All Activity

My wife and I just got back from a trip to Indonesia... Jakarta? No, she came willingly.

Pretty much did a few years back… The most recent new purchase I made was an S5ii on launch because I wanted to start my season as I intended/hoped to go, but otherwise everything I have purchased in recent years including; 2x S1R, 2 more S5ii, S9, A7RV has been used. Tell a lie, it was a Nikon Zf when it first came out as I was off on a trip and wanted it in time. Then I sold it. Then I bought another which was new but on a very limited time special offer. I know some stuff holds its value pretty well but used L Mount bodies are a bit of a steal. If you don’t need great AF or the ability to burn in a LUT or open gate, then used first gen full-frame Lumix are exceptional value. As for cars, bought our Skoda Octavia Scout estate for £8000 at least 11 if not 12 years back and even if we only got £2k trade in on it, in terms of depreciation costs, £500 per annum. Plenty of folks spend that per month on new cars. No mortgage, no car finance, no credit cards, mostly buy camera gear used and that’s as a business user.

I've just sold my 2016 Nissan at the same price it was in 2020.

But is it 3328x2496 ready from the full sensor? If so, that would be 60fps open gate. Just at 8-bit 4:2:0 and also with no HDMI output available.

Then you weren’t doing it properly!

Lumix S line prices are rising again on the used market. Vintage and quirky Mft cameras too. I got an orange GM5 with a 12-32 lens and two batteries for a good price two years ago, with the box, everything in great condition except the leather case. They cost up to three times as much now of what I paid two years ago! Here it is, a flimsy beauty, a tiny S9 minus 4K 10bit, but with evf, mechanical shutter and hotshoe:)

It's a broken record playing, but it's always playing when I am thinking about the S9. Panny, please give us pancake primes and zooms, a successor with S1 quality Evf, mechanical shutter and hotshoe. Full size hdmi would be nice too. Matt Frazer, can you hear us!:)

Immediately put me in mind of this. ”No, she went of her own accord “

The line was absolutely leapt over for me when we started to see £1500+ MFT bodies. I haven’t bought anything new since 2019 and even then it was because I was developing products that necessitated it. Obviously, I’m an addict, so I’ve bought other cameras since but they’ve all been used ones and if I was to buy a new one again then I would be fishing in shallower waters where there is some great value like the X-M5 and Z50ii. I am definitely getting a used Z8 in the winter as it’s as peak camera as I would need and is also peak price as I’d be prepared to pay these days. And at the point at which I buy it, then it will only have taken me two years and a half years to finally pull the trigger. For someone with the impulse control of Jim from American Pie, I’m counting that as progress.

Are you sure about that - the manuals for the GH5 and GH5ii don't mention it, 4:3 '6K-A' is only available up to 29.97 fps? If you want 59.94 fps 4:3 then it's 3328 x 2496 maximum.

Yes but not to that point where we are at now, right? I'm looking to buy a car right now, and I've read several times on a french reddit sub dedicated to cars, stories of people selling their cars several thousands € more than the price they paid for it 2 or 3 years ago. The used market is absolutely crazy. I think that what we witness now in the camera industry (more higher hand models that cost more and more) also applies to cars etc. The new Dacia Bigster (that name... I read it everytime with a Monthy Python type of accent ahah) starts from 25.000€, base model with wheels and steering wheels and the motor from a moped (yes it a lot cheaper than, say, a Rav4. But there is a world of difference between both, and Dacia reliability went downhill recently). Skoda prices have also risen significantly.

What a crazy strategy that is. It's as if Panasonic thought, well, we're losing to Canon in every way, lenses, mount, product release timing, autofocus, specs, why don't we charge more as well and see how that goes down.

