Leaderboard

According to a book, Dutch company ASML got into a big fight with Nikon a few years back. They both make lithography tools for semiconductors industry. ASML's optics supplier is Zeiss. To pressure Nikon into a settlement, they had to take the patent fight to them in cameras. So ASML got Zeiss to make them a camera. It also doubled as a marketing adventure, shown off in stores but rarely really ever in stock. Until one day this popped up on my radar, with the serial number XXX XXX. The AF wasn't working, or the manual focus (fly by wire), lens stuck at macro 30cm. So I cracked it open, mopping sweat off forehead. Inside is 256GB SSD, final release model was bumped to 512GB. Android 6, with Zeiss test suite of apps onboard including FCC certification test suite 🙂 A music player. A Dutch full frame 36 megapixel sensor with some analogue colour. A Zeiss 35mm F2 lens (but different optics to the Sony RX1), 4K video (Super 35mm crop) and an EVF. And some weird prototype issues. I'll make a YouTube video on it. Sample shot And I still have no idea how I fixed the AF. Just wiggled the lens and sensor ribbon cables a bit and it started working properly, but there was no sign of either cable being loose in the first place! It is quite a fun tool, and a bit different. Android is decently snappy on it, the camera app is well designed, the physical dials are lovely but it doesn't have a joystick or command dials... So a lot is on the touch screen, but it's well done. Shall I root it? Update to 3.0 production firmware? (Risks bricking it). Given the rarity factor... I probably won't!!

Might be time to release my version for free then! The download link will self destruct in 48 hours. Until then... enjoy! https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Z60UNsWHuc6wFmgEOlp0VgDlucHoutip/view?usp=share_link Works on Panasonic S9, S5 II, GH7 as well as all the new cameras. I'd welcome any questions, feedback, help making a guide for regular folk, or even comparisons to the official ARRI LOG profile, or even the odd ALEXA. Sample shots also welcome!! @BTM_Pixhas shot some nice stuff with it already. If you're ok for me to share it? And the ARRI LUT library is available here https://www.arri.com/en/learn-help/learn-help-camera-system/tools/arri-look-library-app Installation is via SD card as a real-time LUT so it sits in-camera, next to V-LOG and the regular picture styles.

Decision made, I am sticking with LUMIX regardless of what Nikon or Sony do next. S1Rii inbound... Here's my reasoning and intentions for those that are interested in such things! Currently I am using: S9 + 2x S5ii for my video work, plus a Sony A7RV and a Nikon Zf for stills. That's 5 camera bodies plus 9 lenses spread over 3 systems with 3 different menus, batteries, handling/haptics etc. In summary, it works, but not without issues. I am switching to 4 camera bodies plus 7 lenses over 1 system. I have 3 principal aims: A: Reduce the amount of kit I have to work with and B: Have it all within one single cross-compatible system. C. Ability to pull 6k stills from video footage on a consistent basis. Nikon is or was an option with Z8 + 2x Z6iii + Zf and all my Tamron e:Mount lenses would work just fine, but the negatives for me are mainly; no write to second card back up, Vlog is easier/better to grade and looks better to my eye (marginal but looks that way to me) and costs a few thousand more than an all LUMIX line up. Sony has the best lens lineup options for me and I prefer the FX style bodies by a large margin, but no 6k camera (at least for now) kills it for me. Nikon may come out with this rumoured ZR for 2026 and it may answer some of my current Nikon criticisms...but it may not and if it does, c'est la vie, 'sideways' rather than anything I actually need. Ditto Sony. It's the lens lineup mainly that is the draw and if there was a 6k camera available now, I would probably have gone in that direction and in FX style bodies, it would have sealed the deal, but again, even if that comes into being by the end of this year, too late for me and I'm not a brand hopper for the sake of the latest new thing just because it's the latest new thing, ie, this current crop of ex-Sony Shillsters to now LUMIX Shillsters are all going to be hopping back in the direction of Sony within the next 6 months for sure. Nope, I can't and won't do that. If I have a Porsche, I might look at Ferrari or Aston and think, "yep, they're nice, but I already have a Porsche and it's fantastic". (I don't, - I have a used 150,000 miler Skoda Octavia Scout 😜 ) I'm 2 weddings in to a 17 wedding season and the new boy won't arrive in time for the next 2 which I leave for on Monday, but at least the 13 jobs after that will all be with the new system which will now comprise the following: S1Rii with Sigma 28-70mm f2.8 until I have sold all the stuff I need to sell and then will be picking up the Sigma 28-45mm f1.8 for indoor use and use my existing LUMIX 70-200mm f4 for outdoor use. I hate lenses that extend with zooming and neither of these do! Hybrid use, - mainly stills but I will also shoot video with this. S9 with 18/50/85mm f1.8 on freestanding monopod which is my current and going forward will now share duties with the S1Rii as my 'run & gun' units. Pair of S5ii's remain as my 2x statics with any 2 of the above 6 lenses that are not in use on the S1Rii or S9 at any given time, but at some point, I am going to add the Sigma 28-105mm f2.8 into the mix, ie, still 1 less body and 2 less lenses than I have currently been using this year and last, but the 28-105 will give me a bit more flexibility that my current L Mount lens lineup lacks. The only thing that put me off doing this sooner really was the body design... It's not that exciting and I was hoping for something more S1H or even Sony FX style but upon reflection, it's a better body than the S5ii being slightly chunkier, a MUCH better rear LCD and a few knobs and whistles that improve the overall use. Dream camera? Probably not, but a very very solid move (for me) I think. The bottom line is once you have pushed that button, how do you feel about it and will I miss the A7RV and Zf? I feel good about it actually because the positives outweigh any negatives and the Sony + Nikon pairing has been stellar, but there is simply a better (for me) option now. 7.2k 30p Open Gate Vlog here we come...

