mtol

I've used both the dumb adapter and the electronic one on a bunch of Lumix bodies and I basically rely on them. Most of my lenses are EF or EF converted.

As you would expect they are super useful. I do run and gun doc, so these are lifesavers. I love being able to fine tune exposure while leaving my aperture and ISO where I want it. The actual physical control of these is very smooth. There's a bit of a vignette at max ND.

They are not super well-built.

After a few years with these adapters, two smart adapters have failed on their own after developing intermittent connection issues. Sometimes cleaning electronic contacts with rubbing alcohol has helped extend the life of my adapters. Still, the cameras lose connection to the lens and stop recording randomly when this happens, so its really not a reliable system when your adapter starts to give out. Generally, I prefer the dumb adapter for this reason - I've used it a lot and had no connection issues.

Also, on a recent shoot, my camera got smacked against something and the adapter was the fail point - breaking clean in half. So I saw inside the adapter, and the length of screws connecting the two sides of it did not inspire a great deal of confidence. 

Compared to something like the Meike adapter with drop in filters, my experience is these are not robustly built - they don't feel solid or co-operate with some heavier lenses like a canon 100-400.

But with all those caveats, these things rule and make shooting easier. Especially the dumb adapter, for manual primes. I love Fotodiox for making cheap adapters to fill gaps in all sorts of workflows and I think that's exactly what this is - cheap gear that doesn't last forever. I do wish the electronic adapter was more reliable.

Agree this is a waste of time. They should say "a cinema camera is coming" or "the S1ii is our cinema camera". Either would help a lot of consumers decide what their next move is.

40 minutes ago, Django said:

But as far as adaptability Nikon Z mount is killer and one of the main reasons I was so tempted to join that system. R3D RAW is also a great image pipeline, if only Nikon would offer lighter version. I mean REDs RAW compression is the whole purpose of their patent and ironically them suing Nikon. It feels such a waste to not offer it here but ok gotta remember it is a first gen product!

I wonder if there's a thermal management reason keeping it from shipping with compressed raw formats. All in all a very tempting camera, but in no context do I ever want to produce files that large.

2 hours ago, Django said:

C50 wins big on the XLR handle for clean audio, tally lights, active cooling, and all the cine extras. The real killer is the zoom rocker up to 4x digital zoom via the levers, turning any prime into a smooth parafocal telephoto. That's massive for run&gun when you can't swap lenses; Sony/Nikon hybrids top out around 1.5x in 4K. But no IBIS is a legit worry: digital + gyro + lens IS might work, but I need to rent and test further to see if it's a deal-breaker.

I didn't know that the c50 had digital zoom like that. Neat!

Canon stabilized lenses were my go to shooting tool for such a long time and I'm sure the new ones are better than the Ef generation. What I can't stomach is the price of new glass and being locked into a particular lens aesthetic when I want to shoot handheld. But all things considered, as a tool, good lens stabilization can be more organic and less artifact prone than ibis.

I've seen some stabilization tests with the digital is and I am not impressed. 

I also expect Nikon will come out with more professionally oriented cameras soon.

Renting a c50 is a good call. If it feels right in hand and you like the images you'll cut through the noise. 

11 minutes ago, Django said:

I dunno this is the same company that released an FX2 couple months ago with a 4 year old A7IV sensor. The A7V hasn't caught up to the competition either. Sony are in their own bubble, too comfortable being in leadership position. Don't forget they also have a cine line to protect, so unless they're planning an entire FX refresh, I wouldn't expect too much from them at this point.

In any case I can't wait any longer so it looks like I will be headed back to Canon, closed lens system but it checks all the boxes.

As long as it checks all the boxes for you. You really can't go wrong.

For me both the C50 and R6III are close to checking all the boxes, but if the C50 had IBIS or the R6III had the XLR handle, they would be perfect. I know canon has some great stabilized zooms, but I don't want to get married to a system for a feature that most systems are putting in-body.

I'm currently invested in L mount, but just barely - which means I own some adapters and one lens in that system. The rest is EF glass or adapted to EF glass. So switching systems would not be too costly if any one camera hits it all out of the park.

At the end of the day, they're all good machines. I'm not in a huge rush. But I look at the price of used FX3s and kind of think it may make sense to invest in something that will hold its value as the kind of go-to camera for the next 5 years. Then again, I prefer the image out of my S1H to the FX3 any day, and had I gone that route I'd have a more valuable black box and five years of inferior images.
 

