TomTheDP

Too bad RED media still costs a mint. Older Nikon DSLR's can be fantastic deals for the image.

Film being difficult to work with doesn't make it undesirable in terms of the final outcome. Of course it changes from film stock to film stock but traits of film are what good digital cameras do as well. This is of course talking about film that has been properly shot and developed. Natural and true to life colors with a pleasing skin tone. Pleasant motion cadence. A detailed image that doesn't look like its been digitally sharpened. Soft roll off into highlights and shadows. Digital is still a relatively new medium and Arri is the only company to really have it down to perfection or at least very close to it. Weird motion, jello shutter, sharpening, moire, aliasing, aberrations, poor or odd color science, digital clipping, digital noise, compression artifacts, poor color depth, line skipping, incamera noise reduction, are all things brought into being by digital cameras.

The issue with higher resolution cameras like say the S1R is that its not using that high megapixel count for its video modes. Combining that with line skipping it uses in 4k vs the downsampling on the S1 and you actually have an inferior image. You are right no stills camera is doing 6k 50p. To be honest I don't think shooting in 6k vs downsampled 4k is going to be noticeable. 8k is where you see a significant jump.

That trick makes me want to get the camera. Pretty janky for some work but for solo shooting I could get away with it. Hopefully Canon doesn't disable it in a firmware update.

Blackmagic's luts are less contrasty. An issue with the R5 currently is if you are shooting 10bit H265 you are limited to CLOG, which is a less flat rendition of LOG. It will look more contrasty as it doesn't hold shadows or highlights that well. Of course you can negate that by shooting in RAW. Though RAW on the R5 is limited to 8k and the files are huge. If you are ok with 10 bit H265 the files are going to be smaller than Blackmagic RAW or Prores. H265 is going to kill most editing systems, which means you'll have to convert the files to prores for editing. BRAW 6K isn't super easy on an editing system either.

Can't wait till these latest Sony sensors trickle down to Panasonic and Z-cam

Rent an R5 if you can and test it out to see if it'll work for you. The Panasonic S1 or S5 might be a good option. Great video and stills. The Pocket 6k takes beautiful images. You can mount a little NPF battery sled on top of it and get pretty good battery life. You can do it without the cage as well for an even lighter setup. Pretty janky looking though....

I don't think 8k or 120fps will get much attraction with vloggers. The most important thing for vlogging is auto focus, stabilization, and maybe low light performance. Pana's IBIS has always been an attraction for vloggers but if the GH6 doesn't have PDAF I don't see it being any better for vlogging than a GH5 or G85. I guess with a higher res 8k sensor it could be a decent hybrid video/photography camera. Though I think its main user base will be video centric people.

The Pocket 4k is still relevant. Lots of people want compressed RAW and it’s the only affordable option delivering that. But the price point is right where it should be. It hasn’t dropped in price or lost value on the used market. Something like the XT3 started at 1400 quickly dropped in price and only gets $800-$900 on the used market. The features didn’t hold there value against full frame. BRAW on the P4k is more important for a lot of people than sensor size. I think if the specs are good enough and price low enough a GH6 could do well. 8k sensors even if they are M43 probably aren’t cheap. Blackmagic is really profiting off their own BRAW technology which Pana doesn’t have. If Panasonic delivered 8k, 4k 120p, and internal NDs at $1200 it would do very well. I am not sure that’s possible at such a low price point tho.

Rolling shutter seems to have improved significantly on the latest sensors the Sony A1 and A7S3, so there is hope there. Unfortunately most cameras don't have downsampled 1080p. Its lineskipped on the Panasonic S1 and on most cameras aside from the GH5 and I believe GH5S. Shooting in 4k is acceptable to me though, the new MacBook Air can handle it pretty easily. I do really agree with you though on HD being good enough for most uses. I really am awaiting Z-cam or Panasonic to utilize the Sony A7S3 4k sensor.

check out "How To Sell Video Production Services At Higher Rates" on Facebook. It has a lot of members and business related things is all they talk about.

I'd recommend the GHALEX lut. Will give you an accurate color conversion to Arri LogC or Rec709.

If it can deliver 8ms rolling shutter and a solid 10 bit 4k 120p that has dynamic range and a noise floor similar to the 24p that would be a buy for me. 8k would be a plus too as long as it also has a nice downsampled 4k.

I might be interested though its hard to want anything less than the S1 in terms of dynamic range. It's got me spoiled. Global shutter would be very interesting.