Another range example I did with it here, this time on a GX80. Its a very powerful combo but, despite the 35-350 being compact for what it is, when it is mounted on the GX80 it is all a little bit ...

I have this lens and this is a simple range example from one spot that I did with it for someone on here many moons ago. It is actually more like a 70-200 f2.8 size wise for carrying but that is down to it being a push pull design which isn’t exactly great for smooth continuous zoom shots. But is ideal for practising the trombone.

Youtubers are snoring! Better quit watching, cuz it's so boring!

Nice is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. But if people don't mind log shots of mainly grey buildings under grey skies in Salford then have at it !

How I would love to see uncompressed 14bit Cinema DNG on newer Canon. Perhaps the R7, would be a perfect candidate. Let's hope they focus efforts on supporting the stuff beyond the DSLRs and older EOS M 👍

Over the past decade I've been a part of thirteen independent micro or no-budget budget films. Five of which I'd actually feel comfortable enough to show to strangers and say, "I've done this." It's weird because I've never been too precious about IQ. My personal-tech-craft-sloppiness-indifference does show in the final product, but only if you're looking real hard (at least I think so). I kind of want to be better, but I also don't really feel a strong pull to eek out that extra little juice, you know? I'm more interested in trying to shape a story by putting a bunch of note cards on the wall in the writer's room. Anyway, I've held tight to my LUMIX cams since the 20-teens. Also have an Oly cam. Haven't bothered to upgrade much. I know I'm missing out on the latest and greatest, but when I look at stuff a decade old vs. the film I just finished, and I think they both look a-okay, I guess I'm just not the type of filmmaker that's eager to change gear. Anyway, if anyone wants to see those five films I mentioned, let me know. I've posted them here before, but can share anew.

This was introduced last week and offers a raft of new features but the one that seems to be catching everyone's eye is the (paid for) ARRI LogC3 option. https://www.panasonic.com/uk/corporate/news/articles/panasonic-introduces-extensive-new-firmware-updates-for-its-lumix-s-series-cameras-s1rii-s1ii-and-s1iie.html Surprised there hasn't been a discussion about this already on here. I'm guessing that could be that no one has yet bought those camera types or is too busy wondering why they are spending so much effort looking after a cat that isn't their cat but has just turned up and convinced itself that it is now indeed their cat to be discussing camera firmware updates. Or, in my case, both. A bit of a caveat is that it doesn't work in RAW...

Not especially no, but then maybe that’s because I am a hybrid wedding shooter and not a serious filmmaker? I mean it is/was on the list, but in no way would I switch to a camera purely just because it has marginally better highlight roll off when it isn’t so great in other areas, or completely misses the mark. My criteria as I stated was I am replacing both a 61mp and a 24mp cameras for a 44mp one. For stills which are 50% of my work, absolutely no way would I be considering a 12mp camera as a viable alternative. Does the A7Siii meet my requirements for ‘all in one system’? Sure as does the A7iv, the A7RV and well…any/all A7 and FX bodies, but do any of them meet my requirement to shoot 6k open gate video? Nope, not a single one. As I outlined in my reasoning, I have a minimum set of requirements in order to make any change and one of those was not better highlight roll off. I don’t think you are necessarily being ‘that guy’, but you completely ignored my requirements and instead posed a question based on what I guess would be your main priority. And that’s cool. But regarding highlight roll off specifically, have I considered it? No, not really. I’ve used full-frame Lumix now for 4.5 years and at no time have I considered it an issue and looking at the footage from the S1Rii that I have seen, haven’t noticed anything untoward. I haven’t looked at or even aware of any comparisons in this specific area either. So back to my best Scooby Doo voice, “Idunnoknow” 🤷‍♂️

I love that lens. Wish I didn't sell it.

