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Thats pretty hardcore.. I once pulled a nikon coolpix 950 apart and removed the hot filter, i tried to keep it together as much as possible and photo'd most of the steps to give myself some chance of getting it back together properly. Surprisingly it still works, i did however have one ity bity little screw left over... Without the the proper thickness of glass to replace the hot filter it only works with close focus things like flowers. If i had to do it again , i think i'd just buy something that had already been converted. kudos to you for being more adventurous.

@Andrew Reiddo you think there is a DIY way to strengthen the micro-HDMI ports' connection to the motherboard in these newer cameras - particularly Canon's R5C? Most people use the usual port protectors from Canon and Smallrig but I've seen reports of the ports stilll having issues, even when those steps are taken. Personally I just do not use the micro-HDMI and USB-C ports at all but wondering if there is a way to fortify those connections?

Surely Panasonic must be looking at giving us something in that style before much longer. Rectangle, long... Maybe a coffin to put their fucking brand in. But if they do ever do another camera, that isn't an S5 with different sensor... Maybe it'll be the S1H II that gets the FX3 treatment, or it might even be an S9 II (seems a bit soon for the latter and for the former a bit fucking late though). Panasonic are acting even more strange at the moment because they have no pro video camcorders any more. Why not? What happened to the Varicam line? EVA? The GH7 could also have evolved with the times into a FX3 / ZR style body. Instead it STILL handles like a STILLS camera. Come on Panasonic. Wake up.

Open gate on a Canon stills cam? Never thought I'd see the day. A lot to like here. But also a lot I don't need. I am still majorly put off by RF mount. I can put a 5 dollar lens on my GFX 100 and it looks like a Noctilux. I can put a 3000 dollar lens on the Canon R6 III and it'll look sterile and boring, it'll weigh 6 tons and not look better than the 5 dollar lens on the GFX 100 so call me penny pinching but I am not very hyped about switching. The Canon RF lens line up is a dud and even if they do now have a $450 lens to counter all the cheap F1.2 stuff from China on Amazon, it ain't enough and for me $450 is still quite a lot of money for a cheaply built boring modern lens. A nice body to pick up second hand in 6 months for $2k for manual focus Canon FD glass though.

It seems that the 12-bit RAW on the Pixel 10 Pro absolutely smokes the IPhone 17 Pro. It has way more dynamic range, and the image can be pushed in post, just like a true RAW image. Though it suffers from overheating, if held for anything over short periods of time. I wonder if that can be improved with a firmware update or it would require a hardware change (cooling chamber etc).

Yup. Yup. Me. Bloody banding in low light LED’s 👌 They are a bit more but I would rather they had been in an FX3/ZR/C50 body style 1000%

100% Same here (eyesight slipping!) but would prefer a larger, brighter and more detailed LCD. A monitor would be better, but that doesn’t work for me for my use case. Tried it and it just doesn’t. Hence why the ZR has HUGE appeal and I just hope other manufacturers take note and follow suit because for too long we have had crappy little screens! Yes, I really don’t know where they go with that because it can’t out FX3 the FX3 and… I just don’t know what it’s going to be that the A7IV isn’t? That’s exactly what I did with my single Z cam earlier this year, but both of my zoom lenses (Tamron 28-75 and 70-180) MKii versions are now available in native Z Mount and are still the best options out there from any brand/Mount for my needs…but I can’t access them with L Mount and there’s no equivalent of the 70-180 sadly. Which reminds me, I still have 2x expensive Megadap Sony E to Z adapters I need to sell as I can’t realistically see any future for me with Nikon at this time.

There are already C50 vs ZR, FX3, S1ii videos out there and the R6iii uses the same sensor as C50 so that'll already tell you quite a bit. Z mount adaptability is definitely what's making me consider going Nikon. If I go with the ZR I would get the megadap for Sony & EF lenses. This short test seems very positive about EF glass on Z body: On the other hand, if I go R6 mk3 I'd probably dump my 50mm f1.2 & 35mm f1.4 and go with the RF 45mm f1.2. Gaining open gate is huge and its a true hybrid with EVF and mech shutter so that's where I'm leaning atm.

