mtol

There's an interesting conversation to be had about the limitations of images to create positive change in the world, but there's also a conversation to be had about the technical limitations of our gear. What gear is really war-ready? I've long thought that camera manufacturers need to implement some kind of in-camera encryption for serious documentary work. Clearly, filming events like these is crucial. But what happens when your gear is seized in a politically sensitive context? What happens when a fascist state can use high resolution images that you capture to criminalize the people you're documenting, to find and hunt down other witnesses? The camera can be a liability too. And what could be done to upload footage automatically, or a proxy, in the event that the seized gear never comes back? Other than everyone streaming everything live all the time, which carries its own risk. We've seen now footage from people who were arrested or detained - which, I think, is fortunate but far from a certainty going forward. We're still missing a piece of the puzzle - not that ICE isn't clearly guilty of murder here - but they seized Pretti's phone, and now the fascists are the only ones to decide if that footage will be seen.

I own one L-mount lens and two bodies, with about 40 adapted vintage lenses. I could imagine kitting up if I was on Fuji X mount or Micro 43s, but I made a decision at some point to put everything into EF mount so that I could jump between camera systems when the time comes.

I can understand that camera companies are not exactly incentivized by the profit motive to release *perfect* cameras, but it's a shame that this is artificially feature limited when it's getting so, so close. I just shot a project in 3:2 open gate on my S1H and it was such a great experience for myself and the director, though I did run into some of the limitations of the slower readout speed and ibis wobble. I guess Sony is saving 6k and open gate for the A7S4 and Fx3ii. It remains to be seen how they will integrate 32 bit audio recording. I am sure I'm not the only one waiting for these features in a proper workhorse body for doc. I'm close to pulling the trigger on an S1ii anyway as it has the fewest compromises of any system, but it's hard when you know an S1hii could follow or the Fx3ii is likely around the corner. I'm making money from my gear these days, but not so much that I feel like burning money on an intermediate body. All the tech is around for a perfect doc mirrorless camera.

Dpreview released their S1II review today, holding off on a gold rating solely due to the camera's price... Andrew isn't alone in his criticism of Panasonic. I was expecting to see the price come down a bit already. If the firmware truly resolved the overheating issues the camera was having, I think the only issue remaining is the poor H264/H265 output of the camera I've been reading about. And the lack of clarity on when / what the S1HII will be... Still, its becoming a more compelling package.

Honestly I hope they go this route.

I do appreciate a viewfinder, though. As it stands an FX3 is hardly usable without rigging, based on screen quality alone.

Add faster sensor readout to that mix and 32 bit support and its likely the last camera I ever buy.

Still waiting for a better package than an S1H... Waiting pretty eagerly for Panasonic's next move but in the mean time I'm happy with an ~almost~ perfect camera.

The only real drawbacks I see are the card slots being crammed in the battery door and the lack of EVF, lack of open gate. The interference between the screen and the headphone jack would be a minor drawback as well. Otherwise, it looks like an exceptional value stacked up against everything else that's out there. The 4" screen really reduces the need for an external monitor and I would like to see other manufacturers follow and the 32bit audio removes on more manual adjustment from the shooter's slate. I'd love to see these things integrated into another body with a slightly more professional build, and then I could be swayed to move over to Nikon. Maybe if the XLR adapter ends up working with the Z6 III that would be the move. It's also a little shameful that Lumix wasn't able to build a camera with this same sensor that doesn't overheat. I wonder how that came to be.

I hope there is an XLR module or handle on the new Canon camera, otherwise it is kind of useless for documentary film making.

So for those with S1RIIs and S1IIs in hand, is the overheating people are posting on reddit about only occurring with CF express cards, or with SD as well?

I can't imagine having to shoot raw for a feature documentary as opposed to h264/h265. I can't be filling up 4 terabytes a day for weeks or months or years of shooting. I guess when these codecs were the best internal codecs on offer (GH5, S1, S1H, S5) Panasonic put more effort into perfecting them.

This is extremely helpful, and also a bit disappointing. Thank you so much for your detailed response. It seems like there is ample reason to hold out for the S1HII, still.

Has anyone been able to assess how the fine details are processed here? I'm wondering how the footage looks compared to the original S1 or S5?

Sony seems to have better pricing strategy, but I'd say the S1II is still worth a premium over the FX2.