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🫢 But yes, even with streamlining year on year, the volume seems to keep going up and up despite (deliberately) less jobs. I’m looking at outsourcing, but I’d be looking at a 20% drop in take home income with any existing booked jobs…which would not be a good thing. There’s only really one thing to do and that is the missus will need to spend less time baking in the kitchen and start baking in LUTS and earn her keep that way…

Log jam 🤪

For me, the head tracker suffers from a few problems. - No 4th axis stabilization means the footage will be partially smoothed, but with footstep movement (not different from carrying it, but not ideal) - Is not actually at eye level, assuming that the wearer and people they interact with are all of average height, the viewer will be staring at the chests of everybody - or at their double chins and nostrils. - Many people are going to find it creepy and will not react naturally when someone comes up to them with ET in the papoose For this sort of use case, something like the Insta360 Go line is a lot more suitable and it can be clipped to a hat. People might still find a little square camera on a hat to be a bit intrusive and odd, but at least it's closer to eye height and will be looking directly at people's faces. And electronic stabilization is generally pretty good these days - haven't used a Go myself, but I'm sure it does a perfectly adequate job of making things not overly spastic. And aside from the hat use case, helmet mounts for action cameras have existed just about forever and for any use case where the user would naturally wear a helmet, they work well and most action cameras are more robust if there's a crash - and they cost less if they do get broken. Of course, there are also SmartGlasses that sit exactly at eye height an point to exactly whatever the user is looking at...

The head tracker seems like it'll be an absolute game-changer for a small number of niche uses and a curio to everyone else. I'm wondering if it'll be a way to get natural looking gimbal footage, rather than the not-robotic-but-not-organic-either panning / tilting that we seem to get at the moment. Maybe akin to the difference between a shoulder-rig and a tripod? The next evolution of it might be to use it to control the camera on a drone - the current state of that art is very robotic. Still, neither of these is of much use to me, so I'll just be reminded of that Renault model that pointed the headlights left and right along with the steering so you could see where you were going while cornering as well as when going straight.

It allows you to operate the camera fully remotely so it is fundamentally the same thing. To be honest, if I was going to use such a thing then having a compact palmable remote is more appealing than walking around looking like I’m holding a crucifix like the Luna option. But it’s one more thing to carry so there is that. The head tracker is very smart and for people doing instructional videos it is excellent - even if it does look like you are carrying ET in a papoose when you are out and about. I guess the drawback is that it is excellent for seeing what you are seeing but falls down as a concept when doing the other 50-75% of what vloggers do which is getting their own face in reacting to what they are seeing. One issue might be trying to be discreet as you have to look at someone and ET sat there swivelling to do the same does draw more attention and gives off a mobile surveillance unit vibe. It such an eye catching feature though that I would expect DJI to be emulating it soon.

Indeed : ) https://freewellgear.com/blogs/news/dji-osmo-pocket-4p-vs-insta360-luna-ultra But: I wonder whether will Insta360 POV Head Tracker, or something similar, come to the Osmo Pocket ecosystem too? Will DJI eventually offer something like this? If they do, it might sound a little like DJI quietly admitting that Insta360 has come up with something genuinely unique this time or once again? LOL* ; ) At least for now... *disclaimer: happy DJI user here and just as happy an Insta360 camper... The FrameTap remote is interesting, but it is not really the same thing. The Luna’s head-controlled POV accessory makes it** feel like a more distinctive product: **AND Insta360 products, in general, BTW... : X

I hadn't heard of it before. Thanks. It reminds me of when the chain store Restoration Hardware first opened up in Canada. They were buying up old patents and remaking products from 100 years ago. I would have nostalgia for these things (tools, kids toys, appliances) then realized I had never seen them before. Even my grandparents didn't have these things (Canada, before the 1980s had our own manufacturing and design of goods so typical appliances and tools that everyone had were different than the US ones that Restoration Hardware remade.) It was funny how easy it was to create an environment in a store that you would get caught up in. Good store though and unique product line. Sadly, about ten years ago though they did a redesign of the company (probably for more shareholder profit) and now it's just another Bed, Bath and Beyond knock-off. There's no reason to go there anymore.

NEED HELP WITH YOUR TRAILER VIDEO? Here's one that I created the music for (and edited as well.) The developer sent me video clips of game-play and I put it together using Davinci Resolve. You can check it out here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4179990/Agromatic/ If you need help with your trailer, just let me know! https://soundimage.org/custom-work/ That said, this week's new Ogg music releases are: "MEDITERRANEAN BREEZE" You can listen to it here: https://soundimage.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Mediterranean-Breeze.ogg And download it here: https://soundimage.org/world/ "COUNTRY ROMANCE" You can listen to it here: https://soundimage.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Country-Romance.ogg And download it here: https://soundimage.org/country/ As always, they're 100% free to use with attribution. Attribution information is here: https://soundimage.org/attribution-info/ OTHER HELPFUL LINKS: My Game Music Mega Pack https://soundimage.org/ogg-game-music-mega-pack/ My Genre Music Packs https://soundimage.org/ogg-music-packs-2/ Support the site https://soundimage.org/donate/ Enjoy! 🙂

That’ll have been Arsenal fans thinking they were going to win the Champions League. There was a similar book in the early 80s by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd called “The Meaning Of Liff” which used the names of places and assigned them with a definition of a new word. AITH (n.) The single bristle that sticks out sideways on a cheap paintbrush. BANFF Pertaining to, or descriptive of, that kind of facial expression which is impossible to achieve except when having a passport photograph taken. ELY (n.) The first, tiniest inkling you get that something, somewhere, has gone teribly wrong. etc. I have just got a new passport which has a terrible Banff that I will now have to endure for ten years.

