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Photography and Videography Reviews & Tutorials. Brands include Canon, Panasonic, Sony, Fuji, Olympus, Nikon and much more.

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One day in Sugarland, Texas featuring Cullinan Park Conservancy

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Hello readers! I provide knowledge on photography and video, to help ease your learning curve. Click the red button for more free content on my YouTube channel!

My family and I visited Sugarland over a weekend in March 2021. Here’s some nature footage taken while there. I was considering selling the GX85, but this trip made me realize (again) that this small, portable camera with great 4K footage is going to stay. Hope you like! It’s hosted on my nature channel: Manny’s Animal Kingdom. Subscribe if you like nature footage.

Footage taken on the Panasonic GX-85 with Leica 12-60. Bird photography taken on Canon 7D Mark II with Sigma 150-600.

Ten things you shouldn’t say to a photographer!

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Hello readers! I provide knowledge on photography and video, to help ease your learning curve. Click the red button for more free content on my YouTube channel!

You take amazing pictures, you must have a great camera!

Can’t you just edit that out?

Hey, can you take a pic real quick?

Those are great, now you can take all our event photos!

I didn’t bring a camera because I can get all your photos!

My cell phone has more megapixels than yours!

I’ll give you free exposure (instead of payment)!

When are these going to be on Facebook?

Let me take one too!

Can you take another photo just like this?

What do you guys think? Have another to add to the list? Leave me a comment below!

5 Reasons You Shouldn’t Buy a GH5 in 2021

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Hello readers! I provide knowledge on photography and video, to help ease your learning curve. Click the red button for more free content on my YouTube channel!

Panasonic Lumix GH5

Three years after starting my photography and videography journey, I bought a Panasonic Lumix GH5. I got a phenomenal bargain in near-perfect condition from a friend. He added extras that made the deal even sweeter.

These days, there’s many people that want to get into cinematic videos and GH5 happens to be one of those ideal cameras people lust over. It has internal 10-bit 4:2:2, V-LOG, 4K @ 60FPS, a headphone jack, dual SD-card slots, and much more.

The GH5 blows away the competition, and at a low price of $1297 – it’s the best value professional camera.

My journey started with much simpler, yet capable, cameras to earn my rite-of-passage with the GH5.

After shooting with the GH5, I think most people that want this camera don’t actually need it.

They’ve just fallen into the hype and likely feel GH5 will improve their content.

In this article, I cover five reasons why you shouldn’t buy a GH5. If these reasons apply to you, consider the alternatives I’ve listed.

1. You’re a beginner

Whenever I tackle a new subject, I start with the fundamentals and gradually increase my knowledge to gain confidence in the subject. One step at a time, right? If you’re a beginner, the first concept you should master is exposure.

Exposure is controlled through shutter speed, aperture, and iso.

It was my first major lesson in photography and it can be learned on any camera offering manual controls.

There’s many cameras tailored for beginners. Panasonic G7, GX85, G85, and G95 all have manual exposure controls at less than half the price. These cameras are great for beginners and don’t overwhelm you with superfluous features.

Make no mistake, the GH5 is a professional camera with professional features, but if you’re a beginner, consider alternatives to gradually improve your skills.

2. You want to vlog

If your primary goal is to Vlog like Casey Neistat, consider the platform and how your viewers consume your content.

YouTube and social media is largely accessed through 5″ mobile phones. So shooting 10-bit 4:2:2 4K in v-log then color-grading in post for a YouTube vlog about your life is likely not going to take you further than shooting 8-bit 4:2:0 in 1080p (or even 4K). And you could’ve put that time towards something else.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve recorded many videos in 4K 8-bit at 4:2:0 sampling to be screened on my big-screen Samsung 70″ TV.

However, for YouTube, the majority of your audience won’t notice the difference between image quality. And if they do, perhaps there’s other areas that need improvement.

Does your story-telling need work? Your lighting? Your sound?

Which brings me to the next point about leaving room for gear.

3. You could use the money

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Aloe Blacc: I need a dollar

The GH5 is expensive. In some cases, as much as by 3x as compared to beginner cameras like the Panasonic G85. Cha-ching!