Speaking of IS, the entire thing culminated in me buying a 24-70 f/4L IS from somebody on ebay - since an irrelevant search result when looking for info on the 28-300 reminded me that it existed - and it's smaller and lighter than the 24-70/2.8L II and has IS. And being an f/4 lens, it's not popular and cost me less than $400 used. If I decide to bring the R5 as a second camera, I'll just put that on it and call it good. The entire combo will be smaller than some of the Fujinon lenses for GF. 😅

It also benefits from having IS.

Or a full frame 36 megapickshel shensor as its known there.

Yes, AI is a real wildcard. I see that there are really three fundamentally different groups when it comes to generative content. The first is professionals who create material for the general public, or various niches of the public. This is where AI will have incredible impacts. The second is professionals who create for their clients directly. This is people like wedding photographers etc, where the client is the audience. This has been debated, but I think that there will still be a market here. If I did something and wanted a record of it, I would want the final images to be of me, not AI generated content that looks like the people I know might have looked during the thing that actually happened. The third is people creating for themselves, where there is no client or money changing hands. This is every amateur, every personal project from professionals, etc. The goal is to have a final result that this person created. Amateur photographers take photos and print and hang the best ones, not because they're the best photos ever taken, but because they were taken themselves. Personally, I'm in the last category and I am completely resigned to the fact that my videos will never be great, will never attract a significant audience, will never be regarded as important, etc, but that's not why I do it so in that sense AI is no threat to me at all. I do understand that people are all in different segments of the industry and have very different perspectives for very good reasons..

This is my most recent finished edit. I wrote the music for this too. I've shared it before, but some might not have seen it. Shot on the trip I did to Seoul last August where the wife and I got sick and spent most of our time in the hotel. OG BMMCC + 12-35mm F2.8 + TTartisans 50mm F1.2. Graded in Resolve with heavy use of the Film Look Creator tool. Music written in Logic Pro.

This looks incredible! Great images and colour, and I really like the music and edit too. It really is a different world down there isn't it...

Speaking of new cameras... This was shot by a friend of mine on a "vintage" Lumix LX10 in Nauticam housing and different wet diopters.

prepping a no budget feature. here's some stuff that i like somewhat from the past year and a half or so:

I'd like to know too, especially about the S1II and using the Rec709 profiles (Natural specifically). Everyone who's reviewed the S1II has done so using V-Log or Raw. I've read that it's not quite as aggressively digitally sharp as the S5ii/S5iiX but still showing some heavy NR and smoothing of fine details. I might have to get a loan of one for myself to see whats what.

In Arri's case they offer (1) Alexa 35 with all features included in the purchase price, (2) Alexa 35 base model with the most commonly used features enabled, and (2a) subscription to optional features that you may need for a specific project, (2b) permanent licensing of those features that you want to keep, so the subscription is just one option and permanent licenses to those features are available if you want them. I don't understand what the issue is. Having more options in how the payment is made is good and means more people/companies will be able to afford the stuff. No one is complaining that leasing or renting cars (or getting a taxi ride) are available in addition to the option of purchasing and owning a car. Public transport tickets are available on a single trip, load value, or pay for use for a period of time basis. Again no one is complaining about the existence of these options. Why then is subscription software or firmware as an option a problem? I think people are complaing about these things because they don't understand that software development costs money and if you want to continue developing a particular piece software in the future you probably need to keep those same people who developed it continuously employed so that you can do it efficiently in the future. If you have to let the people who developed something go, to add features, the cost is multiplied because no one new initially understands the existing code. The subscription model works best for software because it enables continued employment so the knowledge of how the software works internally is not lost. Today since operating systems are continuously changed, the applications software also needs frequent maintenance. So for Adobe the subscription model works best. They are able to maintain broad hardware support and have a huge library of cameras and lenses that are supported in terms of raw processing and lens corrections. The subscription cost is really low for the (still) photography software kit (LR + PS) and while the other stuff is kind of expensive, it was always expensive even in the then-thought-permanent license era. And as there are free or inexpensive options available for the tasks which Adobe prices expensively (Davinci Resolve instead of Premiere Pro), there is something for everyone available in the market. What would be much worse is that people rely on a particular product and have a lot of material made with it and suddenly those files could not be opened or edited as a result of the company making the software ending their operations or support of the product.

I only made it about 5 minutes through the video before I got bored with it so maybe he addresses some of this after that. But I'm not sure why it's news that Arri give people an option to buy the full camera or a base model that disables some features until they're enabled. That's been a thing for a long time. When one buys the base model, there are options to pay to enable those features on a temporary or permanent basis. It's one of the reasons that when you see used Arris for sale, they'll frequently say things like "includes high-speed license" or "includes raw license." Speaking for myself, I kind of hate subscriptions in general for this kind of thing, but that is very much mitigated by having the option for a permanent license. I still don't like it a lot since (in most cases), it's not really reducing the camera price. In the case of things like the GH4/5, it's not like Panasonic would have needed to charge more for the camera if they just threw in vlog-l. In Arri's case, I suspect that the decision was pushed by big rental houses - if I'm a rental house, a reduced cost base model lets me buy more cameras. Add a license to enable certain features and I can just tack that onto the price of the rental. Renting for a week? X dollars. You want raw on that rental? Add Y dollars. Camera reaches end of service life, the buyer can turn on any feature they want on a permanent basis. I don't love it, but it's not terrible.

