HUGE camera upgrade advice needed!!
Budget: 4000€
Country: Germany
Condition: New
Type of Camera: Mirrorless
Intended use: Photography, but recently also video (we have a festival at school and shoot ‘trailers’ for it. It’s obviously not very professional due to the lack of budget, but we’re trying our best as some of us want to end up in film school)
End use: Entirely for myself, some video for school (still nothing commercial where I require extreme reliability at all times)
If photography: landscape and macro, maybe wildlife?
If video what style: mostly documentary and action shots which MAY require high frame rates
What features do you absolutely need: Weather sealing, articulating screen, viewfinder, high FPS video recording (at least 180FPS in 1080p), log color profile, good AF tracking
What features would be nice to have: RAW video recording, open gate, 120FPS 4K, USB-C disk recording, recording and being plugged into power at the same time (preferably with a battery inside the camera too so if AC power fails it can continue recording)
Portability: How portable does it need to be?camera body under 1kg, able to comfortably hold with one hand
Cameras you're considering:
LUMIX GH7
I can stay with the MFT system I already have great lens for, it records in V-Log, 120FPS in 4K, 240FPS in 1080p, ProRes and ProRes RAW, open gate, has USB-C recording and power and recording, has an OLED viewfinder. It’s MFT tho, it’s not very great in low light :///
Canon R6 Mark III
Full frame. Can record in open gate, 4K 120FPS, 1080p 240FPS, RAW, 15 stops of dynamic range. 40FPS photo shooting, I heard that it has very good AF detection and tracking, as well as IBIS, but doesn’t allow any third party RF lens.
Nikon Z6 III
Full frame too. Can record in 6K, open gate, 4K 120FPS, 1080p 240FPS, RAW video, ProRes and ProRes RAW. Precapture for a whole second at 120FPS. Supposedly very very good EVF.
Sony A7V
Yet another full frame. No open gate or internal RAW recording which is… sad :/// Can record in 120FPS 4K, 240FPS 1080p, albeit with an APS-C crop… But it’s the best in photo amongst these four as far as I know, with good AF, IBIS, 33MP partially stacked sensor and 16 stops of dynamic range
Cameras you already have:
Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II.
Absolutely amazing camera. I love it. It’s just so light and handy, but sadly it’s a bit older and the video isn’t very good (although the stabilization is AMAZING). It cannot record 4K in any frame rate higher than 30FPS (obviously we produce at 24FPS, so the extra 6FPS are completely useless). The autofocus could definitely be better, especially tracking in video.
Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K (school equipment, not mine)
So, this camera is horrible for photo. But it’s also not made for that, so it’s okay. I really like the colors it can produce, with BRAW, ProRes and ProRes RAW recording. Additionally, it can record to an USB-C disk while also being on AC power with battery backup. Although the power connector is atrocious, it locks which is actually quite useful when running around plugged into a V-Mount battery. The screen is huge and has a bunch of video specific features like false color. On the other hand, the AF is just straight up horrible. It’s pretty much as bad as having no AF. It can only focus on the center, and has NO AF tracking AT ALL.
Notes: I have a bunch of amazing Olympus MFT lens (7-14mm f/2.8 pro, 60mm f/2.8 macro, 40-150mm f/2.8 pro, 12-40mm f/2.8 pro and a 1.4x teleconverter).
If I chose to go full frame, I think I would stay with my current Olympus for telephoto because 1. I already have the lens and 2. They’re LIGHT. For full frame, I’d probably get a macro and general lens (like the 12-40mm I have, but obviously 35mm equivalent so 24-80mm). Maybe a nice really fast prime for portrait shooting?
Another option would be selling my whole setup and starting new with FF. I need advice on that topic too.