"Old look" has a similar function to "film look". Both separates the content from reality by not being accurate. Modern camera are capable of representing the real world as it is, like they're just mirrors. But the artist wants to make a dream for the audience. You don't perceive a mirror image as a dream.

Agreed.. You've likely heard of the term "anemoia" which is from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows which aims to come up with new words for emotions that currently lack words, and it means "Nostalgia for a time or a place one has never known". It's gaining popularity too, with that blip being April 2024...

All good points and it's like everything in that when two people make the same choice it's probably a mixture of everything but in different proportions for each person. Nowadays I think the "poor" image quality of these older cameras is just viewed as "a look" that you would make from a position of having creative options rather than being something you didn't want to choose but had no better options. Speaking of pulling a camera out of your pocket with one hand, does the camera button on the new iPhones help? IIRC you can double-click it to open the photo app of your choice (default or otherwise) and also use that button to take a photo or start/stop recording. I have a grippy case for mine and holding it with one hand is a very secure experience, with the only wrinkle being that it's so grippy it can be difficult to get it in and out of a pocket unless you've gotten the angle right and the fabric isn't in tension etc.

It’s arrived. Immediate observations… Each to their own and all that, but the size is perfect. Over the past near 20 years, I have only had a couple of ‘personal’ cameras starting with the GF1. I still have that one (somewhere) and last time I tried it, it felt somewhat clunky and slow. No big surprise, it is getting on a bit! X100 which is a strong contender for fave camera of all time for its time. Again, it would be terribly slow today, but SOOC, produced the best ever JPEGs of any camera I have ever owned. Not necessarily (and not actually) the sharpest or most detailed, but specially compared with high MP full-frame cameras, but just a certain ‘filmic’ magic about those 12 MP files from that sensor. Sony RX100v. A fiddly little bastard. Great video, very average at best stills. Too small. Sony ZV1. Again, a better video unit IMO, hated the stills experience. So here we are with the L10… I’ve set it up to mimic the set up of my S1Rii’s that sit above my S5ii…which sits above my S9 (that I am unlikely to see again before mid July as I head off on a near 4 week road trip in a couple of days). I still need to import any LUTS and I’ll start with my Phantom one’s for the S5ii which I currently use for the S1Rii’s also. If anyone fancies making a LUT to bake in based off the new L Classic Gold, I’d be interested 😬

I think a lot of people feel the world was a brighter and more optimistic place in the 90s and 2000s so it’s a way of putting their current selves back into that time. Easy to write that off simply as nostalgia but I think at this present time it’s actually a deeper thing as a coping mechanism.

I do think nostalgia, even for a time someone wasn't alive for, is a big factor. Another is authenticity, the title is telling on the comparison video. Which is "more authentic?". I think with so much fake stuff out there, or over polished, commercial media, that there's naturally a desire for something real. I know a young woman, in early 20s, who last year shot in miniDV for the nostalgia and poor quality. That surprised me because I remember when miniDV was considered high quality (compared to what low budget video makers had access to previously). Things move on. There's also trends, as the saying goes, when hemlines are down they can only go up. Now that people can do 8K pristine video easily and cheaply, then low quality and dirty is a refreshing change. About 12 years ago I was searching for, and found, a pocket camera that saved in raw. It was great and I loved how I was able to edit in post nicely, etc. This year it died and so I pulled out the old jpeg-only camera from the drawer and I've been shooting with it. Now, instead of cringing when I see the jpeg artifacts, I accept it as a normal look for a cheap snapshot and kind of a style that's now "approved" by others (at least on YouTube.) The ergonomics are great too. I can have it in my side pocket and while cycling, reach down with one hand, put my hand in the wrist strap, turn it on and take pictures without stopping. You can't do that with a phone. I sometimes wish that the amazing image stabilization and other features that iPhones have was available in a little pocket camera. Anyway, I can dig all sorts of things. It's just another brush to choose.

