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I really feel for Europe and how it’s been bullied by the US for decades—through trade agreements, military operations, and more. I’ve been telling people here in France for years to stop following the US blindly. Europe gets screwed every time. I’m a leftist in France, but I vote in the US; believe me, I do it consistently. Right now, that’s the best way to make a difference. And remember—the US is full of well-intentioned, humane, and kind people. The only way things change is through voting, in my opinion. As for Mattias, maybe he just wants to disconnect. I get it. I’m into politics, but sometimes the sheer mess of it all is too much. To recharge my political energy while keeping my sanity, I go back to season 1, episode 1 of The West Wing and start over. I focus on my family and, importantly, on voting in the real world—with my attention on policy, not culture wars. These days, my priority is taxing the obscenely wealthy, and I figure the rest will follow.

Yes, it's very difficult right now not to feel dirty. I've always been pretty far left politically, and as such pretty critical of the style of greedy capitalism that has won out, but today there is virtually no ethical way to do much of anything because EVERYTHING is wrapped up in some pretty deplorable shit. The way the tech companies especially kneeled to this administration, it just feels dirty to even use their services but it's virtually impossible not to. Everything uses at least something from Google or Amazon to operate and run. Look at how many sites and services become unusable when Amazon Web Services goes down, for example. The internet itself grinds almost to a complete halt. It's such a bleak time.

I hope someone is able to reach out and check on him, and let him know that he's missed. He was a rare gem on these forums and YouTube; he was just someone that enjoyed sharing his passion for video and photography. He wasn't trying to sell anything, or get free stuff, he just loved sharing. There was a purity to that, and it's severely lacking these days.

I struggle myself with using US services at the moment given that our data could soon (and might be already) in the hands of a neo-nazi government. In terms of the ethics of it, I'm also disappointed with the behaviour of the American CEOs and how they have brown nosed the nazi President like a bunch of pathetic losers. It leaves a very sour taste in the mouth and not just for them. It does make me uneasy paying for YouTube Premium, Google Gemini, Apple iCloud, Adobe Premiere and Netflix, actually it makes me more than uneasy, it makes me sick. But unfortunately our leaders in Europe barely know how to use MS Paint, and have over the years completely dropped the ball on tech. So there are no decent alternatives, not really. That said, the UK & EU gets a bad rap for what it's created. The best of European technology is the most complex in the world from ASML and Zeiss. Without their EUV lithography machines, TSMC, Nvidia and Apple would not have their fancy chips. They'd be reliant on Intel fabs and old processes. Any more funny business from the US admin and the Dutch should fucking remind them of that. Also the British invented the WWW, RISC architecture for CPUs and smartphones, not to mention ARM. We've not done so badly, we've just failed to commercialise stuff properly and let the American venture capitalists snatch it away from us. If it is political and that's why he's taken the channel down, he's missed a big opportunity to publish a video saying so, and directing us to his new channel on a different and more ethical Tube. It's a real shame just to pull the plug entirely without even so much as a goodbye. But then, maybe he has good reasons to... I don't know. I just rather hope he's ok.

Absolutely love the form factor, hate the image quality. If they'd do an X-mount Bolex with 1" sensor, we could put some proper Bolex 16mm glass on it. Actually the Evo is a fun toy. And for 350 euros, it's never going to be an XF camera in terms of optics or the sensor, is it? But the concept itself deserves so much more. The eras dial, the loupe on the little screen, the grip and shape, the looks, I love everything about it. But the digital images that come out of it really very bad... ProCCD on a smartphone is much better at replicating the analogue look or y2k digicams. Also the 15 second limit on video clips sucks... It would have been nice to have an option to turn that off. It's there for the Fuji cloud storage feature, for quick uploads, quick downloads with the printed QR code, and there to prevent Fuji needing to spend more than 10 dollars on their server! I really, really, hope they do an enthusiast level version of the concept, even if that means it has to be without the Instax printer built in. Also EVERY camera manufacturer should be trying new form factors. There's such a lack of variety. The Bolex form factor is wonderful and there are others that should be making a come back as well. From the MiniDV era there's the Sony PCe1 handycam, there's the Canon Tx digicam which was like a tiny aluminium Bolex, just beautiful, and of course there's the Digital Bolex form factor and that Kodak sensor... These are the cameras I'd like to see modern versions of, and in the case of the Digital Bolex, maybe not so modern but we have to be realistic about CCD... it ain't coming back to a Canon or Sony! There's also a massive gap in the market for a Micro Four Thirds or Super 16mm size sensor Handycam with a proper camcorder lens that can crash zoom and take fisheye adapters, yet remain as small as a MiniDV cam from the early 00s. These lenses had very small sensors behind them... but if someone would even slightly upgrade the lens and sensor size whilst keeping the same zoom and autofocus characteristics we had in the MiniDV era, including the variable speed zoom rocker switch, it'd be a winning combo with the modern image processing we have now and RAW codecs. Perhaps Nikon can be brave and try something? There's a 'video' lens for the Fuji X mount camera, but it's really very large and bulky by MiniDV or Handycam standards. So I wouldn't mind a smaller sensor than APS-C if it gave us a modern 4K RAW shooting "Sony Handycam" the same size as we had in 2003.