The GH5 features dual SD cards with a minimum V60-rated UHS II card for 400 Mbps. And guess what, this requires more money.

The GH5 has a v-log upgrade for $100. Again, this is more money… you get the point.

If you’re starting out, consider getting a cheaper camera to put the remaining amounts into lenses, lights, audio and other equipment to further your photography or videography.

4. It’s complicated

This heading could totally be the relationship status with the GH5.

Are you aware of synchro-scan, all-I, v-log, and shutter angle?

Well, did you know the GH5 has 139 settings? That’s right, 139! Many of them are advanced terms and can be overwhelming to learn for the newcomer.

The GH5 also has v-log capability which requires addition color-grading in your video editors, not to mention additional time. So not only is v-log an additional cost, but requires more effort to get the colors right.

Make no mistake, this is a pro-level camera with pro-level features. If you don’t understand the fundamentals, you won’t understand the advanced, complex topics.

5. You’ll need to upgrade… everything

With 400Mbps and v-log, this is not exactly something that can run on your grandpa’s 386 with a turbo-button. For these higher image resolutions, you’ll need quick computing power.

In fact, DaVinci Resolve (free version) doesn’t suport 4:2:2 video files. You’ll need to upgrade to the studio version for $299. You can convert the files to ProRes (or other readable formats), but that’s an additional step.

For higher-end image quality, you’ll want a computer with at least 32GB RAM, 3 GHz processor, a video card with 8 GB RAM, fast SSDs and much more.

In short, you’ll need to upgrade everything. Otherwise what’s the point in getting a $1300 camera and shooting in a mode available at a lower priced camera?

Alternatives

Panasonic Lumix G7 – 2020 Review

The Panasonic Lumix G7 is the camera that I started with and it is packed with features. I’ve seen sales as low as $500 for this camera and two lenses. It features 100Mbps at 4K (30p/24p). It also doesn’t overwhelm you with advanced features like shutter angle and synchro scan. On these cameras, you simply double the frame rate (30fps = shutter speed of 1/60s).

If you can afford more, I’d recommend the Panasonic Lumix G85. It has HDMI pass-through which allows output to an external device while recording. The G7 lacks this pass-through feature. In addition, the G85 has in-body image stabilization (IBIS).

25 Reasons to buy a Panasonic Lumix G85 in 2020

Obviously this isn’t a comprehensive list, but I believe these cameras are the absolute best-value Panasonic Lumix cameras in 2020. The advantage of owning a camera from the Lumix line is that the features and menu settings build on each other as you upgrade cameras.

Conclusion

Panasonic Lumix GH5

The GH5 is a professional camera with professional features and definitely has it’s place. Unless you’ve accumulated some experience under your belt, consider one of the alternatives at a lower price. In the end, you’ll learn a lot more without feeling overwhelmed and can eventually upgrade to the GH5 when you’ve improved your overall knowledge and skills.

Shout-out

YouTuber Guy With Camera helped me convert 4:2:2 MP4s into ProRes. He made a video that uses ffmpeg to convert the files. He provides a script and walks you through creating proxies.

Shout-out to GuyWithCamera

Check out his channel for more helpful videos. Thank you, GWC!

Dragonflies and Sensors: The Quest for Image Quality (Canon vs. Panasonic)

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Widow Skimmer
Widow Skimmer Dragonfly

Background

I’ve been shooting birds locally at the Colleyville Nature Center for the past year. I use my Canon 7D Mark II with Sigma 150-600. Sometimes I get there and there’s hardly any birds around. So then I resort to shooting the next best thing… and that’s dragonflies!

So this recent obsession led me to attempt to capture the best dragonfly photo possible. For those that shoot dragonflies or similar creatures, you’ll know that getting insects in-focus is no easy feat.

I researched online and of course macro photography came up often to capture the most detailed photo. I have an Oshiro 60mm macro lens, but these dragonflies don’t allow me to get close. So instead, I resorted to using extension tubes with my Sigma.

Dragonfly looks like a helicopter
Dragonfly or helicopter?

