I'm sorry but I can't get past the panasonic menu. Even with work, it's so unintuitive that you need a laminated card glued to the side to know how to set it up each time.
I also hate the file format and having to try to get it into a mac. We're used to converting everything to pro rezz, but the panasonic format is just a nightmare.
Now saying that when it works, it shoots a nice file and it's a small easy to use camera, but nobody in our studios wants to learn it and use it.
Yesterday I was really excited to test and see the new sony NEX cameras. They're very good and very bad. No zoom for focus, no peaking, small phone plugs for sound and they just look like . . . video.
Maybe it's because they're in a 60i wrapper, but I kind of think it's just because Sony does good video and knows how to make motion imagery look like . . . VIDEO. I just don't like the look.
Today we shot a heavy scheduel with the RED and the 5d. The 5d when it's on it's really on and almost equals the RED. When it's off on skintones well, it's really off and like the RED it needs some kind of post processing color to get it right even before we go to dailies, much less to finish.
The RED is a monster, but it works well, if you have a lot of batteries, lots of cf cards and a strong stomach for post production. Even with the RED Rocket it takes a while to correct and put out dailies and the footage out of the RED is nothing like the monitor. It's like whatever you set for wb, tint, exposure just kind of goes out the window when you put it in cine-x.
Right now, our issue is time. With 5 videos to cut in the next two weeks and a month long project to shoot then cut, well, every step in the workflow chain is something nobody wants to face.
All I can say is video post production is time consuming and one thing ARRI did right was make a camera that shoots stright to proress 422. That was smart.
Going to bed now.
IMO
BC