New travel film-making setup and pipeline - I feel like the tech has finally come of age

[kye]

22 hours ago, BTM_Pix said:

A great benchmark.

Do you still have that XC10?

Indeed it is, and indeed I do!

Haven't turned it on in.. well.. some time.  

I must admit I find it funny that my first video-first camera was the XC10 but moved on because I wanted shallower DoF, and now I'm back to shooting deep DoF with a 10x zoom lens.  This is why I never sell anything - I've lost count of the number of times I learn something new and then pull things out of the discard pile again, and although it's mostly lenses, you never really know.

[fuzzynormal]

4 hours ago, kye said:

pull things out of the discard pile

Man, I lost my GX7 years ago --and when I look at that 1080 footage I still find myself coveting it.

[BTM_Pix]

4 hours ago, kye said:

Haven't turned it on in.. well.. some time.

I think you should.

I think you’d be pleasantly surprised at the degree of enhancement the accumulated knowledge of these intervening years brings.

It’s a camera that has always appealed to me and I’ve been waiting patiently to pick a used one up for £200 for years now.

Still waiting !

Which is likely a testament to how many people have held on to them and are still getting great results .

[John Matthews]

24 minutes ago, fuzzynormal said:

Man, I lost my GX7 years ago --and when I look at that 1080 footage I still find myself coveting it.

I had that camera for about 1 month and then sent it back to Amazon because the GX80 came out at the same time. Still, I recorded some great moments on it. One of the videos is so precious that I have it on my desktop at all times.

[PannySVHS]

I bought myself a second GX85. It will hopefully arrive this week. Comes with the 12-32, which I already own and enjoyed using for some test clips with the og pocket. I think I should let go my GM5, as it was more an object of desire than being a practical artists tool for me.

What do you guys think? Prices are pretty nice and high for these at the moment. Mine is orange and in a very good shape. Much usage would rub the faux leather off I think.

I love the subtle color grade @kye Great results with your GX85 cinema beast.:) Btw I really love the colors of the GX' raw files when taking photos . This camera is perfect for street and to carry along. Anyway, how is Prores on the GH7?:) Any nasty artefacts? Awesome to hear and read about your findings with this exciting camera, Kye!

[John Matthews]

14 hours ago, PannySVHS said:

I bought myself a second GX85. It will hopefully arrive this week. Comes with the 12-32, which I already own and enjoyed using for some test clips with the og pocket. I think I should let go my GM5, as it was more an object of desire than being a practical artists tool for me.

What do you guys think? Prices are pretty nice and high for these at the moment. Mine is orange and in a very good shape. Much usage would rub the faux leather off I think.

I love the subtle color grade @kye Great results with your GX85 cinema beast.:) Btw I really love the colors of the GX' raw files when taking photos . This camera is perfect for street and to carry along. Anyway, how is Prores on the GH7?:) Any nasty artefacts? Awesome to hear and read about your findings with this exciting camera, Kye!

Out of curiosity, how much is that combo going for where you live? I'm always looking for it, but it often seems a bit pricy for me. In France, it can be found for about 350 euros.

[PannySVHS]

Hehe, I got lucky paying 250 for mine with the 12-32 and a Lumix bag. These bags are highly fashionable in certain groups of clumsy professor photographers.:) The combo usually goes for 350 with the lens. I got my first one eight years ago and paid around 430 for the body. It's still going strong, even without the backwheel which quit on me a few years ago. My favorite lens with it for photo is the 14mm pancake. I also liked using my Oly 45. But it's silver and kinda shiny for street. Planning on getting the Panny 42.5 F1.7. I also got a G3, a cute and small but solid plastic fantastic Dslm style camera. It's the dslrish sister to the GX1. The latter also going for higher prices than a few years ago. GX85 is the best of them all imo for a variety of reasons. 4K video is still great for being 8bit and Rec709. But you know that of course. @John Matthews I just had to get my second one for that nice price and I am looking forward to do a photo tour with two cameras and lenses.

[kye]

On 6/16/2025 at 1:38 AM, PannySVHS said:

I bought myself a second GX85. It will hopefully arrive this week. Comes with the 12-32, which I already own and enjoyed using for some test clips with the og pocket. I think I should let go my GM5, as it was more an object of desire than being a practical artists tool for me.

What do you guys think? Prices are pretty nice and high for these at the moment. Mine is orange and in a very good shape. Much usage would rub the faux leather off I think.

Think about selling it and see how you feel.  If you don't have a negative reaction to the thought, and it's not a practical choice, then sell it.  

If you do have a negative reaction to the thought of selling it, then think about how much you might get for it and what you could do with that money.  Then think about swapping the camera for those other things and see which gives more excitement.

Ultimately, if you're not shooting for money, then you're doing it for enjoyment, so ignore the specs and go with what would bring you the most happiness.

On 6/16/2025 at 1:38 AM, PannySVHS said:

I love the subtle color grade @kye Great results with your GX85 cinema beast.:) Btw I really love the colors of the GX' raw files when taking photos . This camera is perfect for street and to carry along.

Thanks!

Not sure if I said this above, but my approach for the GX85 shots was to just apply enough of the film simulation in the FLC to get rid of the "video" look in the files, which I think was only about a third.  The GX85 has a strong look to begin with, so I didn't need to add much to the colours.  

After many years working out colour grading tools and techniques across lots of cameras I've worked out how to get images to not look so digital, but now I can do whatever I want with them, I have to now work out what I want!  It's a work in progress as everything is.

On 6/16/2025 at 1:38 AM, PannySVHS said:

Anyway, how is Prores on the GH7?:) Any nasty artefacts? Awesome to hear and read about your findings with this exciting camera, Kye!

Prores V-Log on the GH7 is an absolute joy.

I have been doing some low-light testing over the last week or so in anticipation of my next balloon adventure, and I compared using a 17mm lens with using my new 9mm lens to get a 17mm FOV (firstly by shooting C4K Prores 422 and cropping to 17mm FOV in post, and also by shooting 1080p Prores HQ and cropping to 17mm in-camera) and even then, at ISOs of 5000 or more, the results were still not like the normal results from cheap cameras.  In the grade it feels like footage from any cinema camera I've tried - the controls all feel great and the image responds how you want it to without colour shifts etc.  Hell, I'm in groups where there are guys dealing with FPN from their RED cameras at base ISO that is worse than this camera has at ISO3200.

20 hours ago, PannySVHS said:

My favorite lens with it for photo is the 14mm pancake.

Absolutely!  There is something magical about this combo.  I don't know what, but it's a joy to use and the files just seem to have something special to them.

20 hours ago, PannySVHS said:

I just had to get my second one for that nice price and I am looking forward to do a photo tour with two cameras and lenses.

Dual GX85 bodies is a great way to go actually, and saves time in changing lenses all the time.  Great stuff!!