The Problem

I started stopping-down and even focus-stacking. However, there was one problem. While focus-stacking gave me a better image, I found it time-consuming. You see, the editor would align layers automatically, but there was room for improvement and I found myself stacking manually. After manually stacking several times, an idea lit-up in my head. Since I have access to a total of three cameras, I decided to investigate if one camera would give me a better image over another (without stacking).

Dragonfly
Dragonfly (leave a comment if you know the name)

The Quest

The cameras available to me are: Panasonic G85, Canon 7D II and the Canon 5D Mark III. I used the same lens (Sigma 150-600) across all three cameras. This lens has a Canon EF mount so it works natively on the Canon bodies and with an adapter on the Panasonic body.

What’s so special about these cameras? Well, they each carry a different sensor size as shown in the table below.

CameraPanasonic
Lumix G85		Canon 7DIICanon 5DIII
SensorMicro
Four-Thirds		APS-CFull-Frame
Dimensons17.3 x 13mm23.6 x 15.8mm36 x 23.9mm

If you need more information on how how sensor size affects photography, check out this awesome video by Jim Hamel:

How Sensor Size Affects Photography

So before I started, my guess was that the Canon 5D Mark III would obtain the sharpest image due to the larger sensor dimensions (gathers more light).

My test is NOT scientific. This is to see what it takes to get the best dragonfly photo (subjective). Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised at what I found!

A few points about the images:

  • All are single images (no stacking), shot RAW and processed manually
  • There are two pics from each camera, in random order
  • Click on the photos to view full-size and leave a comment on which camera was used for each photo
Dragonfly 1
A (G85, 7DII or 5DIII)
Dragonfly 2
B (G85, 7DII or 5DIII)
Dragonfly 3
C (G85, 7DII or 5DIII)
Dragonfly 4
D (G85, 7DII or 5DIII)
Dragonfly 5
E (G85, 7DII or 5DIII)
Dragonfly 6
F (G85, 7DII or 5DIII)

Conclusion

So which camera produced the best image? The reality is that all three cameras give a fantastic image. I was wrong guessing the 5DIII (larger sensor) would produce better images. I can’t tell which photo was taken with which camera. If anything, it came down to good lighting and photography skills, not sensor-size.

Will this experiment end the age-old debate of sensors vs. image quality? I doubt it. But I hope it reiterates what M43 users already know: size doesn’t matter, but the photographer’s skills do.

Dragonflies playing
Dragonflies playing

Agree or disagree? Let me know your comments! I’ll post the camera in each photo in a couple weeks.

How to load GH5 4:2:2 files into DaVinci Resolve and Adobe Premiere

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The problem

DaVinci Resolve (free version) can’t load 4:2:2 10-bit files. You’ll need the Studio version if you want to skip this hassle.

The search begins

After searching both Google and YouTube, I came across this video from GuyWithCamera that converted the files into ProRes. He later modified the script to also creates proxies. For the full video, see below:

GuyWithCamera: Convert GH5 422 into ProRes

I was able to modify the script slightly and added my Windows instructions in writing (for Mac, see GWC’s video description).

  1. Download ffmpeg.
  2. Open notepad in Windows and save the file as “convert.bat” (w/o the quotes) into your folder containing MP4s and MOVs.
  3. Use Windows command-prompt to run convert.bat to convert all MP4s and MOVs

The script

ren *.mp4 *.mov

if not exist ".\converted\" mkdir ".\CONVERTED"
if not exist ".\converted-proxies\" mkdir ".\CONVERTED-PROXIES"

for %%A IN (<em>.mov) DO ffmpeg -i "%%A" -c:v dnxhd -vf "scale=854:480,format=yuv422p" -profile:v dnxhr_lb -c:a aac  ".\converted-proxies\%%A" for %%A IN (</em>.mov) DO ffmpeg -i "%%A" -c:v prores_ks -profile:v 3 -c:a aac  ".\converted\%%A"

pause

Summary

If you have trouble loading your GH5 4:2:2 MOVs/MP4s, try the script above. Otherwise, you can always shell out the money to get DaVinci Resolve Studio.

Good luck!