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I have personally stopped looking at the DR test from imatest and charts in general including CineD, but only at the Latitude test. Since some companies starting with Canon, started baking Noise reduction in their RAW, it just tricked the system. I prefer by far the latitude test, as it is just real life one. You can clearly see, how much you can get back from over exposure and underexposure. Unfortunately CineD doesn't have a full test of the z6iii, but I have seen other test online and it was like 3 above and 4 below. So you are getting around 7-7.5 at best stops of latitude, which within a lot of FF cameras which mostly were between 7 and 8 stops of exposure latitude. But looking at the S1ii, the exposure latitude is at 5 above and 4 below in the normal mode!!! Already 9 stops of Exp Lat, which puts it very high, at a Red Raptor level of Latitude!!! And when you go in the DR boost mode, you reach a solid 10 stop of latitude, which is as good as the Arri Alexa LF !!!! https://www.cined.com/panasonic-lumix-s1ii-lab-test-part-2-dynamic-range-and-latitude-using-prores-raw-5-8k-with-dr-boost-on/ but now the rolling shutter is at 27ms. One important thing to take into consideration is that in normal mode the S1ii sensor is at 12 Ms, and the z6iii at 9Ms. It seems Nikon went for speed, which tends to create more heat and noise. Now, for me, I hope Nikon give us choices. I prefer two additional stops of DR and a sensor read speed of 12 ms with 10 stops, than 9 ms and 7 stops. If they can give me both, great. If they can even give the 27ms 10 stops of latitude mode, even better. I prefer choice, where I can make my own decisions. I don't know if it is me, it is as if Nikon didn't get out the full potential from this chip, and Pana got more time and did their own teaks. Sincerely, if they only did the normal mode at 12 ms and got 9 stop of latitude in the z6iii, rather than all the criticism they got from z6iii DR, the camera would have got a ton of praise.

You never tried to use some soft mist filter that might blur the image, just that little bit that it would remove those moirer.

As someone who bought the Z6iii twice and returned it twice I really hope the Zr has a strong OLPF. I loved almost everything about the z6iii but the excessive moiré killed it for me.

Yes, this is also a symptom of late-stage unrestrained capitalism when there is no longer a lot of competition in the market, but instead there are a handful of well-established/entrenched players who can gamble with losing some sales in the short term. Don't buy a VW this time around because they added a stupid subscription? They'll be in the running next time after all the others add shitty subscriptions too. The same applies to stuff like car vendors trying to move away from supporting Carplay/Android Auto because they really want to sell you subscriptions to connected features in the car, despite that you already have all of those things paid for in your phone already.

I don’t see an end to AI either, - the complete opposite and it will take over huge chunks of all kinds of things with one person taking what was previously the jobs of perhaps dozens of people. I think it’s an unstoppable monster because when it comes down to it, what is right or good or any other factor, just gets swatted aside increasingly when it comes to both corporate and personal greed/entitlement. I’m looking forward to 100ft Ana de Armas with blue hair on neighbouring apartment blocks. I live in a cottage in the woods, but I live in hope…

No they don’t as such…but Sigma do and Leica have a 135 f2 APO in the works, but the price of that will make the Plena seem ‘cheap’. Just a couple of years ago, I thought the weak link in L Mount was the lenses and whilst I think there are a couple of holes still, I’ve gone round in a big circle and ended up with a set of f1.8 primes, the; 18,35,50 and 85 and with the addition of a 28-70 and a 70-200, over 4 bodies, I’ve got all bases covered for my needs, video and stills. For sure. I wrestled with all kinds of combos of brands, bodies, lenses and each time I thought I’d found my best set up, I found flaws if not outright issues. In the end, I decided to just go back to basics and creativity has shot up as a result. As has logistics, workflow and a load of other basics. I have no further needs and instead, only wishes and intentions and none of those are kit related.

Indeed, but when the reality is the majority won’t do anything, except perhaps grumble on social media, the outcome is inevitable and it soon becomes the norm. I still need to look at how I can get out of the Adobe model, but 2 things stop me: 1. Big discount due to someone I know and 2. Not so much laziness, but rather it bores me to tears having to learn an entire new workflow that would have to replace multiple pieces of software I have used for over a decade. Most don’t have the luxury of 1. so makes 2. even harder. But ultimately, unless a greater majority or even simply a significant number that can cause a serious dent, act, then companies will exploit that.

I'm not convinced that the lower end will "get bored" of their slop, but if ai generation can be priced to include legal training material, power consumption, and carbon cleanup, then we might be able to price some of it out of existence.

Being happy in whatever camp is important. With Nikon and it’s lens options it can get expensive and out of hands quickly😆 Got 135 f1.8 Plena in the Spring, to prevent any ideas of changing back to Panny or Canon. The Z6iii firmware was also updated at the same time, and need of NR in low light was gone, as was the flickering. Not sure Panny has something like the Plena. Shooting with that is a pleasure always, and it takes good photos too. Found also a used 400mm f4.5 before the price hike, and now I am quite firmly in the Nikon camp. Been shooting all year mostly N-Raw, to see how much space it takes. Editing N-Raw is quite easy now with M3 max 128GB and 3x4TB Nvme’s. No complaints about the DR and just happy about the results IQ wise. Hope the ZR is not too big step up from Z6iii, as this shift to Nikon has cost some already😂

Yes, but as long as some people still buy VW and some people buy the upgrade, other car manufacturers will be inspired to do the same. This is how the enshittification race to the bottom works. It used to be that if I bought a plane ticket on any airline, I got a checked bag for free. Not only that, but overhead space was plentiful and I could be a bit chill about boarding the plane. Then one airline started charging for checked bags. When people didn't stop flying with them, the other airlines followed suit. After all, people are apparently willing to accept a shittier flying experience. Now checked bags cost money and overhead space is crammed full which makes me one of the annoying boarding buzzards circling around the boarding stanchions so that I can be sure to get on in time to put my camera bag above me and not get into an argument with the boarding agent about whether I'm going to gate check it (and no, gate agent, I cannot relocate all of the lithium batteries into my other much smaller "personal item" that goes under the seat in front of me). Anyway, the shrugging and accepting it is basically what is at the core of enshittification.