Yeah Fuji is definitely behind with auto focus. It seems like only Canon and Sony can have stellar auto focus. Everyone else is behind. I guess Nikon isn't far behind though. Would really be nice if they could catch up but it feels like they'll be stuck in the panasonic rut. Do you mean a firmware update for the 27mm 2.8 and 10-24mm ? I don't think the firmware can take care mechanics that weren't designed for the new AF system.

I think on the low end of the market the merge of photographers and video pushed full frame. Photographers were all accustomed to Full frame. The people who said S35 will always be the standard were people who had a background in solely video work. Not sure the exact same thing will happen with medium format as no one really uses medium format outside of a very niche market of people. Video people are all over the market with the sensor size though there is definitely a preference for full frame or Large format as Arri likes to call it. Full frame is such a nice marketing word. Anything else but Full is subpar, a crop sensor. The word medium format is confusing to your average user. Where do you go beyond full frame. No one is jumping on the MF wagon, that could definitely change but i don't see it happening like the full frame push has. Just my worthless opinion though. That said Its still Arri LF, Arri S35 <everything else. been three years since the LF came out. Arri is putting out a new camera this year(rumored), though I think it's likely to be a smaller S35 camera with higher resolution. Hollywood is pretty slow to the trigger though. In terms of the magic vs math on the 3D look that certain lenses give, I think it of course is mathematical, we just aren't aware of whats going on. An engineer that designs or works on lenses could probably give some great input on that.

I think it just comes down to being able to do two jobs at once, which saves money. But yeah the backend up picking out a good still from hours of video would be a pain, though probably not that bad if you do it while you edit the video. Now if you were just taking stills I'd see no point in shooting video for most situations. Depends on the situation. If you need tact sharp high shutter speed photos its just not going to work.

Its gonna take a while for Medium format to really catch on for video. The golden standard for Cinema is the Alexa LF, which is really just full frame. Arri doesn't put out new cameras too often.

It really helps if it’s a long day of shooting.

Was just working on a doc for one of the big 3 motor companies in Detroit. The most utilized setup was two easy rigs shooting from hip height. Working with two Alexa minis. From my experience they’ve been very common place on set. I would think they are rarely used for traditional Hollywood narrative films or high end commercials.

A lot of the better tutorials I've found are for higher end gimbals which allow a lot more fine tuning. The usual suggestion I've seen is to hold the gimbal horizontally and drop it. The time it takes to drop should be about 3 seconds. It's just a matter of adding the right amount of weight on the bottom and making sure the camera/lens's weight is in the dead center.

Thanks for the input. My only drone experience was short and ended with a crash into the Pittsburgh river. That said insurance is actually pretty cheap I have found so I may be in the market for another one. One of these guys is on eBay for a really good price right now..... 🤔🤔🤔

Not sure what you mean exactly. You can replicate DOF on a bigger sensor to a point until you run into lens limitations. Can't get past .95, which is pretty rare on lenses to begin with outside of M43. Of course M43 or S35 is much more ideal if you want a longer DOF. Was shooting between f16 and f22 today to get everything in focus on a 6D. Of course most big sensors have great high ISO performance so you can compensate for the light loss. Some S35 and M43 sensors these days are doing pretty well in that regard too though. I definitely see how the GFX could be appealing to the hybrid shooter. I am fortunate that I rarely do stills and when I do resolution isn't a factor. Right now the A7S3 is the most attractive camera for me outside of one single issue. The internal noise reduction. I'd probably end up using the internal recording more than external RAW(which bypasses the issue). As of now the internal recording on my Panasonic S1 is superior, more organic looking and better dynamic range with more resolution. That said for me if I am shooting in RAW I prefer 4k as its smaller files. The A7S3 also has very minimal rolling shutter which I put above resolution. It also has full frame recording at higher frame rates. If only Sony would allow for that damned noise reduction to be lowered. How hard of an ask is that?? My only real complaint on the S1 is the rolling shutter in full frame and the lack of high quality 120p. I hear the RED Komodo calling me haha

I’d get the A7s3 if it didn’t have so much video noise reduction.

I mean I personally don’t see a use for medium format as you already can get super shallow depth of field easily with full frame. But I guess once it becomes affordable why not. There is being able to stop down and potentially get a sharper image without losing the shallow DOF factor. Roger Deacons has mentioned how he likes the LF image better than the Alexa Classic. Something about it looking richer overall. I’ve heard that a lot regarding the look of bigger vs smaller sensors. Some kind of subtle richness that is hard to explain. In terms of the new Fuji, Pixel binned or line skipped 4k is kind of a meh for video. At least when cheaper options exist that can do full frame downsampled.