Yeah I totally get you on the C50. Without IBIS it’s a tough sell for any hybrid or handheld doc setup. Such a shame because that form factor is so right otherwise. I’m actually the opposite on shooting style these days. My eyesight’s slipping a bit, so I rely heavily on the EVF for framing and just use the rear screen for settings and quick checks. In that sense the FX2 body design is near perfect, that tilting EVF paired with the big6 menu on rear display is brilliant. But they completely wasted it by putting that old slow A7 IV sensor inside. The rolling shutter kills any handheld motion, which makes no sense for a cinema body. That’s also why I have low hopes for the A7 V. Sony can’t risk undercutting the FX2 and FX3, so I doubt we’ll see internal RAW, open gate or even 6K/8K included. They’ll probably save that for an eventual FX3 Mark II. I’m still keeping an eye on the ZR though. Bloom just dropped a lengthy review yesterday and his conclusions matched what I felt in my short time with it: gorgeous display, excellent RAW image quality, but odd handling and UI, plus that horrible baked noise reduction that makes the compressed codecs look soft and full of artifacts. It’s a fascinating camera, but definitely one that still feels like a work in progress. Canon’s not perfect, hardware is dull but at least with the R6 III they’ve finally built something balanced and forward thinking at a realistic price. In many ways it totally outperforms the much more expensive R5 mk2 which is a complete change in strategy and a good one.

Nikon Zr hurts as it just seemed such an obvious move for Panasonic, they were well known for both the rangefinder-style form factor and the video features. There should have been a Panasonic Zr before a Nikon... The S9 was not it. On the one hand photographers are crying out for rangefinder style small bodies, which Panasonic did so well in the Micro Four Thirds days. The GX80 and GX9 are so much in demand now that the used prices are constantly going up...they are 6-10 years old! So what do they do... They go and launch one with no EVF and no mechanical shutter which is the surest way to piss off photographers imaginable. And on the other hand video folk are really in love with the Sony FX3 for some reason and the smaller form factor, FX2 is very nice for example with the nod to the latter mentioned stills features missing from S9. So Panasonic instead of doing an FX3 clone like Nikon and Canon... Go off on a complete tangent and do nothing. Not even an S1H Mark II. Instead we have the overpriced S5 bodies otherwise known as S1 II and S1R II. Great image quality and features but completely wrong marketing and design concepts.

