Canon GX10 for one person run & gun documentary project?

Sasha Tamarin

Hello everybody,

My name is Sasha, and I'm about to go to Japan to shoot a documentary about tourists.
I'm planning to run into people spontaneously and ask them questions, and I'm looking to buy a reliable camera that can suite this purpose.
I think that I must have a good autofocus system and a decent stabilization, cause most of the shots will be handheld.

After a long research and hours of watching sample footage from different cameras I came down to these 3 options:

Canon GX10 4K
Panasonic GH5   12 35 2.8
(I don't like the sony's color science and the over sharpness).

In a way I'm more attracted to go with the Canon camcorder, because of the form factor, the colors (I LOVE CANON COLORS), and the shooting style (P&S   smooth zooming) which looks a bit like home video/wildlife show, which is good for me. Canon GX10's 150mbps 4k files look really nice to me (not too big not to small) and the sharpness is much more pleasant than in the Sony cameras.
I don't really need the 4K, cause the film will be in HD - but Canon's HD looks very poor! so I though to shoot everything in 4K and then downscale it.
From what I understood, GH5 has not such a great Autofocus but the VLOG factor, which honestly is less important for me. but it looks that this camera gives you sooo many great features for the buck that it's very tempting to buy!

I don't have a chance to try the Canon GX10 before buying it, here in Israel there is no market for these cameras. I have an opportunity to buy in US though (2000$).
There is not many reviews and information about this camera in the internet, looks like it's not so popular.

I would really like to hear your opinion about this Canon GX10, and whether you think it will suite my purpose or not.
I need a reliable tool that I can trust and that won't need to deal with too much in the field, because i need to concentrate on the interactions with humans

Thank you in advance,
Sasha

JabbaNut

Perhaps the above help

chrishull3

Well i would not swap my GH5 for the Canon GX10,THE 12-25 is one of my lenses.If you dont want take stills which the GH5 can do while filming the Camcorder may suite you more,remember it is a lot bulkier to carry around.

Sasha Tamarin

Thanks for your replies.
I've checked all this videos on youtube, that's where I got the idea about the quality, and I like it.
From the other side, I've read a lot of negative reviews by people who were disappointing from this camera (review from clients on Amazon and BH).
Maybe somebody here has this camera and can verify that this model works well without any none repeating issues?
If I buy it, I will receive it only 4 days before I start shooting and I'm a bit nervous by this negative reviews.. I feel like it's a strange decision to get this camera in 2018, but also I have a good intuition about it.
I think that I'm ok with the bulkiness. I'm not tryin to hide the fact that I'm making a movie, and a presencne of a bulky camera can even add to my interraction with people.

andy1249

Just a heads up....
Been to Japan more times than I remember...
Photography laws are focussed on the privacy rights of the individual in Japan and am a keen photographer myself.

Street photographers are commonly arrested in japan and approaching strangers weilding a camera can get you arrested under the public nuisance laws.

In japan, if you want to film someone, you need permission first, otherwise if the police become involved , you must publicly apologise and delete the data under supervision...refuse and you take a trip to the cells.
Spontaneous “run and gun” photography will get you into trouble.

Sasha Tamarin

Thanks Andy,
I am aware of that.
I'm going to shoot in open fields in the nature, be respectful and ask people to sign a release.
I believe that I'll find a way to deal with the situation respectufuly.

chrishull3

I dont know where the negative views came from,for the GH5 takes superb video with great colour,i prefer Panasonic colour to Sony and Canon.Good luck

Sasha Tamarin

Thanks Chris,
I meant the negative reviews about the Canon GX10.
The thing that frightens me about the Panasonic, is that it's autofocus is not so good and behaves unpredictably.
I need to be sure that if I start to talk to somebody while pointing the camera on him/her, the focus will stay locked on their face.
I don't want to start to play with the manual focus while having a conversation.

chrishull3

True there has been some complaints about the GH5s AF,there has been two updates which has inproved it a lot,a camera will never be as easy to get top quality video as a camcorder but it has benefits in other ways.

12harry

It's a shame Mfrs don't provide a "Lock AF" button, so we can the best of manual and AF.
The snag with any AF system is that it's looking to change... and just sometimes, it will go AWOL and leave you with a distinct "gap" in the picture dept....
Have you thought of taking a GoPro (or Lookalike), to act as "second camera" for those moments when they stare into the camera, or look away?  Being "fixed focus" there is never a time when the AF will kick-in.
  Good info-  andy1249 - I didn't have the slightest on filming in Japan.  Well, well.