In 2011, I bought a used BMW Z4 (E89) for 37k€, 2 years old with 45k km. If I want to buy a used BMW Z4 (E89 from the last model years, not the current model) now that is twice as old with 100k km, it's at least the same but usually more expensive. Inflation is a bitch, especially when the wages didn't keep up at all. But I think the comment from EduPortas is probably right. They used to focus on quantities shipped with a gajillion of Canon Rebels and stuff. Many people bought a camera + lens kit, added a 50mm 1.8 and then never added to it. Now pricing has generally moved more upmarket into enthusiast territory. Less people buy gear but it's more expensive (probably with a higher margin). If you compare what Canon L EF lenses did cost, I feel we moved a lot into way higher priced R-mount L lenses, Sony GM, etc. All the lower tier market got eaten by Tamron, Sigma, Viltrox, etc. The Viltrox 23mm 1.4 is ok, the Fuji is better. But is it 3-4 times the price better? Most people shoot for Instagram and YouTube.

Yes, the 2017 GH5 also has 60fps open gate, with even better detail rendering than the S1II at low ISO.

A lot of EU regulations happened in that period tho, and regulations are costly.

On one hand, @EduPortas totally nailed it: price hikes are pretty much everywhere. This is a mature luxury market, so manufacturers can kind of do whatever they want. An item's price really just comes down to what a customer's willing to fork over. Before they even put stuff out, they do all these market studies. Nowadays, a camera's a luxury item, while a smartphone? That's a commodity. Then again, the market's shrunk so much that all the costs just get dumped straight onto us, the customers. We've talked about this tons before, and honestly, my take on it is still spot-on: Personally, I'm always looking at the underwater photography and video gear market, and prices there are just going through the roof. If the camera market itself is a niche, just imagine the market for people who take cameras underwater – that's like the niche of the niche! Anyway, the biggest jump in prices happened around the pre/post-pandemic time. After that, things stayed pretty steady. But now, with those American tariffs, we're seeing price increases hitting the whole world. Basically, manufacturers are just spreading those tariff-driven price hikes across every market globally. For example, let's look at a Nauticam underwater housing (from Hong Kong) for the Nauticam Sony Alpha 2020 (for A9II and A7RIV). The price was $3048 USD in June 2020, then it went up to $4127 USD in July 2022, and it's currently $4700 USD as of May 2025. The Nauticam Sony Alpha 1 housing cost $4540 USD in July 2022, and its price remained pretty much unchanged until the Trump mess, when the price jumped to $5000 USD.

I think the price hike is almost everywhere, not just the camera market. Just look at cars over the last 5 years. The Dacia Sandero used to have a model that cost around 8000€, now the cheapest is 14000€. Admittedly they have improved but for nearly double the price? As for housing it’s mental. There’s inflation everywhere other than wages. If wages were inline with goods price hikes then we probably wouldn’t be complaining (as much!). At least that’s what I make of it.

I'd love to see a digital Canonet!

No, I was there the whole time!

Its arrived. Three days for delivery, That has to be some kind of record. Im excited... Although i have a couple of things to do before it gets dark, so i'll free it from its bland carboard boxing a little latter. Fair size box, hopefully it comes out a little lighter, after i get it out of the box.

Except China... they certainly have their own price vs the world. Here in NZ we pay stupidly high prices vs the world since the beginning of the time, S1RII is like over US$4000 haha, R5II is actually cheaper than S1RII in here.

I suspect they don't know for sure but are seeing "the kids" buy used early digital cameras and having fun shooting with them so they're making a camera for them. Also the half-frame thing is bizarre. Half frame doesn't apply with digital. You're not saving on film or processing. Maybe the holding-horizontal-but-shooting-vertical thing is what they're going for. So, the fun of shooting. For me it's too much money for what I might play with for a month at most. Maybe super rich people will buy them as stocking stuffers for their nieces (who already have a hundred gadgets)...

Well, the market is basically saturated. Since dealers are selling less units, each unit has to be sold a higher cost. That's it. Those insane prices clearly show this trend in a mature luxury market ( in the age of the cell phone a dedicated camera is a luxury). No surprise all camera manufacturers have gone the Fuji way: full "new-retro" models for Pentax, Fujifilm and Nikon. Only Canon and Sony have delayed the retro trend. So the only way for the camera market is backwards, not through, to quote a famous movie.

I don’t think so and the rest of the world is facing price hikes to help cover the the stupidity/costs.

Seems like Nikon is the only one selling reasonably priced gear right now.