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Funny that sony raises prices and blackmagic cuts prices. Allthough for me with the storage space costs at the moment. Braw isnt cutting it. It is better then h265, sure. But I just cant justify the storage costs. I wished they included compressed prores again. Love blackmagic though, it has an amazing look. I think I owned lost of their cameras until the pyxis. But its shitty on gimbals, and storage adds up, not as much as the nikon zr though. I hope nikon announces good news on IBC in a couple of weeks. My c500ii will do for now.

; ) https://petapixel.com/2026/09/04/gopros-founder-promises-it-isnt-done-making-consumer-cameras/ Sure not... why should it be kinda different? LOL :- )

Last time you did it, I bought one! : D

My finger was hovering over the checkout button on that one for a few hours today, but it looks like someone nabbed it. I picked one up during the $1500 fire sale in 2024 and regret selling it later. Amazing camera for that price.

It's also worth noting that IBC is in 1 1/2 weeks. It's not at all out of the question that after stiffing end users with their NAB presentation that BMD are finally going to announce something that isn't squarely targeted at arenas. With Pyxis 12K at $5,500 and Ursa 12K at $7,700, assuming that these recent price drops are permanent, BMD don't really have any compelling options in the $3,000-4,000 space. I am going to take a wild stab in the dark and hope that it's Pyxis 8K with a cheaper variant of their RGBW sensor, supporting 8kp100 or so with a 4K non-cropped option and a 6K S35 mode. At $3k or so, that'd be another camera that has me taking a hard look at what I have and figuring out which I will reasonably use any time soon.

You beat me to posting it. If you want IMX410 and usable autofocus, it'd be hard to find a better choice. Let's see how used prices react as well. Judging by B&H, they're reacting very nicely for the CC6K - there's an L-mount one for $1,435 right in condition 9 right now. That's... even slightly lower than the new price was for a minute a few years ago. 😅 But for $1,435 - that's a hell of a camera. If I didn't already have the problem of "more cameras than I actually use, I should sell some of these," I'd be furiously clicking buy right now. Pyxis 12K used prices seem to only be about 10% off new on B&H and on Adorama and MPB, they didn't catch up at all yet so used are now much more expensive than used. Now... if they would drop the price of the Pyxis 12K to $3,500, I'd already be in the middle of figuring out which camera I'd be making myself sell to justify getting it.

More reductions and from the wording of the press release they could be permanent as they’ve found cost savings in production. £1463 for the Cinema 6K and £1830 for the PYXIS 6K are excellent prices really, particularly in light of the AF updates for both cameras. Both those prices INCLUDE VAT by the way. Hopefully they find some of these cost savings in production for the PYXIS 12K, despite it already being very decent value for money.

All of them of course. Gotta make that coin whenever and wherever you can.

They will be very important as the cameras will be the capture device for the worldwide free training data they’ll be getting from the cloud storage/editing function that will be offered to the users who’ll be unwittingly doing the training for the company. And paying for the capture device as well. And they ban DJI for being untrustworthy eh? Makes you wonder which family member is backing this financially ?

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gopro-enters-into-definitive-agreement-to-merge-with-starman-optical-inc-302866291.html GoPro merges with Starman Optical (AI data centers, defence and aerospace enter the picture). GoPro has entered into a definitive merger agreement with this US optical-photonics company making optical transceivers. GoPro shareholders are to receive $285 million in cash ($1.14 per share) while retaining approximately 10% of the combined company. GoPro's roughly $92 million debt is also expected to be paid off at closing. The announcement specifically talks about expanding GoPro into AI data center infrastructure, government, defence and aerospace, using Starman's US-made optical transceiver business. So a company which we still instinctively think of as an action-camera manufacturer is suddenly describing a future spanning cameras, photonics, AI infrastructure and defence. GoPro says the camera business isn't going anywhere. Nick Woodman has already published a separate letter reassuring users about exactly that. He says they intend to make more cameras, smarter accessories and better software, and that the stronger balance sheet should actually allow them to invest more heavily in imaging. That may well be true. Particularly interesting is GoPro's IP position. They mention more than 2,500 US patents accumulated over 24 years, and explicitly say the deal is intended to maximise the value of that IP in consumer, commercial and defence markets. In other words, this doesn't read merely as somebody buying a struggling camera brand. It looks more like an attempt to take what remains a very recognisable imaging company, recapitalise it, remove the debt and use the GoPro brand/IP as one component of a much broader technology company. And, strangely enough, this might actually be better news for GoPro cameras than another few years of trying to survive almost exclusively by selling action cams. Provided the cameras really do remain important after the merger, of course ; ) The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2026, subject to shareholder and regulatory approval. - EAG