So, the Fujifilm Instax Mini Evo Cinema is about to come out and there are showcases of it on YouTube by the usual influencers. What do you think about it? It appears to be for rich kids to play with and make their cool vertical videos for TikTok, etc. but how would you design it differently to make "real" art with? In redesigning it, I would keep the same shape as it's good. I would have it record in square format in ProRes. Have the ability to add one's own film effects, such as to use OFX plugins like Dehancer and others (if this is possible in real-time) and put them on the dial. Remove the printer to make the whole thing smaller. For me, it's part gimmick and part useful. I can see how in fifteen years, long after it's been discontinued, it being a thing for artists to make art with (much like the Fisher Price Pxlvision camera is now).

There are two different people working on a DIY digital bolex. One is La Faux Bolex (pictured above) who is using an industrial camera that has the same image chip, connected to a Raspberry Pi and is using every open source thing out there. The other is David Bross who mentions in his video that he's in touch with, or working with Joe Rubinstein of the original Digital Bolex company. He doesn't say much about it though. I think it's great that people are working on this again. There were only so many of the original made. If you want the nice colour depth you either pay $12000 or you make your own.

Oh, for sure, eh? I remember forgetting to bring my external monitor cable with me so I used the little built in screen and while I could frame the shot up fine, I didn't see that there were rain drops on the lens until later when I got home. I understand though why they did it, if you have to skimp on something to save money (not just monitor but all the electronics to send a signal to it) to put resources elsewhere (like the image quality), then it makes sense to do it to the monitor. Probably every D16 owner uses an external monitor or EVF because of that. The idea of it being a handheld, one piece thing that you just pick up and start shooting isn't really true. It's too heavy to hold for a long time, the screen is tiny and low resolution (I don't have the shark fin mirror thing so don't know what that's like), there's no built in microphone. Still it's a great camera, amazing image and sound quality making it all worth it. Love it!

I had been searching awhile back for one of his videos I remember watching a few years ago and couldn't find it. He might just be pulling out of being online. I know several friends who have done that, (usually to stay sane.) Maybe he's not into photography anymore in his life. I don't think any of his videos were at all political, they were always about photography and his personal philosophy about it. The thing I got the most from his videos (aside from some pretty thorough reviews of equipment) was him saying that it's okay to go back to a place and take the same picture again and again, improving it each time. This was good advice for me. I guess I had some idea that every picture should be original. (Don't know where I got that idea and wasn't even conscious I held that belief before he helped me change it.)

I have no clue why they do not contact the digital bolex makers and just take it from the OGs. How much would they want for their knowledge? How much would it cost to produce such a camera today. How small could it get? Really wondering when Brands such as Lomo will start creating fun to use video cameras - Fuji just went the first step...

US allows spectacularly large campaign contributions from companies and billionaires and so their interests are heavily weighed in elections, making the candidates they support (who then later owe them favors, legislative and executive decisions) more visible. The underlying belief that rich people should have political influence proportional to how much money they can spend is astonishing. Additionally, currently there are contributors from foreign countries and domestic entities to Trump's vanity projects such as Trump's Inauguration and the White House Ballroom project which seem to correlate with tariff exceptions to those who donated to Trump. The level of corruption is just mind-boggling. I think US needs to set term limits to Supreme Court justices and somehow change the system so that they cannot make political decisions but have to strictly follow the law. The constitution should be updated so that it's more clear in what is meant. The executive's ability to change the career officials should be limited so that the qualifications and experience are the deciding factors rather than political affiliation or willingness to break the law when the Great Leader says so. Another thing is that the election districts should be redrawn so that they can only be simple shapes such as squares or rectangles with limited aspect ratios to put an end to gerrymandering. The system's performance should be measured by how well the popular vote matches the actual election results, if there is too much of a discrepancy, then adjustments should be made. Otherwise there is no equal voting rights in effect. Politicians should be put out of office if it turns out they lied before electrions about what they were going to do if elected. And possibly prosecuted. I don't think there is such a thing as a "benevolent dictator". When given power, people's morality tends to crumble and soon enough they become malignant and won't leave office.