If I understand correctly what you mean, I think so... I have used stills previously, but not 'matching' stills. What I am proposing going forward is ensuring my video and stills match perfectly in the grade and if frame grabs intended to be used as stills, identical to that exact frame in the video. The primary intention and purpose is to cut back drastically on stills photo capture in the first place and therefore also editing time and move towards a more cohesive and less time intensive approach. So currently I'll do a full capture, cull and edit etc on both photo and video. Going forward, I'd like to capture even more video and reduce the stills capture back to just certain elements, mainly details and family groups. Pics will be captured in raw + Jpeg 3:2 ratio with my LUT baked into the Jpegs (which is the same LUT I bake into my video footage in camera). I normally bin the Jpegs and use the raws, but I am proposing using the Jpegs and simply keeping the raws as backup just in case. Edit the video timeline to the point where it's still in 3:2 open gate format and then pull the frame grabs for use specifically as stills, rather than to insert back into the video. I can then go back into the timeline and put my more 'cinematic' 17:9, or 2:1 or whatever crop on it, and add all the twiddly bits that are video specific such as any text, transitions etc. Et voila, a finished wedding film plus a set of stills that look like frames from a movie. As intended, ie, when someone says, "your photos look like frames from a movie", it will be because most of them are. Anyway, I am going to give it a go as all last year, this year so far and the next 2 jobs, I've been shooting stills on the A7RV and Nikon Zf with 90% of the footage for my wedding films coming from the S9. After these next 2 jobs are in the bag, the A7RV and Zf get replaced with a single S1Rii shooting 7.2k 30p clips and the S9 which was shooting video exclusively at 6k 30p, will be shooting a mix of some stills and some secondary video. Pretty sure it will be a good set up based on the kit I have and some of the trials I have attempted, but as with all these things, it's only when you climb out of the trench and charge the enemy, with bullets flying, you truly know. Or you step on a landmine and it all goes tits up.

Not AI but this will significantly speed up the manual process and is a good all round productivity booster in general. For this task (and you can have multiple presets for other tasks) I’d have the left and right inner buttons assigned to the Première Pro keyboard shortcuts for previous and next clip respectively, the centre button to play/pause, one of the outer ones for the export shortcut and the jog shuttle for the jog shuttle. Workflow would be hit the button to move to next clip, play/pause button and jog/shuttle to locate and then export key to capture. Rinse and repeat moving to the head of the next clip each time. Nothing you couldn’t do with mangling your fingers to do the shortcuts but far, far more ergonomic for such a repetitive task. As I say, they are just generally useful devices for everything editing related. And not a bank balance drainer at £65 either. Also, as it’s based on driving keyboard shortcuts it can move with you to different applications. https://contour-design.co.uk/products/multimedia-controller-xpress

I just start a new timeline with the finished production as a single entity. Or rather that is what I have been doing to date with the few attempts I have made. I think what I will do now, for the rest of this year at least, is introduce a new chapter as it were in my process which is after culling, importing, colour grading, while the clips are all still 6k 30p on a 6k 30p timeline, but prior to any speed changes, transitions, graphics, text etc, is export a 3:2 6k copy and then pull the stills from that. These will then match my same baked in LUT stills also in 3:2. I can then import the results from both into Lightroom as a single set for any final grading and reexport as JPEGs. The only thing I hoped to do other than this was have AI find, select and export 350-500 frames from clips for me…amd maybe that software exists and if it doesn’t it should as that will be one of those things worthy of the title ‘game changer’. Kills or at least severely limits the photographer in me, but hey, choices…

I last did some screen grabs in resolve 18, when i bothered to dl 20, i think they changed how you grab frames as nothing i did seemed to grab a frame. 20 was new at the time and there were no tutorials that i could find More by good luck than good management i figured it out. I do think its easier / faster in to do in 20. Just letting you know so you avoid some hiccups.

The C100 would suffer from the same problem that all workhorse cameras suffer from - the best images from them are made by people who are so good at making images they don't post to social media and/or don't list their equipment if they do post. I wonder how many big budget productions have C100 shots mixed in with the C200/C300 main stuff but used the C100 as a higher-risk or mounted cam due to its size and relatively low cost if something happened to it. I've got the occasional beautiful image from my XC10 when the stars aligned and the location and lighting and composition were all working together, and that had a tiny sensor and 10x variable aperture zoom lens. The C100 almost matched it in pixel-peeing terms despite being 1080p and In similar situations the much larger sensor and ability to have nice lenses would be game over.

