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Honestly I hope they go this route.

Nice. With a bit of practice it's less scary than it sounds, and you just need the right tools and steady hand. A JIS standard screwdriver is a must... they use weird Japanese screw-head geometry, which the normal Philips head screwdrivers have a habit of stripping. The only things I don't go near are modern lenses... Hellish. Especially the zooms if you go deeper than taking the rear mount off.

Haven't you got an Air Frier yet? Or is there something about France that forbids progress in the kitchen 🙂

I have many questions about your Sirui setup 🙂 How easy is it to focus and what's the min FD when combined with the Voigtlander 42? Are these shots wide open at F0.95 on the Voigtlander? Could you go wider, with the Sirui? Voigtlander 17.5mm? It really is a lovely result you've posted and would be happy to see more. The GH7 is such a good choice when you have optics as good as the Voigtlander Noktons are... and anamorphic is the cherry on top. Makes me want to get a GH7 in fact.

Panasonic did much more overall than BM.

Nothing to stop them doing an FX2 as well.

I do appreciate a viewfinder, though. As it stands an FX3 is hardly usable without rigging, based on screen quality alone.

I have to torn apart my Lumix FZ1000, which have dust in the sensor, and I guess some haze from a sea city (the haze is more pronounced in the EVF optics - probably this will stay, I think that the EVF could not be torn apart - but I guess some of it is on the sensor too). Bought it for 1/3 of the usual price, besides the dust (unseen in almost 95% of the pics) and maybe a bit of sensor haze, and a non functional HDMI port (that I dont use), is it perfect. iFixit have a very detailed guide, and I bought a digital gauge to take measurements of the sensor assembly height to try to keep the focal plane in check.

Just another normal evening in the Reid kitchen. Meanwhile, other folks around the world are sliding a lasagne out of theirs.

Blackmagic really took up the challenge for cinema in MFT. And succeeded.

Very nice. Proof that Micro Four Thirds has it's own look, and is cinema on a stick in the right hands.

It does look like they have thrown in the towel. The precedent for camera companies when they dump their high-end and pro stuff is not good. They loose the halo effect of these products and the brand takes a battering. Then they become totally reliant on consumer trends and the dreaded smartphones start pinching their customers, which doesn't happen at the Venice / Burano end of the market 🙂 Panasonic's core camera experience is still really good. But they need to show more imagination. More varied form factors, higher build quality, better ergonomics and dial feel, use the word Cinema in their hybrid and filmmaking orientated cameras i.e. Cinema Lumix GH8... Get their marketing together, it's a shit show, and really focus on getting a camera together that appeals to proper photographers, not the S9, but something like an OM-1 or GX9 with their best full frame sensor from S1R II. I sadly don't think they've got the commitment or the resources any more, I think Panasonic have done a restructuring and it has neutered the A/V and camera divisions.

I agree they have improved the specs a lot and the value for money in terms of the specs you get in a consumer body, 4K/120p on the R6 is something that really closes the gap to the R5 II and something I didn't think possible with a standard non-stacked, (not even BSI) sensor. By far the biggest problem for me is still that lens mount, and yeah the bodies are soulless to use. It's as if they saw the older Sony a7 cameras and thought AHAH let's make a camera as boring to use as that, it should have the soul of an office laserjet, the same finish and materials. The lenses are even worse. Ironically Sony are now far ahead on the fit, feel, finish and ergonomics of their bodies, things began to improve since the a7r III, a9 and a7 III. They are now dramatically improved with the a9 III and a1 II, although I still think the original a1 and the a7r V with their more angular grips look sleeker and more stylish. a1 II is a bit of a tubby chonk, needs to diet. Even the Canon R3 feels like it's a photocopier, there's just something about the materials they've used to finish the body and buttons that feels cheap and clinical. If you compare to Canon at their peak, it's a real step backwards.

Canon are absolutely the worst in my experience for the flimsy ports, thin circuitboards, cheap connectors and brittle ribbon cables (FPCs). Not seen how the R5C is built but usually the port is secured not even with a screw but sandwiched between two bits of plastic and the case, then the flex of the joint on the mainboard where it's soldered cracks the solder over time, you'd have to take the mainboard out and put it in the oven, risky business. To do a proper HDMI mod you would have to completely disconnect the port from the mainboard and reconnect it with a flexible ribbon cable. Then the cable would take the brunt of any flex over time, rather than the solder. The camera companies are too dumb to do that, and they don't leave enough space between the mainboard and edge of the case to fit a small FPC. With the IR cut filter over the sensor, I've never needed to replace it with clear glass of equal thickness, no focus issues so far.

I think Canon are quietly killing it right now with specs, finally feels mature and cripple free. But the build quality of the R line still feels very consumer grade: lots of plastic, light mounts, and that “electronic toy” feel that’s hard to unsee once you’ve handled something like the Sigma BF with its heavy yet compact unibody and metal primes. That said, this new RF 45 mm f1.2 feels like a sign of change. Still cheap construction but it’s the first affordable RF lens that borrows optical ideas from Canon’s EF L glass, chasing character over sterile sharpness. I'll give them props for that alone while the competition chases optical perfection & digital correction.

I guess they hoped for something like the success of the venice / Burano. And now they are out of the market because of the Venice/ Burano.

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.