FS5: FS5 4K replace DSLR?

J

JasonMillard81

Active member
I posted this on EOSHD but was curious to see what you guys thought:

Sorry for a potentially naive question. I have been filming/taking photos with my GH4 for about 2 years. I have 2 native lenses and an adapter for another. While I was considering looking for longer lenses to increase compression and achieve a different look I began reading about grabbing 4K stills from video and printing flawless photos in A3 size and even larger with slow degradation of quality.

I film for my students (I teach special educaiton, ESL, and history) and take video/photos for personal fun and creative means and not for professional use/production.

My questions is this: If the FS5 and FS7 and other cameras shoot 4k with images that subjectively are better than the GH/A7/NX series does it make sense to stop investing in the MFT system I currently have and save up for a bit more expensive video body that records 4K?
My thoughts were as follows: Why spend money on a DSLR that is primarily for photo with video add-ons and shortcomings, when you can spend a bit more and get a cinema quality video camera that allows for 4K frame grabs. I then thought about, well what if I want to not take video primarily but photo at a family party etc. I could have people pose, record video, focus on my subjects, and have them pose from 1-3 seconds. The upside of this seems to be if someone does something funny/noteworthy outside of the standard photo pose I could go back into the 4K video and get a frame grab that typically would have been missed with a DSLR?

This sounds too obvious to be this good of an idea. Please feel feel to knock me down a bit and provide me with some clarity.

The amount of noise and difficulty of achieving the highest quality video out of the GH4 internally recording has been a bit frustrating (again i'm not a pro but I do care about image quality pretty highly).

Thanks all!
 
Any entry level stills camera will produce better still images than a 4K frame taken from either the FS7 or FS5. You have proper RAW, higher bit depth, way more shutter speed options, flash synch and a whole bunch of other benefits.

My advice: don't go there, it's just gear lust. Learn to better use what you have.
 
Liam thanks for the wise words. I think you're actually accurate when you state "gear lust" it happens to all of us in all facets of life: cars, cameras, phones, etc. With that being said I think that I am ready to upgrade in the next year or so and thinking both aesthetically, practically, and financially I wonder if an all-in-one solution is the way to go... the appeal of the a7sII > gh4 is less aesthetic and more ISO practicality since I don't and most likely won't have a lighting system ever for photo/video in the foreseeable future...the appeal of the 1dc/fs5/c300 is the visual appeal of the video image > gh4/a7sII/5d3. I can rationalize the purchase of the 1dc/fs5/c300 class of camera if I save up knowing it will replace both stills/video. I don't print anything and if I did it wouldn't be that large. I could also still go for the higher class camera and maybe pick-up an inexpensive/used full-frame DSLR for stills. Hmm..
 
I on the other hand would definitely replace the GH4 with a cinema cam,
(or maybe keep the GH4 for a 'B' cam) but that's just because I don't do
stills work for pay like I do for motion. That means my priority is much
higher for the motion side of things. But I will agree that just buying gear
can be a trap. Its easy to talk yourself into doing.
 
Ive was looking at the FS5 myself and I can't see where my personal videos would improve over the GH4 I'm currently using.

Using MF mostly, or S-AF to get the camera in the ballpark, so don't really mis phase-AF. Don't go over ISO1600 and even though I use a Ninja2, I'm using the internal 4K and the Ninja just as a viewfinder and backup media. So happy mostly with the colours and amount of noise out of the camera, I've given up on chasing clean high iso (not saying i wouldn't take it mind!) but no one I show my videos too, mentions or notices if its noisy or not. They say 'thats a cool wreck / fish' not - gee you should of shot it on a Red.

I can't find any online videos of any decent side by sides (apart from some extreme lowlight candle videos) so apart from the audio options, dual SD, the clever variable ND filter - what magical jump would it give me? There are some big issue with the GH4 which I would love to be resolved, and if the FS5 did those things, it might make me have another look.

I do think a more camcorder oriented camera would be beneficial, but going to see what lies in the GH5 and then either stay with m43 or move.

I'm really bad for tech lust, from my camera to my diving equipment - always want the best, always thinking, if I buy x y z it will be better! (example got a Phantom3Pro in Jan, thought I would have a blast with it - flown it 3 times) but with my GH4 it would need to be a Red or similar to make me jump and I don't have those types of funds

Why not rent a FS5 and see if it really does do what you want? Before spending all that cash?
 
Last month I shot some tests with my friend's new Sony FS5 against my GH4, and I'm not seeing big differences when shooting 4K with both cameras. The FS5 is better with low light shooting ( almost everything I shoot I light, so this would not be much use to me ), it also has better dynamic range ( not a huge difference, but it's there ), and you can get Full Frame DOF with the FS5 and a Metabones Speedbooster. ( something I could definitely use from time to time )

So for me the main reason for switching to the FS5 would be to get that Full Frame DOF look with a Speedbooster ( nice to have when you can use it ), otherwise I'm not seeing a big enough difference to leave my GH4.

Things would be quite different if I wanted to shoot RAW, as the FS5 with the RAW upgrade and a 4K recorder would change things in a big way, but that's another $2K+ on top of the cost of the FS5 to get RAW capability.
 
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