tones in ways that I did not like.
So a quick YouTube search turned up the below video which is what really helped me develop a new workflow that is almost as fast as my previous one but allowed me to greatly improve my color grade without adding too much more time to my process.
My new workflow is as follows:
1 - Apply a VLOG to Rec709 LUT to the clip
2 - Adjust the highlights and shadows using a mixture of the Log Wheels and Color Wheels until I have a good starting Rec709 image
3 - Apply a false color LUT to Node 2 to check for skin tone exposures then remove it when the exposure is right
4 - Create an adjustment clip and adjust the curves, saturation, etc while creating a skin tone layered node to control the skin tones separately
5 - Clone the adjustment clip to each subsequent clip and make small adjustments to the skin tone node qualifier to keep the creative grade from affecting the skin tones
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcFPJOLTFP0

I think another factor is that the expectation for quality is also dropping. It's become so easy with cell phones that anyone can do it so now the "viral" photos are based on who is in the image vs. the skill that was required to create the image. A horribly lit and composed cell phone picture of Kim Kardashian will get 50M views yet a photographic masterpiece that took weeks of planning and years of experience to create will barely get seen by 1,000 people. Another factor is no one prints anymore, so even if a camera were to advance by the magnitude of a decade or two....the typical viewer would never be able to tell the difference because it would never be viewed on anything other than a cell phone.
The same thing can be said for video....who needs 8K raw when the average viewer is going to watch the final video on YouTube using their cell phone? If your client can't tell (and isn't going to pay for) the difference in quality between a $15K camera and a $2K camera why would you buy the $15K camera?  I have to face these harsh realities each time I consider my next equipment purchase, I would love to own the Inspire 2 but my clients are not going to be able to tell the difference between the Inspire 2 and the Mavic Pro. Likewise the C70....why bother buying the C70 when my clients are going to pay me the same if I use the S5 instead. Thanks to cell phones which are "just good enough" for most people they are less and less willing to pay for quality.

I think the panasonic s5 is the best price/quality hybrid atm.

Today's AF test, posted below, but otherwise I ain't saying nothing at this time other than...pretty much SOOC, lockdown scruffy beard, mostly making a muppet of myself.
We are only interested in the actual AF and whether there is any pulsing and not the colour or if it's 'cinematic as fuck' etc.
Password = EOSHD
 

Here is my entire wish list for DaVinci Resolve 17....it's a long one:
 
- Make the Fusion tab as stable as the edit tab...ok that's all 

I agree, but there are no restrictions or mandates in my area, only if you go inside of an establishment must you wear a mask and even that varies from city to city. 

- I always shoot in VLOG, when color grading are you using a LUT or doing manual primaries correction? I've stopped using LUTS for primaries and get much better results simply grading by hand. In DR I create 3 nodes (primaries, curves, false color), I use the primaries node to set the Lift, Gamma, and Gain, I set Saturation to 90%, and I set Contrast to 1.17. I then fine tune the image in the curves node and check skin exposure using a false color LUT in the false color node.  I've attached a screen shot from a recent fashion show, showing before and after.  I have never had a BM so I don't know if the attached image has more grain than a BM in the same situation so I will let you be the judge of that. 
What really impressed me about the attached image is that I was able to recover the white balance. Someone turned on a very warm spotlight right as the show started and I did not have time to adjust the WB (the joys of shooting fashion shows). 
-For IS, with the Sigma adapter attached for some reason most of the modes get disabled for me and it doesn't seem to give me the option to turn off body IS. My Canon EF 24mm has lens IS and I haven't tested which is better, so I've just left everything at their defaults and it seems to all work itself out. 
-For S&Q I never use it, I shoot everything in 4K and mostly at 60FPS, I feel like all of the modes in the S&Q options are going to require that I deliver at 1080P so I haven't experimented with the modes.
-I don't use AF at all, since I can't use continuous AF with the adapter I just use hybrid AF.....so half press the shutter to get focus then MF from there.
-Depending on the lens the magnifier will automatically come on when you set the dial to MF and start turning the focus ring as long as you are not already recording. In the menus you can set the center button of the focus selector dial to magnify when in MF so that's how I have mine set. Some of my lenses like the Canon 24mm-105mm don't automatically magnify when I turn the focus ring but the EF Sigma 50mm does as long as the selector is in MF.

Get an S5...problem solved (except no AF and no 4K120FPS).  My Canon R6 experience was equally bad: 
 
Compared to my Panasonic S5 experience:
 
But I do think you got a bad R5, probably something wrong with the HDMI port.  I do think if your mixture is 80% video 20% photography the R5 is not the best option but that's just my opinion. In Canon's world they would want you to buy the R6 and the C70 for that mixture.

- I always shoot in VLOG, when color grading are you using a LUT or doing manual primaries correction? I've stopped using LUTS for primaries and get much better results simply grading by hand. In DR I create 3 nodes (primaries, curves, false color), I use the primaries node to set the Lift, Gamma, and Gain, I set Saturation to 90%, and I set Contrast to 1.17. I then fine tune the image in the curves node and check skin exposure using a false color LUT in the false color node.  I've attached a screen shot from a recent fashion show, showing before and after.  I have never had a BM so I don't know if the attached image has more grain than a BM in the same situation so I will let you be the judge of that. 
What really impressed me about the attached image is that I was able to recover the white balance. Someone turned on a very warm spotlight right as the show started and I did not have time to adjust the WB (the joys of shooting fashion shows). 
-For IS, with the Sigma adapter attached for some reason most of the modes get disabled for me and it doesn't seem to give me the option to turn off body IS. My Canon EF 24mm has lens IS and I haven't tested which is better, so I've just left everything at their defaults and it seems to all work itself out. 
-For S&Q I never use it, I shoot everything in 4K and mostly at 60FPS, I feel like all of the modes in the S&Q options are going to require that I deliver at 1080P so I haven't experimented with the modes.
-I don't use AF at all, since I can't use continuous AF with the adapter I just use hybrid AF.....so half press the shutter to get focus then MF from there.
-Depending on the lens the magnifier will automatically come on when you set the dial to MF and start turning the focus ring as long as you are not already recording. In the menus you can set the center button of the focus selector dial to magnify when in MF so that's how I have mine set. Some of my lenses like the Canon 24mm-105mm don't automatically magnify when I turn the focus ring but the EF Sigma 50mm does as long as the selector is in MF.