Great hack for the filter holder! I'd somehow missed how obnoxious they made the camera bump on the 17. Sheesh. I'll have to look to see if my Magsafe filter holder fits over my case (the standard iPhone 16 Pro soft plastic case from Apple). I think I eventually found one, but it's been a bit since I used it. But that is also my preference - just let me use the normal case and a normal screw-in filter and not some weird one with a proprietary filter system that won't work with my next phone. And yeah, Magsafe is definitely the way to go for filters - and if your filter adapter passes through the magnet, you can also get a magsafe CF Express reader/writer. That's really useful when shooting ProRes on the 16 - and presumably for shooting raw on the 17 series.

Getting ready for my next trip and I'm going far more minimal this time, and so the focus is on using the iPhone 17 Pro as my second / backup camera. As such, I've been working on a vND solution for it. The significant considerations for me are.. It needs a ton of ND As it doesn't have an aperture, if you want 180 shutter then you need enough ND to shoot F1.78 in bright sun It has significant IR pollution issues It suffers from IR pollution far more than my GH7. If I shoot with my GH7 and my 1-5 stop True Colour vND I never get IR issues, but the iPhone gets them even with just this 1-5 stop adapter. I need an adapter that works with my iPhone case I'm not taking my phone case on and off when I use an ND, and the "solutions" that the smartphone filter companies provide seem like pretty shitty cases compared to the rugged cases that I prefer to use. I want it to be as small as possible - adding an ND filter shouldn't make it look like I'm shooting a Nolan feature film As such, I've developed the following approach. I'll stack my existing 58mm K&F 1-5 stop True Colour vND with a fixed NiSi 3-stop ND that also has IR filtering in it I'm modifying the Tiffen MagSafe filter attachment I bought to work with my Otterbox case (photos below) Cutting it like this and overlapping them gives the height step-up required so the filter part sits on top of the lip that the case has around the cameras. After some testing, I found that I could position the 58mm filters so that they don't obscure any of the rear cameras (including the ultra-wide). The two limiting factors in the arrangement are that I can fit two 58mm filters but not three (the third one starts obscuring the ultra-wide camera) and if I position it so the three filters are fine on the ultra-wide then the other cameras start to be obscured by the filter holder. The above is only held together with super-glue, but I have will cut some 2mm aluminium sheet and glue it in place with 5-minute araldite (epoxy) to make the thing sturdy. The MagSafe connection is remarkably strong, partly because the Otterbox case has magnets in it designed to transfer the magnetic field to the outside of the case. It'll be strong enough for careful use anyway - it's not like I'll be shooting with it and also wrestling people at the same time! The more that I think about how good these smartphones are now the more ideas I have on shooting with it. Once you toss in high-quality filtration like this, plus anamorphic adapters and all sorts of other things, the shooting possibilities get really exciting!

All fair points!

Happy September! I finished this music track yesterday and thought I'd share it with the community: "CRYPTIC DREAMS" You can listen to it here: https://soundimage.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Cryptic-Dreams.ogg And download it here: https://soundimage.org/puzzle-music-8/ As always, it's 100% free to download and use in your projects with attribution, just like my thousands of other music tracks, sounds and images. Attribution information is here: https://soundimage.org/attribution-info/ OTHER LINKS My Game Music Packs: https://soundimage.org/ogg-game-music-mega-pack/ https://soundimage.org/ogg-music-packs-2/ Custom music: https://soundimage.org/custom-work/ As always, enjoy, please stay safe and keep being creative! 🙂