Indeed, algorithms do tend to isolate us from the huge diversity out there, that's for sure. One thing I like to keep in mind is that even if something is so rare that it's only one in a million people, that means there are 8 million of them! I have a Korean friend who is incredibly into film-making and film itself. He is currently studying film and TV in the US, and owns his own complete RED Dragon 6K setup (one of the older DSMC2 models). He has been shooting film for many years and still regularly shoots projects on it, mostly 16mm and is a massive film nerd who frequently dives into the detail and can name specific models of film scanners etc off the top of his head. He is a huge fan of K-pop and loves retro camcorders and early digital stuff. I'm in a private Discord server with him and bunch of other film-maker types and there are a lot of them that are into a wide range of looks, including ultra-high-quality digital, film, cinema, TV, music videos, advertising, sports and live action coverage, and aesthetics of all imagination. They don't just talk about cameras, or film, or lenses (but they do talk about all of those), they talk about bags and equipment trolleys and lights and all things grip, they talk about sound and editing and colour grading, they talk about directing and scheduling and pre-production, they talk about YouTube and sponsorships, they talk about clients and client management and business, as well as cars and other non-video stuff. The YouTube bubble seems to only talk about cameras, lenses, and colour grading, and that image quality has to be the highest possible unless you're emulating film. My experience is that there a ton of people who are interested in much more than these things, but they're made to feel unwelcome because there's no place for these things in the camera-industrial complex that camera bro YouTube is a part of. The world is much bigger and stranger than any of us know 😄

I had ruled out the GX9 for some reason, thinking it didn't have IBIS, and then I randomly heard that it did have IBIS and so I got confused about why I had written it off, so hearing about the crop made me wonder if that was potentially the reason. 200Mbps is a great bitrate, especially for HD! I don't recall hearing about this. Yes - there's even a thread about it that just started! I haven't looked at it myself yet, but if it's a one-stop solution for film emulation then it seems promising. I've heard it's pretty slow still, but it's still early days and perhaps optimisations will change that at some point. For me, and this GX85 Super-16mm film camera project, it was more about the GX85 and me finding a place for it. I have equipment I like, shooting situations / scenarios I prefer to shoot, and images I like, and the goal is to find combinations that work well. This project has resulted in me successfully discovering and developing the combination of: GX85 plus 14mm F2.5 pancake lens at 1x / 2x / 4x digital zoom Shooting street scenes in uncontrolled / available light, hand-held, from waist height Passable S16mm film camera emulation for gritty images with a strong vibe I'm actually really heartened by the GX85 and will be testing how far I can push it in other ways. Emulating a S16 camera is a lot easier than a S35mm camera, for example, so I'll see how I go with that. I'm effectively done with the S16 film camera emulation but not done at all with pushing to get the most from the GX85.

have you guys seen Spektrafilm? It now has an OFX plugin, and possibly an ios app on the way too, and it's free! https://spektrafilm.114c.de/

Perhaps it is the algorithms giving me content I am likely to be interested in, but none of my social media feeds give me posts where old camcorders or old digital cameras are seen as desirable from the point of view of achieving a particular look. I have heard about it, but I suspect it could be mainly in particular algorithm-created bubbles. People who are interested in serious photography and video work with good image quality tend to be given that kind of posts and so on. 🙂 There are certainly people who are fascinated by old things. I like steam engines myself, and sometimes photograph steam trains because of the visual and auditory aesthetics, although I recognize that the steam engine did gross harm to the environment, air quality, caused fires, lots of CO2 emissions etc. Despite these I really like the sound and feel of it. 🙂

That would make it perfect for my 10mm Cmount, not so perfect in regards of noise in 4K, compared to the GX85. The GX85 hack from @BTM_Pix allowed a forum member to get 200mbps HD running on the GX9. The stock HD is supposed to be very good in regards to resolution looking at the dpreview comparison tool. I am tempted to check this camera out sometime. I still love and use my GX85 btw. The 8bit 4K is indeed amazingly good for what it is and grades better than it should allowed to do in regards of spec sheet numbers. Nice results you are achieving with yours. @kye

I should have some soon @kye @PannySVHS I say ‘soon’ as in shooting, but as to getting around to being able to even look at it… Currently already in a 6 week log jam (see what I did there?) which gets longer week by week 🤪

Fascinating to say the least : ) His text and voice included ;- )

Keen to see footage from it, especially compared to other cameras if possible.. 😄 In the event that Panny don't create an MFT version this might be tempting for me at some later point.

So the GX85 has a 1.1x (2.2x compared to FF) and the GX9 has a significantly larger crop despite being newer and the replacement model? That's disappointing!

The below video titled "Retro camcorders are EASY to use in 2026 (full guide)" was posted two years ago and has 241K views. It opens with these shots: and his first line is "retro camcorders are freaking awesome". Maybe you're right that getting worse image quality isn't the primary motivator, but if it wasn't then I don't really know how to explain why anyone would be attracted to these camcorders when new/modern ones have all the same advantages of being a single-use device, have great ergonomics, novelty value, etc, but are also far easier to find, far easier to use (and don't require legacy computer interfaces!), are far more reliable, and have much better image quality. Maybe the draw is that they're old, and therefore that's the novelty, but I've heard people gush over how they love the JPEG look from cameras that have 2MP cameras and the JPGs are hugely compressed and full of artefacts etc. Here's another one comparing Hi8 vs MiniDV on the basis of the image alone.. 24K views! It might also be a nostalgia thing, where the image quality is desirable because it's poor, but in exactly the right way.