Leica M Typ 240... 2012, this was before Panasonic got more involved with making Leica's stuff. I'll give this a 10/10. The whole motherboard slides out really easily. I baked it in the oven to bring it back to life from completely dead. The solder needed a reflow apparently. 200 degrees C at 7 minutes did the trick. Custom chips all over the place. Utterly beautiful mechanically and in terms of the quality of connectors, cables, lots of metal parts and brilliantly designed internals. Next up another older camera, Nikon D700. Very impressive motherboard with separate analogue to digital converters. Probably why the colour science still has the edge on the newer sensor designs with their inline on-chip A/D. Nikon own branded chips. By contrast in the newer Leica Q... It's actually a Samsung. And the lens relies on a LOT of digital correction, so it's certainly not in same league as a Leica M when it comes to the quality of parts or optics. End result in terms of the images is very nice though. We'll call it the Samsung Q. Onto Fuji now and I have fixed an X-Pro3 and the old X-Pro1. The original had a lot of Fujifilm's own CPUs inside. It's very well made but has a lot of traditionally soldered wires on the mainboard, old-school style. This continues with some of the newer models too. X-Pro3 was an easy fix, a ribbon cable (FPC) had come loose where the sensor plugs into the mainboard. Some tape over the socket had shrunk in the heat and pulled it ajar. Pictured above is the X-Pro1 circuitboard, it's more proprietary whereas X-Pro3 looks a bit more generic on the inside. Here is an oven bake of a Panasonic LX15 mainboard... The components can withstand very high-heat and usually cold solder joints are responsible for a wide range of issues. Unfortunately in this case I made a mistake with the stop watch and the card slot fell off 🙂 Here is a sensor with hot mirror... the IR cut filter glows pink in this shot. If you remove it you get an IR capable camera and can also shoot normally if you add the IR cut filter to the front of the lens instead. I think this sensor is from my Lumix LX100 II or could be Sony RX100, I forget 🙂 Now onto Sony and their smaller cameras are too tightly packed. FPC cables develop cracking over time as some of the metal is folded and bent too tightly to fit the smaller bodies. This is an RX100 and it's very common to see these fail on the cable that connects the lens. A relatively easy fix actually and replacement FPCs are $5 on Aliexpress. But I don't rate Sony's quality as highly as Fuji or Panasonic so far. Onto Canon and I have had a very bad experience so far with their modern cameras. The DSLRs were much better made (i.e. 5D Mark III which was easy to tear down and remove the OLPF back in the day!) They use extremely fragile FPC connection sockets and the ribbon cables themselves are brittle and cheap. Sometimes a few bends and they tear. Doesn't make for a stress free repair that's for sure. In contrast to Panasonic, with the lovely GX80 it's in a different league and take a bit of extra abuse by an amateur repairer. I've done a lot more than what I have time to post today but probably will do a deeper look at stuff for YouTube or the blog. I rate as follows the brands then... 1. Leica (the extra cost is noticeable on the inside) 2. Panasonic (they know how to sensibly build a camera and logically lay out stuff, and they don't scrimp on component quality) 3. Fujifilm (high repairability score and robust, sensible designs) 4. Nikon (high repairability but many of the newer cameras not up to high-standards they set during DSLR era) 5. Sony (they try to pack in too much) 6. Canon (really quite terrible, cheap cost cut components, and badly laid out) Stay tuned for more. I do this just for fun, and really enjoy it. Plus now I have a oven baked Leica 240 to play with 🙂

I would HATE to lose Panasonic from cameras. I have all my fingers crossed this is not the case.

It's a move away from "Pro" in the marketing of cameras. Part of this is because they know Lumix has no chance vs Canon, Sony and Nikon with press agencies and in the professional sports market. The autofocus situation never allowed them a toe in the door let alone a foot. But I also think it hints at something deeper. When Samsung withdrew from the camera market they also heavily cut back on pro marketing and support first. Not that Samsung's own PR people were aware of it (even days after the NX1's cancellation they thought they were still in the camera market!) They were fired shortly after.

Yeah they should price the s1ii in the nikon zr ballpark. Or even less.. Now the canon r6 iii also seems pretty nice and even that camera is cheaper then the s1ii.. Nikon and canon are much more known and if the camera's somewhat similar people are choosing canon or nikon, just for the name alone.

These look really good. Looking forward to the comparison video's of the nikon zr, canon r6iii, panadonic s1ii and I guess still the sony a7siii. (Would get the s1ii for the ibis, nikon zr for the monitor and IQ(but fear the datarates), hope the r6iii has similar IQ as the zr and good ibis, and the a7siii/fx3 is still somewhat industry standard which has benefits like lots of good luts available). + I still own a bunch of EF glass which really works well on panasonic. (Adapting it to sony kinda sucked back in the day, nikon not sure, canon should be pretty flawless I guess)

Agreed. I have a hard time thinking that in the modes of the S5ii, somehow we're getting systematic overheating on the S1rii. Granted the processor and sensor are different, but Lumix, who is known for testing their cameras well, would have not released it had the thermals been off the wall.

