All Activity

"What has happened is the gap between the top-end i.e. ARRI and the cheap stuff has closed up. This has been going on ever since the start of the DSLR revolution so it's not a new thing but there's never been a smaller gap that exists now, for example between something like the Alexa 35 and a $1000 used Panasonic S1H." True

Never occurred to me to bake it …. Good tip for future reference. There was also a very very convoluted workaround through Terminal which forced the OS to ignore the graphics card. The G9 mk2 has three extreme high q cuts in the mid range. Apart from the obvious sonic degradation, in my experience, Sidus TC Sync (Deity companion app to sync your files and create an XML for FCP) can’t read timecode recorded on a G9 Mk2. I haven’t tested it but if I was cynically minded. I’d be inclined to wonder if the cuts correspond to LTC @ 24/25/30 fps. Either way it’s an oddly specific piece of camera crippling. There’s a YT vid on it here : https://youtu.be/Ktz4EHpZTAU

5d3 ml raw can do 1:1 1920x1920. i tried once, like hassy in video.

Let's talk Chinese anamorphic stuff, vs vintage. I don't have much modern stuff although did get the full frame Great Joy 60mm T2.8 for L-mount a few months back. Recently picked up one of these though... https://siruishop.de/en/products/saturn?srsltid=AfmBOoqYgHSzTnkpJQ0HBLwj-2r6w0uskpYgytF1N-2y1XJX3hglGgMO It has come down from 1399 euro to 600. I got mine for 180 euros... Aperture blades were broke, so I removed them. Plan to put a DIY oval aperture in it. The look is good, in terms of sharpness and bokeh. Distortion is quite heavy - and pincushion, it's a very wide lens and I don't mind a bit of distortion but would prefer there to be barrel distortion like a Hollywood Panavision anamorphic, pincushion is a bit unexpected. Flare is weak, this is an area the good value for money lenses still can't seem to get right. I'll do some comparison shots with my Iscoramas. It is a 1.6x stretch so very similar to the Iscorama 36 (1.5x). Minimum focus distance is just a tad under 1 meter. It's a full frame lens so this isn't too bad, you can crop for closer-ups. Mainly I am impressed by the size and weight of the thing... It is absolutely tiny for an anamorphic cine lens.

As the saying goes it's same as a Leica SL2 inside, so $800 is a real bargain. The S1 / S1R ergonomics are alright, bit too heavy and big. I prefer Sony 4th gen (a7 IV onwards) in that respect, but the S1R really did feel and look like a high-end camera when it came out unlike the new stuff.

I had that as well. Cold solder joints, which a lot of electronics went through in the earlier days of the switch to lead free solder. Baking it in the oven for a re-flow at 200c fixed it only temporarily. I think there might have been a class action in the US against Apple about this once? What's up with the G9 II audio? The issue in the Sony case is that thousands of people have been wrongly charged for replacement hardware... Swapping out the mainboard, when actually the failure is software. Sony will probably try and do a cover up. What they deserve is a class action lawsuit.

In the UK this might be considered a trading standards issue and covered for 6 years from purchase. I had a 2011 MacBook Pro way back which came with a design fault that caused the graphics chip to fail. It got two new motherboards and a new screen courtesy of Apple even after the 3 year AppleCare warranty had expired. I was thinking of taking this up with the G9 mk2 and the nasty audio issue, as deliberate flaws are covered too. Don’t know if it’s worth the hassle but it was enough of an issue to push me to a GH7.

Cheap zoom lenses (and especially kit-zooms) are often the BEST lenses. I wrote a whole thread on it here including examples and comparisons, but the summary is: They're cheaper than almost any alternative They're flexible and very fast to use, because zooming is always faster than changing primes They improve your edits because you can get greater coverage and variety of shots in the same amount of time / setups They are in the "sweet spot" between being too sharp and looking clinical and being too vintage, but their aberrations are often actually very aligned with the qualities of vintage lenses people want, just dialled down to a modest amount They have smaller apertures so are easier to focus / less prone to focus errors and don't need as much ND in brighter situations They often have native AF and are kept updated with firmware updates They often have OIS Those with variable apertures are much closer to being constant DOF, where the more you zoom in the smaller the aperture gets, counteracting the effects of the longer focal-length, which makes your footage more consistent They don't get a lot of love online, but that's because most of the discussion online is about the things that are THE MOST of something (the sharpest, the newest, the biggest, the most expensive, etc) and being cheap and good is only really attractive to people who actually shoot in the real world and where a happy middle ground is desirable. My most used lens is a variable aperture zoom lens, despite me owning many much "better" lenses.

