I am still tentatively looking at new camera options.
The Black Magic 4k have largely fallen away, not being considered generally practical enough, even though its value is by far the best. I feel I would fall back on the G9 or EM1x far too often to justify a great, but largely “dumb” video camera, with poor or no AF and no stabiliser. My logic may be flawed.Isn’t it better to have a few cameras that do different jobs than the same thing done differently?
With a 4k BM I would have the ideal tripod/studio/pro grade camera,
the G9 for general video and optional stills use with better than ok stabilising and AF options,
the EM1x for solid semi-gimbal hand held movement with the best AF and finally,
the OSMO for genuine gimbal smoothhness and many other creative options.
All offer similar quality 4k, which in most cases would be down sized to 1080 or smaller.
Ok. May have befuddled myself there. Having four specialists makes plenty of sense, seeing as I already have three of them.
An unrelated filler image from a recent insurance shoot.
The OM-1 is appealing more now as a stills and genuine video option. It has no limits in shooting time and no annoying breaks in its footage. It seem to be nearly faultless with video AF and has much sharper 1080p. For stills, I will give it to the Oly overall for AF and low light performance, but both it and the GH6 are excellent.
It looks to have some better video customisation options, something the other Oly’s are poor at, making on the go switching between roles difficult. AF for both shooting forms comes with the very real consideration that most of my lenses are Olympus.
On this, I could buy with the OM-1 and possibly a kitted 12-100, 12-45, the new 12-40, 8-25 or 20 f1.4. So many choices.
The GH6 on the other hand has better hand held high res (100mp with better subject movement control and sharpness), which gives me a surprising stills benefit and ties in well with my Pana/Leica wide angle. Olympus seems to be better at 50mp than 80mp. I do not use this much now, but for the odd group shot with genuine single face lift-outs, it might be handy. There is also the advantage of a few more pixels natively.
For video, it lifts the Pana into the same realm as the BM’s, offerring genuine LOG, 120 4k, in camera cooling, 10 bit in most formats and much better AF. I also like the synergy of the G9 as backup to the GH6 as primary.
Lens options for the GH6 are the unlikely 10-25 f1.4 video or the 12-60 Leica. Both appeal, but being Pana lenses, they may lack some AF compatibility with my Oly cameras, but offers better compatibility with the Panas and dual IS.
So where am I now?
My gut says the OM-1, because I like the 4k video, would usually use the stills functions more and have found the video focus and stabiliser on the EM-1x very solid, so slight improvements would be more than adequate. Having said that, for many of my real needs, the EM1x is plenty and it does not get a lot of work overall. This and all of my video cameras could also get an upgrade by adding the Ninja V (G9 becomes a true 4k beast, Oly’s get RAW etc).
My head says the BM 4k (studio or compact cinema?), for the value. For the same price as an older OM or GH camera, I would have a very good specialist 4k RAW video camera with better processsing options (with free Premium Da Vinci for life), which is perfectly calibrated to the camera and is real RAW. This is my preferred stills processing option. The OSMO, G9 and various EM-1’s are all valid options with strengths of their own. The BM would be the premium static camera and the pro video camera with an eye to upskilling into pro grade cameras.
Lenses are out of the picture, pushing the overall price up again, but I have saved enough to choose what I want or even look at some of the cinema specific ones. Accessories are also a consideration. Smallrig frames are up to three times the price of Pana ones (so I would likely skip one, using another camera), and Gimbals, a real consideration, push the camera closer to the others in overall cost, but again, this where the others come in. In it’s envisaged role, I think it would be best left as is (I favour the studio anyway), being relegated to the serious tripod camera.
My heart says the GH6. This camera continues my transition into a mixed Pana/Olympus system, gives me some new features and harmonises well with the G9 as both a backup stills and video camera. Dual ISO, more stills pixels, better hand held high res, a cooling fan, two record buttons and VLOG are on the plus side. My only concerns are the slight shortfall in AF compared to the OM-1, but it is still more capable than the G9 and likely equal to the OM’s I have. The EM1x could then be sidelined as a video camera.
Operation would be nearly identical to my G9 set-up and the video, even though it is overkill, is likely as good as the BM 4k in real terms. The lens options are also tempting. I have had wonderful results out of my Oly stable, but I must admit, the Leica/Pana 8-18 does have a special look that I appreciate. The handy premium 12-60 is the likely one, or the excellent 12-60 kit or even the 15 1.7, all available kitted with the camera.
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The other more balanced (Head/Gut/Heart) and probably realistic option is to get another cheap G9 the Ninja V, making all my existing video cameras better. The second G9 would let me carry one as a second EM1 level stills camera with better video ready to go, which is harder with Oly cameras as they do not let you set video specific custom modes.
A G9 with a 12-60 kit lens (or maybe a specialist video lens as the 1080 cropping options effectively make it a dual lens) and the Ninja V would come in under the price of the BM4k with accessories and get rid of the one thing that annoys me - 30 minute time limits. I already have rig options, accessories and consistency of operation. I could even add a full gimbal with little fear of blowing out the budget advantage.