The engineering DR range in the DR boost mode is well above 12 on the S1 II, nearly 16-bit, even. And when you say "Nikon didn't use," you mean on the Z6 III, right? And not on this upcoming camera that nobody has seen yet and which may use sensor modes that weren't used on the Z6 III? I'm not going to argue any more about a camera that nobody's seen, but outside of "has Redcode," or "uses a Red sensor," it's kind of hard to imagine what Nikon would claim makes the camera a hybrid with Red. Nikon's colors are already very nice so "has Red colors" would be basically garbage for advertising.

I think that NR was a unavoidable side effect of the algorithm they used to combine the two images. Right, after ISO 800 (6400 in log profile), there is practically no difference, because both are at their High Gain territory. DR boost only works at Low Gain ISO.

I am in that camp and very happy with the current offerings and the lens line up...so hope the ZR is awful so I won't *need* to flip to Nikon. But in all seriousness, I considered waiting out this entire year to see what the ZR might be, but I suspect it will have a few less things that I need/want in a system, so will probably be vindicated going all in with LUMIX. And even if the ZR is an absolutely cracking thing (which I suspect it might be), there will not be enough for me to flip and entire system. Nope, I've made my bed and I'm comfortable with it.

According to CineD S1ii seems to have quite heavy NR baked in, unless you shoot Prores Raw and edit in Final Cut. As seen from those same charts, from ISO 800 to 6400, where NLog is shot, S1ii has DR of 12.6 to 10 with NR, and Z6iii DR of 12.3 to 9.6, without NR and with faster read out speeds, and with 6k60p Raw. I would like to be back in Panny camp too, but with current offerings and lens line up no thanks.

If folks don't like this, the solution is easy, - don't buy a VW. Other cars are available. But it won't happen because out of all the cars they sell per annum, a couple of hundred will complain on their favourite social media platform, a couple more hundred will buy something else purely because of this and the other near 9 million, will just shrug and accept it.

If they are making a Nikon/Red camera, why not use one of the sensors that Red uses, with RedCode raw, with Nikon conveniences and tech?

Its in DR boost mode that for whatever reason Nikon didn't use. Slop based DR is irrelevant as it doesn't represent the "engineering dynamic range" of the sensor, which is at 1:1 signal ratio. Here is max DR of S1ii in still mode, that uses the DR boost mode. Its 14.5. Ignore ISO 80/63/50. They are fake. And here is Z6iii Its 12.7. So there is 1.8 stop difference.

I think this post is enough to understand where we are headed. Adobe's subscription model is laughable in comparison. https://pluralistic.net/2025/04/15/musklemons/

Nice!! Good call having that HDMI clamp by the way!

The pattern is always the same: silencing those who are inconvenient to you through supposed copyright violations or lawsuits, knowing full well that 99% of the time, the people affected don't have the means or the funds to defend themselves. This is also a classic pattern in journalism here in The Banana Republic Of Italy. The big company or industrial group, or even the wealthy politician, sues the journalist. Anyway, they have a host of lawyers already on salary, and even if they lose the lawsuit, the amount doesn't even slightly affect their budget.

If it's the sensor that's used in S1 II, it has more than 12 stops of DR. The slope-based DR test on cined shows 15.1 stops visible and the OG Komodo shows 15.7. Also, did they say for sure it would use Expeed 7? And even if they do, is encoding Redcode really all that taxing? Red was shipping cameras that encoded 6K and 8K using it back in 2015 or so. I'd also keep in mind that whether or not Redcode has any advantage over nraw on this specific camera, there are marketing reasons to use it.

Some of the AI generated videos starring Trump, Putin et al are extremely well done and rather funny. I come across them on IG on a regular basis and there is definitely a high comedy value (some are more subtle than others - none, perhaps, would win a Fringe award at Edinburgh but nevertheless they are good). They are, of course, quintessentially the same as a drawn cartoon just using a different medium. But I agree with @Andrew Reid insofar as the lower end of the market will get bored and slowly disappear whereas the professional film making community will exploit what is a new tool.

When you see even the Germans hire more bean counters than engineers to survive in a China dominated market, you know its bad. Everybody is pursuing easy money, all under umbrella of legal system. From subscriptions to patent trolling to copyright harassment.

But Redcode is 16 bit. Overkill for a sensor with 12 stop of DR. And I'm not sure Expeed 7 can handle that.

With great interest and care! As an enthusiast with complex requirements myself I sometimes come upon a new set of requirements and try to find something that will suit my situation but it's hard to find something that meets all the specifics I have. This is typically when I would post as people who know more than me might know of a particular thing that meets all my needs. This is why it frustrates me when people just give random thoughts and riff on my carefully set-out requirements. TBH, now I just ask AI.