Panasonic S5

[Brandon Rice]

Nice job. Looks good I can feel your style. No matter how you film or what camera you use most of it comes down to the skill of the operator. I think people on forums get carried away with their opinions. I'm glad we don't use the same cameras and film the same way.

Thanks for checking it out. I agree that it's the operator that matters most for sure.

[Brandon Rice]

Nice color, Brandon. Nice compositions. What apertures are you using on the Rokinons? I find they can get "interesting" wide open but this all looks pretty clean to me

Thanks! I usually never open them up all the way... f2.4 is usually as far as I'll go. Some of this stuff was at f4 to be honest. I love that I can close down and still have a super clean image now.

[jdv]

Olympus had an AF update last year that people raved about. Never tried it, but it wasn't always like that.

A lot of people always said good things about the E-M1 Mark II.

And it's great to see/hear you say that about AF because it's very frustrating when people don't realize how useful reliable AF is.

Here's one of the quick tests I did with the with the em1 mII over the weekend, primarily to check the colors. I was blown away by them (which are straight out of camera, no tweaks, nothing), the IBIS (I was doing sh#@ job holding the camera as it was windy as hell and I missed lunch but still several usable shots), and the simply great AF.

AF wise, I think there was no more than 2 shots and only for a second - a miracle considering the poor job by me. I couldn't see the screen at all b/c it was so bright, but I wasn't worried. I knew I'd get something usable and the camera did not disappoint.

Best of all, none of the dreaded pulsing which IMO is nearly as bad as a shot completely out of focus.

https://youtu.be/v29gL4JnP2E

[NorBro]

It's all too wide and deep to analyze, but that location looks nice.

Test something in front of the lens with all of the above in the background and you'll know more (but I have little doubt Olympus has better AF than Panasonic...O isn't a threat to Canon or Sony).

Did you cancel the S5?

[jdv]

It's all too wide and deep to analyze, but that location looks nice.

Test something in front of the lens with all of the above in the background and you'll know more (but I have little doubt Olympus has better AF than Panasonic...O isn't a threat to Canon or Sony).

Did you cancel the S5?

Hey, thanks for checking out the video.

Oh yeah, been testing the crap out of it. The AF works incredibly well, and in very dim light to boot. You can control the "sensitivity" but not the speed of the transition (although I'm starting to think that when Olympus says sensitivity, they mean speed - more testing needed). In any event, no matter what setting you have it at, it works well (including with the Sigma 16mm 1.4, which surprised me a bit).

Not perfect of course, but considering my experience with the GH5 and other Panasonic cameras, it's been an eye-opening experience. I can now simply hand off the camera to a relatively inexperienced shooter for second unit stuff or B-roll and know that 95% (or more) of what they shoot will be in focus, without pulsing. That's a pretty freakin' huge deal.

I did the test I linked to only to check out the colors, which IMO are also vastly improved over the GH5. Color science is subjective of course, but not needing to grade like mad to make skin tones look human is also a big deal. I literally need do nothing with the Oly to get wonderful results straight out of camera.

Lastly, yup, I canceled the S5 order. This little Oly has renewed my interest in MFT, but more importantly, made me realize ordering a $2000 camera w/o good AF in late 2020 is silly, at least for my needs. AF a major tool that for me, as a small time indie movie producer & youtube guy, is nearly invaluable....

...Also, the S5 is still not in stock at B&H.

I hope Panasonic can sort out their AF issues moving forward as I love their cameras, but until they do, I'll be hoping Olympus (well, the company that bought them) means what they say when they claim they will now focus more heavily on video.

[NorBro]

I'm sure you know, but they have their heavily-discounted III as well with some nifty improvements for almost the same price as the II:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ..._mark_iii.html

[jdv]

I'm sure you know, but they have their heavily-discounted III as well with some nifty improvements for almost the same price as the II:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ..._mark_iii.html

Thanks! Yeah, with any luck I'll be picking up the Mark III very soon as my A-cam. It addresses the lack of slo-motion, lack of joy-stick (which are far more useful than I thought they'd be), and lack of auto-ISO in manual video mode.

It also supposedly has even better IBIS and AF, which is crazy to think about. The Mark III also has a better processor, which is why it can do slo-mo (120p in HD). It also is supposed to produce less noise then the Mark II at higher ISOs.

Also, the Mark III clears up any confusion about speed & sensitivity with AF by giving each their own separate settings.

Lastly, the Mark III can now be charged & powered with a USB battery, an awesome addition in its own right.

So yeah, I want one pretty bad....

[NorBro]

lol, sounds like it!

[NorBro]

You can see the video sharpness in the clip below, but I thought it was a good example of taking a relatively mediocre camera (compared to options) and filming a high-end looking commercial with it.

[jdv]

My Russian's a little rusty, but that commercial looks real good.

I just saw an used em1 MII for $650 at Robert's, making it perhaps the best bang for buck camera... ever.