EH FILMS gave an interesting take on the GH7:

I've seen some incredible looking C100 footage, and I think that it still can produce great images today. I bet if you upscaled it and uploaded it to YouTube most people wouldn't notice it wasn't really 4K.

I usually just use quicktime and use command c. Never looked into software that could do it automatically!

Recently I showed something I did some years ago, shot on HDV with a Canon HV20. Some people were impressed that way back then I had such good equipment then shocked when I told them it was on a consumer HDV camera. (I did have a wide angle attachment and shot it in a log type mode then colour corrected it.) Cameras have been more than good enough for a long time.

It has been on my "someday maybe I'll buy that lens" list for about 20 years now. Every year, the price comes down a bit more. Prices in the US are now about $500-600 and ebay prices from Japan are about $450. What's the inflection point where it goes from "maybe someday" to "buy?" Only time will tell. It was also superseded by a 28-300/3.5-5.6L which is a more useful range. Still a push-pull zoom along with the rude comments from friends that comes with that when using it. Used prices in the US are still high - $800+. Although... there is one on ebay for $400 which intermittently throws a communication error connected to the camera. Kind of tempted to take a flyer on that one and do the rubber eraser trick on the contacts - and if that doesn't work, disassemble the rear of the lens to see if it's a solvable problem... Exactly. It's important, when traveling, not to be too focused on a single specific outcome. In the end, it's about the adventure and the time spent together (the woman I'm dating lives in Brasil so we need to treasure our shared time, at least I can spend a few months there yearly because my job tolerates me working from there for a while). Renting a truck with a camper on it, there's always a danger that it breaks down and we miss some stuff due to lost time waiting for repair/replacement. By going with a vague itinerary, it's easier to focus on what we're actually doing vs fretting about things that will be missed (and if they are missed, just about all of them are guaranteed to be there if I ever choose to go back again). It's a strange world. 😅 Both of our countries feature landscapes from harsh desert to tropical jungle. Yours has a lot more aggressively dangerous flora/fauna, though. In mine, the danger is mostly from the residents of rural areas. In both places, there are spots to stand, breathe, and feel in awe of the amazing landscape sprawled out before you. (Even here in Minnesota, we have some places like that despite that it's objectively one of the most boring/flat states in the country)

OK, I have taken a look at the Arri option and not interested. In side by side comparisons with Vlog, sometimes I preferred one and sometimes the other, but Vlog more times than the Arri. And because I don’t need to match an actual Arri camera, zero need. And definitely not paying for it! More interested in the firmware update… So the S1Rii can now shoot open gate 8k, but it’s limited to 24p, ie, no PAL region 25p? That’s fucking weird! But that aside, I am considering my next move… I am looking for: 6k 50/60p, full frame, for screen grabs. S1Rii offers 5.9k 16:9 S1ii offers 5.1k 3:2 For vertical cropping purposes, there’s nothing in that really because although the S1Rii 16:9 is ‘less tall’, it’s got a bit of extra resolution/detail that makes up for supposedly more latitude 3:2 open gate? Anyway, I think that is a real world draw. General consensus seems to be that the S1Rii has a slightly better image and slightly better low light, so all factors considered for my needs, that’s an S1Rii win. Sony do not appear to have anything sub FX6 that can compete here? But correct me if I am wrong… Nikon has entered the chat… The Z8 then, it seems to be all or nothing to me from the specs as in yep, you can have 8k 60p, but it’s raw only, ie, mahoosive file sizes. Is there not an Nlog option for this? From the spec sheet, it appears 4k is the limit for 50/60p if I didn’t want to shoot raw? Or have I got that wrong also? Only interested in Lumix, Sony or Nikon for all kinds of reasons so if you even mention Canon or Black Magic, I will ghost you.

It's true - though if they made that lens and it had decent quality, I might be one of the only people who would be excited to get it as soon as it hit the second-hand market. It's true - when on set, I'm usually shooting my t/1.2-t/2 lenses at closer to t/2.8-4, partly because getting the subject in focus is better than having a razor-thin focus plane. I tend to like to deliver in 4k, but yes, post-cropping flexibility is the main reason that I usually capture in 6k or 8k for narrative. I also like wider aspect ratios (even in film, where I like 6x17, 4x10, and 8x20 the most) so even shooting 4k gives some room to reframe up or down a little bit. I used to have the EF 24-105/4 and I never liked it much, but I have the 24-70/2.8 and it's fantastic. It could certainly be an option. I've also, at various points in my life, considered the Canon 35-350/3.5-5.6L - still a fairly large lens, but it's a 10x zoom for FF that manages quality a bit nicer than a coke bottle. It's pretty affordable used these days. But I'm more likely to try to stick with things I already have. Guided safaris are extremely expensive from what I've seen. It's potentially good advice, but I prefer that we go our own way. There's always the possibility of seeing one of the guided tour buses rolling around and following it for a bit too. Plus, if I gave somebody $1,000-2,000/day to show us the animals, I'd probably mentally feel a bit entitled when seeing them. If we go on our own and I see a single giraffe head snacking on a tree, I'll be beside myself with excitement. Plus we can research before arriving to see if there are sites listing the most likely places. I also am focusing on the time in Etosha, but it's also going to be 2-3 days of a 2-week trip. I'm also really excited to see some of the shipwrecks along the skeleton coast, the dune-filled houses of Kolmanskop, the huge sand dune fields of Sossusvlei, and to take my own version of the iconic field of dead trees in front of an orange dune at Deadvlei... (among other things)... and from what I've read, random wildlife encounters (zebras, etc) are pretty likely when driving around a lot of the countryside.

