GH5 Took a dive into GH5s despite S1H availability

[lonewolf2koc@hotmail.com]

Holidays return policy is pretty generous, up to Jan. 31. Will B-cam shoot along with the main Varicam of highly detailed sceneries in Florida's swamp areas. The digital sharpness here actually may be useful for scenics. Won't know until I actually intercut with both cams to see. But when it comes to people faces, will use filters or vintage lens. Interesting to see how well the ALL-I 400 codec can handle the extra fine details of the vegetation. Some of these locations need hiking several miles to get access to and all in a swamp with alligators and snakes. I rather not risking taking my Varicam at such and use the GH5S as a substitute. And kayaking solo & shooting with the Varicam 35 is pretty much impossible to pull it off. Will use some of the Magic Bullet plugins to add some organic life to the otherwise harsh and perfect digital GH5S look.

The main reason why I opt for the 10-25/1.7 is it's fast and convenience to use for shooting night skies to walk and shoot. I need something super fast to setup and efficient to shoot over the bigger Varicam 35. So far it's taking me only about 1m to get the GH5S w/ this setup vs. 4-6 min to get the Varicam 35 per shot. That's a huge time saving. At times I stop on the freeway and other high traffic places. Able to walk on long trail with not much sweating on the GH5s is a huge plus. And majority of times, very few to none is paying attention to me when I'm on the GH5s and a monopod. It's great. W/ Varicam 35 and tripod, lots of unwanted attention.

S1H will be my next purchase if the GH5S is not up to my liking. I actually may need both of them.

Yes, you are not alone. FWIW the S1 Series is better here. It has full v-gamut for the colors. It also has much less of a crispy look (especially the S1H with the OLPF). The M43 cameras apply more processing to the image to compensate for the smaller sensor, especially with native glass.



This is part of the problem. I would advise changing your lens out. I think you'll be much more pleased adapting some vintage Nikon (or other) glass, it helps a lot. The native MFT glass applies some digital sharpening that can't be turned off. Night and day difference. I've been pleased adapting vintage glass to the GHx series, or using the manual focus voigtlanders which bypass an electronic connections and thus corrections. The native MFT glass gives a very sharp and crispy look. Actually, for some projects I like that - really clinical corporate type look - but most of the time, not what I want. The S1 series doesn't exhibit this in my experience.



I am not trying to dissuade you from the GH5s because it's a wonderful camera, especially when setup with the best settings and glass pairings, but for that price point I would consider test driving the S1 with some adapted glass as well (if you're within return policy).



If you can live without some of the UI video niceties of the S1H/GH5s, and with the larger form factor, the S1 is the way I would go personally.

 

[filmguy123]

You wouldn't go wrong with the S1H. Also, you might like whatever they end up doing with the GH6 if/when it arrives next year - I am hopefully.

The GHx + 10-25 combo is pretty amazing, I have considered adding that lens, but decided to stick with my speedbooster + 18-35 setup. For your workflow, it sounds like IBIS would be a big boon too. It massively speeds up footage acquisition and my creativity.