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Tons to think about here - definitely steers me more towards A6300/500 or a GH5 as I tend to always regret doing things on the cheap a few months down the line and owner/op is exactly the route I want to be taking.
I'll rule out the GH4, GH3 and G80. Can see they're all flawed choices.
GX80 is still in the running though, it's cheap enough to take a punt on without having too many regrets.
Might just upgrade the iPhone as well for the hell of it! Although I'm also not a fan of the look of the video they shoot. That 'Tangerine' film which was raved about as it was all shot on a few iPhones just looked like it was.....all shot on iPhone.
Thanks for all this. Which bit of the industry are you working in out of interest?
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I bought an a6500 partly on @CYOA's recommendation and it's been great so far. But I suspect an A6300 would be almost as good providing you got a stabilised lens.
Have just added a video assist 4k which is a huge improvement for filming and something you could look at getting when you came back if you wanted to make it more useful. -
I run a production company in Brighton (and soon to open an office in Plymouth or Exeter assuming I can find a location that works as I've just moved down here). We do all sorts.
TV commercials are the main focus - we generally shoot on our own Scarlet or will rent. That said we do shoot on just about anything - a lot of studio based food stuff on Canon DSLRs, quite a lot of run and gun stuff on Sony/Panny mirrorless rigs, a lot of mid budg corporate stuff on our own FS7/FS5 with A6300/A7S2 providing back up duties. Used to work in broadcast/news/current affairs and still have lots of friends that do - generally, they're all shooting FS7 or C300mk2/C200.
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CYOA
A Gh5/A7S2 will mean, once you figure out how to use it, you can relatively easily get work as B-camming (or even A-cam) owner/op so it'd be a solid investment for the next 3-4 years. But they're not cheap once you add all the bits and bobs that make them worthwhile. And they do require quite some figuring out to really get the best out of them.
If you're having cameras rented for a-cam duties you're still more valuable than the next CV if you can offer a B-cam as part of the package of hiring you (though do make sure you at least charge even a token fee for this).
A6300/6500 get lots of points from me for the reasons you mention and it's easy for editors to match them to something like an FS5/7 so you can again find yourself using it on real shoots once you're back/continuing to build up your reel as and when you like.
Don't have experience with gh3 (gh4 is as early as I know) or the g80/gx80 but while I've seen some good looking footage from them (particularly the gx80 on Vimeo), realistically I don't think you'll be doing any broadcast work with them if you're going to your production manager. If it's not a camera name they recognise they'll freak out more often than not. (I may be wrong - just haven't come across them being used on anything I've worked on). This makes me think if one of those was an investment to use later in your career they're probably not worth it or if they're an investment to learn how to use cameras commonly accepted by broadcasters -they're probably not worth it.
The batteries don't last forever on any of these cameras (you can power many of them via USB power packs quite easily) which makes me think if you're biking across another country they're not the most practical choice unless you're staying somewhere for a few days at a time.
If it's more of a mobile down and dirty tour, you're not going to want to get the camera out, attach lens, check memory card, offload data, check batts etc all before finding out that it's too bright to shoot what you want without some ND or can't see the LCD screen etc etc.
So maybe a phone could be more practical for this trip. Also worth thinking what's good to you at the other end as a tool for booking your freelance AP gigs, invoicing, accessing callsheets etc. iPhones have some legit processing power and while I don't personally like the look of their video natively a lot of people do rate them and there are plenty of apps like Filmic Pro you can use to get some solid footage out of them.
TL;DR - figure out what you want to do with it short term, what kind of trip it will be etc and then what you need in the long term as well. There's no right answer and there'll always be regrets with whatever you choose.
(If you've got the money and the time on your tour, get a GH5 : ) )