Equivalency of DOF is the elephant in the room for sure. In comparison, MFT lacks in the selection of gargantuan lenses with super-shallow DOF and FF lacks in small lenses without shallow DOF. If someone made a FF 28-280mm F7.0-11 lens then it should be the same size as my 14-140mm F3.5-5.6 lens, but of course the internet would go ballistic over it and run whatever manufacturer dared to create such an abomination out of town faster than you can say "grab your pitchforks - the devil has come for our children!". It depends on what you're doing of course, but for me personally when I switched from watching YT lens reviews to watching award winning movies and TV shows from the worlds leading professionals I had the Ah-ha moment when I realised very few shots had shallower DOF than could be achieved with relatively normal MFT lenses. Even when looking at the shots that would have required quite fast lenses on MFT, the aesthetic penalty for the DOF being deeper was very low. I then looked at what potential benefits would be traded-away for it.... lighter cameras that make me more likely to carry them around and use them and therefore get more shots to use in the edit... smaller equipment making me more pleasant to be around and having a nicer trip and causing the people around me to be happier and more relaxed and look nicer in frame... the smaller rig making the people around me less distracted and suspicious... the deeper DOF meaning there was less chance of having one person in focus but the others out of focus or it simply missing focus by focusing on the wrong thing... the much lower likelihood of having a difficult conversation with law enforcement or self-important security staff, etc. I concluded that getting slightly shallower DOF was a very small benefit competing against a significant number of advantages that would make far more impact to the end product and to my experience in using it. The extra cropping potential is one of the only benefits I can see for sensors above 2.5K. I put the cropping modes on my GH5 and GX85 into good use when I was shooting on primes and have been hugely impressed with them with my GH7 + 9mm F1.7 PanaLeica which I'll use for shooting in ultra-low-light. The R5 + EF-RF + 40mm F2.8 would be a great medium size setup. Perhaps the best second camera FF setup I could think of would be your R5 + 24-105mm F4. Like I mentioned above, the flexibility and speed of using a zoom when shooting in uncontrolled conditions just gives you more coverage - there's a reason doco and ENG shooters use zooms! Yeah, that's a real gem, I'm still seeing footage crop up on YT that really shows how much you can push things. I've also noticed it's very popular with the vlogging crowd and it seems to give really good results, similar to those who might use a small mirrorless, which is definitely saying something when you consider the size of it. Nah. Do a complete end-to-end analysis of what gives you the best results in the final edit or final photos, work out what equipment aligns best with those trade-offs, buy it, test it and learn the settings, then shift focus to actually shooting and don't look back. Beauty magazines make you feel ugly, and camera YT makes you regret your equipment. Best strategy is to ignore both. By far the most important skill in uncontrolled environments is being able to understand and predict the behaviour of your subjects. Not only does this matter for shooting people in public, but it matters doubly (triply?) for safari because the biggest struggle seems to be even finding the animals in the first place. A professional animal tracker would probably get better footage with an iPhone than an amateur with all the equipment in the world who spent a week and only saw a few animals the whole time. Perhaps a good exercise is to think about what the total cost will be of the trip, think about how much it would matter if you didn't see any animals at all, and then see how much it would cost to hire a guide or some other service that would help you locate things. There's a reason that people hire a model instead of just walking the streets hoping to find someone to shoot!

And the difference now is nothing like what it used to be. When we leapfrogged from lineskipped Canon t2i mush to GH4 clean 8mp 4k readouts, those were some huge IQ improvements. Everything now feels so tiny, what I really do care and appreciate about with modern releases is workflow, ergonomics, things that contribute to my enjoyment of shooting. And I do see genuine advancements. That’s what matters to me.

those photogs are veterans with 30+ years experience, all have best nikon, canon, pentax, etc lenses. been there. ml raw on 5d3 can do 10 bit uhd raw. ml raw at 10 bit and above especially at 14 bit, is vert different from typical mirrorless raw or 10 bit preres h.265. been there. 14 bit raw itself is unparalleled even now.

the camera I'm using could be in a museum ..but it works..i

I could be wrong that I feel like we've arrived at a place where video quality is technically pretty solid across the board in new gen mirrorless cams. But if we're talking about R50V vs 5D MKIII ML RAW, it's less about better and more about 'different'. The 5D MKIII ML RAW definitely offers something aesthetically different than the R50V, but all things considered, I don't know that it offers better video quality, overall.