I’ll let you know once I’ve shot with them and done an edit. I can’t shoot these things side by side ie, Lumix 35/85 vs Sigma 35/85 because it’s work not a set up test so will have to go on feel & results but shooting essentially the same kinds of scenes week in week out, I have continuity in that regard. I’m not expecting any quantifiable night & day difference, but rather some subtle but worth it to me differences. The Sigma’s are going to be slightly larger and heavier. I don’t mind that and were only talking +200-250g so well short of say using a chonky zoom that would require a battery grip. That should be all good and I actually prefer something with a bit of heft for stability. I’m going to get actual aperture rings. Yay. My biggest criticism of the LUMIX f1.8 primes is their lack of aperture rings. Even the super expensive LEICA SL primes don’t have aperture rings. ALL lenses should have aperture rings on my planet! I’m expecting a fraction slower AF. I can live with that for the way I work and I could happily shoot manual focus 95% of the time so… The lower light capability (approx 2/3rd of a stop) is welcome, but I don’t really need it as f1.8/f2 is actually fine…and the Sigma f2 primes were another option, but the slower f2.8 90mm puts me off a bit for indoor work compared with the f1.4 85mm so I ruled them out on that basis. I actually had a set of them including the 90 a few years back and loved them, but I don’t think they are the right option for me right now. Finally, I think I am going to enjoy the shooting/ownership of metal vs plastic and there is that undefinable ‘I want to shoot with these’ rather than ‘I have to shoot with these’ factor. All in all, considering I am funding this 2 lens update by trading 5 lenses, it’s my ‘upgrade’ to something fractionally more ‘premium’ that makes up for not buying a Leica or a Hasselblad!

agreed, I don't really know (have never tried) how much there is to gain from 1.4 to 1.2! Will be interesting to hear your thoughts on them!

35mm f1.4 dg dn II plus the 85mm f1.4 dg dn ‘Used As New’ from MPB…except I also bought the MKI 35mm by mistake and have to send that back for a refund 🤦🏻‍♂️ They will get a run out this coming weekend at a 2 day job and then on a 3 day job the following weekend and then that’s me done until late next Spring. I did consider the f1.2 35 and the new 85 is due out any day, but bigger, heavier and when would I ever need f1.2 so nah.

So which two Sigma lenses did you get?

They do in some cases… I believe there is a 2 tier structure where some have been gifted and state so and others where it’s a long or short term loan. Hasselblad did announce a loan scheme back in 2025, but I can’t find evidence they went live with it in the EU or UK as I can’t find anything on their website? I might contact their UK people when I am next back…I won’t bother in France as it will involve jumping through too many hoops, if even possible. And that is a very good point and my 3 primary interests in this system are, or were…and might again one day, be: 1. One & done body & lens. No video on the Hassie so it fails in that regard but can do it for stills as long as I don’t crop too hard… 2. Ability to crop hard, but as you say, quality begins to diminish to the equivalent of 35mm FF quite quickly and then akin to that of shooting with APSC not so much further so… 3. Quality of files, especially colour. SOOC, I thought the Hassie files were ‘OK’ at best and I’m not seeing this amazing colour most of the testers are reporting and waaaaaay off how I want my files to be me up and was somewhat surprised that when I slapped my S1Rii developed preset on them, they looked sooooo much better. Or at least how I would like them to look so in other words, zero time saving on workflow. So all factors considered, I’m not seeing any benefit (to me) of shooting one of these things…but that could just be me and it does not stop me really really wanting one!

I do Brandon, exif data! All the examples I downloaded were shot on the 35-100 with various apertures, shutter speeds and ISO, but otherwise yes, you are correct and I don’t know if it was camera or user error that the focus is slightly off…and it could be either. I’d really need to try one myself but here in France, rental is available, but only in big cities and only if you pick up and return in person and the pricing is pretty steep. When I am next back in the UK, I might try and convince a camera store to let me pop my own card in their demo model and shoot for 5 minutes out in the street, leaving one of my kidneys as security. Yes, printing is no longer part of my workflow and I’ve long since stopped offering books & albums for all kinds of reasons, mostly financial and I can only presume clients don’t really print either. They almost certainly intend to but almost certainly do not. I however don’t pixel-peep so much, but enjoy working with the best files I can work with. The edit is as much a part of the process for me as the capture. Less so for video where I prefer the capture and not so much the edit, probably because unless I start shooting raw, those files are not nearly as malleable. I know 99% of what I produce is going to end up on-line or social media whether it be my own or my clients, but I still want to work with and put out the best quality even if it is never realised by anyone bit me. I’ll find out this weekend as they will be waiting for me the morning of my next wedding with the planner who took delivery of them as I am on the road…