Liked the results mine produced on the stills side and the 5k was special. The only thing that annoyed me really was the different ergos to the S1H, especially the position of the on/off switch, but a great bit of kit and exceptional value used as is the S1H!

$800 is a steal for that powerhouse. Enjoy

Enjoy, I really liked my time with my S1R (and onto the S1R2 now)

Happily USA have got as much chance of going past group stage as Scotland!

Made a lowball offer on ebay and scored the “Vintage Lumix” S1R kit for $800 US this week. I have a book project and need to photograph a lot of oversized art in high megapixel raw so i couldn’t pass it up for the money. Been wanting to try out the 5k mode for a while now and have a whole list of vintage lenses to adapt. As much as I wanted the SL2 or the GFX 100s the prices haven’t come down as much as the Lumix stuff and I can always revisit those later. For now the Original S5 with Ninja V for prores raw and the S1R for high res stills and 5k Super 35 Anamorphic. A little S9 for $800 is next and that will round out my 3 camera budget system for under $2,300, Not bad…

Such a great camera. I'd argue it's the best value out there, as far as used cameras go. Still using two myself.

I wish I hadn't!

Anyone watching this cringe fest World Cup draw would swap in a heartbeat.

Another thing to compare is how the manufacturer handles the age old question of an OLPF. The R3, which share the sensor with the C80 and C400 has a pretty weak symmetrical OLPF, but it’s certainly good. The FX3 has no OLPF and is prone to moiré. So is the S1ii and the Z6iii and the Zr, which share the same sensor, and a very weak asymmetrical OLPF. The R5C, the R5ii and the R5 also has an asymmetrical OLPF but is less prone to moiré, maybe because of the 8k sensor. What kind of OLPF Canon put in the C50 and the R6iii remains to be seen…

Yikes! You know, I've been too busy to get around to upgrading my iPhone to iOS 26 and now maybe I won't (until they sort this out.)

With Sony the only FW update you get is probably for your Playstation, but don’t worry, Sony will always release a cheaper model, which will have some of the features you miss. Canon R5II and R6III sounded tempting, but after looking the 3D pop & toneh show from YT I am not sure Canon IQ is any better than Nikon. It depends on which kind of image you like more. So it leaves only Panasonic and Nikon on the table for me. With them you might get some HW and FW quirks at launch, but they also try to fix them and give new good additional features along the years, not just in the form of new bodies like Sony. I have a 35mm F1.4 too, but it is only for those cases I can’t use the 135mm F1.8. My 50mm F1.2 captured only dust since I got the 135. Still not sure whether I should up or downgrade it and 35 F1.4 to 35 F1.2 or to boring, but easy to use 24-70 S II. Probably not. Thought also about swapping the Z6III and 400mm F4.5 to Z8, as with 2.3x crop 135mm would be 310mm F4.1 on Z8. Very likely not worth it either.

Ah yes, I've never liked them either 🙂

If you're in Berlin and would like to check out some nice gear give me a shout...https://www.kleinanzeigen.de/s-bestandsliste.html?userId=6113630 I have listed the Nikon Zf, Sony RX100 V, Fuji X-T30, Oly PEN F and more... The Cooke 50mm T2.8 is also up there, a legend 🙂 The shelves are full! It has to go!

I've been rocking 2 secondhand S5s all this year, mainly with my Super Takumars (I've got the 20-60 kit for when I'm feeling lazy) and I've yet to touch the edges of their capabilities.

I suspect that for the majority of working professionals, convenience > image quality. Hence the use of zooms rather than primes. And, let’s be honest, the image quality of good zooms isn’t too shabby! Those of us with time on our hands - no commercial deadlines - playing with M mount lenses is great fun. I’m certainly enjoying my Voigtlander VM Apo 28,35,50 set.

Never heard of it, but I like it.

Haha. I am not one of those then... Lenses are more important than cameras, really. It's true a lot of people are happy with one modern 24-70mm F2.8 for silly prices like $2k that can only be used on ONE camera and maybe a fast 50mm... F1.2? for another $2k (fuck me... no wonder they don't own many), maybe a longer lens - 70-200mm perhaps for 2 grand or whatever, that is 6 grand totally down the drain. Just get a good 35mm prime and learn to use back-button AF. I don't understand why they think the heavy zooms are such a great option. The 24-70s are massive and don't have the character of a nice 35mm F1.4. 28mm or 35mm are a fantastic focal lengths... Not too wide for people shots, easy to crop to a 50mm FOV. The do-it-all lenses. Give me a small 28mm F2 like the Leica Q over a DSLR 24-70 any day... I have the images to prove it!