Why not go for the Z6III? Seems to be a great option if you do not want the R3D files.

It occurred to me if I flogged my z6 and z6ii I could probably just about get a zr. Then I read that the h.265 has none of the magic of the raw footage and some extra problems and there is no way in hell I will be shooting raw for real estate videos (I shot 8k raw for a recent project and it’s been a pain in the arse for this premiere users) So then I started thinking about s5ii and whether I could adapt my old f Nikon glass. That 15 stops of DR is tempting… on paper. If the shadows are a noisy mess then 🤷. And now I’ve just seen Andrew raving about the G9 (and of course I just gave away my m/43 glass and speed booster 🤦😆) I like the sound of iso 4000 and the DR of the s5ii. I shoot with the z8, and today was in a super contrasty setting, I know the z8 will have bleached out windows and the highlight rolloff is not too good. But maybe I’m just trying to fend off the yawning chasm of mundanity that is my job. I’ve not actually seen any real world examples of the s5ii, I need to see what its highlight rolloff is like and whether I’ll gain anything from the extra Dr over the z8. Has anyone seen any? And is this a terrible idea?

I don't see fundamental changes for good happening without widespread and surgical reforms happening. I'm talking about dismantling the billionaire "news" networks. Enacting some kind of "capitalist equality reforms" putting caps on compensation for corporate owners and leaders. Something like enforceable laws requiring executive leaders never make 30x what their lowest paid worker makes. Abolishing the "two party" system (it's really one party; the rich), educational reform, the list goes on and on. How it will ever happen? It would require immense upheaval of an entrenched, broken system by the concentrated intentional action of many or of one benevolent dictator. Anyone that has a MAGA friend or family member knows what I'm talking about. No discussion can happen when they argue in bad faith and change their moral and social goal posts ON A WHIM and on COMMAND.

I've seen this before, but usually it's with channels (especially old ones) that have been hit with copyright strikes and such. Mattias's channel take down seems to be voluntary and perhaps political. I simply don't have the hard disk space to save all the videos I really enjoy, but it makes me really sad to say goodbye. It feels like it's the digital equivalent of burning books and erasing history. Personally, I don't think I could do that. Then again, we don't know the exact circumstances. @Mattias Burling, care to respond?

Certainly has a much better screen than the original 😉

Really sad if he has indeed given up on YouTube. He's still on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/mattiasburling Maybe we should ask him if he's alright?

Great find! This is an exciting project!

I miss Gunpowder! Burling's YouTube channel went down a few days ago, and the only thing that remains is the title, "ICE was here." It's a shame, because he created some exceptionally informative videos. Some of the transcripts from his videos are archived here.

Miss him. He also randomly deleted or privated a bunch of his older videos; I noticed this happen maybe 2-3 yrs ago. Tons of old Blackmagic videos, his awesome Canon XC10/XC15 review, etc etc.

That's really unfortunate. His Vimeo is still up, and his Instagram too, though they haven't been updated recently. His content output decreased a lot once Gunpowder passed, but he had already been less active as I think he became more and more disillusioned with the entire YouTube/Filmmaking/Photography scene. I hope he is well and creating the art that he loves.

Anyone know where he went? It would seem his "Gear Doesn't Matter" doesn't exist anymore.

Looks like someone else is making a "digital bolex". This guy in Paris. https://davidbross.fr/#about Former cinematographer is building one. I don't know what the plan is though, if it's going to be a cottage industry and he'll make and sell them or sell/give away the plans. Like the Faux Bolex guy, he's using the same sensor as the Digital Bolex. In this video he shows his menu system he's working on for it(which resembles Blackmagic's menus). He also has an iOS app that takes stills and video in open gate with the look of Kodak Vision3 500T film stock or Arri Alexa look. I played around with it and it seems fine. https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/digilog-camera/id6753213428

MFT has been dead for decades now - everyone who hasn't been living under a rock for the last 10 years knows this. What people don't know is that due to a quirk in quantum physics and the way that time works, MFT was actually dead before it was invented. This means that my GH7 and GX85 and OG BMPCC and BMMCC never existed, don't exist, and when MFT finally "dies" somehow will disappear from my house. I bet you even think the earth is round... some people are just too much!

I think we will be seeing more and more a decoupling of American interests and European, it'll take the upcoming inevitable AI crash to spur things along though before any real change occurs. The EU needs to build stronger tech and will do so. We have the expertise just get on with it.