I would be very surprised if manufacturers let reviewers keep the test units for free; all I've ever heard about is that either the reviewer has to buy it themselves, or the unit is loaned for brief time for testing and then has to be sent back. Of course, with a few cases, the advertising campaign for a product hires photographers to make promotional photos but if they want to keep the gear they have to buy it. Is Hasselblad now an exception to this? From what little I've used Hasselblad, I think the color rendition is great, and the image quality is nice as long as you don't crop the images. Mostly the image quality advantage is dependent on the use of the full sensor area and there is nothing special in the images if you crop them into full-frame image size or smaller (and the sensor is not that much bigger than 35 mm full frame, unlike film-based medium format systems which could have 6x7 cm, 6x9 cm or even bigger areas). But I do think Hasselblad does a great job with the out-of-camera colors. I like the X series body shape and design, but did not like the slow EVF of the unit I shot with (it was not a X2 series, maybe there is improvement now?). If the EVF refresh was as fast as on a Nikon Z8 I would probably own a Hasselblad system. Notice the X2 series bodies have no video capabilities.

Ha, the "you fat fucker" Santa letter got me. Welcome to the club of wanting a thing you can't quite justify. You're not wrong about the review ecosystem. Once a £12k body lands on someone's doorstep for free, the incentive to stay on the nice list is baked in, and it's not even conscious most of the time. They just... find themselves emphasising the good bits. The handful who bought their own being a touch more balanced tracks with that exactly. That said, I'd go easy on the focus thing as evidence. Judging a camera's AF off files other people shot and dumped online is a mug's game. You've no idea what lens, what aperture, whether they nailed it or were shooting handheld at a gallery wall. Could be the body, could equally be the muppet. Hard to pin on the camera from the outside. The bit I'd actually push back on gently: the medium format "magic" doesn't really show up in downloaded web files or on a phone screen, and it barely shows on a like-for-like social crop. Where it turns up is big prints, deep tonal roll-off, cropping the hell out of a file and it still holding together. If none of that's your workflow, then yeah, an S1R II is going to look every bit as good to you and your eyes aren't lying. That's not the Hasselblad failing, it's just the gap being smaller than the marketing wants you to believe for most real use. Sigma 1.4s over the 1.8s is a very sane way to spend the money you were about to set fire to. Enjoy those, they're lovely glass.

In general, I think FF is the sweet spot for a lot of stuff - not that the format is intrinsically better than anything, but because that's where most of the research/development goes. Lens makers and camera makers put the most work into those systems and lenses for those systems. S35 is just behind it with one vendor putting almost all their eggs in that basket and, as you said, it being the default for a number of video-focused things. Unless the gimbal is camera-integrated, they sort of end up being the worst for lots of stuff. Everything ends up being harder than it should be, including stuff that should be simple like accessing camera menus. I'm really enjoying the focus rat bag. It's a lot less involved than putting on my Ready Rig and if I have an image stabilized lens, I can get stable enough footage. If I were shooting Panasonic and lighter gear, I wouldn't even need/care about that!