The comparison was great. I was thinking you focused on the leave behind the first one. Anyway, 2x crop in 4K mode looks like a great, even downsampled FHD image. I have the Fuji 12.5 F1.4. Your Cosmicar looks like it's outresolving my lens quiet a bit. The Fuji is still a nice lens though with a very solid build and delivering a beautiful image.

I'd argue that this kind of testing is actually necessary to understand how things behave. Over the years I have tested a lot of things and it's amazing how many things that "everyone knows" do not stand up in even the most basic tests, but continue to be myths because no-one bothers to even look. Aristotle claimed that women have fewer teeth than men, which is not true, but he obviously never actually looked to see if he was right - despite being married multiple times where he could easily have tested his claim at any time. No, not mixed up, but the 12-35mm has a shallower DOF and so you have to know where in the image to look to compare sharp details in the focal plane. This is the unsharpened cropped image: This is the 12-35mm image: This is the sharpened cropped image: The sharpening is perhaps a little over-correcting, but the thin edges are still slightly blurred in comparison to the proper image from the 12-35mm. This is where it is important to know how to read the results of a test. This comparison of the zoom to the crop matched FOV but not DOF, and while I probably could have zoomed in using the 12-35mm and also stopped down at the same time to keep DOF the same, the lens sharpness would have been reduced so it wouldn't have been a fair test. To get around that I should have tested using a flat surface like a resolution chart or a brick wall. The problem with going that route is that now we're no longer testing anything close to real-life, and no longer answering questions about what will and won't work in real shooting. The test wasn't "what percentage of resolving power is lost using the CrZ function?"... it was "is the CrZ function usable for shooting with cropped lenses?". Realistically I shouldn't have included the 12-35mm optical zooms at all, I should have just cropped in using the CrZ function and left the images to be judged on their own merits in isolation, the same way that any project shot using the CrZ function would be. This is the danger of pixel-peeing - it distracts from the only thing that actually matters - the image. The cosmicar really is a gem! There's a reason that cinematographers have relentlessly driven up the price of vintage lenses over the last decades, and why modern lens manufacturers are designing and releasing brand new lenses with vintage looks, and manufacturers are even creating new mechanisms to control the amount and type of vintage looks with custom de-tuning functions.

From what I've seen and comparing to my own 10bit footage, Magic Lantern Raw on Eos M and 5DII/ III looks magical under natural light despite less dynamic range and much less resolution. So I am exited about any news from ML. I am referring to the pure joy for the image. It is not an observation in regards to full time content production. No, no, no! @eatstoomuchjam No 10bit GM5 flimsyness but a solid and small 10bit GX85 body. Thank you, Panasonic!:) GM5 feels hollow and viewfinder is very tiny. Sorry, but no! 10bit GX, yes please.:) @stephenDoesn't the 5DIII allow liveview on the screen, just like the EOS M?

@PannySVHS I've now tested the Crop Zoom (CrZ) mode in 1080p. This is the first test, and I exposed for the sky (which it thought was the right thing to do) which meant that the plants were a bit low, so I ended up bringing them up a little in post. The Prores HQ is great at retaining noise and so there's quite a bit visible despite me having shot this at base ISO 500. I've found that ETTR is definitely recommended if you want a more modern looking cleaner image. I also used the 12-35mm lens at F4.0 for all images as that's where it's the sharpest. First is comparing the C4K Prores HQ vs 1080p Prores HQ (on a 1080p timeline): Next we compare the CrZ vs zooming with the lens. I have prepared these images in sets of three. The first is the CrZ image, the second is zooming with the lens, the third is the CrZ image again but with sharpening added. This allows you to compare both CrZ images directly with the 'proper' one, as the more zoomed CrZ images did look a little soft in comparison when viewed at 300%. Around 14mm (1.16x): Around 18mm (1.5x): Around 25mm (2.08x): Once I got those images into Resolve and looked at them I decided to re-shoot it with a better exposure. So I chose a different framing that meant the sky wasn't influencing anything. However, I didn't realise that where I was standing was going in and out of the sun, so some shots were washed out and I had to compensate for it in post, adjusting contrast/sat/exposure/WB to match. Tests are never perfect but are enough to give a good idea of what's going on, and in real use where there is no A/B comparing going on no-one would ever spot it anyway. There's also a slight difference in exposure between the C4K and 1080p modes too, which is a bit odd. I imagine it's due to changing the sensor mode. I compensated for that in all these tests too. C4K Prores HQ vs 1080p Prores HQ (on a 1080p timeline): Around 14mm (1.16x): Around 18mm (1.5x): Around 25mm (2.08x): I am actually rather encouraged by these results, as my previous test was in low-light and I did on something with much sharper edges and that showed differences I'm not really seeing here. However, it's not really surprising that the GH7 did this well, as even with a CrZ of 2.08x it's still reading an area of the sensor around 2776 pixels wide. I say "around" that wide because there is a slight crop when you compare the native 5.8K mode with the native C4K, 4K, and 1080p modes, but I think the 2.08x crop will still be oversampled from the sensor by a good amount. The other thing I noticed was that I couldn't adjust the CrZ function while I was recording, the button just didn't do anything. I'm not sure if that's because I have it assigned to a button and that there might be some other way to engage it while recording. Maybe through the controls that are used to control powered zoom lenses, not sure. Anyway, it looks pretty darn good to me, and the grain actually reminds me of the OG BM cameras which are quote noisy at native ISOs too (and also lots of seriously high-end cinema cameras too).

