Got a friend who is looking to break into the video content creator space. I’ve got a decent amount of m4/3 lenses as well as a some nice adapted primes for earlier (film) manual systems and am happy to share with them until they get their set up running fully.
What’s the best current m4/3 setup for portable video? Stills really are an afterthought, but has to be able to be run off batteries so they can go to client sites and work easily without worrying too much about set up.
Thoughts?
Is there a budget in mind?
Do you know what video spec your friend is considering? 1080, 4k, etc?
Panasonics are know for having a “pulsing” issue when using Continuous AF during video. If you use AF lock or manual focus it is not an issue, I guess.
The Oly E-M1 II and later cameras seem to do well with video.
Panasonic is defined by their video capabilities. And continue to invest and develop product that is focused on that part of the market. It’s not my area of interest, but I’d think you couldn’t go too far wrong with a GH5 mkII, or GH6. Even a G9 would work, and they’re regularly available at bargain pricing.
Good advice here. There have been some great deals on the GH6 in the past few months, I picked up one for about $1.5k. At that price it’s a rather good value.
Also note the OM-1 did away with the dumb 29 minute recording limit, which I’ve always disliked.
It’s a decent choice for video and is considered exceptional for stills.
I’m not into video, only the occasional holiday clip. However I do enjoy watching Camera Conspiracies - YouTube which is a guy doing totally video centric reviews with a comic touch. He has a couple of videos on m43 offerings where - in my opinion - he is spot on.
I’ve shot a lot of video on Olympus cameras. All of them have a 30 min record time limit except for the OM-1. The OM-1 also has h.265 10bit color available whereas the earlier cameras are limited to h.264 8 bit, which works fine in the Flat profile but not in the OMLog400 profile.
I have used E-M1ii, iii, and 1X bodies for video prior to getting the OM-1. Of these, I favor the E-M1iii for 8 bit video. I’ve also used E-M5ii and E-M5iii for video, and the E-M5iii works well, again for 8 bit, but it is not as rugged as the E-M1iii.
If he has to learn a new system anyway, and use manual focus lenses, then the Panasonic bodies may be a better choice and should hold resale value better than the Olympus. I haven’t ever used the Panasonic bodies, but I probably should have!
Thanks all for the suggestions and answers!