Nope, that is exactly where I am; I've had more seasons than Kiefer Sutherland in 24 who only managed 9 seasons, - I'm closing up Season 26, the last 15 of which have steadily become increasingly hybrid with the last 5 being approx 90% hybrid packages. In 2027, it's 100%. The format of these events has barely changed in the last 26 years, - more fashion and annual fads, but the core of it is the same; two people get ready, meet for a ceremony, drinks & snacks after, then they eat, there's some talking stuff and then they dance. Having said that, the variety of things to capture is high with so many genres of capture required including; landscapes, architecture, still life, candid moments, food & kitchen, bands, formal elements... But aside from that, yes, my biggest driver kit-wise has been 'smaller & lighter = faster = better'. The compromise is always 'quality (of output) vs volume, size and weight of kit' and I could make a strong case for M43, APSC, FF or MF but the sweet spot for me is FF stills and either FF or APSC/Super 35 for video. M43 doesn't really have the ultimate low-light quality I need and MF doesn't really either, especially when we are looking at lenses such as Hassie's 35-100. Folks often suggest things to me that seem so obvious to them but my question back at them is, "do you do this week in week out, all season long, as a one man band, because if not, I appreciate the thought, but nah". I'm still exploring even after all this time. For example, I picked up my 4th gimbal recently after quickly returning every single one previously...and once again, absolute failure. It's not me, - it's the tool...and yes, well aware of the saying about blaming the tools, but sometimes it really is the tools, so selling the gimbal and a camera and doing something else instead because the simple reality is, the stability in LUMIX cameras is now so good, I can actually get better...or rather, more consistent footage, NOT using a gimbal, but using just the camera. (What's wrong with the gimbal? Simply having it and then having to operate it whilst not being able to do anything else is a fucking pain in the arse!). So yes, the tools are critical and am I at 'peak camera'? Absolutely, - I just need to be at 'peak operation' of said tools and I pretty much am with just a few niggles such as gimbal type work as in I don't want or need 'a gimbal', but have a need/want to be able to produce 'gimbal-like' footage at certain times, so it's a case of need/want driving choices, rather than buying tools and then trying to make them work/fit. My decisions are also not cost driven, ie, if the Hassie R2D2 actually made quantifiable sense, I'd find a way to fund it. In fact I had a plan and that was to take 2x more jobs in 2027 than I wanted plus the sale of some kit, which would fund it. We're talking an extra 2-3 weeks work in total, for something that would last years and maybe I could market & milk to death and be part of any future model launch, but my conclusion remains and that is it would not allow me to do anything I already cannot and therefore makes zero sense other than on a pure 'want it' factor.

Sure, I love my Fuji, but I'd be delighted to use an X2D II and tell people that I liked it if they wanted to send me a free one. Ergonomics are one of the absolute top criteria for any camera. If I were presented two cameras, one 45 megapixel and one 61 megapixel and told to choose one, my first response would be "either, that's a lot." My second would be to pick them up and shoot a few frames. And even that ends up subjective - if I'm using light pancake lenses, I don't care much if the body has no grip and I just have to wrap the bottom 3 fingers on my right hand awkwardly down the edge of the camera. If I'm going to put a 24-70/2.8 on it, the body with no handgrip just got pretty unpleasant. A 70-200/2.8 and now I strongly dislike it. And yeah, that's why there's a 24-70/4 and a 70-200/4. I have the former in EF mount - and I've been trying to get accustomed to shooting with a Focus Rat bag these days (third-party cinesaddle that I got from the B&H deal zone). The EF 24-70/4 is on it a lot more than the 2.8 - I can actually hold it pretty steady with the IS turned on (and the EF 24-70/2.8 has none). I have the 70-200/4 RF as well - can't use it on the Ursa (no RF mount), but it's fantastic on the R5 or on my handheld Komodo setup. I don't find myself wishing I had shallower DOF very often with either. Especially if I'm handheld on the focus rat, having a little more DOF is more of a feature than a bug. Biggest problem is just that I'm always shooting from chest height and I'm only 5'9" or so. If the talent is 6 feet tall, there are gonna be some nostrils. Next thing will be experimenting with setting my elbows on the bag and using a shoulder rig so that I can get a little more height. But a 30-pound camera setup on the shoulder is... not living the dream. Better to use the R4D at that point. Anyway, for the style you've described shooting, you really are basically at endgame/perfection now. It's always tempting to swap out for other, shinier gear, but especially now that the prices on everything are going up so much, it's hard to imagine buying anything new. I'd guess that part of any interest in new gear is also a game to keep the job interesting - you've been doing weddings for a long time, haven't you? Can't really change the format of weddings, but you can at least change the tools that you're carrying around them. That might just be me projecting, though - that's probably where I'd be after a while. I'm basically not buying anything new and I'm just watching the cameras that I find even remotely interesting until the used stocks increase to the point where price starts dropping. ZV-E1 or A7CR for $1,300ish? X-M5 for $500-600? S9 for $700? I'll be interested. Upgrade from my R5 to an R5 II? Refurbs caught my interest last week or the week before - something like $3,500 - but I'm assuming that also means that trade-in on my OG R5 will be like $800 and I'm not spending $2,700 for a bunch of incremental upgrades.