The 9mm I tested is the Panasonic Leica 9mm F1.7, I'm not aware of a 9mm F1.4 - maybe you're thinking of the Leica 12mm F1.4? Let me see if I can further tempt you!! I have done some tests (images below) but found the following: You can use the Crop-Zoom function (CrZ) to go up to 1.3x in C4K and up to 1.4x in 4K resolutions There is no 4K option in Prores, only C4K If the sensor was cropped to be a 1:1 readout, it would be a 1.4x in C4K and a 1.5x in 4K, but the CrZ mode stops just short of these amounts. I suspect that they have limited it so that it is always downscaling, even if just slightly. Test shots. First set are with the S-16 Cosmicar 12.5mm F1.9 C-mount lens. These are all on a 4K timeline, so you can really pixel-pee if you want to. I didn't have quite enough vND to have it wide open on all the shots, so some are wide open but some are stopped down to F2.8. Now, I switched from the 4K to the C4K, which meant I had slightly less crop available and you can just start to see the edges of the image circle. I suspect your mileage would vary depending on what lens you were using. The Cosmicar is pretty wide, so if you were using a long focal length you'd probably get no vignetting at all. This should also give a comparison between the 4K H.264 and the C4K Prores HQ. Now we switch lenses to the 12-35mm and stopped down to F5.6 so we can compare the CrZ crop to a non-cropped image. This is cropped to 1.3x using the CrZ function in C4K Prores HQ: and this is without any CrZ and using the 12-35mm to zoom in to match the FOV: I didn't shoot any clips this morning comparing the CrZ mode in 1080p, but I can also shoot a test for this if you're curious. I had a closer look and discovered you can't change the zoom amount, which seems to be stuck at 3x zoom. I'd say that it is resolving enough for focusing and I used it with the Cosmicar in the above test. It's the normal story of using peaking and rocking the focus back and forth to find the sharpest spot. At least I'd say that if you can't use it to manually focus then the problem isn't the punch-in feature but some other issue!

I'm running the camera and 7" Hollyland monitor off one V-mount, recording internally to a Lexar 512 silver CFexpress card. The camera battery is in the grip but fully charged. Camera is powered via usb-c and we are indoors so far about 20-21 C. The clips/takes are about 30 - 45 minutes each per interview. I *THINK* the overheating would be at extreme use, ( I have never had to shoot anything at 6k 60p or 120p in Pro Res HQ for 2 hours + in one take.....) but no issue so far with anything that I think is "normal" use!

Some anamorphic goodness. Splendid shortfilm with jojo players performing and offscreen statements about their art and what it means to them in living their lifes. I found the bts on youtube which linked to the actual video. Filmed in HD 240fps with a 20mm Laowa Nanomorph, in Arri C.

Except for the price... ; ) AF @ 100/120fps and... I don't agree at all when reviewer hints MFT is more flexible as far as glass options when you can put them directly to FX30 via MFT -> E-mount adapter but not the opposite. How many cool manual lenses you can have at your disposal? Unique control along with PZ lenses for tracking shots from several speeds, only to mention a single advantage. Clear Image Zoom another one. When people like this scriba here are used to buy the most spread lens mount option to fit the more number of different cameras as much as possible, this is also something to have in mind such as the Megadap ETZ21 adapter to couple E-mount lenses to diversify the setup towards those new Nikon camera releases without losing AF capability. Other than that, better IBIS, higher resolution 5.7K @50fps and open gate recording are neat GH7 advantages. That said, first contact with this guy. Loved the way he gradually answered my questions at same time I was following his clean input as every reviewer should try the best for. In my bookmarks from now on. - EAG

And so one feels like searching for the Naiads, beautiful and immortal freshwater nymphs that disturb the spirit of those who catch a glimpse of them emerging from the waters. Beliefs that embody the ambiguous feeling of fear and attraction to the waters. So far no Naiads and Nereids but only many sticklebacks! GH5MII and GH5S, various lens, natural light Sound ON