I don't think we will ever know if Sony is refusing to let Panasonic use the technology or if Panasonic truly thinks what they have can be superior one day. When a camera maker is dependent on their competitor for their imaging sensor that can't be a good situation.

- I always shoot in VLOG, when color grading are you using a LUT or doing manual primaries correction? I've stopped using LUTS for primaries and get much better results simply grading by hand. In DR I create 3 nodes (primaries, curves, false color), I use the primaries node to set the Lift, Gamma, and Gain, I set Saturation to 90%, and I set Contrast to 1.17. I then fine tune the image in the curves node and check skin exposure using a false color LUT in the false color node.  I've attached a screen shot from a recent fashion show, showing before and after.  I have never had a BM so I don't know if the attached image has more grain than a BM in the same situation so I will let you be the judge of that. 
What really impressed me about the attached image is that I was able to recover the white balance. Someone turned on a very warm spotlight right as the show started and I did not have time to adjust the WB (the joys of shooting fashion shows). 
-For IS, with the Sigma adapter attached for some reason most of the modes get disabled for me and it doesn't seem to give me the option to turn off body IS. My Canon EF 24mm has lens IS and I haven't tested which is better, so I've just left everything at their defaults and it seems to all work itself out. 
-For S&Q I never use it, I shoot everything in 4K and mostly at 60FPS, I feel like all of the modes in the S&Q options are going to require that I deliver at 1080P so I haven't experimented with the modes.
-I don't use AF at all, since I can't use continuous AF with the adapter I just use hybrid AF.....so half press the shutter to get focus then MF from there.
-Depending on the lens the magnifier will automatically come on when you set the dial to MF and start turning the focus ring as long as you are not already recording. In the menus you can set the center button of the focus selector dial to magnify when in MF so that's how I have mine set. Some of my lenses like the Canon 24mm-105mm don't automatically magnify when I turn the focus ring but the EF Sigma 50mm does as long as the selector is in MF.

I really wanted to like the S1 and even after getting the S5 I went back and looked at the S1 again especially since it has a full HDMI port and will soon be able to do internal 6K, not to mention it can still use the same XLR adapter I am using with the S5, the only things I don't like is the screen is not a full flip / tilt screen, besides the lenses and AF situation, and they charge for the VLOG "upgrade" which is why I never had it in the GH5.  I use the S5 at odd angles and on a gimbal quite often so that tilt flip screen is pretty important to me.
 
 I truly thought CLOG3 was as good as it gets, but working with VLOG out of the S5 is pretty incredible. The way I can push and pull the 10bit VLOG footage coming out of the S5 I thought was only possible with RAW footage. I always feel like I haven't exposed properly when the WFM says everything is still in range then I drop it into Resolve and a few clicks and it looks perfect.
That's my main concern....how many of us are out there? The cameras are great but if they are losing money on them how much longer will they keep making them? Everyone is predicting Nikon's fall, but it seems to me like Panasonic is the one in more trouble than Nikon.

- I always shoot in VLOG, when color grading are you using a LUT or doing manual primaries correction? I've stopped using LUTS for primaries and get much better results simply grading by hand. In DR I create 3 nodes (primaries, curves, false color), I use the primaries node to set the Lift, Gamma, and Gain, I set Saturation to 90%, and I set Contrast to 1.17. I then fine tune the image in the curves node and check skin exposure using a false color LUT in the false color node.  I've attached a screen shot from a recent fashion show, showing before and after.  I have never had a BM so I don't know if the attached image has more grain than a BM in the same situation so I will let you be the judge of that. 
What really impressed me about the attached image is that I was able to recover the white balance. Someone turned on a very warm spotlight right as the show started and I did not have time to adjust the WB (the joys of shooting fashion shows). 
-For IS, with the Sigma adapter attached for some reason most of the modes get disabled for me and it doesn't seem to give me the option to turn off body IS. My Canon EF 24mm has lens IS and I haven't tested which is better, so I've just left everything at their defaults and it seems to all work itself out. 
-For S&Q I never use it, I shoot everything in 4K and mostly at 60FPS, I feel like all of the modes in the S&Q options are going to require that I deliver at 1080P so I haven't experimented with the modes.
-I don't use AF at all, since I can't use continuous AF with the adapter I just use hybrid AF.....so half press the shutter to get focus then MF from there.
-Depending on the lens the magnifier will automatically come on when you set the dial to MF and start turning the focus ring as long as you are not already recording. In the menus you can set the center button of the focus selector dial to magnify when in MF so that's how I have mine set. Some of my lenses like the Canon 24mm-105mm don't automatically magnify when I turn the focus ring but the EF Sigma 50mm does as long as the selector is in MF.

And the ability to punch in while recording.