@Django the ‘crippling’ I was referring to (for want of a better term) was the lack of IBIS in the C50 killed it for my needs and the rear LCD on the R6iii. Not that the latter would have saved it for me but the C50 had HUGE appeal to me but IBIS is absolutely fundamental to me. And the Sigma BF, yup, it’s a piece of jewellery. I really hoped they would have developed the FP and added a couple of features it was missing for me such as IBIS and a tilt screen. Re. the ZR, I also think it’s a bit overhyped at the moment and has a few missing elements, but for price especially, has been the ‘best’ overall release of 2025. At least so far, - Sony are popping their next A7 out later this month if the smoke from the Dolomites is correct and they may pull a surprise? My interest and commentary is more an impartial one. I’m 99% happy with the gear I have but at the same time if something else comes along that is quantifiably better (for my needs) and it’s financially doable, I am going to at least check it out. Right now, I’d like the C50 body and spec but with the ZR screen, (the size & res of it anyway but would prefer a tilt or fully articulated) with with Z or E Mount and the IBIS and video tools of LUMIX. Maybe one day someone will get it right for me and it all exists, just not in any single brand or camera! The closest is probably Nikon…

More blogging... So i bought an ipad 13 inch m3, i know there's a 4 out and the 5 is coming. Couldn't really justify the cost of the ipad 4 and couldn't be bothered waiting for the 5 and the cost of that little beastie. However i wanted something that had the " extra chip / processing on board for video" and the m3 has it i believe. Curious has anyone else got an ipad and what do they use it for ? Apart from a couple of pictures of some roses i haven't done much with it. Waiting for a cage to arrive to give it some protection before i let it out into the wild... Hard to believe this thing is only 5-6 mm thick. So far i'm pretty happy with it, but you'd expect that with any new toy.. Apparently it doesn't have the best screen apple make, but i reckon its still a very nice screen. Sooc er... Ipad i mean. I'm no pixel peeper apart from wanting to know what to expect. Thats about as far as i take it. Colours seem ok to me and there's some out of focus happening but that might be from the close focus i reckon but still pleasing i think. I can't watch much on the iphone 13 apart from some youtube occasionally or if i have just used the iphone to capture some video as its always in my pocket and convenient, sad but true. The Ipad 13 inch is much more watchable from my perspective, others may disagree. I got the 13 inch just for the extra screen real estate and so far I'm not disappointed. I initially bought it to help with reading sheet music as my music station has outgrown the desktop and is now 6 meters removed from where it used to live. I did consider adding a second screen run from the desktop. however its a beast of a computer and its overkill to run it just for music practice and i figure there's other options available that i can use the ipad for as well. May need to purchase one of those microfiber cloths, a cotton rag seems to struggle and leave lint or fibers. I also bought an extra small rig 17mm threaded adapter plate, i'm hopeful that i can mount to the cage i bought and attach some lenses for additional fun.. the neewer probe lens does an ok job for a camera phone, i mostly use it with the iphone 13 in a cage. Not impressed with the flaring but its manageable and it does suck up alot of light, but it is one third or less the price of a real "probe" lens.

Does anyone know if the body and the button layout are identical to the Mark II? Have any shilltubers said anything about it?

Nope. Approx 20 days of shooting with temps up to mid 30 Celsius and cameras get warm, especially in direct sunlight as all black bodied cameras do, but not a single overheating warning, never mind a shut down. No lock ups either. Well might have been one now I think about it but had more than that on my A7RV I had prior and a none issue. Most of the overheating talk is from; folks unfamiliar with the camera in the first place + use age of non-recommended cards + incorrect heat management settings + tests deliberately designed to cook the thing and so combined, well yes, you probably will make it have a meltdown but real world shooting with proper cards and set up? Err no. Actually, 99% of the overheating talk is people talking about overheating who do not have and have never had or used the cameras and are in reality expelling more hot air than the cameras do!