2 hours ago, Django said:

its in Sony's best interest to announce the FX3 II sooner than later but the big question is will it finally give Sony users things like +4K, Open gate or even internal RAW?

I have a hunch they will announce something with a higher resolution and open gate. Unsure about RAW. But they have to adapt with the market and surely they're noticing the discourse around the age and limitations of the FX3. 

17 hours ago, MrSMW said:

The rumour mill suggests both of these might indeed be coming this April. There have been smoke signals over the Dolomite mountains…

 

Every other camera has some nominal compromise for my workflow, but I'm hoping either of these cameras will check all the boxes for a long time to come. 

Really my S1H does 90% of what I want it to do to begin with, but readout speed improvements and reduced size would be welcome. 

Personally I'm waiting for the FX3ii and S1Hii which hopefully will both be announced in April. Many good options if you need something now, but certainly more good options in a few months time.

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.

35 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

Nothing to stop them doing an FX2 as well.

Honestly I hope they go this route.

19 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

The GH7 could also have evolved with the times into a FX3 / ZR style body. Instead it STILL handles like a STILLS camera.

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

On 11/5/2025 at 6:31 PM, Andrew Reid said:

I just want an S1H in exactly the same body but a bit lighter, with the updated real-time LUT and AF.

Done deal.

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

On 11/1/2025 at 1:18 PM, Andrew Reid said:

Fair enough if you're working as a professional and haven't upgraded your autofocus for 7 years... Splash out.

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.

13 hours ago, ita149 said:

I have the S1RII and the S1II. I also still have the old S1 and S5.

The S1II is the same than the S5II about video details, even if some youtubers said the details rendering has improved, it's not true at all. Same bad rendering as the S5II.
I understand some people are not bothered or can't see the difference and it's nothing wrong about that, but the difference is clear by example if you zoom inside your videos on people faces.
Like the S5II, there is a sort of rough detail sharpening and in the same time a lack of very fine details.
As always V-log looks better than the 709 profiles but it's still not great in my opinion.

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?

3 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

Interesting price especially considering the Trump Tariff mess.

And cheaper than the S1 II by $600.

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

Top of the line gear has always been prohibitively expensive.

I remember not being able to afford a 5D II back when I began with a T2I. Eventually I scraped together enough for a 6D, and I still envied people who had the 5D III - even though it was just an incremental upgrade. This feeling has never gone away. Every single modern flagship has been far too expensive for most users at launch, with the exceptions of busy working professionals and rich, rich hobbyists seeking status symbols.

I think if you really need the absolute latest feature set, theoretically you should be making enough money with your gear to justify the expense. These are high end tools being built for a very limited market and the price hikes between generations can be covered by a few days of fees from a working camera operator in most cases.

In my experience, I've never been making the kind of money that lets me buy new flagship cameras - so I make do with older, used gear, and it does 90% of the same job as the newer iteration. Yet while budget offerings seem to be drying up (I think the Z5ii is getting a lot of praise for being a compelling outlier here), there's no shortage of dirt cheap used cameras that will vastly outperform anything I could have imagined owning a decade ago. For filmmakers or photographers starting out, the options are vast and better than ever.

For professionals sitting on tens of thousands of dollars in lenses and camera bodies, it seems a little rich to complain that camera X mark VI is launching for 500 bucks more than its previous version. C'mon. What percentage of users actually need camera X mark VI when the last five iterations are great? Who is the hobbyist that needs a nominal reduction in rolling shutter performance or a 70fps burst rate for photos? Who is the hobbyist who needs to shoot noise-free video at 12,800 ISO and beyond? Who is the hobbyist that needs 8 stops of IBIS instead of 6, etc, etc.

Owning the latest-and-greatest camera will always been about status - especially as phones have eroded demand.

I would agree that from a features perspective the Fuji X Half seems very expensive, especially as it has little to no professional application. But then again, I see a lot of people with X100 series cameras and Leica rangefinders who don't seem too pressed by what they paid to wear them around their necks. Fuji knows exactly who their new camera is for - and spoiler, its rich people with money to burn.

(TLDR - Cameras are for rich people.)

1 hour ago, eatstoomuchjam said:

The Jazz Singer was released in October of 1927.  That would seem to indicate that people have made sync sound films for about 98 years now.

1927 doesn't really apply here. I'm a solo operator doing run and gun doc work, and I want the most unobtrusive and functional gear I can afford in 2025. I'm curious what peoples' mirrorless rigs look like where XLR input is a priority outside of the Sony and Panasonic systems.