Quite possible, but if Panasonic wants to continue with Lumix and it makes money and takes money from Sony, I don't see really any changes. I understand this one. Have you had any problems with the S1rii locking up or overheating? I heard someone say that the other day. Maybe they fixed it. I'm not a pro and I'm still fully enjoying the S5ii. These days, I'm more interested in lenses, especially vintage and MF ones. I should be getting the Laowa 28mm f/1.2 in a few days. There's something about the wide and shallow look that attracts me. That lens seems to be the widest, brightest. I was really hesitating between it and the Konica 28mm f/1.8 UC, which is still one of the most unique 28mm on the market. Maybe, I'll pick up both.

The R6 Mark III has IBIS, so that point’s off. Canon’s lineup is just segmented now: the C50 is the pro cine body, while the R5 and R6 series are prosumer hybrids. I’ve tried both the ZR and R6 (mk2) back to back. The ZR looks cooler and that big screen is gorgeous, but ergonomically it’s kinda average: very thin, shallow grip, no EVF, cheap buttons and a menu system in dire need of a revamp. Lack of DCI, open gate and meh exposure tools on the ZR is what bugs me most. Overall I still really like it for its streamlined compactness and big display but it's clearly a first gen product. The Canon feels faster, more natural, and better balanced once in hand for hybrid usage. That said I admit the R series design language has zero mojo compared to the cine oriented C50, FX or ZR, but the R6 III is far from crippled. It’s balanced, feature complete, and a solid proposition in today’s mid tier hybrid market. The real genius move I think is launching it alongside that super affordable 45mm f1.2 where other brands keep pairing slow zooms as their kits. Side note but speaking of sex appeal the camera that really had me drooling at the shop was the Sigma BF. Totally unpractical form over function design but that heavy solid unibody paired with minimal clever UI make it one of the most unique and oddly inspiring designs in recent times.

It’s a bit small and lower res in 2025 I think… As someone who will not rig out beyond a cage and a mic and only uses the rear LCD, 3” and 1.6 million dot isn’t great, especially when the ZR has 4” and over 3 million dot screen. OK the Nikon is a bit more cine orientated and the Canon, more hybrid, but I know which I’d choose between the two. Canon just don’t seem to be innovating enough or if they do, still cripple hammering too hard. Looking at you C50. The bodies are also looking more and more old hat unsexy plasticky blobs, even if they are well built. No IBIS is a very hard sell in 2025 to the more mass market. Or maybe they don’t need to sell to the more mass market/prosumer? What do I know… Canon, as it always has been for me, just don’t have that ‘want it’ buzz about them and it was Nikon who used to always seem to play second fiddle to them, but looks like Neekon have jumped them in recent times.

Ah, the forgotten LUMIX. At least by me, but whenever it is mentioned and I am reminded of it, I start to think how I might get and use one. But then I remember it needs rigging out with at least a screen and it dies for me. I suspect for at least the run & gun brigade, the flatter and wider ‘rangefinderesque’ body style is more desirable in 2025? Folks don’t want to rig out which is why the ZR is so popular, the RED association aside, - it’s all about the form factor and that 4 inch screen. It’s the wrong screen of course and should be fully articulated so it can remain behind the body and in line with the lens, but it seems we can’t have everything 😏

I think your current GH7 set up is giving you all of the cinema already, but an S9 could be an exceptional full frame option in a pretty small package. There’s a new TT Artisan 40mm f2 which suits it perfectly and is cheap and has ‘character’. It’s decently sharp and contrasty but also has a certain glow to the highlights reminiscent of a subtle mist filter. Sharp of course is not necessarily a desirable requirement for ‘cinema’ but it’s something that is easier to dial back than add. The main appeal of this set up for me is it’s pretty small and pretty small means more likely to take it everywhere and use it and it has that ability to be both a personal/family camera and decent cine camera as you wish. I had been using mine as an A/B cam for work but now repurposed it as a personal/C cam with either the Sigma 17-50mm f2.8 for cropped video or when I pick it up, this new TT Artisan. Also toying with getting a Thypoc Simera or two for my slightly more pro S1RII’s and turning my S9 back into my working B cam purely for autofocus situations. Options options options…